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Advent HOPE Florida

Jonathan Zita Weekend at AH Florida

Jonathan Zita

Your Call From God

It's a pleasure 06.05 it's a pleasure to be here in Florida 06.05 and when I flew in and I saw palm trees 06.05 that's just like a dream 06.05 where I come from in Canada I still left some snow back in my driveway and you guys don't know how blessed you are I would invite you to come and spend a few days to shovel my driveway and then come back and see how blessed you are to just walk out in heaven almost you know it's really wonderful this evening I want to talk about your call from God your call from God And maybe we can have a brief prayer as we go into this Bible study.

Father in heaven, Lord, we invite your presence once again in our midst.

You know I'm a little tired, but give me energy and I pray that you may take away all selfishness from my heart or anything that may keep you from being shown today.

Please Lord, speak to our hearts and help us to have a more clear picture you would have us to do this we pray in jesus name your call from god you have a bible if you can turn with me to Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis chapter 3 and we're looking at verse 8.

Genesis chapter 3 is a very sad chapter, probably 1 of the saddest chapters in the Bible because we go from heaven basically, everything is perfect, to the beginning of sorrow and pain of what we are facing today.

And in Genesis chapter 3, Mansin, Adam and Eve, and they're running from God, and we see a picture of God.

And you would think that after God has invested so much in their happiness, and they mess everything up, that He would be running through the garden, looking for them with a belt to be able to, you know, chastise them.

But that's not the picture of God that we see here in Genesis 3.

So first of all, He's not running to go and punish them, but He's walking.

And in verse 8, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the tree of the garden and the Lord called unto Adam and said unto him, what?

06.30 What do you think He asked that question?

06.31 Sometimes God asks questions more for us than for Him, you know, for us to stop and to think.

Even, I don't know if you remember in the Bible when Jesus, when Judas comes to betray Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked him, why are you come?

Now Jesus knew exactly why Judas came and Judas knew that Jesus knew why he came that makes sense but he still asked to try to help him to stop in his track and to think what am I doing?

Here we see the first example of God coming after man and calling them.

And I believe that even though we are many thousands of years afterwards, that God is still calling us.

And tonight I want to look at 3 specific calls, 3 specific calls from the Bible, from God to us.

You know, when I was younger, my father is a...

For many years he was a minister or pastor in Adventist Church.

And 1 thing that I have to say that he was very faithful in is worship time in the morning.

You know, if we had to miss our bus for school, then we would have to miss our bus, you know?

And when we got a little bit older, as teenagers, you know, we don't...

Sometimes when you want to live the life of the world, you don't think that those kinds of things, you know, you would rather sleep than wake up and do worship, right?

But every morning, faithfully, every single day, his call to worship is that he would go in the living room and he would open his hymn book and he would start singing.

And that was a cue that worship is starting.

And you know, when we were in our teenage years, at that point, He didn't force us to come.

And I'll be honest with you, when you stay up late as a teenager watching TV or whatever on the phone till midnight, 1 or 2, you do not feel like waking up at 6 in the morning, you know, to worship God.

And I remember every morning when I would hear His voice singing, I would roll back in my bed and try to put the pillow over my ear and say, no I don't want to go, but a soft voice kept speaking, you should go, you should go.

And every morning, And I would throw my sheet back and I would go up there and once I start singing I'd get into the spirit of worship and you know I believe that that did more than anything to safeguard my own soul during my teenage years.

You know, when you're a teenager, it's a matter of sometimes just 1 choice where you say, no, I'm going to do what my friends do.

And no matter what, and you lose the respect of your parents, and it's a gradual hill, but you have to make that decision 1 day.

Always that worship, that soft calling every day to come back, come back, come back, kept planting a seed in my heart and I believe God calls God's call is exactly like that it is not loud it is not strong most the time it is very quiet in a still small voice in messages to young people page ministry of healing page 509 it says Christ is ever sending messages to those who listen for His voice.

You know, sometimes you may be wondering, is God calling?

