Ears to Hear

Okay. So Luke chapter 8 starting at verse 4. While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town off to town, he told this parable. A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path.

It was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground. And when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still, other seed fell on good soil.

It's came up and yielded a crop a hundred times more than was sown. When he said this, he called out whoever has ears to hear let them hear His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of god has been given to you but to others, I speak in parables so that though seeing, they may not see, though hearing, they may not understand. This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of god.

Those along the path are the ones who hear and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away. The seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear. But as they go on their way, they are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures.

And they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart. Who hear the word retain it and by persevering produce a crop. No 1 lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand so that those who come in can see the light.

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore, consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more. Whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them. Thank you for, for reading Chris.

Let's pray together. The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart who hear the word retain it and by persevering produce a crop. Father, we pray that you would grant us those kinds of hearts this evening, that we would hear, that we would believe that we would receive the things you want to say to us that we would retain it and not lose it and that each 1 of us might be fruitful. That that which is sown tonight might yield a crop, 30, 60, even a hundred times what is sown. And we ask it in Jesus' name.

Men. If you've been a member of this church, for a year, The chances are you've heard about 70 sermons. So it's 52 Sundays in a year. And let's say that you've made it to 45 mornings and 25 evenings. You can divide it up anywhere you want, but let's say you've come to 70 sermons a year.

It's quite a lot, isn't it? If you've been a member here for 10 years, you could have heard 700 sermons in this church, 700 sermons, and that doesn't include All the sermons that you may have heard on various different conferences or camps, that kind of thing could be up to a thousand sermons. Quite a lot, isn't it? And so it kind of goes without saying that sermons alongside praying and singing together and ministering to 1 another in lots of different ways, sermons feature quite heavily in the Christian life. And yet, I have to say up until this series, I hadn't thought as deeply as I thought I'd thought about how to actually listen effectively to sermons.

I mean, you may find this hard to believe and you have to take my word for it. But I have thought a little bit about how to give a sermon. But not as much about how to actually listen to sermons. And so over the next few weeks, as Chris said, that is going to be our subject. How can we as a church make sure that we are listening well and effectively to the sermons that are preached in this church.

But you may wonder even to start with, well, that sounds like a bit of a daft question. And it sounds like a question that doesn't really need to be answered. I don't need to be told how to listen to a sermon. It's like someone trying to teach me how to eat an apple or how to watch a film. You know, I don't need lessons on how to eat an apple Same the sermons.

We just turn up. We sit down. We do our best to stay awake until the end. We try to tune in, make eye contact every now and again. And we've listened to the sermon.

Why do we need help listening to sermons? But if that's true and we take that line, then what do we make of Jesus when he says things like he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Is that a silly statement? What else are we gonna do with our ears, Jesus? He who has teeth to eat, let him chomp.

He has eyes to see, let him behold. Of course, that's what they're made for. He who has ears to hear, let him hear Why do we need help with that? But according to Jesus, we do need help with our hearing. Listen to how he describes his generation.

They are ever hearing, but never understanding. They are ever hearing but never understanding their hearing is deficient. And so Jesus is saying it is perfectly possible for someone To be sat here, listening to 70 sermons a year without understanding ever hearing, but never understanding. Reflecting on a Luke chapter 8 verse 18 in his excellent booklet, Christopher Ash, has written a brilliant booklet on how to listen to sermons called listen up. And, I've borrowed heavily from it, and, I think it, I think it's just excellent.

He says this. If we listen in 1 way, we will be given more. But if we listen in another way, Even what we think we have will be taken from us. The way we listen is a life or death business. So a person could listen to 70 sermons a year But if they don't listen in the right way, even what they think they have, will in the end be taken from them.

It'll be a judgment. I received a letter this week, saying that my car needed to be recalled It's got a big problem, and, it needs to go back into the garage to be fixed. And apparently, with, this particular model created in this particular, year, the logo which is supposed to flash and tell me that the coolant levels in my engine is depleting doesn't work. And, in a few isolated cases, the engines have just caught fire because the coolant has run out and things have become pretty unpleasant pretty quickly for the people inside. And so they've said, right, stop you're doing, stop driving it, bring it in, and we're gonna fix it.

