My 1 year sabbatical officially concluded last week, and I preached my first full sermon last Sunday in over a year and boy did I feel rusty! I felt like I was preaching for the first time all over again. Even during the preparation of it, I felt like I was taking baby steps all over again.
To be honest, the whole process for me was very frustrating. It's a skill and a craft I was once so comfortable with and now I felt like I was starting all over again. This was by far the longest I had ever gone without preaching since I started ministry over 12 years ago ... but before I spent too much time feeling sorry for myself, I had to re-read a book that has always kept preaching (and the preacher) in the proper perspective for me. It's a book that humbles me every time I read it and reminds of the sacredness of pulpit ministry ... it reminds me that preaching is all about exalting Christ ... it reminds me that before stepping in front of God's people, I need to kneel down before God Himself ... to humble myself before Him and surrender myself before His throne of grace.
I have always felt that proclaiming His Word and His Gospel before others was one of the greatest honors I could ever experience in my life. And last weekend was a good reminder that preparing and delivering a sermon is a sacred honor, it is hard work and it something that should be done with fear and trembling before a holy God.
Please Pray for Me (and all the preachers/pastors in your life) So if you are able, please pray for me to always have this holy fear and reverence of God and His calling upon my life ... and to the task of preaching His Word. Pray I would be faithful to the text and faithful to the task ... and above all, please pray that Christ would be exalted on high as supreme above all other things ever time I open my mouth. Thank you for your precious prayers.
"If God is not supreme in our preaching, where in this world will the people hear about the supremacy of God? If we do not spread a banquet of God's beauty on Sunday morning, will not our people seek in vain to satisfy their inconsolable longing with the cotton candy pleasures of pastimes and religious hype? If the fountain of living water does not flow from the mountain of God's sovereign grace on Sunday morning, will not the people hew for themselves cisterns on Monday, broken cisterns that can hold no water?" John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching
A place we never noticed before
I have no idea
Circular Quay was packed
A funny hat of the bridge
A street entertainer doing his thing
The Harbor Bridge's BDay
Taking a break
