ECYC 2012

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Eastern Canada Youth Conference

ECYC 2012 Seminar: The Challenge - Bearing Fruit that Lasts

David Kokiong

Addition - Establishing Solid Connections

All right, does everybody have your Bibles?

The place had been chosen days ahead of time, and the timing could not have been more perfect.

It was a large room, spacious but also intimate, with just the right amount of space for comfort and conversation.

The food on the menu wasn't the most extravagant, and the drinks did not carry the most exorbitant price tags, but every part of this feast had been chosen with a special meaning in mind.

And it had to be, because this dinner would be the last time that Jesus would speak with his disciples before his death.

And he wanted to make extra certain that they would remember this meal and this message for a long time.

The account of the Last Supper left a considerable impression on the Apostle John.

And when he chose to tell of his time with the Savior, he dedicated one-fourth of everything he wrote, 5 chapters out of 21, to the conversation that happened at the Last Supper.

I'd like to pick up the story right before John 15.

So please go to John chapter 14 at the end of it.

By then, the meal had been underway for quite some time.

Judas Iscariot had already left the room.

And, I'm just going to say, Peter had already asked for directions.

Thomas had asked for directions to know where to go, and Philip had wanted to see the Father.

As the disciples asked their questions to their Lord and Teacher, Jesus answered all of them, careful to make every word resonate in their minds and in their hearts.

It has often been said that 1 of the hardest things to say in 3 words or less is goodbye, especially when it's to someone that you truly care for, and especially when it's going to be a long time before you see them again.

The supper ended, and Jesus presented to them 1 final parable, the parable of the true vine.

And he ended with a verse that is our theme for both of the talks today.

He says, You didn't choose me, Jesus began.

I chose you and I appointed you to go and to produce lasting fruit.

Other versions have, I chose you and I appointed you that what?

I chose you and I appointed you that what?

I chose you and I appointed you that what should remain?

I chose you and I appointed you that your fruit should remain.

Jesus is the true vine and we are the branches and the branches that come out of us, they grow from our connection to Christ.

But they're our fruit because we connected them to Christ.

Every person we meet, every person we connect with, we connect them to Christ, and they are our fruit.

1 of the problems facing the church today is the backdoor experience.

People accept the message, they get baptized, then they leave through the backdoor.

Somehow, in some way, our evangelism fails, and we don't manage to connect with the people.

People come into the church and then they leave.

How to establish solid connections with those of other religions.

I'm going to examine the limitations of the current evangelistic methods, and I'm going to share insights from the Bible and from my own experience.

And I'll show you effective ways to establish a lasting gospel witness with people of different religions.

Let's start with the Great Commission in reverse.

Please go with me to Matthew 28, verse 19 and 20.

I'm going to put emphasis on certain words.

And I would have written this down, but I do not have a whiteboard here.

So, he says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

We start by offering people a Bible study.

We teach them to observe all the 28 fundamental beliefs.

Then we baptize the people and then we try to make them disciples and because we've reversed the order It doesn't connect people are not disciples of Christ.

How do you make someone a disciple of Christ?

How do you make someone a disciple of Christ before they know what happens after death?

How do you make someone a disciple of Christ before they know what the Sabbath is?

How do you make someone a disciple of Christ before they know that Jesus is the Messiah?

And then, when they decide to follow Jesus, how do you baptize them?

How do you reverse the trend that is in our churches today?

I want to tell you that knowledge is not conversion.

There are a lot of people, a lot of ex-Adventists, that have left the church.

They got a lot of knowledge when they were kids.

I don't know how many of you know people that you grew up with in church that are no longer attending.

And I want to show you the story of Nicodemus from a different light.

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Series

ECYC 2012 Seminar: The Challenge - Bearing Fruit that Lasts

Addition - Establishing Solid Connections

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Addition - Establishing Solid Connections

53m

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