In just a couple weeks I, along with several others from our church, will be headed to Scots Pass Jamaica on a mission trip. I am excited and just received an email from “brother Jerry” the pastor of the church. I am preaching at the church which will be my first experience preaching outside of the country. I asked him if he had any suggestions and he suggested I preach something appropriate for Father’s Day. I was relieved to know that they celebrate Father’s Day and will do just that. We will be conducting Vacation Bible School for the kids and helping in a construction project while there. I don’t feel we are ready, but then I guess we will never feel ready. We are leaving Owosso at about 3am on Friday, June 19th, to fly out of Detroit. We will be arriving back home around 1am on Sunday, June 28th. I have been amazed and blessed with the monetary support given by many people to finance this trip. God does provide for us.
I was reminded of a couple of examples of this from about a year ago.
One Sunday I preached on the subject of moral purity and divorce—a necessary and important topic as we were winding our way through the Sermon on the Mount. But it’s not usually a favorite one to preach on. However, that was the text for the day and I did my best and felt as though I did an ok job with it. But for some reason that message was used by God to do some incredible things. Immediately after church that day I received several heartfelt words of affirmation. I received a note in the mail from an older member who expressed her feeling that God was especially honored through that preaching of His Word. But the best was a visit later that week from a member who told me an amazing story of how God had touched her life through that message. Understand, the focus here is on how God works through His Word in spite of the human clay pot doing his best to preach it.
And so the next Sunday, I was highly encouraged as I stepped to the pulpit to continue preaching from the Sermon on the Mount. The message was a fairly easy, non controversial passage on being honest and trustworthy. I felt pretty good about the message and it started off well. But in my estimation the message began to flat line fairly soon after takeoff.
My wife, who is usually too generous in the post sermon critique that I usually drag out of her, said that it wasn’t all that bad. Yet, I was not happy with it. It just didn’t feel right to me. I also need to tell you the other part of the story. I had really wrestled that morning with our tithe. The previous week was very hectic and I hadn’t had time to balance our checkbook and things were tight. I will confess I was tempted to not give and try to make it up next Sunday. Also, we were scheduled to provide lunch for our intern and his girlfriend. I had thought we would go to Applebee’s after church. Have you ever felt that hesitancy as you drag your pen across the check? I did that Sunday. But I got over it and wrote the check. So after church I wasn’t feeling great about my message and I was wondering if there’s enough in our checking account to pay for lunch. There really wasn’t a lot of time to move some over from our savings.
Right when I was done preaching and Thadd was closing the service I had to run to my office to get something. And there on my desk was big thick envelope. In the envelope was an anonymous card which just showered affirmation and appreciation on Lori and I for our ministry here. But also in the envelope were two gift cards to Applebee’s for more than enough to pay for lunch at the very restaurant I had already decided to go to. I had not said a word to anyone about our lunch plans. Isn’t God so awesome!
God is so trustworthy and will always provide for us whatever we need—whether it’s hope, encouragement, or Applebee’s gift cards.
Chris Higgins 