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I preached from Ephesians 4:25-32 yesterday. I titled the message, 'Seek Peace and Pursue It'. When the message was over the feedback was nothing but affirmative. However, as I assessed my own reaction throughout the afternoon, I have to admit something was wrong with it. It wasn't that I couldn't get my thoughts across. My notes worked well. I was able to articulate what I wanted to say. The flow from thought to thought seemed smooth, etc. I'm not able to quite put my finger on it, but something was missing, something was over-spoken, I wasn't quite in tune with the Holy Spirit, or something. All I know is something felt amiss in my spirit as I reminisced on the sermon throughout the afternoon. I hope that next time I'll be more alert to the Spirit and not be a grief to Him.
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3 comments:
I don't know about yesterday - but I know about Saturday evening - I really appreciated the spirit of our conversation - I was blessed by it - and when you said "sometimes we can't even seem to love our friends", or words to that affect, that is such a true statement. Baruk ata adonia eliheynu who will see us through.
ok...i don't even know if i should comment because i've never "preached" a public sermon (plenty of preaching on the side), but my first thought was "satan is attacking aaron". he does not want Jesus Christ preached...he does not want Jesus as the Son of God, come in the flesh taught...he does not want Jesus resurrected so we can live with Him eternally spoken. i don't know...just some thoughts i had.
tricky issue. while we want to observe the congregation to determine if they are tracking with us, they are not our gauge. i am so prone to allow others and their response to impact my impression of a sermon, and become my mark for success or not.
perhaps this is a misplaced prodding, for i have not hear the sermon, but your statement:
It wasn't that I couldn't get my thoughts across. My notes worked well. I was able to articulate what I wanted to say. The flow from thought to thought seemed smooth, etc.
could possibly be the source of your frustrations. perhaps the language is incidental and i'm reading too much into it, but was it your message, or were you communicating what God originally intended from the text?
as a preacher, you should desire people who don't care about your thoughts or intentions...they care what the Book says.
i know this is your intention from other conversations we've had. if you had lost your focus on that (which we are all prone to from time to time), use this as a learning experience to keep your eyes on His message. if your post is simply an issue of language, and you did aim to preach God's message from the text, then allow that to be your assessment.
did ypu preach the point of the text as Paul intended it? if so, rest in knowing the spirit was not grieved. He was divinely working when He inspired the words of paul. He was divinely working when He illumined the text to you. He was divinely working when He convicted you of issues in the text during the week. He was divinely working through you as you declared the message. And He was divinely working in the lives us listeners, either convicting of sin toward repentance, or assuring their hearts before God.
if you preached the point of the text, He was very actively working...not grieved...regardless of how you may feel.
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