    God calls His Laodicean Church to embrace a radical faith and life in these last days. In these three messages, we will consider the radical implications of such a calling.     

AMEN 2016-Radical Practice: Healing in the 11th Hour

<div> <div> <div> <div> <p>God calls His Laodicean Church to embrace a radical faith and life in these last days. In these three messages, we will consider the radical implications of such a calling. </p> </div> </div> </div> </div>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Morning Devotional

Jeremy Arnall

Radical Faith

I want to say it's an honor to be able to speak to you this morning.

And I was delighted when I got the call from Dr.

And sorry, my wife couldn't come and my 2 boys, but maybe tomorrow I can stick in a picture and let you at least see how beautiful they are.

You know, when they built the Golden Gate Bridge, They had a lot of fatalities at first because it's a bridge and it's dangerous and it was a long time ago.

And it began to play way down on the morale of those who were trying to construct it.

In fact, the whole project was starting to fall dreadfully behind schedule.

And so in an effort to try to, you know, get a handle on this thing, they sought all sorts of ideas of what can we do to build the morale of the team.

Well, with them literally dropping like flies to their death, they decided that the best thing to do would be to build a large net to go underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, or what was being constructed.

It seems kind of strange, it seemed kind of unique, it seemed kind of daunting and expensive, but hey, desperate times demand desperate measures.

They built that large net, and sure enough, the morale quickly boosted because all of a sudden, they had no more fear, And they began to build to such a pace that they got ahead of schedule.

And the thing, of course, is still there for us to enjoy today.

The point is, is they learned to change their fear into faith.

And I want to encourage you this morning as we take a look at Hebrews that indeed God has a plan for us to change fear into faith.

The title of our talk here this morning is A Radical Faith.

Next 3 mornings I want to look at 3 different aspects of life as a Christian and the radical call that God has placed upon each of us.

And so first today, radical faith, the spiritual walk, the personal communion between you and your Savior.

Father, I pray that as we open your word that you would make it plain to us, that you would give clarity to my lips, that your Holy Spirit would anoint each of our hearts and that we would leave different than when we came.

It's the start of a new day, all of the possibilities it affords.

And of course, this is a special day for where we've gathered and what we're about to do, but we want to begin it with you.

Place the promises deep in our hearts so we can claim them throughout our day.

I'd invite you to look with me at the screen, or if you have your Bible, you're welcome to look.

And I want you to notice Matthew 5, 17 to 18, no doubt a familiar passage if you're used to giving Bible studies.

Do not think that I came to destroy the law, Jesus says, or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, 1 jot, 1 tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Now this passage evokes all sorts of questions as we try to ponder, well, what does it mean by fulfill?

And of course, some people, of course, as you know, believe that means the law has been done away with.

But in case we have forgotten the familiar passages that help to rebuttal that claim, I would take you to Romans 3.31 where it says, do we then make void the law through faith?

So I could, we might could say we fulfill the law.

So, I'm from Tennessee, so this is not that early to me.

And so, this is what we're looking at here.

Jesus, He came, He fulfilled the law, but then He has this interesting statement, until heaven and earth pass, 1 jot or 1 tittle will not pass until the law is fulfilled.

So I wanna take you to Hebrews because here we see how he establishes the law.

It says, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord.

And then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

Now I'm just establishing a framework for which we'll go into our study this morning, but I want you to notice the Bible is very clear that Jesus fulfilled the law and then at the end of time we should expect this law to be fulfilled in his people.

Let me build that case a little bit more.

Go with me to Colossians 127 where it's that famous passage that says, this is the mystery of God, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

He writes his law in there, but how does he write his?

Revelation 10, 7 says that the mystery of God will be finished in the last days.

So indeed, Christ is wanting to fulfill, to establish his character in your life in these last days.

And when we're living in these last days, we understand that we're being called to a radical faith.

That means we are going to do faith and Christianity different than the most of the world.

And I'm trying to establish with you what this looks like.

The mystery of God, Christ in us, the hope of glory, The law being inscribed not in rock but in hearts.

