I felt like I preached my guts out on Sunday.
I really had a burden for this particular message. I felt it was something our church didn’t need to just hear, but needed to respond to. I felt that if we could only grasp this radical concept of actually loving others in the Body of Christ the way Jesus says to, that it would be a game-changer… Heck, maybe even a world-changer! So I stood in front of those present and preached a real “call to action” message, holding up the banner of what Jesus says about loving others.
Preaching like this is always dangerous. You wouldn’t think it is, but it is. Whenever I preach a real “call to action” message, some people love it, and others leave the church. That’s just the way it is. People love strong, action-oriented messages… As long as they apply to someone else.
Believe it or not, it is hard to preach a message like this, because it is dangerous… Not because people might leave the church, but because of the preacher’s responsibility to God. Here are three big “fine line” dangers in preaching a “call to action” kind of sermon:
Danger 1: Manipulation
It is really easy for the preacher to fall off the line this way… We get focused in on what WE think the outcome should be, and how WE think our church should respond… And before you know it, we are preaching our preferences, rather than the whole Word of God. We easily drift into preaching law rather than gospel… Performance rather than grace. We manipulate our listeners with our ability to speak, to tell stories, to yank tears. This is dangerous because any time we are using our pulpit outside the power of the Holy Spirit, we are working in the power of the flesh. When that’s the case all we can do is manipulate. We end up building our ministry around ourselves, rather than around God, and He simply will not honor it.
Danger 2: The Non-Response
I think most pastors fall into the first danger because we are so accustomed to the church falling into the second danger, which is to simply listen with our heads and not our hearts. We hear the strong call to action, and we think, “What a great message… Somebody sure needed to hear that.” Then we walk away and no life change has happened in us. We like to be entertained on Sunday mornings, but when Jesus calls us to “take up our cross and follow,” we quickly head for the door and drive to the restaurant. This is really dangerous because the church very quickly becomes an unrepentant, disobedient entity that looks little or nothing like the Jesus we are supposed to represent in this world. God will not honor it.
Danger 3: Obedience
Believe it or not, this is the biggest danger of all. Think about it… What if we really responded to Jesus’ call to love others “as I have loved you?” What if we really obeyed his mandate to “lose your life for my sake?” Would that change the way we schedule our week? Spend our money? Nurture our children? Relate to our neighbors? If we truly became the submissive, repentant, obedient church that Jesus loves, died for, and lives for, what would happen to us? Wouldn’t we then see our schedule as His? Our bank account as His? Our posessions, time, relationships… All His? Wouldn’t that completely revolutionize the way we do… Everything? Wouldn’t that be dangerous?
And what would the world see from the outside looking in? What would the world’s response to an authentic, loving, generous group of truly Christlike people? Wouldn’t that completely revolutionize the way they see Jesus? THAT would be dangerous. It would be nothing less than world-changing.
Below is this past Sunday’s “call to action” message. Listen at your own risk.