Michigan Camp Meeting 2016: The Harvest is Great

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

The Harvest Is Great

Shawn Boonstra

The Harvest Is Great- Part 1

Father in heaven, this morning I know who I am, and I know how utterly incapable I am of standing here and representing your thoughts.

And so I'm asking that you would forgive my sin, that you would cover me with the blood of Christ this morning, that you'd give me the ability not just to think clearly but to represent you faithfully, to be true to your word so that the only voice we will have heard when this service is over is the voice of Jesus.

And I'm asking that we would hear Him, and we covenant with You that when we hear Jesus speak we will follow.

I don't know where Amazon.com was when I lived on the Alaska Highway.

I would have loved to have had Amazon.com.

There was a famine of reading material on the Alaska highway.

I would save up for camp meeting and drive 14 hours down to the conference office, 13 hours, whatever it was, and hit every bookstore along the way and every bookstore on the way back and get all the books that I needed for an entire year because all they sold in the town I was living in was Harlequin romances and coffee table books and I'm not a romantic guy.

Those books didn't appeal to me in the slightest.

So I don't know where Amazon.com was in those days, but I can tell you now that I may be their biggest customer.

I love Amazon.com, and it's an event in my house when a book comes from Amazon.com.

Once upon a time, I had an assistant who, when a book came from Amazon.com, she knew not to open that mail It was sacred and she knew it was so sacred She would actually draw a ribbon and a bow on the box because it was a gift for me It was like my birthday Every day of the year And when I got a new book I would disappear into my office and I would sit in there I'd close the door for maybe 20 30 minutes and just pour through my new title and 1 day I got this book that came and I was so excited.

I've been waiting for it for a long time It was a back-ordered and it was this book on ancient Babylonian history, and I don't mean Nebuchadnezzar's history That's the neo-Babylonian Empire I mean way back when all the way back to Nimrod and to Hammurabi and to the very roots of the Babylonian Empire.

And I was sitting at my desk, thumbing through this book, and I got down to about, oh, page 68, and I'm reading about how they built the original city or something like that, and suddenly this thought pops into my mind, what are you doing reading a history book, Sean?

Your entire life, you have utterly hated history.

It's true, in high school I hated history.

If I was ever, I see a few kindred spirits this morning.

If I were ever, young people put your fingers in your ears for a moment, but if I were ever found off of school grounds during school hours, you could count on which course it was.

Why would you study a bunch of people that are already dead?

You cannot change their minds about anything, and that is the past, and I want the future.

I hated history, and to make things even worse, we had Canadian history.

It's the most boring history on the face of the planet.

Some of you are, I know I'm offending all the Canadians among the brethren this morning, but you know it's true.

We have the most dull history on the face of the planet.

And I remember opening the textbook and I thought there's got to be something in here interesting and I saw it.

There was this subtitle over a paragraph that read, the biggest civil disturbance in Canadian history.

Do you know what the biggest civil disturbance in Canadian history was, according to that book?

It was the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.

Now by show of hands this morning, how many of you have ever heard of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919?

It's the most boring civil disturbance in the history of the world.

6, 000 of them in front of Winnipeg City Hall, and they're agitated.

It's after World War I, there's no work, and they're upset.

And at the height of their anger, they pushed over an electric streetcar.

And at least you had interesting history.

You threw the tea in the harbor, you fought the Redcoats.

When you're 15, those are the stories you want.

At the height of our anger, we pushed over an electric streetcar.

Now here's what I want you to think about this morning, and I want you to follow me very, very carefully.

I did not grow up a Seventh-day Adventist.

Some would argue I never grew up at all, but I did not grow up a Seventh-day Adventist.

So here I am, this high school kid who hates history.

And along comes a group of people known as the Seventh-day Adventists, and you guys love history.

You have charts with dates and number lines, and you have all these people with historical sounding names, Uriah Smith, Hiram Edson, it is actually everything that a history hater hates.

So here's the question I want you to ponder with me this morning as we consider God's Word.

What are the odds that a bunch of people like you are going to reach a kid like me with your message?

