Cramming for Sunday

Saturday night I sat in a room with four preachers and their families, the glow of Christmas had faded into a warm contentment and the glow of laptop screens had replaced it accompanied by the clackity-clack of keyboards tapping. It struck me that the scene was not unlike that in a college dorm the night before exams. We were cramming for Sunday.

When Christmas is on a Saturday and you have family around all week, I expect the Saturday night special sermons. That's a normal and natural thing. But when it comes to a weekly preaching habit I have to strongly advise against it. Cramming for your sermon every week just isn't healthy. You and I both need time to sit with the text and to reflect on what God is saying through his word. My goal is to have the sermon completely done by Friday and to not even look at it on Saturday. Then I run through it on Sunday morning before preaching.

What practices do you use to keep from cramming for Sunday?