Purified By the Word

Christian Martin

Living Hope SDA Church

One Heart at a Time: Christ’s Mission Continues

Because he lives, he will guide us into 2026 with purpose.

Imagine a company with 99 loyal, high-paying clients.

Would you really ignore all of them just to chase 1 client who hasn't paid a dime yet.

Would you drop everyone to tutor the 1 kid who's failing miserably?

You're at a big party with 99 friends having a good time, a great time in fact.

Would you leave all of them to comfort the 1 friend who stepped outside crying?

A shepherd has 99 healthy sheep grazing safely.

Would you risk the whole flock to rescue the 1 that wandered into a wolf's territory?

Church, I believe that any good shepherd, every good shepherd, would prioritize the 1 lost sheep over the ninety-nine.

And for Christ, His mission is personal, very personal, because He values each heart.

My message today is entitled, 1 Heart at a time.

Father, we pause for we are compelled to pray before we open the Word of God and invite and ask for the Holy Spirit to be the 1 who deeply impresses us with a message that would not come from my own lips but a message that comes from your throne.

So Lord we ask that in this very moment you would now speak to us through your holy living word and we thank you for answering this prayer in Jesus name amen open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 18 Matthew chapter 18 Matthew chapter 18 and I'll be reading verse 12.

If a man has 100 sheep and 1 of them goes astray, does he not leave the 99 and go to the mountains to seek the 1 that is straying?

Would you believe that a good shepherd would do this?

Why would a good shepherd leave 99 sheep for just 1?

Well, first of all, sheep are born to stick together.

For those who have ever witnessed a herd of sheep, you understand what I'm saying.

They have this natural instinct that allows a shepherd to lead 100 sheep or even more into the wilderness and know that without a doubt, he's not gonna lose a single 1 Because they stick together.

So let's not be too hard on the shepherd for choosing to leave them together, quietly grazing, in order to go and look for the 1 lost sheep.

I got to believe that this shepherd knew what he was doing.

But this is where the story gets a little bit uncomfortable for some of us.

Because if we're honest with ourselves, most of us would not have left the 99 sheep.

I mean, I'll be honest with you, at a moment's notice, when I have to make a choice, I wouldn't be too quick to want to leave the 99.

We like knowing that things are under control.

But the shepherd isn't driven by convenience.

He's thinking about a name, a face, a sheep that didn't make it back.

And suddenly the shepherd, the story rather, it's not just about what the shepherd does or doesn't do.

It's about What kind of love refuses to leave anybody behind?

You know, as you contemplate the character of God, and you take a look at the way He operates with a lost planet of ours, God notices 1 who is lost, even 1, because every heart matters.

Every 1, every single heart matters to God.

White, who was a prolific writer, author, and inspired writer in the 19th century, she wrote these words.

In fact, I would like for us to read them together.

Christ would have died for 1 soul in order that that 1 might live through the eternal ages.

And as we think about what we just read, it's precisely the point that Jesus wanted to drive home when telling the parable.

And I want us to just kind of ponder this simple thought that for just 1, God would have carried on with His plans of salvation.

You know, the parable of the lost sheep reveals the heart of Christ as the good shepherd, and 1 who refuses to abandon even 1 soul.

And when a single shepherd, a single sheep, wanders into the wilderness, a single 1, what does the shepherd do?

He goes after it fully aware of the danger.

See, this is where we just kind of read through the parable and don't take a moment to just pause and just let the scenes unfold.

Because we can miss some important details, some context.

Think about this, in Bible times, we're talking about centuries, millenniums ago, but even this day in that region, The wilderness, the wilderness was not a national park where you would just go and spend the day at the wilderness.

No, The wilderness is the very place that you avoid at all cost.

Because the wilderness meant cliffs, drop-offs, with no borders, no fence.

It meant rocky paths and deadly predators.

The wilderness, we're talking wolves, lions, bears, snakes, scorpions.

To search for 1 lost sheep was to risk everything.

Let's go over to that gospel just for a moment.

We're going to go in our Bibles here a little, there a little.

In John chapter 10, Jesus once again is heard teaching and using this imagery, this word picture of a shepherd with his sheep.

No wonder that David was inspired to write Psalms 23.

In John chapter 10, John chapter 10, in this chapter, John records Jesus' teaching of the Good Shepherd.

1 who calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

The Incomparable Life

And when we invoke his presence, he comes.

Thank you voices of praise for that beautiful message.

