EPIC FAIL!

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15)

A brand new overnight radio show entered the airwaves on the first week of January of this year as part of the also brand new CBS Sports Radio Network. In the Boston area, this program, "The D.A. Show" airs on CBS owned "98.5 The Sports Hub". I hear the last fifteen minutes of it usually two or three mornings a week when I have to leave the house before 6 a.m. to travel to work. The one feature I must admit I get a big kick out of is the "Epic Fail!". Each morning, just a few minutes before the show ends, the host plays the worst phone call he received during that particular show. It usually features a caller who does not make any sense or who is making an absurd argument. This would be a call where the person on the phone is arguing something such as Tom Brady should be a major league baseball umpire instead of a professional football quarterback; or that Larry Bird should have gone into politics instead of basketball; or that soccer should be declared America's national pastime. When D.A. announces, "It's time for the Epic Fail," you then hear the ominous sound of a loud announcer's voice with a slight reverberation in his speech saying, "EPIC FAIL!", and then the call is played. Don't ask me why, but yes, I find hearing the "Epic Fail" at 5:55 in the morning very entertaining!

A comical presentation of a strange call to a sports talk show is one thing, but trust me, no pastor wants his Sunday morning sermon to be an "Epic Fail"! In this piece, I want to share about a sermon I heard about recently that was indeed an, "Epic Fail". This is not meant to tear down any ministerial colleague, nor it is meant to exalt myself. I have no intention of naming who preached the "Epic Fail" sermon. I also want to acknowledge with shame that during my over twenty-five years of pulpit preaching, I have had more than one "Epic Fail" in the pulput! This is meant to challenge Christians to listen carefully to sermons and to carefully check out their content with God's Word to make sure what they're hearing is Scriptural. It's also meant to encourage ministers that we can't be too careful with preparation, accuracy, and presentation when it comes to sermons and preaching!

During Easter weekend I had to occasion to take a thirty-five minute car ride with my twenty-something son and daughter. They pretty regularly attend an Assemblies of God church in Boston's MetroWest suburbs so I was surprised to hear they'd visited a couple of other churches in the recent past. The church where the "Epic Fail" took place was a fairly good-sized charismatic church (do we still use the term charismatic church or it that too 1970s?! I don't know!). The church has been around for awhile, but the present pastor is trying to target the church to young people and "seekers". The style of dress has become very casual. Even the pastor's dress is quite casual. The congregants regularly sit and drink coffee during the sermon. My daughter was surprised that some of them sit at bar stools situated away from the sanctuary and have their backs turned but can still hear what is being preached! Both of my kids were surprised that so little was made of taking the offering that they had a hard time figuring out how and where to give. My kids, like most their age, usually do dress fairly casually for church. It wasn't for the reasons I've mentioned that they told me they'd never go back there. It was the sermon.

My son said, "The pastor blatantly said, 'there is nowhere in the Bible that it tells you to mind your own business' and I wanted to get up and yell, 'oh YES there is!!'."

My son said the pastor was trying to make the point that Christians need to be in community but that he went so overboard on this he forgot what the Bible says! As my son put it, "There are a number of references in the Bible telling Christians to mind their own business!" And there are.

First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 11 in the King James Bible says, "And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;". It's a little bit easier to understand in the New King James Version and a better translation: "that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,". And, as my son indicated, there are a number of other passages that teach the importance of minding your own business; that one is probably the clearest.

The pastor emphatically stated, "there is nowhere in the Bible that it tells you to mind your own business". He showed how, frankly, narrow-minded and short-sighted he was, albeit trying to make a point. There is no easy way to say it:

EPIC FAIL!

I remember something Dr. Terry Lewis once told our class at Central Bible College over thirty years ago. He was speaking at a ministers' gathering during the July 1969 weekend when the famous first landing of man on the moon was taking place. "How many of you preached that God would never allow a man to land and walk on the moon?" Lewis asked that group of Assemblies of God ministers. At least half raised their hands! "What are you going to tell your people next Sunday?" Lewis asked. They did not know what to say.

We preachers can preach and proclaim things as true in a most confident and cavalier manner; and yet we can be way off and wrong! I have done so.

EPIC FAIL!

How easily we forget the words of James chapter 3, verse 1 which say: "My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." What that means is, "Don't be quick to become a teacher or preacher, knowing you'll be held to a much higher standard than others, and that you're responsible for how your life and speaking affects others." Acts 17:11 speaks of the Bereans who carefully searched the Scriptures when they first heard to Gospel preached to see if what was being proclaimed was accurate. What a great example for all of us!

I have not pastored a church since March of 2010 and I miss it very much. I have only preached a handful of sermons during the past three years and have not preached at all in over nine months. Even so, I was moved to give the story my grown kids told me on Easter weekend a lot of thought. If and when I pastor and preach again, by the grace and help of God, I don't want to have an "Epic Fail" in the pulpit. I think this is something we all need to think about; especially preachers!