Video Transcript: Tell Interesting Stories

All right, we're back. Number five tell interesting stories you want to be  interesting. When you see people sitting around talking, right at the golf course  at the corner, at the market, you invite people over, you're at a ball game, either  wherever people interact a playground, it doesn't matter. It doesn't take if you  just watch them and you can hear what they're doing. Within two or three  minutes, somebody's laughing. Right? The group is laughing and somebody is  like mesmerizing. Everybody else for this story. It might be a made up story, it  might be something that just happened around. But if you look at the New  Testament, Jesus, the red letter edition, Jesus words, most of the red letters are  going to be Jesus telling some kind of story. The Old Testament filled with all  these stories, stories is probably the number one way that human beings  communicate anything, truth, doctrine, information. Story, and people are most  successful in communication when they tell a story. Often when I've tried to  teach preaching, and people tried to be the Apostle Paul and explain something. It's hard to figure out because it gives us not obvious what the next sentence  should be. When you're telling a story. Well, I got up. Then I got dressed. And  then I got in the car. And then I drove down that is obvious what you need to say next. It's easy to hold on to a whole narrative, without notes, and be able to say  it because you know, a person telling the story is almost picturing it in their mind, sort of like metaphor ponies or story ponies. Story, keep is the glue that holds  the content together. Right? So then, now, some people are good at telling  stories really good telling stories they tell a story is if they're there. Number one  of the principles of telling a good story is if you picture what you're saying, your  audience will picture it too. If you're not picturing, right, we drove down the thing  and then we went into driveway and there was this big bump. See, if I'm seeing  the big bump, you'll see the big bump right. If I just tell the story and I'm not  seeing it, I'm just saying words, then you're not gonna see the story. So to be  able to tell the story, there was a there was a farmer he was selling Matthew or  Luke 15. Luke 15. Okay, so already is like a rich man. Number Number One  stories about relationships are generally the most interesting, right? Because  relationships again, if you go back to what sin was, sin is the brokenness  between relationships between people, people are hiding from one another. So  there's a lot of drama, right? In relationships. So you start off with the story that  there were two sons and one son okay, so now we have a conflict, we have a  duality thing happening here, the inciting incident. All of a sudden, it give me my  inheritance. Life is normal. Give me my inheritance. Now, why did Jesus tell the  story? He tells the story because he's eating with the tax collectors and the  sinners, right and the righteous people and the Pharisees, they were saying, you know, who is this Jesus, He spends all of his time with these tax collectors and  sinners. Now Jesus has to say to them, Look, I have come, My grace is for the  lost, it's for you. And now he could have explained that. He could have given an  epistle like the apostle Paul might have but instead he goes, there was a man 

who had two sons. And then as the story goes on. Well, one son represents the  people that he's eating with and the other son is the one that is complaining  about hem eating with these people. And so he, he is preaching to his audience. But he's telling the story and the thing about a story is it lowers the guard,  people can't help but get into a story. And then sort of like Nathan the prophet  when you when David had sinned by communicating with Bathsheba and then  he tells that story, and then and then all of a sudden, David is in the story, not  realizing it's about him. So then finally their big reveal. But that's what stories do. Stories, sort of, get to our hearts past our minds And that's why they  communicate so well. And there's so so telling stories is one of the best ways to  communicate. But how do you tell a good story? I guess? Yeah. So have you  told them stories? Number one, you have to again, first principle is you have to  picture. You see it in your own mind and describe it as if you're going through it  again. So in other words, detail, sometimes people will give a testimony and  they'll say, you know, before I knew the law, and I got into drinking and alcohol,  sex or money, drugs, and it's just cliche, it's like, I can't feel any of those things.  But if instead he said, You know, before, before I know the Lord, I remember the  first day that I went to jail. I remember they put me in the cell. And I remember  distinctly hearing the click of the lock. And then, the next guy to me started  coughing, and I looked over there and there was the bowl that were supposed to the communal toilet, in other words you describe as if you're sitting there. Well,  now people are like, mesmerized as to what it was. See now you're describing  what your life was before Christ? And I'm seeing this and I'm feeling it. If it's  generalities. Right? I don't I don't feel that, you know, one of the things I noticed  sometimes in preaching that, honestly makes me just feel tired. No disrespect, is when a minister gives like everything in the message, before he gets into that  hook, that story, that introduction. So today, we're going to find out how David  was confronted by Nathan, the prophet. Nathan, the Prophet said, You are the  man. And so just sit tight and your going to hear the story. Right? Right. So for  example, when I got into the Titanic, I would have before, actually, an author,  Max Lucado helped me understand how to tell a story. Because before when I  got into the Titanic, I'm going to use as a metaphor for saving people. I would  say, Okay, I want to talk about evangelism. And I want to use the metaphor of  the Titanic that went down in 1912. Well, and I give all these facts about the  Titanic, right. But what I learned from Max Lucado, is I don't say anything about  the Titanic. I just start off with, she was only seven years old. Right? Everyone's  going, Who was seven years old? What happened? Right? shivering in lifeboat  number 13, she watched in utter horror as the biggest ship that existed at that  time slid out of sight beneath the waves. Her name was Eva Hart. She  remembers giving a silent scream of terror. So in other words, I'm not gonna say I'm going to tell a story. I'm not going to use a metaphor. I just launch into it right  in the middle. When you're all going, what's going on? One of my daughter's big 

