How to Illustrate

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You that we might know You through Your Son,

and this is not because of anything we have done, but because of an infinite mercy that before time began cared for us. Thank You that we can be instruments now of that mercy yet. Help us even as we think today about this task of preaching to be better prepared for Your purposes. We ask You're blessing not only for us, we are mindful of an election just passed, we pray Father that what we would do would be part of that salt and light in our society, where not only those of our near families and friends would know You, but by our influence in the society, leaders and people and nations would name the name of Jesus. Before we know that there will be a time that comes that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, and we are part of the process by which this will occur. We in these moments don't feel the magnitude of that, but we ask that You would help us to sense it even slightly, that the task for which we are preparing would be not only important to us, but dear to us. Grant us Your blessing even in what we do this day we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen. I'd like to begin today by having you look at the sample sermon that's at the back of your notes. What we're doing is we're going to talk very technically about how illustrations function and the technical things we do to make them work. Last time we talked about why illustrations are important and some basic print story principles of how they work, but now we're going to see homiletically in very technical ways how they fit into a sermon and how you make them serve your purposes. What I have up here in its in your notes as well is just main point number two that's in your example sermon, and I just want to start by having you observe some things about it. If you look at the main point because God will judge sin, we must proclaim His word to defend the truth. You have sub points that follow that are answers to analytical questions. So you see that? The analytical question is when must we defend the truth? First sub point when others abandon sound doctrine, second sub point when others flock to false teachers. The next sub point is when others will not even listen. You've seen the sub points. You recognize they're in parallel wording which means they line up with the adjectives and the modifiers, the nouns all lined up in order with keyword changes. Now, before you get into the illustration look what happens. There is a summary statement, even though there's three sub points, there's a summary statement before the illustration. Look what it picks up. Such accounts remind us, it's talking about what that last sub point has mentioned, such accounts remind us that even though others may abandon what is sound, flock to what is false, and turn their ears away from the truth so as not even to listen, we still have an obligation to preach the word. Now it's even underlined in your notes there, but where have you seen those underlying phrases before? They are the key words of the sub points. See that? They are the changed words of the parallel sub point statements. So there's been a summary statement prior to the illustration. Why is that? What is the illustration always illustrating? The last thing you said prior to it. The illustration is always illustrating the last thing you said prior to it. So if the illustration is going to be of all three sub points, then it has to bring the sub points back into view for the ear. Remember, we turned the ear into the eye. So we bring those sub points back into the hearing before then we tell the illustration. Now just to tell the illustration, it is this. As he stood before the died of worms, that's a strange to our ears, a diet is a conference or a trial, and it's not really worms, it's a verms in Germany, but anyway, as he stood before the diet of worms on the afternoon of April 18, 1521, Martin Luther was asked one question, will you recant of your writings and the errors which they contain? After spending the night in prayer, searching for the right thing to say he answered, unless I'm convicted by scripture and plain reason, I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for they have contradicted each other. My conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. It's the famous statement of Luther, some of you recognize already. Here I stand, I can do no other. God helped me. Amen. Martin Luther believed the word of God demanded for him to stand for the truth, even in such a difficult situation. He knew that though others might abandon sound doctrine, where have you heard that before? Key terms of the subpoint statements, he must stand firm. When his human judges had the power to excommunicate him, exile him or even execute him, he said, my conscience is captive to the word of God. Martin Luther believed the church had flocked to false teachers and knowing they probably would not even listen, he answered them by saying, here I stand. What has happened is you have had what we will call expositional reign. The key terms of the subpoints in the explanation have rained down into the illustration. It is what makes the illustration function as illustrating this particular message. Do you remember when we drew on the board? I'm just going to draw out here that aspect of swastability, that when you say something that's interesting but does not seem to connect, interest goes up, but swastability goes down. What we are doing is we are connecting when we tell illustrations by using the key words of the subpoints so that there's not this disconnect. You told me something that's not connected. The connection is that in this explanation you had subpoints. I'm going to blow it out here now so you see it. In this explanation I had a main point statement, then I had a subpoint that had a key word change or key words at a second subpoint with key word changes as well. And as it were, those words rained down. They come down into the telling of the illustration. Guess where they're going to go next as you see this. You know that they're going to rain down here too. Now here's why you're doing all this. First, you're trying to keep credibility intact. All right? Because the illustration is not disconnect, it's not just entertainment. It is obviously illustrating precisely what you said the explanation was about and the reason you're keeping precision is you are keeping the key terms. So my illustration is precisely about what I said this text was about. What's that going to then enable me to do? When I begin to do application, I'm going to be using precisely the terms that I said this text was about. That's not just maintaining continuity. That's maintaining authority. I'm telling you to do what I said this text said. And I use these terms even to explain. Remember state, place, prove? I stated the truth. I proved it was here. So that when I'm now here down applying that truth, I have the authority of the word of God to say, I prove to you that what I said here is what's in this text. Therefore now I have the authority to apply it. This kind of double helix, which, you know, we to our modern eyes looks something like a DNA strand. If you were to say, or DNA chain, if you were to say what are these strands, we know that these strands are two things. This is being tied together by concept. So the concepts are linking together here. But the other thing that's happening is the terms are being kept together. I'm keeping the concepts together and I'm keeping the terms together. Remember your English teacher would say don't do that. Using the same terms over and over again is redundant. But we're in an oral medium. And so what we are doing is we're saying we want precisely those terms because we want the ear to say I've heard that before. I know that's what that text says. So when you're illustrating, I know you're illustrating the concept because I'm hearing the terms. And when you're applying those concepts, the reason I know you have the authority to do that is you're