We had better pray before this session, and I suggest you pray for yourselves, that I don't put you to sleep. If you're weary, so am I. So let's go ahead and pray. Father, I thank you that we can think about this whole process of what preaching is about. Father, the purpose for which you have called us and how to best communicate with your people, the word which you've eternally secured. I pray, Father, that each of the men here, including myself, might become more skilled exegetes and expounders of your word. Father, we might see clearly what You have to say and we might communicate it in a way that our people not only understand, Lord, but by Your grace and by Your Spirit are motivated to apply. I pray, Father, that You would guide this final hour that we're together, that, Lord, the things might have practical significance in the ministries of We have some handouts today, and don't get out of here unless you want to before picking up a final handout that I'm not going to give you now, because you'd be spending the whole hour looking at it. And that's a handout of a sermon that I did on 1 Peter 1, 1 to 9. It's not a perfect sermon. I looked at it this morning. I would have rewritten the introduction some, but it will give you an idea how things work out in the end. through the process that we've been talking to you about. Remember we started out talking about looking at observation. We're looking at what's going on. What did the original author intend to communicate to the original group of people? In that original question, looking for the original audience and the original message, we're observing and we're interpreting. We first of all observe what is said, and then we try to understand what it was that was being communicated. So both observation and application take place in step one. What is the original author saying to the original audience? Once we've got that down and we feel we've got that down and can concisely state that in one sentence, then we look at the differences, the river that stands between that audience and us. Sometimes it's large, sometimes it's small, sometimes it's nonexistent. But we need to examine, is there a difference between what's being communicated to them and how it applies to us today? We go from there to say, okay, I know what was being said to the original audience. Is there an eternal principle that is clearly seen in this passage that transcends the difference between what was going on then and what's going on now? And then we need to come up concisely with the eternal principle, the core or central idea. The big idea. It's called a lot of things. But what is the core idea, the central idea? From there, we need to examine other places in Scripture. Did I get it right? Do other places in Scripture confirm what I think is the core principle here? Once we've done that, we need to say, okay, look at my audience. Okay, who am I ministering to? What is their age and social economic background? What do they do in their life? What kind of things are they struggling with? Where are they academically? Where are they spiritually? What don't they understand that needs to be explained? What am I saying here that runs contrary to what they already believe? Are there things here I need to demonstrate or add some proof to or some things which will help them get past those barriers which caused them to doubt what we're talking about. It's not that those things do anything, but it helps them transcend the things which are standing in their way. But then we come down, and okay, for my audience, the people that I got as entrusted to me, or got as entrusted to you, What in this? How does it apply to them in very practical ways? Where are they struggling as it relates to this particular area? How can I, where are my people as it relates to this principle? Where are they struggling? And that is an important one you need to spend time, you need to exegete your people as well as exegeting the passage. Now having said that, if you know one person in the group that's having a problem, You don't go after him from the pulpit. You know, there's one person in the church that's going through a divorce. You don't start making all your applications about divorce. You talk to him privately. But I'll tell you, if you've got five or six out there going through the problem, it's fair game. Just be aware how you go about it, that you're not pointing things at one particular person. But then you have people, they know what they should be doing, they know how to apply it, but the fact is, the reality is they're not. And there is no way you can make them apply it, you pray like crazy, but you can use various techniques and various illustrations and things to help them see, maybe I need to start applying this, maybe I better get on the stick. We're gonna talk more about that. We went through then, but we talked about When did we develop the message? What was the purpose of the original author? What is the purpose of my sermon? How it relates to my audience? Now we have the outline. We come up with the purpose. We come to the outline. And we showed you the outline as we ended last night. And now the question is, how do I put the meat on the bones? How do we put this? We've got the outline of the sermon. We know why we're preaching it. We know what the main idea is. I know what basic questions I need to address with my particular audience. So the question now is, how do I pick the right illustrations to help drive this message home to the group I'm speaking to? And by the way, how do I catch their attention? How do I get them to even want to listen in my introduction? And how