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

The ultimate authority in the universe, I won't go into a lot of detail, we could preach a whole message just on this, but the ultimate authority in the universe is actually truth.

It's 1 of the reasons why the Trinity continues to get along.

Many times we think that how can 2 people get along all the time?

Because those of us in marriage relationships recognize there are times when there may be some disunity here and there.

But whenever there's a third, it's always disunity.

But it seems, but it doesn't need to be that way if the Trinity is not based on an authority figure that just sets the rules and then everyone else follows.

The reason why the Trinity gets along is because they make their decisions totally based on truth.

And they come together and say, what is the truth?

And that's how we're supposed to be making our decisions.

When we get into a court of law, even in this nation, the reason why our court system is as good as it is, is because that decision is to be based solely and completely on truth.

Not on who we want to come out on top, who we want to win, what our emotional desires are, who we might have affections are, but it is to be based on truth.

And that's why witnesses are called to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

However, there can be corruption even in the court system when truth is tampered with or deceptions come in.

And in the courtroom it's particularly worrisome when the people asking you the questions have not taken the same oath that the witnesses have.

And so in the questions sometimes there can be the element of deception that comes in.

But truth is to be the ultimate authority and whenever we're making decisions there are opportunities for deceptions to come in.

Jesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life and the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth and that's how he actually comforts our emotions.

New Testament and Old Testament both state that there's something God cannot do and that is tell a lie.

Now he's a free moral agent just like we are.

He could if he wanted to but he puts truth above himself.

That's 1 of the reasons, 1 of the foundational reasons for truth being the ultimate authority.

And it's also the reason why Christ came to this world when the crown of thorns was upon him.

And he was there in front of the individual that had the power over his life or death.

And that individual was asking him why he was there.

He said, to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.

Everyone that is of the truth, heareth my voice.

And that's the ultimate reason why he came.

That turns out to be the fourth cognitive distortion.

And so we want to be sure that we're not distorting truth.

And 1 of the things, 1 of the ways in which we, It affects our motivation more so than any other is when we start disqualifying the positive.

And there are ways in which this can be done in the mental health arena.

But it does result in lack of motivation.

And it's kind of interesting, we're having seminars here to try to help us see the motivation to do certain things and the motivation particularly to win souls, et cetera.

But it's kind of, Last Monday, we finished a peak mental performance program in Ardmore, Oklahoma, among those that had come in from afar.

And then that Monday night, we finished the banquet for an outpatient depression recovery program that we were doing there in Ardmore.

And 1 of the participants that was coming was a pastor from another district.

In fact, we have out of that group of 22 individuals, 15 and it's growing, are going to be coming to a Bible study that we're holding Monday night at our house on Daniel.

And so many of these individuals who weren't even interested in spiritual things are awakened from that.

In fact, it's kind of interesting to see the transition that's taken place there.

But in disqualifying the positive, it sounds rewarding, but I know there are so many struggles accompanying those who try to put on a depression recovery program that'll be absolutely overwhelmed.

And so he could see the positive results, but yet thought he would be overwhelmed.

And in regards to that, as I talked to him, I realized that many of his thoughts of being overwhelmed were totally based on things that just weren't true and were distorted.

And once he realized the truth, then all of a sudden the motivation came in and he was not as tempted to disqualify the positive.

Saul disqualified the positive repeatedly in regards to David.

There are many scriptural examples of those who disqualified the positive, but here are some of the solutions to it.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

So building on the cause, for those of you who are here this morning, the cause should be a very motivating cause, but when we take our eyes off the goal then the obstacles seem much bigger.

Henry Ford says, think you can, think you can't.

Thomas Fuller said, he does not believe who does not live according to his belief.

If we truly believe, we won't disqualify the positive.

Anne Frank says, I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.

Lee Salk, when it gets dark enough, you can see the stars.

David Schwartz, we can turn setbacks into victories.

Find the lesson, apply it, and move on, then look back on defeat and smile.

Determine that the thing can and shall be done and then we shall find the way.

So if we are truly determined that the cause should go forward, then we won't disqualify the positive.

We wanna be optimistic, but not just optimistic.

Confidence means knowing how to handle the worst.

And the axiom says never make a move if you're merely optimistic.

And so we need to always weigh benefits versus risks as well just like we do in medicine in many ways.

Another obstacle to making the right decision is another cognitive distortion called jumping to conclusions.

It's actually the type of exercise that most Americans get.

And it's not physical exercise, it's a mental exercise.

But often there is a desire that's there to just take things at their face value and what we can see very obviously and not look deeper.

And thus we can make the wrong decisions.

Jumping to conclusions is easier than gathering all the facts.

And 1 author stated, Stephen Wright, a conclusion is what you come to when you are tired of thinking about something.

Another distortion, fortune teller error.

This is where we often presume that if we do this, then that will happen.

How good are human beings at telling the future?

Even those who are paid lots of money to tell the future are very poor.

Did you realize out of the 1, 500 mutual funds, Only 1 of them has made money this past year.

And these are 1, 500 people that were trained at Harvard and Yale and some of our most prestigious business centers and are in the charge of billions of dollars.

The 1 individual that made money, he had a very small fund.

And everyone ridiculed him at how he was doing his mutual fund because in 2006 he got rid of every bank stock, he got rid of every financial, anything that had to do with finances.

And you know, after 2006, those things started to go up and he was deeply ridiculed by the majority of the experts out there.

This year, he's made, his mutual fund is made 11%.

And so it is, when we do what is right because it is right and leave the consequences to God, often what is predicted by the many experts out there that will happen doesn't happen and the opposite can occur.

Can't move to Weimar, won't be able to fund my kids' education, we'll lose our family's health insurance.

Another fortune teller error, I will never be able to overcome this problem.

Many people have this and thus it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And Abraham had the fortune teller error.

What was his fortune teller error, do you remember?

He thought that If the king of Egypt knew the full truth, that he would be killed.

Series

AMEN 2008 Plenary Sessions

Knowing and Following the Lord’s Will

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Be Careful What You Ask For

40m

The Secrets to Knowing God’s Will

29m

Shaken but Not Forsaken

How to Know God’s Will for Your Life

54m

Thy Will Be Done: Knowing and Following the Will of God

52m

Crossroads: Which Way, Lord?

47m

Decoding Divine Messages: Is God Speaking to You?

57m

How to Know God's Will for My Life

How to Know God’s Will for My Life

41m

GYC 2012 Seminar: The Calling - Living and Knowing God's Will For Me

What I Feel and What God Says

51m

The Sanctuary

16. It’s Your Call

56m

Ignite Your Spiritual Experience!

Experiencing God Through Prayer

1h 9m

A Man After Gods Own Heart: King David

08 Is This God’s Will or Mine?

39m

How to Solve Problems

How to Solve Problems- Part 6

32m

Sound Doctrine