Tomorrow, I get the opportunity to speak at FSBC's Breakaway worship service. This has actually been kind of a blessing and answer to prayer. Earlier this year talking with some of my mentors/teachers one of the things that I wanted to really work at getting better in was preaching. Well this weekend has definitely given me that chance as all in one week I get to do it three times! Honestly, I'm a little freaked, because I haven't even gotten comfortable or confident in preparing one sermon much less three! Needless, to say I'm a little nervous. I'm most concerned about speaking at FSBC, because it is my home church and several of my mentors/teachers and other influential people in my life will be there. So I'm just a little scared about how I end up doing.
However, as nervous as I am and maybe feeling overwhelmed, I have learned a bit more about myself and I guess the goal of preaching. Through this past week and reflecting on other sermon prep times, I became conscious of thread within each experience. I don't know how much of this is just me or if this is something essential to preaching, but in each experience I've identified 3 basic questions that need to be answered. The first is, who God is. The second is who man is. And finally, what God has done for man. What I've found is that in preparing for any topic each of these questions must be answered in some way because the answer has huge implications for how we are to respond to the message being given.
If the topic is finances, we need to know that God is the owner of all things. Man deserves nothing. However, God is the giver of all good gifts. Each thing that we have is a gift of God, but ultimately none of it belongs to us. So to thank God for loaning us what we have we should be good stewards of what He has given us and be using the resources that we've been blessed with to fulfill God's mission.
That might not be worded the best way but it's true. And in each topic that comes up I think that answering those questions is a vital part to faithfully and responsibly presenting the Word of God. It also leads well into prompting a response toward the action of God.
In one sense it prompts a reactionary action toward God and in another sense it prompts a exemplary action. What I mean by exemplary is that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we should be doing what our Master does. Christians should be mimicking the action of the teacher. So when reactionary action is positive then action is prompted from gratitude, while exemplary action is spurred on from duty and sometimes inspiration.
So I'd appreciate all of your prayers as I chart unfamiliar waters tomorrow. My mind is already frazzled trying to figure out how to prepare for three separate topics.
However, as nervous as I am and maybe feeling overwhelmed, I have learned a bit more about myself and I guess the goal of preaching. Through this past week and reflecting on other sermon prep times, I became conscious of thread within each experience. I don't know how much of this is just me or if this is something essential to preaching, but in each experience I've identified 3 basic questions that need to be answered. The first is, who God is. The second is who man is. And finally, what God has done for man. What I've found is that in preparing for any topic each of these questions must be answered in some way because the answer has huge implications for how we are to respond to the message being given.
If the topic is finances, we need to know that God is the owner of all things. Man deserves nothing. However, God is the giver of all good gifts. Each thing that we have is a gift of God, but ultimately none of it belongs to us. So to thank God for loaning us what we have we should be good stewards of what He has given us and be using the resources that we've been blessed with to fulfill God's mission.
That might not be worded the best way but it's true. And in each topic that comes up I think that answering those questions is a vital part to faithfully and responsibly presenting the Word of God. It also leads well into prompting a response toward the action of God.
In one sense it prompts a reactionary action toward God and in another sense it prompts a exemplary action. What I mean by exemplary is that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we should be doing what our Master does. Christians should be mimicking the action of the teacher. So when reactionary action is positive then action is prompted from gratitude, while exemplary action is spurred on from duty and sometimes inspiration.
So I'd appreciate all of your prayers as I chart unfamiliar waters tomorrow. My mind is already frazzled trying to figure out how to prepare for three separate topics.
," by Jerry Bridges. A friend had given it to me years earlier, but I'd never gotten around to reading it. So I figured, now is as good a time as any. Then "BAM!" The third page and first point of the book just hit me in the face. "Our first problem is that our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered. We are more concerned about our own 'victory' over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God."
" As I started practicing it in my office, I was taken back to a place I was 7 years ago, broken over sin and struggling with submitting to God's authority and call on my life. I decided to look up the passage the song comes from which is Jeremiah 18: