I hope and pray that he takes our welcome teams, our music teams, our audio-visual volunteers, and ultimately the words of my sermon and through all of that conveys his love and hope to a whole lot of people.
I know that messages work best when the filter of “preacher” becomes almost irrelevant because the glory of the “Preached” becomes almost inescapable.
But during this week of all weeks, I am acutely aware that I can hardly ask God to do something through me that I have not first invited him to do to me.
So that I have experienced first hand that desperate yearning for the forgiveness of sins and the incomparable gift of it being granted.
So that I have known that comforting, confounding, unexpected, and unsettling presence known as the Risen Christ — and when I’ve known it, long to know it even more.
So that I have been given the burden of the women at the tomb to “go, tell” — not only to large crowds of people but to those individuals whom others talk about but rarely talk to.
So that I have offered myself to the King of Kings and said, “have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way.”
When I’ve been done to, then I’ll be that much more of a vessel to be done through.