Talking to Strangers

Don Mackintosh

Weimar University

01 Talking to Strangers

All right, so today, talking to strangers.

My uncle Frank, he loved to talk to strangers.

They never met a stranger, or actually he met many strangers, but by the end of it, they not only were not strangers many times, they were not only friends, they actually were fellow pilgrims on the journey to the Kingdom of Heaven.

We did a survey of our students recently and found out that they are not that comfortable as freshmen talking to strangers.

So I thought, well maybe this would be a good thing to talk about how to talk to strangers and then I You know, I talk to strangers all the time and I guess maybe 1 of the Prerequisites to talk to the strangers is to be strange I'm not sure but I just I kind of love talking to strangers, and it probably is because my Uncle Frank, the children's story, he kind of inspired me.

He would always be talking about how he would be meeting strangers and how they would, you know, come to faith, and he had just, you know, ingenious ways to talk to strangers.

I'm not that ingenious, but when I get on Southwest flights, I always sit in the middle seat, even if I'm an A category list.

Why are you sitting between us when you're an A?

You know, they're like, they don't want to sit next to somebody, and I'm right between them.

And so now I've learned to be a C lister if I'm going to do this, because it's just strange to do it as an A-lister on Southwest, if you know what I mean.

And every single flight this last week that I was going out to this memorial, but I had great conversations with people, and, you know, I don't know, I don't think I was always like that.

But the older I get, the more I get like that.

Because just like Frank ended up in an urn, I'm gonna end up in 1 soon too, and I know there's not much time.

You might think you have a lot of time, you don't have that much time.

And you have such a great message to share with people, amen?

So, you know, I was thinking about talking to strangers, and then I saw a book, Talking to Strangers, What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know, and this book is all about strangers.

So I read the book on the way back, on the plane, or actually just the other couple, over the last, I don't know, 48 hours I read this book.

It basically was saying why you shouldn't really talk to strangers because you really don't know them and they could be doing you wrong.

It just was kind of a dark book, although it was interesting, it was an interesting book.

But I'm not pointing you to get this book, I'm not saying go buy it.

I already read it, I would just tell you to save your money.

But I will reference it a little bit here in the message.

Father in heaven, bless us as we now look at your word and this series on talking to strangers that we begin this week.

All right, Acts chapter 8, verse 26 through 39 is gonna be our study today.

And this is 1 of the passages in the Bible where someone is talking to a stranger, Okay?

There's a number of passages in Scripture where Christ is talking to a stranger or others are.

This happens to be the first Gentile convert in the book of Acts.

Now as an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, an angel, now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

So maybe a prerequisite for talking to anybody, really, if you want it to be fruitful, is to be in touch with angels.

And this particular angel was giving them a direction.

Go to the south, go down from the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.

And you maybe have seen pictures of that desert because it's in the news all the time now.

So, Philip was directed by an angel of the Lord to take a certain path.

Number 2, the path does not seem especially promising.

Well, sometimes the Lord will impress you to do things, and it does not look especially promising.

And sometimes You don't even know who the stranger is you're gonna talk to.

You just kind of are following God's directions.

Do you have that kind of relationship with God where he is directing you?

If you are, then the angels are ministering spirit, sent to those who are heirs of salvation.

Now 1 time John was trying to worship an angel.

Now angels are not God, and you don't pray to angels, but he was trying to maybe worship an angel because he was, you know, wow, this is a very, very powerful being.

And you know, as I looked in Frank's barbershop, my uncle's barbershop, I just remember as a little boy going there and just amazing things would be happening there.

And my grandfather, his name was Gordon, my name is Gordon too, Donald Gordon, I'm named after him.

He would always be reading these passages about angels and you be talking about, you know, I think maybe this was an angel.

Man, how many of you have ever had something in your life where you realized or you believed it was an angel that was there for you?

When I was a little girl, I used to go to summer camp and we had a minivan and the minivan had overheated on the way up to if anybody's ever been to Camp Cedar Falls and there's a lot of wines and that's a big long road and so we were we got around 1 corner of a turn, but the car just completely shut down.

And not too long after, I don't even remember if we prayed, I just remember a guy with a tow truck came up behind us and wasn't going too fast because he slowed down right behind us past the turn.

And he didn't say a thing the entire time.

He just pointed that he was going to hook up our car to the tow truck and move it over to the side until the car was done overheating and cooled down.

And then we were able to make it the rest of the way to camp.

And as soon as it all happened and he left, all of us turned to each other and thought, and even said, do you think that was an angel?

So, you know, sometimes you entertain strangers and they really are angels and amazing things can happen.

Well, I would like to hear some more of those angel stories, maybe a little bit later from the rest of you.

So, Philip was directed by an angel to take a certain path.

So, it says in verse 27, he arose and went.

How many of you would listen to an angel if it took you off course from the GPS and took you on a desert road?

This course was, he could have gone through Samaria, he could have gone through a populated area, right?

A lot less dangerous maybe because, I don't know.

He gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey him and are not angels ministering spirit, sent to those who are heirs of salvation.

InVerse 3rd Quarter 2025: The Book of Exodus

Jemimah Brown

Justin Kim

Felecia Lee

Jonathan Walter

Hope Channel

13 The Glory of God

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

My name's Justin, and you're on Inverse, and we are studying the book of Exodus.

We've been studying for the last 12 weeks and finally this is the last episode.

And we're so happy that you decided to join us.

And in the studio studying together is Jemima, Felicia, and Jonathan.

And if you're watching video, you can see what colors we are on, but if you're on podcast or audio, you probably don't, and that's what colors we are wearing.

We want to invite you guys to go to inversebible.org and download the Bible study guide.

Let us know your comments on how you have experienced, how you appreciated the book of Exodus on our social media, whether it's on Insta or Facebook or Twitter or Smokescreen, whatever you gotta do to get your comments to us, we appreciate and appreciate the feedback.

You can also look at previous Bible topics that we've talked about on the show at hopetv.org slash universe.

And you'll see all the different crew members of the inverse team throughout the years.

You won't see Felicia and Jemima, because this is their first 1.

And Lord willing, we'll see you guys again.

All right, let's go to Exodus chapter 33 is where we're at.

And Jemima, can you pray for us and we'll get into the text.

Father in heaven, thank you for sending your Holy Spirit throughout the course of this study.

And Lord, as we open your word yet again, we ask that you may enlighten us and open our hearts and minds in Jesus' name, amen.

Chapter 33 is not the end of Exodus, but it is 1 of the concluding narratives that we see in the midst of instruction.

And I wanna ask, maybe we can go around round table, and what is 1 episode that really sticks out that when you go back home and your spouses are saying, hey, what do you remember from Exodus?

What's the 1 episode that you're gonna say, you know what, this 1 was particularly remembrable for me.

I particularly remember the episode about the Sabbath and how God has given us this day that we may remember how he created us and how he has also brought us out of the house of bondage.

And that could be figuratively like out of sin.

And on that day, we can take time off in the week to sit down and remember God's goodness.

I really liked the study we did, I think in a second episode or so, on the kind of like a character study on Moses and seeing how I never really saw that so much in the story before his struggle with his identity.

And how it took 40 years, 80 years to really find his calling.

And when God calls him in the burning bush.

So just a character study of Moses has really been like floating around in my mind ever since.

I like our last episode when we were talking about the sanctuary and the message that that presents, that God is inviting these former slaves who build the temples to these false gods.

He invites them to build a temple to the 1 true God.

And that this temple was to remind them that he's always with them.

He's putting roots down the mortgage that goes into eternity.

And it's a message of he's inviting us into deep, personal, intimate relationship with him.

Even though He's a holy God, even though he's a consuming fire.

We see later on in Hebrews where it says we ought to come boldly before the throne of grace to seek help in time of need.

Yeah, it was 2 episodes ago, I think the last episode was on the golden calf.

Yeah, I really liked the 10 plagues discussions that we had.

Just really cool to see the narrative that's interspersed between the plagues and see how God was, This was 1 way to let them know who he is, 1 way to eliminate the Egyptian gods, 1 way to let the next generation know.

I mean, there was so much what God was doing.

And 1 thing that he wasn't doing was that it is an anger, just crushing Egypt.

It was cool to see that interlaced all throughout Scripture.

Yeah, like the evangelistic component of it.

And at the same thing, you see God's justice and mercy and all that.

But often the world just sees it as like, there's this angry God and he's just like, just, ah, hell and you know, firstborn.

All right, so let's go to Exodus 33, and then verse 12, John O, verse 12 to 18, please.

Then Moses said to the Lord, see you say to me, bring up this people, "'but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.

"'Yet you have said, I know you by name, "'and you have also found grace in my sight.

