• A young preacher graduated from Bible College and was invited back to his home congregation to preach a sermon. He wanted to make a good impression. He did his best to prepare to preach to his home church. He wrote his sermon word for word and memorized it. He had a very dramatic beginning to the sermon.
• He started by hitting the pulpit real hard and said, "Jesus took 5,000 fishes and 2,000 loaves and he fed five people!" He paused very dramatically and pointed his finger at the congregation and said, "Could you do that?" Everyone roared with laughter and he couldn't imagine what was going on. At that point one man raised his hand. That set the young preacher off. He said, "Sir, you are guilty of blasphemy. How could you claim to do something that only our Lord could do?" This man stood up and began to explain to the young preacher about the big mistake that he had made.
• The preacher, when he realized what he had done, was so humiliated that he couldn't say another word. He sat down in utter confusion and disgrace. The home church was very loving, very kind, very forgiving and they all came around and put their arms around him and they said, "Look, everyone makes mistakes. Forget about it. You work on this sermon and next Sunday try it again." They finally convinced him.
• The next Sunday after working on that sermon another entire week, he stood up in front of the congregation. This time he got all of his fact and figures straight, but he started out the very same way. He hit the pulpit very dramatically and he said, "Jesus took five loaves and two fishes and he fed 5,000 people. Could you do that?" The same man raised his hand. The preacher was really upset and he said, "Sir, how can you claim to do something like that?" The man said, "It’s easy……with the leftovers from your sermon last Sunday!" Church went wild!