Eric Walsh

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Prayer in a New Light

Is any is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins they shall be forgiven him.

Confess your faults 1 to another and pray 1 to another that you may be healed.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Our message this morning is prayer in a new light, prayer in a new light.

Father God we thank you for this opportunity.

We ask Lord that you would show up in our message this morning.

I ask Father God that you make me not be seen but that Lord you would speak through me.

This is our prayer in Jesus's name, amen.

James was a powerful writer and spoke very well on many subjects and 1 of the subjects that I like that James wrote about is this idea of prayer and community inside of the church in order to gain victory.

This is something that sometimes seems to lag in many of our churches where we we we seem more antagonistic inside of the church rather than cooperative inside of the church.

And I mean in order that people gain victory.

Sometimes we focus so much on smaller issues that huge issues are overlooked.

So in other words, sometimes we focus on what that family is eating, let's say, rather than how well the family communicates.

How well do the children and the parents connect?

And of course, Ellen White, in the books like The Adventist Home and Messages to Young People, writes a lot on the simple aspects of the family and how well we communicate, how well we get along, how well we all fall into order in the home.

And a lot of times because we can't see inside of the home, the church kind of neglects some of these issues.

And so we have people in church who are very unhappily married, yet every week they come to church and they smile and they and they sing and they dress up and they come to church, but realistically their homes are miserable.

And then you wonder when their children turn 18 or 19 or 20 and leave the church and never come back.

Why did the children, this was such a good church family, why did the children leave and never come back?

Because you can't see inside of the family and so often we neglect to speak to the issues of the family.

Instead we look at what we can see and we judge often based on what we can see of the family.

So we all have mastered to some extent, most of us have mastered an ability to put up a charade or a facade So that when we come to church or when we go to school or when we go to work everyone looks at us and everything always looks like it's okay even when at home or inside the whole our whole world our whole reality may be in chaos.

James says it not it's not supposed to be that way.

You're not a member of the Church of God.

You're not a Christian so that you can be totally confused, so that you can have no support, so that you wander aimlessly without others who believe to support you.

James says, no, that's not the way it's supposed to be.

Instead, let's look at prayer in a new light and see how God expects us to function together, not even just as a nuclear family, but as a church family, God expects us to do certain things in order that we receive support.

I submit to you that 1 of the biggest challenges facing America today is the challenge of people feeling loved and supported and feeling encouraged even.

I'm doing a dissertation for my doctorate in public health and I'm looking at something they now call an allostatic load, the allostatic load.

It is a concept based on allostasis, which is kind of the next step from homeostasis.

They're now looking at the fact that the body changes in order to survive, just like homeostasis brings us back to stability in order for survival.

Well we find that if you are climbing a flight of stairs, allostasis kicks in and your heart rate goes up and you might even, if you exert yourself enough, have the release of some endorphins and so forth and even some glucocorticoids and definitely like adrenaline might kick in if you're really running up the stairs fast.

And so your body changes in order to deal with the stress that's being placed on it.

The stress of running up the stairs, the stress of a fast break in a basketball game, the stress of a test, your heart rate might go up, You focus a little bit better because of the adrenaline.

Your body changes in order for you to survive.

Well what science is finding out is that with these allostatic changes and with what is happening if those changes are not met properly, if in other words if you begin to change to survive yet the stressor is never removed from you, then those allostatic changes begin to cause disease.

So in a set of monkeys, there was an experiment done where they stressed the monkeys.

And by piling monkeys in the cages, they could study, and when they tested their blood, they had higher levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline.

Cortisol levels in the morning were higher, and the monkeys were really amped up.

And by amping up and revving up the systems and getting them stressed out, the monkeys were able to survive better in the short term.

They could clear out space for them in being overcrowded in the cages.

But what they found is with time, they had an accelerated rate of atherosclerosis compared to the same monkeys put in different cages with enough space.

So allostasis kicked in so they could survive better, but without removing them from the stressor, their bodies began to literally break down.

Now I say that because in a way in America we're like the monkeys in the cage.

We're going so fast, trying to do so much, trying to accomplish so much all of the time.

And with that we wonder what is the X factor?

Because you know people who eat well and drink enough water and get their sunshine and love the Lord and yet still come up with serious illness.

There is an X factor and that X factor is allostasis.

It is if you have not settled worry deep in your mind and if you are super sensitive to stress you can accelerate disease.

That's why trust in God is 1 of the principles of the health message.

So with that in this new year as I've been studying this I've been wondering how do you change that?

What should we be practicing so that if you're here in medical school or residency or nursing school or public health or pharmacy or if you work here or if you're trying to go into retirement or or about to have a child or if you're hoping that guy proposes and he seems to not want to how do you deal with the stress the scripture gives us word In this new year understand that prayer then becomes more than simply something you do to connect to God.

Prayer is 1 of the few things you can do to reduce your allostatic load.

I believe this is 1 of the reasons that the Adventist health study comes out the way it does.

Do you know that in 1 article that will be published this summer, and probably I shouldn't mention this because I'm privy to articles before they're released, it is recommended by someone here on campus that African Americans in general all across the United States would live better if they all became Seventh-day Adventist.

The study, the science is overwhelming that if all African Americans converted to Adventism and lived an Adventist lifestyle all African Americans would live longer, have less disease burden, they would do better.

The study is overwhelming based on what we've gotten in data from the Adventist health study.

But I believe the X factor in this is trusting in God.

That when we have a problem as Christians we can take our problems walk them to the feet of Jesus and lay them down.

That we don't have to carry the load like the monkeys in the cage.

Instead God has given us a mechanism through which we can get rid of our stresses and not that we don't have to learn to become stronger or to develop but we don't have to do it in our own strength.

We don't have to rely on our own adrenaline to become more powerful.

We don't have to rely on our own wit or our own brilliance in order to pass exams.

By the grace of God we have been given a system by God in which when we practice what God has taught us to practice, God shows up in our lives and makes out of mountains molehills.

He turns the scenario and flips the equation so that what seems like dire straits and the impossible, God opens up avenues and doors of escape.

Can you imagine how stressful it would have been for the children of Israel?

Just left Egypt, 10 plagues, the firstborn of the Egyptians slain, Now they're stuck between a rock, the sea, and and the chariots of Pharaoh coming from behind them.

Under those stressful situations all through the old all through the Exodus story they go to the same line.

They can't handle the stress and eventually if you read long enough Moses stops being able to handle the stress very well either.

But when Moses calls on God in faith, God opens up a highway where there was water.

And I want to submit to you that the God that allowed the cornered children of Israel to walk away from their enemies on dry land is still available to you.

Let him call on the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

I submit to you that maybe we don't do that kind of intercessory prayer like we ought to.

That maybe when we have problems we're too shy to really say we're struggling in school or having trouble with our marriage and it's difficult because who do you trust with such sensitive information.

But I challenge you in this new year to find a circle of friends, a circle of believers whom you can take your deepest issues to so that as a group you all can pray over that issue.

I challenge you that this year you make a point that you don't carry all of your spiritual burdens and wait on your own.

Instead, you find others that you can gather around and and pray with weekly or daily or however often it is possible and that you leave your issues there with the group in prayer.

James says that there's power in this, in us organizing to pray, because the Bible describes a God who listens to his children and so when we pray I believe that synergy takes place in group prayer, That God hears it and sees the benevolence of his people and God wants to act on their behalf and because a group of believers have shown up in faith to pray, God then says, all right let's work this thing out.

But when we pray together we each get the benefit of seeing how God works it out for 1 other person.

And by seeing how God works it out for the other person each person in the group's faith is strengthened.

Verse 15 it says in the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he has committed sins they shall be forgiven him.

Alistair Huong

A Purpose Driven Life

The title of our message is called a purpose driven life sound familiar My purpose today in this message is not to discuss the materials contained in the best-selling book by author Rick Warren from Saddleback Church here in California.

Neither am I trying to jab at him or discredit him in any way.

I just like the title and it fits with what I'm trying to present today.

But what we're going to do is we're going to look at the book of books that can give us a purpose-driven life, and that's this 1 right here, the Bible.

But before we go any further, let us bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, I ask that as we open your word, as we study about a life of a purpose-driven individual, help us to find the divine purpose you have given to each 1 of us.

And may we learn to live our lives surrendered to that purpose.

By the end of this message today, I hope it is instilled, ingrained in each 1 of you that God has a purpose for your life.

Whether you know it now or not, He does have 1 for you.

And I'm going to propose that our willpower, our power of choice, is greatly determined by an understanding and our surrender to the will or the purpose that God has for us.

I am proposing that the strength of our will is directly related to the understanding that we have of our purpose in life.

What you need to understand is the true force of the will.

