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How to Trim Down a Sermon

How to Trim Down a Sermon

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For me, the hardest part of preparing a teaching or sermon is figuring out what information to leave out. Cutting down a sermon is incredibly difficult. This difficulty is compounded by the fact that it is very hard to find actual guidance on how to trim down a sermon. There are dozens of great resources for how to write better sermons, how to outline, how to write sermon application. But I have found very little concrete guidance for how to discern what parts of a sermon to keep, and what to edit out.

The Problem of Over-stuffed Sermons

There is an unfortunate tendency to equate a good, Biblical sermon with how many details a preacher or teacher gives. This tendency leads to what I will call “over-stuffed” sermons. These are sermons that are Biblical, sound, but try to communicate too much information in the allotted time slot. Sermons that are over-stuffed end up becoming less clear to the congregation. Listeners spend so much time trying to keep track of the many details you are giving rather than meditating on the main point of the text.

Now, I want to make an important distinction before going on. As a Bible-teacher or preacher, you must go into a great level of detail in your analysis when preparing a sermon. In your Bible study leading up to a preaching or teaching, you must dig into any and all details contained in your text. You must cross-reference, outline, look up the original languages, make observation after observation, and more if you want to get to the meaning of the text you are teaching. However, the art of preaching is in discerning which details to actually present to your congregation in a Sunday morning sermon. In other words, when you go from your study to the pulpit, you must trim down your sermon to only the most important textual details. If you simply go up and preach your detailed Bible study notes, chances are you are preaching and over-stuffed sermon.

The Solution: Trim Down Your Sermon to the Essential Details

In my experience, sermon length is generally driven by how many details you end up communicating in your sermon. How many points and sub-points do you have? How many words do you define from the pulpit? What cross-references do you include? Historical anecdotes? Illustrations? Applications? Therefore, to trim down a sermon, you must discern which of these details are essential to communicate, and which are secondary. The essential details should end up in your final sermon. Secondary details, on the other hand, you can trim out of your sermon to fit your allotted time and to ensure your congregation does not get lost in an over-stuffed teaching.

This seems obvious so far. But the question is how do you trim down a sermon? How can you discern which details are essential and which are secondary? Most of the time when I have asked for guidance on trimming down a sermon, I have gotten some form of “there is an art to it” or “I’m not that great at it myself, so I’m a bad example.” While it is certainly difficult to make universal rules, there is a helpful process you can go through to at least help you discern what details are essential and which are not. The process is simple: go through each section, point, detail, or cross reference in the first draft of your manuscript, and ask the following four questions (in order):

1. Does this detail give information that is mostly repeated elsewhere in the sermon?

I call this the “redundancy” test. Repetition is important in communication, but if you go to 10 cross-references in a sermon which all make the same point, maybe you can cut 8-9 of those cross-references and save yourself (and your listeners) some time. If a sermon point, observation, or application is too similar to information previously given in your sermon, you should probably cut it. Redundant details are by definition secondary and non-essential.

Each detail you choose to include in a sermon should move your preaching forward. If your application contains a point you already made earlier in your sermon, you can safely cut that application. If your text uses the same Greek word twice and you defined it earlier in the sermon, don’t bother going through the definition again when you come to it a second time. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. But 90% of the time, giving excessive redundant details tires the listener and eats away at the time you have to preach. You can trim down a sermon quickly by removing redundant details.

2. Does this detail give new information that is not directly related to the main point of the text?

I call this the “relevance” test. Sometimes, a sermon point or other detail might indeed give new, non-redundant information. But just because information is new does not mean you should include it. You must discern whether the detail is related to the main point of the text you are preaching or not. There is a time and a place for “rabbit holes” where you go off on a tangent semi-related to the text you are preaching out of. But if you do this repeatedly, you will end up spending most of your time teaching on concepts found elsewhere in the Bible but not in the text you are supposed to be preaching.

A good practice for discerning the relevance of sermon details is to explicitly write out what you think the main point of the text is. Summarize in a sentence or two what the Biblical author is communicating and what reality your text points to. Then, as you go through each point, sub-point, or other detail in your sermon manuscript, ask “does this connect to the main point or reality of the text?” If the answer is no, the information is secondary and can be cut from your sermon. You can trim down a sermon by discerning which details are relevant to the main point of the text and which details are not.

3. Does this detail clarify all or part of the main point of the text?

I call this the “clarification” test. If a detail you want to include in your sermon clarifies all or part of the main point of your text, it is most likely essential. As mentioned in the previous section, if you explicitly write out the main point of your text, this test becomes very easy. If the definition of a word is crucial for understanding the text’s main point, then it is a crucial detail to include. If a cross-reference to a clearer text sheds light on the text you are preaching, then you should probably include that cross reference.

Of course, too much “clarification” can cause you to become redundant. So ensure that each clarifying detail does, in fact, directly clarify the main point of your text and is not repeated elsewhere in your sermon. Check to see that the clarifying details you include are related to the main point of the text, not secondary points. Details that clarify the main point can safely be labeled “essential” and kept in your sermon. But if you find yourself clarifying sub-points, maybe save those details for another sermon.

4. Does this detail connect the main point of your text to a broader Biblical concept or doctrine?

I call this the “connection” test, and it is the most difficult one to do well. Because the Bible is a unified whole, you can always find connections between your text and other texts, themes, and doctrines. If you try to connect your text to everything you will end up failing the other three tests above. But part of preaching is showing how your particular text fits into the rest of Scripture. Details that connect the main point of your text to a great Bible doctrine or a great Bible theme are often essential and should be included.

As an example, imagine you are preaching on a text whose main point relates to justification by faith. You likely will want to connect your text to other passages which deal with this theme, like Romans 3. As long as you avoid being redundant or going down a rabbit hole, such doctrinal or thematic connections can help your congregation see the unity of Scripture and add weight to the text you are currently teaching. To help do this well, after you write out the main point of your text, ask yourself “what key doctrine or key Bible theme does this text most connect to?” From there, you can ensure that you keep any details in your sermon that connect your text with this doctrine/theme or cross-reference to other texts on the same doctrine/theme.

Conclusion: Trim Down Your Sermon Thoughtfully and Carefully

The goal of this post isn’t to cause you to second-guess every detail you include in your sermon. Rather, I want to give you a more structured way to thoughtfully and carefully trim down your sermon. While knowing what to cut and what to include is certainly an art, you can become better at it with practice. By applying the four questions above to different sections of your sermon, you will be surprised how much easier it is to decide what to keep and what to cut. As always, this process requires much prayer and considering your own congregation that you preach to.

If you keep “glorifying God through faithful and clear communication of your text” as the goal of your preaching, then trimming down your sermon can become just another act of faithfulness and worship.

For more tools to help you prepare sermons and teachings, click here. If you want to look over tools to help your own Bible study, click here. If you found this post helpful, share and subscribe below.
6 Spiritual Conditions in Your Congregation

6 Spiritual Conditions in Your Congregation

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The insight of Puritan pastors never ceases to amaze me. One area where Puritan pastors have helped me immensely is in learning how to preach and apply the Word of God. William Perkins in his book “The Art of Prophesying” writes that there are essentially 6 different spiritual conditions that can be found in any collection of people you preach to. Each of these spiritual conditions requires a slightly different preaching approach.

