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Mission Road SDA Church

Camp Cedar Falls Retreat 2005

Randy Skeete

Silence of the Omnipotence, Part 1

I must confess, I was overwhelmed and seething as I was on my way up the mountain.

In Michigan we don't have anything like this.

If I could take a mountain home and come back with me.

We were fortunately surrounded by a single ghost tower.

I lifted my eyes up to the hills and in the mountains for whence cometh my help.

The Bible uses the word mountain to refer to where God lives.

So, when you see the mountains, always remember that they are symbols of God's power, and that God is eternal.

A mountain looks like something that has been and will be there forever.

Let me thank you very much for the high privilege of being here with you.

It's always a privilege to preach God's Word, so I am delighted to be with you.

I don't have a clock on your watch right now.

I don't see anything hanging on the wall.

Don't be afraid to tell me what the time is, I don't mind.

Because I do it all the time when I speak.

I'll try to get you up at 830 or 840, somewhere between there.

You know, people just restore your vision.

And When we think of mission, we tend to think sometimes only of something that needs to be done.

Very seldom do we think of the kind of people who need to carry out that mission.

If the wrong person goes on a mission, the mission fails.

Now, The gospel is a mission that we are consent on.

It is curious that Emmelweiss says that at least twice in Adventist history, Jesus Christ should have come.

The problem is not that the mission is full.

The problem has to be with those with the responsibility of carrying out the mission.

That is why the mission has not yet been fulfilled.

In second Peter chapter 1 verse twenty-one Peter says, holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, meaning, the Bible is a holy book.

Now, it was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it was written by holy men.

It is not inspired by the Holy Spirit and written by vile men.

You must have the right kind of person for the particular mission.

And so as we talk about restoring the mission, perhaps our greater emphasis should be restoring the people who need to carry out the mission.

But we need clean hands and a pure heart.

I've often heard people say, How will God reach the Buddhists?

God's problem is how can I reach my people?

How can I impress upon my people that the reason for which I raised them up should dominate their lives?

How can I impress upon my people that they ought to make the gospel the priority in their lives and nothing else?

You read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, or perhaps from Genesis, yes, to a place in the Gospels, or Acts.

God's problem has always been His people.

Not the Amalekites, He destroyed them it has always been his people I wanted to lay that foundation for getting it our message for tonight It is entitled, The Silence of Omnipotence.

I want you to understand, Aulwi, that it is not the Bishop that needs to be restored.

Our Father in Heaven, we come into your presence on this Sabbath evening.

And because this Sabbath, Lord, is holy, our thoughts, our words, our actions must reflect our understanding that this is holy time.

And we are supposed to be a holy people Because we worship a holy god.

That the words we hear might be the truth as it is in Jesus.

I offer this prayer in Jesus' name and for his sake.

There are some people who will do nothing for the church unless the church organizes it.

There are some people who always have to wait on the church to plan something evangelistic for them to do something evangelistic and they fail to realize that whether the church plans something or not.

I can make an individual decision that this is what I will do for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Whether I'm going to work, at play, at my country club, at a medical office where I work, at a supermarket where I work, as I walk along the beach, as I drive down the street, wherever I am, under whatever circumstance, we need to understand that God looks to us first as individuals.

What can I do for the cause of Christ, whether the Church has an outreach program or not?

I want to stress this personal responsibility, Because it goes all the way into the area of personal salvation.

Now the Bible says in John 3, 16, say that with me.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Silence of the Omnipotence, Part 2

Countries, Australia, England, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Canada, and the West Indies.

And As many of you know, he has a gift of minerals in his garden.

It's such a blessing that we have a gift for our annual retreat.

I pray that God will fill our hearts and minds with His message and the Holy Spirit, so we may experience God's presence here.

As I said last night, my thanks, well I shouldn't say last night, my thanks to your pastor, and the pastor on staff, and all those connected with the invitation that brought me here.

I have 1 mission for coming here, and that's to present an authority.

I have no other interest, nor other purpose, but to present the word of God, the Haman said that, are all the churches accounted for on the Jesus the Lord?

If there are children running around, that's not good.

