Public Speaking 101: When addressing a group, endeavor to avoid the following: 1) belittling your audience, 2) come off as too controlling, 3) calling your audience names.
‘Course, there are other schools of thought. Consider a public speaker we’ll call “John,” mostly because that’s his name. Check out his public speaking technique:
John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." (Gospel of Luke, chapter 3)
Pretty strong meat there from John. But I like his style. He certainly got everyone’s attention. Perhaps the “tell it like it is” mentality is refreshing in its bluntness. Even currently, radio hosts like Dr. Laura Schlessinger have strong audiences because deep down, people want to know the truth even if the truth hurts.
Well, the truth hurts. John’s words hurt hearts, but it was the good kind of hurt—this hurt led to healing. It’s like the first cut of a surgery intended for the ultimate better health of the individual. Yet John wasn’t so much like a surgeon. He was more like a lumberjack than a surgeon with the Law, wielding the bad news of how we have fallen short of God’s demands like an axe, not a scalpel.
Yet, the Law cut the people to the heart. Here is the response from the people:
"What should we do then?" the crowd asked. John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" "Don’t collect any more than you are required to," he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely— be content with your pay."
John’s message was simply this: Talk is cheap. I’ve met over a dozen individuals who have told me how they have changed and now they will follow God. But they don’t. It’s all talk for some people. John calls people out for mere words.
Change means a different course. Turning means a new direction. The core meaning of repent is to turn, and turning means a new direction. We can’t see spiritual changes in a person’s heart. But if there is a change in someone’s spiritual life, a different set of actions and reactions will become evident. A repentant heart will show itself in words and actions that are different. That’s what John was pointing to—visible results of invisible inward change.
I am thankful for the inward change God has made in your heart, dear sister, dear brother in the faith! Such repentance, as Scripture uses the term overwhelmingly, is a change from an unbeliever to a believer. Such a change having taken place, you have crossed over from death to life. All because of Jesus’ substitutionary life and death, you are right with God.
John was quick to give all glory to Jesus in this regard:
The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.
Prayer ideas: Give thanks to God that through faith in Jesus your sin has been atoned for and you are at one with God. Ask God to help identify areas in your life that require change. Ask God for strength to make life changes that honor Him.
Blessings on your day!
Pastor Dan