Michigan Camp Meeting 2016: The Harvest is Great

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Dare to Be a Daniel: Empowering the Final Remnant

Philip Samaan

Dare to Be a Daniel: Empowering the Final Remnant- Part 1

The subtitle of the seminar is Empowering the Final Remnant.

Today is more than ever before, is the time to have modern-day Daniels and Danielas, who dare to stand up for Jesus and the truth, who dare to make the purpose firm, who dare to make it known.

Today at my hearing where I was born in the Middle East, close to the headquarters of ISIS, there are Christians like you and me, ancient Christians from the time of the apostles who are told by ISIS, either deny Christ or die.

And I just want to challenge all of us to appreciate the freedom we have, to be ready for Christ to come, and to be able to stand for Jesus and the truth though the heavens fall.

There are so many, so much confusion today out there.

People are wondering can the trumpet make a certain sound?

This seminar is about the trumpet making a certain sound because God is longing to have modern-day Daniels who will be his showcases in the world.

Who will shine like a bright star in the firmament like Daniel 12 says.

You know Daniel 12 concludes with victory and deliverance.

And if you look at Daniel 12 verse 1, it says Jesus is our defender.

Jesus is our protector and Jesus our deliverer.

We're going to have a word of prayer to start our seminar.

Loving Father, we can't stand alone in this troubled world unless you stand with us.

Just like the Apostle Paul said, all my friends left me, all my earthly support collapsed, but the Lord Jesus stood by me.

Dear Lord, as we prepare ourselves and be equipped to be modern day Daniels, may you stand by us though the heavens fall.

And people wonder how in the world she was able to put up with me for 44 years.

We travel every week and together somewhere to conduct seminars and workshops about Christ's methods, Christ's ways to do with things to help our people become more Christ-like.

And she happens to like to drive, so she likes to be my chauffeur.

Well, I use my smartphone to contact people, pray with students, and I taught how to drive when we were freshmen in college.

We practiced on a beat up VW Bug 1957 model, which tells you how old we are.

And now my wife drives much better than me.

When she drives, I can fall asleep, I can rest, I can focus on my work, I have no worry because she is not only a skilled driver She is very careful.

So thank you for being my advisor My wife my best friend and my chauffeur in our van plus playing anything I asked her to play.

Whatever I asked her to play, she said, yes.

Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy.

Now, you came to the seminar, which entitled, Dare to be a Daniel, Empowering the Found Woman.

It's a very fitting seminar as a sequel to the 1 we just finished.

Facing the ISIS crisis and facing time of trouble and there is no other way but to face like Daniel did.

What Daniel faced, we're facing today, we'll face in the future as far as lifestyle issues, persecution, Time of trouble.

And we have at least 33 books on Daniel in our Adventist church since Uriah Smith about Daniel's prophecies, which is wonderful.

We need to be experts in prophecy, but please don't forget about the character of Daniel.

Ellen White said by inspiration, it's wonderful to know his prophecies, to know what's coming ahead in the world.

So I spent 5 years researching specifically the character of Daniel and how we can emulate his character and be Christ-like that came forth in this latest book called Dare to be a Daniel, empowering the final remnant and you see the sky is studded with stars, bright stars.

Because we're told in Daniel 12, the last chapter of Daniel, God is going to make us into shining stars in the firmament.

God wants us to be his showcase in the world.

God wants us to represent him well in the world.

He wants us to show what the gospel can do to transform our lives and make it more Christ-like.

A lot of people who hear the challenge in our churches in North America say, I want that.

I want my pastor to know it, my teachers, my church members, my students.

I want them to dare to be a Daniel because in this postmodern age, Everything, anything goes.

The Bible says there was a time where there was no king in Israel.

No king in Israel, no spiritual leadership.

But thank God, today we have the king in Israel.

His name is Jesus Christ and without such leadership everybody does what seems right in his own eyes but when it comes to Jesus being our king we do always what is right in his eyes.

I'd rather do what's right in his eyes than my eyes.

Because there is a way that seems right unto us.

But the end of it is the way of destruction.

Some people don't want to think about character, they think it's legalism.

All I'm interested in, in what Jesus said, if you love me keep my commandments.

Some people don't want to think about commandments like some Americans do ignore the constitution.

How can you be a good American citizen and disregard the constitution?

How can you prepare yourself, how can I prepare myself to be a good citizen of heaven and ignoring God's Constitution which is the Decalogue in Exodus 20 you know the Decalogue which is God's constitution, has preamble, an introduction?

I'm the Lord your God, who brought you out of land of bondage.

They start with thou shalt not, you know But remember the way God introduced his Constitution The preamble is that I am the Lord your God and look at the possessive pronoun your meaning God belongs to us and we belong to him.

It doesn't say I'm the Lord God, it says I'm the Lord your God.

The ones who stayed here from previous seminar we said the greatest 2 solutions to our problems is Christ's righteousness, Christ's eternal life.

He gives those 2 awesome solutions for our biggest problems, sin and death.

And now, as we talk about the character of Daniel, that's what happens to all of us when we open our hearts to Jesus' righteousness and receive eternal life.

And he gives us this character to be a shining star in the firmament.

My friends, in these last days, we're involved in spiritual Olympics.

Anybody in this audience ever became acquainted with or you know about an Olympian?

Somebody who ever was involved in the Olympics.

I became acquainted with somebody who went to Olympics and received a silver star.

I tell you something, he did his best to be ready.

And we are facing the Spiritual Olympics.

Instead of doing the least for Christ we should do the most can any Olympian for his desire to receive a perishable medal be it's gold silver or bronze do you think he would simply say, let me do my least, let me get by?

He gave his life for us, He did his best.

And because we love him, we want to do our best for him.

And even though our best is not good enough, Yet we can do our best for him because Ellen White said when we do our best for Christ, he becomes our righteousness And like Mary Magdalene who was so conscientious She came to anoint the body of Jesus She was criticized harshly by the way when you take a stand for Jesus and the truth, be prepared to be criticized.

I used to think if I did my best and loved everybody and was honest with everybody, everybody would love me.

Dare to Be a Daniel: Empowering the Final Remnant- Part 2

Loving Father, today as we learn to stand up like Daniel, assure us, dear Lord, we never ever stand up alone, because the Lord Jesus stands up with us.

It's just like Daniel chapter 12, verse 1 says, in these days, during the great time of trouble, Michael shall stand up for his people, to vindicate them and to strengthen them.

Therefore, Lord, help us never to think about the crisis without the Christ walking with us through the crisis.

Help us never to think of the fire furnace without thinking of the Son of Man who will walk with us in the fire and fighting fire with fire, because he is the consuming fire.

Help us never to think of the storm without thinking of the Prince of Peace, standing up in the midst of a storm and saying, peace be still.

May we always be the small shell stuck in the rock.

And because the rock is immovable, we'll become immovable with Jesus.

The question I want to ask you at the beginning of this session how is it possible for us to stand up like Daniel and be counted for Christ and His truth.

How is it possible for us when there is all kinds of pressure around us to play it safe?

Don't offend anybody, go along with the crowd, and today even evil acts, if you come across intolerant of evil acts you consider a greater sinner than the evildoer himself isn't that interesting And isn't the Bible intolerant of evil?

Today in our postmodern age we're not only supposed to tolerate evil behavior, Now the pendulum has swung so vastly, now we're supposed not only tolerate, but accept and now support.

Someday Sunday law will be imposed and you'll not be told we're tolerant.

If you want to worship on Sunday, fine, no.

And you will have to, by law, not only tolerate it but also support it.

I want to start our seminar with something in our textbook, page 140.

I don't know, some of you might be new here for the seminar.

We are using the book Dare to be a Daniel, How to Empower the Found Remnant.

And the Lord blessed me with this book after 4 years of research, and you can borrow it and use it when we don't mark it, but when we finish with the seminar, bring it back to the front.

Okay, and we can use it in other seminars.

Now then, I think we have some left of the book, there to be a Daniel.

Or even if you forgot in your tent, at least you could borrow it for now.

