Michigan Camp Meeting 2024: As For Me and My House

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Plenary Sessions

Dwain Esmond

We Will Receive the Lost

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2024 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

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

Father God, thank you in the name of Jesus for your word.

Oh, dear precious Master, speak to your people.

Lord, I don't want to be seen, not worthy to be seen.

Take all glory and all praise for it only belongs to Thee.

A man purchased a little white mouse as food for his pet snake.

He dropped the little unsuspecting mouse into the snake's glass cage where the snake had nestled himself softly on a bed of sawdust, the tiny mouse had a serious problem on his hands.

At any moment, He could be swallowed alive.

Obviously, the mouse needed to come up with a brilliant strategy to survive this cage.

The little terrified critter decided that 1 of the best things he could do was to use his little paws and scoot the sawdust on the danger.

He covered the snake in sawdust, believing that the danger was gone.

The master looked at him and realized his condition, thought about the predicament of this innocent little mouse, and decided to help him.

And so he reached in and cornered the little mouse and took him out of the cage again and put him outside.

The help that the mouse needed had to come from outside the cage because he had really no hope in the cage and I want to say to you beloved that there are things in us there are snakes in us there is a snake called sin in us there is a nature in us that can rise up at any moment and killed anything good in us and we need come on talk to me somebody help from outside the cage That somebody's got to reach their hand down to help us with this sin problem that is bedeviling and has been bedeviling this planet.

The Bible has many words in an attempt to capture the full meaning of this little three-letter word that is perhaps the most troubling issue on our planet.

1 of my friends I was listening to just last night said something critical.

He said all crisis on earth is the result of sin all crisis that we face is the result of sin the Old Testament calls it by many different names transgression law-breaking ma ma al trespass or a wand straying or wandering to ma becoming law-breaking, ma'al, trespass, or awan, straying or wandering, tuma, becoming unclean, beget or bejet, disloyalty or treason.

There are words for revolt and rebellion.

All of these terms describe sin and they all are troubling.

But perhaps the most striking term of all is the word Mesuba which means infidelity.

Even the New Testament's term, harmatia, to miss the mark, that is having the ability to hit the mark but choosing to miss the mark.

Choosing to miss the mark when you could hit the mark.

Har-Mateeah, even that word doesn't quite capture the relational breakdown that Mesuba does.

It means to turn away, it means to backslide, it means to apostatize, it means to go away from God.

We see it, for instance, in Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 8 when the Bible says God states, and I saw when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had to put her away because the girl left me and given her a bill of divorce says God I had to divorce her yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not but went about playing the harlot just like she did.

Augustine in his much-read confessions notes that sin happens when we take a perfectly good natural desire, some longing or some ambition, and then we try to fill it in some ungodly way.

Not only is it sin when we do that, but it disfigures the very image of God in us and it casts aspersions as to the actual character of our Creator.

All good things in our lives, all of our security, all right things are found in God.

And that outside of God, we get into trouble.

No other term really captures this relational breakdown quite like this word, Mesuba, for sin creates a gulf, sin creates a gap, sin creates distance, a distance too far for us to cross, but I'm glad this morning, Michigan Conference, that it's not a distance that's too far for God to cross.

That even though it creates a gap, and there's a chasm there that God can forge the chasm, that there's an old airline commercial that used to say, you can get there from here, beloved.

The Bible tells us that he got here from there, that he came from outside the system to meet our needs.

It's too wide for you and it's too wide for me to cross but I thank God Michigan Conference that our God has a love that travels he has grace with a grip he has mercy that reaches his people and brings them back to him when they go astray I don't know how you feel about it this morning but I like the fact that a sin-saturated sinner gets to be brought back by a sin-removing Savior that we have an awesome Jesus marvelous grace of our loving Lord says the hymn Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Grace that pardons and cleanses from sin.

Grace that is, come on, talk to me y'all, greater than all our sin.

I am further encouraged that God did not deliver us from the snake pit by remote control.

He did not beam us out of the enemy's clutches no he sent a living breathing loving Savior named Jesus the hope was hand-delivered the the grace has a face This messenger of mercy is a living, breathing person.

John says in John chapter 1 and verse 14 that this this word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

We beheld his glory glory as of the only begotten of the Father full not just of doctrine full not just of teaching but filled with grace and truth oh I like the fact that my God has grace and truth but grace first and foremost he could feel and he could touch this God could love and this God could dream and help and comfort and hug and save.