Says in Revelation 12, 17, this is a vignette of what the end time saints look like.

It says, the dragon was enraged with the woman.

He went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have what?

And of course you're familiar with Revelation 19.10 that says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Here we see in Christ's people, in that prophetic language, that these last day people are going to have the law and the prophets in them.

Okay, so going back to Matthew 5, no let's first go to 1 Peter, or 2 Peter, excuse me, 310.

It says that, it makes it clear that the day of the Lord will come as the thief of the light in which the heavens will pass away, and the elements will melt with fervent heat.

Both the earth and the works that are in it are burned up." In other words, the heavens and the earth, which Jesus said in Matthew, will be burned up.

At the end, Jesus says the law will be fulfilled when the heavens and earth pass away.

They won't pass, they won't be fulfilled until, all right, ah, let me start over.

Heaven and earth will not pass away till the law is fulfilled in his people.

And indeed here we see that when the earth and the heavens pass away is when He comes again.

That's all I tried to say and I took a long time to say it, but I think you've got it.

Now Matthew 24, 35, heaven and earth will pass away, but it says very clearly His words will not pass away.

So when we see the law being fulfilled, the law being fulfilled does not mean the law is done away with, it means it is fulfilled, it is established within the hearts of His people.

Again, hopefully this is review, but notice Matthew 5, 17 to 18.

Again, this is to be realized in God's end time people.

The testimony, who keep the commandments and have the testimony of Jesus.

We are these people that God wants to demonstrate to the universe, to the world, that here are a people who are willing to live a radical faith with me.

Now, that said, of course, Revelation 14, 1 to 5, that test, that picture of the 144, 000, these beautiful people who go through earth's most trying hour, who have a testimony similar to that of Job, who can say with clarity that I have gone through earth's darkest hour, but I have clung by faith to God because his character, he was in me.

This is the character, this is the experience of the saints.

Now I'm sure if you're like me that you find it troubling that after 170 plus years we still are evidently as a whole, haven't opened a door.

When we hear how Jesus nearly came back in 1888, and yet because we were so busy arguing our points, refusing to humble ourselves, we missed the opportunity to fulfill, to fully reflect the glory of God.

How sad and yet here's my concern is that we could be on the precipice yet again and yet have the same squabbles.

Radical Love

I wanted to just take a moment to share with you a picture of my family.

I just had to pull 1 from our recent trip up to New England and Canada.

But my wife, like I said yesterday, she's an identical twin.

And Tina's the older twin, and I'm her twin sister, and I'm the younger twin of my twin brother who passed away in the Georgia Cumberland plane crash back in 04.

When we had Jason, our oldest son there on the left, we thought we got to do something about this.

And having always had a sibling, I'll tell you it's a gift from God I'll always treasure even though I lost him.

But it's a special thing to have somebody that you can grow up with and go through all the stages and experiences of childhood and youth.

So these 2 are about 16 months apart and first and second grade, they're 8 and 9 years of age.

We live out in the country, we feel blessed to have a great church and a great community in which to live in a very rural setting.

Somebody asked me yesterday, you know, I hear that you all do some interesting things at Greenville.

I don't know that it's all that unique, but I would say that I feel like we are blessed immensely with a special church.

Of course, everybody thinks their church is special, but that's the way it should be, I suppose.

We have a great team of different physicians of various specialties, and what's exciting is that as a whole, we all share the same passion.

In fact, I know some of us have often talked about how we feel like we're on the same page.

And so we just, you know, I can't take any credit.

It's just there's a passion that's burning within our members' hearts.

Well, we have what we call how-to classes.

It allows members, whether they're doctors or just a blue-collar worker, it allows everybody to bring their specialty to the table.

And so throughout the year, scattered throughout the various months, We like to have classes on everything from how to cut hair to how to paint to how to build a greenhouse to grow a garden to photography.

If you wanna have, if you've got somebody in your church, I like photography and so I just teach a class.

You know, you don't have to be an expert.

You just have to know something about it.

Instead of looking at kittens and cute little pictures on Facebook, you know, learn something and teach it.

