ARME 1: Soquel, CA - Aug 2009

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ARME Bible Camp

Isaac Eliot

Learning to Fish, Part 2

And what we want to do for this afternoon is we want to try to apply some of the things that we've learned when the coordinators of this camp originally gave me their program schedule.

They wanted each of the speakers to do an instructional and then a practical.

And unfortunately, I didn't adhere to that.

But at the suggestion of several of the leaders here, I've decided that It would be well for us and really in light of the fact that it is after lunch It would do well for us to try our hand at applying some of the things that we have learned So this afternoon I want us to split into groups, but before we do that I want to explain what I'm going to ask you to do.

This afternoon, I want to ask you to work in groups to write sermons, okay, write sermons.

Now, not that I'm expecting you to preach these sermons, but why a sermon?

Because a sermon is the ultimate fruit of Bible study in that it not only has the interpretation and the exposition, but it has application.

In other words, what does it mean for the person sitting in the seat?

And that's what we're going to try to do.

But in order to do this, in order to confirm.

Now, as I promised you This session, I wanted to talk about the narratives of the Bible.

The Bible has a great deal of these stories that give us understanding about God and his character and principles that govern the Christian life.

So what I would like to do is I'd like us to study the life of Jacob.

OK, now you might wonder why I just finished a series on the life of Jacob.

And I have to tell you that I did this series overseas.

And in preparation for it, I went and I wrote the series as I was preaching it.

In other words, I hadn't had months and months beforehand, but applying the principles of how to study the Bible and looking at what the Bible says.

I wrote the series there live as I was preaching each of those days.

I believe that people understood what the Bible said and the principles there.

We're going to be looking at Genesis 25 and all I want to do is look at a section of Jacob's life from when he was born to when he was renamed Israel.

Okay, so Genesis 25 and I'm going to give you an example so that you get an idea of what we're talking about.

Genesis 25, I'm going to ask you to look with me at verse 20.

The Bible says in verse 20, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian, of Paddan-Aram, the sister of Laban, the Syrian.

Verse 21, and Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived.

This is just, this is a fact, this is what, this has happened.

Now remember what we said, when you read the Bible, pay attention to the details, right?

Yeah, numbers is good too, but the details, right?

But then the Bible says that they had this problem, but they prayed and God answered the prayer, right?

But if you keep reading, if you come out to verse 26, it says, and after that came his brother out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel and his name was Jacob.

And Isaac was 3 score years old when she bared them.

It was 20 years later when the promise of God was fulfilled.

Now, if I was preaching this as a sermon, Well, first of all, do you notice what have we done so far?

We've done the first step in when you prepare to share something or when you prepare to study, you should observe.

Without putting any applications or any, you know, type of interpretation, we're just looking.

It told us that when they got married, Isaac was 40, they had a problem, she couldn't have children, but when they finally were given children, it was 20 years later.

We're just seeing what does this, what does it say?

The next thing, though, that you have to ask yourself is, well, what does that mean?

These are just facts that are given to us.

So you have to ask yourself, well, what is the principle that's being taught here?

But does he always answer them on the timetable that we would like?

So then the next point would be, so now that you know the principle, the principle is that God answers prayer, but not always as quickly as we would want, then the application is, well, What does this mean for people?

He gave a very interesting illustration about preaching that I would like to give you right now.

And he says, When you are preparing to make applications for an audience, think of 3 chairs.

Think of a young person, a middle-aged person, and an older person sitting in those 3 chairs.

And ask yourself, how would this point be applicable for the young person, for the middle-aged person, and for the older person?

And I think that's very balanced, because again, you'll always have some level of, You'll have a spectrum of ages in your audience.

So the application, if we were to make it to a young person, let's just say, a young person, let's say that he's been praying to God to show him a life partner.

So he's been praying and saying, God, help me to find this right person.

And they've been praying and praying and praying.

The application would be, God hears your prayers, but his timetable may not always be what you want it to be.

God will bring you someone, but you have to wait on God's time, right?

For a middle-aged person, it might be with a health problem or whatever.

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Learning to Fish, Part 2

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