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Writing a Sermon

It's not easy writing a sermon.  It would be easy to write something that related to a passage of scripture but the fact is a sermon should be a message from God to the people of God.  It has to be His message for the particular people you are speaking to.  It doesn't require you to know the people particularly well but it does require you to listen to God.  Most of my best sermons start coming to me when I am in bed.  I have put aside the cares of the day and begun to relax.  Often after about an hour of rehearsing my sermon in bed I will get up and write some of it down.  If I don't do it then I can lose it.  Losing a little sleep does me no harm as I am retired and can catch up in the day if necessary. I am currently preparing a sermon for next week.  It is proving quite difficult.  I am having to tease out the meaning little by little.  I am almost there.  It is on John 17 which is a very special chapter where Jesus is praying to the Father.  In it Jesus prays for the ones who will believe because of the witness of the disciples ;  that means for you and me.  Isn't that just fantastic, just before the crucifixion Jesus prayed for you and me.

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