Loss in Sales
The scripture is Mark 6:7-13. And please do read it. I suppose if people asked me to just print the scripture here I would.
I forgot to turn my microphone on before the sermon. And it was accident, but as I say, the message is simply that, if people do not hear you – then what you have to say means nothing. But the sermon uses more words and maybe has more nuance than this simple statement.
People gave me some responses as I asked for imaginings about what Jesus said to the disciples, but they were pretty scattered as to what they responded to. Not always what I was asking for, but always interesting. I was grateful for them all. Maybe more of this in future sermons.
One thing that happened about 10 minutes before the sermon was I realized that I was thinking in a chastising mode. Not usual for me. But I was getting ready to say we were not doing very well, that we were like the people in Jesus hometown (the previous story in scripture), that we needed to do better. Knowing this might help to understand the sermon title “Loss in Sales”. The idea being that we are losing sales to others who are selling their Jesus because they are moved (like the disciples in the scripture) to go out and tell people what they know. Since what they know/experience is not what we know/experience, we are losing sales… people are hearing about a Jesus and rejecting him or being moved by one that we do not recognize. I decided that this tone was not needed or generally helpful. So I quickly reframed the whole thing as a sermon of encouraging people. I do think that this is better in general. I like being positive.
I talk about Billy Mays. While I was doing this sermon for the Nursing Homes on Thursday the 9th I realized that I missed a nice fun play on words. Billy sold the product ‘SHAMWOW’. Some sort of shamy cloth that was super absorbent. The play on words is that we need to think/feel that the Jesus we love is a wow to share with others and the Jesus ‘as seen on TV’ is the sham. We have a wow, they have the sham.
I guess this is an evangelism sermon. But I see it as about simply telling OUR experience with God Jesus and our church. Just so people know, not so they come to Bethany or even Jesus. But so they can hear from us what wows us. No further goal than that. Not more complicated than that. Not really bashing those with the “As Seen on TV’ sham, just saying we need to be as convinced by our wow. More about getting in touch with what moves us, touches us, inspire us to be a person of faith. What ‘wows’ us? Or about admitting that we are not very passionate.
Hope the sermon helps you in some way.
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