First Sermon

First what?!

Yeah, after lots of coaxing and some sly tricks, Cpt. Chris Radburn finally got me to do a sermon. Of course I tried to find excuses, and up until then I'd managed to find plenty.

But I had holidays, so I had time to plan... and the Radburns needed a holiday, so us laypeople volunteered to fill in so they could have that holiday.

So I wrote my own sermon on a topic that I find very applicable in the current culture climate. I titled it Truth Revealed: Is the Bible really the Word of God?

The good thing about this exercise is that it made me study the history of the Bible and the content of the Bible itself, and in doing so, I really answered a lot of my own questions.

The message examined three categories of proof to answer skepticism on whether the Bible is accurate and divinely inspired. I won't re-write the sermon here, but the transcript (which varied a bit from my spoken sermon, since I did adlib a bit rather than read word for word) can be found here: Brett's First Sermon (note, because I refuse to buy M$ Office at insane prices, I created this file in )

So the sermon was held in a Cafe style. Instead of pulpits in rows, we held the meeting in the Youth Hall and had cafe tables with baskets of cakes etc. Lindsay brought the coffee machine from the Salvo store and set it up so people could make cappuccinos, lattes, hot chocolates etc.

Despite feeling nervous to start with, I felt very comfortable once I got started. Knowing and BELIEVING what I spoke about is what helped, as well as strength through the Holy Spirit.

After the meeting, there was a good response. I had a number of people come up to me with a big smile, saying how the sermon helped their understanding and their belief. I thought that, due to the response, it makes way for running a bible study on Christian apologetics.

Mum came along and did the Bible reading for me. She was very impressed by the message and told me how it answered all the doubts she'd been having. I believe God sent her along that day, and her spiritual needs were met. It makes me happy that I could do that for me lil ol' mum.

Dad couldn't make it because of work (he had to irrigate), but I gave him those notes from the meeting and he read them. I also lent him one of my books/resources. Paul Little's "Know Why You Believe".

There were a lot of young people that I wish could have been there on the day.

Mothers, fathers, brothers, neighbours etc... If we're Christians, we need to be ready to give an answer when people throw darts at our faith. I've come to realise that's why society is rejecting Christian faith, because there's a lack of smart Christians defending it and strongly convicted Christians presenting it... only "dabblers", such as me. I am keen to get into some apologetics and teach it.

Perhaps that's my new years resolution?