GYC 2018: To The End

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

How to Read The Bible

Dean Cullinane

1. Education - The Craziest Book Ever Written

This message was presented at the GYC To The End in Houston, Texas.

For other resources like this, visit us online at gycweb.org.

I'm so glad that you chose to be here this morning.

I'm gonna start with a word of prayer and then we'll have an outline of what we'll be doing briefly at least in this seminar.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this wonderful opportunity to be here at GYC.

Father, we believe that we are coming close to the end of time.

Father, we believe that Your Son is coming soon.

Lord, the prophecies have been and are being fulfilled.

And Father, we believe that You have raised up an end-time church, a movement, Lord, to bring this work to a close.

And so, Father, we would ask that you would not just be here, but that, Father, your presence would be so clearly seen in every single 1 of these seminars, that by the time this conference comes to a close, your son is all the more closer.

I'd like to take you just through a brief outline so you know if you're planning on being in all of 6 sessions exactly what you can expect.

If you're not, I know some of you are going to jump about and That's fine.

I remember the first time that I came to GYC, which was the only other time that I came to GYC, in 2011.

It's good to have people you can count on.

So yeah, I remember the first time I came to GYC, you couldn't just come in halfway to the presentation that I was at.

It was like you had to be in part 1 to understand part 2, and you had to be in part 2 to understand part 3, and so on and so forth.

I just want to let you know up front that that's not the case with this seminar.

I'm not saying that you should go elsewhere after this 1.

I'm just saying that we'll start and we'll end and we'll move on to something else for the next 1.

So if there's somewhere else that you want to go, a different seminar that you want to try, and then maybe you're thinking about coming back after, or maybe you're not, that's completely fine.

We should be able to start and conclude each presentation.

We should have enough time, although I have said that before.

So first up, this presentation is entitled Education, the Craziest Book Ellen White Ever Wrote.

This will help lay the foundation for the next 5 seminars.

The first 1, after this, Seminar 2, is about the man of God in 1 Kings chapter 13.

I had a question the first time I read through the Bible and this was 1 of the main ones.

If you've read 1 Kings 13, there is a man without a name.

He's simply known as the man of God and the Lord takes his life.

And so we'll be trying to answer that question.

Why is it that God killed His own prophet?

Our third seminar, beginning tomorrow, is about Adam and Eve.

We'll be looking at the question, why did God wait to create Eve?

Why is it they're not made simultaneously, together?

After that, we'll look at 1 of my favorite characters and that is Job.

And I'll give you some homework if you're interested.

If you haven't got enough time to fill up at GYC already, read both the prologue and the epilogue of the Book of Job.

Write down all the similarities and all the differences that you can find and you'll be a little better prepared for Seminar 4.

The fifth 1 we'll look at Naaman and this is definitely 1 of my favorite character studies, the study of Naaman.

What can a Seventh-day Adventist learn from a heathen?

And that's what we'll be looking at in the fifth seminar.

We've often looked at the story of Samson as almost like a handbook on what not to do in relationships and so on the sixth seminar we won't do anything like that we'll do something completely different we'll come at Samson from a completely different angle so I'm looking forward to that but we'll start here with education the craziest book ever written by Ellen White.

How many of you have ever read the book Education?

How many of you at least read some of that book?

Okay, some of you have read it and you don't know it exists, that's okay.

Let me just say from the offset, I, how can I find a strong enough word for this?

I hate when I show up to a church, to a presentation, to a seminar, and what I get is some dude at the front that just reads his slides.

Just send me the slides and I'll go somewhere else, right?

I can read, I can read, so just send me the slides.

So I wouldn't dare do that to you, however, disclaimer, This, at least the first half of this presentation, might seem a little bit like that.

Not too much like that, but a little like that.

Just because I want to share with you a few things that have inspired me to put this presentation together.

So if you think, wow, he likes to read slides.

It's just a necessity at this present moment.

Most of these quotes are from the book of education and then we'll go into more practical part in about 15 to 20 minutes or so.

All the principles that men need to understand in order to be fitted either for this life or for the life to come.

The Bible contains this book, this book of just a few pages when you consider what it's actually containing, contains all of the principles to fit man for which life?

For this life and also for the life to come.

The Bible has often kind of been abbreviated into basic instruction before leaving earth.

B-I-B-L-E, basic instruction before leaving earth.

But really this quote says that's only half of the message.

This is also basic instruction after leaving earth.

But, bi-ah-lay doesn't sound as good, right, as Bible.

So this is basic instruction before and after leaving earth.

It is to fit us for where we are now and where we are going to be.

It contains all of the principles, there's not a single 1 that you need to know that are not contained in this book.

2. Case Study #1 - Why Did God Kill His Own Prophet?

If you've just come in, we invite you to take a seat.

