The God of peace be with you today, my friends.

There is a long list of Kindle deals to browse through this morning. I recommend Don’t Follow Your Heart and Becoming Elisabeth Elliot, but there’s lots else as well.

(Yesterday on the blog: Only Ever Better)

John Piper is both amazed and dismayed as he considers AI. “Let’s use ChatGPT and other sources that are coming along for information, even for inspiration, just like you use commentaries and articles and books and songs and poetry. But don’t use it for composition unless you’re going to give credit for it.”

There are lots of really helpful insights in this article. “While the hypothesis that Jonathan and David were friends with benefits makes sense of the modern belief that unrestrained sexual expression is the highest good, it does not make sense of David’s world or of adherence to Biblical morality.”

Yes, let’s all embrace the fact that we are burdens to others and they are burdens to us.

Samuel James gives his take on why, as we age, we tend to complain more. “There is no easy version of life. There is no existential financial freedom seminar that can teach you how to put away 10% of your hopes and desires in an account that will one day mature and be available to withdraw. There is no guarantee, not from your parents or lovers and certainly not from God, that you will succeed. You may, you may not.”

Please don’t! “Preaching that truly disciples a congregation is rooted in intimacy with the biblical languages, a knowledge of the rich history of interpretation, and sound exegesis. But this combination does not make a sermon. These are the building blocks of a pastor’s sermon. They are the raw materials in the hands of a craftsman. Instead , what every congregation needs is the finished product—not the building materials.”

“Entitlement is a common parenting issue in our day. Entitled children can’t appreciate a gift. They’re anxious and angry and disappointed in their riches, because they are convinced that there is always more and better out there somewhere. That there is always someone in a more privileged position. That there is always a better present under the tree with another person’s name on it. So instead of enjoying all that they have and being grateful for it, they can only focus on what they don’t have, and fix blame onto the one they think is withholding it from them.”

…grumbling and disputing are not merely actions but evidences of a disposition. They are not just words of our mouths but attitudes of our hearts. They do not simply reflect something we do but broadcast something we are.

Repentance is not a discrete external act; it is the turning round of the whole life in faith in Christ.
—Sinclair Ferguson

Sometimes it seems as if the cause of righteousness must be overthrown, as if the cause of evil must triumph in the end. Sometimes we look at the darkness of the world and wonder if and when the light will really break through. This was on the mind of De Witt Talmage in a sermon he preached many years ago and with a powerful image he shows how we need not fear.

Oh, how many good people are affrighted by unbelieving iniquity in our day, and think the Church of Jesus Christ and the cause of righteousness are going to be overthrown.
Do not worry, do not fret, as though iniquity were going to triumph over righteousness.
A lion goes into a cavern to sleep. He lies down, with his shaggy mane covering the paws. Meanwhile the spiders spin a web across the mouth of the cavern, and say, “We have captured him.” Gossamer thread after gossamer thread is spun until the whole front of the cavern is covered with the spiders’ web, and the spiders say, “The lion is done; the lion is fast.”
After a while the lion has got through sleeping; he rouses himself, he shakes his mane, he walks out into the sunlight; he does not even know the spiders’ web is spun, and with his voice he shakes the mountain.
So men come, spinning their sophistries and skepticism about Jesus Christ; he seems to be sleeping. They say, “We have shut up the Lord; he will never come forth again before the nations; Christ is captured, and captured forever.”
But after a while the Lion of the tribe of Judah will rouse himself and come forth to shake mightily the nations. What is a spider’s web to the aroused lion? Give truth and error a fair grapple, and truth will come off victor.

The experience of preaching is very different from the front than from the back, when facing the congregation than when facing the preacher. The congregation faces one man who is doing his utmost to be engaging, to hold their attention, and to apply truths that will impact their hearts and transform their lives.
The pastor, meanwhile, faces many people who are doing many different things. Some are scolding their children, some are checking their email, some are staring into space, some are taking a good nap. A man does not need to preach many sermons before he realizes he can have two tracks playing in his mind at the same time, one of them preaching and the other observing and analyzing what’s going on around him.
But what a preacher loves to see when he looks toward the congregation is listeners who are thoroughly engaged with his preaching. He loves to see people who are doing their utmost to fight through distractions, to set aside imperfections, or even to forgive downright boredom. He loves to see people who mean to glean all they can from his sermon, who mean to wring every little drop of goodness out of his feeble words. He comes to learn that some congregants minister to him even while he ministers to them.
It can seem at times like the communication during a sermon goes in only one direction—that the preacher only gives and the people only receive. But that’s not the case. The congregation also gives and the preacher also receives. He receives the messages they communicate through their posture, through their body language, and even through the words or sounds they verbalize. Many a preacher has been discouraged in his preaching only to be encouraged by a barely audible “amen.” Many a preacher has heard an internal whisper telling him he is preaching the worst sermon anyone has ever heard only to find himself buoyed by a nodding head or a grunted “mmhmm.” Many a preacher has learned that certain listeners are key encouragers.
Not all of us can preach, but all of us can listen. Not all of us can apply ourselves to diligently expositing the Word, but all of us can apply ourselves to diligently receiving it.Share
And this is a ministry for any Christian—the ministry of engaged listening. It is one way that any Christian can be involved with the preaching and one way any Christian can minister to the preacher. You can listen deliberately and attentively. You can bear down and lean in. You can hold your Bible open in your lap and hold a pen ready in your hand. You can make eye contact and share a smile. You can nod your head in agreement and (if appropriate in your context) utter a subtle or resounding “amen.” In these ways and more, you can take up your part in the preaching.
Not all of us can preach, but all of us can listen. Not all of us can apply ourselves to diligently expositing the Word, but all of us can apply ourselves to diligently receiving it. And preaching is at its very best when the preacher and the listener alike take their role seriously and do their utmost to bless and serve the other.
So why not make it your goal to be an engaged listener? Why not make it your ministry to listen attentively and well? The preacher will thank you for it.