Chapter 3: Participate in the Sermon

Once the service begins, you ought to see yourself as a participant, not an observer. Preaching is an act of worship for the preacher, and listening to preaching is an act of worship for the rest of us. Donald Whitney explains: “We normally think of worship as something we do, and since preaching is done by the preacher (and not us), many fail to think of preaching as worship. . . . The reason it is an act of worship is that you are listening to God speak (through His Word).”[1]

Since public worship is an active—not passive—pursuit, then listening to the sermon—one of the acts of worship—requires purposeful determination. A myth of communication is that listening is passive and requires no skill or effort. It’s wrong to say, “In communicating it is the sender who is entirely responsible for the success of the communication.”[2] Listening takes effort and you will need to work hard to stay focused. You’ll need to fight off distractions to make sure your mind is engaged throughout the entire sermon. Be purposeful with this and ask the Lord for help to stay on track. Thought is faster than speech, so you’ll need to determine to engage your mind on thinking and assessing the point of each sentence the pastor speaks. William Thompson explains: “We can listen to more material than any speaker can dole out! Most of us can think about 500 words per minute, while the normal speaking rate of any public speaker is about 125 words per minute. That differential gives us around forty five seconds of thinking time in every sixty seconds we are listening.”[3] How are you going to use that extra time? Listening and thinking cannot be compartmentalized when you are in the act of listening to a sermon, but at the very least we should admit that concentration and focus are needed to make full use of our intellectual abilities. Let’s acknowledge that fact and determine to do our best in that moment. Here are some practical steps.

Position Yourself for Attentiveness

Sit toward the front, if possible. I’m not suggesting that you fight for the best seats in the house, but from experience we all know that everything that happens in front of us can be a distraction. Sitting close to the front means you’re there to do business—you’re serious and want to be focused. It tells the preacher that you’re going to take his message seriously and you’re not satisfied being out-of-sight and out-of-mind.

Protect Yourself from Distraction

Turn your cell phone, pager, and other gadgets off. The ninety minutes you spend in public worship each week are the most important of the week. There are not many so-called “emergencies” that need to interrupt this special time involving God and His people. Tim Challies explains: “Every beep exacts a cost, whether the cost is simply the brief moment of distraction as our attention turns to the source of the noise, or the necessity of running from imminent danger. These beeps fill our lives. Often, they run our lives.”[4] Don’t let them run your life especially during worship. If you utilize an iPad or tablet device to access a digital Bible or to take notes during the sermon, that’s great, but ensure that the mail and txt functions are turned off, so that you’ll not be tempted to “multitask” when your focus ought to be singular.

Pen Yourself unto Remembrance

Take notes when listening to a sermon. Hebrews 2:1 says, “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” We dare not allow the sermons we listen to run through our minds like water through a sieve. Note-taking is a way to slow down the information flow. It forces us to think and process things. “No device is better for grasping what is being said than mentally summarizing the main points. This quickly becomes a habit and does wonders in pointing up strong ideas and those that may need clarification.”[5] There’s no need to make note-taking a burdensome exercise. Simply jot down the salient points. Record enough to act as reminders of how God challenged you during the message to change something in your life. These reminders will keep the sermon alive in the days and weeks that follow as you review the lessons learned. “The shortest pencil outlasts the longest memory.”[6]

In note-taking, my personal goal is to take enough notes to make it possible for me to re-teach the lesson myself. I might not actually be called to do that, but I believe that personal goal keeps me motivated to listen well. At the very least, I’ll be able to intelligently discuss the sermon after the service if I have sufficiently noted the main points. Charles Stanley believes “one of the problems today in the body of Christ is that too many Christians have been passive listeners for too many years. That is why after forty years as believers, they won’t teach a Bible study or lead a class because they ‘don’t know the Word well enough.’ Where have they been for the past four decades?”[7]

Point Yourself toward Content

Enjoy preaching, not as entertainment but as God’s regular gracious invitation to walk with Him. Make sure your mind is engaged with the content of the sermon rather than evaluating the preacher’s sermon delivery. If you are overly critical about the preacher’s delivery, you will find yourself tuning out. Instead, try to stay focused on the Bible passage or topic at hand.

