SWYC 2014: What We Believe: Back to Basics

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GYC Southwest

Plenary

Laurel Damsteegt

By Every Word

I'd like you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 4 and we're going to look at a very, very familiar passage, 1 that talks of Jesus right after his baptism.

Chapter 4 and we'll start with verse 3, And when the tempter, who's the tempter?

When the tempter came to him, He said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

But he answered and said, please say with me, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.

Kind Father in heaven, truly basic to our spiritual walk with you, to our daily communion with you, to our living and breathing and walking with you is learning to live by every word that proceeds from your mouth, your mouth that has all power, created heaven and earth, your power that can change even the tiniest aspect in our lives.

Thank you for the word which you so freely give to us in Jesus' name, amen.

Notice, the entrance of thy words giveth light.

There was a time in this world where the Bible was obscured.

And we know that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

And we also know that Satan's steady purpose is to obscure the word.

Anything he can do to cover it up, to make it unclear, to make it a great fight over it or sometimes people have different opinions, Anything he can do, he does to obscure that word.

We're going to be talking about Bible and Bible interpretation this morning.

It is the most basic thing that you and I face as we open the word.

And as you hear these things, you might sit back and say, oh, I've heard this before, I know this, why is this woman going over this stuff again?

But I want to tell you that everything that I am saying today has something to do with what is going on in the discussions in the church.

So please take note, copy down the references, go back and study them, because this is really, really important stuff.

I will be talking about sexuality and gender in the church and what some of the issues that we're facing.

And this will be the basis for my whole seminar, and it's, of course, basis for pretty much all of what we're talking about this weekend.

I was on the Theology of Ordination Study Committee that just finished its work this July.

I've been privileged to be on the various committees through the years.

I'm kind of old now, but I've been going through this cycle for many years now.

And believe me, the bottom line is what we call hermeneutics, or how readest thou.

That is why we differ, because we use the same Bible, but how we actually interpret it is what makes us different in different aspects of what we read.

Today I want to go through the Great Controversy through the ages.

My husband and I are privileged to take groups of people to Europe every summer.

We take them and show them the sites of the great controversy and we discuss many, many things.

And do you know there is a chapter in there called Scriptures as Safeguard.

It is time for you to get out that book, read that chapter now, because we are there.

The scriptures are our safeguard, and this is what we need to understand.

Let's go back and see what happened through the time in Great Controversy.

We need special insight at the end of time.

This is from Great Controversy, and you see the letter X there.

Did you know there's an introduction in the Great Controversy?

Did you know that that introduction is all about how we interpret the scripture and the spirit of prophecy?

Notice what it says, Through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the scenes of the long-continued conflict between good and evil, that's what we're talking about here, this is the great controversy, have been open to the writer of these pages, who is, of course, Ellen G.

From time to time, I've been permitted to behold the working in different ages of the great controversy between Christ, the Prince of Life, the author of our salvation, and Satan, the Prince of Evil, the author of sin, the first transgressor of God's holy law.

White does in The Great Controversy is she parts the curtain and allows us to look in and see all the issues that are facing the different reformers, the different Christian groups all the way along the line.

And each of those chapters are so special.

So we start back when there were very few Bibles.

Before the Reformation, there were, at times, very few copies of the Bible in existence.

But God had not suffered his word to be wholly destroyed.

Always, there was a little Bible somewhere.

Different groups preserved the word, so it wasn't totally destroyed.

If truth were not to be forever hidden, he could have easily unchained the words of life as he could open prison doors and unbolt the iron gates to set his servants free.

Do you believe God has that kind of power?

He started in the beginning with the word.

The word caused the whole heavens to come together.

The earth was created by the word of God.

And even if it's chained up, even if it's obscured, that Word has power.

In the different countries of Europe, men were moved by the Spirit of God to search for truth as for hidden treasure.

Something that you look forward to seeing.

Don't you love to see how God works in each 1 of our lives and our hearts?

Providentially, he guided the holy scriptures.

They studied the sacred pages with intense interest.

They were willing to accept the light at any cost to themselves.

This is 1 of the prerequisites for understanding the word of God.

When you can face something the Bible says and say, yes, I submit.

I am OK with what you tell me, God, at any cost to myself.

And we're going to see how, through the time, it has cost a lot.

We're going to start here with the Waldensians, who preserved the scriptures and shared them.

The Waldensian valleys are up in north-western Italy, the foothills of the Alps.

There's spokes going out with the different valleys.

And here's where a group of people kind of retreated from papal oppression down through time.

The gorgeous valleys are still there to remind you, to remind me that God means what he says, and he will have a people.

We go into this little cave here to kind of represent what some of the people went through.

1 point, they actually were smoked out of the cave with 4, 000 dying.

