ASI 2014: Lift Him Up

Seminar: Management

Rob Neall

Excellence and Work Ethics

Gracious Heavenly Father, we're so thankful that we can be here and be inspired at ASI to see so many things and so many ways in which you are using people to reach people, and that you have given us so much instruction and wisdom in your word.

And tonight, this afternoon, as we look at it, Father, I pray that your spirit would be here to guide us and that we might be inspired to the spirit of excellence in our own lives to achieve that which you would have us to do.

I know it's an area that can be applied in any different field.

If we look at the principles and see how you have created us and what your desire is for us, we can apply it in almost any aspect where you have given us to work in the marketplace for you.

And I just pray, Father, that we might see today new avenues by which we can attain your desire, your purpose, and arrive at the excellence that you would have each of us to achieve, we pray in Christ's name.

Well, first just a little bit about myself.

I teach at Washita Hills Academy in Amity, Arkansas.

We have a booth down there, but so you'll see that a lot of my interest comes from the educational realm and I've been studying and working on this topic of excellence for a long time, and specifically lately, to try to ascertain exactly what are the principles that can be applied not just in education but in every aspect of our lives to try to achieve the purpose that God would have us to.

And first though, a little disclaimer, because I haven't arrived.

And I suppose that it's probably a good thing, because if we ever thought we had arrived, then we would stop what?

And especially because I think, Paul gives me courage.

Paul says, brethren, I count myself not to have apprehended but this 1 thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

And that's what I want, to press forward, to strive.

And so although I haven't arrived at excellence in every area, I hope to delineate some principles that we can use in our lives, apply them that we might be able to achieve that even though we have to keep striving.

Martin Luther said this, and I think it puts it well for us Christians who continually strive and sometimes we feel like we fall short.

He said, upright and faithful Christians ever think that they are not faithful, nor believe as they ought.

They feel like they're not faithful, but they're falling short.

And therefore they constantly strive, wrestle, and are diligent to keep and to increase faith, as good workmen always see that something is wanting in their workmanship.

You get something done, and you're like, you're the person who sees the imperfections better than anybody else, right?

You get done with it, and everybody else comes up and say, wow, beautiful.

And you're like, oh, you see all these little.

And so we're perhaps our own best critics.

I haven't arrived, and so I have to put in that little caveat at the beginning.

But hopefully, together, we will discover some principles that we can apply to achieve the goal that we all want in excellence in our lives.

There was once a recruiting, army recruiting office, several that were at a, they went to a high school and they were going to give a presentation.

You might have heard the illustration before.

They were each given a lot of time, about 15 minutes, to explain why their branch of the armed forces was the best and try to convince these young people to consider them and come up and get to their booth and register.

And so each 1 went down the line, you know, the Air Force and then the Army, and then we went down the, each of them got up to the podium and instead of taking their a lot of time, kind of like happens up here at the adult meetings there, Each 1 droned on and went on for a little bit, explaining the benefits.

If you come and you get these packages, you'll get this retirement benefits, and this sign on bonus, and all the things that benefits and the prestige of joining their branch of the military.

And when he got up to speak, he had almost no time left.

He had just about 30 seconds, a minute or so.

And he got up there and he didn't know what to do.

And so he simply said, listen, the Marines isn't for everybody.

If you wanted to find out more, come by my office, come by my booth there in the exhibit hall, have a good day.

You may never have heard the illustration before, but what happened?

It would be like the convention hall here with everybody all crowded around, it is written, you know, because there's this mass of people, all these young people just go...

And you know exactly what happened because something, there's something within the innate human nature, the human heart that we strive, we want for, we long for excellence, right?

And I don't think it's necessarily a pride thing.

It comes from Proverbs 22, verse 29 says, do you see a man who excels in his work?

The Bible recognizes that excellence is honored.

People take notice of it when they see it, don't you?

I mean, you see it in people and you know it.

It just, it almost takes your breath away when you see it.

But yet so often, it seems like we have a hard time understanding how to achieve it in our own lives.

I'm a teacher and so I like to set the foundations, go back to the beginning.

Excellence from the Latin, exceller, and it is to rise or surpass, be eminent, X out from and to rise out of.

You know, I like ASI because so often you're here and if you've been here coming for years, you see these little kids growing up and I can remember when I went to Youth for Jesus a number of years ago, and last night Keith Mosier was on the stage with his Congo Frontline mission, you know.

