The Skill of Identifying the Main Purpose of a Sermon

We are in a series of posts on skills that we can work on that will make our preaching great. We’ve already consider how to look at the text, and how to determine the main point of the sermon. Now we turn to the skill of identifying the main purpose of a sermon as a skill to be developed.

What’s the Main Purpose?

The main point of a Scripture passage gives us the “what” of a message. The Main Purpose of a sermon answers another question: Why preach this sermon? What do I want to see changed in my people as a result of this sermon? Or, as McDill puts it, “What do I want my listeners to do, think, feel, or become as a result of this message?”

This is different from the main point of the text you are working with. The idea of identifying the main purpose is the guide to giving you the main focus for illustrations, for organization, and for any other elements that you feel will help people walk out of your worship time with a clear direction for what your people need to process the message text.

Key Concepts in Identifying the main Purpose:

It is listener-centered.
Not “to explain justification,” but “to lead believers to rest confidently in Christ’s finished work.”
It is measurable and concrete.
Not vague like “encourage people,” but specific like “call believers to forgive someone who has wronged them.”
It governs everything in the sermon.
Every illustration, explanation, and application should serve that purpose.
It reflects the author’s intent.
The preacher does not invent the purpose; he discovers it from the passage.

Some Examples of Good Purpose Statements

Let me give you some examples of weak purpose statements vs. strong ones. These come from AI, by the way:

Example

Text: 1 Corinthians 2:2

“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Central Idea: Paul centered his ministry on the message of Christ crucified.
Main Purpose: Lead believers to re-center their lives and witness on the cross rather than human wisdom or performance.

Example 2

In the last post, I shared that I am working on a sermon on this idea of the cross being central to the ministry of the church. My purpose statement reads like this:

I want believers to realize again that salvation is only by grace, not by what we do or say or how we live.

What This Skill Provides for the Sermon Production

The skill of identifying the main purpose of a sermon is essential to preparing your message. With my purpose statement in mind, I’m using examples like the book, “12 steps for the recovering Pharisee (like me” by John Fisher, and proposing that we Christians love to believe that we are better than other people. I am going to reflect on the description of the Corinthian Believers as:

⁶Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.²⁸God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹so that no one may boast before him. ³⁰It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (1Corinthians 1:26-30)

God doesn’t take delight in our righteousness. He delights in dispensing grace.

And yes, I’m going to use the example of the Thief on the Cross that I attached in the last post.

Conclusion

This is a skill that will help your preaching go from good to great. Practice it, and your people will notice.

February 17, 2026/by Bruce Ballast