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Closing The Sermon With Power
Chapter 1: Prerequisites to a Powerful Close
How do you end a sermon with power? You are asking this because innately you understand that no matter how well you preach the sermon, ending well is very important.
But before you end a sermon powerfully, you must have a few pre-requisites. So what are these?
Solid Exegesis
One of these things you must have to end a sermon well is to engage in Solid Exegesis. There are a number of ways to exegete the text, and you can even read my white paper “Four waves of exegesis” for my approach to this.
Exegeting a text is nothing more than reading the text closely and from a few different angles.
So you should find an exegetical method that will help you look deeply at the text from a number of angles. Here are a couple of books to help you with this effort. First you might look at Thomas Long’s book, Witness of Preaching. Long’s work is a solid one that provides the fundamentals of constructing a sermon.
In addition, check out Paul Scott Wilson’s textbook entitled The Practice of Preaching.
That is a very good basic preaching text.
Both of these books could be considered a full preaching course in a book with a large number of questions and exercises to work through.
In any case, however you do it, you need to have a solid exegesis before you even think about preaching a solid close.
Solid Sermon Construction
Another important prerequisite to preaching a solid close is to have solid sermon construction. So you’ve got good exegesis, but you must turn that exegesis into a sermon. And you do that with some concrete steps. Good steps will take you from exegesis to sermon.
You can see the two books referred to above to help you with this work. I’ve written a free ebook that many of you probably already have if you signed up for the Soul Preacher email list. That ebook takes you thorugh seven steps to an effective sermon. Sign up for the email list and download that book. One reviewer actually said that if you follow these steps, the sermon constructs itself.
Good Presentation Skills
OK, if you are going to close the sermon effectively, then you also must have at least average presentation skills. Remember, a solid sermon construction and powerful exegesis can be spoiled by a poor presentation.
Notice I said, GOOD, and not great presentation skills. If you know your material and you present your material, you can be a solid presenter of the Gospel. You can be a good presenter without necessarily having to be a great one to get the
ideas of God over to your people.
Remember, if God called you to preach, then God provides you with the tools to preach. Don’t spend too much time worrying about whether you are a great presenter or not. Spend your time on exegesis and sermon construction. Then simple practice and dependence on God will turn you into a great preacher.
Conclusion
So there are a few prerequisites to an effective and powerful ending. These are Solid exegesis, dynamic Sermon construction, and good presentation skills.
Now let’s move on to constructing a solid sermon close.
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