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Martin Schlomer |
THE
LAST WORD
HOW TO LISTEN TO A SERMON
By
Martin Schlomer
How should we listen to a sermon? Do we listen in
the same way we listen to a college professor, some late night talk
show host, or a motivational speaker?
In the late 1700s pastor and evangelist George
Whitefield was used by God to fan the flames of The Great Awakening
Revival. One of his sermons was called “How to Listen to a
Sermon: Keys to getting the most out of what the preacher says.”
As I read what this man had to say, it serves as a great reminder to
all of us regarding how we should listen to a sermon so as to get the
greatest benefit.
Enjoy!
Keys to
Getting the Most out of What the Preacher Says
Jesus said, “Therefore consider carefully how you listen” (Luke 8:18).
Here are some cautions and directions, in order to help you hear
sermons with profit and advantage.
1. Come to hear them, not out of curiosity, but from a sincere
desire to know and do your duty. To enter His house merely to have
our ears entertained, and not our hearts reformed, must certainly be
highly displeasing to the Most High God, as well as unprofitable to
ourselves.
2. Give diligent heed to the things that are spoken from the Word
of God. If an earthly king were to issue a royal proclamation, and
the life or death of his subjects entirely depended on performing or
not performing its conditions, how eager would they be to hear what
those conditions were! And shall we not pay the same respect to the
King of kings, and Lord of lords, and lend an attentive ear to His
ministers, when they are declaring, in His name, how our pardon,
peace, and happiness may be secured?
3. Do not entertain even the least prejudice against the minister.
That was the reason Jesus Christ Himself could not do many mighty
works, nor preach to any great effect among those of His own country;
for they were offended at Him. Take heed therefore, and beware of
entertaining any dislike against those whom the Holy Ghost has made
overseers over you.
Consider that the clergy are men of like passions with yourselves. And
though we should even hear a person teaching others to do what he has
not learned himself, yet that is no reason for rejecting his doctrine.
For ministers speak not in their own, but in Christ’s name. And we
know who commanded the people to do whatever the scribes and Pharisees
should say unto them, even though they did not do themselves what they
said (see Matt. 23:1-3).
4. Be careful not to depend too much on a preacher, or think more
highly of him than you ought to think. Preferring one teacher over
another has often been of ill consequence to the church of God. It was
a fault which the great Apostle of the Gentiles condemned in the
Corinthians: 'For whereas one said, I am of Paul; another, I am of
Apollos: are you not carnal, says he? For who is Paul, and who is
Apollos, but instruments in God’s hands by whom you believed?' (1 Cor.
1:12; 2:3-5).
Are not all ministers sent forth to be ministering ambassadors to
those who shall be heirs of salvation? And are they not all therefore
greatly to be esteemed for their work’s sake?
5. Make particular application to your own hearts of everything
that is delivered. When our Savior was discoursing at the last
supper with His beloved disciples and foretold that one of them should
betray Him, each of them immediately applied it to his own heart and
said, 'Lord, is it I?' (Matt. 26:22).
Oh, that persons, in like manner, when preachers are dissuading from
any sin or persuading to any duty, instead of crying, 'This was
intended for such and such a one!' instead would turn their thoughts
inwardly, and say, 'Lord, is it I?' How far more beneficial should we
find discourses to be than now they generally are!
6. Pray to the Lord, before, during, and after every sermon, to
endue the minister with power to speak, and to grant you a will and
ability to put into practice what he shall show from the Book of God
to be your duty.
No doubt it was this consideration that made St. Paul so earnestly
entreat his beloved Ephesians to intercede with God for him: 'Praying
always, with all manner of prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and
for me also, that I may open my mouth with boldness, to make known the
mysteries of the gospel' (Eph. 6:19-20). And if so great an apostle as
St. Paul needed the prayers of his people, much more do those
ministers who have only the ordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.
If only all who hear me this day would seriously apply their hearts to
practice what has now been told them! How ministers would see Satan,
like lightning, fall from heaven, and people find the Word preached
sharper than a two-edged sword and mighty, through God, to the pulling
down of the devil’s strongholds!
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