How to Listen to a Sermon

Many mantras, including, who do you think you are to preach to me? 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.

Another dictionary said, somebody giving advice on morals, somebody who gives advice on morality or behavior, listen, in an irritatingly tedious or overbearing way. 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.

Yet ironically, the world knows that listening is important. The world knows that good listening is crucial. Henry David Thoreau said, it takes two to speak the truth, one to speak and another.

To hear.

Walt Whitman said, to have great poets, you must have great audiences as well. We've been in Luke, the 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.

God is a God who speaks. He reveals Himself. He reveals who He is in His plans, in His person, in His work, and the 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.

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. And even last week, Jesus said, be careful how you hear.

Take heed how you hear. Consider how you hear. And so today, I'd like to talk about hearing God's Word. All throughout the Bible, not just in Luke, you hear things that tell you, I should listen to God's Word well.

Incline your ear.

Listen.

Hear the Word of God. Give attention. Today, if you hear His voice, Hebrews, the book of Revelation, over and over, seven times, He who has an ear, let him what? Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

I think it was Spurgeon who said, there's no worship of God that is better than the hearing of a sermon.

Listen.

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? 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 TV.

You just sit there and watch. Maybe it's the same thing when it comes to listening to sermons. Is it passive? Should I do it to God's glory? Is there a reverent way to listen to a sermon? Is there a 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. And so if you take your Bibles, I want you to go to 2 Timothy chapter 1. And we are, or let's go to chapter 4 rather. And as you know, Paul is teaching Timothy, an elder, a leader, a legate, we might call.

Him.

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 Timothy about pastoral ministry. We call 2 Timothy a pastoral book. And he's saying, 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. If preaching is supposed to be a certain way, listening should correspond to that.

So let's learn how preaching should be done, and then that will give us insight on how to listen to a sermon. Because right now, dear congregation, you are worshiping. Part of corporate worship is the listening of a sermon, listening intently.

If I were to get up here and just say, by the way, a billionaire gave us some money, and we are now going to distribute that. I'm the lawyer, and we're going to distribute it because your name's written in this will on how much money you're going to get.

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, you know, this is not that big a deal. No, you'd be listening intently. And how much greater, when it comes to God's Word, that we want to listen well.

And before I say anything more, you, dear congregation, listen well. You're a pastor's dream. I know you expect God's Word to be preached, and you listen. You have your Bibles open, and you are attentive listeners.

And so this sermon is not to scold you or to berate you. 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.

How is the Word of God to be preached? Second Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 4. And this will give us insight on how it is to be listened to. This is not Paul's instruction to Timothy only. This is God's instruction to every person who would ever get behind a pulpit and call themselves a man of God.

Second 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. Be ready in season and out of season.

Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. 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.

And so once again, the sermon today is how to listen to a sermon so that you can most glorify 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.

You notice that? Because this is not just the praise songs of the worship, right? Oh, people will say, you know, how was church today? Oh, they had good worship. And mainly they mean it was good music.

It was good newer songs. But worship is so much more, including listening to a sermon. So I want you to learn how to listen better. Now chapter 4, of course, follows chapters 1, 2, and 3, as you know.

And who is this God who is telling Timothy to preach the Word? Who is Paul getting instruction from? 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 God and what does He do?

Who's the one giving these instructions? He's the one who, in verse 1 of 2 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 the Lord Jesus for forgiveness of sins has the promise of eternal life.

That's who this God is. This is the God in verse 2 who grants grace, wouldn't you like some grace? You have it in Christ Jesus, mercy, peace from God the Father, and what Paul always does through the Spirit of God, he puts Jesus equal with the Father because we believe in one God, three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, exalting Christ Jesus, God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Who is this God that is going to say, preach a certain way, listen a certain way? 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 God.

Who is this God that daresay preaches His Word found in verse 9? It's a 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 He gave us in Christ Jesus, amazingly, before the ages began and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus.

Who is this God who says, preach the Word, who has abolished death, brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel? This is a God who in verse 12, Paul knows, he's convinced that he's able to guard until.

That day that has been entrusted to me.

It's a God who saves.

He's a God who protects.

He's the God who in verse 14 gives us the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Who is this God? This is a God in chapter 2 verse 1 who strengthens us by grace that is in Christ Jesus. This is a God verse 7 who gives you understanding in everything.

This is the God in verse 8 who's risen from the dead, truly man and truly God, offspring of David. This is a God who has in verse 10 obtained the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. So with that in mind, let's think about how to listen to a sermon and get to chapter 4 verses 1 through 4.

We all could be better listeners. And by the way, some of you, if you don't know about classical music, 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.

We went once, this is for Elaine Crain's sake, we went once and we got tickets to Pavarotti for 20 bucks, scalped. 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 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. Boardman said, the world is dying for want not of good preaching, but of good hearing.

Listen to the Word as It Is Declared

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. 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 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? It's important. You have to think about it.

It's not passive. How do you consider listening to a sermon? Number one, listen to the word as it is declared. Listen to the word as it is declared. Second Timothy chapter four, verse two, you know the passage, preach the word.

