Words and Sentences

Here's an abstract question for theologians. With training in linguistics, I tend to hear preachers word by word. Others, I find, tend to hear them sentence by sentence. The question is: do those who hear sentence by sentence absorb the theology (or ideology) in spite of not paying attention to the words? Here's an example. A preacher says, "God works through such situations." That carries an interesting and specific meaning if one hears the words. Does one absorb such meaning without hearing the words?