Michigan Camp Meeting 2016: The Harvest is Great

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Personal Preparation

Carol Torres

Personal Preparation- Part 1

Our gracious Heavenly Father, you know what you're working with here.

And I pray, dear Lord, that you will give me the words to speak that are from on high, not my own words, that you will help me to reach the hearts of these people here, that you will help me to give to them the picture of your incredible gift on Calvary.

And Lord, I pray that as we spend this week together that you will Bless us in such a way that we will know for sure that we've spent time in Your presence.

Guide us, give us all that we need to reflect you in a perfect way is our prayer in Jesus' precious name.

Recognizing, and if you have, here you, there's lots of space on this side, and if you want to, okay.

We recognize in our churches that there are so, so many needs for the Holy Spirit in our congregations.

I suppose in Michigan that maybe the odds are a little bit better.

But in so many places in the United States, we have churches that are almost closing because there are not enough members to keep the lights on.

God is wanting to do something special for us.

But often times as Abraham did and Moses did, we try to take things into our own hands.

And when we try to take things into our own hands.

And when we try to take things into our own hands, we get into trouble, don't we?

Abraham got into trouble because he couldn't believe that God could give him a son from his wife.

And what trouble we've had from this ever since.

Moses decided that he was going to take things into his own hands and he was going to raise himself up in the Jewish community there in Egypt by taking the life of a Jew.

And as he did that, then he realized that it was not something that was going to be hid.

He ran for his life and spent 40 years in the wilderness.

I don't know about you, first of all, I don't have 40 more years probably, at least not on this earth.

But I don't want to have to take time out to learn things that I could have learned had I made opportunity, an opportunity to read, study and listen to God's voice.

So what we've done is in our churches we've changed the music so that we can be relevant.

We've changed the style of worship so that we can be relevant.

We've changed so many things so that we can be relevant.

And I'm not saying that some of those changes aren't necessary.

Most of them are our desire to do something incredibly odd, different, so that people will flock to us.

But I'm here to tell you that the message that reaches the heart is the same for every nationality on planet earth.

If we want to reach the heart, we must give the message that God gives us to give.

And if we do that faithfully, God promises that He will bless us.

So we've got this terrible need on our churches, But most of all, I have to say that where we really need the Holy Spirit is in our own lives.

And I hope and pray that as we go through this, you will see little ways that perhaps you can change the way that you relate to this subject.

Is there somebody that would like to read that?

The work of the Holy Spirit comes to us with 3 very important challenges.

When He has come, He will bring the role of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Okay, so the Holy Spirit, when He comes, He will bring what?

Conviction of sin, understanding of righteousness, and of judgment.

So there's 3 things that the Lord does, that the Holy Spirit does when He comes into our lives.

He's not trying to whip us or get us all discouraged.

But He wants us to know that there are certain things that aren't acceptable in God's kingdom.

But is that the only thing he convicts us of?

So there's a wrong thing, but I'm telling you there's many, many, many right things to do as well.

You know, the 10 Commandments is only 10 commandments.

Can you think how much higher you can get than the 10 Commandments.

You see, the 10 Commandments is the very basic of what God is asking.

Like, you know, you can, there's an absolute cold.

The absolute cold, and I don't, I can't remember what the degrees are, but minus so many degrees, 300 and something, or I don't know what it is.

But is there a way to get higher than the highest heat?

We can go and go and go and we still don't know what the highest heat is.

So what God is giving us is a very basic foundation.

He's saying, look, there's just 10 things I want you to remember because These are the best way to remember what I am like.

And as I help you to know who I am, then you can grow and grow and grow and grow.

So conviction of sin, but the righteousness, we can go far and far and far beyond anything that we've ever thought or dreamt, because God is forever.

So He can teach us more and more and more.

So that we can be safe to have in heaven?

He's giving us judgment to be able to find what is the difference between right and wrong, and to make sure that we always make the right choices.

And so it's very, very important for us to recognize that these are the things, the first 3 things that the Lord, that the Holy Spirit does in our lives.

But when we invite the Holy Spirit into our lives through what?

When we invite the Holy Spirit into our lives through Jesus Christ, okay, Then He does 3 things for us again.

You know, the Holy Spirit is not wanting us to just put on a facade.

This thing is a little bit nerve-wracking to me, so I'm going to stand up a little bit.

So he doesn't want us to put on a facade, but what he wants is for us to be real from within.

And so the first thing that he does is he helps us to be.

So he wants us to be, help us to be a Christian from the inside out.

Personal Preparation- Part 2

1 of the things that was so important to the Lord, that he wanted to make sure that he took care of.

And as he's resurrected from the grave, he says to Mary Magdalene, what does he say to her?