As you listen to the content, hold fire on judging too quickly. Some preachers build their sermon around a solid outline with clear progression from one point to the next. These sermons make it easy to take logically ordered notes. Other preachers have a more holistic approach, which can be harder to follow, and yet still build to reveal biblical principles that mold Christian thinking. In the case of the later, wait till you have a full comprehension of the overall message before you jump on any small concerns.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones enjoyed listening to others preach, saying, “It is a great thing to be a listener. You want something for your soul, you want help.”[8] But he warned against taking a ‘professional’ approach to ministry: “I don’t want a great sermon. I want to feel the presence of God—that I am worshipping Him, and considering something great and glorious. If I do get that I do not care how poor the sermon is.”[9] Lloyd-Jones’s expectation was fair. He judged the content and heart of a sermon not the delivery. In fact, he was critical of those who perfected their sermon delivery but gave no thought to the presence of God or the power of His Word. He suggested, “Our greatest danger is the danger of professionalism.”[10]

So try to be fair to your pastor. He probably cannot compete with the polished delivery of today’s rockstar-preachers, so don’t expect him to. Instead, engage with the substance of the sermon. You must do this for two reasons. First, you have a responsibility to check the message being preached. And second, you have a responsibility to respond to that message. Ask yourself, “Did the preacher say what the passage says?” “Did the preacher prove his points from the Bible?” If he did, then you must humbly submit to the Word of God. Do whatever is needed to ensure that your mind is engaged with content not delivery.

Prepare Yourself for Action

“We shouldn’t be passive observers. How we listen and apply what we hear either honors or dishonors God.”[11] During the sermon, you can already be thinking about application. Ask yourself questions throughout the sermon: What are you going to think as a result of this sermon? What are you going to do as a result of this sermon? Do not wait until after the sermon to be application-oriented. Jot down your points of application as they come to mind so you don’t forget them later. As obedient Christians, we should always be pursuing Christ-likeness, and this requires deliberate action.

John MacArthur suggests asking the following seven questions of a Bible text:[12]

1.              Are there examples to follow?

2.              Are there commands to obey?

3.              Are there errors to avoid?

4.              Are there sins to forsake?

5.              Are there promises to claim?

6.              Are there new thoughts about God?

7.              Are there principles to live by?

Every Scripture passage will inevitably lead to a conclusion in one or more of these areas. Don’t let yourself off the hook. Your answers to these questions will spur you into action during and after the sermon and will show you how serious you are about your Christian walk.

Ex-slave trader, turned Christian and pastor, John Newton warns:

Be cautious that you do not degenerate into the spirit of a mere hearer, so as to place the chief stress of your profession upon running hither and thither after preachers. There are many who . . . seem to think that they were sent into this world only to hear sermons, and to hear as many in a day as they possibly can. . . . If the twelve apostles were again upon the earth, and you could hear them all every week, yet, if you were not attentive to the duties of the closet [i.e., private prayer], if you did not allow yourself time for reading, meditation, and prayer . . . I should be more ready to blame your indiscretion than to admire your zeal.[13]

Joel Beeke summarizes well: “We must not listen to sermons as spectators but as participants. The minister should not be the only one working. Good listening is hard work; it involves worshipping God continuously. An attentive listener responds quickly—whether with repentance, resolution, determination, or praise—and God is honored in this.”[14]

Next week, we’ll see that sermon-listening doesn’t stop when the preacher stops. There is yet more to do.  An unapplied sermon is a waste.  Check back next week for some really important sermon application principles.

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[1] Donald D. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines within the Church: Participating Fully in the Body of Christ (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1996), 69.

[2] Lyman K. Steil, Joanne Summerfield, and George de Mare, Listening, It Can Change Your Life (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1985), 41.

[3] William D. Thompson, Listening on Sunday for Sharing on Monday (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1983), 36.

[4] Tim Challies, The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing, 2011), 115.

[5] Steil, Summerfield, and de Mare, Listening, It Can Change Your Life, 129.

[6] Ibid., 131.

[7] Charles Stanley, How to Listen to God (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1985), 17.

[8] Iain H. Murray, Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2008), 101.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Joshua Harris, Stop Dating the Church (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2004), 111.

[12] John MacArthur, “A Study Method for Expository Preaching,” in John MacArthur, Jr. and The Master’s Seminary Faculty, Rediscovering Expository Preaching (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1992), 217–8.

[13] J. Todd Murray, Beyond Amazing Grace (Webster, NY: Evangelical Press, 2007), 160.

[14] Joel R. Beeke, The Family at Church: Listening to Sermons and Attending Prayer Meetings (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008), 18.

Chapter 2: Prepare Physically for the Sermon

A great Sunday starts Saturday night. We often make it hard for ourselves on Sunday—physically speaking—because we don’t plan ahead. In order to come rested and ready to pay close attention to the sermon on Sunday, there are several routines to establish for Saturdays.  Let me suggest a few practical steps to prepare well for Sunday.

