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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Wyatt Allen Weekend

Wyatt Allen

Priceless Treasure: God Loves Even the Worst Sinners

Jailhouse Religion: My Personal Testimony From Prison to Pardon

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?

So 9 times 4, you can imagine how many times I went through the gospels that year, that story particularly that year.

And I don't know, halfway through the year or somewhere, I'm like, not that story again.

I felt like it was kind of getting dry, like I've read it, I kind of know what to expect.

And I tell you, the Spirit of God, praise God for His Spirit.

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Series

Wyatt Allen Weekend

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

Transcript

Parent Series

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