do I land this thing in such a way that they not only understand, but they're most likely to be blessed and go out and apply it. So that's what we're going to be ending up with today. We're going to be filling in the sermon outline. We saw the outline last night. So what do we do when we fill in the sermon outline? We provide supporting material. All the illustrations and other things are supporting material. which are either explaining, proving, applying, or amplifying the points in the outline. That's all you're doing. If you need to explain something, a point in your outline, if you need to prove it, apply it, or amplify it for your congregation to understand, that's what you do. And you don't over-do it. A lot of people throw in too many proof texts, or they throw in too much in a particular area, quote, experts in some area of science or whatever. Don't overdo it. Find what's appropriate to your group. And don't go to overkill. For instance, people explaining something your congregation already knows ad infinitum. You're going to bore them to death. They already know that. They already believe it. You don't use all kinds of proofs and statistics and quotes to prove it. Because they already believe it. So you find where your audience is, and you put your focus on your supporting material on those areas where you believe need to take place with the group. Supporting material may help them to see how you apply it, or it may motivate them to apply it. For instance, if I'm going through Ecclesiastes, I like to quote a number of people at different places. Henry Ford, making a million dollars a week. His stomach was so bad he couldn't eat, and he was down to somewhere around 100 pounds or a little over. And he said, I was happier when I was a mechanic working in the garage. I mean, and how many of us would like to make a million dollars a week? Then you can quote the story of Betty Hutton, the richest woman in her day, heir to the Woolworth fortune. of including some prominent celebrities and movie stars. And then you can follow her through the end. Or Lee Iacocca has some good quotes. They're just some great quotes. But you talk about these people and show how the person in your group is pursuing doesn't automatically lead to happiness. That in the end, I mean, so you can use, depending on what you're dealing with, there's so many things that you can use. Your illustrations can help them to see how to apply it or motivate them to apply it. Or sometimes points need to be amplified, help them understand a little better the point that you're making. So we're going to be talking about supporting materials. Supporting materials may include restating the concept in different words. Sometimes it's better understood coming at it from a number of angles, saying the same thing in a different way. We want to make it clear. We want to impress it on the person's mind. You may notice that I've done this a number of times when I was talking about, again, Jonah. And we talked about God is a God of second chances. I come at it from a little different angle. That's my big idea. Relent, God repents. I mean, when we repent, God relents. Excuse me. I told you it's late morning. Anyhow, or I say it another way. I talk about God's compassion. He's a God of compassion and mercies, which really it sums up in chapter four. And I'm saying the same thing, getting at the same point around and around. But my main point still remains my main point. My big idea is the one that gets stated normally, several times in the sermon, to get that point across. So we can restate things in different words. We can give explanations and definitions. Sometimes we want to use synonyms. I used to use rouges quite a bit. Anymore I don't as much, but to help come up with other words to say the same thing so that it will help explain or define. You can use comparisons and illustrations of comparison and contrast with everyday type things. It's like this, it's not like that. You can use examples. Examples are always good, or illustrations. factual information. Now, this is where we talk about statistics and verifiable data. This is more in a proving sense, or helping to support your idea. This is where people aren't really sure that they buy into what's being said in the Bible or in what you're teaching. Remember, again, on that, I asked last night and talked to you about In Jonah, I ask, is it scientifically possible to Jonah have been swallowed for three days inside of a big fish? So you need to somehow demonstrate to your people it may be hard, and if God says it is true, then guess what? We have other examples. And I use the two examples from last night. And that's important. Quotations. Quotations are used in an area where the people need to be impressed with someone who is in a better position to know the facts and interpret the data. It's nice to quote a scientist on scientific issues. And so it adds a little more authority and people are more likely to accept it. By the way, I mentioned statistics and data. Be careful. Be careful where you get it. Be careful to check it out and make sure it's true. Don't rely on your memory. Google it or look it up in some other source. Make sure your data is true. If you start quoting data that is not true, you're going to lose the credibility with your people. Use quotations, but use quotations sparingly. And when you use quotations, keep them short. Don't ever get up here and read a long quotation. If it's a long quotation, summarize it in your words. Make sure that you're using a reliable source, somebody that's respected by the people in your congregation. Keep it short, and keep