July 18, 2025 • 21 mins
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Have you ever been on stage teaching or preaching and suddenly you forget where you are or what you’re talking about? You just go blank for a few seconds. I’ve been there, I’ve been in your shoes, and it can be terrifying to the point that you doubt your calling or purpose.
But get this!
What if I told you that every time you get up to speak, whether it’s a sermon, a wedding, or even a funeral, you could be confident and have authority in your words and your message? In today’s episode, we discussed the most important question you need to ask, and this one question changed everything I knew about teaching.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bryan (00:01):
Today we're talking about the top five questions you need
to ask before your next sermon.
Have you ever been on stageteaching or preaching and
suddenly you forget everythingyou're trying to say?
Your mind goes totally blank.
You're staring at the audience.
They're staring back at you.
(00:22):
You look down at your outline,you look back at the audience
and you don't know what to say.
I have been there, I have beenin your shoes many times and it
can be terrifying.
It can even make you doubt yourcalling and your purpose as a
preacher, as a communicator.
(00:42):
So you want to be confident.
Well, stick around as wediscuss the top five questions
you need to ask before your nextsermon.
Hello everyone and welcome tothe Speak On Purpose podcast.
I am your host, brian Cox.
I am your host, brian Cox.
(01:02):
What if I told you that thenext time you stand up to speak
maybe leading a meeting, maybegiving a sermon, maybe a wedding
or even a funeral you couldstand there with confidence.
You could stand there withauthority in your words and a
(01:24):
message that would help people.
I discovered this learning thesefive questions that Andy
Stanley showed me in his bookCommunicating for Change, and
it's been liberating for me onceI learned to apply these to my
message.
So I want to jump into thefirst question right now, and
(01:46):
here it is what do they need toknow?
Let me say that again.
Question number one what dothey need to know?
Now, this may sound simple, butI find this to be one of the
hardest questions I've ever hadto answer.
(02:06):
When I sit down with my pastorfriends and we try to figure out
what do they need to know, wetend to come up with many things
we want to communicate, but thegoal is to get it down to one
what is the destination?
Where are we going?
(02:28):
So I wanted to break it out foryou in four steps To answer
this one question.
We're going to do this in foursteps because it's very
important that we get it down toone, because then you will be
able to communicate it.
I tend to think of it this wayImagine you're coming home from
(02:52):
your vacation and the wholefamily's in the car and
everybody's hungry and tired,and you turn around.
You say hey, everybody, wherewould you like to eat?
If you know anything about this, you know what your family's
going to say Chick-fil-A,probably.
(03:13):
That's what my family said.
And I'd say, no, how aboutMcDonald's.
They're like, oh no.
And then the wife would come inand say, how about Subway?
And what I figured out was I'mnever going to make everybody
happy, but I have to make adecision.
Same way with your sermon andyour message you have to decide
(03:36):
what you're going to say.
Now.
It may not be the most popularthing you say, but it might be
necessary for this sermon.
You've got to decide where am Itaking people?
What is the destination?
So the first step in answeringthat would be this who are they?
(03:58):
You must define the they.
Who is in the car?
Where am I taking them?
Okay, this is not a pronounthing.
Okay, this is who is in theroom thing?
Who is in the meeting?
Who is going to be hearing whatI'm trying to say?
So here's what I do.
Here's kind of how I've alwaysdone this.
(04:21):
I'll even write down, you know,like the venue where I'm going
to be speaking, the environment,if it's a conference or if it's
a Sunday morning, or is it aBible study, is it a meeting.
You know, write down that venueand then I would write down
also the demographics of thatroom.
(04:41):
What age groups?
Is it kids and family, is itteenagers?
Is it college and career?
Is it a mix of all?
Because what's going to happenwhen you think about they?
It'll help you understand whatstories to tell, what analogies
and metaphors you need to tell.
You may need to hit eachsegment as you speak, and that's
(05:05):
what we call gaining commonground, because without common
ground, without knowing the they, you're not going to be able to
be convincing.
You're going to have to hitpeople where they are.
So that's why it's importantstill okay to be very specific.
