One of our assignments for School of Ministry was to write and preach a sermon.

We could choose our own topic.  We then had to prepare the message and present it in front of our class of 16 students and our Pastor.  The sermon had to be exactly 12-15 minutes in length.  

To come up with my topic I started by brainstorming a bunch of ideas.  However, when it came time to start writing the sermon, none of the topics I had written down were jumping out at me.  I finally settled on the topic of "Why we should pray out loud" and started my research.  I put in quite a few hours of research and got a preliminary outline ready, but I didn't feel excited about it.  The following weekend I went to a Women's Conference and my sermon topic was still on my mind.  I wanted something different, but still wasn't sure what. 

During that weekend I felt God lay on my heart the same topic several times "This is a world at war."  I had really been moved by this theme a while back when I read the book Waking the Dead  by John Eldredge.  I wasn't sure where to go with this subject, but I knew I needed to start over on this track.  I went back to the drawing board and started on the first sermon of what would need to be a series if I were to cover the topic the way I would like.  I figured that if you want to teach about a war, you have to first start by teaching about your enemy.  Out of this came my first sermon which I titled "Knowing Your Enemy."  

On May 14th the big day arrived, and it was time to give my sermon for the class.  We weren't supposed to write out exactly what we were going to preach.  Instead we were supposed to use a more free flowing style of having basic notes and then just expounding on them.  I had practiced many times that day trying to figure out exactly what I was going to say and trying to get it within the time constraints.  (Ad-libbing with a three minute tolerance for error can be a challenge.)  When I got up to give my sermon it was amazing how the Spirit helped me and it came out with ease.  It was definitely better and easier than any of the practice runs I had experienced.  When I was done it seemed to have blessed many of my classmates, and I felt good about it.  

I have made an audio copy of my message available below for those who are interested in listening.  I have also included a PDF copy of my sermon notes so that you can have them for reference.

With all there was to say, I had a hard time keeping it within the allotted time frame for class.  I wrote 6 versions before I ended up with the final one that I preached.  (Maybe some day I'll take the time to write some additional messages to better round out the subject.)  At the end of my sermon notes I have included an appendix with some of the information that I had to cut from my sermon due to time.  

Click on the play button below to start listening now:

Download sermon notes in PDF form