Eric Walsh

West End Seventh Day Adventist Church

Satan’s Not So Secret Weapon

Our message this Sabbath is entitled, and you can go to the next slide here, the enemy's not-so-secret weapon.

Father God, We thank you for this opportunity to study your word and to deal with this sensitive but important topic.

Satan does not want this to go well, Lord.

He really does not want this topic expressed.

So right now, Lord, we claim the blood of Jesus Christ.

We ask for an extra portion of your Holy Spirit that he would beat back the enemy.

And help us, Father, now as we study your word to be able to do as the theme of the day is, that we would grow and put away old ways.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

All right, you guys can move forward with me up there.

We are gonna go to the book of Numbers, chapter 22.

Now, this story actually takes place just after they have left Egypt and they've gone into the wilderness.

They're only a few days out of captivity.

And so now they are at the border of the promised land.

Hundreds of years of slavery and oppression have now come to a point where not only have their captors been vanquished, but they are on the brink of promise and prosperity.

Numbers 22 and verse 1 says, and the children of Israel set forward.

It is greatly understood when you look at the story of Rahab the harlot, that she understood which side she needed to get on just by what she heard about God's people.

Verse 4, and Moab said unto the elders of Midian, now shall this company lick up all that are around about us as the ox licks up the grass of the field.

And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites that time." So the king of the Moabites says, listen, If we let these people do what they've done to the Amorites, what they did to Pharaoh in Egypt, if we just keep letting them do that, they are going to destroy us.

We are not gonna go out like everybody else.

And in verse 5, the Bible says, Numbers 22 and verse 5, the Bible says, he sent messengers, therefore unto Balaam, the son of Beor, to Pithor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him saying, behold." Look at this.

Behold, they cover the face of the earth and they abide over against me.

He said, listen, there's a people that have come out of Egypt.

They are so many, they cover the face of the earth.

Verse 6, he says, come now therefore, I pray thee.

Look at what he asked Balaam, the false prophet, to do.

Curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me.

Peradventure I shall prevail, that way we may smite them and that I may drive them out of the land, for I want that he whom...

I know that he whom you bless is blessed and who you curse is cursed.

So he calls the prophet to put a curse on the people of God.

Now, most of you know this from Sabbath school, cradle roll going all the way back.

At the end of this chapter, something interesting happens.

As Balaam is on his way to Balak, against God's advice, he gets into an argument with his donkey.

Now you know you've messed with God the wrong way when you're arguing with a donkey, and the donkey wins the argument.

When he finally gets to Balak, Verse 8 of Numbers 23, I'm gonna jump through this quick so we can get where we're going.

Balak is telling Balaam, you gotta curse him, you gotta curse him.

Verse 8 of Numbers 23, he says, How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?

Or how shall I defy whom the Lord has not defied?

My grandmother's from a place in Jamaica called Bethel Town, Jamaica.

And my grandmother would tell us stories of how, as a Christian, the women who did obia, That's the form of voodoo they do on the island of Jamaica.

How the women who did Obeah would try and come against her.

But when they would try and my grandmother would pray, whatever they wanted to happen to my grandmother would happen to them.

Who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel?

Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his.

And Balak said unto Balaam, what have you done?

I took you, snatched you up, offered you all this honor and prestige and position.

I offered it to you that you would curse them.

I took you to curse my enemies and behold, you have blessed them all together." His response is powerful.

Verse 12 of number 23, and he answered and said, must I not take heed and speak that which the Lord has put in my mouth?

We got folk now that say they on God's side and they can't put God's word in their mouth.

Behold, I have received commandment to bless and he has blessed.

Somebody in here is wondering what's going on wrong with their life.

Let me submit to you that if God blesses you, ain't no power in the universe can reverse it.

Now, let me tell you why this protection was on Israel.

Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel.

The Lord his God is with him and the shout of a king is among them." Now, I wish I had time for us to go through all of numbers 22, 23, 24.

What was happening is when God's people came out of Egypt, out through trial, the Red Sea represents baptism.

