Breakout Session 2: A Hill To Die On; Ben Lennander, Paul Johnson, Nate Meyer, Josh Cramer, and Dan Bovenmeyer
These 5 men each spoke briefly about something on which they would be willing to stake their lives. I actually intend an listening to this one again because I started to lose focus towards the end of the time. Once again, though, it was an amazing message from all of these men of God.
1. A Hill to Die On: That the Word of God is absolute truth. We can go to it for everything in life.
--> 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
--> The Bible is not an ordinary book; it has authority over my life
-->Why is the Bible reliable?
1. Cohesiveness and unity
* 66 books written as 1
* Spans over 1,500 years
* Theme: God's eternal plan for us
2. Power of prophecy and fulfilled prophecy
* The probability of one man fulfilling just eight prophecies, is 1 in 10^17, which, according to the science of probability is impossible. Jesus fulfilled 456.
3. The archaeological evidence
* No evidence that has been found has ever disproven the Bible
--> Testimony of changed lives as a result of God's Word working in them
2. A Hill to Die On: The Gospel
--> The Gospel not only makes us disciples of Christ, but disciple makers
--> The Gospel calls us to the Great Commission
--> We don't do the works of God on our own
God calls us to make disciples: Matt 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
-->The church upholds the sound doctrine of sharing the gospel
3. A Hill to Die On: Every Christian is called by God into full-time ministry; not all are called to receive a paycheck
--> All Christians should be fully engaged with the church body
--> Colossians 3:17 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.
--> Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
--> Colossians 3:16 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.
--> Imitate the faith of your leaders. Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
--> Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
4. A Hill to Die On: Christ's Gospel of Grace
"To know if you're willing to die for something, you have to be willing to live for it."
The world is not impressed with our best effort, our best effort being our good works and our service. Technically, anyone can "serve" somebody in need. The motivations might be different, but our good works in and of themselves don't separate us from the rest of the world.
--> A study done by the Barna Group found that 88% of non-believers view Christians as hypocrites.
--> And why shouldn't they? So many of us go to church on Sunday mornings and we talk the talk, but when it comes down to it, not all of us truly live it out.
--> What we have that the world doesn't is Jesus Christ's gospel of grace.
--> 2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
"The world is waiting for us to admit what it already knows we are: weak. That's where God's grace comes in. Catalog your weaknesses and figure out how to boast in them."
Live your life about grace.
(I know that's only 4 out of the 5, but as I mentioned above, I started losing focus towards the end and my notes for the last main point are really jumbled and don't make a lot of sense. So I'll end there with that session and move on)
Main Session VI: A Heart to See Lives Changed, Rick Whitney
(Yet another smack upside the head....actually, I think several occurred during this message...)
"All believers are to be on a mission"
"A practice of our churches is to equip and train members to effectively share their faith."
~ The Core
Diagrams and tools allow us to share what we know; the issue isn't if we can get equipped to share our faith, it's a matter of the heart.
--> At the moment of salvation, God gave me a heart for the lost. If we don't have compassion, do we truly know Christ?
--> When you're 'bumped' (challenged, etc), what comes out? Do you care? Do I speak for the Lord?
We may know Christ, but we still might not have much compassion for the lost. What deadens your heart?
- Lack of prayer for the lost
- We play with sin Matthew 24:12 "Because lawlessness in increased, most people's love will grow cold"
--> If you play with sin, your effectiveness for winning souls is lost
3. We are afraid
"If we're not hated by someone we either don't know enough people or we don't speak enough truth." John Piper
4. We are comfortable
--> We like our "Holy huddles"
--> We don't know what's coming; 2 Corinthians 4:17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
5. We forget our obligation to the Lord
--> Does our Lord's compassion for the lost move us?
3 Questions to ask yourself to really know someone
- What makes them laugh?
- What makes them angry?
- What makes them weep
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised...Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Practical steps to awakening your heart and renewing your compassion for the lost
- Pray for the lost every day
- Pray for opportunities to be a witness
- Pray for courage to speak
- Look for opportunities to hand out invites to your church
First, to go through the Begin With Christ book published by GCM with someone you are reaching out to and then he added that whatever we might do to change the lives of the lost, to do it with someone else.
That's the end of day 2...I'll probably post more on Wednesday...typing all of this out is kind of like hearing it all again; I don't know about you, but my brain is full :-)
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