People, Christians through the ages, have been hunted.

Wherever they sought refuge, the followers of Christ were hunted like beasts of prey.

They were forced to seek concealment in desolate and solitary places.

Destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.

They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth, Hebrews 11, 37.

There's a mountain there right above Torre Pellicci that is very high.

It's a nice hike, a really strenuous hike.

And Mount Casteluzzo is where at 1 point the Papal forces were chasing the Waldensees and they kept going higher and higher and higher and higher until there was no higher to go and they got to the top and the Papal forces came after them and they pushed them over and these babies, these mothers, these children, these flocks, everything dashed on the bottom of the mountain.

And we might ask ourselves the question, Why do we not experience persecution ourselves now like that?

Why is it, Ellen White asks in page 48 of Great Controversy, why is it then that persecution seems in a great measure, degree to slumber.

Taariq Patel

The First Angel’s Message

I'm still trying to figure out how I ended up here, but God is so good to me.

I remember standing here, and I gave my testimony from here in 2012, I believe.

And since then, God has really blessed me, and he's carried me all the way through.

If you have your Bibles turn with me to Revelation chapter 14.

Revelation chapter 14 And let's look at the famous verses in 6 and 7.

And when you have it, let me know by saying, Amen.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God, give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come and worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters.

And as I pray, I just ask that you all pray for yourselves in your minds as I pray out loud and also say a word of prayer for me.

Heavenly Father, Lord, I am so thankful that this is your Word and it's not mine.

I am thankful, Lord, that you are faithful and true.

I am thankful, Lord, that your mercy endureth forever.

I'm thankful, Lord, that you look at the poor and needy and you set them up on the path of the just, Lord.

I am thankful, God, that you are our Redeemer and our Creator and the Lord that sanctifies us, Father.

And Lord, this Sabbath day, Father, your people are assembled and we cannot go any further without your spirit here with us.

And so, Lord, I ask in the name of Jesus that you would forgive us for our sins, dispel distractions, Focus our minds and our attention on what we need to hear this morning, Lord, only from your Spirit.

Prick our hearts where we need to be pricked, Lord.

I can't do it, and I'm thankful, God, For you are alone, God, and we all await on you.

And I thank you, Lord, for hearing this weak, flimsy prayer, God, and for honoring it, Lord, because you're faithful.

When Jesus said those words on Calvary, the case was closed.

As he hung there and then gave up the ghost after those words, all of heaven was rejoicing.

All of the universe, all of the unfallen worlds were excited, they were happy.

Because the accuser of the brethren, Satan, since the very beginning, since the rebellion in heaven, had pointed his finger to God, but right there at Calvary, the character of God and the character of Satan was right there in bold display in the eyes of all the universe.

His accusations were proven false as he killed the Son of God, who loved man with the depths of love that still cannot be grasped.

Eternity is not enough to understand that.

And Satan's character was there on display at Calvary.

So all that awaited him in his future when Jesus said, it is finished, was for sure fire and brimstone.

There would be no future support, no future sympathy from all these unfallen worlds.

But do you remember Elijah at Mount Carmel?

Do you remember when Satan was defeated there?

Or did he come through with Jezebel afterwards?

But just as Calvary crushed his head, Satan became this wounded animal to the point of death.

But like an animal that's wounded and he or she is in its death throes, it becomes more feral, more ferocious, more dangerous.

In Great Controversy, page 623, we're told that the shorter Satan's time gets, the greater his wrath.

And the time was ticking when Jesus said, it is finished.

He couldn't get Jesus, he couldn't get him to sin, so he directed all his attention to the woman, to God's people, God's church.

And so Satan raised up this dragon to persecute the woman.

The dragon symbolizes the secular powers, the kings, the rulers of this earth, and the pagan institutions.

And so Satan raised up pagan Rome to persecute this woman.

The persecution started, remember the Acts of the Apostles?

And as the woman grew, as she got stronger, she spread out either to the north and then to the west.

But it seemed that the more that this dragon persecuted this woman, she got stronger.

Because the blood of the martyrs ended up increasing, was water to the seeds for Christianity.

He switched up his guise and he morphed into another beast.

The very place where the woman was, a sea, meaning that it's a populated area.

And this beast received its power from the dragon, had the semblance of the dragon, it looked like the dragon, but had the cloak or guise of Christianity.

And now this beast got a little in on the inside, if you will, and once again, the mission was resumed.

You see at Calvary, when Satan's head was crushed, his main objectives was these 2 things.

I'm gonna persecute this woman, take her off the face of this earth, and I'm gonna deceive all the nations.

Because if I gotta burn, I'm gonna take as much people as I can.

If I gotta go, I'm gonna steal the joy that I used to have away from you.

Persecute the woman and deceive all the nations.

