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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Wyatt Allen Weekend

Wyatt Allen

Priceless Treasure: God Loves Even the Worst Sinners

All right, it's my pleasure to be here and I am glad to see every 1 of you.

As he said, my message tonight is going to be called Priceless Treasure.

Now, tomorrow morning, I'm going to be sharing a message called Jailhouse Religion.

And it's my message, it's my personal testimony.

It's my story of how I became a Christian, and how through many years, many years, Almost a decade and a half, I was incarcerated, locked up in prison, and that's where I found the Savior.

And so I look forward to sharing that story with you tomorrow and how God did many miracles along the way.

And then tomorrow afternoon, I hope you can come back as I share with you my journey into Adventism.

How I discovered that this church, of all the churches in all the world, is the church that God wanted me to be part of.

And so I look forward to sharing that message with you as well.

I appreciate the invitation to come to share with you, and I pray as I share that God would speak to you, God would draw you close to himself.

I want you to know that God loves you very much, and I believe that with all my heart.

I've not met a soul that God did not love.

Before I share, I once again want to talk to the Lord.

Heavenly Father, I want to come humbly now in the name of Jesus, asking for your grace and mercy tonight as I present about that love that you have, not just for us, but for every precious soul in this whole world.

May we truly understand the estimate that you place upon every being, upon every person that your son died for.

Use me tonight and open our ears to hear your voice in Jesus' precious name.

Back in 1963, This was shortly after JFK was assassinated.

Frank Sinatra's son, called Frank Sinatra Jr., was kidnapped.

In fact, it was here in California up at Lake Tahoe, he was kidnapped and there was a ransom that was being demanded.

The ransom, that's Frank Sinatra's father there, the ransom was being asked for $240, 000.

Now, Frank Sinatra was a wealthy man, and so certainly he had the money to be able to pay it, and these 3 men that took the son were certain they could get the money.

Well, by the way, do you know how much $240, 000 is worth back in 1963, how much it's worth today?

Yeah, somebody I think sounded $2.4 million.

But sure enough, he pulled the money together and he worked actually with the FBI.

They actually took pictures of all the bills.

Here's the case with all the money in it.

And they delivered the money, had everything set up just right so the money would be delivered and so that he could get his son back.

Can you imagine just in that moment, Frank Sinatra, how he's feeling?

Imagine how his mother, Nancy, is feeling.

Now, Let me back up and just say, was Frank Sinatra a good person?

I mean, by anybody's estimate, the guy was blasphemous.

I mean, he was very, I mean, he made fun of Christianity.

There was nothing really holy about the man at all, but he loved his son.

In fact, he was at Lake Tahoe to get ready for a big concert of his own.

2 wicked people by Christian standards, there's still love there.

And the father was willing to put an estimate on his son.

Would he pay the 2.4 million or the 240, 000 in those days?

Now if somebody took your son and asked you for that much and you don't have it, you can't give what you don't have.

So sure enough, they paid the money and they let the son go.

She is so very happy to have her son back.

That's the question I want us to be thinking about this evening.

I'm not talking about how much money they have in the bank.

I'm talking about what value do they have in your eyes?

You know, this world doesn't really estimate us very highly.

I mean, those who teach the theory of evolution says we're simply no greater value than dust.

We're just here all random by random chance.

This man here, Ian, he goes to sell his everything on eBay, including his own life.

I don't know how much he fetched, but I did find this guy, I don't know his name, but he fetched $1 for his soul that he sold on eBay.

He got a winning bid of a dollar for his own soul.

My question is, are you worth more than a dollar?

Like, where do you stop in your estimation of how much you are worth?

You're saying you don't, you don't stop, okay.

But this world seems to convince us that we are not that valuable and we actually can increase our value by things we do to ourselves.

Some cultures tell us that you're more beautiful if you have long necks or big lips.

And we look at this in those ears and think, why would people do this to themselves?

It's because they've believed a lie that they're not amazing just the way they're created.

That you have to do things to yourself before you can become beautiful.

Now I'm not here to tease or make fun of these people.

They've believed lies, yes we believe lies too.

Maybe not this drastic, maybe not this outward, but are we more valuable than these people put estimates on themselves?

They think that this is what's gonna make them beautiful.

This is what's gonna make them looked at, be looked at and appreciated.

Now, some people do it more subtly, they think less clothes, more skin, torn jeans.

I mean, the culture defines what fashion is, and fashion is what basically says, this is what I believe I need to wear to be accepted, to be liked, to be loved.

But sometimes It's not so much what we put on as much as what we live in.

Are we more valuable if we have a mansion or a nice car or plenty of money in the bank.

For some people, it's their profession, right?

They feel like they're not going to be accepted or gifted or considered wonderful or valuable unless they have some title behind their name.

They attach their worth to what they have and not who they are as an individual, but rather some position.

And You know, those going to school here perhaps may have aspiration and ambitions.

Jailhouse Religion: My Personal Testimony From Prison to Pardon

I'm truly glad to see the house of the Lord filled with people who love Jesus.

