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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Don Mackintosh Weekend 2004

Don Mackintosh

Gnosis, Diagnosis, and Prognosis

And then we talked this morning a little bit about some Sabbath miracles and that was fun to talk a little bit about that.

So what I want to do is pick up on that and then I want to finish what I didn't finish last night at the end of that.

So this is kind of going to be like a smashed fruit smoothie here, you know, we're gonna put the 2 together.

And I had planned to do that anyway, but we kind of ran out of time this morning.

So, we were looking at the Sabbath miracles and how the Lord wanted to bring and loved to bring healing on the Sabbath.

And I've been most gratified to hear some of your comments and different things about how you're processing this issue of bitterness and how you're, some of you have moved through that.

And I appreciate the testimonies that you've shared with me.

Now, under the experience of the man with the withered hand.

We were developing that theme, I remember that this morning, and we were talking about the withered hand being likened to the right hand, it told us in Luke, and those 2 ministries coming together, the health ministry and ministers and physicians working together and other other people within congregations and I shared a few testimonies with you on that we want to move down next to our next Sabbath miracles that I have for us to consider and that's in John chapter 9.

John chapter 9 probably 1 of my favorite Sabbath miracles in the Bible we have of course the story of the man who had been blind from birth and we're just going to read a few verses here of it now as Jesus passed by he saw a man who was blind from birth.

He explained a few things and then he gave him something very simple to do.

Verse 6, and when he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.

And of course, what day was this, verse 14, Now it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.

Now you know the thing that strikes me about this, and of course we could preach a whole message on any 1 of these parables, is the simplicity of the things that Jesus many times asked people to do.

Have you ever noticed that the things that our Lord asks us to do are many times in and of themselves not that complex?

In fact, they're relatively easy, but how many of you have noticed that even though they're relatively supposedly easy, they seem to be very difficult for us to do.

And we sometimes like to minimize them like Naaman did and say, you know, I don't know about this dipping and the river and you know, isn't our river better and can't we you know he kind of had it all messed up and he took the earth back from his country and he said okay and he had all these things going on but the Lord asked him to do something simple and he asks us the same kind of things to just to just demonstrate a simple faith and he's the 1 that's given us the measure of faith even that tells us in Romans.

And so in this particular passage what I wanted to bring out is the simplicity of some things.

And many times when we study and we get involved in medicine and we get involved in studying of any field, we complicate issues.

I remember living with my grandfather when he turned 86 years old.

How many of you have ever lived with somebody that's 60 years older than you are.

How many of you know that that's a great blessing?

Grandfather moved in with me and he moved from Walla Walla, he was unable to live alone and so he called me up on the phone and he said, I want to come live with you.

He said, no, don't want to live with him.

And I think I'd have more success with you.

Would you go out and check the mail because I sent you a check today.

I sold my house I sent you the money already.

I Went out and in the mailbox It was a check for the amount that he had sold his house for minus what he needed to move So I went and bought a house and my grandfather moved in with me.

And what, I was somewhat nervous about this, but the simple faith of my grandfather was a great blessing to me.

He came and looked at me and he started to watch me and he said, you know, you, he didn't say this, he just looked this way, you do things that you shouldn't do.

Like 1 of the things I did back then was that I played football.

Still occasionally can do that, but not as often with the girls.

You know, a three-month-old, they just can't catch very well, at least last week, and the three-year-old.

And so I was out to play football and he came and I said, we're going to go play football.

He went with us and he sat there by the field and I can remember we go to the first huddle and how am I going to include my grandfather?

He's out there with his big coat on in the middle of the field in the fall and he's sitting there and he kind of looks like, you know, he is a patriarch and he's sitting there in the middle of the ball field.

And you know, the other team was saying, hey, is he your quarterback?

And you know, they were kind of joking around and he was, he didn't hear him.

And I just looked and he was watching me like, you know, how do I include this?

I said, man, I better, we better go huddle around grandfather.

That's what we'll do to start the game and we'll have him say what he wants to say to us.

And so we went over there and I said, grandfather, you know, we want to just pray before we begin.

And he goes, I think that's a very good idea.

So then he began to pray and he just said, Lord, these boys are, they're troubled.

They, they are doing troubling things and they could injure themselves a lot.

And you know, all the guys just kind of, they just looked at each other, and this began a relationship between me, my grandfather, and that team.

