Preaching Lessons pt. 3

Below is a list of tips to improve your preaching.

1. Preach the Bible. Don't preach your opinion. Make sure your messages are full of God's Word.

2. Preach for life change. Your messages have to be applicable. Always think, what are the one or two things I want people to do with this message? How does your message help people follow God in their everyday lives?

3. Preach Jesus. Your messages should always point people to Jesus. JESUS (not you, a denomination or a political party) should ALWAYS be the focus of your preaching.

4. Preach sound biblical doctrine. Don't take the scripture out of context. Don't get caught up in fads and hype. Preach the Word.

5. Preach simple messages. People should not leave your messages confused. People should not leave saying, “that was deep, but what in the world was he talking about?”

6. Prepare before you preach. Inspiration without perspiration (study) is dangerous. I'm not going to tell you how many hours you should spend on a sermon, but I will say that it should be hours and not minutes! I spend anywhere from 7 to 15 hours on each message. This includes research (sometimes weeks before I actually put together the message), study, meditation and prayer on the message throughout the day, creative elements and memorization.