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Restoration Ministry

Restoration 2003: From Eden to Eternity

Ralph Henderson

An Issue of the Heart

Let Every Man Be Swift To Hear

Good morning I'd like for you to again bow your heads with me as we seek the Lord just 1 more time before we open his word Loving Father in heaven we come before you this morning Lord again.

We ask for your presence Lord I pray that you will especially speak through me this morning.

Let there be no self in the way this morning, Lord, but speak to me the things that I need to hear.

Speak to us the things that we need to hear.

Soften our hearts and our minds that we will be receptive.

For Lord, we want to spend eternity with You and we know that You have a plan for our salvation.

And we ask these things in Jesus' name and for His sake.

This past week and a half, we have been listening to Peter Gregory as he has shared and unveiled the great controversy as it has progressed through time.

And I know that if I were to ask for a show of hands this morning, that every hand would quickly go up if I said how many believe that we are in the midst of a great controversy.

I know that if I were to say how many of you believe that we live in the last days, again those hands would go up quickly.

But I don't want you to raise your hands right now, but I want to ask you 1 question very seriously.

How many of you live like you believe you live in the last hours of earth's history?

The great controversy is not taking place all around us, the great controversy is taking place within each 1 of us.

It's very obvious, not just in the things taking place in God's church, but in the things that are taking place in the world.

Jesus told us in Luke 21 verse 26 that in the last days men's hearts would be failing them for fear.

And further on down in verse 34 He told us, He warned us to be careful, to be watchful, lest we be overcome with surfeiting, drunkenness, and the cares of this life.

And as we look all around us today, my brothers and sisters, I believe that we can see these things taking place.

We can see people who are being overcome by the cares of this life.

In Matthew 24, Jesus said 4 times to be careful that we be not deceived.

And the fourth time he made that statement, he said to be careful because if possible, even the very elect would be deceived.

Now, I think that If we look at Bible prophecy and we follow it on down through time, we believe that we, the Seventh-day Adventist church, are the remnant church.

We believe that we are God's elect people.

So I believe that we could say that this statement is speaking directly to us.

Jesus says, Be careful because if possible, even the very elect will be deceived.

You see, I believe that God's church in these last days is truly the remnant church, is truly His elect people.

I believe that God's church in these last days has the truth.

But my brothers and sisters, I believe there's big problems.

And I want to just share with you how I believe those problems have taken place.

As we look back over the course of the history of this church when it first began, we realize that this church was brought together from a culmination of people coming from all walks of life, various denominations, bringing God's Word and the truth all together in 1 place.

But as time progressed it seems that 1 very important factor began to be eliminated from a message that was being given to the world And that factor was the factor of a decision of heart.

You see it seems that we went through a period of time where the doctrines and the truths that we had to give seemed to be so important that we forgot the very basic and most important issue of all, and that was complete and total surrender to Jesus Christ.

And so we came into a group, we came into a generation of the do's and the don'ts.

A generation of parents who raised their children telling them, don't do this, don't do that, we don't do this, we don't believe in that, we don't do this.

And children growing up feeling as though they were being pounded with something that was missing.

And so they grew up and they had children.

And when we grew up, we grew up and our parents did not want us to live in that atmosphere.

Our parents did not want us to feel that they were telling us, don't do this, don't do that.

And so now we've swung to the other end of the pendulum.

Now we've swung to the point where we're over here on the far side and we don't want to tell anybody anything that needs to be done.

We don't want to point out any sin because we need to learn to be loving and accepting.

And so we live in this circumstance today.

I remember a few years ago as I sat in a church office, a very clean-cut gentleman with a beard came in to visit me.

And as he walked into the room, I thought, now what could this brother want today?

No 1 knows the church is open, I just happened to be here for a minute.

And he walked in and he had an agenda that he wanted to share with me that day.

He wanted to let me know that I was on the way to being lost because I didn't have a beard.

