Michigan Camp Meeting 2016: The Harvest is Great

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Personal Encounters with Jesus

Doug Batchelor

1. A Cold Confession

Now what I'm sharing with you tonight is going to be a little different for 1 thing it might be different from what was advertised it doesn't mean everything this week is but I just felt impressed to open up and share with you a little bit something a sermon something new called cold confession And I am going to make a long confession in my message tonight.

You might wonder, where in the world is he going with all of this?

I'm just going to ask you to trust me and stick around.

But what I'm going to tell you is a true odyssey, a personal odyssey that I'm hoping God will help you know how to apply to your own life.

But to Pastor Doug, that many of you love and respect, I'm telling you that I was an addict for 30 years.

And I'm not talking about drugs, not directly anyway.

I'm not talking about alcohol, cigarettes.

And I say it a little bit tongue in cheek, but I'm really serious.

Now, I need to make it clear right at the beginning.

I am not suggesting, I hope you're all hearing this part.

Someone's gonna tune in halfway through this broadcast and think we're really weird.

But I'm not suggesting that ice cream is a sin.

And some things that might be okay for you might not be okay for somebody else.

I don't know exactly how it started, but 1 of my earliest memories, when I was in Southern California, a place called Tujunga.

Actually lived with my grandmother and it was all country back then.

They had goats and chickens and now it's Universal Studios around there in Southern California.

They used to have this music you would hear coming from up the street And it was called the Good Humor Man.

And he had this little white truck and he would wear a white uniform and he had a little chain jingler thing on his side for the kids.

And he would take his little truck, it had several compartment refrigerated doors in it.

I don't think it was really refrigerated.

I remember once he pulled out the dry ice and I saw it steaming.

I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

I made the mistake once of putting my tongue on it.

I don't need to tell you what happened, but you already know.

But that was, to me, it was, you know, it was almost like the second coming when you'd hear that music.

Because in Southern California in the summertime, it gets very hot, and not everyone had air conditioning back then.

And we would hear that music and all the kids in the neighborhood would cluster at a few kind of predetermined spots where the truck would stop.

And I'd go with my brother, we'd go running and we would beg grandma for some change.

You know, it was like somewhere between 5 and 25 cents, depending on what you got.

Sometimes you'd get a good humor man that wasn't very humorous.

And he'd see this swarm of kids that would all huddle around and he'd listen to them scream out their orders.

And I remember some of my favorites where they had, my favorite was a vanilla ice cream on a stick that was dipped somehow in orange juice so it had like an orange juice coating.

And then they had what they called a rainbow rocket.

It was a double popsicle that had all different colors, probably all kinds of food coloring and chemicals in there, but it was really good.

And they'd break it, you could break it in half and give 1 half to a friend if you want.

It was just all rainbow, all these different colors.

And then they had the cones, you know, and it was just, it was the highlight of our day.

But Grandma said, I lived with my Jewish grandma, parents had gone through a divorce then, my brother and I lived with Grandma, and Grandma said, it's a treat.

I can't give you money for the good humor man every day.

And I'm thinking this may be where my life of crime began.

Because to see all the other kids run out to the truck and it stopped right in front of our house and not be able to get something when the dealer came through town was so devastating that I remember my grandmother, she hung her black purse on the doorknob in her bedroom.

And I heard the music and I said, Grandma, Grandma, and she said, No, not every day, it's a treat.

It's not good for you to eat ice cream every day.

But I remember I dug around in her purse 1 day and inside her purse she had another little purse, you know, the little change purse.

And it was back then, I was like 4 or 5 years old, but I still vividly remember struggling to take that little twisty snap and open it up and dig out some change.

And I remember I did it a couple of times, and then 1 day she said, she saw me eating ice cream, she said, where'd you get that?

I don't remember what I told her, but somehow she drilled down, found out that I had taken some change out of her purse.

And boy, I tell you, my grandma was tough.

