Restoration 2022

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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Prayer by Pavel Goia

Pavel Goia

01 Total Commitment

My privilege to be with you and probably I will not follow the computer, I never do, but nevertheless I wanted to mention that as we start we may have a few challenges because I'm going to talk to you straight to the heart and you may sometime not feel very comfortable with what I say.

If you don't agree, you don't have to take it.

Just take what is appropriate for you and if you get upset I'll pray for you.

Okay, I want to start by saying that in this society that we live, in this society, and I'm not talking about you.

You must not know what I am talking about.

But in this society that we live, people have become extremely self-centered.

That's the reason we have so many conflicts.

That's the reason we have so many families that are broken.

Nobody thinks about what would make the other 1 happy.

Everybody thinks about what they would like, what would make them happy.

Extremely self-centered, extremely selfish.

And I want to say, in the whole history, people that have been selfish, trying to acquire self-happiness and satisfaction, they never get happy.

There is no blessing in trying to be blessed.

There is no blessing, 0, in seeking a blessing.

The single blessing that God ever gave us and He will ever give us is only when you are a blessing for others.

Regardless how much you try to acquire or to do or to get, you will never be satisfied or happy or have peace or joy or any type of real accomplishments.

The great people in history have been people that they forgot self and they have become blessings for others.

The single blessing that you can ever get is to sacrifice self and become a blessing for others.

That's the real joy, the real happiness, when you can make others happy.

And I'm going to say, you look in the Bible history, excuse me, the Bible characters, they are the people that we don't talk about somebody that has a job.

They are not the people that got a good job and a good salary and Hey, I am set.

I have a nice house and I have a boat and I have a nice car and I have a life.

Those are very unhappy people that look for these things.

There is nothing wrong with a nice car or a nice house.

People that try to be set, regardless how much they may seem to have from outside, if you know their life, they are very unhappy.

The real happiness, people that have been big names in history, big names, have been those people that have sacrificed self for others.

Those are the names that remain in history.

Not because they are nobodies, because God doesn't love them.

But because they are too self-centered to have time to do something that is important.

A great general, great future, brilliant, brilliant future.

And remember, people that he tried to save, many times they tried to stone him.

There is not much thankfulness in our society when you help somebody.

And he saved a nation and maybe more than that.

Because he gave up everything in order to be a blessing for others.

We talk about anyone in the Bible history.

And then we don't have to talk about Bible history.

How many of you have heard the name George Miller?

Churchill says that he saved an entire generation.

But he sacrificed himself for the sake of being a blessing for others.

I'm going to give you an example from my own family.

My father was a man of prayer, a man with great character and dedication, extremely, extremely wise, extremely humble, extremely dedicated, a man that everybody who knew him respected him.

He was like an Abraham, like he walked with God.

My father had money, but he never wanted a big house.

Not because he didn't like a big house, but because he was too busy helping others.

And so we lived in an apartment that was like a train.

You go from room to room to room to living room to kitchen, you know, or from room to room to room to bathroom to...

Don't bring food because I already got plenty.

We all ate and he told us stories from his life and he prayed for us and he would bless us and he would take, I remember, take me on his lap and look into my eyes and say, I've been praying a lot to give you an example.

Do the same to give your children an example.

Because it's not what you say, but what you do that counts.

And then he would say to me, he would say to me, I'm trying to follow God's plan, so you can have an example in me.

And I'm trying to know God, so as you know me, you would have a chance to know a little of God through me.

For instance, I would do something stupid, I mean really stupid.

For instance, our math teacher had a big Texas hat.

And the classmates knew that I was a little crazy And they knew that I cannot escape a challenge.

When the teacher came out of the school, and children started to, yes, yes, Yes, yes, you know, kind of be supportive.

And the teacher noticed he ducked and the snowball went into the window of the school and broke the window.

So the principal called my father to the school.

And my father had, you know, I mean, he got a year full of, You know, he does this, he does that, he's a crazy kid, you know.

02 Relationship Prayer

And for those that were here yesterday, basically last night, we talked a little about what it means to have real success.

It's not the way this world would measure success, but the way God measures it.

And if you missed the last night presentation, I would encourage you to listen online, because it is crucial for your connection, your personal relationship with God.

And if you remember, I said last night that in our society people are extremely self-centered.

That's 1 of the reasons we have so many conflicts, including in families, because everybody cares for self, what I like, and no longer people care for others.

And I said last night that all people of faith in the Bible history and after have been people that have been willing to sacrifice self.

And I said last night, if you remember, that there is no happiness in fulfilling self-desires.

Basically, regardless how much you get, regardless how much you do or whatever you do, you will never really be happy because there is no happiness that God put there unless you learn to bless others.

And I said that our life is lived in vain if we don't focus on being a blessing for others.