Now if you were to go to the so-called church growth and marketing experts, they're going to tell you, and I've been to them, they have some valuable things to contribute to our discussion once in a while.

And I've been to them, I've listened to what they have to say and I know what they'd say.

You can't reach a kid like that with a message like yours.

If you start talking about Babylon and Medo-Persia and Greece and Rome and the Reformation and the Waldensians, he's gonna leave before the first sermon is over.

And sermon, forget about sermon, you can't preach a sermon to a kid like that, he's the MTV generation.

You got to entertain him, it's not going to work.

If you want to reach that kid, you're going to have to change your message and you're going to have to change your methods.

And you know something, I've seen the studies and on the surface it looks pretty good.

These people have their finger on the pulse of modern culture.

They've got the data, they've got the charts, they've got the cultural studies, they've got their pulse on modern thinking, they've got the numbers to prove what they're saying.

And because of that, unfortunately, too many of us are listening to what they say.

The studies say the West is getting less and less religious, I saw it in Newsweek magazine, So maybe we should do something different.

You are not non-religious in America anyway.

I have lived in secular places and America is not 1 of them.

Do you know that when New Hampshire ratified the American Constitution in 1789, not bad for a kid who hates history, right?

When New Hampshire ratified the American Constitution in 1789, church attendance was 17%.

The Harvest Is Great- Part 2

This morning the challenge was to believe that what God assigned us is possible.

Tonight we're going to go to the next step.

I'm going to challenge you to be faithful to that call.

Jeremiah 27, the countries that are around Israel, a whole bunch of little countries, are panicking because Nebuchadnezzar is on the march, he's conquering the world.

And they don't know what to do about it so they decide they're going to form a coalition.

Let's all get together and maybe we can take them on.

So they send a delegation, all these countries, to Jerusalem and they want to talk to King Zedekiah.

Look, if we form an alliance, we can take on King Nebuchadnezzar.

I mean, that's exactly what I'd be tempted to do if I was at Achaia, that would sound really good.

But in Jeremiah chapter 27, the servant of the Lord is about to explain to everybody why it won't work.

Jeremiah 27 and verse 4, and command them to say to their masters, here's the word they have to send back, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, thus you shall Say to your masters, I have made the earth.

Now there is the source of God's authority.

Those are the opening words to your Bible.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

It's been the message of God's people all along.

The 3 angels' messages, if you read the whole Bible, is not brand new in the last days.

Read through Acts, read through Jeremiah, read through the Psalms.

That's the reason God sits on the throne, Revelation 4 verse 11, the reason they bow down and worship God, thou hast created all things.

Verse 5, I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the ground by My great power and by My outstretched arm and have given it to whom it seemed proper to me." In other words, God says, I established kingdoms and I established political powers and I will do what I would like to do.

Verse 6, and now, let this sink in, now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant.

My servant and the beast of the field I have also given him to serve him.

So all nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son until the time of his land comes then many nations and great kings shall make Him serve them." It's the prophecy of Daniel 2 written in advance.

God has already told everybody Nebuchadnezzar will not be on the throne forever.

I have allowed him to grow this empire, but eventually after his son's son is on the throne, Belshazzar, another kingdom will come, it's Daniel 2, in advance.

The lion with eagle's wings will be followed by the bear.

And the message in this passage is absolutely clear.

We could finish the sermon right now with 1 point.

Nebuchadnezzar is reigning because that's what God wants.

Father in heaven, as we contemplate what this book says, I know again that I don't have the ability to stand here.

Lord, You know how hard these moments are.

And I know who I am, I know where I've come from, I know what I'm made of, and I'm but dust and ashes, And I'm asking for a blessing tonight.

I'm asking that You would still my mind and quiet my heart.

And that the voice I hear tonight would just be Yours.

I'd like to know that You're smiling when I'm finished because I've been faithful.

And I'd like for the only voice to be heard in this auditorium tonight to be yours.

So I'm asking that You'd bless me and take that coal from heaven's altar and touch my lips.

Let me be found, Lord, Your faithful servant tonight.

If this is the last thing I ever stand up and preach, then I'm asking that You would place My hands on the pillars and let Me pull down the house of Dagon tonight.