And when we lost the championship, he was there to pick us up and then he went into the to the basketball season and and and then he was in all the team pictures and so we just had this relationship and And grandfather always was moving us with his prayers.

You know, at the end of the season, he goes, Lord, I pray this is the last season for these boys.

And you know, he was just always, but he never was, you know, never was pushy.

And I would have to take grandfather to different places to get care, you know, he'd go down and he and he was ailing a little bit more, he had a little congestive heart failure that was developing and different things.

I remember I took him in to see the doctor so I took him to see the doctor and of course I'm an emergency room nurse and I knew the doctor and different things I went in and I said my grandfather is putting this stuff on his foot he doesn't need it but you know would you tell him not to put it on because it stinks and this and that You know and I told him in the hall like I was supposedly mr.

Professional and that he was gonna listen to me Well, he was a wise doctor So he goes in and he talks to my grandfather and he says so tell me about yourself different things.

I think grandfather says Yeah, I'm putting My toes been hurting me and I've been putting a little ointment on it Walter what you've been putting on?

How many of you know what absorbing juniors that stuff is some really rank smelling stuff.

I mean, you know It doesn't absorb much at all.

I mean it's absorbing but it's definitely not absorbable I didn't think.

It was very aromatic at least the batch my grandfather had.

And you know and so I'm going I'm behind my going to the doctor and the doctor looks at my grandfather and he looks at me and he says, you know Elder McIntosh, I really think that's good for your toe.

And he goes, you know, I really think it is.

I mean, I'm not even taking my grandfather to the doctor anymore if this is the way it's going.

And at the end, the doctor says, hey, can I talk to you for just a minute?

And then he said to me, you know, anything your grandfather rubs on his feet, anything he rubs there is probably going to help the circulation, don't you think?

So let's just let him rub anything he wants to on his feet.

And I thought about it, I said, you know that was wise.

Just a simple thing that grandfather, there was no reason to take him away from that thing that was giving him comfort.

And so what I began to learn from a grandfather was this whole idea that the simple sometimes is better.

I would come home with these highfalutin ideas from various gurus and gurus and whatever kangaroos that wrote books about how to do ministry and how to hop over here and do this and you know gospel puppets and gimmicks and tricks and balloons and bells and whistles you know that was before it was ever in any Seventh-day Adventist Church at all was still all at the circus and it was moving into the other churches and I had you know I'd show these things and I'd come home and I would bring those to him and he would just be sitting there in his easy chair and he would right next to me had this whole set of testimonies volume 1 through 9 and then this conflict series and all that stuff right next to him and he was rereading it and so as I come home I'd tell him all about you'd say what they teach you today over there and I tell him he and he would never say anything much unless I asked him, I'd say, what do you think of that?

And he'd always point, he'd go, give me volume 4.

And he didn't say that, but turn to page 300 and read that for me.

And then he asked me, what do you think of that?

The Invitation That Changed My Life

You guys gonna make me finish that story?

After I preach the sermon I have to finish the story?

My dad, when I got things straightened out with my mom, I went back home.

And I was there, and when I got home, the devil came in and attacked.

So, my mom had a back injury and I started to take care of her.

She had had about 3 back surgeries and she and I got things straightened out.

My dad and I were kind of dialoguing, but then a phone call came from Chicago of 1 of my atheist friends down there and he said, come down to Chicago and you know, when you start to follow the Lord the devil will just send people back into your life to try and get you Up off track and so these people call from Chicago.

I went back down to Chicago and they said well look what's going on your life I said I've accepted Christ.

They said you haven't you're such a nice person.

You're gonna mess yourself up And I said no, I think it's great.

So they took me out to all the clubs and different things and I was weak and so I went out to these clubs and I was listening to all these things and I was in parts of Chicago that I didn't know existed and we were going all these places and they were all talking to me, all 5 of these people, and it was a very odd thing.

When they were all together they all would be very bitter and they would talk about how you couldn't believe in God and this and that and everything and they were defining themselves by what they didn't believe in.

But when they were separate, I began to notice something.

They were all different ages, these guys down in Chicago I was hanging out with.

They were all minister's sons, And they all had bitterness against their fathers.

I didn't realize it then, but what God was showing me was, you know what, if you go down that path you're going to be miserable at 20, 25, 30, 35, all the way up to the time that lady that you prayed with was.

So I was there working and still my numb skull wasn't really getting it.

Just before I left my mom's house and my dad's house, I had gotten a job.

