We pray “Christ in me” because we want to live transformed lives. But without reading the Word, we would not know what needs changing. And there is no other way of asking if we do not learn to pray. This session will provide you tools that will assist you in fostering a vibrant devotional life.

ECYC 2015: Christ In Me

<p>We pray “Christ in me” because we want to live transformed lives. But without reading the Word, we would not know what needs changing. And there is no other way of asking if we do not learn to pray. This session will provide you tools that will assist you in fostering a vibrant devotional life.</p>

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

Eastern Canada Youth Conference

Seminars

Robert Blais

Righteousness by Faith in the Sanctuary- Part 1

Now the sanctuary is excessively important and I'd like to read to you this quote here.

It's from the Great Controversy, page 488.

Alan White tells us that the subject of the sanctuary and the investigative judgment should be clearly understood by the people of God.

Do you understand clearly the sanctuary message and the investigative judgment?

Because she said it ought to be clearly understood.

And so this morning what I would like to do is I would like to take a trip through the sanctuary service, the sanctuary message, as well as how it applies to us and what does it teach us about righteousness by faith and how we ought to be living in these days.

So we're going to be looking at a lot of material, a lot of stuff.

We're going to go really fast and I only have like 3 slides.

And if you have 1 of this, I'd like to ask you to turn it off so you're not going to be distracted.

I'd like to also ask of you to pray while I present this message, not only that I may have the proper word but that I might be in tune with God at all times and that you may also understand and be protected so that if I say anything of a human nature it will not affect you.

And the last thing is I want you to think because we need to think.

God gave us a mind, a renewed mind, praise the Lord, to think and understand things of God.

And we need the Spirit of God in order to do that.

Father, Lord, we come to you this morning.

God, it is so amazing to be able to come to you in prayer.

To be able to come to your word and study.

And Lord, later we'll be able to go to your people, to your sheep, that do not know that they are your sheep.

And Lord, I pray that you will be with us at this time, Lord, as we study your word, as we study the sanctuary message, such an amazing doctrine that you gave a special understanding and knowledge to this church, to this movement.

And I pray Lord that as we look and study that we will gain a greater understanding of you and your plan of salvation and what you have in store for us.

And I pray Lord that we will leave with a better understanding, better equipped, but also convicted of what you expect of us.

I thank you Lord for giving us this chance.

I pray that you will let your spirit abide on us, on all of us, that I may speak but that your people may hear and understand.

And I pray Lord that all will go according to your will, that your spirit will be here and that your angels will protect us and that anything that is of the devil will be evicted at this time.

I thank you Lord And I pray this in our loving Savior, the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world, Jesus.

The sanctuary message, I just made this little graphic really quickly, is very central to a lot of doctrine in Adventism.

In fact, if you do not understand the sanctuary, there are many aspects in Christianity and in Adventism that you will not understand.

Things like salvation, the law, the nature of sin, the judgment, the atonement, and righteousness.

If you do not have a correct understanding of the sanctuary, these things will be nebulous to you or they will simply be incomplete.

Your knowledge and your understanding will not be complete.

And so it is excessively important for us to have a good understanding of the doctrine of the sanctuary.

I'd like to ask you to first turn to the book of Psalms, chapter 77.

It says, Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary.

And if you want to understand the ways of God, how do you understand it according to the verse?

So if you want to know the ways of God, it is through the sanctuary.

So here you have a picture, a depiction of an artist, which kind of like tells you a little bit what the sanctuary may have looked like.

Obviously it is not 100% accurate because nobody was there to take a picture.

But I'd like for us to go a little bit through the history.

What I want to do this morning is, because I don't know where everybody is in their understanding of the sanctuary.

So we'll begin at the beginning and then we'll progress until as far as we can go in the 2 hours, prophetic hours that we have.

Let's begin in the book of Exodus and we're going to spend a lot of time now in the book of Exodus because this is where the idea of the sanctuary begins.

In verse 8, God says, And let them make me a sanctuary, Why?

If you remember the promise in Revelation 22 is that God will be our God and He will dwell with us.

