I Will Let You Down

I think many, if not most, already know this but just in case you stumbled through the doors of our church recently and thought about joining because you heard me preach (as if?). You might want to know from the beginning…

I will let you down.

• I won’t preach “home run” sermons every Sunday. Indeed, somewhere down the road I’ll likely needlessly anger, confuse or bore you from the pulpit.
• I won’t avoid all the landmines of saying or doing something incredibly stupid. You may need to ask my wife on how to cope with me when I step on one.
• I won’t have a great attitude all the time. There are days where I wake up ‘on the wrong side of the bed’ and I’m impatient, cranky or just plain mean.
• I won’t be the perfect husband and father. I’ll probably struggle in my marriage from time to time and periodically yell at my kids.
• I won’t be the perfect Christian either. I’m sure to have seasons where my Bible will stay closed more than it should, where moments of deep, abiding prayer will fall from from my schedule and Sundays where I’ll preach more from what I know than what I’m currently doing.

I hope you get the picture that while the guy you listen to Sundays may not meet your expectations from time to time, he likely doesn’t meet even his own. That’s okay. These guys can still be good (even great) pastors.

They just make poor gods.

If anything, the struggles preachers encounter only highlight the truth that the one in the pulpit needs Jesus and the good news of the gospel just as much as those in the pew and that our faith must rest not upon those who will inevitably let us down but on the One who, by his Person and Work, has never let us down.