You ought to praise God this morning, Michigan, because our God is an equal opportunity Savior.

Beloved, I'm gonna tell you right now, there are 2 lovely people in this congregation that came a long way to see me.

I just got to mention my first elder from 1 of my churches.

The best First elder in the history of first elders is right there y'all I want y'all to know that in this precious wife love them dearly Charles About about a week ago.

The Lord intercepted me as I was going home On my way home from work and I saw it was it was in the morning Actually, I went I went to work and then I had to come back home.

And as I was driving home, there was a young man running to catch the bus.

And he had all his stuff with him, you know, and the bus sped off.

The young man didn't make the bus, and I was driving by, and the Lord says, "'Turn your car around!' I said, God, now, you know, this is early in the morning, I'm going home, I got to get on Zoom, you know, I got stuff to do.

He said, turn that car around and pick him up.

And so I turned my car around and I came around to where that young man was and I said to him, I said, young man get in.

I don't know, maybe it was the way I said get in.

He said, I ain't getting in with this guy.

He tell me, who you think you are, just gonna tell me get in your car.

I said, no, no, no, you don't have to worry, young man.

I just wanna take you, I saw you miss the bus, and I just wanna take you to where you need to go.

And I said, maybe we can still catch that bus if you get in he said alright He got into my car and when he got in I sped off trying to catch the bus And as I as I sped off I noticed the aroma of my car had changed.

That young man smelled like he had just been smoking trees.

I'm talking about some stuff, you know, you got to be in the city to understand what I'm talking about.

He had spent some time, you know, calming his nerves with some, they used to call it Mary Jane, you know, some marijuana.

And he got into my car and I thought to myself now if 1 of the Saints catches me up in this car smelling like This I'm it's gonna be bad for me.

I took that young man All the way to his job because we didn't catch the bus.

I'll just take you there He said no, you don't have to this is good enough I said no, I'm taking you to work took him to work sat down in the in the parking lot He would not get out my car.

Oh, beloved, you know how you want to shake somebody loose?

I'm thinking to myself, this Zoom meeting coming up, I got to get this smelly boy out of my car.

That young man started to tell me about his life, how his mother had died 3 months prior, and how he was suffering with the loss of his mother.

He started to tell me how he's trying to put his life together but he can't get it quite right.

He started to tell me about his father and how his father's kind of disowned him and that he was working hard every day.

He says, I work at this little dealership, I detail cars for a living, I take pride in my work.

John Wesley Taylor

Taught by God

Tomorrow night, we'll have the study together of another Bible character, but I would be remiss if I didn't spend an evening with you to talk about the importance of Christian education.

You see, when God created, He established 3 institutions.

And we celebrate marriage and the Sabbath.

But God established a third important institution because every day in the evening he came to teach Adam and Eve in fact in the book education Ellen White dedicates a whole chapter to the Eden school and I don't know if you've thought about it but because God established these 3 institutions from the creation The devil in the great controversy has focused on each of those 3, but God has also focused his power in reestablishing and safeguarding each of those 3.

Not only that, but when God sent his own son to come to this world, He first had him go through a process of education.

I don't know if you thought about the fact that God could have sent his son already as an adult, and he could have saved 30 years from the plan of salvation.

But God thought that the development, the educational process was so important that he had his own Son.

Increase in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

The intellectual, the physical, the spiritual, and the social.

And when Jesus began his ministry, He spent more time teaching than preaching or healing.

And so tonight I would like to take some time together to answer an important question, and it has to do with Adventist education.

But first I'd like to begin this evening with an important statement evening with an important statement and this is it.

Adventist education is the longest and the largest evangelistic event of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And I'd like to provide you with the evidence.

First of all, in terms of duration, depending on where you go to school in the world, children and youth are in school from 5 to 9 hours a day, and from 160 to 260 days per year, and depending on how many years are in Adventist education from 1 to 16 or more years.

Now if you take the least amount of time, 5 hours a out of time.

5 hours a day, 160 days a year for just 1 year.

That represents 800 hours of evangelism that takes place.

That's like an evangelistic series happening every night for 2 hours for more than an entire year.

