I did something today which I have never done before in my entire life, and I’m pretty ashamed of\u00a0myself. And on Easter Sunday of all days! I feel so bad, I don’t think I will ever do it again. Maybe.<\/p>\n
So, I figured “Where better to air my dirty laundry than on a public blog?”<\/p>\n
What did I do?<\/p>\n
I lifted a sermon. Stole it. Yes, I preached someone else’s Easter message.<\/p>\n
I’m not going to tell you whose it was, where I got it, or what it was about. But one thing I do know, is that it was by far the worst sermon I have ever preached in my entire life. When I first read it earlier this week, I thought, “Well, that’s creative, interesting, memorable. Nice stories. Nice application. Nice three-point outline.” So I copy-pasted it into Word, made a few tweaks, and voila!<\/em> my Easter sermon.\u00a0<\/p>\n But when I got up to preach it today, I was bored out of my mind within five minutes. And I could tell the congregation was too. I have never seen so many people looking back at the clock and checking their watch. I realized that it is impossible for me to preach someone else’s sermon, no matter how good it was when they preached it. I am not them, and cannot preach the way they do, and I have trouble getting excited or passionate about something that I didn’t research and write.<\/p>\n And the worst thing about it is that today was Easter! Attendance was up by about 50%, so there were several people in church who haven’t been there since last Easter. And today, of all days, I decide to preach the worst sermon in the history of the world.<\/p>\n So, I’m ashamed. I’m sorry, church members! I’m sorry, Jesus.<\/p>\n I’m sorry that on this, the most important day of the year, I failed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I did something today which I have never done before in my entire life, and I’m pretty ashamed of\u00a0myself. And on Easter Sunday of all days! I feel so bad, I don’t think I will ever do it again. Maybe. So, I figured “Where better to air my dirty laundry than on a public blog?” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[19],"class_list":{"0":"post-237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"tag-discipleship","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n