WYC 2012: Fall Afresh

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GYC West

WYC 2012 Morning Devotional

Siegfried Roeske

Fruits and Gifts, Part 1

I feel like saying happy pre-Sabbath day.

You know, up here on this campus the Sabbath has already begun.

The sanctification of time and space through the presence of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

I want to thank the leaders of this wonderful group for inviting me to be here.

My first visit, it's wonderful, I heard much about it.

My brother-in-law, Reuben Lawrenson, spent 9 years here with his family Teaching and leading so I feel connected through him being here And I thank each 1 of you for being here the Holy Spirit has brought us to this place He's gonna fill us bless us and send us back to be witnesses for Him.

Loving Father in heaven, we thank Thee for this beautiful morning.

We thank Thee for the sunshine in the sky, and we thank Thee for the sunshine of God's love this morning.

We thank you for guiding us safely here, for having the angels of God guide us, and for being here and for promising to be our guest and To be actually the custodian of this whole encampment here We open our hearts.

We open our lives our minds to thee this morning and Thank thee for filling us with thy spirit Because of that wonderful love each 1 of us in Jesus name amen my topic The next 4 mornings are divided into 2 sections This morning and tomorrow morning.

And today about the nature and what a spiritual gift is, tomorrow how spiritual gifts function, how they function in the church.

And then on Sabbath morning we talk about the fruit that the Spirit brings to us in our personal lives, in the sanctification of our hearts and lives.

And then Sunday morning we want to talk about fruit of the spirit, sharing the spirit through us to others, and helping them to see Jesus and leading them to Jesus.

There are so many occasions when we enter the realm of giving gifts.

A gift is communicating Love and appreciation.

A gift is a means of bonding people in a relationship.

When I was dating, or was it even pre-dating, days of my beloved down on this earth?

She had a birthday coming July 26 I was a poor college student But I knew I needed to produce a gift because our relationship was growing and I thought this would be an occasion to kind of help along the process of relationship and love.

Most of the time a joyful 1, but it was work.

It was so much work that I decided I will never want to do this again with anybody should perhaps something bad happen.

It was really difficult to find the right gift for someone you're not sure about, how the relationship is going.

And I went to the store from store to store.

I think I'll buy something that has somewhat a romantic touch, but it also is somewhat practical.

So I went to the store and I decided on a manicure set and said to the storekeeper, I think I would like to look at your manicure set.

I remember it was black, and it was vinyl.

And the sewing wasn't very straight, and I opened it up, and it wasn't the caliber of our relationship, at least not the way I wanted it to be.

I said, no, we're getting, we're getting closer.

And the time when many people made a dollar an hour.

And then the instruments were impressed with the country.

That's a wonderful country, wonderful people.

Anybody who's here, you know the Japanese things are wonderful things.

The Hondas, all these wonderful cars, and the cameras now, class, way at the top.

Back then in the 60s, they were struggling.

Sure enough, here it brings out this huge thing.

I mean, this long, white, Beige color, reserved.

Open it up, 2 sets of instruments, stainless steel, a piece of leather dividing the 2 sides, forethought.

Then I pulled out 1 of the instruments, and that was imprinted upon it, made in Germany.

I didn't have any 12.50, so I went back to college empty-handed.

But I said, I need to buy that, the 1 that I need.

So I went in gathering from door to door to my friends.

And so I was collecting here and there until I reached my goal.

Fruits and Gifts, Part 2

And you've been enjoying the spiritual feast that the Lord has prepared during the day.

Well, it's a privilege to be here amongst people who love the Lord and are committed to him.

The Holy Spirit is glad and happy to be in a place where people's vessels are open, where he doesn't have to take a screwdriver and try to pry in, but just voluntarily, the lives be open before the Lord.

Well, let's have prayer and ask the Lord to be our good God and to be with us, we know he's already here.

Loving Father in heaven, we thank thee for this glorious, beautiful morning, the day of preparation for thy wonderful Sabbath day, the day of love with the living God and fellowship with thy people.

