How To Listen and Live It — Psalms 119

0:00 A number of years ago, I I was challenged, and and not a direct not a direct challenge, but it was in a class, and the and the guy said, one my professor said, he said, you know, I've never heard a sermon on the responsibility of the person listening. He said, I've, you know, we have the responsibility of of the preacher of what they need to do and how they need to be really, on on target and studied up and all that kind of stuff. Right? So I prepared. And so I know that JC, when he was here last week, and I was told that he did a great job, my son, did a really good job on on Acts chapter four.

0:50 And, I thought to myself, wow, that's great. But I started really praying way back when. And I wanna give you... I wanna tell you one thing about this assembly that no other assembly has ever done. And that's the elders and few other preachers pray together for the month.

1:15 All those speakers that pray that are going to preach, they get together a month before and they pray for the this month's preaching. And it's it is so encouraging to me. It's unbelievable. It really is. And that's part of the preparation for the preacher.

1:36 You know, not only knowing your stuff, and I understand that JC really really gave you a tremendous sermon last week and that kind of thing. And the question is, do you remember it? You know, and that's, I hope, hopefully you do. There's many techniques in terms of preaching, homiletical devices, alliteration, things that sound the same, same wording, you know, that kind of thing. So I got...

2:05 Look at that. Preparation, inculcation, and then demonstration. And these are... This is called alliteration. It sounds like it.

2:15 It could be a suffix or prefix or whatever. And those are things so that you who are sitting there listening don't forget. You don't want to forget. So that's all in the preparation. But we're talking about we're talking about...

2:29 Look at Psalm one nineteen, if you wouldn't mind turning there in your labiblias. That's in the Old Testament. Yeah, that's right. Psalm one nineteen. Notice notice what what it says nine through 11.

2:54 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to according to my thy word. Okay, the glass has gotta come out. With my whole heart, I have sought thee. Oh, let me not. Wander from your commandments.

3:15 Thy word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Okay. I want to tuck this away. I want to tuck this this... These verses away in my heart.

3:28 I want to do that. I want to have this. So your responsibility, and we're going to look at this, preparation. Preparation by examination. What is your prep before you even get here?

3:47 Before you take part of the great cookies, before you drink the coffee, before you before you even pull in the parking lot, what is your preparation? Your responsibility. Your responsibility is examining yourself before God. Any known sin in your life? Is there anything that's blocking it?

4:13 Any bad attitudes that you might have? We're human beings. We have these things, you know? And we want to stand stand before god and we wanna let God examine me. You know that Psalm one thirty nine.

4:30 See if there be any wicked way in me. Create in Psalm 51, create in me a clean heart. And so we want this in our lives. We don't wanna come here holding grudges. We don't wanna come in here with stone sins in our lives and we're nowhere harboring it.

4:50 Get get it dealt with even before you come. And this is certainly true, especially in the... With the breaking of bread. You're needing you're needing, and I need to really be straight not only not only with the lord but with somebody else if I'm having a problem with him. Okay.

5:13 So, examination, preparation, examination, Any bad attitudes? Psalm 19. Take a take a gander at Psalm 19. It sounds like Psalm one nineteen, but it's not. It's Psalm 19.

5:29 And you want to look at this and so you have here Psalm 19 verses seven through 13. Notice what the word of god is. The law of the lord is perfect. Converting the soul. The testimony of the lord is sure.

5:42 Making wise the simple. The statutes of the lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the lord is clean, enduring forever. The ordinance of the lord is true and righteous altogether. More to be desired, they than golier than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

6:11 Moreover, by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them is great reward. Keeping this great reward. God will bless your socks off. As you look at his word and seek in your heart with a disposition of as you read the word. Lord, I want to obey your word.

6:33 I want to do this. This is before you start reading. Lord, if there's any sin in my life, forgive me. Just wash me clean. Help me to see your word and examine me.

6:44 Keep back who can understand his errors. Cleanse me thou from secret faults. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. I like that.