Well, it says, for those who are listening, God is ever sending messages to you.

Sometimes the problem is that we cannot hear.

The first call this morning is found in Luke chapter 5.

The Bible says, Jesus speaking, 06.05 I came not to call the righteous, but the who?

06.05 The first call this evening is a call to repentance.

Repentance according to Steps to Christ includes sorrow for sin and a turning away from it.

We shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness.

Until we turn away from it in heart, there will be no real change in the life.

And so the first call is a call for repentance.

Repentance meaning that you are sorry for your sin and you turn away from the same also in romans chapter 2 if you can turn with me there we have another aspect of repentance romans chapter 2 paul speaking romans chapter 2 verse 4 or despises now the riches of his goodness and forbearance..." speaking of the riches and goodness of God, "...and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to what?

And so we see that the first call, Jesus comes to earth and He says, I did not come to call the righteous or those that don't think that they need anything.

I came to call those that realize that they are sinners, and I came to call them to...

In Romans Chapter 2, we find out that repentance is not something that you muster up, it's not something that you try to get within yourself, but repentance comes as you behold the goodness of who?

07.22 The goodness of God is what leads you 07.22 to repentance.

07.22 As we behold God in His Word, 07.23 something starts happening in our hearts.

07.23 Every page, every story, 07.25 every verse reveals us something 07.26 about the goodness of God.

07.27 And that is what leads you to repentance.

Or, should I say, that is what leads you to deepen your repentance.

Satan knows that the more of the goodness of God that we behold in His Word, the more sorry we are for our sins and the more decidedly we are in turning away from it.

So, Satan doesn't care if you sin and ask forgiveness, and sin and ask forgiveness, and sin and ask forgiveness, and sin and ask forgiveness.

As a matter of fact, that actually plays in his favor because, you know, if you keep sinning and ask forgiveness and sin and ask forgiveness and sin and ask forgiveness, there comes a point where your heart becomes hard.

Meaning you sin and you ask forgiveness without experiencing true repentance, without experiencing a true sorrow for sin, and a turning away from it, then it becomes simply like a transaction, like taking money from a bank, or from...

Like sneezing, something that simple, that I sin, and tonight I just ask forgiveness, and I live on my life, trying to ease my conscience.

He wants you to sin and ask forgiveness without experiencing repentance and the way that He does it is by keeping you from spending time in God's Word.

You know, I have realized in my life that if I spend time in God's Word, even if sometimes I don't understand what I'm reading, I'll be honest with you, sometimes I don't understand what I'm reading.

Sometimes when I read God's Word, I do not find it always relevant.

Sometimes I read and I don't understand what I'm reading.

I feel even, should I say, on some parts of the Bible, I find more boring than others.

I read it because when I read, and I keep reading, and I keep searching, something starts happening.

And number 3, something starts happening in your life that you start loving and respecting God even more.

And there has this, this beholding of God leads you to a deeper repentance.

So here we have beholding Christ in His Word, and the beholding Christ in His Word allows us to see His goodness.

And when we see His goodness, as we behold Christ in His Word, the Holy Spirit starts doing something in our lives that we start experiencing true repentance.

And so, we behold Christ a little bit more in His Word.

God’s Three Books

Once again it's a blessing, a privilege to be here.

Is no matter where you go around the world, when you meet Seventh-day Adventists that are on fire for God, there's something.

But I sense that here of people that really want to follow God and to do His will.

And that's really, really encouraging for me.

This morning, I'd like us to talk about God's 3 books.

You know, a little boy was playing somewhere in a back room, and he found a book that was very dusty.

06.24 It was leather And he had never really seen that book before, so he took the book, it was pretty big, and he brought it to his mommy in the kitchen and says, Mommy, mommy, look what I found.

And the mother, with reverence and awe, said, Well, son, this is God's book.

It's full of dust and cobwebs all around.

And he thought for a moment, He says, Well, mommy, if it's God's book, we should probably give it back to Him because we surely don't use it.

