Early in my preaching I noticed a habit in others that sometimes showed itself in me. A preacher would study the passage all week, find a doctrine they loved somewhere inside it, and they preached the doctrine. The text got them into the pulpit, but it didn't stay around for the sermon.
It's difficult to spot the problem because everything that was said was true. The theology was orthodox. The outline was clean. The people were fed. And at the same time, this was also true: the sermon preached could have come from ten other passages. The text that was read at the start was a launching pad for the sermon, not a foundation.
A sermon can be biblical in general and still unfaithful to the preached text in particular.
The Simeon Trust workshops drilled a question into me that I now ask every week: does the structure and emphasis of my sermon match the structure and emphasis of the passage? Not touch it. Match it. If the passage spends six verses on God's character and one verse on our response, and my sermon spends thirty minutes on our response, I've preached my proportions instead of the author's.
Here's a test you can run on this Sunday's outline. Cover up the Scripture reference at the top and hand your three points to another preacher. Ask him which passage they came from. If he names five candidates before he names yours, the text might not be driving your sermon.
The text always has a better sermon in it than the one you are bringing to it.
Your people don't need your best material this Sunday. They need the specific passage's material, empowered by the Spirit, and preached by you.
Preach the sermon that exposits the text and stand back to watch God work.