A Wild Man
Date
Sunday, September 7, 2003
Location
Hayward Wesleyan Church
Series
Stand Alone Message
Scripture Reference
Mark 1:1-8
Audio
None available
Manuscript
Download PDF [476kb]
Description
John the Baptist was a wild man. The wilderness was his home. Camel’s hair and leather were his clothing. And locust and wild honey was his dinner. He was a wild man. John was a wild man with a wild message and people were drawn to it…
Now some of you may be saying: “I can relate to this wild man thing, but, Jesus?! Wild?! C’mon… no way. I remember him is Sunday school on the flannel graph. He’s meek and mild and BORING! He is in the pictures with the long flowing hair, the lamb and the lion laying next to him, and children dancing around him.”
The Lion of Judah is not a tame lion, but He’s good. The problem is His Bride is not so good, and so He makes her nervous. When she’s afraid, she tries to tame Him, and make Him safe, controlled, and predictable.
Credit
Much of the inspiration for this message came from Rev. Peter Hiett, in a message he preached called The Wild Man. A number of things were contextualized for Hayward, but the core essence of the message came from Rev. Hiett. It’s much like Jamal in Finding Forester when he needed some inspiration, his mentor gave him one of his literary pieces and told him to start from there, and when he found his own words, to go keep going.
This was the first sermon that I preached at Hayward Wesleyan Church. I had no idea what I was doing. Starting with the core concept of Rev. Hiett’s message really helped me gain my preaching legs (so-to-speak). It helped me to find the particular voice that God has used in the years since this first message.
