As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Apply the sermon….
If you can’t do that…
Then let someone preach who can and will…
I’ve said it before, but let me say it again…
Some preachers are just delivering religious lectures…
Bear with me for a moment….
Before I Started the M.Div from Vanderbilt Divinity School, I completed a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville…
To complete the degree, I had to take a significant number of Undergraduate and Graduate level Math courses…
It is interesting seeing how different professors in Math approached their calling…
I remember a statistics and probability instructor who never taught anything without applying it.
He mostly applied all of his points to Playing Cards.
He really knew his subject and he had a passion as he taught and applied it…
Then there were other teachers…
They gave dry facts..as if trying to dump a lot of information into our heads…
And they didn’t really apply these facts at all…
Formulas….Functions….abstract math separate from the real world…
These instructors then told us…”You need to know this or that for the test”…
I left those courses without an ability to apply much of it…I couldn’t use much of it…it was really a waste of time…
There are preachers with tendencies towards both of those kinds of teachers…
The preacher who makes the scripture come alive as she or he applies it to the pains and hurts of real people in the real world…
And the preacher who just tells you to cram these facts in your head so you can go to heaven when you pass the heavenly test…
Which is why they tack on a celebration..if you can call it that…about going to heaven on every one of these kinds of sermons….assuming they even do that….
Now which kind of preacher are you?
I know I’m beating a dead horse…but your people have come to worship for an encounter with the most high God…and too many are just giving dry trivia about facts that could be helpful if the preacher only took it one step further and applied it…
You got 10 points…..pare it down…..stop preaching so long….and take one major point….ONE major point….and fully explore it…THEN apply it….apply it to “Grandma and Them”….Yeah….apply it to folks who bout to lose their job…..Apply it to folks who bout to die from cancer…Apply it to folks who are about to bury a child…Apply it to folks going through real world stuff…
APPLY IT YALL!
They didn’t come to church to hear a theological lecture…they came to church to hear a life-giving word from the most High God that is desperately needed to survive another Week…
How do you do that?
I ain’t saying ignore theology….you need to preach it…I ain’t saying ignore your important teachings….
What I am saying is….
Apply….Apply…Apply….
Till next time…Maranatha,
Brother Sherman
P.S. – You can’t apply what you don’t know….and if you want to really know the scripture then follow the steps put forth in the Waves of Exegesis. Check it out here – https://gumroad.com/products/okfy
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.
