You Didn't Preach from the Bible

One of my first sermons was at the church I interned at while in college and seminary.  That Sunday I spoke on Ezekiel- I know, a great book with which to teach from for a severely inexperienced preacher(!)- and when I went to teach I didn't use my Bible.  When I prepared that week, I had printed the text off of the computer so I could make notes, highlight stuff, etc, and thus I brought the notes up there with me.  Not the "Bible".

While there were lots of 'atta boys' after the message (though I am sure they were mostly being nice as I positive the message couldn't have been all that good being my first time), I'll never forget this comment: "you didn't preach from the Bible".  I was confused.  I had clearly taught from Ezekiel, spoken and explained several of the verses, and even made a connection to Jesus as the Good Shepherd in John 10, but since I hadn't use a physical copy of the Scriptures, I hadn't preached from the Bible.

Couple lessons:

• Perception matters.  If you are in a context where perception matters a lot, play to the perception.  Not doing this only distracts folks and gives people the opportunity to make the perception the main thing.
• Perceptions can change, especially the longer you work or participate in a context.  While I played to the perception in the messages after that message, the longer I worked in that context (and the longer the relationship I had with that context), the less that perception mattered.