I Don't Ever Want To Go Back To That Way Of Thinking!

                We still teach it in our seminaries.....some of them anyway....we just don't believe it anymore....that the preached word of God is a means of grace....that the believer is actually endued with power from hearing the preached word.
                Preaching is just a formality today....albeit a pleasant formality....if not too long. It serves a purpose and that is to provide a reason for the saints to gather at church and make plans....and apply a little therapeutic massage. If the pastor has a little bit of showman in him....it can be a conduit to the community through a radio or television ministry....or a podcast.
                Try this....take some time and Google some of the larger churches in your town or city....and look over the website. Chances are you will not find a sermon archive....for no one would be interested in that.
                 It takes talent to be a carpenter or a lawyer or a doctor....but the only talent necessary to preach is to be able to spin a good yarn....or to teach an adult Bible study from the pulpit....or to sell....which as more of a CEO is essentially what they are doing.
                 How do I know these things? Christian bookstores helped....but we don't have any of those anymore. Only recently I was listening to an old interview with R C. Sproul....and he was reminiscing....and told about how in the early days of his Christian walk he found this Christian bookstore in New Castle, Pennsylvania....with these great books....and he kept going back to that Christian bookstore. Well guess what....in about 1992....(judging from the age of our son)....I found that very same Christian bookstore....this probably thirty years after R. C. Sproul found it....and I kept going back to it year after year after year! At first I didn't know much about what I was reading....I only knew that if on the spine of the book was this little robed man holding up a Bible....then whatever was in that book would move me mightily. The logo on those spines is that of the Banner of Truth books.
                  Granted....I'm retired and I have the time....but I listen to on average tens sermons a week from either men from the past or men to who preach like men from the past. I'm hardly ever in the car without listening to Spurgeon and others. When doing yard work I'll always have my headphones on. If the sermon is a means of grace...then I must be overflowing. My advice to you is short and succinct....supplement your church sermon with sermons from men of the past or men today who preach like men from the past. 
                   Christians often challenge me in my firm belief that Jesus is returning soon....that I warn that there are no more 'windows' for repentance as a nation as we are told all the time today. That window was for a half century and has been closed. I had lived quite a few years....decades actually....believing as they do....that Jesus might not return for twenty years or more. So I can compare the two....and my prayer to God is that I would never go back to not being sure that Jesus is at the very door! If Jesus should indeed tarry for twenty years....or more....may I....if I were still here....always feel and hope and trust and think exactly as I do today....for that is God's design....that we always hope and expect and yearn for and pray for and plead for and cry out....again and again and again for as long as it takes....Maranatha....Lord Jesus Come!