You know, we’re still here, but God doesn’t want us here. He wants to take us home. And what we’re going to talk about this afternoon is basically about that journey. How do we get there? How do we go from where we are to where God wants us to be? And it’s all about learning to walk with Christ, really getting to know Him as our very best friend.

[So, I see they have that, too. If you would maybe take one of those, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that.]

Now, Terry, also, you’ve met Terry, and Terry asked me to get into a little more of a costume today, so I’ve got kind of an interesting outfit. I put on the glasses, so I’ve got my glasses on today. You see, the situation is, I understand Ellen White actually preached from this very pulpit, and James White, Loughborough, these men preached, and these ladies from this very pulpit.

But here we are in a few short months really, it will be the General Conference Session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in San Antonio, Texas, in July, beginning on July second to July eleventh. July 11, interesting date because, you see, on July 15 in the year 1915, God’s people laid the Prophet to rest. She thought she was going to see God’s Kingdom. She knew that she was going to Heaven. She knew that God’s people were going to Heaven, but it didn’t happen, just as with Moses, she was laid in the grave without seeing the promised land or without, you know, physically being there. She saw it, she had been there, she had walked hand in hand with Jesus in the earth made new. The Lord had said, “This is what I have ready for all of you. This is what I have prepared.” But it didn’t happen. And why not?

Well, let me read you something. This was written in the 1880s, about the time she preached from this pulpit. “For 40 years,” and putting on glasses that I don’t use and don’t need, but it’s kind of character, right, you know? “For forty years did unbelief, murmuring and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins,” the same sins, what sins? “The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault.” Listen to this now. “It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord’s professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years.”

Wow, that should bother us, that should bother us because apparently, you see, God was looking to come long before this. And then in 1897, right around that time, she wrote these words to God’s people, “Had the church of Christ done her appointed work that the Lord ordained, the whole world…” (How much of the world?) “the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth in power and great glory.” He would have come, the Second Coming, 1890-what? About 1897, about the time Ellen White had been preaching from this pulpit, the Lord would have come. He was looking for a people that were fully and completely surrendered to Him. But we’re told, like ancient Israel, what happened to ancient Israel anyway?

A sad situation. You see, God took them out of Egypt. You remember, they painted the doorposts with the blood of Jesus Christ. Praise God, if it wasn’t for the blood of Jesus Christ, we would have how much hope? None, no hope whatsoever. But Jesus died on Calvary’s cross. They painted the doorposts of their houses with the blood of Jesus Christ. And then at the deliverance hour at midnight, Jesus delivered them out of Egypt, out of the land of sin and bondage, took them out and got them up to the Red Sea.

At the Red Sea, here comes the Egyptians. You know that story. The Egyptians are so mad and so frustrated now, and some talk about maybe 100,000 warriors that were ready to descend and destroy Israel when a pillar of fire and cloud come down and separate the Egyptians and Israel. And God says, “Stand and see.” Stand and see what? The power of God. Stand and see the power of God because already these slaves are whining and whimpering about, “You brought us out here to die,” “You brought us out here to perish,” “It would have been better if you had just left us in the land of Egypt as slaves; we would have been happier as slaves in the land of sin.”

And then God parts the sea, and over a million people go across on dry ground. And then that sea comes back and swallows all of the pursuing army. And Moses sings a song. Moses sings a song, Exodus, chapter 15, the song of deliverance, the mighty acts and the mighty power of God.

This morning I ask you, how big is your God? How big is your God? You see, because in Revelation, chapter 15, there is also going to be a new song that we sing. It’s kind of interesting because it’s a song of deliverance also. Exodus 15, Revelation 15, hmm, could that just be happenstance? I wonder.

But there was a problem because God delivered the children of Israel in one night from captivity, but it took Him 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel. They got up to the Promised Land, there to the borders. God said, “It is a land flowing with milk and honey. It is an amazing land. You see, it’s got everything I’ve prepared for you. All you need to do is go in and possess it.”

So, they sent in spies. Check it out. Well, as they got in there, and 40 days later the spies come back. And, wow, a couple of the kids, I can envision the kids saying, “Look! Look! Look! Look at that! Look at that! Look! Look! Everybody, look!” Two spies, they’ve got a big old pole and one cluster of grapes hanging on that pole between them. Now, I would suggest that nobody up in Napa has ever had any grapes that big. These are heavenly grapes. God had prepared a land flowing, truly flowing with milk and honey, and all the spies get back, and they verify, “Yes, Lord, everything You said is true.”

And you’ll find this in Numbers, chapter 13. But then unfortunately there is a word that we should never have, “nevertheless.” “Nevertheless,” and what did it go with? “Nevertheless, there are giants in the land, and in our own sight we’re like grasshoppers.” “In our own sight, we’re like grasshoppers.” Well, there’s a problem.

Who were these people looking at? I would submit to you they were looking at the giants, but they were looking at somebody else because they said, “In our own sight, we are like grasshoppers.” So, while they had looked at the giants, they began comparing themselves with the size of the giants, and, you know what, it was true. It was absolutely true, because they found King Og, I think his bedstead, his bedstead was over 13 feet long. That’s a pretty good-sized guy in anybody’s estimation, and put most of us alongside that today, and you could say, yes, indeed, grasshoppers, no doubt about it.

But you fast forward to Joshua, chapter 3, and now 40 years later because the children of Israel did not believe God, did not believe in the promises of God, did not believe in the power of God, and so they all died in the desert. Now, God again, the children of Israel, up at the borders of the Canaan Land, and they send out spies again. This time they head up to Rahab’s.

Now, Rahab is a harlot; she’s a prostitute. I’ve always kind of wondered why did God’s people go up, you know, spend a little time at the prostitute’s house. Well, if you really think about it, lots of guys going in and out, you know, they’re right there on the wall, and so nobody really pays much attention to a couple more guys, right? Made sense. But just before they’re ready to go to sleep at night, Rahab runs upstairs, “Guys, guys, don’t go to sleep yet. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. We saw, we saw what your God did to the Egyptians.” How long ago was that? Forty years ago. They had been watching. “We saw what your God did to the kings.” They’d been watching, and they said, “Our hearts did melt.” Our hearts did melt.

Now, if you look in the Hebrew, that word “melt” is, “Our hearts became liquid.” How many of you today, if you’re a 13-foot giant, can fight a good battle if your heart is liquid? What do you think? Anybody? No. No. God had already gone into the land. He had already destroyed them. He had scared them half to death. They couldn’t fight. God had already won the battle. And if you don’t think that’s true, you go back to Joshua, chapter 1, about verse 3, and the Lord says these words, He’s telling this to Joshua, “Every place that the soles of your feet shall tread,” English majors, what tense is that? Future tense. “I,” speaking of God, “have given you.” What tense is that? Past tense. God has already been in the land. He’s already beat the giants for you, and He says, “I’ve given it to you. All you have to do is go in and possess it.” “All you have to do is go in and take it.”

“For forty years, unbelief, murmuring, rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord’s professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years.”

So many years, here we still are. Here we still are, 100 years later after laying the Prophet to sleep. Now, many of you have just an inkling, I guess, of what we’re doing in the next couple of days here. It really has to do with a vision that God had given to Ellen White in 1903 looking back at the General Conference Session of 1901, during that time period, and I’ll give you a little rough background. During that time period, the church was fighting and bickering. You see, it had some of the people that were preaching righteousness by faith, but righteousness by faith is not only justification, Christ’s righteousness on the outside, but sanctification. God wants to change us on the inside as well.

Some of the leadership, oh, that was a little hard to take, so you’ve got some of the guys are preaching over here, and you’ve got some of the leadership over here saying, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no.” And you’ve got A.T. Jones, who’s the Signs of the Times editor, and he’s saying one thing. And you’ve got Uriah Smith over here on the other side who’s a powerful man in the church, and he, by the way, is head of the Review and Herald, and he’s publishing something in exact opposition. And so, the papers are fighting.

Then we’ve got J. Harvey Kellogg, all of you heard of J. Harvey. About that time, he had 1300 workers, health workers, more workers than the denomination had in ministers, and he was looking, really, to take control of the church. And he was going to publish his book on pantheism, you know, “God is in everything. God is in the trees, and God is in the soil, and God is in the plants, and God is everywhere.” And Ellen White is saying, “No, no, no, no no, this is not where things are supposed to go.

And the Review and Herald said, “Well, we’ll print the book for you. We’ll print the book for you.” And it came to the point in 1902 that God burned the Review and Herald to the ground along with the plates for his pantheistic book. And you’ve got Butler, who is the president of the General Conference, G.I. Butler at the time. Butler is going all around, and he’s bad-mouthing some of these guys who are bringing these things, and then they are also having…Oh, did I mention they are having a fight on the book of Galatians on what it really means. And you’ve got one camp over here that says it’s this. And you’ve the other camp over here that says it’s this. And nobody can get together, and everybody is fighting in front of everybody else. And this is the turmoil that’s going on in the church at the time.

And in 1903, God gave an amazing vision to Ellen White in which she saw the brethren coming together in the 1901 General Conference Session in which you just sang the opening hymn, number 104. At least, it was 104 in the old hymnal. We didn’t even realize it was still in the hymnal, so thank you for teaching us that. And it was such a scenario that Loughborough stood up, and he read all the entirety, actually, of Psalm 106. If you get an opportunity today, go home and read the entirety of Psalm 106. Psalm 106 is actually the children of Israel and their journey, their journey and how they didn’t follow God as they should. They didn’t give God the credit that is due God. And Haskell had a prayer. And these things we’ve extracted from the General Conference bulletin of the day.

And then Ellen White stood up, and Ellen White had an impassioned plea for the brethren. And Irwin, who was President Irwin now. Butler has passed. Irwin, this is his final meeting, really, because soon another General Conference president is going to be elected at that session. He felt like his presidency was pretty much shot and pretty much lost. He had done nothing in his four years.

But when Ellen White has her special call and her special plea, we’re not told who; someone in the audience stands up, and they begin to cry. And they say, “It’s me. It’s me!” And they open their Bible to the Laodicean message and they begin reading the Laodicean message. And, see, the Laodicean message had come into the Adventist Church big time. You here in San Francisco, you have a football team, the…? The 49ers. Where did the get that name? Gold rush. Gold rush. Well, the gold rush fever had hit Seventh-day Adventists in a big way, too. They were seeking after the riches of this world. They began attaching to the things of this world, and isn’t it interesting that the message to the Laodicean Church from God is, “Buy of me gold tried in the fire”?

So interesting, God is pleading with His people, and this delegate stands up; he begins reading, he begins weeping, and he turns to the person next to him, and they begin crying on one another’s shoulders, asking for forgiveness. “Please forgive me.” And this spreads throughout the audience. And others begin talking and saying the same thing. You know, “The way I treated you in committee, I’m sorry.” “The way I talked behind your back, I’m so sorry.” And soon the audience is beginning to weep, beginning to weep and cry. And then we have in the script, we actually have a song that we’re singing, “Blest Be the Tie That Binds,” because it breaks out in the audience.

And I would like to invite you right now for a moment to sing that song, “Blest Be the Tie That Binds,” just the first few stanzas of it. Probably most of you know it. And, actually, what I’d like to do, I’d like to invite this side. I’m going to start it out, and then this side join in as you sing just a few words of it, then the rest, everybody, join in, too. Would you do that with me? Alright.

[Singing] Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love! The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.

That was good. Let’s do it one more time, shall we?

[Singing] Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love! The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.

And all of a sudden you hear, “Ellen, Ellen, wake up, wake up.” And the next thing, you’re in Elmshaven, and there’s a bright light glowing in the room, and Ellen is waking up saying, “Where am I?” “Ellen, you’re here at Elmshaven. You’ve been in vision. You’ve been in vision. Yes, you’ve been in vision. The Lord wanted to show you, Ellen, what might have been.” And then she begins crying because she realizes it wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. The brothers did not humble themselves. The brothers did not give up self. They tenaciously held on.

