Now two Sundays ago, New Covenant Church Pastor Andrew Fulton preached on Rom. 15:14-21. The sermon is titled Motivated by Mission. I'm not sure I've ever heard a more stirring call to world missions. It certainly was the most solid and salutary message on missions for Middle America that I've ever heard. I highly commend it. Not least for Napervillians! But a word to the wise: have a listen when you're pride won't keep you from hearing aright. Maybe the sovereign Spirit will be pleased to blow on you and fan into a flame a renewed or brand new passion for King Jesus' global cause and fame.
Were one able to watch this sermon on video, I would also commend it as a model of both clear structure and flow in the sermon along with freedom in the pulpit from a manuscript. Andrew, still a young man (thirty-one, if I'm not mistaken), possesses considerable gifts. And one I appreciate most is his freedom in the pulpit. That freedom produces a back and forth between hearer and listener that is, of course, much harder to achieve when one is tied to every word of a manuscript. In the sermon God's Word is mediated through Andrew's personality in a way that connects that divine Word with people in the pew with relative ease. Or so it seems.
The message begins with a jab at our all-too-often pathetic response to missionary letters—and then proceeds to commend the greatest missionary support letter ever written to stir us up! And at least this sinner-turned-saint found his heart significantly stirred and corrected. Yet again, under the ministry of that Word above all earthly powers!
(Concerning this jab: my wife and I recounted it back at home over a meal and found ourselves enjoying great big belly laughs—the kind that leave you on the floor. Priceless satire. And powerful.)
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