The Power of the Word (David Haluska, 06/29/24)

You know, I feel like a little bit of introduction is in order.

I don't like to talk about myself.

I guess there's a little bit of ego that comes with it, and I don't want to be, I don't want

to feel any ego, but it may be appropriate for you to know a little bit about who I am.

My name is David Holuska.

I just recently took the position at the conference bookstore in Collisdale, the Adventist Book

Center.

We have a branch down in Atlanta, and I moved here from British Columbia, Canada.

I grew up in Collisdale, but the Lord took me around the country bit by bit over the

last 20 years, so it's good to be back.

It's always nice to speak in a church, to see the various membership throughout the

conference, and I trust that God will be with us as I speak this morning.

Let's pray before I start.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the ability to come together with like-minded

people, to explore your Word, and to open our hearts to your moving of your Holy Spirit.

I ask that you would be with me as I speak, give me your words, and help us to gain a

blessing from what you have to present to us this morning.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

The Bible is the Christian's standard for truth.

It is truth because it is the Word of God.

Saint Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and God cannot

lie.

So it must be truth.

Pretty logical, right?

There's a fictional story of a little boy.

He's talking with God, and he tells God, so you can't lie?

And God says, no, I can't lie.

But have you ever tried to lie?

And God says, well, no, I have never tried to lie.

Well, try.

And God says, okay, grass is purple.

And all the grass turns purple.

Because what God says is.

So it's always true.

And scripture being the Word of God is true.

Now truth is power.

The Bible contains the powerful truths of God.

And power does stuff, right?

It's not inactive.

Power does stuff.

Turn with me to Isaiah 55.

We'll see some of the ways that God's Word is manifest.

And turn with me quickly.

I've got several of these.

And I don't put a lot on the screen, as you may already notice.

Isaiah 55.

11.

So is my word that goes out from my mouth.

It will not return to me.

Or empty.

Or without result.

God's Word takes prisoners.

It's power.

Hebrews 412.

Calls it a powerful weapon.

Hebrews 412.

For the Word of God is alive and active.

Sharper than any double edged sword.

It penetrates even to the dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow.

It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

So it's a powerful weapon.

It's a sword.

It's a judge.

Judges have power.

It judges our innermost thoughts.

Psalm 119.

This is good sword drill time, right?

Psalm 119, the biggest Bible.

105.

119, 105.

You could probably say this as soon as I start.

My word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

It's a guiding beacon.

It has power to direct.

Second Timothy 316.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, for

correction, for instruction in righteousness.

God's word is an intellectual tool that quells debates.

It's useful for all those things.

Power.

The Bible is the foundation for the freedoms that we enjoy in this country.

They are responsible, those freedoms are responsible for the advances in technology that we appreciate.

From the modern age, the industrial revolution, and the peace that we enjoy, the principles

that have built governments.

All of these things equate to power.

There's power in scripture because it is the word of God.

And when God speaks, things happen.

Do you believe that?

In his book, Preaching from the Grave, by the way, I don't want to sell on the Sabbath

Day.

But everything that I show you is available at our store.

And that's all I'll say about that.

From his book, Preaching from the Grave, Fadidus Ndamimugabe tells his story as an Adventist

Tutsi during the Rwandan genocide.

He was on the run for over a month enduring a war that saw over a hundred, sorry, over

one million Tutsis slaughtered in just a hundred days.

Thirty of those days he was on the run.

He was attempting to evade the killings going through a city where every block was a roadblock

of militiamen with machetes, guns, whatever.

And so every, it seems like, five minutes he would go to another barricade, face death

again.

At one particular time he was caught.

The people took away his Bible, took him to the side area.

There was a kind of a field, I imagine, a field with a little rise to it, just outside

of a little village or a group of houses, I guess.

Fadidus was told that he would be killed and that he had to dig his own grave first.

So he dug, and as he dug he was praying.

He heard gunshot off in the distance.

Finished his grave.

