Tips to have a Good Speech

Tips to have a Good Speech

I was surprising that why some people have the talent of delivering heart touching speeches but others are not.  I had a lot of chances to experience the speeches which are full of thoughts, but the listeners are not listing.  Also, had chances to experience the simple thoughts, but with full attention by the audience.

With from my limited experience, I can say that if you want to have a heart touching speech – that should be controlled by Holy Spirit from the starting of preparation to the Conclusion of delivery of the Sermon.

I can share my method of preparations and delivery of messages.

1  First stage of Prayer

         You might be thinking that why we need a prayer at this stage even though we don’t have a subject to prepare. But it is very important. You should start to pray for your sermon at the point when you have information that you suppose to deliver a message. You should ask to God to give an appropriate subject for the Sermon. This may last for few minutes to days, till you get an appropriate Subject. How you will select a subject by prayer. You have to think about the audience age, education, gender, spiritual background, context of meeting etc… The subject should be interesting to audience & appropriate for the context. For example, if the audience is children, subject can be related to some parable/story, not a theological in-depth subject. Once you get a confidence on the subject, I have to accept it by prayer that it is given by God.

2  Analyzing & studying the subject

         In this stage, you will be reading & meditation about the subject. You will read a lot in Bible about the subject since it is the primary source of information. You will read articles, books, websites etc… You might have something from your own mind… Put it all in a paper. There is no need of an sort order. Those points are just for a reference for the next stage. Sometimes you might get good stories, incidents, witness comments etc… Note it down… It might be helpful.

How much time you spend at this stage will decide the quality of your Sermon (In the sense of contents).

3  Second stage of Prayer

         Now you have a lot of information about the subject. But without any order. Now you will meditate and prayer with a lot of knowledge. At this point, the points will be segregated. You might be short listing the points. It should be a subset. There is no need to include all the points. Those are major points. Usually I will take 2 – 3 points if I have 30 minutes for the sermon.

      Now, you have a Subject, Major points with a lot of knowledge. 

4  Preparing the outline of Sermon

     Take your pen & a rough paper. Put the major points there. There should be enough line space in between those points.

Example:

Introduction
Describing the subject
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Summary & Conclusion

5  Detailed study of each items in the Sermons

          Put the sub points under the major points, these sub points should indicate what you are going to tell about each point. These points will include indication of stories, incidents, songs, etc…

         Stories & songs are very much welcomed by audience; there is no opposition from any age group. If you want to tell some funny things you can include it. It will give more beauty to your sermon. But if you don’t have a talent to tell funny things, you have to take it carefully. 

         If you think you need more study & meditation you may please have it at this stage. You can go again and again to the articles, books etc…

        Once you have full content in your mind and points in your paper, prepare the introduction/description of subject and the summary/conclusion.

         Introduction decides your direction of speech. The audience will decide on you in the first 1-2 minutes that do they want to listen to you or not. So the introduction should be consciously build one. It should be abstract and interesting to the audience. Usually I will start might sermon by interesting stories or facts. It can be from current affairs, funny stories, a song, etc… If you could won the hearts of audience in this stage, you can control them till the end of sermon.

        Summary/Conclusion is another major section. You have to conclude your thoughts/opinions here. All the questions you asked/discussed should be answered here. There should be any open questions in the minds of audience. If anyone have an open question, you are not only failed to serve a good server but you put them in a well of questions & confusion. So all the points you discussed should be closed.

        Usually I will include some references to the story/fact which I pointed at the time of introduction in the summary/conclusion also. It was much received by audience.

         If you provided a good sermon, the audiences are in a state which is something like they got a good dinner. Now they have to just digest it J

6  Third stage of Prayer

         Now you have the script of the sermon in your mind. Bend down your header in front of Jesus. You have to get go ahead from Jesus. In this prayer, you have to submit your weaknesses and ask for the strength to deliver the Sermon. 

7  Writing the script

          You have the points in a paper and the full script in your mind. If you are an experienced preacher, you can skip this stage. Otherwise I you have to write each and every sentence you suppose to tell. 

      By practicing this, you will have a better flow of sentences at the time of delivery, good sentence construction, no hesitation about the sentences,  also you can know how much time you suppose to take to complete the sermon. Also, you can understand sometimes that some contents are not necessary & some others can be included. Go and do it. It might be most beautiful.

8  Fourth stage of Prayer

Usually I will close by content preparation by a prayer with a thanks giving.

9  Reading the script

If the sermon delivery is on another day, I will wake up early morning and will read the script and mark the major sentences, Bible references, quotes, etc… with different color of pen. This will be helpful at the time of delivery.

