A window of opportunity exists whenever someone is willing to listen to what we want to share. How do we maximize that opportunity? Marketers seek to engage us for 15 minutes to save us 15 percent, where God uses windows of opportunity to save souls. The next 15 minutes could be our last opportunity. How can we best utilize that limited time? From his own experience, Todd will tell the story of such a window of opportunity. 

ASI 2017: Called. Chosen. Committed.

<p>A window of opportunity exists whenever someone is willing to listen to what we want to share. How do we maximize that opportunity? Marketers seek to engage us for 15 minutes to save us 15 percent, where God uses windows of opportunity to save souls. The next 15 minutes could be our last opportunity. How can we best utilize that limited time? From his own experience, Todd will tell the story of such a window of opportunity. </p>

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

Plenary

Steve Dickman

The Curse of Meroz

Andi Hunsaker

One Hour to Live. The Gospel

James Rafferty

Have You Prayed for the President

Todd Guthrie

Window of Opportunity

Members In Action

Julian Archer

The Cross-Eyed Christian

Elias Baquero

Bob Hunsaker

Justin Kim

Lyndi Schwartz

The Priority of the Promise

Shawn Boonstra

Called. Chosen. Committed.

Mark Finley

Charles Sarr

Ted N.C. Wilson

ASI Marks 70th Anniversary

Kyle Allen

No Applications, Only Commitments


The last hour, a window of opportunity. This phrase, the last hour, brings a certain sense of urgency, of finality. And yet, in earth's last hour, there is a window of opportunity for God to work. This earth is certainly in its last hour. And because of this, more and more people are literally in their last hour.

The world's coming apart. There's bloodshed. There's conflict. And in this world of uncertainty and danger, we do not know when our last hour might be. What do we want to do in Earth's last hour?

I'm a physician. So news reports like the ones we have had recently cut close to home. Just last week, There was a physician that was killed because he refused to prescribe pain pills to the wife of the killer. A few years ago, this incident happened. So in healthcare, we seem to think that because we're helping people, we're somehow immune from these dangers, but we're not.

Do you ever wonder what would be most important in your last hour? In the last hour, the mind clears, life compresses and distills to what's most important. I met a man I'll call Adam in my office for a routine visit. He had excruciating hip pain and his x-ray showed why. It looked terrible.

He needed a hip replacement. Well, I'm an orthopedic surgeon. I enjoy doing hip replacements and helping people, so I was happy to help him. He also had some problems with his feet. He had some congenital problems that made his balance an issue for him.

So he was concerned about his rehabilitation after surgery. He wanted to make sure that he went to a particular rehab facility so he could get his balance and get the services he needed when he was discharged from the hospital. So we had the usual discussion. We prayed together, as is my practice, when patients like that before we proceed with surgery and his surgery went well. It went very well.

In fact, his new hip looked great. But something strange happened when he got to his room after surgery. It's like he decompensated the stress, the thought of can I get what I need, this self-focus turned into lashing out at other people? This is what he did under stress, and I didn't know that ahead of time. He began to give the nurses a hard time.

I got reports of him throwing things and swearing, and things just went from bad to worse. He was acting out his fears and creating a disaster for himself. So what does a good physician do? I ordered some medication to calm him down. And it was so effective that when I got to his room, a few hours later, I was in surgery and got to his room, he was up in a chair and he was sleeping in the chair.

So I didn't wanna bother him because This was a stressful situation and I didn't want to wake him up and have him swear at me. But when he woke up again, he continued to alienate everyone around him. Unfortunately, the nurses that work at the hospital also do part-time at the rehab facility. And this was a problem because the words soon got to this place and they wanted nothing to do with this man at that rehab facility. But he refused to go to any other option.

So what ended up happening was our physician assistant discharged him to home, put him on the doorstep of the hospital. I think it was snowing at the time. And his estranged, not surprisingly estranged wife took him home. And I thought, well, okay, that's okay. But then the phone calls began.

He had a few faults at home and it was my fault. I had abandoned him. I had left him to suffer. He'd swear at me on the phone, swear at my staff. He was going to sue me.

It's a wonderful thought as a physician. Well, he did agree to come back for a visit. As a physician, I have a responsibility to make sure he's doing okay and he did agree to come back, but my thought was doing this is going to be quite risky. These reports of physicians being offed by their patients are not comforting. What risk was I taking in even letting him come into the office?

Well in the last days and hours preceding his visit, I started to think, I'm a Christian physician. I'm here to minister to my patients. How do I deal with this situation? Didn't this man create his own disaster? What's my responsibility in this situation?

Could this in any way be my fault or my responsibility? How could I handle the risk and the danger? Well my mind went in an interesting direction as I pondered these questions. The approach of the last hour had a clarifying effect on my thoughts. I needed a new way of thinking, a new way of seeing this problem with Adam.

