Hartland Spring Convocation 2025: Stand Firm

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Steve Dickman

Why Not?

Give you just a few thoughts to get you started on your thinking about the problem that exists in our world today.

Can anyone tell me how large is 8000000000?

Maybe I should just ask you this morning to count to 8 billion.

Could you accomplish it during this worship service today?

In fact, if you counted by 1 is the logical way, right?

123, and go on down that street and you could count 1 number every second, it would take you 253 years to count to 8 billion.

And when we look at our concentration as Seventh-day Adventists and we think about that, we're 23 million.

How long would it take you to count to 23 million?

Now, all of these things are assuming you don't eat breakfast, you don't eat lunch, and you don't sleep.

So 9 months is us and 253 years is the world.

You see we have a challenge before us to reach the world with the gospel because Revelation chapter 14 and verse 6 gives us the information that this gospel, this everlasting gospel, will be preached to every nation and every kindred and every tongue and every tribe and every people.

That's the breadth of the problem that we face.

Is that everyone needs to hear the gospel.

7, 164 active languages, living languages on the planet.

That means that these are still being spoken by people and they're teaching them to their children when they're born.

How do we get to the point where we can communicate the gospel in every language?

What are we doing to approach that problem, to solve that problem?

We as a Seventh-day Adventist Church have a presence in 212.

But when I started figuring out that there were, we only as a church are in less than 1, 000 of those 7, 164 languages, and that there are over 16, 000 people groups identified by culture and language on this planet, I said to myself, okay, this is clear, it's impossible.

But praise God for the impossible, because with God, how many things?

All things are possible, So we don't need to think that it's dependent upon us as human beings, but it is dependent upon God who uses human beings.

So the question for us today is will we allow ourselves to be used or will we pass our work on to someone else?

Well, I want to tell you something this morning.

Now they might be able to physically do the technical job you're assigned to do today.

There's somebody that's taking care of the AV.

But Jesus has a certain work for every single 1 of us to do.

That is a calling on our lives that cannot be substituted by someone else.

If we do not do our work, who will do it?

So God is calling us today to engage in this great opportunity to help take the gospel to the world.

Friends, I want to tell you something this morning.

Us engaging in God's work is part of our salvation process.

When we get able to set aside ourselves, when we are led by God to put self to the side.

Spirit of prophecy says there is no limit to the usefulness of 1 who will set self aside and make room for the working of the Holy Spirit.

This morning, We're at Heartland College where people are preparing to be missionaries.

Because the world is still today searching for truth.

And maybe this morning you're sitting here saying, well, I don't think I qualify.

Now it's true when we take our last breath and we are laid down in the grave, then we are, our life work is finished.

But until then, God has a work for us to do.

I want to ask you a question this morning and the question is, why not?

I don't know if you've noticed that recently.

I don't know if you've seen what's happening on our planet or have tried to understand the nature of the problems the world is facing.

The best politicians, the most brilliant statesmen are grappling to know what to do.

Just everyday living is getting more and more challenging in many parts of the earth.

So the question is this morning for you to think about is why not you and why not now?

Why would we wait to engage 100% in God's work?

What is stopping us from being 100% engaged in doing God's work that He has designed specifically and personally for us to do.

What's preventing us from saying, God, I'm all in?

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Why Not?

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