No One Coughs During a Good Sermon

I’ve decided that I’m not going to blog on Sundays—they are going to be my day of rest, my rejuvenation day, the time I really get to spend with God. The day I do the things I love like playing the guitar or piano and drinking tea with all of my newly found friends.

If I get my time management down really well I would love to have no homework on Sundays. I’ll see how that turns out.

Even though I’m not blogging on Sundays, I’m still going to write about them. Especially if I hear an extremely good sermon, which just so happens to be the case.

The church service I went to lasted 2 hours. Normally I’m used to being in church for an hour and 20 minutes and nothing more. When my Dad told me that the service lasted 2 hours I was blown away.

No one coughed. Not once.

My Grandy used to be a pastor and he once told me, “When people start coughing during your sermon you know you’ve gone for too long. You have to wrap it up pretty fast at that point.”

But during the sermon I attended, which was longer than average, no one coughed. It seemed as if people hardly moved.

The pastor talked about how Jesus can be both tender and tough, not just one or the other. Often, we make Jesus into who we want him to be. Most of the time the men want him to be tough and the women want him to be tender, but we have to recognize that Jesus can be both, that he is both.

Then the pastor drew the congregation’s attention to Isaiah 52 and 53. Within those chapters of the Bible lies the prophesy of Jesus’ coming. And it was written 700 years before the event occurred. If that doesn’t prove the truth of scripture, I’m not sure what does.

I took notes during the sermon because the pastor said so many things I wanted to remember. He made sure to look deep into the scripture and not just skim the service. He made a point to say that he doesn’t like to just pull random pieces of scripture and use it to back up his point.

I appreciate that. I like depth. I long to understand and have insight.

At the end of the service I took communion along with many other people. My heart opened during worship. Good worship is the best spiritual therapy for me; I came out refreshed and uplifted.

In my notebook I wrote, “I’m more motivated to be ready for the coming of the Lord not when I’m told to do so or when I’m told to prepare, but when I’m moved by the scripture and fully believe that it is real—that is when I have a reason to be ready.”