The world has changed in many ways since the Adventist church sent out its first missionaries. We know the stories of the past, but what is effective today? How can we reach out in ways that work? Come learn what God is doing around the world and what you can do to be a part of it. 

Wildwood 75th Anniversary Celebration

<p>The world has changed in many ways since the Adventist church sent out its first missionaries. We know the stories of the past, but what is effective today? How can we reach out in ways that work? Come learn what God is doing around the world and what you can do to be a part of it. </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>

Wildwood Lifestyle Center

Evangelism

James Hartley

Missions In the 21st Century- Part 1

Our Father Lord, we're so grateful for your blessings this morning, and we're thankful that you have blessed this institution of Wildwood for many years.

And we can look back and see all what your hands have done through your people and through the power of your Spirit.

And I'm so grateful you led me into this message right at the turn of the century, coming out of a worldly life and upbringing in Roman Catholicism.

Thank you, Lord, for bringing me into the light and to just have the privilege and the opportunity to be involved in your work.

I just want to pray that you would bless my words, pray that you would guide what is said, and that your words, your counsels would be inspiring us, motivating us, and as I share stories of missions and opportunities, we pray for an inspiration.

What is our mission as Seventh-day Adventists?

We have a message from the first angel to preach the everlasting gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

Now, I want to ask a question that's not often asked, is how long did God expect this mission to take?

How long did God expect that mission to take to spread the gospel to the whole world?

There was a few years there where I read through all of the 9 volumes from 1 to 9.

It took me about 3 years because I get distracted kind of easily.

But I got through them and I was watching when The earliest statements were where Ellen White said that Jesus could have already come.

The earliest 1 that I found was written in 1868.

I don't know if anyone has found 1 earlier than that.

It was published in the second volume of the testimonies, page 194, where she says, "'The long night of gloom is trying, "'but the morning is deferred in mercy, "'because if the master should come, "'so many would be found, ' what everyone?

"'God's unwillingness to have his people perish has been the reason for so long of a delay.

When I read that part, so long of a day, it really knocked me off my chair because I thought 1868 so long of a delay?

Okay this is do you all know when the the Seventh-day Adventist Church organized?

Okay 1863 so we're talking 5 years that the church has been organized.

And here, Ellenwein is already saying, really, this is being delayed so long because God's people are not ready yet, and the world is not ready for the second coming.

And by the way, this would be 24 years after the Great Disappointment.

And this small group of about 50 people were gathering together, and the movement gained steam.

But already in the first volume of the Testimonies, in the 1850s, the Adventist church got the message that they were the loudest seeing church.

And I say Adventist church, but they really weren't officially organized with that name until 1863, the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

We needed to be organized because I think God saw that if we don't get organized, the whole movement could get extinguished.

But by looking at the statement, it appears that he wanted to finish the work for sure before the year 1868, and maybe many years before 1868, because she says, there has been so long of a delay.

So it makes me also wonder, I wonder if God's plan A was ever for there to be an organized Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And I'm not speaking against that idea because obviously he gave the councils to organize, But I wonder if it was plan B, because the early Adventist believers, they didn't accomplish the work that God had designed for them.

So we had to go to plan B, which was to organize ourselves for our world missions, otherwise the whole thing was going to fall apart.

I don't think that's so long of a delay, it was just the 5 years probably.

But we see that the reasons were that the church had to organize was beginning.

Otherwise, the devil would more easily get access to us and be able to be divisive.

There needs to be unity and there needs to be structure and organization, but it appears that his first plan would be that the early believers would go with power and zeal with the Holy Spirit and spread this message to the whole world in a short time.

That it would be moving so rapidly and so fast from country to country that there would be no time to organize.

And the work would actually get finished and Christ would come.

All right, so we're just talking about the work He has given to us and the realization that we as Seventh-day Adventists have not accomplished the mission that we have been given from early on.

There's 1 other statement I wanted to bring out from right at the turn of the, into the 20th century.

This is in 1900, recorded in volume 6 of the Testimonies.

She wrote, in giving to the world the message of mercy, Christ would, ere this, have come to the earth, and the saints would have received their welcome into the city of God." So here we see now, some 30 plus years later, 32 years later, she's saying that we as an organized body now, we have, now we had been officially organized for 30 plus years, but still we're not accomplishing our mission, because the purpose of God is not, if it had been carried out, Jesus would have already come.

