Notes on a Preacher's Labor Days

We will resume our Tuesday night worship services tonight, after being "dark" on Tuesdays for the past two months. Throughout the summer I have been thinking about what I would teach when we resumed. And I decided several weeks ago that I will pick up our exposition of Ephesians that I had started earlier on Sundays. I plan to preach Ephesians 2:14-18 tonight, and finish chapter 2 with verses 19-22 next week. I look forward to getting back at it. Please pray for us.

Sunday. Sunday. Sunday.

What can I say?

I had been working on Joshua 4 for weeks. But when the weekend came, I still didn't feel ready to preach it. Between Friday and Sunday morning, I struggled to put my study in some preachable form. But it just wasn't clear in my mind. And, as the saying goes, if there is a fog in the pulpit, there will be a fog in the pew. So about 7:00 Sunday morning, I gave up. I preached an exposition from Matthew in our 8 AM service, did questions and answers during out mass Bible study hour, and then did an exposition from Isaiah in the 11 AM service. It was a different kind of day.

Anyway, my plan (at this point) is to finish Joshua 4 this week to preach this coming Sunday.

I read an article yesterday that said we shouldn't make preaching harder than it is. As I was reading the paragraph, I fully agreed. But later, I begin to think to myself, "What if it really is harder than me make it?" The bottom-line is that biblical preaching is hard work. And I don't think I'd have it any other way!