Since, as most of you know, CRPC has a new pastor who will be starting on Easter Sunday, my time as the “Fill in Guy” (the cardboard over the broken window) is coming to a close.  I have a couple of more weeks and then Coral Ridge will be blessed to have a real pastor delivering the messages on Sunday morning.  Because of this I am trying to get the final few sermons up on the site just in case anyone except my favorite boy (Josiah, my son who when he is away listens to his old man on his IPhone) might want to get a copy.

Yesterday I preached on the parable of the wicked tenants and I will get that up tomorrow or Wednesday, next week I will be preaching on the parable of the wedding feast that begins Matthew 22 and that will be it for the Matthew sermons for now.  I will have a special Palm Sunday sermon to end up my time as the morning preacher.

While I am excited to see what God is going to do through the new pastor (see his blog at http://www.newcitypres.com/blog/ ) for more information about what God is doing at CRPC through our new pastor, Rev. Tullian Tchividjian, I am also a tiny bit sad to leave the pulpit.  I said from the very begining that I was not called to the the pastor of that church and I have remained firm in that knowledge.  God has called me to be a professor at Knox seminary.  I love teaching, studying, and interacting with my students.  But I have also loved my time bringing the word to the wonderful people at CRPC.  I would never be so foolish as to think that I was anything more than a “fill-in,” I am proud to have been the “fill-in that God used for these two years.

I don’t deserve the honor that filling the pulpit has brought me, but I have tried to let all that go and honor the Lord.  I haven’t done much, preached a few sermons, brought a few moments of laughter, and hopefully taught some things about the Gospel of Matthew, not much in the grand scheme of things, but the Lord is good and I am glad that he called me “off the bench” for a little while to be the cardboard in the window until we could get some real glass (there is an old joke in there for you, if you don’t remember I’ll tell it either this Sunday or next).

All Glory for the Lamb,

Pastor Sam