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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Melody Mason: The Vital Signs of Life

Melody Mason

God’s Word Internalized

Actually, there's a lot that I want to share with you this evening.

I've been praying about this topic and having the opportunity to share for quite some time.

So I ask that you would pray for me and that God would give me the wisdom as I share, because there's a lot on my heart.

How many of you at some point in your life have ever been involved in some type of scripture memory program?

Some type of scripture memory program, Okay.

Maybe some of you, like me, have struggled over the years, seeking to make that like a consistent part of your life.

To begin with, I actually want to share just a little bit of my testimony and how God has worked and led in my life.

I think it's really encouraging when people share, you know, where God's brought them and those things.

To start with, I just want to say, I was actually, I really consider myself very blessed from my childhood and as a child.

My home wasn't perfect, as most of ours aren't.

There was actually a lot of pain and a lot of trials and a lot of struggles.

My mother actually struggled with a digestive disorder.

There was, on more than 1 occasion, we thought that she wouldn't live, that she wouldn't make it.

And after I was born, she was told she couldn't have any more children, and so didn't think we were going to have any siblings, so we as a family chose to adopt.

And I guess that was a magic fix because she then got pregnant after she adopted 2 times in a row without having no menstrual cycle or anything.

She didn't, you know, think that her body was functioning in that capacity, but it was.

However, even after that, she continued to struggle with pain and problems, and she wasn't really able to give us kids what we needed.

I mean, She did the best that she could, but it was a struggle.

It seemed like there was a constant searching for the right cure, the right doctor, the right medicine.

So It was a struggle for me, wondering if I'd have my mother another day.

However, despite the heartache and the pains and the struggles, I still had a really good life and God really blessed.

I was blessed in the fact that my parents loved God and they taught me at a very young age to love God and to love His Word.

They had a scripture memory program that they did with pictures and music, which was very effective, which I highly recommend for anyone that has children.

And it was just ingrained in me from my childhood.

I gave my life to God when I was about 12 years old.

But it was actually in high school when I began to have my own personal relationship with God.

That's like when my faith started to become my own.

And it was then that it was like the Bible really came alive to me.

I remember, in fact I almost remember the day, someone had given me a promise book and somehow that was a little easier to read than the Bible, although I'd read stuff in the Bible, and I was looking through promises and I was like, wow!

You know, I told my roommate, did you know this was in the Bible?

They're like, did you know this was in the Bible?

If this is really true, this is incredible.

And I was just, you know, waking up to more of the things.

And you know, I'd heard them growing up and everything, but it's like it all of a sudden became real for me.

Then when I was in high school, I joined a discipleship training program, which was developing back then and has later turned into the fast ministries, which some of you may be familiar with.

It's based out of Uchee Pines, Alabama, and I'll tell you more about that.

That program's had a lot of impact in my life.

Anyway, despite my parents' efforts to train me to love God, despite the awesome high school experience I had, and despite God showing himself in some very powerful ways.

Like for instance, you can see here, I was able to serve As a student missionary with David Gates for a while and that was really some faith-building experiences and then working Becoming a nurse and doing medical missions was really really powerful and then when I was at Southern I actually led past Bible study teams and It was awesome, you know, I knew that God was there and I was claiming His promises, but despite all these things, I had my struggles.

And there was a period of time in my life, because of some difficult experiences that I had to go through, that I actually walked away from God.

And a lot of people that knew me at the time never even knew, because I still did all the forms.

I went to church and I was part of the youth group and all these different things, but I internally had been so hurt that I walked away.

I stopped really praying or my prayers were just like superficial.

I stopped, you know, having my heart, I stopped really trusting God.

And it was, you know, just at the time I needed to the most, I stopped.

And I actually went into almost 2 years of pretty severe depression and just, you know, wasn't even wanting to live for a time.

But thankfully, through God's power, the consistent love of my family, and I went through the depression recovery program with Dr.

I can tell you that from personal experience.

But I also got back into scripture memory, and I think that that was a big key as well.

It healed my mind and it brought me out of that darkness with which I had sunk.

And it's really interesting because before all this, I had like no, I had no patience or no sympathy for people really that dealt with depression.

