How I prepare a message (Part 1)

I’m preaching at my church this Sunday, so I thought I’d walk you through the prep work that I do for most messages I give. I don’t always do all of the steps in the exact order I’ll be sharing this week, but this will give you an idea of the steps I take.

The first thing I do when I’m giving a textual message (where I follow a book of the Bible as opposed to a particular topic) is to really dig in deep to the text to understand what the author was originally trying to communicate. I do a couple things during this step. First, I pray a lot and ask God to give me wisdom in understanding what the author is communicating. Second, I read the passage. A lot. Using different versions (ESV, NIV, TNIV, NET, NLT, MSG). I’m trying to make sure that the text reads me before I try to read the text (hope that makes sense). Third, I try to break the passage down into manageable chunks. These chunks then become my major points of the message.

The passage I’m preaching on this week is 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. It’s part of a series we’re doing on living as resurrection people.

You can see the end product of this part of my prep work below. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

1 Corinthians 15.50-58 Sentence Diagram