10 - “Divine Service” - Dr. Ben Carson - 3ABN Winter Camp Meeting 2020

a great controversy rages between good and evil and humanity is caught in the crossfire Satan has crafted his most cunning in time deceptions but his plans are doomed to fail get ready to anchor your minds in truth as the Bible exposes his lies and prepares us for our soon coming Savior and now live from the campus Hill Church of seventh-day adventists in Loma Linda California we bring you this presentation of the great controversy in time deceptions all hail the power of Jesus name let's stand together and sing that this morning as we stand in the presence of our God and give Him glory [Music] we go all hail the power Jesus play played angels prostrate for bring for car Oh greed for [Music] see Israel shows and raise the ransom for they'll here and what do we do [Music] well he who saved you [Music] Oh Oh nation every tribe want this to rest robe [Music] and what and crowd here to [Music] Oh dad with yonder sacred throng we his feet maple joy ever together [Music] amen please be seated welcome to 3abn winter camp meeting we're here in Loma Linda California coming to you live from the campus Hill seventh-day Adventist Church we've been blessed this morning haven't we Wow it's not like the angel choir here didn't a sweetie absolutely david says in Psalm 122 I was glad when they said unto me let us go to the house of the Lord are you glad to be in the house of the Lord today grateful this morning I woke up grateful that Jesus is my Savior that his blood redeems from all sin grateful that he can recreate in us a new heart a clean heart and renewing us a right spirit grateful that we can gather as brothers and sisters in the house of the Lord and sing praises to our God and worship Him together grateful that we're gonna hear the Word of God today amen from dr. ben Carson and we're looking forward to what God is gonna do in and through him amen let's repeat together the fourth commandment are you ready remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy manservant nor thy maidservant nor thy cattle nor thy stranger that is within thy gates for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and palliative amen and amen Father in heaven it's a blessing to be in your house of worship today or thank you that we can be together as brothers and sisters Lord worshiping you Lord this is a beautiful sanctuary that we're in the Lord is not the building it's the people that make your church father what a blessing to be together here and Lord we look forward to heaven someday when we if we're faithful we'll be able to come together with you Lord as our teacher and our guide Lord thank you again for being with us we pray for your Holy Spirit to be on this divine worship hour and throughout the rest of camp meeting and in Jesus name we pray amen [Music] as I walked through the door I sensed his presence and this was the place where love for this the temple Jehovah God [Music] by day oh we are standing in his presence on holy ground singing with me [Music] [Laughter] [Music] are let us praise Jesus now [Music] let us pray [Music] we are and on hold in his presence there is joy beyond measure and his feet peace of mind can still be found listen now if you have a need oh my god hands yes he has the answer reach out and claim it for child you're standing on holy ground you believe that today singing with me we [Music] on [Music] ari [Music] let us praise Jesus now [Music] let us [Music] we are standing in his presence [Music] good morning and happy Sabbath please be seated I remember as a little boy I had many dreams and aspirations now as an adult my dreams and aspirations are more focused and intentional today I dared a dream of a society where pure choices are made I dare to dream of a society where principles for financial literacy are extracted from the Bible I imagine a world in which parents are better equipped with biblical principles to train up their children in the way they should go so that they can become pumped up parents I imagine a world in which fathers will feel safe to be vulnerable and share what's on a father's heart I imagine a world where you can turn on your TV or pull out your smartphone and learn about the symbols and signs that are found in Daniel and revelation so that we can become beasts resistant as Pastor Myers taught us I imagine a world in which we can learn to embrace the foundation of our faith wholeheartedly 3abn s dare to dream Network has programs designed with those things in mind you too can dare to dream and point people to the solution which is Jesus Christ I just like to ask that you share the dare to dream network with all of your friends family and I'll take it a step further share dare to dream network with anybody you want to see make it into the kingdom that should leave nobody out all right right now I'm dreaming about being musically gifted like candy regi lady and it feels weird calling her yvonne because she's my mom but like yvonne at this time they're going to bless us in song [Music] you [Music] good morning Church how you doing today it's a wonderful day to be here in the presence of the Lord I mean you know Lord is with you wherever you go but he's just so awesome I tell you when the kids were younger and so was I we had a string quartet and I was having trouble finding music for us so that mean you know we had a wonderful teacher got them reading music in like three months I said boy you know to put this guy in goal or clone him or something but anyway ah potato you can read we're gonna play so we started doing a quartet music and I was running low um as far as repertoire so one day I'm driving down the road and this is one of those songs that you know really catches it awesome God but I didn't know it had a purse so I started hearing music in my head and that's that's the way he'll do it he'll just you know start doing stuff talents you wouldn't have thought he would give you but it starts running through my head and I'm driving I'm thinking I'm not gonna miss this one other times I had music go through my head and I wanted to get it better when I got home it was gone so I pull the silent road and I started writing it out and I God gave me four themes you think about Four Seasons you think about the four winds of the earth and how he pulls all those together but each one of them is unique and beautiful but also you know he gave me the support music for it but fortunately it was in my folder that I left over there the