I preached 3 times yesterday and by the third service, I felt my feet giving way and I had to sit down several times during worship. Often-times, you know how you have gone in preaching. I thank the Lord that at 8am when I started preaching, I felt a strong surge of God's power and I spoke without notes and the text was my notes and my mouth was a ready instrument in the Lord's hand. The second sermon was solid but not as dynamic as the first though there were moments which I felt a sense of empowerment and anointing which touched many lives. The first took 32 minutes, the second, 35 minutes and I thought the third I would limit it to 30 minutes but it went for 40 minutes. The Lord was strong and mighty and His Spirit worked powerfully through his servant that the Word of God was spoken in clarity and to the point. It wasn't easy preaching about the last 7 bowls of judgments according to Rev 16. I began by explaining the structure of Revelation into 7 major divisions in a chiastic arrangement or a menorah model. In the first 2 services I also explained the chiastic structure of Daniel 2-7 as the OT counterpart to NT's Revelation. I felt good after the third message, all because the Lord was at work; it was not me but the anointing teaches everyone and I was simply His "handmaid", the bride who rejoices at the voice of the bridegroom and as the bridegroom's friend rejoices even more when people are drawn to Jesus and not to the speaker. If I preach the good news willingly, I will receive a reward and "woe unto me if I don't preach." I spoke about the 3 challenges of today - the generational, technological and cultural changes that we are experiencing in the 2nd decade of the 21st century.
I spoke about the need for the church and its leadership to understand the times in which we are living and appreciate the struggles of the young people and identify them for equipping so that they can minister as they grow in the Lord. Give opportunity to the young to serve as leaders, I declared - "David was 30 years old when he became king! Joseph was 30 years when he became the most powerful man in Egypt after Pharaoh." In the first service, I spoke about using old and new songs to attract the young people and not get stuck with traditions or just singing old songs. The 144,000 sang a new song (Rev 14:1-5). The over-comers sing the song of Moses (the old) and song of the Lamb (the new). I spoke about technology that could be used to further the spread of God's Word and impact the world for Christ's sake. I spoke about the dangers of cultural change where people walk naked and know no shame (literally and figuratively - Rev 16:15, "I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments that he may not go naked and be seen exposed!") and how the inhabitants of the world are seduced and are drunk with the wine of the harlot's fornication. I spoke about Jesus' Lordship of our lives in every area, in the manner of dress in modesty as befitting women (and men) of godliness and worship unto the Lord. I spoke about the transformation by a renewal of the minds and the pursuit of what is good, acceptable and perfect in the sight of God and resisting the world and all its allure and temptations by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. At the end of Rev 16, the great city, Babylon and the cities of the nations are destroyed by a great earthquake and how since everything will be destroyed in such a manner we should use our money, our time and our energy in serving the everlasting God and seek His kingdom without end instead of the glory and pomp of this present world that is in its final throes, even as the form of this world is passing away but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
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