Michigan Camp Meeting 2023: The Boldness of the Cross

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Sharing the Three Angels’ Messages in 30 Seconds

Oleg Lotca

01 Sharing the Three Angels’ Messages in 30 Seconds

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2023 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Lord, thank you that you gave us the opportunity to be here, help us to learn all that we can, and please help Daddy's words to be yours and not his, in the name of Jesus, Amen.

What a joy it is for us, for my family and I, to be at Michigan Camp Meeting and this is the first camp meeting.

At the end, as a matter of fact, if there is someone on the front who wants to volunteer and go back there so that we leave some front row seats, okay, it will be taken now, so no need to do what I just asked you to do.

So Yaro, why don't you go and try to bring 1 or 2 chairs from 1 of the neighboring classes for those who are standing.

So, I was saying that it's such a joy for us to be at camp meeting because this is a very first camp meeting that we'll ever attend.

So we have been for a day in SoCal camp meeting, then in Central California.

And camp meeting is not camp meeting when you only go for 1 day, is that right?

I would like to see here, is there anyone else who is like us who is a newbie to camp meeting?

Okay, we have someone else and someone else is this your first time at camp meeting as well Yeah Okay the whole thing first time well Yes, if you can wait just a little bit, there are more chairs coming.

And there is a chair on this side, so somebody can take this 1 here.

So we're coming, my family and I, we're coming, as a matter of fact, I'll share this picture there.

That's my family there, my wife Karen, and Yarrow who went to look for the chairs, then Anya, Ian, and Yana.

So the names are a little bit to honor my place of birth.

Moldova is 1 of the former USSR republics.

And when I was 15, I left home by rebellion, left church for about 11 years and by God's grace, just same as your kids if they're out or your relatives, the Lord will bring them back.

You keep praying and doing what you have to do for the Lord, and the Lord will take care of those who are out there.

And then I went to Argentina to study theology, and that's where I met Karen.

Karen is a nurse and psychologist, And at the university we met, we got married, we had 2 children in Argentina and 2 here.

So she told me that if I didn't learn Spanish, she wouldn't feed me.

By the way, By the way, that's an excellent strategy.

I'm actually, I'm probably more fluent now in Spanish than I am in English and Russian and all of the above.

So if someone wants to teach someone your own language, ma'am, that's a good strategy that worked for me.

So okay, let's just look real quick at what we'll be looking at here.

And I'm sorry for those of you way back there, I'll read it because it's probably, you can't see it.

So today is Monday, we'll look at why the 3 angels' messages.

And you know, this group, if you came to this seminar, You almost don't need that part.

Because if you came to, you said, oh, how to share it in 30 seconds, I want that.

So if you want to share the 3 angels messages, that means you're already convinced that that is the message that we have to share.

But still, it's good for us to look back and to see if we can learn something new or refresh that we already know.

So we'll look, what are the results today?

We'll look, what are the results of preaching for 179 years?

That's from 1844, it's been 179 years, and we'll see what has happened to the 3 angels' messages during this time.

Tomorrow is gonna be the practical part that probably came for today.

How to practically share the 3 angels messages in 30 seconds.

Tomorrow we'll do the examples of how we do that.

My son, Yara, and myself will be giving you examples of how we're doing it in the store, while you're waiting in the line, how we're doing it with the person at the counter, how we're doing it just anywhere.

Share the 3 Angels messages everywhere you go, and it only takes 30 seconds to do it.

It doesn't always end up in 30 seconds but the initial part is 30 seconds.

So then Wednesday we'll look at how to organize a distribution plan with family, church, friends so that the 3 angels messages will be a thing not only for your church to know, but your entire community.

The town where God has placed you needs to know about the 3 angels messages.

So Thursday, the inspired methods of sharing the 3 angels messages.

We'll be looking at what methods did God leave us, what channels we know the message but what channels did God leave us to with to share the 3 Angels messages.

