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Preaching - Lesson 20

Transitions and Dialogical Method

In this lesson, you will learn about the importance of transitions in preaching and how to craft effective transitions to enhance the clarity and flow of your message. You will also be introduced to the dialogical method of preaching, which involves engaging the congregation in conversation and active listening. By understanding the history, benefits, and practical implementation of the dialogical method, you will gain valuable insights into how to create a more interactive and engaging preaching experience. Furthermore, the lesson will teach you how to combine transitions and the dialogical method effectively, resulting in clearer messages and increased audience engagement.

Bryan Chapell
Preaching
Lesson 20
Watching Now
Transitions and Dialogical Method

I. Introduction to Transitions and Dialogical Method

A. Importance of Transitions

B. Types of Transitions

C. Crafting Effective Transitions

II. Dialogical Method in Preaching

A. Definition and History

B. Benefits of Dialogical Method

C. Practical Implementation

III. Combining Transitions and Dialogical Method

A. Enhancing Audience Engagement

B. Clarifying the Message

C. Practical Tips and Techniques


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Transcript
  • Gain insights into effective preaching principles, covering history, essential components, styles, and techniques, and learn how to prepare and deliver impactful sermons.
  • Gain valuable insights on sermon construction, learn techniques for effective preaching, and understand the importance of continuous improvement for delivering impactful messages.
  • Through this lesson, you gain valuable insights into the process of text selection and interpretation for preaching, as well as learning practical techniques for delivering engaging and relevant sermons.
  • In this lesson, you gain insight into the process of creating a sermon, from text selection to delivery, emphasizing textual analysis and message relevance.
  • Through this lesson, you gain the skills to craft clear, engaging, and memorable sermons by mastering the principles of effective outlining and arrangement in preaching.
  • Through this lesson, you learn to craft effective propositions and main points, enhancing your preaching clarity and impact.
  • By exploring homiletical outlines, you'll learn to effectively develop and structure sermons, understand various outline types, and apply engaging presentation techniques for impactful preaching.
  • In this lesson, you gain insights into crafting engaging introductions for sermons, exploring their importance, characteristics, types, and the process of creating a compelling introduction that effectively connects to the message.
  • Through this lesson, you learn the importance of exposition in preaching, how to develop an expository sermon, and the role of the preacher for effective communication.
  • This lesson teaches you to create captivating sermon introductions using anecdotes, questions, and facts, guiding you through research, structuring, and presentation to maximize audience engagement and improve your overall sermon impact.
  • In order to understand the basic subdivisions of your sermon in expository development, it is important to it is helpful to see what the specific members of your sermon's body looks like in standard development.

  • By completing this lesson, you learn to effectively prepare and deliver sermons while focusing on personal growth, continuous improvement, and dependence on God.
  • Learn to effectively classify and develop sermons into topical, textual, and expository types, enhancing your preaching skills and audience connection.
  • In this lesson, you learn the significance of explanation in preaching and strategies to craft and deliver effective explanatory sermons while evaluating their effectiveness for continuous improvement.
  • By incorporating illustrations into your preaching, you engage listeners, clarify complex ideas, and enhance memory retention while learning effective guidelines to utilize various types of illustrations.
  • Explore this lesson to learn how to effectively use illustrations in sermons by isolating events or experiences, refining principles, and connecting with your audience through human interest accounts.
  • Through this lesson, you learn to effectively use illustrations in preaching to engage listeners, clarify concepts, and draw from various sources, while maintaining relevance, variety, and ethical considerations.
  • Gain insight into the importance of application in preaching, as well as principles and methods for effective application, to create impactful and relevant sermons that resonate with your audience.
  • Through this lesson, you learn to effectively apply biblical teachings to modern life, considering various approaches, overcoming challenges, and utilizing practical tips for context-sensitive and culturally aware application.
  • Through this lesson, you gain insights into crafting effective transitions in preaching and utilizing the dialogical method for increased audience engagement and message clarity.
  • Gain insight into various sermon presentation methods, their advantages and disadvantages, and learn to choose the right method and improve your preaching skills.
  • Through this lesson, you enhance your preaching skills by mastering vocal techniques and purposeful gestures, ensuring a connection with the audience while continually improving your delivery.
  • Learn the significance of dress and style in preaching and how to balance authenticity, appropriateness, and clarity to effectively communicate your message to your audience.
  • You learn to effectively repurpose old sermons, gaining insight into updating them for relevance, enhancing delivery, and managing time efficiently.
  • By studying this lesson, you gain insight into the crucial connection between the Word and Spirit in preaching and learn to balance them for effective and authentic sermons.
  • Through this lesson, you learn how to apply a Christ-centered, redemptive-historical approach to preaching, addressing common criticisms and enhancing your sermons.
  • Through this lesson, you learn to compose powerful redemptive messages that highlight Christ's work and connect biblical themes to modern audiences.
  • Through this lesson, you gain an understanding of redemptive principles in preaching, learning to identify them in Scripture and effectively apply them to your sermons while navigating potential challenges.
  • By exploring the importance of genre in biblical interpretation and applying redemptive interpretation to various biblical genres, you will gain knowledge and insight into the historical and literary context, redemptive themes and patterns, and contemporary application of different types of genres in the Bible.

Description

Dr. Bryan Chapell explores the unifying principle of grace that binds all Scripture together. He outlines and demonstrates the principles and practice of sermon-crafting and delivery to illuminate the message of grace in each passage, and to submit it to God's Spirit for the transformation of lives through preaching.

