Hopefully, unless you got a little lazy today, you attend a gathering of local believers to worship our God. I am not so concerned with where or how the service in your particular church took place, but I am concerned about your ability to discern during the midst of the service as to how the Holy Spirit is speaking to you.
As a Chaplain/Preacher/Pastor, I know the labors of putting a service together. I know the amount of time that is spent studying and preparing a sermon for the congregation. Yet, in the midst of it all, I dare say that many people truly could come home and recite 3 points from the sermon, after their Sunday Afternoon nap.
I was reading not to long ago, dealing with this very idea. Here's a challenge to you. Take the sermon notes or just the Scripture passage that your pastor preached, and read it on Monday morning and see if you can't reconstruct his argument and thinking 24 hours later. Take the time and see how much of the actual service, 'STUCK' in your head. Amazingly enough, I have seen it happen to me, many a times, that I have found myself readdressing a specific need in my life, that I resisted during the service. Yet, confronted by my own 'memory' and the Holy Spirit, I find it much more difficult to resist in the comfort of my kitchen or office desk.
You are a good preacher. You might just have an audience in the bathroom mirror, while you are shaving your face or putting on make-up. You might be surprised how much you really take home and learn from hearing the Word of God.
Special Thanks to Brent Sadler, Pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Landstuhl, for a very thoughtful sermon today, on Ecclesiastes 7. I pray that I preach it as well, this week to myself.
John
ReplyDeleteYou know how much I chew on that "Spirital Meat". That is why I like your services so much. If I can someday preach as half as good as you do; I might just be doing something.
Tim Wixon