WHAT IS THE MOST PRACTICAL WAY TO SAY IT? BECOMING AND HELPING OTHERS BECOME GREAT APPLIERS OF GOD’S WORD.
I. Introduction
A. Last chance to decide if you want to take the class for credit. The assignment due this week is on your testimony of moving from lie to truth.
Starting next week, we will work on a key assignment- “CRAFTING YOUR LIFE MESSAGE”.
Today we are focused on step 3 of the CRAFTING acronym
C- collect and categorize
R- research and reflect
APPLY AND ARRANGE
“A wise teacher’s words spur people to action and emphasize important truths.” Eccl. 12:11 a NLT
Our goal today is to learn how to make our teaching more practical! So user friendly that someone who has never studied the Bible could put it into practice.
F- Fashion and flavor
T- Trim and tie together
B. This is so critical because we are teaching to change lives, with the understanding that following Jesus is a lifestyle. If we were teaching swimming, we wouldn’t just talk about the lives of great swimmers; it would be all about getting in the water.
Do what God’s teaching says; when you only listen and do nothing, you’re fooling yourselves. James 1:22 NCV
1. As teachers we are call to make God’s Word not just admired but actionable. If it’s not actionable, it’s not really valuable. (A beautiful car but does it drive.) Is there a bottom line take away for their life this week?
2. This is the deliverance between developing believers and disciples. One is satisfied with concepts, the other is about decisions and disciplines that lead to a radically different life.
Example: John Wimber-Why his teaching started a movement (doing the stuff).
3. Jesus taught this way. Luke 10:37b, Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise,”
“You must tell them the sort of character which should spring from sound teaching.” (Titus 2:1 PHPs).
C. Application answers two important questions.
So what? Now what?
This is so important, that we set up a whole system to be sure this gets accomplished. Life Groups-Bible Application, unpacking “so what and now what.”
The big idea in transformation tables comes back to starting and ending with the concept: Win/Lose/Choose? This is an honest assessment of where I’ve been in this area of my life and the choice, I believe Holy Spirit wants me to make to be different now.
Discipleship is always about a life of progress not perfection.
II. This always begins with how we read and study the Scripture both for ourselves and for others. I believe the best source for our teaching ministry comes out of our own devotions.
Life Application journal:
S-Scripture
O-observation
A-application
P-prayer
A. In this model the goal of our reading, that flows into our teaching is to keep answering two questions…
What does this mean? Interpretation
What should I do? Application (Acts 2:37). How will the word become flesh in my life?
B. It begins with looking for the timeless truths in a passage
The Application Pyramid:
How does this speak to the plans, priorities, conversations, meditations in my life and the life of people I serve?
9 Questions to ask
People? Place? Plot? Point? Principles? Present? Parallels? Priorities? Plan?
What needs to change in my (a belief, value, attitude, or action)?
What will be my first step or action?
C. In your notes you also have something called the Application Window from 2 Tim. 3:16 (KJV), All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness...
In application the 2 big questions are: what to believe and how to behave.
Doctrine = believe
Instruction in righteousness = how to behave
Correction = what not to believe
Reproof = how not to behave
III. In presenting or delivering a teaching a great way to think of it is as bridge building
God’s timeless truth to address, what is happening now.
Bible text: To people’s needs, past revelation, present situations.
Revelation to Implication and personalization.
Help people get from where they are to where God wants to take them.
Apply truths that never change to a world that is always changing.
A. There are two sides to this. We are not just trying to be relevant, help people feel good (chicken soup) or give good advice.
1. We are trying to build a foundation for their lives. They have to see how what we’re going to say is built on timeless eternal truth-why we have to highlight the truth of God’s Word.
2. But we have to apply it to issues that didn’t even exist before. The landscape of people’s experience is always changing.
When I started to preach, I didn’t have to think about following Jesus and the internet or answering questions of sexual identity… Why we have to work hard at both ends
We have the faith “once delivered to all the saints” but then how it is applied in a world no one has ever lived before.
B. Steps to this
1. Always aim for a specific action.
The most important questions after you’ve studied the text is:
What specific response am I going to ask for?
What do I want them to think?
