<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>

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

Professedly Christian

The title of our message today is, Professedly Christian.

And you'll see where I got that, I suppose, here in a little bit.

You say it, sounds good, but maybe it's not the most genuine.

Have you ever been asked to give your testimony?

There's various ones within our denomination who have very powerful testimonies, right?

I'm just going to share a few that come to my mind.

Dwayne Lemon was a professional hip hop dancer who once got in a bar fight with another guy that probably if I said what hip hop group, some of you might recognize him, hopefully not.

Doug Batchelor, he's the 1 here on the left-hand side.

He lived in a cave, naked, but we won't mention that part.

David Ashrick, he was a purple-haired, punk rock atheist with baggy pants that completely enveloped his entire foot.

The other 1 here is Clifford Goldstein, who has a part in a lot of the sabbatical lessons has for years.

He used to heckle Christians on the street.

I think he had some atheistic tendencies as well.

Sebastian Braxton, I mean he went to prison.

And so if you've ever had some of these things, will you share your testimony?

If you're anything like me, you say, what do I have to share?

There I am there holding my Easter basket in Fresno, California.

And then this is not too long after we moved to Collegedale.

I was 5 when we moved and Stephen was born in Tennessee and so I was somewhere in between those 2 ages when we moved.

So like I said I was born to an Adventist family.

His father was an Adventist pastor as well.

And here's a little aerial picture, if you will, of Happy Valley.

I grew up eating Adventist food my whole life.

I went to an Adventist grade school across the field from our church.

Now let me tell you the Adventist church is already listed right here was my Adventist church.

Right across this field is where I went to grade school all 8 years.

I was part of an Adventist little league softball group that happened right here on these softball fields.

We then shopped oftentimes at our Adventist health food store which is right here and shopped at our ABC which is right there.

The campus shop all those wonderful things.

I took piano lessons from an Adventist right over here in the music building.

Even got my teeth cleaned by an Adventist in our church that's not, their office isn't pictured here but you just take Apples and Pike down here to 4 corners and I got my teeth cleaned over here somewhere At age 9 I was baptized into the Adventist Church and my brother Nolan and I we made good money mowing lawns for multiple Adventist families in the area, many of which lived right up here past the church.

I think I cut this grass right here and multiple others back in the back.

Before we could even drive, they would just drop us off and we would cash our checks at the Adventist-owned bank, which was right over here.

In the wintertime, you can't mow grass in the wintertime.

And so I worked for years as a janitor at 1 of our Adventist institutions.

I would clock in right there to be a janitor and clean some buildings.

Did that for, I don't know, 6 years, 7 years, I think.

Eventually, I went to our Avenus high school.

For high school, I had to go down this way You can either cross the field or take the sidewalk by the road And this was the high school where I went to school and we had our icebreakers right here in this field We played softball in these fields as well.

I even remember playing tennis on these courts When I was a kid So while I was there in high school, I was asked to be the student association pastor of the school.

And our graduation was held in the Adventist church that I've already pointed out.

But at age of 18, or maybe it was 19, circumstances forced a change in my life.

Upon graduation from high school, I had to leave.

Beloved, I had to leave home, gather up all my things and move all the way to the dorm, which is right here, To an entirely different room, a different bed in the same town of course.

My junior year I met my future spouse literally for the first time, I think actually it was my sophomore year, for the first time literally in my parents' dining room table, which was just off the map, just up right over here.

We like to say it was an arranged marriage.

Her dad too was an Adventist pastor like mine.

And so after another Adventist graduation, there was an Adventist wedding.

And I began working myself as an Adventist pastor.

And since then I've attended our Adventist seminary, pastored 5 different Adventist churches, have been employed by the Adventist system now for 15 years.

Since the day I was born, all of our medical benefits were through the Adventist system.

In a large part I am who I am today because of the system.

But I fear that the greatest danger among avidness today is not that they will fall headlong into a life of gang violence or drugs or crime.

I don't think it's because of teen pregnancy or alcohol or suicide.

No, I believe the greatest spiritual danger oftentimes can be the mindset that if I just avoid the obvious pitfalls, which granted is a good thing, but if I just avoid the obvious pitfalls, everything will be okay.

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the 1 wise God our savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forevermore.

But it also creates this idea that as long as I'm not bad, then everything is good.

But is that the same as having the character of God?

Does having Christ's character merely consist of not doing bad things?

Can we educate our sons and daughters for a life of respectable conventionality?

A life of professedly Christian, but lacking his self-sacrifice.

A life on which the verdict of him who is truth must be, I know you not.

Is it possible we can go through the whole system and profess something, but that something has never really impressed my heart?

Continuing on, Thousands are doing this, they think, to secure for their children the benefits of the gospel while they deny its spirit.

Those who reject the privilege of fellowship with Christ in service reject the only training that imparts a fitness, remember we talked about wanting to fit in, not just get in?

The only training that imparts a fitness for participation with Him in His glory.

They reject the training that in this life gives strength and nobility of character.

So we don't miss it, what gives strength and nobility of character?

Developing a character that will fit in, not just get in.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just by the Spirit of the Lord he wants to transform us friends into the same image the same likeness the same character as Jesus And how does he want to do that?

Back to Menu

Professedly Christian

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Steps to Christ

The Work and the Life

43m

GYC 2011 Plenary Sessions

Respectable Conventionality

1h

Prepared For the Last Days: The Savior’s Method

48m

The Way of Love

The Way of Love- Part 7

31m

ASI 2012 Seminar: Spiritual Growth

The Manifold Wisdom of God

1h 16m

Plenary

Sabbath School 1

1h 8m

Revival of True Discipleship

1h

Plenary

When All Has Been Seen

1h 43m

Something Better

36m

Morning Devotional

1. Off to a Good Start

58m

The Church

The Church Shaken, but Not Shaken Out Part 2

42m

Emmanuel Institute Bootcamp

1. Orientation: Intro to Prophecy

2h 43m

Sound Doctrine