Yes, but how?

Purpose-Driven author Rick Warren says this: Growing up as a pastor’s kid, I heard a lot of sermons at conferences and from my own father. As I listened, I’d find myself thinking, This is good; yet, I was constantly writing, next to the verses we were studying, “Yes, but how?” “Be a godly father - Yes, but how?” “Study the Bible - Yes, but how?”

Effective sermons answer the “Yes, but how?” question, giving practical steps that listeners can immediately implement. Don’t just tell your congregation what they need to do; help them discover how to do it. That’s what people are looking for today!

Yes, but how?

Jesus said this in Mark's Gospel: Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to heard, let him hear."

Yes, but how?

How do we bring the lamp forward? How do we shine the light into the dark corners of either own lives or the lives of others? How do we bring forth truth? What if truth hurts those we're in conversation or dialogue with?

Isn't the "public" kind of anxious to have that which is concealed stay concealed? Do any of us want to live a TMZ kind of life where our "dirty" laundry is hung up high for the winds of gossip to blow dry?

I constantly battle the questions of how specific do I make my thoughts in sermons go. In other words, I look out into the congregation, many of whom I see every week, and wonder just how "negative" do I go with my sermons. In other words, you guys haven't been tithing in, uh, I don't know, EVER.

So I make the sermons as generic as I can, THE BIBLE NEVER STOPS SAYING ONE SHOULD TITHE SO ONE MIGHT CONSIDER DOING THAT and some of the truth is spattered with white wash. I pray constantly that what is truth is truth and my desire to be liked will be, for lack of a better word, neutered. In other words, Jesus wasn't negative as much as he was truthful. What must one do if the truth is negative?

If the truth hurts, I have to feel pastors have an obligation to let the light shine, according to scripture.

Yes, but how?

By simply using scripture as the guidepost of our lives. Follow the light, as it were.

Yes, but how?

By actually reading the material, individually and as a group, praying about the text and using the examples not as fodder for a one-hour small group discussion to be put away like the dishes after a snack.

Yes, but how?

By living what was discussed.

Oh, that's how. Yes.