Pray.

4. Form an outline from the text. For a sermon to be truly expository and driven by the text, the sermon outline has to arise naturally from the text. You don't necessarily need to go in the same order as the text, but the ideas and their importance need to arise from the text and not from the cleverness of the preacher.

Pray.

5. Check reliable commentaries and references. Your understanding of the text could be wrong. You could have misunderstood to meaning-in-context of one of the key words in the text or you might have misunderstood the grammar or the theological implications of the text. You might have also missed something that is in the text, missing some implication or connection that is helpful. We are not meant to study the Bible alone or prepare sermons alone. Picking good commentaries and not relying on a single source is important. Thankfully, you can get several fine commentaries free online, including John Calvin, Matthew Henry and John Gill. For more recent print commentaries, Tim Challies has reviewed many on his blog: here.

Pray.

6. Write your sermon with love for God and love for your people. Ask: How can I glorify God, exalt Christ and bless my people with this text? What would bring out the clear meaning of the text, magnify Christ and reach God's people? I cannot emphasize clarity enough. If the meaning and message of the text is not clear and clearly presented, people cannot benefit and God is not glorified. The two most important things for any message to be are faithful to the text and clear to the people.

Pray.

7. Deliver your sermon well prepared with passion and love. I write a full manuscript and then read it out loud on Saturday night and again on Sunday morning. For me, writing out a full manuscript helps me think through the message very clearly and to explicitly draw out every point and every connection. Reading my manuscript aloud on Saturday night and again on Sunday morning puts the message clearly in my mind. Then, I'm not so tied to the manuscript when I preach. I do have the manuscript in the pulpit, but I do not deliver a sermon by reading the manuscript aloud. Unless you are an exceptional reader, reading a sermon is not engaging. If people are not engaged, then they aren't hearing the message.

And, finally: Pray.

For the people:

Your pastor is not the only one who has a responsibility to get ready for Sunday morning's message. If you don't benefit from the sermon, the problem could be your lack of preparation, not your pastor's.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism has some helpful guidance here:

Q. 89. How is the word made effectual to salvation?
A. The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching, of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.

Q. 90. How is the word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation?

A. That the word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.

God uses the preaching of His word to convict and convert sinners. He uses faithful preaching to build up believers in holiness and in comfort, through faith, unto salvation. Do we believe this? Do we expect that the sermon will be used by God in our lives in these ways? We must believe and anticipate what God will do through His word.

Diligence, preparation and prayer. These three things are not just required of preachers but also of those who hear the preached word. How can hearers prepare?

1. Pray that God would speak to you, help you pay attention, prepare your heart to receive and would work His will in you through the word.

2. As a practical matter, getting enough sleep and eating a healthy breakfast will help you be alert enough to pay attention.

3. If you know what the text is going to be, you can prepare by reading it yourself in advance of Sunday morning.

Once we are prepared, then we must receive well - with faith and love. We must believe and respond in love. We must also seek to remember the word, to lay it up in our hearts, and to obey the word.

Together, if both preacher and congregation will make a commitment to be prepared for the sermon, God will speak in more unhindered, undistracted, effective and glorious way!