RUCU Houseparty 2005!! Ledbury, Herefordshire
Awww wow, WHAT a weekend of teaching, fellowship, fun, learning, growing, meeting new people....and most importantly getting closer to God. I'm excited!
You'll find below some notes from the weekend....they're not great but hopefully will encourage/challenge you in some way. They're from the talks/evangelism training sessions done by Greg or Pete (sorry, don't know surnames!) from Christians In Sport. Great stuff! And they're coming to do the mission.....let's start praying NOW for our friends!
RUCU Houseparty 2005 - Freedom For All!!
Acts 16.
The reality of what the future will be like impacts how we act now.
"The future's not what it used to be" (Woody Allen). This reflects our anxiety...
Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;..."
This WILL happen. This should dominate our thinking.
The jailor - freedom for even the hostile man.To be enslaved to sin meand to be living in such a way that you cannot please God.
Real imprisonment is to be enslaved in your heart, such that you cannot free it.
The jailor puts Paul and Silas in jail, but Paul and Silas are REALLY the ones who are free.
There is NO CONDITION on who can become a Christian.
Acts 16:31 "...'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved...'"
What a privilege! What a future!
What are your personal barriers?
How can you take the reality of the future and make it part of your life?
RUCU Houseparty 2005. Evangelism Training - Part 1. Pete from Christians In Sport
What do you think when you hear the word 'evangelist'?
Traditional idea - you don't have to be like that to be of use to God.
We feel incompetent at telling people about Jesus - so we don't do it!
"The best sponteneity is rehearsed."
3 things the resurrection means:-
1. The Cross works.
2. There is a life to come.
3. There IS a day of judgement.
It's simple! How can people not be Christians when they see how simple it is? Because faith is not just about understanding, it's also about caring about it!
Find out just how simple it is...
Two Ways To Live!!!
RUCU Houseparty 2005! Freedom By Grace. Greg from Christians In Sport
Acts 15.
Our society/culture yearns for freedom. Freedom to do what we want, how we want. The world says 'Freedom doesn't come by living as a human being, but as a human doing'.
Acts 14:26 "From Attalia they saile dback to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles."
Opening the door of faith...Exciting!
Acts 15:1 "Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: 'Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.'"
This throws the church into turmoil. Paul and Barnabas were furious.
Is Grace enough???
YES!!!!!!!!Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
We have freedom in Christ! He knows our hearts!! It is for freedom that Christ has set us free!!!
How do we add things to the gospel?
How do you feel and react when you stuff up as a Christian?
Remember grace!!!
Hebrews 4:16 "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
RUCU Houseparty 2005 - Freedom Opposed
Acts 17:1-10.
"The best laid plans can go to waste." We can feel like this when we're talking to people about Jesus...
Looking at Acts, doesn't look like the plans are coming together. In Luke 21:12 Jesus says "...they will lay hands on you and persecute you."
How do we hold together the reality that Jesus is BOTH King AND the suffering servant?
Today's socieety:- "Whatever works wins". "You've got your belief, I've got my belief - great, everyone's happy."
Why do you want to be a Christian? Why do you want Jesus in your life?
Genuine Christian faith is NOT based on what you GET from Jesus. We don't love Jesus because of what he adds to our lives. It's because He is supremely worthy of our love.
The gospel collides with a secular cultureActs 16:16, 19 - we see the love of money, exploitation. The slave girl incident is a little spark but starts a huge fire - city riots. It's interesting that being motivated by money can often lead to this sort of behaviour.
Opposition is caused by thedevil. 2 errors we can make - 1 is to speak about him too much, and the other is not to speak abot him at all...
The devil is real. Bible makes that clear. But God is effortlessly more powerful.
When opposition comes it is a faith centered on Christ and His glory which equips us ot keep going.
Persistence, Priorities, Perspective.
PerspectiveJesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. What is your light in the dark when things are going wrong? For Paul and Silas it was Jesus.
PrioritiesPaul and Silas could have avoided this situation...in Acts 16:37 Paul says "They beat us publicly without trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison". Why didn't he say this earlier so they could have been released earlier?!
Acts 16:40 - who do they go to see when they first get out of prison? New Christians - they want to encourage them.
The Gospel collides with a religious cultureActs 17:5. Jealousy. So their response? Riot.
As the gospel goes out, people are changed. Culture is shaped by the people IN the culture, so if people are changed, the culture will change. People won't like that! People don't like change!
As Christ is preached, the culture wil come into collision with that.
What does this mean for us at uni? What's the culture at uni all about? How am I gonna stand?
Think about hill walking - when you get to the top you get chance to look back at where you came from.
What's happened so far in Acts? The gospel advances despite opposition. Jesus steamrolls through it. In fact, he uses it!
Shawshank Redemption quote:- "The music was in my heart and my head. That's the one bit they can't take."
People can't take truth from us! And God is truth! And He lives in our hearts through faith and NOTHING can separate us form the love of God. Hallelujah!
