Michigan Camp Meeting 2016: The Harvest is Great

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Women's Ministries

Sarah Canada

Scriptures and Survival Training

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for this beautiful day.

Thank you for Sarah and her willingness to come and share you now, please open our hearts and our minds to you and help us to be willing to learn and to become more like you and to be servants for you, to be disciples for you.

We love you, Jesus, and we thank you in your precious and holy name, amen.

I'm so excited about camp meeting this year.

We love to come just to get ourselves closer to the Lord, but also to prepare ourselves, just like Janie was saying, for these end times which we are now living in.

Have you ever wondered if you really have all the answers you need in order to defend your faith?

Are you fearful someone's gonna ask you a spiritual question that you may not be able to answer?

Or, horror of all horrors, ask you to lead a Bible study?

You know, have you ever felt, there is no way I can memorize scripture?

Or maybe I'm too young and I'm just too busy.

It seems like we always have excuses, don't we?

In the book Last Day Events, it says, study the word of God.

Commit its precious promises to memory so that when we will be deprived of our Bibles, we may still be in possession of the Word of God.

And John 14, 26, he promises that the helper, the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

I started to think about that, how can he bring it to our remembrance if we didn't put it there in the first place?

So that's why we're here today, because I believe now is the time to begin preparing for those end times when we may not be able to go to our pastor and ask them, well, what do I believe about such and such?

Or I might not be able to Google the answer on my phone, I need to be able to defend my faith for myself.

So today I'm going to share with you just a little bit about my own journey with Scripture memorization.

I truly am not qualified, I will warn you, to teach this seminar.

I have not been to lots of courses on scripture memorization, nor can I quote to you whole books of the Bible, but I have discovered the path to scripture memorization is to just get started?

And so that's what I'm here to do today is to motivate you and to equip you so that you can begin on this journey as well.

And I know in the April retreats, basically it was people just, we need to just remind each other.

So many ladies came to me and said, oh, I used to memorize scripture.

I was so faithful in doing that and I just needed a little bit of extra encouragement or motivation.

I have had the wonderful privilege of growing up in a Seventh-day Adventist home.

You see my mom here, I've been able to follow her and my footsteps all along.

I've had wonderful teachers, wonderful secretaries and aides.

Lots of church members have helped me grow Sabbath school teachers.

Over the course of my life, I have learned many memory verses.

But as I get older, I started to realize, I have no idea where those verses are found.

I know thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee, but if you were to ask me where it was found, I know that's in the Bible.

And it's probably in Psalms, but I'm not quite sure.

I'd have to go check a concordance, or I'd have to Google it, or something like that.

And I said, you know, that's just not good enough.

And so that's kind of what has gotten me into this.

I want to know my Bible better so that I can be closer to Jesus, so I can help my children to be closer to Jesus, and third, so I can share with others.

I don't know if you guys have had the same experiences as me recently.

It just seems people are more open to talk about spiritual things.

When we were going around inviting people to unlock revelation, people were asking me questions.

I had several conversations with my neighbors and I was really excited because I've been memorizing these scriptures and 1 of my neighbors was asking me some pretty difficult questions but I can testify that the Holy Spirit truly was bringing some of those texts back to my memory.

You just get to use 1 1 time and you're like, oh, I gotta keep doing it.

Well, in researching, you know, why should we memorize scripture at all?

I came upon lots and lots of lists of reasons, so I thought I would make Sarah's top 10 reasons to share with you today at camp meeting.

The first is because I want to strengthen my relationship with God.

I wanted to strengthen my own relationship with God.

Kind of what got me started with this too is, has anyone heard of fast scripture memorization?

When I was at the Oakwood Church, our pastor decided we were going to do this on Wednesday nights.

We were going to come together and first of all, we were going to learn how to give Bible studies and then we were going to be practicing scripture memorization.

That kind of encouraged me and he gave us a little extra incentive.

He gave us another, he matched us up with another church member, and every week we would test each other on our scriptures.

He'd say, You could have like 1 or 2 new memory verses and then we'd have to come to church and that person would hold us accountable So that really kind of got me started and I have to tell you if you are just doing 1 or 2 verses a week They start to add up Let me show you my very fancy scripture carrying case All of you.

I do get some talents from my mother, some not as much.

But you have all been given these fancy scripture holders, but your stack of scriptures will add up in no time at all.

Just doing 1 to 2 verses and practicing them.

And we're going to talk about that and getting you started today.

So it is kind of exciting when you see them.

But I wanted to strengthen my relationship with God.

And I love this verse, the 2 verses actually, they've become 2 of my favorites.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So that right there is, it's just 2 wonderful texts that remind us why we wanna memorize scripture.

That is 1 of the best ways to put scripture into your heart.

I went to a seminar yesterday about Sabbath school and they were talking about it.

Make sure you're teaching your kids scripture songs too when you're singing the songs.

Those are the songs that will stick in their heads.

