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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

New Power For The New Year

Well the illustration goes that a man loved to collect rocks.

He just loved rocks and everywhere he went he seemed to find another treasure, another fantastic, amazing, beautiful, gorgeous rock.

And of his favorite rocks he put them, remember this illustration, he put them in a bucket, a 5 gallon bucket, and he had a bunch at home, rocks everywhere, but his favorite he carried in his 5 gallon bucket.

He took it with him as he went to bed at night and carefully put it by his bed.

Everywhere this man went, you saw him with his bucket of rocks.

Well, 1 day a friend said, hey, come on over.

And so he went over to that man's house, And he came out with a handful of pure gold nuggets.

I mean, all the rocks he had, you know, he just picked up off the trail or whatever.

He ran all the way home and he went into the door of his house and he said, honey, we're rich, we're rich, we're rich.

And he told her this story and as he showed the bucket to her, There was only 2 or 3 nuggets left out of the handful.

Well, he was in such a hurry and his bucket was so full of the other rocks that a lot of the gold, most of the gold, fell out.

He went back to try and find them, but of course they were gone.

And so they went on with life until things started to get a little bit tight.

You know, she said, that friend of yours was so eager to give you that pure gold, maybe if you go back and just simply ask him, he might give you another handful.

So as time went by, he went back to his friend and sure enough, he was just as eager as the first time, brought him a handful of rocks and he put them in his bucket and he ran all the way home, same thing.

Well, in this illustration, this went on.

Every 6 months or so, he'd go back and get more gold nuggets and he'd lose most of them.

And eventually, he came back to his friend after doing this multiple occasion, his friend said, can I level with you?

You know, if you want, you could dump out your bucket of other rocks, and I'd be more than happy to fill your whole bucket with gold.

I mean, they have memories of the past, and this 1 was with me through thick and thin, and this 1 I gathered here and gathered there, and they're just so precious to me.

I don't know if I could sleep at night if I didn't have my rocks." But over time he thought about it and thought about it and thought about it and eventually he decided it's time.

So he went out in some corner of the woods someplace And it was hard, but he dumped out all of his rocks.

And he went back to the man, he says, I have an empty bucket.

And he came with handful after handful of pure gold and filled his bucket and he went home and he had plenty for the family.

Now you understand this is an illustration.

But from that time on, this guy kept, all he could talk about were the incredible bucket of gold that he had been given and that he received, and he never looked back.

I think you probably have an idea of where I'm going.

As Christians who come to church, who pay our tithe, Do we ever hang on to things?

Are there pet sins, pet forms of entertainment, pet forms of music, you know, pet rocks that we hang on to and cling to?

James 4, 7, we claim it often, it says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Have you ever felt like there was a rock, something in your life that you needed to get rid of, but it was just too precious to you, and you had the hardest time giving it up and you tried over and over and maybe even claimed this verse, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

I know I've tried it many times and it doesn't seem to work.

You see, I thought victory looked like something like listing your bad habits on the chalkboard and picking the worst sin, and that 1 would of course be at the top, and striving to overcome that 1 sin in my life, and then as soon as I got rid of that 1, I'd go to the next 1 and the next 1 and so on.

But it never seemed to work so well for me.

Because I would work on that 1 particular sin while I was picking up 3 or 4 others.

And when I mastered in 1 area, I would have just another right behind it.

I learned very quickly, and maybe you've learned this too, that my promises to God Were like ropes of sand have you ever felt that way?

Like ropes of sand But you know if you take that very simple verse that we quote often resist the devil and he will flee from you We're only quoting half the verse Don't believe me look it up James 4 7.

There's another part of this verse that we don't often quote.

It says, therefore, submit to God, period.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

If you really study the Bible through, it's not about resisting in my own strength and in my own power, but it's about submitting to God first.

And if I don't submit to God first, I'm gonna be hopelessly trying to resist the devil.

You may wanna jot some of these down for later.

I don't know, many of these you already know.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.

It says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

So if I'm going to stand against the devil, first I have to put on the armor of Christ.

Galatians 5.16 says, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, that's the submission piece, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

And then as Ivan read, thank you Ivan, Galatians 2 20, I have been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Yet over and over, I'm not going to get anywhere if I don't first submit.

Testimonies for the Church, volume 7, page 17.

Testimonies for the church, volume 7, page 17.

Yet really more invincible than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on the merits of the Savior." Isn't that beautiful?

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New Power For The New Year

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