Well, years ago, he was just 1 of the Bible workers, and we were there at Youth for Jesus, and he was in 1 of the other guys, And then a few years later, you're like, well, and you're like, wow, what has he done?

You know, they ain't making an impact and they were and so many of those other people you come and you see them and you're like, how did they do that?

I mean, they were just they were just a normal kid.

And then where did they how did they turn out like that?

They rise out from, and you know, I have a little bit of identification with that because I'm 6 foot 9.

Rise out from among their brethren, right?

I feel at times like Saul, head and shoulders above.

Of course, I didn't achieve that by trying.

But nonetheless, it means to come out from among everybody else, to stand out from.

And there's a real desire in our own experience, each of our hearts for that.

You know, though sometimes people might look at excellence and they say, really it's the root, its foundation has to do with sin.

You know, we want to be better than everybody else.

And although I really have to take an issue with that because the desire for excellence is very much a part of who we are long before sin ever came.

Before there was ever sin in this world, we had this desire to achieve and to do our best and to do it.

I think it's excellence is a non-negotiable.

We are told in fourth volume of the Testimonies, it says, �If we would reach high attainments in moral and spiritual excellence, we must live for it.

We are under personal obligation to society.� We are to do this, personal obligation to achieve the level of excellence in every area of our lives that we can.

In order to continually exert an influence in favor of God's law, we should let our light shine so that all may see that the sacred gospel is having an influence upon our hearts and lives that we walk in obedience to its commandments and violates none of its principles.

You know the difference I think between pride and excellence is that pride really is an attitude whereas excellence more is an action.

Pride is the desire to exalt self, whereas excellence ought to be the desire simply to do our best.

Because we recognize that we're serving a God of excellence and we want to do Him justice.

Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, what is the foundation of excellence?

Genesis 1 verse 1 says, God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good.

And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Now when I was studying this, I was thinking, does This kind of sound like, you know, God takes a look and says, I mean, look at that.

Seminar: Lift Him Up

Steven Grabiner

The Uplifted Lamb

So as I was saying, when we look as Seventh-day Adventists at Revelation, oftentimes, usually, we look at it in a fairly narrow sense, you know, what does this symbol mean in a prophetic way?

There's really a much broader way we can look at Revelation.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and we were discussing how Ellen White deals with, for example, the 7 churches.

She makes reference to the church of Ephesus in a historic context.

She talks about the first, the church in Ephesus, Revelation 2 in verse 1 and following, and she talks about how Paul founded that church.

But she also talks about the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 in a prophetic way, that they represent the church throughout successive time periods in history, ending of course with the last church, which is Laodicea, which represents us today.

But she also looks at the 7 churches in, let's call it a spiritual or personal way.

For example, the message to Ephesus, you have left your first love, applies to me as well.

And so she looks at the text of Revelation with these 3 levels.

So it's very important for us, particularly as Sempte Adveniste, movement of destiny, to understand our prophetic foundations in Revelation.

But I wanna do something different this morning, this afternoon.

And that is I want to look at Revelation, particularly Revelation 4 and 5, from the angle of what is the story John is trying to tell us.

Now, I like Revelation as a story because we know how it ends and it ends in a good way, right?

And I don't like stories that don't end in a good way, because really, in God's plan, there is a final good ending.

So we're gonna look at Revelation, and I wanna try to get our attention In terms of the setting, what's kind of the background in Revelation 4 and 5?

Who are the actors on the stage, if I can use that perhaps uncomfortable analogy?

As We read Revelation and we see scenery and then different individuals come on the scene.

So what's the setting to Revelation 4 and 5?

What are the main players that come to view?

What's happening in the storyline in these couple of chapters.

And just in the very beginning, it's my argument, my contention, my belief that rightly understood Revelation in its largest sense is talking about the great controversy.

And there's a great issue that needs to be resolved, not just for humanity's sake, but for the universe.

And John, as he wrote Revelation down, clearly John had a vision and he saw and he heard all the things that he wrote.

But we understand from our conception of inspiration that inspiration works on the person.

And so Isaiah writes differently than Ezekiel.

David writes the Psalms differently than Solomon.

And when John wrote the book of Revelation, really it's an amazing composition.

Hardly any part of the book of Revelation is chosen in isolation from another part.

