Preaching

One of the greatest privileges I have is the opportunity to preach on occasion at Center Presbyterian Church in New Castle, PA where I am currently serving an internship as Assistant to the Pastor.  "Preach the Word," Paul solemnly charges Timothy in 2 Timothy 4.  It is a charge whose gravity and glory I do not take lightly.  For half an hour, I stand as God's representative with the responsibility to faithfully, powerfully, and passionately present the Word of God in its fullness.  How can I even begin to rise to do that?

The obvious answer is, of course, that I can't.  My words are a feeble and failing breath, with no power to build up unless inhabited and empowered by the Spirit.  But God's words are living and active, and when they go out from Him, they never return void.  I think Isaiah 40:6-9 captures the high calling of a preacher well:

A voice says, "Cry!"

And I said, "What shall I cry?"

All flesh is grass,

and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

when the breath of the LORD blows on it;

surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.

Get up on a high mountain,

O Zion, herald of good news;

Lift up your voice with strength,

O Jerusalem, herald of good news;

lift it up, fear not;

say to the cities of Judah,

"Behold your God!"

"Behold your God" should be the central cry of all preaching.  With that highest and most glorious calling in mind, I'm preparing my next sermon.  I have been given the great grace to preach on Sunday, November 2nd.  I haven't settled on a text yet.  Please pray for me as I prepare over these next two weeks, that I would be given a spirit of humility and power to preach the Word in such a way that the Gospel is seen as powerful, Christ is seen as precious, and God receives all the glory that is rightly His.