AMEN 2008: Linked for Service

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

AMEN 2008 Plenary Sessions

Naren James

Playing it Safe or Accepting the Adventure

Eternal God and Father in Heaven, you know how much I've been wrestling with this message to present here at Our Amen Conference.

And yet in the point when I feel least able is when I know that you're most able to work through me this evening.

And so I invite your presence and I ask for your spirit to flow through and that your words will be spoken And that each heart will receive individual the messages intended for each soul Thank you for hearing and answering us today in Jesus name.

That's our theme this year and our message if you have your Bibles I'd like you to turn with me to Luke chapter 18 a Passage that you may have read many times when 1 of those that you may probably not like to dwell on too much But tonight we are going to dwell on it Luke chapter 18 verse 18 to 23, a very short passage but full of lessons for all of us.

A ruler questioned him saying, good teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not be a false witness.

And he said, all these things I have kept from my youth.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, 1 thing you still lack, sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.

But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

And this is obviously an important account in the scriptures because 3 out of 4 gospel writers, Matthew also records it in Matthew 19, 16 to 29, and so does Mark in Mark 10 17 to 30.

So 3 of the gospel writers felt it was important enough to repeat this account that was observed.

Well we have several accounts of Jesus calling disciples and with prompt obedience of that.

1 of the earliest accounts is Matthew 4, 19 when Jesus called the first disciple Simon Peter and Andrew his brother.

The Bible says they left their nets and followed him.

In Matthew 9 verse 9, we read the account of the call to Matthew the tax collector in his tax office who promptly left it and followed Jesus.

And in John 1 49, we find the account of Jesus going to Galilee where he found Philip and once again he extended an invitation, follow me and Philip did.

The Gospel commission in Matthew 28 19-20 is a command to all of us to extend that invitation to the world to follow Jesus and become his disciples.

So the call to the richer and ruler was not not the first it was not unique in that sense.

It had been extended many times before And in all of the other accounts, it had been accepted.

The unique aspect of this call is it was initiated by the individual, rather than by Jesus.

As noted in previous accounts, this man sought Jesus on his own, which puts more of an obligation upon him to take the call seriously.

The rich young ruler represents many of us who think we have it all, only to come in contact with a savior and being asked the impossible, in bracket, with man.

Without a complete surrender to the master we are all incomplete, missing something.

He had everything as far as the world was concerned but he still felt empty, lacking the most important, a total surrender to the Master.

See, Richon Rulo represents the spiritual condition of many in the world today, outside the church, and sadly to say, also within.

So as I present this message today, I consider it applicable to myself first, then to you, my colleagues, and only then to the world around us.

And I'll tell the story this past, when I was first asked by the programming committee to present a message, this immediately came to my mind, as my Fagas message was prepared months ago and I've been just working on it ever since and wrestling with it because I have thought first of all the Lord had a message, has a message for me personally first.

Well Every day you and I meet people in our daily lives and also in the news and popular culture reminds us the many rich young rulers out there.

People who would seem to have it all but are still lacking the most important, the all-important relationship with God.

It seems like almost every day in the news you hear of a celebrity or someone who you thought should be at the pinnacle of his or her life, maybe someone where you would like to be and then later you hear you read or hear of their brokenness whether it be with drugs or alcohol or illicit sex, a broken relationship and the church and we within are not exempt.

And occasionally this also surfaced in our church.

The other aspect of this account that I find intriguing is that this gentleman was a commandment-keeping Adventist.

He was quick to pint to the Savior that all of the commandments he had kept from his youth.

And since he was still young, could it be that he was born into the truth?

So in many ways, this account in the scripture speaks to each 1 of us very directly.

Well, so who was this rich young ruler and is a call to him relevant to us?

Well, the Spirit of Prophecy in the book Desire of Ages, this entire chapter, chapter 57, kind of deals with it and it mentions a few things.

1 of them is that he was materially well off.

He occupied a position of influence and leadership.

He had great promise ahead of him for promotion and a life of greater security and influence.

He was impressed with the way Jesus blessed the children and he wanted the same.

If you read the account you'll find that this followed right after Jesus blessed the children and he was impressed with that and he wanted the same but that was as far as he thought.

Well it's similar with many of us today who want the gifts but would rather disregard the giver.

And sadly, the most wonderful of all, a relationship of intimacy with God himself.

And so I ask All of us, how about us as a group in amen?

In many ways, we have to identify as rich or unruly.

Many of us are within the top 5% of the US income bracket.

We are in the highest rated profession in terms of respect and prestige.

We have substantial influence with our patients and within our church and community.

We are also keeping commandments and seeking eternal life.

Yes, like the rich young ruler, many of us have embarked on this journey in medical evangelism because we still feel something lacking.

Well, in Luke 1820, Jesus, in response to his inquiry, reiterated the last 6 commandments, outlining our responsibility to our fellow man.

Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, and the response in Matthew 19-20 is very insightful.

The young man said to him, all these things I have kept from my youth, what do I still lack?

Now this is amazing, you would think that he would go on his way rejoicing.

After all, Jesus reiterated commandments need to be kept and he forthrightly said, hey I've kept all of these for my youth.

