Welcome to the Paul Tripp podcast, where pastor and best-selling author Dr. Paul David

Tripp connects the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

There's entirely too much mediocrity in the Church of Jesus Christ when it comes to pastors

preparing and delivering their sermons.

We can do better, especially since the Bible promises that God's Word has the ability to change lives,

Isaiah 55, 10 through 13. So in today's episode, Paul is going to answer three questions about preaching.

First up, Paul answers the question, how many hours per week should a pastor spend

in sermon preparation? Here's Paul. If you're a preaching pastor, a lead pastor where your

responsibility to preach, you're probably not somebody managing your daily responsibilities.

So you have to do that.

And what you have to do is carve out ample time

that is untouchable to prepare to preach.

That means you won't schedule appointments over that.

It means you won't take phone calls over that. It means you won't take phone calls over that.

It means you won't plan family events over that.

Unless there's a remarkable emergency, that is time that all of your staff, everybody around you knows,

is the time that you have dedicated to be prepared

to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I think one of the dark truths of preaching

that's made so much of preaching in the modern church, unhelpful and mediocre, is lack of preparation.

That we're not investing the amount of time necessary to be ready to communicate this.

I'll be on a ministry weekend and I'll be on a ministry weekend and

...