What do I want them to feel?
What do I want them to do?
NOTHING IS DYNAMIC UNTIL IT BECOMES SPECIFIC. STRAIGHT ARROWS.
THIS IS CALLED “BEHAVIORAL OBJECTIVES.”
I LIKE to think of us as prosecuting attorneys: To bring a conviction and a decision. I like the language of Romans 1:5, 16:25 “To bring about obedience to the faith.” Chris Shepherd.
Bringing people to bow the knee in trusting celebration to Jesus the Lord both in the start and continuation of the Christian life.”
This means we see faith as the object that produces the fruit of obedience.
Legalism is “obey” so that you can say you believe. Obedience of faith is “believe” so that you naturally have the power to obey.
It is about serving God not for the title of becoming righteous but from the fact that we know we are already righteous because of Jesus. We aren’t justified by our obedience, we are victorious because of our obedience, that comes from acting on who God says we are in Christ.
Our preaching isn’t just a diagnosis of what people should do. It is the solution of what you can be and a clear path of how you can be that by claiming the promise and sufficiency of Christ.
(When people go to the doctor… they don’t just want to hear what’s wrong with them: You eat wrong, don’t exercise, you’re overweight, that will be $100 please. Here’s an opportunity and here are the tools).
Promises and plans of God- here is a new bullseye you can aim at and find grace to receive.
2. What, why, how: Practically speaking this means I tell them what, then explain why and then step by step show them how.
For most people, when it comes to the Bible, the real challenge isn’t interpretation; it is application.
YBH-Yes, but how.
Forgive as you have been forgiven-What lies do I believe that make forgiveness too hard; what are common rationalizations for not forgiving? If I want to forgive, what should I do next?
Don’t complain-YBH-What are the 3 areas I’m most likely to complain about? It’s not enough to say, Christ is the answer.
What is the Question? How does who Jesus is apply to that question?
Doctrine is not pouring in theory about who God is; it is how believing Who God says He is changes everything about how you’re going to face what you face.
Example David and Goliath… He was applying about what He believed about God to a crisis in front of Him.
3. Provide practical steps.
What is so vital here is that we emphasize progress and not perfection. That we don’t just give them hype, we give them Help! Why do preachers give hype? It’s easier to give hype than help.
It means you’re specific: (You should go witness to 50 people in your high school. What if you start by praying every day this week for 2 people without Jesus?).
I need strength-go wait upon the Lord. Set your watch every hour to breath. Victory can be defined this way-One small but consistent step in a new direction, forming an atomic habit.
4. Give assignments.
S- Specific- Not more or less, but I will do this by this specific date.
M- Motivational- To help you be what you really want to be (why the why is so important).
Attainable- Unrealistic goals just discourage people.
R- Relevant-Based on felt needs, priorities, and especially values
T- Trackable-I can measure progress
My goal at the end of every message: People would let the Holy Spirit reveal to them one thing that God is speaking to them about through the message to take them to greater victory in their lives. I believe we should pray and trust Holy Spirit… bring the truth that will set them free.
5. Model it from your own life/point to people who are examples to follow. Make Heroes out of people that are doing this well. What is rewarded gets repeated. Win/Lose/Choose model.
6. Ask penetrating questions.
Jesus did this all of the time. Good Samaritan-Who was the neighbor? Who do you say that I am?
The most powerful teaching is focused on drawing out more than just putting in. (Proverbs 20:5)
The intentions of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a person with understanding will draw it out.
Examples:
Is your light brighter or dimmer since the pandemic?
Where would you like to be financially at the end of 2022?
Red light, green light, yellow light... Decisions you are going to make…
7. Give practical examples… OT stories, life experiences… Testimonies.
8. Offer people hope.
Testimony of a person who was $100,000 in debt
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. Romans 15:4
Questions for Discussion.
What is one thing you can choose to take away from this lesson that you will apply somewhere this week with someone you will share with?
Elephant of Hopelessness and Burnout. I Kings 19
What is a timeless truth?
How do you think this applies to something people are thinking, feeling, reacting and doing in the world today?
What is a specific application someone could take away from this today to help them move from exhausted to refreshed?
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