“Gentlemen, start your engines!” While this is a great command to begin the Indy 500, I don’t think it was intended as the operative phrase for the conclusion of a Sunday Morning Worship Service. In my younger years of ministry, I had a friend who pastored a church about 35 miles from where I ministered. It was a very rural church in the Midwestern part of the US. In that congregation there was an older farmer who sat in the same seat in the same pew each Sunday morning for, well, almost forever. My friend started his ministry at the church in the winter time. When 11:55 a.m. came on the clock, no matter where my buddy was in his message, this old farmer started putting on his boots. At 11:59 a.m. he started to put on his coat. At 12:00 noon he was on his way out the door! I guess he had heard Vance Havner’s old axiom, “Too many Sunday morning worship services start at 11:00 a.m. sharp and end at 12:00 o’clock dull!” Fortunately for me, I’ve never had any human clock markers in services in which I’ve preached. There have been those who simply get up and walk out at any given time while I’ve been preaching, but not as a not-so-subtle hint that the time has come to stop preaching. I have had quite a few clock watchers, but even I do that. When people get restless, I get the hint. The mind can only absorb what the seat can endure. Then I think of how Eutychus fell asleep and out of the window to his death during one of Paul’s messages. Paul simply stopped preaching for a few moments, went down and revived the young man and went on with his message! I suppose we preachers could earn a license to preach longer if we could raise people from the dead who fell asleep during our messages. And really, I shouldn’t be too offended when it happens. After all, I fall asleep watching the evening news often enough… I guess my main concern is this: when we do hear the Word of God faithfully preached that we pay close enough attention to avoid the concern that the author of the book of Hebrews had. He wrote, Concerning him [Christ] we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. Keep your ears sharp!