How to Build an Expository Sermon Around One Big Idea

[00:00:00] Every point in the message should be like a breadcrumb. As you follow the breadcrumbs, they lead you to the destination which the text by God's inspiration is intended to lead you to. So that's why I do it sequentially. Hey, welcome to the Expositors Collective Podcast, episode 458. I'm your host, Mike Neglia. And the voice that you just heard is that of my friend and colleague, Nick Cady, lead pastor of White Fields Community Church.

[00:00:30] In Longmont, Colorado. Nick and I recorded this conversation in the backseat of a car that was being driven by Mike Bennett just last week or two weeks ago while they were visiting Cork City and County.

[00:00:47] And as Mike drove us around, we sat in the backseat and talked about something that each of us have implemented in our preaching over the past few years. And we've never done an episode about it, which is finding the big idea of a biblical passage and then expressing it in one memorable sentence.

[00:01:13] And then letting that sentence guide listeners through the sermon. So it's big idea preaching, but even more so than that, it's using the big idea to shape and summarize the sermon itself. You'll hear us talk more about it in the next few minutes. So if you are watching this on YouTube, you might get car sick.

[00:01:40] If you are listening to this on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, it's probably a much better experience for you. But if you've ever finished preparing a message and then wondered if people are actually going to remember it or not, I think you're going to find this conversation useful. Hey, Nick, welcome to the Expositors Collective Podcast. Thanks, Mike. Good to be back.

[00:02:08] We are recording this in the back of a car and we're driving around County Cork in Ireland. So, yeah, it's beautiful and rainy. I didn't know it rains here. I've been telling you for years. It rains a lot. I actually had to buy a new pair of socks because my socks were just soaking wet. So I had to go to like a tourist store and buy a 10 euro pair of socks just so that I could have dry feet right now. You know how rainy it is? It rained through my rain jacket.

[00:02:38] I have a rain jacket. Yes. It rained through it. All right. Opening banter. Yep. Tick. Check. Nick, you've been on this show maybe more than anyone else. Thanks. I did it. Except for you. Yeah, of course. Except for me. Yeah. Are there any episodes that you were not in? Yes. After the death of my mother. After the death of my mother, I asked if you could take over for a week. Yeah. And you did.

[00:03:08] And you recorded the intro and outro. And early on, do you remember that I was recording a few episodes very early on. But then I would still do the intro. Yeah, that's true. Yep. Thank you for that. Okay. We are back to business. So you've been on loads. And I wanted to specifically talk to you about something that you do that I've adopted in my preaching to much benefit,

[00:03:32] which is the idea of just like a thesis statement that also doubles as the sermon outline. Mm-hmm. Could you explain, like, maybe explain it better than how did you discover it and what are the benefits thereof? Okay. So there's two ways that I learned it. And you're absolutely right. I mean, that's a good way to put it. It's a thesis statement that says, if you don't listen to anything else I say, here's the message in abstract. And then you can break it down into parts.

[00:03:59] And you usually say, all right, if you guys are only going to take notes on one thing, write down this one sentence. Yeah. If you can only take one note. Yeah. Because, okay, I think most good things are born out of frustration. And as a preacher, if you put this much time into preparing a message, laboring over the text, you, I mean, it's frustrating to wonder if, is anybody going to remember this? And then to realize that nobody remembers anything you say. Okay.

[00:04:26] And so I think that I started doing it as a teaching tool because I thought it's good for people to remember things and they can't remember everything I say, but I want them to remember this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did you remember it from somebody? Did you pick it up? Yeah. So you were frustrated enough to try it, but did you invent it whole cloth or did you recall it from somebody? Okay.

[00:04:55] The first time I ever encountered it, there was a friend of mine named Jack used to come to Whitefields, moved away to Montana. And, uh, I was helping him to prepare a sermon that he was going to preach. And he told me when I was in seminary, they used to tell me, summarize your message in one sentence. And I thought that is brilliant, but it's too hard. So I started telling people and myself, summarize your message in two sentences. Okay. But now I'm down to one sentence. Yes.

