AMEN 2019: Christ in You

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Morning Devotional

Wes Peppers

Strength in Surrender: Surrendering Yourself

I wanted to just briefly, before I dive into our message this morning, just give you a little bit of my background.

I was not raised in the Adventist church.

How many of you were raised in the church and proud of it, amen?

And I wish I had had that background, but unfortunately I did not.

My parents were not Adventists or even Christians, And I grew up in a, you say a Christless home.

And I was involved in sports for a number of years, played football, and was a pretty big star in my hometown.

And When I went on to college, I became atheist, and I wasn't really anything before that, but I became an atheist, and really had no interest in religion.

I thought it was all fairy tales and fables, and I just wanted to do my own thing and find freedom, but instead I found slavery.

And the Lord, through divine providence, has led me to himself, and I ultimately, when I was on the verge of suicide, decided to study the Bible to prove there was no God and that there was no purpose to life.

But the Lord spared me and he brought me to a place where I am today and I'm so thankful for that.

And I'll talk probably a little bit about that throughout the weekend.

But When I first studied the Bible, it was like just a divine revelation to me.

My life was transformed, and I hope that your life is transformed.

I know for those, many people have told me, for those who grew up in the church, it's often a difficult thing to really experience what you might call a conversion.

But let me tell you, God has been with you since your birth, amen?

He's been with you since your birth, and he's been speaking to your heart.

And in 2009, I actually had cancer, and I almost died from a septic infection and I'll probably share a little bit about that throughout the weekend, but I'll tell you friends, you know, you really don't understand, how do I say this?

You really don't understand how precious life is until you go through a situation.

I know many of you being physicians and working in the medical field have seen others on the other side of that, But it's really during those times when God draws close to you.

And I want you to know that as physicians, you have an opportunity to draw close to your patients in a special way when they're on that receiving end.

But friends, I've had a lot of suffering in my life.

I've had a lot of experiences that no 1 in this room even knows about, that only God and myself know about.

And I'm sure that if we could all open up the chapters of our life, others would be shocked at what they might see in our lives, and the difficulties that we may go through that we internalize, but I want you to know this weekend that God is there with you throughout them all.

You know, I actually wanted to be a physician.

I wanted to go to medical school, I wanted to become an ER doctor, but the Lord, shortly after my conversion, called me into the ministry.

And it was actually at a state university that I found my faith.

When most young people are leaving the faith at university, I actually found my faith.

And the Lord converted me my senior year in college, and to my knowledge, I was the only Seventh-day Adventist on a campus of about 12, 000 students.

And so I knew of no other Adventists, barely any in the area.

And when I first came to the Lord, I went to a little local church, and I was 22 at that time.

And the only, The person that was closest to my age in that church was over 50.

So it went from 22 to 50, and then it went up into the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and there was a couple people there in their 90s.

That very first Sabbath I sat in the pew listening to the elderly lady play the piano, missing every other note.

Because I said, Lord, this is where you want me to be.

Life did not make sense to me before I knew the Lord and before I understood the Adventist message.

And friends, I wouldn't have cared if all the people in the church were over 100.

You know, when young people say to me today, oh well, you know, in our local church there's no young people, but there's the Lord, and he's the only 1 you need, amen?

And so I rejoiced, and I began to witness to others on campus, and I'll tell you maybe more about that before we get into our message this morning.

You know, I was thinking about what to share, because I'm a pastor, and most of you are physicians, or dentists, or nurses, or medical professionals.

And I thought to myself, you know, what does a pastor share with medical professionals?

And you know, the common thing that you hear at these types of conferences would be, oh well, you know, the pastors and the dentists need to work together and there's true medical missionary work and all those things are correct and true, but as I looked at the schedule, you're gonna hear all of those things in the seminars.

And so I thought, you know, I don't know that that's exactly what you need to hear more.

And I began to pray about it, and the Lord began to impress me on something to share.

And I'll tell you about that in just a minute.

But what I found is that true ministers and physicians are really not that different from each other.

Notice I said true ministers and true physicians.

Essentially, in many ways, they are doing the same work, or should be doing the same work.

And listen, a lot of times, it's the truth.

I mean, I'll just tell you right now, I didn't come from an Adventist background.

I came out of the world, so I will be quite raw with you this weekend, okay?

So just note ahead of time, I'm not, you know, I consider myself professional, but I also consider myself real, and I just want to be straight up with you.