And, you know, that's a little rebuke to some of us sometimes, how we have 2345 Bibles, and sometimes we don't take time to read even 1.

Well, God's 3 books that I'm going to talk about today are not...

And the first 1, if you can turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians chapter 4 and we're looking at verse 3.

This is Paul 114 speaking to the Philippian church and he tells him in Philippians chapter 4 verse 3, 115 and I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers, whose names are where?

So, I'm privileged this morning to have a copy of that book.

06.15 And so, the first book this morning 06.15 that I want to talk about is the Book of Life.

06.15 Paul is speaking to the Philippians.

06.15 And he's saying, I want you to do something to entreat those that labored with me in the gospel with Clement and also with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life.

And so we can find contextually speaking from Philippians Chapter 4 verse 3 07.05 that the names of those 07.05 that are found in the book of life 07.05 are not just people that are 07.05 nice people or Christians or so forth 07.05 but according to the Bible 07.05 it says those that labored with me where?

07.05 And so those that are 07.05 layman or laborers 07.05 those I would call good Christians, right?

I believe good Christians are found in the Book of Life.

Those that have a burden for souls, those that are doing everything in their power to go out and to seek to help and to save those that are lost.

In Luke Chapter 10, if you can turn with me there, the disciples have just come back from an amazing missionary journey.

They have seen demons cast out, people raised from the dead, sickness has fled from before them, and they come back all excited to Jesus, and says, Jesus, Jesus, you'll never guess what happened.

And Jesus, with calmness, in Luke Chapter 10 I can just imagine Him saying...

06.20 10 verse 20 06.20 Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not that the Spirit are subject unto you, but rather rejoice, because your names are written...

And so, in Great Controversy, page 480, it says, the Book of Life...

Contains the names of all 07.15 who have ever entered 07.15 the service of God.

07.15 The Book of Life contains 07.15 the name of all 07.15 who have ever entered 07.15 the service of God.

So that includes people like Abraham and Isaac and Elijah and Jacob and Judas.

Judas was not God speaking to the disciples?

And so Jesus is speaking to the disciples, including Jesus, and says, Rejoice that your name is written where?

If you can turn with me to Revelation Chapter 21.

Revelation 21, looking at verse 27, speaking about those that will enter Heaven.

And there shall in no wise enter into it...

Anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Judas obviously was a liar and a deceit and worked abomination.

But yet, It seems from the Bible that Judas' name was also in the Book of Life.

And if he is there, do you still want to go?

I'm moving quickly because there's quite a lot of verses we need to look up here.

Moses is pleading with God for the children of Israel.

And God is saying that He's going to destroy them.

And Moses is putting himself, as it were, on the line for them.

And Moses knows that God does not want to destroy him.

And so what he says in verse 32 of chapter 32, arguing with God as it were, He says, "...yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin..." Meaning the people of Israel.

"...and if not, blot Me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, Him will I blot out of My..." What?

The Book of Life is a book where not everybody's name is entered in.

It's a book where only those that have entered their service of God's, their name is entered in.

But we have also learned that it's not only good Christians or Christians that are co-laborers with God that are working for the salvation of souls, but it's also Christians that are not so good that have entered a service of God like Judas but had selfish motives.

And we found out that names can be put in and names can be taken out.

The second book is found in Malachi chapter 3.

Malachi chapter 3, the book right before Matthew.

Malachi chapter 3 and we're looking at verse 16.

The Compassion of Christ

We kind of touched on it in the Sabbath school.

You know, we're pretty selfish individuals.

You probably heard the story of the 2 men that were eating in a restaurant and 1 was talking...

Have you ever met people like that before?

They talk about themselves and about themselves and about themselves and about their accomplishments and about their family and about...

This is 2 hours of talking about himself, all of a sudden, it's as if a light turned on.

I've been talking about myself all along and here I haven't even mentioned, you know, asked you anything.

Somehow we have brought it into our Christianity.

And I believe that that is why Christianity does not have more power in this world, because we are so selfish individuals.