I mean my reader at Southern Adventist who used to work for me some years back, Jennifer.

Yes, there is a box here that has these books.

I used to pay you by the hour, now you're going to work maybe for 10 minutes, and with inflation maybe I'll pay my reader maybe for 10 minutes $5, Would that be good?

Could somebody go and find my wife and bring her back to me?

I can't function to my maximum power without my wife being around, because she prays for me.

I know you're going to be encouraged by this.

Okay, look at the last paragraph on page 140.

You see, you prayed for my wife to come back and she is back.

I will not count the fact that you joined us late.

My wife took all my classes and she got A's in all of them without me helping her.

She said, you help others, don't help me, I can make it on my own.

The last paragraph, this glorious reality that it is actualized in the believer's life.

It's the union of confession and conduct, profession and possession, principle and piety.

When we, Ellen White said, when we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with his heart, the will is merged in his will, the mind becomes 1 with his mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to him, we live his life.

This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of his righteousness.

I don't know if I told you this story about this pastor with a hobby collecting shells.

You know, shells represent all of us, including me.

They are light, they are blown away by winds, they are tossed by the waves, they are stepped on by other people, they are covered up by the sand, insignificant.

So he collect the shells he liked, and he kept in his hand, and then as he walked further, he saw a rock, solid rock, situated between the crashing waves and the sifting sands.

Maybe a mountain beneath it, Jesus is represented by the rock.

And he saw a pretty little shell sitting on the top of the rock.

He liked the shell, and so he tried to pick it and add it to his collection, but he couldn't because it was stuck in the rock.

And then he tried harder to pry it loose, he couldn't.

He put all the shells aside, now with both hands he tried to pry it loose, he could not because the shell was stuck on the rock.

That's our only hope, to be stuck in Jesus.

And you become immovable like Jesus is immovable.

I pray our lives will be stuck in Jesus' rock, immovable.

A shell can never be stable or strong or firmly established unless it's stuck in the rock.

Like the great Christian mother, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a professor at the University of Chicago enjoying a prestigious position.

But when he saw what Hitler was doing in Germany, he risked his life to go back to Germany and speak truth to power.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was like a Daniel who was brave enough to stand up for Jesus.

Before Hitler committed suicide, he advised his lieutenants to make sure Baal Hafer languishing in prison would be killed.

And he was martyred for the cause of Christ.

But he wrote a classic book I love called The Cost of discipleship.

If you called to follow Jesus, you called for an exclusive attachment to his person.

In that statement, I find 2 important words, attachment and adherence.

Daniel was attached to Jesus and he adhered to Jesus.

And the question I want to ask all of us, what are we attached to today?

Dare to Be a Daniel: Empowering the Final Remnant- Part 3

Loving Father in heaven, we're living in very crucial times.

We're so used to freedom and life being normal that we don't even feel very much how the time of the end is approaching us.

I lived in a dictatorship for many years.

I know in this country we're coming toward the end.

Oh dear Lord, I pray especially for this year of elections.

It's hard to decide who to vote for, if even we want to vote.

But Lord, help us to believe you're working behind the scenes to accomplish your purposes.

It has such an impact on the whole world.

And may we take advantage right now of the precious opportunities we have before the lamb like beast speaks like a dragon.

As I mentioned to you yesterday, I want to start by talking about the papal encyclical on the Sabbath issued forth by Pope John Paul II.

Why am I talking about this here in the seminar?

Because we're talking about Dare to be a Daniel and about last day events.

How to be prepared, how to develop the spiritual reservoir to help us be ready.

Now, I want us to spend a few minutes on page 158 and a few pages later.

And there you'll see the papal encyclical summarized, especially I want you to look at the end of the encyclical where the Pope urges people everywhere to campaign to have Sunday Law be legislated as a law.

The last counterfeit of God's great gifts will be the counterfeit of the Sabbath and that's Sunday law.

First of all national Sunday law is not very severe but finally international Sunday law.

The whole world will be swayed and wonder after the beast.

Now I'm looking at page 158 in the book Dare to be a Daniel.

Does somebody need to use the book to borrow it to look at the things I'm looking at.

