Latest / Better Preaching Podcast / BP2 Season 1 Episode 2 – Patrick Lightfoot | Sermon Prep & Delivery
Transcript
- Frank Weller: On today's episode of the Better Preaching Podcast, we talk with Patrick Lightfoot about his sermon preparation process and how he delivers sermons at Traverse Christian Church. Patrick Lightfoot, welcome back to the Better Preaching podcast. Thanks for having me again, I appreciate you, Frank. Yeah, man, and listen, last time we spoke, we talked about your call to ministry and preaching, is, know, BP2 listeners, if you haven't heard that episode, you wanna go back and listen to that because Patrick just has a great story about how God called him into ministry and the people who invested in him and the difference that they made in the trajectory of his ministry pathway. Patrick Lightfoot: Thanks for having me again, appreciate you Frank. Frank Weller: This time though, I want us to talk about kind of the more practical nuts and bolts of preaching. What's your process for writing and delivering sermons? I believe that better preaching requires both better preparation and better delivery. And that's one of the reasons why we've created this podcast. So we can just foster better preaching. So let me ask you this. Before we really launch into it, simple question. Do you prefer Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah, agreed. Frank Weller: preparing for the sermon or do you prefer delivering the sermon? It's not even close delivery. It's so much more fun. Yeah, tell me more. Yeah. So the work is in the prep and that's in anything you do. And so for me, it's like unwrapping a gift on Sunday when I get to present and teach a message that I've worked on during the week. that is, I love it. I'm a people person. You know me, Frank. I'm an extrovert. Patrick Lightfoot: It's not even close delivery. It's so much more fun. Yeah. So the, work is in the prep and that's in anything you do. And so for me, it's, it's like unwrapping ⁓ a gift on Sunday when I get to present and teach, a message that I've worked on during the week. So that is, I love it. I'm a people person. You know me, Frank. I'm an extrovert. When you asked me to be on this podcast, I'm like, yeah, man, we can talk about whatever it is. I don't care, man. Let's just hang out and be with each other. And so for me, I love delivery because I love it when the light bulb goes on for people. You can see it in their eyes, in their face. You can have those conversations during time of prayer like, hey, when you shared this story or when you were reading this passage, man, God was speaking to me. I'm like, yes. Like that is what excites me is to help people take those next steps in their faith walk with Jesus. It happens through delivery. So I love that part of it. Frank Weller: help people take those next steps in their faith walk with Jesus. It happens through delivery. So I love that part of it. Yeah, you know, but it takes both, right? I mean, you've got to have the seat time. Really, that's what sets you up for the stage time. I don't know anybody who's effectively preaching who doesn't really pay attention to both the study and the stage. Yeah, it's the same point, but two sides, right? Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah, it's the ⁓ same coin, but two sides, right? And you got to do them both, I think, really, really well. Just find your rhythm ⁓ in that. So that's the important part of it. ⁓ I'm very tight-knit when it comes to that. Like, my sermon writing days are on Tuesdays. So I write all day on Tuesday. I don't have meetings. I don't do marches. I just hunker down. I do the hard work on Tuesdays. My hard deadline is on Wednesdays to get it to our... ⁓ our worship team so they can put in a pro presenter and do all that stuff they do. And the one thing I've added, which is super helpful for me, is to actually reach the message out loud from stage. And I do that on Thursdays at 11. And so that's just part of that prep, putting in the work, putting in the reps, just like anything else. If you want to get bigger, faster, stronger as an athlete, what do you do? You've to put the reps in. And so for me, adding that component to... prep time has been super beneficial for me. Frank Weller: I think you approach a lot of times you approach Sunday as game day. You it's game place on that's right. Yeah. Yeah. You've done all the work, you know, you've, you've, you've, you've gotten your lift in, you've gotten your reps in, you've got the game plan. Now it's game day. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. And that's important because that's where, that's where the fun is. You you, you'll talk about that with athletes. Like you put the working in the gym where there's a basketball player, a wrestler, whatever sport. Patrick Lightfoot: It is. You put some gameplay on, that's right. Yeah, yeah, and that's important because that's where that's where the fun is. You know, you'll talk about that with athletes like you put the working in the gym, whether it's a basketball player, a wrestler, whatever sport like this is we do all this hard work and all these reps and this blood, sweat and tears so we can get to the part that we love. We enjoy. That's what athletes like to They love to play games. Not many athletes say I love to practice. They don't. I mean, but we do it because we That's where we hone in our skill. That's where we get better. That's where we learn from the mistakes of last week's game and how do we improve upon that. And we're not going to improve by just practicing. I would never improve as