Video Transcript: Session 22 Structure Continued

We're back session 22 on developing a sermon where in that section of this  class developing a sermon, we talked about preparing to preach. And all the  things you should be thinking about preparing to preach as far as looking at the  message not only and getting prayer for yourself, deciding what kind of  message you're going to bring those sorts of things. And then now we've been in developing a sermon, we looked at introductions and a variety of ways an  introduction, introduce your message to hook people in, in that first few minutes, couple of minutes, two minutes about is what some people say, you've got to  hook them to hold their interest. Well, today we're continuing the idea of  organization, or how do you structure the message in a way that the audience  will walk with you that there are some kind of development that they can follow  and catch on to and be part of so it's not just a sense, from their point of view of  wandering, the man who taught me to preach, one of the things he told me after  I preached, and said, and he said to me, you know, everything you said, was  right, doctrinally, biblically, but nobody was listening. He said, one of the things  you got to do is write the sermon with the audience in mind, the hearer in mind.  And so what's going to help the hearer stick with you in a message that you're  bringing. So in the section that we've been calling organization structure, last  time, we looked at Dr. Frank Thomas, and he, he suggested this structure, you  know that there's a situation, there's a complication of the situation, there's a  resolution of the complication, and then there's a celebration of the resolution.  Now, this is sometimes called the novel organization. And that is very similar to  what you would do with a novel right, and we talked about that last time. But this works well with a narrative kind of portions where you're telling a story of the  Bible, but your retelling it with some added information. For instance, you could  use this with with David and, and his failure with Bathsheba, but you could talk  about the situation of David being the youngest forgotten son, about God  coming and choosing him to be king, because he found him to be a person after  his own heart. And then of a complication of the situation after he becomes  famous, and successful. David sees Bathsheba, and he lusts after her, and then he takes her and then commits murder of her husband, and etc. And then all the resolution of the situation that the Prophet coming and saying, you know, it's  you. And then okay celebration of the resolution, and that is God's forgiveness,  and grace, and restoration, as well as David's confession, you know, create in  me a clean heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me. So that's one type of  structure. We talked about that last time a little bit. We talked about the textual  structure where main points come from the text and sub points from outside the  text and gave some illustrations of that the expository structure, which is the  main points are from the text, and the sub points are from the text as well. Now,  I want to move on to some new ones. ways you can structure these are not  quite as popular as the ones we've looked at. But they are ones that are very  useful and very impactful. One is the ladder structure. That's the way some 

people talk about it. In that is that you you're you're climbing up to a point right,  you're you're giving one piece of information, which leads to another which leads to another, which leads to another. For instance, let's say that you're doing a  message on Jonah. Now most people do about four messages on the book of  Jonah. But let's say that you want to do one from this ladder kind of structure.  And so here, there could be an outline for you. Your main point would be  something like God cares about condemned people. Now, I want all to be saved  and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. God says that a couple of  different places in Scripture, he doesn't want any to perish. So God's concern for everyone could be your first point. Then Jonah's commission, that call to Jonah  and saying, Go, I want you to tell them the message, the prophecy about their  condemnation, if they don't turn and, and confess, and then God's confrontation  with Jonah. Jonah tries to run away and Jonah's Jonah's thrown into the water  and this huge fish swallows him and so there's this confrontation, the confession of Jonah wonderful statement and Jonah as he reflects on the fact that God is  the one who can rescue him, his cry from the fish, Jonah's communication to the people the message that he gets, and then his confrontation with God as he's  disappointed that God doesn't bring the judgment that he did because the  people broke out in repentance. That would be kind of a ladder or It leads from  one point to another to another to another to another. So that's an illustration.  But this is a wonderful way of organizing your messages to say, Okay, here's  one thing, here's another, here's another, here's another. Some people refer to it as kind of a detective kind of way of doing it too. You can, you can organize in  that similar way of saying, well, here's one clue. Here's another clue. Here's  another clue. Here's another clue. For instance, you could be preaching a  topical message, let's say, God's omniscience he knows everything. So here's  one clue from Scripture. Here's another clue here's, so those are part of the the  ladder, you know, you're, you're climbing up, you're making the points, it's a  ladder or a map that you're, you're going somewhere. And this is how we get  here is one step after another, after another. So those are one way of doing it.  Now. Another way is, this is Andy Stanley, excellent communicator, pastor, and  yet he's author, he's speaker. He's tremendously gifted man. And he wrote a  book on preaching, finally, because people said, We're impressed with your  ability to communicate for change. In fact, that's what he titled his book  communicating for a change. Toward the end of that book, he talks about how  he structures a message, and he says, he structures his messages every single  one the same way. And it's going to be what I'm calling out today, a  conversational structure. In other words, it's a structure where you're like, you're  having a conversation with your audience. And he uses this structure, me. This  is where this message got started. It started in my heart asking a question of  God or asking a question of myself. And then we bringing them into it, that you  have the same kind of situation in your life. God, what does God say about this? 