[00:05:24] The first time I saw it modeled was Pilgrim Benham teaching at the expositors collective training weekend. That's right. And he taught a sentence and he highlighted every word in the sentence and then like said a few things about it. And I thought, man, that is brilliant. And I wrote down the sentence. I think that I can recall that sentence. Oh, can you? Uh, it's, it's, it's something, something mentorship is a worthy, a worthy mentee. No, no. Eh. A worthy is in it. I remember that.

[00:05:54] Mentee and mentor is in it. So. Yeah. And I don't remember what they do, but I remember the sentence. And he hasn't, he hasn't delivered that version of that message for, I'd say four or five years, but it's, it's stuck with me and it's like with you. Yeah. So that's the first time I saw somebody do it. And then I found out that this type of preaching was championed by Haddon Robinson. In fact, it's like, if you read the book, biblical preaching, which I have not, but I require it of my interns.

[00:06:24] Wow. Yeah. I should probably read it, but, um, I feel like I know a lot of what he's saying because, uh, two of our friends and I don't know if they, are they colleagues? They, they work with us on the expositors. Absolutely. Alan Stoddard. He's a colleague and a friend, John Whitaker, a colleague and a friend. Yes. And they both studied under Haddon Robinson for their doctorate. And so I feel like I've learned from them things that Haddon Robinson said.

[00:06:52] Another one that I'll never forget John Whitaker, but he got it from Haddon Robinson is we're not called to teach the Bible. We are called to teach the Bible to people. Yeah. And I'm like, oh my gosh, blew my mind. Right. But this one sentence, you know, bullet, not a buckshot. That's a classic Haddon Robinson thing. Yes. Um, and then I, I've taken even further where I, and I heard somebody say this once.

[00:07:16] It wasn't totally unique to me, but I feel like I have, um, made it my own is that I feel that every message should be, it could be a one point message, but I can also divide that into three points or five points. Yes. But there's a, there's a point to the message and that's why I choose only to teach those certain number of verses. Yeah. Yeah. So the, okay.

[00:07:42] I'm glad Pilgrim gets the credit, but you also remember that at that same Expositors Collective, I taught a message and the thesis is faithful Bible teaching consistently shows Jesus to be the true hero. I absolutely remember that sentence. Yeah. Yeah. So that's been my one, you know, and, um, I, I used to do that occasionally and I was just like actually so pleased with myself that it works, you know, um, to be able to have a collection of ideas and then to organize them and summarize them and then have that be sequential. Yeah.

[00:08:10] So I think I do wonder, and, um, I have read Haddon Robinson's book, biblical preaching. No, uh, we'd like to point out that Mike Bennett is driving us and he's doing an excellent job and the road is curvy. Yeah. Um, I have read, uh, Haddon Robinson's book, um, biblical preaching and he does emphasize big idea. Yeah. I, I read it. I read it like nine years ago. So I can't recall.

[00:08:40] I don't think that he talks about the idea of sequentially using that as your outline and then coming back to it. I think he's a big emphasis of like, you have one point you even, you say it up front and then you kind of build on it. But I think what, what you do and what we're advocating for in this episode is to like, maybe like say the sentence multiple times, show it on the screen, um, arrange the, the points of your message to be working through the message. Yeah.

[00:09:09] Yeah. And I would say that there's another piece to this, which I can tell you exactly where I got it. I got it from Martin Lloyd Jones, preaching and preachers where he says that every point in the message should be like a breadcrumb. Okay. As you follow the breadcrumbs, they lead you to the destination, which the text by God's inspiration is intended to lead you to. Okay. So that, that's why I do it sequentially. Yeah.

