As I’ve confessed before, my wife drives us home from church and I sit in the back seat with the kids. We do this because we go to a megachurch and until construction of a new bridge is finished, our church parking lot is akin to Mad Max and the Terrordome. Also, I’m a jerk and have the distinct ability to cut someone off mere minutes after hearing a sermon about grace.
I’m not the only one who has a hard time applying the lessons of a sermon once you walk outside of church, but a few weeks ago I experienced something completely different …
I actually immediately applied what I heard in a sermon. I don’t even mean in the parking lot, I mean in the bathroom.
John Woodall had preached about our need to “take the low place.” It was essentially a call for us to humble ourselves and allow other people to take the place of honor.
Now normally, the post sermon bathroom is a crazy scene reminiscent of the parking lot. Two doors feed into it and people mill around waiting to jump in an open stall since there’s no established lines in there. Most people are kind but occasionally you’ll get some line jumpers who aren’t afraid to push around a church crowd. And then you casually bump someone and they totally flop like a World Cup player. A pastoral care staff member red cards you and for the rest of the year you have to use the bathroom outside in the parking lot. It’s embarrassing. (I really feel like there’s an inappropriate “turn the other cheek” joke in here somewhere.)
But this Sunday, this Sunday was unbelievable. No one wanted to step up to the urinal. The line actually ground to a halt because no one was willing to go first. I told the guy next to me, “Go ahead, I’m taking the low place.” It was perhaps the fastest sermon to life moment recorded in the history of mankind. (To be honest, I also called a guy who cut me a “No listening to sermon sinner,” but I did it in “Christian Love” and followed it up with a quick “bless his heart” so it’s all good.)
Has that ever happened to you?
Have you ever immediately applied what you learned in a sermon to your life?
Or do you forget instantly?
