Hartland Spring Convocation 2019: Ye Shall be Witnesses

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Jason Sliger

Blessed to be a Blessing

Father in heaven, our request this morning is simple.

We pray that you would send the Holy Spirit to take the words that are spoken and to send them home to our hearts.

May we be receptive, Lord, to what you have in store for us both this morning and throughout the rest of our time together worshiping you on this, your Sabbath day.

Thank you, Father, for hearing our prayer and for answering it, because we pray it in the merciful name of Jesus, Amen.

Lillias Trotter was a young lady who was raised in a privileged home, 1 of great wealth.

And in her early 20s, her mother took a few of her paintings and brought them before the great famous art critic, John Ruskin, for him to examine and take a look at.

When Ruskin saw the paintings of Lilius, he was moved to his core And he begged her to let him launch her career as an artist.

He believed, he told her, that she would become 1 of the greatest living painters and do things that would become immortal.

This type of stuff is intoxicating for young people when they hear it.

Not only was Lilius raised in a wealthy home, but she was raised also in a God-fearing home.

And the catch that Ruskin told her is that she would have to give herself completely up to art.

For a day or so, Lilius was just enthralled with her prospects of becoming a great artist that would make paintings that would become immortal.

But the more she thought about it from a Christian perspective, the more she became uncomfortable.

And then she penned these words, she said, I see clear as daylight now.

I cannot give myself to painting, in a way he means, and continue to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

I believe that there are young people here at Heartland that have the same mentality.

So Lilius turned from pursuing her career as an artist and gave herself wholeheartedly to the Lord in his service.

And in fact, if you were to go in search of her paintings, you will not find them hanging in the great artists galleries and museums in the world.

They are filed away in a obscure museum in Oxford, England, and to see them, you would have to ask to be able to see them.

But she lived the next 4 decades of her life as a pioneer missionary to the people of Algeria in North Africa, meeting people who had never seen a white woman before.

For Lilius, the gospel commission was transformative in her life.

A young girl by the name of Lillian Trotter, 23 years old, she was engaged to her sweetheart.

He was a young minister who was getting ready to launch his ministry career.

And 1 day she went to listen to a missionary from India share about the work that was being done in far off lands and her heart was moved.

As she contemplated the work that needed to be done in other parts of the world, she felt the calling of God pulling strongly upon her heart to go and serve in Africa as a missionary.

Well, she shared this with her now fiance, the call that God was giving to her to go to the mission field, And he did not share that same call.

10 days before they were to get married, Lillian Trotter broke off their engagement because She had to obey her master's command for her life.

Sold all of her earthly possessions, sailed to Alexandria, and founded an orphanage in Egypt and worked there tirelessly for 50 years, never married.

She became known as the mother of the Nile and was given the opportunity to form the lives of some 25, 000 Egyptian young people who were orphans.

For Lillian Trasher, the gospel commission was transformative in her life.

And as we hear these 2 stories, and there are countless others, I could just go on and on of various missionaries who've done the same thing.

We think, what a sacrifice they have made.

Reminds me of a statement from David Livingston, the great explorer, missionary of the interior of Africa.

He said, if a commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a heavenly king be considered a sacrifice?

Prophets and Kings page 719 says, from no sect, rank, or class of people is the light shining from heaven's throne to be excluded.

The message of hope and mercy is to be carried to the ends of the earth.

Last night we looked at this passage in Matthew chapter 9 where Jesus said, The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

Let me tell you something this morning, and it may be stating the obvious, but the devil knows that the harvest is plenteous, and he's doing everything he can to keep the laborers to be few.

But it's our God-given responsibility, it is our divine marching orders that come hell or high water, we will move forward in sharing the gospel to the far reaches of the world.

There are millions of faceless individuals who have never heard the gospel of Jesus preached.

To go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

And not just go to make them better people, not just go to make them healthier people, not just go to make them healthier people, not just go to make their lives more comfortable and to supply their needs, but to break before them the bread of life.

