Good morning preachers and teachers of Anthem Church/Salt Columbia,
Hopefully last week's reminder that words require work and preaching and teaching require labor have encouraged you to make time to sweat over your upcoming sermons and to adopt new practices and exercises to help you grow stronger as you dig deeper for the love of God's Word and the good of those who He draws to hear from us. Also, hopefully it has encouraged you when sermon writing has felt hard and difficult. It is supposed to be hard. It is supposed to be work/labor.
TODAY: word-centric work
The work we do can ONLY be done with words: preaching, teaching, discipleship, counseling, etc... is word-centric work. You can drive a truck without saying a word, you can paint a canvas without speaking, you can walk beans, lay brick, cook or clean without talking, but you cannot preach, teach, admonish, instruct, disciple, counsel, encourage, etc... without words.
In other words... words matter.
ROMANS 10:8-17
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
In order for us to do the work that only we can do, we must use words. As you prepare for your next sermon, think about the actual words you are using. Not just the point you are trying to make, but the words you are using to make that point: the number of words, the color/temperature of the words, the flavor/spice of the words, the volume, the melody, the sharpness, the speed, etc.... Do the words themselves complement the message from your text?
I love you guys. Hopefully you are finding this helpful. As you seek to employ and adopt some of these for your next sermons, may it become part of your regular sermon preparation to the glory of God and the good of those whose ears He brings to hear our preaching/teaching engagements.
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