Sacraments: Channels of God's Grace

    Roughly one sixth of the world does not have a reliable supply of clean drinking water.  More than 3.5 million people die every year because of water related illness.
    Scientists and community organizers have tried to solve this problem in a variety of ways, but one of the most creative is atmospheric water generators.   AWG’s take water from the air around us.  In most environments, there is enough water in the air to provide clean drinking water for several families with a single AWG machine.  This is an amazing technology.  The water is already there.  We just have to tap into it.
    However, we also have to recognize that this is not the normal way people get water.  Normally, people go to one of three sources for their water: rivers, lakes, or wells.  For many thousands of years, most people in most places have gotten most of their water from these reliable sources - rivers, lakes, and wells.  This water is much easier to reach.

    That’s kind of how grace works.  God’s grace is all around us.  We can experience God laying in our beds or walking on a mountain or riding a subway.  Grace is in the air we breathe.  We just have to tap into it.
    This is beautiful and profound, but we are also wise to recognize that there are some “normal” ways to experience God’s grace.  There are some normal channels of grace that have proved effective means of grace, and our spiritual ancestors have been coming back to these basic channels of grace for thousands of years.
    Theologians call these “means of grace.”  Down through the years, the Church has recognized two means of grace as being especially deep and meaningful for Christians: baptism and communion.  These are often called the sacraments. 
    A sacrament is a living drama of God’s gracious action.  It is a sign pointing to grace.  In a sacrament, we remember what God has done for us through Jesus.  But in this remembering and re-enacting, we are also opening ourselves to God’s gracious action again.  It seems that we humans need to experience these very physical things - water, bread, and wine - to help us experience the fullness of God’s grace.  The physical is somehow connected to the spiritual.  The sign pointing us to grace also becomes a channel bringing grace to us.

    Let’s talk about BAPTISM first.  Baptism is a sign of God’s new covenant of grace through Jesus.  The water is a sign of God’s cleansing, washing away our sins, purifying us, marking us for God’s Kingdom and service. 
    We are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  The Father created us, loves us, and calls us all.  The Son gave his life so that we can be forgiven and set free.  The Spirit actually does the work in our hearts, filling us with the Father’s love and Jesus’ life. 
    The Church of the Nazarene is a diverse community.  We were formed from people of many different traditions, and we still represent many different cultures and traditions around the world.  We accept baptism by sprinkling, pouring, or full immersion, and all of these have some points of reference in the New Testament. 
The author of Hebrews connected baptism with the Old Testament practice of sprinkling temple furniture with blood to purify it: “For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22).
The apostles often talked of God pouring his Spirit on us like water:  “He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.  He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6).
In our church, we usually baptize believers who are old enough to make a conscious choice, and we usually baptize by full immersion in water.  We had a big, beautiful party baptizing nine people earlier this month.  The classic text explaining this kind of baptism is Romans 6:
 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
 5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.
    Baptism is a sign of dying with Christ and dying to our old sinful life.  When we go down into the water, it’s like being buried.  When we come up out of the water, it’s like being raised with Christ to a new life in Jesus.  For me, this is the fullest and most powerful way to do the sacrament of baptism.
    But baptism is a sign of God’s New Covenant of grace.  We know that God loves us and chooses us before we can love God or make any choices for ourselves.  God’s love for us is pure grace.  Nothing is earned.  As a sign of this limitless, unearned love, Nazarenes also recognize infant baptisms.  It’s the parents’ choice to baptize their babies or to wait for them to grow old enough to choose for themselves.
    Both forms of baptism show a side of God’s grace.  Infant baptism shows God’s love for us from the beginning before we can do anything to earn it.  Believers’ baptism shows God’s love for us after we’ve walked away, sinned, and returned home for forgiveness and new life.  Both are windows to the same grace.

   The next sacrament is THE LORD’S SUPPER.  This is the meal of bread and wine that Jesus started with his disciples on the night before he went to the cross.  Sometimes, it’s called communion because it’s a way for us to commune with God.  Through communion, we spend time with God, or draw close to God, or even in a way become one with God.  And other times, this meal is called the Eucharist, which is Greek for thanksgiving.  All three names are used in the New Testament in connection with this meal.  But the roots of the Lord’s Supper go back to the Old Testament. 

