ASI Southern Union 2013: For Such a Time...

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ASI Southern Union

ASI Southern Union 2013 Plenary Sessions

Alistair Huong

When Men Have Labor Pains

Our story tonight is primarily going to take place in Genesis chapter 32, so I invite you to turn your Bibles there with me now.

But while you're going there, let me set the stage for you.

Jacob has been in somewhat of a self-imposed exile, away from his homeland, away from his family for many years now.

But God is calling him back to the land that he has promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to him, Jacob himself.

And so Jacob is returning now to the promised land, not as he left a single man with nothing more than a staff and a cruise of oil.

He's coming back heavy laden with gold, with goods, with flocks, with his wives, with his children, with his servants, a large company coming back to claim the promise that God has given to him.

Problem is, he hears tidings that his brother Esau was marching against him with 400 men of war.

Jacob and his family, his company, completely unarmed, unprepared for any hostile encounter.

He was in trouble because he recognized, he remembered well, what led to his brother taking this vow of vengeance upon him.

It was his guile, his deceit, his craftiness.

And so now he finds himself in a very peculiar situation.

And as any decently minded father would do, he tries to save the innocent.

He sends some gifts ahead to try to appease the wrath of his brother.

He divides his group into different companies to send them on in different directions so if 1 gets fallen upon and massacred, perhaps the other 1 might escape.

And it is here that we pick up the story because there's something left for Jacob to do.

In Genesis chapter 32, we begin reading in verse 23, and he took them, Jacob did, and sent them over the brook and sent over that he had.

There's the babbling brook, Jabok, his children, his wives, his servants, his flocks, they're gone.

The sun has set, there's a cool night breeze in the Palestinian wilderness, and there we see a lone figure.

Jacob was left alone but that was not the only way he was alone.

Jacob that night was alone in every sense of the word.

He was alone because he had no place to call his home.

The land that God has promised was before him, but the way was barred by Esau and his army.

He could not turn back to where he had come from.

That was Laban's land, and we all know how pleasantly they split ways.

His mother who loved him dearly, unfortunately was unfortunately, she wasn't with them anymore, but more unfortunately she was really the cause of this problem also.

Even Rachel, His beloved dear wife for whom he labored for so many years, what could she do for him now?

No 1 to turn to, nowhere to hide, nowhere to go, but Jacob, the supplanter.

He had a plan how he could use a bowl of lentils as leverage in a special deal with his brother for a birthright.

He and his mother concocted a plan, remember?

To get the blessing from the blind father Isaac.

When he started working with Laban, His full business acumen took over and he had a plan to 1 up his father-in-law.

But what could any of his human plans help him now?

But what could all his wealth do for him now?

How often we try to seize the situation and to solve it in our own feeble human ways.

And so sometimes God waits, he waits until we are left alone, like Jacob.

But this night, more than in any other way, Jacob was alone because he recognized that he alone was responsible for this peculiar predicament.

He could not plead innocence like Daniel in the lion's den.

He was not innocent like the 3 young men who were thrown into the fiery furnace.

Yes, he had already confessed his sin to God, but yet the memory haunted him.

And you can be sure that there is an accuser of the brethren that night that would not let him forget that.

Jacob, it is because of your sin that your brother marches against you.

There's no sense of loneliness like the loneliness of being guilty for sin that we can no longer remedy.

Jacob was left alone, very alone, but that night I believe he remembered another evening, many years ago, in similar circumstances, by himself, at midnight, in the wilderness, with nothing but a stone to lay his head, and he sees in his dream that angel ladder.

The ladder that reaches straight from the earth, straight up to the presence of God.

He saw the angels ascending and descending.

He heard the voice of God Himself speak those words of reassurance, of promise, of protection and deliverance.

God was with him that night when he thought he was all alone.

This night he sends everyone away because there's 1 more thing he's got to do.

He wanted to hear once again the words of that God, the same promise, the reassurance, the protection that God has promised him, because honestly, he has nowhere left to turn.

No more plans, no more schemes, nothing left, no 1 can help him.

And it is in this part of the story that we expect, ah yeah, we rub our hands in eager anticipation.

Everyone watch, This is where God is about to step into our experience.

Just like the children of Israel at the shores of the Red Sea.

The water before them, Pharaoh's army behind them, the rocky mountains on either side, nowhere to go.

The disciples on the storm-tossed sea, water filling their ship, too far from shore to swim.

Daniel in the lion's den, the 3 Hebrew worthies in the fiery furnace, Nowhere to look, nowhere to hide, no 1 to turn to.

In those moments God specializes in delivering His people.

But tonight, Jacob expects some divine intervention just like we do.

We expect some miraculous moving of the arm of God for deliverance and we know the end of the story, right?

But before we get ahead of ourselves, what actually happens?

Let's continue reading verse 24, Genesis 32, and Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.

And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him.

Imagine with me, Jacob bowed low near the ground prostrate before God.

