Today on the Evangelist Podcast, we're looking at how to prepare an evangelistic talk.
SPEAKER_01The Evangelist Podcast from Revival. Find out what's new in telling people the good news about God, the world, and you. With Andy Brinkley and Glenn Scrivener.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to the Evangelist Podcast. This is the show where we encourage you in your witness to your friends, your family, or even complete strangers. Glenn, we're looking at uh how to prepare an evangelistic talk, but perhaps we uh just want to recap what we did uh last time.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we've been thinking, especially from uh 2 Corinthians, especially chapter 4, about uh what evangelistic preaching is and therefore what it is and how that shapes how we do it. And uh and we saw from 2 Corinthians that uh that really preaching is the way that God shines his light into people's hearts. You know, God says, let there be light into someone's heart. Uh 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6. When 2 Corinthians 4 verse 5, we proclaim not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord. Um so if that's what preaching is, then it really should shape the tone that we take and and how we go about it. So last time we saw that we should be bold, we should speak plainly, we should uh not try to deceive, we should preach Christ, not ourselves. And then in chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, we saw that um that uh really we should seek to persuade people, we should be compelled by the love of Christ, we should implore and urge people. Uh you know, we're not mucking around when we speak. We're we're we're delivering God's own word to people, and that should shape the way that we do it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and this is more than just sort of sharing a few thoughts about a passage.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_05This is here's Andy Brinkley with a lovely thought about Ephesians chapter three.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this is this is like a spiritual event. Exactly. It's a spiritual event. Yeah. Uh in a spiritual way. Yeah, totally. So what are we what are we looking at today?
SPEAKER_05So today we're looking more at the nuts and bolts of how do you prepare a talk, and then uh next week we're gonna look at the nuts and bolts of of delivering a talk. But um yeah, we're gonna we're gonna get down to brass tacks a little bit uh in this episode.
SPEAKER_02Okay. But just before we go on to that, I want to tell you about a valuable resource that we have. It's called the International Daily Prayer Bulletin. It's a small twenty-four page booklet that tells thirty-one stories of what God is doing around the world. Do you know of God's miracle answer in Kiev, or how a convict became a missionary in India, or how the Chinese church is exploding? Well you can hear more about it in our prayer bulletin. You can get it free of charge by going to revivalmedia.org slash bulletin. So Glenn, preparing an evangelistic talk, you mean you you don't just stand up and start talking?
SPEAKER_05Stand up and let rip Well I could probably the results wouldn't be uh as good. Uh friend of mine was at a Bible college and uh he said that, you know, in in chapel uh every morning different students had to give their messages and and uh a friend of his was making a big deal out of, you know, he wasn't gonna prepare, he was just gonna let the spirit speak. He was gonna wasn't gonna prepare, just gonna let the spirit speak. And he he said this for you know weeks in advance, and then it came to the Tuesday morning when he gave his talk, and then um and afterwards my friend went up to him and said, Yeah, it wasn't the spirit's best sermon, was it? Um you know, and the spirit works through our preparations, actually. And um and just because we believe in the Holy Spirit does not mean that we don't prepare, um, because surely the spirit is at work in in good preparation. So so yeah, no, I I I take some time to to prepare what I say.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So how do you prepare a talk?
SPEAKER_05Well, I think I think the best kinds of evangelistic talks are ones that are kind of based on a specific scripture. There are other kinds of evangelistic talks, and what I'm about to say won't so much refer to those kinds of ways. But you can give talks that are sort of topical talks, or talks that deal with a certain objection to Christian faith. Like, you know, last week I I did an evangelistic talk on, well, how can Christians believe in hell? I thought God was a God of love, and and uh at that point the basis for my talk was not a scripture, but I was using the Bible in in all sorts of ways. But I think overall the best kind of talk is is based on a bit of the Bible, and it's even better if the people who you're speaking to have that bit of the Bible. Uh it's even better if they have perhaps the whole book, um so if you're speaking from Luke's Gospel, they've got the whole Luke's Gospel with them that they can take away and keep on reading. It just kind of anchors you in a passage and hopefully it gives the listener a taste for the Bible that they will sort of uh uh uh want to take with them and keep on reading for themselves. So so I thought perhaps what we could do is um have a think about uh a talk that I prepared just this last Sunday on uh Luke chapter fourteen, and I'll just take you through the steps of of how I went about preparing it for Sunday. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um should we have a look at so it's Luke chapter fourteen, verses fifteen to twenty-four. Um do you want to read it, Andy, and then we'll think about how we how we go about uh preparing a talk from it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sure. When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. Jesus replied, A certain man was preparing a great banquet, and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me. Another said, I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I am on my way to try them out. Please excuse me. Still another said, I have just got married, so I can't come. The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Sir, the servant said, What you ordered has been done, but there is still room. Then the master told his servant, Go out to the roads and the country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.
