ASI 2022 Convention: Revived to Witness

<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>

Plenary

John Bradshaw

Sent

You know, I was listening to Donna McNeil read the Spirit of Prophecy passage that I gave her.

You know, it was kind of long, so sorry about that.

I guess next time, it's supposed to be real short.

I should have just said, well, it was the book, The Great Controversy, that brought me to faith in Jesus.

So, The Great Controversy, we'd be here for a while.

So, anyway, my apologies, but that's a great passage, isn't it?

Well, I hope you're well and blessed and encouraged in the Lord.

This will be a great week or weekend, however you want to describe it.

You are familiar already with the theme for this week.

It was carefully and prayerfully chosen and arrived at.

It is God's plan to minister to our hearts this week and to send us from here different than when we arrived.

You know, I have a burning conviction that it is no longer business as usual for people of faith.

The sands have shifted underneath our feet.

The signs are screaming at us that Jesus is coming back soon.

The world is disintegrating before our very eyes.

If we look to the eastern sky we can just about imagine that the sky splitting wide open and Jesus coming back.

As a Christian, this is your time to stand up and shine for Jesus.

He has gifted us with this Holy Spirit, the power to motivate and impel us.

Ladies and gentlemen, there's got to be a change, doesn't there?

We've been reading for decades, decades and decades, about the great need of a revival of primitive godliness.

But we've got to experience that and stop expecting to witness that corporately and start at the only place we can start and demand that God gives that to us personally.

Our primary responsibility is to yield our heart and be ready ourselves and then and then go to work for others.

He's coming back soon and we believe in our hearts.

Many of us are profoundly convinced That we will have the privilege of witnessing the return of Jesus while we stand here on the earth.

It cannot be long So let us pray And expect that God would speak to us tonight.

Our Father in heaven, we've been blessed already, encouraged by heartwarming testimonies, stirred by heavenly music, focused as your Spirit has ministered to us already.

I'm not asking you that I would speak, but that you would speak.

No 1 came here tonight to see a performing seal or to listen to oratory.

We're here tonight in the hope, the prayerful hope, that heaven will be heard and Jesus will be seen.

So whatever you have to do to that end, we pray that you would do it.

I ask that you would focus our eyes and ears and minds for these next moments.

And I pray that when we are done we will be able to say we were in the presence of the Spirit of Almighty God.

Bless us now we ask you and we pray in Jesus' name.

I'm sure many people would have asked what could have possibly become of a man like him.

He'd made the choice to live without the benefit clothing would have conferred upon him.

Like me, you've seen people just like him in many places, fossicking in trash cans, dirty, carrying on intense, troubled conversations with imaginary people.

The locals weren't kindly disposed to this fellow.

They were sick of him terrorizing their community.

So much so, they'd had him physically restrained.

Now, chaining a troubled homeless man is far from politically correct, but that they did so is an indication of the distress he caused them.

He had once lived happily in the community, but by now that ship had long sailed.

No 1 really is comfortable saying so, but now his life was an absolute blight on society.

Not only was he a gigantic pain in the collective neck, But he had a happy knack of showing up at times people didn't want to see him.

Imagine grieving family members laying to rest the lifeless body of a beloved family member or friend and there he'd be mocking them.

Essentially he had broken the restraints with which they had attempted to restrict him.

And so what would become of a man like that?

Often, the deeply disturbed will just fade away.

They'll die frequently from some cause which, in and of itself, is not so dire.

But with no 1 nearby willing to render them aid, what hope do they have?

I was speaking to somebody moments ago who said I'd be dead by now if it wasn't for person A and person B who insisted I got medical help and I did and now I'm very much alive.

But for this man there was no such individual.

Small problems become big problems under circumstances like that.

When a woman working for a TV station in Tampa here in Florida Had a wee spot on her neck she thought nothing of it but a viewer another woman Spotted that spot on her neck during a news broadcast.

She contacted the TV station and said, I think I know what that is.

She brushed it off until her boyfriend said, well, why don't you?

