Michigan Camp Meeting 2024: As For Me and My House

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

What Kept You in the Church

Jennifer Landis

01 What Kept You in the Church

02 What Kept You in the Church

03 What Kept You in the Church

04 What Kept You in the Church

05 What Kept You in the Church

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2024 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

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

Father in Heaven, we're so grateful that we get to be here with you.

And as we talk about the things that could impact a young person staying in the church, Lord, This is your will.

You want young people to be on fire for you.

You want young people to have a relationship with you, to grow up loving you.

And so I pray that as we talk about these things, that you would come in and impress our hearts with the truths for our lives, for our families, and for our friends.

All right, now I have to preface this with, though I think my family is pretty great, there is no family that's perfect.

Most certainly not mine, though my mom is pretty close.

But I know the things that brought me back to Jesus.

I know the things, because I haven't, my whole life has not been following Jesus.

I went away for a while, But I know the things that brought me back to Jesus.

I know the things, because my whole life has not been following Jesus.

I went away for a while, but I know the things that brought me back.

I think the Bible verse, train them up in the way they should go when they're old, they will not depart from it, is especially true in my case and in the cases of my siblings.

Uh-oh, the sign says, do not open this door.

This is an example where you have a rule and you wonder who should follow it.

So I'm just going to talk about kind of what we'll be doing throughout the week so you know what days would especially be ones that you want to be here for.

The first 2 days are kind of just be the highlights.

There's a lot of miscellaneous like, you know, oh, we did this and we did this and this and this and this.

The third day, we're going to be diving a little bit more into teaching tools, into education, whether you're homeschooling your kids or whether you just have them in the school system but you want to work with them on special things outside of school, or even if you're a Pathfinder leader or if you really have kids in any sense, Sabbath school.

We're going to be talking about tools that are really great.

I'm going to be pulling some from the things that my family did but also from what I've learned from the past 4 years of teaching.

The fourth day, that would be Thursday, is titled the wilderness years.

So let's say your kids are already outside of the church, are already not really caring about what's going on inside the church, or maybe you just know that those moments of rebellion, what to do in that point.

And especially here, I'm going to be sharing the things that people did for me, that helped bring me back to Jesus.

I'm going to even be sharing, I've been talking to my friends for the past couple months, like, hey, Did you ever have a moment where you walked away from God?

And so there's a lot of input for this day coming back in.

And I'm going to be taking a special moment to talk about the message that I didn't hear until I was in college, that if I would have heard it earlier, I don't think I ever would have walked away.

And then on Friday, we're going to be having a guest speaker, Miss Carrie, actually.

She's going to be sharing a little bit with us.

She has a wonderful family, 1 that, you know, my family greatly respects.

So she'll be sharing with us and then a little bit more from me on that day as well.

At the beginning, as you notice, how many signed your name on a lined piece of paper?

You now are just signed up to be my best friends for life.

So, didn't know you signed that dotted line.

But really, what your name is on there for is because at the beginning of every day, we're gonna have a little giveaway because everyone loves free stuff, if you're anything like me.

And this giveaway is something I'm very excited about because as I'll be going into, I think actually on Wednesday, I'll share more about this, but I'm gonna give you a little snippet.

When we were younger, my mom wanted us to read books and wanted us to read good books, right?

All of our friends were bringing these, you know, babysitters club and you know, and I'm sure that they're good books too and I've read a couple of them, but you know, from the library and she noticed a little bit of attitude coming in from us after reading these books and so mom was like, oof, we need to get a little reset over here.

And so she developed this little program where she said, all right, if you guys read 100 books, they have to be Adventist books or missionary books, because there's like, you know, a couple that are not Adventist books but also, but fantastic.

If you read a hundred of them, have to be over a hundred pages, I'm gonna give you a hundred dollars.

And it was fantastic because I think, you know, we heard $100, that's all we heard.

Not realizing, what is that, a dollar a book?

But it got us reading these books, and first of all, I mean, come on, That's like prime babysitting, first of all.

If I have my nose in A Thousand Shall Fall, I'm not over here making arguments with my sister, which I was very prone to do.

And so It was great babysitting for us, and it was amazing for our education.

