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

Plenary

John Bradshaw

Kia Kaha

Mark Finley

Hope Beyond Tomorrow

Lightened With His Glory

Jesus Wins, Satan Loses

Pentecost Repeated

Shields of Brass

The Black Wall Street

Three Secrets of Lasting Peace

To Hope Again

The Second Coming

Not long ago I taught a class for a Southern Adventist university, it was a master's degree class, and it was a class on the Book of Acts.

We studied the Book of Acts chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and the class was an intensive class.

The first day of class, I said to my students, on the final exam, there are only going to be 2 questions.

The students, of course, were excited about that.

I said, question number 1, tell me in detail what's in every chapter of the Book of Acts.

Now you don't have to memorize the book, but if you did, it would be helpful.

Secondly, tell me how that chapter applies to your ministry.

1 of the students in the class had previously taken their MBA and that exam lasted 3 hours.

Well, after writing 4 hours on my exam, he came back and said, I'd take the NBA exam any day.

So you would expect me to begin tonight's presentation with a quiz.

But I need to give you some background to the quiz that I'm going to give you tonight.

A number of years ago, in fact it was just a couple years ago, Americans were asked a question, and they were given a complete sheet of items to circle.

And the question they were asked is, what do you need to get through the day?

What's the thing you cannot live without through the day?

Now, I don't want you to think as an Adventist Christian.

I want you to take the quiz as if you were an average American.

What do you think the average American answered when they were asked, What do you need to get through the day?

37% of Americans said we need coffee to get through the day, and we couldn't get through the day without coffee.

28% of Americans said we need some form of sweets to get through the day, our chocolate bar, our Snickers bar, our Hershey bar, etc.

19% of Americans said, we need cell phone or social media to get through the day.

We'd have a social media withdrawal addiction fit if we didn't have our phone, a whopping 16% said we need the Bible.

Twice as many people needed coffee to get through the day as needed the Bible.

1 third more needed sweets to get through the day.

Could the neglect of God's Word by the average American be 1 of the most significant reasons why we see the moral deterioration in our country.

Could the neglect of God's word be 1 of the reasons we see this lack of lasting peace, this lack of inner contentment, this lack of permanent joy?

Could it be that thousands of people are racing through life, stressed out, anxious, worried, tense, and looking for peace where peace cannot be found?

Could it be that they're looking in all the wrong places to calm their troubled spirits.

Could it be that just maybe there's something better than a cup of coffee to get through the day?

You see, worry, anxiety, fear and hopelessness have led millions of people in our world today to experience major depression that affects about 20% of the world's population.

Now, the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, depression will rival heart disease as the number 1 disease in the world.

Now when you take a look at antidepressants, and I am not suggesting that no 1 ever needs antidepressants, But what I am suggesting is antidepressants being given out like candy.

And when you look at it, we spend about $6 billion a year on antidepressants.

In the United States alone, over 270 million prescriptions of antidepressants were sold last year.

270 million prescriptions of antidepressants.

That's just a little under 1 for every American.

Now some of course are taking it multiple times.

Often the downside of that is not looked at.

14% of all young people that are taking antidepressants, And the interesting thing is, more and more the prescriptions for antidepressants are impacting 14 to 18 year olds.

And according to studies by the National Health Organization, the 14% of the young people taking antidepressants are going to become aggressive and even violent.

Now, when you add to that problem, there are 140 million alcoholics in our world.

140 million people that have an alcohol dependency.

When you begin to look at this, you begin to say, something is wrong in our society.

Worry, anxiety, fear, collapsing lives that are falling apart, seem to lead people to often take antidepressants or other mind-numbing drugs, alcohol.

The general angst in our society, this inner sense that something is not right, that there is little that's certain, this fear about the future has created a sense of hopelessness.

Now, when we lose hope, the dark clouds of despair hang over our heads.

Everything about tomorrow appears uncertain.

But hope leads us from what is to what can be.

Hope paints tomorrow in a ray of bright colors.

It lifts our spirits from the mud below to the heavens above.

She said, the wings of hope carry us soaring high above the driving winds of life.

The wings of hope carry us high, soaring high above the driving winds of life.

William Shakespeare said this, the miserable have no other medicine but only hope.

Hope is not some wishy-washy, sentimental feeling or longing for a better future.

It's not some baseless desire or an uncertain expectation with no real certainty or assurance.

In the ancient scriptures, hope is strong confidence in God.

You see, our hope is not in our strength, it's in His.

Our hope is not in our strength that's in His.

Our hope is not in our wisdom that is His.

You see, our hope is based on the unchangeable word of God with the certainty that the thing you hope for will be accomplished.

Now in his final discourse to his disciples, Jesus gives us 3 reasons to have hope as the guiding force of our life.

He gives us the 3 secrets of lasting peace.

If you grasp these secrets of lasting peace, worry will no longer dominate your life.

I'm not suggesting you'll never have any worry or you'll never have any fear.

But what scripture teaches is you're not going to be dominated by it.

It's not going to control your life any longer.

If you discover the secrets of lasting peace in John chapter 14, you'll have an inner contentment in your life, you'll have a new hope that buoys up your spirits.

You'll have a new sparkle in your eye, a new smile on your face.

Somebody tonight in this audience is going to grasp the eternal principles of God's Word and your life is going to be changed.

Somebody tonight is going to lay down a burden.

There's somebody that has come here tonight with a burden of fear, a burden of worry, a burden of anxiety, a burden of guilt.

Somebody has come here tonight feeling anxious and troubled because you keep failing on the same temptations again and again and again.

But tonight the light is going to break through the darkness.

Tonight somebody is going to grasp the eternal principles of God's Word and your life will be forever different.

The Holy Spirit that inspired the Bible is going to come, illuminate your mind.

You're going to sense a new power in your life.

3 secrets that fill our hearts with hope, purpose, and meaning.

We come to John, the 14th chapter, and we begin with verse 1, a verse that easily can be read and we can easily quickly proceed to verse 2 without allowing verse 1 to mellow in our minds, without turning it over in our minds and fully grasping the significance of it.

Now, If I were translating that verse more literally, I would translate it this way.

Back to Menu

Series

Plenary

Three Secrets of Lasting Peace

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Hindsight is Perfect

32m

The Greatest Witness

19m

Just a Drink of Water

43m

Knowing God’s Will- Part 2

29m

Chad Kreuzer Weekend 2022

Healing the Helpless

47m

From Moses' Exodus to Christ's Advent

From Moses’ Exodus to Christ’s Advent- Part 4

1h 13m

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: It’s All About Jesus

39m

God is Love?

10-The Return of the King

55m

ASI 2010 Plenary Meetings

Expounding the Faith

1h 30m

Crisis At the Close: The Mob

47m

As it Was in the Days of Noah

45m

Beauty and the Beast

51m

Sound Doctrine