This is the fourth, and last, post in a series of four.

In my first post, I stated that I’ve found at least five ways we can faithfully listen to a sermon in a way that seeks Christ, honors the word of God and blesses the sanctified believer. In my second post, I discussed the first two of these points. In my last post, I discussed the third and fourth point. Today, I’ll conclude this series by going over the fourth and final point:

4. Think about how the message is binding on your life

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

This may sound obvious, but it still deserves attention. The way most of us talk about application in preaching is whether, or how, the preacher applied the ideas of the text to the lives of his listeners. For example: as one listening to a sermon, I might consider if the preacher did a good job of explaining how the biblical text specifically applies to my life.

This is a dire necessity, of course, but it might be helpful–to the listener–to think of sermon application as more the act of the one hearing the message. Sure, the preacher can and must show the relevance and significance of a text for our lives, but only we, by the power of the Spirit of God, can actually apply the truth to our lives. Again, this takes an active engaging in the biblical truth being proclaimed. There can be a truly beautiful and organic dialogue taking place during the sermon event between God, preacher, and congregation all at the same time!

Truth be told, a lot of the time our complaints of a pastor’s sermons not being relevant enough actually indicate our laziness, not the preacher’s incompetence. In a time like ours when all kinds of authority are being called into question (perhaps rightly in some instances), we have to consciously work against all self-induced cynicism. It jades our reception of God’s word.

God is our authority, and he lovingly exercises that authority by his Word in the Church.

So, when we sit under the teaching of our pastors, we consider the words of the apostle Paul, remembering that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. We can ask ourselves, “What sin is this addressing in my life that I need to repent of?” “What kind of encouragement can I receive from this?” “What do I believe about God that needs to be corrected or reenforced by this text?” The possibilities for application multiply numerously as we think about it in this way.

Conclusion

Don’t waist your Sundays! It is rare enough that God’s people are gathered together corporately for the unified purpose of hearing God speak and so being built up and worshiping him. Why just go through the motions when we can anticipate God speaking to us through his Word and actively receive it with faith? I hope this series has been helpful! Feel free to offer critique or offer any additional thoughts you might have on the subject.

God bless.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

This is the third post in a series of four.

In my first post, I stated that I’ve found at least five ways we can faithfully listen to a sermon in a way that seeks Christ, honors the word of God and blesses the sanctified believer. In my last post, I discussed the first two of these points. Today, let’s go over the next two:

3. Think about what is being said

How often do we sift through the words that are preached to weigh the biblical truths that are being taught?

Not everything that is said from a pulpit or stage in church should be taken ipso-facto. In the New Testament church, even the prophecies spoken in the church at Corinth were to be weighed (1 Cor. 14:29). We can actively engage the content of the message by asking questions such as: “Is this true?” “Do I concur? And if not, do I need to repent?” “How is this shown from the scriptural passage?” “Is there something I don’t understand about this?” “Is this argument coherent and sensible?” “Does this message exalt Christ or man?”

Part of the problem, I think, is that TV,music and other media has sadly conditioned us to listen passively, expecting to be entertained. We are hoping to be served well–all along getting our proverbial fix–by what we are hearing. Hearing a sermon takes a measure of concentration combined with faith, so that the information doesn’t just come to a standstill in our minds, but rather, it sinks into our hearts and changes us.

4. Pray for yourself

Sound self-centered? It’s not meant to be. Praying for yourself acknowledges that you humbly recognize your place: that through his word, it is God who speaks and it is we who listen.

Preaching is a mysterious and spiritual event, not just a physical one.  From beginning to end, the building up of the church that takes place during a sermon can only take place by the work of the Holy Spirit. The preacher does not just deliver information to those listening; he is speaking words that (in so far as they are faithful to the Biblical text he is speaking) are impingent upon people as God’s word.

Preaching is really an act of  worshipful submission for the Church. Think about it. This is why Paul can remind Timothy of his role as pastor by saying, “Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” (1 Tim. 4:11-12) What we need in order to submit is humility, a right consideration of ourselves and our place. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that my heart is not always in submission mode when I come to hear my pastor preach Sunday mornings. Though, it needs to be.

It helps if we pray  before–or even during–the sermon, submitting our hearts to God and his Word and asking that His Spirit would open our hearts and illumine the truths of Scripture being set before us.

(…to be continued…)

• Part 1
• Part 2

This is the second post in a series of four.

