Forward

FOREWORD I have chosen to write this my first book and entitle it, “Becoming A Mature Christian”, because this is the area in my opinion is the most needed in the Church of Christ. This has been the area I have tried to concentrate on in my 39 years of teaching and conducting Bible studies. This is also the area I have found the least amount of writing that exists within our brotherhood. While there has been no lack of men with knowledge to preach and conduct Bible studies within the brotherhood, I have found there is a surprising lack of these studies put down for others to study and learn from. This was the niche I have devoted my life to, developing studies and sermons and putting them down on paper, so others could use them, if they so desired.

I do not mean to sound like I think I am better at getting up studies than anyone else, or that my studies are so clear and full of wisdom, but rather almost anything is better than nothing, as long as it is from the word of God. I do not claim to have developed a new style of conducting Bible studies. At an early age, I knew I wanted to do personal work for the Lord and I found the style that suited me in the book, “From House to House” by Ivan Stewart. I had no desire to teach publicly, as I was extremely shy and was scared to death at just the thought of standing before a group, let alone talking. But I quickly learned the people I had been studying with were more likely come to the worship services of the Church to hear me if I would but speak and that is how I started teaching publicly.

The method I use to get my studies and sermons together is time consuming, but it works for me. The longest time I worked on any single sermon was approximately eight months was two sermons I worked on simultaneously, “The Establishment of the Kingdom” and “Grace”. I will use the sermon “The Establishment of the Kingdom” as an example of how I get sermons and studies together.

The first stage is what I call, “Gathering the Information Stage”. During this stage of preparing a sermon, I try to find every verse I can find on the subject. I also write down stories I think may help explain what I am trying to say, as well as any thought, poem, song, or anything I can think of. During this stage, I do not try to eliminate any verse or form any opinion or preconceived idea. My purpose is to study to learn what the Holy Spirit intended on the matter. I just try to gather information. For example, in preparing the sermon, “The Establishment of the Kingdom”, during this phase, I went through Strong’s Concordance and Young’s Concordance, just listing every verse I could find that included the words, kingdom, king, and ruler.

The second stage, I call “The Culling Stage”. During this stage, I start reading the verses for context and eliminating verses that obviously do not deal with the topic of the lesson. For example, when I was preparing my sermon, “The Establishment of the Kingdom”, during the second part of the preparation, “The Culling Stage”, I found many of the verses I had written down, dealt with different earthly kingdoms, earthly kings, and earthly rulers and I eliminated them because I was only interested in the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven. During this stage, the only verses I eliminate are verses that obviously have nothing to do with the topic.

The third stage, I call “Listing of Points Stage”. On this third pass through the sermon, I go into a more in-depth study of each verse. I will look up the Greek words and their meanings, I will read various translations and commentaries, and I begin listing the points are contained within the verse or group of verses. I may also eliminate verses that upon a closer examination do not deal with the topic. During this stage, I actually try to list every point I can find in a verse, whether or not I may end up using the point or not.

The fourth stage, I call “Arranging by Topic Stage”. During this stage, I begin grouping verses together by the points I have listed and by topics or rather subtopics, since by this point in the process most of the verses all deal with one topic. During this stage, I still do not eliminate verses based on anything other than the fact it is obvious they have nothing to do with the subject of the sermon. As I go through the verses and again studying them carefully I begin tying verses together based on the points I have previously listed.

The fifth stage, which I call “The Elimination Stage” I normally go through the entire sermon again for the purpose of eliminating verses. Since by this stage, I have already eliminated verses that do not have anything to do with the topic, I am concentrating on eliminating verses that say the same thing. During this stage of the sermon, I probably do the most praying for the help of God and for understanding. If I have several verses that say the same things, I will try to find the verse that uses words I can explain the easiest or a verse that covers several points simultaneously. I then eliminate the other verses as long as I am sure I am not eliminating any important point.

The sixth and usually the final stage is one I refer to as “The Final Stage”. This part of getting the sermon together is normally the least time consuming since I have already studied the verses within their context and in depth. What I am doing during this final step is simply going through and checking for spelling errors and reading the sermon aloud as I am writing down or since I have began using a computer, keyboarding the final points into the sermon or study. As you can tell, I have no magic potion which enables me to get up and teach, but rather, I have worked out a process which even though it is time consuming seems to work for me. It involves a lot of in-depth studying but I have come to realize that is how God intended it to be.

Isaiah 28:13 "But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."

In Isaiah, God reveals through the Holy Spirit, one of the reasons God has chosen the way he has to deliver the word of God is to cull out those who are lazy or who want to believe what they want. Putting the sense of these verses in my words, what God is saying here is he has chosen to give the Bible a little here and a little there so it takes effort to find everything God has given on a subject. In simple plain English, God has set the Bible up in the way he has to filter out those who will not study to see what God wants them to do.

I hope this is helpful to some in understanding and studying the Word of God and preparing sermons and studies. During the writing of this book, I have had to use the same type of procedures I do in getting up my sermons. I have done my fair share of producing scrap paper in the many rewrites I have done and according to modern scientists I have probably done more than my fair share of contributing to global warming. But I trust in God all things will work together for good to them that love him and look forward to his appearing.