If you go to church every Sunday morning and attend an adult Bible fellowship you will hear approximately 100 sermon/lessons every year. If you are a Christian for 10 years that means you will have listened to 1000 in that time.
But how often do we really listen as we should. The Constructive Curmudgeon has a challenge for us:
Listen . . . with all your might; hear the living and active word. The teaching and preaching of God’s imperishable word is truly a sacred event whereby the Truth penetrates hearts and minds, consciences are quickened, sin is disclosed, salvation is offered, wisdom is imparted . . . if we listen, if we actively engage ourselves in hearing, if we participate as the Holy Spirit works in our midst.
We are all too accustomed to being entertained and passively amused. Television often hypnotizes or anaesthetizes us; it demands little response and by its very nature stimulates stagnation, not spiritual encounter. Video games, cell phones, and internet access offers an endless source of possible distraction. But when we come together as the Body of Christ we come as participants not as spectators, we come to hear and obey the Truth not to be entertained. Neither Moses nor Paul captured their audience through eloquence or style. They were not entertainers but Truth-tellers: they spoke God’s word with a power that provoked response. Our Lord, when teaching by parable, alerted his hearers: “Therefore, consider carefully how you listen” (Luke 8:18). We are to be engaged in listening, intent on hearing.
The rest is so good! So before you head off to church for another week, read the whole article here! It won’t hurt you and it will likely help you to listen better this Sunday!
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Strengthened by Grace 