Is the Bible really true or just a book of good stories. 

<p>Is the Bible really true or just a book of good stories. </p>

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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Why Am I a SDA?

David Wright

1. Does the Truth Really Matter?

Well, this morning we're asking a pretty simple, maybe fundamental question.

There may be a few here that say, well, I'm not, but I think most of us would agree that that you are part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, you're a member in good and regular standing.

Why did you choose the Seventh-day Adventist Church?

Well we might be able to come up with a host of reasons.

You say, you know, I just, I love haystacks.

Anywhere I go, they don't know what it is, but the Adventists know what haystacks are.

You just think that everybody else is too mainstream, so you want to go and chart your course your own, is that the right?

You say, I like the school system, the Adventist edge has shown that our school system is very good and we can find a school around the world, and so I like that aspect.

Maybe it's the health message, and we have a wonderful health message.

The annual fast has certainly been a blessing to many of us.

Maybe you think, well, Adventists are friendlier.

And we might even argue, is that even true?

Is that the reason that you chose to be a Seventh-day Adventist?

Well, Saturdays are more convenient than Sundays.

I hope those aren't at the top of your list.

And so, we're going to be looking over the next 5 weeks at a series that I'm entitling Why I Am a Seventh-day Adventist, or Why Am I a Seventh-day Adventist.

I want to get you thinking along those lines.

Are we just another denomination or are we unique?

Do we have a message that is relevant at this time in earth's history?

It's going to be split up because there's other speakers coming on through as well.

But question number 1 that we're going to look at today, does the truth really matter?

In a couple weeks we're gonna look at this next question.

And then you use words like like remnant and so on, I just I don't feel comfortable with that.

Number 4, fourth question, what makes the devil angry?

You have to wait to see what that's about.

And then number 5, what's wrong with being a cultural Adventist?

And so those are the 5 pieces that we're going to look at and we're going to unpack those as we go along.

And so today we're just kind of getting started here and you might say, well, that's not the only reason and I hope that's not your only reason in terms of what I'm covering today, but we have some other things we're going to be looking at as we go along.

A lot of people today say there is no such thing as absolute truth.

You know, if we look here back in our own history, John Harvey Kellogg published in 1903 a book that was highly controversial called The Living Temple.

In this book, of course we know Kellogg was an inventor and many things, but he was big into health and the idea was God lives in everything and It's everywhere, including first and foremost in you.

If you want to get in touch with the God in you, you have to look within, not without.

The earth and all its life forms and processes are sacred.

We belong to them and they to us, we are kin.

So it's that idea that you hear, for those of you that can remember Oprah Winfrey, and we talk about the power within.

If I can just get in tune with the power within.

And so that created quite a stir within the Adventist church and people were divided on 1 side or another, who are they going to follow, until eventually it came to a head and Kellogg left the church.

And Sister White writes about this, should choose my words better, in Volume 1 of Selected Messages, page 200, in the book Living Temple there is presented the alpha of deadly heresies.

The omega will follow and will be received by those who are not willing to heed the warning God has given." Now what's this alpha and omega?

So here we have something that's going to be very similar to this living temple, this pantheism, this centering inward and so on, is going to come about again and she refers to it as the Omega.

Later on, a few pages later, she says, living temple contains the Alpha of these theories.

I knew that the Omega would follow in a little while and I trembled for our people.

You should know as all this went on, by the way, that Kellogg was almost like a son to her.

She prayed for Kellogg, she wrote to Kellogg, she engaged in every way that she could with Kellogg.

And I would say that example would be a wonderful example with us today As I believe we're starting to see this Omega apostasy.

Should we write them off or should we pray for them?

Because I think they're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong.

But you know it's not something that's just impacting the Seventh-day Adventist church.

We see it in the Baptist church, the Methodist church, the church of God, I mean on down the list, the Catholic church and our church as well.

This idea that if I'm gonna really connect with God, I have to focus on the sensory, right?

We had a minister's meeting recently that talked about the dangers of yoga and how everybody's having Christian yoga and holy yoga and undistracted worship.

