Listen Better - Part 7 of 7 - Apply the Sermon

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 6 - Revisit the Sermon

We have not come to the preaching merely to hear what we do not know, but to be incited to do our duty. ~ John Calvin

Leaving a sermon you should be motivated to love God more, hate sin more, help people more, and obey God’s Word more. This is why it is a poor sermon that puffs up the audience to think they have somehow reached the pinnacle of sanctification or that their community has all of its needs met. Many sermons will declare "Peace, peace!" when there is no peace, and in so doing will lull their hearers into a sense of security and comfort when no-such luxury exists in the world.

The sermon should always exalt Christ and humble men. It was to this effect that Benjamin Franklin wrote of the preaching of George Whitefield, “The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous…and how much they admired and respected him, notwithstanding his common abuse of them, by assuring them they were naturally ‘half beasts and half devils.’” Whitefield said of preaching, “It is a poor sermon that gives no offense, that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.”

Therefore, this is one of the harder articles to write, I could sink to moralism to tell you how to respond in every case. But, dear reader, the point is not in the act, but in the impetus to respond to how you are convicted. Haddon Robinson went so far as to call a direct application heresy, because in telling a congregation exactly what to do, the preacher denies the work of the Holy Spirit. Robinson instead recommends something to the effect, “This is the principle, and the principle is clear. How this principle applies in our lives may differ with different people in different situations.”

One thing is clear and concrete: If you sit under the most wonderful preaching but fail to act on it, you will at once forget what you heard. James writes that, 

If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. ~ James 1:23-25

Charles Spurgeon, a man with a vocabulary that could make a dictionary blush for inadequacy, once gave the application thusly,

Dear reader, after you sit under the Word of God next, I implore you, do something with that sermon once you’ve heard it!

Listen Better - Part 6 of 7 - Revisit the Sermon

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 5 - Take Notes

The last installment dealt with taking notes DURING the sermon. Taking notes is a great way to ensure you are engaging your brain to focus on main points and record them. But the best notes, mental or physical, are meant to be revisited.

Therefore, after you leave the meeting house, revisit the sermon and consider what you learned. The prime time for Satan to snatch the Word from you is after it is sown (cf. Matthew 13:19). Consider what you learned, what you were convicted about, and what the application was.

It helps to discuss it with someone, this has the added benefit that they may have been convicted by something you weren’t, or in a different way than you were. If something was unclear the two of you may be able to clarify it to one another or discover that it requires clarification from the pastor or further research.

Further, you may be just the person to encourage your companion, or he may be able to encourage you, to respond to the command of the passage. History is replete with men and women who resolved to give their lives to foreign missions but who did not immediately have opportunity to do so, only afterward when someone provided an opportunity did they revisit their call and then go on to attempt great things for God while expecting great things from God. The biography of Nate Saint offers one such example.

Then, reread the sermon passage at least once; the Bereans are called noble, and their response to hearing great preaching was to examine the scriptures (Acts 17:11). We are fools to think that we can reach the full potential God has called us to if we live in a vacuum. Our pastor, our teachers, our fellow-workers are gifts from God to shine light on the scriptures so that in revisiting their thoughts—and the things the Holy Spirit has revealed to them—as we read the scriptures we are growing in our resolve and understanding to know the Word of God, and in knowing it, to obey it.

So: what did you hear preached last? Open that passage and consider what you heard, and see if God does not grow your faith through the endeavor.

Part 7 - Apply the Sermon

Listening Comprehension Quiz

This video shows a dangerous situation that ended better than it could have. The analysis by the pilot shows that this successful emergency landing was not on accident. The following quiz uses this entertaining video to teach them how to listen. Recommended ages 5-105.

P-51 Emergency Landing at Duxford – Listening Comprehension Test 

When did the pilot, Mark Levi, say he needed to know the emergency procedures?

   a.       When the engine stopped

   b.       When he realized he couldn’t make it to the airport

   c.       Before he ever flew the airplane and before every flight

   d.       Before he got his pilot’s license

The pilot said “Don’t make your emergency someone else’s emergency.” How did he do this?

   a.       By keeping the canopy on the airplane so it didn’t land on anyone

   b.       By not trying to cross the freeway to reach the airport

   c.       By turning away from the airport which was crowded with people

   d.       All of the Above

When the engine sputtered the first time, what did the pilot say he SHOULD have done?

   a.       Ignore it since the engine started running again

   b.       Make a precautionary landing

   c.       Deny that there was a problem

   d.       Get ready for it to happen again

Is it more important to save the airplane or the pilot? Extra credit: Write out why below.

   a.       Pilot

   b.       Airplane

When you know you are going to crash, what should you do?

   a.       Give up because you can’t land safely

   b.       Fly the airplane as far into the crash as you can

   c.       Get close to the ground then hold on tight

When you have too many things going on, what is it called?

   a.       Task Saturation

   b.       Over busy

   c.       Underwhelmed

   d.       Overwhelmed

What mistake did task saturation cause the pilot to make?

   a.       Lowered his landing gear because someone told him to, even though you should not land a P-51 off-airport with the gear down, and it causes you to slow down in the air too quickly

   b.       Missed the airport

   c.       Landed in the wrong field

Listen Better – Part 5 of 7 – Take Notes

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 4 - Take Every Thought Captive

Part of being a good listener is understanding that much of what you are receiving will require recall in the future. Sometimes someone may yell, “Duck!” or “Watch Out!” and your instantaneous action (or inaction) will suffice to show whether you were listening. But most of our listening requires some sort of memory creation and recollection.

