Page 49 - Homiletics Student Textbook

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B. Steps in Application
1. Know the truth of the text and know yourself.
2. Relate the truth of the text to your experience.
3. Meditate on the truth of the text with a view to letting it help and readjust your life.
4. Practice the truth of the text by living it out in daily life.

C. Questions to Ask
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1. Is there an example for me to follow?
2. Is there a sin to avoid?
3. Is there a promise to claim?
4. Is there a prayer to repeat?
5. Is there a command to obey?
6. Is there a condition to meet?
7. Is there a verse to memorize?
8. Is there an error to mark?
9. Is there a challenge to face?

It is difficult to lay out a process for determining specific applications of a biblical text. The following
excerpt from Duvall’s and Hayes’ book, Grasping God’s Word, puts this discipline into proper
perspective.

Perhaps the best way to make your applications specific is by creating real-world scenarios.
These scenarios function as illustrations or examples of how a person might put the biblical
principles into practice. They help us move beyond abstract principles to capture the color and
emotion of the biblical principle. We are quick to admit that these real-world scenarios are not
on the same level as inspired Scriptures; they are merely illustrations. But we intend for them to
be guided by the Holy Spirit and faithful to the biblical principles (i.e., consistent with the
author’s intended meaning). We also want the contemporary audience to know that God’s Word
is eternally relevant. Real-world scenarios should be both faithful to the meaning of the text and
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relevant to the contemporary audience.

While applications of God’s truth may vary, the truth itself remains constant. It is important for students
of the Word to keep this in mind, not only as they seek valid applications of truth, but especially as they
discuss these applications of truth with others.

8.4 Let’s Practice…

1. Write a definition of an illustration you may use in a sermon:

2. What does it mean that an illustration is ethical?

60 Hendricks & Hendricks, 292-301.
61 Hendricks & Hendricks, 304-307.
62 Duvall & Hayes, 218.
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