Relevant Teaching

Relevant Teaching

We’re looking at the fourth and final aspect of our mission statement:

Love God

Love People

Share Jesus

Disciple

Discipleship has a twofold aspect to it, God and man

TODAY, RELEVANT TEACHING

Jesus was the God-man, Bible says “There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus……….He was the Word made flesh”

There’s a great quote I read somewhere that George Whitefield ‘habitually dwelt with God, but came down and spoke with others.” 

That’s what relevant teaching is.  It’s God-centered, yet man-connected. 

Jesus spoke to the common man heard him.  They heard him gladly….

What is relevant teaching?  I Corinthians 2:1-5

And when I came to you, brethren, I adid not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you bthe 1testimony of God.

     2     For I determined to know nothing among you except aJesus Christ, and Him crucified.

     3     I was with you in aweakness and in bfear and in much trembling,

     4     and my 1message and my preaching were anot in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of bthe Spirit and of power,

     5     so that your faith would not 1rest on the wisdom of men, but on athe power of God.

1.       IT IS BIBLE BASED.  We have nothing to say, but what God says.  Corinthians passage, “Did not come with persuasive words of men’s wisdom…”

We’re not Oprah, or Dr. Phil………

Sincere maybe, but sincerely wrong.

II Timothy 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable  stock marker went down, ….God’s Word is profitable…. Psalm 16 (God’s word like silver, gold, …)

Doctrine-Teaching….The bones of the body.  Without healthy skeleton, problems…

Reprof-

Correction-If wonder if your kids  listen to you?  Ever feel like you spend your live correcting people?  Last week, I wanted to change the dogs’s name from Bear to “No No.”  God’s word corrects us, so He won’t have to.  Great passage in I Corinthians 11 about if we disciplined ourselves He wouldn’t have to.

Instruction- ……I  tried to put one of the toys together for Jonathan one Christmas…on Christmas eve, he walked by while I was on the floor trying to follow the instructions and I’m sorry to say I didn’t say “Ho Ho Ho.”

In Righteousness-  It’s all about being right with God.  There are blessing there, and God does bless, but it’s not all about being “happy and blessed.”  It’s about being right with God.  Ecc. 11: says, “Thought the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are inclined to do evil. Nevertheless, I know it will go well with those who fear the Lord who fear him openly.” 

2.       IT IS CHRIST CENTERED.  Same passage in Corinthians

Christ centered.  We point people to Jesus.  He is the center, the circumference.

He is the source. 

Jesus is the answer.  If not, good story in Ortberg book about lady who lived awesome Christ centered life in nursing home in bad conditions…

Principles are wonderful and I love them, but Bible study and Bible Fellowship Lessons are not as much about principles as they are a Person, Jesus.

I can remember Clyde Cranford …..singing, “Jesus, the very thought of Thee with Sweetness fills my breast…..”

3.       IT IS SPIRIT ANNOINTED  “Demonstration of sprit and power.”

“The Word is an objective safeguard, while the anointing of the Spirit is a subjective experience; but both the apostolic teaching and the Heavenly Teacher are necessary for continuance in the truth.  Both are to be personally and inwardly grasped.  This is the Biblical balance too seldom preserved by men.  Some honor the Word and neglect the Spirit who alone can interpret it; others honor the Spirit but neglect the Word out of which He teaches.  The only safeguard against lies is to have abiding within us both the Word that we heard from the beginning and the anointing that we received from Him.

John Stott…from a Gary Thomas book

Means several thing

·         Dependent upon Him, (we need to remember the Spirit is He, not an It).  This is a spiritual thing.  It takes the Spirit of God to teach the teacher and a the Spirit of God to teach the listener. “The natural man receives not…” “It is the spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing” from gospel of John)

·         He is the Sprit of grace……..Relevant teaching is gracious, not legalistic

·         He is the Spirit of joy…I’ve learned that people learn more when they are awake than when they are asleep.    Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness above His companions. 

Honesty, genuine, transparency.  Larry Crabb story on the beach….

Swindoll story with daughter breaking neck.

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