(05:26):
What destination can I take allthese people?
I've heard this one time apastor.
He got up to preach a Christmassermon and he was preaching and
the opening line was this.
Now, the opening line was Iremember the day I stopped
believing in Santa Claus and theroom just got quiet because it
(05:50):
was a Christmas service.
So everybody was in the room,all the kids, all the adults,
and you could just like feelthat, oh, what do I do now?
He did not think about the room.
Who is going to be hearing this?
Define the they.
That is your first step.
Now let's move on to the secondstep Pinpoint your key verse.
(06:17):
I like to think of the Biblethis way, like it's a map, what
I would call a map to a treasureof truth, a truth so great it
could change the hearts and theminds of people that are
listening.
If you think about it, wherewould we be without maps?
Most of us would be lost right,especially if we're on a dark
(06:39):
highway or a dusty road.
I know I've been there beforeand hoping the GPS will work,
but I'm of the age when in myearly classrooms we had rolled
up maps hanging above thechalkboards.
We also would carry maps in ourdashboards of our cars.
(07:00):
You could buy books of maps atany gas station.
In those days.
I think we called it the RoadAtlas.
I remember my dad was an expertat reading maps.
He was a truck driver forWalmart for almost 40 years and
he could pinpoint just about anylocation on a map.
(07:22):
You could say he could read theBible, or, let me say it this
way, he could read the map likeit was the Bible, pun intended.
And all this was before GPS ormap apps were on our smartphones
.
And, just like reading a map,what treasure of truth or verse
(07:46):
will you pull from this map wecall the Bible.
You know when we dig and wemine the Bible, as has happened
to me so many times, we discoverthe most amazing truth and
spiritual knowledge.
I always get somethingdifferent out of it.
(08:06):
No matter how many times I'veread a verse, something always
new, some nugget of truth alwayscomes out.
So you've pinpointed your keyverse.
That verse you're going to pulltruth and treasure from.
That verse you're going to pulltruth and treasure from and
you're going to communicate thattruth to your audience or your
(08:29):
congregation or wherever you maybe.
Okay, so I wanted to give you aquick example illustration of
how I do this.
Maybe that'll help you.
So I'm going to pick one of myfavorite verses, pull some truth
out of it and we're going tobreak it out into these steps.
(08:50):
Okay, my verse here.
I love this verse.
It's Joshua 1.8.
And what I like to do when Ihave a verse, when I'm creating
a sermon, you know I want toread it in multiple translations
.
I really want to know andunderstand the context of the
verse and that could be a wholenother podcast.
(09:12):
But I want to understand whowrote it, who it was written to,
what does it mean?
I want to make sure I'm pullingtruth and treasure from it and
not adding to it.
Okay, so here's my verse.
I love this verse, joshua 1.8.
And I'm going to read it to youin two translations, and then
(09:32):
we're going to map it out andbreak it out.
I'm going to show you how to dothat.
So let me read that to you now.
This is the New InternationalVersion.
It says keep the book of thelaw on your lips national
version.
It says keep the book of thelaw on your lips, meditate on it
day and night so that you maybe careful to do everything
written in it.
Then you will be prosperous andsuccessful.
(09:55):
Okay, now I'll read it in theNew Living Translation Study
this book of instruction.
Continually Meditate on it dayand night, so you will be sure
to obey everything written in it.
Only then will you prosper andsucceed in all you do.
(10:18):
That is so powerful.
It's so simple.
You know Meditate on His Wordnight and and day, and you will
be prosperous and successful.
What a great idea.
And we can teach on that.
And once I get the foundationand the context of that verse
(10:39):
who wrote it?
You know who it was written to.
Then I can move on to our nextstep, where we're going to break
out our verse, and I call thisstep three, mapping your route.
And so what I do?
I go back and I study thisverse and I'm going to tell you
(11:01):
the few things that Ihighlighted that I thought was
important.
The word keep it's a verb.
You need to keep it.
You need to do this.
Next word was the book it's anobject.
Keep the book of the law.
Again, it's simple, but it'simportant to get to the truth.
