AMEN Australia 2012: Right Arm, Right Approach, Right Now

John Scharffenberg

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network Australia

A Major Breakthrough in the World of Health

Now I realize in Australia you live more longer than most people, except for Hong Kong, Iceland, Japan, Okay?

And I want to give you the breakthrough, a major breakthrough in the world of health.

You know about Pasteur and the germ theory, right?

You heard about Fleming and Penicillin, a major breakthrough.

Now, I want to give you another major breakthrough.

We now know you can lower your heart attack risk by 80% we now know you can lower your risk of stroke by 80% we now know you can lower your risk of getting type 2 diabetes by 88% we know that okay How are we going to do it?

Now, secondary prevention is when the doctor treats a patient who's had a heart attack so he doesn't get the second 1.

Primary prevention is when he treats the patient for high blood pressure or high cholesterol, so he doesn't get the first heart attack.

Now, primordial prevention is 1 step back.

You treat the whole population so they never get the risk factors in the first place Disease starts early in life that means is Children kids little children in fact they're even talking about During pregnancy starting treatment the mothers Okay But a lot of them are gonna miss this training and so the school's gonna have to do a big job.

Now, this primordial prevention thing, what is it?

The US Heart Association has really worked on this and They have the 2020 goals and here's what they're saying They're saying that right now.

We have less than 5% of the US population heart healthy.

But the goal is by the year 2020, 20% of the population will be living at that state.

Now, you and your country, your adults only 19% are smoking.

All over the world, 1 out of 5 13 to 15-year-olds is smoking.

The estimate is by the year 2020, 10 million people will die every year because of tobacco smoking.

It increases the risk of rectal cancer or liver cirrhosis breast cancer women Fetal alcohol syndrome all kinds of problems with alcohol let alone car accidents divorce and all these problems with alcohol That's the second risk factor.

The official stance is if you've never ever started to drink, don't ever begin.

From 2 to 5 million people are dying every year worldwide because of inactivity.

Now, I want to give you 1 scientific fact that points out the importance of exercise.

If you have a man who's physically fit, he's exercising, but he smokes, but he has high cholesterol, but he has high blood pressure.

He will outlive the person who doesn't smoke, who doesn't have high blood pressure, who doesn't have high cholesterol, who's inactive.

How do you know if you're overweight step on the scale if the needle goes out of sight you're too fat or if you just pinch here you know between The hip bone the rib cage more than 2 and a half centimeters.

You're too fat Now simple way is lay on the floor put a board between your chest and your stomach If it goes up towards your stomach, you're too fat.

Now, we have scientific ways today of doing this, scientific methods, OK?

Take your kilograms in weight divide by your height in meters and Take that number divided by height in meters the second time Height meter squared, Okay That should number should not be over 25.

I should be up to 25 She's got to be a little 25 if it's 25.

You're overweight Okay, if it's 30 you are obese If it's 40 you are class 3 obese candidate for surgery Okay now That's good for population statistics.

But more important than that is waist circumference.

Now, I used to tell people, measure their circumference with a tape measure around the belly button, and then I saw men walking around the place with their belly buttons hanging way down here.

I said, put that tape measure around halfway between the hip and the ribs here, put it around there, and see what it is.

Now, I have a cardiologist, 7th Avenues cardiologist in Serbia, strong muscles.

He's a specialist on this ultrasound business, you know?

And before he did me, he just found a woman that morning with echinococcus cysts over there in Serbia, which I didn't think they had over there.

I felt that was because of his muscle, Yeah, big muscle.

So you put the tape measure around here, and if it's too big it's not because of muscle Okay now we want you all to stand up and measure so we'll give you some tape measure right here now we want you all to check yourself out see where you are we need to know where we are we know we need to know what our present status is okay so just throw these out there's lots of them and when 1 couple gets through you men pair off you women pair off and measure each other and see where you are okay and then I'm going to tell you what the number should be okay Now the 1 side of that tape measure is centimeters, the other side's inches.

Now, For centimeters, for you men, it should get up above 102.

