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00:14 ♪♪♪ 00:36 Shawn Brummund: Hello, and welcome to another 00:38 edition of the "Sabbath School Study Hour." 00:40 We're just so glad that you have joined us here today. 00:43 For those of you who are joining us live, good morning. 00:46 It's nice to be able to have you join us from around the country 00:48 as well as around the world. 00:51 Welcome to the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church, 00:54 right here in the Greater Sacramento area of California. 00:57 It is our privilege to be able to come together and continue to 01:00 study as we have been for the last couple of months now in the 01:03 book of Deuteronomy. 01:05 Today, we're looking at lesson number nine, issues of the 01:08 heart, and so we're going to get right into the heart of the 01:11 issues and of this very important topic as, of course, 01:16 God is interested in our hearts more than anything else. 01:19 We have a special guest. 01:20 We'll be talking about that just a little bit later, but before 01:23 we invite our singers out to be able to lead us out in worship 01:27 and in song, I want to invite all of you to take advantage of 01:31 a special gift offer that we have for you during this 01:34 particular program, which is entitled 01:37 "Is It Possible to Live Without Sinning?" 01:39 written by Pastor Joe Crews. 01:42 Now, you can get a copy of this if you live in North America or 01:44 in the U.S. territories. 01:47 All you have to do is dial 1-866-788-3966, and ask 01:53 for free offer number 187. 01:55 Again, that's 1-866-Study-More. 01:59 So take advantage of that, and we'll be happy to send 02:01 that out to you. 02:02 If you have a phone, which almost all of us do nowadays, 02:05 and you'd like to get a digital copy of that, that also is 02:08 available for you, and you can go ahead and text the code 02:12 "SH040," and you want to dial that to 40544. 02:19 So go ahead and text that code, and we'll be happy to send you a 02:22 free digital copy of that as well. 02:25 We have a very special guest with us. 02:27 For many of us that are local here and have been attending the 02:31 "Panorama of Prophecy" seminar, you have been blessed, night by 02:36 night, as Pastor John Lomacang has been blessing us in song, 02:42 and so we have been just so tremendously blessed in that 02:44 way, but he is going to be joining us and be our teacher 02:47 here today as well. 02:49 And John and I first met, boy, about 24 years ago. 02:53 I was interning in college. 02:55 We met at a pastor's retreat meeting right here in Northern 02:58 California, and he was pastoring for Northern California 03:02 Conference at the time and had actually pastored here in this 03:05 conference for 18 years, and so he's very well acquainted with 03:09 this part of the country and in this part of the state. 03:12 He has lots of good heritage, lots of good friends, and so on. 03:15 He's now pastoring in Illinois Conference part time, and then 03:19 he also is on the staff with 3ABN, Three Angels 03:23 Network Broadcasting. 03:25 And so many of us are familiar with Pastor John and his 03:29 ministry, have been blessed tremendously through many of the 03:32 programming that he's been involved in at 3ABN. 03:35 We're blessed to be able to have him here today as well. 03:39 So before we invite him out, let's ask the Lord to be 03:41 with us in prayer. 03:43 Father in heaven, we are thankful to be able to come 03:45 together to be able to worship You. 03:48 We thank You for Your Word. 03:49 We thank You that we have this freedom and opportunity even 03:52 right now to be able to freely open Your Word and to be able to 03:55 study this deep and instrumental book that You have given to us 03:59 in the very beginning, books of the Bible from Your first 04:01 biblical author and prophet Moses. 04:04 And, Lord, we want to pray that, as we open up the Word and as we 04:08 look at this important topic concerning our hearts, that You 04:10 will speak to us. 04:12 We pray for Your Holy Spirit to be our Teacher, to guide us 04:14 into all truth. 04:16 We pray a special anointing upon our teacher here as well, Pastor 04:19 John, and, Lord, we thank You for answering our prayers 04:22 even right now, amen. 04:25 John Lomacang: Good morning, everyone. 04:28 And those of you that are joining us, whatever the medium 04:31 may be, we thank you also for coming this morning. 04:34 And we are on lesson number nine, and it is entitled 04:38 "Turn Their Hearts." 04:40 And so if you have your lessons with you today, you can 04:42 follow us along. 04:44 It's a very interesting lesson because it addresses the issues 04:47 that are so pertinent in the Christian life. 04:50 And so when I began to study this lesson, I began to realize 04:55 that, before we can be qualified followers of Jesus, something 05:00 has to take place. 05:03 So I know that prayer was just offered, but I'd like to go 05:05 ahead and have prayer anyway as we open 05:07 the Word of God together. 05:09 Loving Father in heaven, thank You that You are the author and 05:13 finisher of our faith as we now examine our hearts to see where 05:19 we stand in the journey of Christian character development. 05:24 Speak to us, we pray, in Christ's name, amen. 05:30 Now, our memory text--and you could read this with me. 05:32 It'll be on the screen. 05:33 It is from Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 29, and I'd like us to 05:36 read that together. 05:37 Are we ready? Here we go. 05:40 "But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will 05:44 find him if you seek Him with--" how much of your heart?-- 05:48 "all your heart and with all your soul." 05:53 As we study this lesson, we'll find out the central theme of 05:57 following Jesus is conversion--not only conversion, 06:01 but it is a change in direction. 06:04 Now, as a pastor, I've discovered that, so often, 06:08 people join our church because they agree with our doctrinal 06:13 position, you know, when we talk about the Sabbath, we talk about 06:16 the state of the dead, we teach the 2,300 days, we go through 06:21 the line of prophecy, and people are convinced that the Word of 06:25 God is clear, and that's true. 06:27 The Word of God is clear, but so often, when people get baptized, 06:31 they get baptized into an intellectual change. 06:36 They change the way they think, but then something comes along 06:40 that reminds them that changing the way we think and changing 06:44 the way we live are not the same thing. 06:48 Changing the way we think is saying that we are becoming 06:51 intellectual Christians, but the Christian journey doesn't end 06:57 with a change in the way we think. 