Preaching on Sunday

This coming Sunday I have the opportunity to preach all of our services at FBC. Pastor Bill and family have been on vacation this past week...and I always want to welcome the opportunity to preach. We are starting a four week series on Stewardship...and this will be a first for me...preaching a sermon on tithing / stewardship.

I'm sure every pastor has a different routine and process for preparing a sermon...and what kind of feelings go through their mind the week of. Bill had asked me awhile back to preach the first week of this series, so I've had more than a week to prepare…and I’m glad!

Here's my routine...
1. Pray!!!! Pray for a specific word...pray for direction...pray for wisdom...pray for courage...pray, pray, pray.

2. Begin with a theme passage or verse...and from there study a few commentaries (one of my favorites is John McArthur)

3. Pray, Pray, Pray

4. Write out a rough outline...develop main points.

5. I try to mix together: teaching of the passage, theologically sound, a little history, practicality, a bit of humor, visual illustrations, real life stories and then more practicality. (not necessarily in that order!)

6. Continue to pray…

7. I’m a transcript kind of a guy…I usually will write out my entire sermon and pour over it about a hundred times!

8. Pray…this is extremely crucial.

The Saturday before, I get a little nervous…I usually don’t sleep very well…my biggest fear is that I will oversleep! So I’ll set not only my alarm, but have Holly set hers too!

Sunday morning comes and I’m pumped, yet still a little nervous. Not scared to preach nervous, it’s more of “who am I to stand up and preach God’s word” nervous. I attempt to connect with our congregation and always be led by the Holy Spirit. This is where the spiritual warfare begins…I really battle with that whole “who are you to preach” feeling, I’ll admit it, I’m nobody!…I just want to be an effective messenger. Pray for me this weekend.

Curious to know what other pastors may do in preparation or feelings they go through?? Maybe you know how your pastor feels?? Thoughts?? Bueller, Bueller??