So if I can maybe move away from the metaphor of stage scenery and actors and use the metaphor of a tapestry and think of Revelation as a verbal tapestry and that the words that John uses are verbal threads that connect the entire tapestry together.

So that's what I want to explore this morning, is how John uses this imagery, what's the tapestry picture he's putting together, and what's the underlying story that John's trying to bring out?

And so the question, again, how should we understand the setting, the characters, and the plot in Revelation 4 and 5.

And again, let me just say that as we look at these 2 chapters together, within Seventh-day Adventism, there are different views concerning some of the details.

I'm going to leave some of those detail questions aside and if we get through everything and we have time for questions and answers, we may look at some of those details in greater length.

But you may have a question that comes to mind, well how does this fit?

Just lay the question, write it down, hold it off to 1 side as we kind of go through this.

So Revelation 4 and 5, I like to say, another metaphor, that these 2 chapters form a literary diptych, a two-paneled picture which provide the interpretive key to the book of Revelation.

Revelation 4 and 5 really is the fountainhead of the entire book of Revelation.

So, in Revelation 4 and 5, We have this heavenly scene, we have a scene with a book, the scroll, the scroll begins to get unfolded, which leads us to the seals, which leads us to the trumpets, which leads us to the opening of the sanctuary in Revelation 11, and all throughout the book of Revelation, John draws us back to Revelation 4 and 5.

If you look carefully, the characters, the actors in Revelation 4 and 5 continually reappear throughout the entire book.

The setting continually reappears throughout the entire book.

So how we approach these 2 chapters impacts the interpretation we put on the entire book of Revelation.

I've got a visual illustration for you of an actual diptych.

This is from the, I forgot the year, if it was Jan van Eyck who wrote it.

And then the other half of this panel is a picture of judgment.

So it's a two-paneled picture, it goes together.

There are two-paneled picture, if I can again use that expression.

Let's turn, if you have your Bibles, to Revelation chapter 4.

Revelation 4, and we're going to read through verses 1 through 6, and then we're just going to kind of ask some questions, I'm going to post some ideas, and then we're going to come back and look a little deeper, and then step back and then look a little deeper throughout our time together.

So Revelation 4, starting in verse 1, and I'm reading from the New American Standard.

Revelation 4, 1, after these things, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven.

And the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things.

Immediately I was in the spirit and Behold a throne was standing in heaven and 1 sitting on the throne.

And he who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardis in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance.

Around the throne were twenty-four thrones and upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads.

Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder.

And there were 7 lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the 7 spirits of God.

And before the throne, there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

And in the center and around the throne, 4 living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.

Then John continues and he describes these 4 little creatures, 4 living creatures.

Chapter 4, verse 1 starts with, after these things, after what things?

Throughout the letters to the 7 churches are encouragements.

I know your poverty, but you're really rich.

I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is.

There are these encouragements and there are also cautions.

There are some among you who follow the teaching of Balaam, teaching my people to eat things sacrificed to idols and commit acts of immorality.

And within the 7 churches are also appeals to be overcomer.

To him that overcomes, I will grant to eat some of the hidden manna and I will give him a new name, a white stone rather, and a new name in the stone which no 1 knows except he who receives it.

So, you know, the 7 churches are really dealing with situation here on earth.

And that's 1 of the big themes in the book of Revelation is that there's an earthly view and a heavenly view, an earthly perspective and a heavenly perspective.

And so when John sees this heavenly perspective, our first reading of Revelation 4 and 5 is like, wow, we've been taken out of the turmoil of the world and all of a sudden we're in heaven.

And so when we read that, we come to this conclusion.

And I'm going to quote a few Bible writers, commentators.

He wrote a well-known commentary at the beginning of the last century.

And he said, when you come to Revelation 4 and 5, you have a movement from the failures, troubles, and darkness of this world into an atmosphere of perfect peace.

Leaving the turmoil of the 7 churches and now you're in this heavenly situation.

Another writer, probably mispronounce his name, Laszlo Galus, He's just recently written a book called The Throne Motif in the Book of Revelation.

I'm some of the Adventist he teaches in Bulgaria, I believe.

Mark Cromwell

Develop an Effective Marketing Strategy

Dear Heavenly Father, we are so pleased to be in your presence today and Lord we just wish that you will enter our hearts and enter our minds and enter our souls, Father, so we can do your work and do it more effectively and spread the gospel, Lord.

