How to Love God Perfectly

Five sermons in fifteen days. That was the requirement of my preaching practicum towards licensing recently.

I didn't even know my brain could contemplate so much so fast, and the earth was not put on pause so I could get my work done. It was intense, but honestly, it was one of the best spiritual experiences I've have in a long time.

Because I didn't have time to be perfect.

What's Holding You Back?

In preparation to write this blog, i went back to the sermon that provoked me the most. I called it, Soul Praise. In it, I asked the question,

"Is something keeping you from your authentic praise?"

The text was Ephesians 1:3 (New international Version):

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

"Paul is writing to a church that is geographically, logistically, and spiritually at the crossroads of Christianity. False teachers are circling, so priorities must be set in order. And the first order of business is God."

~From the sermon, Soul Praise

We talk a lot in the faith about Paul writing to the church from the pit of a prison (as we should for we are eternally blessed for how God used him there). But each of the churches he wrote to were in some way or another in their own prison as well. But Ephesus was a breakthrough church, and being so required an elevation in their spiritual resilience, thinking, and praise. Paul demonstrates in the text the power and important of prioritizing praise.

God demands that we be ready to celebrate and receive Him in every circumstance through the authenticity of heart, our love, our words.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. ~Luke 12:48 NIV

Authentic Praise Doesn't Have to Get Ready to Be Ready

As I look over this rough draft of the sermon, I see so many errors. Misplace punctuations. Capitalization where there should be none. They were corrected in the final draft, but I'm so grateful that my offering to my God doesn't have to be perfect.

This version is where I felt his touch.

This version is where I cried my tears.