Active Listening
The other day on I-71, I drove past a person who was reading a newspaper, and they were in the driver’s seat of their car. We sure love to multi-task these days! When it comes to listening to the voice of God, especially during sermons, I am convinced that we need to be active and engaged listeners to really take in what God has for us. If we do not pay close attention to what we hear, like a distracted driver, we can put ourselves and others at risk.
As Christopher Ash puts it in his book Listen Up, active listening is crucial when we listen to sermons. He writes, “Listening ought to be an activity rather than a passivity.” Today, I am afraid that some people approach sermon listening with a distracted passivity and it has led to some misunderstanding of what God’s Word is saying. We have seen this throughout history as individuals abused and misused religious authority to cause great harm. Cults and fanatical leaders have distorted and manipulated through persuasion and even twisting God’s Word. Satan tried to do that when he tempted Jesus. We need to be on guard against anyone who claims to preach with authority, but who does not remain faithful to the truth of God’s Word.
We sometimes use the term brainwashed when we refer to someone who has had their thinking so twisted that they do not know what is true and what is false. As a boy, I was given a powerful little book by Bob Hostetler and Josh McDowell titled Don’t Check Your Brains at the Door, and the truth of that book impacted me. In it, the authors state that Christians ought to actively engage with what they watch, what they hear, and what they are taught, in order to determine what they believe and why.
As Christ followers, we need to follow the example recorded in Acts 17:11b (NIV) where people “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” We will focus more on that next week, but I want you to notice the “eagerly” portion of the verse this week. What does it mean to be eager? The Greek term used here is prothymia and it means to have an eager disposition which is pre-inclined (already "ready and willing"). That is an awesome way to think about receiving a sermon…to be “ready and willing” to accept what God has for you.\
One practical way we can do that is by taking notes – which is why we have sermon notes in the bulletin and online through YouVersion. It is also helpful to bombard a sermon with questions as we listen to it.
Here are a few good ones:
What is God revealing to me about Himself or about myself here?
Is this message accurate? How does it align with scripture?
Is God asking me to change something in my life right now?
What is God asking me to believe or do in response to this message?
How am I going to do what God wants me to do?
I believe that asking these and similar humble, expectant questions can go a long way to helping us listen to what God has for us, while we listen to sermons.
Expectantly,
Shawn