The reputation that a lot of ministers have, Not, I didn't say all, but I said some or a lot, is that they're lazy and incompetent.

And that they only went into the ministry because they couldn't do anything else.

How many of you have heard somebody say that before?

Maybe you've said that or thought that about your pastor before.

That there are pastors, I mean, I supervise pastors, and I have some pastors.

Some of our pastors don't check their emails and other things.

And if some of the things that they did in the ministry, if they did that in a secular job, they would have been fired yesterday.

And there are ministers who could be very successful in the business world.

They could probably be millionaires, but they've sensed that call to the pastoral ministry.

And then there's a reputation amongst many about physicians, that they are arrogant, that they are arrogant, That they are cocky, that they don't listen to their patients, that they don't listen to people, that they many times view themselves as a mini-God.

Some don't have bedside manners, and they're harsh and cutting and nasty to their nurses.

There's those kind of reputations that physicians have.

But you know, there are some godly physicians out there, amen, who love the Lord, who are not just doing a medicine because they're in it for the salary.

You know 1 thing you know about Adventist ministers, if there's 1 thing you know, they don't go in it for the money, amen?

But I believe that God is calling godly physicians.

And I believe that there are physicians, if they made half as much as a pastor, they'd still do it.

Because they have a burden to influence their patience for the Lord.

And that they realize that there's a greater work beyond just the daily routine of the office, but there is an eternal work for every soul that comes through the doors of their practice or through their hospital, yes?

So there are all kinds of reputations, But when we are converted and we are committed, there are great similarities in this work because we are both working for eternity.

God has a special place in his heart for physicians, and I include dentists in that, and medical professionals.

God has a special place in his heart for pastors because he is 1.

And he wants to bring those 2 together so that they work in unison with each other and essentially do the same work.

So when I thought about what am I gonna share with you this weekend, I thought about this.

In the end, humanity is humanity and we're all in need of a savior.

1 thing I know for sure is that physicians need to hear the gospel.

Medical professionals need to hear the gospel.

And I don't make the assumption this morning that all of you have accepted the gospel or that you've even understood the gospel.

I don't make the assumption today that just because you may be the head elder of your local church or whatever positions you hold in the church, that you really understand who Jesus is.

And so this morning, I'm gonna take you through the story of Peter.

And I believe this morning that there are a lot of similarities between Peter and pastors and Peter and physicians, medical professionals.

So with that being said, let's bow our heads together this morning, and I'm gonna kneel and I'm just gonna pray and ask the Lord's blessing to be with us.

Father in heaven this morning, as we dive into the gospel, I pray that your heart would minister to us this morning, that we would hear your words, and that we would understand and know the truth as it is in Jesus, and that we would surrender ourselves to it.

And Father, I just pray for the power of the Spirit of God to raise upon our hearts to come and speak to us, to draw us near to you.

Strength in Surrender: Surrendering Your Profession

Well, this morning we're going to talk a little bit about surrendering our profession.

And this is a story that, or a passage of Scripture, that is very close to my heart.

I love to preach on this passage, and I think it is 1 of the most relevant passages of Scripture in the gospel today for our generation and our day and time.

We are living at the end of Earth's history.

God has raised us up for a very distinct, a very specific purpose.

And that is to proclaim to the world that Jesus is coming soon.

And with that comes great pressure from the world to do just the opposite of that.

And it could be that in your workplace, it could be that in your practice, in your profession, in your office, in your hospital, wherever you are working, that there is that great pressure to hinder you from proclaiming that message.

And so today's subject is going to be on that very pressure, the pressure that comes from the world to hinder God's message wherever we are, and how by God's grace, by His strength, and by His promises, we can overcome that pressure.

I'm just going to invite you to bow your heads wherever you are, and I'm going to kneel this morning, and you can pray for me as I pray for you.

Father in heaven, this morning we praise you and thank you for the great Sabbath day.

What a joy, a day in which our hearts may be refreshed, a day in which our hearts may be recreated, rejuvenated, revived, and a day in which we find rest in our Creator and our Savior.

And on this day we cease from our works as a sign to the world that we cannot be saved by our works.

And Lord, it is in this day and in this hour that we pray for the power of the Spirit of God that you may revive our minds and you may help us understand the precious treasures that are in your Word.

