Unthinkable | Dr. Conrad Vine

uh thank you very much uh yeah when I get to heaven I'm going to make a joyful and harmonious noise to the Lord at the moments I only make a Joyful Noise to the Lord so um I'd like to thank uh Dr Tom Wilson for your gracious introduction uh and those words and uh I would return the compliment it's uh it's it's a privilege in the body of Christ to follow in the steps of those who've gone before with such dignity and compassion and I'd like to thank Dr Wilson for your service to our church and to our church Community here in beran Springs and I'd also like to uh pay tribute this morning to our senior pastor Pastor Ron Kelly uh it's been a long journey to get to this event here and we were originally planning for this in no January next year with our religious liberty committee and um then as we realized children were going back to school and employment mandates were appearing on the horizon although at the door uh Pastor Kelly said we need to bring this forward and so it was by many miracles that this event has taken place and so we say thank you to Pastor Kelly for his courage in holding the line as the religious liberty committee and the pastors and the elders here prayerfully considered this event I'd also like to say thank you to Our Guest presenters who are here who've come at short notice across here to Village Church and um thank you for your contribution and for blessing us during this weekend thank you so um our sermon today is entitled Unthinkable which um I wrote two sermons Unthinkable one and Unthinkable two because I'm very creative you see and once you thought of one good sermon you just think it's better to say one and two because people remember it better that way but um I've entitled The Sermon Unthinkable and I do want to think about the unthinkable it's not something that's unfor seeable but it's certainly Unthinkable when we enjoy the blessings of the freedoms we have in America today but it's time for us to start thinking about the unthinkable it's happening on our TV screens in Afghanistan and in China today and it's time for us to start thinking about the unthinkable when it comes to Adventists and those who are faithful to Jesus Christ here in North America so please bow your heads with me and invite the presence of the Holy Spirit once again Heavenly Father we thank you for the freedoms we yet enjoy to gather and worship you here in this your house on this your day among your people father we thank you for the miracle of technology that is allowing as of last night 20,000 devices around the world to connect to these programs and father we thank you that the gospel can indeed go to Every Nation tribe language and people literally at the touch of a button and so father as We Gather here today we do not gather to hear the words of this world but we hear gather to hear the voice of the spirit whispering to our hearts and our minds this is the way walking in it so father I ask that you strip away all of me that there be nothing of me in all of you today that the words I speak will be from your throne of grace in jesus' name I pray amen all right so prior to the fall of Babylon in 605 BC as we look through the scriptural record it is clear that the social and spiritual leits of Israel had accommodated to and promoted the Yahweh hating paganism of the surrounding Nations faithful prophets such as Elijah and Jeremiah were persecuted by the social and political Elites among God's people and many followers of Yahweh faithful followers were executed including Isaiah so many in fact that we read in the Old Testament that the streets of Jerusalem Ram read with the blood the innocent blood of those who are faithful to Jesus fast forward in time and we come to to Jerusalem Passover week ad31 Jesus stands trial before Caiaphas the high priest before the Jewish ruling Council Sanhedrin before Pontius Pilate the Roman governor and before Herod the Roman Herod antipast the Roman governor of Galilee and finally um he stands once again before Pilate and why the political divisions in ancient Israel well from the solids on and then to the Romans the people of Israel faced political and social totalitarianism from first the solicits and then the Romans and in response to that totalitarian demand from the solids and then from the Romans God's people split the social elit sought to reserve their Elite roles in society and to reserve their institution that is the temple Caiaphas articulated well this philosophy of compromise on the part of the elites among God's people when he stated concerning the death of Jesus he said you do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die than for the people to have the whole Nation destroyed the Pharisees the Asen and the zealots who were braveway groups in response to the religious and the political totalitarianism of the solids and the Romans they each proposed their own different response in the USSR we could look on many examples here today but I I'll just pick on the USSR for a few moments today after the Bolshevik Revolution and can you guys hear me clearly I seem to have lost my microphone here all right so I maybe we'll just switch to the the main microphone no can you hear me now yeah all right okay so in the USSR after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 Adventists trod very carefully with Lenin they were expecting Lenin was expecting religious Faith to Simply fade away with the new Bolshevik Revolution and he was looking for supporters of the revolution in the civil war between the whites and the Reds the whites supported the Zar the zaris regime and the Reds supported the the Bolsheviks well during that Civil War ordered number 130 of the Revolutionary military Soviet was passed in October 1918 later confirmed on 4th of January 1919 by the Soviet of people's commissars Soviet is the council or the Gathering granting exemption from military service for for religious conscientious objetives it's amazing but Lenin actually passed this order granting make religious exemptions uh for people with a conscientious objection to military service it wasn't because he was a Believer so much in religious conviction s he considered protestantism to be a refined form of cathol Catholic poison um and he expected religious Faith to fade away and many of those religious objetives had been released from the zaris prisons in the revolution of 1917 and so Lenin was simply hoping to Curry favor with those of conscience who had been imprisoned by the Zar who had now been released and he wanted to be on the side of the Soviets and so in 1918 and 1919 the Adventist Church leaders in the Soviet Soviet Union were full of praise for Lenin but in 1924 at the all-russian Adventist Congress the Soviets pressured the Adventists into affirming that religious service was not a matter of church doctrine