Michigan Camp Meeting 2023: The Boldness of the Cross

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

From Home to Eternity

Amie Hubbard

01 Capturing the Joy of an Adventist Home

>>[music in the background for next 3 seconds.] You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2023 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Father in Heaven, Lord, I just want to thank you for the incredible and miraculous things that you have done in my life so far.

Lord, for the ways that you have shown that it's not about me, it's about you.

And it's not not about our talents, our abilities, or even our inabilities, because you're the 1 who made us and you can do all things.

So Lord, I just ask that you would work through me today.

Lord, that today we would recognize the joy that you have for us, that you have promised good things and that you want our homes to be the best homes ever, to be a little taste of heaven here on earth, and that it is possible with your power and your strength as we draw close to you that our homes can be that taste of heaven here and now, even in our sinful world, Lord.

So I just pray that as we go through this presentation, that our hearts would be inspired, that we would be attuned to you and what you have in store for us, Lord, I pray in Jesus' name.

I know a lot of people have the awesome slideshow and stuff, and that is just not me.

So That's about as fancy as we're going to get here.

But I just want you guys to think of something.

When you dream of or when you picture, when you think of a perfect home, like an awesome home, what are some things that you think of?

If you think of like, this would be like my dream home or what I wish it was like or what what I want it to be like?

What are some of those things that come to mind when you think of a perfect home?

I think when mine were little it would have been no whining, right?

Like, please, no whining, no arguing, right?

What else comes to mind when you think of a perfect home?

Oh, sunshine shining on the table, as friends bathing in the oven, and your best friend coming over.

Man, doesn't that sound like such a beautiful picture?

That is, I love sun streaming in my windows too.

And as a pastor's wife, we've had to move to a lot of different houses.

Like that doesn't work for me because I like the sun streaming in my windows too and I love the smell of homemade bread.

What are some ideas that come to mind when you picture that perfect home?

Right, that warmth and love, that care that comes from mom.

What are some of those pictures that you think of when you think about a perfect home?

And I know that all of us have experienced those things or sometimes, right?

It's like little glimpses of these things.

We're gonna go through what God intended for us for our home.

We're gonna look at Genesis 1, 26 through 31.

This is what God had pictured in his mind.

I know for myself too, when I think of home, it's the smell of homemade bread.

Mom there to greet you when you come home, right?

I think of dad coming home to eat supper together.

I've 2 older brothers and a younger brother and sister.

And so my picture of that perfect home is us all sitting around the table, Hearing the laughter of everyone all around you, this pot of homemade soup, which my mom was never a fancy cook, but there was this big pot of chili, homemade crackers, right Kate?

And just the laughter, the camaraderie of all being together.

Those like to me are those happy home, the fire crackling in the fireplace, those things are all stay home.

Games with family, reading together, working together happily, a joyful, peaceful place.

So then we're going to look at Genesis 1, 26 through 31, and it says, God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every 1.26-31, it says, God said, So God created man in his own image.

The image of God he created him, male and female he created them.

And then God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And then God saw everything that he had made.

So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Not only did he have it visualized, but he had the power to create it and make it happen, right?

If we go to Genesis 2, 8 through 25, it kind of goes back through some of these things, but gives us a little bit more detail.

It says, then the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.

Like outside, flowers, planting stuff, growing stuff?

But we're never home long enough in the summertime to not allow the weeds to overtake it.

So we plant it before we leave for camp meeting and then I pray that the Lord will send enough rain to keep it going, right?

And then when we come back 2 and a half weeks later, the weeds have overtaken it and we try to reclaim it and then we're gone again for summer camp and all these things, but I always get a little produce, but it still brings me joy to try to plant it.

But in this garden that God planted, what do you picture this as we read through what it must have looked like?

And out of the ground the Lord made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was also planted in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Then the Lord took man and put him in the garden to tend and keep it.

And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

And the Lord said, It's not good that man should be alone.

I will make for him a helper comparable to him.

And out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and the bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.

And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

So Adam gave names to all the cattle, the birds of the air, to every beast of the field.

But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him.

02 Capturing the Joy of an Adventist Home

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2023 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

Today's topic is the role of the husband, father, and the wife or mother in marriage.

Would you agree with that, especially on this topic?

The role confusion of husbands and wives, of fathers and mothers, of authority in general.

You have noticed that the question of authority in general is a problem.

We don't like to listen to anyone and I will put my hand up when my husband would say, right, it's hard.

I don't know how your churches did for COVID.

But that was a really nice awakening to our independent mindset.

We each have our opinions and we think we are right, right?

And we're willing to kind of treat people in a way that we really shouldn't treat people because we know that we're right and you're wrong, kind of a thing.

So sometimes, Even in Christianity, we can treat each other in ways, and even in our own homes, that role of authority in general.

Okay, you know what I'm talking about, right?

It's hard, And sometimes, my sister was a teacher, and sometimes it's harder.

Sometimes your biggest problem comes from parents.

We have a hard time dealing with authority or those who have a different opinion than us.

I want us to look at the verse in Judges.

Have you ever, any of you read through your Bible, like tried to do the reading through your Bible in a year?

Did you get to Judges and were like beyond appalled?

Oh my word, I was like, Lord, you've got to show me some things here because when you're cutting people up and sending body parts to different parts, like, come on, like this is really graphically gross, right?

This verse is the answer to those questions, like why did this happen?

In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

You guys, we live in a society today where we do everything that's right in our own eyes.

And so we don't have an ultimate authority.

And as a matter of fact, if I don't like what the Bible says, well, that's because that was that culture in that day and that we have this whole list of excuses.

So even if the Bible clearly speaks about something, and there's some things that we're a little bit more understanding about.

Is the Bible clear about what day to worship on?

Do we struggle to understand that it's important to worship God on that day?

I have wonderful Christian friends, and they don't worship on Sabbath.

They're incredible, kind, helpful, wonderful people that do a lot of really good things.

But they do not see that it's important to worship on Sabbath.

Because if you're going to go to what the Bible says, there is no reason why.

The Bible says very clearly over and over again the seventh day is a Sabbath, right?

So the Bible very clearly says how to do that too, but man, that can be a little trickier, can't it?

We don't want to become where the Sabbath becomes a burden, right?

But nor do we want to break the Sabbath and act like it's not a holy day at all, that we can do whatever we want on that day.

And this is 1 of those topics that we struggle to find balance because the world says something totally different than what God's word says.

So we're gonna dig into this a little bit.

We live in a culture that denies the existence of truth.

There is no absolute truth in our culture.

Whatever you believe, girl, is good for you, and that's true for you.

It's so bad that we have children who we don't even want them to know if they're a boy or a girl, right?

To the extent that if the child feels like they're a cat, they can meow in class and they can have a litter box in the bathroom.

You guys, that is like, that's messed up.

And then these children are growing up with no understanding of truth.

What is that going to do to your psyche and to your mind?

And we wonder why we have so much mental instability today.

There is truth and it's found in God's word and it's there for every 1 of us to find.

But I will tell you this, it crosses self, but it's the best way.

So we're gonna, there was this university student that was seen with this large K printed on his T-shirt.

When someone asked him what the K stood for, he said confused.

But the questioner replied, you don't spell confused with a K.

And the student answered, you don't know how confused I am.

I remember when we had little ones and I would look out at the families around me and I felt like, how do we know how to raise our kids?

Like you're not seeing positive, good, wonderful examples of what you want your children to grow up like.

So it was like, it was super disturbing to me.

There's so much confusion in our world about the role of men and women.

We have a true gender identity crisis, even among Christians, or should I say especially among Christians, Because of all people, we should not be confused.

03 Capturing the Joy of an Adventist Home

Father in Heaven, Lord, I just want to thank you so much for your blessings.

Lord, you promised in James that you would give us wisdom to those who ask, and that you would give it liberally.

Lord, thank you for the wisdom you give us as parents.

Lord, it's such a huge responsibility and sometimes it feels so overwhelming.

Maybe we're grandparents or single parents and Lord, sometimes we get exhausted.

We need your wisdom and Lord, I need your wisdom.

As I present today, Lord, help me to remember the things that you put on my heart.

Lord, the things that you need me to say.

Lord, may you be honored and glorified and may our families be strengthened in you today, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Adventist home says society is composed of families and is what the heads of families make it.

The heart of the community, of the church, and of the nation is the household.

The well-being of our society, the success of the church, the prosperity of our nation depend upon our home influences.

They are your team, and I am telling you, they are your greatest asset.

Our husbands, husbands, your wives, our children, we're a team.

We share each other's dreams and each other's burdens.

Adventist Tom says, God would have our families symbols of the family in heaven.

Let parents and children bear this in mind every day, relating themselves to 1 another as members of the family of God.

Then their lives will be of such character as to give to the world an object lesson of what families who love God and keep his commandments may be.

His peace and grace and love will pervade the family circle like a precious perfume.

His peace, his grace, his love to pervade our family circle.

How do we have families where it's joyful and peaceful and happy, right?

How do you guys, if you're going on a trip somewhere, what do you do?

If you're going to have a good trip, it has a good plan.

But you know what, for some reason, we almost, sometimes the most important parts in our life, we don't plan.

Oh, we happen to have child number 1, and then we happen to have child number 2, and we happen to have child number 3, and 4, and 5.

I know 1 of the things when Tom and I were dating that we did all the time, is we were always talking about what our expectations were.

We had both agreed that I was going to stay home with the kids, which mean we knew we were going to have to practice frugalness, self-denial.

And we knew that there were maybe times when we would have less than less and really have to be creative.

There were certain things, remember I told you we didn't want a TV.

We didn't want that influence in our home.

But there were a lot of things that we talked about.

We had a vision of what we wanted for our kids and what we wanted them to be like when they grew up.

I want you guys to think about if there's nothing else that you get from this class, make a plan, write it down with your spouse.

This is what I want my kid to be like when they graduate.

What are the things when your kid waves goodbye to you in the driveway, which happens way too soon, let me tell you what, and they're saying, bye mom and dad, we're headed to Montana, right?

Bye mom and dad, we're headed to college.

What to you is the most number 1 most important thing?

But sometimes do we not worry more about the bit they're pitching than their relationship with God?

But then when they get older, things get so busy, you guys.

If you don't have a plan in place, you will no longer, you will be at the whim of the plans and activities and no longer the 1 who's like, okay, but what do we really want?

When you keep that plan in place, everything is easy to decide.

You know, everything is easy to discern because we have the plan.

Prioritize what the most important things are that you want them to know, to experience, to learn.

Like is that something you want your kids to know how to do?

Like, I want them to know how to play an instrument.

I want them to know how to sing, or whatever those things are.

If that's part of your priority plan, that was part of ours.

I'm giving you guys some of the things that were on our list.

How about to learn how to be a joyful, that serving is a joyful thing, that it's a blessing, right?

I heard this 1 time now if I would have heard this when I was had young kids I probably would have totally freaked out but I'm gonna freak you out anyway.

04 Capturing the Joy of an Adventist Home

The home makes an excellent Bible school where children can be grounded in faith.

We want to be grounded in faith to face the humanistic evolutionary philosophies of modern society.

Have you ever heard the saying, oh, they're standing on the fence?

Do you know if you're on the fence, you're on the wrong side?

You're either on God's side or you're not.

So when we are, if we want our children grounded in the faith, we have to do those things that ground them in the faith.

And so sometimes we don't realize that if we're not educating them in the ways of God that someone is educating them and we need to combat that.

According to the Barna study, probability of someone accepting Christ as their Savior decreases with age.

You get, you're faced with opportunities to make a decision, right?

And how you choose about that decision determines the softness or hardness of your heart.

The more you choose to follow Jesus, the softer your heart gets.

The more you choose not to follow, the more you reject opportunities to follow Jesus, the harder your heart gets.

So it makes sense that the older you get, the harder it is to make a decision for Christ.

It goes up a little bit, 6% for ages 19 and older.

It makes it imperative that families do everything they can.

You want your children to love Jesus, ages 5 to 13.

And you're always affirming them in that decision for Jesus, right?

I can see Jesus shining through you, right?

The little statements you say to your young people, your young men, Are you teaching them to be men?

Are you teaching them that they can't do anything?

My kids had a screwdriver in their hands.

If they could turn and tighten a screw for Mama, I'd be like, hey, will you go get that?

I'd say, you need to get a Phillips screwdriver.

Series

From Home to Eternity

04 Capturing the Joy of an Adventist Home

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Discipleship Parenting

03 How to Share the Story of Jesus

58m

Restoring Connection

04 From Dysfunctional to Functional Families

1h 1m

From Home to Eternity

01 Capturing the Joy of an Adventist Home

1h 4m

Raising the Remnant

4. How to Raise a Happy Unspoiled, Confident, Obedient, Thinking Child

53m

From Home to Eternity

05 Capturing the Joy of an Adventist Home

1h 1m

Called to Lead

02 I Thought, So...

56m

Agriculture and Education

2. Preparing Your Children for God’s Kingdom

57m

Raising the Remnant

6. The Trueprint: A Radical Vision for Training and Educating Your Children

47m

Breakout Session B

Always on Call: God’s Purpose for a Professional Parent

48m

Called in Darkness, Raised in Light

55m

Called to Lead

05 Understanding God’s Heart for Children and Youth

42m

Building Homes of Hope and Wholeness

03 Parenting

44m

Sound Doctrine