Preaching

The Word of God ~ A Prayer

/ The Pastor

This is a prayer I wrote to be prayed before the sermon today. I am intentional with these prayers because to preach God’s word is such an awesome task and opportunity. To listen to God’s word is also an awesome thing. Its something you don’t want to take for granted. So I invite you to receive this prayer and really think about this gift that we have in the Bible:

THE…WORD…OF…GOD.

Wow! Amazing, isn’t it?

So let’s pray…

Oh Father God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; to listen to Your word is such an awesome thing as Your words are life and salvation. Your words provide comfort and peace in a dark world. Your words are hope and strength as Satan seeks to bring us down. And so it is with all humility that we seek Your Holy Spirit to break through the walls of our hardened hearts, that we may receive Your word. For it is only through your grace that we can hear this Good News and be transformed to Your will. So bless our hearing this morning that Your words may take up residence in our hearts. Bless our lives that we may serve others and therefore glorify You for You are an awesome God. All praise and worship and honor and glory be to You, oh God, our Rock and Redeemer; in Jesus name I pray, Amen.

May God bless your hearing of His holy Word today and always.

The Pastor -|—

Living in the Stone Age

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

I’ve been a pastor for just over 10 1/2 years (plus a year of internship) and through that time I have preached a lot of sermons:
Sunday
Weddings
Funerals
Community ecumenical services
Nursing home
Etc…

And for the most part I have used a manuscript on multiple pieces of paper, until Aug 2013, when I bought a tablet. I then discovered the joy of preaching off my tablet and not fumbling with papers. It felt like I had left the stone age and entered modern times through a time machine or some kind of Star Trek wormhole.

Approximately one and a half years of preaching with technological bliss 🙂

CRASH

That is the sound of my tablet up and dying on me. RIP 😦

And so I had to use paper in worship this past Sunday (oh the horror). And let me tell you, that was awkward. Amazing what one gets used to over time. In any case, I ordered a new tablet on Monday with a delivery date of TODAY 🙂

FAIL

Yup…that’s right. I got sent the wrong one.
Grrrrrr 😦

And now I have to suffer through another Sunday preaching in the stone age.

[Cue the weeping and gnashing of teeth]

My wife rolls her eyes at me but she just doesn’t understand the crisis I am in. I fear dropping pages off the pulpit and looking like a bumbling buffoon. Where is the wormhole when I need it. Hopefully Amazon can sense my pain and speed this delivery up, but I am not going to hold my breath. So in the mean time, I need to start stone age training again; getting my paper holding fingers back into shape.

It is in cases like this I am glad that the proclamation of the Word is not up to me; because in the words of Martin Luther, I would surely bring it all to ruin.

Oh well, wish me luck.
Come, Holy Spirit.

The Pastor -|—

Preparing to Listen/Preach ~ Holy Words

/ The Pastor

The following is the prayer I wrote to be prayed before the sermon. This was inspired by a quote I heard from a person who used to be a faithful teacher of the Bible but now says that Scripture is from human origin; basically, not the inspired Word of God. Sad really. So I couldn’t help but lament the negative conversion of this pastor and seek God’s blessing as we listen to this holy Word.

Let’s pray…

Lord God almighty, holy scripture is breathed out by you; inspired by you; and therefore are words that come from Your holy mouth. This is nothing to take lightly but yet many take Your holy words and claim they are nothing more than mindless babble from human minds long dead and irrelevant. What a travesty. May we never see Your words that way but rather see them as words of life; revealing our salvation through faith Jesus Christ. And so, speak life, oh God. Create, strengthen and nourish faith here. May we heed Your words to listen to Jesus in order to bring glory to Your holy name. Send Your Spirit now and bless these words. May they come from Your mouth and not mine. All praise, glory and honor be to You, oh God, our Rock and Redeemer, Amen.

And let’s continue praying that God’s Word is considered holy and true. It was written by men but inspired by God.

May God bless your hearing of his holy Word and the proclamation of that Word.

The Pastor -|—

Covenant faithfulness ~ A Lenten Prayer

/ The Pastor

Tonight we join with our brothers and sisters in Christ, from First Presbyterian Church, for Lenten worship. My colleague and close friend are preaching through the Old Testament texts assigned, through the Revised Common Lectionary, for the previous Sunday.

