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Campion Seventh Day Adventist Church

Prophets: The Issue that Divides

Micheal Goetz

Prophets: The Issue that Divides, Part 1

We're jumping in, you've heard, to a teaching series, the prophets, the issue that divides.

Now some people have already started talking, saying, what are the issues that divide?

It's not issues, it's the issue that divides.

The prophets are the issue and we're going to find that out.

We're jumping into this series for the next 7 weeks.

We're going to unpack from Scripture an understanding of what the prophets, Old and New Testaments and beyond and beyond.

Today we've got 4 passages, 1234, it will be done and we'll set them up each 1.

Now let me just warn you, Prophets, they were not well liked ever.

That is prophets, whenever they showed up, people resisted or ignored or even persecuted them.

So I'm warning you, you're not going to like them either.

Today might be the only 1 that you agree with.

Because the rest are going to speak directly to areas that we don't like to be corrected on.

Lord, we open our hearts as much as we can, which is really just giving you permission to open our hearts.

We want to leave here changed because we had an encounter with you.

Thank you for your faithfulness through the prophets.

Google, that behemoth, has said, hey, look, you wanna know what happened in 2021?

I didn't know who DMX was or what DMX was.

Found out now a top rapper through the 90s and early turn of the century.

He died this last April from a heart attack, cocaine induced heart attack.

Kyle Rittenhouse, number 4, we know the story, Brian Laundrie, number 5, we know the story.

Top 5 trending searches, But then Google says, Hey, we're not we don't just look at the superficial anymore.

We can we can track what seems to be the golden threads through all the searches.

What kind of questions people asking because you Google a question.

And so they, in 2021, reviewing the year of last year, in their words, they write, in a year which the world continued to face a devastating pandemic, among other global challenges, a theme emerged from the search data, the global pursuit of healing and finding a way forward.

They said there were searches like how do we recover from burnout, how do I maintain mental health, or related issues of the climate, or how do I conserve, how do I survive?

And they compile and say, there is a golden thread.

The golden thread is a global pursuit of healing and finding a way forward.

All around the world, people are typing in whatever language they are comfortable with, asking the question, how do I survive?

How do I live in a world like the 1 we have?

Google says 2021 was a year of seeking out reassessment of who we are, reflection and growth.

According to Google, the world searched for affirmation and direction online more than ever before.

I know that's not 2021, but for the rest of our lives, 2020 and 2021 are just going to be 1 mass of time.

The Macari Dictionary says the word of the year.

Now there are 2 finalists, Rona and doomscrolling.

Put the word on the screen so you can actually see it.

I wish something would have beat both of them.

The definition, the practice of continuing to read or expose yourself to news or conversation online, social media or otherwise, despite the fact that it is predominantly negative and often upsetting.

Now we can blame CNN and Fox News, but they're not just talking about CNN and Fox News.

They're talking about our social media, they're talking about our conversations, they're talking about what we talk about.

They say we are constantly, electively, that is by choice, placing ourselves in the context of a doom scrolling information.

We are getting it from our friends, from each other, we're giving it to each other, and we're getting it from online, from on social media, from...

Now it comes of course from that rolling with the mouse, but they're saying it's just much larger than the screen.

Oh, they give tons of advice on how to stop this because it's so destructive.

In fact, in the report they said there is not a single professional in the area of mental health that is standing up for our constant exposure to this stuff on news, social media, and with our friends.

Every 1 of them is saying it is detrimental, it is destroying mental health.

I found it interesting that that has been through the ages, the accusations against the prophets.

They have been accused, the prophets, of being doom scrollers.

Ones that just give out, don't listen to the prophets, don't ignore the prophets, All they are is doom and gloom.

So we've turned our back on the prophets and ran right into the arms of the waiting world.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Melanie and I, along with Cain and Mike, returned from a trip to the continent of Africa, the country of South Africa, where I was speaking for a convention, a congress for young people and the Adventist Frontier Missions.

