A Choice You Don't Have To Make

[Music] [Music] so the presentation is titled a choice you don't have to make and I want to start by sort of introducing you to an idea and to a quotation from Barry Schwartz Barry Schwartz did a TED talk that's how I became aware of very schwartz I watched a TED talk all probably four or five years ago and the TED talk that he gave was about a 15-minute talk based on his book titled the paradox of choice why more is less why more is less and and the whole book is about this basic idea so I'm just gonna read you two paragraphs are really probably one paragraph a few sentences that summarize the basic idea of the TED talk that Barry Schwartz gave in the whole book the paradox of choice why more is less and this is what he says he says as the number of available choices increases as it has in our consumer culture the autonomy control and liberation this variety brings are powerful and positive but he says as the number of choices keeps growing negative aspects of having a multitude of options begin to appear what do you mean negative aspects associated with lots of choice how can that be as the number of choices grows further the negatives escalate until we become overloaded at this point choices choice no longer liberates but debilitates and then this sentence it might even be said to tyrannize explain yourself mr. Schwartz and I remember when he first sort of gave his opening thesis there on the TED talk I've got to be honest I was skeptical and totally unconvinced but by the end of the TED talk and by the end of the book I'm just on the page that he's on and it goes something like this he tells the story in the opening actually in the introduction of the book or maybe was the opening chapter of going to buy a pair of jeans right so he goes into his store he's gonna buy a pair of jeans and he goes into the store and he says to the young lady there that you know is in the jeans store yeah I need a pair of jeans size 32 32 right 32 waist 32 inseam and she's like okay no problem do you want do you want you know casual fit do you want baggy fit do you want straight fit do you want skinny fit do you want do you want normal denim do you want dark denim do you want distressed denim do you want black do you want what and going down the list and he says he began to experience a kind of anxiety right who here can relate to this like it's like no no no and he says I just want a pair of jeans right and all of a sudden you know if you go into a store and there's two pair of jeans you can choose option A or B you feel empowered because hey you there's a choice to be made if you go into a store and there's three pair of jeans to you you feel empowered that's his point if it man I I got three options here and I'm gonna make the best choice for me and for my situation but says Schwartz when you go in to buy a pair of jeans or a shirt I'm gonna give you an illustration here in just a second and there's 35 different choices he's like man that can be actually tyrannize it can be debilitating and the reason is is that we become paralyzed when we have so many options so many choices can actually create a situation where we feel somewhat paralyzed on the screen you'll see a picture that I took recently in an airport in fact it was the Sydney Airport the Sydney Airport when we were flying not on this most recent trip but on a trip a few months ago and because we travel a little bit not nearly as much as we used to violetta had forgotten her neck pillow right and so she she needed a neck pillow and I said yeah yeah let's go buy a NIC pillow so we go into the little store there one of the stores there together you gonna choose now from seven different models of neck pillow that are represented in 17 different color options you you have to sort of barrie schwortz like you know phenomenon where if you would have got if I would have gone into this store and there would have been a single neck pillow available I would have bought it and would have been completely happy right that it's a NIC pillow you buy a neck pillow you get it but but here's what happened to me it took me like 20 minutes to buy this thing because you now you're testing this one and comparing well this one's got sort of the styrofoam beans inside and this one's more of the memory foam and this one's got kind of a cotton fill and this one's a little higher and this one has the crushed velour top and this one's more of a corduroy style this one has a little inflatable too so it it shrinks down a little small you can inflate it and so you can sort of choose it's like what if I make the wrong choice right and this is the point that Schwartz makes shorts says that that when you're faced with just one option you choose it you're basically happy if you're given two choices you you know you say I'll take option be and you're probably happy three choices you're probably also happy but at some point and it kind of depends on what the thing is that you're buying but in the case of neck pillows or a pair of jeans or or you know whatever it might be a new car you get so many different options he says you can become paralyzed and it actually starts to tyrannize you and the reason it tyrannize is you is that you have this brooding foreboding sense that you might make the wrong choice like what what if I buy the wrong neck cool and that's execs in some ways it's it's not the best because I'm afraid that I might buy the wrong one I just buy the most expensive one right because I think well the most expensive one has to be the best one right so we buy a neck bolts actually the ones on the left you can see it has sort of a raised thing there we bought the black we really wrestled with the color we went back and forth in fact finally we settled it was like we were buying a car or a house or something and and we're getting a tattoo you know what am I gonna get it this is gonna be on me forever how do you decide so we went with the black most expensive one and the problem is as soon as we got on that silly plane the pillow was terrible oh it was like over elevated and it was a bad design and it didn't roll up and fit in the little thing and I just exactly Schwartz's point right that that in this consumer culture that we have we have too many options so many options that were paralyzed by choice and today I want to talk to you about a choice that you don't have to make what we might call an unnecessary choice and in the course of today's presentation I'm going to talk to you about four things my experience and observation about an unnecessary choice in the church I'm gonna talk to you about this very important question that is so simple and yet can be easily missed and that is the question what exactly is the gospel anyway number three I'm gonna talk to you about what the Adventist Creed is for those of you that are here today as seventh-day avenues might be thinking I didn't think the adventist had a Creed in fact you do in fact we do and you'll see what it is and then finally and this would be where we'll spend the lion's share of our time Jesus the center a theological survey so let's start by looking at a flyer that comes all the way back from nine 1898 I was baptized June 6 1996 at about 18 months later I preached my first ever evangelistic series I have no desire to be a pastor or to be a preacher or to be an evangelist I was studying medicine actually pre medicine at