It started in the bathtub, the sermon I most remember. The preacher said, “The water is running; the tub is filling. I’ve forgotten the shampoo. ‘I’ll get it for you,’ she says. Then after a moment her small voice from the other side of the curtain, ‘Daddy, I’m bringing you no more tears.’ And her hand reaches in with the baby shampoo.
“Thank you, dear.”
The preacher went on to say no one, least of all those we love and those who love us, can promise us no more tears. It’s a condition of love that tears will flow.
The text was Revelation 7:9-17-“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Until this vision in Revelation comes, tears and laughter will be mixed.
I nodded, and for a moment at least, it set me free to love.
H. Benton Lutz
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
The most powerful sermon I ever heard was one I actually saw. A full hour of worship one Sunday morning centered around the Lord’s Supper. A drama group-all church members-dressed as Jesus and the disciples in the Upper Room. The dialogue was almost entirely Scripture. The church choir interspersed choral numbers and solos, and congregational singing was blended in. Communion was served in baskets and rustic trays. It was a powerful effect on the soul as we wept and worshiped together.
Michael Tucker
Bethany Community Church
Tempe, Arizona
I was a small boy in England when Donald Grey Barnhouse spoke in a tent at a Keswick Convention. He was an imposing figure, and without preamble he suddenly shouted, “The way to up is down!” The staid Britishers fluttered. Then with even more drama and volume he said, “And the way to down is up.” I vaguely remember his text was 1 Peter 5:5-6. Even to a young, disinterested boy, his message got across. It’s a lesson I still struggle to learn.
D. Stuart Briscoe
Elmbrook Church
Waukesha, Wisconsin
While vacationing in Pennsylvania, I heard a Father’s Day sermon from 3 John 4-“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” After explaining that the immediate reference was to children in the faith obeying the gospel, the pastor also drew the application to the family.
Since my wife and I were two months away from the birth of our third child, the Lord used that text to remind me that above everything else I want for my children, I must pray and desire that they “walk in the truth.”
Randy MacFarland
Rehoboth Baptist Church
Rehoboth, Massachusetts
Ten years ago in Kalona, Iowa, I heard Bill Detweiler preach from Exodus 4:1-20 on the “old stick” in the hand of Moses becoming the “rod of God.” The parallel change in Moses and the recognition that I am just an old stick with the same potential in God’s hand set me on a new course of humility mingled with hope. That same combination provides a trustworthy guide for my ministry today.
Merv Birky
West Union Mennonite Church
Parnell, Iowa
I can’t retrieve the most powerful sermon. Most sermons are long forgotten, but the preachers are remembered. My pastor during elementary school I can barely visualize in the pulpit, but I clearly remember conversations with him in the church halls. In high school, I don’t recall a single sermon, but I vividly remember my pastor listening, laughing, and caring for me over lunch at Howard Johnson’s.
Since then I’ve been in college, seminary, on a church staff, and at numerous conferences-and I’ve taken reams of notes, but the pattern continues.
Two years ago, I heard one of the great elder statesmen of the kingdom. My notes could provide his point-by-point outline, but all my memory retains is the rich recollection of standing in line with him for breakfast, listening to him tell of rising early to study, pray, and walk along the waterfront.
It makes me wonder what people will remember from my carefully prepared sermons. Probably not too much. But my life-my faithfulness to our Father, the Word, my family, and to each member of the congregation-may be my most powerful sermon. May God use both.
John D. Botkin
Church of the Way
Winnipeg, Manitoba
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