Participants: Tim Riesenberger
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000389
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00:08 beautiful music
00:30 Hello and welcome to Faith Chapel. 00:33 My name is Tim Riesenberger 00:35 and I am going to be sharing the only question God 00:39 asks you in the judgment. Let us pray... 00:43 Loving Father in heaven thank You so much that 00:47 You are our Judge at the end of time. We ask that you would 00:51 bless now as we share that question that You will ask 00:55 everyone of us. In Jesus name. Amen. 01:01 When I was on my way here I met 01:04 an airline steward named Charlie 01:08 and as he was walking by he asked me a question that 01:12 I enjoy hearing from people, he said, "Why are you so happy?" 01:19 Of course, that's a wide open door. So I shared with him that 01:22 I am a Christian. He said, "I knew that you were, I could 01:25 tell. " And then he began to ask me why I was a Christian? 01:31 How did I come to Know God? 01:35 And I shared with him that I was a junior in college, 01:38 I had studied with different denominations. 01:40 And many denominations will say, if you don't join their church 01:46 then you will be lost! They are the only ones that are saved... 01:52 and that everyone else is in error and is going to be failed 01:57 in the judgment. 01:59 I told him that there is one denomination that 02:03 that did not say that. 02:04 I was rather surprised in fact. This denomination told me 02:09 that the majority of the people that will be saved are not in 02:14 their denomination. 02:16 I was shocked! I said, "Really? Are you sure?" 02:20 Charlie asked me, "Well, what church did you join?" 02:24 I said, "I became a Seventh Day Adventist. " 02:26 And he said, "Really? Is that what they believe?" 02:29 I said, "Yes, that is what they told me. " 02:31 And I started to question it because I didn't believe it. 02:34 I said, "You're a Seventh Day Adventist, surely you think 02:38 that the people who aren't keeping the Sabbath are lost. " 02:41 And they said, "No. As a matter of fact we don't believe that. " 02:45 I said, "I can't understand. Isn't that the main issue 02:49 at the end of time?" They said, "Yes, we believe it will be. " 02:53 "But God looks at people for what they know... 02:57 not for what they don't know. " 03:00 In your Bibles we can read in James 4:17 03:14 So these people didn't know about the Sabbath 03:16 and therefore wouldn't be accountable for it. 03:19 When they did learn the truth then they would be. 03:23 I began to question them further I said, "Well wait a minute... 03:27 maybe the issue is if you know Jesus. " 03:31 They said, "Absolutely! It is very important that you 03:34 know Jesus. But that isn't even the question either. " 03:39 I said, "Are you kidding, that doesn't make any sense to me. " 03:42 And they said, "Well, if you look at Romans you can read 03:46 that the Gentiles who don't even know about God's law 03:51 will be saved because they have 03:52 the law written in their hearts. " 03:55 There are some people who don't know about Jesus 03:58 but they are following the light that they have. " 04:02 I began to think very carefully 04:06 as these arguments were presented to me 04:09 and then I realized what was the only question God would ask. 04:14 But before I reveal that, I want to share a passage in 04:17 the Bible that comes at the end of the Mount of Blessings. 04:22 When Jesus speaks to the multitude He ends with a verse 04:26 Matthew 5:48 04:38 What does it mean to be perfect though? 04:39 What is that text telling us? 04:42 We'll see at the end of this presentation. 04:46 I can tell you that I shared with Charlie on the airplane 04:51 why I became a Seventh Day Adventist. 04:53 Because it was so clear to me what the main issue was. 04:58 Not only from what these people were telling me 05:01 but the teaching from the Bible itself. 05:03 And I'm going to share that with you. 05:05 What is the only question that God will ask you? 05:09 Well, let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew 25:34-36, 40 06:01 In this passage from the Bible it is unbelievable... 06:05 God talks nothing of doctrine He talks nothing of creed... 06:08 He doesn't even list the Ten Commandments! 06:11 It didn't make sense until I began to realize 06:16 what the issue is. 06:18 I shared with Charlie on the plane the reason I became a 06:23 Seventh Day Adventist. 06:24 And I'm going to be sharing that with you today. 