AMEN 2018: Call to Service

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Plenary

Brian Schwartz

Motivation for Service: The Explosive Power of the Gospel

And this evening, I want to share with you just a burden of my heart, which is to talk about a combination of combining the gospel with the medical ministry.

A combination that I believe that is God ordained to have a powerful impact in the very last days.

And while he's working with my slides, and we're sorry about that, I'm just gonna tell you in a nutshell what I hope to accomplish in the next 45 or 50 minutes.

So I wanna convince you that God has sent a message to this church, and given us the, he's given us the duty of preaching the 3 angels' messages to the world, and that is our gospel calling.

He has given us a message that teaches us how to be prepared to do that, and combined with that, he's given us the message of medical evangelism and all of us have a role to play.

So we're going to talk about motivation for service, that's what we're here talking about this whole week, thank you, the explosive power of the gospel And what I hope to have accomplished at the end is to realize that for years, Amen has talked about blending medical ministry and the gospel ministry with pastors and physicians working together.

Tonight, I wanna challenge us to think even 1 step beyond that.

Medical ministry and gospel ministry combined in a physician or a dentist or gospel ministry and medical ministry combined in a pastor because that's what Ellen White envisioned when she was thinking about medical evangelism.

The world is going along just playing through like nothing is happening at all.

And I don't know how it's going to go on much longer.

This is a real picture from Hawaii this past summer.

Yeah, I don't enjoy golf that much to begin with, but to have a volcano blowing up behind you and just playing through.

And Seventh-day Adventism has been called to give a warning message to the world.

I do not believe that we were raised up to be 1 more denomination among multiple denominations.

Seventh-day Adventism was a movement, a movement that could have actually been wrapped up before we even formed as a church in 1863.

And yet, Alan White has an interesting quote that I think can be instructive for us.

And we ask the question, are we, let's internalize this, are we like ancient Israel?

It was not the will of God that Israel should wander in the wilderness 40 years.

He desired to lead them directly to the land of Canaan and to establish them there a holy, happy people.

But they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Quoting Hebrews 3.19, because of their backsliding and apostasy, they perished in the desert, and others were raised up to enter the promised land.

In like manner, it was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed, and his people should remain so many years in this world of sin and sorrow.

But unbelief separated them from God as they refused to do the work which he had appointed them.

Others were raised up to proclaim the message.

In mercy to the world, Jesus delays his coming, that sinners may have an opportunity to hear the warning and find in him a shelter before the wrath of God shall be poured out.

There has to be a warning message that goes to this world.

God is too merciful to just come and find the world playing through and not have been warned of the wrath to come.

And that is what he has raised up Seventh-day Adventists to do.

Letter 184, 1901, or in Evangelism, page 96.

We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years as did the children of Israel but for Christ's sake his people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequences of their wrong course of action.

It's not because God has some magic timetable.

We may hasten the day by giving the gospel to the world, it is in our power to hasten our Lord's return.

It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for, but to hasten the coming of the Lord Jesus.

Were all who profess his name bearing fruit to his glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel.

Quickly the last harvest would be ripened and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.

This church was raised up to be a movement that would catalyze, that would quickly get the attention of the loyal, honest-hearted people that just didn't know but felt God's call in their life and quickly they would be convicted, quickly they would learn what they needed to learn and the gospel could go around the world in less than 1 generation, in fact I believe just a few short years.

Now I can remember growing up as a child thinking, Well, if I'd been 1 of those Israelites, I would have listened to those 2 faithful spies, Caleb and Joshua.

I wouldn't have been 1 of those that disagreed and disobeyed, but you know what?

We can think that we're better than ancient Israel, but Seventh-day Adventists have been doing this for 5 generations.

In Israel, the second generation figured it out and they crossed over to the promised land.

And so I believe that the very first call to this church as a movement was in the 1840s with William Miller.

And it seems to me that there's a parallel to what happened in ancient Israel.

Somehow the Holy Spirit is longing to be poured out.

God brings messages of hope, messages of the gospel that should touch our hearts and it should lead us to repentance.

And if we would respond, we could be the generation that finishes this work.

But every 40 years, the Holy Spirit is brought back.

Every 40 years, there's another message of the righteousness of Christ in a call to repentance and we are now here for 5 generations.

Ellen White states that many had lost sight of Jesus.

They needed to have their eyes directed to his divine person, his merits and his changeless love for the human family.

All power is given into his hands that he may dispense rich gifts onto men, imparting the priceless gift of his own righteousness to the helpless human agent.

This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world.

It is the third angel's message which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice and attended with the outpouring of his Spirit in a large measure.

The message of mercy to be given to the world is a revelation of his character of love.

The children of God are to manifest His glory in their own life and character, they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them.

I'm intrigued by this idea of the revelation of His character of love.

I've been convicted this last year that the devil has done a pretty good job of turning every single aspect about God's character around 180 degrees.

Not a day goes by that in my office, somebody asks me, why is God doing this to me?

And as we reflect his character, first and foremost, we can teach them what his character is truly like and that's part of our calling.

But our calling is even more than that, is to demonstrate his character.

Just 2 weeks ago I had the opportunity of a husband and wife who came into, uh-oh, came into my office.

I've talked about their father, his father, who is a chief of the fire department in 1 of our towns.

He doesn't go to church, And so these kids hadn't ever been raised in church.

And yet, they know there's something different.

But they were in my office having just 3 or 4 weeks earlier lost their 4 and a half month old child.

And so, so they're in my office, they don't go to church, they haven't been raised in church.

And I just, as I start talking to them, they're here to make sure that they don't have heart disease and they need an echocardiogram, but that was the least of their trouble.

But then I had an opportunity to start talking to them about what God is like, and that it's not God who did this, and to talk to them about where their child is now.

And so we had a discussion about the immortality of the soul, how the baby is asleep in Jesus and yet he longs to reunite them together and will accomplish that when he comes.

And it just reminded me that our whole world has this picture of God that has turned 180 degrees around.

We believe that it's God that's bringing the cancer to us.

There has to be a group of people in the very last days that represent His character of love and give a representation of what that is like, not just in arguments and discussion, but in practical godliness, and I believe that's partly why God has raised up amen.

So I believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church, after being raised up, we just got into the mode of arguing over doctrine.

And we had church members and pastors and those who could articulate the biblical truths, but it didn't have a practical application.

And so we began to see the early work of people like Dr.

And Ellen White started talking about how there had to be a revival and repentance.

And so, in the 1880s, the Lord raised up 2 young gentlemen, Jones and Wagner, and this was truly a blended ministry.

Elvin Adams

The Primary Thing is the Primary Thing

Our great God, creator and sustainer of the whole universe.

We're here to praise you for your greatness, your goodness, your love, most of all for the wonderful plan of salvation that you've given us through Jesus.

This is a convocation of very special people.

We are all 10 talent servants, and we want to invest our lives, our time, our education, and achievements to heal the suffering, save the lost, and to hasten your return.

May we see you more clearly today and what you would have each 1 of us to do in Jesus name.

So I'm wanting to talk about organization.

The, you know, I really want to stress this.

Organization is really important to the success of any endeavor.

And, This will become apparent as we go along.

As Stephen Covey says, first thing should be first.

We need to be clear on what the number 1 things are.

Then there are secondary things and they result from something primary.

They are an adjuvant, if you please, to the primary.

And then we have tertiary things, and that's not to diminish.

Tertiary things are very important, but they are the third order of things.

And now Just to refresh your minds, because you know this, I'm going to take a look at primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions.

The primary institutions are actually the most important institutions because they interface with the public.

And in a primary institution relationships are very important.

Primary institutions are very broad in their scope and they focus on the whole person.

Now secondary institutions interface with primary institutions.

And in the medical setting, the clients of secondary institutions, if you think about it, are actually not patients.

Doctors in primary care refer people into specialists.

