We don't have to make the Bible relevant -- it is -- but we have to show its relevance. What is irrelevant, in my opinion, is our style of communicating it. We tend to still use the style from 50 years back that doesn't match who we're trying to reach today.

When I start with an application, I first start with personal application. Nearly 20 years ago, I wrote a book on Bible study methods, on how to apply the Bible. In it I talk about a dozen different ways to apply scripture so you start with your own life and you make applications there. A lot of it is just simple stuff like: is there a sin to confess, a promise to claim, an attitude to change, a command to obey, an example to follow, a prayer to pray, an error to avoid, the truth to believe. Is there something to praise God for? So I start looking at it like that.

I also go back to the paradigm of 2 Timothy 3:16: doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness. Basically these four things: what do I need to believe as a result of this text? What do I not need to believe as a result of this text? What do I need to do as a result of this text? What do I need to not do as a result of this text? That is doctrine for reproof, for correction and instruction of righteousness. So I use that format. Start with personal application, then you go for the implication -- what people need in their lives.

The biggest thing that I would say about application is that every pastor eventually gets to application. I'm just saying he needs to start with it, not end with it. A lot of guys need to start where they end their sermon. They will do about 80 to 90% explanation and interpretation in background study, and then at the end there is a little 10 minute application. That is OK if you have a highly motivated group of people who just love Bible knowledge. But the Bible says there are a couple of problems with Bible knowledge.

In the first place it says that knowledge puffs up but love builds up, and the Bible says that increased knowledge without application leads to pride. Some of the most cantankerous Christians that I know are veritable storehouses of Bible knowledge but they have not applied it. They can give you facts and quotes and they can argue doctrine. But they're angry, they are very ugly people. The Bible says that knowledge without application increases judgement. To him that knows to do good and does it not, it is sin. So, really, to give people knowledge and not get the application is a very dangerous thing.

Here is an interesting thing: if you start taking the books of the New Testament and find out how much of the Bible is application. It will really change the way that you preach. For instance, I once preached through the book of Romans for two-and-a-half years, verse-by-verse. I do both verse-with-verse exposition -- which I call topical exposition -- and I do verse-by-verse exposition, which is book by book. Two kinds of teaching for two different targets and two different purposes, and they are both needed for a healthy church.