Length of message

Does God work on the clock?

If The Holy Spirit is guiding the speaker and he goes ten minutes past closing time should we complain? We spent what maybe four hours a week in worship and fellowship at church and how many hours lying on the couch watching TV? Shame on us!

 

How many protest length of time at the movie house?

 

It is not always a question of time. Not many men or women can preach sensibly beyond 30 minutes. Also, some people do have a very busy Sunday, with other ministries. We need to show some respect for them.

Some live a good distance off and we expect to see the back in evening service, and this time has been cut back to half 6 in many churches. One can always preach a little longer in evening service.

Spirituality is not measured by how well you can sit through a 45 minute sermon, not matter how many cliches you care to endorse.

Also remember, we are not talking about a 35-45 minute sermon for many. We are talking about lessons going from half 9 to half 12 or 1M. That's up to 4 hours of attention!

I could sit through one hour sermons by G. Campbell Morgan or even D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, but how many of these preachers do we have?

Cheers,

Jim

 

I would wonder how long the sermons were that Jesus gave.

 

If we judge by the NT....short and to the point!

Cheers,

Jim

 

A few years ago a man challenged me to preach what Jesus did and at first the reaction was interesting.

 

Well maybe not all the time

Acts 20:7-9

 

Yes, Tom, and that sermon ended in death, didn't it?

Cheers,

Jim

 

Actually, no- it didn't.

 

yes,, it did end in a miracle. But I doubt we should follow Paul's practiced, at least in this situation.

 

AMEN. Typically I go 20 to 30 minutes, sometimes a little longer or shorter. I work very hard to keep it within that time frame, but I am not afraid to let it flow if it is flowing. The content and the author are the determining factor. It IS HIS WORD after all. I am just the delivery boy. He used a donkey once and said stones could do the job. So that puts me in my proper place. All that said to say this.... If you are the man God has called to deliver His message, then do it, do it right and do it humbly.

 

Folks, we are talking here about the general Sunday service and the common sermon. We all know that if the Holy Spirit took complete charge of the service as He did in the Welsh revivals, there wouldn't even be any preaching. In one case, the preacher took the pulpit and could not preach. He stood there with tears rolling down his cheeks. The congregation broke out in song and it went from there to spread all across Wales.

It is evident, to-day, the Holy Spirit has chosen to work in individual hearts. We can only hope for such a revival, and I just know that time would be non-existant in such a case.

Cheers,

Jim