but it was a matter of private conscience so it was harder to claim a religious exemption and in 1928 at the next all russal all Soviet Adventist Congress the Soviets once again pressured the Adventist leaders into affirming that military service was now the Christian duty of the Adventist members and anyone teaching otherwise was to be be disfellowshipped and young Adventists were disfellowshipped as the Adventist Congress made this change in position many Adventists appalled and they left forming what we now know historically as the true and free Adventists they were known as the true Adventists because they were faithful to the decalog in particular the sixth commandment Thou shalt not kill and they were free Adventists because they refused to register to incorporate and to bow down to the totalitarian demands of Lenin and then of Joseph Stalin they ran their own printing press they held their own congresses and they taught their own children which was an act of defiance in a system that forbade the passing on of Faith from parents to children the true and free Adventists were led by a man called Pastor shelov he served throughout the Soviet Union era he spent 23 years at different times in Soviet concentration and labor camps eventually in the time of loned brv when the Soviet Union was kind of creaking and about to collapse um he was caught by the KGB at the age of 83 he was captured by the KGB he was roughed up um the KGB once they got their hands on him they wanted to vent their Ren to vent their Vengeance on him because he'd kept them on the run for so many decades and in 1979 he was sentenced to a 5-year term in a hard labor camp in Northern Siberia at the age of 79 Andre sakarov the very famous um Soviet dissident appealed to the United Nations for his release um soulon appealed for his release there were many leading Soviet refuseniks appe healed for the release of this faithful Pastor Adventist pastor of the true and free Adventists but it was to no avail he died in the camp at the age of exhaustion at the age of 84 on 27th of January 1980 just a few weeks uh having been committed to that hard labor camp in Northern Siberia it's a terrible story isn't it it's a terrible story and the truth is whether you were a true and free Adventist in the Soviet Union or whether you were in the official Adventist everybody face persecution one way or the other it was kind of pick your own medicine you know which kind of medicine do you want to accept and today in our world we still have situations where there are underground Adventist churches and official Adventist churches Vietnam being the prime example today where there is an official Adventist Church and an underground Adventist Church so we know from The Book of Revelation at the end of time there will come a time when God's faithful Remnant will come under massive economic and political pressure to compromise to compromise against our conscience to compromise on the grounds of worship and as we study salvation history whether it's the Old Testament whether it's the New Testament whether it's through our own history whether we look at what happened under General pinese in Chile whether we look at what happened under General galeri in Argentina whether we look at what happened under the Nazis in the early 1940s whether we look at what happened in Kaiser vams Germany in First World War our history as Adventists is that time and time again our religious our educational our leadership Elites have sought to compromise they have compromised with the totalitarian demands of their world in order to preserve our institutions and keep the church together so the question is not whether we do compromise the question is to what extent do we compromise and I believe today and I won't go into this in any great detail because it's not really the main focus of our talk to today today we are seeing the same spiritual and moral compromises among our educational and leadership Elites across our division whether it relates to critical race Theory critical theory intersectionality lgbtq studies and also vaccines we are seeing the same Spirit of compromise in order to preserve our institutions at all costs no matter what it means in terms of compromising our faith this is a historical reality it is a current reality perhaps the greatest source of living under Christ under persecution other than the New Testament is found in voice of the martyrs and there is a writer in voice the martys called Eric Foley he's written a fascinating manual on planting the underground church he has studied how does the underground Church in North Korea function North Korea is about as hostile as it gets for the church to flourish and he's written this incredible book I'd encourage you to read it you can get get it on Amazon for about $115 Eric Foley's book f o y I'll show you a screenshot in a few minutes and I want to talk about some of those principles today I've adapted them from Adventist Concepts and because time is short I've B it down to eight key principles and how it applies to us today and I'm thinking the unthinkable because sooner or later the unthinkable will become the present reality and I do not say this with any Joy or pleasure I'm a child of the church I love the church the church is an incredible place to be I see that when the church works together in Mission God works in incredible and Powerful ways here in North America and around the world and yet we know from our eschatology that sooner or later the way we do Church our Eccles iology is going to have to change dramatically and radically we cannot talk about our eschatology and assume that how we do things today is always going to continue because it's not we need to be thinking about what it means to live as an underground church here in North America so that's really what we're talking about here today principles for the underground Church the first principle we're going to look at is this legal incorporation puts the church in bondage instead we are to be aliens and temporary residents in our world today you see in countries churches are and seminaries are being closed down which is happening today places like China in countries where Christians are tortured and pastors are disappeared where bibles are burnt and children forcibly removed from their parents legal incorporation brings little to no benefits for the Free Church that is North American Division where we are today we operate as a nonprofit corporation that is an independent legal entity giving access to the legal to the financial to the commercial and to the political systems of our fallen Nation we open bank accounts we wire funds globally every day we process payroll and pay FICA income tax we rent lease we purchase and sell properties we access credit cards and Commercial loans we purchase without sales tax we reduce through