the University of Wyoming and I was just certain that I was gonna take between one and maybe two years off of pre-med and I was gonna go back and finish my medical degree but I was given the invitation to sort of preached a series while I was on my break from medical school I'm still on that break 20 years later and this was the flyer that we used in that trip now if I the church was smaller than that group of pews right there that group of chairs right there and it was just this tiny little church probably 25 27 people rattling around in a church you can see it there at the bottom called the Shingle Springs Adventist Church in the foothills of Northern California central Northern California right and they asked me to come in and preach they actually wanted the conference evangelist to come but he was busy and so he was like hey I've got this you know Bible worker he's he's a new follower of Jesus a brand-new follower of Jesus I'd been a follower of Jesus for 18 months and they asked me if I would be willing to preach a series of if you count all those nights up these are all these are all nights and topics 29 topics right and when I look at this picture I just get such a kick out of it I love it one of my favorite things about this picture is that my hairline has not moved since I was 28 right 45 years today the hairline is still that high and I love it I just I just look at that and I think there I am and here's the sort of night by night schedule and preaching my heart out to this small little church first series I ever preached it was so bad I mean it was like I can't even tell you how bad the preaching was you wouldn't believe me if I told you but I said some things in there that are just astonishing in fact I have the tapes of that series I still have them and all probably 10 years ago I tried to listen to one and I lasted like 45 seconds I was like listening to it I go there's something you find a little trip down memory lane started listening and I just began to internally cringe so much like ah turn it off turn it off turn it off took the tapes put them in a box put them inside of another box in that box when I'm inside of another box inside of that box and hid them in storage right they just exist and maybe someday they'll end up in the Smithsonian or something right but just for now that's where they I'm kidding of course that's that's it now here's the other thing I want to bring out about this when I preach this series of 29 meetings on the message of Scripture on the biblical message on the message that I have become increasingly persuaded was the truth what we might call the Adventist message in my 29 sermons that I preached if you look there it's a little difficult to see but I've put a big red arrow so you can see it on my third night okay so this is it opening night is racing toward the mark of the beast second night is the rise of Anti Christ right it's just exactly the things to draw in an American audience fourth audience the fourth night the Anti Christ revealed fifth what is it fifth night are there the truth about the rapture the Beast the dragon in 666 the seduction of Christianity I mean when Christianity follows the Beast these weren't sermons that I wrote they were sermons that I sort of gathered from other evangelists that were doing what I've been asked to do so I just took their sermons and sort of combined them together and made them uniquely my own right and I look back at it and I'm like man that was really something I have a brand brand brand new believer right still wet from my baptism but if you notice there on the third night it was the night that I preached the gospel night number three revelations shout of victory and I just want to I just want to say that to you again I preached 29 sermons and the third night was the night that I preached the gospel okay because the gospel was a part of what I was going to present to that audience now I can tell you this if God can speak through a fish and God can speak through a donkey and God can speak through a rooster and Jesus even said that if these should be quiet God can speak through rocks I like to say it this way if God can speak through an ass why not an Asscher ik right in the Old Testament he spoke through a donkey to Balaam so Wike if God can speak through an ass why not an Astra Quine ah'd through me and even though those sermons were so bad and the theology was questionable at best at the end of that sermon at the internet sermon series by the grace of God would you believe 17 people were baptized and became followers of Jesus and members of the seventh-day Adventist Church it's it's truly well and truly a miracle no less so than walking on water or the floating of an accent and it's just literally a miracle that anybody would have listened to it at all but number two that they would have found it persuasive and and become followers of Jesus but here's the point I want you to see in my own experience my own development as a as a follower of Jesus and as a seventh-day Adventist Christian I have seen a significant transition from the gospel being one of twenty nine oh you got to throw the gospel in there because we're gonna talk about the mark of the beast we're gonna talk about the Antichrist we're gonna talk about the second coming we're gonna talk about all these really important topics and the gospel is one of those topics a radical shift you might even say an evolution in the way that this is viewed and I want to talk to you about it's gonna be great you might call it an unnecessary polarity right in the context of an unnecessary choice there's this like unnecessary polarity and it goes something like this on one end of the spectrum you have a real commitment to what you might call the adventist doctrinal package I'm gonna talk about that in a twinkle well what does it mean to be a seventh-day Adventist right what's the doctrinal package that that comes with Adventism all denominations come with a doctrinal package right the Baptist's have their doctrinal package and the Pentecostals have their doctrinal package and the Roman Catholics have their doctrinal package the thing that makes your denomination your faith community unique you're making a you know a unique contribution and so I was really passionate about the doctrinal package of Adventism and of the twenty-nine presentations that I gave the gospel was one it was a part of the package but on the other end of this unnecessary polarity is something you might just call the gospel the gospel so where where exactly does the needle fall and I'll tell you as somebody who travels all over the world and who has preached and literally hundreds of seventh-day Adventist churches in hundreds of camp meetings and conferences all over the world when you walk into a church or into a conference you can immediately sort of see where on the spectrum they are right you get you have these churches that sort of lean or orient themselves more toward the gospel and lots to talk about Jesus and grace and God's forgiveness and mercy and then you go to other Adventist churches and you go in and they're more traditional they're more conservative and you have a strong emphasis on the unique doctrinal contribution of Adventism and then there's churches that are sort of trying to find that middle ground this polarity what you might call to use really simple language the more conservative traditional churches