My friend’s story could be told by every preacher in the land.
“When I stepped off the platform Sunday morning, I knew I had laid an egg. The sermon seemed to have been still-born. It just didn’t work. I felt awful.”
“But the most amazing thing. People were down at the altar praying, and ever since a number of people have come up to me saying how it ministered to them.”
Just goes to show, I said.
Goes to show what?
I raised that question with friends on Facebook. I asked pastors who felt that their sermon bombed and then heard from church members saying how it blessed them, what they learned from the experience. The answers were all of one theme: “That God can use anything.” “God can speak through a donkey.” “How unimportant the messenger is.” “Christ is everything.”
A friend visiting in our home wanted to hear a certain pastor, so on Sunday morning I drove her there. That day, the sermon was not up to his usual standards, I felt. He is normally one of the finest expositors anywhere.
In the car, on the way to lunch, my friend said, “That was a wonderful sermon. Just what I needed to hear today.”
Goes to show.