Flop Sweats

From time to time, usually three or four times a year, my Pastor calls on me to cover the pulpit on Sunday mornings. I have to preach. I identify with Moses when he begged God to pick someone else. When called upon, I usually talk up the great teaching gift Pastor Chris or Jeff our worship guys has.

But this time was definitely my turn. No one wanted to hear that it was my birthday. In fact, to add insult to injury, Jeff our worship guy led the congregation in singing happy birthday to me. Embarrassing. Cheesy. I owe him a trip to the emerency room.

I don't care how much notice I get or how much time a have to prepare, I get nervous. I'm afraid I'll flop. I sweat.

Flop-sweats.

And the closer it gets to the time of delivery, the more my anxiety increases. Am I the only behind the scenes guy that gets this way?

On our website, we used to only post Pastor Dan's sermons, but we started including guest speaker's messages, as well.

So, Mom, if you want to hear it, click this link. My notes are here at this link, and if you want to put it on your iPod, Mom, click this link and you'll end up at the iTunes store.

By the way, I appeciate the ministry of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. They make all of Pastor Mark Driscoll's messages avalable via podcast. His recent podcast message about the Cross heavily influenced my message.

Also, if you have been listening to Pastor Bob Coy for any length of time, you've heard him talk about the time he got beat up after a Sunday Night Service back in 1995. I was a ministry assistant on staff there when it happened. The way Pastor Bob handled that assault impacted the way I view my ministry heroes and I talk about that a little, too.