and the more progressive liberal churches and even you can walk into a church and you can just look at the way that they dress they can look at their music you can look at the the sanctuary and you can just sort of say where they are on the continuum if you know what I'm talking about raise your hand you have a sense here okay if you've traveled as much as I've traveled you just see it you just you just see it where is the emphasis is the emphasis more as the needle more toward the doctrinal package of Adventism or is the needle more toward what we might call the gospel I'm gonna suggest here that this is an unnecessary polarity in fact it's not just a polarity it's an absurdity okay so walk with me through this so that's my own experience in observation from a fresh-faced 26 year old 27 year old young preacher who preached the gospel as one of the 29 topics that he was going to be addressing which raises of course the question David if there's a polarity between the adventist doctrinal package and the gospel what is exactly the gospel and fortunately for us this is not a difficult question to answer at all it's actually very easy and I'll just give you a biblical answer rather than giving you some theological treatise or some you know David Ash trick you know long explanation will just let scripture speak very plainly very simply and very profoundly to the question what is the gospel and here in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses 3 to 5 the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth says these words for I delivered to you first of all notice what I've underlined for you here that which I also received okay this is key so I've got my little clicker in my hand here so just imagine the clickers like a baton or I think and I'll show you would say a baton is that what you'd say a baton right and so this is how it works here's just what Paul is saying Paul is saying here's the baton they'll say this is the gospel this represents the gospel okay so he's saying I handed to you what was handed to me okay so something was given to me that I have taken ownership of I have found beauty in it and a proof unto the init and I have taken what was handed to me and I have given it to you I delivered to you first of all I delivered to you first of all that which I also received and then you'll notice that after the word received there there is a punctuation mark can you see that punctuation mark and tell me what it is it's a colon right it's a colon and in English grammar the colon functions to introduce a kind of list or or what follows is the thing that is being spoken of in the in the proceeding line here I delivered to you that which I also received colon now I'm gonna tell you what it is that I receive that I deliver to you now what's key about this and why the Graham why the the the grammatical mark there the punctuation mark of the colon matters is that the vast majority of biblical scholars conservative scholars New Testament scholars that look at this they say that they believe what what occurs after the colon is not original with Paul this isn't something that Paul wrote this is something that Paul quotes okay so what he's actually gonna quote is what sometimes called a doxological statement it's a it's a statement to the glory of God right from the word doxa glory of God and in a pre literary society which the early church literacy rates in the early Roman Empire would have been less than 5% we don't know exactly but somewhere between 2 and 5 percent right where today literacy rates in Australia would be 90% 95% among the adult population very high right most first of all countries have a very high literacy right but in pre literary times where you weren't you know reading face book and reading blogs and reading books and reading magazines the culture was largely oral right and so you had the transmission of ideas or of religious elements or cultural elements took place via an oral tradition these early doxological statements these brief articulations of Christian faith were used by the early community so that if you are a traveling preacher and you were going from here to here or you were a traffic just a traveler a follower of Jesus going from here to here you could come into a town and say hey are you guys followers of the Messiah well there was a bazillion messiahs in it not literally a bazillion of course there were many messiahs in 1st century Judaism lots of different messiahs and lots of different perspectives on who and what Messiah was and so how do I know if the Messiah that you're talking about is Messiah I'm talking about and so the early church formed these simple simple statements of belief simple articulated statements of belief and so when Paul says I gave to you what had also been given to me : what most scholars believe is that what what takes place from here on out this next little section is actually an early oral doxological tradition of primitive Christianity now Paul's writing this in the middle of the first century right somewhere in and around sort of 55 ad 60 AD so if Paul is saying I gave to you what was given to me we're going even earlier than that now just from historic I just gotta say this quickly because those of you that are interested in history you'll find this particularly fascinating so Jesus dies in and around 80 30 write it now if Paul is writing this some say 30 years later around 80 60 80 55 first Corinthians this is a very very very short period of time by historical standards right a period of about 25 to 30 years but this is what's key not only is Paul writing within about 30 years of the time that he's the events that he's referring to the life death and resurrection of Jesus but he's saying I'm delivering to you something that comes even earlier than me so when you have the event that's being recorded and the event that's being reported right the actual event itself in the event that's being reported when you have less space between them you have less space for what historians call legendary embellishment right if you have a hundred years between the event and the recording of the event there's more time for the story to be exaggerated for it to become more amazing and more awesome and if you have two hundred years there's even more time for this story to grow but if you have a very short period of time between the event itself that is the life death and resurrection of Jesus and the recording of that event or the articulation of that that event historians say man the closer we can get to the actual event there's probably a higher of there is certainly a higher chance that that's what actually happened so this is the key Paul says I gave to you an answer to the question what is the gospel what was also given to me and then here it is notice this when we read this I just I hope you get this sort of tingly goosebumps that I'm getting right now you are tapping into something that's 2,000 years old when we read this we are reading words that were purposefully formed and articulated by early Christian communities traveling dusty roads of the ancient Near East coming into towns and saying what do you believe I believe that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures that he was seen by Cephas and also by the twelve I also believe that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and he was seen by Peter and also by the twelfth we're