Rich Wilkerson Jr. & Judah Smith — VOUS Conference 2019: Communicating for Change

put your hands together for my good friend pastor judah smith who's here these are pretty incredible chairs what's that these are pretty incredible chairs yeah velvet's uh velvet's a thing yeah totally a thing how you doing good when did you bleach your hair when did that happen i feel like yeah i feel like we probably should talk about a little bit more i literally did it on an impulse you ever do stuff like that ah no i try to keep my impulses to a minimum yeah you know no i actually really like your hair by the way i think it looks incredibly handsome and you are so fit right now it's convicting i didn't appreciate you saying that honestly it means a lot to me it took me three times to get this color i had to turn it and use a purple shampoo yeah it can get orange yeah it was a vibrant orange but we got to white so praise god praise god transitionary statement let's give him a shout transition in this uh in this breakout today we are actually um i'm really actually excited about all the breakouts that are happening and um once again i know there's a lot of people that want to do it to attend breakouts maybe you're here with a team and maybe somehow some of your team wasn't able to get in our apologies once again we just didn't fully anticipate or expect the level of demand or excitement that people want to be a part of these and so even for 2020 we're really working hard at uh making some space and and preparing and getting ready for doing more of this kind of stuff next year but um in this particular breakout we're actually spent some time uh talking about communication and i i love talking about communication but today he won't like me saying this but i'm gonna i'm completely honest right now my favorite preacher in all of the world is judah smith and i mean it like you know i've been saying it's like it's so much pressure and that's so much pressure it is obviously we all have our favorites and it's objective but just for me just ever since i've ever heard you preach it's just been my it always resonates with me and always speaks to me and i've watched you for many many years we've known each other for many years getting to have a friendship with you he's been awesome but um today i just wanna i want us to talk as can as we can we're hoping that we're gonna give some real handles in this breakout regarding communication but i thought maybe we would just kind of start from the beginning a little bit and just kind of hear some of your story i was wondering um when did you first know you wanted to even be a preacher um yeah first of all it's this is the worst situation ever because um i have to preach tonight so we're going to break down the components and elements of preaching and then i have to get out of my own head tonight to actually preach so that's your fault i apologize for that that was bad place we should have scheduled this for tomorrow after you know so thanks for that tonight i'm gonna be like okay what did i say in that session that i need to abide by um so that sucks but um you know what i mean it's also like when rich is like hey let's do a session on preaching it's like it's like it's like you're kind of sitting up here thinking like it just makes you feel like you're supposed to be an expert and i don't think anybody is but anyways let's move on um eight or nine eight or nine my dad was doing the dragon slayer seminar who was a friend of your dad's right we've been family friends for actually before we can remember so rich senior uh your dad had such an impact on this nation and my dad loved your father so we traveled every single state in the union except north and south dakota for obvious reasons and um you know there's like a whole group from from the dakotas uh but uh and so every single saturday night the the the seminar my dad did was thursday night friday day and saturday and then it went usually to a saturday afternoon or evening i would get up on the stage with my dad and tell the story of how i almost died three times before i was two and then my dad would say you know i believe my son has a destiny and god's plan is on his life or her hand is on his life and and then uh yeah i started dreaming about preaching because i not i don't i loved jesus but i loved my dad maybe more than jesus and i wanted to be just like my dad so i started dreaming about preaching on the stage with my dad for like four or five years we traveled around the country and preached my first full-length sermon when i was 13 to my junior high youth group on peer pressure and i made up for lack of content with a whole lot of volume so preachers still do that today oh absolutely tell you what every other sunday for me praise god i wasn't going to say anything you know i'm kidding i'm kidding come on let's wrap this up everyone bow your heads and close your eyes turn to your neighbor tell them god's for you i'm sorry um so you so you're 13. and was that the message on peer pressure at 13 yeah that was pure did you have a title or yeah you know back then i didn't know that titles were going to be real you know click bait um so i uh didn't have a title i remember going hi i'm judah and my friends were like we know and i'm like i'm gonna preach on peer pressure uh but i do remember giving the example of we're gonna win this we're gonna win this nation one square at a time anybody ever been in an airplane you get up there in the airplane you you fly over the fields and the farmlands of america and there's all these squares how many seen these squares like junior highers are like i've been on a plane once you know you're like trying to connect but dad told this story so i retold it and i'm like i just looked down on through that plane i looked at those squares and i thought to myself we're gonna win this country one square at a time like wasn't even me it was my dad who had that experience but i told it like it was me um so i'm gonna preach that i like that one square at a time yeah that's my title tonight yeah yeah so really quick just maybe just raise your hand if you if you do preach and teach uh maybe on a regular basis okay look at that there's a lot of hands that's awesome maybe raishan's if you if you do want to ever preach maybe i just want to see if there's people that maybe you don't okay look at that that's awesome awesome and we're not just talking about pre-champions we're talking about communication but because you are a preacher um what's like you got like what's your worst preaching story like anything just it just went really bad like just wow we might have maybe people lost salvation listening to that like never have a moment where he's like what was that like give us maybe top just maybe top well recently we had a guy uh jump up in our service in l.a uh uh and he started yelling that i was a heretic you know you're i was there that night were you there that night yes i was there that night remember we had in the back of the room we had a mass exodus right we had like 15 20. that's right you guys you and jason kennedy went out and ended up talking to that guy for like two hours oh i love a good like you know dramatic scene you know like like you're gonna find me at the center of that thing literally this guy calls him out they they take him out i get up from the front row and walk out of the service i want to find out what's happening right now yeah i just i don't know i love that yeah yeah i heard he led you guys to the lord that's when i heard that [Applause] um but when he was yelling like heretic and he's like you've been talking about you i had like an opening story about a dog a member and he's like you talked about your dog for 30 minutes and i was like man he's got a point actually i think i did i was like i might have overdone that opening story a little bit he's like you're a heretic and i'm like it could be true i i mean at this point you know you're just starting