How to Listen to a Sermon

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Pastor Mike preaches Timothy 4:1 ff.: How to Listen to a Sermon

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The world has many mantras, including, who do you think you are to preach to me?
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Modern culture roars at the top of its voice, don't preach to me, don't preach at me. I looked up a definition, a contemporary definition of preaching, and it says, negative moralizing message that encroaches on someone's personal and private life.
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Another dictionary said, somebody giving advice on morals, somebody who gives advice on morality or behavior, listen, in an irritatingly tedious or overbearing way.
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Comedian George Burns said, a good sermon should have a good beginning and a good ending, and the two should be as close together as possible.
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Yet ironically, the world knows that listening is important. The world knows that good listening is crucial.
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Henry David Thoreau said, it takes two to speak the truth, one to speak and another to hear.
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Walt Whitman said, to have great poets, you must have great audiences as well. We've been in Luke, the
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Gospel of Jesus according to Luke, and there's been a focus, as you remember, on hearing God's word, listening to God's word.
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God is a God who speaks. He reveals himself. He reveals who he is and his plans and his person and his work and the
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Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in Luke 6, but the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.
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Jesus said in Luke chapter 8, verse 15, that we just recently saw, that those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart bear fruit with patience.
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And even last week, Jesus said, be careful how you hear. Take heed how you hear.
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Consider how you hear. And so today, I'd like to talk about hearing God's word.
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All throughout the Bible, not just in Luke, you hear things that tell you, I should listen to God's word well.
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Incline your ear. Listen. Hear the word of God. Give attention.
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Today, if you hear his voice, Hebrews, the book of Revelation, over and over seven times, he who has an ear, let him what?
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Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. I think it was Spurgeon who said, there is no worship of God that is better than the hearing of a sermon.
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So today, I'd like to talk about how do you listen to a sermon. What's the best way to listen to a sermon?
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Christopher Asch said, you know what? That kind of sounds like a silly, dumb sermon because that's kind of like preaching on how to watch
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TV. You just sit there and watch. Maybe it's the same thing when it comes to listening to sermons.
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Is it passive? Should I do it to God's glory? Is there a reverent way to listen to a sermon? Is there a
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God -glorifying way, whether you eat or drink or listen to a sermon, do all to the glory of God? That's what we're going to look at today.
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And so if you take your Bibles, I want you to go to 2 Timothy chapter 4. Or let's go to chapter 4, rather.
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And as you know, Paul is teaching Timothy, an elder, a leader, a legate, we might call him.
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And he's telling him what to do. It's his last letter that he'll ever write, Paul. He's going to be martyred. And he's teaching
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Timothy about pastoral ministry. We call 2 Timothy a pastoral book. And he's saying,
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I want you to do certain things, including preach the word. So what I'm going to do this morning is if the word is to be preached a certain way, we are then going to make an assumption that it should be listened to a certain way.
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If preaching is supposed to be a certain way, listening should correspond to that. So let's learn how preaching should be done.
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And then that will give us insight on how to listen to a sermon. Because right now, dear congregation, you are worshiping.
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Part of corporate worship is the listening of a sermon, listening intently.
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If I were to get up here and just say, by the way, a billionaire gave us some money.
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And we are now going to distribute that. I'm the lawyer. And we're going to distribute it because your name is written in this will on how much money you're going to get.
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I wonder if you would be checking your phone. I wonder if you would be elbowing your spouse. I wonder if you'd be thinking, this is not that big a deal.
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No, you'd be listening intently. And how much greater, when it comes to God's word, that we want to listen well.
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And before I say anything more, you, dear congregation, listen well.
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You're a pastor's dream. I know you expect God's word to be preached. And you listen. You have your
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Bibles open. And you are attentive listeners. And so this sermon is not to scold you or to berate you.
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It's to say, keep listening well. And if there's a handful of people that don't listen, then this can be an exhortation to them.
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How is the word of God to be preached? 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 4.
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And this will give us insight on how it is to be listened to. This is not Paul's instruction to Timothy only.
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This is God's instruction to every person who would ever get behind a pulpit and call themselves a man of God.
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2 Timothy 4, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and kingdom, preach the word.
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Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
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For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn aside from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
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And so once again, the sermon today is how to listen to a sermon so that you can most glorify
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God as you worship. Charlie has done a great job over the last 25, 30 years that I've been here, 28 years, to say, let's continue worship when he sings the praise songs.
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Do you notice that? Because this is not just the praise songs of the worship, right? Oh, people will say, how was church today?
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Oh, they had good worship. And mainly, they mean it was good music. It was good newer songs.
