Michigan Camp Meeting 2017

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Plenary

Sabbath School 1

Stephen Bohr

Church - God’s Great Week

The Marriage of the Lamb

Israel’s Guardian Angel

Revelation’s Sanctuary Message

Jesus is Coming Again

John Bradshaw

The Writing on the Wall

Friendly Fire

Occupy

Sabbath School 2

Church - Committed

Soul Winning Hour

Good Enough

Sue Gilmore

How Can You Make a Big Difference in Children’s Lives When You Teach Sabbath School in a Small Church

Many of you remember, if you were here last week, we made an appeal.

And we don't want you to forget that appeal, to find 1 Bible study contact so that souls could be won into His kingdom.

And this handbook is going to help in the process of being trained and Sharing the content there as found in the Word of God and the spirit of prophecy to win souls and further the gospel message to every nation kindred tongue and People we're going to go ahead and start with a word of prayer, but before I do that, I wanna introduce once again our panelists, we have several pastors up here, Pastor Darrell, Pastor Cameron, and Pastor Bernard, and someone who wasn't here last week.

We have a teacher from Grand Rapids, Elena Knapp, and we're pleased to have her join this panel discussion.

So Without further ado, let's go ahead and bow our heads and invite the Holy Spirit to be in our midst.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this time, this opportunity to break open the Word of God.

We want to pray in a special way that this Bible study that begins here will not end here but that throughout the Sabbath day will break open the Word spontaneously during lunchtime, during the afternoon hour, and share what we have learned with 1 another, we pray that the Bible and its study will become a moment by moment activity as it changes lives.

We pray that the words that are shared are not our own opinions, but may they be words from on high.

Speak to our minds and even more importantly speak to our hearts.

We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ.

I want to invite you to turn to the book of 1 Peter chapter 2 and we're going to be reading from verses 11 through 25.

1 Peter chapter 2 verses 11 through 25 and before we delve 11-25.

And before we delve into this passage, many people will hear a sermon.

I know Pastor Cameron did the morning devotionals last year at camp meeting, and they'll hear a sermon from Pastor Bentley or Pastor Bernard or Elena Knapp in the classroom.

And they'll say, how did they discover that Bible truth?

And I just wanted to open up to the floor here.

Is there a abracadabra, is there some magical formula that helps us in Bible study?

Provide us some practical tips in your Bible study and in your experience.

Well this is no disrespect to my education.

I had a great education, but when I graduated from high school and I had only read 1 book, It was a book on Lou Gehrig, he was a baseball player, and I think I read it in fifth grade.

Those of you that know me, like, yeah, no, that's, that's...

So I came to this logical conclusion that if I was going to call myself a Christian, I should probably read the book.

And I thought, well, if I'm going to call myself a Seventh-day Adventist, I should probably read at least 1 of Alan White's books.

And what it did is it forced me to the Word of God.

And then I would get into the Bible, like it did.

So I went through the Conflict of the Ages series and I would just read it and then I'd read it in the scripture and I'd compare and compare.

And then whenever I found something like was super cool, I'd be like, did you know that this happened?

And what I found was a lot of people like, no, it didn't.

You know, so I mean, For me, that's how the Bible came alive, just laying them next to each other and just pouring myself in the Word of God.

I guess for me, I like to keep things very simple, very practical as well.

There was a little Bible study method that I kind of discovered at Southern and shared with us by Dr.

Philip Saman, and he just referred to it as a relational Bible study.

And just 3 basic questions that I found to be just very powerful and is kind of a good impetus, a good starting place for just really getting beneath the surface.

There's nothing wrong with reading through your Bible, that's great, but you're taking overarching, you know, you're more up here with that, just, you know, getting the overview, but you need to dig in if you're going to prepare for a message or whatever.

And so those 3 questions are very simple.

First of all, how did this passage reach or how did it affect the people who first heard it?

And so that can lead you into some deep study for the cultural issues, historical issues, and you start chasing those things through the Scripture, answering those questions.

Then the second question, very simple, what does this passage tell me about God?

I'm not reading the Bible just for novel effect.

It's supposed to have an eternal impact on me, and so what does this tell me about God?

Then the third question, very simple, is this, so what?

I've discovered these things about the people, I've discovered these things about God, now what am I going to do about it?

What are the timeless principles that transcend their culture to our culture, and what are those principles and how am I going to apply them to my life?

That's a very simple kind of model of exegesis, we might refer to it, but it's something that can be applied for anybody, not just a pastor.

And I want to piggyback on what Chad said about the reading of the spirit of prophecy along with the scripture.

Sometimes you'll hear like, oh, you just read the spirit of prophecy instead of the Bible.

But a survey was done amongst North American Division members some years back and Ministry Magazine published it.

And I don't know if you've ever seen this, but It said, for example, 82% of the readers, regular readers of the writings of Ellen White, usually or always have daily personal Bible study, while only 47% of non-readers do.

So the idea is, oh, if you'll get into the spirit of prophecy, you're going to take the place of the Bible, when in reality, the opposite is true.

It actually drives you to the word, you become more centered on Christ and his message.

And on the Training Center Church Committee, we realized that that was 1 of the great needs.

And so there, I'll plug the Typos of Japan book again, there's a chapter about the very practical method of personal Bible study.

And in the back of the book, perhaps the best part of the book, is the very back, the appendix, where it has a Bible and spirit of prophecy reading plan.

We can daily just go through the whole series, the Conflict of the Ages series and the books relating to it, like Steps to Christ and whatnot, that will, if you've never taken the opportunity to just read through the Bible and see how it's so well woven together and how the spirit of prophecy is that inspired commentary on Scripture, I guarantee you it will uplift your life personally.

It will give you a deeper, better Christian experience than you've had before.

So I would definitely recommend reading them in conjunction.

We need to get into the Word of God so that there is revival and reformation in our hearts.

And I want to, we need to jump to this text because there's a lot of exciting things here.

What we're going to do is we're going to read once again 1 Peter 2, verses 11 through 25.

We're going to take 3 verses each, and I'm going to go ahead and start with verse 11.

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation.

Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the King as Supreme.

Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent from him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of him that do well.

For so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to science the ignorance of foolish men, as free, not as using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of the Lord.

Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King.

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

For what credit is it when you were beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?

But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.

Who when he was reviled did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.

Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we having died to sins might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed.

For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and overseer of your souls." Wow, these are some powerful, powerful passages, and I just want to throw out to the panel, what really strikes out at you in the beginning verses of this passage that we looked at here?

Well, 1 thing that I think is especially relevant here at camp meeting, we're all pilgrims here at camp meeting.

And you know, the pilgrims are going to start returning home, some even tonight, you know, as the Sabbath hours disappear.

Series

Plenary

Sabbath School 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Plant-based Evangelism

50m

Plenary

Samson, Sex and Salvation

1h 13m

The Art of End Time Preaching

6. Tools of Creative Language and Speech

1h 20m

The Plan of Salvation

04 The Nature of Christ

1h 14m

GYC SE 2013 Plenary Sessions

Heaven On Earth

53m

Presenting Persuasive Appeals During Keys to Revelation

05 Presenting Christ Centered Appeals with Confidence

1h 1m

God’s ROI

51m

Plenary

The One Thing Jesus Can’t Give You

55m

Last Day Events

Mainstream Spiritualism

1h 1m

GYC 2012 Seminar: Conversion - My Own, Around Me and On the Go

Sensitive Seekers

58m

Jesus On Prophecy

The Cornerstone of Bible Prophecy

52m

Strength in Times of Darkness

56m

Sound Doctrine