Making The Application

2. Making The Application Romans 10:17 Galatians 5:6

3. Making The Application • We come to faith through hearing, accepting the Word of God • But how do we go from hearing and accepting the Word of God in the Gospel to living the faith in love? • That is what we need to figure out

4. Applying The Message • The process by which we go from Hearing and Acceptance to Living the message is the application process • Seeking to apply to message to life is crucial • To think that the gospel of Jesus Christ is just a set of interesting or even good ideal, or a nice philosophy, is woefully insufficient • Merely Academic Faith is Dead – James 2:14-26

5. Living The Message • Following Jesus – 1 John 2:6 • Doing His commandments – 1 John 2:3-5 • Displaying the fruit of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22-24 • Doing and not just hearing – James 1:22-25

6. Application Often Accompanied by Difficulty • Vast majority of variance in The Faith and practice is in terms of application! • Bible was written to people thousands of years ago to people in different cultures • What do we directly absorb, what do we learn by example, and what should we avoid? • These are serious questions we should consider

7. We Are To Apply God’s Message To Life • Discernment - John 7:24 • This gets to the heart of what is necessary to apply the Gospel to life: DISCERNMENT • We must follow Jesus’ commandments – 1 John 2:3-5 • Recognize that examples illustrate and provide a pattern – 1 John 2:6

8. We Are To Apply God’s Message To Life • There will be times we have to make necessary inferences or use deductive reasoning • In all these things we are still going to be confronted with the great challenge of every age • Assuming we come to the best understanding of the Gospel in context, how do we most faithfully live our the Gospel in our own context? • Will demand discernment of not just what God said, but how we can best put it into practice in our environment- Matthew 16:13

9. We Are To Apply God’s Message To Life • This challenge is immensely frustration to many • Many wonder why so much has been left to us to try to sort out and figure out: • Has God abandoned us, leaving a first century script, expecting us to sort out without assistance how to make it work in the twenty-first century? • God has not abandoned us! He is ever present

10. Core Truths of Gospel Are Timeless • In the New Testament the endeavor to make sense of what God did in Christ, how to encourage other to follow Jesus, and how to make application • What God has declared as right and wrong behavior remains either right of wrong • Cultural changes do not shake God’s standard of justice and righteousness – Galatians 5:17-24 • James exhorts us to pray God for wisdom- James 1:5 • God will provide wisdom, understanding, and insight if we are truly trusting in Him

11. We Are To Apply God’s Message To Life • God’s standard of holiness & righteousness is timeless • Way people look, talk, think, their emphases, have changed over time • Today people in different places, circumstances: struggle with certain sins more that other areas • Certain cultures take certain aspects of righteousness for granted • God in Christ has not hindered the Kingdom with a message that makes sense only in certain cultures at certain times

12. We Are To Apply God’s Message To Life • The Gospel has been revealed so as to be able to be proclaimed to all, heard by all, and applied by all to their lives- Romans 1:16,17; Colossians 1:6 • Discernment is in order! • We must discern our context: • What parts of the Gospel do we naturally find easy to accept? • What aspects are made more difficult because of cultural or social values?

13. We Are To Apply God’s Message To Life • Must Discern what is best to emphasize • Not only speaking what people want to hear as good – 2 Timothy 4:3,4 • Not only cantankerously emphasizing point of disagreement so as to repel any debate – Colossians 4:5,6 • There are times & Seasons to discern how to encourage those outside in the Gospel, but only so as to exhort them toward faith and obedience to Christ – Romans 1:5, 16

14. We Are To Apply God’s Message To Life • What good is denouncing others for their shortcomings and limitations without reference to our own? Matthew 7:1-4 • Our discernment must always be rooted in Christ and informed by the revelation of God in Scripture – Colossians 2:1-10; 2 Timothy 3:14-16 • We must seek to do all things to the glory of God, in harmony with His character and will – Romans 14:6-8; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Peter 4:11

15. Especially Relevant in Proclamation of Gospel • The ultimate benefit of sermons, studies, and lessons derives from their applicability • One can set up a Biblical theme, explain its truth from Scripture, but what then? • If a Biblical principle is explored, demonstrated as true, but then only applied to worldly people, denominationalists, or others, of what value is the lesson to the people actually listening?

16. Especially Relevant in Proclamation of Gospel • What are they being called to do in order to conform to Christ? Romans 8:29 • Whatever lesson we preach or teach should be directed toward the people to whom we are actually speaking to equip them to apply their faith to their lives – Galatians 5:6; Ephesians 4:11-16 • Even if the preacher or teacher does well at providing appropriate application, what then? • Thus discernment is of the greatest importance to application – it is the means by which we decide what must be applied

17. What Else Goes Into Applying the Gospel? • Learning all about the Bible does no good if we cannot apply it to our lives and character • Each of us needs to read the Scripture with the understanding that God is speaking to me • It is my job to figure out what God wants from me so I may live is a way pleasing to Him • Next two lessons will consider more areas in which we can learn to make application