So what is the connection between inductive Bible study and expository preaching. It’s extremely simple. Inductive Bible study is three steps. If you know what they are, you can shout them out: 1) Observation; 2) interpretation; 3) application. What is expository preaching in its simplest form: I’m going to read my text; I’m going to explain my text; and then I’m going to apply my text. They’re directly connected. There are steps in between, but you can start out with an inductive Bible study, that’s the foundation. I’m going to study my text—observe, interpret, apply—but then as I go to my sermon, I’m actually going to read, explain, apply. Now, I am going to edit, I’m going to organize, so that’s a part of it that we’ll do after the study, but essentially every Saturday I start out doing an inductive study on my text. It’s my foundation. You might know that with inductive Bible study technically it’s without tools—it’s you, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit. That’s why it’s so powerful to do that in Africa.
My African pastors have no tools. They have no smart phones, so it actually is just them, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible. For years I’ve taught this with people with zero tools, so we’re going to Americanize this a little bit, and we’re going to use a little bit of software, a little bit of smart phone today because we have it. You guys have a lot of tools, but we’re going to kind of keep it simple still. I’d like to do this first three-hour part where I’m just doing inductive study—yeah, I’m not using tools yet, I want to firsthand just me, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit is the foundation—and if I were to fast forward, what happens then when I do go to read in the afternoon, I’m actually reading my commentaries and books with questions in my mind that came out of my inductive study, things that I couldn’t quite figure out—when did Paul write this letter, where did he write this letter, who is this person. If I go to read my books with questions in my mind, I’m reading much more aggressively rather than being fed what the author’s trying to tell me. If I’m reading with questions—inductive questions, things that I didn’t know—I’m using my books to help me preach the sermon, I’m actually pulling stuff out. It’s a very powerful way. I think you read wiser, if you read with questions already in your mind.
You’ve heard it often said, if you go and read your books before you study, or first, they’re spoon-feeding you; and if you’re not careful, you might just preach that or copy that rather than have your own message. I think almost everybody so far this week has talked about how they like to start their study with just them, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit first before you use the tools, so we’ll do that. But then, we will use some Blue Letter Bible. We’ll do a little bit of Blue Letter Bible a little bit later.
Let me talk about inductive study here. You’ve got your observation and interpretation, so I’m going to pretend like this is a piece of paper, and application. So, three steps, three columns, and I’m going to make this very simple. What I like to do is first I’m going to observe certain words in my text, and here I only write down words in the Bible. We’re just going to observe certain words, and we’re going to talk about that and pick some things out to look at, but then when I interpret, I’m going to use some tools. Largely here, for me, it’s word studies, cross-references, and we use tools for that, and then application comes last.
We’ve been talking a little bit about authorial intent. That’s a term I don’t normally use, but it’s genius. Should I write it down? How bout a different color. What did the author mean to say? When I first started teaching, I had such a fear of teaching something wrong. I read about 20 books on hermeneutics. I have a whole shelf. My background was engineering. I have a degree in engineering, and God called me to be a pastor. I often wondered, Why didn’t I get to go to Bible school? Instead I was in engineering school, but I will say, this is the scientific method. Every penny I made as an engineer was having a lab book, doing experiments, interpreting those things, then building technology. It’s the same sort of thinking.
But inductive Bible study does a very critical thing to keep you out of false interpretations is if you do it properly, it’s always 1-, 2-, 3- and when you’re doing interpretation, you’re doing what John talked about today. I’m going to talk about the New Testament. When you talk about, “What did the author mean?”, you have to go back to the first century. You’re asking the question, “What did this text mean to the person who wrote it and the person who received it?” So, when we talk about there being one interpretation and many applications, the key to that is that everything interpreting, I have to go back to the writer and the recipients. What did he mean, and what did they hear. I have to go back in time.
Those hermeneutical principles that John was listing about historical background, cultural background, geographical background, what am I doing? I’m trying to re-create the original author and the original hearers. That’s what’s so hard is that I’ve got to go back two thousand years. So, I’ve got the time gap—remember John did the gaps—and then I’m in the Middle East, I’m not in Southern California. I’m in the Middle East, so I’ve got a time gap, a culture gap, historical gap, so I have to go back in time. As I’m doing that, the idea of one interpretation is it’s going to mean what the author meant, and that’s what I’m after. That’s hard work. I’m actually kind of trying to re-create something from two thousand years ago.