06:59 It continues as the Lord changes us in the way we live. 07:03 If you look at the journey of the Israelites, you'll also 07:05 find, if you look up that word, "repent" or "repentance," you'll 07:10 find the Bible states that word about 68 times, which means the 07:14 Lord intended in the Old Testament times as well as New 07:18 Testament times for the Israelites of old to repent and 07:22 for those who became followers of Jesus to repent because think 07:27 about it: If all you do is say, "I want to join your church 07:32 because your church checks all the boxes," then, as one person 07:36 once says, "You go into the baptismal pool a dry sinner, and 07:40 you come up a wet sinner." 07:42 But Christ, He desires to change us not just the way we think, 07:46 but He also wants to change the way we live. 07:49 In your Bible, if you turn to Ezekiel 18, it's one of the 07:52 chapters where the Israelites had a continual battle with 07:55 Jesus--not with Jesus but with the Father. 07:59 And they were arguing that His way was not fair. 08:04 But notice what he said in Ezekiel 18, in verse 30. 08:07 He said to the Israelites, "Therefore I will judge you, O 08:11 house of Israel, every one according to His ways, 08:15 says the Lord God." 08:16 And then hear the words--and He notices--we'll notice that He 08:20 connects two words together. 08:22 He says, "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions so that 08:27 inequity will not be your ruin." 08:30 I want you to notice the two words, "repent" and "turn." 08:34 What are those two words? 08:36 "Repent" and "turn." 08:37 So "repentance" is not just a change in the way we think but 08:40 in the change of the direction of our lives. 08:44 The Lord was saying to the Israelites, "Repent of your 08:46 sins, and turn, go in a different direction." 08:51 Also, you find that, when John the Baptist introduced Jesus in 08:55 Matthew chapter 3, in verse 2, one of the first things he said 08:58 before the baptism of Jesus, he said, "Repent, for the kingdom 09:04 of heaven is at hand." 09:06 If there's any reason why the people of God should repent, it 09:10 is that we should repent in preparation for the kingdom of 09:13 God, meaning, the Lord saves us as we are, but He's not going to 09:20 be taking us into heaven the way we were. 09:23 He wants to change us. 09:24 As God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt the way they 09:27 were, but He did not take them to Canaan the way 09:30 they used to be. 09:32 So between our deliverance and our entrance into the Promised 09:35 Land, there's a changing. 09:37 There's a repentance, and there is a turning. 09:41 And John the Baptist made it very clear, as Jesus was about 09:44 to begin His ministry, he said, "Repent, for the kingdom of 09:47 heaven is at hand." 09:50 You also find Jesus rebuking the religious leaders in Matthew 09:53 chapter 12, in verse 41. 09:55 Look there with me. 09:57 Matthew 12, in verse 41, one of the most resistant prophets the 10:02 Bible talks about is the prophet Jonah, and when Jonah was given 10:06 direction to go to preach to Nineveh, we know he ran in the 10:10 opposite direction, but when God finally, through a series of 10:15 what I call miracles, Jonah is the only prophet that knows what 10:19 it's like to arrive at an evangelistic series 10:23 in the belly of a fish. 10:25 But when he got there, God got his attention, and the city of 10:29 Nineveh repented, 120,000 people repented. 10:32 But when it came to the Jewish leaders in the days of Christ, 10:36 notice the words that Jesus repeated to them. 10:39 Matthew 12, in verse 41, He said, "The men of Nineveh will 10:44 rise up in the judgment with this generation, and condemn it, 10:49 because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and, indeed, 10:54 a greater than Jonah is here." 10:59 Jonah, in his reluctant spirit, God worked through him to 11:04 convert the city of Nineveh. 11:06 Can you imagine if that happened in Sacramento if, with one 11:09 sermon, the entire city repents? 11:12 God was able to bring a wicked, recalcitrant city to repentance 11:16 through the preaching of Jonah. 11:19 And then you find one more example before we dive deeply 11:21 into the lesson. 11:23 You find the apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians--in 2 Corinthians 11:27 chapter 13, verse 5, look at these words. 11:30 The apostle Paul connects repentance to something even 11:33 deeper, and the reason why this passage is clear--let's read it 11:37 together. 11:38 You can look at it as I read it. 11:41 Paul the apostle says, "Examine yourself." 11:43 What are the two words? 11:45 "Examine yourself as to whether you are in the faith." 11:50 Then he says, once again, "Test yourself." 11:52 Notice where the focus is. 11:54 The focus is not on testing the other church members, but the 11:57 focus is on examining yourself, testing yourself. 12:00 And then he says, "Do you not know yourselves that Jesus 12:06 Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified." 12:10 Why is that so vitally important? 12:13 Paul, the apostle, was the Pharisee of Pharisees. 12:16 He was a keeper of the law. 12:18 He boasted about that. 12:19 He understood his religious requirements, but he did not 12:22 have a connection to Christ. 12:24 And so in his Damascus Road experience, when God shut his 12:28 eyes to give him a better vision, he realized, when his 12:31 eyes were opened again, that he had to examine himself. 12:35 And as you know, if Paul the apostle lived in our day, many 12:38 of us might have a difficult time having him 12:41 as a church member. 12:42 Can you imagine Paul saying, "I want to become a member 12:44 of your church"? 12:46 And then they read his name, and somebody says, "Wait a minute. 12:49 Is that the guy that used to be Saul? 12:53 Is that the one that consented to the persecution of maybe 12:57 hundreds of Christians?" 12:59 We would have a difficult time. 13:01 But here's the reason I mention that. 13:02 When someone repents and they change the direction of their 13:08 lives consciously, then God makes it His responsibility to 13:13 change the way they live. 13:15 And God had so changed the apostle Paul's life, that he was 13:19 safe to be in the ministry. 13:21 Can somebody say, "Amen," to that? 13:23 So the Lord not only encourages us to change our direction, but 13:27 when we change our direction, then He makes Himself 13:30 responsible for the change in our lives. 13:33 And notice the two changes: When you're being taught, there's an 13:36 intellectual change, but if we forget that there needs to be a 13:39 spiritual change, we may be intellectual giants, but we 13:44 might be spiritual pygmies, small in our walk, 13:48 small in our faith. 13:50 I want to give you a story. 13:52 October 31, 2000, Singapore Airlines Flight 006 was taking 13:59 off at Chiang Kai-shek Airport in Taipei, Taiwan. 14:03 They had 159 passengers aboard, and all three pilots 14:08 flying a 747-400. 