04 Meeting God in the Psalms

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Teaching to Change Lives

• If education changed lives…
• How do you measure teachings effectiveness?
• Heart to heart, not head to head.
• First rule is to excite the student about the subject matter

Presuppositions

• Personal experience
• Reading into the Bible
• Correlation
• Shocking passages of scripture
• Hermeneutical circle
• Breaking the hermeneutical circle
• Presuppositions make a difference
• Universal presuppositions
• Experiential presuppositions
• Importance of systematic theology

Four poor substitutes for application

• We substitute interpretation for application.
• We substitute superficial obedience for substantive life-change.
• We substitute rationalization for repentance.
• We substitute an emotional experience for a volitional decision.

Avoid

• “Be perfect” sermons; Examples: Psalm 1 and Psalm 15

Main teaching points

• Principles should correlate with the general teaching of Scripture.
• Principles should speak to the needs, interests, questions, and problems of real life today.
• Principles should indicate a course of action.

Sermon Themes

• Humanity’s radical corruption
• God’s sovereign choice
• Christ’s purposeful atonement
• The Spirit’s effective call
• God’ preservation of the saints

Resources

• What is Reformed Theology? by R.C. Sproul
• Teaching to Change Lives by Dr. Howard Hendricks

For more detail and explanation, please listen to the podcast.

Next: 05 Sharing the Psalms

Previous: 03 Interpreting the Psalms

Series: How to Study Psalms

Resources: Psalms

For more: Bible Study 101

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