By Carmen Fowler LaBerge with Scott Lamb
Pastors, suppose that a computer with 600 of your sermon manuscripts or notes got stolen.
Then, suppose the thieves did the unexpected – they read through your sermon files.
What spiritual effect would this material have on the crooks?
That question came to mind as I pondered being in the shoes of Pastor Fred Lian, of Grace Point Community Church in Littleton, Colorado. Someone broke into the church he pastors and stole equipment – including a computer with his sermon material dating back to 1986. Unfortunately for Pastor Lian, he did not have a backup for many of the files.
“It’s one of those lessons I’ve heard other people say, and I had to learn it the hard way,” Lian said.
“I went to turn on my computer and there was no computer, no monitor,” he said. “Someone came in and violated not only my personal property, but my personal memories and my heart.”
There is still hope, that whoever might have broken in might see what’s on the computer.
“If they access the sermons, that they would learn about God’s love and grace,” he said.
It is that last statement by Lian that got me thinking about the homiletical impact that twenty or thirty years of our preaching would have if consumed in a brief amount of time. Our sermons are consumed in a different manner. As shepherds, we feed the Word of God through sermons and teachings served up week-after-week in portions not-too-big and not-too-small. Just as we cannot remember a specific meatloaf our mothers cooked (but were nonetheless sustained by the nutrition in the beef), likewise our sheep may not recall a specific sermon from five years ago – though they were fed and nourished by the Word.
But, getting back to the original question. How much pure and clear Gospel of Jesus would be found in a decade worth of our sermon manuscripts? Enough to convict a lost sinner? Enough to bring a thief to faith and repentance in Jesus Christ?
In the case of Pastor Lian, I wonder if he had a particular sermon file on that stolen computer? I’m thinking of a sermon based on 1 Corinthians 6:9-11:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Grace Point Community Church has been a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church since 1982.
Here is a news video about the robbery.