SWYC 2015: Christ Our Righteousness

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GYC Southwest

Breakout Session #4

Dwayne Lemon

The Ministry of Rebukes

Father in heaven, we thank you so much that we can come together to study a very important subject.

We're living in a time where there's much that is happening, not just simply in the world, but in the church.

And I already know there's no way we can cover everything that would need to be covered in such a short time.

But please give us enough gems that will produce a foundation that we can know how to build upon it, ultimately finding ourselves in the arms of Jesus.

Please abide with us now, we pray, and grant us your wisdom.

And Lord, I commit myself into your hands afresh.

Please take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.

Put your words in my mouth, I pray, and I thank you that you heard this prayer, for we ask it all in Jesus name.

I would like to invite you to turn your Bibles with me to the book of Isaiah, the 58th chapter.

And I want you to see what the Bible says here as we consider the Word of God.

In Isaiah 58, the Bible says, starting at verse 1, if you're there, say Amen.

Cry aloud, spare not, Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sin.

There is a time when it is appropriate to cry aloud, to hold back nothing, and to point out the sins that are taking place not just in the world, but even right in the midst of God's people.

This rebuke that is to be given is not something that is only designated for leaders to do to laity, but sometimes laity to leaders.

And the reason we know this to be so is go to the book of Jeremiah 23.

In Jeremiah, the 23rd chapter, I want you to see what the Bible says here.

And when you look at Jeremiah, the 23rd chapter, we'll start at verse 1.

And I want you to see what the Bible says as we start at verse 1.

The pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord.

Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people You have scattered my flock and have driven them away and have not visited them Behold I will visit upon you the evil of your doing saith the Lord and I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase.

And I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.

A time came where God saw that it was appropriate that a rebuke had to be given even to the pastors.

And we see this even demonstrated in the life of John the Baptist, because when you look at John the Baptist, you remember what the Bible says in Matthew 3 as we turn there.

It was in Matthew the third chapter when John was making a call to repentance that that call to repentance was not limited to laity but it was also to leaders.

And we see this in the example of John the Baptist as we look at Matthew, the third chapter.

And the Bible says in the book of Matthew, chapter 3, and when you get there, please say amen.

Starting at verse 1, it says, in those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand for this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying the voice of 1 crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make his path straight and the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leather girdle about his loins and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan and were baptized of him in the Jordan confessing their sins but when he saw many of who?

The Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance.

There were times that even John the Baptist saw that it was necessary to rebuke leaders even within the church.

It was Jesus himself that as he was progressing in his ministerial work, reaching out consistently, he finally got to a place where he saw it necessary to do a very important work and I want you to see how the Bible unfolds this as we look at Matthew 23.

In Matthew the 23rd chapter, Jesus begins his dialogue and I want you to catch this, because we're going to look at a lot, and we're going to see how much the Lord can help us cover.

My prayer is that somehow we can complete it.

The Bible says in the book of Matthew, the 23rd chapter, and when you're there, please say amen.

It says in Matthew 23, then spake Jesus to the multitudes and to his disciples saying, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses's seat.

All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, but do not ye after their works, for they say and do not, for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with the 1 of their fingers.

But all their works they do for to be seen of men.

They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, but be not ye called Rabbi, for 1 is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.

And call no man your father upon the earth for 1 is your father which is in heaven.

Neither be ye called masters for 1 is your master even Christ.

But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased.

And he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

But woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." Straight language.

There comes a time in ministry, there comes a time in the phase of the church, there comes a time in the phase of the church, there comes a time in the phase of the progression of gospel work that it is appropriate to give rebukes.

And the rebukes may very well fall even on leaders.

And what has happened is that today in Adventism, we see a lot of, I guess you would call it fanaticism.

You see things on both sides of the spectrum that causes great perplexity and sometimes even confusion.

When we see that we're living in a time where literally people are performing and doing things, I can't begin to tell you the amount of things that I have faced.

Sometimes people wonder, Brother Lemon, why is it that you don't do any sermons or anything, you know, on the networks where you really get into some of the evils that's taking place, even from leadership in the church.

And I wanna talk to you about that reason today, because we're gonna talk about the ministry of rebukes.

It is not an issue that the Bible shows very clearly that there is a time and place for rebukes.