SPEAKER_05Right. So that's the passage. So let me just take you through what I would do to go from that, that's the passage that I've got to speak on, right up until the point where I'm about to step up into the pulpit or wherever I'm speaking from, and and give the talk.
SPEAKER_02And just to say that uh next time we're going to be looking at actually delivering that what happens in the pulpit or what happens when you're actually delivering it.
SPEAKER_05But yeah, this is the preparation.
SPEAKER_02Okay then, so step one, you've got read, read and read again.
SPEAKER_05Yes, read, read and read again. I think read the passage over and over and over again until you kind of you know it backwards. And I would I would say also read in context. So read at least a couple of chapters before this and a couple of chapters after this. If you have the time, read through the whole of Luke and then see how this kind of fits within it. I I say that because actually one of the key verses for my sermon on Sunday was actually verse 14, which is just before this passage. Because you'll notice that verse 15 begins, when one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, Well, okay, what did he say? You've got to go back, you've got to do the context work. And actually what the what the person was saying was was about the resurrection of the righteous. And and actually that became a big point in the sermon, that actually what this is about is the resurrection life that Jesus is is offering, which is a feast in the kingdom of God. So I'd say read and read and read and read prayerfully as you do this. I haven't put sort of prayer as a discrete step in the ten, because I don't think prayer is like ten percent of what you do. Yeah. All of this these things you should do prayerfully, but read, read, and read again the passage.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So step two then, write an initial summary. What do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_05I think once you've sort of read over it many, many times, I think you should you should jot down what you think the thrust of the passage is, what it means, and what it's trying to do to you. And when I say what it's trying to do to you, what I'm saying is Luke wrote this down, not just as an information transfer. He was wanting to move you at a heart level as well as inform you at a mind level. So just your initial thoughts, your initial summary, this passage is about such and such, and it's trying to do this. And for this passage, this is about the kingdom of God that Jesus invites the world into, and yet madly, so many people refuse it. Um and it's and what it's meant to do to you is it's meant to make you think, how stupid. Why would anyone refuse this offer? It's a it's an offer too good to refuse, surely. That's what it's trying to do to you. So those were my my initial thoughts as I made that initial summary.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Uh step three then, make notes on each and every verse.
SPEAKER_05Yes. Now, obviously, if you've got a massive, massive, you know, chunk of scripture or something to to preach, this is less possible. But what I always try and do is just s put spaces um in in a word document in between all the verses and just try and jot down as many things as I can think of on every single verse. Um they they might be completely irrelevant, I might be completely off topic, but that leaves me with a document that's four or five pages long at that stage. And you won't use ninety percent of what you jot down in in that sort of session. We're not allowed to say brainstorming, are we? Because that's what's the what's the new term? What's it called again?
SPEAKER_02Mind mapping.
SPEAKER_05Mind map, yeah, let's mind map instead of yeah, because brainstorming refers to sort of um uh epileptic episodes. Oh really? Doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not allowed to say brainstorming. Really? Yeah, I don't know who says, but um yeah, is is that right? Ellis Ellis is is here, she she's on work experience and she's nodding from the booth.
SPEAKER_00You you can only say I think it's uh brain shower, I think that's what's called.
SPEAKER_05A brain shower.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, brain shower. You but you can't say a brainstorm, though it's uh to do with epilepsy and things like that. So it's all about political correctness.
