Deeper 2009

I was just privileged to  be able to spend two wonderful days of worship and study at the Deeper Conference 2009 at First Baptist Church in Woodstock, GA. Last year the conference was great ,and this year was even better as the focus of every session this year was our awesome God and His attributes.

The theme of the conference this year was There is no god like our God! taken from Psalm 86:8-13, which reads:

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Psalm 86:8-13

The conference began Friday afternoon with a message by Ray Comfort entitled The Eternality of God. In this message Ray talked about the fact that one in four of our college and university professors today are either atheists or agnostics, and that they are turning out zealous atheists like there is no tomorrow. 

He   showed that by focusing on the eternality of God we can confront these atheist with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He also talked about how we all have a sixth sense - common sense - and that if we don't abandon the use of this sixth sense we will see the proof of God's existance all around us; he used Romans  1:20-25 as his main text:

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Romans 1:20-25

Ray also reminded us that as Christians we need to keep our eyes focused clearly on the cross - especially when witnessing - because if we win the argument but fail to preach the cross we have failed.

The next speaker was Emeal "E.Z." Zwayne. E.Z. spoke on God of the Generations and reminded us that our primary responsibility as God's people is to make sure that we are instilling a love for and fear of God in our own children and grandchildren. 

He talked about a recent trip that he took to Europe and the heartbreaking situation going on there as that continent has walked away from God and many of the great cathedrals that were once filled with praise and worship to our God have become something secular or  abandoned altogether. 

E.Z. then showed how we in the United States will face the same situation if we fail to pass our faith on to the next generations; he said:

The deterioration of the Christian family is the root cause of the deterioration of a nation.

And if we look around us we can see clearly that the Christian family, and our nation, is in decline.

E.Z. asked two questions:

1. What are my children and grandchildren seeing in my life? 
2. Do we have a multi-generational vision for our family?
   

Then ended with this Scripture:

Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. 

Malachi 2:15

After a short break we then got to hear Pastor Johnny Hunt talk about The Forbearance of God. He talked about how when Jesus went to the cross He completely satisfied the wrath of God that we deserved; He became our propitiation - our sacrifice of atonement - and paid the price for all of the sins that had been committed by those Old Testament saints that we read about in the Bible that God - in His forbearance - had overlooked in anticipation of the cross.

But, God's forbearance didn't stop there; in His forbearance He also overlooked all of the sins that each one of us have committed before coming to Christ. He explained that it is because of God's forbearance that He did not utterly destroy us the second that we committed our first sin (as that is what we deserved) but instead He showed us mercy and waited patiently for us to repent and in faith believe. 

Pastor Hunt then went on to warn us, however, that God's forbearance to sinners will not last forever; Jesus paid the price for the the sins of those who will repent and believe, but for those who refuse there will come a day when the cup of the wrath of God will be poured out on those who have not come to faith in Christ. 

This was probably my favorite study of the conference and I will write a more in depth post on this one at a later date.

Mark Cahill followed Dr. Hunt with a message entitled The Holiness of God. 

This was a very convicting message as Mark showed us how God is absolutely holy and we are not. He began this message by telling us that he felt completely inadequate to be bringing this message and that it would be at best a very poor representation of who God really is as we cannot even begin to comprehend the holiness of God. 

In this message he explained that holiness demands justice, and that as a holy God, God cannot just overlook our sin - it must be paid for. He also showed us that we cannot set our own standard for right and wrong; the standard is complete perfection - the standard is absolute holiness (and the standard of holiness is God Himself).

but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 

1 Peter 1:15-16

So what are we to do since we are not holy, God is holy, and we are commanded to be holy like He is holy? We are to repent of our sins and put our faith is the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It is only as we exchange our sinfulness for His Righteousness that we will be holy as God is holy.

After a dinner break we were blessed with a message from Kirk Cameron entitled Keeping the Foundations Sure. In this message Kirk built upon what E.Z. and Mark had said  by talking about the importance of living out our faith at home first before we try to preach to others. 

He talked about the danger that each of us faces in our walk with God: we focus so much on  reaching the lost world that we neglect the needs of those under our own roof and in our own families. He reminded me that my primary responsibility to God is to live out my Christian life:

1. With Christ
2. With my Wife
3. With my son
4. With the people of God
5. Then with the lost
   

If I mess up this order I will not only be living in disobedience I risk loosing what is most important - my own family.

Finally on Friday night we were privileged to hear a message from Ravi Zacharias, one of the preeminent apologist of our time. Ravi's Friday night message was entitled The Veracity of God and in this message he asked and answered the question, is there a God?

