Steven Conway

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

The Call

Tonight I want to talk with you or begin to talk with you about Jeremiah.

But before we get in, let's have an added word of prayer.

Loving Father, we are thankful for the privilege to be alive, and we ask that the Holy Spirit would be with us in this place, that he would take the things that he has placed in my heart and in my mind and convey them to those who are here tonight.

Thank you for hearing and answering this prayer in advance for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, just for you all who may not know, I live in Michigan.

I am married, going on about 13, 14 years, 1 of those.

And we have, my wife and I have 4 children, and we have been in Michigan for the past, we've been in Michigan for the past 7 or 8 years, something like that.

And actually I was in New York and in New Jersey over there.

And prior to that, I was in Tennessee and everywhere else.

So I'm thankful to be here with you all again.

And I want to share something that I've been studying with you all, and it comes from the life of Jeremiah.

And I'm going to start from Jeremiah chapter 1.

Jeremiah is an interesting prophet because Jeremiah, Jeremiah was called at a young age, as we'll see.

Not only was Jeremiah called at a young age, but Jeremiah is unique because the Bible doesn't only give us Jeremiah's prophecies.

It doesn't only tell us the word of the Lord came to him and he shared it with someone.

It doesn't only give us the people's response to what Jeremiah prophesied, But the Bible also gives us intimate details into the man Jeremiah himself, which means that we know more about Jeremiah than we do about any other prophet in the scriptures.

That is about Jeremiah's mindset, his attitude, his emotions.

When Jeremiah's words are rejected, Jeremiah's response, the rejection of his message is also recorded in scripture.

So we have a unique picture of the man Jeremiah.

Let's start with Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 1.

The Bible says, the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign.

A few details which are actually quite powerful.

The Bible says that Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah and Hilkiah was a what?

Hilkiah was a priest, which means that Jeremiah was also a, he was also a priest.

Now, the Bible says that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in the days of which king?

In the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign.

Now, If you study the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, you'll find out a lot of interesting things.

1 of the things that interests me about Josiah is that Josiah's reign fell in the midst of wicked reigns.

In other words, his father Ammon was not a good king.

And yet the Bible says that Josiah was a good king and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.

Unfortunately, it didn't spill over and Josiah's sons didn't follow in the footsteps of their father.

But the Bible says Jeremiah's call to the prophetic ministry came in the days of Josiah and it came in the 13th year of his reign.

Now 5 years later, which would be the 18th year of the reign of Josiah, something momentous took place in Judah.

If you know anything about King Josiah, you know that he was a reformer.

He was 1 who wanted to uproot and get rid of idolatry completely out of the land of Judah.

1 of the other things that he wanted to do was to reopen the temple.

The temple had been closed temporarily And so Josiah went about restoring the temple, not only its physical, the physical structure, but actually the worship of God was restored as well.

But in the 18th year of the reign of Josiah, the Bible tells us that the book of the law was found.

Specifically, it was the first 5 books of the Bible, specifically perhaps Deuteronomy, more than anything else was the 1 that was recovered.

So in the 18th year of Josiah's reign, the book of the law is found and there is a great revival that takes place in Judah.

In fact, the Bible says that there was a Passover that was kept, the likes of which had not been kept since the days of Solomon.

In fact, not only that, but King Josiah, after having read the law, his first response was that he read his clothes and he wept in sackcloth and ashes.

He sent his counselors to go to the prophetess to to prophetess holder to see what God's Judgment was going to be on his people but after all of that Josiah has the book of the law read in the presence of all of the people of Judah.

And after this law is read, Josiah stands along with all of the people, and they commit themselves to following in the ways of the Lord.

Now, what does this have to do with Jeremiah?

Jeremiah was called to be a prophet at a time when it was good to be called to be a prophet.

There was a good and faithful king on the throne, 1 who wanted to follow the ways of the Lord, 1 who wanted to bring God's people back to the worship of the true God.

There was a revival and reformation that was taking place in Judah.

There was no better time to receive a call from God to the prophetic ministry.

But if you know the life of Josiah and if you know the life of Jeremiah, you'll know that times changed.

King Josiah died prematurely and Judah went back into idolatry.

