Lengthy but Worth the Read Sermon Notes

This is rather long note, and I'm missing Session 2, but I'll get it eventually. Some of the stuff here I put in my first note about all the stuff that happened, but basically this is just my thoughts on each of the sermons and some overall stuff.
-Laura



The first session Bro. Will Galkin preached was a good, rousing beginning to the advance. He preached out of Psalm 119, on the Hebrew word חיה ("khä·yä'" - chayah). It means to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health. The theme of the sermon was, "Quicken me, Lord!" He gave us a list of verses in Psalm 119 that had that Hebrew word in them, translated either as "quicken" or "live". It was in verses 17, 25, 37, 40, 50, 77, 88, 93, 107, 116, 144, 149, 154, 159, and 175.
Here are some things that I wrote down.
It isn't Biblical Christianity to be enslaved in sin.
"Quicken me" - the goal isn't to be a be a better person, it is to KNOW him.
What I got out of the sermon was a desire to KNOW Christ. To be completely alive in him is my goal. To be completely immersed in Him and alive in him so that I am dead to sin.
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One of the things I really took away from the prayer advance this year was the realization that you don't just purge sin from your life. There are times when you can't just say, "Okay, I'm taking this sin out." You can't just be dead to sin. The only way you can be dead to sin is to be alive in Christ, and the only way you can be alive in Christ is to immerse yourself in him, and the only way to do that is to be constantly in the Word.

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For the second session I do not have notes. Bummer.

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Bro. Sammy Frye preached session 3. I was nervous about him, I didn't know if I would like him or not. I really liked him once I heard him, though.
This session(on confession) was based out of Proverbs 28:13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
He talked about why we hide our sins. First of all, there is pleasure in sin, and we want to enjoy it. Then there's the pain of being found out. Man, being found out really hurts our pride! We are so arrogant and want everyone to think that we're such good Christians, but really we're all alike. We all struggle with sins and no one of us is any better than the other. None of us don't face temptation, and only the ones of use who daily abide in God's Word have the strength to resist the temptation to sin. That doesn't make us any better, either. It just makes God's grace a wonderful thing!!
Bro. Sammy talked about sin for what it is. It's a revolt, or a rebellion against God.
Some of the ways we try to cover our sin: Blaming others, rationalizing, and justifying. When we try to cover our sins we can have no success. Jeremiah 5:25Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
However, if we confess our sins he will give us mercy, and he'll forgive us freely and then we can enjoy him the way he meant us to! We'll be able to receive the blessings he wants to give us.
Here are a few things he said that I wrote down.
You can't draw near to God with unconfessed sin. You can only come to him with complete honesty and repentance so that he can create a clean heart in you.
It's hard to confess, but it's harder to stay clean. (what a good, sobering reminder.)
(This one I really liked.) The past is never the past until it has been dealt with Biblically.
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This next session was one of my favorites from the whole weekend. Bro. Will preached on purity. I've heard quite a few sessions on purity, but they were the normal, divided sessions. We girls got the "dress so you don't defraud guys and have a pure heart" session, and the guys got whatever the guys get. =D Well, it was different this year. We all stayed together and Bro. Will just got to it.
The focus was having purity by faith. At first I thought that meant more like having faith in God to keep you strong enough to stay pure. Not exactly.
He used the story of Joseph and Mrs. Potiphar. He started off by telling us about Joseph and how he was able to resist the temptation. Joseph believed God. He didn't just believe in God, but he believed God. God gave Joseph a "word" through his dreams(that he would rule over his family one day) and Joseph trusted that God would keep his word. Even when it so looked like God had deserted him, Joseph believed God and stayed faithful. Then he was blessed and given a very high position in a very wealthy man's house, and you all know how the story goes. Potiphar didn't keep ANYTHING from Joseph - except for one thing - his wife.
So one day Temptation comes along in the form of Mrs. Potiphar. Bro Will gave us a whole list of characteristics of temptation.
Temptation is attractive. Obviously. If there's no attraction, there's no temptation.
Its suggestive. It whispers to you to do this or that, and if you don't immediately check those whispers they go on and gain strength.
Temptation is persistent. It comes after you again and again and again.
It is deceptive. It tiells you that if you do ___ you will be happy, which is a lie. Then Bro. Will talked about how immorality is just a big, fat lie.
It is agressive. When you don't check those whispers they grow into shouts.
It is vindictive. Here Bro. Will talked about how Potiphar's wife told lies about Joseph and got him into trouble when he wouldn't do what she wanted.
He told us there are two ways to resist temptation : pine away (which doesn't work anyway) or be preoccupied with Christ(which is the only way that works.)
So then he gave us a strategy for being pure.
1) Be diligent in your work! - if you devote yourself to the work you should be doing then you won't have much time for temptation.
2) Submit to your authority. - authority is God's way of keeping you safe.
3) Practice the presence of God- meaning, be SO preoccupied - so deeply in love with Christ - that nothing else is even attractive to you.
4) View sin for what it is. - it will kill you if you are not killing it.It hurts us and those around us, but it offends God. That's a big deal.
5)Reject sin! Be ruthless and relentless no matter what. (the thing I love about this step is you can't do it unless you are doing the other steps. =P)
6) Avoid the temptation. - just some of my own thoughts here, people try to do this step first, and it doesn't seem to work. Now I know that's because they aren't doing the other steps first. =P Especially step 3 is VITAL.

I really appreciated this session because while it was really focused in on sexual purity it applies just as much to...life purity. Heart purity. I've come to realize that things like anger/impatience/bitterness/etc., these things are just as impure as sexual impurity, and I really want to be pure like Christ was.
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Bro. Sammy Frye preached session 5, "Bitter or Better", obviously on bitterness.* Hebrews 12:14Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
15Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 16Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 17For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. * So, this was a really good sermon. Bro. Sammy said a few things off the bat that really caught my attention.
-Bitterness is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
-It is to the spiritual life what cancer is to the body.
Bitterness, he said, is failure to release hurt and refusal to trust God & his sovereignty over my life. Bitterness is synonmous with pride. They go hand in hand. Here are some of the consequences of bitterness : 1, it will disturb you, 2) it will depress you, 3)it can kill you, 4)it will defile others, 5) it will defeat God's empowering grace in your life, 6) it delights the devil and invites him into our lives.
Wow. That's, wow. That's pretty awful.
More thoughts:
-God's grace is sufficient to heal every hurt. Doesn't matter how big or how little. God is not limited by our problems at all!
-We have to be willing to suffer for other people's sins, and be willing to pray for our enemies.
-We must be willing to trust God or we can never conquer bitterness!
-If I will respond right to the circumstances God places in my life, he will promote me. (think back to Joseph in the jail.)
and one last, sobering remdinder. If you are bitter you will become not only what you hate, you will become worse than what you hate.
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Session 6 was another great sermon from Bro. Will. He was preaching on how the Christian life demands change. It turned into a sermon on purity as well, apparently there were plenty of people God wanted to get in touch with about that.
Some thoughts:
We need to Seek and Set our affections on the things of God to change our lives.
What do you spend your time on? That's what you love most.
In order to change we must be desperate to know Jesus! It was basically just that theme of being preoccupied with Jesus so that we are changed into his image!
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Bro. Sammy taught session 7, the first session on Saturday morning. It was about loving souls for Christ - going fishing!
A love for souls starts with a love for Christ. Our outreach should be public, and personal. Jesus set this example for us. He preached out in a boat before all the people, and personally talked with Simon and called him to be a fisher of men. Simon was tired and he had failed fishing the night before, AND he was already cleaning up his nets getting ready to go home! However, he had an obedient heart and his willingness to obey Christ brought many, many others to Christ.
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Session 8, the last session of the day was the icing on the cake. It was on Psalm 1.
Thoughts:
-Blessed is the man that separates himself from the world, and saturates himself in the Word.
-Without Christ, in ALL my efforts, I will fail!
-This kind of separation from the world is not just separation from the bad(the vile, the wicked). It's separation from those who just don't care about God.
-If I can't submit to my authorities, I am not spiritual!
-Separation won't last without saturation!!
-What you delight in is what you think and speak.
So, this was the final bit that drove me on to that hunger and thirst to just be totally drowned in God's word!
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I am just so excited that God is going to change me. I really want to be the girl that everyone knows is always in the Word. I want it to just....be evident in me by my actions and my countenance and my demeanor and my conversation and..everything about me! I am already enjoying meditating and memorizing and reading my Bible. There is nothing sweeter.
It was neat because before I went to the prayer advance I was reading my Bible a lot, and drinking a lot of water. Not as much as I should, then I got burnt out on the water and the reading, and had more soda and much less Word! At the prayer advance I committed not to drink anything but water, and I was drinking in so much of the Word through all the prayer and preaching. Now that I am home I can't stop being in the Word or drinking my water. God gave me that wonderful physical illustration of my spiritual life, and for that I am very grateful. It helps me to cement the spiritual concepts in my mind.
I am glad that God's plans are different from mine and that I was given the opportunity to be at the prayer advance. I needed it, and he knew that. I pray that whoever provided for me to go will be richly rewarded by God for their giving beyond any reward they could have ever imagined.
God is good!
-Laura