The Limp is Mightier Than the Strut

While I have been privileged to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ for over forty years, the sermons in this volume were all written and preached during the last dozen or so of those years. It stands to reason, then, that they reflect my preaching in its most mature form—although hopefully not in the most mature form that I will ever achieve!

During the period that I was assembling the sermons for this book I jokingly referred to them as my “Greatest Hits.” And it’s true that the main criterion by which I selected them was the extent to which they seemed to prove meaningful both to my listeners and to me.

Still, as you read these sermons you will likely perceive that certain themes present themselves consistently. Those themes include the struggle to follow Christ well, the call to selflessness, service, and sacrifice that is placed upon the Christ-follower’s life, the value of embracing and living into our common humanity, the tension between the real and the ideal for the Christian who takes both Earth and heaven seriously, the power in living openly and vulnerably before God and before each other, and the centrality to our discipleship of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

            I will be pleased if in your reading of these sermons you are led to think about the place those themes have in shaping your following of Jesus Christ.

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Michael Ruffin is a Curriculum Editor with Smyth & Helwys Publishing in Macon, Georgia. He and his wife Debra live on the Ruffin Family Farm in Yatesville, Georgia. Until recently he served as Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Fitzgerald, Georgia. They are the parents of two grown children, Joshua (and Michelle) and Sara (and Benjamin). He is author of Living Between the Advents: Preaching Advent in Year B, Living on the Edge: Preaching Advent in Year C, and Prayer 365, and is editor and compiler of Why Be a Christian? The Sermons of Howard P. Giddens.