SPEAKER_05It's official. It's official. Ellis from work experience says we can only say brain shower and not brainstorm. Okay. Brilliant, brilliant. She's paying, she's paying her own way already, Ellis. Brilliant. So So yeah, make notes on each and every verse, uh, as many thoughts as you can. And if some people who listened, they might know a little bit of New Testament Greek or they might know a little bit of Hebrew. Look at it in those original languages. If you don't, there's a great website called blueletterbible.org. And we we can put uh a link in the show notes. But um As opposed to a red letter Bible. As opposed to a red letter Bible. I think I think this predates the red letter Bible, actually. The blue blue letter Bible is a very helpful search engine that will help you to search specific verses in the Greek, even if you don't know the Greek. Right. So that you click on the word and it will show you every other place in the Bible where that particular word is used. That could be very, very helpful. Yeah. And I I for instance, in in Luke chapter 14, I did this on certain words such as blessed. I wanted to know, like, how else does Luke use the word blessed? Uh, the word feast, um, and you won't be surprised to learn that feast is all over Luke's gospel. Jesus is always at feasts. In particular, I looked up the word excuses in verse 18, because that seems to be an absolutely key concept in the whole story. People are making excuses. And that that sent me to lots of different places in the Bible that were was very interesting in figuring out what these excuses were all about. But that's that's what I'm doing at this stage, trying to investigate every single word I can and kind of suck the marrow out of every single word. Sound like a big sort of encyclopedia of this paragraph.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. So uh step four then is the wisdom of others.
SPEAKER_05Yes. And this is this is really important. But I I wouldn't go to the wisdom of others first. Uh so often people, when they prepare talks, what they want to do is go instantly to hear what John Piper has said online about it, or they'll go to their favourite preacher, they'll go to Spurgeon instantly, and they'll get their wisdom first. And I I think that's that's cheating. Um and it's it's actually not going to help you. But I do think there is a stage for that. And I think I think once you've made an initial summary, once you've made notes, then uh go to things like commentaries and uh on Luke's Gospel. Darryl Box uh done a couple of very good uh Luke's Gospel commentaries, Howard Marshall's done one, Leon Morris has done one that's very helpful. Um I'd I would listen to preachers who've preached on the same passage. I I listened to about four or five different sermons from uh they were all from All Souls Lang and Place, but there were four different uh preachers preaching on this on this passage. I listened to that. Uh it's always great to go to Spurgeon. Not always for the exegesis of the passage, the understanding of the passage, but but but for how to preach it and what Luke is trying to do and therefore what Spurgeon is trying to do and then and then he he can help you with what you're trying to do with a congregation.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And Spurgeon's very he's very visual sort of illustrations and and words he uses put pictures it in your in your mind.
SPEAKER_05Yes, absolutely. And and as an example of that, so with this whole idea of excuses, when I heard a sermon by Roger Carswell on this passage, he quoted um from the 19th century American preacher Billy Sunday, and and Billy Sunday had had uh a definition of excuses. He said, An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. And very visual, isn't it? The skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. And that really communicates, and so that stage the wisdom of others can really, really help you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Step five then, uh return to the summary. Yeah. So after having looked at the the verses uh individually and the wisdom of others, you go back then to to what you wrote before?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, go back to to what it is and see that you're you've been on the right track or not, and you might have to tear it up. And I think by this stage I had come to see in my preparation for Luke chapter fourteen, I'd come to see the real importance of resurrection from verse fourteen, which is just before the passage begins. And so I had to I had to kind of tweak that a little bit and and see that there's this resurrection life coming, and I'd also started to see a lot more the way that Luke fits the fits this story into the rest of the gospel. In the rest of the gospel, Jesus is inviting people to the kingdom of God, and there are a whole heap of respectable people who live respectable lives and they give respectable excuses for why they're not going to join the feast at the same time. Who is it who's flocking to Jesus? It's the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. And actually, I came to see, having done a l a bit more study, the way in which this story fits into Luke and and fits into the mission of Jesus Himself. So at that stage I'm starting to do a little bit more refining of the thrust of the passage.
SPEAKER_02Okay, then uh step six is shape it for your audience.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and you never speak in a vacuum. You're always speaking to people. And and you must be thinking, well, am I speaking to teenagers on a Friday night? Am I speaking to a a women's pamper evening on a Wednesday evening? You know, my wife is doing doing that tomorrow. She's gonna speak at a a ladies' pamper evening. Or am I speaking as I as I was speaking on on Sunday morning, I was speaking to a suburban London church, lots of people commuting into town, professional kind of people. That shapes how you say things, it shapes the kind of illustrations that you use. It's interesting, isn't it, that if if I say Jesus is always at dinner parties, that has a very middle class ring to it, doesn't it? But if I if I say Jesus is a party animal, it's not quite so middle class all of a sudden. And in this passage there's mention of feast and banquet and that kind of language. And you you just need to be aware who you're speaking to. What does this communicate? Does this communicate a very middle class dinner party with candlelight? Or having a tray of food on your lap while you watch TV together? W y what are we talking about? And and that's really, really important. You need to know who you're speaking to and shape your uh material accordingly.