I was always, you know, kind of like, you know, why can't they get it together and what's the deal here and stuff like that.

But you know until you have been in that situation, it's really hard to know.

It's really hard to know and it's hard to judge.

But anyway, so God brought me out of that and I just praised him and it's really weird to say, but well I thought I had a good life before, it's actually been so much better since.

And it's just a testimony, isn't God good?

So I just wanted to share, while it hasn't been an easy walk, God's been building me through the tough times.

And I pray that with his strength I don't turn away from him again.

But it's through his strength, because every time I try to do it on my own I still fall and I still struggle.

So anyway, regarding hiding God's Word in our hearts, whether we've memorized it for years, whether we're doing it now, or whether we've never done it, and we'd like to start, I'm really hoping, this is a really big passion and burden of my heart, And I'll just be real with you this evening about it.

I'm really hoping that this can encourage and motivate all of us to get back into the word more and to really internalize it into our hearts, because it's so vitally important.

Back in January, before Dave left, he shared a quote that I've referred to a couple times.

I want to just share it again really briefly.

Speak and spare not, let no regard for any man induce you to betray the truth of God.

Preach full sanctification." Now you remember What sanctify stands for?

To set apart, to cleanse, To make holy, to separate from profane things, all of the above.

When we're talking about our own lives, 1 of the first verses that always comes to my mind, and I'm sure, you know, many of you are familiar with it too, is Psalms 119, 9, and 11.

A Faith That Endures

I'm really excited about the topic that I'm going to be sharing with you this evening.

It's really a burden on my heart and something I don't know how many of you remember, but a while back I actually started this series called the vital signs of life.

And I don't know if you remember, but I talked about how I'm a nurse, and so I like to equate things physically to spiritually, how we relate spiritually.

And physically, we know that we have certain characteristics or certain things that have to be working for us to have life.

And you just see this here in this wheel where we have to have our heart that's pumping blood.

We need to be breathing, have a temperature, and our oxygen actually needs to be going somewhere in our body, right?

So this is called the vital signs of life, and I started sharing this a little while back.

And then I talked about 4 crucial ways that Satan attacks our spiritual vital signs Yeah, Arden if you can turn off 1 of the lights, thanks Our Spiritual vital signs are what he's really worried about you know if he can kill our body yeah, he wants to do that too, but it's actually the spiritual vital signs he's attacking.

And so I'm just going to in quick review go back over what I shared before because I know it's been a little while, and then we'll progress on.

So we have this wheel here, I call it the discipleship wheel.

It's the spirit-filled daily life of a Christian.

And here you see how we've taken those vital signs, and Christ is the heart, He's the living word in the center.

And then we have prayer on the bottom which goes with the respiration.

Faith, the heart rate, blood pressure, obedience is the temperature, and the witness is the oxygen saturation.

And that's just a little wheel that I had made.

And last time when I talked I specifically focused on Christ being in the center, in other words Him being internalized in our hearts.

Not just knowing the Bible but internalizing the Bible, memorizing Scripture.

What does Scripture memory do for us spiritually?

So we talked a lot about that and that's something I'm always really excited to share about.

But this evening I'm going to talk about a different aspect of this vital sign circle and that is faith, 1 of the spokes of faith.

So that's what we're going to focus on this evening.

Just to start off with here, and there's a quote from Great Controversy 621 that says, the season of distress and anguish before us will require a faith that can endure weariness, delay, and hunger.

A faith that will not faint, though severely tried.

A period of probation is granted to all to prepare for that time." I know that's a really heavy quote to start with, but that really lays the groundwork for the things that we're going to be talking about and sharing this evening.

So to start with, let's bow our heads again for prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would be with my voice this evening and that you would give me strength.

And Father, as we study your word and the reasons we can trust your word and what you say and that we can believe your promises.

Father, I pray that you would build and boost our faith.

Help us to realize that we can be strong in you and in the power of your might.

It's not in our own strength, our own flesh, or anything that we can do, But Father, you are with us and we thank you for that and I just pray that you'd be with us this evening as we talk and as I share from my heart.

How easy is it in life to talk about something, But how much harder is it to actually do something?

