Sometimes, the most difficult part of preaching (at least for me) is deciding what to preach about. Occasionally I search the internet for ideas when it gets closer to Sunday and I have a bad case of “preacher’s block.” Sermon outlines can help, but most are useless to me.

One thing I’ve never been able to do is preach another man’s outline. Some preachers can do this, and that is fine. But I can’t. The reason why I can’t is because my mind does not follow the same path of logic as the author of the outline. It’s not necessarily that I disagree with the material in the outline, but I often times use a different line of reasoning to arrive at the same points.

This is why most sermon outlines I’ve found are of no use to me. They often go into so much detail (points, sub-points, every passage referenced, illustrations, etc.) that I have two options. I can either try to follow another man’s line of reasoning, or I can rework the outline. If I go with the first option, I feel very uncomfortable and unprepared when I preach the sermon. If I go with the second option, I often spend more time than I normally would working on the outline because I have to undo and redo everything.

What would help me the most would be outlines that just listed the main points and primary passages used to make those points. Then I could take the idea and make my own outline from it.

This is the point of this site: to post sermon outlines with only the main points and primary passages. These will include sermons I have preached, ideas I have had but had not yet preached as a sermon, and basic outlines like these from others that I may find. Having these ideas posted should help me during my periods of “preacher’s block” when I can’t come up with a topic.

I’m posting them here so they may also be a help to other men who are looking for ideas for a sermon, Bible study, or short talk. These will not be complete outlines. If you use these for ideas, you will still have to write your own outline. (Hence the name – Do It Yourself Sermon Outlines.)

I hope this material may be helpful to you.