ASI 2010: Inspired to Finish Strong

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ASI 2010 Seminar: Spiritual Growth

Scott Moore

Growing Faith

Father in heaven, what a privilege it is for us to be here this morning.

And Father, we want you to teach us how to grow our faith.

I personally believe that the concept is easy, and that if we will just put into principle these practices, that our faith will grow.

And we pray that you will be with us to this end, for we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Well my name is Scott Moore, I am the director of Lay Institute for Evangelism.

We're located about an hour and 15, 20 minutes from here, depending on how fast you drive, maybe even just an hour.

But we're located up in Lady Lake, Florida.

You see there on the flyer that you have in front of you.

We also run a 4 week course, a 2 week course, a 3 week course, and we also, I didn't bring the flyers in here, we also have a 5 week course in Espanol.

However, there are many people that do, and the instructors that teach that segment of our program speak Spanish.

We hope you will enjoy the pin that you have there, compliments of Lay Institute for Evangelism.

Please check out our website, it's listed on both of those things.

But the purpose that you're here for today is not to come to my school, but to grow your faith.

And that's what we are going to talk about right now.

If you have your Bible, I want to see it.

There's no hymnals in here so I know that those are Bibles and not the hymnal trick.

So we're going to go to Romans chapter 10 and verse 17.

Of course Romans is in the New Testament, past the Gospels, then you have Acts, then you have Romans, the 10th chapter and the 17th verse.

The Word of God reads in Romans chapter 10 and verse 17, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

This segment here is on growing our faith.

And the biblical concept of growing your faith is simple.

The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the what?

Our faith grows by spending time in the Word of God.

Now look at what the Bible says in 1 John 5 and verse 4.

1 John is near to the book of Revelation.

The Bible reads like this in 1 John 5 and verse 4.

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.

And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our what?

Our faith grows when we study and spend time in the Word of God, and our faith is what overcomes the world.

This is from Testimonies for the Church, Volume 3, page 53.

She says, We should flee to the Word of God and to prayer, individually seeking the Lord earnestly that we may find Him.

Faith is the victory that overcomes the world and faith comes from studying the Word of God.

So if you and I want to overcome the world through this faith, if we want our faith to grow, we will spend time doing what?

You have an hour and 15 minutes to convince me and teach me how to grow my faith and we did it in 5.

It's all you have to do to grow your faith.

Satan well knows that all whom he can lead to neglect prayer and the searching of the Scriptures will be overcome by his attacks.

Satan knows that if we put to the side God's mechanism for growing our faith, that he will overcome us, because faith is what overcomes this world.

So simply what we are going to do today is we are going to learn how to study this deeper.

Some people will come and they will ask, how do you get so much out of your Bible study?

I mean, what makes the Bible different for you when you study it as for me when I study it and we're going to talk about that because studying the Bible is the way that our faith grows.

Jesus' mechanism for growing faith in His disciples.

Turn with me to Luke 24, Matthew, Mark, Luke, the third book of the New Testament, Luke chapter 24.

Now everybody knows the story in Luke chapter 24.

There are these 2 men that are walking to a place called Emmaus.

These 2 disciples of Jesus are walking to Emmaus and while they are walking the sun is down, it's dark, And these 2 men all of a sudden are joined by a third man.

Now quite frankly I don't like walking around outside after dark.

It's just, you know, I like to see the stars, but I'll look up and then I'll go back inside.

These 2 men are walking on a lonely road from where they were over to Emmaus and a third man starts walking with them and they think nothing of it.

They must have liked walking in the dark with strange people.

Who was that third man that walked with him?

But they didn't know it was Jesus, did they?

Jesus at that very moment could have said to those men, this is me, I'm Jesus.

He could have said right then, instead of waiting for Thomas, he could have said, here guys, put your fingers right here, put your hand right here, feel my feet.

Jesus wanted to instill in these men that even after he was physically gone from this earth that they could still have that faith growing mechanism which is his word.

So instead of Jesus just revealing himself to those disciples, Jesus studies the Bible with those disciples.

Verse 25, after they tell him, we don't know where Jesus is.

Some people say the Roman soldiers fell asleep and he was stolen, but that doesn't make sense because they could be assassinated for that.

Somebody says that he was raised, they were confused.

And Jesus says in verse 25, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

He said, O fools and slow of heart to what?

Subodh Pandit

Come Search with Me: Let’s Look for God

I'd like to begin just a minute or 2 before so that at the time we begin.

I'm from originally from India, a physician, so I'm not a pastor or a philosopher or a historian.

What I'm going to describe to you is the results of a 20-year search that I went through.

At the end of those 20 years, I had a lot of information in my hands.

