Third, you’re also teaching biblical content. That’s one of the benefits. So much preaching today does everything to draw people to a story or to some situation that a preacher may imagine and then it goes into a moral of it and applies it and you go on. Rather than: let’s open our Bibles right here to Joshua chapter 14, we’re going to look at the life of a man who never really got that old — at least in his attitude — and his name is Caleb. And when you work your way through the life of Caleb you see youthfulness even in a man that is 85 years old. Well, that gives a whole lot of hope to guys who are getting up in years. It also says to those who are younger, staying at it is worth it. Here’s a man who never did go over the hill. He went up the hill but never went over it.

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Preaching: Are there any particular dangers that preachers need to be aware of as they do biographical preaching?

Swindoll: Oh, I think some of the dangers are the same dangers as you’ve had in any other kind of preaching, like reading into it something that’s not there — you’ve got to be careful to exegesis, not eisogesis. I think also if you’re not careful, and you do a biblical character and you stay on that character so long, it’s easy to take that character out of context and make him stand on his own. I think every character has a setting. And the better you know the setting and communicate the setting, the more accurate you will be with dealing with his character.

That brings me to three gates that I always have messages pass through: Is it accurate, is it clear, is it relevant — is it practical? Accuracy has to do with the accuracy of the text. What does it, did it mean when it was written? Not now, but what did it mean when it was written? What did the author have in mind? That’s being accurate to what is revealed in the print on the page. Second, am I saying it in a way that is clear so that I’m not talking in a code language that is known only to the insider? Would the guy that’s just off the beach that sits on the back row of the church that I’m pastoring, would he understand it as clearly as the charter member that has been here for 25 years? So be sure you’re clear. The danger of just talking to yourself is always a very real and present danger.

Third, having said all of that from the text, and then said it clearly, can I identify with it in the 21st century? Little help comes from just learning facts. Some help comes from that — it does give you a depth of knowledge, and since the cults prey on ignorance it certainly would help you know your way around doctrinally or biblically, that would be helpful. But the danger of just teaching information without applying it, I think, causes the scripture to fall short in a person’s life. Howard Hendricks — in a course he taught on Bible study methods when I was at Dallas Seminary — used to say that, “interpretation without application is an abortion. It is a literary abortion.” That is a strong word, but I think it gets the point across. If you don’t apply the text, and if your interpretation is skewed, your application will be skewed. So in that order: if it is accurate to the text, and then you’re applying it based on the accurate presentation or interpretation, then your application will be in line. You don’t run the risk of getting too close to the lunatic fringe in your application.