On occasion, we have been questioned on why we preach through the Bible verse by verse and book by book. We know many good churches and Pastors do not preach the Book in a sequential order as we have chosen to do. We know and believe that our lessons and sermons must come from the truth of God’s Word but it is not necessary to preach in a sequential, expository manner.
We, however, believe this is the best method for our church. We have found there are many wonderful benefits to our church knowing where we are headed each week when the Pastor asks us to “open our Bibles.”
Kevin White, Staff Missionary to Bolivia, recently compiled this *list. As we have taught through over 25 books of the Bible we have also been allowed of God to send out over 25 families around the world to teach the Bible in this same manner! Here is a list of 8 reasons we preach through the Bible book by book!
- Because that is the way the Bible was written. He didn’t give individual verses. He didn’t give us a topical index.. He gave us 66 individual books and that it what we should preach.
- It will maximize your time. Everyone will know what you are going to preach. Everything that you study at the beginning will build as you study the rest of the book.
- It guarantees a necessary balance. This balance can be seen in each book between doctrine and application. Ephesians 1-3 doctrina 4-6 application Romans 1-11 doctrine 12-16 application.
- It guarantees that you preach on controversial passages. You don’t just jump around or skip. There are difficult sections that the Bible include and different subjects that need to be dealt with. Topic likes divorce and remarriage. Topics like God’s sovereignty and mans responsibility.
- You will be modeling proper Bible study methods in the Pulpit. Your church will study their Bible the way you preach it. Context is very important when you are preaching and studying the Bible. You are showing them how to rightly interpret the Bible.
- It promotes long Pastorates After a few years most pastors have preached all the messages they have. They have touched on every topic they know how to preach.
- It will prevent you from riding a hobby horse. We all have our pet peeves and things that we like to focus on. We need to preach the whole council of God. It prevents you from camping out on your pet doctrine.
- It deepens the pastors understanding of the Bible and his own devotional life. You don’t just hydroplane over the Bible but you have to dig deeper to understand. It helps you to understand the Bible as a whole and it’s individual parts.
*Compiled and adapted from a podcast by Steve Lawson
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