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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jim Ayer Weekend 2006

Jim Ayer

From Pastoral Call to Pew Warmer

It was exciting to me to come down here tonight and be a part of this group and be a part in this church, this worship area.

Jason, do you have any idea how long this building has been standing?

My wife said, wow, isn't it great that we can be apart, be here, look at this building, worship in this building.

And I was sitting there and I thought, you know, this seems like a really appropriate text.

In Isaiah 58, And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones.

Now shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places.

Thou shalt rise up the foundations of many generations.

And thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.

I thought how appropriate to be here and be part of this group, to be part of that group that is looking to be the restorers of the paths to dwell in.

I had found God's path, but before I had done that, my wife and I wandered a great deal.

We didn't know God, we weren't Christians.

As a matter of fact, well I guess my wife could be if you called Christian scientists a Christian home My mom is a little kid told me to go to church, honey, and So I hitched the ride with the neighbors and went to church And I think was a Baptist church at that time.

But somewhere along the line, I never ever heard about Jesus Christ.

I had not a clue who Jesus was, even going all those years through Sunday school.

And By the time I got up to high school, the only reason I would go to church is if I could find a cute girl and she went to church and I thought this is a good way to meet her.

Well that continued on for a while but pretty soon I just didn't want to go to church anymore.

I always got good grades in school, A's and B's, never had to study.

I had a hard work ethic, made a lot of money.

I think everybody used to think that I was the spoiled brat of the school because I always had a good car and everything else, but no, my parents really had no money.

But then about my senior year, that was in the 60s, and most of you probably weren't even alive in the 60s here in this group, but I see a few of you were.

Someone said, you want to try a little marijuana?

And tried a little bit and wow, this is pretty good stuff.

Wanted some more and wanted some more and pretty soon, boy, this was really good stuff.

And you see, I think what happened is, we look at Adam and Eve and the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

I think the devil developed drugs as the alternate to the tree of life.

It will take you to another level, to another plane.

It will expand your knowledge of the universe, do all these things, but it's all of the devil.

Make no mistake because the more I began to partake of it as I went to college pretty soon it was either my grades or me that was going to stay up.

And I'd get higher and higher and the grades went lower and lower and lower and lower And pretty soon I found myself.

I didn't care about school anymore Didn't care about it at all.

There was absolutely no reason any longer to Do school All I wanted to do is party and have a good time Well pretty soon too in order to take care of the good time.

I didn't want to work anymore because I'd gotten lazy now Somebody these people today that talk about marijuana.

You know it's just it's it's not addictive, and it's not a problem And you know it just whatever they're saying.

Anything we put into our bodies that changes our attitude, that changes our work ethic, that changes the drive and motivation, is not good.

Everybody in this room sitting here knows this.

But so many people are buying into this lie.

You know, sell so much, scrape off the rest for myself and have a good time.

Pretty soon the alcohol was more and more and pretty soon, why it wasn't a problem to walk into a store and take absolutely everything I wanted.

You notice in a few short minutes here I just want to encapsulate what drugs do.

They totally turn your mind to another avenue, to another level and it was all the devil.

It wouldn't have been a problem to put out a contract on 1 of the narcs or somebody that was trying to get close to us to bust up a drug deal.

And here I was, a nice country boy, an A and B student who didn't need to study, who worked all the time, who had all kinds of things because I worked hard.

And I went to carrying a gun, went to drug dealing, stealing and everything else.

I hate to, but boy, you guys know it's kind of way back there.

I almost can't think when I'm so far away from it, see?

But I just kept going down and down and down and down.

1 day I was sitting in a little house that I was renting.

The room wasn't any bigger than about 3 rows of chairs right there.

I started smoking and I wasn't taking anything else right then, but I started smoking grass and all of a sudden the room expanded and the room expanded some more and expanded some more and pretty soon I'm sitting on the top level of this huge auditorium.

And God and the devil are down at the bottom of the auditorium.

Don't ask me exactly how, the Holy Spirit was speaking to me.

And the devil was arguing over me to God.

He was using all the arguments that I had used to turn everybody else on to drugs.

I was a great 1 to sell drugs, to push drugs, to do that lifestyle.

But the devil would say something to God, he'd use 1 of those arguments and God would say something and I can't remember at all what it was God said, but all I know is the devil would have to shut up.

Immediately the devil would shut up, couldn't say another word.

And a moment would pass and the devil would say something else to God, an argument about why I should be his.

And again God would speak and the devil would shut up.

And this went back and forth for a while.

And pretty soon it was all over, completely over.

I was sitting back in my little room, stone cold sober, absolutely flat on the ground.

And a voice said, Jim, you have a short time to decide.

I mean, it was just as plain as I'm speaking with you tonight.

The Toenails of Time

This morning I want to talk with you about several interesting people, but 1 of them is Enoch.

Enoch was an incredible man, seventh generation from Adam.