them few, but use them. There are all kinds of illustrations you can use to clarify, give an example, or apply. The most impressive illustrations touch close to the lives of the listeners in your audience as possible. If I was in the town where I grew up, logging and farming area, I would use a lot different illustrations. than I did in a college university setting where I ministered. I would be using illustrations that touch closely to the life of loggers and farmers, things that they understand, things that they can identify with. In the university community, I'm dealing with a totally different type of person and different mindset. And I've got it, so my illustrations, my examples, all of these things come from things which they are dealing with. questions they're encountering in the classroom, questions that they're encountering now as they're young adults, and the struggles that they're going through. And so where you go with your illustrations, you come with illustrations that are close to the group that you're dealing with. You can use personal illustrations, but be careful. When you use a personal illustration, first of all, make sure it's true. Second of all, make sure it's modest. I'd rather talk about my failures in front of the congregation than my successes. It doesn't mean you can't talk about a success, but be careful and be modest when you do it. Use personal illustrations sparingly. When you do, don't use them apologetically, and don't violate a confidence. There's a saying among pastor's kids, whatever you say in private may be used against you in the pulpit. We had eight kids, but you know, I could talk about, without naming them, talk about something that one of my kids may have done, and people in the congregation could figure it out. Plus, it would make my kid very uncomfortable, because he knew who he was, or she knew who he was. So avoid using anything negative, or even personal, about your family, including your wife, unless you ask them ahead of time, may I use this illustration? Normally, they'll allow you, but they say, no, don't do it. Don't do it. But ask them first if you're going to use it, and be very, very careful. What are sources of illustrations? Sources of illustrations come from a number of places. They can come from your personal experience, observations about life, anecdotes, examples and analogies, Too many personal illustrations about family and your childhood experience and personal activities ultimately end up cheapening your ministry over time because it ends up being all about you in the eyes of people. So be very, very careful on that. Where do you come up with illustrations? Oh, there are illustration books. There are things online and all that. And some of them can be good. they really, most of the time, don't really fit my group. I mean, I use the Henry Ford example, and there are those. Every once in a while, something like that is really great, either for an introduction or a conclusion. But most of the illustrations I find on illustration, in illustration books and online, they're great illustrations, but My people don't sit, they don't, how do I put it? It's still that guy, it's not me. You've got to somehow get them to make that connection. So you can use those and sometimes they can be good. Things I do is I continue to read. I love science and history. I'm reading on science and history all the time. I also keep up on the news. magazine, but I got several news things I look at online that I feel are reliable to keep up with what's going on. I read in current philosophy and current events. I try to keep up on what's going on theologically. Where are the theological battles? What are the things that white people are most likely to be led astray, or what are they most likely to be exposed to? And there's so much online right now that particularly young ones get onto to keep up with what's being said and why people are leaving the faith and abandoning Christianity and setting up their own spiritual groups. To understand that is important so I can minister to them. Preparing the sermon introduction and conclusion. This is important. Patton Robinson says, start with a bang and end all over. I know too many sermons that start with a fizz that seem to never end. And your introductions and conclusions are very, very important. Your introduction basically is telling people, why do I want to listen to this guy? And Robinson said this, if you do not capture the attention in the first, he says, 30 seconds, you will never gain it at all. I would give you a minute, but you better have communicated and gotten the attention of your people within the first minute that what you're going to have to say relates to them and is something that they will find significant enough to listen to, or they're going to start zoning. They're going to start thinking of other things. And it's important. It's hard to get it later. You want to capture their attention. And I'll talk about how to do that in a minute. You want to awaken an interest in the subject that you're talking about. You want to tell your listeners why they need to listen. I don't know where that came from on my... Introductions can point people to the timeless truth, to your first point, the outline. Tell the listeners why they need to listen. Command attention. How do we command attention? I do it this way. You want to grab them. Here's some things. You can ask rhetorical questions. For instance, I'll ask the question if I were a tobacco and I did this. Why do nice guys finish last? And people say, yeah, why, why, why? Or you might ask the question, how could an all-powerful, loving