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But worship is so much more, including listening to a sermon. So I want you to learn how to listen better.
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Now, chapter 4, of course, follows chapters 1, 2, and 3, as you know. And who is this
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God who is telling Timothy to preach the word? Who is Paul getting instruction from?
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And if you go back to chapter 1, I just want to remind you, with a quick survey of 2 Timothy 1, 2, and 3, who is
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God and what does he do? Who's the one giving these instructions? He's the one who, in verse 1 of 2
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Timothy chapter 1, gives the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, a gracious promise, a sovereign promise, a promise that all that will look to Lord Jesus for forgiveness of sins has the promise of eternal life.
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That's who this God is. This is the God, in verse 2, who grants grace. Wouldn't you like some grace?
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You have it in Christ Jesus. Mercy, peace from God the Father, and what Paul always does through the
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Spirit of God, he puts Jesus equal with the Father because we believe in one God, three persons,
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God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, exalting Christ Jesus, God the Father, and Christ Jesus, our
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Lord. Who is this God that is going to say, preach a certain way, listen a certain way?
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He's the God, in verse 7, that gives us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self -control, a great giving
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God. Who is this God that, dare I say, preaches His Word found in verse 9? It's a
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God who saves us and calls us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which
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He gave us in Christ Jesus, amazingly, before the ages began and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our
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Savior Christ Jesus. Who is this God who says, preach the Word, who has abolished death, brought life and immortality to light through the
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Gospel? This is a God who, in verse 12,
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Paul knows, he's convinced that he's able to guard until that day that has been entrusted to me.
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It's a God who saves. He's a God who protects.
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He's the God who, in verse 14, gives us the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
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Who is this God? This is a God, in chapter 2, verse 1, who strengthens us by grace that is in Christ Jesus.
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This is a God, verse 7, who gives you understanding in everything. This is the
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God, in verse 8, who's risen from the dead, truly man and truly God, offspring of David.
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This is a God who has, in verse 10, obtained the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
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So with that in mind, let's think about how to listen to a sermon and get to chapter 4, verses 1 through 4.
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We all could be better listeners. And by the way, some of you, if you don't know about classical music,
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Kim and I used to go to the Hollywood Bowl regularly and we didn't really know who played. We would just go there for classical music. And I enjoyed it, but I'm sure someone with a trained ear could enjoy it all the more.
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We went once, this is for Elaine Crane's sake, we went once and we got tickets to Pavarotti for 20 bucks, scalped.
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I thought it was pretty good, but if you knew about opera, you'd probably think it was even better. And so for all of us, we can learn
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God's word by listening, but we can all get better because we can hear the same thing, but with an informed mind, it will become much more clear.
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Boardman said, the world is dying for want not of good preaching, but of good hearing. So for an outline today, let me give you eight ways to listen to a sermon, eight how -to's, eight reminders on the importance of listening to a sermon.
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And I don't do this every time, but they'll all start with the letter D, just for fun today. Most of them are adverbs, but they'll all start with the letter
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D. How do you listen to a sermon? To use Jesus's words of Luke 18, how do you take care to listen to a sermon?
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It's important, you have to think about it. It's not passive. How do you consider listening to a sermon?
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Number one, listen to the word as it is declared. Listen to the word as it is declared.
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Second Timothy chapter four, verse two, you know the passage. Preach the word, let's stop there.
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It does not say, share the word. It says, preach the word.
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This is from a herald. This is from someone who says, hear ye, hear ye.
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This is from someone who says, I demand your attention. Not because the herald is great, not because the herald is sinless, but because the herald brings the news of the king and says,
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I have a message from the king for you. Now, sometimes when
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I'm at the door and I'm talking to people afterwards, there are certain things that you can say that I might like and certain things that I might not like.
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I've heard everything from, I don't like that tie, to, thanks for your talk today.
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I just wanna go. I'm not talking, I'm trying to preach. Preaching is,
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I've got a message from the king. Talking is, well, I'm just talking. Thanks for sharing today, pastor.
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I'm not trying to share, I'm trying to proclaim with earnestness, with a message from the king.
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And my job is not to add or subtract or dilute it, it's just to proclaim. See it again, preach the word.
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Herald the word. This is not a speech, this is not a dialogue, this is not community think, this is one man redeemed by grace getting in the pulpit and say, thus saith the
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Lord. This is a loud message. When I talk to you behind the scenes, when
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I'm not in the pulpit, I don't talk to you like I do right now. Hopefully I'm kinder.
