Have you ever caught a great nap during a sermon? You aren’t alone. In Acts 20:7-12 the Bible tells the story of a young man named Eutychus who was sleeping so hard during one of Paul’s sermons that he fell out of a window and died (don’t worry, Paul raised him from the dead).
Hopefully you don’t use Sunday morning sermons as your weekly nap time, but if you have struggled to pay attention during a sermon or even to stay awake, you aren’t alone. You can do something about it. Consider the following tips to help you to better engage with Sunday morning sermons.
- Go to bed at a decent hour on Saturday nights. If Sunday morning worship is a priority for your life, then go to bed on Saturday nights. You can’t consistently stay up into the wee hours of the morning and still be attentive during worship on Sunday mornings.
- Prepare ahead. If your pastor lets you know what text he is going to preach from ahead of time, read the passage of Scripture and pray for God to help you to understand it and apply it in your life. When we say Saturday night prayers, we pray for the Sunday morning worship. You should try the same thing.
- Arrive to worship early. Make sure you get into the sanctuary (or worship center) early enough to find a comfortable seat and to engage in the entire worship service. Shake a hand, smile and greet others. You are more than a consumer, give back to your church by encouraging others and bearing their burdens.
- SING! When you worship the Lord through singing, you are awakened to his glory and power. You also get the added benefits of lungs filled with fresh air and some good endorphins.
- Expect to be challenged and changed. Truthfully, you will probably get out of a sermon exactly what you expect to get out of it. If you show up expecting to be bored and get a nap, you’ll be bored and get a nap. If you expect God to speak through his Word and his preacher, then you will hear from the Lord.
- Take notes. You might use the bulletin from your church or you may choose to have your own notebook (I like moleskin notebooks personally). If you are taking notes during the sermon, you engage better, but you also have a reference you can use in the future to engage with the message further.
- Plan to discuss the sermon later. At Malvern Hill, the Sunday morning sermon is the primary LifeGroup curriculum. As a result, most people know that they will be discussing the sermon the following week in their LifeGroup and that creates accountability. If you don’t use sermon-driven curriculum in your small group, make the Sunday sermon a point of discussion around your lunch or dinner table. Plan coffee on Monday mornings and discuss it with a friend. If you know someone is going to ask you questions about the sermon, you will pay better attention.
- Sit near the front. I know, this one may feel uncomfortable to some of you, but it is easier to sleep in the back corner than it is the front row. If you are serious about paying attention, choose your seat carefully.
- Bring your Bible. Seriously. A real, paper and maybe even leather-bound copy of God’s word. I know, you can look at it on your phone or your iPad, but I also know you are much more likely to be distracted by those devices in your hand (just like I am). Bring your Bible. Turn the pages. Underline in it. Jot a note. Get lost in the paper and ink as your pastor expounds on the sacred words the Lord has given to us.
- Avoid windows. If Eutychus had not been sitting in a window, he wouldn’t have fallen out. But, in this instance I actually mean this a little more figuratively. Windows are distracting for me because I always want to know what’s happening outside. Beware of your own tendencies to be distracted and make sure you sit in a place that limits your distraction and empty your pocket or purse of things that might distract you from the sermon.
Falling asleep during a sermon can be dangerous. You probably won’t die (but, as pointed out above, you could), but what will you miss? The Word of God is living and active according to Hebrews 4:12. We an also say it is life-giving and a source of hope and salvation. It is dangerous to miss all that God has for us.
Use these tips to become a better sermon-listener.
The benefit will be two-fold. You will get more out of each sermon you hear. But, as you and others in your church become better at engaging with sermons, you will help your pastor to become a better preacher. Preaching is much more two-way than most people recognize, and when a pastor gets to preach to an attentive church, his preaching improves dramatically.
Learn from Eutychus. Get busy listening.
Photo by Katerina Pavlyuchkova on Unsplash
