The Sermon Integrity Test

The four questions

If I can’t say yes to all four, the sermon isn’t ready.

1. Have I personally studied this text? Could I defend my interpretation without pointing to what the AI said?
2. Are these convictions mine? Or am I repeating what a model generated because it sounded good?
3. Is every personal story true? Did it happen to me, or is it clearly attributed to someone else?
4. Could I have written this without AI? The tool may have sped up my process. Did it replace my process?

Fine

• Research: background, cross-references, word meanings, the major views on a hard passage. Then verify it.
• Brainstorming outlines or angles, the way you’d talk with a well-read colleague.
• Editing or proofreading a manuscript you already wrote, or transcribing your spoken draft.

Not fine

• Handing AI a passage and preaching what comes back without substantial study, rewriting, and prayer.
• Letting AI generate the core argument or application before you’ve done your own exegesis.
• Telling an AI-made story as if it happened to you. That isn’t a style issue. It’s a lie told from a pulpit.

A workflow that keeps AI in its place

1. Study the text first. Original-language tools, commentaries, prayer. Write your main point in one sentence before you open a chatbot.
2. Use AI to test yourself. “What are the strongest objections to this reading?” “What cross-references am I missing?”
3. Write the sermon yourself.
4. Use AI to edit for clarity, length, and repetition.
5. Run the integrity test.

“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.” 1 Timothy 4:16

The preacher’s soul comes first. Sermon preparation is where the preacher gets preached to first.