iShare 2013: Everywhere

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Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

iShare 2013 Seminar:  Sharing in the Spirit

Ron Clouzet

How God Does the Work

Loving Father, I want to thank you for your goodness to us.

I want to thank you for I share in the commitment it has to share everywhere the gospel of Jesus Christ and these beautiful teachings, these beautiful messages that we have from Scripture that are relevant to a last day world and a last day church.

And Father, I pray that you be with us as we explore this subject.

May we come closer to you as a result of it.

Douglas Cooper tells the story when he was a little boy about 4 years old that he was at his grandfather's farm.

And he said that This was in the Midwest, in northern Midwest, and during the wintertime, you know, everything freezes and there's a lot of snow and it's very cold.

But he was playing in this barrel that had frozen over, the top of it had frozen over, and he was fascinated by the shimmering light that reflected off the eyes of this barrel.

And so he leaned further and further into it in order to try to, you know, play with it and so forth and lo and behold, suddenly he lost his balance and the boy went headlong down this frozen water and was pinned at his sides.

Can you imagine, can you imagine, alright, little boy, 4 or 5 years old, pinned at his side, cannot get out, cannot cry out for help, his, most of his body is under water, his head first.

His grandfather doesn't know anything about it because he is, there's some noise where he's working, so he didn't hear anything.

Well, he would have a few seconds and then he would drown there.

Can you imagine the tragedy of a drowning by your grandson in your own farm in such a thing like that?

I mean, it's really tragic to think about it.

Well, just at this moment, the milkman pulls up and he sees these 2 little legs going up like this, And he put 2 and 2 together and immediately ran to it and pulled the boy out of the water.

And Douglas Cooper says that he never forgot that experience and you can imagine how that, well, that would be the case, because it was life or death.

And he said, it was then that I understood how important air was.

Most Christians live what I call below the waterline.

We are so used to it that we don't even realize we live about 3 inches below the water line.

We are in an ocean, in a world of an ocean of water, if you will.

We live below that time and we don't know that there is a whole new world above it.

We think this is the way things are and we're half drowning, but assume this is normal.

And a lot of Christians live lives that are not victorious lives, that are not joyful lives, that are not meaningful, that are not lives of overcoming or fruitfulness, because We are just so caught up in the world in which we live.

And yet God has a whole new dimension planned for us.

And that's the difference between living by the Spirit and not living by the Spirit.

That's the difference between really breathing and not breathing, and thinking that that's the way things really are.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again of water and the Spirit.

Notice this, he said this to Nicodemus, okay.

Was Nicodemus a criminal person who was clearly against God's will?

He was, all his life, all his adult life, he had instructed others how to know God better.

And Jesus says to this theologian, you must be born again.

Now that ought to be, that is significant because most of us think that being born again is something that needs to happen to other people.

And yet Jesus doesn't have the context of quote unquote other people.

He talks to us, people who are very much involved in the church and in ministry and he says to us, you must be born again of water and the Spirit.

This is what Jesus says in John 6, 36, It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing.

The words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are life.

So what Jesus says, if you swallow those words, this is in the context of He speaking about Him being the bread of life, and about how much we need to eat Him, the bread of life, and the Bible says that people were offended at this word and they left you know a whole bunch of them no longer walked with him.

He says the flesh profits nothing the words that I speak to your spirit.

So God's intention is for us to see the Word of God be, make such an impact in our lives that it would be the equivalent of new life, of real life, versus no life whatsoever.

The night of Jesus' Passover when He spent it with His disciples, He spoke about the coming of the Holy Spirit.

I believe, the more I've studied this, the more I'm convinced this is not exactly what he had in mind.

That was not what he had designed in his mind to talk about, necessarily.

Because Jesus, I mean the logical thing for Him would have been to have talked about the cross, about His soon to take place sacrifice, about what that would mean.

For 6 months God had been saying, Jesus had been saying that he would be taken by the hands of sinners and that he would die and on the third day he would resurrect.

And the Bible says that that evening, and the Czar of Ages also corroborates this, that that evening he already felt oppressed by the weight of sin on himself, that he was carrying for us so much so that the book of Luke says that he thought he was dying.

Jesus' need that night was the support and companionship and friendship of the disciples.

He needed them to say, Jesus, we know you're going to go through a terrible ordeal, but we're praying for you, we're going to be there for you, we understand why you are going through this.

Not a hint that they understood any of that.

You know the only disciple that really understood Jesus' death before he died?

She is the only 1, but none of the 12 understood it, or others.

And so he says, he turned it up, instead of expecting compassion and companionship and support from his disciples, which is what should have happened, He gave it to them.

Because they said, you know, He said in John 13, He says, you are sad because I'm telling you I'm going to leave, you know, I'm going to take off, and you're sad because of this.

And so then he introduces to them the Holy Spirit and he says, I am going to ask the Father, here it is, I tell you the truth, this is chapter 14, verse 16, it is to your advantage, no this is actually chapter 16, verse 7, It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

That word helper or comforter, that is the word, that is the word παράκλητος in Greek.

