Chruch bulletin:
The purpose of sermon listening is to respond to God in a way that honours Him. The response may be repentance, it may be obedience, it may be service, it may be thanksgiving, it may be praise, it may be consecration. It may be any number of things and often it is more than one thing. In order to respond well we must listen well. If we don’t hear with understanding and faith, we will not benefit from the sermon and we will not respond appropriately to what was preached.
Here are six tips to help us make the most of the sermons we hear.
Get a good night’s sleep. As many of us know, it is not always possible with babies and young children to have seven hours in the land of nod. But how often are people hampered on Sunday mornings because they were unnecessarily burning the midnight oil the previous night. We should know our limitations and not exceed them. Congregants sometimes endure laborious sermons, preachers sometimes endure yawning, even sleeping congregants. You won’t make use of a sermon if you cannot concentrate.
Pray before you leave home. On Sunday morning, find a quiet corner and seek the Lord. Pray that He would bless all aspects of the service, especially the ministry of His Word. Ask Him to prepare your heart as you come to worship Him and that you would not be distracted by unwanted thoughts or a wandering mind. Pray that He would minister to you according to your particular needs, desires, sins, challenges, decisions, and troubles. It is also important to confess sin and to come in a spirit of humility and thanksgiving.
If you know the sermon text, read and reflect upon it. One benefit of expository preaching is knowing at least some of the verses which are coming up in the next sermon. Along with prayer, spending time in meditation is a good way to prepare ourselves for the service. If we don’t know the text, it is still helpful to meditate on a portion of scripture. I most often use the psalms.
Jot down the key points / ideas. Some Christians like to take notes during the sermon, most probably don’t preferring just to listen. There is no right or wrong with this, whatever works best for you. An alternative to writing in church is to write when you get home. A skeleton outline with key ideas can be a helpful method to consolidate and reflect further upon the message.
Use the sermon as the basis for prayer during the week. Whatever has made an impression upon you, make it a point of prayer. Sometimes Christians struggle to know what to pray about, the weekly sermon hopefully provides a smorgasbord of useful material. Prayer is another way we consolidate what we have heard as well as responding to God with our praise, petitions, supplications, confessions and thanksgiving.
Discuss the sermon with others. There are two primary benefits of discussion. Firstly, we articulate what we have gleaned and this involves processing and digesting the information. Secondly, we listen to what others have gleaned and they may have picked up things we didn’t. The sermon can also be discussed with people who haven’t heard it. Hopefully it will speak to them while at the same time we continue to speak it to ourselves.
Good preaching means nothing without good listening and good responding. Just as the minister has his responsibilities with the sermon, so the listeners have theirs.