to wonder about yourself so that was kind of wild but i remember doing a conference i won't say which one it was um and and it got done it was one of those really heavy messages where there wasn't a lot of humor at all for whatever reason and sometimes it's the room too like you try to do humor it doesn't work so like i'm going to try something else because obviously the room's not responding to humor there must be some seriousness in the in the air and so i got done i felt like it was pretty good and then i was like at the after party or whatever we call them and a pastor who i admired greatly like for many many years pulled me aside he's like man i remember when i once had a night like you just had and i was like what did i and he's like he literally goes and i know you want to crawl in a hole right now and i'm like wow i didn't know it was that bad secondly i don't know if i'm that emotionally connected to one sermon but maybe i should be and i just so you know and i go to chelsea later that night in the hotel room my wife and and uh just to be clear the woman i was with was my wife and um you know so uh and i was like this pastor so-and-so was like i was like was it bad and she was like yeah i wasn't your best i was like oh okay and i'm so i remember just really having a sleepless night not because of what i felt but because of what this pastor he talked to me like 20 minutes like here's a couple things i do to encourage myself later tonight it might be hard you know you're kind of in your head thinking about and i'm like i really thought i crushed it you know evidently not so um that's that's a couple of stories those are the two that come to your mind right off the bat yeah what um like when you think about all these years you've been preaching you're 13 like who would you say who taught you how to preach well my dad for sure my dad my dad threw encouragement my encouragement and my mom through critique i remember the first sunday i ever preached for my dad's church which was called the city church now church home i was 19 had me speak on a sunday morning and i preached this message from this old testament passage and i tried to mirror the rhythms of bishop td jakes right which should not be tried at home right like that's not okay but i tried and i preached this message you shall not have only one lot and it's from a story in the old testament and i completely took it out of context i absolutely had no idea what the context was or the back story or the history nor did i even reference actually the old testament characters that were living in the passage i just wanted to tell people they're going to have like more than like one thing in their life you know and i preached it and and i got done my dad's like oh he's like crying he's like that was so powerful dude i'm so proud of you son i hugged him and i'm thinking i did crush that right stand in front front row with my mom my dad gets up he's like come on church let's thank judah and everyone's cheering i'm like man it's for me but it's for the lord you know and my mom leans over and she's like um yeah we need to get you into our hermeneutics class immediately because that was not accurate at all welcome to my life so that that's a true story and i did get more classes so uh anyways so when you were growing up was there any other preachers that you were listening to maybe consistently was there you mentioned bishop jakes was that someone that you were inspired by that you were modeling yeah yeah i started listening to bishop when i was 13. probably listened to to him every day at 16 starting at 16 every single day i would listen to a bishop jake's sermon and i would i watched uh obviously this is take this carefully um it's it's not funny at all but i i would i listened to bill cosby a ton i would watch him do all of his stand up uh those two communicators were were heroic to me in terms of how they captured a room and how they told the story uh so uh and then yeah my dad was a was a storyteller for sure right he could tell the story of david and goliath he would act it out so i remember going to speak for pastor brian who's now my pastor at hillsong church uh they're a startup out of australia and um so i think i was like 24-25 and and i had i had just just i think preached on a friday night for pastor brian we're in the green room and i'm just really nervous just to be around him and and uh and so we're sitting i think joel's there and and carl and and um i was hoping he liked it you know i forget what what what night it was and he goes he goes ah that was good mate that was good he's like all right i gotta go and i'm like okay pastor love you and he's like i gotta go study i was like oh yeah yeah he's like i'm gonna preach tomorrow he's like i wouldn't have to study if i preach like you anyone can do what you do and i'm like oh god and he's like all you do is you get a bible story and you act it out see you later and he walked out that's a true story and i i called my mom like i'm 24 still calling my mom like i'm married you know and she's like how'd it go and i'm like i don't think it went good pastor brian said he could easily do what i do and i'm like i think that is all i do mom i just act out stories you know i blame my dad he's now in heaven like judah it's not a joke it's a joke in our family anyways so segwaying from there um but okay so talking about actually putting together like sermons and messages what would typically like what like what is your starting point i've heard you preach for years and years and years and by the way i'm not trying to by any means be a rebuttal to brian houston but you do a whole lot more than just tell bible stories and he hates that story because he says he doesn't believe that happened but i'm just saying people here have been listening to you preach for years and years and years i'm just today what i would love to try to do is kind of get into some of the things that are happening in your mind that maybe make you feel a little bit vulnerable because it's a little bit awkward but we actually all think that you're one of the greatest communicators and just even sitting here right now just telling stories you're pacing your timing you know how to be funny you know how to pivot help us just when you're constructing a sermon like even like the week to week like i don't know maybe it might be easy to go like hey you preached this past wednesday what was the starting point like i just i'm curious like that for you yeah i mean i do i get nervous when we talk like this because i think it's um and i guess the reason for that and i know you don't like it so i feel nervous for two reasons right now number one it's like i don't know if this is because i i wanna be helpful but number two i wanna i wanna make sure that i say because rich is so good at this he's so good at giving people handles and practical takeaways and sometimes i'm not great at that like it is difficult for me to be like here's four things you can do that will change your preaching um and the reason for that is because i think everyone is so uniquely who they are and so i'm always i feel like we've suffered so much from superimposing ourselves upon the next generation or the next group of people like i've listened to probably every dr king speech that's ever been recorded dr martin luther king jr and his rhythm is outdated now to be frank and he's one of the greatest orators that's ever lived in human history but his rhythm now on a next generation wouldn't really land it would actually kind of land like uh and whether that's televangelism and what's happened over the generations and so the rhythm and the cadence has to change with the culture if you ask me and so i'm a little concerned trying to superimpose my rhythm part of me is like looking at my 15 year old going does it land when i talk do i talk in a tone or a mode that is disingenuous to you because that's what happens in culture over the generations