Sunday's Word

On more than one occasion I have written and preached a sermon and knew when it was done that it was for me. This it not an effort to toot my own preaching horn, but is instead, an acknowledgment that sometimes the preacher is most in need of the Word God is giving for the day.  I can remember a few times when I finished practicing my sermon delivery in the empty sanctuary on Saturday night that I was compelled to kneel at the altar in prayer.  It may sound strange that a preacher could experience conviction under his or her own preaching, but the Holy Spirit has been known to use some unusual means of getting the attention of those in need.     

This morning's sermon had that kind of feel when it was all said and done.  "Jesus does not promise a life empty of trouble.  What He does promise is that we will not be alone.  Wherever He leads us, He will have arrived ahead of us.  Whatever darkness we walk into in our journey of faith, He has already entered.  And He has not only entered it, but He has gone through it to the light which is out there beyond the darkness and which will once again lighten up the path so we can see."  

There is certainly nothing profound in these words I preached.  They have surely been said a thousand times before by far better preachers than the one who preached where I was this morning.  But, it came for me like a fresh word that I did not know I needed to hear.  Such is how the Spirit works through preaching.  He uses words strung together by frail and struggling preachers to say a Word that is needed by someone who shows up on Sunday morning.  I am convinced that the preacher who does not rise to the pulpit with this conviction needs to retire to the rocker on the front porch.