This document provides instructions and background for a retreat. It outlines 5 main points to be covered, including being on time, providing notes, and having an interactive dialogue. It encourages getting back into God's word and building a foundation of Bible doctrine. The retreat aims to teach the God-centered view of the Bible over a man-centered view. It provides instructions for participants to pray, prepare, and study scripture references in advance. Exhortations are given to not harden one's heart like Israel did after leaving Egypt. Attendees are encouraged to hold fast to their assurance in Christ and not drift from what they have heard.

2. Information
Point #1
Ø I am your servant in Christ
Ø Illustration - Stevie Williams, Tiger’s caddie
Ø If you need to pray
Ø If you need to ask follow up questions and would rather do that
one on one
Ø If you would like to discuss a life situation
Point #2
Ø Russ and Carol are here this week to relax, restore and receive
ministry
Ø Background bio with Russ

3. Information
Point #3
Ø Be Prompt
Ø Start on time and End on time
Point #4
Ø Notes to be handed out at the end of each session
Ø There are no footnotes as these are my own study notes
Point #5
Ø Interactive dialogue

4. Impulses for our Retreat
Ø Getting people back into God’s word so the word can get back
into God’s people
Ø Building a solid foundation of Bible doctrine to learn and live
the God-centered life
Ø In depth teaching and discussion in concentrated time frame
Excursus on Bible doctrine
Ø Man-centered (a better life, Bible is a guidebook)
Ø God-centered (a crucified life, Bible is authoritative)
Ø See notes attached
Ø To have fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer

5. Instructions and Ground Rules for Retreat
Ø Pray and Prepare (see next page)
Ø 1 John 1:9
Ø Colossians 1:9-121
ØWhat is God teaching and revealing?
Ø John 14:26, John 16:13-15
Ø What verses do I need to study and/or memorize?
Ø 2 Timothy 2:15
Ø What truths do I need to share in my sphere of influence?
Ø Luke 12:48 - to whom much is given, much is required
Ø Matthew 10:8 - as you have freely received, freely give
Ø John 8:32 - you will know the truth and the truth will set
you free

6. Retreat Books
Ø God is the Gospel - Dr. John Piper
ØAshamed of the Gospel - Dr. John MacArthur
ØThe Cross Centered Life - C.J. Mahaney
ØThe Gospel and Personal Evangelism - Mark Dever

7. God is the gospel means: “the highest, best, final, decisive
good in the good news…is the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ revealed to you for your everlasting enjoyment”

9. Preparation for the Heart
I – Incline your heart (Psalm 119:36)
Incline my heart to Your testimonies
And not to dishonest gain.
O – Open my eyes (Psalm 119:18)
Open my eyes, that I may behold
Wonderful things from Your law.
U – Unite my heart (Psalm 86:11)
Teach me Your way, O LORD;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name
S – Satisfy my heart (Psalm 90:14)
O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness,
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

10. Exhortation in the Gospel
Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for
salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek.
Colossians 1:21-23
Col. 1:21 ¶ And although you were formerly alienated and hostile
in mind, engaged in evil deeds,
Col. 1:22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body
through death, in order to present you before Him holy and
blameless and beyond reproach—
Col. 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and
steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you
have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven,
and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

11. Turn to Hebrews Chapter 3
Hebrews 3:6
The “if” is conditional for us being something now
The we are “God’s household”
Hebrews 3:14
Hebrews 3:1
Illustration:
If you say Albany then you are a southwest Georgia person
Saying Albany doesn’t make you a southwest Georgia person but
gives evidence that you are one.

12. You are “if” - Conditional statement that follows…
But rather the writer is saying if you are in God’s household this
will be true of you.
Question
Do you hold fast in hope?
Do you hold fast in confidence?
How can you know that you are part of His house?
It is NOT that you prayed a prayer 30 years ago.
It is NOT that you have walked an aisle.
The important thing is “where is your confidence now”
“where is your hope now”

13. If - conditional
We hold fast to our hope we are His household
This defines the members of the house
Hebrews 3:14
We have become (perfect/active/indicative)
The condition is future “if...until the end”
The effect of the condition relates to the past
The verse DOES NOT mean that one needs to hold fast to your
assurance in order to become, at some point in time, a future a
partaker of Christ
But the verse DOES mean to hold fast to your assurance that
manifests you have become a partaker in Christ

14. Ask the following question:
In Hebrews 3:14
Ø If having become partakers of Christ (past-tense) is evidenced
by holding fast to our assurance,
Ø then what can we say if a person doesn’t hold fast to their
assurance?
It must mean…
Ø A person who is not holding fast to their assurance in Christ has
then never been a partaker in Christ.
And it also means none of this assures salvation:
Ø Raised a hand
Ø Signed a card
Ø Walked an aisle
Ø Joined a church
Ø Got baptized
Ø Went down front at the Billy Graham crusade

15. Exhortations in the gospel continue through Hebrews
Heb. 2:1 ¶ For this reason we must pay much closer attention to
what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
Heb. 3:6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose
house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our
hope firm until the end.
Heb. 3:14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast
the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,
Heb. 6:11 And we desire that each one of you show the same
diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,

16. Exhortations in the gospel continue through Hebrews
Heb. 6:12 so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those
who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Heb. 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without
wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
Heb. 10:25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the
habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as
you see the day drawing near.
Heb. 12:1 ¶ Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses
surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin
which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race
that is set before us,

17. Exhortations in the gospel continue through Hebrews
Heb. 13:20 ¶ Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead
the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal
covenant, even Jesus our Lord,
Heb. 13:21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working
in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to
whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

18. Are you asking the question, well if I am going to have to endure
until the end where is my security?
And the answer - your security has nothing to do with you but
everything to do with Christ.
When you wake up in the morning as a Christian you will only do
so on the basis of the Holy Spirit’s enduring grace in your life.
Phil. 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a
good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
1Th. 5:24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to
pass.

19. Hebrews 3:7-19 is a therefore based on the “if” statement of
Hebrews 3:6
Therefore is a WARNING
How does the Holy Spirit continue to beset courage, endurance,
confidence, assurance, and holding fast to assurance of hope
Answer - through the word of God,
Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by
the word of God.”
If I am not constantly in the word of God then I’m in danger of
Hebrews 2:1

20. In Hebrews 3:7-19
We are to take this as a warning because of what happened to the
nation of Israel as they came out of Egypt
And yet they did not make it to the promised land
The analogy can be transferred over into our Christian lives:
We make a decision
Then we are in the wilderness
Will we make it?
Read Heb. 3:8 DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN
THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE
WILDERNESS,

21. Think about what the people of Israel had seen:
They watched God bring the 10 plagues on the people of Egypt
They saw God divide the Red Sea as they walked through it
unharmed
They watched as God completely defeated their enemies
But they became hard and murmured in the wilderness
Look at the action of God as it relates to His people
Ø He does not say that it is enough to have faith to leave Egypt
Ø He does not say that it is enough to walk through the Red Sea

22. The people started to function based on presumed grace or you
could say Exodus mercies and the result was a hard heart
If we today ignore God, and His word, stop depending and relying
on Christ as Lord and Savior then the same result will occur in our
lives, hearts will harden and there will be no entering the
promised land
Do not treat the grace of God with contempt or ever act in a way
that presumes upon it.
Don’t presume that it is enough to get out of Egypt, or just to walk
through the Red Sea

23. How many “professing Christians” heard a message in which:
Ø Their sins could be forgiven
Ø They could stop having to feel guilt for all their past behaviors
Ø There would be eternal life of glorious living forever and ever
Ø There would be an escape from hell
Ø And God would now be 100% on my side and not mad at me
anymore
Sounds like a deal and I am going to sign up even though there is
no love for God or desire to be with Him
1 year, 5 years and 10 years later the life of this person looks no
different then when they professed faith in Christ. However they
are content to point to a time and place when they were saved.

24. So how does the enemy start to work on us when we hear these
truths. He starts to say, you better start reading your Bible,
praying, giving and serving. And we say that is right I need to fix
my behaviors.
But this text is all about the heart or you could say about a belief
issue that the Israelites had in not trusting or not continue to trust
in the goodness of God
A person makes a “profession of faith” and then they discover
there is NO WATER IN THE WILDERNESS“
Go to Habakkuk 3:17-19 - even though the fig tree is gone and no
grapes on the vine we will still trust in God

25. Go to Num. 11:5 “We remember the fish which we used to eat free
in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the
onions and the garlic,
Num. 11:6 but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to
look at except this manna.”
If you could just go back to the world and the way things used to be
instead of:
Discipleship
Bible
Church
Worship
Giving
Serving
All this manna!

26. Exhortation
If you have been a “professing believer” and you are just holding on by your fingertips
then I refer you to
Heb. 2:1 ¶ For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so
that we do not drift away from it.
DON’T HARDEN YOUR HEART
A person with years of “luke warm” behavior in
Prayer life
Bible reading and study
Serving
Discipleship
Giving
and no sweet fellowship with God
Then I am praying for you this weekend that the Spirit of God would breakthrough in
such a powerful way that there would be a joy that hits you like never before in your life.
And for those who are walking with the Lord I pray this will be like gasoline on a fire in
which your fire will burn so much brightness and intensity that it will catch others on fire
for the Lord Jesus.