Your sitting in church Sunday morning again and all you can do is nod your head in agreement with everything the pastor says as your thinking 'I hope so and so is really listening to this message. They could really learn a lesson or two from it."
Or you may think, "oh I know this person doesn't come to church here but they NEED this message, this is totally all about them. It could give them great direction how to clean up their act. I should send a cd of this to them."
Or you may say you don't think like that. But then you may be the person sitting there shaking your head in agreement thinking "yah, I totally got this, I'm so good at doing what pastor is talking about I could teach this sermon. The church should let me be the example of this and help all the other poorer, less worthy Christian foke."
A few months back I realized that these types of thoughts parade around my brain often. But the truth is, I am there for me. What can I personally get from the sermon? Is there nothing there for me? If on a weekly basis you find yourself thinking one of the top three processes but never finding soul food to munch on, there is a good chance you are way too arrogant or you are in a church that just might not be for you.
Even though I have addressed my issue of this I still struggle at times finding myself thinking "oh she should totally be here for this." And my thoughts will wander for a bit going over how this person would think or react or lack of reaction. But I now at least get a good swift prompting to pull my head back out of nastyjudgementville and really focus on knowing that God has something specific He wants me to hear. He has told me plenty of times when he pulls my thoughts back to where he wants them that; "only God can change and influence the heart of a person. Your job, my daughter, is to take action on what I am telling your heart. No more, no less."
Just this last week I was listening to the sermon I missed and thinking, "wow, God I get this but, I know I am a pretty decent spiritual friend." (I normally don't think I am good at anything so this is a good sign I am starting to see something good.) so I kept listening for a while and during it was praying, "ok, God, you have me hearing this for a reason and it isn't to puff up my ego. What exactly do you want me to learn from this?"
No kidding as soon as I prayed that I got two answers almost right in a row. They weren't oooober deep for most people but, they were specific, just for me.
We can keep going to church and listening to sermons to give other people the pastors spiritual insites. (This is sometimes Ok to do when at a proper time aka when someone asks for help or an opinion) Or, you can choose to go to service with an open heart, ready to be taught something by God that will give you a deeper understanding of who God is, who you are because of Jesus, or a change he'd like you to go through to make you even more like Him.
"Jesus, what do you want to teach me today?"
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