Yeah, I remember 1 time I stuck my tongue out at her.

And she said, you look so adorable when you do that.

And I stuck out my tongue and she quickly slapped me on the bottom of my chin and made me bite my tongue.

Now today she'd be arrested for that, but back then, how many of you remember?

Some of you, any of you have grandparents or parents like that?

They just wouldn't tolerate sassiness at all.

But she's resting in peace now, so I can tell on her.

And I remember she taught me a lesson about stealing.

Once she tells me, I don't remember this, she said, somehow I stole a bow and arrow from Woolworth's and she still doesn't know how I got it in my pants and got out the door.

But she tried, She took me once to the police station.

And she wanted the policeman to talk some fear into me about stealing.

And he said, you'll be in jail and you won't get anything but bread and water.

And she whispered to the policeman I know now, he said, all you'll get to eat is peas.

So I remember the ice cream being a big part of my life back then and then I went to live with mom in New York City and it was a special treat.

2 or 3 times a week, you know, We'd get together as a family, my mother and my brother and I, and she'd get us a bowl of vanilla or strawberry ice cream, and we'd watch the wonderful world of Disney, and it was just like the family bonding time.

2. A Tree of Life: Zacchaeus

This evening I'd like to talk about 1 of my favorite stories in the Bible.

I'm going to do it a little differently than I ever have before.

You know I do new amazing facts just about every week.

You know every now and then we have a rerun.

I think this week Pastor Ross, I'll be here, he'll be doing the program.

But 1 that came to us recently is regarding the Endicott pear tree.

Among the first wave of English settlers that came to the shores of Plymouth Rock back in 1629 was a Puritan named John Endicott.

And they asked him to be the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

And he was given the task of trying to make the settlers coming from Europe feel at home.

Most of them were Puritans that were fleeing religious persecution over there.

They didn't have a lot of the same scenery and trees and shrubs.

So he imported from his estate in England a pear tree.

There is some record that as he planted the pear tree, his children said, this appears to be good soil, and I hope this tree as it takes root in this new country will be here long after we're gone.

There was something just he was musing out a prayer.

Well, that tree did not only outlive John Endicott, it outlived his children and his grandchildren and many generations beyond that.

1760 it was being celebrated as a very old tree.

By 1809 it was such a famous tree that they sent a box of the pears from this pear tree to President John Adams.

And he wrote a letter thanking them for it.

The pears, though, were not especially tasty.

They were just sort of average, but just the idea of what it lacked in flavor it made up for in endurance.

In the 19th century, that pear tree survived many hurricanes, some drought, some drought, all kinds of extreme weather.

In 1964, vandals went by the tree and hacked it up.

But even though they sort of butchered the branches, it continued to sprout and it fully recovered.

And now that tree is still alive and producing pears 383 years after it was planted.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, he will be like a tree.

Turn with me and your Bibles to the book of Hezekiah.

Some of you are still looking through your contents.

You only find the story of Zacchaeus 1 place in the Bible, unlike some of the other stories are repeated through the Gospels.

Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

And he sought to see Jesus who he was, but he could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature.

So he ran ahead and he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was going to pass that way." Trees.

You know, you find trees from cover to cover in the Bible.

The whole episode of sin and the test revolved around how people responded, our first parents, to the right tree and the wrong tree.

And you find in the last chapters of the Bible that there on either side of the river grows the tree of life.

Not only is it in the end of Revelation, in the very beginning of Revelation in his messages to the churches, he says to him that overcomes, I will give of the fruit from the tree of life.

I always thought it was interesting in the New Testament, In the Gospel of John, it begins by Jesus.

He meets Nathanael and he says, Ah, behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile.

And Nathanael says, Master, how do you know me?

He said, I saw you when you were under the tree praying.

He actually says under the fig tree praying.

1 of the great visions in the story of Daniel, you can find this in Daniel chapter 4, talks about this vision King Nebuchadnezzar has of this great tree.