SPEAKER_02Uh step seven then, uh make an outline.
SPEAKER_05Make an outline. And I'm not saying that you should definitely get in front of people and say, Here is my introduction then shall follow three points, at the end of which I shall conclude. You know, I and I don't think you need to have three points. Some of my favourite sermons, I still remember a sermon that was actually at All Sol's Langham Place, and um Paul Blackham preached on the resurrection of Jesus. It was a twelve-point sermon in nineteen minutes. Wow. And if I had 1 Corinthians 15 open in front of me, I could tell you what the twelve points were. Because basically Paul just said, Well, look, the Apostle Paul says, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, here are six implications. And he got them straight out of the passage, one, two, three, four, five, six. But Jesus has risen from the dead, and therefore there are these six implications, one, two, three, four, five, six. And that completely fitted the passage, and and like I say, if I if I had one Corinthians fifteen open in front of me, I could tell you exactly what those twelve points were. So that really fitted. That really fit. Other sermons just have one point, just ramtome, ramthome, and ramthome again. And so I yeah, I'm I'm not I'm not saying definitely have a a a three-point plan. For my Luke 14 sermon, um I didn't really have points at all. I just had one big idea. Jesus has come to invite you into resurrection life. What are you gonna say? That was the big idea. And then really the structure of the sermon was literally just going through verse by verse. But I think the listeners need to know you know where you're going. Otherwise, as as the clock ticks into the 20 minute zone, people will think, Well, how how long do we have now? Do we does does this preacher even know where he's heading? Does he have a place to land, or is he just gonna circle forever, or how long is this is this sermon gonna go on for? They need to know that there's a shape to what you're about to say.
SPEAKER_02So uh this is much more than the summary, and this is much more than your notes. Would it be like a minute-by-minute plan of what you're gonna speak, or would it be more sort of a structural thing?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think the difference between this outline and the summary, the summary could just be a sentence.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_05The outline has got to give a sense of the flow of the talk. That's you've got some idea of how you'll introduce it, you'll have some idea of what the body of the talk will be, how one point will flow into another point, and where you're gonna land at the end. So that's that's where you want to get to with the with the outline.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So step eight then, write it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. It's horrible, isn't it? You gotta you just gotta sit down and write it.
SPEAKER_02So you do you literally write it word for word or I do actually.
SPEAKER_05Um even though I don't particularly work from a script when I'm preaching, I do write it out pretty much every word. And maybe that's just a personal thing because I uh I often don't know what I think until I write. That's what's so dangerous about having a blog. I have no idea what I think about something, and then half an hour later the whole internet modes. Um But it that might just be a personal thing for me, but for me, in writing it down, I force myself to be able to communicate clearly to myself, and hopefully if I force myself to communicate clearly to myself, it'll force me to communicate clearly to the audience. I can kid myself, if I've just got bullet points, I can kid myself. Yeah, I know how this point leads to that point, and yet time after time I found that when I'm actually preaching, that shift of gears is not particularly smooth and people feel that. I don't know. Did you do you work from a full script or do you No.
SPEAKER_02No?
SPEAKER_05Do you write everything out? You don't you just have notes?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I I do quite a bit of research and that, but then when it comes to it, I go over and over and over and I'm I just write notes, you know, sort of bullet points in a way. Um I I have written it out before. Yeah. But I can't it takes so long. Yeah, yeah. It it's a it's a difficult thing. Uh uh how long does it take to sort of write out a full sermon?
SPEAKER_05To write out a full sermon. Three or four hours. If I if if I've done all this already. Yeah, it would take sort of an afternoon.
SPEAKER_02How many how many words would that be?
SPEAKER_05I guess this sermon was about three and a half thousand words. Okay. Yeah. Actually, I might have underestimated. May maybe it takes more like four or five to actually actually write out um in a polished kind of a way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's gotta be good at typing. Okay, then we're nearly there. Uh step nine, add colour.
