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Series Code: TDYL
Program Code: TDYL220015A
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00:05 I want to spend my life mending broken people. 00:13 I want to spend my life removing pain. 00:26 Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts 00:36 I want to spend my life mending broken people 00:47 I want to spend my life mending broken people. 00:57 ♪ ♪ 01:07 Hello and welcome to another Thursday Night Live. We're so 01:10 glad you've joined us this evening. You know we look 01:12 forward to spending these two 01:14 hours with you each week. Why? Because you're part of our 01:17 family. I tell you, what a blessing to be joining you maybe 01:19 in your living, or maybe you're watching on your cell phone. 01:22 Hopefully not driving in the car right? Get pulled over or listen on 01:26 the radio. What a blessing to be alive at this moment in earth's 01:30 history, right? There's so much going on in the world but we 01:34 don't have anything to worry about, right? Because we stand 01:36 on the word of God. I just want to say thank you for your 01:40 prayers and financial support of this ministry, your ministry, 01:43 the ministry of 3ABN as there's so much going on in the world, 01:46 as I just mentioned, 3ABN is broadcasting to the entire world 01:51 and even now there are people that are tuning into 3ABN and 01:54 finding truth. So thank you so much for your support of the 01:57 ministry. In tonight's program, I am so excited. I know you are 02:01 too. We've been looking forward to this, haven't we? 02:03 We have indeed. You know sometimes on the Thursday Night 02:05 Live we feature Bible topics, sure, sometimes we feature 02:07 ministries. Tonight we're featuring an incredible couple 02:12 who are leaders in the Seventh- day Adventist Church. Elder Ted 02:17 Wilson is the president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and 02:21 his wife Nancy. I've got to look up your title here because it's 02:25 kind of official. You are the protocol specialist and we'll 02:29 get in just a moment and figure out what you do. We are 3ABN, 02:34 we're so grateful for your leadership in the church, for 02:38 the partnership and the support that you show to supporting 02:41 ministries like 3ABN and it is an incredible privilege for us 02:46 to have you here tonight. Amen. 02:48 Thank you so much. It's just a great privilege to be with all 02:51 of you. And we're looking 02:53 forward to talking about what 02:56 God is doing in the church and I 02:58 think it's just amazing because 03:00 we are coming to the end of time 03:02 and we praise God for the opportunity of serving Him. 03:05 And as we come around the table, family, Mr. Danny Shelton and 03:10 Dr. Yvonne Shelton. Always glad to be here with you and so 03:14 grateful for you both and what you bring to the ministry here. 03:17 Oh we're blessed and we're blessed to be here and we're 03:20 blessed to be here and thank you so much for coming here. I told 03:23 him a little earlier I thought 03:25 it was interesting. We have some 03:27 Catholic friends and last night 03:31 we went out to eat with them and 03:32 they said Oh we bet you're so excited that your Adventist pope 03:37 is going to be here in town. And I said We don't call him the 03:43 pope and you know he's human like the rest of us. But you 03:46 know he's a great leader and we're so glad that Elder Wilson 03:51 is here, and Nancy, that you both are here. And so thank you 03:54 for the support. And it's been a great working relationship you 03:58 know with 3ABN and with you all and it's a privilege for us to 04:02 be here in these closing moments as you said, of earth's history. 04:06 And, I want to say this: God is in charge of what happens but 04:12 sometimes He gives us choices and He's a good God so we can 04:16 choose where we want to go and I'm thankful that as a church 04:21 that we chose some years ago Elder Ted Wilson to be our 04:26 leader because, Elder Wilson, I'll say it to you and I've said 04:29 it publicly and to our viewers around the world, God has you 04:34 here exactly for the moment and the time in history that He 04:38 needs you there and in my humble opinion the reason both of you 04:42 are there is because you are straight down the line. 04:45 You're not going to 04:46 the left, you're not to the right. You bring balance to the 04:49 Adventist Church and a day and age in the 21st century no 04:53 matter what church you are or what group you are you're going 04:56 have people when you have 25 million or whatever people 04:59 you're going to have some people going way over here and you're 05:01 going to have some people over here. (Very true) But you all 05:05 represent such balance and I have no idea where we would be 05:09 as a church with all the things that are coming in from the 05:13 world without you being so solid and being firm. So I want to say 05:19 thank you so much for both of you for what you do for the 05:22 cause of God, how you stick to the Bible, how you stick to, I 05:27 don't want to say Adventist principles, they're Bible 05:29 principles that we just espouse as Seventh-day Adventists. But 05:33 you keep us there, so thank you and it's my hope and prayer that 05:36 God will continue to allow you to lead us as we need a leader 05:42 for these last moments of earth's history and we're happy 05:44 to follow. 