Lecture 7: Acting the Miracle

[Music] so if preaching is worship if it is part of seeing and savoring and expressing the worth of god and is therefore spiritual that is worked and shaped by the holy spirit how do we do it how does a a person like us who is in ourselves not supernatural but created by god as a ordinary human being how do we act a miracle how do we help bring about a miracle how do we do a miracle like preaching now the first part of my answer to that question is to realize that this question is a subspecies of how you live the christian life let me illustrate what i mean take galatians 2 20. i used to call this my life verse when i was in my 20s i still love it i am crucified with christ it is no longer i who live but christ who lives in me and the life that i now live in the flesh i live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me so living the christian life means finding a way to live so that it's not you who live but christ who lives and he makes the link the life i live i live by faith so somehow by trusting christ in his word christ becomes the one who lives in and through my faith-driven life that's amazing that's that's what we have to take into preaching or take another one first corinthians chapter 15 verse 10 by the grace of god i am what i am and his grace towards me was not in vain but i worked harder than any of them nevertheless it was not i but the grace of god that was with me i worked harder than anybody it wasn't me it was the grace of god with me that's what we have to take into preaching preaching so we say i didn't do that i did it but i didn't do it how do you do that well i mean what's the process of experiencing that or here's the here's the text that probably in the prayer meeting before our preaching service was quoted more than any other text in 33 years at bethlehem first peter 4 11 let him who serves now just before he said that he says let him who speaks speak as the oracles of god and then he says let him who serves and i think the principle of service applies to the speaking too so listen let him who serves serve in the strength that god supplies this is like 30 minutes before i preach right let him who serves serve in the strength that god supplies so that in everything god will get the glory through jesus christ to whom belongs the the dominion forever and ever so three passages that describe the christian life as being lived and yet not being lived being us and yet not being us that's a miracle and that's now what we have to figure out how how do you do that and how do you do it specifically with preaching and and many of you perhaps have heard of my acronym aptat aptat i call it this has been more valuable more precious more present to me and for me in preaching than anything else when it comes to how do you do this piper how do you go to the pulpit in such a way so that you can believe and say and it'd be true you didn't preach but christ preached you did preach but was christ preaching through you how do you do that and i'll walk through aptat not up four hours before the sermon which i might do but one minute before the sermon okay i've did this hundreds of times so i'm sitting on the front pew and somebody's reading the text and when they're done reading i'm gonna stand up and talk for 45 minutes hopefully in a way that i can say i talked but i did not talk but christ talked through me so aptat is my mental spiritual process by which i prepare myself for that to happen a i sit there and i say father i admit hey admit i admit i can't preach i can't breathe i can't feel i can't think i can't save i can't sanctify i can't reconcile i can't heal i can't bring back any prodigals i can't do anything of any eternal value here that i want to do period because that's what john 15 5 says without me you can do nothing and you just admit that you admit your you admit your utter destitution your utter helplessness your utter powerlessness when it comes to accomplishing anything worthwhile eternally valuable in these people's lives that's where it starts a admit p you pray what do you pray for changes from sunday to sunday some things change some things don't god in 30 seconds i'm going to be up there and i ask now that you would give me fullness of your holy spirit fill me give me boldness give me humility give me love for this people give me a freedom from self-consciousness take away all pride give me converting power i want to see people saved give me healing power give me reconciling power i want to see marriages whole after this service that came in here broken would you do that father through me would you cause that teenager slouching down over there looking at his phone would you cause him to be up by the end of the service and engaged with the holy spirit and with his savior now you walk through these prayers whatever you feel the need for at that moment and the reason i say they might change from week to week is because suppose that morning you said something really ugly to your wife or maybe she said something harsh to you and this is just dominating your your emotions right now and you gotta preach in 30 seconds you pray about that big time you say lord i will deal with that as fully humbly as i can this afternoon i need freedom for this people right now so you pray you plead with god for whatever you want to happen in that service that's p a p t this is decisive here's where a lot of people i think don't follow through trust and i don't mean vague trust in a good god which he is and we should feel it i mean specific trust in a particular promise and you need to find promises that you store in your mind that are perfect for this moment fear not for i am with you be not dismayed i am your god i in 30 seconds now we're down to 10. i will strengthen you i will help you i will uphold you with my righteous right hand don't you just love the i wills of god as you step into the pulpit i'm going to help you i'm going to help you and at that moment the issue is do you believe that can you trust him for that or something more specific as the rain and the snow come down from heaven causing it to water the earth giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater so will my word be that goes forth from my mouth it will not return to me empty but will accomplish that for which i sent it you believe that you believe that when you faithfully speak the word of this text it will not come back empty if you believe it something miraculous happens in your liberty and your joy and your boldness so you trust specific promises and let me just add one more text here that's all important this would be my favorite text i mentioned galatians 2 20 was my favorite when i was in my 20s he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all will he not with him freely give us all things now here's why that promise is so precious always including right now five seconds before i go to preach because it makes the fulfillment of all the promises dependent on the blood shedding of jesus christ he who did not spare his own son but gave him up will he not because of that freely give you everything which means that as the devil is bombarding you at this moment with how unworthy you are to be in this position especially the way you encountered your wife in the morning how unworthy you are you have in romans 8 32 a weapon to stick him in the throat with it isn't my worth that will make these promises come true it's the blood of jesus that will make these promises come true i'm standing in this pulpit covered with blood not my own of infinite value i don't preach here in my own strength i don't preach here in my own worth i don't deserve to be here and nothing that i do will be decisive in bringing anything about christ bought this message christ bought my faith christ bought what's going to happen in this service for good that's my confidence so i admit can't do anything i pray for what i need i trust a specific promise and now i have arrived in the pool i'm going to act i'm going to talk and if god is merciful in answering my prayers i will not think much about john piper in the next 45 minutes if in fact i stumble and i become self-conscious or my memory fails me and i start fearing that i'm not going to be able to remember what i need to remember i can whisper in two seconds or a second and a half just a quick prayer god help me deliver me from this and oh how i have seen him come through again and again so you act trusting a spirit of trust but your mind is totally engaged in this subject matter and those people you're looking into their eyes you're looking into that reality and you are thrilled with the conjunction of that moment these people are hanging on that reality and you deliver when you're done you step out of the pulpit t-a-p-t-a act t you thank god you thank him that you're alive you're breathing you thank him that you didn't have a meltdown you thank him that he's going to do something with that message so a-p-t-a-t aptat 30 seconds before i go up to preach has been my strategy for trying to act the miracle of preaching worship for the sake of hearing worship you

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Length: 13min 35sec (815 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021