Last week I never felt settled on a message for Sunday morning at Faith Community Church. Throughout the summer months I have been peaching randomly through the book of Psalms. Early Saturday morning I thought I had the passage and began my preliminary studies.
When I got back to those studies later that night I knew I did not have the right passage. I had no direction. No guidance from the Holy Spirit. No moment of inspiration. No scripture passage suddenly surfaced in my mind.
Exhausted I fell into bed and immediately into a deep sleep. I awoke at 3:30 a.m. groggy but remembering I did not have a message. So I walked into my office and turned on the lamp. I cracked open my Bible and did the only thing I knew to do. I started reading where I last left off reading in Psalms convinced eventually I would find the right passage. I read ten chapters, then twenty, and thirty. I started losing heart when I read forty and then fifty.
Tired I rationalized that I should go back to bed. I thought maybe I should not preach that morning. Dutifully I pressed on past fifty chapters. Finally at 66 chapters the inspiration came. I feverishly studied before climbing back into bed for a brief nap before time to go to church.
It was not a long message but I know God used it. I got a text from someone earlier this Monday commenting on how God used the message in their life.
I am not the first pastor to snuggle through bouts when the sermon will not come. Others have been there before and will be there again.
I recall another time when the sermon would not come. I was preaching a revival in Hudson, TX. I prayed all day asking the Lord to show me what to preach the night. I thumbed the pages of my Bible and yet nothing stirred my soul. I drove to the church that night anxious. An old deacon met me at the door and asked how I was doing. I confessed my dilemma. I will never forget what he said in response, "It's not time to preach yet is it?" His words sunk in and I took my place on the front pew. Sometime during the music a message came. To this day I don't remember what I preached that night but I do remember that God came through showing me what to preach.
I wonder how many pastors turn to the internet to "borrow" a sermon outline from somebody else. Something stale. Something to help the preacher just get through another Sunday. Such sermons are grabbed as a matter of convenience rather than waiting on a fresh word from God. I admit, preaching someone else's sermon is easier than praying and reading 66 chapters of scripture. Yet, at the end of the day I know I preached what God wanted to say to His people yesterday.
So the next time the sermon will not come I will remember this past Sunday and the Sunday at that Hudson revive. I will recalll how God honored prayer and seeking Him. I will trust Him in those hours to give a fresh word for His people. I will trust Him for the anointing to deliver such a sermon. I will also trust Him to apply to the hearts of people.
What I preached yesterday is not important. What is important is God spoke to His people. He gets all the glory.
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