I preached Sunday from Ephesians 4 and over the next two Sundays will work through Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 to unpack some of the wisdom from God to us about the gifts bestowed on believers by the Holy Spirit. This is central to us understanding our place in the body.
I have preached the first sermon and will preach the second and third in the same expository way – unpacking thought at a time what the particular passage in the Bible is saying and then, God willing, we’ll try to apply those things to our daily lives. Bible application is desperately important in preaching and every preacher needs to make sure there is some application of the text in a relevant way. In doing some reading this evening I found this gem about reading and applying the Bible from youth pastor Jeremy Berg.
“Instead of "applying the Bible to our lives" (which again assumes we are the fixed center point and the Word is just a holy ointment to be applied to our souls) let's instead try to "apply ourselves to the Bible." Put narratively, let's not let give God a convenient place within our own story; but rather find ourselves swept up in God's much larger Story!”
Wow! That is good!
Applying ourselves to the Bible might help us become “doers of the word” as Jesus intended. Applying the Bible to us keeps us in the same human centred ethos we so sinfully fall into time and time again.
Wish I had said it!
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