I delight in hearing a great sermon. I relish reading the creative writing, of other preachers. I have a sort of insatiable appetite for preachers. I heard recently of a man who was telling of his surgery. A lot of people like to tell about their operations, though not many people like to hear about them. This fellow said that when the doctor sewed him up after surgery, he left the sponge inside. His sympathetic listener asked him if he had any pain. “No,” said the fellow, “but I sure do get thirsty.”

I have an insatiable thirst for good preaching. Sometimes I’m tempted to preach what I think is a masterpiece of a sermon from someone else. I resist that because I think the integrity of preaching comes through the very person and personality of the preacher. Approaching the sermon today, ho…