05:46 Well we just praise God and give Him all the glory and we lean 05:49 a lot on Him. What else can we 05:51 do? And when you lean on Him and 05:55 on His word and on our precious messages of instruction in the 06:00 Spirit of Prophecy, how can you go wrong? You just learn to lean 06:07 on the Lord. So thank you for your encouraging words. We just 06:10 praise God. 06:11 Well we want to encourage our viewers to pray for you and 06:14 Nancy. Because we can only imagine, those of us here 06:18 that's been in 06:20 leadership in our, we'll say little ministry, compared to 06:22 worldwide ministry and sometimes the pressure that's 06:26 on now mostly on their shoulders not as much on ours, but... 06:31 We have big shoes to fill. 06:34 But you know for you from around the world, and so we're praying 06:40 physical, spiritually, mentally for you, all, and we want our 06:44 viewers to do that and before we close this program today it'd be 06:49 nice to have formal prayer with you all because right now if 06:52 anybody needs this, you know, that I believe because the 06:57 enemy wants to see those on the front line, he wants to see you 07:01 you out of the way or if he can't get you by flattery he'll 07:05 try to get you to go one way or the other by flattery and if he 07:08 doesn't get you by flattery... And you'll know I'm talking from 07:11 experience... If he doesn't get you by flattery then he's going 07:14 to start getting ugly and then he's going to start slander and 07:18 it's going to go and so you have to be in the mindset which 07:21 you've been, is you know what, we're just going to trust the 07:23 Lord, I'm not going to worry, please this side, I'm not going 07:26 to please this group. I'm just going to do what the Lord's 07:29 called us to do and that's to get the undiluted three angels 07:31 messages into all the world and so we have sent God's anointing 07:37 on both of your lives. And so we want to ask our viewers to pray 07:42 also, every day, put you guys on the prayer list. 07:46 Amen, thank you. 07:47 The best gift ever, those prayers. 07:50 Prayer is powerful. 07:51 It is. Absolutely. It is. 07:53 You know appreciate your belief in the word of God, you know, 07:57 and your stance on the word of God, because in it is truth 08:00 And I think back to when you were first elected as the 08:03 General Conference President of Seventh-day Adventists, I 08:05 believe it was in 2010. And you came right across, 3ABN had 08:08 a little set close to the GC session that was going on, 08:12 you came across I think the little road there 08:13 and we had a set up on the hill there...You know, your 08:17 support as Jill mentioned, Mr. Danny's mentioned, all of us, 08:20 supporting ministries of the Seventh-day Adventist Church 08:22 has meant so much because we're in this thing together, to 08:25 spread the gospel to a lost and dying world. So thank you so 08:28 much. Thank you also for your interest in people. You know 08:32 your genuineness just comes through. We have a little clip 08:36 we want to just play right now. It has no audio, but just 08:38 earlier today you and your dear wife took some time out of your 08:41 busy schedule to meet with the staff here at 3ABN and you gave 08:46 some words of encouragement and prayed for the ministry of 3ABN. 08:51 But, again, thank you for your interest in people and your care 08:56 for others. Anyway what a blessing. Yeah, what a blessing 08:59 to have you all here and I know the employees are also... 09:02 You know it's encouraging to have leadership being there. 09:06 What an incredible blessing. 09:07 I was going to say there are some church leaders, I'm not 09:15 talking about our church specifically, but there are some 09:18 church leaders that seem so unapproachable. You know, you 09:21 just can't talk to them. They don't...There's this wall around 09:24 them. But we know that Jesus 09:26 didn't operate like that and we 09:30 see that you are welcoming and 09:32 kind and approachable and so we 09:35 really appreciate that because that's how the Lord Jesus would 09:40 be. So we just appreciate, you know, your accessibility and the 09:46 way you carry yourselves, both of you. We love you. 09:50 Tonight we're going to talk about what God is doing in this 09:58 great church that we're part of. We're going to go 10:00 to the Philippines and talk 10:02 about Total Member Involvement, the upcoming General Conference 10:07 session and how COVID has 10:09 impacted this church and how 10:11 evangelism and the three angels 10:13 messages is still going forward so we have a full program 10:17 tonight. But before we jump into that, let's find out just a 10:20 little bit about you as people. Tell us about your children, 10:23 grandchildren and your family. 10:26 Well we have three daughters and now we have three sons. We have, 10:37 I still want to say we have 11 10:38 grandchildren, but one is 10:40 sleeping until Jesus comes. 10:41 Hmm. Wow, what a loss. 10:43 And, it was, it was, but we have 10:46 so much hope and we will see him 10:50 soon. But we have five grandsons and five granddaughters and 10:58 thankfully they love the Lord. They are precious and we are 11:06 very, very thankful for such a strong supportive family. They 11:11 just live too far away. 11:12 Where do they all live, what states do they live in? 11:15 Our youngest daughter lives, and her family, in Spokane, 11:19 Washington. Our middle daughter is in North Carolina, western 11:22 North Carolina and our eldest daughter lives in Michigan. He 11:29 works at the conference office there. He's a pastor, but now... 11:33 Center of the country. Indistinct chatter and laughter. 11:35 At least they're on the same continent. 11:37 You know we try to plan, we try to plan, to get together at 11:43 least two times a year. 11:45 All of us together. 11:47 And it's quite a crowd when we get together. Eighteen of us. 11:52 There were 19 of us and little James is sleeping till the Lord 11:56 comes, but 18 of us and let me tell you, it is quite an event. 