AMEN 2008: Linked for Service

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

AMEN 2008 Plenary Sessions

Naren James

Playing it Safe or Accepting the Adventure

Allen Lloyd

Knowing and Following the Lord’s Will

Roger Miller

Lift Up Your Eyes

Robert Spady

A Church/Clinic Experiment: Lessons Learned -- Challenges and Where to Go from Here

Doug Batchelor

Healed and Cleansed

Richard Hart

AMEN 2008: LLU Student Mission Reports

James Kyle

The Last Call

Eternal God and Father in Heaven, you know how much I've been wrestling with this message to present here at Our Amen Conference.

And yet in the point when I feel least able is when I know that you're most able to work through me this evening.

And so I invite your presence and I ask for your spirit to flow through and that your words will be spoken And that each heart will receive individual the messages intended for each soul Thank you for hearing and answering us today in Jesus name.

That's our theme this year and our message if you have your Bibles I'd like you to turn with me to Luke chapter 18 a Passage that you may have read many times when 1 of those that you may probably not like to dwell on too much But tonight we are going to dwell on it Luke chapter 18 verse 18 to 23, a very short passage but full of lessons for all of us.

A ruler questioned him saying, good teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not be a false witness.

And he said, all these things I have kept from my youth.

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, 1 thing you still lack, sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.

But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

And this is obviously an important account in the scriptures because 3 out of 4 gospel writers, Matthew also records it in Matthew 19, 16 to 29, and so does Mark in Mark 10 17 to 30.

So 3 of the gospel writers felt it was important enough to repeat this account that was observed.

Well we have several accounts of Jesus calling disciples and with prompt obedience of that.

1 of the earliest accounts is Matthew 4, 19 when Jesus called the first disciple Simon Peter and Andrew his brother.

The Bible says they left their nets and followed him.

In Matthew 9 verse 9, we read the account of the call to Matthew the tax collector in his tax office who promptly left it and followed Jesus.

And in John 1 49, we find the account of Jesus going to Galilee where he found Philip and once again he extended an invitation, follow me and Philip did.

The Gospel commission in Matthew 28 19-20 is a command to all of us to extend that invitation to the world to follow Jesus and become his disciples.

So the call to the richer and ruler was not not the first it was not unique in that sense.

It had been extended many times before And in all of the other accounts, it had been accepted.

The unique aspect of this call is it was initiated by the individual, rather than by Jesus.

As noted in previous accounts, this man sought Jesus on his own, which puts more of an obligation upon him to take the call seriously.

The rich young ruler represents many of us who think we have it all, only to come in contact with a savior and being asked the impossible, in bracket, with man.

Without a complete surrender to the master we are all incomplete, missing something.

He had everything as far as the world was concerned but he still felt empty, lacking the most important, a total surrender to the Master.

See, Richon Rulo represents the spiritual condition of many in the world today, outside the church, and sadly to say, also within.

So as I present this message today, I consider it applicable to myself first, then to you, my colleagues, and only then to the world around us.

And I'll tell the story this past, when I was first asked by the programming committee to present a message, this immediately came to my mind, as my Fagas message was prepared months ago and I've been just working on it ever since and wrestling with it because I have thought first of all the Lord had a message, has a message for me personally first.

Well Every day you and I meet people in our daily lives and also in the news and popular culture reminds us the many rich young rulers out there.

People who would seem to have it all but are still lacking the most important, the all-important relationship with God.

It seems like almost every day in the news you hear of a celebrity or someone who you thought should be at the pinnacle of his or her life, maybe someone where you would like to be and then later you hear you read or hear of their brokenness whether it be with drugs or alcohol or illicit sex, a broken relationship and the church and we within are not exempt.

And occasionally this also surfaced in our church.

The other aspect of this account that I find intriguing is that this gentleman was a commandment-keeping Adventist.

He was quick to pint to the Savior that all of the commandments he had kept from his youth.

And since he was still young, could it be that he was born into the truth?

So in many ways, this account in the scripture speaks to each 1 of us very directly.

Well, so who was this rich young ruler and is a call to him relevant to us?

Well, the Spirit of Prophecy in the book Desire of Ages, this entire chapter, chapter 57, kind of deals with it and it mentions a few things.

1 of them is that he was materially well off.

He occupied a position of influence and leadership.

He had great promise ahead of him for promotion and a life of greater security and influence.

