1 Corinthians 12:27

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We are the body of Christ. That was the topic of my sermon I preached on Saturday. Yup, I preached a sermon. I was asked during the song service between SS and church to pray for church service; so I went back to the back room to prep with the rest. While we were back there it became obvious that the person who was going to preach wasn’t there. I looked around me and thought rather impulsively, I’ll preach. I really was afraid that if someone else did it would be a long boring scattered sermon. So in reality the offer to preach was a selfish one. After I realized that I had offered to preach in front of my new church family, I got nervous. Shoot, God, did I run ahead of you again? Well no backing out of this now, so what will I preach on? I opened my Bible and thought about the love chapter in 1 Cor, but didn’t know how to present it then I guess God opened my eyes to chap 12. Practically a sermon ready to go. So that’s how I chose it. I had quickly come up with an outline back in the back for my flow and shared it with Hans, who was going to be my French translator. The whole time up until I stood up to preach I was praying for the words to say. As we were kneeled up at the front I was beseeching God for words. I prayed for Hans to know how to say clearly what I was saying. In fact I was reminded of how God gave Moses the words to speak but it was Aaron who had to translate for him. So I prayed for the same power then that they had with Pharaoh, to be given to us with the church.

The time finally came for me to talk; it is a bit scary because there were three people talking. Me in English, Hans in French and another guy in Nandjere. The beginning I took some time to get used to the flow but soon I found my footing and by the grace of God delivered my first sermon in Tchad. I pray that God will take a last minute sermon and turn it into something greater than myself.

I talked about how the body of Christ is there for a purpose, how we all have gifts. I said if the hand wanted to quit being a hand it wouldn’t be good, or if my ear wanted to quit being an ear I as a whole wouldn’t function the same. I then asked for two volunteers and did the whole three legged trying to go two separate ways trick, which represented how if we don’t communicate together we can’t get things done as fast. I tried to bring out the point we are all given gifts, we are all given jobs and we should do them. We can accomplish so much if just work together and work for one goal. Spreading the gospel of Christ. Amen-Hallelujah

Comments

Andrea said…
Good on ya! That's incredible that you had to talk with two translators! But I'm sure it was a blessing. I was thinking about how exciting that would be when you were trying to do your illustration with your volunteers. I'm sure it was fun anyway. :)
October 2, 2007 at 5:13 AM
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