I don’t know if you do this sometimes when you’re reading your New Testament, do you ever imagine sitting in a house church in the first century, and you realize that they didn’t have copies of the Bible, somebody had a scroll, and they’re reading it out loud. Have you ever tried to put yourself like in that seat where I’m hearing the Word of God, just I’m hearing somebody read it, and that’s how they received the Word. How would they hear it, and what was he saying, and this is that hard work. But it also keeps you safe in interpretation because I’m sticking to this is the meaning, this is what the author meant, and that has to control me, and that’s the hard work part. That’s why we often say, one interpretation, it’s the authorial intent—what was he saying? Are you guys tracking with me? I’m going to go to hyperspace. Are you ready? Is it hyperspeed or hyperspace? Am I confusing Star Trek and Star Wars? I’m not sure which one’s which.
Something I learned from John Stott, you guys have the book, Between Two Worlds, fantastic book. That book kind of knocked me out because I think it was referred to earlier that Stott is a very famous interpreter, but he got convicted that he didn’t have enough application in his sermons, so he went on like a quest to become better at that. He came up with a little analogy, and it was the analogy of a bridge. The way he describes it in the book, there’s a chapter, I actually read it this morning before I came over, is that when I go from interpretation to application, I’m going from the first century to the twenty-first century. Anytime in my study I begin to think or talk about today or an illustration or an application of anything going on in my life, in my city, with the people I’m talking with, anything that goes to today, I left interpretation and now I’m doing application. Now, is that wrong? This is really important. Is it wrong to apply the Scriptures? No. You have to apply the Scriptures. But the thing is, before you apply, you’ve got to interpret. If I don’t understand what he’s saying, well then my application could be totally off base. The beauty of inductive Bible study is I’m building on observation and then this work of interpretation, but then I can have many applications based on solid interpretation. Stott says what a preacher is actually doing is you’re building a bridge between the first century and the twenty-first century, and if you don’t build that bridge, people might not apply it to their lives. They may not connect it.
It is true the Holy Spirit can apply Scripture. Can I get a big, “Amen.” In fact, how many times, if you’re doing a good job of re-creating what was going on in the church at Corinth and you start to use some background and history and all of the sudden people start seeing what the Bible is saying and they see the context and all of the sudden the Word comes alive, things start to pop and people will start to apply the Word to their life in very profound ways. That’s fundamental and first, but then Stott says your job, you’ve got to build a bridge.
A lot of people don’t see the connection between the Bible and their life or the Bible world and today’s world. So, as I’m doing this, it becomes a very natural thing to help people build the bridge and help them to see how it does speak and how it does apply, and as the Lord leads you, this is where pastor-teachers are essential, right? A pastor is sensitive to the needs of his flock. I’m praying for them, and I know what people are going through. I don’t sermon-point, I don’t aim sermons at people, but I am aware. I’m praying for my people every day. I know what’s happening in the body and the life, so as I’m praying about application, it’s pastoral.
I’m very close to the fires, guys. My son and my nephew both lost their home in the Altadena fire. I’ve been pretty immersed in ministering to people. A school burned down in Altadena, we adopted them, and they had their school in our church for three months. Their school is a private school of 250 kids, and 50 families lost their homes. We were doing like a ministry of kind of reuniting the students with their teachers and keeping life, you know, getting the kids back to school kind of got life going again. We had are arms around them. You know what’s funny, one thing I learned is we have an awful lot of worship songs with the word “fire” in it. I would be picking worship songs that would talk about fire in a positive way, and I thought, Lord, Jesus, thank You. You had to be sensitive with our worship songs. We had to be careful with that. Even in the teaching of the Word, for those three months, February through April, as we were ministering to these people, of course I was sensitive to the loss and like a grieving.
As you’re studying and giving the Word, how many of you felt that way during Covid? I was in 2 Corinthians during Covid for that whole 2020, and there’s so much suffering. Anybody a fan of Alan Redpath, his book on 2 Corinthians? Isn’t suffering in the title? I found myself, it was like each week, helping people move on with their lives and get their lives back. This is what pastors do is we’re teaching the Word—it’s eternal, timeless, changeless—but as a pastor, I build a bridge and I apply the Word to myself first, but I’m aware, and I’m praying for people, I’m feeding them. That’s what a pastor-teacher is.
Have you noticed that you can’t just watch videos on Sunday? You could watch the best teachers in the world. Have you ever wondered, Why don’t we just watch a video of my favorite teachers? Why not? Because they’re not the pastor of that church. They can’t connect those, even they could be the best teachers in the world, but if they’re not pastoring that church, they can’t really do this for your people, that’s why you’re there, right? This part of application is prayerful, pastoral, knowing needs, and just sharing the Word right into that.
I’ve gained a lot from Stott. What happens is this protects you from false teaching. We talked about these words, can I use a couple big words? Terry’s not here, right? Alright, so we’re going to use some big words. We’ve used this word “exegesis” and “eisegesis.” Exegesis the word “ek” the Greek preposition means out, and “eis” is the Greek preposition that means in. Exegesis is when I’m drawing my message out of the text, and eisegesis is when I’m bringing my message into the text. In terms of inductive Bible study, the way that works is that if I’m doing inductive Bible study right, I’m starting with the text—the text is king—and from the words of the text I’m drawing out what do they mean. If I do a good job of interpretation, then I can maybe apply it to today, but it’s coming out of the Scripture.
So, what is eisegesis? Well, normally eisegesis, instead of going 1-, 2-, 3-, eisegesis is, “I’ve got a thought in my head, and I want to find a verse to support that.” What am I going to do? I’m going to go from here, application, number three, and I’m going to read back in. Eisegesis is reading back in. I’m actually looking for something in the Bible to say what I want it to say. I’m reading back into the Bible. Well, you’re going to get a bad teaching. That’s eisegesis.
The other classic is the other way around. A person reads the Bible, observes something, and they skip step two. They go from one, observation, to application, three. So, what happens? If I observe something in the Bible and I don’t interpret, I don’t slow down, and I just go from observing to application, well, I can get anything out of the Bible then, right? I’m in big trouble.
You guys heard I love G. Campbell Morgan. One of his ways of illustrating a text without a context is a pretext, he talks about someone seeking God’s will, takes their Bible, goes outside, lets the wind blow the pages around and then puts their finger down. You know, “I want a Word from the Lord,” and “Judas went and hanged himself.” He says, “No, that can’t be right.” They shut it and open it again, and again let the wind blow it around, and it says, “Go thou and do likewise.” This idea of just observing and applying and not interpreting, well then you could make this Book do all kinds of weird things, right?
What is inductive Bible study? It’s sort of a lot of the great principles of hermeneutics if you just kind of carefully do this work of observe first, then interpret, then apply, you keep on the right track. You stay close to the Scriptures. Again, we’ve talked about a lot, it’s work, and you struggle, and it’s not that easy, but these steps keep you out of a lot of trouble. It’s sort of a diagnostic tool as you understand it and you listen to teaching, it becomes pretty obvious where people go wrong. You can sort of diagnose where a teaching got off the trail, and usually it’s the interpretation part got skipped. They didn’t let the Scripture control that one meaning before the applications.
The other thing that I like to do is if you have a chart like this and you’re working through your text, it’s sort of obvious where you’re weak. I’ll just use myself as an example. I, too, used to just focus almost a hundred percent on interpretation because I enjoyed that part, and you could just see in my work that this was full and this was sort of empty because I wasn’t putting much time into how I would apply it, and I got convicted when I read Stott that I could work harder. It was a diagnosis I could just see, and even as I’ve tried to help students and other preachers, when you work in this way, you can virtually just look at their work and say, “Where are the holes? Where didn’t they do the work? What’s missing,” and you can grow and get better. Even as you’re listening to other teachers, it becomes sort of a way of seeing where it’s strong and weak and how would you even encourage somebody in how they’re teaching—what is being left out. It’s a really great way to grow.
Before I go further, any questions about this idea of what we’re trying to do? (Question being asked) We’re going to do it here in just a minute, but usually I just put words from the Bible here, and then if I’m going to look up words in a Greek dictionary, that’s going to go in the middle. Here’s the thing, you can find almost anything in the Bible. People do weird things. If I’m reading in, if I’m looking for something, it’s like when you do Google searches, you’re going to find what you’re looking for. Normally, it’s bad because you’re searching…you know when it comes to Scripture, know I want Scripture to speak to me. That’s the power of these words—“ek” it should be coming out not the other way around.
How many of you have done inductive Bible study before, a little bit. So, it’s in the air. It’s interesting to me that we have those two verses, right? Nehemiah 8:8, “So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading.” Well, that’s good. That’s it. Then, 1 Timothy 4:13, “Till I come, give attention to reading,”—of Scripture, and depending on your translation—“to exhortation, to doctrine.” I think the NIV says, “ . . . to preaching and to teaching.” This is what we’re talking about.
Give me more. What else do you got? Don’t go easy on me.
(Question) Primarily, I’m just making it simple, cross-references, Scripture interpreting Scripture, and word studies. I tend to in my notes, that is filled with that for the most part, but it would include other things. I’ll give you some examples of where historical background comes in or cultural, geographic. These are things that help me interpret and re-create that first century world.
(Question) It’s a tricky question. He’s saying about application, what kind of keeps it from going off track. Could I flip that question around the other way? I think of the application as being something where you want to be creative. Warren Wiersbe wrote a book that I found shocking. How many Warren Wiersbe fans in the house? So, Warren is Baptist to the bone, but he wrote a book called, Preaching & Teaching with Imagination. How many of you guys know this book? That book, I still have a hard time believing he wrote it, and I have a hard time believing he wrote it in his older age because he’s basically saying that we need to be more creative in how we teach, and it’s one of his biggest books, have you noticed? It’s like 300 pages where he’s encouraging you when you’re…it’s sort of like John Stott, same thing. It’s like shocking where they said there came a point in their ministry where they realized they were so focused on interpretation that they needed to work more on applying the Scriptures. Stott wrote a whole book. You have it in your bag. Who’s got a copy? Pull it out. This book really helped me.
So, Between Two Worlds, what he’s saying is the Bible world, first century interpretation, and then today’s world. Look at that. That’s a big fat book—265 pages of you better connect the Bible to your audience. And Wiersbe, Preaching & Teaching with Imagination. I read that and thought, Yeah, I give myself a bad grade. It needs more prayer to do some good solid application. I think you understand my heart, I think in some ways maybe we need to be a little more creative.
(Question) Well, here’s probably the best example. Let’s say I have my Sunday school teachers come in my office and we do my study for Sunday for the adults, but then as they’re kind of catching what I’m saying, we’ll start working on this, and they’ll start applying that Scripture to their class and how they would explain that Scripture to their class, and suddenly, they’re talking about things I don’t even know what they’re talking about—what’s the latest toy? What’s the new thing on the playground? Then, I realize, as they’re really kind of catching this, they’re communicating the Scriptures to that second grader.
Or, I love my youth pastors. They’ve got a different audience, right? So, they’re talking to the high schoolers and we’ll do the same thing. If they’re tracking with me and they start coming up with things happening in the youth group that aren’t happening with the adults that they might want to address. Sometimes it’s like hard core, so I could say creative sometimes in that they’re going to address something here that maybe it’s sin going on among our teenagers that I don’t even hardly know about. Or, creative would be something going on in pop culture that they could actually, in light of the Bible, give kids wisdom about. I actually enjoy that part. I find myself when I’m sitting on Saturday, I’m praying for my Sunday school teachers who are also preparing, and I’m also praying for my youth pastors that are getting ready. We’re kind of doing the same thing.
Anything else before we plunge on? You feel kind of comfortable because we’re going to do this real simple, but I’ll just show you how I do it. Alright, so Hebrews 12. I’m not a sneaky person. I don’t like to keep secrets. Why did I go to Hebrews 12? I preached this at Revival two months ago. What I’m going to do is show you how I studied and prepared this message, but then you could actually watch this message and see how it turned out. We’re going to do kind of like, we actually are the two or three in my study on Saturday morning. Do you feel it? I’m going to go backwards and do the steps, but then the actual sermon that I preached at Revival, it’s on the website, and we could watch it and tear it to shreds together. That was a joke, guys. I need a little help because we have three days. We don’t have endless time, so I’m going to have to…part of what happens when I’m studying with others on Saturday, I slow down. When I’m in my study by myself, I am Michael Jordan—I have four or five basketballs are all on my fingers, and I’m going a hundred miles per hour. But if I’m doing it with others, I’ve got to just slow down. But, because we have today, tomorrow, Friday, yeah, we’ll get to that point where, how did this turn out? What did that sermon look like?
Like I said…John and I talked about maybe having some of you preach as a part of this exercise. Now it’s getting really quiet. I thought, well, that may or may not happen. This is a large group. But I did preach this sermon here just two months ago, so it’s kind of like John’s going to do the rapture teaching tonight. It’ll be fascinating tomorrow morning. You’re going to hear it. How did he organize that? So, he’s not sharing with you the study part, but he’s going to share with you the notes part, and then you can kind of pick his brain. I think it’s a good thing, right? We’re going to do something sort of similar, but it will be from the beginning, middle, to the end. That’s why I’m here in Hebrews 12. I’m going to say a prayer because this is what I do. I’m not going to try to do this without prayer. Are you ready? Again, this is for real, actually, it’s not quite for real, is it. I’ve already preached the sermon, but it’s as real as we can make it!
Father, it’s just true, the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit, they are spiritually discerned, so unless Your Holy Spirit helps us, it won’t pop, you know? We all know what it’s like when the Word is alive, and when the Word is our hearts do burn. It’s really the fuel and the passion of our preaching is the work You do in our hearts when we’re studying, so I pray that in some measure, even here in a class, that could happen again because I do know it is Your will. You do reveal Yourself, and You have given Your Spirit. The same Spirit that inspired the writer can inspire us to understand what the writer wrote, so we say, “Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord Jesus. Amen.”
Okay, so here we go. Let me just read the text, Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” So, I pray, and then I just sort of follow my heart. Now, a lot of times if I’m by myself and I’m heading towards, I’m going to use some software here in a little bit, I might just go through every single word, looking these words up. I can’t really quite do that right, we don’t have enough time for that, but I’ll kind of just give you some of the feel.
Oh, I’ve got to ask you guys a favor. Can you, in however you do it, begin to do this with me whether you’re on a computer or you’ve got a piece of paper, to actually get the max I need you to…and however you like to do your study. If you are a computer person, do it however you capture or a piece of paper, but please work with me because I’m going to ask you to help me and write some things down. So, however you do it. If you do it with paper or a computer, but go ahead and just start doing this. It doesn’t have to look exactly like this, but you heard me say the other day, “I use a capture sheet.” So, as I’m studying, I’m collecting ideas, and I’m putting it on a piece of paper. However you do that, if you could start doing that right now, this will carry us through the next three days. Are you with me? It could be on your computer. I’m not going to accept that you’re doing it in your head. That’s not going to work. We’ve got three days, so you’ve got to have something, so either write it down or I’m going to ask you at different points, I’m going to ask you to write down certain thoughts that God’s given you.
(Question) This is a pretend sheet of paper. It’s a big one that you can see. If I have my guys in my office, it’s just a piece of paper on my desk, but for the sake of the class, I’ll do a little bigger. Please start. If you don’t do it, I might hurt you. I’m a nice guy, but are you with me? I’m watching. That’s why I like to walk around, to see what people are doing. You see, I can handle an iPad, that’s cool, a little notebook. I was in a Bible college for a while, so sometimes you’ve got to walk around and see what’s going on. Everybody good? However you capture it, right? That’ll work. Oh, look at this guy. Where did you get this? This is Dan Finfrock stuff. Dan’s here already. Yeah, Pastor Dan.
So, verse 1, “Therefore,” well, if I see a “therefore” I gotta grab it. What is “therefore” doing? Well, it’s connecting me to everything said before. I’m going to have to think about the context. Also, “we also,” oh boy. I get excited about just about everything, so you guys are going to figure this out right away. “We also,” ooo that’ll preach! Now, let me see if I can maybe explain that, “we also,” we just finished chapter 11, the hall of faith, by faith all the heroes of the Old Testament, it’s quite jarring to enter chapter 12 and have a “we also,” so it’s heading towards application. By the way, I hated English in school. Anybody with me? I especially hated grammar, but man, grammar. You guys have heard this phrase many times, “We interpret with a historical, grammatical method.” The best definition I’ve ever heard of that is we interpret according to the facts of history and the laws of grammar, so the more I can learn about grammar. I usually apologize to the church when I say things like, “We is first person plural, it’s suddenly gotten personal after a whole chapter of not personal.” “We also,” it’s “therefore” is a marker, “we also” is a marker. We’re going to start to apply this to our lives.
Somebody asked the other day about application and that some parts of Scripture aren’t really application oriented. That’s true, but then other parts of the Scriptures are application. When I hear a “we also,” I know that we’re going to be talking about application. I get pretty jazzed about that.
