A Sermon About Sermons

Imagine sitting in a large church and the Pastor is preaching the Word. You leave the church, and you feel like you don’t remember a single thing he preached. What is the good in that? Wouldn’t it have been better to stay at home? I would say no.

Here’s why., The Holy Spirit (He is one of the triune Godhead) is able to bring anything you didn’t receive at that moment and remind you of it later when you actually need it. I am sure that there have been at least a few times that you have heard a sermon, and didn’t feel like you got anything from it and then a couple of weeks or months later you find those same words that didn’t mean anything before to mean so much now. That is the Holy Spirit bringing the truth of God’s Word back to your remembrance.

Sometimes it can be hard to receive from a Pastor for several different reasons, maybe he is reading out of a version of the Bible that does not have modern English, maybe he has a preaching style that you find boring, or maybe you are just not “into” sermons. Whatever it may be, I think the first thing you need to do is change your attitude towards preaching.

Around seven or eight years ago I could hardly sit through a sermon without getting really bored, but I don’t think it had anything to do with the Pastor, his preaching or the version of the Bible he was using. It was all my attitude. I was not showing up because I wanted to hear from God, I was showing up because I was forced to. My parents took me to church. It was not my decision to make, but what I did with the things I learned in church was my choice. I chose to not care, not listen and be bored.

A few years later when I moved out of my parents' house for an internship, I found myself faced with the same choice, but this time I got to choose what church I wanted to go to. But I still had to choose what I would do when I sat down in one of those chairs. Would I sit there and beg God to have the Pastor finish his sermon, so that I could get on with my day or would I choose to listen to see if God would speak to me.

Once I started choosing to listen for God to speak to me during the sermons everything completely changed. They were no longer a bore, but I really enjoyed them. Along with changing my attitude I also added a couple of things to what I did when I sat down to learn in a church service.

First, I would pray and ask God to speak to me, then I would open a note on my phone and write down whatever came to mind that related to that sermon, sometimes this would lead me on bunny trails, because God would have a lot to say about something related to the message. I would sit up straight and be attentive so even on the days I was really tired I wouldn’t doze off.

I began to believe that no matter who was speaking from that platform, I could receive something, because I was listening for what God wanted to say to me. We need to be careful not to write someone off because “you have already heard what they’re preaching on” or because they’ve mistreated you before. Remember that it takes courage to stand in front of a crowd and preach the Word of God. Remember also that no one is perfect. Give them grace. The same grace that you need when you make mistakes.

So, next time you are sitting in church whether by your own choice or someone else’s, remember that God will speak to you, if you ask Him to.Resist the temptation to judge the person on the stage, just trust that they are doing the best they can to let God speak through them. No matter how much someone knows about the Bible, they can’t know everything. Everyone teaches things wrong sometimes, that doesn’t mean that they want to. The more that you listen for God and give grace to his imperfect vessels, the more that you will find it a joy to go to church. You won’t be looking for the Pastor to say all the right things, but instead you’ll be listening for God to say exactly what you need to hear. And He always does.