God let happen what just happened at this church shooting or at whatever? How could an all-loving, all-powerful God allow that to happen? You're really asking why do God's people suffer at the hands of those who are not? Why do the innocent suffer? innocent in quotes. So you can start by asking a provocative question. You can start with using startling statistics. One in three marriages ends in divorce. Only one in six is happy. That's a great way to start something, a passage that's going to have to do with marriage, isn't it? Or you can make a provocative comment like, We are not, as we sit in here, we are not all created equal. Think that'll get attention? That would be a great one on spiritual gifts, wouldn't it? And you could use all kinds of illustrations, you know? LeBron James and I are not equal. God made us differently. I mean, there's just tons of ways you can go on that one, but that's a statement to get attention. Here's one. Put a familiar thought in an unfamiliar setting. He who dies with the most toys, loses. You can go further, he loses it all, but really he loses it from an eternal perspective too. He who dies with the most toys, loses. Or you can present a paradox. Many of God's children live as if they were orphans. And then you can start talking about all we have in Christ. and how that applies and how to apply it to practical reality. As most of you know, I love humor. I have an overactive sense of humor, and sometimes it's misapplied. But you have to be very, very careful with this generation. I used to use humor more, but this generation is touchy. Everybody gets offended. Well, you can't know. But if you want to minister to them, you have to realize who they are and what they are. Some of the things I can do and say in the past, I don't do and say now. I won't hold back on the scriptures. I don't have a mind offending someone with the scriptures. But you know, how I present my, and the types of illustrations I use, and the use of certain types of humor in the pulpit, I don't do anymore. Because your goal there is to minister to people. And, you know, on the essentials, no compromise. On the non-essentials, make space for your congregation, say. Okay? So be careful with humor. You can use it, but be careful how you use it. You can present a story to begin with, tell a story. sets up a dilemma that you're going to solve in your sermon. You can surface a question or a need, which is what I do. Most of those questions I ask early on are statements. Basically what I'm doing is surfacing a need or something in the people's lives so that they going to help answer that question. Robinson says this, early in the sermon, your listeners should recognize that you are talking to them about themselves from the Bible. You're talking to people about themselves from the Bible. I would add to that, talking to them about God and themselves from the Bible. The introduction can point to the subject, the main idea, or the first point. Now be very, very careful. Do not promise in your introduction more than your servant is going to deliver. So be careful of that, but you do want to make sure you're raising that issue. Now when we talk about conclusions, conclusions focus on the point of the timeless truth. Your conclusion has to go back to what is the point of the passage. In one way or another, you're going to the timeless truth. You don't simply moralize on good and bad examples. You know, David is such a good example for us, and that's an easy way out, isn't it? But is that the main point? how David was brave and how David, whatever, in some ways he wasn't a good example for us. But anyhow, your point here is when we're talking about how God chose a leader, the heart of the matter is the heart that matters. So at that point, he pointed to timeless truth, and you deal with the heart, not just, wasn't David a great example, he was brave enough to go up against the lion, or whatever. Oftentimes we kind of comp out on those things. So it should be related to the main idea of the passage. Effective conclusions answer the question, so what? So what? You've been talking for 45 minutes, so what? And so you're addressing that. A good conclusion calls for a verdict. It calls for a response. It gives people a specific step of action in both cases. Now, there are things we're trying to deal with. We're trying to deal with attitudes. We're trying to deal with intellectual issues. We're trying to deal with lifestyle. But in the end, we're calling for a verdict. Now, when you go, there are lots and lots of ways that we can come to a conclusion. Probably the worst, but it can be used effectively, is simply to give a summary. Some guys end up preaching the whole sermon over again in their conclusion, in short form. It can be done effectively, but summary is a way to do it, and it can be done right, but too often it's not done right. You can use an illustration. I'm going to hand you a copy of my that sermon I did a while back on 1 Peter. And I have some quotes in there. I could have used them at the very end, I didn't, but I could have, you can use a quote from someone who's suffered greatly, and what his evaluation is, is he's going to the stake. That you can use an illustration, you can use a quotation, and you can even use a question. effectively, and if I had more time, I'd do that, but we've got too much stuff to cover here. Give specific directions. You can ask them to visualize, and I'm not talking about this Eastern Mystic Hall. I want you to sit there, close your eyes for a moment, and think how your life would be different if you just followed through with which this passage