14:11 My wife and I know what that is. 14:12 We've been on them quite a few times. 14:14 It's a long-hauler. 14:16 It's the flight, the type of plane that is needed to cross 14:19 the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. 14:21 And a typhoon was on the way, and it was already raining hard 14:26 at the airport. 14:27 And all three pilots were directed by the control tower to 14:31 taxi to Runway 005-left. 14:37 Well, they taxied, and at that time, Chiang Kai-shek Airport 14:40 did not have ground radar. 14:42 In other words, they could not tell from the control tower 14:45 whether or not they were on the right runway. 14:48 But when they got to the runway, they radioed the tower and said, 14:51 "Okay, we're on Runway 05-left. 14:53 We'd like to be cleared for takeoff. 14:57 The pilots were determined to leave before the typhoon hit. 15:01 They wanted to get out of the area before the storm 15:05 intensified, so they were given clearance to take off on Runway 15:09 05-left, and as they begin to throttle up--and as I read the 15:14 story, as they passed 80 knots, one of the pilots shouted these 15:19 two words: "Something there." 15:23 And before they can say another word, on the voice recorder in 15:26 the plane, that was the last two words mentioned by the pilots as 15:29 they piled into construction equipment that was left 15:34 on the runway. 15:36 Bulldozer, concrete roller, various kinds of debris, metal 15:42 rods to reinforce the runways, concrete pylons were all left on 15:46 the runway, and they didn't see it before they hit it. 15:52 The good news is, out of the 159 passengers, the majority of them 15:56 survived, but what a tragedy. 16:00 When they went to examine the site, they realized, as the 16:07 investigators were looking at the wreckage, they realized 16:11 that, if the pilots had only looked at their instruments, 16:15 they would've realized they were not on 05-left. 16:19 They were on 05-right. 16:22 They were on the wrong runway, and it was too late 16:25 to turn around. 16:27 They said, "If they had only looked at their instruments--" 16:29 and what's amazing to me is it didn't matter where the people 16:32 sat on the plane, whether they were first class or coach or all 16:36 the way back in coach, it didn't matter where they were. 16:40 It was too late to turn around. 16:42 You see, the tragedy of living the Christian life, going in the 16:46 wrong direction without examining the Word of God to let 16:51 us know that we are moving in the wrong direction, 16:54 it could be very tragic. 16:56 Flight 006 met its fate by going down the wrong runway. 17:02 And it did not matter if the people were in first class 17:06 or in coach. 17:07 They met the very same fate. 17:09 My wife and I travel with American Airlines, and, you 17:13 know, being in first class sometimes could make you think 17:15 differently about people in coach. 17:17 Anybody know what I'm talking about? 17:19 You know, if you get an upgrade--sometimes we get an 17:21 upgrade on American Airlines. 17:23 We've flown probably about two million miles, and sometimes, 17:26 when we go to the airport, they say, "We put you on 17:28 the upgrade list." 17:29 And it's encouraging to get an upgrade, especially when you 17:33 have a long flight, and you get a real meal. 17:36 While the people in coach are eating peanuts, 17:38 you have a full meal. 17:39 Anybody know what I'm talking about? 17:41 And so, periodically, we would get an upgrade, and it does do 17:45 something to you while you're sitting in first class, and you 17:48 see the other citizens walking by you, and you're saying thank 17:51 God, I'm in first class. 17:54 And sometimes when we don't make first class, and we're, like, 17:57 maybe row eight or nine, and we can hear the knives and forks, 18:01 you know, clinking as people are eating, and then the flight 18:04 attendant comes to us and say, "Would you like one pack or two 18:07 packs of peanuts?" 18:09 And we realized, "Man, I wish I was in first class." 18:12 Well, on this particular flight, my wife and I got on board. 18:16 We were on the upgrade list, and when we got on board, I didn't 18:19 realize it, and neither did she. 18:21 When we got on board, they said--I looked at my ticket. 18:24 It was row 03 window. 18:26 That's first class. 18:29 And my wife was in row six or row nine, and she was in coach. 18:35 And I asked the flight attendant. 18:37 I said, "Well, can I change my seat?" 18:39 She said, "Well, sorry, the flight is full." 18:42 My wife was in coach. 18:44 I was in first class. 18:46 And I was trying to figure out how to make the change, but the 18:53 flight attendant said, "All seats are full." 18:56 So I was texting my wife. 18:57 I said, "Honey, who's sitting next to you?" 19:00 And at that time, no one was, but then, eventually, a young 19:04 lady came and sat on the aisle seat 009 C. 19:08 And she said, "But the seat is empty between us." 19:11 And I said, "Well who's on 9 C? 19:13 She said, "It's a young girl who's in the military. 19:16 She has on fatigues." 19:18 And so I waited till the flight was fully--everybody was on 19:21 board, and the flight attendant announced that 19:23 the flight is full. 19:25 And I asked the flight attendant, I said, "Now, could I 19:29 change my seat with someone else?" 19:32 She said, "If you ask them and they agree, then you could 19:34 change your seat." 19:35 And I had a plan. 19:37 So I got up from row three in first class, walked back to row 19:42 nine, and with everyone seat-belted in, people looked at 19:46 me like, "What is he doing?" 19:50 And I walked over to this young lady that had her military 19:53 fatigues, and she had her earplugs in her ear, and I 19:57 tapped her on the shoulder, and she took it out and said, 19:59 "Excuse me?" 20:01 and kind of had a very like, "Why are you tapping me 20:05 on my shoulder?" look. 20:08 And I said to her, "I want to thank you for your service to 20:11 our country, and to show my appreciation, I'd like 20:14 to give you first class." 20:17 She said, "Seriously?" 20:20 I said, "Seriously." 20:22 And, you know, it was a wonderful moment because you 20:24 know how women do it? 20:25 All the ladies around said, "Aw, how nice of him," and I became 20:30 a hero at that moment. 20:32 But what they didn't know--that I would rather be in coach with 20:35 my wife than in first class without her. 20:38 Come on, husbands, say, "Amen." 20:40 So I was able to accomplish both things, but I want to tell you, 20:44 as the flight was taking off and I heard the forks and knives 20:47 clinking, heh, my wife said, "Are you still happy that you 20:50 didn't sit in first class?" 20:52 I said, "I'm more happy to be with you in coach than without 20:56 you in first class." 