Red Letter Challenge - Week 1
- Jul 14, 2025
- 5 min read
INTRODUCTION:
Let me start with a few questions…
Do you believe Jesus meant what He said? How serious do you think Jesus was?
Do you think we should actually do what He said?
So, what about the “red letters”. Well, back in 1899 Louis Klopsch aimed to emphasize the teachings of Jesus and make them more easily identifiable within the text…It was a literary device to draw our attention but not diminish the Bible overall.
In many Bible translations, the words of Jesus are written in red letters. That brings us to where we are going for the next 6 weeks.
The Red Letter Challenge — We are going to take the actual words of Jesus and put them into practice. For 40 days.
Church, I don’t know about you, but I love the words of Jesus.
There’s something powerful—something alive—about His voice in the New Testament. His words are not just good advice. They’re not just inspiring quotes to hang on a wall.
They are life-altering, heart-rearranging, soul-awakening truths. And when Jesus speaks, He doesn't just inform us—He transforms us.
But here's the catch: the real transformation doesn't come just from hearing what He says. It comes from doing it.
Jesus Himself said in Luke 6, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say?” He’s making it clear: the blessing isn’t just in the listening; it’s in the living. The real change happens when we take His words off the page and put them into practice—when forgiveness replaces bitterness, love pushes out fear, and peace becomes our response in chaos.
Check this out…At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus closes with this parable in
Matthew 7:24:
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
He says be a doer not just a hearer of the word. This isn’t a one-time idea. Jesus repeats this theme:
Luke 11:28 – “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Luke 11:28 teaches that the greatest blessing is not being physically close to Jesus, but spiritually aligned with Him by listening to God's Word and living it out.
James 1:22 – “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
James is urging believers to put God's Word into action. It’s not enough to just read the Bible or listen to sermons—real faith shows up in how you live.
Let me address the deceiving part here. Here’s the strong warning: If you only hear the Word but don’t apply it, you’re fooling yourself. You might think you’re spiritual, but your faith isn’t genuine unless it leads to action
James 1:22 calls us to live out our faith. True belief transforms behavior. To hear God's Word and not do it is to lie to yourself.
Here’s the reality: We have a lot of people in church today who know what Jesus said. But Jesus made it clear—knowing isn’t enough.
Don’t just listen. Live it. Do it. Obey it.
And that’s what the next several weeks on the Red Letter Challenge is all about.
The Red Letter Challenge book puts it this way (page 7):
“Jesus is saying, if you want your house to stand, practice what I’m preaching. Do what I say.”
THE CHALLENGE:
For 40 days, we’re going to read the words of Jesus—and be challenged to actually put them into practice.
I believe if you’ll commit to this challenge—you will see some significant changes in your life.
This 6-week journey will challenge us to not just study Jesus’ words but to live them out. We’ll focus on five key principles Jesus emphasized:
Being
Forgiving
Serving
Giving
Going
This week serves as our introduction, explaining these 5 areas, and a call to commitment.
THE PROBLEM OF MISMATCH:
The introduction of the book asks a haunting question:
“Why does the world around us—and the lives we live—not look like the reality Jesus talked about?”
People aren’t walking away from Jesus because they’ve encountered Him and rejected Him. They’re walking away because they’ve encountered Christians who don’t look like Him.
“There is a great mismatch between the life of Jesus and the lives of many who claim to follow Him.” —Zach Zehnder
We claim to follow Jesus… Yet we're often angry, judgmental, stressed, selfish, bitter, and distracted.
But that’s not what people saw when they looked at Jesus.
So why do they see that when they look at us?
It’s time to close the gap. And the way we do that is simple:
Follow Jesus more closely—not in theory, but in practice.
JESUS LIVED WHAT HE TAUGHT:
The red letters aren’t just good advice. They are the very words of God, spoken from the mouth of Jesus.
When He says:
Forgive your enemies
Serve the least of these
Take up your cross
Love your neighbor
Abide in Me
…He’s not trying to weigh you down. He’s inviting you to life, joy, and freedom.
This challenge isn’t about guilt. It’s about grace in motion—becoming the people Jesus said we could be.
We’re not trying harder—we’re training differently.
Hearing vs Doing
There’s a difference between hearing vs doing, right?
Pro tip - Transformation starts with doing—not just hearing.
Let’s go back to what Jesus said:
“Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock...” – Matthew 7:24
Example - You can study how to drive a car. You can memorize the manual. You can take a class. But if you just sit in the driver’s seat and never turn the key—you’re not going anywhere.
It’s the same with faith. Spiritual sand is hearing the Word and doing nothing. Spiritual rock is applying the Word—living it out.
THE FIVE KEY AREAS:
So how do we build our lives on the rock?
We start with the five areas mentioned a few minutes ago, the areas Jesus focused on:
Being – Carving out intentional time with Jesus
Forgiving – Letting go of bitterness and choosing grace
Serving – Looking beyond ourselves to help others
Giving – Stewarding our resources for the kingdom
Going – Sharing the good news with boldness
PERSONAL CHALLENGE:
“The church doesn’t have a knowing problem. It has a doing problem.” —Zach Zehnder
So let me ask you something personal:
Are you truly following Jesus… or are you just a fan?
There’s a big difference between sitting in a church pew and standing on the rock.
Jesus said the wise man hears His words and does them.
So if you’re ready to:
Go deeper…
Move past surface-level faith…
Let your life look more like Jesus…
Then let’s go.
Let’s approach this journey with an expectation. Not just to be stirred, but to be changed. Because when we actually do what Jesus says—when we follow Him with our whole heart—our lives start to look radically different.
Let’s lean in. Let’s listen closely. But more than that, let’s obey boldly—because transformation is on the other side of obedience.
The 40 Day Challenge starts tomorrow! “The first five days will serve as an introduction. You’ll learn a bit more about each of the five major principles from Jesus. From there, on each of the following 35 days, you will see a quote directly from the mouth of Jesus. The quotation will be followed by a devotion, one or more Bible readings, and a challenge of how you might live out those specific words on that day.”
We can’t wait to hear the stories!