AMEN 2010: Christ - Patient Restorer

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

AMEN 2010 Plenary Sessions

Allen Lloyd

From Fractured to Whole

Nebblett Family

Wholeness with God

David DeRose

Holistic Medicine in the US - Passing Fad or Permanent Fixture?

P. William Dysinger

Historical Perspectives on Adventist Medicine

Phil Mills

Restorer’s

Edwin Nebblett

Maria Nebblett

Wholeness with Your Spouse

Nicolae Dan

Is This the Time?

Raja Tooma

Going All Out with Witnessing: Is that Your Heartbeat Doctor?

Mark Finley

To Make Man Whole - Christ the Patient Restorer

Challenge to the students at AMEN conference 2010

Naren James

Why Media? Introducing the Life & Health Network

Wholeness with Your Family

We really need your prayers this morning because this morning's message is probably the most challenging for a couple of reasons.

First of all, when the Lord starts calling to your heart and you start getting uncomfortable, you say, Lord, what would you have me to do?

Ask the Lord what he would have you do first.

So as we share with you this morning, we're really struggling to distill a lot of information into a short period of time.

But we just want you to know that we're praying for each of the families here.

Because as you hear, you will say, I wish I had done that.

Say, Lord, what would you have me do now?

Or you may say, Lord, I want to do that all right now.

And the answer is, Lord, what would you have me to do first?

So that's my plea to you as we share from our hearts this morning because you will hear our journey distilled.

And that's not an easy thing to do because we understand what is the challenge in the hearts of those who are parents and when your children have grown and they've left the home, your burden for your children and your grandchildren, Lord what would you have me to do?

So please, when you leave here, this is a high experience, the enemy is going to do very much in his power to derail you, to discourage you, to distract you.

We don't want you to be discouraged because just imagine, as a parent you pour your life, your time, your effort into your child, hoping to build a godly character in them.

Would you consider that to be a worthy endeavor?

Well, what if you knew that according to the researchers in the broader evangelical Christian world that 70 to 88 percent of teens leave the church by their second year of college?

Would it bother you that 9 out of 10 teens leave the church by the time they're 20 years old?

You know, researchers found that teenagers who still attend church and identify themselves as Christians have belief systems that are not consistent with Christianity.

For example, they found that 85% of teens who identify themselves as Christian do not believe that truth is absolute.

More than 50% believe that Jesus Christ sinned during his earthly life.

They went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they were of us, they would have continued with us.

But they went out so that it might be revealed that they were not all of us." How did this happen?

We believe that we as parents have responsibility to help our children be Christians, But this cannot do unless mommy and daddy are Christians.

Then we must follow the admonition that is found in Deuteronomy chapter 6, 6 and 7.

And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart.

And you shall carefully teach them to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

So what we want to share with you today are 4 areas, 4 principles if you will, that we believe promote wholeness in the family.

They are first of all to seek revival in our own life and then take time to connect your hearts to the hearts of your children and thirdly teach your children diligently as it speaks of in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and then to cultivate honor and obedience.

I'm probably going to stick to my notes very closely because I can read faster than I can talk.

There's so much that I want to say, but the family is important to God.

It has been the object of his special regard and his glorious purposes since creation.

This is very evident as we look at both the Old and the New Testaments and how he dealt with families there, as well as it being evident in the beautiful revelations about God's high calling for families in the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy.

In ancient times, God covenanted with faithful men such as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and many others, promising them unspeakable blessings if they fulfilled his glorious purpose for them to raise the kind of families that would bless all the families of the earth with the knowledge, the light of the knowledge of God.

And the pen of inspiration echoes God's unchanging purpose and design for families when it tells us that a well-ordered, a godly family recommends the truth and the life-changing power of the gospel to the world in a more powerful way than is possible through any other means.

Ellen White says that he wants our families to be, quote, a light in the community, an argument that the infidel cannot gain say, A source from which will flow streams of healing to a sin-sick world where families are falling apart.

He wants our homes, therefore, we can conclude that he wants our homes to be training schools for missionaries.

It is no wonder then that families have been the target of Satan's attacks in such a prominent way, especially in these last days.

As we look at the world today and even as we look within the church at families and we consider statistics such as the ones that Edwin shared, we are compelled to ask what has gone wrong and how can we fix it?

