{"id":31197,"date":"2022-09-10T15:20:49","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/when-you-dont-hit-a-home-run-sermon\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:20:49","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:20:49","slug":"when-you-dont-hit-a-home-run-sermon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/when-you-dont-hit-a-home-run-sermon\/","title":{"rendered":"When You Don’t Hit a ‘Home Run’ Sermon"},"content":{"rendered":"
Matthew T Rader photo – Unsplash <\/p>\n

By Matt Henslee<\/em><\/p>\n

I preach verse by verse through books of the Bible. On the one hand, this keeps me from the temptation of cherry-picking my favorite texts each Sunday. But on the other hand, it means I may have to preach not-so-favorite texts.<\/p>\n

In fact, one of our members recently grabbed me after the service and said, “I can’t wait<\/em> to see how you handle next week’s text!”<\/p>\n

Thankfully, I pastor a church hungry for the Word of God. Because of this, I know they’ll know if I decide to “mail it in” or skip a text altogether because, well, they know what’s coming next.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, what comes next is what I had last week\u2014one of my favorite texts in the Bible, 2 Timothy 3:16-17. I was pumped! I had a blast preaching it.<\/p>\n

Other times, what comes next is what I had a few weeks ago\u20142 Timothy 3:1-9. There’s nothing wrong with the text, of course, but I fell flat.<\/p>\n

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Our attendance was low because of several factors. And I felt discombobulated in the pulpit and disconnected in my preaching.<\/p>\n

I squeaked out a single, not a home run.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

And I talked about it on Twitter:<\/p>\n

“Preached a hard (for me) text, 2 Timothy 3:1-9. Felt flat, discombobulated, and disconnected. Bummed by the lighter-than-usual crowd. Mind wandered from ‘tyranny of the trivial’ stuff before the sermon. Tried to make much of Jesus. Didn’t hit a home run; probably more of a single. Took a nap.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I learned many other preachers were in a slump, too. Here were some replies:<\/p>\n

“I felt like I popped out to second this morning.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“I coughed off and on for a good six minutes and got the ‘you’re going to kill us’ looks.”<\/em><\/p>\n

But then came this reminder from Dr. Malcolm Yarnell, one of my dear friends and a systematic theology professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary:<\/p>\n

“I always found as a young pastor that when I felt weakest, He moved strongest. The power is in the Word, brother. Be faithful. He will be.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I took a nap, woke up, and headed back to church for our evening service where I preached Psalm 70.<\/p>\n

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See also  What Sparks Evangelical Generosity? Discipleship<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And that’s when it hit me: You’re not your last sermon, whether it was a single, a sacrifice fly, or even a home run.<\/em><\/p>\n

No, we’re called to a long obedience in the same direction, as the Eugene Peterson book reminds us. In other words, did you feel like you barely squeaked out a single on Sunday? Did you hit a home run? Regardless, you’ll enter the batter’s box again this Sunday.<\/p>\n

As you grab your bat, etch this deep into the wood (and into your heart):<\/p>\n

So my word that comes from my mouth
will not return to me empty,
but it will accomplish what I please
and will prosper in what I send it to do” (Isaiah 55:11).<\/p>\n

And remember this, too, from another respondent to my tweet:<\/p>\n

“The mark of a great sermon is not when the people say, ‘what a great sermon’ or ‘what a great preacher,’ but ‘what a great God.’ You never know how the things you say will affect a person\u2014even that seemingly nobody in the back row just looking for some kind of hope. That was me once.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The takeaway here: Stay faithful and advance the runners.<\/p>\n

MATT HENSLEE (<\/strong>@mhenslee)<\/strong> is managing editor of <\/em>Lifeway Pastors and coauthor of the book Replanting Rural Churches. He is the husband of Rebecca, father of four princesses, and pastor of Mayhill Baptist Church in Mayhill, New Mexico.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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Engaging Exposition<\/h2>\n

Dr. Daniel L. Akin, Bill Curtis, Stephen Rummage<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Related posts:<\/h3>\n
What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times? What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation? 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community 3 Reorienting Truths for the Discouraged Pastor <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew T Rader photo – Unsplash By Matt Henslee I preach verse by verse through books of the Bible. On the one hand, this keeps me from the temptation of cherry-picking my favorite texts each Sunday. But on the other hand, it means I may have to preach not-so-favorite texts. In fact, one of our … Continue reading “When You Don’t Hit a ‘Home Run’ Sermon”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}