And I believe that true compassion is the opposite of selfishness.

There's a saying that says this, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

If you forget everything I'm going to share right now, if you can walk away with that 1 thing in mind, with that 1 principle, you have learned to be a true Christian out there.

If you have your Bibles, if you can turn with me to Matthew 14.

Matthew Chapter 14, speaking about compassion.

And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with...

...Compassion toward them, And He gave them a Bible study.

He had compassion, so He did not give a Bible study, He actually healed them.

Matthew 15.32, if you can turn there with me.

It says, Then Jesus called His disciples unto Him and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with Me now 3 days, and have nothing to eat, and I will not send them away fasting, let they faint in the way." So, what does this compassion lead him to do in this circumstance?

So, in 1 situation, Jesus has compassion and it led Him to heal.

In another 1 He had compassion and it led Him to feed.

And Jesus when He came out saw much people and was moved with what?

Compassion toward them, because they were as sheep, 06.34 not having a shepherd.

And in Luke chapter 7, if you can turn there, in Luke chapter 7 we see that Jesus had compassion 1 more time.

In Luke Chapter 7, this is the story of the widow of Nain who had a son who died, her only son, her only family member I guess.

And in Luke 7 verse 13 We see where Jesus came and met the procession head-on.

06.13 says, And when the Lord saw her, He had what?

06.13 Compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.

And so in the first instance, God or Jesus has compassion and He heals.

The second 1, He has compassion and He feeds.

He doesn't just pray for them, but He what?

The third 1, Jesus has compassion and He teaches.

He sees that they are just hungry to learn.

And in the fourth text in Luke chapter 7 verse 13, Jesus has compassion and therefore He comforts the woman.

In Ministry of Healing, there's a quote that says, Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people.

The Savior mingled with men as 1 who desired their good.

He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence.

And so, what Christ does, is that He first, doesn't say, follow Me.

First, He starts mingling with people, talking with them, showing compassion and interest for what they are interested in.

People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

After He shows interest for them, He starts seeing their needs.

You don't know the needs of people until you actually start talking with them and finding out about them.

I've noticed that personally, I have misjudged a lot of people.

That you look at someone, you look at the car they drive, you look at the house they live, you look at certain things and you know, and then you start talking with the individuals.

And you really find out that they have needs.

Every single person has needs, especially those that don't have Christ.

And Jesus Stood Still

Sometimes I wonder where I've been all my life.

I'd like to talk about certain principles from the Word of God.

06.22 The title of the message is, 06.23 And Jesus Stood Still.

06.24 If you turn with me to Hebrews 12, verse 2, I want to go through just to begin with certain laws or rules in the Bible.

There's a law of gravity that God has instituted into place And it states that everything that goes up...

And there are laws like that in the Word of God.

There are a lot of things that you can trust...

That you can pretty much bet your life on...

As just as secure as if you try to jump And reach heaven, it will never happen.

07.22 07.22 Meaning you will always come down.

07.22 07.22 In Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, 07.22 07.22 Hebrews chapter 12, 07.22 07.22 Actually let's read verse 1.

07.22 07.22 It says, 07.22 07.22 Wherefore seeing we also are 07.22 07.22 encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, doing what?

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This concept of looking unto Jesus 06.10 has always fascinated me, to look to Jesus.

06.10 And the reason I guess it fascinated me or intrigued me a little bit is because 06.10 I can't see Jesus, right?

06.11 So all of this concept is by faith.

I have noticed that in the Bible there are certain things that start 06.21 happening when you look to Jesus.

06.22 Laws just like gravity that automatically 06.23 happens.

The first 1 is found in 06.23 John chapter 12.

This is a verse that 06.25 maybe many of you know, but it's a law just like gravity, like what comes up, must come down, or what goes up, must come down.

In John 12, 32, it's another law that is established.

Jesus saying, John 12, 32, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will what?

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Jonathan Zita Weekend at AH Florida

Your Call From God

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