Someone was watching for her, but nobody was watching for this man.

It was no accident That Jesus clambered out of a boat Near where this man was he came running towards him.

I imagine his friends fleeing from the sight.

I would think that Peter would have said, where's a sword when I need it?

He demonstrated later he was prepared to use 1.

James and John were running and wondering if they should pray down fire from heaven to protect their master.

But rather than causing any real harm this man fell meekly at Jesus' feet.

And when asked his name his answer indicated he was possessed by many demons.

My name is Legion, he said, for we are many.

Now we don't want to overstate things but what we know is that a legion of Roman soldiers was made up of somewhere around 5 or 6000 soldiers.

What do you do with the man I interviewed recently?

James Hartley

Personal Testimony

Well, thanks for being here this morning.

It's a privilege of mine to be able to share what Christ has done in my life.

And I hope someone this morning will be encouraged as I share what God has done and my story.

So I have a lot to share, so I'm gonna jump right into it, give you a little background to myself.

I was raised in La Crosse, Wisconsin to a Roman Catholic family that was very faithful, put me through 12 years of private Catholic schooling.

I was an altar boy, spreading incense on the altar of the Catholic Church.

I was then fully immersed in a Catholic environment.

I never even met a Protestant until I was 21 years old, So I only really knew Roman Catholics and secular people.

During my, well let me also share a little bit about my father.

My father, you know, cause I've been involved in health ministries now for 20 years, And it's kind of ironic, the occupation of my dad, you know, my father owned a butcher shop.

And his name is Mike Hartley, and his business is called Mike's Meats.

And there's a picture of my dad with his Mike's Meats hat there, and me as a young man working on Saturdays, working on summers, you know, at his place.

So yeah, my former occupation is actually a sausage maker, making hot dogs and bratwurst and ring bologna, summer sausage.

That picture is maybe a little too soon, but this is me later I was kind of hanging out with a lot of hippie crowds out of high school.

I went to college You know, I was really not into the Catholic Church anymore But as a teenager really I was staying out late partying drinking smoking, you know not wanting to get up and go to church.

I told them I'd go later, but you know, I wouldn't go and such.

So I really wasn't into Catholicism, you know.

I wasn't, I was pretty rebellious I guess in high school and as a teenager.

And at college, kind of got introduced to more the psychedelic counterculture.

Eastern mysticism was really kind of drawing my attention.

I started to read books about that and psychedelics and explore that and experiment with that, mushrooms and LSD and having these very powerful spiritual experiences.

I was trying to wrap my mind around what it meant and trying to figure out what was going on in this world and this universe.

I had kind of walked away from any Christian kind of beliefs.

I started following these bands, kind of these psychedelic jam bands around.

I mean, I took college serious because my dad made me pay for half of my tuition in cash.

So that kind of made me take it seriously.

I was on the Dean's list and such, but yeah, I was doing drinking, doing drugs every day.

And I felt like I was kind of wasting my time there because I didn't know what career to pursue I didn't know what direction my life should take and so, you know I took a year off just to explore things and travel and I'd be and I started following these bands around the United States and hang out with these huge, massive groups of tens of thousands of these hippies in these parking lot scenes and going to these concerts and being outdoors a lot.

Being outdoors was kind of a sanctuary for me.

Because I just want to say, you know, even while I was into all of that and I was exploring it and studying it and trying to experience it, but I knew that there was something not right.

You know, a culture that has no real moral code, a culture that, you know, talks about peace, love, and joy, but you know, there's, you know, free love results in unplanned pregnancies.

And a life of no restraint and no law, especially with drug usage, results in addiction and mental health issues and physical deterioration and I and I could see that side of it and you know walking around, you know these groups of people I met some great people loving people and I still have some really great friends that are in that movement.

But, you know, overall I could see that there was something really missing there.

And there was like this belief that, you know, evil is supposed to be there.

And there's this like kind of yin and yang, you know, good and evil and so yeah there's evil but there's always gonna be evil and that never really just fully sat well with me.

