ASI Southern Union 2015: Prepared to Stand

Leaping Compromise

Isaac Olatunji

ASI Southern Union

Leaping Compromise- Part 2

When you think of leaping compromise, what do you think of?

Creeping compromise, all right, by somebody called Joe what?

So by sometimes a message sounding like this, oh, it's going to sound very negative.

Now remember when you were a child and your mother said this is gonna hurt me?

But when I had to spank Bob, I said, okay, I now understand, amen.

But we're not here to spank anybody, but we're here to present truth, amen, as it is in Jesus.

And I want to tell you, I've been a seven-day Adventist for 20, this should be 25 years.

Changed my life, came right out of high school, didn't know where I was going, I just gave my life to the Lord, and I asked the Lord to show me the truth, and he did, and God had everything in place.

I'm from Washington, D.C., so I live not too far from the General Conference.

And it's so funny, I was dating a girl at that time, and when I was going to visit her, I drove past, and guess what I saw to my left?

The General Conference building of 7 Day Adventist.

I said, I'm gonna join that denomination.

But the Lord led me to 2 seven-day Adventist friends of mine that became, that 1 of them is a pastor right now, met him 31 years ago playing a game of football.

Now I say 31 years ago, I am still a young man, so that was a teenager at that time, amen.

And I want to thank God for that friendship.

Through that friendship, the Lord at the right time gave me this adventist message and my life has never been the same ever since.

And right after I got baptized in 1990, right, I didn't even, I wasn't fresh out the pool.

And see, because I was, I wanted to be an NBA basketball player I wanted to be an entertainer but the Lord said through a member you're called to the ministry you need to be a minister and that was the last thing I ever wanted to be but I want to say I thank God I ran from the call for about a year but I thank God I did accept the call and went to Heartland College went to the seminary and started pastoring 5 years after I got converted and I've been in the 7 day of ministry for the last 20 years and it has been a glorious time amen pastoring right now in Gall States conference and now teaching in the religion and theology department at Oakwood.

It has been a mountaintop experience and brothers and sisters I'm gonna tell you something, this message is sweet, amen?

As it is in Jesus and I want to take you to our opening text, our theme text is in the book of Isaiah 62.

And when God called me into the ministry, he wanted to tell me that I want you to lift up, I want you to do what the text says right here.

And it has to be done in the spirit of love.

It may not always sound loving, but let me tell you this right here.

Messages like this, when done in the spirit of Christ, is love, amen?

The Bible says in the book of Isaiah 62 in verse 10, do you have it?

All right, the Bible says in verse 10, go through, go through the gates, prepare you the way of the people, cast up, cast up the highway, gather out the stones, and do what?

Because we're living in a day when we have a thing called leaping what, somebody?

And just from my study of the Bible and spirit of prophecy and just looking at Adventist history, we are living truly at the greatest crisis in the history of Seventh-day Adventism when the enemy is trying to shake the church.

The church may appear as about to fall, but the prophet says it's not gonna what?

But let me tell you this, it's gonna remain while the sinners in Zion will be what?

So what happens is this right here, and I wanna really hit a point here, because there are those who are concerned about the wrongs in the church, and rightfully so, and there's some who have taken a course of action which we're gonna talk about today.

Even though there's wrongs in the church, God's gonna correct it, am I right, somebody?

And he has this God-ordained means, but 1 of the things we do not need to do is jump ship.

We talked about this before, and we're gonna talk about this.

Let me just kinda get past some things right here.

God said, I'm the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of the land of where somebody out of the house of what bondage and we said the Egypt is symbolic of the world So what God has done is for each and every 1 of us he's brought us out of Egypt our own Egypt spiritually He's taken us out by a mighty hand and then he gives us his will.

And after he converts us and shows us his will, the Bible says, after the doings of the land of where?

Wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not, what, somebody?

And after the doings of the land of Canaan, whether I bring you, shall ye not do?

So we covered in our first session that we don't go back where we came from and while we are in the world, we're not to be of the world.

When we understand this, then it makes it very understandable to understand a duplicity going on in the church.

God's remnant church, which has what kind of values?

Christian values, these values are to be absolute.

And these cultural values are changing from generation to generation, am I right?

We don't even need to get into all that kind of stuff.

But what happens is what we see is the cultural values have come into the where.

Cultural, and not just cultural, they become spiritualized.

All you gotta do is say Jesus to it and people will accept it.

God has given us principles that should separate us from the things of this world.

Now, just want to show you this diagram right here.

God brought the children of Israel out from under Pharaoh because the Egyptian society, the society of the world at that time, was centered in the pharaoh, which is centered in what, somebody?

No wonder God said, let my people go, that they may worship me, because they couldn't worship God while they worship and while they serve in pharaoh.

So what happens is God had to bring them out.

He had to show Pharaoh who the true God was first.

And then God brought them out to where they could be centered in whose word, which leads to what kind of living.

So on these last days, it is very important that we live prophetically and not humanistically.

But if we mingle the world with the church, guess what?

And we're living in a day that things that used to be black and white have now become gray.

Trust me, I go through it all the time at Oakwood.

Probably everybody's favorite preacher in here.

He said, we're living in a time where we have to defend 7 day Adventism to our own people.

Leaping Compromise- Part 1

Let us go to the Word of God in the book of Isaiah chapter 62 and we're going to look at verse 10.

The Bible says go through go through the gates prepare you the way of the people cast up cast up the highway gather out the stones and lift up a standard for the people.

You know, the spirit of prophecy says that the greatest 1 of this world is the 1 of men.

Men who cannot be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to cause sin by his right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as a needle to the pole, men who would stand for the right, though the heavens fall.

You know, with everything changing in society, folk and organizations and groups that you would think would stand on the moral principles of God and the moral principles that have made this nation, the United States, a great nation, they're bending towards the left.

And brothers and sisters, so goes the world, so goes the church.

And the very principles that we hold dear at Seventh-day Adventists are being attacked, are being undermined and being, how should I say this right here?

Undermined and whatever negative connotation you can put.

But in short, what we're seeing right now is a thing called leaping what?

Leaping compromise does that sound familiar?

All right, we'll tell you I'm pretty sure you know what we're talking about.

I don't know how high he's leaping But this leaping man right here is symbolic of the compromise that's going on in the church of the living God.

The Bible makes it very plain that we should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.

And brothers and sisters, we're seeing a compromise to where we're living right now in the greatest crisis in the history of Seven-Day Adventism.

We as Seven-Day Adventists believe that God has called this church through the prophetic Word to be the remnant in these last days.

So I'll highlight the principles that has made us what we are.

But this crisis, brothers and sisters, is an apostasy prophesied by Ellen White called the Omega of Apostasy.

And 1 thing I want you to remember, that a journey to compromise begins with a single what somebody?

A journey to apostasy, excuse me, begins with a single what?

See, once 1 pillar is removed, the whole building can fall.

There was a wedding in Israel back in the late 1990s.

And while they were having their reception on the third floor, while the people were dancing and having their festivities, all of a sudden the floor just opened up and people fell down 3 stories down to the bottom.

And what happened was is that the reason why the place fell was because that when they were building the building, the builders knew that they were supposed to put a pillar in the right places, but in order to save money, they said we're not going to put a pillar there, and that happened to be the very place where the thing caved in.

Brothers and sisters, God has given us biblical pillars as the foundations of our faith.

And if any 1 of those pillars are removed, we're gonna have some problems.

So we can't compromise, but the compromise has come.

Ellen White talked about it as an iceberg, as a what somebody?

Before we do that, let me have a word of prayer.

Even though we've had prayer, let me just pray 1 more time.

Father in heaven, may you anoint this hour and bless us to this end we pray in Jesus' name.

See, the Bible says in Revelation chapter 13 about the whole world wandering after the beast.

We understand that pretty soon the United States government will enforce a Sunday law.

And right now we see this right here with the protection of a work-free Sunday by the European Sunday Alliance, where we have the churches, civil society, but also the what, somebody?

Trade unions, and didn't God tell us that the trade unions will have a part to play in this?

So we're seeing this, and not just that, we're seeing people playing with the calendar to where the calendar has been altered to make Monday the first day of the week, which makes Sunday the seventh day.

So therefore we're seeing an altering of the very things that God has made.

They're trying to alter marriage, but they've done tamper with the calendar have mercy So what happens is this right here?

The devil is setting this thing up European Sunday Alliance.

