Ocean City Bible Conference 2014 notes

Ocean City Bible Conference [1]

7-10 SEP 2014

SUN 7 SEP 2014

Session 1: Don Whitney, "Family Worship: in the Bible, in the History, and in your Home"

God deserves to be worshipped daily in our homes by our families
Gen. 18:19; 22:6-8
Dt. 6:4-9
Josh. 24:15
Ps. 78:1-8
"Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church."
- Jonathan Edwards

MON 8 SEP 2014

Alex Crain introduced us to The Psalms of David by Isaac Watts.

This is freely available online and as a digital download on Project Gutenberg at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13166 [accessed 11 SEP 2014].

See also Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts on Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) at

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/watts/psalmshymns.html [accessed 11 SEP 2014].

Note: Alex Crain is the editor of Christianity.com and blogs at http://www.christianity.com/blogs/alex-crain/ [accessed 12 SEP 2014].

Session 2: Don Whitney, "When Revival Comes" (Acts 2)

The best example of revival in the Bible is found in Acts 2.

"There will never be another Pentecost."

Core things common to all revivals:
"Counterfeit revivals killed true revival."
When revival comes -

1. We won't be able to stop telling the mighty deeds of God (2:1-11).
"Flesh and blood cannot contain it."
"True revival cannot be contained or controlled."

2. There will be a renewed emphasis on Jesus and recovery of the Gospel (2:12-36).
What is the Gospel?
"Any message that leaves the hearer more impressed with the messenger than the message is the wrong message."

3. When the Revival comes great power and dramatic results will accompany the preaching of the Gospel (2:37-41).
"If you are not awestruck then whatever it is is not awesome!"

4. When revival comes there will be sacrificial and irresistible devotion to the things of God and Christian living (2:42-47).
"An atmospheric sense of the presence of God"
"Communism says what's yours is mine. Christianity says what's mine is yours."

5. When revival comes God can change everything in one hour.
"Revival people are always different; they are never the same."

Session 3: Kevin O'Brien, "Our Amazing Adoption" (Eph. 1:4-6)

7 aspects of adoption:

1. Adoption is a process
2. Adoption is unnecessary and superabundant grace
God could have saved you without it.
Justification - courtroom
Redemption - slave market
3. Adoption is gender specific for a reason
4. Adoption is our only source of lasting identity
5. Adoption is unlike any human adoption
6. Adoption is loaded with spiritual privileges
7. Adoption is a challenge for us to consider earthly adoption

Session 4: Ed Moore, "Providence" (Rom. 8:28)

8 aspects of the sovereignty of God in providence in Romans 8:28:
1. It has a Cause
2. It is Comprehensive
3. It is Coordinated
4. It has a Conclusion
5. There is a Condition
"I believe Satan is a 5-point Calvinist."
6. It includes a Calling
7. God is Consumed with His own glory
"If God were committed to anyone or anything other than Himself He would be an idolater."
8. It translates into Confidence
Four points of application:
1. Preparation
2. Counseling
3. Perspective
4. Salvation

TUES 9 SEP 2014

Session 5: Phil Moser, "Christ's Humanity and your Christian Walk"

The Deity of Christ - Jn. 1:1; Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:1-2
"As God, Jesus was the creator and is the sustainer of the large and the small, the seen and the unseen."

Dr. Doug Bookman [2] quote on the humanity of Christ -

see a similar quote on Bookman's blog The Rabbit Trail at www.therabbittrail.wordpress.com/category/life-of-christ/jesus-humanity [accessed 12 SEP 2014].

Resources:
1. prayer
2. Spirit
3. Scriptures
4. submission

"He prayed early, He prayed late, and He prayed even when He didn't get the answer He desired (Mk. 1:35; Lk. 6:12; Mk. 14:36)."

The lies of temptation

WDJD - "Not what would Jesus do, but what did Jesus do."

"Jesus prepared and so should we."

Session 6: Breakout Seminar - Peter LaRuffa, "Temptation: How to Resist the Lure of Sin"

Handout fill in the blanks:
I. endure, blessing
a. trials
i. in
ii. be
b. grace
i. visit or experience
ii. thorn, messenger
II. fall, loss
a. God
b. inside
i. entice, good
ii. conceive, want
iii. sin, sin
iv. habit, again
Thought - emotion - action - character
"When I rationalize I make rational lies."
cyclical
v. death, cost
[Cathedrals' chorus in "Sin will take you farther"[3]]
III. overconfidence, dependent
1. word
2. Typical
3. Timed
4. Temporary
5. people
6. ponder, no

Session 7: Liam Goligher, "Where Kingdoms Clash: the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Man" (Jn. 18:33-40; 19:9-11)

1. Jesus says something about Himself

John 18:37 - "Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

"The kingship of Jesus is indistinguishable from His testimony to the truth."

"Pay attention to small details in the church because the trajectory over time is usually away from the Gospel."

2. Jesus says something about the State

John 19:11 - "Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power [at all] against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin."

"The secular state is not the kingdom of God."

3. Jesus says something about His Kingdom

John 18:36 - "Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence."

"The business of the church is to advance the kingdom of Jesus not by coercion but by persuasion."

WED 10 SEP 2014

Session 8: Liam Goligher, "Worship: Form or Substance?" (Jn. 4:19-26)

1. There is a proper hour of worship
2. There is a proper way of worship
3. There is a proper Object of worship
4. There is a proper effect of worship
"The goal of worship is to lead us to the Father through the Son."

Session 9: Ed Moore, "Prayer" (1 Kings 18:41-46)

1. Whatever will be will be.

2. God uses specifically ordained means to accomplish His unalterably fixed ends.

3. Prayer is a means by which His ends are achieved.

Prayer changes things.
James 5:16-18
"It would not have rained without the prayer of Elijah."
1 John 5:14-15

4. We must pray persistently regardless of whether or not we understand points 1-3.

Four aspects of effective prayer:

1) Faith - based on God's revelation and according to His will
2) Humility - posture a reflection of the heart
3) Persistence - there was nothing
4) Evidence

5. The Gospel is of first importance when it comes to prayer.

6. The only difference between Kevin O’Brien and myself is I know I’m not funny!

Notes taken by:

John T. “Jack” Jeffery

Pastor, Wayside Gospel Chapel

Greentown, PA

7-10 SEP 2014

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End Notes:

[1] Further information on this conference, including each of the speakers, is at http://ocbibleconference.org/ [accessed 12 SEP 2014].

[2] See Doug Bookman’s faculty page on Shepherds Seminary (Cary, NC) at http://sts.shepherds.edu/academics/faculty/doug-bookman/ [accessed 12 SEP 2014].

[3] “1. As a child I foolishly turned God away
Not knowing the heartache a sinner must face
But God in His goodness has let me return
To share with His children this lesson I’ve learned

(Chorus)
Sin will take you farther than you wanna go
Slowly but wholly taking control
Sin will leave you longer than you wanna stay
Sin will cost you far more than you wanna pay

2. So with pleasure and promises sin took control
Leaving me dying with nothing to show
Gone were my loved ones and my dearest friends
Only a Savior could love me again”

Sin Will Take You Farther, by Harold McWhorter, on Goin’ in Style album (Homeward Bound Music - BMI, 1988); on Southern Gospel Journal at http://www.southerngospeljournal.com/reference/cathedral-quartet/lyrics/sin-will-take-you-farther [accessed 12 SEP 2014]; on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3_YfBh-4ZY [accessed 12 SEP 2014].