For once… Little Johnny ain’t got nothing to say.
Nothing.
No gimmick. No performance. No fireworks shot out of a preacher’s sleeve.
Just silence.
Because sometimes God blesses you so deeply… the soul goes quiet.
“My cup runneth over.” That’s what David said in Psalm 23. And tonight, I understand it.
Last night I could hardly sleep because I knew Mother’s Day was coming. I knew people would mention my mother. I knew the ache would rise up out of nowhere like an old ghost walking through a familiar hallway.
And I dreaded it. Has she really been dead a year?
But today?
Today was glorious.
One precious saint mentioned Momma… and instead of a knife in my chest, it became a reminder of grace. I had built a mountain out of a molehill. Fear had magnified grief bigger than reality.
And somewhere in the middle of all this… God has been changing the way I preach.
Less Little Johnny. More Bible.
Less fluff. More fire straight from the text.
Not creativity for creativity’s sake. Not trying to impress people with cleverness. Just opening the Word of God and letting Heaven talk.
Jesus said in John 15:
“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (John 15:3, KJV)
That’s my hope now.
Not that people leave impressed with me. Not that they walk out talking about the preacher.
But that something inside them gets washed clean by the Word of the Living God.
Because the Word carries a power no personality can manufacture.
Isaiah thundered it in Isaiah 55:
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters…” (Isaiah 55:1)
And again:
“Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good…” (Isaiah 55:2)
Then the Lord drops the hammer:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8–9)
But then comes the mystery.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians:
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Most people stop there.
But the next verse is dynamite.
“But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 2:10)
And then Paul says:
“But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)
Do you understand what that means?
The God whose thoughts are higher than the heavens… the God whose wisdom crushes human understanding… has chosen to reveal Himself through His Spirit and through His Word.
Jesus said in John 6:
“The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)
Spirit. And life.
Not dead religion. Not empty ceremony. Not church games.
Life.
And when those words enter your ears, something supernatural happens because:
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
What a blessing.
What a blessing to own a Bible.
What a blessing to preach a Bible.
What a blessing to pray the Bible until the words stop being ink on a page and start becoming fire in your bones.
To carry the Word of Life in your hands… in your pocket… on your phone… and hidden deep in your heart.
Because Jesus said in John 15:
“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7)
His words abiding in us.
Not motivational speeches. Not human philosophy. His words.
So if somebody says, “Johnny, sounds like you had a whole lot to say this Sunday Afternoon,” I’d answer back:
“No, sir. I didn’t say much of anything.”
I just handed you the Word of God.
Because Somebody already said it before me.
His name is Jesus Christ.
And Jesus said in John 14:
“The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.” (John 14:24)
So this afternoon you didn’t hear from Little Johnny.
You heard from the Father.
God bless you. Amen.