Word your questions to find the right passages

The assistant looks for the idea behind your question, so you do not need his exact words. What helps most is what you remember: where it happened, who was there, roughly when, what was said.

Give what you remember

• Details: a place, a person's name, a year, what happened. They give the search more to hold on to than a single word.
• The idea, not the wording. You may remember a saying differently from how he said it, or in another language. The search looks for the same idea in other words, so ask it the way you remember it.
• A sermon you know: name its title or its code in the question, or hold the question to it.
• Names: write them as best you can. Small slips of spelling are often mended when the sermons hold a close word.

Ask for a summary

Ask for a summary, an overview or the gist of a sermon or a series, naming it by title or code. The answer follows the sermon from beginning to end, or the series sermon by sermon, in his words, every point with its paragraph. It ends by sending you to read the whole from the references.

A summary is a guide to the sermon and not a replacement for it. For the whole of it, read the sermon itself.

Ask which sermon

To find where he tells something, describe what you remember and ask "Which sermon is it in?" or "Where does he tell this?". The answer names the sermons with their dates, each with its paragraph.

• Questions about the sermons as records: the shortest or the longest, his first or last in a year, how many he preached in a town, a sermon of about forty minutes. The answer is a sentence and the sermons as rows, with title, date, place and length, and a row opens the sermon at its beginning.
• Ask "any others?" to see the next sermons on such a list.
• A sermon code alone, such as 59-0418 or 590418: the sermon comes back at once as a row. When none was preached that day, the sermons of the nearest days are listed.
• A Bible reference, such as John 3:16 or Isaiah 53: the sermons in which he read it come back at once as rows, each opening where he reads it. Ask "What scripture did he read in Countdown?" for the passages a sermon reads, in the order he read them, each with its paragraph.
• A message to listen to on a need, for example "an encouraging message I can listen to": it names a few sermons, with a line on what he says in each. Ask again to see other ones.

Subjects people debate

On a subject people argue over, the assistant gives the relevant words of his as direct quotations, each with its sermon, its date and its paragraph, and no verdict of its own: no yes or no, no "he forbade", no "he allowed". The conclusion is left to you.

If the first answer shows only part, More passages and Different passages under it bring further ones (with a confirmed account). Each cited sermon opens in full, so every passage can be read in its place.

When the answer misses

• An answer that begins "The closest I found are the following" means no passage says it in your words. What follows are his nearest words, and the answer may be in them.
• A reply that no passage clearly answers the question does not mean he never spoke about it. Ask again with other words, the ones he might have used.
• Narrow it: hold the question to the sermon you think holds it.
• Search the exact words in Browse with Search inside sermons, or tell us with Not helpful under the answer (How answers are made).