You find that in Daniel 4 and I'll just read verse maybe 10 through 12.

These were the visions of my head while on my bed I was looking and behold a tree in the midst of the earth." It says, you know, the tree of life was in the midst of the garden.

And its height was great and the tree grew and became strong and its height reached to the heavens And it could be seen to the ends of the earth, and its leaves were lovely, and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all.

And the beasts of the field found their shade under it, and the birds of heaven dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it." And you know the story.

Daniel comes and interprets that and tells Nebuchadnezzar that he is the tree, and that king, because of his pride, was going to be abased, but he would not be destroyed.

The roots would be left in the ground and he would return after 7 times.

I've always wondered sometimes also if that vision was not telling us something about Jesus, who is the King of kings, and all the earth was fed by him, and all were shaded and supplied, and he humbled himself and came down to the earth and he bore all the sins, and then he resurrected and was restored to his glory.

It's almost like there's an analogy in there, but I don't want to take that too far because I know there's a lot of good theologians out there that'll discover my caveman theology.

All through the Bible, you have these stories about trees.

And the Bible says in Isaiah 65 verse 22 for as the days of a tree So are the days of my people and mine elect will long enjoy The long enjoy the work of their hands, you know I guess 1 reason I'm interested in trees is because I spent several years and my occupation was up in trees.

I lived in a cave, but I didn't live in trees.

You know what the most dangerous occupation is according to the insurance industry?

People think it's crab fishing, firemen, roofers, and those are dangerous.

But statistically the most dangerous occupation is logging.

More people die per 100, 000 from logging, And I believe it.

I was selling firewood, cutting down trees, skidding trees, driving a dozer through the trees, working with a chainsaw, and a lot of close calls with the widow makers.

But the reason I say that is I also sort of developed an affection for trees.

But the big ones I'd cut down, they were dead or sick and, you know, making firewood, you don't want to cut down the good trees.

And sometimes I'd cut them down and I'd count their rings, and I'd think, wow, this tree is 3 to 500 years old.

Dendrochronology is the study of trees and especially counting the rings in trees.

The dendrochronologists can't really find a tree in the world that predates the flood.

Now you'll hear some will say, oh this tree they think it's 5, 000 years old, but you know sometimes a tree will produce more than 1 ring in a year depending on the weather.

If there's a burst of rain and then a real hot spell it kind of gets stunted, then another burst of growth and you can get more than 1 ring in a year.

Now it's still a matter of conjecture what was the tallest tree in the world, but in 1872 in Victoria, Australia, lumberjacks fell a mountain ash they believe was 500 feet tall.

Just by perspective, right now the tallest tree in the world, and National Geographic knows where it is and some others in the National Park.

It's a redwood, a coastal redwood, and they say it's 365 feet tallest tree.

They say there was a mountain ash in Australia 500 feet.

They have confirmed that there was a tree that was 417 feet tall.

It wasn't a redwood, it was a Douglas fir.

Now I've seen some very tall Douglas fir trees.

And the stoutest tree, the widest girth, is in Mexico.

It has a girth of 112 to 113 feet, 5 feet up.

There's a European chestnut that once was measured.

It was called the tree of a hundred horses.

3. Seeing Is Believing: The Man Born Blind

Tonight I'd like to talk to you about the glory of sight and light, the light of salvation.

Now first I have to set it up and tell you the whole story.

Back in 1995, Mary Ann Franco, lives in Okeechobee, Florida, was in a serious car accident.

And it injured her and her spine and consequently as a result it did something to the brainstem.

She went blind from the accident and she spent the next 20 years living in a world of darkness, groping around her house with a cane And then to make matters worse, she had the accident initially when she was 50 and 20 years later, actually 21 years later when she was 70, she fell in her house, which is more prone to happen when you're blind, and hit her head and injured her spine and in a lot of pain and the doctor said you know you're going to have to have surgery.