And so we, I've been amazed at photography classes, how you can just bring in swarms of people.

I mean literally you can get a good crowd just with a simple ad in a paper because everybody wants to learn how to use their camera that they bought.

We have a cycle of evangelism, which I encourage, I think, every church, if you don't have a cycle of evangelism, I mean a planting and a harvest on a regular basis, then you're missing out on the joys that God wants to afford you.

So I don't know, there's other things I'm sure.

We seek to take advantage of our guests when they come on Sabbath morning, reaching out, giving them something to remember their first experience by, and try to have fellowship dinners regularly.

You know, it's just basic things, but God is blessing.

Appalachia is not the easiest culture to bring about change, but we're planting seeds.

And we trust that Jesus is coming very soon, And when the people see these things coming about as they thought, you know, I think I heard something about that at a meeting I attended.

We've been blessed, you know, I'm amazed.

I still believe in a brochure because there's always people that come that never came any other way.

Granted, it's always best to plant that seed in the heart first through personal contact, but don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

And so we send out those brochures, we get a good crowd, And I'm telling you, the people keep coming.

Yes, it's always, of course, that there's going to be some that leave after you cover those testing trues.

But even though they don't all accept in the end, the fact that we have, oftentimes, we've had 50% at near the end of the series still coming.

God's in charge of that final harvest and we just do what we can.

I'm thankful to be at Greenville, great group of people.

Isn't it strange that princes and kings, clowns that caper in sawdust rings, and common folk like you and me are the builders of eternity.

To each is given a bag of tools, a shapeless mass and a book of rules.

And each must make, ere time is flown, a stumbling block or a stepping stone.

I want you to ponder that this morning as we consider this radical love.

Are you a stumbling block or a stepping stone?

As I talked with you this morning, I'm reminded that Lord, in order for your glory to show forth, I must reflect you.

And I just pray that in spite of me, in spite of the clumsy ways that I could have, would you just please, for the sake of the people gathered here, for all of us, would you fill this place with angels and just send extras.

Lord, would you just fill our hearts with your spirit.

Wash away all the things that could distract, sins that have so often plagued us.

And may we just for these special moments bask in your presence through the power of your testimony.

We all are sitting at your feet with eager anticipation.

Revelation 3, 17, it says, because you say I am rich, this is the Laodicean church, this is us.

Because you say I am rich, have become wealthy and have need of nothing, do you not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked?

Says that we feel rich, but We really are in desperate condition.

If you look at James chapter 2 verse 5, it says, listen my beloved brethren, has God not chosen who?

Not the rich, the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him.

Here we see the connection between being rich and poor and the notion of faith connected with love.

We're talking about radical love this morning.

Galatians 5 verse 6, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love.

John 13, you know these passages but just reviewing, setting the stage here this morning.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love 1 another.

We're talking about a high caliber of love here.

As I have loved you, that you also love 1 another.

By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for 1 another.

This, as we talked about yesterday in Hebrews chapter 10, when we talked about drawing near in faith, the hope that we must absorb And then considering 1 another in love.

This morning we want to dig deeper into this radical love that God calls us people to.

I want to, if you have your Bibles, to encourage you to go to Matthew 17 And I want to invite you to read with me this account in Matthew 17.

Now I want to say that as you turn there, this story in Matthew 17 is taking place about 7 to 8 months before Jesus will be crucified.

This is, Jesus has been ministering in Galilee, but he's ready for some quiet solitude with his disciples.

He's been ministering to the multitudes, Now he wants to minister to his church, right?

If you didn't have Matthew 18, you wouldn't be ready for Matthew 28.

If you don't have this, you're not going to be ready for the gospel commission.

So Jesus wants to really hone in because it's clear the disciples still don't get the nature of his kingdom or his mission.

Notice his words to them here in Matthew 17, and I want you to notice verse 24.

Radical Mission

So again, it's been a pleasure, a real honor to be here with such a team of ministers.

Physicians are ministers just like ministers are ministers.

