ASI Scandinavia 2013: Transforming Grace

Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

Kim Busl

ASI Scandinavia

Part 2: Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

We are before you and we think that we can come and discuss Your will for us your will and how to establish different ministries You have put the burden on our hearts and Perhaps it's a ministry that hasn't been established yet.

But you are here to guide us and to lead us, to learn of your word, and to experience you, and allow you to guide us in our future.

We ask for wisdom and truth now as we're talking, and that you'd be with Kim as well, and bless him.

And I ask these things in your mighty and holy name.

The text I was looking for yesterday in Acts, you will recognize the words as I read them, is the Apostle Paul And he's leaving his friends and he says, Now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them, all them which are sanctified.

I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel.

Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me.

I have showed you all things how that so laboring you ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive that's Acts 20 start with verse 32 and there's other there's other texts there that Paul we could go to and read where Paul talked about how his hands worked and laboured to supply his needs and the needs of his team that was with him.

And he made it clear, I've coveted no man's silver or gold.

And it ends with the words of Jesus, it's better to do what?

And it's interesting that in a few places Paul mentions the financial aspect of how his work went, of how he labored.

And we'll see as we go along that still today finances and how finances are perceived within the church family is a very delicate matter.

It's unfortunate but It's just part of the struggle in human nature that we have a very difficult time getting away from.

And it's not unique to supporting ministries and church enterprises.

Some of you perhaps will know of a friend or a family member in which someone died and an inheritance was left.

And the people receiving that inheritance become estranged from 1 another.

And they go for years of not speaking and it gets divisive.

I mean, God doesn't, this, amongst Seventh-day Adventist Christians whom I know, this happens.

Some got more, or some got less, and it wasn't fair, and it brings in divisiveness.

And Paul chose, hey, I'm not going to go there.

So yesterday as we were closing, Jan really needs to show up, I hate for him to miss this.

I was trying to share with you a sense of historically where the Seventh-day Adventist Church was at the turn of the century, the late 1880s, 1890s, early 1900s.

The outpouring of the latter rain had begun, and yet it got shut off.

And we saw where a group of people, Ellen White, A.T.

Jones, Wagner, were going around preaching this message of Christ our righteousness, righteousness by faith, justification by faith.

And it was being resisted by church leadership at large in the 1888 conference that took place.

Another message was being pressed upon God's people and that was the health message.

It was building, it was growing, it was being demonstrated and Kellogg was being used by God in a wonderful way.

People from all over the world coming to be cured, to be cared for at the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

It was becoming a preeminent institution, not simply for the church, but within the United States at large.

Ellen White was encouraging a concept of education, again, that was being resisted primarily because it could not be perceived.

And all of us have been, if I started speaking Portuguese, he might know some.

If I started speaking Swahili, anybody here speak Swahili?

If I start speaking to you in a foreign language, you just, hey, or you speak to me in Norwegian, forget about it, you know, hi, hi, talk, that's the beginning, the end, I don't know anymore.

And so communicating concepts is often like speaking a foreign language.

Jesus, when he told the disciples, you know, the Gentiles have a certain way of authority, but it's not going to be that way among you.

He that is greatest among you, let him be servant of all." But still the question comes, when you come into your kingdom, can 1 son be on your left and 1 son...

Jesus is telling him, I'm going to Jerusalem.

Well, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, I want to be right there.

He was telling them things, but they couldn't hear it.

And so often God has this problem with us.

He's trying to give us a message, but we don't comprehend it, we don't hear it.

And so there were these 2 characters I started to introduce you to called E.A.

Now, the reason I brought their names up, and Jan was wanting to know, what have these guys got to do with supporting ministries?

I mentioned to you that McGann started his life at Battle Creek in Ellen White's home and that a very intimate and affectionate relationship developed between McGann.

And his understanding of the gospel was very much formed by his time with Ellen White and his understanding of righteousness by faith, his understanding of the great controversy.

Now, It happened that a man named Stephen Haskell, have you heard of that name?

He was asked to go by the General Conference on a tour around the world to look for mission stations where we could set up places where Seventh-day Adventist ministries could begin.

As he was preparing for that, Ellen White suggested that he take McGann with him.

She said, take this young boy Percy with you, he can carry your suitcases and be your secretary.

And so McGann went on this trip around the world with Haskell.

Haskell actually stopped in Australia to visit with his sister and Percy McGann arrived back in California and he was the first Seventh-day Adventist to encircle the globe on behalf of God's work, on behalf of ministry.

Ellen White wrote a book named Christ Object Lessons.

She dedicated that book to the relieving of debt for our schools.

And McGinn led the push of getting Christ Object Lessons out there to relieve the debt of the school and to get the book out into homes.

And he was such a salesman, 1 night he sold 10 copies of Christ Object Lessons to 1 guy.

And after the guy had paid, and McGann had become friends with him, he's going to leave.

And he says to the man, you know, really, what are you going to do with 10?

And later in life, I can tell you more of the things God used him to do.

These 2 men came into Battle Creek and they started to lead that school.

They plowed up the football field, they planted potatoes, they got a work program going, They got rid of sports.

They started to implement what we call educational reforms because they were in communication with Ellen White, and they grasped what she was saying and what needed to happen in education.

They knew that the school should never have been in Battle Creek.

Part 1: Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

Let's go back and think of God's work in this world from the beginning.

And think about ministries, people God's called to serve for his work.

Because he was working full time for God, building up something special.

Did Noah have a work that God called them to do?

There was no structure of support for ministry as we know today in those days.

Simply God gave this man a call and he had something specific he wanted to do.

In fact, it had never rained and all the intelligent people told Noah it was impossible for it to rain, scientifically, couldn't happen.

And they labored with him and he was faithful.

And part of the interesting reality is when Noah finished the ark, you know how much resource he had left personal finances and resources, assets.

You read in page arts and prophets, Noah invested everything he had in the building of that ark.

He had nothing left in this world that was his.

He had invested everything in the building of that art.

Now we can look back, was that a good decision?

Had he had any investment left in the world as he knew it, what was soon to happen to it?

Now, there's a book out, it's called Another Ark to Build.

And I remember when we printed that book at a little school called Mount Missionary in New Hampshire.

It had been a series of pamphlets that LWZ had done and then it got compiled and put into the book.

And I recommend this reading if you can find it.

I mean, at Wildwood they probably have a digital copy.

Does it still have a little rainbow on the front?

Anyway, you know, Elberge puts out there this concept that there is another ark to build, that Jesus is coming soon, the closing chapters in the history of this world is the time in which we're living and that there's another ark to build.

And as God's people, we can take courage and look at Noah's example as a safe example to follow.

So he could be 1 of our early supporting ministries when we look back historically and see a person who responded to the call of God, had a work to do, and didn't look to other people to provide the resources for that.

He didn't say, well if this organization funds me, I'll build the ark.

He went forward and he took what was in his hand, he took what he had and he invested it.

Do any other names spring up to you as people who would be in a supporting ministry category?

Now, I don't know if Enoch's outpost is in that book that...

Is Emings outpost a chapter in that book, in the Arts of Ill?

What did, what was Emings, what did Emings do?

He, it says that he was, it's actually interesting, in the School of Prophecy, I haven't read it that much, but I've heard it.

That he was actually going to cities, and...

And just, yeah, finding out about needs of people, and serving to these needs, and reaching people's confidence, and then...

Then, being able to come out of the cities and join him in his work, he lived outside of the cities.

And that's the way, brings him back to God.

She uses that as an illustration on how to work the cities.

Now, you know, a lot has changed in a hundred years, but the idea in following Enoch's example was he would go out in nature, out in his outpost, and he would spend time with God and commuting and he would get charged, so to speak.

And then he would go into the cities and labor for people for a certain amount of time.

Then he would leave and whoever he had ministered to that was willing, he would take with him out into the country, out to where he lived, and minister to them there.

And that's where we get our modern day idea of outpost centers.

We'll get to that name a little bit later on, in more detail.

So Enoch would be another 1, I agree, of a supporting ministry type person, who was putting their own resources, their time, their labors into this ministry.

I'm kind of thinking of Nehemiah, but maybe not fits perfectly.

