Dateline: Counseling Session
At the beginning of the year I started preaching through the Book of Matthew. This week I will be preaching chapter 5, verse 10. Since I had preached the Beatitudes in the past I am able to look over my previous sermon notes and compare them to the messages I am currently preaching. I thought this would make for an interesting juxtaposition because I now have several years' experience preaching and education under my belt since I last preached them. As it turns out, there is not much difference between the messages from then and now. In other words, the inexperienced and uneducated version of me preached the same message as the guy writing this today.
Why? The Holy Spirit is real; God really does speak to us through His Word; and the more we study the Bible, the more we discover how timeless and true it is.
I am not saying that Bible College and seminary are a waste of time and effort when it comes to preaching. An old quote I once read said, "Preparation is as wings, not weights, to the Holy Spirit." These institutions give a minister the resources needed to make sermon writing a whole lot easier (and faster). Plus, I have file upon file of lecture and textbook notes that have proven invaluable to my calling. What I am saying is that this experience has reminded me of the gift that is the power of the Holy Spirit. When I first wrote sermons on the Beatitudes all I had was God's Word and His Holy Spirit. I am a living example that by the power of the Holy Spirit any Christian can proclaim the Gospel in such a way that it rivals, and exceeds, the messages preached by those who have years of theological education (by the way, Acts chapter 2 verifies this deduction). In fact, because of the Holy Spirit, all of us have the power to do "greater things" for the cause of Jesus Christ in this world (John 14).
So, brothers and sisters, what does the Holy Spirit want to do through you?
