Do You Have Something to Say?
Luke 15:17-19: But when he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father I have sinned against Heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’”
Most people need notes when they give a speech. I have come to find that those who can give a speech (or preach a sermon) without notes have a gift. I’ve talked with enough people to see that most are petrified at having to give a speech in front of people, but add to that a speech without some type of notes, and it is beyond the capacity for many people to have any desire to do it.
Moses was petrified at having to speak before Pharaoh. God had to raise his brother Aaron to do the talking for him. In Acts chapter 18, the Lord encouraged Paul to go on speaking because there were many in the city who were the people of God.
The prodigal son had a speech. Not as sermon, not a TED talk, but a speech nonetheless. He had something to say, and he rehearsed it in his head to make sure it came out in the form he had drafted it.
If you have always wanted to be able to give a speech in front of people without notes, but don’t think you can do it, here is how I developed the ability to speak (preach) without notes:
I had to start the hard way. I would write out my manuscript, and then the Saturday night before I preached a sermon I would go over to the church and practice it word for word until I had it memorized. I knew it so well, that it was like I could see each piece of paper in my head and read it word for word as I was looking out at the congregation. In those early years, it took me about three hours to memorize one sermon.
After a while, I started writing my sermons in blocks, where, instead of writing a grammatically correct, paragraph-divided manuscript, I began to write in blocks of text. My sermons were divided into about seven blocks of content. I didn’t memorize word for word, but by concept and categorized my illustrations according to the content blocks. At that point, I was able to whittle my memorization time down to about forty-five minutes per sermon.
Right now, I am at a point where I do not write a manuscript, but I write down all of my sermon prep on paper and put together an outline of key concepts and illustrations. It helps me “memorize” my sermon while I’m doing my prep work.
What I have also found that helps with my ability to preach without notes is putting together my own sermon slides. Knowing the slides means knowing the flow of how the sermon will go and “filling in the gaps.”
I want to encourage you that with practice, you can give a speech of different lengths. Go to the Lord in prayer in your prep time, and He will be with you. It may take a little bit to get a rhythm, but you can do it. Amen.
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