I don't mean to interfere with how you're running a church, but children learn at a very young age.

I've had children come to me and tell me how they were blessed.

So if their children run around, let's bring them inside.

And when they come inside, I expect the parents to monitor them and control them because the parents have them and so I believe the parents love them.

So I saw some children on the swing and the service is not on the swing, the service is here.

Well I have someone said yes to the point of the thought?

So I'm not a mean creature, I'm really not.

1 of my responsibilities is to teach God's people the right way to do things.

When I walked in this morning, there was a level of noise I could not believe.

But there was a level of noise among the adults, talking.

It sounded like a 7th Avengers march of sorts.

Now we may be at camps in the fall, surrounded by mountains and snow and trees.

But there is never anything informal about the reverence.

It makes no difference how you dress, because God is the same.

Well, that's not exactly how the text goes Bible memorization Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever Yes.

When the angels come into this presence, what do they do?

We may not see him, but we're in God's presence.

Is it asking too much to ask us to be reverent in God's presence?

How many minutes will you give me to preach the sermon?

I have been given an hour by 4 elders of this church.

I will take an hour, but you're very nice.

God bless you for giving this strange figure for at least another 1 hour.

Probably take 59 minutes, but certainly an hour.

1 of you, here's the procedure I will follow.

Thank you for raising your Christmas card.

I will take the first 5 or 10 minutes and I will review what we talked about last night.

Then I will move into this morning's message.

The subject is the impotence of omnipotence.

Remember Jesus was always healing 1 impotent man or another the impotence of omnipotence but first let me review last night's subject which was the silence of omnipotence let us pray Quietly, reverently.

Our Father in Heaven, we bow in your presence.

You are high and lifted up, but you love us personally.

The Ability of Divinity

And note, by the way, it just confirmed what we said this morning.

If any man walk in the door, I will come in and suck with him.

Always keep that in mind, God has a part to play, and we have a part to play.

He hasn't denied the difficulty in getting us to perform ours.

It is a combination of God's power and our fulfillment of the conditions.

And as we read in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 2, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, nor gained needs with me.

God does the same thing, we fulfill the conditions, and fulfilling the conditions, as I said this morning, is an expression of faith.

So when Peter said, Lord, if it be thou way that I come unto thee on the water, Matthew 14, verse 8, And Jesus said, come, that was the condition.

Jesus said, stay where you are, I'll come and get you.

When Peter stepped out, that was an act of faith.

Fulfilling the missions is an act of faith.

I wanted to stress that for you, haven't I?

I have some friends here from over there, who've driven all the way, Drs.

Raise your hands, please, we can figure out what your names are.

2 very young men who were associated with restoration 205 where I was greatly blessed.

She drove in last night, this morning, and this afternoon.

Where are my friends who were giving me the time this morning?

How much time do I have for this afternoon's message?

But there was another fellow who was still forward.

I like my friends closely, but he met more of them.

All right, a little angel right here said 40 minutes.

When you get heaven and God will give you wings, you don't have to bow, but you're still an angel.

On Friday evening, our subject was the silence...

Will you tell me what the subject was, Friday evening?

And they said this morning, we may be dressed casually, Let's pray.

Our Father in Heaven, we have come for 1 purpose.

That is to worship you in spirit and in truth.

Now as your Word is preached, I ask you from my heart, give me the right words to say.

Let me be forgetful of myself and be mindful of you.

That I may be hidden behind the cross, and that your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior alone may be glorified and lifted up, and that the words spoken may be words from heaven itself.

And When we leave, we may say that we have met with God and we have heard from God.

The Bible says, but without faith it is what?

For he that cometh to God must believe that he is some 2 things.

He or she that cometh to God must believe, it is non-negotiable.

And that He is a reward of them that diligently seek Him.

I want to focus this afternoon on the fact that we must believe that he is, not he does.

He that cometh to Him must believe that He is.

In Matthew chapter 9 reading from verse 28, 27, Matthew 9 reading from verse 27.

As we continue with the ability of divinity.

Here we have Matthew 9, here we have verse 27.

