Talk It Over - How to Hear a Sermon

Recently I have been providing a discussion guide for the Sunday morning sermon to be used during the week. I am calling these discussion guides Talk it Over as a reminder to not just hear the sermon but to talk it over. I encourage those of you who hear the sermon to dig deeper through conversations about the biblical text as well as the key points made from the text. Obviously this means first hearing the sermon which leads to this question. How do you go about hearing a sermon? Really, how do you do that?

You may say, ‘that is easy-you just sit there and listen.’ Let me suggest that if you just sit there, that you probably will do everything but listen! Some see fidgety children wiggling in their seats and reason that they could not possibly be paying attention. If the truth be told, adults, unlike the wiggling child, can and do sit perfectly still but may not hear half of what the child hears. So, just how then does one go about hearing a sermon? Consider these suggestions and see how many and how often you do them.

• ·         Bring your Bible to the worship service and follow along when passages are read.
• ·         Take notes on the sermon. Listen for the main points and other key points. Write down the Bible references that are mentioned. Are there specific statements that God seems to be saying that apply directly to your life?
• ·         Pray before and during the sermon for the preacher.
• ·         Sit as near the front as is practical and possible for you.
• ·         Silence your cell phone. Unless you are expecting an important and necessary text or e-mail, do not look at your phone during the service. Texting during a sermon will not get you a ticket but it will get you so off focus that you probably will miss something you need to hear.
• ·         Prepare the night before by getting your clothes picked out and ready. Get as much ready the night before as you can realistically do. This prevents you from coming to church rushed, late and frazzled on Sunday morning which virtually guarantees you will have difficulty following the sermon. If you have young children, this is almost essential.
• ·         Take time as the sermon ends to consider what God is saying to you? What does He want you to do with what you have just heard?

Having heard the sermon you are now ready to ‘Talk It Over’ with family or friends. Perhaps the admonition of James would be helpful:  ^"22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For 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. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ 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 1:22-25

Pastor Chuck