From my reading in Acts 17:1-15 in the One Year New Testament.
Church goers spend thousands of hours listening to sermons.
Unfortunately it is very common for people to come to church and not really listen!There is an example in the Bible of a group of people who were better at listening to sermons that others.
“Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11
These Berean jews were more nobel in character because they did two things.
They listened with great eagerness.
When you go to church are you eager to hear what God has to say to you? Are you expecting to hear truth that will change your life?
Part of listening with eagerness is realizing that what is being taught will really change your life!
For example, I am a surfer and I love teaching people to surf. Now if on this blog post I took 1,000 words to explain the intrecies of how to surf you would probably be board (no pun intended) because most likely you are not reading this in your wetsuit!
But if we were on the beach in San Diego, and you just put your wetsuit on with the sand between your toes and I was explaining how to surf you would be very interested because if you don’t pay attention you are going to fall on your face!
The other thing the Bereans did was examine the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
The didn’t just take what the preacher said at face value. They checked back with scripture for themselves. It doesn’t matter how good a preacher is, they are human.
I believe that if church goers would approach listening to sermons with the same eagerness of the Bereans that there would be far more solid believers and a lot less false teaching in churches!
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