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sabbath school and church part 2
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in this episode, you will hear the conclusion of sabbath school and church recorded february 25, 2022
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Transcript
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Ann Arbor Church Repair Story
00:03:43
Speaker
is all. Thank you for listening.
00:04:11
Speaker
Gaining Dimmels and other interests On Joseph Weekland's Harmonica Player Podcasts Mic on We present Mic off Mic on Sabbath School and Church Part 2
00:04:57
Speaker
This was recorded February 25, 2022. It's now time for our tithe and offerings. You can turn in your bulletin for our offering today. It's for the MAP, Michigan Advanced Partners. It's a little
00:05:19
Speaker
paragraph here I'm going to read. It says, recently, the Ann Arbor Church needed to make repairs and updates to their three campus buildings. Each project required significant investment for the church, which was greater than the members could afford on their own. So they decided to fundraise and also ask for MAP funds. Many people responded to the call for support, even those who are not members of the church.
00:05:45
Speaker
However, the church still needed approximately 25% more to complete all the repairs and updates. The monies from MAP were able to fund this amount. Now all three buildings are ready to continue advancing the gospel in Ann Arbor. This was made possible because of those who give faithfully to MAP. Your gift today will help other churches like Ann Arbor to further God's work and their communities. Let's bow our heads. Father in heaven,
00:06:14
Speaker
Lord, we thank you for all the blessings you give us. Blessings of health, blessings of families, blessings of homes and cars, and blessings of wealth as well. And Father, as we return our tithe and we give our offerings, I pray, Father, that you would bless them. Lord, that they would further your work, further your kingdom, and may they hasten your coming. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
00:07:08
Speaker
you
00:07:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:31
Speaker
All right, young people, you probably know this already, but it's time to come forward and grab a basket and collect the lamb's offering. And today's lamb's offering will be for the Pathfinder World Campery. And after that, Rebecca White will be giving us the children's story.
00:09:26
Speaker
. . .
00:10:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:14
Speaker
Okay.
Children's Time: Lessons and Offerings
00:11:15
Speaker
Good job collecting the offering today, guys. Good morning, boys and girls. I have a story for you today about when I was a teenager and I was getting ready to go to driver's education and learn how to drive a car. Now, I know that seems a long ways off for you guys, but in 10 years, you'll all be driving cars, which is kind of a scary thought.
00:11:38
Speaker
especially as a parent, but so I was getting ready to go to driver's education.
00:11:45
Speaker
and my mom had signed me up for the June session and so school had gotten out for me and I was ready to go to my driver's school. And it might seem like it's an easy thing to just sit back and drive a car because your parents drive you everywhere every day and you just drive right. But there's a lot involved. I had to do three different parts of my driver's school every day. Sometimes we had to listen to the teacher and he would teach us things that we had a book we had to fill out our answers just like in school.
00:12:11
Speaker
And to fill out your answers and take little quizzes. And sometimes we would get on the road with our teacher in a car. And we'd have a couple of friends that would be driving down the road. And our teacher would make us do things like go on the crazy fast expressway. Or maybe we'd have to go down little tiny, turny roads. Or go through drive-through windows and restaurants. Oh, that was a little scary. But I did all right. And then there was another section called the range section. And they had the whole parking lot at the school set up with cones.
00:12:40
Speaker
and blockers, and you had to practice all these different parking things. Now, parking was kind of tough for me, and I was trying, but sometimes I'd bump a cone, or I'd knock something over, or I'd get my car all crooked, and I'm supposed to be parked like this, but I might be like this, and it was just kind of hard. Well, I worked hard, and every day I went, I got up early, went to my driver's school, because that's what I needed to do, so I could learn to drive. And the end of the month came, and it was time to take my tests.
00:13:10
Speaker
So I went and I took my written test and that was fine because I'd been studying and I knew all the answers. I wrote them down. I aced that. I did well. And then I did my on the road test. I was driving around with my teacher and I did fine. I did okay. I did my parking test and the range. I didn't do very well. And you know what my teacher said? He said, I can't give you your driver's permit. You failed that part.
00:13:35
Speaker
You're going to have to come back in July and try again. Oh, no. I was so sad. I went home and I cried and I cried because I'd never really feel the things because I'd always done my best. And I just I was really sad, really pumped. But, you know, my mom hugged me and, you know, I remembered a couple of Bible texts that helped me. And I'm going to share those with you really quick. My Bible text that I remembered.
00:14:01
Speaker
One of my Bible texts was Philippians 4.13. I think you guys might know this one. It says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Now, do you think all things includes parking a car in all kinds of crazy positions? It does. But I also remember the Bible text, another one. Oops, I dropped my bookmark here. Another Bible text, which is in Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10, it says,
00:14:32
Speaker
I'll get it again. Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might. So I got to think and I said, well, Jesus is going to help me, but I got to try. I got to practice because I got to figure this parking thing out. So my dad, he took me out sometimes between the June session and the July session. And we went and we practiced parking on the roads in the town where we were. And it was kind of embarrassing because he took me on the streets and there were people walking by and watching
00:15:02
Speaker
But I tried and I figured out my parallel park, and I got it just right. And then that first day of my new session came, my July session. And I was determined. I was going to pass it this time. And I got there out in the range, and I got in my car, and my teacher was watching me. And you know what he said after that first day?
00:15:21
Speaker
He said, you pass. You don't need to come back anymore. You did an excellent job. You can go get your driver's license. Oh, that made me so happy because I passed. But you know it was God who helped me. It wasn't just me. It was God. And I want to dream this back to you guys. You guys aren't driving cars yet, and you won't be for a little bit. But you have lots of other tasks you need to do during the day. Sometimes it might be an easy task, like mom says, go clean your room.
00:15:48
Speaker
Or a mom says, maybe help me unload the dishwasher or take out the garbage. And some of those things might seem easy, but they might seem kind of hard and you feel like maybe you just want to just kind of slop through. And so when it's time to clean your room, you just throw stuff in your drawers and hide it all in your bed and close the door and say, I'm done. But is that working with all your might?
00:16:09
Speaker
That's not, we need to do everything with all our might, right? And sometimes we have hard things, really big hard things like hard tests at school, or maybe we have new sports we're learning, or we have music recitals or concerts that we need to do. And it seems hard, but God can help us do that too, doesn't He? God can help us. So remember, you can do all things through Christ, but He's gonna help you learn to work and do it right.