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No, I'm just not heralding. Has nothing to do with kindness. The king has a message for you and it is earnest and the messenger proclaims it with earnestness.
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Listen to this herald from the Old Testament. Then the herald loudly proclaimed, to you the command is given
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O people, nations and men of every language, that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up.
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This is John the Baptist who's a herald who proclaims, make straight the way of the
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Lord. The pastor is in a life coach.
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The pastor isn't trying to give some mentoring. The pastor is not supposed to be saying, this is kind of a TED talk, take it or leave it, stroking the congregation.
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This is a public announcement. This is not mime the word, drama the word, subtract from the word, scold the word.
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The pastor has a sacred message from this God who saves that we learned about in chapters one, two and three.
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And he's to proclaim the word without apology. Don't fall for the trap, dear congregation, where you just kind of want kind of a softer teaching, sharing, kind of a dialogical approach.
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You know, the king might like it if you do such and such. The monarch suggests that you do this.
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We don't wanna fall into that trap. And I know you don't fall into the trap, but just to remind you, when you hear somebody get up from this pulpit, it should be not to beat you up, but to say,
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I have a message from the king and everybody should listen. And sometimes you'll hear things like you, second person imperative.
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What about you? Because the king is saying, here's my message. Go tell the people.
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Tell them about sin, salvation, the good news, law, gospel, et cetera. Expect a proclamation.
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One man said, what's the difference between teaching and preaching? Remember the answer? If you ask that question, you've never heard preaching.
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I like that. So the first thing you do is you have to be ready to kind of brace yourself for the proclamation.
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That's number one. How to listen to this sermon, number two. And these all end in L -Y now, because they're adverbs, they tell us how to listen.
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Listen, number two, dogmatically. Listen to the word dogmatically. We hear the declaration and then now we're going to insist on the word.
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What do I mean by this? Look at the passage again. Preach, definite article, the word.
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If I'm supposed to preach only the word, which is now Genesis through Revelation, that's what you must expect.
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Philosophy, politics, psychology, book reviews, sports.
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Did I mention politics? If I'm supposed to preach the word, thus saith the
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Lord, good listening is, that's what I expect. That's what I pray for. That's what
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I want. It's God's word that is great. Psalm 138, it says in King James, is exalted
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God's word above his name. This is the word that is powerful for salvation that saves people.
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This is the word that sanctifies people and helps them say no to sin and yes to righteousness. Psychology can't do that.
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Group think can't do that. Paul said in Acts 20, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.
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If it is God's word in James 118 that's made you born again, then no wonder
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James 119 says, then be quick to hear that same word. I can't wait to hear what
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God is going to say. God is going to reveal something through that preacher and he's going to show me something and I'm gonna understand
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God better. I'm gonna understand the universe better, understand me better. First Peter chapter four, he should do it if you're speaking for God, speak the very words of God.
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If I'm to preach the word, you're to listen to the word and you're to have the attitude, listen to Jeremiah 15, 16.
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Your words were found and I ate them and your words became for me a joy and delight of my heart.
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I know that's how you feel. How about Job 23? I've not departed from the command of his lips.
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I've treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Your word is better than food to me.
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How about this? Psalm 119, my eyes anticipate the night that I may meditate on your word.
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I can't wait for it to be night. I think the Psalmist is old enough that he can't sleep and so he's like,
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I can't wait till I can't sleep because I'll think about your word when I can't sleep. Psalm 119 goes on,
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I love your commandments above gold. Yes, fine gold. This is
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Samuel who's saying, speak Lord, your servant's listening. David Livingston, the missionary in Africa started off with 73 books in three big bags, porting bags, weighing 180 pounds.
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Deeper he got into the jungle, the more stuff he had to throw away. He's 300 miles in and everybody's getting tired of bringing all the books.
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So he loses all the books until he had one left and you can imagine what that was.
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It was the Bible. This is a message from God and so we say to ourselves, if God's word is
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God breathe and it is chapter three, verses 16 and 17. If God's word equips us for every good work and it does chapter three, verses 16 and 17, then
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I should be listening to God's word. If God's word is centered on the Lord Jesus, that's the kind of preaching
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I want. If preaching the word is about Jesus, which it is between Genesis to Revelation, according to Jesus himself, then
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I want to talk about the word. I want him to talk about the word, preach the word. Second chapter of first Thessalonians, the word of God which performs its work in you who believe.
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Would you like to live a more holy life? Would you like to be a better evangelist? Would you like to be a better spouse?
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A better church member? It's gonna have to be the word. You sit under the word of God, it has to be that and you think that's how
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God changes people. In a supernatural way, sometimes it seems in a slow way but that's how he does it.
