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Restoration Ministry

Restoration 2009: Expect It

Marc Swearingen

Love With a Risk

It's turned out to be a beautiful day, hasn't it?

I appreciate so much that you all have taken time out of your busy schedules to come and enjoy a spiritual thought here at noon.

And I hope this week you'll be blessed as a result of coming to these meetings.

And I'd like to emphasize what Brother Claudio said about the cards.

Please fill these out and turn these in, because we do want to be here for anyone who may have questions about spiritual things.

So if you would, take a few moments during this meeting if you have time to fill that out and turn that in at the end.

As was said in the introduction my name is Pastor Mark Swearengin and I am a pastor in the Carolina Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

I've been there for 2 years and I currently pastor at the Hickory Seventh-day Adventist Church.

It's probably got about 350 members on the books, but you know how that works.

Usually the membership that is actually active is less than that.

But my wife and I, Sarah, live in the Conover area, which is about 15 miles east of Hickory.

And then our little girl, Samantha, who is 18 months.

And as you can imagine, we have our work cut out for us with our children.

But I hope to be with you this week and really try to be a blessing to you.

I don't presume to present any new mind-blowing theology to you, but I do want to speak very simply and practically to you this week.

And hopefully through these meetings we will be encouraged to surrender ourselves more completely to our Lord and Savior so that He can really use us where we are at.

By the grace of God we are going to talk today about a message that I have given the title Love with a risk.

And you may have heard similar messages to this in your travels.

I've heard different messages and studied different texts and meditated upon this subject for a while.

Maybe some of the things that I will share with you today might be review, but it's always good to have a review on some of these things so that we are refreshed in our experience.

But I hope to develop the thought today, love with a risk.

And I want to pose a question to begin this meeting today.

As you look at your life and your temperament and your character, would you classify yourself as a risk taker?

You know, when I look at my marriage, and I look at my wife and I, I would say out of the 2 of us, my wife is more of a risk taker than I am.

And I will tell you that my experience in life has made me a very cautious person.

I'm very methodical and calculated in making decisions.

Very rarely do I do things that are a spur of the moment action.

And there have been many things that have happened in my life that have kind of made me this way.

I can remember growing up in southern Maine years ago, you know, when it was winter out, we used to get the snowmobile out, and I can remember 1 winter running the snowmobile into a tree trunk.

And as a result, I never, ever set my body on a snowmobile again.

There was another occasion when I was in high school when a bunch of friends of mine and I, we went to this motorcycle pit during the summer and we drove motorcycles and three-wheelers through this pit.

And of course, three-wheelers are now, I think, outlawed and they have four-wheelers currently.

But my friend let me ride his three-wheeler and I had no training on that, and so I went crazy.

And just sat on this thing and just drove it all over the place.

And I came around this sharp turn at 1 point, and I couldn't negotiate the turn.

And I flew off the side of the road into a deep ditch.

And the three-wheeler actually flipped over with me on it and landed right on its wheels.

And looking back now, I know that God preserved me in that, but I never got on a three-wheeler again.

Well that's a later story, I'll get back to that later.

But there are many risks at times that we take in life and to a great degree our experience develops and moves us as to whether or not we like taking risks or not.

But you know, as I look at life and as you look at life, I think we would both agree that some risks are necessary.

I know you're eating lunch, but you can actually amen.

I don't come from such a conservative church that you can't say amen, all right?

But I think that some risks in life are absolutely necessary.

Even if we're not comfortable taking those risks, some are necessary.

I can remember when I became a Seventh-day Adventist Christian.

I was not raised a Seventh-day Adventist.

No 1 in my family was a Seventh-day Adventist.

None of my friends were Seventh-day Adventists.

And in making that decision, I was risking alienating everyone around me which would include my family and friends.

I can remember also feeling convicted a few years ago to publish a book on Daniel chapter 11.

And I took a great risk in publishing this book and putting it out in the public arena for people in the theological circles to take this book and look at it and attack it from angles and weigh it out.

And you know, anytime you put your thoughts and your views in a public arena, you open them to criticism.

I can remember finding my biological father in 2003 and initiating contact with him.

But friends, some risks in life are necessary.

Now when you look at God, do you think God is a risk taker?

I would submit to you today that, And we could argue that God has taken many risks, but I would submit to you today that God has taken 2 monumental risks in the history of redemption.

And what I would like to do for the remainder of our meeting is develop those 2 aspects and try to bring this home today that we might really consider our standing with God.

Now I want to turn, for those of you who have your Bibles with you, let's go to the Gospel of John chapter 1.

This is a text that for those of us who understand the Bible and who have studied the Bible, we've looked at this many times.

And even though this text doesn't directly bring out these 2 risks that I want to talk to you about, I think If we read between the lines, we can glean these 2 thoughts that I want to share with you as far as God being a risk taker.

Now in John chapter 1 verse 1, we're going to read the first 3 verses, we're going to jump down to verse 10 and then to verse 14 And then I want to share a few things with you.

John 1, verse 1, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

And then when you go down to verse 10 it says, He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.