The 3 angels' messages that God has given us in Revelation, the 14th chapter.

And brothers and sisters, as wonderful as the 1 or 2 or 3 week mission trips are, God is looking for people who will be like Lillian Trotter and Lillias Trotter and Lillian Trasher, who will go and spend their lives ministering to people in the far off distant lands in what some of us might consider as hostile regions of the world.

There God has his children who need to hear the everlasting gospel.

Now let me be quick to say that the short term mission trips are needed.

They transform my life and they are transforming the lives of many young people as they go and they see what the world is like.

There they feel that call to go into the mission field.

But we need more workers that are not just working here in North America, that are going to the distant lands, as we saw in our illustration last night, working among those who are unreached.

It is a bismal statistic that 1 out of 10 missionaries are working among the unreached people.

We work as though this is going to be our home forever.

What's that old song, this world is not my home, I'm...

Have we overlooked the blessing in the Bible that Scripture tells us that it is more blessed to give than to receive?

In North America we have become intoxicated with receiving more and more information.

Sermon after sermon, Sabbath school class after Sabbath school class.

And I'm not saying that we shouldn't do those things.

We need to do those things, But we don't want to stop there.

Because 1 who gets and does not give becomes stagnant and what Revelation 3 describes as a Laodicean Christian.

Of course, Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20 is not the first time that God called his people to be a blessing to the world.

We find this invitation numerous times throughout scripture, even in the life of Jesus and his ministry with the disciples.

As Jesus invited Simon and Andrew to come and follow him, he told them that he was going to make them fishers of, right at the very beginning of their ministry.

In Mark chapter 3 and verse 14, Jesus, the Bible tells us that he commissioned the 12 disciples that they might be with him and that he might send them forth to preach.

And then again in Mark 6 and verse 7, the Bible tells us that he called the 12 to him and began to send them out 2 by 2.

Again and again throughout the Bible we find that God calls people to him, he blesses them, and then he sends them out.

Again and again we see this, and you look at the book of Acts, and you see the book of Acts is pregnant with this concept of people who had been blessed by the ministry of Jesus and could not contain themselves, no matter what came their way, whether it was persecution, whether it was accolations, no matter what happened, even if they didn't have the money to supply their needs, they were not going to let anything stop them from spreading the good news that Jesus was coming soon to take us home.

But I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12, Verses 1 through 3, and we find here a passage of scripture that in my humble opinion is foundational to the gospel commission that we are so familiar with.

Genesis chapter 12, we go back to the father of faith here, the great patriarch, the great prophet, Abraham.

And in verses 1 through 3, Abraham, who at this point is still Abram, is having a close communication with his heavenly father.

And the Bible says this, now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a what?

Great nation, Listen to this, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a what?

God blessed so that his descendants could be a what?

A blessing, They were blessed to be a blessing.

The Bible goes on, verse 3, and God repeats himself.

And I will bless them that bless thee, and I will curse him that curse thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

And brothers and sisters, that prophecy or that promise is being fulfilled this morning.

God is blessing His people so that they in turn can be a blessing to all nations, kindreds, and tongues.

My humble opinion, this is foundational to the Gospel Commission.

But I want you to notice something that takes place, And we're going to just kind of trace some history here.

And if you want some good reading this afternoon, you probably won't have time because you're going to come to all of the other programs.

But If you want some additional reading, I would encourage you to go to the book Prophets and Kings, chapter 59, the house of Israel, largely the quotes that I will be sharing with you this morning have been taken from that particular chapter.

There are some very interesting things in there that you may want to read through.

This is from Prophets and Kings, page 703.

It says this promise, the 1 that we just read in Genesis chapter 12, of blessing should have met fulfillment in large measure during the centuries following the return of Israel from the land of their captivity, that is, from Egyptian captivity.

It was God's design that the whole earth be prepared for the advent of Christ.

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Blessed to be a Blessing

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