Video Transcript: Using Props and Illustrations for Communication

All right. Welcome back. This is the effective communication class. And in this  session we are looking at props and illustrative exercise a prop is something  that you show an illustrative exercises is something that you do or you get some of your audience to do it. So props. First of all, the book of Jeremiah, if you've  never read the book of Jeremiah, it's really quite bizarre because God asked  Jeremiah to do a lot of things. In fact, he asked him to do things for a number of  years to lay down in the certain situation, to wear something on his shoulders  and walk around. Jeremiah is a walking illustration of what God wants, what he  wants to communicate to the people of Israel. So if you've never read the book  of Jeremiah, Jeremiah, read that if you want to know more about props and  illustrative exercises. Alright, Matthew 22. Jesus said, Show me the coin used  for paying the tax, they brought him a denarius, and he asked them, whose  image is this and whose inscription Caesar's They replied, then he said to them,  give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God, what is God's interesting, the  coin had an image. And Jesus is saying, I want you to look at this image, I don't  have the coin, but Jesus had the actual coin, and you see an image and it  Caesar's well give to the person who it belongs to because his image is on it.  But Jesus was subtly saying, isn't the image of God on every human being. So  every human being needs to give back to God. All right, I Corinthians 11, the  Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread, simple bread. And when  He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you do  this in remembrance of me. In the same way after the supper, he took the cup,  saying, This cup is the new covenant. In my blood, do this, whenever you drink it in remembrance of me for whenever you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you  proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Jesus took simple elements that was  probably part of the Passover Seder. And he used the elements people were  very familiar with. But he applied them to what he what he was about to do that  his body would be broken that his blood would be shed it's an illustration. John  13:4-5, he (Jesus) got up from the meal, He took off his outer clothing and  wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and  began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped  around him. He is now doing an illustrative exercise. He's doing something he's  he's acting out something. He's doing something to them. But he's trying to  make a point. This is the kind of thing that you need to do for each other it  illustrates serving your, your fellow brother or sister. The purpose of props,  number one is illustration. How can I illustrate this? How can I make this more  clear? The other is illumination. How can I teach you something? So on the one  hand, you're trying to make a point clear. On the other hand, you're trying to  apply it to someone's life. Examples of props, Coke can and chalice. I wish I had one with me, but I remember doing a sermon. And I put on a table like this. I put  a Coke can and I put a chalice for communion. And they both just sat there. And  then I talked about my sermon for quite a while and those two things were just 

sitting on the table. And of course, people are wondering, What are these  things? Why are these things up on the table? What's going to happen with  them? Well, I preached for 20, 25 minutes before I said anything about them. So finally when it was appropriate, I said okay, we've got two things here. We've got a Coke can. And at that time, Coca Cola its big advertising campaign was this is  the real thing. So Coke declares that it is the real thing. Jesus declares that what he did for us on the cross is the real thing, the chalice, or the can, which is the  real thing. And that's the choice that you have to make. All right, another  illustration of a prop is a casket. In fact, I did this for a sermon illustration. And  once I didn't have a casket, of course, so I called the local funeral director in my  city, I didn't know him, I explained who I was, I'm in a church, I would like to have a casket to illustrate something. And so he delivered it. And it was very  interesting. Because of that experience. He asked why and what I was doing,  and because of that, he ended up coming to our church. So it's a good way to  reach out. Anyway, I have the casket. And at some point, my sermon, I had  someone wheel it out, and I opened it up, and I said to people, one day, you'll be in one of these things, but you won't get to see what it what it is. So let's look at  so I took everything apart, I took everything out. And I was trying to illustrate that if that you need to see life sometimes at the end. This is where you end up. So  what does that mean for the rest of life? Or is this where you end up? This is an  issue that you have to figure out. People spend their lives and other illustrations  are spending their lives climbing the ladder of success. So what's the ladder  leaned against? What's it all about? That's the next one. I had a ladder once and I was talking about Philippians 2, where Jesus says, We're where Paul is talking  about Jesus, and how he humbled himself. And then God exalted him. And so  every part of that passage that talks about Jesus humbling himself, he was born, he did this, uh, you know, there's all these steps of how he humbled himself, and then how God exalted him. So what I did is I put a 15 foot stepladder up, up on  the stage area. And I talked about how people climb the ladder of success. And  for every point, I took a step up the ladder. And finally, I was, I was 15 feet above the ground, on the step ladder. And some people had to cover their eyes, and  they could, they couldn't look, they're afraid that I'm gonna fall. And I talked  about how, when you finally get to the top, you know, you're looking down on  everyone, all the rungs of the ladder are people that you had to step on to get up there. But it's lonely up there. And it's scary up there. And it's a long fall to the  ground from up there. So I talked about all the negatives about being on top of  the ladder. And then I read the passage. And for every little thing that Jesus did,  how he humbled himself, I took a few steps down a few steps down a few steps  down or finally got to the very bottom. And when I got to the bottom, I said, Now, you know, let's say I'm the one helping people. I'm the one helping people get up the ladder. I'm the support system. Isn't that really better? Remember,  sometimes people would say to me, Oh, that was a wonderful sermon. Wow. 

