Anyone who has heard me preaching has heard this prayer of David before. It is the verse, that we pray, in some form, before the sermon at any and almost all of the Worship services that I lead, whether it is Sunday Worship, a funeral, a wedding, or whatever the occasion.
I begin every sermon with this prayer and I end it with a prayer, as well. I have been told that it is not necessary to pray at the beginning or the end of the sermon and I seriously did think about listening to those directions. But, found I could not. You see, I need God's help. In fact, I need, we need, God to speak through me; because no one needs to hear what I have to say; but, what God wants you to hear.
At, the beginning of each service, as I face the altar, I also usually pray something to akin to: "Send your Holy Spirit that your people might hear your Word, your will for them, and not mine." Sometimes, that prayer is only one word: "Help." I depend upon the Spirit of God to open the ears of each of the hearers so that everyone might hear God's word, his will and not mine for you.
One of the rules I follow in sermon writing is never talk politics. I cannot even begin to imagine myself endorsing a candidate from the pulpit! I've been asked about this by a few people as there are some who seem to think this is the preacher's job. However, the pulpit is for preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God. It is not for promoting a partisan view of the kingdom of this world. In regards to preaching politics, I am confident that it would definitely be my political views that would be expressed and not God's.
Sharing the Good News of the Kingdom through Jesus Christ is not about pleasing man. It is about pleasing God. In fact, often, people will not always be pleased with the message. Sometimes the very same sermon that will bring comfort to one hearer, will bring conviction to another. That, my friends, is the work of the Holy Spirit. God knows who is going to be at Worship on any given Sunday and He knows what they need to hear. And, if they have ears to hear, they will hear just what He wants them to hear. Thanks be to God!
It always amazes me when people tell me after the sermon that they were so moved when I talked about..... (whatever it was they heard). I don't tell them, I didn't actually say that. If that's what the Spirit wanted to say to them, if that's what they needed to hear, then so be it. And... the glory belongs to God!
Help us LORD! May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts and minds always be pleasing in your sight, O' Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.
God's Peace - Pastor J.
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