One of the most valuable pieces of preaching advice I ever got is, “Don’t be afraid to throw out your babies.” It doesn’t mean that children and pets should be exiled until the sermon is written (although that definitely would speed up the process significantly). What it means is that inevitably, an especially clever turn of phrase or a particularly insightful point will find its way into your sermon every so often. You will be tempted to preserve that sentence or paragraph at all costs because you like it so much; you may attempt linguistic or interpretive gymnastics in order to make it work. But if it doesn’t strengthen the point of the sermon – or worse, detracts from it – you have to be willing to cut it out. You have to be prepared to let your “baby” go completely for the sake of the message.