“Few sinners are saved after the first 20 minutes of a sermon.” - Mark Twain
I am amused... Mark Twain to my knowledge was not a Believer. Sinner yes. I do agree that sinners are not saved after a 20 minute sermon or a ten minute sermon.
How to trim your sermons by Rick Warren
- "Pastors like to preach. And most of us would love to use everything we dig up in a week of studying when we deliver the sermon on Sunday. But as attention spans get shorter, the truth is a shorter sermon is often more compelling. In this issue, we’ll look at four ways to trim your sermon to make it more effective. " E mail today.
I am not amused. When the goal of your sermon on Sunday is to sinners and unbelievers, it's going to take more than 20 minutes. As a matter of fact, it's not really the sermon as much as the working of the Holy Spirit in the sinner's mind and heart that does the saving.
In today's mindset of a lot of ministers, the shorter the sermon they say is better. Why? The theory is the attention spans of people are shorter today. Which might be right, people don't listen like they have in the past.
Shorter sermons will get the message across better? So the ESPN highlight sermons will accomplish more sinners coming to Christ? Maybe a 2.56 minute sermon would do the task!
Christ needs only a few seconds to bring a sinner unto Himself.
- But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive [quickened us] with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5
- “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me [i.e. believe in me] unless it is granted him by the Father.” John 6:63-65
- You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God..." 1 Peter 1:23-25
- Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. 1 John 5:1
Faith in the living God and his Son Jesus Christ is always the result of the new birth, and can never exist except in the regenerate. Whoever has faith is a saved man.
Charles Spurgeon from the sermon “Faith and Regeneration”
- IF salvation is the implantation of a new, infinite life in the soul, it must be a work of God. Self-caused effects can never rise above the character or qualities of their cause. "Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit," Jesus told Nicodemus. This saving grace cannot be caused by the creature, it can only come from God. John Hannah from To God be the Glory (pg. 34-5)
- The inward offer is a kind of spiritual enlightenment, whereby the promises are presented to the hearts of men, as it were, by an inward word. William Ames
A FOOTNOTE ON MYR CLEMENS:
- Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted. During his lifetime, Twain became a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists and European royalty. The article is interesting reading.
The Point: Length of the sermon is not the point. But in my opinion, sermons are for the spiritual growth of the Believer.
More later on this fine subject.