1  Fifth stage of Prayer

It is the most important prayer. You are going to deliver what God has given to you. You should ask for fullness of Holy Spirit, for good health, for good voice, for good sentence construction, and for your audience.

1 On the Podium

This is the real stage… You are on the podium to deliver the Sermon… Smile… introduce... give thanks to God… thanks to the persons who invited you.. GO… GO… GO... It’s your turn… Speak out what Holy Spirit asked to tell J Well done..

1  Thanks giving prayer

The process will end only at this stage. In your personal prayer, you have fully commit and surrender yourself in front of Jesus; because he gave you the strength to deliver a heart toughing speech.


Let us prepare for the next Sermon…. Thank you for reading…

Sermon: Jesus, the Lord of Life

Genesis 2: 4-9,  John 6: 35-40

C.S.I Church Melariodu (28-April-2013)

      I remember a story which I heard a long time back from a preacher. I think it might be worth to mention now.  Little Robert who is a member of a poor family, he has a hobby to make wonderful toys. Once he made a small wonderful butterfly. It has a special skill to talk to human beings. Little Robert was happy about his creation and he loved it very much since it is his greatest creation forever. He put the butterfly to his garden. He spent too much time with it and taught so many things in the world.

Once, that beautiful butterfly thought, it would be good to see the outside world. So it decided to go outside of the garden, but it didn’t ask to Robert for the permission since it knows that there is no chance to get a permission to go outside of the garden. One day, it escaped from the garden. It enjoyed the beautiful world, different kinds of flowers, buildings, other creatures, other humans etc… But, unfortunately, a man found this beautiful butterfly toy and he trapped it in to a cage.

After sometime, Robert came back to the garden. He searched for his great creation. But he could not find it. He worried. He searched around the garden, near to garden and also so many places. But he failed to find it. Days passed. Still he is worried about it. One day, while going through the street, he could see that beautiful butterfly in a cage with a for sale board.  He ran and asked the shopkeeper to let it free. He refused. Robert said I have created this and I want it get back. The shopkeeper said “You might be the creator, but now it is mine. If you want it you need to pay money”.  Robert looked on the price tag; he worried since he does not have enough money to buy it. He requested that shopkeeper to keep that butterfly; he will be back in few days. Robert worked hard few days to get the enough money. After his hardworking, he got the money. He ran to the Shop and purchased that butterfly by paying the price.

Then he said to the butterfly “I have created you and guided you. But you ignored me and trapped to the beauty of the world. But now I purchased you by paying the price for your wrong doing. Now you have the choice: either you can come with me or live your own life in the world”. That butterfly said “You are my Lord I shall come with you”.  Robert became happy by that decision.

This is the small narration about the Love of God to his great creation.

Jesus said “I am the bread of life; He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who belies in me will never be thirsty”.

We can try to study why we call the bread of life as Lord of Life.

The word “Lord” means Teacher, God, Savior etc… In the age of Old testament human beings called God as Lord since them afraid to call God as God.

Why Jesus should be our Lord in our life?

Jesus, who created us?

Jesus, who is word, was part of the creation at the beginning along with the God and the Holy Spirit. That’s why; Jesus is the creator of the world and the human beings. We are agreeing that Jesus is our creator. So Jesus is our Lord.

In Genesis 2:4-9, God creates human being; he is not only creating human beings but also cares them. That’s why human beings are placed in Garden of Eden. But they forgot their creator; fallen in to Sin. This saddens God.

Jesus, who redeemed us from death?

Human beings who fallen in to sin trapped in to the hands of death. The situation is something like the creator needs to pay for his creation. Here, Jesus gave his blood as the price for his creation by sacrificing his life on the cross. Like, how Little Robert struggled for days to collect the necessary money; Jesus paid his life as the price.

What Jesus expects from us?

After redeeming his creation, Jesus gave the freedom to accept or reject that freedom. We can feel the real freedom which is redeemed by Jesus is only at the time of accepting Jesus as Lord. Simply saying, we are accepting the freedom by accepting Jesus as our Lord.

When the Butterfly decided to comeback with Robert, they both became happy. Likewise when we decide to go with Jesus by accepting as Lord, heaven will be happy. For that, can we accept Jesus as our Lord? Can we say like the beautiful butterfly said “You are my Lord I shall come with you”? Now it’s your choice.  Amen.