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Over and over and over, Psalm 119, revive me according to your word. God, take your word, plant it deep down and revive me.
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Make me alive. Tell me about who Jesus is. When Paul says to Timothy, you preach the word, at the focus of it all is you tell people about who
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Jesus is. So many churches it seems like they assume
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Jesus. He's in their doctoral statement but every sermon is just how to, moralism without the
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Lord Jesus. Oh, when Paul says preach the word, he's talking about preaching Christ Jesus and everything else in scripture.
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Spurgeon said, if a man can preach one sermon without mentioning Christ's name in it, it ought to be his last.
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He said, a sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution.
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And so you dear congregation, one of the ways you grade pastors and judge pastors is do they preach the
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Bible? Do they preach the Bible thoroughly? Adequately?
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Christ -centeredly? And it's not your job just to listen. I think you ought not to be too gullible.
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You ought not to think, well, whatever Mike says that just goes. You ought to study yourself.
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You ought to double check what I say. You ought to be good Bereans to say, is that really from the text?
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Because if I'm to preach the word, you're to listen to only the word. How do you listen to a sermon?
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Is it important? Yes. How to listen, number three. You should listen, number one, to the word declared.
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You should listen to it dogmatically. Insist on the word. Number three, listen to the word devotedly.
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Devotedly. And that's found in 2 Timothy 4, verse two.
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We herald the word and the word only. And how do we herald it? When do we herald it?
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It says, be ready in season and out of season. This is language of urgency.
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This is language of everybody in this room is gonna die one day and stand before God and then what?
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These are the words of eternal life. We need to pay attention. This is language not only of urgency, but if you've been in the military or you're an
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MP and you're standing at guard, that's the language here. You're at guard at a military post and you're to be watching.
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You're not to say, well, I've got nap time and I've got phone time and I've got TikTok time and I've got all these things.
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No, no, you're supposed to be on the alert. And so what Paul is saying to Timothy, be ready in season, out of season, he's saying, you know what?
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There are times in the world that people don't wanna hear God's word. There are times maybe that even the congregation or the pastor might not really be all wired up to preach
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God's word, but it doesn't matter because when times are good, that's literally what he's saying. And when times are bad, stay at your post.
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Stay at your post. Stott said, you're hearing the sinner's plight under the judgment of God, the saving action of God through the death and resurrection of Christ and the summons to repent and believe.
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How can you treat such themes, pastor, with cold indifference? Our congregation.
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When things are convenient, when they're not convenient, you keep preaching. Now, I used to go fishing when
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I was a kid and we didn't have to buy a license because we were younger and it was Nebraska. And my favorite way to fish is
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I got a fishing bow, an arrow, and I would tie the arrows to a little
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Zebco 808 reel and depress the thing. And then you could just shoot spawning carp and other fish and then you would reel them in.
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And I thought, well, you know what? I don't really much like fishing, but grandpas need to fish. And so I want to take
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Amos fishing and Clara fishing and Eleazar fishing. So I just pulled up last night, fishing regulations in Massachusetts, when you can fish and when you can't.
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And you know what? You can fish for American eel year round. I thought you had to wait till April 15th when they were in season.
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You can fish for eel year round and you can catch up to 25 eel at a time without declaring anything as long as you have a license.
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You can fish all the time. Some things though you can't fish for all the time. Gulf of Maine cod, you can only fish for those
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September and October or it's against the law. Southern New England cod, you can fish for those maybe five months a year.
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Ocean pout, P -O -U -T. How many know an ocean pout? You ever caught an ocean pout? Some have?
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Wow, ocean pouts. I wonder if they have, I wonder what they look like. It is prohibited.
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You cannot ever fish for those. And the list goes on. What I do?
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Dear pastor, you're gonna have to discipline a couple of people. They've been catching ocean pout. There's closed season to fishing.
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There's closed season to hunting. But there must never be closed season on preaching.
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There never can be closed season on preaching. That's what Paul is saying. Here's your post.
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Timothy, I'm gonna put you by God's providence at Ephesus and you stay there and preach God's word until you die. Titus, you're gonna go on this island where people lie.
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They're lazy, they're evil beasts. There's lazy gluttons around and there's false teachers. You stay at your post and you preach till you die.
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That's the idea. And if there's so much intensity and earnestness preaching like that, on your side you should be thinking, you know what?
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Maybe I don't really think much about the Bible today. I hope the sermon's not too long today. I hope we can just get it over with.
