About the time this is being posted I will be speaking at our gathering of the church. This is nothing new for me, I have delivered a fair number of sermons in my time as a Christian. The big difference is that the meeting this morning doesn't center around the message I am preparing. Most of the time when I was delivering a sermon, the whole gathering focused around that. We did some praying and sang a few songs but the centerpiece was the sermon. If it was a dud, the whole gathering seemed to be deflated. If it went great, well that made the whole gathering seem to be better. This morning our real focus is on the breaking of bread in an open setting where the brothers all can participate, on an interactive discussion of apologetic during Sunday school and on a shared time of fellowship.
I can't even describe how different it feels. While I certainly have spent a fair amount of time preparing what I am going to share this morning, I don't feel the burden of being the centerpiece of what is for most people the focal point of their week as a Christian. I am just a brother among my peers sharing from the Word of God and next week a different brother will be doing the sharing. It is not a perfect gathering by any stretch and there are some things I would change but I am glad that the focus is not on me and what I have to say because that makes it a lot easier to focus our attention where it should be, i.e. on Jesus Christ!
To God Alone Be The Glory!
Soli Deo Gloria!
1 comment:
Arthur, almost my entire church experience has been one in which the sermon was the center of the worship service, the center of Sunday, the center of life, essentially. Or if not central, at least the most important thing in the week.
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