is saying. Now, I want you to picture for a moment, if you did this on a consistent basis, how would it affect your marriage? If you did this on a consistent basis, how do you think it would affect your children? I want you to sit there and just think through it for a minute. I mean, that's a way to do it. There are other ways, other things we can do. You can end with a prayer, give specifics. Make sure that your conclusions are short. As I told you, some of these guys, you just wish they'd set that plane down. Just land that sucker. And they seem like they can never get it down. And make your conclusions short. Make sure they actually end the message. Here's something that you never do, but I see guys doing it all the time. They all of a sudden, in their conclusion, add a new idea that they haven't talked about in the whole sermon. And that's not kosher. So anyhow, those give you a few ideas. And I know I haven't had the time to develop them. If you look, you should have in your notes something like this, preaching effective sermon. We're going on presentation now. Practical and effective sermons. Characters of an effective sermon. Effective sermons are clear. Too many guys come out of seminary, and you guys know I'm talking about I want to use theological jargon. We're not there to use all kinds of theological jargon. We're there to make things as clear as possible. There are a number of things to cite language. You use a clear outline. that your outline that you're using for your sermon, whether it's handed out or just what you're coming off of yourself, make sure it's simple and clear. That's why I recommend we use full sentences, not phrases. Somebody will throw a phrase out there and I don't know what he's saying, how what he's saying has anything to do, what does he mean by that word he's got out there or that short phrase and what does this have to do with it? No, use full sentences. Use short sentences when you speak. Use simple words. I've done some teaching in Russian, Indian, different places. And you know what? When you're teaching through a translator, you've got to keep it simple. You can use synonyms. But even then, my poor translator would say, well, you're saying the same thing, but we don't know enough Russian words or whatever to pick this up. But keep it simple. Keep it short. Use simple sentence structure, not complex sentence structure. You're communicating to people. You're not giving a lecture with long... I can write differently, and we do write differently than we speak. But when you're speaking, keep it simple. Just keep it simple. Effective sermons are vivid. Paint specific concrete word pictures. So that you're talking using pictures. Hebrew does that really well. In fact, more than Greek. Greek's more logical. Hebrew paints pictures for you by the words that it uses and how they're put together. Avoid slogans. Things that people hear all the time are platitudes or what we call preacher talk. Avoid them like a plague. Don't use worn out phrases. The next thing is use vivid gestures and facial expressions. And I'm going to talk about that later. Too many guys are like this up here. And the key on it is to start out praying like crazy. Second of all, after you've prayed like crazy, You're not up there to impress people. You're there to talk to people. If you're excited about what you're saying, the facial expressions are going to come. The hand gestures are going to come. And that's important. Be yourself, but be your best self. Don't be somebody who's up there worried about what people will think. Most of you don't know the name. Does anybody know the name of the saint, the name Stan Toussaint? He was probably one of the most popular guys at Dallas Seminary. He helped mentor Chuck Swindoll and several other names that you would recognize, and several big names spoke at his funeral here three or four years ago. But Stan Toussaint was a great preacher. He was a great professor. He didn't write all the books, so you don't know his name, but he influenced generations. He was my mentor. He was the guy that I looked up to. He talks about how he went out right after seminary, and he did some whole supply, and they had given him 40 minutes to speak. And he had the greatest thing down on the paper that you can imagine. He was ready to deliver. And he got up there, and he delivered it with passion, and he looked at the clock. 15 minutes. What do I got to do? He decides he's gonna go back and re-preach it, but you gotta try to change the words a little bit. So he goes back and... 27 minutes. No, it wasn't even 27 minutes. It was 22 minutes. And he didn't know what to do, so he wrapped it up. And as the people were going out the door, the last little old lady coming out the door says, well, you tried, sonny. And he made a decision then and there in his life, I am going to quit worrying about me and start being concerned about them. I'm going to quit worrying about how I look and how I come across. And I want to communicate to the people. He says, I decided then if I had to look like a fool, he says, stand on my head on the platform, so to speak. He said, if that's what it took to communicate, That's what I was going to do, and that's what we need to remember. It's not about us. We worry so much, and you're older, you've done it more, and so I'm talking to the choir on this, but we need to make sure that we have a passion for what we're saying, and we pray to the point where, and we talk to God, God help me to communicate to these people. The message that you want communicated to them, by your grace, God, help me to apply it to the areas of their lives that