Two New Posts and a Manuscript

Saturday, 14 August 2010 15:35 Written by Bob Flack

I just added a couple of posts that I should have transferred from my laptop earlier in the week. Both relate to preaching. One sets out my plan for preaching over the next several weeks. The other describes my prayer routine prior to preaching. I also finally uploaded my manuscript and powerpoint file from my last message. At the end of the manuscript I added an alternate ending which concluded with a recitation of Francis Thompson's poem, "The Kingdom of God." I would like to think that the experience the poet describes is available to us in the local church. Glad for any observations you might have.

Pre-Preaching Prayer

Saturday, 14 August 2010 15:05 Written by Bob Flack

I once heard John Piper describe how he prays before a preaching service. He uses an acronym to aid him in this spiritual discipline. The routine helped him consciously depend on God who alone gives preaching its power. His example moved me.

What I did not like was that the acronym was something like APTAT. Each letter stood for something that John Piper could remember but I could not.

Another example of preaching preparation that has encouraged me is that of Charles Spurgeon. On more than one occasion I have heard that he muttered to himself as he walked to and stepped into the pulpit of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, “I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit.” He would repeat the phrase several times. He sought to preach to himself the truth that the Spirit’s blessing on his preaching was assurance and the only assurance that his ministry would bear fruit.

My own practice merges the example of these two godly preachers. Each Lord’s Day morning I pray a SPIRIT prayer. Each letter leads me in a different prayer emphasis as I prepare to preach.

S is Seek. I remind myself that we are gathering to seek God. I am preaching for that purpose. This corresponds to the first of Grace’s four purposes “To Seek God in worship and his glory in all we do.” This stops me in my tracks if I am focused on seeking the approval of others.

P is Personalize. I take a promise from the text on which I am preaching and make it personal. Last week I took Hebrews 12:11, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” I sought to submit to the good purposes of God’s discipline. I asked the Lord to bring the peaceful fruit of righteousness into my life and the life of our church. I reminded myself that God’s work is discipline and will likely involve pain. I asked him to train me as I preach and hope to help train others.

I is Intercede. I pray for the people who are coming to the services. I ask God to ready their heart and mind to receive the implanted word and to participate as worshipers to God’s glory. I have been trying to take this time to pray for the prayer slips from the previous week so that the requests are fresh in my mind as I anticipate seeing some of those who submitted them.

R is Rely. I confess my dependence on the Spirit for the ministry of preaching. I admit that I cannot preach in my own strength and that I cannot produce eternal fruit in my own wisdom or initiative. I ask for the Spirit’s filling and empowerment.

I is Invest. I commit all my ability and energy to the task and invest it in fulfilling the call which God has placed on me. I surrender all my preparation and study to his guidance. His will be done.

T is Thanks. I thank God in advance for what He will accomplish through the preaching of his word. I ask Him to let me see the fruit but by faith I celebrate that He will accomplish his purposes even if I do not see the results immediately.

On a “routine” Lord’s Day I go from my SPIRIT prayer to the time of pre-service prayer in the Fireside Room with a handful of others who come at 7:30. I’ve come to call this time “FirstFire” because the earliest worshipers are fanning the flame of our corporate devotion as we prepare to meet with God together. We welcome all who would join us to seek God’s face.

Preaching Preview

Saturday, 14 August 2010 14:44 Written by Bob Flack

Our summer sermon series in Hebrews soon draws to a close. I thank Jodie Gerling for her work on the banner for the series slides which also comes up on the website’s home page. She developed some easy to use graphics for me to incorporate in my sermon slides.

In this life, one ending leads to some beginning. Here’s a look forward at the messages planned for the coming weeks.

August 15 Shepherd’s Sunday (Hebrews 13; A day to honor our elders and enjoy their care)

August 22 “Satisfied About You” (Romans 15:14 and 2 Timothy 2:24-26; A message to celebrate and encourage teachers in the local church.)

August 29 “That You May Obtain the Glory”  (2 Thessalonians 2:13-15; A message to encourage personal Bible study and participation in education programs in the local church)

September 5 “Ready for Every Good Work” (Titus 3:1-7; A message for Labor Day and the responsibility for disciples of Jesus Christ to engage in work as an expression of worship and witness.

September 12 “Love Letter to the Local Church” (1 Timothy 3:5; A message about why the local church of Jesus Christ is worth caring about.)

September 19 “God . . . Alone” (Church Picnic; An introduction to the Fall Sermon Series on Habakkuk and the book of the year for 2010-11)

September 26 and forward, Habakkuk Series.

I intend to be in Habakkuk through October and into November. I will be out of the pulpit on November 21 and hope to have information about whose speaking shortly. Four messages for Advent beginning November 28 will continue the annual series “Advent in the Old Testament” looking at how the unfolding revelation of God before Jesus prepares us to receive Him in all his glory. This year we will observe this theme from Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Job.

That takes us through the end of the calendar year. What an honor it is to speak God’s word on the Lord ’s Day to this congregation. I am a blessed man!

Computer Aided Discipleship #2

Tuesday, 03 August 2010 06:03 Written by Bob Flack

I know my last post ended rather abruptly. I related about all I know about using Logos for a Bible reading plan. Today I discovered the value of a feature in Logos that I had known about but never explored. When my Logos program opens on my computer, it calls up the “home page.” This page is actually several “pages” of information about the books and features available from Logos. Future posts will likely address other benefits on the home page.

A headline today caught my eye so I followed the link to the blog post from a Logos employee. It described “Reading Lists” that have been prepared and are ready to access in Logos. I had been aware of this but did not realize its potential.

A reading list is simply a collection of books on a topic. A Logos reading list will open a book to the page dealing with that topic. If I think back to the days before Logos I can remember how I would gather general information about a book of the Bible like Hebrews, the subject of our current sermon study. I would have several favorite commentaries, dictionaries, introductions, and encyclopedias to which I would turn. I would pull them off the shelf one by one and find the article or section on Hebrews. I might collect several of these books open on my desk at once.

In the prepared reading list for Hebrews, Logos has identified these basic books and marked the right page for me already. I can open as many of them as I want at a time in different windows on my computer screen. If I flashback again, I remember that I have non-reference books that contain good background information on Hebrews. These kinds of specialty books are easily forgotten. In Logos, I can edit the Reading List to include any book that I have in my electronic library and mark the page where the background information begins. I won’t forget these volumes in the future.

For those of you who use Logos, you may recognize that the “Favorites” feature works in a similar way. But when you use Favorites you start from scratch. Logos comes with a reading list for each book of the Bible and users all over the world make their reading lists available for use.

This feature is accessed through the “Tools” tab in Logos. There is a search function in the “reading list” feature that identifies specific reading lists related to the search topic. With a reading list, a Bible student can fill a desk with books open to the right page instantly. What a help!