Perkins’ analysis is crucial for any pastor, elder, or person who finds themselves teaching or preaching at Church. Knowing the different spiritual conditions a person might find themself in will aid you in your sermon application, your sermon delivery, and in how you pray for the congregation to receive your exposition. Additionally, these broad categories will help you pastorally as you seek to build up and equip the congregation God has given you to shepherd.

1. Unbelievers who are ignorant and unteachable

The first category Perkins gives is unbelievers who are “ignorant and unteachable.” There are some humans who are both unaware of the state of their souls before God, and who also have no desire to hear the truth explained to them. One might label such people as “hard-hearted.” They are contentedly living a life of rebellion against God and spurn any rebuke or conviction they might receive from Scripture.

For those in this spiritual condition, Perkins recommends trying to reason with them. In particular, you should try to explain to them their wrong attitude and call out any known sins with the hope that their “consciences may be aroused.” The only way an unteachable unbeliever can be helped is for you to plead with them to see sin and its effect in their life. If you start to see the Spirit’s work in softening their hearts and making them teachable, you can continue in a more thorough explanation of truth. But if their hearts remain hard, only God has the power to make them teachable.

The implication for preaching or teaching is clear: be sure to impress upon your listeners the gravity of sin and fearful consequences of living a life in rebellion to God.

You cannot soften a human heart in your own power. But you can boldly and unashamedly proclaim the truth of humanity’s total depravity.

Don’t shy away from specifically calling out sin from your pulpit. It may be the only time an unbeliever gets their lifestyle questioned or challenged. Be like Paul when he preached to Felix on “righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:25). And then having preached truthfully and soberly on sin and its consequences, pray that the dead hearts in your congregation would become teachable.

2. Teachable but ignorant

The second of these many spiritual conditions is a person who willing to learn, but who doesn’t possess knowledge of Scripture or the Christian faith. Perkins recommends using the catechism to help such people start to understand the fundamental principles of Christianity. The two doctrines Perkins recommends you start with are salvation and the glory of God. Focus on the “milk” of the Christian faith and seeking to answer clearly and concisely any questions the person may have.

Again, this has implications for how you preach in your Church. Within your congregation, there will be those who have a lesser understanding of Scripture and of its doctrines. Some may be unbelievers but who want to hear more about the Gospel. Others may be young believers who have not been instructed fully into all the different aspects of Scripture and Theology. While I don’t recommend you preach a catechism from the pulpit, seek to define terms clearly and try to anticipate and answer questions your listeners might have.

Don’t assume that every single person in your Church is at the same or even a similar level of knowledge. Even for common terms such as “justification” and “righteousness” seek to give a clear and concise definition. When you are done with your teaching manuscript, read through it and imagine that you are a new believer in the congregation. What questions would you have? Ensure that in the course of your sermon you answer any questions you anticipate a newer believer asking.

3. Have knowledge but aren’t humbled

This third category of people have an intellectual understanding of the truths of Scripture. However, they have not been convicted of sin nor have they been “humbled.” What Perkins refers to here is a “godly sorrow” that leads to repentance. Perkins defines “godly sorrow” as grief for sin because it is sin. In other words, true humbling conviction comes when a person is is sorrowful over sin itself, not merely the consequences of sin.

What Perkins recommends for people in this spiritual condition is the preaching of the law. The goal is to show the height of God’s standards so that a person can actually realize the extent and gravity of their sin. Of course, Perkins immediately clarifies the goal of preaching the law is to lead them to Christ and the hope of the Gospel. But if a person knows truth generally but feels no conviction of sin, the best thing a preacher can do is show them their dire need of a Savior.

Of all the spiritual conditions listed here, this one might be most pressing for preachers in modern-day America. Never before has information about the Bible been more readily available. Many in your congregation no doubt have a dozen different copies of the Bible along with dozens of good Books written by good Christians. Most of the time in your Church, issues won’t arise as much from a lack of information as much as from a lack of conviction of sin.

Remember when you go to preach that your congregation does not merely need to receive more “facts” about the Bible. They need to have their lives confronted with its teaching.

If you pastor or teach in very intellectual congregation, heed Perkins’ advice: lay out for them the moral demands of God’s law. The Bible teaches that “knowledge puffs up” and one of the best antidotes to pride is the humbling effect of preaching the law of God.

4. The humbled

People who find themselves in this category have the strong conviction of sin discussed above. Perkins gives two words of advice for dealing with these type of people: 1. ensure that their humbling is not merely external or superficial and 2. offer the comforts of the gospel. Perkins warns not to give comfort to someone prematurely who has not been truly humbled. I take this to mean you should not give the promise of assurance until you are sure of a person’s heartfelt repentance. False assurance can doom a person to think that they are save when they are not.

When you are preaching, don’t miss the opportunity to “do the work of an evangelist” by preaching clearly the hope of the Gospel. The only hope in life and death you can offer people is Christ alone. Therefore, if you neglect to clearly share the hope of Christ when preaching, you are missing the opportunity to give comfort to those in your congregation who are feeling the weight of their sin. Remind them to turn their eyes to Christ and His finished work, not merely to “try harder”.

5. Believers

Perkins gives three main categories of truths to teach those who are already believers: the gospel, the law, and the danger of indwelling sin. By “Gospel”, Perkins means preach justification, sanctification, and the perseverance of the saints. The law when preached to believers should mainly be calling them to holy living rather than proclaiming the curse of the law since Christians are free from that curse in Christ. However, Perkins does argue for preaching the consequences of disobedience to God, even if a Christian is free from the ultimate curse of the law.

Perkins goes as far as to say that if you want to fight your indwelling sin, you must begin by meditating on the law. Why? To remain humble and to cause you to fear using the freedom you have in Christ as an excuse for sin. And again Perkins states that the ultimate goal is to remind yourself of the gospel as your ultimate rest and comfort.

A whole separate post could be written on these three categories of teaching Perkins recommends for believers. Suffice to say, make sure that you teach on each of these categories frequently. Don’t spend all your time teaching on ambiguous doctrines or obscure texts. These are profitable at times, but ensure you are sticking consistently to preaching the Gospel, obedience to Christ, and war against indwelling sin. Whether your congregation recognizes it or not, these are the three most pressing categories of truth for their lives.

6. Fallen into sin

The last of the spiritual conditions I will discuss is a believer who has “fallen back” from the faith either “in faith or in lifestyle.” Perkins spends several paragraphs describing this type of person and I recommend you read his full discussion, as it is incredibly insightful. By way of summary, falling back in faith comes from falling into error. The pastor must correct any known error and remind the individual of the truths of the Gospel. Falling back in lifestyle means falling into sin such, as David with Bathsheba. Perkins recommends again expounding the law to this person so they can run back to the Gospel in repentance.

Correcting error and calling the congregation to renewed repentance both are necessary components of preaching. In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul commands Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” There both an instructive and corrective component to preaching God’s word faithfully. And since you likely don’t know the specific spiritual state of each person in the congregation, ensure you are regularly confronting error and confronting sin so that those listening might hopefully avoid falling into either.

Your congregation has a mix of these spiritual conditions

Each of these spiritual conditions is likely represented by someone in your congregation. The visible Church is mixed with believers and unbelievers in various levels of spiritual health. Perkins’ categories are helpful for understanding the spiritual conditions you might encounter and how best to address them. Even though there are nuances to each response, at the end of the day, Perkins recommends constantly bringing people back to the law and the gospel. The hope is that people will see clearly the depths of their sin and their need for a savior.

