Faith Bible Blog

Series Introduction: Recently our new Associate Pastor, Nigel Shailer, challenged us to be “Community Listeners” as we hear God’s Word taught each week. Focus, the ministry to seniors at FBC, has been working through this topic following Ken Ramey’s excellent book Expository Listening. This series of six articles comes from that study.

The fourth chapter of Expository Listening addresses the problem of hearing what needs to be heard. Some people just want to hear an entertaining message and feel good – they aren’t interested in being challenged with their lifestyle. Preachers who focus on entertainment and positive feelings are actually teaching their listeners false doctrine. Indeed, many of their sermons do not even contain the gospel. From 2 Timothy 4:1-4 we see some principles that are helpful for listeners as well as preachers. While the commands are directed at a young preacher, we will look at them to see how they might also be applied to listeners.

First, if the preacher has to preach, then the listener has to listen.  That sounds so simple! Paul said in verse 2: Preach the Word. The “Word” is obviously the same message that was proclaimed as inspired at the end of chapter 3. To preach it means that you are acting as a public messenger to announce an important message. If it’s public, then we will be listening with others, meaning we will be in church. If it’s important and if it’s from God Himself, then the listener better be careful to listen to what is being said. So Paul might say to the church where Timothy was located (Ephesus), “Listen to the Word. Don’t go looking for something that will just amuse you. Be challenged.” So here is our command: Listen to the Word. It’s urgent. It’s important. Start listening.

Second, if the preacher has to be ready all the time, then the listener has to be ready all the time. The next command to Timothy was to “be ready in season and out of season.” The word “ready” suggests the idea of standing at the ready. A soldier has to be prepared at all times. He does not just prepare for one battle, but for any battle. That requires a preacher to be a student of the Word constantly, a man who walks with God throughout the week. How about you as a listener? Are you always ready to hear God’s Word? In fact, are you hungry for it, wanting to get the best message that will challenge you in the way you live?

Third, if the preacher has to reprove those who hear, then the listener has to be receptive to reproof. Timothy is commanded to confront people with the truth. It may be that their lives are not consistent with Christlikeness. Possibly there has been acceptance of false teaching. Such things need to be corrected. What do you as a listener need to do? Listen for areas in your life or doctrine that are not consistent with God’s Word. Have a desire to see areas that need to be corrected.

Fourth, if the preacher has to rebuke, then the listener has to be receptive to rebuke.  This is the follow-up to reproof. Once the false doctrine or sinful living has been exposed, people need to be challenged to be changed. Expository listeners want to change. They look for problems in their lives or weaknesses that need to be strengthened. Rebuke is not a threat to them; it’s an opportunity to grow.

Fifth, if the preacher has to exhort, then the listener has to be receptive to exhortation. What is exhortation? It is the same word translated as encouragement and comfort. Someone is coming alongside to help implement the needed change. Though the expository preacher has started the process with a message from the Word, help is often needed to put that change into practice consistently. Get involved in a small group or in a discipleship relationship with just one other person, someone who can assist in bringing about positive change in your life.

Listener, are you looking for a positive change in your life? When you hear the Word, find something you need to do that you have not been doing. It may be something new, or it may be something that you used to do but that has been left behind at some point. Be ready to listen, be willing to evaluate your life in light of the message, and take action to put into practice what you have heard. The preacher is to be faithful in teaching God’s Word – we should be just as faithful to hear it and let it change us.

Series Introduction: Recently our new Associate Pastor, Nigel Shailer, challenged us to be “Community Listeners” as we hear God’s Word taught each week. Focus, the ministry to Seniors at FBC, has been working through this topic following Ken Ramey’s excellent book Expository Listening. This series of six articles comes from that study.

The third chapter of Expository Listening deals with being prepared to hear God’s Word. The author again uses the picture of farming to demonstrate how we listen to God’s Word. Just like the field that is too hard for the seeds to penetrate, the heart that constantly ignores the message or just listens without taking action becomes hard and will not be fruitful. Here are some Biblical insights we can use to get our hearts ready to hear God’s Word.

Understand the purpose of coming to church. When we meet together, whether it is in an RMG, small group, or a Sunday service, it is not for our benefit. Hebrews 10:24 gives a primary goal for the time we spend together with other believers. Literally, it says, “Let us think carefully about one another towards the stimulating to love and good works.” Verse 25 goes on to say that we are deserting them (“forsaking”) when we fail to come. People need us to be there! The opposite of desertion according to this verse is encouragement, which means you come alongside them to offer them help. Think about physical presence when you think of being an encourager. These verses teach that we are obligated to take our eyes off of self and focus on how we can help others.