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I hope it'll be interesting. With the same intensity of the preacher who knows in season and out of season, you congregation continue to say,
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I need God's word. It's urgent. I need to expect the Bible today. I need to pray for the preacher, pray for myself, pray for other people.
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That's why it's so important. Sundays when you're able. I know some people need to stay at home for their children who are sick and backslide like Corey's doing today, all sick.
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But when you're able, you come to worship with the saints, to hear God's word. I've said it many times.
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I wanted my children never to say, Daddy, are we going to church today? But Daddy, we're out of town or whatever.
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Where are we going today? Because we need to sit under God's word. There might be a time, think about the persecution, where it's gonna be not in season to preach.
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Where you could be going to jail for saying homosexuality is sin. Or gay marriage isn't a marriage and we're not going to attend.
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I mean, in England now, you're not allowed to evangelize sometimes. They're putting people in jail for evangelizing.
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The persecution, I just read this morning. There's a man from Tennessee, 44 years old, must be a
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Southern Baptist, he's in South Africa. And some people came in during the worship service and kidnapped the pastor.
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They don't know where he is now. They took his car and now the car's abandoned. What Paul is trying to say here is, if I were to be kidnapped right now, everybody should get together and pray.
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And then Steve should get up and finish the sermon because proclamation of the word is in season and out of season, right?
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Number four, how do I listen to a sermon? How can I glorify God listening to a sermon? That's the largest part of the worship service.
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We should probably know what to do. Number four, listen to God's word preached differently. You listen to the word as it's declared.
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You listen to only the word dogmatically. You listen devotedly, in season, out of season, and now you listen differently, fittingly, appropriately.
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What do I mean by that? Verse two, reprove, rebuke, exhort. There are three different ways to preach, so there should be three different ways to listen.
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Sometimes the pastor is going after sin. That's what the first two words are. This is sin.
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You're the one doing the sin. But sometimes the pastor needs to be encouraging and to lift up, and most of the time, both should happen, right, after you discipline a child, dear parent.
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I hope afterwards you love them and come alongside of them and kiss them and make up. It's not just hammering people on sin and then saying, here's the comfort side.
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And it's not just the comfort side, ignoring sin. It's reprove, rebuke, and exhort.
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So that's what I mean by differently. Expect sometimes to be convicted and sometimes to be comforted.
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Paul said to Timothy, for this cause, reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith.
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This first word, reprove, is understanding what sin is. Sometimes the culture doesn't know that pride's a sin.
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Sometimes the culture doesn't wanna know that fornication is a sin. Sometimes the culture doesn't wanna know what such and such is a sin, and then it infiltrates the church.
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And so we need to say, in light of God's holiness, this is what sin is, and pastors call out what sin is.
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One man said, if men will be bold in sin, pastors must be bold to reprove. This is sin.
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Expect that from a pastor. But the second word here is rebuke. This is,
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I now own that sin. This is, I can't say, you know, my wife does that, my friends do that, that other person at the church, they struggle with that.
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No, no, this is to me, and I struggle. And when you hear about complaining from Scripture, and it goes against God's sovereign hand, and the awful sin of complaining, then you hear that and you go,
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I feel the long finger of Nathan the prophet pointing right at my sternum, and I'm the man.
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I complain. I have self -righteous thoughts. Whatever the sins are in Scripture, I deal with idolatry.
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From Proverbs 5 today, when Scott was reading, I struggle with sexual sin.
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Whatever, you own that, that's the idea. Reprove is, this is sin. Rebuke is, that's me,
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I do that. George Whitefield said, it's a poor sermon that gives no offense, that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself or with the preacher.
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Interesting. Luther said to his understudy Melanchthon, preach so that they'll either hate you or hate your sin, hate their sin.
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And Spurgeon said, some pastors remind me of famous Chinese jugglers. One of these stood against the wall and the others threw knives at him.
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A wonderful art to be able to throw to a hare's breath and never strike.
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How many among us have a marvelous skill in missing? Talking about pastors. The next word, exhort, is where we get the word paraclete for the
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Holy Spirit and you come alongside. It says exhort, it almost seems like, hey, get going, but that's not really what the word is.
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The word is, you need encouragement to obey. You need somebody to have your arm around you to say, come on, you need to obey.
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You can by the Spirit's power. That's the idea here. It's the idea of 1 Thessalonians 2, for you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God.
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There's the discussion of sin and then there's a discussion of, let's help you, let's help you.
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One of the things that I would encourage you to do to your congregation is when you hear truth about sin and then forgiveness or about what
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God's standards are, I sometimes will try to give some application, but how can I give a thorough application to 200, 250 people?