For more tools to help you prepare sermons and teachings, click here. If you want to read another post on Puritan ideas about sermons, click here. If you found this post helpful, share and subscribe below. Follow the Average Churchman on Instagram to get updated whenever there is a new post.

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The Most Basic Bible Study Tools

The Most Basic Bible Study Tools

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What tools and techniques do you need to understand Scripture properly? If you look up books on hermeneutics, you will be greeted by a host of methods for understanding the Biblical text. Suffice to say, whether you are a new believer or a seasoned expositor, you can always find ways to improve your analysis and application of Scripture. However, just like in an actual tool box, there are some tools that are so fundamental and useful that everyone needs to know how to use them. In this post, I want to give two of the most basic Bible study tools that you need in order to understand Scripture.

Tool #1: Decomposition

Decomposition is simply taking something complicated and breaking it down. You come in contact with decomposition every day without even realizing it:

  • Recipes decompose a dish into a series of logical steps
  • Your GPS decomposes a route into a sequence of turns
  • A to-do list decomposes your day into tasks to complete
  • A puzzle decomposes into a large set of individual pieces
  • Sentence diagrams break apart a sentence into its component parts of speech (nouns, verbs, etc.)
  • A pros and cons list decomposes a decision into its benefits and drawbacks

And those are only a couple examples. Essentially, the goal of decomposition is to take the complex and make it simple. Decomposition allows you to understand the pieces that make up the whole. The best metaphor for decomposition is taking apart a puzzle: you have something big and complex and you want to break it apart into pieces to understand how they fit together.

Decomposition is one of the most basic bible study tools you can apply to a text. You can view any text of Scripture, long or short, as a complicated blend of language, theology, historical context, authorial intent, and a host of other things. Your goal in decomposition is to simply separate each of these pieces in order to examine and understand them. You break text apart so when you put it back together again, you understand how the pieces relate to the whole.

Decomposition Example

There are countless specific ways to decompose a Biblical text. You can decompose it based on the languages, you can decompose it in terms of how it relates to the surrounding context, you can decompose it by looking at the “5 Ws and H”. Any time you divide and examine the parts of a Biblical text, you are doing decomposition. Consider the verse below:

but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:31 ESV

You might roughly decompose this verse by outlining it as follows:

  • What: These are written
    • Why: So that you may believe
      • What: That Jesus is
      • Who: the Christ, the Son of God
    • Why: and that by believing you may have life
      • How: in his name

As you can see, by simply doing this rough and approximate decomposition, you can already begin to notice some features of the text. The main point of the verse is to describe why John wrote his gospel and there appears to be two related reasons given: that the reader might believe something about Jesus and that the reader might experience the outcome of that belief. You can further analyze the text by asking what specific things does John mention that a person should believe about Jesus.

Again, this is only a rough example of one way you can decompose a text. There a countless other tools that are essentially ways of decomposing a text. But the important thing to notice here is that good decomposition can lead to better observations. Before you make observations of the text, start with decomposing it. Once you have the pieces broken out, you can look at them and then make more insightful observations on each component of the text and how it relates to the whole.

Tool #2: Externalization

The second of these two basic Bible study tools is externalization. Your mind can only hold so much inside it at once. Therefore, a crucial tool for analysis is externalization. This means simply getting what you are thinking in your mind written down on paper. Again, you externalize throughout every day of your life:

  • You write out a meal plan so you don’t have to remember all the meals for the week
  • Your to-do list is simply an externalization of what you think you need to get done in a day
  • When you take notes during a presentation you are externalizing ideas you want to remember so you don’t have to trust yourself to remember every detail of the presentation
  • Any form of writing is externalization and if you are reading this post, you are simply reading an externalization of my own mind and thoughts

Externalization gets your thoughts outside of your mind. And the purpose of this is simple: once your thoughts are written down you can examine them critically, add or subtract from them, reword them in a better way, and otherwise analyze them. The more you externalize, the less you have to hold in your mind at once and the better you can think about an issue.

Externalization stands out amongst other basic bible study tools because a lot of times people don’t actually think of it as a “tool”. Even though a lot of Christians journal or write their thoughts on a text when preparing a sermon, very rarely do they consider how important externalizing their thoughts about a text is. Whether you are doing a brief morning devotion or preparing a 45-minute sermon, you need to externalize all your thoughts about a text.

Ideas for Externalization

Why does this help in Bible study? Because thoughts and insights are fleeting. Don’t ever assume you will remember an insight about a text tomorrow that you noticed today. If you see something noteworthy, write it down. My Bibles are covered with notes and cross references that came to mind when I read a particular passage. If I notice a repetition in the text, I externalize it by circling the repeated word. When I intuitively understand the structure of a passage, I write a quick outline and save it for later.

As with decomposition, there are many ways you can externalize your thoughts when studying a passage:

  • Have a blank journal where you write down your thoughts as you read through the Bible
  • Write down related texts that come to mind in your Bible when you read a particular passage
  • Have a folder of “sermon skeletons” where you have rough outlines of passages
  • Circle, underline, use multi-colored pens, anything to notate to your future self what you notice in a particular text as you study

Your mind will not be able to hold everything you know about Scripture at once. By externalizing your insights, you can come back at a later date and see if you notice the same things you noticed in the past. Externalizing is a Bible study tool because it allows you to connect thoughts you have had in the past to what you are studying in the present. Every time you read a good commentary you are benefiting from someone else externalizing their thoughts. By getting something down in writing, you can come back to it later and analyze it and reorganize it as needed.

Conclusion

Decomposition and externalization, in my opinion, are the most basic Bible study tools and almost every other tool or method depends on both of these. Even if you didn’t know it, you probably have used these tools in the past when you study a text. Improving in Bible study is not just about learning more and more new techniques. You also need to work on getting better at the fundamentals. If you can master the arts of decomposition and externalization, you will see fruit in your Bible study, your teaching, and your preaching.

This post was inspired in part by a section in “Psychology of Intelligence Analysis” by Richards Heuer, Jr. It is a good read if you want more detail on these subjects.

If you want more tools to help you in your personal Bible study, click here. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more content.

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3 Philosophies of Sermon Application

3 Philosophies of Sermon Application

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Composing and preaching a faithful, Christ-exalting sermon is a difficult task. Oftentimes, especially if you are a lay-elder or have not had formal theological training, you might struggle with questions such as “how should I structure the sermon?” or “where should I stick to expositing the text directly and where should I apply the text to the congregation?” The former question I answered in a past post, so today I want to give you three philosophies of sermon application that I have seen and heard from different faithful preachers.

It is important to note that I don’t think any one of these is the perfect approach or automatically will make you a great preacher. As I have listened to and read great sermons by great preachers, each one deals with sermon application differently. Spurgeon does it differently than MacArthur who does it differently than J. C. Ryle who does it differently than John Flavel. These three sermon application philosophies are merely the common ways I have seen Pastors of the past and present use.

1. No explicit or structured application section

In this approach, you spend all your preaching time explaining what the text means. You go into detail, you explain it thoroughly but you don’t extract any (or many) specific applications for your particular congregation. Instead, you simply preach the text faithfully and trust that the Holy Spirit will apply the sermon to the individual hearts and specific life-circumstances of the congregation.

