What Do You Do With What You Know?

A sermon from Romans 2:12-16

Do you know of anyone who collects vintage cars? You may hear of men like Shaquille O’Neal, Jay Leno, or Reggie Jackson who collect old cars and keep them in mint condition. The people I’ve known who collect only have one, maybe two. Occasionally, they would drive these cars to car shows for others to admire—but seldom elsewhere. If they drove them, it would be on their property or a closed track, never out on the highway. I remember thinking, “Why would you have a car you’d never take on the highway?”

I submit to you that, as valuable as those cars are, each of us has access to an object far more valuable and takes us to places those cars could never dream of. It is the Bible that, I hope, you have open in front of you. Sadly, whether it collects dust on the shelf, or is open for your interest and study, we can metaphorically leave it in the garage and never take it out on the highway—never apply it.

Now, I know who I’m preaching to. Most of you are a part of our Arapahoe Road family because of your love of the Bible—whether in the sanctuary or the classroom. If you’ve been visiting, you may be here because you want to learn more about Jesus and Christianity. Do you value the Bible in theory (it’s interesting, ancient, and gives some good advice) or in actual practice?

It’s not enough to keep the Word in our spiritual and practical garage through the power of Jesus Christ. To use another picture of this principle, we are all being graded on the same scale and only Jesus will help us graduate. As we saw from last week, we left off with Romans 2:11: “For God shows no partiality.”