Keep the book of the law onyour lips, a highlighted lips,
(11:25):
because another way to say speakis constantly speak these words
.
Again, I highlighted meditate,another verb.
And then I highlighted day andnight, location or times, so
(11:47):
that you will be careful to doso.
Here's really interesting.
I highlighted the you.
In the context, you is Joshua,but we can definitely make that
work for us.
We can definitely apply that tous or those who are listening,
and if we are careful to do this, careful to do everything
written, which is another verbthen we will be prosperous.
(12:12):
I highlighted that word andsuccessful.
This is the result of whatwe're doing.
This is the result of the truththat we're finding here.
If you do these things, this iswhat will happen.
And then I take this same ideaand I read another translation
(12:32):
and here is the additionaltranslation.
It says study the book again ofinstruction continually, which
is another word you knowconstantly.
So I highlighted continuallyAgain.
Meditate day and night times.
Be sure to obey Another one Ihighlighted.
Be sure to obey another one.
(12:53):
I highlighted everythingwritten in it.
This was unique to thistranslation.
It said only then I thoughtthat was interesting only then
will you prosper and succeed inall you do.
So I take all of that truth,all those words that I've
(13:19):
highlighted, and I move them tothe next step, which I call step
four, and it's called make alist.
But what I would ask you to dobefore you move on to the next
step, that you would try this Ifyou got my outline, if you got
the worksheet, go ahead and dothis for yourself, begin to
study it, pick your translations, begin to break it out,
(13:44):
meditate on it, like it says,highlight some words and then
we'll move on to step four,where we'll make a list, what I
would call follow directions.
Have you ever bought somefurniture from Ikea?
I know most of us have and youget it.
And if you're like me, you'rekind of impatient and you just
start putting it together.
You look at the picture on thebox and you just start putting
(14:05):
it together.
Then, when you get done, or youthink you're done, you look on
the floor and there's somescrews left, there's a piece of
wood left.
You're like I left somethingout.
Same way here.
We can't just take it and lookat the picture.
We have to understand it.
We have to read the directions,we have to contemplate what is
(14:28):
being said, when it's being said, who it's being said to and
what we can take from that.
What truth can we apply to usand those who are listening?
We need to follow directions orwe'll never understand the true
picture.
The point is, you got to make alist, you got to follow
(14:49):
directions if you want to have achance of understanding the
true picture of what needs to besaid and what not to say.
And if you do this, you won'tget lost along the way, I
promise you.
So here are the categories.
First one who are thecharacters?
(15:10):
Who is in the story?
We can see that.
We can write down the word youthat was highlighted.
I'd also write down because ofthe context, joshua.
We know God is talking toJoshua, so we would write that
under our first category who arethe characters?
(15:31):
Second category locations andtimes.
It was very evident in both ofour translations that day and
night, day and night definitelyneeds to go there 24 hours a day
.
Basically, our third category isobjects.
(15:52):
What objects did we see?
We saw the book, we saw law, weread lips.
We need to speak these words,we need to speak the truths.
So that would be under objects.
And then our fourth categorywould be actions and movement
(16:13):
within the text, which I wrote agood bit.
I wrote keep, meditate, becareful to do written, and I
even wrote prosper and succeed,because when we do these things
it moves us forward.
It's movement in the text thatshows us a result.
(16:35):
Once I have that list, then Ican move on to one of my
favorite things to do, and thatis step five.
Step five is create your ownsentence.
How can I say this?
You need to make it relate,make it understandable, but it
needs to be truth.
(16:55):
What you need to understandhere is we're not making up a
truth.
We're going to know the context, we're going to look at the
list of words we have and we'regoing to create a sentence, at
least two sentences that pointto the truth and point to the
context.
Truth and point to the context.
My daughter, when she wasyounger, we were opening a box,
(17:27):
I guess, of a toy and my wifesaid to her said well, lily, you
can't do this because you needsupervision.
And she said well, mom, I don'thave supervision.
I just thought that was so cuteand funny the way she saw it.
She saw it differently.
So we don't want to change, wedon't want to make it something
that it's not.
We want it to be clear, we wantthe vision to be clear and
(17:50):
understandable.
So that's why context matterswhile we do this.
So what we do?
We take these lists of words.
We asked ourselves who isspeaking?
This is God, and why is hespeaking?
Context he's telling Joshua ifyou do these things and you lead
Israel this way, good thingswill happen.
(18:12):
But you must meditate on myword day and night.
You must follow it, and onlythen will you see good things.
Write your own sentence usingthese list of words you made.
Okay.
For example, here's what I cameup with Looking at my list.
In step four, I said if youspeak and meditate on the law,
(18:36):
you will be careful to do whatis written.
Very simple, but in context.
You again is Joshua in thecontext, but it can be applied,
I think, to our lives.
The second one I wrote was thisIf you speak and meditate on
this book, then, and only thenwill you be successful.
(18:57):
That then, and only then, camefrom the other translation,
which I thought was prettyawesome, that it's basically
telling us the only way to besuccessful and prosperous is to
meditate on God's word day andnight.
You must keep him in your life.
I think I could preach that.
(19:18):
I think that would be a goodmain idea and, again, this is a
very simple process to pull thattruth out.
So our truth if you speak andmeditate on this book, then, and
only then will you besuccessful.
So let's answer that questionagain.
Step six name our destination.
(19:39):
Now that we know the verse, weunderstand the context, we've
made a list, we've made asentence.
Now we need to ask thatquestion again what do they need
to know?
Basically, what do they need toknow?
They need to read and meditateon the Word of God every day.
That's our truth, very simple,but to the point they need to
(20:06):
read and meditate on the Word ofGod every day.
This is just the first questionwhat do they need to know?
I have five of these.
Some are not as detailed, butbefore you speak, before you
stand up to say anything, youmust know what you're trying to
say.
You see, we're still in thedefining stage of the sermon.
(20:30):
Once we answer all thequestions, then we can begin to
put together an outline thatcommunicates this idea.
Well, I hope this has helpedyou, and I wanted to say this
before I leave today Be sure todownload the PDF notes.
There's a worksheet there witha sample of what I've been
(20:53):
talking about.
Also, there's a blank worksheetthere that you can use on your
own, so make sure you downloadthat from the podcast notes.
Also, I wanted to let you knowI will be working on our next
question, which is this why dothey need to know it?
This is a fun one.
(21:14):
No-transcript.
Today we're talking about the top five questions you need
to ask before your next sermon.
Have you ever been on stageteaching or preaching and
suddenly you forget everythingyou're trying to say?
Your mind goes totally blank.
You're staring at the audience.
They're staring back at you.
(00:22):
You look down at your outline,you look back at the audience
and you don't know what to say.
I have been there, I have beenin your shoes many times and it
can be terrifying.
It can even make you doubt yourcalling and your purpose as a
preacher, as a communicator.
(00:42):
So you want to be confident.
Well, stick around as wediscuss the top five questions
you need to ask before your nextsermon.
Hello everyone and welcome tothe Speak On Purpose podcast.
I am your host, brian Cox.
I am your host, brian Cox.
(01:02):
What if I told you that thenext time you stand up to speak
maybe leading a meeting, maybegiving a sermon, maybe a wedding
or even a funeral you couldstand there with confidence.
You could stand there withauthority in your words and a
(01:24):
message that would help people.
I discovered this learning thesefive questions that Andy
Stanley showed me in his bookCommunicating for Change, and
it's been liberating for me onceI learned to apply these to my
message.
So I want to jump into thefirst question right now, and
(01:46):
here it is what do they need toknow?
Let me say that again.
Question number one what dothey need to know?
Now, this may sound simple, butI find this to be one of the
hardest questions I've ever hadto answer.
(02:06):
When I sit down with my pastorfriends and we try to figure out
what do they need to know, wetend to come up with many things
we want to communicate, but thegoal is to get it down to one
what is the destination?
Where are we going?
(02:28):
So I wanted to break it out foryou in four steps To answer
this one question.
We're going to do this in foursteps because it's very
important that we get it down toone, because then you will be
able to communicate it.