We thank thee that we can come together today to study the Word of God, the living Word that brings life and strength and vision and a future and also opens to us the pathway of service today right here.

So we thank Thee for hearing prayer, we thank Thee for loving us and for having a great interest in our salvation, in our lives, in our service for King Jesus.

Bless this service this morning, each heart, fill us to our capacity.

We're talking about spiritual gifts and I would like to read Ephesians 4 to just remind us of the setting from which we are thinking and working and studying Ephesians 4 and there like to read verses 8 and 11 through 16 Ephesians 4 verse 8 therefore he says when he ascended up on high he left he let captivity captive and gave gifts to men.

We were talking yesterday about the resurrection and ascension to heaven.

When the sacrifice was accepted, all heaven rejoiced and said, We will bless these people.

And the Holy Spirit was sent to make Jesus real in their lives.

Then 11 through 16, And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.

And then in Corinthians we read he gave many other service-oriented gifts.

For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, and unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

To edify us, to build us into the fullness of Jesus Christ.

The Father dwelt fully in the Son, and Jesus prayed in John 17 that he might dwell fully in our lives.

That's quite a fantastic possibility and reality.

So yesterday, we looked at the nature of spiritual gifts.

Tying 2 lovers together, so to speak, through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the gifts that elaborated and opened up the plan of salvation and made it practical in their lives.

We looked at the fact that natural talents, acquired talents, education, your personality, and the spiritual endowments are all given by a loving God.

It's not like just over here, you know, the spiritual things are given over here we are born with these but they all are given by God and all are committed by the Christian to the Lord to be filled every capacity to be filled by the Holy Spirit in equipping for living and for service.

Now today we like to look at the wonderful phenomenon of how all these diverse gifts that God has given us interact with 1 another by the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the local church.

And we know in Corinth, they had some problems.

And hopefully, by the time I come to 5, we still have 5 minutes left.

So I'll try to keep a little shorter today, see how we'll do.

The 5 key words that help us to understand the process of the spiritual gifts in the local church.

Linger in Jerusalem till the Holy Spirit would be poured upon you with the spiritual gifts and you receive power.

Now we talk about the Latter-day Saint church here.

It's a church that is not Described and and and evident of this a lot of power now some places here in some places there But the church in general later this year is not really a church.

That's very much alive The brother talked about the cold water.

I was thinking maybe we need some hot water, you know, as well.

Well, maybe the fermentation, spiritual fermentations, hot and cold, you know what I mean?

And maybe they'll bring, you know, kill the germs and bring spiritual vitality.

We live in an age of rationalism, education, theory, Philosophy, materialism, going after the things of the world and building and some people just focus.

And God kind of is on the edges here and there.

But that's not the main focus of many Christians today.

Yes, he does, but he doesn't want us to focus on the material things.

And then we live in an age of individualism.

You know, that's a problem because many people say when it comes to truth, well, the way everybody sees it, you know, is that how you see it?

That's the kind of God you see, well, that's your God.

And this individualism That's also expressed in many churches, you know.

Everybody's just interested in their own little territory.

Now, in this kind of an atmosphere, many people don't have a great sense of responsibility to their brother and sister.

Whether it's in the church, oh well, everybody comes and goes.

Or the community, oh well, we hope the Lord will touch the heart somewhere along the way.

It would be nice if they went to heaven too.

That's the individualistic, you know, perspective.

And I'm sorry that I'm going to give you my best story first Like eating the dessert first But to illustrate this point because our whole study today It's kind of hinging on this important point of our concern for our brother and sister.

The Holy Spirit and the spiritual gifts are designed to express the care of the body, not just the church, the body of Jesus Christ as anybody care.

Well, some time ago, Kevin was driving the bus for a group of people from Muskegon, Michigan to Chicago to go, group full of ladies, bus full of ladies to go shopping.

The sun was just lighting up the eastern sky as they were traveling when over the sea be came a message, is there anybody who knows first aid?

There's a terrible accident, a car hit the approach of South Haven exit, flipped, rolled down into Danish Ridge.

