Good Morning Pastor!
May the loving winds of the Holy Spirit be resting on you this morning and refreshing you from the pouring out of yourself yesterday in presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to your congregation. You may feel that your words did not shake the earth or cause the clouds to gather but your work has not gone unnoticed by God and… He’s cheering you on! So friend, keep your heart pure and your head straight because God is moving in this generation and you are part of it!
Yesterday I preached a salvation message and gave an altar call. It was not something that I did at the last minute but rather planned throughout the week in preparation. When I arrived at the church I told the leader in charge what my intention was. I wanted to preach something about Calvary and the shed blood of Christ. During the week I felt drawn to the works of Charles Spurgeon. I found a sermon that the had preached in 1975 titled “With or Without Blood-Shedding.” The test is from Heb 9:22. I used the theme of the first half of the sermon and added my own thoughts and illustrations. I announced to the congregation before I began to preach that there would be an altar call at the end of the service. And I began to preach.
The music and worship during the service was good but it was not as if the Holy Spirit had swept across the people and overwhelmed them in any way. In fact, there was little if any emotion noticeable. My theme was basically on being forgiven or being unforgiven and the result of heaven or hell. The sermon was not laced with great illustration or “cutsy” stories but was a more matter of fact sermon on the truths of God, His love, His forgiveness, our response and the penalty or reward in eternity. Without any music at the end of the sermon I prayed and asked if anyone wanted to come forward to accept Christ and be forgiven. One by one four teen-age girls stood up and walked to the front of the church to accept Christ. I asked for ladies to come and pray with the girls and four ladies came up, took the girls into another room and prayed with them to accept Christ. These four ladies were blessed, the church was blessed and all of our churches need to be blessed with new conversions.
And I have said all of that to say this. If you want conversions in your church, preach the Word! After all, it is God who has the power and not us. Dedicate yourself to preaching the Word and your sermons will have more power, your church will grow spiritually and increase in numbers and you will be in awe of what God can do!
Hang in there! God’s trying to “bless you big!” PREACH THE WORD!
In His Delight,
Lyn Sahr
Prov. 3:13