I tend to think of it this wayImagine you're coming home from
(02:52):
your vacation and the wholefamily's in the car and
everybody's hungry and tired,and you turn around.
You say hey, everybody, wherewould you like to eat?
If you know anything about this, you know what your family's
going to say Chick-fil-A,probably.
(03:13):
That's what my family said.
And I'd say, no, how aboutMcDonald's.
They're like, oh no.
And then the wife would come inand say, how about Subway?
And what I figured out was I'mnever going to make everybody
happy, but I have to make adecision.
Same way with your sermon andyour message you have to decide
(03:36):
what you're going to say.
Now.
It may not be the most popularthing you say, but it might be
necessary for this sermon.
You've got to decide where am Itaking people?
What is the destination?
So the first step in answeringthat would be this who are they?
(03:58):
You must define the they.
Who is in the car?
Where am I taking them?
Okay, this is not a pronounthing.
Okay, this is who is in theroom thing?
Who is in the meeting?
Who is going to be hearing whatI'm trying to say?
So here's what I do.
Here's kind of how I've alwaysdone this.
(04:21):
I'll even write down, you know,like the venue where I'm going
to be speaking, the environment,if it's a conference or if it's
a Sunday morning, or is it aBible study, is it a meeting.
You know, write down that venueand then I would write down
also the demographics of thatroom.
(04:41):
What age groups?
Is it kids and family, is itteenagers?
Is it college and career?
Is it a mix of all?
Because what's going to happenwhen you think about they?
It'll help you understand whatstories to tell, what analogies
and metaphors you need to tell.
You may need to hit eachsegment as you speak, and that's
(05:05):
what we call gaining commonground, because without common
ground, without knowing the they, you're not going to be able to
be convincing.
You're going to have to hitpeople where they are.
So that's why it's importantstill okay to be very specific.
(05:26):
What destination can I take allthese people?
I've heard this one time apastor.
He got up to preach a Christmassermon and he was preaching and
the opening line was this.
Now, the opening line was Iremember the day I stopped
believing in Santa Claus and theroom just got quiet because it
(05:50):
was a Christmas service.
So everybody was in the room,all the kids, all the adults,
and you could just like feelthat, oh, what do I do now?
He did not think about the room.
Who is going to be hearing this?
Define the they.
That is your first step.
Now let's move on to the secondstep Pinpoint your key verse.
(06:17):
I like to think of the Biblethis way, like it's a map, what
I would call a map to a treasureof truth, a truth so great it
could change the hearts and theminds of people that are
listening.
If you think about it, wherewould we be without maps?
Most of us would be lost right,especially if we're on a dark
(06:39):
highway or a dusty road.
I know I've been there beforeand hoping the GPS will work,
but I'm of the age when in myearly classrooms we had rolled
up maps hanging above thechalkboards.
We also would carry maps in ourdashboards of our cars.
(07:00):
You could buy books of maps atany gas station.
In those days.
I think we called it the RoadAtlas.
I remember my dad was an expertat reading maps.
He was a truck driver forWalmart for almost 40 years and
he could pinpoint just about anylocation on a map.
(07:22):
You could say he could read theBible, or, let me say it this
way, he could read the map likeit was the Bible, pun intended.
And all this was before GPS ormap apps were on our smartphones
.
And, just like reading a map,what treasure of truth or verse
(07:46):
will you pull from this map wecall the Bible.
You know when we dig and wemine the Bible, as has happened
to me so many times, we discoverthe most amazing truth and
spiritual knowledge.
I always get somethingdifferent out of it.
(08:06):
No matter how many times I'veread a verse, something always
new, some nugget of truth alwayscomes out.
So you've pinpointed your keyverse.
That verse you're going to pulltruth and treasure from.
That verse you're going to pulltruth and treasure from and
you're going to communicate thattruth to your audience or your
(08:29):
congregation or wherever you maybe.
Okay, so I wanted to give you aquick example illustration of
how I do this.
Maybe that'll help you.
So I'm going to pick one of myfavorite verses, pull some truth
out of it and we're going tobreak it out into these steps.
(08:50):
Okay, my verse here.
I love this verse.
