About a month ago, my wife, Jean, and I found out we were going to have baby #2!  Needless to say, we are thrilled.  God has already richly blessed us with a smart, precocious little boy, William Clayton.  Finding out we were pregnant again has been another glorious reminder of God’s gracious gifts.

It has been about 7 years since we first really started our attempt at having a family.  After  nearly 4 years of fertility treatments, Dr. appointments, prayers, and heartache, God gave us the joy of our “Will.”  What is amazing is that we had stopped medications and were in a holding pattern not knowing our next step.  Then, surprise! We found out Jean was pregnant, without the help of modern medicine.  It was like God was reminding us anew that He is the One who is sovereign and the One who grants life.

Well, He’s done it again.  Sure, we were trying to get pregnant.  And no, we had not returned to any fertility treatments.  But God worked again to remind us who’s really in control.  With our first, we experienced the joy and the fear of the “unknown.”  Now, we will experience the joy and the fear of the “known.”  But through the next 8 months of pregnancy or so and the anticipated birth of Hefner baby #2 we are thankful to our Heavenly Father for the joy and gift of children.  (By the way, Will really needs a brother or sister to remind him the world doesn’t revolve around him.  Yes, that’s our fault as his parents.  But God surely does know how to provide perspective even to toddlers.)

I love to preach.  God called me to preach.  For the last 13 years of my life, I’ve had the wonderful privilege of serving on staff at Mud Creek Baptist Church.  We have one of the greatest preachers in America (in my humble opinion), filling our pulpit on Sundays and Wednesdays – Dr. Greg Mathis.  As a result, I don’t get a chance to preach weekly, but I did get to supply at our second service yesterday.  I’m certainly not an expert, but I do have some thoughts on the importance of preaching.

First, preaching is important because it is communicating what God has said.  When a preacher stands in the pulpit, he’s not there to give his opinion, but to say “thus says the Lord.”  Power in preaching comes through the Word of God and through the Holy Spirit.  As a result, taking the time in preparation to learn, understand, explain, and apply what God has SAID is a tremendously important task for the preacher.  In ministry, I think its actually one of the hardest things I do – making sure that I interpret Scripture accurately.

Second, preaching is important because of the time invested.  A word of insight from Dr. Kenneth Ridings that I’ve never forgotten.  He said, “When you preach, you’re not just taking up 30 minutes of time.  Your taking up 30 minutes of time multiplied by ever person hearing you.”  So, there were probably about 700 people or so in our second service yesterday .  700 people times 30 minutes is 350 hours of time that I took up yesterday in the second service at our church. Dr. Riding’s reminder is a somber challenge to be prepared and ready when we stand to preach.  I try to take the investment of time seriously to prepare, understand, and communicate what God has SAID.