[00:09:37] And it also affects the way I build my sentence. Um, you're preaching tomorrow morning. Yep. At Calvary Cork. Thank you, by the way. What is your sentence? I don't remember, but it has something to do with heaven. Okay. Oh, it's, it's how the hope of heaven makes us courageous. Okay. Or something like that. Okay. Confident. Anyway, so I, I would say that's okay. That's probably not exactly what you're going to say. I'd say you should work on it still. Yes. I'd say. I haven't written that.

[00:10:06] It shouldn't be how the hope of heaven does this. I think it should be a little bit more even listener pointed. Well, that's not my sentence. That's my title. Your title. Yeah. What's your sentence? Well, it's the hope of heaven. Yes. That's my first point. Yeah. The first thing I'm going to talk about. Yes. Um, makes us courageous because it does this and I know how it ends. It says, and it, uh, directs us in how we spend the days of our lives. Okay. Yeah. That's great. Um, would you consider the hope of heaven makes you courageous?

[00:10:37] So do you think us or we are you? I tend to focus on you. Okay. I like to say, I think you is more powerful than us. All right. Yeah. We've talked about this in previous, previous episodes, but so the hope of heaven point one. Yeah. So the hope of heaven, I know this, that it gives you courage for today. Yes. And, uh, something about the future. Right. And then I say that, and it directs the way you live the days of your lives. And that's the missional point. Right.

[00:11:05] So most of my messages are going to have something that ends in something practical and usually in a missional impulse. Yes. Okay. Okay. So although you can't, you don't have it memorized, um, again, it's only Saturday at 530 PM. So there's tons of time, plenty of time. And then also your notes aren't in front of you. Yeah. But I think that that is a sentence that is a great, and you know, literally that'll preach. That's a good, a good thing to say.

[00:11:32] But what the listeners need to know, and I'm sure they can assume, you're not just going to get up there and just say like, hey guys, here's some ideas that I have. And I've even summarized this idea into a sentence. You're preaching 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and you're preaching those verses, and you're working your way through those verses, and you've done the work to study those passages and, you know, exposit, bring out the message of that. And this thesis statement is summarizing in sequential order what you're going to say. Is that right? Yes.

[00:12:02] Yeah. And so, uh, here's kind of what I would do in an ideal world. And I think this actually, this particular message kind of ticks all the boxes. Here's what I would do. I look at a, at a passage and say, what is the big idea of this passage? Kind of like Martin Lloyd-Jones, that every passage has a point, one point. And if you're getting too far, if you're trying to cover too much, then it's going to have multiple points, but you should focus on one point. So in this one, it is what the hope of heaven does for you. Right.

[00:12:33] Right. Like, okay, what if you had the hope of heaven? What would it do for you? This passage is going to answer that question. Yeah. Then I would say, I would, I would go through the text and I'd say, and I want them to be in order, right? Say, okay, well, here's the first thing it does for you. It gives you hope in the face of suffering. And I'm, that's probably one of my points. I'm not sure on the exact wording. Okay. Gives you hope in the face of suffering. Um, and then what's the next thing that Paul is saying that the hope of heaven does if you have it.

[00:13:03] And then I know that the last thing he's going to say is, and it will give you a missional impulse. It will shape the way that you live your life today. Yeah. And I know that verse that I end on it's verse 11 of, uh, second Corinthians five. And he says that because we have this hope, we seek to persuade people. Right. Yeah. That's, that's excellent. Um, yeah, I had a visitor on a Sunday morning, uh, maybe a month ago. I don't think I told you this.

[00:13:31] Um, yeah, there's a guy, a church planter in Texas and his wife, they're taking a, a, a vacation in Ireland and he is a listener to the show and he says, I should go to Mike's church. And he did. And, um, he was, it was wonderful to meet him. Very encouraging. Very cool. He's doing a good work. Um, and, but, but he was saying that the, the idea of having the sentence on the screen

[00:13:58] and essentially as I'm just like working my way through revelation chapter, whatever, um, each of the point is just like sequentially working through this sentence. And he's like, that's, that's really good. I think I want to start doing that. So I just think that's actually, uh, you know, it's one of the things that shaped your preaching and my preaching that has never been talked about on this episode. Uh, no, um, we've modeled it. Yeah. So there's been some sessions that we've released of yours and pilgrims and mine that, that model this, but we never talked about it. Yeah.

[00:14:26] Um, so you think Haddon Robinson made it up? I think so. Okay. He probably wasn't like the first one to make it up. I'm sure other people did it. Right. Yeah. Augustine. Maybe. Yeah. So many others. Yeah. I figured it out, but it's a, it's, it's, it's useful. It's helpful. Yeah. And, and I think it gives a sense of like movement, you know, uh, because there's been sermons I've sat through and I'm sure preached and same with you that just are just a bit

[00:14:54] meandering, a bit rambling, just saying things, uh, until, until the clock hits the right time and then you stop. But this way from the very beginning, it's saying to the congregation, we're going here. Here's what you should be listening to. Here's where you, and then, and then to visually show the slides over and over again. Do you think this could work without slides? Is this only like a slide show dependent bit of technology? Not even close. I mean, this is something I, if you don't have slides, here's the other thing I like about this. So first of all, you don't need slides because you're, you're using repetition.

[00:15:23] You know, they say that repetition is a mark of a good teacher. Really? Let me say that one more time. Uh, repetition is a mark of a good teacher. You see what I did there? Anyway. Yeah. So, um, that, that's, that's really helpful. The other thing, uh, that I really love about this type of preaching is that if you have that sentence, you can take it and you can teach for, um, 75 minutes or you can teach five minutes and you're making the same point.

[00:15:53] It's just how much you support that point. Yeah. It's very scalable. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's excellent. And how do you come up with them? So do you start by writing out the sentence and then you build the message or do you build the message and then find the sentence? The first thing I do is build the sentence. Really? Yeah. But I am the exact opposite. I'd love to hear, I'd love to hear that.

[00:16:22] But to build the sentence, I do all my exegetical study first. Oh, so it sounds like you do the sermon first. No, I'm not writing notes at this point. I mean, I'm writing notes for myself. Okay. I'm reading commentaries. Yeah. I'm, um, reading the passage, doing the work, listening to other people. What do they do? You know? Yeah. And then, um, and I'm, I'm like finding, you know what a big thing I I've done, I don't

[00:16:48] know if this is what it's called, but I call it the movements of the passage. Okay. So usually a passage has a movement. It's this happened, then this happened, then this happened, or this is true. Therefore, this is true. And this, so I'm looking for the movements in the passage, like the, yeah, the natural argument that's being made. And then, so then I'm, I'm mapping that out and then I'm looking for, okay, what is the one thing that this passage really is about?

[00:17:19] Um, for example, I just taught on Rahab and I had taught on Rahab in Joshua two. Sure. Yeah. Before, but this time I taught on Rahab, I realized that what this story is about isn't about, is it okay to lie or not okay to lie? Is it okay to be a prostitute? That's not okay. Sure. Yeah. Um, but it's a story about redemption and it's about God redeeming a woman from a condemned city who herself had her own. Hmm.

[00:17:48] Not only is she from a condemned city, like she's got her own condemnation. Yeah. Yeah. Personal sin. And God reaches in and redeems her, but also she responds in, in faith. And so I'm starting to say, okay, well, there's something about response here. There's something about God's gracious providence. And then what's the big idea was redemption. Right. And so then how does that apply to us? And I don't remember off the top of my head what the sentence was, but it was something

[00:18:17] I know it ended in responding in faith because that's my response point, but it's also, it's also inherent in the story. Yeah. So that was how I built that sentence. Okay. So you study the passage, you determine what it means. You notice the themes and then you get to work on crafting a sentence that, that moves through those three movements and then generally ends with some kind of a call to action slash response. Yes.

