NEC 2014 Camp Meeting: Transformed Agents

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NEC Youth

Kameron DeVasher

Questions Angels Ask

I'm going to be speaking to you about the great controversy.

And I hope there is a tension, I feel, just so you can know personally.

White makes some strong comments about young ministers, especially, seeking to be original.

I don't want to come here trying to have just some new shiny thing or new theory just to woo and sorcel your mind and kind of get you, think, but, On the other side of that, we are called to be faithful and to take the truths that we have and dig into them and try to understand them on a deeper level than we ever have.

So my challenge today to myself and for you is to present and study the concepts entwined in the great controversy in such a way that it's not some newfangled thing.

It's standing firmly on the platform of Bible truth, but going deeper than perhaps we typically go.

Does that make sense, what our objectives are?

So as we begin, we're gonna start with a word of prayer, and I hope you have the word of God with you.

All right, digital, you can use paper, whatever it is, but we're gonna be in the Word of God today, and we'll be looking at some very familiar things, but hopefully putting them together in such a way that you'll say, I did not see that there before.

And maybe the Lord will give you depth in your experience with Him.

So to that end, let's ask the Lord for His blessing and then dive into our study.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this beautiful day.

Thank you for this opportunity to come apart from the rest of the world for just a few moments, Lord.

And Lord, As we study your word, we ask that you send the same Holy Spirit who wrote it long ago to now write it on our hearts and minds so that we may become the people you intended us to be in the very beginning, representatives of your likeness and your character.

Please turn with me to the book of Matthew, specifically chapter 13, Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew chapter 13, as you're finding your way there, I'll let you know about Matthew chapter 13.

I'm going to, by the way, I'm going to cover things that typically take a very, very long time to get into.

We're going to get the concentrated version here because we only have a few messages this week, and so we're going to just dive right into the meat of these things.

But in Matthew chapter 13 basically it's a list of parables.

Jesus was on a storytelling venture that day and there's parable after parable after parable and in the middle of Matthew chapter 13 he hits a parable.

He says a thought that festered in the minds of the disciples because of all the parables he told that day, only 1 did they come back and say, we need an explanation to that parable.

And it's the 1 that begins in Matthew chapter 13, verse 24, And it reads, another parable he put forth to them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

We're not gonna get too much into the interpretation yet, but let me ask you a question.

In the parable, who is speaking to the owner of the field?

I know this sounds like a ridiculous question, but are the plants talking?

The conversation isn't between either the good seed or the bad seed.

It's not the, don't wanna give it away, but the righteous or the wicked.

The conversation is happening between the owner of the field and his own servants.

Again, verse 27, So the servants of the owner came and said, Sir, did you not so good seed in your field?

Pausing here Again, in this parable, we haven't even gotten into the interpretation yet and who all these symbols refer to, but the question on the servant's mind has to do with the presence of the tares.

They do not understand why the tares are there.

They're faithful, you know, these are not derelict, these are not lazy, these are not corrupt stewards, they are good faithful servants.

They work for the owner of the field and as they look at the field they notice that what they see does not correspond to what he said.

He had said, I sowed good seed, and they took his word for it.

But now they look and they see tears, and they ask the owner, did you not sow good seed in your field?

The implication is, you said this thing, we see this thing, so we need to address the question to you.

Verse 28, he said to them, an enemy has done this.

By the way, I'm so glad that the parable does not say, and he said to them, yeah, oops.

He doesn't say, yeah, I'm sorry, I forgot, yeah, there's an enemy, I forgot to build a fence, you know, I'm sorry, that's my bad.

Or, you know, I didn't even think of it, where was my brain?

You can ask me the question, I'll give you the answer.

The servant said to him, do you want us then to go and gather them up?

Apparently, 1 of their jobs is not only to, because the job is not to sow the seed, is it?

But their job is to tend to it, to cultivate it, and when the time is right, to do what?

And they say, well, now that we notice it's here, do you want us to come in now and harvest?

Do you want us then to go and gather them up?

And this is gonna be 1 of the key thoughts for the entire time we're together.

Lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them.

By the way, in this parable, again, we haven't gotten to the interpretation, but does the owner want to get rid of the tares?

Yes, but he doesn't do it right then the moment it was spotted.

Because it's out of his concern for the wheat that he leaves the tares in the field.

We're gonna have some thoughts that might be a little bit bending to the mind.

Apparently it's in the best interest of the wheat for the tares to remain.

It's good for the wheat for the tares to remain.

But he continues, verse 30, here's his plan.

Is he going to let this go fallow and just go on and on and on?

And at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, first gather the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn.

Now, obviously, by the way, this is the end of the parable.

Next verse it says, another parable he put forth to them, and he goes on.

But this stuck in their mind, this must have been scratching where they were itching a little bit.

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