20:59 You know, the Lord wants us to be first-class Christians, but I 21:02 want to make some comparisons this morning that I found in the 21:06 Bible about what was left on the runway--the concrete barriers, 21:10 the obstacles--this doomed flight, and I've seen a parallel 21:15 between what happened to Singapore Airline and what often 21:19 happens in our lives because, so many times, we are intending to 21:24 go in the right direction. 21:26 And I don't believe that there are Christians that don't want 21:28 to go in the right direction, but I believe, in many ways, we 21:31 intend to go in the right direction, but we confront 21:35 the obstacles in our lives. 21:37 And look at how I brought this out. 21:39 One of the first obstacles--and the reason why I call this a 21:42 "concrete barrier" is because that's the very first thing that 21:45 Singapore Airline hit, a series of concrete barriers. 21:50 The greatest concrete barrier to repentance is--what, friends? 21:54 Sin. 21:56 Notice what's in the middle of the word "sin"-- "I." 21:59 In the middle of the word "sin" is "I." 22:02 Or in the middle of the word "sin" is the letter "I." 22:05 It's the central focus. 22:07 If we can focus on ourselves, who is the central focus of the 22:12 word "sin," "I," then, God can get our attention. 22:16 And notice the passage that goes with this particular focus of 22:22 the concrete barriers. 22:24 How did we get into sin? 22:26 The Bible says in Romans 5, in verse 12, "Therefore, just as 22:29 through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, 22:35 and thus death spread to--" how many of us? 22:38 "All men, because all sinned--" what it's, in essence, saying is 22:42 "Why is repentance so necessary?" 22:44 It's because of the sin of Adam. 22:46 As Pastor Doug was asking during the week, "How many of you were 22:50 on the ark?" 22:51 or "How many of you have Noah as your family?" 22:53 or "How many of you are children of Adam?" 22:55 Every one of us is a child of Adam, but I want to be a child 23:01 of the last Adam because, when you read 1 Corinthians chapter 23:05 15, it talks about two Adams, the natural Adam and the 23:09 spiritual Adam. 23:11 A number of years ago, I did a sermon called 23:13 "The Adams Family." 23:14 And the question that I posed was "Which Adam is your father?" 23:19 But because Adam is the natural father of every one of us, we 23:23 all inherited his DNA. 23:28 That DNA is the concrete block. It is sin. 23:31 So whether a baby is beautiful when it's born or whether its 23:34 face is wrinkled or whether it's born into a wealthy family or a 23:38 poor family or a family on Section 8, no matter what the 23:43 station of birth, every one of us inherit the nature of our 23:47 father Adam, which is why the lesson is so vitally important. 23:51 If you turn to lesson number nine, you'll see there very 23:53 clearly--lesson number nine, there's a statement that I want 23:56 to read to you very quickly. 23:57 It says in the introduction, "A simple fact of life follows us 24:02 all: We are sinful." 24:04 Let's say that together. "We are--" what? 24:07 "We are sinful." 24:09 That is our spiritual DNA. 24:10 Have you seen what Christians have been doing lately, 24:13 linking to Jesus? 24:15 Especially in this environment that we've been living in 24:17 politically, so many things have been happening in the political 24:21 world, and the sad reality is they have been displayed in the 24:26 lives of people claiming to be connected to Christ. 24:30 There ought to be an external difference in the way a 24:34 Christian lives, not just the way that he or she thinks. 24:38 There ought to be a different way of living in 24:41 a Christian's life. 24:44 So it's not enough to say, "I'm a Christian," but if your 24:48 Christianity is not working for you, how do we expect it to work 24:51 for someone who doesn't know Christ? 24:54 So the greatest advertisement for who Christ is, is when a 24:58 person looks at a Christian's life. 25:01 But until we come to the realization that we are, in 25:03 fact, sinful by nature, then we may postpone our need for change 25:08 by saying, "Well look at my family status. 25:11 Look at the schools, I went to. 25:13 Look at my background. 25:14 Look at my educational accomplishments." 25:16 No matter what we have, each one of us need to be confronting 25:19 our condition. 25:21 Not only that, we look at, first of all, the concrete barrier. 25:24 Then the next one is the doomed flight. 25:27 What dooms us? The doomed flight. 25:30 What dooms us? 25:31 What are the two big words there? 25:33 What? Adam's nature. 25:35 That means, every one of us, when we are born, we are 25:39 given--and listen to this carefully--we are all given a 25:43 ticket to board Adam's flight, and we are onboard with Adam 25:49 throughout our lives until the turn comes. 25:53 Until repentance and conversion takes place in our lives, every 25:56 one of us is on a doomed flight, and here's the reason why the 25:59 flight is doomed. 26:01 The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:22--it's a short verse. 26:04 Can we see it together? 26:06 "For as in Adam--" how many? 26:08 "All die." 26:12 So Adam has defaulted every one of us to a death sentence. 26:17 But Jesus, if we accept Him, has defaulted us to a life sentence. 26:23 The rest of the passage says, "Even so in Christ shall all be 26:26 made alive." 26:28 So we have the concrete barriers, we have the doomed 26:30 flight, and then we have the obstacles. 26:32 Look at the obstacles. 26:34 The third one I bring out is--what are the obstacles? 26:37 Sinful choices. 26:39 Notice this: Sin, which is the result of Adam's nature, 26:44 defaults us to make sinful choices. 26:48 And by the way, if you read Romans 6:16, depending on which 26:51 way you yield, whether you yield to righteousness or whether you 26:55 yield to sin, in both cases, we lose control of the things that 27:00 we do next. 27:02 Romans 6:16 says, "Do you not know that to whom you yield 27:05 yourselves as servants to obey, you are that one slave whom you 27:09 obey, whether of sin leading to death, or obedience leading to 27:14 righteousness?" 27:15 So depending on where you make that choice, you are defaulted 27:21 to be under the control of the blessings of Christ shaping your 27:24 life or the condemnation of Satan forming your life. 27:28 But either way, we are defaulted by Adam's nature to making 27:33 sinful choices, which is the reason why we need to turn and 27:37 give our lives to Jesus. 27:39 Let's go to the next one. 27:41 I'm taking all these from the lesson of Flight 006. 27:45 The Bible says, Isaiah 53, "All we like sheep have--" done what? 27:49 "Gone astray." 