Getting to preach the last couple of Wednesday nights has been a good thing for me. I’ve been leading music and preaching for our youth worship services, so its been a little stressful getting both things ready, but the benefits outweigh any drawbacks or frustrations, at least from my perspective.
Last night, I talked about why preaching is central to what we do when we come together as a church. I was a little worried that because it wasn’t what you might think of as a “youth” topic how it would go over. I think the students grasped it well. We talked about how important Paul thought preaching was as one of his last exhortations (4:2) to Timothy in the last letter we have from Paul in the New Testament. It was Paul’s prescription for a church living in a godless age (3:1-5) so that the church might resist that same godlessness from seeping into its own walls. We also saw that the reason for the power in preaching is the supernatural nature of Scripture (3:15-17). Therefore, we said that preaching must have as its foundation the very words of the Bible. When we hear those words and a preacher explains, illustrates, and applies those words, the lost are saved (3:15) and believers are equipped for the lives God calls us to live (3:17).