Listening to a Sermon
I have noticed that people tend to like listening to a sermon when it agrees with what they think others should be doing, especially when they are confident that they, themselves, are doing it right. In other words, we tend to hear sermons through the window of our own prejudice. Said another way, people tend to dislike sermons that point out areas in which they are falling short, especially if the sermon does not likewise make a spectacle of those areas in which they are confident of their own performance. But according to Jesus, such listening is not true listening. Listening to sermons in order to confirm your own prejudice—to think well of yourself while looking down on others—is putting yourself above the Gospel.
You see, we love to point the finger at the failings of others and enjoy it when the preacher joins in. We say, “See, I knew I was right. Those people are wrong.” However, when the finger is pointed back at us—when we are on the hot seat—we quickly become upset, even sometimes accusing the preacher of “not being tough on sin”, which, of course, means, “not being tough on the sin of others”.
Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective”.
After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.
And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
~Luke 5:27-32 NASB
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