tapping into something that's ancient i I just let that let the electricity of the excitement of that just soak into you here this isn't something that happened yesterday the day before yesterday we're tapping into early primitive Christianity and this early doxological statement is where Paul says I told you what somebody told me I gave you the gospel just like somebody gave me the gospel and so if we were to say Paul what exactly is the gospel he would say what you don't know what the gospel is but you don't know what the gospel is the gospel is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and that it was seen by Peter and by the twelve the gospel is the life death burial and resurrection of a guy named Jesus Christ this is what's so key about this is that the gospel then is not an idea the gospel is not a theology the gospel is not a philosophy the gospel is not a concept the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ the gospel is the good news of the holy history of Jesus Christ his life death burial and subsequent resurrection can somebody say Amen and so that they could be sure that we're all talking about the same Messiah because again there were lots of messiahs and first century Judaism they develop these doxological statements by the way there are several of the in the New Testament several of these primitive early oral elements that scholars have looked at and said you know what that's not Paul that's Paul quoting an earlier oral tradition said another way you could say it like this the gospel is Jesus himself the good news that God looks like Jesus and that Jesus is God the good news is a person it's not an idea it's not a concept now for that reason my little seminar that I presented there of the twenty nine messages the package of what Scripture teaches of which the gospel was a part it just shows that I was way off I mean I was sincere but I was not formally theologically trained and I was just using what I could to the best of my ability but what I was doing was I was showing that there's basically an index of topics that people need to learn about of which the gospel is one no no no no no no what we're gonna see is that the gospel is the thing it's not a part of the thing it is the thing now for those of you that are seventh day evidence you're gonna find this particularly interesting because one of the founders of the seventh-day Adventist Church was a woman by the name of Ellen White right an Adventist Church founder and she's riding here strangely enough from Australia one of the founders of the seventh day having to church one of the most formative founders of the seventh-day Adventist Church spent 10 years in Australia between 1890 and 1880 and 1890 right so she's writing here in Australia and I've actually reread this article just this morning it's entitled the lack of spirituality in our churches it's just so powerful so rebuking and look at what she says you notice how consistent it is with what Paul says Paul says I gave to you what somebody gave to me the gospel what's the gospel Paul Christ died Christ was buried Christ rose Christ was seen okay notice what she says here first sentence hanging up on the cross Christ was the gospel question according to that sentence according to one of the founders of this church what is the gospel what is the gospel Christ Jesus is the gospel this is very Pauline right this is this is now notice what she goes now we have a message this is our message what's a behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world now she writes as one of the founders of the early Adventist Church she says will not our members keep their eyes fixed on a crucified and risen Savior in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered then she says this is our message this is our argument this is our doctrine if we can awaken an interest in men's minds and women's that will cause them to fix their eyes on Christ we may step aside and ask them only to continue to fix their eyes upon the Lamb of God and in this way they receive their lesson if you pay careful attention to that to that paragraph there three times she says fix your eyes fix your eyes fix your eyes this is our message this is our doctrine for Ellen White one of the founders of the Adventist Church she's saying this church is built upon this idea this early primitive biblical idea that the good news the doctrinal package that we have to share is Jesus our message is Jesus the holy history of Jesus in 1894 she wrote a letter to this sky now this guy was in the United States of America his name is 80 Jones Alonzo T Jones and he would become one of the most formative figures in the early Adventist Church when I say the name 80 Jones if that name means anything to you raise your hand right I mean I just see how many of it okay so in 1894 Ellen White writes in March from Melbourne she's in Melbourne and she writes a letter to this guy here who was a 45 year old Adventist pastor revivalist and evangelist I am a 45 year old Adventist revivalists pastor and evangelist so when I read this I think this could have been written to me I could I could go to my mailbox today and get this letter and I'm just gonna read you a part of this letters this is what she wrote she said his name was Alonzo 80 Jones Alonzo David the truth for this time is broad in its outlines far-reaching embracing what's that next word embracing many doctrines but these doctrines are not detached items what they're not what they're not what there what they're not detached items it's not like an itemization or a laundry list well well then what are they she says these doctrines are not detached items which mean what's the word there now that would just mean little they are united by golden threads forming a complete whole with Christ as the living center now Alonso when you're preaching this message when you're teaching what it means to be an adventist when you're teaching what it means to be a follower of Jesus when you're teaching what it means to be a Christian be careful that you don't atomized and itemize nice little alliteration therefore you don't atomized and itemize the doctrinal package of the Bible because it's all wrapped around the living center which is Jesus now come with me on a little journey here if you would this is what she's saying to that young or young guess yeah yeah 45 young young this is what she's saying to that 45 year old Adventist evangelist she's saying Alonso the radical preaching of Christ in no way requires a diminishing of the Adventist message that you're going town to town state to state preaching or said another way a rigorous commitment to the Adventist message Alonso does not compromise the gospel of Jesus Christ so make sure in your preaching Alonso she could have written it to me when I was about ready to preach there and Shingle Springs David you're making a big mistake there one of 29 one of twenty one of twenty-nine one of the other twenty eight things about now it's not one of 29 it's one thing you're talking about one thing and the one thing that you're talking about is what am I gonna say I'm gonna say Jesus you're talking about the holy history of Jesus which raises the question somebody sitting there saying bubble and the people that I get most nervous about with this are what we call generational Christians or generational Adventists I'm gonna have you raise your hand if you were raised in a Christian home or an Adventist home raise your hands if you were raised in a Christian home or an Adventist um okay okay raise your hands if you were not you were not okay you're not the ones I'm worried about I'm not worried about you I wasn't raised in a overtly Adventist or Christian home the ones I'm worried about are the ones that were raised that way because they seem to be the ones when their generational adventists you know second generation third generation fourth generation these are the ones that struggle the most to really know what it means to be in evidence and I'm telling you this by experience having traveled all around the world I meet people they're converts to Christianity or converts to the Adventist message and they know it better they love it more they're more evangelistically savvy and they're more passionate about it and then I meet people who were raised that way and they're like yeah yeah it's it's almost passe it's all about what does it mean to be an Adventist well you might find this little surprising but those of you that are sitting there hey be careful you're talking about my great-granddad Church you're talking about my parents Church I'm gonna tell you right now what does it even mean to be in advence we got we're sort of defining our terms here we've got the gospel okay well what is it mean to be an Adventist what's the Adventist Creed well here you go the seventh-day Adventist right this little book wrote this little book called the 28 fundamental beliefs right and they said this is what we believe the 28 fundamental beliefs when I came into the church in 1996 it was called the 27 fundamental beliefs right so they're a fun Demento belief has been added right they say hey we found this other thing in scripture and I like that sort of dynamic that it's not static it's not an ancient static now watch this in the preamble the introduction to that book that's one how many of you know what I'm talking about when I say the 28 fundamental beliefs raise your hand every one of the generational Adventists right you were probably made to read it as a punishment right read this book read this book no more television for you read the book okay here you go but notice in the introduction what it says right here this is this is key seventh-day heaviness except the Bible as their only Crete wow that's amazing you guys can be trained now watch this and they hold certain fundamental beliefs to be the churching of the teaching of Holy Scriptures now watch this is very key especially Ruth for people like you and I who are new to these this kind of weird group of people right they're weird Matt these guys are weird they're weird straight-up weird I mean let's be honest they're weird so so for those of us that are sort of like coming into this let's just note something cuz it's huge and frankly you're gonna know what better and I'm gonna know a better math going to know better than some of the people in here because they just sort of grew up around it this is key and I'm especially if you were raised in evidence you need to pay attention because some of this stuff's gonna be new for you I know you've heard it all your life and that's why it's gonna be new for you seven-day evidence except the Bible is their only Creed and they hold a certain fundamental beliefs to be the teaching of the holy scriptures or of the Bible these beliefs are set forth here and they constitute the church's understanding and expression of the teaching of Scripture we're not saying this is definitely what scripture is teaching we have an exhaustive understanding of the truth this is what we're saying we think this is what Scripture was teaching now watch it goes on revision of these statements maybe what will never happen because we have full possession of all biblical truth right here right now is that what it says revision of these statements maybe what's the word you can expect this to change well why what what well the Bible doesn't change can somebody say Amen but this is key our growing and increasing understanding of what the Bible teaches that can change and will become to a better and fuller understanding we're going to change the way that we articulate what we think scripture is teaching that's exactly what it says here when the church is led by the holy spirit to a what are the next two words fuller understanding of Bible truth or finds what are the next two words better and language in which to express the teaching of God's Holy Word so this is how you could summarize this then this is key the Adventist church's fundamental beliefs are descriptive not rigidly prescriptive okay what that means is is that we're saying we think and we're pretty convinced that this is what the Bible is teaching okay but you can expect that we're open to a fuller understanding a new understanding a better understanding and we're also open to better language to articulate current understandings that's what we mean by descriptive they're describing what we think the Bible is teaching and I don't know how you feel but I'm super comfortable with that but I feel so comfortable about that verse is saying this is definitively absolutely and rigidly what the Bible is teaching and you need to assent to it and if you don't you can't be one of us see what that does is that sets up a Creed over here but but the only creed that the church has is the Bible so these words over here are words about the Bible this is the Bible itself but but where is the Creed the words about the Bible or the Bible itself where's the Creed the Bible itself is the Creed are you comfortable with that so check this out what the again Ellen White one of the founders of the church this is what she said the Bible and the Bible alone is to be our great okay so you'd say it like this the Bible alone is the Adventist Creed and I just want you to let the brilliance and the freedom of that soak into your soul this morning for this reason you do not have to feel like you're a denominational apologist you don't have to feel like at all costs you have to defend everything that the Adventist Church has believed it can occur presently believes you are free to explore what scripture actually teaches can you say Amen so you don't have to be afraid of the Bible you don't have to be afraid of the text because what you believe is what the Bible teaches right and we might have to alter or modify or change how we articulate that or even how we understand that but at the end of the day when somebody says what does it mean to be a seventh-day anise you can say well it just means that I believe that this is the thing this this is the thing this is what I believe I don't understand it perfectly I don't understand it exhaustively but what's in here is what I believe versus somebody saying you have to assent to this ancient Creed you have to say the Nicene Creed the Constantinople in Korea to say one of these now our Creed is the Bible now let me just sort of walk you through what this looks like this is the last thing I'm gonna talk about here Jesus the center a theological survey so what is a seventh-day Adventist what does it mean to be a seventh day evidence when somebody sits down with me and says what does it mean to be a seventh-day Adventist I well I think I might want to be one of you weird people I'm like okay great we'd love to have you you look sufficiently weird to become one of us and what