Pastor Mark Finley shares the amazing work that God is doing in the places that have been hardest to reach – from Communist China to the Middle East.

Hartland Spring Convocation 2016: Message... Movement!

<p>Pastor Mark Finley shares the amazing work that God is doing in the places that have been hardest to reach – from Communist China to the Middle East.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Mark Finley

Finishing of the Work?

Pastor Cody is part of our Living Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And so we are thanking God for the influence of Heartland.

We have Norbert Ostrepo, who is with us as well in our church.

We believe that the heart of men and women today longs for messages from scripture.

And as we open the word of God and share what Jesus is doing through his word, and as we are faithful to the writings of Ellen White, a modern day prophet that has guided our church, that God blesses Adventist churches that are faithful and we see our church rapidly growing because people all over are hungry for God's word.

Let's bow our heads for a moment and pray and then I want to share some things with you.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the way that you have blessed the young people here at Heartland and the faculty.

We're thankful for their faithfulness to you and to your word and to Christ and his mission.

Now Lord, we pray that you'd gather in the wanderings of our mind.

We've had a full day, but grant to us the clarity of thought, and may we, in this next few moments, have a sense of your divine presence, in Christ's name, amen.

Seventh-day Adventists have coined a phrase called the finishing of the work.

Has anybody ever said to you, when is the work of God on earth gonna be finished?

But any objective viewpoint of the finishing of the work has to come to the conclusion that the work has not only not finished, but it's barely begun.

Now you say, how can you make that statement when we have 18 million Seventh-day Adventists around the world, when about 3, 000 people every day are being baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and when we have a million people baptized every year, when we are 1 of the fastest growing Christian denominations.

How could you say that in a sense we're barely begun?

Well, let's look at some statistics around the world.

There are about 7 billion people living in the world.

There are 2.2 billion Muslims in the world, many who have very little opportunity to even hear the name of Jesus.

Then you have 900 million Hindus in the world.

You have whole countries where the preaching of the gospel is outlawed, you're unable to preach.

You have a billion, 1 billion, 300, 000 people in China, and at best, a fraction are Christians, at best.

There are 1.2 billion atheists and agnostics in the world.

1.2 billion people in the world are atheists and agnostics.

So the question is, how can we possibly expect the work of God on Earth to be finished in this generation when Seventh Day Adventists have 18 million members and we are less than 1% of the entire Christian population in the world and an infinitesimal percent of the world population.

How could you ever expect the work of God on Earth to be finished?

The answer to that question is very simple.

If you have your Bibles, and I know you do if you are here at Heartland this Sabbath afternoon, you would not have come without your Bible.

Habakkuk chapter 1, you may find it on your tablet, your iPhone, you're not gonna be texting here, you're gonna be looking at the text.

Habakkuk chapter 1, 3 promises that Seventh-day Adventists cling to.

3 promises from the word of God that indicate to us that the return of Jesus is a reality in our generation.

The prophet is taken off in prophetic vision.

And as the prophet is taken off in prophetic vision.

And as the prophet is taken off in prophetic vision, the scripture says, Habakkuk 1, verse 5, look among the nations and watch.

Be utterly astounded, for I will work a work in your day that you would not believe though it were told you.

The prophet Habakkuk, seeing our day, says, look among the nations, be utterly astounded.

For I will work a work in your days that you would not believe though it were told you.

God is gonna do some miraculous things far beyond what we could imagine.

Promise number 1, we believe in a God that is greater than all of the obstacles that hell can put in his way.

We believe that where sin doth abound, grace doth more abound.

We believe that the promises of God speak of a God whose plan triumphs in the last days of verse history.

Promise number 2 is 1 that you may not be familiar with.

It's found in Romans the ninth chapter, Romans chapter 9.

This is a prediction that where today we see only barrenness, where today we see very little progress of the gospel in God's last day message, where today we see very little seed coming to fruition.

This is a promise that says that where there were no people of God, there'll be nations that'll be filled with the people of God.

You find it in Romans chapter 9, and here Paul is quoting an Old Testament prophet, And he says, Romans 9.25, he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people who are not my people.

I will lead them to Jesus, lead them to his last day message who are not my people.

And her beloved who is not beloved, and it shall come to pass.

It's highly likely that it'll come to pass.

There's a possibility it'll come to pass.

The text says, and it shall come to pass.

In the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, there they will be called the sons of the living God.

Where they were not God's people, there'll be a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit, God will draw people through visions and dreams, he'll reveal himself to them in miraculous ways, and where they were not called my people, they will be called the people of God.

First promise, Habakkuk, what's that first promise?

B5, be astonished to look among the nations, for I'll do a work in your days that you would not believe though it were told you.

Promise number 2, where they were not called my people.

Romans 9, verse 24 and 25, where they were called not my people, they'll be called the people of God.

Romans chapter, rather Revelation chapter 18, you know it well, verse 1.

And after these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority.

King James Version says, having great power.

And the earth was illuminated with his glory.

Will he work a work in our day that we would not believe that were told us?

Will there be whole nations that'll come to him and there was no people, there are now the people of God.

Will the earth indeed be lightened with the glory of God?

I wanna share with you a few stories of what God is doing in the miraculous work of God around the world.

This last summer in San Antonio, Texas, we had the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Were any of you there with us at the GC session?

God moved in special ways, but for the first time in history, we invited representatives of the former, of the current communist country of China.

And we had 60 representatives from China.

When we, and incidentally I'll tell you how they came, ASI raised the money.

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Finishing of the Work?

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