I knew there was something, something missing so I remained, you know, really open-minded.

I was definitely not in a position where I felt like I arrived or knew what was going on.

I was just trying to figure things out, but that's kind of where I was at.

Meanwhile, 1 of my good hippie friends, he had long dreadlocks down to his back.

He hadn't probably washed his hair in several years.

You know, see I was a little bit of a different kind of hippie.

I did, I didn't smell like body odor and patrulli.

I did shower, so I was kind of a clean hippie.

But here's my friend, you know, long dreadlocks.

So he, we were, we were like living in this geodesic dome in the country, and playing music and having parties and traveling and going to these different concerts and things.

This good friend of mine, he decided that he wanted to follow this band to Europe, and I was going to stay back, so he traveled off to Europe.

And we didn't hear from him for several months He was gone for I think about 3 3 months or 4 months And then he he returned and I'll never forget the day that that That he came back.

I was sitting in my friend's house We were you know smoking pot and playing video games.

So I was sitting there and my friend walks in the door and his dreadlocks are cut off.

You know, I thought, my first thought that came to my mind was, oh no, my friend's finally lost his mind.

Not that he gained his sanity, I thought he finally went over the deep end.

Because, you know, he was always kind of an extremist.

When he was in high school, he would sleep with his guitar.

He was into heavy metal music, and he was just playing his guitar all the time.

In fact, he was professional in different bands at that time.

But when he went to college, he got introduced to drugs and started hanging out with hippies.

Well, no, sorry But first he was like this Republican With a briefcase and wearing a tie to classes and then he took drugs and he became this hippie And He was just going from phase to phase, and he was really kind of far out there.

And when he came in with his Bible in his hand, I thought, oh, he's lost his mind.

Yeah, this was the end of it now, you know.

How are the concerts?" And he was like, well, I went to 1 concert, but then I got really side-railed, and this is what happened.

So here's our first connection with the Seventh-day Adventist.

So In Basel, Switzerland, he was traveling through and he was looking for a healthy place to eat.

You see, I was clearly not a vegetarian, but my friend was eating a lot of vegetarian food.

His dad was kind of a hippie in the past and was running a health food store in La Crosse, Wisconsin there.

And so he was looking for a healthy place to eat and he went to Country Life Vegetarian Restaurant in Basel, Switzerland NOCI, you know project and and there he he there He met a man a restaurant like like this 1 here There are several of these throughout Europe And so my buddy went to this 1 and well, there was this guy working there And he was he was kind of a hippie back in the 70s and he was converted and he was the cook there But he was in the kitchen always with the food, but he's a very social guy His name is Jose if you know Jose Jose is a big social loving guy.

And so Jose was praying, you know, he was discouraged.

He was always in the kitchen and not able to get out there and witness and talk to people.

So he was, he said he was at his breaking point.

He was down on his knees praying, Lord give me someone to witness to today.

And my buddy came in a little bit later after the rush and as soon as he came in he said, this is my guy.

So he went right to him and he's like, hey, how you doing?

So they sat and they ate together, broke some bread together, and Jose started to share about his experience in that movement and how he got to know the Lord and shared his personal experience and testimony.

And he even opened himself, because my buddy was looking for a youth hostel to stay in.

This kid off the street, he didn't even know him.

If you want to be a good soil winner, you have to get close to people.

And you know, and Jose was just embracing this young guy, saying what you can stay at my house.

Members in Action ASI

Members in Action

I have the privilege of interviewing 3 very active young ladies.

And, you know, I wish that all of our young people were as active as they are in their marketplace.

And so I'm going to start with Mindy and go down the line, introduce yourself, and share how you got started in sharing Christ in your marketplace.

I got involved with the ministry in 2020.

We started right at the beginning of COVID, and all of our team has a story of how they were praying for God to give them opportunity to do ministry.

I had come from a very active small church, moved to a new area, and I found that I was struggling because I didn't have involvement like I was used to.