[00:18:45] And then when you have that, then you start writing what you're going to say underneath each of those segments. Yep. That's right. Okay. So here's how I do it. I write my sentence and here's, here's my whole process. I write my, I write my title after I've written my sentence, by the way. Title is important to you? It's very important to me. And I'll tell you, this is the other part I do. Yeah. I put out my titles, um, I, for my entire series. You do. Ahead of time.

[00:19:14] I've been, you're at my, you're in my city and you're preaching at my church. I've been in your city. I preach at your church. I went to the men's room and as I'm, uh, using the urinal, I, right in front of my face is like a printout of the next eight weeks at Whitefields and the names of all the sermons. Yep. So you, I believe you. Yeah. And I want my sermons to be something where somebody would say, oh, I'm going to learn this when I go to this service. Yes.

[00:19:42] And, and I'm going to invite my friend because my friend needs to know how God's grace moves you to action or whatever my title is. Yeah. So I don't want to miss this. Yeah. Fascinating. Yeah. I want to create things that people will invite friends to. Okay. I think titles don't matter and they're only there for YouTube search algorithms. That's not what I think. I maybe I should, I think you're winning me over. I don't put any thought into them at all. It's only just for the, for people to find it later on YouTube. Oh, I don't think of it at all.

[00:20:12] As, as an attractive, as a, as a pull. Yeah. I think of it as just as a, not, as a, not a lead measure, but a lag measure to use that language. For me, it's a promise. Wow. This is what's going to happen at this service. And I love, I love things that involve how to or why. Sure. Well, and everyone does. Everyone loves that. So that's what they want to hear. And I think, I think that's actually serving our people. They need to know how to do things and they need to know why to do things. Yep. Yeah. Um, okay.

[00:20:42] So I'm, I deviated by asking about the title. So titles are important. You come up with title early on. I'm well, well early on. And then you have that sentence and then you fill it in. Yeah. So, okay. Here's what I do. I'll, I'll know the general theme of the, based on, you know, it's already in the title. Yeah. And the, so once I've got my title in my sentence, I know the general theme. I will start brainstorming. I will start brainstorming ways to illustrate it.

[00:21:09] It's not the first thing I do by any means, but I want to build a compelling introduction that says that I want to build attention so that you cannot wait to hear how I'm going to resolve it. Right. But also I want my intro to be the message in abstract. So I've got my message in abstract in the title and in the sentence, and now I've got it in my illustration. And I want that.

[00:21:33] If you only ever heard my illustration, that, uh, my opening intro, you would have essentially got the message. Okay. Wow. Uh, I don't do it in that order. Um, but I certainly, I'm, I'm glad I was a bit shocked at first that you, you know, came with a sentence first, but you qualified that by saying that you actually do the study of the passage first. Absolutely. Yeah. Of course, because yeah, we're expository preachers.

[00:22:01] We bring out the message, not impository, which is, I think, yeah, I want to talk to people about this and this. And so I'm going to find verses to do that. So, and you're not doing that. So, but I would actually kind of, you know, I, I tend to, I'm pretty classic. I want to have three points usually. So I'll, I find my three points. I might even title my three points even, and the, I might even have alliterated titles that

[00:22:31] have the thesis that, that moves through those movements. Yeah, I get that. I have done that. And I, even recently, but I have this great intern at my church named Tim. Hey, Tim. Hi, Tim. And Tim has sometimes told me, he goes, you gave me a sentence and now you're giving me a list. Yes. And I can't, I can only remember so many things. He goes, don't give me too many lists.

[00:22:57] Even sometimes under my points, then I'll give like another list, you know, three points under my point. Yeah. And he's like, Hey, just give me one list or maybe two, but don't give me too many lists. Right. And I think he's, I think his impulse is right. So I try to try to keep it really simple, but I also go deep. So another thing that I would want people to know is I'm not just teaching my sentence because I like teaching sentences.

