Oh the irony! Often an alarm clock is used as a sermon illustration on Advent Sunday. Little did I know that this year it would be more than an illustration. I dreamt that the alarm went off at 6am as per usual setting and Terry woke up and got out of bed ready to finish his preparation for Sunday service at 9am. I was on duty a little later, at 10.30am so let him get on with it. Then I realised it was a dream. So went back into the wierd land of my dreams. As I woke I thought it was a little bit light and assumed the alarm would go off. It didn’t. So I eventually decided to check the time. Oh dear – 7.10am. I had forgotten to set the alarm, despite making a point of it that I was setting it. Poor Terry had a little less time than expected. Nevertheless he reports that the morning went well, and when I spoke to one of the congregation this afternoon she said she had enjoyed the service and his sermon.
I preached a sermon that, to be honest, I had dug out of my stash from 3 years ago. It had been for an all age service (but no children present) at the church I wasn’t preaching at today. So nobody would have heard it before. Not that people would remember the sermon from one week to the next never mind from 3 years ago! We had been away Monday to Friday and I had a busy Saturday so it was handy to have this ‘Blue Peter’ sermon. (‘Here’s one I made earlier’ – from the children’s TV programme, Blue Peter). My choice to use this was affirmed when a lady leaving church commented how it had helped her. The right word at the right time. That is so often how God works.
I didn’t use the alarm as an illustration, but did make reference to our journey home on Friday.
I have extracted my sermon from the service video and saved to YouTube – unfortunately the software saved it to my personal account and not the one with most of my videos…. oh well! That’s technology for you. I had played a video Advent in 2 minutes earlier in the service – so worth viewing that before the sermon.
Elizabeth Jones' Diary 