Now, I'm not mechanical at all, and the chances are I would never have discovered that I had that fault beneath my bonnet unless someone had written to me and told me about it. I just wouldn't have known until on the a 3, my engine spontaneously combusted, and it would have been pretty nasty. I wouldn't have known. And so that is actually 1 of the purposes of this series. We might think we are listening well.

We might think we're listening well but might Jesus show us that there is a problem with our ears. That's 1 aim. But it's also meant to be an encouragement because Jesus says if we listen well and effectively, we will be given more. The 70 sermons, that we might hear over the next 52 weeks will be multiplied into 7770000 sermons. How would that happen?

Well, each 1 will be a spiritual blessing to us that will lead to joy and godliness and faith and repentance and servantheartedness, they will be multiplied to us so that that which is sown looking so small and weak yields fruit a hundred times what was sown. So that is the purpose of this series that we might avoid listening in 1 way and be helped to listen in another way. So this week, we're going to think basically about the theology of a sermon What is a sermon? According to the Bible, have a look at the church history, what is a sermon? What are the nuts and bolts of it?

Next week, we're gonna have a think about some techniques for effective listening and some of the obstacles which block us from effective listening. And then in the third week, I'm still deciding what we're gonna do. We've got a few ideas, so stay tuned. So this week, What is a sermon? Well, the first point I want to make is this.

A sermon begins with god. A sermon begins with god. So here is the first key to unlock the sermon, to unlock what it is. And what we find is that the very idea of a sermon begins and originates in god himself. The Bible tells us that there is only 1 god, and yet there are 3 glorious persons, father, son, and holy spirit.

And that means that right now at the heart of this universe and forever, and in all of time past, there has been a community in god, a community of communication. Right now, the father looks upon the son and he loves him and the son looks upon the father and They love each other and the spirit overflows and enjoys and loves the other members, father and son, there is this community of love. They are partners. In Redemptions plan. We serve and we love, and we are made in the image of a communicating god.

And not only does he communicate amongst himself, but he communicates to us. He loves to do that. Hebrews 1 tells us this. In the past, god spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed air of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The sun is the radiance of god's glory and the exact representation of his being.

You see, God loves to communicate. In the past, he has sent prophets, apostles, teachers at various times and in different ways to make himself known to the world that he created. That is the burden of his heart to be known. By the world that he has created. And then ultimately we're told that he has spoken fully and gloriously in his son Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the communicated word. He is the word made flesh. The word made flesh. Jesus says in Matthew 11 verse 27, it's worth just turning over. If you can to Matthew 11, first 27, he says all things have been committed to me by my father.

No 1 knows the son except the father and no 1 knows the father except the son and those to whom the son chooses to reveal him. So why did Jesus come in a nutshell? According to that passage, he came from the father to reveal the father. So if you can put it like this, Jesus is in essence the father's sermon. Jesus is the father's preach to the world that he made.

He is the word made flesh. So we only preach here in this church ultimately because of that great sermon. The word made flesh. We only communicate the word of god to 1 another because we are made in the image of a communicating god. Preaching exists only because of the trinity.

A sermon originates in god himself. The second thing to say is that a faithful sermon, a faithful biblical sermon is the word of god. A faithful sermon is the word of god. 1 Peter chapter 1 says this, if you want to just turn on to 1 Peter chapter 1, gonna do a little bit of flicking today. Looking at a number of different verses and things, but that's all hopefully gonna contribute to the picture we'll be left with at the end.

So 1 peter 1, and then have a look at verse 23. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of god. For all people are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the lord endures forever, and this is the words that was preached to you. So here's the question.

How did these scattered Christians hear the word of god, preaching. They heard it through preaching. How Did these Christians become born again? How did they how did they become regenerated by the spirit of god given a new life? Answer, preaching.

They were born again through preaching. How did they hear the eternal god speaking to them? This is the word that was preached to you. Preaching is how they heard the word of god. And so a faithful sermon is the word of god.

1 thessalonians, 2 13. Says this. And we also thank god continually because when you received the word of god, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word. You didn't accept it as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of god, which is indeed at work in you who believe. So when Paul came to the thessalonians, they heard Paul They saw him with their eyes preaching.

