AMEN 2018: Call to Service

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Morning Devotional

Norman McNulty

Service or Business?

Father in heaven, we thank you for the privilege we have of being followers of Jesus.

And I just pray that you would speak through me these next few minutes, and that the Word of God would be presented in a way that is fresh and an inspiring way that would draw us closer to Jesus.

So I just pray that you would speak through me now and I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

The title for my message this morning is Service or Business?

You know, the theme for this weekend is called a service.

And as physicians, as dentists, as healthcare professionals, I think most of us can relate to the struggle of whether or not we are in this work for the service of God or for the business of personal enrichment.

And it's very easy to become so busy and so focused on the everyday business side of healthcare that we can lose sight of the true purpose for why God has called us into the work that he has given us to do.

So I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew chapter 28, and I'm going to read a very familiar passage as a springboard to the rest of what we talk about.

And this is Jesus making his last appeal before he returns to heaven.

And in Matthew 28, starting in verse 18, says, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Now this should be inspiring to us.

Jesus is saying, I have all power in heaven and earth, so if you are working on my behalf, you have access to that power.

And in verse 19, he says, "'Go ye therefore and teach all nations.'" But the marginal reading says, "'Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations.'" Now, something historically that we've been pretty good at as Seventh-day Adventists is giving a theological construct for why you should believe the seventh day Adventist message, but we haven't been as good at making disciples of Jesus Yes, people can gain a Theoretical understanding of all the truths that we hold dear, but how often are we actually making disciples of all nations?

Jesus says all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Why then do we not believe that we could make disciples under the power of Christ the way the disciples had power when they were followers of Jesus 2, 000 years ago.

And then he goes on to say, "'Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.'" You know, I'm thankful that Jesus encouraged us to baptize in the name of the 3 great powers of the Godhead in heaven.

We don't need to have any confusion on that idea.

And then he says in verse 20, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world." When we really get to know Jesus as he is and when we come to understand that all power is given to him in heaven and in earth, and that he has given us that same power to go and make disciples and to teach them all things, sometimes I wonder what we're doing as a people.

Are we really motivated to make disciples of all nations?

Now I want you to go to Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians chapter 2, and we're going to read the first few verses of this chapter, because Ephesians chapter 2 reminds us of who we are and where we've come from and what God has done for us and how we should be inspired and motivated to give service to the Lord.

Verse 1 of Ephesians 2, and you hath he quickened or made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." So We're reminded, yes, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

In time past, we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.

So we are all reminded that we have been in the pit of sin, but we have been quickened or made alive again, even though in the past we were dead in trespasses and sins.

And if we are truly made alive by Christ, We would want to make disciples of those who are dead in trespasses and sins now because we know what it was like to be there.

If we're still dead in trespasses and sins, we won't have the motivation to call people out of that darkness.

Could it be that a lack of desire to call people out of the darkness of sin is a reflection of the reality that we're still there ourselves.

Because when we are in this pathway of being dead in trespasses and sins, there is less of a line of demarcation between us and the world, and we start to lose the sense for the ugliness of sin.

But Paul goes on starting in verse 4, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us or made us alive together with Christ by grace are you saved.

And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

So in the ages to come, throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity, those who have been quickened or brought out of the pit of sin who have been saved by the grace of Christ will be a demonstration for the exceeding riches of the grace of God and the kindness that he has showed toward us through Christ Jesus.

But sometimes I wonder, especially for those of us in the health profession, and the reality is we have many friends, even of our faith, who are in the health care profession, who the reality is the exceeding riches that are talked about are not the exceeding riches of Christ, but the exceeding riches that we can make by being masters of business in our field.

And so, healthcare professionals are known for having money, and that's the honest reality.

But are we known for making known to others the exceeding riches of the grace of Christ for those who are dead in trespasses and sins?

And I would submit to you again that 1 of the reasons that we aren't sharing the exceeding riches of the grace of Christ to the lost and dying world around us is because we may not have yet been quickened from a life that is dead in sin, and so we have a knowledge of Christ, we have a knowledge of truth, but we're not submitted to Christ, and so there's a disconnect between what we profess with our lips and how we live our lives.

And that's 1 of the reasons I believe that the Lord has raised this ministry up to lead to a reawakening of our need for Christ completely in our lives, and of the need to share that with us.

Now I want you to go to Matthew 13, and this is really the the heart of what I'm going to be sharing this morning.

It's a simple passage, It's a passage that's well known, but in the last few months it's become alive again to me as I've reflected on how this relates to my own walk with God.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure, hidden of field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

Here in this parable that Jesus gives and the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl of great price are connected with each other.

In this parable of the treasure hidden in a field, this man is searching through this field and finds this treasure, and this treasure is so valuable that he is willing to sell all that he has.

