I have figured out something; whatever the topic you choose to preach on, you will usually get a chance to experience it first-hand (I will be doing a message on death in a couple of weeks---uh oh!)
Sunday, we were talking about the fruit of the Holy Spirit known as Peace. The whole message was basically about not being anxious, but trusting in Christ to give us that peace that passes all human understanding. Wouldn't you know it, several members of our Worship and Tech teams were sick, so we were short handed. Then on top of that I had a sore throat. It was the kind that the more you speak, the sorer it gets. By the time the 4th service was done it was really hurting.
The other thing that was kind of strange was, that I couldn't seem to get "peace" about my message. All week long it just seemed like it wasn't clicking. On Sunday morning, a couple of verses popped into my mind that I knew I needed to share about. I still was able to use my main outline, but I eliminated a few things, and added some others. You have to understand something. I believe that the Holy Spirit works through the planning and preparation stages a lot more than He does spontaneously. It is not more spiritual for a Pastor to walk on stage and not be prepared and then blame the Holy Spirit for his lousy message. I usually spend 20-25 hours in message prep each week.
Anyway, despite all of the chaos of the morning God showed up big-time. We had another record attendance (the 3rd record in the last 5 weeks!) We had more people saved and more people become members.
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