There is a time and place where God will raise up men and will raise up women that will even look individuals in the eyes and let them know of their hypocrisies.

And what we cannot do is we cannot consult our fears and our ministry's success.

There are some that see a lot of evil taking place in the church right now.

A lot of that evil is being pushed by men who hold responsible positions, but are not doing the work of God.

And what they're doing is they're undoing the very things that God's ministers come in to set up that the people may know how to walk into freedom and the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

The problem is, is that there's a certain class of ministers that what they will do is they will consult the success of their ministry and their ability to have large influence and continued sustenance.

And what they will do is they will see things that are clearly error and wrong from leadership but they will hold it back in the name of being wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.

So are we saying then that Jesus was unwise?

Are we saying John the Baptist was unwise?

Why is it that these men knew how to call sin by its right name no matter where it landed, even if it landed at leadership.

There are many ministers and ministries today that are possessed with the spirit of cowardice, and they are afraid.

So what they will do is they will draw a line, spiritually speaking, and they will give the people just enough truth to keep them lost.

Because they know once I cross this line, it could mean my ministry.

Brothers and sisters, if that's how you think, you cannot finish the Word.

Because if Jesus would have thought like that, there'd never be a story of the cross.

If John the Baptist thought like that, he would have died with his head still on his shoulders.

We have to understand that sometimes there comes a time and place that standing for truth will result in penalties.

And it can result even in some of the worst things our minds can imagine.

But we have to have enough of the love of Christ within our hearts that we will not fear what will happen to us and we will not consult consequences.

While there's certain ministers and ministries that are on 1 side of the extreme that are possessed with the spirit of cowardice and self-sustenance, there's another type of minister and ministries that exist that in their minds to basically say anything and say everything that comes to their mind and begin to attack and begin to attack and strive against their brethren, they think it's virtuous.

So when they see individuals in the church doing wrong, when they see certain leaders in the church that do wrong, what they do is they are quick to put a post up on the internet.

Tell everybody, look at these wicked men, look at what they're doing, look at all these evil things that they're doing, etc.

Keala Thompson

Medical Missionary Work and Medicinal Herbs

Father, we are so grateful for how much you love us and how you want to take care of us and So that we can serve you out of a grateful heart and so Lord may you teach us this morning May you be our teacher that we may go out and help others who are hurting who are suffering who in pain that they may see you through us is our prayer.

So we're looking at medical missionary work here and we'll be sharing part of my testimony in the beginning, but also using medicinal herbs and just going to the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy and all of this and on the medical missionary work.

Now when I was asked to do a health seminar for the day, I responded by saying, sure, I can do a health seminar because My emphasis is actually on mental health or emotional healing in my messages and relationships.

And they said, no, we want you to do 1 on physical health.

And I said, OK, you know, I mean, I haven't done a seminar yet, but I guess they heard of how God healed me.

So I felt like I needed to do this 1 on medicinal herbs.

First of all, I'm a minister, I'm not a physician.

So my disclaimer is that you seek professional help of a trained physician, right?

With that said Let me give you a little history of my background on physical healing and medicinal herbs.

I come from a family of medical professionals.

1 is a professor of nursing at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

And my brother is a medical doctor and he went on, he's taught at medical school, at Harvard Medical School for over 20 years.

And so there's a lot of background my family in the medical profession.

And so I bounced things off them back and forth.

My background is that I graduated from Weimar College 19 years ago, and my wife graduated from Mead Ministry.

These are medical missionary training schools.

And so all these years, and I've been using and practicing, I guess, medicinal herbs for like 15 years of my life.

But it wasn't until I actually got really, really, really sick that now I have to make sure that what I'm teaching or what I'm using actually works.

And That's when I think my understanding and my practice of using natural remedies and actually of healing medicinal herbs actually just exploded because it had to work on me now.

I mean, I can, you know, you can search the internet all you want, right?

And so The danger, right, is the internet is that there's so much information out there, right?

And so when you're sick and you're dying and you're like a needle in a great haystack, you're trying to find this thing and testing that and somebody telling you this and that and people are doing that.

I was getting so frustrated and so, I guess I was getting upset.

So I was just getting frustrated because of what I saw out there.

Even though I was well connected in the medical missionary system, a lot of friends in pretty much every institution out there, I was just frustrated with the whole system, besides modern medicine.