I am privileged today to share my personal testimony with you, a testimony of God's goodness, of God's grace, of God's love, of His mercy, a story of redemption, and of hope.

And I hope that you get those messages today.

I call my message today, Jailhouse religion.

As I'm about to share my testimony, I mentioned this last night, I'm gonna say it again.

Everyone who is a believer in Jesus has a personal testimony.

If you've made the choice to follow Christ and have made Him your own Lord and Savior, then you have a testimony.

And furthermore, there is somebody who needs to hear that testimony.

Somebody that my testimony won't affect, won't reach, but somebody who your testimony will.

And so I want you to be praying as I share my story about your story and how you can share that with somebody.

I'm actually, I wrote a book, it's called the least of the least.

It's my, it's mostly my story here and what God has done in my life.

I like to give away a copy every time I share my testimony, but it's hard to decide who in all this crowd.

So I like to narrow it down by, my birthday is December 10th.

December 11, anybody got closer than December 11?

December 8, I think 11's a little closer than that.

Your wife, that doesn't count unless she's here, all right.

All right, I think December 11 is the winner.

And I'll be giving away another copy this afternoon at 430 when I share the rest of my story.

Before I share, once again, I'm gonna pray and I invite you to bow your heads as I do that.

My Father in heaven, I am confident that through the power and the grace of Jesus, each of us can have a close walk with you.

And I know today that you're here desiring to speak to our hearts.

I pray Lord that you would forgive me of all of my transgressions and sins.

My brothers and sisters just the same Lord that we would be cleansed and just as those singers sang in harmony that we as a church would be together in harmony.

And that our prayers and our praises and our requests and even us as we meditate upon your word, all of this will be acceptable in your sight.

This man was the preacher of the prison church.

And there were several different services, but his church service drew the largest crowds.

They had to have 2 services because the chapel wouldn't hold all the inmates who came to hear Ralph as he shared.

And well, I got to know Ralph as a fellow prison inmate.

He was a nice guy, always pleasant to talk to.

A lot of inmates in prison have a lot of confusing ideas about things, but him and I, we seemed to be on the same page.

So we worked it out through the administration where we could become cellmates.

He listened to the same kind of music I listened to.

He had earphones whenever he was listening to his other things.

And he didn't have a TV, I didn't have a TV, which when a cellmate has 1 and a cellmate doesn't have 1, it can be a lot of conflict there.

After about a week living in the same cell as Ralph, things began to change a little bit.

He began to be very critical about my faith, the faith that I had studied and grew to love.

In fact, 1 Friday came along and I asked Ralph, I said, Ralph, are you gonna be out of the cell later today?

You know, tomorrow's the Sabbath, and I'd like to clean the cell and get it ready for the Sabbath.

And he looked at me and he said, I'll not have you practicing your legalism up in this cell.

He said, no, you're not gonna be cleaning here.

This is the first time I've seen this display.

Now, you understand, Ralph was sentenced to life in prison with plus 30 years.

Well, as things begin to change, so then later, for some reason, he left.

Then we had the open yard, and he went out to the yard.

So while he was gone, I'd grab the little wash rag, and I'd be scrubbing the walls and the floor and it wasn't a whole lot to you know clean it's a very small cell and but I got everything nice and cleaned up probably about 30-45 minutes the cell was just sparkling the fresh clean smell ready for Sabbath.

Well then he came back into the cell later.

He could tell things were a little bit, you know, nicer.

You're just, you're just, and he just started just railing on me.

And I was in my 20s, he was in his 40s, and he just did not like that I was a Seventh-day Adventist.

And he was upset at me and he started getting irate at me.

I don't know even know where it came from but it just started getting worse and worse.

And as he became angry he became more and more angry.

He said, finally, he said, Wyatt, this is now the sun's almost about to go down, this is Friday evening.

He said, why, you think you are so holy, don't you?

He said, and he just, his face was getting red, he was getting so angry.

Now, you have to understand, this man had done some pretty terrible crimes in his life and I knew a little bit of the story so I knew what he's technically capable of.

Because I'm sitting down in a locker And there's this thought I kept repeating to myself, when passions are high, silence is golden.

I thought, as long as I'm calm and quiet, and the soft answer turns away wrath, the Bible says.

Right, but grievous words stir up strife.

I didn't want to stir up any more strife with this angry man, so I was quiet.

In Search of the True Church: My Personal Search for the Remnant Church

Father, tonight as I share more of this journey that's what you have done in my life, really it's a testimony of you.

I pray God that you would give me the right words to say, help me leave out anything that's unnecessary.

But Lord, Again, speak to our hearts and may we hear your voice.

I remember 1 of my first experiences in church was, again, I mentioned earlier this morning in my testimony about my mom, she was dating and having boyfriends, sometimes they would go to church.

Well, I remember going to a Sunday school class 1 time, and we sat down and they gave us popsicle sticks and some colored paper and just like the image on the screen here, we created a craft where you could see the, using the relief of those popsicle sticks, you could see the name Jesus.

