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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

The Dilemma of Rich, Peter & Me

Thank you, Carolina Heart Song and Pathfinders.

I tell you, in case we have forgotten, we have a very talented church family.

There's 30 plus people that were involved in our program this morning.

And we're proud of each and every 1 of you and your contributions.

As I mentioned earlier, this Pathfinder Club is growing, and I don't believe Sue mentioned that this last fall they were able to go to Oshkosh.

I know we've reported on that but you may have missed that when they did that.

46, 000 Pathfinders came to Oshkosh for this event from 50 different countries.

I am told that the population of Oshkosh increases by 70% when they have this big camporee, if you will, every 5 years.

I was also curious, and you look very sharp this morning, Pathfinders, how many honors can a person get?

I found that there are 492 honors that a Pathfinder can get.

Sue, she has about 200 or so, And we thought that was a lot.

And not only that, you can add, there's a process that you can add new honors.

And you can go through that process, and so next time I check it might be over 500 honors that you can get.

Well, there are 97 different honors in arts, crafts, and hobbies.

20 honors in health and science, household arts, that's a fancy way of saying help, right?

Each of these takes significant amount of time.

Spiritual growth, outreach, heritage honors, 66.

That includes the community service, and there's some ADRA honors, Happiness Relief Agency.

And then we have recreational honors of 99, vocational honors another 45, regional honors, there's 20 of those, and then master awards 18.

In fact, if you haven't done so already, ask these young people today, what is this 1 all about?

You know, the Bible tells in Ecclesiastes 9, 10, whatever your hand finds to do, what?

You all are learning principles of hard work, of patience, of enduring, of teamwork, all kinds of things you are learning that help equip you for life.

In fact, this week, Wednesday night, is inspection.

You will be here extra early to make sure everything is in place and that you're wearing everything just right and everything is where it needs to be.

And Miss Sue will be a little bit nervous.

Some of you are already working and you're learning.

These principles do apply on the job side.

We keep track of your hours, and that will determine how much you get paid.

Or if you don't show up, and if you're late, well, I'm sorry.

We don't have a place for you here anymore.

You work to get honors there, too, right?

If you want to get the honor called a diploma, you gotta work for it.

In fact, that honor requires a lot of other classes or honors, if you will, and you have to pass those.

If you study hard, chances are you'll do well, and if you don't study so hard, well, you will do, we'll just say, not so well.

But everywhere we look, not just for you as pathfinders, but as us as adults.

If your teachers were to tell you, now when does this big project do?

How many of you would turn in the project?

We need to have that measuring stick, if you will, but I submit to you today, young people and adults alike, there's an area in our spiritual lives that if we're not careful, we take the same measuring tape, the same measuring stick that we're so accustomed to in every part and detail of our lives, and we try and apply that to our religious experience, or maybe I should say to our salvation.

Have you done enough good things for God to accept you?

Have you cleaned up your act enough to come to church.

See there's some areas there that really the measuring tape stands in the way.

And that's what I want to look at this morning because with God's system, often times it's backwards, it's upside down, it's reverse of the norm or the natural, what feels right.

First Corinthians 127, it says, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

Maybe those that recognize their spiritual impoverishment.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says.

Or this 1, Matthew 5, 39, if someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him.

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Do not store up treasures on earth, but store up treasures where?

And sometimes I think that's what leads to our idea that maybe God will accept me if I just get enough honors.

Now don't get me wrong, God wants us to obey.

He says if you love me, keep my commandments.

But Sometimes that goes out the window and it has nothing to do with love.

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The Dilemma of Rich, Peter & Me

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