You're an incredible preachers. They put me up high on a ladder. And the next  week, no one said anything. And I wondered, well, what happens? Am I Am I not any good. In other words, I am up high on the ladder, they put me high in the  ladder, but now I'm vulnerable. I would rather have someone come up to me  after a sermon and say, Boy, that sermon really lifted me up. It really helps me  Now where am I? I'm under them. I'm helping them be lifted up rather than me  lifted up. But now I feel better about what I did. And I'm not vulnerable. I'm not  vulnerable as to what happens the next week. So I talked in the passage about  how Jesus humbled himself, but in the end, God lifted him up. So the goal is not  to get to the top of the ladder. But it was a beautiful picture, and I've had people  25 years later, when I go back to Vancouver, they will tell me about that  particular sermon that they always remit that they always remember that whole  ladder thing. Rocks. Sometimes I use rocks, I get rocks, and I illustrate  something maybe it's the the Ebenezer, you set up your rock of remembrance,  they did that in the Old Testament, these rocks are a testimony to what has  happened. They had to when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan, they had to get 12 rocks, one rock for each of the 12 tribes and they had to pile them up.  And when their kids saw those rocks, they would tell the story again. So  sometimes, I'll just go out and find a bunch of little rocks. And this is a  remembrance. This is something you put in your pocket for the next two weeks.  And remember this particular thing that we're trying to teach. Examples of  illustrative exercises, a race with shoes, tied. Hebrews 12. Therefore, since we  are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything  that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with  perseverance the race marked out for us. So in my church, what I did is I invited  some young 12 year old really fast 12 year I, I asked him, I'm 62 years old, what  kid thinks they can outrun me? Now they all raise their hand, of course. So I  picked the one that looks like he's the fastest. And he comes up, and he you  know, I compare, you know, old guy, young, young kid, who's gonna, who's  gonna, you know, we're gonna race around the crowd and the sanctuary one  time, we'll see who can who can finish. And who do you think is going to win and I, of course, everyone thinks the young guy is going to win. And I said, okay, but  there's one little thing we have to do. We're going to tie his shoes together. You  know, not tie him separately, but we're gonna tie them together and he's gonna  have to try to run with his shoes tied. And then we race. And of course, I win. I  win because he's got things tangled the sin so easily entangled. So now I talked  about well, what are the things that tie our shoes in life? What are the things that are holding us back in the race that God is calling us to run? sit on a chair with  eyes closed. Okay, so Wally, why don't you come in and Wally is the guy who's  doing all this taping. He does all the taping for CLI. He's the first graduate. Great guy. Anyway, he's been doing the taping, and I'm gonna use him as part of the  illustration. So Wally, why don't you come on in? Here is all right, Wally. How are

