So I taught on prayer last night at the Mix. If you were there, remember that prayer is our lifeline to God, so no prayer means no life.
(That was my "one thing", a la Andy Stanley's book "Communicating for a Change.")
I must tell you that I was really nervous and uncomfortable about my message; I wrote the main outline a couple of weeks ago and filled in the "meat" of the message this week, but I felt very uncomfortable about it for several days and I just could not figure out why. I wanted to rewrite it and kept asking God to show me what He wanted me to say, and in the end I was not able to rewrite it at all.
That was a really good thing - a God thing, really.
See, after investing some time with God on Wednesday, I felt good about the message. I felt it was what God wanted me to speak. All week long I have been asking - nay, begging - the Holy Spirit to anoint me and inspire me and fill me as I spoke. I'm always nervous when I have to preach because I recognize that being a preacher is a huge calling from God, and 2 Timothy 2:15 sets a high standard for how I must handle God's Word. When Thursday night rolled around, I was nervous because I had only had a chance to look over my notes once since I had written my message and I did not want to improperly handle God's Word.
Right before we started the program, I had Lee Loper pray for me and it's like he knew what was on my mind even though I didn't say anything about being nervous. He prayed for me to be courageous and when he prayed that word, I knew God was gonna do something great. Our youth lead worshipper band did a pretty great job and for the first time in a long time, I just got lost in worshipping God through music as we sang.
When they finished their last song, I went up and it was like all the nervousness and anxiety just fell right off of me and the Spirit of God fell on me like the heavy rainfall that was going on right outside the Firehouse.
So I went up on stage and man did I preach! I felt courageous and bold, felt God's power in me, and knew it was God speaking to me and through me. I saw several people wiping away tears in their eyes and even the brand-new 7th graders were engaged and listening to my every word.
It was amazing and it was totally a God-night. It was His anointing on me, it was Him keeping the crowd under control and engaged with the message. It was Him working on the hearts and minds of everyone in the audience, and I believe that He did something last night which we will begin to see the fruit of pretty soon.
God's doing great things at Del Sol Church's Fire Youth Ministry. I'm humbled and honored that as 1 Timothy 1:12 (NLT) says, Christ "considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve Him."
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