You absolutely have to love deadlines. Earlier this month I found out that I would be teaching on Sunday evenings in August. That has gone fairly well thus far. Well, there was also the lingering possibility of me teaching in September too, giving me the opportunity to finish teaching my "Read.Pray.Worship.Live." series that I’ve been doing for Trailblazin Ministries.
Well, it’s amazing what a deadline has done for my productivity! I’ve been working on the third part of the series (Worship) off & on since December of last year and barely made any kind of progress. With the thought of needing to preach it in a couple weeks, I knocked out an outline and the fully written teaching in a matter of days. What’s more, it’s even been proofread and edited! Nothing like a good kick in the pants to get the juices flowing.
Next up is the Live study (and possibly a recap message); hopefully I can knock that one out just as quickly. Oh yeah, maybe I’ll be able to get back on track with devotions soon too!
I’m sleepy @ the moment, but I feel good. Feels good to get something like that done, especially when it’s been hanging over my head for so long.
So, it’s been three weeks in a row now that I’ve preached the Sunday evening service at church. As previously noted, the first Sunday I filled in for another teacher, and then got put into the rotation as a result. These past two Sundays I’ve taught on "Prayer God’s Way: The Disciple’s Prayer," and it has gone well so far. I’ve finished on time, both times (even though I admittedly had to wing the last 5 minutes tonight just to take up the time because I didn’t want to get into the next section until next Sunday), so I can’t complain there.
How do I feel? I’m still not sure. I feel confident in the material because I know that the material is sound and I’m basically allowing the text of the Bible to speak for itself and expounding where needed (at least I hope that’s what I’m doing). But in the midst of that, I still feel a bit shaky with my public speaking in general, although I am fairly comfortable getting up there without feeling like I’m going to totally bomb. I still stumble over my words and feel like I’m reading way too much from my notes, but I can feel a bit of growth each time out. It’s truly a humbling experience because I’ve really had no public speaking opportunities outside of preaching (not even in school unless it was mandatory, like for a report or the one debate in my sociology class in high school). When I’m done I feel like a bumbling idiot, yet at the same time feel like God’s Word was taught clearly and accurately.
I will say that it gives me a lot more respect for my pastor and other pastors alike who make it seem so flawless at times. Shows me what I need to aspire to and the work that I need to put in to get there, if I ever will. Right now it’s in the Lord’s hands, and that’s where I’ll leave it.
On a final side note, this open door opportunity has served as a great big kick in the pants to finally start making some progress on my worship study. Well, good night.
P.S. – If you want to hear my teachings, just visit my page @ the ABC website.
The other day I downloaded a mixtape from a holy hip-hop crew and they had snippets of some false teachers being played alongside those of more sound biblical teachers. Now, they were using actual clips from these preachers, but they were using them in a fashion that was mocking these false teachers. As I listened to the project, on the one hand I found it a bit entertaining and comical because of the manner in which they presented it. On the other hand, though, it was complete and absolute mockery of these guys.
Now, I’m not one to condone false teaching, but how far is too far when "defending" the faith? In my opinion, I think this has gone too far. I do not believe that Christ would condone making fun of these teachers and making a mockery of them. It’s one thing to present their teachings and then refute them, but it’s another thing entirely to stoop to the level of joking and making fun of them. When I think about defending the faith, as I taught in my sermon last night, the greatest defense against falsehood is the truth. I think there are people out there who spend so much time pointing out falsehoods and false teachers that they fail to present the truth. We can point out falsehoods until the cows come home, but the greatest defense is to simply teach the truth. For a while on this blog I did this very thing, but one day it hit me that I can either spend my energies talking about these heretical teachings or I can focus my energies on pulling out the truth of Scripture and teaching people what the Bible really says.
Yes, we need to make people aware of false teaching, but that should not be our primary objective. Like right now I think about a certain revivalist and the constant barrage of coverage that he is getting on Christian websites telling how much of a false teacher he is and so on. How many times do you need to say it? Why do they feel the need to post the latest YouTube clip with his latest misuse of Scripture? Wasn’t the first or second (or even the third) time enough? Why can’t we address the issue when it arises, give clear Scriptural teaching that points out the falsehood, and move on and continue with the teaching of the Bible?
Back to the point, I don’t think mockery and joking are very practical methods of combating false teachings. Sure it may get a laugh or two out of us who already know that they are false teachers, but what’s the point in that? Let’s get back to teaching the truth of the Bible and spend less time trying to tear down every false teacher. This is the day & age where people want their ears tickled and God has permitted it; so we’re not going to put an end to it, no matter how bad we may want to. The best thing we can do is to teach people how to study the Bible and accurately handle the text; when we do that, they will then be able to spot false teachings and know how to properly respond. If we do that, I think we’ll have a lot more success in standing firm against false teachers.
Wow, what a day it’s been! This has definitely been a Sunday like no other, that’s for sure. On Wednesday I find out that Cliff, the deacon that runs the recording desk during most services, is going to be out of town on vacation; that meant that I would be needed to run the sound for Sunday morning. No worries there as I’ve done it several times before. Throw on top of that that I get an instant message from Pastor Bob saying that he won’t be at church on Sunday because he has strep throat and can’t talk. No worries there either because Warren Doud would be covering for him teaching from his series on Acts. So far so good.
This morning goes off without a hitch, so I was feeling pretty good. Had planned on getting home from church and doing some Greek homework before class. I’m not even home an hour and I get a call from K.C. Williams (another deacon) telling me that Mr. Doud would be unable to teach tonight’s class (his regularly scheduled session), and was asking if I had anything prepared that I could possibly teach in his absence. I told them that I could and immediately scrambled to find something to teach. I ended up deciding on "A Heart for God’s Word" from the Read.Pray.Worship.Live. series on Trailblazin Ministries and rushed to get notes printed off, along with putting together a PowerPoint presentation to help the congregation follow along. Having to leave at 4:00 to get to my Greek class on time, I basically only had 2 hours to get everything ready. Luckily I did.
I get to church and attend my Greek class. That was cool. Service went well and I think I did a halfway decent job presenting the material, especially considering I hadn’t looked at it but once or twice since writing it towards the end of last year.
It was definitely a wild day, and one that I’ll never forget. It just goes to show that as a minister of the gospel I need to be prepared in season and out of season to teach His Word (2 Timothy 4:2). The Lord is good, and I’m glad I was able to come through with something in my pastor’s absence. It’s such a blessing that there are so many faithful men who are able to teach the Word in our pastor’s absence and that I can be counted as one of them, even on short notice.
By the way, if you want to listen to the MP3, visit the Austin Bible Church website.
Bless the Lord!
