Tuesday, July 17, 2012

What’s in a Sermon Title?



         Years ago when I first started out in ministry a sermon title revealed what was coming.  When I look over the past decades of my own sermons I can see where I went from very biblical titles of messages to seek friendly titles that were tied even  into the latest movies & trends of the day so as be make the Word of God and the preaching thereof  more relevant.  Well I guess I have come full circle again because I do not see how being relevant to the latest trends in the movies ,  celebrities and politics is going to win the lost and sanctify the hungry at heart.  A few years ago I did the funeral for a veteran holiness pastor who died in his mid 90’s.  He had pastored over 50 years of his life preaching holiness.  I had the rare opportunity to look through his decades of sermon notes before then went off to his family. I took the time to just jot down some of the titles and scripture texts of dozens of his messages.  I thought I would share a few of those titles here today as a point of reference on how staying relevant to the Word is much more in line with true biblical holiness then staying relevant with culture.  The culture needs a fresh biblical Word to provoke them to seek after God, more then they need a slick sermon title that sounds like the filthy movie they just watched the week before.  Just saying…… 



  1. Burglar Proof Religion
  2. Fair Warning
  3. I stand at the door and knock
  4. White Robes
  5. The Crucial approach to holiness
  6. God hath given eternal life
  7. Jesus Saves from all sin
  8. Acceptable to God
  9. 5 Things God does not know
  10. Who then shall be Saved?
  11. Our glorious heritage and our holy responsibilities
  12. The uses of trial
  13. The Changeless Christ
  14. The way of holiness
  15. A perfect man
  16. The disowned
  17. The World’s Danger
  18. The Christians Body & the life of holiness
  19. The Believers Wisdom, Righteousness, sanctification and redemption
  20. Do you need a new God?
  21. Living to the point
  22. Forgiveness of sins
  23. Christ in relation to the religious feeling of mankind
  24. Watch
  25. The attraction of Holiness
 
How many mega churches or want to be mega churches pastors have sermon titles like those above?   So many sermon titles today have shock em type words like sex and non bible related bible terms in them. I have even seen where the pastor of a church on TV sat on a bed instead of preaching from a pulpit to make the point about sexual purity more real. It just seems like we need to look to those Godly men of the past  decades again and rid ourselves of the filth of this world and let God be Holy proclaimed again in our pulpits. Just saying………