This past Sunday I had the privilege to speak at the home church here in our village. My teammate Colin and I were put in charge of each preparing a sermon for the service. It was a somewhat intimidating being put in charge of preparing a sermon for the church. I wasn’t so much afraid of speaking to the locals but to the rest of my world race squad. We were blessed with having about 30 world racers from another village come in to take part in our service. Public speaking has usually been an area of difficulty for me especially when I was growing up. Like most people I dreaded even the thought of having to speak in front of people. I was able to put aside my fear and had peace when I got up there to speak.
My sermon was titled “Identity in Christ and Adoption into God’s Family“
I talked about how we moved from condemned to justified (without sin) to righteous with Jesus Christ. I then explained what grace was and how we can’t work for our salvation. The next step was explaining my misconceptions of who I viewed God to be, mainly as a boss. I then talked about how God is our Father and desires an intimate relationship with us, and like all relationships there is no formula. You should approach God like a child but with respect, he wants to know what is going on with us big and small, our fears and desires. God also loves us, understands us, takes care of our needs, gives us good gifts, disciplines us, gives us the Holy Spirit, gives us an inheritance in heaven, forgives our sins, leads us by the Holy Spirit, we get the privilege in sharing in His suffering and in His glory, and adoption into His family.
Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do in word or deeds, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him”
So that was the rough outline of what I talked about in my 30 minute sermon two Sundays ago. This past Sunday I gave my testimony at church which was another exciting time to step out in faith and talk to the Church. I am most likely going to be speaking again this coming Sunday and I don’t know what I am going to talk about yet. So pray that I would be led by the Holy Spirit and obedient to Him.
