It (preaching) is a privilege wrapped up with a HUGE (ALL CAPS) responsibility.

Charles H. Spurgeon puts it this way…

“I have preached the gospel now these 30 years and more, and … often, in coming down to this pulpit, have I felt my knees knock together, not that I am afraid of anyone of my hearers, but I am thinking of that account which I must render to God, whether I speak his Word faithfully or not.”

Powerful words from a powerful preacher.

The motive for preaching?  You can preach for 2 reasons.  Either because ‘you have to’ or because ‘you have to’.

Listen to what Mark Batterson has to say about this…

The first “have to” is because you are on the schedule. The second “have to” is because you have fire shut up in your bones, you have a word from the Lord, you have something conceived by the Holy Spirit that you cannot keep inside. Nothing is worse that the first “have to.” Nothing is greater than the second “have to.”

(Video podcast here)

One might say, “I’m not a queen.  I look like one or act like one, but I’m really not one.”  But you gotta remember that way before she became queen, she was a regular young lady ready for whatever God wanted to do for her and through her.

Concurrently, right at the same time, God was raising up other guys to rebuild the nation of Israel.  Ezra opened the Scriptures to reconnect people to God.  Nehemiah was used to fix the infrastructure of the nation and rebuild the walls.

You see, when God rebuilds a nation.  It’s never one guy.  He pulls many together to accomplish His purpose.  Sometimes, leadership can be over glorified.  It’s still HIM, at the end of the day.  He uses ordinary, regular Joes like us to accomplish his purpose.

To see this nation rise from the ashes, it can’t be one leader, candidate, ’savior’.  It will have to be all of us coming together to see this thing happen.

It’s a banker who keeps his integrity intact.  It’s the young high schooler studying hard and pushing to excel for one day he will be in a leadership position.  It’s the teacher who gives her best to not only download info but also character.  It’s the father who disciples his kids into all God has planned. And so on…

Each one, doing his part.

Yesterday, one guy did his part.  Joshua Suarez ran 102 km for the DEATH MARCH and raised Php 102,000 for underprivileged students of Real Life Foundation’s Scholarship Fund.

He’s not a Senator, not a governor, not even a CEO of a multi national company.  But in his way, he is making a contribution to make a difference in this nation, this time.

Imagine what this nation will look like in 40, 50, 70 years if everyone did his ‘little’ contribution to make a difference.

Remember, it’s the little things that make the little difference that eventually make the big difference.

But what makes it more fun is when you have someone cracks a joke, someone buys pizza, someone tells a story about their week that makes us bust out laughing, manny makes a comment, miko gets lost in outer space, ganns gives a witty remark with his evil laugh, bernard chides and blows us away with a story… stuff like these make staff meetings fun.  Now include LA MUMAR’s clapping invention when we celebrate a win.  Ask him about it when you see him.

Mark Batterson said, “I cannot cite a verse or a study, but I honestly believe that the healthiest churches are churches that laugh the most. I’d also add cry the most to that. They are churches that feel deeply, feel freely. The gospel isn’t just in their heads. It’s in their hearts.”

I believe that.

I’m just so glad I serve with a team of fun people.  We have every reason to rejoice – we have JESUS.  That’s more than enough.