a communicator if I only preached on a study. I would never. I have to put in the work and go back like, how do I make that transition a little smoother? How do I put a bow on the closing that is concise and to the point? That can be sometimes challenging for me. And I know that's where I struggle sometimes, like how do put a bow on this thing? So doing the rest of the weekend, looking back at past messages helps me improve as I move forward. Frank Weller: Well, let's stick with the metaphor for just a minute then because I'm interested to know if you're watching game tape, you know, do you go back and review what you've done? You know, we were molded for nine and a half years now in our new building. Patrick Lightfoot: I'm go. You know, we were a mobile church for nine and a half years now. We're in our new building. And so we've got really good audio and video. And I have not started that, Frank. And it's something that I want to do. We have grown. We were about 330 people on a Sunday. before moving into a building, we've been averaging between eight, 900 on a Sunday. So we have exponentially grown and I'm trying to put out fires, but that's one of the things that I wanna start doing is go back and start watching. One of the things I did in the business world is I would listen to, leave a voicemail on my own voicemail and go back and listen to it and to see how many ums and ahs. And so that was a way for me back in those days for me to... quote, watch myself, listen to myself. So that's super helpful to do that. So that's something I do want to add. And I would recommend to anyone, if you have the opportunity to go back and watch yourself, do it. It's awkward. It's not fun. The first thing you'll notice is you don't like your voice. We all say that. No one likes their own voice. But you got to get used to it. So going back and watching that is ⁓ important. Frank Weller: voicemail and go back and listen to it and to see how many uns and odds. So that was a way for me back in those days for me to quote watch myself listen to myself. So that's super helpful to do that. So that's something I do want to add and I would recommend to anyone you have the opportunity to go back and watch yourself do it. It's awkward, it's not fun. The first thing you'll notice is no one likes your voice. We all say that no one likes their own voice. But you got to get used to it. Go back and watch it. Yeah, absolutely. So, Patrick, how often are you preaching? Because as you said, the church is growing rapidly and you've just got a ton of responsibilities. It goes way beyond just what you're doing on Sundays. I mean, how often are you actually in the pulpit preaching? Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah, this last year more than I have in the last several years. My goal, Frank, is 40 to 42 out of the 52 a year. So I feel like that's good. When we first started the church, it was just me. So I literally preached 51 out of 52 for the first couple of years out of necessity, not because I wanted to. But the truth is that our voice becomes white noise. It's like the teacher on the peanuts. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. And it's so healthy for the local churches to have another voice or two or three, whether it's other staffers teaching and preaching, whether it's guest speakers that come in, it is so, so good. Cause one of the biggest compliments, if I have a Sunday or two off in a row and I come back and so-and-so said, Hey man, this guy, Frank Weller was in and he creates and it was awesome. And I love this. And a lot of pastors like, ⁓ man, they... they like this guy better than me. I'm like, amen. Because obviously you deliver a message they heard and they remembered, which is so important when we're teaching and preaching is do they remember what we taught on? Are they applying it to their lives on this next week? And so for me, that's one of the greatest compliments that I can get is we have good speakers that are either on staff with us or we brought in to be that other voice or two or three to speak into the life of the church. Frank Weller: Yeah, and it's really unfair, think, to have somebody like me come in to speak because, I've workshopped that sermon 10 times before I ever get to your church. Patrick Lightfoot: Thank ⁓ Frank Weller: I know what works and what doesn't work. And they're like, wow, he doesn't even use notes. Well, that's because his wife can preach it. He's preached it so many times. She could stand up there and preach it. I would say, yeah, I've heard this thing how many times I've prayed. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be, I'll get ready to go out for a weekend speaking engagement and I'll say, Hey, did you want to come along? She'd be like, well, what server are you preaching? I'll tell her. She's like, Yeah. I'll go to our home church. That's okay. Patrick Lightfoot: Yes, well, and I'm sure Tracy would say, yep, I've heard this thing how many times now, Frank? Yep, I've heard it a lot. Mm-hmm. Nope, not doing that. Frank Weller: She knows that sermon. was a part of a, in my doctoral cohort, was a part of probably a group of 15 guys and they were really surprised to find out, we kind of went around the room, how often you're preaching. And I told them I was preaching, you know, somewhere 45 to 48 weeks a year. And they were all shocked by that. Now these, these are guys from other faith traditions. And they said, that's, that's just crazy. There's no way you should be preaching more than 30, 35 times a year. And I said, well, okay, but I'm pretty sure