Highlights from The Overcomer Course for Young Adults

Highlights from the Overcomer Course for Young Adults. That is a topic we'll discuss today right here on the Christian Real View Radio Program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host. In this video ministry, thank you for your notes of encouragement, financial support, and lifting us up in prayer. Our website is thouchristianrealview.org and all our contact information will be given throughout the program today.

On Friday and Saturday, June 21st and 22nd, nearly 30 young adults, age 18 to 28, converged at Stone House Farm in Jordan, Minnesota, as the first class of the Overcomer Course. Some of the young adults are in the workplace, some are in school, some are in between, but all came to hear what God has said in His Word and how it applies to their lives. In eight sessions over those two days addressing what we think are life's most important issues, such as believing God in His Gospel, trusting God's Word is the basis for wise thinking and living, the pursuit of sanctification and discipleship, time and work, singleness and marriage, and the local church. Pastor Ace Davis gave that session. Attendees were exhorted to love God and embrace His design on all these issues. Not surprisingly, our faithful God exceeded our plans and expectations, and He alone gets all the glory for anything the Course was. Despite lots of rain outside, and it rained a lot over those two days, God enriched all of our lives on the inside, not only the attendees but also the staff and volunteers who helped with the Course as we all dug into God's supernatural, timeless truths in His Word. We were also encouraged in the bonus sessions between the main teaching sessions, which included mealtime interviews with Christian nutrition and fitness coach Haley Erikson on caring for the body God gives us.

Dan and Kelly Haugland gave a very inspiring testimony about how God restored their lives and marriage. But even beyond the sessions, it was heartening to watch the young adults connect with each other over those two days, eating meals together, taking walks, playing ping pong and foosball, and just talking with each other. Young adults are in the midst of a major life transition. They're going from dependence on their parents to independence. They're going from the values they were taught by their parents to their own personal values. They're going from a time of education into vocation, and from being single—all of them were single—to perhaps getting married in the future.

And that's a lot to navigate. And I think often this is a demographic that feels like they're floating or disconnected, and oftentimes they have not been a part of a church as they went off to college, and churches maybe don't connect with this demographic as well as they could. Also, looking back to my own life, when I was in my 20s and the difficulties and challenges I remember from that time, I don't think I was truly saved until I was 24 years old.

And this was an up-and-down time of life for me and many others that I know from that particular period. So today on The Christian Real View, we'll share some of the highlights and audio clips of the course, including some of the feedback from attendees, as our way of thanking you for praying for and supporting this new outreach of the Overcomer Foundation, which is the nonprofit organization that directs the Christian Real View radio program. Now, before we get to some of the audio from the course, some might be thinking, well, The Christian Real View is mainly a radio ministry.

Why do an in-person course for young adults? And the answer to that is that we have done many in-person events over the years. We've had The Christian Real View conferences in the past. We still do the speaker series events. We had one earlier this year, you might remember, with Alex Newman. We also do our annual golf event.

This will be our ninth year of that. And we've had various and assorted movie nights and listener appreciation events. There's a benefit of doing in-person events rather than just radio. You can meet in person and connect with other believers.

You can encourage one another. The Overcomer course was the most involved event we have ever done. It was two full days. We were serving three meals a day for the attendees. There was lots of logistical prep to set up the farm to be ready for this kind of event.

And of course, all the content of the sessions took a lot of prep work as well. The venue itself was really conducive. It was held in the North Barn at Stonehouse Farm, which used to be a stable and a hayloft back when the previous owners had horses on the property. And so sessions were held in one side of the barn, while on the other side was a lounge for snacks and food and other things where they could relax between sessions. And the rural setting was a good place to go where there are not many distractions, where you can take walks and you can play old fashioned games like ping pong and foosball and darts and so forth.

So attendees would arrive at the farm at 8 a.m. for coffee and breakfast. And they'd be there all day until all the sessions and then dinner at 6 p.m. And many would stay at the farm until 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. a night just to talk and play games. And it was immersive and conducive to building relationships. As a matter of fact, both nights of the course, I stayed at the farm.

