Thread by @ThabitiAnyabwil

A congregant closing their Bibles long before the sermon is over has to be one of the most troubling and sad occurrences I’ve seen in a worship gathering.

If for the last half of your sermon a person doesn’t need their Bible open and you’re not seeing bowed heads, then you may not be doing it right. Exposition the scripture for the length of the sermon. When you’re done expositing you ought to be done preaching.

Think of it this way: If the peoplecl we God’s word then we should take that as a sign to close our mouths.

Or, positively, we should take it as a sign to get back into the text.

It’s better that God speaks and the preacher is silent than the preacher speak and God silenced.

Perhaps we preachers ought to learn to say TWO phrases during our sermons:

“This says the Lord...” and sometimes “That wasn’t God; that was me.”

We shouldn’t pass off even our good reflections on the word as the word itself.

We oughtnever usurp the pulpit to force our opinions on people. We ought always teach our people to hear the Lord’s voice from His word and not to confuse it with the preacher’s voice. Teaching discernment begins with teaching them to distinguish Christ from the pastor’s opinion.

If our people are accustomed to having their head in the Book all sermon long and are told “Thus says the Lord” and “Here is what I think,” then we won’t have to worry much about their discernment in other areas.

Let’s raise noble Bereans (Acts 17:11).

If the people *close* God’s word...

Not coincidentally, this is why a quiet congregation has never bothered me if they’re thinking about God’s word and why a “responsive” congregation has to be thought of in more ways than outward responses. There are a TON of things in the word that must be PONDERED.

Preaching should help the people ponder THEN celebrate what they’ve pondered. But even the celebration or response should be consistent with the teaching and mood of the text considered. Consider Nehemiah 8 for an example.