Now, Elamite says in Christ's object lessons page 104, this parable illustrates the value of the heavenly treasure and the effort that should be made to secure it.

The finder of the treasure in the field was ready to part with all that he had, ready to put forth untiring labor in order to secure the hidden riches.

So the finder of heavenly treasure will count no labor too great and no sacrifice too dear in order to gain the treasures of truth." Now notice this, in the parable, the field containing the treasure represents the Holy Scripture.

This is someone who is searching through the Bible to find what is missing in his life.

And the gospel, notice this, so the the treasure represents the Holy Scripture, no excuse me, the field represents the Holy Scripture, and the gospel is the treasure.

So the Scripture is the field that we study, but the treasure that is found in that field or in the Scripture is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The earth itself is not so interlaced with golden veins and filled with precious things as is the Word of God.

Now, let's be honest with ourselves, and I think I'm speaking to many who have gone through dental school or medical school or physical therapy or some other line of schooling, that if we're honest with ourselves, we put a significant amount of effort to get through that, did we not?

And if we were to be honest with ourselves, when we look at the effort that is required to obtain the degree and then the further training that we have so that we can practice in the profession that we do, and I think all of that is good, I'm thankful for the knowledge that I've gained through that training, could it be possible that some of us have put more effort into securing a medical or a dental degree than we have in gaining a knowledge of the real treasure of Scripture.

And the amazing thing that I hear so many times from pulpits is, it's okay, it's not hard, just accept Jesus.

You don't need to put any effort into the Bible.

It's there, grace is free, everything's good, don't worry about it.

And yes, grace is free, but the Bible does not paint the picture of Christianity being an easy-pass religion where you just kind of float into it and do nothing and everything's fine.

The parable that's being painted here by Jesus is saying that those who discover the treasure are willing to give up everything to obtain it.

And I know many of my classmates were willing to do almost anything to pass their tests and the board exams and to get that degree and to get that career because so many have a mentality that when we get out there and we start making the money, life's going to be great.

And so many times we live as if the treasure is the degree and the career and the money and the lifestyle, and we forget the reason why we went into it in the first place.

So I ask the question from the title of my message, are we Practicing from a motivation of service or business, have you found the hidden treasure in the field?

Have you found the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the treasure in the field?

Have you learned to study the Bible and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your mind so that the power of the gospel can shine forth in your life so that as Paul says in Romans 1 16 and 17, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Now why is the gospel so powerful?

Verse 17 tells us, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.

Listen, when you find the treasure, the gospel is not simply a theological construct that is a declaration of how God sees you, it's a theological construct that then becomes a demonstration of a changed life because of your faith in the power of the God that has given you the treasure of that gospel.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.

As it is written, the just shall live by faith.

Now, Lomai has some interesting things to say further about this parable.

By their own course of action, they make it obscure to themselves.

Christ gave the Jewish people abundant evidence that he was the Messiah, But his teaching called for a decided change in their lives.

They saw that if they received Christ, they must give up their cherished maxims and traditions, their selfish ungodly practices.

It required a sacrifice to receive changeless eternal truth.

And I'll be honest with you, I feel sometimes that we have a struggle in the health care field that when we see the truth as it is in Jesus, there's this temptation in the back of my mind.

If I give my life fully to Christ, I might lose everything that I've worked for to receive as a physician or a dentist.

Everything that I've worked so hard to build up, what if God calls me to sell my practice and go to the mission field?

Boy, I'd lose everything that I've worked so hard for.

But if you have found in the gospel of Jesus Christ the hidden treasure, you're willing to give up everything because you realize that the gospel is of more value than your practice or your career.

Your career is a means of service to the Lord where you will make disciples of all nations so that the exceeding riches of his grace will be made manifest in the ages to come about what God did in your life, and you're motivated that it will be revealed in what he's done in the lives that come across your path.

Now, Jesus has really a two-part parable here, because in verse 45 he says, again, so he's re-emphasizing this, again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls who, when he had found 1 pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." So here we have a hidden treasure that the seeker of truth was willing to sell everything that he had for, and now we have a merchant man, a businessman, who finds this pearl of great price, and he's willing to sell everything that he has for the pearl.

Christ's Object Lessons 115, all that can satisfy the needs and longings of the human soul for this world and for the world to come is found in Christ.

Our Redeemer is the pearl so precious that in comparison all things else may be a count of loss." You know, when I read these 2 verses and I see this merchant man who finds this goodly pearl, and this pearl of great price is represented as being Jesus himself, I again have to ask myself the question, how many of us have truly found in Jesus the pearl of great price that we would be willing to sell all that we have to obtain that pearl, which is Jesus.

And the reason why I wonder that sometimes is because the way Jesus is presented or talked about so many times in church goes along the lines of something like this.

Well, surely Jesus wouldn't expect me to give up that idol in my life.

His grace is too rich for me to surrender that to Him, right?

I can get into the kingdom and still get by with this idol or that idol as long as I make a profession that He's died for me.

Christ's object lessons 116 says in the parable, the pearl is not represented as a gift.

The merchant man bought it at the price of all that he had.

Many question the meaning of this, since Christ is represented in the Scriptures as a gift.

Now notice what she says, he is a gift, but only to those who give themselves soul, body, and spirit to him without reserve.

Now I'm almost embarrassed when I hear people say, so you mean that I would have to give up this lifestyle practice, watching these things on TV, or wearing this kind of a dress, or this kind of a outfit, or this kind of entertainment?

I would have to give that up to follow Jesus, and yet I'm saying, wait a minute, how much did Jesus give up for you?

Jesus is the gift, but only to those who give themselves soul, body, and spirit to him without reserve.

And the reality is that when you see Jesus for who he is as that pearl of great price, everything really changes.

The quote goes on to say, we are to give ourselves to Christ to live a life of willing obedience to all his requirements.

Don Mackintosh

Ready to Give a Reason - The Clinician & Apologetics

Well, I entitled the devotional today, Be Ready to Give a Reason, the Clinician and Apologetics.

And as I thought about that subject, it was based on the text in 1 Peter chapter 3.

So turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 15 and 16.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.

So this is a powerful text and we can learn several lessons from it that I thought of today.

First off, the text indicates that we should live questionable lives.

Our lives should be filling people's minds with questions.

Do you have a life where people want to ask you about the hope that is in you?

And, you know, I was on the plane the other day coming here And I sat between 2 gentlemen and I said, how can I live a questionable life that they might ask a reason for the hope that is in me?

And I started going, wow, amen, praise the Lord.

Not quite that loud, you know, it wasn't like some kind of spiritual Tourette's syndrome, but it was loud enough where people were like, you know, and the man, first of all, he goes, and then he goes like this.

And the man by the window said, That must be very exciting what you're reading, I said.

I've never sat by someone like this before.

Hey man, How many of you want to be questionable?

So, you know, when I used to work in a trauma center in an emergency room for a number of years of my life, another way that I thought practically to be questionable was to take my Bible with me.

How many of you remember what a Bible is?

How many of you know what that looks like?

And I would just take that Bible with me to the emergency room, and I would set it down.

Okay, you take your Bible to work, but you put people to sleep, you're an anesthetist.

I mean, doesn't matter in your line of work, okay.

And I remember some physicians that I worked with, I don't know if any of you know Dr.

John Dugie, he's a cardiologist, and he would always bring his Bible or something, or a little spirit of prophecy book.

And this made a huge impression on the staff.

And the other thing that made a great impression was how calm he was during a code.

Didn't do any good for people to not be calm.

And they made this link between the fact that he had his Bible and he was calm.

And I believe, you know, be ready to give an answer.

Well, make sure someone's gonna ask the question, you know.

Now another thing, I don't know, not only taking your Bible, but how many of you like to sing?

What do you sing, Sing for us a little bit.

Look, you know, this is very important I think.

You know, the Lawlords really meant, you know, lullaby.

And that part of the Reformation, they were so enthused with what they had learned from Tyndale's translation into the vernacular that they were just, they were humming, you know lullaby, lullards.

And I think that this not only will raise questions, depending on how loud you sing, but it also, it helps you as well, you know.

And I think the thing you sing is scripture.

Now, in my line of work, which is multifaceted, but 1 of my lines of work is to get up every morning and walk with my students at 6 in the morning.

So I walk an hour every day with my students.

And if you don't stay focused, you can get into many different areas of conversation.

And so I like to be focused, you know, so I write songs and then I teach them songs.

Like last week I was meditating on collisions.

I call it collisions because it's for the collisions of life, Colossians chapter 3.

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom and teaching, warning others in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with joy in your heart to the Lord.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom and teaching, warning others in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with joy in your heart to the Lord.

But all through the week I heard them singing that song.

You know, 1 was complaining and the other said, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, you know.

And also with your kids, you know, my kids were, they went out on the Sabbath and they were at this, we were at some other place and the people had kayaks and everything else and they got in the kayaks and they were in the river and they started swimming and I thought, you know, this is not really something that they should be doing necessarily on Sabbath to this intentional thing.

And I mean, you might disagree with me, but.

And I realized, man, I'm not gonna turn this around with a normal divine statement from on high.

I, being your father, do admonish you not to do this.

You want to hear the song I came up with?

