2017 Vision Workshop Keynotes

1. 0:01Dear Father, Jesus Christ, we thank you all for the awesome men and women who have followed you here this morning. Open our hearts, open our eyes, open our minds, open that we may hear your word provided to us through today there. Give us, every one of us, wisdom and energy to do your will.
2. 0:32As we meditate, bless this time we have together. We cherish this fellowship together. Thank you, Father, for everything you've done to provide for us another day, another opportunity to preach your word. Thank you, in Jesus' name. Amen. It's beautiful to watch one of our deaf brothers pray, and it certainly edifies.
3. 1:16Matt's a good student and a good preacher. I need to make, I missed making an announcement before. We want to welcome our Sunset Council members who are here with us. We'll be having a meeting shortly, 1130 to 2. These are great Christian people that volunteer to help us here at the school. Also, if you're not going to be using your name tag later, there's a box out where the registration booth is. You can put your lanyard and all in there. If you are a collector of such things,
4. 1:48Feel free to add us to your collection. Maybe someday you'll show us all your thousands of lanyards. But we appreciate that. Our next speaker, Truett Adair, is the president of the Sunset International Bible Institute and is beloved and admired by all who are part of the Sunset family, whether you're here in Lubbock or spread out anywhere. Truett is originally from Phoenix, Arizona.
5. 2:21He received his biblical and ministry training here at Sunset. He also attended South Plains College, Lubbock Christian University, and he's a graduate of Abilene Christian. Tourist has been preaching for more than 50 years. He's preached in Texas and Arizona. He and his families were missionaries in Lagos, Nigeria. He's done short-term missions in India and Eastern Europe, and he has preached all over the world. In 1989,
6. 2:51Truett became a member of the faculty at Sunset, and he has served as the director and president of Sunset since 1993. Truett married Kay, a young lady he met in Bible class in Phoenix while they were still kids. They fell in love, and they've never fallen out, and that's a beautiful thing. They've been together ever since. We're glad that Kay is able to be with us.
7. 3:18Having watched just a little bit of the inauguration things, I think we have the best First Lady. Amen. That's right. They have four children who, along with their spouses, are all faithful and active in the Lord's Church. They have 11 grandchildren, and they have two extraordinarily special great-grandchildren. Truett is a great man of God. Truett is a dedicated and effective leader.
8. 3:54a gifted spokesman of truth, a loyal and loving husband, a caring and compassionate father, a exemplary grandfather and great-grandfather, and he's even a wise and long-suffering father-in-law. Truett will be preaching a message for us entitled, Unashamed of Suffering for the Cause of Christ. And I know of no person in my life who stands more daily for the cause of Christ
9. 4:27than our speaker. Truett, in that tradition that you love so dearly, maybe more than anyone, we invite you to come and preach the word. Thank you Chris and good morning to all of you. So happy that some could hang around and be here for our last session. And what a fitting song to introduce this.
10. 4:55Be with me, Lord, strengthen me, hold me in the hollow of your hand until the storm passes by. We all have storms in our lives, and we need to know that God will be with us until the storm passes by. We're going to read the text for this assignment, this lesson.
11. 5:24In 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 12 through 19. I'm sure we're going to have something on the screen here pretty soon. So read with me 1 Peter chapter 4 beginning in verse 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal. Now some translations say don't think it's strange because of this fiery trial that is coming upon you.
12. 5:59which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you're blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests.
13. 6:29upon you by no means let any of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or troublesome meddler but if anyone suffers as a Christian let him not feel ashamed but in that name let him glorify God for it's time for judgment to begin at the household of God and if it begins with us first what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God
14. 6:59And if it's with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner? Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. I've probably suffered less in my life than anybody in this world.
15. 7:34in this audience. I don't know why. I just don't feel like I've suffered much. But as a preacher for 50 years, I have spent my life being in the room with, in the funeral parlor with, in the hospitals with, at accident scenes with those who are suffering greatly. And I know
16. 8:18that this passage has a message for all of us. Because all of us either suffer right now, or we have suffered, or we will suffer, or we have loved ones, friends, that we minister to that are suffering. Now, I want to give you the conclusion of this lesson.
17. 8:54We're just going to jump right to the conclusion. And the conclusion is in 1 Peter 5, verses 9 and 10. But resist him, that is the devil, firm in your faith, knowing that the experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. These same experiences of your suffering are experienced by many other people.
18. 9:28And after you have suffered for a little while, the Lord, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. We could quit right now, and you'd have the lesson. But I won't do that. Where were you when the Twin Towers were on fire?
19. 10:07Do you remember? How could you forget? Kay and I were in Ukraine, Donetsk, Ukraine. I was teaching there. Chris was a teacher there. Doug Reeves was the director of the school. I was over there teaching, and at about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, Ukraine time, we decided that it was time for us to find out what was going on in the world, and we turned on BBC.
