Thomas Watson On How to Profitably Hear the Word Preached

  1. Prayer– Come with your soul prepared to hear God’s Word by praying for God’s blessing.
  1. Appetite– Come with holy appetite. You are about to feast with Christ.
  1. Tender Teachable Heart– “What will you have me to do? Speak to me, dear Father.”
  1. Be Attentive– Discipline your mind to be attentive with your mind in preaching; keep yourself from distractions as much as possible. Try to be as involved in hearing as the preacher is in preaching (Calvin taught this).
  1. Receive with meekness– Receive with meekness the ingrafted word (James 1:21); this is a submissive frame of heart (Psalm 131). Through meekness the Word gets deeper into our souls and we are more able to receive it.
  1. Faith– Mingle the preached word with faith as you’re listening and as you later reflect and meditate upon the truth. The chief ingredient of listening to a sermon must be faith in order to apply the word.
  1. Retain– Retain and pray over what you have heard. Don’t let the sermon run through your mind like water going through a sieve. Our memory should be like the chest of the ark where the Law was placed. Go from your knees to the sermon and go from the sermon to your knees.
  1. Practice– Practice what you have heard; live out what God has taught you.
  1. Beg– For the effectual blessing of the Holy Spirit; this is the “swallowing of the medicine to heal you”.
  1. Familiarize– Go home and speak about it to family, friends, others, so that you will become very familiar with the truths.

***Remember each sermon as if it was the last you will ever hear, because that just may be the case.***