ARME 3: Leoni Meadows, CA - Aug 2010

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

ARME Bible Camp

Martin Kim

Experiencing God

Good morning God is good Amen This morning.

I want to tell you a little bit about my personal journey How it was that the Lord led me and taught me about the importance of prayer Like to get started right away would like to begin with the word of prayer.

Lord, my prayer this morning is that it would not be I, but Christ, honored, loved, exalted.

Not I, but Christ, be seen, be known, be heard.

And in every look and action, in every thought and word.

A sage of India was asked by a young man, How can I find God?

And for a time, The sage gave no response.

But then 1 evening, the sage invited the young man to go down to the river to bathe.

They get down into the water, and the sage grabs the young man, pulls him under the water, and holds him there until he nearly drowns.

And then he releases him, and the young man comes popping up out of the water.

And the sage looks him in the eye and says, what did you want most when you were under that water?

And the young man gasping for air says, I wanted a breath of fresh air.

And the sage said to that man, when you want to find God as much as you wanted that breath of fresh air, you will find Him.

In Jeremiah 29 verse 13, it says, you will seek me and find me when you search for me with half your heart.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

I want to go back and look at the preceding verses.

In Jeremiah 29 verse 11 it says, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." What a beautiful promise.

Now last year in the fall, I made a trip out to New Mexico to visit this 1 church.

Friday morning, I'm talking to this young pastor who had just come out of the seminary, and he's telling me about his life journey.

He went to a secular university down in Florida, And 1 day he learned the Adventist truths and he accepted it and became an Adventist.

Well the Lord impressed him to go on to the seminary to get training to be a minister.

So a few years later he is up at the seminary and he's going through his first semester, and he's realizing that it's really, really expensive, and that if he doesn't get help with his tuition, he's going to have a lot of debt by the time he gets out.

And so at that time, he was thinking, maybe I should consider 1 of these 3 or 4 month shorter programs that train you in how to do God's work.

But he prayed about it and said, God, if you want me to continue my studies in the seminary, you need to help me.

And a few days later, he gets this call out of the blue from the Rocky Mountain Conference.

His new Adventist from Florida, from the Rocky Mountain Conference, he gets a call and they're saying, we'd like to sponsor you.

He's getting close to the end of the studies and he's asking God, God, do you want me to unite my life with that of another individual before I leave the seminary to do ministry, or are you wanting me to go out single?

And he prayed, Lord, if you are wanting me to unite my life with someone else.

During this week, could you have someone that I just have not been in touch with for a long time contact me in some way?

A few days later, he gets this email from a gal.

She says, Hi Blake, hey, it's been a while since we've been in touch.

And so he's thinking now That God has spoken to him well time goes on and he gets to know this individual better and Long story short.

They unite their lives, and they're now down in Arizona, New Mexico that is, doing ministry together.

I'm hearing the story and I'm thinking, wow, there is a God, and this God has a plan for this man's life.

And I want to ask you, if you were to tell your life story to a neighbor or to a friend Would they come to the conclusion that there must be a God and that this God must have a plan for your life?

If the answer is no it might be because you're in the driver's seat and you've got your hands on the steering wheel.

If we would take our hands off and let Christ in the driver's seat, you will see that God has an incredible plan for your life.

Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you.

Do you know a God that you can call upon who listens to you?

And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

And the promise in the next verse is beautiful.

You know, I believe that we must first find God before we can come to know God.

I went through Adventist schools all my life.

Went to church schools, had Bible class, went to church on Sabbath, learned even more about God, and year by year, I was learning more about God.

I was knowing more and more about God, but I didn't know God.

Later, I ended up in a seminary, and I learned a whole lot more about God, but I didn't know God.

It wasn't until after I left the seminary, unfortunately.

2004, getting ready to graduate from the seminary, and I had missions in my blood.

I wanted to see the gospel go to the ends of the earth.

What I did not have in my blood was babysitting.

Well, the doors opened up for me to go out to a church in the state of Washington, and do you know what they were looking for?

They were looking for an experienced babysitter.

And I knew I was in trouble because a few years earlier I had spent some time doing similar type of work, youth ministry at another church, and it was 1 of the most painful experiences of my life, and I said, I'm never doing that again.

And when the Lord says go, what is the best thing you can do?

I didn't want to get swallowed up by jaws.

So I went, but this time I went on my knees.

Of course I prayed before meals and before seminary.

I learned about the importance of spending that 1 hour with God.

And so every morning a little prayer, Bible reading, and then praying at meal times, praying in the evening.

But this was the first time that I got on my knees and started praying.

And I decided to spend at least 1 hour a day in prayer.

And spending 1 whole hour is an extremely long time if you're not used to praying.

So I decided to spend about half an hour before noon in the morning, and another half hour in the afternoon as I began this ministry at Seattle Central.

Before I continue, I want to share with you the words of Alexander McLaren.

He's a Baptist preacher and expositor of the 19th century.

He says, do you know Christ as a man knows his friend, or do you know him as you know Julius Caesar?

And we could put the name Barack Obama in there.

Do you know Christ as a man knows his friend, or do you know him as you know Barack Obama?

Do you know Christ because you live with him and he with you, or do you know about him in the way that a man knows about his neighbor across the street that has lived beside Him for 25 years and never spoken to Him once in all that time.

So I'm beginning my ministry, seeking God with all my heart because He has to show up.

Otherwise, I'm not gonna survive because I've been there before.

We started praying and in answer to prayer, God started sending laborers.

God started sending people back to the church that had left the church a few years earlier.

And in a year and a half we saw God do amazing things in answer to prayer.

We saw God pretty much double the size of the church.

Now, I really understand what Charles Spurgeon, the great British preacher, meant when he says, anything is a blessing which makes us pray.

Back to Menu

Experiencing God

Transcript

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Personal Ministries Leadership Training

Personal Ministries Leadership Training- Part 1

1h 11m

Established in the Present Truth

The Law of the Lord is Perfect

1h 7m

ECYC 2011 Seminar: Problem Solved with Some Eyesalve

False Revival

41m

GYC 2012 Seminar: The Calling - Living and Knowing God's Will For Me

Where are the Fireworks?

57m

Living the Word

If Need Be

56m

Institutional Farming

Tips for Finding Success with a Ministry Farm

52m

Eric Walsh: Rumbles in the Mind

Mind Ministries: How to Reach Addicted Souls

48m

Last Revival

37m

Morning Devotional

Three Wise Men

59m

Changing Lives, One Seed at a Time

59m

Our Heritage of Truth

52m

Sound Doctrine