7:00 I like that. I I actually I don't like that because all of a sudden, the spirit of god is going to start taking, hey, you did this. Hey, you did that and he's going to help you correct it. This is all in preparation. You just don't come here.

7:15 What are you going to give me? Give it to me. I want, I want, man, I hope this guy's any good. I I mean, is he any good? You know, okay.

7:25 You know, that's kind of a bad attitude on that one. You know, so let the words of my mouth, verse 14, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Oh lord, my strength and my redeemer and so what happens is you're you're looking at this and and then in Psalm 51, he said, you know, take not... He he says, take not thy holy spirit from me. We don't ever pray that, of course, in Psalm 51.

7:54 That was David's penitent Psalm. We don't ever do that but lord, show me if there's something wrong. Guide me. Teach me. This is all in preparation and then, preparation by supplication.

8:23 No. No. Supplication. You know, prayer and supplication. Do you ever hear those two in the same sentence?

8:30 Yeah, by prayer and supplication, I'm thinking to myself, what's the difference? What is the difference? They're not synonyms like prayer and by prayer. No. No.

8:40 Supplication is you have, you pray, right? We talk to the the god of the universe. That's all. Just the god of the universe when we pray but when you do supplication, you're pouring out your heart. You're saying, it's it's the emphasis.

8:59 It's really an emotional emphasis. Lord, I, you've got to work in my life. Lord, you've got to do this. That's where you're, you know, you're, if you're going to supplicate for somebody else, you're you're in, you're entering into their pain. You're entering in with them and you're asking god to work on their behalf.

9:22 And whatever the situation is, prayer and supplication. So, this is it. Supplicating and what do we want to have supplication for? So, we have, we examine our hearts and then preparation by supplication. Notice what it says.

9:41 We pray for ourselves. I had a guy, he was sanctimonious, you know, he was like, hey, I never pray for myself. I'm going, I must be the worst sinner going, Cause I pray for myself all the time. You know, I do. I ask God and I, you know, I'm weak.

10:07 I'm weak and feeble and I pray for myself and ask the Lord to really bless. And can you do this for... God, can you do this? We... Barb and I are gonna go home, Lord willing.

10:20 And after after this, we will go home and we'll we'll pray and ask God to give us traveling mercies. In everything by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God. But when we're talking about preparation of the heart and life when you're coming to listen to a You're supplicating for a whole bunch of people. You're praying for yourselves. You're praying for the preacher.

10:51 Do you ever think of that? And Lord, just... I don't know who's preaching, but Lord, if you would bless that person. Bless that man. Bless that.

11:01 Don't know what they're going through. You don't know that their dog might have just died or you don't know what the situations that they're going through. They're going through some real deep pain and yet they're still preaching. And then a lot of lot of great preach... And so what happens is you're praying for that preacher.

11:27 You're saying, Lord, I don't know what's going on in his life. I ask you Lord to really bless. He might have had... Coming here might have had a argument Mighta had argument with the wife. That's a possibility.

11:41 Are you? Not that they win the argument but that god would bless their life. You know, that God would... God bless their life. And so you're you're really praying.

11:54 And and also, you're praying for the lost. You're praying for those who have never known Jesus as their personal savior that could come into the meeting. And sit maybe near you or even next to you. You're praying for them. I want to ask you this question, and this is a tough question to ask.

12:17 Did you pray for me today? Did you pray for JC last week? Are you praying for whoever is preaching next week? Preaching The thing about that is we need to, in terms of our preparation of getting here, sitting here, this is not a country club. We are here and this is not, this is not a time in which we just we, you know, who can put out the best information.

12:52 No. No. No. No. No.

13:05 Are you praying for the preacher? Are you praying for those who might not know Jesus as their savior? One time I was preaching in Groton, Connecticut. It was a big assembly, huge assembly. And they had a they had a big stage.

13:23 It looked like a high school audit.... Type of thing. Big stage, stairs on this side, stairs on that side, big curtain in the back, and all this kind of stuff. And then they had, I know, thousand seat auditorium. And they had 500 the first service and a 150 the second and they want they wanted me to preach the first the second sermon like I did the first sermon.

