It Is Time

<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>

IMPACT Scandinavia

IMPACT Scandinavia 2012: Workshop A

Derek Morris

Powerful Biblical Teaching

But now we want to look at my hero, Jesus, the great preacher, and discover 9 lessons from his preaching ministry.

And you may want to take notes, but At the end of the presentation I will also give you an email address if you would like to get a copy of the PowerPoint presentation.

I haven't figured out how to get internet activity here, I just have my phone, but when I get back home I'll send you a PowerPoint, or if you have a memory stick I can give it to you afterwards.

Okay, thank you for being here I know there are many excellent seminars.

I wanted to go to some others myself but I had to teach this 1.

Apparently if some want a Swedish translation, right?

So there's going to be someone in the back.

So, how many of you can understand if I speak slowly and carefully?

Blessed be your name, Lord God, that you have spoken to us through your prophets and most clearly through your Son, Jesus.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to go into all the world and proclaim the good news about Jesus and about your love for us.

We want to learn how to share your word effectively to be powerful preachers of your word.

Whatever our occupation or work, when you ask us to speak, we want to speak with power.

And so I pray that as we consider some lessons from the preaching ministry of Jesus, that you would be our teacher today.

All right, I looked at the gospel record.

That's where we learn about the preaching ministry of Jesus.

And as I said last night, and I will say again tonight, I hope you can be with us tonight, I really believe that we need to fill our minds with the Word of God.

I teach a class on the life and teachings of Jesus, still, even though I'm not at the university anymore.

And many of my students who have even grown up in a Christian home will say, I have never read through 1 of the Gospels completely.

Never read through Matthew or Mark or Luke or John.

Maybe a text here, John 3, 16, or a text here, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, but they've never read through the whole text.

But I wanna encourage you to do that, especially to read the gospels, the life of Jesus.

And it's from those records that we learn some principles about the preaching ministry of Jesus.

If you're taking notes, you just have 9 lessons to learn.

And those are also in chapter 1 of this book, which I'm going to make available in electronic format for you.

But also, as I mentioned, I have 36 copies in the hard format.

Chapter 1 is the presentation that we're going to do today.

And here's the first lesson that we learn from the preaching ministry of Jesus.

Jesus said in the synagogue in Nazareth, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me.

So Jesus, when he preached, he preached in the power of the Holy Spirit.

But notice what he said in Acts, recorded in Acts 1.

This is right before he ascends to heaven.

If you can see the screen, I'd like to invite you to read it out loud with me.

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me.

I want you to notice that as Jesus preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, So he said, I want you to be my witnesses by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now if you've read the New Testament, you may think of some examples and I'd like you to help me now.

Think of some examples of some people who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, recorded in the New Testament.

He was a deacon, but if you read the book of Acts, chapter 6 and then chapter 7, you'll discover that Stephen was such a powerful preacher.

He preached, it says, full of the Holy Spirit, that the enemies of Christ could not stop his teaching, they could not refute or contradict his preaching.

He preached in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In fact, and maybe this is a bit troubling to you, but he was such a powerful preacher that they said, we have to kill him.

Now, this may sound radical to you, but I think we need more preachers like that today.

I mean, I don't want to die young, I'm already much older than you.

I don't want to die, I have a wonderful wife and 2 fine sons, But we ought to preach with such power that the enemies of Christ say, we have to silence that man, we have to silence that woman, because they are preaching—how?—in the power of the Holy Spirit.

You're saying, oh Derek, I don't think I wanna learn to preach like that.

Can I just preach like a ordinary sermon?

I wanna suggest to you that we've heard too many ordinary sermons.

We need women of God and men of God who have the courage to ask the Holy Spirit to be with them and in them so that they can preach in the power of the Holy Spirit.

All right, Pastor Bernie mentioned Stephen.

Who else comes to your mind in the New Testament when you think about preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit?

And he's a great example, too, because before he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he was a lot of talk, right?

And when he's challenged regarding his relationship with Jesus, without the Holy Spirit's power, what does he do?

Huh, he curses, he says, I don't even know who he is.

But when he's filled with the Holy Spirit, what is he like?

You know, in other words, he says, we must obey God rather than man.

And preaching with such power on the day of Pentecost that people say to him, what shall we do?

And he says, repent and be baptized, every 1 of you, for the forgiveness of your sins.

The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off.

You say, Derek, how are you quoting all of that scripture?

Did I tell you last night we need to fill our minds with the Word of God?

The Holy Spirit, just as the Spirit brought that text to Bernard's remembrance, He will bring it to your remembrance.

So that even when you're preaching, has anyone here ever given a sermon or a talk where you're sharing and the Holy Spirit brings something to your mind?

It doesn't mean you don't prepare, but part of your preparation is to ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Give me another example from the New Testament, someone who preaches in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Henrik Jensen

Christian Recreation

I believe, my friends, that it is not a coincidence that we are here today.

