How to Listen to a Sermon (Selected Scriptures)

Well, it is my privilege and my delight to open the scriptures with you this morning, just filling in for Cornell. And so with that, let's pray and we'll begin. Our God and our Father, what a delight it is to gather here together this morning with brothers and sisters in Christ and to open the Word.

Our Father, in our time here this morning, we pray your Spirit would press the Word deep within our hearts. Father, you have truth for us here to hear and to heed, and so may you enable us to do so. We pray for the glory of Christ.

Amen. As we begin this morning, I have a question for you to just kind of get your minds thinking. The question is, how many sermons do you think you have heard in your lifetime? How many sermons do you think you've heard?

I read one place that was talking about this topic, and they said that the average churchgoer over the course of their life will hear somewhere in excess of 6 ,000 sermons. 6 ,000. Can you imagine that?

6 ,000 sermons. That's a lot. That is a lot of sermons. And that's such a blessing, isn't it, to hear the Word of God like that? But with that blessing comes a responsibility, the responsibility to heed what we hear.

God is very, very serious about how we hear from Him, what we do with what we hear. He's concerned about how we listen. Throughout the Scriptures, over and over and over again, we hear warnings about how to listen to the Word of God.

Just a few of them for you. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4. Don't turn to these. I'll tell you when to turn, unless you're really fast. If you're fast, turn. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4, the Shammah, Israel's great confession of faith.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Hear, O Israel. Twenty-eight times in the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, the expression, hear the Word of the Lord is used. Six times, listen to the Word of the Lord.

Psalm 95 verses 7 and 8, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Masa in the wilderness.

The Proverbs began, Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 8. Hear, my son. Hear, my son. Verse 33, the same chapter. He who listens to me lives securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil. That's wisdom speaking.

Jesus Himself, as He preached six times, uses the expression, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Let him hear. Luke chapter 8 and verse 18, Jesus says, take care how you listen. Take care how you listen.

Same chapter, couple of verses later, verse 21. My mother and my brothers are those who hear the Word of God and do it. Hebrews chapter 5 verses 11 and 12, concerning Him, that is Melchizedek, we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. First Peter chapter 2 verse 2, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the Word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

And finally Romans chapter 10 and verse 17, faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ, so the Word concerning Christ, in other words the gospel. Hear the gospel.

Faith comes by hearing the gospel. So how we listen to the Word of God is an important and significant topic. Preaching, preaching, that is the proclamation or the heralding of the Scriptures, is one of the Holy Spirit's primary means of changing people, one of His primary means.

2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work.

1 Corinthians 1 18, for the Word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Preaching unleashes the power of God. 1 Timothy 4 and verse 13, until I come give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation into teaching.

What should be our proper response to a sermon, to preaching? What should be our proper response? I think we could do no better than Acts chapter 2 actually, and verse 37 where after Peter's powerful Pentecost sermon where they were cut to the quick, they said, Brethren, what shall we do with what we've heard?

This morning I want to speak with you about three essential activities that we must engage in so that we will fully benefit from Sunday's sermon. That's where we're going. Three essential activities that we must engage in so that we will fully benefit from Shem's preaching.

Lance Quinn, a pastor and a man of God, wrote the following, and I quote, listening to a sermon, really listening, as in thinking, praying, following the argument, concentrating on the meaning and its application to your life.

Now, that's hard work. That's hard work. So, three essential activities. Are you ready? First, those who like to take notes, I speak more slowly than your pastor does. So, if you'd like to take notes, it's possible.

First essential activity is this. We must hear with our hearts. We must hear with our hearts. For that, I will turn you to Mark chapter 4, the fourth chapter of Mark's gospel, a very familiar passage to you, I'm sure.

Mark chapter 4. The background for Mark 4 is this occurs late in Jesus' great Galilean ministry. He has been preaching and teaching around greater Galilee in the north for about 18 months, and he has gathered many crowds along the way, but he has not seen, honestly, a lot of fruit from that preaching.

And if you were to go to Matthew 13, where we have a parallel account of what we're to read here in Mark 4, you would see leading up to it is the hostility that has been displayed against him, and then ultimately in Matthew 12, Jesus speaks to them about the unpardonable sin.

You certainly remember that. But here in Mark chapter 4, we arrive at what is very well known to you, commonly called the parable of the sower, more accurately called the parable of the soils, the parable of the soils.

So, follow along as I read. Verse 1 of chapter 4 of Mark's gospel. Some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth.

And after the sun had risen, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

And he was saying, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Interesting way to end a sermon, huh? Verse 10. As soon as he was alone, his followers, along with the twelve, began asking him about the parables.

And he was saying to them, to you it has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside get everything in parables, that while seeing they may see and not perceive, and while hearing they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.

And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones who beside the road where the word is sown, when they hear it, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.

In a similar way, these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who when they hear the word immediately receive it with joy. They have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary.

Then when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns. These are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.

And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil, and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. There is much obviously that we can learn from this parable.

In fact, Jesus himself says, if you don't understand this parable, how will you understand all the rest of the kingdom parables? This is the key to unlocking the parables of Matthew 13. But that's not my interest in this passage this morning.

My interest in this passage this morning has to do with the reality that the sower sows the word, the same word on each of the soils, and yet the response is so dramatically different. Dramatically different.

For many, yea, most, there is no long-term growth. There may be a flash, a short, you know, burst of what appears to be growth, but it is soon choked out, isn't it? But among some, those who the soil is well prepared and receive the word in faith, it produces a multitude of growth, thirty, sixty, a hundredfold.

Listening to the word of God plunges you into the heart of spiritual warfare, plunges you into the heart of spiritual warfare. Every Sunday morning when the word of God is opened, we are plunged into spiritual warfare.

Satan seeks to snatch the word away before it has time to sink in. The difficulties and the pleasures of this life, they conspire together to snuff it out. The only hope, the only hope is for the soil, that is, my heart and yours, to be properly prepared to receive that word.

We need to receive the implanted word. That's what James says, James chapter 1 and verse 21, where James says, therefore putting aside all filthiness and all the remains of wickedness in humility, receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

Knowing this reality, that you are engaged in a tug of war for your heart, for your affections, and I'm not talking, you know, brother, sister, believer, about the eternal state of your soul, that's not my point at all.

I'm talking about your day-to-day walk of faith, and the reality that one of the primary means of grace that God uses is the preaching of the word. And the enemy of your soul would like nothing better than for you to ignore it.

So, let me do this. I was thinking about how to put this together this morning. Let me give you some practical suggestions. This is a Sunday school class, so let me give you some practical suggestions on how to prepare your heart to hear Sunday's sermon.

Here they are. These are not inspired. These are my practical suggestions brought about by virtue of my gray head. So, here they are. First, develop a daily habit of reading and meditating on the Scriptures.

Develop a daily habit of reading and meditating on the Word of God. John Piper says in the following, he says, daily reading is like a spiritual appetizer. I like that. It's like a spiritual appetizer.

You go to a restaurant, you sit down for a nice meal together, and you order an appetizer, right? It's not the main meal. It's not designed to fill you up. It's designed to get things flowing, as it were, in your palate and get you ready to enjoy the feast, the banquet that's coming.

The banquet is coming here, you know, in a little bit. So, the daily reading and meditating on the Word of God is a way to just prepare yourself to come together as a body and to hear the Word preached.

So, make it a daily habit. Second suggestion for you is read ahead in preparation for the Sunday sermon. Now, I know you might be reading the same verse week after week, but it won't do you any harm. I promise you.

You might even commit it to memory at the rate we're going. But read ahead and prepare yourself for the Sunday sermon. Think through the passage before you arrive. Think about what does it mean. Formulate in your mind questions that you would like to have answered during the sermon.

Get engaged. Third, pray during the week for both yourself and for the sermon that it would strike a receptive heart. Pray that your heart would be receptive on Sunday morning, and do that throughout the week.

Pray for your brothers and sisters, some of whom come in deeply burdened. Pray that they would have a heart receptive to hear the Word as well. Fourth, confess your sin to God. Confess your sin to God.

Don't come in with the unconfessed sin and sit under one of the primary means of grace. You will cut yourself off. When you attend a fine restaurant, they serve sorbet between courses. The purpose of sorbet is to cleanse your palate between courses.

All week long, we have been ingesting crud from this world. We need some spiritual sorbet, as it were, before we pull up to the banquet table of the morning preaching. That spiritual sorbet is to confess our sin, to confess our sin.

Five, fifth, reduce your media intake. Reduce your media intake. We live in a world of sound bites, and it is slowly reprogramming our brains and removing the ability to think deeply and at length about topics.

Reduce your media intake. It will help you to focus during the preaching. Six, plan for Sunday. Plan for Sunday. We have an expression in our family that's been around for a long, long time. Any of my children could tell you.

Sunday morning begins Saturday night. Sunday morning begins Saturday night. Get adequate rest on Saturday night so that you don't come in on Sunday morning trying to rub the sleep out of your eyes. Plan for the reality of Sunday morning on Saturday night.

So, get enough rest for sure, but on Saturday night, avoid visual and mental input which will cause lingering distractions in your mind on Sunday morning. Be careful what you ingest on Saturday night.

You don't want that rolling around in there on Sunday morning, whether it's the news, which is enough to distress anybody, or whether it's some sort of entertainment venue or whatever. You just don't want to have to compete with that on Sunday morning.

Saturday night, if you're young parents, lay out your kids' clothes on Saturday night so it's not a scramble on Sunday morning. Those husbands who we all wore the same colored shirt on Sunday morning, that's the perfect illustration that our wife lays out our clothes for us on Saturday night, and it works.

Pack your diaper bag Saturday night so you're ready for Sunday morning. Eat a protein-based breakfast on Sunday morning. I don't know why churches do this, but all churches seem to do it, and that is they give people caffeine and sugar right before the preaching and then wonder why people crash halfway through.

If we're going to serve coffee and donuts, we should be serving it about at the midpoint of the sermon. We need a halftime. Eat protein. It'll stay with you. Listen to worship music. Listen to worship music Sunday morning while you're getting dressed, while having breakfast, whatever, in the car on the way over.

Plan to arrive early so that you can avoid the rush. These are just some simple ways to plan for Sunday morning and to have our hearts ready to hear the Word of God. So, the first essential activity is that we must hear with our hearts.

Secondly, we must hear with our heads. We must hear with our heads. We hear with our hearts, we need to hear with our heads. And for that, I will turn you to Acts chapter 17. Again, a passage that is well known to you.

Acts chapter 17 and verse 10. Acts chapter 17 and verse 10. After a very short and violent stay in Thessalonica, verse 10, the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

Now, these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the Word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore, many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.

We even name Sunday school classes the Bereans, right? We idolize, and I mean that in a very good way, the noble Bereans, right? Because they searched the Scriptures. They searched the Scriptures unlike those in Thessalonica.

They searched the Scriptures. Why? Why did they search the Scriptures when Paul came? And why does that make them noble to do that? Well, you need to remember something about the law of Moses to explain it.

In Deuteronomy, the second giving of the law, there on the east side of the Jordan River before they're going to enter into the land, Moses gives the law again, right? He knows he's going to die. This is the second giving of the law to the nation.

And there in two passages, chapter 13, verses 1 to 5, and then chapter 18, verses 21 to 22, we find the two tests of a prophet, two tests for a prophet. As Moses says there in chapter 18, I think it's verse 15, he says that God is going to raise up another prophet like me.

I'm not going in with you, but God's going to raise up another prophet like me. Of course, he's speaking ahead to Christ. And the question, in fact, I'm going to go ahead and turn you there. Let's just do that.

Let me just turn you there. Take you over to Deuteronomy chapter 13, 10 -15. Is that what it is? Is that what I got to? I have to do a gym here in a minute. Chapter 13, Deuteronomy, beginning verse 1, if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true concerning which he spoke to you, saying, let us go after other gods whom you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, down to verse 5, but the prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has counseled a rebellion against the Lord your God.

Look over to chapter 18, and then I'll just put a bow around this quickly for you. Verse 21, chapter 18, you may say in your heart, how will we know the word which the Lord has spoken? How will we know?

When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the things does not come about or come true that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken, the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.

So, they're given a twofold test. The test is very simple. Can they perform a sign or a wonder or a prophecy that comes true? That's a test of a true prophet, but it's not the only test. There is a consistency test.

In other words, what they say is it consistent with all revelation that has preceded it, because if it's not, it's not true. God never contradicts himself. What's my point of all of this? My point of all of this is when you come to the New Testament and you find the noble Bereans searching the Scriptures, what are they searching the Scriptures for?

They're searching them daily to see whether these things are so. They are checking Paul against known revelation to determine is this consistent with known revelation. Listen, Paul's most comprehensive proclamation of the gospel, he calls it his gospel, is the book of Romans.

It also contains the most Old Testament citations. Why? Because if the apostle Paul cannot demonstrate the gospel from the Old Testament, consistent with the Old Testament, then he's a false prophet. He's a false prophet.

That's why the Bereans are noble. They are fulfilling the law of Moses, and they're checking the trustworthiness. Prior revelation is the plumb line by which one tests the truthfulness of future revelation.

All right, so we need to hear with our heads. Jim would probably never tell you this, but I will tell you this. He spends a lot of time every week in very rigorous intellectual and spiritual preparation to preach, hours and hours and hours.

He would tell you this, that he's not immune to mistakes. He's not immune to mistakes. He welcomes, he invites your questions, your concerns, even your loving critiques. Just don't do it immediately when he comes down from the pulpit.

Be patient, but be a Berean, but be a Berean with the Sunday sermon. Let me give you some practical suggestions here, how to prepare our heads to hear. Be consistent in your church attendance. That's my first one.

Be consistent in your church attendance. It's hard to stay engaged in a sermon series when you're missing half the time. Think of it this way. It's like walking in the middle of a TV show and then starting to ask everybody, I don't know what's going on.

I don't understand. Why did they say that? What's going on here? Dumbo, show up when it's on, when it starts. Don't ruin it for everybody. So be consistent, be consistent. And if you have to miss, I mean, hey, the blessing of technology, huh?

It's available. It's available. So catch up. So you come in the next week and you're not halfway through the TV series, Dumbo. Come to church expectantly. Show up here expectantly. Psalm 119 verse 18, open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things from your law.

I love to come here on Sunday morning. This is the highlight of the week. And by God's grace, I come ready. I'm hungry. I'm ready to eat. I hope you are too. I hope you are too. Fourth, enter into the process of worship.

Sing the songs. Don't mouth the words, sing. Follow along in your Bible. Turn to the cross-references if there's time. Memorize the order of the Bible books so you're faster. Listen attentively when people pray.

Listen attentively. Enter into the worship. Five, fight off the distractions. Fight off the distractions. They say the average person can listen two times faster than somebody can speak, maybe one and a quarter.

But the point remains, there's a lot of room for the mind to wander, a lot of room for the mind to wander. So you need to fight the distractions. That's an active kind of thing. That's not passive. So turn off your cell phone.

Cancel or do whatever you have to do so you don't get alerts. If you use an electronic Bible, all right, God forgive your sin-sick, shriveled-up soul. But if you insist on it, then turn off the notifications and alerts.

You don't need to know the ballgame score in the middle of the sermon. Fortunately, this building is like a Faraday cage, so you don't get too many anyway. But silence the electronic distractions. Go to the bathroom before the service.

Train your bladder. You should see what I've got written down here. These are things they don't say, right? Take your crying children out, please, for the sake of everybody else. Love kids. I've got 18 grandkids.

But if your child is crying, take them out. It does disturb others. Maintain eye contact with the preacher. Maintain eye contact. Give verbal and nonverbal feedback. Head nods. Quietly, quietly answering rhetorical questions.

Smile. Let them know you're glad to be here. Thank you. That helps. Hugh Thomas. Even an occasional amen probably won't hurt. I don't think security, how many times can you say it before they kick you out?

Stay engaged. Stay engaged. All right. So three essential activities. We must hear with our hearts. We must hear with our heads. Third and finally for this morning is we must hear with our hands. You knew that was coming, right?

We must hear with our hearts. We must hear with our hands. And we must hear with, or excuse me, with our heads, and we must hear with our hands. And the hand's book in the New Testament is James. So turn there, please.