other night and it's gone so I had to try to rewrite it from memory but then again god is good he's awesome you brought it back to me um but the lady loved and Reggie are gonna help me with us along with Veon Yvonne I'm sorry boy it's terrible when when you I'll tell you about the game we used to play about saying for dignity school instead of Divinity School okay but anyway um she used to play the game where you know you mix your consonants but okay that that's beside the point um but he gave me these four themes each one of them just gorgeous nothing wow this is cool you know that's why I say I had I got a pullover you know I got to write this down and then I'm you think about how each of us has our own special music within us that he puts there so you'll hear those three different themes here but then my part is one that's kind of the one that I'm gonna be portraying it's the one about the Holy Spirit how he's he's there he's moving he's doing stuff and he's building all the time so - a little bit busier than there but when you hear this just thing about how awesome God is and we want you to join us on the chorus because we all know that our God is an awesome God he reigns from heaven above with wisdom power and love our God is an awesome God [Music] amen thank you so much we do serve an awesome God don't we we do serve an awesome God don't we amen when Jill and I several the staff members were flying in here earlier this week there were some turbulent winds here in Southern California I don't know you all like bouncing around in an airplane we took off from Phoenix and as we took off it was rather turbulent and we're heading into Ontario and the pilot came over the intercom and said folks conditions will be deteriorating like hopefully doesn't make you feel so good it was already a little bit bumpy and sure enough it did deteriorate but we landed safely praise the Lord for skilled pilots you know folks we are in turbulent times now aren't we who's the captain of our ship our airplane hmm Jesus Christ we have nothing to fear do we God is in control in taking care of each one of us I wanted to share with you this morning some stories that come into 3abn to encourage you because you are our faithful donors and supporters of 3abn you're making a difference in other people's lives III think that there are thousands of souls searching for truth again I love this world that's just spinning here and you think about again the the total inhabitants of the entire world many many people's talking with pastor about this earlier to Pastor Edgehill lots of people searching for truth for Bible truth and that's what 3abn is proclaiming around the world I think of John 4 and verse 35 it talks about the fields being ripe pastor Kenny right right for what for harvest there are souls searching for truth Jill and I met bill in Minnesota in Minnesota when we were there there were 10 foot drifts of snow nice and cold there but Bill's heart was warm with what he had found on 3abn bill was looking for something and he wasn't sure what he was flipping the TV channels there in Minneapolis Minnesota and he came across 3abn what he heard on TV and saw on TV Wow this is interesting he began to watch 3 min a little bit more a little bit more so he went to his local book store and went to the religious book section as he was going down looking at the different books one title stood out to him what the great controversy book Wow that looks like an interesting book never heard of it before he takes it off the shelf and goes to the checkout the person at the checkout you know all these barcodes there I wouldn't scan wouldn't scan the checker says well I don't know you know this book's not even in our inventory I'm not suggesting you do this but I think somebody took a great controversy I don't know maybe it was an angel doing it but bill took the great controversy home as I mentioned he was on some hard time so he didn't have good credit so he didn't have a credit card so he borrowed his friends credit card I don't know borrow your friends credit card I'm not sure how good that is but he brought his friends credit card and his friend said what are you getting ready to purchase and bill said I want to buy some more great controversy books wow so his friend said why don't you buy one for me long story short Jill and I met both bill and his friend baptized members in the seventh-day Adventist Church there in Minneapolis Minnesota very involved in the church there were deacons there in their church but it started out because of truth they were finding on 3abn this is something that just happened to me recently we received a donation to 3abn for $5 Joseph said I can send five dollars and I want to do this on a monthly basis well that's great I said you know it to myself this was a little email I want to reach out to Joseph and just say thank you and how did you find out about 3abn so this is his answer to me and I have a hero I phone because I want to read it to you it's much better than me telling it I asked him how did you find 3abn and this is what he said hello to answer your question 3abn came up in a search last month online so he was just looking for truth and stumbled across three again and I watched some of the programming I was impressed to see the reverence in the teaching I don't have a lot of patients with preachers who appear to be frustrated stand-up comics who waste precious time with personal stories and jokes when a seeker such as myself that is already familiar with the Scriptures is watching to learn something deep and meaningful so I was pleased with what I saw and heard on 3abn folks praise the Lord this Joseph here we've been doing a little bit of email back and forth this is a gentleman that I believe is gonna be baptized in the seventh-day Adventist Church soon but he's someone that are searching for truth he's in the midst of his journey right now but keep Joseph in prayer but again that's thanks to you for a support of three a p.m. I just want to say here too that time is wrapping up quickly don't you believe that I mean you can see the signs in the world and things that are going on around us it's like wow the world is wrapping up quick I don't know how much time we have how much time 3abn has of reaching the world because we still have relative freedom don't we of speech of being able to say what we want to and be able to proclaim the gospel around the world what we are noticing is that our online audience is growing rapidly just incredible we talked about Joseph and how he was searching for truth he put something in online on Google and here came 3abn we are noticing that just on YouTube alone that the views are increasing by millions of minutes every month every month folks that's on YouTube that's not including Roku and all the other platforms at 3abn is on that's just on YouTube alone people are looking for truth in closing quickly Lola this is another really this just happened recently Lola and Pennsylvania saw some programming on 3abn and in one month's time one month folks one month reached out to 3abn has said I want to find a local seventh day on his church I want to be baptized isn't that incredible things are happening God is doing marvelous things and why am i sharing this with you the field is ripe for harvest and this is here to encourage you that things are happening in the world people are looking for truth they're finding truth and their lives are being changed for eternity so thank you thank you for your donations for your support of 3abn you are making a difference and I'm sure people here in this audience pastor I'm sure have been touched in one way or the other because of 3abn thank you again for your prayers and financial support for the ministry of 3abn and for your local churches that do attend I want to just have a prayer for those that are looking for truth Father in Heaven what a privilege it is to have a part no matter how small a gift may be Lord you can multiply it and then the ripple goes on and on and on and people's lives are being changed for eternity I believe in heaven father is where we'll really realize the impact of the effort that we put forth here in this earth Lord thank you for your love your patience with each one of us may we represent you to those we come in contact Lord with a smile with a how are you jesus loves you we thank you in Jesus name we pray amen next we have some wonderful music I'd like to invite them out at this point don't you enjoy music it's such a part of worship and we appreciate the musicians that we have here at this camp meeting Thank You Reggie lady love [Music] above all powers above all Kings above all nature and all created things all wisdom and all the ways [Music] you were here before the world began above all kingdoms above all [Music] above all wonders the world has ever known and all the ways you were here before the world began [Music] behind [Music] above all pow and above all cheese above all nature and all created [Music] and all [Music] you were here before [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] like the Rose that's been trampled on Lord you too [Music] [Music] amen thank you beautiful Wow what incredibly talented people aren't they and their praise the Lord and you know what they have they have an anointing of the Holy Spirit and that's what's so important really it's not what we can do but it's what God can do in US and through us the next person I'd like to introduce probably needs no introduction but when you're a person you only have one name you know like Elvis and Madonna then there's Dino right how many of you have heard Dino or seen him play somewhere I look at the folks your mom friends Dino thank you so much for being here and he's been hanging around a lot of Adventists lately and things are rubbing off he and Cheryl I've been told he's learning yesterday said he learned about the rapture he's learned about the Sabbath and all kinds of things and we can learn a lot from him you know why because he loves Jesus thank you brother [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] amen praise the Lord I'm already in God's army it's a good thing I'm not much younger I might go sign up for the military today oh mercy you blessed by that I want to tell you how humble this this this man is dino probably you didn't notice the ring that's about two inches long right diamond ring I doubt anybody noticed that out of respect for seventh-day adventists he said I'm gonna take that off I've never taken off in 30 years and recently he went with us and he said I'm gonna die said you don't have to your guests in the house your family and he said I can't get it off what am I gonna do shouldn't happen it stuck there I said you wear it alright we're glad he's here aren't we alright good long as you got clothes on we're glad you're here it's my privilege now to introduce our speaker of the hour I literally have pages and pages of pages so I'm not gonna bother to read him dr. ben Carson a famed neurosurgeon that literally has accomplished things that nobody dreamed possible especially him in his early years and getting full scholarship to Yale and his you know about the conjoined twins and I'm not I'm here with family and for folks around the world and I could go on and on and on about the degrees about his accomplishments but what I want to talk about for just a moment today is the fact and the reason that we have invited him here and we're so thankful that he came is he's a man who loves Jesus dr. ben Carson has taken a stand Lord whatever you want me to do wherever you want me to go that's what I'll do whatever you want me to be he and kandi both are dedicated brothers and sisters seventh day having us Christians and they represent around the world and have influence on so many people I've been blessed to know this man so today I simply will introduce him as our brother to Ben Carson right after Avon sings Yvonne's gonna come out and sing my wife then dr. Carson will come out he'll be the next voice that you hear and I'm so thankful for a lovely wife that that she has given her time her talents for years and she sang in the world along with Yolanda down here for years with people like Whitney Houston and and Luther Vandross and all the jingles and through all of that but she will tell you today that your life now is better than before is that true you can't compare I would not I would not go back to that neither would you launder for it you had the mers and the diamonds and the Mercedes and no second thoughts and none of that longer no second thoughts no none of that matters all right it's all about Jesus what are you gonna sing for us today Lord we praise your name [Music] God Almighty spotless lamb slain worthy worthy for what worthy Lord we praise your we adore you before you claim you [Music] names [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] we pray Lord we praise [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] well I'll tell you the music here is uh worth the price of admission right there you don't need to hear me this is wonderful and before I get started I just like to have a word of Prayer most kind and gracious Father in heaven thank you so much for this place of peace where we can come together and worship you and we ask that you would let the words that have spoken not be my words but your words and that our hearts be prepared to hear your message I ask in a word the name of Jesus amen well I thought I'd talk a little bit today about who are we as Christians in the society in which we live today you know it's becoming a little more difficult these days sometimes to live by Christian principles without being attacked but didn't Jesus say if you follow me you're going to have some trouble so that really shouldn't be particularly surprising it should be in a way comforting but you know for me my foundation started right here in the church as a youngster listening to the mission stories I still love those mission stories they don't do that so much anymore and it was mostly missionaries and missionary doctors going to Africa and India and all these places and talking to what they call the heathen now probably missionaries from those places come here I suspect but things have changed a little bit but but you know progressing on from kindergarten primary and the primary treasurer and figuring out all those little puzzles they had in there and and then the junior guides and all those inspirational stories and little worksheets that they had but probably the most important thing where so many of the sermons and I can remember so many sermons that really prepared you and gave you the faith that you were going to need no matter what aspect of life you pursued but one of the common threads through all of it was care of the vulnerable care of the needy care of the poor and Jesus himself spent a lot of time with the vulnerable people of our society with the poor people of our society and I think that is a message for us today not to look our nose down at people who aren't doing well and just tell them pull yourself up by your bootstraps you know that may be what you did but it may have been a different circumstance everybody has different circumstances and we have to start thinking about what would Jesus do how would Jesus treat poor people the homeless people the people who are strung out on drugs that people who have severe mental illnesses you know and proverbs 14 31 the Bible says he that oppresses the poor reproaches his maker but he that honour of him has mercy on the poor I think about that reproaching your maker by oppressing the poor and what is oppressing the poor some people you know their minds go back to you know medieval Europe with princes and serfs and they were oppressing the poor you don't have to go back that far we have people who oppress the poor right here in our own country because it is oppressing the poor when you keep them poor when you do things that prevent them from climbing the ladder of opportunity and we all have spheres of influence we all have the ability to extend a helping hand to somebody in our environment to somebody in our orbit to give them that opportunity to be successful and particularly when we talk about our place in society as Christians what does James say in the first chapter of James the 27th first pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world the fatherless in other words he was talking about people who don't have a positive support system to help themselves the widow's he's talking about people who have fallen upon hard times and when he says to visit them he's not just talking about going and say hi I visited yeah he's talking about helping them utilizing the resources that you have to actually help them and to keep himself unspotted from the world don't be like everybody else you should be able to be distinguished from there because this is who you are that's how we fit in you know I can remember poverty so well as a youngster and I have to admit I did not like poverty you know some people don't like rats and some people don't like roaches and spiders I hate it poverty and I can vividly remember when I was in the fifth grade and every now and then the teacher would say tomorrow they're going to be popcorn balls and they're a nickel apiece so if you want to purchase one bring a nickel some kids would bring a dime or a quarter some people even brought a whole dollar and bought a whole bag of them I never had a popcorn ball we didn't have an extra nickel to spare and they looked so good I gotta say there was nothing better than a popcorn ball but you know what as life goes on and you can afford a popcorn ball then they're not that great [Laughter] isn't that the way it is what stuff in general it doesn't matter what it is maybe you want to Corvette well maybe you want a Mercedes but you know when you can afford one they're not that great you know because it's stuff and that's what Jesus talked about you know don't make your treasures out of this stuff your treasure should be in heaven this is what's really important once you come to realize that stuff doesn't bother you and you know the fact of the matter is when it comes to poverty compared to God everybody here lives in poverty the richest man in the world is no different than the poorest man in the world when you compare them with God and his power and his wealth and we would do good to remember that because sometimes people accumulate a little bit of material stuff and they start thinking that they're better than everybody else and they're not and what they really should be doing if spanking God for the blessings and being willing to share those blessings with other people you know one of the reasons that God instituted a tithe it's because he wanted us to be used to the idea of giving and helping other people does he need our tithe of course he doesn't he owns everything he controls everything but it gives us an opportunity to start looking at other people with love with real compassion in their hearts but I remember as a youngster I had this giant dream of becoming middle-class it just seemed like so cool to be middle class and to be able to just do stuff like regular people it's amazing you know what we dream about but my mother had dreams too her dream was for me my brother to be successful my mother was an extremely attractive woman there were no end of male suitors you know after they got divorced you know she was born to a very large family in rural Tennessee got married when she was 13 trying to escape just horrible circumstances it had less than a third grade education and and then years later discovered that her husband my father was a bigamist had another family and obviously that resulted in a divorce but she was struggling trying to keep it all together and she was a very unusual person she did not want to be dependent on the government so she worked very hard to three jobs at a time as a domestic she would leave at 5:00 in the morning get back after midnight day after day sometimes we only saw her on the weekend because we were in bed when she left we're in bed when she came home but she would come home she would fix our lunch she would take care of stuff but we frequently didn't see her but it was really it was a ploy because you see she wasn't really a domestic she was a spy and she was spying on those people that she was working for because she want to know why they were so successful and why did they live in these beautiful homes and she concluded that it was because they didn't watch a lot of TV and they read a lot of books so she came home and she imposed that on me and my brother and we were not happy campers I gotta say if it had been today's world we probably would have called social services on but in those days you know you had to do what your parents told you to do so you know we started reading those books and you know before that I was I was a terrible student I was the worst student you could imagine then I remember one day they were doing eye exams and they discovered that I couldn't see and I got a pair of glasses you know I didn't know anybody could see the board you know this was this was news to me but suddenly you know I could see the board and and I went from an F student to a D student and I was so pleased with myself my mother was not happy at all but you know I kept reading and reading those books and learning more and more and you know within the space of a year and a half I went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class and those same students who were laughing at me and calling me dummy were coming to me saying Betty Betty Betty how do you work this problem and I would say sit at my feet youngster while I instruct you I was perhaps some little obnoxious but it sure felt good to say that to those turkeys but you know I had I had a real revolution in the way that I thought as I read those books because I read about scientists and explorers and philosophers and entrepreneurs and all kinds of people and I began to see some common threads and I began to recognize that the person who has the most to do with what happens to you in the course of life is you it's not somebody else people around me were saying it's those people who are keeping you down is this circumstance that's keeping you down and you know what maybe they were trying to keep you down but I began to understand what my mother was saying when she would say to me if you walk into an auditorium full of racist bigoted people she said you don't have a problem they have a problem because you see they're all gonna cringe and wonder if you're going to sit next to them whereas you go sit anywhere you want and it's realize that you do have control in your life even if there are people placing obstacles in your way you know like a hurdle every time you jump over one you get better it strengthens you doesn't mean that we shouldn't make an effort to remove those hurdles and we all have spheres of influence and we can demonstrate in those spheres of influence what real love and compassion is you know I find it said that there are still people in our society who look at others and make judgments about them based on their external characteristics the color of their skin the texture of their hair their national origin because as a neurosurgeon when I took someone to the operating room and opened their head started working on their brain I couldn't tell what those external characteristics were their brains were all the same and what makes you who you are is it your nose or is it your brain and you know only people who think very superficially think that they can characterize somebody on the basis of the external characteristics and we should make that very clear in the spheres of influence in which we live well one of the things that I learned is that reading works much better when it comes to accumulating knowledge than watching television because you know when you read you're looking at words all the time so you learn how to spell you can always tell a reader because they know how to spell and people who don't know how to spell they write real sloppy so you can't tell have you noticed that there's a lot of doctors who can't spell but you know you have to take those words when you make them with two sentences so you learn grammar and syntax and you have to take those sentences and you have to make those into concepts so you learn to use your imagination you watch television somebody's already done all that stuff already so you're not really exercising your brain to the extent that you should be able to it's one of the reasons that my wife and I and Carson scholars fund put so so much emphasis on reading and we open up reading rooms all over the country in fact kandi was here I think last week opening up a few reading rooms here in California they're several here in California these are incredible places that no young person would pass up the way that they're decorated and they get points for every book they read and they can trade those in for prizes and in the beginning they're interested in the prizes but it doesn't take long before that has a profound effect on their academic performance which is what we're really trying to do because research has demonstrated that if a child is reading at grade level by grade three it changes the trajectory of their lives and their likelihood of finishing school not dropping out all of that is impacted significantly and it's also said that during those first few years you learn to read after that you read to learn it makes a big difference in what happens to you in life and that's what we have to begin to emphasize instead of going around and making excuses and creating all kinds of problems let's do things based on what we know we know that if we cultivate a young person's brain and we give them what they need to become intellectually sufficient they're going to do ok they're going to do just fine and that's why we need to do everything we can to make sure that we have