I once said to a friend, “I’m reading the Psalms.” He replied, “I am living the Psalms.” My friend was a young preacher whose wife was divorcing him. He was going through deep waters and was finding comfort in the Psalms. David the main contributor to the Psalms wrote many of the Psalms out of great affliction, such as, when he was fleeing as a fugitive from jealous King Saul or dealing with the rebellion of his son Absalom.
Read moreNEW Factual Data Sheet for Hebrew Poetry (Proverbs) Part Two
There was a little shoe repair store in the town we live near for fifteen years which we drove past many times. The owners had a small sign hanging outside their front door that I read very often: "If the shoe fits, repair it." That is an example of the genre of Hebrew Poetry that we are studying in the book of Proverbs.
Read moreNEW Factual Data Sheet for Hebrew Poetry (Proverbs) Part One
I got the idea for “The Factual Data” sheet from reading that Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for all sermon preparation. I have adapted “The Factual Data” sheet to the different genres of Scripture instead of one size fits all. I have a "The Factual Data" Sheet also for Pauline Epistles, Narratives (Genesis and Nehemiah), Gospels (Mark), and Hebrew Poetry (Psalms and Proverbs).
Read moreThe "Factual Data" Sheet for Narratives (Book of Joshua)
The idea of The “Factual Data” sheet comes from reading that Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for sermon preparation. I have adapted the “Factual Data” sheet to the different genres (Poetic, Epistles, Narratives of Joshua, Nehemiah, and Mark) of Scripture instead of the one-size-fits-all approach. See David Howard, Jr.’s An Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books for move helpful background material for Joshua.
The “Factual Data” sheet helps an expositor be text-driven in preaching God’s Word.
First, the “Factual Data” sheet enables the Bible student to interpret a text in the context of the Biblical passage. It is like a funnel that is big at the top and narrows down to the text itself. The interpreter starts with the remote context (context of the genre) and works his way to the immediate context (the book of the Bible in which the text is found).
Next, the “Factual Data” sheet helps the Bible student get inside the text itself. This is where, in the case of narratives, the unique characteristics of this genre are helpful in interpreting the text and also finding the Main Point of the Sermon (MPS), and outlining or developing the MPS. We begin with the context.
Read more“The Factual Data” Sheet for Narratives (The Book of Nehemiah)
The idea of “The Factual Data” sheet comes from reading that Warren W. Wiersbe’s homiletic teacher, Lloyd Perry used a generic “Factual Data” sheet for sermon preparation. I have adapted “The Factual Data” sheet to the different genres of Scripture instead of one-size fits all approach.
Read more