Lesson 2: Basic Elements Of Sermon Manuscripts

Sermon Manuscripts are simply your sermon “blue print”. It is more or less your copy for your sermon outlines and content. For the purpose of our study, we will need to learn how to make a sermon manuscript which is very useful to beginners like you.

Like all other ministries, Sermons has basic elements. Usually, these elements are very necessary so that our sermons can be clearly understood by our hearers. Thus, each element plays a very important role.

Theme
This is the main topic of preaching. In some books that I have read, Topic and Theme has been defined separately. Well to be exact, they are different from each other. Theme is broader while Topic is more defined in scope.

Theme stands for the scope of the whole program of the church. Let’s say the year theme of your church is all about “The Cost of Discipleship”. Under it, we can discuss about; “What are the cost of being a disciple”, “Who are the real disciples?”, “What are the things to do in being a disciple?”, “How to become a disciple?”, “Characteristics of a good disciple”.

Theme is the overall idea of your Topic and Title. It is the basis of your sermon. It means that you made your sermon in accordance to your theme. Most churches if you are already pastors have yearly themes. The theme is what is to be seen and expected the whole year.

Topic
Let us say that you already have identified the theme of your church. The next thing that we have to do is to get the topic of your sermon. The topic is a the more defined idea of your theme. In the illustrations above, topics are simply the ideas surrounding the theme. In a sermon, you will have to focus only to one of those topics that you have identified.

Your whole sermon will be about the topic that you have picked up. Each points should hit the topic or at least present and support the idea of your topic.

In a Topical Form of Bible Study, topics are easier to identify. Here are the characteristics of a good topic.

• It is relevant to the current theme of the church.
• It is explanable, understandable and can be seen directly from the given passage.
• It is composed of 1-3 words only.

Title
Title is stands for the name of your sermon. It is more specific than your topic. It should directly tell your hearers what is the possible content of your sermon with an intriguing part telling them to discover more about it so as encouraging them to listen carefully as you preach it.

A good title is not less than 2 words but not more than 5 words.

Text
Where did you get your sermon? It is important to give the text passage of your sermon to your audience. This will tell your audience that you took your sermon based on what was written on the Bible.
The text should be a good basis for your sermon. The content should be taken from the text.  A text is composed of the name of the book, particular chapter of the book, and the verses included for your passage.

For example; James 1:1-5. James is the book, “1” is the chapter and “1-5” are the verses included for your passage.

Points
Any sermon manuscripts that you will be making should contain main points. It will be the sub topics of your title which will be the discussion of the whole main idea. Main points will clarify and will present what your hearers need to know about your topic.

Main points introduces us to the main body of the sermon. Most of the words used and the idea will be presented within each points. Thorough explanation is also made within the presentation of the points. Exposition of God’s word also embedded in it.

Illustration
Illustrations are generally not part of each points. But it is used to explain the points clearer. Here are some of the characteristics of a good illustration:

• Relevant to the point
• Will clearly explain the point you just have presented
• Will not consume more than 3 minutes in presentation
• Good and clean
• Not offending and not vulgar

More will be discussed later about illustration.

Illustrations were deemed important in presenting the sermon because usually, illustrations can caught the attention of your audience. It’s funny, but sometimes your audience will remember your illustrations more than they remember your sermon points.

Application
This is one of the most important part of each point. Each point should end up with an application. All sermons or even just a Bible Study must end up in application. Your sermon is useless if people will not be able to apply what they have heard.

Sometimes, you will need to have an invitation in your manuscript so that your readers or hearers will understand that they will have to respond or decide for what they have heard. Sometimes, instead of making an invitation to do something, you will have to encourage them to respond to the message.

Conclusion
Conclusion is basically the summary of your sermon. It is usually one or two paragraph long where you will see all the main ideas that you have just presented. It sums up all the things that you have discussed reminding your listeners all the things that they have heard. The main purpose of this is to  re-enforce to your hearers what you just have discussed.

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