Together, we have faith

Oct 9, 2025
Week $40 — Day 5
Attend the Sermon with Preparation
Q. 90. How is the Word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation?
A. That the Word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with
diligence, preparation, and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.
Prov. 8:34; 1 Pet. 2:1-2; Ps. 119:18; Heb. 4:2; 2 Thess. 2:10; Ps. 119:11; Luke 8:15; Jas. 1:25.
“Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.”
“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation”
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”
“Attend with preparation. We should be like Cornelius, who told Peter, “We are all present before God, to hear all the things commanded you by God” (Acts 10:33). As much as circumstances allow, listeners should bring to the preaching rested and well-cared-for bodies lest the truth meet drowsy minds or grumbling stomachs.”
Excerpt From Glorifying and Enjoying God: 52 Devotions through the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Boekestein & Cruse & Miller)
Attend the sermon with preparation. I have heard through the years the comment, “I did not get much from that message.” The fact is that what you give to a sermon is what you get out of a sermon. Preparatory prayer, freeing yourself from distractions, readiness to hear and learn are all necessary to hearing sermon messages well. This involves a good night’s sleep before the message. Sickness and illness obviously affect how we hear sermons. Extraneous noise around us can also dull our hearing and senses to receive what God wants to give. These are all common and necessary impediments to attending the sermon with preparation.
There is also another force at work in the preaching and hearing of the Word of God. And that is Satan. He does not want you to hear God’s voice in his Word through the message presented. His work is mainly distraction. This is spiritual warfare and you need to be prepared to go to war with the enemy of our souls in attending the message. Saying “no” to Satan’s wiles is a necessary part of attending the sermon.
Be prepared!
A Puritan Prayer —
“THOU GOD OF ALL GRACE,
Thou hast given me a Saviour,
produce in me a faith to live by him,
to make him all my desire,
all my hope,
all my glory.
May I enter him as my refuge,
build on him as my foundation,
walk in him as my way,
follow him as my guide,
conform to him as my example,
receive his instructions as my prophet,
rely on his intercession as my high priest,
obey him as my king.
May I never be ashamed of him or his words,
but joyfully bear his reproach,
never displease him by unholy or imprudent conduct,
never count it a glory if I take it patiently when buffeted for a fault,
never make the multitude my model,
never delay when thy Word invites me to advance.
May thy dear Son preserve me from this present evil world,
so that its smiles never allure,
nor its frowns terrify,
nor its vices defile,
nor its errors delude me.
May I feel that I am a stranger and a pilgrim on earth,
declaring plainly that I seek a country,
my title to it becoming daily more clear,
my meetness for it more perfect,
my foretastes of it more abundant;
and whatsoever I do may it be done in the Saviour’s name.”
Excerpt From
The Valley of Vision
Edited by Arthur Bennett