"'Stand upright on your feet.' And he leaped up and began to walk" (Acts 14:10). The words of Eckhard Schnabel (a NT scholar) about Paul's command to the lame man really got me thinking about preaching this morning: "Verse 10: "He commands him to do what he cannot do by himself, never having stood on his feet without people supporting him" (ZECNT, p. 606). Sermons with, and sermons without the gospel are, in one way, exactly the same: they both command people to do things they cannot do by themselves (and I am personally "guilty" of preaching both kinds). But there is also one really big difference. Only gospel-centered sermons can actually cause spiritually lame people to leap to their feet. "For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.... For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God" (1 Cor 1:22-24; 2:2-5).