The Big Idea of the Sermon

How do you start planning your message? Do you focus on the conclusion first? The opening? Do you look draw inspiration from a story or illustration? Of all the places you could start there is one place you should start. Every message should begin with a big idea. Call it the central theme, call it the main point, call it whatever you like — but this big idea is not a statement you decide, but rather it is poignant summary of the passage your preaching and the point from which your entire message is developed. In this episode we unpack why the big idea matters, what your sermon main point should include, the process to discover your big idea, and using your big idea to influence your message and the delivery of your central theme.

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Transcript

Justin:

Well, hey, everyone. Welcome back to season two of Hello Church. My name is Justin Trapp.

Wade:

I'm Wade Bearden. This is going to be fun. We're doing something a little bit different. We are breaking up our next couple of episodes into a season. And this season is all about writing and delivering sermons. It's going to be fun. We're going to break down each part of the writing process, the construction process, the delivery process, and we're going to tackle each one of those topics in a specific individual episode. So, it's going to be great. We're going to be talking about the big idea of the message here in just a few moments.

Justin:

Yeah. Some of the other topics we're going to deal with is your sermon outline, starting your sermon strong and how do you have a great, compelling introduction? How do you close a sermon strong? How do you only close once and not three times, right?

Wade:

Yeah. Yeah.

Justin:

We have artwork. We have an episode on how you can get feedback. Do you have a system for getting better? Do you have a system or process where you can get trusted, critical feedback to help you improve as a communicator of the gospel? We have an episode just for that. And another thing that we have that I'm really excited about is our pastors circle Facebook group. If you're not a part of our pastors circle Facebook group-

Wade:

Definitely join right now. Definitely join.

Justin:

It's a great group. Just go to Facebook, look up the pastors circle, join the group. It's going to ask you three membership questions, very easy, what church are you part of? What's your role? And you agree to the group terms. And I have to say, Wade, I'm a part of a lot of Facebook groups. But I'm really proud of the group that we have. Everyone seems to be very encouraging, uplifting, there's honest feedback to honest questions. And I feel like it's really a safe place for pastors to be able to come and get some great input from other pastors who are around the country, really, around the world. And who've been in your shoes, they've stood in your shoes, they've pastored maybe even longer than you.

Justin:

So there's some wisdom, there's some collective wisdom there. And so if you haven't joined yet, go to Facebook, do a search for the pastors circle. And I know that you're going to really, really enjoy the community that we have together.

Wade:

Yeah. I'm a part of a couple of different pastor groups on Facebook and there's some really good ones. There's also some groups where people just argue the entire time. I feel like our group has constructive communication, discussions and yeah, it's just a great group to be a part of.

Wade:

So today this is our first episode in our new season, and we're going to be talking about the big idea or the central idea of your sermon. So this is going to be foundational because this is essentially one of the starting points as you begin to write your message. And when you're thinking about your big idea, and you're thinking about why you need to have a big idea, a couple of reasons immediately come to mind. And I heard a quote once in Bible school, "If you aim for nothing, you'll hit it every single time."

Justin:

Yeah.

Wade:

And having a big idea will help you to focus on your text and to focus on what you're saying. And so instead of your congregation walking out and saying, I just heard seven sermons in one, they walk out and say, oh wow. I know what that story was about. I know what that passage was about. And I know how I can apply it to my life. I know how that passage applies to me in my life. So, you need to have a big idea.

Justin:

A big idea, essentially, we're asking you to start with the end in mind, like you were mentioning. When people leave, what is that one phrase, something that could be tweetable, right, that encapsulates the entire message where they walk away and they remember that main point that you had. I think that's a very powerful thing. It's one of the reasons why in sermonary, our cloud-based sermon writing app, you can go to sermonary.com and check it out, we actually asked pastors at the very beginning of your message to come up with your big idea, because we believe it is that important because it sort of informs how you structure the rest of your message. All roads lead back to this big idea. And so it's really, really important. I'm excited to talk about it today.

Wade:

Yeah. So let's kind of just jump into some of the basic building blocks of your big idea. It's important that you don't create the big idea before you get to the text. You need to dig into the Bible passage, you need to study the Bible passage. And after you've done this thoroughly, your own personal study, as well as studying other commentaries, perhaps even looking at Ministry Pass sermon guides, then you can begin to work through what your big idea actually is. There's a book called Biblical Preaching, it's from Haddon Robinson. It's kind of like this classic book. And for those of you who've been to Bible college or seminary, you've probably read it. But he kind of breaks it down into two parts. He says that the first part, you want to locate, you want to communicate the CIT. So the CIT is the Central Idea of the Text.

