Video Transcript: Session 24 Conclusions continued

All right. So that last session was a little bit. Oh, no, I suspect, oh, no, I've done  that. Oh, no, I've done that. I tell you, I've done every single one of those  mistakes. And I'm trying to try to learn from them. I think I have over my career  in preaching. But now I want to talk about okay, how do you avoid those  mistakes? What are the things you focus on positively, that will help you  conclude messages in a way that people get it, and people go away, saying, Oh, this is great. Now, just a reminder, the conclusion is the piece that ties and  applies, it ties the message together, and it applies it to people's hearts, and  lives. Now, the purpose of conclusions are these. It's a moment, a great  moment, at the end of the sermon, where you emphasize the main point, again,  you're bringing people back to this is what we're talking about. It's a time of  sendoff, or calling people to action, it's the closing of the deal. It's the however  you want to put that that's, that's what should happen. In the conclusion of the  message. It's something that people go out with a sense of, okay, I'm sent to live the life of Jesus in a very complex world. And this is what it means for me. And  it's the landing that people know all of a sudden, this is the end of the message.  Now, that's the purposes of a conclusion, how to do it effectively. Here are  several different strategies that can help you as you are begin to think about  when you're doing a message, how am I going to conclude this? Well. Maybe  the most effective kind of conclusion is what I call the rest of the story. And when this is a rarity, I can tell you, but but when it is done and done well, it will be  powerful for your people. Now, the phrase, the rest of the story was one that  was coined by this man, Paul Harvey, who's now in heaven. But he was the  most popular radio radio broadcaster for many years in the United States. And  he had a broadcast that was on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, it was a brief  broadcast. But in that broadcast, he told stories, that's all he did. And he would  tell the story in the beginning, and then there'd be a break, or commercial break, and then would come the rest of the story. And people were tuned in. 27 million  people on average, every week would tune in to hear Paul Harvey talk about the rest of the story. Now, when you can bracket your message with here's the story. And here's the rest of the story. People are going to go away with a sense of the United whole, for instance, I'll just tell one of his stories, which I listened to a  again this week. And it's a story of a young woman named Helen Potter. As a  girl. She was somebody who loved the outdoors. And she loved hiking, she lived in England. This was the late 19th century. And so as a result, she was a woman in a culture that didn't always honor women. Who thought women should be at  home, the Victorian culture in England. Anyway, she developed a real love for  walking out in the woods and walking out in various places that her family would  visit. And she became especially kind of obsessed with but certainly interested  in the lichen, which goes on rocks, and she noticed green stuff growing on rocks and saying, that isn't right. There's no soil there. How does that stuff grow. And  so she began as she got older to examine this, not just notice where it was and 

not to scrape it off, but to examine it with a magnifying glass. And she was a  terrific artist. So she began drawing lichen. And she came to the conclusion that  lichen really isn't a plant. It's a it's a community of things that are interacting of  cells that are interacting, and she would draw them and she wrote about her  conclusions. As a teenager already. She was making scientific presentations to  her class that were astounding, because one of the insights into lichen, but  secondly, as an artist that it was presented beautifully. As she got into her 20s  She began to be noticed by a few people in the scientific community. And so she began presenting these conclusions or study of lichen because by then she had  learned something about the scientific method of doing examination. And so she was now ready to break in with her findings. And she found that wasn't  accepted. Some people because she was a woman and women weren't in the  science world much at that point. Sometimes because as one person said, well  this can't be scientific, it's too pretty because her drawings were so well done.  And as a result in her mid to late 20s, she she quit the whole science world.  That's what she thought she'd been called to. That's what she thought God  wanted for her. But she just pulled everything back, pull the notes back. And it  wasn't till almost 50 years later, the people began studying these a little more  intensely and finding how insightful she was. But we know her today because as she was pulling stuff back and quitting her attempts to be noticed and her  findings to be brought into the scientific knowledge of that day, a neighbor's son  got sick. And so she ended up babysitting caring for this child while he was sick.  And it's one way to keep him occupied in his sickness. This is before TV and  video games and all that stuff. She began to tell him stories. And then she'd  write them down. And because she was somebody who was a great artist, the  stories came to life. Now, when she was done with that, she decided to write  some of the stories down and she self published them first, but then became  best sellers very quickly, because her name is Helen Beatrix Potter. And she is  known for the Peter Rabbit series. And if you know, English, children's literature  all you've come across that name, and you've come across those stories,  because they are still very popular today. Now, if you are going to use that as a  sermon illustration, your sermon is about the fact that, you know, God works  everything for good for those who love the Lord who are called according to His  purpose. Okay? Have any of you ever in the audience, have any of you ever in  this congregation had the point where you thought God was leading you one  place, and then that door closed, that door close to education, that door close to  a particular job or profession, that door closed, because of the own? Your own  instability or your own failure? Or whatever? And you're wondering, what's going to happen? How can God make this good? Well, let me tell you the rest of the  story. And, like I say, if you can do this, this is one of the most effective  conclusions you can have. Because it ties everything together, and applies it in  a way that says, look at this person who was a believer in God, and was trying 

