Conflict Creation

I have the pleasure of preaching at my church a few times each month. I really have come to enjoy preaching, and I look forward to what the future holds in that regard. This last week I got to preach on a topic that was real fun. I spoke on Creation. If you have not heard the sermon I encourage you to take a listen to it. I had a great time doing it and although it was very different from most messages that I preach I was very happy with the outcome. I had several people approach me after the service and ask me questions, wondering why I said some of the things I did. I received a phone call to encourage me in my preaching, and I even heard that a few people were inspired to read through the passage again on their own time.

Then it seemingly hit the fan. Comments slowly began to trickle in that were contrary to the way I felt about my sermon. Some of the ones that I heard included that I supported the theory of evolution too much, I treated the word of God in an irreverent manner, I sarcastically supported a more traditional creation theory, and one person even suggested to a staff member that they didn’t think I knew what I was talking about. All of this has been third hand information, but it was discussed in our staff meeting today. I got to tell you the truth, I am frustrated by it. I am not really angry or sad, just frustrated.

In response to the third hand comments that I received, let me say a few things. As I listened to my sermon back again, I decided that I am going to stick with what I said. I feel like my theology was sound, and that I did a satisfactory job, accomplishing my goals in the sermon. That being said I want to work on some of those things that people said. My critics may be right that I don’t treat the word of God with the respect that it deserves. This is completely unintentional, but I will acknowledge that I want to be a better handler of the word of God. It is more valuable to us than silver and gold. My hope was to convey this in the message, but obviously to some I did not. For that I apologize. I want to be better at that in the future. I want to be better at this and I want God to do it through me. It is a constant struggle that I face to make Thomas decrease and Jesus increase in my life, especially in my preaching. I have fallen short in this area and honestly you get a lot of Thomas when I preach. I am a work in progress and my aim is present more of his word and less of my own with each passing sermon. So to those who were offended in any way by y sermon you have my sincere apologies. It was not meant in harm. My prayer is that despite my shortcomings you would be drawn into the word and fall in love with it for yourself. Even though Thomas comes through sometimes, I pray that you would still fall in love with Jesus.

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Lord, I truly feel like my sermon this week was on par with other sermons I have delivered in the past, and that’s a problem. I want more of you in my life. Too much of my selfishness and pride comes out in my sermons. Help me to fix that. I want to see you glorified. I pray that you would bring good out of this situation and would train me to be the preacher you want me to be.