ARME 4: Pine Springs Ranch, CA - Jan 2011

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ARME Bible Camp

Dwayne Lemon

Heart Preparation

I'm thankful to God for the opportunity to be here at the Army Bible Boot Camp Where we can come together and study to show ourselves approved unto God We can be workmen and work women that need not be ashamed for we have rightly divided God's Word of truth.

Amen And brothers and sisters, there's so many reasons why in such a time as this we definitely need to understand the Word of God.

You know, as we look all throughout this world, it seems like God is consistently allowing harbingers to come to this world to let people know Jesus is about to come.

As soon as individuals start to get comfortable, the Lord allows something else to take place.

Right now, minds are so perplexed because they're wondering, How in the world do you explain millions of birds and all sorts of animals just falling and dropping dead from the sky?

And once again, God is allowing these opportunities to take place so that the mind can begin to wonder, look to their own wisdom, realize they have no wisdom, and then they're gonna have to seek 1 who has greater wisdom.

You know as I have an opportunity to travel and to share God's truth with so many people throughout the world, you know the 1 thing that I've realized?

I don't care if you're black or if you're white, if you're male or if you're female, if you are young or if you are old, the 1 thing that seems to be the common denominator all throughout humanity is that everybody has problems.

It doesn't matter the culture, doesn't matter the background, doesn't matter all the differentials of life, if you are a human being, you have problems.

And the reason why I find that to be so significant is because when I was meditating upon a wonderful little book called Ministry of Healing.

Volume 9 of the Testimonies to the Church, page 71, says, the great wisdom of the physician is contained in the book Ministry of Healing.

You want the mind of Christ you better get into the book Ministry of Healing.

It shows us wonderful things about our Savior.

But on page 363 of that book, while we realize that the whole world is filled with problems, even our own lives.

Do you know what Ministry of Healing page 363 says?

The gospel is a wonderful simplifier of life's problems.

In the midst of all sorts of problems in the world today brothers and sisters, those who have the gospel have the solution.

And if there's 1 thing that remains to be a fact, even in 2011, is people still have problems.

And God has called you and I to be part of the solution.

And the only way that we can do that is we have to humble ourselves before God.

As it was stated earlier, we don't want God to humble us, but we want to take advantage of the call where he says, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

And so we're gonna have an opportunity to do that.

We can do that even right now in our own posture.

You see, we're gonna have a season of prayer as we get ready to go into our topic.

We're gonna be dealing with how to go through the scriptures.

And brothers and sisters, there's gonna be 3 dynamics that I'm gonna be sharing with you throughout this time that we're together.

This morning we're going to talk about the preparation.

Tomorrow we're going to talk about the purpose of the scripture.

And then on Sabbath afternoon, we're gonna show the method.

And you're gonna find that we're gonna start with great simplicity, and then we're gonna build it up as we go, day by day, point by point.

So therefore, before we go into this wonderful topic dealing with the preparation, I'm gonna ask you as much as you're able to that you would please join with me.

I'm going to kneel, and I'm going to ask as much as you are able to, please join with me as we approach the Lord and let us kneel together as we prepare our hearts and our minds to hear heaven speak to us.

Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for the privilege and the opportunity of prayer.

Father, it is refreshing to be at such a meeting as this, these wonderful boot camps where there's such a tremendous emphasis on prayer.

I pray heavenly Father, please speak to the hearts of so many who put forth camp meetings and other meetings that they will never ever neglect the sweet privilege of prayer.

Father, we come because we recognize our need.

There is still more about Jesus that we all would learn.

And Father we come to you at this time not just simply humbling ourselves in posture but Father we're humbling ourselves in our hearts.

We recognize that you have it all figured out and we know nothing and Lord we're coming to you asking you to please forgive us, Lord, of our self-exaltation.

Father, forgive us for the very subtle ways that we still allow pride and self to ascend to the throne.

And Lord, by your grace and by your power, may you manifest yourself in such a marked manner in this room, that it will not be by might nor by power, but it's only going to be by your spirit that we'll be able to say or do anything on your behalf.

And so Lord, we pray as your son David prayed so long ago, open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

Take our lies and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.

For Father, these and all other blessings we ask we ask it in jesus name amen you know brothers and sisters Jesus, when he brought in these 12 disciples, he put forth a great work for them to do.

He knew that even in his day, the world had problems.

And as it is true today, it was true then that the gospel has always been the wonderful simplifier of life's problems.