I got a job as a flight nurse on a helicopter in Butterworth Hospital.

So I'd been accepted to work there, I'd passed the physical and everything else.

I was kind of like wanting to live on the edge, you know, and everything else.

I was kind of, you know, that kind of a person.

So I'm down there and I'm with these people just before I go back for orientation.

And I'm listening to this cast iron tub with this guy whose name was Les.

And as I was lifting this, and I always said that to him and he really got sick of it after a while, but you know, that's okay.

And I was lifting this tub with him and he dropped the tub and I tried to catch the tub let me just give you a clue some things you can't catch if someone says let's play catch with a cast-iron tub you just say no thanks But I didn't know that then so I tried to catch the tub and I did.

I caught the tub and then there's this big pain in my back that developed.

So I went home and I went to the apartment and I laid there and I tried to, you know, and it just hurt.

But it'll get over it, you know, I'll bounce back.

And they say, well, you know, in the last 2 weeks, we've had so many claims with back injuries that as a part of the pre-employment process, we have ordered an LS fine on everybody.

We want to just do a complete series to make sure there's no problems." And I was like, OK, yeah, that sounds wise, but is there any chance that we can just forego that?

You just, you know, it's not going to take long.

And it was the PA working, you know, there.

And I was going, great, PA, but they're going to miss it.

Nothing against PAs, you know, I was thinking about them.

They're going to miss any problem that's there, you know.

And the PA, he comes in and goes, looks like there's some issues here on the x-ray.

Do you have any pain?" You know, I was just a new Christian.

You know, I started to talk philosophically and didn't give a straight answer.

But I, you know, anyway, to make a long story short, they found that I had a back injury.

Well, I had gotten jobs all along the Florida coast that I hadn't taken.

I said to my mom, I can't get a job, my back's broken, my back hurts, and they found this.

And I was like, I mean I was hit, I was like, oh No, so then I'm laying down on my back.

And then my mom starts taking care of me with my back.

I just got through taking care of her before I went down.

And then my dad came in, and he started taking care of me sometimes, bringing some things into me.

And, you know, we started to have these discussions.

Well to make a long story a little longer I ended up in the psychiatric hospital working as a nurse.

So the night shift on the pediatric with the pediatric cases and I went there and they didn't do any back-ectrain, so I was working night shift, you know, and it's just the people that freak out at night, you know.

So I'm there in the psychiatric hospital and there's all these people, this was in Cutlerville right near Grand Rapids, and there's all these people, they were Christian Reform, and they were all...

You had villas in every part of the town?

Triggering the Peristalsis of the Kingdom

Well, it's good to spend the weekend here in Loma Linda and what an encouragement it has been to me.

And I'm just so happy to meet so many of you newly that are my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I am just thankful to be able to send the word out that the Lord is doing great things here in Advent Hope.

I'm thankful for your spirit, for your testimony, for the energy you're bringing.

I didn't have a chance to visit other things that were happening on the campus this weekend, but I think that I was in the elite group here.

And so I'm very happy for the invitation.

Thank you so much whoever was involved in that for having me come out and share with you.

Tonight I want to just talk with you about the importance, I think, again, of maintaining our joy in the Lord.

The joy of the Lord is our strong salvation.

And to have the affections and have the feelings that go with the decisions we make.

You know, decisions are very important and I think that they are essential and I think that we need to operate on the basis of principle even without feelings but if feelings are not there, if the affections are not there, it can be a sign that there's a problem.

And so you know throughout scripture we are admonished we are commanded to have certain affections.

These are not things that are, what would you say, something that is an option that you can choose among.

And what the world needs are Christians that are happy Christians, lovable Christians, rejoicing Christians.

And You know, whatever fields you're in, whatever environment you're in, the power of 1, 1 happy person can make a lot of difference.

So before we begin, let's just ask the Lord again to be with us.

Father in heaven tonight, you know that we have had a feast this weekend of thinking about you and your love and your power and your might.

And we want to have affections and have emotions that go along with the decisions we've made we ask through your spirit that we will and we come in Christ's name Amen Psalm 100 Psalm 100 Psalm 100, Psalm 100 and verse 2, Psalm 100 and verse 2 Psalm 100 and verse 2 serve the Lord with gladness come before his presence with singing this is just 1 of many many many text look at another Psalm 16 and verse 11 Psalm 16 verse 11 you will show me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forever more.

We sang this song tonight, I will sing of his love to me.