need to be impacted. God, and you need to understand your purpose. God, let me make sure my purpose is your purpose, and when I get up there, I have a purpose, and I'm not just going through information, okay? Other things I have down in here. C, effective delivery begins with desire. It starts on your knees in prayer. Your grooming and dress, this is for young guys. Your voice. Gentlemen, our voices, some people's voices can drone you to death. And the key on this is vary. Vary your pace, vary your volume, vary your pitch, and use pauses effectively. If you want to make impact, sometimes the best way is to come out here and And those are just things to work on with time. There's one very popular speaker. He's a good guy. He's theologically sharp. I can't listen to him. It drives me crazy. His volume is always up here. His pitch is always up here. His pace is always the same. He's rocking back and forth talking to you. And some of you know people like that, right? Just back off. Back off. And I'd rather read his books than listen to him preach. Okay? Maintain eye contact with your audience. And I don't know where you're at on this. I know a fellow, and again, a theologically sound guy from a good seminary, a nice guy, you can ask for a nicer guy, went to a couple of his services. For some reason, he has a hard time looking people in the eye. He spent all of his time looking at the wall. It not only drove me crazy, my wife was wondering if he was looking at a fly or what it was he kept looking at on the wall. But he'd always look over here because he was afraid to look people in the eye. And looking people in the eye tells you a lot. And it tells them a lot. It tells them, I care about you. It tells them, I'm talking to you. It tells them an awful lot. And look people in the eye. Now, I don't look people in the eye saying, that's Bill, that's Sally, that's Susie. I look people in the eye. I'm getting the impression of where they're at. I'm not thinking, you know. But look people in the eye. Communicate to people. Have you ever sat down at somebody at a restaurant and they talked to you and they never looked at you? Doesn't that drive you crazy? You want to talk to somebody. We're communicating. It's you and me. You know, you're important to me. I want to relate to you. Okay? And that's important. Appropriate facial expressions, natural, spontaneous, unplanned gestures add to your delivery. And I say be yourself. If you're relaxed with yourself, and you want to communicate to people, and you've got a real desire of what you want to do in their lives, These things tend to work themselves out. You're talking to people, so you're talking like you would be to your best friend or your neighbor or your family or whatever. You're expressing all these things appropriately. When you're preparing yourself for a sermon, we've given you a lot of information in the last three days. What is the order of priority? If you're gonna work on something, what's the order of priority in which to work on it? Number one, number one, a clear presentation of the timeless truth. That's doing your exegesis and coming to where you know what that timeless truth is that transcends the river. Being clear on that timeless truth is number one. Number two, a clear arrangement and organization of the sermon outline. Number three, language that is fresh, clear, and understandable to your listeners. Four, here comes the voice and the gestures. And five, the voice and then the gestures. Other thoughts on the back. A sermon is not a lecture. You are talking to real people about themselves and not simply presenting information. Somebody was talking to me today about Warren Wiersbe, about how too many guys think they just have to open their head and pour in information. My terminology for that is dump data, or we're doing dumping data, downloading. It's more than that. You're talking to real people about themselves, not simply presenting information. In addition to that, you're not speaking to a group. You are speaking to individuals. And that's why when I'm preaching, I'm looking around, I'm talking to you, and I'm talking to you, and I'm talking to you. I'm not just simply, you know, I'm talking to people individually. Remember that God's purpose in the Bible is to reveal himself and his son. We tend to see ideas in terms of our duties as believers, and there are duties in the Bible, by the way, but the fact is, The Bible is more than simply teaching a duty to people. Helping them to understand the greatness of God, the power of God, the love of God. That they can trust in God. That God understands what they're going through and their solutions to their problems. Because there's a God in heaven. Anyhow, enough of that. I gave you some other things here. I gave you a sermon evaluation sheet. A sermon evaluation sheet, this is something I recommend you photocopy and go over yourself as you're preparing your message and then hand it to somebody that you trust will give you an honest evaluation, who loves you, who's on your team, and not gonna be on your case. I would never hand this to my wife. And there's a reason for that. I had somebody in a gassed event. Why would I never hand it to you, Diane? I don't know. Because you are always positive on my messages. You are not one who... Diane can get something out of anything, any message, and it can be terrible, but she'll find a good point that she really likes. She's good. So she's not a good critic for me, okay? Some of you shouldn't hand it to your wife because she's your biggest critic, okay? So hand it to someone who you think will give you an honest evaluation of