But if it's 94, you're warned not to get any bigger.

But if you're 80 you're warned not to get any bigger.

So we got to do something about this weight problem.

We're getting more and more overweight people.

In the United States today, 2 thirds of the adult population are overweight.

You folks in Australia are getting close to us.

Nicholas Tsang

Morning Devotional

Father in heaven, we are so grateful for the work that you have started or continue to move in the hearts of the medical professions here in Australia.

Lord, we're looking forward to see the direction of Amen.

We're looking forward to networking together, to seeing the work of the right arm of the gospel, to move forward.

And especially as we hasten unto the coming of Jesus, Lord, we long for that day where we will be redundant in our health profession, where there'll be no more sickness, there'll be no more sorrow.

So Father, Lord, we pray that you'll be with us this morning as we open up your word.

We pray that you'll guide us, that you'll help us to draw from the sacred pages and as we focus upon the great physician.

Lord, I pray that the message will be clear.

I pray that the message will come from you.

I wanted to take our reading, and as we look at, as our great physician, as our great example, I hope that as health professionals, and when I say health professionals, I'm not referring to dentists or doctors, I'm referring to each and every 1 of you here.

We are all involved in the health ministry, whether we're a minister, a lay worker in a health retreat, a dietician, physio, doctor or dentist, regardless, we are all health professionals.

We are all carrying the gospel message through the health lines.

So this message is relevant to each and every 1 of us.

I want to focus upon the account in Mark, Mark chapter 4.

The same account is seen in Matthew chapter 8 and Luke chapter 8 as well, but I'll be reading from the account in Mark chapter 5.

Oh, it's signed from chapter 4, I should say, sorry.

Now, this is a well-known story, well-loved story.

It's the miracle of the stilling of the storm and the and The demon possessed man or as it accounts in the book of Matthew the demon possessed men So, how about we read this passage of Scripture starting from Mark 4, verses 35 to the end.

And the Bible reads, On the same day, when even had come, he said to them, Let us cross over to the other side.

Now when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was, and other little boats were also with him.

And a great windstorm arose, and the winds beat into the boat so that it was already filling.

But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow.

And they awoke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea and said to the sea, peace, be still.

And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

But he said to them, why are you so fearful?

And they feared exceedingly and said to 1 another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Jesus had told extensively on the Western coast of the Sea of Galilee.

He had shared his first parable with them, and he told day and night, sharing with them the gospel, teaching and healing them.

He was pressed about even further with the crowd, despite the many people that were healed.

The malicious criticism and misrepresentations of Pharisees also weighed heavily upon him, and he longed for retirement, beckoning his disciples to take him over to the east coast of the Sea of Galilee, where a place that was essentially a Greek and Roman culture.

You see, it wasn't because of political or military reasons why the Greeks and the Romans decided to settle on the eastern coast of the Sea of Galilee.

They settled there because of their culture and their language.

And finding in this place a place of repose, Jesus wanted to go there to remove himself from an otherwise Jewish nation that wasn't really receptive from the leadership to the message that he wanted to present.

So going to a place that was largely heathen compared to Jew, he settled in the boat with a few other boats in tow and headed out into the sea.

And we read of the events that took place.

There was a great storm that arose unlike any other storm that the seasoned fishermen had faced.

And in the extent of the storm, fearing for their lives, they went to their last and only hope, Jesus.

Waking him up, he awakens up, rises and speaks to the angry sea, peace be still.

The storm ceases, the gentle stars break forth, and there is a calm.

Jesus, their savior, had stilled the raging storm.

And then we read further in Mark 5, verses 1 to 20, And we'll read its entirety.

Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.

And when he had come out of the boat, immediately they met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no 1 could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces, neither could anyone tame him.

And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.

When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped him.

And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God.

I implore you by God that you do not torment me.

For he said to him, come out of the man, unclean spirit.

And he being Jesus asked him, what is your name?

And he answered saying, my name is Legion, for we are many.