the parage allowance via the IRS the taxes that pastors must return and we Delight in our tax deductible donations Pastors in the Adventist Church North America can perform legally binding weddings and our universities are all accredited federal student loans are received by all of our colleges legal liability because we are Incorporated is limited in our lawsuits and government agencies can be lobbied for changes in policies these are all of the benefits they receive through our legal incorporation however our marriage to this world gives hostile government leaders incredible leverage over the church it is impossible to rely on worldly systems of Operational Support or um uh and not to be stained by the Fallen values or ideologies of our world today the world is pressuring our institutions to essentially give up the gospel in exchange for keeping our student loans and our tax exempt status etc etc biblical truth is being watered down or simply denied in the P Pulpit to avoid offending totalitarian ideologies in America in the 21st century and just like the Saints of old as we read in Hebrews 11:13 all of these died in faith without having received the promises but from a distance they saw and greeted them they confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on this Earth we are strangers we are foreigners on this earth when we moved to Minnesota from the Middle East the first shock we received was the weather change and uh the second shock I received was that um I had to shovel the snow every morning and the third shock I received was um I wanted to get a snowblower really badly and we had a long driveway and um 4: or 5 in the morning when you're shoveling the snow so you can get your kids to school and it's like a two-hour job to shovel the snow I used to dream of having a snowblower but we never got a snowblower or should we say my wife never agreed to me buying a [Applause] snowblower um because we were only strangers and foreigners in America we were on a temporary visa and my wife quite rightly said until we know we're staying here we're not putting money into a snowblower there is a how you live your life depends on whether you view yourself as being only a temporary resident in this world or whether you view yourself as being a permanent resident in this world and this is all there is to it it affects how we live our lives it affects our experience of life when we settle down and incorporate we mistake the impermanence of this world for the permanence of of Eternity the inconvenience we experience as aliens in this world is a constant reminder to us that we are merely passing through and that truly Heaven is our home so what recommendations would we say regarding this particular um principle here that legal incorporation puts the church in bondage well I believe that underground churches should neither legally incorporate nor name themselves if if you're not legally Incorporated you cannot be banned by the government that we should think about establishing a backup cash-based Financial system when we are frozen out of the Global Financial systems that could happen with a letter from the US Department of Treasury tomorrow any of us could be placed on no fly lists tomorrow there is no judicial oversight over these decisions and almost no way of overturning them every time I arrive back in America I'm grateful that I was not placed on a noly list when I was overseas we need to think about inviting members to directly fund Ministry activities and to make Capital purchases to avoid government control over those assets via our Incorporated status we need to teach members not to look for tax deductible tax receipts for donations in order to free the church from fear of reprisal from the IRS PR we need to consider implementing a policy that prohibits pastors from signing wedding certificates why this will protect them when the state demands that they solemnize unbiblical marriages these are some practical suggestions for us to be thinking about as we think about this first principle the second principle we find here is do not flee resist or accommodate to persecution instead be fully chrisan in the midst of it there are various responses to persecution I've talked about persecution here in the p past um but the most devastating response for the church is when the leadership of the church compromises to the ideologies of the surrounding world and we see the devastating impact of compromise in particular in America right now amongst our closest Protestant cousins that is the methodists and if you're not following what is happening with the United Methodist Church you need to be aware of what's happening with the United Methodist Church theologically and historically they are our closest Cousins we have Deep Roots within Advent Within methodism particularly their small group approach and focus on spiritual accountability on Wesley's call to personal Holiness and their emphasis on arm minion that is free will theology yet as we speak even today the United Methodist Church in the United States is in cataclysmic meltdown it may simply cease to exist within the next two years and why is that because they had a general conference of the World Church in 2018 to discuss whether they were going to uphold biblical parameters of sexuality and marriage within ordination and only ordain um heterosexuals and if they were married in a heterosexual marriage and the North American branch of the United Methodist Church wanted to have permission to ordain practicing homosexuals and homosexuals in the same-sex marriages well as with our own San Antonio 2015 General Conference session so the United Methodist General Conference session in 2018 in Indianapolis of all places the Southern church southern part of the United Methodist Church voted overwhelmingly to not approve same sex sex ordination and the ordination of practicing homosexuals and as a result the North American branch of the United Methodist Church kind of went woke overnight and they've been in bitter meltdown ever since a new denomination the global Methodist Church has been established for Bible faithful methodists in North America to remain within their worldwide communion um all they can stay with now the the liberal United Methodist Church as we speak today Methodist congregations across our nation are evaporating the buildings are being sold the pastors are being fired the finances the Episcopalian fund that funds the pastors is due to expire within about another 20 months and then they are finished tithes have collapsed offerings are no longer coming in this is what happens when the leadership in a part of the world compromise to the ideologies of the world around it's a warning to us as Adventists we need to recognize that living according to the Cross of Christ means being willing to accept Financial loss and social