Dr. Chapell is making these recorded lectures available for you to access at no charge on BiblicalTraining.org. However, there is no personal interaction with Dr. Chapell in this format. The assignments and activities described are for classes that he teaches in person. We left the descriptions in for your benefit, but we do not offer personal or group interaction to participate in these activities. You can, however, sign up for his new preaching classes at BryanChapell.com/courses.

Dr. Chapell is helped in this course by Zachary W. Eswine, Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program (BSW, Ball State University; MDiv, Covenant Theological Seminary; PhD, Regent University). Dr. Eswine served as senior pastor of Grace Church of the Western Reserve in Hudson, Ohio, for six years before joining Covenant Seminary's faculty in 2001. He has served as a campus minister with the Navigators, as a church youth director, and as a chaplain-evangelist in retirement facilities. Since arriving at the Seminary, Dr. Eswine has also served as interim pastor for Tates Creek Presbyterian Church in Lexington, Kentucky, as advisory pastor for the Chinese Gospel Church of St. Louis, and as interim pastor for Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in St. Louis. He has taught New Testament in Ukraine and served as a short-term missionary in the Caribbean. Dr. Eswine is a gifted preacher and has authored the book Kindled Fire: How the Methods of C. H. Spurgeon Can Help Your Preaching and numerous articles on homiletics. In addition, as an accomplished musician and songwriter, he has recorded three collections of original songs.

Philosophy and Goals of the Course

1. "Prep and Del" is an introduction to the basics of sermon construction and delivery. This is not primarily a course on the theology of preaching, but rather is a practical introduction to the tools, structures, and concepts that help preachers learn to put a sermon together. 

2. Because this course is introductory, certain standards of sermon construction are taught that I hope you will consider "foundational" rather than universal. There is not only one "right way" to preach. However, mastering the methods of this course will help you develop the tools needed for many kinds of future sermons. Students from many backgrounds and preaching traditions have found these tools helpful even as they prepare for other styles in the future. Other methods and styles will be taught and encouraged in future semesters.

3. In Dr. Chapell's seminary class, you would be asked to present some short oral assignments to the class in order to: a) begin integrating the information presented in lectures; b) begin honing your preaching skills; c) and, remove some of the intimidation of your first preaching experience next semester.

(At this time, we do not provide personal interaction to evaluate your progress. We included the suggested assignments and activities to give you direction as you apply the principles you are learning to your own sermon preparation and delivery.)

Recommended Books

Christ-Centered Preaching (text only) 2nd(Second) edition by B. Chapell

Christ-Centered Preaching (text only) 2nd(Second) edition by B. Chapell

Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon [Hardcover]Bryan Chapell (Author)

Christ-Centered Preaching (text only) 2nd(Second) edition by B. Chapell
Christ-Centered Sermons: Models of Redemptive Preaching

Christ-Centered Sermons: Models of Redemptive Preaching

Highly regarded preacher and teacher Bryan Chapell shows readers how he has prepared expository sermons according to the principles he developed in his bestselling...

Christ-Centered Sermons: Models of Redemptive Preaching

Dr. Bryan Chapell
Preaching
PR600-20
Transitions and Dialogical Method
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:00] This recording is provided courtesy of Covenant Theological Seminary. For the beginning of lecture 16. What's the main thing to be done in an expository sermon, according to Broaddus? I hope you know that's application. So the main thing to be done. What distinguishes instructional specificity and situational specificity. So we broke down application to four components instructional specificity, situational specificity, motivation and enablement, those four things. What's the difference between instructional specificity and situational specificity? Instructional is what to do. What is situational specificity? Where to do it. So what versus where? What are some key characteristics of the common sensical applications? Or you could say a number of things, but I typically go with relevant, realistic and achievable. Relevant, realistic and achievable. What key distinction should be kept in mind when making concrete applications. Here I'm looking at, you know, the difference between a good idea and a what? A biblical mandate. That, you know the difference between a good idea and a biblical mandate. Church goes to war when you typically make mandates out of good ideas. And would you add to your list of questions? Where does one get the terms for instructional specificity? Where does one get the terms for instructional specificity? Where do they come from? Where do they rain down from? Key terms of the sub points. So instructional specificity, key terms of the sub points. What if you don't have some points? Where do they come from? The magnet clause of the main point if you don't have. So where do you get the key terms for instructional specificity? Those are the key terms of the sub points. Or if you don't have sub points from the magnet clause of the main point. What I want us to do for a while now is go over the devotional assignments.

[00:02:28] So you've gotten that handed out to you today. And I want to go over this with some level of detail because roughly a week from today we start doing devotionals and you've already got a lot of it done. So let me kind of remind you where we are in the course. We've gone over kind of the overall structure now of the whole message. We've done it. We've done introduction proposition, main points, the components of explanation. As we looked at how the sub points typically divide the explanation component. We've talked about illustration, we've talked about application, and we recognize that gets repeated in another main point or two prior to the conclusion. Now what I want to do is practice this thing. So this main point. Is basically what we're going to extract and make into a short devotional. So I'm going to ask you to do is get practice an explanation illustration application by looking at your outlines that you've already turned in and gotten feedback on and say, How could I make a devotional out of one of those main points? It's going to require you to do some modification. Obviously, you're going to have to create some sort of introduction and conclusion. But basically my intention is to give you a working out on explanation, illustration application by preparing a devotional that children present to other people in the class. And that's what we're going to talk about here. So here's what this assignment says. Devotional assignment The description. Each devotional should be 7 to 8 minutes, over 9 minutes will be penalized. So you're saying approximately two pages. So if you're just thinking about kind of standard margins and type and what we've been preparing this semester, it's about a two page assignment.