First, make it a habit to be home on Saturday night. Sundays can be super busy, so rest up on Saturday evening, finish Sunday preparations early in the evening, and try to get a good night’s sleep so you can be sharp and energetic to worship God and to listen to what He has to say to you.

Second, be careful not to do, watch, or read anything that will cause lingering distractions in your mind the next day. You want to fill your mind with those thoughts that are working in tandem with God’s character, public worship, and body-life activities. So avoid movies and other forms of entertainment that might keep you dreaming all night and daydreaming on Sunday.

Third, get things ready on Saturday night to alleviate the typical Sunday morning rush. This means you will make your—and your children’s—clothing selections on Saturday, set the breakfast table (and/or lunch table if you are planning to have guests over after church), write your offering check, prepare the diaper bag, and load up the car with anything else you may need to take with you. Move as many Sunday morning activities to Saturday evening, if possible. This way, you will alleviate some of the typical Sunday morning frustrations.

Then on Sunday morning, consider these choices. First, do not think of Sunday as a sleep-in day. Rise on Sunday at a similar time to any other day of the week. This way your body-clock will not assume that it should be in vacation mode.

Second, eat a good breakfast that will adequately hold you over until lunch. You don’t want to be sitting in church—stomach sounding-off—thinking about what you are going to eat for lunch.

Third, work hard at helping your spouse and other family members to get ready. You can assist them to be well prepared for church by asking what they need to get done.

Fourth, seek to establish and maintain a godly atmosphere on the way to church. You might choose to listen to praise music in the car. You could sing along, focusing your thoughts on God’s attributes and the gospel. You could pray around the family, taking turns to express worship or asking the Lord for help to maximize the day’s opportunities.

Fifth, arrive at church ten minutes early instead of five minutes late. You’ll need to be deliberate about this. Just think about getting the whole family settled in plenty of time—it is a glorious thought! You might even be able to use some of that extra time in meditation and prayer, or ministering to someone close by before the service begins.

These practical preparations will greatly enhance Sunday’s sermon-listening experience.  Next week, I’ll offer pointers on how to fully participate in the sermon itself. Catch you next time . . .

Chapter 1: Prepare Spiritually for the Sermon

In most churches, a significant proportion of the budget is assigned to ensure the preaching pastor has sufficient time and resources to prepare sermons. On average it takes around twenty hours to prepare an expository sermon. When it’s a difficult passage or topic that time allotment increases. Now, twenty hours is a big chunk of the pastor’s week, and yet we are prepared to free him up for that commitment, because we believe the sermon is one of the most important weekly activities we undertake. But is our commitment to pastoral-preparation matched by our own congregational-preparation? I’m not saying that every parishioner should give twenty hours a week to prepare to listen to a sermon, but there should be some preparation in order to listen well.

What needs more preparation—the sower or the ground? Charles Spurgeon’s comments are appropriate:

We are told men ought not to preach without preparation. Granted, but we add, men ought not to hear without preparation. Which, do you think, needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground? I would have the sower come with clean hands, but I would have the ground well-plowed and harrowed, well-turned over, and the clods broken before the seed comes in. It seems to me that there is more preparation needed by the ground than by the sower, more by the hearer than by the preacher.[1]

Of course, we are not downplaying the effort required from the preacher, but we listeners should consider our efforts too.

This week, I’ll present four pre-sermon spiritual preparations, and then next week, five physical preparations.[2]  Here we go with the spiritual preparations . . .

Throughout the week, we should daily be confessing sin (1 John 1:8–10). This is especially important as we approach the sermon event. It will be impossible to listen enthusiastically to God if we are harboring sin in our hearts. In 1 Peter 2:1–3, we are commanded to thirst for the pure milk of the Word, but a prerequisite is listed in that passage—namely, if we do not first put aside “all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” then we will not be able to develop that insatiable, baby-like appetite for the pure milk of the Word. So our first spiritual preparation is to ensure that unconfessed sin is brought into the open. We are to spend time with God in prayer, acknowledging the specific sin, seeking His forgiveness, pleading for a pure heart, and making a commitment to live righteously. If your sin has affected others, you will need to go seek their forgiveness also. Don’t wait until Sunday to do this. Take it seriously, and deal with personal sin as soon as it is brought to your attention.

Second, look up next Sunday’s Bible passage and read it at home during the week. Get your family involved in the process. Meditate on the passage during your quiet time. Write down questions that arise from the text. Fill your mind with the passage, so that when you listen to the sermon you will have a head-start and will already know where the sermon is going. You will be more engaged and your heart will already have been challenged with the spiritual truths that passage contains.