Because all of God's true men wore beards.

And He told me that, you know, brother, you look like a woman.

Now I sat there and I didn't want to be offended at that, but I was kind of thinking to myself, isn't this interesting?

My salvation is dependent on whether or not I have hair on my face.

And I thought about how we've come to a point where we have 2 opposite sides.

We have a group of people who are so hung up on doctrine and truth and giving them the way that should be that they're so far out there in left field that every time they come into a conversation with someone, they can't help but try and correct that person's life.

What's the problem with that aspect of the truth?

The problem with that aspect of the truth, my friends, is that the problem is we go home to our homes if we're living that way.

But you see, the real truth, the real influence of Jesus Christ has not penetrated into our hearts.

And then we go home behind closed doors where those people don't see us anymore.

We come into the realm of family and suddenly the real us begins to appear.

The 1 who has not gained the victory over their temper, their impatience, their appetite, and on and on.

The other group who's so tired of having somebody tell them what to do all the time, that They don't want any rules anymore.

We just want to come together and praise God.

And so we come together and that's all we're worried about is praise Jesus.

We want a Savior but we don't want a Lord.

Now you know the things that I'm sharing with you today are very, very basic and fundamental.

And in fact, some of the things that I say today might step on your toes.

And I hope that I have prayed and asked the Lord enough that as I say it, I'm not offensive.

And as I say it, you don't feel like that I'm looking directly at you and pointing out your sin.

I preached a sermon a few years ago that was broadcast on television.

It was a sermon that had to do with the health message.

I know how the message of God can penetrate our hearts when the truth really strikes home.

I said that sometimes, men, when we stop taking care of ourselves, we have what I call the chest of drawers syndrome.

That's when our chest and our upper body mass slips down into our drawers.

Now, I want you to know that I received a few weeks after that sermon a very pointed letter from a man who somehow thought I knew who he was and where he lived and my sermon was directed directly at him.

You see sometimes the truth, it really cuts.

Sometimes the truth really hits home and sometimes we don't like it.

I remember sitting in a congregation a few years ago and the pastor began to preach a sermon and he was a very loving man but his truth was very cutting and you know sometimes we go to church and we're listening to the sermon and we're thinking of so-and-so that we sure wish was here today that so they could hear this or or somebody else that this applies to.

But have you ever been in that moment, in that time when you sat in that congregation and that sermon was preached and without ever pointing or looking in your direction, you knew that sermon was directly for you.

I sat there that day and as that man spoke, suddenly I started looking around to see if people were noticing me.

Because I was really beginning to feel that he was talking directly to me.

And I began wondering if everybody was noticing my response and how I was beginning to shrink down in my chair.

But brothers and sisters, sometimes we need the truth.

You see, we've come to a point where we wonder what happens.

We go out and we present evangelistic series and we bring people into the church and 6 months later they're gone out the back door.

Could it be possibly that those people have been convinced, yes, yes, you're right, your doctrines are right and we're convinced and because of that we want to join your church.

But no one's ever taught them how to have a real experience with Jesus Christ.

No one's ever shared with them the importance of how to surrender to God.

Series

Restoration 2003: From Eden to Eternity

An Issue of the Heart

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

The Mount of Blessings

Our Communication

37m

The Darkest Hour

50m

Personal Spiritual Enrichment

Thriving Mentally: Assimilating the Mind of Christ

1h 33m

Going ABOVE and BEYOND

Daring to Ask for More - Part 2

59m

The Fight of Faith - Part 2

51m

The Way of Love

The Way of Love- Part 4

46m

Own It

Own It- Part 2

1h 8m

Living the Word

If Need Be

56m

Plenary

Preparing for Rain

1h

Anticipation

Pt 2-The Holy Spirit and the Cross

1h 13m

Infidelity: A Moral Crisis Amid the Pandemic

58m

Preparing For the End of Time

1. Why Prayer Matters

45m

Sound Doctrine