They came through as if they had been washed by God into the wilderness.

They were so in tune with God that the Bible says there was no iniquity, meaning there was no deliberate, chronic, recurring sin in Israel.

Then it says, neither have he seen perverseness in Israel.

It says, and the shout of a king is among them.

This is a prophecy to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Numbers 23 and verse 23 says, "'Surely there is no enchantment that's against you.

"'There's no obia, no voodoo, no santeria you can do "'against God's people.

"'Neither is there any divination against Israel.

According to this time, it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, what has God wrought?

Something drastically changes in the story.

AdAgrA Conference 2025: Growing Better

Journeys in Agriculture

Pamela Dysinger

John Dysinger

AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Journeys in Agriculture Testimony Part 2

So this is a panel of illustrious young agrarians.

And I just want to start off with a few comments for full disclosure.

We are very well acquainted with all of these young people.

We struggled with who do we choose for the panel.

But we decided ultimately on this panel because number 1, we knew them and we knew the experience they had and the answers they could give, but we also tried to get a very diverse panel of experience and knowledge and what they're doing currently.

So just quickly, I want to say, Weston is the only 1 here that has not been an intern on our farm.

And I just want to make it clear, this is not an advertisement in any way for our internship, but Weston does live quite close to us, so we've known him for a number of years.

Weston has unique background in that he has a degree in horticulture, which I don't know very many Adventist young people that actually have a degree in horticulture.

The other thing that why we wanted Weston on the panel is because he grew up in an off-grid homestead, at least for the last number of years.

Chloe, Weston's currently living in Missouri, right?

So we wanted a nice diverse mix between married and unmarried.

Chloe lives in Idaho and she and her husband are homesteading off-grid and in the process of starting a market garden.

Keith has a very, well I would just say he's 1 of the most knowledgeable young people I know in the area of agriculture Nathan Has his own farm, which is pretty unique for a person who's 21, right?

21 years old, owns his own farm, and that's a story in itself.

He's unmarried, but not for too much longer.

We wanted Dulce to be on our panel because she has a burden for agriculture.

She is a single woman and she has found her place in an institution.

And when she was with us on the farm, we really felt like she wanted to do agriculture, but we couldn't encourage her to do that, just go out on your own.

And so she's at Eden Valley, and that has been a wonderful community for her, where she can be involved in agriculture.

So she represents a demographic of being a single woman, but having a burden for agriculture.

And we really were trying not to have any of our own children on the panel just because that seemed a little bit Funny, but anyway The the point is we thought it would be nice to have somebody who actually Farming is the only life they've ever known unfortunately that That's rare in Adventism today, but I think Joshua you have no memories before the farm, do you?

And Joshua and his wife, Kelly, and their little 1, Amber, So now we're seeing the next generation come up.

I mean, Joshua's been farming full-time since he was 18.

So he's, there's not a lot of young people out there who've actually really earning their livelihood from agriculture.

So we think you all are going to be a great panel and we're excited.

So just want to share that we, this is not a kind of panel like you might think of.

We're going to throw out questions and they're going to have to think about it.

Because we have a lot we really wanna cover, we ask them to answer the questions, to be thoughtful about things beforehand, so that we can really move through as much information as possible.

So take out your pen and paper and jot some notes and we know that God is going to bless and bring things to your mind to share.

So The first thing we want you to answer and to share is to just briefly give what you're currently doing.

Well, John already kind of said what you're currently doing, but just describe your journey into agriculture.

Okay, so I'm figuring out how long I'm going to make this.

My parents, as I was growing up, they were getting into agriculture more and more.

Looking back, it wasn't that big, but to my little eyes, it was huge.

And I began to talk about, oh maybe I could do something for a living with plants.

Some of my friends would kind of question me as to whether I could make that viable, whether there was a, like a market, whether there was a financial viability there.

And at the time, I did not really have good answers for that But the Lord opened the doors and I ended up taking a degree, got a degree from UMass.

Actually it was online, so I never went to UMass.