is certain uh certain certain sounds certain rhythms certain uh uh what's the word i'm looking for certain tones tone tone certain tones doesn't speak to the next generation right and so that's what we've got to be really careful if we're not careful we're going to keep duplicating ourselves and then a whole generation is going to not listen to what we're saying so that's why thank you so i think everything that is said in a room like this needs to be taken with a grain of salt and then applied to also your context do you know what i mean like i love everyone from different parts of the world but there's a part of the world that i live in that is very uniquely itself right seattle and los angeles are just uniquely what they are miami is uniquely what they are alabama is uniquely what and i think god gifts and graces us as teachers and preachers and leaders and communicators and talkers to speak to the culture and context that we're in not that it won't translate at times but i don't think it's supposed to translate all the time i think you need to speak to l.a you need to speak to seattle speak to dallas you know speak to puerto rico come on speak to whatever where god has you and if it translates to the world so be it but i don't think you i don't think you start with how do i get this out to the world i think how do i communicate this little people in front of me and so um you know that's just a that's important so um i think the starting point not to sound cliche but it still remains to me um asking this simple question even not even out loud but in my heart oh god what do you want me to say what do you want me to say and and for me um you know i'm like a verse a day guy i finally own that is as as humiliating as that is i'm kind of a verse whether it's verse of the day on the bible app or just a verse that's in my mind and heart or verse that i've read i don't do well with reading to chapter a day i feel like i get nothing out of it it's so much content for me and i know that sounds ridiculous i need to read more i really do i love i love the results of reading but if i'll if i'll think about one verse right and so um the verse that i'm thinking about today is he who started a good work and you will be faithful to complete it and i don't know why that is it's just the verses popped into my head today so that's the verse i'm thinking about that's my i'm just thinking about it i'm not going to preach on it i have no plans to preach on it it's just a verse that i'm thinking on so it'll it'll start there for me in my head god what do you want me to say and then when a series comes to my mind and heart you know uh right now we're doing a series what i wish more preachers would say and so um that just came out of my heart i checked it with chelsea like babe do you think this is do you think it's too forward no i think you should do that okay then i go to god in my mind and heart and just go what what so i start down writing ideas right one of them was i don't know either life is a mystery you start writing these ideas down and then i go okay what speaks to that in the life of jesus what speaks to that in the story of jesus and the story of god and just start working on that and then i cheat um big time i have a a a research assistant uh who works 20 20 15 hours a week i think he's 10 10 hours a week and we've never met he pastors at seacoast church i think in north or south carolina so there's a company that you can call docent research company i don't know if you you use them i need it um i know you don't but he he helps research and then aunt barb who's like an aunt to me she she was the executive assistant to dr kevin connor who's a theologian who's since passed and so i can text them frank demozzy i'll text him a lot my cousin chris wilde in boise idaho who has know so much about scripture it's out of this world so i will i will start texting them when i get a scripture and a thought and i start uh and so i throw away sermons i restart sermons all of that but that's kind of where it all begins i start texting all these people here's what i'm thinking here's the passage i see here's what i see by the time i really get to a place and i can we can talk more about how how i write um i'm i'm checking i'm triple checking with people to make sure that what i'm saying is sound to ensure that what i'm saying has already been said to a degree right because i think if you've gotten something brand new that no one's ever even hinted at it's probably not legitimate to be honest right and i know solomon was jaded when he said there's nothing new under the sun he was very ecclesiastes is a jaded book but god uses it um so it's good yeah i mean even even like um what what was said today uh by mike todd who was fantastic uh when he said you know we didn't hear from jesus another 18 years but connecting that to like his mom and the humor there i mean i've never heard anyone really say that i saw you stand up and be like man that's really good um and but it's really true it's never quite been said like that but it's always been true and i think that's that's a wonderful example of of using that uh i've never seen this before but it's it's it's there to be seen and it still is still true i guess is what i'm trying to say am i answering your question i feel like i'm just all over he's answering the question i think completely it's really really helpful i think it's really helpful i i want to i want to table it for a moment to come back to it i want to come back to that moment with mike because i think that's something that is a great mystery and a great part of preaching and teaching which is these aha moments of being able to have insight into the text and the scripture and bringing truth to something that someone should already know but then you illuminated it and it creates a moment so we're going to talk about moments in a second but yeah i do want to dive into the process a little bit because uh everyone's got different processes i sit down and like you and i were always judah is like truly a big brother in my life he's an elder in our church i've known of him since i was a teenage boy i would have heard him preach at every conference i've looked up to him my whole life i don't make any apologies about it he's my favorite i just and not just his preaching i just admire who he is off the stage what the voice he's been in my life but we have these kind of conversations a lot because we actually are too different probably size of the brain and you know i've got everything on manuscripts and word for word and i'm thinking about you know two years from now and and he's writing up the best form of your entire life on an airplane and then i'm like how do you make me mad in the name of jesus and because it's just it's so gifted but maybe if you could just expose a little process like you get that scripture and maybe we could even start with one that you're thinking about and you text these people like even that text thing like is there any i know there is rhythm but like is that one day out of the week every week is that typically on wednesday as you're flying to l.a or that you're i know you're living in l.a but like or is that kind of like nah man it's really just it's going to happen in the week i just don't know which day in the week like i am curious about that kind of stuff for me it's like i'm sitting on tuesday and then on saturday tuesday and saturday is where writing is taking place in my life so get real specific and then and then to speak to something you said uh monday morning is when it starts right jack is his name my research assistant he'll text me monday morning-ish and he's like pastor what are you thinking about this week so i've just got done sunday monday comes real fast in my life because i just got done preaching sunday in seattle usually only two two times i'll do the 9 and 11 at our kirkland location and then i am pr either back in los angeles or i'm on my way