No Wings

Sometimes sermons did not fly.  Every preacher has written a few of these if the preaching has gone on a few years.  A sermon that does not fly is one that should not be preached.  Oh, it can be preached, but it is best just thrown in the trash basket, or put aside for more work on another day.  As I remember those thrown away sermons, I remember them as not being so bad.  They just did not have any fire in them.  Or, maybe it would be more appropriate to say, there was no inner fire for preaching them.   

What must be confessed is that I have preached a few of those sermons that should not have been preached.  It is easy to rationalize a bad sermon into a good one on Saturday night.  But, such rationalization does not make for a good sermon on Sunday morning.  Preaching a sermon that should not be preached is like holding up a load of bricks.  By the time the sermon is finished, the preacher is worn out.    There have also been a few times when I came to Saturday night knowing I held a dud in my hands,  that I had no fire for preaching it, and threw it down, and went to bed trusting the Lord to figure it out the next morning.  

While I never recommend that any preacher go into the pulpit without a well thought out sermon, sometimes such does happen.  Why I do not recommend it is that it is a formula for laziness.  But, now and again the Spirit says no to the preacher with such force that the only choice that makes sense is to trust the Spirit and find out what it is that He wants to do during the preaching hour.  While it is always a frightening place for the preacher to stand, it is better to stand in the pulpit in faith rather than standing there with a sermon which has no wings.