But as the text brings out the crux of the spiritual discussion, all of us need to be engaged in.

You see we are all incomplete without that right relationship with the Master.

Today imagine that he is passing by and you are engaged in that serious spiritual discussion with the great physician.

Well, Jesus reaffirmed the never-changing requirements for salvation, absolute obedience to these commandments.

Jesus could have congratulated him and encouraged him, but he did not.

In Luke 18, 22, it says, so when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, you still lack 1 thing, sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.

Now, I would use the term bombshell, deal breaker.

This would be the kind of terms that would be used in the secular world out there in terms of a proposal that is not gonna go anywhere.

This would be tough for any 1 of us, much less a rich young ruler.

From riches to rags, from leadership and influence to being despised, from a bright promising future to the bleak dark path the words of the cross.

Is Jesus asking the same that he asked, is he asking the same from us as he asked for the rich young ruler?

Surrender of material possessions, surrender of anything or anyone that stands in a way of a complete surrender to the master, indeed surrender of life itself.

This represents the essence of eternal life, connected to the eternal 1.

The current state of Christianity in our nation and the world around us is very similar to the mindset of a rich young ruler.

We live in an age where people seek out a gospel that is suited to their material desire.

The new term indeed is the prosperity gospel.

And the essence of it is that God wants you to have it all and to have it now when you're entitled to it.

Even the names of some of these proponents reflect this.

1 proponent is a certain preacher by the name, you guessed it, Reverend Dollar.

Recently a US Senate investigation was launched into looking at a lot of these modern day ministries and uncovered some very shameless abuses of ministerial privileges.

Indeed even some of the best-seller like New York Times bestseller, Prayer Jehovah, is a number 1 bestseller for a long time.

1 of our famous preachers in the evangelical world, there is a gentleman by the name of Joel Olsteen, pastor of 1 of the largest Christian congregations reaching over 200 million households in the U.S.

And in many of these cases, it's not necessarily theologically wrong, it's just a matter of the emphasis.

So even in the church, that potential exists for us to want to have a greater influence or a wider ministry, but for the wrong reasons and needing the same call as the rich young ruler.

Well, his desire of ages in page 520 states, his claim that he had kept the law of God was a deception.

He could not keep the commandments of God while the world was first in his affections.

He loved the gifts of God more than he loved the giver.

Allen Lloyd

Knowing and Following the Lord’s Will

The ultimate authority in the universe, I won't go into a lot of detail, we could preach a whole message just on this, but the ultimate authority in the universe is actually truth.

It's 1 of the reasons why the Trinity continues to get along.

Many times we think that how can 2 people get along all the time?

Because those of us in marriage relationships recognize there are times when there may be some disunity here and there.

But whenever there's a third, it's always disunity.

But it seems, but it doesn't need to be that way if the Trinity is not based on an authority figure that just sets the rules and then everyone else follows.

The reason why the Trinity gets along is because they make their decisions totally based on truth.

And they come together and say, what is the truth?

And that's how we're supposed to be making our decisions.

When we get into a court of law, even in this nation, the reason why our court system is as good as it is, is because that decision is to be based solely and completely on truth.

Not on who we want to come out on top, who we want to win, what our emotional desires are, who we might have affections are, but it is to be based on truth.

And that's why witnesses are called to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

However, there can be corruption even in the court system when truth is tampered with or deceptions come in.

And in the courtroom it's particularly worrisome when the people asking you the questions have not taken the same oath that the witnesses have.

And so in the questions sometimes there can be the element of deception that comes in.

But truth is to be the ultimate authority and whenever we're making decisions there are opportunities for deceptions to come in.

Jesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life and the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth and that's how he actually comforts our emotions.

New Testament and Old Testament both state that there's something God cannot do and that is tell a lie.

Now he's a free moral agent just like we are.

He could if he wanted to but he puts truth above himself.

That's 1 of the reasons, 1 of the foundational reasons for truth being the ultimate authority.

And it's also the reason why Christ came to this world when the crown of thorns was upon him.

And he was there in front of the individual that had the power over his life or death.

And that individual was asking him why he was there.

He said, to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.

Everyone that is of the truth, heareth my voice.

And that's the ultimate reason why he came.

That turns out to be the fourth cognitive distortion.

And so we want to be sure that we're not distorting truth.

And 1 of the things, 1 of the ways in which we, It affects our motivation more so than any other is when we start disqualifying the positive.

And there are ways in which this can be done in the mental health arena.

But it does result in lack of motivation.

And it's kind of interesting, we're having seminars here to try to help us see the motivation to do certain things and the motivation particularly to win souls, et cetera.

But it's kind of, Last Monday, we finished a peak mental performance program in Ardmore, Oklahoma, among those that had come in from afar.

And then that Monday night, we finished the banquet for an outpatient depression recovery program that we were doing there in Ardmore.

And 1 of the participants that was coming was a pastor from another district.

In fact, we have out of that group of 22 individuals, 15 and it's growing, are going to be coming to a Bible study that we're holding Monday night at our house on Daniel.