And when Jesus departed thence, 2 blind men followed Him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.

The Activity of Divinity

I was very happy to sacrifice my mission this spring to come out here and taste some California snow.

I will take California any day if I can remember it in good ways.

I really, from my heart, have a very honored and blessed to have spent this time with you.

I really mean that as sincerely as I possibly can.

And because you do, being with you is a privilege for you.

Zadokhoy says, despite all its flaws and whatever weaknesses the Church has, the Church still remains the object of God's supreme regard.

God punished the Israelites by allowing them to go into Babylonian captivity.

When Babylonians punished them too severely, then God turned around and punished the Babylonians.

It's the evil of God in the eyes of His people, they are still His people, and so being with you has been a great privilege for me.

I will pray for you when I return, I hope you will do the same with me, because of the work that I do.

But we have to get out of this place quickly, as usual I don't have a clock or watch.

Chronometer, timepiece, anything on there, what time is it, where are my friends?

Okay, I have to preach a very short sermon this morning.

Well, I don't want to hold you for 25 minutes.

Well, 25 minutes we have, let's bargain and let's pray.

Our Father, Blessed, thank you for the joy of fellowship.

Thank you for life and sunshine, this beautiful surroundings.

But thank you most of all for Jesus Christ, our Savior, who paid the ultimate price for our salvation.

Lord, the least he can do, the least any decent person can do, as an act of gratitude, is to surrender their entire life to you.

Now, as your words reach Father Grant in your spirit, let me direct what I say and touch the hearts of the listeners, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

We have talked about the silence of divinity, of omnipotence.

We've talked about the impotence of omnipotence on Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon we talked about the ability of divinity.

And this morning we shall take a look at the activity of divinity.

And yesterday we said the ability of divinity speaks to who God is more than to what he does.

It is more important to focus on who God is because who he is never, never changes.

What he does may change depending on the circumstance.

And it was who God is that became the source of comfort for Jesus in his final moments before he died.

Because when he cried out, my God, my God, my God, forsake me.

Come see beyond the tomb, that's what the Bible tells us.

In that moment of darkness, the only thing he could hold onto was who the father was and he knew the father to be faithful.

And so he said, I can't see you, I don't know what you're doing, I just put myself in your hand because I know who you are.

And so Hebrews 11 says, but without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe what?

That he is, that is basic and fundamental.

But having said that he that cometh to God must believe that he is, the verse goes on to say, and that he is a rewarder.

And today I want to focus on the fact that divinity also has activity.

You see, God wants to demonstrate in our lives the kind of God that he is.

And judging by what he has done, we can conclude, well, this is the kind of person that he is.

When crimes are committed, the only way to know if there was malice in the heart is to look at the kind of crime.

So if a man is killed in his house and his hands are cut off his legs are cut off his eyes are gouged out he is slit down and bitten Then you can say it was nice.

The person who did this had an evil heart.

You can judge who the person is by what the person did.

Now the Bible opens with a demonstration of what God has done.

And based on our examination of the activity of divinity, we can then conclude about the character of the soul.

So Genesis chapter 1 verse 3 says, And God said, let there be light, and there was light.

And God said, let there be a footnote in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters, and it was so.

And God said that the waters of the heavens be gathered together into 1 place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so.

And God said, and he said, and he said, and he said.

This is an expression of God's activity, the activity of divinity.

But I want you to observe how God's activity is expressed.

The activity of God is inseparable from what is worth.

The first thing, well 1 of the first things we learned about God, Genesis 1-1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

God created the heavens and the earth, meaning everywhere.

That verse 3 gives us details as to how we did it.

Now the Bible was written under the inspiration of Paul the Spirit.

We are told, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for what?

For doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

For doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction.

The instruction they receive, 1 of the instructions is that God is a God who is intimately bounded with his word.

What comes out of his mouth leaves his mouth with all his power, with all his life, with all his character he needs.

So that when we look at God's activity, we should be able to make conclusions about God's probability or God's is-ness.

I say is-ness because he that cometh to God must believe that he is.

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Camp Cedar Falls Retreat 2005

Silence of the Omnipotence, Part 1

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