00:16:38
Speaker
OK? We're going to have a little prayer, and we'll go back to our seats. Dear Jesus, we thank you for this Sabbath day. We thank you that you can help us do all things. And we pray that you help us to trust in that and help us to do our best in all the things that we have to do in our lives, help us to learn to do it for you. And give us a good Sabbath day, we pray in your name. Amen. We'll go back to your seats.
Scripture Reading and Reflections
00:17:21
Speaker
Good morning, happy Sabbath. Our scripture reading this morning is found in First Kings chapter 17 verses one to four. First Kings chapter 17 verses one to four. I'll be reading out of the King James Version.
00:17:40
Speaker
And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Galed, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew or rain these years, but according to my word. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook
00:18:08
Speaker
that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shall drink of the brook and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee. Amen.
00:18:25
Speaker
I would invite you at this time to look at the back page of our bulletin. There's prayer requests there. And the highlighted one there is the bold print. It's a new request. It's for Mark Linky for surgery, which is scheduled March 14th. So remember those requests as you pray in your devotions this week.
00:18:52
Speaker
If you can, if you're able to, please kneel with me as we have our prayer this morning.
00:19:07
Speaker
your eyes upon Jesus. Look, fall in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim.
00:19:41
Speaker
Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your love for us and for Jesus. We thank you for being our awesome provider, Lord. We thank you for many blessings that you bestow upon us. And we ask that you would be with our worship this morning. Please help it to be acceptable in your sight. Please be with those names listed.
00:20:04
Speaker
in our prayer requests, in our bulletin, and be with each situation, Lord, and according to your will, for only you know the end from the beginning. We pray that you would also be with our brother Andrew this morning as he brings us your word.
00:20:22
Speaker
Please speak through him, anoint our ears so that we can hear and not just to hear, Lord, but to do. And help us to be a blessing to those around us, help us to minister to them, and fit us for heaven and take us home with you when you come is our prayer in Jesus' loving name, amen.
00:21:33
Speaker
Oh my gosh.
Sermon on Foundations and Idolatry
00:22:02
Speaker
And maybe these are some fun
00:22:06
Speaker
The wise man built his house upon the rock The wise man built his house upon the rock And the rain came falling down The rain came down and the flood came up The rain came down and the flood came up The rain came down and the flood came up The rain came down and the flood came up
00:22:44
Speaker
The rain came down and the floods came up. The rain came down and the floods came up.
00:23:20
Speaker
Thanks, Hawk. Lauren. Thank you so much. Wasn't that wonderful? Yeah. Wisdom from the children in song. The wise man builds his house on the? Rock. Yes. And the foolish man builds his house where? On the sand. What is your house built on? Rock. Yeah. Married people. What's your marriage built on?
00:23:50
Speaker
It's interesting, the story says that the rains came down. Didn't say if, right? They come to test every structure. The good news is if you've built your house on the rock, it will stand. But if you've taken the shortcuts to build on man-made things, it can't stand.
00:24:19
Speaker
And so I don't want to kind of get off tangent here, but it's on my heart that, you know, lately it just seems like I'm inundated with good friends and family members who have built their relationships on something else. And when trial and difficulty come, you can see the framework of the relationship begin to tremble and begin to collapse. And so I'm very grateful for the song to remind, you know, for the little children through the song, they remind you to go back and investigate.
00:24:49
Speaker
What is my life built on? The rock. Everybody say the rock. The rock. I'm happy to be here today. I don't know about you. You'd be proud of me. I got up this morning. I wasn't frantic. I wasn't irritated. You know, I just took my time. Some people didn't want to get in the car. And I just, you know, you'd be proud. You know, the Spirit of God is working in me. Yeah, you know, because you know like Sabbath morning is challenging. Amen.
00:25:17
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes that's when everything that can't goes wrong, well, it does go wrong. Would you be so proud of me? I just got in the car, took my time. Hey, what's wrong with you? Yeah, put them in the car and see everything. And we got to, cheerful. Cheerful, amen. It's good to come to church cheerful. Of all people on earth, Seventh-day, well, Christian Seventh-day Adventists should be the most cheerful. But sometimes you go to church and you see sad faces.
00:25:45
Speaker
But I'm looking out and I see a lot of happy faces here. We're going home soon. And not to your house. We're talking about heaven. Yeah, but we're going to go home soon. I'm not going to take long. I've got three points and we're going to get through it. I've titled today's message. No, no, no. See, you're a troublemaker. Because I can preach for an hour and a half. Easy. I can talk about the scriptures all day long.
00:26:10
Speaker
As a matter of fact, in preparation for my sermons, I preach the sermon out loud. And so, you know, my kids have learned I'm not going crazy. I'm just going through it. The word of God is so wonderful. And I'm glad to be a, and I reiterate, a Christian Seventh Day Adventist. I'm not a Seventh Day Adventist Christian. Christian comes before the Seventh Day stuff. You're a Christian first.
00:26:36
Speaker
And it's important to, you know, it's not just semantics. It's important to understand that, that we are followers of Christ. We're not followers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Huh? The Seventh-day Adventist Church was never meant to be a denomination. By the way, I found out that there are over 33,000 Christian denominations in the United States. 33,000.
00:27:03
Speaker
That's a lot. So don't think that, you know, I'm going to get up and I'm going to research and I'm going to test them all out and I'm going to find my way into this church. The reason why you're here is because God handpicked you. He handpicked you. That means you're here for a reason, a very specific reason. You're not a member of a denomination. You're a member of a movement.
00:27:30
Speaker
progressive kind of got me thinking pastor sermon last week got me thinking you talked about the great disappointment and you know the origins of our church and and and how the the founders of the church they had sold all their stuff 1844 they're standing waiting for Jesus to come back by the way do you know that there were still slaves you're not gonna you're not going up to heaven without the slaves huh
00:28:00
Speaker
There are a lot of people who had not heard the message and there's a little pesky passage of scripture which says that no man knows the day nor the hour of his coming. It's interesting in all that study they left out that part. And so it got me thinking about this church that we have been hand-picked to be a part of. And you children here you've been hand-picked by your parents to come to church whether you like it or not.
00:28:29
Speaker
But one day you'll have a choice, little kids, to go your own way or not. And our job as parents is to try to model Christ, amen? It's to model Christ, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control on Sabbath morning. You can just get it out of your system, amen. Yeah. Yeah, the first encounter
00:28:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's okay, it's okay. The first encounter, listen, the first encounter that kids have with God is through the parents at home. Breaks my heart because going to some homes and you're like Christian homes and God isn't there. But we have a God who is patient with us.
00:29:20
Speaker
He doesn't give up on us as quickly as we give up on ourselves and other people. God, it's amazing that no matter how far you run from God, He finds you and He brings you back to Himself. And so today I want to talk about Elijah and I've titled today's sermon, The Raven, The Widow, and the Rain. And I just have three basic lessons that I think these
00:29:49
Speaker
particular inflection points in the story bring out. But I'd like you to pray for me. I know many of you have been praying for me and ultimately when I stand up to share, I just want to encourage you. Like the week has been stressful enough. I want you to leave invigorated, right? I want you to leave more excited to follow Christ than when you came in. I don't want to pile in.
00:30:13
Speaker
Now I want you to leave being excited about being a Christian. We're about to leave this place and then come back to an earth-made new. Let's pray everyone. Father in heaven, we're so excited to be here. We know you're here already.
00:30:31
Speaker
So please Holy Spirit, can't see you. Sometimes you can't even discern your voice, how you move, what you do. But we give you permission to just tinker and reorganize our thought process. Give us new eyes, perspective so we can begin to see our lives and the world and ministry from the perspective of Jesus. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Yeah.
00:31:00
Speaker
the raven, the widow, and the rain. Just very, very quickly, I think this message is important for several reasons. The first being that before Jesus appears, before Jesus appears as a matter of principle and prophecy, we'll talk about it very briefly, but before Jesus appears, manifests himself, he always sends Elijah first.
00:31:30
Speaker
Go with me very quickly to Malachi chapter 4, if you like. I'll read it in your hearing, however, and I'll be reading from the New King James version of the Bible. Malachi chapter 4, I'll read it. If you're there, you can say, I found it.
00:31:51
Speaker
All right, listen, let me start at verse 1 actually, just kind of setting a little backdrop before we just bring out some highlights in today's message. This passage that we're about to read, just to let you know, it's about the second coming of Christ. Listen to what God says through Malachi. He says, for behold, surprise, something you didn't expect. For behold, the day is coming.
00:32:20
Speaker
Burning like what everyone? An oven. What's going to be burning like an oven? Your cars and your clothing and your stuff. Amen. Yeah, isn't that right? Everything here on earth is going to burn, the Bible says, with fervent heat. Your mortgage. Come on, come on everyone. Your student loans. Hey, come hey. Sickness, death.
00:32:46
Speaker
It's all, you know, the economy, all that stuff is gonna be wiped out. That's good news. Good news. It's coming, it's coming. Burning like a furnace and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubbles. That means that the arrogant, the wicked, they don't get away with murder.
00:33:12
Speaker
Solomon actually said in Proverbs that the wicked actually do wicked and they go down to their graves with, you know, cash in the bank, but they don't get away scot-free. Huh? Yes, the day is coming. All the pre- all the arrogant, all the conceited, all those who put their trust in themselves and in their cash, all that's going to be wiped away. And the day which is coming shall burn them up. All the things that harass you and annoy you, it's, God is going to wipe it all away.
00:33:43
Speaker
This life is just the beginning of a life that has no end. That means if you never get to go to Hawaii or Maui or any of these places, God has something better for you. Huh? So don't go into debt for those vacations. Just be saved. Amen. Some of you stretching yourself thin and accumulating gray hairs because you want to achieve great heights. Don't worry about that. God has got you covered. Yeah.
00:34:13
Speaker
Mm hmm. The day is coming and it shall burn them up says the Lord of hosts that will leave them neither root nor branch. God is saying that that evil right what Satan has planted that he's going to dig up the very root. You will never ever forever be harassed by temptation ever. Amen.
00:34:33
Speaker
That means when you go to eat, you won't keep eating and eating and eating. You'll have self-control. There'll be no invisible voice, no voice speaking to you, tempting you to do wrong. All the things you want to do, the good things, you'll do them without interruption. Wow. Verse 2, but to you who fear my name, to you who have respect for me, the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings.
00:35:03
Speaker
Does God have healing in His wings? Is He still able to heal cancer, by the way? Yeah, come on now. Cancer is not a big deal for God. Sometimes, however, just He allows sickness to get our attention and the attention of family members and friends. Sometimes when sickness comes, you pray more and your prayers are more authentic and desperate.
00:35:30
Speaker
But to you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings, and you shall go out and grow like stall-fed, grow fat." Not oatmeal, fat in terms of your faith, not wide. You shall go fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this, says the Lord of hosts.
00:36:02
Speaker
Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb." That's Mount Sinai. For all Israel with the statutes and judgments, behold, listen, behold, I will send you Elijah, who everyone? The prophet before the coming of the great, wonderful, and dreadful, dreadful to those who don't love God. Day of the Lord, and he will turn.
00:36:27
Speaker
Elijah will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." In other words, that before God reveals Himself, He sends Elijah the prophet to bring restoration at home. You see, the church is not just this ambiguous generic thing. The church, it's just people gathered together who believe in God and who follow Him.
00:36:57
Speaker
So the health of the church is directly linked to the health of your home. What happens in the home? Are you with me, everyone? So if there's no love and kindness at home, if there's no patience and mercy at home, there can't be in the church. So sometimes we say, you know, I have the church, this, church, that. Actually, we're saying the family is this, the family is that.
00:37:22
Speaker
And so the first thing that we want to understand with God is that God always deals with his home, his house first. He always sends the message to his people first. In other words, God is saying, before you start talking about all the things that are happening in the church, look at your home. What's the atmosphere at home?
Elijah's Encounters and God's Provision
00:37:49
Speaker
is their forgiveness and mercy at home. Now the Jews reading this text, they believed that Malachi was literally talking about Elijah. Like God would raise Elijah back, or actually we know Elijah went up into heaven, that God would actually send Elijah literally back down. Go with me to Matthew 17. Matthew chapter 17.
00:38:20
Speaker
All right. Matthew 17 and verse 10. Matthew 17 verse 10 and we understand this particular passage has to do with Jesus being transformed on the Mount.
00:38:40
Speaker
You remember that story? How many of you have read this story you know about when Jesus took Peter, James, and John up the mountain and he was transfigured, transformed. In other words, that Jesus appeared in his glory, the glory that he had with the Father, in immense, intense light. And this is, I don't want to digress, but Peter, James, and John fell asleep when they should have been awake.
00:39:08
Speaker
And they caught part of the conversation because there's Jesus on the top of the Mount and God sends two human beings. Who does He send to talk with Jesus? Moses and Elijah and they specifically came to give Jesus encouragement. Aren't you glad that Jesus sends encouragement to you? When you're depressed, when it looks like
00:39:33
Speaker
Everyone has fallen away. You've asked people to pray for you and you can imagine Jesus turned to his friends and they're snoring. By the way, you remember they were snoring also in the Garden of Gethsemane. Yeah, they kind of didn't learn that lesson. However, Peter, he wakes up startled and he catches the conversation and he discerns that it's none other than Moses and Elijah.
00:40:04
Speaker
Actually, if you back up to verse 9, now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them saying, guys, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. Don't tell anyone. Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead. And his disciples asked him saying, huh, why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? We're confused. This is what we've been taught in Sabbath school. This is what we've been taught in the synagogue that
00:40:32
Speaker
Before the Messiah would come, He would literally send Elijah. What's going on? Listen to what Jesus says. Verse 11, Jesus answered and said to them, indeed, yes, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that what? Ah, Elijah has come. Wait, what? Elijah has come already? And Jesus said, and they did not know Him, but did to Him whatever they wished.
00:41:03
Speaker
Likewise, in the same way, the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands. Then the light bulb went off. They understood that He spoke to them of who? So you understand now that when Malachi said, God speaking through Malachi said that He's going to send Elijah first, is it literal or figurative? Yes.
00:41:32
Speaker
that before God reveals Himself, He always sends the reformer. That's the purpose of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In the midst of Christianity, before Jesus comes, you see, we're not going to escape and mount wings and fly up and leave the whole world. No, before God comes, He's going to give everyone, especially the church first, an opportunity to know Him.
00:42:06
Speaker
You see, because it's very, it makes logical sense that if the house is in disarray, anyone who you bring in the house is going to be in disarray as well. So the first, listen, the first place God's first order of business is to deal with His people first. Let the church say amen. That means, that means, yes, amen. That means, it's not generic, that means the first place God starts is in your house, in the refrigerator.
00:42:36
Speaker
On the internet, what you listen to, what you play, the stuff that nobody can see, God, He can see it. Can He? Absolutely. And listen, everyone, God, there's only one of you. So if God loses you, He loses you forever and He can't afford that. When God gave His life, He gave His life for you.
00:43:03
Speaker
That means that there is no greater gift that God could give. You follow that? And if God's life is infinitely valuable, what does it mean for your life? It's infinitely valuable. There are people who will be lost and you see you might forget, but God never forgets.
00:43:23
Speaker
And so God, beginning at home, He says, listen, Andrew, I'm coming into your house. Don't worry about the conference. Don't worry about this. Don't worry about the Catholic Church. Don't worry about the Freemasons. How do you treat your wife and your kids? What are you surfing?
00:43:45
Speaker
on the world wide web that's making you more or less like me. Andrew, I'm coming back for you. Are you ready for me? It's the question that he brings to each one of us. What's the first commandment, by the way? Come on. Oh, I didn't stump you, didn't I? Did I? The first commandment. I changed the sermon.
00:44:13
Speaker
I am the Lord your God. You shall have how many other gods? Now is the first commandment more important than the 10th? If you break one, you break what? All of them. So if you think about the commandments as a structure, the foundation always starts first and then you build on that.
00:44:40
Speaker
God did not say honor thy father and thy mother first. That's part of it. But in other words, what God is saying is that any violation of the commandment, it begins with violating the first one, which is idolatry, which is placing another God above the God of heaven and earth. Now, in the days of Elijah and actually, stunningly, sadly, throughout the whole Bible,
00:45:08
Speaker
God's people have wrestled with this issue of idolatry. Idolatry. It's the backdrop to the whole story of Elijah and Ahab and Jezebel and the people. And they actually worshiped Baal. They actually worshiped physical carvings, some out of gold, you know, wood overlaid with gold and some stone. And it was an industry. Are you with me?
00:45:36
Speaker
People got paid for making these idols. Let me say it again. It was an industry. There was an economy around making idols. Literally people got rich from making these things and marketing them to people and people bought them and couldn't live without them. And so some would buy them, you know, made with various decorations. So some people got very rich through idolatry and some exceedingly poor.
00:46:04
Speaker
In those days, they worshiped these little figures. But today, there are more idols than there have ever been in Earth's history. You see, the foundation of idolatry is essentially worshiping above God man-made things. And idolatry is not about, I worship Baal, or I worship God. Idolatry has to do with where you spend your time and your money.
00:46:35
Speaker
That's where you can really find out who you worship. What you spend your time and money on is an indication of where your heart is. Isn't that what Jesus said? He says, wherever your heart is, that's where your treasure is. And so today this message is relevant because in the church, just very broadly,
00:47:02
Speaker
God's people are still struggling with things that we've placed as more important than God. And here's what else I want to say to you is that idolatry, the idolatry that God sent Elijah to confront was not that the people said, we don't believe in God. Huh? How many of you believe in God? If you're not ashamed, raise them high. Yes. That was not the issue. The issue is they believed in God and Baal just in case God didn't come through.
00:47:35
Speaker
Let us sink in for a moment. God was a backup plan. Just in case I pray and I don't get what I want, I can go to, I can make sacrifice to Baal and I can get what I want. And it was enticing, ladies and gentlemen, because those who worship Baal were successful for a very long time. Don't think, oh, you know, idolatry, I'd never do that. No, in those days,
00:48:05
Speaker
The people worship their gods and their crops grew. The people worship their god and they didn't miss carriage in childbirth. They worship their gods and things worked well for them. And ladies and gentlemen, the Jews, the Hebrews, they saw the surrounding nations flourishing.
00:48:25
Speaker
And they looked at their own lives as lives of one restriction after another. God says we can't do this. God says we can't do that. God says we, you know, why all the restrictions? Haven't you heard that from the little kids? Haven't you said that in your heart? Why so many restrictions? And yet, I remember traveling, visiting with my brother when he used to live in California and we were traveling along the Pacific Coast Highway. How many of you ever traveled?
