But how was the Sermon prepared? That was my question when I heard Rev Dr Ng preached

1. the art of preaching or writing sermons.

   “the teaching of homiletics”

He said that Preaching is like Shooting A Rifle. You must take Aim at One Target

If you aim at One Main Spot you will Hit the Target

Not a Spray gun that scatters its bullets everywhere  and will not be effective

A message with many irrelevant topics will be like a Spray gun that is weakened and get no real result

Ha! That is what Commandos were trained in the Army. To shoot & kill

See

⁵ Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee (Psalm 45: 5).

IN TODAY’S CONTEXT THE MESSAGE IS LIKE A BAZOOKA

So we must go down on our knees and pray for God to impart His Word first to our hearts

This was what Rev Chandra  Shekar Edar said,

“God must first put the message into our hearts before we can put the message into the heart of the hearers”

A Sermon is different from a lecture. A lecture can be a mental subject without changing the life. A true Sermon is a message not just for the mind but also touches the very heart & soul.

Aha! That is why when I heard past SOMers like Matthew Seow, Jeremiah Ng, Dorcas, Esther, Faith speak or shared they all exhibit the same power in preaching or sharing.

I also heard present day SOMers Rev Tang Ah Chang & Rev Daniel Khoo (visiting guest speakers at Mt Calvary Baptist Church, Spore) with the same pointed message with unction

And in SOM Dr. Ng would tell us to preach & gave us Topics to speak

Using topics about our main weak points as subjects for preaching  were hardest to prepare and to preach. Preaching  against the preacher himself?

Guess what?

He told me to preach on a subject called

“Holy Haste”

I was baffled while he looked on quite amused. This slowest SOMer like a tortoise going to preach on “Holy Haste”?

Thank God for coming to my aid

In 10 minutes the Subject was brought to my mind

Yes. In SOM things moved fast. Prepare message on short notice. Only 10 minutes to pack up for long trip to Malaysia. We were trained to be better than Scout whose motto is “Be Prepared”

Now my 1st message in homiletics class

Holy Haste

1. Holy Haste in the Life of Abraham

12 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

² And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

³ And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

⁴ So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Abraham exhibited holy haste at the call of God to leave his country.

And God blessed Abraham with a Son Isaac just as God promised

But Abraham heart turned more and more to his son till God has to test his loyalty by asking him to sacrifice Isaac on Mt Moriah

22 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

² And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Abraham left Haran at the age of 75. 25 years later Isaac was born. About 13 age Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac so there was a span of 38 years since Abraham first obeyed God

Now will Abraham shrink from God’s Call. Did he wallow in pity for Isaac? Or question God? Of course not.

See

³ And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

Abraham again responded in holy haste just as he did 38 years ago without wavering

See how God remembered him in Hebrews

⁸ By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

Abraham’s faith shone out by his implicit obedience to God

Read again

he went out, not knowing whither he went.

He was willing to instantly follow God even though he was not sure where he was supposed to go

Oswald Chambers wrote an excellent book on Abraham called “NOT KNOWING WITHER”

2) Holy Haste in the Call of Fishermen to Serve Him

¹⁸ And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

¹⁹ And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

²⁰ And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

²¹ And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.

²² And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

These were blue collar jobs simple fishermen called by jesus

They all responded in a holy haste