Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Jesus, the Way, the Truth, the Life

Jed Genson

Jodi Genson

You Must Be Born Again - Part 1

Our Father, it's such a joy to be able to come into your presence this morning.

Thank you for your people that have come here.

I pray you'll bless them and be with them in a special way.

And Fathers, as we go through these talks, it's not just theology, it's just real life stuff that you've done and you've taught in our lives how it works.

So we want to share with these folks so they hopefully will have a deeper experience with you, a more peaceful walk.

And so we invite you into this room, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

You know, I have a friend, I had a friend, he died now, but older gentleman, and he, Jody had had an ectopic pregnancy, and we used that experience, which was not fun, but in order to share Jesus Christ with people.

And that we're going through the same situation that she was going through.

And we were able to encourage and share with folks the love of God through that experience.

I shared with somebody and then they shared with somebody else and finally some person asked me if I would share it at camp meeting in Washington State.

So I shared that, and this gentleman, after the meeting, came up and said, I want what you have.

And so in my mind I'm praying, well Lord, what is he talking about?

And so the thought came to my mind, asking about his relationship with Jesus Christ.

And so I asked him, so Bill, how's things with you and Jesus?

He says, well, you know, I went to a series of meetings about 25 years ago.

She didn't get a paper, or he didn't get a paper.

Okay, So, the thought came to my mind asking about his relationship with Christ.

And so he said, well, I went to a series of meetings about 25 years ago and learned about the Sabbath and 2300 days and all these types of things.

But then this nagging thought kept coming back, asking about Christ and how he fits into his life.

Well, you know, I worked my way up through the church.

I was a deacon and an elder and I became a head elder and I've been head elder for several years.

And so the nagging question came back asking about Jesus.

And so I said, well, how are things with you and Jesus?

Okay, now I have found this to be true in a number of our members.

And so that's why we're starting at some of the basic things about the gospel and how it works.

The proud heart strives to earn salvation, but both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Okay, does that take some stress off of you?

Okay, you don't have to try to be good enough so God will like you.

He went through all that strife and everything just for you and me individually.

Okay, without me, Jesus said you can do nothing.

See, the proud heart strives to earn salvation.

There must be something I can do to earn it, enough works or something.

My dad was a logger, and we followed the timber around whenever there was a job.

And they enjoyed playing pool and dancing and sitting in the tavern and those types of things.

And so I grew up on the streets basically a lot of the time.

While they were out having fun, this is my bedroom, every once in a while when things were so late, I would end up sleeping in the back of the tavern.

And then on weekends, it was really cool.

I really liked that because then I could go to the local theater.

And on Saturday nights, they had double features.

So I could spend almost till 01:00 in the morning in the theater.

And then I'd head home, I was 5 or 6 years old, long ways away, walking over a scary bridge.

I remember being totally freaked out most of the time, just fearful.

And then I'd go home and no 1 would be there.

So you were allowed to do that in the room?

Oh yeah, allowed, I mean yeah, I had no other option.

I mean they were in the tavern playing pool and, hey, I missed you.

Washington State, a little town called North Bend is east of Seattle about 26 miles.

It's a beautiful, it's a really a beautiful place to grow up.

My dad and my mom both took the Lord's name in vain.

That's about the only thing I knew about God.

And so first grade I got kicked out of school for swearing, public school, because That's what my environment was all about.

My mom swore, my dad swore, their friends swore, everybody was swearing, so I thought that was just normal behavior.

And so I grew up swearing, so first grade I was sent home, I found out that was not normal behavior.

And this is a picture later on after I grew up.

But so I just started hanging out with my friends and doing what my friends did.

And God was not a part of it, the equation.

But then I had to find this truth out here.

Apart from Christ we are dead in trespasses and sins, children of wrath.

And apart from Christ we love darkness and hate the light, and that's the way I was.

Apart from Christ, our hearts are cold and hard like a stone.

So I was totally self-centered and wanted things my way and didn't care about other people.

Apart from Christ, we are at enmity, or what's in the word for enmity?

The Sanctified Life, a Lifelong Process - Part 2

Our Father which art in heaven Lord you've given us the gift of life today That means you have a purpose in us living Lord today we want to know you in a deeper way than we've ever known you before.

This is not just theology or anything, it's real life stuff.

We talk a lot about it, but what's the nuts and bolts about it?

So Lord, yesterday we talked about justification, that you're the justifier.

In John 14.6 It says you are the way, you are the truth, and you are the life.

And so we want to make that a practical experience in our life, how you're the way in our life, how you're the truth.

So please bless us as we share together today.

And we love you and we thank you in Jesus' name, Amen.

God looks at us and he sees Jesus Christ's perfect character wrapping us up.

Okay, now today we're gonna talk about the second part of the gospel.

In Revelation 14, 6, we have these 3 angels that are flying in the midst of heaven, right?

And so sometimes we just brush over that first angel, but the first angel is carrying the everlasting gospel.

And if you look at the world, the everlasting gospel is kind of confusing.

There's a lot of different ideas about the gospel.

But the 2 main points of the gospel is we're justified by faith in Christ alone, and the second part is we're sanctified by faith in Christ alone.

Okay, now sanctifying, this is a part that the humanity and divinity are combined.

We're working together to surrender our lives over to Jesus in the practical aspects of our life, things that we war against, the temptations and things of the flesh, and how we have victory over those things.

So what happens after I give my life to Jesus?

Yesterday we gave our lives to Jesus Christ, brand-new, fresh, never, it's never been like that before, it was brand-new, and you were justified, you were cleansed from your sins and righteousness, and you recovered with His perfect robe of righteousness, right?

Okay, now He gives you His own righteousness.

We went through that quite a bit yesterday, and this is out of the present truth, January 30th, 1890.

The moment the sinner lays hold of Christ by faith, his sins are no longer upon him.

Christ stands in the sinner's place and declares, I have borne their guilt.

You shouldn't be bearing your own guilt right now.

You shouldn't feel guilty about anything.

We accepted His peace and joy and forgiveness.

You know, it's lawful to say amen in this class if you'd like to, okay?

The moment you surrender yourself wholly to Him in simple faith, Jesus accepts you and encircles you in His arms of love.

He holds You more firmly than you can grasp him.

He holds you Jody had a story where you found that that statement It's not our holding on to Christ as him holding on as us Once you share that that thought you had how you came up to that conclusion, because when we're in California.

Okay, I don't know if any of you have had this experience where you've been in a Sabbath school class or a prayer meeting and it's testimonial time and people will be praising God for him helping them find keys or you know whatever the situation was and then someone will come up and say I let go of the hand of God and I fell this week and I don't know what to do.

And people are constantly letting go, letting go, letting go, have you heard that?

And maybe you have experienced that, I've let go of the hand of God and I blew it.

You know, it's like this cut across my grain and it almost left me with no hope.

I thought, does my salvation depend on my hold on Christ?

And so I asked the pastor, I asked the Sabbath school teacher and they couldn't give me an answer.

And so I continued to wrestle with God in prayer.

And then 1 day as I was studying and doing my devotions, I was reading through the book of Acts of the Apostles.

And I found this wonderful statement, and I can't quote it verbatim.

It says something like this, if our salvation depended upon our hold on him, now was that a direct answer?

Our grasp on him may seem feeble, and it is, isn't it?

And I'll find that for you, and I'll send it to you in an email.

It says, it goes on, it says, his love is that of an elder brother.

So long as we maintain our union with him, no 1 can pluck us out of his hand.

So our challenge is to maintain that union with Christ.

Come to the light and triumph in God, then shall Your peace be as a river and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.

Christ's object lesson is, righteousness is right doing.

That's a definition for righteousness, doing what is right.

Now, in and of ourselves, because we're carnal and we're self-centered, we can't do what's right.

But we connect ourselves to Jesus Christ and He's done what is right.

He will help us to do what is right in every situation.

And you're going to have to ask yourself, well what is right in this situation?

And it is by the deeds that all will be judged.

Satan is Defeated - Part 3

Father in heaven, thank you for this new day and I pray for your Holy Spirit.

I pray that we can make this message so clear and simple that we'll go out of here rejoicing because we've been set free.

He is also the truth and the truth is that Satan is defeated.

Her favorite team is the Green Bay Packers.

And she is the only girl on her school's football team.

And I think she's a receiver because I went to practice 1 time.

Danielle is her older sister by 11 months and 3 days Danielle is a girly girl Danielle loves music and she loves dance and she loves talent shows and she loves dresses Zoe does not like dresses now Typically, they get along really fine.

I mean, they're close, they love each other, but sometimes it doesn't always go smoothly And they got into a little squabble.

And so, Danielle told Zoe to stop doing whatever she was doing, and Zoe answered like this.

Well, don't we sometimes feel that, you know, towards someone else who tries to bully us or someone who's being bossy?

