These prompts might help you get started or unstuck in your sermon work this week:
- What is the context?
(Where does this bit of scripture fit in the larger scheme of the book and the Bible?) - What is the outline?
(What is the natural flow of thought?) - What are the key words?
(Look them up using blueletterbible.org or biblehub.org.) - What do the commentaries say?
(Make sure you understand every bit of the passage.) - What does the passage say?
(Put it in your own words.) - What does the passage mean?
(How would you explain it to someone who knows nothing about Christianity?) - What is the point?
(Sum up the big idea in one sentence.) - What are the points?
(What are the subpoints to the big idea?) - How does it point to Jesus?
(All the scripture is ultimately about him.) - What is the theme?
(If you had to tag this passage with one word, what would it be?) - What is the aim?
(What is God trying to bring about in his people through this passage?) - What needs to be explained?
(What questions might the congregation have?) - What needs to be proclaimed?
(What truths need to be zealously emphasized?) - What objections need to be countered?
(How might the congregation resist submitting to what this passage teaches?) - How can you illustrate the Point and points?
(What would make this more visual, concrete, understandable, memorable, etc.?) - What are the applications?
(Brainstorm practical, specific, concrete applications of this passage for the congregation.) - What are some examples?
(What stories from the Bible, life, or media would illustrate what this passage teaches?) - Make it simpler.
(Remove everything you possibly can that doesn’t help the congregation understand, accept, and respond to the big idea.) - Make it more unexpected.
(What would get their attention?) - Make it more concrete.
(Kill all abstractions.) - Make it more credible.
(Ground it all in scripture.) - Make it clearer.
(Make it impossible to misunderstand.) - Respond to it yourself.
(Pray the truths into your own heart and life and respond practically.)
- Add more stories.
(Transform statements into stories where possible.) - State your points both positively and negatively.
(What would be the opposite of what you’re saying?) - How would you teach this to a young child?
(Simplify without compromising the truth of the passage.) - How will you introduce it?
(Take them from what they’re already thinking about into the passage.) - How will you conclude it?
(Wrap their hands around exactly what the text wants them to do next and send them home with it.) - Trim it.
(Take away the least helpful two-thirds. Most of that was temporary scaffolding, necessary for you to write the sermon, but not for your people to receive the sermon.) - Pray through it.
(If possible, stand in the spot where you’ll preach and talk with the Lord through each line. Make whatever revisions He prompts.) - Preach it!
(When it’s time to preach, ask for God to speak through His word, trust Him, and deliver His message to His people.)
PEIRAT: A Starting Place for Structuring Sermon Points
- Point
(What are you saying?) - Explanation
(What do they need to understand to receive what you’re saying?) - Illustration
(What’s the best way you can make this plain to your specific audience?) - Resistance
(What’s their most likely reason to ignore or reject what you’re saying? Counter it.) - Application
(What are they supposed to do with what you’re saying?) - Transition
(What’s the connection between what you’re saying and what you’re about to say?)
These prompts might help you get started or unstuck in your sermon work this week: