I admit that I sometimes have difficulty in the preparation and delivery of sermons when it comes to APPLICATION. In school we were taught that the application must be solid, concrete, specific... The application answers the question, How does this passage/ sermon/ teaching/ truth apply to me? With that question in mind we then move to find different areas of our audiences life that this teaching might fit with.Example: Jesus, with a word, was able to calm the raging seas and howling winds that threatened the life of his disciples. Application - Jesus can handle all the adversity that comes my way. More specific, Jesus can fix my marriage, job, lack of a job, kids, family...
Here is where my difficulty comes. While these things are true, is that really the point that Jesus was making with his disciples? Isn't the real point - HOLY COW, WITH A WORD JESUS CALMED THE RAGING SEAS AND HOWLING STORM! This guy did what no other person could EVER do! Jesus controls nature. Jesus is both creator and sustainer. Now live like it!
I just received a copy of Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis - had to order it from the UK, worth the wait. They quote Chris Wright from The Mission of God and talk about how Jesus IS the focus of God's story, not us. This radically impacts how we think of the Christian life, and how we think of application. Here's the quote I wish I had been able to write:
* We talk about 'applying the Bible to our lives'. What would it mean to apply our lives to the Bible instead, assuming the Bible to be the reality - the real story - to which we are called to conform ourselves?
* We wrestle with 'making the gospel relevant to the world'. But in this story, God
is about the business of transforming the world to fit the shape of the gospel.
* I may wonder what kind of mission God has for me, when I should be asking what kind of me God wants for his mission.
Wow! Those are the right questions! The gospel is transforming - not simply helpful! Ponder those questions and your life in Christ.
