A Wild Boar in the Vineyard

was thatamazing let me take my mute off herethat was amazing I uh I don't want tostand up and preach after the musicwe've had today I feel like I'm shortchanging the congregation after thatmusic and the Beautiful rendition of theLord's Prayer uh what a blessing it'sbeen to just sit and listen to thePraises of God and don't you lookforward to that day so I'm trying to getthis thinging in my belt here don't youlook forward to the day when when allthings are made new and we're on thatsea of glass and we're United with thethe choirs of Heaven and the celestialchoirs are singing and my Joyful Noisewill be blended with your harmoniousnoise and we will have a wonderful timepraising our heavenly father so thankyou Brothers for that beautiful musicthank you for the beautiful rendition ofwhere's brother Nathan he's over therethank you brother um I was listening toAndrea belli on the way over heresinging The Lord's Prayer and when youstarted speaking I thought no no Ithought he was on the YouTube today nohe's in the church with usand uh it was absolutely beautiful thankyou so much for sharing that with us I'dlike to thank Pastor peroski for yourgracious invitation to come and speakback here again it's always a privilegeand a joy to come back here to uhElmhurst church and um I see I have myum my covid beard there up on the screenthere my girl says it looks like araccoon but um when she said that tomean she's a teenager I thought maybe Ishould take this thing off so anywayit's good to be back here with you alland uh to share in to share in the wordof God this is a religious libertySabbath and so we're going to have areligious liberty sermon and uh I'mgoing to the sermon today is um it's uhsome of you are aware that I preached asermon about five weeks ago at VillageChurch on religious libertySabbath uh that sermon has uh gonearound the world it's now in I don'tknow 10 or a dozen languages and um itjust keeps going and it's a sermon thatwill follow me in INF me for the rest ofmy life I might say and so this sermonhere is kind of extension of that um butI'm taking a slightly different tack I Ibelieve that uh we are living inmomentous times I grew up in England asPastor peroski said and we watched fromour side of the Berlin Wall as theBerlin Wall came down in 1989 notrealizing that we were watching historyin front of our eyes and what we areseeing today is is another historicmoment in in in world history we areseeing movements of various kinds in ourworld today uh men running to and frosome heart their hearts are failing themfor fear um but we know the story isAdventists and the good news is thatJesus is coming again and so we can singwith that hymn that Jesus is comingagain and we can lift up the trumpet andLoud let it ring because we know the endof the story and it is that Jesus iscoming again and so whatever elsehappens in this world we always need tokeep in our minds the fact that we knowthe end of the story and the end of thestory is good for the Saints of JesusChrist so I invite you to Bow your headswith me and we will open with a word ofprayer Heavenly Father we're Gatheringhere today on the Sabbath day in elmusLord I Thank you that this congregationis together Lord we've mostly made itthrough covid and uh we want to thankyou uh for every person sitting in thepews here today and for those who arewatching online uh father we thank youfor the gift of Life the promise ofeternal life and I thank you that youwalk with us day by day Lord As WeGather here today the freedom we have inthis nation we humbly ask that yourspirit will move Upon Our Hearts and ourminds in a powerful and a profound wayLord please speak through me uh pleasespeak for me May My Words Be from yourthrone of grace in jesus' name I prayamen so um yeah some uh as I was sayinga few minutes ago the this is by way ofintroduction and you may wonder why whata strange title for a seron I'm going toget to why the title is as it is in asecond but um about 5 weeks ago Ipreached the sermon called and appealsthe Adventist no nobility and thatsermon has generated a full range offeedback from all around the world umsome of it has been suff I'd rather notsee but that's that's as it is you can'tchange that and I would just say tothose who have written things like thatthat you know I I really bear you no illwill um I freely forgive because Jesuscommanded us to forgive and so um whenyou preach these days it seems that if Isay I like apples everybody who likesoranges jumps on your case I mean youalmost can say nothing these dayswithout you know people getting on yourcase about something and I can't believeyou don't like oranges and are youorange phobic or something no I justlike apples so these days if you preachalmost on anything you're going to getsome kind of response we're living insuch a polarized world but I would liketo share and this is the first time I'msharing since that sermon that uh when Ipreached that sermon I have been delugedwith a tidal wave of support fromAdventists in every corner of the globeum Adventist in Rwanda who are hiding inthe forests of Eastern Congo um for fearof what may come upon them Adventists inSouth Africa Adventists in Asia umAdventists in Latin America Adventistsparticularly in Canada Adventists inAustria and Germany there's been a tidalwave of support in fact my wife has beenwondering about my phone which I don'thave it with me uh it's been kind ofbuzzing non-stop for five weeks withcomplete strangers trying to reach outto me and say thank you for what yousaid there and we're praying for you soI want to start out by saying that um welive in a world where you may feel likeyou are forgotten or marginalized orlooked down on because of decisions thatyou make but you're not there is aworldwide movement of Adventists who arestill clinging to their conscience invarious matters and you're not on yourown uh that God has his 7,000 who haveyet who have not yet bowed the knee tobail hopefully never will bow the kneeto bail so the title why did I call myprevious sermon an appeal to the Germannobility well um I like reading historyas you know and in 1520 Martin Lutherwrote an appeal to the German people andhe called it an appeal to the Germannobility and this was an appeal to themto stand by the principles of thereformation and uh so what he said tothem wasthis let's see introduction structure ofthe sermon all right we'll get to whathe said in a second the appeal to thenobility June 23rd 1520 this is whatMartin Luther said he said quote theromanist that is the papal church haveraised three barriers against allReformation with the temp when thetemporal power has attacked them theyhave denied its Authority and assertedthat the spiritual power was Superior toit when anyone rebuked them out of thescripture they have answered that no onebut the pope was able to interpretscripture when they've been threatenedwith a council the reply has been no onebut the Sovereign pontiff has theauthority to invoke a council and sothis appeal by Martin Luther was anappeal to the German nobility and thepeople of Germany not to give up on theprinciples of the Reformation to standby the principles of the reformation andso the appeal went all across Germany itwas circulated widely it went viral Imean we we say things go viral thesedays in those days things were kind ofprinted by these printing presses likeGutenberg invented and the the hispamphlets were sent all the way throughGermany went all across Europe and theyhad a powerful influence upon the peoplethe German nation in particular wasrallied to the cause of Reform and tostand around Martin Luther MartinLuther's opponents in contrast burningwith a desire for Revenge because of the95 thesis and everything else that he'dwritten urged Pope Leo the 10th to takedecisive measures against Luther thepope agreed and it was decreed thatLuther's doctrines should be condemnedimmediately and out of hand 60 days weregranted to Luther and his adherenceafter which if they did not recant fromtheir teachings they were to be allexcommunicated and we think well that'snot such a bad deal but to beexcommunicated was the ultra ultimatesanction that the church could bringupon you you could be banned frompreaching you could have your um youryour your doctoral status withdrawn fromyou by the universities um you could beput under a ban you could be put undercensure