27:51 Notice this: "We have turned, every one, to his own way." 27:56 Flight 006 turned in the wrong direction, turned on the wrong 28:01 runway, and the investigators said they discovered that the 28:05 reason for this flight ending up on the wrong runway is all three 28:11 pilots trust their judgment and not their instruments. 28:16 They said, "If they had only looked down at their heads-up 28:18 display, it would've indicated they were on the wrong runway, 28:23 but they trusted their judgments." 28:25 Have you ever trusted your judgment, and it went bad? 28:32 Have you done it more than once? 28:35 Oftentimes, we do that. 28:37 That's why my wife and I have built into our lives what we 28:39 call a "fail-safe." 28:41 One of the worst times to try to trust your judgment is when you 28:45 go to a store, and the salesperson is well trained to 28:48 convince you to buy what you really don't need, right? 28:52 We were at Best Buy one day, and we looked at this television, 28:57 and I don't know why it is that every time you ask the 29:01 salesperson, to purchase something, how is it that most 29:04 of the time you're on the last day of the sale? 29:07 Have you noticed that? 29:08 They will say, "Today is the last day. 29:10 If you come back tomorrow, today is the last day." 29:13 So my wife and I have "failed-proof" ourselves or 29:16 found a way to, kind of, you know, introduce into the 29:18 scenario something that they're not trained to do or not trained 29:21 to answer. 29:23 So they say, "Well, you know, we could wrap it up right away. 29:25 We could get it ready for you. 29:26 You could take it home today. It's the last day. 29:28 I don't want you to miss the sale." 29:30 Look, my wife and I always do this: "Well, you know, we always 29:33 like to pray about it first." 29:35 They have not been trained to handle people that want to pray 29:38 about their purchases. 29:41 And I always like to look at their face. 29:42 They say... 29:46 They don't know what to do. They don't know what to do. 29:49 So they-- And we say, "If the Lord wants it for us, it'll be 29:53 here when we come back." 29:55 And they say, "Well, thank you so much for coming in today." 29:59 You've got to plan how to address the concrete barriers 30:03 in your life. 30:05 You've got to plan how to address the obstacles 30:07 in your life. 30:09 When you plan how to address the obstacles in your life, the 30:12 obstacles in your life do not find ways of mastering you. 30:17 But let's look at something else. 30:18 Let's look at the bulldozer, the bulldozers in our lives. 30:22 The bulldozer is the spiritual progress that some of us fail to 30:26 make because there's a bulldozer in our way. 30:29 My text for the bulldozer is Jeremiah 13:23. 30:32 Look at this one. 30:34 This is the bulldozer text. 30:35 "Can the Ethiopian change his skin--" what's the answer? 30:41 Can the European change his skin? 30:44 Can the African change his skin? 30:47 Can anyone change his skin? 30:49 No-- "or the leopard its spots?" 30:52 Look at this part: "Then may you also do good who are--" 30:56 what's the next word? 30:57 "Accustomed to do evil." 31:00 In our natural trend of life, if you wake up in the morning--and 31:03 I've had this even as a pastor. 31:06 Confession is good for the soul. 31:08 You know the rest of the story. 31:10 I've had this so often, and one of the reasons why my wife and I 31:12 are glad for this little break is because we live in a vortex 31:17 of activity--going, going, going, going, going, studying my 31:21 lesson for Sabbath school, studying my Bible for Sabbath 31:25 School panel. 31:27 You know, we tape all of our Sabbath School lesson studies 31:30 that you watch on 3AB, and we do them, like, four days in a row, 31:33 13 lessons, studying my Bible to get my Wednesday night prayer 31:37 meeting ready, studying my Bible for my sermon on Sabbath 31:40 morning, studying my Bible for my Sabbath School lesson, 31:43 studying my Bible for an evangelistic effort. 31:46 I get so busy studying my Bible to feed everybody else, that 31:50 sometimes I'll forget to study my Bible to feed myself, and 31:55 then, in the vortex of activity, we realize, "Wait a minute, the 32:00 old ways begin to creep back." 32:06 We were driving to Texas, driving through Texas on our way 32:09 to California, and this is when we were coming to start ministry 32:13 in 1987. 32:15 I was coming out to start ministry with Pastor Doug 32:17 Batchelor, as a singing evangelist and one of his Bible 32:20 workers, and I remember very well we tried our best to make 32:23 it through Texas, but we didn't realize that, when you enter the 32:26 state of Texas, coming from the east, the very first sign you 32:29 see is "880 miles." 32:33 That means that's how long you're going to be in Texas if 32:35 you're on Highway 10. 32:37 So we decided to stop halfway in Texas. 32:40 We pulled over at a motel there in the desert and decided to 32:45 sleep because there's no way we were driving 880 miles 32:48 in one stretch. 32:50 We got up the next morning with our trailer connected to our 32:53 4Runner and decided back, you know, get back on the freeway 32:56 and continue our journey. 32:58 And my wife said to me, "That looks like the gas station we 33:04 saw yesterday." 33:07 I said, "Honey, Texas is big enough for two gas stations 33:10 like that." 33:12 Kept on driving. 33:15 She said, "But that looks like the rest area we saw yesterday." 33:20 I said, "Honey, do you realize how big Texas is? 33:23 Surely, they must have at least two rest areas that look alike. 33:26 That has to be, you know, just another rest area." 33:30 We kept driving, then we saw this tall, green Sunoco dinosaur 33:36 at the gas station, and my wife said, "So are you telling me 33:40 that Texas has two green Sunoco dinosaurs?" 33:44 And I looked down at the side of the highway realizing instead of 33:47 going 10 West, I was driving 10 East. 33:50 For 45 minutes, I was driving in the wrong direction. 33:53 Now, guys, you know how damaging that is to our ego when our 33:58 wives have to tell us we're going in the wrong direction 34:01 because, when we admit it, it doesn't end right there. 34:05 Have you noticed that? 34:07 It's like you get off of the exit a lot smaller than you used 34:09 to be, and you turn around as you try to reach up to the 34:13 steering wheel because your wife's look makes you shrink 34:15 behind the wheel, and you begin to go in the right direction. 34:19 What is that? 34:21 When you repent and you begin to turn, sometimes it's humbling, 34:27 but when we look at ourselves the way that God sees us, it's 34:31 better to humble ourselves, repent, and go in the right 34:35 direction than to be filled with pride and waste our time going 34:39 in all the wrong direction, amen. 34:42 It was very humbling. 34:44 You know, I drove 45 minutes in the wrong direction. 34:47 I heard about it for three hours in the right direction. 34:54 Ladies have a great gift, don't they, husbands? 