If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable and shall honor not doing your own way, nor seeking your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words.

Then you shall delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father for the mouth of the Lord.

Have spoken, sing with me, And you shall delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Now, at first they're like, oh dad, you're embarrassed us singing these songs, you know, and everything else, but then I heard my little son James.

And you shall, he's got a big voice, delight thyself in the Lord, he's in his room, and I will cause you to, and then at breakfast, I will feed you with the heritage, Jacob your father, they're eating breakfast, you know.

And then I hear them singing to each other, and pretty soon, they're talking about what that text means.

And so, I mean, how is it that you can become questionable?

They give a reason for the hope that is in you.

You know, more direct approach is, I remember a nurse I was working with when I was, you know, a kid.

I was, what was I, 23 or something like that.

It's like a kid said to me yesterday, he goes, I'm 16 years old and you just don't understand me.

And I said, actually, I've been 16 quite a number of times.

So, the first time was the hardest though, I said I admit that.

The Joy of Living Beyond Caprice, Inclination & Impulse

Father in heaven, we're thankful that it's really your testimony that fuels our testimony.

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.

In other words, by your testimony, by your blood, by what you have done, by your cross, by your claiming even your blood at this time for us in that heavenly sanctuary.

That's your testimony and our testimony is to point to yours.

So today we ask that your Spirit would be with us to that end.

Can you log back in here to the computer?

I'm going to put some logs on my computer.

I decided to just share a little testimony today about the work that I've been involved in and we'll then look at Luke chapter 10, which is the basis of a familiar piece of artwork on the Loma Linda campus.

And I guess it's been 10 years that I've been ministering at this location in Weimar, first with Amazing facts and then moving over to Weimar Institute.

So the last decade of our lives has been spent here.

And our institute, I guess tagline or mission is summarized from Matthew 935, where it says Jesus went about teaching, preaching, healing, the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and disease among the people, and then coming out of that little line to heal a hurting world.

And since that time, the college was restarted in 2008.

And I actually was serving as the first dean.

That's not something to laugh about, but I was.

And all of the different programs began to be restarted there, natural science, nursing, business, theology, education, psychology, and then some certificate programs.

And it became clear that when you get to the college age, people don't want to invest in something they don't think has credibility and that means for people accreditation.

And so over that this last 10 years there's been steps made there towards that and the Institute has achieved candidacy status and its institutional student learning outcomes have been clearly identified and everybody on the campus knows what they are.

And it looks like that candidacy status has a strong chance of changing to accreditation here very shortly.

And the recommending team that came to our campus has scrutinized our program and said, we are recommending you to the people that make the decision for accreditation.

That's quite an amazing thing, but it actually is very concerning to me because I've seen many institutions that are accredited kind of lose their focus and our focus there at Weimar has been to reach around the world with a global focus with the New Star Program.

And we have a large data set that is being called again for various scientific studies.

But the thing that excites me is that we have had some amazing spiritual results as we've had a new chaplain in that program.

And this past year, there were 50 commitments to Christ and his church.

And then the Depression Recovery Program is another program that I have the joy of serving with.

The New Star program runs 12 times a year on the campus.

The Depression Recovery Program runs 5 times.

And in those 5 times, we're seeing amazing clinical results and research that's coming, but also spiritual results.

And about 50% to 70% of people that attend that program make decisions for Christ and his church.

And then there was something that really troubled me when I arrived.

And that was when I started to go door to door, I realized that people in the community didn't even know what Weimar was.

And they said, well, what do you guys do over there?

So we decided to hold some free clinics that were kind of the precursors to a number of other clinics.

But we held a number of free clinics on our campus.

And the people so appreciated that that the Lord saw fit to bring a team to actually open a clinic, a medical clinic, and also a dental clinic.

And now there's 20, 000, it's probably more than that now, but 20, 000 visits a year.

And people in the community are coming to the clinic and they just love the physicians and the staff.

And of course, none of these things matter unless you're working together with a local congregation.

Series

Morning Devotional

Ready to Give a Reason - The Clinician & Apologetics

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Plenary

When God is Silent

44m

Justification by Faith

A Legal Biblical View of this Core Teaching - Part 4

57m

Sabbath and the Divinity of Christ

1h 3m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

16 The Mark of the Beast and the Seal of God

1h 14m

Plenary

Hope Beyond Tomorrow

56m

Last Day Events

Armageddon and the Seven Last Plagues

1h 5m

These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 2

46m

My Dream and His Dream - A Story of Dependence

56m

The Parables

The Mustard Seed and Leaven

33m

His Truth Is Marching On

49m

Hebrews 11- Faith

15 The Faith of Rahab

34m

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the Meek

39m

Sound Doctrine