cancellation if we're not willing to accept Financial loss and social cancellation then really the gospel has not taken roote in our hearts many years ago when I was uh in the milk ground in England we have the milk ground it's where you in your last year of college all the big corporations go to certain universities they're trying to kind of milk off the cream of the crop you might say that's a mixed metaphor if ever there was one yes they're trying to milk off the cream of the crop yeah so they're trying to take the cream off the milk and it's is known as the milk round and so these corporations go around and they and they interview all the top prospective students and I was invited after those interviews to price Waterhouse Coopers they're one of the big six audit and accounting law firms in the city of London and I had an interview with a partner there and I was offered a job as an auditor and to train in the city of London and it was really it was a oneway passport to retiring by the age of 40 it was a well-paid job now the order to the a partner who interviewed me was Jewish and he said well Mr Vine says we're happy to offer you this role but on one condition he said you have we know you keep the Sabbath but you have to agree that if we ask you you'll be willing to do an audit on one Sabbath per calendar year he says we're not we're not we're probably not going to ask you but if we ask you we need you to agree in this interview that you will perform audit on one Sabbath per calendar year and I explained to him about the fourth Commandments and appeal to his Jewish Heritage and Roots but to no avail and so at the end of the interview I said well I would love to serve with you but I really cannot and I walked away from that with utter peace in my heart one of the best decisions I ever made financially terrible decision but spiritually and lifestyle-wise and for God's Direction in my life one of the best decisions I ever made we look back at those painful moments in life and I have some painful moments in my life and the most painful moments they're painful at the time yet I can look back and realize that that is where God was performing his deepest work of shaping in my spirit and in my soul in my character so I wasn't going to be sold if you turn in your Bibles I haven't got this on the screen but just just just flashes to my mind as we speaking this turn to First Kings 20 First Kings 20 and you will see there first Kings 21 it's the story of naboth and his Vineyard and there's a phrase that keeps popping up in here and I've read this story many times and I've underlined these phrases turn to First Kings 21 and verse 20 and this is Ahab and Elijah and Elijah is confronting Ahab for the killing of naboth and Ahab said to Elijah 1 Kings 21:20 have you found me oh my enemy and he answered that is Elijah I have found you because you have what yourself you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord Lord and then verse 25 it says there was no one like Ahab who what sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord and it's in contrast to naboth who wouldn't sell his land not because it wasn't a good deal but because the Lord forbid that God had said that you are not to sell your family inheritance outside your family line when you enter the promised land so naboth was faithful to the Covenant promises that God gave his people that Ahab had sold himself to do what was evil and to essentially Act according to the ways of the Nations around and we are not to sell ourselves a bowl of this Earth's pottage is not worth Eternal salvation we need to live with a clean conscience we need to live with a sense that yes today I honored God and I followed my conscience it's not worth accepting the the pleasures and the benefits of this world in order to find that you cannot sleep at night because of a tortured conscience a man is not defined by what kind of car he drives whether it be a Ford or a Ferrari it's dehumanizing to sell the soul for a pottage of of Esau for a bowl of Esau's pottage so what do we recommend today well we are to live according to the Cross being willing to accept Financial loss and social cancellation we are to lovingly exemplify the teachings of Jesus because we love him not in reaction to government persecution I'd recommend that if you never read it before I was speaking with attorney CES who are driving up here yesterday he's been doing some studies reasonable life of Dietrich bonhof I'd encourage you to read maybe his most famous book which is the cost of discipleship when a man bids a man when God bids a man come follow him he bids him come and die as he writes in the opening chapter of that book it is one of the most profound books you'll ever read and if you're not familiar with the story of bonhoff you won't dwell in the last minute last stages of his life but in the mid1 1930s he was a pastor in New York of a German speaking Lutheran Church when Adolf Hitler came to power Bon Hofer decided to sail back across the Atlantic to Germany and his friends and his family said why are you going to Germany Adolf Hitler is now the chancelor he's going to kill you and Bon hofer's response was quite simple I'm paraphrasing him here he said if I'm if I am not willing to be the pastor of the flock during the hard times I cannot be the par of the flock during good times and he sailed back across the Atlantic uh in the middle of World War II 1944 he was imprisoned and about 2 weeks before the end of World War II he was executed on the person orders of himler the leader of the SS so I'd recommend you today to start to memorize the gospels key parts of the gospels because one day you may not have your Bibles you think oh that will never happen oh really in Afghanistan this week they're taking Bibles from people they're checking their phones to see if there are Bibles on their phones and they're killing those who have Bibles on their phones it's happening in this week in 2021 and there is no law of nature that says one day will not happen in the United States States so I want to encourage you today to memorize key portions of scripture such as the Ten Commandments the Beatitudes the 28 fundamental beliefs from scriptures and to memorize the essence of the gospel because one day you're going to have to share the essence of the gospel and you may say oh Pastor I can't share the gospel I don't know how to share the gospel I can't give a Bible study well there are three simple words that explain the gospel you can all remember this the first is sorry I'm sorry God for my sins second word is thank you thank you Jesus for dying on Calvary in my place the third word is please please father send your Holy Spirit to lead me and fill me and change me and guide me that's the essence of the Gospel from our perspective sorry thank you and please now that's not