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While listening to a sermon the other day, Pastor Mark Driscoll recounted some helpful tips that he garnered from the famous preacher George Whitfield on how to most effectively listen to a sermon.  Here they are re-posted them in hopes that they too might help you:

Keys for getting the most out of what the preacher says

Jesus said, ‘Therefore consider carefully how you listen’ (Luke 8:18). Here are some cautions and directions, in order to help you hear sermons with profit and advantage.

1. Come to hear them, not out of curiosity, but from a sincere desire to know and do your duty.

2. Give diligent heed to the things that are spoken from the Word of God.

3. Do not entertain even the least prejudice against the minister.

4. Be careful not to depend too much on a preacher, or think more highly of him than you ought to think.

5. Make particular application to your own hearts of everything that is delivered.

6. Pray to the Lord, before, during, and after every sermon, to endue the minister with power to speak, and to grant you a will and ability to put into practice what he shall show from the Book of God to be your duty.

This excerpt is adapted from Sermon 28 from The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield. Published by E. and C. Dilly, 1771–1772, London. George Whitefield (1714–1770) was a British Methodist evangelist whose powerful sermons fanned the flames of the First Great Awakening in the American colonies.

Read the full post here.

Look at the world around us – it’s not the way it is supposed to be.  Watch the evening news, or read the daily paper and you quickly see this world is broken.

It’s obvious – the world’s messed up!  No normal person cherishes or celebrates these things.  Don’t you have a longing for a better world?  Don’t you have an angst for a world where all is good and perfect?  Just as thirst points to the reality of water, just as hunger points to reality of food, our universal ach for a better world points to the reality that world will one day exists.

This miracles of Jesus point us to the reality of that world.  Right after he announced the Kingdom of God is near, what does he do?  Casts out demons; heals the sick; cleanses lepers; makes the lame walk.

Jesus is giving us a glimpse the complete restoration of all things as seen in Revelation 21:4: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

This gives us great hope in all situations.  Jesus provides the hope that the restoration of all things will one day come.  Jesus is our ultimate hope

All these miracles of Jesus, are not so much a suspension of the natural order as they are restoration of the natural order; they show us the way things are supposed to be.

Anyone who reads the Bible will agree that it contains some pretty strong language.  And in Mark 3:29 we are getting close to the pinnacle of Bible verses that make us uncomfortable:

“but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.”

So what is this sin?

Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is not one single act of sin, but a state of the heart. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit equates to knowing who Jesus is and knowing what Jesus has done yet persistently, willfully, decisively, ultimately rejecting Jesus as Lord and Savior.

And why is this unforgivable?  The answer lies in the Holy Spirit’s decisive role in our salvation.  One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of our sin, our lack of righteousness, and impending judgment (John 16:8-11).  Then the Spirit opens our eyes to the glorious truth of Jesus’ perfect life, substitionary death, and victorious resurrection.  The Spirit illuminates our heart that we might truly believe Jesus died for our sins under God’s holy, just judgment, and reveals that Jesus is our perfect righteousness.  Then the Spirit grants repentance and faith and we are forgiven on the basis of Christ’s perfect work on the cross.

Jesus made some pretty strong claims, not the least of such came in Mark 3:27 where he claims to be mightier than Satan.  Yet some people still want to hold Jesus was just a great moral teacher, but as C. S. Lewis explains, that option is not available:

“Any man who was merely a man and said the sort of thing Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic or would be the Devil of Hell.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…But let us not come with any nonsense about his being a great human teacher.  He has not left that option open to us.  He did not intend to.”  (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 52-3).

In yesterday’s sermon, we were encouraged to think about family in a radically different way.  In the eternal sense, family is not the product of physical procreation, but spiritual regeneration.

And by God’s grace, he has ordained spiritual regeneration to come about through proclamation of the gospel.  This means that singles have zero disadvantage in bearing children for the kingdom of God!  In fact, Paul would say there are several advantages (1 Cor. 7).

As referenced yesterday, John Piper does a masterful job of presenting this truth in his sermon, Single In Christ: A Name Better Than Sons & Daughters.

In Knowing God, JI Packer provides four evidences of knowing God:

1. Those who know God have a great energy for God
2. Those who know God have great thoughts of God
3. Those who know God have great boldness for God
4. Those who know God have great contentment in God

If you were to evaluate yourself according to these four things, how would you do?