This is the governing power in the nature of man, the power of decision or of choice.

Everything depends on the right action of the will.

How much depends on the power of the will?

We continue reading, the power of choice God has given to men.

We cannot of ourselves give to God its affections, but we can choose to serve Him.

We can give Him our will and He will then work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Thus our whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ.

This thing right here, the frontal lobe, where decisions are made.

So when I use the word will and decision and choice, they're all synonymous.

And today in this world, we see that suicide is at an all-time high.

We also see that depression and emotional and psychological diseases are on the rise.

We see a significant number of, or level of, attrition or backsliding from Christian churches.

There are less and less inhibition in general towards evil, against evil I should say, and immorality.

Ultimately, the reason for this, the reason why people do these things is because they choose to do it.

Well there might be physiological and you know psychological reasons that are outside of their control, yes.

They allow themselves to become controlled by circumstances and they choose to allow depression to set in.

Why do people become violent and immoral?

Whether we like it or not, We have responsibility.

We can choose what we do, how we think, how we live, what we do, what we say.

People make bad choices Because they have weak wills.

The power of the will is not trained to go against the natural tendencies of human nature.

And 1 reason, I'm not trying to be exhaustive in my explanation today, but 1 reason I believe why humanity is losing their willpower is because they have no purpose in their life.

Besides, why should I restrain my appetite if there is no good reason for me to have good health?

Why should I love my wife, stay faithful to her, if there's no good reason to do it?

Why should I overcome sin and temptation if there is no reason for me to overcome?

If life is just living on this planet, life is just living until I pass into the grave and I can never be perfect and I can never find favor with God anyway, why do it?

Why should I not let circumstances get the best of me?

Why should I not get depressed and discouraged if there's no reason for me to be otherwise?

Why should I give forth my best effort to be full of integrity, to do my work so that I am faithful even when nobody's watching if there's no good reason for me to be faithful?

So do you see how it is integrally connected the 2 things having a purpose in our lives and ability for us to make good and right and moral decisions if we have no purpose and Might I say if we don't have the right purpose, which is God's divine purpose, we cannot, will not make good and right choices.

And so what I want to do today is I want to look at the character Joseph.

And this is good because we just went over it an hour ago, so it's fresh on our minds.

And we can look at the story while it is on the tip of our tongue and we can identify qualities in Joseph or look at situations events in his life that perhaps can help us gain an understanding of how to live a purpose-driven life and in turn make good decisions.

So Joseph, did he have a purpose in his life?

And if so, what was it and how did he find it?

Turn your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis chapter 22 we begin reading in verse 17.

God here is speaking to Abraham who is the great-grandfather of Joseph.

Notice what it says, God speaking, in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sandwiches upon the seashore and thy enemies shall possess the gate of his and I see shall possess the gate of his enemies verse 18 and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

Sojourn in this land and I will be with thee and will bless thee for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries and I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

Genesis chapter 28 beginning in verse 13.

And behold the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father and the God of Isaac.

The land whereupon thou lies to thee will I give it and to thy seed.

And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." This was speaking to Jacob.

All through his family history to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph remembered, he learned, he heard that God had given his family a divine purpose.

God said, in your family, through your seed, shall the entire world, all of the earth, be blessed through the seed of Abraham.

He was, he had very early on got it instilled in his mind.

I am in this world for a very special and specific purpose.

I want to look back, however, at another passage in Genesis chapter 15.

And we're going to just touch on it now and we'll come back to it in a little bit.

God is speaking to Abraham, Abraham actually, but he was Abram at this time.

And God said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them 400 years.

And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out with great substance." So another promise was given that before the nation of Abraham's family will become this mighty nation that will bless the whole world, they will be in bondage for 400 years to a different nation in which they are strangers.

And after the 400 years, then they will come out with great substance.

The World’s Greatest Want

Father in heaven as we begin to think about this topic, the world's greatest want, we realize that you have a high calling for each 1 of us and may we live our lives in a way that we will fulfill the greatest want of the world.

May your spirit be our teacher and our guide this day we pray in Jesus name.

The book Education, page 57, paragraph 3.

The greatest want of the world is the want of what?

Men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.

These are the men and women, I might add, that the world is looking for.

Noble, upright, courageous, steadfast individuals who will do what it takes even if it is going against the flow.

And I believe when I read this description it is describing to me the final generation of God's people.

We're told in the book of Revelation, you can look there with me in chapter 14, that there is going to be a group of people simply called the 144, 000.

