Welcome back to this class on. So you've been asked to preach or you've been  asked to teach or you've been asked to speak at a function we've been looking  at how do you structure a message? And then how do you conclude the  message effectively. And here's where we left off last time, the discouraging  finish can be an ineffective conclusion, because it just creates too much  confusion for people. Another kind of ineffective conclusion is what we're going  to, I'm going to call summarizing the whole tell him, tell him tell him tell him.  When I was taught to preach or when I began studying preaching, I looked at  classical preachers in the United States, from about the 1950s. And found that  they had a style of organization that was the conclusion you tell people or the  introduction, you tell people what you're going to tell him. And then you tell him  the first point, and then you summarize the first point. And then you tell him the  second point, and then you summarize the first point and the second point, and  then you tell him the third point, and you tell him summarize the first and second and third point. And then on the conclusion, you tell him again, what you just told him. That can become a very repetitive kind of thing that people in nowadays  world of communication that is fast, will simply tune out. And so that would be a  poor conclusion. Another kind of poor conclusion as well, I'm going to call a lot of times, I've used that one. And only use that in great desperation. Because all of  a sudden, these people that were made, didn't quite wrap it up, you didn't quite  finish the puzzle. But sometimes you got to do that. Very early was preaching as in seminaries and a church in Phoenix, Arizona, and I was using a cassette tape back then the 30 Minute cassette tape to tape my messages. And it was July 4,  Sunday, July 4, which in the United States is a big holiday. So we don't expect  many people in the evening service where I was preaching, I wanted to take my  message. So I put my, my recorder, tape recorder inside the pulpit. And I set it  to, to record me when I started my message. In other words, there weren't that  many people there that night, but I started going and I, I got lost in my message  and didn't have a well organized, and 30 Minute was over, the recorder clicked  off, which is one thing, except it was inside his wooden pulpit. And it was like a  gunshot that was reverberated through the whole sanctuary. And people were  just going, what was that took me a minute to realize there wasn't a gunshot, it  was just my tape recorder going off. I said, I'm done. I'm done. And they were  relieved. I hate to say it. But that kind of thing says, I didn't organize this very  well. And then another kind of bad conclusion is the left field. Conclusion, and  that is that you've been building this case you've been in this Bible study and  passenge with them, are you in this topic with them. And then at the end, you go off on something entirely different? Well, before I go, I just want to say  something about this, which has nothing to do with what you said, that will  tarnish your message. And so I call the left field conclusion. So those are a  variety of ways that don't work very well. What kind of conclusions do work well,  what kind of conclusion this takes work to work out a conclusion that is effective.

But here are some kinds of conclusions that are very, very effective. But  remember the purpose of conclusions, emphasizing the main point, sending  people off with some kind of action, whether it's a thought or a deed, and then  landing the plane so that you come to a conclusion and people are ready to say  yeah, yeah. Think again of Tony Campolo and that message, it's Friday, but  Sunday's a comin'. You know, that main point came back at the conclusion,  where the conclusion was, you people here gathered in this place, you think you can't impact the world. But I'm telling you, it's only Friday, and then they're all  shouting at Sunday coming out was a send off with action to be engaged in the  world. And it was a landing place for the message. So how do you do that? Well, one way of doing it extremely well, that takes work, but it's incredibly positive is  to connect to your introduction. Now, this man was a radio figure here in the  United States for many, many, many years. They had a radio program, and one  part of his radio program he would call the rest of the story. So he tells a story  about someone or something. And then you get to the end, and you're kind of  you're kind of craving the end of the story, because they're Usually a twist at the  end of the story. And so he began a story about a young woman, for instance,  who was a scientist. But she lived in the middle of the 19th century in England  and women scientists were not accepted, they were not received well. And as a  result, she was somebody who just didn't, she was not able to fulfill her destiny.  She spoke once before a group of scientists, and they criticized her to no end so she decided to give up her dream of being a scientist. But one of the things she  then comforted herself with was taking on a task in her life, she had a neighbor  boy who was sick, and they were looking for someone to care for him. And so  she decided to care for him. And while she was caring for him, she would tell  him stories. And she created this world of little rabbits, and the story of these  rabbits and how they lived out their lives. And there were moral lessons along  the way. And she illustrated them well. And so then the moment I'll tell you the  rest of the story, then it comes back after commercial. And the rest of the story  was, this is the story of Beatrix Potter, who's in the history of the United States,  one of the beloved children's authors with a story about Peter Rabbit. And it's  that sort of thing. Now, when you do that, in a message, it can be incredibly  powerful that you say, here's the introduction, and I'm giving you part of the  story. So you want more, you're gonna stay tuned. And at the end, we're gonna  wrap this up. I heard that done recently with somebody preaching about Joseph, young man I was privileged to work with for about seven or eight years. And he  began his message by the point where Joseph is 31 years old, and he's in  prison. And he says, I was thinking back to when I was 31. And he described his life when he was 31. He was a worship leader in the church, and he had just  gotten fired. His wife was pregnant with their second child, they found out their  first child had some defects, some health issues that were going to maybe cost  a lot of money over a period of time, the economy was, therefore health 

insurance was a big thing. And the economy was such that they owned a house, but they owed more on the house and what they could sell it for. And so all of  these issues going on, and now what is my future going to hold, and I get fired  by this new boss, new boss, and we just didn't see right the same way. And then he told me about Joseph in that situation, and how things changed in a moment, how, you know, all of a sudden, he's hauled out of prison, he's forgotten, right?  The the man that he said, please remember me when you serve Pharaoh again  and forgotten him, he's forgotten for two more years. But then all of a sudden,  he is called to go before Pharaoh to interpret this dream. And he does. And all of a sudden, he's second ruler in Egypt, says things turn like that. At the end of the  story, and of the message, he said, last week, a couple of weeks ago, said, I got  to sit down with him and he fired me when I was 31. And we acknowledged our  own each our own culpability and what went on, the way things had built. We,  we acknowledge all of that, and then we apologized to each other. And we  committed to each other as brothers again. And he said that I had to move on in  my ministry, to where he was, at the present time. That kind of thing, bracketing  a message in such a way that the introduction and the conclusion of brackets,  the message will bring power to your message, so connect to the connect to the  introduction, variety ways you can do that. But if you do it, well, this will have  power. Now, having said that, a second way is to use an illustration of your main point, you know, you've got a main point that you've been emphasizing. Okay,  bring an illustration of that point, somebody who's lived out the action that you're calling people to that you want them to understand you want them to understand God's love. Have somebody give a testimony as a conclusion, Have a picture of  God's love preaching on God's love. So that's I'm preaching on that this Sunday  in our church. And I just think of John Harper's where God is closer than you  think. So he ended a message on that by talking about being on a plane next to  somebody, a guy who's on his computer, and he's looking at pictures of his  young son, and his son has gotten old enough that he recognizes dad now and  sees dad and smiles and so, you know, this guy is telling John Ortberg about all  these, showing him all these pictures of the sun that he's got us as computers,  phones, and and John Ortberg is thinking about God loving us. Suddenly I  realized this was This guy's screensaver, a picture of his son him with a son, I  realized I'm on God's screensaver. That kind of conclusion, illustration of your  point can be incredibly, incredibly powerful. Asking people to take an action of  some sort is another way that can just bring home your point. Now there are a  variety of actions, to think about that. I'm thinking of a woman named Rachel  Blum, who asked people to come up and light a candle as a prayer for  someone. And so at the end of her sermon, just as people come up a bunch of  candles up there, it was an action that allowed that message to be cemented in  people's lives and minds. In the church, I served. In the last church, I served, we had a practice of this, you know, we have people come up, and they would do a 

variety of things, such as nailing, writing their sins out, and then nailing them  onto a cross. We'd have people come forward for prayer, or we'd have people  gather in groups praying together. One time we had people picking up a stone or dropping a stone or a one time, we had to write on a mirror. You know, what,  what do you want to reflect of God's glory? What what is it you want to reflect?  And or writing names one time we had people come up and just, we had talked  to the last frame, Plexiglas in a wood frame, and we have people write names,  and people if they wanted us to pray for, that these people would come to faith.  These kinds of conclusions are marvelously powerful, and they bring it home, I'd say they bring the message home in a powerful way. So if you could find ways  that ask people to take action of some sort, whatever it is, it will cement your  message into their hearts and minds more powerfully. So you can do an action  you connect to your introduction illustrate your point, an action, or an appeal.  Now, these appeals could be a variety of kinds, it could be an appeal to  stewardship. I, in my blog. Not long ago, I talked about preaching about money  and several posts and things you can do about money? Well, you know, I've  been involved, I think of a ministry in six different building programs. And thank  God enough to do that again. But one of the things we'd have to do is raise  money for that. And so oftentimes, I would give a message and the appeal  would be alright, would you make a pledge? Would you make a three year  pledge that will help us accomplish this, this leaving of a legacy or help us  accomplish this, reaching out in this community in an impactful way for the next  100 years, or whatever? A stewardship appeal is very important. An appeal,  that's a response to the gospel, that if your message had been giving the  gospel, you say, if you'd like to receive Jesus Christ today, I want to talk to you  or we've got people available here afterwards to talk to you. It may be signing up for a program, maybe you've talked here in a sermon series about grief. And  now there's grief share, which is a marvelous program to help people who are  grieving. Come sign up for this program. It might be introducing a mission and,  and challenging people to be part of that mission. Recently, the church that I'm a part of, and we adopted a new Michigan, new mission in Rwanda. And so there  was a challenge to say, Okay, there's this need within this community, how many of you are willing to go to help build the school? How many of you are willing to  fund it to pay for it? How many of you are willing, it's that kind of appeal that kind of challenge that these kinds of appeals and you may be thinking of others, but  anything that appeals makes an appeal to people to engage the gospel more  effectively, and it can be marvelously powerful. Now. I'm going to continue this  next time. I think I've come about to the end of my time for this session. And so  next time we'll begin a session nine and we'll see 



Last modified: Tuesday, November 14, 2023, 10:49 AM