I was thinking the other day about preaching - about the need to preach full-orbed sermons that don't moralise, even whilst they instruct and call for faith and obedience etc. That seems, at times, like quite a hard call.
But then it struck me (sometimes I'm pretty blind to the obvious) that when we then sit around the Lord's Table (as we do) after the sermon, whatever I may have failed to say well enough, or fully enough, is now being portrayed for all to see. They're tasting - and seeing - that the Lord is good.
And then, yesterday, it also occurred to me that, in fact, the praying and the singing and the reading and the fellowship of God's people are all a part of that same witness to God's grace too. And so I don't need - am not called - to do everything in the preaching. Yes, to preach Christ as well as I can - not moralising but preaching grace. Yet such preaching is not being done in a vacuum; God has many ways of displaying truth.
Those thoughts don't make me feel that sloppy preaching is okay, but they do give me a sense of liberty and security in seeking to minister faithfully.
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