No Sermon Needed

This past week I struggled to get a sermon together. It was not from lack of effort. We were celebrating the end of our 40 Days to Trust and Obey and had designated May 3, 2009 as our Celebration Sunday. We had challenged people to fast and pray for forty days asking God for personal things and for what He wanted each one to give to help FBC Paradise relocate. I read books, prayed, looked over several scriptures and no matter what I did I could not settle on a message. I had no clear message from the Lord even going into the morning worship service.
I had a peace that God would give me what I needed when it was needed. I had been there before with the Lord impressing a message on my mind and heart right before time to preach. We set aside a part of the service for people to testify about how God had been at work in their lives. The testimonies flowed one after the other. As people of all ages came forward to talk about the power of God experienced in their own lives it was moving and inspiring for the rest of us. Some made us laugh while others brought tears to our eyes. Most talked about God’s ability to answer prayer, a theme I have touched on repeatedly. God was speaking and moving like most Sundays only this time I was not the one preaching. In fact, it was soon apparent there was no sermon needed that morning. God preached His message through the lips of willing hearted people. I bowed out of the way and let God do His work through the lips of the people in the pews.
The last part of the service was set apart to collect a volunteer offering for our building campaign called “Touching Eternity.” We set large tubs on the edge of the stage and asked people to come forward to make their offerings to the Lord. The first ones to step out were some little boys who put sports trading cards in the tubs. There was a Michael Jordan basketball card, a Nolan Ryan baseball card, a David Robinson basketball card. One little boy put in a Hank Aaron baseball card and Vince Young rookie football card. I was moved to tears watching those little boys make their offering.
Dozens came forward putting in checks, wads of cash, gold rings, wedding bands, a diamond tennis bracelet, stocks, the title to a car, a hand written note donating a deer rifle, and before it was all over there was the gift of a lake lot. I wept as I watched husbands and wives walk forward together to make their offerings to the Lord. There was no high pressure. No sells gimmicks. There was simple prayer and joyful obedience. No sermon was needed.
When the final count was taken, there was $73,000 in cash given, stocks totaling $70,000, in addition to all the possessions that were donated. It was a joyous and jubilant time and a season when despite the failing economy, this church believed God and trusted Him. I sat in tears and silence as new Christians came forward to give to the Lord as well as whole families came forward to present their offerings on the altar of God. The money is not the point of this story.
The point is that God doesn’t need sermons to work in the hearts of people. He does use sermons but at least on this one Sunday God decided to preach a message none of us would forget and He spoke through mechanics, school teachers, retired professionals, business owners, home makers, married couple, widows, and college students. It was a powerful day.
God can use anyone. He can and does answer the prayers of ordinary people. He can speak through both the shy and bashful as well as the bold and daring. God loves to use ordinary people. He is not limited to working through the educated, the experienced, or through the most talented people. He can and does use ordinary people like you and me. “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not so that He may nullify the things that are, and so that no man may boast before God. [I Cor 1:26-28]
God does not have to use preachers and sermons. He can use you with your talent. One lady used her talent to cook for the Lord and turned that talent into a precious gift and a generous offering to her God. Others used their imaginations, their skilled hands, their time, and their physical labor for the Lord. God has, He still does, and He will always use ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.
You do not have to be rich, a dynamic leader, well connected, or even a native of Paradise for God to use you just as He uses the greatest preachers in the land. You can give a listening ear to someone who is lonely and brokenhearted. You can love the child who feels unloved and like nobody really cares. You help the person who is helpless but too prideful to ask for aid. You can serve the people of this community. You can offer a smile and a pat on the back to the person who sees life as a dark dungeon with no way of escape. God can accomplish much through ordinary people who are simply available to Him.
Sometimes in this life what is needed more than a sermon is a demonstration of God’s power through average, run of the mill common place people who are willing to obey God in loving, serving, giving, believing, and testifying. It was a regular Junior High football coach who first told me about Jesus Christ. It was a school principal who taught me Sunday School as a teenager. It was a cattle rancher who taught me about being a man and a different cattle rancher who taught me about being a friend, husband, and a father. No sermons were needed but God spoke through each of these people loud and clear.
Does God have a message He wants to preach through you? Are you willing to lend a helping hand? Actions speak louder than words and sometimes no sermons are needed.