I had the opportunity to preach yesterday. Love it! I love the preparation: the prayer, the in-depth study, letting the text soak in my heart and mind, the cultural analysis. I never walk away from a sermon the same. I am always convicted, challenged, and pushed deeper in my relationship with Jesus. I love writing the sermon: focusing on the one big idea, finding just the right wording or refrain, thinking through illustrations, making the application buzz with energy, even the editing process (I almost always need to cut away a good portion of the sermon as first written; it feels good to cut back the extraneous words that don’t point directly to the big idea/thesis). Writing the sermon always forces me to make things very, very practical. This process cuts away at my natural tendency towards abstraction. And I love preaching: the energy, the collective focus on scripture, the congregation’s hunger to know God. Every time I preach, I am humbled, knowing that apart from God’s grace, every word I say will most definitely fall flat! If the preparation ever puffs me up with pride (look what I know!), the actual delivery always brings me back down to earth (it’s meaningless unless God works through it!). Praise be to God: my role is obedience; His role is transformation!
@ The Free Evangelical Church of Egaleo (18/10/2009)
Posted on October 19, 2009
0