Pastor Todd Wilken of Issues, Ect. radio program frequently reviews sermons from a whole variety of pastors and folks who say they are called to preach the Word of God. He starts the review segments by listing three standards by which all sermons should be judged:
1. How often is Jesus mentioned? For his purposes, a simple tally will suffice.
2. Is Jesus the subject of the verbs? Is Jesus the one who acts, or are you?
3. What are the verbs? What has Jesus done and what is He doing?
Why do I bring this up? Well, I just got done listening to a sermon that had failed on all three counts. I was promised that this is the church to go to. After all, this church believes in the Bible. The sermon I listened to was all about me. Me, me, and more me. It was all about what I can do if I just turn my life over to Jesus and trust Him to make everything all hunky-dory. I could get the same thing at the local optimist club meeting. Any sermon that doesn't preach Law and Gospel is just burning time till Sunday brunch. Any sermon that focuses on what we do misses the mark of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Any sermon that has me running the verbs has me in charge of my own salvation. That is simply not something this poor and miserable sinner would ever want. And all the Bible passages looked up during the sermon will not make up for bad hermeneutics.
Isn't it enough to just believe in the Bible? No. The Mormon say they believe that Bible is true, but they are completely wrong and not Christian. I feel blessed that God has me given a church where I get to hear every week what Christ as done for me, and not the other way around.
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