peace! be still!

This is a sermon delivered as pulpit supply at First Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, Nebraska on Sunday, June 21, 2015. 

The scriptural references for this sermon are:
1 Samuel 17: 1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49 and
Mark 4:35-41

A link to hearing the sermon is here.
You may also subscribe to my podcast on iTunes here, to receive the most up-to-date postings of my sermons if you’d like.

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Usually I would post the text of my sermon, however I deviated a bit from the text during the worship service in which it was recorded. I woke this morning with a healthy anxiety about preaching because I feared that it “wasn’t enough” in the scheme of what really needs to be said, so I prayed. I asked God to fill me where my words might be insufficient. I am normally a manuscript preacher (since I’m new at this and don’t do it regularly enough to feel fully confident using an outline or less), which is why I can normally post my manuscript. Today was slightly different, however.

In lieu of sharing the manuscript, I encourage you to listen to the sermon recording and enjoy a few of the “extras” that I am including below. Thank you for taking the time to listen. I pray that the words God spoke through me are as refining to you as they are me, and that we would be moved to follow the commands we hear and actions we see from Christ. Prayers are simply not enough anymore.

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Bulletin – 10am – 6.21.2015
This is the bulletin from the service in which the sermon as recorded.

They-Met-to-Read-the-Bible-scored-hymn
This hymn/prayer was written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, published on 6.20.15, and I shared it as our closing prayer in worship this morning. 

I read this book, Peace is an Offering, as the Children’s sermon in conjunction with Mark 4:35-41, quoted pieces of it in the sermon, and also used pieces for the charge and benediction at the close of worship. 

Lastly, but certainly not least by any measure, I shared these names in our Prayers of the People and continue to carry them with me, as I hope you will, too:

Cynthia Herd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Honorable Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Sr., Rev. Sharonda Singleton,  Myra Thompson