Give It Up

Last Sunday (23rd February) I gave the talk at our Sunday morning service and during the service I received the most wonderful answer to prayer – and I really need to share this with you and give God all the glory for it. Or rather, point out that all the glory for it is God’s in the first place!

You see, I had really struggled when preparing to give this particular talk and that’s quite unusual for me. Normally I love preparing talks and even though preaching itself is invariably nerve-wracking, I always enjoy the preparation. Preaching is such a privilege. On my desk I have a copy of the book “Preachers and Preaching” by the late, great Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who describes preaching as the most wonderful calling anyone can ever have. I tend to agree with him!

However, for some reason, this time I just wasn’t “feeling it”, so to speak and I was getting more and more concerned as Sunday approached. I had a talk prepared, to be sure, but frankly, the best prepared talk is no good at all unless it is actually preached well. And as late as Thursday morning, I just didn’t have it.

So, I fessed up to this during our Thursday morning staff prayer time. I love this time of the week. We take about an hour, gathered in the main office with comfy chairs and coffees, and take turns to say what’s going on in life, what we’re thankful to God for and who/what we’d like prayer for. And then we pray!

When it was my turn, I admitted that I was struggling with the Sunday talk and we prayed. I actually got another dose of prayer from Steph on Sunday morning too!

Well, when it came time to give the talk (in three parts on an All Age Sunday) I felt utterly at home with it, completely “myself” and thoroughly empowered – thank you God!

If you ask any of the preaching team, I’m sure they would agree that what really matters in preaching is the empowerment of the speaker by the Holy Spirit. We should never be lazy – we should be as well prepared, as well rehearsed as possible, but that is no good at all without God’s empowerment. The best talk on paper can be utterly dead if God isn’t in the preaching. And the worst, least-prepared talk can be the best if God chooses to empower the preacher.

After the service, I was thanking God a lot and still am. As a bonus (this almost never happens) I received the most lovely, encouraging email from a member of the congregation about the talk. God be praised, to God be the glory!

The lesson for me is clear. I need to do better at giving up control of my preaching to God. As I write this, it occurs to me that someone approached me immediately after Sunday’s service having felt prompted to suggest to me that giving up control might be what God wanted me to do – wow! I’ll try to add that to my giving up late nights and junk food (respectively difficult and easy for me!).

What will you give up this Lent?

I want to encourage us as a church to give up something, by way of sacrifice and submission to God. Lent is meant to be a time of preparation for the events of Easter and afterwards – that is, the “Jesus events” – his death, resurrection and ascension. The most important events in human history.

On the back of each Sunday talk, the preachers write for this website a series of questions to consider. I reproduce this week’s here (see below), as I want us all to ponder them. Let’s submit to God this Lent and together let’s give up something, to the One who sacrificed everything.

See you on Sunday!

God bless,
Simon

Some questions to think about

1. What might you give up for Lent? If you haven’t started on time, just start now anyway!

2. In this talk, we considered the ideas of “giving up” both as sacrifice and submission. Think about what you might sacrifice for God, and where in your life you need to submit to Him.

3. Are there areas of your life in which you cling to your way, when you know it is contrary to Jesus’s way? What are those areas? Could Lent be a starting point for you to change this? Pray about this.

4. What things have you to be thankful to God for? List them in your mind and thank God for them.

5. Do you ever find yourself saying “I would do this…” or “I wish I could do that…” but resign yourself to the idea “… but I don’t have the time or energy.”?

6. What could you give up that would liberate your time and energy to do things that would build your relationship of love with God and with other people?

7. What might you empty out this Lent, and what might you pray God fills you/your time up with?