Two words to supercharge "application" with gospel fuel

See people change before your very eyes 🌱

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

Most of us love explaining the text.

Doing application is more of a struggle.

We don’t want to sound legalistic or moralistic.

But we know that a living, faith-union with Jesus changes us from the inside out by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

And yet we still default to law-oriented terminology when presenting an application.

We know how it usually sounds.

• We “should” be patient in conflict.

• We “ought” to be generous with our resources.

• We “must” manage our anger when provoked.

• We “need” to share our faith with our sphere of influence.

These terms make following Jesus more of a responsibility than an opportunity. We unintentionally turn Jesus’ “easy” yoke and “light” burden into a “hard and heavy” one.

Yes, under the law, our walk is a responsibility with obligations. And Scripture uses responsibility terminology.

But under the gospel, our walk is transformed from merely a responsibility with obligations into a privilege with opportunities. Like grace is both a fallback for failure and fuel for new life!

This is why the two words that have the power to transform your application are these:

“Get to…”

In view of the cross… as we abide in Jesus… empowered by the sap of the Spirit…

• We “get to” be patient in conflict.

• We “get to” be generous with our resources.

• We “get to” manage our anger when provoked.

• We “get to” share our faith with our sphere of influence.

This is gospel-fueled application.

It turns the standard “to-do” list into a “get-to” list?

When you preach all four layers of the gospel DNA from every text, the application isn’t tacked on at the end. It’s the natural, joyful, and grace-fueled outcome of the text.

You get to replace the futility of will-power with the fruitfulness of faith-power.

Here’s what’s really amazing.

When application is framed as privilege, something shifts, not only in how you present application but in how it’s received.

The heart posture of listeners moves from duty to gratitude. From fear to freedom. From exhausting effort to energized response.

Your people stop seeing spiritual growth and change as the path to God’s approval and start seeing it as the overflow of already being approved.

They begin to change before your very eyes. You can see it in their faces.

Because being the recipient of pure grace, full forgiveness, secure acceptance, and unrelenting love changes everything.

Here’s what you can do THIS SUNDAY.

Introduce your Response movement with this simple phrase, “Now, in union with Jesus, we GET TO [fill in your primary gospel implication].”

This will automatically supercharge your application with grace! You can’t help but be excited to share the kind of “opportunity for change” the gospel provides.

You’ll preach the fullness of justifying grace and the fullness of sanctifying, transforming grace, which flows freely from justifying grace.

If you want to follow a preaching system that produces this kind of two-word, “get to,” gospel-fueled application in every message (with a full draft by Wednesday 🙂), start your CTP All-Access Membership and launch your new preaching ministry today.

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