you doing? Did you did you quickly have to put this? Yeah. Okay, this is Wally.  He's behind the cam camera. Why don't you give Wally a big round of thanks. All right Wally, I didn't beforehand, tell you what I was going to do. No, you didn't.  Okay. So what I what I'm going to have you do? I got a chair back here. Okay,  this black chair. You know, I'm gonna ask you to close your eyes. And I'm gonna  sort of inch this chair close to you. And then I'm going to ask you to sit down  without you touching it. Okay, you can't touch it. All right. Hopefully I get it behind you. Right, right. Right. Okay. All right. Face that way. Close your eyes. And I'm  gonna get this chair. And you can't, you can't reach back and touch it. You can't  feel if it's there. Or, you know, hopefully I get it close enough to you and so on.  All right. Now I want you to just without opening your eyes without touching  anything. I want you to sit down in it and now, stand up. Close your eyes. And  now do it again. Okay, all right. All right. Thanks. All right. Now, let me ask you.  Which was easier? The second time. Yeah. Now the first time I you know, I put  the chair there. But you couldn't see it. You couldn't feel it. So you had to trust  that it was there. You have to trust me for one thing. And so you're a little  uncertain. You're like, hold it is it really gonna be there. Even though you heard  me. You could hear it and everything. But you couldn't see it. You couldn't feel  it? And so you had to have some faith? Yes. Right. Right. And the first time you  exercise faith, it's really hard. But the second time, I mean, it didn't move. No  one moved it and you sat down right away. Right. And that's an illustration of  faith. I mean, you can know something, I believe God, I know you're there. But  as I'm trying to trust him with my life, I have never trusted God in that particular  situation. So we're a little distrustful even of something we actually believe we  know it. But the more you trust God, the more experience you have trusting God with your life and what's going on. Then you sit down, kind of reminds me of the  verse of faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And the more  you get into the more, you have it, right, yes, exactly. So faith is something that  you have to exercise. And the more you exercise it, the better it is. All right  Wally, thanks. well, all right, back to the camera. All right. So Hebrews 11:1. Now faith is competence, in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not  see. So you know it, you believe it? But there's nothing like a little experience to  help you through. All right, what are props do they help both the speaker and the listener focus gives you something to look at, I can see this thing. And now it  becomes an illustration props in these kinds of exercises, use the other side of  the brain, I think it's the right side of the brain. One side is the logic. The other  side is sort of the pictures and putting spatial things together. So now you're  using both sides of the brain. They help those who are more visually inclined to  pay attention. Some people are word people, they like words, they like logic.  Some people like pictures, they like art, they like scenery and, and God speaks  to them through those things. So when you use props and illustrations, you're  helping people that are more inclined towards those things to understand and 

see things. They add a little spice to the presentation. You know, sometimes it's  hard for people just listen to someone speak many, many, many, many words,  and all of a sudden, the picture or illustration or prop comes in, and it adds a  little more interest to it. All right, another illustration, the pencil bend effect, I  don't have a pencil, but I have a pen. And if you lightly hold it, anyone can do  this. It doesn't take a special genius. But if you just gotta bounce it back and  forth lightly. I hope you can see that it has the illusion of bending. Okay, but it's  not bending. But there's the illusion of bending. There's a story of Elisha and his  servant. There was a king trying to kill Elisha. And they found him. And it was  morning and the servant of Elisha steps out of the house, and he sees all the  enemies surrounding them. So he goes back and he says, Elisha, what are we  going to do? And then verse 17, Elisha prayed, open his eyes, Lord, his servant, so that he may see than the Lord open the servants eyes, and he looked and  saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. In other words,  there were angels surrounding them. Okay, so he saw the chariots of his  enemies, but he didn't see the angels that were going to protect them. So the  illustrator, I like this illustration, because here's how it goes. For most things in  life, seeing is believing. We have to see it, then we believe it. But sometimes  believing is seeing. Sometimes what we see, is not true. If Seeing is believing,  then you have to believe that this pen is bending, but it's not. Seeing is  believing. We become gullible. And we fall into all kinds of error. So sometimes  we have to believe something. Believe that God will take care of us believe that  there are His angels here protect us, even though we don't see it. That's what  faith is. It's believing before you see and then then you see things happen. And  you see the evidence of what you believe. All right. What are these illustrative  exercises actually do? They add interest and variety to the presentation they  give listeners an experience with which to relate to and remember, so a prop is  so It illustrates and illuminates the point, it illuminates an application that you  may have the illustrative exercise actually gets people involved. They have a  little experience, you know, Wally has the experience of trying to sit into a chair  with his eyes closed the first time. And that experience is a powerful thing. You  know, when I do it in my church, I have everyone in the crowd stand up. And  they have to sit in the seat that they just stood up from, and they close their  eyes, and now everyone has that experience. And then when you make a point,  they have something they can hang on to. And remember, they make more  difficult concepts. more clear, faith is a difficult thing to describe. You can give  these verses but what does it really mean? But all of a sudden, you give them  something concrete that they can Oh, okay, it's just like that chair thing. Now I  can see how it applies to my marriage. And I can see how it applies to my faith  in God. Things to avoid while making use of props, don't fiddle with your prop  before and after its use. So I'm, if I have a sermon, you know, this is the prop  that I want to use this pen. And, by the way, before I ever get to what I want to 

