Preaching: John 17

May 13, 2007

I am exhausted but it has been a day full of learning, growth, and yes, more adventures.

After breakfast a group of us set out to go to a church in a nearby town. Nearby as in two hours there and one hour back. It has been raining like crazy the last couple days so all the roads were muddy with puddles. So we inched along the dirt roads to the daala daala stop. We decided that it's tradition for me to slip in the mud everytime we go out preaching becasue it's happened twice now. Fortunately not too much damage was done (: The village was three daala daalas away. Once we got there we had to hike through banana and coffee plantations to get to the church! It was absolutely beautiful. The rain made it look like a rain forest: green everywhere and huge banana trees. First we drank hot milk at a member of the church's, then we went to church to preach! There were about 100 people there and I was nervous! It was in a new church building, so the ground was still grass and the structure was cement without window panes or doors. I loved going to church inside but on grass! Their old church building was just across the way, and was about a third the size of the new one. I found out after that this was their first service in the new buidling! We started with worship then introduced ourselves, then I was introduced to preach!

Earlier this week I decided to preach on John Chapter 17. So today, I preached on having a personal relationship with God, and showed how Jesus modeled this in his prayer to the Father in the garden of Gathsemene. I told them that God doesn't call us to be good Christians, he doesn't call us to follow all of his laws, or to do good works. He calls us to KNOW HIM. And growth, obedience, and good works come out of our understanding of God's heart towards us.

Jesus didn't start his ministry until he was 33. Yet, when he was baptized by John the Baptist the Holy Spirit descended upon him and God said, "You are my son in whom I am well pleased." God was pleased with his son before he started his public ministry and before he had fulfilled his purpose on earth. Nothing is recorded in the Bible about Jesus having healed anyone, having raised anyone from the dead, or having performed any miracles before this point; but God was pleased with Him. This is because Jesus was God's son, and he had a father's heart towards him. God has the same heart towards you. He is pleased with you because you are made in His image. He loves you whatever your past, whatever your present, and whatever your future holds. His desire is to know you. And through knowing Him and understanding His love towards you, the miracles, the healing, and the growth is made evident.

I told them about how I was called to teach the Bible when i was eleven. I hadn't done anything of significance before this point! I was a kid! I had never preached, i had never lead a worship service, i was just busy growing up. But God told me, "You are my daughter, with whom i am well pleased, teach my Word." He was pleased with me as a child because I was his daughter. I didn't then, nor do i now, need to do anything to gain his love. He only desires for us to know Him more deeply, and through this he uses us, and in using us he reveals himself to us in even more intimate ways!

In verse 26 Jesus says, "I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Jesus' purpose in coming to earth and dying for our sins was to make His father's love known to us. That is the whole point: knowing God and his love towards us.

And then for some reason God put it on my heart to talk about the road to Emmaus (which afterwards i realized i called the wrong name....oops). I told them that that is one of my favorite stories in the Bible because it was after Jesus' resurrection when he was walking with two men on their way to Emmaus who didn't recognize him as Jesus Christ. But Jesus walked with them the whole way. He listened to their conversation, he asked them questions, he listened to their thoughts on Jesus. The whole time he didn't say, "hello! I'm Jesus!" Instead he allowed them to see him for who he was in their timing. He was patient with them. He discipled them: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). This is how God calls us to minister and reach people. Not to say, "Hello! Why don't you see Jesus? Why don't you recognize him for who he is?" But to walk patiently with them, to listen to their thoughts, and to let Jesus reveal himself to them in His timing.

When we understand God's love towards us, it can be made known to the people around us. They will be able to see it. It will give them the chance to walk with Jesus for a while, and start to see the Father's heart towards them.

Then God put it on my heart to say, "Did you know that God loves the little children sooo much?" There was a little girl, maybe five years old, who was smiling at me throughout the whole service. She was absolutely precious. She had a conga tied around her head like a cape because it was raining outside. Then God put the same words on my heart but for the widows and the poor. That God has such a heart for people in need, because He wants to fill that need. He knows that He can reach them.

Then I prayed.

This was the hardest sermon I've done yet (though i haven't done many!). First, it was a bigger group and the power wasn't working so the sound didn't carry well. Second, they wanted me to stand behind tables that were like 15 feet away from the benches of people! Way too far! So i walked out from behind them to get closer, and they followed me with one of the tables! They even carried over the flowers and everything they had on them. That really threw me off. I felt intimidated and less personal behind this table! Third, my translator knew very little English. He was 22 but looked about 15, spoke very quietly, and didn't know a lot of basic words. Sometimes it's hard for me to get across what i'm saying without using more specific words (i'm an english major so words are what i do best!), so having to pick less specific words made me feel like i was losing the meaning. i would say a sentence, then have to re-explain it to my translator, and by the time he finished saying it in Swahili i would have completely forgotten my point let alone what i was saying! so this was challenging. and fourth, the church was so far away and African services are soooooo long, that i was starting to check out after i was done preaching.

so i think growth and learning had to have come out of this because i was challenged. and i think God did give me a message, and i maybe it will be a word for some of you if not for the church i spoke at today. i think God is equipping me with messages that i can continue to share when i get home. maybe i'll have a "messages i got in Africa" bible study when i get back (:

after church we ate lunch at the pastor's house and that was lovely. a new DTS team just arrived this weekend from the UK. so it was refreshing to have people to talk to who not only speak english, but have the same humor (:

i hope all of your weekends were blessed. May you come to know God's heart more and more everyday, and grow in all understanding of Him,

with love,
Christina