Can my church really impact my community with the Gospel? Learn how to create small group meetings that are evangelistically focused. Transform your church and community with a Spirit-led, biblical small group ministry model.

GYC 2011: Fill Me

<p>Can my church really impact my community with the Gospel? Learn how to create small group meetings that are evangelistically focused. Transform your church and community with a Spirit-led, biblical small group ministry model.</p>

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Holy Spirit in Evangelistic CARE Groups

Daryl Cheng

Bee See

Our Greatest Need, Part 1

This message was presented at the GYC 2011 conference.

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

We might make a start and start our seminar, welcome to our seminar on small groups.

We're going to do it a little bit differently this year.

As you heard Sean mention last night, there are 3 modules for each seminar and each delegate can choose to go to a different seminar for each module.

For our particular module here, we're going to do a three-part series, so you're welcome to change in between, but it would make a more complete package if you stay for the entire 3 modules.

The first 1 will be focusing on the Holy Spirit, what is the gift of the Holy Spirit, why we need it.

The second and third sections, we're going to look specifically at the Holy Spirit in small group ministry.

So the second and third section specifically on small group ministry, the first 1 looking at the Holy Spirit in our lives, but also through the eyes of effective small groups.

I apologize in advance if you can't understand my accent.

My sister is here with me and we're privileged to be here this after this morning to be in the United States to share with you some of the experiences that we've had.

My sister is a dental student and we're part of a church called Gateway Adventist Centre in Melbourne, Australia.

And in this church we've had a privilege to be involved in small group ministry, campus ministry as well, and we're going to share with you some of our experiences here this morning.

Before we start I just invite you to bow your heads with me and we will make a start.

Father in heaven, thank you so much that you've given us this opportunity to open your word And as we open your word this morning to discover the gems that you have for us on the Holy Spirit We pray that the Holy Spirit be in this place.

Amen I'm gonna start off by showing you a couple pictures my sister.

It's very rare I think in for a brother and sister pair to deliver a seminar and so I'm so glad to be of my sister this morning.

I'm so glad my sister and I were raised in the Adventist church and I'm so proud of my parents for raising my sister and I and giving us an opportunity to not only know God but also to share about him in Australia and overseas.

There's a quote that I want to start with this morning it says the work of God can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church membership rally to the work.

If you have your workbooks there with you, you will see that most of the slides that are provided in the workbook, there's some blanks that you can fill in as you go along.

So you can, if you lose where we're at, feel free to look at your workbook.

There will be the slides on the screen will be in the workbook as well.

The quote says, the work of God can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church membership rally to the work.

Now that to me, this quote has immense significance.

There are 2 components to this quote, a personal and a corporate component.

There's a personal component, there's a corporate component And in everything that the Holy Spirit does, there is something in our personal lives, but there is also something in our church lives.

And so this next 3 modules, we're gonna look at 2 aspects.

We're gonna look at the personal effect of the Holy Spirit and we're also going to look at the corporate effect of the Holy Spirit.

We're going to look at it through rose tinted glasses with the focus on small group ministry.

So looking at Holy Spirit in personal and corporate ways in small group ministry.

The question I want to ask you as we start this morning is, are you working as an individual?

The answer is yes, because as we go to churches, all of us go to churches as individuals.

You may be from different backgrounds, different cultures, different countries, but we're all working as individuals, but at the same time we are working as a group.

And in order for the Holy Spirit to impact us when we are working for God, He needs to impact us as a person, but also as a church group.

Now this is very evident when you turn with me to Acts chapter 2 verse 42.

Acts chapter 2 verse 42 to 47 will be our basis of our study this morning and we're going to look at a little bit more about how the disciples in their early years were impacted by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Verse 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

So continuing daily with 1 accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people.

And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Now I want to ask you the question again, when you look at Acts chapter 2 verse 42 to 47, what do you notice?

There's a personal component and there's a what?

The disciples themselves, they were changed, they came together.

At first they were individuals but together in a big group they were impacted by the Holy Spirit.

And I think too often when we focus, when we work for God in our churches, we sometimes focus on either working as a corporate group or as an individual but we don't go across both sides.

And for the Holy Spirit to work effectively especially in small group ministry it is imperative that he impacts you as a person but also the group as a whole.

When the disciples were in the upper room they were impacted as we will learn about shortly but they were impacted as individuals first before they could be impacted as a whole and the effect as you know was profound.

The key points here that come out through Acts chapter 42 to 47 I'm just going to spend a few minutes dwelling on them.

The first key point that there are individuals there that are filled with the Holy Spirit.

The second key point the result is a growing vibrant church that souls were added to daily as we read in Acts 2.47.

The third point is that there was an involvement of everyone and there was an involvement of all individuals together with all things common.

If you look at verse 44 it says now all who were believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods.

So they were impacted so much so that even though they had their individual characteristics, they were still common in goal, in mission, in purpose.

If you look at verse 46, this gives us the basis of our study into small groups.

It says, so continuing daily with 1 accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.

There are key segments here, there are key segments that cause the disciples in the early church to be extremely effective and powerful.

There is continuing daily, they're meeting daily, they're breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food, they praised God and there was prayer.

These components as we will study over the next 2 days will give us clues of how we can use and model the example of small group ministry today after the disciples.

The question I want to look at as we come into this study is were the disciples always like this?

We know that in Acts chapter 2 verse 42 to 47 we see the disciples change, They're united together, they're worshipping together, they're fellowshipping together, they're witnessing together and the church was changed, but the question is, were the disciples always like that?

I want to preface that answer by asking you guys a question.

How many of you grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church?

How many of you have been in the church for less than 5 years?

So the vast majority of us have grown up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and sometimes when you grow up, myself, my sister and I grew up in the church as well, sometimes when you grow up in the church, your perspective is slightly skewed.

We're going to look at a case study of the disciples in Luke 9, verse 46, and we're going to compare Luke 9, verse 46 to 50, with Acts 2, verse 42 to 47, and we're going to see what the difference between the disciples before and after was.

Turn your Bibles with me to Luke 9 46-50.

Luke chapter 9 verse 46 the Bible says then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest.

So this, the context here is that the disciples are gathering together and there's an argument amongst themselves about who was what?

The Bible continues and says, And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by him and said to him whoever receives this little child in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives him who sent me for he who is least among you all will be great so the disciples before and after before what were they doing what was their focus They were more concerned about who would be greatest.

Were they concerned about reaching others?

But they're concerned the pre-occupation that they had in their mind and they begin arguing with themselves was that who would be greatest.

You notice a paradigm shift here the disciples before Pentecost had their mission there but their focus was off but the disciples after Pentecost The mission was there, but their focus was attuned to the mission You know sometimes the seven-day Adventists we know our mission, but our focus is off We know our mission but our focus is off.

We know our mission but our focus is off.

Like the disciples they knew what they were there for.

You can imagine 12 of them following after Jesus day in day out healing people, breaking bread, performing miracles, sharing about Jesus, sharing about the gospel, sharing everything to the people who are following.

But even though they were right in the midst with Jesus, their focus was off.

And perhaps in your life today, when you're in your church, when you're serving God at home, we know our mission, but our focus is off.

And when we are asking for the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is saying hey you know the mission but when you're asking for me what are your eyes focused on what are your eyes focused on it's very interesting verse 49 we continue.

The Bible says, Now John answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.

Our Greatest Need, Part 2

Father, I just want to thank you so much for this day.

Lord, I pray that as we continue to study today, you would dwell amongst us.

Father, that you would break our hearts, that you would send your Holy Spirit to fill this place.

That as we study your word, that the message that you have for each and every 1 of us may be something that we take away, that we can apply in our own lives, that will draw us closer to you.

Father, I pray that you anoint my lips that what I share may be from you and that your voice may speak to each and every 1 here so we pray all these things in Jesus name Amen.

Well good morning everyone I just wanted to introduce myself again shortly.

For those, is there anyone that's just come into this session or are we all from the morning?

Okay, so we are from a church called Gateway in Melbourne, Australia.

And today we're looking at how the Holy Spirit helps us to prepare ministry for small groups in our home churches.

So the first half of this module was looking at corporate revival, The things that we need to do as a church to be the same group of people, but different individuals with a renewed mission, with a renewed focus, with a different attitude.

So today, what we're going to do now is to look at what that actually means for each and every 1 of us in our personal spiritual walks.

Okay so it's the same workbook we're just about halfway through now and I just want to pick up where we left off Acts chapter 2.

Acts chapter 2 verses 42 to 47 and we're only going to read through it very quickly because I know we've covered it already.

Acts chapter 2 verse 42 and the Bible says, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

And all that believed were together and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need.

And they, continuing daily with 1 accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily as such should be saved.

Wouldn't that be amazing if daily we had people being added to our church daily.

When we talk about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit usually the first thing that comes to mind is the Pentecost.

