Dave Fiedler

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Christian Service:  A Religious System

Whatever it's worth by way of general information, recently I've put out a third book.

The title is Tremble and it's a, how would I characterize it?

It was not a book that I wanted to write, and it's not a book that I particularly enjoy.

But it's a book that needed to be written, and it deals with, oh, I suppose different ways that you might, different terminology that you might be familiar with.

It deals with the issues of the emerging church within Adventism or spiritual formation within Adventism or contemplative prayer or all these other different titles and things that, this is a serious sort of an issue, sort of a, I mean, it's a very serious issue.

That's why I felt I got roped into having to actually deal with it.

The Lord tricked me and got me into that 1.

I didn't really want to do it, but it was a complicated story.

But I would like to make 1 observation, and that is that all the problems and issues and challenges that I deal with in the book Tremble, I didn't realize it at the time that I wrote De Sozo, but De Sozo I am convinced, and I'll touch on this tomorrow afternoon a little bit, but I am convinced that the basic ideas of de Sozo are the only possible effective response to the problems that I deal with in Tremble.

They both come from the same time era, Dr.

Kellogg, the Alpha of apostasy, the Omega of apostasy, and all that sort of stuff.

And so it kind of makes sense that there's a connection, but more and more I'm convinced that that, though, you know, I'm as human as the next guy, and I'm sure I've got some things a little bit twisted and warped in De Sozo, but the basic premise of that book, I'm convinced, is the only possible effective response to the challenges that we are facing in the other book.

But that's not our primary topic tonight.

And I wanted to make really kind of a simple point.

I've never given this exact presentation before.

And I almost feel like I ought to apologize because it's very simple.

And yet at the same time, I almost feel like I ought to apologize because it's very simple.

And yet at the same time, I almost feel like I ought to apologize because I think it's going to be extremely pointed.

And by nature, I don't like trying to tell other people what to do.

You know, some people are really good bosses and other people just aren't.

But there's gonna be some free-pointed stuff I'm gonna say tonight, so anyhow.

But I want you to notice the subtitle down here, the religious system aspect.

There's a key point there that we'll get to and I want to just kind of alert you that it's coming, okay?

I was reading through the testimonies for the first time.

The Lord just is always tricking me into things because I'm too stupid to do what I ought to.

But I remember that a friend and I, we were discussing some fine point of theology, something or other, and we weren't coming up with an answer to it.

I don't even remember what the question was now.

So the 2 of us, we went to a mutual friend, a little older, a little more experienced, a little smarter, which wasn't hard.

And we said, what do you think about this?

And he said, you know, he says, I don't know what the answer is.

Off the top of my head, he says, but I'm pretty sure I know where to find it.

So he said, okay, so here's here's how you need to, you know, this is what you need to do to find the answer to that.

And I don't, I don't know exactly what page it's on, but get volume 1 and start at the beginning and just kind of keep reading.

And by the time you're done with volume 9, I'm almost certain you'll have found the answer.

Just a few weeks later, something like that, I actually moved into this fellow's home.

And so the 2 of us, we read through the testimonies.

We read privately, but we compared notes as we went along.

And I'd like to really recommend that to anyone that can possibly scrape together some time.

But there's nothing like reading through the testimonies for the church.

It's 1 of the big things that got me into advanced history because there's, I mean, it's a historical presentation because she starts writing volume 1, you know, and then it's volume 2 and volume 3 and whatnot.

And so it does a lot to establish your concept of the linear flow of time and development of the church.

And there's just an absolute wealth of information there that I would recommend.

But I remember, so I was all just in this little sales pitch for a good set of books.

But when I was reading through the books the first time, I remember that in volume 6, there was this 1, what's the word I want?

When you put 2 things right next to each other, it's not conjunction, but it sounds almost like it.

No, no, anyhow, it'll come back to me later.

But there were 2 sections back to back, and they just really struck me, just made a strong impression.

The first 1 comes up on volume 6, page 254, And it is, the title of it is The World's Need.

