Any pastor knows adrenaline is your best friend. If you don't have adrenaline, you are boring. You need adrenaline for passion. Yet the very thing that I need to speak to 5,000 people at one time is the very thing that harms my body. So it’s quite painful for me to preach, and I just think it is in God's sense of humor the guy He chose to speak to Saddleback is a guy who is really quite weak. In my weakness, He is strong.
Sometimes people think, “Warren do you ever get full of pride knowing you preach to 32,000 or 33,000 people last week?” I want to say, “If you only knew.” When I am up speaking, that is the last thing on my mind: “Oh, how great this is.” My thing is, “Oh God, just get me through this.” The reason I do it is because I am addicted to changed lives. That is what motivates me. I love it. People say I love to preach. I don't love to preach; it is painful for me to preach. It is actually painful, but I love the results of preaching. I love the changed lives.
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If a guy says, “I love to preach,” that never impresses me. They may just be a ham. They may just like the attention. They may just like to be the center of attention. They like the adrenaline rush of being on stage. I don't want to know if someone loves preaching, but if they love the people to whom they preach. That’s the key. If I have not love, I am of sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. So, when I get up to speak I do this five times. I have a whole prayer. It is about a 30 second prayer that I pray every weekend. I pray on Saturday and Sunday at every service. As I get up before the crowd and I look out there, I say, “God, I love these people, and they love me. I love You, and You love me, and You love these people, and many of these people love You. There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out all fear. This is not an audience to be feared; this is a family to be loved. So love these people through me.” That is the last thing I think before I get up to speak before every service. It just kind of gives me the pastor's heart.
(Adapted from a Preaching Magazine interview with Rick Warren.)