Divine Satisfaction! » Shephereds Conference

2010 Shepherds Conference Downloads

debese — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:30:23 +0000

Most of the messages from the 2010 Shepherds Conference are available to download! If I was only allowed to recommend one sermon I’d definitely recommend Al Mohler’s message on John 9!

Click here for expositional goodness!

For those interested….

debese — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:33:58 +0000

For those interested in following the Shepherds Conference live stream, here’s the link:

http://www.shepherdsfellowship.org/sc/live/player/default.aspx

Shepherds Conference – General Session 1

debese — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:59:03 +0000

This is definitely not live blogging, but it’s nice to have a little time to meditate on the sessions, and to have a chance to listen to them again.

General session #1 featured Dr. John MacArthur. He opened the message by reading from Genesis chapter 1, with a little emphasis on the words “morning”, “evening”, and “day”. By this time I’d figured out where this message was heading and was not disappointed as he explained that the title of this message was “Why every self-respecting calvinist (Evangelical, Christian) is a 6 day creationist”. He followed up with probably the best line of the message: “If anyone has a problem with that you weren’t listening to what I just read.”

The rest of the message focused on theology of creation. One major point was that creation is not scientific. This of course caught me off guard, but he went on to explain that Creation was a miracle of unimaginable vastness, and miracles are by nature unscientifc for science by definition is something that can be observed, verified and repeated. No human observed creation and it cannot be repeated. Science can be used to disprove evolution, however without revelation from the creator we would know nothing about creation! If therefore the creator chose to, say, write a book about His creation we could expect it to be highly accurate, for no on knows more about the minute details of every law of science than He, for He created them!

The issue for the believer therefore is the authority of Scripture. It is the atheist who says that Genesis 1 recounts God’s creation of the universe and chooses to reject that account who treats God’s Word more legitimately than the Christian who tries to force humanistic “science” into the first two chapters. If we cannot trust God to communicate to us clearly in the first two chapters, how can we trust the rest of scripture to mean what it says?

While the message of the message was not new to me, MacArthur laid it out very well. He then spent the last 20 minutes or so discussing the “greening” of the American church and expressed great concern with a pre-occupation with secular environmentalism that is not based on truth found in scripture. Efforts to “redeem” the planet are doomed to fail because the planet is cursed by God (Gen 3), and will ultimately be destroyed by God and not by man. Man was put on this planet with the responsibility to subdue it and to bring forth riches from it. His application? “Walk on the grass, kill a deer and drill for oil.” This of course is put in a context of doing so with responsibility, but not with the false notion that by somehow going green we will save a planet destined for destruction.

To hear this sermon and others go to the Shepherds Conference web page!

Shepherds Conference 2…

debese — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:27:56 +0000

Two more sessions and this years Shepherds Conference will be a thing of history. I have really enjoyed this years conference, not only because of the good speakers, excellent music and refreshing atmosphere, but also because of the stimulating conversations that I’ve been able to have with the friend who accompanied me to this years conference. In addition to good messages from John MacArthur, Todd Pennington and Rick Holland, we’ve also heard an excellent message on the authority of Scripture by Dr. Al Mohler and Phil Johnson gave a call for dignity in the pulpit from Titus 2. This afternoon we’ll be attending a session with Steve Lawson before wrapping the conference up tonight with a final word of exhortation by John MacArthur. Until I get back to my home computer you can find some conference reviews over at the pyromaniacs blog (see the links on the right).

I would however like to leave you with this quote found in the daily “newspaper” they give us here at the conference. In the midst of a growing “environmentalism” within the church it’s important to remember:

Saving the world, for Christians, should be first and foremost about saving the lost. Instead of being distracted by attempts to save our broken planet, Christians should focus on what God has actually commissioned the church to do – proclaiming the good news of salvation while looking forward to a new earth which will last forever (cf. Rev. 21-22).

Shepherds Conference…

debese — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:33:22 +0000

Today is the second dayof the Shepherds Conference held at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. So far the sessions have been great, and I look forward to posting some of my notes and pictures when I get back to sunny central Florida. The first session by John MacArthur was entitled “Why every self-respecting calvinist (or Christian, or Evangelical) is a six day creationist.” Last night he gave us a reflection on the ministry God has allowed him to have for the past 40 years at Grace Community. (40 years at the same church…wow) This morning Rick Holland spoke on aspects of Paul’s pastoral heart. My conference companion, Nathan, informed me that this was the best session so far. However, since I am at the mercy of the computer cafe, and my computer is resting comfortably at the hotel room, further postings on these wonderful sessions will have to wait.