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Strong Tower Radio

Fresh Manna 2021

Fresh Manna By Jacob Gibbs

Jacob Gibbs

The Sum of Last Year

Fresh manna fell to the ground as a gift from God while the Israelites were in the wilderness.

It was fresh from the ovens of heaven, baked by the master baker himself.

How the Israelites must have anticipated the taste and smell of each morning's delivery.

Just like the Israelites, you too can experience the taste and smell of fresh manna.

Today you'll be listening to Jacob Gibbs, pastor of the Cedar Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cedar Lake, Michigan.

Were you daring to make a New Year's resolution?

I was telling Sabbath School class, I didn't really make a New Year's resolution, but in December I bought a scale, and I have desires.

And so I guess that could be considered my New Year's resolution, to use the scale.

But Lord, the message that You want to deliver through me, I hope it transforms dust.

We are the sum of last year's thoughts, actions, and words.

Now this can be an intimidating thought when we take account of what we did, said, and thought.

Now because of this, we typically look forward to the New Year so we can wash our hands from all the blunders of what we did, all the blights that are in our character, all the badness that came from our tongues.

But New Year's has no soul cleansing properties to it.

But we often look for a new beginning in January.

But we are who we were last year and of ourselves we cannot be anyone different.

The building supplies of this year are the same ones that we used for last year.

For example, if we're trying to build a brick house, but we have no bricks, we're not going to be building a brick house.

So what kind of characters are we building in 2021?

Let's think about last year because that is where we find all the building materials for our character this year.

That's right I was hoping to trick somebody.

As leap year is unique, 1 out of 4, 2020 of course, we're hearing this all the time, it was a very unique year.

It was like none like in my short history.

We could easily recount all the woe that we faced.

We could add up all the disaster that this planet has to deal with.

However, even though through all of that, all that stuff that we don't want to remember necessarily.

And I didn't know that Lake Superior State, you know where Lake Superior State University is?

And every year, I guess they like banish words.

They banish words like COVID-19 and social distancing and they banished, they had all sorts of fun with banishing words.

I wish banishing words would banish the things that the words mean, but that's not the case.

But we have to remember even through each day of 2020, all 366 24-hour periods were privileges that God has given us.

All those days of 2020 and all the experiences and all the words and all the thoughts, all of our experiences, thoughts and words are bound up in a book in heaven.

Our Individual characters, this is a quote from Signs of the Times, I believe it's 1885, January 2, our individual characters are distinctly and faithfully represented there, that's heaven, As are the features of a face on a polished plate of the artist.

Can you remember what you did April 7th at 4 o'clock?

Probably not, unless it's your birthday and you had cake or something like that.

We probably can't remember what happened July 7th or January 5th.

But all those things are written in heaven.

And all those things have been woven into who we are today.

So the question is, who were we last year?

Now we're gonna get a mirror and we're gonna look at this mirror of who we were last year and this mirror consists of about 10 questions.

These 10 questions come from the very same work that I quoted earlier from the pen of Alan White.

Let's examine our lives in light of scripture as we contemplate these questions.

First question, what has my record been for the last, for the year that is just closing?

Second question, what advancement have I made in the Christian life?

Can you mark something where you have advanced in your Christian life?

Third question, what victories have I gained?

What have I done to help others and lead them to Christ?

Have you really attracted anybody to Jesus?

Is there evidence of that in your example of last year?

We were put here on this planet for a purpose.

And it was not that we would live an aimless life following the desires of our hearts.

It was not to just kind of coast, but it was to be useful in this life.

It was to reach to a high moral standard, a moral excellence.

During the old year, have you performed your appointed task with cheerfulness and fidelity?

Having your eyes singled to the glory of God?

Opportunities and privileges have been granted you.

What use have you made of these good gifts entrusted to you by our loving Heavenly Father?

Have you made yourself a blessing to those around you?

Have you done what you could to make them happy and win them to Christ?

Let these questions make you think about last year.

In order to accomplish his work we need to put self in the grave every morning.

When you wake up, those desires of the I wants that trump, that can get victory over what God wants, We can choose to give the reins of our hearts to selfish indulgence.

Or we can choose to give it to developing a character after Jesus Christ.

Have you been conforming your life to the standard?

Have you been forming right habits, a Christ-like character?

Or have vicious habits been left to grow and strengthen till they hold the mind and heart in bondage?

We were asked 10 questions, and each question was written from the spirit of prophecy.

Ellen White wrote a letter for the new year that the reader could analyze their life.

These questions were designed to probe and penetrate deep inside and expose what is really going on.

They were to bring about the tenor of character.

