Failure to Launch

Had the opportunity to preach in Services this weekend in our Pastor’s absence. It was not under the best circumstances though, having been violently ill all week and unable to study/prepare nearly as much as I would have liked. Fortunately, God pulled through and made the difference between where I was and where He needed me to be that day.

The sermon really didn’t ‘gel’ until the last minute, which is often the case with me. Maybe it’s like that with most preachers. What was uncommon about this sermon is that it’s been stewing in me for years. Seriously.

At Cedarville I had the opportunity to take Homiletics and Advanced Homiletics, a class in the study of sermon preparation and delivery. A couple of guys in the class were pretty good and the rest were mediocre at best. I thought I was among the better talents in the class, but I don’t think that the Prof, Dr. Cook, thought so. In fact, he was always riding me about my preparation, outlines, and delivery. I left both classes feeling pretty low about my abilities… but I’ve since come to realize that preaching to a group of 10 college students and a professor in a classroom is really nothing like delivering a sermon to hundreds or thousands from a stage in a church sanctuary. But the reality of the situation is that he did me a huge favor. He forced me to see that I didn’t have it all together, required a ton of work, and needed to put more effort into, in his words, “painting a picture” for the congregation. Dr. Cook is the reason I fell in love with the teaching of Dr. Tony Evans and he is the reason that I work so hard to capture and keep the audience’s attention when I speak.

All that to say this, in Advanced Homiletics we studied the “Biography” sermon a bit. During that discussion Dr. Cook related that the best biographical sermon he’d ever heard was on the subject of John Mark and second chances. Honestly, I’ve thought about that statement ever since and really been itching to preach the sermon. Problem was, I never felt ready. Funny thing that I ended up not feeling ready this time either.

But if I say so myself, it went pretty well. One person wrote to me, “You will never completely know how much your sermon touched my heart. I am so thankful to be a part of such a wonderful church and to serve such an amazing God!” Another said, “Just wanted to let you know that I learned so much from your sermon yesterday about John Mark and I felt that you were right on target with making your points… Your delivery was wonderful and you were able to pull all the characters into your sermon making it easy to follow who, what and where. You stayed on target and didn?t wander off into areas that did not give meaning to the lesson you were trying to give which sometimes a lot of speakers/ministers do. Thanks so much for such a good Bible teaching yesterday.” One great fellow wrote, “I just wanted to let you know we, yes lots of members, enjoy hearing you speak. I really enjoyed the message. Thanks for your diligence. I will miss you this weekend, see you next week.”

Praise God for a wonderful weekend, and the opportunity to (as Paul said) “Preach the Word!”

To hear the sermon, feel free to click here and download the mp3… offered for a limited time, courtesy of Mountaintop.