His mind is tormented with a memory of his wrongs.

The responsibility of the lives of his innocent men, women, and children under his care.

All of a sudden a strong arm seizes him and flings him to the ground.

Jacob realizes this was not the gentle touch of a loving Savior.

This was someone seeking to take his life.

Randy Skeete

Mine is Bigger than Yours

From my heart, I wish all of you a very blessed Sabbath.

Those of you who are present and your family members wherever they may be on the face of the globe, we thank God for this day.

It is universally disregarded and ignored.

But I'm very grateful that there are a few on the face of the earth that still regard God's Sabbath day very highly.

You are among that few and may God bless you and ever keep you faithful to His Word, faithful to His will because God has millions of people who give Him lip service.

As Isaiah prophesied, this people honoreth me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

I want to get right into the message with your permission.

And so I will ask you to do 3 little things for me because you look like cooperative Christians who like to put your guests at ease.

Favor number 1, I just gave my cell phone to a nice looking young man, I told him hold it for me even though it's turned off, I didn't want the risk of it turning itself on, you know how these smartphones are, and ringing during the service, I give it to him, now, if you have a cell phone, please turn them off.

Are you doing that or are you just looking at me?

Favor number 2, while I'm speaking, pray for me.

I want you to say, Lord, put your words in that man's mouth.

Jeremiah 1, verse 9, Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth.

And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

So please ask God, Put your words in that man's mouth.

And favor number 3, in conformity with Isaiah 118, come now let us reason together.

Dear God in heaven, I come to you in the name of Jesus, a name you always accept.

I come to you, dear God, at your invitation in Hebrews 4.16 to come boldly to the throne of grace.

And I come to you in the spirit of the words of Peter, where shall we go, dear God?

So I come, dear Father, because I have nowhere else to go.

And I ask you in the name of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is equal with yourself and who's 1 with us, who conquered death, hell, grave, sin, and Satan, whose sacrifice is infinite and covers not only this little world but the entire universe in his name.

Please, grant me your spirit, that the words I speak may be your words, dear God.

Grant me not simply the right words, but grant to me the right spirit, the right attitude, Father, that I may speak with compassion and with boldness.

Let the Spirit working through me reach the hearts of all those listening in person and when this is played in a recorded form.

Let the truth triumph, dear God, that you may be glorified and your people blessed.

I offer this prayer from my heart in Jesus' name.

Our subject for today, mine is bigger than yours.

John 19, reading from verse 5, and we're reading from the King James Version of the Bible.

And someone informed me yesterday very politely that I ought to slow down and give you time to write the verses down and record the references to the writings of Ellen White.

So I promised I will try, and the operative word is try.

So when you pray and say, Lord, put your words in that man's mouth, you may also add, Lord, help him to slow down so we can catch what he's saying.

The Bible says, Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man.

When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out saying, crucify him, crucify him.

Pilate saith unto them, take ye him and crucify him for I find no fault in him.

It is, as I pause in the middle of the reading, to observe that the greatest danger to Christ was the church.

3 times Pilate, a representative of the heathen, the pagans, the unbelievers, the world, 3 times between chapters 18 and 19, Pilate said unequivocally, I find no fault with this man.

The Jews said repeatedly, crucify him, crucify him.

Pilate said unto them, take ye Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault with Him.

Question for you, do you find any fault in Jesus?

Has he interfered with your dietary habits?

Has he interfered with your dating practices?

Has he interfered with the way you handle your money?

The Jews answered him, verse 7, John 19, we have a law and by our law he ought to die because he made himself the son of God.

Now they said we have a law and by our law he ought to die because he made himself the son of God.

I can almost hear Jesus saying in his heart, my father also has a law.

And by his law, Because of the way you've treated me, it is not that you ought to die.

Because your house has been left unto you desolate.

By my law and my Father's law you will die.

It is a statement of solemn disturbing fact.

By our law He ought to die because he made himself the Son of God.

When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid and went again into the judgment hall and saith unto Jesus, whence art thou?

Then saith Pilate unto him, speakest thou not unto me?

Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee, which was correct up to a certain point?

Satan said, but put forth thy hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face.

And God said unto him, behold, all that he hath is in thy hand, only upon himself, put not forth thy hand.

And so yes, Pilate, by God's permission, that is why you and I ought not to be worked up so much by political parties in power.

We must remember the words of Jesus to Pilate in verse 11.

Jesus answered, thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above.

Jesus recognized that while Pilate had power, The higher power, the higher determining force over his life was his father.

And you and I must understand that it is not your degree that determines your life.

It is not your political affiliation that determines how long you preserve the comfortable life you enjoy.

The power that directs the life of a Seventh-day Adventist Christian is God.

And so we learn to say like Jesus, when the day comes when the power will speak with very clear and undisguised intimidation, we have a law.

And by our law, because you broke it, you are to die.