So people think of the upper room experience and and the disciples there but I want to take us back a few a few hundred years actually to the book of Joel and we studied this last night a little bit in the prayer after the evening devotions or the opening session Joel chapter 2 and I want us to turn there quickly and we find that in Joel the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, like in the Pentecost, like in the Upper Room, was actually first prophesied by Joel.

And so we don't have time to go through the whole story of Joel, but basically this prophecy, the first 2 chapters of Joel explain this prophecy.

It's a time in Israel when the people are rebellious.

And what happens is that in the first book of Joel, It describes all the pestilences that God is saying will come upon them because of a result of their sin.

Now, if you have the time, I'd invite you to read through that at a later stage, but I want to turn our attention to Chapter 2.

And Chapter 2 is when God shows his mercy and his grace.

And in a picture of a despondent and a desolate and a diseased Israel, both spiritually, physically, mentally, God delivers this really unique promise.

I want to turn, later on we'll be studying that, but I want to have a look at the context in which Joel, I guess, describes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Why is it, do you think, that Joel and God has...

Joel as a messenger of God, rather, why is it that God chooses this time in Israel's history when they are not in its glory days, when they are not, you know, the best ambassadors as God's chosen people?

Why is it that he chooses this time to deliver the promise that he will pour out his Holy Spirit in every individual's life?

So what I want to do is to have a look at the chapter of Joel chapter 2 and we will pick up in verse 21.

So Joel chapter 2 verse 21 and I've got it up on the screen as well and it says, Fear not O man, be glad and rejoice for the Lord will do great things.

So God here is already showing a contrast to what we see in chapter 1 where there's pestilence, there's disease, There's this description of locusts and canker worms and all these weird and wonderful creatures that are going to eat up Israel's crops and leave them desolate.

Jump down to verse 25 with me and it says, And I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten, the canker worm, the caterpillar, and the palmer worm, my great army which I sent you.

And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, praise the name of the Lord that hath dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be ashamed.

And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed.

And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." That is the promise of Pentecost.

That is the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Now there are some key points that I want to extract from this.

There are so many lessons that we can learn.

But the first key point is listed in your workbook.

And that is that if we look at the promise that God has given us, in these 3 or 4 verses, there are 2 elements that stand out.

The first is, as we go back to the first line, the first is that I will restore you to the years that the locust has eaten So in this description and in this story of Joel and the people of Israel at this time in their revival in the Reformation The first element is restoration Okay, God is saying that in His grace and mercy part of His plan for revival and reformation in every single person's life is restoration.

The second element and you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel that I am the Lord your God and none else and my people shall never be ashamed and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit the second element is what the outpouring of the Holy Spirit so revival and reformation Restoration and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Now if we go back, I've highlighted a word there in red.

You'll notice that it says, And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.

So when we talk about just basic English grammar when we say oh I'll do something afterwards usually there's something that you say you will do before that so I will go to seminars now and afterwards I will have lunch.

So when we're looking at afterwards that means that we should go back and look at okay where's the something that God said he will do before that?

What is it that comes before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?

So if we track back through Joel 2 verse 25 to 28 we have afterwards and we go backwards and we look for where God mentioned prior to that I will.

You'll see that the time that God mentioned I will was actually in verse 25 and I will restore you to the years that the locust has eaten, etc.

So we have the 2 elements, restoration and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

And the order is such, restoration comes first.

God restores us to be equal with, to be just in front of him he takes away our sins through his salvation that is the restoration and we cannot have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in each of our lives until we have experienced that restoration first hand all right, let's jump back to Acts 2.

So we're going back to the story of the Pentecost.

And we have the story, and we'll pick up here in verse 16.

And it says, But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, verse 17, and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

So Acts chapter 2 says that the first time Joel's prophecy was fulfilled was when?

And it's going to be fulfilled again verse 17 the first words are in the last days ok so this is what we're looking at we are looking for when we're asking and praying and pleading to God pour out your Holy Spirit upon me, we are looking for this own revival and reformation in our lives.

We are looking for the restoration first, and then we can expect the outpouring of the Spirit.

So, what we've been reading so far is a couple of verses where we see it mentioned, I will pour out my spirit.

I will pour out my spirit upon all sons, your daughters, your young men shall dream dreams, et cetera.

When God says he will pour out his spirit, what does that mean?

So you guys will have to help me out with the pronunciation and such.

But this is actually the Greek word, if I'm not wrong, for poured out that is used in both Joel and Acts.

