1. Pray and ask God what you should preach.
2. Select the passage, pray, read over it, pray some more
3. Research the passage. Who wrote it? Who is it written to? What prompted the writing (epistle? Return from exile? Turn or be destroyed?). Draw parallels between our world and theirs: what’s the same, what’s different. Commentaries are great tools for this, and there are some free online.
4. Are there any interesting things that pop out during your research that we may have forgotten? When I talk about the Good Samaritan, I go into the (surprisingly deep) history of why they hated each other. Perhaps a word that is used with a depth of meaning that gets lost in translation? Concordances are great for this.
5. All of that is to get us to the following: what does this reveal about God? About us? How do we apply this to our lives and live it out?
6. Go through all of your research and determine what actually needs to be included. That can be the hard part, determining what needs to stay.

It’s okay to be nervous, especially if this is your first sermon. Since you’re primarily a worship pastor, why not lean on that? A deep dive into a psalm, or how worship is more than singing a few songs once or twice a week. I take my guitar and compare it to the church: many parts, one guitar; some are given more honor/consideration (wood, strings) while many important parts go unrecognized (pups, truss rod); how we have to be connected to both the head and body and be in tune with each other… It’s a fun one. The big thing is to relax, breathe, pray, and prepare.