Get Ready to Work Hard

Worship is really hard work. That’s one reason why God tells us to love Him with all of our strength. And as we’ve thought on in our church quite a bit of late: listening is hard work too. Here’s a comment well worth pondering as you prepare for tomorrow:

“Preaching is thus a very solemn and momentous enterprise. Both minister and congregation should recognize that their Sunday sermons are the most important and significant events of the week, Whatever else is neglected, sermons must not be…The ministry of the word [is] a co-operative activity, in which the laity [are] to labor to learn just as hard as the minister labor[s] to teach” (J.I. Packer).

I’m not preaching tomorrow. That means that I won’t have the duo role of preacher/listener which I normally have (for before, during and after all my sermons I’m listening too). Tomorrow I will just have the listener role. Then I’ll have the leader role in helping my family do the work of real hearing of what God has said.

I’m planning to worship God with great strength by praying for those preaching and then by working hard to hear the voice of God for the transformation of my and my family’s life. How about you?

Let’s all remember that when the sermon is done tomorrow, our real listening work will have only just begun. That’s when we’ll have to take it home, review it, test it, and then think of how we’re going to apply and obey it. Let’s start praying now that both the one who preaches and the ones who hear will have the strength to work hard at it all for the glory of God and joy of each heart.