using the terms you have used before. And those terms that have always drawn the ear that have always drawn the attention are the changed words in the parallel statements. So when you were doing sub points for me and we were so rigorous in grading you and saying, did you use parallel language? It's because we were getting ready for this step. We knew that without parallel language that gave us key terms to work with, this would start falling apart. My conceptually hold. But the ear would not have the terms it needed to hold the matter together. First for illustration then for application. Now that's the big picture. And let's start talking about it now in details and see how it functions just in description. So we'll come back to this but I want you to see the big picture before we now start talking about the details. Where we are in your lecture is in that Roman numeral five of lecture 14. Roman numeral five of lecture 14 which is relate and apply, relate and apply. Remember we started saying what you do with illustrations is you isolate and associate. You isolate and experience and you associate it with the concept you're trying to relate. We talk about ways that you do that. You separate in time, space or situation. You pause, remember all that stuff how you just kind of set up the illustration in order to tell the story. But now we want to think very technically how this small story fits in the life of the sermon you're doing. So now that we've come to that conclusion of the illustration as it were, here's what we do. We relate and apply. We relate and apply. That is we relate the details of the story. We're going to relate the details of the story to the principle we are applying. We're going to relate the details of the story to the principle that we are applying. Now the reason this is necessary that you can't just tell a story, the Bible itself is explaining to us. Remember how it said without a parable Jesus did not say anything to them? But then it says what did he do later on in private? He explained the parable to his disciples. The story in itself doesn't explain itself. We often think it does. And candidly if it's close enough conceptually it may get very close. But people will pick up on all kinds of strange things. Is this what you meant? Is that what you were talking about? So it's our obligation to not only tell the story but to then tie it to the concept that we're relating. The way that we do that is a technique that's called using grouping statements, grouping statements. The definition is there. A grouping statement, sometimes called an interpreting statement, is a sentence or two following the illustration in which the preacher reaches into the illustration for details pertinent to his truth concept, extracts them and entice them together with the central idea he wishes to communicate. All right. Visually it's like this. I've told the illustration. Now I reach back on the illustration and I pull down the pertinent details that make the point and I say this is what I meant to say. It's the grouping statement that comes at the end of the illustration. Notice it's also preparation for something else, right? It's tying the concept to the forthcoming application. So I reach back up into the illustration, pull down the pertinent details and say this is what I'm meaning to say. In the Martin Luther account, after saying, you know, he said, here I stand even though they would not listen, here's what the writer said. He viewed himself as ultimately responsible only to a divine judge and it motivated him to remain faithful to proclaim God's word in the most challenging situations. You and I have a similar calling. In this day and this age, where truth is relative to most persons and tolerance for many kinds of evils and courage, even if standing for truth can be dangerous to our friendships, to our reputations and careers. Reach his back up into the illustration. He says what he was willing to do is he was willing to stand firm to proclaim the truth even though it was dangerous to him. We are called to do the same. Reach back up into the illustration, which has used these key terms. What's the real point that I'm making? That point is stated in its preparation for the application. This grouping statement is typically very much like another statement. Guess which one is going to be very much like the summary statement that got us into the illustration. It's often very, very similar. Here's what I'm going to be illustrating. We illustrate. Then we say here's what this meant, particularly tied to application. So I'm saying now you know what I'm going to be illustrating the last thing I said prior to the illustration. Then after the illustration there's a grouping statement that says here's the meaning of this usually tied toward the application. If your eyes are scanning well you see these two statements are often very much like what other statement the main point statement itself. That would just make sense wouldn't it? If you are summarizing what the sub points had been and the sub points are development of the main point statement it would make a lot of sense that the summary into the illustration is a lot like the main point statement and the grouping statement at the end that's going to be applied is probably also going to be a lot like the main point not exactly the same but remember that proclaiming the truth language of the grouping statement. See that had come out of the main point statement. So what we're doing is we're knitting where we're orally for the ear. We're knitting together concepts with key terms and making sure the ear hears how these things are connected. On the next page of your notes it says a little more about what these grouping statements are. They are interpreting statements or parallel phrases. They often come as parallel statements as well as interpreting statements. In the Martin Luther quote it was just kind of a conceptual summary right? You didn't hear a lot of parallel wording but listen to this. Do you remember that story I told you that illustration about the children's fingerprints on the bricks of the church in Savannah. Here's how that illustration ended. God used faithful children to build his church in that day. Let's hear that word. God used faithful children to build his church in that day and he will use faithful children to build his church in our day also. The grouping statement is parallel wording. I'm saying just as something was the same so this also is the same. I used parallel wording. Here's another. If I'm telling the statement of somebody who had to find their way home through the woods and they were lost but then a guide helped them then I might say something like this. Even as the children could not find their way home without a guide we will not find our way to heaven without God. Do you hear the parallel wording? It's a very common way of ending illustrations. The summary says here's a concept that's in this illustration. You can't find your way home without a guide. Then I tie it very much to the concept I'm wanting to say you can't get to heaven if you don't depend upon God. So parallel wording. Now what am I doing? I'm really playing off the ear here. I'm really saying I am very much constructing what I am saying not for you to read but for you to hear. And that knitting is very much depending on these keyword structures and tying things together. Now in your notes there's a little bit of formatting problems. Let me just say if you can almost draw a line after that parallel phrase language there should be almost another category there that says expositional rain. So what we've really talked about is how we end the illustration with some grouping statement. Either an interpreting statement or parallel wording. That's how we end the illustration. But I want you to think even more now about this concept of expositional rain and it goes with that little diagram that's on your sheets that has the explanation illustration application. Now here's what we're doing. We are looking at just a single main point. This larger diagram, this