GYC 2013: Before Men and Angels

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2013 Seminar: Making Friends for Eternity

Mark Finley

01-Making Friends for Eternity, Part 1

This message was presented at the DYC 2013 conference, Before Man and Angels, in Orlando, Florida.

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

We're going to start in just a couple minutes.

If you're coming in, be sure to get the worksheet for the class.

Is there anybody that has not gotten our worksheet, just raise your hand and Dylan and Lindsey will be happy to give you 1.

It looks like they have done a great job putting them in your hands.

We're going to wait just a minute or 2 before we start.

I'll give you a little resume of the class.

We're delighted you're here, excited that you're here.

We're going to have a good time together over the next few hours.

And so we will wait just a moment, our class is scheduled to start at 845.

And when Jesus comes, we want to be on time, right?

So let's review before we start and before we pray a little bit about the time of the classes.

This is a three-part series, and so if you're taking this class and you only get the first session, it's like eating the appetizer and missing the main meal.

So you'll wanna stay with us during the entire three-class period.

Session 1, 2, and 3, which today we have session at 8.45.

How many are gonna be here for the first session?

Well, I mean, these are intelligent young people.

I mean, I really knew I had a good class to start.

Okay, so 8.45 to 9.45 is our first class.

Then we'll take a 15-minute exercise break.

If you have to go to the bathroom, you do have permission to do that, but I'm gonna exercise you here so that your brain thinks clearly.

And then today we go from 10 to 11, have a lunch break, and we go to 2 to 3.

So if you wanna take another class in another teacher, another subject, you can certainly do that.

When it says session 4, if you look down there for Thursday 315 to 415, you'll notice that under my class it says Making Friends for God Eternity Part 1.

That's exactly what you're going to get in this first session.

So this is a 3 session class, and then that completes the class, and then I'm gonna repeat it again.

So At lunch you can tell your friends and send them for the first session this afternoon, which would be under sessions 4, 5, and 6.

It gives you an opportunity to get more than 1 class, and it enables me to interact with more students.

I'll tell you a little bit about what we're going to do in class, and then we'll pray and jump right into it.

The question really is, how does the gospel and the message of Christ impact a 21st century generation?

How is this generation different in their thinking processes, and how can we look at the ministry of Christ and learn from the ministry of Christ methods and principles of sharing the gospel with a 21st century postmodern generation.

So we're going to spend a lot of time studying the Bible.

We're going to look at what Jesus, how Jesus interacted with people.

We are going to compare how Jesus interacted with people and biblical principles with the postmodern mind.

So in our first session, I'm going to look at the postmodern mind, how it functions, how it thinks, and how Jesus related to people.

In the second session, we're going to look at 10 reasons why the Bible is so incredibly powerful and it's so life-changing.

And we'll go through 10 fundamental reasons why the Bible is just absolutely life transformational and why the message of Scripture impacts and meets people in the postmodern mind.

Then, in the last session, I'm going to look at the 4 levels of how the brain processes information.

And we're gonna look at, you know, Ellen White made an interesting statement.

She said, in order to win souls to Jesus, there must be a study of the human mind.

And we're gonna look at how the brain processes information.

I will give you tools in that fourth session how anybody that you are interacting with, sharing your faith with, sharing Jesus with, studying the Bible with, how you can know immediately where they're at in their thinking process, the right questions to ask, you'll understand how they process information.

This will be helpful to you too in a decision-making process.

We'll look at the will, we'll look at the counselors of the will, conscience, reason, and judgment.

We will see how the biblical material impacts that.

So this class has 3 sessions, and we're gonna look at that in our third session.

Before we do that, anybody have an empty seat by them?

Would you just raise your hand if you have an empty seat?

Okay, we have a few empty seats up here, Dylan, that you can send people up to.

I've got a few people, maybe Lindsay and Dylan and some of you folks can stand just in the aisle and as people come in, If there's an empty seat, just send them in that direction.

All of you should have your worksheets, so let's pray.

Father in heaven, this is gonna be an exciting class.

We thank you for the privilege, for the opportunity of studying the Bible together.

We thank you that you are the creator of the human mind, and you who created it understand it.

We want to be more effective in our reaching others for Jesus, and so Lord, grant to us a sense of your guidance as we study.

Enable us to understand your word and enable us to understand the methods that Jesus used, and particularly as we study Jesus' methods, We pray that you'd help us to adopt them in Christ's name.

Number of years ago, there was a young Indian boy, teenager, living on an Indian reservation in the middle part of America.

1 day, he ran out of his house, jumped on his bike, took off, and he was quite upset.

And as he was speeding down a hill, he hit a bump, went flying off his bike, broke his arm.

So immediately he was rushed to a little emergency room in the hospital on that reservation.

The doctor looked at it, recognized that although the break was quite serious, that it could be set and the arm could be casted.