He was impressed with the way Jesus blessed the children and he wanted the same.

If you read the account you'll find that this followed right after Jesus blessed the children and he was impressed with that and he wanted the same but that was as far as he thought.

Well it's similar with many of us today who want the gifts but would rather disregard the giver.

And sadly, the most wonderful of all, a relationship of intimacy with God himself.

And so I ask All of us, how about us as a group in amen?

In many ways, we have to identify as rich or unruly.

Many of us are within the top 5% of the US income bracket.

We are in the highest rated profession in terms of respect and prestige.

We have substantial influence with our patients and within our church and community.

We are also keeping commandments and seeking eternal life.

Yes, like the rich young ruler, many of us have embarked on this journey in medical evangelism because we still feel something lacking.

Well, in Luke 1820, Jesus, in response to his inquiry, reiterated the last 6 commandments, outlining our responsibility to our fellow man.

Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, and the response in Matthew 19-20 is very insightful.

The young man said to him, all these things I have kept from my youth, what do I still lack?

Now this is amazing, you would think that he would go on his way rejoicing.

After all, Jesus reiterated commandments need to be kept and he forthrightly said, hey I've kept all of these for my youth.

But as the text brings out the crux of the spiritual discussion, all of us need to be engaged in.

You see we are all incomplete without that right relationship with the Master.

Today imagine that he is passing by and you are engaged in that serious spiritual discussion with the great physician.

Well, Jesus reaffirmed the never-changing requirements for salvation, absolute obedience to these commandments.

Jesus could have congratulated him and encouraged him, but he did not.

In Luke 18, 22, it says, so when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, you still lack 1 thing, sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.

Now, I would use the term bombshell, deal breaker.

This would be the kind of terms that would be used in the secular world out there in terms of a proposal that is not gonna go anywhere.

This would be tough for any 1 of us, much less a rich young ruler.

From riches to rags, from leadership and influence to being despised, from a bright promising future to the bleak dark path the words of the cross.

Is Jesus asking the same that he asked, is he asking the same from us as he asked for the rich young ruler?

Surrender of material possessions, surrender of anything or anyone that stands in a way of a complete surrender to the master, indeed surrender of life itself.

This represents the essence of eternal life, connected to the eternal 1.

The current state of Christianity in our nation and the world around us is very similar to the mindset of a rich young ruler.

We live in an age where people seek out a gospel that is suited to their material desire.

The new term indeed is the prosperity gospel.

And the essence of it is that God wants you to have it all and to have it now when you're entitled to it.

Even the names of some of these proponents reflect this.

1 proponent is a certain preacher by the name, you guessed it, Reverend Dollar.

Recently a US Senate investigation was launched into looking at a lot of these modern day ministries and uncovered some very shameless abuses of ministerial privileges.

Indeed even some of the best-seller like New York Times bestseller, Prayer Jehovah, is a number 1 bestseller for a long time.

1 of our famous preachers in the evangelical world, there is a gentleman by the name of Joel Olsteen, pastor of 1 of the largest Christian congregations reaching over 200 million households in the U.S.

And in many of these cases, it's not necessarily theologically wrong, it's just a matter of the emphasis.

So even in the church, that potential exists for us to want to have a greater influence or a wider ministry, but for the wrong reasons and needing the same call as the rich young ruler.

Well, his desire of ages in page 520 states, his claim that he had kept the law of God was a deception.

He could not keep the commandments of God while the world was first in his affections.

He loved the gifts of God more than he loved the giver.

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Series

AMEN 2008 Plenary Sessions

Playing it Safe or Accepting the Adventure

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

How God Deals With the Rich

33m

Above and Beyond: Keys To Personal Revival And a Lifestyle of Vibrant Living in Christ!

6. Called to Above and Beyond Surrender

1h 12m

A Thoughtful Hour

A Thoughtful Hour- Part 5

1h 16m

On the Outskirts of Jerusalem

True and False Disciples

57m

Spiritual No-Man’s Land

36m

Going the Distance

5. Identifying Your Superpower

54m

WYC 2013 Seminar: Always Ready for Family

Prepared to Seek

1h

Parenting ~ Heart to Heart

Counting the Cost

58m

2-Applying the Faith

Delighting In the Almighty- A Practical Guide to Primitive Godliness

1h 9m

Some Things Never Change

42m

Comfortable Christianity

51m

Sound Doctrine