So what I learned in Sunday school was how to spell the name Jesus.

That was the extent of my Christian education growing up.

And eventually there was some time when I'd gotten to, my dad ended up breaking into my mom's house 1 time, beating my mom up really bad, putting her in the hospital.

So my dad's locked up, my mom's in the hospital.

And while I was in foster care, they put us with this family.

I didn't realize at the time, I can look back now and see that, but all I know is that they were radical Christians.

And they, it was just the strangest thing was happening in their house, and the behavior was totally different than what I knew about.

And I do remember them taking us to church.

I don't remember a single experience at the church, but I remember that they considered themselves Christians, and I was not fond of them at all.

All I can remember was rules, rules, rules.

I mean, you had to say number 1 or number 2.

You couldn't use the more graphic language to describe bodily movements.

Anyway, so, trying to keep it clean here in this message.

But it was a rule though, you get caught saying those other words, you are in big trouble.

And I get where they're coming from on these things, but they, it was just, everything was just so wild.

And my next encounter I can think of as a Christian was I started getting into the party scene and as I was using more and more drugs, I was trying harder drugs.

I was really desperate to just have the most radical experiences ever personally.

And so we were starting to hang out with this new group of people and 1 of the ladies, now I was probably 14 at the time and she probably had been about 17.

And it was very publicly so, I mean, I introduced you, oh, this is so, she's a Christian.

She helps out with her youth group at church, and she's like this holy girl.

And I looked up to her like, wow, she's a Christian.

I smoke, they're actually pretty cool after all.

And this is my conception of Christianity, and I really didn't have a good foundation about what it was to be a Christian.

And I am sorry for myself that I had that experience, but I'm even more sorry for all those people that have not yet met a genuine Christian.

I always wonder, you know, I probably had run into, I'm just gonna guess, a couple hundred Christians in my years growing up.

But how is it that I don't remember, now maybe they did and I just don't remember this, but how is it that I don't remember anybody ever telling me that Jesus loved me?

By the way, do you know that Jesus loves you?

And I tell you, I wish somebody had told me that in a meaningful way, a way that really clicked with me as a young person.

And I just want to emphasize the importance of living our Christian faith in a consistent way, in an appealing way, where people look at you not as strange and weird, though you might be a little bit, they don't necessarily see that, they see the side of Christ, of the love and the kindness, and the willing to serve and give of yourself and sacrifice for them.

And I think if people see more of that, and I do, I think about young people, I think about children, I think about how many people are being raised in this, and right now in this culture, in a secular world, without seeing Christians.

We're in the neighborhood, but they don't see us.

Well, we have a lot on display, but it's not always our faith.

You remember tasting for the very first time that ripe, sweet, lychee?

In fact, my very own wife, I was about, this was about 11 years ago, We were on our honeymoon.

It was the first time I ever left the country.

I was actually surprised they let me leave.

And I went down to Costa Rica, and there we were, we had this vegan resort.

And this is on the West Coast and it was just, it was paradise there.

And I remember we, they serve 2 meals a day.

Well actually, I think I ordered 2 meals a day and a breakfast and a later lunch.

And 1 of the things they gave us was lychee.

She said, my wife, you have to understand, she grew up in Hawaii.

She showed me how to peel it just right and you pop that in your mouth, be sure not to bite or choke on the seed.

And it was, can I say magical, is that allowed?

And I said to my wife, Jenny, I said, why didn't you not tell me that Lychee exists?

I mean, for her, because she had eaten so much, she's become used to it.

And I think in a lot of ways, it's kind of like my experience reading the Bible for the very first time.

Remember this morning I went over how I went through the Bible for the first time.

And I don't remember, I don't know if you remember the first time that you went through the Bible, if your experience was the same, or maybe, I was talking to somebody over lunch, They talked about how they had just read the Bible so many times and it was just normal to them.

But I think there's something powerful to trying to go back and experience what it was like to read the word of God for the very first time.

And so if we're not careful too often, we'll just get used to the Bible.

It actually started to happen to me 1 time.

I was reading through the Bible probably, I don't know, I did, okay, 1 year I did this.

I read the Gospels 9 times in 1 year and I went through like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Matthew, Matthew, Mark, Mark, Luke, Luke, John, John, and then I did like Matthew chapter 1 twice or like chapter 1 and 2 twice, chapter 2, or 3 and 4 twice, and just did different ways.

And then I went through it chronologically.

HMS Richards has a great chronological daily devotional, and I just took that and went through that chronology of the New Testament.

It was just so powerful, reading through the word of God like that.

But did you know that there's a story in all 4 gospels that's repeated?

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Series

Wyatt Allen Weekend

Jailhouse Religion: My Personal Testimony From Prison to Pardon

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Priceless Treasure: God Loves Even the Worst Sinners

1h 1m

Jailhouse Religion: My Personal Testimony From Prison to Pardon

59m

In Search of the True Church: My Personal Search for the Remnant Church

1h 14m

Sound Doctrine