And then finally verse 14, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Now here we find an exposition that basically says that Christ is God, Christ is our Creator, and Christ became incarnate.

Well, I want to focus on 2 of those aspects and relate this to God being a risk taker.

The first thing I want to emphasize is that Jesus in this text, 2 different times, is called our Creator.

The Bible teaches ever so clearly that Jesus created the universe.

He spake and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast, etc.

But did you know that when you look at creation, creation itself is a risk?

I'm sure when Christ was considering creating the universe, He desired to populate the heavens and the earth with angelic beings and with human beings.

Now in doing so, he desired that what I would call this intelligent creation would give him worship as the creator.

But he did not want worship that was robotically and mechanically given.

He desires worship that is freely and intelligently given.

Running From Duty

Well, hopefully we'll provide a blessing for you tonight so that your heart will be uplifted after a long day.

And tonight what I'd like to do is I'd like to share with you a message that I've called, Running from Duty.

And I wonder if there's anyone in here tonight that might be running from duty.

And I'm going to develop this thought as we proceed.

But before we do that, let's have a word of prayer together, and we will once again invoke the Lord's presence.

Father in heaven, tonight, thank you so much for blessing us through another day and seeing us through this day.

Lord, we've come into your house tonight seeking a blessing because we realize we need 1 in this time of earth's history.

So Father, we humble ourselves to you tonight.

We ask you to accept our heartfelt surrender.

We pray that you would cleanse us from sin and that you would bless our hearts with the Holy Spirit.

Please Heavenly Father, send your Spirit tonight.

And I pray that your message would come through in a powerful way to each person.

By the way, before I begin, I want to just mention, I know that we've mentioned these little expected cards that list the messages.

Some of you probably have already figured out, I'm kind of not going by the titles on this.

I'm just trying to let the Lord lead me as far as what to preach on.

But I'm going to try to announce the titles before every sermon so you have an idea of what subject we'll be covering.

But I want to say tonight that for those of you who don't know who I am, I'm Pastor Mark Swearengin.

I've been there for 2 years at the Hickory Seventh-day Adventist Church.

And by the way, my wife, Sarah, and our 3 children, Abigail, Jonathan, and Samantha, send their greetings.

They say hello and they wish they could be here.

And they sent me word earlier through a phone call and also through Facebook that they're praying for me in the meetings.

And it's always good to know that your family back home is praying for you.

They wish they could be here, but my wife currently is teaching kindergarten at our church school at our current church, so she could not get away for this week.

But I want to tell you tonight that I am a follower of Jesus Christ, that I love Jesus with all my heart.

And I really believe that He has changed my life in an incredible way.

And tonight I hope to share with you just an overview of my personal testimony on how I came to the point I'm at right now.

And I hope and pray tonight that you will be blessed as a result of that and that you will see how God is pursuing you even when you run from duty and that he wants you more than anything.

And hopefully tonight you'll see how God is leading in your life.

To begin with, I'd like to say that I grew up in southern Maine.

And of course that's a little Maine speech for you.

It's interesting, growing up there, people said to me, you're not from Maine, where's your accent?

And then when I left and lived in different places, they said, you're from New England, aren't you?

So I guess, I don't know what happened there with the accent.

But I grew up in Bath, Maine, and 1 day when I was 5 years old, my mother came home and made an announcement to the family.

She said, starting next weekend, we are gonna start going to church.

Now, the first 5 years of my life I never went.

But starting in that particular time, my mother dragged the whole family, kicking and screaming, to church every weekend.

And in fact, 1 time, my mother wanted to pick up a particular person that was in my class in school who wasn't in my peer group and I thought I was better then.

But she, nevertheless, was trying to be a good Christian woman and gave people rides to church when they needed it.

But nevertheless, what's interesting about that is 1 day my heart was changed when I was 10 years old.

And when I was 10, I made the decision to give my heart to Jesus Christ.

And I was baptized by immersion into a church in Bath, Maine.

And it wasn't a Seventh-day Adventist church.

But you know, I believe that I had a conversion experience at that young age.

And we should never discount God's ability to reach even the young people.

I mean, I'm talking about the real young people.

Now I'm not saying we should rush real young youth into baptism, but Nevertheless, we should never discount God's ability to reach even the little ones.

And I believe, this may sound crazy, but I believe that God's Holy Spirit began to speak to me in my thoughts even at that young age.

Because shortly after I was baptized, And by the way, when I was baptized, I saw my mother out in the congregation and she was weeping tears of joy that her son finally got the picture.

I'll never forget that picture of my mother just sitting there in the congregation just crying out in praises to God that her son made the decision to follow the Lord.

But I can remember after that baptism thinking to myself, why am I here?

Have you ever wondered what your purpose is in life?

Now I know some of you here are students here, so you may have figured that out already, hopefully.

But nevertheless, I wondered that, and you know, God began to speak to me through my thoughts.

I never heard an audible voice like some people claim, but I believe the Spirit of God speaks to the brain, nerves and the mind, and begins to work with us through our thoughts.

And he impressed my mind with the thought, you will be a minister 1 day.