not only a good educational system but good access for people for education it's going to be interesting because you know we're entering a new phase now of Education it it's based on the Internet it's based on people being able to get information much more rapidly than they could before have you noticed now that there's no more old people with senior moments [Laughter] because all they have to do is pull out their smartphone and find out what it is that they forget okay but you know with education we are not very far away from virtual reality people won't even need to go to school they'll put on their headsets you know I've had an opportunity to use some of those virtual reality headsets it's pretty amazing I mean you can be in Greece you can be in Rome you can be in Egypt you can be in your backyard and have a tutorial on how you find the energy source that's coming into your house and open it up and which things you can move without electrocuting yourself all of that stuff is readily available and it's getting even better can you imagine what that's going to do the education can you imagine what it's going to do for work in a way it's good because there won't be so much traffic congestion because you know people can work from wherever they are but in a way it's terrible because people are not developing interpersonal relationships with other people the way that they should and it's something that we're going to have to be very careful of parents particularly of young children just realize they are being exposed to things that would have been unimaginable when you were a child constantly they're being bombarded with this stuff and that's why it becomes so vitally important to spend time with your children train up a child in the way you should go when he's old he will not depart from it I know some of you were saying when are they gonna get old but you know the fact of the matter is it is our responsibility to develop the right kind of relationship with them so that they get that solid foundation early on because they are going to be bombarded in a society that we live in now with a lot of things that are not biblical and here's where courage comes in it is very very easy to just go along with what's politically correct what everybody says is the right thing it takes a lot more courage to always do what God says you know that wasn't a sub school lesson today with Daniel he could easily have closed the doors and not let anybody see him praying but he was true to his God and if we are true to God and true to his word and what the Bible says then we are not going to be swayed when people come along and say oh yeah I know it says that in the Bible but you know that was thousands of years ago and you know God is different now and you know this is what it means now can I tell you something God says he changes not and think about this Bible says to God a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day so really when you say that was thousands of years ago today it was two thousand years ago what's today Saturday it was like Thursday okay in God's sight so there's not a lot of impetus or time for him to be changing things and why would he need to change things because he's perfect he's God and our challenge is do we believe that or do we believe in man do we believe what man tells us what people say to us you know I do not believe in what man says I guess I should be equal what woman says to I believe in what God says and I do not believe in any political party you know when people align themselves slavishly to any political ideology and they place that over their allegiance to God they have done wrong and they will go in the wrong direction we must always pledge allegiance to God and you think about you know it's talking about compassion a little while ago I mean what is true compassion is it finding a poor person and just patting them on the head and say dad there you poor little thing I'm going to take care of all your needs got free stuff for you or is it providing a mechanism for that person to develop their god-given talents and develop a life of dignity which one is compassion and when we think about Jesus and again I think about him a lot whenever I have a decision to make think about some of the parables he told in the Bible for those who think that we should say they're there you poor little thing nobody needs to do something I'll take care of you think about the parable of the talents who was he very pleased with those who took what they had and developed it and used it and grew it or those who buried it and just said I just want to make sure that you're happy with me he wants us to use what he's given he's given us these amazing brains we're made in God's image you have a brain that has billions and billions of neurons hundreds of billions of interconnections it remembers everything you've ever seen everything you've ever done everything you've ever heard it's all in there which is why remember when you were a little top there's a little song be careful little eyes what you see all that stuff goes in there it does not go away it influences how you act even at a subconscious level so you need to be careful but if you think about what the brain can do have you ever heard someone say don't learn this you're going to clog your brain you're going to overload your brain guess what you cannot overload the human brain if you learn one new second one new fact every second and that's very hard to do every second it would take you in excess of three million years to overload your brain and I don't know anybody who lives that long so I don't think you ever need to worry the next time somebody tells you that you're going to overload your brain please let them know that but when I think about real compassion I think about Jesus what did he do here he is the creator of the universe all power and Majesty and prestige with all of that he humbled himself he came here as a man he was humiliated tortured and killed why because He loves us think about that I mean how are we God gave His only begotten Son for us who are we I mean we're slimeballs you know think about it we sin all the time you know some of us think we don't sin but we do if you think you don't sin you're sinning because you're proud okay so it really doesn't matter we're sinful beings and that's why he came to save us and we all know the verse John 3:16 and 17 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not a son to the world to condemn the world but the world through