He followed all the protocols that the hospital had.

About 3 days later, the physician was buying something at a little general store in that town.

And the chief of the tribe came in and he looked at the physician and they began to talk and the conversation centered around this boy that had the broken arm.

And the chief said to the doctor, I'm really disappointed in you.

And the doctor thought to himself, wait a minute, I've been medically educated, I have done a good job in setting this boy's arm.

And the chief said, you know, I'm really disappointed.

And he said, well, chief, why are you disappointed?

And the chief said, You healed the boy's arm, but you didn't heal his heart.

You set a fractured arm, but you didn't heal a fractured relationship.

You see, doctor, that boy is gonna be in to see you again.

And the chief said, well, you know, I went to visit the boy after he broke his arm.

And I discovered that the reason he jumped on his bike and rode down the hill so fast, And the reason he was so upset is because his father is an alcoholic.

And his father is very abusive, and his father beat him.

So you set the boy's arm, Doc, but you're gonna be seeing that boy again the next time his father comes in and beats him up.

You see, you deal with fractured bodies, I deal with deeper issues as the chief of the tribe.

Jesus looks beyond the externals to the deeper needs.

I'd like you to go to your sheets and look there at the first paragraph.

Jesus listened to people's deeper stories.

So here is a key in effective soul winning for the post modern mind particularly.

02-Making Friends for Eternity, Part 2

You know, this is physical, mental, spiritual health.

You're going to take your hands like this And take your left hand, your other left, and move it around like this 10 times.

Come on, you can do better than that, 16, I'm 68, 17, okay now, the next 1123, left leg, 4, 5, this circulates the blood so that the red blood cells carrying oxygen Oxygenate your brain so you think more clearly, so you don't fall asleep halfway through Pastor Finley's class.

Put your hands right underneath your ribs.

If you can't find your ribs, be sure to come to our weight control class.

Breathe in through your mouth and out through your nose.

No, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Ah, you feel good, out through your mouth.

In through your, in through your nose, out through your mouth.

Go slow, not fast, but you hyperventilate and you pass out.

Now, your thumbs go behind the shoulder blade, your fingers go above the shoulder blade.

You push in with your thumbs and in with your arms, it's called a neck massage.

Always pushing up with your thumb and in with your fingers.

Okay, 12345678, 09:10, 11:12, 13, I'm going to do this for the rest of class, 14, 15, 16, you may be seated please, Thank you very much.

In our first class we looked at this reality.

That Jesus reached people as he ministered to their needs, as he won their confidence, and then he made them follow him.

That the essence of all soul winning is relationships.

Through relationships we break down prejudice.

Through relationships, but relationships are not enough.

You see, if you just make a friend, that doesn't mean that that friend is gonna spend eternity with you, right?

You can go play basketball and have a friend, but that friend may not be a Christian at all.

There are people that meet in some pub, and they say, oh, We're friends.

Now, somebody asked me in the break, did you mean to infer that if we're Christians, we should go to pubs with people?

And if that is what you took away from the first class, attend the first class again next time.

There are some places that Christians just do not feel comfortable going because we know that we are vulnerable and that even though we are converted, the devil will take any advantage to destroy our souls, right?

We are looking for bonded relationships with our friends that can break down prejudice.

Because we know that the postmodern mind wants belonging before what?

But if people don't feel they belong, they don't have opportunity to do what?

And so how do we reach postmodern people?

Develop relationships, break down prejudice, tell them stories about what works for us.

Tell stories about what Christianity means in our own life.

We'll answer a few questions before we go on into our next session.

Ready to launch into our next session and let's pray as we do.

We're looking at Jesus, God's word and our needs and we'll have some worksheets for you in class number 3.

We'll have worksheets for number 2 and number 3, Let's pray.

Father in heaven, as we study about how to apply the word of God in the hearts and minds of people, as we study about the incredible power in God's word, reignite our souls with the sense that 1 text dropped into the heart and mind of somebody else can change their life.

He was a pastor's son, brought up in an Adventist elementary school through his first 8 grades.

I knew the family well, but the time he was in the eighth grade, he began fiddling around with some other kids in the Adventist school in the Northeast of America.

03-Making Friends for Eternity, Part 3

We are looking at the 21st century generation.

We're talking about how the Lord has specifically designed the message of the Bible to reach this generation.

Now, let's review what we looked at the first 2 classes, then we'll pray and launch right into our third class.

In our first class, we pointed out that a 21st century postmodern generation looks at belonging before they look at believing.

They want to feel this sense of community.

They're not so interested in what is truth until they see truth working in your life.

They're more interested in models than they are in methods.

And we pointed out that it is only through relationship that we can break down barriers and prejudice, and that if we're going to reach a 21st century generation, It's going to take more than a tweet.

God did not send a tweet, he sent his son.