And so this morning as we dive deep into the Word, we pray that you would be here bringing comfort to our hearts where needed, bringing conviction to our hearts where needed, and bringing a transformation where needed.

And so Lord we yield ourselves to you that you may do with us as it seems good to you during this time and we come in Jesus' name.

I remember a number of years ago that I was in the Ukraine, and when I worked for Amazing Facts, we did...created a number of global AFCOs.

We planted AFCOs in various places of the world to train young people and various other old people, it didn't really matter which ones, we had some of both, how to be a witness for the Lord.

And we established 1 of those schools in Ukraine.

I remember that I did several evangelistic meetings over there.

I remember that the Ukrainian church, the conference leadership, everything we sought to do, they would tell us, oh that can't be done here.

And the things that we were striving to do were what the Spirit of Prophecy told us to do.

It told us to do health fairs and health programs and they said, oh people here, they won't come to that.

And so we went out to knock on doors and to invite people to talk about their health.

We invited them to talk about Bible studies.

We offered them Bible studies, and the church leadership there said, oh, that will never work.

And so we went out for the first time on a Friday afternoon, and we sent about 60 students out and about 150 church members out and they went out knocking on doors.

And after about 2 hours they came back and they had to quit early because they had so many people who were interested in health and they had filled their entire schedule for Bible studies and we didn't know what to do so they had all their slots filled on all the days that they would do Bible studies were filled in just 2 hours and then we said we want to have a health expo and invite all the people from the meetings to come.

And they said, oh, that'll never work, because people here, you know, they just have a certain way of life and they're not going to be interested in any of those things.

We sent all of our people out with flyers.

And on the day that we had the health fair, which was just a couple of days before the meetings, the people were standing at the door all the way down the hall, down the stairs, and out the door into the streets.

And literally you could see the doors bulging because the people were pushing on the doors ready to get in.

And when they opened the doors, the people almost trampled our students trying to get in and to the different stations for the Health Expo.

And then we said, well we're going to do an evangelistic series and we're going to register people.

They said because people from communism that lived in communism would never give you their name and address.

Our students went out and in 2 weeks with the church members passed out by hand about 110, 000 invitations to the meetings.

We had so many people we had to do 2 sessions.

And we said, oh, we're going to do visitation.

And they said, oh, people would never let you come to their homes and So we put out a sign up sheet at the front desk inviting people to sign up to visit with the speaker The people were knocking each other over trying to get there to sign up to do visitation.

You know it's very interesting, there's a strong lesson in that.

That there are often times people would tell you that a certain thing won't work.

They'll tell you you just can't do this because the mindset of the people are a certain way.

But let me tell you Jesus came to change the mindset of people, didn't he?

And as Adventists today, we can often get ourselves in a certain mindset.

Maybe as physicians you can say, well, it's difficult for me to share with my patients because of this reason or that reason.

Maybe it's a hospital policy that prevents you.

Maybe it's your own fear that they will not respond in the way that you hope.

Maybe it's your fear that they would become offended if you mentioned spiritual things.

But I'll tell you that there was a man who came to those meetings and he was a very elderly man.

He was in his early 80s and he came every night.

And he came because of a young girl who was 16 years old who in the previous session had not believed in God, and she was, I don't want to tell the whole story, it's taking too much time, but she was on, she was ready to give up on life, and someone handed her an invitation to come to the meetings and she says, well I might as well give God 1 final chance.

When she was on her way to the meetings a car almost struck her in the side as she was crossing the street to come into the auditorium.

And she looked up and all she had time to say was, dear God please save me.

Just kind of like Peter yesterday, right?

And she said that that car almost miraculously stopped 1 inch from the side of her hip.

And that night she gave her life to Christ.

She came the next session of our AFCO in the fall as a student, and this young girl went and knocked on the door of this elderly man and invited him to do Bible studies.

This young girl who herself, 6 months ago, was an atheist.

And this man came to the meetings and he showed me a newspaper clip of a news story from 15 years prior.

And he said that he had a lot of problems, a lot of issues with his stomach and in his, just his whole abdomen area.

And so he went to the physicians, to the hospital, and they did a scan and they said, you have terminal cancer.

I don't remember what type of cancer it was.

They said, we will give you 2 weeks to 1 month to live.

You need to go home, get yourself in order, and prepare to die." So he went home and he was not satisfied with that answer.

