Teaching Tuesday: Be the Church - Preach the Word, Hear the Word

Series: Be the Church
Sermon: Preach the Word, Hear the Word (11.17.24)

I hope by now you’ve had a chance to read through your Listen Up! A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons booklet we distributed after service on Sunday. 

As I said in my message, the preacher-audience relationship is a mutual one; it requires something of both groups. 

On my end, it requires prayer, study, preparation, and knowing the congregation so my messages are for a specific people in a specific context.

On the audience’s end, it requires an attitude of receptivity, an open mind, and a heart that yearns for the truth. 

Sermons aren’t just a transfer of information - even godly and biblical information - but a call to act on that information and be moved to transformation, onward and upward toward Christlikeness. 

I’ve been reading through the book Love Your Church: 8 Great Things About Being a Church Member by Tony Merida. Merida says we need to approach listening to sermons with active minds and hearts, because “...if the preacher is truly saying what God has said in his word, and declaring what God has done in his Son, then the preacher is bringing you an authoritative word, and a life-changing word of good news.”

He lays out eight ways sermon-listeners can get more out of their sermon-listening:

Listen Humbly
Receive the word with “meekness” (James 1:21). This is the first key to learning scripture: humility. We don’t stand over scripture and criticize it, we sit under it and allow it to confront us, instruct us, and change us. 

Listen Intently
Fight to stay alert. Consider saying “Amen” (Nehemiah 8:6) when you hear something good. Consider taking notes. Resist the urge to check out mentally. Remember that something supernatural and eternal is taking place. 

Listen Biblically
Use your mind and your Bible (Acts 17:10-15). 

Listen Personally
Listen for yourself, not just for someone else. Don’t come to critique the pastor’s sermon but come ready to be addressed from God’s word. 

Listen Communally 
Listen for the good of your brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Listen Obediently
Don’t merely be a receiver of the word, be prepared to be a doer of it. Listen in order to make disciples of all nations. 

Listen Practically 
Think about the specific ways you can apply the message to your life. 

Listen Gratefully 
Be thankful that God speaks to his people, including you! 

I encourage each of us to utilize these approaches as we listen to sermons so we can grow in discipleship individually and grow in unity and cohesion as a church body.

To know Him and make Him known!
- Pastor Brady