I loved working, calling a group of young professionals from the continent of Africa, spread out throughout the whole continent.

We had gathered together in South Africa to call them to a radical commitment to Jesus and to mission service.

And wouldn't you know it, young people from the continent of Africa decided themselves to be missionaries.

And not just that, they're not just going back to their own community, they're becoming foreign missionaries.

The gospel has impacted Africa now where they are, they are now sending missionaries.

After 8 days of preaching at the Congress, we took 3 days to visit the Kruger National Park.

You can't cover it even in 3 days, really.

But for hours, we drove around the park, looking for everything from dung beetles to the elusive cheetahs, everything, just looking for anything.

Well, if you've been on 1 of these safaris and the Kruger included, you know that sometimes you'll drive for hours without really seeing anything.

Prophets: The Issue that Divides, Part 2

As you have provided for that work around your house here, would you also provide for a new heart today?

Maybe you wanna touch some of our hearts to go out and share Jesus with somebody or to start a small group or a grow group.

Maybe there's a word today from the study of your word that you want to touch a heart with.

I'm going to put a picture on the screen for you.

What do you see now on my right to the left as you view the picture?

You say, that's that's that's sweet Melanie.

Come Christmas time, that dear, sweet Melanie gave me a gift.

Let me put you on the screen what I found when the wrapping paper was off the box.

Dear Sweet Melanie bought me a bicycle seatbelt.

It says it's speed tested up to 48 miles an hour.

On the back, put a picture of it on the back there, it's a It protects yourself from the 3 most common causes of bike accidents, automobiles, ravines, and wheelies.

The tagline here is, remain seated, remain calm.

It's just to put your mind at ease when you have a seatbelt on your bicycle.

Of course, opening the box, bright yellow words, greet you with prank you.

Maybe that's what you saw in that picture.

After Christmas, that's not what I see in that picture.

Dear Sweet Melanie, That was my gift for Christmas.

Empty box advertising a bicycle seatbelt.

I did a survey I did a survey online, discovered some of the worst gifts received.

1 disappointed person wrote in that they once received a clock with a gigantic moose on it.

The person says, I hated the woodsy theme and the worst part is every hour the moose makes a loud groan for 60 seconds.

My mother-in-law, who bought it, she watches my kids every day at the house, and so I can't put it away.

And Every time the moose groans, she laughs and says, that's just the best gift ever.

I've tried to break the moose several times without luck.

Someone else wrote in and said, my aunt, My dear aunt sent me a birthday card which included a Walmart gift card for $10 was printed on the gift card.

Once at the store to redeem the card, I discovered it had a remaining balance of 53 cents.

My mother, another said, my mother gave me a book for Christmas that I had given her for her birthday the year before.

She acted as though she had purchased it especially for me.

The note that I had written on the inside of the front cover was still there.

My parents, this is a 12 year old boy, poor guy, my parents would give me groceries, boxes of cereal, bags of chips and that sort of thing.

After I unwrapped them, we put them away in the cupboard.

And finally, another slightly disappointed husband said, my wife got me a trash can for Christmas.

The same year I got her an iPhone 10 for Christmas.

Maybe you've got 1 that sticks out in your mind.

Gifts are just gifts, but they still say a lot.

And so when it comes to the New Testament and the New Testament writers begin to talk of the gifts God gives his people, the gifts God gives the church, we call them spiritual gifts.

We take a little note because you don't play around with the word gift.

Even though it's free, it still says something.

First Corinthians 12, Romans chapter 12, and Ephesians chapter 4.

The 3 primary places that make the list of gifts God has given his people.

These are the gifts God is giving to bless us, to encourage us, to give us success, and to prosper us.

Interestingly enough, of those primary lists, those 3 places, prophecy is only 1 of 2 that is repeated in every single 1.

Giving some the conclusion that there's some sort of consistent emphasis put on the gift of prophets, the gift of prophecy.

The spiritual gift of prophecy is in every 1 of those lists.

