Thursday, March 15, 2012

The Best Sermons Ever

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the LORD and put their trust in him. -Psalm 40:3-4 (NIV)

The best sermons that I've ever heard were not given by preachers. I know what you're thinking: they should have been. After all, preachers go to seminary. Preachers take preaching classes. Preachers buy preaching books. Preachers only work one day a week so, on the other six days, they should be crafting brilliant manuscripts and standing in front of mirrors perfecting oratorical skills. Preachers ought to preach the best sermons because that's what they're trained to do and that's what they get paid to do.

I won't argue with you. If you're going to call yourself a preacher, you ought to be a good one. But the best sermons I've ever heard have come from people who've never been to seminary. They've never purchased a book about preaching. They've likely never stood in front of a mirror for anything other than brushing their teeth or combing their hair.

Who were these preachers that I consider the best? They were people who, like the psalmist in today's reading, found themselves mired in the messiness of life. They were people in a pit too deep and too wide to crawl out of on their own. So they waited. They waited on the Lord. And the Lord heard their cries. The Lord lifted them up out of the pit in which they were trapped and set them on solid ground.

Then something incredible happened. The Lord put a new song in their mouths and they started praising God. They started telling anyone who would listen what God had done for them. Their testimony, their sermon, was so powerful that many others began to place their trust in the Lord as a result.

Has God heard your cry? Has God lifted you out of some pit and placed you on solid ground? Has God put a new song into your mouth? Then you have a sermon to share. You may never go to seminary. You may never stand in front of hundreds of people on a Sunday morning. But you can still be a preacher. You can proclaim what God has done in your life with a neighbor, friend, or co-worker.

And I can almost guarantee that if you will share what God has done in your life, others will place their trust in the Lord. God will place a new song in their mouths. The kingdom will grow.

May God grant you the grace to try being a preacher today. I have a feeling that what you share will one day be regarded as one of the best sermons someone else has ever heard.



If you're interested in reading through the Bible in a year, tomorrow's readings are Deuteronomy 32-34 and 1 Corinthians 2.

If you're interested in receiving these devotionals by email each day, look for the yellow block just below this post.

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