ALL EARS: How to Listen to a Sermon

Chris McCurley: And hopefully not in the near future, but want that song sung at my funeral. Love that song. Wanna tell you where we're at. in the year and in the schedule that we're doing as far as Sunday morning sermons. Next week I'll be away from you. I'm going back to Batesville, Arkansas, where it all started for me in ministry. North Heights Church of Christ, having me back for their family day, and I'll be there for a few days preaching and teaching. And then I'll be back and when I get back, we're starting a new series called One. And we're looking at what are the things that we should be united on. Because in a church this size it's It's unlikely that we're going to be united on everything, right? We have different scruples and opinions and things of that nature. What do we have to be united on? And for years in churches of Christ, the most narrow among us determined unity, and that's wrong. And so what are the things we have to be united on? And I think they are those ones that Paul talks about in Ephesians. Those are the things we have to be united on, and we're going to talk about those over the next several weeks. So I hope you'll be here for that. This morning we're doing kind of a one-off. This is not a series, just a a lesson on listening. And I hope that you find it beneficial. I realize that I'm not the most pleasant to listen to sometimes, but hopefully you'll grin and bear it. Listening is a skill, isn't it? Anyone who has the ability to can hear, but listening takes some work. There are some things, some sounds that hit you out of the blue, you weren't expecting it, and you heard them. You didn't have to incline your ear to them. You they they caught your attention. Like late last night. My son Zayn, his wife are living with us. They just moved here till they can find a house. His wife is out of town. My wife is out of town. He's upstairs asleep. I'm downstairs fast asleep. And the smoke alarms start going off. All five or six of them, they're all wired together. And they've been doing this for about the last six months. Just randomly, they'll go off. I I I don't think randomly. Smoke alarms get together and decide we're only going to go off at two in the morning, right? And so they're going off and we're trying to figure out which one it is that's causing the other ones to go off, and we're climbing up on a bar stool and a stepladder trying to get them. I I resisted the urge to rip out all the wires, although was thinking about it. Some things we hear whether we want to or not. Sometimes we give the impression that we're listening when maybe we're not so intently tuning in. Guys, you ever been in the living room watching TV? Your wife is talking to you from another room, and at some point she says, Are you listening to me? And you say, Sure, honey. And what does she say? Well then what did I say? You're in a trap now, right? Or or maybe in school the teacher hands out a test or an assignment and she starts going over it, and while she's going over it, you just dig in and start doing the work and you miss some key instructions and therefore don't do great on the assignment. You ever fallen asleep in church? Now we're going from preaching to meddling, aren't When I was living in Cassville, Missouri, that was my first preaching job. We had a shotgun auditorium. It was much smaller than this. You couldn't hide. And one of my favorite people, Doc Mikkelai, is a veterinarian in town, sat about where Sam Thomas is sitting. And I was preaching one Sunday morning and he was fast asleep. To the point that I almost took a mirror down and placed it under his nose to see if he was still alive. He was in a sleep coma. Afterwards I'm standing at the back and I'm greeting people as they leave and Doc comes up and he says, Chris, that is the best sermon I've ever heard. And I said, How do you know? I said, You were sawing logs. And he goes, That's why it was the best sermon I've ever heard. I had a sweet little lady, she was eighty nine years old. She came up to me one Sunday when I first started preaching, and she looked me in the eye and took my hand and she said, That is quite possibly the worst sermon I've ever heard in my life. And I thought to myself, how many sermons has she heard? She's 89. She's been a Christian most of her life. And mine was the worst. I mean, there's there's got to be a feather in your cap for that, right? I got here on November the 6th, 2022. And since that time, if you have been here for every lesson that I have preached, which I doubt you have, but let's say you have, you've heard. Around three hundred sermons, which equates to about a hundred and fifty hours or six point two five days. And you're thinking, wow, I thought it was long, but didn't realize it was that long. Nevertheless, I was thinking about all the sermons that I have preached, not just here, but in my lifetime, and I've I thought, I don't know that I've ever heard a sermon on how to listen to a sermon. I certainly have never delivered one, and so I thought, well, maybe it's time for that. Not because I believe it's a problem here. I don't. I mean, you guys are very attentive and I appreciate you so much. I don't think it's a problem here. And it's not because I think that I'm so important that you should listen to what I have to say. This is not an ego thing at all. I just want to focus on what it means to be. A good listener so that we can get the most out of this portion