    Earlier today we read about the prototype of the Lord’s Supper, with a mysterious priest named Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17-20).  Here is this early representative of God, who comes to Abram (later called Abraham) as Abram is just coming from a battle, and he brings him bread and wine as a sign of God’s blessing.  Then, he speaks God’s blessing on Abram and makes the connection that God has brought Abram the victory.  Abram responds with a sign of submission by giving him a tithe (a tenth) of all the loot from the battle. 
    These images overlap with the Lord’s Supper today.  We are in the midst of a life battle, and God comes to us with bread and wine and blessing.  God reminds us that God brings the victory and the strength.  God blesses us with his own life, and we show our submission to God by giving God a tithe of our income. 

    The other deep root of the Lord’s Supper is the Jewish Passover meal (Exodus 12).  The Passover was a special meal God taught Israel to eat celebrating their Exodus from Egypt.  The Exodus was the single most important event in Israel’s history.  God set his people free from slavery and oppression, formed a new nation, taught them his ways, and gave them a homeland of their own. 
    Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples was part of the Passover celebration, and Paul says, “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).  Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are sometimes called the “Second Exodus.”  Through Jesus God sets us free from slavery to sin, forms a new people, teaches us his ways, and gives us citizenship in heaven - our true homeland. 

    So, now that we have these historical roots in mind, let’s read Paul’s description of how to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11.  You’ll notice right away that Paul is talking to a church with some problems, but those problems can become very instructive for us.

17 But in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. 18 First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it. 19 But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized!
 20 When you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord’s Supper. 21 For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk. 22 What? Don’t you have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly will not praise you for this!
 23 For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.” 26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.
 27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself... 34 If you are really hungry, eat at home so you won’t bring judgment upon yourselves when you meet together. I’ll give you instructions about the other matters after I arrive.

    The Lord’s Supper is a window to the Trinity.  God the Father is the Host and Invite-or, calling us to the meal.  Jesus provides the food and drink through his life, death, and resurrection.  The Spirit makes it real, alive, and meaningful for us and in us.
    When we celebrate this meal, we are celebrating all that God has done for us through Jesus.  Because of Jesus’ body and blood, our sins are forgiven, we have new life now in this moment, and we will live forever with God in heaven. 
    Baptism is the sign of our entrance into God’s family through Jesus.  Communion  is the sign of our continuing dependence on Jesus.  Jesus gives us the spiritual food and drink to continue this Christian journey.  Only through Jesus can we be saved.  Only through Jesus can we stay saved.  Only through Jesus can we be made free.  Only through Jesus can we live free. 
    OK, now let’s answer a few FAQs about the Lord’s Supper.
1. What actually happens to the bread and wine?  This is the subject of great debate within Christianity.  As far as I can tell, the most common Christian opinion is also the one closest to the Bible.  The bread doesn’t literally become Jesus’ body and cup doesn’t hold Jesus’ actual blood.  You can’t find his DNA here.  This is a mysterious sign of Jesus’ body and blood.  However, God does something mysterious when we celebrate communion.  This is one of those deep rivers of grace.  Somehow, the experience of grace through sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound can do something deep in us.  Jesus can be hard to experience.  God can be hard to define.  The Spirit is like the wind.  But this bread and cup - this we can touch.  This we can hold and put into our body as a sign of our faith and dependence on Jesus.    If God blesses this moment with his Spirit, and if we are open, this can change us.

2. What kind of stuff are we supposed to use?  For this, I find Paul helpful again.  He said, “When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table, aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t we sharing in the body of Christ? And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).  Communion is a sign of our unity in Christ, so as much as possible, we should use a single loaf of bread and a single cup.   How many of you grew up doing communion with those little Styrofoam wafers?  I don’t really get that.  The point of those is that the Jewish Passover meal was celebrated with bread without yeast, so that’s probably the kind of bread used at the Last Supper.  But it’s my humble opinion that the first Christians probably used whatever bread was available since they weren’t always celebrating the Passover.  Now, in our church, we use grape juice not wine.  That’s for two reasons.  First, the Church of the Nazarene started in the time of prohibition in the USA, so we’ve had a long standing resistance to alcohol.  Second, some Christians here in our church think that alcohol is always wrong, so we don’t want create disunity through this meal which is supposed to strengthen our unity.