13:52 They wanted me to absolutely repeat it. Why you can't do that? You know, the spirit of god's not doing that in in my life. You know, I can preach the same text but it's not coming out the same. I want god to be anointed and to minister to the person.

14:08 So I'm preaching and I'm standing on this platform and I'm preaching away and this guy gets up out of his seat. And he's got those wristbands. Now, when I played basketball in junior high and high school, the wrist... White wristbands were cool. You know, they got the...

14:27 You know, they were cool. We used to put tape around it, you know, why are you doing that? I don't know. It's just cool. And, this guy had white wristbands around his thing.

14:37 He's coming up. He comes up the stairs. Now I'm in... You know, I've preached on the streets of New York and Chicago and LA and all this kind of stuff. So I'm used to interruptions or kind of heckling type of situations, you know.

14:53 So it didn't Guy comes up and he's walking across the stage at me. And I'm I'm still trying to preach, you know. I mean, this is like really unusual. And he goes, he stands right here, and he goes, raise your hand. I I'm a little slow on the uptake here.

15:17 He said, raise your hand. And I still, you know, and he goes, he takes my hand, lifts it up, and then he goes, boom. And he looks at me and goes, you did good. And he goes down and sits down. I appreciated it.

15:35 Thank you. I... I'm glad he didn't smack me in the head. You know? And I I really appreciated that.

15:44 I went and talked to him after the sermon. Those white wristbands were not to be cool. He tried to kill himself by slitting his wrists maybe a day or two before. And they helped him and they sewed him up. And we talked and he trusted Christ as his savior.

16:06 He liked what I was saying about the... And he trusted Jesus. You just don't know who... To whom you're speaking. You don't know this.

16:17 You... And and so you're praying, the congregation is praying for that guy. And guys like him and people like him. That's what you're doing. So this is preparation.

16:31 So then, by supplication, and then also you have to look at, when we look at this, bad attitudes. Oh my word, I gotta tell you a story and I don't mean to go story telling, but this is this is so important. When I went to the Moody... Oh, before I went to the Moody Bible Institute, I was in an assembly called Willow Bible Chapel in Willoughby, Ohio. And I had preached on the streets, but I didn't...

17:01 I never preached behind the plow. I had no idea what I was doing. And they asked me at Willow Bible to to preach a sermon. And I'm going, okay. Alright.

17:13 I have no idea what I'm doing. And they asked me to do it. So I remember that Sunday, that Saturday night, because I... You only prepare the night before. And I'm I'm writing down these notes in a ringed binder, you know those wire ring binders?

17:33 And I'm writing real small so I can get it all in and I'm writing in green, red, blue, and real tiny and it's up here, down here, down this... I got to tell you something. I got up and preached, it was Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two forty seven verses. I read that mistakenly from the amplified Bible.

18:03 That's an expanded translation. It took me ten minutes. I hated it. I I remember as I'm reading, it took me ten minutes. The sweat going down the small of my back.

18:16 I am like in the peep... I could feel people just staring at me. And I'm going, this is horrible. This is what I'm thinking as I'm reading the text. I haven't even started yet.

18:26 And so then I started preaching and I couldn't read my writing. I'm going, what is... And I'm I'm doing the soft shoe, you know. And I'm going, well, this is really a great text and I'm... It was awful.

18:40 It was awful. I didn't... You know what they did? They did it. They made a huge mistake.

18:46 They asked me to preach again. And I said, I said, oh my word. Same thing. I spend oh by the way, I just forgot to tell you that when I did it Saturday, I'm doing Saturday. You know, what time, you know, I don't know what time I got to bed.

19:04 Sunday morning at 7AM. And I didn't sleep. I was so... I got out of bed by... AM, I thought, I got to go to sleep.

19:17 I'll pump out... I'm pumping out... Put... I got on the floor pumping out about 50 push ups and I'm just trying to relax, you know. And it didn't work.

19:26 And it was horrible, just absolutely horrible. They asked me to do it again, same thing. I hated it. So I talked to, I don't know if you remember Stan Wallace. Yeah, he's a doctor of psychiatry and he went to that assembly and I remember, I said, Stan, I got to tell you something, man, I hate it.

19:59 Just a few notes. Saturate yourself with it, just a few notes and just let it go. I go, okay. Okay. So I did it again.

20:07 I... They asked me to preach again, which... I felt better. And I started developing a style. I started developing a style.

20:17 When I... Barb and I went to the Moody Bible Institute, I was in the evangelism course major, and I have to take four preaching courses in that major. I go, oh, man. So I took speech and then I had to take homiletics. And I...

20:39 Because I was off year, I came in January instead of the fall. I came in January, I could find out who was preaching what. Who is teaching what? And they said, Sam Canine. He doesn't mess with your style at all and I'm going, yes.

20:58 I don't want anybody to mess with my style of preaching. Don't mess with it, right? Sam Canine. So, I'm standing at in line to register and guess who was not teaching? Hamletics.

21:14 Sam Canine. I go, no. Then I go, what? Who do I get to preach? Or teach me.

21:23 Who am I going to... You got two choices. You got a guy who I think was doctor Baker. He'll make you write out everything you're gonna say. I'm going, that's not me.

21:33 I'm not doing that. And that's not me. Or you can take this next guy. You can take you can take Lon... Doctor Lon Wilson.

21:42 He just makes you do an outline, one page outline. Yeah, it's amazing. One page outline. You know, what's really amazing to me about this whole thing is I'm sitting there in the first day of class and he comes into the classroom and he looks like a bowling pin with a suit. And he opens his mouth and dust flies out.

22:07 Gentlemen, this is homiletics, the art and science of biblical preaching. Ease in preparation, purpose in preaching. And I'm going. Craig Forsberg right behind me. I was doing it internally.

22:30 I'm going, Oh no, this guy is terrible. He's going to teach us how to preach? This is horrible. Forrestberg behind me, he's going, oh, out loud. Oh, this is horrible.

22:46 And you could hear the groans and the complaints in the class. I mean, maybe he was deaf. I don't know. But man, it was horrible. And I remember, I remember, clear as to the...

23:00 You know, it was like it was yesterday or this morning. I remember I'm going whining and complaining and a thought came right to my head. Chris, is it my will that you go to Moody Bible Institute? Well, if you know how I got in, you'd say, absolutely. God's will.

23:20 Absolutely, God begged my way into Moody. So, yes. Yes, it's your will. Is it my will that you're in the evangelism major? I said yes.

23:29 Is it my will then that you take four courses on preaching? Yeah, because that's part of the. And then it dawned on me, I knew where he was going. I said, Lord, forgive me. If you want to change me, if you want to do it, you do whatever you want with me and use Doctor.

23:49 Wilson. My attitude was so bad, it was unbelievable, and God changed everything. Everything. Instead of those little pieces of paper and all this kind of stuff, he used to say ease in preparation, purpose in preaching. One sheet.

24:06 That's it. One sheet of notes. That's it. And it's gonna... And he taught us homiletics.

24:11 He taught us, propositional preaching. It was incredible. It changed my whole life. It changed everything for me. Attitude.

24:22 So, you when you come here, you say, oh, that's Schroeder. I I I mean, I can't stand his preaching. I can't stand it either. You know, but you you're asking god to teach you, to minister to you, and that you're preparing for that. You're praying for that preacher, whoever it is.

24:43 Who's next? Who's up next? You're praying for, you're praying for this brother. You're praying for him and you're asking god to use him and then, so the question for all of us is, are we preparing our hearts before god and supplicating to god? Do we examine our hearts in light of the word of god?

25:25 That's why you're here. So, are we doing that? And so not only does the Bible command us the step of preparation but inculcation into the heart and life. Inculcation by looking, if if the passage is known to you and it's Acts chapter five, next one, right? Is that what you're doing, bro?

