how do they do it?

I'm in process of working on my sermon for this coming Sunday, and found myself delighted at how easily this sermon is coming along.  Yesterday was a bit of a roadblock in the sermon-prep process, and today is sailing along.  Why?  It's all about the text.

You see, yesterday I didn't have a passage of scripture from which to base the sermon.  Today, I do.  Yesterday, I had a whole list of what I wanted to say on Sunday.  Today I have a much shorter (thankfully, for all involved) list of what the Bible has to say.  It's coherent, concise, and straightforward... and not at all about me.

I find myself wondering, how do they do it?  How do pastors, teachers and preachers prepare and deliver their sermons and lessons without starting with the Bible?  I'm not saying that what they have to say isn't, therefore, biblical, but that I don't understand how one can preach without starting with the text and letting the sermon flow from there.

I have no problem with "prooftexting".  I think prooftexting can be used positively (when the cited passage is used in context and with integrity) and negatively (when the cited passage is ripped out of its context).  So I know sermons that are topical and then littered with Scripture to support the topic at hand can be godly, biblical and edifying.  And there are times when I preach sermons like that.

However, it's not how I usually work, and it's certainly not how I work at my best.  I'm at my best when I start with the text and go from there, allowing it to say what it wants to say to the congregation - and the preacher - on Sunday morning.

Thanks for letting me procrastinate a little longer.