Let's stop there. Remember, it does not say share the word. It says, preach the word. This is from a herald. This is from someone who says, hear ye, hear ye. 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, I have a message from the king for you. Now sometimes when 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.

I've heard everything from, I don't like that tie, to thanks for your talk today. I just want to go, I'm not talking, I'm trying to preach. Preaching is, I've got a message from the king. Talking is, well, I'm just talking.

Thanks for sharing today, pastor. I'm not trying to share, I'm trying to proclaim with earnestness, with a message from the king. And my job is not to add or subtract or dilute it, it's just to proclaim.

See it again, preach the word.

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 Lord. This is a loud message. When I talk to you behind the scenes, when I'm not in the pulpit, I don't talk to you like I do right now.

Hopefully I'm kinder, 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. Listen to this herald from the Old Testament.

Then the herald loudly proclaimed, to you the command is given, 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.

This is John the Baptist who's a herald who proclaims, make straight the way of the Lord. The pastor isn't a life coach, 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.

This is a public announcement. This is not mime the word, drama the word, subtract from the word, scold the word. The pastor has a sacred message from this God who saves that we learned about in chapters 1, 2, and 3, 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. You know, the king might like it if you do such and such, the monarch suggests that you do this.

We don't want to 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, I have a message from the king, and everybody should listen.

And sometimes you'll hear things like, you, second person imperative, what about you? Because the king is saying, here's my message, go tell the people. Tell them about sin, salvation, the good news, law, gospel, et cetera.

Expect a proclamation. One man said, what's the difference between teaching and preaching? Remember the answer? If you ask that question, you've never heard preaching.

I like that.

So the first thing you do is you have to be ready to kind of brace yourself for the proclamation. 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. Listen, number two, dogmatically. Listen to the word dogmatically. We hear the declaration, and then now we're going to insist on the word. What I mean by this, look at the passage again, preach, definite article, the word.

If I'm supposed to preach only the word, which is now Genesis through Revelation, that's what you must expect, philosophy, politics, psychology, book reviews, sports. Did I mention politics? If I'm supposed to preach the word, thus saith the Lord, good listening is that's what I expect.

That's what I pray for. That's what I want. It's God's word that is great. Psalm 138, it says in King James, is exalted God's word above His name. This is the word that is powerful for salvation, that saves people.

This is the word that sanctifies people and helps them say no to sin and yes to righteousness. Psychology can't do that. 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.

If it is God's word in James 118 that's made you born again, then no wonder James 119 says, then be quick to hear that same word. I can't wait to hear what 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 going to understand God better.

I'm going to understand the universe better, understand me better. First Peter chapter 4, he should do it if you're speaking for God, speak the very words.

Of God.

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, your words were found and I ate them and your words became for me a joy and delight of my heart.

I know that's how you feel. How about Job 23, I've not departed from the command of His lips. I've treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. Your word is better than food to me. How about this, Psalm 119, my eyes anticipate the night that I may meditate on your word.

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, 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, I love your commandments above gold, yes, fine gold.

This is 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. 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. So he loses all the books until he had one left and you can imagine what that was.

It was the Bible.

This is a message from God and so we say to ourselves, if God's word is God breathed and it is chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, if God's word equips us for every good work and it does chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, then I should be listening to God's word.

If God's word is centered on the Lord Jesus, that's the kind of preaching I want. If preaching the word is about Jesus, which it is between Genesis to Revelation, according to Jesus himself, then I want to talk about the word.

I want him to talk about the word, preach the word. Second chapter of 1 Thessalonians, the word of God, which performs its work in you who.

Believe.

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, a better church member? It's going to have to be the word. You sit under the word of God.

It has to be that. And you think that's how God changes people in a supernatural way. Sometimes it seems in a slow way, but that's how he does it. Over and over and over, Psalm 119, revive me according to your word.

God take your word, plant it deep down and revive me.

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 Jesus is. So many churches, it seems like they assume Jesus. He's in their doctoral statement, but every sermon is just how to moralism without the Lord Jesus.

Oh, and Paul says, preach the word. He's talking about preaching Christ Jesus and everything else in scripture. Spurgeon said, if a man can preach one sermon without mentioning Christ's name in it, it ought to be his last.

He said a sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution. So you dear congregation, one of the ways you grade pastors and judge pastors is do they preach the Bible?

Do they preach the Bible thoroughly, adequately, Christ-centeredly? And it's not your job just to listen. I think you ought not to be too gullible. You ought not to think, well, whatever Mike says, that just goes.

You ought to study yourself. You ought to double-check what I say. You ought to be good Bereans to say, is that really from the text? Because if I'm to preach the word, you're to listen to only the word.

How do you listen to a sermon? Is it important?

Yes.

Listen to the Word Devotedly

How to listen, number three, you should listen, number one, to the word declared. You should listen to it dogmatically, insist on the word. Number three, listen to the word devotedly, devotedly. And that's found in 2 Timothy 4, verse 2.

We herald the word in the word only. And how do we herald it? When do we herald it? It says, be ready in season and out of season. This is language of urgency. This is language of everybody in this room is going to die one day and stand before God, and then what?

