My First Preaching Experience

Last week I spent most of my free time preparing for the first worship service that I would be leading. To say that I wasn't anxious would be a lie. In fact, there were points in the week where there was a black cloud of worry in the back of my mind, partially paralyzing me from living life to fullest. But the Lord works in mysterious ways. As I spent time in the Bible I began to find words of comfort that helped fight off the cloud of worry in my mind, namely Matthew 10:20. In it Jesus says, "do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." After reading this, I had a driving force behind my work. I decided to preach on the interceding work of the Holy Spirit.

I later stumbled upon an analogy by James Packer. He says, “Like a floodlight, it is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder on to Jesus who stands facing us. The Spirit's message to us is never, ‘Look at me; listen to me; come to me; get to know me’, but always, ‘Look at him, and see his glory; listen to him and hear his word; go to him and have life; get to know him and taste his gift of joy and peace.'"

I saw a chance to learn from the selfless work of the Holy Spirit. Like a floodlight, we should put all of our thoughts, words, and actions into shining towards Jesus. Matthew 10:20 made me think of how the Spirit can provide us with the words to speak and James Packer's analogy tells of how the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us. If we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us, Jesus will be illuminated brightly to us. Just as a floodlight makes an object appear, if we listen to the Holy Spirit, Jesus' words and path for us will appear clearly.

When Sunday morning rolled around, there was some rainy weather and no one showed up for our morning services. Katelyn and I used the time to have our own worship service. It was good practice to actually go through with the service even if there was no congregation. After the service we went to have communion, took a hike, worshiped with some of the other Christian Ministry members and came back for our evening service. Katelyn and I got set up at our amphitheater and began to talk about about our understandings of heaven and Jesus 2nd coming. Time passed as we discussed more theological topics. When we finally stopped talking, we realized the time for people to come to our service had passed. Again, no one had showed up. I decided to spend some time in solitude. I walked thirty yards to the edge of the lake and that's when God really spoke to me: in soft tranquility.