Who is your favorite preacher to listen to? Why?

Consider this though: How you hear the preaching may be more important than how it is preached.

With modern technological advancement, we have almost unlimited sources of sermons. We can pick and choose our favorite preachers online to listen to. I personally have 5 preachers that I listen to regularly online. But if we are not careful, we may focus too much on how the word is preached rather than how we listen to the word.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus speaks about 4 soils. And these 4 soils represent HOW THE WORD IS LISTENED TO. Jesus speaks nothing of how the word is preached – sower sowing the seeds. But He speaks much about how the word is listened to.

There are basically four ways to listen to the word (whether preached by a popular national speaker or your lowly local pastor): 1. Hear it and forget it. 2. Hear it with joy at first but forget it when life becomes hard. 3. Hear it but do not endure. 4. Hear it, hold on to it, and endure.

Not every church will have a national caliber speaker as their pastor. But that won’t matter. What matters is not so much the speaker but the hearer. If you remember, the greatest preacher ever was Jesus and more people rejected Him than followed Him… Jesus’ preaching polarized people. The word preached well will both include as well as exclude.

I don’t want you to be excluded from the kingdom of heaven. And to do that, you must listen well. Listen with a good heart, hold on to it, and endure to the end until you bear fruit.

“But the seed in the good ground – these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good hear, hold on to it and by enduring, bear fruit.” Luke 8:15

Listen. Hold on. Endure!

PH