Writing to parents, Ellen White challenged us to ask ourselves a question which we believe is very timely today.

Am I raising a family of children to strengthen the influence and swell the ranks of the powers of darkness, or am I bringing up children for Christ?

There's so much that we would like to share from our experience in the way that God has led.

But Edwin mentioned just 4 principles that we are going to highlight.

That first principle was the need for seeking revival in our own lives.

The example of your godly life as a father and as a mother is the most powerful argument to your children in favor of Christianity.

Parents, she says, should in their words and deportment toward each other give their children a precious living example of what they desire them to be.

When there is a disagreement, she goes on to say, between mother and father, for instance, the children will partake of the same spirit.

It doesn't matter what you're telling them to do to get along with each other.

The spirit that they see you portray, mom toward dad or dad toward mom, they copy that.

Your life is a living epistle read by your children.

Is God's word the standard of your life in every area?

Does your life, does your attitude, your demeanor reflect the love and the character of God and is that attractive to them?

Parents, if you would educate your children to serve God and do good in the world, make the Bible your textbook.

Whatever else is taught in the home or in the school, the Bible should stand first.

That reminds me of Phil Mills' family's ministry, my Bible first.

If it is given this place, God is honored and he will work for you in the conversion of your children.

So really, it's not about changing your children.

It's about changing your own life that it can be a powerful appeal and testimony to your children.

The second principle that he brought up was the need to connect our hearts to the hearts of our children and thus promote family cohesiveness because the hearts of our children need to be connected to the hearts of their siblings and the hearts of their parents.

This is critical because when you have your child's heart, you will have the influence in his life needed.

Ellen White says, and I don't have this in my notes, but I recall where she says, you must win their hearts if you would impress religious truth upon their hearts.

Make your home atmospheres, another thing she says, fragrant with tender thoughtfulness.

These are things, Sean will speak a lot more about this, but these are things that will bind their hearts to you, bind their hearts to home.

We live in a society that separates families from early on, you know, that's our tendency and it's the same in the church.

We're always, as we enter into activities, you know, the children go to 1 place, and it's no wonder that by the time our young people get to their teens, their hearts are bound to the hearts of their peers, their friends, much more than they are to the hearts of their family, mom and dad, their siblings.

So we need to be very intentional in this culture in order to promote family cohesiveness.

Again, there's a lot that we could say on that point, but God is willing to teach you as he is teaching us, as he has been teaching us all along the way.

And there's such a wealth of counsel that we have at our fingertips that we normally don't take advantage of to become wise in the ways of God.

Number 3 was teaching our children diligently according to the fashion that is evident there in that chapter in Deuteronomy 6.

Make the admonition in Deuteronomy 6, verse 6 and 7, make it a lifestyle.

Make every moment of family life a teaching moment.

They need to be learning from the time that they're babes and we need to be reinforcing this telling them, honey, we were made for a relationship with God to bring him joy and glory.

They need to see that that is what your life is all about.

We were made to worship, to honor him, to live to please him, and to make his name known among the nations, to make his name great in our neighborhood, in our church, in the world, to make it great among all that we come in contact with.

Our children need to be confronted very early with the problem of sin And to understand that since the fall, their nature, our nature, mom and dad's nature, is selfish and sinful.

And so it is with them, ever striving for autonomy and independence.

They need to understand that the only solution to the sin problem is the gospel.

Series

AMEN 2010 Plenary Sessions

Wholeness with Your Family

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Divine Assurance

The Man in the Shadows

1h 43m

The Call of Nehemiah

1h 48m

AMEN Luncheon Session- Part 2

31m

AMEN 2009 Breakout Seminars

Creation-Science Evangelism

2h

Morning Devotional: It's War Time

It’s Wartime - Part 8: Marching Orders

53m

The Few

1h 36m

The Sanctuary, God's Answer to the Sin Problem

Why Jesus Waits

1h

Our Call to Medical Missionary Work

1h 23m

A Beginning With No End

The Inner Circle

1h 21m

Prayer by Gem Castor

Relentless Pursuit

53m

Financing Yourself

Financing Yourself- Part 3

1h 11m

The Power of Unity: Reflecting Christ in Every Relationship

03 Unity in Diversity, Part 03

56m

Sound Doctrine