hard is it okay we can all learn that so let's start thinking about memorizing key portions of scripture the third principle there's the book the cost of discipleship there you can find it on Amazon if you never read it make it a priority to read it it's essentially a study on The Sermon on the Mount so if you read um thoughts from the Mount of blessing from Sister white which is a study on The Sermon on the Mount this is a parallel book to that known as the cost of discipleship and I would strongly encourage you to read it the third PR principle is this instead of going underground in response to persecution go underground to keep the main thing the main thing there's an important principle of church PL and it is this that we are to always act out to the purest of motives that is love for the Lost we are compelled by Christ's love for our community around us if a church plant starts because of internal divisions because I can't get on with you and you can't get on with me uh you don't be surprise if that Spirit of division is Incorporated in the spiritual DNA of the new church plant it happens all the time if this congregation would have split in half because we couldn't agree on whatever topic whatever question is before us and let's say this this half goes off to form a church you know half a mile away you're going to have a sense of utter righteousness and this half is going to have a sense that those guys are traitors and so forth and so forth uh we're not going to be speaking well about each other and uh those who come to this church plant are going to have that sense of spiritual pride and righteousness and those who come here are going to be um uh immersed in a spirit of bitterness and vindictiveness towards those who have left so establishing Church plants because I cannot get on well with you is not a good reason to establish a Church Plant we go underground in order to keep the main thing the main thing and the underground Church exists for two primary reasons one that the word of God can be purely preached and heard and two that the ordinances of this gospel such as marriage baptism and the Lord's Supper may be practiced in a way that is faithful to scripture in communist China today the Communist chines Chinese Communist Party appoints pastors for the three self patriotic church and therefore they ensure that all preaching and teaching from the pulpit of those churches across China with over 100 million members in the three self patriotic church is consistent with communist dogma and the pastors and the Bishops Etc are all appointed by the communist overseers the church in China has thus been obligated to go underground in Canada today where the laws prohibit explicitly the teaching of scripture on the issues of human sexuality I believe that the true church in China is also obliged to go underground and that the gospel may be preached freely full of of both Grace and Truth and in the USA Today where it will inevitably be incumbent upon and required of pastors that they perform same sex marriages as agents of the states just as we now do for heterosexual marriages the church will like will likewise be obligated if we to be true to scripture to become an underground Church the gospel cannot be bound by government restrictions God can lead the gospel to many places and to many unreached hearts outside of the physical Church buildings where it is proclaimed today Foy writes this in his book and I've got to quote here the Lord does not respect the world's boundaries of where when and by whom he may send his word nor to whom he may send it a key quote he may he has overcome the world not simply acquired real estate in it that the gospel is Sovereign and we are obligated to preach the Full Gospel with truth and Grace and if we are expected by the government to tone down to temper to adjust to modify even to deny the gospel as is increasingly happening in the west then God's people have an obligation to say we thank God for the blessings of the visible church but now it's time for us to move to an underground Church's mode of operation so what recommendations would we say today if we are to plant underground house churches do so out of love for the Lost not out of any negative motivation pray for God to give you a heart of love for the lost and to bless those who are persecuting you ask yourself whether the gospel can be freely preached and heard in your country country or in your church and whether or not the ordinances of scripture such as marriage baptism the Lord's Supper can be practiced in harmony with the scriptures keep the main thing the preaching and hearing of the word of God the main thing in your congregational Gatherings the fourth principle there are eight principles when I was a young father young kid young father young kid my dad was a preacher and he'd say we have six points today and I was mentally checking them off in my mind any of you doing this right now think okay we're on the fourth point is at 9:35 he's going to finish at this rate at 958 all right I used to do that all the time when I was a young boy and maybe some of you doing it as well this morning but the fourth principle is this instead of acquiring buildings meeting the places that people already are you see we know this the church is not a building therefore the underground church does not acquire buildings simply put the underground Church lives according to the word of God which cannot be bound we are not authorized by God to work within government restrictions that say preach here but not there say this but do not say that governments throughout history have closed physical churches as we speak today churches are being closed in communist China they're being knocked down China goes through waves of persecution CH they build large mega churches then they get knocked down by some overzealous local communist ruler buildings may open and buildings May close but the underground church will continue wherever God's Saints are living working studying playing and resting that that is where the underground Church takes root and in this way as we read in our scripture reading the darkness cannot extinguish the light thus the underground church is not a hiding Church it simply meets where people are in the book of Acts they met in homes in Acts 2 by a river in Acts 16 or in a lecture hall in Acts 19 because this is where people met in the ordinary routines of daily life understanding that the church can meet anywhere at any time is critical when we Face persecution one change in our worldview is that we think we go to church to meet with God but if the underground Church truly exists that means that our homes are transformed and our workplaces are transformed to where we experience God as well as in the church building we start to see our homes not as bastions of secularism from where we venture