There’s an interesting article in today’s New York Times about Broadway actors trying to learn their lines, especially when scripts are rewritten and changes are made to the dialogue.  Many actors insist a prompter sit on the front row or behind the curtain to whisper out forgotten lines.

Last season, one of my favorite legends, Angela Lansbury, used an earpiece during a Broadway play “It’s not something you ever want to do, but if we’re going to play important roles at our age, where our names are above the title on the marquee, we’re going to ask for some support if we need it,” said Ms. Lansbury, who is 84.

She went on to say, “In the early days of theater, there was a ‘prompt corner’ with a person ready to throw the line to any actor.  In the electronic age, some 80-year-old performers wear earpieces.  And all of us lose ourselves in a play at moments.  Laurence Olivier did at the height of his career.  This is part of theater.”

But another noted actress, Mary Martin, ran into problems with her earpiece.  It kept picking up taxi signals.  Must have made for some interesting dialogue!

Well, I prefer preaching with a minimum of notes, and so far, I’ve resisted having a prompter.  If I wear an earpiece, it’s only for sound checks, not sermon prompts.  I do hope I have an internal earpiece connected to the Holy Spirit, who is pretty good at prompting us as to what to say.  But, still, an effective sermon depends on good mental preparation.

I do often pencil little prompts or codewords in the margin of my Bible,  If I have extended quotes or passages, I’ll tack them onto the page with a little bit of scotch tape.  But for the most part, I minimize notes.

I have a lot to say about this, as preaching noteless sermons has been a lifelong study of mine; but the most basic fact to consider is this – the Scriptural text itself represents the sermon notes we need.  That’s the genius of expository preaching.  If one’s message unfolds naturally from the text in expositional fashion, the inspired paragraph itself provides the prompts.  One just works his way through the paragraph, coming to ideas as presented in the Bible in logical, sequential order.

When preaching from Philippians 4:4-7, for example, the outline is right there in the text itself.  Nothing to memorize.  Nothing to remember.

• Verse 4 tells us to rejoice.
• Verse 5 says be gentle.
• Verse 6 commands us to prayerful instead of anxious.
• Verse 7 promises that if we do those things the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds.

So you have four verses, four points (or three commandments and a corresponding promise), and nothing to remember:  Be joyful, be gentle, be prayerful, be peaceful.  It’s all right there on the page ready to be unfolded.  The purpose of the sermon is found in the point that runs through the paragraph, and the major headings of the sermon unfold as one works one’s way through the passage in expositional fashion.

(I have a lot more to say on this subject, but I’ll have to consult my notes and get back with you later).

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” 

Scripture begins with these ten words.  This is the Bedrock of the Bible, the first, earliest, and most irreducible foundation for the remaining 31,000 verses of God’s Word.  Genesis 1:1 encompasses the Totality of Truth.  Without it, there’s nothing but despair.  With it, there’s everything we need.  If this verse is true, everything in the rest of the Bible is plausible and logically consistent.  Genesis 1:1 tells us that God is, that He creates, and that He speaks; and this is the basis of all clear thinking and existential hope.

1.  Genesis 1:1 gives us roots.  We’re not accidental blobs of dying chemicals mysteriously evolving from primordial sludge without purpose or meaning.  We have a past rooted in the glory of the God whose image we bear.  We’re wonderfully made and placed in an environment fine-tuned for our needs.  The book of Genesis gives us the history of creation, of sin, of the beginnings of human society, and of the wondrous plan of redemption introduced by God.  If you discard Genesis 1:1, you abandon the roots and reality of humanity on earth.  By removing this text from conscious thought, we lose all inherent moral law in the universe, all intrinsic bases for self-image, all eternal purpose to life, and any and all hope in the human heart.

