A visiting missionary, Tyrone Jackson, spoke at my church tonight. He brought up a couple of very interesting and poignant illustrations, one of which I’ll share below.

     A new pastor at a church gave his first sermon in his new pulpit one Sunday morning. After the service, he was roundly complimented for his “touching” sermon. The next week, then, he got to the pulpit and delivered the exact same message.
     Again, he was complimented by many of the members for the new viewpoint on several issues he presented. The third Sunday, the same thing happened.
     This time, many in the congregation started wondering why he was re-preaching his previous sermon, rather than starting on a new one. In fact, so many people were talking about it that one of the deacons approached the pastor after the service.
     “You know, pastor, we all love your sermon. I mean, it’s a great sermon and all, but . . . don’t you think it’s time to preach a new sermon? I don’t want you to think that we don’t like it, of course. It’s a great sermon. It’s just . . . odd . . . to have the same sermon week after week.”
     “I’ll know it’s a good sermon,” the preacher said, “when you start changing.”

     Ouch! How many times do we need to hear the same think from God, before we finally start obeying it — acting on it?