Haddon Robinson’s book Biblical Preaching provides a very useful introduction to some skills which are useful in presenting a sermon in a compelling manner. Robinson himself is very gifted with words and his own sermons are very engaging. His advice is useful to anyone, but it seems to me that the style of preaching which he advocates ultimately depends for its success on the preacher having very high literacy, comprehension and communication skills.
As someone who has sat through many expository sermons in which the preacher has taken a Bible passage and made nothing of it, I’m not sure about Robinson’s advice that sermons should be expository. I agree that all sermons should be on a theme contained in the Bible, because any theme not contained in the Bible is not part of God’s revelation. However, the preaching examples in the New Testament are not expository in the sense of flowing from a single Bible passage.
I do agree with Robinson’s advice that a sermon should be based on a single idea. If it is not possible to say what the idea communicated by a sermon is, then it is unlikely that the listeners will remember it. Although it makes some old-fashioned ecclesial assumptions, the book contains lots of handy hints for constructing sermons and making them memorable. Besides that, it’s well written and affordable.