When God Is Trying to Make a Point

In these past few weeks we have had several guest preachers come to Ballenger Creek Baptist Church. Dr. Mark Rasmussen came with the West Coast Baptist College tour group this past Tuesday night and yesterday we had Dr. Mark Campbell from the National Center of Life and Liberty. It is amazing how the Holy Spirit moves! You see, God has directed the sermons in a very specific way in these past weeks. Pastor Sharff and I have already preached several messages on the subject of serving the Lord. Honestly, at one point we thought maybe we should preach on this subject a little less, because we thought we were hammering it too much, maybe the congregation was getting tired of hearing about serving. I can testify ,though, with all certainty, as I'm sure Pastor Sharff can as well, that we have preached what God has laid on our hearts and that the Holy Spirit has been in the messages. But then Tuesday came, Dr. Mark Rasmussen got into the pulpit and said, "I was going to preach about prayer, but what I feel like this church needs is a message on serving." He then gave a convicting message about being a disciple. Last night was the climax of these past few weeks, Dr. Campbell preached a message from John 2, entitled "But the Servants Knew", it was a wonderful message about being a servant for the Master, Jesus Christ. I sincerely believe that God is trying to speak to hearts, or at least one person.
I have a great fear when God works in this way. Unfortunately, it shouldn't take the same thing being preached many times for someone to "get" the message. This reminds me of the time I preached for Student Revival at West Coast Baptist College. I preached on how we are the bride of Christ and that since we are in that position we need to keep from sin, be consistent in our walk, and be set apart. When my message was over and I was on my way back to my dorm, a classmate came to me with tears in his eyes. He said to me, "That message was exactly what I needed, Thank you!" I don't know that classmates heart, but I do know that he had a great testimony and that he was seen as one of the more godly people at school. The thought crossed my mind, "My sermon wasn't to him; my sermon was for the rebel who needs to get his heart right." This is the struggle of being a preacher: We prepare sermons that are intended to bring people back to God, but the ones with the tender hearts are the ones that always respond. The only thing that I can do as a pastor is to pray that God will break hearts.
All this being said, let me show you three things that I plan on talking to the church about on Wednesday night. So many times we sit through a sermon and we don't get out of it what we should. It is never the Bible's fault, it is rarely the preacher's fault, but it is often the fault of the person sitting in the pew. Let's look at three things that we should do when sitting under Bible preaching:
1. Do not shift blame- If you are sitting in the sermon thinking "Boy, my wife needs to hear this sermon!" or "Man, I sure hope George is listening, he needs to get his heart right with God!", then you have the wrong attitude. Come to church expecting to get something for yourself.
2. Examine your heart- Ask God, "Lord, am I obeying you in this area as I should? How can I do better?" If we are sincere in our asking, I believe that God will honor it and show you how you can apply the sermon to your life.
3. Take notes- there are several reasons to take notes in church. First, it helps you to concentrate. Second, you can look at the message during the week and meditate on what you learned on Sunday, Third, and I believe the most important, so that you can look back on past messages and remember decisions that you made for God. I have a wide-margin Bible that my wife gave me for my birthday, I have taken many, many sermon notes in it. Every so often, I will look back at some of those messages and remember how they had touched my heart. Doing so renews my zeal to keep the decisions that I had made, it reminds me of commitments that I made to God.
I believe that we so often do not listen or even hear God when he is trying to make a point to us. I know that he is definitely trying to make a point at Ballenger Creek Baptist Church; to who? I really don't know; but through these past few weeks it has been made abundantly clear. I hope, I pray that if you are reading this you will take these three ideas to heart so that God doesn't have to keep trying to get a point across to you, but that your heart will be tender for whenever he wants to tell you something. Last thing, I promise, I once heard it said that whenever you sit through a sermon you either are drawn closer to God or you backslide further. I agree with this statement. Let me ask you as I close this post: Did you draw closer to God last time you were in church, or did you backslide and reject the preaching of God's Word? convicting thought.