of the worship. Specifically, I want to talk about being a good listener at church. Now, I want to get this out of the way. It's not about listening to Chris. It's about listening to what God has to say through Chris. I'm just the instrument. It's not about me at all. Do you believe that God still speaks? I do. I most definitely do. I believe he speaks every time we open up his word. I believe he communicates up with us there, and I believe he speaks every Sunday right here at the Walnut Street Church of Christ. Chris McCurley doesn't speak. You're not coming to hear Chris McCurley, you're coming to hear the word of God preached through Chris McCurley. It used to flatter me when people would say, you know, I I'm coming to listen to Chris, and now it saddens me. Because you should never come just to listen to the preacher, but rather the words that he is saying. What he is speaking is God speaking through him. We don't want to be involved in in preacher worship. When I was growing up in the Catholic Church, I had a priest, Father Richard, that I loved dearly. And when I when I left the Catholic Church, I I I I had to come around to the idea that I was probably worshiping him more than I was worshiping God. That he was my sole reason for being there, and that's that's not good. We should never attend solely because we like the preacher's style or delivery. That's preacher worship, not God worship. And it's not about the preacher's talent, it's not about the entertainment factor, it's about what he says. Are his words saturated with the message of God? Are they drenched in God's word? Notice what Paul writes, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. David read it a moment ago. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received and which you stand, and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. What did Paul preach? He says the gospel, right? He wrote, Hold fast to the word. I preached to you. The word, he says. It wasn't just any word, it wasn't Paul's words, it was the word, the word of God. Paul to Timothy, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. Preach what? The word, right? Acts 15 and 35. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also. Acts chapter 8 and verse 4. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. First Thessalonians 2 and 4. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. There are a lot of preachers who have made a lot of money preaching something other than the word, preaching their word. They have attained earthly status and gathered a large following by preaching a word, but it's not the word. And it's sad how many individuals have placed the welfare of their soul in in the hands of someone who is not rightly dividing the word of God. So I want to make clear that when I stand before you, I am doing my utmost to preach the word. I take this responsibility very seriously. It's a responsibility that keeps me awake at night sometimes. It gives me heartburn sometimes. It's a responsibility that gives me tremendous Tremendous joy, and it is a responsibility that I do not take lightly. Even before stepping into the pulpit, the time of preparation and study is something that I relish, something I enjoy, and something that is vital to this job. I believe that if I have prepared properly, the God will see to it that it's delivered properly. And I readily concede that there are other men who can deliver the word of God much better than. Than I can. There are men who can put together a sermon much better than I can. There are plenty of men who are more entertaining to listen to. And thank you for not saying amen. I just want everyone here to understand that while I'm always looking to improve in every area of preaching, my first priority, my number one responsibility as I see it is to preach the Word of God. And I hope your f first priority is to be somewhere where the word of God is preached. You can find a church perhaps where the singing is better. You may find a church that has a better atmosphere. the lighting, the aesthetics are much more pleasing to the senses. You may you may find a church that is that's got a hipper and cooler preacher, and you may find a church that's just as scripturally sound as this one. We're not the only ones that are doing good things. But first and foremost. If you don't land here, I hope that you will land at a church that holds God's word in highest esteem. And that word is preached every Sunday. The major question when we're looking for a church home is: do they proclaim the word of God? Are they preaching the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? You see, I believe God speaks every Sunday here at the Walnut Street Church of Christ. I believe that. The question is, are you listening, right? If God is speaking, then we should all be attentive to what he has to say. We've all been involved in a conversation where someone is talking. Maybe you're talking to someone and they're looking at you, but they're looking at their phone or they're looking around, and you'd realize you don't have their full attention. You'd like to, but for whatever reason, they're distracted by things around them. If God is speaking. Then each and every one of us have an obligation to be locked in and listening, truly listening to what he has to say. We may hear bits and pieces, but we should be truly listening. Not be distracted. If God is speaking, then our ears, our minds, and our Bibles should be open to