06:27 It wasn't merely that they were the only denomination that said 06:31 that other people are saved besides them. 06:34 But that they followed the Bible. 06:37 And this is what Jesus said in His Word. 06:40 That the question in the judgment 06:42 is not a matter of creed. 06:44 It is how you treat other people. 06:47 The people who are commended in the judgment 06:50 say to Jesus, "We never saw you hungry" 06:52 "we never saw you thirsty, we never saw you naked. " 06:55 "We don't understand. " 06:56 Jesus said, "When you did it to one of my children... " 07:01 "... you did it to Me. " 07:03 Now I think a more important question 07:06 is not only what God asks you in the judgment 07:10 ...but why. Why can He ask you those things? 07:14 Why is that the only question?, "How you treated other people?" 07:18 Well, I'm going to share some illustrations with you 07:22 of how we do treat people. Perhaps they'll be things that 07:26 you've never heard of. Perhaps they're things 07:28 that are very common. 07:29 But I can tell you that these are things 07:33 that we as Christians tend to forget 07:36 about how we treat others. 07:38 But they are vital to our salvation and the judgment. 07:45 Can you imagine working in a hospital? 07:48 That's what I do. I work in the emergency department. 07:51 And I can tell you, in the ER something that many of my 07:56 students and residents enjoy is something 07:59 that is life threatening! 08:00 Not because they are merely adrenaline junkies 08:03 but they like to save people. 08:05 They like to make a difference where it matters most. 08:08 There is something that is so deadly it is the 08:12 number one cause of death especially for young people. 08:16 But unfortunately it is very common too. 08:20 Ten percent of men will be afflicted by this disease... 08:23 twenty percent of women will have this 08:26 at some time in their life. 08:29 A woman came into the ER one day 08:35 and after I talked with her 08:37 after I examined her I realized she had this disease. 08:41 I was going to recommend not only treatment 08:45 but admitting her into the hospital. 08:48 Now unfortunately not everyone follows the doctor's advice. 08:52 Some patients ask for a second opinion. 08:56 And that is what she wanted. 08:58 She said she didn't want the treatment. 09:00 She said she was fine. 09:02 She said she didn't want to be in the hospital. 09:04 She wanted to go home. 09:07 Now in her country it was legal to do that. 09:11 But in the United States of America 09:14 this problem is so serious 09:15 that I as a physician have the legal right 09:19 to force this treatment on you against your will! 09:22 I can keep you in the hospital against your will. 09:25 What is it? I've had people ask me if it is tuberculosis. 09:30 Is it AIDS? No it is not. 09:33 It is something much more common than that. 09:37 I am going to share with you a note that a patient might write. 09:44 They might say, "Doctor, I am sorrowful" 09:50 "I am deeply distressed" 09:51 "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death" 09:56 "Stay here with me, stay near" 10:00 "I am afraid of being alone. " 10:02 I think you'd take that patient very seriously. 10:06 but you see I have just paraphrased from the Bible. 10:09 I have just paraphrased Matthew 26:37, 38. 10:15 These are the words of Jesus, Himself. 10:19 Jesus who committed no sin said that He 10:23 was sorrowful even unto death. 10:25 What is this medical condition 10:28 that I can force the treatment on you against your will? 10:31 It's depression and suicide. 10:34 They're so common in our society 10:36 Now this woman was actually from Japan 10:39 where it is legal to refuse treatment 10:42 for depression or suicidal thoughts. 10:45 But in the US I can admit you for 3 days against your will. 10:49 Amazingly enough most of us ignore this problem. 10:55 I'm sure that you've known a friend or a family member 10:58 who's been depressed. And what do we say? We say, 11:00 we say, "Well have you prayed about it?" 11:02 "Brother, did you have your devotions this morning?" 11:06 "I think you need to focus in on Jesus. " 11:08 I don't know if that is the right answer. 11:12 For Jesus Himself said that He was sorrowful unto death. 11:16 When you're going through hard times 11:20 when you see someone else who's depressed 11:23 perhaps the best thing is to do what Jesus asked for. 11:27 Stay with them, pray with them, encourage them. 11:32 Don't try to point the finger. 