Preachers GET to Preach

Preachers GET to Preach

“Do we have to go to church today?” “No, we GET to attend worship today!” Conversations like this happened more than a few times in our home when we were young.

Sunday morning I showed up at a place where I was scheduled to preach. The only problem is they didn’t have me scheduled! They were very kind about my mistake. I happened to know the young man who they had scheduled and think the world of him, and his sweet wife. In my mind I began immediately thinking of how we could work this out. Maybe one of us could teach the Bible class and the other could preach the morning sermon. Maybe we could do a tag team sermon. One of the elders, who is a close friend, jokingly said, “Jeff will preach first, then you can preach a second sermon.” Another elder said, “We brought Jeff in to help us evaluate you,”

So, this morning for the first time in a long time, I sat and listened. Can I be completely honest with you for a moment? I loved it and hated it. My young friend did a great job. His lesson was biblical and very helpful. I will be a better man for having heard him proclaim the Word of God. I hated it because I didn’t GET to preach. I’m not used to sitting down and listening to someone else preach. Maybe I should do it more often. But I LOVE preaching. I love seeing the faces of people when the sermon connects. I love children bringing me a picture that they drew of what the message sounded like to them. I love when someone shares the notes they made from the sermon. I love seeing hearts and lives changed because of the power in God’s Word!

Through the years I’ve said many times (half joking) I do some things I don’t love doing so I GET to do what I LOVE most. So this week, as you endure some situations that may cause you to wonder why you do this thing called preaching, just remember that in a few days you GET to preach again!!! I sure missed preaching on Sunday! I probably grew from it, and, next Sunday, I GET to preach in the land where our Lord preached!!