Last week my friend preached about the covenant with Noah and all of creation following the great flood. Tonight I get the privilege of preaching on Genesis 17:1-16; the covenant with Abraham and Sarah and their descendants. These two texts are wonderful texts that set up the Gospel of grace through Jesus Christ. And I can hardly wait to proclaim this message.

Below is the prayer I wrote to pray before I preach and so I offer it to you tonight.

Let us pray…

Oh holy God, to gather around your Word is such an awesome privilege. To join with our brothers and sisters in Christ in worship is an awesome joy. And tonight, oh holy covenant-keeping God, we joyfully and expectantly and anxiously await the proclamation of your Word. And so I appeal to You to send Your Spirit to infuse these words with life and faith-filling purpose; for Your Word does not return to you empty. My words, on the other hand, are empty without Your Spirit. My words have no power or influence or life; only Your words do, Creator God. So may I be faithful to say what You have ordained me to say. And may I bring glory to Your holy name. Bless this time, oh God, and then send us forth to faithfully serve You in covenant faithfulness. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Let us come before the Lord our God in worship.

The Pastor -|—

JESUS!

/ The Pastor

A sermon, a message of hope or anything of the sort can never, ever just assume Jesus (not mentioning his name) because people will never assume Jesus. If your message is truly about the hope we have through faith in Jesus, then say it.

Say, write, proclaim, shout, sing ~ JESUS!

Don’t tip toe around Jesus and be bashful. Be unafraid and bold.

JESUS!

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” [Mark 8:38, ESV]

You are sinful, but Jesus is not ashamed of you. I mean, just look at the cross. He did that FOR YOU. So you, don’t be bashful.

JESUS!
JESUS!
JESUS!

The Pastor -|—

Something out of nothing

/ The Pastor

One of the many joys for me as a pastor is seeing God create something out of nothing. No, I am not talking about anything magical here but rather the Holy Spirit bringing about a sermon when I had nothing.

Often times I enter Thursday not knowing where I am going with a sermon. I know the text, since I am preaching through the Gospel of Mark, but I don’t always know what the message is. And there are many times when I am anxious about this even though I know I shouldn’t be; even though I know I should trust God.

Today was such a day.

I did my reading and note taking before “relocating my office” to my favorite coffee shop down town. I do this every Thursday (for the most part) and at the same time. I set up my computer, ordered my lunch to be brought to me at 11 AM, got my coffee and scotcheroo and off to work I went. This is my routine.

As I started writing I noticed that my fingers started flowing across the keyboard faster and faster and with purpose. The message started to materialize in front of me like a Star Trek transporter. And as the message became clear I got more and more excited and felt more and more guilty. I was excited as the Spirit was working through me to create this message but guilty that I didn’t trust God enough to not be anxious about it. I have been a pastor for 10 1/2+ years and God has not let me down. Every Sunday I was scheduled to preached, I preached a sermon. Never once did I show up on a Sunday morning with nothing.

And God does this in other ways in our lives; creates something out of nothing:
~ Opportunities to share our faith
~ Opportunities to serve one another
~ Faith where there was no faith
~ Purpose where there was hopelessness
~ Life where there was death

If only I had the faith to see this more often.

Oh God, increase my faith and sharpen my eyes to see you at work in this world.

Praise be to God!

The Pastor -|—

 

Sabbath rest

/ The Pastor

I thought I should come back today and write something a little more intelligent than the “May the fourth be with you” post from last night.  I guess it just goes to show that no public writing should take place after 10 p.m.  Actually, it is a little questionable now since I haven’t consumed my morning pot of coffee yet, so forgive me if things get weird 🙂

For 12 sermons now, I have been preaching through the Gospel of Mark.  Yesterday was Mark 2:21-22…

Yes, 12 sermons and I am not through the second chapter yet.

…But coming up this Sunday I will finish the 2nd chapter by proclaiming the Good News in verses 23-28 concerning the Sabbath Day, with the following verses capturing my attention this morning:

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

The Sabbath was made for me.
The Sabbath was made for you.

