1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. -1Tim 4:1,2
It all started Monday night, two weeks ago, when I received a call from my Pastor, asking me to fill in for one of our Elders who was not well, and preach on the following Sabbath. I agreed and went about refining the sermon I had preached only a couple of weeks before at Childers church (The Silence of God).
It is amazing to me how God works because the Lord impressed me to change so many things it became a substantially different sermon, I practiced again and again, pouring over my notes, praying and being prayed for by some of my dear bothers, and sisters in the faith (you know who you are, my deep thanks to all of you).
Sabbath morning arrived and I stood to preach, after a few rocky minutes of introduction the message got underway, all I had, was this sense of assurance, I knew then and know now, that I did not speak, it was the Holy Spirit who spoke, it is a surreal experience, one I cannot adequately explain.
After it was over, I was humbled and greatly encouraged by my church family by their warmth toward me, the fact is (as I told many people) I did not preach, I simply made myself available to work for God and let him take the wheel, there is no honor or accolade due to me when God is the one who is speaking, all glory should go to him. In fact I am even somewhat uncomfortable writing this post, as it could sound to someone as if I ‘did something good for God’ but that is not it in the slightest, I am writing this simply because I wanted to communicate the fact the God did something amazing, and we are called to be witnesses of him and what he is doing in our lives.
Luke.