to follow God's will and look what God did he he impacted a whole generation in  a different way than Helen Beatrix Potter planned, but it happened because of  the rest of the story. Wow, I just want to encourage you that so that's one way to  do it, you tell the rest of the story. Sometimes you can just pick up the story from the introduction. There may not be a further conclusion, or one person who does this well is a man named Jeff Strite. He is one of the primary contributors to the  website, sermoncentral.com. And that's sermon central, not Central. If you go  there and read his sermons, he's terrific at this and it's a good website.  Everything's free, you can pay for an additional services. But you learn from the  people there. He's one of the best on that site. Anyway, he does this. Well, in  fact, one of his recent sermons, he introduced it this way. It was Palm Sunday,  eight year old Bobby stayed home because of strep throat. When the family  returned home caring palm branches. He asked what they were for. His mother  explained, people held them over Jesus's head as he walked by the boy sighed  and said, Wouldn't you know it, the one Sunday I don't go to church. Jesus  shows up. Okay. That's the intro. And then talks about we come to worship,  because we expect Jesus to show up, how does he show up? How does he  show up? Now, at the end the message, you can come back to a story like that.  And say, this is how Jesus shows up. It's not just waving palm branches. But it's  the fact that somebody came alongside you to help you to care about you in a  time of pain. It's some, it's something that you have felt a peace of God in an  amazing way beyond all you could comprehend according to what Paul says in  the book of Philippians. Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by  prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God  and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts  and minds in Christ Jesus, maybe it's that way that Jesus showed up. Maybe it's just showed up in your own heart as you were praying, or maybe it showed up in the fact that you got to see God's plan in a different way. Just going back to the  introduction as a way to tie it together, and then make that further lasting  application. So connecting to the introduction is good one illustration of your  point, you got the main point, you've worked on that. And you've been  emphasizing that in the introduction leading into a transitioning to it. And then  you develop that point in your body of your message. However, you've chosen  to organize and structure that. And at the conclusion, you can give an illustration that brings it all together. Now, one of the people who did this extremely well, is  a man named Peter Marshall. There's a picture of him. He was the chaplain of  the Senate in the United States for a long time. And he once gave a message  about heaven and about death. You know, death is the one universal death and  taxes is the saying here in the United States. So the only thing that's gonna last  forever, that we're all You're going to face all the time. So how would you end  the sermon about death, and about the promise of heaven? Well, he ended up  with this story. It's a powerful story. An old legend tells of a merchant in 