That is Good News.  I mean, think about it ~ the Sabbath was made for you to slow down and enjoy rest.  And I am not talking about sleeping in after a late Saturday night or enjoying a nap on the couch in the afternoon.  The rest that we are being given is rest in the promises of Jesus.  When we make the Sabbath Day about physical rest we miss the point.   Jesus’ death and resurrection frees us from the toil of justifying ourselves in the eyes of a holy God.  But through faith in Jesus, we are made right in God’s eyes and thus we can find holy rest through fellowship with God in worship, study of scripture and communion with other believers.

Sure, you can find rest for your bodies on the golf course or the lake or watching your children play a sport (on Sunday), but rest for your soul is found only through Jesus.  And if that is the case for you, then why wouldn’t you want to worship the King of the universe in the presence of other believers as the Good News is proclaimed TO YOU.

The Sabbath was made for you to enjoy the promises made to you through Jesus Christ.  May you enjoy a holy rest made possible only through the awesome and amazing grace of God.

The pastor -|—

Sometimes…

/ The Pastor / 3 Comments

Don’t judge me when you see me seemingly doing nothing:
~ Sometimes I just need to sit and reflect.
~ Sometimes I just need to savor the Word just read.
~ Sometimes I just need to talk to my Savior.
~ Sometimes I just need to slowly sip my coffee.
~ Sometimes I just need to daydream about the ministry before me.
~ Sometimes I just need to mull over a conversation.

Sometimes I look lazy, sometimes I look lost but whatever the case don’t judge me because it’s in those times I can be the most productive. Many people don’t understand how a pastor works because how a pastor works can be so different from how we saw our parents work. But a pastor’s work can be just as taxing thus the different kind of work we sometimes engage in.

Today I sat in the corner at my favorite coffee shop for an hour or so; holding my Google tablet, sipping coffee and nibbling on a cookie.

And that was work.

My finger nails didn’t get dirty and I don’t have sore muscles as you know them but the pastor does feel the effects of ministry thus my coffee shop work.

And as I walked back to my office; breathing in the cool winter air, I felt refreshed and ready to do some more “traditional” work; work that doesn’t draw the ire of some.

But now you may say, “Work? You’re writing a blog post. How is that work?” To answer that fully I would have to write another blog post but I’m not going to do that. So what I will say in response will have to suffice for now:

Sometimes I just have to write…

And that is work of a different kind; one that exercises the mind.  But now I’m off and ready to go; thankful for the “work” I did today.  May God be praised in all I do and say; and not just sometimes but always.

The pastor -|—

Stir, stir, stir

/ The Pastor

Holy and awesome God, you have called me to preach your Word to your people.  And this is an awesome calling; one that causes me to pause and wonder if I am being faithful.  So God, I ask that you may stir my heart that I may know your Spirit and therefore turn over the controls.  For if this task were left up to me I would surely bring it all to ruin.  

But this calling to preach your Word is not limited to Sunday morning.  And it’s not even limited to me as a pastor.  You have called all your people to preach your Word to everyone.  So in that light I ask that you may bless the children this morning as they preach your Word through their Christmas program.  

But also, bless each and everyone one of us as we head out into the world so that we may not fail to preach, but boldly share our faith whether called to be a pastor or not. For through faith in Jesus Christ, all believers are received into the priesthood of all believers and therefore we are called to preach. Stir our hearts continually so that we may give you glory, continually.

Loving and worthy God, we are here ~ stir, stir, stir…

In Jesus’ name, Amen!

The pastor -|—

One purpose

/ The Pastor

5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
[James 3:5-10]

I published a post a couple days ago titled, “A big fat lie”. I am not going to rehash what I said there as a way to get you up to speed here (I trust you are able to look back and read for yourself).  But what I am going to say is something that is rolling around in my heart as I prepare to preach this sermon on the 8th Commandment ~ “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”

How are you using your words?  Are they blessing and praising the Lord or bringing others down; people who were created in the image of God?  Are you crafting words together with the intention to create, build and maintain faith or are your words cursing others through inappropriate displays of power through gossiping and backstabbing.  What we say says a lot about our faith and relationship with Jesus.  What we don’t say also says a lot about us.

So as James says, how can a mouth bless and praise the Lord one minute and curse others the next.

This ought not be so!

As a fresh water spring can not produce salt water the same goes with the tongue.  The tongue has one purpose and one purpose only ~ to BLESS and PRAISE the Lord.

Amen?

Amen!

The pastor -|—