Good words without deeds
are rushes and reeds.
Thomas Fuller

Life is Act,
and not to Do
is Death.
Lewis Morris

Just as the fetching introduction pulls people into the sermon, the effective conclusion drives home the point and propels into the world people with an agenda.A Rob Suggs cartoon in Leadership pictures a hapless pastor in front of a chart showing precipitously declining attendance. His companion suggests, "I'm no expert, Joe, but perhaps you shouldn't close each sermon with 'But then again, what do I know?'" The inappropriate ending can ruin even a great beginning.But most preachers won't destroy a sermon with a foolish conclusion. The greater danger is losing an opportunity by not tapping a sermon's potential, by forfeiting the final push that makes a good sermon great and changes lives.David Mains has a passion to change people's behavior. With dogged determination he returns to one overriding concern: Have I given people a way to act on their conviction? Some concrete way to ...

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