In other words, by the law, I can kill you or I can release you.

Your law governs the areas ruled by the Roman Empire.

And today, with our subject, Mine is Bigger Than Yours, we will examine a standard for such a time as this.

We live in a world swimming in immorality and licentiousness.

And every species of crime and wrongdoing imaginable and possible to the carnal nature, this is the world in which we live, which means the opposite sign of that coin is the law of God has been universally disregarded.

Frank Fournier

Identity Crisis

I'd have you turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 6.

I'd like to invite you to bow your heads with me and we're going to ask the Lord to give us a blessing this afternoon.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we're together, we're here, we've come to find inspiration in all that you have to say and all that you have to teach, we're asking you to come our way this afternoon.

Send your Holy Spirit, send your Holy Angels, communicate with our hearts.

This is our desire and we thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Young lady contacted me not so long ago and asked that I come here and share with you for 20 or 30 minutes asking that I bring a challenge to your hearts.

Well my challenge this afternoon of course is keeping you awake after lunch and if you'll live up to that challenge, then I hope that you'll hear the other challenge that I'm bringing to you.

I've got a question for you this morning.

And by the way, this evening rather, afternoon, whatever time it is, the title for this afternoon is Identity Crisis.

It's when you don't know who you are, and it's when you don't know what you're about or why you exist.

And obviously we're at ASI, and I'm here to bring that thought to our minds.

Could we answer that question if someone would ask us.

Do you know what the benefits are for belonging to ASI?

You know it would be interesting for me if I could spend a little time with you and to ask you that question personally because I would like to hear your response.

I believe with all my heart that ASI is an organization that God has produced, God has given to us, and for a very specific purpose.

But I have found in my travels that not everyone seemed to be able to answer these questions for themselves or for anyone else who would like to ask these questions.

And so if I may, and I'm not quite sure that I can, but this afternoon I really would like to clear that up.

You can pray with me that the Holy Spirit would inspire us this afternoon.

Do you think that Jesus had an identity crisis?

Do you think that Jesus knew why he existed?

Do you think that he knew why he came to this world and what exactly he wanted to do?

Now amazingly he came unto his own and his own were not quite sure they could identify with him because when he came unto his own they had formed some kind of expectations that he did not fulfill and it caused a little crisis both in the life of Jesus and in the life of these people that he came to save.

I have you turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6.

I understand that this is the Old Testament and this is a picture of God in the Old Testament.

Verse 4, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is 1 Lord.

Now there's a better translation of this.

Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is 1.

Now if you were to speak to a Jewish individual today, they would tell you there is 1 God based on this Bible verse.

If you were to speak to a Muslim today, they would say that there is 1 God and his name is Allah.

If you would speak to an anti-Trinitarian today, they would say that the word 1 here is singular and there's only 1 God, and then they go on to denigrate, I think, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, of course.

Now, it's interesting that when you move to the New Testament, you find Jesus in John chapter 10.

Now I'll have you turn to John chapter 10, even though I can recite 1 verse here, We're going to look at other verses.

In John chapter 10, Jesus says, I and my Father are 1.

Now if I add correctly, I think that's 2 people.

Now either Jesus doesn't know how to add or he is giving more, a deeper meaning to the word 1 here than we naturally will due to it.

Usually when we talk about oneness, we're usually talking about unity.

We're talking about having the same purposes and the same goals and the same vision.

But when Jesus said, I and my Father are 1, he wasn't talking about that specifically.

It includes that, but the people who he was talking to understood what he was saying.

They understood to the point that they were willing to stone him.

I had you turn there and I didn't turn there myself.

John chapter 10, we're looking at verse, beginning with verse 30.

The Jewish people who were listening to him knew exactly what he meant, and they picked up stones to stone him, verse 31.

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

Now why in the world would anyone want to stone anyone for saying, I and my father are united, I and my father are in agreement, we have the same purposes, we have the same goals, we are 1?

Well, that's no reason to stone anyone, but that's not what he was meaning.

And they understood what he was meaning, and it says so in verse 32, Jesus answering them and said, Many good works have I showed you from my Father, for which of those good works do you stone me?' And they answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because thou, being a man, makest thyself what?

And I appreciate the preachers that went before me because at least 2 of them touched on this subject.

He knew it and the Jewish people that he was speaking to knew it and they didn't like him saying that because he wasn't meeting their expectations.

This is not the God they wanted but this is the Messiah that God sent.

Okay, and in a sense if you look at this situation here is a man, Jesus took on humanity by the way, a man shows up and he claims that he is God.

What would you do with a man who claimed that he was God today?

Well, you can understand that It's a wild claim in essence.

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ASI Southern Union 2013 Plenary Sessions

Identity Crisis

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Recorded

Parts

When Men Have Labor Pains

44m

Mine is Bigger than Yours

43m

Identity Crisis

37m

No Strings Attached

44m

Sound Doctrine