Deep Bible Study #1, YD Camp 2019

Introduction

Welcome - Week 2 of Young Disciple Camp!

How many were here last week?

How many is this you first time here?

I’m so excited that God has led you to come here and that we can spend some time in God’s word together this week!

Let’s Pray!

It feels good to be back here, it’s been a few years.

I won’t tell you what years, but I have been a camper and a counselor on multiple occasions.

I have gone to the Philippines with Young Disciple Ministries

Blessings of YD Camp

Friends

You may not keep in touch with everyone you meet, but there will likely be some great opportunities for you to make quality, life long friends.

My counselor, went on to become a groomsman in my wedding.

Next week I’m going to be visiting him and staying at his house for a week or two.

Evyn & Farrah Wollmann

The Bible and Spirit of Prophecy have a lot to say about the importance of surrounding yourself with good friends. The friends that you choose today will have a big impact on who you become tomorrow. So choose your friends wisely. Young Disciple Camp is a great place to find life-long friends.

Take notes:

Proverbs 13:20 NKJV

He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 NKJV

Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.

Prob 18.24

Proverbs 18:24 NKJV

A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Messages to Young People Section 14 - “Social Relations”

Deep Bible Study

I really appreciate the emphasis that Young Disciple Ministries puts on teaching young people to Study their Bibles.

I learned to be a deeper student of God’s word at YD Camp and I hope you all will learn the same this week.

Transition

But maybe there are some here who are like me when I first came to YD camp. I remember my first week of camp.

I had been raised in the church but I wasn’t really in love with Jesus. He wasn’t really a personal friend to me.

Honestly I was at camp more to see friends than I was to study the Bible. Just being honest.

Maybe you’re here at camp for the first time and you’ve looked at the schedule and you’re saying to yourself “Deep Bible Study??” Morning devotions? What is all this? I don’t enjoy reading the Bible! That book is not for me! I’ve tried reading it and it’s too dry for me!”

Illustration - Falling in love with the author

I heard a story a while ago of a man who loved to read books. How many of you love to read?

This man would go to the library, he would go to book sales, he enjoyed reading a variety of books.

One day he picked up a particular book and started reading it. It wasn’t like the other books he was used to. He usually enjoyed reading, but this book was so dry, it was so… philosophical, it was so heavy. He tried to read it because a lot of his friends told him it was a really good book. But every time he tried to read it, it was just so over his head. He didn’t understand what he was reading and so eventually he decided that this book wasn’t for him. He put it down and decided not to read it again.

Well a year or two went by and one day this same man met a young lady. She was so nice. They really got along and had a lot in common. They got to know each other more and more and eventually he started a special relationship with this young lady. And as he got to know her more, he eventually found out that one of the most fascinating qualities about her is that she was actually a published author! She had written a book! How fitting. He liked to read books, she had written a book!

Of course he asked her what the name of her book was that she had written. But when she told him, he nearly choked! What book do you think it was?? It was the book that he had tried to read years ago but found it to be so boring and heavy. It was the very book that he decided wasn’t for him!

So of course he went back to his bookshelf and reached way back to where he had tossed that book and pulled it down and sure enough! It was written by his very own lover!

So he opened it again, for a second time now and began to read it. And would you believe it… the book just came alive! He couldn’t believe it was the same book he had given up on so long ago! He couldn’t put the book down and it quickly became his absolute favorite book!

What made the difference for that man? He had fallen in love with the author. And that made all the difference.

Transition

When we talk about deep Bible Study, I want you to know that when you fall in love with the author, it makes all the difference.

It’s my prayer and I think that it’s safe to say that it’s the desire of all the leaders of this camp, that here at YD Camp you would learn to fall in love with the author of the Bible more and more every day. That you would learn to make Deep Bible Study a regular part of your life. Something you do every day, not just as a dry ritual, but because you love to and because it’s the best part of your day!

It’s my prayer and I think that it’s safe to say that it’s the desire of all the leaders of this camp, that here at YD Camp you would learn to fall in love with the author of the Bible more and more every day. That you would learn to make Deep Bible Study a regular part of your life. Something you do every day, not just as a dry ritual, but because you love to and because it’s the best part of your day!

2 things

Learn a system

POWER - 5 Step System

I’m excited because I am going to share with you a 5-part system I’ve created for studying the Bible with power!

POWER - Preparation

Prepare the Heart

Why is it important to seek to prepare our hearts before we engage in Bible Study?

Our hearts are carnal, selfish, finite. God’s word is Divinely Inspired.

2 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.

1 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We are to invite the one who inspired the Bible to help us understand the Bible

We are to invite the one who inspired the Bible to help us understand the Bible holy man of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit

holy man of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

1 Peter 1:20–22 NKJV

He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,

2 Peter 1:20 NKJV

knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,

2 Peter 1:20–21 NKJV

knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter 1:21 NKJV

for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

2 pet 1.20-22

We come with our own worldview we come to the Bible with our own preconceived idea we want to ask God to give us his ideas and not our own.

We come with our own worldview we come to the Bible with our own preconceived idea we want to ask God to give us his ideas and not our own. My ways are higher than your ways.

My ways are higher than your ways.

Isaiah 55:8–9 NKJV

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Prepare a Devotional Plan

Who?

Just you and God

Not all your friends on Facebook or Instagram

Alone with God (matters for when and where)

Minimize distractions

Why?

Holy Spirit

Where?

Environment & Surroundings

Where?

Somewhere quiet

Nature

Calm (not busy)

You can be alert?

At home, In bed?

For some that may work but for me, if I have my devotions in bed… my prayers turn into a study on the state of the dead!

When

Devotions

In the morning

No perfect time

Consistency

What

Bible

Concordance

Notebook & Pen

How

Plan

Topic that interests you

Story that you can relate to

Reading plan

Proverbs - for the day

Audio Resources

Word of Promise Audio Bible

Electronic Resources

Start with a Gospel (John)

your sins have separated you from your God we are to confess our sins and make sure there’s nothing between us and the Lord

1 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:15 NKJV

But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.

1 Corinthians 2:16 NKJV

For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

God Cares For You

Jeremiah 29:11–14 NKJV

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Jeremiah