Urim songwriting workshop: Sunday morning preaching

Whenever I'm in a village in PNG, I can usually expect to be asked to preach in church on Sunday morning. Sometimes the pastor whispers this request in my ear during the first song in the Sunday morning service; I'm less inclined to accept when I only have the time of two songs and a prayer to prepare a sermon. This time, though, Urim church leaders asked me about the preaching a few days in advance, so I said yes.

The topic they asked me to speak on was "False gods and false worship." I don't know if that was the official topic for that Sunday, or just one that they wanted to hear me talk about. I spent midday Saturday preparing a basic outline and some key Bible passages to include in the talk.

What I ended up with was something like this:

1. False gods and false worship in the Bible
• God's commandment (Exodus 20:4-5), and an early example of his people breaking the commandment (Exodus 32:2-4)
• Encouragement that idols are nothing (I Corinthians 8:4; Habakkuk 2:18-20)
2. What are false gods today?
• Trust in other spirits
• Dependence on traditional healing, when prayer and medicine don't seem effective
• Greed for money, material possessions, personal prestige
• Following prophets and preachers whose talk contradicts the Bible
3. The way to avoid idolatry and false worship
• Test everything according to Scripture (Matthew 22:29; Acts 17:2; Acts 17:11; Acts 18:27-28; Psalm 119:105)
• Stay focused on the object of our faith and true worship: Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:2-3; John 14:6)

I don't feel that preaching is my great strength, but I hope that what I said was an encouragement to the 60 or so people at church that Sunday morning.

In the next post: back to the songwriting workshop.