3. Who can participate?  Here I’ll quote John Wesley (one of our spiritual fore-fathers): “Is not the eating of that bread, and the drinking of that cup, the outward, visible means, whereby God conveys into our souls all that spiritual grace, that righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which were purchased by the body of Christ once broken and the blood of Christ once shed for us? Let all, therefore, who truly desire the grace of God, eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.”  Anyone who truly wants God’s grace through Jesus can come.

4. What’s the deal with participating in the Lord’s Supper unworthily?  Paul said, “So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:27).  Remember that Paul was writing to a church that was having problems.  Back then the Lord’s Supper was kind of like our potluck dinners, but they didn’t all sit at one table.  Friends kind of sat together, and rich folks were mostly friends with rich folks, and the same for the poor. So the rich people would be having this feast of great food and lots of wine - without even realizing that their poor brothers and sisters at the next table didn’t have enough to eat.  Paul said that was the exact opposite of the unity Jesus intended through the Lord’s Supper.  In fact, the Christian Church soon corrected this problem, and part of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper was bringing food for the poor as well.  So today, if you want to participate in the Lord’s Supper in a worthy way, make sure you share with the poor.  That’s one of the reasons we have the offering basket here.  We aren’t buying admission or paying membership dues or bargaining for grace.  We are submitting to God and sharing with others.

5. If we celebrate the Lord’s Supper too often, doesn’t stop being special or reverent?  Again, let me defer to John Wesley.  He explained that the newness may wear off, but a deeper truer significance will deepen over time.  Think about the communion of marriage.  Should you only say “I love you” a few times a year so that it still feels special?  And all the women said, “Forget special! Let’s have communion every day.”  Or how about this: should you only have sex a few times a year so that it still feels special?  And all the men said: “Forget special!  Let’s have communion every day.”  The Lord’s Supper is one way of communion with God.  It’s a deep channel of God’s grace, so Wesley said, “Only see that you are duly prepared for it, and the oftener you come to the Lord's table, the greater benefit you will find there.”

6. So how do we prepare well for the Lord’s Supper?  Here are a few basic steps. 

• Quiet your heart.  Spend a little time in silence waiting before God.  Maybe you’ll think about the sermon.  Maybe you’ll just be quiet.
• Leave your sin.  When you stand and walk, imagine leaving your old life behind you.  Leave your failures.  Leave the wrongs done against you.
• Come to Jesus.  You are walking away from selfishness into love.  You are walking away from sin straight into Jesus’ life.  Claim that.  Have you had a hard week?  Have you sinned or failed or been betrayed?  Leave it, and walk to Jesus.  Put your trust in the body and blood of Christ to give you new life through the Spirit.

   Remember those machines that get water from air?  You can get water anywhere.  It’s all around us.  It’s in the air we breath.  God’s grace is like that.  You can find grace in a tree or a flower or a movie or a bowl of rice if you have your spiritual eyes open.   But there are some channels of God’s grace, like deep rivers that have stood the test of time.  Generation after generation, God’s people keep coming back to these means of grace -- because they work.  God really does meet us here.  God really does use baptism and communion to open us to his grace.  They are signs of the living Gospel.  Come and let God make you new.

Scripture and Preaching

2 Questions for Discussion
When have you really felt God speaking to you through a sermon? 
What were the main points of the last 5 sermons you heard?

    Raise your hand if you could remember at least one of the last five sermon topics?  Keep your hand up if you could remember two?  Three?  Four?  Five? 
    But I expect that almost all of us could point to at least one sermon that was a powerful spiritual event for us.  Somehow, sometimes, sermons become miracles.  Reading the Bible and talking about it becomes a transcendent event when the words on the page become the Word of God for us in our hearts. 
    This is our topic today - the role of scripture and preaching in the worship service.  You can read the Bible at home.  You can listen to sermon podcasts or read them online, but something special happens when we gather to hear from God together.  What is that?  How does that work?  How can we have more of those special, supernatural, God-filled moments when we gather on Sundays? 