25:46 Acts chapter five. If it is known previously, studying it before the sermon is given would be very helpful for you. So next week, you got Acts chapter five. Start studying Acts chapter five. Look at what the whole the whole context of Acts chapter five is.

26:05 It's a powerful sermon. We see how god is dealing with individuals and it's just it's just amazing and you know what really will freak out mister Hilton? If you come up to him and say, you know, I've been studying Acts chapter five and that one one verb there in this word here is in the aorist, active, indicative. And I just wanted to see what you thought about that kind of thing and how that relates to the rest of the chapter. And he's going, okay.

26:40 Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

26:45 Do that before he gets up. You know? And it's it's really... Do that before he gets up. It's really it's really it's really humbling.

26:55 That's what it is because you you're thinking to yourself, oh, man, I better be right. I better be right and accurate on this. Okay. So you're looking, you're studying it. If if you know what it is and you guys do, you guys do.

27:09 Acts chapter... Fantastic study series. Inculcation by listening. Careful listening to what is being is being said and gritting it through the word of God. What does the Bible teach?

27:30 Some guys are going to get up and you're going to say, wait a second, the word of god doesn't teach that. I need to be a careful listener and also one of the things that I think is careful listening and also careful learning. You really seek to understand and know what he's saying by note taking. I don't care how the note taking is. One guy sat in the parking lot.

27:57 He was new to the area, not to this area, but new to an area. And he wanted to go to a church and he didn't know which church to go to because he wanted to get somebody... He wanted to go to a church that he thought would really be spiritually vital. So he sat in the parking lot. He went to different churches and sat in the parking lot.

28:16 That's all he did. And he observed people going in and the church that he went to was the church that people were walking into the church with Bibles and notebooks. He said, those people are serious. About what they're doing. And so note taking and so sometimes you go, note taking.

28:38 I I I can't follow this guy. This guy is driving me crazy. Where is he going with all this stuff? Okay. So, you take it eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper.

28:49 Eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper. You got one? Or you can. Or you can do this on an iPad. I don't care how you do this, but get it done.

28:58 You take it and you put it on the top, there's eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper. A P I E. A pie. A pie. Right?

29:09 A pie. Right? A p I e. Underneath, you put little lines underneath each letter. Right?

29:16 And then underneath the a's you say, you write all the applications he gives. All the applications. Under the p, you say all the principles he's giving forth. You don't need to know the guy's outline. And then I, all the illustrations the person has.

29:36 And then e, all the exhortations he gives. A p I e. You don't need to say, what was his keyword? What was his proposition? I I missed it.

29:47 No, just a p I e. There you go. And you take it and write it down. Make sure you date it and who is preaching it and it'll be helpful helpful for you. So you look at it and you discuss it.

30:03 And that's that fellow. That's not him. It's just from the Internet. But that's the guy who sat out in the parking lot and just watched people go in, see if they were serious. Question for all of us.

30:19 Are we inculcating what is said into our lives by looking, by listening, active listening, note taking, and by learning what the preacher said in his sermon. This is our responsibility. You're listening through this. You're you're engaged with it. You're not thinking about how the pot roast is doing or where we're going to go afterwards.

30:48 You're not thinking about that. You're thinking, okay, what what is this? Let me just tell you something. Andy will be studied up. He will know what that passage is saying.

31:06 I don't care if you like Andy or not. That's not my concern. My concern is, are you listening to what God is saying through him? Are you hearing it? The voice of god and I'm sure every preacher with their salt is asking god to eclipse them with the presence of the dear son.

31:33 Lord, let them see Jesus. Lord, let them hear from him. Let me be accurate with your word. Let me be studied up. And so not only preparation and inculcation but the Bible commands the step of demonstration.

32:26 When god is telling us and commanding us to do something and we get that and we're taking notes and all that and we don't obey the word of god. It's sin. Him to know it to do good and to him that doeth it not. To him, it is sin. And so, we're asking god, our our and the question is, are we doing what we know to be the will of god for our lives?