I do is I take out a piece of paper and envelope a napkin a legal pad anything I take I take out a piece of paper and I draw a circle on it cap down this literally hundreds if not thousands of times in my life I've done it for many people in this room right here okay I take out a piece of paper I draw a circle on it and then I write something inside of that circle I'll give you one guess as to what it is I write Jesus inside of the circle when you're asking what it means to be a follower of Jesus to be a Christian to be a seventh-day having us I'm using all of these synonymously here for for us for me it all boils down to Jesus just like the Apostle Paul I delivered to you that which was also given to me that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and was seen by Cephas and by the twelve this is what it's all about okay if it's about anything other than this I'm not interested okay you might have a lot of nice people you might have some really nice food you might have some great institutions thumbs up for all of that stuff but I'm not interested I'm not coming along I'm not getting on your train I'm not hitching my wagon to your cart if it's not about Jesus okay so then what I do is I draw a line up like this and I say you're asking what it means to be a seven-day evidence and I'm gonna draw a line up here I'm gonna write something at the end of that line you can start in any or you can do this in any order that you want this is how I do it this is how I do it I just start by drawing a line and then at the top of that I write Sabbath because seventh day oh there it is it's in the name seventh day Sabbath so I just write I just write Sabbath okay and then that second word there adventist most people don't know what the word Advent means it means coming and so I'll draw another wine out like this and then alright second coming so so I am a person who keeps God's Sabbath and who believes Jesus is coming again that's what I mean when I say but I'm not done yet I'm gonna draw eight lines out I'm gonna draw another line over here and I'm gonna write down Scripture it's gonna be really easy to remember all of these because they start with s's every one of them starts with an S I'm gonna draw a line over here and I'm gonna say satanic conflict what what is sometimes known commonly as the great controversy now watch as we go through this I'm gonna draw a line over here I'm going to write salvation salvation this is this is what it means all of this orienting us to Jesus the what's sometimes called the state of the Dead or simply the resurrection what what happens it's not that we're immortal souls that float around in an ethereal space when we die no Jesus raised literally bodily and he said blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth so this is a central teaching I gonna draw one over here I got two to go and I'm gonna talk about the sanctuary that's really important to seventh-day evidence and up here finally spiritual gifts and I draw that little search when I put Jesus in the center and I say think of a bicycle wheel a bicycle wheel has its spokes right which give it sort of its shape and its integrity and and they they give it its structure and its strength the hub in a bicycle wheel makes the spokes strong if you don't have a hub the spokes are they're flimsy you can just break us but you can easily bend a spoke similarly if you just take the Sabbath up and you lift it and you detach it from Jesus it's weak its unconvincing there's no as nothing to it right if you if you remove any of them and so every one of these is an arrow pointing to and in some significant way illuminating the central point of what it means to be a follower of Jesus and that is all of these things point to Jesus now let's just go through there I'll show you start again at the top the Sabbath what's the point of the Sabbath well the point of the Sabbath is really simple it's that God before the entrance of sin and death and disease created a space in time created a space in time so that we could spend time with him so the Sabbath is about spending time with Jesus let's talk about the second coming the one that we went to down there the second coming so sometimes well-meaning but ultimately misguided seventh-day Adventist talk about the second coming like it's a natural disaster like it's a storm you better be ready the second coming it's coming you I saw a bumper sticker one time that said Jesus is coming soon look busy all right he's coming there's a flood coming there's a tornado coming there's a typhoon coming there's a storm coming in and then and then then then then at the second coming is not the second coming of some disaster some natural disaster it's not any events I know you'll get this right it's the second coming of [Music] there we go it's the arrival of a person and that person is Jesus which is why when we sing Melbourne wherever you disappeared to why wouldn't we sing that beautiful song line and land by the way I love it I give it two thumbs up and Josh wherever he disappeared to the guitar was awesome there I was absolutely loving those little licks I was loving so so when we sing that song lying in the land what we're saying is but the lamb is coming back we're not saying as we sometimes do in our evangelistic fervor and zeal and frankly as I did in those meetings that I preached in Shingle Springs ooh a storm is coming an event is coming and you had better be ready you'd better have the generator you better have the dried fruit you'd better have the the potable water you had better be ready because an event is coming yes there will be a sense in which it is an event but it's the arrival of a person in that person's name is Jesus and the Sabbath is about spending time with Jesus notice this satanic conflict one what does that mean satanic conflict the whole of the Bible from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20 is telling a story and it's a story of a grand cosmic climactic conflict between Christ and this guy called Satan it's just a transliteration the word Satan is a transliteration of the of the Hebrew word Satan it means enemy the Bible is telling this story that that there's this conflict it's a conflict between God and his enemy it's kind of like a Star Wars II thing or a Star Trek thing there's Klingons out there right Darth Vader is out there and then and all of these stories are simply aping the original story of primordial conflict between God and a rebellion an angelic rebellion against his good government that's the whole story again and again Jesus says things like now the Prince of this world will be cast out the Prince of this world will be cast out one time jesus healed a woman this is in Luke chapter 13 he he he healed a woman and he said ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound be loosed from this burden on the Sabbath day again and again you get this strong sense that what Jesus is doing in the Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke he's reclaiming territory he's annexing territory that had been disputed and and contested by an enemy that's the story of the Bible and Adventists are committed to this Adventists are committed to this idea that the central teaching of Scripture is that all of what's happening in human history is built in the context of a conflict the context of a conflict how about salvation well the good news about salvation