The word dwelling in the Hebrew is the same word for the word tabernacle.

And so when we talk about the tabernacle, we obviously think of the tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness.

And that's where the word comes from and the idea comes from.

But now my question is, why is it that God wants a sanctuary?

He wants to dwell among us, yes, but couldn't he have dwelled in any other ways with us?

Now what is Exodus chapter 20 famous for?

So in the beginning of the book of Exodus we're going to take a trip to the book of Exodus.

In the beginning of the book of Exodus, the Israelites are captive in Egypt.

And God sends Moses as his general to take the Israelites out of Egypt.

And as he does that, there's a bunch of plagues and the people are seeing the power of God.

They're seeing all these plagues happening.

And they're looking at Moses and they're like, I don't know who this Moses guy is but it seems that God must have sent him because look all these things are happening just as Moses predicted.

And in the end they finally leave Egypt and Moses is leading them and they're coming to Mount Sinai and at Mount Sinai there's a great display of God's glory.

There's a cloud coming down covering the whole mound.

There's lightning flashing everywhere and suddenly they're hearing this booming voice.

It's described in Revelation as loud thunder and voice of many waters.

And then we go to verse 18 of chapter 20 and we see their reaction to this display.

It reads, and all the people saw the tundering and the lightning and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking and when the people saw it they removed and stood afar.

God has just come down to them and they removed themselves and stood afar.

And they said unto Moses, and catch this, speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die.

And Moses said unto the people fear not for God has come to prove you and that is fear may be before your faces that you sin not.

And the people stood afar off and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was." So what was the reaction of the people when they saw God's display?

Now is that, does that look like a familiar reaction to you?

Don't lose your hand, we're going to come back to that passage.

Adam and Eve, after they had eaten the fruit that they were not supposed to eat, it reads, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." And so the Israelites, just like Adam and Eve, feared and hid themselves.

And so it seems to me that God couldn't just appear just like that to them.

Righteousness by Faith in the Sanctuary- Part 2

I just want to recommend a few reading material, a few very, very good books.

First book, Christ and His Sanctuary, compilation from Ellen White, of Ellen White's writing about Christ and His sanctuary.

Some of you have the app, it's probably on there.

Second book is called The Sanctuary Service by M.L.

You read this, you'll know the sanctuary from in and out, no problem.

And the last book, I don't have a copy with me, it's called The Shadow and the Cross by 1 of our founding fathers, Brother Hayskel.

Excellent book showing how Christ is the type, you know, how Christ fulfilled the different things in the sanctuary service.

Very, very well-written book, easy to understand, and it's actually very good.

What I want to do now, like I said, is I want to go through a little bit more of the sanctuary service and show how it teaches us about righteousness by faith, what it means to us today, and what we can learn about how we ought to live today.

And I'd like to finish a little bit early to, you know, if ever you have questions, to give you a little bit of time to answer questions, to ask questions, to put me on the spot and see whether I know an answer or not, and I pray God will give me the answer.

And if I don't, then I will go and do my research and bring you a satisfying answer.

All right, let's begin with a word of prayer.

Father Lord, we once again come to you as we are continuing our study of the sanctuary service Lord.

This service that you have instituted for teaching Lord and we pray that you'll continue to teach us as we continue to study Lord For we want to know all that we can know.

And Lord, though we will not exhaust this topic, I pray that you will give us a thirst for righteousness and a thirst to study of sanctuary.

I thank you so much, Lord, for giving us this privilege.

We pray for the forgiveness of our sins and we pray that you will put a hedge around us that we may not be distracted by anything.

We thank you, Lord, and we pray this in the name of Jesus.

I want to talk about the sanctuary in heaven.

You are aware that there is also a sanctuary in heaven?

You can take the references because I'll try to go a little quicker.

God says, God says, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them according to all that I show thee.

After the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall you make it.

Now when we talk about a pattern what does it imply?

Yeah there is the pattern is something that we need to imitate.

Like when people do dresses or clothes, they have this pattern that they follow and if they follow the pattern correctly, then they get the proper result.

If they mess up the pattern, the dress doesn't fit or it's too short.

