The art of preaching is the art of motivation. One can move a crowd with fear, another can do it with pride, another can motivate with love. If you have attended church much in your life you will have heard all three. Perhaps some of the best motivators are football coaches during halftime or corner men between rounds getting their man back into the ring. Two of the best motivation speeches ever have to be found in the film Brave Heart and in Shakespeare’s Henry V. In both situations men are about to go onto a killing field. Henry V says to his men, “This story shall the good man teach his son . . . We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother. . . . And gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.”
In I Peter 1:12 we read that angels longed to understand the secrets of the Gospel that have been shared with us. For eternity we, the redeemed, shall be princes and princesses of the Most High and beings from the far stretches of the universe will know that we, sinful as we were, weak as we were, were the apple of God’s eye. We few, we happy few, recipients of the blood of the King of the Universe will forever be special. Angels will not hold their positions cheap but they will know that we were blessed to be from earth. Only we will be privileged to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Revelation 15:3.
Written by Roger Bothwell on May 23, 2016
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