00:48:53
Speaker
Yeah, and there's some places in Jamaica. So there's some places in Jamaica where you drive. They had no guardrails. Have you ever driven on the side of a mountain with no guardrails? How many of you are thankful for guardrails? And not all Jamaicans, but many.
00:49:16
Speaker
think they're invincible behind the wheel. And my cousin, I'm like, I don't want to leave yet, Lord, I have things to do with my life. I want to get married. So you just close your eyes and you just, you know, and he's going, no guard rails, I'm looking, right? But guard rails are there not to trap you, it's to protect you.
00:49:42
Speaker
And so today, as we look here very briefly, the three things that God is really dealing with with His people, it has to do with narrow-mindedness, short-sightedness, and false expectations. So I want to just quickly just go through and talk about what God does here. God sends Elijah to Ahab, right? Ahab marries a woman. Her name is Jezebel. Some say that, you know,
00:50:09
Speaker
I don't know, she must have been beautiful, very permissive. She was one who stroked his ego, but the only problem was she didn't believe in God. She had her own religion.
00:50:28
Speaker
And there are many people who think, well, you know, she's spiritual. He's spiritual. We can get married. You know, they believe in God. I believe in God. We can get married. This is wonderful. Is that true? You should not be unequally yoked. By the way, Ellen White says that there are many people who are, even in the church, who are mated, mated, but not matched.
00:50:57
Speaker
So even if you're considering, you know, getting married to a seven-day Adventist, there are some people that are a good match for you. You should not just mate with anyone. But he got hooked up with someone who did not believe in God, who actually had her own, brought in her own priests and her own religion.
00:51:20
Speaker
And it stopped, started at the top and it filtered all the way down. These priests and pastors preached and confused the people. And many people say, you know, I kind of believe this about God, but you know, this is very enticing about God. And so in order to get their attention, God did then what he often does for us now. He touches our pocketbook. He starts to turn off the faucet.
00:51:48
Speaker
Elijah says, there shall be neither dew nor rain. For how many years? Yeah. First King 17 verse one, as the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word. Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the brook, Cherith, which flows into the Jordan and it will be that you shall drink from the brook
00:52:18
Speaker
And I have commanded the ravens to feed you." And so one of the first things that we understand is that no one is above Reformation, that God deals with His people certainly, but God also deals with the messenger.
00:52:38
Speaker
And he says to Elijah, this faithful Hebrew, this faithful Jew, commandment keeping, right? He says, leave, I'm going to, in the midst of this drought, I'm going to feed you. Is anyone glad that God feeds you in the time when the economy is, you know, crashing and you lost your job? Many of you can testify that things didn't work out and God still found a way to provide. He's awesome. You can't put God in a box. But, but.
00:53:07
Speaker
And kids, help me out. How many of you kids have seen ravens? Have you seen a raven before? Children? You've seen a hawk? You've seen a raven before? Where have you seen ravens? Yeah. In your house? Where else have you seen ravens? In your garden, wonderful. Anybody else seen ravens anywhere else? In a very peculiar place? The zoo. You know where I've seen ravens? By the side of a road. Huh?
00:53:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of a problem, isn't it? Ravens do eat bread, but they do eat flesh. Now, just put yourself in Elijah's shoes. You're a faithful Jew, man of God, woman of God. You've read Leviticus 11. You know what animals are clean and
00:54:07
Speaker
Now, let me tell you the truth. Can we just be transparent? The Bible doesn't say if the ravens carried the bread, the food in their mouths or in their talons. I don't care. I'm not eating bread from ravens. Now, I've seen ravens and they will fly and sometimes they will drop food. And if you have small children, you know the truth.
00:54:36
Speaker
What's the truth, parents? The children go investigate the food and eat it. No, no, no, no, take that out of your mouth. You know, inject them with, you know, you do all kinds of stuff, right, to sanitize them. But you know that kids, if it's not the five second rule, it's the five hour rule, you can have food on the floor and they will find it and they will eat it.
00:55:04
Speaker
But if you tell me, ladies and gentlemen, that God is going to, my friends, that if God is going to feed me and He's going to use a raven, you know what I'm thinking? No, there has to be another way. I don't care if the ravens bring it in their beaks because I've seen ravens and they pluck at the flesh of dead animals. Haven't you seen it?
00:55:28
Speaker
And you're like, okay, okay. Yeah, they carry the, they dig their talents into the flesh as well. So I don't care, Lord. Feed me another way. But how many of you know that if God decides to feed you, you just got to go along with the program? You see, I never understood the significance until I was reflecting on it.
00:55:53
Speaker
And for this faithful reformer, Elijah, the Tishbite of the region of Gilead, he was narrow-minded. I will never touch any... Does anyone remember anywhere else in the scriptures where someone says, I've never eaten anything unclean? Yeah. Remember that in Acts chapter 10? That brother is, he is praying and Simon the Tanner is cooking up some fried fish.
00:56:24
Speaker
And his stomach is grumbling and he goes into a trance and he sees the sheep let down from heaven with all kinds of unclean beasts in there. And a voice was heard from heaven saying what? Do you remember? Arise. You see that ostrich? Let's go at it Peter. Dig in. And three times Peter says, nope.
00:56:48
Speaker
Nope, I've never eaten anything unclean or common since my, never, never, never, never. But who gave the message? It was God, right? God said to Elijah, I have commanded the ravens. Elijah, I didn't say eat the ravens. I just said that they're gonna provide for you. Now all of this was in preparation
00:57:16
Speaker
Because God was going to feed Elijah in another place. And so, Elijah goes to the brook cherith. No rain. And in the morning, the ravens came fluttering and dropping food. I don't know about you, but how many of you pray before you eat? This would be an ideal time to pray.
00:57:47
Speaker
Lord, please, you said eat it. I'm trusting in you and so I'll eat. And one of the first lessons that I get here is that there are people that we have classified as unclean that God wants to feed us from. That there's some people, hear me out.
00:58:13
Speaker
It's for the Seventh-day Adventist reformers. That's who we are, we're reformers. That as it was true for the Jews, and as it's true, hate to admit it in the church today, sometimes we think because God has given us a message that we somehow are in a position somewhat superior. You know, we've got something to give you. We've got angels' messages. We've got all this stuff to give you, but God is preparing the prophet to understand that there are people out there that have something to give you.
00:58:46
Speaker
That Elijah, in your mind you have this box and everything in the box is holy and nothing outside can be holy. But do you understand that God has sheep that are not of this fold? Isn't that true? I've read somewhere in the spirit of prophecy that there will be many people who will be saved who never even had a chance to hear this message.
00:59:10
Speaker
And they will be curious when they see the hands of our Lord, the piercings, they'll ask the question, you know, where did this come from? And yet Paul says that when the Gentiles, this is Romans chapter one, when the Gentiles, when they do, this is the people that are not a part of our church, he said that when they do what is right according to the law, it proves that the law is written on their heart. In other words, in your endeavor to witness and share, you should have an open mind that is reciprocal
00:59:41
Speaker
That evangelism ministry is reciprocal. That as this church is trying to reconnect with people who have not been here for a while, we have to keep in an open mind that there's something that God intends us to learn from the experience. You've got to have an open mind. There are people that we've said they are unclean birds
01:00:06
Speaker
I could not dare take anything and God says, I'm going to put you Elijah in a position where you're just going to have to take it and eat it and survive. There are lessons of truth that people who are not members of this church have that will transform your life. Amen. Now look, verse 5, 1 Kings chapter 17, verse 5.
01:00:36
Speaker
He went and did according to the word of the Lord. For he went and stayed by the brook cherith, which flows into the Jordan. The ravens, more than one, brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening.
Elijah's Mount Carmel Victory
01:00:52
Speaker
Can we say amen for bread and meat? From the raven's mouth. It's not in here many amen, but it's still true, still in the Bible.
01:01:04
Speaker
and he drank from the brook. And it happened after a while that the brook dried up. The brook dried up because there had been no rain. Listen, then, that was all preparation for what would happen next. Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, arise and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon Gentiles unclean
01:01:26
Speaker
idolaters. No one here knows God. No one here loves God. No one has a heart for God. Why on earth are you sending me here? Elijah, that's where I'm sending you. Go there. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, please bring me a little water in a cup that I may drink. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.
01:01:57
Speaker
So she said, as the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour and a bin and a little oil and a jar. And see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare for myself and my son that we may eat and die. And Elijah said to her, do not fear. Go and do as you've said, but make me a small cake from it first.
01:02:24
Speaker
and bring it to me and afterward make some for yourself and your son for this is what God is saying, this is what God is saying. The bin of flour shall not be used up nor shall the jar of oil run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth. So, hey, amen. So she went away and did, she actually did it. She did according to the word of Elijah and she and he and her household ate how many days?
01:02:50
Speaker
Many days, the bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elijah." In other words, God provided for Elijah and her household every single day of drought. Equally, you see the wonderful thing about the cross, we talk about the cross of Christ.
01:03:20
Speaker
is that when you study the cross of Jesus Christ, what you understand, one of the first lessons you get is that everyone is level at the cross. The church say amen to that. No one is superior. No one is inferior. We all need Jesus. Now, I'm with you, amen, but sometimes, sometimes the Jews of yesterday and sometimes
01:03:49
Speaker
The spiritual jewels of today, sometimes it comes across as though we are closer, you know, that we're in a position more superior than everyone else. Sometimes it comes across that way. Am I kind of close? Yeah, sometimes it comes across. But the truth is that we all need Jesus.
01:04:17
Speaker
Now, hold your finger there. We're almost, we're getting to the end. Go with me to Deuteronomy chapter 9. This is good. This is good. This is Elijah now. God says, before I come, I'm going to send Elijah. But oh, by the way, I have a work to do on Elijah first. You see, the one carrying the message has to have an open mind, or whatever you want. That as we go out to share, we have to understand that we're not superior.
01:04:45
Speaker
That ministry, that serving God is transactionable, right? We give, we receive. We all are sick in need of a Savior. Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 4, are you in Deuteronomy?
01:05:05
Speaker
Listen, this is before God's people cross over the Jordan and take the land that God has promised. Moses says to the people, he says, do not think in your heart after the Lord God has cast them out, talking about all the idolaters, all the wicked people in Canaan. I'm going to drive them all out, the Canaanites, the Jebusites, the Hivites, everyite.
01:05:33
Speaker
He says, don't think in your heart after I've cast them out before you saying, don't say this in your mind, because of my righteousness. The Lord has brought me in to possess this land. Don't think that. It's because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you.
01:05:54
Speaker
God says through Moses, it is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go into possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God rise them out from before you. And then he goes on to say in verse six, therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness. Are you still with me everyone?
01:06:21
Speaker
And then he said, this is the Bible, it's not me, don't get angry at me, but this is what God says to the people. He says, for you are stiff-necked. What's another expression for stiff-necked? Any stubborn people here today? Anyone struggle with just following God's commandments, or is it just me? When you know what the result is, what you should be doing, you still find it difficult just to do what God asked you to do because you have your own agenda.
01:06:49
Speaker
Here I am, Lord, have mercy upon me. So God is saying to his people, listen, Christian seven day Adventist, listen, you reformers, just understand that God has not chosen you because you're better than anyone else. Amen. As a matter of fact, there's indication that God chooses the most stiff-necked people to be his messengers, hear me out, to prove to everyone else that he can take the worst of the worst and make them the best of the best.
01:07:21
Speaker
By the way, God did choose 12 disciples, didn't He? Someone says, well, He didn't choose Judas, yet He said, Judas, come on and follow me. Didn't He? And He knew Judas was a thief. God chose those men not because they were better, but because they were difficult cases.
01:07:44
Speaker
And God is going to prove that no matter who you are, no matter how troublesome you might be, if you hang out with me long enough and you just hang on to me long enough, you'll be like me. So he says to the children of Israel, he says, don't think, don't think you're better than anyone else. I'm actually showing the world through your transformed life that anything is possible. How many of you are still scratching your heads? How did I get here?
01:08:13
Speaker
How did I wind up a part of God's family? How did I make it here? I think about where I was and where I am today. I'm married with two kids. How did that happen? You look at me today and he's wearing a suit. He's wearing a tie. He looks clean cut. Really good guy. But you don't know who I was 25 years ago. How did I get here? It's only by the grace of God. See, I have a guardian angel and he has a lot of white hair.
