For many Christians Sunday afternoons are a time to relax, have a bite to eat, and discuss the shortcomings of the Sunday morning sermon. Few realize how much damage they are doing to themselves spiritually.
Here are 3 barriers that will keep you from benefiting spiritually from the Sunday morning sermon.
1. You Have a critical spirit
Let’s admit it, many of us are great at fault finding, blame blasting, and sermon scrutinizing. If I had dissected my frog in 10th grade biology class as skillfully, quickly, and fastidiously as many of you dismember your pastor’s sermons, I would have had no problem becoming the president of the science club!
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
Mat 7:3
Yes, unfortunately many thousands of sermons have been quietly chloroformed, placed in formaldehyde, and set on a shelf for later investigation. I remind you that Biblical preaching isn’t the analysis of a rotting corpse but rather the transmission of a living truth!
The poisonous criticism you use to preserve the preacher’s defects does nothing to the sermon and everything to you. Your insecting and bisecting won’t produce spiritual life, instead every stab and every snip you make bleeds you a little drier.
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Gal 5:15
The truth is your pastor isn’t perfect and neither are his sermons. He might not have a golden tongue, he might preach too long, he might say a few things you don’t understand, he might be boring at times. However, none of that is beyond God. Don’t think that God is so weak and anemic that he needs a charismatic personality behind the pulpit in order to change lives!
True power in preaching doesn’t come from a strong diaphragm or a demonstration of emotions. True power is found in the Word of God, applied by the Holy Spirit because of the blood of Christ! As you listen to the sermon this coming Sunday, rest yourself in the hands of God, allow the Holy Spirit to convict your heart through the power of His Word and know that God uses imperfect and finite people to communicate His perfect eternal Word.
Set aside your spirit of criticism and you’ll find life in sermons that you didn’t know existed!
2. You’re unprepared
Sermons take a long time to prepare, I regularly spend 10-15 hours preparing one sermon and that doesn’t count hours spent meditating and thinking on those doctrines and texts outside of my regular prep time. Maybe that’s why it sometimes shocks me when I realize that many people don’t know that listing to a sermon also takes preparation!
What do we tell our children before they go to school?
- Make sure your bag is packed.
- Make sure you have your notebooks.
- Make sure you have pens and pencils.
- Make sure you did your homework.
- Make sure you get enough rest.
We understand without doubt that a child needs to prepare daily for school if he is to get anything useful out of his school day. Yet when it comes to church many fall back on their hands, they have never even thought about the importance of preparing themselves for worship and hearing the Word of God preached. They come with their brains half warmed and their hearts dead cold. They might as well just show up in their pajamas, because that’s how well prepared their hearts are. I bet you could really grow your church fast if you just replaced the chairs with beds!
Why sleep in on Sunday morning when you could be sleeping at First Baptist Church of Nod!
Oh how we need to hear the words to the Church in Sardis!
“Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.”
Rev 3:2
Too often we expect the pastor and the church staff to wake us up. We think it’s their job to entertain us out of our spiritual stupor! I’m sure they are trying their best but believe me, it will be far more beneficial if you would simply do a few things to prepare yourself for Sunday morning.
Do you know what the sermon will be on ahead of time? Why not crack open your Bible during the week and read the main text for the upcoming sermon. Read the context too and do a little research. During the week engage your mind and your heart in the truths that will be taught and you’ll find yourself ready and excited for the sermon.
What about prayer? Do you pray for your pastor? Do you pray for the worship team and those involved in organizing the service? Do you pray that God will humble your heart and ready it to hear the Word of God? The preparation of prayer makes a big difference!
What about sleep? Did you get enough rest? I know that you can’t always control this especially if you have very little children. Nevertheless, I find that too often we get stuck browsing social networks, watching TV, or doing other things of little meaning. As you look forward to Sunday have a plan for bedtime, discipline yourself for godliness, and you’ll be able take in the sermon much better.
“The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!” As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.”
Pro 26:13-15
3. You’re too busy
Business doesn’t just crowd our schedule, it crowds our mind. The cares of life can make it hard to concentrate on a Sunday morning message. We are easily taken away in our minds to think about tasks that we haven’t finished and work that we have waiting
“As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”
Mat 13:22
The cares of this world are deadly to your spiritual life if you let them get out of hand. What can you do to beat back the thorns and thistles of business? May I suggest that 99% of our business is because we are primarily seeking something other than the Kingdom of God? Jesus brings this to our attention earlier in Matthew’s Gospel.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Mat 6:33-34
The reason we often get so busy is because we are striving for things here on earth like wealth, recognition, and a sense of fulfillment through activity. The good news is that you really don’t need any of that to please God! In fact those things are not pleasing to God at all if they are robbing you of your ability to focus your eyes on Jesus and learn with a content and quiet spirit at His feet!
So ask yourself, whether all your doing now is so important as to comprise your spiritual well-being, it’s not! There’s a reason God instituted the Sabbath principle way back in Exodus 20! He knew that we humans will become absorbed and overwhelmed with the common and ordinary without the limiting factor of a day when we do nothing but turn to God in worship.
So stop allowing insignificant and temporary things to clutter your soul and spoil your spiritual appetite!