and there there's jack again to say pastor what are you thinking this week which keeps me accountable i actually need jack to ask him to do that because i would literally just procrastinate for the rest of my life and still do in many areas it's thrilling um i prefer it greatly so uh i'm scared and a little underprepared so it's like judah don't start doing that bro we just got done sharing that you know um yeah i raised my hands at the end i'm like all right you got me mike uh but that's so good but uh so monday and then uh right now in our current series he's like what are you thinking and a couple weeks ago i was like hey do you have any any thoughts here's all my like seven part series thoughts but i'm not feeling this one now i'm feeling this what do you think about this and this past week on monday or two mondays ago i was like you know i'm feeling this like uh i was wrong which i think i'm gonna speak tonight because i think it really it goes tandem it's a message i just preached on wednesday and i was like i think i think what i i see that passage where jesus tells the parable about the the pharisee who stands up i'm not like other men and i'm not like this man and then and then the tax collector who's like a non-jew he's jewish but they see him as a not he's got his head you know buried in his hands and he's like i'm a sinner you know one man can can doesn't think he's wrong the other man can willingly admit he's wrong and he's like good i like that it's like one of the passages kind of speak to that and so we studied four different passages and he's like done got it and this guy's i think like a phd so he's so smart so he goes away then i commission aunt barb oh my god barb she's actually on vacation these last two weeks it's been terrible but um i'll like commission her like this is what i'm thinking and then maybe text chris or pastor frank so then i won't think about it again right i'll do monday meetings tuesday golf hang whatever and then come wednesday which is when i have to preach it first uh wednesday is usually when i will get after it at some point this week this is no model i'm just being honest this week i was tired i told god that i didn't really feel like preaching and so i finally got around to 5 45 p.m i was supposed to be at the church at 7 00 p.m and there's a reason i say that because chelsea's like that you shouldn't say that but here's why i say it um she does well because because and this i'll make because i've been doing this for 20 years it is a little bit different and what i mean by that is i've kind of learned how i work and what's best for the way god's wired me i'm i am i feel like sometimes you're a more linear communicator i'm a circular communicator tonight i'm going to actually attempt to be a little bit more linear because i think that pleases you it pleases the lord come on relax but i really am i got like four points tonight i think and you had four points last night so i feel like just i don't like no but i i like making you happy but um i do it's supposed to be about the lord it is but um so i think because the way your brain very linear and i'm like circular so i had to learn that my sermons my son elliot my 12 year old at breakfast as well kind of breakfast late breakfast said i like the difference between pastor rich and and dad and how they preach pastor rich does it like this dad does like this elliot that's very insightful he really wants to be a preacher um and i'm trying to talk him out of it but i think it's going to happen i'm kidding come on i'm encouraging him but uh so i learned that i i want to take people like on a on a on a journey right and and you took us on a journey last night please don't misunderstand me but i like to take people into a sermon like we're going on a nature hike and so we're going into the forest and at some point during the sermon for whatever reason what gets me excited is that you're like where are we i really like that um because i think that builds interest i think it builds tension i think it builds this is great low-level frustration and what you're frustrated at you will focus on wow and so i think especially if you're preaching to the friends that people in your church are bringing to church and if you can get them to the place like man what what is this guy talking about up there um as opposed to i don't know you start the meeting you're like hey jesus died for your sins he loves you you can go to heaven and not hell if you accept him like there's no tension there right it's just like here we go again and i think if you and i'm not saying anything wrong with those statements by the way but building tension like i i love i love rich last night just opening talking about um what was your opening i i had it i literally just forgot it's like judah wow thanks man you know what i mean it's memorable um just reading your book at your workout club right and ever suddenly because i feel like the believers in the room are all going to go to heaven no matter what you preach but there might be people in the room that may not know the forgiveness of jesus unless you deliver in a way that's palatable right that's actually transferable translatable and so when he starts talking about a workup club workout club when he starts talking about friend of sinners and this girl and this starts articulating her emotion and her feelings and her worldview well suddenly people in the room are like oh man that woman is me right and but i think also people in the room are going okay where is he going with this there's a little bit of mystery there like you don't know how does this apply to the scripture we just read and i enjoy that i enjoy building tension again it breeds interest it brings focus slight frustration and then here's the problem if you're going to preach linear which i think is fantastic i think i think you're so clear you can actually do both because just the way god's gifted you and i've often said this and i really mean that you can do circular when you feel like it you can do linear when you feel like it that's a very rare i think most of us are pretty good at one or the other if i could say that i don't mean to categorize if you're like judah i'm i'm a little bit of both praise god god can do anything you're an anomaly but for for real you know like you're a circle and you're straight and you're a circle you're amazing but i think some of our brains are just more like boom boom boom boom boom close others of ours is like just making these big loops but if you're going to be a circular communicator which i think bishop t jakes is the greatest of our generation right bishop's preaching and you're like where are we what day of the week is it what is he saying this is madness this has nothing to do with the verse we read but then again it does oh my god right and so that's why he said that and 20 minutes ago i'm not confused anymore now because he and i think if you're going to be a circular communicator you have to you know those little like tags or ribbons they put on trees when you're in a nature hike because here's the problem with circular communicators you get all the way into the forest and everyone's like we don't know where we are but our leader certainly knows where we are and here's what happens with people sometimes who aren't gifted to speak circular and should stick to linear is they get into the force and they're like what do i do now and that's been the worst nights and days of my life when i'm in the forest and i'm like i didn't plan how we got out of this and so you kind of leave people there and you just have people stand up and give a shout of praise and everyone just let's believe god's gonna do it everyone's like where are we you know what happened and so do you have a plan to are you going to be linear or circular what's the differences we can talk about them today if you want to however you want to talk about them but for me as a circular communicator i have an