How Can You Miss The Gospel In Hearing?

Yesterday, I ask those who are preachers of the gospel, how can you miss the gospel in sermon preparation?. Today, I want to address those who listen to preaching while the Bible is being preaching. As you hear the Word being taught, how can you miss the gospel in your hearing?

You might be thinking why is this such a big deal because I did not do any preaching. That is true but you can also miss the gospel while in a worship service and I am not talking about those who sit in a church where there is bad preaching. I am talking those who sit in a church where the gospel is faithfully preach. Can we miss the gospel as the Bible is being preached? We can if we are not careful.

Keep in mind that the gospel is not just for non-believers but for believers as well. Christians have a tendency to go back to a work-oriented mindset if they are not reminded of the gospel of grace and we can miss that. How can we? First, this is the most obvious one, we can miss the gospel in our hearing if the preacher does not preach the gospel just like the preacher I mention in the previous post. Ephesians 2 is saturated with the gospel and when a preacher fails to preach what that text means, we miss the gospel. This would also be a good time to be like the Bereans and examine the scriptures to see what the preacher is saying is true.

Second, we miss the gospel in our hearing when we are distracted and I am not talking about your kids bugging you during the service (give them grace). I am talking about thoughts on things you have to, how loud the preacher is, or how hungry you because you skipped breakfast. You might be also distracted from the argument you and your spouse had before worship. Many things can distract us from hearing the gospel in a sermon.

Third, we miss the gospel in our hearing because we are use to another form of preaching. You might use to hearing a sermon about having a quiet time and you grow in the Lord. You might have heard one on tithing that offers no grace because you think God is going to take your money as a result of you forgetting your tithe last week. I know for me, it can be difficult to hear the gospel faithfully preached because I always heard a sermon on being a better Christian or some idea that the Second Coming is upon because this happened in the news.

Finally, we miss the gospel because we have some sin in our lives that make us feel guilty. I think many come to church because they believe God will be appeased by their attendance. They believe their sin is so great they need to be in a "house of God" to make God like them even more and that is where they miss the gospel. The gospel tells us that Jesus forgives our sins and speaks to the Father on our behalf while the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit we belong to God. The church is to be a people where they are encouraging and equipping saints not beating them up. A sermon should be a church's marching orders as well as a reminder of the gospel of grace to those who are God's adopted sons and daughters.

Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ." The word of Christ is the gospel of our salvation not just when we first believe, but also as we continue our exile on planet earth.