is that salvation comes through Jesus alone through faith alone through grace alone to the glory of God alone can somebody say Amen so salvation is that Jesus is the savior he saves we can't save ourselves in fact I got to tell you got some bad news for you I got some bad news I hate bad news I'm a good news guy I like good news and this week I got some bad news for you I had one two three four people requests at the the the headquarters here in the North New South Wales conference of seventh-day Adventist they called up and they said take our name off the book so we don't want to be seventh-day evers more members of our local church King scripture for people said no we're done with it we don't want it we don't want to be that anymore we're over it we don't want to do it and the reasons are there are many reasons a variety of reasons but at the end of the day and I know all these people well many of you know some of them they came to this church for years you know what it boils down to at the end of the day it boils down to the fact that that we didn't do a good enough job or they themselves didn't do a good enough job of understanding that the Adventist message is all about what word am I gonna say right here it's about Jesus they started to think it was something else they started to think that it was the 28 things and not the one thing they started to think it was no no they missed the point I missed the point too early on and I would be really surprised if there weren't a lot of people in this room who also have missed the point you thought that the point was all of the points this atomization or this itemization of ideas of concepts of doctrines of teachings no no no no the point is Jesus the Sabbath this time with Jesus the second coming is the return of Jesus salvation is the truth of Jesus the gospel is the holy history of Jesus look at the extra the sanctuaries ah this is my fav one of my very favorite some people think oh man that sanctuary it's so mysterious so hard to understand so ethereal now the sanctuary is the simple truth that Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world he is the high priest that intercedes for us and he is the returning king of kings and Lord of lords that's it but that is the the Adventist teaching about the sanctuary is that Jesus is lamb priest King how many of you today believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world that's sanctuary language the Lamb of God how many of you today believe that Jesus is the high priest even now as Paul says in Hebrews chapter eight we have a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty do you believe that that's sanctuary how many believe that Jesus will return is king the king is the king of kings and Lord of lords so the sanctuary message is all about Jesus is land Jesus is priest Jesus is king okay we did this that got me scripture Jesus himself said in John chapter five verse 39 fellas fellas fellas you missed the point you search the Scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life but these are they that are all about me this is the story of the Bible in some way shape or form whether by analog or by prophecy or by parable or by anticipation is the story of Jesus notice the next one here the resurrection the state of the Dead the whole idea is that Jesus rose literally bodily actually historically from the dead this is the thing that Paul said I gave to you what was given to me that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and was seen by Peter and also by the twelve at the end of the day and I preached on this and the beautiful believable basic series a few weeks ago at the end of the day if Jesus did not raise literally historically and bodily from the grave what are we doing here this morning everything hinges on the resurrection of Jesus and then finally spiritual gifts the idea that that the gift prophecy and the gift of of hospitality and the gift of administration and the gift of teaching and the gift of tongues by the way I mentioned a moment ago that that I was there speaking 80 language groups represented rabbits preacher to these two thousand youth leaders from all over the world and every night I would pray this specific prayer in front of all those people I'd say God bless the translators give them the gift of tongues because it would be an impossibility nearly to translate David Eric on the fly they don't have my notes in advance you know what I'm gonna say and here they are Serbian and Russian and in Swahili and and Spanish and French and I had one of the translators the Russian translator came up to me when she said man thank you for praying for the translators because you are very very hard to translate I know that I know that I don't even speak Russian and I know that I know I'm impossible to translate people don't even understand what I'm saying in English imagine imagine in Russian right so here's the point Jesus ascends to heaven and he gives gifts Jesus Jesus gives who gives gifts Jesus gives gift he gives the gift of tongues he gives the gift of administration he gives the gift of prophesy against the gift of hospitality gives the gift of administration he gives the gift of teaching Jesus gives gifts and so when we're talking about spending time with Jesus or Jesus conflict with Satan or the salvation that Jesus brings or the Lamb priests king or his soon return or all of holy scripture that points or his resurrection or the gifts that he gives to us to to get us through this difficult times in which we find ourselves at the end of the day these are lots of doctrines right this is the package of what you might call the doctrinal package of Adventism but at the end of the day this is a wheel with all of its spokes but it's all about who who's it about who's it about it's about Jesus he's not one of 29 he's not one of 28 he's not one of 27 he's one of one he's one and all of these are windows or to use another astre lestrade all of these are raised they're rays of light that in their own wonderful unique idiosyncratic way in lumen an aspect of Jesus would be otherwise unavailable to us so the Sabbath tells us something about Jesus the resurrection tells us something about Jesus spiritual gifts tells us something about Jesus the sanctuary tells us something about Jesus back to Ellen White this is in 1892 she wrote this while she was in Adelaide at a camp meeting I loved the fact that the quotations I'm giving you here today were from Australia I actually chose them on purpose these these Australian statements and she was writing here to a medical doctor by the name of John Harvey Kellogg and she writes Christ is our living what's the word Senta Christ is our living center she even spelled it right divine truth which is shining upon us and it's bright clear distinct rays is not detached what's the word at terms of doctrines loose and disconnected if you take the spoke off of the wheel if you take the Ray away from the sunshine it isn't array and it isn't to spoke and it isn't to wheel they're not loose this is what I mean by the atomization so breaking things apart into its fragmented atoms and items now Oh in fact watch this they are not detached atoms of doctrines loose and disconnected Christ's mission and work are threads of gold binding all together constituting a complete whole now Rochelle Chapman a complete whole is the grammatical redundancy you with me on that