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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Dave Bostrom

Christ’s Defining Truth Of History

Well, I have a very, very special son-in-law.

He has a hundred percent kindness, and patience, and love.

We are just so proud of him and our family that God would lead someone into our daughter's life with such a Christ-like spirit.

The only thing, he's wrong once in a while.

And I think Marianne got 100% of her smiles and cheerfulness from my wife, and maybe 30% from me.

But I want to say from my heart to yours that I am especially grateful to be here.

I owe some of you a lot as a father, not as a pastor, but some years back when the General Youth Conference first began.

All 3 of my children at the time, I have 1 17 year old still at home, but the 3 older ones all attended that Pine Springs retreat.

And Jonathan and our 2 daughters, first born daughter was Deborah, and the second born was Mary Ann, who's here in your fellowship.

But the girls called me from there and said, Dad and Mom, spoke to both of us, I think we just met our Jonathan's future wife.

And so after they came back, we found out indeed a very wonderful girl from Seattle, Washington.

And it was not an Adventist, but going to a special kind of independent group that was studying the Bible and she had been attending there and was drawn closer to our family with some contacts.

And 2 years ago she was married to my son.

So I owe so much to those of you who helped maybe sponsor that program and the spirit of GYC that's carried on in this group, in the HOPE group here.

Another thing I'm very grateful for, though, and this gets me even more excited, because just a couple of months ago I was at the Templeton Hills Church over in Central California Conference near the coast.

07.05 And it's in that church really the global 07.05 Operation Global Rain actually 07.05 began.

07.05 And the 2 families I'm very acquainted with because I had a wedding for 1 of their daughters.

08.15 And 2 families, the Kirk family and the Lewis family, were very concerned about the church as all of us, many of us have the same feelings.

And they began praying and they began having more come to prayer meeting.

You know, you can really know the most about the church by going to prayer meeting.

And so they started praying, bringing more.

They got over half of their church, and their church is about 170 on Sabbath or more, and their church prayer meetings began to fill up, and then the Holy Spirit began to really break out as they sought the Lord in numerous days of prayer.

And they had so many reconciliations and confessions of sin and God speaking to their hearts that they were just revived as leaders in the church and so many members in the church.

Well, that was back in 06, when remember 60606 occurred?

There was this talk about the mysterious mark of the beast and these numbers are satanic well they began to lose a little bit of that revival spirit and they came back around and they said we must revive the church again and they began to ask God for that blessing and it's very interesting that they then came across this in their own heart of hearts they want to do the 10 days of prayer seeking for Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit because they saw what the Lord that last year had done for the church and that's where when they tied to the 70707 they said let's do it again only this time we're gonna do more and we just happen to have contact with the pastor Iver Myers and as things were discussed and so forth they began to move in an even more personal realm.

They had a special dedication service prayer meeting night to reanoint all their elders to also dedicate all the heads of household because how can you have a revival if it's not happening at home?

Revival starts at home and the men that lead the families and the godly mothers that have to even make the loan to raise the children It's time to raise up and completely confess Christ in full unconditional surrender.

They had 55 this year at their prayer service for the rededication anointings.

And then they had us come in with the Sabbath Delight Seminar and then they had a church dedication service and that's how they're moving along to draw their whole church together and so it just brings joy to my heart of course that's spread from their church kind of like wildfire churches picked up on it, the conference picked up on it, the general conference has given its signature okay.

But hundreds upon hundreds of churches now are doing Operation Global Rain.

Now I'd like to kind of before I do have prayer I want to do a little illustration down here so if I can have a little help from those we talked about before to close the drapes here in the church sanctuary you know we're counseled to have a little corner in every sermon for the younger people congregation.

Now there's a very wise pastor I had, though, that taught me before I ever began ministering and pastoring, and he said, he introduced the children's story as this way, boys and girls in story time for all those from 2 to a hundred and 2 I said finally somebody got it right we love stories too but for the younger people here I want to tell a story Can we have the lights out too?