Wade:

He says, before you jump to application, you need to know what that passage is about. And that's true because I've heard messages where it's like, okay, we read the Bible passage, we kind of get through it as fast as we can, that's kind of the boring part until we can get to the application. We really need to stop and say, what is this text trying to teach us and go ahead and write that down in about a sentence and use the language from the text. So you're basically summarizing the big principle idea of that text. So Justin, and I brought an example from a message that I preached in the past. It's from First Kings chapter 19. This is Elijah, he's on the run and God speaks to him, not in the wind or the fire, but he speaks to him in a gentle whisper.

Wade:

So First Kings 19, and this is what I have for the CIT, so the central idea of the text, "In a moment of desperation, God revealed himself through a gentle whisper to Elijah, assuring the prophet that though the Lord doesn't always operate in the realm of the spectacular, his work is not in vain." So sometimes God doesn't come in the fire or the earthquake, but he's still working. So notice what we did there. We took the big idea of the text and we related it in terms of the text. So I think this is really good to do, even if you're just kind of thinking through it, maybe not writing it down, putting it in one sentence, and then you go to your big idea of the message or the central idea of the sermon. And that's where you take the CIT and make it applicable.

Wade:

So let's see what I did in First Kings 19. "Though, sometimes we are attempted to give up in the face of difficult circumstances, God has not left us alone." Now that speaks directly to your audience. That is what your message is about. So you can go through and say, here's what the text is teaching, here's how that applies for us today. And then your sermon is focused on that big idea. You're not saying, hey, I'm going to go and I'm going to bring in this book of the Bible and this book of the Bible and this book of the Bible and create this sermon series in a sermon, but you're focused on the text and you're trying to relate it to your people.

Justin:

Yeah. So that's a great example, Wade. Thank you for that. We have sermon series at Ministry Pass and we give you not only the big idea of the sermon series, the big overarching theme of the entire series, but each week we give you a big idea, kind of like what Wade just laid out. And so we have a series called, The Emotions of Jesus. And so I just wanted to read to you the big idea from each week. And before I do that, you want to just share a little bit the big overarching theme of that series of the emotions of Jesus.

Wade:

Yeah. So a lot of times when we think of Jesus, we almost think of him as this aloof character, right? Maybe in the voice, remember those old vintage 21 videos, Peter, I'm Jesus. He doesn't have any emotions. He's just a stoic character.

Justin:

Yeah.

Wade:

But when you read through the scriptures, Jesus, he tells jokes, he gets happy, he's sad, he's angry. And those emotions reveal his character to us. So this is a sermon series that explores the emotions of Jesus. It tells us about him and it helps us as we think through our own emotions. So I think it's a really cool, unique sermon series. So, yeah, tell us some of the big ideas each week.

Justin:

So, Wade shared a big idea from his solo message. And I wanted to share big ideas from each message. So you can kind of see how they work together. And so, here's, The Emotions of Jesus, week one, Jesus feels compassion for lost people and he teaches us to share that compassion and action. That's week one. Week two, Jesus was angry at the abuse of people made in God's image and at the misuse of God's revelation to justify it. And that'll preach right there. Right?

Wade:

And I love what these are is, as you're reading it, it's very clear and it's very concise, so you know what your sermon is about. Your sermon isn't about stewardship, your sermon isn't about some other topic. There are times for that. But if you're sticking to this passage, you're saying, okay, the first week we need to share compassion with other people. We need to take action. That sermon is all about you telling your individuals in the congregation, hey, let's share compassion in these four walls and outside these four walls and then giving examples. So a really good, big idea of the message helps you to stay concise, right? And here's a image, a sermon shouldn't be like this shotgun blast, but like a sniper rifle so it hits directly. So what are the other two?

Justin:

So week three, Jesus experienced grief and indignation at death, even while knowing the end of the story, which I think a lot of us can relate. Week four, Jesus experienced joy in setting captives free to new life.

Wade:

And these are good too, because it allows you, Ministry Pass allows you to take those and push them a little bit further into your congregation. So you can contextualize them a little bit differently. So if you're in Kansas or if you're in maybe Miami, your big idea of the sermon's going to be a little more specific, but you can take these and you can just kind of go from there.

Justin:

Yeah. Wade, what are some of the questions, if someone's going to formulate a big idea of several weeks or each week, what sort of questions should they be asking themselves when coming up with a big idea?