    Our primary text for today is in 2 Timothy.  Timothy is Paul’s ministry student.  Paul has been training Timothy for years.  In our series on 1 Thessalonians, we saw part of this training period with Timothy serving as Paul’s assistant.  Timothy is out on his own now, in Ephesus.  Timothy is the Christian leader of the island, kind of like a bishop or lead pastor for a network of house churches.  Paul is giving his final advice to Timothy, charging him with his most important tasks as a minister.  Again and again, Paul comes back to one fundamental task: “Preach the Word of God.”  Let’s read part of Paul’s advice starting in 3:14.

Chapter 3: 14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
Chapter 4: 1 I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he appears to set up his Kingdom: 2 Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.  3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths. 5 But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.

    Let’s focus in on verses 16-17 to help us understand the Bible and preaching.  We’ll just take these verses a few phrases at a time.

All Scripture is inspired by God.
    All Scripture is God-breathed.  The words in our Bible were written and recorded and edited and maintained by a wide variety of people over a long period of time.  Their various personalities, cultures, and contexts are clearly present in the words of our Bible.  However, we believe that God has guided and inspired the whole process related  to the Bible.  God inspired the writing.  God inspires the reading.  God inspires the hearing. 
    All Scripture is inspired by God.  This is not a dead book.  Hebrews 4:12 says: “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”  Somehow this book is alive.  God’s Spirit lives and breathes - not so much in the ink and paper - but in the words and the message.  Somehow, these words become scalpels and x-ray machines, stripping away our defenses, and revealing who we truly are.  Somehow, this book, written thousands of years ago, never loses its power to change people and to carry the message of God for our world. 
    All Scripture is inspired by God.  That’s why we read the Bible when we gather for worship every Sunday.  And that’s why we read from several parts of the Bible.  The whole Bible is the inspired Word of God - not just Paul’s writings, not just Jesus’ teachings, but the whole Old and New Testaments.  That’s why we use the Lectionary - a schedule of Scripture readings throughout the year.  This forces us to read and to discuss the whole Bible, not just our favorite parts.
    All Scripture is inspired by God.  That’s why the reader says “The Word of the Lord” and the people say, “Thanks be to God.”  We believe in the mystery that God still speaks through this text, and therefore this reading is always worthy of our thanks.

All Scripture ... is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  This is the New Living Translation, and it’s easy to understand, but the translation in the NIV is easier to talk about: “All scripture is ... useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”  This describes the task of preaching: teaching, rebuking, correcting, training, and (if we pull a word from chapter 4 verse 2) encouraging. 
    These days, some people are saying that we no longer need preaching.  Some say this one-way mode of communication lecture-style is outdated and obsolete.  You can study the Bible at home or in small groups.  That’s true.  I’m all for discussion and interaction and questions and feedback, but submitting ourselves to the Scripture when we gather to worship is an ancient spiritual practice for God’s people. 
    The entire book of Deuteronomy is basically a sermon, reviewing the previous words and actions of God.  When the Israelites rediscovered the Scriptures in Nehemiah and Ezra’s time, “The Levites ...  instructed the people in the Law while everyone remained in their places.  They read from the Book of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage” (Nehemiah 8:7-8).  Jesus and the apostles often went to synagogues on the Sabbath, and when the people gathered, they preached by explaining the Bible.  The Christian Church continued this tradition, with preaching being a key part of most worship gatherings. 
    Something profound happens when we stop moving, stop talking, take a position of humility, and submit ourselves to God’s Word.  Sometimes we learn something important about God or life.  Sometimes we are corrected or rebuked.  Sometimes we are trained in how to live well.  Sometimes we are encouraged.  Something mysterious happens when a preacher adds her breath to these God-breathed words.  If the Holy Spirit is working in the preacher and the listener, then a Spirit-filled event can take place.  God’s Spirit can breathe in us and inspire us toward God and godliness.

    God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.  The point of preaching is to help people live well.  The point of preaching is to help people respond faithfully to God.  James said, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves” (1:22).  The point of preaching is to move us from hearers of God’s Word to doers of God’s word.  The highest goal of preaching is to help God work in our hearts and minds to transform our lives, to transform the way we actually live day to day.
    Preaching is not just to make converts.  Preaching is not just to keep the church in line.  Preaching is not just to make us feel good or encouraged.  Preaching is not just to give us a little spiritual boost to help us get through the week.  We read the Bible and preach so that God can work through his Word to transform our daily lives by his grace.  In our church, our vision breaks this up into three points.  The point of our whole church - but especially our preaching - is that we will be made new by God’s love, gathered in multicultural community, and sent to cause global change through local action. 

