Experience the joy of a restful Sabbath by making it a meaningful, life-giving family tradition.

Michigan Camp Meeting 2025: He Must Increase

<p>Experience the joy of a restful Sabbath by making it a meaningful, life-giving family tradition.</p>

<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>

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Come Home - Transforming Your Family in Christ

Don MacLafferty

01 Busy Parents’ Time with God

Dear God in heaven, what a beautiful time it is to walk with you.

What a necessary time it is that we're walking with you.

Bless this time and let it impact our hearts and our families.

Hear our prayers in this room as we take just a few minutes just to invite you here.

Dear God in heaven, this time is dedicated to you and We're asking that you would send your Holy Spirit here in this room, and that He would do a miracle, because how can 1 simple guy share anything that would impact this many stories?

The only way that can happen is if the Holy Spirit bridges.

We are desperate in these last days for your Holy Spirit to bridge from the Word spoken to every 1 of our hearts because you know our hearts, what's going on.

You know our marriages, those of us who are married.

You know our families, whatever our family looks like.

Make this time count for your kingdom, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

By the way, my name is Don McLaugherty And I am a disciple of Jesus first, and then I'm a husband to my bride way back there in the back row, if you give everybody a wave.

She's already looking up because she's not exactly wanting all of you to look at her, but but I like to look at her, so I thought you could just look at her just for a moment.

You know, maybe after 90, maybe I'll still, no, I'm gonna still call her my bride.

We have a 32, I'm looking at her because she can correct me, she's a detailed person.

So we have a 32 year old, 29 year old, as of 2 days ago, and 23.

And so, so on the count of 3, tell me, tell me, tell me how many kids and grandkids you have.

Now with someone next to you, with someone next to you, just ask them this.

What are the things that are the highest distractions in your life from going deeper with God, deeper than you already are?

Okay, what's the biggest distractions in your life presently that keep you from going deeper with God than you already are?

Oh, somebody held up this thing that I have in my pocket.

How many of you thought of this thing right here?

It's a wonderful tool that is extremely distracting to us going deeper with God.

But I use it like this is my workhorse, but it's also very dangerous, right, in distracting me if I'm not careful.

If I don't have good boundaries to this, it can really pull away my heart.

What distracts us from going deeper with God?

All the stuff that I'm hearing on YouTube in regards to what's going on with our church.

So all the stuff going on with the church.

There's some other things that are going on too at the same time, yes?

Like the more stuff we have, what does stuff take?

It takes time to keep up with and to polish and whatever we need to do with the stuff, right?

The distraction from a close relationship with God?

So that's a very dangerous, a dangerous comment which has truth in it.

So, look, as someone who's pastored for over 25 years, and I'm a full-time volunteer missionary for the last 7 years, so I'm gonna say as a pastor, the programs of the church can actually war against our own private time with God if we're not careful.

If we try to be so committed to being at every program that our home church does, you know, it can actually get in the way of us pursuing God.

We're not knocking church, we're just saying balance, right?

Now, I'm going to pray again because with what we just shared, the distractions are high, And we've had a few more people come in right now.

Dear God in heaven, we're gonna go right into the word here in just about 1 or 2 minutes.

And we're asking the Holy Spirit, again, does something precious for each of us.

God, the Word of God is there to, your Word is there to paint a picture of who you are and to, with all the tenderness of heaven, call us to Jesus, your Son, but also to confront us with things that are out of place.

So God, do what you need to do with me and with each of us in this room.

So I invite you right now to go to the Word of God.

When you're on the way, just say on the way.

Some parts of this country, everybody has to say that amen, that we're all there.

So that's why I started to say if you're on the way just say you're on the way it's okay.

Now in this passage with your buddy, do you all have friends?

02 Marriage: “I Do” or “I Did”?

You're about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2025 Michigan Conference Camp, held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

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

My name is Don McLaughlin, and it's a joy to have you here.

I invite you to stand up where you are and find somebody that's not sitting next to you and ask them a very simple question.

Say what is 1 thing that you have learned from somebody else's marriage that you think is, oh, that is just precious, like that's a powerful good thing.

It could be from your own parents or grandparents, but for some of us we may say not so much.

So but think about all the marriages you've seen and think about 1 marriage that you thought, now there's something, there's something good there that I want to, I want to reach for, something that touched your heart and just share it with 1 other person here.

So did you find out any good things from other marriages that we've learned in this room?

I want to hear just a few of them, but just do it like in a line or 2.

What's 1 good thing you've seen in other marriages that you say, ah, that's good, that's something powerful.

Yes, respecting each other for who we are.

So just fight secretly, you're saying, right?

I'm not making fun, I just enjoy the moment, so that's good.

And some, some people fight in front of their children and it's terrifying to the child.

Just even verbal fights, because then the child wonders what's gonna happen to mom and dad tomorrow.

So I agree, I just had to laugh with you.

I'll take a couple more right over here and then we'll come over here.

Protecting your together time, a friend used to write domestic relations appointment in his calendar so that if he was getting overbooked he'd go, oh no I have a domestic relations appointment.

Oh, that sounds very, domestic relations appointment, I like that.

Okay, anybody up here in the first couple rows?

Anything else that you've learned from some other marriage you've seen?

Right over here, and then we'll, yeah, yeah.

Not talking negatively about your spouse to other people.

I'll say, husband's carrying the load when the wife is carrying the load all day.

Husband's carrying the load when the wife is carrying the load all day.

Husband's carrying the load when the wife is carrying the load with the kids all through the day, having the husband come and actually carry some of that load, or a lot of the load, or maybe most of the load.

Now, Now, are you friends with the people around you yet?

Okay, because we should be functioning as family of God.

So we are in last days, we're in a different era right now than this earth has ever seen before.

So we take things differently when we go into a class like this.

So please turn to someone next to you just in twos or at the most threes and let's pray that the Holy Spirit is here and makes this time count for the kingdom of God, for our families, okay?

Dear God in heaven, this time is dedicated to you.

We've come in here into this session and into this series.

It's about family and today is very much about marriage, marriage that would honor you and marriage that would be joyful and full of the presence of God, a place that we want to be, that makes us want to come home.

And so we pray that you will come here with your sweet Holy Spirit and take these simple things that I'm sharing and would you please bridge to every heart to every situation.

We have singles here, we have married, some young married, some have been married a long long time and help us to just know that all of us are learning.

I know I am and my wife and I are still learning all the time.

What does it mean to have a marriage that gives you glory?

Guide right now and make this time count in Jesus name, Amen.

So I'm going back to simple basic things.

And I want to invite us to go to a dangerous passage in Scripture that has been used very dangerously for many, many years because we've only preached part of it.

And we're going to look at the whole thing, just briefly, as an anchor, and then I'm going to go to practice.

Are you ready to be vulnerable to the Word of God?

And when you're in Ephesians chapter 5, if you could say, oh yes.

When you're on the way, just say, on the way.

I didn't even start preaching yet, they're already saying ow.

Okay, sorry if you're in pain in the back row, sorry about that.

04 Building Family Worship

Now, everybody needs somebody to be a team with.

So look around you and if you can go into teams of twos or threes.

Now, the next thing is, is Turn to your friend or friends if you're in those threes and ask them.

Family memories growing up If you didn't have any fair by the way I want to say this very carefully If you didn't have any favorite family members growing up, because sometimes our families are very difficult, then think about something, it could be current or something since childhood.

But if you have a favorite family member from child, family memory, not member, please share that with the person next to you.

All right, let's hear 4 of them really, really super quick.

If you start preaching, I'm gonna start saying amen, which means go to the next person.

Tell me, 2 people, tell me what's a favorite family memory in 30 seconds or less.

We're 1 of 5 kids, she and I, and we get together even as adults.

We stay up because they come from all over, we stay up until like 1-2 o'clock in the morning to talk.

Like I'm like that's almost the end of my night.

Tell me favorite family memories yes ma'am Wow nice nice Nice.

Our group of 3, we enjoy family vacations, family day trips, and family camping trips.

Did anybody talk about your favorite memory of when you took a comb and took wax paper around it and hummed on it.

This is not my deepest point of the afternoon, but I will state it.

My friends, you can do so much with so little.

And today, we are so techie conscious that we're teaching kids you have to have so much to do anything.

So I came from a lovely home with parents that are teachers.

They were spreading a little bit of resources a long ways.

And so I remember when I was just a little kid, I was thinking, you know, I don't have this instrument, I don't have this instrument.

My dad got out a big comb, and he got wax paper and rolled around it.

And you can actually do duets and quartets and you know, on and on and on and on.

And my friends, don't think you have to have more to do something special with the next generation.

There is so, we can do so much with very little.

It's good to have the generations walking in here.

Now, how much do we need the Holy Spirit when it comes to family worship?

How many of you have a kid on your heart that is 1 of these kids that just can't be still.

How many of you have a kid on your heart that's kind of like that?

But that's only 1 of the issues about calling kids to worship.

We have bigger issues than kids that can't sit still.

We have kids, little kids and big kids that are bored with worship, right, and could care less and are wondering why can't we make it wow them more than what's happening here when they're gaming or whatever else.

We have big competition to worship today in the home.

So I invite you with your little teams of twos or threes.

I'm gonna wait till we have our attention together here.

In twos or threes, can we humble ourselves in this room and have, like if you're a team of 2, just have 1 person in each team of 2 or 3 pray for the Holy Spirit to bless this time and make it count, because the stakes are actually very high.

It's not just a nice thing to call your family to worship.

It is a pivotal thing for last day living.

We're gonna be worshiping Jesus through eternity.

And why not prep our kids of all ages to start enjoying it now because that's what we will do.

Let's open up the Word of God to the Gospel of John.