In my last post, I stated that I’ve found at least five ways we can faithfully listen to a sermon in a way that seeks Christ, honors the word of God and blesses the sanctified believer. Today, I’ll discuss the first two:

1. Listen for the big idea

Not every sermon has a clear and concise theme statement that is repeated throughout, nor does every sermon need one. The basic concept is this: everyone who attempts to preach a sermon is talking about something—or rather some theme. Have you ever noticed that good preaching usually has some kind of unity to its message? Thus, it is helpful for us, when listening, to look for this united theme. A helpful way to get at the main theme of a sermon is to ask, What is my pastor saying? or What is the text talking about? then, What is he saying about what he is talking about?

For example: Is he talking about prayer? What is he saying about prayer, other than that we should do it?

Also, when listening for the big idea, it is of foremost importance to mindfully ask ourselves: What does this say about sin? What does this say about sin in my own life? These things considered, what does this say about my wonderful Savior?

After all, Christ and him crucified is always integral to Christian preaching (1 Corinthians 2:2).

2. Pray for the preacher

The act of preaching is very complex. A lot of things happen in sermon delivery both in the minds of the audience and the preachers. We listeners can often be naïve in considering how difficult the preachers task actually is. When listening to a sermon—or even preaching one—becomes routine, it is so easy to ignore how the sermon was prepared, and even how it is delivered.

Your pastors are concentrating on explicating a biblical passage and bringing it to bear on peoples lives in the midst of much unseen opposition. Things like stress, illness, discouragement, hostility from congregants, a sense of personal inadequacy while at the same time guarding against pride, or any fun conglomeration of psychological states that might be impinging upon your pastor as he strives to faithfully deliver a message from the Word of God, to build up the people of God.

Thus, the least we could do is pray for our brother-in-Christ, the preacher, who has been gifted by God with an enormous responsibility. Just as the apostle Paul asked that the Church would pray for him in his own efforts for the Gospel (Col. 4:3, 1 Thess. 5:25), we can pray that the pastor would have clarity of thought and word, personal conviction, and  a right understanding of his role and task. We pray also for the implementation of the message, the pastor’s growth in love for God and the congregation, and even boldness as he inevitably will come across truths that will not be received well.

In considering today’s two points: listening for the big idea and praying for the preacher, let us pray in humility and ask ourselves: Am I mindful of the big idea being preached? Am I allowing the gospel message to confront my sin and exalt my Savior? Do I pray for my preacher in a way that I would want someone to pray for me, if I were in his shoes? Do I love and encourage him as a brother?

(…to be continued…)

• Part 1

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Listening to a sermon… the faithful preaching of God’s word. Sounds important, right?

I’ve read many a book on how to preach a sermon in my formal theological education days. What I have not read is a book on how to listen to a sermon. An obviously important goal in a sermon preached is making sure that it is listened—and received. Ironically, that is what many people in our churches are unable to or unwilling to do.

This creates an inevitable problem: not only can there be a lot of bad preachers in our churches, but there can also be a lot of bad listeners. And if you think about it, there are far more listeners than there are preachers, aren’t there? In any given week, you will find more people that listen to sermons than you will find people that preach them.

In affirming this fact, John Calvin described the preaching event as being only half the role of the pastor/preacher. The event of preaching involves the whole worshiping church. The very action of the congregation in receiving that which is preached is not a passive one. The listening that goes on in the congregation during a sermon should be a “listening of faith.”

I’ve found that there are five ways that we can faithfully listen to a sermon in a way that seeks Christ, honors the word of God and blesses the sanctifying believer. I’ll go over each of them over the next few days.

In the meantime, let’s ask ourselves: How much care do I give to the faithful act of listening to a sermon? Am I positioned in a place of reverence? Am I mindful of the word of God preached?

In praying for the nation of Haiti, I find myself returning to the words of It Is Well With My Soul. The classic hymn was written by Horatio Spafford, a man who was sadly all too familiar with death and tragedy. In 1871, Spafford suffered the tragic death of his only son to scarlet fever. Shortly thereafter, while grieving the death of their son, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the entire city. A successful businessman and lawyer at the time, Spafford lost everything. While he and his wife Anna began piecing their lives back together, his friend and an acclaimed Bible teacher, D.L. Moody, suggested the family take a much-needed vacation. Since Moody was preaching in England at the time, Spafford followed his advice and planned a European vacation with his family. They would board the S.S. Ville du Havre to travel there. Since business concerns left in the rubble of the Great Chicago Fire demanded his time, Spafford sent his family—Anna and their four daughters—ahead of him.

