Please Forgive Me For My Poor Preaching

It was a Wednesday night and I entered the pulpit an absolute wreck. I had been dealing with the problems of people all day. I had been in a number of draining and time consuming meetings that day, I hadn’t ate all day and I had missed my daughter’s volleyball game. To top all of that off, for some odd reason I couldn’t find my sermon outline in Pages on my iPad. I had arrived at the church about 15 minutes before the worship experience was to start so I spent that time writing out notes the best that I could before the clock hit 6:00pm but it just didn’t seem to be enough time. We couldn’t have been in worship for longer than ten minutes before I was introduced as the preacher of the hour; and if that wasn’t good enough then get this, they didn’t even sing an additional song after I was introduced and before I stood to preach. I thought to myself come on now, since when does the an introduction not say “and after the choir renders one more selection the next speaking voice that you will hear is.” Well that did not happen and it was time to preach.

I stood, publicly thanked the pastor and the church for providing me with the opportunity to preach, asked the congregation to join me in prayer, prayed, asks the congregation to stand and open their copies of the Scripture as I announced the text, then repeated the text, made clear that I would be reading from the English Standard translation of the Bible then I began to read the text clearly, pausing at all of the commas and stopping at all of the periods. I then announced my sermon title and begin to explain, verse by verse what I had read. It was about forty-five minutes later after my sermon was complete that I realized that I needed to repent to God and apologize to everybody that had ever heard me preach over the last twelve years.

I’m not your greatest student but I believe that every preacher should diligently study and prepare. I work hard in preparation and spend much time in prayer before I go to the pulpit. The lack of prayer and preparation is not the reason that I needed to apologize and repent. I grew up wanting to be a famous comedian but that desire is long gone, I have never went to the pulpit in an attempt to make a name for myself or with the intention to entertain, this is not the reason in which I found myself needing to apologize and repent. I firmly believe in accurate, bold and clear exposition of the passage; twisting the text is not the reason for my apology and repentance. The reason that I had to repent and the reason I need to apologize is for my extremely poor preaching…..

Let me do my best to clarify what I’m saying here. In the letter that Paul wrote to Timothy he says this; I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 2 Timothy 4: 1-2 (ESV)

There are many imperatives in those two verses however the imperative is to PREACH THE WORD! Twelve years ago I started out preaching as a slave to a full manuscript and for a long time it would take me 7-12 minutes to preach (or in most cases read) my sermon. I’m not suggesting that short sermons are bad and long sermons are good, neither am I suggesting that a man shouldn’t take a full manuscript to the pulpit. Many faithful preachers do just that and it works for them. For me it was harmful because even though the sermon was solid (in most instances or at least not heretical) in the pulpit I was a slave to my manuscript and not the Word. The same thing happened when I begin to preach from a detailed outline. I stood in the pulpit and declared that outline more-so than I did the Scripture. As I grow as a preacher I often go into the pulpit now with a few note cards that I refer to but I’m depending on the Text more, depending on the Holy Spirit more. However, what I’ve learned is this; it’s not good to depend on the Holy Spirit more when preaching, we need to depend on the Holy Spirit wholly when preaching. For me, I’ve noticed that this happens when I’m in the pulpit manuscript free, outline free; and the only thing in writing at the podium is the Word of God.

Please forgive me for my poor preaching because there have been times in which I found myself preaching my manuscript, my outline, and my little notes more so than I was preaching HIS WORD. In no way am I suggesting that if you are a manuscript, outline or note preacher that you go to the pulpit without those tools, neither am I suggesting that I will never go to the pulpit absent of those tools and resources. However beloved, I am declaring that we should remember that manuscripts, outlines and even notes are no more than tools and resources. We don’t preach tools and resources, like Timothy we have been charged to Preach the TEXT, Preach the SOURCE; Preach the WORD!

 I’m not the most gifted preacher around as it is but it took what I considered a bad day, a day that I thought I needed my outline so bad that I took a partial (and somewhat pathetic) outline that was scribbled out a few minutes before preaching in a journal that I take notes in to get me to realize that I needed to pray more, be more diligent in preparation but most of all totally depended on THE WORD when it is time to PREACH THE WORD. With that said, I repent and I apologize for preaching my manuscript when I should of been preaching THE WORD. I repent and I apologize for preaching my poorly put together outlines when I should have been preaching THE WORD. I repent and I apologize for preaching my written notes when I should of only been preaching YOUR WRITTEN WORD. I repent and I apologize for all of my poor preaching, please forgive me for my poor preaching.