Chapter 4: Practice the Sermon

Joel Beeke correctly asserts: “A sermon is not over when the minister says ‘Amen.’ Rather that is when the true sermon begins. In an old Scottish story, a wife asked her husband if the sermon was done. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘It has been said, but it has yet to be done.’”[1]

Much Bible application is inherently community-oriented. Therefore, it will be seen in relationships with your spouse, family, friends, work and school associates. Even when it doesn’t directly involve relationships it will require relationships to keep you on track. For this reason, I will delay most of my application principles until I begin writing about preaching and body-life together. But here are two ideas to consider for now.

Spiritual Practice

As previously noted, James says, “Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (Jas 1:22), and, “Faith without works is dead” (Jas 2:17, 26). These verses should heighten our desire to take advantage of post-sermon opportunities to maximize the impact of the sermon.

First, we should begin with prayer. We can thank the Lord for the Word preached. Thank Him for sustaining and empowering the preacher. Thank Him for the work He accomplished in the hearts and minds of the people. Thank Him for the impact on your own soul.

Second, we should confess any personal sin that might have been brought to our attention. Sometimes, sin can be hidden from our view because we’ve become desensitized to it. But when the Word of God is preached and we clearly see our sin for what it is, then we ought to confess it right away.

Third, we should re-read the passage that was preached. Subsequent readings often bring new observations to our minds and God reveals new thoughts that we missed the first time around.

Fourth, we should follow any theological leads that might have been discovered. Thabiti Anyabwile invites his listeners to continue their personal study of the passage he used in his sermon. He says it is good to “develop the habit of addressing any questions about the text itself.”[2] You may need to invest in a good set of commentaries so that you can check into aspects of the passage.[3] This is part of being a faithful Berean. Make sure the preacher has indeed preached the text. Once you are convinced the message is indeed from God, spur your mind and body into action.

Fifth, write down as specifically as you can some action you need to take to obey the Bible passage. It may be a change of attitude, an alteration in the way you speak, or some action you need to stop doing, or start doing. Michael Fabarez warns:

The enemy would gladly accept a variety of ‘positive responses’ when your pastor preaches. He’d happily allow people to be impressed with his outlines, as long as people aren’t changed. He’d gladly foster interest in the content, the argument, and the historical context, as long as lives aren’t changed. He’d cheerfully pass out warm feelings about the message, as long as people aren’t changed. Surely he would settle for anything short of the biblical sermon affecting permanent transformation in people’s lives.[4]

So find ways to make application a routine task. Roy Zuck suggests that writing an “I will . . .” statement can solidify your resolve to make appropriate application of the sermon.[5] Try this out—after next Sunday’s sermon, write down two “I will . . .” statements using any of the following action verbs:

Accept	Count	Help	Pursue	Study
Admit	Create	Invite	Read	Substitute
Analyze	Decide	Isolate	Realize	Take
Ask	Develop	Keep	Record	Talk with
Ask myself	Direct	List	Rejoice	Teach
Avoid	Discuss	Listen	Repair	Telephone
Be sensitive	Do	Look for	Respond	Thank
Be willing	Eliminate	Look up	Sacrifice	Think about
Build	Encourage	Love	Save	Value
Buy	Enjoy	Meet with	Schedule	Visit
Choose	Evaluate	Memorize	Select	Wait
Claim	Exemplify	Organize	Send	Wake up
Collect	Experiment	Plan out	Share	Walk
Commit	Find	Pray	Show	Watch
Compliment	Follow	Pray about	Sing	Witness
Comply	Give	Pray to	Spend time	Work on
Confess	Go	Pray with	Stay away	Write down
Control	Guard	Prefer	Stop	Write to

Once you have your “I will . . .” statements written down, determine to put them into action during the following week. Regularly pray over your application plan. Then in a week, look back at your action points and evaluate your faithfulness to put the sermon into practice. Pray, pray and pray again for God to work obedience in you to His Word. This is a wonderful way to measure your personal sanctification. You’ll grow in confidence as you watch God bring about significant changes to your spiritual disciplines and routines.

Physical Practice

These activities will take some time. You will not be able to perform them subconsciously or while you’re on the move. You’ll need to set aside some time on Sunday afternoon or evening to reflect on the sermon. Remember this is one of the key opportunities to maximize the sermon. If you walk away from the mirror of God’s Word, having seen personal concerns that need to be addressed, and forget to actually address them, you have wasted that opportunity (Jas 1:22–25). You might have been better to not look into the mirror in the first place. So set aside thirty minutes and find a quiet place to think through the sermon, reflect on your notes, and pray for God to bring about the changes you have identified.

Sunday afternoons fly by so quickly. You might like to share lunch with other Christians. The sweet fellowship can often extend far into the late afternoon. Some like to take a nap on Sunday afternoons. Whatever your normal practice, you’ll need to be physically disciplined to ensure you get some time to yourself for sermon reflection.

Summary

Listening to sermons is all about preparation, participation, and practice. It is important to commit to all three stages of sermon-listening. Short-cutting any one of these will severely impede your spiritual growth. Maybe you’ve already identified areas of deficiency and areas which can be improved. Try making a plan to increase your sermon-listening abilities. Discuss the following questions in your study-group setting or with Christian friends, then move on to the next two sections.

Questions for Group Discussion

1.     Discuss what Saturday and Sunday morning sermon-listening preparations you currently practice and what new spiritual and physical preparations you intend to make from now on.

2.     Discuss how effective your listening practices have been in the past. Where do you sit? What distractions frustrate you? What do your sermon notes look like? Encourage one another with ideas for improvement.

3.     What does your Sunday afternoon and evening look like? Have you decided to make any changes to your normal routine? Discuss what you will do after the sermon to maximize the impact of the sermon.

Next Week

The practical pointers covered over the past three weeks are all well and good, but if they are applied in an exclusively individualistic manner they are insufficient. There is more to Christianity than listening to sermons alone. Sermon-listening and genuine Christian fellowship go hand-in-hand. The next few blog posts will be the most important of this series. They focus on the relationship between body-life and the Sunday sermon. We are just getting started!  See you next week.

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[1] Joel R. Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008), 28.

[2] Thabiti M. Anyabwile, What Is a Healthy Church Member? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 24–25.

[3] Ibid., 23.

[4] Michael Fabarez, Praying for Sunday: You, Your Pastor, and the Next Sermon (Laguna Hills, CA, Michael Fabarez, 2008), 7.

[5] Roy B. Zuck, Basic Bible Interpretation (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1991), 291–92.