eight-step plan that i follow every single time and it ensures that i don't leave people in a force of nothingness with utter confusion doesn't matter how eloquent you are how funny your stories are all of that is overrated the point is that we land the plane and people feel like wow i see it now i see what supposedly god was trying to say through this person he got the message across and so um i just think i think we got to be really really really careful and and i think it could be noted we should probably uh you know the longer you preach it's supposed to be because you're getting clearer i tend to preach longer because i'm not getting clear i really do i preach long sermons any the longest sermons i preach i promise you the reason they're longer is because i kept looking for a way out and i couldn't find it i'm serious i just i'm like okay this wait how what am i saying oh my word and my my thesis for instance got lost i'm feeling the room i'm getting caught up very helpful and so that's why i think craig grishell who tells everyone if you can't say in 30 minutes don't say it at all and i'm like i've totally lost before i started so um because he's speaking to clarity and honestly rich i think you are one of the best there was pristine clarity last night and you were fully yourself and i think that's something really really beautiful to behold thank you what [Applause] eight points what are these eight points we're dying for this because that's my brain well i don't know i mean we've said this before but um it's a reading it's a greeting it's a reading uh it's a prayer it's an introduction it's a transitionary statement it's a text it's a conclusion and then it's a call i think that might be nine but i'm not great with math okay so i'll do them again so i'll just describe what they are so it's a it's a greeting for me um assuming that everyone knows who you are you're the fool um assuming like you know hey by now you guys all podcast me you know who i am it's like well that's really counter mission you know there's got to be tons of people in the room that don't know who you are so to me a greeting is like hey i'm judah welcome to church home it's my wife chelsea we got three kids like i do this every single week in the church that i lead because i think that's called being a human being you know like getting up and being like how are my people today it's like i don't i don't think they're your people they're gods but anyways um you know i have friends every week that are bringing friends and i have friends that are in attendance that are like i actually don't know this world at all this this church world and so just saying hey i'm judah immediately levels the playing field like no one people that don't know who i am which is a lot are like oh cool his name's judy's married to this lady named chelsea a little bit of context hey by the way crazy game last night the raptors got it wow canada has one r national basketball you know just there you go and people can connect with that instantly they're like wow this person is normal so i use sports i use culture all those things to to connect in the greeting from the greeting i do the reading this is my tradition not sure if it's effective but my dad said if you don't say anything at least if you don't say anything good at least read scripture so whatever comes after it you know at least you read the bible to people so i start with reading the bible um and then i do a prayer the prayer you know if you know if you haven't prayed by then it's probably too late but the prayer is to let everybody in the room know that this is me asking god to help me speak through me to people and so it's not a show and then i do an introduction the introduction i used to i used to write out word for word because it was that important to me an introduction i used for the longest time and i used to have a really early morning preaching jordan jordan's here with with his wife um from rhode island but we we met at 5 55 a.m me and like 10 12 young guys and we talked preaching so i got them all starting their sermons with have you ever just gave them that tool just start have you ever and then fill in the blank have you ever had a day where you didn't wear socks and your shoes smelled you know whatever it is and immediately people in the room are either even if they have it they're like that's kind of weird like where is he going with this right and have you ever usually is random like have you ever got a haircut and you know it got under your shirt and you were itchy all day you know and immediately everyone's like wow this doesn't sound like a sermon at all this sounds like you know and uh that's why i study stand-up comedians and that sort of thing because of timing and all that and so um i i won't use have you ever tonight but i use that for many many years just i have you ever it's easy now then i would write out word for word my introduction nothing worse than getting everybody on board and then you have the inability to transition and connect to your point rich did a flawless transition last night it was basically something like and that's why it gets me thinking about our passage tonight in matthew's god because you know and immediately you're like oh just just make that simple connection but a lot of guys and gals will be like oh man i was a dairy queen got a blizzard how about the mini blizzard's crazy right like i got a nerd's blizzard my tongue was like red all day i totally forgot how you ever had blizzard blizzards for life man hashtag blizzard's amazing all right john chapter 3 says and here's how that reads to me it reads like dude you wasted my time with that blizzard stuff bro like and by the way if you're not funny right if that's not part of what you do it's okay don't try to be would be my with my advice there is a thing where you can literally start your preaching by going read john 3 16 and be like you know john 3 16 is such a special you know passage to me and here's why and just start start into it absolutely so this is what works for me it's it's how my brain works this is what works for rich it's how his brain works but if you're going to tell a story i would suggest you spend time and even try to write out your story word for word and then the most important thing one of the most important things in in finessing a sermon is the transitionary statement which i always write out word for word i always write out word for word tonight's transitionary statement is very simple i'm going to talk about how we're unwilling to be wrong oftentimes we have this insatiable craving desire to always be right i just want to be right and ironically we discovered that all the people that we enjoy being around are not the know-it-alls no one actually wants a know-it-all friend and yet we're all striving to act like we know it all and we're always right and never wrong and yet those are the people we avoid socially but we're all still unwilling to admit that we're wrong so the title of my sermon that is i was wrong right and then i'm gonna make a transitionary statement it's gonna go something like this in our passage tonight that's what's so amazing about this parable because if you dumb it down if you make it simple if you make it just obvious we basically got two guys one that can admit he's wrong and one that cannot admit that he's wrong and which one does jesus commend the one who can admit he was wrong and then i'll go into the rest of the sermon so just oh wow thank you now i gotta say it like that you know like i hope that i say it like that i'm gonna get to the statement and be like um so i i think writing that word for word your introduction if that's how you want to do it and then word for word your transitionary statement and the text is all about um saying what you want to say the conclusion is all about saying what you said and then the call is all about you know what do you want people to take home um and uh i i feel like