If our character is turned ugly, what does an ugly character look like?

Set the Table

To Jacob Gibbs, pastor of the Cedar Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cedar Lake, Michigan.

I am saying right now, because there was ice cubes in the baptistry, I'm not looking at the time, because I'm energized.

The blessing is that's the coldest experience you'll have at Cedar Lake.

We want to ask that you will help us with this message, because this message isn't just the next few moments.

This message will be for the next few weeks.

I remember when Mama said, I remember when Mama said, dinner is almost ready.

I knew, I knew if I didn't respond to that, dinner time wouldn't be fun.

If I ignored mama and setting the table, there seemed to be dessert and then there seemed to be no dessert.

Did you know the disciples were called to set the table?

The disciples were called to set the table.

Let's turn to Mark chapter 14, verse 13 through 16.

Mark's talking about a story of the Lord's Supper.

The finest bread from the Johnson Bakery across the street.

You Oregon people know about Fred Meijer, the real Meijer.

Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, The teacher says, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

Verse 15, then he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared.

So the disciples went out and came into the city and found it just as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.

In that way, they were to make ready for the most important meal ever.

At that supper, there were the meeting of the Old Testament shadow and the very object, the meaning, the person that those shadows represented.

Did those 2 disciples totally understand the significance of setting the table that day?

They didn't understand it fully, that's for sure.

They knew the resentment and hatred of the religious leaders.

They understood the signs that were circulating around them.

They may not have known everything, but they knew the events.

They were obedient to the call of their master to set the table.

No, we're not called to set the table in the upper room, but we are called to set a table.

We may not understand the total significance of communion and the Lord's Supper, but we know our experience is not where it needs to be.

Are you satisfied with your walk with Jesus today?

If we were honest, and I hope that we will be, we would realize that our communion with Jesus is not, we wouldn't want to clone it and give it to our neighbor.

We may cover it up in a nice suit and dress and whatever it is, we may cover it up, but we know who we really are.

We're not setting the same type of table as those disciples in the book of Mark, but there's a different type of table.

You know, it's interesting, Jewish tradition, when they celebrated the Passover once a year, they would set an extra place at the Passover meal.

They would set a place for an extra person.

So if the family of 4, they would set it for 5.

Because he was to be the herald of the Messiah.

And the Passover was a celebration that the Messiah was to come.

Maybe the table that we need to start setting up is in our hearts.

In the last days, His disciples are called to prepare the table of the heart.

Let's read in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 20.

Behold, I, Jesus is speaking, behold I stand at the door.

If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come to him and what?

Here in Desire of Ages it says, with this very verse in its context, page 803, Jesus is ever ready to speak peace to souls that are burdened with doubts and fears.

Do you have doubts about God's providence and care in your life?

Do you have fears about what's coming down the pipeline of world events?

He waits for us to open the door of the heart to him and say, abide with us.

When God Becomes an Idol

And I pray, Father, that we'll lay it all down and be born again.

I often thought the worst kind of idols 1 could have are the good ones.

Now if someone's wrapped up into smoking and drinking and doing drugs, Those are bad idols but they're not the worst kind because society deems them to be not very good.

I often thought that the worst kind of idols would be the cherishing of family as the ultimate thing.

It could even be cherishing healthiness as the ultimate thing.

Because that could be a whole other idol of body image and you're going under the pretenses of being healthy but you're just trying to look your best for the opposite sex or nowadays even the same sex.

Or maybe it's your job that you just spend countless hours at work and it's good to say that you're a hard worker and you can camouflage your idol of being a workaholic and your love of money or your love of needing to be accomplished or something like that but I've come to the realization that the worst idol for Adventists is could be even God himself.

That when we know of course God's not an idol but our misconceptions of who God is, we can turn into an idol.

For instance, if we believe that the true God is over gracious, then the sin in our life doesn't get checked.

Or if we view that God is too stern, we become too stern with people who are struggling in sin.

So when we turn God into an idol, that's the worst camouflage that we can have for our idol.

And when we turn God into an idol, what are we really idolizing?

So that's the theme we're going to go on.

I had a friend named Tyler, I may have shared this story before, he was my best friend.

We did everything together and I thought he, you know, when I became a Seventh Day Adventist Christian, he was a radical leftist and an atheist.

And he could not stand the fact that his best friend turned God.

And so he would, you know, at first he thought it was a phase, at first, you know, but over time it was the real deal and I remember like calling him and then eventually he started doing the avoidance thing.

But I was still his friend, I didn't care that I'm a Christian, I was still his friend so I would go.

