Straight to the Heart

I heard a lot of fantastic preaching this week at the “Together on a Mission” conference, but the most moving and challenging preach of all was delivered by someone who wasn’t even there.

PJ Smyth leads GodFirst Church in Johannesburg, South Africa, a church which he planted five years ago and which now gathers over two thousand worshippers in seven different venues. He was scheduled to speak at the “Together on a Mission” conference which is hosted by Newfrontiers in Brighton, UK, for 5000 church leaders, church planters and ordinary radicals, but he was forced to cancel only hours before he was due to catch his plane. He had discovered a suspicious lump in his shoulder and had been forced to stay at home to undergo medical testing. It looked like an early sign of lymphoma, and doctors needed to examine him fast.

Technically, therefore, PJ didn’t preach at “Together on a Mission”. In truth, however, he preached not just once but twice. He delivered his first preach via a text message which Terry Virgo read out to the conference. He described finding the lump, his painful biopsy and the way he was leading his wife and three young sons through the crisis. Then he ended his text-message sermon with a simple statement: “We worship while we wait.” It was as powerful a preach as anything he could have delivered in person.

PJ’s second preach came this afternoon at the very end of the conference, again by text message. As Terry Virgo read the results of the biopsy, five thousand people listened and prayed for good news. PJ shared in his text message that the results had been disappointing. The lump was indeed lymphoma. He has cancer and will need chemotherapy. Then he concluded his second sermon with a cry of faith: “Blessed hurricane,” he said, “that blows us closer to God.” Even on the morning that he discovered he had cancer, PJ Smyth still exuded faith in his mighty God. It was one of the finest sermons he had ever preached.

I find PJ’s example very challenging, and hopefully you do too. He was echoing the words of Hudson Taylor, who in the midst of great tragedy declared that “It doesn’t matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is whether it comes between you and God or whether it presses you nearer his heart.”

So whatever trials and difficulties may face us today, let’s learn from the example of PJ Smyth, Hudson Taylor and the great men and women of faith all around us. Let’s worship while we wait and let’s praise God for his blessed hurricanes which drive us closer into him. As PJ explained at the end of his text message: “I am secure in the fortress of Romans 8:28 - We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”