Third, pray for next Sunday’s preacher in the middle of the week. His job is difficult and his responsibility is weighty. Ask a preacher what he wants from his congregation, and most will answer this way: “Please pray for me” (1 Thess 5:25; 2 Thess 3:1; Heb 13:18). So ask the Lord to give your pastor grace and wisdom, strength and clarity in his study, so that when he comes to deliver the Lord’s message, he will come with humility and confidence, truth and grace, and integrity and knowledge.

Fourth, pray often for yourself, that God will grow in you a heartfelt expectation of all that will take place in your mind and heart during the sermon experience. Cultivate humility by anticipating spiritual change. Expect God to speak. Expect Him to assault your earthly hangovers. As you walk into church on Sunday morning, deliberately quiet your mind and heart before the sermon and say to yourself: “This is when God speaks to me.”  Pray: “Lord, speak to me. I am listening.” Pray for the work of God's Spirit to enable you to submit to what the Bible clearly says, and to help you to change.

These four spiritual preparations will be aided greatly by the practical preparations I’ll post next week.  Come back for more . . .

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[1] Charles. H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon at His Best: Over 2200 Striking Quotations from the World's Most Exhaustive and Widely-Read Sermon Series, ed. by Tom Carter (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1988), 158.

[2] The following preparation suggestions come from the following helpful books: Thabiti M. Anyabwile, What Is a Healthy Church Member? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 22, 25; Christopher Ash, Listen Up!: A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (New Maiden, Surrey, England: The Good Book Company, 2009), 5; Joshua Harris, Stop Dating the Church (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2004), 105; and Ken Ramey, Expository Listening (The Woodlands, TX: Kress Biblical Resources, 2010), 112–13.

SECTION THREE: Sermon-Listening Tips for Individual Listeners

Richard Baxter said, "I preach'd as never sure to preach again. I preach'd as a dying man to dying men."[1]  If you agree with Baxter’s words, then you will also agree that we listen to sermons as never sure to listen again. We listen to dying men as a dying man.

The next sermon you hear may be your last. What will you do to ensure it has maximum impact upon your thinking, passions, lifestyle, and relationship with Christ? How will you use it to prepare yourself to meet God?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve summarized four biblical convictions that increase our responsibility in sermon-listening. My next few posts will offer three areas of practical advice which, if implemented consistently, will enable you to listen to sermons more effectively.

The Westminster Larger Catechism asks in Question 160: “What is required of those that hear the Word preached?” The answer provided is: “It is required of those that hear the Word preached, that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer; examine what they hear by the Scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the Word of God; meditate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.”[2]

I have summarized these catechismic sermon-listening requirements under three headings: prepare, participate, and practice.  Come back over the next three weeks to see how listeners prepare for the sermon, participate in the sermon, and practice the sermon.  Catch you soon!

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[1] Richard Baxter, Poetical Fragments (New York: Gregg Division of McGraw-Hill, 1971), 30.

[2] James Edward Bordwine, A Guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger Catechism, with Scripture Proofs: Also Including Chapter Summaries and Topical Index (Jefferson, MD: Trinity Foundation, 1991), 345.

Sermon-Listening in the Bible - Summary

In A.D. 1541, the Ordinances of the Church of Geneva prescribed six sermons a week: Sundays at dawn, 9am, 12noon (catechism for children), and 3pm, plus three more sermons on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They reasoned that this was the only way for light to return and darkness invaded. With that in mind, Walter Kaiser writes: “Should we not follow these Genevans in establishing, as they did, something more than the twenty-five minute homily or one ten-to-fifteen minute topical sermon given each Sunday morning as the total source for our Christian maturation for the whole week?”[1]

But Walter Kaiser wrote those words in 2003, and the preaching landscape has changed so much in the last ten years. Today, we are not so much fighting for longer sermons—we are fighting for sermons, period. Are you dedicated to listen to preaching? Is the practice essential to you? Take a look at the following discussion points and ask yourself: “Am I committed to listening to the voice of God, with humility, with discernment, and unto action in every sermon experience?”

Here are questions for discussion:

1.     Have you consistently prepared yourself to hear sermons with the understanding that God will speak to you in that sermon? Discuss how you might develop that anticipation. Discuss how you might encourage your pastor with that expectation.

2.     Do you have a humble and attentive heart when you listen to sermons? How is that seen by others? Discuss how you might encourage one another in areas of openness, transparency, and prayerfulness, before and after a sermon.

3.     Do you have the necessary skills and Bible knowledge to be a discerning sermon-listener? Do you engage with your pastor, asking questions about the content of his sermons? Discuss how you might increase your ability to discern biblical teaching from false teaching. Is there a local course in hermeneutics you can complete?

