Know where you are going before you start building . . .
Prepare with a plan.
Instead of searching for a direction, know where you are headed before you even have a sermon idea. Then once you have a text, you already have a plan.
Prepare with strength and certainty.
Your structure can be strong throughout — without weak areas — because everything is focused and connected. Open, Build, and Close without guessing whether one part was weak while another was strong.
Preach knowing your listeners can follow you.
Too often what the listener hears and what the preacher thought they said are two completely different things. It doesn't have to be that way. It just takes planning and the right learnable skills.