You must be probably wondering how pastors preach every week and then after 10 years, they still have sermons that are totally different from the one they already preached. Where do they get all those sermon ideas? Well, it’s not actually surprising. The Bible teaches a lot of things in this life.
So today, I would like to share to you some tips where to get sermon ideas for your next preaching.
Sources of sermon ideas
- The Bible – Absolutely there’s no better than the Bible as the source of sermon ideas. It’s full of wisdom and it covers almost literally everything about life and how we should live it. It talks about morality and immorality, about deity and idolatry, obedience and disobedience, truths and lies, holiness and wickedness, death and resurrection, the descending and ascending, and we can go on and on and on. So where else should you get the best ideas? The Bible.
The challenge however is studying consistently and never ending digging of truths and lessons to learn. It’s just the perfect book for sermon ideas. After all, all sermons should be based in the Bible truths.
- Other preachers – Sometimes you attend seminars, or just even a preaching event. And then suddenly, the preacher said something from the Bible and then you took notice of it and add more things on it as your personal notes. From there, you can get a lot more as long as you dig deeper.
Normally, preachers present their sermons point by point. If you can get a good note from what he said even in just one point and pick up from there when you go home and dig deeper, you will see yourself making a whole new sermon out of it.
- Inspiring and practical books – There are tons and tons of inspiring and practical books out there written by Christian authors. Some were written by well-known authors. You can get so many ideas from them. If you notice, many people uses and are posting quotes on Faceboook from something that they have read. In the same way, these quotes can be very useful for sermon ideas.
Practical books about financial management, anger management, ministerial work etc can also be a good source of sermon ideas. For example, you have found a book about financial management. Read it and what it says and then compare it to what the Bible says concerning financial management.
- Quotations and Stories – There are literally thousands of quotations out there that can be inspiring for sermon outlines. Just dig deeper on Bible truths in relation with that quotation and you will find both truth and lies or if such quotation is right or wrong in biblical perspective.
There are lots of stories out there, also thousands of them. There’s Bible stories, fables, short stories, and many others. Some preachers nowadays preaches a narrative sermon. They tell stories as their presentation of their sermon and then conclude on a very relevant verse. It’s like listening to a very long story illustration and then get the biblical application relevant to it.
- Theological books – These kind of books are probably one of the most boring things to read for ordinary people. Most of it are presentation of different views on particular topics in the Bible. For example, when talking about the second coming, theological books will present to you Pre-tribulation Premillennialism or Dispensationalist View.
Now, it may not sound appealing to most people, but if you are a gifted preacher and is able to present these views in a very effective way, then it can be far more rewarding than expected. Another thing that you would probably want to know is that most if not all theological books are very scholarly written so you may also want to simplify the terms being used so that people may be able to relate well.
- Topical books – These kinds of books will be most likely one of your favorites. These books just spit out tons and tons of topics and sub topic where you can get ideas for your next sermon and probably series of sermons. The most famous one that I know is Nave’s Topical Bible.
Other Sources
7. Internet – We are already in the modern times and internet has just become the biggest source of information. You can find nearly everything on the internet. Even if you are looking for something that you want to buy, you can find it in the internet. You want to book for a hotel, you can book via internet. If you want to get plane tickets, you can actually get it on the internet.
If you can find these things on the internet, you can certainly find sermons published on the internet. You can also find free images, illustrations and many other tools using the internet. All you have to do is search.
- Sermon outlines and even manuscripts published online – With the use of internet, you can surely find these sermon outlines. Some does even have manuscripts. These sermons can be a good source of many other sermon ideas.
However, you should also remember that nearly all sermons published online comes with “copyright” and that means that you cannot copy it or use it as it is without quoting the original author.
The good thing though is that most of the sermon manuscripts that you can find here in “The Disciplers” comes with copyright. It comes with a price though, but making sure you do get it in a very reasonable price, some may even come free. My only goal is to have something that we can work on and share to others. Sermon manuscripts that I send was written by yours truly and thus can give you a good head start in making your sermon, and even sermon series.
So there you have it. There’s no such thing as shortage of sermon ideas. All you need is spend time digging, studying, and most importantly God’s anointing and guidance. So don’t forget to pray.
Very beneficial tips, God bless you.