They saw his personality. They heard the intonation of his voice They heard the way he pronounced things, the pitch and pace which he used. They heard him, but they knew that the words he was bringing were not just the words of a man, they were the words of god. They knew he was speaking the words of god. And they received it that way.

And here's the thing. Now we might think, well, it's okay to make that point, but We're not the same as Peter and Paul. They were commissioned by the risen Jesus. When they preached under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, of course, they were preaching the words of God. But here's the thing, the Bible doesn't actually limit this just to the apostles.

Hebrews 13 verse 7, no need to turn, for for all of them necessarily. Hebrews 13 verse 7 says this, remember your leaders who spoke the word of god to you Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you as they led you and as they taught you and as they preached to you, they were speaking the words of god to you. And so, a faithful sermon that is true to god's perfect word is the voice of god himself. Now if we think that sounds like a dangerously high view of preaching. And 1 we ought to be careful of, when we dig back into church history, it turns out some of the heroes of the and faith would put it in even stronger terms than I just have.

This is a book that we looked at a lot last year, why the reformation still matters. And, in this book, they've got an excellent chapter. I really recommend it on the Bible and, on what the scriptures are and on what their theology, the reformation theology preaching was. And I just wanna read to you just a couple of quotes from here. This, this is, from, a sort of famous confession of faith, a protestant confession of faith.

And, it says this. The preaching of the word of god is the word of god. That's 1 of the subheadings. The confession was written by Heinrich Bollinger for the Swiss reformed church and has become 1 of the key statements of faith among reformed churches. Here it what here is what it says under this heading.

When this word of god is now preached in the church, by preachers lawfully called, We believe that the very word of god is proclaimed and received by the faithful and that neither any other word is to be invented nor is to be expected from heaven. Luther in even stronger language says this about sermons. When you hear a sermon by Saint Paul or by me, he puts himself, you can see what he thought of his own. Ministerial abilities. When you hear a sermon by Saint Paul or by me, you hear god the father himself.

And yet you do not become my pupil, but the fathers. For it is not I who is speaking, it is the father. Nor am I your schoolmaster, but we both you and I have 1 schoolmaster and teacher, the father, who instructs us. We, both pastor and listener are only pupils. There is only this difference.

That god is speaking to you through me. Calvin says this. There is nothing that should stir us up to embrace the teaching of the gospel more than to hear him speaking by the mouth of men and to submit ourselves to his word as it is brought by men, and this is just staggering. To receive his word as it is brought by men, my men, no less than if he himself had come down from heaven or had revealed his purpose by an angel. That is an amazingly high view of preaching, isn't it?

That it as it's as if God himself has come down and revealed himself to his people. Now, let's notice a few things because it is not always true that when you hear a preacher, you hear the word of god. Just because somebody stands in a pulpit with an open bible, doesn't mean they are announcing the word of god. Doesn't necessarily mean that. Perhaps you remember the, the story of the, that the the man united photo bomber.

Don't know if you know the story. The date was, April 2001. And, Manchester united were about take on Byron Munich in the quarter final of the champions league. And as 60000 fans, lined up to watch the team have their photo, a 12 man appeared in the shot. He was wearing Eric Cantanar's shirt.

He puffed out his chest with pride, wearing his colors, gladly, and he took his stand next to Andy Cole in the back row. But little did the world and the press know that this 12 man was not in fact the legendary number 7 center forward, Eric Cantenar. It was in fact an unemployed laborer from Ashton underline called Karl Power, who was otherwise known as fat neck to his mates. He had managed to blag his way in full kit in front of 60000 people in the quarter file of a Champions League through all security and took his stand next to Andy Cole. Before anyone really realized.

Apparently Gary Neville did rumble him at the time, but he just told him to shut up and face the camera. And, it's quite quite an amazing story. And I was reading reflecting on it some years later Carl said it is still the best day of my life. He's a father of 4. So it was the best adrenaline in the world.

More of the story, you can wear the shirt, you can stand with the team. And you can look the part, but be a total imposter. Bullinger says the preacher must be lawfully called. By which he means the preacher must be a faithful workman who takes his cue from the word of god, who divides it correctly and preaches it faithfully, a preacher who stands up and contradict the word of god is in no way bringing god's message to god's people. Calvin is careful.

