Well, yesterday I had an
opportunity to preach a sermon at church.
I get this opportunity about once each year. I used to avoid it at all costs, but over the
past four years, I’ve been able to get a little more used to it. Part of that, I believe is personal growth
and part of that I believe is the Holy Spirit convicting me of the messages that
I have had a chance to give. If I teach
or preach on a message I am convicted by, it’s easier to have confidence in it.
But let me give you a little taste
of the experience that I went through yesterday. I woke up early and got myself ready for
Church as usual. On the way, Megan
shared a verse with me that I frankly can’t remember right now. It was very encouraging at the time and I
appreciated it. In fact, it helped me a
lot! But my mind was so distracted that
I didn’t have much time to reflect on it for very long.
When I got to church, I made a few changes to
the PowerPoint and then locked myself in my office. During class time, I went through the sermon
one last time to make sure I had all of my thoughts collected. Then I began to pray for the Holy Spirit to
take over. When I walked to the auditorium,
my parents met me and pulled me to the back of the room, placed their hands on
me, and prayed over me.
Then church began. Maybe it was just my nerves, but it seemed
like everything took FOREVER. The
announcements were really long, the part where we honored our children was very
long, and communion was very long.
In our church, the last few things
we do before the sermon are communion, scripture reading and prayer, and the
offering. Those three things were taking
forever and I could feel a knot building in my stomach. It seemed to get larger and larger as the
time went by. Just before I got up to
preach, Megan whispered the verse to me again.
It was once again, reassuring and encouraging but once again I can’t
remember what it said or where it was from exactly.
Finally, I got up and delivered
what I had prepared to say. I felt like I
did a pretty good job. I felt like the
Holy Spirit was at work. I noticed on several
occasions that it seemed like the congregation was fixed on what I was saying. When I finished, I went back to my seat where
Megan met me and whispered, “That was AMAZING!”
Then after it was over, I was bombarded with compliments. Lots of people told me what a great job I had
done. I had several conversations about
specific points I had made and how those points impacted certain individuals. I felt great.
What’s more, my father-in-law showed up to church for the first time
since his childhood and he really enjoyed it.
But what stood out to me was how
many people came up to me afterwards and said something like, “I’m so glad you
said what you said, these people really needed to hear that!” Someone even told me about a specific person
who needed to hear what I said. By FAR,
I got more people who told me that someone else needed to hear what I said than
I did people that told me “I really needed to hear that”. Now, a lot of people told me that also. But the ones who were thinking about how
others needed to hear it outnumbered those ones.
I don’t like that. Don’t ever let that be you!
But anyway, here’s my real point
for this post. The first thing I did
when I came into the office this morning was watch the video of my sermon. Know what I found? I stuttered throughout the sermon. I said “umm” and other vocal pauses a LOT
more than I remember. At the beginning,
I took lots of deep breaths, showing my nervousness. The parts where I wanted to talk much faster
and much louder to emphasize my points… I talked a tiny bit faster and a tiny
bit louder. The parts where I wanted to
talk slower and softer… I talked a hint slower and a hint softer. The big finale where I wanted to end with one
last impact was anti-climactic. I also
discovered that I’m not very animated on the stage, I read way too much, and I
even have a weird way that I say my “S” sounds which can get obnoxious at
times.
I am NOT a preacher. I would have gotten a “C” at the very best in
a public speaking class.
But I am convinced that the
experience we had in that room yesterday was powerful and impacted lives. I believe that the Holy Spirit was at work in
a supernatural way yesterday morning. I
believe God was able to use my willingness combined with his ability to convict
people to further his kingdom yesterday.
God can use you. You may not be the most talented person in
the world. You may have a lot of
insecurities about certain areas of life.
But God doesn’t require you to have abilities or confidence in
yourself. God just requires willingness
and confidence in him!
Are you willing to place your confidence in
him? Will you join me in this fight for
God’s Kingdom?