But he did not, because Nehemiah did not really accept any wages, even though he was entitled to it, so he was really putting his own investment into the work which was very specific, which was building the wall.

Now the call came to Enoch different than it came, not Enoch, excuse me, to Nehemiah different than it came to Noah.

How did Nehemiah get this call, get this burden?

Well, he got some news from his Jerusalem.

OCI 2014 Leadership Retreat: One Thing

Afternoon Devotionals

Lael Caesar

Outpost Centers International

Just Like John

Just like John, there is at least a little bit of facetiousness in this introduction.

I'm going to have to turn around because I don't have a prompt here to let me know that things are going right.

Meanwhile, What is the aim of today's exercise?

Everybody, to focus by and on the only light there is.

Because it's time to face reality and because I really didn't think enough about it when I sang the spiritual.

I've been thinking about it now and thinking, you know, we have a problem here.

But let's read our scripture reading together.

For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more and I saw the holy city the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband And there shall no longer be any night and they shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the Sun.

Because the Lord God shall illumine them and they shall reign forever and ever.

No need for lanterns, no need for moon or sun because the Lord God shall give us light.

Everybody, my city does not need crystal triangles.

Come on, say that together because it's true.

I confess to you that there is at least a little facetiousness in today's introduction.

Truly I don't know if there ever isn't facetiousness in anything Lyle Caesar says.

1 conscientious listener from yesterday said, we have a saying in Germany, that you think around corners.

So I told him, Actually, I have spent my life confusing people.

And my wife has spent our married life together begging me not to confuse.

But I'm probably naturally confused and have not been converted enough from confusion.

So bear with me and let's say that together again everybody.

Oh wonderful God our light and our life and our love.

Thank you that with you we have no lack and because of you we need no candles.

I can't sing anymore, but I used to sing male quartets and stuff like that.

Me and the King's Heralds and all the other guys that Wayne Hooper and HMS Riches and the Voice of Prophecy taught to sing male quartet music.

And of course, just like John, I Want to Be Ready was, probably still is, 1 of the hits.

I want to walk in Jerusalem just like, you know, I've been thinking about it, what, what is that all about?

Does anybody have any idea why we all sing about walking in Jerusalem just like John?

Was it because everybody wants to go to Israel?

I mean if it had been Moses or I want to walk in Jerusalem just like Enoch or just like Elijah, you understand that but John.

Jews all over the world are always talking about going to Jerusalem.

Every year they conclude their Passover feast by saying next year in Jerusalem.

It used to be because they lived with an unfulfilled longing.

They couldn't access the city and so every Passover ends next year in Jerusalem but that's not true anymore.

There are 600, 000 Jews living in Jerusalem now and 5.3 million others who have direct access anytime they want to who live in the Israeli Republic and of course millions of others around the world who can go whenever they want to the Aliyah and you know just just go up but they still say next year in Jerusalem.

John Bloom who was president of the blog Desiring God, believes that next year in Jerusalem actually expresses a spiritual longing for the promised peaceful messianic Jerusalem, a profound wish that the next year be a happy 1.

Do you live with longing too for a Jerusalem where everything will be happy?

Do you long for a better city than the 1 that you live in if you do live in a city or a better place than the 1 you live in even if you don't live in a city?

New York is the greatest city in the world.

That at least that's what the announcer says every night on CBS when he introduces Dave Letterman.

From New York, the greatest city in the world, and New York has a lot to recommend it, especially crystal triangles.

You, you didn't know that New York was famous for crystal triangles?

You may not know about New York's crystal triangles, but you know about Times Square.

And you know that every year on the 31st of December, a million people scrunch themselves into this 1 place at the junction of Broadway and 7th Avenue in central Manhattan to see the ball.

And 1 billion people all over the world spend their December 31 watching the 1 million people in Times Square and fantasizing about being there in person.

The ball that these people are looking at is a bunch of crystal triangles.

32, 256 energy-efficient lights reflected to the 2000000000 eyes watching the ball by 2, 688 glittering Waterford crystal triangles.

And since this staring at crystal triangles has no equivalent annual spectacle anywhere in the world, crystal triangles must be a grand and very important thing.