And so on that line, I'm going to continue a little.

And let me give you an example when we say I'm going to continue a little.

You probably heard this story on the internet.

If you heard some of my presentations, I went to Cuba many times, many, many, many times.

And 1 of the times, it was in 2020 in February, I believe, right before COVID started in the US.

I was in Cuba, preaching, speaking, visiting, working a little with them and the seminary students.

And then I left And just a few days after I left, they closed the border because of Covid.

And I was praying and praying because It's something to pray.

And something else to say, Lord help me to be with the poor.

Don't ask God to do what he asked you to do.

Oh Lord, may the gospel be preached in the whole world.

The gospel is not going to preach itself.

You say, Lord, help me preach the gospel.

And so I didn't say Lord, May the people of Cuba be blessed.

I said, Lord, how can I bless the people of Cuba?

And so God impressed me to send some money.

And I'm not a millionaire, as you probably know.

And so I talked to my wife and she said, if God put it in your heart, do it.

And I'm a type of person that I've never been late with 1 deal in my life.

I am very picky and I keep the receipts in chronological order and I write on the back of the receipts and I check the receipts with the statements and if there is a penny mistake at 1 time at the gas station they charge me 1 penny more so I call discover.

It's only a penny I said yeah, but if you have 20 million people a penny each I said give me my penny back I'm picky about stuff, you know, I know my wife laughs too Anyway, so I told my wife if you send this money what's gonna happen to the bills?

And she said, honey, it's going to happen exactly what you preach.

And I said, yeah, I know, I know, I know what I preach, but you know, to do it as...

And every time people say, Oh, you are people of faith, regardless how much people of faith we are.

So I had to struggle again and say, Lord, do I really trust in you?

And I said, yes, I'm going to step in faith.

Because we humans have a tendency to wait until problems are resolved and then step.

And faith is when you step and trust that God will take care of it though you don't understand it.

As soon as I sent the money, I got a video clip that if I play for you, you will cry.

Basically, 16 of their students were foreign students from other countries in the Cuba Seminary.

And when the borders closed, they were stuck there.

But they had no place to go to Cuba and the seminary was closed.

So there was no teachers, no cooks, no cafeteria open, nothing.

And they were stuck there at the seminary and they had no food.

And after 2 weeks of no food, and they could not find anything, and you're not allowed to travel for the first 3 months, more or less, I don't remember precisely the details, you're so hungry that you're crying and praying, Lord, will you send us some food?

So when I send it, somebody called me, 1 of the teachers, and said, from the money you sent, we have enough for the period of time, for the 3 months, to pay a cook, to pay the food, and to feed all these 16 students.

And I got a video clip with them singing, crying and praying.

When we were hungry, the Lord sent us food.

And I tell you what, if I would have kept that money, I would have had no blessing.

But when I watched the clip, I felt like I live again.

And trust me, we did pay our bills, all of them, and we did have some left over somehow.

But The point is, you'll never experience joy, happiness and blessing before you learn to bless.

You cannot call yourself a Christian or not even a human being if you don't learn to bless others.

It's not my intention to offend or to hurt you.

And before we learn to love, we just expect to be loved.

Before we learn to love, we have no joy or happiness.

And let me explain in the same note, the same page with Cuba.

In 2010, long ago, 100 years ago, in 2010, when I was in Cuba on a mission trip, I believe you heard the story on the internet, probably some of you.

It's just a lesson that you need to hear but anyway in 2010 I was there and I was preaching and I was preaching and every night the church was packed 150 200 children packed with children and some of their parents And I said you guys did a good job to invite visitors and they said we actually didn't.

All the visitors that we invited maybe are 10, 20.

These hundreds of kids that come and their parents is that lady there.

I said if 1 lady can do that, imagine if everybody did that.

So I went to her and I said, what strategies did you use?

I said, what did you tell them that they came?

She says, it's not what you say, pastor, how you live.

03 Daily Surrender

Happy Sabbath I'm glad to be with you here and more than anything what a privilege that we come in God's presence If you go to church because it's the right thing to do probably you should stay home If you go to church to worship God, then you should go.

Unless we realize that we come in God's presence.

When you pray, unless you worship God, Stop praying.

When you study the Bible, if you do it as a duty, stop studying.

You should pray, you should study the Bible, but it's all for 1 purpose.

If you do it just because it's the right thing to do, just a routine, it's not going to help.

We come to be in God's presence because only He can transform us.

And if you want, if you didn't, If you are not here, you should go online and listen to the presentations.

But it's so easy and wonderful to experience a miracle.

And it takes faith, people say, to experience a miracle, to have a story.

Well, let me tell you, it may take faith to experience God's presence or a story or a miracle.

But it takes a lot more faith not to experience a miracle.

