Help! I've Been Asked to Preach: Don't Panic.Here's Practical Help to Keep Your Sermon from Sinking

You've never preached a sermon in your life, and the very thought of standing up front (never mind preaching) terrorizes you so much that any messages your brain sends to your cotton-filled mouth and knocking knees are totally blocked. But you've always wanted to learn how to preach effectively. And your church needs quality, Bible-based sermons. Or maybe you're a church elder or a member of the church staff who is already filling in from time to time in the pastor's absence. You'd like to provide your hearers with practical Bible truth, and you are intrigued with the idea of a practical, entertaining guide to a sermon form you may not have tried yet. Or maybe you're just interested in seeing, "under the skin," how a sermon is constructed so that you can get more out of the sermons you hear. Help! I've Been Asked to Preach is a practical toolbox for building a sermon--a basic how-to book, written by a pastor in the trenches who's been generating 35 to 40 brand-new expository sermons every year for more than two decades. Not only will you learn how to prepare expository sermons; you will avoid much of the discouragement that beginners sometimes feel. You will: * Learn how to preach effectively and with confidence. * Learn how go deep into a Bible passage, interpreting the truth within it. * Combat creeping biblical illiteracy and increasingly squishy Bible interpretation practices. * Model how the Bible's treasures should be mined correctly. Complete with group discussion starters and homework assignments, this book is designed as both a stand-alone guide and a way to mentor laypersons, individually or in study groups.