Jennifer and Sherilyn, can you please help me?

Do you notice I'm talking to my wife, I'm talking to my reader, and they're not paying attention to me.

Saman, I'm talking to you, and you're busy in front of all this crowd of people talking about music.

So I'm asking you to help distribute these books.

Let's raise your hands again, please, to have how many?

Now these are for you to borrow because I want you to follow what I'm saying.

The statements, the quotations, you know they are there, precisely there.

I'm not improvising, I'm not paraphrasing.

At the end of the seminar you can bring them up to the front so we could use them in other meetings.

Okay, as you are distributing those books, I want to look right now at page 158.

And there is subheading, the 1998 Papal Encyclical on the Sabbath.

At the end, when you come up here to see me, at the end of this message, tell me and I'll make sure you get 1.

So I'm the author, so I'll find something somewhere.

Let me read you the introduction to this.

Lest we are tempted to think that such papal usurpation of God's holy biblical Sabbath is relegated to the distant past, let us examine.

Most recent papal encyclical, Dies Domini, which means the day of the Lord, of May 31, 1998.

And in this encyclical, we're gonna talk about What past legislation was about Sunday Law, 1998, advocated by Pope John Paul II, the most popular pope, and what Francis I is telling us about Sunday Law, building on this encyclical.

The reasoning of Pope John Paul II, author of the encyclical, is divided into 4 arguments.

Now, of course, John Paul II is canonized as a saint to be prayed to.

He traces how the papacy changed the sacredness of the Sabbath to Sunday.

He readily admits that such a change was the result of what?

Please don't ever listen to any sermon I preach if I'm preaching it because of my own intuition.

I don't care about my intuition I want the intuition of God in his word that's all.

If everybody goes by the intuition we have millions of intuitions.

I'm so glad our faith is not anchored on intuition or subjective feelings.

To Christianize the day of the sun, because there was a day of the sun called Sunday, Day of the Sun, used by heathens.

And what happened to Catholic missionaries around the world, they were told to Christianize heathen customs and festivals, baptize them in Christianity.

And Sunday was the 1 that was Christianized.

He also recognizes that the association of the Sabbath with the Jewish people is not good.

Well, the Sabbath should be associated with the whole world.

Jesus is not just for the Jews, it's for the whole world.

And they're not Chinese, and they're not Buddhists, they're not Jews, they're not Muslims.

And advocates the Christians' need to have their own day of worship.

He advocates the Christian must have their own day of worship.

Well God has already chosen the day of worship.

Everybody, just Christians, all people were given the Sabbath, the Sabbath.

Pope John Paul II gives an accurate biblical view of the validity of the Sabbath doctrine.

1 feels quite impressed with this, with his theological accuracy and acumen.

Oh, when I read this, I felt he really advocates the Sabbath.

He is so capable to give a good Bible study on the Sabbath, hoping he stays with biblical truth.

But unfortunately, he puts his entire biblical evidence aside and plainly states that the Catholic Church saw fit and had the authority to change the sacredness of the Sabbath to Sunday.

Let me respond to that respectfully and say nobody is fit, no individual, no church, no authority is fit to change God's commandments.

Are you fit to change the Constitution of the United States?

Then how can we think we're fit to change God's Constitution in heaven?

Series

Dare to Be a Daniel: Empowering the Final Remnant

Dare to Be a Daniel: Empowering the Final Remnant- Part 4

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Reprioritizing in the Last Days

Fervent Love for One Another

1h 5m

Hindsight is Perfect

32m

The Faces of the Wicked

51m

Plenary

Partnering for Success

35m

Plenary

Radical Practice

1h

Young Adults

It Will Happen

51m

Why Am I a SDA?

4. What the Devil Hates

51m

GYC SE 2011 Seminar: Relationships

From Self-Protection to Soul Connection

1h

Understanding Difficult Topics

3. The 1000 Years of Peace

1h 10m

Plenary

My Story, His Faithfulness

1h

Bold unto the Throne Seminars

Sanctuary in Relation to Mission

57m

Flight Plan

3. Destination

1h 3m

Sound Doctrine