12:02 Because these 10 grandchildren, they are so creative, so 12:07 energized. I mean, and we live kind of in a country setting and 12:11 lots of woods and all that kind of thing (and the river). And 12:17 these little ones well they're getting bigger now. And they are 12:20 very active and they want to borrow my tools and what have 12:24 you and they go out in the woods They recently created a whole 12:28 village. I mean, little houses and gardens and pathways and 12:34 just an amazing ingenuity that they have. So whenever they're 12:42 together it's never a dull moment. 12:44 I call it chaotic bliss. (Laughter) 12:49 That's a mother and a grandmother. 12:51 Yes, yes. 12:53 We praise God that our three precious daughters are so close 12:58 to the Lord. All the families of course. Our sons-in-law and 13:03 they are part of the Seventh- day Adventist Church and we 13:06 praise God. That's one of the greatest gifts that God can give 13:10 and we stay close to them and you know we contact them, talk 13:16 with them, pray with them, encourage them and they 13:21 encourage us. So families are so important. During this 13:24 pandemic that has really been a challenge and we'll get into the 13:29 pandemic here in a little bit and all what God is doing but 13:32 it's so important to stay connected and to encourage each 13:37 other. But anyway. 13:39 Before we get into the outline and the music for this evening 13:42 there may be someone that's watching tonight saying the 13:44 Seventh-day Adventist Church, the GC President; what does that 13:47 mean, what do you do? How many members actually are there in 13:49 the Seventh-day Adventist Church Maybe just give us a real quick 13:52 synopsis. 13:53 The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a protestant church. It is a 13:57 a church that came out of the 13:58 Millerite movement in the early 14:04 19th century. We believe that it 14:06 follows the beautiful principle 14:09 of Revelation 12 and verse 17. And the dragon was enraged with 14:17 the woman and he went to make war with the rest, or the 14:20 remnant, of her offspring who, and here are the characteristics 14:24 that are so important. Those who keep the commandments of God 14:28 all 10 of them, not through our own power but by complete 14:33 connection with heaven and leaning on Him and 2) have the 14:39 testimony of Jesus Christ. So these beautiful characteristics 14:45 we think identify God's last day church and the Seventh-day 14:51 Adventist church, the name implies we know where we're from 14:55 Creation, God created us, created the seventh-day Sabbath 14:59 as a memorial and Adventist, we know where we're going by God's 15:05 grace. Jesus is coming, the advent, the second advent. He 15:09 came once. This is the second advent, the second coming. So we 15:13 have about almost 22 million members around the world in over 15:18 200 countries. Many languages that our literature is printed 15:23 in and even more, now that are being developed. We have many 15:28 hospitals and clinics. We have many educational institutions. 15:36 In fact, the Seventh-day Adventist Church runs the 15:38 largest protestant educational system worldwide. We praise God 15:44 for that. You know, it's just His blessing. And so many other 15:50 aspects of God's work. But you know what do I do. Well, I try 15:57 to assist wherever I can. Let me put it that way. But we have a 16:01 structure, a beautiful structure that God has given, you know. 16:06 Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses gave great counsel about 16:09 how to operate all these masses of people, the children of 16:14 Israel. You know, have captains over this many and this many and 16:18 this many and that's kind of the way the church functions. So we 16:22 have a world church that has a general conference with those 16:27 who are working to help drive mission. That's our whole 16:32 purpose. It's not bureaucracy, it's not just some kind of you 16:36 know administrative function. It's focused on mission and upon 16:42 what God has entrusted to us to proclaim those three angels' 16:46 messages which we'll get into further in the program. And so 16:52 everything we do has this focus 16:53 on mission. We have department 16:57 directors who are helping people all over the world with various 17:02 things to help them in ministry. 17:03 Then, of course, we have divisions of the General 17:07 Conference. We have 13 world divisions and we have two 17:11 attached unions. We also have an attached field but these 17:19 different entities-underneath divisions we have unions, 17:23 numbers of conferences underneath them and then local 17:28 churches and church members. Now somebody might say oh that's 17:32 just so top-heavy but you know what it really works. And it's 17:38 interesting, the places that are growing the most are finding 17:44 they need to keep dividing these administrative units because the 17:48 people are so active and they need so much help and support 17:51 that when they divide and they create additional units the 17:55 church keeps growing. That's in the areas where the church is 17:58 really growing. We have other places where the church is not 18:00 growing as rapidly, too much money, too much sophistication 18:06 too much of a nature of culture that comes into the church as 18:13 opposed to allowing God to really lead the church. But the 18:18 exciting thing is that everywhere the latter rain is 18:23 going to fall. And everywhere we're going to see truehearted 18:29 people grab hold of God's precious truth and we're going 18:33 see this message go like wild fire. Whether it's in secular 18:37 areas of the world that are so resistant or in places that seem 18:42 to be so open. The latter rain of the Holy Spirit's going to 18:46 fall and we're going to be amazed. We're just going to give 18:48 God the glory. But anyway I help to coordinate a lot of 18:54 activities administratively and chair different meetings, take a 19:00 lot of time which Nancy says you know she kind of gets tired of 19:02 all these meetings. Especially during the pandemic. So much has 19:07 been on Zoom and so I've kind of set up shop at our dining 19:11 room table. Nancy has to kind of be quiet in the kitchen because 19:16 our kitchen's very close to that You know, can I do something now 19:20 you know she's kind of... do you have it on mute, you know 19:23 Or if I turn the tap on or I'm banging, his 19:30 administrative assistant sometimes will text, 19:32 Nancy we hear you. So now that it's 19:41 spring and summer will come when he's on Zoom I can send him out 19:44 to the porch. 