{"id":40341,"date":"2016-09-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/old-preachers-67600-pages-of-sermons\/"},"modified":"2016-09-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T00:00:00","slug":"old-preachers-67600-pages-of-sermons","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/old-preachers-67600-pages-of-sermons\/","title":{"rendered":"The Old Preacher&#8217;s 67,600 Pages of Sermons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Marilynne Robinson&#39;s beautiful novel <em class=\"citation\">Gilead<\/em>, the old preacher John Ames starts digging through a box of sermons in his attic. One day he figures out that he&#39;s filled 67,600 pages with his sermons, the equivalent of 225 books. He wrote, &quot;There is not a word in any of those sermons I didn&#39;t mean when I wrote it. If I had the time, I could read my way through fifty years of my innermost life. What a terrible thought.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>As Ames continues reflecting on his sermons he says,<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I had a dream once that I was preaching to Jesus Himself, saying any foolish thing I could think of, and He was sitting there in His white, white robe looking patient and sad and amazed. That&#39;s what it felt like. Well, perhaps I can get a box of them down here somehow and do a little sorting. It would put my mind at ease to feel I was leaving a better impression. So often I have known, right here in the pulpit, even as I read these words, how far they fell short of any hopes I had for them. And they were the major work of my life, from a certain point of view. I have to wonder how I have lived with that.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>One of the reasons that preachers need to pray is because of the inadequacy of our words. Apart from God, our words will fall short of their goal. It&#39;s good and healthy to realize this.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angle: <strong>Preaching; Ministry; Service<\/strong>&mdash;The power in preaching&mdash;or in any form of Christian ministry, for that matter&mdash;must ultimately rest in the power of God through his Spirit.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3537,3538,3628,3640,3832,3924,3941,3942,4066,4190,4245,4469,4470,4604,4629,4655,4687,4688,4748,4788,4792,4821,4946,4952,4953,5120,5139,5247,5283,5284,5292],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-40341","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-call","tax_ctp_tags-calling","tax_ctp_tags-clergy","tax_ctp_tags-commitment","tax_ctp_tags-duty","tax_ctp_tags-expository-preaching","tax_ctp_tags-faithful-service","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness","tax_ctp_tags-goals","tax_ctp_tags-humble-service","tax_ctp_tags-influence","tax_ctp_tags-ministers","tax_ctp_tags-ministry","tax_ctp_tags-pastor","tax_ctp_tags-perseverance","tax_ctp_tags-pleasing-god","tax_ctp_tags-preacher","tax_ctp_tags-preaching","tax_ctp_tags-purpose","tax_ctp_tags-regret","tax_ctp_tags-relationship","tax_ctp_tags-responsibility","tax_ctp_tags-sermon","tax_ctp_tags-servanthood","tax_ctp_tags-service","tax_ctp_tags-talents","tax_ctp_tags-testimony","tax_ctp_tags-vocation","tax_ctp_tags-witness","tax_ctp_tags-witnessing","tax_ctp_tags-words"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - 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