And he said, and day after day, I would fast, pray, and study my Bible.

And he said, I kept waiting for the day that I would die.

And he said, that day has still not yet come in more than 15 years.

And he said I went back to the doctors and they said you have terminal cancer there's nothing we can do for you.

And he had a newspaper article where the local village had done an article on his story.

And I got a picture with him and that young lady.

And friends I'm telling you that there are wonderful things that modern medicine can do, but modern medicine has its limitations.

But there are wonderful things also that can be done when modern medicine is mixed in spirituality with the power of God.

Strength in Surrender: Surrendering Your Practice

It is good to see you this bright Sunday morning, and what a joy it is to be able to come together and break the bread 1 more time.

And I looked at the schedule, and I saw that my talk was it.

I mean that was like there's no final charge, there's no you know rallying cry at the end.

And I thought boy I better combine the early morning devotional with a good charge at the end right?

And so that's what we're going to try to do.

So I'm glad to see those of you who are here did not decide to cut out early on the time that God has given us to come aside and rest a while, amen?

And when he called his disciples aside, they would often talk about the work that they had done, the failures they had experienced, the successes they had had, and then they labored together and prayed together about how to make plans to move forward in God's work.

And that's what amen is all about amen and we praise the Lord for that well this morning we're gonna talk a little bit about surrendering your practice and we have I have some slides this morning that I'll share with you, just some quotes that I decided to throw up on the screen, so we'll get to those in just a few minutes.

But we've talked about surrendering ourselves, Christ in you, right?

And Christ cannot truly be in you to the fullest capacity until we have surrendered ourselves to the fullest capacity.

That everything that we are as a person must be laid upon the altar of God.

Then yesterday we talked about our profession, that we are not so concerned about professionalism, although that is very important and that is very key, but we want to be filled with the Spirit of God.

We don't want to be succumbing to the pressures and the demands and the expectations of the world around us, whether it be professionalism or secularism or whatever ism there is out there.

There's all kinds of isms that want to control and dictate the course of your life.

But God says, I want my spirit, Christ in you, to be the thing that is your driving power in your life.

And that is the driving mission, the driving course, the navigator of your life.

And if that means that we have to break away and so to speak rebel against those systems that would try to control us and hinder the light of God from shining in us that we must surrender ourselves to God afresh and recognize and understand the mission that he has for each 1 of us, amen?

And now today we're gonna talk about our practice, and we're gonna talk a little bit about the medical missionary work.

And so we're going to have a word of prayer together, and I'll invite you to pray for me, because I'm gonna say probably a few things that might be comforting to some, I'm sorry, convicting to some, might be challenging to some, but it'll be comforting to all who are willing to yield themselves to God's will.

So let's pray together, and then we'll ask, then we'll dive right in this morning.

Father in heaven, today we come 1 more time.

We pray I pray that this will be the very last amen, at least on this earth.

That Jesus will come and we can celebrate together in heaven those souls that you have won through our personal labor.

And Lord, today as we look at that very topic, personal labor, medical missionary work, we pray that your Spirit would open to us a fresh understanding.

Lord, I'm not qualified to speak on this subject.

I know very little about the medical work, but I do know something about the gospel work and in the reality of things, those 2 are the same.

And I pray this morning that as we look at these passages and these quotes from inspiration together, that you would open our eyes and our ears and move upon our lives to align ourselves with your ideal and with your purposes in our personal lives, that we may live for your honor and glory, that Christ may be in us, and that the world may see your glory through us.

That is our prayer today, And we ask it from our hearts and with all of our hearts in Jesus name.

I was looking at some statistics about the medical field and The consensus from many of these statistics is that the doctor is not necessarily in, but he might be out.

In the medical world, hundreds and thousands of physicians are overstressed.

How many of you can relate to that from time to time?

And about 30% of physicians in the medical field quit their jobs for another practice because the stress and the burnout has actually overwhelmed them.

Many times there are 3 factors and their reasons for quitting.

Number 1, toxic culture of toxic culture of competition.

We've talked about that in that if you're not at the top of your game, you're typically going to be out of the game, sitting on the sidelines.

Number 2, the way that decisions are made by the higher levels of leadership and organization.

And number 3, the workplace culture, the impersonal interaction with patients, the level of the workload, and the stress.

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Morning Devotional

Strength in Surrender: Surrendering Your Profession

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