On our second to last Sunday in Ghana, my team set off in the rain to walk to church. We all had rain coats or umbrellas, so the rain was no big deal, but we were still quite thankful when a man in a car stopped to offer us a ride. We happily accepted his offer.
This kind stranger dropped us off at church where we sang, we prayed, and we rejoiced with members of the congregation as they stood up to share what God had done in their lives over the past week. Then, after one more prayer and a short introduction, I stood up and preached a 45 minute sermon.
Yes, you read that right. I gave the sermon in church on that rainy Sunday morning in Tamale, Ghana. Now, how on earth did that come about?
Well, 3 days earlier my team had arrived in this neighborhood, where we would stay for our 2 weeks of ATL ministry. We’d found lodging at a guest house and a neighborhood full of people who needed to hear about Jesus. What else could we ask for? A church. I’d seen plenty of mosques in the area but no churches. So, I prayed and asked God to connect us with a church, and he did.
While exploring the neighborhood, my teammates met a young man who invited us to join his church for a Bible study that evening. We took him up on that offer, quite happy to meet other believers in the area. The pastor and church members were equally happy to meet us, and the evening ended with the pastor asking if one of us would be willing to preach on Sunday. We said yes, one of us could deliver the sermon, and we’d give him a call in a couple days to let him know who would be preaching.
Team time the following day: we discussed who would give the sermon. Somehow, I’m not entirely sure how, it was decided that I was the person for the job.
Now, at training camp I’d heard stories of racers called upon to preach on Sunday mornings at churches in Africa with little to no preparation. Those were cool stories to hear, but I was certain that I would never be asked to do so! I just don’t stand out enough to be asked to do something like that! Apparently, I was wrong. Even if you’re not the most energetic, out going, spiritual, or friendly person on your team, you can still end up preaching in church on a Sunday morning in Africa.
After my initial agreement to preach, I realized I had no idea what to preach on. So, I started praying, and God gave me an idea. Acts chapter 2: The Pentecost.
Thus, Sunday morning, with very little preparation and one page of notes, I stood up at the front of a room full of people and what God had laid on my heart.
“Before Jesus ascended into heaven He promised His followers that He would send a helper, one who would always be with them. On Pentecost the disciples received that helper, the Holy Spirit. As believers in Christ, we received the indwelling Holy Spirit when we were born again. He directs us in our daily life and through Him we grow in relationship with God. (John 17:13&14) We need to follow the Spirit’s promptings in our life, even if those promptings don’t make a whole lot of sense to us.
When the disciples received the Holy Spirit they began speaking in tongues, so that all people, no matter what language they spoke, could understand what the disciples said. This confused the people who heard the disciples speaking. They thought the disciples were drunk! Now, the disciples could have avoided people thinking they were crazy and drunk if they’d only kept quiet when the Spirit prompted them to speak, but who would that have benefited? Satan. Not themselves, not the people around them, and not God. Satan was the only one who would have gained by the disciples keeping quiet on that day.
When the disciples were accused of being drunk, Peter stepped up and gave a sermon. Through the Holy Spirit, God gave him the words to say so the people listening could understand the Gospel. 3,000 people were saved that day, all because Peter followed the Spirit’s prompting and shared the gospel with people who thought he was a crazy drunk! And that’s not the end of the story.
The last verse of this chapter, Acts 2:47, tells us that day by day more and more people came to know Jesus. Peter planted seeds in many hearts on Pentecost when he shared the Gospel. Some of those seeds come to fruition that very day, but others took a little longer.
Sometimes when we do what the Holy Spirit prompts us to do, we don’t see fruit right away. Yet we have a God who is bigger than that moment. We can trust that He is able to use our obedience to grow his Kingdom, even if we don’t get see that growth immediately.”
I read all of Acts 2 out loud to the congregation and delivered this message. Then I thought my sermon was finished, until I glanced at my watch and realized I still had 15 minutes to fill! Good thing the Bible is a big book with lots of material to preach on! God gave me an inspired idea. Giving the congregation a smile as if I’d planned this all along, I flipped in my Bible from Acts 2 to Ephesians 6, verses 10 through 18: the Armor of God, and started speaking.
“Following the promptings of the Holy Spirit is not always the most comfortable thing to do. It can be a little scary when God asks us to go against the standard grain of life. Fear and doubt can easily keep us from doing what we know we should. Yet, we can walk confidently in whatever we have been called to do, knowing that we have God by our side and He has equipped us for this. He has given us the Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Shoes of the Readiness of the Gospel, the Shield of Faith, The Helmet of Salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
God does not ask us to do things without providing us with what we need to do those things. We have nothing to fear. On Pentecost God gave Peter the words to say to his mockers. Using the Sword of the Spirit, Peter was able to bring those people to Christ. God can do the same thing through us that He did through Peter, if we only step out in faith and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit.”
