You heard a good sermon. Then Monday arrives, and it's already fading.
Getting more out of a sermon doesn't take a stack of commentaries or an hour of study. It takes a few good questions and a few honest minutes.
The five below are simple on purpose. You can ask them on your own in the car, around the table with your family, or as the backbone of a small-group discussion. Same five questions, wherever you are.
They move you in one direction: from hearing the message, to remembering it, to actually living it.
1. What was the main point?
Before anything else, say the sermon back in a single sentence. Not three points and a poem - one plain sentence a friend would understand if they asked what it was about.
Why start here? Because you can't respond to a message you can't remember. If you can name the main idea in your own words, it's yours. If you can't quite get there, that's worth noticing too, and it's a good reason to glance back at your notes before you go any further.
2. What did this show me about God?
Ask what the sermon or the passage showed you about God - his character, his promises, or the way he works with people. Sometimes that's the whole point of the message. Sometimes it's simply one part of what you heard.
Ask what this sermon showed you about God, and it stops being advice and starts becoming worship. A talk about patience turns into a picture of a patient God. That small shift changes how every question after it lands.
3. What is it asking me to do?
A sermon you only agree with hasn't finished its work. So get specific: what is this asking of you, this week, in a way you could actually do?
Resist the urge to list five things. Pick one, and make it concrete enough that you'll know whether it happened. "Be more loving" is a nice thought. "Call my brother on Tuesday" is something you can point to and say yes or no.
4. What will I pray about it?
Turn the message into a sentence of prayer. Thank God for what you saw of him, or ask for help with the very thing you know you can't manage on your own.
This is the step that keeps the whole exercise from turning into self-improvement. You're not just writing a to-do list; you're bringing it to God and asking him to do what only he can. For a fuller way to do this, here's how to pray through your sermon notes.
5. Who can I share this with?
Pick one person and tell them one thing that stuck with you. It doesn't have to be a recap - just, here's what I'm still thinking about.
Saying it out loud makes you put the idea in your own words instead of only recognizing it on the page, which can make the takeaway easier to retrieve later. A spouse is a natural place to start - here's a simple way to discuss Sunday's sermon with your spouse.
How to use these five questions
The goal isn't to answer all five every single time. It's to have them ready.
On your own, run through them in a couple of minutes on the drive home or before bed. With your family, ask one or two at the lunch table and let everyone answer, kids included - short answers are fine. In a small group, use the five as a skeleton: open with the main point so everyone is on the same page, spend most of your time on what it showed about God and what it's asking, and close by praying. For more on that, see how to use sermon notes in a small group.
Want them tailored to today's sermon?
These five are the frame. If you want the full picture, our free sermon reflection question generator expands them into a complete set built around your passage and main point - questions to remember, understand, apply, pray, and discuss. Enter a few details and copy the results into your notes or a message to your group.
Start with one
You don't need all five this Sunday. Pick one, ask it before the day is over, and let it do its work.
If you take notes on your phone, Sunday keeps your notes, the recording, and the transcript together, so you always have something to bring these questions back to during the week.
Five questions, a few honest minutes, and the sermon you heard on Sunday starts to shape the week that follows.
Five questions to ask after a sermon
- What was the main point?
- What did this show me about God?
- What is it asking me to do?
- What will I pray about it?
- Who can I share this with?
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Capture the sermon while it's fresh
Sunday lets you take notes, record and transcribe the message, and share a takeaway - so when you ask these five questions later, you have something real to work with.
Download Sunday on iPhoneFrequently asked questions
What are good questions to ask after a sermon?
The most useful ones move from recall to response: what was the main point, what did it show me about God, what is it asking me to do, what will I pray about it, and who can I share it with? Start by naming the point in a single sentence, then work toward one specific thing you can do this week.
Can I use these questions for family devotions?
Yes, and they work well with children. Ask one or two around a meal rather than all five, keep the answers short, and let everyone take a turn. Questions like what did we learn about God, and what can we do about it this week, are an easy place to start.
How many questions should we discuss?
Fewer than you'd think. On your own, one or two is plenty. In a group, pick two or three and give people room to actually answer, because a real conversation about one question beats a rushed march through all five.
What's the most important question to ask after a sermon?
If you only ask one, ask what it's asking you to do, because a sermon you agree with but never act on hasn't changed anything. Even then, naming the main point first makes your answer more honest, since you're responding to what was actually preached rather than a vague impression.