2.  Genesis 1:1 gives us routes.  If we have a past, we have a future.  If we were created in God’s image, we have eternal potential.  If we have an intelligent Creator who knows and loves us, He must have a purpose and plan for time and eternity.  Without Him, we’re dying embers in a dying universe with no ultimate significance.  With Him, we have roots in a dignified past and routes to a great future.

Starting today and for the next five weeks, I’ll be posting family and personal devotional ideas on my Twitter page, day by day, Monday through Friday, to correspond with our TDF sermon series from The 23^rd Psalm.

In part, this is because of the timely emphasis by Randall House Publications on D6 – that passage in Deuteronomy 6 that tells parents to share the word of God naturally and frequently with their children.  Family devotions have fallen by the wayside in today’s society, but we’ve got to find a way of restoring some version of this practice to our homes and hearths.

At The Donelson Fellowship, we’ve begun a six-week study of Psalm 23.  Every weekday morning during the five weeks between these six Sundays, I’ll post a devotional idea on Twitter.  It’ll have a suggested passage to read and a brief question or observation for discussion.

Gather the family at supper, or sit down with your kids at bedtime, and read the passage.  Briefly discuss the question.  Have a simple prayer.

These P23 Twitters can also be used for personal devotions during the sermon series.

This is our contribution to a great equation:  D6 & P23 = GR8.

PS – To order our special booklet on the 23^rd Psalm, click here.  To follow my twitter feed, use the icon below.  (You can also follow the tweets on the homepage of this website).

Psalm 23:1 says in the Living Bible:  Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything that I need.

Decades ago, in my first pastorate, I preached a series of sermons from the 23rd Psalm, using that verse as a theme; and I can’t recall if I’ve done so since.  What I most remember about that original series is how well it was received.  Everyone loves Psalm 23, the world’s best-known and most-loved poem.

Psalm 23 has been engraved on the hearts of every generation from antiquity to modernity. It’s been quoted across the centuries and through the millennia. Its words have blessed millions of sick rooms and thousands of classrooms. It’s been quoted in hospitals, jails, homes, and churches; in open-air rallies and underground meetings; in seasons of peace and in times of war. It’s been whispered by the bedsides of sleepy children and spoken as the last words of dying convicts. It’s the most memorized and memorialized passage in the Bible.

 Join us Sunday at The Donelson Fellowship as we begin a six-week study of Psalm 23.  And check out our newest resource — a booklet entitled:  The Lord is My Shepherd — That’s Enough!

Today’s New York Times contains another failure on the evolutionist front.  The article begins:

Remember Ida, the fossil discovery announced last May with its own book and television documentary?  A publicity blitz called it “the link” that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans….

In fact, Ida is as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be.

Ida has turned out to be nothing more than a cat-like animal.  All the chest-thumping fanfare by atheistic materialists and evolutionists was for nothing… again.  I like cats well enough; but I’m not ready to claim them for my grandparents.

You can find the article in the science section of today’s New York Times here.  For a blog I wrote when Ida’s discovery was announced, click here.

Today I’d like to introduce a new resource, a booklet called “The Lord is My Shepherd – That’s Enough.”  It’s a summation of my upcoming sermons from Psalm 23; and we’ve printed and packaged it for bulk distribution.  It’s cheap enough, yet readable and reliable enough, to give to friends or pass along to prospects.

Offer it to guests at church.  Leave it with hospital patients and in doctors’ offices.  Mail it to a bereaved friend or a lonely relative.  Give a copy to your pastor.  Share it with neighbors.  Everyone, after all, loves the 23rd Psalm.

The title comes from a story I found in my clippings. Years ago, when Saturday newspapers carried sermon topics for the next day, Rev. R. I. Williams of Fairmont Park Methodist Church of Norfolk picked up the phone and called the newspaper to give them his sermon topic.

“The Lord is my Shepherd,” he said.

The person on the other end said, “Is that all,” and Rev. Williams said, “That’s enough.”  The next day the church page carried his sermon topic as:  “The Lord is my Shepherd—That’s Enough!”