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I want you to say, Lord, how does this apply in my life?
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Am I thinking something new about God, different about God, changing my mind about my view of God?
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Is there something I need to repent of, change, pray about differently? Those are things that you should go through.
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It's like when Jesus said, somebody here is gonna betray me and every one of the disciples said, what, is it
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I? Is it me? Number five, diligently.
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Listen to the word of preached diligently. If it's to be preached diligently, then you should listen diligently.
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Found in verse two. Preach the word, be ready in season, out of season, reprove, review, exhort, and here it is, with complete or great patience.
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Patience. Let me make it practical. Don't be bothered if you keep hearing the same truths from the pulpit.
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Don't say to yourself, you know what, it's not a good sermon unless I learn something new. Now, when you're a new
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Christian, start coming to the church and you're like, well, I'm learning all these new things. I'm learning all these new things and it's wonderful to learn new things.
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But after a while, you don't learn as many new things. So one of the jobs of a pastor is to patiently keep preaching.
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To just keep saying it over and over and over. We're prone to forget. And you know the old slogan is, we remember the things we're supposed to forget and we forget the things we're supposed to remember.
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And so it's the pastor's job not to come up with new things, novel things, but tell me the old, old story of Jesus and his what?
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Love. I hope you say to your friends when you invite them to church. By the way, when you come to church,
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I don't know what in the world Abendroth will do. Sometimes he dances. Sometimes he speaks in tongues. Sometimes he does the dead fly up on the thing.
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Sometimes he runs around and he dances to the Lord, Psalm 150. I don't know what he's gonna do, but I'd love to have you come to church.
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I hope you say, you know what? I would love to have you come. We sing some songs about Jesus. We read some scripture. And then the pastor gets up and tells us about who
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Jesus is. He talks about guilt and grace and gratitude. He talks about God's revelation and our response.
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He talks about sin and the Savior. He talks about we all were in Adam sinning and now those who believe in Jesus are in the last
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Adam. He talks about creation and the fall and redemption and consummation almost every single week.
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We'd love to have you come to learn about Jesus because he's your only hope. One man said the object of preaching is constantly to remind mankind of what they're forgetting.
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And D .A. Carson is right. When you assume the gospel, and I assume you know the gospel, the next generation, we lose the gospel.
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We will proclaim the good news every single Sunday because it's the most important thing in the universe.
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Yay, it's the most important thing in the Bible. Everything in the Bible is important, but there's one thing that's the most important.
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Jesus dies for sinners. He's buried, he's risen from the dead, and you just need to trust in him.
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Number six, doctrinally, you are to listen to God's word a certain way.
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And it's commensurate with how it's to be preached and it's to be declared. It's to be preached dogmatically, devotedly, differently, diligently, and now doctrinally.
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Oh, this is interesting. Do you see at the end of verse two? With great patience and what's the next word? Teaching, instruction.
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That's the word for doctrine. There's supposed to be doctrinal preaching. I mean,
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I can hear the chants today. We've got spirit, yes we do. We've got spirit, how about you? That's not the chant
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I'm thinking about. The chant is down with doctrine, down with doctrine. Meaning doctrine's dry, doctrine's sterile.
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Don't give me any polysyllabic words, just make it easy. Cookies on the bottom shelf.
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Doctrine leads to doxology. Doctrine leads to praise.
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They're tied together. They're tied together and doctrine is simply a fact about God. Would you like to know some facts about God?
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I hope so, because that's what doctrine is. It's not sterile and dry.
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It's an adequate statement about truth about God. That's what doctrine is. And Paul says, you better preach with doctrine.
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Congregation, you better expect it. One of the things I used to do when I first became a Christian, the pastor would say, reconciliation.
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I'd write it down and I'd go look it up at Baker's Theological Dictionary. The pastor would say, God is jealous.
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I'm like, what in the world, who's a jealous God? And I'd look it up in Baker's Dictionary of Theology. He's zealous.
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I'd look up the word propitiation, because I didn't even know how to say it. I just wanted to learn how to say it, it sounds cool.
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What is propitiation? I'd write it down and I would study. If I'm supposed to be preaching with doctrine, you're supposed to be learning doctrine.
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Did you know Jesus was a doctrinal preacher? He preached with doctrine. Did you know Paul was a doctrinal preacher?
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Ezekiel was a doctrinal preacher. Did you know leaders of the New Testament have to preach doctrine, it says in Titus 1, both to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those that contradict.
