ASI 2011: Inspired to Finish Strong

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ASI 2011 Seminar: Spiritual Growth

John Bradshaw

Effective Personal Evangelism

1 thing we can know for sure is that God wants us to be involved in personal evangelism and I think he wants everybody to be involved in personal evangelism.

It doesn't matter how young a person is, how old a person is, that person can be involved in personal evangelism and be effective in the area of personal evangelism.

Now I hope you don't mind if I share some quotes from the Spirit of Prophecy as I talk with you today.

Even if it wasn't okay, I was gonna share them anyway.

It is in doing Christ's work that the church has the promise of his presence.

To take his yoke is 1 of the first conditions of receiving his power.

Now listen to this, the very life of the church depends upon her faithfulness in fulfilling the Lord's commission.

The very life of the church depends upon this.

So let me ask a question, let's flip this over.

If members of the church are not engaged in personal evangelism, then by what I'm reading here that church is by definition what?

To neglect this work is surely to invite spiritual feebleness and decay, where there is no active labor for others.

Now you get people who say, you know what, I just go to work and I try and live a good life and I don't upset anybody and I want people to know what a nice person I am and I just, I'm happy.

And I hope that people will just, I don't know what they hope.

You just hope that they're going to ask you 1 day, where do you go to church?

But don't we have to take a little bit further than that Yes, we do.

We were actually engaging people in some kind of some kind of Thinking process or some kind of forward movement process to get people from where they are to where God wants them to be.

So in a certain sense, what a person needs to develop is some kind of personal evangelism plan.

I would like you to think about a way that you can be intentional about Reaching people for Jesus not this is the way I live my life and I'm gonna hope for the best But here's what I'm going to do.

If you don't have a this is the way I do business, I think it's probably wise that you develop some kind of action plan, a personal evangelism action plan.

So you can say, here's my way, here's my method, here's what I'm going to do.

The work of God in this earth can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church membership rally to the work and unite their efforts with those of ministers and church officers." That's Gospel Workers, page 352.

You know, our church has a theology of mission, a theology of personal evangelism.

You could call it a theology of involvement.

We believe that when Jesus spoke these words, he spoke them to all of us.

In Matthew chapter 28 and verse 19, he said, Go ye therefore.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations, and we know that that word teach you can translate that as what?

Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I'm with you always even unto the end of the world." Peter wrote that we are a royal priesthood, a royal priesthood.

So evangelism isn't something we do for leave for the professionals.

I've got to tell you as a public evangelist, people say this.

People say, you know our church has been doing evangelism all wrong.

We bring in these hired guns And they ride into town and we sit back and we just let them do it.

That's not how the church has been doing it.

I can tell you from experience, we'll contact a church way in advance and say, when we're coming to do a public evangelistic service.

We've got to...you know, the conference has lined this up and you've said yes, and everybody's on board.

We can't come to town and just preach to tombstones.

We've got to come into town and have live bodies sitting in the audience, in the congregation, in the crowd, who are there because they want to be there and want to hear the Word of God.

So what we've done though is we've believed, and I'm speaking in very general terms, and I'm accepting from you permission to do that.

We've said if we bring the evangelist in, he or she will just do the work.

We became an evangelist and the victims of our own success.

Back in the old days you could put up a tent and a big sign saying, here the singing evangelist.

We used to use that term in a public setting, the singing evangelist.

And then there'd be a big picture of a beast, a biblical prophetic beast, and people would say, oh look at that, and the guy would come home from work and say, well Ethel I see there's a there's a meeting downtown in the village square and they're gonna have a singing evangelist and she'll say, a singing evangelist?

We need to go to that, and he would say, well because I walked home from the shoe store downtown and you had supper ready and waiting on the table, and because the children have their homework done, and because there's no television yet, and because we can't download movies to watch from Netflix and because we don't have a mortgage so big that you absolutely have to work, we can do this." And she says, yes, we can.

And so they go to the meeting and the evangelist, the singing evangelist, sings a beautiful song and they say, well, that was beautiful.