    But preaching is complex.  Let’s spend a few minutes talking about some of the complicated issues involved with preaching.
First, preaching is both words and the Word.  When I get up here to preach, I’ll say a lot of words - maybe too many.  Not every word that I say is the Word of God.  I am not an infallible messenger.  My words will never become Scripture.  You can’t equate my sermons with the Word of God.  However, somehow, mysteriously, sometimes God does speak to people through preaching.  In, around, beyond, behind the preacher’s words, the Word of God often breaks through to our hearts.
Second, preaching involves both certainty and uncertainty.  One of the Nazarene articles of faith is that the Old and New Testament Scriptures are inspired by God and reveal all things necessary for our salvation.1  On one hand, that’s great.  The Bible tells us everything we really need to know for life in Christ.  On the other hand, that’s kind of a bummer.  The Bible doesn’t tell us everything we want to know.  Some things in the Bible just aren’t clear.  So as a preacher, part of my job is to be clear about what is clear and to be honest about what is not clear.  What is clear is more than enough to guide us faithfully into God’s grace and peace through Jesus.
Third, preaching is interpreting the Bible and the people.  Part of my job is to understand the Bible, and part of my job is to understand you.  Good preaching not only reveals God more clearly.  Good preaching also reveals you to yourself.  Good preaching helps us understand ourselves more clearly in the light of the God’s Word.
Fourth, that means preaching is both timeless and timely.  Good preaching embeds the timeless message of God’s love within the time and culture and language of the people in the congregation.  There is no culture-less preaching.  All preaching always exists within a cultural context.  Good preaching breathes God’s message in the indigenous context of the people listening.
Fifth, that means preaching is more complex in a multicultural setting.  If good preaching is culturally embedded, what do we do when we have a lot of cultures all together?  I don’t have a perfect answer, but I think about it like this.  Jesus said he would make us “fishers of men.”  Preaching is kind of like fishing - trying to help God’s message catch peoples’ hearts.  A good fisherman uses different techniques for different fish.  Sometimes he uses a net; sometimes a trap; sometimes live bait; sometimes a smaller fish or a frog or a cricket or a piece of meat.  You can’t catch all fish with the same method.  (We were talking about this in Greenhouse Worship, and Tim said, “Yes you can!  Use dynamite!”)  Preaching is kind of like that.  Unless, I’m going to use dynamite, I’ll have to use different sermon styles and topics to reach different people.  It’s almost impossible to connect with everyone at the same time.  A few months ago, I preached a narrative sermon using a Flannery OConner story.  I knew would be difficult, maybe even offensive for some, but afterwards, a young man told me that was the best sermon he had ever heard me preach.  That’s how it goes in our church.  So, if a particular week’s sermon doesn’t catch you, maybe it wasn’t intended for you.  Maybe it was for someone else.  Come back next week, and see if God catches your heart with that one.
Last, effective preaching depends on the preacher, on God, and on the listener.  Once, a pastor had a crazy week - three funerals, seven people in the hospital, a million emails, an exploding toilet in the church bathroom, and a complaining deacon.  When Sunday he came, it was almost time for him to preach, he prayed and said, “God, this week has been so busy, I haven’t had time to even think of a sermon.  You’ve got to help me.  What should I say?”  Then, the voice of God came clearly into his heart, Tell them you are not prepared.  I’m guessing that sermon didn’t go so well.  As a preacher, I have to do my homework.  I have to study and pray and think and practice.  There’s no way around that, but the simple truth is that even if I do all of that, when I get up here to talk it might just be me talking - blah, blah, blah, blah.  If God doesn’t show up in me and in you, this is all just words.  One of my greatest prayers is that God’s Spirit will work a miracle and that somehow through what I say, we will all be drawn closer to God.  But there’s another part of this whole preaching thing.  Part of this depends on you.  I can pretty much guarantee you that God is not going to speak to you through the sermon if you are asleep. You have to engage the process.  You have to be open.  You have to be ready.