[00:23:24] I will go verse by verse and I'll explain things. I'll even give, you know, here's an interesting thing. Here's a nuance. Here's, here's a way that, uh, translators or interpreters, um, argue, differ. Here's a debate that's going on. And so I do go in depth on it. Yeah. But we're all, we're, those are just sub points. Exactly. Exactly. The big idea. Yes. And then even if you lose people, people don't care that much, you know, then you finish up and then back.

[00:23:54] Here we are back. You know? Yeah. So we're on the main road. We took a little deviance and then now we're back onto it. Um, so I just pulled up. So last week, um, revelation 20, Jesus will defeat evil, reign with his people and judge the world. Are you ready to meet him? And so that's, that's the whole shape of it. And then, yeah. So that's the big idea. And that's a, I have a, in giant font on the slide and then I work through it and it begins with Jesus will defeat evil.

[00:24:23] And then I, you know, I'll have a sentence and then I'll have it in a different color and underlined, you know, Jesus will defeat evil. And then, uh, you know, talk about that. And then onto the other things I, you know, he will defeat evil. He will reign with his people. And then I, I call that the saints vindicated. So I'll have another slide, a different font and then say the saints vindicated versus four to six. Um, and then later on, um, the devil defeated. So I use these little sub points. Sure. Um, I don't know. I just like slides. I like, I like slides probably more than you do. Yeah.

[00:24:53] And I have different colors and fonts, uh, that work for me. Sure. But the big idea is that there's a big idea. The most important thing is that there is a simple sentence. And some people are not, you know, I, I know people did not care about my explanation. Some people didn't care about my explanation about pre-millennialism, amillennialism and post-millennialism. Sure. Some people cared a lot. Most people didn't care, but everyone cared about that. Jesus will defeat evil. He's going to reign with his people and judge the world. And then everyone was asked and challenged.

[00:25:23] Are you ready to meet him? Sometimes, uh, people have asked me, uh, Hey Nick, what'd you preach about today? Like I'll see him later on in the evening or something. Yeah. People from your church. Uh, maybe. Okay. Um, usually people who weren't there. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And I'll be, I love being able to tell them I taught Philippians four and here's what I taught and just one sentence. Yep. And that's what I talked about. Uh, that's great. Well, thanks.

[00:25:49] So if there's anyone who wants to do more, if anybody wants to do more, what can they do? They could listen. They could listen to Whitefield's church sermons cause we do it every week. Yes. They can listen to Calvary Cork sermons cause we do it. We do it 95%. Yeah. And you could read Haddon Robinson's book. Who maybe, which I hear is good. Maybe. Yeah. He definitely was talking about the big, the big idea. I'm not sure if he says that it should be, uh, organized sequentially like this. Yeah. And you could read preaching and preachers, which I think everybody should read.

[00:26:19] Yes. Cause he explains what expository sermons are and what they aren't. Yeah. And he makes a big point of saying expository teaching does not mean that you just read a verse and then said some disconnected thoughts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's breadcrumbs leading to a point. That's right. All right. Well, thank you so much. Um, big shout out, Mike Bennett. Good job, Mike. Sorry about that. All right. And so, uh, to the listeners and watchers of this podcast, I hope that this conversation

[00:26:49] and all the video expositors collective helps you to grow in your personal study and your public proclamation of God's word. All right. Thanks for listening to my conversation with Nick Cady. I hope it encourages you to do the careful work in the text to exegete it and to prepare your sermon and then do some extra work to give your listeners a clear idea that they can carry home.

[00:27:20] So I hope that this episode and all that we do at expositors collective helps you to grow in your personal study and public proclamation of God's word. I will see you for the next episode. Uh, please do us a solid, leave a comment, leave a rating, uh, help this type of specified

[00:27:43] niche content can get into the ear of Bible students and Bible preachers across the world. Uh, your recommendations to your buddies and your comments and ratings is going to help us reach more people who are going to reach more people. So anyway, thanks for listening all the way to the end and I'll see you next week.