People came up to him and said, okay, you're done digging your grave, but this is no longer

your grave.

We just killed somebody.

We'll bury him in there.

Dig a second grave.

Fadidus said, give me my Bible back.

I want to say something before I dig my next grave.

I find that bold.

I don't know how to describe that.

Who is he in that situation to demand anything?

But they looked around and they discussed it.

One man said, no, never.

Why should he be given the right?

Some people said, no, he's going to die.

He should be allowed to speak.

Well, I don't want to hear what he has to say.

Well, you can close your ears, they said.

Okay, so they gave his Bible back.

And he began to preach.

There were about 40 militiamen that had gathered around, and he preached from the word of God.

He says, I cannot take credit for what happened next.

He began by expressing gratitude.

Thank you for your kindness in allowing me to say something before you kill me.

After introducing the great controversy theme to them, and by the way, more people had gathered,

it became a crowd of some hundreds.

He turned to the word of God and read.

Then he commented on the verses and could see the spirit of God moving on the people.

Tears were falling down their faces.

Some were hiding behind bushes to try and conceal their emotions.

He continued as if oblivious to their tears.

He preached for about 20 minutes, and at the end of his sermon, he said, now I'm not asking

you to release me because I know soon the wars of the world will end.

And if the Lord wants me to rest now, I'm willing to sleep until he comes and resurrects

his people.

Now I can dig my grave and I will say my final prayer.

One man who had said, basically he was the most vocal about killing Fididus, said to

the others, I know what I said before, but if you kill him, his blood be on your heads.

Finally, the mob decided that they would vote to see if they should kill him.

They voted and they led him to a place of safety.

To me, this illustrates the power of the God's word.

Tucked into this story is a very important principle.

While the word of God is powerful, God uses individuals to disseminate that word like

Fididus.

Fididus educated his killers.

As was read earlier, let's turn to Matthew 5, 13 through 16, our scripture reading this

morning.

Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be

salted?

It is thenceforth no good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot

of men.

Ye are the light of the world.

A city that is built on a hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth

light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father

which is in heaven.

So when you have something so powerful, so wonderful, so empowering, would it not be

natural to want to share it?

You know, I have a wonderful time playing and dealing with fountain pens.

I love fountain pens.

Don't ask me really why.

It'll be a long conversation.

If you do ever give me the slightest inkling that you too may like them, watch out.

The rest of my day is probably going to be blown.

It's natural to share what we love.

Shouldn't it be natural to share Jesus if he's done so much for me more than fountain

pens have?

Wouldn't you expect the same excitement about teaching someone about Christ that I have

about the nib is like this and the excitement about teaching people about the power of God

fixes broken marriages, gives mental peace or ending the fear of death?

So if we have this powerful truth-filled life-changing book that helps us live in perfect harmony

with our Creator, why wouldn't we want to let other people know about it?

If that logic isn't enough, Jesus also tells us to do it.

In Matthew 28, just a few pages past where we just read, Matthew 28, and you know this

is the end of Matthew, so Jesus is on his way out and he tells his disciples, saying,

verse 18, and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven

and in earth.

Go, go, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and

the Holy Ghost, teaching, again, twice teaching, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever

I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

So we all have a duty to teach.

I taught English for one year, and I learned that homework is important.

Give your students homework if you're teaching about God.

What does that mean from a spiritual perspective?

Well, I would say give them a reading assignment, whether they know you're going to give them

that or not.

Tell them.

In the book Publishing Ministry about sharing, the author says this, would we follow the

plans of the Lord's devising we are laborers together with God, whatever our position,

whether we're presidents, ministers, teachers, students, lay members, we are held accountable

by the Lord for making the most of our opportunities to enlighten those in need of present truth.

And one of the principles, agencies, he has ordained for our use is the printed page,

a reading assignment.

She continues, very much more can be accomplished by the living preacher with the circulation

of papers and tracts than by the preaching of the word alone without publications.