So this was a neat song we learned at Adventures this year and I thought it was great I was going to show it to you I told the kids I would make them famous by showing it to the Adventists all over the women's retreat now at camp meeting and this is the Ann Arbor Adventist Elementary School choir so they're just going to teach it to you quickly All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

All right, now I know it's kind of hard to hear it on there, but we're gonna sing it ourselves, and you're gonna learn it today, hopefully, so that you will have 2 verses memorized when you leave here today.

We always wanna say the verse first, so let's say it together.

And we're gonna sing it through 2 times and I'll teach it to you.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable For doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

All right, you're well on your way, and I will be testing you later.

The second reason I wanted to memorize scripture is because I want to be more like Jesus.

Second Corinthians 3, 18 says, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are becoming transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

So if we wanna be transformed, we need to be in God's holy word.

The third reason, to provide me with guidance.

Psalm 119 verse 24 says, your testimonies also are my delight and my, what?

Barbara Livesay

Women’s Ministry Leadership Training

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your loving kindness.

Please help us to turn to you at each and every moment.

I ask that you be with Barbara in a very special way right now as she speaks your words and as she is your servant.

Please help us to be ready to receive the message that you have for each and every 1 of us.

Thank you for hearing and answering our prayer.

I have said it behind her back, in front of her, and I'll say it again.

I was telling somebody this morning, Jane Harris is 1 of the best women's ministries director I've seen across the country.

God has used her, is using her, and will use her in such a mighty way.

You are so blessed to, we're blessed to have her.

I hope everybody has a pen or a pencil because there will be assignments here, but hopefully not too difficult.

The other thing about the assignments, so you may want to move now, you may not, but you're going to pair up with somebody so you don't have to do all these by yourself.

So it may be a little uncomfortable if you don't know somebody, but you know what?

We're going to get out of our comfort zone if needed.

And so look for someone to, that you'll tag with in a little bit.

I'm going to start with, since we started with prayer, then I can just go right into this.

These are called the positive side of life.

Ever notice that the people who are late are often more jovial than the people who wait for them?

You may be only 1 person in the world, but you may also be the world to 1 person.

And lastly, we could learn a lot from crayons.

Some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all exist very nicely in the same box.

And that sort of introduces us into this woman of worth.

I really, when Jane gave me this opportunity, I thought, whew, okay, Lord, because it is so important.

But we have sometimes missed worthiness with pride.

And they are not, they are not the same thing.

A woman of worth, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before 1 of them came to be.

I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of.

For to have been thought about, born in God's thought, and then made by God is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking.

When you are secure in who you are in Christ and his plan for you personally, you can rest in his will for you and his special calling for you.

And most importantly is to know who you are in Christ.

So that's the foundation of being a woman of worth is what and who we are in Christ.

And I actually got this, the North American Division has a site where the certification training is on.

So I looked at the sample 1 and then I went from there because I didn't want it to be all negative.

So I took this and then I thought, well, this may work or may not work.

You were not made in Korea, except for those of you that were made in Korea.

There is no made in Brazil label on you, unless, of course, that was true also.

You were fashioned in the darkness of your mother's womb by God's hand, created for a purpose, destined to walk into the stage of the universe at this hour of Earth's history.

Our elder daughter, we were coming up to seminary and found out that we were expecting.

And that was not our timing to have a child, but it happened.

So we have never, ever shared this with her.

We were in some family gathering, and I do not know, I don't know what possessed my husband, But he made the statement that, well, Christina was an accident.

And I'm thinking, and I mean, you know, she's 40 years old now.

So, I mean, it's, and I'm going, she looks at me.

Maybe not timed the way we think But haven't you noticed God's timing?

So you are destined for now God arranged your DNA and lined up your genes and chromosomes to make you the special person that you are.

There is none other like you among the over 7 billion people living on the planet.

No 1 else has your distinct thumbprint, your distinct voice print, your special looks, your combination of gifts, personality, and experience.

Jesus would have died had you been the only person to ever accept His love.

The Savior would have passed through the agony of Calvary that you might be saved in His kingdom.

A God of love gathered all the riches of the universe and laid them down that he might gain you a pearl of great price.

He gave his only son to die on Calvary's cross to gain your salvation.

So it's the second page in, and I did it front and back because I was trying to save as many trees as possible.

So assignment 1, there's a little inventory.

And you know what, could I have 1 of those just so I make sure I'm seeing everything that, oh, thank you.

I should have brought 1 back down with me.

So, it says, begin to appreciate the way God has made you.

And then you're going to just share with each other, and I'll tell you what you're going to share.

Praise God for the unique person he made you to be.

So, under each 1, fill in at least, it tells you 3 things for each 1 of those.

If you come up with 2, I am not going to check your paper.

But do that for just a few minutes now just to identify.

The first 1 is 3 leisure time activities you enjoy.

This is always difficult for people to do.

If I ask you to put down things that you don't do well, it's easier.

But today we want you to concentrate on how valuable and worthwhile you are.

So 3 things I do well, 3 achievements in my life, 3 positive adjectives that describe me and 3 things that I like about my body and the way I look.

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Women's Ministries

Women’s Ministry Leadership Training

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Parent Conference

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Parts

Scriptures and Survival Training

54m

Women’s Ministry Leadership Training

1h 18m

Sound Doctrine