what he has to say. So with that in mind, let me give you a few things that I think will help us all to be. a better listener. And these are things that I am working on as well. First and foremost, you gotta prepare to listen. I think I mentioned this at the first of the year and I haven't mentioned it in a while. But the sermon notes every Sunday appear on the app U version. And you can go on U version, you can find Walnut Street Church of Christ, and every Sunday you'll see the the notes. You can read ahead. You can look at the scriptures that we're going to be looking at. That's one way to prepare. Another way to prepare is to shut off the distractions. Do your best when you get here to not be on Twitter or X or Pinterest or Facebook or Instagram. There's nothing on those social media sites that are more important than what we are doing right here, right now. Turn off the world outside. Get rid of the white noise. Don't worry about what you're gonna do the rest of the day. Quit allowing your mind to get bogged down with the trivial. Stop your brain from wandering. One of the best ways to do this is to get out a notebook, take notes, get plenty of rest the night before, pray before you come, enter into worship with a mind, a spirit that says, I'm giving God my best because there's no reason not to, right? Why would you come to worship unprepared? You know, sitting in a chicken house doesn't make you a chicken. And I think sometimes we have this idea that as long as I'm here, then I'm good. And you do realize that that's the least you could do. I'm glad you're here. And it's important for you to be here. But just being here is just it's the least you could do. We are all responsible for the death of another human being. The only reason that you can have any hope whatsoever in the life after this one is because Jesus died on the cross, something that Greg. Reminded us beautifully a while ago. Why come unprepared and why come to just sit and to soak? It's not just about being here, it's about engaging while you are here. Worship doesn't just happen, it takes effort. Worship is an intentional act, it's a deliberate act. You have to participate, not just be a passive recipient but an active participant. And participation and engagement includes listening to his word. Nothing we do in worship is unimportant. Every act of worship is vital. So to be listless and lifeless is the same thing as telling God, you know, I'm not really interested in what you have to say. It's like talking to the person who's distracted. You know you don't have their full attention. Now, it should be noted that there is a segment of our audience that are at a major disadvantage when it comes to listening. Because they have small children. And they many times walk away from a sermon not really knowing what was said because the whole time they were wrestling kiddos in the pew. And to you I want to say kudos for being here. Thank you for making the effort To bring your kids. To do your best to help them to sit still and to pay attention. You should be applauded for that. What shouldn't happen is for people to whip their head around and look at you and stare at you glaringly because your kids are acting up. Or to judge your character or your parenting because your children may not be acting right. No, what we should be doing is encouraging you all the more because. You're engaged in a devra endeavor that's not easy. And many of us have been there and and it'll pay off, I promise you. It will be worth it in the long run. But it's why we have a cry room, it's why we have a staff nursery. It's so that if it becomes too much, you can utilize those things. But but thank you. Thank you for bringing your kids. Thank you for doing your dead level best to help them to sit in that pew and to maybe they don't understand anything, but They're grasping the concept of coming and listening. So hang in there. You may be at a disadvantage, but it'll pay off. So prepare to listen, prepare your mind, prepare your heart, come with the spirit of willingness to what God has to say, because anything God says is worth listening to. I'm reminded of the words of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 2, where it says, But this is the one to whom I will look. He who is humble and contrite in spirit. And trembles at my word. So once you've prepared to listen, then I would say it's important to listen expectantly. I don't know if you've ever thought about listening to the sermon as if you're listening to God speak. But that's really what you're doing. And and it's something that is sometimes unfathomable for me. That somebody would listen to what I have to say? That somebody cares what Chris McCurley has to say. And there are many, many times, virtually every Sunday, where I am speaking and I'm looking around in the audience and I'm seeing some folks go. And you know why you're nodding your head? Because you've heard this before. You're knowledgeable enough in the Bible. You've heard this before. I'm not telling you anything new. And you know this isn't Chris McCurley speaking. This is God speaking because you've read it or you've heard it somewhere before. Being a better listener means listening. with the expectation of what God is saying to me personally. Personalize the sermon. What is God saying to me through Chris McCurley? I firmly believe that any sermon delivered from any pulpit should answer the question, so what? I tell our preaching interns every