And so many of these individuals who weren't even interested in spiritual things are awakened from that.

In fact, it's kind of interesting to see the transition that's taken place there.

But in disqualifying the positive, it sounds rewarding, but I know there are so many struggles accompanying those who try to put on a depression recovery program that'll be absolutely overwhelmed.

And so he could see the positive results, but yet thought he would be overwhelmed.

And in regards to that, as I talked to him, I realized that many of his thoughts of being overwhelmed were totally based on things that just weren't true and were distorted.

And once he realized the truth, then all of a sudden the motivation came in and he was not as tempted to disqualify the positive.

Saul disqualified the positive repeatedly in regards to David.

There are many scriptural examples of those who disqualified the positive, but here are some of the solutions to it.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

So building on the cause, for those of you who are here this morning, the cause should be a very motivating cause, but when we take our eyes off the goal then the obstacles seem much bigger.

Henry Ford says, think you can, think you can't.

Thomas Fuller said, he does not believe who does not live according to his belief.

If we truly believe, we won't disqualify the positive.

Anne Frank says, I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.

Lee Salk, when it gets dark enough, you can see the stars.

David Schwartz, we can turn setbacks into victories.

Find the lesson, apply it, and move on, then look back on defeat and smile.

Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then we shall find the way.

So if we are truly determined that the cause should go forward, then we won't disqualify the positive.

We wanna be optimistic, but not just optimistic.

Confidence means knowing how to handle the worst.

And the axiom says never make a move if you're merely optimistic.

And so we need to always weigh benefits versus risks as well just like we do in medicine in many ways.

Another obstacle to making the right decision is another cognitive distortion called jumping to conclusions.

It's actually the type of exercise that most Americans get.

And it's not physical exercise, it's a mental exercise.

But often there is a desire that's there to just take things at their face value and what we can see very obviously and not look deeper.

And thus we can make the wrong decisions.

Jumping to conclusions is easier than gathering all the facts.

And 1 author stated, Stephen Wright, a conclusion is what you come to when you are tired of thinking about something.

Another distortion, fortune teller error.

This is where we often presume that if we do this, then that will happen.

How good are human beings at telling the future?

Even those who are paid lots of money to tell the future are very poor.

Did you realize out of the 1, 500 mutual funds, Only 1 of them has made money this past year.

And these are 1, 500 people that were trained at Harvard and Yale and some of our most prestigious business centers and are in the charge of billions of dollars.

The 1 individual that made money, he had a very small fund.

And everyone ridiculed him at how he was doing his mutual fund because in 2006 he got rid of every bank stock, he got rid of every financial, anything that had to do with finances.

And you know, after 2006, those things started to go up and he was deeply ridiculed by the majority of the experts out there.

This year, he's made, his mutual fund is made 11%.

And so it is, when we do what is right because it is right and leave the consequences to God, often what is predicted by the many experts out there that will happen doesn't happen and the opposite can occur.

Can't move to Weimar, won't be able to fund my kids' education, we'll lose our family's health insurance.

Another fortune teller error, I will never be able to overcome this problem.

Many people have this and thus it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And Abraham had the fortune teller error.

What was his fortune teller error, do you remember?

He thought that If the king of Egypt knew the full truth, that he would be killed.

Roger Miller

Lift Up Your Eyes

If you have a Bible, turn in your Bible to John chapter 4.

And before we get into the word, I'd like to have a word of prayer.

God in heaven, we pray that this evening as we look at some of these words and share some experiences that the Holy Spirit will be here to speak your thoughts and to impress how witnessing should be a part of our everyday life.

John chapter 4, we're not going to do a Bible study, so to speak, on John chapter 4.

I want to share some experiences with you, but I want to look at some verses in John chapter 4.

Basically, it's the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well.

Everybody pretty much knows that story, right?

We hear all kinds of sermons and books written about it.

It's about the thirsty world seeking something that only God can give.

But in John chapter 4 verse 3, I'm going to read a couple of verses, and talking about Jesus, He left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but He needed to go through Samaria.

So we have Jesus and His disciples, they're on a mission, they're moving from Judea to Galilee, going through Samaria.

And as you know, Jesus, as he comes to the well, he's thirsty, he's hungry.

The disciples go away to get some food and he's sitting there by himself with a lady from the city actually, a Samaritan woman, and she's drawing water, and he gets into a conversation with her, and ends up telling her in verse 13, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life.

Incredible, 2 verses of incredible information for this woman saying, hey, you don't have to come to this well to try to find something to satisfy your thirst.

And He's speaking in a spiritual level about the thirst of her soul and offering to her the water of life.

And as the conversation unfolds, Jesus reveals that he knows about her life.

And she's impressed by that, is informed that he is actually the Messiah, goes back to the city and we have the disciples coming back onto the scene.

And as the disciples come back onto the scene, they've collected some food for Jesus and themselves.

They have work to do, work for the Lord to do.

And Jesus is sitting there when they come back and He's not that interested in the food.

And He says, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.

My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work." Now this is the key verse that I find in my life as applicable to my daily existence as a person and a physician and as a Christian.

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Playing it Safe or Accepting the Adventure

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