And so she finally they set it up and she went in and she had the surgery on her neck And while she was in the recovery room, she's still kind of coming out of the drugs, she said to the nurse, you lady in the purple, please give me something for my pain.

And her niece was sitting there and said, Aunt Mary, what did you say?

She said, I like that lady in the purple.

And she said, first of all, how do you even see her?

And how do you know what color she's wearing?

Something happened during the surgery, and her sight came back.

And what was amazing is prior to her accident in 2005, she had been colorblind all of her life.

So her vision not only came back, but she, for the first time in her life saw color.

The doctor being interviewed said he has no way of explaining this and he's very reluctant to admit it, but he said this is as close to a miracle as anything I've ever seen.

And in her own words, she is so excited to have her vision.

She says she can see her friends, her pets, and she has never laid eyes on her 7 grandchildren to find out what they look like.

She deeply appreciates the simple things we all take for granted.

With her eyes welling up with tears, she told the news crew that was there, the sun is coming through the trees.

And she fully gives God credit and says it was a miracle that she went from blindness to sight.

You know, I don't know if you've ever thought about it, maybe when you're feeling melancholy, if you had to lose 1 of your senses, which 1 would you want to lose?

And it doesn't take long for me to know the 1 that I would miss the most is my sight.

I think someone said once about 80% of what comes into your brain comes through the avenue of your eyes.

Light is so important and yet much of the world is in darkness.

Darkness will cover the land and gross darkness the people.

Friends, we've never lived in a world where there was such darkness.

It's strange because we're living in an age now where we have more artificial light than we've ever had before, and yet we have more darkness than we've ever had before.

In the very beginning, Darkness was on the face of the deep, but God's Word spoke and light came into the picture.

God wants to speak light into this dark world again, and He's going to do it through His people.

And light is appreciated the most when it's the darkest.

I remember reading about a boy in New Mexico back in 1901.

And he was riding around looking for some missing cattle.

And just around sundown, he thought he'd better turn around and give up his search.

And he saw off in the nearby hills smoke rising out of the hills and he thought well that could be a brush fire I better see what's going on So he rode over and it turns out it wasn't smoke at all, but there was this vortex of bats, a virtual tornado of bats, so many of them that it looked like smoke, were just billowing out of his yaw in the earth.

And he thought, I've got to check this out without telling his family.

He came back a few days later, found the spot again.

He took some barbed wire he'd brought with him and some sagebrush and he made a ladder and he descended into this gaping maw in the earth and big old yawing chasm and he was the first modern person to see the inside of Carl's Bad Cavern.

Well, that takes a lot of guts or recklessness, 16 years old.

And 1 time he was way off with a lamp into the bowels of this dark cavern and he ran out of fuel and his light went out.

Now I don't know if you've ever been way down in a cavern or a mine and had your light go out.

Sometimes my friends and I, matter of fact, we're going next month.

We kind of do this man thing where we get together, a bunch of Christian men, and we go out in the deserts of Nevada.

We drive our trucks as far as we can and then we set up camp and we bring our quads with us, our four-wheelers, and then we go riding.

We've gone as much as 100 miles in a day.

We go exploring these old mines and I remember 1 year we went into these mines and we'd take our lights with us and old abandoned, They're just, I mean, they riddle the hills out there.

Old abandoned mines and there's signs everywhere warning, stay out and stay alive.

Of course, we don't pay any attention to that.

There's no fun unless there's an element of risk.

It's not fun unless there's any danger involved.

The Lord made us to go forth and conquer, Subdue the earth.

And I remember we got off in the middle of 1 of these caverns 1 time.

We kind of made a video, I hope it never finds its way to YouTube, that we had discovered the lost Ark of the Covenant.

But we turned off our lights and we were hundreds of yards back in these mines.

And it was so dark that you could not tell if your eyes were open or closed.

And you know, that's how much of the world it is.

They're just living in absolute darkness.

Series

Personal Encounters with Jesus

4. The Secret Christian: Nicodemus

Transcript

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