Have you ever been sitting in a church service and thought, “He’s gone five minutes over his usual time”?

There are all sorts of ways to be a sermon listener. Some people find themselves thinking, “I wish he would hurry up so that we can get home for lunch”—the impatient type. Some see the sermon as a good time to relax and reflect on God for an hour, and then get on with life—the philosophical type. Some see the sermon as a time to analyze a minister, and then debate his strengths and weaknesses over the roast dinner—the critical type. Others seem to find it a good time to catch up on sleep after a late night—the lazy type.

Which type are you? I hope that we can say none of the above, but I’m sure we all still have a lot to do in order to get the most out of our Sabbath services.

Our times in worship, both in public and private, should be life-changing and soul-searching. Sermons are primarily an opportunity to examine ourselves, our attitudes, our conduct, and, most importantly, our position before God. Our perspective on life can be changed in half an hour and our whole way of thinking conformed to God’s Word over many years.

Why Preaching?

Preaching is set forth in the New Testament as the primary means of learning from the Word of God:

• Jesus taught and preached (Matt. 11:1).

• Jesus commanded His disciples to go and teach all nations (Matt. 28:19–20).

• Philip preached in Samaria (Acts 8:5).

• It pleased God to use the foolishness of preaching to save sinners (1 Cor. 1:21).

• We are told God gifted men to teach the Word of God (Eph. 4:11).

How can we not esteem preaching as being central in our worship when it has always been God’s means of salvation? If we ignore preaching or do not make the best use of God’s appointed way of teaching us, then we cannot expect to learn more about God or grow in likeness to Jesus Christ.

Why Listen?

Our whole purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The purpose in listening to preaching is to learn more about God and our weaknesses before Him so that we may be made humble, in order that we may glorify him.

God’s Word tells us about God’s means of salvation and how we should live our lives in order to please Him in the light of His great salvation.

So what should preaching be about? The answer is simple—God’s Word. Preaching should not be used by ministers to voice their personal opinions or thoughts on life outside of the Word of God.

Prepare! Who? Me?

Yes, you! It’s not just the minister who has to prepare for sermons: we all do. It is so easy just to show up, sit down, and listen, but by doing so we will not necessarily hear God’s Word. In order to get the most out of preaching we must be in the right frame of mind and have our hearts ready to obey. This is something we can and must all work at.

There are three essential things we should do.

1. Pray. We all need to ask for God’s Spirit to indwell our minds and hearts to help us understand and obey God’s Word. Just as we have no ability in ourselves to turn to God from our sin, we cannot rely on our own independent ability to understand and obey God’s Word. Instead, we all need God’s Spirit to teach us and to live out our faith in Jesus Christ.

We can often pray informatively about each Sabbath’s sermon. If the minister is preaching from a series, we can read the passage during the week. We must pray for our ministers as they prepare for each Sabbath; pray that God will give them clarity of thought and guidance in explaining His Word. This will also give us a sense of expectancy.

2. Examine our lives. We must recognize our own sinfulness in God’s eyes and turn from a proud reliance on ourselves. When we do this, we will find ourselves helpless and hopeless. We must then cry to God for salvation from our sin and seek Him as master of our lives, the one worthy to be served.

Unless we listen to a sermon wanting to shape our lives in line with God’s Word no matter what the consequences, we will come away with some excuse not to do what God requires of us. Therefore we need to make an honest assessment of our lives, seeking to see ourselves as God sees us.

3. Wake up. It’s amazing how little you take in while you are asleep! (or tired). Dare we come to worship God while drowsy? He is the sovereign, all-powerful God and creator of all things to whom we must give account. Is it appropriate to come and worship him only half alert? Preparation for Sabbath worship starts on Saturday night. Is it more important to watch a late film on Saturday night or to come to God’s worship fully focused?

Listening

Now we get to the difficult part. Yes, it is difficult to try to listen and concentrate for a sustained period of time, but we all do it in school, when studying, and in work, day in, and day out. But it seems that when it comes to concentration for preaching, we can become lazy and have a limited attention span.

