A Sobering Thought

As I have been thinking and preparing for my sermon, I've been hit with a very sobering thought.  I take preaching very seriously, because the more I read the Bible the more I see the gravity of preaching and the great responsibility that I have in that moment a minister of the Word.

I was reading in Acts 12 about the death of King Herod, and was completely bowled over by how it is described: "On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.  And the people were shouting, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!"  Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and was eaten by worms and breathed his last."

God killed Herod because Herod did not give God the glory for his words.  That is a really scary thought.  God is that zealous for His glory.  And I know that in my heart, no matter how much I pray to the contrary and ask the Holy Spirit to do His work in me, that when I stand there on Sunday morning, part of me is going to be hoping they are impressed by what I have to say.  The only reason I don't end up like Herod is that Jesus was struck down in my place.  That's my only hope, and so I've got to go to the pulpit with the cross front and center in my heart.

My sermon is about big, weighty things-- the glory of God, the definition of faith.  Jesus said in John 7:18, "The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory."  Well, I've learned from Herod that seeking my own glory is a really, really bad idea.  So I must be tethered tightly to the Word and derive all my authority from its eternal truth.  If I veer away from what the Word of God says into the murky territory of my opinion and suggestion and authority, I seek my own glory.  Lord, protect me from pride!

Prepared For Joy

I was reading in "The Valley of Vision" last night and came across this incredible line: "Thou art preparing joy for me and me for joy."

What a thought!  At this very moment, Christ is in heaven preparing joy for me.  "In my Father's house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?" (John 14:2)  And what characterizes this place He prepares?  "In Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Psalm 16:11)  Jesus is preparing joy for me.

And He is also preparing me for joy.  His Spirit is working to keep me from falling away, and the end result of that persevering power is joy.  "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.  Amen." (Jude 24-25)  He is empowering my servanthood, and the end result of that empowered love is joy.  "His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.  Enter into the joy of your master.'" (Matthew 25:21)  He is sustaining me through sovereignly ordained sorrow, which is designed to enlarge my joy.  "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith... may be found to result in  praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:6-9)  All these verses point towards the glory of God as the highest goal, but the glory of God seems to be inexorably linked to my joy.  So in every moment of every day, God is glorifying Himself as He prepares me for joy.  Good news!

Preaching, Update

For the last week or so, I've been working on my sermon for this Sunday.  I've decided to go with the text of Jeremiah 2:11-13.

Has a nation changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory

for that which does not profit.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this;

be shocked, be utterly desolate,

declares the LORD,

for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters,

and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water.

What really jumped out at me from this passage is verse 11- "My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit."  Isaiah 60 tells us that their glory is God Himself.  So just like in Romans 1, when humanity "exchanges the glory of the immortal God for images," here the people of Israel exchange the glory of God for that which does not profit-- the fountain of living water in exchange for broken cisterns.  Do you see what the implications of verse 11 are?  If the charge is that they exchanged their glory for what does not profit, the obvious implication is: "Pursue the glory that profits!"  It's Christian hedonism, and its everywhere you look.  So my sermon on Sunday is going to be all about this glory that profits.  The title of the sermon is, "Fountains, Faith, and Fullness: Pursuing the Glory that Profits."

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.