Not getting anything out of sermons?

How's your obedience been recently? I've found in my life that when I am actively battling sin and doing my best to live blamelessly that I usually get the most out of Scripture and sermons, and it is when I'm steeped in sin, my conscious isn't clear, and I'm waffling spiritually that my Bible reading most often feels dry and sermons are hard to sit through. The following quote and book excerpt were especially poignant to me as I've thought and struggled through recent spiritual "funks." I know the "I don't get anything out of sermons" sentiment is commonly felt, especially with us young people, so hopefully this can be of some encouragement to you, as it has been to me. 

"God does not grant fresh revelations until there has been a complaince with those already received." - A.W. Pink

An excerpt from The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

"'Only those who obey can believe, and only those who believe can obey... The truth is that so long as we hold both sides of the proposition together they contain nothing inconsistent with right belief, but as soon as one is divorced from the other, it is bound to prove a stumbling block. 'Only those who believe obey' is what we say to that part of a believer's soul which obeys, and 'only those who obey believe' is what we say to that part of the soul of the obedient which believes. If the first half of the proposition stands alone, the believer is exposed to the danger of cheap grace, which is another word for damnation. If the second half stands alone, the believer is exposed to the danger of salvation through works, which is also another word for damnation.

At this point we may conveniently throw in a few observations of a pastoral character. In dealing with souls, it is essential for the pastor to bear in mind both sides of the proposition. When people complain, for instance, that they find it hard to believe, it is a sign of deliberate or unconscious disobedience. It is all too easy to put them off by offering the remedy of cheap grace. That only leaves the disease as bad as it was before, and makes the word of grace a sort of self-administered consolation, or a self-imparted absolution. But when this happens, the poor man can no longer find any comfort in the words of priestly absolution - he has become deaf to the Word of God. And even if he absolves himself from his sins a thousand times, he has lost all capacity of faith in the true forgiveness, just because he has never really known it. Unbelief thrives on cheap grace, for it is determined to persist in disobedience.

Clergy frequently come across cases like this nowadays. The outcome is usually that self-imparted absolution confirms the man in his disobedience, makes him plead ignorance of the kindness as well as of the commandment of God. He complains that God's commandment is uncertain, and susceptible of different interpretations. At first he was aware enough of the disobedience, but with his increasing hardness of heart that awareness grows even fainter, and in the end he comes so enmeshed that he loses all capacity for hearing the Word, and faith is quite impossible.

One can imagine him conversing thus with his pastor:
"I have lost the faith I once had."
"You must listen to the Word as it is spoken to you in the sermon."
"I do; but I cannot get anything out of it, it just falls on deaf ears as far as I'm concerned."
"The trouble is, you don't really want to listen."
"On the contrary, I do." 

And here they generally break off, because the pastor is at a loss what to say next. He only remembers the first half of the proposition: 'Only those who believe obey.' But this does not help, for faith is just what this particular man finds impossible. The pastor feels himself confronted with the ultimate riddle of predestination. God grants faith to some and withholds it from others. So the pastor throws up the sponge and leaves the poor man to his fate...It is now time to take the bull by the horns, and say: 'Only those who obey believe.' 

Thus the flow of the conversation is interrupted, and the pastor can continue:
"You are disobedient, you are trying to keep some part of your life under your own control. That is what is preventing you from listening to Christ and believing in his grace. You cannot hear Christ because you are willfully disobedient. Somewhere in your heart you are refusing to listen to his call. Your difficulty is your sins." 

Christ now enters the lists again and comes to grips with the devil, who until now has been hiding under the cloak of cheap grace. It is all-important that the pastor should be ready with both sides of the proposition: 'Only those who obey can believe, and only those who believe can obey.' In the name of Christ he must exhort the man to obedience, to action, to take the first step. He must say: 'Tear yourself away from all other attachments, and follow him.'...The traunt must be dragged from the hiding place which he has build for himself. Only then can he recover the freedom to see, hear, and believe."