And in secondary institutions, organ systems are more important because you're focusing in on a heart problem, perhaps a mitral valve in a person that has pulmonary fibrosis, but you're focused on an organ.

Secondary institutions don't necessarily focus on the whole person.

Then you have tertiary institutions which are the very sophisticated academic centers and they interface with your secondary centers and these people are experts in very complicated cases and very often their clients are specialists.

And in tertiary institutions, cellular dynamics are important, and molecular components come into play.

And what is graphed here is some of the chemokine receptors on white blood cells and how complicated that can be.

Now let's take this primary, secondary, and tertiary concept and apply it to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And the primary institution is the local church.

Your secondary institution is your conference office and your tertiary institution is the union conference or the division or the general conference.

But the local church is the primary institution, and it is the primary institution for the gospel.

I want to really stress this for a moment.

It is the primary institution for God's grace.

You don't get baptized into hospitals or offices, you get baptized into the church.

Now, the church is the channel through which the Lord works to save those who are perishing with sin.

That's done in the church and by the church.

Christ is the foundation and the church is the channel of communication.

God has made his church on earth a channel of light.

And through it, he communicates his purpose and his will.

Now just to illustrate for you how important this primary institution is.

You recall the calling of Paul, Saul at the time, he got knocked off his horse by the Lord Jesus Christ.

He said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

Then Paul asked him the question, what do you want me to do?

Jesus said, go into the city and you will be told he put Saul in touch with his church because after he went to heaven the church became the institution of communication.

Another illustration, Cornelius is praying, a devout Italian officer and an angel comes down and says, hey, we've heard your prayer.

The angel could have explained everything to Cornelius and his family.

But the angel said no, there is a more important institution than angels and that is Christ's Church on earth.

I want you to send over to Joppa and get Peter and have him come and explain things to you.

And so this just illustrates to you how primary the church really is.

And in order that men may understand divine truth, there must be a channel through which it'll come to the world.

The Savior has constituted the church that channel, for he has said, you are the light of the world.

And I like this 1 because we've talked a little bit so far about how weak the church is in certain dimensions.

And this quote from Acts of the Apostle says, enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the Church is the 1 object upon which God bestows in a special sense, his supreme regard.

So if you want more of God's grace, where do you go?

You go to the theater of his grace in which he delights to reveal his power to transform hearts.

But the primary institution that dispenses the power to transform lives is the church.

And I think that's just an important point.

We sometimes dwell on the weak and defective, as it appears inside there might be a better way to do it.

So now that we've discussed primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, let's talk a little bit about health evangelism.

What is the organized structure of health evangelism.

And I'm going to look at institutions, health evangelism institutions, health evangelism personnel, and health evangelism activities.

And we're going to look first at institutions.

So the local church is the primary institution for health evangelism.

And just notice these quotes, and some of them were read to us last night.

The Lord gave me light that in every place where a church was established, medical missionary work was to be done.

So the church is the primary institution, there should be medical missionary work done in every church.

And so every place a church is established, there should be medical missionary work that is done.

Stephen Wright

All People are Worth the Investment

To you, Heavenly Father, you know my heart, you know how much knowledge I have in my head that is greatly lacking, Lord, but I ask that you would use what is here.

And may it be a blessing through your Holy Spirit and to inspire the people here to invest in the people around them.

We just invite your presence to this talk and in our hearts and minds we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

So this next slide is going to be filled in with people, and it's going to be generations.

And I was trying to get a picture about where we've come from and try to get a picture of time, and so I split up time into people, generations.

And in some place I see they did each person, each generation was 25 years, and sometimes they did 34 years.

So I chose 34, and so we're gonna kinda go backwards in time from generation.

So our first person, the white person there, is you and I.

And then just 3 generations, or if you go 25 years, a few more generations than that, we have Ellen White.

Now Ellen White died in 1915, just 103 years ago.

I'd like to ask, is there anyone here who talked to somebody who physically talked to Ellen White?

