The Sermon No One Heard
Sometimes we wonder if preaching is making a difference. We know God wants us to have faithfulness in ministry, but Monday mornings make us wonder if we are doing what God wants.
In 1799, a young Quaker preacher named Stephen Grellet rode for days through the wilderness of upstate New York to preach to a camp of lumberjacks. When he arrived, the camp was empty. Pots hung over cold fires. Tools lay scattered. Not a soul in sight.
But Grellet had a peculiar conviction — when God laid a sermon on a man’s heart, that sermon belonged to the Lord. So he climbed up on a stump and preached his heart out. To nobody.
He rode home, figuring it had been a strange divine errand he’d never understand.
Pastor friend, have you been there?
You poured yourself into a sermon and watched half the pews sit empty. You labored over a Bible study, and three people showed up. You prayed over a soul for years and saw no fruit. And somewhere in a quiet moment, you wondered — did any of it matter?
Listen to what Jesus said in Luke 12:2 — “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”
A.T. Robertson tells us “covered” is in the perfect passive tense — sealed up tight, locked down good. And Jesus says even that is going to come uncovered. Every hidden act of faithfulness. Every whispered prayer. Every sermon preached to an almost-empty room.
W.A. Criswell used to say the Lord keeps better books than the IRS. Heaven has a ledger. Nothing slips past Him.
Years after that lonely sermon, Stephen Grellet was walking down a London street when a stranger grabbed his arm. “I’ve been searching for you a long time,” the man said. He told Grellet there had been one man in that camp after all — the cook, hiding in the woodshed. He’d heard every word. He’d given his life to Christ. He’d gone back and told the lumberjacks. Souls were saved. A movement began.
All from a sermon preached to “nobody.”
Pastor, your faithfulness is never wasted. Not the empty pew sermon. Not the unanswered prayer. Not the kindness no one noticed. Heaven is keeping books, and one day, what you whispered in obscurity will be shouted from the rooftops of glory.
Keep preaching. Keep praying. Keep showing up.
Keep looking up!
Related devotionals: Fight discouragement · Eisenhower’s D-Day faith · James 3:1 teachers
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If today’s devotional spoke to your heart, my books carry these same themes deeper. Stories of God moving in ordinary lives, scripture for tired pastors and weary parents, and steady reminders that heaven is closer than you think.