In reflection, I remember sitting in on a powerful message at a conference last year that focused on the critical lack of prayer among many in the Apostolic movement. The sermon, preached by a prayerful and anointed individual who frontlines many meetings, was a powerful thought about the shadow of the scepter falling over the altar. I agreed with everything he preached, and I felt, at that moment, inspired to pray more.
It wasn’t until several months later, when I listened to another message at another conference in a different state, that I felt a lightning rod of understanding explode within me. In contrast to the first mentioned, this sermon was a day service message and focused on “Daily Duties.”
This sermon lacked the fervency and the cadence of the preaching of the first. It didn’t result in an altar filled with weeping and crying people screaming, shouting, and pressing to become people of prayer following a convicting sermon that focused on the lack of prayer. I’m not demeaning the place for that kind of response, but something hit home with me following this sermon on Daily Duties.
How many sermons do we hear that tell us “what” is wrong but fail to say to us “how” to actually change? Perhaps it is the educator and teacher in me, but if we are inspired but never activated, we will be doomed to a culture of perpetual intention.
The first sermon focused on the lack of prayer, and we were all called to flood altars to become people of prayer. The problem is that countless individuals in the room desire to pray but don’t know how to pray. Forgive me for being so pragmatic; I can scream, yell, and weep about my lack of prayer, but if I am not taught how to pray, I will struggle to pray.
The sermon on Daily Duties was chock-full of “how-to ” instructions on prayer, Bible reading, worship, etc. It involved stories, examples, and lessons for each portion of the lesson. Others remarked, including one of the highest-profile preachers in Pentecost, that “if you just follow the directions of that lesson, you will succeed in living for God.” I concur and agree wholeheartedly.
While not diminishing the first sermon with an incredible title, an incredible thought, and a high-profile preacher of intensity and tremendous giftings, I fear we are creating a culture that has become addicted to that style of preaching alone. It platforms every conference, and we push, prime, shout, and scream with sermons that tell us WHAT IS WRONG, which leads to altars filled with weepers and shouters. This, of course, is viewed as successful, and I am thankful for it, but, at the end of the evening, how many in the room captured a HOW TO following the WHAT IS WRONG?
Tragically, the demand for the second sermon I mentioned is low today. This type of ministry has a ZERO chance of spiritual and/or emotional manipulation. It is simply a lesson-based sermon that aims to show those present the HOW when the WHAT is often obvious.
Too much of our sermonizing creates a culture of dependency instead of the development of capacity. We live from conference to conference, always having to be reminded of what we are doing wrong, and somewhere along the way, little teaching (discipleship) occurs to tell us HOW to do what we aren’t doing.
For me, the true benchmark of ministry is the ability to disciple; to disciple, one has to be able to teach. I spend thousands of hours in the year reading, studying, searching, learning, and developing material to generate the capacity of those I lead. I don’t want them dependent on me. I want to EQUIP them, not simply convict them. So, I end with this statement.
Inspiration without activation is a recipe for the stagnation of perpetual intention.