How do I Prepare an Expositional Sermon?

Planning and Preparation

The Main Course - Getting the Point

As you do your exegesis, the controlling question needs to be "What is the point of this passage?" Don't stop studying until you know the point of the passage.
Getting the point will greatly contribute to the unity, simplicity, understandability, and therefore the effectiveness of your sermon.
If you quit studying before you get the point of the text, then your listeners will be at a disadvantage in trying to get the point of the text out of your sermon.
Once you have the point, boil it down into one sentence of fewer than 15 words. This sentence will be the stated point of the sermon, and will serve as a mental hook on which listeners can hang your main points. It is called the proposition.

Serving it Up - Exegetical and Homiletical Outlines

As you read and re-read the passage, an exegetical outline should begin to appear. This is simply the outline of the text in your own words.
The homiletical (preaching) outline should closely follow the divisions expressed in the exegetical outline. But the wording should be less descriptive, more principial, and definitely simple - the exegetical body dressed homiletically.
The homiletical outline should also be an outworking of the point of the text as you have boiled it down in one sentence of your own words.
Sermonic unity will be achieved best when each main point is demonstrably linked back to your proposition statement.