So if you have a seat next to you that you're not holding, if you could just put your hand up and then maybe someone can come.

Or if you can move into the middle, that would be great.

And we'll leave the outside seats vacant so that people can sit down.

There's teenagers at the back, they can stand up forever, don't worry about them.

They're my students from Weimar Academy, so they've learned to stand for a very long time.

There's a few more seats here if you want.

How many of you, this is your first session with us here?

How many of you are back after the first 1?

Okay, so we had our first session which was looking at the craziest book I believe that Ellen White ever wrote, the book of education.

And for this presentation We're going to look at the man of God, then we'll have Adam and Eve tomorrow, Job, Naaman and Samson.

But today, for our final seminar this morning, we're looking at 1 Kings chapter 13.

Was it purely because He was disobedient, or is there an end-time lesson for us to learn?

Father in heaven, Lord for some of us this may be a question we've never asked before, it may be a passage of scripture that we've never read before, for many of us it's just something that we don't really understand.

And so Father we come not as skeptics, Lord we come curious to know what is it that your Word is trying to say to us this morning.

We ask, Lord, that your Spirit would be here, would remove any distractions from our minds or anyone around us that would be a hindrance to us hearing the message that you have for our hearts.

Be with us at this time, we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.

I'm going to share with you 1 or 2 more quotes.

It says, as an educator, no part of the Bible is of what?

As an educator, no part of the Bible is of greater value than are its biographies.

How many of you in this room are educators?

The more you think about that, the more you'll think you have to put your hand up.

Because really we're all educators, or we're all meant to be educators.

We're all meant to educate someone about the Lord.

So as an educator, no part of the Bible is of greater value than are its biographies.

These biographies differ from all others in that they are absolutely true to life.

In other words, what these biographies allow us to do is they allow us to see the mind of the person.

This is the difference between the Bible biographies and the biographies that are written just about great people that have lived.

You read about Nelson Mandela and you can read about all of the great things that he did but you can't read about what he thought unless he explicitly states it.

The Bible however gives us a peer into the mind through these Bible biographies.

It is impossible for any finite mind to interpret rightly in all things the workings of another.

This is why we're told not to judge people, because we don't know what they're thinking.

None but he who reads the heart, who discerns the secret springs of motive and action, can with absolute truth delineate character or give a faithful picture of a human life?

In God's Word alone is found such delineation.

In other words, within these Bible biographies, motives and actions can be discerned.

The secret things that you and I would otherwise not be privy to can be made available to us through these stories.

Now, for those of you that joined us, you know how this part's gonna go.

For those of you that came back, we have an ultimate tip.

When we're reading the Bible, we want to approach it with a healthy curiosity.

We want to approach it with a healthy curiosity.

We're going to read 1 Kings chapter 13 in its entirety, okay?

We're gonna read and we'll read together.

Normally I would suggest when reading a passage if you want to get the most out of it you don't just read it once.

Read it at your normal pace, read it much faster than your normal pace, then read it much slower.

Look at every word that's there and then read it again normally.

We'll read it normally just together and there'll be more than enough time I'm sure when you go home to read it in all your different speeds.

First Kings chapter 13 verse 1, Is everyone there?

This is not 1st Peter or any other book make sure you're in the right place and behold there came a man of God out of Judah I'm gonna pause when I pause you don't pause By the word of the Lord unto Bethel and Jeroboam stood by the altar.

A man of God, this is his name, apparently.

Or this is the name that we're given for him.

He is just known as the man of God and there's a reason for that.

He came out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord.

Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.' And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken.

Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.

And it came to pass, when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, lay hold on him.

And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.

The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me that my hand may be restored me again.

And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.

5. Case Study #4 - Elisha, Naaman and the Syrian Civil War

This message was presented at the GYC to the end in Houston, Texas.

For other resources like this, visit us online at GYCweb.org.

I invite you, if you're going to be remaining here to take a seat.

You know, I don't look forward to afternoon meetings, I'll be honest, especially if they're right after lunch.

I remember 1 time a friend of mine explained the afternoon meeting as being the greatest picture of the great controversy, the end time events that we'll get before we get there.

Because it is essentially the battle of the stomach against the mind.

And the flesh wants to sleep, But the mind wants that spiritual food.

So I don't envy you guys having to sit there and stay awake.

I've got a really boring presentation lined up for you this afternoon.

How many of you got 1 of these leaflets on your chair?

Okay, so essentially this is a podcast that myself and a friend of mine started in August of this year.

It's called Why They Did That, and it's essentially what you witnessed if you were joining us for the last presentation.

We take 1 Bible character, we zoom in to 1 aspect of their life, and we ask, why did they do that?

And we look to go deep, we look to go beyond the actions and to look at the motivations this is as I shared with those of you who have been here from the beginning in the book of education it says that The Bible bibliographies are the most valuable part of the Bible to educators because they contain material that is true to life.

