There are a series of questions that I work through when preparing a sermon. Some of them are as follows:

1. Have I approached and handled the text properly?
2. Am I connecting the topic to my own life/journey?
3. Am I creating tension at the beginning of the message?
4. Am I bringing the audience “up for air” enough with humor and illustrative stories?
5. Am I suggesting any next steps at the conclusion?

These are useful questions, but none of them is the most significant filter I use when I am working on a message. The most important sermon prep question is: What is “uniquely Christian” about this talk?

You might nail all of the other marks when it comes to sermon preparation and delivery, but if your talk is simply “good advice” and not “good news” then you really haven’t offered anything that teenagers can’t hear at any other religious gathering, from a motivational talk, or on an after-school special TV show. Sermons that aim to instruct or inspire are helpful, but sermons that invite — invite listeners to consider and believe more truly and more deeply in the person and work of Jesus — should be our primary aim.

If your talk is simply “good advice” and not “good news” then you really haven’t hit the mark.

Both the Old and New Testaments teach us that we become like what we behold (Psalm 135:15-18; 2 Corinthians 3:18). In other words, who or what we worship always determines how we live. If that is true then a sermon must do more than address wrong behavior or call for right behavior. It must present Jesus as better, truer, surer, and more lovely than whatever else we might tend to worship.

A teenager’s main problem is not that he is bad at behaving, but that he is bad at beholding — the Bible calls it idolatry. So as preachers we should lift up the unchanging and unmerited work of Jesus on our behalf and trust that the Holy Spirit will be at work drawing the heart of the listener into life-changing worship.

Here are four questions to help determine if your sermon is “uniquely Christian.” You should be able to answer “Yes!” to at least one of them.

1. Does this message show Jesus to be supreme?
2. Does this message show Jesus to be sufficient?
3. Does this message show Jesus to be our sure substitute?
4. Does this message show Jesus to be our soul’s deepest satisfaction?