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South Bay SDA Church

Eric Nelson

Preparing for Rain

So there's the idea that the rain is actually representing the Holy Spirit, as again was mentioned in the children's story.

And we're going to come back to that text in just a moment.

So in the East, the former rain falls around sowing time.

We heard about, during offering call, sowing some seeds, and the rain comes down and they sprout.

It's necessary for those seeds to sprout to have some rain.

But under the influence of the latter rain, the harvest comes to completion.

The Holy Spirit represents that which takes the crop step by step through its development.

And the Bible uses these normal operations of nature to represent the work of the Holy Spirit in our heart.

The Holy Spirit's given to carry forward from 1 stage to another the process of spiritual growth.

The ripening of the grain, of course, represents the completion of the work of God's grace in the heart.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, the moral image of God is to be perfected in the character.

We are to be wholly transformed in the likeness of Christ.

So today we're going to do 3 things together as we talk about the ladder rain.

The first 1 is in Deuteronomy chapter 11.

This is the very first passage in the Bible that uses the phrase, ladder rain.

There's actually 7 texts in the Bible that use the phrase, ladder rain.

Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 14 is the first 1 of those.

We're gonna study that passage, and then we're gonna study our scripture reading today, which is the seventh and last time in the Bible where it uses that exact phrase, latter rain, at least in the King James Version.

And then we're going to compare the early rain and latter rain a little bit to learn lessons from the early rain for us today about the latter rain.

So, everybody turn to Deuteronomy chapter 11, and I'd like to ask someone in this section of the church over here to read for us verse 14, and we'll probably look at a few other passages right around this area.

Okay, so anytime we study the Bible, we want to study the Bible in context, and this is especially true when you look back at verse 10, and verse 10 starts with the word for.

So you need to study the context on your own, but look back at verse 10, verse 11.

This is Moses writing, and what is he writing about?

The children of Israel are doing something.

They left Egypt and they're going to Canaan or the Promised Land as Marion mentioned.

If I had to ask you this question, or if I asked you the question, where in their journey were they at the time Moses wrote this, what would you say?

Let's say the piano represents Egypt and the orchestra chairs here represent Canaan.

Where on their journey from Egypt to Canaan were they?

This is Deuteronomy we're talking about now.

The first time the Bible talks about the latter rain is in the context of a journey from Egypt to Canaan, and they're almost all the way to Canaan.

That's the context that we're talking about here.

Did you know that all of us are on a journey from Egypt to Canaan?

Paul talks about this in, I think, 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

We are supposed to learn lessons from the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan that we can apply to our lives specifically at the end of time.

What's the difference in verse 10 between Egypt and Canaan?

What does it say about Canaan in the very first part of verse 10?

You're going to possess the land of Canaan.

They were slaves in Egypt, but the land of Canaan is a land they're going to possess for an inheritance.

There's another difference between Egypt and Canaan in the verse.

It's kind of the rest of the verse and also verse 11.

What's the difference between Egypt and Canaan in the rest of the verse?

Specifically regarding our sermon topic today.

Okay, how did you water your crops in Egypt?

You could, but was there much rain there?

So what did you have to do if you were going to raise any food for yourself and your family in Egypt?

I like the way the King James version said it.

You get the idea you had to go down to the Nile and get a big bucket of water and carry it laboriously to your crops and then pour the water on your crops.

It was hard work just to live in the land of Egypt.

God wanted to give them a good land where they could raise bigger crops and have rain so they didn't have to work as hard to raise their crops.

Are there conditions to receiving the latter rain?

You know, this is probably an important thing to understand because when it comes to the spiritual latter rain, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, just speaking for myself, sometimes I have the idea that, you know, I don't really have to worry about how my spiritual life is doing right now because in the future when the latter rain is poured out and this power of the Holy Spirit is given, I'll be part of that and I'll be able to go out and give the gospel with power sometime in the future.

I don't know if you've ever thought like that, but is it clear to you that there are conditions to receiving the latter rain from this verse?

Much of this sermon is taken from the book Last Day Events.

I encourage you to read the chapter in Last Day Events entitled The Latter Rain.

Only those who are living up to the light they have will receive greater light.

Unless we are daily advancing in the exemplification of the active Christian virtues, we shall not recognize the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain.

It may be falling on hearts all around us, but we shall not discern or receive it." We need the former rain, each 1 of us in our lives, before we can receive the latter rain.

It seems to me maybe we are a little bit like Elijah.

Elijah had just let out in this great spiritual revival and he had this idea the Holy Spirit was now going to be poured out on Israel and things were going to change.

Well, it didn't go quite according to his plan and he ran off to the mountain of God when Jezebel kind of scared him.

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Preparing for Rain

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