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