In The Kress Collection, page 95, there’s an interesting statement. In 1902 she wrote, looking back at the 1901 session, she said, “The [leadership] closed and bolted the door against the [Holy Spirit]. Not only closed but “bolted the door” against the Holy Spirit. I see God doing so many things around the world. He is preparing a people for His soon coming. The latter rain; there are drops of the latter rain that are falling everywhere. We know, we know from so many writings, the Lord was ready to come long ago, but He’s been waiting for us. He’s been waiting for His people because He’s not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

In Papua New Guinea, young “Akeematu”, he was from the Kukukuku tribe, young Akeematu came to our secondary school there, 14 years old. Fourteen years old, he came to school, and everybody was a little nervous about Akeematu because they, well, it was a warring tribe and kind of nasty people. So, they kind of watched him, kind of stayed away from him.

And one day Bill the teacher asked a question, and Akeematu answered it. Only, one of the kids in the back, he didn’t like what Akeematu said, and he started harassing Akeematu. He started giving him a bad time. Boy, I tell you, Akeematu jumped out of his chair, ran across the tops of the desks in his little four-foot pygmy frame. He reached under his tribal gowns, pulled out a machete and was going to decapitate the kid. Just when the whole group jumped on top of him, wrested the knife away from him, and now they knew they couldn’t trust Akeematu.

The rest of the school year everybody stays away. But Bill kind of sees that the Holy Spirit is working on his heart. The Holy Spirit begins to soften the features on this little tribal guy’s nasty face. And towards summertime, it ended up at summertime that Bill always travels up to some tribe somewhere to do evangelism, and this year he picked out this particular tribe, but he didn’t speak the language, and he didn’t know exactly what to do. And then he realized Akeematu spoke that language. But he was pretty nervous about taking him.

But the Holy Spirit kept saying, “Take Akeematu with you. Take Akeematu with you.” “Wow. Okay,” so he invited Akeematu, and they made the journey. And they got to that tribe, and they were accepted with open arms. I mean, they just whipped them right in, gave them the place of highest prize, which was right in the pigpen area. And Akeematu curled up and went sound asleep. And Bill, he’s kind of got his body in there, but he’s got his head contorted out kind of a little door so he could get a breath of fresh air once in awhile.

And then all of a sudden, in the middle of the night air, you hear this, “You Seventh-day, come a quick house. You Seventh-day, come a quick house,” which in translation, “You Seventh-day Adventist, you come quick to the witch doctor’s house. They need your help.”

They got up, ran through the jungle. They get there, and Bill peeks underneath, and apparently it’s too late because everybody’s starting to cry. And this mother appears to have a dead baby in her arms. And just as he thinks, “Well, I need to kind of pastor up here. I need to say something; I need to do something.” He just starts to duck under the door when little Akeematu shoves past him, runs in, grabs the baby, and holds the baby up in the air.

Bill is thinking, “What’s going on?” You know, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” Is this a ritual? And little Akeematu says, “Papa, you gave life to this baby. Papa, you took life, now, Papa, you give life back to this baby. We’ll give you the glory.” All of a sudden toes wiggle, and a cry comes from that baby, and Akeematu takes that child and hands it to the mother.

The chief comes up, and he says, “Our spirits have never done anything like this. We’d like to talk to you more.” Well, he and Akeematu spent all that night and all the next day talking about Jesus Christ, the Great Spirit. And now, today, there’s a Seventh-day Adventist Church in that village because little Akeematu allowed the Holy Spirit to change and transform his life.

That’s what God wants to do to you. That’s what God wants to do to me, change and transform our lives. He has the power. He has the strength. I ask you today, how big is your God?

You see, you look at the Scripture. The Scripture here, He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.” Huh. Who is like grasshoppers? We were, right, but how big is God? He sits on the circle of the earth. He is mighty. I could share so many stories. Terry and I have filmed stories around the world, amazing stories.