11:34 Do what you can to just support them. 11:38 Many times in our lives when we haven't gone through something 11:43 we don't understand how someone is feeling. 11:47 But I can tell you that there are many people 11:49 in our society that are depressed, that are sad. 11:52 Does Jesus understand how they feel? Yes He does. 11:56 Does Jesus condemn? No He does not. 11:59 Jesus is there to be with you, to pray with you. 12:03 Even though none of His disciples stayed up with Him. 12:07 Even though none of His disciples were able to stay 12:10 awake for an hour, Jesus stays awake all night with you. 12:14 And I pray that you would do the same for other people. 12:20 "Dr. Riesenberger you have a patient in room 9." 12:22 "Ooh, another patient... I'm so tired. " 12:27 I listen to one of the other doctors say, 12:29 "Why do they keep sending us these patients? 12:32 this is the third one this afternoon!" 12:34 The charge nurse comes over with the chart... 12:37 She said, "are you the lucky one who has the beached whale 12:40 in room 9? there you go. " Now the beached whale 12:45 she was referring to was a human being. 12:48 But the sad part of this was the gentleman was over 450 pounds! 12:53 He was complaining of severe pain in his abdomen. 12:56 And I determined he was going to need a CAT scan. 13:00 Unfortunately there was a weight limit on our scanner and he 13:04 exceeded it. And so I got on the phone to the local Zoo 13:09 to see if I could use their CAT scanner. 13:12 They unfortunately told me, "No. " 13:15 Now there are many people in our society who because of the way 13:19 they look are shunned by people. Now many of us come to them and 13:24 say, "Well, maybe you need to change your diet. Maybe you need 13:28 to exercise more. Do you think that's what I told this patient? 13:32 I didn't. He already knows! 13:36 I'm calling the Zoo to see if he can go on the CAT scanner 13:39 He knows there's a problem. There have been no 13:44 times during my training as a physician where I openly opposed 13:48 one of my attending physicians but this was one of them. 13:51 As one of the doctors was going on and on and on and saying, 13:55 "Ooh! this guy is so big! why do these people come here"... 13:59 I looked down in sadness, and I turned to him and I said, 14:05 "You know, what if this guy was your brother?" 14:08 And he said, "Well excuse me Father Riesenberger" 14:11 And I said under my breath, "you know what he is my brother. " 14:16 No matter what a person looks like God loves them the same, 14:20 and so should we. 14:21 You know I remember a friend of mine 14:23 who came to a clinic where I was working 14:25 He was a food service director for an Adventist hospital. 14:29 And I can tell you he was over- weight. He had diabetes and high 14:33 blood pressure. But I can tell you that instead of criticizing 14:37 him, when I finished my under- graduate work I went to that 14:40 hospital. I lived with him and I did my internship 14:43 in their department of Cardiac Rehabilitation. 14:46 As I stayed with he and his wife 14:48 he and I got up at 5 am every morning to walk. 14:53 When you look at that person who may not fit in to society, 14:56 maybe they're overweight, you don't see them getting up at 5. 15:00 But I did. I can tell you, instead of criticizing someone 15:04 why not help them. Why not be the one who lends a helping hand 15:07 to help them better their lives instead of criticizing them. 15:11 Something I enjoy very much is going to church. 15:16 and I can tell you that the things after church 15:19 are just enjoyable sometimes. 15:21 Something we had every Sabbath was a potluck. 15:25 And I as a poor starving student 15:27 didn't have a whole lot of money I didn't have things 15:30 in the refrigerator. But I always got invited home. 15:33 People were always warm, they were always welcoming to me. 15:36 Unfortunately, the problem was that many times I'd have a 15:41 parent following me in the potluck line 15:42 wanting to give me their daughters cell phone number! 15:45 A young student, A young single guy like myself 15:49 gets invited easily to people's homes. 15:52 But I had a friend who was never invited home. 15:56 She was a single mom. She had a child out of wedlock. 15:59 She was in her 40's, she was in her 50's 16:03 She never got invited home. 16:05 There would be excuses like, "Well I want to protect 16:09 my marriage. I don't want this woman in my home. " 16:11 But I can tell you that anyone who can understand 16:16 what it is to be a human being 16:18 knows that we all need companionship. 