And then back to you? What are you going to do with this information, then a  conclusion, which is often a challenge. And then we how are we going to interact differently, and because of this message, now, his point is, this is a structure he  says, which leads to change in people's behavior. And it's an excellent structure  to work with, give me an illustration of it. He preached on marriage one time.  And the passage he chose to preach on was the Ephesians, classic passage on marriage from Ephesians 5. Now, verse 21, sets the stage for all the directives  that are given to husbands and wives, for instance, the wife has said, told to  submit to your husbands as to the Lord. And then the Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. But the whole part is  governed by verse 21, which says, Submit to one another out of reverence for  Christ. So he decided in, you know, we talked about doing the big picture of  boiling things down to one sentence, one big idea, his big idea in that message  was submission, is the best decision, when you are facing a situation with your  wife or your husband. Choosing to submit to them is the best decision that's  going to bring the best outcome. Now, how did he get there? In his outline, he  started with me. He said, sometimes, I wonder how to respond to situations in  my marriage, where I'm, I'm at a disagreement with my wife, or, or we have had  a fight about something. Or we disagree about what's the best thing for us to do  with our money? Or what is the best thing for us to do with our children? And so  I'm wondering about that. So that's me? Well, you, you probably wonder that  too, at times, I'm sure that if you're married, you have faced that situation. Or if  you're in a relationship with somebody, you face that situation too how do I react and this, this given situation, and so now the people are brought in, and they  sense this conversation, he shared a little bit about how he came to this subject. Now, here's how I think it fits you, you do this, too. And then he says, Okay, God, let's bring God into the conversation. When you bring God into the conversation, you find that the Bible teaches we are to submit to one another, in other words,  put the desires and needs of our spouse ahead of our own desires and needs.  And so that's what it means to submit. And he talks about ranking under each  other. In other words, the language that's used there is the language of the  military where, you know, the private is under the sergeant who's under the  lieutenant who's under the captain at cetera, et cetera, et cetera, that there's a  ranking under that and I'm going to choose to rank myself under my spouse.  Okay, so that's God's thing. Now, back to you. The next time you come to one of those things, ask how can I I submit to My spouse in this, what would that look  like? How can I do this effectively? So it's back to them? And all right, how do  you make that decision? And then the conclusion is, submission is the best  decision. That's the theme once again, right? That's the key sentence that he's  going to, to put with people and try to put in their hearts and their minds. So  submission is the best decision. And then back to we imagine what would  happen if you do this. Imagine the change in the fight, that you have a conflicts 

