What God Can Do When A Sermon Bombs
What God Can Do When A Sermon Bombs
In the last post I shared one time I thought the message bombed. I gave some questions to address a time when you thought your sermon bombed. In this post I want to consider what God can do when a sermon bombs.
A Sermon Bombs
I always refer to it as the worst sermon I ever preached. It was at an evening service. At that time we were in 3 morning worship services, and so, I usually didn’t preach in the evening service. I delegated that to others on staff or guests. On that particular December Christmas I had scheduled a former seminary graduate that had served our church for a year, and then we launched him into a new church plant.
The Problem Builds
I was at church in the afternoon. A scheduled meeting about an issue we were facing at that time brought a group together. My telephone rang. I took the call, and my wife informed me that our guest couldn’t make it that night. Something important had come up. My response was cavalier, to say the least. I said something like, “That’s okay. I’ll just pull something out of the file” (of messages from a time I had served in a previous church.)
I finished the meeting and went home, went to my filing cabinet, and started checking out messages that related to Advent. There was nothing in the file that was worth the paper it was printed on–at least that was my evaluation after going through the various messages in the file. It was now about 5 pm, and the service started at 6. So, I grabbed one about the name Immanuel, God With Us. I quickly ran through the message, trying to grasp the main points.
The Bomb Is Dropped
The time came in the service for preaching. I got up and wandered around in a message that seemed doomed from the beginning. Basically, I just repeated that Jesus is Messiah, God With Us.
I was so disappointed in myself, in the message, and in the seeming lack of response from the people who were there. At the end of the service, instead of going to the main exit from the worship area to shake hands, I walked out, got in my car and drove home, eager to escape what felt like failure. It felt like a major “bomb”, a failure in preaching. I have always taken preaching seriously, so it was a tough thing to think that I had to come back the next week and preach again.
What God Did With the “Bomb”
On Thursday I was in the office preparing my message for the coming Sunday when I got a call from one of the women in the church. She reported that the previous evening she was in a serious car accident. A group of women gathered each Wednesday for a game night. She was in a car with several of the women in the church when the accident happened.
No one went to the hospital as a result of the accident, but she said the car was mangled to the point that the first responders had to call for the Jaws of Life to tear the car open to get them out. It took over an hour for that machine to arrive. She reported to me this about my Bomb sermon: “The only thing that kept me sane during that time was that I kept repeating that Jesus is Immanuel, God with me.”
My Response
I got off the phone and got down on my knees before God. My mind settled on an important truth:: The words that I say are important, along with my style of delivery. But what is of greatest importance is what God does in applying the words.
Gauging God’s Response to Your Bombed Sermon
My point is simply this: Never underestimate what God can do when a sermon bombs. He can take something that you did, and it felt like a failure, and apply it to hearts in ways that you didn’t expect. So, when you feel like your message bombed, listen for stories.
