GYC 2014: At The Cross

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Medical Missionary Work: The Present "Present" Truth

Lela Lewis

1. The Three Angel’s Message Played Out in a Persons Life: How to Live a Testimony of Health

This message was presented at the GYC 2014 conference at the Cross in Phoenix, Arizona.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

He was going to go first, I was going to go second, so he's having a little delay.

So we're going to flip around and that's okay.

First of all, welcome everybody to Medical Missionary Work, The Present Present Truth.

We're going to be talking about some amazing things that God has in plan for all of us as far as God's final message involving medical missionary work.

Now today, if you will, Don's talk, actually, you'll be hearing it next hour, and so we're kind of, like I said, we're flipping it around.

But Don's talk, his first talk, was specifically on why the disciples were able to turn the world upside down for Jesus.

And my aspect is from the perspective of how you can turn the world upside down for Jesus in a very short period of time.

But what I'm going to be doing is actually looking at my personal testimony, and we're going to be looking at it from the perspective of going from sin-loving or self-pleasing and sin-loving to God's plan, Again, looking at it from my personal testimony.

Now the reason, you may be wondering why in the world are we talking about personal testimonies.

We're here to talk about medical missionary work, right?

Well, actually, personal conversion has to happen first before we can expect to convert anybody else.

I like to be a little bit energetic, so if I get energetic, bear with me.

But we want to be able to be personally converted for Jesus in order to win others for Jesus.

So if I can take my 3, so we have 6 talks total, of the 3 that I'm giving, if I could give you like the forest for the trees, the first 1, I would say, is trust, pray, and obey.

And the third is press together, press together, press together.

And what I found by God's grace is these 3 principles, if you will, are not only in personal conversion, but also for mass medical missionary work as well.

And we're going to be looking at that today.

Well, before we get started, first of all, I didn't even introduce myself.

Before we get going, I'd like to actually stop and have a word of prayer and ask God's blessing on this talk, and also that we would all be inspired to share Christ wherever he would have us to share him.

Dear Father in heaven, I ask that you would please bless this talk.

I ask that you would please give me the words to say and that I would lift you up and that you would be glorified, we pray, in our lives and our personal testimonies and also as we wish to share you with those around us.

Okay, well, this quote I wanted to share with you, it actually encompasses all 6 topics, if you will.

The titles that are actually in your booklet are a little bit different than what Don and I will be going over.

But this is actually a quote I felt that really encompassed all 6 parts in 1 quote from Evangelism.

It is the divine plan that we shall work as the disciples worked.

This is the topic that Don will be giving you next hour.

He's going to show you how the disciples were again able to turn the world upside down for Jesus in 1 generation.

How were they able to turn the world upside down for Jesus in 1 generation.

How were they able to turn the world upside down?

Connected with the divine healer, not them, but we too may do a great good in the world.

So the only antidote, or the only cure, if you will, for sin, the worst disease of all, is the gospel.

As Christ's witnesses, which is what each and every 1 of us wish to be, we are to bear testimony to its power.

So you and I are to be living testimonies, if you will, of the Gospel.

That's the way we are able, as the disciples were, to turn the world upside down for Jesus.

That is the essence of today's talk, the 1 right now, Part 2 and Part 4.

In order to bear witness to the testimony of its power, we must have a personal living testimony in ourselves.

We are to bring the afflicted ones to the Savior.

His transforming grace and miracle-working power will win many souls.

We just recently saw that in the Bay Area by God's grace.

We're going to be talking about that a little bit later.

We're going to be giving you miracle stories after miracle stories after miracle stories.

If anything gets me energized, it's God's power.

And we're going to be showing some amazing, amazing miracles that God has done over the last year in medical missionary work.

His healing power, God's healing power, united what?

So it's the medical missionary work combined with what?

The gospel message, which is all about part 6 of this series, will bring success.

When we press together, press together, press together.