01:08:45
Speaker
You know, and so I'm going to feed you through this widow. You're not better than she is. I'm going to provide for you both because the cross provides for everyone equally.
01:08:59
Speaker
So Elijah, understand that you have lived your life up until this point, even after giving that powerful message that you have a narrow mind. You see, we often think about the first church, the Church of Acts. Do you realize that Peter and many of the Jews still had very narrow minds about people who are not Jewish? Paul had to deal with Peter, didn't he? Because when he was there with the Gentiles, he's eating at their table, having a good time, you know, laughing it up. And as soon as the Jews come in,
01:09:28
Speaker
At fellowship meal, he gets up and he goes, sits with the Jews. And Paul sees this and says, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you've accepted Christ, whether you are male, female, black, white, whatever you are, you're all the same. There's no partiality with, with God. Whether you're male or female. Amen. You see, listen.
01:09:58
Speaker
that if God wants to give you a message through a female or a child or anyone, I want to hear it. Because there are many people who as soon as the message comes from someone that does not fit within their box, they don't want to hear it. But I want to be saved. And even if God wants to speak to me through a donkey, I want to hear. And if God wants to send a raven,
01:10:28
Speaker
I'll pray and I'll eat it. And if God wants to feed me through a Gentile, I'll
Elijah's Despair and God's Care
01:10:39
Speaker
go. Because there's a lesson that God is trying to teach me that we're all brothers and sisters. The raven, the widow, narrow-mindedness, short-sightedness. You know the story.
01:11:01
Speaker
Mount Carmel. God, Elijah says to Ahab, listen, gather up all your people. They don't believe in God, but yeah, people are confused. People of God are confused. The children are confused. They're like, is God gone? I thought you said Baal has got like, mommy you worship, daddy you worship. Like, I don't know what's going on, so let's settle the matter. They go to Mount Carmel, remember that? And they build the altars. We're cutting through a lot.
01:11:30
Speaker
But the prophets of Baal and Ashruth, from the morning, they get up and they start praying to their God. You remember that? They start praying and praying and they start crying out and start crying out and it becomes more intense. Does Baal answer? No.
01:11:53
Speaker
When Baal doesn't answer, they take out their lances, small daggers, and they begin to cut themselves until the Bible actually says that the blood began to gush out. And ladies and gentlemen, there are many forms of worship very similar to this. There are many people who believe they've got to make a whole lot of noise to get God's attention.
01:12:19
Speaker
A lot of yelling, a lot of screaming, a lot of self-inflicted wounds, a lot of penitence, right? I'm going to discipline myself and when I discipline myself then God will hear me. But how many of you know that no matter, you can't earn God's love? Isn't that true? Some of you struggle. Some of you struggle because when you fail, the first thing you do is you punish yourself.
01:12:49
Speaker
I guess I can't pray right now. I guess I can't do this right now. I guess, you know, God doesn't love me. No. You can't do anything to yourself in terms of, you know, punishing yourself to make God love you more. As a matter of fact, when you're at your lowest point is when you actually need to press into God. And so they're there.
01:13:11
Speaker
punishing themselves, cutting themselves, crying out, praying loud, and no answer from Baal. The reason is because there's no Baal. There's only one God, the God of heaven and earth. Well, Elijah restores the altar, puts the sacrifice on it, and completely douses it with water until the water overflows. And Elijah does not scream and yell.
01:13:42
Speaker
He doesn't punish himself. He very humbly and very quietly, he kneels down to pray and he pours out his heart to God with sincerity, with what everyone? And with desperation because Elijah actually cares about people. How many of you care for people and about people? Yeah. And the Bible says that before he finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and what everyone?
01:14:12
Speaker
completely consumed. And the people, the Lord, the Lord is God. We've been deceived all this time. All the prophets are completely and utterly destroyed. Now, here's the last point.
01:14:31
Speaker
Elijah is convinced. Hear me out. He's convinced that this is the proof that we need it all along. Now Ahab knows because Ahab is there. Jezebel is back at the palace. Now as soon as Jezebel hears this message and as soon as she knows that yes, finally this issue of God worship and Baal worship, it's over. She's going to be converted and she's going to accept the message and there's going to be tremendous reform and everything is going to go well.
01:15:06
Speaker
Is that how the story ends? So he runs, he tells Ahab, we're getting to the end, he tells Ahab, listen, go because it's about to rain.
01:15:18
Speaker
God has not cursed the land. He wants to now bless the land. You better go now. Ahab, otherwise you're going to get stuck in the mud. Go before the rain comes, the deluge. And so Elijah runs ahead of the chariot and he goes to the palace and he's waiting outside. Ahab goes into the palace and Elijah is waiting for the good news. I've given the message.
01:15:42
Speaker
handed out the Bible track. I've done the Bible study. We've had 40 days of prayer. We've done all these things. Certainly now there's going to be change. Certainly now the unbeliever will accept the message. 1 Kings chapter 19 verse 1, the Bible says, in Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done
01:16:09
Speaker
also how he Elijah had executed all the prophets with the sword. Verse 2, then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me. And more also
01:16:26
Speaker
If I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow, this time." In other words, those prophets of mine that you killed, I swear to my God that you will be killed by this time tomorrow. Was she changed? No. Verse 3, and when he saw that, this is Elijah, when he saw that he arose and he did what everyone?
01:16:53
Speaker
He ran for his life, went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. He kept running, and he kept running, and he kept running. Verse 4, but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and he came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed, listen to everyone, this is what the prophet of God prayed, he prayed that he might
01:17:22
Speaker
the prophet of God. See, I don't know what you have gone through the past couple of years, what you've gone through the past year, the past month, the past week. I don't know what disappointments you've had to endure
01:17:43
Speaker
as a member of the church in your own household at work. I don't know, but there's sometimes, there's sometimes where life is so overwhelming, you may not actually utter the words, but the thought crosses your mind, it would be better for me not to be here. The man of God prayed, Lord, just kill me. Let me die.
01:18:15
Speaker
prayed that he might die and said, it is enough. Now, Lord, take my life for I'm no better than my father's. Then as he lay and slept under broom trees, suddenly an angel touched him. And the angel said to him. And now, folks, this completes another episode of Michael.
