Acts 2:32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.

This was not a prepared sermon! That really hit me just now as I read it yet again. Peter, an uneducated fisherman, gave a logically connected, theologically accurate message in which he quoted multiple Scriptures and proclaimed the eternal plans of God. Sermon preparation is not a bad thing, certainly, but it is no substitute for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This was of course on the occasion when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers, but He has not changed in the 2000 years since then. Those to whom God gives the opportunity and responsibility to preach need to seek first for the guidance of the Spirit, and then apply whatever tools they have been given to the message they are given. Some people have a gift for oratory, but that is no guarantee they will speak God’s message in God’s words. Adolph Hitler was obviously gifted as an orator, and no one would say for a moment that he preached God’s Word! That’s not at all to say that preachers aren’t to hone their craft, as the saying goes. Failing to do so is presumptive. However, if the message isn’t God’s, and the motivation His Spirit, then the results will ultimately be empty. At the same time, the hearers bear responsibility as well. We aren’t to be completely uncritical of the sermons we hear, because few are completely pure. Most especially, when we hear a message that the Spirit within us confirms is from God, then we are accountable to apply it and put it into practice. And that applies to preachers as well. Jesus was the only preacher to ever do perfectly everything the Father said through Him. Every preacher needs to realize, in all humility, that they are the first target of every sermon they preach.

I have been a preacher for the majority of my life. I was ordained in 1979, but I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1974, and at this point I’m liable to start preaching any time I start talking! That said, preaching class in seminary was quite frustrating. In the first place, quite a few people, both students and faculty, couldn’t understand why I was taking it, because I was a Religious Education major. In the second place, the focus was entirely on technique, and I was required to quote commentaries in every sermon I prepared. The “icing on the cake,” so to speak, was when the teaching assistant, a doctoral student, graded me down on my final sermon, from Isaiah 1, because I used exactly the terminology Isaiah did. The teaching assistant said my terminology was “too extreme!” Today, experience has made creating a coherent outline much easier, but I approach every sermon as an opportunity for God to speak through me, rather than for me to express my own ideas. In my observation, He’s been marvelously faithful to do that. I am periodically asked to record short messages for CGN, (Christian Global Network) a broadcasting company out of Korea, and I’ll be doing that again in about 9 days. The producer who called me this time said that they always look forward to coming here, because I preach real messages! Since I record three, back-to-back, I obviously reuse messages I’ve preached here, but I’m careful to let the Lord show me which ones, and He’s in charge of how they come out. I actually spend very little time in preparing messages, because the Lord speaks to me so consistently in my morning devotional times, and I just relay what He has said to me. I do have a sheet of paper on the wall beside me here that says, “Preaching to Change Lives,” that actually has done me more good than my seminary class, but I apply the points in it only after I hear what God wants me to say. I never want to preach beautifully crafted trash!

Father thank You for the incredible privilege of preaching Your Word, Your words. May I never be presumptive, but rather be a responsive vessel for Your use, so that Your Word may accomplish, in and through me, everything for which You send it, (Isaiah 55:10-11) for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!