Many years ago, when I was a student at Ministries Institute at Faith Center in Eugene, Oregon, I learned a valuable lesson about sermon preparation from my pastor, Roy Hicks, Jr.

Roy was a profound teacher of God’s Word and Kingdom. Roy’s focus on Kingdom preaching wrecked me, making me wanting that kind of impact in my own ministry.

In one of our classes, Roy said, “There are three questions you need to ask yourself as you prepare to teach God’s Word:  What is God’s heart in the passage? What is the human response? What is the personal application?”

Over the years, I have studied the disciplines of sermon preparation, hermeneutics, and homiletics, and have benefited from these studies, yet those three questions from Roy have had the strongest influence on my life and teaching ministry.

Once, Roy gave each of us a copy of his sermon notes.  I was surprised that it was only one page in length.  Embedded in that single page of notes were the answers to his three questions.  I still have those notes.

Almost 50 years later, I teach those same three questions to people learning to preach.  Roy’s questions have been so impactful because they have caused me to dig deeper into God’s Word beyond just a commentary-level of study. 

Roy’s questions also prompted me to press into the heart of God and to apply the Word to my own life as I prepare a message.  

It has been hard at times, but I think this kind of sermon preparation is part of the ongoing process of incarnation, where the Word becomes flesh in the people of God.