01:18:42
Speaker
then he looked Elijah looked and there by his head gaining demos and other interests on Joseph weaklands harmonica player podcast till next time bye for now and the angel of the lord came back the second time
01:19:13
Speaker
So he arrived and ate and drank and he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights as far as Mount Sinai, Horeb, the mountain of God. I want to stop there. You see, if you keep reading the story you understand that... Sorry about that, there's still more audio left. His effort was going to change the world in his time.
01:19:46
Speaker
Paul said when there was a dispute in Corinth, some said I'm followers of Paul, some said I'm followers of Apollos. Paul said, listen, hey, you've got it mixed up. Listen, I've planted Apollos has watered, but God adds the increase. Sometimes
01:20:07
Speaker
We, because we hear it a lot, you know, Jesus is coming again soon, isn't that right? You hear it every Sabbath day, haven't you? But what if He doesn't come in your lifetime? Is it still okay? What if things don't work out according to your time frame? Is it still okay? You see, in that
01:20:29
Speaker
With these false expectations, you see, he believed, Elijah believed that his effort in his time was going to change everything, but he didn't realize that he was just a small part of God's plan to save the world. And in that moment of depression, deep depression, God did not come with an iron fist and says, what's the matter of you? Get your act together. You were a child of... Is that what God did?
01:20:58
Speaker
this is why I serve Jesus. Because at my lowest point when I have turned my back on Him, He touches me. He touches you. He does not bring up your mistakes. He does not harass you and antagonize you. Actually what He does is He says, you just need to sleep a little bit. You're cranky because you've been running all this time and your mind is going nuts. Actually what you need to do Elijah is you need to sleep
01:21:27
Speaker
You need some fresh water and some clean bread. Sometimes you stressed out Christians just need to take a vacation. Hear me out. The disciples serving with Christ were serving so, so much that they had forgotten to take time to eat. And Jesus being all wise says, listen, listen, fellas,
01:21:59
Speaker
You're never going to satisfy everyone's needs. You need to learn to take time away and be still and know that I'm in control. Sometimes, Elijah's, to deal with the false expectations that you have in marriage, some of you may be really disappointed because he said, I thought, he said, I do to all this stuff.
01:22:26
Speaker
You know, you had a long list. I thought she said I do, I do, I do, I do. And sometimes we get into a lot of problems because our expectations of God are not right. There are things that you're expecting that God simply hasn't promised. That's why we study the Bible so we can say, oh yeah, God promised that, but He didn't promise that. And so
01:22:51
Speaker
in Elijah's moment of sadness and depression when he's praying that he might die, when he wants to just disappear. He doesn't want to do ministry anymore. He doesn't want to be a part of the church anymore. He wants to quit. I give up my membership. God says, shh, go to sleep. Shh. We'll deal with this later. Don't you appreciate God's timing? This is good advice for married people. Sometimes there's a right time to deal with issues and a wrong time.
01:23:21
Speaker
This is good for work too. Let's just go at it now. No, sometimes you need to chill until there's the appropriate time to deal with complicated issues. So Elijah, we're not going to deal with your issues right now, but what I'm going to do for you is I'm going to let you sleep, rest, be refreshed, eat, go back to sleep again, eat a little bit more, and then you'll be strong enough to continue. Ladies and gentlemen,
01:23:50
Speaker
This whole thing of the raven, the widow in the rain we touched on today is simply God preparing you for the times that are here and the times that are rapidly approaching when all of your natural resources will be cut off.
01:24:08
Speaker
And God is going to feed you through very, very strange and peculiar ways and which will test your theology, will test your norms, it will test how you have defined what church life is like and you have to keep an open mind. You've got to remember that there are people out there who love God just as much even more than you. Huh?
01:24:34
Speaker
that there are people that you need to go share with next door because they have something actually to share with you, to make you more faithful, to feed you during a time of drought. But fear not. Even when you've run away, even when you said, I want no more part of this stuff called church, I don't want any more, God has still not forsaken you. There's some prayers that you pray in your depression that God won't answer because he knows better.
01:25:06
Speaker
You're praying that you might die. God says, you don't even know what you're asking for. Actually what you want and actually what you need is little rest, little food and water.
Conclusion with Hymn and Prayer
01:25:16
Speaker
So on this Sabbath day, I wish you rest. I wish I wish you health. I wish you clean water. I wish you pure bread. Take today.
01:25:31
Speaker
And just let the Word of God sink in to give you strength to run the next week. Is that okay? Let's pray, everyone. Father in heaven, thank you. Just thank you for your Word, which every time you read it, every time I read it, I always get something else out of it that gives me the encouragement to keep going forward with you, no matter what is happening around me.
01:25:58
Speaker
I believe Lord that what really matters is not the changing of our circumstances, but really the changing of our hearts. Because if our hearts are changed, we can endure any.
01:26:12
Speaker
circumstance that life throws our way. So my heart's prayer for your people here and those who are online is that today we might embrace an open mind. We might allow our sight to expand and we might through your word have our expectations corrected. So we understand that we're just a small part of your bigger plan to save this world. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
01:26:41
Speaker
If you'd like to stand with me, our closing hymn is hymn number 99. I think we can sing the first and last. Let's just do that. Hymn number 99. God will take care of you. Isn't that right? Yes. Verses 1 and 4, please.
01:27:17
Speaker
May not despair, water be time. God will take care of you. He needs his wings apart. God will take care of you. God will take care of you.
01:27:45
Speaker
Through every day or all the way, He will take care of you. God will take care of you. Verse 4, no matter what they mean, the test, God will take care of you.
01:28:16
Speaker
upon his breath God will take care of you God will take care of you through every
01:28:42
Speaker
God will take care of you.
01:28:55
Speaker
Anyone gonna take some time today in the midst of all of the hustle and bustle to take time to rest, to be still, to know that God is in control? Yeah, let's allow God through his Holy Spirit to give us strength today to meet this week's challenges and opportunities. Again, Father, we thank you. Lord, we love you.
01:29:22
Speaker
Love your church. We're not perfect, but we're being perfected through Jesus. So we're just going to hang in there with you, Father, even though there are many things we don't understand, many things that are confusing, many things that we say, this is not how it should be.
01:29:38
Speaker
You're the one steering the ship and we trust you. Help us today, Lord. Just feed on your word so we can have encouragement and strength to go forward. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated.
01:30:05
Speaker
on. Well, this wraps up this episode of gaining demos and other interests on Joseph weaklands harmonica player podcasts.