And you know, because of my peer group, because I was educated in a public school, and I got caught up with the athletes, and played football, baseball, and basketball every year, and I started getting around the jocks and all this stuff, you know, I worried about my reputation.

And I thought to myself, well, you know, and I thought to the Lord, I said, Lord, wait a minute, you know, I can't do that because none of my friends are into religion.

What would they think if I went into the ministry?

I'd be the laughing stock of my peer group.

Soon thereafter, I was faced with a temptation.

1 of my friends who lived down the street from me was having a party 1 day after school.

This was probably a year or 2 after I was baptized, probably 11, 12 years old, right in that range.

And I'll never forget going home from school that day, I said, you know what, I'm going to that party.

There were all kinds of things that were going to be transpiring there that were not approved by God, as you can imagine.

And so when I went home, I got changed, I put my schoolwork away, and I could sense God working in my mind again, saying, you know, you really shouldn't go there, Because you'll be walking around the tree of knowledge.

And your mind will snapshot things that you have no business being exposed to at that young age.

But I wanted to go because self was still in control.

I had not learned what it meant to surrender my heart in the moment to Jesus.

And I went to walk out the door and something incredible happened.

And by the way, he never ever came home early from work.

And this particular day, he came home and said, son, where are you going?

And I said, I'm going down to David's house.

And he said, well, listen, I need you to run with me.

I knew that was a supernatural intervention to keep me from walking around the forbidden tree, so to speak.

And so I begrudgingly got into that car, shaking my fist at heaven, saying, God, I can't believe you're doing this to me.

The Pearl of Great Price

Good morning, or good afternoon I should say.

Hope you're enjoying your lunch today and it's a beautiful day.

And I hope that this day finds the Lord's blessing upon you.

And if not, hopefully this noon hour devotion will get you back on the right track.

I praise God that each and every 1 of you are here this morning.

And what I'd like to talk about in a brief devotion is a message that I've given the title The Pearl of Great Price.

What I'd like to do just for a moment is I'd like to bow my head again just briefly in prayer just to invoke the Lord's presence once again.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this beautiful day.

And we pray again, as our dear sister has just prayed, that you would bless us abundantly above all that we could ask or think.

We pray for your spirit to be here in our midst.

We ask you to convict us and guide us through the thoughts that we share today.

As an introduction, I'd like to say that I believe that Jesus Christ was the greatest teacher and evangelist that ever lived.

Okay, I know you're reading, but you can say amen with a mouthful.

But I really believe that Jesus was the greatest teacher.

I mean, He could hold large crowds, captive and spellbound by the eternal truths that He fed the multitude spiritually.

And quite often we understand that Jesus taught through what we know to be parables.

And parables are obviously symbolic illustrations that were intended to convey profound spiritual truths to those He was preaching to.

Jesus preached and taught and quite often couched eternal realities in symbolic language.

And those realities were meant to impact people for the gospel.

Quite often, he would cite details from familiar surroundings based on the daily occupations of those people so that when they were engaging in their daily routine, their surroundings would remind them of Christ's teachings.

It was a very calculated way of teaching that would rivet eternal truths into their minds.

And in those truths, friends, Jesus would teach the mysteries of salvation and redemption.

Because after all, he did come to bring salvation and redemption to a lost world.

Now, there are many different parables that the Bible talks about, but what I'd like to do this morning, or this afternoon rather, is to discuss 1 such parable called the Pearl of Great Price.

I believe that this is 1 of the most profound parables that Jesus used.

Now, for those of you who have the Word with you, let's turn to Matthew chapter 13 just for a moment.

Matthew chapter 13, and then we're going to look at verses 45 and 46.

Jesus says in Matthew 13, verse 45, Again, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found 1 pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." 2 simple verses here.

But I'm going to discuss with you today what I believe that Jesus was trying to convey through this simple parable.

I'm going to give you my rendition of what I believe this passage is saying.

Here, Jesus describes a merchant businessman who deals in the business of goodly pearls.

1 day as he is transacting business, he comes across a goodly pearl unlike any pearl he has ever seen.

And as he considers this pearl, conviction fastens upon his mind and he's moved to action.

New aspirations and hopes awaken within him to such a point where he is so taken by this pearl that he is willing to go and sell everything he has just to secure ownership of this 1 goodly pearl that he finds.

Now, what was Jesus trying to illustrate in this parable?

Now, there are many parallels and many, many applications that we could probably come up with, 1 of which is marriage.

When we enter into a marriage covenant, hopefully the man and the woman sell all and devote themselves to each other, the 1 pearl that they found in each other.

But did you know, I believe, friends, as I was pondering this text 1 morning, the Lord revealed to me that also through this parable, Christ conveyed basically the 2 underlying principles that form the basis for the plan of salvation.

I believe that when we do evangelism, we need to convey the principles of salvation to those that we preach and teach to.

Because salvation is the beginning of eternal life, friends.

And in this parable, Jesus outlines 2 foundational principles that make redemption a reality.

And what I'd like to do for the remainder of our time is develop these 2 principles.

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Restoration 2009: Expect It

The Pearl of Great Price

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