but if you excommunicated itmeant that you could not participate inthe mass you could not attend church youcould not get married you could not beburied you you well you'd be buriedobviously but not you you wouldn't beburied in sacred ground you'd be buriedin like um common ground and you had nohope of eternal life so to beexcommunicated back then by the py was ahuge huge deal and people were terrifiedabout this and so Pope Leo the 10thissued a papal bull that is aproclamation it is technically called abull he issued a bull in June 1520 whichwas a global condemnation of that peskypreacher Martin Luther but due tovarious logistical factors it didn'tdidn't meet reach Martin Luther for afewmonths that P bull was entitled exerDomin which means arise O Lord and thatwas the title of the bull arise O Lordand then the the the Cardinals wrote TheBull for the pope and he added ahandwritten introduction and what hewrote was arise O Lord and judge thycause a wild boar has invaded your BVineyard hence the title of the sermontoday a wild boore in thevineyard as uh I'm also under Globalcondemnation some mightsay so the title and appeal to theAdventist nobility was chosen five weeksago to provide a Reformation contextbuilding on Luther's famous words thatyou see on the screen there that hespoke at the diet of woms and asAdventists and as Protestants we shouldknow these words famous words at the endof uh his his interview with the theCardinals um and with the the theassembled nobility of Germany watchinghim and the Holy Roman Emperor watchinga it was one of the finest um events ofthe Middle Ages we have had hundreds ofpeople watching in their medieval fineryand the the the uh the Reformation wason the line and Martin Luther was toldto recant recant recant or you're goingto be punished and his response at theend of this was this he says unless I amconvicted by scripture and plain reasonI do not accept the authority of popesand councils because they havecontradicted each other my conscience iscaptive to the whatmy conscience is captive to the word ofGod I cannot and I will not recantanything for to go against conscience isneither right nor safe so help me GodAmen some historians say he said here Istand I can do no other um it's notquite sure whether he actually said thatbut we certainly know he said this hereso help me God Amen so I want to dwellfor a few moments this morning on uh ourconscience and what exactly ourconscience is and how we as Adventistsunderstand our conscience to function uhI I've spoken in a few other occasionson biblically what is your consciencehow do you know you have a consciencewhat does it mean not to have a searedconscience how do you nurture yourconscience through your study of theword of God and so I'm not going toaddress that topic here today I want totalk about how we as Adventists came toour understanding of conscience throughthe flow of history and we're going topick it up again with Martin Luther andso we're going to come to the consciencethat is our spiritual Birthright asprotestso our conscience essentially is yourgod-given faculty by which the holyspirit gives you an awareness of themorality of given actions thoughts ordeeds but how did we come to thisconclusion well we're going to start outwith Martin Luther there's a statue ofhim then back from mid 1500s hisrevolutionary contribution to yourreligious freedom today was arguing thatyour relationship with God needs to befree from the intercession of theCatholic hierarchy that is you do notneed to go to a priest to to findforgiveness for your sins you do notneed to go to a priest to receive um toconfess your sins you do not need to goto a priest um to have the scripturesinterpreted to you you do not have to goto a priest in order to receive the giftof Salvation that God communicatesdirectly with you through yourconscience and through yourunderstanding of the Gospel he arguedthat any individual Guided by his or herconscience can communicate with God andboth seek and receive forgiveness forour sins and your sins and my sins andthe promise of Salvation with no needfor a priests to hear confession todeclare Absolution to determine Penanceor to pervert the Lord's Supper into themass and thus the conscience became inMartin Luther's thinking and from thenon in Protestant thinking the meetingplace between God andman that's where God connects with youmore than anywhere else is through yourconscience and Sanctified reason andChristians in Martin Luther's writingare to be guided by communication withGod through their conscience and throughtheir understanding of the Gospel Lutherchampioned freedom of conscience overmedieval Church law known as canon lawand Papal Supremacy and my sermon fiveweeks ago was essentially arguing thatmy conscience is not subject to thedeterminations of a distantcommittee which brings us to RogerWilliams now Roger Williams and by theway I put that slide in there um I'veread a lot of books in my life a libraryis a labor of love because for every 10B books you read you give away eight andyou keep two all right you read 10 booksand eight of them you kind of think okayI'm I don't I really don't want to readthat again there's not much use in thereso so you give it away um the bed slatsunder my bed from that go from sidewaysum they they broke a number of years agoso I now have piles of books under mybed holding up metal rods that hold mymattress up and so if a book is reallyterrible and it's a good hardback itgoes under my bed and it holds up themetal slats and every couple of years Ihave to replace them because the slapshave been kind of the slaps have gonethe metal rods gone down and kind of cutthrough the books and so um whensomebody says did you like the book Igave you I said yes it's right by my bednight and day but so a good library is abook that is uh for every 10 books youread you keep two and you give awayeight which are not worth havinghopefully they're not so um tattered youcan give them away as a Christmaspresent to somebody so anyway um I'vecome to the conclusion in my life thatif I had one book other than the Bibleand the great controversy and Desire ofAges it would be this book here here Istand a life of Martin Luther um I thinkevery Adventist should read this bookit's perhaps the most thrilling book onthe Reformation you will ever read it'swritten as a story it doesn't have drytheology in it uh the version I have hasthese beautiful 15th century wood Cutsin it carvings and so it's is reallykind of dated and you can get this forabout $15 on Amazon and but you havethese original wood cuts from Luthertime with German script on them and so Iwould encourage you if you've never readthis book to buy it this one was 60 thatwas obviously back in the day but um youcan get these things on Amazon here Istand by Roland bainton it is a bookthat I would recommend every Adventistto read I'd encourage you to you knowafter Sabbath to if you don't have oneget a copy because it is a thrillingread you realize how God worked throughMartin Luther and the early years of theReformation but this brings us to RWilliams cuz Roger Williams this guyhere born in 16003 shortly after MartinLuther's passing he was born in Englandnot in Germany and uh he was born into apolarized nation and we also live in apolarized Nation he was born into anation that was polarized between aProtestant Parliament and a king whoclaimed the divine right of kings torule uh King Charles I and he also hadCatholic leanings and the ProtestantParliament didn't trust the the shudoCatholic King that he wasn't going toimpose the Inquisition in England and sothey went to war and that was whereOliver Cromwell you've heard of OliverCromwell he led the ProtestantParliament The Roundheads as they werecalled against the Cavaliers who foughtfor King Charles well the the EnglishCivil War got underway in the 1640swhich ended with King Charles I firstlosing his head he was beheaded but uhRoger Williams He fled just before theCivil War and he came to um umMassachusetts colony in1631 now Roger Williams was a man aheadof his times and he was one of the mostinfluen itial thinkers in Americanhistory he rejected the concept thePuritans had of fusing their PuritanFaith with civil government he rejectedthat because he argued that we came frompersecution in England why do we come tothe Americas and start persecuting eachother all over again this doesn't makesense if we came here for Liberty wemust understand what Liberty ofconscience really means now because ofhis ideas he paid a heavy price and asThe Story Goes he was forced to fleeBoston colony in the mid of winin 1636 it was a terrible terriblewinter and where did he go he went to ummodern day Providence and he establisheduh Rhode Island now uh Roger Williamswas a a close friend of the narang gasetNative American tribe um he wrote a bookabout their history he understood theirlanguage he championed them in thecourts of England when their land wasbeing taken from them and uh because hewas a friend of the narang gaset Indiansthey supported him when he was thrownout to the BOS the Bostonuh Massachusetts colony so RogerWilliams um what was his what what werehis thoughts on religious freedom and uhwe would say today well we agree witheverything he said but at the time whathe said was truly revolutionary so uhthis is a summary of what he said sofirst he said this is a summary by ascholar Edward eel he says conscience isa gift of God would you agree with thatyour conscience is a gift from God God'svoice within man as God's voiceconscience is the medium by which aperson communicates with God consciencetherefore is Holy Ground being both amanifestation of God's work and man'slink to God through conscience genuineacts of faith may occur it is the basisby which you become a Believer and maybeeven a True Believer following uhfinding one's path to Salvation so RogerWilliams argued and he had a lot ofwritings that conscience is to beconsidered inviable you cannot touch onsomebody's conscience because it is ourPathway to God and it is an inalienableaspect of being a human being it is whatseparates us from the Animal Kingdom thefact that we have a conscience and wecan communicate with our creator and hecan speak with us through our conscienceto violate conscience therefore is toviolate God's work and our inherentdignity as being created in the image ofGod denial of conscience is therefore adenial of religious liberty and touphold religious liberty means that wehonor and respect and uphold theconsciences of our brothers and sistersSS and so I just want to pause for amoment here and say that um people haveoften said I'm antiva I'm not I've hadantia every vax known to man is likefloating through my body other than thecovid vax but I do affirm that whetheryou choose to take the vax or not Ireally don't care I just believe thatyou should act in good consciencewithout coercion and with informedconsent and so that is kind of myposition on that matter I'm not anti thevax I'm anti- coercion uh because oncewe accept the principle that thegovernment can put things into your bodyum then you that's a very slippery slopethose of you who remember the SovietUnion know that Christians were put intointo mental institutions in in in Russiapsychiatric hospitals and they were fedpsychotropic drugs in order to make themlose their minds and that was aviolation of their conscience and theirbodily autonomy and that was used tojustify and see these Christians reallyare crazy and so once you admit thepossibility of of forcibly insertingsomething into somebody's body againsttheir will and against their conscienceyou have no idea where that principle isgoing to end up we've already seen itwithin our living memory where thatprinciple goes now because of um RogerWilliams discussions on this topic hecame to the conclusion The Logicalconclusion that therefore as everybodyhas a conscience and everybody has equalaccess to God this naturally results inthe need fortolerancetolerance he argued that from a Biblicalperspective because we are to we are torespect the cont ience of other peopleregardless of their faith and he wasrevolutionary he said we are to respectthe conscience of Protestants and thePuritans would say Amen to that he alsosaid we should respect the consciencesof the Catholics from whom the Puritanshad fled he also argued we shouldrespect the conscience of what you callthe Turk by which we would say modernday Muslims and also of Jews and also ofNative Americans so he argued thereforebecause everybody has a conscienceeverybody has access to God throughtheir conscience The Logical conclusionfor religious liberty is that we developa tolerant Society where we respect andhonor how God works on people'sminds and so to protect the consciencethat becomes the next question andWilliams had come from England and fromEurope where you had State churches youhad the Church of England um in Englandwhich had persecuted the denters youknow in Europe there had beenpersecution by the Catholic Church ofthe of the uh the Protestant reformersand therefore well Roger Williams arguedand most of us would agree with himtoday that you therefore need aseparation of church and state you onceyou once you have church and statemerged like say the papacy or the Churchof England which is the official stateChurch of England then you inevitablyhave persecution of the dissentingminorities it as night follows day themoment you merge church with State youend up with persecution and we stillhave this today in our world oh thatdoesn't happen past fine oh yes it doesif you go to Greece for instance Greeceis uh the official Faith there is theGreek Orthodox Church to be Greek meansthat you're Orthodox to be Orthodoxmeans that you're Greek if you're aGreek Orthodox who wants to become anAdventist not only do you lose yourOrthodox identity but to a certainextent you lose your Greekidentity and so when you fusenationalism and religion into a stateChurch it becomes very very hard forpeople to accept the Three Angelsmessages because you're not just givingup your faith to a certain extent you'relosing part of your identity as a as acitizen of whatever country you comefrom and so um Roger Williams argued forthe separation of church and state histhe most famous quote on that is thereon the screen he said when they haveopened up a gap in the hedge or wall ofseparation between the garden of thechurch and the Wilderness Of The WorldGod has ever or was always broken downthat wall itself removed the Candlestickand made his garden A wilderness as tothis day now what does he say in thatfirst half there he says that when we SEwhen we have a wall of separ ationbetween church and state and the churchis the garden of God and the the the theworld out there is the Wilderness whenwe start knocking holes through thatseparation between church and state Godthen what happens is God knocks down therest of the wall and rather than theworld becoming the garden the gardenbecomes indistinguishable from theworld therefore he said if I can read itfrom this far away I'm getting old yousee I need to get my glasses checked andthat therefore if he that is God willever pleased to restore his garden andParadise again it must of necessity bewalled in particularly unto himself fromthe world and that all that shall besaved out of the world are to betransplanted out of the Wilderness ofthe world and uh added into his churchor into his garden and so R Williamsargued for the essentially the the wallof separation between church and stateand that when we start to break down thethe separation between the actions ofthe church and the actions of the stateif they maybe merge or if they actuallyeven act act in collaboration with eachother the church is inevitably pollutedand harmed by that process therefore wemust maintain a steady wall ofseparation between church and state inorder that tolerance might be extendedto all the citizens of that statewhether you be atheist whether you bejew whether you be Muslim whether you beProtestant whether we be a Adventistthere needs to be a separation betweenchurch and state that everybody mightexperience tolerance for the theconvictions they have in their heartsand Minds so therefore we as Adventistswe follow in Roger Williams's um followdown his his pathway and we support theseparation of church and state we do notargue anywhere in the world that thestate should act in harmony or shouldbasically that the church should dictateto the state what the state is to do andwe resist when the state says to thechurch this is what you must do if itgoes against the word of God and so byimplication church and state unions areto be voided at all costs because theyinevitably lead to persecution tion andany collaboration or cooperation betweenthe church and the