19:45 That way you still have your kitchen. 19:47 Then I can make noise in the house. 19:49 But before the pandemic we did lots of traveling, international 19:55 traveling. And that's probably one of the biggest parts of my 20:00 work and Nancy's work is to help our church members feel as 20:04 though they're one huge big family. Greg, you talk to the 20:10 group you know who's watching your family. And that's who we 20:13 are. We're brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. 20:16 I was just going to say, we're united in the Lord and that is 20:22 what unites us. Because he's a 20:26 very personal God and we're His children. We're his sons and 20:32 daughters. Yeah. 20:34 We talked about what Elder Wilson does. What do you do? 20:39 What is a protocol specialist? We referenced that at the very 20:42 beginning. But what does that mean? 20:43 She keeps me straight and on track. 20:45 Well that is a part of what I do and we have people come to the 20:56 General Conference from all around the world. And I'm an 21:00 American and it was traumatic for me to go to work there, to 21:06 be a part of that because it is so big and it's not like when 21:12 you're pastoring and you're you know working with a church and 21:17 we need to make people feel welcome because it's really hard 21:21 when you come from a different culture. You may not know the 21:25 language well. You know, the customs where do I, where do I 21:30 take my dry cleaning, where do I find this where do I you know... 21:35 Get a driver's license? 21:37 Well yeah. And I don't do as much of that as the gal who's 21:42 really in charge of that but I'm more into the hospitality and so 21:48 as often as we can, we had our first dinner this past week. 21:53 Because of COVID, we couldn't get together. They're ladies whose 22:01 husbands are traveling and working at the GC and some of 22:02 them work themselves at the GC. But I have them for dinner and 22:07 we sit around and we eat together. Sometimes, if we 22:14 have time we sing hymns, we pray together, but the women, some of 22:21 them are at home with some children. It gives them an out 22:25 and to get to know each other. Last week I told Ted, I mean we 22:30 hadn't done this in over two years...The chatter! And they 22:39 feel, you know, they begin to you know come together and feel 22:42 more and more like this is home and I'm comfortable here. It's 22:46 really fun to see them you know...It's very traumatizing 22:52 at first, but then they are more and more comfortable and we just 22:56 want them to feel like a family and to feel comfortable. So I do 23:03 that and we just... You know, I know where the markets are where 23:06 you can get fresh vegetables so I like to...You do things on a 23:11 practical level. But one thing that I do when we travel 23:16 together, they'll ask me to speak to the women. It's 23:21 interesting because I think 23:24 we pick things up that sometimes our husbands don't because the 23:29 women will talk to me and it helps Ted get a fuller view of 23:37 what's really going on I think in the church. So sometimes I'll 23:47 talk about children and the home And this was all very new to me 23:51 because I'm a physical therapist and I never...well I was Sabbath 23:54 School Superintendent but I didn't do public speaking. But I 23:58 just have to share from my own personal experience and my own 24:06 walk with the Lord and how it has affected my mothering and my 24:09 home and my supporting of Ted. You know because two are better 24:17 than one when we work together as a team. I think it makes a 24:23 huge difference. And I wish that everyone could work with 24:27 their husbands you know whether they're in a church or whether 24:31 they're traveling or in leadership you know doing 24:38 administration. I think I wish they all could work together 24:42 Indistinct conversation. 24:46 Nancy helps me with evangelistic meetings and we try to hold an 24:50 evangelistic meeting every year. In fact, she's held two on her 24:55 own. Indistinct chatter. 24:58 God has really blessed her. 24:59 I was more blessed than they were. It was a thrilling, 25:02 thrilling experience for me. 25:06 When we work together which we will do in just a few weeks in 25:09 Indianapolis. We're going to be holding evangelistic meetings. 25:13 She's going to be doing a number of the health talks and then I 25:17 preach the Bible message. You know, it's a great blessing to 25:23 be able to work together like that. So. 25:26 Indistinct conversation. That's the way God ordained it. 25:28 So many exciting things we're talking about, so many updates 25:32 happening in the Adventist church. All about evangelism, 25:35 mission as Elder Wilson mentioned. We're getting ready 25:38 to go to some music and Mr. Danny, I'm going to have you set 25:40 this up. But it comes from a wonderful project, the Give Him 25:42 Glory project and the title of the song is Lord I Worship You. 25:48 What I great song. It think it was a Lanny Wolfe song but just 25:54 an incredible song. That's really what it's all about in 25:57 Seventh-day Adventist Church. Fear God and give glory to Him 26:00 for the hour of His judgment is come. So it's not about people 