When I first began preaching, one of the major challenges I had to overcome was choosing a topic. I found it intimidating to decide which topic was worth preaching. I thought if I chose the wrong topic, I might waste everybody’s time. Since then, I’ve had a change in attitude towards picking my lessons. Of course, I still have no desire to waste time, but I am less likely to believe that I’m doing that. Whether it is teaching or preaching, I’ve found that I will not go wrong if I ask myself certain questions. Perhaps we all could benefit from asking these questions. 1. Does my lesson come from the Bible? One of the most important things for any Gospel preacher or teacher to keep in mind is that he is not the source of his message. As teachers of God’s Word, we should be plagiarists! All of our material should come from one source. Not ourselves. Not others. What we preach must come from the inspired Word of God. Several times the Bible warns us of the dangers of adding our own ideas to the words of the Bible or taking away from solid doctrine (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32, Revelation 22:18). 2. Have I neglected to preach the whole message? This question does not ask whether you have preached in a single sermon every lesson that the Bible contains. You could not preach the whole Bible in a lifetime. What you can do, however, is to be sure you have not neglected relevant information to your topic.

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). The Hebrews writer paused in this the great faith chapter to provide the reader with critical commentary on the faithful principles common among the characters he thus far had cited. Among these, the Jewish patriarchs are especially fitting to illustrate the Christian pilgrimage. In the case of all those cited (Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Sarah), the pattern could be described as (1) a divine call or warning (2) belief in the divine message (3) obedience (4) divine acceptance and (5) expectation of divine blessings. Today’s reader is well advised to apply the “strangers and pilgrims” concept to himself. As time marches onward and the world changes, its vices inevitably change as well. Each generation of God’s people is faced with new challenges to their faithfulness. Whatever form that lure of assimilation takes, it is all of the same spirit—worldliness. Philippians 3:20 reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven. Peter admonished his readers, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). True distinction (holiness) means that God’s people must be more than just different from the world; they are a foreign tribe. In what sense were these Bible characters strangers and pilgrims? Though all of them were spiritual pilgrims, Abraham