And Kevin said, yeah, sure enough, I've been a paramedic for a couple of years.

My first aid kid is right sitting next to me in the chair.

I've got all these ladies who want to go shopping.

It could take a minute or 2 or It could take hours.

What shall I do?" The spirit of God spoke to him and said, stop.

So he guided carefully the bus to the side, a falling highway and stopped and jumped out, took his first aid kit and made his way down through the crowd, elbowing his way down the embankment, down there, sure enough, there it was, upside down in a drainage ditch.

As he got there, the truck driver was already there, spraying the car because it caught on fire.

And he said to Kevin, she's down there underneath the car, check the pulse.

Fruits and Gifts, Part 3

It's a wonderful time to come into the presence of the living God.

Today is the day when there is a double blessing for God's people because it is His holy day and the holiness of God descends.

I just believe that the Holy Spirit descends on the Sabbath in a qualitative way that he's not present every other day.

That is a divine blessing, his divine presence that he has promised to people on God's holy day.

And we've been studying now and praying and listening for several days.

And you know, fruit is put in the sunshine and with every day it becomes more beautiful and more ripe and more reflective of what God wants to see in our lives.

So I appreciate you coming in the morning to ask the Lord to fill your heart for the day.

Loving Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the Holy Sabbath.

We thank Thee for the beautiful early morning hours.

We thank Thee for the beauty that surrounds us here, the place where the Holy Spirit has worked now for many years, a place that the Holy Spirit and the angels enjoy coming to because God's people come here with open hearts and committed lives that thou can bless and send away to be a light to the world.

So this morning we thank you for every person that's here, those who are not here, we pray that this might be a wonderful Sabbath when we walk hand in hand with Jesus and when we're strengthened and blessed and lifted to higher ranks and to a higher level with a loving, living God.

Yes, this morning and tomorrow morning I would like to speak about the fruit of the Spirit.

So divide the fruit of the spirit into 2 kind of categories.

1 is the personal fruit in our personal lives, which has to do with our character, becoming like Jesus.

That's the fruit of the presence is a life like Christ.

Then tomorrow morning we want to talk about the fruit that is out there that has to be brought in and harvested and injected and conquered by the Spirit of God.

The fruit that Jesus took to heaven with him when he ascended, the first fruit.

There's more fruit out there and the Lord has commissioned us to help gather some of the fruit to prepare it for the glorious coming when he will get his children and take them to heaven.

So, Matthew 21, verses 12, 17 to 20, is what I would like to read this morning that sets the stage.

By the way, that was on Monday of Passion Week.

On Sunday was a triumphal entry where It caused the whole Passover crowd of a million people, and maybe more, to get excited about him setting up his kingdom.

On Monday, he went to the temple to cleanse the temple for the second time.

And the people were convinced Jesus would set up his kingdom, because That's the way they expected it.

And so Jesus went to cleanse the temple here in verse 12.

He cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, overthrew the tables, the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, because those people had no idea, no clue what the temple was really meant to be.

And then verses 17 to 20, And he left them and went out of the city into Bethany.

Now in the morning as he returned in the city, he hungered.

And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only.

And he said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever.

Here after the confrontation Jesus had with the Jewish leaders, he spent the night in Bethany, probably with Lazarus, who was probably his best earthly friend and then Mary and Martha and he would stay there Whenever he came to Jerusalem, he usually stayed with them There was good friends.

They had a special place for him there and then in the morning, I don't quite understand this He went back to the temple The Bible says he was hungry Didn't Martha and Mary give him anything to eat?

But he came to this fig tree and he looked at it and he saw no fruit.

You know, Passover is in March, beginning of April.

I don't think that's a time when there is a fig tree harvest.

Jesus caused the fig tree, the curse it, and it withered immediately.

Now I think the whole point is kind of a set up for a powerful lesson.

I think Jesus knew there wouldn't be any figs, but Jesus was a person who needed an illustration.

A powerful lesson for the disciples regarding his kingdom and the Jewish people.

He planted a beautiful vineyard, no fruit.

