Basic Preaching Class Lesson #8 - How To Properly Deliver Your Sermon

Introduction: Although the title of this lesson for today is about delivery of your sermon to the
congregation, we need to understand a little of the factors that actually are behind the actual delivery of the
sermon. That is what this lesson will deal mostly with today.
1.

As you begin to write your sermon notes/outline you must keep in mind whom your listeners will be.
If you are talking to teens, you will use a little different style in what you write down, as well as what
you say as you deliver it. If your group is made up of older brethren, you will be sure to use terms and
illustrations with which they will be familiar. You write your sermon with regard to whom the listeners
will be.

2.

As you write your outline you must keep in mind that the crowd you are speaking to will not be made
up of only teens, or only older adults, but the crowd will likely be made up of everyone from babies to
very senior saints. Again let me stress that you need to prepare your sermon to try to reach the average
educational level of the group to which you are speaking.

3.

While you are writing your outline, try to be aware that there may be people in the group of listeners
who have had sickness, accidents, or even lost loved ones. They may have lost their jobs or be faced
with other of lifes problems. There will be people there who have had births, deaths, move-ins, about
to be move-outs, job changes, marriages, divorces, sin in their lives, or sin in the lives of their family
members. They need to come away uplifted and made more committed to the Lord by what you say.
You want to be able to hate the sin, but love the sinner. Help the downtrodden and outcast by offering
them Jesus, salvation from sins, and a home in heaven if they will remain faithful to the Lord. It is a
big bill to fill, but you need to be aware of people with problems that will be in the congregation while
you are preaching to them.
(One Sunday morning many years ago, I heard that a man from the community in which we lived had died,
and his grieving family would be in services with us. I was already at the church building with that days
sermon that I had prepared to preach. It wasnt at all oriented to help the family of the deceased. I preached
the lesson I had already prepared. [I had a Bible Class that I had to teach only minutes after I found out that
this mans father had died. We were already at the church building. There was no time to change sermons.])
(There will be times such as this when you would give just about anything to have any other sermon ready
to preach on a given Sunday, rather than the only one that you happen to have with you that you are
prepared to preach. Some times you have those things happen and all you can do is make the best of them
and do the best you can with what you have)
The point I am trying to make with this is that there is NO WAY that you can preach to ALL of
the needs of ALL of the people in the congregation ALL of the time. It is impossible. So, you simply
preach the WORD. If you have a Bible based sermon, with a Scriptural application of the text, then you
have fulfilled your work of preaching, so as to be pleasing unto God.
4. Plan your outline so you can speak to the congregation in language that they can understand. If they are
in an agricultural area, you can use agricultural Bible texts with agricultural illustrations. If you are
speaking to teens, use a little of their terminology to explain your points. You have to try to reach them on
their level, or no preaching nor teaching will have taken place. If it is too lofty for them, it goes over their
head. If it is too simply put, they will not listen for they already know it. You can often change your
wording as you preach to better reach your hearers. Even Philip the evangelist took the Ethiopian Eunuch
from where he already was spiritually and took him to Jesus. We must do likewise in our sermons.
5.

As you write out your outline, remember that it is the outline for a Biblical sermon. It must help you to
express Gods truth. You are speaking the oracles of God. The sermon you give is one of the most
direct forms of public speaking that there is today. So much of what we hear on T.V. or radio is just
verbal gibberish. You have the message to proclaim that can save the souls of mankind. That will give
a great sense of urgency to this sermon and sermon outline.

6.

As you write the outline for the sermon, think of how it is going to sound as you preach it. Then as
you practice preaching it, listen to yourself as you talk, even as the congregation will listen to you on

Sunday. You may want to record yourself on a tape recorder and play it back to see what you might be
able to do to make the sermon sound better and flow more smoothly.
7.

As you write or deliver your sermon, remember to use the simple words. (If you find yourself
speaking to a group of highly educated college professors, school teachers, or highly trained
professional people, you can use larger, more sophisticated words, but for the average congregation,
keep it simple) Your goal is to communicate the message of Gods love through Christ. If you keep it
hidden under tons of sophisticated verbiage, you have not preached, you have not helped the sinner see
the truth, and you have basically wasted the hearers time. (Like Joe Longfellow commented several
weeks ago in class, Talk like you would in a normal conversation with someone.)

8.

Use few words. Your outline should keep you from running in circles so that you dont repeat yourself
over again. Some preachers add a lot of words to take up the time allotted to them to preach. You
would be far better off to use less words, make your point, and sit down. (Inquiry was made about a
man that had been given two medals for giving only one speech. Why were you given the little silver
medal? That was the one I got for actually giving my speech. The inquirer then asked, Then, why
were you given the big gold medal for the same speech? To which he replied, For finishing. There
are seldom any medals given for marathon sermons. Use few words and drive your point home with
them.

9.

As you write your sermon and preach it, use action words to hold the interest of your hearers. Past
tense can be dull. They want to know what is happening, today. Or how does this apply to them, today!
Action words can arouse the senses and stir people into action! That is what you want, people who will
do something: willing to believe in Jesus as the Son of God. Willing to repent and turn from sins.
Willing to confess Jesus name before men, willing to bury their old dead sinful self in the water grave
of baptism and rise to walk in newness of life. That involves ACTION, so you need to use action
words that affect the senses.

10. Keep your sentences as simple as you do your sermon. Simple sentences are easy to follow. The more
complex the sentence structure, the more complex the thought process to figure out what point is trying
to be made.
11. The two best ways to improve your preaching and outline writing are practice and study.
A. Study to show thyself approved unto God
B. Practice, practice, practice. Practice makes perfect, but make sure you are practicing the
correct way to do something or you will perfect a mistake. The more outlines you write, the
more sermons you deliver, the better you will become and the easier they will be for you to
do.
CONCLUSION: How then do you properly deliver your sermon? By having properly prepared to deliver
it: as you study, as you write your outline, as you practice preaching it, as you go over it again and again
before you finally preach it to the congregation. You are Gods spokesman. He gave His very best for us;
should He expect any less of us in return when we speak for Him?
TIPS FOR THE DAY: #1. Work hard when preparing your sermon outline. In this way your recall will be
easier and you will be able to spend more time thinking about the actual delivery, rather than wondering
about the sermons content while you are preaching it.
#2. You are better off preaching the wrong sermon that you have prepared for a given occasion,
than you are to preach a different sermon that you havent had time to study over nor properly prepare for.
(The only two exceptions to this rule: Dont preach a funeral sermon for a wedding; and dont preach a
wedding sermon at a funeral)(If done properly some points from either a wedding sermon or funeral
sermon can be adapted into an excellent sermon about the church; i.e. The Bride of Christ or Blessed are
the Dead that Die in the Lord)