En route over the Atlantic, the ship collided with an iron shipping vessel and sank rapidly thereafter. All four of his daughters drowned. His wife Anna, one of the few survivors, arrived in Europe to send her husband the now famous telegram, “Saved alone.” With a grieving and broken heart, Horatio Spafford immediately departed for England to join his devastated wife. When the ship’s captain told Spafford they were passing over the scene of the collision, immense sorrow overcame him, and he retreated to the ship’s cabin. Swallowed in unbearable grief, he wrote the words:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

A few years later, Horatio Spafford and his wife Anna bore three more children, losing one of them—another son—yet again to scarlet fever. Imagine the heartache. Could you imagine the sorrow? This man’s life was relentlessly marked with tragedy, loss and death. However, not once did he fold under his anger, sorrow or despair. Instead, against all worldly odds, he declared his hope and faith in a sovereign God—Jesus Christ.

And a few years later, by God’s amazing grace, the Spafford family eventually turned their sorrows and grief into compassion and mercy. They moved to Jerusalem and engaged in philanthropic work, ministering to the people there in the wake of World War I.

Our God saves.

In Christ, Our Ultimate Provision

This truth—that our God is a God who saves—was embraced by Horatio Spafford in such a way that he made clear to the world that Christ alone was his heart’s most valuable treasure and his greatest desire. In another verse of It Is Well With My Soul he writes:

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

What a testimony to share! You see, Horatio Spafford understood that he was no better, nor holier, than the next guy. He believed that all people—himself included—are inherently bad by both nature and choice. He had seen the devastating effects of a fallen world. Sin… tears… disease… death. And he knew who his only hope—our only hope—was: Jesus. Horatio Spafford placed the care of his soul in a wonderful Savior. If God were so loving and so gracious to pardon Spafford’s offenses against him, then what a wonderful God he must be. So let’s consider God’s testimony in the life of Horatio Spafford as we continue to pray for and minister to the Haitian people. Let’s consider this testimony as we will inevitably continue to face troubles and losses in our own lives.

And let us never forget that our God is a God who saves.

1 Peter 1:3-9

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,  who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Churches Helping Churches took footage from their recent trip to Haiti and produced the following presentation. Ex Nihilo‘s rendition of It Is Well With My Soul plays in the background.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well,
with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well with my soul.
Even still, it is well with my soul.

First of all, think about what this is actually saying: “You have your own special version of happiness that you need to find. And in case you didn’t know where to find that special happy place you’re longing for, we’re going to help you out. We will enhance your dating life. Once you find that person who matches you, completes you, and just makes you feel all warm inside, your search for happiness is over.” This is a horribly self-centered way to think about any sort of relationship. It is objectification. We objectify someone when we are concerned primarily with how that person caters to our needs. We turn them into an object by disregarding their personhood and seeing them only as a source of fulfillment. You set some person, or some quality of that person, in a place they were never meant to be:

The place of worship.

Why does this happen? Why the need to worship? to want? You have emptiness and a dissatisfaction with the way things are for a reason. They must and should be satisfied, but only by the One who put those desires within you, nothing else. That one is God. Not a thing. Not a person. People make horrible Gods. That should be self evident, but we so love to worship the wrong thing; it should be plain to us that we are coming to worship the wrong things—and wrong people—as our gods. This is not a new thing! People have always “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:23).

If you are unhappy and unsatisfied, please do not make the mistake of charging another human being with the task of gratifying that emptiness you feel. We do find great happiness and fulfillment in relationships, but if we lose the purpose of showing God as the one to be worshiped and treasured, we only deepen the emptiness of our own souls! I know that feeling is all too familiar for many of us.

Your version of happiness will not be enough if you look for and find it through cheesy Yahoo! Personals, or anything else in this world. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross made it possible for us to have a relationship with God. That is where true happiness found; because only in that relationship can you do what you were made to do. You were made to worship.

C. S. Lewis once said, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that i was made for another world.” Let’s look forward to this other perfect world we were created for and the One who prepares that world—God, the One who is truly worthy of our affection.

Check out his afterthoughts…

How rad is that? Giving God the glory when glory is due: all the time; win or lose. What an example.

My YouTube search also yielded this video of McCoy:

Now there’s a solid athletic role model for the kids. Thank you, Colt, and best of luck providence next year in the NFL.