Baghdad, who one day sent his servant to the market. before very long, the  servant came back white and trembling, and in great agitations said to his  master, down in the marketplace, I was jostled by women in the crowd. And  when I turned around and saw it was death that jostled me, she looked at me  and made a threatening gesture. Master, please lend me your horse for I must  hasten away to avoid her I will ride to Samara and there I will hide and death will not find me a merchant lent him his horse and the servant galloped away in  great haste. Later the merchant went down on the marketplace and saw death  standing in the crowd. He remembered her and asked why did you frighten my  servant this morning? Why did you make a threatening gesture? That was not a  threatening gesture death said there was only a start up just surprised. I was  astonished to see him in Baghdad for I have an appointment with him tonight  and Samara. And then he said this, each of us has an appointment in Samara.  But that is a cause for rejoicing, not for fear, provided we have put our trust in  Him who holds the keys to death, and life. Okay, he's preaching about heaven,  about the promise that when we die, that's where we're going to end up, that no  matter what happens to us in this life, it's nothing compared to the glory we're  going to experience with God in heaven. And he ends up with a way that says,  people got attention, because it's a story. Stories are always great for that you  end the message with a story. But it's a story that brings the point home in a way that is a little bit surprising. Because you don't know how the story is going to  end if you haven't heard it before. And yet, when it ends, you're like, yes. So  connection to an introduction, illustration of your point, often in a story or some  kind of illustration. Another effective conclusion is to make an appeal for some  kind of action for people to take a step and do something. One person that I  know who is good at this is a woman named Rachel Blum. She is somebody  who works with youth in particular, and at a youth convention, she was invited to preach the sermon. And she talked about for these young people to make a  commitment to Jesus Christ, and then a commitment to become the light of the  world. And she had hundreds of candles up in front. And she invited those who  are ready to make that commitment. Either to receive Jesus Christ for the first  time or to make a commitment to I'm going to be one of the lights of the world,  as Jesus has called me to be come forward and light a candle. And then there's  music going on, and hundreds of kids streamed forward, and lit a candle. If you  can create movement and people where they have to move at the conclusion of  your message. They're gonna remember it, it's going to be powerful, and there  are all kinds of here's just some, some that I've used. I had a creative team and  the last church I served I met every week, and we would talk about two weeks  ahead and say, Okay, how can we conclude that message? How can we  conclude that service in a way that is powerful, and here's just some of them  that we use righting sins, right? Okay. If God forgives every sin doesn't matter  how heinous it is, write it on that piece of paper that we've given you. It's in your 

bulletin, or it's on your seat, or it's in the seat in front of you, or you can come  forward and get it. write. And you know what, we're going to dump it today. And  we're going to do what Jesus says is going to happen, it's completely free of it.  It's wiped away. And as the psalmist says, you know, it's, it's I've like I've cast it  into the depths of the ocean. But we're going to do it today. People are fearful to  write their sins on a piece of paper, we're going to do it today, that we're going to burn it up. Or we're going to leave before the cross and just to show that we're  going to destroy these afterwards. And nobody will know who wrote what, but  they are a powerful movement. I mean, yes, I know I'm forgiven. I'm nailing sins  to a cross. Not even having the paper but to say, invite people up nailing on  wooden crosses with hammers there and hundreds of people lined up around  six or eight crosses there just to nail stuff in and say yes, I am forgiven. Coming  forward in an invitation. That's why evangelistic crusades often ended with an  action, okay? Don't just go home with this. But let's close the deal here. Come  forward. If you want to receive Jesus Christ, there are partners available to meet with you here. praying together. Sometimes when we were preached one time  on on the issue of the world and how our society at times in the United States  seems like it's coming apart at the seams and so we'd say okay, get together in  groups. And pray, you know, that will be intimidating for some of you, but there  will be people in your group that will be willing to pray. So gather together and  individually lift up their these concerns and the life of our country, and they're  going to remember that message, picking up a stone. One time after preaching,  the woman caught in the act of adultery. In John chapter eight, we had people  come and pick up a stone and just take it home. Say, remember, you know, put it somewhere where you can remember that no one will ever stone you. Because  Jesus has paid for your sins. Writing on a mirror. We have broken, somebody  have broken a mirror. So we took all these pieces and we made people go and  get a piece. Simply write? What word do you want to describe you? What do  you want people to say of you when you're gone. And so I went up and I wrote  simply faithful, that's where I want people to see those faithful not just to Jesus,  but to my wife, my family, my kids, I was faithful to my church, I was faithful. That sort of thing. Or writing names. Now we once had three huge plexiglass areas  come up, we start, okay, we got a prayer team that's ready to pray for people,  we want you to come forward and write down the names of people that you  know, are in your world, your influence, and want the names here, because  we're going to start praying for them. And this team is going to pray that they  come to faith in Jesus Christ. These are people away from Jesus, and et cetera.  You know, if you're a creative at all, you can come up with ways to create a way  for people to respond. All right, and appeal and also end with an appeal or an  exhortation to stewardship to give when we talked about closing the deal, don't  just let them go. Let's say okay, now's the time to hand in your cards, your  pledge your commitment to this issue. Now's the time to come forward for 