I mean well it's what a complete whole as I saying as like saying a male husband or an angular triangle or a round circle yes circles around and triangles are angular and husband's are male and complete things are whole so she's she's falling over herself in in in linguistically clumsy ways to make the point these are not little ideas or detached concepts or theologies or or little doctrines or teachings it's all about the one thing the complete thing the whole thing and that thing is come on come on help me out that thing is Jesus that thing is Jesus all of it point sing to Jesus and so barrie schwortz he said man trying to buy a pair of jeans is a virtual impossibility in this day and age they want Stone wash tight fit skinny fit Rockstar fit loose fit traditional fit baggy fit dark denim distressed denim black denim short what do you want capri size or link so what he want he's a man we're paralyzed by choices too many choices and in this increasingly consumer driven culture we are paralyzed by choices with the buying cars or jeans or neck pillows but this is a choice you do not have to make the Adventist message is the systemic uplifting and celebrating of Jesus Christ the Savior now I can tell you this these for dear people that have recently decided yeah we don't want to fellowship with those weird people anymore I'm gonna be honest with you about 25 percent of the reason for these people departure these people's departure is theological I'll give you a guess as to what the other 75% is it's relational it's relation and I tell you we got a we got it we got to take that on the chin we got to take ownership of that the people have come into our community stayed around for a couple years and said you know not feeling I like some what I'm hearing but I'm not seeing it I'm not I don't I don't want to those aren't my people and I tell you we gotta we gotta wear that we got to take ownership of that we can't point either if the pastor was friendlier if now you have to take that personally that should wound you in your soul you should feel angry that somebody would not angry at them angry at yourself how could we let some we're like we're gonna take the gospel to the world and when people come to us we're thrilled and then some people come and some people make a decision to be followers of Jesus and some people are baptized and they stick around for two or three years and then they say and again some of that is theological but it's because they frankly didn't understand and I know the situation's and I know them intimately but the other part the lion's share the bigger part was not a theological concern it was not only are they a little weird not real friendly now I know you're friendly to the people that you're friendly to so am i but the trick is having a heart for other people people that you don't know people that you don't spend every Sabbath with what about all those other people you've got to make it your business to start caring for the souls for whom Jesus died I have to do it you have to do it and not because it's some sort of obligation that the pastor is imposing upon us because when you're genuinely converted in your heart of hearts and this is the punchline in the same way that all of these doctrines like spokes to the hub get their strength from being attached to Jesus individual church members get your strength from being actually attached to Jesus you you you you you you in your prayer and in your study and in your reading and in your lives being actually substantively attached to Jesus jesus said without me you can do nothing and I'll tell you this right now just trust me on this one trust me on this one if we have a fully thoroughly totally connected and converted church no one would come in here and go out saying anything other than those people are amazing because they're filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ I'd say a cute little story it's actually sort of disappointing that's a cute little story Mel barrette sees a little bit like me and she can talk and the thing I love about Mel is that she she she's got she's got four crazy kids five if you include Ken she's loaded with kids and she runs her own business do you know that she runs her own but owns her own business runs her own business has four kids and she's one of our music leaders here and you know what I suppose that's probably hard sometimes I suppose sometimes it's hard to have four kids and run your own business I suppose that stuff anybody else here find it a little difficult sometimes and you know what Mel has this connection which is she had no idea I was gonna say this you haven't asked her permission she can get over now is reading the Bible and she's being connected to Jesus and she's falling deeper and deeper in love with him and when she gets really excited about Jesus because she has a venue she sometimes gets up in front she says why this really great thing happened with me and Jesus this week and she tells us about it and you know what I had a couple church members say to me wow why does she have to talk so much really somebody's connected somebody's passionate some of these hearts being touched somebody's had an experience this week with Jesus and we're gonna turn into consumers and say well that's not to my liking I like mine with more sugar I like mine with less sugar I like mine with no cinnamon I like mine without onion I like mine with Garten oh no no no no no friends you don't come here to consume something you can go buy your car and be a consumer you can go buy your neck pillow and be a consumer when we come here we're not consumers friends we're contributors we are all if somebody wants to stand up and say I just got to testify Jesus in fact in fact I got a tell on Darnell I'll pick on Darnell this is going back a little while a couple years ago I preached the sermon and Darnell came up ha ha she said Pastor that's what you might not even remember that she's the pastor actually that sermon was so powerful it was so powerful I just wanted to stand up on my chair and shout remember saying that to me you know what I said to you next time you faced that temptation don't resist it don't resist that temptation I give you full permission Darnell I give you full permission the church the Spirit of God moves upon you in a song service in a sermon or in a prayer and you just want a hallelujah you can do that and you know what if somebody does it don't say gosh tall poppy no just just just let them express their connection to what am I going to say you got it you got it you got it you got it the Adventist message is the systematic afflicting and celebrating of Jesus Christ the Savior choosing between the Adventist message and the gospel is a choice that you don't have to make can somebody say Amen anybody here want to say with me I want Jesus and anybody else you want to say you know and I'm one of those weird seventh-day evidence I'm one of them okay you don't have to choose this or you can have your cake and you can eat it too because the message of the Adventist Church and of all of Scripture is Jesus Jesus Jesus let's pray father in heaven [Music]

Channel: Kingscliff Church

Views: 14,878

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Keywords: David Asscherick, Adventism, Christianity, This Week, AT Kingscliff, SDA, Church

Id: 353SwfmRuOQ

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 15 2018