AdAgrA 2020: A Living Parable

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Barry Mosier

Morning Devotional

Morning Devotional: Thursday

Cavell Blood

Morning Devotional: Friday

Dear father in heaven, we thank you for waking us up this morning. We thank you for giving us another day of life. We thank you for giving us air to breathe and this morning I pray that your spirit might be here among us. Let your Holy Spirit would be here teaching each one of us. And I ask Lord that the words that I speak might be from you and not from me. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, it is a humbling experience to to be sharing what I study in devotions with, with, with you this morning. It's, it's usually not, this is usually not my position. And so I just pray that God might speak this morning. If you have your Bibles with you, turn with me to James chapter two and we'll start at verse 14, James chapter two and verse 14, I will have have most of the verses up here on the screen. Two, if you don't have your Bible with you, This Is, this is going to be a study of faith and what is needed to be combined with faith in order to, for it to be profitable. It starts out by saying, what does it profit? My brethren though a man say he has faith and have not works, can faith save him if a brother or sister be naked in destitute of daily food and one of you say unto, unto them, depart and peace be warmed and filled notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful for the body. What does at prophet? And then it continues in verse 17 saying, even so faith, if it has not works, is dead being alone. So we can see here that a true faith, a living faith is going to produce holy fruits. It's going to produce something. It's not just gonna be a a mere belief and it's shown by its effect in the works, hoping for the best and not doing anything about it is kind of like a dead tree. It doesn't produce fruits. This is from Matthew Henry's comments on James chapter two. He says, true believing is not an act of the understanding only, but a work of the whole heart That a justifying faith cannot be without works is shown from the two examples, Abraham and Rayhab. Further on in James chapter two, it talks about the examples of Abraham and Rayhab in their, in their faith. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness, faith producing such works advanced him into peculiar favors. We see then verse 24 of James chapter two, how that by works a man is justified not by a bare opinion or profession or believing without obeying, but having such faith as produces good works. So we're here at an agriculture conference. Can we be a farmer while only having a bare opinion or profession or believing without obeying the rules in the physical world? No, we cannot. People wouldn't trust, people wouldn't trust me or us as a farmer if all we do is talk about growing crops, but we've never done anything or have have nothing to show for it. I can't just believe that the seeds will grow without giving them the right environment to grow in. I would need to plant the seed. I need to water the seed, give it light, shield it from harsh temperatures, but doing those things doesn't make the seed grow. It's God who makes the seed grow. He gives the increase. I think the same can also be said too about, about being a Christian can. Can we really be Christians while only having a bare opinion or profession without believing or believing, without obeying? Can people come to us and expect us, expect to us to be a Christian if we're not obeying what, what God has told us to do? Here's a quote from the desire of ages through hedonism. Satan had for ages turned men away from God, but he won his great triumph in perverting the faith of Israel By contemplating and worshiping their own conceptions. The heathen had lost a knowledge of God and become more and more corrupt. So it was with Israel, the principle that man can save himself by his own works lay at the foundation of every heath and religion. It had now become the principle of the Jewish religion. This was at the time of Christ when Christ came. This was just the beginning. Few pages here of desire of ages. Now I know there's a lot that could be studied into that quote, but I want to focus on the section that's highlighted. Sometimes I wonder how much of this principle holds true today. That a, that a man can save himself by his own works. That that this didn't just stop back then, but does it, does it still happen today? Am I doing good works to save myself or are the good works results of my connection with God? Doing good works will not save us. It will, doing good works will not give us any more merit. That will make us any more worthy to be saved. And a lot of times we can look at the Israelites over the Jews in the time of Jesus when he was here on earth and think about how far we've come and how different we are. It's easy. I know reading like patriarchs and prophets and you think, oh the Israelites, you know, they were out there doing this and that, but oh, I wouldn't have done that. Or then you advance to the, the Jews in the time of Christ or even think of like those who were around when Ellen White was alive and you think, wow, I would've just believed her. You know? But how often do we do? We do that, but then in our own daily life, we're still just like they were. But we do have a part to do. What does it say in James chapter four, verse seven? You can turn there. I will have the verse on the screen here as well. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. So who's doing the resisting? The implied subject is you, you resist the devil and he will flee from you. Next verse, draw anny to God and he will draw an eye to you. You are the one drawing nay to God. You're, you're doing something you, it's, there's an action on your part. And then verse 10, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Who's doing the humbling? You are humbling yourself. Now, yes, God can humble us, but it's probably better if we humble ourselves. We have a part to do and God has a part to do. God is not going to do for you what you can do for yourself. I have the quote at the end here. God has given man land to be cultivated, but in order that the harvest may be reaped, there must be a harmonious action between the divine and human agencies. The plow and other implements of labor must be used at the right time. The seed must be sown in its season. Man is not to fail of doing his part. If he is careless and negligent, his unfaithful testifies against him. So the seed must be sown and who sows