Chapter one. James is the earliest epistle, perhaps as early as AD 45. It is practical in that it speaks about how to turn theology into shoe leather. It's interesting to me that even early in the life of the church, the need to address an outworked faith is critical.

All true, saving faith produces a changed life. That's what James would tell you. And in James, in chapter one here, and I'm going to pick it up. Oh, verse 22. We'll pick it up there. Verse 22. But if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, try it again.

Verse 22. That was 23. Verse 22. But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. There we go. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror.

And once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Verse 14, chapter 2. We'll just kind of rope this in as well. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed, and be filled, and yet do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

Faith changes the mouth and the outworking. It fills us with a heart of compassion, God's compassion. And you don't have to read the Old Testament too closely to know that God has great compassion for the most downtrodden, the widow and the orphan.

And here in chapter 2, right, if your brother comes and they're in need of food, the whole be warmed, be filled, and be gone approach, there's nothing to that. That doesn't reflect a changed heart. When we hear a sermon, it needs to affect what we do, how we live.

Now, some sermons are aimed at understanding, building biblical frameworks of thought and things like that. Absolutely true. But even that should change how we live. We don't come to just gain Bible knowledge in order to just build up some sort of mental repository of knowledge.

We come to be changed, and that change to evidence itself. So, do not act like you are walking through Costco, merely sampling the food. When the Word of God is preached, we have a responsibility to act upon what we hear every time, every time.

Even if the sermon doesn't explicitly outline for you what that application should be, as a hearer, you have an obligation to think through the application. The goal of all preaching is to move the will.

It is to move the will. But that is not the end. It is the means to the end, and the end is life transformation. The goal of preaching is life transformation. The means is the moving of the will. And a sermon needs to move the will.

It's not optional. It's not given as a take-it-or-leave-it approach. It's a thus says the Word of God. And because a sermon is designed to bring about life transformation, that's its purpose. Then as a congregation, we have every right to expect that the preacher's life will be transformed by their own preaching.

Amen. And what a scandal it is when a famous preacher's life and doctrine are not in alignment, huh? So we have every right to expect Jim listens to his own sermons, and I promise you he does. You can't spend that long in the Word of God unless you're the biggest hypocrite going and not be transformed by it.

But he also has a right to expect us to do the same, to be transformed. So here's some practical suggestions as we close this out. Think through specific applications for the sermon that you are hearing, specific to you.

Ask yourself the question, what does God want me to do in response to what I am hearing now? What does He want from me? Blessed, Jesus said, are those who hear the Word of God and observe it. Luke 11, 28.

So think through specific applications. Second, as soon as possible, discuss what the sermon was about with somebody else and focus on the specific application that occurred to you from that sermon or was pressed upon you in the sermon.

Work on it together. Resolve to make specific changes as a result of that sermon. What are you going to change as a result of hearing this? Fourth, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to change and then begin to take specific steps to change.

For example, if you are fighting laziness, and that's the application of the sermon is to put off laziness, then pray and ask the Spirit of God to help you to put off this lifelong sin that ensnares you of laziness, and then set your alarm 30 minutes earlier, and when it goes off, roll out rather than roll over, and then you have time to read the Bible every day.

Fifth, if 1 Corinthians 12 is true, and it is, then each and every one of us who are part of this local expression of the body of Christ indwelt by the Spirit of God has been gifted by the Spirit of God for the purpose of ministering one to another.

That means every church and this church should be a full employment church, not standing on the promises and sitting on the premises, but actively engaged, actively engaged. We are right there. Three essential activities that we must engage in so that we will get the most out of a Sunday sermon.

We must hear with our hearts. We must hear with our heads. We must hear with our hands. May God grant us His amazing grace to apply the truth of what we've heard. Let's pray. Father, thank You that we can gather here in this place in amazing comfort and ease, and to hear the Word of God when so many of our brothers and sisters around the world are in the circumstances that are very trying.

Father, let us not allow our penchant for comfort to cause us to become careless with the Word of God. Let us come into Your presence expectantly, even in this following hour, as the Word is opened before us.

We ask Your Spirit's help in these things, in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, brothers and sisters.