How to Prepare a Sermon for the First Time: A Step-by-Step Guide for Elders, Interns and Seminarians

To prepare a sermon for the first time, start weeks ahead, choose a short passage with one clear main thought, and spend most of your time understanding the text before you write anything. Then state the main idea in one sentence, build an outline from the passage, write the whole sermon out, preach it aloud to time it, and ask your pastor or an elder to review it before Sunday. The steps below walk through each part, in the order you will need them.

This guide is for the elder filling the pulpit on a vacation Sunday, the pastoral intern preaching for the first time, and the seminarian preparing a first sermon for a church.

If you are a seminarian under the care of a presbytery, you stand in the pulpit as a candidate, under its oversight, not on your own. In the Presbyterian Church in America, for example, the presbytery should authorize and encourage a candidate in theological studies to lead public worship and explain the Scriptures to the congregation, under its direction (Book of Church Order 18-5). But no one may preach in PCA pulpits on a regular basis without a license from the presbytery where he will preach (Book of Church Order 19-1). Other Presbyterian denominations have their own rules for candidates.

Before you start: who asked you, and what do they expect?

The Westminster Larger Catechism says the word of God "is to be preached only by such as are sufficiently gifted, and also duly approved and called to that office" (WLC Q. 158). The 1689 London Baptist Confession says preaching is not confined to pastors, and that "others also gifted and fitted by the Holy Spirit for it, and approved and called by the church, may and ought to perform it" (LBCF 26.11).

Different churches apply this in different ways, through the session, the elders or the presbytery. Whatever your church's practice, a first sermon is preached under the oversight of someone else. So begin with a conversation. Ask the pastor or elder who invited you:

• Which service, and how long should the sermon be?
• Is there a passage you want me to take, or a series I should fit into?
• Who will read my draft, and by when?
• Is there anything about the congregation I should know?

Write the answers down. They set the boundaries for everything that follows.

Step 1: Choose a short passage with one main thought

If the church is preaching through a book, the simplest choice is often the next passage in the series. If you choose, pick a short, self-contained unit: a paragraph from an epistle, a single parable, a psalm of moderate length.

Avoid, for a first sermon:

• Long narratives that need a lot of retelling before you can explain them.
• Famously disputed texts where you would spend the sermon on the debate.
• Passages chosen to make a point you already wanted to make. Let the text set the agenda.

Step 2: Start weeks ahead, not days

A first sermon takes longer than any later one, because you are learning every part of the process at once. Give yourself several weeks. For a realistic picture of how the hours divide across a normal week, see how long it takes to write a sermon.

A simple plan for a first sermon:

Step 3: Read the passage until you can retell it

Read the passage many times, in more than one translation, and in Greek or Hebrew if you work in them. Read the chapters around it. Then close the Bible and try to retell the passage in your own words, in order.

As you read, write down every question the text raises. Why this word? Why here? What would the first readers have heard? What surprises me? These questions are the start of your study, and some of them will become the questions your hearers are asking too.

Step 4: Study the text before you read about it

Trace the flow of the passage: where the argument turns, which words carry the weight, what the author is doing with his readers. Ask where it sits in its book and in the history of redemption.

Only then open the commentaries. Two or three good ones are enough. Use them to test what you saw, correct what you missed and answer the questions you wrote down, not to supply the sermon. Check your reading against the rest of Scripture and against your church's confession.

Step 5: State the main idea in one sentence

This is the hinge of the whole process. Write two sentences:

• What the passage says, in the author's terms, to the first readers.
• What the sermon will say, to your congregation, from that passage.

If you cannot yet write them plainly, keep studying. Most unclear sermons come from an unclear main idea, not from poor wording. Nehemiah describes the Levites at the reading of the Law this way: "They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading" (Nehemiah 8:8, ESV). Giving the sense starts with knowing what the sense is.

Step 6: Build the outline from the text

Let the structure of the passage shape the structure of the sermon. If the text moves in three steps, the sermon may too. Each main point should come out of the passage and serve the main idea.

As you build the outline, ask how the passage points to Christ. In some texts the connection is direct. In others it runs through the larger story of the book or the covenant. Do not force it, but do not skip the question.

Step 7: Apply the text to real people

Application answers the question "So what?" for the people in the room. Think of the congregation you will actually face: young families, older members, visitors, people who are grieving or struggling. The Larger Catechism asks preachers to preach "wisely, applying themselves to the necessities and capacities of the hearers" (WLC Q. 159).

Good application is specific. "We should trust God more" is true but vague. Say what trusting God looks like on Monday morning for someone in that room, from what this text says.

Step 8: Write it out in full

Write the whole sermon, even if you plan to preach from notes. A manuscript lets you see the whole argument, catch gaps and show your reviewer exactly what you will say.

Some practical habits:

• Write the body first and the introduction last, once you know where the sermon is going.
• Write for the ear. Shorter sentences, clear transitions, the main idea repeated more than once.
• Use few illustrations, and make sure each one serves a point rather than becoming the point.
• Do not include everything you learned. Most of your study will not appear in the sermon, and that is normal. It still shapes what you say.

Step 9: Preach it aloud and time it

Read the sermon aloud, at the pace you will actually preach, and time it. Do this more than once. You will hear sentences that do not work spoken, transitions that are missing and sections that run long. If you are over time, cut. Usually an illustration or a secondary point can go before the main idea suffers.

Step 10: Ask for review, then revise

Send the full draft to the pastor or elder who asked you to preach, early enough for their comments to help. Ask them plainly: Is the main idea clear? Is it what the text says? Is anything doctrinally wrong or unclear? Is it too long?

Then revise, and check every reference, every quotation and every claim about the original languages. A wrong reference costs more than the minutes it takes to verify it.

Common mistakes in a first sermon

• Saying too much. One main idea, clearly made, serves the church better than five ideas made quickly.
• Preaching about the passage instead of preaching the passage. Background is useful only as far as it helps the hearers understand the text.
• Apologizing from the pulpit. You do not need to tell the congregation you are nervous or unqualified. Preach the text.
• Borrowing someone else's sermon. Read good sermons on your passage to learn, but preach what you studied. For more on where help ends and outsourcing begins, see should pastors use AI for sermons.

On Sunday, and after

Pray before you preach, for yourself and for the hearers. Paul told Timothy to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching" (2 Timothy 4:2, ESV). Preach with the patience he describes, not in a hurry to be done.

Afterward, ask your reviewer for honest comments while the sermon is fresh. Write down what you learned. The second sermon will still take time, but less than the first, because the process will be familiar.

What to do this week

• Have the conversation. Confirm the date, the passage, the length and who will review your draft.
• Read the passage every day this week, and keep a list of your questions.
• Set your deadlines backward from the Sunday you preach: main idea, full draft, review.

If you want help organizing your study, the sermon preparation path in Hokmah Expositor starts with an exegetical study of the passage, extracts a structure you review and edit, and develops the sermon in stages. It drafts material for you to examine against the text, and it can misread a text or get a reference wrong. For a first sermon especially, do your own reading of the passage first. The study, the prayer and the main idea have to be yours.

Sources

• The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Nehemiah 8:8; 2 Timothy 4:2. https://www.esv.org/
• Westminster Larger Catechism (Q. 158, 159), Orthodox Presbyterian Church, online edition, https://www.opc.org/lc.html
• The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, chapter 26 (paragraph 11), The Reformed Reader, https://reformedreader.org/ccc/1689lbc/english/Chapter26.htm
• The Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in America, 2026 edition (18-5, 19-1), Office of the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, https://www.pcaac.org/bco/