Sermon Preparation

General Guidlines

• Aim for about 30 minutes

Types of Sermons

1. Topical - Choose a topic - prayer, wisdom, missions, etc.
2. Textual - Choose a text - can be a passage (2 or 3 verses), a verse, or part of a verse: Ezra 7:10; Isaiah 55:7, Psalm 23:1, John 3:36a
3. Expository - Chooses an extended portion of scripture, look for paragraphs. Determine its central theme. Exposit that passage based on that theme. Ephesians 6:10-18, Colossians 3:1-17, 1 Peter 1:3-9, Ephesians 5:1-17.

Parts of a Sermon

• A sermon should be broken into three parts: Introduction, Body, Conclusion
• A sermon should have a proposition - "We must worship God..." You should pray..."
  • Use action verbs in the proposition
• Build the outline of the sermon using two to five main points based on the proposition and explaining how ("By...") or why ("Because...")

Example

Colossians 3:1-7 The Resurrection Life

• We must strive toward Christlikeness in our daily lives:

Reminders

• Use illustrations to explain and use humor (when applicable) to keep people awake.
• Us the conclusion to push for a decision
• Exegete, exposit, explain, without being arrogantly obvious - Make the Bible Live!