And so as he is going, as he is, the day starts passing, he realizes he's going to go to his Heavenly Father.

And he goes to his Heavenly Father, but you know, he is welcomed with wonderful, wonderful messages from God, from the gates of heaven.

Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.

And the angels inside said, who is this King of Glory?

Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.

They wanted to hear it because they were so excited that Christ had come home.

They were so excited about this event because they had watched this terrible scene on earth.

They had watched this king go to the cross.

They had seen in the garden before he went to the cross, they had seen his heart torn out, crying to his heavenly Father, please Father, if you can take this cup from me, please take it away from me, because I'm having problems with it, Father.

But then the Lord says, that nevertheless, not my will, but your will.

Is it that he didn't want to go to the cross that he was pleading?

He wanted to die for us, so why was it that he wanted to go to the cross?

He didn't want to be separated from his heavenly Father.

He felt the pain of sitting in the garden from his heavenly Father.

He knew that the weight of sins that were being placed on him was greater than he thought God the Father could handle.

He knew that the sins are what separate us from God.

Oh God, please, if it's possible, don't let this come.

Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done.

I've been watching this, and there is that the father hasn't been more present in this whole...

But he couldn't reveal himself to his son.

He couldn't do that because he had to die the death that you and I will die if we are separated from God for eternity.

So they're anxious to try to help him and he falls, Great drops of blood flowing from his head.

He feels like he's going to be taken even farther than the ground.

Angel comes and and ministers to him and says, it's okay.

Jesus somehow from that visit from the apostle pulls himself together and he goes back to the disciples 1 more time but where are they?

They're sleeping and that's what we feel like doing right now?" And Jesus says, it's okay, you can sleep on and about that time what is he hearing?

So here they hear him So here, they hear him fall under the cross.

They see Joseph of Aranthea come up and take the cross.

They are thrilled that at least somebody's helping their master.

They wish that they could give up that cross.

They wish that they could bathe the brow of the master.

They wish that they could do so much, but they're held back.

And they see their heavenly king die on the cross, resurrected.

They're so, so happy that he's been victorious enough to actually wipe out Satan for eternity.

And it says, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, your everlasting doors, the King of Glory shall come in.

The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in what?

Then the angels again say, lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in and That the angels inside again say who is this King of Glory?

They know but they want to hear again and again and again.

And they're so excited, and I know what Jesus did first.

Went to his heavenly father and said, Father, is it been enough?

And the father said, it's more than enough.

How is he going to go ahead and prepare his to be completely ready for what's ahead of them?

And so this little reunion only lasts about hours at the best guess and he's back on earth.

He's back on earth and he's walking with a couple way to where?

Personal Preparation- Part 3

What you have in your hand now is a pictures of God and I hope that I'll have a little more time tomorrow to be able to, there's 4 of them, so to help you really understand how to use all of it.

But the pictures of God are very important in terms of helping people to see what it is that you're talking about, how it fits on the picture.

And so I'm hoping that I'll have a little bit more time to take this, but if you would put it, if you would put yours in a plastic thing like this, then I think you can mark on it, I think maybe with a dry erase, you can probably do something with that to make it stand out, and so that you can use this.

Also, there is the Wall Street Journal article that I mentioned it before.

I don't know if you were here the first day, but the first day I mentioned this article and thank you dear.

So it's fairly recent and it talks about it's yesterday's.

So this is something that I think you will find extremely interesting and then the survey that goes with it is based on this article.

So you need to either provide it or give them a chance to look at it a little bit first and then do the survey.

Because if you do the survey too quickly on it, then they may not understand what it is that we're talking about.

Then they can do the survey and then you need to Arrange what's on the bottom of this survey to what is actually available at the the location that you are living Where you can where you can actually serve?

The people with this okay, So those are the 2 things that are needed.

Then I'm going to be giving you only When you're here, the God's plan for you part 1, part 2, and part 3.

The reason that I did this was because I would ask my students over and over and over again to please give me the plan of God for salvation.

And almost always, and I know part of it is because they went to the internet.

Almost all of it, all the time, they would give me the, you know, all our sinners, we've all deserve to be, not have life, but God's gift gives us what?

And now we have, in Jesus Christ, we have salvation.

And basically it was that little outline.

And I thought, They don't seem to understand that the plan of God is the everlasting gospel.

So it means that it starts from the very beginning, it goes all the way to the end, right?

And some of you have, are familiar with this, and so I'm hoping that you will just find something that you can add to your little bit of information and make it useful, but others of you, this may be quite new.

And so it's my prayer, is as we go through these, 1, 2, and 3, My prayer is, number 1, that there will be such a sense of urgency to get on God's side that they will want to study the scriptures further.

