It\u2019s pretty mind-blowing for me when I think of how many phenomenal, right-on sermons I\u2019ve heard in my life. Having grown up in the church I have the distinct advantage of having heard well over 2,000 sermons in my life so far. And while there were plenty of duds (don\u2019t get me started!), there have also been plenty of messages that touched my heart and caused in me a desire to want to change. That\u2019s what is supposed to happen when God\u2019s Word is preached, right? It\u2019s supposed to make us want to change the way we look at God and how much more we should love and appreciate him, change how we love others, or change how we behave in general.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve been there, too, right? You know what it\u2019s like to sit in a sermon and say in your mind, \u201cWow, this is really good. I needed this.\u201d And we have this idea that just by hearing it we\u2019re going to be changed forever and never go back to how it was before that morning or night, before we heard and our hearts were touched. And maybe in some ways that\u2019s been the case. Maybe you can trace back to a time when some words that you heard in a church service radically changed your life and you still remember them, but that would be the unusual exception, wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
See, what often happens to us, though we hate to admit it, is that we hear a message that stirs our hearts but it stays in our minds only about as long as the 15-45 minute message itself lasts. We go out into the rest of our day or week and have quickly forgotten what we\u2019d learned and go back to life as normal with maybe just the slightest ounce of change showing up. You can hear a riveting message on loving others but then are fighting with your parents hours later. You can hear a heart-tugging message on really worshipping God with your life and then don\u2019t talk to Him the entire week afterwards. It\u2019s like there is separation that exists sometimes between the words we hear in church and our state of mind and actions once we\u2019re outside of it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not even talking about being a hypocrite here as much as I am talking about the need to make the most of chances to learn and grow by God\u2019s word. If you don\u2019t want the roller coaster version of following Christ then you need to be wise about fully engaging during a service so that it can impact your life from there on out. (I know that I spend countless hours each week working to make messages that are worth hearing and worth applying to our lives with the hope that it does just that.)<\/p>\n
So here are some simple tips to ending the separation of church and state of mind:<\/p>\n
So be the amazing people who choose not just to fill up seats or fill up time slots, but really allow yourself to get filled up on the Word of God when you walk into church. Make it worth your time and worth the time of the people who are trying to teach you. Go be great hearers of the Word so that you can be great doers of the Word! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"