Clear articulation of an FCF drives a message's application and ensures the
Christ-centeredness of a sermon. The FCF marshals a sermon's features toward
a specific purpose and therefore helps a preacher see how to apply the information
in the text. At the same time, the fact that a message is focused on an aspect
of our fallenness precludes simplistic, human-centered solutions. If we could
fix the problem with our own efforts in our own strength, then we would not
be truly fallen. Application that addresses an FCF clearly rooted in the textual
situation necessarily directs people to the presence and power of the Savior
as they seek to serve him.
Early statements of an FCF in a sermon may open the door to application in a
number of ways. A preacher may open a spiritual or an emotional wound in order
to provide biblical healing, identify a grief in order to offer God's comfort,
demonstrate a danger in order to warrant a scriptural command, or condemn a
sin in order to offer cleansing to a sinner. In each case, the statement of
the FCF creates a listener's longing for the Word and its solutions by identifying
the biblical needs that the passage addresses.14
The surfacing of these scriptural priorities compels a preacher to tell others
how and why to do something about them. This compulsion becomes the spiritual
imperative that leads a preacher to discern the text's answers and instructions.
When these crystallize, applications that are true to the text's purpose, focus,
and context naturally develop.
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The
Consequences of Nonapplication
However well selected is the meat of a sermon, the message remains uncooked
without thoughtful, true-to-the-text application. This rare meat is not at all
rare in evangelical preaching, as Walter Liefeld attests:
In
earlier years (I hope no longer) I often did exegesis in the pulpit, in large
measure because I was conscious of the deep and wide-spread hunger for teaching
from God's Word. I finally realized that one can teach, but fail to feed or
inspire. I think (and again hope) that my sermons today are no less informative
but much more helpful.
Expository preaching is not simply a running commentary. By this I mean a loosely
connected string of thoughts, occasionally tied to the passage, which lacks
homiletical structure or appropriate application...
Expository preaching is not a captioned survey of a passage. By this I mean
the typical: "1. Saul's Contention, 2. Saul's Conversion, 3. Saul's Commission"
(Acts 9:1-19). In my own circles I think I have heard more sermons of this type
than any other. They sound very biblical because they are based on a passage
of Scripture. But their basic failure is that they tend to be descriptive rather
than pastoral. They lack a clear goal or practical application. The congregation
may be left without any true insights as to what the passage is really about,
and without having received any clear teaching about God or themselves.15
