David:         David…

Karen:         …and Karen Main.

David:         Greetings once again and sharing life lessons, we believe have value if not for everyone, there’s time at least for some.

Karen:         Those who have followed our ministry over the years know that it’s our custom to habitually reduce what we are saying to a single sentence.

David:         And if that discipline doesn’t benefit anyone else, for us as communicators, it’s been extremely helpful.

Karen:         And we believe it could be for some of you as well.

Intro:          Welcome to the Before We Go Podcast featuring Dr. David Mains and his wife, noted author Karen Mains. Here’s David and Karen Mains.

David:        Okay Karen, here’s what we said two visits ago.

Karen:         And last visit as well.

David:         Once again, this third and final visit on the topic.

Karen:        When giving a spiritual presentation of some kind, begin preparation by asking yourself three questions.

David:         Okay, the first question is what’s my subject?

Karen:         And the second question is what’s the response I’m calling for?

David:         And then do I have some suggestions that might be helpful to implement what I’m talking about?

Karen:         Now we had a really interesting experience this last Sunday. I mean you have taught this communication methodology to pastors, hundreds of them, all across the country. You used it as we said in your broadcast. It’s the way you form what you’re going to say.

So, we went to church. We’re visiting all the churches in our little West Chicago town of 27,000 here on the outside of the big city of Chicago. So, this was the first visit we made to a local church.

David:         And it was quite an exciting visit. It’s not a church building.

Karen:         The community center for our little town. And so, they have a big open room where this little church meets.

David:         They ran it all, I’m assuming. And Karen, I would roughly estimate that there were a hundred people there.

Karen:         Yeah, about a hundred.

David:         You take a few. I would say that this gentleman is, he wouldn’t call him a polished speaker.

Karen:         The pastor.

David:         But he really nailed it. He didn’t get it into a sentence, which doesn’t really matter one way or the other. But as far as what he was talking about, there’s not a person there who didn’t know what his topic was.

Karen:         Okay, so we’re recording this on a Wednesday. So that was what, three days ago, given that it was a Sunday morning. And you and I both, when we sat down to put this podcast together, could remember what his topic was. That is very unusual. So, what was the topic? He was talking about it.

David:         You’re the one who was talking about it. You go ahead.

Karen:         It was generosity.

David:         Yeah, he hit it again and again, didn’t he?

Karen:         But his whole service encapsulated that theme. I mean, we were just amazed because you rarely see that occur as far as the means of communicating what you’re wanting to say. So, generosity was the topic.

David:         It was such that it almost brought tears to my eyes. One of the times in the service. So, he talked about generosity and Karen when it came to the end, which almost never to get, he said, let me give some suggestions as to how to begin this process in your life. And I kind of nudged you.

Karen:         But let me tell how he illustrated generosity in his sermon. I mean, this is a kind of an extraordinary thing for us. So, he had one gentleman come up who was a young man. And he gave him a check that had been raised in this congregation of 100 people or thereabouts for $15,000 because he has a soccer ministry, a soccer camp kind of thing that he has opened up in the community. We have a lot of Spanish speaking people in our community, 52% non-white.

David:         For Hispanic people, soccer is big.

Karen:         And the church had taken an offering to encourage him in that ministry. That was extraordinary. Then there was another example.

David:         That’s the one that got to me that I had almost wiped back tears.

Karen:         We heard the voice from someone from that church who had gone to Ukraine. There was a recorded message for the entire congregation to hear. And what had that man done? We don’t have any idea who he was. We never met him, but this was the story.

David:         Well, he had a couple of tons of materials he has taken in relief for people who had come out of Ukraine into the various surrounding countries.

I was so impressed by it all.

Karen:         And that was supported by the people in this church. They had raised the funds for him to gather those foodstuffs or all the things that people need when they’re fleeing like this. And of course, we’ve all been watching the Ukraine disaster with breaking hearts.

So, it was just extraordinary. The little church of 100 people had pulled together an offering for $15,000 to encourage this young man in his community work. And then this other member of their congregation who had this heart for what was going on Ukraine, they gave him money to provide all of those funds for all the things he gathered.

David:         Have you thought about generosity since that Sunday?

Karen:         Yeah, we have actually.

David:         We have talked about it. I think mostly in going over why that sermon was so impacting as far as his communication process and then how he had tied it all together to pull the church into an activity of generosity. And one of the points he made in his sermon is that when we’re generous to others, we are often the greatest benefactor from that. I mean, that’s not the reason you give, but often that’s the surprising impact is how good it makes you feel. And I’m sure that entire congregation felt wonderful. Every single person who had donated to those funds felt like they had done something meaningful.

David:         I have a feeling Karen, as I was sitting there, I sensed that he was enjoying giving that. It was a very, very good morning. I thought, praise the Lord.

Karen:         So, what are we saying in this particular podcast?

