I Have Something To Do!

I Have Something to Do!

We spend much of our time each week in our community group talking about sermons. I recently read an article that talked about the importance of application when it comes to Biblical Expositional Preaching. Here’s what it said:

Engaging introduction, sensitive contextualization, beautiful structure, outstanding exegesis, impressive oratory, but “So what?” A sermon is not a sermon if that’s the takeaway. A sermon is only a sermon if its outcome is, “I have something to do.” Truth must result in action, principles must produce practice, and exposition must end in application.

When we finish hearing a sermon, we should be thinking, “I have something to do.” Then we should figure it out, and start doing it. That is the purpose of our time together in discussing the message and asking the Life-on-Life questions. We want to make sure we understand what the Bible is saying, and then figure out what we should be doing, how we should be changing.

This is actually expected of Christians. We have actually become disobedient to this Biblical command: “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (). The command is to “prove yourselves” (literally “become”) a doer. That word suggests that a change needs to be made. You are going to “become” something. Once you hear something, you need to change what you do. Hearing is one thing, but doing what you hear is a requirement, not just a suggestion. Notice the following verses () and how they reinforce the idea, describing what it’s like for a person to only hear, and not change. It’s clear that we have something to do after hearing God’s Word. We can and should be helping one another DO it.

I would suggest something further: when we read our Bible, or a good Bible-teaching book, or a devotional, we should be doing the same thing. Gaining knowledge is good; it’s valuable; it’s necessary. But if it only goes into the head, and not the heart, and eventually the hands, then that good Bible content has stopped at the head. That’s not far enough!