Friday, February 10, 2006

Preaching on John 1

After turning on my stopwatch, remembering that I have only 20-25 minutes to speak, I started the Scripture reading. As I read verses 1-14 from my outline, a strange excitement wells up in me. "I am preaching God's Word! What a privilege. Not a normal Toastmasters speech nor a motivation speech. It is pure and simple an exposition of God's Word!"

After verse 14, I prayed that God will prepare all of us to receive God's Word. It was amazing when I spoke the Word, the normal Toastmasters fear do not arise. I had prayed that whatever glory, mine be the smallest and God's be the highest. I believe that was the reason for the lesser fear in me. Thus I spoke going from God as Creator, to God as Community to God as Co-equal. Careful to vary my voice and make sure I am audible, I went ahead verse by verse. After 22 minutes, I ended with 3 exhortations. "Let us shine" "Let us be with the people." "Let us be humble in all we do."

During feedback session, when probed where did the text say it? I kind of forgotten to add in a transitional phrase that "Because God has done so, we should . . ."

That will clarify most of the questions pertaining to "Where did the text say?" The exhortations were indeed truths I had gleaned from the texts but did not explicitly state how it led to my conclusions. I had forgotten again that I had the privilege of living in the text a much longer time than the rest in the room, hence were able to see the deeper implications at that time. By bringing out the conclusions without explaining in detail how I got it, (I was trying to keep within time), the audience were struggling to find the link.

Feedback forms were however very encouraging, and one even said that he can now read John 1 in a new and fresh light. What made me most glad was that people were rekindled to appreciate John 1 even more, a supposedly difficult passage.

I went home, took a quick Lasagne bite and slept from 9.30PM to 8AM the next day. My body needed the rest after a gruelling 4 days of non-stop classes and counselling and stress.

kianseng

3 comments:

Mattithyahu said...

Hey Brother, I was blessed by your sermon. It seems we can get very blase about passages like John 1, but it is great to hear it in a passionate and meaningful way.

I hope you are too stressed out and that you were able to get some good rest!

Blessings,
Matt

Conrade Yap, (Dr) said...

Matt,
Stress is beating my frail body with the help of the cold Winter. I'll remember you in prayer as you prepare to preach. Remember. It is not your show but the Holy Spirit.

Preach it brother! Be strong and courageous. Why? Because the LORD your God is with you.

PEW said...

Got record on MP3 or not, must email me so that I can be blessed too...Shalom

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