The Holy Spirit will work upon hearts and we shall see the salvation of God.

So that's just kind of an overview over the next 5 topics.

Again, for those of you who just came in, a living testimony, I believe, is required in order for us, as we wish, to turn the world upside down for God.

And again, for the forest, for the trees, if I could take the whole talk over the next hour, it would be to say, trust, obey, and pray.

Now, before I get started on my testimony, there are a couple disclaimers that I like to say as far as testimonies are concerned.

Sometimes when you hear a testimony, there is a tendency, at least as I've heard some speakers, there is a tendency to almost feel as though there's kind of a glorification of sin.

I don't know if you've ever heard anything like that in testimonies.

And you almost get the feeling sometimes, at various times I've heard this, that the individual is almost reliving the sinful life that they may have lived before.

So by God's grace, I prayed earnestly that that is not the case and that will not be displayed here today.

There's also another problem that sometimes happens in testimonies.

Sometimes if an individual doesn't have what they view as a dramatic testimony, you know, like living an entire life filled with sin, and then they've come out and they've given their hearts over to God.

Don Mackintosh

2. Prayer in Medical Missionary Work

How many of you have ever had 1 of those days where things are not just working out so well for you.

How many of you have ever had 1 of those?

I doubt that Jesus had this problem, because of course, he didn't use PowerPoint.

So what I'm gonna do is hopefully the same thing, and that is to kind of look at this without any notes today and just use our whiteboard, how about that?

And this will really maybe help us realize, or at least me, that I don't need technology.

Let's pray together, and do you have your Bibles with you today?

And if we could turn the lights on in the back, I will just use the white board.

Let's bow our heads together and ask the Lord to be with us.

Father in heaven, Lord, we're so thankful today for this powerful testimony about how you turned Leila's life upside down, Dr.

You turned her life upside down, and you did it from the inside out, and you did it through that powerful testimony of her husband and many other things.

And Lord, we desire to have that kind of testimony.

We do ask that you will change us from the inside out in this conference.

And as we consider health evangelism and how Christ turned the world upside down and how we can too, we just ask that your spirit would be with us.

You know, 1 of the great things about considering Christ and how he was involved in health evangelism is how he so identified with people.

You know, if you want to be involved in any kind of health evangelism, you need to be able to identify with people.

You need to be able to get close to them almost instantly.

It doesn't matter if you end up being a professional health evangelist like a nurse or a physician, or even a more powerful health evangelist like the little maid of 2 Kings chapter 5.

You see, everybody is called to health evangelism, and everybody in some certain sense is involved in that.

In fact, in Testimonies, volume 7, we're told that every member is to be a medical missionary, to be a health evangelist.

And if that's the case, what does that mean?

Very simply, health evangelism, if we want a definition, number 1, is finding a need and meeting that need.

And part of finding that need and meeting that need is getting people to feel comfortable that you actually know how to do that.

He came down from far above to earth below and he identified with you and me.

I'm very thankful for the holiday season that helps you remember that Christ came to identify with you.

Look in Hebrews, since we're freewheeling without our PowerPoint today, we have great freedom.

Hebrews, I wanted to show you something here.

Hebrews chapter 1 is the key chapter for teaching God's identity, who he is, or Christ's identity.

He was God, That's Hebrews chapter 1, if you wanted to summarize it.

But then chapter 2, Christ identifies with man.

Look at what it says, verse 11, at the end of verse 11.

He is not ashamed to call them brethren So in other words he identifies he says look I'm in the same family with you But then it gets even closer look down a little bit further here Verse 16 he does not give aid to angels, but he gives aid to the seed of Abraham.

Therefore in all things he was made like his brethren.

Look, you and I are part of that same genetic pool.

How many of you are thankful that Christ identified with us so closely?

In fact, it says right there in verse 14, as children have partaken of flesh and blood, he likewise shared in the same.

So the first step, you know, in medical missionary work, if you will, is finding a way to identify with people.

