When Preachers Know They are Being Used of God

Preachers have a number of different experiences in the pulpit. Sometimes they feel as though they are receiving no help from the Spirit of God in the pulpit- only to learn that their sermon ministered to someone heartily.

Other times they feel as though a sermon went very well- only to never hear about it again.

Of course these are both 'feelings', and and we do not judge God's use of His Word preached upon OUR feelings- we will never know the full scope of our preaching ministry until we are in glory with Christ.

But there is an experience, a feeling, if you will, in the pulpit that many of us have experienced and long to continue experiencing. R. Kent Hughes explains this experience like this:

"There are times when I am preaching that I have especially sensed the pleasure of God. I usually become aware of it through the unnatural silence. The ever-present coughing ceases, and the pews stop creaking, bringing an almost physical quiet to the sanctuary- through which my words sail like arrows. I experience a heightened eloquence, so that the cadence and volume of my voice intensify the truth that I am preaching.

There is nothing quite like it- the Holy Spirit filling one's sails, the sense of His pleasure, and the awareness that something is happening among one's hearers."

May God silence our pews.

May God stop the frequent restroom breaks.

May he silence the sighs.

May the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ fill His preachers with an intensity of power from on high that His Church is reformed, transformed, revived, and restored.

May the Spirit of God visit His preachers with his smiles and pleasures. May his fill our sails and send our words out like piercing arrows!

May His preachers bow in humble submission.

May His preachers hear.

May His people hear.

True Worship Involves Confidence in God and Reverence For God

John Calvin understood that true religion was one which reverenced God, had confidence in His promises, and resulted in worship according to His Word.

We live in an age where many Christians will say that they have confidence in the promises of God. We live in an age where Christians find the concept of 'fear for God' as something foreign. We hear a lot about the love of God, which is good and biblical, but the Scriptures (even the New Testament Scriptures, mind you) show that we are to fear God because he is a consuming fire. His holiness next to our unholiness should leave us quite humbled. We also live in an age where the 'what does this text mean to you' method of biblical study is supreme. This is foreign to the Scriptures- God has said how we are to worship Him, and God has prescribed what pleases him.

As we care for and reverence God, we should also consider how the Word of God reveals what true piety is. What is true religion? Calvin answered it this way:

Such is pure and genuine religion, namely, confidence in God coupled with serious fear - fear, which both includes in it willing reverence, and brings along with it such legitimate worship as is prescribed by the law. And it ought to be more carefully considered that all men promiscuously do homage to God, but very few truly reverence him. On all hands there is abundance of ostentatious ceremonies, but sincerity of heart is rare.

Is Christianity Rational or Emotional? The Prodigal God Requires Both

Often Christians find themselves erring in how they view their relationship with God in Christ. Some see Christianity as merely a relationship with God and they forget things like requirements, obedience, commands, and other biblical things. Too often, in the Reformed churches, we tend to make religion too rational. We do not think that Christianity has an emotional aspect to it. We think- head good; heart bad. We take a dogmatic and rational approach to God. Of course, we are to have a dogmatic and rational approach to the Scriptures and to the God of the Bible. We are also called to have a relationship with him- an experience of God. Timothy Keller touches upon this in his new book, The Prodigal God. Keller (in chapter 7) comments,

Salvation is experiential. A feast is a place where our appetites of senses, taste, sight, smell, are filled up. In John's Gospel we are told Jesus was in attendance at a wedding reception where the wine had run out too early. Both the bridal couple and the master of the banquet... were in danger of social humiliation. However, in his first public exercise of divine power, Jesus turned several large containers of water into wine. Amazingly, John the Gospel writer calls this miracle a sign, a signifier of what Jesus' ministry was all about. Why would this be his inaugural act? Why would Jesus, to convey what he had come to do choose to turn 150 gallons of water into superb wine in order to keep a party going? The answer is that Jesus came to bring festival joy. He is the real and true master of the banquet, the Lord of the feast...

Salvation is not only objective and legal but also subjective and experiential. The Bible insists on using sensory language about salvation. It calls us to taste and see that the LORD is good, not only to agree and believe it.. The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational sense that honey is sweet and having an actual sense of its sweetness...

His love is like honey or like wine, rather than only believing that he is loving we come to sense the reality, the beauty, and the power of his love. His love can become more real to you than anyone else.