Observe

Observe – What does it say?

Interpret – What does it mean?

Apply – How Should I Change?

Why is it important that you know how to do this? Why can’t you just listen to the sermon and let me do all this work? Give a fish, learn to fish

Best method, tool for a sliver? Not a tractor

Frank Puffer – shared this on Facebook the other day - Complaining about a silent God when your Bible is closed is like complaining that you don’t get texts or phone calls though you have turned off your phone. The remedy is to keep your Bible open & your nose in the text.

Observe (Context) To be very good at noticing things to be observant – But we must be observant of the things that are really there instead of making a passage mean what we want it to mean or what we always thought it meant. This is why the OIA method can be used on passages that we have even studied before or even are really familiar with. It may help us to come to better more substantial conclusions.

The reason that we need to spend so much time carefully observing what is in the text is so that we don’t miss what God is trying to say, when we skip the step of Observation and go right to interpretation and application we are going to come up with wrong interpretations and our applications will then be off. Or if we do stumble onto the right interpretation or application we won’t know why we

How do I go about Observing? Part of how you are going to come up with these: Read it again and again & make notes of what you discover

1) A Book What book am I in and how does that affect how I read it? When was it written & what was happening. Difference b/w Gen & 1 Pet

a) Author Who is the author, what do we know about them, what kind of role/relationship did the author have with the audience?

b) Audience & Occasion Who is receiving this, when, how? What’s going on for them in their lives, Is there a specific situation addressed?

c) Themes & Structure What are the big ideas in the book, how is it laid out, or arranged? Structure communicates: what we should notice.

d) Purpose What is the author’s purpose in writing the book as a whole? Why/What’s he getting @ Matt -Christ Mrk 10:45 Lk 19:10 Jn 20:31

2) A Passage The Book sets the stage for the passage -Read and reread the passage many times that you are studying – won’t catch the 1st time

a) Genre – What type of writing is it? And that helps us to know what to observe & how to interpret – literal or figurative language

i) Poetry, Prose, Letter, etc. Narrative, History, Poetry, Epistles, Revelation, Apocolyptic genealogies, hymns And how does that affect

b) Words So words are the building blocks of sentences, sentences paragraphs- Why are definitions of words are important?

i) Key/Big Words Not just long words that you need to look up in a concordance but important ones too, Joy, Justification, sin, law

ii) Repeated Words Notice a word that keeps coming up over and over in a passage, Why is the author likely repeating it?

iii) Connectors “and” is different than “but”, or is different than if & so on, notice which ones are used & why?

iv) Names & Titles Who is being talked about – pay particular attention to similar names & meaning John, Gentiles, Jesus, Lord, Messiah

c) Grammar -How Words Relate It’s important to understand how words relate to one another b/c meaning is greatly affected by it

i) Nouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Adjectives Notice what kind of words are being used. And what they mean and how they interact.

ii) Tenses, Order, Timing acting upon, acted upon, God does it for you or you do it. What is object or subject, what is 1st 2nd & 3rdimportant

d) Structure -How Passage is Assembled – Structure communicates meaning How a thing is assembled shows what its designed for or to do

i) Comparisons & Contrast One of the ways we are tipped off to structure is by the what the author chooses to compare

ii) Repeated Phrases/Concepts Either the main point or as bookends/foundations hold up the point - bread to keep the meat together.

e) Mood Lastly in your observation, pay attention to the author’s mood or tone. The author often communicates through how he says what

i) Happy, Sad, Exhortation, Encouragement, Etc. he says just as much as what He is saying.

So Observe X3, Notice things in the text you never have before become insatiably curious.

This may seem like a whole lot already. But if you do it again & again a few times this will come a s second nature, But you can’t skip over this step. You have to become a good observer in order to have solid reason for the next section – interpretation, Observation is foundational to Interpreting.

Frank Puffer – shared this on Facebook the other day - Complaining about a silent God when your Bible is closed is like complaining that you don’t get texts or phone calls though you have turned off your phone. The remedy is to keep your Bible open & your nose in the text.

What is the first thing that you usually notice about a teacher?

What is the first thing you usually notice about a friend?

How does that affect the way that you interact with them?

What is the first thing you usually notice about the a Bible passage when you read it? (Weir translation, super long, written a long time ago, What I should do, how it make me feel?)

Colossians 3:12–17 ESV

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Work through this passage together and ask the students what they observe. use the bookmark

What are the main things that your students notice?

Help them understand that this step is about observing all they can about the passage.