The Spirit Was Working…??

We preachers are a funny (warped) bunch; and we have our own language.  From time to time I’ll ask a fellow pastor how there service(s) went.  The reply will sometimes be “I felt a great freedom, the Holy Spirit was really working.  During our 10:00 am service this weekend, a thought occured to me (thoughts in red)…

When preachers say this, they usually mean the crowd was full of Christians who were amen’ing away, and it really fired the preacher up to say everything they’ve always wanted to say.  The crowd already believes, so they keep agreeing.  The preacher gets more and more fired up and yells alot, the people clap, and everyone leaves saying “that was a great sermon!”.

It amazes me with 5 services each weekend (6 on easter) how different each of the crowds can be.  This weekend we asked our regular crowds to move to Saturday night or early Sunday; and man did they respond.  Thanks to PVC’ers who made the move to free up seats in the 10:00 and 11:30 services.  However, this left our 10:00 and 11:30 services made up of a large portion of visitors.

It was obvious during worship that the 10:00 crowd was full of people who aren’t used to going to church.  They didn’t know the words to the songs, they didn’t sing, but they were intently watching   During a video our worship leaders commented how different this crowd felt.  As I got into my message I could tell that this was not a “Christian” crowd; but had a large portion of people who were checking out church on easter.  I could also tell the message was hitting home and causing a great deal of thought and angst.  So here’s my point….

I felt like I could literally see people standing between heaven and hell, eternal life and eternal death, and wrestling with the reality that they needed to make a decision.  There was a great heaviness in the worship center.  It was during this that I sensed that this is when the Holy Spirit is really working; convicting men/women of their lostness without Jesus, and the fact that they are not “good”.   To me when the crowd is silent, not applauding a word you’ve said, that the Holy Spirit is using the words to convict of sin, change hearts, and move men to repentance!

I pray for and relish the opportunity to be a part of the conversation with people who realize they need Jesus, and this is when I need the Holy Spirit to speak the most.  It’s fairly easy to preach to Christians, the already convinced.  It’s a much tougher message, and more critical, to deliver when people’s eternity is at stake.   By the way, 63 people visited the indicated they made a decision for Christ this weekend; that’s God at work!