Michigan Virtual Camp Meeting 2020: Forward to the Finish

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Restore

Dennis Page

01 Attention, Affections, and Affairs- First Comes the Covenant, then Comes the Marriage

02 Blind Man Sees in Color

03 What’s in a name? The Restoration of Integrity in the Christian Life

04 Restore- How to Live Free in a World of Entanglements

05 Promise Seeker- Honoring Authority in a Dysfunctional World

I'm glad to be here with you to share this series titled, Restore 10.

Now this seminar is just the beginning of a study that you and I can be involved in for the rest of our life.

As my wife and I have been studying this for several years, we realize you cannot exhaust this material, and the reason for that is because it has to do with the very character of God Himself.

Several years ago, I was doing an evangelistic series, and 1 of my topics was on the law and grace of God.

And in the notes it talked about that you should not steal because God is honest, and You should not commit adultery because God is pure.

And I went home that night and I began to ask questions such as I should have no other gods before me because God is what?

I shouldn't serve or worship an idol because God is what?

I shouldn't take his name in vain because God is what?

And as I continued to ask God these questions, he began to answer.

And show me from his word over and over again how the law related to his character and how that would relate to the gospel and the message of righteousness by faith and salvation for you and I.

And so, no friends, we will not exhaust this material this week, but we will get a nice window into the heart of God as we look at each commandment.

As I've talked to my wife, we've talked to different Christians, and especially youth, and even among Seventh-day Adventists, asking them about how they looked at the law of God.

We would do surveys, and a lot of times, we would get negative answers checked off on that survey.

Sometimes people would say that God's law is overbearing, it's restrictive, it's just a set of rules.

Some would even look at it as a checklist, As if they if they got it right they would make it into heaven But friends that's not how God wanted us to look at this We would read into great controversy page 465 It tells us this the nature and the importance of the law of God have been, to a great extent, lost sight of.

A wrong conception of the character, the perpetuity, and the obligation of the divine law has led to errors in relation to conversion and sanctification, and has resulted in lowering the standard of piety in the church.

So if we're looking at it in a negative way, if we're looking at it through a wrong lens, it's going to affect our conversion and our sanctification.

So it is my hope and prayer that by the end of the week, those that perhaps are watching that may have thought this way or think this way, will get a different view of the character of God as we share through each commandment what he is declaring of himself and demonstrating that to us.

You know, some people would call it 10 words.

Ellen White would refer to the commandments of God as 10 promises.

And I can assure you by the end of the week, even though we're just going to look at the first 5 this week, you'll understand why these people would say that.

You know, a colleague of mine just brought it to my attention that the top 101 theological questions in 2019 that were searched on Google is quite amazing what they came up with.

Now what would you think the number 1 question would be?

The Bible in Romans 13 10 would tell us that his law is love.

And so friends hopefully by the time we finish up here this week you'll understand why God would declare his law love and that you will understand the answer to this question, what is love?

And so our focus will be to look at each commandment, and from that, draw what God is declaring about himself.

And then also, with the revelation that he gives, we'll understand what he is asking of us, what he wants to restore in our very life, so that by beholding, we will become changed.

You see, the life of our Redeemer throughout his pilgrimage on earth was a living representation of the character of the law of God.

And when God created man, he created him for a purpose.

And no matter where you go in the world, I have found that all relationships, if they're going to be healthy, happy, and safe, they have to have boundaries.

And so, whether it's a business relationship, a friendship, a marriage, there has to be boundaries if it's gonna be fruitful, if it's gonna be healthy, if there's gonna be security, if there's gonna be peace, if there's gonna be happiness.

And so, Since the fall of God, God has come to seek and to save, to free and to forgive, to cleanse and to heal, to transform and to restore His image and His likeness in you and I.

And so the commandments of God serve as a hedge of protection.

They're there as a set of boundaries to keep that relationship solid and safe.

We would see this, I'm sorry I forgot to put this in here, I want to go back and say this, 3, 350, 000 people ask the question every month, what is love?

So the great controversy would tell us in regard, I mean, sorry, Thoughts on the Mountain of Blessings, page 52, would tell us this in regards to the commandment of God.

There is not a commandment of the law that is not for the good and happiness of man.

It's definitely for us, friends, not against us.

