Sermon

I gave the sermon at church last night.

Niamey English Worship Service (NEWS)

Our church here is kind of funny.  It is held in the lunchroom of a school, About 150 people come (many of them are children.)  It is the only English speaking church in Niamey.  We sing four or five praise songs then the song leader that day will ask if there are people tonight, who are new or have recently returned to Niamey, to stand and introduce themselves and then ask the same of anyone(s) who are leaving.  There is always someone in each category.  The tone is Baptist.  The sermons are given by men in the congregation, most of whom are pastors.  Women are not asked to speak.  There is lots of teaching in the preaching.  I am sure I was outside the normative style of most speakers. 

The first time Sally and I went to church, the first day we were in Niamey, I knew I wanted to talk and for some reason, I knew I wanted to talk about “hands.”  That was back in September.  What brought on this desire I have no idea but I finally got my wish.

Preparing a talk or a sermon is such a gift.  My mind is going a hundred miles an hour and everything I do is processed through my talk.  For this reason, I will never turn down a request to talk.  I cheated a little this time in that I put my whole talk on Power Point slides and talked from the slides.  I really liked this format.  I also borrowed the idea from Tim Keller to group the talk into key points which you tell people ahead of time.  It seems to help people track with where you are going.  Something often needed in my mental path.

As I said, I talked about hands.  How hands are so important to us, how they appear 1,928 times in the bible, versus just 14 for the word nose, etc.  I think I had them on the edge of their seats with that one.  How God sets His seal on every hand and then inscribes us on the palm of His hands so that we are bound together by our hands.  I told the story about 12 year-old Debbie who couldn’t use her hands because of severe disabilities and yet felt extreme joy when she fed herself for the first time in her life – an Easter Seals experience Sally and I had.  And then, the miracle of hands that can pick up a big rock or a tiny pin. 

Then I noted how that according to Matthew, the first words out of Jesus’ mouth in his first teaching to his disciples were the Beatitudes.  These first words in the first Gospel must be important.

So I drew from Bob Guelick’s book, “The Sermon on the Mount” where Jesus gave his disciples a radical new way to come before God.  Jesus instructed his disciples to come before God with empty hands, open hands… poor in spirit, mourning, meek, etc.  Not proud, nor arrogant, nor in control but needy, helpless, and wanting.  As Bob wrote,

“For Matthew, the poor in spirit are those who find themselves waiting, empty-handed, upon God alone for their hope and deliverance.”

“Those aware of their inadequacies and personal need for God’s transforming activity in their lives are blessed when they turn to him for acceptance and help.”

It is when we come before God, and acknowledge Him as God, that we are blessed, not when we come before Him seeking His favor or worried all the time about our own needs and wants.

I ended with what happens when we come before God with open hands.  First we are blessed and then filled with God’s love for us.  Then Jesus takes us by the hand and walks with us into the world so that we can answer his “call “ for us to, in his last words in the last Gospel, “Follow Me.”  

I then closed with the January 18th message from the devotional book Jesus Calling.

I love the content of this sermon.  I love the symbolism of open hands that Bob talked about, the idea that when we come before God it is about God and not about us.  I love the realization that I need God, I need His “transforming activity” in my life.  I am thankful for all I learned from Bob Guelich.  It was a blessing to me to be able to do this and I am grateful for the opportunity.  I had fun, too!