So, about 2 years ago, I got really, really, really sick.

I've been passing for 15 years, and I got really, really sick.

I was supposed to go to another island, and pass at this island I was at.

I went to the vert, sort of vertical things, not this dizziness, but everything spinning like this and I got, it just got worse and all kind of problems.

My nerves were just attacking me And my doctor didn't do any testing.

He's considered ranked as the best doctor on the east side of our island.

Misdiagnosed me, couldn't figure out what was wrong with me.

And that's the worst, because I was going for like 2, 3 months, and they didn't know what was wrong with me.

I mean, where do you start when you don't even know what's wrong with you, right?

I'm actually grateful this thing actually happened to me.

This is the best thing that ever happened to me.

To be on medical disability for a year and a half, and not pastoring and everything, it was just the best thing that happened to me.

God gave me time out for my spiritual health because He felt that I need time in a way to just check where I'm at spiritually and see where I was at and then grow from that, this whole experience.

I think to learn this more in a deeper way of my experience, and then I can now go out and help people who are actually hurting and suffering, not only in the emotional way of mental health, of emotional healing, but also connecting to physical health, because the body and the mind is connected.

And not only that, but there's a spiritual aspect that, Because I had gotten really sick and I went on medical leave and the financial support is less, you know those with medical disability, you get significantly less than what you had as on medical insurance, medical disability insurance.

So we had to end up selling our property.

We lived off the grid for 10 years off the grid.

The amazing thing is that He had us move into Hilo where I had to move in my mom because where we're at and she lives all by herself.

I mean it's a pretty big house, 4 bedroom.

We had our own separate side of the house.

So here I am praying for the last 20 years for my family, and God has worked more in the last year of my life, when I moved back to Hilo, among me and among my family, than he has in the last 20 years of being a pastor.

And so sometimes we think, I think when I quote Ellen White, it says that often our plans fail so that God's plans may succeed, Amen?

So we make our plans and everything, but God checks us and He actually says, Okay, no, this is what I want.

And He often does, sometimes if we're not listening, then there's some pretty heavy checks He has to do upon us, right?

So here I am in my family, and okay, let me tell you about my sister.

I was trying to get her to evangelistic meetings out in Honokah.

So I would drive an hour every night to pick her up, an hour back to the meetings.

And then when it was done, I would drive an hour back to where I dropped her off, an hour back to where I lived out in Honokah.

So just in driving alone and running around in this meeting, you know, 4 hours a night, just in driving my sister, because I wanted them to be saved, right?

And so it wasn't until I got sick that my sister has grown more in the last year, you know, than the last 15 years of pastoring.

So God, whatever you've been going through, God has a purpose.

I'm just saying that because maybe some of you are suffering through illness, or those who are listening to this and you're hurting and you don't know what's going on but know that in the end that God if you trust your heart and your life into God's hands that everything you may not see it but everything all things work together for good whether you see it or not what do you say amen That's what God wants us to realize in everything that we go through.

So I want to give that message of hope before we go into this, because I think that's very important.

So I went through this whole thing, and finally I switched doctors to a childhood friend who is considered 1 of the best physicians in Hilo, and he found out the cause, my endocrine system.

When I discovered it, he wanted to get me on steroids.

Series

Breakout Session #4

Medical Missionary Work and Medicinal Herbs

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Allied Health

Medical Evangelism in the Emergency Room

54m

Special Interests

Microgreens 101

1h

Ag and Your Health

Best Herbal Remedies for Common Ailments Part 2

1h 1m

Corinthians: Message to a Contemporary Church

Corinthians: A Message to a Contemporary Church - Part 5

1h 17m

Community Services

Improving Interviewing Skills

1h 8m

Blended Ministry

Transformed by Grace: Ten Years of Whole-Person Ministry

48m

Understanding Difficult Topics

3. The 1000 Years of Peace

1h 10m

iShare 2013 Seminar: Sharing in the Spirit

How God Does the Work

1h

Manliness 101

Session 3: The Difference Between Men and Dogs - What is Manliness, Anyway?

46m

Speaking their Language: Understanding Beliefs to Share the Truth

51m

Hermeneutics: Is There A Science to Interpreting Scripture?

The Presuppositions of Interpretation: What You Must Know Before You Read Scripture

1h

Sound Doctrine