And then the evangelist Preaches and he turns to her and he says, that's not what we believe.

And he answers by saying, you know what, he is right.

Mom might or might not be home from work, children today, so I'm told, have more homework than children have ever had before, and then when they're not in homework, they're sitting at a computer game or on the internet or they're watching a movie or they have a television that has 400 channels and at least 2 channels from their own church, why do they want to go out to a meeting?

Besides, they're now steeped in dispensationalist theology.

When John Shuler was preaching in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1930s, back in the 30s, and they baptized 136 people, there was no 1 there arguing with him about the secret rapture.

You spoke about the Antichrist and people said, yeah, we, mm-hmm, yep, we always figured, mm-hmm.

It was a different age then than it is now.

So what we've got to have is a laity, that word laity just comes from a group, a word that means people, people.

It doesn't mean the clerics up here and the plebs down there.

We believe in a priesthood of all believers where everybody can be involved doing the work of God.

Pavel Goia

Total Commitment

If not, I told people before pray for the gift of tongues.

Before we start, let's bow our heads and pray together.

Father in heaven, what a privilege to serve you and to know that you love us so much.

In humbleness, we pray for your presence, we pray for your spirit.

We pray that you will be the center and the goal and everything we do will be for your glory.

We pray that your spirit is going to touch our hearts and fulfill your plans through us.

In Jesus' precious name we pray and thank you so much.

So, I don't know if you are curious about the title, it says total commitment.

But I'm going to go straight into the subject.

And before I do that, I'm going to just say 3 words about me.

And I have a fantastic wife that I am handicapped without her.

I never get it straight colors and anything like that.

I travel around quite a lot giving a prayer seminar, also revival seminar.

Today we will not have time for neither of them, But I'm going to talk about the most simple subject that is the core of all we do.

And this is going to be so challenging and in fact this is the subject, this is the essence.

And if we don't get this 1, all we do doesn't make much sense at all.

So I'm going to just start asking a few questions.

Before you do that, if I go too fast, because I have the bad habit to get excited and move in fast gear.

If I go too fast, don't feel bad to raise your hand.

As soon as I see you doing that, I'm going to slow down so you can get me.

Secondly, if you have questions, feel free to ask, because I may not answer them anyway, so it doesn't bother me.

That tells me that you do love God with all your heart.

No question We want to be saved and do you want others to be saved We have it in our heart well How many of you be honest?

How many of you feel that you don't have the results you should have?

Didn't God split the Red Sea for his people?

I mean if that happened today, you'd go to the ocean and God would just split the ocean for you.

Come on that cannot happen How would you feel if God would just multiply your oil and your flour and your whatever?

Peter prayed for Dorca and she jumped up and walked and walked again.

Well if it did our churches would be packed.

How many times we pray and we don't know about the answer and we are very uncertain and we want to have faith and we struggle.

And we want to help others know God and many times we ourselves are not sure about what God is gonna do.

But that God says that he discovers his servants his plans, doesn't it?

In fact, He wants to work today as He worked in the past.

In fact, the way this work started, when the disciples really got excited about it, and they received the Holy Spirit, and they performed miracles, and they baptized thousands every single day of the week.

This work is gonna close with a greater power.

The Spirit of Prophecy says it's gonna be closed with fantastic unimaginable power that we cannot grasp or comprehend.

We should be looking for Christ Somehow Christ should be able to work through us since we are the body of Christ His body should be walking around to us and doing what his body did when he was here.

For instance, there was no sick when he walked to a village.

You walk to a village, nobody is sick behind.

There is a quotation in the spirit of prophecy.

And I will make my materials available to you.

I am glad to give them everything I have.

And the quotation says, to those who offer themselves to God withholding nothing, how much?

Those that offer themselves to God with holding nothing, it says All heavenly power is made available.

And then she keeps going on and she says, quote, and you can check, I'm gonna give you the quotation.

All that the disciples did, every single Christian should do today.