John the Revelator, pulling out in Revelation 19, verse 10, speaking of the gift of prophets, says, this is the New Living Translation, The essence of prophecy is to give clear witness of Jesus.

Maybe that's why it's repeated in every 1 of those gifts.

It's to give a clear picture, a witness of Jesus, who he is, what he's done, and what he can do.

Peter also speaks of this gift of prophecy.

And he says, Listen, it is as if 1 that receives that gift would speak the oracles of God.

Translated in the New Living Translation, oracles of God is speak as if God were speaking through you.

That is to say, the work of the prophet is to speak the oracles of God, to speak what God speaks to them.

They take the message, the heart, the passion, the feelings, the pathos of God, and they deliver it to us.

It's unfortunate that we become so worked up and angry with what the prophets have said throughout history.

God's people have become angry with the prophets when all they were doing was taking what they had been told and what they had seen and sharing it with us.

Prophecy, that is hearing from God and repeating it to others.

Prophets: The Issue that Divides, Part 3: Elijah

I told Alex, I'll never forget sitting with him in a room, in a living room.

We were visiting a woman that was just days from the end of her life.

And so Alex right there sang Amazing Grace.

And you ask her, the woman who has since passed away, You ask her what it's all about.

I just want that to be the end of my story.

Oh, Father, thank you for the invitation to have Jesus.

And may that Jesus that you sent grow in our hearts in the worship today.

Thank you for the invitation to be in your house.

Series of the prophets, the issue that divides.

Because what we do with the prophets will make a difference, make an eternal difference.

What you do with the prophets, you ignore them, fine.

But it has eternal consequences, beloved.

That's Jehoshaphat's cry to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in 2 Chronicles 20 and verse 20.

When he says, oh, hear me now, you Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God and you will be established and believe his prophets and you will prosper.

The difference maker, what we do with the prophets.

And last week we found out that That question of prophets goes all the way to the very end of times.

In fact, at the end will be an increase in prophetic activity.

Joel, Acts, Jesus in Matthew chapter 24, all affirm The final events, the final generation will have to ask the question, what are we doing with the prophets?

We're going to spend the next couple of weeks going through the prophets.

Going through now 1 by 1, just a few of the prophets.

I want to introduce today's prophet with a little line from Bob Goff.

Bob Goff, American author, speaker, lawyer.

Apparently when Bob Goff applied for law school, he was rejected.

Well, if you're Bob Goff, he parks himself outside the dean's office, gets there when the building opens, and stays all day till the building closes.

A couple of days in, the Dean actually asks him, what are you doing here?

Bob Goff says, I'm staying here until you do what I know you can do to let me in.

As the story goes, 1 Friday afternoon as the Dean headed out for his weekend, he told Bob Goff to go buy his textbooks because Bob Goff was staying there, staying there.

So the dean finally relented, and now Bob Goff is a lawyer that's impacted the world over with his ministry through law.

Jehoshaphat's making this grand statement about the prophets to Judah and Jerusalem.

Well, to the north, it's a divided kingdom.

It's the infamous Ahab with his even more infamous wife, Jezebel.

That's not what you're hearing from Ahab and Jezebel in Samaria, Israel, the kingdom to the north.

But God raises up, calls a prophet from the hills of Gilead, that's on the east side of the Jordan.

Calls a prophet and suddenly the prophet appears in the throne room.

Put it on the text, you got your Bible, put it on the screen rather, you have your Bibles, 1 Kings 17, 1 Kings 17.

There is no ramp up to the story of Elijah.

1 Kings 17, now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahab, the first thing we do is we see Elijah in the throne room of Ahab declaring that as the Lord lives, whom I stand before, that's the new King James in the NIV you'll read, whom I serve continually, but I stand before.

I have been standing, I am standing, I will stand, I am there, I am before the King.

And he's standing before Ahab saying, I stand before the king, which is why I'm here standing before you.

My standing before God puts me in this position right here.

Joseph out to the south is calling on Jude and Jerusalem to embrace the prophets, to believe the prophets, to prosper because of the prophets.

