I think the answer is ‘yes’, 
by the way! This article at TGC got me going on the subject.
My favourite quote:
It is strange that we teach young people complex calculus and physics but don’t think they can handle or will be interested in understanding the significance of the Trinity or atonement.
Strange indeed! Do we need to give our young people more credit?
How to listen to a sermon (Tues 17th Apr, 2012)
Take care then how you hear – Luke 8:18
How many sermons do you think you’ve heard over the years? Thousands, possibly. (I must have preached getting on for 300 at LWC alone and about 500 overall) But how many messages have you heard about how to listen to a sermon? I can’t think of one; yet it’s a key part of worship and Christian growth. When we hear a good/faithful sermon, we are hearing God’s message, God’s word.
A minister I spoke to recently told me how helpful his fellowship had found it, considering how to listen to a sermon, but also how he prepared one. Really the whole church should be involved in the process of preparing a message, hearing it and responding to it. Tonight’s study is aimed at helping us all in that.
So I’ve outlined some practical steps to the process of preparing for and listening to and responding to a sermon:
1. Pray for the preacher!
a. In a sense, you get the sermons you pray for! Do you have ‘roast preacher’ after church!? Did you pray for him?
b. For most pastors, the Sunday sermon takes up a large chunk of the week and they need your help in prayer. In my case, I usually …
i. Read passage. Help w Gk / Heb
ii. Reflect and pray
iii. Basic structure
iv. Commentaries (Not twenty like Macarthur! 4-6! BTW I’ve heard it said that Mac takes 4 full days to prepare a sermon! I aim for 2, minimum, 2.5 if I can)
v. Draft and re-draft
vi. Pray, pray, pray and preach!
vii. Pray for the sermon that’s gone forth
c. Praying for the preacher gets him (and you) ready for the preaching!
2. Prepare your heart for the word
a. Read the passage beforehand. 90% of the time it’s on the website. Get your mind and heart ready for the message by praying. God will start to speak to you before Sun morning! Do some digging yourself. Healthy adults feed themselves and don’t rely on spoon-feeding!
b. Pray for a heart that is good soil – cf Lk 8:15
c. Piper: Purify your mind by turning away from worldly entertainment. James 1:21: “Put aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” How do you receive the implanted word? By putting aside all filthiness and wickedness. This is what makes the word “unreceivable.” It astonishes me how many Christians watch the same banal, empty, silly, trivial, titillating, suggestive, immodest TV shows that most unbelievers watch – and then wonder why their spiritual lives are weak and their worship experience is shallow with no intensity. If you really want to hear the Word of God the way he means to be heard in truth and joy and power, turn off the television on Saturday night and read something true and great and beautiful and pure and honorable and excellent and worthy of praise (see Philippians 4:8). Then watch your heart unshrivel and begin to hunger for the word of God
3. Listen attentively on Sunday
a. Remember that listening and responding is worship
b. Notes or not? If they help: yes!
c. Remember there is always more to learn, more light to break forth, more challenges to respond to
4. Be a Berean!
a. Acts 17:11 – be noble. Take the sermon back to scripture and check it out!
b. (The word is infallible, the preacher isn’t!)
5. Feedback to the preacher
a. Don’t often hear this request but I think it’s important
b. What did you think? What do you feel? What’s your response?
6. Start praying for next Sunday again!
You are all involved – with me – in this. We all worship together in this process if we do it right. Will you be faithful prayer partners? Will you be Bereans?
Tonight we’re considering this topic and I’ll be sharing a little about my Sermon prep too, to help people in their prayers for me each week. (It’s humbling to read how even preaching ‘giants’ like John MacArthur, who have been at the work for years, still need to put in the hours.)
But the preparation and delivery of a sermon is – in one sense – the task of the whole church, not just the preacher, as my notes (next post) reflect. This is also true of the outworking and living-out of the message preached. This comes across in a most helpful article by Phil Ryken at Ref 21, which I came across this week.
Here’s his closing challenge:
Do you know how to listen to a sermon? Listening–really listening–takes a prepared soul, an alert mind, an open Bible, and a receptive heart. But the best way to tell if we are listening is by the way that we live. Our lives should repeat the sermons that we have heard. As the apostle Paul wrote to some of the people who listened to his sermons, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:2-3; NKJV).
‘the Gibraltar of Christian evidences, the Waterloo of infidelity [unbelief]’ (R A Torrey)
It hasn’t been going that long, but so far Credo magazine is shaping up to be a quality magazine on biblical and theological issues. The current issue focuses on inclusivism, a hot topic and certainly one that the younger generation in evangelical churches (and outside) are going to be wondering about.
Here’s the blurb for the January issue:
The January issue argues for the exclusivity of the gospel, especially in light of the movement known as inclusivism. This issue will seek to answer questions like: Can those who have never heard the gospel of Christ be saved? Will everyone be saved in the end or will some spend an eternity in hell? Must someone have explicit faith in Christ to be saved? Contributors include David Wells, Robert Peterson, Michael Horton, Gerald Bray, Todd Miles, Todd Borger, Ardel Caneday, Nathan Finn, Trevin Wax, Michael Reeves, and many others
If you haven’t yet, take a look …
Time and space don’t allow me to do proper reviews of some of the books I’ve been (and still am) reading. But in case any of these brief summaries are of help, here are some in-a-nutshell looks at the books I’ve enjoyed (or struggled through) since my last update in September:
Cover-to-cover reads:
Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones – the First Forty Years – 1899 – 1939 – Iain H Murray. (Banner of Truth).