He says that in preaching, we embrace the teaching of the gospel that has been revealed to us. So this doesn't give preachers a license just to stand up and to announce whatever fresh revelations they may or may not have had during the week, and to bind your consciences by telling you that what god has revealed to me, you must now obey. Calvin says, no, it's only the word of god if it's the teaching of the gospel. That is what we embrace as the word of god. Luther is careful.

He says you do not become my pupil. In other words, preachers don't have the authority in themselves. They're not looking for pupils to submit to them, but rather to the authority of Christ. In his words. Christopher Ash says the only authority a preacher has is borrowed from his bible.

Preacher and listener are only pupils. So to wrap up this point, It is true that preaching is done by fallen men. I know and I feel it and I know it's true that my own personality, and my ego, and my biases get in the way of preaching. They muddy the water. I know that's true and all preaching must be weighed against the Bible in our hand.

But let's not take away from what the scriptures and from what church history is teaching us. Calvin says Christ acts by ministers in such a manner that he wishes their mouth to be reckoned as his mouth and their lips as his lips. And so can I just ask, does Your attitude to the preaching of the word of god in this church agree with that? Does your attitude to the preaching of the word of god in this church agree with what the Bible says about preaching? And if so, how is it going to affect the way we prepare for Sundays from now on?

What might we do differently in light of what we've just learned. And if so, how does this affect what do we do after Sunday sermons? And if you are a preacher, do these convictions shape the way you prepare. You see, personally, I am persuaded by everything that I've just said, but I fear that if you could somehow watch the way I prepare and watch the way I pray about sermons. You would think I don't think he's persuaded by this as much as he says he is.

And even as a listener, so easy, isn't it to think, need to catch up with that person. That wasn't great. That needs fixing for next week. Wonder how so and so it's doing. Wonder what if, you know, if the roast's burning.

You know, there there are all kinds of things that distract us and actually there isn't this sort of joyful trembling that god has addressed us in the preaching of the word. Do our convictions match those of the Bible? Do our convictions match those? Of church history. Second point of faithful sermon is the word of god.

Thirdly, a sermon is a declaration, not just an explanation. A sermon is a declaration, not just an explanation. Martin Lloyd Jones, who, was a welsh preacher and doctor of the last century. He did a series of talk called preaching and preachers. And, in that series, he talks about the downgrade of preaching in his own day.

And 1 of the things he said that led to the downgrade of preaching was that the language used about sermons began to change. So people no longer call it a sermon. They began to call it an address. They no longer said, so and so is going to come and preach the word of god. They said so and so will come and explain that passage to us.

The language about sermons changed, and it's true in our day as well. Instead of a sermon, we might use the phrase a bible talk. Or we might use the phrase an exposition. Or again, we might say so and so is going to come and explain that to us. There's truth in all of that language, of course.

A sermon does involve study, but it's not just a bible study. A sermon needs good arguments, but it's more than just logic. A sermon needs discussing but it's not just a discussion. You see, if all a preaches is an explanation, we may as well sit here silently with a high quality commentary and each of us read it in silence for half an hour, and we will leave this room with a good understanding of the passage that we have looked at Why don't we do that? Why don't we do that?

We would get a better explanation often and a better understanding if we just sat with our own personal commentaries. We'll turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 4. To Timothy for Paul writing to Timothy. In the presence of god, And of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing in his kingdom, I give you this charge. Now what an introduction to a command?

That is. That's pretty weight. That's a weighty introduction to a command, isn't it? And what is he gonna say preach the word. Preach the word.

Don't explain it. It's not the word for explain. It's not the word for reason it out. It's the word for preach. It means to declare it, to announce it, to publish it, among the nations preach the word, publish it, There is a god in heaven who has come into this earth.

He has exchanged the glories of heaven for the agonies of a cross. His son has given his life to die for your sins. His blood has been shed to atone for your every wrong. His righteousness can be yours. If you will submit to his authority, bow the knee to his throne, trust in his son, you will be saved.

Preach the news. It's like those old fashioned American paper boys who would cycle through the neighborhood just throwing the papers out. Just declaring chucking the news out. Doesn't matter who lives there. Doesn't matter where they're from.