the seed? I know in the parable of the sower, Christ is sowing the seed. But in, in in the physical world here, if we're sowing, I just gave it away. Yeah, we must be doing the one sowing. The harvest is proportionate to the energy expended. We can't expect to have a big harvest if we're not putting a big amount of time into our farm. That would be against the laws of nature. So there are also must be, how much time are we putting in with our relationship with God? How much time are we putting in and drawing nay to God as we are drawing nay to God? He'll be drawing nay to us. There must be a harmonious action between the divine and the human agencies. So what did it say on the previous slide? Man must not fill of doing his part. If he is careless and negligent, his unfaithful testifies against him. The quote continues, should be so. It is in the spiritual things we are to be laborers together with God. Man is to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling for is God who work within him both to will and to do of his good pleasure. There's to be a co-partnership, a divine relation between the son of God and the repentant sinner. I know this next part is a little bit long, but I left in here for the sake of the quote. We are made sons and daughters of God, as many as received him to them, gave he power to become the sons of God. Christ provides the mercy and grace so abundantly given to all who believe in him. He fulfills the terms upon which salvation rests. But we must act our part by accepting the blessing in faith. God works and man works and here's what manned has to do, Right? Resistance of temptation must come from man. That's what we are to do. We are to resist who must draw his power from God. God can give us the power to resist temptation. Thus he becomes a co-partner with Christ. That's from the review in Harold May 28, 19 0 8. That previous part of the quote, resistance of temptation must come from man who must draw his power from God. It gives us hope that even though it is hard to resist temptation, that God can give us that power. But we are to do, we are not expected. We're not to expect that we can just sit around and allow temptation to be in front of us. We must resist temptation. Maybe that means going somewhere else. Maybe it's a different room. Maybe there's, you know, television, maybe whatever it is, we probably physically need to do something. Either it's shutting our eyes, closing our ears, walking away. We need to be doing something, but God can give us that power to do it. And he will. He will provide a way of escape so that we're not overcome as in the physical. So in the spiritual, another quote from I left it here at the end, in tilling of the soil, in disciplining and subduing, the land lessons may constantly be learned. Do. No one would think of settling upon a raw piece of land, expecting it at once to yield a harvest. Earnestness diligence and persevering labor are to be put forth in treating the soil preparatory to sowing the seed. So it is in the spiritual work in the human heart. Those who would be benefited by the tilling of the soul must go forth with the word of God in their hearts. They will then find the fallow ground of the heart broken by the softening subduing influence of the Holy Spirit. Unless hard work is bestowed on the soil, it will not yield a harvest. So it is with the soil of the heart. The spirit of God must work upon it to refine and discipline it before it can bring forth fruit to the glory of God. It's from Christ's object lessons page 88. So it's kinda like watering ground that's been dry for a long time. To get it moist, you must water must be applied to it consistently over a period of time. If, I don't know if you've ever worked with that, where you're just trying to get water into a really parched ground. If you just pour a bucket, you know, a gallon bucket of water on it once a week, that's, I think maybe eventually it could, it could get there, but it's gonna take a long time. And so it is with our hearts. If we can't ex, we can't expect to stay close to God by only open our Bible on Sabbath as we listen to the sermon. But we must daily be connecting with God. We must daily be in the word. And I know with myself, a lot of times it can be Like, what am I gonna study Lord today? And God just wants us to get in there reading the word and he will start speaking to our hearts even. Because sometimes it's like, well, how do I, how am I gonna study the Bible? I'm, I'm really peculiar about how I do things. I'm like, okay, it has to be just right and I have to have the right tools here. And sometimes God's just like, just open and start reading, you know? So we need to just get rid of all the barriers and just get in the word every day. And also daily, we must be striving to resist temptation. Asking God for that strength to resist the temptation. How many of you have have market gardens where you take your stuff to market? We, we have a little family garden at home and we also are able to take it to a small farmer's market. And so this example might be familiar to some of us, or it might be just me, but you're getting ready for market and you're hoping that today will be a good day at market and that you'll sell everything that you have that you've taken and you'll have good sales. Well, a lot of the times, you know, I'm hoping for a, a big day, but we just have a small garden. So I can't sell more than I take, I can't make, you know, $500 if I'm only taking $150 worth of produce. Also, you can't have a big harvest if you, if you only plant just a little bit. Another example is with weeding. If you're hoping that the weeds will take care of themselves, if you have that faith that okay, the weeds will take care of themselves, you know, they'll, maybe the weeds will just disappear. God, if you pray to God, God has the power to probably remove those weeds. But it's in our power to, to weed the garden. We must be the ones going out there daily and removing those weed, maybe not daily in our own garden. If we're doing pretty good, we can probably do it a little less often, but daily in our own hearts, we need to be making sure that the weeds are not taking root in our own hearts. There must be an action on our part, providing the right environment for things to flourish. I have an example here. We had a neglected, I don't wanna say palm tree, but it was like a small palm. It was in like, almost like a five gallon bucket pot at our work up in Tennessee. And here's actually a picture of it. That's the, that's after it hadn't been neglected, but I'll tell you