[00:04:19] It should contain an introduction and conclusion. It should have a clearly and properly worded proposition. Probably your main point is going to be converted into a problem is simply going to become the proposition, right? So probably the main point segment will function as your proposition should have thought development, including explanation, some point and if necessary, illustration and application. So what you're going to do is you're going to come to actually different areas of the campus and be prepared to present a devotional. That will be one of your main points modified. So it's a complete package in itself. Notes the text need not be read by each person. About a third of you will be working out of the same passage in every section. So you can simply say I'm preaching out of the first Thessalonians passage or something, or the Hebrews passage. That's enough. I'm not intent that you read over and over and over again the passage. B, The explanation and application of one of the main points of your final project may well serve as the body of your devotional if you wrap them with an introduction and conclusion. Well, that's again just saying. Taking one of your main points and making it your devotional is my intention. See, an illustration does not need to be in the body of the devotional if one is used in the introduction and or conclusion. Here's kind of what I'm saying. If you do illustration for the introduction and illustration, the body of this soul sound right and another illustration of the conclusion you haven't got time to do anything but illustrations. So, you know, you have other kinds of introductions that you can do. You can do startling statement. You can simply do straightforward. This is what I'm going to talk about.

[00:06:11] You might do a grand style conclusion instead of a illustrative conclusion. I'm not concerned, but I would not encourage you to use three illustrations in this one short little message. Okay. I would say probably use the introduction illustration as the little creation for the whole thing is what most of you will do. So probably the introduction illustration for most of you will be the only illustration you use, and that's just fine. Here's how the class will be arranged for two days. The class will be divided into smaller group sections and assigned to various rooms. Go directly to your group's assigned room at the beginning of each class hour. If you look at the second page of what you got. You know, he says what group you're in. It says where you will be meeting. So a week from today, most of you will not come here. You will go directly to that place. Number two, five students will give a devotional in each group each day. Now, most of you are in groups of nine, so five the first day. And sometimes people just don't get done. So that last person will flip over into the second day. But my intention is that you get five done the first day. It takes pressure off the second day. Three. During each devotional, the designated moderator will time each speaker and indicate elapsed time, especially at the final two and one minute marks and at the end. Here's what you do. You count down from 8 minutes and when 6 minutes are elapsed, you do this, 2 minutes left. When 7 minutes are elapsed, you go. One minute left. This is the person who's the moderator. And then when 8 minutes are lapsed, you go stop. You give them one more minute.

[00:07:54] If they haven't finished, you stand up and say, Sit down. Okay, So now we won't. If you go nine, ten, 12 minutes apiece, we'll never get done. So the goal is 8 minutes or less. Now you're saying who are the moderators? See the names with the asterisks. Those are the guys who are responsible to time everybody else. And then to do one more thing, two more things, actually. One is to lead a discussion so the person who is the moderator will do just as I did when we were doing introductions and conclusions will stand up and say, Could you hear them? Was it organized? Do they stand up straight? Did it make sense? Was the application telling us what we need to know to do or believe now. Is there appropriate exhortation? I will give everyone an evaluation guide, which is how that discussion will proceed and everybody will fill out the evaluation. Okay. But the moderator will briefly go through it. So item four says this. During each devotional, each listener should fill out a devotional evaluation form for each speaker. I will bring those to the class next time. After each presentation, the designated moderator of each group will go up to the front of the room. It may be a small enough room that you can just stand there and do it. Go up to the front of the room and leave the group in a five minute interactive evaluation of each student's devotional, both in terms of its content and delivery using the criteria in the devotional evaluation form. Six. After each evaluation, the moderator will collect and keep separate the forms for each speaker and give them to me at the conclusion of the hour in the foyer of the chapel.

[00:09:43] You'll be spread out all over the campus, but I'll be waiting in the foyer for the chapel here at the end of the hour to collect the evaluation forms for everybody who's spoken that day. Seven. You will not turn in your devotional. Students grades are tabulated. Peer responses on the devotional evaluation forms say your grade is what your peers say. Be nice to them. Here's the goal. We want to encourage one another. That's the goal. It's not to you know, it's not to get people off at the knees. It really is to say that was good or isn't it? You know, I really know what your intent was, but I didn't I don't think you explained it in a way that everybody would get it. So if we're not honest, we don't help people. If we are overly critical or harsh, we don't help people. It is both things together. It is speaking the truth and love. That's the goal of what we're going to do. Alan. Can you use a text other than the assigned text? No. So we're on the assigned text that you've already been working on. Number three. And I'll remind you later on the next class day after completing all devotionals and the semester exams. So here's where we are. We'll do the first set of devotionals the day before Thanksgiving when we get back from Thanksgiving break. We'll do the second day of devotionals. The day after that is the exam. So you going to think after that? What do you do? You'll come back here. Okay. When you do bring everything that you have turned in this semester. Because what we will then do is move into separate groups which will be working on the final assignment. And that final assignment is putting together a group sermon.

