Did You Like The Sermon?

   The question, "Did you like the sermon?" makes me think of a quote from the famous Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde. Once when asked by a friend, "How did your play go tonight?" Wilde responded, "The play was a great success but the audience was a failure." Preachers have occasions when they want to say the same thing about the sermon! Maybe after a lot of tired, glazed eyes staring up and non-verbally saying to him, "Hurry up and get this sermon over with." Or maybe in spite of the preacher’s diligent preparation and sincere presentation, he goes home after the sermon having experienced what writer John R. W. Stott has called "communication frustration" (p 9, Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the 20^th Century). Be all that as it may, still we hear the apostle Paul’s directive to Timothy; "Preach the word!" (2 Timothy 4:2a). Paul left no room for Timothy to think people would always like his sermons – "Be instant in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (4:2b). And why do that? "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (4:3). I have preached long enough to know some love my preaching and others loathe it. I’m referring to style, not substance, for the aim of every faithful gospel preacher, as declared by Paul in Acts 20:26-27, is to be found "innocent of the blood of all men" having "not shunned (that is, avoided) to declare to you the whole counsel of God."

As the following story illustrates, every preacher (and elder, too) can mark it down that some people are hard to please when it comes to preaching. A young preacher, early in his ministry, preached in a large church. He thought he’d done quite well as he shook hands with people at the door. Remarks about his preaching and sermon were all complimentary. That is, until a little old man said bluntly, "You preached too long." But that single comment didn’t faze the young man in view of all the compliments. Then he was jolted by another negative comment - "You didn’t preach long enough" – and it was the same little guy. The preacher thought it strange the man would come around twice, but before he could gather his composure there he was again a third time! And he blurted out, "You used too many big words." The novice couldn’t stand it and asked a nearby deacon, "Who is that little old man over there?" The deacon said, "Oh, don’t pay any attention to anything he says. All he does is go around repeating everything he hears other people saying." I close with timeless words from 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 which provide a patter for preachers and preaching in every age: "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." God always likes sermons like that, even if some people don’t. What kind of sermon do you like?

         By: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN