10 Steps to Better Bible Teaching

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The commentary is a corrector. It's a challenge to you. Okay, you've come up with a conclusion.

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Does your conclusion... Are you the only person who's ever seen this? Right. The old adage is, if it's new, it ain't true.

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New truth is old heresy. Your Calvinist Podcast is filmed before a live studio audience.

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And welcome back to Your Calvinist Podcast. My name is Keith Foskey, and I am your Calvinist.

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Do you want to be a better Bible teacher, or maybe just be a better student of the Bible in general?

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Well, today's podcast is going to give you 10 steps to better understanding how to prep for Bible study, whether you're teaching someone else or if you're just learning the

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Bible for yourself. I'm joined today by one of my best friends in the world. You know him not only because he's in the intro to this video, but he's also the

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Reformed Baptist in all of my skits that I do.

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Many of you like the denominational videos. Well, I have with me today Uncle Rich Roden, and he's called that because he is like an uncle to my children.

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Richard, how are you doing today, buddy? Doing good, brother. Happy to be here again. Yes, sir. Glad to have you, and I am thankful that you are coming to talk with me about this very important subject.

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But before we talk about it, I do have some things I need to remind the audience of. I do this every time you watch the show, so you know what

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I'm going to say. We are a ministry of Sovereign Grace Family Church, so if you're in the Jacksville area, come see us at Sovereign Grace Family Church, and you can find us at sgfcjacks .org.

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And every time I have Richard on, I like to mention his church as well, because his church is not in my city. It's in the next city over. It's actually in the city I live in.

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Can we call Callahan a city? Town. It's a town. Okay, in the town I live in. It's a very small area.

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But Richard is a member of Gray -Gables Baptist Church, where he serves as a deacon, and his pastor,

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Cody, is a wonderful man, godly man. He's had me preach for him, so you know he's great. And he's a good friend, and he and his brother

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Adam are wonderful friends and both pastors. So we would encourage you, if you're in the Callahan area and you're looking for a good church, try out

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Gray -Gables. Also, remember that this show is a partner with tinybibles .com.

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Have you ever seen The Tiny Bible? I've seen it on the show. I haven't seen it up close yet. I'm going to hand it to you. And while I'm talking about it,

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I just want you to look at it. Okay, all right. So tinybibles .com provides the smallest printed

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Bible on the market. And I will tell you, Richard, it does come with an eyepiece, because it's a little hard to read without it. But this

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Bible can be taken anywhere, can be hidden anywhere, can be given as a gift, kept as an heirloom.

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There's all kinds of good things that you can do with it. And if you want to get a tiny Bible, you can do so by going to tinybibles .com,

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and you get a percentage off by using my name, Keith, as the promo code. Also, if you're interested in cigars,

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I recently won the Cigar Challenge on Twitter. I beat out the likes of Doug Wilson and all kinds of other guys to win the top of that spot.

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And so if you use my name, Keith, at 1689cigars, you'll get a percentage off there as well. My name's just everywhere.

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All you've got to do is make one denomination video. That's right. One denomination video. And nobody knew who I was. I put on the bow tie and, you know.

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There it is. So silly. Also, if you want to support the show directly, you can do so by either becoming a member of our club.

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We have a club on YouTube. It's called the Superior Theology Club, and you can become a member. Or you can go to buymeacoffee .com

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and leave a donation there. And we would love that if you did it. It really helps us out. I also want to mention one other thing.

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I know everybody wants to hear the Bible study thing, but I have to mention the fact I've been wearing ties in all my videos. Do you know why

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I'm wearing ties in all my videos? If I remember correctly, you have church members who like to buy you ties.

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I do. I have church members who have been... These ladies are so funny. They go to the thrift stores and they try to find the worst ties.

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They're not looking for great ties. They're looking for the worst ties, and they want me to wear them. And so I've just decided, because I now have so many ties, and there's no way

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I could wear them all on Sunday mornings. And some of them I wouldn't wear on Sunday mornings. But this tie, I just had to mention for today, this is a

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Christmas tie. Last week, I posted a video of me in front of a Christmas tree in Hobby Lobby, and I said, is it really right to put out

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Christmas stuff in August? No. Everybody was saying no, except for some people came to Hobby Lobby's defense and said, oh, they have all this stuff in the back.

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They got to bring it out. They got to get it going. I get it, if that's their store model. But I just figured, in my defense of Hobby Lobby, I would wear a

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Christmas tie today. It actually has reindeer on it. This is my reindeer tie.

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Mounted reindeer. I don't know if that would offend a few people. Well, after a while, you know,

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I mean, is Blitzen really still at it? You know, that's the one thing, if you watch Rudolph the movie,

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Rudolph the red -nosed reindeer assumes that there's going to be another generation of reindeer.

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So Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen are eventually going to retire. I'm just amazed at how quickly you did that.

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Eventually, they're going, I love Christmas, by the way. When Christmas comes around, we always have fun episodes. We're going to do another fun episode this year about Christmas.

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Maybe another debate about Die Hard, be like our fifth year in a row doing a Die Hard debate. But no,

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I just wonder if the Rudolph the red -nosed reindeer is a means that we're on like our fourth or fifth generation of reindeer.

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All the other ones have died. And that means they're probably on geriatric. They're on Santa's wall.

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This is my ode to the eight tiny reindeer. Well, it's not a bad looking tie.

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So, I mean, it's not a terrible tie. It's just kind of, yeah, it is what it is. All right, we'll move on.

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10 Steps to Prep Your Bible Teaching is the subject of today's podcast. And who is this useful for?

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I mentioned this in the opening. It's going to be useful first for pastors and those who teach

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Sunday school, because that's where we're coming from. I pastor church, which means I preach every week almost, a couple of weeks a year

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I may be off. Richard preaches as a pulpit supply at certain churches, but he also teaches every other week in Sunday school opposite Brother Johnny.

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So you're teaching at least 25, 26 Sundays a year? Well, the way ours usually works out is he's the primary in the class, and I usually teach every second

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Sunday because he has other obligations on that Sunday. But it ends up averaging out to where it's about half, because if I got a particular text that's going to take more than one week to explain or go through, there's been times

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I've gone four weeks in a row. So, you know, it evens out about half. Well, as we talked about this, the process we're going to be discussing and the 10 steps that we, and it's not as if 10 steps was just a magic number.

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We just said, these are 10 things we do. It could have been six, could have been eight, but we wanted to look at, both of us could contribute and say, here are the things that we do.

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And some of them may apply more to preaching, some of them may apply more to Sunday school. And if you're not a preacher or a

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Sunday school teacher, it may be that these apply to your own personal Bible study, as I mentioned, or how you lead your family.

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Family worship has been a big conversation lately. I've written some articles for it in Clear Truth, and so I recently taught a lesson on it at a church that I was invited to come teach on.

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So family worship's important and prepping for that may be way different than what we're talking about, but these principles will still apply.

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And so we're going to give you 10 things. But before, again, before we get to the 10 things, I want to talk about two things first.

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One is the idea of corporate teaching. Everyone who is a father is responsible to teach your children and to lead your wife, but not everyone is called to be a teacher in a corporate setting.

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The passage that comes to mind, and should come to all of our minds, is James chapter 3, verse 1, which says, let not everyone be a teacher, because a teacher will be held to a stricter judgment, depending on how it's translated.

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Basically, the teacher has to be understood as one who is going to be judged for what he teaches and how he teaches.

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And so that's part of why we're doing this. We want people to understand that if you are taken to teach in the corporate body, whether you're teaching from the pulpit, whether you're teaching from a lectern in a classroom, you have a responsibility.

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You're teaching God's people. Were you nervous when you were first asked to teach?

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Well, the operative word there is asked. So, Cody Page's dad,

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Tim, I was in his Sunday school class. It was a young married class, and I just went through a discipleship process where I was mentored for about six months, and I was becoming a little bit more vocal in class.

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I was participating in the lessons, but from the audience standpoint, yadda, yadda, yadda.

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Anyway, Tim saw in me the, I guess, the ability to teach, but he knew if he asked me,

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I would say no, because I was petrified of public speaking. It's one thing to offer a comment in class.

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It's another thing to, it's all on you. So he just showed up one Saturday and handed me the material and said, you're teaching tomorrow.

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Get on it, and left. So I was kind of thrown into it, but after that, and I got,

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I started doing it more regular, I, you know, came across this text, and it was then that, yes, a nervousness kind of weighs down on you a little bit, because you realize, okay,

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I'm going to be held to a higher standard for every word that comes out of my mouth as I interpret this passage and explain it to other people.

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So I need to rightly divide this. Absolutely. So there is a level of concern and care every time it's my turn to teach, whether it's doing public supply or doing

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Sunday school, because I'm going to stand before God and have a given account for what I've said here and how

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I've handled this text. So I want to be as right as possible that I know I can be, at least.

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And that's the key, right, is nobody's perfect. Nobody's going to give a—even

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John MacArthur gets it wrong. You know, there are guys who we respect who've been at this for 50 years, and they still say things that are not correct.

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But at the same time, it's the effort to seeking to be accurate.

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Sometimes I'm even willing when I'm preaching to say, I don't know what this means perfectly.

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I will give you what I think the interpretation is based on my understanding of how the grammar works here and these different things, but ultimately

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I'm not going to hold you to this standard, because even I'm having difficulty. Right.

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And I think there should at least be some respect for that. I think some people, you know, you're the man of God.

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Well, you know, that doesn't make me infallible. I'm not a pope. Well, me and Johnny have had discussion about—because we used to have more of a monologue kind of teaching in class, and with offering up opportunity for discussion, but most times when you ask, does anybody have any thoughts on this before we move on to the next, and most people wouldn't speak.

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But now we're trying to—the last several months we've been trying to do more with getting people involved in it.

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So with that, you'll get those questions sometimes that, you know, you just don't know the answer to immediately.

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And me and Johnny have had a conversation about that in the sense of, if we don't know the answer just because they've asked us, we're not necessarily—it's not incumbent upon us to immediately answer.

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We'll very quickly say, hey man, give me a week to mull that over, and then we'll open class with that next week, and answer it then, or we'll contact them later and talk to them about it on the phone or something.

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But usually if it's asked in class, we try to answer in class. But we're not going to do something on the fly.

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Matter of fact, a couple—about three weeks ago, I'd made a comment about a particular text, and I wasn't teaching that morning.

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I made a comment, and then later I went back and researched what was actually asked, and I was dead wrong and had to address that to the class next time

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I came in. And I had to say, hey, on the fly, I misinterpreted this. Let me correct that real quick before I started.

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Actually, it was part of my Sunday school lesson the next time. Don't you just love it? Oh yeah. It's like, let me go ahead and wipe the egg out of my face.

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I've had times where I've had to recant over something I said in a sermon, like the very next week

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I realized what I said was incorrect. Sometimes it's just a mistake, sometimes I misinterpreted the passage, and it's like, oof, you know?

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And that's why I've noticed before every sermon you preach, one of your things is,

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Father, I'm an infallible man. Help me to not— I am infallible. You sound like you said infallible. Oh, I'm infallible, man. I'm sorry.

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I'm a fallible man. And guard me from error. Yes. From what

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I understand, when Spurgeon would go to mount the pulpit, he would say, he would pray on his way,

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I need the Holy Spirit, I need the Holy Spirit, I need the Holy Spirit. That's the only way that, you know, we're going to have accuracy in our preaching is when we're relying on the

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Holy Spirit. And there are times where we don't. We run right into error because we're fallible men.

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You got it. So pray for a guarding on that. So with that,

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I want to show a video, and I want to say to the audience, this is not the reason why we did this.

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We had already decided this is what we're going to do. We always try to plan something every month or two to do together, maybe probably every two months, because it's so infrequent that we can get our schedules together.

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But Richard and I had been talking about this, and then this video came to my attention. And this video is of Andy Stanley talking about how he preps for his sermons.

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Now, Andy Stanley is not a man who we would use as an example, and we're not trying to beat up on him in this.

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This is just—so normally I wouldn't even mention him in a context like this, but because he says something about his prep,

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I want to address it before we get to our 10 things. So let's listen to it. 12 to 14 people have my sermon outlines at least three weeks before I preach them.

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So if there are red flags in the outline, somebody or some somebodies brings it to my attention, whether, hey,

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Andy, this word doesn't mean what you think it does. It used to mean this, now it means that, or I think this is too harsh, or all your examples are about men, or you've talked about this before.

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So I invite feedback way before I strap on a microphone to preach. So that,

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I think, keeps me out of some of the ditches that I would have a tendency to go into when

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I let my emotion take over. And when I'm dealing with racial issues, I invite different people into the outline, not the outline process, but say, here's the outline.

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If you're sitting in the audience and you hear me say this, how's this going to land with you as a woman, as a Democrat, as a

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Republican, or somebody of, you know, different ethnic backgrounds? So, because this is a minefield,

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I mean. All right. So when I saw that, I sent it to you immediately.

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I said I wanted to respond to that. You want to go first?

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You have some thoughts? I'm sure I saw your face in the camera. How's this going to land with Democrats, Republicans, this, that, the other thing?

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How about just what does the text say and say that, and not worry about how it's necessarily going to land with certain groups?

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One of the bigger problems I have with that is this man's supposed to be shepherding the church. And he is not able to do that if he has 20 people nitpicking through his sermon that he's supposed to use to, you know, help the people of God grow in their understanding of who

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God is and their sanctification and all that stuff, and edification, and pursuit of holiness. If you got all these people behind, it's almost like he's a puppet master.

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Somebody is pulling the strings, and if it doesn't fit a political agenda or whatever, they're going to tell him, well, you need to take this out, or you need to do this, you need to do that, so you don't want to offend anybody in the culture.

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Well, the gospel offends the culture. So, I mean, if you're preaching the word as it's intended to be preached, what does the text mean and say and then apply it, then it doesn't matter.

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So that's my number one concern. You can't shepherd a church that way. You've got too many people in the thing.

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Now, there's nothing wrong with seeking counsel over your text.

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Cody and Justin—Justin's our associate pastor, but we have two elders, you all have three.

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I know Cody and Justin discuss his sermon weekly, but they're not discussing it to see if it's going to affect the

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Democrat, Republican, or this or that. Is it biblical? Is it accurate? Am I interpreting this correctly?

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And they go back and forth, and I imagine even if they couldn't come to consensus together, they would invite someone else that's trusted into that.

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He'd probably call his brother or somebody else, another pastor, to discuss that. Is this right, true, and biblical in my interpretation of this text and how

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I plan to present it? That's fine. You know, when I was going through the process of him helping me learn how to preach,

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I would have to submit my manuscript to him. He would go through it, then we'd sit down and discuss it, and it was more or less, you know, make sure it's accurate and properly interpreted, but also, you know, style and ways to improve it to where it's not—it sounds better, you know, because I can get a little wordy when

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I write something. But that's beside the point. But the point is, it was—we were searching to make sure

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I was accurate in what I was doing. And there's times in my Sunday school prep, I'll call Johnny.

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I've called you, you know, when I had a question about something. I've called Cody several times when

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I had a question about something. So there's nothing wrong with bringing somebody else into your outline and discussing it, but not for the reasons he's doing at all.

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Yeah, and I agree with you 100%. I think the biggest issue with that video is his motivation.

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Right. Not necessarily the methodology, even though I wouldn't rely on a committee of 14 to 16 people in that regard.

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But again, it's that way because of his motivation. His motivation is to be as inoffensive and, at least to his audience.

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I don't think he's too concerned about being offensive to people like me, because just about everything he says offends me at one level or another.

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Right. But he's concerned about being offensive to a particular cultural demographic, the people that fit into his—

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Right. He has satellite campuses, don't he? Yeah. That's what he's worried about. He's broadcast all over the place, live to the world.

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That's right. And the last thing he wants to do is offend anyone. But like with us, at our church, we do have three elders.

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So when you talk about being concerned, I am. I want to make sure that what

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I say is what our other elders would say in that same context. And if there is a distinction between us, that at least

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I am fair in that distinction. You know, Brother Mike and I did a debate recently on Roman 7 because we disagreed on that passage.

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And we were teaching hermeneutics, and we wanted to show how we arrived at that hermeneutical conclusion. I thought that was good for the church to see us disagree, because we disagree with each other in other areas.

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We don't make it known. We don't say, hey, we disagreed this week. But it's good to see how godly brothers can do that and still continue to walk together and minister together.

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And I remember when I first started, you mentioned your situation with Cody. When I first started preaching, our previous pastor was there.

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And my whole first year, he was still there. He was the administrative pastor. I was the preaching pastor for a whole year. And so every week

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I had to present to him my manuscript, and I always got it back. And the funny thing was, he was the dean of Jones College, and he was an

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English major. And so he would hand it back to me with red marks. The red marks were never theological. It was always grammar.

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And I'm like, I'm writing this to speak. I'm not going to read it. But it would still have, like, you missed an apostrophe here or something.

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And I always felt like I was back in Miss Proctor's English class, which we were both in together senior year.

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Initially, when we started the process, I would meet with Justin and then Cody. And the first manuscript

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I got back from Justin looked like a rainbow. And nothing was bad in it.

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It's just, you could put this here, and you could word it this way, and you misprint. I'm like, my first thought was like, oh my gosh,

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I got to start over. He's like, no, don't freak. Don't freak. Don't freak out, man. It's all right. All right.

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Well, people have been waiting to get to these 10 things, so I want to do that. And so, because it is 10, and each one of these could be an hour -long episode, what

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I'd like to do is we're going to mention what they are. I'm going to go through the list very quickly, and just that way people know what to expect.

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And then on each thing, I'll let you say a few words, I'll say a few words, and then we'll move on. But there are a few things that we need to develop more.

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But like on the first one, I think we'll be able to get through it relatively quickly. So the 10 things are as follows.

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These are the 10 things that both of us would recommend if you are studying to preach, or to teach, or just for your own personal edification.

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First, number one is pray. Number two, read the text in multiple versions.

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Number three, observation. We're going to talk about what that means. Number four, read commentaries.

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Number five is meditation. Number six is application. Number seven, manuscript.

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And again, we're going to talk about what all this means. Number eight, and these become, eight, nine, and ten are a little bit more lesson specific, what you're doing.

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So number eight would be to create or devise discussion questions for class participation.

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Number ten, I'm sorry, number nine is establishing a thesis statement. And this is more for preaching, and I'll talk about why when we get there, what's the main point of the text, and what are your sub points.

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And then finally, and again, this is very important for preaching, and that is taking them to the cross, connecting the gospel, ensuring that you are making a distinction in law and gospel, the commands, the imperatives versus the indicatives, and things like that.

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So all those are part of how we do this. And so let's go back to number one, and talk about how prayer functions in your preparation.

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So let's do that. So with me, you know, it can be a lengthy process, it can be a short process, just depends on the day.

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But confession, obviously first, you know, confession of sin and repentance, all those things is one of the first things

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I do. And then of course, seeking the Lord's help with understanding and comprehending and applying the text. I mean, just asking the

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Spirit to open your eyes so you may behold wondrous things from the law. Being able to seek the

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Lord's help in understanding the text first and foremost is what I pray for primarily.

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But I start with confession because those times when I haven't done that,

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I found it more difficult to handle the text and even understand the text, because as some people like to say, there's like a brass ceiling over your head, you got to get that out of the way so you can actually commune with God properly.

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So anyway. All right, now I'm going to ask you a difficult question, because I agree with what you said. Do you ever forget to pray?

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That's what I'm saying, yes, I've forgotten to pray. I've like been crushed for time or whatever, and just sat down and started going at the text, and 45 minutes to an hour in,

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I ain't got a note on a page, I can't even, I'm having trouble thinking. And it's like, hey dummy, you skipped step one.

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Sorry, this video shouldn't have come up, my bad. We're professionals here in our

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Theo shed, coming to you on location from the Theo shed. No, that's the thing

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I wanted to mention, when you mentioned prayer, is obviously we should start our day with prayer, we should start our study with prayer.

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But sometimes because we are in a crunch time or whatever, we get right into it, we open the

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Bible, we begin looking at the text, we start, and as you said, we get ahead of ourselves.

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So stopping and admitting our reliance upon God, admitting our insufficiency for the task is a wonderful way to begin the process.

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It's the way to begin the process. And I have here, this is a sermon prayer that,

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I haven't done it yet, but I want to print this and actually put this on the pulpit. But this is a prayer not to pray to the congregation, even though you could, this is the prayer for the preacher.

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It says, Lord, help me to understand the meaning of this text and how it points to Christ. Lord, please increase my love for the people who will hear this sermon.

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Lord, please give me wisdom to apply this text to the lives of the people in our congregation. Lord, please use this passage to help me grasp and love the gospel more so that I may help my hearers do the same.

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Lord, please help me to see how this passage confronts the unbelief of my hearers. Lord, please help me to be obedient to the minds of this passage.

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Help me to enter the pulpit, having already submitted my life to this truth before I preach it. Lord, by your

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Spirit, please help me to preach this sermon with the necessary power and with appropriate affection. And Lord, please use this sermon to bring glory to your name, joy to your people, and salvation to the lost.

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I think that's great. I have no idea who wrote it, but this sits on my desktop all the time.

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So, I mean, you know, I just pulled it right up. And the reason why it does is just so I can read it, you know, that I can pray that prayer.

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I'm not against written prayers. I don't know, some people don't like written prayers, but I like to sometimes use a written prayer because it helps me to focus on what

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I'm praying on. I agree with that a hundred percent, and that was another thing I forgot to mention was

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I often pray for the members of the class, for the Lord to go ahead and be kind of tilling their heart up to receive it, and for myself to receive it as well.

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It does them no good if I haven't applied it to myself first. Amen. All right, well, let's move to number two.

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Now, again, we put these together based on both of our thoughts, so I know we have thoughts about this, and the number two is to read the text in multiple versions.

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Now, the thing we didn't mention, if you are preaching or if you're teaching, you may not already have a text.

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You may have to choose a text, especially if you're going to preach as a pulpit supply. So there may be a part in that prayer where you're asking

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God to lead you, or you're asking the church you're coming to, what is it you want me to preach on?

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That's often what I do. If I'm asked to come preach somewhere, is there something you want me to talk about? Right. And that way

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I know where I'm going to go. So the assumption in number two is you know the text.

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Right. You know whatever text it is. All right, so you read the text in multiple versions right away, just why did you put it that way?

29:46

This was something that when I was going through the mentor process with, ironically his name is

29:51

Rich. Yeah, Rich and Rich. So one of the things he helped me do when

29:57

I first started teaching Sunday school was he sat down and he had, at the time

30:02

I only had like an ESV copy, so he sat down with the NASV, the

30:08

ESV, the King James, New King James. He even had the message Bible way over to the right, but he said if you read the text in different versions, one version over another may give you some insight into what it's trying to say because of the way it's interpreted.

30:24

So it's helpful, and especially if you're struggling with a text, you can't quite get your mind around, it'll help out.

30:30

Now he had the message there simply, he said this is a garbage text, but because they take a sentence and span it into a paragraph, sometimes as you read it, they may hit something that you can use, but don't quote it, because you don't want people just reading the message

30:47

Bible to read it, because it's a commentary or paraphrase at best. I was going to say, the further it gets from the original language, the further it gets into paraphrase, the more it becomes like a commentary, and so I think that's right.

31:03

I think that's a good point, and you mentioned all the various ones, and we've done this in other podcasts,

31:09

I won't do it now, but there are different types of translations. There's essentially literal translations, there are dynamic equivalent translations, and then there's paraphrases, and the further you get into that paraphrase world, the more it becomes like a commentary, and this is something that you and I talked about that was interesting, and this is a stat on the subject of reading.

31:31

It says, and again, I don't know where this came from, I found it was online, somebody posted it, so take the accuracy of this with a grain of salt.

31:38

I didn't go and ensure its accuracy with ChatGPD, but it says that 21 percent of adults in the

31:47

U .S. read below a fifth grade level, 19 percent of high school graduates in the U .S. can't read, 42 million

31:53

U .S. adults can't read past a fifth grade level, and 50 percent of adults in the U .S. can't read a book written at an eighth grade level.

32:01

What do you think about that? Do you think that's accurate? Probably, given what...

32:08

Anecdotally, you feel like this is what you run into? Yes, given, especially when

32:14

I talk to some of today's youth, high school age kids that can't speak properly, or if you can't spell a word, like they'll write something down, and simple words are just messed up.

32:28

So it's, yeah, I would probably think that's fairly accurate. Okay.

32:34

Well, the reason why, again, I bring it up is because when we talk about reading the text in multiple versions,

32:42

I believe, I agree with Howard Hendricks, who said that if you want to become a better Bible student, you should become a better reader, and reading it in various versions helps you to become a better reader, because you're actually, you're reading different ways to interpret this, because what they do is they become more and more, of a paraphrase, is they become easier and easier to understand.

33:06

And so if that's helping you to understand, like if the ESV is difficult to understand, but the

33:12

New Living Translation gives you an easier understanding, and helps you figure out, okay, why is this word in the

33:17

ESV, and it's not here? I do think that can be helpful, and I know somebody's going to immediately say, oh, well, that's not the

33:23

Word of God. We, you know, especially, you know, we have folks who are dedicated to one particular translation, you know,

33:29

King James, obviously. But that's, I was going to say, King James, but that's not the point of what we're talking about.

33:37

You know, we're saying, okay, here's a passage, and we want to read this passage better, and also be able to communicate its truth better.

33:47

And you said you had some history with folks that didn't want to bring it down at all, that wanted to keep everything at a very high level.

33:56

Yeah, I'll keep names out of it, but there was a pastor at a church that he could speak at a doctorate level.

34:06

Spent ample time in the text, and when he preached, he preached at a very high level. But it was brought to his attention that there were those in the congregation that were struggling with how high of a level he preached.

34:21

And he took that and really didn't do anything with it other than saying that he's already reducing the sermon down from an original draft of 15 pages to 10 pages or whatever, and he's not going to come it down anymore, and that he's going to trust the

34:42

Spirit of God to apply it to whoever it applies it to. And they'll understand at their level, and the Spirit of God will do that.

34:49

That's all well and good as far as, yes, the Spirit of God can apply the text to anybody. But you have to understand that there are those in your congregation that you have to meet them at their level.

35:04

And over time, they may grow and be able to understand that higher teaching, but you kind of got to meet everybody where they're at.

35:10

I kind of liken it to when I spent four years teaching the youth. I worked in the youth department. We were on a rotational basis.

35:16

I didn't teach every week. But you're looking at sixth graders from 12 to 18 years old.

35:22

Well, I've got to try to explain a text that's challenging to the 18 -year -old but still understandable by the 12 -year -old.

35:31

Well, you have a congregation ranging of people in all kinds of levels of spiritual maturity and ranges of,

35:38

I hate to say this, intelligence. You can't just stay way up here all the time.

35:44

You've got to kind of meet people where they're at and bring them along. And that is the key to being a great teacher,

35:52

I think, is the ability to take something that is difficult and make it to where it's accessible.

35:59

That's what made Dr. R .C. Sproul, and that's why he's one of my—even though we disagree on certain theological points, that's why he's still one of my favorite teachers, because he was able to address wildly difficult topics, and yet the average person was able to follow along and listen.

36:19

And in a matter of three or four sentences, explain it in a way you're like, oh, got it.

36:25

Yeah, yeah. And so this comes to—you know, I know we've kind of moved away from why we read in multiple versions.

36:31

We read in multiple versions to say that we better understand, but also we're reading with an eye to explain this. And so perhaps reading these multiple versions will help.

36:40

And so reading in multiple versions is helpful. Now the one thing I didn't mention, none of these address the original languages.

36:48

My assumption in this is that most people who are watching this are probably not going to have a working knowledge of the original languages.

37:01

Some people may have the ability to access the original languages in tools, which are good, the tools of like Lagos and Accordance, which is what

37:14

I use, or even just online like Blue Letter Bible and BibleHub and things like that. How often do you make the original languages part of your study?

37:25

On occasion. A couple weeks ago I actually dove into it when it talked about the fear of the

37:31

Lord. I looked up the word fear, and there's multiple versions of that, ekphobos, phobos, and then a really long one that I can't pronounce.

37:39

But the reason I did that was because we were in a passage in Hebrews that had to do with—it was Hebrews 11, 7 with Noah. In holy fear, he prepared the ark.

37:48

Well, what does that mean? Was it like he was just scared of God, or it was a reverence in awe? And the difference in those versions helps you understand that.

37:56

But of course I had to use tools because I don't—I'm not a Greek student, so I have something called

38:01

Online Bible, which will allow you to toggle the strongs, and you can look up the Greek, and it gives you definitions and tells you where else it's used in Scripture so you can kind of get an idea of what it means.

38:11

And if I'm just like, ain't got a clue, then I'll contact my pastor or you or somebody else who can help me walk through it.

38:20

But it's not all the time. It's rarely that I have to do that. It's just in those situations where I'm trying to better give an idea of what's actually being said in the text, because just because the word fear is used over here doesn't mean it means the same thing over here, you know what

38:36

I'm saying, as far as when it came to that. What does it mean to be in holy fear or in godly fear, he prepared the ark?

38:45

So I use that there, but anyhow. Yeah, so—and this is where I would say, you know, learn all you can when it comes to original languages, but not everyone is, one, going to have the desire to, not everyone is going to have the aptitude for it, not everyone's going to have the access to it, you know, so all those things matter.

39:07

Interestingly enough, I was contacted yesterday, a company called Biblingo wants to partner with the show.

39:13

They have a software that is to help people, and this is not a—I'm not yet a sponsor, so I'm not trying yet, but they're sending me their software so that I can try it out to see if it's something

39:24

I would want to recommend to people. They said imagine, like, Rosetta Stone, but for biblical Greek.

39:31

So I'm interested to see if it's going to help, because I do think the more we can access and have a working knowledge of the languages, the better we will be at understanding what translations are trying to do.

39:43

You know, when we read various translations, you know, the NIV or the NASB, or they're trying to do something, they're trying to convey an idea, okay, but from what?

39:53

And as I just teach Sunday school and the occasional pulpit supply, I'm very careful when

40:00

I dive into a degree, because I don't want to—I'm no scholar of any way, shape, or form.

40:05

I've never actually studied it, but I know it has its value. So guys like you who have gone through it can write it and understand it and understand the nuances and the aorist and passive and all this kind of stuff, you know, the tenses and all those things.

40:21

You can better explain the text from the Greek than I could. I just use it when I feel like I can accurately use it, but not dangerously use it.

40:30

And that's the thing, I don't want someone to hear this and think I'm in any way saying you have to be able to do that to be able to teach the

40:36

Word. There's been many godly Bible teachers who used their English text and were able to present the

40:42

Word of God accurately and clearly. And that's, I think, sometimes we, again, set things on shelves that people can't attain and say, well, if you can't do this, then you're not worthy.

40:52

Right. Yeah. All right, number three is my favorite part of the

40:58

Bible study process, or the preparation process, and that is observation. And I say it's my favorite part because I learned to love it by reading

41:10

Howard Hendricks's book Living by the Book is the title of his book, and that's the book that he used.

41:17

It's a textbook that is used, I think it's still used, at Dallas Seminary to teach people to understand how to study the

41:25

Bible, Living by the Book. And he has a very simple three -step process. Observe the text, interpret the text, apply the text.

41:34

And observation, he says the longer you spend in observation, the less time you will have to spend in interpretation, and then the application will be natural.

41:46

But if you spend little time in observation, your interpretation will take longer and probably be wrong, and then your application will probably be wrong because you haven't really observed the text.

41:59

Right. And so what I did in preparation for this, and you've already seen this, but I want to show it to the audience. Yesterday I was prepping for my sermon for this week.

42:08

I'm in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1 to 6. And I videoed,

42:13

I just set my camera up above the table, this table actually, and just filmed myself doing my observation study.

42:24

And it's three hours condensed down to 20 seconds, because I did a time -lapse video. So here's that video.

42:32

So one thing that people have noted, because I posted this video, is that it's all by hand.

42:39

And there's a reason why. The reason why it's all by hand is because I have found that one of the things that helps me observe the text is to write it out.

42:50

So whatever text I am preaching from, whatever text I'm teaching from, I literally write every word of the text.

42:58

And I don't do... Do you know what sentence diagramming is? You remember that? Did we? Because I remember learning that in school, but my wife talks about it because she does it for homeschooling.

43:08

No. Yeah, no, it's okay. Seriously, you know, we both went to the same school, so obviously they didn't teach it to either of us.

43:15

But sentence diagramming is, you know, you draw out the connection points between like your verbs and your nouns and all those things, and it's just like a map.

43:25

Well, I didn't learn to do that in a classical sense, but I've kind of created my own method for sentence diagramming, where as I'm writing it out,

43:34

I'm following the argument, and I'm seeing where Paul might create lists, or I'm seeing where Paul might be making an argument, and how the argument is beginning to develop, and what points that are coming off that argument to support his main argument, and all those things.

43:50

That's what I'm doing. I'm not just rewriting the text. I'm writing the text as if it were a map.

43:56

And when it's done, it looks like... You've seen that meme with the guy standing in front of the wall with all the things and all the red lines?

44:05

Yeah, it's like, that's... It looks crazy. I posted pictures of it before. I've got like 10 pages out where it's all spread out.

44:12

But for me, that is the point where I am trying to get into the mind of the

44:20

Apostle Paul. Right. And I'm saying the only way I can do this is to write it out. And if people say, well, do you do the original language?

44:27

No, not at that point. At that point, I use the English text that I'm going to be teaching from.

44:33

I do it with the ESV because that's the text that I teach from. And then I compare that to other translations, like you said, reading in other translations.

44:43

Okay, now, all right, the NAS says it this way, NABU says it this way, the King James says it this way. And then where I see the differences, okay, this is a pretty serious difference.

44:56

When I see the difference, I make a point to then address it, go into the original language, look at it and see why the differences might be there.

45:06

So I'm using the original language, not starting with it all the time. I usually start with the text

45:11

I'm going to be teaching out of. So that's my observation. What does your observation look like?

45:20

Well, it's about writing it out in three -hour chunks. With teaching

45:29

Sunday school, it's a little different. You're still observing the text and trying to get into the mind of the author and what's going on there.

45:34

But we do line by line as we go through.

45:40

So we're, or as one of our members described it, word for word, word by word.

45:47

Either way. But I'm usually, when it's my turn to teach, I'm picking up where Johnny's left off, right?

45:54

So I'm first seeing if we're in the same line of thought as he was when he left the text or if we're shifting gears, going in a different direction.

46:02

Looking at the text before, the text after, trying to keep in mind the theme of the book itself and how this text applies to the overall purpose for the book being written and so forth and so on.

46:17

So a similar problem is what you're doing. It just might not be as, I don't handwrite everything out because my handwriting is absolute garbage.

46:27

And so if I hand wrote everything out, I wouldn't be able to read it when I was done. I should have been a doctor.

46:34

So that's, it's similar to what you do. It's just not as, not as wacky.

46:42

Now I make notes. I might make notes or a mental note of something particular that crossed my mind.

46:51

But yeah, it's the same thing. And again, I'm not saying this is what people have to do.

46:56

I'm saying, however you observe the text, whether it's just reading it multiple times or some people have journaling

47:03

Bibles. They read and they make notes in their Bible. I don't write in my Bible typically. Sometimes I'll underline things, but I don't,

47:09

I don't, I don't write in my Bible either. Yeah. I just, I like writing on a piece of paper. And so our, our former pastor, he had a blackboard in his study room and he would write the text with chalk, erase it, write it again, erase it, write it again.

47:25

He'd write it 10, 15, 20 times. By the time I got done with the 20th time of writing it, he's pretty much got it memorized and you're reciting it so many different times.

47:34

It's like what you're doing. You're starting to see the connections in the text. So there is, there is benefit to repetitiously writing it out and doing those things too.

47:44

Yeah. All right. So we're down to number four. I do want to try to get to all 10, so I'm going to pick it up a little bit.

47:52

Again, none of these are revolutionary. All of these are just, this is how we do it. Right. And hopefully maybe providing some insight to people who are either at the beginning stages of this, or maybe a pastor who just needs some new ideas, some thoughts on how to, how to do this.

48:09

All right. So again, we put the phrase read commentaries and go ahead and just give a few thoughts on that.

48:18

And then I'll give a few thoughts and we'll move on. I have multiple commentaries ranging from those

48:25

I might not necessarily agree with, to those I do, just to get a wide variety of interpretation.

48:31

But I try to wait to read the commentaries until after I've made my own conclusions from what

48:37

I've observed in the text. And usually if I'm coming to pretty much the same conclusions that I'm reading in the commentaries and I know that, okay, these men have come before me,

48:47

I'm on the right path. If I've come up with something completely different and I'm reading 10 other guys that have this interpretation and I'm over here in left field, like, okay,

48:56

I need to revisit how I've come here. So the commentaries are helpful in making sure that you're, you're moving down in the right direction, depending on what commentary you're reading.

49:04

Of course, if Andy's standing by that commentary, I'm not going to read it. Unless you're reading for, you know, to see if he's, you know, make sure you're not saying what he's saying.

49:14

Correct. Yeah. No, I, and I agree. I want to move on pretty quickly because I agree with you.

49:21

The commentary is a corrector. Right. It's, it's a challenge to you. Okay.

49:26

You've, you've come up with a conclusion. Does your conclusion, is your, are you the only person who's ever seen this?

49:32

Right. Right. The old adage is if it's new, it ain't true. Right. New truth is old heresy.

49:39

So we have to be careful with that. So people ask me sometimes, well, how many commentary do you use? I start with fewer or more, and I work my way to fewer as I'm going through, because a lot of times they're saying the same thing.

49:49

I want exegetical commentaries, ones that are dealing with the text. As far as like sermon, sermonic commentaries, which are just basically you're reading somebody else's sermon.

50:00

Sometimes they're good for illustrations and stuff. Sometimes they're good for outlines, but in general, I want to know, I want more information about the text.

50:07

And so I will it down to that. And so, but like I said, it's to check my work. Right. Yeah. And that's, that's a huge deal for me.

50:14

I want to make sure that what I'm saying is not, is not heretical. Right. Number five, you have some thoughts on meditation.

50:22

Well, for me, meditation is two things. One, I'll, as I'm reading over the text or I'm reading the commentaries and something will come to mind.

50:33

I actually, my wife said that I'm also like, I'm in a trance. She'll walk into the office and I'm kind of just staring into nowhere, but just thinking about the text.

50:42

So actually meditating on what the, the real thing, the main thing I do is

50:48

I kind of mull it over. In other words, I actually separate myself from the text, from note taking, from everything.

50:55

And I spend a day just thinking about it. And since my job affords me a lot of alone time, whether I'm driving in the truck or when

51:03

I'm working, I'm just kind of mulling over what I've learned so far over and over again, in my own mind, just thinking about it before I move on to the next step.

51:12

So that may not work for everybody else, but it works for me because it's, you know, I don't have the distractions at home.

51:19

I've got kids and I'm usually not sitting down to study until it's seven 30, eight o 'clock at night.

51:25

And there's just all kinds of commotion going on around you and you're trying to find a quiet spot. So that's, that's kind of how

51:32

I meditate is, is you're spending a day away from it and just thinking about what I've, what

51:37

I've learned. Yeah. Yeah. See, I, I want to prepare my sermon early in the week.

51:43

I start Monday morning. I want to have my sermon at least outlined by Tuesday, you know, knowing what

51:49

I'm going to say. That way I have a few days to think about it. I know guys who study and prepare on Friday and Saturday, which is fine.

51:55

That's their method. But for me, I want the longer time in between some like, well, I'll forget everything.

52:01

No, I I'm thinking it through. And during that time I'm thinking about where, you know, is there a way, a better way to say this?

52:10

Is there a better, you know, are there things, applications? I'm, I'm picking up illustrations throughout the week and my phone becomes my greatest tool is

52:17

I'll be driving to the church and I'll have a thought, you know, a stroke, a stroke of brilliance for a moment and I'll pick up my phone.

52:23

I'll hit the voice to text and I'll, I've done almost complete sermons where I've just spoke it into the phone and then get there and, you know, copy and paste that into a word and, you know, rearrange it and everything.

52:36

It's funny sometimes voice to text things I said, uh, Hey, that's heresy. Look at there. But, but it works really well.

52:42

And so yeah, having a few days to think it over, that's why when you said meditation for me, yeah, it's, it's, it's thinking on the text and, and doing that.

52:52

Number six is application. I'll, I'll start on this one because this is one of the areas that I think is, can be difficult because, and you mentioned this somewhat earlier, you said, you know, well,

53:03

God's going to apply it to whomever. There is a truth in that, that I can't always make the application to every person in the room, because while a text only has one meaning, good rule for hermeneutics, a text only has one meaning.

53:19

It can have multiple applications. And that was one of the things R .C. Sproul used to do with his students is he would tell them, you know, take this text and give me 50 applications.

53:30

And they, and, and, and, you know, they would go and he said that, you know, they like go to back to their dorms and they, they ask each other and they were all working together to try to come up with these 50 applications.

53:39

Then they'd come back to class and he'd say, okay, give me 50 more. Just to kind of, you know, point to the fact there's, it's almost, you can apply this text in so many ways, as long as you stay with the intended meaning of the author.

53:53

And so it is hard to always make an application. And later when I talk about pointing to the cross, we'll get there.

54:00

But, but when you say application, what are your thoughts? Well, again, from a, from a

54:05

Sunday school context, usually at this point,

54:11

I'm kind of adding what we're going to talk about in a few minutes with the questions. I use the questions to try to draw out application from the members of the class.

54:21

So I already have application in mind, but I'm kind of, I want to have them think through the text with me.

54:29

So I asked a question that kind of is leading to some degree, and then they kind of will start talking amongst themselves.

54:36

And sooner or later we all get there to apply the text. But that's the

54:41

Sunday school scenario. As far as a sermon goes, obviously you're trying to make an application as broad enough that everyone can receive it and use it.

54:51

But at the same time, I think you're trying to help them also apply the text to themselves individually in a context that may or may not, in a way that you may not have applied it yourself.

55:05

So again, that's where the multiple applications come in. It may hit somebody differently, but you're trying to at least apply it broadly and generally to the congregation so that they can, they can learn and grow.

55:18

Yeah. And like I said, it can, this can be the most difficult part, which is why some guys don't even,

55:25

I'm just gonna let the spirit apply. Okay. I get that. But giving it, giving it shoes, giving it, you know, a way to be, it's like this when

55:38

Howard Hendricks, you know, he says, observation is what does the text say?

55:46

Interpretation is what does the text mean? And that's what we're doing when we're reading commentaries and we're making sure we know what it means.

55:53

But then interpretation or application is how does it work? Not does it work, but how does it work?

55:59

How does it work in our life? And sometimes you're in Old Testament passage, and the only application is

56:04

God is glorious and holy, and that's the application of the text is that God is glorious and holy, and we should live in light of that.

56:12

Right. Okay. That's, that's great. Number eight is manuscript. Now this is one

56:18

I know we're gonna differ on because I don't do, I don't use a manuscript. Do you use an actual manuscript where you write out every word?

56:27

Yes, because I've tried to not use them in the past. Like Johnny doesn't use a manuscript.

56:33

He just makes notes. Yeah. And he can get up there and he can talk. If he has to talk 45 minutes because nobody's participating in class, he can just go.

56:40

Yeah. And that's great. The problem I've found is I tend to, at what

56:46

I've learned during the week, if I don't have it right in front of me and written out the way I want to say it,

56:52

I jumble. I stumble over words, it comes out garbled. For those of us in our class that, those in our class that may be listening to this today,

57:01

I might sound garbled anyway. But I try to have at least what

57:07

I really want to say written out exactly how I want to say it, and then I'll deviate from the text to have conversation in the class.

57:16

But when I'm explaining the text and the context and everything, and even to application to some degree of the text,

57:25

I'll have everything I want written out. So I'll have six, seven pages for a Sunday school lesson written out, but it doesn't necessarily mean

57:32

I'm going to read it all. Now, when I have to do pulpit supply, yeah, I got 13, 14 pages,

57:37

I got five, 6 ,000 words, and everything I'm going to say is right there. Even illustrations I plan to talk about,

57:44

I have written out, so I have a word count. I used to write, let us pray. Because I used to manuscript, and I literally would write, you know, bow your heads and let us pray.

57:56

Like, everything was written out. I've written that out, and I've also had in asterisks, read the text.

58:02

Yes. Now that I still, you've seen my notes. Right. My notes, you know,

58:09

I post them on Twitter weekly. Some people actually read my notes when they're listening to the sermon, which

58:14

I think is neat. So I've been posting them every week, and my notes now look like a NFL football play card.

58:19

Yes, I've seen that. Yeah, and I started doing it because I was tired of having multiple pages.

58:27

Right. That was the whole thing, is I knew I wanted more than just three lines. You know, HB Charles said, you know, he writes his sermons on like the back of like a business card.

58:37

Like, he writes three lines, and that's his sermon. Somebody gifted like that, I think, is wonderful. R .C. Sproul used no notes, and he encouraged people to use no notes.

58:45

I remember the time he told Steve Lawson, I was at a pastor's conference, and he told Steve Lawson, one day I'm just going to take your notes, and you're going to have to do something.

58:51

You know, I'm going to walk up there and just take them away from you. And so that's, I'm not there yet.

58:57

That would be a goal to get there. Some guys manuscript and then take no notes into the pulpit.

59:03

But their manuscript is like their mental training, which I think is cool. I mean, that's one discipline. And I've just created this other weird system that some people seem to like.

59:13

And I can tell you this, if you were to just listen to audio of your sermon versus the audio of my sermon, you could probably tell

59:19

I read mine and you didn't read yours. Because you're operating from notes, and you're just speaking.

59:27

And it's just, it's almost like conversation. Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with reading a manuscript, because Jonathan Edwards, if I understand correctly, just read his sermons.

59:35

He wrote them and read them. And Jonathan Edwards wrote one of the Sinners in the

59:40

Hands of Angry God. That's one of the most famous sermons out there, and he just read it, which is fine. But like I said,

59:48

I get so, you can tell if you listen to one of my sermons where I went off the script for a minute, I'm all over the place.

59:55

And then I suddenly come back to, you know, organized. I have to keep myself in check.

01:00:00

That's all it is. Yeah. And ultimately, the Spirit of God is going to use it, whether it's read or whether it's whatever.

01:00:07

It's just where I find my comfort is having the notes there that I can see. It looks like to me, I've always said it's like building a house.

01:00:13

I got my little house. I'm going to go into the front door. I'm going to spend my time in each room. And then I'm going to go out the back door.

01:00:18

And that's the introduction, body, and conclusion. Well, now we move to the more lesson specific, and I'm going to let you talk about discussion questions, because again, you are a

01:00:30

Sunday school teacher more than I am. I teach every once in a while, but not as much as I used to. And then

01:00:35

I'm going to talk about the last two, and that'll bring us to our close. I mean, not that you can't comment, but I'm just saying these will be our focus.

01:00:42

So the number eight is devising discussion questions for the class participant. It's simple, really, just trying to draw an application throughout the class.

01:00:52

And what I've noticed is if you can ask a question that's open -ended enough to spark discussion, at that point, it's almost like I'm no longer teaching the class.

01:01:06

Everyone's teaching themselves as they rattle off back and forth. Now, I have to kind of be, me and Johnny both have to be careful to not let it get down some rabbit hole somewhere that's kind of not related to the text, and we have to bring it back at times, but it's very rare that happens.

01:01:23

Everything, all the comments are typically within the frame and the scope of what we're discussing.

01:01:29

And I've discovered from conversation I've had with folks after, since we changed to this format, is that they learn better and able to apply it better to themselves individually, having these discussions to really draw out.

01:01:43

Because I may have a particular application I bring, but someone else's application may speak better to someone else in the class than mine, because everybody has different experiences in different places in life.

01:01:57

So that's all it is, is trying to form questions to get people talking.

01:02:04

And then at that point, you're just kind of like the moderator over the conversation. Yeah, like a podcaster.

01:02:11

Yeah, I'm gonna say this, podcasting has helped me as a teacher. Oh, I'm sure.

01:02:17

Because one, it's funny how often I sit in here in this room by myself talking to that camera, but I know people are out there, but I'm having to think, how am

01:02:24

I going to communicate this best when I'm not even looking at someone? Right. Like, that's helped. Because you are communicating.

01:02:31

You know, you're ultimately teaching as a form of communication, and the you're trying to, by the power of the

01:02:39

Spirit, help them to come to an understanding of something. So whether it's through questions or whatever.

01:02:45

Well, I think about Paul. How many times in Paul's writings did he ask a question that he thought someone was going to, an objection or whatever they thought he was going to raise, and then he answered the question.

01:02:56

That's right. He's already thinking about where they're going, and he's already answering that because he's not there in person.

01:03:01

Who are you, old man, to answer back to God? That's right. He was already, he was ready. You ready for that one? He's answering because he's not there.

01:03:08

I know you Armenians are out there. I know it's coming. Might not be for another 1600 years, but I know you're there.

01:03:18

All right. Well, the last two really apply to preaching, though they can't apply in any type of teaching scenario.

01:03:28

And I wrote this out when we were creating this list. I said establishing a thesis statement.

01:03:35

And basically a thesis statement is simply what is the main point of the text?

01:03:41

And being able to articulate this is the main point of this text. This is not the main point

01:03:46

I want to make because sometimes, and I know this is true, some guys produce sermons by having a point they want to make.

01:03:54

You know, marriage bad or marriage good, divorce bad. I want to, so I'm going to run to Ephesians 5 and I'm going to make my point.

01:03:59

I've got a point rather than the point of the text. Now, is that point in the text? Yes. I mean, there are things that you can do, but this is the difference between topical teaching and expository teaching.

01:04:10

Topical teaching starts with the premise and you find texts to support it. You got a topic you want to address.

01:04:17

You got a point you want to make, you know, and then you find a text to support it. And there are times where,

01:04:24

I mean, that gets a lot of beating on. There are times when you need to address a topic.

01:04:31

Your congregation is going through something. It's okay. You know, you got to address this. But even when you're addressing a topic, you still, you want the meaning of the text to be the point of the sermon.

01:04:44

You don't want to impose a meaning that's not there. If the meaning's not there, don't use that text, you know.

01:04:51

So the idea of creating a thesis statement is what does this text mean? And then whatever sub points, what other points is

01:04:58

Paul using to support the thesis, whatever the thesis is?

01:05:03

And therefore, that's your message, because your message is the message of Scripture.

01:05:09

That's what our associate pastor Justin does. He didn't do it last week when he preached, but he usually, he'll have the big idea.

01:05:18

He just calls it the big idea of the text. He'll have a one -line sentence of what the overall idea of what he's fixing to preach on is, and then everything flows from that idea.

01:05:28

So it's the same thing you're doing. It's a thesis statement. He just calls it a big idea. And this comes out of your observation.

01:05:34

Right. Going back to the main part, I think the main part for me of all my study preparation, everything is the observation.

01:05:40

The more time I spend on observation, the less time I spend on other things. The less time I spend on observation, the more time

01:05:45

I spend on other things. It's just that, that's just the nature of it. It's like my favorite, well, one of my favorite nonfiction characters or fictional characters is

01:05:57

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's, I don't know why I said it weird like that, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

01:06:04

So many characters are based on him, even shows like Psych and other things. Basically, this incredible mind is able to see and understand things that other people can't.

01:06:13

And he would, Sherlock Holmes would say to Dr. Watson, you see, but you don't observe.

01:06:20

You see, but you don't observe. And that, and I think about that when I'm looking at the text, what am I, what am I missing?

01:06:26

What am I not observing? And the thesis statement comes out of that. And you have a, you have a, not to keep belaboring the point, but you have a, an opportunity that others don't because you're a pastor, your job is to do this.

01:06:41

Yeah, absolutely. So you have a lot more time to observe the text. Yeah. Just as an encouragement to those out there that Sunday school teach and have a full -time job.

01:06:49

You may not have. Or a pastor with a full -time job. Well, I'm not saying your pastor's not a full -time job. No, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, jerk.

01:06:57

Not at all. No, I'm saying that a pastor who has a full -time job. Or a pastor who has, oh yeah, a bivocational.

01:07:04

A bivocational pastor. Right. I, man, that's a tough job. Right. So, yeah. Whatever time you have, whatever, whatever time you have to observe the text, make the most of it.

01:07:17

Absolutely. And draw what you can out of it. So. And there are methods. There are methods. In fact, if you're interested in another lesson where maybe we go over observational things, like what do we look for?

01:07:31

We can do that another time. All right. Last thing is, I wrote taking them to the cross, and then

01:07:38

I put in parentheses, I said connecting the gospel, and then I put law and gospel. And the reason why, and the term law and gospel just indicates that being able to distinguish between the indicatives and the imperatives.

01:07:52

The things that we are told are true, and then the things that we're commanded to do. And so,

01:07:57

I want to take someone to Christ. I don't want to shoehorn

01:08:02

Christ in, but Christ is all over the scripture. So, how does this text point me to Christ?

01:08:10

Does this text point me to areas that I have failed and need to repent, but also need to trust

01:08:16

Christ? Does this text demonstrate to me something that is a beautiful fruit of the gospel?

01:08:23

And how do I do that? Like the last three weeks in our service, I've been in 2

01:08:29

Corinthians 8 and 9, which the topic or the thesis of 2

01:08:34

Corinthians 8 and 9, the focus is Paul is preparing the Corinthian church for a gift that they are supposed to be raising to give to the church in Jerusalem that's in need.

01:08:43

But the topic is generosity, and really it is to fulfill their promise of generosity, which they had made over a year before.

01:08:52

And so, Paul does, I would say, some of the most important writing on the subject of Christian giving is in 2

01:09:01

Corinthians 8 and 9. It's where we get that wonderful passage which says, each man must give as he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a hilarious giver.

01:09:09

The Greek word there is hilarios, which is where we get the word, where the English word hilarious comes from, but it means cheerful.

01:09:16

You should give with a smile. And so, that verse becomes sort of the thesis first.

01:09:23

God wants us to give, and he wants us to give in a way that's not forced. But why?

01:09:29

Because he is a giving God, because Christ gave himself up for us, that he who was in the very form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing and took upon himself the form of servant and went to death, even death on a cross.

01:09:43

The Philippians 2 becomes the reason why this passage is true.

01:09:50

The generosity of God should show forth in the generosity of his people. If we are to be like Christ, we are to be generous people.

01:09:59

So, that again is application, but it's also pointing them to what the ultimate lesson is, and that is what

01:10:07

Christ has done. This is the reason why we do this, because of what has been done for us.

01:10:13

So, in your Sunday school class, are there times where you may have a hard time, and this will kind of draw to a closer, do you have hard time sometimes connecting things to the gospel?

01:10:22

Do you sometimes not feel as obligated since it's a lesson and not necessarily a sermon? No, we're typically trying to make

01:10:30

Christ the focus. It doesn't, I won't say it doesn't always happen, we're in Hebrews.

01:10:37

I mean, the whole theme of the book is Christ is better. So, it's very hard not to talk about Christ as a focus in there.

01:10:44

And right now, we're in the Hall of Faith. So, I mean, everything has to do with God's covenant faithfulness right now with Abraham and Noah and all those.

01:10:53

But anyway, we were in 1 John, we're going through some of the, this was almost two years ago.

01:10:58

We've been in Hebrews a year and a half, so that's how slow we're going, which is fine. But we were in 1

01:11:05

John a little over a year, I think. And there were times where you had to draw that application out,

01:11:11

I'm sure, just thinking back. But even when I'm not teaching, like a couple of weeks ago, we got on the topic of faith, and I know we're trying to draw it close, but we got on the topic of faith and someone mentioned, do you ever feel like when you're praying and you're repenting, you don't feel worthy of God's forgiveness?

01:11:31

And then it kind of got sidetracked to almost like of,

01:11:37

I got to do better mentality. And I don't know, that ain't what people were thinking, but it sounded like that to me.

01:11:42

So, at the end of class, I just drew it back to, it ain't about us, it's about what He's done for us and we're in Christ.

01:11:50

So, He's holding on to us, He's going to perfect the work, finish the work He began in us, those kinds of things, drawing it back to Jesus' influence over our life, and it's about Christ.

01:11:59

So, we try to make Christ the focus as much as possible, because that's the purpose. You've got to push it back to the gospel.

01:12:07

Now, typically, it's not necessarily the end of the lesson, it's like sprinkled all through it as we discuss things and talk it out.

01:12:16

So, we don't necessarily have to, I know at the end of a sermon, you're driving that point home, that's the application, you're trying to make it drive the gospel home because you're fixing to offer up an opportunity for response and things of that nature.

01:12:32

But in the Sunday School class, it kind of gets interwoven through as we talk and discuss the text.

01:12:41

Yeah, and we don't do an invitation, but we have the Lord's Supper after the service, or after the sermon. So, it is, in that sense, an opportunity for response.

01:12:49

It's not, you know, come forward. It's an opportunity to be confronted with the truth of the gospel and what did

01:12:56

Christ do for us. It's presented to us here in the bread and the cup.

01:13:02

But you're right, and this is a key point, is the message of our sermons, and even our

01:13:10

Bible lessons, is not, do better, try harder. It's not, you know, you are going to find your satisfaction in how hard you try, but rather it's, are we trusting

01:13:26

Christ in this? Are we trusting Christ in our marriage? Are we trusting Christ in our finances? Are we trusting

01:13:31

Christ in our grief? Are we trusting Christ in our work life? All of these are the...and

01:13:38

so, again, points back to Christ, whether it's a sermon on marriage, which does have things.

01:13:43

Hey, as a husband, these are things you should be doing. As a wife, these are things you should be doing. But ultimately, are we trusting Christ in these things, rather than just, you know, white -knuckle it, which, you know, there's something to be said for spiritual discipline, and we do encourage that.

01:13:59

So, it's difficult, I think, at times where the sermon becomes all about what you do, and rather than, hey, what has

01:14:08

Christ done? Pastor Cody had an excellent illustration about that.

01:14:14

He said, when it comes to effort, there's supposed to be effort in the Christian walk, you know, discipline yourselves in the godliness.

01:14:22

He said, if I was to walk up behind my, you know, six, seven -year -old son, and there's a 50 -pound dumbbell in front of him, say, pick that up and walk with it.

01:14:30

And he bends down, and he tries his hardest to pick it up. He's like, Dad, I can't move it. Well, it's then

01:14:35

I come behind him, and I help him lift it, and we move it together. That's the idea of, in your

01:14:41

Christian walk, you're not going to do it perfectly. You might even have times where you can't get moving, but God will help you move because he's helping you along as you move toward sanctification and Christlikeness.

01:14:52

So, it's the Father helping you. You're not doing all the lifting. He's doing lifting and doing his work through you.

01:15:01

But you're still supposed to make an effort to move the weight. Yeah, we won't. Exactly. So, but anyhow.

01:15:07

Well, Uncle Rich, I'm very thankful for the time that we've had together. I hope people have hung with us because I think we gave some good thoughts.

01:15:15

We can't just do an hour. No, I knew that wasn't going to happen. But, and again, we did 10 things.

01:15:21

So, it's a lot, and hopefully people will take the things to heart that are useful. And if there are questions that you want to add and things you want us to go over further, we can always do this again.

01:15:33

Maybe address a particular thing and drive a little bit more into the methods and things that help us to be at least moderately successful in what the

01:15:44

Lord's called us to do. Any final thoughts? No, sir. I think that's it. All right.

01:15:51

Well, thank you for being here. I appreciate it. No problem. And I want to thank you guys for being a part of the show. As always,

01:15:56

I appreciate you being in the audience and hanging with us for these podcasts. And I want to remind you, if you enjoy the show, hit the subscribe button.

01:16:04

If you liked this episode, hit the thumbs up button. And if you didn't like it, hit the thumbs down button twice and send a text to Uncle Rich.

01:16:11

His number is, hold on. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for listening to your

01:16:19

Calvinist podcast. My name is Keith Foskey and I've been your Calvinist. May God bless you.