Now of the things which we have spoken, this is, if you study the book of Hebrews, okay, this is where the sanctuary service comes to the New Testament.

This is where Paul explains and expounds how Christ fulfills what the sanctuary is.

And I remember when I started reading my Bible and I read the book of Hebrews, I was like, what am I reading?

Because I didn't understand the sanctuary.

Now that I've gained an understanding of the sanctuary, I go to the book of Hebrews and like all these incredible jewels and treasure comes alive.

So now Hebrews 8 verse 1 and 2 it says, Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum.

Okay, I've spoken for you for 7 chapters, but this is the sum.

We have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.

In the heavens and who is this high priest?

Jesus, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man.

Hebrews 8.5 it says, Who served unto the example of the shadow of heavenly things, that's the 1 Moses built, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle for sea said he that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount.

So the pattern that Moses used to build the tabernacle was the sanctuary in heaven.

So you got to see like this miniature version of what the tabernacle in heaven was like and this is what he based the tabernacle that he built on earth on.

Now we've never seen the tabernacle in heaven but it must be awesome and great And obviously the 1 that is here would never be as great as the 1 in heaven.

Verse 3 says, for every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifice, wherefore it is of necessity that this man, that's Jesus, have somewhat also to offer.

And so the services that were taking place here were a shadow, a representation of what was happening in heaven or what happens in heaven.

In chapter 9, verse 11 and 12 says, But Christ being come in high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats or cows, but by His own blood He entered in ones into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." And so when Christ came to heaven as a high priest, He didn't just come in the sanctuary without nothing.

He also came with blood the same way that the high priest on earth would enter with blood.

The only difference is that he came in with his own blood, the blood that he shed on the cross.

It was therefore, this is 23 to 28 of chapter 9 of Hebrews, it was therefore necessary that the pattern of things in the heaven should be purified with these, speaking of the blood, but the heavenly things themselves would better sacrifice than these.

For Christ is not entered into only place made with hands, that means he's not entered in the tabernacle on earth, which are the figure of the true, but into heaven itself, that's where he entered, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Now let me ask you, When would the high priest on earth appear before God?

Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest and turn into the holy place every year with the blood of others, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.

But now once in the end of the world had he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

So when Christ died, he went into heaven, but at the end of the world, he would enter with his own blood in the presence of this Father in the most holy place.

Okay, we're going to put that in perspective.

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him he shall appear a second time without sin and salvation." So now if you look at the pattern, Christ came to heaven, he came with his blood and at the end of time, now we understand that the end of time is a period of time, okay, the end time events that we always talk about.

When this began, Christ enters in the most holy place with His blood and according to the text, once He's done with this portion of His ministry, He appears a second time.

So between the beginning of the end time and Jesus' second coming, He's in the most holy place, ministering His blood.

What is it that the Day of Atonement teaches us?

Why is it that there's this thing, because he's doing kind of a Day of Atonement thing in heaven, the same way that it was done on earth.

What is it that the Day of Atonement was really all about?

Well, the Day of Atonement was simply a figure of the judgment.

If on the Day of Atonement you had not confessed your sins and the Day of Atonement would end, you would be cut off.

It was a figure of how the judgment takes place.

By the choices and the habits that you formed in this life.

You choose sin, you form a character after that of Satan, you're moving toward eternal death.

You choose obedience and righteousness and faithfulness and holy living and Christlikeness and your habits are moving you toward a character like Christ, you're moving toward eternal life.

Jonathan Zita

Christ in the Word and Prayer

I was asked to share a little bit more about Christ in the Word and Christ in prayer.

And we call it devotional, doing your devotional or devotional time, right?

And what does devotional time, and you guys can answer me So it's not a, what does devotional time consist of when you hear devotions?

Because devotion is an interesting word, it means to be devoted to, right?

But what does it usually mean in your mind?

What is it, when I say devotion, I mean is it eating food, is it sleeping, is it watching TV?

What do you usually see in your mind when you hear that word as a Christian?

Just separating yourself from the cares of this world to focus on God.

