Someone emailed me recently thanking me for the wonders of the gospel I enjoyed teaching and communicating to them. I like the phrase 'the wonders of the gospel,' and I use it extensively because it captures at least a small measure of the magnificence of God's work in Christ. Objectively, the gospel is beautiful: the Person of Jesus, what God has done and continues to do in Christ, redemption, reconciliation, forgiveness, justification—oh, the sheer, utter wonder that defies description. And we must dwell on it until it transforms our perception of reality, and my task is to bring people to a place where they are not just happy to be saved, but where they are aware of, deeply touched by, and transformed by the nature of God and His purposes.
However, in preaching all this, I cannot help but wonder who benefits most from it, my listeners or myself? In general I don't usually 'preach to myself,' as I've often heard preachers say, and perhaps have had occasion to say myself. I usually preach what is already in my mind, strongly to bless the church. So when God puts something on my heart to preach about, I not only study but I let Him work on my heart so that when I give the message, it's already burning within me. For me it's simple, if I'm not moved by the message myself, why should others be? And then my heart cries out to God, oh if only Your people could grasp this, help me to preach Lord.
And not just that they grasp it but that they be changed by it because what God aims for is more than information, he aims for transformation. So when you receive teaching on a subject it is a golden opportunity to be transformed in that area, and not just acquire more knowledge. So I encourage people to pray over the message they receive and pray the corresponding verses into their lives. Well lately we have been focusing on the fervor 'be fervent in spirit', and as usual when I started the message I was already bubbling. We spent time in prayer, praying for people, and I was so happy to see God touch people deeply, both young and old Christians.
But I should have known, there was a heavenly ambush there. God took me by surprise again. It fell upon me the other day in prayer, God stirred me in every sense. The awareness of the splendor of God and the grandeur of the gospel (which I had evoked on Sunday) enveloped me completely and what to do but abandon myself completely to Him. And there arose in force this overflowing love, this extraordinary fervor for God, followed by songs, praise, worship and total consecration to God. Glorious, but also profound; a time of renewed fervor, of passion, of total commitment to God's purposes, of total conviction of the rightness of His way.
God ambushed this preacher and the waterer got watered hard hah! He does it all the time and He does it well. Love and passion for God are the driving forces of my life and ministry. I will not preach a God I am not crazy about and a gospel I am not convinced is absolutely true. My only prayer is that He will continue to give me the grace to communicate to others the perfect beauty of Christ and convince them to go beyond the ordinary and devote their lives to the only cause worth living, that of Christ.
Shalom!
