Doing What We Hear (4)

In our hearing of the Word I've suggested that we need to: prepare (our bodies), pray (for illuminating grace), preview (the text to be preached), posture (our hearts in teachable humility), prove (what has been preached), and possess (making what we've heard our own through note-taking and thoughtful conclusions).

To all these I add a seventh step: personalize or practice (pick your personal p-word preference). God insists that what we hear be applied and obeyed personally. Check out how insistent God is about this: James 1:19-25; Matthew 7:24; 1 Samuel 15:22 (where through Hebrew poetic parallelism, obeying and listening are seen as synonymous). Folks, we have not really heard God unless we are obeying what He says.

There's real danger in hearing preaching, particularly goodpreaching. We can enjoy the preacher's skills and even appreciate the truth-content of his sermon without really being changed by it. This is a very common issue in churches that feel pretty good about themselves for their "faithful" and "sound" preaching.

But it is a profound concern to God as is clear from His words through the prophet Ezekiel:

“As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it"(Ezekiel 33:30-32).

Sermons are not like performances to be critiqued or good music to be enjoyed or fine food merely to be tasted. They are God's provision for the soul that needs to be ingested, digested, and then transformed into soul-nourishment for actual faith, real life, and obedient and cheerful godliness.

In 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 God tells us what His Word is profitable for (check it out), and then in 2 Timothy 4: 1-4 He tells pastors to preach that Word faithfully no matter whether their people want to hear it or not.

This 2 Timothy 3 list of benefits to be gained by good preaching of God's Word can be a guide for our personalizing of the Word heard. After you've taken the steps we've mapped out in recent days, conclude your hearing of God's Word by asking yourself these questions:

1. What teaching about God or the gospel or Christ or myself or this world has this sermon presented to me? That is: what have I learned or relearned from this message from God's Word?

2. What reproof has this word from God through preaching brought to me? How has it rebuked or confronted my sin? What conviction over sin has been stirred?

3. What correction has this word brought me? How has the Word preached adjusted my thinking and guided me to a better way of living? How has the Word preached given me a better way to feel or act or live or serve?

4. What training in righteousness has the Word brought to me through this message? How am I now better equipped to worship or rejoice in God or serve or help others or build up the church or share my faith or mortify sin or vivify holiness?

And then to make sure that it doesn't stay theoretical, ask yourself: "What specifically am I going to change (in attitude or action or worship or obedience or service or joy...) this week as a result of what I have heard?

That my friends is true hearing; until we get all the way to change today and this week as a result of the Word preached, we're simply listening to a performance and kidding ourselves.

May God make His Word gloriously transforming for your progress and joy in the faith (Philippians 1:25).

All for now. God bless you.