Walk that dog proudly

One of the reasons I believe that God can work through my sermons happened a few years ago. One of my professors had prepared us for this. He said something along the lines of there is going to be a time when your sermon doesn't come together. If it were a dog it would be a mutt. But walk that dog proudly.

There was a week when my sermon wasn't coming together. I ended up with a manuscript that I didn't like and didn't think was very good. I preached it anyway. In the middle of the sermon I thought - this just isn't coherent. After the service one of the people listening told me it was just what they needed to hear. A few weeks later they said the same thing about that sermon - mentioned the week so I knew it was that particular sermon - and mentioned what they needed to hear. I didn't remember saying that but ... maybe... I knew I hadn't been doing all that well and just maybe I'd said something that coherent

I finally listened to the worship service and sermon tape. I didn't hear what that person heard. I heard a horrible sermon. Even though I'd said some of the things that person heard in other sermons, this one didn't have them.God works through my sermons even if I think they're not going anywhere. And I really do think that particular sermon was an incoherent disaster. But someone got something out of it through God's gracious gift because it certainly wasn't that sermon.

That sermon was a mutt, a disaster of breeding and work, but I walked that dog proudly and God used it for someone's good.