A Great Sermon

I got a call the other day from a dear friend, commenting on a recent lesson I taught at the church. Hey, I’m just like everyone else.......it feels good to receive a compliment. Well, his call got the wheels turning in my brain and I began thinking about the question, "What’s a great sermon?"

To answer that, let me share a brief story sent to me by my friend, Nancy:

While watching a little TV on Sunday instead of going to church, I watched a Church in Atlanta honoring one of its senior pastors who had been retired many years. He was 92 at that time and I wondered why the Church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age.

After a warm welcome, introduction of this speaker, and as the applause quieted down he rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding gate to the podium. Without a note or written paper of any kind he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak....

"When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson ever learned in my 50 odd years of preaching. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me... the only thing that would comfort was this verse:

"Jesus loves me this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
we are weak but He is strong.....
Yes, Jesus loves me...
The Bible tells me so."

When he finished, the church was quiet. You actually could hear his foot steps as he shuffled back to his chair. I don't believe I will ever forget it.

"Jesus loves me, this I know." Now THAT’S a great sermon! The Bible says it this way: Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)

I’ve taught a lot of sermons in my life, and Lord willing, I’ll teach many more. No one is going to remember all of them (not even me!). But I encourage you to remember the sermon from the 92 year old pastor. It’s words are worth more than all the gold in the world!