Enoch was a man that we know that we've heard and say, what, he walked with God.

We know that he probably lived in well a city maybe somewhat like this.

Now it certainly didn't have the same modern conveniences and things but but it was a city a city filled with a lot of things and Enoch in order to get away on a regular basis, went up into the hills, went up into the mountains, and he spent time talking with his God.

Day by day he would go, he'd stay there, and well, toward night he'd look at his watch and say, well Lord, I guess it's getting late, I need to go back home now." He'd go back home.

And he did this year after year, time after time.

And in about 365 years of doing this, 1 night as he looked at his watch, said, well Lord it's time to go home.

The Lord said to Enoch, well Enoch, you know you're closer to my home tonight than you are to your home.

And you know I thought, wouldn't that be an exciting thing for each 1 of us?

I would, wouldn't you just love that, to have God say that to you.

You're closer to my house tonight than you are to yours.

Boy, praise God that isn't the way it works now.

But 65, and it gave him a son, Methuselah.

Now today we put on there the coming of the waters, but they didn't know that.

They had not a clue what it was, but God, through His prophet Enoch, gave him a prophecy.

Now at the other end of that prophecy, God raised up another prophet to confirm the prophecy.

He raised up Noah, and Noah says, Aha, It's the coming of the waters.

And he confirmed the prophecy for 120 years.

Now, imagine, he grabbed Methuselah out there and put him on stage.

And at about 849 years, he began preaching.

He's gonna die 1 of these days soon and when he dies the floods going to come.

He wants you to get in the boat and year after year he preaches now folks are going oh come on now no you you've had you've had Methuselah out there on stage now for a hundred years For a hundred years we've heard this same thing.

It's scientifically, it's absolutely impossible.

And now Noah says, he's the oldest man who's ever lived on the planet.

And the prophecy that his father was delivered to his father said, What?

And I'm here to tell you it's the coming of the waters.

All the animals start walking down the roads from every direction.

All the birds start coming from every place.

People are saying, this looks a little strange.

Everybody went on about their work and the door of the ark shut.

I woke up 1 morning to my alarm, usually wake up and it's the news.

How many of you remember recently New Orleans and all the floods and the terror and everything that was going on?

I woke up to listening to a man share about how tragic it was for him as he clung to his wife and his child and in the rage of the storm, the child was swept away down the river, and the next thing his wife, her grip was broken from him too.

And the man broke down as he's crying to the news commentator about what had happened.

And I laid there in bed and I thought about it.

I thought about what must it have been like for Noah and the family, closed up in the ark when the rains began to fall, and they could hear the clawing on the door of the ark, they could hear the pounding, they could hear the screams as they clung that last moment to those huge timbers and the water swept them all away.

He talked to Abraham on a very regular basis, had an incredible relationship with Abraham, kind of relationship that he's looking like with you and with me.

He talked to Abraham and said, you know, he said, you're going to have a great nation of children.

Those children are going to be locked up.

They're going to be in slavery for 400 years.

And at the other end of that prophecy, God raised up another prophet, Moses.

Came knocking on Moses's door in the form of a burning bush see God comes to each 1 of us in a different way you look at through prophecy how many times did God appear to anybody in a burning bush anybody once just 1 time God comes to each 1 of us in a very different way.

I shared with you last night how God came to me and spoke with me, but to each 1 of us he comes in a very specific way tailored to each 1 of us to speak individually to each 1 of us.

He spoke to Moses individually and said, Moses, I've got a great work going on.

I'm working with the children of Israel and I'm going to be delivering them.

As humanity, we always try and conceptualize all these big plans all these big ideas we want to do all these things and get going for God and then look back and say come on God bless me.

You you can't find that in the Bible it's not in the Bible that isn't the way God works God has an ongoing work and God comes down and knocks on our hearts door and invites us to join him.

Same, we back up with Abraham, he did the same with Abraham.

Abraham, come on I'm building a great nation, would you come join me in that work?

Today God has an ongoing marvelous work to culminate, to end the work on planet earth, to prepare a people for his soon coming.

He knocks on our hearts door and said would would you come join me in the work and and only as we join God only as we join God can we find success in the work we do as we go and do for God.

Moses finally after a lot of consternation on his part but but but but but but little of Lord I can't talk.

God says don't worry I'll take care of it.

You know we can come up with lots of excuses but God is so powerful God can handle anything.

God's biddings are enablings and when we join God in his work he can handle it.

Moses went and he joined God and scripture tells us in Exodus on that self same day the prophecy was fulfilled the people came out on the very day the people came out now unfortunately we find for those people and for that situation.

See as they left Egypt, they moved out of justification, they moved out of total freedom, or they moved out of actually I should say total slavery, moving toward complete freedom.

They went through the Red Sea, they were baptized in the Red Sea and they came out the other side in sanctification looking for glorification as they're moving toward the promised land.