Are there any Hebrew or Greek students here?

So you guys might be familiar with this word and correct me if I'm wrong with pronunciation but I think it's pronounced ekeko.

So this word ekeo actually means to pour forth, figuratively to bestow, run greedily out, shed abroad forth, spill gush, pour out.

That seems like a straightforward explanation of what it means to be poured out.

The first thing that stands out to me is that, first of all, the connotation that you get when someone says, ìIím going to pour something outî is that itís not a trickle.

This is not something that will only rain down on certain individuals.

RE-Evolution, Part 1

Father in heaven, we thank you for this time that we can once again open your word.

Lord we pray that your Holy Spirit is here even as we open your word to see what you have to say about small groups in the New Testament we ask in Jesus name.

The title of this module is Re-evolution.

Now it's not revolution, it's re-evolution.

The reason why we've titled this module re-evolution is because a process of evolution or the process of reforming something or creating, recreating something or reviving something, we believe that small group ministry, Effective small group ministry has always been around.

And so what we need, we started this morning in the Module 1, that we need the Holy Spirit to help us to re-evolve effective evangelistic small group ministry.

Now we looked at Acts chapter 2 verse 42 this morning.

I want to share with you a little bit more on that.

We'll do a short recap as we get into module 2.

The pen of inspiration writes that the lay members of our churches can accomplish a work which as yet they have scarcely begun.

We know that the apostles have already shown an example of small group ministry.

But the pen of inspiration tells us that there are things that we can do which we have scarcely begun.

And this afternoon we're going to look at 1 of those things that we can do which is small group ministry.

To recap from this morning we looked at Acts chapter 2 verse 42 to 47.

The same group of people with a different spirit, the same group of people with a different attitude, the same group of people with a different spirit, the same group of people with a different attitude, the same group of people with a different outlook.

We saw some key segments of small group ministry.

Acts chapter 2 verse 42 to 47, we saw aspects of prayer, we saw aspects of doctrine, we saw aspects of breaking bread and fellowships.

It was evangelistic and outreach focused, the laity or every member was involved, and there was a personal and there was a corporate component to the 2.

Now someone asked the question this morning, is Acts chapter 2 the only place in the Bible where you find or the only place where you find reference to small groups?

The answer is no and this afternoon we're going to go through some of the examples in the Bible.

Now on the first page of your worksheet, on the workbook there, you have all the references in the New Testament to small groups, house groups, church groups, whatever you want to call them, small group ministry.

And so the answer to the question is no, Acts chapter 2 verse 42 is only 1 of the references where in the New Testament you see that the Holy Spirit is inspiring apostles or the disciples to do small group ministry.

We're going to look at some of them I'm not going to read them all because we of lack of time but if you look at them the first reference we have there is Acts 1.13 they went into the upper room, you saw a small fellowship group, we learnt about that this morning, we have Acts 2.46, Acts 5.42 they were in every house, Acts 8.3 Saul went to the houses to draw the Christians out.

And this is a reference that shows that the lifeblood of the early apostles, or the lifeblood of the early church is within the house.

Small group ministry, small group fellowship, small group witnessing is crucial, or was crucial to the early apostles success.

I want you to turn with me to Acts chapter 17.

We are going to read a little bit about the story.

So this is when Paul comes to Thessalonica and here we pick this story up in 17 verse 5.

Acts chapter 17 verse 5 the Bible says, But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.

But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "'These who have turned the world upside down "'have come here too.'" So let me get this, let me paint the picture a little bit.

Paul has journeyed to this place in Thessalonica and where is he based?

Now I'm not trying to say that Paul did not preach at the church or the synagogue but Paul's ministry in that city was based out of a house, the house of Jason.

And when these Jews were upset with Paul, could not find Paul, they dragged Jason and some other people who were in the house out and said, where are the men who what?

The success of Paul, the success of the early church, the success of the Apostles was because and when they turned the world upside down they did so from a small group setting.

I'm not saying that church ministry is not important or fellowshipping in a large congregation like we are here at JYC is not important, but the effectiveness of Paul's work in the early missionaries was because of small group ministry.

And you go on and you look at Acts 17, 18, 19, 20 and all the way through you see every city that Paul went to, every city that the missionaries went to, they stayed in someone's house, they ministered out of someone's house.

It was Aquila, Priscilla, Crispus, Tyrannus, etc, etc.

They were all involved in small group ministry out of the household.

Series

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Holy Spirit in Evangelistic CARE Groups

RE-Formation, Part 1

Transcript

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