I just want to know that You're doing this with me.

And Father, when Jesus speaks tonight, we will follow.

And I ask for that blessing tonight in Jesus' name, amen.

I was reading this story the other day about a very, very successful man.

He had a long, long happy and successful career and he came to the end of it.

It was time for retirement and he wanted to sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labor and that was something he'd earned because he was really successful, more successful than most.

In fact, this guy was so successful when he got out of bed in the morning and walked over to the window of his bedroom and opened the drapes and looked outside.

I mean even if he leaned out the window a little bit and looked to the horizon, he owned it all.

He could not see past the bounds of his property.

That's not because he's living on some big spread in the state of Texas.

Although as a Canadian, I've got to say, Texas seems small.

Took me 14 hours to drive to an airport from my town.

It's not because he's on a big spread in Texas.

But the truth be told, he didn't just own everything he saw.

This man could get on a horse and he could ride in any direction for 3 weeks and never leave his property.

Because the man in the story was Nebuchadnezzar, the man who conquered the whole known world in his time, and he quite literally gave us the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Now we know historically that he didn't build the Neo-Babylonian Empire all by himself.

His dad gave him a running start at that empire.

They'd been under assault by the Assyrians for a long time.

They kept showing up at Babylon, the Assyrians, and sacking the city and attacking it.

And so Nebuchadnezzar's dad went up there and finished that problem.

He conquered the Assyrians and paved the way for Nebuchadnezzar to be a wild success.

Before you know it, he's down in Egypt knocking on their door and by 597 BC, he is in the apple of God's eye, the city of Jerusalem, and he takes it too.

He is now the undisputed king of the ancient world.

He is so successful that everybody remembers him to this day.

You can travel around the world and talk to people in various cultures all over the planet And if it wasn't a culture that was isolated from the rest of the world They still remember him to this day all over the planet.

There is a latent memory of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar Everywhere on this planet.

He was that successful and now in this story in Daniel chapter 4 after a huge success I mean huge successes on the battlefield huge successes rebuilding the city of Babylon, he is proud of what he's done.

He did more than most of us could even begin to imagine.

He looked at the old temples in the city of Babylon that his dad had been working on and they were kind of tattered and broken down in an embarrassment and the Babylonians before Nebuchadnezzar came to the throne were kind of embarrassed of their old Babylonian religions.

And so he ripped down all the old pagan temples and he put up brand new ones and they were gorgeous.

And people became proud of their… We know Nebuchadnezzar had a religious streak in him.

And he rebuilt those temples and now everybody's so proud, they're starting to name the captives after their gods.

The Harvest Is Great- Part 3

I've chosen tonight to study from 1 passage.

Evangelists have a habit of going all over the place in the Bible.

We're going to stay in 1 chapter, maybe, depending on what happens.

But I've chosen to read from John chapter 21 tonight.

And I want you to think carefully, we read through the Bible so often and not really put things in context, but John chapter 21 takes place immediately after the resurrection of Christ, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

So try to think as we go into this chapter, Try to think about what kinds of things are really fresh in the disciples' minds as you get into John chapter 21.

I mean it all just happened in the last few hours.

The events at the trial of Jesus, the brutal flogging that he got as the result of the testimony of false witnesses, the sight of Jesus writhing in agony on a cross and crying out for a Father who didn't seem to be.

The humiliating mockery of a crowd making fun of the son of God, the limp body of Jesus being taken down from the cross hastily stuffed in a tomb so they could keep the Sabbath on time, the destruction of their hopes, they thought it was the end, the end of the kingdom that was coming, the end of their hopes, and they're living in raw fear wondering who might be the next to hang on a cross.

And then the word from Mary that she'd seen him alive.

So I want to encourage you to follow along.

If you didn't bring a Bible, you can pull out your iPad and use that if you promise not to tweet and Facebook and Snapchat and whatever else, Instagram.

I'm going to trust you not to go on Twitter and if you don't have any of those things and your neighbor has a Bible, you can check your breath really quickly and then get close and follow.

It helps to hear it and see it, doesn't it?

You've got to put Scripture into your heart and mind because there's coming a day where you're going to need it.