Becoming a Water-Walker

I do hope that what I've been sharing with you the last couple of meetings that they've drawn you closer to the Lord and that you through them can seek and know that that's what God desires of each 1 of us is continual ongoing communication with him.

This afternoon, Becoming a Water Walker, maybe a better title, and actually I've been struggling with this because I'm actually been working on a book and so part of it has to do with that, but I think a better title may be, He Shall Lift You Up, How God Makes Us Ready to Live Forever.

Now you heard me talk earlier today about the situation of Revelation chapter 6, where we are in the span of time, verse 13 and 14, you can write your name right between those 2 verses, everything prior has happened, verse 14 has not.

We talked briefly about Daniel, that we know exactly where we are right down there in the toenails of time.

But the question begins to arise, well as we see these things, as we Look at everything, and I mean we can list out a whole retinue of things.

I don't know if any of you have seen the new website.

It seems like now all of evangelical Christendom wants to raise up the 10 Commandments before the people because of all the fights that have been going on and casting it out of everywhere.

Now they're reacting, coming the other way and saying we need to keep it, we need to raise it up.

They commissioned a Jewish fellow from Israel to write the 10 Commandments down in a special way in Hebrew, the original 10 Commandments, now in a commemorative gold pin so everybody can wear the 10 Commandments.

I said, what do you think about it Richard?

This is fantastic because we have talked about the fourth commandment for so long and most of the Christians say, what's the matter, it's all been nailed to the cross.

But now, they're going to hold it up before everybody and say, we need to keep the 10 commandments, the 10 commandments are sacred.

And all of a sudden Seventh-day Adventists have a platform on which to talk about the fourth 1.

Interesting things in our times today that are happening.

Perhaps if you turn with me to Revelation chapter 7, verses 13 and 14, it may give a little bit of an indication of why we're still here.

Then 1 of the elders said to me, who are these people wearing white robes and where did they come from?

Then he told me, these are the people who are coming out of great and terrible suffering.

They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." So God portrays here a people that have come out of terrible suffering and they've washed their robes where?

So God portrays here a people that have come out of terrible suffering and they've washed their robes where?

Totally covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Have gone through suffering and tribulation.

Have had a battle and a march, a continual fight, taking up their cross and fighting for Jesus Christ.

And then we read in Christ's Abbey Blessings, page 69.

Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of himself in his church.

When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in his people, then he will come to claim them as His own.

Could it be that God is waiting for a people that He can hold up before a watching universe and show before the people and say, see, the devil was a liar.

These people can do it in my strength, in my power, in my energy, by my spirit.

They can follow the Lamb wheresoever He goes.

Here are they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus Christ.

Could it be that this is what God is looking for from each 1 of us?

1 of our early pioneer writers wrote this, Wagner, in a general conference bulletin.

In all of our Christian experience we have left little loopholes along here and there for sin We have never dared to come to the place where we would believe that the Christian life should be a sinless life Wow, what's he going out on a limb?

We have not dared to believe it or preach it, but in that case we cannot preach the law of God fully.

Because we do not understand the power of justification by faith.

This guy could be stoned today for saying such things.

But before probation ends, there will be a people so complete in Him, Notice the caveat, so complete in Him that in spite of their sinful flesh they will live sinless lives.

They will live sinless lives in mortal flesh because He who has demonstrated that He has the power over all flesh lives in them.

Wagner, great general conference of the living.

Apparently God is still waiting for a people.

Now you heard my testimony, some of you, Friday evening about going from a drug dealer, a thief, everything, to a Christian.

I'm afraid to move from this spot though as I move because we're liable to get feedback again in the...

Over time, all of that, something, I begin replacing all of that with study and prayer, and I moved to a whole new experience, a whole new level in life.

But then I moved back again, and that first love was replaced again and I was lost again.

Now today in the church we have a very interesting situation.

It might be likened to a Doonesbury cartoon.

Some of you may have seen this cartoon sometime back, but it went something like this, and I've written it down.

Reverend Scott, it's an interesting congregation, Mike.

Members are far more consumer conscious than they used to be.

The church has to deliver for its members.

Counseling, social events, recovery programs, tutoring, fitness center, we have it all.

Mike, well where's God fit into all this?

Reverend Scott, God, well, God's still the draw for sure.

Reverend Scott, well frankly Mike, God comes with a lot of baggage.

You know the whole male Eurocentric guilt thing.

That's the premise that Satan so cleverly crafted so many years ago in the desert to Jesus Christ.

Jesus basically said there's no need to go to the cross.

Why all you have to do is be kind and loving and get along and matter of fact, you know, I'll help you out.

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Series

Jim Ayer Weekend 2006

Becoming a Water-Walker

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

From Pastoral Call to Pew Warmer

38m

The Toenails of Time

32m

Becoming a Water-Walker

40m

Sound Doctrine