This means war!
Today we started our lecture series on Spiritual Warfare. We concentrated on Ephesians 6:10-20, and the lecturer also talked about many concepts found in the book I'm reading at the moment: "Spiritual Warfare for every Christian". Basically, it is all about knowing who we are in Christ and living it out. Also recognising the Devil's tactics, refusing to co-operate with him, and cutting them off aggressively. We also saw how Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to his believers - a person, and an explosive power. We should be exploding God's love in to all situations, through the Holy Spirit.
After lunch and Community Care, we had a seminar on writing sermons. We will all have opportunities to preach while on outreach, so we have learnt a basic outline now which will help us in the future:
- Hook: something like a dance or drama, or a joke
- Book: the scripture you are preaching about
- Look: what does the scripture mean to you, and give personal testimony related to change due to that scripture
- Took: how can the listeners apply the message to their own life
We were then given 10 minutes to come up with a 10 minute sermon. I did mine on Matthew 27:51:
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
I talked about how through Jesus death, the way to God the Father was opened up to anyone - we do not have to rely on anyone else to get to God any more.
We had dinner and free time after that, which was nice.
"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."
