I did a hard thing!

I thank God daily in my prayers for the strength that he gives me, for the grace and mercy i do not deserve, and for the forgiveness i did not, or could never earn. I thank God for the wisdom he gave me to carry out his will in my life, and i thank God for always being with me, guiding me through his spirit, guiding me in thought, in word, and in deed. 

Yesterday i "did a hard thing." As you may know i am a youth leader, but as yet i had not given a sermon in church. It is almost intimidating having everyone look at you, expecting you to challenge them, and still make it fun. 

I recall about a year ago a friend named Ben MacMichael did his first sermon as well. He mentioned when he first started that  he was happy the pulpit was there, so that we couldn't see his shaking knees. Now i know how he felt.

Anyway, the sermon topic was "Do Hard Things." It was based in part by a book of the same name written by Alex & Brett Harris. I thought i would give a rough outline of the sermon here without illustrations. I'm sure when you think in your own life, you can come up with enough of your own.

1. The First Scary Step: How to do hard things that take you outside your comfort zone.
2. Raising the Bar: How to do hard things that go beyond what's expected or required.
3. The Power of Collaboration: How to do hard things that are too big for you to do alone.
4. Small Hard Things: How to do hard things that don't pay off immediately.
5. Taking a Stand: How to do hard things that go against the crowd.

These were the 5 areas of hard things that i spoke on. Then i gave a quick guide to start doing those hard things.

1. Read the Word of God. Get into the Bible (Rev. 10:8).
2. Meditate on the Word of God (Rev. 10:9).
3. Pray (1 Thess. 5:16-17).
4. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2; see also Matt. 26:36-46, Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking that if the cup cannot be passed over him, that his will would conform to the Father's).

That was it in a nutshell. I was slightly nervous, which is to be expected, but God gave me the strength to get through.