Also he begged him earnestly that he would not send him out of the country.

Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountain, so all the demons begged him, saying, send us to the swine, that we may enter them.

Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine.

There were about 2, 000 and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea and drowned in the sea.

So those who fed the swine fled and they told it in the city and in the country and they went out to see what it was that had happened.

Then they came to Jesus and saw the 1 who had been demon possessed and had the legion sitting and clothed in his right mind and they were afraid.

And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon possessed and about the swine.

Then they began to plead with him to depart from their region.

And when he got into the boat, he who had been demon possessed begged him that he might be with him.

However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he has had compassion on you.

And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him and all marveled.

Now you would have thought after the night's ordeal that the disciples were confident that Jesus could still any raging storm.

But as they landed on the shores of Gennesaret, they faced a different storm that they weren't used to.

As the demoniacs rushed towards Jesus, the disciples fled in fear, but the same hand that had stilled and calmed the raging storm also beckoned this demon-possessed man, or the account of Matthew, these demon-possessed men to stand still.

With authority, these demons who numbered as legion were bidden to leave, but a plea was made by the demons and granted to enter a herd of swine.

So we see the herd of swine that numbered about 2, 000 rushed down the cliff and to their death.

Meanwhile, a change had taken place in these once demon-possessed men.

Intelligence shone forth from their eyes.

The storm had been stilled in their life, and we see them, the Bible describes them as being in their right mind, clothed at the feet of Jesus, glorifying their Savior and learning from Jesus the things that were relevant and necessary for their lives.

These men had now been freed from the clutches of Satan.

From the cliff, the keepers of the swine fled in fear.

They published to the region round about them and soon a large crowd was gathered around to see this Jesus and the demon-possessed man.

But instead of gratitude, instead of gratitude to their Savior who had freed this demon-possessed man, they approached him in fear.

Once the demon-possessed man would rush upon any travelers, the region was shut off.

People were living in fear of this region because of these men, and yet they approached Jesus with fear.

The loss of the swine see to them of greater importance than the freeing of these men from Satan's hold.

It was in mercy to these people that God had permitted the loss of these swine.

These people were steeped in worldly possessions, in worldly gain, and God longed to open to them and help them realize their spiritual deficiencies.

Jesus had hoped to break the spell of selfishness and gain that they might realize their need of the spiritual cleansing as was evidenced by these men before the feet of Jesus.

But their temporal loss blinded their eyes from what Jesus hoped to offer them.

And fearing that another financial calamity would befall them, they beckoned Jesus to leave.

Satan had used this loss, had used the loss of these temporal things in order to stop the way for the gift of God to be presented to them.

But we see a far different attitude as evidence in the lives of these men.

We read of these men beckoning their new found Savior to stay with them.

They longed to hear from Him the messages that brought them from the hold of Satan.

But Jesus gently beckoned them to go home.

And instead of feeling rejection, They found in them a newfound hope, a new reason to live, a work that was given them to do.

And with joy they went and published to a heathen home, to a heathen nation, the things that Jesus had done for them.

These 2 men were the first missionaries whom Jesus sent to preach in the region of Decapolis.

They had never heard, probably because of their Roman or Greek background, they probably had never heard any of the Old Testament.

They probably had never heard a single word of any sermon that Jesus preached.

They never enjoyed the company as the disciples did, any instruction from Jesus as they communed with him day by day.

And yet they bore in their lives a living testimony that they had been with Jesus.

It was the testimony of Christ that they bore with them as they pronounced this message to the region of Decapolis.

Alistair Huong

Benton Community Church of Seventh-day Adventists

Servants in the Fire

Father in heaven, we're so thankful for your word, the promises and the prophecies found therein.

And we know that you have an interest in our lives, both now and in the hereafter.

And so as we investigate how we can be prepared for the times ahead.

I pray that your spirit will be here to be our teacher and our guide, we pray in Jesus' name.

Let's begin in our scripture reading this morning in Revelation chapter 7.

This is really the theme passage for our discussion today.

