Expositional Listening

From Jason E. Robertson @ http://fide-o.blogspot.com

There is no greater joy than preaching to people who love the Word. I usually have certain people in every audience who I can tell are just being absolutely blessed by the sermon. Those faces are so encouraging... I just want to preach to them everything God blessed me with in my studies.

But not everybody appreciates expositional preaching. In the years that I traveled as an evangelist I actually had times when a pastor or church members rejected me because my preaching was too substantive and not theatrical enough. Now, I think boring preaching is a sin, but I also think that expository preaching doesn't have to be boring -- if you know how to listen to a sermon rather than just watch a preacher. I remember one Sunday after preaching for a pastor he called me into his office to rebuke me saying, "If I had known you were going to preach like that I would not have called you to preach this meeting." He wanted me to preach before his Sunday congregation like had preached before his youth one night at a fire-side service at a youth camp. There was nothing wrong with either sermon, but one was more topical and the other more expositional. One was a highly evangelistic sermon on Hell (biblically sound but quite emotionally dramatic); the other was the first sermon in a series through Ephesians 4. I simply told the pastor that I was obeying God and asked him to let me continue preaching; after six days many in the church were saved. In fact, I was asked to stay an extra six days and continue the series.

Now I have the privilege to preach weekly to a congregation who expects nothing less than expositional preaching. In fact, they are what I call "expositional listeners." At Murrieta Valley Church we not only believe in training expositors, but we also think it is important to teach church members how to listen to a sermon. So how can church members cultivate the habit of expositional listening? Here are seven practical ideas [HT 9Marks] that can foster more attentive listening to God’s word.

1. Meditate on the sermon passage during your quiet time. Usually expositors are preaching through a book of the Bible, thus it is relatively easy for church members to know which text their preacher will be expounding. Throughout the week you should read the text and the context in which it is found and pray over it. Encourage the preacher by letting him know that you’ll be praying for his preparation and preparing to listen to the sermon. Throughout the week, outline the text in your own quiet time and use it to inform your prayer life. You can then use your outline as a listening aid; compare it to the preacher’s outline for new insights you missed in your own study.

2. If you ask your pastor, he can suggest individual books that would parallel great with his sermons. At least buy commentaries on the book of the Bible your pastor is preaching through. Here are a few suggested authors and commentary sets: John MacArthur, John Calvin, James Montgomery Boice, The Bible Speaks Today, Old & New Testament Surveys, and Matthew Henry. There is nothing like listening to a sermon on a passage you are familiar with -- you will hear truths in the sermon that many other in the audience will miss.

3. After church, talk and pray with friends about the sermon. Once the worship service is dismissed start spiritual conversations with others by asking, “How did the Scripture challenge or speak to you today?” Or, “What about God’s character most surprised or encouraged you?” And pray with others that God would keep the congregation from becoming “dull of hearing,” that He would bless the congregation with an increasingly strong desire for the “solid food” of His word (Isaiah 6:9-10; Hebrews 5:11-14).

4. Choose one or two particular applications from the Scripture and prayerfully put it into practice over the coming week. Don’t let the Sunday sermon become a one-time event that fades from memory as soon as it is over (James 1:22-25). Re-listen to the sermons via a tape/CD ministry or web audio ministry. With your pastors' support, you may even organize fellowship groups that meet each week to spend 1 hour together discussing the previous Sunday's sermon, swapping sermon notes, and sharing testimonies of how the sermon impacted your spiritual life. This atmosphere great for bringing friends whom you wish to introduce to the church. We provide such fellowship groups in our church follow-up questions that reinforce the sermon. Other families that have a regular sermon review time as their Sunday evening family devotional. There are a hundred ways to keep the sermon alive in your spiritual life by reviewing God’s word throughout the week. Be creative. It is well worth the planning.

5. Don't be afraid to ask questions and search for answers. Pastors usually don't like to be asked too many theological questions after they have preached -- so be respectful of the fact that they have just spent about an hour in the most intense place of spiritual warfare -- proclaiming God's Word. But all expositors love to talk about the Bible. So discover how or when is best way to dialogue with your pastor about questions you may have about his sermon. He may prefer to be emailed. Moreover, don’t be passive in your private study; seek answers by searching the Scripture yourself and by talking with accountability partners or small groups. But don’t forget that the pastor has likely spent more time thinking about that passage than most and is there to feed you God’s word.

6. Beware: Cultivate humility or you shall become overly critical. As you dig into God’s word you will no doubt begin to grow and discover many wonderful treasures. But as you grow, do not become a “professional sermon listener” who is always hearing but never learning. Beware of false knowledge that “puffs up” (I Corinthians 1:8; Colossians 2:18) and tends to cause strife and dissension. Occasionally I have certain people who approach me right after I preach to correct me on some "misspeak" or to give me what they think is a better outline. Sometimes "young" expositors make the mistake of asking congregations for feedback on how they preached; thus they have unintentionally encouraged the congregation to listen to the sermons for the wrong reason. When listening to sound expositors we should never hear the Word of God as the words of men but as the Word of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13). In reality, I have never listened to an expositor and not come away blessed by God's Word. Don't listen to sermons to critique but to confess and repent. Mortify any tendencies toward pride, condemning others, and critical nit-picking. Don't be the church member who thinks that he has heard everything that there is to say about a passage, or listens more to how the sermon was preached homiletically than to what God had to say to him through the sermon.

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