Video Transcript: Effective Conclusions Part 2

Welcome back to So you've been asked to give a message. We've been talking  about conclusions and what makes an effective conclusion. After looking at that  whole list of things not to do in a conclusion, and we've got quite a list at this  point, here's where we were last time that idea of making an appeal? Well, there are other ways too to end with scripture. Sometimes you can be talking about  something and end with a powerful section of scripture. I remember one woman  did this very, very effectively when she was talking about God, Jesus, building  his kingdom in this world and the reaction in heaven. And she concluded with  this passage from Revelation 19. Then I heard, it's what sounded like a crowd,  like a sound of roaring waterfall, like peel loud peals of thunder. I heard them  say, Praise God for the Lord. Our Almighty God is King. Let us rejoice and be  glad. Let us praise His greatness. Wow. That's a powerful ending to a message  powerful introduction called to worship for at the beginning of a service. But  sometimes finding a scripture passage that just relates just tremendously  effectively to the other stuff you've been talking about can be marvelously,  marvelously concluding to what you've been saying, and gives opportunity for  people to reflect and cement your message in their hearts and their minds. So  think about scripture passage. One of my favorites is casting a vision. And  casting a vision in the conclusion simply means, can you imagine, can you  imagine if, if we lived out this message, can you imagine what this would mean  for families in this community? Can you imagine fathers and caring about their  children? Can you imagine the end of divorce in this community. Can you  imagine, you know, more than 50% of children growing up with a without a  father and their child in their in their household, impacting them. Can you  imagine if we were able to make an impact on the family as we build this new  family center, as we begin this new ministry? Can you imagine what that would  do? Can you imagine what would happen in this community if we were  absolutely able to do this program, if we were what might happen if you begin  with one program? For instance, in our area, there's a program called Kids  hope, which matches one church with one school with one adult, one student,  one hour per week, all of those ones. And imagine the impact in this community  if we as a church could take on 50 kids, 50 kids, and change their lives. Imagine  what's going to happen in the future as they begin families, as they come to  know faith in Jesus Christ. Imagine, imagine what could happen in those  instances. You know, that's powerful stuff. That's powerful stuff, and if you can  combine that with a story, wow, that's something I had the privilege of working  with. A kid who came to faith. Both of his parents died in a period that I knew  him, and as a result, he was put up for adoption. And there was a it was a  messy, messy court thing with other people in the family, and the impact that I  had on him during that time, but then the impact of our church with all of these  kids. How we had people signing up for one because they caught the vision.  What a difference it made this young man who was at risk, in other words, at risk

of not graduating from high school. I mentored him in fifth grade, graduated from high school, moved to California, was starting a family. What a difference from  what he had come from family where both family were both parents dealt drugs,  and one was had a chronic illness, and there was New Hope, a vision. Imagine  what could happen in our church. Imagine if we caught the vision here, of, you  know, becoming a church that actually did this, you know, or we want to read  through the all of the New Testament that was one of our challenges. One year,  we want to read through all the New Testament together. Imagine what will  happen if we all together, are sharing that in small groups as well as our  individual reading. Imagine what could happen to the spiritual vitality of this  church. Imagine what could happen in the world if we're to send this person or  begin this mission, or what could happen in this mission if we could do those  kind of visionary kind of statements, if. They're powerful. In conclusion, one of  my statements often to my staff, it was the fact that money is attracted to one of  two things need. Is there a great need that can be met here, or is there a vision  for something that's great? Well, this is on the second part of that, when people  are attracted to a vision. So if you give them a vision of what could happen if we  really took God seriously, it's a powerful, powerful conclusion to your message.  To your message. Another kind of effective conclusion is encouragement. You  know, encouragement. I heard a message recently about that, where it was a  message about people who, again, were going through a rough time, and I gave the example of discouragement, saying, Well, you know, nothing to do but, but  the message that I heard, it was from Mark Patterson, who's a pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. And he talked about the fact that you  know, but wait, you know things that you think you might have to wait a while,  but God is, Oh, God is at work. And he gave several examples of how God can  be at work. And so hang in there. Be encouraged. Know that behind the scenes  that you can't even see it, God is at work. And then finally, the piercing question,  what are you going to do with Jesus Christ? Piercing question, present Jesus  and salvation. The choices are here, heaven, hell. What are you going to do with it? Here's our options as a church, we can go this way into this new idea, this  new vision, or we can go that way and we'll probably just waste away as a  church. Piercing question is a great way to end the message. Now I don't have  slides for this next part, but what I want to emphasize in this next part is simply  using your body. There is a rule in rhetoric that was discovered by a man who  studied speeches years and years ago. It's called the 7, 35, 55 rule, and that is  that 7% of your communication are the words that you use. 38% of the tone of  your voice. 55% is your body language. 55% Imagine that. 55% and so when  you're thinking about your message, think about how you're using your body.  Now, the best gestures are the ones that come naturally, like you're talking with  a good friend, and you'll do what I do with my hands. You talk about encouraging someone, or you talk about, you know, it was big, those kind of gestures that are