You know, because we were reading all the time, we, I mean, in fifth grade, we had like 12 grade reading levels according to the state's testing, right?

It was such a life-building thing for us.

So for our giveaway every day I have some of our favorite books that we read.

And so what we're gonna do is every day we're gonna have 2 people that can get a book.

I have 4 just in case 1 of these you have already and you can pick.

I'm gonna be kind of like showcasing the books as we go through.

And then on Wednesday I also have a list of my favorite 100 books on a piece of paper and I'll be passing that out.

This is an example of a book that's not printed by an avid avidist publishing but it is unbelievable.

It's an amazing story about a man who, and I'm not going to give too much of the story away, a man who grew up in a communist country, but stayed faithful to God.

The smuggling part is him smuggling Bibles into the country and just how many amazing miracles God worked in his life.

You read this book and at the end you close the cover and first of all you're depressed because it's over.

And then second of all, you are just amazed because you realize how blessed you are, but how much God wants to use you past what he...

Past what you were being used at that moment, if that makes sense.

This 1 is written by Desmond Doss' wife about the life of Desmond Doss.

If you've read, there's a couple books about Desmond Doss, but this 1 is more of like the story format And something really cool about this 1 is it's actually signed by Desmond Doss and his wife.

Fantastic book about a soldier who stayed faithful to God in the army and the miracles even on like on Hacksaw Ridge and all the places that God saved his life and helped him to save the lives of other individuals and then how because he was so faithful to God went on to inspire the whole world with his faith.

Next we have what I hope most of you have read, and if you have not, this is the 1 to pick.

This 1 is the book about Doug Batchelor's life.

This is the book that if you pick it up, you will not put it down till it's done.

So don't start reading at 8 o'clock at night.

But this 1 is a fantastic book about Doug Batchelor's life and he just goes in and he talks about, you know, really what God brought him out of, which I think is really important for us to take moments to see how powerful the influence of Jesus in a life can be.

You know, I say that I stepped away from God for a few years.

He brought me back and you say, oh that's a small miracle.

In my opinion, it's a big miracle because I know how much he's done for my life, but you look at a story like this and you see just What God brought him out of and you say wow God is powerful unbelievably powerful All right, and last but not least we have 1 miracle after another This 1 is written by Pavel Goya.

He did a weekend seminar at the village church just a couple months ago and let me tell you it was so beautiful, so powerful.

If you're ever looking for a really good sermon to listen to as you're washing the dishes or driving, Look up Pavel Goya's name.

In this book, he was also raised in a communist country where he had to stay faithful to God through many, many different experiences.

And as you read this book, you are especially impacted by how God answers prayers, and in such a miraculous way.

Series

What Kept You in the Church

01 What Kept You in the Church

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Sabbath School and Personal Ministries: Getting the Most Out of BSO

02 The Power of Personal Ministry

58m

You are Needed!

2. How to Share the Adventist Message in 5 Minutes

1h 8m

Plenary

How Can You Make a Big Difference in Children’s Lives When You Teach Sabbath School in a Small Church

1h 18m

Changing Lives, One Seed at a Time

59m

GYC 2012 Seminar: Power to Change the World - Jesus, Arabic, and Kale

Gospel Shoes: One Size Fits Some?

56m

Justin Kim, Amy Sheppard, and Nomthandazo Malambo: GPA's and SDA's

Higher Education Goes Higher: The Mission of Bibliocentric Students

59m

Soulwinning 201: The Next Level

3. Which Study Should I Use?

1h

A Call To Arms: How to Fully Engage In God's Church

1. Red Tape to Red Carpet: Your Unique Participation in the Global Adventist Church

59m

Preparing For the End of Time

1. Why Prayer Matters

45m

Annie Morgan, Kevin Sears, & Wes Peppers: Unashamed in Your Neighborhood

Your Sword Unleashed: Three Easy Ways to Write a Bible Study

1h

Sabbath School and Personal Ministries: Getting the Most Out of BSO

04 BSO from A to Z: What Happens from the First Click?

51m

The Powerful Potentials of Homeschool

Prepare Today for Tomorrow

1h 18m

Sound Doctrine