Now interestingly, if the early Seventh-day Adventists had accomplished their work, think of that scenario.

There would have never been a World War I.

There would have never been a World War II, and many other wars of the 20th century, those wars and the condition of the world today, we at Seventh-day Adventists have responsibility in that.

But on the positive side, If they had accomplished their work and Jesus did come, then you and I would never have had a chance to be born and be a part of God's kingdom.

So that reminds me of Romans 8, 28, that all things work together for good, right?

So even though there was a failure on 1 side, it's a blessing for you and me because we can have a chance to know Jesus and be a part of God's kingdom.

But we should not delay, we should not continue to neglect the work of God.

I've never read anywhere where we are actually to delay so that more people can be born, so that more people can go to heaven.

It's just that the longer this world goes on, the longer the sorrow, the longer the misery and sickness and disease.

And really, Christ wants to wrap up the work.

He wants us to finish our mission, but not at the cost of the lives of his people.

He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

And that quote from 2 Peter is very much in reference to God's church.

Of course, it's the world too, but His church has not been ready.

The reason why He has not come yet is because we have not finished the work and there's kind of 2 sides to it.

Number 1, we are not personally ready, we saw that, and number 2, we have not finished the work of missions that has been given to us.

So there's, you see both of those reasons for the delay in his coming.

Peter talks about that Christ is not willing that any should perish.

That leads us to see that his delay is out of mercy for us as a people.

If you look at Matthew 24, 14, and this gospel shall be preached in all the world, and then the end shall come.

Well, that's another reason why maybe the end hasn't come, because the gospel hasn't been preached to all the world.

Also along the reason of the unreadiness of God's people, we see it in Revelation chapter 7, where the angels are holding the 4 winds upon the earth, and they're ready to release it, to bring the judgments of God upon the earth.

But this fifth angel comes out of the east crying out, hold, and pleading with those angels to continue holding the forewinds until the servants are sealed in their foreheads.

It means the servants have not been sealed yet, they're not ready yet, so delay, right, hold back.

We have been given, I don't think God ever had a plan that we were going to have a lecture on the 21st century missions.

He didn't seem like he even had a plan for the 20th century missions.

This work was supposed to be finished in the 1800s, but here we are today.

We have the same mission and we have the same challenge before us.

Maybe we have more challenges because of the delay that has gone on, But we need to be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the early Adventists.

That's something I want to point out before we get into some practical testimonies of missions today.

This statement from the year 1901 recorded in evangelism, page 697, reads, that we may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years.

Just the fact that we're having a talk on 21st century missions, says we have.

So we are here, and we may even today we could say also have to be here many more years because of 1 word, insubordination, as did the children of Israel.

But for Christ's sake, his people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action.

It's not, it's not, We're not waiting on God, He's waiting on us.

A lot of people have that mindset, well why is He waiting so long?

I mean, some people even think, you know, the investigative judgment, he's reviewing every thought, word, and action of every human from Adam on down.

Humanly speaking, you think, well, I guess that might take a long time.

Missions In the 21st Century- Part 2

Father, thank you for this day and this reunion and celebration of 75 years here at Wildwood.

I'm grateful to see how your hand has led us in the past, and we're talking about how your plan for the future and advancing this work and finishing the mission of the church in this generation.

Using the right arm of the gospel and following the blueprint you've given to us, following our commander.

Help us Lord to be unreservedly committed to following your will wherever you lead us and inspire us by the different testimonies we'll hear now.

And we just pray that you would help us to find our place in your work.

We pray for those missionaries that are in the field now overseas.

And we also pray that you help us to be revived in our local missions, reaching communities close by.

Help us Lord and we just pray for your blessing and your inspiration now in Jesus name, Amen.

Okay I want to introduce you folks to the Batista family.

This is an example of a family that were working in a, thank you, Working in Southern California in Loma Linda, working good jobs, they had a nice house, 2 kids, 2 young boys, and they just felt like their life was too easy, and they felt like they weren't doing enough for God's work.

So They left their jobs, they sold their house, they moved to Wildwood and they spent 2 years here training.

Then we called them to the mission field.

Their heritage is, Elaine's heritage is Filipino and Irene's is Indonesian, though they were born and raised in Southern California.

They felt called to go back to those countries and work.

So they moved to the Philippines in 2008.

And working with Light Ministry, Light is, for those that are listening, the Lay Institute for Global Health Training.