that you have with your spouse, if you would choose to submit that there's some things that he could have done there, which he didn't, but you're talking about  how fights usually with arrows toward each other. But what about if somebody  decides to stop shooting at the other person and instead shoots around to the  problem, and, and their own their own culpability in creating the problem. And so imagine what would happen if this changed. Imagine how your spouse would  react if you gave in readily imagine how your spouse would react, how your  family would be enriched. And so it's creating this picture of the future that is  preferable to what they're experiencing now submission is the best decision,  imagine what would happen. Now, this is a wonderful way to organize your  message, especially if you are looking for messages that are not just going to  inform, but to change direction for people's lives. It's, it's driven toward that the  idea is that this one always ends with kind of an appeal to make that change.  make these changes in your life to become somebody who submits or make this change in your life to somebody who seeks the good of others before  themselves, or some change in your life, when you find out that you are going to your role in life is to be a steward of all that you have, but God actually owns it.  So you can create this, think about this as a structure sometime. And you'll find  that some messages are enriched, but especially those that are gearing towards an appeal at the end for a change in behavior. So got that one. Next one is one  of my favorites. And it's called the gem, the gem organization structure or  sometimes the flower, either one of them fits, if you picture a gem, picture  yourself holding on a diamond or Ruby, and you turn it and you look at it from  various facets, you see how the light reflects from various angles. And, and, and you're always coming back to that idea that there are various facets to this gem,  or in the flower analogy is you look at one petal, and you come back, but you're  always coming back to the center. So you look at one petal, and then you look at another and you look at another and you look at another, this kind of  organization, in my experience in the United States has been part of the African  American or the black expression of preaching, that some black preachers do  this incredibly well. And when you are done, you say, Wow, I got the main point,  right, there's a main point. And yet it's looked at from all these different  perspectives. It's not linear. It's not like, okay, we're taking this piece, and  growing to this piece to this piece to this piece, like a ladder or a map. It's not  even an outline of a text to say, Okay, here's the main point of the text. And  here's the main points here are the sub points. It's not that it's simply looking at  a subject from different perspectives. Now, there are so many people that could  have given you a taste of what this is like. One of my favorite messages in the  world is by SM Lockridge, and he he doesn't say that's my king. And that one  was a bit too long to tag on to this. And so another one that is well known and  has been a very popular kind of message. In fact, you've quoted a lot of  Christian circles here in the United States. And people know exactly what you 

mean. They've heard it, I want you to hear it, too. It's by Tony Campolo. Tony  Campolo is now in his 80s. He's been a leader in the Christian church in the  United States for a long time. And he has somebody who, who lives in a black  church. I mean, that's how he, he learns to worship. It's in West Philadelphia. He says, Yeah, it was all white when we moved into that area, and we joined that  church and it gradually changed as the community changed and we stayed. And he's got a position of influence. He was a professor at Eastern college Eastern  seminary, which is a Baptist background kind of organization. And he's a well  known speaker around the world. In fact, listening to him again in preparation for this lesson. He's an Impressive, impressive speaker. Well in one of his  messages, He shares a story about his pastor. Now, unfortunately, I couldn't find his pastor doing this. But I can find all over the internet. Tony Campolo doing it.  So sharing the story. And the story is, that's the story is it's Friday. But Sunday's  coming. It's Friday, but Sunday's coming. And I'm gonna let him share it with  you. The best version I could find for you doesn't have Tony Campolo saying it,  but it's given background with pictures. And so it's about nine minutes long. If  you watch this, then come back. We'll just talk it down for just a minute. Okay, so here's Tony Compolo. It's Friday. But Sunday's coming. I belong to a black  church in West Philadelphia. I grew up in West Philadelphia, communities all  black now. We still go to the same church, to the church. I mean, you've been a  great congregation, great audience, whatever you want to call it. But as good as  you have been, you're not as good as the people in my church. I mean, you got  to preach to a black congregation to know what good is. You see me in a black  church good or bad. They let you know. One time I was preaching to my church  and nothing was happening. Every field preacher just dying want to speak about three quarters of the way through the sermon and some lady in the back yelled,  help him Jesus, help him Jesus and I knew I knew it wasn't going well. You know what I mean? I just knew it wasn't going well. Likewise, likewise, when you really own in my church, they let you know because the deacons sit right up front. And  whenever you say something good, they go crazy. They go, Please, brother,  preach, man, preach, preach, man, when they say preach, I go. And the women  in my church, they do this, they do this. Whenever you say something good.  They put one hand in the air. And they go, well, well, well you get a well, your  hormones bubble. And the men out there in the congregation they do something special? You say something super, the men yell. Keep going, brother, keep  going. You don't get that from a white audience. A white audience is always  yelling, stop, stop. You know what I mean? It was my turn to preach. And I got  up and I'm going to tell you people, I was good. And they started coming on and  the more they came on, the better I got, the better I got, the more they came on.  I got better. And I got so good. I wanted to take notes on me. I came to the end  of that message. That place went bananas. I mean, it went crazy. I sat down my  pastor squeezed my knee. He said, All right, boy. I hate it when he calls me boy. 