26:04 say well do I do this or I can't do this or whatever and 26:09 Adventists, well why do you... Is this legalism? No, it's all 26:13 about worship. So when we understand who we are and we 26:16 understand who God is, we say you know what, there's no hope 26:20 for this world except through the Lord Jesus Christ and so we 26:24 fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is 26:28 come. So we did this project and so this is one of the songs and 26:32 I think my daughter Melody is singing the lead part on it. 26:35 And they did a great job. Let's go to that music right now 31:16 Amen, Wow! Thank you, Melody. What a powerful song. As you 31:20 mentioned, Mr. Danny, wow Lord I worship you. Of course what a 31:23 talent your daughter has too. I mean. Praise the Lord that 31:26 she's still using that talent for the Lord. What a blessing 31:28 she is here of course to the ministry of 3ABN. Always a 31:32 blessing. 31:34 Amen. Now we're jumping into the meat of the message you could 31:37 say, which is really talking 31:39 about what God is doing in and 31:41 through the Seventh-day 31:44 Church. And we have, of course, 31:45 Elder Ted Wilson who's the 31:48 president of the General Conference of Seventh-day 31:50 Adventists along with his beautiful wife Nancy. So let's 31:54 go to the Philippines first. Tell us what happened the end of 31:57 last year in the Philippines. 31:59 Well before I do that Jill and Greg and Yvonne and Danny, I 32:06 just want to express our deep 32:10 appreciation again for what 3ABN 32:13 is doing for the worldwide 32:16 mission of the church. And your constant effort to lift up the 32:23 word of God and to point people to last day events and the 32:29 prophetic understanding of God's word is phenomenal and we 32:34 appreciate so much that you are working in tandem, you're 32:38 working as colleagues with the rest of the church. With Hope 32:43 Channel, with other outreach activities, AWR - Adventist 32:48 World Radio, and many others. And that ASI, which is such a 32:54 wonderful organization is something which you very much 32:57 support and are part of. And we do support supporting ministries 33:02 Because supporting ministries support the church and its 33:06 mission. So I just wanted to be sure to underline that, that 33:09 wonderful aspect. (Thank you) And thank you for having us here 33:12 It seems impossible, it's been like two years since we've been 33:16 together. But the pandemic came in and that was you know a real 33:20 challenge and we're going to talk about that for a moment 33:23 here and what God is doing even during the pandemic. But you 33:28 know we were talking about, you were asking me what do I do as 33:31 the president of this organization and everything else 33:34 Well one of my jobs, I just want to tell you is to help Nancy 33:37 when we have those dinners and those people come, I am the 33:42 butler. I have a white shirt you know and a little black tie 33:48 Close your ears, Yvonne. 33:49 I'm just thinking Mr. Danny you know we might be taking on a 33:52 new responsibility. 33:54 And I go around and pour the water and take the dishes away 33:57 or clean them up and it's just fun the work together and you 34:01 know because you need to do everything you can to make 34:06 people feel comfortable. 34:07 So Mrs. Wilson, how does he do? Does he do okay? 34:10 He does really well. In fact sometimes, this last time we 34:16 women were at the table and we were just talking, talking, 34:18 and talking, talking and I heard 34:21 all these dishes being washed 34:23 in the kitchen and filled the 34:26 you know the dishwasher and 34:28 everything was clean when... But it's... 34:32 Well, Mr. Danny, we'll have to talk more often. (Laughter) 34:36 But you know I think one good thing that comes out is we need 34:41 to remember that Christ's example was servant leadership. 34:47 Exactly. And cultures see leadership differently and I 34:52 think it's important to demonstrate that position 34:57 doesn't make a person more important or better. It's just 35:00 that God can use them there and God needs people everywhere and 35:05 so we're all equal but we need to be servants and demonstrate 35:11 what that means. So I have a maid whenever I do this. 35:17 (Laughter) I think it just helps people feel more comfortable, 35:20 helps us feel like a family because so many people today are 35:25 disconnected, they're afraid, they have no hope and this 35:30 pandemic has accelerated that. So that's why 3ABN and other 35:38 aspects of reaching out are so important during this period of 35:42 time. And you know the Bible text in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and 35:48 verse 7 is so important for us today because it says here, and 35:53 Paul was talking to Timothy trying to help him understand 35:55 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, and today with 36:03 the pandemic, with the tragic situation that's happening in 36:06 Ukraine, and we'll chat about that too before the program is 36:11 over, with so much chaotic activity around and natural 36:17 disasters and everything, people might say well you know that's 36:19 just normal, it just happens and all. No. Things are happening 36:25 because we're coming to the very end of time. But God hasn't 36:29 given us the spirit of fear, but what has He given to us? He's 36:36 given us the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. I 36:42 mean these are elements of victory in Christ and so He's 36:50 provided that for us. So the pandemic came. In fact, one of 36:54 the last trips that we even made before the pandemic really 36:59 blossomed was here to 3ABN. And then everything kind of went 37:03 blank you know. We've learned a lot from Zoom you know and the 37:10 electronic activity. We hold committees on that now and we're 37:13 going to save a lot of money in the future because of that. We 37:16 don't have to go everywhere, we don't have to do everything to 37:19 spend money. We can do things in an appropriate way and put the 37:24 money into mission. But I want to tell you something. During 37:29 this pandemic God has shown in such a dramatic way that nothing 37:35 doesn't matter what it is, pandemic or anything else, 37:41 nothing can stand in the way of the power of the gospel, the 37:46 everlasting gospel, and the three angel's messages of 37:50 Revelation 14. Nancy and I finally ventured out in October 37:57 of this last year. We went to a special meeting of our Euro-Asia 38:03 Division which was held in a particular country and then from 38:07 that country we went to the Philippines. We were headed to 38:12 the Philippines to also be part of their year-end meeting for 38:15 Southern Asia-Pacific Division as we call it, but also to 38:20 participate in evangelistic meetings called Earth's Final 38:27 Countdown that was organized and sponsored by Adventist World 38:33 Radio in conjunction with Hope Channel and it was done, well 38:40 this evangelistic meeting was done all throughout the 38:44 Philippines. We have three unions and many conferences and 38:47 missions in the Philippines. And so we participated in that, but 38:53 I want to focus on what happened on an island called Mindoro. 38:57 Because this is an amazing story and I'll try not to chew up too 39:00 much of the time here because it goes fast. Because this 39:04 shows us that God hasn't given us the spirit of fear but He's 39:09 given us power and love and a sound mind. Adventist World 39:16 Radio, AWR, was broadcasting messages on the island of 39:21 Mindoro and really they weren't too successful didn't seem to 39:26 be getting a lot of responses and then the local director of that 39:33 programming decided...Robert Dulai his name is...He decided 39:38 we're going to do something innovative. We're going to ask 39:41 the question of the day, and then ask people to respond. If 39:47 they respond correctly, we'll give them a special prize, you 39:50 know, a book or whatever it is. It was absolutely phenomenal. 39:55 The place just lit up. All kinds of interaction and people 40:01 wanting, you know, to give you the right answer and all this. 40:05 And little did they know during all of this rebels in the 40:12 mountains of Mindoro who had been fighting the government for 40:17 52 years, communist-inspired rebels who generation after 40:24 generation, fighting and fighting. 40:27 Over 40,000 people were killed during that time. 40:31 Exactly. And horrible things, horrible things that happened. 40:35 These rebels in the mountains were listening to Adventist 40:41 World Radio. They became convicted because that's exactly 40:47 what the Bible says, God gives us this heavenly power and 40:51 heavenly love and a heavenly sound mind. And their hearts 40:55 were melted. They contacted Robert Dulai the coordinator and 41:00 they wanted him to come up and talk with them. But he was a 41:04 little afraid you know but he went and then they began to talk 41:08 they began to study the word of God. It was explaining the truth 41:12 the Bible truth to them and the love of Jesus and that hope for 41:16 a converted heart (and forgiveness) and forgiveness 41:20 And these people, and Nancy knows the story well too, you 41:24 chip in whenever you need to Nance. But the bottom line was 41:30 that these rebels decided to surrender, surrender to Jesus 41:40 and to surrender to the Philippino government. And so 41:44 Robert Dulai then had to be the go-between worked with the 41:49 government and all of this. The government was so overjoyed. 41:55 They had tried bribery, they had tried force, they had tried 41:59 everything... 42:00 And even offered them land if they would stop the fighting. 42:02 Nothing worked except the powerful word of God. And so 42:08 these hearts were melted and the rebels came, turned in their 42:14 weapons. The government gave them amnesty, which was unheard 42:20 of...these were assassins...and they gave them amnesty and they 42:28 even had a special ceremony to provide them with papers and 42:31 whatnot to show this. And they were so converted that when 42:38 Nancy and I arrived they were being prepared for baptism. And 42:43 we held evangelistic meetings out in kind of semi jungle area. 42:48 And they had set up a nice set there with you know screen and 42:53 everything for our presentations but this was kind of basic 42:56 jungle setting in a way. And so here were all these plastic 43:01 white chairs out there and this was the first night we were 43:04 going to speak. And so I'm preaching away and then the rain 43:10 came (Oh) lightly at first, because this was outdoors. 43:14 It actually started I think towards the end of my...I had 43:17 the health talks first and it started sprinkling and I thought 43:23 oh no, no, we've just started. But one thing, I just have to 43:32 say this, one thing that I was so impressed because impressed 43:37 me, we had heard about the assassinations, the mass murders 43:42 the fighting and I looked out at all of these former rebels is 43:48 what they called them, FR... they, they... 43:50 In fact, they had a little sign where it said FR, former rebels, 43:56 this is where you sit. 43:57 And I looked at them and they were so engaged with what I was 44:01 saying. They were adults but they looked like naive children, 44:07 they had this purity, this eagerness to learn and there was 44:12 something almost naive. They were like, Oh tell me more, you 44:18 know and I thought, talk about a miracle, because you know when 44:23 you see a hardcore criminal you can see it in their face. You 44:26 didn't see any of that. They were just these beautiful people 44:31 just responding. And I thought this is what the Holy Spirit can 44:37 do. Total transformation. 