We are more inclined to study mathematics, art, music. sports, etc., but when it comes to God’s Word suddenly the brain seems to rebel. Of course, it will! Satan might not care much about you learning math! But he doesn’t want you getting serious about sermon listening. That is all the more reason to pray. If we pray for help in concentrating upon God’s Word and make the effort to concentrate, then God will answer and we will be able to listen better.

Note This

Some people find it easier to listen and remember by taking notes. There are many advantages in this, but not everyone can listen and concentrate while taking notes, and not everyone needs notes in order to remember. In other words, we all have our own tried and tested methods of learning, and it is up to us to discover in what way we best listen to and remember a sermon.

An advantage of taking notes is that it makes you focus on what is being said, and you end up with a record of the sermon to refer to. You may find it beneficial to write down your own application as you listen; or to ask, “What does this mean for me?”

Reading your notes again the following week refreshes your memory with regard to what you learned and what you were challenged to do. This enables you to see whether you have been obedient in applying the lessons you have learned through your day-to-day living.

One disadvantage is that taking notes can become an academic exercise. Preaching must affect the heart as well as the brain. Be wary of a useful practice becoming a hindrance to the working of the Holy Spirit in your heart in considering your life in light of the Word of God.

Those who find it easier to concentrate without taking notes must be very alert in mind and not easily distracted by what is going on around them.

A big question to ask yourself on Wednesday is, “What did I learn on Sabbath from God’s Word and how has that affected my life this week?” If you can’t remember or if it hasn’t had an impact, then you need to do something! (The same type of thing applies to our quiet time.)

When we leave church, we can do one of two things: forget immediately what we have just heard, or try to think about it and apply it to our lives. When we think about the practical implications, then the remembering becomes a lot easier because we begin to appreciate the benefits of obedience to God.

Applying Preaching

If you have read all of the above and think, “Yes, I know why I go to church to hear sermons, and I do try to prepare and generally I have no problem listening and remembering all that is said,” that’s great. We also need to apply what we hear.

In order to apply the teaching from the Word of God, we need a lot of the same ingredients that we need for listening to the Word of God. Prayer is essential; we must pray that God will help us to apply what we have heard. Not only that, we must ensure that we pray with the right motive in our hearts, praying that God will be glorified in our obedience to his Word, that Christ will increase and that we will decrease.

But prayer is not all; we need honest assessment and self-examination, for we are all imperfect sinners. We also need determination. We cannot glibly pray that God will work in our lives and then not think about what we need to do. That would be the same as asking God to provide food for us and then sitting at home waiting for it to arrive instead of going to the grocery store and using the money God has given us.

If you find difficulty in applying the sermon, why not note one key application from the sermon and make that the focus of your prayers and efforts for the week?

Assessing Our Application

It is a good idea to assess how well we are applying the sermon. Try taking time on Monday night to think about what Sabbath’s sermon was about and how it had an impact on your life that day. We can then think more clearly about where we are failing in the application of the Word of God. Not only that, but the Word of God becomes a living, practical book to us.

We should be living and applying the sermon each week, or at least trying to do so. This will shape and mold us as God wants us to be. This is not an optional extra, but an essential for us to grow in grace. Do not shun preaching, but seek it and absorb it like a sponge in a bucket of water. We won’t be perfect in this life, but that is no excuse for not aiming for God’s perfect standard. If you aim at nothing, you’re sure to hit it.

Ask yourself: Do I want to be a sermon taster, just sampling and then spitting it out, or do I want to get ready to enjoy a feast, chewing on it, appreciating all the flavors, and swallowing for the strengthening and nourishment of my soul so that I have the energy to serve my God in heaven for His glory?

With time, practice, and God’s grace in this process, we will come to know more of the beauty of God, and enjoy preaching as a means of coming to know Him more.

Stephen is a 26-year-old engineer in the Loughbrickland, Ireland, RPC. This article originally appeared in The Messenger, the bi­monthly publication of Covenanter Youth, the young people’s association of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland.