What are you preaching for?

Cal Habig encourages preachers to ask ourselves a few questions:

What is it that we expect from preaching? Is that everyone will like us? Is it that people will recognize how erudite we are; how folksy we are? Is it that this one sermon will change the behavior or worldview of an entire congregation? Is it that we can speak in subtleties and that people will “catch our drift” without us offending them? That people will see how to apply the text even though we don’t tell them to?

Do I want to preach in order to become the preacher of a large mega-church? Do I want to preach and become the talk of our community? Do we want to preach and have hundreds come to Christ? Do I want to have people say that I am the next… (fill your preaching hero in the blank).

We certainly ought to examine ourselves and be able to answer these questions. And once we do--flawed vessels that we are--it's time to get on with the work of preaching Christ.