Another temptation I've met is the temptation to complacency. As a reaction to some of the things listed above - living for recognition, comparison, a sense of inadequacy, anger, envy and chronic disappointment - I've wrapped myself in a protective complacency. I.e., "No one cares, no one will respond, no one will notice, so why not just throw something together, fill up the sermon time, and let's all go to the lake after church and forget it!"

Those are definitely good. Complacency is good too. I think we fall into those all the time.

Here's a real practical one I was just blogging about myself. I'd add the "temptation to not check facts." I just ran across two facts quoted in sermons (on this site! ack!) as facts that turned out to be probably untrue. One was an illustration about an alleged picture of a chess match between the devil and Faust that was discovered to have another move remaining. Another was a Gallup poll stat. I couldn't verify either one, but came across info that called both into question.

This goes for preaching in technical areas too. I have a friend who is a nurse and he goes nuts when his pastor uses medical illustrations, because he often butchers them badly. My friend understands, but what do the other medical professionals think?

Anyways, I am tempted to just use what I find, but I think we really need to verify facts that we present because otherwise we lose trust big time. Trust is so huge. We need to guard it carefully by fact checking.

Trust is really, really important to us at PreachingToday.com as well. We know the credibility of the pastor is riding on our illustrations. That's one reason we give six months free subscription to our site to anyone who points out a significant error in any of our illustrations. This gives us thousands of potential fact-checkers. If an error is discovered, we either correct the illustration or remove it from PreachingToday.com. Our thanks to John Mark for pointing this one out to us; six months free time on PreachingToday.com for you, John Mark! And the Devil and Faust illustration is being removed.

Wow! Six free months, what a deal. I'm going to look for more problems... :-)

I guess I should follow up my comment by pointing out what might not have been obvious in my original post. I subscribe to and have really benefited from PreachingToday. The illustrations really are topnotch. What I really like is that they always cite sources at the bottom. That's helpful - very helpful...

And to be clear - the illustrations in question weren't in the illustration database, they were in sermons by other preachers that were in the sermon section. That doesn't sound too clear, but it'll have to do...

I discuss the problem of trust as it relates to these two particular illustrations I referenced some on my blog. Feel free to click through on my name if you find youself so inclined.

I appreciate this discussion because it highlights the importance of the preacher's character. In our day preaching is seen mostly as a craft; thus preachers often get lost in the craft itself. Temptations then accord with John Ortberg's list: the temptation to be inauthentic for the sake of impressing people with our craft, the temptation to seek recognition from doing the craft, the temptation to feel prideful or inadequate as a craftsperson, etc.

Part of the problem here has to do with our forgetfulness of what preaching actually is. To preach is to proclaim the good news of Christ crucified, of Christ who is risen from the dead. Sadly, for many churchgoers and radio listeners, good preaching has more to do with the preacher presenting well on stage or on the air.

It helped me when I learned about the ancient art of rhetoric. While rhetoric can be defined as the art of persuasion, it is not to be understood as mere winsomeness or coaxing. Rhetoric implies ethical dimensions of motivating people to do good, teaching people the truth, and stirring up the best in people's imaginations.

In our day preachers tend to be judged primarily by their outward image and performance. It's predictable then that preachers would be tempted to use preaching as a means of projecting an impressive image and/or displaying their own oratory skills--because those two things accord with the lines along which many preachers are immediately judged.

For me, the key is to cultivate long-term thinking that draws to mind the reality that we, as preachers, are accountable to the Judge who will one day weigh our hearts. Like every other viable activity, preaching is a way of loving God and loving people--if we really do it right, that is.