Preachers are like magnifying glasses. They don't create the words on the page, but they do help people see them more clearly. Our words should magnify the words on the page so that people remember the Words of God, not the magnifying glass. In other words, our words should be see through in order to better illuminate His Words after hearing ours.
This week, let's again talk about CLARITY: which words to say what
This week, though, let's talk about illustrations and anecdotes. Illustrations can serve as good come up for air moments, but they must illustrate something. They can't help it; after all, they are illustrations. It's what they do.
2 CORINTHIANS 4:5
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
Do our illustrations give people a better sense of the text? A better sense of what God has said and is saying? Or do they only provide insight into our own lives?
If an illustration is memorable, but the point of the illustration is foggy, the illustration has failed. While memorable and providing insight into the preacher's life, it does nothing to help further the point the text was making if everyone remembers the punch line, but no one remembers the written lines.
These are what I have called, "illustractions." They illustrate something, just not the text. Their main point is off the main point and serve not to help the message along, but rather to compete with the message for attention.
Illustrations should not be spelled with three "i's" The main point of an anecdote cannot be the preacher. There are already enough "I's" in illustrations. Don't add a third by making it about you.
Road signs make lame destinations; they do, however, give great directions.
For your next sermon, really think about the stories, illustrations and anecdotes you use. Are they illustractions? Do they have one too many "i's" in them?
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