And as I went to bed, there were still attendees still in the barns just socializing with each other. While there was lots of substantive teaching and discussion in the sessions, there was also plenty of time for the young adults to connect with each other. So the goal of the course was to strengthen the foundation of their faith like almost like an oak sapling and strengthening that foundation so it grows straight up. And then as they left the course to encourage them to grow individually by getting into the word on a daily basis, but also in community being involved in a sound local church. Now the Christian worldview, as we've said many times, is not a church. But our goal with the radio program and with this event is to be a supplement to get listeners and these young adults engaged in a sound local church, which God designed so that we can fellowship and hear sound preaching and we can grow as a believer.

After everyone introduced themselves over breakfast on Friday morning, and by the way, two of the attendees are baristas, so they brought espresso machines to serve everyone coffee over those two days. We headed into session one on believing God's gospel is the gateway to being an overcomer. And this really was the prerequisite session as being born again through believing in God's gospel of the person and work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, not only saves one soul, nothing's more important than that, but it makes understanding and applying all the rest of the sessions possible. So here's an excerpt from session one.

We may be sitting in a barn today at a farm in a small town in Jordan, Minnesota. But know this, what we have just discussed today regarding believing God and his gospel is literally the most important issue in the world. More important than the war in Israel and Gaza and Ukraine and Russia and the political election this fall, this is the most important issue in the world for you personally to believe.

1 Corinthians 15 says, Now I have made known to you, brethren, the gospel, which I preached to you, which also you received, he's talking to Christians, in which also you're able to stand before God, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, and here's the gospel, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised in the third day according to the scriptures. It's of first importance in your life. There's nothing more important than the gospel in your life, not your relationships, not your work, not anything is more important than you being right with God. It's even more important than, for those of you who work at Mayo, finding a cure for cancer. It's better than helping others in need. It's better than being successful and charitable, having a good marriage and family. The gospel is more important than all of those things.

Those are good and really important, but your eternal soul is of utmost importance. I need a reader for this one. This is Mark chapter 8. You can read off the screen here, Daniel.

8 36. Just to jump in here for a second. Attendees were given the opportunity to read some of the scripture passages that were referenced throughout the teaching sessions over the two days, but we didn't have a microphone for them in the early sessions. While we could hear them in the room, you wouldn't be able to hear on the radio, so I'm just going to read the passage that the attendee read from Mark chapter 8, verses 36 through 38, where Jesus says, For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man, Jesus, will also be ashamed of Him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.

Okay, back to the audio from session one. This is Jesus talking. He's saying it would profit you nothing if you gain the whole world. No one has ever gained the whole world.

Not Elon Musk, not Bill Gates, not even close. If you want all the money, if you want all the land, if you want all the position and power in the world, what Jesus is saying here is it wouldn't be profitable to you if you lose your soul. Think about how valuable your soul is if it's more valuable than owning the whole world. But God has given us someone who can save your soul. So if you're here today, if you've overcome a course, and if you've never understood the gospel as it was presented from Scripture today, you've never placed your faith in who Christ is and what He did for you on the cross, I urge you, make today, think about it.

You can talk to any of us. Very glad to do so, whether during the course or after the course. Make this moment your most meaningful moment of your life by believing God and believing His gospel. Let's pray. I want to thank you for this most important issue, the gospel. It's of first importance. And so we start this Overcomer Course with the most important thing because it is really the prerequisite to everything that comes next, prerequisite to being able to understand what Scripture teaches, to be able to understand what you are doing in this world, the prerequisite to sanctification growth and evangelism, the prerequisite to having a good marriage and family, the prerequisite to doing our work for your glory rather than our own. We must repent and believe in the gospel. We must be born again, as your son said.

You must be born again. Give us the faith to obey and follow that command. And in our hearts, simply know that we're sinners, know that our sin separates us from you, and believe what you've said, that by believing in what Jesus did in the cross for us, He paid the penalty we deserve to pay for our sin, that you can be justly satisfied, your wrath and justice can be satisfied on that cross by Jesus. He took our place and that you account His perfect righteousness to us. That's a supernatural transformation that takes place, that you save us. So we just pray that you would convict our hearts now for any here who haven't done that, the believers who have already done that, whoever believed the gospel, we can always understand the gospel better. And so we can explain it better to others and help us to have the motivation, the compulsion to do that when we have opportunity.

In Jesus' name, Amen. All right, that was the end of the teaching portion of session one on believing God's gospel is the gateway to being an overcomer. Then after that started the group discussion. So every session had about 40 to 45 minutes of teaching, followed by about 30 minutes of discussion on that topic.

And the discussions were always compelling with the questions and comments that would come up. You know, hearing the teaching and then discussing the issue is the way that convictions start to form. And so one thing emphasized in session one was being able to explain the gospel within your own story of how God saved you. This is a powerful evangelistic tool for others because no one can argue with your story, but it also helps you understand and articulate the gospel better.

The apostle Paul told his own salvation story often. So after the course, we asked the attendees to record a message about some of their biggest takeaways from the course. So here's what Grace and Abigail had to say about session one, about being able to tell the gospel within your own story, and also about the hymns that took place before every session.

This is Grace from Forest Lake at the Overcomer Course. I learned about the importance of scripture memorization and that we should have a short explanation of our testimony and the gospel prepared and ready to share with others. The very first thing before even the very first session was a song in Christ alone that is more than just significant because that He is our everything.

And without Him, there is no reason to go on, but because of who He is and singing about who He is, His character and His attributes, that was especially powerful. That was Grace and Abigail, two attendees of the Overcomer Course. And by the way, I know you're from two women there, but we had a significantly high number of men than women which attended the course, which we thought was great. We want young men to be strong in the faith and be ready to take leadership in their homes and their churches, so we were very encouraged by that.

Okay, we'll take our first break of the day here on the Christian Real View Radio Program. We're discussing highlights from the recent Overcomer Course for young adults. We have much more coming up, highlights from the teaching sessions and also more feedback from those who attended. You can view photos from the event at our website, thechristianrealview.org, while there. We've also added a giving category that goes toward the Overcomer Course, the one we just did and ones we plan to do in the future at our website, thechristianrealview.org. If you'd like to support this new endeavor, we only charge $79 for the course, which was far below our costs, but we also know the financial limitations of this age group and that the investment into their lives was worth it. So if you'd like to donate, go to our website, give us a call or write to us, and all our information is given during this break.

Stay tuned, we have much more coming up. I'm David Wheaton, and you are listening to the Christian Real View Radio Program. The men's daily Bible was just released, and beyond the most important part, God's Word, it contains many other helpful aids, such as 50 insight for life articles from pastors and Christian leaders, including Kevin DeYoung, Stephen Lawson, Albert Mohler, and the late R.C.

Sproul. I contributed one of them on embracing a Christian real view based on Genesis 1-1. There are also 260 insight for the day devotionals and 234 insight for the moment call-outs providing concise and practical wisdom. The men's daily Bible in the Christian standard Bible version is available in hardcover for a donation of any amount, regular retail is $40, or black leather touch for $45, regular retail is $60.

To order, go to thechristianrealview.org, call toll-free 1-888-646-2233, or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. The Overcomer Foundation Cup is the new name of our annual golf event, and this year's event will be held at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, Monday, September 16th. Hazeltine hosts many of golf's major championships, such as the Ryder Cup, U.S. Open, and U.S.

Amateur. Your registration includes 18 holes with cart, full use of Hazeltine's facilities, three meals and beverages, golfer gift, and more. There are lots of sponsor options, and non-golfers are welcome to attend the post-golf meal and message. From wherever you are in the country, you are invited to bring colleagues or clients to experience a unique day at Hazeltine, and discover how the Overcomer Foundation, the non-profit organization that directs the Christian Real View Radio Program, is impacting lives.

Again, the date is Monday, September 16th at Hazeltine in Chaska, Minnesota. To find out more and to register, go to thechristianrealview.org or call 1-888-646-2233. Welcome back to the Christian Real View.

I'm David Wheaton. Be sure to visit our website, thechristianrealview.org, where you can subscribe to our free weekly email and annual print letter. You can order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. Today we're airing highlights from some of the sessions at the recent Overcomer Course for Young Adults that was held at Stonehouse Farm in Jordan, Minnesota. Just about 30 attendees came, and that was our target number to make sure we would interact personally and get to know everyone who attended. After doing it this first time, we may be able to increase the course size to about 40 for next time. But anything larger would reduce the ability for personal interaction, which is perhaps every bit as important as the teaching and discussion was.

You may have heard the saying, what you win or draw them with, you'll win them too. Not sure if you noticed in the lead-up, but we promoted the course around the teaching and discussion on life's most important issues. It wasn't come for water balloon wars and zip-lining, and there would be a short morning and evening chapel speaker. So the draw wasn't for fun and some teaching on the side.

The draw was for substance, and there would be some downtime for social and fun in between the sessions. So the attendees who came knew what they were coming for, to hear from God's word on important issues relevant to their lives. The methodology of the course was to appeal to their mind, will, and their affections or desires, not leading with emotional manipulation, like turning lights down and driving worship music that causes a primarily emotional reaction. If we did that, the teaching from God's word could never compete or be as interesting.

And you know what? Nearly 30 young adults were attentive and engaged with five hours of teaching and discussion each day, not including the bonus sessions that took place as well. So here's an audio excerpt from session two on trusting God's revelation as the foundation for wise thinking and living. In other words, everyone has a worldview. Everyone's worldview is based on something. So what is the most trustworthy foundation for your worldview? OK, so we've gone with from what is a worldview to what are worldviews based on to the key question of our topic here today is, can we trust God's word?

This is a very key question. Can we actually base our lives and our worldview on God's word? So let's look at the basis or the foundation of the Christian worldview to make the case. That's not something we need to believe by blind faith, but that the true biblical worldview is the most logical.

It's the most reasonable and it's the most defendable and the one that most aligns with reality. So I'm not just going to throw some at you here and say, just believe this. No, I must show you that there's evidence for why a believer believes what they do. The foundation of the Christian worldview is stated in literally the first sentences of the Bible. First sentences of Genesis. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void and darknesses over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, let there be light. And there was light.

I'm going to do a little aside because it's very interesting. The first sentence of the Bible. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That one sentence contains everything that exists in our universe. In the beginning, time, God being created energy, the heavens, space and the earth matter. It's a powerful, powerful statement to start the Bible.

Unbelievable. Everything in the universe is summarized in the first sentence of the Bible. But two things to get back on track here to notice from this is that the highlighted words that there's a God right in the beginning. God doesn't try to give you a reason for God, just makes a statement in the beginning.

God. So God exists and God speaks. God said so there's there's a God and this God speaks. This is the most consequential assertion in all of history. Now, we talk about the gospel being the most important message. This is the most consequential assertion because it was this God who developed the gospel. God exists and God speaks. So this statement in the first three sentences of the Bible instantly demolishes all notions of randomness. Like this is random. Purposelessness. There's no purpose to life. And autonomy. We're all there is. There's no one above us. This totally destroys that.

That can't be if this is true. The creator lives, according to this. And we, the created, are compelled to find out, well, who this God is. We just know that he exists and speaks. The rest of the Bible is going to explain who he is and what he speaks. How we are to worship him, how we can be made right with him. Because if God doesn't exist, honestly, we're totally we're totally wasting our time here today talking about a God and using the Bible.

It's just like a bunch of mythology. Right. I'll be the first one to admit that. First Corinthians 15. We are. Paul says we are the biggest fools if the gospel is not true and God doesn't exist. That's all just a fake.

We're kidding ourselves. So this first sentence of the Bible is almost like driving down the road and coming to a T. OK, you believe God exists. You believe he speaks and you'll start heading his direction with more revelation from him to come. If you get to this T and take a left, let's say you reject it. You go on away from him and you start heading in a direction where you become your final authority rather than God.

This is a T in the road. Right. The first verse of scripture. So God never expects us to have a blind or baseless faith, though. Christians aren't like, oh, your faith is just out.

No, it doesn't need to be that way. So what is the evidence that God exists and why should what we trust what he has spoken in his word? Very key question. There's four C's we're going to talk about as we in the latter part of this session. The four C's that we can know that God exists and he speaks.

And the four C's are this. Number one, creation. Number two, our conscience.

Number three, Christ. And number four, his communication or his word. These are the four evidences we know that God exists and he speaks. And then we went on to explain how these four C's, creation, conscience, Christ and communication or scripture, is how God reveals himself and why this is such overwhelming evidence that he exists, creates and speaks. We also looked into the evidence of why the Bible is a true and trustworthy foundation of our faith and worldview. This is a fundamental session, session two.

If one doesn't have a strong trust in God's word, how he's revealed himself, one will be susceptible to the lies of the world and other false worldviews. Two of my nephews who are in their mid 20s attended the Overcomer Course. And here's what one of them, Daniel, had to say about how this session impacted him.

This is Dan from Excelsior. My first takeaway from the course was how fundamental it is to have your worldview be biblical, since how you view the world will affect the decisions you make in life, big or small. My other takeaway was how important it is to be intentional with our priorities in life and make sure they line up with the Bible and strive to take actions on them daily. Doing so by having daily time in prayer and the word of God, being involved consistently at church, hearing the word preached, stewarding work, time and money to God's glory. Daniel makes the point how important it is to have God's word as the basis for our thinking and our living rather than human reasoning, where everyone does, quote unquote, what is right in their own eyes.

That's very true. He also stated how critical it is for a believer to be seeking God, prioritizing that, seeking God in his word in prayer and being part of a sound church, which was actually a summary of several sessions. Now, skipping forward to session four, this relates to that, because the title of that session was pursuing God's means to grow and disciple. This was a session that several attendees commented on with regard to the spiritual disciplines of growth or spiritual nutrition of taking in the word of God every day.

Here's an audio byte from that session. Finally, that last phrase, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transform means to be changed. Again, this transformation is sanctification. It's not mystical.

It's not unattainable. In fact, and here's the next point in your notes, God has provided what we can call this ordinary means of grace, or maybe we can call them ordinary means of growth for your sanctification. Here's where it gets really important. I've been talking to a couple of you today about what's your walk with the Lord like. Well, I really don't read Scripture. I need to get a better habit of reading Scripture and a couple of things like this. This is important. If you want to grow, if you want to be sanctified, if you want to obey God's command to become holy, there are some ordinary means of grace, God's gifts, ordinary means of growth that God provides.

And we'll just categorize them two ways. We'll say in community, there are some ordinary means of growth, and what that means is being a member of a faithful local church. And we're going to get to this more tomorrow with Pastor Ace Davis and how important this is. There's no such thing as a lone ranger Christian, right? You know, I meet God every day in the deer stand.

You've probably heard that one. Now, you can meet God in the deer stand, but you're still called to be a part of a local church where you hear sound preaching, where you worship God, where you pray, where you fellowship with other believers, where you remember the Lord's death and resurrection. This isn't optional for a Christian. This is God's means for you to grow in community. That's the first category of ordinary means of growth.

The second category is individually. So there's lots of time in between that we're in church for us to read and study and meditate, and by meditate I mean just to think about, memorize, meditate, and pray through the Word of God under the leading of the Holy Spirit that he gives you at the moment of salvation. God will sanctify you, again, not let go and let God, as you work at these ordinary means of growth that God gives you, God will sanctify you when you pursue these ordinary means that he gives us. So here's a question. If your most important relationship in life is with God, if you're a believer, and it should be, in what builds any relationship, you must spend time and you must communicate with someone to grow a relationship, the question is, do you set aside time each day to have communication with God?

Do you do that? Job said in the Old Testament, in Job 23, 12, I have treasured the words of his mouth, treasured the words of God's mouth more than my necessary food. That's what it means to want to prioritize a relationship with God. It's more important than eating to me. I would rather take spiritual nourishment in than physical nourishment. It's waking up in the morning and saying, the first thing I need to do today, the most important thing I'm going to do today is spend time with the Lord in reading his word, hearing directly from him and his word, and praying back to him. That's the most important thing I'm going to do all day.

More important than the big work project I have going on, more important than doing this or that, it's the most important thing I'm going to do today. In other words, what Job is saying is that spiritual nourishment is greater than physical nourishment. So how does God communicate to us? He communicates us through his word, through reading his word, and he communicates, as I said earlier, through the preaching of his word. The Bible was meant to be preached by called preachers. And number two, we communicate back to him through worship and prayer. This is why they're called the ordinary means of grace. These aren't extraordinary things that you have to go walk a tightrope in Nepal with a blindfold on to grow in your faith.

No. God made it simpler, way simpler than that. It's get his book and get into his book and get into a good church and engage. And through community and through individually, he will grow you. God is at work in you as you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I will tell you this.

I will challenge you with this. The one decision that will transform your Christian life and sanctify you is to spend time with God in his word every day. When I was first saved and I was 24, I don't know where it came from, probably God working in me, but I had such a strong sense because I knew how I lived in the past. I had such a strong sense that if I wasn't in God's word, if I wasn't meeting with him and hearing from him on a daily basis, that I would wander off track. And so back then, when I was 24, about your age, I made a commitment to read the Bible every single day, whether I felt like it or not, even if it was for one chapter for five minutes. And I can tell you, 31 years later, I haven't kept every single day.

I know I've missed some days here and there, but predominantly I've made most days. And that one commitment, that one decision, because that's what a commitment is, it's a decision you make. That decision has helped save me from myself time and time again.

It doesn't mean I'm freewheeling now. I need to be in the word every day. I need it. I need to be reminded every single day. And you're going to find out when you make this commitment, you get into God's word every day, and you meet with him every day, you're going to, Scripture's going to come alive to you. You're going to say, well, I really needed to be reminded of that. The Scripture constantly says, be reminded of, because we're always forgetting. It's like you don't eat one meal and then not eat for a week again, right?

You eat two or three meals a day because you know you need that to keep going. It is the exact same thing with taking in the word of God, either by reading it or hearing it preached. Now, if it sounded like rain was pattering on the roof of the barn, that's exactly what was taking place.

We had so much rain over these two days. But what was being conveyed in this audio clip was something that just seemed so basic. Read the word of God daily and be engaged in a sound local church where you hear the word preached.

But it's the basics, the fundamentals that God provides for us to grow in our love and obedience of him. And we are thankful to hear that many of the attendees receive the exhortation to get in the word. Here's what Peter had to say. My name is Peter.

I'm from Lesue, Minnesota. I just want to say that I had an awesome time at the Overcomer Course. I left each day of the course feeling both challenged and also really encouraged. Before the course, I had thought that I had a close enough walk with God. That me just attending church every week and reading the Bible with my family every night was good enough.

But I realized as I was attending the course that I was not. My relationship with God was not personal enough. I wasn't personally reading my Bible every day or personally praying very much. And to be fair, people had told me many times that I should be doing those things.

It seemed like every time I would try to start, life just seemed to get too busy and I would just slowly start to forget about doing those things. But something that Mr. Wheaton said really challenged me. And he said, the time you spend reading the Bible and in prayer should be the most important part of your day.

I realized that it was my perspective that was all messed up. I've been trying to read the Bible on my own more as an obligation to God rather than looking at it like the most important part of my day. And looking at it like that has made a ton of difference. And so it's like Mr. Wheaton said, we want our relationship with God to be like we want our future marriage relationship to be like.

Not cold and distant but close and intimate. And that requires spending personal time talking to God and also letting him speak to us through his word. And so I'm just so glad that I was able to attend the Overcomer Course and I can't wait for any more events coming up in the future. So thank you. Well those are very kind words by Peter but let me just reiterate anything I said in this course was not original to me.

It just came from the truths that God has put in his word. If you just joined us we are going over some of the highlights of the recent Overcomer Course for young adults today in the program. If you'd like to support this new endeavor you can go to our website TheChristianrealview.org or call or write to us.

That information is given during this upcoming break. We also have some photos of this course at our website TheChristianrealview.org. We'll pause briefly to tell you about some ministry resources but when we return we'll hear excerpts from Pastor Ace Davis in his session Engaging God's Design in the Local Church. I'm David Wheaton and you are listening to The Christian Real View Radio Program. David Wheaton here, host of The Christian Real View Radio Program. Listeners are often surprised to learn that we as a ministry pay to broadcast on the radio station, website or app on which you are listening today. That expense is recouped through listeners like you making a donation or becoming a Christian Real View partner. Our aim is to have each broadcast outlet fully supported by the listeners of that outlet. If you'd like to help us in our mission to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, go to TheChristianrealview.org and click on donate.

You can also call toll free 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Specify how you listen as that helps us decide whether to continue on a given outlet and be sure to select one of our resources as a thank you for your support. The men's daily Bible was just released and beyond the most important part, God's Word, it contains many other helpful aids such as 50 insight for life articles from pastors and Christian leaders, including Kevin DeYoung, Stephen Lawson, Albert Mohler and the late R.C.

Sproul. I contributed one of them on embracing a Christian real view based on Genesis 1-1. There are also 260 insight for the day devotionals and 234 insight for the moment call outs providing concise and practical wisdom. The men's daily Bible in the Christian standard Bible version is available in hardcover for a donation of any amount, regular retail is $40 or black leather touch for $45, regular retail is $60. To order, go to thechristianrealview.org, call toll free 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Welcome back to the Christian Real View, I'm David Wheaton. Be sure to visit our website thechristianrealview.org where you can subscribe to our free weekly email and annual print letter.

