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Living Hope SDA Church

Chris Holland

Words that Keep the Christian Living

Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand, but I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand.

What are the keys to knowing the 1 that holds your hand?

What are the keys to living the full and abundant life that Jesus desires as you hold his hand?

Is it possible that an ancient book written some 2, 000 years ago hold the key to knowing who holds your future and knowing the 1 who holds your hand.

Heavenly Father, we have gathered here because we want to know the 1 who knows the future and We want to know the 1 who knows the future.

And we want to know the 1 who holds our hand.

And so today we ask that you speak to us as we seek out what it means to really live and experience life in abundance.

And help us by the end of the time we spend studying together to know the 1 who holds our future and to know the 1 who holds our hand.

In 2016 I had the opportunity to go on a tour.

The tour is called The Great Controversy Experience.

It is a tour where you study the history of basically the Protestant Reformation as it is grounded in the history of Christianity.

The trip began in the city of Rome and was led by Gerard and Laurel Domstie.

If you ever have the opportunity to go on the tour, I would encourage you to take that chance and go.

But the story is not so much about the content of what we saw while we were on that trip, but while we were in Rome, and if you've ever been to Rome, Rome is a very busy city.

Unlike the United States, the major metropolitan areas of Europe are heavily trafficked by people walking.

And when you are on a tour, your tour guides will usually do something to attract your attention to the leader so you don't lose sight of them because it is easy to lose sight of your leader when you are bombarded by the sights of the city of Rome.

Not only did We have our leader who would hold an umbrella, and at the top of his umbrella, tied a neon green flag that we would be able to easily identify him in the midst of the crowds, but we wore hearing devices, so as we were walking through the city streets, he could tell us about the things we were seeing.

And it's in the moment in which you're taking pictures that it is easy to lose your group.

And there was a statue of Augustus Caesar that I needed the picture of.

Domstieg was speaking to us, telling us about the different things, and I needed to stop.

I wanted to stop and take a picture, but the group was moving.

So I told my wife, I said, stay with the group, I'll catch up.

But there were other people that were getting the picture of Augustus Caesar, you see the statue of him, he long dead.

But I wanted the perfect picture and the perfect picture is a picture in which there's not somebody else standing with him.

And so I waited and I waited and I was watching out of the side of I saw the green flag growing more and more distant, but I could still see it.

And finally I got my picture, and as I got my picture, in my earpiece, as Dr.

Domstig was lecturing, something began to happen that began to alarm me that maybe the distance was further than I thought.

All of a sudden, the radio signal began to lose its distinct clarity.

And then, as I turned to go, And the crowd stood between me and the green flag way off in the distance.

It no longer was just crackly, but amidst the crackles there were pauses in which I was not hearing it anymore.

It isn't easy to make your way through the crowd and move faster than the crowd.

And when you're in Europe, the respect of personal space is a little bit different than it is here.

And so I had become accustomed with this lack of respect for personal space.

And so I adept made my way through and I was able to catch up with the group.

And my wife was quite worried because it had taken me a while to catch up with the group.

What I wonder aloud on this morning is are we losing our grasp on the reality of what it really means to live with Jesus, and to live for Jesus, and to live with our hands in the hand of Jesus.

Because the green flag is moving off in the distance, and we're hearing a crackled, paused voice of Jesus rather than clear and distinct tones.

Somehow we have separated ourselves where we're close enough to feel like we're okay, But we're far enough away that we're not really catching the message.

I want you to journey back with me again to the time of the kings.

You'll remember in my previous sermon 3 words that killed the Christian.

6 key words that keep the Christian living.

From the annals of the ancient kings of Judah come key principles that keep every Christian living life to its fullest extent.

Come back with me to the ancient king Hezekiah.

You'll remember the nation had backslid into abominable practices.

Ahaz had reigned in Judah and He had led the nation of Judah into serious apostasy.

2 Kings chapter 18, beginning in verse 1.

Now it came to pass in the third year of Hosea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.

He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Abbey, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done.

He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden images, broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it and called it Nahushtan.

He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him, for he held fast to the Lord.

He did not depart from following the Lord, but kept his commandments which the Lord had commanded Moses.

He prospered wherever he went, and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

He subdued the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, Ahaz an evil king.

Hezekiah made a distinct choice in his life, and that was that he would not be like his father.

And while I certainly understand the inherited tendencies that all of us face, there comes a moment in generational sin and generational habitual sin that each of us must make a choice to no longer walk in the ways of our fathers.

And unfortunately in my life at the age of 15, I knew what reigned in my blood and in my DNA.

But each of us must make a choice that this stops here.

The Bible says that he did right in the sight of the Lord.

His life story stands in opposition to the previous generations.

You'll remember, you'll remember 4 generations that it says they all did right in the sight of the Lord.

There was an exception to their following.

It was as far enough as possible to make it feel like and look like they were following God, but it wasn't close enough to be a real, present relationship.

Those 3 words that we talked about in our previous sermon that killed the Christian were not removed.

As you read through the story that is recorded in 2 Kings 18, the Bible uses these words to describe what Hezekiah did.

He removed, he broke, he threw down, he utterly destroyed.

This is what he did with all the false worship centers.

Anything that distracted himself and in turn would have distracted the nation from following God faithfully, he removed.

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Words that Keep the Christian Living

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