[00:11:38] So having the material that you've been evaluated on to contribute to that process will be appropriate for the day following the exam will all come back here together, but I'll separate you into new groups. They will be all people who have worked on that particular assignment. And everybody who's worked on that particular assignment will be contributing out of their material toward what that assignment is. So after the exam, I'll ask you to bring everything that you've been evaluated on and come back to help the group with that material. Okay. So the big picture is you'll take a main point and you're going to convert it into a devotional. The idea would be somebody said to you could could you do a five minute devotional before the men's prayer breakfast or the kids are going on a retreat this weekend. And while we're in the parking lot, could you give a devotional before we get in the cars and head off? Or there's a women's Bible study group. And what we'd like to have you do is prior to us dividing into small groups, could you give the whole group a devotional for 5 minutes? Well, I'm giving you 8 minutes, but the idea is to have a devotional on a text of scripture that allows you to explain what it means, illustrate what it's about, and apply it. Which is, as I say, kind of the not only a mini sermon, but even what a single main point will be doing. Let me see if you have general questions about about what we will be doing. Again, we're not talking about next time, but the time after next. Okay, So it's a week from today. But there are. It's a great question. Who is your audience? I would plan for the people to whom you know you will be speaking.

[00:13:23] Okay. Now, listen, everyone knows that when you do Hamlet in a classroom setting, it's artificial. That's not news to anyone. But you can make it more artificial, you know, by and now for all you teams out there, anybody's winning. Who is he talking to? You know, So, you know, I would I would come prepared to speak to these persons that, you know, will be in the room with you. Now, remember, they are not just seminary students. They are not just that. They are people who work for employers. There are people with families. They are people who struggle with anger and doubt and lust. They are people who wonder where the next dollar is coming from. So they are not just people wrestling with seminary issues, although that's not wrong to address either. But it's, you know, we're whole people. And I think coming prepared to minister to the people, you know, you'll be talking to will make it truly a spiritual experience. As in other words, I wouldn't kind of fake it. I'd come really the administrative people. Yes. Just where you're listed. First five will go on the on the first day. The last four will go on the second day. Now someone says, I can't be there on the first day. Trade with somebody. My one caveat is let them know you traded okay, Because if you run out of time and we can't evaluate you, we can't evaluate you. Okay. So you're expected to be there on the first day. If you're in the first, Well, everybody's expecting to be there, but. But you're up to bat. If you're in the first five on the first day and you're you know, if you're in the last four, then that's where you are, too.

[00:15:09] If you cannot be there, make sure somebody takes your slot. Or else we may not be able to get to you then. Will these be the singers that you do your final project with? No, we a different group because these groups include people that from all three passages. So these groups have people who are working with all three passages. The last group will be people who have only worked with one passage. Okay. Ed, just got news about the final. Certainly you're not going to complete the ceremony that you're working on. Yes, you are. But you're going to do that. You are going to complete the sermon you've been working all semester. But as a group, you're going to do it as a group together. But remember, if you don't like the sermon the group puts together, you can still turn in your own individual one. We'll get there. Now, let's do this assignment first. Stephen here. Recapping. Your sub points for the conclusion here you would be recapping your some points. Right. Most of you will probably be doing grand style conclusions. Most of you I mean, again, there can be exceptions, but most of you will probably do an illustrative introduction. Then you will do some explanation application and then do kind of final exaltation as conclusion. That's what most people will do. Let's pray and do Materi. We need to do a Britain. Do you need to cover the whole text? No, you probably can't. You probably have to do a portion of. That's a good question. You only, you know, only what you kind of announced your main points are going to be dealing with. Let's pray together. Father we get to the point now of. Proclaiming your word to each other, and we ask for you to give us your spirit.

[00:17:00] To do that, we recognize that we can make it very artificial. And certainly there are those in our world who view every church experience as artificial and performance. But we can't our ourselves, Father, change that by coming to minister to your people with your word, believing that you are present in your word and that you will truly be ministering even as we speak by your spirit. When we say that the Word of God priest still is the Word of God, we think what we come to do, even in the devotional times, has heavenly weight. And so we ask for you to give us a sense of seriousness as well as joy in what you give us to do. Cyrano's sense of privilege. We pray that we might argue rightly in Jesus name, Amen. Today we're going to talk about some of the glue that puts these messages together. The goal in lecture 16 and if I can today, I'm going to move through most of lecture 17 as well. But for first, the goal of lecture 16 is to understand how sermon components and listener dialog are knit together through the use of effective transitions and what's called pulpit dialog. Now, that's a very fancy way of talking about Today we're gonna talk about the glue. We've talked about the components, explanation, illustration, application proposition, main points, sub points, conclusion. We talked about all these pieces. Now let's remember the old Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial parts as parts. And we're not going to do all parts now. We're going to say what ties them together. And that is something that I know is just truly inspirational to you. This is a lecture on transitions. Well, they can make messages, how should I say logical and listenable to people.

[00:18:49] And that's our goal. So if we think of the function of transitions before we get in the details, what would you say is the function of transitions it is to make? Our message is artistically listenable, right? This thing has some flow to it. Transitions make the message artistically listenable. And logically connected, artistically listenable. And logically connected. Now just to see it visually already, you know a lot of how to do this because we've talked about what happens at these different nodes, as it were, in the double helix. We know we start with a main point statement and typically at the end of explanation, before we get into the illustration, we have some sort of summary that typically happens. And we know at the end of the illustration there's another summary that happens and interpreting statement. That's also preparation for the application. So the proposition was saying what the rest of the sermon is about. That's one node that comes at the end of the introduction. The main point is a summary that prepares for explanation, summary, illustration, summary application. And as you might guess, there's going to be some transition before the next main point. But I think you begin to see things like this main point are probably going to sound a whole lot like that summary. And that summary at the end of the explanation is probably going to sound a whole lot like that interpreting statement summary at the end of the illustration. So there are these places where there are reflections of main ideas that are doing two things. They are reminding what has come before and they are preparing for what will follow. They are reviewing and previewing, reviewing and previewing. And that's kind of what illustrations do. So they look more extensively at the notes there and their function.

