Preaching so They Dance

Jared Wilson has an excellent piece called What Gospel-Centered Preaching Does

In the article, he mentions some responses of sanctification and increased love for Christ seen in his congregation as he preaches the gospel weekly. [We strive to do this weekly at Grace as well. This does not mean a quick altar call at the end, nor do we simply mean that we ask people to receive Jesus who never had. It is a devotion that the Text is only best understood when in the context of Redemptive history. Therefore, we should unpack the beauty of redemption weekly, so we all catch the context.]

Wilson states:

Talking about how the gospel and the law relate to sanctification is no mere intellectual exercise for me. It’s not just one more idea for the blog. It made the difference between the crushing weight of my own sinful failure and the freedom that comes from tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. This is a real freedom, a freedom that makes “good works” a celebratory dance, not a day-laborers’ accumulation of sanctifying sweat equity. That way leads to burn out and bitterness. “Do not again return to a yoke of slavery,” Paul practically yells at us (in Galatians 5:1) . . .

A commenter to his original post stated he agreed with that point, but the challenge is to get your people to dance. To which Wilson replied:

I think we meet this challenge, though, not by telling them to dance, but by playing the music. That's what gospel-centered preaching is. Playing the great song of salvation and trusting it has the power to make people dance, as only the greatest of songs can.

I love that answer. May we see many people at Grace dance as the gospel music plays loudly in our sermons!