**"Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching." --1 Timothy 4:16 **- Understand the greatest threats to your preaching

**"Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching." --1 Timothy 4:16 **- Understand the greatest threats to your preaching

• Identify common tests of your character

• Learn gospel-based habits that guard your heart

Preachers cannot separate themselves from their preaching. Every time a preacher proclaims the word, something of themselves is also delivered to the congregation--for better or worse.

In* The Heart of the Preacher,* Rick Reed draws from over three decades of preaching experience to emphasize how preachers must prepare their hearts before they are ready to preach. Sermon preparation involves more than mere technical steps. Preachers are people. Exhaustion, discouragement, insecurity, and more threaten a preacher's character, and thus their preaching. Reed equips pastors with practices and habits to face these threats. Preachers must guard their lives so that their teaching will be accompanied by the fruit of the Spirit.