[00:20:57] Don't forget the double helix. Each node, in whichever order the components appear, is a summary of what preceded and a thematic statement of what will follow and is again reviews and previews. Transitions made easier by remembering what you illustrate or apply is always the last thing you said in the preceding material. Components are tied therefore by the parallel concepts and often terminology that connect them. So the summaries are not only conceptually reminding where we then they are terminal, logically pulling the strings together again so that we're ready for what will follow. Roman two If you think about the nature of transitions, the nature of transition, the process by which main point components are tied together, conveyed to the more general nature of transitions within and between main points. So main points out transitions within and also between the basic definition. Transitions demonstrate or develop the relationships of the parts to the whole. Transitions show the relationships of the parts to the whole or the parts to other parts. I really sound like Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial here. Parts to other parts transitions may relate. I'm going to give you about five things here. The introduction to the body of the message. What's the transition that relates the introduction to the body of the message? It's the proposition. Sure. It's a form of transition. It relates the introduction to the body of the message. You know what? You're you're far enough along now. I hope you've even discovered something else. The proposition you now recognize is a combination of principle plus application. And we just because we need to do some mechanical things to get ourselves going down a course. We said that the key terms of both clauses of the proposition, principle and application will appear in the introduction.

[00:22:59] That was just a mechanical thing to do. But I hope what you've begun to see now is this illustration. This introduction is actually illustrating the relationship of the principle and application. It's not just saying. Let me just illustrate the principle. It's typically not saying. Just let me illustrate the application. Typically, the introduction is illustrating how these two things play off of one another. What's the relationship of the principal? An application is typically what that interaction is doing. So for a while we've kind of put ourselves just in or I just get the terms in there. But what we are really going for and we said the terms of both clauses is we are forcing ourselves to think there's a relationship of these clauses. And what I'm really illustrating is the relationship of the principle in application is what's being introduced in the introduction, which means in a sense even the introduction was glue, it was getting principal and application tied together conceptually by the illustration that was being used. So the introduction is being tied to the body of the main point of the sermon by by transition. What else is happening? The proposition is tied to the first main point. That's another way that we use transitions. The proposition is tied to the first main point. Often with a question. Now, we talked about that concept of interrogate the proposition. We make a strong statement because Christ is our salvation. We should proclaim him. How do we go about doing that? How do we proclaim him? Because he is our salvation. We proclaim him the difficult people. Oh, often we ask a question after the proposition as the form of getting into the first main point. We also use transitions to relate main points to each other.

[00:24:57] Obviously we use transitions to tie the components of main points to each other. That is explanation, illustration, application, and we'll use transitions to tie the body of the message to the conclusion. So we look at all the parts of, say, transitions are hooking these things together. We use transitions because careful transitions help the listener follow the speaker's thought throughout the progress of the message. Item C How are they used? Transitions may review where we have been. Transitions Review, where we have been and preview where we are going now. If on the. Exam that we give. I'm asking you, what are the main functions of illustrations? Those first two things I just said are the things you can always identify, review and preview transitions or reviewing. Those are the two main things conceptually that are going on review and preview. Number three transitions may relate in immediate matter to the overall theme. We will begin calling those tiebacks. They review an immediate matter to the overall theme. So I'm tying back where I am immediately to the overall purpose and flow of the message. So something that relates an immediate matter to the overall theme we'll call a tie back. Number four, a transition may also interest the listener in a new thought or the relationship between thoughts. This is more the preview side and we'll call these billboards says, Here's what's ahead. Okay, so a tie back goes back to what was before. Reminds us what things were overall. But a billboard is saying, here's what's ahead. Or five. Any combination of the above. Now just a thought and you've as you begin putting together a devotional, you'll begin to see it. If you just look at this thing in the abstract, you'll see, all right, I've got a main point statement, and then they go right into explanation.

[00:27:07] So does my first some point, you know, main point statement. And then do I immediately have a some point? Well, in your outline you do, but it's not the way we talk. There's typically going to be a sentence or two of transition before I get to that first main point. And it will be saying, why am I dealing with that? How do we begin to understand how this will unfold? So typically, we don't just preach encyclopedic, you know, the population of Brazil is and then, you know, the chief main product is the GNP. You know, we don't do that. We say we we tell it narratively. So after we say the main point to say, now, now that I know I need to present, we need to present Christ to all kinds of difficult people. Now we'll face them in various situations. We need to see the kind of people Paul face, for instance, look at. I just did about three sentences before. I'm going to get to the first sub point there. So as a result, don't rush into some points after statement of the main point. Tell what you mean by the main point and explain how you support it with sub points. Why are they ordered? So what causes us to consider the matter? This way the audience cannot see your outline. So transitions keep tying components back to the central idea. A typical mark of sermon excellence is consistent use of tiebacks tying it back, that is, transitions at the end of each major component of thought. That tie that thought back to the sermons main idea, particularly the FCF. The following mission focus as you begin working on your sermons. Now, one of the things I caution you about is to look at your applications and say.

