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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Tim Arakawa

Terracotta Treasures

I'm going to miss saying that to you every Sabbath.

And as was mentioned before, this is most likely my second to last Sabbath here at Avent Hope.

And as I've reflected back over the last 10 years, if you can believe that, I'm just so amazed at what God has done.

And I want to let you know that it's been a blessing and an honor to be a part of God's work here in Loma Linda.

I also want to let you know that the title has changed from what is printed in the bulletin, and the title of the sermon today is Terracotta Treasure.

Dear Father in heaven, we are humbled and honored to play a part in your work, and we just ask that as humble servants you would fill us with your Holy Spirit.

I ask that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit this morning.

Look around you for a moment and look at this hall filled with people.

When I first came to Loma Linda in 1999, I have to admit that for someone who was searching for a place to really study the Bible, for someone who was seeking a deeper spiritual relationship with Jesus, The options were limited.

They were there, but there was nothing like Aven Hope.

And what a blessing it is now, in the past 7 years, to see how the Holy Spirit has moved on this campus, how the Holy Spirit has moved in this community, on people of all ages, but especially young people.

And now we are seeing young people and people of all ages who are excited about doing God's work.

They're becoming serious about their faith.

They're giving Bible studies, Preaching, going door to door, doing evangelism.

I believe that we are seeing a revival of primitive godliness here at Loma Linda, And we're seeing that in Southern California.

And we're seeing that in the whole world.

Some of you may be visiting, and I just wanted to briefly mention some of the things that are going on to give you an idea of what God is doing in Loma Linda.

Some of you are familiar with restoration.

It's a student-run evangelistic effort that is conducted on this campus every year.

And it has impacted probably thousands of students over the course of the 7 years that it's been in existence.

And even restoration-like events are happening on other Seventh-day Adventist campuses in North America.

Of course, Advent Hope, it's a Sabbath school of the Loma Linda University Church.

And it fills Burden Hall, where you are sitting today, to capacity every single Sabbath.

And other Ab and Hope groups are also starting across the country.

The Josiah Ministry is a non-profit organization that was started here, and it supports many of the ministries, Not only here in the local area, but again, across the United States.

In fact, many of the youth conferences that you've been hearing about are supported by the Josiah Ministry.

1 of those youth conferences is Southwest Youth Conference.

It's a retreat that attracts hundreds of people every year.

Some of you might be listening to this sermon on Audioverse, and Audioverse is a website that offers free sermon downloads online on the internet.

Currently, as of May 2009, there are over 18, 000 unique visitors every month that download 80, 000 MP3s, totaling over 3 terabytes of data from over 140 countries.

But more exciting than any of these organizations to me is the fact that God would choose to use us in His work.

And what excites me is that God is using ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

And many times, he works with, like we said, people of many ages, but especially young people.

Young people, they don't have much experience, right?

And another thing that young people don't have is money.

And young people also, they are usually in school, so they're still in training.

And yet God somehow uses ordinary, normal, average people.

In fact, God many times uses people who do not seem qualified.

Perhaps they don't seem like they're up to the task, at least in the world's eyes.

But today we are going to see that God delights to take unworthy people and use them in His work.

That many times God takes those who are the least adequate and asks them to do some extraordinary things for Him.

If you think about it, God doesn't even… The fact that God would even use human beings is amazing, isn't it?

This is the God who all He needs to do is speak a word and something can exist out of nothing.

This is a God who has thousands upon thousands, millions of angels that He can ask to do His bidding and it's done.

This is a God that if it takes inanimate objects, even the stones can cry out.

This God has not chosen to use any of those methods or thousands more that He knows of.

He's chosen to use you And he's chosen to use me.

If you think, if you look back in history and you think of all the amazing leaders in God's work, you'll find that the majority of them did not feel sufficient for the task that God gave them.

Let's look at a few examples this morning.

This is the story of Moses, probably 1 of the greatest leaders in the history of God's people.

The man who led Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, He spoke face to face with God, and this is how he felt when God asked him to be a leader.

Verse 10, Exodus 4 verse 10, and Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue." Evidently, Moses had some problem with his speech that made it difficult for him to be articulate in front of large groups of people.

This is a story of another leader, and this leader was the first king of Israel.

Now he wasn't always a great leader, But when he was dependent upon the Lord, when he was humble, God did use him and God did choose him.

First Samuel chapter 9 and verse 21 is Saul's response to being called.

And Saul answered and said, am not I a Benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel and my family, the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin?

Wherefore then speakest thou so to me?" So what Saul is saying here is, of all the 12 tribes of Israel, I'm from the smallest tribe, Benjamin.

And of all the families that compose the tribe of Benjamin, I'm from the smallest tribe, or the least… I mean the least family of the tribe.

Why would God choose me?" Let's look at another example in Judges, chapter 6.

This is the story of another man who was called to free God's people from their oppressors, the Midianites.

1 of the most amazing leaders, 1 of the most amazing battles that we ever read about in the Bible.

But when Gideon was called, he also felt inadequate.

Verse 15 of Judges chapter 6, and he, Gideon, said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel?

Poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." Once again, God chooses someone who is the least, and not only that, poor.

I even think back on the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Many of the pioneers of our church also felt this way.

Did you know that William Miller waited 8 years to preach the message that God had given him?

Because he felt untrained and unprepared to give the message.

And Ellen White, an instrumental part of the establishment of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, even she, when she was called by God, felt inadequate.

Let me read to you what she wrote in First Testimonies, page 62.

She said, My health was so poor that I was in constant bodily suffering, and to all appearance had but a short time to live.

I was but 17 years of age, small and frail, unused to society, and naturally so timid and retiring that it was painful for me to meet strangers.

I prayed earnestly for several days and far into the night that this burden might be removed from me and laid upon someone more capable of bearing it." Even the great apostle Paul felt this way.

And now I'd like you to turn to 1 of our theme texts, And it's found in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 7.

Paul writes something significant here, describing himself, describing the apostles.

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Terracotta Treasures

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