And so I started praying for the opportunity to do ministry as the rest of our team was and God brought together a team of like-minded young people that were passionate about sharing Christ and all of us had seen our peers leaving the church as we grew up because their faith was maybe their parents faith but it was never their own and so we all have a passion to see young people, our peers, get involved with ministry using the talents that they have and what God has given them to further his kingdom.

Yes, my name is Simone, and I'm 20 years old in college, and I guess my path to ministry has been interesting.

God just keeps opening up little opportunities, and it's amazing that when you begin to walk through the doors that he opens, he leads to places you would never imagine.

And So he has given me incredible opportunities, and the main 1 that I'm here to speak about is God led me to go into the Ukraine in March, and that was an incredible trip and experience.

And I also, like Mindy was saying, I have a passion for people making their faith their own.

It's the only way and it's the best way and God is good and when we see him for who he really is, it makes a world of difference.

Yes, my name is Sarah McRoberts and currently I'm actually a music student at Wachita Hills College and just to give a little background into my passion, I actually began the violin when I was 6 years old.

But it wasn't until I started violin lessons about eighth grade that I really began to practice every day, get up early, and take it seriously.

And from there, God just opened the doors to be able to share music in so many different ways, whether it was in-home concerts, sharing at nursing homes, or being the music director at our church, or playing for Bible studies.

And there was 1 particular time that we did an in-home concert.

It was actually at a retired living place.

And this couple came up to us afterwards, they actually came up to me, and they said, wow, where do you go to church?

If there's music like this, we want to come to your church.

And to make a long story short, they ended up joining our church.

Yes, and then from there, a time came, time to go to college.

And I'm like, man, I don't know what to do, what to study.

I was never 1 of those that knew exactly what to do from the time I was young.

But God ended up leading me to Wachita Hills College through a process of surrender and also showing me that he had led in that way.

It's something I never would have imagined had it been a couple years ago, but just bless that God led in that way.

You know, it's so inspiring to hear that young people hear the voice of God and actually follow.

So How are you sharing Christ in your marketplace within your ministry scope?

Yes, well we have a quick video that we want to show you of some of the things that we've done in the last few years, last 2 years here.

Some of the different opportunities that we've shared God right where we find the opportunity.

Okay, yes, your mission group came to Eden Valley and you did some work for us.

So while we're waiting for the video, you were such a tremendous blessing and it was so exciting to have like 40 young people, high school and college age people, who are all passionate about Christ.

And I felt like I was back in Youth for Jesus time, which I miss.

Have you ever walked into a church and wondered, where are all the young people?

We began in early 2020 with a group of young people who had a shared passion of knowing Jesus and sharing him with others.

Since then, WCYA has provided in-person and online training, service opportunities, 2 weekend conferences for youth and young adults, as well as providing opportunities for mission trips in the U.S.

WCYA is a movement of young people seeking to inspire other young people to mobilize in their local churches in service for Christ.

We want to be an army of young people, rightly trained, committed to God, finishing the work that he has called us to do.

WCYA stands for West Central Young Adults.

And it covers the mid-America union, young people in the mid-America.

You were trying to be a GYC affiliate and that's how it got started and within that scope you've gone way beyond Mid-America.

Tell us some of the mission places that you've served at.

Yes, we've had different mission opportunities.

Right now we have parts of our team in all 4 time zones.

So yes, it's really spread out from the Midwest region.

And just keep an eye open, because we are looking at rebranding and renaming.

So you'll see that coming in the next year here.

But we started as WCYA, and God has just taken it and gone.

We've served this year alone in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah.

And you also helped with Pastor Finley's place in Maryland.

Yeah, we had the opportunity of going out to the retreat center in Virginia last spring.

Back to Menu

Series

Plenary

Final Charge: Partners in a Finished Work

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Sent

2h 13m

Personal Testimony

1h 28m

Members in Action

1h 57m

Our Greatest Need

1h 30m

One Life to Live, One Life to Give

2h 24m

Coming Forth as Gold

1h 27m

Our Key to Revival

2h 1m

Final Charge: Partners in a Finished Work

1h 21m

Sound Doctrine