ASI 2011: Inspired to Finish Strong

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ASI 2011 Plenary Meetings

Doug Batchelor

Be Courageous

And thank you for inviting me to share with you for this opening meeting of the ASI.

And I'd like to welcome you, if you've not been welcomed, to Sacramento.

And on behalf of Sacramento Central Church, and amazing facts, we're so glad to have ASI here in Sacramento.

This has been historically 1 of the best years for weather that we have had in probably half a century.

While much of the country is sweltering, it's just been beautiful here.

And if you have a break in your busy schedule, at some point tomorrow we'd invite you to come by and take a little tour of the Amazing Facts office.

We'd love to just give you a little tour, show you what we do at the Bible School and the media and so forth.

And I'm thankful to be here to open the Word of God with you and talk with you about this very important theme this week, of finishing strong.

And if you would, could I invite you to join me for a moment as we bow our heads and just invite the Lord to speak to us through His word at this time.

Heavenly Father, Lord we desperately need you.

We pray right now not because we deserve any good thing, but we're coming to you and we're pleading the merits of your son Jesus and his blood.

We ask that you would evict anything that might distract us from hearing you speak through your word to our hearts.

We believe we are on the borders of the promised land and yet there's a struggle before us.

Please give us your spirit, courage, and inspire through your word.

In our scripture reading tonight you notice that we chose a passage from the first chapter of Joshua.

And 1 reason that I picked that is Because there's some similarities.

Where right now I believe in a similar situation to Joshua, in that we as God's people have been wandering, and we're at the borders of the promised land.

Now I think it's significant that 3 times, more than any other time in the Bible, God challenges and admonishes Joshua to have courage.

Matter of fact, I'd like to read verses 1, Joshua chapter 1, if you have your Bibles, verses 1 through 9 and notice the emphasis here.

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses my servant is dead now therefore arise go over this Jordan you and all this people to the land that I'm giving them, the children of Israel, every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I've given to you as I said to Moses, from the wilderness of this Lebanon as far as the great river the river Euphrates and all the land of the Hittites and to the great sea towards the going down of the sun shall be your territory." Here Joshua was given a great challenge and after Moses died and they completed the time of mourning God said to Joshua, arise and go, be courageous, be courageous, be courageous.

You know I like history and I was doing some reading on the Civil War not too long ago and it's quite an amazing study and the North never really believed that the South was actually going to turn to violence until the Battle of Bull Run and it sort of caught them off guard.

They thought it was all saber rattling and Lincoln realized he needed to help organize an army in the north to not only defend the north but to advance and to reclaim the Union, to go forward.

So they searched and they found what they thought was the sharpest, brightest mind in the military.

Graduated second in his class at West Point, George McEllen.

And this man was meticulous, he studied battle, his uniform was always spotless, he was a great organizer, he carried himself with an air of confidence and success.

And first thing he said is we need more men.

So they sent some spies from the north off to the south to look at their forces and the spies kept coming back and reporting numbers much bigger than they really were.

And they said, oh, they've got thousands of soldiers.

And so McEllen, he said, we need a bigger army.

And so Lincoln, they did all the recruiting they could and all the drafting they could.

And they were even paying soldiers to come.

It was the biggest army in the world at the time, the Army of the North, 100, 000 soldiers on the border, ready to go into the South to preserve the Union of the United States.

But General George McEllen was so meticulous, he kept organizing and drilling and practicing.

He wrote books on battles, he had studied battles in Europe, and everything was about preparation and logistics and details until Lincoln became so exasperated there's a few little skirmishes that he retreated from.

He had a hundred thousand soldiers and he was afraid to go forward.

Lincoln finally said, I begin to believe that we will never get ready to go forward.

And whenever he retreated from a battle, he said, I did it so we can fight another day.

And he didn't want to put his soldiers in harm's way.

So they loved him for it, but you don't win a war that way.

To win a war, you've got to have courage to go forward.

Why do you think God said 3 times to Joshua, be courageous, be very courageous, be courageous?

Why 3 times to him more than anyone else?

Because Joshua had been there before and because the other people lost courage they wandered a long time.

Could that happen to God's people again near the end of time?

Maybe it already has happened and we're at the Jordan now.

Courage is the state or quality of mind or spirit that enables 1 to face danger, fear or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, resolution and bravery.

Andrew Jackson used to say, 1 man and courage is a majority.

At the borders of the promised land, he told them to go forward once before and they didn't.

They were intimidated by the size of the enemy.

Have we ever been frightened by the odds of reaching the world with the message?

Now I don't want to, last thing I want to do is discourage you.

But sometimes the task before us is daunting.

But I'm always excited when I think about how our church has grown.

I like telling people we have a million members in North America and 17 million plus around the world and that's exciting, that's significant considering we started from nothing.

But then you realize that every year, 80 million new people, after you even factor in all those who have died, 80 million new people are added to the world's population.

And that means every 80 days approximately there are as many people added to the world's population as we have in the world church.

Could that make your knees shake on the borders of the promised land?

Jesus has told us to go into all the world.

He said, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you." What do you think Moses' odds looked like when he first went to Pharaoh, who had completely subjugated these people, and said, let them go.

And then all Pharaoh did was tighten his grip and make them produce bricks without straw.

It didn't look very hopeful, but they probably hadn't factored in the miracle power of God.

And within a matter of weeks, We don't know the exact time, but it was a matter of weeks.

The Egyptians not only said, you can go free, they said, here, take our silver and gold as you leave.

And God parted an ocean and fed them with bread from heaven and gave them water from a rock and delivered them from their enemies.

So when God says to Joshua, be courageous, why?

And who had a better view of God being with Moses than Joshua?

Joshua had a front row seat as the assistant of Moses.

Remember when they were down making the golden calf Joshua didn't even know because he was right up there with Moses on the mountain.

He saw Moses' face shining as he came from the presence of God.

He went with Moses into the tabernacle when God spoke to him.

And he said, as God was with Moses, so I will be with you.

Frank Fournier

Marred in Our Hands

I'm glad to see that you're here, those of you who are, intrepid souls you are.

My name is Frank Fournier, I'm from Eden Valley in Colorado and it's been a tremendous honor, blessing to be asked to do the morning devotions.

I'm glad that you're here and I see there's quite a few more people coming in.

I'll have you turn in your Bibles to Malachi chapter 3.

Malachi chapter 3 and I'm going to ask you after you get there I'm going to ask you to bow your heads with me and we'll talk to the Lord about this little moment shall we bow Heavenly Father Lord you are God.

Down here we find ourselves when comparing ourselves with you to be very weak, to be very sinful, to be very needy in every respect how much we need you.

We recognize that you have a purpose for your people down here in this world, that you long to bring salvation to every soul and that you long to use us.

Heavenly Father, our lives are short and how much we need you.

And this morning we could use some inspiration, we could use some guidance, we could use your words to our hearts.

And so we're asking you by your Holy Spirit that you would communicate so that we may be better prepared after having come here this morning and we thank you in Jesus name, Amen.

Had you turn in Malachi chapter 3 and we're going to start right there with verse 1.

Behold I send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in, behold he shall come saith the Lord of hosts." And then if you look at verse 2 you begin to get a sense of how important or how dangerous or how I don't even know the words that we need to use here this morning but it says who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appears for he's like a refiner's fire and a fuller's soap and naturally I think if we were to look at these verses just on a shallow level, we would begin to think that this is talking about the second coming of Jesus.

But those of you who have been scholars long enough, you recognize this is not talking about the second coming.

This is talking about his coming to his temple.

We're talking about 1844 when Jesus transferred from the holy place of the sanctuary to the most holy place.

In Review and Herald 5, I guess that's May 9, 1893, paragraph 8, it says, after quoting these verses, the coming of Christ, which is here referred to, is not his second advent to this earth, but his coming to the investigative judgment in the most holy place of the sanctuary in heaven.

Thus the message is especially to us who are living in the time of the judgment.

And then we get a little hint here in verse 3 as to what this is exactly talking about.

Verse 3, he, Jesus, who is in the most holy place of the sanctuary, he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.

He shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness then shall the offering of the church members be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old as in former years.

We're living in the anti typical day of atonement.

Last night, I hope you were here, we heard from Pastor Doug Batchelor, amazing, wonderful sermon.

As a matter of fact, I think 3 or 4 or 5 people came over to me and said that sermon was just for you.

But in any case, he was talking about courage and sometime during his talk, he was saying how there are 17 million Seventh-day Adventists in the church today.

But I wonder, I just wonder, at least it would be very interesting for me, if we could grasp how many of the 17 million actually know what Jesus is doing in the most holy place of the sanctuary.

What do you suppose would happen to that number?

I mean, it seems to me that if we're going to be Seventh Day Adventists, understanding that aspect of who we are is probably the most important thing of all and I just wonder how many Seventh Day Adventists who are baptized Seventh Day Adventists actually understand what Jesus is doing in the most holy place of the sanctuary.

We're living in the anti-typical day of atonement.

Ellen White says that Jesus entered upon his final atonement And I like to say that Jesus entered upon his, the final phase of the atonement.

I say it that way because the atonement has come to us by phases.

I believe that when Jesus was in heaven, he and his father covenanted together that if there should be a fall there would be a rescue in that fall.

That began the first phase of the atonement as far as I'm concerned.

And then Jesus condescended to come to this world and then Jesus lived a perfect life while he was here, died an atoning death, resurrected, went to heaven, took up his ministry in the holy place, and finally in 1844 he transferred into the most holy place of the sanctuary to take on the final phase of the atonement.

And you and I need to understand what that means.

Ellen White says we cannot possibly exercise all right faith unless we understand what Jesus is doing in the most holy place of the sanctuary.

When he's done that work there, whether you understand it this morning or not, when he's done, then Revelation 18 verse 1 says that the whole world will be enlightened with the glory of his character because Jesus will have placed his character in his people.

What a blessing that will be, to be sealed with the seal of the living God.

Well, in order to accomplish all of that, Jesus sent 3 messages called the 3 angels messages.

There's 2 purposes to the 3 angels messages.

The first purpose which is the least important which is very very important and I think you'll agree with me but the first purpose of the 3 angels messages is to warn the world as to what is going on, the investigative judgment, the hour of his judgment is come, Jesus is working in the most holy place of the sanctuary and our names are going up before a review and he's trying to determine whether we live up to our opportunities, whether we live up to our privileges as Seventh-day Adventists.

Also the world needs to be warned that Babylon is fallen is fallen.

And of course lastly the third angel's message, the world needs to be warned about the mark of the beast and of course What happens if we receive the mark of the beast?

Ah But there is more important I believe The 3 angels messages were sent to prepare a people to give that warning It's no point giving the warning if we're not prepared to give it.

If we do not reflect what the warning is trying to get to our souls, if we don't know what Jesus is doing in the most holy place, how are we going to do that?

And so in the end, and that's how I would like to start this is all by way of introduction we need to realize that Jesus is trying to seal to himself a people.

He's trying to get his character in our lives.

He's trying to get us not to be deceived or to be led astray.

You know, it says in the 3 angels' messages that they were not deceived with, or they were not corrupted, or they were not, I forget the words, but corrupted with women, which really points to the church.

You know, they're not, how have I got it here, not defiled with false doctrine is really what it's trying to say.

It also says that these people when it's all done will follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes, especially as he went into the most holy place of the sanctuary.

And lastly, and this is to accomplish, this is what it is to accomplish, is that these people will be without fault before the throne of his glory.

So then the whole world will be lightened with his glory when God's people come into line with what Jesus is trying to do.

Now the reason I got interested in studying this at this time is because of a question that a certain young lady asked me.

I was going through my cafeteria there at Eden Valley in Colorado.

It was convention time and we were feeding people and my vice president was cutting watermelon, I believe she was cutting watermelon.

In any case, as I'm walking through this cafeteria, she said, she stopped me and she says, I have a question for you.

She has a lot of questions, not just for me either.

And so she landed this question on me and I would wonder, it would be a blessing to me if I could get you all up here 1 by 1 to answer the question if it was posed to you.

But here's the question, she says, Alan White said that the 3 angels' messages is righteousness by faith in verity.

Actually, Alan White asked, how Alan White said that justification by faith is, or the third angel's message is justification by faith in verity.

And so there's a question there, but never mind, it actually comes out to the same thing as far as I'm concerned.

Justification is the foundation, it's where we go to the cross.

And I think we need to make that precise definition of it.

But I'll tell you what, when you look at the whole 3 angels messages you find out that the object of it all is sanctification.

I have a quotation in third selected messages page 202 paragraph 2.

Sanctification is the object of God in all his dealings with us.

Sanctification is the object of God in all his dealings.

So it doesn't matter what Jesus is doing.

It doesn't matter if he's going to the cross, if he's resurrecting, or if he's going to minister in the holy place of the sanctuary or the most holy place, or if he's moving in your life providentially, in all his dealings with you and with me, what's the object?

Ellen White says the third angel's message is justification or righteousness by faith.

Why is it that when we listen to sermons on the 3 angels message or the third angels message, why is it that our preachers always focus on the mark of the beast and the resulting wrath of God?

Where is righteousness by faith in all of that?

Now, off the cuff, what would you have answered?

I didn't have much time to think, but here's what I said, kind of, you know, I can't reproduce it now, exactly what I said, but I said something like this, righteousness by faith is not explicit in the text, it's not expressed clearly in the text, it's there by implication, it's there by Contrast.

If you look at the beast, you're not going to find righteousness by faith.

You're going to find righteousness by works.

You're going to find righteousness by force.

David Kulakov

Giving Our Best to Our Loving Lord

Dear Lord, you understand how much and badly we need your presence today because we want to glorify your name and we want all the glory to be attributed only to you.

And may your Holy Spirit guide us through this presentation and may my words be yours.

Well some of you might be still wondering what's this guy from Russia doing on the stage and quite frankly it's exactly the same questions that still disturbs me.

So the very first thing I'm going to do right after the presentation, I'm going to step down and come up to Dr.

Reitz, the president of ASI, and ask him, what did I do?

God has miraculously led me through my life, And I want to share this story with you.

I'm a fourth-generation Adventist and that's quite uncommon for Russia, from my father's side.

But today I'd love to share my story, my mom's story, because she had never been an Adventist before she actually became 1.

When she was 23 years old, she was 1 of the most successful accountants and an auditor in her region, Stavropol, that's in Russia, former Soviet Union.

And she was also a rising Communist Party leader.

She was also a rising star, political star, how they called her.

And 1 day, her landlady invited her to come for Sabbath evening worship.

And she started visiting, and She had actually known of Adventists because in the village where she grew, she had a distant relative of hers that was an Adventist.

So she became an Adventist, got baptized, and then she had to come to her boss and tell him that she cannot work on Sabbath.

Her boss really loved her because she was 1 of his best workers, or actually the best.

And he tried to talk her out of believing in Adventism.

She told him that she will be an Adventist.

He told her that he will have to fire her as soon as the government knows.

And she still remained an Adventist and after a while as soon as the government and the KGB knew about that they got furious and told her boss to fire her immediately.

Then since she was a youth Communist Party leader for a branch in that city, she was summoned to a Communist Party meeting.

And she went through hours of humiliation.

Dozens and dozens of people would stand up and shout insults at her.

They told her that she was a disgrace to the Communist Party, that she betrayed their trust.

And finally, after hours of this process, Mr.

Gorbachev stood up, Mikhail Gorbachev, you I believe know who he is.

He was the head of the Youth Communist Party for the region.

He stood up, he was presiding over that gathering and he said, Dear Vera, I know that you have always been the best in our party And I believe that you've done so much good to improve our party.

And I believe that 1 day you will recant And I will keep your member card under the glass on my desk.

Because 1 day you will return and I will gladly give it back to you." But she never did.

Since she lost her job, she had to look for 1 again, but she couldn't find 1.

She would go to different places to find a job, and whenever a boss of a firm would hear that she needed a job and saw all her resumes and everything all the papers they were very glad and said they would gladly accept her.

But after a few days when she would come back to start her work there, they would sit with their heads bowed and say, you know, by the way, we don't need right now because this position is filled.

Because KGB was tracking her and would not allow any firm in the town to hire her.

So finally she decided to look for a job, another job.

She was, I told you, the best accountant and an auditor at her age in the area.

And she decided to look for a job as a housekeeper.

Finally a professor's family hired her, and she was able to work for them for almost a year.

But after a year, this professor came home with his head bowed and said, Dear Vera, I love you so much and you know that, but you know 2 KGB agents paid a visit to me today and they said that if I don't fire you immediately, I will lose my position as well.

But they loved her very much, and so they passed her on to another professor's family.

But she was able to work for them even less, about 3 or 4 months, before being found out again by KGB agents and she lost even that humble position of a housekeeper.

Then 1 of our ladies, her son-in-law was a KGB agent, he passed on some information through his mother-in-law and said, tell Vera KGB is going to put her to prison and so the best way to escape if she leaves this city immediately.

She found a place where she would collect hay and put it with pitch fork, I believe pitch fork on a truck And very soon she lost even that job.

She returned to the city, tried to find a job for several months, and after starving for several months, she decided to go back to her mother's village, where at least she could find food.

The reason I started this story, or the reason I started with this story, with my mom's story, is this.

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ASI 2011 Plenary Meetings

Worship and Song and Praise

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