16:21 We all need people around us. 16:23 She never got invited because of the problems in her life. 16:27 It's amazing in our society that some sins are so severe. 16:32 Some sins cause people to be avoided like the plague. 16:36 But there are others that are just glossed over. 16:38 Many sexual sins, perhaps divorce, perhaps adultery 16:43 homosexuality, people are shunned, 16:47 people are viewed as outcasts. 16:49 But I can tell you that Jesus doesn't treat them that way. 16:52 Jesus hates the sin but he loves the sinner and so should we. 16:58 Back to the question... 17:01 what is that question 17:04 in the judgment? 17:05 It's going to be how you treat other people. 17:09 I can tell you that there is no question in my mind 17:12 how Jesus treats people. He treats them 17:15 as they want to be treated. And we should too. 17:20 I can tell you that as we go back to that verse 17:23 in Matthew 5:48, it says, "Be ye perfect as your Father 17:30 in heaven is perfect. " Think about it this way 17:34 look at Luke 6:36 17:52 You see the Bible interprets itself. 17:54 What does it mean to be perfect? It means to be merciful... 17:59 just as God is merciful. The same words in the passage 18:03 ..."Be ye perfect" are used in the passage in Luke. 18:07 The same Sermon on the Mount comes just before that verse 18:11 in Luke just as well as Matthew. 18:13 I can tell you that I don't think those words 18:16 were used by chance. 18:18 What it means to be perfect, is it means to love people 18:22 the way God does. 18:24 Why does God get away with only one question in the judgment? 18:29 Well, I'll tell you why. If you look at 1 John 4:7 18:37 1 John 4:7 18:54 That's a pretty simple statement if someone loves, they know God! 18:58 they're born of God, no doctrines, no creeds 19:02 very simple. God understands what's in your heart 19:07 by the way you treat other people. 19:10 I can tell you everyone under- stands this whether or not you 19:14 understand about a doctrine or a creed. 19:18 Whether or not you under- stand about prophecy. 19:20 We can all understand what it means to treat people well. 19:24 Or not. 19:26 Even a child knows what it is to be nice 19:31 and what it is to be mean. 19:33 Whether or not we can even speak we understand this concept. 19:39 It is familiar to young and old, educated and ignorant. 19:45 And why can God do this? It's very simple. 19:49 1 John 4:20 20:17 God knows that we will treat Him 20:21 just like we treat the people around us. 20:24 It's so simple to Him. Perhaps someone doesn't know 20:29 about tithing, about giving ten percent of their income. 20:33 But God knows how you are going to respond. 20:36 When you learn about that truth 20:38 He already has an indicator of your response to Him. 20:42 We will treat God in the same way 20:46 we treat the person right next to us! 20:48 Perhaps you don't know about the Sabbath... 20:51 but God knows what your response will be 20:55 depending on how you treat other people. 20:57 You see, someone who is truly loving 21:00 someone who treats others well 21:02 knows more about God than someone 21:05 who has memorized the whole Bible. 21:07 God knows that the treatment vertically to Him 21:12 is dependent on the horizontal 21:14 relationship we share with others. 21:17 I'm going to share with you a very moving passage 21:22 from a book, "The Desire of Ages. " 21:24 It's on page 640 and it talks about this very thing 21:28 that we're discussing. 21:29 Desire of Ages tells us, "Love to man is the earthward 21:37 manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love 21:42 to make us children of one family that the 21:45 King of Glory became one with us and when His parting words are 21:51 fulfilled, "Love one another even as I have loved you. " 21:56 When we love the world as He has loved it 22:00 then for us His mission is accomplished 22:03 we are fitted for heaven for we have heaven in our hearts. " 22:08 I can tell you the airline steward was very impressed. 22:15 with what I shared with him. But it is so simple. 22:18 It's something directly from the Bible. 22:21 Whether you are white or black, red or yellow, male or female 22:26 ignorant or not. Whatever culture or race you are from, 22:30 no matter what you understand about the Bible. 22:33 Whether you know it all or whether you know nothing 22:36 this concept never changes. 