Listen Better - Part 1 of 7 - Introduction

I recently launched my doctoral project to make the church better at listening to God’s Word. Nearly three years of research has gone into this project and it has been a blessing—to say the least—to delve both into God’s Word and into the writings and sermons of great saints who have addressed this same topic.

Did you know there are more commands in God’s Word to listen well than to preach well? And yet we have erected entire seminaries devoted to teaching people how to preach and have largely neglected the importance of listening well.

If you consider a real flock of sheep, there are many sheep but a single pastor. The pastor has many tools to shepherd his flock: his voice, a rod and/or staff, a sheepdog or a donkey, well-worn paths, etc. The sheep on the other hand are called to listen to their pastor and to discern his voice from any number of competing voices.

So, beloved, how do you listen? Do you hear the voice of your shepherd? Can you discern his voice from one that sounds very similar? I’m not talking about the voice of your earthly pastor, I’m talking about the Overseer of your soul. Martin Luther put it this way,

The right sort of preacher should faithfully and diligently preach nothing but the Word of God and seek His glory and honor alone. The hearer likewise should say, ‘I do not believe in my pastor, but he tells me of another Lord whose name is Christ; Him he declares unto me, and I will listen to his words so far as he leads me to this true master and preceptor, God’s own Son.’[1]

This article and the subsequent six articles are my attempt to make you a better listener to God’s Word. I have condensed all that I have learned into six principles (I followed the template of Joel Beeke to break them into Before, During, and After the Sermon), there are many, many other ways you can become a better listener and nearly infinite nuances to the six I have chosen, but I believe strongly that if you attempt these six in the way they are written, you will see an improvement in your own hearing.

I would appreciate your feedback and encouragement or discouragement as you work through these six principles. Comments may be left anonymously, or long replies may be sent to canyon.shearer@gmail.com or via telephone: e-mail for my phone number.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God’s Word, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

By the way, step 3, taking every thought captive, definitely addresses not letting your attention to God’s Word be stolen by errors or even outright sins of the preacher, so in case you see the typo, don’t let it detract from the spiritual lessons of the card. (Who knows, maybe I put that typo there on purpose to teach you a vital lesson!)

Thus concludes
Part 1 - Introduction

Continue reading:
Part 2 - Pray Before the Sermon
Part 3 - Read the Word
Part 4 - Take Every Thought Captive
Part 5 - Take Notes
Part 6 - Revisit the Sermon
Part 7 - Apply the Sermon

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[1]Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: a Contemporary Hermeneutical Method (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 1999), 123.