20. 10:48And we saw an airplane hit one of the twin towers that Kay and I, not too many months before that, had had lunch with a brother in Christ way up high in one of those towers. Probably the one that the plane hit. And we thought, is this a sci-fi movie? Just like you. We didn't believe it when we saw it. And then the other plane hit.
21. 11:24And then in a fiery heat, the towers fell. It took us about a week to figure out how to get home. You know, no planes were flying for a while. The people in Ukraine were just wonderful. They recognized that we were feeling the pain of being away from home when something so catastrophic was happening. And so a preacher named Anatoly.
22. 12:05who didn't make much money at all, came and put a $50 bill in my hand, and he said, I want to help the suffering Americans in New York. Now, the Sunset Congregation took up a big collection to help out, and it was a big check, and I took that check to New York, and I...
23. 12:37presented it to Walter Maxwell and his elders at the Roosevelt Freeport Church of Christ but I also presented that $50 bill from a man who couldn't afford to give it but who wanted to share in the suffering of a lot of other people verse 16 says but if anyone suffers as a Christian let him not
24. 13:17feel ashamed, but in that name, the name of Christ. Christian, Christians, those that act like, look like, follow like Christ, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God. Wow. Peter helps us in this passage, in first the whole book, but especially in chapter 4. He helps us
25. 13:56with four ways that we can deal with suffering in such a way, in such a God-like, Christian-like way that we don't ever have to be ashamed. And that's what he's saying. We don't want you to have to be ashamed. We want you to suffer in such a way that you don't ever have to feel shame. Well, how's that possible?
26. 14:32It's kind of an interesting sideline that this is one of three passages in the New Testament where the word Christian is used. The first one is that great new congregation, that great mission church, the church at Antioch. First in the Bible experienced the label Christian. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. I don't know if it was a term of...
27. 15:06compliment or a term of derision maybe it was those Christ people or maybe it was those people that smell like look like and act like Christ however it was that was the first time but the name had been used before and it was used by Agrippa
28. 15:48Agrippa said to Paul, after Paul had preached the gospel to him, you think in such a short time you're going to make me a Christian? And then here in this passage, you don't have to be ashamed to suffer as a Christian. What are the things that we can do? How do we respond in such a way that we don't ever have to be ashamed? Number one, don't be surprised by suffering.
29. 16:33Some translations say, don't think it strange when you suffer. In 1 Peter 4 and verse 4, it says, in all of this, they, that is the world, non-Christians, they think it's strange. They're surprised that you don't run with them into the same excesses of dissipation and they malign you.
30. 17:05Because we don't look like, we don't think like, we don't act like, the world expects people to act and think and respond. Sometimes they look at us as if we have three heads. They think we're from another planet. And actually the word that's used here is that kind of word. It's the word xenos that is used for aliens.
31. 17:37foreigners they think we're foreign to anything that they understand but then later on in chapter 4 verse 12 he says now you don't need to be surprised you don't need to think it's strange you don't think that it's foreign alien to who you are when you suffer
32. 18:10Because these ordeals come upon you for your testing. And don't be surprised as though some alien thing is happening to you. Some strange, funny thing that you can't imagine. Because we're all going to be there one of these days. It's kind of interesting that all through this book,
33. 18:44suffering is mentioned in fact it's mentioned 15 or 20 times in the book of first peter and right up until this time it's mentioned with the word suffering kind of the normal word for suffering oh but this one's different in verse 12 he says beloved don't be surprised at the fiery trial
34. 19:17that has come upon you now that's that's the twin towers kind of trial that's the big one and he said you know you've been suffering for a while but something big is about to happen Nero is going to launch a great persecution very shortly against Christ and against Christians Paul will die in that persecution
35. 19:58So will Peter probably. And a lot of Christians will. The word that's used here is kind of interesting. It's porosis. It means a burning of metal to the point that it is purified. This fiery ordeal is going to happen to God's people for their testing.
36. 20:34Suffering is not new and it's not strange for Christians, not historically and certainly not then when Nero was on the throne and it's not even new now to us. Christ suffered persecution. Why would we expect his followers not to be persecuted or to suffer? The early church suffered persecution from the very earliest days all through its history.
37. 21:08And Christians are still suffering. There's an interesting phenomenon. I want you to think about all of the persecution that's going on all around the world. There's some young girls in Nigeria that were abducted. They were abducted by religious people. Show that slide. Here's the faces of suffering. Did you know?
38. 21:46that the people that abducted them did that. They made them slaves of some of the soldiers in their Boko Haram army. Only about 20 of those 200 girls have ever been found since. But they were abducted and persecuted in the name of religion. Think about through the ages.