state is fraught withthe possibility of unintended Copersecution but that's what we've seenin the last two years a collaboration ora cooperation or an essential alignmentbetween church and state in theAdventist World it has resulted in aterrible cost forAdventists this has come through intoour working policy manual it says thiswell let me read this quote First inthis famous metaphor separation from theworld is designed to preserve the purityof religion religion is for believerswho voluntarily practice acts ofconscience as they communicate with Godto be true to God is to be true toconscience for in conscience every manand woman finds revealed the Eternaltruth which illuminates the path toHeaven thus Fidelity to conscience is amatter of obligation to religiousconviction and this idea has comethrough into our Adventist Church and byGod's grace uh we voted every five yearsat our sessions we vote an updatedversion of our working policy manual umand our church manual in our full GCsessions this is what we voted a numberof years ago it says and I well let mego on to the next slide here the use andforce and coercion this is in ourworking policy manual for the worldwidechurch is inimical that means it's uhfundamentally um in incompatible with tolife to dignity and to authenticreligion it deals with a person'srelationship with God the CreatorAdventists therefore view religiousliberty as the primordial human rightthat underg Goods all humanrights so your relationship with withyour heavenly father is your number onehuman right as far as Adventists areconcerned how you respond to God is yournumber oneaccountability that is the mostimportant thing in your life becauseonly God has the keys to eternal lifeand he is our creator he is our OurRedeemer he paid off the price for oursins on Calvary that we might receivethe gift of eternal life and as I'vesaid before I say it again another wayof looking at it is this when Godcreated Adam in Genesis chapter 2 beforeEve existed the second commandment couldnot exist so the greatest commandment isyou shall love the Lord your God withall your heart soul and mind yes butit's only when Eve comes along that youcan love your neighbor asyourself until Eve comes along youcannot love your neighbor as yourself sotherefore before Eve comes along theprimary responsibility for Adam and theprimary responsibility for all of ustoday is to love the Lord Our God withall our heart soul strength and mindthat is our first responsibility beforeGod as hischildren and so this has come throughinto our working policy manual the workin policy manual goes on to say ourreligious liberty department uh one ofthe we have one at the Lake Union wehave one at the mid America at the LakeUnion we have one at the North AmericanDivision and the GC is known as Paulpublic affairs and religious liberty oneof the original core Departments of theAdventist Church was established topromote and maintain religious libertywith particular emphasis upon the mostintimate Freedom individual liberty ofwhat conscience the department works forthe religious Liberties of individualchurch members and so the religiousliberty department of our church existsto to honor and to respect and to enableyou to live your life in harmony withwhat God has impressed upon on yourconscience that's why they exist is tohonor the conscience of individualmembers so um there's a pastor inMichigan and he and I have been talkingback and forth about these issues forthe last um four or five weeks and he'sbeen working on this kind of schematichere and we've been we're kind ofplaying around with this but some peopleum prefer listening to things Somepeople prefer seeing things visually soon the screen there you see a visualconcept of what we're talking about sothis is the liberty of conscience so youhave God at the top um who is uh truthand then God speaks to us through uminspired writings those are thescriptures you see there throughSanctified reason and through naturalRevelation that is you know you look atthe stars at night and you realize youknow um how how small we are and howamazing it is that what is man that youare mindful of us when we consider howsmall that we really are so God speaksto each one of us here today and tothose of you watching online through theword of God through Sanctified reasonand through naturalRevelation and the the the the meetingpoint between God and you is in yourmind it is not your Consciousness it isyour conscience and that conscience issacred ground is how God speaks to youthat results in free will because thekingdom of God is not built on coercionit is built on Love And So It results inFree Will Guided by conscience that FreeWill is expressed in actions that areformed through a free will and thosethose act those through beliefs andthose beliefs are then put into practicethrough your actions and so it kind offlows from conscience to free will tobeliefs to actions which are Guided byyour beliefs and then at the bottomthere we have the state and the churchin this in the sense that um we mustobey uh we obey the state in all thingsin so far as it does not contradict theword of God that we are to be the bestpossible citizens of our nation but weare but when there's a conflict betweenGod and man we must we must obey Godrather than man and so this is you knowthis schematic still being work workedon but um we wanted to get this readyfor this sabbath just to kind of shareit with you and I'm sure this schematicis going to evolve a bit more now incontrast to that you have this schematicand this is when there is coercion ofconscience rather than Liberty ofconscience so you have God at the topand whereas you see in the previousschematic God Scripture reason andRevelation are all in harmony with eachother um in this schematic they're allthe same color God is still one colorthere but the states and the church area different color that is they're notacting in harmony with the will of Godand so the state Works through laws andthrough mandates and the church has itsown church manual its own decisions anddeterminations and then you have not afree conscience but the coercion ofconscience where the states and thechurch determines for you what you aregoing to believe that results in aforced will that is either prescribed bythe church or by the the state thatresults in fced beliefs that'sinvoluntary from your forced will andthat that results in forced actionsthat's involuntary through forced beliefnow and uh that's essentially where youare a slave to the ideologies of thisworld and it'sdehumanizing let me give you someexamples of this the slaughter inRwanda where people were given lists andthey were said if you don't kill these50 people we'll kill you and your familyan impossible choice to make what wouldyou do this is where um God is out ofthe picture the state is now worsing youis going to override your conscienceit's going to change your will in thematter because you don't want to do itit's going to force your belief nolonger believe in the sanctity of lifeand you are going to engage in forcedactions in order to stay alive and sothat's a classic example of thiscoercion of conscience is antitheticalto what God intended for us where hemeets with us in our conscience andconvicts us and converts us on a dailybasis and that's expressed in Free Willand uh beliefs that in harmony withscripture and in acts of kindness andlove towards our neighbor and to thosearound us so those two schematics kindof discussed in a bit more detail um thedifference between free free conscienceand a coerced conscience now umthis comes through intoadventism and some people have asked meabout this so I want to talk about theconcept of am I promoting radicalindividualism and the answer is no I'mnot saying here today that whatever yourconscience says You must go and do itbecause it must necessarily be rightbecause you don't know if you have asearedconscience okay um if you engage in acertain sin repeatedly the voice of theHoly Spirit gets softer and softer andsofter in those areas so after a whileyou can no longer hear the voice of theHoly Spirit speaking to in yourconscience and that which you originallyknew to be a moral wrong now just youjust don't care about and you just do itall the time and so we can't just assumethat we're radical individuals um actingunder this is what I believe to be rightand everybody else must accept it in thebook of Acts we find that the ApostlePaul was acting under his convictionsand he was preaching the gospel to theGentiles which did not includecircumcision and he was followed byjudaizers who were Jewish Christians whoinsisted that these new GentileChristians must be circumcised in orderto went to the body of Christ and so youhad two different groups with two veryvery different sects of convictions andwhat happened was rather than the churchsaying well everybody can go off andbelieve as they wish they held a churchCouncil and everybody came together inJerusalem the elders the apostles theBelievers and they discussed the matterand they came to a conclusion you're allfamiliar with the story in Acts 15 theCouncil of Jerusalem and the conclusionof the matter was they heard the casethe judaizers had their say the ApostlePaul recounted how the Holy Spirit wasat work and they came to aconclusion they came to a conclusion andthen the Assumption was everybody wouldlive with that conclusion because thebody of Christ had come together now theirony of this the the absolute irony isthey say you don't just circumciseGentiles in the very next chapter whatdoes Paul do he goes and circumcises hisworkmate Timothy um so you know Paul'snot a great example to be use in thisera he had a myological justificationbut we won't talk about thatparticularly right now the point is thatas Adventists um we we recognize thatwhat happened in Luther's time mayhappen in our time and we need to avoidit so when Luther said over here youhave the Catholic Church whichdetermines what you're going to believethrough dogma and the infalliblestatement of the Pope we reject that andso the pendulum swung to the other sideto radical individualism where I'm goingto do what I want I'm going to believewhat I want that led to social chaos andit contributed to the peasants Revoltwhich was like Civil War in Germany itwas a terrible terrible time and soLuther Kind of he he started outaccepting the Pope's Authority then hewent to radical individualism and theradical reformation and then he kind ofswung back to a mediating position whichwas essentially the acts 15 model and wefollow that principle in adventism todaywe say that let's say brother um Marenolet's say that you let's Victor let'ssay brother Victor um is convictedtomorrow that oh I don't know the Earthis a cube hypothetically yes and andhe's convicted the Earth as a cube andhe says there are profound theologicalimplications for this and rather thanthe World Church just saying oh yeahthat must be true yeah the world is acube brother Victor is convicted of thatin his conscience um uh what wouldhappen is the local church would studywith you brother Victor and um and theywould study with you and study with youand if you if you could convict thischurch herethat the world is a cube then thischurch would make a representation tothe Illinois conference that the worldis a cube and if the Illinois conferenceis convicted then it goes to the NorthAmerican Division to discuss the matterand if they're convicted of it it goesto the general conference session allright so if God leads somebody into newtruth let's say the world is a cubewhich I don't believe it is but maybe VVictor is arguing that case do youbelieve that brother Victor no no okayI'm glad you don't um so the point aboutit is this that when somebody bringsconviction to somebody we don'tautomatically accept it immediately weput it through a filtering process webring it to the body of Believers webring it to local congregation we bringit to the conference office and ourconference leaders it goes to the NorthAmerican Division and you have membersfrom all across the country discussingit is this is this does this make senseor not if they think it makes sense thenthey make a representation to the WorldChurch and when the World Church gatherstogether with with lay people from allaround the world gathered to discuss itthen the question is decidedso we don't have radical individualismand we don't have the dogma of thechurch we have a process by which newlight is kind of filtered through thechurch until there's a decision-makingprocess like is this really true or notand so that's how we work as Adventistsand it's in that context that we read inthe spirit of Prophecy what sister whitesaid in the Tes ofies for the church uhvolume 3 page 492 and this is a verywell-known quote shesays goback yes thank you Pastor thank youso I've been shown that no man'sjudgment should be surrendered to theJudgment of any one man but when theJudgment of the General Conference bywhich she means not the Adcom but thefull session with members from aroundthe world come together when theJudgment of the general conscience whichis the highest Authority that God hasupon the Earth is exercised privateIndependence and private judgment mustnot be maintained but must besurrendered your error she's writing tosomebody here was in persistentlymaintaining your private Judgment ofyour duty Against The Voice of thehighest Authority the Lord has upon theEarth you did not seem to have a truesense of the power that God has given tohis church in the voice of the GeneralConference now she's not talking hereabout the general conferenceAdministration the general conferenceadministrative committee the Pdepartment at the general conferenceshe's speaking about here when Believersfrom around the world gather togetherand they've had actually years to thinkand pray about these matters before adecision is taken okay for something tobe voted in a fundamental belief at thegeneral conference takes five or 10years sometimes 15 years there's a longprocess of dialogue and study involvingmembers from Africa and Asia and LatinAmerica and Inter America and NorthAmerica and Europe until we come tosomething that we can agree on so anexample of this inpractice is fundamental belief 22 whichsays for the spirit to recreate in usthe character of Our Lord we involveourselves only those things that willproduce Christlike Purity health and joyin our lives it also means that thatbecause our bodies are the temples ofthe Holy Spirit we are to care for themintelligently along with adequateexercise and rest we are to adopt themost healthful diet possible and abstainfrom the unclean Foods identified in thescriptures since alcoholic beveragestobacco and the irresponsible use ofdrugs and narcotics are harmful to ourbodies we are to abstain from them aswell so this is a classic example ofsomething we've agreed as a worldwidechurch after years of study okay nowyou'll notice in this theological CLthis fundamental belief 22 and they'reall written in this kind of very similarway that we agree on the principles ofscripture such as we agree that there isclean and unclean food okay but we don'tdetermine the specifics of how youactually apply it in yourlife so if if you have a birthday partytomorrow and you have a choice betweenan impossible burger or a beef burgerthe church doesn't interfere in thosematters we leave it to your consciencewe say these are the Bible teachingsthese are the principles from scripturethere's clean feet clean meat andunclean meat this is the original dietit was essentially what fruitarian orvegan in the Garden of Eden um but we wewe agree on these things as a worldwidebody but how you apply this we leave toyour individualconscience so we agree on truth but wedon't dictate to the believer how youmust apply it in your life does thatmake sense so even though we agree onthings that truths from scripture howyou apply it is left to use so you knowwhen when we just celebrated the 50thwedding anniversary today if few brotherum and when you sat down with a pastorand you were married 50 years ago therewere certain biblical principles thatwere laid out for your marriage but howyou applied that was left to you andyour wife in good conscience to applythose things and to figure out how tobuild a healthy marriage and the samewith our bodies we have biblicalprinciples of Health in the scripturebut how we apply those we leave to thediscretion and the conscience of everyindividual believer recognizing thateverybody has a unique State situationin life unique health status uniquehealth concerns unique ability to buyfood you may live in a part of Americawhere there's a desert of vegetablesthey literally do exist it's hard tofind good food in many of our largecities here in the United States and sowe leave these things to the individualconscience so that brings us to thethird stage next stage of our sermonhere which is the existential questionand this is kind of where the the the umthe rubber reachs the road you might saythe appeal sermon from five weeks agowhich has floated around the world didnot focus onvaccinations some think it did but itdidn't it did not focus on the pros andcons of the vaccines we leave that toyou to make your best judgment aboutwith we're dealing with an existentialquestion from a Protestantdenomination there are two problematicstatements I just wanted to addressfirst and the existential question firstof all the 2015 Adcom statement of thegeneral conference on vaccination thereit is there Adcom means administrativecommittee and it says there the S theAdventist Church plac a strong emphasison health and well-being the AdventistHealth emphasis is based on biblicalRevelation The Inspired writings forsister white co-founder of the churchand on peer-reviewed scientificliterature as such we encourageresponsible immunization vaccination andhave no religious or faith-based reasonnot to encourage our adherence toresponsibly participate in protectiveand preventative immun immunizationprograms we value the health and safetyof the population which includes themaintenance of herd immunity we are notthe conscience of the individual churchmember and recognize individual choicesthese are to be exercised by theindividual the choice not to beimmunized is not and should not be seenas the Dogma or the doctrine of the sthAdventist Church and you say well that'sa fair enough statement well um it issomewhat problematic um firstly becausethe phrase we have no religious orfaith-based reason not to encourage ouradherence toparticipate that is a theologicalconclusion that's not a medicalconclusion that's a theologicalconclusion we have no religious orfaith-based reasons there it is there onthe screen we have no religious orfaith-based reason this is a theologicalconclusion totheological an understanding of thescripturesnow the challenge with this is that theadministrative committee has about sixareas of defined Authority it can makedecisions for the general conference interms of establishing standingcommittees for set tasks Financialoversight of budgets planning anddevelopment for the world churchpersonnel matters General administrativematters and uh the publisher of theSabbath school Bible study guides thoseare the six areas in the terms ofreference for the Adcom now just to justunderstand how does this work we havethe Illinois conference we're blessed bythe Illinois conference here and theIllinois conference has an executivecommit ite but the chances are it almostcertainly has an an administrativecommittee and the the administrativecommittee deals with internalAdministration and what is thatadministration of well we are membersand we return our tithes to theconference and where there are buildingsin the conference like this building wereturn our tithes and there are pastorsand Bible workers and evangelists thoseare the employees and the administrativecommittee deals with the the the budgetsthe buildings and the people within theconference that's their defined area ofjurisdiction okay they theadministrative committee they they theythey're moving the pieces around thechessboard all the time and so thegeneral conference Adcom has these sixareas of defined responsibility theseare all internal administrative mattersfor the general conference and theentities of the WorldChurch now um the general conference umin their um letter about me to the WorldChurch claimed the authority to to saythat you know we're in favor ofvaccinations Etc and um we have noobjection to mandates they say the Adcomhas the authority to make decisionsbecause of this phrase here this phraseappears in the Adcom terms of referenceso the Adcom or the GC has the right toconsider other routine administrativeissues as they rise and give generalcounsel to World Church entities asrequested now I don't know how you feelabout this but the covid pandemic wasnot a routine administrativeissue and also it does not involve thePersonnel the budgets or theinstitutions of the church it involvesevery man woman or child on planetEarth I've been a secretary treasur ofUnion I can tell you what a routineadministrative issue is a routineadministrative issue is saying hey thismissionary comes from this country theexchange rate has changed his salary ishared in value can we fix this problemthat's a routine administrative issue orour our we the the health insurance wehave doesn't cover malaria in thiscountry can we please change the healthinsurance for all missionaries from theWorld Church that's a routineadministrative issue and the answers aregiven given to the World Church entitiesand entities is a technical term and itbasically means that we have anAdventist yearbook it's like the familyum photo album and every conferenceevery Mission every field everyUniversity every um Clinic that's ownedby the Adventist Church is in theyearbook and they're known as WorldChurch entities so that means that thedecisions these routine administrativequestions the answers are given to theconferences the missions the fields theuniversities the hospitals that areowned by the Adventist Churchbut the decisions about vaccination andthose being published online theyactually go to Every government andevery employer on Earth which was neverpart of the Adcom scope ofresponsibility and when we give thosestatements out there are unforeseenconsequences so this statement here umthe the vaccination statement from 2015came out because there was a measlesoutbreak in SouthernCalifornia before that measles outbreakSouthern Cal California allowed anyfamily to have an objection to vaccineson three grounds religious philosophicalor medical but after the measles vaccinecame out and various churches said thatwe have no objection to vaccinationsCalifornia eliminated the religiousobjection and the philosophicalobjection so now if you're raising yourchildren in California because churcheslike ours came out with no objection tothis kind of stuff you've lost yourreligious objection and you've lost yourphilosophical objections there areKnockOn effects and unforeseenconsequences for generations to comebecause we we've been issuing thisparticular statement and so uh I believethe general conference working policymanual this is our constitution saystheological matters up to an includingthe the V voting of new fundamentalbeliefs are the remit of the GC in fullsession that is not the Adcom with amajority of lay Representatives castingthe votes and so when we vote ontheological matters as a World Churchthere is a majority of lay people in thesession there's people like us heretoday it's not Church employees whocasting majority of the votes is Laypeople whose lives are most affected bythese decisions and so the constitutionof the General Conference essentiallysays their General Conference workingpolicy manual the definition ofdenominational beliefs is entrusted tothe GC in full session or in the sessionthere therefore it is not possible forthe Adcom to make theological statementsthat profoundly affect every Adventistin the world today is beyond their scopeof authority it's very very simple it'sa awful thing for me to have to saystand and say this because I know thereare personal consequences of me sayingthings like this but it's the truth andwhen we're ordained we're told to preachthe gospel in season and out of seasonand right now what I'm saying is mostcertainly out of season at least for mepersonally there was then areaffirmation statement in October 252021 that came out it was voted by theit wasn't even voted by the Adcom it wasvoted by the GC Administration thehealth department of the GC the publicaffairs and religious libertydepartments and the lawyers of the GCand L Melinda and they um werereaffirming that's why it's calledreaffirmation statement they werereaffirming the 2015 vaccinationstatement but they went beyond that theydidn't just reaffirm it they had abeautiful beautiful statement in whichthey said the the members you and me weare to search the scriptures we are toask for the leading of the holy spiritin our conscience as we grapple withthese these questions about vaccinationsand all that's well and good and Iapplaud them for that it was good thatthey recognized that God does lead us asindividuals in this area I have no noquestion about that but their conclusionwas this but at the end this is thekicker therefore claims of religiousliberty by which we mean individualconscience are not used appropriately inobjecting to government mandates oremployer programs designed to protectthe health and safety of theircommunities so at the end of thatreaffirmation statement we basicallysaid to the governments of this worldhave at them to our members if youimpose a monthly mandate a weeklymandate a quarterly mandate every sixmonth's mandate we have no objection tothis it's a uh I protest such statementsI do not accept such statements and thisstatement comes from doesn't come fromthe World Church it doesn't come fromthe executive committee of the GC itdoesn't come from the administrativeCommittee of the GC it's an ad hoc groupof four departmentswho have never been given the authorityto ever make such statements thatdirectly impact you and your lifeparticularly when the statement says youare to be guided by your conscience butat the end of the day we support anygovernment that wants to override yourconscience so in this reaffirmationstatement we went from in 2015 sayingAdventists have no religious objectionsto immunizations to now sayingAdventists cannot use religious libertyor conscience to object to forcedgovernment or employe vaccinationprograms that's not not that's not justreaffirming what we had in 2015 that'sgoing a Long Way Beyondthat and so the question we must facehaving discussed those two statementsthe question we must ask as Adventiststoday is this I want to ask you as acongregation this is a poll STW doeseither the Adcom that's theadministrative committee hintadministrative committee or any ad hocinterde departmental group at the GChave the authority to a determine SDAtheological beliefs for ad Adventistworldwide or B to issue positionstatements that determine deny oroverride the consciences of Adventistsworldwide that's the essential questionand people who said my sermon was aboutvaccines no it's about what it means tobe aProtestant does a small group of peoplewho you will never meet and who don'tknow you from Adam or Eve have the rightto issue statements that determine yourconscience that deny your consciencethat override your conscience and Iprotest and I respectfully say tobrothers and sisters who made thesedecisions you've overextended yourselvesin these statements you don't have theright to say these things the issue weare facing today is essentially thatwhich Luther faced has God given aselect few the right to make decisionsthat deny or override the consciences ofmillions including your decisions inwhat is a profoundly personal decisionthe GC Administration asserts this rightand I respectfully protest and rejectthat assumed right assumed right and Ibelieve that the vast majority ofAdventists if were given a chance wouldreject the GC Adcom claiming suchauthority over their conscienceregardless of the presenting issues nowthis is really important becauseAdministration works on a ratchet effectif we agree now that the GC Adcom hasthe right to override your conscience onthis issue they will say they have thatright to override your conscience ontomorrow'sissues that's how Administration worksif we we say now that a certain group ofpeople has the right to override yourconscience today on today's issue thentomorrow you may find your conscienceoverridden and it'll be profoundlyharmful foryou so whether you are Prov vaccine orantivaccine is immaterial whether you'vebeen vaccinated or not we can still bein the Lamb's Book of Life we're stillbrothers and sisters doesn't reallymatter what I'm speaking about is areligious liberty speaker and I'm notspeaking on behalf of AFM in caseanybody asks I'm speaking as a pastorwho's interest in religiousliberty what I'm calling for is arecognition that we need to respect theconsciences of our members in mattersthat are not defined byscripture so what has been the impact ofthese statements onAdventists well I'm a pastor and I'lltell you this that from a pastoralperspective these statements have beencatastrophic for regular Adventists allaround the world now here in Americawe're blessed you know the the SupremeCourt struck down the Mandate from OSHAfor employers of over 100employees and they struck down Federalcontractors's mandate we still have theMandate for healthcare workers okay sothere's this kind of a mixed bag at theSupreme Court but if you live just northof the Border here in Canada it's allogtogether a differentstory it's a terrible situation up therethe union has been inundated withdesperate calls from Adventists who forwhatever reason are saying I cannot takethat shot and who are being denied theirreligious waivers because thesestatements of the GC have been quotedwell you're an Adventist you have noobjection to this on religious groundsand so they're losing their jobs and inthe last five weeks I have beeninundated with emails and text messagesand calls from people I don't do notknow from Adam or Eve who have theseheartbreaking stories of loss andsacrifice people who lost their homesbecause they can't pay their mortgages Iwas chatting yesterday with a lady um upin Canada who lost her job because ofthese statements in the v mandates inmid October and um because of this herher husband now works overseas in orderto provide an income for the family backin Canada and she's lost her job aninnocent sister whose life has beenturned upside down by statements thatare made and really should never beenmade in the first place it iscatastrophic for Adventists worldwide tohave to live with these statements thethe human cost ishorrendous from a mythologicalperspective and I'll speak as amissionary here and as a as a pastor butas a missionary not on behalf of AFMjust in case anybody's asking but from amyological perspective the scripturereading today was the was the rallyingcall this is our purpose as Adventist toproclaim the Three Angels messages God'slast call of Mercy to a Dying World nowas a missionary you are absolutelyinterested in religious liberty whybecause before you can reap a harvestyou have to sew the seed and in order tosew the seed you need to get access tothe field does that make sense youcannot sew the seed unless you haveaccess to the field so when you havecountries who block Christian radiostations and who block the Christianinternet sites and who don't allowvisible churches to exist in thosecountries they don't allow missionariesinto those countries we consider themthe unreached parts of the world that40% of the world is growing inpercentage every year it's not gettingbetter we're falling behind becausethere is a restriction on religiousliberty in country after country aftercountry so we as missionaries as amissionary I'm absolutely interested inreligious liberty because if I can't getpeople or the Adventist Church isrestricted in places like India which isnow going through a reversion programforcing people back from Christianity toHinduism you are converted now you'regoing to revert back because we're HinduNation for instance this creates massiveproblems for thegospel and God's end time message ofMercy The Three Angels messages whichwere read for us today assumes that thevery end of time just before Jesus comesjust for the close of probation thatevery person on this Earth still retainssome freedom of conscience to respondpositively to the call to fear God andgive glory to him does that make sensewhy would the Three Angels of messagesgo out if people don't have the freedomtorespond the freedom of conscience so asAdventists we are to be champions forconscience even if people responddifferently we are still to be championsof conscience because if people do nothave Liberty of consciencethey cannot respond freely to the ThreeAngelsmessages so we have an absolute interestin fre religious liberty from amyological perspective as well as from apastoral perspective in the 1040 windowwhere I most of my work is there is verysignificant vaccine hesitancy in generalnot just to covid vaccines and why isthat because Western pharmaceuticalfirms have conducted unethical researchin certain countries over long periodsof time with terrible consequences forlocal communities particular in parts ofAfrica it's been horhorrendous and that because of thatthere is massive resistance to any kindof injection from any Westernpharmaceuticalcompany so if you're a Muslim in Beninand you and a a missionary meets you andand you want to accept the gospel it'shard enough for you to become anAdventist from a Muslim background butthen you imagine uh learning as thatMuslim in Bene that when you become anAdventist the official position of thischurch you're joining is the governmentcan forcibly vaccinate you as often asitwants coming from a culture wherethere's been massive abuses of HumanRights by Western pharmaceutical firmsexperimenting on localcommunities mologic this issuicidal it just does not make sense andin the West in America in Canada inAustria in Australia in New Zealandmillions are protesting the the mandatesare they notby the grace of God it seems the copandemic is moving into its you knowfinal days I'm just so grateful to Godfor that it is real real people havedied it's a terribleScourge but as the covid pandemic ispassing the narrative is crumbling andmore and more people in the west realizemaybe for the first time that there istruly good and evil in this world moreand more people in our Western societiesrealize that there is truth and there isfalsehood more and more people in thisworld are looking for truthmore and more people in our worldparticularly in the west have beenshaken out of their materialistic easeand uh they realize that there's more tolive for than you know just the NFL or agoodmeal and people in our world today arelooking fortruth and they're willing to give up thebeliefs of the past in order to heartruth a classic example of this isCaptain graem Hood you familiar withCaptain grm Hood he was a Quantas pilotone of the most senior pilots inAustralia he was asked to take the T vache said show me the risk you know thewhite paper that comes with the medicinethey showed it to him it's literallyit's blank nothing on it he said you payme to take risk benefit decisionswhenever I fly a plane that's my job isto do risk analysis that's what it meansto be a pilot and you're asking me totake something where there's no risk orbenefits outlined I'm not going to do itso he wasfired and now he speaks to crowds of50,000 150,000 150,000 in Australiapresenting the the Everlasting gospelgiving out great controvers IES innumbers never seen before in Australiabecause people realize that there isgood and evil there is truth andfalsehood and they're looking foranswers buttragically we have aligned ourselvesglobally with fouchy and falsehood fiserand big farmer we are once again on thewrong side ofHistory so I would argue as a pastorthat these statements are catastrophicfor the well-being of members in manycountries who are suffering needlesslybecause the statements have been madeand they're being used against them todeny their exemption requests misicallythese statements aresuicidal is harming our effect isharming our ability to bring the gospelparticularly in the 1014 Mission windowI believe they're institutionallyillegitimate and they do need to berevoked to start the postco healingprocess for our church to rebuild ourworldwide Adventist Unity to regain ourmythological credibility to recaptureour Protestant identity and to restorethe Primacy of conscience in theAdventist Church church I do believethose statements do need to berevoked now we serve I know PastorWilson he's a godly man he's aGod-fearing man I believe he believes inthe Primacy of conscience but I believethat somehow The Narrative has gottenaway from us at a World Church level Idon't know how that's happened and I'dask you to pray for our leaders becausethey are Godly men and women and askthat God will impress upon them the needto revoke the statement so the innocentAdventists are no longer hurt so what dowe say in conclusiontoday this isn't a kind an easy kind ofsermon to give firstly don't give up onHope yes this world is full of sinsorrow and suffering but it is going tocome to an end and when it comes to anend every tear will be wiped away Jesusis coming again and we as Adventists arecalled to proclaim the Blessed hopesecondly God has a Remnant movement itis known as the Adventist Church do notthink of stepping aside from it while wehave Liberty let us work together let uspress together let let us move forwardtogether let us pray for our leaders anduse the spiritual gifts that God hasgiven to each and every one of us thatas many people as possible might be onthe sea of glass Before the Throne ofGod do not give up on anything presstogether worship together evangelizetogether reach out to our communitytogether be a blessing in your communitythrough your local congregation and inpartnership with your conference worktogether thirdly there are probablypeople in this congregation and probablypeople watching online today who've beennegatively imp impacted by the lockdownsby the mandates by they may be vaccineinjured or they've been hurt by the theCorona virus itself they may have longcovid I want to encourage you as acongregation to look out for people inyour congregation who've been hurt bythis Co experience and to find practicalways to help them maybe you have a Dorasfund maybe set up a covid fund and putmoney into that fund so we can help outour brothers and sisters who have beenhurt by this terrible pandemic there aresome people have visible hurts andlosses and some have got invisiblelosses um but get to know yourcongregation maybe somebody's strugglingwith long covid maybe they need helppull together as a congregation pulltogether with your conference and be ablessing to those who've been hurt bythis covidpandemic fourthly get involved indiscipl makingOutreach the Great the book greatcontroversy is maybe the book for thetimes in which we live and we may betaken off the internet we probably willbe but they can't take literature offpeople's bookshelves so get involvedwith the literature Ministry we areblessed with the spirit of Prophecy youon the entrance of the church out thereI walked in say had great controversyand some other books there I took onefor myself I was going to quote from thegreat controversy I didn't but nevermind um get involved carry those withyou in your car carry them with you towork if somebody is expressing um I'mnot sure where the world is going a lotof people have those sentiments thesedays you can say I don't have all theanswers but this book has given me a lotof comfort and hope give it a chancegive it a read and see how God worksupon their heart so get involved inOutreach and discipl making i' alsoinvite you to contact your unionleadership you are part of we are parthere of the lake union for those of youwatching whatever Union you're a part ofcontact your union leadership andrespectfully request that when we votein leaders at GC session in June thisyear we vote in leaders who respect theconsciences of members worldwide and whodon't assume the authority to overridethe consciences of members that may beinterpreted as a political statement butwe have no way of influencing the WorldChurch as members unless we speak withour Union leadership so your union isLake Union get involved pray with themand respectfully ask that leaders areelected who respect the conscience ofmembers our spiritual birth Birthrightincludes go back to the staying ofMartin Luther it includes Luther'sfamous speech at the diet of worms in1521 again unless I am convicted byscripture and plain reason I do notaccept the authority of popes andcouncils because they have contradictedeach other my conscience is captive tothe word of God I cannot and will notrecount anything for to go againstconscience is neither right nor sa safeso help me God Amen we might paraphrasethat as Adventist today with this I'm aProtestant 7th the Adventist Christianto go against conscience is neitherright or safe my conscience is captiveto the word of God not to any Adcom orany ad hoc committee revoke thestatements and set my conscience freeamen may God bless us as we live andShine for him in partnership with theconference and our fellow sisters inChicago may we be a blessing and pointpeople forward to the fact that there isa blessed hope Jesus is coming againamen and our closing hymn thismorning is uh two 216 when the role isCalled Up Yonder we'll close with a hymof Hope hym of joy of anticipation thatthere is a beautiful day coming whenevery tear is wiped away him number 216when the role is Called Up Yonder