Just this last week I've been struggling, like I said, with getting over a cold and having this cough, and my mom's like, are you doing fomentations?

Well, not really like I should be, you know?

But if the situation were reversed and that was my mom or that was my sister or family member, I'd be like, we're doing fomentations, we're doing this, we're doing that.

You know, It's easier to be a nurse than to be a patient, as I've learned.

But anyway, this is also true in the spiritual life.

It's easier to talk about these things than it is to really live them.

And so I'm gonna be sharing some personal stories this evening.

First off though, do you recognize this man?

David Gates, yeah, he's been a huge inspiration to me as a missionary in South America and the many things that he's done and he's known in many circles for being a man that lives his faith and steps out on the edge.

However, there's a story back in the very beginning of his mission experience that's really affected me and some of you probably heard it.

It was where he was actually in Mexico working with his wife and the plane he was using to help people get to medical care and deliver supplies and all these different things, it was hijacked.

They were actually taken by the authorities and he was taken to prison and he was accused of all these different things that he didn't do.

Drug trafficking, illegally passing out Bibles, all these different things.

If you don't know the story, go to AudioVerse and look up his name and look up the sermon Hijacked and it tells all the details.

But this story really has inspired me in my walk with God.

He had to come to a point in that prison.

He was giving medical care to the people and he was trying to meet the people's needs, but he didn't know how long he was going to be there.

He thought he might be there indefinitely.

In fact, they told him that he was under, what they were trying to do is put him in for 14 years.

You know, and he had a wife, kids, a thriving ministry, he's just starting his ministry, he was back in his 20s.

How, God, can you let me be in prison for 14 years, you know, was his struggle.

But God worked on him through that experience as he sought to do what was right, even though he was hurt and struggling in his own heart.

God worked through him and said, you know, David, can you trust me even if you're in prison for 14 years?

And David finally came to the decision, yes, I'm going to trust you even if I'm in prison for 14 years.

Now amazingly, after only 10 days there, because of all the medical work he'd done and all the good deeds he had done for the group, we know that he was released, right?

And he has just so much more powerful testimony as you as you look back and see that.

But that was in the beginning of his walk of faith really in the mission field.

So that story's really been a big inspiration to me.

Now I want to share something a little bit more close to home.

I don't know if you see any resemblance up there, but that guy up there on the right is actually my brother.

And about 2 years ago, while I was working out here in California in San Diego as a travel nurse, my mother called me and told me that my brother Daniel had been arrested.

He actually was sleeping in a church parking lot, was woken up out of his sleep, hauled into jail for a crime that he did not commit.

This is a picture of my mother there when she went to see him and you know he was I think going to court here in his orange jail suit and he's smiling and everything But let me just tell you a little bit about Daniel.

My brother Daniel has just got the most incredible servant's heart.

My dad and brothers have worked in first responder.

At the time that this happened, that my brother was arrested and taken to jail out of his complete sleep, he was actually taking an EMT course so that he could continue to reach out and help the community.

And he's just such a servant, he's such a sweet Christian.

And his response to mother when she first talked to him, she says, Mom, I don't know why I'm here, but God must have a reason for me to be here, and I'm just gonna be a witness.

Of course, We were all like, you know, this is not fair.

This is, you know, when we found out what they were charging him with.

So it was a really, it was a really tough position for us.

In that jail, the other guys that were there are like, you know, this kid's not supposed to be here.

He got horribly sick in the process, but he was there 10 days, same amount of time that David Gates was in prison.

He was in jail 10 days, and actually The prosecutor that was on his case, very sad situation, was a very corrupt man and he actually had it out against Christians.

And he's known in the area for dealing very harshly with anyone that expresses any symbolism of faith.

So this was a really tough situation on him.

So he basically was nailing all these things with him that were totally false and just would not give up.

We did not know what was going to happen, But we're praying and pleading with God and all of us in our family, you know, I think Daniel had a better attitude than we did.

You know, he was there, he's like, I'm just gonna be a witness, I know God's in control.

And we're all like, yes, we know he is, but how are we gonna get him out of here, you know?

It was a really, really stressful situation.

