Revelation For Today

Scripture Reference: 1 John 2:15-17

Warning of the Pride of Life and the enemies of God (world, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh) all of which the Devil use for his purposes to separate us from the love of God.

1 John 2:15-17 NAS

Do not love the world nor the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.  The world is passing away, and also its lusts;  but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

1 John 2:15-17 NAS

Notes from Kirk Cameron from The Deeper Conference (DVD)

I. Kirk is involved in The Way of the Master
A. How do we reach people with the Gospel?
B. At 17, Kirk Cameron had everything.  Kirk was full of the Pride of Life. But then he met Jesus Christ. And Jesus radically changed his life.
C. Why is there so much evil in this world if God exists?
D. Why are there starving children in Africa?
E. His opinion of the Bible was that it was fairy tales designed to control the masses
F. You can’t know God for sure.  Who knows?
G. All of the answers are found through Christians that God sent to him to show Kirk The Way in the person of Jesus Christ.
The question that got Kirk’s attention was: If the Bible is true, what is going to happen to you when you die?   Kirk’s conscience convicted him of his sin.
H. A Christian gave him the book “More Than a Carpenter” by Josh McDowell.
I. Kirk realized that God gave him his life, and that he had the opportunity to respond to God in faith.  He prayed “If you are there, reveal yourself to me and make me the man you want me to be.”  Kirk was converted to a Christian, and his life was transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit.
J. Kirk was born again in Jesus Christ.

II. Apologetics and the Gospel are a winning team.
A. What are apologetics?  How does it work with witnessing?
B. Do people intellectually come to a knowledge of God?  How does that work with faith in God?
C. Goal of witnessing?  Get the person saved, converted to Jesus Christ by the power of God.
D. Why witness?
1. We love God.
2. God deserves people coming to Him
3. God’s wrath is awesome and terrifying and people need to be saved from it
4. God is worthy
5. We love sinners.  We don’t want people to go to hell, a place of eternal torment.
6. Hell is a real place.  Dark.  Terrifying.  Pitch Black.  Agonizing.  You are eternally aware of your sin.
7. God expects us to plan the seed of the Gospel.

E. What is the Gospel?
1. People can be saved from eternal damnation in the person of Jesus Christ.
2. Jesus Christ has rescued sinners from death into eternal life.
3. Freed from the power of sin.
4. Have the hope of eternity.
5. What are apologetics?
F. Apologia: a formal defense, a reasonable explanation for what you believe.
1. 1 Peter 3:15 “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence”
2. Be able to humbly, thoughtfully, why you believe in Jesus.
3. This command assumes you have a hope in Jesus.  You can’t explain something you don’t have.
4. Apologetics builds up a believer in his faith.
5. The Christian Faith is not a leap into the dark it is a leap into The Light
6. Faith and Reason are friends
7. We have reasons to put our faith in God.  We know His character.  He has proved Himself faithful.
G. Polemics: strong verbal attacks on you, your character, and what you believe
1. How could a loving God let so many people suffer in this world?  Therefore, there is no God
2. You think Jesus is the only way to heaven?  You are so judgmental and intolerant
3. Christian’s are hypocrites and dim witted
4. Why does God allow evil?  A good question.  Here’s how you can ask that question: If God didn’t allow evil, why didn’t God kill you last night for the sins you committed yesterday?
5. How do you know what is good and what is evil?  How do you decide good and evil?  What is the standard?
6. Without the Bible, the written standard, there is no good or bad.  It’s all relative.
7. Where do space and the universe come from?  Where do the laws of the universe come from (gravity).
8. How did life get created?

9. Which evolved first?  Your blood,  your arteries, your heart, your brain, your eyes?  They are all inter-related and were created all at the same time.

10. Only God can create something from nothing.