You know in this sermon series we've been sharing together for the last couple of weeks, we've been lifting up a Savior who cannot be compared.

In part 1, we magnified the name, the name of Jesus, the name above every name, the name that saves, the name that heals, the name that delivers.

And we declared that His name is incomparable, incomparable.

There's no other name given among men by which we must be saved.

In part 2, we stood in the country with a group of disciples, rather shepherds, and they were abiding in the fields.

And the angels appeared and they marveled at the good tidings of great joy, that he was born to be born in us, a birth like no other, because it was incomparable.

But today, we move from what they called him to how or and how he came into the world to how he lived once he was born.

Because if you think about it, a name like that, a birth like that, could only lead to a life like no other.

Today we behold at the center, the truth at the center of it all, Jesus' incomparable life.

Let's bow our heads together as we acknowledge him once more.

We worship Him who's worthy to be praised.

And as we turn our attention now to His very life, His unique, incomparable life, We ask, Lord, that You would draw near to us and speak to our hearts like only You can, with that powerful, convicting voice, yet that gentle and loving voice.

So we thank you, Lord, for meeting with us here today, and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

You know, some people make a good living pretending to be someone they are not.

Actors and actresses, they step on a stage and in front of a camera, and they pretend to be someone else.

And they're rewarded, as a result, with applause, with fame, and with fortune.

Others pretend to be somebody they are not, but they're not entertainers.

They deceive, pretending to be someone else.

They cheat honest people out of hard-earned money.

And when they're exposed, they're not rewarded with applause or with fame.

Spies, They pretend to be someone they're not.

But they've sold their allegiance to another power.

And so all over the world, there are famous people, actors, musicians, political leaders, people that are admired and adored by the public.

You know, many of you know that I'm from Argentina.

And in Argentinian history, 1 such famous person was the wife of President Peron.

And women, for years, decades after her death, they styled their hair like Eva Perón.

It was quite a fascinating thing to witness.

But here in our country, we're not foreign to that kind of thing.

Here in America, Elvis Presley became so famous that decades after his death, even till this very day, you can find hundreds, hundreds, maybe even thousands of men who impersonate Elvis Presley.

There was only 1 genuine Elvis and all the rest are impersonators.

But there is another man who has more impersonators than Elvis ever did.

There has only been 1 true Messiah in all of human history.

That no 1 else could imitate, replicate, or duplicate Because Jesus' life was incomparable.

Most biographies, when you take a look at biographies that are written, whether it's in a bookstore or in your own shelf, most biographies are written after someone has died.

But Jesus, His life, something different about it.

You see, His life was written before He was born, Before Mary ever held him, before Joseph protected him, before the shepherds worshipped him, his story was already on the page.

His life was already written on the page.

And I wonder, does he do the same with us sometimes?

You know, there was a season in my life that I could not understand why God allowed us to leave the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest, and end up in Denver, Colorado.

As you can only imagine when you're a pastor, you depend entirely on the will of God to open doors before you, to call you when he calls, and to discern his voice.

And I could not understand why God would allow us to move to Denver, Colorado.

Well when we arrived within a few months, I'm talking like 1 or 2 months, the conference, the place of employment that coordinates the work of pastors within a territory.

The conference, they announced that we're gonna have a citywide health series.

And it was gonna be planned right there in the center of downtown Denver.

So we were just 3 miles from down city center, Denver.

And so for us, this was quite an exciting report and exciting news.

And the health series was planned with the evangelist, Mark Finley.

Very dear evangelist, not only to the World Church, but of course to this church family.

We were excited about this initiative until the city venue, right there in downtown Denver, they informed us that, well, unexpectedly, because we didn't see this coming, But they informed us that we would have to, well, relocate due to a conflicting, some schedule conflict, conflicting schedule.

And we were somewhat, well, didn't know what to do because this was timeless of the essence.

And to get a venue of a considerable size with the intentions to do a citywide initiative, well you just can't coordinate a location in a few weeks.

So we didn't know what we were going to do.

And so a meeting was called of all the area pastors to discuss what they were gonna do next.

And at this particular meeting, Elder Finley was actually at the meeting himself.

And after much discussion, a solution had not been reached.

There was no agreement on what we're going to do next.

And 1 might have questioned that there was even a high interest to do this, to do this health public evangelistic initiative.

And it was a little bit disheartening to kind of sense that, are we going to do this or not?

And when it seemed like the event was just gonna be all out, canceled, I felt a nudge of the Holy Spirit like, elbowing me saying, you gotta speak up now.

