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

It's amazing as we continue to look at each 1 of these commandments, It is clear that what God is seeking to do is restore within us the very principles and the attribute of love.

See, when He created Adam and Eve, there was no flaw.

They were in harmony with all the creatures around them.

They had no separation between them and God.

They honored God in all that they did, all that they thought about until the fall came.

And so what we're discovering in each 1 of these commandments, what God wants to do is restore within us what was there to begin with.

Because sin has separated us and the enemy has taken us captive by Himself at our own will at times.

And so the first commandment, yes, faithfulness.

Who does not want faithfulness in a relationship?

God is seeking to restore faithfulness in us, but we have to be willing to give Him our heart, our attention, our affections, our time.

Who doesn't want holiness in a relationship?

Who doesn't want the, as God declared his name to Moses, who doesn't want grace and truth and kindness and compassion and relationship?

Integrity, we looked at integrity yesterday.

But integrity God wants to restore in our life.

He wants us to be helpful and kind and considerate of others not to be a respecter of any person because of their race or where they've come from, or rather they're poor or rich or what they look like.

Jesus, he honored all people in giving himself to all mankind.

Moral uprightness, he demonstrated that to us and that's something else he wants to restore in our heart, integrity.

And so today we're going to look at another commandment.

But before we do, I want to read this quote once again.

It's a constant reminder to us that it's for us and not against us.

As I shared in the first seminar, that when I've taken surveys, people and even our youth will often write that the law is, they look at it in a negative way.

It's restrictive, it's overbearing, it's just a bunch of rules.

He says, there's not a commandment, this is by Ellen White, Thoughts on Mount and Blessings, page 52.

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

And He who breaks down the divinely erected barrier at 1 point has destroyed his power to protect him, for he has opened a way by which the enemy can enter to waste and to ruin.

Every relationship has boundaries, if it's gonna be healthy, happy, and safe.

He's given us a set of boundaries to protect us.

And within that law, He would not only have us understand what He would have us do, but He would have us understand who he is to us.

And we can conclude that all that he would ask of you and me, he himself has to be.

And so I'd invite you to kneel down with me and pray.

And let us ask the Holy Spirit to lead us once again, nearer to the heart of God.

Gracious, loving Father, we bow before you humbly in the name of Jesus.

We could spend days talking about this 1 point, but in this little bit of time we have, Father, I ask for your Holy Spirit to lead us.

And Father, touch the hearts of the listeners.

Help us understand what You'd have us behold out of this commandment, and how You would have it written in our heart today through the example Your Son, Jesus Christ, has given to us.

And so, Father, glorify Your name, and may Jesus be lifted up.

Open our eyes once again that we may behold wonderful things out of thy law.

In Jesus' name I ask, and I thank you, Father, for hearing me.

I'd invite you to open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 7.

And he notes that the wise builder is doing something very specific.

Starting with verse 24, therefore, whosoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, Okay, so he's hearing and he's doing, right?

He's not just hearing and going on his way, but he's hearing and doing.

I will liken unto him a wise man which builds his house where?

And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon the rock.

Then he goes on to say, and everyone that hears these sayings of mine and does them not.

So the foolish man, he's hearing just like the wise man.

But the distinction comes between the wise and the fool because 1 of them acts and builds wisely on a foundation and the other 1 hears and does nothing and goes to build on their own foundation.

Shall be like unto a foolish man which build his house upon the sand, and the rains descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was its fall." Jesus is the cornerstone.

He referred to himself as the cornerstone.

And this fourth commandment is, in essence, the cornerstone to the 10.

It gives the name of God, his title, and his territory.

It sets the foundation for who has the authority to claim and have everybody observe the other 9.

Morally, somebody over in India that worships different gods or in some of these other countries, like Buddha and that worship the Buddhists and worship these gods, they could claim you shouldn't steal, right?

They could claim you know, don't take another woman and commit adultery, be pure.

They could say hey, don't worship another God.

They could all claim the same 9, but on whose authority?

See, God has the right to claim our allegiance to the whole 10 because He's our Creator.

So He calls us to remember the Sabbath day because He wants to restore in us the very character and nature of Himself.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

6 days thou shalt labor and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.

In it thou shalt not do any work, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, or thy manservant, or thy maidservant, or thy cattle, or thy stranger that is within thy gates.

For in 6 days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is.

And rest at the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Now I find it pretty amazing today that there's a lot of talk about the importance of family.

All over the world there's talk about the importance of families having time to rest and come together.

Well, I find that kind of interesting because God talked about that thousands of years ago.

He made it very clear that he's way ahead of everybody else.

And I love this commandment Because it tells us how thoughtful, caring, and intentional God is.

You nor your son nor your daughter, and that includes those men out there that think, well, it doesn't say anything about my wife.

And so, God would have us as a family come aside and spend time together, sacred hours together on the Sabbath day.

Series

Restore

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

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

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The Lord’s Vineyard

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GoTential

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WYC 2012 Morning Devotional

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Sound Doctrine