Michigan Camp Meeting 2025: He Must Increase

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

The Power of Unity: Reflecting Christ in Every Relationship

Tom Hubbard

01 Unity in Diversity, Part 01

02 Unity in Diversity, Part 02

03 Unity in Diversity, Part 03

04 Conflict Resolution

05 As for Me and My House

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.

Father in heaven, Lord, we're thankful for the opportunity today to serve you.

Lord, it's a day that's full of opportunities, full of opportunities.

Lord, I pray that you would even now condition our hearts, place them in just the right position that you would need them to be in that we can receive these things.

Father, we don't want to understand these things just for a mere sake of knowledge.

As good as knowledge is, but what is it apart from application?

So I pray that you would help us to be able to apply these things, these principles to our lives.

We know that you so desperately want to shower our lives with blessings and yet it takes some cooperation on our part.

So Father I pray even now that you would fill us with the Holy Spirit, Lord, as the words that are spoken today, that they would be in tune with your will, and that you would apply them to each life as only you can.

Perform this miracle once again today is my prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

And my last district, 1 of my churches was about twice this size, and it was a school.

The first Sabbath I preached there, after the service, and here's maybe 1 of those challenging type comments that somebody might make to you.

They said, Pastor, please don't use the mic anymore.

And I thought, what is that trying to say?

And they said, you're loud enough without it.

And so I hope I've not been too loud at times here for you, but they did ask to shut that door.

Who ever, I don't know who that was, but he was loud.

You know, there was a time in my life, and it was longer ago than probably what I would like to admit.

How old do you think I was if I can barely remember it?

If you talk to my wife she would probably say I'm 51.

But when I couldn't hardly remember something.

I was young enough that many common things were still very new to me.

I remember asking my father for something.

It's So fuzzy, I can remember him being in his chair, and then I was seated on the floor next to it, as I remember it, on the right-hand side, and at 3 years old, I wanted something.

I think it was, It might have been candy or something like that.

And I asked him for it and he said, what do you suppose?

And there wasn't, I don't recall any kind of explanation for that, he just said, no, no.

And I thought that if he loved me, he would do what?

And So, with that processing that took place in my 3-year-old brain, I said something that I thought might motivate him to give me what I wanted.

I said, with that tone in my voice, you know, there's a way that you can say something that can change everything.

A voice inflection, it can change everything.

That's why I mentioned the other day, when texting, especially when we first started texting so much, that it was dangerous business.

And I think it caused a lot of problems because you don't hear the voice inflection, you don't see the facial expression, and you lose a lot in communication.

And so it in a sense has somewhat, and this is just my opinion, desensitized us in the form of communication as well.

But I said this, and some of you might know where I'm driving with it already, I said, you don't love me.

If I want it then if you love me, you will give it to me.

Yeah, I'm a master manipulator at 3 years old.

And my dad recognized that and he made sure that he did everything he could to extinguish that thought.

And very thoroughly, because as I said, I'm a little bit over 50 years old.

And I can tell you in the home that I was raised 47 years ago, there were multi, it was like multifaceted forms of communication.

And it was effective, and I never said that again.

Love is so much more than giving or getting everything that 1 wants or, let me say this as well, or just being cordial or nice.

Now, you don't have to answer me out loud, but sometimes you can be in the presence of another person, and I don't know if the vibe thing is real or not, but you can kind of feel like maybe that person, something's not quite right there.

I talked the other day about not shaking your hand, right?

And with something like that can happen, she can be wondering, ah, man, I don't know what's up with, you know, whatever.

But maybe the next time we're around 1 another, I can kind of feel like something's not quite right.

Like, yeah, did I do something or whatever?

And it's worth the time to have a conversation about it.

But, there's sometimes that vibe that's there, or that can be there.

I'm not saying that everybody's going to rub you the right way, or be somebody that you just best friends with, or love to be around.

And yet, at the end of the day, what we need to walk away with is, do you love that person?

It can be a challenging thought because it's easy to make kind of a blanket statement or ask a blanket question, but it becomes very multifaceted and very complex very quickly.

And I can see your heads shaking, you know what I'm talking about.

And a lot of the things that, I would say some of the things that I've talked about here already, you have to take the principles of what's being said and see how that might apply to your situation.

Because I'm not speaking to specifics or specific situations or incidences.

I think our time is much better spent talking about foundational principles than the Holy Spirit can speak to each and every 1 of you about your own situations and make that application based on those principles.

Series

The Power of Unity: Reflecting Christ in Every Relationship

03 Unity in Diversity, Part 03

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Ignite Your Spiritual Experience!

No Limits! Thriving in Relationships

1h 8m

The Way of Love

The Way of Love- Part 7

31m

Practical Christian Living

Part 2 - Understanding Personal Problems

1h 14m

The Divine Solution

1h 33m

How Should We Live?

1h 5m

Called to Lead

03 Identity Crisis

51m

Scotty Mayer: Media Weekend

Glow in the Dark Christians

39m

Got Thinking Problems?

Coping with Our Problems - Part 1

1h 13m

Be Ye Therefore Perfect

43m

Evening Plenary

02 Fully Surrender

1h 14m

I Know Something Good

51m

Relationship Revival

3. Safety First

1h 4m

Sound Doctrine