Encouragement as I prepare to preach
Imagine my surprise to read the following post over at Miscelanies on the Gospel . To be honest it was just what I needed tonight. It is probably a bit over the top, but I need to remember that it is as wrong for me to be sitting here doubting that God has made me to be a fit preacher to preach in the cinema tomorrow as it is for me to be complacent and self-sufficient. This has been a busy weekend, and right now I am casting myself on the mercy of God. I am crying out for more of that same mercy which has taken me before and made my words to be of some use to others. Its a strange thing preaching, for when it works right you know that you are being carried along by the Holy Spirit, and so it feels right to see the thanks you get as rebounding in praise to the God who has assisted you in the noble task of preaching. I finally got a chance to listen to Adrian's preaching series on Galatians. Adrian is a preaching pastor (though strangely he is not even mentioned on the website) at Jubilee Church, a local church a part of the New Frontiers Church movement (Sovereign Grace counterpart in the UK). On a side note, of all the coolest places to meet for worship, Jubilee Church meets here, in Screen 10 of CineWorld. How cool is that? I love to listen to Adrian preach. These sermons are downright fantastic. Loved every sermon and plan on listening to them again. Download them to your Ipod or favorite MP3 player right now through the links listed below. After listening, drop Adrian a line to let him know your thoughts, what the Lord taught you while listening, and how God used these sermons to change you. Remember to right click, select "Save Target As", select the directory where you want to download to, and then click "Save."
And yet, all preachers I know seem to struggle with feeling that there is so much more to be had. So much further that the preaching experience can take us. So much more annointing, more passion, more drive, more insight, more grace, more faith, more love, more hope, more understanding to be had. O for MORE as we preach tomorrow. Like Lloyd-Jones I know that I have never REALLY preached as I would like to.
Please pray for me tonight, and for the preacher that YOU will be hearing in your church tomorrow. Pray that as they speak they will be hearing God, and he will be speaking through them.
For it is an encounter with the living God in his word that I am crying out for tonight, in order to take something from the throne of God into the household of God, which for us tomorrow is the biggest screen that our multiplex holds. Barring a miracle of revival we will not fill the screen tomorrow, but I am trusting that one day we will.
May God make my preaching tomorrow the kind that is worth hundreds of people turning out to hear. That will be some kind of miracle in itself when I think of me and my somewhat limited qualifications. And yet, people do keep saying that by Gods grace the preaching of Jubilee is making a differnce to them. For that I praise God and am so very grateful to him.
Anyway, here are the somewhat over the top words of Rob Wilkerson. Incidently, just for the record I am not a paid pastor- in a model of ministry which I suspect is unusual in the states I preach whilst having a fulltime job.