But I did some practicums in different parts of the country, different parts of the world, and ended up graduating from UMass.

So long story short, I finished my practicums.

My last practicum was in Washington State and then from there I spent a year in Arkansas.

I was doing tropical, it was a tropical plant dealer where I was working at.

And while I was there, I applied for a job at Baker Creek.

And the Lord opened that door, That's a seed company, Baker Creek is a seed company in Southern Missouri.

So seeds that you can save, you can go to your home garden and save the seed yourself.

And I've been there since the fall of 2022.

Hi, so my name is Chloe as Uncle John introduced me earlier.

And I just to kind of start towards the beginning, I was born and raised in the city, more or less.

My family lived in a mobile home park, and so we didn't obviously have much to grow on.

But I've always had an interest in growing things, what I could in flowers, or carrots, or whatever, houseplants, and just in homesteading and being a homemaker, Though that dream and what I wanted to do kind of seemed distant.

So I kind of leaned more towards medical field.

I also had an interest in the medical field.

And so then all growing up, my goal was kind of just to go that route.

Well, fast forward to when I turned around when I was 18, my family made an acquaintance with some people and they gave us a book, the Dysoner's book, Ara Ben Ezer, and we read through it as a family, and it was very inspiring for me, right at that pivotal age of when you're trying to decide how you're going to make the next step in life.

You're 18, graduating high school, What are you going to do next?

And I had already signed up for a college course in pursuing the nursing.

But I felt like God was telling me I needed to do something else, and that I needed to pursue more of the homesteading, agriculture side of things.

And at that same time, we were reading that book and towards the end of the book, it talks about how they have an internship.

And I looked into that internship and the doors just opened and I ended up going to the farm.

And after going to the farm I was really inspired by the agricultural lifestyle and I really wanted to implement that in my life and live in the country even more than ever.

Because I saw just the blessings in that even though it is a hard life and then but I came back home and just moved forward and took things as God gave them to me and Simultaneously, I actually happened to be in a relationship with a young man and it wasn't too much longer and he asked me to marry him and join him on his family-owned property off-grid to live in the country.

And shortly after we were married he had a health issue that came up.

And it was kind of an intense health issue.

And we found that the diagnosis meant that basically an agrarian life and agriculture was something that would be the most beneficial for his health condition.

And so it was just another thing of God saying, this is what I want for you to do.

And so we were like, okay, Lord, we'll do our best to go that route and last year was our first year growing to sell and we sold at some farmers markets And this year we plan to try to grow that and do more of a market garden.

And we're just continuing to learn from there.

Laughter Okay, so I was born and raised in Houston, Texas, not too far from here and I don't know when I was like 15, 16, my moral support is right there in the third row for my, okay.

My parents decided they wanted to move us out to the country to get us away from the city influence and homeschool us.

And so then my older sister had a grand idea of starting a garden and so she wanted to learn more about it and she found this documentary called Back to Eden.

Maybe some of you have seen Back to Eden.

Plenary Session

Gabriel McClover

Final Charge

Well, as Darren said, I've been involved with Ad Agra.

I think I presented at Ad Agra back in Florida.

And from there, man, just was really, just really inspired to get more involved with Ad Agra.

And as an entrepreneurial type of mind, you kind of see problems and you just kind of want to get in there and do something about it, right?

But I got the final charge tonight, and I'm going to pray, kind of hectic last few minutes, getting the mic in just to get ready, so I just wanna have a word of prayer before we start, so if you can bow your heads with me.

Father in heaven, we are just so grateful, Lord, for this opportunity that we come to Attagra for this time.

And Lord, as we transition to go home and depart from this place, Lord, we're gonna need your spirit, we're gonna need your grace, we're gonna need your strength to face the challenges ahead.

So as we talk about what lies ahead when we go home.

We just pray that your Holy Spirit be with us.

You know, when I came to Attacker, there was 1 quote that I heard, and I saw, and I said, you know what?

In God's plan for Israel, every family had a home on the land with sufficient ground for tilling.

