Failing to follow sound strategy can lead to the utter demise of a business. Might we be in danger of lacking sound strategy when going about our Father’s business in these latter days?

ASI 2013: It's Time... To Be About Our Father's Business

<p>Failing to follow sound strategy can lead to the utter demise of a business. Might we be in danger of lacking sound strategy when going about our Father’s business in these latter days?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Frank Fournier

ASI 2013 Plenary Sessions

Look a Little Higher

Ty Gibson

The Power

Grace Daley

Blessed Beyond Basketball

ASI Members in Action

The Passion

Pavel Goia

Love in Action

Justin Kim

To Jesus by Night

The Prophecy

Mark Finley

Ted N.C. Wilson

Confession and Repentance: The Conditions of Revival

C.D. Brooks

The Enablers

ASI Presents - Panel on End-Time Events

Zeno Charles-Marcel

Our Father’s Business: Profits or Prophets?


Good evening. God is good, isn't he? Amen. You know, this week we have been enjoying quite a bit of action. We have had inspiring talks.

We have had informative seminars. We have had help and motivation. And we have had preaching all day long. God is good. Now I have been blessed and I hope that you have been too, but God isn't finished with us yet.

There's still something else that he has in store for us and I am privileged to be the spokesperson this evening. Our theme has been, as you can see, it's time to be about our Father's business. I would like to explore for the next few minutes what the Lord has laid on my heart. I'll focus on the business of our father's business. And in that, I will talk about 4 things.

Who we are and whose we are, what business we're actually in, how we define success in that business, and what we are actually asked to do. I'd like to pray and invite you to bow your heads with me. Father in heaven, we come before you this evening and ask that 1 more time that your Holy Spirit will take possession of this auditorium, that you will guide our thoughts, you will guide my words, that they will not be mine any longer, but be yours. And I pray that you will change our thoughts where we need changing, and bolster our courage where we need to be bolstered, so that we can participate in this great work and hasten your coming, which will be soon, Lord Jesus. Amen.

You know, if you don't know where you're going, any road you take will get you there. So it's said, but it's actually a paraphrase from a well-known story, Alice in Wonderland, and it goes like this. Alice is supposed to be going along and she meets a Cheshire cat and she says, would you tell me please which way I ought to go from here? And the cat responds, well that depends a good deal on where you want to go. So she says, I don't mind, I don't care, anywhere.

Then, says the cat, it doesn't matter which way you go. So long as I get somewhere, Alice said. And he says, oh, you're sure to do that if only you walk long enough. Well, I believe that we have been walking for a long time. Amen?

The question is, have we been the most productive in that walk? We learned last night from Pastor Kim about Nicodemus and his journey from nighttime to daytime, from obscurity to the light. We were challenged to hurry up and to get ourselves by God's grace into the daylight too. This morning we heard through Pastor C.D. Brooks, that God had a plan from the beginning, from the foundation of the world to save humanity, and that God provided everything that was needed at the right time along that path.

He's still in that business today. He has a plan and even today he's working his plan. Now we have some inspired counsel given in the book Education all the way back in 1903. Success in any line demands a definite aim. He who would achieve true success in life must keep steadily in view the aim worthy of his endeavor.

We should take that to heart. God has kept his aim in view, but I'm afraid that not always we, and I speak including myself, not always have we done our part to surrendering and letting him do his work through us. Now, this is pretty unfortunate, but God still has a plan and he still has a work for each of us to do as we participate with him in this plan. Now, the first thing that I believe we ought to look at strategically is to understand who we are in this grand plan. And to do that I want to look at a few people in the Bible who didn't realize who they were in this plan.

The first 1 I would like to draw to your attention is Balaam. Now you know Balak, who was the king of Moab, and you can find this in Numbers 22, he became alarmed at what was going on and he sent some of his emissaries to Balaam, who was described as a prophet. Balaam sends word back to Balak to tell him that he can't come and curse Israel. But you know the rest of the story. Even though God had told him that he shouldn't go, Balaam persisted.

He didn't remember who he was. He didn't keep steadfast to his plan in the plan. And the result was he betrayed God. Now Cain, the firstborn of Adam and Eve. He didn't realize who he was either.

He didn't realize that he would have had a part in this great plan of salvation himself. And so he asked a rhetorical question when God asked him about his brother. He asked, am I my brother's keeper? Now that is not a rhetorical question, that is a real question because you see the answer to that is an affirmative yes. We are our brother's keepers.

Cain didn't know who he is, who he was. King Saul, he often forgot who he was and this led him down a path that eventually, instead of seeking God, he sought the witch at Endor. Saul didn't know who he was. But I'm very glad that the record is open and we can see other examples of people who did remember, they did know who they were in this plan. The first 1 that comes to mind is Daniel.