that most of the guys I know, if we went to our church leadership and said, hey, I'm only good for 35 weeks a year, they'd probably find someone else. Yeah, I get it. There's something about having the time off and having a fresh voice. I love that analogy to the white noise that you mentioned. Patrick Lightfoot: Yes. Yeah, and I think it's healthy for us too because we get weary. I mean, the prep work every week to prep that new message for the next Sunday can be weary. And I think we can hear the voice of the Spirit speak to us in those moments of silence when we take not just one weekend off, but two or three in a row. And so every year I try to take... ⁓ in the right at of the summer beginning of the fall take that time off right there and that helps kind of ramp me up for fall kickoff let's get into Christmas holidays and really recharges me because a lot of times it's ⁓ it's like my hair is on fire when I preach after being away for a couple of weeks I just like I can't wait to do this again it just re-revs that engine up back inside of me to want to do it again because if you go you know six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 12, 13, 14 weeks, however long, and you're like, I just need a break, man. I just need to rest my heart, and soul. And that does more, I think, for picture's heart than anything else is that time off. Frank Weller: It's like those windup cars that you had when you were a kid, you that you put on the ground and you kind of pull back and you feel that spring tightening and tightening and tightening. There's something about stepping away from the pulpit for a time where it just rewinds that spring. Patrick Lightfoot: else. Frank Weller: And then when you let that little car go, goes across the linoleum floor. Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah. And also with that Frank too, when that spring is not in tension, it allows you to think creatively for some of maybe the next sermon series upcoming or for next year. I feel like when I'm not so pressed or thinking so much on what I'm currently studying, it gives me the bandwidth to think and be creative too. I think it does not only something for my heart, but it also helps prepare you for what's coming next. Frank Weller: creatively for some of maybe the next sermon series I'm coming for next year. feel like when I'm not so pressed, I'm so much on what I'm currently studying. It gives me the bandwidth to think and be creative too. So I think there's, it does not only something for my heart, but it also helps prepare you for what's coming next. Well, I want to talk with you more about what happens before Tuesday, but before I do, this is a good time to pause and thank our sponsor, Great Lakes Christian College. Listen, if you want to answer God's call to preaching with greater confidence and a deeper biblical understanding, GLCC's Master of Arts in Practical Ministry is designed for today's church leaders. Rooted in scripture, this program blends biblical depth with practical training that prepares you for real world ministry challenges. It's affordable, flexible, and Christ-centered, enabling you to study online wherever you're serving. You can get more details at glcc.edu. You mentioned Tuesdays. Patrick R., your day in the study, that's when you lock everybody out and you shut off the phone and you dig in. But I'm guessing you don't start Tuesday with a blank page and think, boy, what am I going to preach on Sunday? Tell me what happens before you ever get to Tuesday. Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah. Yeah, well it happens the prior year. My goal, Frank, is by the end of September is that I have the sermon series laid out for the following year. Now that doesn't mean we don't pivot or change or if there's a need-based thing we need to do. Actually because of some things that are going on in the life of the church, actually the next sermon series I'm actually bumping out and gonna put in a two or three week. thing that I want to speak in because I feel like it's appropriate for a season of our church right now. But what that does is it helps me think long term, but it also helps prepare me as I'm gathering illustrations, quotes, different things that I hear. I'm always jotting stuff down. My wife says all the time when we're together and she sees or hears something, she looks at me, she's like, well, that's a sermon illustration. I'm like, ⁓ yeah, I've already put that in the catalog. that is going in this file when I talk about this. as an also as I'm not just scripture itself but reading books I love to read and as I'm through whether fiction or nonfiction I'm like ⁓ man this is a great story this would go well with that sermon series we're gonna be doing next summer on XYZ. ⁓ for me that's good I see and hear pastors like well are you finishing your message on Saturday night? I would be in a bad spot, Frank, if I'm writing on Saturday night for Sunday. I would be in a bad spot if I had no idea what sermon series we're doing coming out of Easter. I would be in a bad spot, Frank, if I didn't know what sermon series we're doing for our fall kickoff. Those things are on paper, we've got them, they can move and change, but at least it gives us that pathway to know this is the direction that we're heading over the next few weeks, months, and for this next calendar year. Frank Weller: You know, the most peace I had in preaching was when I was on a rhythm that had me working six weeks out. So the hard study that I was doing where I was really digging in was on the sermon that I was going to preach in six weeks. And that sermon would be done, it'd be in the can six weeks in advance. And then, you know, I could give it to our creative team and let them do what they do. Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah. Frank Weller: And what was great about that is it created the margin for when you have that week where you have two funerals and the car breaks down or you have a doctor appointment, those kinds of unexpected things so that you're not panicked. I Saturday night preparation is a scary place to be. I'm not saying the Holy Spirit doesn't work in that regard. In fact, there are times when something happens in the community or in the life of the church where you have to scrap Sunday. ⁓ Patrick Lightfoot: Thank man. Frank Weller: There's, you can't say too much about building margin into your schedule so that your preaching doesn't suffer. Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah, no, I totally agree and you know, I've had moments where I wake up on a Sunday morning early, I read through my message again and maybe a story or maybe even a passage and I'll get there and I don't do this because I don't wanna, you my teams have put in the work and the prep, they've prepared everything and so I don't do this often but every now and then I'm like, hey guys, I need to make a slight tweak to what we're doing today. I wanna end like this or like this passage, I wanna. Frank Weller: need to make a slight... Patrick Lightfoot: i want to change it to a different translation i was actually reading this translation and it just like popped off the page and so i think there's moments like that but as much as that we can do on the front end ⁓ i think is going to help our teams it helps us be better preachers and teachers as well ⁓ the more we prepare on that front end Frank Weller: Yeah, I agree. you bring up Sunday morning. what just kind of walk me through that? ⁓ well, you know, what time do you, what time do you get to the building? What does your Sunday morning look like? Just what's that routine? Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah. Yeah, so we have three services, eight, nine, 30, and 11, so I preach three times every Sunday. ⁓ For me, I don't like to be rushed. I just, can't live in a rushed world. I have to be really slow, slow-paced, and so I get up really early. I get up at 5 a.m. on Sundays, and I'm ready to go, I'm a morning person, yes. I am a big-time morning. I love the mornings. It's quiet, it's dark out. Frank Weller: Are you a morning guy to begin with that helps? Patrick Lightfoot: I can hear my own heartbeat. can hear the birds chirp when the sun is beginning to rise. So that's my time. But for me is to get up. I just read through my message. I do my prep on Tuesday. I actually preach the message on Thursday in the auditorium by myself out loud. Just go through it as if I was preaching it. So I've done it, but I just want to soak in it some more. And so I do that. And then I get to the church early about 630. And then sometimes I'll sit and listen to worship, you know, Being the main communicator, a lot of times we don't get times of worship for music. So I like to listen to the team. Sometimes I'll walk in the auditorium or different parts of the building, just walk and pray. Kind of gets my mind and my heart ready for preaching three times on a Sunday. So that's kind of my normal rhythm. I don't come in there at five minutes still and, you know, jump up there and let's do this thing. I just kind of need to ease into it. It just is a better way for me to get my mind and heart ready to teach God's word. Frank Weller: Patrick, what do you take with you to the pulpit? Patrick Lightfoot: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I always take my Bible and my iPad. teach from my iPad, but I read the scriptures from the Bible. I could do that from the iPad. I could read it off the confidence monitors. But for me, there's something about opening God's Word. And when I start a message, if we're jumping from a main text right now, we're walking through the book of Galatians after I kind of tee up kind of maybe an opening story illustration, remind them, hey, we're starting a brand new series or we're continuing in our series, the book of Galatians. It's called the gospel. Today, we're gonna be in chapter whatever, open your Bibles there or open your phones, however you engage in God's I want you to open it right now. that kind of sets the pace and the tone for me that, we're teaching God's word. And this is serious business, although we're going to enjoy it. We're going to be enthusiastic. We're passionate about it. But man, this is God's very own word that we get to listen to today. those are the two things that I take with me. Also, I always take hot tea. I drink hot tea with honey in it. And so that's I have a little stand that's iPad holder. It holds my Bible on the left and my cup holder on the right. man, that thing, I've had it for over 10 years now. And even when I travel, I was at a student event in Estes Park. at a student event and I took that stand with me because that's just that's my pulpit. It's not much between me and the those I'm speaking to. I like it that way not a big lectern or anything like that so ⁓ it's Frank Weller: I mean look, eight, nine, 30, and 11, you probably need some tea and honey. Patrick Lightfoot: I do man, that tea is a life saver and especially that honey coats my throat. It is super helpful as well as preaching three 30 minute messages for sure. Frank Weller: When I went from one sermon one service a week to two it was