He worked at Yonkers and the Granville mall and Grand Rapids area and I would go there just when I went home I was always on Bible work stints here and there and I'll just go to the Yonkers just to meet up with him because I Wanted to be his friend.

I would call him all the time and he eventually I think he just blocked my calls I would get through to him maybe once a year.

And this was in 2002 when I became Christian.

And then several years ago, it was October, I finally got through to him on the phone, he says, Jacob, you've truly been my best friend.

It was interesting at his funeral, he had a lot of testimonies, he was a very popular guy, A lot of people got up and said, you know, I truly was his best friend.

I didn't have the nerve to say it at that emotional time.

But that was October, he said it in April, Easter Eve.

He told me, Jacob, you really have been my best friend.

All the time I'd pray for Tyler because Tyler, he had amazing interpersonal gifts.

And if he came to the Lord, he would be a mighty force for Jesus.

He was just into the doing what the world does.

I mean, he wasn't rebelling against anything.

He didn't really grow up with parents that were church going on a regular basis.

And he was just following the crowd, I guess.

But when that call came in October, God started moving his heart, God started answering my prayer.

And I started thinking, yeah, yeah, I know his future.

He's going to become a Seventh-day Adventist.

He was really busy with the social work program, graduated, started working in the Nuevo area, and really social work is just a secular pastor.

Easter Eve, Easter, I found out that he died.

That absolutely crushed me because I knew what God was thinking.

For a week, my wife didn't know how to handle me.

I never really had lost like this before.

No, I wasn't really close to him after 2002 until it's about 4 years ago now.

Have you ever been so sad where you're shaking when you're crying?

Have you ever been so sad that you can't stop?

Have you ever been so sad that you start questioning the very, very purposes of God in your life?

Have you ever been so sad that you have no idea what is up and what is down anymore?

What you see now is just the tip of the iceberg.

Because I created in my mind a God, a future, that wasn't the reality.

Do we understand where Tyler is going to be?

David says in the scripture reading, he got angry with God.

I think he created an idol out of what should be.

And then when we pack God into the box of our thoughts, and We think life is supposed to be a certain way.

And then when God busts out of that box and says, you can't contain me in your thoughts in a box because it's going to ruin you.

Don't try to put God in the box of your thoughts.

Let God be God and think about him, but don't try to box him up.

Because when you box him up, you're gonna be ruined.

I Wish to See Jesus

♪ Fresh manna fell to the ground as a gift from God while the Israelites were in the wilderness.

Just like the Israelites, you too can experience the taste and smell of fresh mayonnaise.

Father, We thank you that you are good to us.

We thank you that you have given us your word and you've given us your Holy Spirit so that Lord we can be revived and connected to the kingdom of God and help others be connected.

I studied with somebody in Lansing, 1 of the students.

The Garcias, you know who this little guy is.

Every time I would study, when the garbage truck went by, he ran out to the window and he just stared at it.

Nothing really good comes from that year and this is not a very good story either.

This garbage man was doing his daily routine in San Antonio, and 5.30 in the morning, he grabs 1 of those bins in a parking lot, and he puts it in his truck, and he gets in his truck, and he starts hearing somebody yell as a compactor is squeezing that garbage deeper into the recesses of that garbage truck.

He realizes it's a voice coming within the garbage truck.

Somebody was in the garbage bin, and he was sleeping, I guess.

He woke up to all sorts of pressure surrounding him.

And so he stops it, and he calls the first responders, and they get him out.

I mean, it's kind of silly to think about, but I would be scared out of my mind.

Other questions come to my mind is, Why was he sleeping in the garbage bin?

You know, we know that people have hard lots in life, but I don't think he chose to sleep in a garbage bin.

I mean, the lot of life, he needed some place to sleep, That's where he chose to sleep.

I just know 1 man who slept in a worse condition.

He slept in a situation where not only was his body being squeezed, but his very soul was being squeezed.

Let's read that in verse 27 of John chapter 12, verse 27.

Jesus, like the man in the garbage truck, His very life was being squeezed.

Because This just happened right after the triumphal entry.

Series

Fresh Manna By Jacob Gibbs

The Power of a Question

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

The Sum of Last Year

32m

Set the Table

33m

When God Becomes an Idol

41m

I Wish to See Jesus

31m

We Need to Look Higher

41m

Walking Gardens

37m

The Secret of Marriage

37m

Finding God in Second Chronicles

42m

Facing Fear

34m

Facing Doubt

33m

Facing Aimlessness

44m

Facing Ignorance

45m

Without Human Hands

42m

The Power of a Question

41m

Another Generation

38m

The Lord of the Sabbath

45m

Sanctuary

44m

Sound Doctrine