Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Amazing Disciples

Mark Howard

4. It’s Not My Gift

Kameron DeVasher

1. Orientation

2. What is a Disciple?

3. Your Gift or Mine?

5. As a Witness

Marshall McKenzie

7. Friendship Evangelism, Part 1

8. Friendship Evangelism, Part 2

Wes Peppers

9. How to Reach the Atheistic Mind, Part 1

10. How to Reach the Atheistic Mind, Part 2

Jean Ross

11. Divine Commission

12. Cycle of Evangelism

Jim Howard

13. Grow Your Church, Part 1

14. Grow Your Church, Part 2

15. Giving Bible Studies

16. Missing Members

Doug Batchelor

17. Christ-Centered Doctrine, Part 1

18. Preparing for Baptism

19. Discipleship

20. Gospel Presentation, Part 1

21. Gospel Presentation, Part 2

22. Christ-Centered Doctrine, Part 2

23. Outreach Lab

24. Keys to Success!

25. Nurturing New Believers

26. Fishnet Demonstration

27. Caveman Theology

6. Christ’s Method Alone

How many of you have ever heard of a book called In His Steps?

Well, this was put out several years ago by the General Conference Ministerial Association, and it was sort of a baptismal guide type of book, and it went through the 28 fundamental beliefs, okay?

It lists on the top, you read verbatim the fundamental belief, and then it has just a host of bullet point statements that you read through.

This is a good book, I've used it before, but it's a little more in 1 sense than I really needed for baptismal preparation.

And in another sense, it was perhaps not the exact approach that I wanted.

So, for instance, if you look at how this is ordered, it's the sequence of the topics, it's in the same sequence as the 28 fundamental beliefs.

If you've ever looked at the 28 fundamental beliefs, you know that they're sequenced by theological category.

So, the doctrine of God, the doctrine of the Church, etc.

And when you get in the doctrine of God, for instance, you've got, you know, the Godhead and then you have the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and there's a whole thing on that.

For people who believe as we do on the Trinity, which you cannot take for granted, just to be clear, because we are running into all sorts of anti-trinitarian now, but for those who do, you don't necessarily need 5 pages of, you understand, I mean it's a lot that is, you know, you want to give some biblical foundation but it may be more than you necessarily need in preparation for baptism.

And then the other thing is that because it's in these theological categories, you have, for instance, the remnant is in the doctrine of the church and then later when you get going later you come into the Sabbath.

So you actually come to the remnant before you come to the Sabbath.

We would never do that when we're giving Bible studies or evangelistic meetings or what have you.

So it's in an order based on theological categories, not in an order of how you would introduce somebody to the truth.

So because of the exhaustiveness of it, and because of the issue with the order, there are many people who have used what we refer to as clearing cards.

So if you go to It Is Written or Amazing Facts or whatever, you talk to their evangelists, they generally will not use something like this.

It has, this particular 1 is an Amazing Facts 1 that I know many of the Amazing Facts evangelists use, and it's got 19 points.

That doesn't mean it doesn't cover all the 28 fundamental beliefs, it just means it's consolidated into 19 points and it's very brief.

Number 2, I believe in the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

So, what we felt was we need something in between this and this.

Because the problem with this, not that it's intended that that's the only thing you're going to say when you're preparing someone for baptism, but if you are an elder or, you know, just 1 pastor versus another pastor, you don't really know if they're going to cover the essential things that need covered when you talk about each point.

You know, you should be filling in the blanks, but filling them in with what?

And so what we tried to do was do something in a little bit more of a narrative style, has a little bit of a bullet point style, but a little more of a narrative style, covers all 28 fundamental beliefs, but it puts them in a sequence that's more like we would with an evangelistic approach, and it consolidates and combines some of them where we didn't need the depth of expansive whatever.

But it also, in some places, gives expanded explanations that you wouldn't find in the fundamental beliefs.

For instance, there is nothing in the fundamental beliefs that tells a person how to keep the Sabbath.

It tells you about the Sabbath, but when you're preparing someone for baptism, you want them to understand how to keep the Sabbath.

The fundamental beliefs do not talk about, for instance, some of our key prophetic understandings.

You might never know who we believe the beast is or what we believe the mark of the beast is from going through our fundamental beliefs.

I mean it mentions the 3 angels and the third angel certainly is a warning against the mark of the beast but there's nothing in there that gives any explanation of that.

So we wanted to give just a paragraph here, a paragraph there to give some expansion to some of those things.

If you take someone through an evangelistic campaign, let's say, and they come to most nights, but not all the nights or something, and they say they want to be baptized, you can give them 1 of these and say what I'd like you to do is read through this and on any point that you agree with and don't have any questions about, just check it.

But if there's anything that we haven't studied yet or that you have a question on, then put a little question mark on it.

And then you meet with them and you first start with the question marks.

And you go through and answer any questions that they have and try to help them with any things that they are struggling with.

And then after you've done that and when everything is is done, then you want to just do a quick you know what I mean?

Just kind of okay so this 1 you're no question about this, this 1, this 1, okay because just because they didn't put a question mark by it doesn't mean you shouldn't make sure you just at least ask the question if they're comfortable with it.

Now you'll notice that there are some points in this that are in italics.

So if you look on like page 5 under the first doctrine of the Holy Scriptures in this particular booklet it has a my commitment by the grace of God I will strive to remain in close communion with Christ through daily prayer and Bible study." So right from the start, you want them to be connecting to Christ.

So right in the beginning of the preparation process, you're wanting them to make that commitment.

