Post by Cindy on Feb 26, 2022 12:13:44 GMT -5
In the past, most pastor's sermons lasted for an hour and some for two hours. But today if a pastor's sermon goes beyond a half hour people think it's too long. I have always had trouble with that. My favorite day of the week has always been Sunday because I loved going to church and learning more about our Lord. There was one Sunday back when I was in my forties, that became one of the best days of my life. We had Sunday School for adults for an hour before the service started. The service itself stated out wonderful as usual. We prayed and I, along with most of the congregation, had tears running down my face because our pastor's prayer was so inspired. But that too was often the norm. We worshiped God and then the pastor began his sermon. When he'd spoken for an hour, which was usual for him, no one wanted him to stop, so he continued to teach us as the Spirit led him. it was an incredible time! When he finished, still we didn't want to leave, so together we began to worship God again. We sang and we praised him and when the service had been going on for a bit over 2 hours, some folks finally had to leave, while others continued on. Shortly after that I too had to leave. I was shocked when I saw what time it was and how long we'd been in church. It was absolutely incredible and everyone there knew that the Holy Spirit had filled us all to overflowing and had led the service to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What is so very sad to me is that many people today would just as soon not be bothered with having to hear a sermon. To them, a half hour is about all they can take. What they don't realize is that they're cutting their noses off to spite their face. Why? Because God uses His Word first to bring us to salvation, then to change us and to renew our minds. Without His Word, we can't be saved. If we don't know His Word, or don't learn from it and can't apply it to our life, then we can't grow in our faith. If we don't' grow in our faith, we became more like Jesus.
However this is part of what the Bible tells us will happen in our time. If you read 2 Timothy 3 you'll see that in the last days, and these are the last days, people will be lovers of themselves and lovers of pleasure instead of lovers of God. People who love themselves more than God won't want to hear long sermons, and of course won't want to spend time in God's Word every day. They really aren't all that interested in God or in what His commands are. They love their sins too much to give them up anyway. In fact, many aren't at all sure that God even exists, so why should they bother learning anything about Him?
When a person is really saved, the first thing that happens is that God pours His love into our hearts (Romans 5:5). This enables us to love Him and His Word, and to love others the way He loves us. At the same time the Holy Spirit draws us both to God and to His Word. He also gives us each the gift of faith. (Ephesians 2:8) The more we read our Bible, the stronger our love for God becomes, and the stronger our faith gets. This is how God grows the new nature He gives us at our salvation. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
At our salvation we're born again but like any baby we need to grow up. Again like a baby, we need food to grow up. Because we're talking about our spirit, we need spiritual food for our "new man" to get strong and grow. Jesus told us that we cannot live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. So the Bible is our nourishment. If we don't read it daily, we are literally starving ourselves. If we only spend 15 minutes a day in it, we're not doing that much better. We need a meal, not a snack!
if we aren't drawn to read the Bible daily, there's something very wrong and we need to find out if we're really saved or not. Possibly we've ignored the Holy Spirit for so long about spending time in God's Word, that we have now lost the ability to hear Him. If so, we need to repent and obey the Holy Spirit. Obviously, if we're not saved, then we need to get right with God. The same is true about sermons. If we can't normally enjoy hearing a sermon that lasts an hour, something's wrong and we need to find out what it is!
What is so very sad to me is that many people today would just as soon not be bothered with having to hear a sermon. To them, a half hour is about all they can take. What they don't realize is that they're cutting their noses off to spite their face. Why? Because God uses His Word first to bring us to salvation, then to change us and to renew our minds. Without His Word, we can't be saved. If we don't know His Word, or don't learn from it and can't apply it to our life, then we can't grow in our faith. If we don't' grow in our faith, we became more like Jesus.
However this is part of what the Bible tells us will happen in our time. If you read 2 Timothy 3 you'll see that in the last days, and these are the last days, people will be lovers of themselves and lovers of pleasure instead of lovers of God. People who love themselves more than God won't want to hear long sermons, and of course won't want to spend time in God's Word every day. They really aren't all that interested in God or in what His commands are. They love their sins too much to give them up anyway. In fact, many aren't at all sure that God even exists, so why should they bother learning anything about Him?
When a person is really saved, the first thing that happens is that God pours His love into our hearts (Romans 5:5). This enables us to love Him and His Word, and to love others the way He loves us. At the same time the Holy Spirit draws us both to God and to His Word. He also gives us each the gift of faith. (Ephesians 2:8) The more we read our Bible, the stronger our love for God becomes, and the stronger our faith gets. This is how God grows the new nature He gives us at our salvation. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
At our salvation we're born again but like any baby we need to grow up. Again like a baby, we need food to grow up. Because we're talking about our spirit, we need spiritual food for our "new man" to get strong and grow. Jesus told us that we cannot live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. So the Bible is our nourishment. If we don't read it daily, we are literally starving ourselves. If we only spend 15 minutes a day in it, we're not doing that much better. We need a meal, not a snack!
if we aren't drawn to read the Bible daily, there's something very wrong and we need to find out if we're really saved or not. Possibly we've ignored the Holy Spirit for so long about spending time in God's Word, that we have now lost the ability to hear Him. If so, we need to repent and obey the Holy Spirit. Obviously, if we're not saved, then we need to get right with God. The same is true about sermons. If we can't normally enjoy hearing a sermon that lasts an hour, something's wrong and we need to find out what it is!