Come and learn how the use of Adventist literature can promote and enhance other ministries in your church spiritually and financially.

Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

<p>Come and learn how the use of Adventist literature can promote and enhance other ministries in your church spiritually and financially.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Adventist Literature

Theresa Broden

Part 1 - A Key to Discipleship

Part 2 - Promotes Successful Ministries

Dear gracious loving Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity again to come together.

Lord, we want to learn more of how to be effective in our ministry for you.

We understand as we move closer to the end of time that we need to be sharing our information, the truth that we have with others.

So we ask that your spirit will be with us, that you would guide us and teach us what we need to know.

Okay, well first of all, The first sheet you have is Christ's example in soul winning.

So we're going to go over that and then we're going to talk about some practical ways to use the information.

The disciples were members of the family of Jesus, and they had accompanied him as he traveled on foot through Galilee.

They had shared with him the toils and the hardships that overtook them.

They had walked and talked with the Son of God.

And in His daily instruction, they had learned how to work for the elevation of humanity.

As Jesus ministers to the vast multitudes, they gathered about Him.

His disciples were in attendance, eager to do his bidding and to lighten his labor.

They assisted in arranging the people, bringing the afflicted ones to the Savior, and promoting the comfort of all.

They watched for interested hearers, explained the Scripture to them, and in various ways worked for their spiritual benefit.

They taught what they had learned of Jesus and were every day obtaining a rich experience.

But they needed also an experience in laboring alone.

They were still in need of much instruction, great patience and tenderness.

Now, while he was personally with them to point out their errors and counsel and correct them, the Savior sent them forth as his representatives." So we have a couple things that are bold, and these are the things we're going to talk about.

First of all, in soul winning, Jesus was the 1 who ministers.

It's Jesus, it's the Holy Spirit, it's God who touches the heart of people.

We do not have the power or ability to convert anybody's heart.

So we need to allow the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, to do that to people's heart.

They watched for interested hearers and opened doors.

What are some ways that we will know when they are interested hearers or open doors?

Transitions, when people are moving into new areas, when there's a death in the family, illnesses, new neighbors, job changes, births, deaths, all of those kinds of things are examples of open doors because then people are willing to listen in times when they normally wouldn't.

They explained the Scripture to them and in various ways worked for their spiritual benefit.

We talked yesterday about we're in between the sixth and the seventh seal, and God is in the process of sealing his people.

But as he is in the process of sealing people, we need to be building relationships so that when we share our literature, it actually is able to sink into their souls.

You know, we hear about things, tracts and books being thrown away, and usually that's because we didn't have a relationship with the people.

It didn't mean it wasn't effective and Christ still can't use that, but when we have relationships and we mix that in with the power of the Holy Spirit, our evangelism will be so much more powerful and effective.

They taught what they had learned of Jesus.

And what do we do when we teach what we learned of Jesus?

You know, I've given lots of talks, and sometimes I'll be with a group of young people.

And young people, it's a very hard group to keep their attention.

And every time I've learned the cue, when they start becoming distracted, I go right into a personal testimony and it automatically Picks their ears up and they stop and they start to listen to what you have to say Testimony is powerful So if I can get some young people who are just trying to talk amongst each other, ears to perk up because I'm telling about how God has been in my life and made miracles happen, it can work because Everybody wants to hear the good news.

Everybody wants to know that God is alive, he's doing things, he's working.

And so always be ready to share your testimony.

And it doesn't have to be when you came into the church.

It could be what he did for you last week, how he healed somebody in your family or someone that you know.

And then lastly, the Savior sent them forth as his representatives.

So they had to have these things in their training So when they went forth, they would be effective.

It says there in Matthew 28, verse 19 and 20, "'Go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them "'in the name of the Father and of the Son "'and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe "'whatever I have commanded you, "'and lo, I am with you always, even until the end.

So the spirit of God is going to be with us when we follow his plan.

We have our own ideas and God has a plan.

As a church, we have received great light.

This light the Lord has entrusted to us for the benefit and blessing of the world.

To us has been given the ministry of reconciliation.

With the power from on high, we are to beseech men to be reconciled to God.

We are encouraged to pray for success with the divine assurance that our prayers will be heard and answered.

If 2 of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven.

For where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.

Ask of me and I will answer your requests." The promises made on the condition that united prayers of the church are offered.

And in answer to these prayers, there may be expected a power greater than that which comes from private prayer.

The power will be given with the proportion to the unity of the members and the love of God for the love of them for God and 1 another.

So prayer in unity is much more powerful than prayer alone.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't pray alone, but 2 or 3, which means it can be a husband and a wife.

So The more we pray, the more power we will receive, and the more effective our ministry will be.

If you go to the prayer tent, not the prayer tent, the exhibit tent, they have a booth from the GC, and they will have this book.

It's called Revival and Reformation on Prayer.

I didn't get a whole bunch because every time I get them, they disappear because people take them.

And they also have these 3 tracks on prayer.

I advise you to pick up a couple, take some back to your church, because then you'll have it.

This is a powerful book, it's written by Mark Finley, but it talks about prayer.

And When we start to use literature in ministry, it needs to be bathed in prayer like we talked about yesterday.

We don't just want to hand it out willy-nilly.

We want to pray over that because God knows exactly who needs it, the right track that they need to have.

We were buying textbooks back in Huntington, West Virginia, and every day there was this guy that came around and he looked like, you know, he was kind of straggly, that he needed some money, but every day he would come around.

And we were passing out tracts to the young people as they came and so we gave him a track as well.

And so he came back 1 day and he was like, you know, I read that track that you gave me.

And he said, you know, I've really been struggling and you know, I don't have money and I'm not working and he gave me the whole spiel about how he was struggling.

But he said, when I read that track, and the track that we gave him was, does God care if we're hurting?

And God knew exactly what track to put into that young man's hands.

And we were able to spend some time with him, to pray with him.

And on our last day when we were trying to break down, because we had already made up our mind, we're not giving anybody any money because we're buying textbooks.

So because we're buying textbooks, everybody assumes, oh, they're buying textbooks, they have lots of money.

But so the very last day he came, we were breaking down, and we were able to hire him, because we do hire people, to help us break down.

And so we were able to hire him, spend some more time with him in prayer.

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Series

Adventist Literature

Part 2 - Promotes Successful Ministries

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

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Plenary

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Evening Plenaries

Lessons from the Soil

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Judge Others and Why Jesus Said Don’t

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Being Adventist

The Terrifying Tyranny of Adventist Eschatology

1h 7m

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