I’ve got to share one more with you. “Regassa,” Regassa, a witch down in Madagascar. She grew up in a family with demons, talking with demons just like we’re talking today. Yep, that’s right; you heard me correctly, just like we’re looking at one another, talking with one another. They were in the home, and she conversed with them. When she got old enough, the demons said, “We’d like to make you a witch.”

“Okay.”

They said, “We’ll give you great powers.”

“Power sounds good. Okay, I’ll do it.”

They said, “Go down to the river where we’ll meet you, there at the river.”

She went down to the river where she said, “I went underwater with them for a day and a half.” Terry and I stopped the interview right then. We just knew we had heard something incorrectly from the translator.

I said, “How long were you underwater?” and he can verify it; we’ve got it on film.

“One and a half days, I was underwater one and half days. The demons fed me while I was underwater. They gave me power. I could control lightning. I could be shot with a gun; it wouldn’t hurt me. One day the armies of the country came to take over our village. I created potions,” said, “it was in all the newspapers. I created potions that kept the whole army away. I was a powerful witch.”

Let me tell you something. You get up in the morning, and you serve either God or you serve the devil; there are only two. And the devil, the devil was the fourth most powerful being in all the universe. But, praise God, there’s the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and I’ve read my Bible from cover to cover, and God always wins. He always wins. He never loses.

And this woman was sick. She had made the demons mad one day. She’s sick, and she can’t find healing. She’s gone to the doctors; nothing seems like it works. And she came in contact with a couple of young ladies who said, “We represent the God of the universe. We’d like to pray for you.”

“Well, demons haven’t done anything for me lately. Go ahead.” And they prayed for her, and she was healed. She was healed. How big is your God?!

And then I asked her, I said, “Tell me,” because she said she accepted Christ; she was baptized, and I said, “Did the demons try and drown you under the water?” because I’ve seen that happen in many countries. You know, the devil is out there, and he’s active.

“Oh, no,” she said, “because people prayed and fasted for me for seven days.” She said, “But when I came up out of the water, the devil was so mad. My house was right next to the edge of the water; he burned it to the ground. So, I went kicking through the ashes as soon as the ashes were cool, looking for my Bible, and I found it.” She said, “The flames hadn’t touched it. It didn’t even smell like smoke.” And she said, “Because of that, many people have believed.” And then she stopped and said, “Would you help me?”

I said, “Help you do what?”

“Oh,” she says, “help me,” she says, “build a church.”

I said, “Why?”

“Well,” she said, “because I now have 100 people who have accepted Jesus Christ.”

Brothers and sisters, we serve a powerful God. And we’ve been here on this planet too long. It is time to go home. This video that we’re doing is going to be sent out to the whole world field, as your pastor said, for the hundred days of prayer. A focus, a praying for God’s leadership around the world, when they come to General Conference Session especially, that hearts might be changed, lives might be touched. We might all humble ourselves.

Ellen White wrote an interesting statement, “If we would humble ourselves before [God], and be kind and courteous and tenderhearted and pitiful, there would be one hundred conversions to the truth where now there is [only] one.” God wants to do that in you. God wants to do that in me. And I wonder this morning, if you’d like the power of God to fill your life and change you, will you stand right now? Amen. Amen.

And I hope to see you this afternoon also. We’re going to go in a lot of detail of what God wants to do in and through us and how He is able, He is able, to do it. Let’s have a prayer.

Father, I want to thank You so much for Your incredible love. I want to thank You for Jesus. I want to thank You for this church, who has been so willing to help us with this project, Father, that can change the face of eternity. Thank You. I pray, Father, that everything tomorrow and the next day and the subsequent days will go great with filming. But, Father, especially right now, that, as we stand here, that we give our hearts and our lives to You 100 percent; 99 percent doesn’t work. So, please, Father, make us willing to be made willing. Change us, mold us, make us and shape us into Your image, I pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

How Big Is Your God?

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