Video Transcript: Learning how to put a message/sermon together

Welcome back. Welcome back to this third session on this short course on so  you've been asked to speak somewhere, we've been looking at the different  kinds of messages. And again, my predisposition here is talking about the fact  you've been asked to preach somewhere, you've been asked to give a  devotional, you've been asked to give a message. And so how do you get that  message from the Bible, how do you get those messages that come from  connections, and put them into a Bible kind of setting? Well, now we're going to  move to how do you start putting this message together. And the place to begin  with that, of course, is with the introduction. Now, introductions are important,  more important than most people give them credit. Many, many people, when  they start preaching, I found will simply jump into their subject. And this is a little  bit of a dangerous time, because studies have shown that if people don't  connect with your message, within the first two minutes of you talking, they'll  start tuning out their minds will go elsewhere. We who speak in front of people  these days, face a huge challenge, because with the media on television, in  particular, wherever you might be, the images change every eight to 12  seconds. And so there's this huge change going on. So if they're not hooked by  what you say in your introduction, they'll start tuning out. So the purpose of an  introduction is first, to hook people to get them to bite onto, to grab onto what  you're saying. My grandkids may be a little computer 3ds, Nintendo 3ds, to play  a computer game on. And one part of that game, video game, there's a part  where you have to fish. And I was really quite surprised. I've done some fishing.  I'm not a big fisherman, you may know more about than I. But one of the things I had to do was a cast this little figure cast this line into this pool. And that wasn't  enough, you have to play with it, you had to tease the fish a little bit before they  would bite on and then you could haul him ashore. And you can continue by  catching some more. And then you got rewards for the amount you caught. Well  the introduction you got to look at that way. It's throwing your lure in and you're  playing with it so that people get hooked. And they say, I want to hear more. So  we want to be hooked. So introduce introductions do several things. They make  us want more information. In other words, they're going to they're, they're going  to say, I want to find out more when you read some of the great novels in history, at least in English literature. That's my background, of course, is English  literature. They start things like it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, right away you're saying, what kind of time was it? described that more? Tell me  more. And then the writer goes on. And you're hooked in the first page. Novels  do that. Great speakers do that, too. They hook you say, I want to know more.  Sometimes it's the introduction of a character. And I'm reading a novel right now  on the first page, you know, we're given a goal and some action that says, Okay, who is this guy anyway. And so you read more? What are the things that does is a good instruction makes people want more, it introduces the theme of your  message, in some way, shape, or form. And it will set a tone, it will say the type 

of speaker you are, and it will gain credibility for us. Now, if you're a guest  preacher, and that's where I spend most of my time, these days, you have to  spend a little bit of time on that gain credibility for us. You know, not bragging on  yourself. But people have to believe you know what you're talking about, that  you've thought this through, you studied it, that you are serious. And so you  know, I will always give a brief introduction on myself just that I've been  preaching for a long time. And, you know, preaching is one of the passions that  God has given me. And, you know, when I was out of ministry, for a while, I felt  called back into it just by preaching and saying, God's saying to me, this is what  I called you to do. So I'm glad to be here today, to share with you. So it's a way  to hook people, but it's also a way to gain credibility for yourself. So what kind of  introductions work well, to accomplish these four purposes, make us want more  information, introduce the theme, set a tone, gain credibility for us. One of the  best ways what kind of introductions work well, is a story now When you read  through the scriptures and you read the messages of Jesus, you'll find he almost always uses a story as an introduction to a deeper truth. They were often  parables, but they're stories that people back then could relate to grab onto and  say, Okay, what does this mean? How does? How does this relate to my life?  And think about the parable of the sower where the farmer goes out to sow  various kinds of seeds, you know, that this is something they saw all the time. In  fact, some scholars suggested, you know, Jesus was watching somebody, a  farmer sowing seed, as he began this message. And so that it was that kind of  reality that he worked with that people saw what was going on, saw what he was talking about. And so that's how he used the story. And now you can use stories  in a variety of ways. I mean, just share one with you. This is John Wesley, the  founder of the Methodist church back in the 18th century, John Wesley was an  incredibly dedicated person. He was dedicated to personal holiness. In fact,  when he was in college, he and his brother Charles and some other young men  started what they called the holiness club. And their goal was to hold each other  accountable, they met every day and, and they held each other accountable for  a holy life. And that holy life was involved by dedicating yourself to the service of God for your entire life. And so the people in the holiness club made a pledge,  since the Apostle Paul said, You know what, I wished everybody was single, so  that they can wholeheartedly devote themselves to the work of God. I wish that  everybody was single, they made a pledge to be single. Now. John Wesley  began to question that, he began to question it. When he went as a missionary  to the American colony at that time of Georgia, went as a missionary there to  Indians, and while there he met a young woman that just captivated him, her  name was Sophia Hopkey. And he began rethinking his dedication to singleness because he fell in love with Sophia Hopkey. Now, unfortunately, she was story  goes, engaged to another person. And so he was struggling, couldn't find  himself because he had dedicated himself. He had these other people, these 