He explained that this is a question that the atheist asks of the Christian thinking that in doing so they have made the move that cannot be countered, but the atheist is not the only one who gets to ask questions, he must also answer them himself. 

Ravi then went on to explain that even the atheist believes in right and wrong, but that in order to have right and wrong there must be a moral law - a standard from which right and wrong are determined. And if there is a moral law there must also be a moral law giver, he said:

1. If there is no moral law giver that transcends us then there is  no moral law by which we must live.
2. If there is no moral law giver then life has no meaning.
3. If life has no meaning then there is no hope.
4. In addition to life being meaningless, if I believe that there is no moral law giver and no moral law and I am wrong there is also no recovery. If you are wrong here the result is catastrophic (read eternity in hell).

Day one then ended with about 45 minutes of worship lead by Scott Krippayne.


Day two began where day one ended, with more worship lead by Scott Krippayne

The first speaker on Saturday morning was Todd Friel, host of the Wretched Radio TV shows.  Todd, in his chaotic, hyperactive way took us though a two hour sermon on the Kindness of God (in just under an hour). 

In this message Todd showed us that it is the kindness of God that leads us to true repentance. It was all I could do to keep up with him while  trying to take notes, so here is what I got:

Romans 2:4 The kindness of God leads to repentance

Psalm 34:8 The Lord is kind

1 Peter 2:3 Give thanks - the Lord is kind

Luke 6:35 God is kind

God did not create the world to show His wrath, He created it to show His kindness.

Psalm 106:7 Remember the kindness of God

Romans 11:22 God shows kindness to the repentant but wrath to the ungodly

Ephesians 2:7 God's kindness to us is in Christ Jesus

Titus 3:4-5 We are saved because of God's kindness

Galatians 5:22 kindness and Goodness are both part of the fruit of the Spirit

Psalm 25:5 Good and upright in the Lord

Nahum 1:7 The Lord is good

Exodus 33:19

Psalm 25:7

Psalm 31:19

Isaiah 27:4-5

1. Fury is not in God
2. God is not looking to demonstrate His wrath
3. God gives us His strength

And that was just the introduction! This was another great sermon by Todd, and I highly recommend that you get it and listen to it if/when it is made available.

Todd was followed by Greg Koukl who gave a very in-depth talk on Evil, Suffering, and the Goodness of God.  Dr. Koukl did an amazing job explaining that just because a person decides that there is no God they are still faced with the problem of evil in the world. And that more importantly, evil in the world is  actually proof that there is a God. 

This message built right on top of the foundation that Ravi laid on Friday night; Dr. Koukl explained that in order to have evil in the world you must have a standard by which to measure what is and is not evil. You cannot say that something is evil unless you have an absolute standard of what is good - and that standard is God. Good and evil are just relative terms compared to that standard.

He also explained that evil is not a thing, it is the absence of a thing. For example: a shadow is not a thing, it is merely the place where light is absent. In the same way evil is not a thing, it is the place where good is absent, and in order for good to be absent there must be good, and if there is good there must be God. Therefore the very existence of evil in our world is proof that there is a God.

After lunch we were treated to another message from Ravi Zacharias, who picked up where he ended the previous night, and built more on the message that we had just received from Greg Koukl.

In this session Dr. Zacharias talked about the importance of truth saying "The most valuable thing and most powerful weapon in the world is truth."

He went on to give a three stage argument that points to the existence of God:

1. However the concrete physical is broken down it will always lead outside of itself for proof of its existence.
2. No matter where you see intelligibility, you will always see a designer.
3. The course of Human events - Historical, Social, Cultural -  points to a designer.
1. Jesus is the only one who explains the human condition in a way that corresponds to reality
2. Jesus is the only one who provides a solution for my malady - it is only in the Christian faith that atonement is offered
   
3. Jesus' claim that He would be raised bodily made the resurrection provable 
   

This was a wonderful weekend and I can't wait until next year. I hope you can make it.

Paul Washer On The Doctrine Of Election

Here is a video of Paul Washer from last year's Deeper Conference answering a man who asked him to explain the doctrine of election. The audio is a little low, but this is well worth the time and effort it takes to listen.


And here is the link to the sermon series that Paul recommends: http://www.anchoredintruth.org/resources/audio/ephesians

Deeper 2008

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the Deeper Conference that was put on by Living Waters and Way of the Master. I can't even begin to express what a blessing this conference was; imagine two days of sitting under the teaching of Paul Washer, Ken Ham, Marshal Foster, Ray Comfort, Johnny Hunt, Emeal Zwayne, Kirk Cameron, and Todd Friel, and then on top of that, to be led in worship by Scott Krippayne. It was an awesome weekend!