once a week to a holy place that is a sanctuary on a Sabbath morning but our homes are viewed as holy places because that is where we meet God just as much as in the physical Church so what recommendations do we say on this well share the gospel not just in churches on Sabbath but wherever you are if you're not sure how to share the gospel start carrying glow tracks I mail all my all my bills in you know I don't pay my bills on credit card you know why cuz I put a glow track in every bill that I send in I leave glow tracks on the seats of Airlines when I get up I leave a glow track there or I leave it in the seat pocket in front be intentional about sewing the seed of the word of God you have noide idea what God is going to do through the sewing of the seed of the word of God learn to listen to the leading of the holy spirit in your life and start Following start meeting for prayer and worship not just in church on Sabbath morning but wherever you meet with others during the week equip our members to share the gospel anytime anywhere with whomsoever they they may be may be allowing our members to become the yeast of of the local the dough of the local community principle five this is where it kind of comes more home here the church is a household of households this is an important point and why do I include this well public churches such as our church here are built from the pulpit down people come to a special place built around a Pulpit from where the pastors direct the life of the church including myself and the other pastors on the team here the pulpit is where the gospel is preached and the ordinances are administered yet underground churches are built from the household up each household is a local Center of church life where the gospel is also preached and the ordinances are ministered by the priesthood of all believers and pastors are equipped by gods to equip members for such Ministry we find that in Ephesians 4 in the doctrine of spiritual gifts underground churches do not plant congregations per se but they plant the word of God into existing networks of Human Relationships and the gospel seeks to transform those destructive relationships with Fallen patterns that have existed since the fall of Adam and Eve Jesus recognizes this in Matthew 10: 35-36 that when the gospel is introduced to human networks it can cause conflict this is what he says he says I have come to set a man against his father a daughter against her mother a daughter in law against her mother-in-law and one's foes will be members of One's Own household now this started with Cain and Abel did it not and Jesus experienced rejection by his own family did he not in Mark chapter 3 that his parent his mother and his brothers his sister come and think Jesus has gone crazy we need to section him or lock him away then he has that confrontation with the Pharisees about by what Authority he cast out spirits and then he concludes by saying who is my father and who is my mother and who is my brother and who is my sisters it is those who do the will of God there's a spiritual relationship there so Jesus recognized that when the gospel enters human networks of Human Relationships there is going to be conflict there is always going to be conflict the apostles did not attract the heads of households to a separate building for worship every Sabbath rather they planted the word within their households and the transformed household became the basic unit of easia the New Testament word for for gathering together so what recommendations do we have here well I want to ask you today are you managing your own household well is the word of God preached and taught in your household do you live the word of God in your household you have that family worship and pass on your faith to your children are your lives credible so your children know that whatever you preach your life is a credible Christian witness I want to encourage you today to live a household centered rather than a Pulpit centered Christian experience and our pastors neld do including myself our responsibility is to equip our members to live that household centered Christian Life on a day-to-day basis the sixth principle follows on from that is to make your daily household life not Sabbath worship the focus of the church in America today when we say do you go a church we're really saying are you a Christian implying that you can only be a Christian at church or the defining sign of a Christian is one who spends two hours on a Sabbath morning or a Sunday morning sitting on pews somewhere but for the underground Church the Christian experience has lived daily by placing Jesus at the center of our household life visible Church Christians expect to be fed by their pastors underground Church Christians learn how to cook for themselves they learn how to preach and practice the word of God within their own household of faith for the visible Church such as us here today and we rejoice in the blessings that we have today Sabbath worship is the primary focus for many of us for our spiritual lives for the underground Church the daily household act of worship is the main focus which includes the singing of hymns of praise the reading of the passage of the word of God confessing our sins one to another forgive giving one another experiencing reconciliation reciting foundational truths such as the Ten Commandments and the The Lord's Prayer and celebrating the Lord's supper together now you may say I'm teaching heresy here but I'm not this is New Testament Christianity um I once baptized a group of Iranians and they were heading back to Iran and they had all kinds of questions about how do we live as Adventists in an underground Church in a city of Iran and there's no past no churches the church does not really legally exist in Iran and they had all kinds of questions and one of them was how do we celebrate the Lord's Supper that's a great question yeah how do we celebrate the Lord's supper and uh in the New Testament um the Lord's Supper was celebrated we know from First Corinthians 11 on a daily basis the church would come together they'd work in the morning they come together the afternoon early evening for a love Feast they would recite the scriptures they would pray together they would Praise Jesus and they would celebrate the Lord's supper together and it was a love feast and uh so I said well you're going to be going back to Iran you have no Elders you have no deacons you have no deaconesses no pastors nothing so my suggestion is that you just have a a love Feast every single day and they kind of okay and uh they said well um who's going to officiate at the love Feast that's a good question yes and so I said well you know it's probably wise to just kind of take it in turns you know just take it just work your way around the circle and whoever uh whoever um God has