Meditate on God’s Word daily. Meditation is more than just reading the Bible. It is spending time with the Bible, probably just a few verses. It is a time when you think about the lessons God is teaching you on how you ought to live. It is about finding a way to change your life. Psalm 1:2 says that the “blessed man” is doing it “day and night.” The result of such practice is fruitfulness. I loved reading the story of English politician William Wilberforce who memorized Psalm 119 and then recited it as he walked to his office, where he fought against the slave trade in England. Bible memorization is one of the best ways to practice meditation, since you can do it anywhere, even when you don’t have a Bible with you. Spending extended time with the passage of scripture that will be taught in the Sunday message will be especially helpful to prepare you to listen to the message from the pulpit.

Get rid of sin that will prevent you from being hungry for God’s Word. Listening to God’s Word requires a heart that is prepared, and that means it is clean. 1 Peter 2:2 commands us to have a longing for God’s Word, just like a baby has a longing for milk. But that longing is preceded by getting rid of sins that have been a part of your life. You’re not hungry for the good food if you’re filled up with junk. Make sure that you go to God in confession before ever going to His Word for instruction.

Pray daily for God’s Word being taught. The apostle Paul asked for churches to pray for him as he continued his ministry of the Word (Colossians 4:2-4 and Ephesians 6:19-20). Pray for the one who is teaching, that he will be “clear” (Colossians 4:4) and that the Holy Spirit will speak truth into the lives of the people (John 16:13).

Paul was in constant prayer for the people of the different churches where he had preached. It was often a prayer of thanks to God for how He had been at work in them, but it was also a prayer for God’s continued work in their lives. Consider the value of praying for others that you know with the words of Colossians 1:9-12. Pray that you and others who will be hearing the message will have these results in their lives as they hear God’s Word.

Series Introduction: Recently our new Associate Pastor, Nigel Shailer, challenged us to be “Community Listeners” as we hear God’s Word taught each week. Focus, the ministry to Seniors at FBC, has been working through this topic following Ken Ramey’s excellent book Expository Listening. This series of six articles comes from that study.

In chapter 2 of Expository Listening, the parable of the sower is used to explain how the Word of God (the seed) is received when it is preached. Although the context of the parable deals with hearing the gospel message of salvation, by way of application we can apply the same truth to anything that is taught from God’s Word. We can respond in one of four different ways.

Rolled Eyes and a Stubborn Heart

We can ignore the Word proclaimed.  Though some people come to church and hear a sermon, it doesn’t do them any good. The parable specifically states that the devil comes and takes the message away from them. Such a person is unsaved. The message of salvation needs the involvement of the Holy Spirit to take the Word, bring conviction, and give them repentance and faith (both of those are gifts, by the way!).

Teary Eyes and a Superficial Heart  

We can “make a decision.”   The second type of soil is the kind where the seed finds a place to get some roots started. Such a person can hear the message, respond to it in a positive way, and even get excited about it! They appear to be truly impacted to the point that there is some type of change taking place. But such change does not last. When things get tough, the change disappears; it’s just a memory. True, it is difficult to be consistent over the long haul, but there is no “long haul” with such a person. There is no lasting fruit, if there is any at all. It wasn’t heart change. This person was not saved.

Distracted Eyes and a Strangled Heart  

We can make some changes in our life.  This type of hearer appears to last longer than the second. There is even some fruit for a period of time, just as it takes weeds a while before they begin taking over a garden. They build up over time. The one who hears the Word of God can show some fruit for a while, but eventually, something becomes more important to them than the Word. They get distracted. They are deceived by a pursuit for more wealth, or they become pleasure-seekers. The times in which they live have captured their attention, and they drift away, like Demas (2 Timothy 4:10). This person who showed such promise was not a believer at all, merely a “make-believer.”

Focused Eyes and a Soft Heart  

We can make changes that have a permanent impact on how we live. This is the person who not only is a hearer, but a doer (James 1:22). He hears the Word of God and puts it into practice, not just for a brief time, or even for an extended time. There is consistent, habitual action. There is fruit that is evident. And the fruit is abundant. It is clear to all who look at this person that there is a changed life. This is the only one of the four types of hearers that is truly born again.

