iShare 2015: The Challenge

<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>

Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Plenary

David Machado

Starving Jesus

I know canvassers know that I should be happy that the Sabbath is coming.

Well, I'm thankful to be here with you all.

Mike asked me just moments ago, are you nervous?

I am thankful to be up here with you all and to share the word of life with you.

How many of you have been blessed thus far with the testimony that was just shared.

God could change anybody and everybody if we just give Him a chance.

I am so thankful to be part of the canvassing work.

I've been doing this for a little bit over 7 years and the canvassing work has made my relationship with God a reality.

It has taught me to pray like I've never prayed before.

It has taught me to seek God like I've never sought Him before.

I remember this last year I finished doing an evangelistic series with my fiancé.

I Finished doing an evangelistic series in Redlands, California, and I got a little taste of to see how powerful the canvassing work is.

There was a couple that were coming to the meetings because they thought that, they got a flyer at their door and they thought they were gonna go watch a movie at a church.

The graphics it was called The Dawning, The Rising of the Sun.

So they thought it was gonna be a movie and somebody was gonna be showing it at church.

So They came into the church expecting to see a movie, then I came on the platform and I started preaching.

The Word of God became alive to them and they came night after night.

What was so powerful about this, I saw them coming night after night.

And every night I tried to catch up to them, tried to meet them, tried to see if I could answer any of their objections that they may have had but they keep, they seem to keep slipping away.

Well, 1 of the canvassers was leaving the church and he was in the same parking lot as this couple was and as they were about to get into the car the couple says, hey, wait a minute.

I know you and The camera serves like you do and she's like, yes, you knocked on my door this last summer Almost a year ago you knocked on my door and he's like really he's like yeah, I'll never forget you Yeah, the most wonderful smile smile and you were so persistent.

Yeah, I she said I remember it was a Sunday morning We were getting ready to go to church a sad Sunday afternoon Excuse me, we were getting ready to go to church it and we were just out the door but you kept showing us these books finally my husband just stopped looked at the great controversy and said I need that book so he got the book he started reading it he said he read it in less than 2 months finished the great controversy and ever since that time almost a whole year he, his wife said to this young man, we have been looking for a church that preaches things that come from this book.

So I praise the Lord that our work is not in vain.

Now, when we put literature in people's homes, the Bible, Alan White says that they will be read, that they will have an impact.

And friends, I don't think there's a better time to get literature into people's homes than today.

I truly believe we are living at the brink of seeing Christ coming.

I don't know about you, I was talking to Anthony Baca and he has been convicted more.

I've been dreaming about the second coming.

Every night when I go to bed, That's the last thing that comes into my mind is seeing Jesus come in the clouds of glory.

It's 1 of the most exciting things to me.

Things that are happening around this world is showing that God is coming soon.

For example, the Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to come and the time that we're going to be living in is like Sodom and Gomorrah.

1 of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality.

We are seeing that happening today, being legalized.

The other things that we see is the Pope coming into town, being invited into the Senate to speak to the Senate, to the to the Congress, to be able to get a voice out, to talk about the problems of this world and how to solve it.

Friends, we are living right now at the edges of seeing Christ come And it's a great privilege to be part of Hastening is coming.

Well I know it's almost 8 o'clock and we just heard a powerful message and we have been canvassing for 10 weeks and we're kinda tired.

But I'm not gonna preach for 40 days and 40 nights Just give me about 40 minutes.

All right, without further ado, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

My Father which is in heaven, Father, we know that you're coming.

And Father, I pray that you would please speak right now.

Father, I pray that you will remove all distractions.

That all of a sudden our cell phones will just die.

And the Bible next to us will come alive.

Father, I pray that you would please, I beg of you, give us your Holy Spirit.

Inspire us, Father, not to just finish this canvassing experience and go home and do the same thing we were doing before this, but leave this place as missionaries for you till you come.

The sermon title for today is called Starving Jesus.

How many of you have ever felt like you were starving?

Alright, probably when you started canvassing and you learned that you only ate 2 meals a day.

How many of you felt like you were starving after the first day of canvassing?

How many of you have ever craved something like a soy ice cream or something like that?

How many of you have ever just craved something until you had it, you needed it in order to be satisfied?

I remember my first mission trip was to the Philippines in 2008 with Mike Touzon.

It was there in the Philippines where I felt God's leading and calling to doing full-time ministry.

And there in the Philippines, you have 1 of the, you have the greatest fruits in the world.

I remember when we got there, it was just in season.

I remember I got introduced to a new fruit I've never seen before.

John Bradshaw

The Crisis and the Challenge

I Share is about evangelism, isn't that right?

I have something practical for the 11 of you who said amen.

By the way, when I came in this morning, I walked through this great complex and I saw screens and people and it was religious looking and I said, I share.