Jeremiah's mission and ministry would be challenged in ways that they had not been challenged before.

Recently I was planning or preparing to give a presentation to a group of men and the subject was, or my subject was, biblical masculinity or maleness.

1 of the things I came across when I was preparing, when I was reading a particular piece of literature, it stated that there are 3 things that define a man.

Now, obviously there are more, but this book chose 3 things.

And, of course, this 1 was leaning more so not only towards hereditary things that we have received from our parents, but also our physical makeup.

Sociology, that is people's perception of who we are.

And thirdly, psychology, that is our own perception, what we think about ourselves.

Well, I was thinking of those things when I was considering the call of Jeremiah, because God's call to Jeremiah seems to transcend each 1 of these possible perspectives.

In Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 1, as we read the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, biologically Jeremiah was a Levite, the son of a priest, who was the son of a priest, etc., etc.

Jeremiah's career path was set, so to speak, basically from the tribe that he was a part of.

Because he was born into a particular tribe, it meant that his life path was laid before him.

And there wasn't really much that he could do about that.

Sociologically, everyone in Jeremiah's tribe thought that he was going to follow in the footsteps of his father.

And if you would have talked to anyone who had come from Judah or any of the other tribes.

They had been transplanted by the Assyrians at this time, but there were some remnants left.

If you had spoken to any of them and they knew what tribe Jeremiah was a part of, they would have told you that Jeremiah is going to be a priest.

But in Jeremiah chapter 1 Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 6.

Actually not in chapter 1 verse 6, but in Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 4, The Bible says, then the word of the Lord came unto me saying, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.

And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee.

And I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

In spite of what Jeremiah's hereditary lines said about him, God had called him to be and do something else.

In spite of the perspective that those around him had on his life, shall we say, what others thought Jeremiah should do, God had a very unique and special call on Jeremiah's life.

In fact, God's call even transcended what Jeremiah thought about himself.

In Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 6, Jeremiah's response now to God's call, then said, I, look, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.

Jeremiah was limited in terms of what he thought he could accomplish for God.

His perspective on his own life was limited.

Verse 7, but the Lord said unto me, do not say I am a child, for you will go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak." God's call transcends what we inherit from our parents.

God's call transcends what family and friends or the path that family and friends may have laid out for us.

God's call transcends what the people around us might think would be the best path for our lives.

And ultimately, God's call transcends what even you and I think we are capable of.

Inspire Ohio 2014: Crisis at the Close

Jason Sliger

Advent HOPE Kettering

Crisis At the Close: The Mob

Well, last night we looked at the Garden of Gethsemane, what we're doing for those of you that weren't able to make it last night.

We are looking at the closing scenes of the life of Christ, And we're doing some parallels and comparison between the closing scenes of the life of Christ and the closing scenes of this earth's history.

The crisis that Jesus went through and the crisis that we will go through.

And as we look at the crisis Jesus went through in the last 48 hours of his life, there we will find tools that are necessary to see us through our crisis in the final close of this earth's history.

Now, last night we looked at the subject of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We made a little comparison between Jesus and the disciples.

And as I concluded the presentation last night, I gave 4 practical tips to either continue or to start off having a prayer experience like Jesus.

Does anybody who was here last night remember what the first 1 was?

So we have a specific place, and incidentally, I don't recommend that that specific place is your bed.

For obvious reasons, get out of your bed to have and find some place outside of the comfort of your bed because beds were made for a specific thing and it wasn't for praying.

Although you can do it there, chances are you'll find yourself nodding off.

So find a specific place to pray, then have a time to pray.

Now you may choose to have more than 1 time, but before you can have more than 1 time, you have to have at least 1 time, okay?

So have a place to pray, have a time to pray.

And then the third thing was to pray what?

Learn to pray aloud where only God can hear you.

Now we're so tuned or so trained to pray inside of our heads, but there's something to actually verbalizing your prayers in the secrecy of your prayer closet with the Father.

That's what Jesus did in the early mornings as he was out talking to his father in various places.

So learn to pray aloud where only God can hear.

And Ellen White actually tells us that we should do this.

And then the fourth thing was, if your mind wanders, what?

So if your mind wanders and we all are susceptible to this, Our mind kind of gets caught up in the day's activities, what needs to be done, we're thinking about our to-do list or whatever it may be.

The devil is really good at reminding us what we need to do in the morning when we're supposed to be praying with the Lord, isn't he?

He reminds us all these things and kind of distract us.

So if your mind wanders, just bring it right back, keep plowing through that prayer time together with the Lord It's not separating you just come back bring your thoughts back where they need to be and continue that communion with God these 4 Practical tips have revolutionized my personal prayer life, and I hope that it does the same for you as well.

A passage of scripture just in passing here that I was thinking about this morning, jot it down, Psalms 143 verse 8.

This is a prayer that you can pray maybe tonight or tomorrow morning when you start your devotional time.

I won't tell you what it is just so you have curiosity.

Look at it tomorrow morning for your devotional time.

Today what we're going to do is we're going to continue the narrative of the final scenes of the life of Christ.

As I mentioned last night, This is going to end up being an 8 part series, and I'm not going to be able to do all of that here obviously So I'm just going to kind of start things off and let you continue the study in your own personal devotional time But we're looking at the mob today the crisis at the close.

We're looking at the mob that came and accosted Jesus just after his time in the garden.

Okay, before we begin, we must always start with a word of prayer.

So I invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray together this afternoon.

Father, what a rich Sabbath it has been so far.

What a beautiful day it is outside, the wonderful sunshine, the beautiful sermon that we heard this morning challenging us to love as Jesus loves, to love as God loves.

Father, as we turn our attention back to the theme of Inspire Ohio, the crisis at the close, Lord, we're looking at your son because he's the great example in our lives.

Father, we're looking for tools that will help us to become more like Him.

And as we heard in the special music, oh, to be like Thee.

Send Your Spirit's presence to be with us here now, I pray, and guide us, I ask, in Jesus' name, amen.

Go with me, if you would, in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 14.

And verse 4, we're looking at the characteristics of the 144, 000 here.

The Bible tells us many characteristics that they have.

We're looking at a specific 1 here in verse 4.

The Bible tells us this, these are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins, meaning they are spiritually pure.

The Bible says, these are they which what?

They don't just follow the Lamb in fair weather.

They're not fair weather Christians, but they follow the Lamb wherever the Lamb chooses to take him.

And we looked last night in Inspiration where the servant of the Lord tells us that in order for us to follow Christ in the courts above, we must first learn to follow Him here below.

And so as we're looking at the crisis at the close, it's just before us.

Ellen White tells us, she told us 117 years ago that we are right there at the end, the crisis that is about to close just before us.

And as we're looking at this crisis, we're closer to it now than we've ever been before, we want to be like Jesus.

We want to follow the Lamb wherever He may take us.

If it means opposition, we're there with Him.

If it means trials, we're there with Him.

If it means betrayal, We're there with Him.

Now, we also looked at how we are, as I mentioned, nearing this time of the crisis, the close of this earth's history.

And as we are getting closer to this time of crisis, as I mentioned, we're closer now than we ever were before.

There are many warnings that Jesus is giving us in his word, many warnings that he gave to his disciples, which we're going to look at a little bit later on, some of those warnings.

But What we want to do right now is we want to take a look at the characteristics of Jesus in the closing scenes of his life.

Last night we established the first tool.

We're going to look at 3 tools in our time together that Jesus used.

We're putting tools in our tool basket, our spiritual tool basket.

And the first tool that we looked at last night is that Jesus prayed while others, what?

While the disciples slept, we find Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

Now, in Testimonies, Volume 2, page 205, The servant of the Lord tells us that the sleeping disciples are a representative of a church who is sleeping in the most perilous time of earth's history.

So as we look at this Garden of Gethsemane experience as we did last night.

Crisis At the Close: Gethsemane

We just had a rousing song service, and I appreciate those that let out in that.

I always enjoy singing Adventist hymns, and I feel like, well, they're not all Adventist hymns, but I always feel like we don't sing enough in our church services.

So it's nice to have a good song service.

I am actually, just want to make a quick little addition to what has already been said.