response. What about signing up for this program, we got this thing going, you  know, we're gonna make an impact in the community, and we've got something  going. Today, we're gonna sign up. And so you know, you'll see people as you  come out their tables out there, you can sign up and we'll be in touch with you  about how this goes. Our introduction of a mission, it's going on in my church  this weekend that one of our missionaries is back. And we're making a renewed  and expanded commitment to that particular ministry. So okay, now's the time.  She's got to raise so much more support, and the organization she works with  has these needs, now's the time, come on forward, etcetera. An appeal makes a very, very effective conclusion. You can conclude with scripture at times when it  comes to making the point. For instance, again, this is Rachel Blum. And she  ended a message this way, when she was talking about praise and the  character of praise and scripture, what does it mean to praise God? And she  simply ended with these words from Revelation 19. Then I heard what sounded  like a crowd, like the sound of a roaring waterfall like loud peals of thunder, I  heard them say, Praise God, for the Lord, our Almighty God is King, let us  rejoice and be glad, let us praise His greatness. Yeah, with a building kind of  experience. You can end the scripture in a powerful way at times, casting a  vision. Imagine, imagine what this would look like, if we did this particular action. If we adopted this kind of value. If we were this kind of people, what would this  mean for your family? What would this mean for our community? What would  this mean for our church? What would this mean for the world? What would it  mean for the mission of the church within this world? And so this kind of  imagining created a picture. Later on, we're going to talk about using picture  language as a key to an effective sermon. But for now, just know that if you can  draw a picture and your conclusion of this sermon, becoming reality in the lives  of your people, they're going to respond, they're going to respond. There's an  old story about a guy who came to a new church and preached about logging,  and everybody didn't like it because it was in the Pacific Northwest. But the next  week, he preached the same thing, again, about being stewards of our society,  etc, etc, stewards of the world as part of the covenant that God has made with  us and next week, preach to the same sermon again, people were complaining  and the elders came to says, Look, do you have another sermon? And he said,  Well, you haven't done the first one yet. And in this sense, is if you not only tell  them what should be done, but describe a picture of what it would be, if this  value this idea, this exhortation of Scripture was lived out. encouragement. We  looked at the mistake was a conclusion about doing a discouraging message,  an effective conclusion, gives encouragement to say, here's how you can do  this. You can do this. This is something that is powerful in the life of a people if  they hear a message and they hear encouragement to do it. Well. One person I  know went through a period of time in the church where the church had been on decline for a long time, and our new pastor came And he was just encouraging. 

All he said was, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do this. I believe that  God has a purpose for this church. And this is not for to die. And so this  message came up over and over again over a period of time, and people began  to catch on. So yes, we can do this. And they gave sacrificially and low and  behold, the church made a vast turn around encouragement to live out the life of Jesus is a great conclusion. And then finally, a piercing question. You know,  Jesus asked the piercing question of Mary and Martha, when he visited them,  he's coming back, Lazarus has died. And he comes back. And first of all, Martha comes to him and says, Lord, If you had been here, my brother would not have  died. It's kind of an accusing kind of thing to Jesus. And Martha says the same  thing. But Jesus says, Do you believe that he will rise again? Do you believe  that he'll rise again? And Martha's response was, Well, I know he'll rise again  and the resurrection of the last day. Jesus didn't take that and raises Lazarus  from the dead. A short time later, piercing question, Do you believe this? I am  the resurrection and the life do you believe this? Well, then it should show on  your action. Do you believe that Jesus wants this community won for Jesus  Christ? Well, then what does this mean? How are we going to live that out?  Those kinds of piercing questions. Okay, here, we've got this truth that we have  learned from God's Word. Now, do you believe it? Do you believe that God is  this kind of person? Well, then how's that gonna affect? If God says, I will never  leave you never forsake you? No one can snatch you out of my hand. Do you  believe that? Although how does that impact the next time you're in crisis?  Piercing questions are a fantastic way to conclude. Wow. So that's quite a list,  connecting to your introduction, illustrating your point or a story oftentimes, or in  another way, sometimes visually, encouraging people exhorting them to action,  making an appeal. And with Scripture and a powerful waste cast a vision of what could be encouraging people to live out the life of Jesus, as it's described in the  Scripture and asking piercing questions that the Holy Spirit can send his arrow  right into people's hearts. And people will go away, knowing they've been with  the Lord. And so as you think through the conclusion in your message, think  about these things as options for you strategies for you to preach effectively.  And next time. We're going to go on and start talking about things to make your  message safe. See you then.