39. 22:20Even going back to the first century, who was it that first persecuted the church? Religious people, Jews, the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. And who was it that continued that persecution later on? It was the Caesars that declared that they were God. And you either worship me, you either fall down and say, Caesar is Lord, or we're going to cut your head off.
40. 22:57Through the years, false religion has persecuted God's people. And it's still happening in our world today. Don't be surprised when it happens. Don't be surprised when churches are burned and people are killed and young women are abducted by religious people. It's been happening for ages. Number two.
41. 23:38We can be unashamed if we keep the right attitude. Paul wrote from prison to the church at Philippi, Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice. Paul, what do you have to rejoice about? Well, Peter talks about the same thing. He says, But to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing.
42. 24:09So that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exaltation. Now, look at this contrast. To the extent that you're sharing right now in the suffering of Christ, rejoice. So that one of these days, and this next phrase is interesting. It literally means to jump with joy. It's not just rejoicing.
43. 24:40It's just jumping up and down excited. So rejoice in your suffering now so that one of these days at the exaltation of Christ you can jump with joy at what God has done in your life. You are blessed if you are reviled for the name of Christ. A blessing in suffering?
44. 25:22Now, let's look at this logically and truthfully. There is no intrinsic blessing in suffering. Suffering is not good. Suffering comes from normally bad sources. Persecution of wicked people or people that are so distorted in their view of God and religion that they persecute good folks.
45. 25:58Nothing good about that. Nothing good about terrible diseases that emaciate the human body and attack us. Nothing good about that. Not intrinsically. But if we keep the right attitude, blessings can actually come into our lives from something that's not good to begin with. God can stand.
46. 26:35bad things on their head and make them good. And that's what the Bible is saying. So rejoice because you've got a God that can turn things around for you. You've got a God that can make something good out of something that is intrinsically evil and bad and devastating. So suffering is presented as a trial, a test.
47. 27:14And Peter uses that word several times, test, trial. In 1 Peter 1, verse 6, he says, In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire may...
48. 27:43be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And then there's that passage about the fiery trial, the porosis. It comes upon us to test us. What does all that mean practically? In a practical sense, let me just give you an example. One of our young...
49. 28:20couples here in this congregation my niece's daughter and son-in-law Michael and Christy Jimenez we've been praying for them all week Michael and Christy have been through the fires Michael wasn't feeling very good he went to the doctor and within an hour he was in the hospital and was diagnosed with acute leukemia
50. 28:57and was told that he needed to start really tough treatments immediately that would cause him to lose his hair, make him sick. And all of that's happened over the last few months. And they've been in and out of the hospital days and weeks at a time. And he's going to have to go down to Houston. And there he'll have stem cell transplants.
51. 29:30And he'll be in the hospital for four months, or at least close to the hospital, staying in Houston for four months while that takes effect. They have been through it. They've got these beautiful t-shirts. And all the family's got those t-shirts. And it just says, I got this, God. They believe that God has got this. They've got the right attitude. Terrible suffering.
52. 30:141 Peter chapter 4 and verse 1 says, Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Now that doesn't mean that when you suffer, that's to take care of your sin problem. No, when you have the same purpose as Christ, when you understand what God is up to in your life,
53. 30:44and you have the right spirit, the right attitude, and you lean on God, then actually it can help you to become better. Listen to what Christy wrote in their blog, their Caring Bridge post, right after the new year. Even though 2016 has ended and Christmas is over, we still...
54. 31:16feel overwhelmed at the outpouring of love we received over the holidays we ask for continued prayers as we plug along with this blessing yes blessing it's not been easy but it's been uplifting to see God's love through so many friends and family we feel encouraged by so many that have always been there and by those we drifted away from that are now part of our lives again
55. 31:46We see God's glory at work even on the toughest of days. We are blessed by the doctors and nurses here in Lubbock who take such good care of Michael. We feel blessed by the amount of research and money that's been spent on finding the best possible cure for leukemia. We feel a closeness that sometimes can only be felt.
56. 32:15when we are being carried by our Lord. Our prayer is that when days are brighter, when the pain diminishes, and when life returns to normal, that we will seek God as fervently then as we do now. That we will not become complacent ever again. That we will never be too busy. That we will never let selfishness consume us.
57. 32:50that we will grow as much in God's word on sunny days as we have grown in the stormy ones. May we all see God's blessings in 2017 when they are masked by suffering. And she gives this scripture, Psalm 119, 49 and 50. Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope, my comfort, and my suffering.
58. 33:25is this your promise preserves my life number three if we want to be the kind of people that can suffer yet never have anything to be ashamed of be concerned about the lost in chapter four it says it's time for judgment to begin at the household of god if it begins with us first what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel
59. 34:05If it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless and the sinners? I do not believe this is just saying, all of those folks are going to hell and they deserve it. I don't think that's what this means at all. I think this is saying to every Christian something like what Paul meant in chapter...
