ASI Southwest 2023: Here I Am, Send Me

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ASI Southwest

Stephen Bohr

The Need to Reach Out

It's my pleasure to be here at the Southwest ASI Convention.

You did forget to mention that I walk on water.

You know, when I preach, I'm very serious, so people think that I never laugh but I do.

You know, my dad actually retired and he went to stay at Summit Ridge, which is a retirement center in Oklahoma.

And I would go and visit him now and then.

And 1 time, the first time actually that I went, he would always ask me to preach on Wednesday night.

And so, the elder, the head elder there, introduced me and as he was introducing me, I asked my father, I said, what's his name?

Because I want to thank him for introducing me.

So when I got up, I looked at him in the eye and I said, You know, you have a terrible name for an Adventist.

At the end of the sermon, He looked at me and he said, you have a terrible name for a preacher.

And on Sabbath morning I will be sharing a message based on Isaiah 6 which is the very theme.

But tonight we're also going to talk about the need to reach out.

But before we begin we want to have a word of prayer so I invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray.

Father in heaven as we open your holy book we ask that your Holy Spirit will be present in our midst to open our understanding, to open our hearts, and to inspire us to fulfill the commission that you have given to us.

We thank you Father for the privilege of being your children And we just ask that you will help us to share your wonderful message in various ways with those who are seeking for truth.

We thank you for hearing our prayer for we ask it In the holy and precious name of Jesus, Amen.

By the way, I had the privilege of meeting Pat at the Heartland Camp Meeting.

And there's where she asked me to preach.

And unfortunately, I wrote the wrong date on my calendar.

And so this week I've been at the White Rock Lake Seventh Avenue Church east of Dallas.

And I'm teaching the anchor class, 5 hours of teaching every day.

But we readjusted the schedule so that I could be here at ASI, because I felt that it's important to do both responsibilities.

So I appreciate, Pat, you working with us on this very difficult situation.

As we begin our study this evening, I want to mention that when people think about the day of Pentecost, they usually think about what happened on earth.

The mighty rushing wind, the tongues of fire, people speaking in other languages.

But what they don't realize is that the important event on the day of Pentecost did not happen on earth.

And what happened on earth was simply an announcement of a heavenly event.

Another thing which many fail to realize is that there is an intimate connection between Christ's sacrifice on the cross and the fire that came from heaven on the day of Pentecost.

So we want to take a look at the relationship between the cross and Pentecost and we also want to take a look at what happened in heaven which was announced on earth on the day of Pentecost.

You know there's an interesting pattern that we find in the Old Testament, and that is that a sacrifice is placed on the altar and then God shows his acceptance of the sacrifice by raining fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice, sacrifice and fire.

Let's notice several examples of this from the Old Testament.

The first example is in Genesis Chapter 4 the story of Cain and Abel.

Abel brought a victim and shed the blood of the victim.

He also brought a great offering, but Cain only brought a offering of the produce of the ground.

And God showed his acceptance of Abel's offering by raining fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice, while Cain received no fire from heaven as a sign that God accepted his sacrifice.

Now you might think, well you know but it doesn't say in the Bible the way in which God showed that He accepted Abel's sacrifice, it doesn't say that fire came from heaven and consumed his sacrifice.

But we know first of all from the spirit of prophecy and secondly by all of the other examples in the Old Testament that that's the way that God approved of the sacrifice.

Notice this statement that we find in Signs of the Times February 6 1879.

God had respect unto this sacrifice, Abel's sacrifice, and fire came down from heaven and consumed it.

So God showed his acceptance of the sacrifice by Abel by sending fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice.

The second example of this is found in the story of when the tabernacle in the wilderness was inaugurated.

If you have your Bibles go with me to Leviticus chapter 9 and verses 22 to 24.

Once again several sacrifices are placed on the altar and then God rains fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice.

It says there in Leviticus 9 22 through 24 Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people and blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings.

And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people.

Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, And fire came out from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar.

When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

Once again, sacrifice and fire as a sign that the sacrifice was accepted by the Lord.

The third example is during the period of the Hebrew monarchy.

You see The ark of the covenant had been taken captive by the Philistines.

And of course the ark of the covenant started pouring out plagues on the Philistines and they didn't want it.

They passed it along from 1 city to another.

Finally they said to David, come and get it.

So David went to get it and he put it on Ornan's threshing floor, and he offered a sacrifice.

1st Chronicles 21 verse 26 tells us what happened when David put the sacrifice on the altar on Ornan's threshing floor.

It says there, And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the LORD, and he answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering.

The next example is when the temple built by Solomon was inaugurated.

Did you notice that I didn't say Solomon's temple?

And Noah's Ark was not Noah's Ark, it was the Lord's Ark.

The inauguration of Solomon, the temple that Solomon built is in 2nd Chronicles chapter 7 and verse 1.

Notice once again the same phenomenon, it says there.

When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

Sacrifice, fire as a sign that God accepted the sacrifice.

The last example I want to give from the Old Testament you know very well it's the days of Elijah.

When Elijah placed the sacrifices on the altar you know what happened.

1st Kings chapter 18 and verse 38 tells us.

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.

Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God.

So you have this phenomenon in the Old Testament, where a Sacrifice is placed on the altar, and God shows His approval and acceptance of the sacrifice by consuming the sacrifice with fire.

But there's another symbolism that I want us to look at.

Different symbols are used but the same lesson is taught by the second group of symbols.

Go with me to Exodus Chapter 17 and verses 1 through 6.

Exodus 17 verses 1 through 6 It's the same idea of sacrifice and then God showing his acceptance of the sacrifice, but the same symbols are not used.

Exodus 17 1 through 6 is describing Israel in the wilderness and they have no water and so they're going to start murmuring and complaining which is what they usually did.

Then all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the wilderness of sin according to the commandment of the Lord and camped in Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

Therefore the people contended with Moses and said give us water that we may drink.

So Moses said to them why do you contend with me?

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The Need to Reach Out

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