A variation of this approach is to sprinkle in occasional application points as you go. In this case, you are primarily focused on simply preaching the text, but if you come to a section of your exposition that warrants a specific word to the congregation, you give a brief direct application. But in both cases, this approach does not have a structured section or approach to sermon application. You simply focus on explaining the passage and leave only limited time for explicit application.

I would argue against using this approach very often because I think part of the job of a faithful preacher is not only to faithfully expound Scripture, but also to explicitly and directly call their congregation to live it out. But there are times when this approach to sermon application is useful. In general, if your text is direct in it’s application, then you can more likely use this sermon application philosophy effectively. For example, if you are preaching “let him who stole, steal no longer”, the application to your congregation is clear. You don’t need a whole “application section” of your sermon to show the text’s relevance to your Church. However, if you are preaching a text that does not have a clear application built in, you might need to use one of the following sermon application philosophies instead.

2. Apply the text as you go through each point

In this philosophy, after each point of exposition in your sermon, you apply that point to the congregation. Let’s say you had a three point sermon structure. You would apply each sermon point right after you teach that point, like you see below:

  1. Point 1
    1. Application of point 1
  2. Point 2
    1. Application of point 2
  3. Point 3
    1. Application of point 3

The advantage of this approach is you are able to give the congregation practical applications throughout the length of the sermon. Additionally, this clear flow helps the Church remember each sermon point and its corresponding application(s). A Church member does not have to wait until the end of the sermon to start hearing and meditating on what the passage implies for their life. Rather, they are given multiple applications throughout the sermon based on each of the main points.

This approach shines when you have a complicated passage with several different main points in your sermon outline. If you are teaching on a large block of narrative, for example, and you extract several main ideas from the text, then you probably want to use this approach. Anytime you find in your sermon outline that there are more than one “main point” you find in the text, then you should likely think of applications for each of the main points. The downside of this approach is you can only do a limited amount of applications on any one point before your sermon becomes too long.

3. Sermon application at the end of the exposition

This philosophy of sermon application you readily find in Puritan sermons. In this approach, you spend the final section of your sermon applying the text your just preached. This type of sermon clearly separates exposition from application in it’s structure. If you used the three point example above, the sermon structure would become something like:

  1. Point 1
  2. Point 2
  3. Point 3
  4. Application
    1. Application of Point 1
    2. Application of Point 2
    3. Application of Point 3

You can see that in this philosophy of sermon application, the application is given as much weight as a single main sermon point. Additionally, the sermon application is the last thing your congregation hears since it is an extended final section of the sermon. Since you are applying all that you exposited in the sermon, you can apply not only your main points, but also apply combinations of those points.

This philosophy of sermon application allows you to spend the most time applying your text to your congregation. By spending the entire latter section of your sermon on application, you can approach text application from a lot of different angles and points of view. This method excels when you are expositing a shorter passage or a passage that has one overarching point to apply. If you can summarize the content of the passage in a single sentence without losing a lot of its nuance, then this sermon application method might be best. However, if you are dealing with a long, complicated, or multi-faceted passage, it might be best to use the “apply as you go” method

Summary of Sermon Application Philosophies

The table below summarizes the different philosophies of sermon application.

TypeUse whenUsers of this philosophy
No structured application sectionText already has a clear application i.e. passages in epistles, Proverbs, Gospels, etc.John MacArthur
Apply each point as you goText has multiple and distinct “main points” i.e. longer passages, narrative passages, complicated passagesMartin Lloyd-Jones, Charles Spurgeon
Application section at end of the sermonText can be effectively reduced to a single central point, when a text warrants extensive application i.e. shorter passages, simpler passages, 1-3 verse sectionsJ. C. Ryle, most every Puritan pastor
Summary Table of Sermon Application Philosophies

As I mentioned at the beginning, there is no “one size fits all” approach to how and were you apply the Biblical text in your sermon. Each of these philosophies excel in different contexts and Pastors should have each in their “tool box.” My recommendation is after spending time studying your text and outlining your sermon, look and see which of these sermon application methods makes the most sense for your particular sermon.

Clear and insightful application of a Biblical text is one of the marks of a good Preacher.

For more tools to help you prepare and preach a sermon, click here. For a post on how to structure your sermon, click here. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more content.

book quote of the week
An Easy Way to Do Your Quiet Time

An Easy Way to Do Your Quiet Time

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My wife loves Elisabeth Elliot. So, when we celebrated her birthday a bit ago, her parents bought my wife one of Elliot’s books called “Keep a Quiet Heart.” As I often do when I encounter a new book, I skimmed through the contents to see if anything jumped out at me. The book itself is a collection of short topical sections. It wasn’t long before I stumbled upon a section that I found particularly helpful. The section is called “Hints for Quiet Time” and I thought that Elliot gave an excellent and easy way to do your quiet time which I want to share today.

Read a few verses, a paragraph, or a chapter. Then ask, What does this passage teach me about: (1) God, (2) Jesus Christ, (3) the Holy Spirit, (4) myself, (5) sins to confess or avoid, (6) commands to obey, (7) what Christian love is?

From “Keep a Quiet Heart” by Elisabeth Elliot

What the quote means

In the small, page-long section on quiet time, Elliot emphasizes the importance of having a daily quiet time with the Lord. In particular, Elliot wants to help out busy parents who know they need to have a quiet time, but are not sure how to fit it into their busy schedule. Elliot recommends doing your quiet time in the morning, working through a book of the Bible, and answering the questions she gives above.

The questions Elliot gives are simple, but they cover a lot of ground. You first see if their is anything the passage teaches you about any of the members of the Trinity. Then, you ask what the passage teaches about how you should live your own life. Simply put, the questions boil down to “what does this passage teach me about God” and “how then should I live in light of this passage?” Elliot rightly points out that actually writing down your answers to these questions in a notebook is a good idea.

Finally, she recommends you make it a point to share what you learned in you quiet time with your spouse and your children. I think this point is essential because one of the ways you remember what you study is by using what you have learned.

A great way to ensure that you remember God’s word is to teach God’s word to others.

Elliot says you can complete these steps, answer the above questions, and have some time in prayer in 15 minutes if that is all the time you have. But the more you spend time with the Lord, the longer that time will likely become.

Why it is important

I think we need to distinguish between quiet time and a full on, in-depth Bible study. If you plan on having the latter every morning before you start your day, you are setting yourself up to fail. You might occasionally be able to complete an in-depth Bible study before work or before caring for kids. But more often then not, your morning quiet time will be a half-hour to an hour time where you get to pray and spend some time reading a section of God’s Word.

However, just because your quiet time might not be as long as an in-depth Bible study does not mean it should have no structure or should stay at a surface level of analysis and reflection. What I love about Elisabeth Elliot’s advice is it gives you 7 easy questions that force you to look at the text and think. It is all too easy to pass over what you read with little to no understanding. And if that is the case, you should not be surprised if you “don’t get much out of” your morning quiet time.

If you want an easy way to do your quiet time, start by taking Elliot’s recommendation and keep a notebook where you record your answers to these 7 questions. Work through a book of the Bible, write down what you see in each daily chunk, and then spend some time in prayer. Your quiet time will be richer and more Spiritually beneficial if you ask questions and write out answers. It might feel like work but “in all toil there is profit”, especially when it comes to the Word of God.

Don’t settle for a short, surface level quiet time. Ask and answer questions that will force you to meditate on the passage you are reading.

Implications

1. You are never too busy to dig into God’s Word

How long would it honestly take you to read a chapter of the Bible and write down the answers to the 7 questions Elisabeth Elliot gives? Not everyone has an hour or two in the morning to spend in deep Bible study, but there is not a single Christian who couldn’t have a simple quiet time as defined by Elliot. Reading the Bible, asking these 7 questions of your reading, and praying in response might not seem like much. But every day you commit to digging into the Bible, you encounter the life-changing Word of God.

“I don’t have time” or “Bible study is too difficult” should never be excuses for failing to have consistent time with the Lord. Elliot makes it so simple and practical: examine the text and your own life using the 7 questions she gives. You don’t need to be a Pastor or a Theologian to do this. You don’t have to be particularly brilliant or incredibly insightful. But what you do have to do is set aside time.

Spiritual growth is as simple as setting aside your excuses and setting aside time to spend with the Lord.

2. Spiritual growth takes disciplined effort over time

Even though Elliot gives an easy way to do your quiet time, it still requires two things: effort and time. You cannot get away from this. If you are going to grow any sort of flower in a garden, it isn’t going to spontaneously appear out of thin air. You will need to put time and effort into planting and watering the flower. So too with spiritual growth.

Quiet time doesn’t have to be complicated, but it will always require effort and time on your part.

Here is the reality: as soon as you commit to put disciplined time and effort into pursuing the Lord, every sort of roadblock and excuse and difficulty will appear. The Christian life is spiritual war remember. So if you are going to commit to spiritual growth, you are going to have to commit to fight. To fight distraction. To fight laziness. You will have to guard your time with the Lord when other “priorities” seep in. Elliot gives a marvelous method for spending time with the Lord. But only you can commit to scheduling and keeping your daily time with God.

Click here to read previous “Book Quote of the Week” posts. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.

single book of the bible
How to Go Deep in a Single Book of the Bible

How to Go Deep in a Single Book of the Bible

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The New Year is often a time when Christians choose to read through the Bible in a year. There are dozens of reading plans out there, each with a different path through the whole of Scripture. My wife and I are following this one together this year. However, as I have been going through this Bible-in-a-year plan, I am struck by just how fast you go. Certainly there are many benefits to reading through the whole Bible in a year. But going deep in a single book of the Bible is also an essential part of Christian study.

In this post, I want to lay out the benefits of focusing on a single book of the Bible and give an easy step-by-step method you can use to spend a month or two camped out in one book. As I have argued in another post, you and I need a balanced Bible diet consisting of both high level reading and also deep study. However, it is generally easier to simply read a large chunk of Scripture. Going deep in a single book of the Bible takes a lot more effort and analytical know-how. That said, there is nothing better than feeling like you know and understand deeply a part of God’s word. So, here are my thoughts on how you should study a single book of the Bible this year.

Benefits of staying in a single book of the Bible

There are a number of benefits you get simply from staying put in a book of the Bible for an extended length of time. By “extended” I mean at least a month. If a book is much longer, it will take you several months to dig deep into it’s theology. The idea is to not merely to read through the book. You want to understand the book and the points the author is trying to make. More than that, you want to stay in that book so long that you feel your life being confronted and corrected by it’s theology.

Here is a summary of some major benefits of staying in a single book of the Bible:

  • You understand the author’s intent
  • You will have parts, if not all, of the book memorized
  • You will be able to discuss the book in detail with other people
  • You can see how the book describes reality and applies to your life
  • You can give a summary of the book’s theology

Step 1: Read through the book multiple times

If you want to go deep in a single book of the Bible, the first step is easy: spend your first week or two of study simply reading through the book multiple times. If it is a short book like an Epistle or minor prophet, you might be able to read through it up to 10 times in a week or two. A longer book will take you longer, so 2 or 3 times might be the most you can do in a week.

This step is vital because you want to be familiar with the book. A vague sense of “I read that book before” is not going to cut it when it comes time to deeply study. By reading a book multiple times, you force your brain to start remembering what you read and noticing the overall structure of the book and maybe some of the finer details. You might even have some sections committed to memory by the time this step is over. Once you have a handle on the big picture of the book, it is time to move to step two. But again, don’t move on until you have read a shorter book through 10 times and 2-5 times for a longer book.

Step 2: Note any repeated words or phrases

After reading through a book of the Bible multiple times, you should start noticing patterns. Oftentimes, similar language is used throughout a book of the Bible in order to draw attention to the main themes. For example, if you were going through the Gospel of John, you might notice the repeated use of the words “believe” and “sign”. In this step, you simply go through the book you are reading again but this time, you circle, underline, or notate in some way a repeated word or phrase.

I personally always do this step twice because I might miss a word or phrase the first pass through. I recommend you get a few different colored pens, maybe one color per theme. That way, each time you see a certain color you know what repeated phrase you are tracing. The goal of this step is to start answering the question “what are the main points the Biblical author is trying to make?”

Your goal as a reader of the Bible is simply to see and understand what the author is putting in front of you.

Step 3: Outline the whole book if it is short or identify and outline key passages for longer books

This is where studying a single book of the Bible gets “difficult.” The first two steps were mainly focused on reading through the book and noticing patterns that stood out to you. Now, you need to actually work through the book as a whole. Outlining is simply the process of breaking a section of Scripture down into pieces that you then notate in a meaningful way. Here is a quick example of my outline for Romans 1:11-12 from an older post (which I recommend you read if you don’t understand outlining):

  1. Paul long’s to see the Church in Rome
    1. Why? To impart some spiritual gift to strengthen the Church
      1. What is the definition of “strengthen”?
      2. What is the definition of “spiritual gift?”
        1. “Charisma” -“a divine gift” points to the origin of the gift
      3. Why is encouragement called a “spiritual gift?”
        1. The encouragement of other believers is a gift from God
      4. How does mutual encouragement of faith strengthen a Church?
        1. Strong faith sets an example (Abraham)
        2. Strong faith points us back to God (Hebrews 11)
        3. Seeing faith in action in someone’s life encourages us to stay the course
  2. Paul wants to be encouraged by the Church in Rome
    1. Why is mutual encouragement important to Paul?
      1. Paul’s letters are full of encouragement to local Churches (1 Thess 5:11, Phil 2:1, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
      2. Scripture contains a number of “tools” to help Christians grow…one of those is encouragement
      3. Church in Rome was a minority, persecution was coming
    2. What do Paul and the Church in Rome have in common?
      1. Same fundamental need
      2. Need righteousness from Christ
      3. Same ethical implications from Gospel
  3. The source of this encouragement is each other’s faith
    1. How can someone’s faith be an encouragement?
      1. Strong faith sets an example (Abraham)
      2. Strong faith points us back to God (Hebrews 11)
      3. Seeing faith in action in someone’s life encourages us to stay the course
    2. What is the definition of “encouragement”?

Notice that in my outline, I include questions I have concerning the text. You will seek to answer those questions in the next step. Right now though, write them into your outline and bold them so you can easily find them when you come back later. Don’t be afraid to revise your outline multiple times. Very rarely will you perfectly outline a text on your first run through. If you are outlining a book or a larger passage, you might need even more passes before you get the outline satisfactory.

For shorter books, you might want to try to outline the whole book. Each day, work through a paragraph or two until you complete the book. If you are going deep in a longer book of the Bible, maybe focus on a dozen or so key passages or chapters. The goal of outlining is to understand the structure, flow, and logic of a passage. Once you complete your outline(s) for the book you are studying, you can start working on answering the questions you have in your outline.

Step 4: Apply any Bible study tools you know to the outlined book or passage

One of my main goals when I started this site was simply to have a place to contain all the different hermeneutical tools I came across. The tools I have in the personal Bible study page are designed to help you answer the questions you wrote into your outline in step 3. You won’t use every single tool in every Bible study, but you want to have a wide variety of resources at your disposal to answer the questions you have of a passage. Here is a key point though: do not go to commentaries to answer your questions until you have spent some time trying to answer them on your own.

Commentaries often make for lazy Bible study habits. Don’t get me wrong, I use commentaries and appreciate having the thoughts of godly Christians recorded. But commentaries should never replace personal analysis of a text. View commentaries as a way to check your personal study or as a conversation you are having with a “dead” fellow believer about a passage. But never start with them.

As I mentioned, tools you might need to answer your questions of a passage or book can be found here. However, here are three of the most basic methods you can use to answer your questions:

  • Define key words-a lot of times, questions arise from not understanding what an author means by a word or a phrase. The easiest solution is to use a tool such as Blue Letter Bible to do a quick word study. Oftentimes, simply learning the literal meaning of the word and where else in the Bible that word is used is enough to answer your question.
  • Look elsewhere in the book-I once had a professor who said “the answer is never far from the question.” What he meant was when you have a question about a Bible passage, look to see if the author clarifies elsewhere in the book. 9 times out of 10, the Biblical authors anticipate the questions you will ask and answer them somewhere in their book.
  • Find other passages which address the same topic-If defining the term and looking in the book both fail to answer a question, think of other places you know in the Bible which address the same topic. For example, if you are studying a passage about the Christian and the law in Galatians and don’t understand Paul’s point, then realize that Paul deals with the same topic in Romans. You can then go to Romans and see if your question is answered by examining a book other than Galatians.

When you answer a question, I would simply write it into your outline so you have it all in one place. It might take you a while to answer all your questions and some might not be answered completely. That is okay. Bible study is an iterative process and you should expect to spend multiple days and study sessions seeking to answer the same questions.

Step 5: Summarize some big points and then meditate on the implications for your life

If you are studying a single book of the Bible, getting to step 5 might take you a month or a couple months. Don’t rush any of the above steps. Each one is about growing your understanding of what God is communicating to you through His word. Step 5 is about summarizing what you have learned and meditating on some implications of those lessons. To do this, go through your outline and then at the top or the bottom, summarize 3-10 main ideas from the book.

What do I mean by ideas? I don’t mean you simply summarize the passage. You should already be able to do that from your outline fairly easily. Ideas are the fundamental truths taught in the passage. What spiritual realities has the text shown you? What unchanging truths are being pressed by the author of the book? How would you finish the sentence “This book of the Bible teaches…” using only things you’ve learned from your study?

If you cannot do this, then you might need to spend more time studying the book. Once you have these main ideas summarized, spend some time meditating on each one. Maybe only focus on one main idea a day. Ask yourself the question “If this is true, how should it impact my life?” I have written before that I think the Puritan application questions are probably the best for meditating in this fashion. You can read the whole post here, but here are the 6 questions the Puritans used to apply the truths of Scripture to their lives:

  • What following truths does this (idea) imply?
  • What errors does it contradict?
  • What good works does it require?
  • What should you stop doing because this (idea) forbids it?
  • What encouragement does this (idea) offer?
  • Where do you stand spiritually in light of this (idea)?

Conclusion

Going deep in a single book of the Bible takes a lot of time and mental energy. However, your effort is more than worth it in the end. Reading through the Bible in a year is great, and we should all make a habit of consistent Bible reading. But be sure to also make a habit of deep Bible study. The deeper you go into a book, the more you will be rewarded with insights which the Lord will use to conform you further to the image of Christ.

If you want more tools to help you in your personal Bible study, click here. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more content.
This, That, & the Other: 11/14-11/20/2021

This, That, & the Other: 11/14-11/20/2021

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A Truth that is Impacting Me

Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

Ecclesiastes 7:10, ESV

What I find interesting is this verse is not concerned with whether the former days were objectively better than the present day. The verse is instead focused on your perspective and whether it is wise or not. I think all of us can look back to some kind of “golden season” of life where everything was easy and enjoyable. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 7:10 is not saying that your “golden season” and the times of great difficulty are the same. Rather, the Preacher is concerned with an unwise attitude that is always comparing the present to some “better past” or the “good ole days.”

In fact, a few verses later, the Preacher in Ecclesiastes makes a complementary point:

In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

Ecclesiastes 7:14, ESV

Notice the perspective here: God has sovereignty ordained both days of prosperity and days of adversity for your life. But God’s purpose in ordaining these days is not always clear to you. Therefore, to ask “why are these present days worse than the former days?” is unwise for two reasons:

  • You end up forgetting God is sovereign over all days and all seasons of life. Therefore, He has a purpose for your present
  • You are asking a question that is impossible to answer in this life. To spend time asking and/or trying to figure out why “former days were better” ends up wasting your time and emotional energy.

So what is the wise response? When God does lead you through a time of joy and peace and pleasure, enjoy it and give Him the glory and thanks for it. But when you are in a darker, more difficult place, remind yourself God is sovereign and trust Him to guide you through it. Sitting around and asking questions God never promises to answer ends up taking you away from simply trusting Him. Instead, embrace the present season God has given you and pray He would empower you to live faithfully.

A Question for Reflection

What good things in your life are you using as a distraction?

Once when I was in college, a Professor said something I will never forget. He looked at us up-and-coming Engineers and said “In your life, family, and career, the hardest decisions you will make won’t be between the good and the bad. The hardest decisions will be choosing between the good and the great.” I would venture to say this quote is true not just in the big life decisions you make. Every day you choose between good things, and great or more important things.

Furthermore, even the good things you have in your life can end up distracting you from better things or more important things. For example, you might have an amazing job you love. That is a good thing. But perhaps you use that job as a way to distract yourself from dealing with difficult things at home. Or maybe there is a TV show you enjoy watching. But if you choose to watch that TV show instead of performing other necessary responsibilities, you are using a good thing as a distraction.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking just because something is enjoyable that it is the right think to be doing. A common way of avoiding difficult things or keeping ourselves from honest reflection is distraction. Constant busyness. Using good gifts from the Lord to excuse ourselves from doing hard things He calls us to. Take stock of your life and examine whether you are using any good gifts as distractions from things you need to get done.

An Article to Read

Deacons: Shock-Absorbers and Servants

I recently taught a Sunday School on the role of Deacons in the Church. This article was helpful both when I first became a Deacon and as I was preparing to teach on the subject. Jamie Dunlop conveys a lot of wisdom in a very short article and the titles “shock absorber” and “servant” are memorable and thought-provoking. Give it a read to remind yourself about this important but often misunderstood Church office.

A Quote to Consider

In all other matters I will yield to any man whatsoever; but I have neither the power nor the will to deny the Word of God.

Martin Luther from “On Christian Liberty”

A Product to Buy

How Do You Read the Bible? By J. C. Ryle

This new release from the Banner of Truth is actually an excerpt from the longer J. C. Ryle book “Practical Religion”. That said, having a separate volume on this topic is a great idea and it makes a perfect gift for loved ones this Christmas. J. C. Ryle is without a doubt my favorite Christian thinker to read. He has a gift for communicating profound truth in a memorable way. You and anyone else you give this book to will be both challenged and blessed with it’s contents.

This post is part of an ongoing series “This, That, & the Other.” For other tools I have created to aid you in Bible Study and Church life, visit the “Tools” page. If you found this post helpful, share it below and subscribe to get resources like this delivered into your inbox. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more curated resources.
This, That, & the Other: 11/7-11/13/2021

This, That, & the Other: 11/7-11/13/2021

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An Article to Read

10 Visualizations Every Data Scientist Should Know

This is one of the many articles I had to read for one of my Master’s classes. The visual display of data is a very interesting topic and this article gives an interesting overview of different visualization methods. A very interesting read and, as I have written about before, Christians would do well to learn some general ideas about data analysis since the field connects with hermeneutics.

A Teaching to Listen To

The States of Christ by R. C. Sproul

This systematic theology series put out by Ligioner is incredible. This teaching, in particular, focuses on Christ’s glory and humiliation at different points throughout His ministry. Sproul, as always, is an amazing teacher, and this teaching deals with a topic I have not heard discussed frequently. I recommend you purchase the entire series and listen to this excellent meditation on the glories of Jesus.

A Quote to Consider

When there’s something in the Word of God that I don’t like, the problem is not with the Word of God. It’s with me.

R. C. Sproul

A Product to Buy

Banner Board Book Set

As a new parent, I have found myself in possession of dozens of board books. “Goodnight Moon” and “Curious George” don’t contain much spiritually profitable discussion, however, so I was overjoyed when my parents purchased a board book about Martin Lloyd-Jones. This entire set is a welcome addition for parents who want to read books that aren’t merely cartoon animals doing random things. This would be a perfect Christmas gift for a young family that you know.

A Recipe to Try

Sweet Potato and Sausage Hash

I don’t know why sweet potatoes and chorizo is such a delicious combination, but it is. This recipe is perfect for brunch but is equally delicious as a dinner. The fried eggs at the end are optional, but they are a tasty touch to a recipe that is already jam packed with flavor. I highly recommend you give this one a try.

A Question for Reflection

How are you investing your money into people?

I have been reading through the Gospel of Luke concurrently with a book on personal finance. What has struck me lately is how often Jesus in Luke teaches and instructs those around Him on proper and improper uses for money. And the primary investment Jesus recommends: people.

This stands in stark contrast with the financial advice you see in most personal finance books. Their focus is on growing your wealth, not on spending it for the benefits of others. In fact, spending money on others according to secular finance books is an expense or a loss, not an investment. But Jesus paints a different picture in Luke:

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

Luke 14:13-14, ESV emphasis added

Investing in stocks and other assets requires a long-term perspective. But Biblically, there is a longer-term perspective a Christian must have with money: eternity.

You must invest your money into others not because it will make you wealthier in this life. Rather, you invest in others because Jesus promises you will be rewarded at the resurrection of the just.

So, how is your investment portfolio taking into account what Jesus says in Luke? I recommend reading through the Gospel and underlining every time Jesus talks about money. For Christians are called to be faithful with their money, as Jesus says: “If you have not been faithful with unrighteous money, who will trust you with what is genuine?” (Luke 16:11)

A Truth that is Impacting Me

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Luke 12:15-21, ESV emphasis added

Every time I read this parable I am struck by how counter-cultural Jesus words are in modern day America. I would argue our entire society is built open the idea that your life does consist in the abundance of possessions. And if you need evidence of this, just observe what happens to our society as it approaches Christmas.

Consumerism is not just an aspect of our modern culture; it is one of it’s defining features.

And consumerism promises the same exact thing the rich man wants: relaxation. An easy life. Pleasure. The rich man in the parable is spending all his time and resources making his life easier. Again, is that not our modern obsession? Everyone wants to retire early or get rich or have a life of non-stop pleasure. What is the problem with this according to Jesus? It is a short-sighted perspective.

The rich man laid up all sorts of treasure for himself but failed to remember he lived in a world where God exists and death is a certainty. The realities of God and death cast a new light on the values of the rich man. I think Jesus’ implication here is your life should be about glorifying and serving God, not in building up more and more possessions for yourself.

There are two mutually exclusive worldviews in this parable: worship and serving self, or worshiping and serving God.

Now, what convicts me in this parable is how easy it is for my own heart to fall into the traps of the rich man. To focus on getting more and more for myself rather than giving more and more of myself to God. Is the goal of my life day to day to “relax, eat, drink, be merry” or to be rich towards God? Let us heed Christ’s warning in these verses and live for the Lord, not for ourselves. Because as tempting as consumerism and hedonism are, in the end, they lead to death.

This post is part of an ongoing series “This, That, & the Other.” For other tools I have created to aid you in Bible Study and Church life, visit the “Tools” page. If you found this post helpful, share it below and subscribe to get resources like this delivered into your inbox. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more curated resources.
This, That, & the Other: 10/17-10/23/2021

This, That, & the Other: 10/17-10/23/2021

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An article to read

Six Short Rules for Young Believers From Brownlow North

Looking for a quick read to encourage your walk with Christ? This short exert from the writings of Brownlow North is for you. North lays out six incredibly practical and thought provoking “rules” for young believers to follow. Each of them, however, is just as relevant for the old saint as it is for the young convert. These six rules are some of the best condensed teaching on Christian practical theology that I have ever read. If every Christian simply put these rules into practice, much of our problems would disappear.

A teaching to listen to

The Hope of God’s Sovereign Election

This past Sunday evening, I had the privilege of preaching at my Church’s evening service. The text I chose was 1 Kings 19 with particular emphasis on verses 14 and 18. I will post the sermon in written form on this website in the near future, but for now I thought I would provide the link. What I found most encouraging from 1 Kings 19 is the way in which God encourages Elijah when he is depressed. God doesn’t change Elijah’s circumstances, but God reminds Elijah that He is sovereignly working to save people for His glory, even in the darkest of cultures.

A quote to consider

Remember children are born with a decided bias towards evil, and therefore if you let them choose for themselves, they are certain to choose wrong.

J. C. Ryle in “The Duties of Parents”

A product to buy

A Guide to Biblical Manhood by Randy Stinson & Dan Dumas

My Elders decided to give this book out to the men who attended my Church’s men’s retreat. At first, I didn’t know what to expect from this thin volume, but now I can say it is one of the most practical and helpful books on Biblical manhood I have read. I have been constantly looking for good resources on Biblical manhood, especially books on the topic. My list of recommended books on the Biblical manhood is short, but this guide is definitely on the list. As you might expect from a book dealing with such a topic, I don’t necessarily agree with every conclusion or practical instruction the author’s come to. But this book is full of wisdom and if you are a man, I recommend you make time to consume it.

A recipe to try

Sheet Pan Greek Nachos

Having a 2 month old and working towards a Master’s degree has caused me to cook more and more frequently with sheet pans during the weeknights. And let me tell you, there are a lot of interesting and delicious sheet pan recipes out there to try! My wife and I tried this one this past week and it was delicious. The recipe was a little more labor intensive than some sheet pan meals, but the fresh salad and chicken on top of crisp pita chips made it all worth it.

A question for reflection

What issues in your life could be solved by taking a long-term perspective?