larger skeleton that we're looking at, has the whole sermon kind of in view, right? But now we're just kind of exploding this diagram and we're saying all right, let's just look at explanation illustration application and think what's included there. There are going to be in the explanation a main point statement followed by subpoints. Subpoints are usually a paragraph or so of piece. But the subpoint statement you know is parallel wording with keyword changes. Let's do some of our just kind of rehearsing a bit. If it's a bullet statement, you have parallel statements with keyword changes. If it's an analytical question with responses, you also have statements that are parallel. If you have interrogative subpoints, Russell, I'm almost tempted to look at you and say this. If you have interrogative subpoints, the interrogatives are in parallel but Russell, what also has to be in parallel? The answers. The answers also have to be in parallel because it really is the answer that holds the key terms. So the answers need to be in parallel too. When I have these subpoints then, I'm going to be saying develop them, develop them, then begin have some summary statement that gets me into my illustration. My illustration is going to be told using the keyword changes of these parallel statements. I know it just sounds technical but if your ear were to hear it, you would recognize what's going on. Because of that keyword changes, that's what he's talking about. The change thing, the different thing. That's what's drawn the attention. Therefore that's what I'm going to be illustrating. If I've got two subpoints together, I'm going to have to summarize them before I tell the illustration. The illustration will be told using the key terms and they will ultimately will find out go down into the application. Now, what happens if my illustration goes between the subpoints? Then what key terms will I be using? Just the key terms of just the first subpoint, right? Because I haven't got the next one to deal with yet. So I'm going to only, and that certainly will be the case at times. Sometimes I'll say you know, this is so clear, obvious, and not really dynamic. I don't really want to use my illustration there. I want to use it to deal with the first subpoint. And so you might simply say, all right, I'll use my illustration here. Now, before I do application, I'll probably have to do no summary, it brings them both down. But my illustration might just deal with one subpoint. That's a prudential choice I'll make from time to time. What I don't want to do is this, and you'll hear it happen. People will tell an illustration, and through the whole illustration you're going, that's really interesting. I wonder what he's illustrating. What you just said was, probably in his mind conceptually, he's indicating, he's illustrating the subpoint or main point he talked about. But the fact that he's not using consistent language, and that's sometimes called term consistency and other homolytic books, he's not using term consistency. The ear isn't following it. Another question for you. Do you always have to have subpoints? No, you don't. So what happens if you don't have subpoints? Now, what key terms will go into the illustration application? The key term of the change term of the magnet clause of the main point. Again, it's the thing that's changing. So what's going to be the explanation about is that change term that's exactly what's going to go into the illustration, and ultimately we'll see into the application. Now, that concept of expositional rain, how do I say it, will kind of be the turnkey from being an average preacher to something that people really understand him. When he preaches, it makes such sense. And all you're really doing is just learning that lesson of term consistency. The reason we shy away from it is our English essay training. Use different terms, use different terms. And we forget that in preaching, one of our most powerful tools of communication is something very simple. It is repetition. One of the most powerful tools of communication in preaching is repetition. And we're using those key terms to tie together the message. See what expositional rain is? Key term. Now, you'll see it used in your sample sermons and we'll talk about it more, but I just kind of want you to hold on to it now and say, when I get it, now when we really get to application, it will be important because you are going to begin applying these truths. And if you begin changing terms, people will say, well, think, you have no basis for what you're saying. And you'll think, well, yes, that was the concept. The ear doesn't hear it that way. Do you have questions before we move on? Yes. Go ahead. Yes. Yes. Definitely. If we have a main point statement, while we're showing it in outline form here, just right into the subpoint subpoint, is there any transition in here? And the answer is yes. There will probably be a sentence or two or maybe even three that get us ready for the subpoint. So it has to flow logically. We don't just kind of speak, you know, box to box to box. So this is an outline structure. But yeah, there would have to be transitions to make it flow. We're going to be there in a couple of lectures and we'll be talking about transitions. But go ahead. That is very sharp. Is the grouping statement, the transition statement to the application, or do we need another transition statement other than the grouping statements? That's the question. And the answer is yes to both questions. The grouping statement sometimes is itself the transition statement. Other times you'll need another statement or two. But you are right to see each of these nodes as it were. Each of these points is the place of transition. So whatever the transition is, it at least should include these summary statements. Whatever the transition is, it should at least include it. Maybe more, but it has to at least have these summary inclusions. Yes. Yes. Yes. Ed, if I understand correctly, is saying sometimes the illustration is about one of the subpoints. Sometimes the illustration is about the main point. Say the last. Using the subpoints to build the main point statement. Actually, that probably is what's happening most of the time. When you're in this sequence that I'm showing on the board, which is a very common one, the subpoints language is reappearing in the illustration. But when you do the grouping statement, it is often the main point statement that's kind of the full aspect of what the illustration is. So you're telling the illustration to illustrate the main point statement. But you are telling the illustration using the key terms of the subpoints to get there. So it's part of the building process. Now at times, my illustration may just be of a subpoint. And it may be in the summary that I'm building the concepts together. Say, see, that's the main point coming together. Yes, Michael? Yes. Yes. Expositional rain is using consistent terms from the explanation in the illustration and application. Expositional rain is using consistent terms, particularly key terms, we should be saying, using consistent key terms of the explanation in illustration and application. Now the reason I'm saying the word key terms is you recognize that the key terms are in the subpoints. It's those that are used. If there are no subpoints, then it's the key term of the main point. And edge point is, sometimes could it be both? And the answer is yes. But the idea is you're wanting not just the concepts to be consistent, but the terms. Mike? Yes. Yes. If I understand your answer correctly, if I understand correctly, you're saying, if you have interrogatives and they have answers that may be positive and negative even, then am I still trying to say, down when I get to the illustration, those key terms are still going to be reappearing. And the answer is yes. Unless, of course, you're using your illustration only for the positive or maybe using your illustration only for the negative. You know where it really gets important, candidly, is not so much in the illustration, but in the application. Here's what people will say sometimes. You know, you spent five minutes developing that idea and then you didn't do anything with it. Why do you tell me all that if you weren't going to apply it? Well, as preachers sometimes, we think, well, it was just academically interesting for me. Now, we don't mean that, but it's the impression, when we spend a lot of time in a subpoint, even a positive and negative, and then we just don't do anything. We just walk right past it, you know. If we're explaining something, people are saying, why did you tell me that? So we are picking it back up, even the positive and the negative in applicant, more important than illustration. It's important that a positive and negative would be picked up in the application. Now, we'll be working with this more as we move into application, but right now, it's just important that you see why subpoints are in parallel and how we use key terms for expositional rain. Let's do a real quick summary of other things that you'll pick up very readily. Where do we get illustrations? Where do we get illustrations? ABC, the A is contemporary experience. They may be experiences we have had or that we gather from others. So contemporary experience, personal or gathered from others. That's one place for illustration source. The second place for illustration sources, historical accounts, historical accounts, and see biblical accounts. And we've covered those categories before in previous classes of those three contemporary historical or biblical, which is most likely to connect with people. Obviously contemporary. So if you tell historical or biblical, what do you have to take care to do? Bring it into contemporary terms. Now we'll again do more talking about how to do that later, but it's important that we not just make our sermons archaic. Now think how that might happen. I simply go to an ancient account written in the 17th century of Martin Luther, and I just stick it right into my sermon. What's that going to do to people? I'm hearing snoring from Ed. Yes, it just kind of removes it. Now what do you begin to know is a way to make this illustration. Don't take from the 17th century. It's in one of those books that illustrations that you got over in the library or something or on the computer service that you're now getting for pastors, illustrations that you get mailed to you monthly. How are you going to make sure that doesn't sound unlike you or unfitting in your message? What are you going to use? Key words of your sermon. You're going to use that illustration as a catalyst for your illustration. You don't just cut and paste. You have to retell it. And the way you're going to retell it is you are going to to mutate it, change it, adapt it. But what you're trying to do is to retell it using your key terms in your language. And that's where the ear is saying this fits. I see exactly what he's talking about. And you can therefore legitimately take illustrations from others and adapt them to your purpose in a way that seems, which I say, unartificial because you are using these key terms. And you know it happens. I mean, I'll tell you, you hear the sermons, which you just know that illustration is not of that person. It doesn't sound like them. It doesn't sound like the rest of the sermon. It just doesn't fit. The way that we make them fit is with the use of key terms. One other place, just a kind of a side note under where you get illustrations, is what I call a pre-sermon file. A pre-sermon file. Now this is different than contemporary historical biblical, but it's just what I want you to think about for a bit. Almost every homilite's professor I know, including me, has at time said, we collect illustrations and we create files of illustrations. That is very good to do and I know very few people who do it. But what I have found more helpful over the years is what I call pre-sermon files and I find many pastors do this. They know what they're going to be preaching about, at least generally through the fall. They create folders, Christine's nodding at me, others of you who do regular teaching and preaching or not. You know that you've got a semester or a quarter of preaching ahead of you. What you are doing is you're saying, I'm going to be in Ephesians 1 this week, first part, Ephesians 1 the second part next week, and you create files. Then through the course of living, you read newspapers, you read articles, you read magazines, you see things on TV, whatever. You're not trying to form a sermon. You're just throwing information into that file for the future. You're just throwing information on the file. So that, when you're actually writing the sermon that week, you are not on Saturday night going, oh no, I need to illustrate, you know, you get into that Saturday night fever. I'm trying to get everything into the sermon. But if you've been preparing, getting not extensively, but just throwing things in the file, they will often help you a great deal. You'll often have more in the way of illustrations and even thoughts about the sermon than you will include in the sermon. What I do, and many, oops, I put my wallet elsewhere, what I do and I many preachers do, is I always keep a note file. Now, some of you will take, I'll do this in chapel. I always keep my little notes in my wallet. You've seen preachers, I have these little pocket notebooks and so forth. And as I just go through life, I just make little notes. I've got a one, two, three, four illustration notes on this one little page here. And then they'll see many pages I have. There's another page I've got three more. And there's another page I've got three more. Now, I typically will take these and I will throw them into those pre-sermon files. If I don't have a place for them, I have a secretary that I can say, put this in my illustration file and I do have such a thing. But I go through all of life because it's my profession to preach. And so, I've simply adapted the mode that I have to have illustrations. And I just go through life collecting them. You will too. And it's not a bad habit to get into. You see, preachers kind of are in a different mode. Everybody else is just kind of letting life go by, you know, the stream go by. But we're saying, you know, that reminds me of a spiritual, I can help people see something better. If I, you know, my child, that that was really cute. I better write it down. Because you know what you'll do is you'll say, I'll remember it later. No way. Too much happened. Too much going by. So, we make notes. And I make notes of people in chapel. And I make notes of preachers that I hear. And I make notes and, you know, my family gets tired of reading magazines after me because I tend to butcher them with my scissors, you know, or I'm highlighting newspapers all the time. It's my profession. And it's what your profession will be too. You just get in the habit of collecting. And it's not a thing wrong with it. People will grin a little bit, you know, who know you as their pastor when they see you kind of take your wall out and write something down. Because they know what you're doing. But it certainly connects them to your message when they see the life they know coming to reality in the messages that you preach. That's the go. Some illustration cautions for us. We've talked about their importance of making the abstract familiar, but some cautions. First, do not think of illustrations more highly than you ought to think. Illustrations illustrate a message. They are not the message. Illustrations illustrate a message. They are not often when preaching degenerates into entertainment. It's because the preacher has a great set of illustrations and no real text to be explained. You know, the old line is every heresy begins with a great illustration. It's also true that many entertaining sermons have great illustrations. But they don't have much meat in them because what we're doing is we're trying to interest people rather than explain a text. Far better to explain what a text means than have good illustrations. Far better to explain what a text means than have good illustrations. So not thinking of illustrations more highly than we ought to think. Another way in which I will put a governor on a few of you. Now, we're different kinds of people, different ways we think, different ways we process information. Some of you will hate doing illustrations. It is just be your nature that you know, you know, you know, why can't they just hear this logical essay that I'm doing? And you know, it was good enough for Moses. It ought to be good enough for them. And you know, you just won't like doing illustrate others of you will love doing illustrations. And you will have an illustration for every main point and an illustration for every sub point and an illustration for every sub point and you will just, you know, have these skyscraper sermons of illustrations upon illustrations by illustration by illustration and I'm going to discourage you from that too. So what we're going to do for two semesters before you're kind of unleashed to do it your way. For two semesters, I'm going to say this, one illustration per main point, okay, one illustration per main point. So for the people who hate doing illustrations, they got to do them consistently. For the people who wanted to do illustrations all the time, you know, they say, well, spend your nickels wisely. Okay, you got to do explanation too. Okay, you got to do some exegesis here. So everybody will be doing something. So if I've only got one illustration per main point, I might make it the illustration that comes after both or three sub points. Or I might just put it with one sub point or I might not have any sub points and it might just be the illustration of the main point statement. But what we'll do is we won't have two and three illustrations in one main point this semester, okay. So spend your nickel wisely wherever you think it will best serve your purpose, we'll do one illustration per main point this semester. A second caution for illustrations is do not think of illustrations less than you ought to think. Do not think less of illustrations than you ought to think. In your readings, it goes by quick, but I did list for you the hierarchy of memory retention, the sermon, memory retention hierarchy. If you this can often be very discouraging to preachers, say, what is the most remembered feature of any sermon? The illustration, what illustration is most remembered out of an average sermon? What illustration is most likely to be remembered? The last one. What's the second to most remembered illustration? The first one, that's right. The last one is most likely to be the most remembered aspect of a sermon. The introductory illustration is the second most likely thing to be remembered out of a sermon. What's the third most likely thing to be remembered in a sermon? If not the last illustration or the first illustration, what else? In the other illustration, you know, oh, that's interesting. Illustrations are the most remembered and you know, it's true even of you. It's not just a little minds out. It's true of us too. We remember the else now. Here's another tough one. If not illustrations, what is the next most likely remembered portion of the sermon? The application, particularly the applications we most strongly disagree with. Hear that? What are you going to remember what that preacher said? What I don't like. You know, the applications I most strongly disagree with. Now, what's the next most likely thing to be remembered? If not applications that you strongly disagree with, then what? Applications that I strongly agree with. Now here's the hard thing for preachers. If you just mildly agree, if you would give a cent without even hearing the sermon, we don't remember it at all. You either strongly agree or strongly disagree or you will not remember it at all. That's kind of threatening isn't it? Now, what if we not mention it all? We're afraid far down the list of memory retention here. What if you not remember it at all so far? Explanation. Nobody goes home and says, wasn't that a wonderful second subpoint under his third main point? You know, nobody says that. They say, I understood, or there was some impact upon my life by that. Now think about that. We are pouring our heart and soul and sweat and toil into the explanation, the exegesis, and people are not going to remember it. Be careful. This is a very deceptive thing. What will they remember if there is not solid content?

What will they remember about you? Not a very deep preacher. Pretty shallow. Not much thought there. Nothing really to sink my teeth into. Nothing really authoritative for my soul. The thing that people remember more than anything else out of a sermon is the ethos of the speaker. Isn't that interesting? The thing they remember more than illustrations, more than applications, more than explanation is the ethos of the speaker. So if you get caught into thinking, oh, you know, illustrations are what really make them think I'm a good speaker. The fact of the matter is if you're banking on the illustrations rather than the meat of the sermon, what they will remember is you don't have much to say to them. So we construct homiletically knowing how people work. These are powerful tools of communication, illustration. So we want to remember that. Not to think less highly than we ought to think, but not to be deceived that illustrations can't really carry the spiritual water themselves. Explanation is also needed to communicate that man has something to say to me. There is spiritual weight in what he says and that means I have to do all of these things. Even though this is the most remembered if there is not gravity to the explanation, then the person himself will not be listened to. Well, as we begin to think about the importance of content, I want to think about some cautions for illustrations and there's 10 of them on your list. As we begin to think of how important they are, we know illustrations require crafting with care and integrity, but I do want you to think about some illustration cautions. Now, here's my goal. A lot of this has to be under the rubric of pastoral prudence, okay? If you start looking for fences here and say, when do you cross the line, I can't tell you. I want you to begin to feel not only the power of illustrations but the seductive nature of them. They can take you down paths because they communicate so well that may undo what you're trying to do. So I want you to think about some of these cautions even as you think about the power of illustrations. The first caution is to be accurate. To talk about the 76thesies of Martin Luther or the prison ministry of George Coulson or Einstein's discovery of X-rays may be very interesting, but you just lost all credibility. Why? Because those are all inaccurate. Now, listen, in the course of preaching, I've done every one of these things, and you will do them all too. But the goal is not to blow your credibility and your illustrations, right? So to look up the facts. Now, I will tell you, being able to Google things these days has done wonders for being able to be more accurate. When was that thing written? Just google it and find it. It really helps to be able just to get your facts straight, and that helps a lot with the illustrations. A second, and you'll pick it up, is more difficult to talk about, is be careful what you reveal. Be careful what you reveal. Homologics professors debate all the time how we can or should talk about counseling situations, right? Here's my, my thought, and then give you all the questions that I can. Counseling situations are usable only if you are obviously protecting identities. Counseling situations are usable only if you are obviously protecting identities. Now, there are teachers of preachings who will say preachers should never use illustrations from counseling situations, because what? Because nobody's going to come to you. If they think you're going to be talking about it, right? I have a little question about that. And my question is this, at times I think people need to know there is counseling help in the church, and that progress