How often do you go to church and leave without the message from the man of God making an impact on your life? So often our minds are bombarded with everything but what the preacher is saying. We turn our Bibles to the passage, follow along while he reads, and we may even take notes to help ourselves pay attention. Yet, somewhere in those few moments, our minds stop listening to the preacher.
We need to understand that Satan uses distractions, such as people getting up and going out of the service, children who are unhappy, sound equipment malfunctions, and anything under the sun that he can think of, to keep us from getting the full impact of the message. I have often said that if Satan cannot keep you from accepting Christ as your Savior, and he cannot, the next best thing is to make you a mediocre Christian. With this, he has been extremely successful.
You may ask why I believe most sitting in the congregation are not listening to the preacher? Because when the word is truly heard, it should be received, and lives will change. The evidence is not only in the daily lives we see among Christians, but also in the time of corporate worship, where we are taught to assemble together more and more as it gets closer to the second coming of Christ. If they truly heard what the preacher was saying in reference to faithfulness, they would be at every service unless providentially hindered. Their attitude toward attending all the services would be one of “I get to go,” rather than “I have to go.”
Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
We see in scripture where people did not listen to the man of God. However, most of these were not Christian listeners. Such as in Acts 27:11, where Paul is telling those aboard the ship he is being transported as a prisoner that they should have listened to him and stayed at Crete. He does go on to tell them that the ship will not make it, but that even though the ship will be destroyed, their lives will be spared, and what he said proved right.
Act 27:21-26 “But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island.”
In I Kings chapter 22, Micaiah warned King Ahab that going into battle at Ramoth Gilead would end in his death and Israel being scattered, which came true when Ahab was struck by a stray arrow.
In the book of Jeremiah, he warned the people of Judah and Jerusalem for decades that Babylon would conquer them and destroy the temple because of their idolatry, which happened in 586 BC.
Over and over, we see people ignore the preacher’s words. Yet, the truth is that the one they are ultimately ignoring is God! God has given us pastors to help us avoid the pitfalls of living a life committed to our own comfort rather than a surrendered life to Him. Our sinful nature makes us think we have done enough. It tells us to give in to the feeling of tiredness, not because we have been too busy for Him, but because we have allowed our priorities to be out of order. There are many things we can be involved in that are ok, but they are not profitable for us to be like Jesus. When the activities we participate in drain so much of our energy, and we cannot listen effectively or attend faithfully, we need to reevaluate how we spend our time and energy.
We need to view our corporate worship as a privilege. Many countries do not allow worship to be practiced openly without fear of punishment. This should be the highlights of our week, not the attitude of I have to do this. Yes, I said “highlights” in the plural because you should be having corporate worship more than once a week. I find that Wednesday night services are a great time to regroup, shut out the world, and reenergize.
As God’s children and ambassadors for Jesus, let’s determine to be intentional when listening to the preacher. All of our minds drift after about 15 minutes. Therefore, we must train ourselves to keep bringing our thoughts back to the preacher and what God is saying to us through him.
II Corinthians 10:5 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
