Musings on Spiritual Matters

For those preachers who use illustrations, there is a good rule to use with these.  You want to build your sermon around one image or picture.  So if you are talking about the tongue being a fire, use illustrations from fires.  You might have one to three illustration, but instead of using illustrations that create various pictures in the listeners mind, use just one.  This will create a better opportunity for people to remember the lesson.  Remember, most people remember one point from the lesson for the future.  Create the one point by using illustrations that fit together.  By doing this, you will create the visual image better in the sermon, and it will have more lasting power in the lives of people.  Throughout the sermon, use language that fits with the illustrations.  I was preaching on James 2, about the partiality section, and used illustrations of the airlines.  Throughout the sermon, I used the terms gold members, select members, and middle seat members.  You are fitting the sermon into the flow of the beginning illustration, and allowing the people to make sense of the text.  It creates more of a unified whole.  By doing this, people will remember your sermons better and this will have a more powerful influence in their lives.

Related posts:

1. The Key to a Great Sermon
2. The Last Sermon
3. Sermon Block
4. Sermon Seasons
5. Review of “Applying the Sermon”

Tags:

This entry was posted by Matthew on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012 at 10:28 am and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.