On Listening To Sermons: My Early Preaching Fathers

I became a Christian went I was 19. After my conversion, I found a deep love for the Bible that could only be explained by the grace of God now found in my life. In addition to this, I felt as if I had wasted many years that could have been used for Bible study. As a result, I attempted to "make up for lost time" and so, I began listening to sermon tapes of the man who was my pastor at the time. Since I spent a lot of time in traveling from place to place, I would listen to one of his sermons wherever I was going.

This has been a habit that I have not been able to break since those days. Early on, I listened typically to as many sermons as I could by which ever minister I was particularly into at the time. It is probably sick, I know, but I go through periods where I develop a "crush" on certain preachers.

Early on, I listened to a lot of topical preaching. I did not know there was another type of preaching until I heard a Southern Baptist pastor, named Dr. Herb Reavis. Dr. Reavis was an expository preacher. I heard him preach verse by verse, from one passage, at a revival and I was hooked. By that time, I knew I was called to ministry and my church had confirmed that call. After hearing him, I knew that I wanted to preach like that. The pastor of the church where I attended began getting his sermon tapes, and after he was done, he would pass them on to me. I listened as Dr. Reavis preached through 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Judges, Luke, most of 2 Peter and Genesis. I am deeply grateful to God for this man's ministry of expository preaching.

After this, I began listening to other expository preachers, mostly those that Dr. Reavis recommended. In the course of time, I found the sermons of my preaching hero, Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones. A new crush had developed. Lloyd Jones' preaching was deeply theological. The discovery of this man's preaching was more important than I realized at the time. During that period of my Christian life, I began reading Neoorthodox theologians, which, as a fairly new believer, I was not discerning enough to know what I was getting into. God used Lloyd Jones' preaching to provide me with the foundations upon which my theology began to grow.

Those first few years of my Christian experience were deeply shaped by the preaching of those two men. At that time, I developed a love for the expository sermon, that thankfully, hasn't left me. Although I never heard Lloyd Jones in person, he died when I was three, I have been able to listen to him because of many unnamed people who have preserved his preaching ministry through audio recordings. Also, although I have only heard Herb Reavis in person four times, through listening to his tapes, I was able to walk with him and his church through large portions of the Scriptures.

In conclusion, I would recommend this form of "Bible in-take" as Don Whitney calls it. Obviously, listening to sermons on CD, MP3, or on-line should not replace hearing good preaching at your local church. Nevertheless, whether you preach, teach, or neither, listening to additional sermons can be a source of grace in your life.