can be made spiritually with a wise counselor, with a spiritually minded person. But if you even give a hint of who the person is that you're talking about, it is death to your ministry. So sometimes ways that we can do this is we will talk in ways that obviously hide names. I will say, you know, a man came to me recently to talk about a problem in his marriage. I'll call his name Bill. And what Bill said to me was, now when I use that phrase, I will call his name Bill. What did I just say to you? His name is not Bill. I just said I am protecting his identity. Now, if in the course of telling the story, I tell you the makin' model of his car, that is not good. I've underdone things. But if I can tell the account in such a way that I'm saying, I want to tell you how people can be helped here. It's the redemptive use of counseling situations rather than the revealing use of counseling situations. If I can use it redemptively, now you ought to know there's so much caution that should be put on this. If you do it weekly, nobody's going to come to you. But if on occasion, you can say, I can tell you how there is help in this. That may be something to think about. Nick, can I answer your question already? Yeah. So you're saying, if you work in the church office, he came to me recently. You might say, oh, I know who that is. My wife and I were talking about this with some friends even last night. We, my home, where my office was as a pastor of a small church, my home was kind of on a major thoroughfare. And so when people came for counseling and things like that, they would park in our driveway for a while until people would say, oh, in the church said, oh, I saw John's car there the other day. Everything okay? Well, we began to urge people to park other places for that very reason. Park and walk over. When I said the words, I can't give you iron-clad rules, but you're picking up the right thing. You have to obviously be protecting people's identities. So if the word recently is inappropriate, don't use the word recently. You might say, once, you know, I remember a man coming to me and, well, you're trying to put it even in larger frame of time, because you haven't put any frame of time on it. I want you to be very, very cautious. And at the same time, sometimes give people hope. There is something you can't say of that. And all the cautions, I've got more in the book than I can say to you here, but let's keep going, because these only get tougher. Be careful what you reveal, counseling situations, compromising situations. These are other, careful what you reveal, compromising situations, tales on your family, your wife, your child. Listen, if you talk about your family, we've said this before, not only do you have to get permission, what do you have to say in the course of telling the illustration? Not only that you've got, you'd only have to get permission, what do you have to say? You have to say that you've got permission, right? Or else people will think that you're abusing your own loved ones. So even if you're telling a positive thing, it's always kind of embarrassing to be the point of a sermon. So even if it's positive, you have to say, you know, now I asked Jane if I could tell you this. And she said, okay, it may sound silly, but you need to do it, or people will maybe laugh and think it's funny, but believe me, they will not trust you. Uncaring attitudes, be careful what you reveal. Uncaring attitudes, stereotypes that are ethnic, or gender related, making fun of other people's dialects, talking the way an older person talks, or in Native American talks, or somebody other race than you, you know, even just using somebody else's dialect to mimic it is typically insulting unless of course it's your ethnic dialect. So who's the only person you can make fun of? And you don't recognize that sometimes mimicking other dialects is presumed to be ridiculing. Uncaring attitudes, in criticism of people, what classes of people, other political parties, other religious groups, other churches, other faiths, other occupations. You know, I went up to use car dealer and I said, what did you just say to all the people who sell cars in your church? You just insulted them, you know, by bringing a stereotype in. Lawyers, blondes, you know, other people in touch, pastors cannot tell those jokes, certainly cannot tell them from the pulpit without creating attitudes very, very difficult. Unsavory pasts talked about this little bit in past lectures and I, again, I haven't got a Bible verse to back this up. Sometimes it's just my obligation to talk to you about the realities of this culture, maybe not all of the cultures, but this culture. If you have difficulty in your past regarding chemical addiction, can you talk about it from the pulpit? Probably. If it's far enough in the past, you can probably talk about it and talk about God giving you victory and how he has helped and difficulty of it and so forth. You can probably talk about chemical addictions. You can probably talk about the mishaps of your teenage years. You can talk about the difficulties of raising your children. You can talk about those things. What's probably the thing that's very, very difficult for people to hear in this culture? What part of your past? Sexual conduct. Very, very hard for them. Now, here's what I'm suggesting to you. I think it times, if you are, most of you men in here, if you are dealing with a men's group, there may be opportunities to just be very honest with people about what men struggle with. But in the pulpit to talk about even things years ago of sexual practice that were inappropriate for Christians to be pursuing, it's very hard for people in the congregation to hear that and still trust you. I can't say do you never do it. I'm saying be very cautious. This is the gasoline type of discussion in our culture and you need to be very cautious about how you have that discussion and be aware of it. I can't defend that. In some ways, I confess it is vending to the sin of our culture that some things are more taboo than others to talk about. I acknowledge that. But part of your job as a pastor is to exegy your culture as well as your text. What do people need to hear? What are they able to hear and still treat you as a pastor and make those potential choices as well? You know, we usually think when we're preaching, this is the only thing I can preach. Stand up in front of Sunday morning and talk to everybody. There are lots of opportunities to begin to salt the congregation with issues that they need to dealt with. Obviously, sexual sin is a huge problem in this culture. Huge problem in this culture. Hey guys, everybody here struggles with it. Everybody here. Everybody here. So when we say that, we have to say I need to be providing tools for people to handle it. I need to recognize because of the degree of struggle, how I deal with it must be managed very carefully or I'm actually going to hinder my ability to help people. I'm really throwing you in past or prudence and exegyting the congregation and making you aware of the difficulty people have with the situation more than trying to say, don't ever mention it or mention it all the time. I'm saying be aware it's very hard for people to have to deal with. Right now, with Harvest Ministries here in St. Louis, which is helping people who are sexually broken through either pornography, sexual additions of various sources, that in itself, to talk about is very, very helpful in this culture. The far end of not dealing with sexual issues when they needed to be would be like Amy Carmichael. Remember what she did? She in the Victorian era was trying to rescue Indian girls from temple prostitution and when she would come to the United States to try to talk about that because of the Victorian ethics, she could not mention what her ministry was in public. She could not, because she would have been just thrown out of the churches. But of course, because of her stick to itiveness and speaking in private to a few people, she was able to raise funds to change the whole culture of India. Now, what