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Write Your Own Sermon Outline

USING THE SCRIPTURES

These principles suggest a way of preparation for the imaginative
use of Scriptures:

1) Prepare yourself with devotion and prayer prior to your encounter
with the Scriptures.

2) Read the entire chapter in which the text is located.

3) Become acquainted with all of the stories which lead up to the
text and those that follow.

4) What were the problems, the situation of the participants in the
story?

5) Read the biblical passages aloud, so as to hear the Scriptures
and permit them to speak to you.

6) Discover the human element and the Divine element in the situation.

7) You must see what the writer saw, feel what the participants in the
story felt, and hear what they heard.

8) Use your imagination and put yourself in the place of the writer and
participants of the story.

9) Assume the different roles of the principal characters In the story and
act as if you were present when the story was first told.

10) Ask yourself this question, "What special message does this passage
of Scripture bring to your people for their healing and renewal?"

11) Then wait for God to speak.

EXPOSITORY SERMON OUTLINE

Expository Sermon -(most effective form of pulpit address. Like
other types of sermons centered around one
dominant theme.)

One in which a more or less extended portion of scripture is interpreted
in relation to one theme or subject. The bulk of the material for the
sermon is drawn directly from the passage and the outline consists of
a series of progressive ideas centered around that one main idea.

Basic Principles in Preparing Expository Outline

1) Any passage under consideration should be carefully studied to
understand its meaning and to obtain the subject of the text.

2) Significant words or phrases in the text may indicate or form the
main divisions of the outline.

3) The outline maybe drawn from the expository unit in an order
different from that of the text.

4) The important truths suggested by the passage may form the main
divisions of the outline.

5) Two or three more or less extended passages from various parts of
scripture may be put together to form the basis of an expository
outline.

6) By means of the method of multiple approach, we may treat a
passage of scripture in various ways and thus have two or more
entirely different outlines on the same portion.

7) Note the context of the expository unit.

8) Examine the historical and cultural background of the passage
wherever possible.

9) The details of the text should be treated properly, but not
exhaustively.

10) The truths contained in the text must be related to the present
day.

TEXTUAL SERMON OUTLINE

Textual Sermon -(In a Topical Sermon we begin with a theme but, in
Textual Sermon we begin with a text.)

Main divisions are derived from a text consisting of a brief portion of
scripture. Each of these divisions is then used as a line of
suggestion, and the text provides the theme of the sermon. NOTE:
Main divisions must come out of the text itself, but further development
may come either from the text or from other portions of scriptures.

Basic Principles in Preparing Textual Outline

1) Should center around one main thought in the text and the main
divisions must be derived from the text so as to amplify or develop
that one theme.

2) Main divisions may consist of the truths or principles suggested
by the text.

3) It may be possible to find more than one theme or dominant thought
in a text, depending upon the point of view from which we regard the
text, but only one subject should be developed in an outline.

4) Main divisions should be in logical or chronological sequence.

5) The very words of the text may form the main divisions of the outline,
provided that these divisions are gathered around one main theme.

6) The context from which the text is taken must be carefully observed
and related to the text.

7) Some texts contain comparisons or contrasts which can be treated
best by pointing out their purposeful similarities or differences.

8) Two or three verses, each taken from different parts of scripture,
maybe put together and treated as though they are one text.

TOPICAL SERMON OUTLINE

Topical Sermon -Main divisions are derived from the topic,
independent of a text.

Basic Principles in Preparing Topical Outline

1) Main divisions should be in logical or chronological order.
a) Divisions not derived from the title but from the topic or
subject.

2) Main divisions maybe an analysis of the topic.
a) Divisions are arranged in logical order.

3) Main divisions may present the various proofs of a topic.

4) Main divisions may treat a subject by analogy or contrast with
something else in scripture.

5) Main divisions maybe expressed by a certain fixed word or phrase
of scripture repeated throughout the outline. Example: GOD is
able or he is able.

6) Main divisions maybe supported by an identical word or phrase of
scripture throughout the outline.

7) Main divisions may consist of a word study showing the various
meanings of a certain word or words in the scripture.

8) Main divisions should not be undergirded by proof texts wrested
out of context.