Παράκλητος means 1 who is right alongside you.

We use παρά, παρά, paralegal, parallel, right?

That's something that's parallel, it goes right along, right?

A paralegal is somebody who does the work of a legal person, right?

So, you have, I, If I do not go away, the helper, the sparacletos, will not come to you.

And he, when he comes, will convict the world.

You notice that the Holy Spirit is being sent to his church, to his disciples, but the Holy Spirit will convict the world.

It doesn't say that the Holy Spirit will convict the church.

It says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world, but the Holy Spirit will not be sent to the world.

It will be sent, He will be sent to the church.

When He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

For years, I didn't fully understand what these 3 things that the world would be convicted of really meant.

But after some time I began to understand the context and the context of the world that doesn't know Him.

Do you realize, for instance, that just over 1 half of the whole world does not know, does not have any idea who Jesus Christ is?

The only understanding they have is that there are Christian countries in the West, that's about it.

But they don't know what all of that means, they don't know who Jesus is, you don't know what he has done for us, nothing.

That's just over half of the world population, over 3.5 billion people have no clue.

The context is a world that doesn't know Him.

And so Jesus is saying, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to the world.

He will convict people of sin, of righteousness, and judgment.

Living By the Spirit

Let me begin with a story of civil war, the civil war in Sudan.

For many, many years in Sudan there's been a civil war and it's been carnage.

Years ago we used to see CNN images about children with their hands hacked off and legs sometimes or feet, right?

That was a Muslim-dominated northern and central country attacking the animist and Christian population in the southern part of Sudan.

This nation finally became an independent nation.

South Sudan became an independent nation just 2 years ago.

And now they're living with relative peace.

But many, many people, as you can imagine, during that civil war, many people had to flee their country to survive.

And 1 of the most famous was Darfur that we've heard about.

Others were over the border in Uganda and so people would go the best they could.

They would travel at night and they would sleep during the day because if they got caught they they would be killed or maimed or something.

1 such a man left his town and took a number of days to go to a refugee camp and finally got to Uganda.

When he got to Uganda, he had walked 150 miles to get there.

After a few months, I mean, this is a refugee camp with thousands of people, he got acquainted with an Adventist minister.

And the Adventist minister started sharing the Bible with him.

An animist is somebody who lives in the spirits.

He became a Seventh-day Adventist Christian.

The old man baptized him, and so right there in the refugee camp.

He was so excited about this new faith and about getting to know the real God, the real true God, that he decided to walk 150 miles home to share his faith with people that were still back home.

He traveled at night and slept during the day because it was dangerous.

He left the country so that he could survive and now he's going right back into the midst of danger, right?

Good chances that he would be shot or killed.

So he shares his faith over a number of weeks with a number of friends and relatives.

After a few months several of them are ready to become Seventh-day Adventists also.

He travels 150 miles back to the refugee camp to get a preacher to baptize them.

And the only preacher he knows, of course, is the retired minister in the refugee camp in Uganda.

When he approaches him about it, the old man says, oh my brother, I could never survive the trip.

Every time there is all these dangers, okay?

He walks a hundred and 50 miles back and he meets all of these people, expectant people, says, okay, now we can be baptized, and he comes along.

And he says to him, and he says, good news, I found somebody who could baptize you.

Sure enough, then they all, all 7 or 8 of them, now walk down a hundred and 50 miles back to Uganda and they are baptized the seventh day Adventist in their new faith.

So what do you think is going to happen with these guys?

Are they going to be in the safe, in the relative safety of the refugee camp now?

No way, because they are in love with Jesus and they have burdens for others and so they walk back 150 miles again.

That's a total of 750 miles walking under extreme danger so they can share their faith with others.

But this time it takes him weeks to get there.

Because they stop in every village they can to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

How, you know, who would do that kind of thing?

Well the only reason is Jesus was real in his life.

He was so real in his life that no circumstance, no danger, nothing became an impediment to the objective of sharing what God had done in their lives.

The night of Jesus' betrayal, We read in the book of John that he had this great need for the love and support of his friends.

Instead, he gave the disciples his love and support via the Holy Spirit and made a promise to them about the Holy Spirit.

I will ask the Father, He will give you another helper that He may be with you, how long?

When the helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father, He will bear witness of me." So the Holy Spirit really reveals Jesus.

Many, many charismatics really focus on the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit Himself teaches something different.

The Holy Spirit, who is the author of Scripture, teaches that the work of the Holy Spirit is not regarding Himself.

The work of the Holy Spirit is to show you Jesus.

So if you want to be a true charismatic, you're going to be in love with Jesus.

And so, in John 14, 26 we read, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

In chapter 16 we read, When He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you unto all truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative.

He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.

The Holy Spirit will bear witness of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit will teach what Jesus taught.

