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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jonathan Zita

The Sermon Rarely Preached

Are we glad that the week is almost over?

I woke up very early this morning to be here, so I didn't get much sleep, so I hope everything will make sense and you'll follow with me.

But I'm not really going to preach, I'm just going to talk from my heart tonight.

And something that has been on my heart a lot in the last few weeks.

And I just wanted to share that with you today.

So when I was 16 years old, I had just gotten my driver's license in Quebec.

I grew up in Quebec, Quebec city, and a lot of snow, a lot of ice.

And 1 day I was visiting my friend who was also 16 years old and he was sick.

So his parents told me, look, why don't you take our car, which is a very old manual stick shift, little Toyota, Brown Toyota.

Why don't you take our car and bring our son to the clinic?

Of course, 16 years old, we wanna drive any opportunity that we have.

So I got in the car, he got in the car, and we drove to the doctor.

And so we pull up to the clinic, and it's closed, you know?

And we're just like, I can't believe, what were we thinking?

And so we pulled up to the clinic and there was no car.

So what I did is the clinic had a full glass, had a glass door and had a glass windows and so I kinda drove up to it to see the time and we saw the sign that says closed and so forth and it was a little bit on a hill so you know where the story is going right?

So I bring the car close and this is an old car, the transmission doesn't work very well and now I need to put it in reverse, now that we realize that the clinic is closed and it just wouldn't catch in reverse and so I put in reverse and I, you know, for those of you who don't want to drive standard, you have to be careful how you press a little bit of gas and you have to press the clutch but it wouldn't engage for some reason it wouldn't get in And so every few seconds I was going closer and closer and closer and I'm praying and I'm saying, Lord, please help me.

And then the whole glass just shatters in a million pieces.

And I look at my friend, and my friend looks at me, And I'll tell you the rest a little later.

We're going to look at a couple of verses.

Romans chapter 13, something that's been on my heart lately.

Romans 13 and we're looking at verse 7 and we're looking at verse 7 and 8.

Here the Bible says, Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

Owe no man anything but to love 1 another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

And so in essence what the Bible verse is saying, Pay all that you owe, meaning if it's money, pay it.

And if you turn with me to Ezekiel 33, So that's in the New Testament.

If we can go into the Old Testament now, Ezekiel, we're looking at verse chapter 33.

And looking at verse 14, Ezekiel 33, verse 14.

The Bible says again, when I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die.

But then God contracts, he says, if he turned from his sin and do that which is lawful and right, if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely what?

And so what it says here is if the wicked turn from the sin, do what is right, restore what was promised, return what was robbed, walk in righteousness, he shall live.

Tonight I want to talk about restitution.

I can't say I've ever really heard a sermon or presentation on restitution.

And So I started to study it out some time ago.

1 of the things that kind of started me out is, and some of you may not agree with everything I'm going to share tonight, I'm going to share from the Bible, but I would encourage you to go and study for yourself.

For the last 12 years with the Literary Evangelism Ministry, I run purchases through my credit card and so I get points, right?

And so throughout the years, 1 of the best ways to get to redeem those points was to get what is called gas cards.

And so throughout the last 10, 12 years, I've literally gotten thousands of dollars.

And it's only lately I realized, wait a second, this is increase to my income.

Yeah, it's a gas card or it's an air ticket, but I Mean, isn't it increase Shouldn't I return to God?

You know, the thought of it, I didn't even want to think about it because I'm thinking, whoa, that's, that's a lot of money for 12 years.

And, But I sat down, I started studying, and you know, 1 thing I realized, friends, you can never out give God.

And so yeah, I felt convicted, and I talked to my wife about it and we wrote a big check and we turned it to God, because that's what I felt.

And you know, in the end, when we sat down and did all our finances, we were not in the red.

How, I didn't say, we can't afford to give that money to God.

And once again, I'm just saying from personal experience, this is my experience, but restitution.

I do want to say a disclaimer before we look at some biblical principles about it.

Restitution is not something you do so God can love you.

Restitution is something that you do because He loves you, right?

It's maybe more a result of God's Holy Spirit working on your heart.

I remember when I was my little boy, he was maybe.

Maybe 3, he's now 9, and ever since he was born, almost every day, I always tell my boy and my girl.

I love my kids and I remember when he was 3 I asked him just do you know that daddy loves you and I many times I asked him that says yes daddy, and sometimes they're annoyed and they don't want to hear but I still ask.

And then I remember 1 day I said, when you're bad, when you're good, you know that daddy loves you.

He says, when you're bad, you know that daddy loves you, right?

I mean, you could have taken a 2 by 4 and hit me and it wouldn't have hurt me more.

I love you when you're good, when you're bad, when you're very, very bad, daddy loves you all the time.

And you know, ever since then, you know, tell him.

God loves us, doesn't matter how good or bad, God loves us, you know?

But because he loves us, and because his Holy Spirit works in us, His Holy Spirit prompts us to live for Him, right?

It's almost as if restitution is from a heart that is filled with gratitude, right?

So it's the result of God's Holy Spirit working on your heart.

And I believe that many experience pitfall in this point.

Because when we accept God's Holy Spirit in our hearts, the Holy Spirit leads us to live a life that is in harmony with God.

And if at any point along the way we say, no, I don't want to do that, then we can never fully experience the peace that God wants for us.

Now, I don't believe that you need to find everybody's lawn that you stepped on and offer grass seeds.

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The Sermon Rarely Preached

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