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 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. You're not to say, well, I've got nap time, and I've got phone time, and I've got Tik Tok time, and I've got all these things.

No, no.

You're supposed to be on the alert. And so what Paul is saying to Timothy, be ready in season and out of season, he's saying, you know what? There are times in the world that people don't want to hear God's word.

There are times maybe that even the congregation or the pastor might not really be all wired up to preach 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.

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.

How can you treat such themes, pastor, with cold indifference? Our congregation. When things are convenient, when they're not convenient, you keep preaching. Now, I used to go fishing when 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 I got a fishing bow, an arrow, and I would tie the arrows to a little 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.

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 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.

And you know what? You can fish for American eel year-round. I thought you had to wait until April 15th when they were in season. 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.

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 September and October, or it's against the.

Law.

Southern New England cod, you can fish for those maybe five months a year. Ocean pout, P-O-U-T, how many know an ocean pout? You ever caught an ocean pout? Some have?

Wow.

Ocean pouts. I wonder if they have, I wonder what they look like. It is prohibited. You cannot ever fish for those, and the list goes on. What'd I do? Dear pastor, you're going to have to discipline a couple people.

They've been catching ocean pout. There's closed season to fishing. There's closed season to hunting. But there must never be closed season on preaching. There never can be closed season on preaching.

That's what Paul is saying. Here's your post. Timothy, I'm going to put you by God's providence at Ephesus, and you stay there and preach God's Word until you die. Titus, you're going to go on this island where people lie.

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 until you die. 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?

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. 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, 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. 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.

But when you're able, you come to worship with the saints, to hear God's Word. I've said it many times, I wanted my children never to say, Daddy, are we going to church.

Today?

But Daddy, we're out of town or whatever, 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 going to be not in season to preach.

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. I mean, in England now, you're not allowed to evangelize sometimes, they're putting people in jail for evangelizing.

The persecution, I just read this morning, there's a man from Tennessee, 44 years old, must be a Southern Baptist, he's in South Africa, and some people came in during the worship service and kidnapped the pastor.

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, and then Steve should get up and finish the sermon, because proclamation of the Word is in season and out of season, right?

Listen to God's Word Differently

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. 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. You listen to only the Word dogmatically. You listen devotedly, in season, out of season, and now you listen differently, fittingly, appropriately. 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.

Sometimes the pastor is going after sin. That's what the first two words are. This is sin, 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, 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.

And it's not just the comfort side, ignoring sin, it's reprove, rebuke, and exhort. So that's what I mean by differently. Expect sometimes to be convicted and sometimes to be comforted. Paul said to Timothy, for this cause, reprove them severely that they may be sound in the.

Faith.

This first word, reprove, is understanding what sin is. Sometimes the culture doesn't know that pride's a sin. Sometimes the culture doesn't want to know that fornication is a sin. Sometimes the culture doesn't want to know what such and such is a sin, and then it infiltrates the church.

And so we need to say, in light of God's holiness, this is what sin is. And pastors call out what sin is. One man said, if men will be bold in sin, pastors must be bold to reprove.

This is sin.

Expect that from a pastor. But the second word here is rebuke. This is, 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.

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, I feel the long finger of Nathan the prophet pointing right at my sternum, and I'm the man.

I complain. I have self-righteous thoughts. Whatever the sins are in Scripture, I deal with idolatry. From Proverbs 5 today, when Scott was reading, I struggle with sexual sin, whatever. You own that.

That's the idea.

Reprove is, this is sin. Rebuke is, that's me, 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. Interesting.

Luther said to his understudy Melanchthon, preach so that they'll either hate you or hate your sin, hate their sin. 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.

A wonderful art to be able to throw to a hare's breath and never strike. 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 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. 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.

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.

There's the discussion of sin, and then there's a discussion of, let's help you. Let's help you. One of the things that I would encourage you to do, dear congregation, is when you hear truth about sin and then forgiveness, or about what God's standards are,.

I sometimes will try to give some application. But how can I give a thorough application to 200, 250 people? I want you to say, Lord, how does this apply in my life? Am I thinking something new about God, different about God, changing my mind about my view of God?

Is there something I need to repent of, change, pray about differently? Those are things that you should go through. It's like when Jesus said, somebody here's going to betray me, and every one of the disciples said, what, is it I?

Is it me? Number five, diligently. Listen to the word of preached diligently. If it's to be preached diligently, then you should listen diligently. Found in verse two. Preach the word, be ready in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, and here it is, with complete or great patience.

Patience.

Let me make it practical. Don't be bothered if you keep hearing the same truths from the pulpit. 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 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. 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, 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.

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?

Love.

I hope you say to your friends when you invite them to church. By the way, when you come to church, 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. Sometimes he runs around and he dances to the Lord, Psalm 150. I don't know what he's going to do, but I'd love to have you come to church. I hope you say, you know what, we'd 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 Jesus is. He talks about guilt and grace and gratitude. He talks about God's revelation and our response.

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 Adam. He talks about creation and the fall and redemption and consummation almost every single week.