posted by Scott Newton Smith

“I handle the problems in my church from the pulpit,” the pastor said to me confidently. And he will get up there Sunday next thinking, “Boy, I’m really gonna tell ‘em today! This one will get ‘em.”

He’s planning yet again to “fix” his opposition with a hard sermon.

What a joke. If that’s you, stop kidding yourself.

If you are taking 90% of your sermon time to try to fix the 10% of your audience who are opposing you, that is bad ministry stewardship on display. It doesn’t work. Would you invest 90% of your money in an investment that loses 90% of the time? Of course not. Where instead would you invest?

Wake up to the fact that there are a whole bunch of “investable” people sitting out there who are waiting to get a good meal but are starving to death because at “meal time,” instead of feasting on the riches of the Word, all they get to do is listen in on another of your Sunday rants against your Pharisaical enemies.

Read: As a rule, Pharisees don’t change. And when they do (example: Nicodemus), they certainly don’t do it during a sermon. That’s why Jesus never addressed the Pharisees as if they would change. And he certainly never addressed them at the expense of those who sincerely wanted to be discipled. You’re wasting your time.

Pharisees (Goats) will gladly sit there with a smug grin while watching you, pastor, waste another good opportunity to feed the flock by preaching to those who WON’T listen and NOT preaching for those who will.

Don’t neglect your sheep for a bunch of goats.