When I made this, it feels like when you, like I'm 33 years old.

And it takes a while for you to realize that that's not the case.

And that we hear about Ellen White, but she wasn't, that wasn't very long ago.

Those of you who raised your hands please come to me afterwards I want to talk to you so then I can say that I talked to somebody who talked to somebody who talked to Ellen White because she is still relevant today.

I mean that 3 generations That's not very long ago going back to George, Washington The same thing if you do 3425 it goes from 6 generations or 9 generations But still 10 generations 9 generations from the founding of this country, that's not many generations.

I mean, I know myself, and I know my dad, and I knew my great-grandfather, that's 3 right there.

And it's just amazing how much has changed in our country in this small period of time.

You think from Ellen White till now, the advancements and the changes in family structure and what's accepted and what's not accepted, it's just drastically different.

And then we'll kind of speed through the rest of these.

There's Martin Luther, Jesus, I just did 2018 divided by 34 and we got to about 59 generations.

And then we have David and from Jesus back to Adam I just followed the genealogy that's found in scripture.

So 10 generations between Abraham and Noah, Noah and Adam, another 10 generations, and this is our family tree.

You know, It's very powerful when people know where they came from.

I mean, my great-great-grandfather is Noah, so is yours.

It was our great-great-great-great-grandfather.

And also looking at this, it just is amazing how many people had to instill and invest in people over and over and over again for you and I to even be here.

Because we didn't just pop up 33 years ago or 60 years ago or 120 years ago.

In my, in the bio that I have in the program, you know, it says graduated from Southern and then graduating University of Tennessee now I'm at Nova Southeastern and and I'm a dentist you know that's how you say when you introduce yourself a lot of times this is who I am.

But that's not where I get my worth from, you know?

Like who here would you rather be a doctor over a son or daughter of God?

Like a son or daughter of God's way up here and the doctor's way stinking down you know way down there and that's what everybody's value is all of our patients they're all sons and they're all daughters of the 1 that created them and the 1 that redeemed them on the cross.

And I hope that kind of helps us get on our heart what God has on his.

And this next slide is where we're going.

And it's an analogy that I really, really love to help me get a true perspective.

On the left side of the dots where we're born, get an education.

If we're lucky, we find a nice husband or wife, have some kids, but eventually you die.

And I have gotten a lot of slack from family members that aren't Christian minded, don't have a perspective of eternity, which is the line that continues on and they kind of have just the investment of you know, you went to Peru for how many years like you We we helped you through school so that you could just Be irresponsible Because investment to people is money and a lot of times and what I spend my time thinking and worrying about It's where I it's where my heart is a lot of times too like Car and a house.

Well houses and we want to we want to invest our money wisely and and people when you look at the best investors Warren Buffett he's worth 84 billion and then you have the founder Jeff Bezos of Amazon 112 billion they did really really good but it's all gonna end at the end of the dot, you know.

And then when Christ comes again to take us home, that's when the line starts.

And it's, you know, we have about, you know, maybe 50 dots, 20 dots.

It continues on the end of the page and the line goes back that way I'm not sure we are east-west but we're gonna say that that way is going East and we're gonna go across the country and that line continues off the Atlantic and it skips off our planet Goes past the moon the Sun the stars through the Milky Way galaxy through other Milky Way galaxies and You're gonna tell me that my life should be surrounded about what's going to happen in that dot?

Yeah, sometimes you want to say, take that.

So as we go forward today, I wanna kind of help you in some techniques and how we can help our patients and better serve them, those with special needs and those that are children, because many times, they're just hard to handle.

So I wanna give you some tips and tricks to make it less hard and to equip you to take home to your staff.

So here's my goals, you know, to inspire you to reconnect to God's purpose and invest like he would and commit to a whole person care to demonstrate how we can use behavior guidance to help you in the dental or the medical office and treating of kids or those with autism.

If you've met a kid with autism, you've met 1 kid with autism.

It's so different, you know, as far as intellectual ability to track with you.

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