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Doctrine is just the truth about God. Because otherwise, if I just said
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Jesus, who is Jesus without doctrine? I can remember standing in my grandmother's room,
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Erna Ebendroth, my father's mother, and she was a Lutheran. And she was one of the smartest ladies
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I ever met, but she wasn't smart in the word. And she had a picture of Jesus. And I'm not talking about second commandment violations right now.
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I just was talking about Jesus. I was a brand new Christian. And I said something about Mormons.
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And she said, Mormons believe in the same Jesus. And I said, no, they don't.
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And grandma got really mad at me and praise the Lord, I stood my ground. If there's no doctrine, the
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Mormon Jesus is Jesus. The Protestant Jesus is Jesus. The Hindu Jesus is
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Jesus. But once we start talking about eternally son, we start talking about truly
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God, we start talking about creator, not creature, then the
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Mormon God's not our God. Let me tell you a little insight.
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It was the liberal church in New York City, a couple centuries ago that said, you know what?
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The Bible, too many things about God that are dogmatic, hard to understand, election, predestination, go kill these people, heaven, hell, judgment, sin.
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We don't want any of that doctrine. Those doctrines are too difficult because those doctrines divide.
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And they do, truth from error, doctrine does divide. So instead of having doctrinal preaching, you know what those liberal churches do?
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Well, if we throw the Bible out, nobody will keep coming because they're coming to a Christian church, they wanna feel good.
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So we'll use the Bible without those doctrines and we'll just find something in David's life and say, be like David, he was honest.
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Well, until he wasn't. But in that part, oh, you know what? We can't use these doctrines that are in the
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Bible about God's eternal decree and ordination and all these things. So you know what? We'll just talk about, don't be like Cain.
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He was a bad guy, character studies. Now, can you learn some things about certain characters in the
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Bible? The answer is yes. But that's not the main point of the Bible. Don't do this, do that.
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It's about who the Lord Jesus is. Paul said to Titus, but as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.
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There's some doctrine that's not sound. There's some doctrine that says, word, faith, stuff is good.
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Give your money and you're gonna get a bunch of money. Vance Hadner said, too many people are stamping their feet and clapping their hands and singing hallelujah without the slightest idea what they're singing hallelujah about.
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It's kind of like the rotary God, you know, the mush God, where you get up and pray and rabbis aren't offended, priests aren't offended,
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Hindus aren't offended and moms aren't offended. One of the things that I want to do with you congregation, and I've seen it happen, instead of taking the
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Bible and somehow dumbing it down, I'm gonna try to teach you doctrine to bring you up. Because at work, you use big words.
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At work, you use polysyllabic words. And by the way, to live, you're gonna need good doctrine.
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How about to die? Machen is dying at 55 years old, a stalwart of the faith.
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And remember what Machen said? I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Jesus, no hope what, without it.
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The only way I can die is with good sound doctrine. There was a man here who did a conference back in 97.
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And he said to you, the congregation, he's the guy that did
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Songtime, John DeBriene. And I'll never forget it. He said, I fell down, had a heart attack, and I thought
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I was gonna die. And what I wasn't singing was shine, Jesus, shine. Whatever that means.
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He said, what I was singing, he didn't say this, but I'll interpret it for you. What I was singing was doctrine. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and what?
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Righteousness. You should expect doctrine. And you say, you know what?
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Doctrinal preaching is offensive to some. And preaching that has no doctrine is offensive to Jesus.
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So we're going to preach doctrine. It's fun to learn.
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It's good to learn. Okay, got two more. Gotta make it fast. Number seven.
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Listen to the word even if the pastor goes over 45 minutes. No, sorry. Sorry. Listen to the word devoutly.
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Devoutly. It's worship. Devoutly. Go back to chapter four, verse one. I mean, is there language like this anywhere?
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Only few other places. I solemnly charge you or I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who's to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and kingdom preach the word.
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That's courtroom language. That's serious language. That's gravity language. That's, oh,
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I should listen devoutly instead of being over the word, a critic of the word.
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No, no, I need to sit under the word as it's solemnly declared because God's there and God's listening and God sees me as I'm worshiping by hearing a sermon.
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I mean, have you ever thought that? Right now, you are in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and by his kingdom, he's told the pastor to preach the word to you and you're to be attentive.
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That makes me wanna listen better. That makes me wanna take notes. That makes me wanna say, you know what?
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I should probably get ready the night before. To this day, I still get all my clothes out on Saturday night because I don't wanna wake up in the morning and say, does this tie go with this or does that or, you know, when the kids were little, we started doing it and we would wake up in the morning and there's nothing that ruins your devotion during a sermon, devoutly hearing, than what seems like some kind of satanic attack on Sunday morning.