4.     Share with your study group how urgent you are about sermon-application. Are there ways you can increase that urgency? How can you encourage one another to practice God’s Word? Pray for one another, that you would become even more faithful listeners and doers of God’s Word.

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[1] Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament: A Guide for the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003), 19.

Chapter 4: Listen unto Action

How many times have you eaten roast-preacher for Sunday lunch? These kinds of banal banquets tend to consume the preacher, not the sermon. Much like the crowd who listened to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and were amazed because He spoke with authority, but failed to heed His message (Matt 7:28–29), church-goers today focus on the style of preachers when they should be concerned about the content of their sermons.

Every sermon we hear increases our culpability because every sermon demands action. Ken Ramey provides a helpful insight: “Let’s say you came to Christ at age ten and you live to be seventy-five. If you average two sermons a week, you will listen to over seven thousand sermons during the course of your life. And at end of your life you will stand before God and give an account for every sermon you heard.”[1] That’s a sobering thought! On that day, our Lord will not be interested in our thoughts about our preacher’s preaching style. When we stand before Him, He’ll evaluate our actions, not our feelings about our pastor’s speaking abilities. He’ll look for appropriate responses to the preached Word of God. The claim to be a “Christian” will not suffice on that day, because Jesus Christ will be interested in the evidence that backs up that claim.

Most Christians are familiar with the parable of the wise man who built his house on solid rock and the foolish man who built his house on unstable sand, but not all take the time to consider the lesson of that parable. Here is what Christ said:

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall (Matt 7:21–27).

The point of the parable is to say that a wise person will act upon God’s Word, putting it into practice. The consequences of listening without appropriate action are eternally dire.

This is the difference between Greek wisdom and Hebrew wisdom. To an ancient Greek, wisdom was the accumulation of knowledge. It was measured by a person’s intellect. Not so for an ancient Hebrew. To a Hebrew, the most foolish person in the world was the person who knew what to do, but didn’t do it. And the wisest person in the world, was the person who knew what to do, and did it. Wisdom was measured by action, not mere knowledge alone.[2] That is why Psalm 111:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. . .” The fear of God, wisdom, and obedience go hand-in-hand. Do you want to be wise? Don’t just listen and learn, but listen, learn, and be obedient. Listen to sermons in order to put into practice the things Scripture instructs you to do.

Scripture says, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him” (1 John 2:3–5).

We cannot afford to put off obedience till another day. There ought to be an urgency to our sermon-induced action. Psalm 95:7–8 says, “. . . Today, if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts . . .” If you listen to a sermon and identify some change of mind, some change of lifestyle, some change of action that needs to takes place in order to become more obedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ, tomorrow will not do. Today is when that change ought to be implemented. Sin is deceitful. If you put off obedience till another day it will result in the hardening of your heart (Heb 3:13). That’s why every sermon is urgent. That’s why we listen with eternity in mind.

James gives a very important instruction in this regard:

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be blessed in what he does (Jas 1:22–25).

Do you want God’s blessing? The key to that blessing is to hear God’s Word and act on it. In his challenging little book, Stop Dating the Church, Josh Harris writes, “Don’t think that listening is enough. That’s a deception. . . . Hearing truth doesn’t change us. We have to take action.”[3] So ask yourself right now: How am I going to take my pastor’s sermons seriously? What routines will I put in place to ensure no sermon goes by without deliberate action?

Christopher Ash counsels us: “Every time the Bible is preached, we ought to repent again and trust in Christ again. The Bible doesn’t just call non-Christians to repent and believe. It calls Christians to repent and believe; and it does so today. . . . When we become Christians, we do not leave repentance and faith behind; on the contrary, we enter a life which consists of daily repentance and faith.”[4]

We’ll probably hear thousands of sermons in our lifetime. That just makes us more answerable before God. Christopher Ash explains it this way: “To hear a sermon and not respond is worse than not hearing it at all; it makes us more guilty than we were before. As Jesus said about the unbelieving Jews: ‘If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin’ (i.e.: not as guilty). ‘Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin’ (John 15:22).”[5]

Let’s determine today to listen to every single sermon with action in mind.

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[1] Ken Ramey, Expository Listening (The Woodlands, TX: Kress Biblical Resources, 2010), 5.

[2] John MacArthur, How to Study the Bible (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009), 80.

[3] Joshua Harris, Stop Dating the Church (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2004), 116.

[4] Christopher Ash, Listen Up!: A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons (New Maiden, Surrey, England: The Good Book Company, 2009), 20–21.

[5] Ibid., 22.