When responsibilities pile up, I can easily get overwhelmed. And when I get overwhelmed, it seems like the weight of the world is crashing on me. What does this lead to? I end up imagining problems where there are none and thinking I need to solve every little thing that is bothering me in the present. But a lot of the “issues” you and I feel in life come from having the wrong perspective. I think that is why in Scripture, the Apostles are constantly calling believers to change their perspective during suffering or difficulty:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

James 1:2-3, Hebrews 12:11, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 ESV

People have called this having an “eternal” perspective. In other words, instead of looking at the suffering in the present, you look past the suffering to the effect the suffering will have on your life through God’s sovereign will. Christians are called to have a long term perspective, rather than always focusing on the here and now. This means in times of stress, difficulty, or suffering, Christians are patient because they entrust themselves to the God who “works all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

So the question today is how can you shift your mindset from short-term to long-term? What would this change of perspective solve? Most good things in life require effort over a long period of time. Sometimes, because we are impatient, we can have a short term perspective of “this needs to be fixed now with no delay.” But long term perspective says “this isn’t going to be solved overnight, but I will work towards this big thing one day at a time.” Changing your perspective might help you deal with issues you face this week or cause them to disappear altogether.

A truth that is impacting me

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.

Luke 7:47 ESV

Every time I set out to read Acts, I feel like I need to read through the Gospel of Luke first. Each time I read it, Luke is the most convicting Gospel for me. This wonderful passage in which Jesus forgives a woman who comes to Him while correcting the attitude of His Pharisee host is both encouraging and incredibly convicting.

It is encouraging in that you get to see the character of Christ. He does not cast the woman out and forgives this woman’s sins. But the verse above is where the conviction appears. It is in the section where Jesus corrects the Pharisee hosting Him. Jesus connects how much someone loves Him with how much they have been forgiven.

Now, I find this passage interesting because, from a theological perspective, each of us is totally depraved and incapable of doing anything but evil before Christ saves us. So in that sense, aren’t we all “forgiven much?” But as I read the passage this time, I think Jesus is giving an incredibly practical principle for believers: The more aware you are of how much you were forgiven, the more you will love Jesus, the one who forgave you.

It is easy to think to yourself that you weren’t all that bad before coming to Christ. You forget how hopeless and helpless you were before Christ came into your life and raised you from spiritual death to life. When you forget what Christ saved you from, loving Christ can become an afterthought rather than your focus.

I think an implication of the point Jesus makes here is if you find your heart cold towards Christ, remind yourself of who you were and what you deserved before salvation. Recount what you were and who you were before Christ, remember what Scripture says you deserved for your sin, then see what glorious grace and hope and future you get instead.

Whether you realize it or not, you were forgiven much. Your soul cost the blood of the eternal Son of God. So remember who you were before Christ so that you can rejoice in Jesus’ mercy towards you.

This post is part of an ongoing series “This, That, & the Other.” For other tools I have created to aid you in Bible Study and Church life, visit the “Tools” page. If you found this post helpful, share it below and subscribe to get resources like this delivered into your inbox. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more curated resources.
Bible Word Clouds: A Tool for Finding Main Themes

Bible Word Clouds: A Tool for Finding Main Themes

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently working on a Master’s Degree which has a data analytics element. Last week, I listened to several lectures on data visualization tools and how you can use them to notice patterns in the data. One of the data visualization tools mentioned was “word clouds.” Word clouds are particularly helpful for extracting the most commonly used words in textual data. This got me thinking: are there Bible word clouds out there? And if so, how could I use them in my Bible study?

What are word clouds?

You might not be familiar with word clouds, so here is a quick definition I found that clarifies what I am talking about:

Word clouds or tag clouds are graphical representations of word frequency that give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in a source text. The larger the word in the visual the more common the word was in the document(s).

BetterEvaluation

From this definition, you see three main characteristics of a word cloud:

  • It shows you the most frequently used words in a text
  • Words used more frequently are larger than words used less frequently
  • The words are put together in a “cloud” i.e. a visual made up of the words

Here is an example of a word cloud from my post “We Need Worldview-Confronting Preaching:”

By doing this data visualization, I can quickly find the most frequently used words in the post without having to go through each paragraph and find repeated words myself. In this case, “worldview”, “worldview-confronting”, “God”, “culture”, & “beliefs” seem to be words I used repeatedly. From this, I can start to generate hypotheses about the post, even if I have never read it.

For example, I could reasonably assume from the collection of most-used words that the post focuses on how God’s word confronts the beliefs of the culture. Or I could hypothesize that when the post says “worldview-confronting”, it means the Bible addressing beliefs commonly held in the culture. Notice I said “hypothesize”. My conclusions based on mere word frequency could be wrong. So after looking at the word cloud, it is imperative that I then read through the full text to understand the context and to check the conclusions I came to based on the word cloud alone.

Where can I get Bible word clouds?

Thankfully, Bible word clouds already exist online for you to use. Blue Letter Bible has created word clouds for each book of the Bible as well as the Bible as a whole, the Old and New Testaments, and difference sections of the Bible. They are very visually appealing and the best part is you don’t have to create your own Bible word clouds by importing Biblical texts into an online tool.

You can find all of these Bible word clouds here. Take some time to look through them. Maybe pull up a word cloud from a book you are studying. Since the word clouds already exist and are made for you, this could not be easier for you.

How can I use Bible word clouds?

As I have mentioned before, repetition is one of the ways a Biblical author communicates to you, the reader. Repetition can be for emphasis or point to a main theme or draw your attention to something that is important to a Biblical author. Therefore, one of the most important things you need to do when you study a book or a passage of Scripture is to look for repetition.

This is manageable for small passages or books, but oftentimes it can become time consuming to go through a longer book of the Bible to find the repeated words. This is where Bible word clouds can help. Just quickly glancing at a Bible word cloud for Isaiah, for example, will give you at least a starting idea of the main themes in Isaiah without having to go through each of the 66 chapters by hand and find what repeated words.

Now, it is important to keep in mind a Bible word cloud is simply a visual tool to find repeated words. It will not interpret the text for you and it won’t even tell you which words are important or not. All it is doing is bringing the most used words to the surface for you to look at. You as the Spirit-empowered interpreter need to analyze the results, think about what the word repetition means, and then continue studying to see if the conclusions you hypothesized were correct.

This is especially important with Scripture since a word cloud takes all the words out of their original context. The last thing you want to do is come to a conclusion from Scripture without taking the context into account. With that said, I think there are a couple use cases in which Bible word clouds shine:

  • You are about to start studying a book of the Bible and you want get an idea of what words you should look out for as you work through the book.
  • If you are trying to figure out the main themes of a book, you can start by looking at a Bible word cloud and hypothesize some main themes based on the most used words.
  • If you want to compare two books of the Bible based on their emphasis, comparing the most frequently used words in each book will give you a starting point.

Conclusion

A Bible word cloud is a great starting point in your study or as a supplement to help you think through the main themes of a book. Don’t treat it as a magic bullet or expect it to interpret a text for you. Always remember: it is a visual tool, nothing more.

However, using a word cloud for a Biblical text could not be easier. Blue Letter Bible has Bible word clouds already created and ready for your use. So look at a couple for different books of the Bible. Try to deduce main themes from these clouds and then go into the text to see if you were correct or not. Used properly, word clouds can become useful tools in your personal Bible study or sermon preparation.

The Tools page contains other helpful aids for your personal Bible study, sermon preparation, and more. Click here for more personal Bible study tools. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more content.