The press is a power instrumentality which God has ordained to combine with the energies

of the living preacher to bring truth before all nations.

Many minds can be reached in no other way.

So disseminate the truth and use literature.

I have a pastor friend who told me specifically that when he goes out and does a Bible study

with someone, he always has a piece of material to give them.

It's on the same topic.

It allows the person to think it over and kind of internalize the topic once he's left.

And it's a small gift.

It's a seed that germinates the thought once you've already gone away.

I don't know about you, but if you've ever been in an argument and you get done with

that argument and you're leaving by yourself, you're thinking to yourself, I should have

said this or I should have said it like that.

This has been edited, proofread, written carefully, and it's just waiting to reinforce whatever

you might not have said so perfectly when you said it.

Sean Boonstra from The Voice of Prophecy said that before becoming an Adventist, he got

a book on the Sabbath which was pivotal in preparing him for a Seventh-day Adventist

evangelistic meeting.

He said it was non-confrontational.

He could explore the idea on his own, research it, think about it, and then be ready for

further truth.

It was so powerful that he never holds evangelistic meetings without making literature a key component.

It helps set the table to great things, and he concludes, I never do evangelism without

literature.

It's that important.

So how do you do it?

It's nice for me to stand up here and tell you, you should do it, but it's different

when the rubber meets the road.

It's not easy.

It's not easy.

So let me give you three methods that will stair-step you into from easy to rewarding.

I actually borrowed these, stole them from my co-worker up in Canada.

He runs the literature ministry up in Ontario.

Step one, is my mouse moving?

Would you advance to slide one?

Step one, I forget.

I forget.

Get some inexpensive pamphlets of your choice.

We've got lots of steps to Christ, things that are under, you can advance to slide one.

Steps to Christ, there's lots of steps to Christ.

You can advance again.

There's lots of little tracts.

Glow tracts are popular.

Signs of the times tracts are popular.

They deal with subjects on various types.

And the idea is that you would take these seeds with you and forget them in places.

Where would you forget them?

Well, you might forget it with your tip for your waitress, your waiter.

You might forget them in the washroom, the bathroom.

Sorry, some of my Canadianisms are still in my head.

You might forget them at the gas station, on the seat of a bus, or in a lending library

box as a bookmark.

My son came up with his own.

He surprised us by purchasing his own tracts and then we didn't know what he was doing

until he said, well, I was putting tracts in there.

We had caught him at the department store putting a little leaflet into a purse that

had yet to be purchased.

So someone would surprisingly open up their purse and discover some biblical truth.

He was forgetting them around.

Now I know if you're like me, you might think this.

You might think, well, that's got one destination, the garbage, the trash.

Well, maybe.

Maybe that's exactly where God wants it.

Can you advance the slide?

In the book, Just a Scrap of Paper, there's a story told of a little family out in the

country in just the outskirts of, in Great Britain.

The mother and husband had just had their son and daughter-in-law married and they were

visiting for a short time.

Someone had forgotten a slip underneath their front door or dropped it into the mail slot.

You know, the mail would be delivered in the little flopsy brass thing, you know.

Dropped on the front, the woman of the house went over, picked up the mail, flipped through

it and saw the forgotten piece and put it on the wood stove kindling pile to start,

you know, you have your newspaper and your junk paper to start the kindling to get your

fire going.

Put it there.

And found the garbage heap to be burned.

The son saw it, said, hey, mom, this is interesting.

Can I have it?

She said, yeah, it's just going to be burned.

Turned out he and his new bride had started by filling it out and sending it in, started

voice of prophecy lessons.

They took those lessons.

They wound up going to Newbold College.

He became a pastor.

His son grew up, became a pastor.

And it turns out that that was the son wound up here in the United States, works for, worked

for Southern, wound up on Hope Channel and has just recently retired Pastor Derek Morris.

