1. Spend time praying that God will give you the right passage(s) to preach.
2. Exegete the needs of the audience before you exegete the meaning of the text.
3. Soak yourself in the passage(s) you are going to preach. Ask God through his Holy Spirit to reveal to you the meaning, main point and some powerful insights.
4. Build your sermon around that main point.
5. Support that main point with great illustrations, Biblical/historical insights, word studies, etc.
6. Drive your sermon toward at least one practical and powerful action step that the audience can take right away.
7. Prayerfully keep writing and re-writing it until it’s ready to preach. In other words “Bake it until it’s cooked.”
8. Make a salvation segue and tie a clear presentation of the Gospel into your sermon.
9. Give some sort of invitation for people to respond to the Gospel (raised hands, altar call, registration card, text in, etc)
10. Tie your shoes right before you preach and, while you are on your knees, ask God to fill you with his Holy Spirit so that you can preach with power and divine impact (a habit I started years ago!)
What are some other ways to amp up your sermon impact?