May 1st, 2022
I recently played for one of my classes three speeches that are generally considered to be the greatest speeches in American History. The first was a reenactment of the Gettysburg Address from Abraham Lincoln. The second was John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration. The third was Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream.” What is most interesting about these speeches is their length. The Gettysburg address was 272 words and lasted only 2 minutes. Martin Luther King’s speech was 1,667 words and lasted roughly 7 minutes. Kennedy’s inaugural was 1,366 words and was the longest in time at about 14 minutes long. To put that in context, my sermon from last week was roughly 4,400 words long and lasted about 36 minutes. I put effort into the preparation and delivery of that sermon, but I know for a fact that nobody will consider my exposition of Romans 1:1-17 as one of the greatest speeches in American History.
Sometimes we feel that in order to be obedient to God we must have some grand gesture or noteworthy thing that people notice. In reality, the small things that take short amounts of time often have the greatest impact on the Kingdom of God. It has been studied that the most effective Gospel presentations take less than 5 minutes. All it takes is 5 minutes to let someone know that you care about them and that God cares about them. Don’t worry about the grand gestures…the small things make a huge difference.
It is a blessing to serve with you,
Pastor Lance