And if they attend for more than 1 year, that can add up to more than 35, 000, 37, 000 hours.

That's a powerful evangelistic opportunity.

Well I just like to mention that the evangelistic effort of Adventist education involves children at almost 7, 000 sites around the world.

There are 61, 000 evangelists meeting every day with more than 1.4 million children.

And in terms of adolescents, 2, 800 sites, 40, 000 evangelists, and 615, 000 attending and in terms of young people 163 sites 16, 000 evangelists 160 attending all together.

Each day more than 2.1 children, adolescents, and youth are participating in God's plan for evangelism.

I'd like to ask the question, is it effective?

Is this longest and largest evangelism event in the Adventist Church does it make a difference?

So to answer that question I would like us to look at the results of several things.

The first thing I'd like to mention is a study that took place just a few years ago.

It actually took place over a number of years.

2006 to 2009, 800 Adventist schools in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda.

52, 000 students participated in this study in grades 3 through 9 and grade 11.

Also the parents, the teachers, the principals participated in this study.

Students in Seventh-day Adventist schools surpassed the national average on standardized tests in all subject areas for all grade levels and not only that for all school sizes and sizes and for regardless of ability level.

That is the power of Adventist education.

Not only that, but every year that they were in an Adventist school, that difference increased, both in terms of achievement and ability of the students.

This effect was so remarkable that when Dr.

Dobermire heard of this, he noticed that there was something else, and that had to do with the graduation rate from high school.

Nationally, that graduation rate across all schools in the United States is 82 percent.

But those who attend Adventist schools, that graduation rate is 98.4 percent.

And of those who are graduating, 91% plan to go to college and prepare themselves for God's work.

So when Martin Dobermire heard about this Martin Dobermire is an eminent film producer He's produced a lot of PBS specials public broadcasting service he created a film full-length called the blueprint as a PBS special that aired across the nation.

And this has to do with Adventist education and the difference that it makes.

So the academic result is impressive, but it's not the most important.

What will you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your soul Ellen White talks about the most important matter she says that the most important matter in education is the conversion the salvation of the students and that salvation experience that conversion is exemplified in Joining God's family, So I'd like to put up on the screen here what does that look like?

The joining of God's family as a result of participating in Adventist education.

First of all, over the last 10 years, 2013 to 2022, the last year we have the statistics turned in from the World Divisions, directly as a result of Adventist education there have been 465, 000 baptisms.

Now these are not including the baptisms of young people of the church that take place, for example, at camp and at other wonderful events.

These are specifically those who have been baptized as a result of being in an Adventist school, such as as a result of the week of prayer in the Adventist school.

Now if you stop and think about this for a moment, that 465, 000 is the equivalent of 2 conferences the size of Michigan conference being established each year.

I'd like to share some results from a couple of studies that took a look at what happens when young people attend Adventist schools.

This was a study conducted in the Southern Union, and it took a look at young people from Adventist families.

So all of these young people were raised in Adventist families.

Some of them, as you can see here, had no Adventist education.

Some of them had 1 or more years of Adventist education, and the third group had 11 or more years.

In other words, they attended an Adventist school basically from first grade through the end of secondary high school.

You'll notice that the colors, the aqua color, represents those young people who were baptized from Adventist families.

Those who had no Adventist education, about 60% were baptized at some point growing up.

Those who had 1 or more years of Adventist education, Nearly 85% were baptized.

And those who had attended 11 or more years, 96.9% decided to join the church.

Now, we realize this is always a personal decision, But when they participate in Adventist education, those influences have an impact on their life.

This 1 was conducted a few years ago by the education director of the Lake Union when he was doing his doctorate, did a research study.

Again, this was a comparison of those children from Adventist families who had no Adventist education, elementary or secondary, some Adventist education at some point during that, and 12 years or more of Adventist education.

Again, you can see very similar results to the previous study.

61% no Adventist education, 95% from those who had some education, and in this particular case those who had 12 years, all of them had joined the church at some point in time.

Again, another way of looking at it, those who had not attended Adventist education, Sorry, those who were not baptized had only attended 2.4 years of Adventist education and those who had baptized, 8 years of Adventist education, on average.

That's why Ellen White says, the work of education and the work of redemption are 1.

So what can we look at in terms of Adventist education?