22:39 How you treat other people, that is what matters more 22:43 than anything else. 22:45 Because God knows your response to Him is dependant 22:49 on your response to others. 22:51 I'm going to share and close with a testimony 22:55 from my own life. 22:56 I love my family 23:01 more than anything 23:02 else on this earth. 23:03 But sometimes families 23:05 have problems. I can tell you that my sister 23:10 is probably the most precious member of my family to me. 23:14 She's the youngest. She's the only girl. 23:18 When she was just 19, she had a massive bleed in her brain 23:23 from something called an AVM. 23:26 They called me from school 23:29 They asked me are you Tim Riesenberger? I said, "Yes. " 23:33 "Is your sister Diana Riesenberger?" 23:35 I said, "yes... " "I have some bad news for you. " 23:40 "She has had a massive bleed in her brain... 23:43 "she is in critical condition. Can you come be with her?" 23:48 I was on the other side of the country. 23:49 She was in the northwest. I was on the east coast. 23:53 I shot out there as soon as I could. 23:57 My sister was so serious that at one point she could not move 24:02 The right side of her body. She was paralyzed. 24:07 Can you imagine as a teenager not being able to move? 24:11 She went to one of the best places to be treated. 24:17 They did all that they could to try to shrink 24:20 this malformation in her head. 24:22 And then finally to take it out. 24:25 But they failed. They were not able to get it out of her head. 24:28 So they had to resort to a radiation called Gamma Knife. 24:33 The problem with this is that it takes 2 to 5 years to work. 24:40 And I said, "What's going to happen during that time?" 24:43 They said unfortunately she has a 10 percent chance 24:47 of bleeding again, and that chance will multiply 24:51 every single year. 24:54 I of course was very worried. And I immediately moved 24:58 to the Pacific Northwest. 24:59 I lived with my sister. I stayed with her. 25:03 I did everything I could to support her. 25:06 Because I didn't know if tomorrow was going to be 25:11 her last day. Well thank God she ended up being cured. 25:16 She ended up being healed. 25:18 But unfortunately some very hard times came upon her 25:22 during this moment. 25:24 You see because when she had this bleeding in her brain 25:28 she got into some arguments with my parents. 25:32 My parents loving though as they were did not understand 25:36 the seriousness of her condition. 25:39 And at one point they got into such a bad argument 25:43 that my parents said, "Look, you are on your own. " 25:46 And I reasoned with them. I said, "Look, she is 19 25:50 she's 20 she's a college student. 25:53 She cannot get a job to support an insurance payment. 25:58 And if she loses that insurance no one will touch 26:01 her with a 10 foot pole. " We calculated the amount of money 26:06 that would have been paid for my sisters treatment 26:09 if it was all out of pocket. It was over $1 million! 26:12 I wasn't making very much money I had just graduated from school 26:17 and so I did the best I could to try to help my sister. 26:22 I told her, "Look, sis. We're going to get you through college 26:26 we're going to get you through this thing in your head 26:28 and you're gonna be alright. " 26:29 I paid for her insurance, I paid for her tuition. 26:33 I paid for her housing, I did what I could. 26:36 to keep her alive because I didn't know how much longer 26:40 I would have her. 26:41 My sister was not a Christian at that time. 26:48 She was an atheist. 26:49 Whenever I would even pray over my meals 26:52 I would invite her to pray and she'd say, 26:53 "Well Tim, that's ok for you, but not for me. " 26:57 But something changed during those years. 27:01 And eventually my sister called me seemingly out of the blue. 27:06 She said, "Tim, can you teach me to study the Bible and to pray?" 27:13 I said, "Of course! Sure I will. I'll be right over. " 27:16 And I went over and we prayed. 27:19 I taught her how to give her heart to Jesus and she did. 27:23 All of her depression, all of her anxiety 27:27 all of her problems seemed to melt away 27:30 when she gave her heart to Jesus 27:31 But the thing that was important to me was, 'Why. ' 27:34 I said, "Diana what turned you around?" 27:37 I don't understand and she said, "Tim don't you see 27:40 I saw God, I knew about Him through you. 27:45 The way you treated me 27:47 was how I saw God would love me as well. " 27:50 That is the most important question in our lives 27:54 and in the judgment. |
Revised 2014-12-17