about Thailand now? Some of you know Graham Waterhouse, one of our grads, going over to Thailand, deal with very similar issues of the sex trade in Thailand. I will tell you, the first time she gave her talk here in Chapel, we had board wives who were here listening, and I just heard them gasp. Just heard them gasp about what she would be doing. And yet, ultimately, they got behind her. Now, she had to be aware this was very difficult for them to hear and think about, and yet necessary. I think you have to pick your moment. I have an answer to your question. So, your wisdom is knowing there's a tension and then pastoral prudence, how you deal with it. Where the, where the wisdom is not there is where you say, oh, well, they just saw it understand everybody struggles with it. So, I can just talk about it. Say, that is not passively prudent. Actually, it's not very pastoral at all. It is very hard for them to know how to deal with it. That's why they're struggling. And pastoral prudence says, I'll deal with that carefully then. I got a row quickly on here. Some be careful. Another number three, be careful what you endorse. Quick things, be careful what you endorse. Entertainments are one area of potential landmines, particularly movies, music, books, TV shows, if they have what content in them. Go down the quick list, sex, violence, profanity, or what people may view as values of our culture that are inappropriate to endorse. You know, it's curious that people nowadays will talk about how, you know, how the obscenity of leave it to be ver. You know, that, you know, they were just enforcing or emphasizing middle-class American materialistic values. What an obscenity, you know, and you're kind of going, well, I understand that there may be values you didn't want to endorse. I'm not sure that's as bad as some other things. At the same time, there are things that you want to be careful of. How do you make those choices? Exegete the congregation as well as the text. For some congregations, you can mention particular R-rated movies, you know, that the pastor for whatever cultural exposure has been to others, he's looking for a job if he mentioned that he went and saw such a movie. You may not like that, but the fact that that's the culture that we live in. And by the way, you're not just talking to all adults when you're a pastor in the pulpit, are you? You're talking to parents, you're talking to toddlers, you're talking to grandmothers, you're talking to teenagers. So you recognize that to simply without discretion, mention movies that have strong sexual, violent, profane content is actually not to be pastoral at all. You make prudential choices and the trouble is when you're just not thinking or you're saying whatever is acceptable to me must be acceptable to everybody else. It's a strange thing to become a pastor and to say, I'm not just responsible for me anymore. I am responsible for the spiritual souls of many people, baby Christians, very mature Christians all along and I am responsible for them all. And our tendency is to say, it doesn't bother me, therefore it's okay. And a pastor has to say, what about everybody? Who needs to be moved to become more understanding? Who can't take this yet? And to exegiate them all. Be careful about entertainments, be careful about recreations. Can you quote about the fact that you went down and had a wonderful deal at dinner at Harris last week. Some people will accept it, some people will be looking for your scalp.

Here's a tough one. It depends on the churches you go to. Can you mention major league sports that are played on Sunday? Remember that Super Bowl two years ago when certain churches are very upset because when is the Super Bowl played always on a Sunday, on the Sabbath? So what can you mention? Exegiate the congregation as well as the text. What do you need to be aware of? Quotations, be careful, even about what you endorse in terms of quotations. It's wonderful to quote from Shaffer. A lot of people quote from Bonhoeffer. What's difficult about that in evangelical circles? What was Bonhoeffer's biblical position? Was he an anarchist? It wasn't. Had wonderful social ethics, but his biblical understanding was not what many evangelicals will share. Bonhoeffer's lots will still mention some won't. All right, we're root off Boltzmann. Well, certain about him inside in the scripture, can you mention him and be okay? Probably not. You have to say, if I mention someone who is going to compromise what I am perceived to be, I have to say not only what they said, but why I am mentioning them, okay? Not only what they said, but why and if I know what's compromising about them, that I will. Now guys, I mentioned the easy ones. Here are the hard ones. A lot of us in PCA circles, Robert Dabney, Stonewall Jackson. We say, oh, great. I will be leaving then. Wonderful theologian. What's the problem? What did they also endorse in the course of their lives? Slavery. Ah, can your congregation hear that? Should they hear it? Very hard choices. I will just tell you, in a lot of places that I go, pastors will just simply put on their walls, you know, Stonewall Jackson, and I say, great, suburban, urban, white, southern culture that you're in. By the way, if any African American walks in your office, he will now walk out of your office and he will walk out of your church. Is that what you went? Is that what you meant to happen? So you make choices. Who are you ministering to? Are you going to be able to minister to? Who are you endorsing even inadvertently? And what does it mean? Be careful what you describe. Number four, be careful what you describe in illustrations. Once we learn the power of illustrations to engage and we begin to say, man, there's so many aspects of my life that are fun to talk about. Particularly the ones that you're real exciting, you know, like when my baby was born, you know, when my wife was at eight centimeters,

the older generation just fainted, you know. Now, you know, you've got videotapes of it, and they're fainting. What do you got to do? Exogy congregation as well as the text, all right? Hear the four b's of be careful what you describe. Blood, births, bedrooms, and bathrooms. Blood, births, bedrooms, and bathrooms. I will let your mind take care of all of those and tell you just be careful. Number five, be not the hero. Be not the hero. If you give credit to someone, if you do something good, who do you give the credit to? You give the credit to God. Now, away by the way that you can sometimes be not the hero of your own illustration, is to tell it in the third person. Hear that? Tell it in the third person. Now, you may really want to talk about how a wonderful experience happened that the Lord brought somebody into your life, that you were able to lead to spiritual maturity in some way, and you may want to talk about that. It's often better to say, you know, I know a pastor who, and talk about that. Now, the pastor who you know is whom? Is you. But you're not talking about this wonderful thing that you did in front of everybody. If you sometimes do talk about the wonderful thing that you did, I find it's often helpful to say, you know, I want you to know that I was scared about it. The Lord helped me do this. To confess your weakness even as you're telling something positive that happened, and to give credit, the Lord helped me. The Lord enabled me. The Lord carried me through as a way of dealing with things. Number six, be honest. Be honest. Now, why would I say that? Because of the power of illustrations. You know, the more you begin to use illustrations, you will learn the power of it happened to me. To talk about it happened to another preacher as a little power, but it's so much more powerful. I remember when, well, they never happened to you, you read it somewhere. So some be honest rubrics. Do not say it's true if it's not. Do not say it's true if it's not. Can you ever use a fable, a fictional account, something that made up as an illustration? Sure you can. Now, tell me the words you always introduce these illustrations