The man who amens a lesson on longsuffering, bearing with one another, kindness and returning good for evil, will forget it as soon as he gets behind the wheel.
The woman who compliments a sermon on modesty will head to the beach with 90% of her body showing.
One thing I have learned in fifty years of teaching is that "applying these things" needs a little help along the way. Making a few specific applications from real life situations can get people thinking about their own circumstances much more quickly.
Let me say this about that: making a few specific examples is NOT the same thing as making a checklist. "Teach people to have a good heart and the rest will follow," is a wonderful ideal, but naïve and unworkable. It almost always comes from the mouth of someone under forty, or who is simply brand new at teaching. Plenty of good-hearted people experience a complete disconnect when it comes to realizing that certain principles apply to the very things they are doing. "But I'm a good person," they think, "so what I am doing can't be what he is talking about." And so those vaguely expressed ideals float around above their heads, never touching the ground they actually walk on.
Teachers, you must learn to give some concrete, real-to-life examples if you really want to help people. Be aware that it will get you into trouble occasionally because without meaning to, you will hit a nail squarely on the head. But that's your job—helping people change, grow, and become better servants of God. If that never happens, something is wrong. And if they decide to get mad and leave, it's the plainly spoken Word of God that caused it, not you.
And now, Lord…grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:29,31).
Dene Ward