The simple lesson is that if we make the Lord our Shepherd, He’ll see to it that one way or another all our needs are met.

• He meets our External Needs, our physical needs—food, clothing, the necessities of life.
• He meets our Eternal Needs—salvation, heaven, everlasting life. John 10 says:  “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.”
• He meets our Internal Needs—Psalm 37:3 says, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness” (NKJV). He’s concerned about our emotional and relational needs, and He has promised to meet each one in His own way and timing.

What’s your greatest need right now? Tell your Shepherd, and claim Psalm 23 as your own.

PS  – Here’s more information about ordering copies of the Psalm 23 booklet.

Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God. – Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest, entry for August 23.

I just finished my last ministry trip of the year.  Spoke six times Saturday and yesterday in Georgia and Alabama.  Joshua went with me, and we got home late last night, and I’m a little tired, light-headed, and dizzy today; so I’m just resting.  No more ministry trips until the end of January, which means several months of quiet routine, church work, suitcase on the top shelf of the closet, dinners at home each evening with Katrina. 

It’s hard to keep everything in proper alignment, balancing work with rest, travel with home, broader ministry with local one.  Do you find it so, in your own set of equations?  I’m glad for opportunities, but I’m also thankful for breaks.  May the Lord give me – and all of us – the wisdom to maintain the right ratios in life.  And whether at home or abroad, on the land, on the sea, as our days may demand shall our strength ever be.

James 5:16 says:  “The effecive, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

It is not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; not the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they may be; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they may be; nor the music of our prayers, how sweet our voice may be; nor the logic of our prayers, how argumentative they may be; nor the method of our prayers, how orderly they may be; nor even the divinity of our prayers, how good the doctrine may be;–which God cares for.  Fervency of spirit is that which availeth much.
Bishop Joseph Hall

Quoted by D. L. Moody in Prevailing Prayer (Chicago:  F. H. Revell, 1884), 81.  I’ve also included this quote in my own book, My All in All.  Click here for more details.

PS – The noted Christian scholar and preacher, Spiros Zodhiates, passed away this week.  For his obituary, click here.

Last Saturday, I concluded a final message at a retreat in central California, drove to Los Angeles, returned the rental car, and caught a flight for Nashville via Denver.  The next morning’s sermon was on the Great Commission from Matthew 28, and I was nervous about getting it into my head.  I had my sermon manuscript with me, and I wanted to study through it on the plane since I wasn’t getting home until nearly midnight.

Internalizing a sermon is like cramming for a mid-term exam.  I have to study the manuscript, make notes, learn the notes, absorb the details of illustrations, think through the introduction and conclusion, and become very familiar with the Scriptural text and message outline.  I don’t memorize my sermons, but I do like to preach with as few notes as possible.  Furthermore, it can’t just be in my head; it must be in my heart.  So I have to meditate through the implications of the sermon and make sure my soul is full enough for the sermon to be “overflow.”

So I put in my ear-buds, boarded the plane, and took my seat on the aisle.  An older couple was sitting beside me.  Despite the plugs and wires attached to my ears, the old fellow was talkative.  He saw I had a cooking magazine with me, and he told me that he was a good cook and they were on their way back from a cruise and he lived outside Denver and his daughter was picking them up and their little dog had been in the kennel, and so on and on.  He wanted to see my magazine and did it have a subscription card in it, and how do you turn off the television screen on the seatback and would I like to have a Bloody Mary with them?  Affirmative on the card, negative on the drink, and I hope your dog is fine.

Meanwhile I was trying to focus on my sermon; and after while we settled into our seats in silence and solitude.

It was the next morning that I was stuck with a sudden conviction:  I had missed a chance to share the Gospel because I was too busy preparing a sermon on the Great Commission!

Isn’t that something? 

I’m sorry to report this, but perhaps it’s a good lesson for us all.

PS – If, having read this sad story, you still want to see my sermon on the Great Commission, click here.