It's Joshua 1.8.
And what I like to do when Ihave a verse, when I'm creating
a sermon, you know I want toread it in multiple translations
.
I really want to know andunderstand the context of the
verse and that could be a wholenother podcast.
(09:12):
But I want to understand whowrote it, who it was written to,
what does it mean?
I want to make sure I'm pullingtruth and treasure from it and
not adding to it.
Okay, so here's my verse.
I love this verse, joshua 1.8.
And I'm going to read it to youin two translations, and then
(09:32):
we're going to map it out andbreak it out.
I'm going to show you how to dothat.
So let me read that to you now.
This is the New InternationalVersion.
It says keep the book of thelaw on your lips national
version.
It says keep the book of thelaw on your lips, meditate on it
day and night so that you maybe careful to do everything
written in it.
Then you will be prosperous andsuccessful.
(09:55):
Okay, now I'll read it in theNew Living Translation Study
this book of instruction.
Continually Meditate on it dayand night, so you will be sure
to obey everything written in it.
Only then will you prosper andsucceed in all you do.
(10:18):
That is so powerful.
It's so simple.
You know Meditate on His Wordnight and and day, and you will
be prosperous and successful.
What a great idea.
And we can teach on that.
And once I get the foundationand the context of that verse
(10:39):
who wrote it?
You know who it was written to.
Then I can move on to our nextstep, where we're going to break
out our verse, and I call thisstep three, mapping your route.
And so what I do?
I go back and I study thisverse and I'm going to tell you
(11:01):
the few things that Ihighlighted that I thought was
important.
The word keep it's a verb.
You need to keep it.
You need to do this.
Next word was the book it's anobject.
Keep the book of the law.
Again, it's simple, but it'simportant to get to the truth.
Keep the book of the law onyour lips, a highlighted lips,
(11:25):
because another way to say speakis constantly speak these words
.
Again, I highlighted meditate,another verb.
And then I highlighted day andnight, location or times, so
(11:47):
that you will be careful to doso.
Here's really interesting.
I highlighted the you.
In the context, you is Joshua,but we can definitely make that
work for us.
We can definitely apply that tous or those who are listening,
and if we are careful to do this, careful to do everything
written, which is another verbthen we will be prosperous.
(12:12):
I highlighted that word andsuccessful.
This is the result of whatwe're doing.
This is the result of the truththat we're finding here.
If you do these things, this iswhat will happen.
And then I take this same ideaand I read another translation
(12:32):
and here is the additionaltranslation.
It says study the book again ofinstruction continually, which
is another word you knowconstantly.
So I highlighted continuallyAgain.
Meditate day and night times.
Be sure to obey Another one Ihighlighted.
Be sure to obey another one.
(12:53):
I highlighted everythingwritten in it.
This was unique to thistranslation.
It said only then I thoughtthat was interesting only then
will you prosper and succeed inall you do.
So I take all of that truth,all those words that I've
(13:19):
highlighted, and I move them tothe next step, which I call step
four, and it's called make alist.
But what I would ask you to dobefore you move on to the next
step, that you would try this Ifyou got my outline, if you got
the worksheet, go ahead and dothis for yourself, begin to
study it, pick your translations, begin to break it out,
(13:44):
meditate on it, like it says,highlight some words and then
we'll move on to step four,where we'll make a list, what I
would call follow directions.
Have you ever bought somefurniture from Ikea?
I know most of us have and youget it.
And if you're like me, you'rekind of impatient and you just
start putting it together.
You look at the picture on thebox and you just start putting
(14:05):
it together.
Then, when you get done, or youthink you're done, you look on
the floor and there's somescrews left, there's a piece of
wood left.
You're like I left somethingout.
Same way here.
We can't just take it and lookat the picture.
We have to understand it.
We have to read the directions,we have to contemplate what is
(14:28):
being said, when it's being said, who it's being said to and
what we can take from that.
What truth can we apply to usand those who are listening?
We need to follow directions orwe'll never understand the true
picture.
The point is, you got to make alist, you got to follow
(14:49):
directions if you want to have achance of understanding the
true picture of what needs to besaid and what not to say.
