1PointPreacher Ep. 14 - Feeling Ready to Preach

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1 Point Preacher
Episode 14

Show Notes:

What if you don't feel ready?

To frame it, you need to be able to answer three questions:

1. Do you know what your text means?
2. Do you know how it applies to your people?
3. Do you know how to communicate that explanation and application clearly to them, in the preaching moment?

This isn't just a text-study issue.

Preaching isn't just Bible study—it's communicating it out loud to the congregation. You need to be prepared to deliver it.

People get nervous (think they aren't ready) because they try to predict "what will so-and-so think?" Or think "I'm not like one of the other pastors."

That's a trap.
God has commanded us to be faithful, rightly dividing the Word.
Measuring ourselves by others is sin; making another man your standard.

There will always be someone smarter than you in the congregation. Praise God and move on. That's not part of your preparation. Your attention is misdirected.

You want to be able to communicate easily. Common dialect. That should be taken into consideration. Slow down and take your time.

There are things you cannot do and must cut out of your schedule. Don't go to a party. Don't attend three weddings before preaching. Etc.
You need to be self-aware. Recognize you are a limited human being and cannot do it all. It's irresponsible to say "yes" to every opportunity.

Your first responsibility is to preach the Word. And you need adequate time to prepare. That time is based on your gifting and skill.

TIP: Preach your whole sermon at least three times, record, and listen to yourself. How comfortable are you listening to yourself?

You may need a sermon preparation checklist. If you don't know what you should be hitting, you need a checklist.
If you are inexperienced in preaching, don't be embarrassed. Walk through a checklist.

What if you are afraid of public speaking? Maybe you can't preach.
There's tension between an irrational fear that you need to overcome and being deathly afraid of speaking.

"Trembling while ascending the pulpit" is not anxiety and should not be a sinful fear of man. It should be knowing the weight of responsibility before God.

If you've been preaching for years and you still suffer anxiety, maybe you need to think about whether you should be preaching for the rest of your life.

Where do you get your confidence?
You know what your text means, how to apply it, and know how to communicate it in a way that's easy to listen to.

A helpful approach for quick prep: the minimal approach, like an outline.
Know the text, the immediate context. Answer basic questions (who, what, etc.). Basic ideas of intro and conclusion. If needed, write down what is difficult, controversial, or needs special attention. Then memorize all that. Hit that quickly.
Then, master that and move on.

Do you forget material while preaching? Maybe you were in a hurry.
Take extra time, even far ahead of time, on texts you haven't preached before.

During prep, give undivided attention. Do whatever is necessary for you to focus.

One thing that cripples preachers during prep and robs them of confidence during preaching, is the thought of forgetting something.
Preachers give too much weight to the possibility of forgetting.

No preacher forgets their entire sermon. Just sermon details (explanation, illustration, application).
Is forgetting sermon details catastrophic to preaching? No.
Don't overestimate the impact.

The congregation will never know—and don't tell them!

Sermon unity is intact if you forgot a detail and moved on.

The fear of forgetting is often irrational. Forgetting sermon details is blown out of proportion.
By the end, your people heard a whole sermon. Nothing is left out of the finished product.

You set yourself up to forget if you are preoccupied with forgetting.

Focus on preaching.
Be responsible in your prep time. Eliminate distractions. Learn how to tell people to leave you alone.

If after being responsible, you are still worried about forgetting, then stop and reconsider what preaching is: sermon point, sermon outline, what the text says, applications.
And focus on communicating effectively: restatement, rephrasing, transitions.
If you forget some details, too bad. But in the end, nothing was left out. It was a sermon.

You aren't there to look good, but to be faithful.

Check yourself by preaching through your sermon multiple times to see if you have it down. And do it again. Get comfortable with your sermon, without the fear factor.
If you can preach it in your room in front of your mirror, you can preach it behind the pulpit.

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