Here are some of the highlights:

The conference began on Friday afternoon with a message by Ray Comfort entitled Gethsemane, the Missing Link to the Cross. In this message Ray showed us how Peter missed his Gethesmane experience because he slept when he should have been praying and as a result he denied his Lord. Ray reminded us that when it comes to sharing the Gospel our fear is in direct proportion to our pride. He also stressed the importance of having compassion for the lost, but warned us that compassion will cost us something: our time; our money; our reputations. So let me ask you, how well are you sharing your faith? If you're not is it because of fear - or is it because of pride?

Next up was Emeal (E.Z.) Zwayne, who spoke on the importance of cultivating the mind in a message he entitled Mind Matters. He used as his text Mark 12:28-34 with his key verse being verse 30, which says:

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Mark 12:30

From this verse he zeroed in on what it means to love God with your mind ,and he talked about the importance of theology and apologetics in the life of the Christian. He talked about how important it is that we study theology and the Bible because we cannot love what we don't know, and the more we know about our God the more we can (and will) love Him.

The next speaker was Johnny Hunt, whose church hosted the conference. Dr. Hunt spoke on the Sufficiency of the Bible. He reminded us that God has exalted His word above His name and talked about the importance of knowing and obeying the Bible. The more we feed on God's word the hungrier for His word we will become; God's word has the ability to both satisfy us and make us crave more at the very same time.

Following Dr. Hunt was one of the highlights of the conference for me, a message by one of my favorite preachers - Paul Washer. Paul Washer spoke for about an hour and fifteen minutes on the Essential Truths of the Cross. His text for this message was Romans 3:23-27, which says:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

Romans 3:23-27

In his message he reminded us that the cross is the Gospel and that the cross is the motivation for the Christian life, and he exhorted us to know the Gospel because we cannot preach what we do not know.

After this was the first breakout session of the conference where I got to hear Todd Friel explain how we can prove that the Bible is Supernatural by Following the Scarlet Thread. In this message Todd explained how the types and shadows of the Old Testament all point to Christ, who is the fulfillment of these "fuzzy pictures" we see in the Levitical system.

This was followed by a worship session that included music by Scott Krippayne and Scripture reading by Paul Washer.

Friday night ended with a message by Kirk Cameron entitled Apologetics and the Gospel. In this message Kirk talked about how Christians need to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us, but at the same time we need to be careful that we do not allow our arguments for the validity of our faith to take the place of the Gospel; we need to answer the questions of people who genuinely want an answer, but not at the expense of the Gospel. In witnessing we need to always keep an eye on the cross, and as we answer the questions that are sure to come we should use them as a springboard to get conversation back to the Gospel and the cross.

On Saturday morning we reconvened at 9:00 am for another wonderful day which began with more praise and worship led by Scott Krippayne. I had never heard Scott before this weekend and I was very impressed. He is a very tallented singer and song writer and he was the perfect choice to lead the worship at the conference.

Todd Friel had the first general session on Saturday morning, and in this message he picked right up where he left off the night before with a message on Biblical Covenants. This was my favorite message of the conference and Todd ended the message with Communion, a Covenant meal. This was without a doubt the most meaningful and moving communion service that I have ever been a part of and if you ever get the chance to hear Todd speak on this subject I highly recommend that you go - you will be glad you did.

Todd's session was followed by a General session by Marshal Foster, who I must admit I had not heard of before this conference. in his message, which was on history, he stressed the fact that there is only one history, and that history is about Jesus. He had a very interesting message and I am looking forward to hearing more of his teaching in the future.

After lunch the final general session was a message by Ken Ham. This was probably my second favorite message of the conference (there were no bad messages). In this message Dr. Ham showed the importance of a literal interpretation of Genesis chapters 1-11. If we allegorize these chapters, as many modern Christians are prone to do, we end up losing the essential doctrines of the New Testament since they all have their root in these first 11 chapters of the Bible. He also pointed put the the real issue is Biblical authority; if we disregard what God said in Genesis 1-11 how can we then say that the rest of His word is accurate.

Unfortunately, I was not able to stay for the closing session due to time constraints and a 7 hour drive to get home, and if the final session was anything like the ones I did get to attend, it was my loss. This was a great weekend , it was a great conference, and my only regret is that my wife wasn't able to attend with me, but they are already planning Deeper 2009 and God willing we will both be able to attend next year.