I believe that song needs to start now, not in heaven.

And I believe our lives should be an expression of the joy of the Lord.

I think this is probably 1 of the most healing things we can bring to the world today.

And that the affections, the affections must be there.

When it comes to this type of thing the Puritans put it this way They said this to know God so well That delighting in him May be the work of our lives Do you like that?

Does that sound like a job you can keep up with?

The Bible commands zeal the Bible commands fear the Bible commands grief it commands desire tenderheartedness commands sorrow it commands brokenness and gratitude and lowliness and cheerfulness these are commands of the Lord When you look those words up and you study them through the concord you will find text that commands these things.

It's said of Jonathan Edwards that he would go out into the woods when his affections were wrong and he would stay out in the woods until he could come back with something of the joy of the Lord and he didn't have a laptop and he didn't have a palm pilot and he didn't have something else like that And so he would write these things that he found in Scripture or the thoughts that came to him because he didn't want to forget the joy Or the glories of the Lord and he would pin them to his clothes and then he would come back covered with sweat but full of the joy of the Lord Wow what an experience.

And our Lord was very, very interested in not only the decisions of his people as he lived here, but also their affections.

He knew when people were sad and he himself would weep and his emotions would come to the top and he would engage with his emotions.

And the wife says that he would speak with tears in his voice.

And you know I've worked with some people that have had the joy of the Lord.

Wilson was a mission doctor that came back to work.

He could see more patients in an hour than were there.

He was always ahead of the patients and he he he was an excellent clinician.

He knew what people needed but he connected emotionally with almost each patient.

It was amazing to me and he would be there, nice crisp lab coat and his hair nicely, you know, slipped back and when people would come and he'd say, what's the trouble?

I would be working out at the triage nurse.

There, you know, usually the physician was back in the ivory palace behind multiple curtains and telephones waiting to be called up, but not Dr.

He was always out there and as soon as he took care of the patients he'd come out and he'd come into the waiting room and he'd say, I'll be out to see you, tell me what's wrong and he would connect with people people would call up and see if he was on and when he was on they would come in and he understood them and they understood him And this was a very low economic place.

I mean, it wasn't because of the money, but it was because of the love of people.

And his life was filled with just affection for people.

1 thing he didn't like was people that weren't kind to other people.

And I saw that side of his affection as well.

Have you ever taken care of a sickle cell patient, you know?

Come in and they're asking for pain medications and I can remember as a new nurse I didn't understand that.

I thought that they they were maybe wanting more drugs than they could get.

It's kind of easy to say that when you've never had sickle cell.

Wilson looked at me 1 day and he said, did you give him a drink of water yet?

And he quoted a text to me about giving water.

And his affections were in, they were infecting affections.

When he would come in, you know, the nurses and the other staff, the x-ray department and everything else, they were all just wanting to get there.

Because he would ask about how's Timmy and how's Jane and how are things going?

Don't get me wrong, it was some kind of weepy hour long, you know, interaction, but it was just, how are you?

We need to have infectious affection that's divinely inspired.

Now 1 of my favorite passages in Scripture is Luke 24.

This is actually 1 of my favorite chapters.

I know this is from 3 Angels, we'll know that over the years.

This is probably the text I come back to time and time again in this chapter Jesus is very familiar with the people that he prayed for in John 17 and you know he laid down his life for us John 10 says that he could take it up that he would take it up again, but he was worried because of the affections of his disciples, because of their, They had made decisions but he was worried about the completeness of those decisions.

I think Jesus was just as eager to be popping out of that grave as anybody else.

Because he wanted to check on people you know to take care of rounds going up to heaven and I'm sure he was happy to see the folks there but he wanted to get the gown you know and make sure things were going okay.

Luke chapter 24 gives the story about how he rose again.

It's interesting about Jesus that the women who followed him many times were more in touch with Christ than the men.

And yet there was no hint of any impropriety.

And the women were there when he died in Luke chapter 23 they observed his body and how it was laid then on the first day of the week they came back to check and Luke chapter 24 and verse 9 they returned from the tomb and told these things to the 11 to all the rest that was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles that Jesus had risen and the apostles didn't believe it.

Their words seemed to them, it says, verse 11, like idle tales and they did not believe it.

Peter arose and ran to the tomb, stooping down he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves and he departed marveling to himself what had happened.

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Don Mackintosh Weekend 2004

Gnosis, Diagnosis, and Prognosis

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