32:57 So that would preclude we know what the will of God is. And then we would obey it. With our whole heart. By the way, I'm I'm, you know, I was talking to Wayne. Me and Wayne, he's he's a little older than me.

33:13 We're the crew of fifty two. So was Dave. Dave was the crew of fifty two, you know. We had a real bond, a real kinship. 1952, good year.

33:25 The crew of fifty two. So that makes me '73. You too, bro. I was telling somebody the other day, as I live another ten years, I'd be really happy. Ten years.

33:43 Eighty three. I have to wheel me in here. I don't know. But if another ten years, it'll be it'll be great. 93?

33:53 I don't know, man. You know, I'm not sure. And I... But when you get our age, you start thinking, did I waste it? Is that right, Wayne?

34:12 Yeah. You start thinking, I've wasted. What did I waste? You do not want a wasted life. How do you waste a life?

34:25 Don't study the word, do your own thing, and just let it go. He that does the will of god abides forever, John writes. I want my life to count. How about you? The only way you can let it count is to let god have control of your life.

34:53 First, if you don't know Jesus as your savior, that's the first step. You can't go to second base without going to first base. The first base is trusting Jesus as your personal savior. Second is going... You're going to second base is I'm okay.

35:07 I'll do whatever you want me to do no matter what the cost. You say that to God on a consistent manner and yield your life to god. God will bless your socks right off. He will bless your life. And when you get to be 73, if you live that long, my mom was 60 when she passed, you want your life to count.

35:40 You want it to count and you'll be able to go before him and hear him say to you, well done. Good and faithful servant. That's what I want to hear. I don't want to hear of you where you were famous over here or you were famous over there and famous with this group of people or famine. Who cares?

36:22 Do we believe what god says through a sermon and trust him more fully? By the way, this whole book, this whole book from Genesis one one to Revelation 22, you're going to be, you know what you're going to find? A dominant theme in the book of of the Bible? Trust. Do you trust me?

36:48 Do you you remember that... How many have ever seen the movie, oh, come on. What's the name? Fiddler on the Roof. Fiddler on the Roof.

37:01 Thank you. Yes. Fiddler on the Roof. And he goes, the guy goes, the the main character goes to his wife. Do you love me?

37:12 She goes on, I've for twenty five years I've I've had you. Yes, But do you love me? And it goes on, yes, but you love... And they both sit on the bed and they go. I suppose I do.

37:32 The question is, do you love the Lord? If you do, obey him. Do you love me? Someone once said, the measure of growth of a Christian is directly proportionate to the measure of their consecration to the lord. That's why you sometimes when you see somebody who gets saved right away, you know, they get saved and all of a sudden they shoot off.

38:12 They're like a in terms of growth. How does that happen? They're serious about what they're doing. They're actually taking God at his word. They're believing God and they're acting on it.

38:25 They're doing that. You want to grow? Study the word, obey the word, and you will grow. You will grow. It'll be beautiful.

38:36 It'll be fantastic. Will it be hard? Yes. But god takes you through all of that. He takes you through that.

38:43 The measure of a grow of growth of a Christian is directly proportionate to the measure of their consecration to the Lord. Equal. So you've been saved for fifty years. Or you've been saved for twenty years. Or you've been saved for ten years.

39:04 Or five years? Are you growing deep in the Lord? It should happen and it should happen all the time. It's a normal thing. It is a normal thing.

39:53 Father, we ask you that you would help us. Your word is so powerful and cuts cuts between the marrow and the bone of our hearts and of our lives. And we ask you, Lord, that we would be the men and women of God you want us to be and I pray for those who have never trusted your son that they would. That they would believe on the word of god and and trust him. Lord, we just say thank you.

40:30 Thank you that we can meet like this. Thank you that we have published in on paper and in our iPads and phones and all of that kind of stuff. The word of god that is there all the time for us. Help us to be students of your word. Help us, Lord, to listen to your word, hear what you, the spirit of God is saying, using your word to our hearts and to our minds.

40:57 And we ask you, Lord, to use us for your glory because, Lord, we know that time is so very short and people are really hurting. Help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.