And I walked up to the door and I saw a beautiful image on the screen and it was of the Virgin Mary, a statue of the Virgin Mary, the Madonna.

And I said, ooh, I might have to change my sermon.

But then they told me not go further down and everything's okay.

I was raised Catholic, and I thought that someone here had done some very nice thing to try to make me feel welcome, but evidently that wasn't the case.

Now what we have, if you believe in practical evangelism, our friends, our good friends at GLOW, in case you're interested, have made available 3, 000 glow tracts for you to share kindly and graciously with our brothers and sisters next door.

So all you need to do is go by the glow booth when we're done.

After the sermon, head to the glow booth and Nelson and his team will be more than happy to fix you up with enough glow tracts to be able to share.

Now keep in mind, lest anyone is fearful, the intent is not so that you can go to those other folks and straighten them out.

It's just that the glow tricks are a blessing and you might like to share a blessing with somebody who's open to a blessing today.

So If you'd like to participate in that, go and see the Glow folks after this.

Also, I want to encourage you to go and see the It Is Written folks.

Just to find out, I was going to bring them out here and show you, but I don't need to do that.

I'd like you to see a couple of soul winning resources that we have.

Our brand new It Is Written Bible Study Guides, which are beautiful and they're well designed and they're really effective.

I've seen some that I've looked at and said, wouldn't want to read that.

And they say you can't judge a book by its cover, but it doesn't stop us from doing so.

It sits open nicely and the font is good and all of that.

So have a look, because I'd like you to know about these effective soul winning resources that are available to you and Curt and Louella and our folks at our booth will see you.

And also, man I'm glad some of you heard Greg Wilson last night from SALT, It Is Written's School of Evangelism.

We have a summer program, it's called Summer Salt.

And we had 100 people at Summer Salt this summer.

And the new salt class is getting ready to begin.

So I know we're on the other side of the continent, but if God is calling you to be involved in ministry and ministry training, and if maybe you're gonna be on that side of the continent or or if you'd like to give up the the dry dry dry weather here for the beautiful humid weather over there think about salt It's a wonderfully effective soul winning ministry, a training ministry, and God bless those of you who are involved in training wherever it might be, but think about SALT.

It's a terrific school and I am looking forward to seeing you.

If you're going to be a SALT student, I'll be there and I'll be looking for you there.

I want to share a conviction with you before we open the Bible, and that is that I am profoundly convinced that Jesus is coming again soon.

I believe there has never been a better time to be a Christian.

I also believe there's never been a better time to be a Seventh-day Adventist than right now.

Because the Lord is getting ready to do wonderful things for and in and through and with His people in these closing minutes of earth's history.

This is the time to be alive and in the theater of battle where the action is, living for and with Jesus and sharing Jesus with the world.

For to know Jesus in a time where so many people so need to know Jesus.

And I hope that that thought might be the basis or a foundation for what I intend to share with you today.

More I could tell you but the point is we are here to open the Bible together.

Let's pray first and then we'll get to opening our Bibles.

Our Father in heaven, we are thankful that we can come to you today.

I read where someone you blessed very much wrote that our great need is itself an argument and pleads most eloquently in our behalf.

Thank you for seeing our need of your spirit and for supplying that need right now.

Speak to us, fill us with yourself, own us, Take our will and merge it with Your will.

Let Your will be done in these few moments, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

I've told this story before, but it's worth telling again.

A little west of London in England is the town of Slough.

Now Slough is a town because in Great Britain you don't become a city unless the king or the queen says so.

It's a big town, 150, 000 people, but it's a town.

But I don't know that a whole lot of people love Slough.

You're never going to go there, most likely, unless you go to visit Newbold College, you might go through Slough.

Unless you catch the train west from London to go to Windsor Castle, you're probably going to get off at Slough and then travel over to the castle because it's nearby.

But other than that, you probably never go there.

In fact, between now and the time Jesus comes back, you're likely never even to hear the name of the town mentioned again.

But about 6 weeks ago in Slough, a rather remarkable man died.

Nicholas Winton, in 1938, was planning a skiing vacation in Switzerland.

You know how you get people who are older and then you get people that you call elderly?

When you're 106, there's no euphemism that changes the fact that you're really old.

But back in 1938, when he was not 106, but he was rather younger, back in 1938, he was planning to take a skiing vacation towards the end of the year, because of course that's winter time, in Switzerland.

However, he received a communication from a friend of his in Prague, which was the capital of what then was Czechoslovakia.

And his friend said, come to Prague, help me.

Ryan Dolinsky

Kristyn Dolinsky

Till, Plant, Cultivate. Why do Outreach

Christie and I at least I can speak for myself a little humble to be up here I'll be honest.

We're new birthed outreachers evangelists And so we'll get to share a little bit about what we do and why we do what we do and hopefully that by the end of this will inspire you guys in your continued walks.