And there's a little section, about 3, 4 pages, something like that, maybe at the most, on the issue of the world's need.

Christ saw the sickness, the sorrow, the want, and degradation of the multitudes that thronged his steps.

To him were presented the needs and woes of humanity throughout the world.

Among the high and the low, the most honored and the most degraded, he beheld souls who were longing for the very blessings he had come to bring, souls who needed only a knowledge of his grace to become subjects of his kingdom.

They just needed a knowledge of His grace.

Somebody needed to tell them or perhaps better yet show them.

Now what I want you to catch out of this is the people he's talking about or El White's talking about here, the people of Christ ministered to.

The high, the low, the honored, the degraded.

Yeah, obviously that's both ends of like 2 spectrums, so to speak, or really 1 spectrum, whatever, but high, low, honor, degree, everybody in between.

When I scanned through this little three-page section, or maybe 4, or whatever, on the world's need, I just looked for the categories of people she was talking about, and came up with this list.

The neglected youth, the poor, the intemperate, we would call them alcoholics perhaps or drug users today, the honored, ministers, statesmen, authors.

And she spends more time than any other category on the wealthy, because we're not that good at reaching the wealthy.

And so she has quite a bit of counsel right there on how to deal with the wealthy.

And the biggest problem that she identifies, and it's really interesting what she says, When we approach wealthy individuals, she says they're in great danger.

They're in peril, I think she uses that word, if I remember right.

And the thing that makes them so vulnerable or so endangered is their wealth.

She says, in the world today, where selfishness, greed, and oppression rule, many of the Lord's true children are in need and affliction.

In lowly, miserable places, surrounded with poverty, disease, and guilt.

Many are patiently bearing their own burden.

I'm sorry, I've jumped tracks here on you.

It looks like I maybe missed 1 slide that I intended to get in.

But what she says, and I'll go back to the issue of the wealthy, because this is obviously moving on to something else, and I'm sorry I missed that up.

What she says is that when we approach the wealthy, we need to, in discreet, kind, compassionate ways, present them the opportunity to use their money to do good.

Some of them at least are looking for ways to do something good with their money.

I mean look at Bill and Melinda Gates, right?

Yeah, there are some who would question their motives, but nonetheless, they've made this big foundation, they give away lots of money.

Let's take it at face value for the moment and say they're looking for some way to do good.

And she says, it's the job of Christians to present to them the privilege of sacrificial service.

We tend to be, we tend to find ourselves kind of tongue tied in that regard sometimes.

Anil Kanda

Ceres SDA Church

Abandon Ship

Father in Heaven, we thank you so much again for the beautiful Sabbath.

Thank you God that in your presence is mercy.

And Lord, just as we are, we come to you to receive the grace that you offer to us.

Father, we pray for this present blessing that you have.

We ask that you would speak to our hearts and to our minds, that you would energize our souls.

Father, we are praying for something special this morning.

But Jesus, as we move onward and forward, we pray and ask that you would equip us.

Especially we pray for the Holy Spirit to baptize us afresh now.

You know, it's very interesting, at the same moment that David Tank was making a remark about Pastor Keith, Pastor Keith actually text me that exact same moment.

And he says to me, he says, I'm at another church right now, and he says, boy, I really miss series.

And with the foundation that was laid already before us, We need to press on to the hope of the second coming.

And I'm really excited because just this last week, I've just been so blown away by how much is actually taking place in this church.

I mean, we have a powerful health fair that's gonna be coming up.

We have an evangelistic series coming up.

I mean, I just praise God for the expansion of our church.

He calls us to keep stepping forward to that day when He will return back.

He calls us not to be idle in the work of God, but He calls us to be active and busy.

Yet at the same time, He calls us away to spend time with Him.

And that's what's so awesome about Sabbath mornings, just because it's beautiful, it's a time where you get to come together and you get to just sit at the feet of Jesus.

And if you get a little sleepy at the feet of Jesus, it's okay to stretch, amen?

