Early Monday Wanda and I were on walk and she mentioned a comment someone made to her about my Easter sermon this past Sunday. Wanda said that someone had told her that my sermon was the best one they had heard in over a year.
Well, my first thought was this comment from a regular church attender or a guest? I chuckled and asked Wanda. She said it was a new person who shared with her. We both laughed.
Whew, that was close. If that had been a regular attender, then I guess my sermons had not been making much of an impact. Then I remembered a couple of comments on a sermon I preached some 30 plus years ago.
A guest told me as she headed out the door of the church that my message that morning was the best sermon she had ever heard. Now that fed the starving ego of a young, green preacher. I needed that compliment. Her kind words helped fuel my preaching for years.
But that is not the end of that story. The very next day, a deacon told me that he had overheard someone at his work mention that my sermon the day before was the worst sermon they had ever heard.
To one, my sermon was the best. To another, the same sermon was the worse sermon he had ever heard.
Go figure.
Here is the bottom line.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so are church sermons. The soil of the heart and the eagerness to hear the Word have much to do with how a sermon is received. Oh I know that sometimes preachers bomb. I have, but I have also tried my best to preach His Word, glorify our Lord, minister to the saints, and reach the lost.
After I have done my best, then I leave the results in His hands. Only His Spirit can make it alive anyway. I am only the delivery boy.
I really enjoyed looking over and reading the posts on your blog. When it comes to spreading the Gospel, we are all just delivery boy's, doing God's will. Thank you God for the Spirit of Truth that each of us has inside us to make that delivery to the unsaved world. God bless, Lloyd
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