I told him I said Pastor, he said Yeah, I said you gonna be able to top that? He  said, son, you sit back. Because the old man is gonna do you in. I didn't figure  anybody could do me in that day. But the old guy got up and he did me in with  one line. For an hour and a half. He preached one line over and over again.  

Here's the line. It's Friday but Sunday's coming. So that doesn't rock your socks  out but you should have heard him doing started nice and soft. You know, we're  all there. Started with. It was Friday. It was Friday. And my Jesus has been on  the tree but that's Friday. Sunday's comin'. Somebody yelled, preach brother  preach and he thought it Friday. Friday Mary is crying her eyes out. The  disciples are running in every direction like sheep without a shepherd. But that's  Friday Friday Sunday is a comin'. They're beginning to pick up now yelling. Keep going. Friday, Friday, looking at the world and saying as things have been so  they shall be you can't change nothing in this world, you can't change nothing in  this world. But they didn't know it was only Friday. Sunday's a comin' to get on to it. One more time here Friday. Friday them forces that oppress the poor and  keep people down them forces to destroy people. Them forces is in control. And  they've got a rule but they don't know it's only Friday. we'll see you yet. Friday,  Sunday's a comin'. we'll go one more time. Friday, Friday people are saying,  darkness is gonna rule the world. Darkness is gonna be everywhere, but they  don't know it's only Friday, Sunday's a comin', I feel better, don't you? He keeps  on doing that for an hour, an hour and a quarter an hour and a half one line over and over again. Friday, Sunday's coming Friday, Sunday is coming Friday.  Sunday's comin', he came to the end of the message, I was exhausted. He just  yelled at the top of his lungs, FRIDAY. And all 1600 others yelled Sunday's a  comin'. People, that's the good news. When we take the Gospel seriously, this is what will happen. Our psychological needs will begin to be met, our capacity to  love will be developed. Our appreciation of the miraculous will cause us to  expect great things from God. And the Spirit of God that possesses us will  motivate us to give ourselves to those who are suffering in a way that we have  failed to do up to this day. And when all of that happens, this is the good news.  This is the very good news. That even though this world is rotten as it is right  now, we know it's only Friday. Now, wasn't that effective. I mean, it was simple in some ways. And yet, it's incredibly challenging. If you aren't equipped with that,  if you haven't learned that in some way, somewhere, it's hard to do this every  once in a while just to challenge myself, I'd say you know, I want to try this  flower kind of organization to my message. And so picking that phrase, it's going to come back to people come back to people come back to people come back to people is something that sticks in people's hearts and minds. And it doesn't have to be complex. Fact, as I was doing this, I was thinking of the worst message I  ever preached. Worst message ever preached was on a Sunday evening  service. And the person who was supposed to be a guest in our church said and I cancelled at four o'clock. So I said, That's okay, I'll haul something out of the 

file. It was Advent season. And I had nothing in the file as I looked that was  worthwhile, except I had something about Immanuel God with us. And so, you  know, six o'clock service. I got up there and preach. Immanuel God was I  basically said nothing else for about 20 minutes. And I felt so destroyed by that  message that I walked out of the church, got in my car, got home and felt like I'm never going to preach again. But during that week, there's a group of women in  our church that played a card game together every Thursday night. And then  Thursday night, there was a group four women in the car who are traveling to  the card game, and they got in an accident. And nobody was seriously hurt,  thankfully, but they had to stay in the car because the car was damaged to the  extent that none of the doors could be opened. And so they had to stay in the  car until they got what was called the jaws of life to come and tear the car apart  and get the women out. And one woman called me to say, you know, this has  happened. But she said, you know, the only thing that helped me maintain my  sanity, while we were waiting for the jaws of life was that phrase, God with us  Emmanuel, God is with us. Emmanuel, God is with us. So okay, God I get. So  it's not what I do or plan for what to do. But it was simply this organization that  planted that firmly in her heart and mind. So some time or another practice, see  how the the petals come together to form around the center phrase, which is a  repeated phrase, and those types of organizations. All of these types of  organizations can be used by God in your life, in your ministry, to make an  impact in your preaching. Next time we're going to start looking at how you  conclude a message effectively. So we'll see in the next class.\