This story begins with me in the pulpit at my church.  I preach from time to time, although I am not the pastor.  I spent the first part of the sermon talking about a certain activity that I had done that week…a lot…all day…and it was illegal.  Now, rather than provoke the local authorities with details, I think I’ll stay vague about the story. 

On another topic, it turns out that water restrictions have been activated here in Charlottesville and anybody caught running their hose for a long time might get a fine!

The irony was the sermon was all about nature.  The passage was Psalm 8, and I talked about the purpose and beauty of God’s creation and our role in it.  As I preached a sermon about caring for the earth and praising its Maker, turns out everyone in the church was just waiting for me to come down out of the pulpit to let me know how I had just abused the environment beyond the limits of the law!  Yes, irony.  Yes, humility.

I immediately thought of the famous Gilbert Tennent sermon, “The Dangers of the Unconverted Ministry” preached at the height of the First Great Awakening in 1740.  This was a huge revival in the colonies and tens of thousands were turned to Christ.

Okay, stick with me here, people…

Yes, the unconverted ministry.  Tennent, and the other revivalists, traveled the colonies leading many to faith.  But they were also concerned that people had been living with unconverted ministers; preachers preaching from a position of sin rather than of redemption; hypocrites; professional fake ministers.  Oh no!  That’s me!

The next week, my family and I made it out to an awesome Third Day concert here in Charlottesville.  What a gift.  What a revival for the soul.  The world was set right again.  I knew where I was again and what my purpose was—to worship the Lord.  It felt like the whole city was there that night lifting due praise to the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

Something in my hypocritical sermon reminded me that it matters what you do.  Sometimes what you do matters more than what you say.  Sometimes it matters just as much as what you believe—because if you believe, you will do.  If you love me, says Jesus, you will keep my commandments.  You won’t have to for salvation, you won’t have to to gain God’s love, but you will keep them nonetheless.  You will act as a lover of Jesus.  Not just think, not just speak, not just believe, but act. 

Watching Third Day reminded me that in Christ there is nothing, nothing at all, that cannot be redeemed to God’s glory.  Only by the mysterious power of the Holy Spirit igniting the expansive imagination of the Christian soul could something as dissipated as rock music be turned to service of praise.  The embarrassing ironies of preaching reminded me that what you do can be as important as what you say.  And Tennent reminded me that, well, we’re all unconverted preachers. 

Being a witness to the glorious Kingdom of God means more than just being authentic, it means proclaiming the unseen truth, the faith in things not visible.  There is hypocrisy in us all, and by God’s grace there is the eternal possibility of full redemption for us all.  Keep pressing toward the vision of Christ’s kingdom.  Keep preaching as one redeemed, but not perfect.  And keep listening to your preachers.  They might not be the embodiment of truth, but if you look behind them you might see the only One who is; the One a good preacher wants you to hear from anyway; the One who said I am the Truth; the One who still speaks directly to us today.