How do you treat it?

How do you show respect for the Sunday morning sermon?

You don’t totally disregard the Sunday morning message, or you wouldn’t sit through it. But are you handling its value with the respect it deserves?

These questions only make sense if you believe the Bible is the Word of God.

This subject only matters if you believe the Holy Spirit speaks through His Word and uses the spoken ministry of His spiritual servants (Ephesians 4:11-16) to help us.

The message you hear is not just another sermon that should be filed away in your mind. None of us earns favor with God by merely listening to sermons. We don’t grow in grace because we sat through a sermon.

The sum of your pastor’s life shows up in the preaching time slot.

It’s not just about that week. Many hours of meditation and prayerful contemplation over the content took place.

I’ve been active in spoken ministry since 1994. This week’s study hours are only a fraction of what I bring into the pulpit. There’s cumulative wisdom gained by thousands of pulpit appearances and decades of leadership experience. Experience brings an intangible skill set that’s hard to explain.

In this season, some things come to me intuitively as a gift from the Holy Spirit, like the ability to read a congregation while preaching. Sometimes, I can discern what staff and other leaders do not say. And then there’s the gauging of the emotional temperature of the room. I did not possess these intangibles during my first few years of ministry.

What you hear on Sundays represents a keen awareness that God wants to do much more for individuals and the congregation than what some think is possible.

So, don’t let the next sermon you hear become a sermon with no meaning.

Receive it as a message from God’s Word.
Receive it as a message from a God-called messenger.
Receive it as a valuable deposit into your life.

How can this be accomplished?

Modern technology makes it easier than ever. Repetition is your ally. Prayerfully listen to the message a second time to hear what the Holy Spirit says. And then you might listen to it a third time to ensure you didn’t miss the careful nuances of the spoken ministry.

Much more care has gone into that time slot than can be quantified. The worst thing you could do is hear it once and go on about your life while waiting for the next one to show up.

Don’t let your pastor’s next message become a sermon with no meaning.