 We should be careful not to judge the amount of fruit that others are showing in their life (“I have more fruit than you!”). Their fruit may look different than our fruit. But there WILL be fruit if they are truly saved. If your life is evidenced by a continual response to God’s Word as pictured in the first three soils, then it is time to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith (1 Corinthians 13:5). At the same time, however, we should always be striving to produce more fruit as we grow.

True believers do grow, just like plants will grow as they are fed what is needed. We should always seek opportunities for more growth (by getting more of the Word), but that growth should consistently lead to more fruit. The type of fruit you produce may change over time. While you may have once been an aggressive evangelist or a faithful teacher of the Word to large numbers of people, now your fruitfulness may be seen in more personal work, impacting smaller groups or perhaps just one or two people. However, there will be fruit of some kind if we have the right response to what we hear from God’s Word.

Series Introduction: Recently our new Associate Pastor, Nigel Shailer, challenged us to be “Community Listeners” as we hear God’s Word taught each week. Focus, the ministry to Seniors at FBC, has been working through this topic following Ken Ramey’s book Expository Listening. This series of six articles comes from that study.

Ken Ramey teaches us how to listen to the preaching of God’s Work in his excellent book Expository Listening. Over the next few posts, we will be looking at what the Bible says about hearing God’s Word. There is a big emphasis on not just hearing, but also obeying it, practicing it, doing it. We will be studying some of those passages and applying those principles to our personal sermon listening. But we will begin with establishing what he calls a Biblical audiology: the study of hearing God’s Word. Why should we do it? Let’s look at five reasons.

First, God gave His Word to us. In 1 Timothy 3:16, we are told that God’s Word is inspired, literally “God-breathed.” They are the very words of God. Of course, that means that the teacher has a serious responsibility to be faithful in proclaiming, but it is also a serious responsibility for the listener to hear it. In our study we will focus on what it means to actually “hear” God’s Word.

In 2 Peter 1:20-21, we discover that scripture came to the writers as they were moved by God, which tells us how God breathed out His Word. What we hear when listening to an expository message is God’s Word. Of course, human teachers are subject to error, but as they are faithful in preparing and presenting the Word of God to their audience, it will be their intent to accurately present God’s message. We do well when we act like the Bereans (Acts 17:11) to search the Scriptures and evaluate what we hear against what the Bible says.

Second, we have not obeyed God’s Word. This was the practice of the first people God created. They knew God’s Word, and they chose to disobey it. The same is true of every human being ever since. Ephesians 2:1-3 describes the sinful condition of every person: we are all dead in our transgressions and sins. Romans 5:12-21 makes it clear that this is the result of Adam’s sin. Every person since Adam has been born with a sinful nature.

Third, God has saved us with His Word. In fact, it is the Word of God itself that brings us salvation. 1 Peter 1:23 is very clear: “you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” Romans 10:17 also tells us that our faith comes from the Word: “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The “word” is actually referring to the spoken word (rhema) in contrast to the message (logos). The early church did not have a written word; God’s Word was spoken to them through the apostles and teachers. The spoken word was used to bring them to faith in Christ, and it still has that same power today.

Fourth, God enables us to understand His Word. As children of God we receive the divine help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught His disciples in John 16:13 that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth. In 1 Corinthians 2:11-13 we are told that the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to comprehend those things that God wants us to know. Without the Spirit, we are unable to understand the things of God – until we are born again, the Bible is foolishness to us. But when we are given new life, our eyes are opened through the power of the Holy Spirit in us to understand the truths of scripture.

Fifth, God blesses us when we listen to His Word. This is the part that we may intellectually know, but we end up ignoring. We do a lot of listening. We hear a lot of sermons and Bible teaching from many different sources. But the Bible teaches that we are only blessed if we “do” them. Consider Luke 11:28, where Jesus said “…blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” And when Jesus was told that His family was outside, he said, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:21).

When the Bible talks about “hearing” the Word of God, it is clearly implied and often explicitly stated that it comes with the responsibility of doing something with that new knowledge. That will be our emphasis as we continue our study on this topic in future posts. When we are finished, we will hopefully be different types of “listeners” than we have been in the past. We will not only listen, but we will be prepared to listen, and we will do something about what we have heard.