44:39 How many of them were there? 44:41 There were probably about 500 to 600 or so who were seated there. 44:50 Who were baptized? 44:51 Actually, 700 were baptized a couple days later. But let me 44:58 back up just a moment. Because here I am now preaching and I 45:02 was preaching on Daniel 2, I love to preach that sermon on 45:06 the statue and everything you know. So here I'm preaching away 45:09 and the rain's coming and these are hardened former rebels. So 45:16 they're sitting there braving the rain and then it gets harder 45:21 rain and harder rain and you start seeing a few people drift 45:26 off and then they're going under tarps and little things around 45:30 and then more and more people are disappearing and the die 45:34 hards they got a plastic chair and put it over their head, you 45:37 know, they're sitting there. And then pretty soon there were only 45:42 about five or six of them left. And when you're preaching an 45:46 evangelistic series and your audience disappears you just 45:52 kind of wonder well what should I do? So you have to think 45:55 quickly and I said, no, I came here to preach. I'm just going 45:57 to keep preaching. So I kept preaching. Preached the whole 46:01 sermon to empty white chairs. But they were all listening 46:07 underneath these tarps, in the edges in the jungle area and 46:12 what have you and little places that had been set up you know 46:16 for our meetings and what have you. And at the end you know, I 46:22 thought well whatever, just preach the word. I heard the 46:27 next day these rebels, former rebels came to the army general 46:32 who had been assigned along with his detail to help facilitate 46:36 all of this transition from being former rebels to now being 46:40 productive citizens, and they came to this general and they 46:45 said, you know what, when it rains like that everything just 46:50 usually stops but they kept preaching. This must be an 46:55 important message for us. (Oh praise God) And Nancy she was 47:01 quite indignant also about this former rebel situation. She said 47:07 they should not be called former rebels. Paul was not called a 47:12 former murderer. You know in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 it says 47:18 In Christ, we are new creatures. And so it goes on to say in that 47:24 passage that we are called to the ministry of reconciliation 47:29 and so I told them, she was really pushing me, and so the 47:33 next night I told them you are not former rebels. You are now 47:39 new creatures in Jesus Christ. You are fully reconciled people. 47:44 And they took that, they got themselves together... 47:49 They clapped, yeah they clapped they did, they were so thrilled 47:51 and you could see in their faces they were new creatures. 47:55 So they got together and they came up with the new term for FR 48:01 not former rebels but fully reconciled (clapping) And then 48:09 on Sabbath, we had a baptism and it was my privilege to baptize 48:15 the former rebel general and Duane McKey, our president of 48:21 Adventist World Radio baptized his wife. And then we had about 48:26 700 people baptized that day. Wow! And when they were baptized 48:29 they then committed themselves to winning another soul for the 48:35 Lord before the end of the year. And what happened was just 48:41 because of COVID and everything else just a few days ago they 48:46 had a baptism for all the people that they had brought to the 48:50 Lord and Pastor McKey went over and a number from AWR and one 48:56 person brought about 50 people. 48:57 Fifty, wow! 49:00 Prepared you know. So I just want to tell you the Spirit of 49:04 God is alive and well all over the world including you know 49:09 what you're doing here at 3ABN. God is blessing enormously. Well 49:13 we could talk a lot more but time is running out. But it's 49:16 just so exciting. 49:18 That's incredible. We can do nothing against the gospel but 49:21 for it. So in spite of us the gospel is going to go forward. 49:24 His word will not return void so you were preaching to what 49:28 appeared to be white empty chairs, those people were still 49:32 listening. What was going through my mind, were you 49:36 covered where you were preaching or were you in the rain? 49:39 I was covered but the rain was kind of rather vertical... 49:44 We got wet but big deal. 49:48 Uh-huh, that's beautiful. What an incredible story. 49:51 Yeah. No, we're thrilled. 49:54 That was a thrilling experience and it's happening not only on 49:58 the island of Mindoro but other places in that part of the world 50:04 We have witnessed that. 50:06 But through this pandemic we have watched the church all over 50:09 the world use electronic means, social media, all kinds of other 50:15 ways, cell phone evangelism, all kinds of things and then also 50:19 people trying to, even though they were socially distanced, 50:23 be part of a truly productive practical application of 50:32 Christianity. And the church, we had total baptisms went down 50:38 during 2020 but the Lord is blessing in 2021, you know, 50:44 things are coming back. Now 2022 things are getting back. I think 50:50 people...and financially the Lord has blessed us enormously 50:54 in 2021, coming out of a very difficult year, the year before, 50:58 I think people are recognizing we're coming to the very end of 51:03 time. We need to be serious about our time, our talents, our 51:09 resources, everything. Because Jesus is coming soon. 51:12 It's an amazing testimony and story of what happened there in the 51:17 Philippines. I remember Elder Duane McKey came here for 51:20 Thursday Night Live and talked about that. But I believe you 51:23 had the opportunity to meet with the Philippine president. Is 51:26 that not correct? Tell us about that experience. 