How Max Lucado Preaches: One Sentence, One Story, Back to Grace
Max Lucado has preached at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio since 1988, and his sermons have become books read in more than 50 languages. We studied eight of his sermons, from a New Year message to a series on facing giants. Every one rests on the same core: one sentence, a story wrapped around it, and a road that leads back to grace.
Who Max Lucado is
Lucado was born in San Angelo, Texas, in 1955 and raised in Andrews. He earned two degrees at Abilene Christian University, served as an associate minister in Miami, and spent about five years planting churches in Rio de Janeiro. He came to Oak Hills in 1988, served 20 years as senior minister until 2007, and continues as teaching minister.
His books have sold more than 150 million copies, and three won Gold Medallion Christian Book of the Year awards. Reader’s Digest named him “America’s Best Preacher” in April 2005. His 48th trade book, Unbreakable Courage, released in August 2026.
The shape of a Lucado sermon
Lucado boils every message down to one sentence first, then wraps a story around it. “Truth can arrive within the story and ride latent,” he told Preaching in 2006.
Most of his sermons open with a scene, a story, a hook question or a bit of humor before the text. The text comes early, and the Bible story is often retold in vivid, modern language, as if it happened last Tuesday. In “Grace for the Shady Lady,” Rahab’s house is a brothel in Jericho’s walls.
He adds modern illustrations from sports, family, history and nature, and salts the first half with gentle, self-deprecating humor. Along the way he coins a line you can carry out the door: “Focus on giants and you stumble; focus on God and your giants tumble.”
Every road leads back to grace, the cross or God’s care. He often closes with a prayer or a blessing.
What made his preaching different
One sentence
Every message is boiled down to one quotable sentence before anything else is built.
Last Tuesday
He retells Bible scenes as if they just happened, so an old story feels like news.
Back to grace
A carry-out line gives people something to repeat, and then the sermon lands on grace.
What others said
“He’ll make you cry, but the tears are more cathartic than they are manipulative or simply sentimental.”
— Louis Markos
“very emotive power with words”
— Wendell Hawley, former Tyndale House editor-in-chief, 2003 (Publishers Weekly)
What to take into your own pulpit
Get it to one sentence
If you can’t say the sermon in a sentence, the room won’t either. Boil it down before you write.
Tell the old story like it’s new
Retell the Bible scene in plain, modern language so people feel they are standing in it.
Coin a line they can carry
A short, memorable sentence goes out the door with people and keeps preaching after you stop.
Those are the ideas. The guide turns them into ten steps you can follow this week, plus the sermons we studied and a fill-in outline in his shape.
Free PDF · Preach Like the Greats
Learn to preach like Max Lucado.
This post is the overview. The guide has the research and the method.
- The 8 sermons we studied, start to finish
- Ten steps to preach the way he does
- His sermon outline, movement by movement
- A fill-in template for your own text, 9 pages
Common questions
What is Max Lucado’s preaching style?
Story-driven, warm and grace-centered. He boils each message down to one sentence, retells Bible scenes in vivid modern language, uses gentle humor and a quotable line, and always leads back to grace.
How does Max Lucado structure a sermon?
He usually opens with a scene, story, question or humor, reads the text early, builds around one big-idea sentence with a retold Bible story and modern illustrations, and lands on grace, the cross or God’s care, often closing in prayer.
Where does Max Lucado preach?
At Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, where he has served since 1988, first as senior minister and now as teaching minister.