So separating yourself from the cares of this world and focusing on God, right?

So many of us, and I think this is what God wants us, you know, by prayer, by studying God's Word, by singing, these kind of things, it helps us to have that relationship with God.

But you remember Pastor Robert Blais had talked about the sanctuary message.

And if you have your Bibles, let's look at a few verses here.

I want to focus on maybe something that we haven't focused on when we talked about spending time with God.

2 Corinthians 5 and I just want to look at verse 19.

This is the whole purpose of the sanctuary message and it's also I believe the purpose even of the devotional time that we spend with God.

2 Corinthians 5 verse 19, To wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of what?

Now, then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye what?

I believe that the whole concept of the sanctuary message is to be reconciled with God Because you remember how there was a sanctuary, you know the sanctuary is here and you're coming in into the courtyard.

What happens is if this guy decides to walk right into the presence of God, what happens to God?

What happens, not to God, what happens to the guy?

God was in heaven but He says, make me a sanctuary that I can come and I can tabernacle with you, right?

The whole purpose of the sanctuary, the whole purpose of salvation is that God can be reconciled with us, right?

That's why He says, in those days in heaven, I will be your God and you will be my people.

So the devotional time, it's a time where we can be used to be reconciled with God.

However, and I think we all understand that devotional time is to be able to develop that relationship with God.

I think most of us understand it's not just about, okay, I need to read my Bible because that's the right thing to do.

I need to pray Because that's the right thing to do.

No, we kind of understand that the reason I read the Bible, the reason I study is because I'm trying to develop a relationship with a person, right, which is Jesus Christ, amen?

Why is it so difficult to spend time with God in the morning?

And that's what I want to focus on today.

Because I'm telling you, once you pass that difficulty, then it's a nice experience.

No, you don't always have these wow experiences.

But I think it's important to understand why is it that when I get up I may not always feel like praying.

I may not always feel like studying the Bible.

Why is it that I can go shopping so much quicker, I can go on Facebook so much quicker and so much enjoyable than to be able to spend time in God's Word?

And this is not, you know, if you are resonating, if this is something that you are experiencing in your mind, trust me, you're not the only person.

All of you are not moving, but most people in this room, it is a challenge.

It's a challenge because we're tired, because we're overworked, and there's different reasons I think we need to look at.

But I think it's important to look at the reasons why it is difficult for us to have devotions.

What are these things that are keeping us from enjoying this experience with God?

And once we deal with these factors, then we don't need to focus so much on how, right?

I will talk a little bit about how at the end, but I believe that there's a lot of workshops out there, you can go on AudioVerse and hear tons of sermons on how to study your Bible.

And so the issue is not How to study the Bible, there's a lot of stuff out there, it's just to get to the point that you want to study the Bible.

So let's start by focusing not on how to have devotions, but how to desire to have devotions.

Now, if this concept of devotion is to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ, I want you to understand why also I'm not focusing on the how so much, right?

And we'll talk a little bit because you are all uniquely different.

I don't know if you remember when Christ was born in the temple there was a Simeon and there was also another lady called Anna, right?

And if you read about Anna, Anna was married before and then she, I guess she was a widow, I think it was it.

But the Bible says that she was in the temple all the time, praising the Lord.

Now for some of us when we look at that we say that's like fanaticism.

You know like don't you go and do something with your life?

You're just there all the time praising God.

I mean it literally says she was in the temple all the time.

I guess there was compartments or I don't know.

I don't know and the Bible doesn't depict a lot.

But what I'm saying is that when I fell in love with my wife, right, now it's not so much I could read a book and I want you to see the relationship with my wife with the same thing I'm developing a relationship with God.

Sometimes what we want to do with devotions, we want to develop specifically exactly what you need to do in that relationship.

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Series

Seminars

Christ in the Word and Prayer

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

Parts

Righteousness by Faith in the Sanctuary- Part 1

51m

Righteousness by Faith in the Sanctuary- Part 2

1h

Christ in the Word and Prayer

53m

Trials and Their Object

1h

Christ in Me Through Beholding

1h

Sound Doctrine