Friends, if you really look at the background of yoga, well, it's just stretching, it's just this.

Well, people may say that, but if you really look into yoga, the whole thing is about getting your body into a position and emptying your mind where you can be filled.

2. Isn’t Jesus Enough?

How many of you have been to the Grand Canyon?

How many of you have been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon?

And I guess that's to say you got back out.

That is an adventure I have yet to do, a rim to a rim.

I'm not sure it's at the top of my bucket list, as it can get very hot.

And there's a lot of, for those of you who have been there, and especially been to the bottom, there's a lot of warning signs that this is not a safe place necessarily.

In fact, I went online, here's 1 of them, what goes down must go back up.

Sometimes people think, oh this is not a problem, they get to the bottom and then they pass out on the way back up.

Do not attempt to hike from the canyon rim to the river and back in 1 day.

Each year hikers suffer serious illness or death from exhaustion.

Now those signs really don't mean that, do they?

This actually is a warning sign that is there at the park.

She thought she was in good enough shape to run down and back up, and she didn't make it.

And so I imagine it's with her permission that they post this up here, saying, you know, she was in great shape, and she didn't pay attention to these signs, and thought she could do it.

Of course, there's others about falling, and the Ground is not always the most stable.

Please stay behind railing, which simply calls to some, there's something good out here, come check it out.

There's a difference between being brave and just plain, ordinarily foolish.

But the fact remains that every year in all of our parks, not just the Grand Canyon, people die.

Sometimes it's simply an accident, but other times it's because they're taking pictures or doing something that they shouldn't and avoiding these signs.

In fact, this guy wrote a book, Over the Edge, Death in Grand Canyon.

He chronicles 700 plus deaths since 1870.

And, you know, it keeps happening, so that's why this is the revised and updated edition, apparently.

And he talks about some stories, I don't have the book, but I found some excerpts from it.

The 1 that hit home to me the most was a father who was up on the edge trying to be funny about falling off the Grand Canyon and did.

So my question this morning is what do you do when you see a warning sign And what are those signs put there for?

We're continuing this Sabbath with part 2 of the series that I'm calling Why Am I a Seventh-day Adventist?

There's a lot of denominations out there.

We talked about some of the possible reasons last week.

What we wrestled with primarily last week was, does the truth really matter?

And this idea that truth is relative and your truth can be fine for you and my truth can be fine for me.

The second 1 that we're gonna tackle with today is isn't loving Jesus enough?

What makes you so special will be next week.

I guess I got that wrong, but anyway, last week we looked at this, a few of these for review.

My ultimate authority is the divine voice in my own soul, period.

And these are books that many are reading and quoting from and so on and so forth.

Here's another 1, the Bible is not considered an accurate, absolute, authoritative or authoritarian source but a book to be experienced.

Remember we talked about experience, and 1 experience can be as valid as any other can.

Experience, dialogue, feelings, and conversations are equated with Scripture on equal footing.

You know, This idea that my heart is deceitfully wicked.

Should I truly just follow my heart and my feelings and my senses?

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Here's another 1 Isaiah 820, to the law and to the testimony if they do not speak according to this word is because there is no light in them.

So that's just a few of the ones that we looked at.

Going through the rest of this series here, What makes the devil so angry will be another piece we'll look at and then we're going to finish on what's wrong with being a cultural avidness.

So that's a little aside of where we're going but today's piece isn't loving Jesus enough because that's kind of the buzz phrase.

As long as I love Jesus, Jesus is all, Jesus is everything.

Now don't misunderstand, Jesus is all and Jesus is everything.

The problem I have is this idea that I accept Jesus only and that's it.

Don't talk to me about doctrine, don't talk to me about what the Bible has to say, don't talk to me about any of those things, I just want to accept Jesus only.

Now I don't know about you, but That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

That's like somebody asking, well, why did you marry Elizabeth?

Well, it's because it was Elizabeth only.

It's just Elizabeth, period, only, period.

To me, the idea ought to be, if I love Elizabeth and she is my all, then I want to know everything about her, right?