placed a burden upon uh burden to share a word from the a passage from the word of God or a prophecy or a word of encouragement let that person officiate for that day strictly that's not according to the church manual but it's also it is true to the New Testament Church and we need to be thinking that one day that may be our experience and we need to be true above all else to the word of God not to the councils of men so recommendations for you today well one other passage here according to talian the wider Roman society did not take note of the apostolic era church because of their beautiful buildings or then lovely organs or how nice the lighting was the early Romans they recognized that the church was special because of the love they had for one another that was from a non-Christian writer originally talian Jesus himself said this by this everyone will know that you are my disciples not if you have beautiful buildings not if you have a hierarchy but it's because of the love you have have one for another so start and I want to encourage you today to refresh and to love to refresh and recommit to loving one another recommit to meaningful daily household worship within your family among among spouses to pray together with children to pass on the gospel truths pastors like myself I want to challenge myself in other to provide equipping for members to do home visitation to study with others through the word of God and lead them to Jesus Christ for themselves and experience the joy of leading somebody to Jesus and especially to uh young people um step up to the plate the world is desperately short of gospel workers the world offers you many careers but nothing is fulfilling as being an ambassador for Jesus Christ so if you hear God calling you today to a life of a gospel Ministry do not quench the spirit but step forward in faith the seventh principle is this instead of um professional leaders use amateurs and so um it's interesting that in the New Testament um we have this idea that you're a young man or woman you feel called to God's Ministry and so you leave your secular employment let's say you're a teacher or an accountant or an architect whatever your profession may be you leave that and you go to Seminary and you become a full-time minister of the Gospel that's kind of the traditional Western model of things but that's not how Jesus did it the most successful um gospel minister in the New Testament was Paul and he lived by making tents he was a literal Tent Maker and making tents allowed him to sit in the marketplace and sitting in the marketplace where buying and selling tents took place allowed him to participate in the marketplace of ideas where ideas are exchanged as people are talking together in the real world and so we need to reink um what it means to be Church leadership you see in the Free Church the visible Church where we are today here in Village Church the largest churches they tend to attract most eloquent preachers is that true yeah it's true uh when we're looking for a senior pastor and it's hard to find a senior pastor we want to know how do they preach because people will put up with almost anything as long as there's a good sermon on Sabbath morning I I can tell you that's true if people know there is going going to be hearing of the word of God they'll put up with almost anything they'll sit through cold they'll listen to um praise songs that sound like funeral dures they'll put up with anything If Only They will hear the word of God preached with authority and with conviction so we look for preachers who preach well we also look for comp competent administrators and I can tell you that church ministry or leading a Ministry like AFM is an incredibly complex responsibility we have a consolation of Ministries that Springs up around our big churches with aggressive media outreach and significant volunteer mobilization and as legal corporations we have significant legal responsibilities so increasingly Church leadership in America is the domain of a very few highly trained professionals with very very specialized knowledge not just in theology but in employment law and anti-discrimination law and maintenance skills and team motivation and media Ministry and how the internet works and fewer and fewer and fewer people have the wide range of skills and knowledge necessary to fulfill the role of church leadership in highly visible highly public large churches and we are blessed in this church with a pastal team that we have today but I can tell you it's very very hard to find such a competent pastoral team uh for another large church it's very very hard to do that such people are few and hard to go by find but with the rise of anti-christian totalitarianism in America today and let's face the reality we have declining generational patterns of tithing our current Ned system is unsustainable both financially socially and in terms of Human Resources I think we have I don't know four and a half 5,000 Pastors in America today about half a due to retire in the next 5 to six years and there's almost nobody to replace them we have a seminary and a good chunk of those pastors will go and serve overseas but we have very very few people coming through the pipeline this is not a crisis it's an opportunity because in the underground Church leadership is provided by the amateur many not by the professional few the word amateur comes from Amar to love now I know that verb because when I was at school we had to do Latin in England we don't do Latin here in America do we no so in England we had to do latins one of the joys of an English education and um I used to walk home reciting my Latin verbs like that means I love you love he she loves we love you plural love and they love it's drilled into my memory I will love I'm a b I'm a bit I'm a Bim I'm a bit I'm a bunt I will love you love he she love we will love you love they will love are you following me you understand this in fact if you say it quick enough you rightful miss you what did you say there yeah am I we am I wiy I wear it am Aus am a am a I loved you love he loved I was loving I was loving he was loved were living so this has drilled into you at an early age in the English education system and I never realized but um there's a link to church leadership because Jesus commissioned amateurs to lead his church not a few professionals and the verb Amar means to love so Jesus is looking for leaders who love the flock he doesn't say do you have the skills he says do you have love for your brothers and sisters if you have love for your brothers and sisters you are an amateur leader it is not a sign of it's not a degrading name it is a sign of it's a recognition that you have a leader who loves you and I can tell you when when you have someone who loves you and they need to have a hard conversation with you you're much