60. 34:372 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 11 where he said, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. I think Peter is saying, I know you've got it bad. I know you've got it tough, but you've got an eternal glory waiting for you. What do you think is going to happen to these lost people if we don't tell them the gospel? They may not be suffering now, but they're going to suffer for eternity.
61. 35:18We need to be the kind of people that are concerned about the lost. Now, there was a fiery ordeal in the first century, but there are some fiery ordeals going on in our world today. There's a fiery ordeal that went on recently in Egypt. Coptic church was bombed by a suicide bomber, and 25 people were killed.
62. 35:5149 more were wounded, mostly women and children. The bomb was placed in the place in that church where women and children sit. A fiery ordeal by religious fanatics who hate Christians and Christianity. And yet, only a couple of blocks away is the home of Francis and Alfred Habashi. They live just...
63. 36:37Within a stone's throw of where this church was bombed and burned. And they're there to preach the gospel to some of those same people that killed those folks in that church. They're there to evangelize. To tell good news to people that need so desperately to hear it. I know that nations have a responsibility to go to war.
64. 37:22to protect their people, even to kill in the name of national sovereignty. But folks, our job is to provide the only real cure for all of this hatred and all of this horrible persecution that's going on in the world. And you and I know what that is. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's the only thing that's going to cure it permanently. That's why some of the things that are going on that you may have heard about.
65. 38:00while you were here are so important. Getting all of the message of Christ into the Arabic language, preaching it and teaching it to those refugees so that they can take it back home to all of the people that need to hear it in their countries. You know what's behind all of this persecution? Satan himself. The book of Revelation describes this. First 10 chapters talk about all that's going on in the world.
66. 38:40First 11 chapters, really, and then you get to chapter 12, and God pulls the curtain back because God is going to answer in chapter 12 the question that Christians were asking for 11 chapters. Why, Lord? Why is all this happening? Why do people hate us? Why do people persecute us? Why do we have diseases? Why is all of this happening? And he pulls the curtain back, and he shows what's going on.
67. 39:18In heaven's courts that has an impact on what they were suffering and what we suffer today. In Revelation chapter 12 and verse 10 it says, I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now have come salvation and power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ for the accuser of our brothers who accuses them day and night before our God has been hurled down.
68. 39:49And all of heaven rejoiced because Satan was gone from the courts of God. No more could he come before the Lord as he did in Job chapter 1 and accuse the people of God. Oh, but verse 12 says, but woe to the earth because the devil has gone down to you and he is filled with fury because he knows his time.
69. 40:27is short if you wonder why why is there suffering why is there disease why is there persecution why is there hatred why is there killing it's because there is a Satan and he is doing all the damage he can do before that final pronouncement by God and before
70. 41:03that old serpent is cast finally and forever into the fire of hell. I'll tell you, the world is a dangerous place. Marathons, malls, mission fields, we're vulnerable. We're vulnerable to persecution. We're vulnerable to disease. It's all around us. What do we do? Number four, trust in your creator. That's...
71. 41:50That's what it says in verse 19. Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. Why didn't he just say God? Why did he say creator? The God that made everything. The God that made you and made me. The God that made the world.
72. 42:29understands what's going on in his world and he understands us and he understands how we're made and we can trust him. Isaiah chapter 37 and verse 15 describes what was happening in Judah when Sennacherib's army surrounded the city and Sennacherib was saying surrender or else. Here's what Hezekiah prayed.
73. 43:05under duress and persecution. O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us. You see, when we suffer, we can appeal directly to the God
74. 43:41who made everything if we can just keep those four things in our thoughts and our minds maybe we can understand that blessing can come out of suffering that we don't have to be ashamed that we can rejoice anyway in spite of what happens there's a famous painting we'll end with this there's a famous painting
75. 44:21called Peace in the Midst of the Storm. It's a painting that has a picture of a little bird. You don't even see it at first because you see this raging storm and a raging, billowing sea and the water cascading down. But if you look very closely, paint it into that famous picture.
76. 45:02is a mother bird sitting calmly on a nest in the midst of the storm. Now what you don't see at first, and you have to look real hard to find, is the artist has painted into this picture in one of the rock outcroppings the face of a snake, a serpent. He's also...
77. 45:39built into the painting a cross you have to look hard to find it it's in the cracks and crevices of the rocks and in one of those sections of the rock he has the image of the open tomb and what he's saying is when the storms rage around you when suffering comes when persecution is present you can rely on
78. 46:20When Satan rears his ugly head, you can turn to the cross because that's where we find our salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. And you can look to the open tomb. Death couldn't hold him. And therefore, ultimately, we're going to be all right. Rejoice. Be blessed. Even in the midst of suffering.
79. 47:03So, 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 10, resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world, and after you've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you by his eternal glory in Christ, will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

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