[00:28:57] Are they tying back to the FCF? Because it's very easy when you're in the flow of a message to begin to talk about. How this must apply somewhere. I know I'm going to do application. Come up with something that doesn't relate to what you said was the burden of the message. So as you have now gotten to the point of the main thing to be done, the application. Are you relating it to what you said was going to be the burden of the certain. Is there a tie? Is there a conceptual or transitional tie that says we are now still talking about what I said we would do? There are different types of transitions. The first major one is a is dialogical like dialog. Dialogical transitions. Dialogical transmissions ask outloud the questions listeners would ask if they felt they could. You want to know what that means? Okay. I just ask the question out loud, right? You ask outloud the questions listeners would ask if they felt they could. Examples. Obviously, the who, what, when, where, why and how. But if you ever heard a preacher saying a sermon. Now I've talked about the fact that God knows tomorrow. How are we going to apply that to our lives? Ask the question out loud. I will tell you, people almost never tire of that question. How do we apply this? You could do that practically every sermon and people would be just fine. But you can ask about explanation. How do we know this is true? If this won't work, what will? What plans has got to offer for this? What comes next? Asking questions like this. This is the mindset to assume in creating all transitions, whether you avoid the question or not. You learn to hear the question in the mind of the listener and answer it.

[00:30:49] Now think about that. If you are listening as the listener would listen to your message, what are the advantages to that? So I am serious, asking questions out loud. What? What are the reasons to ask questions out loud in the sermon? Can you help me here? Why would you ask questions out loud? What does it do for you? Listener If you will ask questions that are in their heads. What does it do? So again, it certainly gets their attention. You just see people kind of when you ask the question out loud, they kind of. Yeah. You know, so you make their heads come up. I was wondering about that. What else? Yes. Okay. Is it Chris? It makes you more credible that Chris say more. Why does it. It's very powerful what you said. Why does it make you more credible to ask questions? Because sometimes. Exactly. It says it sang the preacher. You are in my head. You're thinking what I'm concerned about. So it has a very strong identification question. If you're going along and you're saying, you know, Christ was to Mars. Now I know what you're thinking. If he knows tomorrow, why is tomorrow so scaring me? That's exactly what I was thinking. You know, if you're actually asking their objections. This. You're not afraid of their objections or your asking their doubts. You're not afraid of their doubts. Strong credit. You live where I live and you're willing to ask what I'm really thinking. Question also. Okay. It makes you hungry for an answer. I will tell you, in our circles, it is not so common that preachers ask questions and then pause and wait for the answer. And I appreciate a lot of Presbyterian circles. And so I sometimes I'll pause and people will then give me the answer and then they'll look embarrassed, like, I guess I wasn't supposed to do that.

[00:32:41] But actually, the more I preached in those churches, the more people will begin. And of course, I want them to be responding. I want that feedback. I want that, that because it means now we're engaged together. Okay. You're thinking what I'm thinking. I'm thinking what you're thinking. We're exploring the scriptures together. It's part of it. Just because I. I love feeling like I'm connecting with people. And if I can get people thinking, if I know I'm thinking what they're thinking, it really enhances credibility. It involves the listener. It shows I'm interested in them. Okay. All those things just come by asking questions out loud. Some hints for using dialogical transitions. Remember the best explanation answers. The best explanation answers. How do we know this means what I just said. You know, I just said, God knows tomorrow. Well, how do I know that's what this text means? Well, look at it. It says, So I'm going to begin analyzing, answering my own question. The best application answers. How do we apply this truth? I will tell you, I think you can ask that question every Sunday. The best illustration answers. How can we see this better in our own experience? But we typically don't say that. We don't typically say, How can I illustrate this? I mean, again, it creates that step. You're just doing something to me now rather than involving me. How can we apply is engaging. How do I illustrate this disengaging? An important place to learn an analytical question is immediately after the proposition. A good question after the proposition sets up the reasoning for the main points and again, the history and what that's called. Again, it's called interrogating the proposition. And you recognize, of course, you can do that for a main point statement to counter that would be an analytical question response setting up your sub points.

[00:34:33] B Another form of transition is logical connection. Logical connection. Now it's a result of the dialogical process which you've thought about. Now what does this lead to? But you're not asking the question out loud. The basic form of a logical connection is not only, but also not only is this true what we just cover, but also this that you can just kind of hear that not only, but also what did I just do? Not only what did I just do review, but also previewed review and not only but also R. That review and preview can take lots of different forms. But it's the basic again is for Western thought. This comes out of some of you studied Latin as a basic Latin formulation not only but also and a lot of Western thought precedes along this way. Not only but also things like if this is true, then these are the implications. Now, I didn't say not only, but also but it's the same impact. Okay, if this is true review, then these are the implications preview not only, but also our understanding is not complete until we also consider. It's another form of not only, but also. Now it can get much longer. God is loving. But that's not enough to warrant our trust. Good intentions don't make everything work out. All right. That is why Paul continues his argument by saying God is sovereign. God does not just desire what is good. He accomplishes it because God is sovereign. We must trust him. Now you see, the main point comes at the end of that. But you get about four sentences saying not only, but also. Another form of transition, encyclopedic or numerical. Just encyclopedic or numerical. This is the most in artistic, maybe the most elementary.

[00:36:30] But it is not wrong. If I say. And second, what do I imply? If I say second, there's been a. There's been a first and now we're ready for. So now, you know, it's not exactly real artistic, but it is very clear. So to say that it's not artistic is not to say it's bad or wrong. Many times in the sermon will say first, second, third, the place will typically get in trouble is if we say first too often. Okay. First, I want you to know. And then after I say first about the main point, then I'll say first about the first sub point, and then I say first about the first sub point in the next main point. So I've got all these firsts going on in the sermon, so I need to use with some sparingly, you know, first, second, third. But at the same time, it certainly will work. Now, various forms of numerical things. The next thing we see, just the very word next. Is a form of doing a numeric change in transition. My second point is they caution here. We do not say in sermons A, b, c. Okay. To indicate some points. First, I want you to understand. God knows tomorrow. Hey, even if we don't, the even if our friend and we don't say ABC, okay, that's that's not the way we talk in normal conversation. Even the words finally and in conclusion that we've already learned now they cause watch breaks you know we do recognize they also cause hope occasionally. So if you need them, you recognize you're saying now we've gotten to the end and it is a form of numeric break. Another form of transition, parallel statement, parallel statement. I'll just read it to and you'll pick it up.

