Bringing Mastery Through Repetition in 2026
There’s an old joke about a new pastor starting at a church. His first Sunday he preaches an absolutely fantastic sermon. As people were departing they had nothing but praise for his message. The next week the pastor takes the pulpit, and preaches the exact same sermon again. The congregation thought, “Well, this is a bit unusual, but it is a really good sermon, so ok, no problem.” The third week the pastor takes to the pulpit and once again preaches that same sermon. This time, as people are departing, a few brave souls decide to approach the new pastor.
“Pastor, don’t get us wrong, this is a great sermon, but we were wondering just how many times are you going to preach this sermon?”
“I’ll stop preaching it when I see all of you actually living it.” They didn’t have any more questions for the pastor.
Repetition in preaching is something that I think about. How frequently should things be repeated? Typically what I hear among other clergy is that you can repeat a sermon after 5 years. It’s unspoken, but there seems to be a belief that you might remember what I preached today in two or three years… but not 5. I however, have no such delusions that you are going to remember any of my sermons after 3 years. Most of you probably couldn’t tell me what I preached last month. Don’t feel bad. Sometimes I have to think hard about what I preached a Sunday or two ago – and I preached it! Other times I’ve re-read a sermon I wrote a few years prior with great surprise and delight because I had forgotten most of it myself! With any luck it’s a good one and I find myself thinking, “This is pretty good! Did I actually write this?” So yeah, if I’m forgetting it myself I don’t think it is fair to expect you to remember it.
All of this is a lead up to asking you one question. How are you doing with “Mastering the Basics?” It was the first sermon I preached here on January 5, 2025. I’ve not repeated it. Well, I’ve not repeated it here. In that sermon I told a story of a kung-fu master and student, and the student wanted to learn the special and secret kung-fu. The master wanted to teach him how to punch. The punchline – no pun intended! – was the master saying, “The enemy is not afraid of the 10,000 punches you’ve practiced one time, but the enemy is deathly afraid of the 1 punch you’ve practiced 10,000 times.”
It’s true! The Biblical tie in is David and Goliath. Goliath was defeated because David used smooth stones from the brook, which symbolize this principle of truth being fashioned by repeated use. When teachings from the Word are used frequently, they aren’t mere sentimentality, but are deadly to the hells. They’re the one punch you’ve practiced 10,000 times. But the point was to illustrate that you’ll get farther in your spiritual life by trying to master, and I mean really master, a few things as opposed to reading the entire Arcana once. Does any of this sound familiar now or do I need to repeat that sermon?
There were three sermons afterwards that I offered to you as other basic principles to master. Do you remember them? The first was “The Power of the Word,” followed by “Is the Lord’s Arm Too Short” and concluded with “Daring to be Different.” You can probably see just by the titles that there is some overlap, i.e. repetition, here. “The Power of the Word” was trying to make the point that by establishing the simple routine of reading the Word every day you will change your life.
The next one, “Is the Lord’s Arm Too Short,” could have been stated in a different way, something like, “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?” Well, is there? Nope. It’s not a complicated teaching. In fact, I find my 3rd graders grasp it really easily. Adults though, they tend to over complicate things. They “know” too much that brings doubt to their mind. They think they’re smart because with all of their years of experience they can see things that 3rd graders can’t. Yet unlike 3rd graders they haven’t mastered that basic teaching. Whatever it is that you need help with, the Lord can help. I mean, think about it, if He can create the entire solar system, galaxy and universe, don’t you think He can fix whatever problem it is that you have? When you think of it like that, is seems kind of silly to think He can’t. Right? Of course He can fix it. His arm isn’t too short.
The finale of the series was “Daring to be Different.” The point is that I think what good people struggle the most with is that they want to be both a follower of God and be like everybody else. It’s so much easier to go with the flow of our friends and culture, even when it is against what the Word teaches. But if we step back and take a look at one of the major, over-arching story lines in the Old Testament, we see that there’s a repeated call by the Lord for the Israelites to be set apart and different from the rest of the ancient world. Yeah, if you’re going to be God’s chosen people, you’re going to have to do things differently than other people. And yes, that can be uncomfortable. But if you really want to change the world – for the better(an important qualification!) – you don’t do it by conforming to the world, you do it by courageously standing for the Truth, i.e. God’s Truth, not “your” truth which probably isn’t truth at all.
Of course there are other basic principles than these that you can master. These three are just ones that I like, and that I think are useful and relevant to normal life. You might find that you want to master some different ones. That’s fine. But really master them. Just because you can ride a bike you don’t think you can win the Tour de France, so don’t learn a teaching and think just because you can repeat it that you’ve mastered it.
How many should you master? David had five smooth stones, and so it seems reasonable to think that mastering five spiritual principles is a good place for any of us to start. Maybe you’ve already mastered some. Maybe you’ve already mastered 5. Nice job! You’re on your way to spiritual success! But you might find it useful to lock down another one or two. There’s no limit and it won’t cost a thing! Just ask your spouse or a good friend, and I’m sure they can point out what you should work on next.
2026 is about to get underway, and many of you are going to create some resolutions for the new year, so all of this is to say that perhaps you would do well to resolve not just to lose weight, go to the gym, or save money, but that you actually take on a resolution like mastering a spiritual principle that will benefit you not just in this life, but forever. And if you don’t, maybe I’ll just keep repeating these sermons until you do!