Last Friday I was sitting in the Moore College chapel having the privilege of listening to another great sermon from John Woodhouse when I was struck by the brilliant way in which he introduced his topic.

John wanted us to think about achievement, as true achievement is described in Colossians 3, which is the passage he was expounding.

The passage is clear that Christian success is marked by compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. These marks are the complete opposite of the characteristics of those our society regards as marking achievement.

When I have heared (and preached) other sermons on this topic, always somewhere in the sermon is an illustration and comment on the shameful, unhelpful, foolish and destructive nature of human achievement. If a preacher is speaking about achievement I am waiting for the attack on high achievers to come.

John did something completely unexpected as he introduced his sermon on achievement. 

He began by declaring that it is "hard to imagine what the world would be like without achievement". Our world runs on achievement. We make progress and all benefit by achievement.

That introduction did a number of things.

Firstly, it made me pay attention since I was wrong in what I thought he would say. As a result, I doubted I could predict what was to follow. Being unpredictable keeps interest in sermons. Why should I keep listening when I know what you are going to say?

Secondly, and probably more importantly, it captured the reality of how I think and feel.

It is so easy to take cheap shots at things that stem from erroneous beliefs. The problem is that we can "universalise" the specific problem: that is, write off a whole activity as wrong in its entirety because one aspect is wrong. For example, claiming that seeking to achieve is universally unhelpful. When we universalise a specific we are in danger of losing our audience because they rightly feel the benefit of something we have condemned. By being specific about what we are condemning we assist in crystallising the gospel issue.

What I am calling for is that we work hard at thinking through how the gospel impacts every aspect of life. This will spare us from being simplistic in choosing easy targets, and help our hearers to examine the world and society from a Christian standpoint.

Is there, then, any appropriate time to generalise? Yes, when a particular sin and deceit and error pervade our world and it continues to be un-addressed. But we will be specific about what that error and sin is.