1. Do you have an energy for God that is marked by your desire to meet with God daily by reading the Scriptures and in devoted prayer?
2. Do you have great thoughts of God? How often do you ponder the majesty of God?  How often in your prayers do you use words like “God you are holy; God you are sovereign; God you are all together good; God you are incomparably great; God you infinitely perfect?”
3. Do you have great boldness for God?  When was the last time you shared the good news of Jesus with someone?  Do you find yourself shuttering from talking about Jesus or spiritual things because you’re afraid of how others might see you?
4. Do you have full contentment in God alone? Do you realize that your greatest need has been meet fully by God himself?

Three reasons how understanding ourselves as the “foremost of sinners” gives us freedom

1. Frees us from the praise of man
It is a constant human struggle to receive approval from our peers. From our physical appearance, to our personalities or talents, we are often debilitated in our desire to please everyone. And the moment we feel as though we don’t have the approval of someone it grips our hearts…understanding yourself as the foremost of sinners will help you to be the first to see your flaw and not be enslaved to receiving praise from others

2. Frees you up to see the reality of your need
Living in the western world we are virtually immune to our sense of need. We have food, clothes, shelter, and medical care at our disposal. This can singe us from seeing how fragile we are in the eyes of a Holy God. Seeing yourself as the foremost of sinners will have you lean on Christ to make you whole as you are aware of your many deficiencies.

3. Frees you to see the amount of grace that has been extended to you
If you see your sin as small then you will likewise only see grace as small. However, the more you see your sin is much worse than you realize you will then, and only then see that the grace that has been extended to you is amazing…far greater than you had first realized!

Here are five reasons why we know we are sinful by nature:

1. Scripture teaches it to us:
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Ps. 51.5

“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jer. 17.9

2. History
From the Killing fields of Cambodia to ethnic cleansing, abortion, and apartheid, human history speaks of the complete depravity of the human heart.

3. Godly of People are the ones most aware of their sin
It is the people who walk closely to God that are more aware of their sin than others. One would think that if we were born basically good this would work the other direction.

4. Children
At the earliest age children are self focused, and the love of others is not at all a part of their instincts, though no one taught them to be self focused.

5. Personal experience
From our struggles with lust to image problems, greed, dishonesty, and an inward focus, we find that when we slow down long enough we find that we are much worse than we realize.

Praise be to God who holds out abundant mercy to us in Christ Jesus!

Challenging thoughts from our very own Damone Brown:

Unlike the world around us, the Bible does not promote a message of a “Lone Ranger” or Rambo type who abandons all relationships and succeeds through solitude. Instead the message woven through the Bible is that we are created and called to live our lives as reflections of our Triune God (Gen 1:26). God’s very nature (eternally in perfect community) is to be expressed in our human relationships.

Jesus Our Example
In the final hours of Jesus’ earthly time with His disciples, Jesus called His disciples friends (John 15:12-17). Through Christ’s perfect example of friendship and sacrifice we again see that we are to be in a relational community and are given a command to love one another (John 15:17). In obedience to Christ and  “stirring one another to love and good works “ (Heb 10:24-25), I challenge you to have 3 types of friendships:

1. Have a Paul in your life. A spiritual father. One who will be model of godly character, spiritual discipline, and will not only encourage you, but challenge you to have a greater walk with God. This person should be committed to walk with you through the difficult times.
2. Have a Barnabas- (whose name literally means encourager) – Acts 4:36. One who will encourage and love you. One you can have a peer relationship with.
3. Have a Timothy –You should provide a model that younger men and boys can look up to.  You should invest in them and show them Christ while encouraging them to invest in others so that they in turn will become models of Christ.

These relationships will foster our growth toward spiritual maturity. If you are missing any of this types of people in your life, accept the challenge and implement these partnerships in your life, so that on your journey to maturity in Christ, you do not find yourself alone, but will have 3 partners that  walk with you.

Sabbath is “holy rest.” This happens in both community and when you are alone.  How can you build in Sabbath to your life?  Here are three ways:

Daily

• Find a comfortable spot; be still, read the Bible, and pray
• Journal about who God is, what God is doing, and how you feel
• Walk a little slower and ponder God while you do
• Notice the creation around you and think about the Creator
• Reflect on your day and praise God for the gospel

Weekly

• Go to church to gather with the saints to sing, pray, and hear the preached word
• Attend community group regularly
• Take devoted time to process the sermon apart from community group
• Take a lengthy quiet walk

Monthly

• Get away for half or full day of prayer and solitude
• Read Psalm 104 and be amazed at our gracious God
• Fast from all media (internet, FB, texting, TV, etc) for a half of full day