normal and natural. Other ways to do these sorts of things. But then there are  those things that you've got to avoid. One is saying things like uhm, uhm, uhm, I  know a person that will say that 50 times in a five minute message, and just kind of like another one is queer, queer examples of just ticks that you have. You  know, I remember seeing a speaker once when you take his glasses off and put  them back on, and then that speaker reached down, he pulled up the socks, and I was like, just like nervous ticks of some kind. And you'll see this often, you  know, I see it often with women speakers, that they'll be doing something with  their hair. I wish I had that much hair to do something with, but it becomes a tick, and it can become distracting. Putting your hands in your pockets is distracting.  People are going to wonder, what's in his pocket? What's in his pocket? And I  know one preacher who kept a rock in his pocket to touch while he preached, so that you know he would Jesus is the rock. And one of the things he was trying to emphasize in His entire ministry. So this was his reminder to remember to  emphasize Jesus. But one of the staff people met him after services. What is in  your pocket anyway? That's what people are thinking. You've got your hand in  your pocket. Don't put your hand in your pocket. Don't put your hand on your  hips and lean forward. That that's that kind of thing of a mother, very angry  mother talking to her children. Now you might want to do that as an example,  but don't adopt that as your way of speaking. If you're speaking, whether you're  sitting down or standing up, don't slouch the microphone off. Don't slouch in your message, because if you slouch, you know, people are going to think you don't  really care about what you're talking about. I did once. I was part of our  denomination. I was a chairman of admissions board, which supervised  missions throughout the United States and Canada and. Um, I was asked to do  a videotape back then encouraging people to give to church planting. So a team came to record me in my office, and I had what I thought was a really engaging  ancient watch that was part of my grandfather's uncle. So it was an old thing,  and I used that as an example to start, and I gave what I thought was a pretty  good message, but then it came when I they gave me part of the recording,  because I was kind of sitting there, kind of slouched down, talking. I was like, I  wasn't engaged in the message myself. And I said, Wait a minute. Why didn't  they say something when you're standing? Don't slouch. Stand up straight.  Stand with your feet placed apart. Watch out, it's good to do a recording of  yourself. Have a friend record you, or you can sit your phone up on a stand and  record yourself, just to see if you've got any irritating, irritating kind of gestures.  And then when you do gestures, you know natural ones are best, but there are  ones that you can be thinking about along the way that you can maybe pattern.  For instance, if you're talking about a number, and I'd say there were two of  them, you use the number you're talking about a direction, say they went off.  They went off and or if you're talking about heaven, they went to heaven. Or if  you're talking about this life. You know, I saw one speaker do this so well one 

time, he went to one side of the building, or the auditorium, and he said, Let's  picture, you know, all of eternity. And he walked from one side to the other, and  then he came back to the middle and he said, you know, if that's all of eternity  representing that said, this speck, and he had a sharp, pointed pencil. Is your  life? People had the visual, the visual in their mind. Use visuals in your gestures, things like that. That says, Here it is. When you make gestures, use go from  your shoulders, not your elbows, is a general direction, and also that it's big. If  you're speaking to someone, it should be something big. Now those are just  some other things. You can check out my blog for more reflection on that, like  I'm writing that series right now. I want to conclude with the fact that giving a  message, especially if you're preaching, is one of the greatest things on earth  that you can do, it is something that God uses. How can people hear if no one  preaches, is the way Paul put it. How can they hear if no one preaches, you get  to be a channel of the Holy Spirit that can change a person's life. You can bring  the word to them in such a way that maybe people get hope who needs it?  People are hurting might begin a process of healing. People who are away from  God may find their way back to God. There might be a revival starting in  somebody's heart and life, because you've given them the word this, this thing  that we call preaching is incredibly, incredibly powerful, and I'm glad that you are asked to give a message, or that you're thinking about giving a message. I hope  that what I've given you in these sessions will be helpful again, encourage you if  you want to know more. The class is free at CLI on preaching and preparing,  preaching, etc, messages, and encourage you to go there, but know that you're  part of a long tradition of a way that God has used to change the world, and  know that he can do it again through the power of the Spirit. I want to conclude  with a story about the worst message I ever preached. I was Christmas time. I  wasn't scheduled to preach in the evening service in our church, we had a  missionary coming, and about three o'clock in the afternoon, got a call that he  couldn't come. And so I saw this camp. I'll hold something on my file, right? I had a meeting until about four or evening service started at six. And so meeting, I got done, went home, quickly, got my file and found there's nothing in here worth  using was Advent season. We're trying to emphasize the coming of Jesus. And  so I I, I got up and I preached, and I preached on Emmanuel, God with us. And  that's about all I said for 20 minutes. And I walked out of the church. It was our  practice to stay and shake hands at the end. And I didn't even bother with that. I  walked out, I got my car, got home, went home, so I don't care if I preach again,  much less come back next week. And during that week, some women from our  church got in a car accident. They were part of a group that traveled to play  Bunko. They went a card game from one house to houses. They get group, they gather quite a large group. And they were on their way, four women in the car,  and they're a very serious accident, and it was so serious that the car was  crumpled, to the extent that they the police came and firemen came, and they 

couldn't get the car open to get them out, so they had to call for the jaws of life,  this powerful tool that would rip the doors off. And so that's how they got  rescued. I didn't even know about this till the next day, one of the women called.  me and said, we're getting this terrible accident. She said, But what I want you  to know is that the only thing that kept me sane while we were waiting for that  20-25, minutes for the jaws of life to arrive was Emmanuel God with us. Know  that as you prepare, God wants to use you in a powerful way. Let him do it. Use  the use the tactics and skills and the things that I've shown you here, but be  praying that God will be the one who speaks through His Holy Spirit, through  you. I hope you have a great experience speaking in the name of Jesus. Thank  you for this opportunity.