SPEAKER_05Add colour. Yeah, I th I think it's good advice always when you when you're writing out a sermon, not always to get stuck on what's the what's the perfect opening or the perfect conclusion. I think you can add those things in later, and and maybe step nine is the time to add colour, add illustrations. Like Billy Sunday once said, an excuse was the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie, or what other colour did I add? Oh, interestingly, on the in the in the car on the way up, I I thought of an illustration, which actually was was the thing that people really spoke of afterwards. I sort of said, you know, wouldn't it be weird if you invited me to your place, but instead of me, you know, knocking on the door, I found your spare key. I let myself in. And you get up and say, Oh, Glenn, oh, I wasn't expecting you so early. Would you like a cup of tea? I ignore you. I push on through to the kitchen and I start cooking up dinner. And you say, Oh, we've got a lovely lasagna. And I say, No, I'm I'm just doing macaroni cheese. And I cook my own dinner and I wash up completely and I do I do the hoovering for you. And I even wash your windows and your house is completely spick and span, but I ignore you the entire time. Am I a good house guest? No, obviously not. And it doesn't doesn't matter if I'm a messy house guest, and it doesn't matter if I'm a tidy house guest, does it? The real issue is do I acknowledge you, the master of the house? Do I know you? And you know, I just sort of applied that and I said there's lots of people who think that they're okay with God because they're tidy house guests. And you might sit there and you might think that just because I've never harmed anybody or I, you know, and I'm quite helpful and I d you know, I do the hoovering and I I I do all sorts of helpful things. But if you don't know the master of the house, if you don't acknowledge him, if you're not grateful to him and have that relationship with him, then you're an intruder. And at some stage he's gonna chuck you out of the house. You know, you need to know, you need to know the master of the house. And so it's a it's an illustration that that I've sort of used in in different contexts, not quite like that. But that was that was a bit of colour that came into the sermon later and actually came home to people in a in a powerful way.
SPEAKER_02I I often find the people that I'm really listening to in the sermon are people that you know use stories and illustrations that really really well. You know, I kind of those are the sermons that I'm connected to, you know.
SPEAKER_05It's amazing. You're you're speaking and and then all of a sudden you say, the other day, Emma and I, and then instantly everyone looks up. Yeah, hundred pairs of eyes. What? What what happened? You know. Um and it could be a really dull story as well, but like instantly. I mean that's interesting that people people connect with that. But and there does need to be colour. But I wouldn't I wouldn't go searching for illustrations. I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't go to illustrations.com if there is such a there probably is illustration.com. Yeah, is there is I don't know. I'm sure there is. And just, you know, type in feast invitation or or Luke fourteen and then I do though pray for illustrations. I remember I I was giving a a sermon on Daniel chapter seven, which is about you know the Son of Man being introduced into the Father's courtroom, into into the the place of the ancient of days, and and the point of the sermon was that in Christ we can be introduced to the Father. Like that. And I spent the whole week saying, Oh Lord, I I just want an illustration of this, and you know, I just can't think of an illustration. I don't know what and it got to the sort of the Friday, and I w I had I literally had my head in my hands saying, Lord, I just need an illustration of this. Why, why is nothing coming? And then I just remembered that that morning I had been invited into the largest sorting office of the post office, like in the south-east of England, because I was meeting somebody there, and you know, John met me at the gate and he signed me in and he introduced me into this sorting office, and I got to see all the conveyor belts and I got to see massive like containers of letters that are going to Bikina Faso and this one's going to Burma and this one's going to Botswana, and and it was fantastic. You know, what right did I have to be there? I had no right, but John was with me, and John signed me in, and he was my and then all of a sudden I was thinking, that's the illustration, you know, and and the Lord just gave it to me, and and again that illustration of how Jesus introduces us into heaven really communicated to people. It wasn't me going onto sermon at illustrator.com, but uh it was being alive to those things in life because the Lord does want to give you those.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so be sort of constantly open to to looking for illustrations and that to use. Yeah. Okay then uh step ten, uh what's the final form in? Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Notes or full script or notes or full script or no script points, bullet points, how do you do it? And um if you're just starting out preaching and you're just not used to engaging people for any length of time without a script, then absolutely use a script. There are things you can do if you use a full script. Uh if I'm using a full script, quite often what I like to do is underline or put a splodge of ink at one point in every paragraph. And where I put the splodge is, if I know a sentence that's just before the splodge quite well, the splodge allows me, I see the splodge is coming, the splodge allows me to look up and to deliver that sentence. Because the worst thing is you you know a sentence and you you know a part of your script and you look up and you deliver it, and then you spend the next 30 seconds trying to find your place again. Yeah. And the splodge gives you the confidence to kind of look up, deliver that thing, and then where am I? Ah, there I am. Okay. The splodge will show you the way. It took me many years to move from full script to using more stripped-down notes, which is what I have in front of me more as a safety thing than anything else. I have written out the full script, and you know, on Sunday I had a full script and I also had a page of notes, and I just I put the full script to one side and I had the page of notes and and just sort of delivered it from that. But I I would encourage you, if you are a full scripting kind of person, eye contact is just so vital. It really is. And there are some preachers, it's almost as though there's sort of double glazing between them and the congregation. And there's no nobody's going to engage with them if there's if there is that kind of barrier. And moving the notes a little bit to one side and and dealing one human being to another human being face to face, delivering the word of Christ. That that is so powerful. And whatever you can do in order to free you from notes, I would say invest in in trying to do that.
