Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

<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>

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Theresa Broden

Successful Soul Winning With Adventist Literature

Dear gracious loving father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for this opportunity to come together and we thank you for the love that you have shared with us.

We ask lord that you would just be with us now that every word said and each thing done and thought would bring glory and honor to you.

We ask that it not be me that speaks, Lord, but you.

A question was asked by Mark Finley, and we're blessed we have Mark Finley here with us.

It says, why would God pour out His Holy Spirit and latter rain power to finish His work if the majority of the church has little or no interest in witnessing?

If the latter rain, the fullness of the Holy Spirit's power, is to empower the church to reach the world with God's end-time message, why would God give us the latter reign if we have a complacent, lukewarm attitude toward reaching lost people?

The fullness of the Holy Spirit's power will be poured out on a praying, totally committed, unified, witnessing church.

We think, when we think about Adventist literature, that some people think that there's no difference between Adventist literature and other literature.

But we know that we have messages specifically for the end time.

But we have very few workers and many of the workers don't really understand the importance of using Adventist literature as opposed to other literature.

And this is the reason why we have this class.

Now I'd like to clarify here for the purpose of the class, when we talk about church we are talking about individuals.

We're not talking about congregations or denominations because Christ is coming to save individuals.

Yes, we know we're part of the Adventist Church, but he's not coming back to get a corporate body.

So for the purpose of this, we want to clarify.

When we talk about church, we're talking about individuals.

We are not the only church that understands the importance of the written word.

The Assemblies of God leader recently said, Christian literature anointed by the Holy Spirit is always effective.

And the only way I believe that we will be able to fill, fulfill Christ's injunctions to reach all the world.

And that's from Bob Hopkins in his book, All They Want Is The Truth.

So there are other churches that are out there that believe that literature is important.

You know, many of us have seen Jehovah's Witnesses.

They come and knock on the door and they have their literature.

So understanding the importance of literature is not something that is unique to the Adventist church.

Another mass literature plan is Every Home for Christ.

It's a systematic distribution of evangelical literature to every home in various countries in cooperation with local churches and missionaries.

It has so far circulated 3.25 billion pieces of literature.

Dick Eastman, 1 of the program's leaders, states on the cover of his book, a global movement is underway to reach every home for Christ.

The impact will be beyond our imagination.

So again, there are people that understand the importance of literature in the work, but the literature that we're using as Adventists makes a difference in the results that we will have.

Martin Luther once said that the press is God's highest and extremist act of grace whereby the business of the gospel is driven forward.

And we understand because Martin Luther was back there with the press and the Bible was being printed and he understood the change that could happen if people had literature in their hands.

And today a lot of people say, well, you know, we don't need literature anymore because we have the internet, we have other things.

But literature is a powerful force in the hands of God's people.

We as Adventists know that God wants to do something big in our time and that publications will constitute 1 of the key instruments.

Thus the church's efforts to use this means as never before.

For example, on Sabbath March 24th, 2012, the church in South America distributed 25 million copies of The Great Hope in a single day.

Surely this is a sign that God is waking up his church.

That's a lot of books and that had to involve a lot of people to get that much literature out in people's hands.

So do you know how many languages they've printed it in?

It's English, French, and Spanish so far.

That's the Great Hope, which is the final chapters, well certain chapters of the Great Controversy.

The final stretch of finishing the gospel is now underway.

The fact remains that we still consider publications 1 of the most important means of fulfilling the Church's mission.

You may be surprised to learn that in the context of the last days, print media will be 1 of the most crucial means that the Lord will use to save millions from deadly delusions.

As a church, we have not been mindful of the inspired counsel.

The book work should be the means of quickly giving the sacred light of present truth to the world.

And that's from Christian Service, page 148.

You know, we think that because we're here in North America, that we don't need books.

Because many of us have our cell phones today, we have computer, but we are a very small minority when you consider the work around the world.

When you go to other countries and we've had the opportunity to go to other countries, they are hungry for literature.

They want everything you use when you're done, if you're presenting.

They want the paperwork that you, they want the notes, they want the books, they want any and everything that you have because they have nothing.

I have been where there's a Sabbath school class of maybe 2 or 300 people with 1 elder with 1 Sabbath school quarterly that's not even in his language that is teaching the lesson to that group of 500 people.

And of course, anybody else that can get a copy of a Sabbath school lesson would be more than eager to do it.

We have just not understood the importance of that literature.

Many of us have books, magazines, and things in our home that we have not opened, that we have not used, and that if we really understood the value of them, then we would understand, you know, it's like gold.

But to us, you know, we got gold laying around so we don't pay that much attention to it.

We have lost our vision on how important the literature work really is.

Says, when the church members realize the importance of the circulation of our literature, they will devote more time to this work in Cole Porter ministry.

And back when Ellen and James White were alive, they were commissioned to start writing.

James White died at an early age because he was so committed to writing.

We hear a lot about Sister White and her writings, but it was Elder White who wrote and got the publishing ministry of the Review and Herald going.

His life was shortened because he would stay up all hours working and writing and then he would work and do other physical labor in addition to earn money so that they could get those publications out.

They understood the importance of getting Adventist literature out because the message that they had was a message that no 1 else was sharing at that particular time.

And today that message is languishing because many of us have resorted to, quote unquote, the book and Bible house down the street.

When we have people come in, we wanna give them literature And I'll give them this book because it talks about Christian living and it talks about strengthening your relationship with Christ.

But when we get into our doctrinal issues, they differ.

You know, many times people will say, well, I'm a Seventh-day Adventist.

And they'll say, well, what's the difference between them and the Baptists, or them and the Episcopalians?

And you know what we say a lot of times, well, we're not that much different from you.

Basically, we just keep the Sabbath, and we have a couple other things, and we've kind of taken for granted that we are different.

And we've said, I'm not that different from you when we really do have a difference.

There's some more handouts on the back there.

There will be a coming crisis and there will be greater difficulties as we draw closer to the end.

God will then call into action agencies currently known to him to aid in the completion of this tremendous task.

But the missionary strength of the church rests within every member, regardless of place or position.

When divine power is combined with human effort, the work will spread like fire in the stubble.

God will employ agencies whose origins we'll be able to discern.

Angels will do a work which men might have had the blessing of accomplishing had they not neglected the claims of God.

So angels will have to do work that we would have had the privilege of doing, but because we have been indifferent, We have missed the privilege.

And you know, you think when you get into the kingdom and the Lord goes over your life and talks to you about things, think of how our hearts will be broken when there are opportunities that we miss to share with others.

And it doesn't necessarily have to be literature, but you know many times we have possibly been in a line, in a room, and the Holy Spirit has said, you should say something, and you know how we kind of, well, I don't know that person that well, I don't think I should say something.

It's the Holy Spirit moving in our heart.

Back to Menu

Successful Soul Winning With Adventist Literature

Transcript

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

The GLOW Ministry: A Literature Phenomenon

1. From the 1840’s to GLOW in the 21st Century: Trace the Path of Free Literature in the Adventist Church

51m

GYC 2012 Seminar: Streams of Light

Where is the Evidence? In the Literature

40m

GYC 2012 Seminar: Streams of Light

The Great Controversy and the Great Solution: Literature Evangelism

51m

GYC 2012 Seminar: Streams of Light

The First and Last Literature Evangelists

56m

Adventist Literature

Part 1 - A Key to Discipleship

1h 17m

Being an Elder 101

53m

Literature Evangelism

Literature Evangelism- Part 1

1h

Literature Evangelism

Literature Evangelism- Part 2

1h 4m

Seminars

Sharing the Three Angels Message Through Literature

48m

Sound Doctrine