with, Russell. He's like, once upon a time, or let's say, let's say somebody, another one, imagine that, or you know, I can imagine it would be like, as long as you put that, let's say, imagine, or you know, it might have happened, as long as you put those little phrases at the beginning, everybody knows that you're telling an account that does not have all truth in it, and they're perfectly willing to accept it. It's when you say it did happen, and it didn't really. Don't say it happened to you if it did not. Kind of close, right? Don't say it happened to you if it did not. You know, you heard Swindall say it. Actually, by the way, this has gotten some of my friends in very big trouble. I remember a guy who came here in Chapel and he preached a sermon and told an illustration of something that happened to him, the difficulty was that Sproul had been here a few weeks earlier and said it happened to him. And everybody knew it well. You just wanted to die for the guy. You just wanted to die for him. He said it to happen to him and he'd obviously heard it from Sproul. Okay. So don't say it happened to you. Now, I will tell you, where did it come from these days? The internet, so much availability of other people's sermons, the cassette tape ministry, so much availability. You and I both can begin to just label the people who are out of their pulpits today for plagiarism. I mean, people some very big-time pulpits out of their pulpits now for plagiarism. What can you say to use other people's illustrations and be just perfectly fine? Give me a couple of phrases again. I've heard it said, it's all I've heard it said and you're fine. You do not have to quote source and all that I've heard it said. Preachers say, I can remember somebody once saying, all those phrases that you give away the credit, you're fine. You can use it in its entirety. I've heard pastors with full integrity to say, I was in Dallas last week and I must tell you, I heard a sermon that I want you to hear and I'm telling you right now, this is, I'm passing along to you what came to me and people fully readily accept. Now, you didn't do that every week, right? But he said, I heard something important. I want you to hear it. Gave the credit away and basically presented somebody else's sermon and it was perfectly fine because he gave the credit away. All right, Michael? Yes. Do you all hear the questions? Sometimes there are social issues that in order to discuss legitimately, one must bring in graphic details. If I'm going to talk about partial birth abortion, that may be very hard. You've heard pastors do it, I have to, to tell people a week ahead of time, we're going to be talking about something in church next week or in the morning service eight tonight in the evening service. We're going to be talking about something that is very difficult. It's going to relate to this issue, say whatever it is and if your children are not ready to hear that, I want you to be aware. This is what we're going to be doing and even say it in the service itself. We're going to be talking about some very graphic things because you need to know the truth but to give that heads up and I think that that's very powerful and strong and right to do to be fair to people. Last thing under be honest, even if it's true but doesn't seem true even if it's true but doesn't seem true, question is use. I was pastor of church one time and we built a new building and it was a very cloudy day and at the time that the steeple was put on the building with the with the crane, the sun just broke through a crack in the cloud and it just put a shaft of light right on the steeple as it was being put on the building. I mean it wasn't crossed the field, it was right on the steeple. Now I've even got videotapes of that but whenever I tell it to people they don't believe me they think they think I'm doing that you know preacher elaboration so I don't tell it anymore except to this class to say it is true, it really is true but it creates so many questions I can't use it so you might say at times you know even if it is true if it creates doubts to your credibility be question it. Seven be real why do we so much like identifiable human interest accounts? I can't identify with you to be real says it helps to talk more about what's going on in our lives now than the great saints of yesterday year. This is tough but be aware of it. If my illustrations are only of praying hide and William carry and Martin Luther what do people ultimately think about the faith? It does not apply to regular folk. Now I'm not saying dispense with those but if you use the giants of the faith as an illustration I would use some widgets in the sermon too. I would lose some regular folk and if you only do the giants then people will feel the faith has nothing to do with people like them like real people. Now one way that you can make the sermon real is redemptive transparency right? Talk about your own struggles. Forgive me because this is graphic language for a moment it is the difficulty of the pastor knowing this the pulpit is not just a feel sorry for me booth I'm so wicked I'm so bad all the time it's redemptive transparency I struggle but God has helped it's not just the recounting of the struggle so people will feel bad for you it is so that they will know there's hope redemptive transparency often include ourselves in the struggle but show that God provides victory. Age is be complete finish what you begin. Ever hear this? I still do I tell you these things and I still make mistakes all the time. You just tell an illustration in the sermon and you get to the point you wanted to make and tell you stop and then at the door everybody says what did you get home or not you know you know and oh did I say you know and you know if you tell a story that's incomplete people will just hang there they almost don't hear the rest of the sermon you know so you if you tell the beginning of something try to resolve it number nine is be balanced not using the same source for illustrations too often guys you can't talk about baseball all the time military guys you can't refer to your military experience all the time you know about three times a year and that's it you know if you do it all the time I know it's a big part of your life but you can't do it all the time it just removes not about your baby all the time not about your dog not about the hunting clap you know you just vary them the tenth is being precise being precise and that means just trying very carefully to use exposition of rain so that people know what you're doing now I'm going to fill in the blanks that are at the bottom of your bottom of your sheets and ask you to bring the quizzes back next time and we're going to take the quiz that was handed out to you so you can go home and research it my goal is not to surprise you but it's to make sure that you're caught up for the midterm that's coming the bottom of this lecture it says what number one illustrations are told using the key terms that is change terms and parallel statements of subpoint statements illustrations are told using the key terms of the subpoint statements what's this process called number two expositional rain it's called expositional rain since an illustration is about the last thing said prior to it the key terms of a subpoint statement should be placed in what before immediately before the illustration what happens immediately before the illustration summary statement there's a summary statement immediately before the illustration the key terms of bullets and answers to analytical questions subpoints are found in parallel subpoint statements however the key terms of interrogative subpoints are found in the parallel answers five if there are no subpoints in a main point then the key terms for exposition of rain are found in what clause of the main point the magnet clause all right here's my goal bring back those quizzes next time you're welcome to research them do whatever you want to to get them but we will take them in class next time and then we'll move on to the next lecture okay see you then