Did you know that in the average lifetime (80 yrs.)
• A person will listen to roughly 3,400 Sunday morning sermons
• Saved at 15 till the time they are 80 – 65 years of Sermons
• And of those 3400 Sermons they would hear a variety of subjects
• Salvation, Servanthood, Discipleship, Evangelism, ECT
• But have you ever heard a sermon on how to listen to a sermon?
• Well that’s what we are going to talk about today
Every Sunday, On the Average , 100 more people will hear a sermon than preach one.”
• I never really thought of this before
• But when you think about it there are countless books,
• And a few of them I have actually read
• On how to Prepare / Deliver sermons,
• But I’ve never seen a book on how to “listen to a sermon”
Why do you think that this?
• And I think the answer is because that the majority of People
• Think that “listening comes naturally.”
• But when we think about it, it doesn’t / Listening doesn’t just “happen.”
We’re told in the book of Luke
Lk 8:8 Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop one hundred times as much as had been planted.”
What we see in this verse is How we live our life is determined by how you listen.
• Teachers and preachers are responsible for presenting the message
• And those who are hear the message are responsible for effectively listening to it
• And what we need to understand is that true listening involves more than “hearing,”
• To listen effectively we have to “Understand” what we hear
Effective listening involves more than just our ears,
• When we hear the Word of God,
• Through a Sermon, Lesson, Reading Scripture,
• We have to listen with every part of our being
• For our main text for the day
In Mark 12:29-30 Jesus tells us that
“The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear, OIsrael! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. Mk 12:30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’
And this is what we are going to talk about Today
• These 4 aspects / That have to be used if we want to listen effectively
The first thing that we have to do when we hear God’s Word is to Listen
I. WITH ALL OUR HEART
Why is it so hard for us to listen with all of our Heart?
• And the reason is Because a lot of the time what we hear can’t be trusted
• It’s hard because a lot of the time
• We don’t feel the same way about things that God does
A lot of the time We don’t want what God wants
• We don’t love what God loves
• And we don’t hate what God hates
• In fact there are times where we love what God hates
And Jesus Knows this / And in the Parable of the Sower Matthew 13:3-23)
• He shows us how mankind’s hearts respond to the Word of God
• We see that there are 4 Categories / Types of Soil
• And Each one represents the 4 types of hearts,
• And the seed is the word of God
First we see the
1. Hard Hearts – Prevents God’s word from sinking in
2. Shallow Hearts – Allows God’s word in, but doesn’t allow it to take root and grow
3. Thorny Hearts – Choke out the “true word” and replace it with a “false word”
4. Good Hearts – Allows God’s word in and allows it to take root and grow
From this Parable we see that God is the sower / Our hearts are the soil,
• But it’s up to us to Decide what type of heart we’re gonna have
• If we are going to listen with all of our Heart
• It means that we Listen with all our Understanding,/ Emotions, / Will
Before we sit down and Listen to His Word
• We need to pray that God will give you a good heart!
II Second we see that we need to Listen WITH ALL OUR MIND
• In the book of Acts there is a group of people that we talked about Recently
• That fit the description of those who listened to God with all their mind (Acts 17:11)
Ac 17:11 And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to check up on Paul and Silas, to see if they were really teaching the truth.
When it came to God’s word, the Berean’s were fully engaged / They were plugged in!!
When they heard the world of God, they did two things
1. They “eagerly” received it,
• These people wanted, Very Much to Hear what God had to say… Do we?
2. They Examined Scripture / Studied Scripture,
• And then they compared the Apostles Teaching & Their Letters)
• With the scripture they already had to see if they were compatible…
• Do we do the same? Do you test what I say against scripture?
A Lot of times we’re guilty of “checking our brains” at the door
• God gave us a mind, and we are supposed to use it
• We are supposed to ask questions…
• We are supposed to Compare what others say to see if it matches scripture
The Berean’s have given us a good example to follow…But are we doing it?
• When we are Listening to God’s Word, Are you taking Notes…
• That’s the main reason why we provide the space on the back of the bulletin (Don’t be afraid to write in your bible!) (You’re not Trading it in / Selling it)
• The kind of listening that affects our core requires that we listen…
III. Third we see that we are to Listen WITH ALL OUR SOUL
• When you hear a sermon do you apply the message to yourself?
• It seems too often that when we hear God’s word that is meant for us,
• We apply it to another person
• Man, I wish so and so was here They really needed to hear this one”
That statement may be true,
• But when it comes to listening to God,
• We need to apply His word to our own Lives First
• And then we can effectively share it with others
This isn’t a new problem
• In fact we see that it was a problem in the Disciples Lives (John 21:21-22)
Jn 21:21 Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?” Jn 21:22 Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You follow me.”
Jesus here has been speaking with Peter about his future, and about the problems that he was going to face
• And After Jesus finishes, explaining this to Him
• Peter Doesn’t Listen / He doesn’t see that the message was for Him
• Instead he looks over at John and asks about him / What about Him?
And Jesus’ response is quick and direct “what’s that to you?”
• He tells Peter that John has his own path to walk,
• And he should concentrate on the task that he’s been given;
• John’s earthly Business, wasn’t any of Peter’s Business!
Peter had just been reminder that his first priority is to “worry about himself first”
• And we see this concept is well illustrated in Matthew 7:4
Mt 7:4 How can you think of saying, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?
Listening with all our souls means that we take God’s message personally,
• That we get over ourselves / devote our lives to the service of Christ
• We need to stop comparing ourselves to others
• We need to stop making excuses
When we hear God’s Word we should picture what your life would look like
• If we took that message personally and “put it to use!
• Effective listening isn’t easy,
• Because if it were everyone would be doing it,
IV. And Finally We Need Tom Listen WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH
Let me ask you this When you look in the mirror what do you see?
Honestly I don’t like mirrors, because they give an accurate reflection of reality
• More often than not we are presented with an image we would like to
change – ELAB , Shows our Flaws, Our Problems, Hair, Complexion,
Our culture spends billions on trying to do just that, Change What We See
• As believers we have been given the Bible and it gives an accurate reflection of our reality as well
• But this one goes beyond skin deep, it allows us to see into our soul
• And it shows us things that most of us would rather not see,
• And all the money in the world can’t fix this picture; only Christ can do that
We are shown sins that we need to avoid even thou we don’t
• Attitudes that we should possess, But Don’t,
• Things that we should love, But more often we Hate,
• And things that we should Hate, which we to often embrace…
• God’s Word encourages us to do right and convicts us when we do wrong
Jas 1:22 And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself.
We need to ask ourselves Does our life reflect what Scripture tells us … are we “doers”
• To listen to God with all your strength means that we give Him our full and undivided attention…
• That we do the work that He has called us to do
• And commit ourselves to DO IT!
Conclusion: Acts 28:26 –
Ac 28:26 ‘Go and say to my people, You will hear my words, but you will not understand;
you will see what I do, but you will not perceive its meaning.
Here we see Paul quoting the O.T. almost word for word.
• This passage also appears in the N.T. on several different occasions.
• Jesus quotes it in his explanation of the parable of the “sower” (Matthew 14:14)
• John refers to it at the end of his record of Jesus’ last sermon (John 12:40)
• This attitude had been the response of Israel to God for nearly 1800 years,
• And for the past 2,000 it has been the response of much of the world as well.
There was blindness and deafness to God then / Now as well
• And what I want us to understand is that
• How we listen determines how we act, and ultimately where we end up.
• We need to keep our eyes on Jesus / Our ears engaged on His word,
• In whatever form it appears, and listen with our “whole” being.
• The only question that remains is Are we “listening?”