Everything the Holy Spirit does has to do with Jesus, enhancing Jesus, highlighting Jesus, explaining Jesus, reminding you what Jesus said.

The Holy Spirit is the biggest promoter of Jesus in the universe.

If you really want to know Jesus you need the work of the Holy Spirit to see Jesus as He really is.

I will ask the Father, He will give you the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold him or know him.

But you know him because he abides with you and will be where?

I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

The world will behold me no more, but you will behold me, because I live, you shall live also.

In that day, that day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit comes, in that day You shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

So what Jesus is trying to explain is that they should not be sad for him leaving.

He says, actually, as I leave, as I'll send the Holy Spirit to you, I will be closer to you than right now when I'm with you.

That's the preposition here you see in the previous verse.

He abides with you and will be in you, right?

He abides with them, but now he will be in them.

And what's the difference between that preposition with and the preposition in?

There's a whole world of difference, and every mother knows the difference between having a child inside and having a child with her.

And every mother knows that when she becomes pregnant, She actually does have a different life in her, and it changes her forever.

The Key to Ministry Power

Father, as we open the Word and as we reflect on what you might teach us on this subject, I pray that your Holy Spirit may enlighten our minds and warm our hearts to trust you and be faithful to you and learn from you.

Zechariah 4, 6, This is the word of the Lord, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

Some of you probably know about Pastor Pavel Goya.

And there's a book written about him called 1 miracle after another.

And that's really exact, that's well named, well titled.

And 1 of the stories, and I have it in my book too, and it might be easier for me to read it, but anyway, I'll try to say it fast.

It's he was, under communism in Romania, he was a young, young man, a very skilled, talented man.

And he was working with textiles and was making a lot of money under communism.

He was making about a half a million dollars a year as a businessman.

And he had this house and that house and this car and that car and went to Germany a number of times to do work and learn from them.

Well, the Germans wanted to partner with him, which would have increased his salary to about $2 million a year.

You know how much money a pastor makes in communist Romania?

And it was just at this point when he was thinking about teaming up with a German company and making that much more money when the conference asked him if he would consider pastoring a 4 church district.

He had been a very involved lay person, especially working with the youth.

He didn't say to them, you know, we're about to make 2000000 dollars a year, we can't give that up.

He just put it to prayer and prayed along with his wife, what do you want us to do God?

And so they were convicted that they should take this call.

What that meant is that they had to get rid of all their homes and they had to get rid of their nice BMWs because that would not fit with the lifestyle of most of the poor members in the church.

And so he did that and he got a little Russian jalopy to fit with the rest of the members.

Unfortunately, a lot of trouble was going on in that church.

There were a lot of people, you know, jockeying for position and every board meeting was a field battle.

I said, I give up all of this and look at what I have.

I have to babysit these people who are not even really basic Christians.

And so he started saying, let me try an idea, why don't we start praying together in homes, just let's have small groups of prayer and see what happens.

Well, over a period of 2 years, the Lord started changing those people to the point that now the churches began to grow and be healed and God began to really work in their lives and it was wonderful.

As things began to happen then he was able to start having evangelistic meetings because now people had a passion to share their faith.

And 1 of them was going to be in this city, in this town, and he was headed, that was going to take place in about 2 or 3 weeks.

He was driving out there 1 day and all of a sudden the town idiot, and I don't say that disrespectfully, but it was a young boy, 19 years old, who was known as the town idiot.

He had problems with his back and with his thinking processes and everybody knew him.

Everybody in the whole region knew who he was.

His name was Menemene and they even made fun of him.

They called him Menemene because he stuttered also.

Well, this young man tried to cross the highway where he was driving and he came out of nowhere and he hit him.

And he sent him up this, you know, up above and he came down and hit him again, run over him.

He has a broken hip and broken arm and a broken leg.

They work on him and work on him and he dies.

All the medical personnel, they put a sheet over him and they wait until the person from the morgue comes up and gets it.

But what he does, you have to read, you know, you have to know this guy.

He kneels down next to the body and he starts praying aloud for Jesus to resurrect him.

Because he says, these people do not know the power of God.

And Lord, you have led us to these meetings.

You have really worked in these churches.

I cannot really believe that this is really what you want to see happen because now what they're going to say, the Adventist pastor killed the many many and so everything is going to go south.

A doctor comes and says, what are you doing?

He says, if you had a chance to pray, you should have prayed before he's dead.

Even the God of heaven can't do anything about that.

And he went home and prayed with his wife all night through.

The next morning, he came back because he wanted to see the family and offer his condolences and apologies to his family, to the boy's family.

But there was a big to-do at the hospital.

Even cameras, even, you know, journalists, and all the medical personnel was all about, sure enough, the guy in the morgue found this boy, you know, he sat up and he said, I'm hungry, is there something to eat?

And so the doctors are all over him trying to say how this guy was dead, we know that he was dead.

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Series

iShare 2013 Seminar: Sharing in the Spirit

The Key to Ministry Power

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

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