Inspiring biography of Lloyd Jones’ early life, call to the ministry and first pastorate in Sandfields, Port Talbot. If you’re not sure about the priority of biblical preaching, read this! Very readable and enjoyable, IMO, whether you’re a minister or not!
Christians Get Depressed Too – David Murray. (Kindle e-book)
I’d warmly recommend this to anyone, as a balanced treatment of depression. It’s short, very readable and practical; and it’s balanced in that it doesn’t claim (as some do) that Christians shouldn’t get depressed or that all depression has a spiritual cause. Whether you suffer from depression or know someone who does, this is a vital read. It will either encourage you that you’re not alone and that there is hope, or it will help you help a friend who does suffer from depression. (Brilliant price as a Kindle e-book by the way!)
From Fear to Faith – DM Lloyd Jones. (IVP)
Punchy, short, incisive commentary (or rather a selection of sermons) on Habakkuk. Helped me immensely as I preached through Habakkuk recently.
The Weight of Glory – CS Lewis. (Zondervan)
A superb selection of essays from Lewis. The best-known, and probably the best, is the Weight of Glory. But some of the others are humdingers (I liked ‘Why I am not a Pacifist’ and had my brain stretched by ‘Transposition’). I’d recommend this to anyone wanting to exercise their philosophical muscles or who just loves the way CS Lewis writes. You don’t have to agree with everything he says (you probably won’t!) in order to benefit.
From Creation to New Creation – Tim Chester. (Good Book Co)
I’ve been using this to help with the Bible Overview series we’re doing at LWC. The themes that Chester uses are those of People, Place, King and Kingdom. But it’s almost worth the price just for the diagrams! (Did I mention I’m a diagram geek!?)
The Suffering of God – Dennis Ngien (Regent College Publishing)
I wouldn’t heartily recommend this, to be honest. Not because it’s dodgy or unhelpful. But because I don’t think I personally know many people who’d enjoy and benefit from reading it. This is basically a PhD dissertation and it’s an impressive analysis of Luther’s thinking on the communicatio idiomatum and whether and how the divine nature of Christ suffered and experienced death. I do think it’s good for pastors to read books like this to stretch themselves, from time to time. But I haven’t quite finished it yet, despite having started it a few months ago, and despite it being an important and fascinating subject in itself. And this is mainly because, whenever I pick it up to read, (especially when there’s a lot of Latin) I tend to lose the will to live after about three pages …
A Praying Life – Paul E Miller
Brilliant, practical, readable and encouraging book for all Christians. If you struggle to pray at all – get this book! The basic thesis is: come to God as a child to his father!
50 Christians Everyone Should Know – Warren Wiersbe
Illuminating and often amusing vignettes from the lives of well-known Christians over the centuries. Not much detail, but enough to slake your curiosity if you’ve heard a name but don’t know much about it. I enjoyed the chapter on Kitty Luther.
Union With Christ – Robert Letham
A proper ‘theological book’, this one, like the Suffering of God, above, but much more accessible. It’s certainly not superficial – it’s taken me a few weeks of on-and-off reading alongside my other reading, despite not being a big book. But it’s easy to get into if you’re used to reading theology. The subject of union with Christ is fascinating, neglected and massively encouraging for those who love Jesus. What does it mean that we’re in Christ, that we’re part of his body, that we abide in him, that we are branches of the vine? When do we become united to him? How does this relate to justification, sanctification, our hope of resurrection and eternal life? Letham traces the history of the doctrine and its biblical foundations, and throws in some interesting illustrations and analogies. If you’re a pastor, elder or preacher I’d warmly recommend this excellent book.
Dip in-and-out or bit-by-bit reads:
Classic Christianity – Thomas Oden
Systematic theology from a mainly classical through to reformation-era perspective. A different and very illuminating way of doing systematics from the small amount I’ve read so far. (BTW, Oden’s journey itself – from liberalism to evangelicalism – is worth reading about!)
Christian Theology – Millard Erickson
Grudem refers to Erickson a lot, so I was interested. Not as broad as Grudem, but more in-depth and analytical. Not too heavy though, and you won’t need much more priming in theology for this than you would coming to Grudem for the first time. He brings a fresh perspective in several areas.
The Gospel of John – Craig Keener
Massive two-volume commentary on John to help me in my current preaching series. A nice companion for Don Carson and Leon Morris, I find. In commenting on John 1 he emphasises the Torah aspect of Christ’s being the Logos, far more than Carson and Morris. So far he seems excellent on the Jewish background and has been a great help to me. However, the introduction and bibliography are pretty intimidating!
Other Stuff:
With the Old Breed – EB Sledge
Gritty and unflinching. If you’re a fan of The Pacific, you’ve got to read this. It won’t take you long, I guarantee.
Compared to the Old Breed, this is much lighter and more like a Boys’ Own adventure. You couldn’t make this stuff up, and I was hooked! Whilst it doesn’t completely skim the cost and horror of war, it doesn’t make you flinch like Sledge’s first-hand experiences in a very different campaign.
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More Christmas books are on the go. I’ll keep you posted!
Some good food for thought from Kevin DeYoung regarding evening services. We’re sort of going against the flow (God willing!) in that we’re planning to have evening meetings every week (rather than once a month) by the end of the year.