And I believe it's not a coincidence that you're even sitting at this workshop, even though for you it might just have been a random choice that you made.

Because I assume that all of you love God, is that correct?

I think that's why you're here at this conference anyway.

And you know it says in Romans chapter 8 verse 28, we'll not go there now but I'll just quote it for you, that all things work for good to those who love God.

So if you love God everything will work for good.

Sometimes it's difficult for us to realize this, Sometimes we go through trials and we have difficulties and we don't see God's hand in this, but we can have confidence because God's Word promises it, that Everything works for our good if we love God, of course.

So I believe it's not a coincidence that you have come here.

And before we go into this study, which will be a practical study, we are going to look at some practical issues.

And Before we do that, we need to establish some fundamentals.

Because if we don't get these things clear in our minds, I think some of us maybe will...

I also have to say that I am from Denmark and I am not a native English speaking person, so if there will be some Danish words or some Norwegian words or even some Swedish words, there's not been many of those.

Okay I'm sure you understand that, all of you.

Okay the first thing we have to establish is let's go to Psalms chapter 84.

We're going to go through a quick Bible study and then we're going to dive into our subject today, which is Christian recreation.

I could have brought it on the screen, but I like when you, I like when we get opportunity to use our sword a little bit.

We need to practice, you know, this is a warfare.

Psalms 84 verse 11, it says, for the Lord God is a sun and shield.

No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

That God will withhold no good thing from us.

Can we assume that if God tells us that there are some things that we shouldn't do, what does that mean if God says so?

If God tells you in your life There's something that is not good for you.

Because God will withhold no good thing from us.

So everything that will work for our good, God will make sure that we get it.

So sometimes God asks us, could even good things a way to get something better?

Let's go to Psalms chapter 34 because we want to hammer this home.

Psalms chapter 34, and there we will read from verse 9 to 10.

It says here, Oh, fear the Lord, ye saints, for there is no want to them that fear him.

The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." Is that the same thought?

Even the young lions, this is the psalmist making the point, The young lions, you know, they are strong.

They are most qualified to survive, but even the young lions, they suffer hunger sometimes.

But to them that fear God, God will withhold no good thing, okay?

You might wonder why I'm taking this point and stressing it so much, but you'll see that later in our presentation why.

Okay, 1 last text for this point, Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11.

It says here, and this is a well-known verse, For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Okay, this verse is incredible.

I don't know how many of you know what's taking place in chapters 29, But chapter 29 is a letter that Jeremiah writes to the captive Israelites in Babylon.

And these captives Israelites, why are they captive?

Is it because they've been faithful or because they've been unfaithful?

So these are ungodly, these are apostatized.

And look what he writes, look what God says when God is thinking about the Israelites, even in Babylon.

What kind of thoughts are God thinking towards these people?

He's thinking God thoughts of peace and not of evil.

What do you think, what do you think the kinds of thought God is thinking about us?

Do you think God is thinking thoughts of peace even towards us?

You know, what I want to stress here is that the fact that the Bible represents that God has our best in mind.

He has our best in mind all the time, no matter what happens.

And that is why the Bible is full of advice, how we can be saved.

Because we might think, you know, the best thing for me would be to, you know, get a nice education and earn a lot of money and be nice to people and, you know, get a beautiful wife and get 5 children, maybe not 5, but get some, some, you know, get a life and have a good time.

And what is really good for us is not this life on earth.

Eternal life together with Him for all eternity.

So God, He has our greatest good in mind.

Now I can stand here all day and tell you about this, but the question is, do we believe that?

Because sometimes it doesn't look like God always has our good in mind.

I bet it is also true in your life sometimes.

Let me just say that 1 of you who have never seen Swedish money.

If you come to me and I give you a Swedish 100 kroner bill, and I tell you this money is worth something.

I don't know exactly what it's worth, but this money you can use.

Alexander Jensen

How to Study the Bible

My name is Alexander Jensen and I'm from Denmark.

So this is an environment I'm not so used to in this cold, cold weather.

Welcome everybody to this workshop, How to Study the Bible.

This is 1 of the most fundamental things you can talk about when you are a Christian, especially when you are a Seventh-day Adventist.

Studying the Bible, how to get a study life that means something to you, that you are joyful about, that is something you cannot live without, something that is really valuable to us.

I don't know how many of you have had this experience, but at least in my life there has been parts of my life where I thought that Bible study was boring.

Any of you have had it like this just once or twice?

Okay, just opening the word you're reading and it is as if it doesn't mean anything to you.

Okay, But studying the Bible, if you think that studying the Bible is boring or it is not valuable, then it is the same as saying, you know, that if you have a spouse, that you love your spouse, but you don't want to talk to her or to him, or you love your children but you rather stay away from them.

You know, studying the Bible, it is the communication we have with God.