[00:38:28] Recognize the review in the preview. It may sound insensitive to emphasize that God is the object of our faith. Until you remember this, Scripture also teaches we are the object of God's affection. Using parallel words to say, review and preview. He is pictorial or illustrative. Transitions that are pictorial or illustrative. Even the phrase the flip side of the coin is is a form of illustrative transition. See the client. We looked at the sign. Now we're gonna look at that side. So even the phrase, the flip side of the coin. But I told you earlier in the class, remember the guy whose sermon was the. The crash investigation approach? Now, think of what he would say. He said, now already we determine the point of impact. Next, we need to determine was it pilot error or mechanical error, Something he did or somebody else did. Well, it's just going through the illustration as a form of transition. The illustrative progress is also showing the transition of thought. Just the hint down there. Sometimes illustrations themselves can be great transitions, making us see relationships between points. These transitions are saying in the same way. Now, we haven't talked about this yet, and I don't know that many of you will do it this semester, and that's just fine. But it's actually taking the illustration and dropping it down between points. And what I'm illustrating now is how this particularly in a two point message where we said there's tension or balance. I want to show you in illustrative form how I need the flip side, how I need the tension. So sometimes the illustration is showing the relationship between main points, not just what one main point is about. Sometimes the illustration shows the relationship between main points.

[00:40:25] If you don't do that this semester, don't worry. But it's something. Maybe just a tuck away for the future. Sometimes illustrations can show relationships between points. I did that in a sermon I did here just earlier in the semester when I talked about a student who in 92 was killed here, and that was Mark Talbot. Some of you remember I mentioned his wife, Mary, who did part of the devotional memorial service here, and she talked about Mark and his son going to see Jesus. And it was the end of her world, but the beginning of heaven. And that really was what I was talking about in that sermon. You've got to come to the end of this world before heaven opens to you. So I was really using a transition to talk about both main points together. It was the hinge between those two main points. And sometimes illustrations can work that way as well. You've already heard me mention EF, which is tiebacks a couple of times. Tie back illustrations related matter just covered to the central idea first introduced. An example. We've talked about Christ being our high priest because it relates directly to our understanding of why we are not rejected simply because we send. And what would you think is the FCF of this message? We fear that we are. Rejected because we sent. Because we send we feel fear we will be rejected. But I've said we've talked about Christ being our high priest because it relates directly to our understanding of why we are not rejected simply because we sin. So probably at the end of a main point, this preacher is tying back to the FCA. This is why we talked about this, because it relates to the burden of the message.

[00:42:09] It is particularly important to keep relating each main point to the FCA, since this keeps us developing a message rather than simply describing attacks. I know that's strange language again, but it's thinking my job is not merely to describe the text but to develop the message as a relates to the burden of the Holy Spirit for the text. So I'm not just saying, Here's something else to note. I'm saying how does this thing that we are noting relate to the purpose of this sermon, which hopefully is the purpose of the passage as well? Another major category, and we're going to do some discussion of this is AM five billboards. So we just talked about tiebacks, which is that review process taking this and reviewing it to the major theme, but a very common pattern. And once you see it, it's powerful is the use of billboards, whether billboards, billboards are crystalized, statements of key terms following main point statements. Crystallized statements of the key terms. Following main points statements or sub point statements in the order they will appear. So I state those key terms in the order they will appear in what I'm about to talk about. Crystallized statements on the key terms of following main points or sub points in the order they will appear. Billboards typically occur. Right after the proposition. In which they use the key terms of the magnet clauses of the main points to say what's coming. So it's a transition that's right in here that uses the key terms of the main points. Another key place for billboards is right after the main point that use key terms of the some points. Once you see one, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. If you look at your example sermon, or if you don't have it with you, just look at what I have up here.

[00:44:16] Let me get oriented here myself. Here we are. Here's the proposition. Because God will judge soon. So this is in your example sermon, because God will judge, then we must proclaim his word in every situation. Paul tells Timothy plainly, I should charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living in the dead and His appearing in His kingdom. Everything we do is before God and the Lord Jesus Christ. In light of this divine oversight, let us encourage each other to proclaim the Word of God, to rescue the needy, to defend the truth, and to fulfill our duty. Now you see the underlined terms. Where will those terms reappear? To rescue the needy, to defend the truth and fulfill our duty? Well, you see the first main point coming, right? Because God will judge send. We must proclaim his word to rescue the needy. All right. We know, defend the truth and fulfill our duty are coming. And they will be in the magnet terms, magnet clauses of the main points that are to come. A billboard is just what it says. Driving down the sermon highway and I got this billboard and it says, What's ahead? And I'm using the key terms, this netting again, with the terms that will become familiar to the ear. I'm saying here's what's ahead. And using key terms of what is ahead in the main points to organize the force of the message. Now, tell me where this will serve you and where it won't. So when do I want to use Billboard? Say, I want you to know what's ahead. When will I want to do that? As opposed to Will I ever not want to tell you what's ahead? Is there a strategy for not telling people what's ahead? Okay.