Chapter 4, with your partner, look at the conversation between Jesus and the woman of Samaria and see if there is any discussion about worship.

If there was, find out where it was in that passage, that dialogue, and what was Jesus teaching about worship.

Looking at what did Jesus teach about worship when he was having this dialogue with a woman at the well.

Find out what text it's on and what did he teach.

So once you found it, just read it softly with your neighbor.

Don't share it with anybody else so that they have to search for it also.

Jesus said we must worship in 2 ways, in spirit and in truth.

As Seventh-day Adventists, which 1 do we emphasize more than the other?

We need to worship in spirit and in truth and not any spirit.

05 Home: The Disciple Center

My friends, I invite you to do this before we even pray.

Ask the person next to you, what is 1 thing, 1 thing that you want the generations coming after you to have that you have?

If you only could have 1 thing that you pass down, and don't make it general, like you can say Jesus, amen, But I mean, what is it that you, is there a skill, is there an attitude, is there a relationship?

Is there something very, very specific that you wish, if there's only 1 thing you could pass on down to the new generations, what would it most be?

Okay, if you could only pass 1 thing on specifically to the new generations, what would it be?

I'll take maybe 3 over here and 3 over here.

If I don't pick you, Jesus still loves you.

I'm looking for, especially keep your hand up if you haven't had a chance to share anything the last couple days.

Is there anybody else, thank you for sharing.

Is there anybody else that hasn't had a chance to share?

I wanna, you help me know who they are first.

So that's a precious, precious thing to mentor.

And also have conversations for the kingdom as you're mentoring him in that.

Okay, is there anybody else that didn't get a chance this week?

Okay, And you had a hand up, I'll do 1 more, okay?

For God to choose their friends, amen, good.

I'm not gonna remember who answered or not.

If you haven't had a chance, I'll start with you.

Don't let fear cause you to lose your rudder.

Wow, don't let fear cause you to lose your rudder.

The desire to understand the value and the sacredness of God's Word.

Okay, to understand the sacredness and value of God's Word, right?

1 that came down to my wife was, you can do hard things.

So many kids today just want the easy button and they're not willing to apply themselves to do the hard things.

Please turn to a neighbor around you and let's pray that the Holy Spirit is once again here and makes this time count for the kingdom of God.

What is the greatest place on all the planet to make disciples of Jesus of children and youth?

Hey, wherever you're at, that's a good answer too.

But biblically, where would be the center?

Would it be like the church on Sabbath morning?

Like Sabbath school, church, all of that?

Would it be Christian education that you send your kids to?

Yeah, biblically it absolutely has to be the home.

And even though we took this, oh, I think it was the first day, or second day, let's go back to something that to me is core to this.

It is a strategy that we have forgotten as a people.

Let's go to the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, and let's look at this again and go a little bit deeper.

Now, as soon as you're there, I'm going to ask you a dangerous question.

Some of you might be saying I'm gonna be looking for a long time then.

Let's look at this because it says, hear O parents, no, hear grandparents, hear pastors, actually hear everybody.

When April and I first started Kids in Discipleship as a ministry back in 2002, we noticed that we had almost no resistance in the world church when it started going to other countries from the United States.

06 Keeping Sabbath Happy

This seminar is about keeping Sabbath happy.

Do you ever say happy Sabbath but then it's not so happy?

This is about having a happy Sabbath in the deepest, deepest way.

Do you mind being active in this learning process?

Because you probably know if you've been here during the week that that's what we do here.

Okay, now, I would like to go outside in just a moment for just a brief moment.

In fact, outside could even be into that room.

I will invite you to do this just for a moment is turn to someone next to you.

Now everybody's gonna need a buddy by the way.

Series

Come Home - Transforming Your Family in Christ

06 Keeping Sabbath Happy

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Religious Liberty Under Pressure

Eyes on Adventism

1h

Effective Wholistic Witnessing Among Refugees

02 Effective Wholistic Witnessing Among Refugees

58m

Essentials for Salvation

02 Persisting in Prayer

45m

Health Ministries Workshop

07 The Nuts and Bolts of a Great Cooking Class, Part 01

52m

Creating Joy in Everyday Life

03 Creating Joy in Everyday Life

46m

Gardening Tips: Preparing for Eternity in the Dirt

01 Preparing the Soul - Biochar

21m

Effective Wholistic Witnessing Among Refugees

01 Effective Wholistic Witnessing Among Refugees

48m

Effective Wholistic Witnessing Among Refugees

03 Effective Wholistic Witnessing Among Refugees

51m

There Will Be No Americans in Heaven or Asians, or Africans, or...

02 What the Enemy Knows About Culture That We Don’t

57m

Foundations for Hope in the Book of Hebrews

02 Foundations for Hope in the Book of Hebrews

42m

Plenary

I Will Go

46m

Creative Outreach for Everyday Life

04 Called to Serve I

55m

Sound Doctrine