And Friday, practical training and outreach.

Friday, we actually will have about an hour and a half outreach that we'll be organizing and putting in practice what we'll be learning, go outside and share the 3 angels messages with people.

Not everybody, you don't have to come, but you will miss on Tons and tons and tons if you don't come.

You'll be so, so blessed by what's gonna be happening on Friday and we're praying for good weather.

But for a good missionary, there's never bad weather.

A good missionary sees positive in everything.

If it rains, the good missionary says, okay, then that means the people will be home and I can meet them so otherwise they probably would have been somewhere in the park or some but this this time they'll be home okay so the question is, why the 3 angels messages?

So within our church, within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, we have leaders and members that are saying that the 3 angels messages should be the last thing that we should be sharing in this day and age.

They say in Michigan you don't usually hear that because Michigan is a little bit different but on the West Coast where we are coming from, you hear that a lot.

They're saying, and these are lovely and wonderful brothers and sisters that we have, that we love them.

It's just they didn't get to where you are yet.

But what they say, they say the 3 angels messages was relevant in Ellen White's time.

So, and they have, if you listen to them, they have a good reason to say what they say.

If it's correct or not, that's another thing, but they have a very good reason, according from their perspective, why they're...

It's so good not to jump and say, oh no, the threat...

I preach a lot in San Francisco, in the area, and you know what San Francisco is famous for.

A lot of liberal thinking, progressive thinking and I was blessed to sit with pastors, with ladies pastors, men pastors, who would tell me this is an antiquated message.

This is not something that we should do here.

And I was so blessed to hear why they think that.

And I was so blessed that they, after talking and after being a little bit together, they have decided to share the 3 angels' messages in their communities.

I'll share with you tomorrow and day after tomorrow some testimonies of that.

How I was invited to this church and I'll just give you a little bit now and rest tomorrow.

This church that has drums and they're hiring evangelical performers to come and perform on Sabbath for them.

My wife had to take the kids out for the time of song service because I was praying, Lord give me strength so that this wouldn't bring me down and your spirit would still be in me.

Because really, I have never heard, even in the world, when I was in the world, music like that.

So in a church like that I said, why would this pastor invite someone like me?

I mean she knows exactly what I'm preaching, but she invited me.

And then we had a good conversation, and in the afternoon we were doing outreach together in the community.

And that church started distributing the 3 angels' messages in their community after that day, and we're praising God for that.

Let's go into some spirit of prophecy quotes And I'll tell you that I'm not shying away from spirit of prophecy quotes, and I know in Michigan I probably shouldn't even say that because you guys are used to this.

I'm looking at your camp meeting here it's different.

02 Sharing the Three Angels’ Messages in 30 Seconds

Father in heaven, what a blessing it is to be alive in this solemn, very, very solemn time of the earth's history.

Father, you have given us the privilege and that miracle when you bring out of Laodicean condition into the 144, 000.

Oh Father the miracle of miracles will happen in our times.

Father we want to listen to you, we want to hear what you have to say and we want to follow you wherever you go and whatever you show us that we have to do, we want to do it not questioning, not asking why, but just if you tell us, just do it.

Lord, please bless each family represented here.

You know that each 1 of us here we are eager to do your will.

Teach us Lord, speak to us this morning in the name of Jesus.

Yesterday we have talked about the importance of the 3 Angels messages and it's almost redundant for this group.

Okay, so here is the work of the secretary.

Again, he saw someone else coming in and he said, if anyone did not receive the card, raise your hand and Yarrow will run and give it to you.

So we were talking to this group about the importance of the 3 Angels messages.

It's almost redundant because you guys came here because you believe that the 3 Angels messages are important.

But when you think of it, we had 179 years to preach the 3 Angels messages.

And if you say, do the main news networks, do they know what 3 Angels messages are?

Do the neighbors of our church, immediate neighbors of our church that we have probably given them food and we have invited them to events.