You're just gonna love it, because you're not gonna be able to read it.

Because I worked in the hospital too long.

You're really not gonna see if I do that.

Now when he identified, now, you know, maybe I should throw in a, you know, some practical illustrations, maybe we should do that later.

But if you want to turn someone's life upside down, You need to identify with them.

You know, in the hospital, for instance, you have to sign a consent form.

Say, wait a minute, all right, we'll let you do this procedure.

You know, you don't just go in and say, okay, today, Mr.

Jones, we're going to do a surgery on you.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Don't you have to consent signs, something to form?

No, no, no, we just feel like this is appropriate.

You gotta identify, how many think that's true?

In the Adventist church, we're like a people of prophecy.

How many of you are thankful for the Adventist church, people of prophecy?

Problem is, that our prophecy is like not connected.

And our prophecy is not often connected with practicality.

So in other words, we have these folks come, and I used to be 1 of them, go to a church, and they have like nice PowerPoint slides, and they go, okay, then there's this date, and this date, and this date.

3. Benevolence in the Big City as it Relates to God’s Work at the End

Father in heaven, we're thankful today we can study about health evangelism.

And as we continue our journey together, we ask your spirit to be with us, to guide us.

Now this morning, you know, as I was covering things, my team was here from the health program, that stands for health evangelism and leadership training for him.

Health evangelism, leadership training for him, and they said, why didn't you talk about your program?

And I said, you know, that seems pretty self-serving.

But it's really not self-serving because if you do come to the health program, you learn all the stuff we're talking about and more, plus you get to work with great projects like the 1 you're going to hear in the next hour, bigcitybenevolence.com where we're going to San Antonio And you get to do medical clinics and different things.

That's right, medical doctors and whatnot, and people coming in for the community clinic.

And part of our program is going to be doing health coaching.

So people that go through the health program, they are the physicians in the health clinic will be referring patients for them to do health coaching with.

And instead of just knocking on doors like we did the last few sessions.

And we can tell you all kinds of stories and testimonies at .com.

But this more physician referral thing, we think is going to be pretty cool.

Because we're going to get a bigger load of patients right away, and we're going to be, you know, we learn how to cook, and then we go cook in their homes.

We learn how to do treatments, and then we go educate in their homes and show them how to do those treatments.

We don't treat, because we don't have licenses in our health program, but we do go out into the community, and it's exciting to see what happens there.

We teach a cycle of evangelism that basically starts with, you know, like we talked about this morning, creating a sanctuary, creating a credibility factor and whatnot, and then meeting physical, emotional, mental, spiritual needs in somewhat of a cycle of evangelism.

If you'd like to see that picture and study it out, in the back there are some brochures about the health program, which I encourage you to do.

Now, in our little series that we've been doing, Dr.

Lewis and myself, and let me just say, I really appreciate working with Dr.

I don't think she has enough energy, though, when she publicly presents.

And she has great organizational ability, too.

And God has been using she and her husband mightily, which you're going to hear more about this next hour.

So, Christ and his followers turned the world upside down, and you can too.

That was supposed to be the first presentation, but it ended up being the second.

The second presentation, which ended up actually being the first, don't be confused on the tape, was from self-indulgence to sacrificial service, and that was Dr.

Lewis' testimony, which was heartwarming.

And this particular presentation, medical missionary work, the present, present truth, and the vital role of youth, or we might say the young at heart for some of you who don't consider yourselves youth anymore and are laughing right now.

So, and then number 4, reaching the millions for the master, big city benevolence, God's end time work.

And number 5, what can happen in San Antonio?

There's going to be a huge outreach there.

We'll talk about that, why every young person should be involved.

And then finally, and probably most importantly, the last presentation, prayer, testimony, medical missionary work, pretty much drives it all.

So let's get right into this topic for this afternoon, medical missionary work, the present, present truth.

Now you remember as we studied together that we saw in our last hour together that Christ actually had a paradigm that drove his ministry, and what was it?

