If we start our listening to a sermon with a bent to discern what is wrong in it, it would be like sitting down to a meal with the assumption that there must be something distasteful on our plates. Because we don’t know where that objectionable portion is located, we choose instead to forgo the meal altogether in order to avoid an unpleasant experience. If a person approaches mealtime with such skepticism about the food, they will quickly go hungry.

In the spring of 1741, Jonathan Edwards visited and ministered to a small congregation in Suffield, Connecticut. This little church was without a pastor for a short time but was blessed with a few excellent servants, including Edwards and the great evangelist George Whitefield.

A few months after Edwards visited the church, Elizabeth Hatheway, a member of the congregation, asked Edwards for some spiritual guidance. In response, Edwards wrote this young lady a lengthy letter with 19 points of advice on Christian living. Several years later, the letter was published under the title, Advice to Young Converts. It is currently published along with Edwards’ resolutions by P & R Publishing.

On point #3, Edwards gives some timely advice on how to listen to sermons.

When you hear sermons, hear them for yourself, even though what is spoken in them may be especially directed to the unconverted or to those that in other respects are in different circumstances from yourself.  Let the chief intent of your mind be to consider what ways you can apply the things that you are hearing in the sermon.  You should ask, What improvement should I make, based on these things, for my own soul’s good?

We would probably admit that it is tempting, at times, when sitting under sermons directed at unbelievers or people in situations different than our own, to let God’s Word to bypass our hearts because it is not obvious how these sermons apply to us. Yet, I think it is wise to heed Edwards’ counsel in order to guard ourselves from pride and developing the spiritually destructive practice of ignoring God’s Word. By constantly and proactively searching for ways to apply sermons to our lives, we will keep our hearts soft to the truth. By making an effort to apply what we hear—even when the sermon is directed at those in a spiritual condition unlike our own—we will be kept from hypocrisy and from the habit of teaching others while not teaching ourselves (Matt 23:1-4; Rom 2:21-23).

What About Discernment?

But about discernment? Must we believe everything a preacher says? The answer, I believe, is found in the two-fold description of the Bereans in Acts 17:10-11. In this well-worn passage, oft used to encourage Christians to exercise discernment and test everything by Scripture, we find helpful instruction for how to listen to sermons.

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

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