Notice this right here National back to church Sunday every September of every year we see we are seeing the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecies prophesied in the Bible and the spirit of prophecy.

Not just that but the question is will the real seven-day Adventist please what stand up it's time for us to stand.

So if the subtitle of this whole series is will this real seven-day Adventist Please stand up because let me tell you we're told in testimonies volume 5 at the time is not far distant when the test will come upon every soul and then she says the mark of the beast will be urged upon us and those who have been compromising step by step, she says, will yield to the powers that be.

That's why this message, this seminar is so important when we talk about leaping compromise.

Brothers and sisters, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.

If we can prevent this stuff from escalating, we can do that's better than curing the whole problem.

We're living in a day when God wants us to lift up the standard and the standard will be lifted up again.

Sad to say we're told that the majority will be sifted out.

God will have a remnant that will stand faithful all the way until the end.

Now what we want to do when we talk about this, we'll talk about where God has brought us from as a people.

Now what we must understand in Exodus chapter 20 in verse 2, God says, I am the Lord thy, who, somebody?

God, which hath brought thee out of the land of where?

And the children of Israel weren't in bondage for many years in Egypt, but God brought them out by strong hand.

And then he gave them the law on Mount Sinai.

So we must understand is that before God gives us the law, he has to deliver us first.

Through Jesus, where receiving Christ as our personal Savior, he delivers us from bondage, then he gives us his law and his precepts to do them so that we can be and shall be a peculiar people.

Now, God brought the seven-day Adventist church out of the world per se, out of Babylon so that they may keep his Sabbath in order to proclaim the third angels message to the world.

Can we agree with that brothers and sisters?

And when God has brought us out of Babylon it is very important that we don't go back into Babylon.

So therefore, God, in order to preserve his children from going back into Egyptian, worldly Babylonian bondage, plainly said, after the doings of the land of where?

So in other words, what the worldly folk do, we're not supposed to do as a church.

He has called us to be a peculiar people.

He says, I'll make you the head and not the tail.

And it says, and after the doings of the land of where?

Canaan, whether I bring you to, shall you not do, neither shall you walk in there was somebody ordinances.

So in other words, God wants his children to be separate from the world.

In other words, don't go back where you came from.

And number 2, don't adopt the ways of the world that's around you.

And God gave us the Bible, he gave us the spirit of prophecy in order to preserve us from compromising, but guess what?

Those standards have been eroded and we have some problems.

And only the shaking, I'll be honest with you, the only cure for this thing is the shaking.

Business Managers: Stand Up in the Great Controversy!

Michael Cafferky

Business Managers: Stand Up in the Great Controversy!- Part 2

Earlier today, I gave a presentation on the purpose of business as seen through the lens of the great controversy theme.

And instead of repeating that today, this afternoon, I thought I would go on and since there were some here who were here this morning, I would give a second presentation titled 10 Principles for a Flourishing Marketplace.

10 Principles for a Flourishing Marketplace.

Eternal Father, this afternoon as we take a look at your scripture and what it has to say about you, open our hearts and our minds to receive you that what we do in the coming days will better reflect who you are.

Notice what Psalm 119, 165, 1 of my favorite verses, Great peace have those who love thy law, nothing can make them stumble.

You know the distinguishing characteristic of Psalm 119, you know what that is?

It has a whole bunch, a lot of verses, it's all about the law.

Every, every verse mentions the law either explicitly or indirectly using 1 or more of the terms, synonyms, every verse, yeah.

And this is such an interesting 1 from verse 165.

Now that word peace in the Hebrew is really the word shalom.

Yeah, in ancient times, when in the Hebrew community, when people in that community would pass each other or they would see each other for the first time in the morning, they're going out to the market, they would greet each other with this word, Shalom.

And then on Sabbath or maybe Friday evening as the Sabbath hours are coming they would greet each other on their way home and they would say Shabbat, Shalom.

It's translated into English the word peace.

Unfortunately, I must say, because that word peace narrows the concept.

It narrows it down to interpersonal harmony, social harmony, right?

Actually this word shalom means a lot of things and we're going to explore some of that right now.

Proverbs 3 verse 2, Proverbs is an interesting collection of wise sayings and Some of these sayings seem to be just kind of popped in at random and they cover a wide variety of life issues.

But notice what it says in Proverbs 3, 2, 2.

Let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life, and abundant welfare will they give you." Here is another passage that connects the idea of the 10 Commandments and Shalom and this idea of abundant welfare.

William Barclay in 1 of his commentaries said that the Hebrew law is the foundation of not only Jewish ethics but also Christian ethics.

I found it interesting when a couple of years ago when I was reading up on ethics and what scholars say are the foundation principles for the free market economy, I began to notice something.

In their article that covers this topic, or at least addresses this topic in part, Quinn and Jones said that the fundamental principles followed by business in efficient markets, right, include honoring agreements, telling the truth, respecting the autonomy of others, and avoiding doing harm.

This is the bare minimum you must have in order to have an efficient free market.

It's not to say that everybody tells the truth all the time.

We know that people tell lies, all right?

But in order for the market to work efficiently, this has to be there most of the time.

And we have to have this kind of common understanding that if we're going to do business together in a market, we have to honor our agreements.

If no 1 honored their agreements, what would happen to the market?

And we'd go back to the Stone Age in terms of getting resources we need to have a flourishing life.

If nobody told the truth, end of market, right?

1 day a lawyer came to Jesus and asked Him a question, what is the great commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the great and foremost commandment, and the second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these 2 commandments depend the whole law and the prophets." I've always found this last sentence interesting to me.

First of all, because most preachers who mention this verse, they don't talk about this last sentence so much.

You know, it's like, okay, what we're not talking about, that's what I'm interested in.

On these 2 commandments depend the whole law and the prophets.

Okay, so I get the connection between the whole law.

The 10 Commandments being a description of God's character and the first of those commandments talking about our response to God, our response to Him based on His redemptive action for us, and the last commandments talking about our love of our neighbor.

What I didn't get was, why does Jesus mention the prophets?

Well, when you start reading the book of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos and some of these other prophets, oh, then you start to realize, wow, the message of these prophets is really based upon the 10 Commandments and these great commands, our relationship with God and our relationship with each other.

These are the underpinnings or the foundation stones of what the prophets were saying to their people in their day when there were issues going on in their life.

Verse of Deuteronomy 6, a famous statement, Here, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is 1, and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

So Jesus is quoting from Moses in Deuteronomy here.

He also quotes from Leviticus chapter 19, You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Now in the Gospel where it records Jesus' answer to that lawyer's question, all we get is the phrase in red.

We don't know whether Jesus quoted the entire verse or not, but at least the Gospel writer remembers that part and records it for us.

But what I find interesting is the first part of that verse from Leviticus 19, you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people.

So when someone does something to you as an enemy, you can still love your enemy by not taking vengeance on your enemy.

So 1 of the most difficult things we would ever be faced with, someone doing something very destructive to us and our desire to take vengeance.

Here's the application, you shall love your neighbor.

Just don't do that horrible thing to your neighbor.

By not doing something evil you are loving your neighbor.

I may come to this verse later, but now I'm thinking of it right now, so let me share this with you.

In the book of Deuteronomy and Exodus we find several explanations for how the law of God would be applied into particular situations.

And we know that every family had responsibility for taking care of their own, what we'd say in business terms, their own assets, the things that they own that have potential for building wealth.

It talks about this in Proverbs, chapter 27.

Take careful note of them, because who knows what's going to happen tomorrow in terms of wealth.

So be responsible for your own assets, to speak in just generic business terms.

But our responsibility for our assets doesn't end there, because in a community where we are interdependent with each other, I also need to watch out for the wealth building assets of other people in my community.

Not that I'm fully responsible for making their wealth grow, but when their wealth is at risk, I have responsibility.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Leaping Compromise- Part 2

1h 22m

Leaping Compromise- Part 1

1h 8m

Business Managers: Stand Up in the Great Controversy!- Part 2

1h 5m

Business Managers: Stand Up in the Great Controversy!- Part 1

1h 15m

07. Luke: Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Prayer

49m

Remember Lot’s Wife

39m

Overcoming the Greatest Temptation

43m

Prophetic Vision

1h

Alpha and Omega (Reading Revelation- 5)

30m

Seven New Things

31m

What Is So Important About the Past?

29m

The Heavenly Messenger

1h

Sound Doctrine