him might be saved what does that tell you it tells you that he came to save us he didn't come to condemn us you know when I was a kid somehow I developed this aberrant notion that God was always watching you and writing down every little thing you did so that in the Judgment Day he could say remember on April the 17th what you did but that's not who God is that's God will do anything that he can possibly do to save you if that means sometimes allowing some difficulty in your life so that you are redirected to him he will do that but he knows the beginning from the end he knows what's necessary and he will do whatever it takes and you have to actively resist because I believe that God will save anybody who would be happy in heaven but if you wouldn't be happy in heaven wouldn't that be torture to be there forever he loves people enough that he's not going to torture you forever by having you in a place where you're going to be miserable but we need to get our hearts right and in harmony with him understanding what in fact true compassion is and letting that be the thing that drives us and doing what is right when we read John 3:16 think on those words whosoever believeth in him it doesn't say whosoever believeth in him and doesn't eat pork it doesn't say whosoever believeth in him and belongs to this party or belongs to that party see we like to add life stuff on we don't need to be adding anything to what he says don't need to be taking anything away from what he says we need to be believing what he says make all the difference in the world and that will just lead us to do what's right and that has been you know the case throughout my medical career I would be faced with these challenging situations I remember one time one of the obstetricians came to me and he says I have this woman and she's having twins and one of them has a severe case of hydrocephalus and the head is expanding so rapidly that she's going to go into premature labor and both twins will be lost and can you do an operation on that baby while it's still in the womb well that was before introverted uterine surgery was acceptable in fact had been article the New England Journal of Medicine saying we're not ready for this but here was a situation where not only the baby with the problem was going to be lost but the other baby was going to be lost too and as I think about how God honors life even from conception I said lord please guide me show me what needs to be done here and he guided me to a neurosurgeon in Philadelphia who had been doing some experiments on sheep with hydrocephalus and he had actually developed a technique for being able to operate in utero in the sheep that was pregnant and I said to him do you think we could modify some of what you did so that we could do this in a human bank and we could do it within the next week [Laughter] well you know what does it say in Philippians 4:13 I could do all things through Christ which so I put it in his hands I said Lord can you work this up he worked it out and we were able to do the operation we couldn't do it at Johns Hopkins because the Ethics Committee took too long the babies would have been dead by the time they finished they're sort of like Congress but anyway [Laughter] but but at any rate you know we did the operation I can actually see the baby's head go down shrink right on the ultrasound we were able to buy several more weeks and then the babies were born and it was a big national story and then the controversy started they said it's unethical to operate on babies and you know but then when it was discovered that not only was the normal baby saved but the other baby was doing well too then all the critics said well I would have done that too that's kind of the way it works you know and for the young people out there I'll tell you you know when you push the envelope when you do things sort of outside of the box expect to be criticized okay that is always going to happen don't worry about that if in fact you are seeking wisdom and direction from God that is always the thing that has has guided me I remember there was a little girl from California here she had a very complex tumor right in the center of her brain everybody said it was inoperable and she ended up at Johns Hopkins I must say it was a very intimidating situation but I did operate on her and she actually survived the operation she had some deficits she went back to California I lost track of her but last month I was in Las Vegas not gambling it's business but and then I was notified that there was a family that wanted to speak to me and I went over it was that look the girl's aunt and uncle and they just said we wanted to thank you for operating on our little niece that everybody said was impossible 30 years ago I just want you to know she's 35 years old and doing fine you know but you know listening but some people said well you know Carson's a hot dog he does all this stuff it's not about being a hot dog by any stretch of the imagination it's about listening to the Lord and listening to his guidance you know I go back now that I've retired and I look at some of the operative notes and I said what you did what but you know it really wasn't me it was him and it doesn't matter whether you're a neurosurgeon or auto mechanic it doesn't matter what you are if you allow God's guidance he will bless whatever it is that you're doing and that's what we need to make sure that all of our children know and understand proverbs 3:5 and 6 trust in the Lord all your heart lean not to your own understanding your own understanding will always lead you away and you always acknowledge him and everything you do you know when I first got into public life someone said to me you know congratulations this is all great and well but you're going to have to stop with all this God stuff because you know separation of church and state and all this stuff and I said it's not going to happen I said I will gladly give up anything in government but I will never give up God and that is absolutely what please tell me what is there in government what is there in Hollywood what is there in the world of finance that even begins to compare with a relationship with God and and how long are we here you know even if you get to be a hundred years old what is that against the backdrop of eternity you know we have to put all of these things in perspective and that also removes fear because even if you're going to be persecuted how long are you gonna be persecuted compared to the backdrop