Real sermon strength

Peter Mead regularly offers solid, practical advice on the many aspects of good preaching. Lately he's been offering some good words on preparing hearts for the task:

The real strength of a sermon is not found in delivery, although that aspect matters much. It is not found in the structure and content – try stealing a sermon and notice that it feels weaker than when you heard it from its source! The strength of a sermon has to reside in the roots. So check the roots of your sermons, of your ministry as a preacher. Are they deep into the soil of life’s struggle? Are they deeper still in the subsoil of the eternal Word? Let’s be sure we are not preaching impressive, but rootless sermons . . . a breeze might just blow them over!

Amen.