How do I Prepare an Expositional Sermon?
Planning and Preparation
Setting the Table – The Art of Outlining
Especially for overview sermons, once you have scheduled things out,
outline the book.
- To do this, read and re-read the passage, noting major shifts in content, tone, voice, subject. You'll use these shifts to discern and mark outline divisions.
- If you have training in Hebrew and/or Greek, it is realistic and helpful to read shorter passages all the way through at least once in the original language. For longer passages like whole chapters or books, it is all the more useful, but also all the more difficult and time consuming.
- Get the basic message of the book, and try to title the series or message.
- Titling series and messages beforehand, even if the titles are just provisional, enables you to print up a sermon schedule for the planned period and give it to members, who can then invite unbelieving friends interested in a particular topic or dealing with a particular problem.