And so it is that Jesus gave that gospel commission to his disciples, which we find in Matthew 28, where Jesus tells us to go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and the Holy Ghost and that God has called us to do this great and marvelous work worldwide we have been given an awesome and tremendous task and brothers and sisters the truth of the matter is is that you remember when Jesus was having a dialogue with Peter, and Jesus began to open up before him and make him aware of how he had to go to the cross and so on.

You'll remember that Peter, You know, he was always an interesting person.

Peter was 1 who always loved to jump up and talk and be the first 1 to stand in line.

But at the same time, you know the story where Peter made it clear that, though all men shall forsake you, he made it clear I would not.

And you know, Peter probably looked at the fact that he had this direct link with the master.

He probably looked at the fact that he had this very significant relationship with Jesus where he could get into the secret chambers of his presence so that he can ask all the questions and get all the answers and the list goes on.

Peter had many reasons to think of himself more than he should.

And you know brothers and sisters what's so amazing about that is that this same Peter who had the close connection, who received tremendous understanding, who had wonderful one-on-one even communion with Jesus, in the end of it all, when he had to stand single and alone, all of a sudden, he said, I don't even know Jesus.

And you know, the reason why I find that to be so powerful is because I want you to write this down as we prepare to go into this study.

I want you to write down volume 5 of the Testimonies to the Church, page 707.

I believe Peter's problem, just by chance, might be yours and my problem.

And in volume 5 of the Testimonies to the Church, page 707, she says, I have been shown that many who profess to have a knowledge of present truth, know not what they believe.

Many individuals who profess to have the link, to have the connection, to have the understanding, to have the knowledge of present truth, they really don't know what they believe.

She goes on to say, they do not understand the evidences of their faith.

In other words, they knew how to talk the Adventist lingo.

They knew how to say 1844, 1260, 1798, and the list goes on.

They knew how to talk the language, but 1 day when somebody said, do me a favor, how do you actually substantiate that point?

How do you actually help me see from start to finish these things that you believe?

There are many individuals who do not understand the very evidences of the faith in which they profess.

It goes on to say, when the time of trials shall come, it says there are men now preaching to others who will find upon examining the positions they hold that there are many things for which they can give no satisfactory reason.

She says, until thus tested they knew not their great ignorance.

You see brothers and sisters, we're living in a time where there's a great and tremendous work that needs to be done.

And God is looking to you and I to be the instruments in his hands to share his truth with others so that we can be those who impart life rather than death.

And the reason why this becomes so important is because it's not just about our own soul salvation, but it's about the salvation of those whom we say hello to every time we go in the bank.

It's about the salvation of those who we say hello to when we come by and they put things inside of our mailbox.

The UPS man who comes by and drops off the box.

The people that we see on a regular basis, their soul salvation is also in jeopardy.

And these individuals have problems And they're looking to people like you and I to be problem solvers and The gospel is a wonderful simplifier of life's problems And so it is that you're gonna find brothers and sisters that God is calling you and I that we have to understand his word like never before.

And the goal of understanding the Word of God is not to go simply from being an ignorant sinner to an intelligent sinner.

That's the last thing, That would be a tragedy brothers and sisters for you and I to go from being ignorant and foolish to becoming wise in our own eyes Understanding the Word of God being able to tie this that and the other together But in the end, we're like that man who cried woe to Jerusalem God wants us to understand that when we understand his word, it is not so that it just stimulates the intellect, but it causes a transformation in the heart, in the life.

And I'm so thankful that in this meeting, it's being echoed over and over and over again that before we need all the other reforms, we first need heart reform.

We need to be changed from the inside out, amen?

And so you're going to find that what we're going to do today is we're actually going to go ahead through some of the steps that will prepare us so that we can rightly receive the Word of God, so then that way we can faithfully impart it to those within our home, in our communities, and in our churches.

And that's why today the focus is on the preparation.

And now I want you to turn your Bible to the book of 1 Peter chapter 3.

In 1 Peter chapter 3 what we're going to do is we're going to start looking at some scriptures that's going to help us as it relates to the preparation.

But 1 of the things I want you to see right here in 1 Peter 3 is the goal.

In order for us to get ready to start the great preparatory work We need to understand the goal of why in the world am I even preparing?

The Bible says in first Peter chapter 3 something wonderful Peter was giving counsel to the brethren and as Peter was instructing them he even got to a point where he discussed sometimes they may go through suffering.

But even in the midst of suffering, Peter gives a statement in verse 15 that I believe is very noteworthy.

And if you're there, I'm going to ask you to please say amen.

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Heart Preparation

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