How to Hear a Sermon, Part 2: Better Listening During the Sermon
There are three steps in hearing a sermon: understanding it, feeling it and acting on it. If we don’t understand what we hear, we don’t get the message. If we understand without feeling, without being affected, touched or moved, then the Word of God will have little effect on us. We will be hard-hearted.
But if we stop at mere feeling without advancing to action and application–to resolutions and practical change–then we remain fruitless. We then treat God’s voice like entertaining songs which bring laughter or tears but not the change we need (Ezekiel 33:31-32). Consider for a moment these three elements of how to listen during the sermon itself.
Understanding - Your mind moves much faster than any pastor can preach. So be careful not to waste your excess brain power on distractions. Rather, harness it to the business of eternal life which brings us together on Sunday. Train yourself to gather the points of the message. What are the key truths, the main texts and the main applications? Try to outline the flow of the sermon’s argument. Jotting a few notes may help you get these. Reviewing them in your mind as the sermon goes along may help you understand them. The message will have more power in your soul if you see it coming authentically out of the text of the Bible. Pay close attention to how texts are explained and how principles are brought out from them. Don’t just treat this as the boring part between illustrations.
The preacher’s task is clarity. But when he is not clear, help him by trying extra hard to understand. If you can’t get everything, just hold on to what you do get.
Feeling - Obsession with intellectual details or problems lets you avoid the power of God’s voice. Often we need to put doubts, disputes and questions on hold so we can feel the weight of the clear Word of God. Otherwise we might spend the whole sermon sewing together intellectual fig leaves to hide our shameful need from the revealing gaze of God. You’ve chewed enough; now swallow! Use your spare mental energy to explore the horror of sin, the sureness of God’s promise and the purity of his commands. Pray for passionate hearing! You are dealing with eternity, with the holy things of Almighty God. You may not even reach home today but may find yourself already before God’s bench. There you will give account for how you receive his Word each week. Was his Word a triviality in your busy week?
The preacher may present dreadful and glorious things in such a boring way that he steals all joy. But pick up the gleaming treasures, blink back the sleep and rejoice in your Savior!
Action - Preachers should suggest a number of practical applications for the principles they present, but it is hearers who must apply God’s Word to their own lives. The best applications are those that come from a sound understanding of Scripture passionately embraced. The Word of God understood and felt will spur you to action. Even without any emphasis on application, a Christ-centered sermon can prompt people to radical love, commitment and action.
Pay attention to these promptings. Capture them in your memory. Test them by Scripture. Jot down a few notes or resolutions to remind yourself of how God has directed you. If we come to God during the sermon ready to have priorities and plans redirected, we may hear much more than ever before.
Hearing a sermon well is not a passive activity like watcing TV. God calls us to actively engage our minds, our hearts and our wills as we listen to the preaching of the Word.
- Pastor Seth