The headquarters is right here next to Wildwood Lifestyle, Wildwood's Lifestyle Center.

And we are supporting over 50 missionaries around the world that are setting up lay mission schools like this.

Here's a picture of Irene and Elaine and the boys when they're a little bit younger.

In 2008 we started a low mission school, very simple structure, okay, with open air, air conditioning and just a nice roof and a platform, and we started up a mission school, we had Actually the first course that we conducted there, we only had 6 students.

And some people wondered, should we continue?

And so we prayed and we said, well, it's the beginning.

If we do a good job with these 6, it'll grow.

The very next semester we had full capacity, over 30 students came.

They've run over 10, I think they're on their 10th or 12th batch, they call them, of students that have graduated.

And these students here are missionaries all throughout not only the Philippines, but Southeast Asia.

We have Filipino missionaries that we've trained that have gone to Indonesia, that have gone to Cambodia, have gone to Thailand.

Filipinos have been very useful and helpful because they know English well.

And so with English they can get around and they can help with a lot of different mission projects.

He was our light director in the Philippines for several years, and then he went to work in Thailand He's been in Thailand for the last 2 years training pastors with In the health message and also lay people you know The right arm of the gospel is so important to be foolish not to use it Sometimes we try to do evangelism with our right arm tied behind our back.

But the right arm is the right helping hand.

It is the gospel and illustration, right?

It is vital for the advancement of our message.

And especially you're working in Thailand with Buddhists, you're working in Indonesia with Muslims, we have to use health as an entering wedge.

And it's been so successful and it has grown very quickly.

This is just a couple pictures of our project there.

Pineapples, bananas, all kinds of fruit trees.

We have a little bakery there and we're building a lifestyle center.

This is up in northern Luzon in the Philippines.

It was started really by, the institution was started by Wildwood and Light came in and helped establish a school there.

This is another family also living in Southern California in an Adventist, this is not something I took time on in the first lecture, but we're not called to all live in Adventist cities and congregate and make big churches and everything.

We're supposed to spread ourselves like the salt of the earth.

And so this family as well felt like, you know, the life in Loma Linda in Southern California was just, they weren't growing spiritually, they didn't feel as involved as they could be.

So they left, they came to Wildwood, were trained as well, they had 2 young daughters instead of sons, just like the Batistas.

And so they moved to Indonesia and our challenge there and the experiences that we've been gaining that I want to share about is in using the health message for the Muslim world.

You know, there are more Muslims that live in Indonesia than anywhere else in the world, than in any other country.

It's the highest Muslim population of any country in the world, okay?

And so this school is designed to train lay people how to evangelize Muslims using the right arm of the Gospel.

And so we have used similar methods to what we that we use here.

We're just using health as their entering wedge.

So it's not theologically that's not complicated.

A product there is called the Healing Way.

We've we've we've we've run dozens of health expositions, getting all different kinds of Muslim, primarily Muslim women that have attended our expos.

They've gotten to know Christians on a different level.

Because you know, most Muslims, they think of the Christian world as very liberal and kind of apostates, you know, pork eating, smoking, drinking, cursing, you know, they don't have a good picture of it.

But when they meet our people and They see that they don't drink.

They take care of their health and of a higher maybe spiritual tone there's an impression that's really made and they and it's an amazement to them like oh I didn't know there's Christians like that and so the mind starts opening up but It's really the health message that kind of breaks that down.

You can just sit with a Muslim and talk about health for a while, the laws of health.

Well, we travel around the world, and we help people learn to eat better, not eating pork, for example.

I was like, you know what, that's something that you're really doing right.

But even all red meats, and meat in general is not a necessary, and even it's most healthy to just eat a vegetarian diet.

And just talking with them and chatting and making friends.

Talk about health, it's the entering wedge of the gospel.

It's an entering wedge to meet someone because gospel work and soul winning work is all about making friendships and connections with people.

Because they want to, Christ's method alone will give true success to the work.

He, he got, he, he gained their confidence first, gained their friendship and the confidence, and then he bade them to follow him.

So there's a process there and using the right arm to getting that friendship and the confidence to where they're like, you know what, this person kind of seems to have some balance in his life, seems to make sense about health, seems to really have something of value that I'm interested in, and then the ears are now suddenly more interested.

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Series

Evangelism

Missions In the 21st Century- Part 2

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Parts

Missions In the 21st Century- Part 1

1h

Missions In the 21st Century- Part 2

41m

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