All that they did, every single 1, should do today.

When I grew up, I grew up in a very good Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Clifford Goldstein

Why I Belive in God: An Apologetic on the Christian Faith

You know, I suppose in 1 sense I put this together as kind of A0I don't know, a defense against spiritual or maybe intellectual complacency.

We don't want to take our beliefs for granted, and we don't want to take our faith for granted, and we don't want to take our relationship with God for granted.

We need to think about what we believe, about why we believe it, if not only for our own good, then I think of the verse in scripture where Peter, where he says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be always ready to give an answer to every man that asks you for a reason, that the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

And that's what I want to do with this talk, is, you know, simply help, you know, if indeed does, anyone who would like to give some answers to somebody that asks about what we believe and why we believe it.

Now notice, the title is not, Why do I believe in Jesus?

Or why do I believe in the second coming?

I'm getting much more basic than that, much more foundational than that.

These are things that you really need faith for, and these are things that you need revelation for.

And although I'm not denying that you need faith to believe in God, I would argue that there are very powerful rational and logical reasons to believe in God.

And in fact, I would say the arguments in favor, the logical, rational arguments for God, the existence of God, I believe are much stronger than the arguments, the logic and reason that's used for atheism, or for disbelief in God.

I truly believe that the logic and reason is much more on our side than it is on the side of those who don't believe.

And maybe this will help you see it when we're done.

Anyway, I want to start out with a story told by C.S.

But Lewis has had some very good insights at times.

When he was told a story, when he was an agnostic about how he was sitting in the teacher's lounge at Oxford or something, sitting around with some other professors and probably smoking and having their morning coffee in the in the lounge, and he talked about somebody who he called the hard quote, the most hard-boiled of all atheists I ever knew.

And they were sitting there in the lounge just chatting, and then out of the blue, this hard-nosed atheist, as he said, the hard-boiled-est of all atheists I never knew, sat there and in the midst of the conversation he said, well, you know, something to the effect of, well, you know, C.S.

Old Chap, something like that, The evidence for the historicity of the Gospels is really surprisingly good.

And then he just stopped the conversation.

You know, it would have been like if somebody would have been sitting there saying to him, you know, C.S., I was sitting there and a flying saucer came down in my backyard and scooped up my dog and took him away.

And he thought about, well, the evidence for the historicity of the Gospels is good.

Because you know the Gospels, in fact the other day I was doing for my morning worship, I was reading through the book of Matthew.

And Matthew just starts out, this is the generation and so and so begat so and so begat so and so.

I mean about as earthly and a human and natural thing as you can do, begatting other people, 1 after another, and then all of a sudden out of the blue, it just drops in the virgin birth.

Okay, no attempt that I'm gonna really try to strain credulity here.

I'm really gonna try to, you know, ask you to really reach out in faith.

Drops in something incredibly miraculous.

And the point is, the Gospels are filled with miracles.

From beginning to end, they just assume a supernaturalist view of existence, and, you know, including especially the resurrection of Jesus.

I have a whole sermon I give on evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.

And when you really get into it, it's amazing.

Lewis was floored because if the Gospels were historically accurate, then miracles really happened.

And if miracles really happened, then his atheistic, materialistic view of the world which said miracles don't happen would have to be wrong.

I mean, if you have a worldview which says that divine miracles cannot occur, but then you're given some strong evidence that divine miracles or miracles have occurred, then what happens to your worldview?

Your worldview, and we're talking about a fundamental worldview here.

We're not talking like changing political parties or something.

We're talking about something fundamental, changes.

Lewis on a quest, and that wound up becoming a believer.

Now I use this account not as so much as an introduction into some kind of gospel apologetic, but as an introduction to what has represented from antiquity the 2 overarching views of the world.

There's 2 basic views that go back, back into antiquity.

First, there's the atheistic, materialistic view held by many in ancient Greece, right up through to today, You know, which is a view that's rallied, it's proclaimed a lot by, they call themselves the new atheists.

Maybe you've read, you know, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, I've read them all.

I haven't read all their books, but I've read most of them.

And they're basically just promoting the same old view.

No God, no creator, were purely trance creations of what 1 ancient Greek, centuries before Christ once called atoms and the void.

So all that exists, atoms and the void, which is pretty amazing.

Think about it, about 2, 300, 2, 400 years, no, about 2, 500 years before Christ, they basically gave some of the atomic theory, you know, atoms in the void, okay?

Now in contrast to that view, there is the belief in some kind of supernatural being or beings from Zoaster's Ahura Mazda to Voltaire's deism, because Voltaire was not an atheist.

Voltaire once said, every watch needs a watchmaker.

You've got that to Calvinist predestination, and on and on and on, and everything else as well.

Now, either worldview or any version of them, Lewis knew negated the other.

Either there is a God or gods, or there isn't a God or gods.

Either knew he knew, He knew that either view negated the other.

And as my talk unsubtly suggests, I believe that God exists.

So I guess the question is, why do I believe in God?

What would be some of the reasons that I would believe?

I want to start out with a philosopher asked a question.

And in many ways, it's about the most basic question I think anybody could ask.

Why is there anything at all to believe in, or is there even a subjective consciousness, such as myself, that could believe it?

Or to get as basic, Philosopher asked 1 of the most basic questions that I think you could ask Why is there something?

I mean, that's pretty much, you know, how much further can you get?

Why is there something instead of nothing?

Now, I thought about this and I tried to argue.

I wonder if you could ask the question, why is there nothing instead of something?

But I guess that's self-refuting because you can't even ask the question.

There has to be something there to ask the question.

So why is there something instead of nothing, if you're going to get right down to the basics?

Well, I think the answer must be found in some version of 1 of those 2 world views that we just talked about.

It's either in the universe, either originated through natural or through supernatural origins.

If the latter, If it came through supernatural origins, then the universe was made by being or beings greater than or prior to it.

Otherwise, creation had to have occurred naturally, out of itself, which leads to the question, how did it first get there in order to arise out of itself?

That's kind of absurd if you think about it.

Stephen Bohr

How to Experience Revival and Reformation

Father in heaven, what a joy it is to be at ASI.

1 of the most exciting things for me, Father, is to see all of the ministries that are springing up worldwide.

We know that you're doing this in the last moments of history because it's going to take many many hands to reach out to so many different people who have different ways of thinking and have different interests and all of these ministries provide for a need that people have And I just ask Father that you will bless ASI, that you will bless everyone at the booths in the exhibit area.

And Lord we long for the coming of Jesus.

We're tired of living in this world of sin and sorrow, sickness, suffering, and death.

But we know that there must be a revival and reformation among your people before that can happen.

And so we ask that as we study this important subject this afternoon that you will be with us through the ministration of your spirit.

And we thank you, Father, for hearing and answering our prayer, for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Some of the material that I'm gonna be sharing with you this afternoon comes from the book, The Great Controversy, Chapter 27.

The title of the chapter is Modern Revivals.

Now, what led me to choose this particular subject is the fact that Elder Ted Wilson last year at General Conference emphasized and underlined that the greatest need of our church is that of revival and Reformation, and at Secrets Unsealed we made it a point to emphasize and underline this ever since he gave his sermon at the General Conference.

Now Ellen White agrees, if you'll notice in the material Ellen White says inspired by God's Spirit in Review and Herald March 22 1887 the following.

A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.

So what is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs?

And this should be according to her our first work.

Now the question is what is revival and what is Reformation?

Ellen White has this remarkable statement in Review and Herald February 25 1902 where she defines what revival is and what Reformation is, and then I'm going to make some comments about this passage.

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Series

ASI 2011 Seminar: Spiritual Growth

Total Commitment

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Effective Personal Evangelism

1h 22m

Total Commitment

1h 13m

Why I Belive in God: An Apologetic on the Christian Faith

1h 12m

How to Experience Revival and Reformation

1h 14m

Sound Doctrine