We know you're coming soon, and we need all the strength, the wisdom, the knowledge, and the patience of the characters shown by Jesus Christ to accomplish our mission here, and accomplish the spread of the gospel.

It is my heartfelt prayer today, Lord, that the presentation that I present today is your will and not my own and that those here today will get a blessing from it Use the information to advance your plan for us.

I know it's so far away I didn't think anybody's gonna be here today so But thank you.

I'm also an ASI member and the Executive Vice President of ASI Mid-America.

And our topic today is developing an effective marketing strategy.

We're located in Blue Springs, Missouri, which is just east of Kansas City, Missouri, right down I-70.

We have 10 employees and 7 professional contract partners and those people are like copywriters, web marketers, bloggers, those kind of guys that we contract directly to.

And to help us get all our work done that we need to get done.

We get a lot of requests and handle a lot of accounts.

We deal nationally, so a couple international accounts.

Our services include marketing, consulting, web development, internet marketing, corporate web stores, printing services, promotional products and large formats, some production we do in-house as well.

The objective that we have for our clients in the marketing programs is to develop a dynamic and effective, make them dynamic, effective, and affordable.

We take the time to get to know our clients and understand their business.

And that's really a critical part of what we do is if there's something that we need to develop, we try to get to know the client and that relationship that they have with the customer so if we do something, we can make it sensible.

And that's probably the fourth part of that first statement was it needs to be a sensible approach.

And we also develop custom marketing solutions to maximize new sales opportunities.

And I don't put maximize sales opportunities to existing customers in there because we feel that if you maximize your sales to new opportunities, that will actually do reverse kind of a flow back to what your current business strategies are ready to your existing accounts.

So you can kind of have a fresh, energized approach if you have a new approach to gaining access to new markets.

If you've ever seen that before, does that make sense?

And also by partnering with Ad Trends, you can be assured that your marketing investment will generate powerful returns and fuel ongoing growth and a success of your business or organization.

Again today's topic is developing effective marketing strategies.

In this session we'll look at simple marketing approaches that will not only help grow your business organization but more importantly will help promote relationship building practices in your church and church programs.

I'm gonna go through 2 kind of scenarios so we're gonna jump back and forth we're gonna look at you know church kind of marketing programs correlated with kind of business marketing programs.

And so some of the terminology is going to kind of cross over.

So I'll try not to get confusing because the marketing person that I am for the past 23 years kind of comes out in my vocabulary, so Excuse excuse any confusion and and always feel free to raise your hand to go.

You'll discover 3 basic steps to approve a marketing plan, and you will learn to master a marketing strategy that produces results.

I'm going to try to get through really kind of quick so we can have some question and answers at the end.

I'm going to be using some biblical texts to use as a methodology for us to follow in building our strategies.

And in no way am I implying that Jesus, I don't want to offend anybody, that Jesus was any kind of salesperson or used psychological techniques or methods to promote anything he did.

I love the Lord and I know that we're here to do his work.

And you know a little testimony about me.

I've really only been an Adventist about 6 and a half years.

So, that's why I didn't start off with any jokes because I really don't know any that would be appropriate.

You know, I'm still kind of getting out of that thing.

But Anyway, the Lord is moving me, you know, quickly through a progression here I think and and it's really good.

I enjoy it, but again I'm I got to get a little bit more acclimated.

As the Bible says, we need to constantly examine and implement examples Jesus provided us in every aspect of our lives.

And that flows down to the things you'll learn.

You can substitute words for relationships in your own families and communities.

The time is short, we need to organize our movement by having a clear vision to reach out and develop relationships in our community.

People will be looking for comfort, answers, and safety, and we need to prepare now.

You know, I did a lot of church visits in Kansas City, probably about 18 to 20 of them, I went to 1 church that had the vision for their church up on the wall out of 18 or 20 churches and that's really, really a shame And if you look around at the Baptist community, the Catholic community, I mean, they have very clearly stated visions for their church.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Excellence and Work Ethics

1h 24m

The Uplifted Lamb

1h 17m

Develop an Effective Marketing Strategy

58m

FIT & FREE! Building Brain and Body Health

47m

Why Adventist? Why Now?

1h 58m

The Divine Solution

1h 33m

A Serpent in the Wilderness

32m

Cherish the Treasure

59m

Creations Crown

48m

Faithfulness with Joy

1h

Family First

57m

No Mistakes

59m

Sound Doctrine