I got a call Saturday at 11am. It was my pastor telling me that he was going to be gone the rest of Saturday and Sunday to an undisclosed destination. Long story short, my pastor jumped town for the weekend and I was left with the full responsibities for Sunday. YIKES! Nothing like short notice.
If you attended chapel the day a preach, you hopefully remember the sermon I gave about the power of God's word. It was based off of Matt 4 where Jesus is being tempted in the dessert.
A little refresher....Jesus is being tempted by Satan...... Satan used Scripture to try and get Jesus to fall, and Jesus uses Scripture to combat the temptation. Needless to say there is amazing power in Scripture if Jesus and Satan both used it against each other.
That is the sermon I gave on Sunday. I have to be honest, I was a little frusted with my pastor jumping town without giving me a reason why.
After thinking about why all this was happening, my mind jumped back to this summer to somthing Wilbur Williams said in Israel.
During our trip, time after time, we would be postponed for some unknown reason. Instead of getting upset Wilbur began to praise and thank God for being in control. I can rember Wilbur saying, "God we don't know why this is happening, BUT you do. So thank you for having a plan bigger than we are."
Flashforward back to Sunday.........I gave the message in both services and the Lord truly blessed it. The response from the congregation was AMAZING. At our church the congregation occasionally will clap after the choir sings a special, and amazingly enough they were so moved by the message that after the dismissal they began to clap. I have no doubt that this clap was a praise offering to God and I give Him all the PRAISE and HONOR.
Let me encourage everyone. So often we get upset because the circumstances in our lives change without our permission or consent. REMEMEBER...GOD IS IN CONTROL!!! Next time you face a situation where you are completely confused and frustated because your plans change, remember what Wilbur said, "God we don't know why this is happening, BUT you do. So thank you for having a plan bigger than we are."
May you remeber that God has a bigger plan!
Loveingly cheering you on,
Pudge
2 comments:
Pudger,
Wow man, thats awesome. I'm preaching this next Sunday and have been a little stressed at times even though i've known about it for a month. But yikes, less than 24 hr notice.
God is awesome though. I definitely get caught up worrying about how "well" I'll do preaching. How we'll i'll know my outline, how confident i'll seem onstage, etc. good to be reminded that it's sooo not about me. thanks for the encouragement and the reminder.
Fudge Pudge,
Your pastor was really just sleeping in. He was testing you.
At least, that's what my boss does. He ignores my cell phone pleas for helps to see what I end up doing.
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