A convicting message vs. A convincing message
There are many convincing messages in the Churches today, but very few are convicting. What is the difference you may ask, well, lets look at it.
A Convincing message is one where the person delivering the message has thought it out, planed it, added cleaver words and example. By the end of the message, you are convinced that you need to do something, you may even be crying and you know, at that instant, that you HAVE to change, you HAVE to do this or that. But once you have left the pew and gone home, you quickly forget about it, go on with your daily routine, there may be a few changes her and there, you may even feel like you are becoming a better person, more loving, more caring, but it pretty much stops there.
Now, lets not confused the above with Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13:1-9 of the seed that fell along the path and got eaten by birds or on rocky ground that sprang up quickly, but was scorch by the sun, or fell among thorns and got choked. What we are looking at here is bad seed planted in any of the above mentioned or on good soil, it will NOT produce a harvest of righteousness.
A Convicting message on the other hand, is the one where the Holy Spirit is at work. He CONVICT the person hearing the message because God’s truth being preached; the truth of His Holy, self sufficient, inerrant Word. Now we can apply the parable of Jesus in Matthew 13:1-9 as we are using good seed.
Another element that is interesting to look at is the definition of the two words as shown below;
–adjective
1. persuading or assuring by argument or evidence: They gave a convincing demonstration of the car’s safety features.
2. appearing worthy of belief; plausible: The excuse was not convincing.
–verb (used with object), -vinced, -vinc⋅ing.
1. to move by argument or evidence to belief, agreement, consent, or a course of action: to convince a jury of his guilt; A test drive will convince you that this car handles well.
2. to persuade; cajole: We finally convinced them to have dinner with us.
3. Obsolete. to prove or find guilty.
4. Obsolete. to overcome; vanquish.
–verb (used with object)
1. to prove or declare guilty of an offense, esp. after a legal trial: to convict a prisoner of a felony.
2. to impress with a sense of guilt.
–noun
3. a person proved or declared guilty of an offense.
4. a person serving a prison sentence.
See the difference?
Thank you Jesus for you Holly Spirit and for revealing these magnificent truth to us. You are Holy and pure and truth, we praise you and give you thanks for all that you have done and all that you continue to do in our lives.
Are you hearing a “Convincing” message or a “Convicting” one?
