How can you apply your sermon, based on the Biblical text? In this episode, Kevin Miller explores that question with Robert Smith, Jr., Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School where he teaches Christian Preaching.

He said, “Without a sermon application, there really is no sermon, because the Bible is not only written to answer the what question – that is information, but the so what question - that is application.”

The Holy Spirit guides the application, and the preacher explains what the text meant when it was written, and what it means for hearers today, according to Smith.

He said the application should be applied based on:

• The Biblical text.
• How the text speaks to the preacher.
• What the text is saying to the church.
• How the text applies to society at large.

Smith is concerned that white preachers will make it a privatized matter of spiritual only, and black preachers will make it a matter of the social only.

Check out what was referenced on the podcast:

• Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life (B&H Publishing Group, Nashville: 2008)
• The Glory of Preaching: Participating in God’s Transformation of the World (Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL: 2009)

Kevin Miller is pastor of Church of the Savior in Wheaton, Illinois,