This is the on preaching podcast with H.B. Charles Jr.

The podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.

Good day and thanks for listening to the podcast.

In this episode, I want to talk to you about a system for sermon preparation.

So there are principles of sermon preparation. So there are principles of sermon preparation. But alongside the principles, which I think are generally common principles, every preacher has his own unique process of fleshing out those principles in the actual work of developing and crafting a sermon.

Each person has his own system of sermon preparation.

Or to say it a little stronger, every person should have his own system for sermon preparation.

Whatever that process, whatever that system looks like, of course, again, it's going to include common things that we all share. You should read, record, and reflect. You should read widely on your text. You should record diligently so that you are retaining what you're studying and growing through ongoing study,

and then timing your preparation process to reflect prayerfully on what you are studying, what you are preparing.

But in the midst of that, the process, meaning the order in which you do things,

what you emphasize, what you may not emphasize, that process is unique to every preacher.

I have a preacher friend who does his exegetical work on Monday mornings

and then he writes the sermon on Monday afternoon. He hands that finished manuscript to his assistant,

and he doesn't touch it until Friday when that assistant hands him two typed written

copies of the sermon one he edits to give away as a booklet to the church that weekend and the

other he pairs down to notes for the pulpit on

Sunday morning. I think that's wild. But that's his system of sermon preparation. I have another

friend just the opposite who does not begin his sermon preparation until Friday.

And he does his exegetical work, et cetera, on Friday.

And then on Saturday, he has lunch with others and talks through application and finishes the message up on Saturday night.

So basically it's a weekend process. I think that's crazy. I couldn't be able to, I wouldn't be able to survive if I didn't start early in the week.

But that's that particular preacher's sermon preparation

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