summer that if your sermon doesn't answer the question so what, then you haven't done your job. Because preaching isn't about transmitting information, it's about inciting transformation. So you can you can give a passage and and you can talk about it in the Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic and you can dissect every word of it. But at the end of the day, those who are listening need to know, okay, well, what does that do for me? How does that make me better? Because you know as well as I do, we're all wet paint, right? We're all limping disciples. We're all just trying to get to heaven. And we need help. We need each other, and that is why God created the church. One of the main reasons is because he didn't expect us to practice Christianity on an island. There's no such thing as Lone Ranger Christians. And so as a child of God who is listening to the word of God, I should walk away with a with a plan, with something to put into practice to make my life better as a Christian. So as a listener, you're listening for two distinct things. What? And so what? What's the message and what does it do for me? What does it mean for me? Thirdly, you listen for a plan. Sometimes we listen expectantly and we hear a crystal clear message on a certain topic, and we're left to wonder, so how do I apply this? You ever heard of someone who's mastered the art of open-ended preaching? You ever listen to someone who's who's really good at saying nothing well? You hear them speak and you get done, you say, Wow, that was really good. I I don't know what he said, but it was really good. I can give you some pious platitudes. I can give you some pithy little churchy sayings. Stop drop and roll, won't work in hell. God answers an email, get right or get left, turn or burn. I can give you all the church signs. I can sound all preachy and I can pour syrup in your ears. I can deliver a cotton candy message. You know what a cotton candy message is? It's really sweet, but it has no substance. It dissolves in your mouth. The bottom line is that preaching should convey a plan. Listen to this for me. I know the story of a man. We'll call him every man. Every man walked into a church, much like this one, and sat in a pew just like you're doing this morning. He listened intently to the sermon week in and week out. However, when he listened to the sermon, he would listen for another man, and not himself. One Sunday he would come in and he would listen for Needy Man. He would listen to the sermon and he would say to himself, I wish Needy Man were here to listen to this lesson because he really needs to hear this. Every man said to himself, When I get home, I'm going to send Needy Man an email with a link to this sermon because he needs to hear it. So it will help him. Another Sunday, he listened for Lost Man. He thought to himself, if only lost man could hear this message, he might become a Christian. One Sunday he listened for Angry Man. He thought, I so wish Angry Man were here to listen to this sermon. He has so wrecked his life. If I could just get him to listen to this message, it might cause him to turn around. And every man kept listening for everybody else. And you know what happened in his life? Absolutely nothing. Nothing. If he had listened for a plan, he would have understood that he had an obligation to meet needy man's need. He had had he listened with intent, he would have comprehended that lost man needed him to preach the gospel to him. Had he listened for himself, every man would have understood that he could provide the answer to angry man's predicament. He was the friend angry man needed. But he didn't listen that way. And as a result, he missed the fact that God's word is for everyone, including him. When you come to this place every Sunday, please understand that what is said is for you first. It is for your heart. It is for you to ingest and digest and egest and you listen with a plan. Be ready to to take it in, to process it, and then promote it, right? When the word of God is spoken, it should change you. And this places a heavy burden on me as the preacher. I understand that. And though I fall woefully short at times, I always, always try to do my best. But the listener must do their part as well. Because listening to the word of God means listening for a plan. What does this mean for me? How does this apply to me? And then finally, be ready to respond. Listen with a readiness to respond. Anytime God spoke in Scripture to someone, he expected a response. Every single time. God has always spoken with a purpose, and when he speaks, he expects a response. Sometimes the response is against his will, like Jonah deciding that he was gonna hop a boat to Tarsus and And sail away from from God's mission for him. But when God speaks, he expects his children to respond appropriately. Paul makes this clear when he wrote these words to Timothy. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. All scripture. All scripture, Paul says. Has a purpose because all scripture is Theonustos, breathed out by God. Its purpose is to teach, to reprove, to correct, to train so that the man of God may be whole and properly equipped. When you were younger, did your mother or father ever give you a command, tell you to do something, and you didn't do it, either you forgot or you ignored it completely? And then they come back to you and ask you why you didn't do it. And maybe in the course of that conversation or in the course of that chastisement from your parents, they say something like, Well, I'm not speaking just to hear myself talk. And I think God would say that to us. I'm not just speaking to hear myself talk. There is a purpose to these words. They mean something. And I expect a response. You should respond in kind. He spoke to Noah, to Moses, to Abraham, to Gideon, to Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the minor prophets, and so on and so forth. He expected that purpose to be carried out. He expected the recipients of his message to be To listen and respond. Why is it any different for us? He may not be speaking to you audibly, but he's speaking to you through me. And when we hear his word proclaimed, we should be ready to respond. And we may walk away from a sermon and think, huh, I never really thought of that that way. We may walk away thinking, you know, I don't know if I really agree with what Chris said, but it's interesting. I'm going to go home and I'm going to study it. We may walk away with a a new knowledge or a new way of looking at something. But we must respond in some way, shape, or form. For for many of us, it's through repentance. We respond by repenting. That's typically what the response looks like. We may respond by strengthening our faith, or we may realize that we need to change something in our lives. The conviction to respond may come in the form of walking down the aisle and coming to the front and And asking for prayers. It may come in the form of sometime later setting up a time to meet with the preacher or a minister on staff or an elder to talk to them about some struggles that they are having. Maybe we respond by going home and talking to our spouse or praying about it with them. Maybe it's a rather simple fix, or maybe it's more complex. Sometimes the response is an acknowledgement that nothing needs to be done. That Chris just affirms what I've already believed and and and helps me work through something. That's good too. But the preacher has done his job, if he proclaims the word, some sort of response is warranted. Sometimes people judge the quality of a sermon by how many people come down the aisle. I don't. I I I don't. There's not some sort of quota that we need to meet each week for the preacher to think that he has done his job. As I've said many times over, sometimes answering the invitation comes Later. Sometimes it comes privately, and I ever never even know you did it. Whatever needs to happen in your life, respond effectively. What is being said? What's the message? What do I do with it? How do I respond? These are the questions that we should be asking as we listen. Please please don't just come to hear a sermon. Come with the intent of living out that sermon when you leave here. Franklin Roosevelt, when he was president, used to get very frustrated with long receiving lines at gallas and big events. You know what I'm talking about. The president would stand there with his with his cronies and people would walk by ambassadors and foreign dignitaries and they'd shake his hand as they walked down through the receiving line. And Franklin Roosevelt would complain that nobody's listening to what he has to say. They're just exchanging pleasantries and nobody's paying attention. So he decided to do a little experiment. He's in a receiving line one night, and all these foreign dignitaries and ambassadors are coming through, and as he shakes their hand, he says, I murdered my grandmother this morning. And every single one of them were like, It's good to see you, Mr. President. Hey, thank you for what you do. I appreciate your service. Nobody's paying attention to what he says. Until the ambassador for Bolivia walks through. And the president shakes his hand and leans in and says, I murdered my grandmother this morning. And the ambassador from Bolivia said, I'm sure she deserved it and just kept on down the aisle. Listening, I mean really listening is an art. It is an invaluable skill, more invaluable today than ever because we don't really talk to each other unless it's by text. How many of you text somebody? And you're waiting for them to text back and they call and you're like I don't want to talk to you. That's why I texted you. Listening, true listening is a is a lost art. More and more we're resigned to our screens and we we don't really want to have face-to-face interaction, but it it's so vital, and nowhere is it more vital than we approach than when we approach God's Word. When we listen to what He has to say to us. It's so vital in so many areas of our lives, but nowhere is it more important than in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. So when God is speaking, We should be all ears. And if you're listening this morning and you feel like you should respond in some way, then certainly we want to give you that opportunity. We do that every Sunday with an invitation, inviting you that if you need prayers, if you would if you'd like to study the Bible with someone, or maybe perhaps you have been studying and you're ready to make the decision to be a disciple this morning, you're ready to put on Christ in baptism, then certainly we want to take care of that. Remember, there's no good reason for you to leave here this morning without being right with God. So if we can help you, Steve's got a song. Why don't you come as we stand and as we sing?

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention Acts 8 · chapter mention Isaiah 66 · chapter mention