It's always a joy coming your way Dear Man of God (MoG). Kindly permit me to share this piece with you - PULPIT.
I know by this time you are done with your preparation of the spiritual diet you are serving the congregation moro. You will be serving ( preaching )from a pulpit. It is not for any reason that we preach from pulpits. Look carefully at the word PULPIT You see two words PULL and PIT. By the preacher's liberty, I don't need to look over my shoulders to opine that pulpit means PULL THEM FROM THE PIT.
When God gives you a pulpit, HE expects that you pull people from the pit. When Israel lived in Egypt, they were in a pit. Num 21:15 says .....YOU BROUGHT US UP OUT OF EGYPT......
Ps 40:2 He brought us up out of a horrible pit.... Ah they ate leeks, garlic, cucumber in Egypt? But it was still a horrible pit.
People often find themselves in diverse pits - the pit of hopelessness, the worthlessness, the pit of low self esteem, the pit of condemnation, the pit of a heavy sense of guilt, the pit of non-performance in their profession, business, if they are students in addition to battling adolescent challenges (which in my opinion are countless), may find themselves floored on many counts - lost of virginity, enmeshed in sexual escapades, academics nose diving. The Psalmist in Ps 40:2 calls all these a HORRIBLE PIT.
Let me acknowledge that we sometimes get into pit ourselves, people put us into pits, or it could instigated from the abyss. Whether they walked into the pit, people schemed them into it or fomented by Satan, your responsibility as a MoG standing in the pulpit is the PULL THEM OUT OF THE PIT.
In Jer 31:3, says the Lord loved us with an everlasting love and lovingkindness He drew us OUT ( of the horrible pit Egypt and Babylonian captivities)
MoG scripture says such were as some of us but HE patient with us. Don't mount the pulpit and as it were open fire on them, don't give it to them, don't condemn them, don't talk them down, the beat them. Some of the people who come to church have been "beaten" by their Bosses at the workplace, by their Landlords, by their past, by the economy. MoG, pump them up, inspire them, encourage them, give them a reason for a better tomorrow, spark them from ground zero to optimum plus performance.
If your congregation left church more depressed than they came, it means you pushed them further into the pit. BUT if they left church with their faith and hope coming alive, with thoughts that they are work in progress, with thoughts that they God's workmanship, with thoughts that they are saints,with thoughts that their salvation is authentic, with thoughts that God is not angry with them, with thoughts that they are accepted in the beloved and that they are acceptable as Christ, with thoughts that there is NOW THEREFORE no condemnation for those in Christ, then you have pull them from the pit.
This is a shocker from Job 33:30 To bring back my soul from the pit and enlighten me with the light of life.
May the Lord use you MoG to pull them from the pit. The pulpit you have is to serve one purpose, and that is TO PULL THEM FROM THE PIT. Amen