I would like to just affirm that it is fulfilling the mission that God has given to us.

Adventist education makes a difference in the evangelistic mission of the church.

But there is another important part to ask.

And again we recognize that that is always a personal decision, but does Adventist education have a role.

To do that I'd like us to consider the fact that since 1965 approximately 34 million people have joined the Adventist Church.

Of those 34 million, 20 million remained, but sadly 13 million left.

Jim Micheff

As For Me and My House

Father in heaven, we know the Sabbath is coming and it's exciting.

We also know that you've set aside some time that we can spend this week and focus on drawing closer to you under the banner of Joshua 24 15.

Father, tonight as we talk about this topic, you know what you've placed on my heart.

I pray that you would articulate that message as only you can into the hearts, and if it even has to bypass the ears, go right to the heart, so that we will do everything within our power to be able to say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

So Father, tonight I pray that you would send your Holy Spirit to be our speaker.

If you can use me, then Lord, I wanna be available, but I'm not necessary, but you are, and the Holy Spirit is, and Jesus is.

Because we know that we come to you through, by way of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus.

And so we want to honor all 3 of you tonight.

I want to start by going back to the setting, and I'm not going to stay real long here, but I think it's important for us to see the setting in which Joshua said this.

We're going to be in Joshua 24, but I want to take you back to that particular time period.

It had been 20 years since the Israelites had embarked on going to Canaan and under the leadership of the Lord they had a combined army and they fought the forces of the Canaanites.

And they had defeated the combined armies of the Canaanites.

Joshua had divided up the land and he had assigned different portions of the territory to different tribes.

Then he called all of the combined armies together and he said, I'm sending you back to your individual territories.

Our work is not done yet, but as you grow and you expand God will give you the victory to push back more of the Canaanites and you will have your entire territory.

But then he said, do not, Do not become so friendly with the Canaanites that you will embrace their way and culture and practices.

Joshua is now a hundred and 10 years old and he knows that he's about to die.

He's concerned because the Israelites haven't pushed any farther in new territory than they had 20 years earlier.

They had become accustomed to the Canaanites living close by them.

He's concerned that the Israelites have become complacent.

And that they have become in danger of forgetting who they are, where they come from, and what God had told them to do, and how God had miraculously brought them to where they were.

Now, I wanna pause right there for just a minute.

Most of us are Seventh-day Adventists, and if you're not, you're a part of our family.

But most of us are Seventh-day Adventists.

Is it possible that we as a Seventh-day Adventist movement have forgotten who we are and what God has called us to do and what God has done for us.

We weren't there but we can read about it.

We can read about a time in which God's people thought Jesus was coming in October 22, 1844.

And they wanted to share that message with everybody that would listen.

They wanted to be detached from this world so that they could see Jesus uninhibited and go to heaven with Him.

And That's why it's called the great disappointment.

But then the hours and weeks and months and even years that preceded that, or that went after that.

And how they went back and studied more in depth, they had formed the fundamental beliefs that we know today That makes up this church as a movement rather than just a denomination.

In fact, our forefathers were a little leery of becoming a denomination.

They wanted to stay a movement, but in order to be organized and in order to take the gospel to all the world, they needed organization.

And so, on May 21, 1863, the Seventh-day Adventist denomination was formed.

And 160 years ago, they thought Jesus was coming soon.

But I know that when I was a boy, I wondered if I would ever grow up to get my driver's license And I started praying Lord don't come yet.

I want to be able to drive." And then I reached 16 and got my driver's license.

And I thought, well, no, wait a minute, Lord, I haven't been married yet.

Then when I got married, I thought, well, Lord, I want some kids.

But on this side, and I see the pain, I see the sorrow, I experience in my own life the struggle that every person goes through of surrendering ourselves to Christ.

And the things that we went through, those of you who have white hair like me, when we were kids is nothing compared to what our kids are going through now.

We didn't have everything at just a fingertip with internet.

And if we want Jesus to come, can't you imagine what He's thinking?

He wants to come infinitely more than we want to come or want to go.

Joshua calls the leaders together and the people together at Shechem for 1 last time to address them.

He wants to remind them of how God has led them in the past.

Inspiration tells us we have nothing to fear for the future except we should forget how God has led us and the teachings in the past.

And he wanted to remind them of who they were.

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