talk about, I'm playing with it, I got it in my hand, I'm talking about other things,  I'm fiddling, fiddling, fiddling and it's distracting. Or, when I'm finished with it, you  know, I illustrate the thing and sometimes seeing is believing but often you have  to believe before you see. And then I go on to some other points, and I keep  holding this thing. It's a distraction for the people around you. So I have it over to the side, use it, and then I put it away. Don't use too many in one presentation.  Okay, so I have the you know, I have this pen prop. And I have whatever this  thing is prop, you know, I've got my chair and I've got the book, maybe I use my  clothes, you know. And after a while people are confused. There's too many  props, I don't even know what your points are. anymore. Things to avoid while  making use of illustrative exercises. Don't use too many in one presentation. I've seen this over and over again, where you know, I do the chair thing, illustrate  that. And then I light some candles and then when we have the candle  illustration of something else. And then I have another one and another one. And it's like people either really start mixing your metaphors and mixing these things  together. And they don't remember which one did what. And it comes off as sort  of cheap. If we use too many props, too many illustrative exercise, it seems like  you don't have much to say. And so you're just trying to give us these little  experiences. It just comes off as fake. Don't treat people like little children.  Again, that's another thing you know, you're trying to illustrate something very  simple, that people already understand is the concept itself is not that difficult.  And then you know, you illustrate it and and it's like you're talking to a three year old and people don't like to be condescended to don't be too obvious. Okay, so I  have the chair thing, but I'm not going to be so obvious about it, I'm gonna build  a little mystery to it or the pen or whatever it might be. Don't make it so simple.  That that people start getting annoyed at your illustrations. Remember, it's, it's  just a thing that helps you make a real point that you want to make. It helps you  illustrate something that the Bible already talks about. So have fun with it. It's  sometimes it's hard to figure out what kind of prop you listen for your culture.  what's popular right now if you if you take something that people are already  talking about, right now it's the Superbowl time here in the United States, the big football thing. So if I hold the football people know what this is all about. But I  want to redirect their attention. Or you know, there's the sport thing Nike in the  sporting world is talking about things and Nike is in the news. Well, Nike means  victory. In fact, Nike is the word used about those churches in the book of  Revelation. And it's it's really about God's victory over sin and death. That's what that swoosh means. So if I can take that as an illustration, when I preach on  Revelation, that's what I did for seven weeks. I talked about that Nike, the  swoosh, the victory that we have in Jesus Christ, I'm taking a popular item in  culture and redirecting everyone's attention so that whenever they see that they  think about the victory won by Christ, not some shirt or football or whatever it 

might be. So look for your look in your culture, take the things in your culture  and redirect them towards a more biblical kind of framework.