other members of the holiness club are holding him accountable for his  singleness. And he couldn't feel like he could break that. And so he struggled  with that struggle that and Sophia Hopkey finally married the other person. And  so what's the will of God for, for John Wesley in regard to marriage? He ended  up going back to England a very crushed person in very many ways. And it's  fascinating story, came back to England and picked up the work in England of  preaching in a variety of places preaching the Bible, preaching a serious this  about receiving Jesus Christ into your life and having him involved your whole  life. And he began rethinking about the fact that he noticed that some people in  the movement have found great strength in being married, married. And he  began to rethink his objections to marriage, and seven of them at one time, in  his in his journal, which are voluminous, by the way, a very interesting reading,  he wrote in his journal, he'd been relooking at his seven objections to marriage  and, and he's, and he's rethinking them. And he's thinking that now, maybe God  is calling him to get married, take a wife. And so he's praying about this thinking  about it. And he writes, and I think that maybe Grace Murray is the person that I  might be called to marry. And so, Grace Murray was somebody who had been  working alongside him in a variety of settings within this movement that was  Methodism in the England, in England at that time, and, and he's deciding to ask her to marry him. Well, he tells his brother Charles that he's going to ask Grace  Murray to marry him. And Charles is so upset by this, that he rushes out the  door jumps on his horse according to the story, and rides pell mell over to Grace Murray's house, gets off as far as rushes and doesn't even bother knocking  rushes in the door, confronts Grace Murray, says Grace Murray, you're breaking  my heart and he falls over in a faint. Grace Murray was so traumatized by this  that she refused to even think about marrying John, and she ended up marrying  another man. While now Wesley had thought about this whole idea of marriage  and decided that God was calling him to get married. And so he married a young woman named Mary Vazeille, V-a-z-e-i-l-l-e . And, and sometimes she's referred  to as Molly in history, got married to her and he had an awful marriage. In fact  she ended up leaving him entirely after about 10 years. But they ended up  separating many times in their they had a miserable marriage, and used that  story to introduce how do you know God's will? How do you know God's will as  a holy person? Like John Wesley had trouble getting it right? How do you know  God's will? And so he looked at various scripture passages as a topical  message. Anyway, I suspect you were engaged in that story, people that I was  preaching to were engaged too. What's happening. what's happening? And then to hit them with the theme. Okay, here's a situation where it's tough to determine God's will. How do you determine God's will. So story is a great way to introduce now, just a word about that. Personal stories can be especially powerful. This is  Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church in Southern California,  one of the largest churches in my country, the United States. Rick Warren, is an 

expert at using personal story. I remember hearing him speak before he became famous. And he was talking about marriage. And he talked about the time when  he and his wife were having this great tension in their marriage and how it was  impacting their children, and how they were looking at the future with great  wonder. And everybody is saying, how is this going to come out. And then he  shared how it came out. More recently, his son committed suicide. And he took  almost a year off from ministry when He came back, he and his wife said, we're  here to share today why we still believe that a good God and a pin could drop at  that point. Now, one note about using personal stories, is you got to be careful  not to be the hero. Like, you know, people struggle with this aspect of the will of  God, but I've got it all together. If you do that people are going to start well, it's  good for you but doesn't work for me quite that way. So a personal story can be  a wonderful way of introduction. Now another kind of introduction is an intriguing question. In other words, you're asking something you're wondering something  it's, you put it out there. What? What do you think of this? Jesus used this a lot  in his messages. Here's seven questions of Jesus? Do you believe that I'm able  to do this? That's an intriguing question. Do you believe I'm able to hal this  child? Why are you afraid you're in a storm right now and I'm in the boat with  you. Why are you afraid? Oh you of little faith? What do you think about the  Christ? Other people he said don't. Other people are saying, what do people say they report on that? What do you think? Or his question to Peter, do you love  me? It's a powerful one, because he says, Do you love me? Do you agape me,  the highest form of love in scripture, and Peter keeps responding, ? I phileo you. I love you like a brother. And he's failed Jesus. Why do you call Me Lord, Lord,  and then not do what I tell you? What do you want me to do for you> Well, I  want to be healed. But it's an intriguing question, what is it you want me to do?  And why do you see the speck that's in your brother's eye do not notice the log  in your own eye? Those are just some intriguing questions. Here are some  others. Why does God allow child, children to die of starvation? I heard it  preached once and he started out and he said, I haven't lost my faith over it but I cannot understand why God allows children to starve to death. In Africa, I  cannot really forgive and forget. Does God, forgive me, even if I do the same sin over and over? Is God really in control? Those kinds of intriguing questions are  powerful to hook people to give you credibility, to introduce the theme and to  draw people into the messages you've got to give. We're going to continue this  next time as we continue more ways, how to introduce a message in such a way that it would grab people's attention and hook them for what you want them to  hear from God's Word that day. Thank you. We'll see you next time.