I Said It, You Should Do It Now - 09

Preaching is cheap, similar to the way talk is cheap.

One way a teacher can hinder the people he’s supposed to help is by preaching big while living small. In other words, I have to ask myself, “Do I truly do the things I’m about to preach?”

I prepare a manuscript with every sermon. I don’t wing it. I even type out all my points of congregational application. Why do I do that? Because, if I didn’t type out the applications, pretty soon I’d use the same ones over and over again. There may be an ocean full of applications for God’s Word, but I’d be reaching quickly into the waters with my fishing net and only ever skimming the same floating seaweed and pieces of driftwood. That is what happens if you leave it up to in-the-moment thinking.¹

I had someone ask me once whether a Pastor should apply Scripture to life. Isn’t it sufficient to simply explain (exposit) what a Scripture passage says?

It is a question I had to think on for a moment. However, I concluded, if Scripture is not applied by the Pastor (carefully applied, not haphazardly applied) wouldn’t it be the same as reading the Scripture but not obeying it? In other words, isn’t each act of obedience the application of Scripture to our lives? So then, why would a teacher refrain from suggesting what those acts should look like?

I find that Dr. John Frame’s proposition captures the heart of it, when he writes, “The best way to define theology, in my view, is as the application of the whole Bible to the whole human life. Theology is not an attempt to articulate our feelings about God (Schleiermacher), but neither is it merely an attempt to state the objective truth, or to put the truth in ‘proper order’ (Hodge), for Scripture already does those things perfectly well. Theology is, rather, teaching the Bible for the purpose of meeting human needs. It answers human questions, tries to relieve doubts, applies texts to life-situations.”²

I do think a pastor will do a disservice to God’s Word and His people if he doesn’t apply Scripture the way the text demands. In other words, it is problematic if we take the text wherein Jesus is washing his disciples feet and then, construe an application about how we ought to “wash the nations feet” by fighting against abortion or some such thing. This is to misapply Scripture. It actually diminishes the Word of God. It is imperative that the text steer the direction and length of a teacher’s application.

So then, each sermon I prepare is usually somewhere between 8 to 12 pages, 16 point Liberation Serif font, single-spaced except between paragraphs. The sermons go about 35 to 40 minutes. And if people ever jokingly comment about the longer length of a sermon, I tell them, “Your’e welcome!”

I’ve preached 22 years. There are 794 sermons on SermonAudio.com with my name attached. I preached even more sermons before we signed up with that website hosting service. But here is the reason I mention it. It happens to be the reality I’m faced with. I’m on record. A lot of words have left my lips that I have not consistently followed. As a sinful man, I’m truly a hypocrite.

And Jesus’ instruction to his followers stings a bit.

"Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 'The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.'"³

I don’t want Jesus to give that advice about me. I want to feel that what I preach, I do. Yet sometimes I get caught up in the glorious truth of the Scripture. I see what it is that we should think and do. I reflect with fondness on the faithful saints of the past and I kind of put myself in their shoes as if they perfectly fit my feet too. Then I teach it, as if I were on the side of truth, and that the congregation should be doing likewise.

But do I do it? Do I do the thing I’m teaching? Or do I comfort myself in the thought that my preaching is my part in the doing? Do you know what I mean?

A pastor/elder is supposed to teach. If he does it properly, the people learn and apply God’s Word to life. They obey it. He has done well!

However, to be an effective teacher, you must live-out what you teach. A good pastor/elder is required to lead by example and not just with his words. The idea is that you are not pointing in the direction others should go but, instead, you are leading them there.

So I preach sermons, yet upon sober reflection, I do not oppose the king’s edict like Daniel and his Hebrew friends in Babylon. I do not go out into the Areopagus with Paul to evangelize the Epicurean and Stoic Philosophers, and the city’s Council of Elders. I do not even do less confrontational things, like Dorcas, who made tunics and garments, for the widows and the poor. I picture myself willing to do all of the above, but then in actuality...⁴

I am a Christian, to be sure. I do live a life of obedience to God on some levels. My point is, however, that I have taught things and imagined things that are NOT congruent with the lifestyle I've grown comfortable in. And if I teach for, or against, a thing, maybe I (subconsciously) find myself feeling less guilty for NOT DOING the thing. In other words, my conscience can be eased by my preaching, as if my words somehow fulfilled my obligation. I’m not sure how clear I’m being.

This distance, between how I imagine myself and how I really am, became clear to me in the Summer of 1992,⁵ when a neighbor challenged me to go along with him to join in the abortion protests taking place in the city of Milwaukee, WI. He sat me down to watch a video about the efforts of the Missionaries to the Preborn (founded by the Reverend Matthew Trewhella), and I began to read a book my friend gave me called, Shattering the Darkness, (written by the Reverend Joseph Foreman). God used both to pry me from my television-watching apathy. And though I was uncomfortable with the idea of the potential conflict, I felt compelled. So I went down to Milwaukee, with my friend, to join hundreds of Christians, thousands at some points, to oppose the killing of the innocent.

My friend and I were arrested (alongside many others) on a couple different occasions for sitting non-violently in front of the abortion clinic doors to prevent a “mother’s” access. One of the other elders from our church⁶ shared in those experiences as well. It was during that period of time that we first got introduced to each other.

I would say that those events made Christianity more public to me. Prior to them, my faith had pretty much been contained to my private, family and church life.

Also, I had now become somewhat more of what I previously only imagined myself to be. Was I a Daniel or a Paul at this point? Hardly, but I was closer. And I felt much more relevant in regard to God’s kingdom work, less the hypocrite about some things.

The challenge of a pastor/elder is to live-out what you teach. Words without action are cheap. Preaching should require sacrifice.

1. I do not recommend a preaching without notes approach to the pulpit. I would not recommend it for a Sunday school class or Bible study either. It’s God’s Word we are handling and attempting to give to others. They are hoping to build their life around it.

2. Frame, John, The Academic Captivity of Theology, Whitefield Media Productions, 2012, p. 84.

3. Matthew 23:1-3

4. Act 9:36-42

5. I was not an pastor/elder yet, but the example is universal.

6. Robert “Giz” Krueger