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I can't find the socks. There's no food. I didn't put gas in the car. Did I mention
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I can't find Luke's socks? Kim can't find her socks. I don't even know what socks are. And there's all this stuff and I'm like, you know what, if you go golfing in the morning, you got your stuff set out at night to get up at four in the morning.
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You're gonna go hunting, everything's all set out and so you're thinking, I'm gonna come to worship so without being a legalist,
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I probably should go to bed a little earlier, get everything set up, make sure the kids, dad's lead, maybe you need to get up a little earlier to help with all the kids, get them all settled so there's no road box in me listening to God's word because it's in the presence of God, even
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Christ Jesus, our Lord. And he's the one that's witnessing so I should probably be thinking, you know what,
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I better stop being a critic. I don't like that sermon, I don't like what he said, I don't like the songs beforehand, I didn't like those hymns before,
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I didn't like the way the scripture read, I don't like, no, no, no. That all has to be taken out when verse one is in our
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Bible. Maybe you need to have more caffeine. I'm surprised, the elders are surprised, dear congregation, when some of you regularly get here late but you have a
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Dunkin' Donuts. There's a bunch of you that do that. Now, maybe you got the
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Dunkin' Donuts because you got there half hour early and then you saw a poor person on the side of the road and you had to go help and serve but you get the idea.
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I never see my preacher's eyes though they with light may shine for when he prays, he closes his and when he preaches, mine.
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In my notes, I have, if you wanna be a good listener, listen like Rick.
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Now, the bad news is he's not doing what I want him to do, what he normally does. He's usually sitting on the end of his chair.
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He's usually leaning forward. Like I wanna hear, tell me because when you're a good listener, it feeds on the preacher because then
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I say he's listening, he's paying attention. I wanna tell him the truth. Number eight and finally, defensively.
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How do you listen to a sermon? You listen to it declared, dogmatically, devotedly, differently, diligently, doctrinally, devoutly and now defensively.
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We live in such an ungodly world. Verse three says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.
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If you're not careful, the world will infiltrate your thinking and that world is saying, don't listen, don't be preached at, don't listen to doctrine.
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Instead of healthy, hygienic doctrine, let's find people that just tickle our ears, hankering after unspiritual things.
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Heaping, isn't that amazing? It says that they're having itching ears and they will accumulate or they will heap or they will pile up teachers.
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And they don't just want one, they want a bunch because they'll feel better. Hey, these, they all say it.
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Joyce Meyer says it, Creflo Dollar says it, Copeland says it, Osteen says it, all these false teachers say this and you know what, you better listen and be locked in because there's a lot of people saying things.
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Lots of imposters. And as one man said, the demand creates the supply because we wanna have our ears tickled if we're not careful and then we find people that will say those things.
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And so we have to make sure we guard ourselves and be careful. Just a few things on the way out, some takeaways.
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Number one, come to church with great anticipation and eagerness, you're gonna hear from the word of God and God will be changing you.
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Eagerly anticipate what God's going to do, changing you into the glory of Christ, conforming you to the glory of Christ Jesus.
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Number two, pray for yourself, pray for the congregation and pray for the pastor and pray for the nursery workers and others who don't get to hear the sermon.
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Number three, as often as possible, expose yourself to preaching of God's word. I've listened to thousands of cassettes in the day on the car, it's not a sermon
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I know in terms of me publicly being there, but I'm learning. I remember
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Don Kistler, he's a pastor and he was in New England for a couple of years and his first Sunday, somebody came up to him and said,
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Pastor Kistler, that sermon was too long. And he said, for whom?
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Maybe for you, my friend, but I'm quite positive that it was not too long for Jesus. And I preach for him anyway.
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Kistler said that was the last time I saw him. Number four, teach your family what you've learned.
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With enthusiasm. Number five,
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I said before, I wanna reinforce it, prepare your hearts, home and bodies on Saturday p .m. And number six, change churches that don't herald
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God's word. If we ever stop doing that, first you confront us and then you've gotta go somewhere else.
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It's that important. How do you listen to a sermon? Probably the best thing
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I could say was, you listen as an act of worship. And it's important. And dear congregation, thanks for being good listeners.
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Let's pray. Lord, we want the word preached here and we wanna hear it so that you change us.
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To be in your presence, amazing. We're thankful for the
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Lord Jesus. We're thankful that we're forgiven. And we're thankful that you will help us by the
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Holy Spirit to be better preachers. I pray that I'd be a better preacher and to be better listeners.