Explore God’s design for family as the foundation for blessing, flourishing, and mission. From Abraham’s call to Deuteronomy’s commands, discover how families multiply God’s image, authority, and generous life. Genesis 12:1-3

AdAgrA Conference 2026: Growing Better

<p>Explore God’s design for family as the foundation for blessing, flourishing, and mission. From Abraham’s call to Deuteronomy’s commands, discover how families multiply God’s image, authority, and generous life. Genesis 12:1-3</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>

AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Laurence Burn

Your Family: Be Fruitful and Multiply

Father in heaven, thank you so much for the principles of healing and restoration that you have built into nature.

Lord, the more that I learn, the more that I am humbled at your genius, the more that my soul is awakened to worship.

Today, Lord, as we reflect on your Word, please speak to each of us where our souls are thirsty.

Let's do a quick review and then I think you had some homework yesterday, didn't you?

Okay, well, in my classes when you come late or you don't do homework there's push-ups So I'm gonna see how fit you I know you're farmers, but are you fit?

It's where you we're starting with your own personal journey.

What do the airlines say about oxygen masks?

Before you help somebody else, you gotta put your own oxygen mask on, right?

Okay, It's based on the principle of love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Remember, you gain to love others with the same love that you have for yourself.

By the way, that's a really interesting principle because I'll tell you how that's helped me.

If I meet someone that is super critical, like they judge everyone and there's just lots of judgment coming out of their mouth, I feel compassion for them.

Because I realize that what's leaking out to me is a small percentage of the way they talk to themselves.

Because the way we treat others is an expression of how we treat ourselves.

So We're going to start with our personal connection to God.

That's the important place we want to start there.

We're going to look at that a little bit deeper today, and then that spreads out to our family, and then ultimately we want to see the connection from personal faith, personal connection to the community that I build, to the mission I have in the world, right?

That's kind of the arc we're looking at here, and I want to try to show you that that arc is part of the blueprint that God created for us from the very beginning.

Okay, so today we're going to emphasize family, but because of the weather and disruption and the likelihood that maybe some of you won't be here tomorrow or on Sabbath, And my wife and I are trying to juggle with this as well, because I've got an international trip on Tuesday next week that I've got to leave for, and she's got work on Tuesday, and they're telling us that it could be major disruption, so we're trying to juggle too.

But I want to, in the few minutes that we have, I want to try to incorporate the vision of those 3 today.

We said that faith is the evidence of things not seen there.

I mean like that's either the product of a deluded mind or it's coming from some very specific place.

And then as we looked at the story, we said there's a common pattern that you've got God first.

God makes a promise and He gives a command, and as people believe the promise and they act on the command, that's called faith.

It's a description of a relationship in response to the initiative of God.

So we talked about faith as not the opposite of doubt, but faith is a particular response to uncertainty.

Does anyone here have any doubt that God is going to provide for you and take care of you in the next 72 hours?

It's like we're sure that God's going to do that.

Do you have—is there any of you that is uncertain or has doubts about whether you should stay or go, and you're still in the place of deciding?

So can you see how faith and doubt coexist in the face of uncertainty?

And so remember that as long as there's uncertainty, there's going to be doubt, and faith exists when we're looking at a certainty greater than the uncertainty.

That's a very practical example, because doubt's not going to go away.

Like, I don't know what I should do when my wife and I have less money.

We know that God's going to take care of us, but we're not sure yet.

So remember, spiritual weakness is where we're doubting God, not when doubt exists, because doubt's going to be there when there's uncertainty.

All right, I think that's an important thing.

And we looked at Hebrews 11, and we said that it's relational, that there's obedience involved, there's action involved, with faith, it's an expression of a relationship.

I want to remind you that we're going to, and I'm looking at the time, I'm thinking about what I want to do, so I've got to have a truncated version of this.

I might have to do a little bit of lecturing and high-speed lecturing here today to get through all the material.

But I would like to give you some time to actually let the Word talk to you rather than me talk to you, okay?

How many of you like to eat whole food, plant-based diet, unprocessed?

When you go to church and someone preaches a sermon, based on the Word, you're getting processed food.

When you go to the Bible, you read for yourself, it's whole food unprocessed.

Like some, like the food that you get in the cafeteria, someone's made some stuff and you know what I'm saying.

But the closer it is to the original, the more nutritious it is.

So I would much rather, as I've learned, I'd much rather teach an audience to go to the Word and find nourishment in the Word than be wowed at what I can say as a preacher.

I'm like, look at these wonderful potato chips.

I would much rather you say, that was a fantastic experience in the Word.

Okay, so I want to enrich your experience in the Word.

I want to help open your eyes to see what's in the Word.

Most of us have spiritual malnutrition in the Word because we don't slow down and pay attention to the details in the text.

It's like chewing 3 times and then swallowing and you expect to get nourishment.

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Your Family: Be Fruitful and Multiply

Transcript

Description

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

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