I want to know what makes her happy, I want to know what makes her sad, I want to certainly avoid those places, I want to know where she likes to go, what she wants to do.

Some say this, the Seventh-day Adventist church has too many doctrines.

Doctrine is simply, the word simply means teaching.

3. What Makes You So Special?

Well, this took place about 3 and a half years ago, what you see here on the screen at the 1 Project.

I've mixed 3 1, 000-piece puzzles all together in this mixing bowl.

Now, you know that's not a good idea especially if there's a thousand pieces each.

He says now imagine for me the piece I now hold in my hand is part of the image we want to create And that is the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

It has a special gift that it must give The image of Jesus.

So that's what this puzzle's trying to put together.

An image of Jesus, and then he says this, but it, referring to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is only 1 piece.

But I have a problem with this statement.

This idea that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is great, we have a contribution, but we're just 1 piece of this picture of who Jesus is.

That would stand to mean then that if I really want to get a full and complete picture of Jesus, what must I do?

I must go to all these other denominations and see what they have to say and see what they have to offer and bring to the table.

I need to gather their piece and put it into the puzzle so I have a complete, not an incomplete, because who likes an incomplete puzzle, right?

I bet it's you Mario that sneaks the last piece in your pocket.

I mean this is a puzzle that we have at home.

This is just 1 puzzle of a thousand pieces and this is a pretty small piece.

Maybe I should get a brighter 1 This is a pretty small piece How do you feel church?

This is you you're 1 piece, but we need to get not just a thousand but 3000 more pieces or 2999 you get the idea and put them all together so we can have a complete picture of who Jesus is I Have a problem with that he goes on and It's not just his way of thinking it's others too Because when he continued he said you see God has never given the totality of his image to just 1 gender or just 1 skin color Or just 1 ethnicity and by that point everybody is starting to applause and be all excited Or to just 1 historical time period or just 1 group of people or to just 1 movement or to just 1 church.

For he knew that if 1 group decided that they represented the totality of the image of God it would be easy to become Arrogant and assume that we have it all Now this was 3 and a half years ago.

Maybe this individual has changed their mind.

I Don't think that's the case because just this last fall he preached a sermon and it was still this same idea we are but 1 piece in the puzzle of the image of who Jesus is I don't know where should we go tomorrow and find another piece and how much of an image do you get from just 1 piece Could I give you 1 piece of a thousand piece puzzle and you could tell me what it is?

And so it sends us out searching to gather pieces from everywhere else.

The question, is it wrong to say that Seventh-day Adventist Church is the remnant church of Bible prophecy?

I don't believe that it is because I didn't say it God said it in his word.

It wasn't your idea So we're continuing this series.

Why am I a Seventh-day Adventist If we are just 1 piece of the puzzle, then it really doesn't matter.

All roads lead to the same place is what it sounds like to me.

The first 1 we've already done, does the truth really matter?

We looked at quotes like this, scripture is not truth, Jesus is truth.

There's a difference and he shall be revealed in many odd and interesting places.

Are there greater greater revelations in Scripture?

Yes, Jesus for 1 the Holy Spirit now for another scripture is our guide to the Spirit.

And we talked about the danger of that idea.

How when it just becomes my feelings, my emotions, and all these other things, the scripture's a guide, but after that I launch off, and it doesn't matter what scripture says because the Spirit is telling me something else.

We looked at verses like sanctify them by your truth your word is truth.

He just said it wasn't truth but the Bible says your word is truth.

Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

We looked at this verse, he was clothed with a robe.

This is a description of Jesus if you read it in its entire context, dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God.

Last week we talked about isn't loving Jesus enough?

I don't mind this idea of Jesus all as long as we take all that Jesus has to say.

But if we're only going to listen about Jesus, but I don't want to hear about doctrine or the teachings of Jesus That's a problem when we talked about that last time We looked at the 5 S's of Adventism the second coming the sanctuary the spirit of prophecy the state of the dead the Sabbath all safeguards that God has given to us because he loves us that I believe is truth and it's a safeguard in these last days that we need to treasure.