And then, as you keep going, some of them do not have a specific commitment, but if they have a practical area, such as on page 9, after you're talking about the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and personal Savior, and believe that God and Christ has forgiven my sins and given me a new heart." You flip to page 10 and look at the second bullet point on that page, which is under the experience of salvation, and it touches on another important commitment point.

Having accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior, I will aim to become like Him in character, choosing love, humility, courtesy, and kindness in my words and actions.

With God's help, I will forgive others as Christ has forgiven me." 1 of the things I always do when I'm preparing people for baptism is I make sure that they're not harboring bitterness towards someone that they won't forgive.

So this just gives you an opportunity to make sure that that's covered.

Then you come down to the bottom of the page.

It is my purpose out of love for God and in humble reliance upon his power to faithfully keep the 10 Commandments.

Then you come to the Sabbath and under the Sabbath we have both theological doctrinal points in there and practical points.

Like you look at the third bullet point, it says the Sabbath is to be observed on the biblical seventh day, which extends from sundown Friday evening until sundown Saturday evening.

This was an addition that really we haven't seen in other stuff.

Bible prophecy reveals that a sinister power, commonly referred to as the Antichrist, would intend to change times and law.

This prophecy was fulfilled when the medieval church claimed to change the sacredness of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, a change for which there is no scriptural support.

Sunday would eventually become the commonly accepted day of worship among Christians, and many people will no doubt be in heaven, who unwittingly erred in regarding Sunday as the Sabbath through the centuries.

Yet as truth is restored at the end of time, God's people who were previously unaware of the false teachings of spiritual Babylon, a prophetic symbol of the Antichrist and those teaching-like errors, will come out of her to follow the truth, including the Bible Sabbath." So you see what we did in that 1 statement?

We explained that, hey, just because your grandma and your mom, you know, kept Sunday doesn't mean they're going to be lost.

But here you are at the end of time and God's calling people out of Babylon and into Bible truth, including the Bible Sabbath.

So now they understand the idea of the change of the Sabbath and what have you, which is not really in the fundamental beliefs.

Now you flip the page and you look at, for instance, the second bullet point, and it talks about the Sabbath commanding us to refrain from common labor.

It even says, labor that deals with emergency situations, care for the suffering, or spiritual ministry is in harmony with the sacredness of the Sabbath.

But common labor, even when done out of kindness, such as building a deck for a neighbor, does not fit the example Jesus gave of the kind of good deeds that are lawful on the Sabbath." you understand what this is saying?

Like just because Habitat for Humanity or whatever, just because somebody's doing some building project that's a good thing to do doesn't mean that it's an appropriate thing, it's lawful to do on the Sabbath.

People say it's lawful to do good on Sabbath.

But when you read the context, remember what we talked about with biblical interpretation, when you read the context you find that the type of kindness or good that was being done was rescuing this ox out of the ditch.

It was an emergency situation, a situation that dealt with suffering, and therefore it fit the category.

But there's no suffering or emergency involved with building the fence or the deck or what have you.

So that's why we make sure they understand the distinction.

And if you keep going down, it talks about buying and selling on the Sabbath and other things that are maybe not, that are not appropriate.

And we've actually tweaked a little bit on here on the new publication and made it a little bit clearer.

But if you look at the commitment point, it says, My commitment, by the grace of God, I desire to keep the Sabbath holy from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, enjoying the spiritual blessings of worship, fellowship, and service.

In harmony with this observance, I choose to refrain from all secular work or activities, buying or selling, or hiring others to perform common labor on the Sabbath." So are you following?

And if you keep going through, you find all the commitment points.

You come to the second coming of Christ on page 14.

It talks about preparing for Christ and not the world.

You get to death and resurrection on page 15 and the my commitment point says because the Bible teaches that those who have died are in a state of unconscious sleep I choose to avoid entertainment or practices that promote false views of death or other spiritualistic activity." You come to Christian Behavior on page 17, and it's got 3 My Commitment points.

You've got 3 points on health and then a commitment point.

By the grace of God, I will care for my physical health.

This includes abstaining from unclean meats and from the recreational use of addictive, mind-altering substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and other habit-forming drugs.

If you were to look at the 1, a bullet point right above it, it does identify that alcohol, tobacco, caffeinated beverages, and other recreational drugs and narcotics are both addictive and harmful to our bodies.

Christians should abstain from anything mind-altering or addictive which has not been prescribed by a doctor.

God wants our minds to be clear so that we are more attentive to the voice of conscience and stronger to resist temptation." So it makes some clear points.

Then you get into entertainment and when you get to the next My Commitment point on the top of page 18, it says, By the grace of God, I will avoid reading, watching, participating in, or listening to sinful things that the Bible condemns.

I will strive to live a life of moral purity in my thoughts and actions.

It's not a My Commitment point, but it's right before this My Commitment point that actually touches on, I think we said it's something like, because, you know, something about because God wants us to keep our hearts pure, something like that.

Christians should avoid viewing pornographic material or something like that.

So, that is 1 of the points that we added for the new edition.

Series

Amazing Disciples

19. Discipleship

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Characteristics of a Wise Man

52m

Missions in America

Missions in America- Internet

36m

I Met God

I Met God 8

43m

Identity Crisis- Part 1

40m

To the Victor Goes the Spoils

48m

Ministerial

How to Follow up on Leads and Use the Interest Tracker Leads Software

1h 19m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

13 The Cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary

58m

Witnessing to the Wealthy, Worldly, and Well-Educated

01-Emergency Landing

44m

Acts

Acts: Priesthood of All Believers

33m

The Adventist Atheist

1h 1m

Bi-Vocational Ministry

24m

Prophecies of Hope

6. The AntiChrist Coverup!

50m

Sound Doctrine