You’re twenty-four hours away from your Sunday morning worship service. And… you don’t have a sermon ready. What do you do?
First, this is the last time you’re going to do this. Why? You’re going to learn how you can schedule your week so that you’re finished with your sermon on Thursday. As a result, you’ll have Fridays and Saturdays to relax or work on other things.
What are you going to do? A fresh coat of paint on an old sermon? Download from someone else (really bad idea by the way)? Pray like the dickens and hope the Holy Spirit shows up?
Though probably not the best ones, these are options. Options none the less.
Here’s one more option: Read the Bible right now and discover who God is.
Seriously. Go to one of the Gospels. Go to a letter from Paul. Grab a Psalm.
Once you choose your Bible passage, here’s what you’re going to do:
- Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes and spirit to see God clearly in the passage.
- Read the passage. Twice.
- Ask one question, “What does this reveal about who God is and His character?”
- Spend your time mining everything you can ABOUT GOD – not history, not culture, not cute rhyming phrases – truth about GOD
That’s it.
Then, here’s how you can structure your sermon (32 minutes)…
- INTRO: create attention and tension around the subject (5m)
- TEACH: Three truths about God from the passage (10m)
- FEEL: How the gospel intersects and affects us (5m)
- APPLY: One way to apply the truth of this passage in real life (7m)
- IMAGINE: What could life look like if a person trusted God in this way (3m)
- CALL TO ACTION: One practical step that most people can take that day/week (2m)
Here’s an example…
Consider Psalm 42. What does this passage reveal about God and His character?
- God is the true longing of my soul (v1)
- God is a living God (v2)
- God is my reason for hope because He my Savior and my God (v5)
- God is my reason for praise because He my Savior and my God (v5)
- God pours out His love on me (v8)
- God is my Rock (v9)
- God is worthy of praise no matter my situation (v11)
Not only is there a sermon here – there are seven sermons here!
Here’s what one sermon outline might look like…
- INTRO: Have you ever felt so distant from God that you’ve wondered where He was?
- When that happens, remember these truths
- TEACH
- Truth #1: God is the deepest longing you’ll ever have
- Truth #2: God is a living God
- Truth #3: God is your Rock
- FEEL: God has poured out His love to you through Christ
- When Christ felt distant from God (Gethsemane, Cross), he left his hope in God
- APPLY: When you feel distant, put your hope in God
- Define hope
- Show people how to hope in God
- IMAGINE: Share a personal story of choosing hope
- CTA: Provide a list of passages that encourage people to put their hope in God so they can use them in meditation this week
This is a sermon that relies on Psalm 42 to clearly describe who God is AND helps people put their hope in God in real life situations. This is exactly what you want to do in your preaching.
We’ve done it all in a few hours over one Saturday. And… you’re never going to wait until Saturday to write your sermon again.