Pastor, What Do You Preach to People Who Can’t Get Their Act Together?

More Grace

Ray Ortlund
I understand this question personally because for decades I preached sermons that were of the nature of law as opposed to gospel, and I didn’t even realize what I was doing. I thought my responsibility was to open up the Bible and preach expositionally about how Christians can behave better. And that’s a valid concern and a legitimate matter for a pastor to address.

But I didn’t understand the larger wraparound category that gives hope to sinners who are not behaving well—which is all of us. So the grace of God became very precious, sacred, powerful, captivating to me when I went through my own gospel renaissance twenty-plus years ago. And now all I want to do is explain and trumpet and lift up the grace of God for undeserving sinners like me, because I’ve seen it turn my life around.

Ray Ortlund, Sam Allberry

In this practical guide, seasoned pastors Ray Ortlund and Sam Allberry help weary leaders renew their love for ministry by equipping them to build a gospel-centered culture into every aspect of their churches.

Sam Allberry
Titus 2 tells us that it’s the grace of God that teaches us to say no to ungodliness. But I think it’s so easy for us to think, Well, grace gets us in, and then we need the preacher to really sock it to people to get them changing.

But if people aren’t growing in godliness, Paul is saying they need more grace. They don’t need scolding by the pastor. They don’t need lots of challenge. They need more grace.

Ray Ortlund
I believe that. Yes.

Ray Ortlund and Sam Allberry are coauthors of You’re Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches.

Sam Allberry

Sam Allberry is the associate pastor at Immanuel Nashville. He is the author of various books, including What God Has to Say About Our Bodies and Is God Anti-Gay?; and the cohost of the podcast You’re Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Young Pastors. He is a fellow at the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics.

Ray Ortlund

Ray Ortlund is the president of Renewal Ministries, the pastor to pastors at Immanuel Nashville Church, and a canon theologian with the Anglican Church in North America. He is the author of several books, including The Death of Porn; the Preaching the Word commentaries on Isaiah and Proverbs; and Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel. He is also a contributor to the ESV Study Bible. Ray and his wife, Jani, have been married for fifty years.

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