I raised my hand right there in that hall and I said, listen, fellow pastors, you know, our city needs this message.

Whose Son Are You?

Many of us know the story and we know the song.

Only a boy named David, but he could pray and sing.

Only a boy named David, only a rippling brook, only a boy named David, but 5 little truths he took to heart.

Before a little boy named David ever fought Goliath, he fought something far more dangerous.

You see, every battle you'll ever fight on the outside begins with the battle on the inside.

And it involves a question that demands an answer.

My message today is entitled, Whose Son Are You?

Our Father in heaven, as we Open your word and examine an old story.

We pray that it would speak to us in a fresh new way.

And for that to happen, Lord, we need the Holy Spirit to draw near, to be with us, to be the 1 who actually speaks to us through your living word.

We thank you Lord for answering our prayer.

When King Saul asked the question, whose son are you?

Can you imagine David standing there before the presence of a king?

You see, David's name means beloved, Beloved.

David was literally saying, I am the beloved of the living God." That's what David was saying.

I am the beloved of the God, the Lord, who exists, the living God.

This well-known story actually reveals so much before David took that sling and turned it round and round and round.

You see, David didn't just walk into a valley with a sling.

I am The Beloved, the Son of the Living God.

And that's why before David ever faced a giant holding a sword, David had to face voices holding lies.

Stay with me here because we're about to see a perspective of this well-known story From an angle that you have probably never thought of it before.

You see, the battle with Goliath was loud.

It was so loud that it caused the men of war on the other side to tremble when they heard the loud voice coming from that giant.

The battle before Goliath, before Goliath was quiet, Very quiet.

The giant came later, but the lies came early because the enemy always attacks identity before he attacks destiny.

And before the enemy, before the enemy seeks to attack your destiny, where God is preparing you for, He's going to attack your identity because that is at the very core of who we are.

And as we discover what the enemy does and what David did, if David is going to stand, if David is going to fight, if David is going to win this battle against this champion of the Philistines he must first overcome the lies sent to silence him and stop him intensely moments before he faced the greatest opponent of his life.

Much greater than lions, much greater than the bears, he wrestled with his own hands.

David was about to encounter lies that would seek to undermine his identity and destroy him before he stood in the presence of the giant.

That's where we find the story of the 5 stones.

But to get the context of this encounter, we have to take a look at the previous chapter.

In chapter 16, we 16, we find a very important insight.

The mention of the stones, if you would come with me first to 1 Samuel 17, verse 40.

You got your Bibles and that's a good thing.

Let's actually begin there because that's the immediate context of our meditation this morning as we look at the word of God.

In 1st Jamil chapter 17 verse 40, this is what we see.

We see David taking a staff in his hand and he chose for himself 5 smooth stones from the brook.

And he put them in a shepherd's bag, in a pouch, which he had, and a sling was in his hand.

What we're going to do this morning is we're going to view these 5 stones.

Regular stones, the Bible says they were smooth stones, and we're going to view each small, smooth stone as a truth.

5 eternal truths that God has taken, polished in us through prayer, through worship, and a secure identity in him.

And the 5 smooth stones that David took for himself in his hands will remind us of the truths that have the power to silence every whisper of the enemy.

Today we are going to be learning things that if you hold on to them, if you apply them in your life, you're going to discover that it can make a significant impact in your life, literally.

Your life from this moment on could turn a whole new direction because the enemy knows that the only power he has in your life is the power of the lie.

And for some of you he's convinced you of his lies a long time ago.

And he still has you under his sway, still has you under his control, because that's what he does with lies.

But as we examine scripture, we're going to discover that these truths that the God has given us have the power to defeat the enemy in our lives.

And the first lie that David has had to face was not shouted to him by a giant, but whispered by his own family.

Come with me now to 1st Samuel chapter 16.

1st Samuel chapter 16 and we're gonna look at verses 10 and 11.

Lie number 1, 1 Samuel 16, verses 10 and 11.

Notice what the Bible says, and thus Jesse, Jesse is the father of David, made 7 of his sons pass before Samuel.

He had 8 sons, 7 brothers, and David 8 sons.

But Jesse took 7 of his sons and made them pass before Samuel.

And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these, verse 11, and Samuel said to Jesse, are all the young men here?

Oh, then he said, there remains yet the youngest, and there he is keeping the sheep.

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One Heart at a Time: Christ’s Mission Continues

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