On Application (with Michael Lawrence) | Preachers Talk, Ep. 31
Every pastor knows they should apply the text. How should we do it well? How can we do it better?

Every pastor knows they should apply the text. How should we do it well? How can we do it better?
In this episode Jeremy goes through the mailbag, asking a wide variety of questions submitted by listeners to Dave and Ed.
Sermon listeners have objections to what preachers say, believer and unbeliever alike. Dave, Ed, and Jeremy answer the question - What should and can the preacher do in order to name and navigate these objections?
What is it the preacher is trying to do when he preaches? David Helm, Ed Copeland, and Jeremy Meeks discuss the vital task of making an argument in preaching. They tackle what it is and how they go about doing it in their own work.
How do we pursue humility while we also pursue excellence in preaching? On this episode Dave Helm and Jeremy Meeks sit down with Mike Bullmore to wrestle with the task of preaching without pride.
Though the question of what it means to do your own work in the pulpit has been raised a lot recently, Dave Helm, Ed Copeland, and Jeremy Meeks had a conversation months ago about this perennially important topic.
God’s Word is for everyone. But how do we preach to people who are quite different from our ordinary audience? In this episode of Preachers Talk, Jeremy Meeks, Ed Copeland, and John Onwuchekwa tackle the challenging topic of cross-cultural preaching.
What does it mean to preach in a way that demonstrates the Spirit and power (1 Cor. 2:4–5)? In this episode of Preachers Talk, Dave Helm, Ed Copeland, and Jeremy Meeks discuss the significance of the Spirit’s power in preaching.
Preachers need the Holy Spirit’s help as they prepare. In this episode of Preachers Talk, Jeremy Meeks chats with Ed Copeland and David Helm about “power for preparation.”
In this episode of Preachers Talk, Jeremy Meeks chats with David Helm and K. Edward Copeland about a preacher’s need for “ethos.” What’s ethos? David defines it as that vital and indispensable attribute of credibility.
In this episode of Preachers Talk, Jeremy Meeks pulls from the mailbag and asks Ed Copeland and David Helm questions about preaching. If you have questions about preaching, send them to feedback@preacherstalk.org .
In this episode of Preachers Talk, Jeremy Meeks chats with David Helm and K. Edward Copeland about how to thoughtfully conclude a sermon.
Typology is a legitimate means from getting to your text from the gospel—through people, objects, events, or patterns. Jeremy Meeks chats with David Helm and K. Edward Copeland about preaching and typology.
How important is a preacher’s rhetoric? Jeremy Meeks chats with David Helm and Robert Kinney of The Charles Simeon Trust about this under-discussed topic.
In this episode of Preachers Talk, David Helm sits in the interviewer’s chair and chats with Ed Copeland and Jeremy Meeks about how to approach guest preaching.
In this episode of Preachers Talk, Jeremy Meeks chats with David Helm and Michael Lawrence about how preachers ought to approach the Bible’s many quotations and allusions.
When God’s people gather for corporate worship to sit under God’s Word, it’s different than a Bible study or a Sunday School class. It is—or at least it should be—transcendent.
While preparing a sermon, preachers need to pay careful attention to their text’s historical trajectory. What’s “historical trajectory”?
In this episode of Preachers Talk, Jeremy Meeks asks Ed and David how the “sermon sausage gets made.” From Sunday to Sunday, how does this sermon-prep and sermon-writing process work?
How do you figure out the structure of a biblical text? After you figure out the structure, how then do you create an outline for your sermon? In Episode 12 of Preachers Talk, Jeremy Meeks chats with David Helm and K Edward Copeland about this.
Every preacher has been shaped by others preachers. That’s inevitable. But how can preachers find their own voice even as they appreciate their various influences?
Must you preach it in every sermon? How do you prevent every sermon from sounding the same or flattening your text?
In this episode of Preachers Talk, Jeremy Meeks talks with David Helm and K. Edward Copeland about the value of giving and receiving feedback on preaching.
How do you decide what to preach? How long should you stay in a book? Doesn’t planning sermons several months out “quench the Spirit”?
David Helm and Ed Copeland have both been preaching at the same place for more than 20 years. In this episode of Preachers Talk, Jeremy Meeks chats with them about how all preachers should think about preaching for the long haul.
The nation is reeling, and Sunday is coming. So what should preachers do?
We live in a distracted age in which many people are addicted to images and intimidated by reading. In this episode of Preachers’ Talk, Jeremy Meeks chats with Ed Copeland and David Helm about the subversive act of preaching in a distracted age. Preachers' Talk is a podcast for preachers, and those who love preaching.
Preachers' Talk is a podcast for preachers and all those who love preaching, created by a partnership between Simeon Trust and 9Marks. https://simeontrust.org http://9marks.org
What does it mean to be “drunk in the pulpit”? It means to lean on the Bible more for support than illumination. On this episode of Preachers’ Talk, listen to David Helm, Jeremy Meeks, and K. Edward Copeland discuss “inebriated preaching.”