I'm announcing the news. Here's the headline, Christ and him crucified for the whole neighborhood. For us, this past week, we've spent a number of days in hospital and, Caleb's been going through all a huge battery of tests, to work out various different things. And on that last day, the consultant who comes into the room, and she says good news. You can go home.

You can go home. It's all clear. You can go home. Doesn't just hand me a report and say, read it for yourself. She preaches the report to me.

She says, you can go. It's good news. Timothy preach the word. So let's try to tie it up. Is this is this high view of preaching playing down the Bible?

That's a really important question. Is this high view of preaching taking away from the Bible, and it turns out the opposite is true. If we only see preaching as a study or as an explanation, we downgrade the Bible. We would downgrade it if we only talk about it like that. Why?

Because the Bible is a living witness to Jesus Christ, and it commands itself to be preached. To just study it is to downgrade it when it commands itself to be preached. And so you've probably noticed that every week you come, there is just 1 headline which needs restating in a thousand different ways. Christ and him crucified, believe and live. Believe and live.

Thirdly, a sermon is not just an explanation. It's a declaration. Fourthly, a sermon is a group activity. The sermon is a group activity by which I mean sermons are at home in the local church. They were created to be heard primarily in the local church among god's people.

Judonomy chapter 4 verse 10. And, you can turn there if you want, but, you can just listen also, if you want to do that. Judoronomy chapter 4 verse 10 says this, this is Moses talking to the people of God. And he says, remember the day you stood before the lord your god at Horeb. When he said to me, assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.

Now in acts, this gathering is called the church in the wilderness. And so this sets the pattern for preaching. It is god's people assembling together to hear god's word so that we and those who come after us might revere him. Sermons belong in the assembly of god's people. Now, is that to say that you can't hear a proper preach.

Anywhere outside of these walls? No. You can hear the word of god in other context. You'll see you at the Keswick Convention online on our website, for instance, we love uploading our sermons, but even that is not the same thing. Christopher Ash says, when we listen to an MP 3 recording of a sermon, we are not listening to preaching but to an echo of preaching.

We're not listening to preaching, but to an echo of preaching. Now why is that? Because preaching happens together in real time with real people who are really assembled in a real moment of history to hear a real father really speaking to them together. You see, in the end, god's purpose is to form a Christ like people through preaching, not just to form religious individuals. Of course, god is interested in us as individuals, but he wants to make a Christite people.

Paul says that we together are the bride of Christ. And how does Jesus treat his bride? He washes her? How does he wash her through the word? How does he wash her through the words among other things as we're listening to the preaching of that word?

It's all corporate. It's all corporate. Germans belong in local churches, and as well as that principle, there are all kinds of practical reasons for that. Firstly, sermons belong in local churches because it's personal. You see, in the end, what what is what is actually better than going online and listening to the 10 out of 10 preacher, who you don't know and who doesn't know you.

Well, it's gotta be listening to the 4 out of 10 preacher at your local church who at least you know something about and who knows you. Isn't that better? It's personal. Another reason preaching is made for the local church is because it helps with accountability. You know what I've heard and I know what you've heard.

And so together, we can help each other put it into practice. It's why nobody Well, most people don't go to the cinema alone. They go with people because they want a shared experience so they can apply the lessons enjoy the jokes, review the plot, they see it together so they can they're sort of accountable for it with 1 another. Cermans are made for local churches because it helps with accountability. Cermans are made for local churches because it helps with concentration.

See on my own when I'm listening to a sermon at home, I can just push pause. Gotta make a cup of tea. Go change nappy. 2 minutes later, I can change another 1 and change another 1 until I've got 60 purple sacks sitting in my porch waiting to go out. I can do all kinds of things.

I can push pause I'll come back to the last 10 minutes later. If you listen to the sermon online, caught the last 5 minutes, but when we're together, we can't push pause. There's less chance at least at least there's less chance of switching off completely. For a whole host of practical, and theological reasons, it's here in this room above all else that we are to prayerfully anticipate God speaking to us. 4 3 sermons are a group activity.

