A biblical message is not so much, “This is what God said then,” as it is, “This is what God is saying now, to you.” The purpose of the sermon is not to impart knowledge but to influence behavior—not to inform but to transform. The goal is not to make listeners more educated but more Christlike. When you come, for example, to Genesis 11–12—Abraham’s leaving Ur of the Chaldeans for Canaan—you would not be content to simply “teach” the various details of the passage: • Ur as a commercial and religious