44% of believers (49% of men and 39% of women) said "biblical exposition" was the most important thing in a sermon, compared to 2% who said a "sense of humour" was important.
The poll also found 40% of Christians (44% of women and 36% of men) found practical examples of how to live out the Bible's teachings was the most important part of a sermon, compared to just one percent who said personal anecdotes or stories were important.
It also found the majority of Christians do not like long sermons, with 44% believing they should last between 10 and 20 minutes.
However, the institution of a weekly church sermon is alive and well today: nearly 90% of churchgoers disagreed or strongly disagreed that the practice was "outdated".
The research was commissioned by the Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE), an annual trade show of hundreds of Christian charities and organisations, before its 2016 fair takes place next week.
Stephen Goddard, from CRE, told Premier's News Hour: "It just shows you that people go to church for a real reason - to hear stuff that's really going to make a difference to them.
"Somebody said it's a bit like Dad-dancing; if you're trying to hard to be cool, you'll not succeed. If they think 'well I've got to put in a joke here', the people in the pews know what's going on."
On the final day of next week's CRE trade fair the winners of the organisation's Sermon of the Year competition will be announced, with categories for both under and over-21s.
Sermon of the Year was inaugurated by the London School of Theology and Preach Magazine and aims to unearth the next preachers of tomorrow.
In light of Sermon of the Year, Stephen highlighted a problem that Christians in the CRE survey flagged up: "Out of the survey we found 50 percent of people in the pews on an average Sunday feel that young people are not given enough of a chance to preach in church.
"You can understand why it is that young people drift away. They're not involved enough."
Listen to Premier's Alex Williams speaking to Stephen Goddard on the News Hour:
