Michigan Camp Meeting 2024: As For Me and My House

Things I Wish I Learned in My 20s

Kameron DeVasher

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

03 Things I Wish I Learned in My 20s

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.

Dear Holy Father, thank you so much for this beautiful day.

Thank you for this particular seminar and for the people who've assembled in this room.

Bless us now as we study your word and this incredible theme of the great controversy.

Help us Lord to not only understand it as an intellectual concept but as a framework for our lives.

So Lord please send your Holy Spirit to teach us today for we pray it in Jesus name, Amen.

Alright, When I do this outside to a non-adventist audience, I will typically call it Questions Angels Ask.

Because they've never heard of the Great Controversy.

They might think it's the war in Gaza or Ukraine or something.

If you have your Bibles, you can turn there or, by the way, the first little section is going to be called, refer to it as, know your enemy.

Some days were full of healing, some days were full of parables, and I'm guessing that most days were a mix of all of them.

But on this particular chapter in scripture, there is, he told a parable, then again he told a parable, and then another parable, so there's a collection of parables.

And this one's kind of right in the middle.

Matthew chapter 13, starting with verse 24.

Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

So pause right there, and we're gonna break this down microscopically as our friend Randy Skeet would say.

A man, I'm not just asking myself, I want some retort here.

But, While men slept, and our first question should be in the back of our minds, hey wait a minute, we introduced a new character.

It just said, anyway, while men slept, Then it introduced another character.

His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

So this is still in the owner's field, it's still his place, but at night time, I suppose when winter's sleeping, the enemy comes in, And in the exact same spot where he sowed all that good seed, he then sowed tares or weeds among the good crop.

And then he slithered off and went his way.

Now, when I was a child, we would do these, whether it was a, you know, camp meeting, vacation Bible school, Sabbath school, something, church school, whatever they would do, they would give you this, like, try to inspire you about gardening and they'd give you a styrofoam cump with a seed or something in it and I had this jack-in-the-beanstalk expectation.

I was put a little water on it, set it on the windowsill and boom!

In a couple of days of that, and I'm done.

If you were to sow good seed or bad seed, do you see the results quickly?

Thus the text says, but when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tears also appeared.

So it didn't pop up overnight, it wasn't the next day, it wasn't even maybe a week, it took some time before anything started to pop up, And at first it was indistinguishable from the suit.

So it took a while before you noticed that, hey, not everything's lined up and they've got a little different shape.

So the servants of the owner, now this is an interesting thing, the servants of the owner, I'm gonna go ahead and submit to you since we don't have time to break it down, that these are the men who were sleeping.

The servants of the owner came and said to him.

So the servants bring their questions to whom?

Because they don't know there's an enemy.

What were they doing while the enemy was active?

They were completely unaware that anything was happening.

All they know is there's an owner who has this field, He sowed good seed, and notice they weren't the ones who sowed the seed either.

They're hired to work the crop once the seed is sprouted.

So they come to him and say, sir, notice they're being respectful, kind, courteous.

They're loyal, but do they have questions?

Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

Notice, friends, there is a clear discrepancy between what the owner had said and what the servants can see.

He said, good field, good seed, everything's good.

They're like, yeah, you said good, but we see bad.

And I don't want to extrapolate too much from this right now but I'll tell you this is 1 of the main issues.

Whether you're Christian, Adventist, nothing at all about belief in God.

If there's a God who's so good and so powerful and all love, how can he have those good principles and those good attributes and those great qualities?

This is a lot of not good in his so-called field.

Attraction

Gabriel Arruda

Freedom Health Ministries

02 The 4 Parts of Attraction and Personality Types

All right, this is Attraction, presentation 2.

And in our last talk, we talked about trauma and dysfunction and how they affect attraction.

We talked about trauma bonding, bad boy syndrome.

We addressed Do opposites attract or do similars attract?

These are some of the questions that we covered.

But I really should have had this in the last talk, but I'm going to bring it up here.

We wanna ask the question, why is it even important for you to understand who you're naturally attracted to?

Well, from our last talk, remember, we found that you're going to get together with whoever you're attracted to, not the theologically correct person.

And so why is it important to understand who you're naturally attracted to?

Number 1, to catch bad things that you're attracted to.

I mean here's the problem, you can be naturally attracted to qualities that are unhealthy.

I mean, if all of our natural attractions were good, I wouldn't need to give this talk.

I would just say, I would just sound like a Disney character and I would just tell you, go follow your heart, you'll be fine.

But the fact is we're attracted to things that are not always healthy for us.

And the bottom line is you're attracted to what's familiar more than what's healthy.

You're attracted to what's familiar more than what's healthy.

And if what's familiar is not healthy, you'll be attracted to it.

So that's number 1, catch bad things you're attracted to.

Number 2, to avoid people who cannot meet your heart needs.

So everyone, based on who they are, has fundamental things that they need to be happy in a relationship.

I've always been very affectionate with the women in my life.

I mean from the time I was a little boy with my mom and my grandma, you know, my mom she was a short Salvadorian woman and remember in the morning as a teenager, I would come and give her a hug and her head would come up to about midway up my chest and I would just grab her head and hug her head and kiss the top of her head.

Hugs, holding hands, random affection, it just fills my tank.

And so if a girl's not interested in physical affection and she's not interested in learning how to be, you know, that's fine for her, but she's just not for me.

I could never truly be happy in that relationship.

Do you know it's okay to look for someone who will bring happiness into your life?

Let me quote the book, Avenus Home, page 45.

It says, let a young man seek 1 to stand by his side, who is fitted to bear her share of life's burdens.

1 whose influence will ennoble and refine him, listen, and who will make him happy in her love." Yeah, it's okay to look for people who will make you happy in their love.

Now, you don't want someone to, you know, try to take the place of God, but overall you want someone who's going to make you happy.

Of course everyone has pros and cons, but generally speaking, that person should make you happy.

We will compromise these heart needs if the person is hot enough.

Just to be really blunt, we will compromise those heart needs if they're hot enough, or if we don't know what those needs are, or if that person scratches some dysfunctional itch in us, you will compromise the things that you really, truly need to be happy in a relationship.

So understanding who you're attracted to and catching bad things that you're attracted to prevents you from compromising those key heart needs that you need to be happy in a relationship.

And I just wanna say, don't compromise with your heart needs because your heart won't compromise with you.

Do not compromise with your heart needs because your heart will not compromise with you.

No matter how much you try to force yourself, the rules of the heart will not bend.

If you're wired a certain way, you're wired a certain way.

And sure, you can make accommodations, you can make it work, but deep down you will not truly feel fulfilled.

Let's say you realize, you know, I really need someone who's a good listener, but I married someone who only wants to talk about themselves.

I mean, no matter how much you tell yourself they're a great person, they provide, you know, they, whatever, they're just not going to fulfill you in that area.

And that's just a fact that the heart has rules.

You know, you're in that marriage, you made your vows, make it work.

I mean, speaking to those of us here and on the single end to prevent getting in that situation to begin with?

Absolutely, let me give you another example.

We talked about those attachment types the last period, the last talk.

Those people with anxious attachment types cannot thrive with people who are emotionally distant.

Or you could say avoidance, people who are indecisive, an uncommitted partner.

People with anxious attachment types can never feel truly fulfilled and at peace with an avoidant person.

And you could tell yourself, you know, hey, they're a great person, they're attractive, whatever, does not matter.

Your heart will not compromise with you, so don't compromise with your heart.

This one's kind of touchy, but I'm just gonna go for it.

There is such a thing as sexless marriages.

There are women who cannot have sex with their husbands.

I've listened to a few counseling sessions of several couples in this situation, and 1 thing you see over and over is this poor wife, she's frustrated because she knows she should want to have sex with her husband, and it makes her so sad to see her husband feeling so rejected and so down, but she simply cannot bring herself to engage in that act of intimacy with him.

Well there's many reasons, but the ones that I've seen regularly are at her core she feels rejected by him.

And you know, the act of sex and intimacy, it's letting someone in, especially from the female perspective.

And if you feel rejected by that person or unsafe with that person, it's hard to let them in.

So, and 1 thing I see a consistent theme with the cases of this that I have seen, and that is a husband who is constantly critical, a man who is just always critical.

Just for some women, someone can tolerate it, some women it just drives them up and they cannot be intimate with that man.

And here's the thing, if the heart says no, the body will follow.

And you know, because they didn't sort this out beforehand, because they didn't think about, hey, what are my heart needs?

They found themselves in this terrible situation.

And here's the thing, people marry people who don't have the capacity to truly make them happy.

Brian Hindman Weekend

Brian Hindman

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Convicted but Not Converted

Father in heaven, Lord, it is a great honor to be here in this place, here at Advent Hope.

Lord, I just pray for your Holy Spirit to fill our hearts and our minds, that we might be transformed by the love, the grace, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and that we might enter into a deeper walk and experience with Him.

Lord may that begin here today as we enter into the sacred hours and moments of your Holy Sabbath.

Drawn near is our humble prayer in Jesus name, amen.

How many of you have seen something that looks like this up here on the screen?

How many of you have seen 1 of these 3D images that is called a stereogram?

Let's see if it's going to work if I do that.

How many of you have seen 1 of these before?

If you're listening online, it's just a picture of some graphics that's supposed to be three-dimensional.

You're supposed to be able to look inside the image and see something.

And I remember these came out or began to be very popular with the way they're laid out here.

When I was in high school, way back in the 1990s, that was back in another century, but at any rate, my chemistry teacher had this exact stereogram, 3D image on the wall that he put on his classroom.

And I remember it's supposed to be something that you can look at and see some special image.

Can any of you see it from where you are?

I don't know if any of you here in house can tell what that is.

Someone in the back, maybe you have a better vantage point.

But I remember thinking, is this just a practical joke and I'm not in on it?

Is it something that, you know, everyone else knows this is not really real or not?

And they would tell me, you just have to look carefully.

You have to kind of cross your eyes and look and back, you know, stand back and forth and just get your eyes to focus differently.

So I remember after class 1 day, I was determined to see it.

So I stood at the wall there, it was about eye level, and for about 15 or 20 minutes, longer than I care to admit, but I guess I'm doing it now, and I kept doing all those things, move forward and backwards, and move your eyes, try to cross, and then finally I saw it.

What is it up in the, can you tell what it is?

And it was exciting to be able to see that.

In fact, they also have a place now, a way that you can create these things and make your own.

So just for fun, really quick, we're gonna move quickly here.

Can any of you see, there are 2 words here.

We're looking at a graphic and on the surface, it looks like there's nothing there.

It is 2 very important words that are Jesus saved.

I don't know if you can see it from the way that the angles are.

I can see it on my computer, but I don't know if you can see it on the screen from the way that different angles and so on.

Well, this is a very interesting point to me because the message to Laodicea is 1 that's described as really 1 that people can't see.

They don't see the real issue at heart with the Laodicean message.

And maybe some of you are like me, a lifelong Sabbath Day Adventist, and you've heard these messages or the description in Revelation 3, 14 through 22 many times.

But it mentions there that this church, which really is all of us, this is the last church before Jesus comes, is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

And those are 5 things that are very serious.

But the worst of all, potentially, is when Jesus says, thou knowest not.

And the Lord has helped convict me that really this describes all of us.

Every single 1 of us, if we're living in this hour, the name Laodicea means judging of the people.

We're living in the judgment hour since 1844.

So, it applies to all of us unless we are connected to Jesus with a vital connection, we are Laodicean in terms of the description that's given there.

Maybe a lot of head knowledge, but how are we in terms of that application of that knowledge in our everyday practical lives?

So the Laodicean Church, they know the theory of the truth, but not the conversion experience of the truth.

And so we find that the Laodicean church is convicted, but the description on the outset is that they are not converted.

They are not converted by the information that they know.

What does it mean to be convicted but not converted?

Well to be convicted is to be fully convinced and persuaded that something is true to believe.

But if it stops there, then that's not a good thing.

To be converted is to actually be changed and transformed by what you believe.

And maybe more specifically, who you believe.

Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things are passed away, behold, some things are become new.

Bible students, I hope you're all diligent Bible students.

All things are become new if I'm connected to Jesus Christ.

All things, it will be obvious, it will be clear to me and everyone around me if I really am converted.

That verse in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, I think is 1 of the 10 most important verses in the Bible.

That's just my humble opinion because of the way it illustrates the true experience of conversion and a connection, a vital union with Jesus Christ.

And so there is a grave danger that many of us believe the truth but we are not truly actually changed by it.

So let's ask this question, how important is conversion?

Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 18 verse 3 when He says, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children that trust and believe everything that their parents tell them, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

So conversion isn't something that's just helpful or useful, it's absolutely essential and vital, absolutely vital to our Christian experience if we want to live with Jesus for all eternity.

Well, there are several places in the Bible that Jesus has given some warning messages to us.

And so, let's take our Bibles and go to, first of all, in the Old Testament, the book of Ezekiel chapter 33, and we'll look at verses 30 through 32 together.

Ezekiel was a contemporary with Daniel who was taken away to Babylon.

In the first Babylonian assault by Nebuchadnezzar of Jerusalem.

In the second invasion Ezekiel also was taken away to Babylon.

Well, let's notice here Ezekiel 33 and I'm trying to multitask and talk and look up Bible verses.

In verse 30 when you're there, please say amen.

The Joy of Giving

Amy Austin

02 Intentionally Prepared

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your love.

Thank you for your creativity and the way that you work in our lives.

Lord, we want more of you because we want to share more of you.

And so we just pray for your spirit to be here with us today.

All right, so what I was gonna say is my love for this started because I wanted my kids to love Jesus, to share Jesus, to serve others.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

03 Things I Wish I Learned in My 20s

58m

02 The 4 Parts of Attraction and Personality Types

33m

Convicted but Not Converted

42m

02 Intentionally Prepared

40m

02 Things I Wish I Learned in My 20s

51m

01 Why You’re Attracted to Who You’re Attracted to

38m

11 Taken and Tried

22m

11 Living for Eternity

29m

01 The Generous Life

1h 2m

01 Things I Wish I Learned in My 20s

1h

Will the Seventh-day Adventist Church Survive?

36m

Eyes for India: Who is My Neighbor?

28m

Sound Doctrine