I needed a metanoia, as it says in the original language, a change of mind. So I thought only with heaven's help can I have this paradigm shift that I need? And the Word of God provides us the paradigm shift that we need in earth's last hour to deal with the danger and stress that we face. We read in 2 Corinthians 5, 14 to 16, for the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus that if 1 died for all, then all died, and he died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, We regard no 1 according to the flesh.

Seeing that Christ's death was a representative death put me on equal footing with Adam. In this sense, His sin was my sin. We share the same human nature. I have the same weakness as He does. Have I ever lashed out at someone when I'm under stress?

Not only that, I was compelled, according to this text, by the love of God in Christ, to repent myself for not ministering this gospel to Him. I needed the gift of heavenly repentance in order to effectively minister to Adam. Here's how Ellen White puts it, repentance represents the process by which the soul seeks to reflect the image of Christ to the world. For me, that was a mind-altering thought. And my prayer is that it might be for us collectively as well.

Well, how could actual reconciliation with Adam occur? How much of this was my responsibility? How much of this was his responsibility? Did I need to hold him on the… to account for what his behavior was? How did this actually work out in practical ways?

So as I thought about this, I read further down in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, now all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Here's what it looks like. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

In this wonderful, glorious act, God has gifted us with the ministry of reconciliation. This is His promise, especially in what could be or is our last hour. I saw that I did not have to hold Adam's transgressions against him. In fact, my not doing so was the key to our reconciliation. But more than that, I wanted Adam to actually be restored.

I wanted his mind to actually have a change. Could he be restored to a better way of thinking and of living? I found that my fear was relieved by focusing on what he needed. As I interceded with heaven On Adam's behalf, my focus became clear. But I would need resources that I don't possess to help Adam.

But here was my hope. We, I, do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with my weakness, but he was in all points tempted like as I am, yet without sin. Therefore I could come boldly to the throne of grace that I could obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of Adam's need. I have a high priest interceding for me. I could boldly ask for the gift of his restoring power on behalf of Adam, because he's the second Adam, and He already has done the work to reconcile the first Adam and complete that restoration.

Well, it came down to the literal last hour. Do You want to know what happened? I had arranged in my weakness to have a sheriff's deputy in the office, but out of sight to Adam because I didn't want to stress Adam out. That would be the wrong trigger for Adam. But I did have a responsibility, actually, to protect my staff in case Adam brought something.

But I would still have to go into the room alone, and there would be a moment where Adam and I would have to interact one-on-one. But I saw that the confrontation that we were facing, potentially facing, was primarily a spiritual 1 because we wrestled not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of darkness, the spiritual hosts of wickedness, as it says in Ephesians 6, 12. So I needed to apply the mighty weapons of the gospel to pull down these strongholds that were holding Adam in place, these strongholds that are mentioned in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 4. Well, here's what I did. I walked in the room, and Adam said, Doc, we need to talk.

I said, yes, we do. Let me start. Adam, I want to ask your forgiveness. You are in great need, you're under stress, and I didn't come and minister to you. And for that I ask your forgiveness." I'd had another patient bring me some thank you gifts, some food, some olives and eggs, doesn't matter what it was, but I asked him, hey, would you like these things?

And I gave him some gifts. And we experienced reconciliation at that moment. And then I asked again at the end of the visit, can I pray for you? And he said yes, but he said, I want you to intercede for me with my family, with my wife, these people I've estranged. Would you call them?

So I agreed to do that, and I did call them later and found out that the reconciliation of his family was already occurring. The gospel of Jesus Christ applied, was indeed the power of God. So in my last hour, what would I want to do? Like Daniel, I would repent on behalf of the body of Christ, the church. I would repent of not doing more for others, of not believing and living the gospel that transforms lives.

I would accept my identity truly with Christ, who has identified His humanity with me, as He gives me the gift of repentance, which He exercised on behalf of the race. In my last hour, I would want to help someone else reconcile with God and others, believing the initiative that God has taken with me and applying that as a reconciling force in the world. In my last hour, I would intercede to see people and relationships restored. I can trust my intercessor to restore all things. He will restore my life if I lose it for his sake.

I pray he will use me to heal and restore the relationships of those around me and it's my prayer in this last hour of his history that we can all experience this power of God's love revealed in the cross to cast out all fear so that we can become effective ambassadors for Christ. Our message will be that God has already reconciled each and every member of the human race to Himself through Christ, and our simple yet powerful call will be to each 1. This call, be reconciled. Services and industries. If you would like to learn more about ASI, please visit www.asiaministries.org.

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Series

Plenary

Window of Opportunity

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Other Teachings in Series

The Curse of Meroz

1h 57m

One Hour to Live. The Gospel

1h 27m

Have You Prayed for the President

1h 27m

Window of Opportunity

1h 27m

Members In Action

1h 57m

The Cross-Eyed Christian

1h 26m

The Priority of the Promise

1h 28m

Called. Chosen. Committed.

1h 42m

ASI Marks 70th Anniversary

1h 36m

No Applications, Only Commitments

58m

Sound Doctrine