34:56 Amen. 34:57 There's another part to that. 34:59 Let's look at the excavators on the runway. 35:01 The excavators. 35:02 The excavators are the instruments that dig holes in 35:06 the concrete, and there were holes these excavators dug in 35:10 the concrete on Runway 05-right, that, if the plane was going on 35:16 the right runway, it would not have encountered these 35:20 excavating machines or the large potholes left in Runway 5-right. 35:26 Look at my analogy of the skewed decisions that these holes in 35:29 our lives lead us to make. 35:32 The Bible says in Proverbs 14, in verse 12, when our lives are 35:36 not converted, when we don't turn, the Bible says, "There is 35:40 a way that seems right to a man, but its end is--" what? 35:44 "The way of death." 35:48 So when we look at the bulldozers, the concrete pylons, 35:51 when we look at all the defect conditions of our lives, only 35:56 then can we appreciate what the Bible writer said that there is 36:00 a need for conversion and the change in our direction. 36:03 But sometimes, as we go on--and I say this to those of us who 36:08 know the way, because, the apostle Paul, much of the 36:12 challenges he had was not with non-Christians, but many of the 36:17 challenges Paul had was with Christians. 36:20 What Paul wrote to the Romans, to the Philippians, to the 36:22 Thessalonians, the writings of the apostle Paul were 36:26 to the church. 36:28 And if you look at the church, he was saying to the church, 36:30 "Examine yourselves." 36:32 And the Bible makes it very clear that our skewed 36:34 directions, the things that happen in our lives are often 36:37 that which default us in the wrong direction. 36:41 But I want to begin to wind this down with a very important 36:44 point, and I want you to listen to this. 36:47 You know, sometimes we join the church, and we say, "Praise the 36:51 Lord, I made a decision to be born again," and I've had people 36:55 that have been baptized. 36:56 Even as Pastor Doug had said, when he got baptized, he ended 36:59 up in jail that evening. 37:02 I always smile about that. I know his story so well. 37:05 You know, sometimes I give my testimony. 37:07 He gives my testimony better than I, and I think I give his 37:09 testimony better than he does. 37:12 But the details of his life are amazing--no pun intended. 37:16 And the details of my life are incredible, being abandoned by 37:18 my mother at three months old, in the home of an Adventist 37:22 babysitter so God can shape me into the man I am today. 37:25 Somebody, say, "Amen." 37:27 But what I've noticed, as I was growing up in the world, growing 37:30 up in the church, going to church every Sabbath, sitting in 37:34 the building, I was in the building physically, but I was 37:37 not in Christ. 37:40 And at 16 years old, I had another encounter. 37:43 I met my wife-to-be, who was my girlfriend at the time, who's my 37:47 wife now, who is still my girlfriend, and she was 37:52 determined that she was not going to marry someone who's 37:56 going in the wrong direction. 38:01 But at 16 years old, she could not invite a boyfriend over 38:04 because she had five brothers--wait, let me 38:07 restate that. 38:08 She had five Jamaican brothers. 38:11 Jamaican brothers are brothers on steroids, and being the 38:14 youngest of eight children, being the youngest girl, they 38:17 really zeroed in on protecting their sister. 38:20 Believe me, I experienced it. 38:23 But she was determined to get my life to go in 38:25 the right direction. 38:27 So one Friday evening, when I was partying, gambling, pool 38:29 hustling, living for the clubs, living for the world, she 38:33 invited me to her home one Friday evening for 38:35 family worship. 38:37 And that evening, she introduced me to the book, "The Great 38:38 Controversy," and the very first chapter she introduced me to was 38:42 "The Time of Trouble." 38:44 I'm going to tell you one. 38:45 If you want to help somebody turn around, read "The Time of 38:48 Trouble" to a sinner. 38:51 It scared the sin out of me, and I fell to my knees, and in the 38:56 next chapter we read was the promises of Christ's return, and 38:59 that evening, I was preparing, after that family worship, 39:02 to go party. 39:04 After I read that, I gave my life to the Lord. 39:07 That Friday, I went to work with a pool stick and a boom box as I 39:10 worked at Bank of America. 39:12 That Monday morning, I went to work again with a Bible 39:15 and "The Great Controversy." 39:18 Come on, say, "Amen," somebody. 39:20 And I got my first Bible study on Monday morning without any 39:22 help of any Bible schools. 39:25 When the Lord turns your life around, it is amazing 39:27 what God can do. 39:29 But why do I share that story with you? 39:31 So many people--and I want to make a point: Externally, 39:35 I wasn't any different. 39:36 I still had my records at home. 39:39 I still had my two turntables that I partied with. 39:43 I still had all the albums lined up on my wall in my room. 39:46 There was no external changes in my life yet, but I knew that 39:54 Jesus had given me a chance to turn my life in 39:58 the right direction. 40:01 Listen carefully: So many people join the church, and we don't 40:07 see their external changes, and sometimes they feel that, since 40:12 they have not yet gotten the victory over the challenges of 40:15 their lives, that they are not yet accepted by God. 40:19 But a few months ago, as I was reading the book "Evangelism," I 40:24 found a quotation that has thrilled my heart to simply say 40:28 this: When someone gives his or her life to the Lord and they 40:33 make a decision to turn, they may follow some of the things 40:37 that they had been driving past before, which is 40:40 what I've learned. 40:41 When I made that turn on Highway 10, I noticed that I saw, going 40:46 in the wrong direction, I saw a gas station, I saw a rest area, 40:50 I saw a dinosaur, what I'd seen before, and I learned the 40:54 lesson, when the things of your past begin to show up again, 40:57 that's an indication you're going in the wrong direction, 41:03 but when you're going in the right direction, sometimes it 41:06 takes time to get the things of your life out, yet what I don't 41:11 want you to miss is that the Lord accepts you the moment that 41:14 you make the turn. 41:16 Look at this quotation. 41:17 It's pretty lengthy, but I think I'd like to wind up with this. 41:21 "Evangelism," page 286, in paragraph 1, servant of the Lord 41:25 says, "I have been shown that many have confused ideas in 41:29 regard to conversion. 41:32 They have often heard the words repeated from the pulpit, 41:35 'You must be born again.' 41:38 'You must have a new heart.' 41:40 These expressions have perplexed them. 41:44 They could not comprehend the plan of salvation. 