I can say that because I'm not the producer.

It takes a lot of time to make a single episode.

So you can check that out if you have Apple Podcasts, if you have Spotify or wherever else you may find a podcast.

I encourage you to do that if you are an Instagram user at whytheydidthat.

But Instagram is really where it is nowadays, so that's kind of our hub.

So if you're not really into the social media game, you can still listen to each episode, either on Spotify, iTunes, or you can visit our website whytheydidthat.org.

It's fantastic for family worships, it's great for traveling in the car, long journeys, it's great for everything.

There you go, you said it, I didn't say it.

We also have a booth downstairs if you've been to the exhibit hall We are the big bright sunflower yellow booth kind of like this color And it has loads of cool pictures of Bible characters So if you're interested listen to any previews of those episodes We have 1 minute snippets downstairs with some cool Beats headphones.

If you just want to say, you know, I went to GYC and I tried on a pair of Beats headphones, that's more than a good enough reason to come I'm sure.

I'll be there from the moment the exhibits open until they close.

You can find us on all social media and all podcast platforms.

With that being said, I'd like to go straight into our reading topic today, and we'll be looking at, or at least for now, We'll be looking at the character of Naaman.

So I invite you to turn to your Bibles in 2 Kings 5, and let's have a word of prayer as we begin.

Father in heaven, we invite your presence to be back here in this room with us this afternoon.

We pray that it wouldn't be a hindrance to our mind.

We ask, Lord, that You would help us to concentrate and focus.

Help us, Lord, to give You our attention, and please, it's our prayer that you would speak to our hearts.

This is our second last seminar, Seminar number 5.

We have another 1 coming up just after this on the character of Samson, so that's something that you don't want to miss unless you've got something else planned and then you do want to miss it and that's also fine.

So I just want to share with you for those of you that are joining us for the first time the ultimate tip when it comes to reading the Bible.

Someone at the front messed that up big time.

Okay and what she wanted to say was also question everything.

Not always ask question everything, but always ask why and question everything.

Not from a skeptical point of view, nor from a doubtful point of view, but come to the Bible with a healthy curiosity, seeking that God has reasons for the things that He does.

Now, there's something that I want to share with you that I think is very important, especially as the new year approaches.

It's about how you've read what you've read.

I think this is important because as the new year rolls in, how many of you have ever done 1 of those, those Bible reading plans, right, where you try and read the whole Bible in a year?

How many of you have started that and then failed somewhere along the line.

So more of you that have failed than have even started.

I've tried that many times and failed every single time.

But I'm actually not disappointed about that.

I think perhaps those plans are asking us to read a little bit too quickly.

I think it would be kind of cool to do a Genesis plan.

How about you spend the whole year just reading Genesis.

You can give yourself a two-week holiday in there.

And I think if we slowed down a little bit when it comes to reading the Bible, we'd actually find it a lot more enjoyable.

Some of us are in the habit of reading so that we can say we've read.

We wake up, we feel convicted to spend time with the Lord, first thing in the morning as we should, but our devotions become a checklist.

6. Case Study #5 - Samson and Adventism’s Greatest Lie

Father in Heaven, as we open your Word again, Lord, for the final time in this seminar we want to thank you for speaking to us.

Father we just we desire another blessing.

We ask God as we study this character of Samson, as we read through his story, as we pull out the flags, as we pull out the questions that we might have, that you will bless this time that we have here.

So keep your finger in judges, judges 13, 14, 15, that's fine.

Now I am not a mind reader, To which I'm grateful of that.

So I don't know exactly what you guys are thinking when you say Hebrews 11, but I do have an idea.

And I think the idea goes something like this.

For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah, of David also and Samuel and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness obtained promises Stopped the mouths of lions Quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." And it goes on and it goes on and it goes on.

So I'm assuming here that when I ask you if Samson will be in heaven and you say yes, you're saying so on the basis that Samson is counted as 1 of the prestigious members as what many call the Hall of Faith.

So everyone else that said Hebrews 11 was looking at a completely different text.

Hebrews 11 is not a roll of Scripture that tells us who will make it to the Kingdom.

Hebrews 11 is called by many the Hall of faith.

And I would argue that just because someone is mentioned in this chapter doesn't mean that they're going to be saved.

Now, I'm not an authority to say who will and who won't, and for that I'm grateful.

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Series

How to Read The Bible

6. Case Study #5 - Samson and Adventism’s Greatest Lie

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Recorded

Parts

1. Education - The Craziest Book Ever Written

1h 13m

2. Case Study #1 - Why Did God Kill His Own Prophet?

1h 10m

5. Case Study #4 - Elisha, Naaman and the Syrian Civil War

1h 19m

6. Case Study #5 - Samson and Adventism’s Greatest Lie

1h 11m

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