Revelation 7 beginning in verse 1, And after these things I saw 4 angels standing on the 4 corners of the earth, holding the 4 winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the 4 angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea saying hurt not the earth neither the sea nor the trees till we have sealed who the servants of our God in their foreheads.

And I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed 144, 000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

This morning, I want to zoom in on that description of the 144, 000 in which they are identified as the servants of God.

What does that mean, to be servants of God?

If you look in the bulletin, the title listed there, Servants of the Living God, it could also be titled, Servants in the Fire.

This is where we'll be spending most of our time this morning.

I wanna look at Daniel because Daniel and Revelation are companion books.

It's like learning algebra so that you can do calculus.

Daniel is algebra, Revelation is calculus.

If you don't understand Daniel, when you get to Revelation, you're gonna be missing a whole bunch of stuff.

And I believe that when John the Revelator is discussing the servants of God, we need to think back, oh okay, are there instances in Daniel that illuminate this concept of the servants of God?

So I want you to keep that thought in mind as we go through the story of Daniel chapter 3 to see what we can learn.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king, the king of what nation by the way?

The king of Babylon, good, made an image of gold whose height was 3 score cubits and the breadth thereof 6 cubits.

He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

We see in this verse that Daniel chapter 3 begins with Babylon and Babylon raises up an image And this image is constructed with very unique dimensions.

Well, keep that number in your mind, but is there in Revelation any significance with the name Babylon?

Okay, alright, I think we're making some connections here already.

And in the book of Revelation, do we see any story, any prophecy about an image?

And is Babylon and the image related somehow in the book of Revelation?

I think you know where we're headed with this, but let's keep going.

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the King had set up.

Then the princes, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up, and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Well, it sure looks like the list of everyone who's anyone.

The Queen of England is in attendance, along with Prince Charles and Prince William and Princess Kate and their baby.

Okay, there are the statesmen, all the governors it says.

So we've got the presidents, we've got the prime ministers, we've got the senators, the representatives, We've got the military leaders, the generals.

We've got the Supreme Court justices there.

We have what they call the counselors or the philosophers, the PhDs at Harvard, the thought leaders that steer academia and our philosophy of the age, the sheriffs, the law enforcement is there, The province rulers or the CEOs and the presidents of the Exxon mobiles and the apples and all of these leaders of every sector in society is in attendance.

This is interesting to me because don't people dedicate statues and sculptures and images all the time?

I mean, at Southern we've got sculptures on campus and then they're dedicated when they're unveiled, when they're finished.

The Statue of Liberty is an image, and it was dedicated at 1 point.

And so I'm looking at this story, and I'm asking myself, what's so special?

Everyone who's anyone is there for a dedication of a sculpture, of another, you know, another image in a pantheon of images that I'm sure Nebuchadnezzar has built.

There's something significant about that.

And it looks as though Nebuchadnezzar is using this as an opportunity to gain solidarity with his kingdom.

It's a time for peace and safety to be proclaimed.

For people to come together to put aside our differences.

To come together and say We're all in this together.

We're all friendly, despite our past differences.

Is there any chance that such words might be spoken today?

But this is 1 last lesson I wanna draw from here, and that is a dedication.

So this occasion on the plane of Dura appears to be a 1 time special event.

I think that gives us a little more significance as to what happens later on in the story.

Verse 4, Then a herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, stop right there.

There is a message that is being proclaimed by the messenger of Babylon, a herald, A messenger.

In Revelation, do we see another messenger?

Back to Menu

All Teachings

A Major Breakthrough in the World of Health

21m

Morning Devotional

16m

Servants in the Fire

43m

Mission Opportunities

1h 24m

Question & Answer

27m

Mission Testimonies

46m

Beauty and the Beast

51m

Something Better, Changing Patient Behaviour

45m

JHN Tindall: A Twentieth Century Medical Evangelist

37m

Healing the Other Deadly Wound

54m

Without a Wedding Garment

56m

Lessons on Faith for the Time of Trouble

38m

Sound Doctrine