To inspire people to act in accordance with God’s word?

That is a legitimate question that plagues me every week.

The story is set in the Old West. A new preacher went to a town renowned for its logging industry. As he walked around town, he saw something troubling. Logs were coming down the river headed to the mill with the stamp on the end of who should get the money. The locals would grab the logs out of the river, cut the existing brand off the end, and then rebrand them again so that they would get credit.

The preacher wrote and delivered a sermon that week on “Loving your neighbor as yourself.” His congregation told him, “Nice sermon,” but that week, they continued in their dishonest practice. The following week, he was bolder and preached, “Thou shalt not steal.” Again, the response was positive, but no one stopped their practice of taking logs. In the third week, he delivered a sermon entitled, “Don’t cut the end off logs that don’t belong to you.”

I get his frustration. Last week, I preached about following God’s will for your life. As I looked around the room, some people need to be baptized, others who need to stop drinking alcohol to excess, some who need to serve, and still others who need to get married and stop cohabitating. While people told me they enjoyed the sermon, no one appears to have taken any action as a result.

I am glad you enjoyed listening to the sermon, but the actual test of my work is not your approval but rather your transformation into Christlikeness.