i'm i was talking so long do you want to do you want to ask another question do you want me to stop no i think i think what you're saying is so very very helpful and i you talk like you don't give handles there's so many handles in that and there's so much wisdom in that um you know it's funny like pastoring a church now and i speak to the same audience in many cases five times on a sunday what i do and so in many of those services i've got some of the same people there and you can get all sorts of funny stuff going on in your brain and in your mind and i've learned quickly that when i'm teaching outside of my congregation there's different tools that i need to bring with me because when i'm talking on a sunday to vu it's already a built-in bot in audience they love me we're doing life together i don't have to spend four and a half minutes up front always doing jokes or making them laugh and so especially if we're doing a body of work like like a collection of talks that were in something most the time what i do in the introduction is i just take the best points from the week before and i just reiterate them and go now here we're going today what i think that you said so important because one of the things i see often is people will start with a story and they haven't actually thought through the story they've written other parts of their message but then they think the story's like that's the easy part no that's those are the make or break moments and you need to make sure you know how to get out of that forest of that story the line that we would use is a sticky statement and so wherever that introduction is going to be you're building tension you're trying to open up people's hearts then you're going to land with a sticky statement so my last night was the hope of any community is found in the believers of that community you can write that down you can tweet that you can caption that that's a truth that's a truth according to god's word that's the premise i'm working on now that i'm i'm trying to prove that as to why jesus is praying this prayer and now i'm going to work and whittle my way through that and what i would challenge is what jude is saying it's it's so so very very helpful how he's how he's breaking it down today like you don't have to be funny at all like literally god's word is that good if you'll be you that's what people are attracted to the authentic version of you just be genuine and i think pastor in church and preaching week after week it it you get your reps and you start to build your confidence a little bit that i feel like more and more at home i don't feel the need to have to be humorous or always necessarily funny and most the time especially in your case i mean you're just naturally as funny as he's on the stage if we go in the back right now he's this is how he is just talking and telling stories and so he's not coming up here striving or going let me put it on like this is how judah is i think that's helpful especially for a lot of young communicators that are watching you teach and preach um one of my questions and this might be this could be a train wreck because you might not like what i want to do but you have in my opinion and you've helped me once again in this category for me the way that you see the scriptures to me is really uncanny like you have an ability to pull out truths and this is what i want to come back with mike todd and just some of the aha moments because i feel like in your language there that you always have these kind of aha things like you will have a passage of scripture and i'm like yo i've preached that so many times and i am linear i can just be like i'll take it word for word and i'll go expository on it i'll break it down and just be like this word means this and that but you will it's like you see the text maybe from a different spot i'm wondering can you can you help us somehow see like i want to maybe read a bible verse and i'm just wondering like if we read a story like what is it you see that like maybe i'm not seeing i just want to know how you saw it i don't know if that's if that's helpful if that's strange i'm just trying to do something a little bit different i'm just is this crazy but wouldn't this help because somebody preached some bible stories before but you're like he had a slingshot and uh he grabbed some stones and he hit him and the giant fell and that was it but if you preach dave and glad there's something else we're not seeing so yeah david had wings he flew yeah exact people people have never seen that part of the story i'm like it's there i'm just i'm like he can fly no like like a lot of times what i'll do is i'll shoot you a text on something and yeah every time i do this which this is an often thing for me to be like hey i'm thinking about this your take on it the other day i preached on jacob with wrestling with god and i preached my title was uh wrestling with god i think that's what it was called your title was no more wrestling [Laughter] i remember those texts it was so good i enjoyed it but but your insights i actually fully agree with it and i'm looking for this i'm i'm looking to discover jesus in the text i'm just going is there is is there something when you're reading that you're going that you're intentionally doing going let me stop let me read it again let me stop them is there something you're doing that that we could that we could learn that maybe as you process and talk about i'm not so you have to have three steps but maybe we're going to hear something as you process through that yeah i got two i mean i got two things that i think everybody can do um which also will lead me to a a really really big concern that i have right now for preachers sure um so number one uh bishop jakes has been quoted saying years ago you gotta ask questions of the passage ask questions of the story right so um john 3 16. for god so loved the world right i would look at that and go um okay why why does he love the world well the world is not people it's a system and i'd look at why does he love a system what does he he loves he loves he loves bad people why does it say so in front of love does that in the original language does that mean he extra loves bad people like what's going on here what's what's and i would just start asking questions um questions you can't ask publicly maybe you know but you can ask them when you're alone by yourself uh and then so my my two practices are ask questions of the text until you feel like you've you can't ask any more questions and then um look for jesus everywhere look for jesus everywhere um and that leads me to my my absolute premier concern with preachers today um we we've got to be very very very careful uh because of the information age the light of the the the life at the light of speed uh we have data we have exposure we have information and if it's not careful it will be a detraction and a diversion to the main theme of the story um we have a proliferation of so much preaching now right it's amazing what's happened with with mike todd and learning kind of his story these last 24 months so much of his story it's all god but god using technology to create such an extraordinary platform and a voice a voice which we need desperately um so that that's interesting how that works now how that i mean he's been faithful for so many years but just last 24 months in his own words it's like bam right so technology is changing even how we get information out who we're receiving information from and i think if we're not careful it can if we're not intentional with the passage with the book with the story it can lead us to pithy powerful cool trendy wonderful phrases and new cliches you know by the way cliches can become cliches very fast these days new cliches that actually don't lead us to the point of it all which is only and ever the person of jesus in jesus is the fullness of the godhead in bodily form so if your sermon does not need jesus to die