Fifthly and lastly, the ultimate aim of every sermon. The ultimate aim of every sermon is to bring glory to Jesus Christ. Now unfortunately in my own heart, there are all kinds of other motives which get in the way But that is the purpose that Jesus Christ might be glorified in preaching. And how is Jesus glorified in a sermon? Charles Bergin says this.

A sermon without Christ as its beginning middle and end is a mistaken conception and a crime in execution. However, grand the language, it will be merely much ado about nothing. If Christ be not there. And I mean by Christ, not merely his example and the ethical precepts of his teaching, but his atoning blood. It's wondrous satisfaction made for human sin and the grand doctrines of believe and live.

So how is Jesus glorified in a sermon when all that he is and all that he's done And all that he has accomplished for his people, and all that we can be in him is proclaimed. Everything is from him and for him. And so of course when that means that people are born again through the preaching of the word, it is to the glory of Jesus Christ. When the church is made holy, through the preaching of the word, it is to the glory of Jesus Christ. When suffering people are tenderly ministered to through the preaching, It is for the glory of Jesus Christ.

Even when people are hardened in unrepentance and turned away, in the end, it is to the glory of Jesus Christ. Faith preaching is preaching which magnifies Jesus. And in a preacher's best and rarest moments, that is his chief desire. To disappear away behind the cross so that Jesus might be all in all to his people. How has Jesus proclaimed through the preaching in that way?

But there's another side to this. Jesus is glorified in the listening of sermons. We'll finish on this point. If he wants to turn to 1 Corinthians 10 31, last reference. 1 Corinthians 10 31.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of god. Now that whatever you do includes preaching and listening to preaching. And so the question is, how do we glorify god in listening to preaching? How do we do that? 1 author says that the goal of preaching is the glory of god reflected in the glad submission of the human heart.

So how do we glorify Jesus in our listening? We joyfully embrace sermons as the word of God and we submit to the authority of Jesus. In other words, we put them into practice And so you see the aim of preaching and listening to preaching is ultimately the glory. Of Jesus Christ. Now next week, we're gonna have a think very practically about how to listen effectively to the kind of sermons that we've just been talking about and what to avoid in our listening.

But let me conclude just by saying these things. If if all this is true, Then it means it means a few things for us. If all this is true, and I hope you're persuaded that it is, it means we mustn't give up on preaching. Now how could that happen here? You might ask?

Well, in every age, there is a temptation to give up on preaching. It's ineffective. It's not cultural. Nothing seems to be happening under the preaching. Isn't there something more relevant and technical that we can do that will really connect with people unlike that medieval preaching.

Isn't there something more personal rather than this general preaching that must happen? Can I have someone personally? Rather than coming to hear something so general every week, there's always temptations to give up on preaching. If this is true, We must preach the word. If this is true, we must try to bring people to hear the preaching of the word.

Now, Cesia said than done. I understand that. It can take years in this age to get people through the doors. I understand it. But that should be our heart, shouldn't it?

If people are born again, Through the living and enduring preached word of god, we want them in to hear preaching. That's why some churches actually deliberately have their evening sermon as an evangelistic sermon, and the whole congregation are aware that they ought to be prioritizing that Sunday evening as their evangelistic thing they're trying to get people too because they want them to hear preaching. I think there's something good in that. And lastly, I think if all of this is true, it means that there should be nothing casual about our listening. Doesn't mean we have to be very serious, but we shouldn't be casual.

If we are going to see 70 sermons become 70000 sermons in our lives. There ought to be this prayerful, expectant, anticipation, this readiness, that god is going to address me, and that I am gonna hear from him, week out, week in, through preaching. Jesus says that the 1 who has ears to hear, hear Let's power heads and pray. Father, we thank you that you are a god who delights to communicate. We thank you that even the heavens declare the glory of God.

We thank you that your word makes the lord Jesus Christ known to us. We thank you that he is the exact representation of your being. And we pray that you would help us to listen to you. As you speak to us through the preaching of your word, week in, week out, guard our hearts. We pray from putting up barriers to the preaching of your word.

We pray again that you would help us to listen effectively and that you might give us those good and noble hearts that Jesus talks about. We want to see 70 sermons become like 70000000 sermons in our lives. Because we have listened. And by your spirit, you have created all kinds of Christ honoring fruit in our lives. Do it for each 1 of us we pray in Jesus' name.