From an I forget method, I had a chance to speak with Pastor Morris recently and he told

me that they never met the man or the woman who forgot the piece of literature, but that

that conversion experience stopped a pattern of, I don't want to misspeak, but he led me

to believe abuse of some sort that was prevalent in the family.

So the word of God has power despite what you see resulting from your labors.

And this is pretty non-confrontational.

You're not entering into any debates with anybody, but perhaps you would like to see,

to know the end of the story, right?

A little bit more or at least see some result.

So maybe you want the next method.

Go ahead and advance it.

I fish.

I fish.

This is taking the first I forget and adding to it the idea of Miriam by the Bull rushes,

praying, watch and pray.

This method works the same, but when you leave something, forget something, you stay nearby,

you watch over it and you pray over it, that God would send the right person to that piece.

In Toronto, there's a commuter train called the Go Train.

The greater Toronto area is massive, but Toronto itself is kind of in the centre, but the Go

Train goes from all the suburbs, kind of like New York, right?

All these other suburbs, the trains lead into the centre.

Gentlemen took the I fish method, sat down on the Go Train and placed a track across

the aisle and in the seat facing him.

They're kind of chairs going this way, chairs going this way, and he was sitting and watching

that chair facing that way with the track sitting in the seat.

He watched and he prayed and the gentleman got on and sat down and picked up the piece.

He read it, folded it up, put it back down and got up and left.

That's who knows what's going on in his head, right?

But keep praying, keep watching.

A few minutes later, another person came, sat and looked at it, then a third.

Just before arriving at his stop, the first man who had come and looked at it came back

to that spot, picked it up, put it in his pocket and exited the train.

Ten cents, ten cents for that track.

That's Canadian cents.

That's like six cents here, seven cents.

It was looked at three times.

Something moved the original reader of it to take it and the person got to see all those

things, which is the reward, right?

This is not difficult.

It's not confrontational, but you do get to see your prayers answered.

Maybe, maybe, maybe it's not enough.

Maybe you want a little bit more, a little bit more reward.

With that comes a little bit more intimacy with the person you're going to share with.

Please advance to the next slide.

I touch.

This is the most scary of them because it's the most interactive.

You will run the risk of being thought of as a religious nut.

You face the possibility of being rejected.

One of the worst things about my asking out girls on dates back in the days before cell

phones, we would have a phone that when you dial the seventh number, there's no send button.

Remember you just push the last touch tone or you dial the last number and it starts

ringing.

It knows it's number seven.

It starts ringing.

I didn't want to be rejected.

All these emotions are happening and yet I really wanted to ask her out.

Okay, one, two, three, four, five, six.

One, two, three, four, five, five, six.

Okay, well hello.

There's fear of being rejected.

There's lots of fears in life.

But the anxiety that paves the way for the wonderful thrill of being accepted.

Right?

So when you have that anxiety, it actually fuels the reward, right?

Which is an even bigger high.

Kurt Johnson has worked for years at perfecting small groups.

He works through the voice of prophecy.

He has talked about his first decision.

He decided when he was 16 years old, I want to give Bible studies.

16?

Okay, so what did you do Kurt?

Well, I went out my front door, I turned left and I knocked on the first door.

Do you want to take Bible studies?

Uh-uh.

Knocks down the road.

Randomly, not randomly, but methodically going down random people's homes.

It took him lots of rejections.

But finally one woman said yes, and that started basically his life legacy.

If you come to the store, there are many books on small groups by Kurt Johnson.

He's done lots of work in the Bible correspondence.

But rejection is always going to be a part of this step.

However, the Bible says, 1 Samuel, the Bible says to remember something.

In 1 Samuel chapter 8, Samuel has a conversation with God.

1 Samuel 8 · chapter mention

Chapter 8, starting with verse 4.

God had just told him to anoint the first king, and he said, what?

Then all the elders of the Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto

Ramah and said unto him, behold, thou art old.

Seems like a good start, right?

And thy sons walk not in thy ways.

Now make us a king to judge us like all the other nations.

