17 Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise;
apply your heart to what I teach,18 for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart
and have all of them ready on your lips.19 So that your trust may be in the LORD,
I teach you today, even you.—The words from Proverbs 22:17-19
Do you take notes in church? No, I didn’t ask if you wrote notes to the person sitting next to you in church. I asked if you take notes during the church service you attend? Well, do you?
When I was a teenager, back in the early 1960s, we had two outward signs of the depth of our new-found “spirituality”: we carried our bright red Youth for Christ Bibles on top of our school books and we always, and I mean always, took notes in church.
Now this may seem very foreign to you. In fact, you may well be one of the countless thousands, if not tens of thousands, of believers who attend church each week and never bring your own Bibles to church with you. Instead, you gladly use the Bible provided in the pew rack in front of you, or the book rack beneath your chair. “Why bother to carry my own Bible when I can easily use the one provided?” you may reason.
I applaud your economy regarding what you carry with you to church. But, I could never do it. I have to have my own Bible. Why? Well, it has all my notes in it. Notes I have taken with great care over almost five decades of sermon listening.
You see, old habits die hard. Having learned as a kid that taking notes helps focus my attention on what the preacher says in his or her sermon, I simply can’t discard the practice.
But, in the last ten years or so, I’ve come up with a new note-taking procedure. I now take notes after the service. That’s right. About two o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, I spend a few moments jotting down the answer to five questions about the morning's sermon.
- Subject?
- Response?
- How To?
- How Long?
- Key Sentence?
And, then, just for good measure, I ask one more question:
Let me explain a bit. A few hours after hearing a sermon, I ask myself, “What subject did the preacher preach about today?” Let me be clear. I’m not asking, “What Bible text did he or she preach about?” No. I’m asking what subject, topic, main thrust the preacher spoke about in his or her sermon?
I then ask, “What response did the preacher ask me to make as a result of hearing his or her sermon?” In other words, what am I supposed to do in response to the subject the preacher preached about today?
I next ask myself, “What suggestions did the preacher give me as to how to respond to his or her sermon?” Did he or she give me some concrete examples of steps to take in order to respond to the subject he or she preached about today?
For my fourth question, I ask, “How long did the preacher suggest it might take before I begin to see results from following his or her advice in today’s sermon?” If I do what the preacher suggests, will I see immediate results? Will I see results in one week, one month, within a year? This helps me know what to expect from my obedient response to the teaching I heard in today’s sermon.
Then, as I said before, “just for good measure,” I ask a fifth question, “Can I write in a single key sentence the main thrust of today’s sermon?” Can I extract and put into a sentence what the preacher tried to teach me today?
“So, what?” you may respond. “What possible difference do these questions make?”
Well, I decided long ago that, if I’m going to spend time in church listening to someone share from God’s Word, I had better remember what the preacher said. In order to remember, I have to have some “hooks” to hang that memory on during the week ahead. Without those “hooks,” I won’t possibly remember what he or she preached about.
The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:11:
11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
Reading this verse makes it seem important that I remember God’s Word and the teaching and preaching from God’s Word.
Let me make a suggestion. Next Sunday afternoon—or Saturday afternoon, if you’re one who attends church on Saturday morning, or early Sunday morning, if you’re one who attends church on Saturday evening—take a few moments to see if you can answer those five questions. Let me review them for you:
- Subject?
- Response?
- How To?
- How Long?
- Key Sentence?
If you can, then you will have gone a long way toward remembering what your preacher preached about this weekend. If you can’t answer those questions, give serious thought as to whether you didn’t pay close enough attention to what your pastor said. Or, maybe—just maybe—he or she did not even share with you the answer to these five questions.
If the latter seems to be the case—and if your pastor is open to some help and you can offer that help without embarrassing him or her— suggest that he or she pay a visit to the Sermon-Coach.com website where your pastor will find help to create effective, life-transforming sermons.
Whether you share this tip with your pastor or not, please keep asking the five questions each week. And, more importantly, as the end of the week draws near, please take some time to pray for your pastor. Ask God to give your pastor liberty in preaching the truth that God has laid on your pastor’s heart. That, my friend, is one of the very best things you can do to help your pastor help you.
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God for loving us. Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to be our Savior. Thank You for giving us the Holy Spirit to speak through our pastors and teach Your Word of Truth. Help us to approach every sermon with open ears and open hearts. Then, Loving Father, teach us what you want us to know, so we can serve you with all our hearts. We pray in the miraculous Name of Jesus our Savior and Lord. Amen.
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