SPEAKER_02Good. Okay, well let's just just recap uh quickly. Uh we might have forgotten the previous steps, but uh step one, read, read, read again. And then step two, write an initial summary. Uh step three, make notes on each and every verse. Step four, consult the wisdom of others. Step five, return to the summary. Uh step six, shape it for your audience. Step seven, make an outline.
SPEAKER_05Step eight, write it out.
SPEAKER_02Step nine, add colour and illustrations.
SPEAKER_05And then step ten, decide on the final form and go for it.
SPEAKER_02So there you have it, ten steps to preparing a talk. Glenn, do you are you given a scripture to speak on, or do you just kind of generally asked to come and give an evangelistic talk?
SPEAKER_05Uh it depends. It depends. So this Sunday um they were working their way through Luke's Gospel and they said, Could you do the next little bit in Luke? And I said, Yeah, sure. Sometimes so for instance, this weekend, I was given sort of free reign in terms of uh what I want to speak. I'm doing a uh an evangelistic mission in Bridge End. A bunch of different churches are coming together. For that, I have wanted them to order in lots of Luke's Gospels that people can have in their hands. And so I've sort of narrowed myself down to Luke's Gospel at that point. And we will see which passages from Luke that I use. I've got some ideas of which ones I I might use this one, I might use another one. I d I don't know.
SPEAKER_02What do you prefer?
SPEAKER_05To sort of be given a a scripture or well, interestingly, you know, you can kind like when a church says you will preach on this passage, you can think, oh that's just more work for me. But it actually it's good. It's in moderation, it's good to be forced to to to keep things fresh.
SPEAKER_02You don't sort of constantly wonder, oh maybe I should have picked something else.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. No, I and I think if a church wants me to preach on a certain passage, I will try to do that if I've got the time and space to prepare it well enough that I can serve people. Um but you know, you can get a bit snobbish about it and think, oh, I don't wanna I don't want to preach on Luke 15 again, because I'm always preaching on Luke 15. But the the guys in front of you haven't heard you preach on Luke 15, it's just that you've heard you preach on Luke 15 a hundred times. So mixing it up a bit can help you to um to keep it fresh. But I surprised myself just three Sundays ago I was preaching on Luke chapter three in the baptism of Jesus, which I've spoken on many, many times before, and just but just found myself like crying in the middle of the sermon about the the the wonder of Jesus. It sort of struck me afresh, and and the Lord's able to make those same passages fresh to you. So there's there's no real rhyme or reason about it, but um just be open to to what people want and try and serve them.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well uh we'll go on next time to look at uh how to actually deliver the evangelistic talk. But uh I think we'll close it there. If you have any comments about today's show or you'd like to share it, you can go to the web address for this episode, which is revivalmedia.org slash TEP48. If you like listening each week, we'd really appreciate a rating and review on iTunes. It helps us get seen by more people. We thank you to uh a number of people that have done that and the people that have left reviews as well. That's very helpful. It's very easy if you'd like to do that, just go to revivalmedia.org slash iTunes. That will take you directly to the podcast page where you can leave us a rating and review, and we'd be very happy if you could do that for us. Again, the web address for this episode where you can comment on this show along with any uh relevant links is simply revivalmedia.org slash tep forty eight.