We're really good at listening...

We're really good at listening to the Word, especially here in the South.  We love church.  It's a Sunday "must do" without a doubt.  We put on our Sunday best, make sure the kids have the cutest clothes, and out the door we go...Off to church!  Start the day in Sunday school, read a couple verses, have a couple discussion points.  Follow that up with a service where we sing a couple hymns / praise songs, listen to the preacher, maybe even get "moved" by the sermon or music.  As southerners (at least a large percentage of us), listening to the Word on any given Sunday is a part of our culture.

But when it comes to DOING what the Word says....whoa...and, if we're honest with ourselves...we struggle in this department (or at least I do).

James 1:22 says, "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." 

(The phrase, 'and so deceive yourselves', should cause us to raise our eyebrows, but that's for another blog post another time)

Back to the task at hand...

Jesus says in Luke 6:46, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord', and not do what I say?"

So why don't we do what the Bible says?  What hinders us?

I saw a great sermon clip one time from Francis Chan about doing what the Bible says.  He used an analogy about telling his daughter to go clean her room.  He said she knows better than to come back to him and say, "Daddy, you told me to clean my room, and I memorized what you said.  And I can say it in the Greek. And now, me and some friends are going to sit around and talk about what it would look like if we went and cleaned my room".  

We would think that's ridiculous if that's what our kids did, right?  And we should.  So, why do we think when it comes to what the Bible says, we can get away with saying that kind of stuff?  Why do we think we can listen to the Word, and not do what we're commanded to do? Yet, we'll quickly throw together a Bible study, small group, or Sunday school class, and really talk about what the Word says.  We'll share on social media how "powerful" a sermon was, talk about "Jesus moving during the service", or "Pastor so and so really brought it this am", etc...  

But, we find ourselves just continuing to sit idly by doing nothing.  Then we go right back to church the next Sunday and go through same religious routine; week after week after week.

In Matthew 28, Jesus says, "Go make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you".  

Believers, are we making disciples?  Do we even know what that looks like?  

If we don't know, read the second half of the verse above; teach others what it looks like to follow Jesus.  Show them the Jesus of the Bible; not some middle class American, comfortable, safe, Jesus.  Let's show them what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Show them that He is worth giving our lives for.  Show them the kind of joy and fulfillment in life that comes from being a Christ follower. Let's show them what it means to not just be a listener, but being a DOER of the Word.

thanks for reading...

peace.

bg