(C)You...
Illustration
(C)
You can't give away what you don't have any more than you can come back from where you haven't been.
But Isaiah has it and he's been there. He can teach because he's been taught, talk because he's heard. He's been in the presence of the Lord and has a convincing word for the weary.
There's a problem with most preaching I hear. From the sermon, you can't tell that anything spiritually significant has ever happened to the preacher. You can't tell that the speaker has listened to, let alone heard, the voice of the Lord. Where is the convincing vibrance that says, "God's visited me and he'll do the same for you"?
On Palm Sunday Jesus paraded triumphantly into the city over which he'd wept, the city of his historical heritage, old Jerusalem from which he'd love us into the new Jerusalem. And the multitudes turned out. Here was a man of integrity and they knew it. Jesus had convinced them of the kingdom dimension. He knew what he talked about; he'd heard a fresh word from God. He knew the reality to which he invited them; he'd been there.
O Lord Jesus, when we talk, may people know we've listened to you and heard you. When we invite your children to meet you, may they know we are already well acquainted with you.
-- Barnhart
You can't give away what you don't have any more than you can come back from where you haven't been.
But Isaiah has it and he's been there. He can teach because he's been taught, talk because he's heard. He's been in the presence of the Lord and has a convincing word for the weary.
There's a problem with most preaching I hear. From the sermon, you can't tell that anything spiritually significant has ever happened to the preacher. You can't tell that the speaker has listened to, let alone heard, the voice of the Lord. Where is the convincing vibrance that says, "God's visited me and he'll do the same for you"?
On Palm Sunday Jesus paraded triumphantly into the city over which he'd wept, the city of his historical heritage, old Jerusalem from which he'd love us into the new Jerusalem. And the multitudes turned out. Here was a man of integrity and they knew it. Jesus had convinced them of the kingdom dimension. He knew what he talked about; he'd heard a fresh word from God. He knew the reality to which he invited them; he'd been there.
O Lord Jesus, when we talk, may people know we've listened to you and heard you. When we invite your children to meet you, may they know we are already well acquainted with you.
-- Barnhart
