Open Your Mouth
“…do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.”
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” says the Lord.
Psalm 81, verse 10
And then the last scripture:
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:7
I want to speak to you about extempore preaching... What does that mean?
Well, the great Evangelists and Revivalists would use one verse from the Bible and then go on to speak and preach for up to three hours from that one verse. For example:
“The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:17
They would take that little verse and they would speak on that verse for a long time. But you see, what a lot of the young preachers don’t understand is that these mighty men of God would do their homework before they stood in the pulpit. I remember like yesterday, the very first time I preached a sermon in the main church in our little town of Greytown, I had spent six weeks preparing that sermon - fifteen pages long! Lord, have mercy on the congregation!
Anyway, I got to the church very early in my pick-up with my wife and my children and eventually got up into the pulpit. I was petrified. My dear wife Jill, was sitting right at the back of the church and the minister was sitting next to me. He introduced me and he said, “Okay, Angus, over to you.” Well, I opened my Bible and took my notes out and take a guess what - I had page one and I had page fifteen! I don’t know what happened to the other pages, they were gone!
I looked up at my wife. She was standing in the back of the church and you know when you have been married for a long time, you don’t have to use words. I just signalled to her that I had nothing, she ran out the back of the church and had a look in the pick-up. She ran back, stood in the back of the church, I will never forget it... Put her hands up in the air: “I don’t know where they are!”
Well, that was my defining moment. I either had to preach from the heart or hand it over to the minister. He was sitting right next to me. But I had a little band from our coffee bar, our youth club, and they were singing a song for me. “Here comes Jesus. See Him walking on the water.”
Tears filled my eyes and I realized (my message by the way was on faith), I am either going to preach this by faith or not at all. Well, I went on to preach the sermon. Most of my preaching is outdoors and my friends will tell you that nine times out of ten I open my Bible and wind will come up and blow my notes all over the place. I think the Lord has a plan there, what do you think?
Maybe you have to go to court and deliver something, maybe you have got to make a speech at school, maybe you have to speak at an interview for a job... Just remember - Jesus Christ will speak for you.
God bless you and have a wonderful day!