"'Now therefore I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, "'show me now your way that I may know you, "'that I may find grace in your sight, "'and consider that this nation is your people.' And he said, "'My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.' Then he said to him, "'If your presence does not go with us, "'do not bring us up from here, "'for how then will it be known "'that your people and I have found grace in your sight, "'except you go with us?

"'So we shall be separate, your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.

So the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken, for you found grace in my sight, and I know you by name.

Felicia, can you kind of bring us, I think we did some reflection, but in chapter 33, can you give us a little background?

And then, you know, Why is Moses having this conversation with God right now here?

So after all that God has done for his people, rescuing them, plagues, brings them out with a mighty hand, he's having this time with Moses and they begin to doubt.

They distrust, they get impatient and they're waiting.

And so they commit this sin in reducing the image of the Holy God to a cuff and saying, this is the God that brought us up out of Egypt.

And it's like, this man, we don't know what's happened to him and Moses comes down.

Well, God tells Moses, the people have already turned away.

And so God says to Moses, let me alone that I may destroy them.

And Moses is saying, hey, your reputation is on the line.

When the other nations hear what you have done, they will say that you brought them out of Egypt, but you couldn't bring them into the Promised Land, and so you killed them.

But then this isn't something that God can just let slide.

And so God and Moses is having a very intimate discussion and it shows the level of their friendship and the level of their relationship that God is inviting a human being to be a part of the conversation as to how we're going to deal with this sin.

And so we see Moses shows what is most important.

Michigan Camp Meeting 2025: He Must Increase

Prophecy's Final Countdown

Cody Francis

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

01 Fire from Heaven

You're about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2025 Michigan Conference Camp, held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Father in heaven, we're grateful that you have given us this opportunity and this privilege to come and to study your word.

We pray that you will be with us now as we look at prophecies in our time.

And we just pray that you will guide and lead and direct our minds.

All right, so I kinda wanna just, as we begin, I kinda wanna look at or kinda think about why it is, and you can kind of see the methodology for this seminar.

Probably about a year ago, somewhere around there, I started studying in a different way than I had before because I was really interested in 1 particular aspect and I've read Great Controversy through multiple times, well I don't know how many times, but I've read Great Controversy through, but I started going through looking at the book Great Controversy trying to understand what are the main events that are listed and delineated out in the book Great Controversy.

And so I wanted to develop a framework of understanding prophecy from an Adventist perspective and I determined that Great Controversy would be our best source for that.

Of course we have the Bible, and we're going to be looking at the Bible, and we're going to be studying from the Bible.

But I began looking at, and just trying to figure out, what are the big pictures, what are the big rocks in the jar of final events from the book Great Controversy.

And the reason that I did this is because I've heard lots of different ideas presented by Adventists that have lots of mergers of other systems of theology or systems of understanding in them.

And I don't want to have a worldview based on Adventist eschatology or Adventist understanding of last-day events.

And let me tell you what I mean when I say that.

So I have been increasingly concerned as I have heard some Adventist talking about and when they talk about prophecy they are merging evangelical futurism or rapture theory understanding of prophecy in with Adventism.

Then there's the politicization of Adventist theology where people will take a Republican worldview or a Democrat worldview and merge that into an Adventist understanding of prophecy.

You have conspiratorial views that get merged into an Adventist understanding of Bible prophecy.

And so what you have that takes, and I'm not saying that it's all the time, but what you have a lot of time that takes place is this weird Frankenstein, if you will, of theology of where we're trying to merge Adventism with other things out there in the world.

And to me, that is a fundamental problem.

We need to look and say, okay, What is, let's look at the Bible, let's look at great controversy, and let's allow ourselves to develop a prophetic understanding from those sources, rather than taking whatever, whoever's talking on YouTube or whatever source and try to merge that in.

And so because of this merger that I've seen, and I gave several different examples, we could give other examples of these different world views that people try to bring into and try to merge with Adventism and it still sounds Adventist, but yet you can understand that, wait a minute, this part that they're presenting actually comes from another world view, not from a biblical Adventist understanding of Bible prophecy.

And so in my mind, I was trying to silence those views in my mind and go to great controversy and look and say, okay, what are the big rocks here?

What are the big pictures that we get from great controversy and from the Bible to help us to understand?

And I'm not going to look at every aspect, but we are gonna try to cover what I consider to be the major things that great controversy brings out, and then we're going to look at it from a biblical, a story in the Bible that illustrates last day events.

