Common Pitfalls with Expository Preaching

I found this great list of "Common Pitfalls with Expository Preaching" by Paul Lamey over at Expository Thoughts.

Here are a few things we all struggle with at times. These are items to either avoid or amend in our expository preaching (in no particular order):

1. Not taking enough time to observe the text of Scripture.
2. Observing things that are not there or are not significant.
3. Not checking and double-checking your observations.
4. Rushing exegesis for the sake of exposition.
5. Being slavishly dependent on commentaries.
6. Preaching too long.
7. Preaching too short.
8. Missing the point(s) of a passage.
9. Abusing the aorist tense .
10. Losing site of the context.
11. Having all heat (passion) and no light (content).
12. Having all light and no heat.
13. Flattening out a text for the sake of a theological system.
14. Erecting a theological “mountain” in the place of a mere theological “hill.”

For our purposes, here, I'm particularly interested in the inclusion of #5 "Being slavishly dependent on commentaries."

This reminds me of a lecture I recently listened to by John Piper (John Owen: The Chief Design of My Life--Mortification and Universal Holiness) in which he answered a question during the Q&A time regarding commentaries. I found it interesting that three of the four he mentioned were older classics (Alford, Murray, and Broadus). Then he concluded by saying that he rarely uses commentaries. He said,

I don't use commentaries very often, frankly. If I think I'm unsure about what I've seen, I'll check it out. But, by and large, assiduous... See, a pastor only has so much time to get ready for Sunday morning. If you've got a block of ten to twenty hours; wherever you fit in there, and you can only do so much, assiduous meditation on the original languages and prayer are much more important than reading six commentaries. Both is better. Because you might guard yourself from a really stupid mistake if you check it out with another mind. But if you've gotta choose, I'd choose assiduous meditation.

Just prior to this Q&A session, he concluded his lecture on the life of John Owen with this imperative concerning preaching:

Do not preach anything that you have not spiritually tasted.

In this same vein, Proverbs 12:27 says "Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth." We need to be sure to roast what we take in. To assiduously meditate upon the Word of God. Turn it over and over in your thoughts. Prayerfully.

Spurgeon, in his Lectures to My Students writes,

You will not be able to extemporise good thinking unless you have been in the habit of thinking and feeding your mind with abundant and nourishing food. Work hard at every available moment. Store your minds very richly, and then, like merchants with crowded warehouses, you will have goods ready for your customers, and having warehouses, you will have goods ready for your customers, and having arranged your good things upon the shelves of your mind, you will be able to hand them down at any time without the laborious process of going to market, sorting, folding, and preparing.

So, assiduous meditation and storing up your minds carefully are indispensable for the expository preacher.

Common Pitfalls with Expository Preaching