Preachers need help! Yes, they do. They are often joked about and laughed at, usually all in fun. I am a preacher! And I have heard / told many preacher jokes! For example– do you know who a preacher is? Answer: A man who talks in other people’s sleep." That is literally true, sometimes. But the preacher’s job is not to keep people awake! His task is to do his homework – that is, to read up, study up, pray up, and then stand up and speak up for Christ and the gospel. Those of us who preach can control and are responsible for being prepared. What we cannot control is if listeners who show up in the pews have played too hard or stayed up too late Saturday night, or are distracted by texting and Facebook and Snapchat while we preach! And we can’t help it if they tune out because they just don’t like us and decide to catch a few Z’s in the pew! But I digress. It does bother me if people doze while I preach, but then I remember – Peter, James and John fell asleep on Jesus at the most intense and critical moment of Jesus’s life in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-41). Jesus’ question to them in Matthew 26:40b is appropriate for a lot of church- goers who have no trouble staying awake through favorite TV shows or two-hour long movies or three- hour-long football games – "What? Could you not watch with me one hour?" And then, in Acts 20:7-10, the Bible said that a young man named Eutychus, bless his heart, sank into a "deep sleep" while the apostle Paul preached at Troas. Paul’s sermon was a long one – "until midnight" – and so overcome was Eutychus with sleep that "he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead." He was fortunate to have a miracle-working apostle there, and Paul raised him up. The only thing that saves some people from a deadly fall while sleeping during sermons is that pews are usually cushioned, and, it’s only a short fall onto the pew or shoulder of the person in front of or beside you! Maybe a good poke from a pew mate will wake them up! And in a few cases, maybe they came from a third shift job, bone-tired, but want to worship God even though weary. Or maybe a doctor’s prescribed medication is affecting them. Whatever the case, all week long, to quote an old preacher from yesteryear – "I read myself full, I think myself clear, I pray myself hot, and I let myself go!" What else can the preacher do? He can talk while you sleep – but that’s your problem! He can’t pay attention and listen for you!
Many Bible students consider the apostle Paul the greatest preacher who ever lived, except Jesus Himself. Paul wrote about half of the books of the New Testament and spread the gospel far and wide. The things God used him to preach and write continue to make a world-wide impact. But this great man realized all preachers, himself included, need help. In Romans 15:24ff he told Christians in Rome he wanted to go to Spain (to preach Christ) and declared, "I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you." In verse 30 he begged them "to strive together with me in prayers to God for me" that he could be delivered from foes who sought to hurt him. It’s true friends – every gospel preacher you know needs that kind of help. How about it? Will you help your preacher, or hurt him?
Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN
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