And what are the ways, of course we can always say we did give them a chance, they did not accept it.

There are some inspired ways how we can distribute the 3 angels' messages.

So it's gonna be in their possession, and then it's up to the Holy Spirit and them.

Because when it says that the judgment will come, God will never judge anyone who had not had access to the full truth.

So the full truth will have to be everywhere And God will have to give multiple opportunities to people to know the full truth.

And they would have to reject, reject, reject, and God will have to show that, that he has given them the opportunities and that they have rejected.

Now, what would happen with a neighbor of our church that would say, well, I got the flyer or something and I didn't go, but we never really got the 3 Angels messages in their possession.

But we need to place the full 3 angels messages into every home of our cities.

But I want to just go quickly what will, yesterday we talked why the 3 Angels messages and today how to practically share it with, share the 3 angels messages in 30 seconds.

Tomorrow, how to organize a distribution plan with family, church, and friends.

Tomorrow we'll have that details and practical approach to how to do it.

Because I believe if all of us take this seriously and we don't only think how can I do it but how can I be a channel of multiplication how can what I know and what I hear multiply for at least 10 people at least 10 people to be on the same page and to know that now is the time?

Okay, many times I compare our Seventh-day Adventist Church to a train.

A train has been designed, there is a special design for a train, is that right?

To take people and load from point A to point B.

Is, If you are loading books, great controversy, like we do many times, tons of them in the backpack and in a suitcase, and you're walking and you need to get to a town about 40 miles away, and you have a choice to walk or to catch a train, What's the better option?

You put all your load, you sit down and say, oh what a blessing.

But what happens if the train runs out of fuel and you have to push it around?

So our Seventh-day Adventist church, I compare it to a train that God has designed perfectly.

God has designed our church in such a marvelous way to take us from point A to point B, okay?

And we are all the 22 million, 23 million people pushing the train.

And how, you know, the train is designed to go at 50, 60 miles an hour.

And when you push it, how fast do you go?

And then everybody who is pushing, We are starting to fight with each other and 1 side says, you know, we need to change the wheels This train is going too slow there.

So, so within on people that are pushing this train are starting to think of ways why is it going so slow and everybody started have you ever heard people saying I've been in leadership for 10 years, I've been in charge of the Sabbath school for 10 years, I'm tired, I can't do it anymore.

And then the 2 groups are fighting with each other who has the best strategy so that the train would go faster.

And then we have this wonderful idea to keep adding cars to the train.

And everybody is so tired and when we see cars being added we say oh my goodness, how are we gonna do it?

Friends the train the church has not been designed to be pushed around It has been designed to run with the fuel that has been promised from above.

What a change when the train is fueled up and then you jump on it.

That's a blessing because a church becomes a curse if you have to push it around.

And then our young people are leaving the church or people are leaving the church saying, oh, this church is like, it's not what we thought it would be let's look for another 1 they will never find another 1 the church is the right the correct church is the vehicle that God has designed The only problem is that it's out of fuel.

Do you wanna give your chair here to the guys?

The first will be last and the last will be first.

I was thinking if you would come or not and I'm so glad you did.

So it's not going to happen, nothing will happen until we understand the true problem of our church and that will address the problem directly.

When we invent some strategy, some human strategy, some evangelistic strategy and we start going from 0.0001 to 0.0002 and everybody starts celebrating and says, now we've found the solution to the problem.

And we don't realize that we keep pushing it around and that we'll never get to heaven, we'll never get to the end times, we'll never get to where God wants us to be without the fuel.

We read this text yesterday, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit.

That is the promise that Jesus left with us.

You remember what was the text that in Acts 1.8, what does it say?

But you shall receive power, that fuel that you need so that you don't push it around.

Do you know, If you invite people, you push the train around and you invite people, come, come push with us.

Why do you think our young people are leaving the church?

It's not because of the music that we have.

It's not because of the pews that they are 1800, you know, some people say, oh, this is so old style, old fashion.

