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A while ago I was listening to a football coach.
He said, “To have to Punt is not a mistake. Throwing an interception to keep from punting is a mistake.”
If you know football…
You know you have 4 attempts to go 10 yards…
If you can’t make the 10 yards you kick the ball to the other team…
Then the other team takes control…
But if you kick the ball…you put the other team closer to your goal line…
So you try to do your best…but if you can’t…you kick the ball away…
Reset…
Start over…
But even though you give the ball up…you are still closer to your goal…
But sometimes a quarterback can lose his head…
Lose control…
And throw the ball away trying to hold on to the ball…
And thus give the ball away to the other team…
That’s our thought for today…
This week you are going to preach…
And yes it is important to do your best…
It is important to plan, prepare, and present to the best of your ability…
But you know what…
If I can mix metaphors…
You don’t hit a homerun…
You don’t make the first-down…
You don’t make the ten yards…
You didn’t do as well as you should have…
OK…
That’s cool…
It is time like this that you remember…sometimes you have to give control of the ball to someone else…
Sometimes you have to kick the ball away…
Sometimes you have to punt…
And when you punt…
You have to trust…
That the ball is still closer to the goal than if you hadda tried to do something all by yourself…
Sit tight for a moment while I try to deal…
God gave you the ball…
And you did all you can do…
And you didn’t go as far as you think you should have…
What am I talking about?
You see confusion in the eyes of your people as you tried to preach…
Huh?
What am I talking bout?
The congregation didn’t pop like you thought it should.
What am I talking about?
You begin to doubt cause the enemy has put up a different defense than you thought it would…
What am I saying…
You didn’t make the ten yards…so you gotta punt…and believe that our defense is gonna get you the ball again…
Yeah..some quarterbacks try to force something….They run when they should just take the sack and punt…
They try to force a whoop when it don’t fit…you throwing an interception…
You start yelling about something that ain’t got nothing to do with your sermon….you throwing an interception…
You start trying to manufacture congregational response…you throwing an interception…
NOW…you have done more harm than good…
No….you did your best….leave it in the hands of God…you gotta punt…
How do you punt? By going ahead and finishing your sermon and letting God do what God does.
How do you punt? By doing your best…but not trying to be who you are not…
How do you punt? By recognizing that it ain’t you…it is God in and through you…
You did your best…trust that even when you “let go and let God” the ball is still going to be closer to the goal than if you engaged in chicanery…
Sometimes you gotta punt…
And let the one who is mighty to save to step in and do what only that one can do…
YES…plan, prepare, and present…but when you still come up short…punt and know that God got your back…
NOW…In this very email, I am following this plan…I think that this email is missing the mark. I feel like this particular email ain’t doing what it should do…which is why it is a bit longer than other emails…BUT…Imma just punt and let God use it as only God can use it…
As always, I encourage you to check out my homiletic where I talk about Planning, Preparing, and Presenting at http://www.superchargeyoursermons.net.
Till Tomorrow,
Brother Sherman
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