Now Samuel was the judge, right?

He was a prophet judge.

But the thing displeased, what does your Bible say?

The thing displeased Samuel?

It displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge over us.

Then Samuel prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice

of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected you, Samuel.

They've rejected me, God, that I should not reign over them.

He felt that they had rejected him, his leadership, and that he had this conversation with God

all the time, and that they had rejected that.

It was partially true.

They've not rejected you.

People who reject you on the street don't reject you.

They reject God.

Your perspective in this will help.

It's not personal.

It's not about you and me.

It's about God.

Do not be ashamed.

Romans 1, 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto

salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Literature can sit and wait for the right time.

It's always ready.

There's a great example of this, the story of an atheist who came face to face with trouble.

And he was feeling this horrible burden, and he said, you know, God, if you really exist,

you have to show me.

He prayed this as an atheist, but nothing happened.

He still felt better.

Somehow he felt better, but nothing happened.

So he went home.

And when he went home, a man was scheduled to come to his house and renovate his kitchen.

And so the cabinetry guy says to him, you know, I walk with the Lord.

What?

Okay, that's fine.

You walk with the Lord, but I just want my cabinets done, okay?

He says, well, okay, but take this.

And he hands him a tract to which the atheist takes it, pops it into the drawer in his kitchen

that we all have that junk drawer, you know, throws it into there, shuts it and forgets

about it.

So a year later, he comes to this realization that he needs God.

And he's rummaging through this, this drawer and he stumbles upon this tract, opens it

up, he begins reading.

He thinks about it.

That was from that cabinetry guy, picks up the phone, calls the cabinetry guy and begins

Bible studies.

That piece sat in his drawer for a year waiting to sprout.

Doesn't happen right away sometimes.

Doesn't necessarily happen while you're watching.

The right method isn't necessary.

Rejection should not be a factor.

And if you use the I touch method or any of these methods, let me give you seven little

points to help you succeed in your endeavors.

First of all, be prepared.

Be prepared.

Have seed with you on your person wherever you go.

You can't necessarily know that the person that you saw at the gas station that you want

to hand something to is going to be there if you have to go back to your car and get

it or, oh, I got to, I got to, let me take your name and your phone number.

Oh, I don't think I want to share that with you.

Have it with you on your person if you can know what you carry.

I tell a good story about a guy who didn't have anything left in his car to give to somebody

and he handed them the church manual.

What what are you thinking?

But the man read it, came back to him and said, if this church believes what is written

in your manual and practices it, I want to be a part of this church.

The Holy Spirit uses whatever, but we need to be smart.

Know what you have, carry some items.

If they're struggling with health, you can hit something with health.

If they're struggling with with losing a loved one, you can hit something.

And know what you're giving them.

Read it first.

Then watch.

This is number three.

Remember opportunities and when you see them, act on them.

Don't be ashamed of of anything.

Don't be afraid.

Just do it.

Just do it.

Number four.

Pray.

Did I say seven?

I've got five.

Pray.

I think of our church forefathers when starting a fledgling group prayed over the tracks in

the pamphlets that were going out.

Pray for the people.

Pray for the work.

And the last thing that will give you courage is that if you do something, you will see

results.

Your prayers will be answered and your faith will grow.

So the three points.

You can advance it.

I forget.

Again, I fish.

One more I touch.

The only thing left is I will.

How many of you are willing to respond to the call of Christ to spread the wonderful,

freeing, peace bringing, fulfilling truth that you yourself enjoy?

If you would, call us at the store or come by.

Visit the little room in the back here.

There's tracks there.

We're all happy to help you find what might fit your special you.

Prayerfully consider how God is calling you to educate those around you.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your truth.

Thank you for the privilege to share that truth and give us your Holy Spirit to strengthen

our minds, to help us to know what to say, how to act and to steal our spines so that

we may do what you want us to do.

For now, we can work and see you come in the clouds that you would say to us someday, well

done.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.