And we discovered that when he came, he cleaned the sanctuary, he created a sanctuary space, if you will, was already there, but he cleansed it.

And he said, look, this needs to be open for true healing.

In other words, they recognized that the Holy Spirit was on him and in him and worked through him.

Okay, how many of you were here the last hour?

Acts 10, 38, he went about doing good, right?

He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, which is, that's the anointing, he was the Messiah, and with power.

So how many of you had people say, yeah, I've got the Holy Spirit, but there's like no power?

Have you heard of the fruits of the Spirit?

Love, joy, peace, long suffering, long suffering, self-control, or called temperance, right?

So is that important for health evangelism, have those fruits?

I wish I could do a whole seminar for you on self-control.

I'll control myself, however, and stay on topic.

But what are the fruits of the Holy Spirit?

The fruit of the Holy Spirit was really, he went about doing good, and specifically what kind of good?

And that happened then for the first 3 and a half years, 27 AD to 31 AD.

That was, according to our seminar brochures that focused on 1 Peter 1, 21, by his stripes we are healed, is the theme of this conference.

And so there was healing on the cross, and that healing on the cross was what?

And we saw that Isaiah 53 summarizes that healing.

Then there was a social healing, 3 and a half years later, after the cross, Jesus has died, he was cut off in the middle of the week for you and me, but then there was a confirmation of the covenant.

Jesus didn't come to just be Jesus and leave.

So the cross was the entry point, not the exit point.

When He said, it is finished, it didn't mean it was done.

I don't know if you understand what I mean.

4. Reaching Millions for the Master

Okay, we're just about ready to start here.

So we'll give a couple more seconds for everybody to get seated and then we're going to talk about some of the most amazing miracles that I've ever seen in my life.

And many people have been surprised at what God's done over the last year in some of the things that's taken place in San Francisco.

We're going to be showing a five-minute video.

How many of you, before we get started, have seen the Bridges to Health video?

And in a couple minutes, I'm going to ask if we can turn the lights down, too.

I'll give a couple more seconds here for everybody to get seated.

OK, well, before we get started again, I'm Leela Lewis.

This is my first GYC, and I have been personally, personally touched.

This morning's sermon was absolutely amazing.

And I am excited to be with you guys here.

So before we get started, if we can just have a word of prayer, I'm going to ask God's blessing, and I'm specifically going to ask that He will be lifted up, and that we will experience and see what He has in store for each and every 1 of us for medical missionary work.

So for those of you who are able, I'm going to go ahead and kneel, And if you'd like to join me, that would be great, too.

Dear Father in Heaven, I thank you so much for the wonderful, wonderful opportunity that we have to partake and participate with you in helping those around us.

I ask that You would give each and every 1 of us a living testimony, that You would change us from the inside out so that we can be living testimonies for those to turn them to You, the great healer of their body, mind and soul.

I ask that we, and specifically myself right now, would lift you up and give you all the praise and glory, and that the world would know that truly, truly, you are God and that you're waiting and ready to take us home to heaven, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, so this is part 4 of Medical Missionary work.

This title of this talk is Reaching Millions for the Master.

How many of you, if you had the opportunity, would say that you would be excited to reach a million people for Jesus?

I mean, the idea of reaching millions of people for Jesus is unbelievable.

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Series

Medical Missionary Work: The Present "Present" Truth

3. Benevolence in the Big City as it Relates to God’s Work at the End

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

1. The Three Angel’s Message Played Out in a Persons Life: How to Live a Testimony of Health

56m

2. Prayer in Medical Missionary Work

53m

3. Benevolence in the Big City as it Relates to God’s Work at the End

52m

4. Reaching Millions for the Master

57m

5. Top 10 Things a Young Person Can Do to Achieve Maximal Mental and Physical Capacity

1h

6. Sharpening the Entering Wedge

44m

Sound Doctrine