And this woman was sorely tried and persecuted.

And this was the time of the Protestant Reformation.

Although she was sorely tried, she was preserved and kept and nurtured and God kept her.

She had to flee even further to the west, over the Atlantic, and landed on the shores where the earth swallowed up the flood of the persecution.

The earth is a place that is not so heavily unpopulated like the sea.

But not too long after the woman arrived on the earth, there were many Puritans and many other people fleeing religious persecution and landed on the shores of this nation.

But not too long after the woman landed to the earth, did Satan once again switch his forms and form and morphed into another beast.

And I saw another beast rise up out of the earth, having 2 horns like a lamb.

But he didn't have the semblance of the dragon.

He didn't look like the dragon, but he had the heart of the dragon.

Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth what?

He had 2 horns like a lamb and spake as a dragon.

His outward facade is like Christ, because Christ is the lamb, a lamb-like beast.

But inside, he has the heart of the dragon, the heart of Satan.

Beware of false prophets that come to you in sheep's clothing, but inside they are what, everyone?

Questions and Answers- Part 1

We all have questions and we know you have the answers.

So Lord, impress upon our hearts and on the hearts of anyone in this room to help answer these questions because You're the great giver.

And so Lord, I just pray that you send your spirit to be here with us and to give us the answer.

I'll just sit down since someone's not here yet.

What do you do when you know that your church is sleeping and you try to do things to wake them up, but no 1 supports or listens to you.

Would it be okay to go to another church that is more active and on fire?

I think God has you there for that purpose.

And sometimes we feel like it's not going anywhere, but just keep praying.

Because the Lord can prepare that soil, right?

And when we present the seeds of truth, they can take root.

So, and part of that preparation really is befriending those people and showing them that you really care and not just leveling a rifle at them and blasting truth, right?

There's a methodical science to the gospel and we should employ that I think.

And to get you back there, I just think of the story of Jeremiah.

He was placed in a situation where he had a consistent message from the beginning to the end.

He was in a dead church that didn't move, but he didn't move either.

And I think with you staying there, but number 1, always listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Number 1, if you were here for morning devotion, pray, pray, and pray again.

Because God may have you move, but with the majority of time through biblical examples, he would have you stay because you're the light, as my brother said.

But also we got to remember that when we go through trying times, we're not, God not only wants to use us to save others, he wants to save us in the process.

So with you being there, going through the trial of your faith, it's your purging process.

What's going to cause you to see the wickedness within you?

Because if you're in that position, then all of a sudden, you're face to face with your impatience.

You're face to face with your short temper.

All these things that may have not been revealed had you not been in that church.

If we are aware that spiritual formation is being promoted at a conference event, what should we do?

Warn others, confront the leaders, or just be quiet?

I mean, out of all the answers, that was the wrong 1.

I'm trying to be quiet because I I'm growing in God's grace and I'm new to the Adventist Church right?

3 and a half years and I know with me coming in I'm very zealous and I've made a lot of mistakes in the past with my zeal for the Lord.

So I'm trying to be, I'm asking God even in my heart now for wisdom with this answer, but I know to be quiet is the wrong answer.

If we're aware that spiritual formations are being hosted in advance, do we stay quiet and do something about it?

I think spiritual formation is a two-edged sword.

It has a lot of bad reputation among conservative people, but in actuality, some of that is excellent.

It's learning to meditate, it's learning to get close to God, and so you have to be really, really careful about what kind of spiritual formation is being promoted before you discourage anyone to become more spiritual.

And sometimes people get excited because they see the name spiritual formation or emerging church or some of these types of things.

Of things, but pray for wisdom to be able to encourage deep spirituality, the right kind of meditation, walking with the Lord, prayer.

These are all part of what people consider to be spiritual formation.

And we just don't want to be on the wrong side.

So just make sure you know what you are opposing before you oppose anything.

Can we ask, can you guys define what is spiritual formation?

A lot of us are asking what is spiritual formation.

Well, I'm not an expert on this, you know, but what I understand is like the seminary, I happen to be, my husband teaches at the seminary, And so I hear a few rumblings here and there.

And essentially, their motive is to make the pastors more spiritual people, to get them into the Word in a devotional way, to learn to listen to the Lord's voice to them personally.

Sometimes the method gets a little messed up, but they're working on it and they have changed some of that.

And sometimes we give them a hard time without understanding the whole picture.

And so that's why I say it's always good to ask a few questions.

And there has been some kind of, I guess, a lot of talk about a class up there that they're giving spiritual formations.

And but the class I took, the name, from my understanding, is derived from more of the Ignatius Loyola kind of spiritual exercises sort of teachings.

And so you get things like contemplative prayer, different types of things to take your imagination.

And you have a spirit guide that leads you.

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