There are a number of ways to work out what our spiritual gifts are. We can do spiritual gift surveys which will help. Another way is to prayerfully ask yourself some questions.
Here are some you can start with…
What is the Holy Spirit telling me?
What is something I enjoy doing?
Am I fulfilled when I do it?
What do other people tell me I’m good at?
What have I done that has made a huge difference in someone’s life?
When we sit and ask these questions we can start to get a picture of what gifts God has given us. then we can start using our gifts for the good of others (1Peter 4:10).
The church I attend works off the Lectionary for their sermons. These are a list of Bible readings that are on a three year cycle that line up with the seasons of the church year. It generally has a reading from the Psalms, a Gospel reading and one from another place in the Bible.
In saying this though, we do have the freedom to preach on another passage when it is our turn to preach. We can chose our passage based on what we feel God wants us to preach on for the week. Most times when I do this, people tell me that God spoke to them through the passage. Last time one lady told me that sermon was just for her and it felt like no-one else was there.
When I was a Pastor I would generally seek God at the start of the year and ask what books of the Bible or themes He wanted me to speak about. Most years I would get 2-3 Bible books to work through and a couple of themes that would go for about a month. The other sermons would be one of sermons that I felt to preach on that week.
Now I am a school chaplain I only preach now as a lay preacher every two or three months. I usually look at the Lectionary readings for the day, but most times I feel God wants me to preach on something else. I seek God and just ask “What do You want me to preach on?” Within a few days I find I am drawn to a passage and ideas start to flow.
This Sunday I am preaching and it will be this way again. I looked at the readings for this week and nothing really jumped out at me. I then prayed and asked God. He led me to a passage in Colossians and I had a couple of other little confirmations while talking with others and reading other things.
So I guess if you asked me the question “Do I use the Lectionary for my sermons?” I would have to say no. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like or appreciate when others in our church do. I have been really blessed by the preaching through the seasons of the church year.
On Sunday afternoon our time I would put my sermon online here and our church may have some video too.
As a School Chaplain and previously a Pastor you get asked lots of questions. I have had questions about heaven, hell, the Bible, Jesus, salvation, the Holy Spirit and more.
Often the questions are easily answered and people are happy with the answer. Sometimes they are a bit more tricky and take some real thought or research before I get back to the person.
One of my favourite resources that I often refer to is GotQuestions.org. They have nearly 700,000 answers to questions and many have short videos to explain them.
Sometimes I will watch their video and do more research or sometimes I just send a link to the person who asked the question. Most times people are happy with a short video and that answers their question.
If you are interested you can find their website here at GotQuestions.org
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