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

I ask Lord that you would veil me behind your glory and that you would come close through the power of your Holy Spirit And just as your Holy Spirit placed Jesus inside the womb of Mary, I pray that you would place the living word, Christ, in us through the power of the same Spirit.

Wash us, cleanse us, fill us so that we might go from this place, some far to the other side of this great nation, some just up the road.

But wherever you send us, may we be a light that others might see Jesus.

So thank you for what you will do just now.

In his retirement, Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia.

Because Jefferson trusted that students would take their studies seriously, the code of discipline that he put in place was rather lax.

Unfortunately, his trust proved a little unfounded, misplaced and misbehavior of the students led to a riot.

A riot in which the professors who tried to restore order were attacked.

The following day, a meeting was held between the university's board and Jefferson was a member of such, of that board.

And as they were there before the, to discuss the defiant students, Jefferson began saying, before the student body, this is 1 of the most painful events in my life.

But then at that moment, he was overcome by emotion.

And another board member asked the rioters to come forward and to give their names.

Nearly everyone did and later 1 of them said this, it was not Mr.

Yes perhaps Moody, that great preacher, had it right when he said, a holy life will produce the deepest impression.

Lighthouses blow no horns, they only shine.

We're talking about radical mission this morning.

I understand it's a passage that Amen has studied many times.

By God's grace, I pray that we can be refreshed and reminded of this important passage as we prepare to leave this good conference.

And as you turn there, I want to just remind you, and I'm going to step over so I can see the screen with you, I want to remind you of a few quotations that we are given by inspiration that deal with Isaiah 58 specifically.

Just in rapid fire, notice first, it says, the whole of the 58th chapter of Isaiah is to be regarded as a message for this time, to be given over and over again.

She writes, what sayeth the Lord in the 58th chapter of Isaiah?

The whole chapter, the whole chapter is of the highest importance.

I've been instructed to refer our people to the 58th chapter of Isaiah.

Read this chapter carefully and understand the kind of ministry that will bring life into the churches.

She says, portions of scripture, even whole chapters may be committed to memory to be repeated when Satan comes in with his temptations.

The 58th chapter of Isaiah is a profitable 1 for this purpose.

I don't know if you've thought of Isaiah 58 in that manner, but it's actually good as defense when the enemy attacks.

Notice this, if we desire healthfulness of soul, a sunny experience, we must put into practice the rules given us in Isaiah 58.

I mean, if we want to be able to look out into the congregation of the church in which we worship and we want to see smiles, we need to look a little bit more at Isaiah 58.

Again, I urge you to consider Isaiah 58, she writes.

She believes that Isaiah 58 is a critical passage for this very hour.

In fact, 2 key ideas, before we even read the passage, because I trust you have many times.

2 key ideas emerge from this chapter immediately.

1 is afflicting of the soul, affliction of the soul, and then 2, Sabbath rest.

These 2 key points, as you probably are aware, are already in Leviticus 16 and Leviticus 23 when we find instruction on how to experience the day of atonement, which makes sense in keeping with the fact that we're in the antitypical day of atonement today.

That just like God cleansed the sanctuary after 2, 300 days in heaven, He is seeking to cleanse our temples, amen?

So this is a very pertinent passage in light of where we find ourselves in Bible prophecy.

So let's go to verse 1 without further ado.

Tell my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins.

Notice that it says that they are, he is to, Isaiah is to cry aloud.

In this context, of course, God is asking the nation of Judah to awaken to its true condition and its need.

But having just established this passage's relevance to us today, it makes sense that this is a message that we should be receiving today with a loud cry.

And how interesting when we find Revelation 14 7 and Revelation 14 9 telling us that the first and third angels' messages are to be given with loudness.

In fact, Revelation 18 tells us that that third angel's message will get another shot in the arm, if you will, as a loud cry in earth's final hour.

And it's interesting that it says that Isaiah is to point out their sins, which supposes that they didn't know about their sins.

And isn't that in keeping with Laodicean church, which thinks it's rich, when in reality, it's not.

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Morning Devotional

Radical Love

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Radical Faith

38m

Radical Love

59m

Radical Mission

55m

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