How to Write a Sermon Outline (With a Complete Example)

A sermon outline is a map, not the territory. It exists to recall the sequence of a line of reasoning you have already built — not to be read in the pulpit, and not to replace the study.

This guide covers the anatomy of a good outline and then builds a complete worked example, from text to application, on Philippians 4:4-9.

What an outline needs to contain

1. 1

   Text and context

   The exact passage and one line about what comes before and after. It keeps you from losing the thread mid-sermon.
2. 2

   Central idea in one sentence

   The single proposition the whole sermon supports. If it does not fit in one sentence, the study is not finished.
3. 3

   Divisions with their verses

   Each point accompanied by the verses that support it. This keeps the structure anchored in the text.
4. 4

   One illustration per division

   Noted in three or four words — enough for you to remember, not to read.
5. 5

   Application for each point

   Specific and verifiable. A point with no written application usually does not gain one in the pulpit.
6. 6

   Introduction and conclusion in full

   The only two sections written word for word. They are where improvisation costs the most.

What an outline should not have

More than one page. If you have to turn a sheet, you will lose eye contact at exactly the moment of transition.

Forced alliteration. Alliterating aids memory, but very often trades the right word for the word starting with the right letter. If the text’s three natural points are "gratitude", "prayer" and "trust", do not twist them into "petition, protection, promise".

Everything you studied. The study can run ten pages and stay on your desk. The outline carries only what serves the central idea.

Complete example: Philippians 4:4-9

1. Text and context

Passage: Philippians 4:4-9.

Immediate context: Paul has just asked Euodia and Syntyche to "think the same way" (4:2) — there is concrete friction in the church. The following section (4:10-20) thanks them for the gift they sent.

Book context: a letter written from prison, marked by joy and by exhortation to unity. Paul writes about gladness from inside a jail.

2. Central idea

The peace of God guards the anxious believer when he rejoices in the Lord, hands his worry over in prayer, and fills his mind with what is true.

Note that the sentence has a subject, a verb and a complement — and that it already contains three movements. The sermon’s structure was not invented; it was read.

3. Divisions

I. Rejoice in the Lord (vv. 4-5)

The imperative is repeated — "again I will say, rejoice" — and comes with two anchors: gentleness known to all, and "the Lord is at hand". Commanded joy is not temperamental optimism; it has an object and a reason.

Application: where does your joy depend on a circumstance you do not control, and what would change if its object were the Lord’s presence?

II. Hand anxiety over in prayer (vv. 6-7)

The command is negative ("in nothing be anxious") and positive ("let your requests be made known"). It is not "stop worrying" — it is "trade the worry for an address". And there is a detail easy to miss: "with thanksgiving". Gratitude enters in the same movement as the request.

The verb rendered "will guard" is a military term: to post a garrison, to protect a city. Peace is not explained — it is stationed as a sentry.

Application: which specific worry did you take to ten people this week and to God not once?

III. Fill the mind with what is true (vv. 8-9)

The list of eight qualities — true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, worthy of praise — ends in an imperative about thinking: "think about these things". And verse 9 adds practice: "the things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: do these things".

Think and do, in that order, with a promise at the end: "the God of peace will be with you".

Application: what occupies your mind in the first ten minutes of the day — and what would happen if this list governed that choice?

4. Illustrations (kept short)

• I — "sentry on the wall" (image behind the verb guard)
• II — the difference between venting and addressing
• III — the mind as a room: what enters and what stays

5. Introduction (written in full)

"Anxiety is not a lack of faith. If it were, Paul would not have needed to write this to a church he praises from the first line of the letter to the last. What this text offers is not a rebuke to the anxious — it is a road. Three movements, written by a man in prison, to a church in friction."

6. Conclusion (written in full)

"The promise appears twice and changes its subject. In verse 7, the peace of God guards the heart. In verse 9, the God of peace is with you. It is not only the effect — it is the presence. The text does not end promising calm; it ends promising company."

How to turn a study into an outline

If your study is done and you cannot compress it:

1. Write the central idea in one sentence. No conjunctions chaining three thoughts.
2. Ask which movements of the text support that sentence. Each movement becomes a division.
3. Discard everything that does not serve the idea. No exceptions.
4. Note one application per division. If you cannot write one, the point may not be a point.
5. Write the introduction and conclusion. In full.
6. Reduce it to one page. What does not fit, you have already internalized — or did not need.

A blank template

TEXT: _____________________  |  Context: __________________

CENTRAL IDEA (one sentence): _________________________________

INTRODUCTION (in full): ______________________________________

I. ______________________________________ (vv. ___)
   illustration: ____________  application: ____________

II. _____________________________________ (vv. ___)
   illustration: ____________  application: ____________

III. ____________________________________ (vv. ___)
   illustration: ____________  application: ____________

CONCLUSION (in full): ________________________________________

Keep going

The outline is the last stage of a process. For the full course, how to prepare a sermon covers the seven stages from text to pulpit. To adapt the same material for a small group, see how to prepare a small group Bible study.