03 Sharing the Three Angels’ Messages in 30 Seconds

Dear Father in Heaven, thank you so much for a new day, a beautiful day.

And as we come, we want our hearts and minds open To you, your word, your Holy Spirit, teach us, mold us, make us into your image.

So what we have, what we're discussing here is the 3 angels messages and how to share it in 30 seconds.

And yesterday we shared a way how we can do that.

Was that longer or shorter than 30 seconds?

The initial contact, and I'll just do it for those who came in today for the first time.

We believe through the inspiration, Ellen White tells us that the 3 angels messages have to be distributed like never before.

And She also says that this book, The Great Controversy, contains the last warning to the world.

Basically this is the 3 Angels' Messages is described in this book better than in any other book besides the Bible.

But what happens with the Bible, because of the spiritual blindness people read the Bible the evangelicals and they it goes right over the top they miss the points and this has been given to us as a magnifying glass for people who have problems with the site, spiritual site, this helps us to understand the issues.

So if we believe that this contains the 3 angels messages and it unpacks it in a special way, then we can share this book and by sharing this we're sharing the 3 angels messages.

Yesterday we were reading as well that the health message is there what is as closely connected to the third angels message as the arm to the body.

So you can't separate the message from, the 3 angels messages from the health messages.

That's why we invented a health magazine on stress, anxiety, depression in the book.

I went into a store and I said, ma'am, I have, welcome, good to have you back.

We're delivering a gift and this is your copy.

I said, oh, she says, no, no, no, no, no, you keep it to yourself.

And you'll find people who will talk to you like that.

2 options, I had 2 options to just leave and say, oh, I'm sorry.

But I said, ma'am, on this side, I flipped the book and I said, it's a health magazine on stress, anxiety, and depression.

She sounded like she did, she acted like she did.

I said, ma'am, I can, but I recommend that you take the book as well.

Don't worry, just leave it somewhere on your shelves behind all of your books.

And at some point in life, you might want to read it.

That's why we see the results of that over and over and over.

So when something is inspired, it's such a blessing to have the inspired methods because God knows how God knew how people will be in the 21st century.

He knew that they will be like no thank you so he says you need the health message.

God knew that everybody will be stressed depressed and anxious And when you tell them this magazine is on stress, anxiety, depression, oh how did you know that I needed it?

We'll talk about this how to organize outreach with your church, and we'll talk about how to order those as well.

For now, just to answer directly your question, the question was how to order Thrive Magazine only.

For now, we don't have Thrive Magazine separately.

We only have them together as a package with the book.

The reason why, because we have printed, we didn't print more of the magazines.

We printed exact amount of magazines and exact amount of books.

So if we sell magazines separately, then the books will be without a magazine and we said, no, bad idea.

But in the future, we'll have the magazine separately as well, not now.

So for now if you want the magazine you get it for a very very cheap price but it comes together with a book so you'll have the benefit of that too.

So we'll just look, We have looked on Monday why the 3 Angels Messages, what are the results.

Yesterday, how to practically share the 3 Angels Messages in 30 seconds.

Today, how to organize a distribution with your family, church, and friends.

And we'll concentrate mainly on your church.

How to get, guys I see a chair back there, a chair back there.

So yeah, the people are attracted to the 3 angels messages and I say amen.

So okay, just a reminder and to refresh those who were here yesterday and those who weren't, what do we do?

We knock on the door and I say, hi, my name is Oleg and I'm delivering a gift in the community.

Most of the time, or many times, I should say thank you.

Many times people will say thank you, boom, shut the door.

The only thing you have to do after that, just pray for that person.

That's, we'll talk about that, the objections and all of that.

All of that, we'll talk about that in just a moment.

But just for you to know that if you forget this canvas, don't worry, the only thing you have to remember, here's a gift for you.

We've tried to make it as easy as possible.

As a matter of fact, I need to tell you the story how this came about.