SERMON SPOTLIGHT * 5/19/24
We both play an active part because preaching is a partnership. The Bible has more to say about the hearers' part of the partnership than about the preachers'. Hearing and heeding the preached Word is essential for our relationship with God. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.
SERIES: The Gathering: Why Sunday Matters
TEXT: James 1:21-25
TITLE: Partnering with the Preacher
PREACHER: Derek Overstreet
POINTS:
1. Prepare Your Heart
2. Listen with Humility
3. Apply with Confidence
SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes are taken from the pastor’s notes.
”What is James doing here? He wants us to prepare our hearts to receive God’s Word. Preparation isn’t a foreign concept to us. Think about how many things you prepare for every day. James knows preparation is paramount when receiving God’s Word, privately or publicly. He understands this because he understands the heart.”
“James knows that in our pride, we can be slow to hear, figuratively speaking, living with our Bibles closed—because we know what we know what we know—instead of living with our Bibles open, eager to hear and apply God’s Word.”
“James knows we can be quick to speak the truth of God’s Word to others, criticize the preacher, or preach excuses and justifications to ourselves when the preaching hits home.”
“James knows how quickly idolatry can choke out our appetite for the truth of God’s word. He understands how self-righteousness and doctrinal pride cloud our understanding of God’s word. James is aware of how unchecked sin stunts us spiritually.”
“So, James's words are a gift from God! Repentance and faith in Christ’s forgiveness and the Spirit’s power to prepare our hearts to receive the preached Word on Sunday morning.”
“James says believers are to put away pride and receive the word with meekness. The word for receive means to welcome or accept. That’s what authentic listening is—Accepting God’s word, not only in my head but in my heart.”
“James says the key to listening is putting off our sin and putting on meekness, which is humility. Meekness is expressed in a submissive spirit. It’s the opposite of a defensive posture, a self-righteousness attitude, or an apathetic spirit, all of which slam the door of our hearts shut to the preached word.“
“That’s the opposite of receiving the word with humility. Christians should be E.A.T., eager and teachable, so we EAT up the Word of God. Why? Because there’s so much for us to learn about our Lord and Savior!”
“What hinders humble listening on Sunday? Give it to the Lord. He is merciful. He is full of grace. He is mighty to change your heart. He loves and delights in you. He wants you to gain and grow all you can from the preaching of His Word.”
“Listening continues long after the message concludes, not with your ears, with your feet. James has just instructed the believers to receive the word with humility. Now, he puts the proverbial bow on the package with a powerful and unforgettable picture—read verses 22-25.”
“Now, the phrase looks intently means to observe carefully and contemplate what you see. This is not a glance. This man is studying his face in the mirror, and the more he looks into the mirror, the more the mirror reveals, blackheads and all. But then, in verse 24, he goes away, forgetting what he saw. Forgetting is not forgetfulness (growing old). Forgetting is disregarding. This man sees his face but ignores what he sees. He fails to make the needed adjustments before he gets on with his day. It’s an absurd metaphor. But that’s the point.”
“We come every Sunday and get a good look at ourselves. James says if we sit here for 45-50 minutes but do nothing with what the mirror of God’s Word has shown us, we are a HEARER of the Word but not a DOER of the Word—spiritually, we are this guy. We can enthusiastically nod in agreement and shout out a hearty amen to the preacher, but we are this guy if we fail to make the required adjustments in our lives. I can preach my heart out, but if I’m not practicing what I preach—I’m this guy. If you are here every Sunday, listening intently to the sermon, but leave everything you hear in these four walls—You’re this person.”
“Assuming the mirror imagery, the second man looks intently at the Word and perseveres in it. The word for perseveres means it stays with him.”
“Persevering is the opposite of forgetting, and instead of being under deception, this person experiences God’s blessing. Not because he earned it but because the fruit of hearing and doing God’s Word is experiencing the freedom to be who God created you to be.”
“James's view of God’s Word went far beyond the law of Moses and the prophets. It was the whole of God’s redeeming revelation interpreted and fulfilled by Jesus—for us, that’s the Bible. James believed it could do what the law couldn’t and was never intended to do—liberate us.”
“As a mirror, Scripture liberates us by revealing our Great Liberator Jesus Christ. That’s what preaching is about: the gospel of Jesus and the glory of God connected to and weighing in on every aspect for our lives according to the Bible.”
“This is the blessing James speaks of at the end of verse 25, a life that began with the implanted word bringing new life, that new life being expressed through freeing obedience to God that will be consummated at His return! Sunday morning preaching is a God-ordained means of grace to this end.”
ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
Mark 4
Psalm 1
2 Timothy 3
QUOTES:
Charles Spurgeon - “We are told men ought not to preach without preparation. Granted. But we add, men ought not to hear without preparation. Which, do you think, needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground? I would have the sower come with clean hands, but I would have the ground well plowed and harrowed, well turned over, and the clods broken before the seed comes in. It seems to me that there is more preparation needed by the ground than by the sower, more by the hearer than by the preacher.”
Jay Adams - “Christian, do you listen to preaching with a heart wide open to truth, a heart unprotected from thrusts of the Spirit’s sword? Or is your heart hard, resistant to certain teaching? Have you so rationalized your sin that your conscience rarely, if ever, accuses you of certain sins anymore?...It is time to crack open those compartments of the heart that you have so successfully barred. Instead, bare them to the preaching of the Word. Listen with a willingness to hear, apply, and obey. Until you do, preaching will be virtually valueless.”
J.I. Packer - “Congregations never honor God more than by reverently listening to His Word with full purpose of praising and obeying Him once they see what He has done…and what they are called to do.”
Charles Spurgeon - “Oh, with what ears ought men to listen to a word which can save their souls! With what open mouths ought they to drink in this living water! How wisely might we wish to be like sponges, to suck it all up....How we ought to wish to be like the ploughed ground which is broken up and pulverized, so that every drop that falls may soak into it! This is how to behave at sermon.”
APPLICATION:
- Join me, praying for your own heart as the preacher steps into this pulpit every Sunday.
- For the unbeliever, believe the gospel word by faith TODAY. For the believer, true freedom is the ability to give expression to who we truly are—not according to our fickle and fleeting feelings—but as people created in the image of God, rescued by and redeemed to Christ so that we can experience the highest call of our humanity—glorify and enjoy God in this life and forever. We walk in our blood-bought liberty when we live by God’s purposes, which are revealed in Scripture.
Spend time in the Word during the week—The more you are in it the more you hunger for it
Book Reccommendation:
Don’t miss the obvious: Pre-service prayer, the Call to Worship, Singing, the Pastoral Prayer, each one is a unique expression of worship that, if we allow them, is used by God to soften and prepare our hearts to receive the preached Word. Get to your seat just a little early to prepare your heart for the preaching with a prayer.