The Accountability Index

For two years now, I've been a member of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles. As a result, I've been blessed to sit under some of the most gifted expositors in this country (maybe in the world). It would be interesting to add up the number of five-star sermons I've heard--three every Sunday, one every Friday, plus the plethora I listen to through Internet streaming, on CD, and at conferences and special events.

Dan Philips at Pyromaniacs recently posted some challenging thoughts about hearing good sermons. You can read it here: http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2007/10/wasted-sermons-not-rant.html.

He notes, "The preaching of the word does not produce holiness and wisdom ex opere operato, as it were. That is, while the Word preached is powerful, it is not magical. The Word preached must fall on good soil."

He points out that hearing a good sermon doesn't magically make us holier, with no effort on our part. But it does do something: it changes our status before God--not in the salvific sense, but in an accountability sense. Greater privilege equals greater responsibility. In John 15:22 Jesus said, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin."

So, listening to good sermons makes us more aware of what God's Word says, and thus more responsible in light of that knowledge. I think that keeping this in mind has to change how we view sermon-listening. It changes our attitude in listening to them, and also in thinking through and applying them--actively and intentionally, with an awareness of the responsibility to do so. Anyway, Dan gives some more good thoughts about this in his post. I definitely recommend reading it.