buried rise again ascend and seated at the right hand of god on high if that is not nest an absolute necessity the crux to your sermon uh your sermon lacks um the most important thing and that's jesus and so um so for me jacob jacob is no longer about jacob the story of jacob isn't really about jacob it's about jesus it was always about jesus we didn't know it but now we know and so the great hermeneutical filter of all time is the cross right and so you put the cross on everything you look for jesus everywhere make it about jesus it is all all about jesus read colossians a few times over the most christ center book in the bible and pick up on the writings of paul this is about jesus look for jesus preach jesus tell the story of jesus and so i just think everything has to lead back back to there and i think it is i think it's awesome time to be alive but if i could be honest one of my biggest critiques personally for myself right now is i am preach i am spending way too much time to the guy who was standing up yelling in our in our service he's got a point i'm spending way too much time telling funny stories i just am i'm just frustrated at myself i'm annoyed at myself i'm taking 15 20 25 minutes up front to tell these funny stories in which i have the best time telling but it's detracting and i'm having to preach 60 minutes sometimes and i'm like i don't know if that's good so we had this thing where i went to the small group in dallas who threw our new app is like they're officially a part of church home and they have a viewing party every tuesday night and there was amazing i never met him before but i sat in their home and we watched me preach and then we watched some cover songs and because that's kind of our motto for the future you can have church in your home church home and so i'm sitting there in their home in dallas in grapevine and i'm watching myself with like these perfect strangers there's like 25 of us and i'm like get on with it bro how long are you going to tell this story and by the way it's not nearly as funny in someone's home in dallas because they're not in the saban theater in beverly hills in real time feeling the vibes you know what i mean so you're in that room and everyone's like oh this is funny i'm walking around the stage pretending like i'm kevin hart and like having the best time but yeah so i really got frustrated with myself and i'm like dude you could have preached this sermon in 10 to 15 minutes less than you did you could be more consecrate concentrated and cons consecrated but let's just focus on concentrated but um so i'll practice that tonight i'll really try to nail like 10 minutes or less i might even do five minutes or less because i really want to be efficient and i want to be respectful obviously of of these amazing each and every one of you in the time you've taken to be here at boot conference and i think we need to give people a little bit more credit specifically when it's mostly believers together like let's just get after it you know so i'm actually concerned that some of the practices that i've displayed and maybe some of my friends which is a lot of humor and a lot of stories i think maybe the next generation could do better than us at that if i'm really honest and maybe get on with it you know just just get on with it so and then i think we've shamed some people who can't do that you know it's like oh wow this guy isn't funny at all and it's like well maybe she's better than funny you know maybe she can just crush it and open up the scripture and i think humor can all will always be in there but but god will use who you are so that's that's what i'm really frustrated with myself about right now it's beautiful so good right we um we started a little bit late so i don't want to i want to just because i do think there's something helpful as we're chatting about this because i think sometimes we can be sitting in this room right now we could say you know find jesus and preach jesus then we can all go amen that's good yeah yeah but then what i'm learning is a lot of people leave the room they have no idea what that actually means so if i'm writing to judah i'm looking for jesus here in this wrestling passage of jacob help me out um maybe we can try to give a couple more handles for those of us that are teaching the word and preaching what we mean by that because you know i'm over and over again telling our church you know all 66 books every chapter every verse it's all about one name the name of jesus and everyone shouts and everyone cheers but then i've got a sense that people still in our church are going home and they're reading things out of context not through that filter for instance when we say this idea of look for jesus and i'm by no means even the master of it i'm speaking that out loud to challenge myself that this whole book is a is god's redemption story this whole this whole bible is god's rescue plan and that's why the whole bible it's like it's funny how we read it like we all we read it is these little spurts right these little moments but it's one big story it's it's a redemption story and this in january we did a book study on the book of esther esther is an interesting book in the bible there's 10 chapters and not one time is the name of god even mentioned and it's been quoted many times that you know his name is never mentioned but his fingerprints you know they're all over the story i love that and really though as you read in the story esther she's what we call a type of christ that esther what she's doing is she's foreshadowing her narrative and her story her foreshadowing that she's risking her life that's what she does if i perish i you know if i perish i perish and she's going to the king and she is risking her life to be killed for her people and what we're seeing is we're seeing a foreshadow there's a jesus to come who won't just risk his life but but lay down his life now all of a sudden when you preach esther you're not just going you're here for such a time as this your clothes is not just come on who's willing to risk their life forever for somebody else you're actually saying come on you're here for such a time as this because jesus he has died he was buried but he resurrected in the same power that conquered death hell in the grave it now lives inside of you and so now when i read esther i can actually give all praise and glory to jesus does that make does that make sense a little bit and i was just wondering if you have any other maybe just thoughts or phrases when we're saying like the filter of jesus what are those handles for these teachers and preachers especially when they're in the old testament if they're spending time over there how can they introduce jesus so like recently i did uh some sermons just online we filmed it at the house uh for for the app for this summer and um we looked at the story of jacob sarah leah right he ends up having having two wives and um jacob works for his his future father-in-law i forget his name and remember he works what's that layman yeah that's right laban laban layman um so he said i thought he said layman i was like yeah layman like wasn't even right it's late but anyways um fake it tell you make it but uh jacob works seven years right he gets he gets leah to his shock works another seven years here's a sermon you could preach it wouldn't be good but you could you could be like see when you're in love you can work see you see it was in those seven years were like a day when you're in love with jesus you'll work for him you won't even it won't even be a problem you'll get up every morning you'll pray you'll read your bible every day you'll be an evangelist you'll tell you you'll just set your school on fire when you're in love with jesus that work wasn't nothing for jacob he didn't work for one woman he worked for two women he didn't get jaded he didn't get them you know and and you got to work come on we got to put in the work people want