How To Preach

 I see that Pastor Someoneorother is praying, according to his Tweets, that you might preach as if eternity is at stake, sin is killing souls, you are filled with the Holy Spirit and God is worthy of all our worship. 

I agree. All this is true. 

Your preaching should be serious not frivolous, weighty not lightweight, earnest not flippant. It should be prayerful and look to the Spirit to do great things through your words, which are to be the Word of God faithfully proclaimed and applied such that the voice of the preacher communicates the very voice of God.

However, the preacher should have many tones of voice. There are all sorts and conditions of hearers. There are many times and seasons. There are many texts of Scripture, many aspects of the gospel. 

We cannot and should not always preach with a crisis intensity. Okay, it is always momentous to hear God speak and to meet with the Living God. The Sunday morning sermon is very special. But a father must address his family in all sorts of ways, even in this more formal setting. He will want to speak kindly and gently and patiently instruct and so on. He speaks as a man to men as well as from and for God. He will want to sympathise with his hearers and encourage them as they seek the grace of God together.  

Much of life is ordinary. There should be passion and vision and purpose and so on. But there can be ordinary sermons by ordinary preachers for ordinary people too. Pray. Open your Bible. Speak. Try to love God and love your people and give yourself and them a bit of a break sometimes.