He comes from the east side of the Jordan River.

So he's crossed over the Jordan river now to meet with Ahab.

Some actually think he might be an Ishmaelite.

Others say, and the majority probably side with him being a descendant of Joseph.

Here's his story, 60 seconds, my summary.

Elijah shows up from Gilead, unannounced, unexpected in Samaria.

He says his big word to the king, then like a guy that knows what's good for him, gets out of town.

He heads back across the Jordan River to the ravine called the Kareth Ravine.

God says, go there, I'm gonna take care of you there because the rest is going to just dry up.

Now he's told to go back across, go north now, go way north to Zarephath, a little village.

Chapter 18 says, after he's been there a long time.

We know a long time, it's been about 2 years because the drought lasts about 3 and a half.

About 2 years later, it's now 3 years into the drought, he's told to go meet Ahab in the middle of a field.

He runs into Obadiah, a faithful servant of God, but a servant to Abraham.

Obadiah didn't want to at first, you remember the story, because He said, I'm gonna go get him, and then, whoof, you're gonna be gone.

We know how you worked last time you made your big announcement.

And Elijah says, no, I'm here for real, I'm staying here.

If you think you've got something going here that works, get your prophets, let's meet on this plateau area of Mount Carmel.

Now it's not the very top of Mount Carmel, but they meet in this plateau area where all of Israel is invited to come meet for this showdown.

After the showdown, Elijah now goes up to the peak of Mount Carmel where he has this prayer and his servant sees a cloud, an insignificant size, but Elijah says that's it.

Grabs Ahab, tells him to load up his picnic lunch and let's get off this mountain.

Prophets: The Issue that Divides, Part 4: Elisha

Father, speaking of letting us know that, or letting others know that they're loved, you want to do that today.

So speak, speak your love to our hearts as only you would know how, through a thousand distractions.

20 million Americans, and maybe you're 1 of them, 20 million Americans have been tested.

Unfortunately, every 1 of your minds thought the same thing.

20 million Americans have tested through the tests provided by Ancestry.com, a Utah-based company, and 23andMe out from California.

20 million Americans have gotten their DNA tested to find out a little bit more of their story, a little bit more of their background.

Fulman, Westchester, a professor of media and communication, had studied DNA testing for 13, 14 years now, spoke up recently, just said, hey, if you're going to get DNA tested, if you're gonna do the DNA testing, just have a very frank conversation with your family before.

Because once you're tested, there may be some things that you have to talk about that you really wanted to know before you were tested.

Alice Collins decided to do the DNA test.

She identified herself as an Irish-American, but was shocked to find a mix of European Jewish, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European genes in her results.

Family-wide DNA testing, she learns that her father, through this family-wide DNA testing, comes out, wait a minute, he's not the biological son of her grandparents.

His parents, the people that he has now lived 80 some years as their son, Finds out, at the bottom of the story, must have been sent home with the wrong family.

Lydia Fairchild, Through DNA testing, this is crazy, through DNA testing discovers that she was not the mother of the children she had given birth to.

Now she was in the delivery room, she knows where those kids came from.

But the DNA testing says, nope, you're not the mother.

Well, scientists put their heads together.

But what they do discover is that they conclude that as a a infant, not as an infant, in her mother's womb she must have had a twin whom she absorbed their DNA And now her children bear the DNA of the twin she absorbed in the womb.

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Prophets: The Issue that Divides

This Issue That Divides, Part 8

Transcript

Parent Series

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Recorded

Parts

Prophets: The Issue that Divides, Part 1

40m

Prophets: The Issue that Divides, Part 2

43m

Prophets: The Issue that Divides, Part 3: Elijah

49m

Prophets: The Issue that Divides, Part 4: Elisha

49m

Prophetess: The Issue That Divides, Part 5

45m

Prophets: The Issue That Divides, Part 6

44m

Ellen & Beyond: The Issue That Divides, Part 7

42m

This Issue That Divides, Part 8

42m

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