51:30 It was arranged for us to have a courtesy visit of maybe five 51:35 minutes and so we were prepared for that and went through all 51:39 kinds of tests and what have you you know. You had to be COVID 51:45 protected you know from all this business. Finally, we came and we 51:49 had quite a delegation to visit the president and he came in 51:56 and sat down and then we listened to him for a little bit 52:01 and he was sharing with us and he really identifies quite 52:06 closely with Seventh-day Adventists. He likes what 52:10 Adventists do. And I began to talk with him a little bit and 52:15 then I asked as I usually do when I meet dignitaries like 52:19 that; Can I read a little bit from the Bible to just encourage 52:24 you? And yeah, yeah, go ahead. And so I read to him and then I 52:29 began to explain the verse, the verse, and the various aspects 52:33 of it. And he was listening intently you know and everybody 52:37 was kind of I think amazed that I'm giving him a Bible study. 52:41 And so we kept talking about things and then I asked if I 52:45 could pray for him and for the country. Yes, yes, go ahead. 52:49 You know we had prayer. But what was supposed to be a five minute 52:54 courtesy call turned into a 37 minute opportunity to witness 53:02 to the president. And so we praise God for that. 53:04 Wonderful, wonderful! Was Ambassador Tejano there? 53:09 He was very much involved. He was helping to facilitate so 53:13 much. Praise God for his beautiful ability to take 53:18 care...We wouldn't even have gone to the Philippines or been 53:21 able to get in had it not been for Ambassador Tejano. 53:25 Absolutely. He's a great support for 3ABN too and he helped me to 53:31 meet President Gloria when she was there. We had an audience 53:36 there with him. The work that he 53:38 does, and I thought this was 53:40 amazing. She asked us for 53:43 breakfast. So we'd flown all these hours and didn't look good 53:48 but they said no she's waiting and she came out in a jog suit 53:51 and her hair was wet and she said, I'm sorry, I didn't have 53:54 time to clean up. So we sat down and I was sitting right next to 53:58 her and the ambassador was here and her husband and I said how 54:01 many of these are a different party. Why did you choose, may I 54:06 ask why you have Ambassador Tejano because he worked for the 54:12 other, and she said the reason we keep...And I said he's been 54:15 here for so many years through so many presidents. She said 54:18 this: The reason that each of us no matter which political party 54:22 that we choose Ambassador Tejano is we know that he is true to 54:27 his God. And if he's true to his God, he'll be honest with us. 54:32 He'll be true to us and so therefore president after 54:36 the president doesn't make any difference, they respect him 54:40 greatly and so what a blessing. And I just was imagining 54:44 and assuming that he was... 54:46 Very much a part of it. In fact, he'll be at the General 54:50 Conference session in St. Louis June 6-11, so you know you can 54:55 see him there and chat with him and he was a real blessing. 55:00 Yeah, yeah, we just sent how many books to the Philippines 55:04 through him. 55:05 Six hundred thousand to the Philippines and I think 300,000 55:08 to Papua New Guinea. 55:09 That is marvelous. Focus on truth. Wonderful. Absolutely. 55:13 Incredible times we're living in Dr. Yvonne look at you over there 55:18 and it's amazing, isn't it? To hear these stories what God is 55:21 doing even in the midst of COVID His truth, His work is still 55:24 going forward. 55:25 As I hear the stories you know I get so excited because you 55:27 just see God at work. You see 55:30 what He's doing in spite of 55:32 everything that's going on and what the devil means to suppress 55:37 God just opens up doors and like you know like He just reminds us 55:42 that He is God and that nothing can thwart His agenda. So I get 55:46 excited. That's a beautiful story. That's a beautiful story. 55:51 Praise God. Amen. 55:53 It was really a thrilling experience for us to witness 55:58 what God is doing. It was the closest thing I think to 56:01 Pentecost that I can imagine when you saw these people and 56:06 now with their enemies just embrace each other and their 56:13 friends and, yeah it... 56:15 So the Spirit, you said you know the scripture read have not the 56:19 the spirit of fear, well the gentleman and I forgot his name 56:22 that went to visit, he had to fight that himself. I mean 56:26 you're invited to go meet all these rebels, now you have to 56:29 overcome that and say no God's given me a spirit of peace, a 56:33 spirit of joy and so I'm sure that was very...Is this a set up 56:38 is this...it had been to your mind but look at the results. 56:41 Pastor Dulai. In fact, after all this activity basically 56:48 took place 56:50 there were about 11 or 12 rebels still in the mountains 56:55 holding out. And when they saw what happened they contacted 57:01 them and said there must be something 57:03 to this. Please come and talk to 57:05 us. So he was really fearful at that time and the army was 57:09 afraid for his life as well, but he went up there and he 57:15 explained things to them and now they are turning over their 57:20 weapons. It's a miracle. 57:21 Praise the Lord, it is a miracle 57:22 What an amazing story. This first hour has gone by in such a 57:26 hurry but we have a full second hour coming up with 57:30 miracle stories 57:31 of what God is doing in and through this great church 57:35 evangelism. God has not given us a spirit of fear. I want to 57:38 encourage you, you do not have to be afraid. Step out by faith 57:43 with Jesus. We'll be right back. 57:47 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2022-05-04