John chapter 21, verse 1, after these things, Jesus showed himself again, because naturally If you've come back from the dead, you might have to show up more than once before it really sinks in that you're alive.

After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way he showed himself.

Verse 2, Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and 2 others of his disciples were together." So that's 7 disciples if you do a head count.

Verse 3, Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing.

They said to him, we're going with you also.

They went out immediately and got into the boat and that night they caught how much?

But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

Then Jesus said to them, children, have you any food?

Father in heaven, the moment has come for me to stand up here.

I'm not what you need, but you've called me and I'd like to be faithful tonight.

And so I'm asking that as we go through the words in this passage, that You would speak so clearly to our hearts that it's unmistakable, that it's obviously You.

And I'm asking that as I speak, I would hear You unmistakably too.

And I want to say what you would have me say.

So easy to start talking and say things that maybe you didn't give me to say, and I don't want that to happen.

I want you to say, well done, good and faithful servant.

Give me the power to think clearly and to speak clearly and to represent Jesus faithfully, I'm asking.

Cover me again tonight with the blood of Christ.

Blow the dust out of our hearts, I'm asking.

Let us see you more clearly, hear you more clearly, and give us the courage to follow, for I ask it in Jesus' name.

When you go visit the old city of Rome, and I mean the old ruins of the ancient city of Rome.

This is bad to admit for an avid pastor, but Rome is my favorite city on the face of the planet.

In the last 15 years I've probably lived in that city for a full year just digging through the ruins and looking at everything and because I've fallen in love with history now.

I love the city of Rome and when you go down to the city of Rome and you get to the old Roman Forum you've got the Colosseum here and then you've kind of got the Arch of Titus and then you've got the Basilica of Maxentius which became the Basilica of Constantine and you go through the ruins, Temple of Jupiter and Temple of the Vestal Virgins, Julius Caesar's house, the Roman Senate, 1 of the best preserved buildings of all antiquity.

And then right beside that, kind of tucked in the corner, is the Mamertine Prison.

Now some of you perhaps have been to the Mamertine Prison.

This is the place where history, tradition, legend says that they held both Peter and Paul before they executed them in the city of Rome.

We don't know for sure that Paul was ever in the Mamertine prison, but there's a pretty good chance that's exactly where Peter was held before they led him out over the Tiber River out to a wasteland on the Vaticanus mountain and they and they crucified him there.

It's probably true that that's where he was.

Now when you go to the Mamertine prison you go down this set of stairs, double stairs that go down, There's a guy sitting on a stool who takes a coin from you because nothing in the city of Rome is ever free, and when you get down the stairs you walk into this room and now you're in the Mamertine prison but you're not yet in the cell that they held Peter.

That's 1 story below you, this dark, musty, dank, low-ceilinged cell.

So you walk into this room, and you turn around, face the door that you've just come in, and to your right is this staircase going down into the cell.

And above the staircase, there is this mark in the stone wall, this smudge, this dent.

And you know that that smudge or dent is important because they put a steel grate over top to keep you from touching it with your oily tourist fingers and ruining like 2, 000 years of patina.

I know, because I tried to touch it and they pulled me away.

And there's a grate right over that dent, smudge in the rock, and you know it's important.

You wonder, what is that dent or smudge in the rock?

And fortunately, there's a plaque right beside it to let you know why it's important.

I wrote it down in Italian and I don't want to embarrass myself so I'll just read the translation.

Good, because that's what I was going to do.

Against, listen carefully, against this rock Peter struck his head having been pushed by guards and the miracle remains.

When the soldiers threw him down the stairwell, his head hit the rock and it left a big dent in the stone and the miracle is still there 2, 000 years later.

There's only 1 little problem with the story.

Those stairs weren't there when they imprisoned Peter.

They never pushed him down those stairs, and yet I look at that dent in the wall, and I'm thinking, I want this to be true.

It can't be true, because that stairwell, there used to be a hole in the floor.

There's a sort of a manhole cover over it.

But the stairs weren't there, and I know it's not true, but I want it to be true.

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The Harvest Is Great

The Harvest Is Great- Part 2

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