It's okay to stretch, then sleep in the church.

So if you start falling asleep, I promise you, I will embarrass you in church.

And so, I'd rather have you stretching and looking a little Pentecostal than looking like you're sleeping, Okay?

Now, does anybody remember where our verse was that Justin just read for us?

Everyone take your Bible, let's go there rapidly.

And when you're there, go ahead and say amen.

Now watch what the Bible says right here.

This is Peter speaking, 1 of the disciples, 1 of the disciples who were closest to Jesus.

And by the way, there were 3 who were close to Jesus.

You also note that these 3 disciples were always allowed into the inner precinct of Jesus.

What's also remarkable about them, these 3 were the only ones who received new names from Jesus as well.

And these were names based upon their character.

Were they positive names or were they negative names?

Well they were positive, the fact that it came from Jesus, but they were describing a negative characteristic about the disciples.

The word Peter means little rolling pebble.

The name that was given to James and John means the sons of thunder, not because they were cool and mighty, but because they had anger issues.

And it's very interesting to note that the way that Jesus dealt with these struggling disciples was to bring them closer.

Generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special what?

I love this, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His, what?

Marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Now notice what Peter is saying right here.

He is saying this, You are chosen that you may proclaim praises of Him who called you out of darkness.

You are chosen that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness.

You know when I was younger, not many moons ago, we used to always play football at the park.

And what's so remarkable about playing football at the park is that we played co-ed and it was just a just a wonderful time where we just had a bunch of the teenagers and we just play around and we played tackle football.

I grew up playing tackle football on the field.

1 time I actually got some I saw somebody get tackled and this is just a side note, and they got up, and they looked around, and all of a sudden, they lifted up their thumb, and it was reversed.

And anyway, so what I'm saying about this is this.

When it came to tackle football, the way we would do this is we would divide up teams.

And it was really awkward when you choose the 2 team captains, because the team captains would painfully have to choose certain people and reject others.

I never forgot, 1 day there was a team captain and I and I wanted to be on his team He didn't choose me.

In fact, I was the last 1 that was chosen.

I Made an effort that day to try to destroy the other team It's very interesting This phrase or this word chosen being chosen, You know when I do youth ministry for example, often times I will come into a group and a lot of people are intimidated by kids, just because kids tend to be very honest and very distracted at the same time.

And so what I'll do, this is just a tip, a secret.

When it comes to youth ministry, in order to get the attention of all the youth in that group, in order to win the youth over, I will oftentimes find the most troublesome youth in that group, and I will choose him.

And what happens is remarkable, is that when this youth is actually won over, you know what he does?

I have a phrase for that person, I call him the alpha gorilla.

I will oftentimes look for an alpha gorilla in a group.

In order to win the rest of the group, I will find the alpha gorilla.

You know, the hard thing is, is that when these kids get bigger and bigger, you know, they start getting taller and taller, and, you know, they're a little less intimidated by you, and, but you have to do your best to win them over.

You will see the rest want to be part of the game.

The purpose of being chosen is to lead others.

And so what we're going to be doing, you're going to see something remarkable about the nation of Israel.

Take your Bible, go to Exodus chapter 19.

This is right after the children of Israel had just come out of this great deliverance from God.

And they made their way through with all their camels and their domesticated animals.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Christian Service: A Religious System

1h

Abandon Ship

43m

Season 2, Episode 21: Step Through the Open Door

26m

Season 2, Episode 20: The Power of Perseverance

26m

Season 2, Episode 19: Behind the Renowned Jordan River

26m

Season 2, Episode 18: The Wake Up Call

28m

Season 2, Episode 17: A Mother’s Love

26m

Season 2, Episode 16: Searching for the Land of Milk and Honey

26m

Season 2, Episode 15: Behind the History of a City

28m

Season 2, Episode 14: From One Extreme to Another

28m

Season 2, Episode 13: Ruins, Ruins Everywhere

28m

Season 2, Episode 12: There Must Be Something More

28m

Sound Doctrine