We can speak to him through prayer and he also impresses us with thoughts when we pray, but the Bible is his revealed will.

So if we say that Bible study is not important, we are not really Christians in the truest sense.

Another point is many of us we know we have to study our Bibles.

You know, we have our parents have told us to study our Bibles or we have read it somewhere and we know we have to study.

But often or many times we do not know how to do it.

We don't know how can I really get things out of this book so I can get the message that God is giving me?

And this is what we will try to do today.

We will not just talk about that we have to do it and how to do it and the methods we will also try to implicate the methods and actually apply them and we will take verses and I will give you some verses and we will try to apply the tools that we will learn.

And the last point that is we have to pray before we start, because we need God's help in order to understand.

And we will see that also today as we study.

So, I don't know if it's possible for you, but I would like to kneel and we will pray that God will help us.

If it's not possible, it's okay for you to stand.

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your Word that you have given us, that you have preserved through the ages, even though many people have tried to destroy it, and we can read it now today without any persecution or anything.

And we really need your help today, dear Lord, as we open your Word to understand it.

And I really pray, dear Lord, that you will help all of us today to gain a rich blessing as we try to understand your will and try to dig into your words and study it the way that you wanted us to study it.

We pray that you will help us with this, and we know that you will, because you want to save all of us and the salvation plan is revealed in your words.

I thank you so much for this and pray that you will bless us in Jesus name.

I think I'm having a sermon, but now it's better.

Okay, let me ask you this question first.

You come to a conference and you listen to sermons and you think, wow, that is just incredibly interesting.

You know, he's going through all these points And wow, the Bible is just so interesting.

When I get home, I'm going to study more, okay?

Then you go home, you open in the morning, maybe you're a little tired, I don't know what happens, but you try really to get something out of it.

But it doesn't seem really to be that interesting as when this preacher was up there preaching.

Studying the Bible is like any other skill.

You need practice and you need perseverance to gain blessing from it.

The reason why a preacher can stand up there to preach is because that he has used time, he has used perseverance and he has used effort.

And that's how it is with any skill, you know.

How many of you play an instrument in here?

Okay, this is the way it went with me when I tried to play the violin, you know, I was looking at this professional violinist and you know he was playing along and you know it looks so easy when they play.

You know, the fingers, they run forth and back very easily, and they, you know, seem to dance along with the song, and you think, whoa, this just looks easy, it looks just beautiful, I'm going to buy a violin, and I'm going to try it.

And you buy a violin and you try and it sounds horrible.

And it sounds horrible maybe the first 2 years you practice, hopefully not so long.

But it can take long time before it sounds good.

We have to practice in order to gain the experience.

As we practice you have small blessings along the road, you get a little better, the fingers run a little quicker, you're a little better to move the bow, but it is first when you have practiced some time that you start to gain the bigger perspective and the bigger blessing.

Maybe it's not like that every time, but you see what I mean.

You have to practice and you have to be perseverant in order to be able to play the violin and in order to gain blessings from God's word.

There was 1 Bible student, he said it this way.

The first 10 minutes of a Bible study is often boring.

I don't know if it's true that way all the time, but it's often, it takes some time for you to really get into the Word before it opens up to you.

I don't know, there seems to be a transition time for our mind to just get in touch with with God's Word.

So if we hurry along in our Bible study every morning and only use 5, 10, 15 minutes every day, then we will not really get into studying the Bible.

Today we have about 70 minutes left and I have a lot of stuff.

So what I have to do, I have to select some of these things and then I will give you this handout later on.

I will try to select the most important principles how to study the Bible.

And then we need some time to practice so that when you get home you only have methods in your head, but you also have a small experience how to implicate these tools.

First of all, I would like you to take your Bibles, and then we will go to 2 Timothy, chapter 3.

We will first look at some principles how to study the Bible, and then we will later on look at some tools.

And I know this text is familiar, perhaps, to almost all of you.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is plausible for doctrine, for recourse, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Okay, I would like for you to look at the first sentence here in this verse.

It says, All of scripture is given by inspiration of God.

According to this verse, How much of the Bible is inspired?

That means that the book of Isaiah is just as inspired as the book of Daniel.

That means that chapter 1 in the book of Isaiah is just as inspired as chapter 5.

We cannot, as humans, say, well this part, this was Paul, you know, he had some strange ideas.

He had some strange ideas with Irene, but this was Paul, so we have to bear with Paul.

But the other things he writes about salvation, that's inspired, but the rest, that was his own ideas.

Back to Menu

Series

IMPACT Scandinavia 2012: Workshop A

Christian Recreation

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Powerful Biblical Teaching

1h 27m

Christian Recreation

1h 24m

How to Study the Bible

1h

Experiencing the Power of United Prayer

1h 41m

Christian Leadership

1h 26m

Sound Doctrine