And in verse 43 of this chapter, it said, you can look at it, therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you.

He's talking to the people at the temple, to the Jewish leaders.

It shall be taken away from you and given to the nation, bringing forth fruits thereof.

He's looking for fruit in his church, in his people today.

Because they back there were rejected because they were a dry fig tree that did not produce fruit.

Fruit bearing is the purpose of the Christian life.

In Psalms 1 verse 3, you don't have to look it up, I'll just say it for you, it describes the child of God.

What does David say how the child of God is positioned?

He says a child of God is like a tree, a tree that is planted by the rivers.

God planted his church close by the river of life last night.

You're here this morning to drink, right?

You're gonna go away thirsty a little bit because there's more water to come, but you will go away having been refreshed.

In the morning I usually drink 3 glasses of water.

That's a good way to cleanse the system and I don't need for 45 minutes so the water can do its work.

A Christian, a child of God is planted by the river of water.

That's God, that's the Holy Spirit and it says that it brings forth his fruit in the right season.

I thought about the leaves are for the healing of the nation.

The great tree that produces fruit for eternal life.

The leaves also for the healing of the nation.

Sin began with fruit in the Garden of Eden, and the salvation will end with fruit.

John 15, 8 says, Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear not just fruit, much fruit, so shall you be my disciples.

There's a direct relationship between the reception of the Holy Spirit and fruit and the spiritual gifts and fruit bearing.

The Apostle Paul makes it clear in Galatians 5 that the fruit in the Christian life is really the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit of God.

Let's read Galatians 5 and look at the fruit of the Spirit.

Now, I want to begin at verse 16 Because it talks about some other kind of fruit or productions that God does not want to see in the Christian's life.

So, Galatians 5, beginning with verse 16, we read through 25.

This I say then, walk in the Spirit, let the Spirit walk in you, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Today there's a powerful secular draw on God's people, on the culture.

Television is just rolling over Christians and devouring them.

The media, many of the things that are all laced with the devil's merchandise.

Walk in the spirit, ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusts against the spirit.

They battle each other, and the spirit against the flesh.

There's a controversy over every soul, by the Holy Spirit and by the Spirit of Satan contrary to 1 another so that they cannot do the things that he would if ye be led by the Spirit ye shall you are not under the law, you are not condemned by the law now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these and then a list, a whole list of the top notch sins in America.

Fruits and Gifts, Part 4

It was a late evening I suppose for many and makes the morning hours a little more challenging to meet the sun as it rises in the east.

This is our last time together here in the last morning.

And so today we will reflect upon the blessings of heaven that have come to us these last few days.

The disciples were trained in 3 and 1 1 half years.

Well, we live in a time when things are condensed.

We get 3 and 1 1 half days to be trained and to be filled with the Spirit and then be sent out.

The Lord calls disciples to gather and come and drink.

And then after they have drunk and after they have been filled by the power of the Spirit, Jesus sends them out.

And this morning, we want to talk about the wonderful privilege of taking what we have received and let the light shine for Jesus and for others.

Loving Father in heaven, we thank Thee for another beautiful morning.

We thank Thee we can meet Jesus here under the canvas in this tent, that we can meet the angels here, they've been with us here all these days, and we thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit that makes Jesus real to us, even again this morning.

And we thank thee for blessing us and for promising us that you will strengthen us today again and send us away with the power of God in our lives with a new commitment, a new vision, and a new determination to represent Jesus as the great sacrifice on which salvation is built for the world and also for our families and neighbors and friends in Jesus name amen I would like to read a couple verses to for the platform or what we like to share today And we have read it again and I'm reading it again.

We read it yesterday and we'll read it again today.

Because we want to talk about the fruit of the Spirit that we began yesterday.

John 15 verse 5 and then we go to Galatians.

John 15 verse 5, I am the vine, Jesus says, ye are the branches.

The sap of the main stalk is what brings life into the branches.

There is no life in the branches by itself.

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WYC 2012 Morning Devotional

Fruits and Gifts, Part 4

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