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Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you (Ephesians 5:14b, ESV).
As a preaching pastor of 50 years, with almost 2,000 sermons under my Ephesians 6:14 belt of truth, I developed the conviction that sleeping in church is one of the three great sins of the faith, alongside blasphemy and not tithing.
How is it possible, after having worked 25 hours on a sermon during the week, constantly interrupted during studying and parsing Greek verbs, enduring the congregational pressure of preaching the perfect sermon every Sunday, only to have someone fall asleep just minutes into the sermon?
I’ve thought a few times (perhaps hundreds of times) upon seeing a sleeping congregant, especially if in the front row, “Okay, please God, time for a few lightning bolts!” Fortunately, God saved me from my dumb prayers.
But now I have an important announcement…
Having switched positions from behind the pulpit (senior pastor no longer) to the pew, I’ve repented and changed my mind, confessing publicly in this blog that some sermons deserve a good snore. And sinking even lower into a “I’m the worst of all preachers” despondency, after having recently examined some of my past sermons, I’ve concluded, “How did I preach this thing? It’s homiletical malfeasance, a definite cure for insomnia.”
I’m glad the elder fell asleep in the front row that time and didn’t have to endure it!
Walking even further down the path of despicable me, I confess that I’ve fallen asleep during sermons in the past few years. Pray for me; this newly repentant and sleeping me can be disconcerting. But as Shakespeare never said, “Even the lowest nadir of disconsolation can be a baseline from which the soul can be illumined.”
HHHHMMMHHM!
Below are three illumination points about preaching that will help us stay awake during sermons.
- Power. Some of the best presented sermons sometimes have the worst impact; however, a phrase from an otherwise stinker of a sermon might impact someone’s soul for life. The ultimate difference between the best and the worst isn’t the sermon itself, but the power of the Spirit imparted through the words.
- Spirit. A preacher can’t preach an A+ sermon every week, but the grace of God can be A+ every week. It’s important for us to pray for the pastor before and during the sermon. I used to hate it after feeling totally frustrated after a sermon, when someone came up to me and said, “That was one of your best.” I’m an instrument, not the cause, and fortunately the Spirit never sleeps on Sunday.
- Spiritual warfare. Battlelines form during the week before a pastor preaches. On one side, a pastor earnestly desiring to correctly present the Word, and on the other side, flesh and evil shooting flaming darts at unexpected moments. I was grateful for one sister who always told me on Sunday, “Don’t worry, Pastor, I’ve been praying for you.”
Sermons are a part of our walk as believers. God sends preachers with the good news and teachers with life-saving instruction. They are vessels of clay entrusted with life-giving words — not an easy responsibility to bear.
Please, pastors, at the churches I attend, if you notice that I’m sleeping during your message — it’s not your sermon — I was up all night praying for you!!!!