Using theWord in making a Sermon is a helpful post on how to make a sermon, using resources to do things faster and better.
The first thing to get “under your belt” is to understand just what theWord Bible program is. It is a software program that allows you to study the Bible. Having said that, it is not going to do everything you want, perhaps. But it is going to be very helpful in certain things. For example, if you want to see a doctrines book, perhaps there is a tw module with that work in it, but just reading a book, it is just normal in that category.
Finding a particular passage
theWord is very fast and good at finding where in the Bible a certain word occurs. If you are a good theWord user, you can line up different versions of the Bible and search across them with one single search. I do not find that as useful as others. I use the KJV. But frankly, I think opening a web browser and just searching “verse atonement” is the best way to find the particular verses. When I get a verse in particular, I will go into theWord and see what the Strong’s definition is. So understand, theWord is a very capable and good tool, but use it for what it is best used for. Don’t force it when it is not particularly set up for something.
Brown The Devil's Mission of Amusement 7 page article from 1889. Hollywood in the church and her ministries. Brown was a student of C.H Spurgeon.
Excerpts:
Different days demand their own special testimony. The watchman who would be faithful to his Lord and to the city of his God needs to carefully note the signs of the times and to emphasize his witness accordingly. Concerning the testimony needed now, there can be little if any doubt. An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, that is so gross, so brazen in its impudence, that the most shortsighted of spiritual men can hardly fail to notice it.... Amusement for the people is the leading article advertised by each... until the hideous fact has been proved up to the hilt, that "amusement" is ousting "the preaching of the Gospel" as the great attraction... The Concert is fast becoming as much a recognized part of church life as the Prayer Meeting; and it is already, in most places, far better attended.
"Providing recreation for the people" will soon be looked upon as a necessary part of Christian work, and as binding upon the Church of God, as though it were a Divine command, unless some strong voices are raised which will make themselves heard.
Read the 7-page article: Brown, The Devil's Mission of Amusement.
Verifying a Biblical Concept and Meaning
Here, we need to clarify that normally a Pastor will at times do a short or brief word study on a word or conceptto understand how that word or concept is used in the Bible. There are Bible resource references that have already done this, but (1) those may not have your word, and (2) even though they have your word, you are not satisfied with what they offer as an explanation.
Even if you are not fluent in Greek or Hebrew, it is a very quick thing to just open the KJV Bible, go to the passage, click the Bible window pane, and press “s”. This will show the Strong’s dictionary number. Then find your English word, and see what Greek or Hebrew word is that English word, and then click in the Bible Search pane (not one open, main Menu -> New Bible Search View or F10. I like to Dock that window so on the topmost left arrow in the Search View window, click that triangle, and dock to where you want it).
Once you have that done, type in the Strong’s number in the Bible search window and enter. Your results will show. Note that if you click the right box icon besides the X close window icon, your entire screen will be taken up by that window. I always have to adjust the top row divisions of columns, and then I start working.
The good thing about theWord is that you can open a Book Window (F12) if one is not open, and then start a new tw module, and put your results in there. I use the Internet a lot, and at times I copy a lot of verses from tw, and other times I search for something on the Internet, and I can keep these notes in a book module. (If this is just a bounce kind of thing, where I am gathering notes from sources, and thinking through passages, and then inserting them in a sermon, I have or make a tw module named “Delete”. I know I can safely delete it when I see, or keep using it for “bounce” material.)
Using the Internet
If you search for works on the Internet, and you find a web page or PDF that only has a point and then verse references, that can be made useful but using tw. Make such you are “watching the clipboard” (File->Preferences->Clipboard Monitoring, then unclick the check box beside Disable Clipboard monitoring). Note, I write my sermons in Spanish, so remember the theWord Rule when watching the clipboard, references in English are always recognized, but in other languages, you need to set the theWord language to that language before it recognizes the reference.
If you want to see verse references in a particular version, tw is also useful. For example, when I search the Internet, a lot of pages has verses in a version that is not what I use or want, so when you want to insert a verse reference into your Sermon, set theWord to the version you want and then select and control C, and you will see your version.
Of what is always open when I use theWord topic, I always have TSK treasury of Scripture knowledge open when I am reviewing verses in theWord. Very simple. If you have a particular verse you are presenting, check TSK because often (not always) you can piece together a sermon outline using the TSK references alone.
Helpful Tip: Google verses “search word or phrase”
I don’t think many people know this, but this is an excellent way to find a verse or a list of verses about a particular Bible word, phrase, or concept. When you do that, often you will get pages with “100 verses about x” (your search phrase). Also remember that a very quick way to go to commentaries is to replace the verses with commentary
Open a browser, go to your search platform, “Google” for example,
verse atonement
commentary atonement
From my experience, these two places are excellent
> Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages
More Articles on Sermon Creation
Using theWord in Making a Sermon