HOW TO BENEFIT FROM THE SERMONS
Geoffrey R. Kirkland
You hear the preached Word. A lot. You hear it Sundays, Wednesdays, and throughout the week. How do you remember, maintain, and benefit from the Word? Don’t try to remember everything you hear. You’ll quickly grow frustrated and become disgruntled because you can’t do it all nor remember every point.
I desire to provide some pastoral counsels that may be helpful as you listen and heed the preached Word.
1) Hear the sermons intently. Take good notes. Get the main points. Listen with a humble heart, submitting to the Word, believing the Truth, always examining what is said with the text in its context, and responding with a joyful resolve to incorporate and implement what you heard. Perhaps circle a point or two on your notes that you want to return to throughout the week.
2) Later that evening, before bed, return to your notes and review them point by point. The following morning, as you pray and meet with the Lord in communion, take a few minutes and review the Word again. This regular review after the Word was preached will help print the truths on your heart.
3) Consider these questions to help you with a point of application and implementation to your life. Is there a truth of God I must believe? Is there an attribute of God I must preach to my heart? Is there a promise I must claim today? Is there a sin I must repent of? Is there a truth of Christ and His gospel I need to hear and delight in? Is there an attitude I need to cultivate? Is there someone I need to reconcile with?
Again, the goal is not for you to remember every point of the sermon every single week. Our brains will not be able to do that for the long haul. Rather, God’s providence is gloriously timely and precisely perfect. Take what He gives you each time you hear the Word and chew on that sermon for the following days. Then, next Lord’s Day’s sermon, do the process over again.
May this be helpful as you strive to hear the Word and do the Word. Remember, when the man finished preaching, the sermon has been spoken, but it has yet to be done! Come from your knees to the sermon and from the sermon to your knees! Joel Beeke said: It is better to hear one sermon with meditation than to hear a thousand without meditation.
