Reading: 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, an idea of making an appeal. Well, there are other ways 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 what sounded like a crowd, like the sound of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: 'Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!'" That's a powerful ending to a message, a powerful introduction, call 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 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 passages.

One of my favorites is casting a vision. And casting a vision, in the conclusion simply means, can you imagine? Can you imagine if we lived out this message? Can you imagine what this would mean for families in this community? Can you imagine fathers caring about their children? Can you imagine the end of divorce in this community? Do you imagine more than 50% of children growing up without a father and their child in their household? Impacting them to 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 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. That's powerful stuff. That's powerful stuff. And then you can combine that with a story. Wow, that's something and I have 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 it was, 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've 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 a family, we're both family, or both parents dealt drugs, and one was chronic illness. And there was new hope. That's a vision who imagined what could happen in our church. 

If we caught the vision here, of becoming a church that actually did this, 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 I were to send this person or begin this mission, or what could happen on this mission, if we can do those kinds of visionary kinds of statements They're powerful in conclusion, we want to I statements often to my staff, it was the fact that money is attracted to one or 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, in encouragement. I heard a message recently about that, where it was a messenger about people who, again, were going through a rough time, and I gave the example of in 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, but wait, you know, things that you think you might have to wait a while, but God is, 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 even see, 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 wasted as a church piercing question is a great way to end the message. 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, and like you're talking with a good friend, and you'll do what I do with my hands, you're talking about encouraging someone or you're talking about it was a big it was those kinds 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, um, um, um. I know a person that will say that 50 times in a five minute message and just kind of another one is queer, queer examples of just tics that you have, you know, I remember seeing a speaker and put them back. And then that speaker reached out he pulled up his socks and was like, just like nervous tics of some kind. And you'll see this often. And I see it often with women speakers, that they'll be doing something with their hair. I wish I had hair to do something with but it becomes a tic and it can become distracting. Putting your hands in your pockets is distracting. People are gonna wonder what's in his pocket. What's in his pocket. 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 below 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. 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. My mic fell off. Don't slouch in your message. Because if you slouch, 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 our Missions Board which supervise 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 as part of my grandfather's uncle's, was old thing. And I use that as an example to start. And I gave what I thought was a pretty good message. But then it came when they gave me copy of the recording. I don't want this to be seen here. Because I was kind of sitting there, slouched down talking. It was like, I wasn't engaged in the message myself. But 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, a watch out, it's good to do a recording of yourself, have a friend record you or even set your recorded up on a stand and record yourself just to see if you got any irritating, irritating kind of gestures. And then when you do gestures, natural ones are the 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, use the number, you're talking about a direction, they 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, it's I saw one speaker do this. So well, one time you went to one side of the building of the auditorium. And so 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, that's all an eternity representing that said, this speck in 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. Here it is. When you make gestures use both of your shoulders, not your elbows as a general direction. And also that it's big. If you're speaking to someone, it shouldn't be something big. Now those are just some other things you can check out my blog. For more reflection on that. 

I've been 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 they weren't preachers, 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 they need. People are hurting, let me get a process of healing. People who are away from God, they find their way back to God. There might be a revival starting in somebody's heart in 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 your 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. It's CLI 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 ever preached. It was Christmas time I wasn't scheduled to preach in the evening service in our church, we have a missionary coming. And about three o'clock in the afternoon got a call and he couldn't come. So I said, I understand, I'll pull something out of my file, right. I had a meeting until about four our evening service started at six. And meeting I got done with Oh quickly got my file and found there's nothing in here worth using was had that season we're trying to emphasize the coming of Jesus. And so I got up and I preached and I preached on Emmanuel, God with us. So 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 that I walked out. I got in my car and got home, went home. And said, I don't care if I ever 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 Bunco a card game from one house to houses they get grouped together quite a large group. And they were on their way four women in the car. And there are a very serious accident. And it was so serious that the car was crippled to the extent that they the police came and firemen came in 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 and said we got in this terrible accident. 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 Emanuel 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 the 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.