“ . . . since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,” I’m going to grab the word “cloud” and “witnesses.” Now, I just skipped a bunch of words. I’m going to limit myself to four, five, six observations per verse. I don’t have enough space. Again, I would normally do them all, but I know where I’m going. And then, I’m going to “ . . . run with endurance the race that is set before us.” I’m very curious about the word “endurance” and the word “race.” So, for the purpose of our study this afternoon, I’m just going to limit myself there to some of those words. Now, again, for the purpose of the class I must spin my board. I’m feeling like “Wheel of Fortune.”
I’m going to look at verse 2, “looking unto Jesus,” oh, I’m very curious, what does that “looking unto Jesus.” “ . . . the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him,” I have to tell you, the first time I read that, it hit me like a ton of bricks that there was joy at the cross. Sometimes you’re studying along and it’s like you never read it before in your life. When I read that, there was joy at the cross! I want to study that. He, “ . . . endured the cross,” I’m always interested when a word gets repeated. He just said we’ve got to “ . . . run with endurance the race that is set before us,” but now he says, “looking unto Jesus,” because He endured. I want to see, is that the same word in the Greek language? Is it really a repetition? Any time I get a little repetition, I’m going to circle that. I want to connect because he’s emphasizing something.
“ . . . despising the shame.” We’re going to take a break here in just a minute because it’s 2:30, and after the break, I’m going to come back and we’re going to do word studies. I’m going to use Blue Letter Bible, and I’m going to cast it on the screens so you can see my iPad, but then you might also have the ability to pull it up on your laptop or iPad. We have a half-hour break, so you actually could download it on your device, if you don’t have Blue Letter Bible, if you want to have it right in front of you. But, I’m just going to go through some word studies.
Before we take the break, I just want to think a second about the context. It started out this, “ Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,” he’s talking about chapter 11, all the heroes, “By faith Abel . . . By faith Enoch . . . Noah . . . Abraham . . . Sarah . . . Isaac . . . Jacob . . . Joseph,” but then as he talks about running the race, “ . . . looking unto Jesus,” this “ . . . great a cloud of witnesses,” it seems like he’s talking about the ones who’ve gone before, and then we run this race. In Hebrews 12, just look down at verse 12, Hebrews 12:12, he says, “Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.” To me, that’s some context. He’s sort of picturing running a race and he’s fixing a great crowd of spectators, and then to bring it back in verses 12, 13, he’s still got this picture in his mind. In fact, look at Hebrews 12:11, “No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained,” that’s an athletic term. It’s talking about discipline, the discipline of the Lord, but he’s still seeing the picture of a runner in a race, so before we get into these details of the word studies, I’m pretty certain that these two verses have the context in Hebrews 11 before of “ . . . great a cloud of witnesses,” and then running of a race and not giving up, and so as I’m zeroing in, before I look at the trees, the context before us, like in my study I want to sort of read, I just did it really fast.
If we were together for a really long time, if you read all the way through verses 11 into 12, they’re completely connected, and as it keeps going forward this idea of running a race is like the life of faith, I can already say, this is sort of how it happened for me, a message was already kind of in my mind about running the race and keep going. The title of this message ended up being “Keep Going,” and what was happening to me personally, I was very inspired after Hebrews 11, this picture of now the baton has been passed and now I’m running the race. I felt kind of lifted, and I felt like I had this appetite for this text because I needed the encouragement to keep going, and it was already kind of working for me.
Do you remember we were talking about, where do these sermons come from, and we struggle and battle, but sometimes like a message or a word starts to come up. Just for me already at this point in my study, I was really getting into this idea of the race and the encouragement to keep going. I felt like as a theme or even a title, “Keep Going,” it was already kind of in my mind. So, I’m going to break the rules before the break. What am I talking about? I’m talking about context. I’m talking about where am I? I’m flowing through Hebrews. Over here in application I’m kind of, I’ve already got a theme kind of working in my mind. A lot of times in my notes in the top right capture, if there’s like a big idea already kind of rising up, for me it was, “Keep Going.” I was feeling it. That’s just the way it happened, and that was from the context. It was from the flow.
I actually did 50 messages in the book of Hebrews. I just finished, and what we did was every Old Testament quotation, we went back and looked it up. I wanted my people to know their Old Testament, and every Old Testament person, we went back and looked it up, so I did an in-depth on Hebrews because I wanted all my New Testament Christians to know their Old Testament.
I took a year, I took 50 messages, and somehow when I got to this point, I flipped into 12, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus,”—I’m starting to preach now—“the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” That got me. I’ve got goosebumps, check it out, bro.