So we're not sequentially going through Revelation, we're not sequentially going through Daniel, it would be good to do that, but we are looking at and saying, okay, these are things that we are told are major events and major aspects of prophecy, let's try to understand this component more.

And so that's kind of what we're looking at.

So today we're looking at fire from heaven, tomorrow we're looking at signs and Wonders, which as I studied on that, I think we need to be studying and talking a lot more about what we're talking about tomorrow with signs and wonders.

It's a major thing in great controversy and we don't hear very much about it in the world today.

And so we're looking at that and then we're looking at wrestling with God, so that's more going to be a personal experience in great controversy.

Then we'll be developing some stories Thursday and Friday, Christer Barabbas and Prophecy Countdown, where we look at kind of in sequence and build some, see how the statements in great controversy are parallel with these biblical stories.

But today we're looking at fire from heaven.

Now, how many of you are thankful for fire that we have?

Okay now how many I'm curious how many of you hear heat with wood or at least heat partially with wood?

Now you're very that's it's very real in your mind at that point that if you don't have a fire, you're suffering pretty bad, aren't you?

I, in fact, I don't believe, when we look at it, I don't believe that it would be possible to even live in Michigan without some type of fire.

Of course there's a fireplace, but if you have a propane or a natural gas heater, is that a fire source as well?

If you have electric heat, does most electric heat come from fire?

It does, either a coal plant, or I know the word diversifying and things like this, so with solar and wind, that's not necessarily from internal combustion, but it is still a, most of it comes from a internal combustion, from some fire.

And then you think about, what about our transportation?

Most of us, I'm not saying everybody, I'm sure there may be a few electric cars out there, but most of us still have gasoline cars, right?

And so if we have a gasoline car, what is propelling that car?

And then you think of, well, what about cooking?

So cooking, and most, whether it's electric or whether it's gas, it still usually comes from a source of fire.

Very little of our heat or energy still, and it's becoming more, but still very little comes from something that's not fire.

In fact, I would say, as I already said, without fire I'm not sure we could survive in Michigan.

You may be able to survive on the equator where there's enough warmth and you can eat bananas and you don't have to cook anything or whatever.

But let me ask you, is fire also dangerous?

Just last week or something, there was smoke everywhere in Michigan and a lot of the, I don't know where else it was, but it was definitely here, From fires where?

Now that's a long way, and it wasn't, so I had to, I was curious, because I don't necessarily, we don't watch or listen to news or something like that, so I had to look up and see where these fires were coming from.

It seemed like it was way, ways away that was blowing, the smoke was blowing in.

Was the Wisconsin, I don't remember how to say it exactly, Pesceta Fire, something like that.

And it was, but what was fascinating to me, I was familiar with the Great Chicago Fire.

On the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, there were a number of fires in Michigan and in Wisconsin.

And because it was a very dry, hot summer with winds blowing, and this Wisconsin fire destroyed entire towns.

So they think that there might have been 2, 000 people, 1, 500 to 2, 000, that died in those fires and towns that totally got burned off the map.

But even that is nothing compared to, I was unaware of, about 20 years ago there was a fire in the outback of Australia, 40 million acres burned.

Now, 40 million acres, I have a hard time putting my mind around what 40 million acres is.

Where I grew up, where my parents still live, they have 40 acres, and that's a quarter of a mile by a quarter of a mile.

So I can grasp that, but we're talking about 40 million.

Well, the land surface of Michigan is less than 40 million acres.

And so it would be larger than the entire state of Michigan.

You go to the Siberian taiga and there was something like 50 million acres burned there 4 or 5 years ago.

And so fire is essential but fire is absolutely dangerous as well.

House fires, they tell us, can, and if it's a really serious fire, it can double in size every 30 seconds.

So in 2 and a half minutes a house can be completely engulfed in fire.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

01 Talking to Strangers

45m

13 The Glory of God

29m

01 Fire from Heaven

58m

01 Why Appeals Are Crucial for Success

50m

Education for a Purpose

39m

13 The Tabernacle

30m

13 The Tabernacle

28m

05 God’s Prophetic Gift

47m

05 Building a Culture of Mentorship in the Church

1h 3m

Love, Lies, and Lasting Happiness

1h 9m

04 Tests of a Prophet

1h 8m

04 Mentoring Other Adults

1h

Sound Doctrine