Welcome to Mortification of Spin, a casual conversation about things that count with Carl Truman, Todd Pruitt, and Amy Bird.

Mortification of Spin is a weekly podcast from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

The good sermon teaches truth and points people to Christ, but it also shows the hearers how to live.

This week, the gang talks about

sermon application.

Let's join the conversation as they

connect the dots for us.

Well, welcome to Mortification Spin Bullie Pulpit. The gang's all here. And today we want to discuss a topic that is important, but rarely discussed, it seems to me, in the church today. And that is the all-important matter of sermon application.

Obviously, every sermon is meant to have a shaping and formative effect upon the Christian character of those listening.

But is it enough simply to preach the great indicative of the gospel, the things that Christ has done, the things

that God in Christ has done and will do on our behalf, or is there also a place for more

directive preaching where, if you like, the dots between the indicatives of God's action

and the imperatives of what it means to be a Christian need to be connected by the pastor.

Todd, your thoughts on that?

Well, I think, you know, it's interesting.

You mentioned indicative and imperatives, because it wasn't long ago where a particular

blog post got some attention because the writer's assertion was that Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan had nothing to do

with encouraging us or challenging us to be good neighbors. It was only there to help us see Jesus as the

great good neighbor. Now, we would agree that Jesus is the ultimate good neighbor, but clearly Jesus is telling that parable to challenge his hearers beyond the question

of who's my neighbor to begin asking themselves, am I being a neighbor?

There's clearly application intended in that.

But I think the problem is that some folks get so excited and rightfully excited about a redemptive historical preaching.

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