Sermon: Journeying With Jesus

Luke: 24: 13 – 35

C.S.I Church Chettikkunnu (14 April 2013)

I had a chance to hear a story like this. Stephen Mark’s grandmother prepared her Will before her death. It contained something like this “Use my money for my cremation and to clear my debts. Then, all my remaining wealth needs to be given to Stephen Mark; also, the Bible which is handed over from our parents.”  Stephen Mark became happy since he is getting some money. But he didn’t care about the Bible.

                He lived his next 30 years with great difficulties. He did not have enough food or clothes. He became very old. Then he decided go to his son’s house who was living in the neighbour village. He started pack his bag with his belongings. Then he saw that old Bible which was covered with dust.  He tried to remove that dust, accidently that Bible was opened. He surprised. There were currency notes between the pages of the Bible.

                He lived his 30 years with that Bible without knowing about hidden treasure inside it. He travelled his life journey with that hidden treasure, but as a poor man. Likewise, we can see two men travelling without knowing that Jesus is also travelling with them in Luke 24:13-35.

                Two disciples were travelling from Jerusalem to Emmaus. We can understand that Jerusalem represents the fellowship of the disciples of Jesus, since all other disciples were staying there. But Emmaus means “Hated City”. They were travelling with fearful and tired face. Jesus was also travelling with them. But they could not understand him. Even though they could not understand Jesus, they told their feelings to that stranger. They were sad since they thought Jesus is died, so there is no hope for them. Jesus started to explain and help them to understand the Old testament prophecies about Jesus. He explain how Jesus fulfilled the prophesies by resurrecting from death. They became happy. After they reached their destination. Jesus tried to pass them. But they insisted him to stay with them. Jesus agreed to their wish. He stayed with them and had a dinner. At that time Jesus revealed himself to them. Then he disappeared. They became happy and at that moment, they returned to Jerusalem.

We can study three major points from this incident.

Selecting wrong path at the time of difficulty

We can see that disciples fell in to the fear of death after the crucifixion of Jesus.  They were hiding in various places of Jerusalem. If the Roman army found them they might have killed. The situation to live was very difficult. This might be reason for them to escape from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

                They heard the news about the strange things happened on that day. Tomb was empty... News about resurrection from the angels... But, among the difficult times, they were not believed on this news. What happened then? They took wrong decision. Their selection of path was wrong to escape. Instead of staying in Jerusalem with other disciples, they travelled to Emmaus.

                We also have the same situations. We might have various difficult times in our life. Financial crisis, physical illness, family problems etc.... At that time, don’t we forget Jesus? We will look to world to get help? We will not pray to God? Likewise these disciples also never tried to take a decision with prayer. This makes them to take wrong decision to travel to Emmaus.

Jesus travels with us to help us to escape from the wrong path

In that travel to Emmaus a stranger also joining with those disciples.  That stranger understands their worries and the problems. Then he tries to console them. Disciples were worried since their hope in Jesus is failed since he died on the cross. But, the stranger explained to them why Jesus died on Cross based on the Prophesies. Also, he could give the hope of resurrection and the eternal life to the disciples. The consoling words from the stranger encouraged them to be in hope and courage.

                At the same time, the stranger calls them fools since they didn’t believe in old testament words and prophesies about Jesus. Then, he understands them that they are on the wrong path, their decisions were wrong. But they didn’t understand that the stranger is Jesus. That stranger is just a stranger for them. Jesus was travelling with them, but he is invisible to them.

                Dear friends, while we are on the difficulties, Jesus stays with us. He consoles us.  He understands us our wrong decisions. He understands us our wrong paths. He makes us to the right path. But we shall not understand that our helper is Jesus. We shall think that our friends or relatives helped us. So Jesus is just a stranger for us. But really Jesus is helping us through visible things even though he is a invisible traveller with us.

Invites Jesus to heart

Once they reached to near to village, the stranger made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him to stay with them for that night. He agreed. Because of that invitation, they could have a fellowship with the Jesus and blessings from Jesus.

                Even though we got the presence with Jesus, if we didn’t received him us our saviour, there is no use. Jesus is knocking on the doors of our hearts. We should open the doors, if we want that he should enter our hearts.

Dear friends, we shall be travelling through the right path since the time when we received our Jesus as our Saviour.  Here, the disciples returned back to Jerusalem once they received Jesus to their house. So they could travel on the right path.

Conclusion

Jesus is travelling with us. He is helping us with his presence. But we should invite him to our life. Then only we can have the fellowship with Jesus. At that time he will reveal himself to us. Jesus may help us to live in Jesus and help us travel with the presence of Christ.  Amen.