Every preacher knows the feeling of getting up to deliver a sermon that you know isn’t your best. Every preacher knows the feeling of finishing a sermon that you know was not well put together or helpfully delivered. Every preacher knows some sermons they preach just aren’t all that good. They can’t all be excellent, or at least, they won’t all be. The question is, what are we do about it when it happens?

Trust the Lord to do his work

So your sermon was a bit rubbish. Okay. But the God who can speak his truth through the mouth of a donkey can probably do something helpful with your sub-optimal sermon. Were you a bit boring? The Lord no doubt kept the attention of those who needed that particular word. Were you unstructured? The Lord no doubt caused people to grasp the bits that they needed. Were your applications a bit weak? The Spirit can make up that deficit in the heart of any he wants to change. Terrible sermons are no match for the sovereignty of God. The Lord has used much worse to accomplish his purposes, there is no reason he won’t or can’t use this.

Work on the problems

If you are aware of why your sermon wasn’t so great, the obvious answer is to work on it harder next time. Just because the last sermon wasn’t so great doesn’t mean the next one will be. Being aware of the problem is a significant part of the battle. Knowing there is an issue, better yet knowing what the specific issues were, means you can have a crack at doing it better next time.

Remember it isn’t sinful

Sometimes sermons don’t come out as well as they ought. If that is because you have been lazy or just didn’t do stuff that you know you should have, it might be. But what if you just did your best and it wasn’t up to much this time? That does not strike me as a matter of sin. It seems to me that is a matter of doing your best to honour the Lord. The Lord is not angry if you did your best to honour him and serve his people. It is okay to commit to resolving the issues next time whilst also giving yourself a break.

Trust your people

It is very easy to fall into the trap of living and dying on every sermon. It can feel like you are only as good as your last sermon. But the reality is most people do not judge their pastor on one sermon. They do not judge regular preachers in their churches by one sermon. Most tend to take in a body of work over the years and judge on that. It is unlikely that your people will be calling for your head based on one sub-optimal sermon. Trust them to understand that it happens and to know that they have heard plenty of other sermons they are taking into account.