So I spent the next 5 years in trying to put them together.

And when I put them together, I realized that there was a way in which you could logically think this through.

And when I finished that, I realized it was not only an answer to my prayer, but it could possibly help somebody else.

The seminar runs about 7 and a half to 8 hours.

So what I will do is give you just snippets and examples of how I went through that search.

So we have, like I said, just about 1 hour.

15 minutes, well I hope I don't take all those 15 minutes.

I'd like to leave some period for questions, if we can.

It takes a little something to put it together.

The hardest thing when you're putting something like this together is what shall I leave out, not what to include.

Diverse in language, diverse in dress, diverse in food, diverse also in religion.

India has the largest Hindu population in the world.

People don't realize, but India has just about the second largest Muslim population in the world.

We have more Muslims in India than in the Muslim countries themselves.

Christianity came to India, according to tradition, 1 of Jesus' own disciples, Thomas.

If you go to the lower part of the Indian peninsula, you will find some monuments to Saint Thomas.

So Christianity came there in its nascent, earliest form.

That's where I grew up and did my medical studies in India before coming to this country.

So in that crucible, when you're growing up, your shoulders rubbing day to day with people of different ideas and philosophies and concepts and religion, all kinds of questions come up.

And so I began a search, like I said, last 20 years, and I'm going to give you just a gist and a few snippets and examples of how I went through the search.

Now what I did in this seminar, which I usually present in secular university lecture halls, that is my ministry.

I go to secular university lecture halls to present this.

I've been to 5 continents now, and have presented it in many lecture halls.

I believe that when we finally go through some of this material, you will realize that there is something there that we need to know which will stabilize us.

And also, that God has spoken in a certain way, not maybe in writing 1 book, but placing evidence here and there such that any honest inquirer will find it if he must seek for it.

With these words, we're just about time now.

Let's get on with this one-hour presentation.

You know the first thing a person does who wants to inquire is go to the stuff and start reading it up.

The first step in becoming an inquirer is to ask yourself, have you prepared to become an inquirer?

Because We need to check your mental attitude and also create an atmosphere of an inquirer.

Why do we need to check our mental attitude?

Because ingrained and blended in all of us, everyone on earth, are 3 attitudes that we can bring from our brain to the study, and these 3 attitudes are not bound, they don't have boundaries.

So you can flip from 1 to the other at any time.

The attitude of a skeptic, the attitude of a believer, the attitude of an inquirer.

Now remember, I'm not talking about a person, I'm talking about the attitude that's in all of us.

For example, a skeptic will dismiss the report prior to thorough investigation.

A believer will accept a report prior to thorough investigation and an inquirer, he will hold verdict till the investigation is done.

It is extremely difficult to be an inquirer.

You can do an inquiry, but to be an inquirer is extremely difficult, and here's the reason why.

Is there anyone here who is not a Christian?

In all my presentations, there's usually a mixture of atheists and agnostics and Hindus and Muslims and Buddhists and the whole works.

So, well, I'll just treat you as just a mixed group.

The reason why is because, let's say we are looking at 1 question.

An inquirer is 1 who looks at these 2 proposals and says in his mind, either of them will do as long as it's the truth of the matter.

So if I'm a theist, a 1 who believes there is a God, I must drop my theism and say that if there is evidence that there is no God in existence, there is nothing supernatural, then I'll become an atheist.

And similarly, the atheist must drop his atheism and he must become an inquirer and say, well if there is some evidence of the supernatural, then I shall become a theist and a believer.

But it's extremely difficult to come to that point unless you're really honest.

Everybody is not called to be an inquirer.

I was called to be an inquirer so that somebody else will hear about my inquiry.

Here's another 3 set of statements about these 3 attitudes.

Whereas a believer will focus on the evidence, all he wants to establish as fact, whereas an inquirer focuses on the weight of evidence.

And the weight of evidence will show which side he must take his thinking to.

With these words, I say it was difficult to become an inquirer.

It's difficult to remain an inquirer while you are searching.

Because we always want to bring up the facts and the evidences that will suit us.

So to do that, you need to create an atmosphere.

And here are the 4 things you need to create an atmosphere.

Number 2 is honesty, number 3 is calmness, and number 4 is respect.

Now we do not have time to go through all of those.

I usually in the seminar go through each of them and get a response so that at the end we are all 4.

But I'll just touch on 1, the second 1, honesty.

Honesty is an extreme short supply, especially in the religious world.

And I don't care whether you're just a commoner, or whether you're a mullah, or a priest, or a monk, or a bishop, or a pastor, or anyone there.

We tend to dishonesty for the simple reason that we like our point to be established.

Mark Finley

Divine Healing

Father in heaven, thank you that the word of God provides answers to the questions of healing, anointing and the divine miracles that you will so powerfully work in the last days.

We know that the enemy wants to distort this topic and counterfeit this subject.

And so we pray that you would give us clarity from your word today and lead us to a deeper understanding of your will.

We thank you that you will, in Christ's name, amen.

A number of years ago, I was giving Bible studies, and some of you may have heard me tell this story before, in a log cabin with a dirt floor that had no electricity, no running water in the mountains of Tennessee.

And I had been studying the Bible with this family for many, many months.

And on this particular day that we were studying the Bible, a man walked in and he was smoking a big cigar.

As he smoked the cigar and puffed, 1 of the first words out of his mouth were, Praise God, I'm healed.

Well, I was a young preacher in those days and not quite as diplomatic as I am today.

And he repeated it a second time as he smoked this big cigar.

Having an inquisitive mind, I said to the big cigar man, Sir, what are you healed of?

Well, I was quite brash being young, and I looked up at him and I said, how could you possibly be healed of cancer while you're smoking that big cigar?

He said, young man, you just don't understand.

About 6 months ago, I went to the doctor.

The doctor took an x-ray of my lungs and saw that I had a tumor.

And he said to me, you are in serious trouble.

But young man, I just went back to the doctor today, puff, puff, puff with the big cigar.

And as I went back to the doctor today, he told me that there was no malignancy, my tumor was gone, praise God I'm healed.

And he said to me something I've never forgotten.

He said, you need to understand that if you have enough faith, God will heal you and it doesn't make any difference whether you smoke big cigars or not.

Well, that was rather perplexing for me as a young preacher.

Is faith something that if I have enough of, it really doesn't make very much difference what my lifestyle practices are?

Does God heal based on my faith in spite of what I do?

You turn on microphones, you do everything else.

The devil must not want this program to be taped.

It's nice to have people take care of you.

So, you know, it led me to raise a question, and here was my question.

If you have enough faith, does that miraculously heal you?

Does it make any difference what your lifestyle practices are?

That led me to a number of other questions that I want to raise at the beginning of our presentation, then I want to attempt to answer them.

Did Jesus heal everybody who had faith in the New Testament?

If you look at the New Testament miracles of Jesus, how many miracles were there, different miracles?

What was the theology of miracles in the New Testament?

What was the purpose of miracles in the New Testament?

Do the New Testament miracles have a larger purpose than individual healing?

You can never understand miracles unless you see the larger context of miracles.

So we're gonna look at first the theology of miracles in the New Testament.

We're gonna look at a number of the miracles of Jesus.

We're gonna raise the question, what is the purpose of miracles in the New Testament?

The second thing that we're going to take a look at is How do you take that theology of miracles in the New Testament?

How do you take everything we know about miracles in the New Testament and apply it to the anointing service today?

When you carefully look at the anointing service in the book of James, and you analyze it word by word, phrase by phrase, what is God's intent in the anointing service today?

Then thirdly, we'll look at miracles in the last days, both true and false miracles in the last days.

And we'll say to ourselves, is there a construct to know the difference?

How can you know the difference between true and false miracles?

And then we will try to apply that today.

So First, the healing ministry of Jesus in the New Testament.

Secondly, the anointing service in God's end time church and how that plays a role.

And then lastly, we'll look at true and false miracles in the last days.

So let's begin with the healing ministry of Jesus himself.

When you look at the healing ministry of Jesus, what do you discover in the New Testament?

There are at least 4 fundamental reasons for the healing ministry and the miracles of Christ.

Now 1 thing you may not be aware of, that in the 3 and a half year ministry of Jesus, if you take each of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, And you weed out those gospel narratives that give you duplicate miracles.

Although there were times that Christ came to cities and healed whole cities.

There were times that Jesus healed the masses.

But if you leave out those, what I would call isolated instances, there are only 24 separate miracles mentioned in the New Testament.

Now when I first saw that, that surprised me.

That in 3 and a half years of Jesus' ministry, if you look at all the individual miracles and you take a harmony of the Gospels, we have 24.

Now there are times, granted, that God heals, that Jesus heals large numbers in cities, we're gonna look at that.

But when I saw that, that led me to begin thinking in a different way.

There's something else that I think is extremely significant.

And so let's begin in looking at Luke chapter 7, verse 13 to 16.

Luke 7, and we're going to look here at verses 13 to 16.

This, of course, is the story of the widow of Nain.

Series

ASI 2010 Seminar: Spiritual Growth

Come Search with Me: Let’s Look for God

Transcript

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