We talked about how the second coming gives me hope.

How the sanctuary gives me a complete picture of salvation.

How the spirit of prophecy grounds me in God's word.

And we'll talk more about that in a few weeks.

How the state of the dead quiets the deceiving voices.

I mean if you don't have a correct understanding of the stay of the dead it's like Pandora's box opens up.

And then we looked at how through the Sabbath I receive the seal of God.

Now the Sabbath is a lot of things And you hear various Adventist preachers talk about aspects of those things, but I never hear them or rarely hear them talk about the Sabbath as the seal of God.

There is more to it than simply 1 day off during the week.

In today's piece, what makes you so special?

And in a few weeks what makes the devil angry and what's wrong with being a cultural Avenist, we'll get to those.

Is it wrong to say the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the remnant church of Bible prophecy?

They claim that we, to claim that we're the remnant church, some preachers are saying even within the Adventist Church it is dysfunctional, it's abusive, it limits God, and it's arrogant.

And they build that on the assumption that you must be a seventh-day Adventist to be saved now we've never taught that as a church and We'll get into that a little bit more But I do think that God has given us the truth that He has given us as a safeguard.

Again this idea of the remnant is not my idea, nor is it yours.

And the dragon, or the devil, was wroth with the woman, the true church, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.

If you get a suit, guys, sometimes you have some of the cloth in your pocket, and you wonder, what am I supposed to do with this?

And the idea is if there's something that goes wrong you can take out a patch and you can put that patch back in it's amazing What they can do of course they want to charge you an arm and a leg for it But that's a remnant There are some suits out there.

You're never gonna find the fabric to that again.

These violets up here in the corner, I remember as a kid we went to somebody's house that was a relative and they picked off, they told us that these violets were from my great grandma Gladys or somebody, I don't even remember, I'd have to ask my dad.

4. What the Devil Hates

Now we could look at some things that really make you really, really angry, but maybe to keep it a little bit lighter, and watch out for the guy in the middle, by the way.

10 things I want to look at, 10 little things that make you irrationally angry.

Number 1, when your internet connection drops.

2, when someone tries to talk to you while you're on the phone.

Number 5, people who tell you to calm down or cheer up when you're neither angry or upset.

Number 6, anyone who puts empty cartons back in the fridge.

Anyone who pushes the elevator floor button after watching you push it first.

People who are completely unprepared for situations that they know are going to happen.

And number 9, people who take up 2 parking spaces as you circle around and search for something.

And lastly, stepping in something wet after just putting on a clean pair of socks.

I mean, that's about the worst, isn't it?

We're continuing our series today on why am I a Seventh-day Adventist?

And I realize this series is kind of stretched out a little bit.

We've had some things along the way and tomorrow we're going to take a, or not tomorrow, next Sabbath we're going to take a break because of Easter.

I hope we answered that sadly resounding yes, the truth matters, God's word matters, being biblical matters.

That's another catchphrase that you hear a lot.

But we want to love everything that is important to Jesus as well.

And so if Jesus gives us something in his word, for me to disregard it is being disrespectful of the author and finisher of my faith, Jesus Christ.

And so that was the second 1 that we looked at.

These are online, if you missed 1 and wanna go back, you can just go to our church website and listen to them there, download the MP3.

Series

Why Am I a SDA?

1. Does the Truth Really Matter?

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

The Power of Perspective

Two Covenants

57m

Plenary

By Every Word

1h

Emerging Church Symposium

The Serpent’s Whisper

1h 10m

Revelation Made Simple

18. Revelations Spiritual Revolution for a New Millennium

57m

Where Is Your Faith?

1h

Going to Extremes

1h 10m

Bible Weekend

02 Answering False Doctrines

43m

Wondering After the Beast

45m

The Supremacy of Scripture

1h 11m

Some are Stronger than Others

41m

Twin Cities

And God Said

1h 32m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

24 The Sanctuary and the Testimony of Jesus

1h 2m

Sound Doctrine