You guys have probably been in the battlegrounds much more than we have but we hope this would be inspiring to you And we'll share a little bit more about that.

Yeah, and we can definitely relate to when they say, God can use anyone if you just have the will and are available.

And yeah, our ministry is very humble and very local.

And we just go out with our friends and whoever else wants to join.

Okay, so what we'll do right now is we'll kind of give you an idea of what we are going to be sharing with you and then we'll go from there.

So before we start, I want to open up with a quick word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I want to thank you so much for this opportunity to be in this place with fellow believers, those who are fearless in sharing your word, and some of us who are still exercising our faith in you and sharing.

Lord, may this opportunity be a moment for you to speak through us, and may the words that come out of Christianize mouth not be ours, but yours, Lord, that fall upon the hearers here, who need to hear what they need to hear and Lord continue to encourage us and sustain us as we continue to move forward and sharing the gospel with the world.

So what we'll do is we figured, OK, how on earth are we just going to describe this to you, what we do?

So instead, we put together a short video to show you guys what we do.

And then we'll talk a little bit about some ideas and things hopefully for you guys to take away from this.

We're getting married January 3rd of next year.

Our story is not terribly long, but it's not what the purpose of this is.

But I graduated from Loma Linda University last year in physical therapy.

I'm currently doing a residency program where I'm learning more on how to treat God's children.

And I grew up Adventist, didn't evangelize growing up Adventist.

When I was youth rush age, I had no interest in what you guys are doing.

God's been working on my heart a lot recently, and so I'm thankful for that.

So continue to allow God to work in your guys' lives.

I'll tell you what, it's different when you walk up to a door younger and then when they see someone older walk up to the door.

Not to say everyone can't do it, but there's power.

Yes, well, I grew up Adventist too, but it was that kind of social, not even.

Like I went to church, and basically that's it.

It wasn't a part of my practical everyday life.

So definitely like Ryan, didn't evangelize.

And what happened was that I grew up in LA, private schools, and then I spent the, I've spent 16 years of my life acting in Hollywood, in film and television.

We had no idea what we were getting into, or even what ministry was I think at the time versus what what God has taught us now.

And we did a little documentary together where we became friends and it was Ryan and and about 9 other of his guy friends who all wanted to start a ministry and start outreach and Bible studies.

And so that's how we got to know each other.

And then from there, that's how this outreach grew.

So before you start that, I just want to get an idea.

How many people are currently actively involved in some form of outreach?

And then on Sabbath afternoons, how many people do outreach every Sabbath afternoon they can.

How many people are like what I like to do and nap?

So, by the end of this session, we hope to have inspired you a new outlook on what can be done, things that are enjoyable on the Sabbath.

So without further talk, we'll give you a little glimpse of what we do every Sabbath afternoon.

Before you start that, Christy, hang on a second.

We'll turn the lights down for a little video that we can show you guys of where we were when we came.

Hi, we're doing the second part of our outreach now?

Me and a lot of my friends like to do cycling and we like a certain trail and we decided that there's lots of traffic going through there and it would be a great place to set up a little checkpoint type tent with snacks and water and we thought it would be a great idea to hand out glow tracks and other types of literature down there as well.

Had God bless us the very first time significantly and now we are going back just about every Sabbath that we can to give to these people.

We're also making friends down there with the homeless and we just did a clothing drive to get clothing for them down there.

I send out a mass text every Thursday or Friday that tells them when outreach is, where outreach is, and then whoever shows up, shows up, but Ryan and I are there 2 or 3 o'clock every Sabbath that we're here.

And That's how we got to make friends down there.

It's been really neat to see the friends that we're making and how they're getting to share the word of God with them.

That's part of the blessing that God planned for us when he designed us.

♪♪ ♪♪ ¶¶ ¶¶ ♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Christ's method alone will be a true success in reaching the people.

The Savior mingled with men as 1 who desired their good.

He showed his sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence.

There is a need of coming close to the people by personal effort.

If less time were given to sermonizing and more time were spent in personal ministry, greater results would be seen.

The poor are to be relieved, the sick cared for, the sorrowing and the bereaved comforted, the ignorant instructed, the inexperienced counseled.

We are to weep with those that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice.

Accompanied by the power of persuasion, the power of prayer, the power of the love of God.

This work will not, cannot be without fruit.

Christ commits to his followers an individual work, a work that cannot be done by proxy.

Ministry to the sick and the poor, The giving of the gospel to the lost is not to be left to committees or organized charities.

Individual responsibility, individual effort, personal sacrifice is the requirement of the gospel.

Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, is Christ's commandment, that my house may be filled.

He brings men into touch with those whom they seek to benefit.

Bring the poor that are cast out to thy house, he says, when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him.

They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Through direct contact, through personal ministry, the blessings of the gospel are to be communicated.

Andrew Chung

Ahmed T. Jalloh Jr.