That's my desperate desire for this set of studies.

Also that they may see a perspective of God's love and his desire to have us home again.

He loves us so, so, so very much and he wants us to be home with him as soon as possible.

So that is something that I know that that's on his heart and I pray that somehow it will become something that will be on your heart so that you can positively help others in this direction to find safety in Christ.

And so I am praying for that to be a reality.

And So if we can do the things that we need to do right now, and that's to ask God's presence, his guidance, to help fill our minds with his thoughts, and to give me utterance so that what I say will not cloud the picture but it will make it clear.

Father God again, Our hearts cry out to you for your presence, for your understanding, For everything that we need to be able to take this message and to be able to present it to someone else in its fullness, in its beauty.

And we thank you in Jesus' precious, precious name.

There is very much to share about God's love and care for each 1 of us.

So I will divide this presentation into 3 parts to make each section build on top of the other like a transparent overlay.

I pray this will help you vividly visualize God's incredible plan to save this world and you.

In the beginning, I can honestly say without excuse that I am definitely a creationist.

It's the only thing that still makes sense to me.

I've seen the way that others look at the same information that we are looking at.

And what they use to prove their point, we can use to a greater extent to prove our understanding of a God that is eternal, a God that can take care of everything, an intelligent being that's out there someplace that's taking care of us.

I remember while I was at Black Hills, when it was extremely cold and the moon hadn't come up yet, I could go out and the skies were absolutely, incredibly filled with stars.

I mean, they were so vivid that I felt sometimes that I could just reach up and pick the Milky Way out of the sky.

And as I sat there and I took this picture in, I thought, and who am I?

This little person that is trying to understand this God of the universe.

And I'm so thankful that He gives us this picture almost every night.

He is a great God, and yet He is Interested in who?

It's unfathomable what God is willing to do for us.

So it says that he is, that God created the heavens and the earth.

And in the beginning, Genesis 1, 1, you will find this again.

And you will notice as we go through this study that God is a family name.

So here we have God in the beginning creating, and that's the very first verse of the first chapter of the Bible.

Now we go to the first verse of the of the New Testament which is John what?

And I realize John's not the first chapter in, first book in the New Testament, but it starts out the same way, doesn't it?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.

Jesus Christ our Lord and dwelt among us.

And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

So we can see again that this Word created what?

In verse 3, all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.

He made everything and the word was made flesh.

And then we see in Psalms 33 verse 6 and 9, what does that say?

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth for he spake and it was done.

He commanded, and it stood fast." That's the kind of power he has.

And he is letting us know that this power Creates everything and if we go down to Colossians 1 16 and 17 first part for by him were what?

All things created that are where In heaven and that are in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers, all things were created, who?

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

I think it's very important for us to understand here that God the Father and God the Son were together from the very beginning.

They are, well let's put it this way, I'm a grandma and I told my daughter I said you know what if I knew that grandkids were so much fun, I would have done this first.

Personal Preparation- Part 4

Heavenly Father, we again come to you, thanking you for your incredible blessings that you are giving to us day by day.

So many that we don't even have time to even share them all, and we're so grateful that you are mindful of us as what seemed insignificant in the plan of the universe.

Yet you're mindful of us and you want to give us the best.

We pray dear Lord that you will help us, that you will give us strength and that you will help me to present this in a way that will be clear as crystal, I pray in Jesus' precious name, Amen.

So, if you don't have it, please pull it, please get it.

And so, that's what we're going to be working on today, and I hope that you'll have a pen as well.

Okay, we're almost out, but we're in a pen.

So we got pretty much down to the bottom of page 1.

And no, we got almost to the bottom of page 2, didn't we?

So something that I want to make sure that you understand, that our planet, this planet, is pretty much divided into 2, 000 year increments.

So, after creation, in about 2, 000 years we had the flood, and about 2, 000 years later we're going to have the first coming of Jesus.

And approximately 2000 years after that, we're going to have the second coming of Christ.

And you know I don't mind if the Lord waits a little bit to get more people into the kingdom.

I wish he would come now, but I'm thankful that he's going to come.

I'm thankful that he's wanting to get everyone into the kingdom.

So I'm glad that he's waiting a little bit of time.

And for that I will still praise him and just keep saying, Lord, come quickly.

So at the bottom of second page, I just want to bring to your attention that Noah was the prophet that led into the flood.

So the Lord tried to make sure that the people were understanding that something was going to happen.

Not only did he preach, but he built that incredibly big monstrosity of an ark, which nobody had ever seen before.

They had all kinds of things then that probably we still haven't even come up with at this point.

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