Preparation for preaching involves diligent study, prayer, and heart readiness to effectively communicate God's Word and persuade listeners to respond (2 Timothy 4:2). It pictures the preacher as a servant working carefully to craft messages that honor God and edify the church, emphasizing earnest labor and accountability before the Lord (1 Corinthians 9:27).
Effective preaching requires earnest application to persuade and lead listeners to act.
When I compose a sermon, I imagine myself consulted upon some doubtful piece of business. I give my whole application to determine the person who has recourse to me to act the good and proper part. I exhort him, I urge him, and I quit him not till he has yielded to my persuasions. Massillon.
Timely preparation prevents failure and leads to success in critical moments.
You have read in history of that hero, who, when an overwhelming force was in full pursuit, and all his followers were urging him to a more rapid flight, coolly dismounted to repair a flaw in his horse's harness. While busied with the broken buckle, the distant cloud swept down in nearer thunder; but, just as the prancing hoofs and eager spears were ready to dash upon him, the flaw was mended, and, like swooping falcon, he had vanished from their view. The broken buckle would have left him on the field a dismounted and inglorious prisoner: the timely delay sent him in safety back to his comrades. There is in daily life the same luckless precipitancy, and the same profitable delay. The man, who, from his prayerless awakening, bounces into the business of the day, however good his talents and great his diligence, is only galloping upon a steed harnessed with a broken buckle, and must not marvel, if, in his hottest haste or most hazardous leap, he be left ingloriously in the dust; and, though it may occasion some little delay beforehand, his neighbor is wiser who sets out all in order before the march begins.
— Rev. J. Hamilton
Neglecting preparation for eternity leads to ruin and judgment.
Neglecting preparation for eternity is like the traveller across the desert, or through a hostile wilderness, who provides nothing for his journey; like the ambassador to a far country, who forgets his message; like the invited guest who puts not on the wedding-garment; like the fool who counselled his soul to take its case, while God's voice called him to judgment.
Preachers should prepare seriously, preaching as if giving account to God.
Whilst Thomas Shepherd, a contemporary of Jonathan Edwards, was on his dying-bed, several young ministers came to see him. He looked at them with great interest and solemnity, and uttered these weighty words: "Your work is great, and calls for great seriousness. As to myself, I can say three things,—that the study of every sermon cost me tears; that, before I preached a sermon, I got good by it myself; and that I always went up into the pulpit as if I were to give my account to my Master." J. G. Wilson.
Great preachers labor extensively in writing and rewriting sermons for maximum impact.
Henry Melvill is the most popular preacher in London. He prepares and preaches but one sermon in a week, which he always writes twice, very often three times. Prof. Park, in his eloquent memoir of the late Mr. Homer, communicates the following facts: "The editor of Massilon's Lent Sermons regards it as a prodigy, that he finished a discourse in so short a time as ten or twelve days. This eminent preacher sometimes rewrote a single sermon fifteen or even twenty times. A distinguished scholar in our own land rewrote the most useful of his sermons thirteen or fourteen times, and labored, in connection with a literary friend, two whole days on as many sentences. A living divine, who has been called the prince of our pulpit orators, spent a fortnight on a single discourse, which has already accomplished more good than four thousand which were written by another of our pastors at the rate of two a week. W. Balkan.
Effective preaching requires diligent preparation, prayer, and heart readiness throughout the week.
Mr. Thomas Shephard was an excellent preacher, and took great pains in his preparations for the pulpit. He used to say, "God will curse that man's labors who goes idly up and down all the week, and then goes into his study on a Saturday afternoon. God knows that we have not too much time to pray in, and weep in, and get our hearts into a fit frame for the duties of the Sabbath."
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