Obedience in Our Witness

Tonight I'm going to be talking again about the vital signs of life as I said and the topic for tonight is actually obedience in our witness and I'll talk more about that.

But just as you see here we have the daily life of a spirit-filled Christian and We've been talking about the different aspects of this discipleship wheel, which if we just review, includes what I call the vital signs of the spiritual life, which is God's Word internalized.

We've talked a lot about Scripture memory, God's Word in our heart, and then faith that endures, that will stand the test of time, that will be willing to die.

And then this week we're going to talk about obedience in our witness.

And then right before the prayer weekend, we'll be talking about prayer that prevails, and I'll have help with that.

But something I just wanted to clarify before I actually get too deep in tonight's topic is what I was talking about last week in relation to faith.

And that is, I don't want to be trite about the trials and the struggles that we have.

You know, I talked about different things in my life, different things in lives of people that we know, and the pain, and how we have to trust God.

And it's true that we do, but I don't want to, you know, brush it off either as being just a little deal.

In Isaiah 55, 8, and 9, this is just kind of a PS that I'm adding to last week's talk on faith that endures.

You guys probably know this by memory, but it says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And just really realizing, you know, we can't explain away trials.

I can share things that I've learned from trials just as you can share things that you've learned from trials, but realizing that doesn't take the pain away.

We have to let God be God and some things we're not going to understand in this life, right?

Something else I shared was talking about just the trials that are going to come ahead in the future and how that's scary.

And it is because we know, you know, that some people are going to be asked to even to lay down their life and I talked about that but something else that God's really showed me and encouraged me and I didn't I didn't remember to share this was in Deuteronomy 33 25 which I have up here on the screen And it says as thy days so shall thy strength be and so I don't want to leave that topic without saying You know God gives us strength for the trials when they come But we can't necessarily have strength for tomorrow's trials today, and That's something I didn't really mention last week.

So, that's kind of a PS to the topic on faith.

Let's bow our heads for prayer and then we'll dive into this week's topic.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for giving us strength through this week and through this day and whatever trials that we've had today and Father I just pray that you would be here this evening that your Holy Spirit would be present, that you would give me clarity in thought and in word and expression, Father, that all that's shared tonight would be to your glory and honor, because that's what it's all about, Father.

We want to honor and glorify you in our lives, in our witness, in our testimony, and in all that we do.

So please be with us this evening, I pray in your precious name, amen.

Last week I shared from the verse as I was closing, 1 Thessalonians 4, and I'm just going to start there again this evening first Thessalonians 4 3 and I was talking about the fact how trials bring our sanctification and that's kind of why the I use that verse last week for this is the will of God even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication and then in verse 7 how he talks about the fact he's called us to holiness and the reason that we can be thankful for that in our trials is the fact that he's he's willing to do whatever it takes to save us.

And that's, you know, again, the encouragement I was trying to share.

And we should want him to do whatever it's going to take for him to save us, right?

Even if it means the death of ourself and our pain.

So that's what I was sharing, is his ultimate goal is for us to be saved.

And that's why we can be thankful for that.

But moving on this evening as we talk about obedience, I want to look at the verses following that.

And verse 4, first Thessalonians, verse first Thessalonians 4, verse 4.

So this is the will of God, even your sanctification.

Now that every 1 of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and in honor.

Now just a kind of a side topic here as we talk about this.

When the flood occurred on earth, what was the vessel that God used to save the people?

Now was the important thing in that the wood of the structure or the people inside of it?

But it was actually the people inside that he was, that God was seeking to save.

And it just makes an interesting correlation.

What is the vessel today that God uses to save us?

Yeah, the Holy Spirit's instrumental, but actually what I'm looking for here is our body.

Our body is the vessel that transports what God is trying to save.

Now in the long run, does our flesh matter?

Actually, it's what's inside that really counts, right?

But just as if the ark had not been built correctly, those people in the flood wouldn't have lived.

They wouldn't have made it through the flood, right?

If our temple, if our vessel, I should say, that God has made to transport us through this life to the next 1 is not taken care of, is not constructed, is not used in the proper capacity, we're gonna be lost as well.

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Melody Mason: The Vital Signs of Life

God’s Word Internalized

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