I prefer the second option.
What is most important about a sermon is the immediate effect that it has on me while I am listening. Does it make me see Jesus? This is how I change: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Whether or not I can recall its content at a later time is secondary.
Jonathan Edwards said this very thing: “The main benefit that is obtained by preaching is by impression made upon the mind in the time of it, and not by the effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered” (quoted in Jonathan Edwards: A Life by George Marsden, pg. 282).”
Oh that we might understand that the true heart’s cry is “Sir, we would see Jesus.” (John 12:21) KJV
Just musing…