There's no fancy title, there's no label, it's just a number.

The 144, 000, look with me in verse 5, Revelation 14 verse 5, And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God.

Individuals without fault, otherwise known as the greatest want of the world.

But how can we be like that group of people?

Without fault, with no guile in our mouth, courageous, noble, standing for the right though the heavens fall, consciences as true to duty as the needle to the pole.

Calling sin by its right name, that's a high calling.

And what does God tell us these people are like?

I want to read to you the paragraph immediately preceding the paragraph right before we read what we read in Education page 57, paragraph 3.

It says, The history of Joseph and Daniel is an illustration of what he will do for those who yield themselves to Him and with the whole heart seek to accomplish His purpose." And the immediate, the words following immediately, the greatest want of the world is the want of men and so on and so forth.

So putting 2 and 2 together, If I want to find a person, an individual, that is the model, that is the illustration, that is the picture, the snapshot of the men and women described in the paragraph, The Greatest 1 of the World, the 2 men that described by inspiration is Joseph and Daniel.

And of course time would not allow us an in-depth study of both of these characters today.

We don't even have time for an in-depth study of 1 of them today.

But I want to take a moment and discuss together just a little bit about the history of Joseph.

Again, I read, the history of Joseph is an illustration of what God will do for those who yield themselves to him and with the whole heart seek to accomplish his purpose.

Now when we mention the name Joseph, what's the first impression that flashes in your mind?

What is the first thought that comes to mind?

Maybe some things that come to mind are prime minister of Egypt, powerful, noble, full of integrity, faithful, Maybe a coat of many colors, betrayed by his brothers, Potiphar's wife, sold to slavery.

You know the story of Joseph, and perhaps I'm leapfrogging our lesson quarterly a little bit.

But in the book of Genesis, the story of Joseph begins in chapter 37 and it ends in chapter 50.

In the book of Genesis, no other single character receives more development than the character Joseph.

I think God is trying to tell us something.

There is something within the life story of Joseph that we must understand.

And putting it together with what we have already looked at this morning.

The story of Joseph contains within it secrets, tools, and ideas, and principles that can prepare God's final generation.

So I just want to think a little bit about the history of Joseph.

Joseph was born into the family of Jacob, into a family of 12 boys, not including siblings, other female siblings.

We'll talk more about that in a little bit.

And his brothers hated him because of his dreams, because he was favored by his father, and his brothers hated him to the point of murderous intents.

They sold him into slavery to Egypt and there Joseph became the servant in the house of Potiphar, rapidly rising through the ranks to become the chief steward of the home.

Potiphar and as a result was thrown into the king's prison.

He was there for a number of years and he met the baker and the butler of Pharaoh.

He interpreted their dreams, was forgotten for another 2 years, And when Pharaoh had his remarkable dreams, he called Joseph, who interpreted the dream, and in 1 night, from rags to riches, became the Prime Minister of Egypt.

He prepares great silos and storehouses for the grain that came in the 7 years of plenty so that he could be ready for the 7 years of famine and his family shows up in his life again and through the intercourse of several dialogues and experiences Joseph tests his brothers finds out that their characters have changed, welcomes them with open arms to live with him in Egypt, brings his father Jacob down there.

Jacob lives his final 17 years in the land of Egypt And there the land of Goshen provided the avenue, the resources for the nation of Israel to become a mighty nation.

And Joseph in his dying words he says, don't leave me here, don't bury me, don't build me a pyramid, Embalm me, put me in a coffin, but carry up my bones.

Because God will surely visit you and bring you out of this place.

That's the story of Joseph in a nutshell.

And immediately when we think of Joseph, sometimes, at least I get the feeling, Joseph is up here somewhere, and I'm down here somewhere.

Joseph had all of these marvelous opportunities, he had so many advantages, he could do so many great things for God because he came from such a rich heritage, such a well-founded patriarchal system where God spoke to them face to face.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Prayer in a New Light

27m

A Purpose Driven Life

35m

The World’s Greatest Want

37m

The Holy and the Profane

55m

Reflections on Daniel 11

1h 17m

Hidden Sabbath Truths

57m

Three Inseparable Doctrines

1h 15m

Be Thankful for Trials

33m

A Deeper Baptism

43m

Lecture on Beast vs. Covenant

36m

Sex Lies and the Fight for Purity

57m

Focusing on the Finish Line

21m

Sound Doctrine