Order resources for adults and children and support the ministry. Today in the program we're going over some highlights from the recent Overcomer course for young adults. And so we're going to move from day one to day two. And if day one of the Overcomer course was on the fundamentals of the faith, believing God's gospel and trusting God's revelation in scripture, understanding God's plan for the past, present and future, his sovereignty and also pursuing God's means to grow in your faith and to disciple others. Day two was really about the practical application of those fundamentals to the major aspects of life. So we covered issues like time, work, money, singleness, sex, marriage, the local church overcoming temptation. And Pastor Ace Davis of Faith Bible Church in White Bear Lake, Minnesota was kind enough to come and do this session on engaging God's design for the local church. So here's an excerpt of his session. And you'll again hear the downpouring rain on the metal roof of the North Barn.

It was it was quite a moment. Odds word stands as absolute truth to be known and applied to every area of life. Scripture is the very foundation upon which the church is built and comprises not only the content of the message that the church proclaims, but also the methods by which the church operates. And so the top of page three there in your notes, every decision and aspect of ministry must be submitted to the scrutiny of biblical teaching and doctrine, a ministry void of the teaching of scripture will also be void of the blessings of God. And listen, the local church should desire God's blessing, right?

How does it happen? By holding to the word of God, holding fast to the word of God. And so what should a healthy church then teach about God's word?

First, they should teach the inspiration, verbal and complete inspiration. That scripture is breathed out by God. How many of you have heard that this book right here was written by man? Anybody heard that? Heard that before, right? Oh, we can't trust that.

Why? Because it's written by man. You know what God says in his word? It's written by him. Yes, man transcribed it down on paper, but it was breathed out by God. God is the one who made sure that the men who wrote down what they wrote, they wrote down everything that he wanted them to write down. It's inspired by him and therefore it is without error. You can believe every word in this Bible, which moves to the next point there, the inerrancy.

A healthy church must hold to the inerrancy. The Bible contains no errors. God conveying truth to divinely chosen individuals and what they wrote did not stray from the original formulation of truth as it existed in the mind of God. It was in God's mind and he had men write it down.

It comes from him. And because it comes from him, the next thing that they must teach is that it is authoritative. Because the Bible comes from God himself, who is the authority overall, right? Therefore, his word is authoritative. Therefore, what he says, we must do. What God says in his word, the church must do. The next point there, a healthy church must believe in the sufficiency of the Bible. The Bible reveals who God is, who man is in relation to God and what duty God requires of man. The Bible is all that we need to equip us for a life of faith and service.

It's sufficient for every area of your life. You ever had a question about something in your life before? Like maybe even, why am I here?

What's the purpose of that? You know where that answer is found? In the Bible. It's found in his word. It's all in there. Any question that you ever have about life, God's word has the answer for it. It's in there. Sadly, we have people that don't go to God's word though, and they don't know God's word.

So they don't know how to find the answer. But I promise you, it's all in there. It's all there. The answer for every issue in your life is found in the Bible.

It is sufficient. And then number five, fifthly, a healthy church holds to the relevance of the Bible, that the Bible is totally relevant for every situation in life. You ever heard somebody say that this book is outdated?

You ever heard that before? It's an old book. It's outdated. Doesn't God know what's going on in our lives today in 2024? I mean, look at what it's written by these guys that lived a long, long time ago.

They didn't have the internet around, and they didn't have all this stuff that we have today. It's outdated. It's not. It's relevant.

It's relevant for your life. So how does a failure to recognize the inspiration, inerrancy, authority, sufficiency, and relevance of the word of God affect the local church and its ministry? It'll have a pursuit of comfort.

That's your next fill in there. It'll have a pursuit of comfort rather than obedience. The church will be all about making sure you feel nice and comfortable there. In fact, I read an article recently about a guy who was talking about how to get more people into the church, specifically people your age.

One of the things that he said is that what churches need to do is they need to turn the lights down so that people can just feel alone there, so that nobody can see them. That'll make them comfortable in the church, because then they can just sit there all by themselves. They come into church.

Nobody sees them. They walk out of church, and they're nice and comfortable there in the church. No, it's not a pursuit of comfort in the church. It needs to be a pursuit of obedience. Next, the next fill in there, your authority then is experience rather than God's word.

Have you ever heard somebody say, well, I've experienced. Well, in my experience, I think, and therefore, they build a whole theology off of experience rather than off of the word of God. No, everything that we believe in life needs to come from the word of God, not our own experience. And then finally there, contemporary thinking rather than the principles of divine truth become your guide for living becomes about contemporary thinking. And so distinctive number two there, a healthy church has a high view of scripture that centers all it does on God's word and seeks to honor God through obedience to his word. I recall sitting there in the North Barn listening to Pastor Davis speak about the local church and thinking, the young adults here are getting a teaching session on the local church that would fit right in at a national pastors conference. And the point was to help the attendees, the young adults, understand the primacy and priority of the local church.

And that came across very loud and clear in this session, session number seven. Again, this course is not intended to start some movement, but rather to strengthen the foundations of the faith of these young adults and urge them to get into a sound local church where they can grow week by week. There is much more that could be played, like from the Q&A during dinner with fitness and nutrition coach Haley Erikson on stewarding our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, in the lunch interview with Dan and Kelly Haugland and how God restored their lives and marriage. We'll just close with a couple more comments from attendees, Evelyn and Abigail.

Hi, this is Evelyn from Blaine, Minnesota. It seems very elementary, but one of my biggest takeaways from the session is the value and necessity of spending time with God daily in his word and in prayer, and just how essential and fundamental that is for the life of the Christian. I think in being a young believer and having recently lost my dad this year, it was just so encouraging to be in the presence of older saints and get to hear their testimonies and ask basic questions about life and faith like evangelism or the experience of grief. Overall, I'm just so, so thankful to have attended the Overcomer Course, and I've been so blessed and encouraged by it. It was practical, straightforward, and grounded in scripture, and for that reason, so worthwhile.

So thank you, David and Brody, and for all the staff that helped to make it happen. It was such a blessing. So this was actually quite surprising to me because I'm more of a quiet, solitary type of person, but it was really growing and stretching to me in a way to be at an all-day event for two days like this because it really expanded my view of fellowship with fellow Christians and really cherishing their testimonies and learning the story that God has weaved into other people's lives around me, like especially the testimonies of a few girls that I was able to talk to is how they were so aptly able to propound their testimonies in a just brief and quick way so that it was true to the grace that God worked in their lives, but then it was also brief enough to be able to explain to multiple people throughout the day. It was especially eye-opening the necessity to always have His Word on our minds and on our thoughts so that we're able to speak of God's grace in our lives to others. I do pray that each and every of the attendees will really continue to purpose in our hearts the lessons that we've learned and not just let it slip away, but to really take the more earnest heed to the things which we've heard less than any time we should let them slip, that our hearts be prepared as soft soil and good soil so that there will be a bountiful harvest in all of our lives. Well, that is our prayer as well, that God would produce lasting fruit in all of our lives who were a part of the Overcomer Course, ultimately for His glory and for our good as well. I want to thank you, listeners, to the Christian Rule View for your prayer for this event and for encouraging young adults that you know to come.

All of them came as a result of a parent or grandparent or church member recommending they come. And thank you for your support of the Christian Rule View which allowed us to host this event. We're planning to do a reunion day with this class later this summer and, Lord willing, we hope to do another Overcomer Course in the future. We don't have the full audio available of the course, but perhaps in the future we can record audio and video of it. But we do have some photos from this year's course that you can view at our website, thechristianrealview.org. And I must thank our staff, my wonderful wife Brody and Kelly and Alicia, Rich and Rosie who did such a tireless job serving everyone at this event, and volunteers Hannah and Sophia and Christina, Dan and Ben and Bridget, and of course our speakers Pastor Davis, Haley Erickson and Dan and Kelly Haugland.

Frankly, the sessions at the Overcomer Course were not only for the young adults there. If what you heard today, particularly about believing God's Gospel is the gateway to being an Overcomer, if you have never been born again, if you have never repented of your sin and put your trust in Jesus Christ, sacrifice of himself on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin, I would urge you to do that today. Just give us a call if you'd like to have the Gospel explained to you in more detail or go to our website, thechristianrealview.org and click on the page, What Must I Do to Be Saved? Believing God and his Gospel is truly the life and eternity changer for you. Thank you for listening to the Christian Real View today and for your support of this non-profit radio ministry. Jesus said, In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So until next time, think biblically, live accordingly, and stand firm. The Christian Real View is a listener-supported non-profit radio ministry furnished by the Overcomer Foundation. To make a donation, become a Christian Real View partner, order resources, subscribe to our free newsletter, or contact us, visit thechristianrealview.org, call 1-888-646-2233, or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Thanks for listening to the Christian Real View.