Thus were provided both the means and the incentive for a useful, industrious, and self-supporting life, and no devising of men has ever approved upon that plan.

To the world's departure from it is owing to a large degree the poverty, the wretchedness that exists today.

When I first came to Attagra and I heard that quote, that kind of punched you in the gut, right?

And you're like, man, how far have we come from that, right?

And I'm looking at this and I'm thinking, man, how did we get here?

How did we get to the point that when you talk about these things that we're talking about at this conference, talk about living out in the country, you're talking about growing your own food, that it's just like such a weird thing.

Oh man, I'm out here growing my own food, what?

I'm out here trying to, why would you want to move away from stores?

You know, you know you're likely to come out, you're 45 minutes away from a store.

And you know, it's a verse, it's in 1 Peter 2, verse 9.

It said, For we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a what?

A Peculiar people that we might show forth the praises of him who have called us out of darkness Into his marvelous light and I looked at that word peculiar.

I'm like peculiar is that mean I you know walk around with like big boots and the funny hat and Just look just know it's the thing you just normally live in and it's just so stark contrast to what the world is doing.

And this is what this message is all about.

And people think like, okay, if I see this plan that it says, that it says, God, there's no deploising of man has ever improved upon this model.

And if I try to follow that model, that everything's going to be easy.

So as I started studying more and more, and I found this quote.

It said, the prince of evil contests every what?

Inch of ground over which God's people advance in their journey toward the heavenly city.

In all the history of the church, no Reformation has been cared for without encountering serious obstacles.

Okay, I came to Adagra, I learned some things, and I get home, and there's 26 problems right in front of my face.

And the devil say, how can I take that seed and throw that thing into the abyss before you can do something with it?

And I like how God, when we're on, and you look at Paul's ministry, Paul says something that I found was very fascinating.

He says, we are not ignorant of the devil's devices.

He knew exactly what the devil's plan was going to be before he went on this little journey, right?

So when we go home, there's going to be challenges that we're going to have to face.

There's going to be people that's going to be like, what are you doing?

And there might be people, yes, even in your own ranks that may say, you know what, this makes, I don't think this doesn't make any sense.

And you know what, I found something as I was studying this thing.

And you look at what did Saul and Aaron have in common.

So look at what Saul, and Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy words because I feared the what the people and obey their voice Aaron saying and Moses said unto Aaron what did this people unto thee that thou has brought so great a sin upon them and Aaron said let not the anger of thy Lord walks hot I know it's the people that they are set to mischief for they said unto me make us guys we shall go before us for as for this Moses the man that brought us up we out of the land we not we don't know where he came where he went where you become of him and I said unto him whosoever have gold let him break it off so they gave it to me and then I cast it into the fire, and there out came a calf." Do you see what the people can have you doing?

He told the people, give me it, I'll fashion it.

But he said, I threw some gold in the fire and I'll pout the calf.

That's what happens when you listen to the people.

So you're gonna have challenges that you're gonna face when you go home.

You're gonna have things, obstacles, that you're gonna have to deal with.

You're gonna have to deal with the noise, right?

Stand tall off of things that we have learned during this week.

If I made a commitment, if I came up for an author call and I said, you know what, I'm going to make this a commitment, I'm going to stand knowing that Christ is standing with me.

I remember when I was reading The Great Controversy, and if you guys, you know, I was not born in Adventist.

I became an Adventist converted, like Darren said, in the year 2020, 2014.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Satan’s Not So Secret Weapon

55m

Journeys in Agriculture Testimony Part 2

1h 10m

Final Charge

27m

Psychology of Marketing

39m

Journeys in Agriculture Testimony Part 1

52m

Making Your Own Varieties

43m

No Turning Back

1h

The Final Work of the Holy Spirit

50m

Exploring, Growing, and Marketing Flowers on a Small Plot

1h

Starting Your Very First Garden

33m

The Fire of His Love

1h 3m

Believe What God Sees

39m

Sound Doctrine