Both in this life and the life to come, in obedience to God's law, man is surrounded as with a hedge and kept from the evil.

He who breaks down the divine erected barrier at 1 point has destroyed its power to protect him, for he has opened a way by which the enemy can enter and to waste and ruin." And so as I kneel down and pray and ask for God's blessing here, I invite you to kneel and pray with me.

And I'm gonna pray this prayer that David would pray in Psalms 119, verses 17 through 19.

And his prayer was, Lord, deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live and keep thy word.

Open thou my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

I am a stranger in the earth, hide not thy commandment from me.

As I pray, I'm asking you to also pray this prayer, that our hearts would be open, our minds will be enlightened and we will receive the revelation that God desires to give to us today.

Dear loving Father, we bow humbly before you in the name of Jesus and we know that every time the law has been opened in the Old Testament, there's been revival and reformation.

And thy servant would tell us that when the law of God is restored to its rightful position, that there will be a revival of primitive faith and godliness among his professed people.

Lord, I'm praying that as I share, that you'll hide me behind a cross, that Christ's voice will be heard, that your Spirit will speak, and that at the end of this presentation, people will know that you have talked to them, you have spoken, that you have touched their heart.

And I ask this, Father, in Jesus's name, and I thank you for hearing me, Amen.

You know, slavery is a terrible thing, but slavery to sin is the worst of all.

The children of Israel would find themselves enslaved and in bondage to the most powerful nation in the world at that time.

The Pharaoh himself was to be looked upon as a god.

They had been in bondage for hundreds of years and would have come to the point of almost having the memory of God erased from their mind.

But God had made a promise to them that He would deliver, that He would remember them.

And so I invite you to open your Bibles with me to Exodus chapter 6.

I titled this presentation, Attention, Affections, and Affairs.

As we go through this study, You'll understand more why I titled it as this.

They had not known him as their fathers had known him, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And so there had to be an experience that they would receive in order to know the only true God who was about to deliver them.

Then the Lord said unto Moses, starting with verse 1, then the Lord said unto Moses, now shall thou see what I will do to Pharaoh.

For with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.

And God spoke unto Moses and said unto him, I am the Lord.

And I appeared unto Abraham and unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by the name Jehovah was I not known unto them." It wasn't that they did not know God's name.

Here God had made Abraham and Isaac a promise and Jacob a promise, but as a nation, they had not experienced God the way their fathers had.

As a nation, they had not experienced the covenant fulfillment that was about to take place.

I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan and the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers.

I have also heard their groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembered my covenant.

Wherefore, say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord.

Now I want you to listen to 2 words that are constantly emphasized from this point out.

And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, And I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments And I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God and you shall know That I am the Lord your God which brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will bring you into the land concerning the witch, I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you for a heritage, I am the Lord.

Over and over again in these passages, God would share with them.

He would say it again to get it in their mind, I will, I will, I will.

I want you to know you're not gonna do this.

You're not expected to do it, but I will do it because I have remembered what I have told your fathers.

And I will take you to be a people to me and I will be your God.

As Moses, verse 9, as Moses spoke unto the children of Israel, they hearken not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.

They were so broken, they were so ensnared and captive by their enemy that they could not see how could this possibly happen.

But see, God would not just tell them, God would perform.

So over the next several chapters, God is then demonstrating what he promised he would do.

He's courting them, you could say, in this relationship before he enters into a covenant with them personally as a nation.

Series

Restore

01 Attention, Affections, and Affairs- First Comes the Covenant, then Comes the Marriage

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Going the Distance

8. Finishing Strong

50m

Justification by Faith

A Legal Biblical View of this Core Teaching - Part 4

57m

Power of the Hour

Eternity Future Love?

51m

Encounters With Jesus

Jesus’ Encounter with the Demoniacs of the Gadarenes

47m

Facing the Final Judgment: Acquitted or Convicted?

52m

A God Worth Knowing

03 The Faith of Jesus

1h 1m

Plenary

The Second Coming

1h 3m

The Parables

The Unjust Steward

38m

Beat Diabetes, Prediabetes, & Overweight

Beat Diabetes, Prediabetes, & Overweight - Part 5

1h 16m

These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 2

46m

A Season of Preparation

37m

Morning Devotional

The Faithfulness of God

23m

Sound Doctrine