<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>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Kurt Osena

Where Are You?

Praise the Lord for that special music, amen?

You see this woman here who hated Avenus, but through God's help in softening her heart, she began to love Adventists.

He wants to use us in different fields of ministry and as we have heard from the testimony of Rose, we see that God sent a cold porter to her.

In fact, God is calling for laborers to come into his field, to work for him, amen?

And so he is calling even us here in Advent Hope to be laborers as well.

And if I can make a quick announcement here, how many of you have ever heard of iShare?

IShare is actually sponsored by the Pacific Union Conference, and it is a conference specially made for people so that they can learn how to do evangelism.

I know that God has given each and every 1 of us special gifts, and God wants to use his church in reaching those people who do not know Jesus.

So iShare is that type of conference and it's actually going to be done in August 17 to 18 and the speakers will be Dan Jackson, David Hall, and Taj Pakleb.

We're going to be having flyers in the back there.

If you want to know more about the conference, you can look at the flyer as well as go on www.ishareconference.com.

Though no 1 join me, still I will follow.

Though no 1 join me, Still I will follow.

Our Father which are in heaven, we are so thankful for this Sabbath day that you have given us.

For this opportunity that we have to come together as a family and to worship you.

Father, I just want to pray in a special way that as I share the message for this morning, that your Holy Spirit may come into my heart, that you would touch my lips, that the words that I may speak, Father, may come straight from the throne of God.

And it is my sincere request, dear God, as I speak on evangelism, I pray that all of us here would be motivated to do something.

We motivated, Father, to be a part of a ministry, whether it be cold porting, whether it be Bible work, whether it be an evangelistic speaker, whatever it may be, Father, whatever you are burdening upon our hearts, I pray that we respond to that call and be used by you.

Father, we know that the gospel will be preached in all the world and then shall the end come.

And so we just pray in a special way, Lord, that we would be an active church, that we would go out to the highways and the byways seeking those who are lost, Father, and to bring them into the fold.

So I just pray in a special way, dear God, that today that you may just convict our hearts, that you may even just convert us, Father, and just bring us closer to you.

For we ask these things in the precious name of Jesus Christ I pray.

This morning's message is entitled, Where Are You?

How many of you have ever heard of Charles Templeton before?

How many of you have ever heard of Billy Graham?

Okay, there's a lot of people that heard about Billy Graham.

Well, as you know, Billy Graham was a very popular evangelist.

He liked to speak a lot, and a lot of people liked to come to his meetings because it touched their hearts.

But Charles Templeton was another individual actually in the 1950s and the 1960s that would preach with Billy Graham.

And in fact he was known to be very talented at what he did.

When he would speak there would be 10, 000 to 30, 000 people coming out to listen to this individual speak and share the gospel.

Charles Templeton was a very talented speaker.

In fact, it is said on average he would make 150 decisions a night for baptism.

Charles Templeton was really good at what he was called to do.

But Charles Templeton began to doubt God in the middle of his walk with the Lord.

Charles Templeton began to question the Bible.

In addition to that, he also began to question the validity of the Bible.

And so as Charles Templeton was preaching, he was also having these doubts in the back of his mind, questioning God.

Then there came an experience in his life where he was turning through a magazine called Life.

And as he was flipping through the pages, he didn't really want to read too much, but he just wanted to look at some of the pictures.

And as he was scrolling through the pages, he came across a particular picture of a woman that was in the middle of a river.

And he thought that this picture was interesting because as he looked upon this picture he saw that this woman was holding something and he looked closely and he noticed that this woman was holding a dead baby in her arms.

He looked upon her face and her face was not looking at the baby but her face was looking up at the sky and the question was where are you God?

So Charles Templeton as he came across this picture at this point of his life he began to just really doubt in the existence of God.

So Charles Templeton had this issue with God, And he was asking the question as he was looking upon this picture, God, if you are real, where are you?

Where are you when people need you the most?

Where are you when there are people that are suffering?

But this morning, I'm not gonna be talking about that so much, but I wanna ask, I believe that God is asking us the question this morning, where are you?

If you turn your Bibles with me to John chapter 14.

John chapter 14, this is 1 of my favorite passages because it gives us a precious promise from Jesus.

And in verse 1 notice what this promise is all about.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

Notice this verse 3, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." Isn't that a precious promise?

The promise that Jesus is going to a place, to heaven, to prepare a place for you and I.

Now let me ask you a question this morning.

In what way is Jesus going to be preparing a place for us?

Aren't you happy that Jesus is preparing a physical or a literal place for you to live in?

But let me tell you this morning, I believe that Jesus is doing more than building mansions or helping out and fixing the dwelling place for us.

It's interesting in Desire of Ages, it actually talks about that Jesus literally is making mansions for us or setting up the mansions for us.

Back to Menu

Where Are You?

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

2. Live

45m

Amazing Disciples

5. As a Witness

31m

Caught in the Dragon’s Tail

50m

Freedom Squandered

46m

Our Soul-Winning Bottleneck

1h

Evangelism in a Disconnected World

54m

Plenary

Final Charge: Partners in a Finished Work

1h 21m

The Life Work

41m

I Know Something Good

51m

What Is a Christian?

What Is a Christian?- Part 2

46m

What Is a Christian?

What Is a Christian?- Part 5

49m

Plenary

I Will Go

46m

Sound Doctrine