For this reason we must make every effort to remember what were are hearing so we can revisit and use the information we’ve received. We see this is multiple places in scripture, we see Mary treasuring up the events of Christ’s birth in her heart (Luke 2:19), we see the disciples remembering things that Christ had said and did after his resurrection (John 2:22), and Paul requests Timothy to bring his notes and scripture to him in prison (2 Timothy 4:13). There are myriad other places that this occurs, and also places where forgetfulness leads to disaster (Consider at minimum Genesis 40:23, Hosea 4:6, & Mark 8:14,17).

These notes can be taken mentally or physically. They can be simple or comprehensive. They can be a jot or a paragraph. I have in my Bible a line through the 10 at the beginning of John 10, that simple line reminds me that there is no time that passes between the end of John 9 and the beginning of John 10 and that they are meant to be understood together. Other times I have extensive notes, for example Jonah Chapter 1.5 is my consolidated notes on most (not quite everything) of what I know about the Book of Jonah that isn’t directly contained in the text. The amount of notes may vary and even the quality, but the important thing is something that reminds and helps you to recollect.

This article is not meant to teach you how to best recall, there are a nearly infinite number of resources available that will teach you how to best take notes, the important thing is that you are taking notes about what you’re reading and hearing from God. A couple of things I recommend in my “Simple Listening Handout” are to ask yourself, “How would I teach this?”, “What should I ask the pastor to clarify?” & “What should I further research?”

As I’ve grown older I’ve realized that what I put into my brain is not incorruptible or perpetual. Things I thought I would remember forever have faded into obscurity. I’ve learnt not to trust myself to simply remember a Bible verse, but that it’s good to have a Bible readily available when I think I can simply recall a verse. It reminded me of this verse from Psalm 73:26, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

One final aside, some of the great men of history were known to either be men of one 
singular focus, or to keep extensive lists. May we do both! May our singular focus be the glory of Christ proclaimed, but may we also have a reminder of how we intend to do it! I have seen my productivity soar in keeping notes, lists, and utilizing the “task organizers” within Microsoft Outlook and Gmail. I no longer trust myself to “remember to do that later”, now I write it down, whether it is a clear command from God from scripture, a needed conversation, or simply an encouraging word. I was at a recent conference (Refuel 2019) and the notebook they handed out said it so well,

Inspiration Unrecorded Is Quickly Forgotten.

May we heed that warning in our lives!

Part 6 - Revisit the Sermon

Listen Better - Part 4 of 7 - Take Every Thought Captive

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 3 - Read the Word

If you had the opportunity to listen to Jesus, what would you do? That’s not as clear-cut an answer as many of us would think. For example Peter—when given the opportunity to see Jesus in transfiguration and listen to God from Heaven—instantly distracted himself by asking questions (Mark 9:6).  Martha of Bethany likewise had the opportunity not just to hear from Jesus, but to have him in her house, and yet she distracted herself with much serving (Luke 10:40).

We do have the opportunity to listen to Jesus every Sunday, indeed every day, but many of us—nay all—distract ourselves in any number of ways. In order to be a better listener we need to, like Martha’s sister Mary, choose the good portion of listening to the Lord (Luke 10:41-42).

This is a cognizant decision we must make. I recently attended a conference where Richard Blackaby spoke, amid other points he warned ministers not to be so busy that they don’t get anything done. He mentioned a man who worked for him who was always running around in a tizzy. After some time Blackaby took stock of what the busy man actually did, and there was not a quantifiable level of work to justify keeping him as an employee. Blackaby sort-of-joked, but also very seriously quipped, that he could not afford to employ someone who kept so busy.

Many of us run into church this way, consumed with getting children and ourselves just perfect on the outside, making plans for lunch, making plans for dinner, trying to apply the sermon even before its preached, interacting with the nursery via text, updating social media with profound pastoral quotes, and just plain letting our minds wander.

There are two kinds of distraction in this world: Those you can correct and those you can’t.

If you are constantly distracted by the kid who sits in front of you, then do yourself a favor and correct that distraction by sitting in front of him. Last I checked, the front row is almost always open. Do your phone notifications break your concentration? Turn it off or leave it in the car. Is it too cold in the auditorium? Bring a jacket or talk to your friendly maintenance staff. That reminds me, maybe the distraction can be fixed, but not under your power. If it’s distracting you, it’s distracting others. Is the woman doing interpretive dance and playing her tambourine distracting from you concentrating on the Word of God? You need to talk to her, then the church leaders, and then maybe you need to find another church if the preaching of the Word is not central. Are cell phones always going off or people always coming in and out? Ask church leaders to address it from the pulpit: very few people in church are purposefully trying to steal your attention.

But, sometimes there are distractions you can’t fix. We recently had an electrical ground fail which induced a nasty feedback loop into our projector. During the entire time the projector was on it slowly scrolled a yellow line across the presentation. It’s fixed now, but over the months that it was present was the congregation excused from being attentive to the Word of God because they could not take that distraction captive? No, this is why Paul said not to take every distraction captive, but every thought!

Determine to remove as many distractions as you feasibly can, both for your sake and for the sake of your church. But also determine to be so attentive to God’s Word that even if distractions arise, they will not cause you to miss the good portion.

Identify that all distractions are transient but the things of God are eternal and you will focus on what is honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy!

Part 5 - Take Notes