AdAgrA 2023: Digging Deeper

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Plenary

Kameron DeVasher

Why Was Jesus Always Talking About Plants?

Daniel Nicholls

From Pot Grower to Gardening Teacher

Our Soul-Winning Bottleneck

Kendra Nystrom

From Artificial Culture to Agriculture

Almost Engaged

Gabriel McClover

Vonnella McClover

We Walk By Faith

Aubrey Seiler

Vivian Seiler

Ricky Seiler

Alane Waters

Tom Waters

Sabbath School: Black Box Thinking

Who Fed the 5,000?

And our goal today, as it has been every other day, is not only to learn more about God, but by His grace, be more like God and work more for God until we see God soon and very soon.

With that attitude in mind, we're going to have a message this morning entitled, Who fed the 5, 000?

Now, you'll also notice that we do not have a PowerPoint projection screen on, I mean, outside of the thing here, but none of my notes are going to be on the screen.

Now, the other reasons, we either did it differently throughout the week, because this is an agriculture conference, I'm expecting people to come with their Bibles in the morning, that's no problem.

But today is Sabbath, and I expect you to have your Bible.

So I'm not gonna say things like, if you have your Bible with you, I'm gonna say, since you have your Bibles with you, and we're going to be in those Bibles this morning as we seek to answer the question, who fed the 5, 000 and what in the world does that have to do with me today?

But before we begin any study of God's Word, always we must begin with prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for so many things.

But right now, Lord, in the quiet of this moment, at this particular part of this day, we want to thank you for your word, for being a God who would choose to communicate with us at all.

Thank you for sending your Son who is the Word, and for His promise to lead us into all truth as we seek to become more like Him.

So Lord, we would ask for a special blessing today as we open and study your word.

I would invite you to take out those Bibles and go to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, as we begin answering the question, who fed the 5, 000?

Luke chapter 11, starting with verse 1, we find an incident recorded, I believe, for our admonition.

Luke chapter 11, verse 1 says, Now it came to pass, as he, that was Jesus, was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, that 1 of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Something about Christ's prayer stirred them.

They respectfully waited, but as soon as he was done, they said, Lord, we need to know how to pray.

What should be...what we should be saying when we pray?

So he said to them, when you pray, say...

This does not mean every time you pray, say these words.

The similar instruction is given in the Gospel of Matthew when he says, when you pray, pray in this manner.

But this is the mindset, this is the thinking, a template, if you will, for prayer.

When you pray, say, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your will be done on earth as it is, where?

Now the prayer continues and there's many many lessons we could draw from it but I want to focus as we begin this morning on that particular phrase, that sentiment that Christ taught his disciples for their prayer life.

When you pray, address your Father in heaven, and the number 1 appeal after addressing who he is and where he is, is now as we transition here, that your will, Lord, might be done on earth as it is, or in the same manner, or like it is done in heaven.

If the prayer of our hearts is that God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, logically, what must we know?

How is God's work done in heaven if we're supposed to replicate it here on the earth?

How is God's work done on earth and what we're, I mean, on heaven?

And what we're going to find out today is that God has a particular, repeated, consistent, unvarying principle of how he expects his work to be done, whether it's on earth or in heaven.

Let's go to the book of Revelation, very last book of the Bible, of course.

Chapter 4, the apostle John is taken off into vision and he's shown the throne room of heaven.

It says, After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open, where?

And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.

Obviously, it should go without saying, but if in your prayer time a door opens in heaven and a voice tells you to come up, go.

It says, verse 2, immediately I was in the Spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and 1 sat on the throne.

And it talks about the appearance of him who sat on the throne.

And how before the throne, verse 5, there were 7 lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the 7 spirits of God.

Which of course, there's no explicit reference to the Holy Spirit, but there is the symbolic reference to the Holy Spirit all throughout the book of Revelation.

So you have God the Father on the throne, you have the Holy Spirit before the throne.

It goes on to explain, verse 6, before the throne was a sea of glass like crystal, in the midst of the throne and around the throne were 4 living creatures, full of eyes in front and in back.

So now we have the father, we have the spirit, we have the 4 living creatures.

And if you've studied the book of Revelation, what group is coming next?

The 24 elders, they all said with 1 accord.

But as it goes on and on and on, it talks and it describes this.

1 character, central feature is missing, and that is the Son of God, Jesus, the Lamb.

But that's resolved in verse 4, after John wept much because no 1 was found worthy to open or read the scroll or to look at it.

But 1 of the elders said to me, do not weep.

Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its 7 seals.

And I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and of the 4 living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having 7 horns and 7 eyes, which are the 7 spirits of God." Now notice this, at this point they're sent out into all the earth.

Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

It's a beautiful picture of the order of heaven and the throne room of God, where you have the Father on the throne, the Spirit before the throne, you have the 4 living creatures, you have the 24 elders, and in the midst of that comes Jesus, victorious, like a lamb who has been slain.

And all the attention, rightfully so, surrounds Him, and they go from just worshipping God as the Creator, now worshipping Jesus, who is our Redeemer.

And almost every sermon I've ever heard about Revelation 4 and 5 focuses on either the Father on His throne, the 7 spirits of God, which are the Holy Spirit, the Son of God, of course the Lamb, or even the 4 living creatures and 24 elders.

We miss sometimes that there's 1 other group represented in this vision.

If you keep reading, verse 11 of chapter 5, Then I looked, And I heard the voice of many, what?

1 sat on the throne, the 7 spirits of God, the 4 living creatures, the 24 elders, and now we get to the angels and it just says there are Many.

Which should beg in your mind what logical question?

I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creature and the elders, And the number of them was 10, 000 times 10, 000 and thousands of thousands.

I'm not here today to debate whether this is a literal or symbolic number, But either way, can we all agree it is a lot?

It's tempting to say 10 million, but it's wrong.

Then you add to it the thousands times thousands.

So we can safely say that literal or symbolic, we're talking about well over a hundred million creatures.

The central features, of course, the 3 members of the Godhead, the 4 living creatures, The 24 elders.

They're the central feature, but out beyond that is what the Bible describes as a sea of these angels.

Well, you could say, well, they're the spectators, the audience before which these key characters are all working.

Series

Plenary

Who Fed the 5,000?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Our Soul-Winning Bottleneck

1h

Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

2. Discipline

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Leading Souls into the Truth

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GYC SE 2013 Plenary Sessions

The Model Ministry

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Rediscovering Church

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What Is a Christian?

What Is a Christian?- Part 2

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GYC SE 2013 Plenary Sessions

Heaven On Earth

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You Won’t Need Elbows in Heaven

51m

Acts: First Generation Lessons for Last Generation Believers

6. Cutting Timothy

55m

Plenary

Why is Jesus Always Talking About Plants

1h

The Ministry Of Showing Up

43m

Who Is My Neighbor?

55m

Sound Doctrine