[00:46:04] Sometimes if they know what's ahead, they're not going to go down that highway. Okay. So there can be strategies to Vale impact. Okay. Now, it's a strategy. It's not. I just couldn't. I didn't know what was coming. Okay, So there can be a reason to veil intention to give greater impact. But most of the time, it helps people to know where we're going. Okay, So they have. They have some orientation. And what we're doing, Chris, they look like. Sure there can be issues that that, you know, if I say it too early, people will not listen to what I need to tell them. So I may build the case before I state its conclusion. Most of the time we don't do that. But we certainly need to be aware of the wisdom of that strategy at times. And we talked even the other day about we see even the Bible doing that at times as the strategy sometimes is built. Why do we use billboards quickly to help the preacher clarify his own thought? That helps. And then to help listeners see the plan of the message. The hints for using billboards. It's just the old speaker's maxim, right? We tell them what we're going to say. Then we say it. Then remind him that we said what we said. We would say, okay. It's just as we signal. Tell, remind, signal, tell, remind, signal what I'm going to say. Say it. Remind them what I said. So a billboard is signaling what you're going to say. The explanation is saying it. The tie back is remind what you said and tie it to the whole. So signal, say remind. Something just to observe. If I use a billboard after the proposition that's going to use the key terms of the magnet clauses of the main points.

[00:48:14] It's going to sound very similar. To the summary in the conclusion. Remember, the concise summary in the conclusion has the key terms of the magnet clauses of the main points. So the billboard may sound a great deal like the concise summary in the conclusion. Now, what have I done for the ear now? Why have I knit this sermon together so that it can be well followed? And the reasoning is now coming together. I said, Well, I was going to talk about I talked about it, and now I'm concluding with even a reminder of those terms that you see. I did discuss what I said we would discuss. It has a sense of cohesion, and I will say the word in a wrong sense, but a sense of professional planning. This was not just a throw together thing. You knew where you were going and you brought me there. You planned it well, you executed the scriptures and you showed me what they meant. You knew what you were accomplishing and you did it. And using those key terms at both phases, early and late accomplishes that. Just some hints as we finish off this wording on transitions for verse references. How do we use them? Verse references are usually stated immediately after the principle statement of the main point or some point that needs to be proven. We've done this over again and over again. Right? State placed proof. We state a main point. We place where it is in the text. Identify the verse. Just a caution. You see, they're in the middle of that little paragraph trying not to say, look with me versus eight through 13. What I said. Look with me verses eight through 13, what they mean is can anybody look at verses eight through 15, eight through 13, in the few seconds you get.

[00:50:05] They can't do it. We tried typically not to do that unless I'm going to stop and I'm actually going to read all of those verses. Usually when we state and place, I said, Look with me at verse 13, right in the middle of the verse, it says, and then I read it, read the portion of the verse that applies to it and not just cite the number. I read the portion of the verse that proves what I'm saying. Now there are some exceptions and the expositional and the next kind of dash there says expositional points. Usually that is main point statements or sub points usually have a text reference immediately following them. But when expounding a narrative or developing an idea based upon context or genre, you may simply have to identify the event or textual feature or aspect of the context that proves your point. Listen. If I said and Goliath fell down. Look with me in verse 14, it says, Goliath fell that, you know, they already knew Goliath fell down. It may be enough to refer to the narrative portion that everybody already knows. Now, if I need the precise wording of the narrative, David said, You come with sword, javelin and spear. I come in the name of the Lord, I'm going to say, Look at verse 13 where he says that I may want to look, but it may be that there are events that everybody knows that I don't need to refer to by verse name in long narratives. Just a little hint there. Second hand context may not have a verse. I may say Paul is in prison when he writes this and still he speaks with great hope. Now, I can't say Look with me at verse three, it says, He's in prison.

[00:51:50] That is the context of the writing of the letter. So in that may be part of a sub point, but I meant to refer to context rather than side of verse. But most of the time I will actually cite the verse and read the portion that applies to it, and that is the transition between. The statement and the explanation itself. So it's actually the reading of the verse or the portion of the verse that supports what your explanation is going to say. Now, a little quick reminder as we get to Romans six here, understanding your retention hierarchy. We've done this before. If you say what is going to be most remembered out of a sermon? You know the illustrations, right? Then you remember applications. How much are they going to remember? Transitions. Well, not at all. So why do we bother? Because the transition or soon to be the retention hierarchy is flawed. To remember what actually goes on top in that space there. That's at the top. Above conclusion Introduction. Illustration above all, is what is more remember than any sermon component. The ethos of the speaker. The ethos of the speaker. What is ethos, credibility and compassion? Credibility and compassion. What are transitions serving? Credibility and compassion. I can logically see how this is connected and you care enough about me to glue it together. When it's not glued together. People don't just think. You don't think Well, they think you don't care. Well. So when we use transitions to knit this thing together, what we're ultimately building is not only understanding of our sermon. We are saying to people, You can understand this, and I care enough about you to word it in a way that can be understood. Let's go on quickly to lecture 17, because I want these two lectures to kind of stand together in your memory.

[00:53:58] And these are not difficult concepts. You're kind of say, well, kind of plain and matter of fact, true. But it'll help us to think of how people listen to what we're saying. I'm going to do a quick mid-term review here, what we just said, what are some basic functions of transitions? If you say review and preview, I am happy. What's a dialogical transition? A question asked out loud. A question asked out loud in the body of the sermon. What is the key wording beckoning behind a logical connection transition not only but what not only, but also the logical connection. Transitions are always not only, but also what is a billboard in a sermon and how is it used. Its use of keywords to preview a billboard is use of keywords to preview what's coming. That could be the keywords of following some points where they could be the keywords of following main points. So a preview excuse me, a billboard is a. Use of keywords to preview.