Carp Lake, the reason why you probably hadn't heard of Carp Lake is because there's only 350 people in Carp Lake.

We have about 8 members there on a good Sabbath.

But they're faithful members, part of the backbone of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And then I also pastor a church in Carp, in Sheboygan, which is towards the eastern side of the tip, and Petoskey, which is on the western side of the tip.

And if you ever want to go to a place for a tourist vacation, go to Petoskey, Michigan, and make your way up to Mackinac Island, right?

It's 1 of the hidden gems of Michigan that many people don't know about.

In fact, when we got the call to come to Michigan, I kind of had this view of Michigan that maybe you have, that Michigan is Detroit and all of the state is Detroit.

And so we rolled into Petoskey and we thought, wow, this is amazing.

So if you do want to go someplace in Michigan, definitely go to the tip of the state.

This is 1 of the pictures I took last season but the colors are absolutely splendid up there this time of the year.

It's a good time to come up after all the tourists have moved on.

My family was not able to make it tonight but I did want you to meet them.

I have 2 children, that's why my wife is not here.

They had to sit in the car for 7 and a half hours today, and those of you that are parents understand that.

So they're at home getting a little rest, but they will be with us tomorrow.

This is what the northern part of Michigan looks like about 80% of the year.

We get lots of snow up there, but we enjoy the snow and the beauty and the symbolism that it represents spiritually.

So it's a privilege to be with you here this evening and this weekend.

The messages that I have chosen to share with you over the weekend, I have to be honest with you, these messages have probably touched my life the most in all of my time of preaching and ministry.

And as I look back on my spiritual walk with the Lord, I find every revival in my life has always started with the last 48 hours of the life of Christ.

And I'm kind of having this renewed experience as I'm going through this series with my church members right now.

So let me just kind of tell you ahead of time, I'm actually in the middle of putting this series together, so you're not gonna get the whole thing.

I'm gonna share with you 3 and a half of those in our time together here and challenge you to continue that study because it's a wonderful study, it will draw you closer to Jesus and it will help you meet the crisis that is just before us.

So as was mentioned, Gethsemane is a beautiful chapter in the book, Desire of Ages, and that's where we're going to be starting our study together this evening.

So I invite you to bow your heads with me as we start with a word of prayer.

Merciful Father in heaven, we thank you for the awesome example that you give to us in your precious Son.

And Father, as we tarry for just a few moments this evening and we watch him in the garden.

Lord, I pray that his experience, that we would covet that experience, that we would covet it enough to make it a reality in our lives.

May you chase away any distractions, and may you speak to our hearts exactly the message that you want us to take home with us tonight.

Review and Herald, August 17th, 1897, 117 years ago.

The sermon of the Lord says this, we are nearing the great crisis of this earth's history.

117 years ago, this was written, that we're nearing the great crisis of this earth's history.

I looked up the word crisis and it's a broad definition, but to narrow it down, the part that I think is applicable for us here this evening is a crisis is a time when a difficult or important decision must be made.

Are we living in that time right now, yes or no?

We're living in a time where important and difficult decisions must be made.

And we just can't make these important and difficult decisions alone.

As we look at the great rescue plan, called the plan of salvation, that God has so beautifully described to us in his word, we find there in this plan of redemption 2 crises that are going to happen and have happened.

The first crisis happened at the closing scenes of the life of Christ, which we're gonna be focusing on in our study here over the next couple of presentations.

We look at that time when our salvation and redemption was finally secured in the last 48 hours of the life of Christ.

Then there is the final crisis that will take place at the close of this earth's history.

And between these 2 crises, there are many parallels that if the astute student of God's Word takes the time to dig them up, we'll find deep treasures in the parallels between these 2 crises.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

The Call

39m

Crisis At the Close: The Mob

47m

Crisis At the Close: Gethsemane

52m

Who Do You Trust?

48m

Foundations of Bible Prophecy

47m

Discovering the Prophecies

44m

Raw

38m

The Real Prodigal

44m

The Omega Apostasy

53m

Time of Trouble: Who Am I?

1h

Leaving the Cities: Why, When, How?

46m

Is Righteousness by Faith Possible for Me?

1h

Sound Doctrine