My First Official Sermon

My first official sermon was today! It's always funny when you don't want to be the first person to do something but then the Lord nudges you and you can't say no. We were discussing upcoming things and our leaders asked who wanted to give a 90 minute sermon about missions. My immediate thought was no way I could speak that long but felt a stirring in my heart and knew the Lord wanted me to do it.

Preparation & First Steps

I prepared the best I could with a few pages of notes and truly had no idea what to expect. Our local contact Tammy had told us this was for young people to inspire them about missions. As I was getting there I was nervous and struggled to focus on worship knowing after I would be speaking.

There were about 70 people at the youth service and I had never taught before, let alone working with a translator.

When the Holy Spirit Takes Over

I got up to speak and for the first 10 minutes only followed my notes. I quickly had read through all of them and that was when the Lord began to speak through me.

I had been so focused on knowing what I was going to say instead of trusting what the Lord wanted to say. Luke 12:12 says, "For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say." Being a vessel of the Lord is built on trust and faith.

I could feel the power of the Lord as I gained confidence in what he was saying and how he was moving. I had always believed the lie that I was bad at public speaking and in this season the Lord had shown me otherwise. It had nothing to do with me not enjoying attention but everything to do about putting my attention on the Lord.

Ministry & Encountering God

Afterwards we went into a time of ministry and our team began to go around and pray for others. He was moving in the room and encountering these young people. It was an incredible experience and my heart knew this was what I was made for!