    With that in mind, let’s talk about your participation in reading of the Bible and the preaching in the worship service.  There are some very specific things you can do before, during, and after the worship service to make you a better sermon-listener.  If you do these things, you are more likely to have more of those powerful moments of hearing from God during the worship services.  So here they are - 10 ways to be a better sermon-listener.

BEFORE

• Go to sleep earlier on Saturday.  I know Saturday is a fun day for many of you, but don’t stay up until 2 or 3 working or playing or watching a movie.  If you stumble in here with your eyes half open, the chances are really small that God will do something significant in your heart that day.
• Wake up earlier on Sunday morning.  You don’t want to be rushing around to get breakfast and get the kids out the door.  If you arrive all stressed out, that doesn’t put you in a good mode to give God access to your heart.  If you arrive late, you miss the beginning of the story.  Every service is like a story.  The songs, the call to worship, the greeting time, all of that is preparing us to submit ourselves to God during the reading and preaching of the Word.  If you miss that part, it’s like walking into the middle of a movie or running a race without warming up.
• Study the Bible.  At home and with a small group, honestly engage the text of the Bible.  A sermon usually works from one key text, but it is flavored with the whole of Scripture.  To really get a sermon, you have to spend time getting to know the rest of the Bible.
• Pray for your pastors and for the worship service.  Pray that we as a church will really meet with God when we gather.  Pray that the pastors will be full of God’s Spirit.  Pray that the people will be open and ready.  Pray that God will change lives.  Somehow, in the mystery of God’s grace, prayer makes more of those deep spiritual moments happen. 

DURING

• Expect discomfort.  Sometimes we expect our pastors to keep saying the same things in the same ways, just with a new illustration or a catchy alliteration to help us remember his five points until we forget them again.  Sometimes we have built up these internal defenses to God’s message so that we think we’re really listening, but actually we are just keeping it at the surface, not letting it get to those deep places in our hearts.  Sometimes, an unusual style of sermon will allow God’s message to enter through a side door in our hearts, surprising us and allowing God to touch a place in our hearts we had been hiding.  Other times the problem is that we want sermons that are full of rebuke - full of rebuke for other people.  Good preaching will eventually involve correction and rebuke for everyone - even the preacher.   Be ready for that.
• Listen for the quiet voice of God.  God may speak to you through what I say, or God may speak through something else - a song, a phrase in the Bible, an image on the screen.  You may be hearing my words with your ears, but in your heart there is that little nudge or voice that says, “That is for you” or “What about this in your life?”  Pay attention to those whispers.  That could be God calling.
• Take notes - not just about what the preacher says, but about what God is saying to you.  Bring your journal to church, and if you feel that little nudge of God’s Spirit or the quiet voice of God, start writing about it.  Bring your calendar, and add something to your To Do list.  Highlight a meaningful verse in your Bible.  If God starts talking, do something to help you remember.

AFTER

• Talk about it.  In the snack time or wherever you have lunch, spend a few minutes talking about the worship service.  This gives you a chance to remember and a chance to hear from others about what they heard.  They might have heard something different, or they might have understood it in a different way.  “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” (Proverbs 27:17).
• Pray and study.  Some of our people take the sermon copies home and study them during their QT (or quiet time) during the week.  Maybe reviewing the difficult English words will increase your understanding.  But for all of us, spending more time with the text or with connected texts will open us to more of what God wants to say to us.
• Do it.  Remember the words of James again: “Don’t just listen to God’s word... Do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”  Don’t fool yourself by coming to a worship service and going home without taking action.  When was the last time you DID something because of what you heard on Sunday morning?  If you aren’t making any changes in your life because of the sermons you hear, then there is a good chance that you are a hearer not a doer.  There is a good chance that you’ve grown cold, stopped changing, stopped growing, stopped living in connection with the Spirit.  Each week, try to do at least one specific thing in response to the sermon. 

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

    May God breath his Spirit into his Word as we read and preach and hear so that we will all be corrected and guided and encouraged to live his goodness in our broken world.  May God inspire our preaching and hearing so that we truly become a loving community that changes our world in his grace.