David:         Well, we’re saying that when you give a presentation that you want to ask these three questions. What’s the subject I’m talking about? His was generosity. What’s the response I want? He wanted people to understand the delight that this brings to not only the person who receives, but the person who gives as well.

And then do I have how-to suggestions? Actually, he took suggestions from a nationally known minister, Andy Stanley.

Karen:         Yeah, as far as four points, how to be generous. Yeah.

David:         I thought as he went through them, and good at that, that one would help me. It’s amazing how personal that message was, but also how clear it was to everyone. He didn’t put it into a sentence, but you know what? It didn’t really make a look at difference.

Karen:         Yeah, the only what he was talking about.

David:         Yeah.

Karen:         So, what we have been doing in the last two podcasts and what we’re doing in this one is sort of helping people adapt our communication methodology to areas in their life. Perhaps you’ve been asked to write a devotional. Or perhaps someone has said, could you speak at our community club?

David:         Could you fill in for me in terms of the church school?

Karen:         Yeah, or I’m going to be gone for my vacation. Do we have lay people who can fill in? So, we’re trying to help people with the communication methodology.

David:         Yeah, it’s like asking me to bake a cake. I had never baked one.

So, we’re trying to put it into the simplest forms. And we say, ask yourself, what’s the subject I’m going to talk about?

Karen:         And try and reduce that to a sentence. We call it a purpose sentence, but that just helps you clarify your mind. If you can get it in a sentence, this is what I’m trying to say.

David:         And what that does, it takes the terror out of it because you say, “Okay, I can figure out what the subject is. And I’ll give illustrations of that in terms of a specific. But I would also like to say, here is what we talked about the first time we met on this.” And we took a very simple subject. You could hardly get it wrong. It was Jesus talking about hospitality. When you entertain people, don’t invite your rich neighbors or your family.

Karen:         People who can do things for you in return.

David:         Invite who?

Karen:         The ones who can’t. The ones who are needy.

David:         The poor.

Karen:         The poor. The lame.

David:         The people without work, whatever.

Karen:         Can be overlooked by the rest of the world.

David:         Yeah. Those are the ones. Now, that’s easy to understand, but is it easy to do? No. Anyway, we tried to unpack that one as far as a way you could get your mind around. What is the subject? What’s the response I’m calling for? And any how-to’s?

Karen:         That was in one scripture verse.

David:         Then we went to a new scripture that was a little more complicated. This was a whole paragraph. I would say an extended paragraph. It was Psalm 1. So, we started with a very simple text. Then we went to a text that was more difficult and tried to get it into a sentence.

I had failed earlier in my ministry in doing that in a public. I can do it for you, you know, then I totally fumbled it. But now I’m ready.

Now we said, let’s go to a very complicated area. This is again ministers through the years have tried to teach on this. And instead of choosing just a simple one-dimensional teaching, we’ve gone to a more complicated one and now taken a book of the Bible. And that’s what we’re going to do right now.

So, you want to say what book of the Bible we’ve chosen?

Karen:         Did we choose this book of the Bible? I think it was you chose this book of the Bible. Revelation, how about that one? Talk about a brain buster.

David:         Yeah, let’s see if we can get Revelation into a subject and a response.

Karen:         Okay, but let’s also say that this is a book of the Bible that you studied for months, if not a year, where you worked intensively with this very complex scripture, the last book in the Bible. I think most people would say, well, it’s about end times maybe. Do you think that would be something off the top of your head?

David:         Yeah, I put it into this sentence.

Karen:         So, you’re demonstrating right now how you take something that complicated and put it into what we call purpose sentences.

David:         It took me a long time to do this. I’m not saying a long time in terms of hours. I’m talking about months when I was just trying to get my mind around it.

Karen:         What is Revelation essentially saying?

David:         Yeah, history doesn’t just go on indefinitely, but it’s headed toward a showdown between the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, God and Satan, which the devil wins, but only temporarily.

Now, that’s as I’m working with it, and I put together a whole series of podcasts that people can still hear. And where I am is I’m still processing all of this, and I’m wanting to rework it into a book as I have time and the Lord is gracious to me in terms of being able to live long enough. But even what I just said doesn’t have a response.

So, it’s not that hard to put a response. I’d just say I’d start it with be aware that history doesn’t just go on indefinitely, which is the way I think most people live. You know, the world’s been going a long time and it’s going to continue a long time, but be aware that history doesn’t just go on indefinitely. Instead, it’s headed for a showdown between the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, God and Satan, which the devil wins, but only temporarily.

Karen:         Ok.

David:         I want us to live with that awareness. Okay, so now I’ve taken something incredibly complex, and I put it into a place where people can grasp it, and I can communicate what I want to say around that central truth. Okay?

I would also give an even harder, but maybe not a harder assignment, I would say, what is the Bible about? Okay?

Karen:         It might be easier to get your mind around, but it would be hard to articulate it quickly. What does the Old Testament reveal? And it points toward, and you know, as you think about all of those books of the Bible, they’re beginning to present the fact there is a Messiah coming, God will send a Savior.

David:         All of that is saying that God loves us very much.

Karen:         Oh, that’s great. Yeah, so much that. Yeah, right.

David:         So anyway, I don’t have a conclusive statement that I’m ready to make, but that’s taking an incredibly complex network of 66 smaller books in one big book and say, what is it about?

Karen:         What is the essential message?

David:         But it can be done.

Karen:         Yeah.

David:         Now, Karen, it’s possible that, say, somebody else looking at Revelation would come up with a different sentence or a different truth that is being presented, and it’s fine. It doesn’t mean there’s only one single truth there.

Karen:         We’re emphasizing a scriptural message. Well, the point of all of this discussion, these three podcasts, is to help people who have to communicate in some way that will help them organize their thoughts, help them deliver their thoughts, and then leave in their listeners’ hands some way to do what they’ve asked them or presented for them to do, like our young pastor did that we talked about this last Sunday.

David:         So, let’s give an assignment here.

Karen:         Okay.

David:         Say that you’ve gone to give a testimony in a jail ministry with someone.

Karen:         Yeah.

David:         And then after a couple of times going in the prison, I think you’re ready to present the message.

Karen:         The teaching for this week.

David:         You got between 10, 12, 15 minutes maximum, just because that’s how much time they’re going to give you. Now, what are you wanting to say? And instead of you hitting your head, oh my what?

Karen:         What are you saying?

David:         Thinking about nothing but that for the next two or three days, you know. How do you get your mind around this and where are you going to go with it? Okay.

So, what is that setting again? As I ask you, what’s the revelation? What’s the setting? These are people who have done poorly.

Karen:         They’ve erred. They’ve broken the law.

David:         For whatever reason, they’ve messed up their lives. Okay. So now what are you going to say to them? What if you picked a text for people who have messed up their lives? What might you go to?

Karen:         Just quickly thinking here, as we’re talking about this. How about the prodigal son? The story of the prodigal son?

David:         Yeah.

Karen:         Which is a parable that Jesus told when he was here on earth.

David:         What is the response to that parable or what is the parable teaching? I’d say it’s teaching that the Father still has a great heart for those who have…

Karen:         … wondered away.

David:         Wondered away or messed up. And it’s a wonderful picture. The picture of almost every day the Father going out looking for it. Is he coming back?

Karen:         Will he ever come back? Yeah.

David:         And then eventually…

Karen:         You see, figure on the horizon. It might be, could it be?

David:         And that’s where God is. Whereas it’s the exact opposite of where most people think God is. People who have messed up. They think, you know, he’s mad. He’s thinking,

Karen:         I’ve failed.

David:         I spent all his money in sinful living.

Karen:         But that would be a wonderful scripture to choose in that setting. It doesn’t matter how you’ve messed up. There is a Heavenly Father who loves you, is looking for you, is waiting for you. And he will be thrilled if you return to him.

David:         That’s better than what I was thinking. I was thinking of the thief on the cross. You know, what am I going to do? I’m going to die. And Jesus, those are wonderful words. “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

Karen:         Yeah.

David:         And just this amazing love of God.

Karen:         Yeah.

David:         There have to be other texts, many texts that people could choose. But you’re trying then to get in it. What’s the subject? Okay, this is the subject. If you take the prodigal son of the great heart of the Father for his offspring. What is the response being wanted? Overwhelm this person with how much they are loved. You know, how do you do this? You’re just basically going through those steps.

This simplicity of it all makes it quite profound.

Karen:         This is extraordinarily helpful for us because we’re in the communication ministry.

David:         And then people say to me, that really is helpful. Well, it’s helpful for us. Because a lot of times you come to we’re like, “What is it I’m talking about?”

Karen:         So, it’s a privilege, actually, to work through these things, these passages in a way that you’re trying to make them clear to a listener or to a hearer, to someone in need. But I think that it is applicable for our listeners, many, many, many of our listeners to the podcast, because they have areas where they’re supposed to or being asked to reveal or tell or share or teach. And just simply reducing what you’re wanting to say to a sentence and then having practical areas where people can activate that in their own lives is just a huge communication gift.

David:         Maybe your audience is of one of a given son or daughter or spouse. Here’s what I want to say to you. And then you’re able to articulate it. And I feel this deeply. Don’t be offended.

Karen:         Yeah.

David:         You know, so anyway.

Karen:         We hope this has helped them.

David:         Yeah, I’m sure it is. I’m sure that there have been specific people who needed to hear this series. And if it didn’t relate to you, then be glad it related to somebody else. And we’ll go on to a new topic next time we get together.

Outro:        You’ve been listening to the Before We Go Podcast. And if you would like to write to us, please send us an email at the following address, hosts@beforewego.show. That’s all-lower-case letters, hosts@beforewego.show.

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