But my city does not need crystal triangles.

The city that Jesus has for me does not need crystal triangles to give and reflect light and it doesn't need 32, 256 energy-efficient lights to be reflected by its Walliford crystal triangles.

My city marks the ultimate contrast between all that is fake and contrived and artificial that finds its unparalleled climax in the heady intoxication of rocking New Year's Eve in Times Square in New York City under a ball of glittering Waterford crystal triangles.

Jesus is in my city and Jesus is the light of the world.

What does John 8 12 mean and Jesus when he says it I am the light of the world.

In context of our key word this week 1 I'd like you to notice that Jesus does not say, I am 1 of the most crucial, significant, important, essential, whatever, he does not say the most anything.

Lewis in Mere Christianity puts it, and I want you to read with me I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus I'm ready to accept Jesus they say as a great moral teacher but I don't accept his claim to be God they want him to be on par with the Buddha and so Jesus can give you some moral insight and the Buddha can give you the enlightenment or you can experience it keep going That is the 1 thing we must not say.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said, thank you, would not be a great moral teacher.

He would be either a lunatic on the level with the man who says, I am a poached egg, or else he would be the devil from hell.

Either this man was and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse.

You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher he has not left that open to us.

You fall at his feet or you call him a devil from hell.

The world has had its great teachers, men of giant intellect and extensive research, men whose utterances have stimulated thought and opened to view vast fields of knowledge.

And these men have been honored as guides and benefactors of their race.

But there is 1 who stands higher than they.

We trace the line of the world's teachers as far back as human records extend, but the light was before them.

As the moon and the stars of our solar system shine by the reflected light of the sun, So as far as their teaching is true, do the world's great thinkers reflect the rays of the Sun of righteousness.

Every gleam of thought, every flash of the intellect is from the light of the world.

If Jesus doesn't shine it, there is no light and all you brilliant physicists out there, this light does not bend, it is not subject to any gravitational pull, it just goes all the way through all the gravitational entities to the core of all being.

John 8 12 do you know when John 8 12 is articulated?

John doesn't begin with chapter 8 verse 12 He begins with chapter 1 and in chapter 1 he says Jesus is the light that lights every person who comes into the world.

He is the light of life and the light of judgment and John 8 does not begin with chapter 12 there is verse 11 and verse 10 and verse 9 and verse 8 before that what are all those verses about they are about the woman groveling in shame behind him because he has turned his face to the ground to help save her dignity and he's looking on the ground because he's writing there and people want to see what he's writing they come over and look it is dark in the world and he is shedding light and it goes in all directions.

Before he came as Ellen White put it, desire of ages 22, the earth was dark.

The Book of Romans

Chester Clark

Dalton SDA Church

Wanted: Dead & Alive

Have you ever wished that you could just start your life over again?

Maybe starting anew with the energy you used to have and the knowledge you have now, the wisdom you have now.

I'm going to share with you a story this morning of 1 gentleman by the name of Marcus Schrenker.

It appeared by all accounts that Marcus' life was going quite well.

At the age of 38, he controlled an impressive slate of businesses, 3 major companies, Heritage Wealth Management, Inc., Heritage Insurance Services, Inc., and Icon Wealth Management.

He was responsible for providing financial advice and managing portfolios for his clients worth many millions of dollars.

He collected luxury automobiles, owned 2 airplanes, lived in a 10, 000 square foot house in an upscale neighborhood in Indiana known as Cocktail Cove where affluent boaters often socialized with their cocktails in hand.

And so it seemed from the outside that Marcus had everything going for him.

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All Teachings

Part 2: Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

58m

Part 1: Work Ordained Of God- Supporting Ministries

50m

Just Like John

41m

Wanted: Dead & Alive

46m

The Joy of Service – Elder/Deacon Ordination Service

46m

Revelation 21-22

27m

Revelation 15-20

49m

Revelation 14: The 3rd Angel’s Message

36m

Revelation 14: The 2nd Angel’s Message

51m

Revelation 14: The First Angel’s Message

45m

Revelation 13

41m

Revelation 12

41m

Sound Doctrine