Well, that's kind of what we need to say to the devil.

You're not the boss of me anymore, right?

So in the morning, this is how we, This is how we tell him that he's not the boss of you.

In the morning, you say, Lord, in the morning, I will direct my prayer unto you.

So in the morning, you get up, you say, you will hear my voice ascending high.

That's how you receive power to say no, that you are not the boss of me.

Scripture says in Hebrews 2 14 that Christ took on human nature, human nature, our nature, that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil.

Through death Jesus destroyed the power of the devil.

He did it back then, which means that it's not alive anymore, right, if it's been destroyed?

First John 3.8, he who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

For this purpose, the Son of God was manifest that he might destroy the works of the devil.

And another 1, Desire of Ages, page 311, says this, the plan of redemption contemplates, contemplates what?

Our complete recovery from the power of Satan.

Christ always separates the contrite soul from sin.

Christ came that he might destroy the work of the devil.

He always separates the contrite soul from sin.

The father, it was his good pleasure to lay upon the son the sins of the world.

So if the power of the devil is crushed, then where does that leave us?

Continuing, He came to destroy the works of the devil and He has made provision that the Holy spirit shall be imparted to every repentant soul to do what?

Now I'm going to throw out this word that some people do not like to hear.

It's called being made perfect in Christ.

Some people gasp, well, that's never going to happen.

The Holy Spirit shall be imparted, given, to keep us from sinning.

Now, if we do away with the Holy Spirit, what hope do we have?

To trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." We've been given power and authority over the devil and over his power.

Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that keeps us from sinning.

Tempter comes to me and he tempts me to eat a Snickers bar.

And so I just stand my ground and I say, you're not the boss of me.

He's the 1, through the Holy Spirit, that keeps me from sinning.

Jed talked about the power of choice yesterday.

When I see a Snickers bar, which I have to confess is a weakness of mine, when I see them and they have those jumbo sizes that have 2 in there.

I usually buy 1 so we can share, but I know he's not going to eat it.

How to Meet the Enemy - Part 4

We're going to be talking about how to meet the enemy today.

And I'm going to tell you just a brief story here.

We were taking, we took our students on a weekend camp out.

This is Highway 410 going up to Chinook Pass in beautiful Washington State, Pacific Northwest.

And once you get up to the top of the pass, there's this beautiful lake.

And boom, Mount Rainier just kind of sticks out there.

Now we're coming home, driving on this nice little mountain highway, Highway 410.

When I'm looking off to the side and I see the river and I there's this little road over there with a little rocks coming, you know, big boulders coming down.

But anyway, all of a sudden, I see a car coming and he doesn't make the curve and he goes right off, right off down into the river.

So, this verse here, I'm going to, I am going to relate the story to this verse.

1 Peter 5, 8, be sober, let's say it, be sober, be vigilant for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion swacks about seeking whomever he may devour.

It literally means I am calm and controlled.

Now can you see how this verse is going to relate to my story?

I see this car going off the cliff and I go, quick!

And we drove into that campground over there.

And I'm just like freaking out, thinking this guy's going to die.

I drive up this 1 campsite and I go, call 9-1-1 quick!

And anyway, find out the guy didn't get hurt, crawled out of his car, and you know, I'm just like, oh, and my daughter and my niece were in the back seat, and as we're driving, I said this, stay in the car.

You have your wits about you and presence of mind.

So when we have to meet the enemy, we have to have a presence of mind.

And for some of us, that's going to take some work.

Because we have filled this mind, some of us have more years than others, with a bunch of garbage that has to be replaced.

You can say, just get it out of your mind, that's all good, but you've got to replace it.

Now, I have a hard time memorizing anymore because I'm past the age of 30.

Okay, so now here we have confirm, oh here we go.

I have some marching orders for you today.

It says, confirm and establish them in the faith and educate them like well-drilled soldiers how to meet the enemy's attacks and vanquish them.

So I thought when I read that I thought how do we do that?

Well through Bible study and prayer we got so we have some ideas here for you.

Now Steps to Christ page 71 says this, When the mind dwells upon self, it is turned away from Christ, the source of strength and life.

We sometimes, we have been in so many circles where people do not have assurance of salvation.

Somehow they've gotten the idea in their mind that if I say, or if I have assurance that I have salvation in Christ Jesus, that I am self-righteous.

God wants us to have assurance of salvation.

He does not want us to doubt His love, nor His power to save.

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Jesus, the Way, the Truth, the Life

Keep it Alive - Part 5

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