It takes faith to get an answer, help, a blessing, but it takes a lot more faith not to get it.

If we don't get an answer, we get discouraged.

And that way it seems that we are looking more for answers than for God, and we don't know Him enough to understand.

Basically, if He gave Jesus His Son, how will He not also give us all things in Jesus.

And so let me talk a little about known or unanswered prayers.

We believe that God answers every honest prayer.

There is a quotation that says, to every honest prayer, an answer will come.

But then she continues saying that it is a mistake to believe that God should answer the way we want in the time we want.

And then in a different place it says, if we knew the end from the beginning, we would choose the same path, the same answer?

In fact, Jesus says that whatever you ask in my name according to my will, it will be given to you.

And then in different places, Jesus says, whenever 2 or 3 of you get together, you remember?

Whenever 2 or 3 get the togetherness, 2 or 3 get together and pray, he says, I will be there with you.

If we would just realize it and believe it.

Moreover, He says, whenever 2 or 3 pray in 1 accord, that togetherness and the unity of purpose pray in 1 accord.

If you remember in the morning at noon, I talked to you about the children coming to Norway when you were in school there.

The students of the school got together and prayed in 1 accord.

But then what do you do when you get together and pray for a month or 2 or 3 and you don't get an answer.

Did it ever happen to you that you pray and you didn't get an answer?

But what if God doesn't want to answer that way?

Because sometimes we pray more in a tendency to make God a servant.

And we say, if you have faith, He must work.

Faith is not to manipulate God to do what you say.

Faith is to manipulate you to accept what He does, when you don't understand.

Fasting is not that God should hear your voice.

Fasting is that you clear your mind to hear his voice.

Most of the time, prayer in the Bible and answer to Prayer in the Bible is not an event, it is a process.

It's easy to say, Abraham was a man of faith and a man of prayer.

How long did it take him to get an answer to prayer to get a son?

How many of us have the patience to wait 25 years?

How long did it take for Moses to deliver his people?

Because he said I'm gonna do it in his power and God said no no no that's not the way I work And God sent him in the wilderness behind the ship.

How long did it take for that prayer to be answered?

How long did it take Noah to see finally the flood?

Why would I spend my time, my energy and my life to build a nonsense ark?

How long did it take him to finally see the answer?

It seems to me that we are a little in a hurry to receive answers to prayer.

I mean, I do know a quick answer to prayer.

Angel Gabriel says, when you started to pray, I started to work, but it took 21 days because I had to fight the kings of Persians and the Medes.

But I want you to think about the statement, when you started to pray, I started to work.

As long as you keep praying, because God has to work with people.

That's more difficult than to work with my dogs.

04 Fully Committed

Again, I say it's a privilege to be with you and even a greater privilege to be in God's presence we know that whenever 2 or 3 come God is in their midst and we believe that promise And if you just think about it, God is here.

That's the time to humble ourselves and worship Him.

If you just think about what God has done for us, I cannot help but think again and again about that quotation from De Sirophagis, where she says, For thee, the Son of Man, the Creator, the Most Holy 1, came, and for thee he died on the cross.

In eternity, we will not be able to even understand the drop of God's love.

In eternity, we will be amazed again and again and again.

And that's the reason Paul says, and to know, listen carefully, to know the love that surpasses any understanding.

How can you know something that surpasses understanding?

It's impossible to know because it surpasses any type of understanding.

Nevertheless, we are going to contemplate that type of love, the depth and the width of God's amazing love.

And God in His love, He could have sent a million gifts, but He sent us Jesus and He sent us His Spirit.

And so I want to say, as we start Connecting a little to the nights before, that the reason people today don't experience God's power is not because God has changed, is not because God doesn't love us, or God doesn't have the power, or God has arthritis, or He is old.

It's not because we live different times and God doesn't care.

God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

The reason we don't experience that type of power and transformation and results is because we have become so different.

I mean, we live in a very self-centered society.

And without realizing, we in the Church behave the same.

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Series

Prayer by Pavel Goia

03 Daily Surrender

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Restoration 2006: Prepare Me

Bible Study Hour

45m

Faith Alone

36m

Ron Clouzet: The Greatest Thing in the World

The Greatest Power in the World: The Nature of Faith

1h

True Success

58m

GYC 2013 Morning Devotions

02-Can God Trust You: Death Before Dishonor

45m

The Gift of Hindsight

30m

The Basis of Everything

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Cultivating Faith

Vital Necessity of Communion

1h 17m

Reformation or Rebellion

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Ron du Preez: NO FEAR! Something to Die for: Making Decisions in a Confusing World

Scripture Stories Can be Confusing -- Six Strategies

49m

The Purified and Refined Will

35m

The Sanctuary

10. The Highest Form of Worship

48m

Sound Doctrine