He understood clearly who he was. He was willing to go against the authorities in order to pray to his God, our God. We know that got him into trouble and God delivered him. And then we have Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego who were not careful to talk to the king. Now in those days you know what kings did, but they defied the king because they were serving another king.

Amen? They knew who they were. But these are glamorous people that we read about in the Bible. There are some who are not so glamorous. The little maid, who was there with Naaman's wife, and she was a slave, taken into captivity against her own will, but yet she knew who she was.

And she helped her slave master. She knew who she was. And of course the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her own tears and dried his feet with her hair. We're told that anywhere and everywhere that the gospel is spoken that we should mention her and we're doing that tonight. She knew who she was and she knew that she needed the grace of God in order to continue on that journey that she was on.

So, who are we? We need to realize that we are sinners saved by grace. We are heirs to an adoption. We have become children of the living God. We must never, ever forget who we are.

Children of the living God. So as children, we are and should be interested in what is going on in our family, and especially we must be interested in dad and dad's business. You see, God's business is a family enterprise, a family business. The thing is though, our Customers are our distant relatives. That's who we serve too, but they don't know that we're related.

Now I have a colleague, a recent colleague, Linda. She is working on her family tree and she tells me that for the last 2 years she has been going through talking to different people, family members who she already knows, who then lead her to somebody else who was also a relative. And she's going through this and she has quite a compilation, she says, of this family tree. Now she has been meeting some people in the town where she lives who she knows are relatives but they don't know that she is. So she goes to the bank and she wants to do some transaction and lo and behold, you know, the cashier, the teller is a relative.

She knows that. She has it on the list. And The bank manager is also, but you know the bank manager doesn't know that the teller is related too to them. It's a fantastic story that she's telling and I'm just eager for her to finally disclose this to all these people that she's been finding out that she's related to. Well, you know, we are all related, brothers and sisters, right here.

And we have brothers and sisters who are out there, out of this auditorium. We have people who have been up and down the halls, visitors to this resort. They are members of God's family if they only understood. So we're in a family business. God, our dad, is the CEO.

But sometimes we don't understand what business dad is in and what this family business is all about. And if we don't understand our business, we might miss the point and we won't be able to complete what it is that dad has in mind for us. Now Professor Levitt at the Harvard Business School gives an example that I'd like to share with you this evening. He was a professor of great renown and he wrote many classical pieces about what it is to be in business and how to make business successful. He said that growth is a requirement for any business, and the tenant grow or die is a common way of looking at it.

God's business must grow or it will die, would be a translation of what he says. God wants to expand His kingdom. He gives the example of the railroads. And he said, you know, the railroads didn't stop growing because the need for passengers and freight transportation declined. Actually, he says that the need for these things actually grew.

The railroads are in trouble today, he said, not because that need was filled by others, such as cars, trucks, airplanes, and even telephones, but because it was not filled by the railroads themselves. You see, we oftentimes think about the things that people become interested in other than God, thinking that these things alone are the attraction, when in fact it's because we haven't engaged them in the attraction of God and godly things. Speaking about the railroads, he continues, they let others take customers away from them because they assumed themselves to be in the railroad business. But really, they were in the transportation business. So what business are we in?

He says the reason they defined their industry incorrectly was that they were railroad-oriented instead of transportation-oriented. They were product-oriented instead of customer-oriented. They were not following a greater plan. Now God's business is securing the universe, and he will shut the mouth of Satan by showing that there are people, human beings, you and me, who would rather die than offend Him. Amen?

People who are willing to defy the odds. People who are willing to stand for the right, though the heavens fall. You see, Job and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, Daniel, Joseph, They were all following another plan, and that plan is the plan of Jesus. They wanted to be like Jesus, and they were like Jesus. God wants us to love Him and to love others more than we love even ourselves.

God wins through love and compassion through self-sacrifice, through a compassion that requires self-control and denying ourselves. So if we can define the business, we are in a win-through, self-sacrificing love and compassion with self-control business. That's our business. That's our Father's business. By these means, the kingdom of God is expanded, by these means we grow.

So the next thing is how we define success. Simply this way. If you turn in your Bibles with me please, to 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4, verses 6 and 7. This is Paul talking about his journey and coming to the end of his journey, how he can count his success.

He says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, " that's verse 7. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. In the future, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only me, " what else does he say, but also to all who have loved his appearing.

This is how we count our personal success. This is how God counts our success. The growth of our dad's business is not about profits with an F, financial profits. It is not about gain profits. Even though it is profitable for the kingdom, the currency is people.

The profit for God is a taking back of what was lost. Of what was lost. Each person then God sees as being a potential candidate to have the testimony of Jesus, that we will love not our lives, even unto death. Now we're all familiar with that great text, John 3.16. God is in this business because He loves the world.

Can you repeat it with me? For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. You see, this is what God wants. This is how He will count success. But you know, while many people memorize John 3.16, many people don't memorize 1 John 3.16.

And if you will turn in your Bibles with me, please, or if you have it on electric medium, you can look. 1 John 3.16. The text that I have memorized is this, this is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. Isn't that a wonderful text?

This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. But the text doesn't stop there. It goes on. It goes on.

It says, so we therefore ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This is what love is. So here we are, at the close of the ASI convention. And we need to know what ought we to do. How can we be successful in our dad's business today?

How can we share God in the marketplace, which is where people, regular people meet and congregate every day. I have been doing some reading about people who are considered by the world to be great. And in an unlikely place, I found a great person by the world standards. His name is Wayne Gretzky. Now, if you are not a hockey fan, and I'm not, you may not know about Wayne Gretzky.

But Wayne Gretzky is supposed to be the all-time number 1 hockey player ever, ice hockey, ever. Now, he has ascribed this particular quote. He said, a good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. I skate where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we have been given so much counsel through Daniel, through Revelation, through Ezekiel, through a great controversy. We've been given so much counsel. We know to a large extent where the puck is going to be. We need to be skating to where the puck is going to be. And that means we have to take seriously what we have before us today.

In Luke 24, 25 to 27, Christ, in talking to His friends on the road to Emmaus, He said, oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. You see, the issue may not be financial profits with an F, but God's profits with a PH. We should not be fools and slow to believe what the prophets have spoken. So what have they said? They have said through Daniel and Revelation that We are living at the end of time.

Do you believe that? The time is short. The clock is ticking. Look at that representation up there. It's close to the midnight hour.

We can't be doing business as usual as the world counts business. We have to be about our dad's business because we are children and this is a family business. We've been bought with a price, Christ's own life, bought that we may return to God His own in faithful service. We have no time to give our energies and talents to worldly enterprises. No time for that.

Shall we become absorbed in serving the world, serving ourselves, and lose eternal life, and lose heavenly bliss, and lose those that are around us who are depending on us. I pray not. We cannot afford to do this. Let every talent that we have be employed in the work of God. Amen?

Amen. We don't have time to enter into business enterprises with unbelievers. They have a different agenda. Now we can work along with them and we can help them, but we should not, in any special sense, Fall under their agenda. Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and lightbearers.

To us has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. How dare we confederate with those who will change our minds and change our focus? We have been given a work of the most solemn importance, the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels' messages. And that proclamation is not just by voice, it needs to be indeed in action, not just by voice. There is no other work so great of importance.

We are to allow nothing to absorb our attention other than this. The most solemn truths we're told ever entrusted to human beings have been entrusted to those who are to proclaim God to the world. Every enterprise that we're involved in, everyone, is a means of evangelism. To everyone who becomes a partaker of God's grace, the Lord appoints to work not just for ourselves, but to work for others. Individually, we are to stand in our lot and place.

And when there is a need, we say, here I am, Lord, send me. Now, we've heard wonderful testimonies of others who are doing things and we sit and we say, amen, but we're not to enjoy that vicariously. God wants us to have an authentic experience ourselves. Whether we work for ourselves or we work in an enterprise, and many will work for others who may not be Christian, but in the marketplace, we need to be very clear who our boss really is. We have a Redeemer, and He's counting on us to finish the work.

We are to use all of our powers in the service of God. If what we preach on Sabbaths have any meaning, we need to understand the time in which we live. And we are to set in operation every agency that can be employed in doing missionary work for Christ. End of story. The great aim of those who profess to believe the third angel's message should be to bring all their powers into active service in the cause of God.

We are to make a business of serving God. If we don't read the Bible and we don't understand who we are and we don't understand what the Word says, then we need to start doing that now. When we read the Bible and we understand what the Word says, there will be a hundred more people in God's work where right now there's only 1. It doesn't matter what profession we have. It doesn't matter who we are in our civilian life.

We are part of the family of God, part of the children of God. This morning, there was quite a donation that was made. But now is our time to labor for the salvation of our fellow men like we have never done before. There are some who think that to give money to the cause of Christ, that this is all that they can do. But I tell you, it is not all that we can do.

Personal service, personal service, giving of ourselves, our time and our talent. This is what he wants. Now, God has kept his aim constantly in view. His people beginning with his son is the object of his great affection. He is calling us tonight Not to end the experience of ASI, but to begin a new experience.

Maybe, just maybe, we won't have an ASI next year. Even so. Come Lord Jesus. Of God. Or if you would like to listen to more free online sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org.

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Series

ASI 2013 Plenary Sessions

Our Father’s Business: Profits or Prophets?

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Look a Little Higher

The Power

Blessed Beyond Basketball

ASI Members in Action

The Passion

Love in Action

To Jesus by Night

The Prophecy

Confession and Repentance: The Conditions of Revival

The Enablers

ASI Presents - Panel on End-Time Events

Our Father’s Business: Profits or Prophets?

Sound Doctrine