more willing to accept it because you know they love you when somebody loves you you're willing to have those hard conversations you're willing for hard truths to be expressed you're willing to grow together because there's the security provided by personal love and the church is growing fastest around the world where there are fewer paid professional leaders more amateur leaders why is that simply put if congregations listen and watch as the professionals preach and administer then how will those members ever learn to lead in their own house churches themselves how will they ever learn to be discipled and how they learn to disciple others to Christlike maturity this is what enabled Paul to say be imitators of me to Timothy uh to the Church of Corinth as I am of Christ that we look at those who've gone before and we say oh that is how you serve in the Adventist Church that is how you lead in the body of Christ that is what it means to love and when I broke my leg a few years ago um I I was surprised um by those who came to visit me I was sitting at home for a few weeks my leg up on the couch and I was humbled by how many people came to visit in my home it was humbling and I remember who those people were and some brought um like buckets for me to have hot and cold treatments on my broken leg and I remember who those people are as well and I remember them with with great fondness why because they weren't just my brothers and sisters on Sabbath morning but they showed a personal interest during the week and they demonstrated love and I'm truly grateful to those of you who did come and visit with me so if you're sensing a call to Ministry maybe ask God ask God to lead you to a house church or a house group where you can grow in christlikeness and where you can grow into maturity as a spiritual leader in the body of Christ train fellow house group leaders to Leading the essential characteristics of Ecclesia the essential characteristics of the body of Christ which are the teaching of the word of God praise of Jehovah and worship Ministry amongst Believers and to others Christian Fellowship prayer and witness those are the essential characteristics of the New Testament Church I've left I've left the most difficult thing to last tithe because that this is where the rubber really makes the road I want to say today that we tithe in the underground Church to reveal God's character not to support the church our tithing is a Biblical principle is found both in the Old Testament as we heard in our scripture in our um offering appeal today from Pastor hes Malachi 3 8-12 it's also found in the New Testament Matthew 23:23 where Jesus affirms and assumes that those who are faithful to God will continue in tithing it's an intrinsic part of the Christian experience but according to Jesus tithing is not counsel among quote the weightier matters of the law end quote so although we return our tithes today to a legally Incorporated denomination that is a visible Storehouse what about tithes in the underground church now remember the underground church has no buildings has no officers has no hierarchy has no administrators it has no bank account where you can deposit your tithe so what do you do with your tithe in those circumstances well in the gospels Jesus does not teach us to tithe or to give from our Surplus but he teaches that we return a tithe to the Lord from our sustenance from our daily bread and butter we give not because we have something extra but we return because we are always in danger of being financially self-sufficient tithing is an antidote to materialism and to Greed it invites us to depend upon God on a daily basis through our pay Cycles in the underground church we return a faithful tithe by giving to those in need in our immediate communities whether that is disciples or not including to those who hate us or persecute us why in order that they may know that it is safe to rely upon our heavenly father and in so doing we place ourselves in a position of complete dependence upon God giving is not a sign of our own generosity but is a manifestation of our trust in God's generosity to us thus tithing in the form of giving to those in need is actually a form of evangelism inviting the lost to praise God and to trust him more than Mammon the Apostle Peter says it this way conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles so that though they malign you as evildoers they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge so our tithing can actually be a form of evangelism and witness demonstrating our trust in God over and above the ways of this world so what do we say in conclusion today and our time is almost up and I said 958 it's 955 and 50 seconds so we're homing on it all right first is this pray for our educational and Leadership Elites in our North American Division and love them pray that they will have the courage to stand for truth and the wisdom to navigate the the conflicting demands of the gospel and the totalitarian ideologies that now assale our institutions so pray for our leaders that God will give them courage and God will give them wisdom the Battle Is Real the battle is within the gates the battle is happening right now and our leaders need every prayer that they can get so pray for our leaders secondly read and digest a couple of books there's Eric Foley's voice of the Martyrs from uh Korea I'd encourage you to read that on Amazon and the other book I'd encourage you to read is the cost of discipleship by dietr bonhof let's go over those again planting the underground Church by Foley and the cost of D discipleship by dietr Bon of start thinking about how you're going to live and what sacrifice you're willing to make and what God is calling you to be and do as in when we are called by God to live as an underground church thirdly as we've said in our scripture reading and it hasn't come up on the screen there I put it's a literal word for word it's an Interlinear there it says the light in the darkness is shining John 15 in the darkness it not overcame that's uh the rest of it kind of gobble stuff that should be Greek format but anyway the light is shining in the darkness and the Darkness did not overcome it in the context of the Gospel of John Jesus is the light of the world and that light Shone on Calvary in the midst of spiritual Darkness but according to Matthew 5:14 we are also the light of the world and Jesus chooses to shine through his church through you and I today so seek the truth and the light that comes from truth know the truth about God love the truth and may the truth of God shine through us today despite the Gathering spiritual Darkness all around us because Jesus is coming again so may God grant us the courage to shine for Jesus today in 202 2021 21 century America and until Jesus comes again don't don't let your light go out amen