what's going on. And you notice it talks about your introduction. Does it get attention? Does it point to the main point? And so forth. It's structure. It goes right through the points of it. And it probably goes, well, I have them start out working on the front first page, And then we got that down, start working on the second page. Okay? I gave you something else here. It's called All Ten Steps, right here, outline. It's starting with grasping the meaning in their town. I kind of gave you the main sub-themes under each of them, so you can use this, possibly. And then I did something You have not gotten it yet. I'll hand this out. Here's a message I did on 1 Peter 1. Okay? Now, if I had it back, I would rework the introduction to make it more personal. Okay? So, I don't claim it's a perfect message. There are a couple other things I looked over this morning. I said, you know, I should have tweaked this or I should have tweaked that. But it'll at least give you an idea. It goes with the general principle following through the steps that I gave you this week. So, take it, and by the way, I don't, I put down sub points in here, but I don't get stuck on the sub points. I go over the sub points more quickly unless it's necessary to prove something, you know what I mean? So you have to determine how much time to spend on each aspect as you're going through the message. Also, I've asked if I could have a copy of everybody's email address. If you want me to email my lessons and PowerPoints, give me your name. And Matt's going to give me your email addresses. Or you can even write that down. And I can just email those to you, which will give you a little more detail so you know what we've gone through as you're working on these issues. Before I step down. Are there any questions? Good, because I don't have any answers. Yes, Steve. It's Steve, right? Yes. Yes. With a short response, how do you get the perfect balance between MacArthur and Swindoll? I don't even try. I don't even try. I just try to be the one and original me. They both have strengths. There are things about both of them that's obviously that I think they both could tweak. But I don't even try that. My whole point is communicating to my people what God wants communicated to them through the passage. And I don't even worry about comparing myself to others. And neither should you, by the way. You're the one and only original you. I was thinking more from the They're both in ditches, one to the left, one to the right, and with a heart that wants to present like you just gave to us, effectively. And I find that I'm drawn to Swindoll more than I am MacArthur. Is it a personality thing that I should work on to try to be more like, a little bit more like MacArthur, or do we, or do you see that? I have great, great, great respect for John MacArthur. I respect him because he's been willing to stand when others are crumbling. The second reason I have great respect for John MacArthur is because on two occasions, when people called him out on certain things he was teaching or doing, on those two occasions, he reexamined his position as willing to publicly say, I was wrong. Having said that, is he a perfect man? Absolutely not. None of us are. I have great respect for Swindoll, a loving guy. Now, let me tell you a story. I was reading, I just read three books, one by Erwin Lutzer, one by Swindoll, and one by MacArthur. Every one of them told the same story in a different way, and this should end helping you and encourage you. Every one of them said the hardest part of ministry is being stabbed in the back by people that you poured your heart into. and then others listen without checking it out and walk and leave the church. And I'm gonna end with a story from Swindoll. Most of you know, when Swindoll was at Dallas Seminary, he wanted to do some preaching and stuff while he was ending up his presidency. So he decided to start a little midweek Bible study. And it got out and 300 people, signed up for the first one. So they decided they'd rent out a college lecture hall, and there was several hundred more in the next, and I forget the exact numbers, but there were so many that started coming that by the fourth week, I believe it was, they took an offering and raised $4 million to build their first building. And the church grew, and it grew stronger. But they get out there a few years, and Chuck Swindoll is laying on his bed in tears with his letter of resignation in hand. You see, some of his elders and some of his staff decided that Chuck didn't know how to do church right, that they needed to become a little more seeker-friendly, that they needed to do other things. And they were in rebellion. church split. And he's sitting there with his letter of resignation in hand and Cynthia, like all good wives, walks in and says, Chuck, put your big boy pants on. That's a Powell paraphrase, by the way. She said, why are people coming to this church? She says, because they appreciate ministry that you're doing. She said, stand up and take charge. Now, he did some things. I don't know how he pulled off. I know people in the church. I know people. Anyhow, bottom line is, he fired half of his elder board and significant portion of his staff. How he got by with it, I don't know. Uh did it cause people to leave? Absolutely. But then he added people like Howard Hendricks and Stan Toussaint to his board, which none of us have access to. What I'm trying to say here, I don't care how good you are or who you are. Remember, you'll be loved with a love you don't deserve. And you'll be hated with a hate you don't deserve. You have something to say, Roger?