time into creative writing, she had us believe that if her hurt. Learning this is  show don't tell. Show don't tell, because telling me what I should learn. That is  not as interesting than showing me why, and showing me what? Luke 15 The  story of the prodigal son, Jesus, Jesus does not at the end, go see you  Pharisees. This is why I told the story. He just he just ended the story.  Remember the story ends, the prodigal just comes home. and they kill the calf  and have a party. But the older son is still out in the field and the father comes  out and the older son, son, we had to celebrate, because your son was your  brother was lost. And now he's found and that then the story just ends but But  what was Jesus saying? He was saying all the religious leaders hearing that  were complaining that he was eating with the Pharisees. He's saying, You know  what? You're invited to the party, too. Right. Okay, I am sitting here with these  sinners, and you're complaining about it. You are welcome. And so the story is  unfinished. Because Jesus, is in a way saying without saying, Are you gonna  come to the party or not? You're right. It's very practical in ministry. Sometimes  we meet people. Just tell them the story, right when we meet them. We get  practical on this. I remember one time there was a contributor to CLI who has  contributed for one of the major languages, and he is a dairy man. So I called  him up. And I said, so how are the cows doing and everything like that? And I  said like, Would you like to buy some ministry cows? I said, what? I can build a  milk for these cows, and we can spread the Gospel all over. Okay, he laughed.  He said, how much how many cows do you need? Some ways I could have  said, you know, as we get into this there's a story, now, again, I, by the way,  didn't even tell the full story there because of time. But I actually made in my  mind, an interesting story about the story of his life. Right? You put it in terms,  you put your message in terms of the story he can relate to. That's what the  Titanic was. Right? You know, you put it in the in terms of the story that people  lived. That's what Jesus did in the story of the prodigal son, and it  communicating the joy, the beauty and the interesting nature of all of life, right.  And the quicker you can get into your story, the better and all the fluff and the  introduction, people will ruin a good story by all this fanfare ahead. I want to tell  the story, I first heard this story, no one cares about any of that. Or, you know, I  don't know if I got all the facts right about this story. I'm not a very good  storyteller. So I'm going to try to skip all the introductions and just launch into it.  And if people are in it takes people a second ago, what's going on, but that's all  creative energy. They're listening, right? Oh, and you might say yourself, I know  I'm not a great storyteller. But I'll tell you a story told by a sincere loving person  is worth the wait. But if the sincere, loving person. Distracting, says, You know, I  don't normally tell stories. I'm going to try. I'm going to try. I'm going to try and all of a sudden it's gone. A sincere, ministry loving person just launches in a story,  and then stutters, and then fails a little bit, and then comes back, and you have  never really been much of a person but when you do. That's powerful. Because 

that's a sincere person is just trusting the Lord to bless them. One easy  technique, just give you one little little technique to get started. Just start your  story with the time that happens. So for example, It was the summer of 1967 It  was the day I almost died. Again, and I tell the story of what happened with my  brother and the glass, and riding through the window. But I say I started off, it  was the summer of 1967. That's my opening line. And now they're going right to  summer. I found myself, I found myself. There's something in my mind that went  back in time just I lost myself for that moment, you said it was the summer of  1967. Right? Because it gives you a feeling right? It was it was the first  Christmas. I remember. Or it was the first Christmas without my mother, right?  Or it was, you know, all of a sudden Christmas mother. Yeah, I can relate to  these things. You're starting off with something that translate. It transports you to get ready for what's coming. Right. And it puts you in that environment. Now, we  would encourage you to do curious searching on the internet to for how to tell a  great story. When you read some interesting books, find out how they do it, how  they think about that inciting incident. This is it won't take long and your story  telling ability will improve dramatically.