41:46 Many have stumbled to ruin because of the erroneous 41:49 doctrines taught by some ministers concerning the change 41:54 that takes place at conversion. 41:58 Some have lived in sadness for years, waiting for some marked 42:02 evidence that they were accepted by God." 42:06 That's powerful. 42:08 "They have separated themselves in a large measure from the 42:11 world, and find pleasure in associating with the people of 42:15 God, yet they dare not profess Christ, because they fear it 42:21 would be presumption to say that they are children of God. 42:26 They are waiting for that peculiar change that they have 42:31 been led to believe is connected with conversion." 42:35 Are you gathering that? 42:36 In other words, they've been told that, "When you are 42:38 converted, the change happens." 42:39 Well, listen to this: "After a time some of these do receive 42:44 evidence of their acceptance with God, and are then led to 42:49 identify themselves with His people. 42:52 And they date their conversion from this time. 42:57 But I have been shown--" this is beautiful. 43:00 "But I have been shown that they were adopted into the family of 43:04 God before that time. 43:08 God accepted them when they became weary of sin, and having 43:13 lost their desire for worldly pleasures, resolved 43:18 to seek God earnestly. 43:22 But, failing to understand the simplicity of the plan of 43:25 salvation, they lost many privileges and blessings which 43:30 they might have claimed had they only believed--" and here's the 43:34 end-- "when they first turned to God, that He had accepted them." 43:41 Somebody ought to say, "Amen." 43:43 You know what in essence is being said? 43:45 So many people say, "I haven't--" this is 43:47 revolutionary. 43:49 Are you ready for it? 43:50 This is revolutionary because sometimes somebody gets 43:53 baptized, and a week later, some Adventists are saying, "Are you 43:56 still eating cheese?" 44:00 There was a guy at our church once that brought pork and beans 44:02 to a potluck, and everybody ate it first, and they said, "What's 44:04 the secret ingredient?" 44:06 And he said, "pork and beans," and nobody knew it. 44:09 When he found out it was incorrect, then he changed 44:10 his life. 44:12 Here's the point I want to make: When God convicts a person by 44:15 the Holy Spirit and that person turns his life over to God, 44:21 Jesus makes Himself responsible for the changes in that person's 44:25 life, being confident of this very thing that "He who has 44:30 begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of 44:34 Jesus Christ." 44:35 Can somebody say, "Amen"? 44:37 So the lesson, "Turn Their Hearts," is what the Lord 44:43 wants to do. 44:45 That's why we're offering you this special offer, "Is It 44:48 Possible to Live Without Sinning?" 44:50 You can text the number-- 44:52 the letter "SH040," to 40544, and 44:57 you can have a free copy of this. 44:59 May God bless you 45:00 as you turn your life over to Christ and 45:03 make Him responsible for the changes in your life. 45:06 Happy Sabbath. Let us pray. 45:07 Father in heaven, thank You for the power of change. 45:11 Thank You for the work that You promised to do in us as we turn 45:14 our hearts and put our lives in Your hand. 45:17 May You be glorified by the changes that You have made. 45:20 In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. 45:26 male announcer: Don't forget to request today's life-changing 45:28 free resource. 45:29 Not only can you receive this free gift in the mail, you can 45:32 download a digital copy straight to your computer 45:34 or mobile device. 45:36 To get your digital copy of today's free gift, simply text 45:39 the key word on your screen to 40544, or visit the web address 45:43 shown on your screen, and be sure to select the "digital 45:46 download" option on the request page. 45:49 It's now easier than ever for you to study God's Word with 45:52 Amazing Facts wherever and whenever you want and, most 45:55 important, to share it with others. 46:03 announcer: "Amazing Facts Changed Lives." 46:12 male: My greatest wish is that my children will 46:16 see me the way I see my own father. 46:23 He's a very devoted man, and that kind of framed my 46:27 childhood, going forward from there, where I was always 46:31 involved in church work, and I had a very rich experience with 46:36 the Lord at a young age, all the way up through college. 46:41 Then after I got married, I got in a company called Comcast, and 46:47 I spent the past roughly eight and a half years, nine years at 46:51 Comcast, and I was actually watching television with my son, 46:57 and a Comcast commercial came on the air, and he said, 47:02 "Oh, Daddy, that's Comcast. 47:05 That's where you work, Daddy." 47:08 And most fathers would be proud of something like that, but it 47:11 really struck me that, you know, my son's getting older, and he 47:16 does not see me as a servant of the Lord. 47:18 He sees me as a servant of my company. 47:22 And I knew that I would have to make some changes because I 47:26 wanted him to know me as a man of God. 47:31 I never thought I would be a preacher or anything like that, 47:35 but I knew that there was room in the work for me and for my 47:41 talents, and I wanted my son to see me operating in the work. 47:49 That's when I knew that my time there was coming to an end. 47:53 I was sitting in my office one day, and I was kneeling in 47:57 prayer, and I said, "God, you know, show me what You want me 47:59 to do because it seems like a big move here, and everyone's 48:09 thinking I'm crazy, and I don't know exactly how, you know, 48:16 things are going to go if they don't go well." 48:20 It's a crazy thought when you're thinking about God. 48:24 And I lifted my head up in prayer, and there were, just, 48:29 like, a flock of maybe 300 birds that were just flying, and they 48:36 were swooping down over the water, and they would fly back 48:40 up, and then they would chase each other around, and, you 48:44 know, I was just looking at the pattern of the giant flock, and 48:48 the promise of the Lord came to me where He says that, you know, 48:52 He takes care of the sparrows, and you don't see them worrying 48:57 about how they are going to be taken care of from day to day. 49:01 You know, they don't, you know, wring their hands with 49:04 wondering, you know, "Will there be any worms to eat tomorrow?" 49:08 And that promise really stood out to me and He said, "How much 49:13 more do I love you?" 49:15 You know, "I'm not going to send you on a mission to do My work 49:20 and leave you high and dry because you claim 49:23 to be My child. 49:24 You claim to be My son, and everyone knows that." 49:29 That assurance allows me to know that whatever happens here, 49:34 whatever happens after here, we're sons of God, and there are 49:41 certain things that we shouldn't worry about. 