And if you do this, you won'tget lost along the way, I
promise you.
So here are the categories.
First one who are thecharacters?
(15:10):
Who is in the story?
We can see that.
We can write down the word youthat was highlighted.
I'd also write down because ofthe context, joshua.
We know God is talking toJoshua, so we would write that
under our first category who arethe characters?
(15:31):
Second category locations andtimes.
It was very evident in both ofour translations that day and
night, day and night definitelyneeds to go there 24 hours a day
.
Basically, our third category isobjects.
(15:52):
What objects did we see?
We saw the book, we saw law, weread lips.
We need to speak these words,we need to speak the truths.
So that would be under objects.
And then our fourth categorywould be actions and movement
(16:13):
within the text, which I wrote agood bit.
I wrote keep, meditate, becareful to do written, and I
even wrote prosper and succeed,because when we do these things
it moves us forward.
It's movement in the text thatshows us a result.
(16:35):
Once I have that list, then Ican move on to one of my
favorite things to do, and thatis step five.
Step five is create your ownsentence.
How can I say this?
You need to make it relate,make it understandable, but it
needs to be truth.
(16:55):
What you need to understandhere is we're not making up a
truth.
We're going to know the context, we're going to look at the
list of words we have and we'regoing to create a sentence, at
least two sentences that pointto the truth and point to the
context.
Truth and point to the context.
My daughter, when she wasyounger, we were opening a box,
(17:27):
I guess, of a toy and my wifesaid to her said well, lily, you
can't do this because you needsupervision.
And she said well, mom, I don'thave supervision.
I just thought that was so cuteand funny the way she saw it.
She saw it differently.
So we don't want to change, wedon't want to make it something
that it's not.
We want it to be clear, we wantthe vision to be clear and
(17:50):
understandable.
So that's why context matterswhile we do this.
So what we do?
We take these lists of words.
We asked ourselves who isspeaking?
This is God, and why is hespeaking?
Context he's telling Joshua ifyou do these things and you lead
Israel this way, good thingswill happen.
(18:12):
But you must meditate on myword day and night.
You must follow it, and onlythen will you see good things.
Write your own sentence usingthese list of words you made.
Okay.
For example, here's what I cameup with Looking at my list.
In step four, I said if youspeak and meditate on the law,
(18:36):
you will be careful to do whatis written.
Very simple, but in context.
You again is Joshua in thecontext, but it can be applied,
I think, to our lives.
The second one I wrote was thisIf you speak and meditate on
this book, then, and only thenwill you be successful.
(18:57):
That then, and only then, camefrom the other translation,
which I thought was prettyawesome, that it's basically
telling us the only way to besuccessful and prosperous is to
meditate on God's word day andnight.
You must keep him in your life.
I think I could preach that.
(19:18):
I think that would be a goodmain idea and, again, this is a
very simple process to pull thattruth out.
So our truth if you speak andmeditate on this book, then, and
only then will you besuccessful.
So let's answer that questionagain.
Step six name our destination.
(19:39):
Now that we know the verse, weunderstand the context, we've
made a list, we've made asentence.
Now we need to ask thatquestion again what do they need
to know?
Basically, what do they need toknow?
They need to read and meditateon the Word of God every day.
That's our truth, very simple,but to the point they need to
(20:06):
read and meditate on the Word ofGod every day.
This is just the first questionwhat do they need to know?
I have five of these.
Some are not as detailed, butbefore you speak, before you
stand up to say anything, youmust know what you're trying to
say.
You see, we're still in thedefining stage of the sermon.
(20:30):
Once we answer all thequestions, then we can begin to
put together an outline thatcommunicates this idea.
Well, I hope this has helpedyou, and I wanted to say this
before I leave today Be sure todownload the PDF notes.
There's a worksheet there witha sample of what I've been
(20:53):
talking about.
Also, there's a blank worksheetthere that you can use on your
own, so make sure you downloadthat from the podcast notes.
Also, I wanted to let you knowI will be working on our next
question, which is this why dothey need to know it?
This is a fun one.
(21:14):
No-transcript.
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