it was It proved to be exhausting it I mean I you know three services I'm guessing you are just wrung out ⁓ You know come one o'clock on Sunday afternoon Patrick Lightfoot: ⁓ This past Sunday, I taught, ⁓ did three messages, and then once a month we have our Traversing With Us class. That's like our 101 membership class. All the churches call it something different. And that's about a 30 minute class of teaching. And I was tired when I got home. Typically, I don't take naps on Sunday because I am super wired. I'm thinking about the day and just kind of... Frank Weller: Yeah. Patrick Lightfoot: rethinking, reprocessing everything that happened and what I need to do on Monday and those kinds of things. But I have definitely, since we moved to three services, have taken naps on Sundays now. Frank Weller: Kudos for you. I discovered that when we had our new members class on Sunday afternoon that they never got my best Because I was just exhausted. I mean you're an extrovert So I'm sure I'm sure that works for you. But man, we got to the place where we either had the new members class on a different date and time or You know, I somebody else led the class and I'd pop in just for a meet-and-greet Patrick Lightfoot: Thank Frank Weller: because it's a lot, three times on a Sunday morning. These guys who are Thursday night, Saturday night, three times on a Sunday morning, I understand why they're only preaching 16, 20 times a year. That's a lot. Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah. Mm-hmm. And Frank, I may need to make some pivots too. We went to three services in January because of the growth that we had starting in the fall after we got into our new building. So we may need to look at that. It was good a couple of last month, we do that class once a month and our associate pastor actually taught the class and I thought to myself, was like, man, that was nice. I didn't have to stay at church to do that. But so yeah, I'll definitely keep my own pulse, see how I'm doing to maybe hand that off to someone else that can be the champion of that now. Frank Weller: Patrick, I know one of your concerns about sort of the state of preaching is that sometimes preachers can be get so caught up in being creative that we make it more about the delivery than we do the content. I just love it if you'd talk to our listeners a little bit more about that. Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah. Sure. People are craving biblical truth and we just need to let that lead the way. Plain and simple. Now that doesn't mean we don't need to be creative and telling maybe illustrations or stories, even human stories that are appropriate, those kinds of things. But when we're more concerned with how creative it's going to be than actual the content, that's where we have, I think, some struggles and challenges. I see as the churches typically that get larger numerically, they tend to a bit more towards being more creative sometimes, or it can be one of those hooks to get people in. We don't need a hook to get people in, we just need to keep teaching those biblical truths, because if not then we've got pastors flying in on zip lines and it's just so crazy stuff out there Frank, and ⁓ that's not the platform God's given us, and we need to hold it with awe and respect, but also yet use these creative gifts He's given us. Frank Weller: I see the churches typically that are more towards being creative sometimes. We don't need to hook people in, we just need to teach them the truths. It's just a crazy stuff out there. That's what the platform God has given us. We need to hold it with awe and respect. Patrick Lightfoot: So like this week, I'm talking about, do we plug into ourself or do we plug into the Holy Spirit? I'm teaching in Galatians chapter five. And so I'm gonna use a power strip. That's gonna be ⁓ my ⁓ illustration that I'm talking about. And how often we plug all this stuff into our life and then there's one plug left and what do we do? We plug it right into ourself. And how well does that go? That doesn't go. It doesn't. So what if instead of trying to plug into ourselves and do works, what if we plugged into the Holy Spirit and that's the kind of life he wants us to lead because that's where we have love and joy and peace and patience and goodness, kindness and gentleness and self-control. That's the life that he wants. That's the life that we actually want for ourselves, but we try to plug into ourselves and this self-help culture we live in. why don't, instead of being a self-help, why don't we be a Holy help culture? Let's plug into the Holy Spirit. And so I want to use that. Now, I mean, I could probably with a power strip, fill it full of Christmas lights that have lights blinking. I'm not gonna do that. I think the illustration with just the power strip is enough to make the point. And I think when we spend more time on how creative it can be instead of really pointing to the content and the text itself, I think that's where we can get in trouble. Frank Weller: I that. That's that kind of concrete ⁓ illustration that especially resonates with men, right? ⁓ men oftentimes, I read a statistic many years ago, I don't remember what the exact figure was, but something like 70 % of men really identify with those kinds of concrete examples. Patrick Lightfoot: Yes. Frank Weller: Something like that, a power strip. And obviously, you plug it into itself, doesn't work. That's outstanding. I love that. Patrick Lightfoot: doesn't work. Yeah, it's as you say that Frank. So two weeks ago, was teaching on what is the gospel