results but they don't want to work touch three people and say work it work it work it work it right like here's the problem it was seven years the number seven is the number of completion perfection jesus is the completion jesus is the perfection now now take this passage and you have to go to new testament teaching right hermeneutical right hermeneutics is the interpretation of scripture and the filter is the cross so you can lean on a lot of paul's teachings which is at least half of the new testament right so we know for instance jesus says one of his primary teachings we can get to some of paul's teachings paul says castro cares on him because he cares for you actually i think that's john or peter peter um jesus says this all you who are weary heavy laden burn out on religion tired tired of working tired of tempting come to me and i'll show you how to take a real rest my yoke is easy and my burden is light so hold on a second you're preaching a sermon on work which is great right nobody wants to work in this generation we got to work right but jesus teaches a whole different kind of work so jacob's labor is not actually to be celebrated as much as it's to point us to a new kind of labor and a new kind of work that jesus does for us and now welcomes us into so life isn't really about the hard work that's not really the message right the message is actually jesus the message is and i could get into more what i think it is and why i think leah is in the story and and i preached a sermon on it recently but it's all about jesus and so here my point is this which to your point is you look at a scripture like a passage like jacob leah sarah and the whole story and then you you go to the new testament and you've got to ensure that you're walking it through correct doctrine and that's what we're not doing we're taking stories like you know pick up your sling and slay your giant but that's not the story anymore he had five smooth stones the story is grace jesus is the champion he will conquer goliath stand still and see the salvation of your god god will do for you what you cannot do for yourself that leads us all the way back to jesus jesus says it is finished jesus did for us so we could not do for ourselves now we don't conquer our goliath we can't conquer goliath goliath is a picture of the law he's the great champion of the ages he's dominated humanity he he makes us feel embarrassed he makes us feel less inadequate we can't measure up we're not tall enough we're not strong enough we're not big enough we can't believe enough we're doomed we're screwed oh no and then here comes our champion right and he's the seed of david he's from the long lineage of david and he is the great champion david is a type of christ who slays the ultimate goliath which is death hell in the grave sin and the law right so it's great yeah so i and and i could go you know we could we could go on and on and on but you know this is love not that we loved him but that he loved us he loved us and so we're always for instance if you preach the sermon on love you have to start where the new testament starts it doesn't start with your love for god it starts with god's love for you right we're only responders he's the great initiator so we can get up and tell all of our young people and people we gotta love god we gotta love god that is is is a half it's a broken sermon it's a broken sermon when we did not even know him care about him see him acknowledge him and while we were still sinners christ died for us so i feel like i'm preaching but no it's good that's exactly what you just said we're warming up we're warming up i think when it comes to the idea of just introducing jesus is that he should be the hero of your sermon and when you're closing your sermon making him the great champion how many all love judah smith come on can we thank god for him i'm so grateful and i think tonight is going to be a really really special night i'm going to ask that uh judah would pray for us here in a moment tonight mosaic's going to be leading worship judah is going to be preaching i am really really happy about today's session because this session was actually made possible by a good friend this is my friend zach sitting right over here on the front row and zach runs uh the bible study and to me i actually love this resource and we're talking about preaching i think this is a resource that you need you preachers and teachers and i got logos i've got so many resources i'm always reading but i love the bible so that zach's put together not only is it really great content but also it's some of the best design which i actually think really really matters and i think your design is incredible but the bible study actually sponsored this session and zach is so kind and so generous that only sponsored the session but i think there's a handful of them out there that he put a gift under your chair so maybe check under your chair because i think some of you guys might have gotten a free oh there it is that's yours come on can we thank god for zach in the bible study thank you so much zach for being a part of who conference they've got a great great booth there i think in the lobby and concourse but judah i would just ask some people are really disappointed right now it's amazing right you give one person a gift i'd be like oh unbelievable no favor like you'll be all right go get one at the booth but judah would you just pray for us and i'd love you to pray for us just i know that the whole room is preachers but i do think that we're all communicators in one way or another and we're all giving the message of christ and would you just pray for us through that filter that that we would be better community where there's more stuff i wanted to ask you we just don't have the time i love chatting on this stuff with you but would you just pray for us that that we would be we'd get better you know i don't have to be the best today but you got to get better today and i want to grow as a communicator i know there's a lot of pastors and preachers and teachers here that want to do the same thank you so much for your time let's pray jesus we thank you so much um lord you're the you're the ultimate teacher preacher uh you're the point of it all we love you just pause to remind ourselves how extraordinary you really are what a thrill and what an honor it is in any setting in any situation to tell your story god i pray that you would help us to go from strength to strength grace to grace glory to glory help us to grow like our muscles grow help us to grow in this area of being clearer lord of uh being even more concise when necessary to make it truly about you help us lord help me get my eyes off myself to get lost in the story of who you are and lost in loving other people loving people who are broken and hurting and are desperately in need of your heroic story and who you are god for those of us that are just finding ourselves agitated frustrated exasperated maybe feel like quitting i pray for energy and strength that only comes from heaven energy and strength that only comes from you jesus i thank you spirit of jesus you're the one that raised jesus from the dead and you dwell in our mortal bodies give life to our brains life to our souls life to our bodies help us live another day help us stick around long enough to preach another sermon tell your story again and again god if we've complicated this journey if we have complicated communication we ask that you would detangle us we ask that you would unwind us we ask that you bring us back to the joy of our salvation bring us back to clarity and simplicity we love you we want to look like you i pray your blessing and favor upon each and every man woman born girl under the sound of my voice in jesus name amen god bless you guys we'll see you tonight

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Length: 59min 32sec (3572 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 05 2019