before what it had looked like. So we had this neglected palm that was sitting outside and it was a, it was a small palm variety, as you can see it can just fit in the bucket there. But since palms have fairly large leaves, it didn't do too well in the wind. It sat outside the building. And so when wind came by, it would act like a sail and it would easily get blown over. And so my coworkers and I, we'd be walking by it or whatever and we're just not doing anything about it cuz it's, well, I, I still don't know whose it is, but we've kind of adopted it now and put it in our office anyway, it could be laying on outside for days before someone would write it. And as a result of it tipping over a lot, the soil and the pot had spilled over and out and over time it left the top of the root ball exposed to the elements. And by the end of the summer, the color of the leaves was very brownish gray. And here it's, it's a lot better. It looks, it's green, but it looked like it was dead. If it were my plant, I would've probably tossed it. But because it wasn't my plan, I just, I would write it every once in a while and then just kind of go on and, and hope for the best. But then my coworker, one day in last October, this is just from a few months ago, my coworker, he saw this poor looking plant and he decided that something needed to be done. He took the palm out of its existing plot pot, which was just a, a thin black pot that was starting to fall apart. He added it to a bigger, he added it to a five gallon bucket, put in some potty mix and brought it into the office and started watering it. He said it close to his desk to monitor its recovery. Before long, it might have been maybe seven to 10 days, that plant had fresh new growth coming out of it. And you can kind of see the new leaves coming out, the small ones there, but it didn't take long for those leaves to come out. But the, over the whole summer, no growth happened cuz all of its energy was just trying to survive. It wasn't putting out any new leaves. But that leaf right there on the left and on the right, you can see at the overall plant right there, those two leaves came out just not in seven to 10 days, but over the course of a couple weeks. But you could start seeing this come out just after seven to 10 days. So once that new leaf was of decent size, my coworker cut off one of the older leaves that was all brown and gray. And the old tattered plants started looking a lot better. After about a month of having it in the office, the they were, that's when these two new leaves came out and it looked like a brand new plant. So in this story, I give this example because I would occasionally pick it up and hope for the best. I had faith, but I didn't have works. My coworker on the other hand, had looked at the plant and did more than just write it when it had fallen down, he brought it inside and provided the right environment for it to flourish. And then he waited. He couldn't make it grow. That was God's part. But his work showed that he believed that God could make it grow if he did certain things and he made that environment where it could grow. I will have to say also that this presentation, making this presentation has been kind of an experience of faith and works for me. Part of it's been hoping that it would take care of itself. Life just gets so busy having a, a few kids and also having a little garden and just other other responsibilities that I would just, for some reason or another, I would just put this off and, and say I'll do it later. And a lot of times in the morning I'd be laying there in bed. I'd wake up early because maybe I hear one of the kids crying or whatever, and then they go back to sleep. But I can't go back to sleep, but I'm tired, but I somehow can't fall asleep. And so I would be hoping that, you know, okay, well do I need to get outta bed and, and really work on this? And I would get this urging thought and I'm sure there was the Holy Spirit saying, I can't help you while you're lying there. You need to get out of bed and, and do something, then I can help you. And so what I do want to say is that, was there another one here That in our lives we need to be actively in the word of God in our relationship with God. We need to be the ones coming drawing nay to him in the morning, drawing nay to him during the day too. And even though it might not feel like we're close to God, if we are spending that time and, and, and, and waiting for God there, if we are actively pursuing him, he will, he will be there and meet us. And so what I'm trying to get across this morning is that there needs to be as it is in the physical, we can't expect seeds to grow unless we plant them and provide the right environment for them. We also can't expect our ourselves to grow unless we are spending that time making that environment where we can talk to God and we are spending time in the Word. And I think this is, I'm also telling myself this, this morning too, that I need to be spending more time with God, that I need to be actively and daily reaching out toward God and saying, speak to me and I want to be connected with you. Let's have a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the nature that surround us. We thank you for the lessons that can be learned in the garden. And we thank you heavenly Father that you originally put man in the garden to take care of and, and Lord, even though seeing this happened, there's still lessons that can be learned as we're working in the garden, how we plant the seed, how we water the seed, but only you can make it grow. Heavenly Father, I pray than each one of our lives, Lord, that we'd be drawing ie to you, that we would be daily resisting the devil and he will flee from us. But Lord, you can give us the power to resist temptation and sin. And Lord, we thank you for that, that there's no temptation that is common to man. But as you've, you've provided the way of escape that we can, that we can bear the temptation that we do not have to sin. You're faithful and heavenly Father, we pray that in each one of our lives that this new year we might be closer to you drawing the eye to you each and every day. Lord, we thank you that we could be here this morning and we pray that you guide us throughout this day. Praying Jesus name, Amen. This media was brought to you by Audio verse, a website dedicated to spreading God's word through free sermon, audio, and much more. If you would like to know more about audio verse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audio verse.org.

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