08 February 2008

Secondhand Sermons

In November I preached at our daughter church when their pastor was filling our pulpit during the transition between Jim and John. When Deb, Caitlyn and I went to my parent's house for Thanksgiving later that month, I downloaded the audio of the sermon for them to listen to sometime later.

I didn't think much about it until my parents came to our house for Christmas and they told me that they used my sermon podcast as a lesson for the Sunday School class earlier in December. I thought - "wow, that's cool...hope they liked it." They told me that several people took notes the whole time and several others had no idea that a church needed to grow smaller in order to grow bigger.

Earlier this week, I received a letter in the mail from one of those people. She told me that my sermon impacted her so much that she realized that she needed to seek out a member of the church and ask for forgiveness for her behavior earlier in the year. I was blown away! I stood in the kitchen dumbfounded at the power of the Holy Spirit to change the heart of someone I have never met because of the words I spoke in the name of Jesus.

It's moments like this that keep me doing what I'm doing!

Grace&Peace

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