and how do we respond to the gospel. And as I was going through it, I was doing some study. Mark Moore had talked about the historical content of the word gospel, that it was actually a political term by the Romans and they would take this good news, the gospel that the emperor was married. They take it from Rome and take it to all these outlying areas to let everyone know good news, the emperors get married or take it to these outlying areas under Roman control and say, we won a victory, this is the good news. And that's where we got that word for, and we used a political term now for a faith term, because we don't use good news or gospel and anything else other than area of faith. And so one of the lines that I read Mark Moore said, talking about the gospel, ⁓ in the political sense, it was a rally, a rallying cry and a celebration around the king. and I said, man, this is a rallying cry in the celebration of the King of Kings. And I said, Sunday mornings ought to be like, hell gate. on Sunday, you know, we go tailgating, we go to our favorite football team on Saturday, college Sunday for professional and then we ought to have foam fingers in church, you know, and I just kind of made this symbol. The very next Sunday, I had a row on the front row on our third service. It was a family. They brought foam fingers to church, Frank, and they had them on the front row. I was like, yes, we're going to rally and celebrate around the name of Jesus. And so it was concrete. They brought him in. I was blown away. believe it. Frank Weller: And one of my high school friends. Love that, love that stuff. Hey, the clock's winding down quickly. I wanna give you one last question, but before I do, just one more time, I wanna pause and thank our sponsor, Great Lakes Christian College. If you're looking for online ministry training, but are leery of degree mills that farm out instruction to faceless authors and tedious message boards, you need to check out GLCC. It's remote master's degree is practical and brings you face to face with passionate professors and fellow students for real-time instruction and genuine community. You can make friends, ask questions, and get real-time feedback from your professors who love God and revere scripture. Get practical and go deep at GLCC. All the details are at glcc.edu. Patrick, we have just a few minutes left. And I want to give you a final chance to share your heart for preachers and preaching. What's something that you just like burning to share with our listeners? but maybe we haven't got to quite yet. ⁓ What's the final word? Patrick Lightfoot: Yeah, final word. ⁓ The final word is ⁓ when you put in the word, you gotta be believable. Some I tell our guys and gals on the stage, like even the songs they're singing, every now and then you could see a song, maybe it's not one that is like their favorite. And I'm like, if you don't believe the song and the lyrics you're singing, don't sing it. Like you gotta believe it. And so I think ⁓ for your message to be conveyed in a way, ⁓ yes, it's gonna be truthful, it's gonna be faithful, but it has to be believable. You have a believable. Frank, I'll share this here with you. Inside this is my preaching teaching Bible right here. And on the inside, I have this right here and a couple of statements. I'm just going to read them real quick. I got this from Francis Chan long, long time ago. And there's seven statements in here. And I read this probably not often enough, but often enough to remind me. It says this, number one, am I worried about what people think of my message or what God thinks? I need to teach with fear. Number two, do I genuinely love these people? I need to teach with love. Number three, am I accurately presenting the passage? Teach with accuracy. Number four, am I depending on the Holy Spirit's power or my own cleverness? Teach with power. Number four, have I applied this message to my own life? Teach with integrity. I've said it many times, like, I can't teach on anything that I'm not doing myself. So if I'm teaching on generosity and tithing, I can't teach on tithing. But guess what? Hannah and I, we tithe so I can teach on tithing. Number six, will this message draw attention to me or to God to teach with humility? And then the last one, do the people really need this message to teach with urgency? And so that is a super helpful list that I got long, long time ago. It just reminds me of the importance of what preachers do. I don't think there's a greater, more important work than preaching. I just don't. Now, it's important that we have doctors, lawyers, mechanics. School teachers, first responders, yes, and amen. You're vital, just as important, but man, from where I'm sitting, I don't think there's a greater calling on someone's life than to teach God's word. And it's an honor to do it every week. I love it. Frank Weller: I agree, man. That's why we're doing the Better Preaching podcast. Listen, if you'll send me that document from inside your Bible, we'll include that in the show notes for this week. I'm sure there are a lot of folks who probably were trying to scribble that down, and we'll just include that with the show notes. ⁓ That's it, man. We're out of time. That went fast. Man, I want to thank you, Patrick. I want to thank our sponsor, Great Lakes Christian College, and I want to thank our listeners. Patrick Lightfoot: Mm-hmm. Yeah. You're a lonesome, yeah. Absolutely, Frank Weller: for supporting the Better Preaching podcast. Join us next time for another insightful conversation because better preaching makes a bigger impact.