It's going to take a lot more than merely blinking at people as we race by them.

But if we're going to reach a 21st century generation, it's going to take deep, lasting relationships that we develop.

And as we develop relationships and minister to people's needs, we see prejudice breaking down.

And then gently, gradually, lovingly share a principle of truth here, a principle of truth there.

And remember we talked about the postmodern mind and basically what the postmodern mind says is you may have your truth, I may have my truth, but there's nothing really that is objective truth or objective reality, it may be okay for you.

And 1 of the things that postmoderns do is they love story.

And what in witnessing to a postmodern mind, we might say something like this after we've developed the relationship, showed our care, love, and needs, we might say, you know, I know you're going through a tough time right now.

Let's suppose you have a friend whose father just died of cancer.

Let's suppose you have a friend whose mother just died of a heart attack.

Let's suppose you have a friend whose father's out of work or a friend who applied for a job, thought they were the leading candidate in that job, but never got the job.

You see that your friend is struggling with something.

You have the right to be heard and you might say something like this, you know, John I know you're going through a real tough time now with your mother's death, but may I share with you?

See, it's not let me tell you it's may I share with you, you know, very gently May I share with you something it really has worked in my own life.

Now, why is that comment so significant to postmodern people?

Because they don't want to be told truth.

Let me share with you something that has really worked in my own, something that's been very meaningful to me.

You know, 1 thing that's been meaningful to me is to understand that death is not the end of the road.

And you know, when I consider death, it really is, I've struggled over that issue as well.

I know probably your mother's death has brought up a lot of these questions.

1 of the peaceful things that I have, although we don't have all the answers obviously, I have found in the Bible something that's really meaningful to me and that is death is but a rest, it's like a sleep and so your mother no longer suffers from that cancer.

And I'd really be more than happy to explore that with you if you might be interested.

Now notice what I did in that conversation.

A, I began to identify with the individual.

I didn't say, let me tell you the Bible truth.

If I'd have said that, what would have happened?

Let me tell you something that's worked in my life.

Typically, are you going to deny somebody telling you something that's worked for them?

And then I've said, may I share with you?

You share a little bit, and if you see the person responding, you say, would you like me to share more with you about that?

And so here's our formula as we work with postmodern people, we develop relationships, we meet human needs.

As we develop those relationships and meet needs, we begin looking for points of interest in contact where we can gently share a biblical principle.

As we share that principle, we watch for the opening of the heart and mind where we are able to share other principles.

Some of you this morning, I mentioned that a story about a couple who had come to a nutrition class that we were conducting and that really impacted their entire lives.

Some of you have asked my wife about her cookbook and workbook materials.

If you want to look at it after class, she's sitting in the back there.

This is her natural lifestyle cooking cookbook.

And each person coming to the seminar of Natural Lifestyle Cooking will work through the cookbook and begin implementing the recipes.

And this is a workbook that gives you all the scientific material to reach postmodern people.

And it's 7 classes, everything from how to make bread to granolas to breakfast cereals and how to make breakfast a better meal, to balancing your meals.

But these are the lectures and the workbook that the people receive, so they get their recipes out of this.

So we've tried to develop a variety of ways of reaching a postmodern culture.

Developing relationships, meeting needs, sharing a Bible text, watching for the openness of the heart as people are open, handing them a magazine, giving them a book, working with them gently until their hearts and minds open to the gospel.

Now, how many of you were here in our first class?

Okay, let's then review, just to keep in mind as I go into this class.

Do you have your worksheet from the first class, okay?

I just wanna look very quickly again to keep in your mind the characteristics of the postmodern mind, okay?

Our target group are young professionals.

Our target group are people, university students.

And we've looked at 8 principles that govern the postmodern mind.

And we talked about how the message of Christ, how the message of Adventism appeals to them.

This was on page 2 of the first worksheet, and then we'll go right to class 3.

Number 1, for the postmodern mind, life is based on relationships.

Belonging and a sense of identity with the larger community are far more important than believing a particular creator doctrine.

So the postmodern mind is starved for relationships.

You know, people will text, they have scores of Facebook likes, but very few close friends.

Scores of likes, but very few close friends.

We pointed out that the average teenage girl, 16, 17 years old, does 100 tweets a day, 100 texts a day.

The average guy, teenager, does 50 a day.

So many people you have this casual contact with.

So you go out to eat in a restaurant, you sit there on your cell phone, she sits there on her cell phone.

You sit there texting, she sits there texting.

So what happens is there's a very smaller attention span.

And so people are not listened to because our society is rushed, our society is hurried.

And so people are uptight, they're rushing, they're hurrying.

I gotta tweet you fast, I gotta text you fast, I gotta move fast.

Series

GYC 2013 Seminar: Making Friends for Eternity

03-Making Friends for Eternity, Part 3

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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