February 10, 2009

  • STUDYING FOR A BIBLE LESSON


    An old friend of mine asked me what all he should do to prepare a lesson from the Bible.  Below are the 8 things I "try" and do when studying to prepare a Bible lesson.

    1.  There is no substitute for time in the text.  Read it, then reread it, then read it 5 more times... preferably in multiple translations.

    2.  Pray about it.  I made special care to mention prayer because it is my own personal weakness to get so caught up in the study of Scripture and end up ignoring to pray about the lesson until I am done.  Not something I'm proud of but too often true. 

    3.  Pick out the key words and look them up in a Bible dictionary or some of your Hebrew and Greek references and cross references.  Strongs is the obvious choice here, Vines is also handy, and "The Treasure of Scripture Knowledge" is also a good one.  I use my copy of PC Study Bible for a lot of this, but...
        3.a.  The Online NET Bible has great footnotes - http://net.bible.org/bible.php#n4
        3.b.  Bible.org also has some decent online study tools - http://www.bible.org/index.php?scid=6
        3.c.  BlueLetterBible.org also offers some good free study stuff - http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/

    4.  Look over your Background information... manners & customs, histories, etc.  Its good to have a good Bible atlas and I also tend to use IVP's Bible Background Commentary NT & OT.  Also, John MacArthurs Commentaries typically include helpful background info.

    5.  I can't stress enough the value of determining the "big idea" of a passage and lesson early on.  Once you understand the key point a text is making, and then what God is saying about that key point then the easier it is to make all your sub-points, cross references, and illustrations support that key point instead of distract from it.  Don't ever finish your lesson then try and figure out what the main idea is last!

    6.  Now Dig into your commentaries and outlining books.  A good study bible is always helpful at this stage.  I have a weakness for MacArthurs Commentaries, they are probably some of the most used books in my library.  Warren Wiersbe's "Be" commentary set is also very handy and they are also good because they are more brief.  The Bible Knowledge Commentary is also a great 2 volume commentary on the whole Bible, I use it regularly.  I lean pretty heavy on MacArthur and John Piper because they make so much of their stuff free online...
        6.a.  www.gty.org has a ton of MacArthurs messages FREE to download as MP3's and they also have alot of his messages transcribed.
        6.b.  www.biblebb.org  has a lot of MacArthur messages transcribed which is nice so that you can cut and paste bits and pieces into your lesson notes. 
        6.c.  www.desiringgod.org  is crazy!  They have all of Pipers messages FREE to download, many are transcribed, many are available as videos, they often have study questions you can download, and ALL of his books are also free to download as PDF files.  Thats a lot of free stuff!
        6.d.  www.marshillchurch.org/media/sermons  I have a love/hate relationship with Driscoll.  I love his passion.  I like his ability to keep Jesus and the Gospel front and center in every message and I appreciate how he delivers sermons in a fresh and contemporary way.  I dislike some of his crude humor and sometimes he seems to "shoot from the hip", he is not an exegete of the caliber of MacArthur or Piper.
        6.  www.walkintheword.org  is James MacDonalds site. I use him as a resource often but his website doesn't offer much for free like the ones listed above.

    7.  I try and write out all my stuff into a 4-6 page manuscript that includes all my points, illustrations, bible references, etc. I use these pages to study the couple of days before the lesson and tweak and re-tweak what I will say and what gets left in and left out.  Then the day before the lesson I make my "cheat sheet"... this is a half sheet of paper (front and back) that includes all the main stuff I don't want to forget and that is what I preach/teach from.  I print that onto a page of card stock and fold it in half and that is what I carry into the pulpit.

    8.  Then it doesn't hurt to try and round out your lesson by Googling an article or two on your topic.  Searching for a couple of good illustrations that will support your big idea can be very powerful.  In PC Study Bible I have some "illustration" books but to be honest I usually just Google the topic with the term "sermon illustration" included in the search.

    I don't know how much that helps anyone but that is how I do it... or at least how I "try" to do it when things are going well... now, when you get the call at 9am Sunday morning to fill in for a sick Sunday School teacher at 9:30am... then all the above is out the window and replaced by frantic prayer and page turning! 

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