Funny lines from movies along with scores and highlights of sporting events from the day before, as well as the looming duties and anticipated anxieties of the new work week can all be distractions on Sunday mornings. Drowsiness, inability to focus, and a wondering mind are just some of the struggles every person faces when listening to sermons in church. Sometimes this results from the person in the pew not taking seriously the preaching of God’s Word. Sometimes its just the immaturity of a child, or the spiritual immaturity of an adult. Regardless of the reasons, is it possible to become a better listener to sermons? I think so. Below, I offer 5 ways.
1. Prepare the night before.
Weariness is one of the chief obstacles to being an effective listener to sermons. Physical weariness, emotional weariness, and spiritual weariness are all legitimate contributing factors. Physical weariness is the easiest to rectify. Going to bed at a reasonable time on Saturday night can help. Going to bed at a reasonable hour on Friday night is a double help. And going to bed at a reasonable time Monday thru Friday serves as a triple help. The principle of Sabbath rest should be a regular rhythm in the life of a believer. Do not wait until the Lord’s Day to rest, however. Begin on Monday. Determine to stay ahead of your physical weariness throughout the week so that on the Lord’s Day you are alert mentally so that you gain as much as possible from the sermon.
Emotional weariness is harder to control because such results from building stress throughout the week, unresolved relational trouble, or even going to bed after reading or viewing news on the Internet or television. God is sovereign over this troubled and sin-cursed world. We know as much. But sometimes emotional stress is prompted by going to bed with world trouble, family trouble, or personal stress on our minds. Try turning off social media and turning to God’s Word before you fall asleep on Saturday nights. This can help you go to sleep faster and may help prevent emotional stress when you wake up. Will the stress completely go away? It’s not likely. But reading God’s Word before bed has a way of putting emotional stress in its proper perspective.
Spiritual weariness is fueled by unconfessed sin, unhelpful patterns of behavior, as well as relationship trouble. All worshippers should be penitent the closer they approach corporate worship in holy assembly. Unresolved relational tensions leads to spiritual weariness, which will prevent efficient sermon intake. Jesus provides a general principle regarding preparation for corporate worship when He says, “[L]eave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift”.[i]
2. Prepare the morning of.
Try to find a regular routine for Sunday mornings for you and your family, one which has the least possible distractions. Press and lay out clothes the night before. If you eat breakfast, ensure its minimal (a full stomach can cause drowsiness during a sermon). Try to avoid stressing about lunch while getting ready for church. Consider eating out for lunch in order to prevent lunch preparation the morning before church, or the afternoon after church. If you are trying to save money, then forgo eating out during the week so that you can do it on Sunday. Turn the TV off. Resist meaningless internet time. Insist on children getting up on time and being selfless with bathroom time. Prepare as much as possible the night before to avoid a mad rush (and potential family conflict) on Lord’s Day mornings.
3. Take notes.
People often don’t remember what the preacher says because, well, what he says is not always that memorable. On the other hand, you shouldn’t expect your pastor to always say memorable things. What you should expect him to say (and pray for him to say) are biblical things. But the truth of the matter is, most preachers couldn’t tell you what their sermon outline was two weeks ago. If your preacher can’t even remember his main points, how can you expect to remember what he says if you don’t at least attempt to write his main points down? Here are some suggestions for sermon note taking:
· Don’t try and write down every word. If you do, you will actually miss a lot. Eye contact is important for the listener in order to grasp not only what is said, but how it’s said. Preaching is the chief medium God has chosen to communicate truth to His people. God uses the whole preacher, not just his voice. His mannerisms, demeanor, and passion all communicate something important to the listener. So taking fewer notes is better for comprehension in order to maintain eye contact and full attention. The focus is not the preacher himself, but what he says. Even still, focus is hardly possible without looking at the preacher, intently hanging on his every word.
· Don’t argue in your head with the preacher. It may be tempting, but try to avoid offering counter arguments to every point the preacher makes. You may be smarter, more eloquent, have more wisdom, and know theology better overall. But it’s highly unlikely that you have prepared as hard, or as long as he has in order to preach this sermon for the good of your own soul. He has spent all week thinking and praying over his text. As you listen, actually listen! “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Reading over your notes later allows you an opportunity to interact and offer counterarguments if those still apply. But during the sermon give the preacher your “ear”, not your “lip”.
· Write down only main points and main cross-references. Seek to determine the preacher’s main point (proposition) along with his supporting points and write those down. If there are key verses mentioned that support the passage he’s preaching from, write those down rather than flipping to them during the sermon. Flipping through your Bible might look spiritually impressive to those around you- but that’s about it. Inevitably, it will cause you to lose any concentration you had and it will be harder to regain concentration to listen effectively to the sermon. This, of course, doesn’t apply when the preacher suggests you actually turn to a different passage with him.
· If you have a question, write it down so you can ask the pastor later. I say this tentatively, not to contradict my first bullet point, but because I realize that there may be some legitimate questions raised in your soul during the sermon. If you don’t write them down you will likely forget them. Remember, if he has done his job then he’s put 10-15 (or more) hours into his sermon preparation. He knew what he was going to say before he said it. And he probably knew how he was going to say it before he said it. Therefore, he was assured of what he said when he said it. This is true, at least for the most part. The least you can do is mediate upon the sermon for an afternoon before rushing to disagree with every point. Often, disagreements disappear upon deeper reflection. If they don’t, then feel free to ask the pastor to clarify his teaching. Good teaching is marked by clarity, and where clarity is absent, or worse, when teaching contradicts God’s Word, the preacher should be confronted.
4. Meditate and pray in the afternoon/evening.
This is perhaps the most critical way to become a better sermon listener. If you never take time to pray and think through what was preached to you, then it will likely have very little impact on your life. Many people walk away from the sermon and assume something magical and mysterious just happened, which requires no effort on their part. But this is wrongheaded. All Christians should have the mindset of the noble Bereans. Of these Christians, Luke says, “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so”.[ii]
5. Determine to be a doer of the Word.
Proper reflection on the sermon along with prayer lays the foundation for a life built on the Word of God. Christians must be very careful not to become “professional sermon listeners”, indulging the opportunity to hear good preaching, but failing to apply those same sermons to grow in their walk with the Lord. James put it this way, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 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. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 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”.[iii]
Here are some helpful questions to ask yourself after each sermon in order to become a “doer of the Word”:
1) How does God want my beliefs or actions to change?
2) How can I accomplish this change?
3) What is the first step toward bringing about this change?
[i] Matthew 5:24
[ii] Acts 17:11
[iii] James 1:22-25