I'm going to be on TV

I don't normally write blogs about what's going on in my life, but this is an interesting thing that has recently happened to me. We have someone in our church who works at TBN, (yes you read that right), and has asked Chuck (our youth minister) and myself if we'd be willing to be interviewed. We both said yes. But what I am finding difficult is what I want to talk about.

This blog is based on the fact that I have the message of God burning within and I can't hold it or I will explode. These interviews that we are to do will be on the one "non-religious" programming that the FCC (not florida christian college) requires TBN to carry. Therefore, we are not allowed to talk at length about Jesus, the church, or things of a spiritual nature. My topic is to discuss family. So my concern is, how do I talk about family without talking about Jesus?

This is not an easy thing for me. I believe that Jesus is at the core of the family unit. I believe that without a proper understanding of God and His plan of creation and redemption, then we can not properly understand the dynamics of a family. I guess I did not realize how difficult the task would be when I agreed.

What I plan on doing is focusing my efforts on the externals of a family, how sin has caused the break down of the family (won't use the word sin of course) and what a proper family would look like. Please pray for Chuck and myself as we try to figure out how to be true to God in this task.

Who's Writing Our Sermons?

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." I Corinthians 1:21-25

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." I Corinthians 2:12-13

Paul was very clear on this matter. He did not author this message of Christ and Christ crucified. Not Paul, nor any Jew, nor any Gentile had authored this message which Paul preached. It's too crazy to the world! How ridiculous does it seem to us that God, the master and creator of the universe would be willing to die for a creation that had rejected Him? How many husbands would naturally be inclined to welcome back a wife who had cheated on him multiple times and had never shown much affection for him? Better yet, what if your friend kept taking back a wife who had cheated on him multiple times? What kind of words would you use to describe that friend? Most of the words would have derived from one, "foolish."

Paul's message was so crazy, that it had to have come from God. Paul takes no credit for the message he preached. How can preachers learn from this? By asking the question, "who writes my sermons?" I am finding that far too often there is a tendency for preachers today to fill their sermons with the wisdom of this world. We begin with a need we see in the world and then search for that scripture which helps us to alleviate the pain of that need. We then get caught up in "writing" sermons, chocked full of ideas, stories, and advice.

But preaching is not a religious advice talk. It is not just another form of communication. It is the means by which God has ordained for the truth of the Gospel to be spread. It is by hearing that sinners are saved, it is by the power of the Word that the dead are brought to life. Life is inherent in the words of Christ and if that life is to be had, then it is the words of Christ that must be spoken in our sermons. We need to be sold out on the fact that God is the author of our sermons. He does the writing, we do the preaching. That's how it worked for Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul, Peter, Luther, Spurgeon, and all other faithful ministers of the Word. Where God spoke, they spoke.

So who writes our sermons? Do we spend more time digging for truth in the text or more time thinking of a creative way to explain the text? Is our energy in understanding and applying God's word to our own lives or in figuring out how to captivate people's attention? Are the sermons we preach full of scripture and the power of the cross or are they full of quotations and the power of the laugh? Who is writing your sermons?