I studied and planned my sermon this weekend and it was one of those that SORT OF came together… but not really.
It was an expository sermon on the period following the resurrection, so I was dealing with Luke-Acts as a continuing narrative. It was pretty cohesive and well-organized, if I do say so, but it was flat. Really flat. I felt that everything I had drafted was correct, but boring and missing any kind of anointing at all.
At about 3:00 AM Sunday I gave up. I closed the MacBook Air and went to bed feeling really disappointed. I was sure this was going to be a huge bore, and a major disappointment. I don’t care what anyone says; there is a performance expectation for pastors. People in the congregation tend to judge their pastor by the 30-45 minutes they are up front in the pulpit. You can be lacking in a lot of areas — administration, counseling, organizational development, visionary leadership — and have those weaknesses go unnoticed, at least for a while; but if you stand in front of the people on Sunday morning and can’t deliver something inspirational they vote with their feet. Pastor are mostly judged, rightly or wrongly, by how well they communicate in the pulpit.
Before I put the computer to sleep and dropped into bed for 3 hours sleep before the alarm would shock me awake, I prayed one of those pastoral prayers of desperation: “Well, Lord, you know THIS is a mess… I have a message with no ending and no passion or anointing. If you don’t show up and rescue me this will be a very bad day.” And off to bed I went…
I awoke — well, as much as anyone wakes up after only 3 hours sleep — and staggered to the bathroom to get ready for church, and God showed up. In the bathroom. While I was shaving and showering. The key to the message came flowing through me almost faster than I could write it down: here’s what came to me —
Before you can MAN UP, you might have to…
• SHUT UP: stop talking stink about everyone; eliminate the negativity and criticism.
• Don’t BLOW UP: Anger, resentment and unforgiveness are childish and counter-productive.
• SHOW UP: Get involved. Become a participator instead of a spectator. Church is not a weekly performance scheduled for your amusement, but an opportunity to share your gift with others.
• GROW UP: Walking around with your feelings hurt all the time, looking for offenses, is not the way men behave. “My feelings are hurt. They left my birthday out of the church bulletin.” Seriously? An oversight or typo by some volunteer ruined your week? or “I was having a rough week last week and nobody from the church called me.” Exactly how many people did YOU call to encourage last week? It is a two-way street.
• STAND UP: We live in post-Christian America in which Isaiah 5:20 has become fact — “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” Things that the Bible stands against are not only accepted but celebrated in our society, and speaking out against them gets you branded as hateful and intolerant. Sometimes it is necessary to take a firm, righteous stand in order to MAN UP!