Wade:

Yeah. I think you look at passages and scripture and you take those main thoughts and you say, okay, what is this author trying to say? Or maybe it's a story. What is the big idea of the story? So if you're thinking about Samuel anointing David, you get to be, God looks at the heart, not our outward appearance. So ask yourself, what is that text trying to say and focus in. And I can't reiterate this enough. What happens in so many Bible studies and small groups and so many sermons is, we read a passage and we immediately rush to the application. So we read a passage, we study and we immediately go, okay, we need to do this. But what is the text actually teaching, because if you really dig in, you might be surprised at what you find.

Wade:

So you got to make sure that you understand what the passage is teaching us, and then think through the author, the original audience, okay? So think through their situation, what was happening in their world? You read James, you see individuals, half the congregation seems to be very rich, the other half is suffering. Understand what's going on then. And then you can say, okay, our audience is different. We live in the modern world. What does this principle say to us today? If we're living this out, how do we do that? That's really important. So those are some big questions to ask.

Justin:

So again, to sort of recap. Your message every week needs a big idea, especially when planning too, if you're able to sort of look at the passage that you're going to be going over in a few weeks, that you can formulate even a rough draft of your big idea, that's going to help you as you're working through that content over several week period, you're going to be able to add layers to that, add illustrations to that as you go. It just makes for an easier more, I think, powerful sermon preparation process because you're not sort of trying to cram everything into the last two days, but you can sort of continue adding to it all the time.

Justin:

And I think that's one of the great things about Ministry Pass, that we give pastors the frameworks so that you can plan ahead so that you can take a look at the big ideas that our team has come up with. And you can say, you know what, I love the way that they framed that. I have a great personal illustration for that. Or I have an application idea for that, that I think would go well with this content. At Ministry Pass, we're not writing sermons for you. We're not giving you sermon transcripts, but we are giving you research materials, materials that come with the big idea, that come with the passages that you can use each week, that come with talking point ideas, illustration ideas, really, the first 10, 15% of your sermon prep. You still have to add, like Wade was saying, your own voice, you have to contextualize that from your own community.

Justin:

And so it's unique to you. You're not preaching the same sermon as anyone else, but you are working with some of the similar con... We're all working with the same Proverbs three, five, and six, right? We can all preach that passage, but we're all going to inform and have our own unique voice when we preach through that passage. So Ministry Pass provides that for you. If you haven't checked up Ministry Pass, you can sign up for a free trial. So go to ministrypass.com. This is just for our podcasters, right? Ministrypass.com/bonus 

Wade:

Bonus.

Justin:

Yeah. I don't even think the marketing department approved this, but we're stamping it right here. Right? Go to ministrypass.com/bonus. And when you sign up for a free trial for Ministry Pass, you actually get sermonary, our sermon writing app software, for free for three months.

Justin:

So, I mentioned that earlier, because you can write the big idea of the message in sermonary. And we provide that prompt for you at the very beginning of your message. So you can get sermonary for free for three months. So go to ministrypass.com/bonus and you can take advantage of that.

Wade:

Yeah. And two, as you're thinking through your big ideas and you're planning your calendar, we just did a big calendar planning webinar and I really enjoyed doing that. And if you are planning out your calendar, it's important that you kind of have a working big idea for your messages and you're going to study more each week. But if you do that, you're going to feel less pressure to cram everything into one Sunday because you can say, okay, in five months, I'm going to talk about this topic, in two weeks, I'm going to talk about this topic.

Wade:

I don't need to say everything in one message. I don't need to be a fire hydrant. Instead, I can be kind of this squirt gun. I'm using guns a lot. I don't mean to, but, right, just having focus on all of this.

Wade:

Make sure to subscribe to our podcast if you haven't done so. This is going to be a great season. You can do that on Apple podcast, Spotify and on YouTube. If you'd like to watch the video, maybe you're watching the video right now, leave a review and a rating on Apple podcast and Spotify, subscribe on YouTube, ring the bell, smash the Like button, share with a friend.

Wade:

Our next episode, we're going to be talking about sermon outlines, and so, that's going to be a fun one.

Justin:

So I wouldn't let this podcast go by without giving you an opportunity. So for everyone that's not watching, if you're not watching on YouTube, you don't notice that Wade has a particular hoodie on, with the Georgia Bulldogs. I'll just go ahead and give you the full for the next 20 seconds.

Wade:

Yeah. For the next 20 minutes. No Georgia Bulldogs, national champions. I'm still riding the high. It's been weeks, but I'm going to ride it for the next couple of years. So if you see this hoodie or Georgia shirt on the podcast pretty often, you'll know why. I sleep with this. I don't ever wash it.

Justin:

And there it is. All right. We'll see you next time.

Wade:

Bulldogs.