In this clinic we look at how the message " Overcoming the Influence of Affluence " (click on sermon title to see full text of message) ends. Here is the conclusion:

So this is our plan:

So forget about the American Dream. I hope that today, Memorial Day, is the Sunday you remember as the day you got off the rat race and got on the road to the good life, a life that is truly life.

This conclusion restates the main points of Movement II and follows with a brief challenge on the sermon's driving theme. While less developed than a more formal conclusion, it does one thing well.

Strength

It focuses on the main thing. Theoretically, the thing preachers want listeners to hear last is the central point of the message. In some form or another, good conclusions almost always do that. This sermon models how that is done with simplicity and brevity. He quickly summarized his main assertions, including the main idea, and then left the pulpit. He did not repreach the sermon but finished by reiterating its most important parts. This conclusion left no question about its purpose.

Given that the sermon is long and loaded with material (in my opinion, overloaded), its conclusion works well.

Ways to Improve

1. Make the conclusion the emotional high point of the message. One way to end is with an illustration or anecdote that pictures the main idea. This approach often provides more feeling and can evoke more response from the congregation.
   
   I'd suggest moving the previously told story of Rich Mullins to the conclusion. His generosity, especially in light of his celebrity and sudden death, makes him a wonderful example of someone who took " hold of the life that is truly life " (1 Timothy 6:19). Placed at the end, this story would give the sermon some closing bite.
   
   
2. Visualize the listeners' future. Another possible way to conclude is to envision the result of chasing the " good life of the American Dream. " This gives emotional teeth to the conclusion by showing the consequences of chasing the wrong kind of life.
   
   For example, in a sermon on the necessity of taking risks for Christ, Bruce Thielemann, former pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, brilliantly envisioned for his audience how life ends when lived with no sense of spiritual adventure:
   
   There are a lot of folks who have planned their lives out very carefully. Nice little job. Nice little marriage. Two nice little kids: a nice little boy and a nice little girl. Nice little retirement plan. Nice little house with a nice little two-car garage with a nice little car in each half of it. Nice little place to go to in the summer or, if you prefer, a nice little place to go to in the winter.
   
   You know what the end of that story is? It's a nice little hill with a nice little mound upon it and a nice little stone at the top of the mound with your nice little name on it and a few little dates underneath. You know what will have happened? You will have pampered yourself into mediocrity when you could have forgotten yourself into immortality.

Here is one way that this sermon's conclusion could show the absurdity of chasing the American Dream instead of Christ's kingdom dream.

Through his instructions to Timothy, Paul has told us to chase the good life of God rather than the American Dream. That's good advice, and let me tell you why. Someday, we're all going to die! I know we don't like to think about it and we may want to deny it, but someday it's going to happen.

Let me tell you what's going to happen when we die, because I've been to a lot of funerals in my life and they always do the same thing. When we die, they're going to take our casket and drop it in a hole and throw some dirt on it. And then they're going to go back home and eat chicken and potato salad and chocolate cake.

On the day we were born, we were brought home in a soft pink or blue blanket, and we were the ones crying while everyone else was happy because we had been born. The crucial question is, What's it going to be like when we die? Are we going to be happy and leave everyone else crying?

The answer to that question depends on what we do with our lives NOW! If we chase after the good life of the American Dream and use our lives to get more money and more stuff, that's foolhardy because it's not going to make a lasting positive impact on anyone around us. But if we chase the good life of God, then we'll give our lives and time and energy and resources to those things that help people and make a difference for both time and eternity.

When we die, are people going to look at all the stuff we left behind, or are people going to be crying because they feel they've lost their best friend? Will there be an obituary telling how wealthy we were, or will there be people telling how we ministered to them in the name of Jesus? The life we chase now determines the life we'll inherit then.

So whatever you do, don't chase the American Dream. Instead give yourself to chasing the good life of God and his kingdom!

When we give adequate attention to the conclusion, the sermon ends on a compelling note that can transform lives.

Scott Wenig is associate professor of applied theology at Denver Seminary in Denver, Colorado, and author of Straightening the Altars.