And she said, Pastor Dave, please come in.

And bless her dear heart, she had a moon.

Now I regret not putting this up on the platform, but bend your neck, look at this.

And we began to talk about it because the moon is such a wonderful symbol for those who are romantic you like to go for walks at night in the moonlight right?

Sunlight reflected and so we were talking in the bedroom and we were saying oh my what a wonderful experience this is to think you can see the moon at night.

But I said, doesn't that remind us of our Christian life?

You know, we awaken with a little faith in our heart there.

And we began then to search and ask questions and we pretty soon we began to seek Him.

And somebody says, well start praying or maybe start studying.

And all of a sudden our hearts are turned on studying Bible prophecy and the insights of God's Word and His character of Christ.

And pretty soon we say, I'm going to follow the Lord all the way and be baptized.

And have you noticed those that have the first love experience with Christ, how glowing they are?

May the Lord bless thee and keep thee and may the Lord cause His face to shine upon thee.

I mean coming off the mountain like Moses we all glow if we're in the presence of Christ, right?

But as so often is the case some goes wrong after baptism and we lose our relationship with Christ I know some people seem to become so busy and why are they bringing me up here I'm gonna tell a story down here okay well you're good well don't move I would suggest you don't touch the table because I have an illustration at the end of the sermon.

Anyway, nonetheless, I want you to know that it doesn't take too long and if you neglect prayer and study and and really witnessing for Christ and Perhaps on committees or in interactions we have all these fusses and offenses and people get hurt in church and I've seen some things happen in church where everybody says where's Christ?

But I want to say praise God today we can restore our relationship with Christ and have a full glorious experience with the Lord and that's why to the young people I want to say this how many been to the airport before everyone I'm sure even the young people maybe how many have ever been late for an airplane a few okay well this is a story just happened not too long ago is true that I'm spending a lot of time flying, I've seen a lot of people rushing to meet their plane.

Well, these fellas that were on a business trip in Chicago had really delayed and they were literally running through the concourses at O'Hare Airport, that big airport, to get the plane.

And this 1 businessman as he came around the corner, he wasn't watching, but his leg caught the table that was loaded with a beautiful display of apples, and they just spilled everywhere.

And when he saw what was happening, he just said, hey guys, catch the plane, call my wife and tell her I'll catch the next plane, I've been delayed.

His heart sunk of course, but he got down on the floor and he started to try to pick the apples up when he looked and he saw a young teenage girl.

But what made his heart really skip a beat is he realizes she is reaching out for the apples that she was blind and he says sweetheart don't worry I'll pick up all the apples and set everything back.

And so he began all over the floor of this airport, finding these apples, and he realized some of them were bruised, so he got another basket and filled that basket with all the bruised apples, Got it all back together and he reached into his wallet pulled out 02:20 dollar bills and he says sweetheart.

It's all back together And I'm gonna leave you some money here for the apples that I bruised Thank you, and he turned he was walking away and the little young lady, she spoke to him, she says, Mr.

And that's what I really want to come to the heart of in our message today because there is something in the church that has to happen.

I know I'm here for the Sabbath Delights seminar but every church service should really be a scene where we turn and for a guest walking in or whether you've been here for 5 years you know when we walk in should we greet each other with a glow of Christ on our face And so I'm gonna share so that...

Do you believe God speaks to you anytime, any place, anywhere?

If you do, I had a brother come to the church to preach and fill my pulpit down in central California Conference and we can open the blinds here or the drapes.

Anyway, his name was Major White and these are 1 of these experiences in my 32 years of pastoring where the Lord just really flashed an insight to my heart that changed my life and changed my family.

He stood up in the pulpit with his big booming voice because Major White had never been in the military and he had never been white.

And he stood up in the pulpit, he comes up here with this big booming voice, he says, I've never been to a cold church.

And I quickly said in my heart, well I have.

Now you know we're told that our minds think 10 times faster than we speak, right?

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Christ’s Defining Truth Of History

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