of eternity it really doesn't matter that's what Paul was talking about when he said all this stuff I counted as dung you know there's nothing because he could see what the big picture was that's what we need to do focus on Jesus not focus on ourselves you know what happens when you focus on yourself you get depressed okay because you're always messing up okay but he never messes up and therefore just focus on him because he said I'm your righteousness it is me and not you and if that's what it means when it says whosoever believeth in him we believe in him if we worry all the time about ourselves it means we don't think that what he did was good enough to save us and he said all you have to do is come to me believe in me accept me now some people say so if I believe in God it just means I can be any kind of person I want to be well you know what I'll give you a good example when you get married you take wedding vows and oftentimes they're flowery they're beautiful wonderful but do you have to consult them all the time let's see what did it say not if you love your spouse you don't have to consult her wedding vows because your actions demonstrate that you love your spouse and when you believe in him and accept him the very same thing happens he becomes your sinner all of your orientation is toward him your orientation is not toward another human being or some human ideology it is only about him and that's the only thing that keeps us moving in the right direction but we all have a sphere of influence and I want that to be the takeaway message you can influence people around you by the way that you live by the way that you treat other people I always tell the people around me when it comes to difficult decisions just do the right thing don't worry about the political implications of this or that or the other do what is right and when you do what is right there's an added advantage people may accuse you of all kind of stuff but they will never find anything because there's nothing to find and you know that really alleviates a lot of tension in your life you know God gave us Commandments he gave us directions why because He loves us he made us he knows how we work and think about it if he didn't love us he would just go ahead and do whatever you want does it better he wants us to get the most out of life he actually wants us to be happy some people think he wants us to be acidic and he wants us to be happy people a person who loves God can be happy under any circumstances you should be able to tell them because they treat other people the right you'll never see them bad-mouthing other people and saying horrible things of it will never happen that's one of the ways that you can tell somebody who is constrained by the love of Christ but I just want to end with this one last story that helped me so much that is as a young attending neurosurgeon I had a young man who came to me from Georgia he was four years old he had been diagnosed with a malignant brain stem tumor had seen multiple specialists everybody told the family just take him home and let him die keep him comfortable and they ended up at Hopkins and I saw him the first time he was barely moving barely breathing eyes crossed foaming at the mouth I said what am I supposed to do here and I looked at the cat scan and it was big ugly brain stem tumor and the parent said doctor we were directed here by the Lord because we would find a neurosurgeon a Christian neurosurgeon who could help our son and the Lord is going to heal our son and he's going to use you to do it and I said that's nice I said but this is a malignant brain tumor this is an inoperable tumor there's nothing I or anybody can do about this and they said but doctor the Lord is going to heal our son I said look MRIs were brand new I said let's get it in my Ryan David let's show something to cats candidates show did the MRI had all the radiologists look at it they said the lignan brain stem tumor nothing you can do I told the parents they said but doctor the Lord I said well one in a thousand times the scans are wrong so maybe eat something else our biopsy it I open it up got a piece sent it to the pathologist came back high-grade glioma very malignant tumor I took out as much as idea to close him up went out and spoke to them I said I'm sorry it looks like it's what we thought and you know only the lord knows how long a person should be here maybe he's already served as purpose and will understand it better by and by all the things we always tell people and they said thank you doctor but the Lord and as as I walked away I said I've never seen people with this kind of faith but I expected him to deteriorate and die but instead he got better the next day he was no longer foaming at the mouth and his eyes were starting to look in the center and I said what and I said let's do another MRI and they were still ugly tumor but there was a little rim of tissue and I said is it possible that maybe this is outside the brain stem and it's compressing the brain stem and maybe I should go back in and they said by all means and I went back in and the whole nature of the thing had changed and I pulled it away layer by layer under the microscope got to the last layer there was the glistening white brain stem intact long story short that boy walked out of the hospital and today is a minister but but you know one of the oncologist said to me Ben I've always been an atheist but I'm a believer now but it was but it was really for me because I thought I was doing all this stuff and after that I realized it wasn't me it was God and this is what we must teach our young people let God be the one who is in charge because I lude to it again Philippians 4:13 what does it say I can do or does it say I can do some things so the second of many things most things all things because we serve a mighty God God bless [Applause] [Music] James with sorrows and kids hearts often lonely injury but burdens Holly if you had come for me but Jesus is [Music] burns Olli [Music] me burdens are me [Music] what Jesus you're Jesus [Music] leave [Music] for Jesus [Music] Jesus is the Savior can't see [Music]

Channel: Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

Views: 264,633

Rating: 4.5990248 out of 5

Keywords: 3ABN, Three Angels Broadcasting Network, yt:quality=high, Dr. Ben Carson, The Great Controversy, End-Time Deceptions, 3ABN Winter Camp Meeting 2020

Id: xcUc8Y3rFy8

Length: 102min 51sec (6171 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 19 2020