Hold a high standard for faithful exposition and really value when your pastors faithfully expose God’s word, even when the style may need some polishing. God uses these means to encourage His saints, so may we tune in every time God’s word is opened, ready to be encouraged.

What’d you think of that sermon?

An innocent question with zero ill intent, but one I’m trying to avoid. Sunday by Sunday, pastors all over the globe take God’s word and attempt to deliver a faithful exposition to His church. Through these men, in their own weak but faithful way, God graciously equips His church for the work of ministry. When we ask that question it has at its root some bad assumptions, and it often leads to negative takeaways for the person asking and the person answering. Not to say that critique or criticism is always wrong, because surely we need to hold our pastors to a high standard. But when we make our topic of conversation about the style of the sermon and not the content of the sermon, I believe we are making a crucial mistake. I want to exhort you to work hard to be encouraged.

The Sermon Is Not A Performance

The first problem with this question is that it assumes that the sermon was delivered as a performance for us to critique. Often our critiques revolve around sermon length, delivery, style, almost at the exclusion of the actual content of the sermon. Again, while we should hope that our pastors are constantly working to improve their delivery of the precious promises of God, their sermon is not a performance. They are taking God’s word and saying to His people, “Thus says the Lord.”

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