“Preaching? Are you sure God? Did I really just say yes to going up on stage in front of people and giving a lesson? I did. What do I even talk about? Okay God, this is going to be you or I don’t even want to do it.” These are just a few of the thoughts that ran through my head as I made myself available to be used by God.
Preaching is nerve wracking when you do it for the first time. At least it was for me. God has a way of planting words or themes in my life and He keeps showing me just how great He is by doing that. See, even before I knew I was going to be preaching at the youth event at the church we are partnered with this month, I knew exactly what God wanted His people to hear. I was suppose to talk about His love for us, and how God sent His one and only son to take our sin, our pain, what we deserved, and do away with it so we can walk in the freedom that only He can provide for us.
I received a few context clues from God on what I was suppose to talk about. Most came from spending time not being distracted but completely asking God to give me something to say. I got the words “love” and “door”. This is how I opened and closed the message.
Love: How do I communicate to a crowd that they are deeply and intimately loved by a God who is completely totally and utterly perfect in every single thing that He does? I asked God to give me the words to say. He gave me John 3:16. It says that He SO LOVED the world. This love isn’t ordinary or like anything we have ever seen before. In fact, it is the single greatest act of Love we have seen or ever will see. The fact that He GAVE His only son showed that He knew it was going to work. There was no plan B, or what if this doesn’t work.. God knew exactly what he was doing back then and what He is currently doing right now in this moment as you are reading this blog. Simply put, God’s love will never ever stop.
In between Love and Door I shared a little bit about my story and a little bit of the woman at the well and how they compare. Then I got to lead the invitation. My first time teaching and I get to lead people to Christ. AWESOME!
Door: kind of a humorous story behind how God gave me this word but who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor. In the city of Livingstone, Zambia (the same city Victoria Falls is located), about a week before I preached, my team and I were staying at a hostel. I went to go to the restroom and when I got there I realized I forgot my phone. Sometimes I think it is more valuable time wise to bring something with me but I left my phone in the room. So I prayed. I asked God to give me something. I asked Him to show me something that would be used to glorify Him. Then it hit me. Not literally but as I left the restroom I looked straight at the door in front of me. It was like I couldn’t look away and I knew God was going to use it for something. For the next few days I wrote the word “door” on my forearm to remind me to think and pray for whenever and however God was going to use this word.
When thinking about the word “door,” I kept asking myself what scripture says about doors.
Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me.” DOOR!
Door means open up your heart and allow God to come in and change you. God doesn’t want to be apart of your life, He wants to be ALL of your life. I asked if anyone could hear the door of their hearts being knocked on by God. I led the salvation prayer and asked if anyone meant it for the first time. Hands went in the air! I asked them to take another step of boldness. I asked those who came to know Christ for the first time, and meant it to stand up. Many, stood to their feet.
God used me. God gave me words to say. God gave me the confidence to stand before all those people. God is the reason people came to know Him. He just used my hands and my feet and my mouth to do it. There is nothing, absolutely nothing better in this life than being used by God. I tell you all of these details of my life hoping you would see just how good and great God is. Nothing in this story is about me. Nothing in this life should ever be about me. That is one of the lessons I have learned this month.
This has been my favorite month of the Race so far. Preaching (obviously) has been the highlight, but we are working in a children’s village as well. Between doing construction work and playing with the kids, life has been full and crazy this month. I have loved every second of it. Learning how to surf and jumping into water with sharks swimming around definitely has been another highlight. But nothing compares to being used by God. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