49:44 From the day we arrived at AFCOE, it's been obvious that 49:49 God has blessed the Amazing Facts Ministry, the AFCOE 49:53 program, and I will be using my AFCOE experience no matter where 49:59 I go to reach people because the personal touch of face-to-face 50:05 evangelism, speaking and sharing the Word of God out of your own 50:10 mouth, there's no replacement for that, and Amazing Facts has 50:15 been very instrumental in helping me find the area of the 50:22 work of God and showing me how large and how broad it is. 50:27 It's been a tremendous blessing to be in a place where we're 50:31 around people seeking to do God's will and listening for His 50:36 voice in their life, and that's very, very important today. 50:48 announcer: Together, we have spread 50:49 the Gospel much farther than ever before. 50:53 Thank you for your support. 51:00 announcer: "Amazing Facts Changed Lives." 51:10 female: By the time I got to high school, abuse 51:13 was just a way of life for me. 51:15 I just thought that that was the way it was and that many people 51:17 were going through that, and I found out that a lot of the 51:20 girls were not going through the abuse that I was going through. 51:25 I started acting out and playing up and misbehaving in school. 51:32 I felt, when I spoke to Mom, she was too busy worrying about 51:36 where Dad was, what Dad was doing. 51:38 When I spoke to the older siblings, they couldn't 51:40 be bothered. 51:41 I had stupid questions. 51:43 I seem to feel very lonely all the time, and I just forgot at 51:48 that point where God was and felt that I didn't need Him 51:53 because, anyway, when I did need Him, He was never around for me. 51:59 I was living a very, very busy life working till 2, 3 o'clock 52:05 in the morning and then drinking alcohol till 5 o'clock so that I 52:08 could get to sleep for a few hours, wake up and then get back 52:11 to work at 8 o'clock at night. 52:14 So my life continued and spiraled until I decided I 52:17 needed to do something different, so I packed my bags 52:20 and spent 11 months crossing Africa from Zimbabwe, all the 52:24 way through to Switzerland. 52:26 Met a lady in a missionary who spoke to me about God and gave 52:29 me a Bible, and that was when I started thinking again that 52:34 "God, maybe You led me on this trip," and that was the start of 52:40 me really rethinking, "What am I doing with my life?" 52:45 I'd made a decision that "God, this time, I'm never going to 52:48 let You go. 52:50 I know You've never let me go. 52:51 It was always me who let go." 52:55 My return to Jesus was the most amazing feeling that I'd 52:59 ever experienced. 53:01 I felt as if this time I'd made a connection with God. 53:18 announcer: Together, we have spread 53:20 the Gospel much farther than ever before. 53:23 Thank you for your support. 53:34 announcer: "Amazing Facts Changed Lives." 53:43 male: I've had to say that I had a wonderful 53:45 childhood, growing up. 53:47 I went to a private school up until the seventh grade, 53:49 till junior high. 53:51 I believe it was at that point in junior high that my life 53:55 began to change. 53:57 Going from a Christian education into a public school was 54:00 a big difference. 54:02 There was a lot of secular influence, a peer pressure, and, 54:07 for me, it was the music. 54:09 I started listening to heavy metal music. 54:11 Every concert they would come to town, I was there. 54:14 That had a profound effect on me. 54:16 I started using marijuana probably at the age of 14. 54:22 I started drinking, using a lot of cocaine, and that led to 54:25 methamphetamine, and that completely changed my life. 54:30 I dropped out of high school my sophomore year and went to work. 54:35 I would get off of work, and we'd go into the bar until 54:38 2 o'clock in the morning, and I'd get back up at 5, and I'd go 54:41 back at it again, six, seven days a week. 54:48 At the age of 20, I lost my dad to a heart attack. 54:52 I didn't know how to handle the loss, so I tried to mask my pain 54:56 with alcohol and drugs. 54:58 I got three DUIs in one year. 55:01 I was arrested. 55:02 They gave me a year in the county jail, and the moment I 55:06 got out, I went back to doing the same thing, hanging with the 55:09 same people, the same crowd. 55:12 I was involved in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident, and I was 55:15 charged with a felony DUI. 55:17 Even though, at the time of the accident, I was not under the 55:19 influence, I still had methamphetamine in my system. 55:23 At my sentencing date, I left the courtroom, and I didn't come 55:27 back, and that left me with a felony warrant, and I had fallen 55:31 asleep at a park, and I woke up to a park ranger knocking 55:36 on my window. 55:38 I knew I was wanted, and I knew that I was not going to just 55:41 turn myself in. 55:44 I turned to him, and I had made the comment, "Not today," and I 55:47 took off, and I led five different agencies on about a 55:51 35-minute chase, and I realized at that point that I wasn't 55:55 going to get away and that this was going to end up either me 55:58 killing somebody or myself, and so I made the decision 56:02 to pull over. 56:04 At that point, everything that I had, I lost. 56:08 I was sentence to two years in state prison, and it was there 56:13 that God got ahold of me, and it was through 56:17 Amazing Facts Ministries. 56:20 I remember listening on my radio to Pastor Doug Batchelor. 56:24 I wanted to get to know the Bible. 56:25 I wanted to know God. 56:27 And so my Aunt Marilyn sent me the Amazing Facts study guides, 56:33 and it was there that my relationship with Christ began. 56:40 I had called home, and I knew my mother wasn't doing well, 56:45 but I didn't realize that she had cancer. 56:49 She had about a 30% chance of making it through her surgery. 56:56 She had told the doctors that she was not going to have chemo 56:59 and she was not going to have radiation that, if her God was 57:01 going to save her, then he would save her. 57:04 I remember hanging up the phone to what I thought was my last 57:08 conversation with my mom. 57:11 I turned around. 57:13 I got down on my knees, and I prayed to God, and I said, "God, 57:17 if You're there, please save my mother. 57:21 Wherever You lead me in life, whatever You want me to do, 57:24 I am Yours." 57:26 And I had a feeling of such peace that I knew that my mother 57:31 was going to be okay and that my life was going to change. 57:37 There are no words that I can adequately express to Amazing 57:40 Facts and to Pastor Doug to say thank you to all those people 57:43 who support the ministry. 57:45 I am a product of your support. 57:48 My life is changed because of this ministry, and I thank you 57:54 from the bottom of my heart. 57:58 ♪♪♪ 58:09 ♪♪♪ |
Revised 2021-11-22