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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

The Big Three

Jorge Baute

How to Know God’s Leading in Your Life

This will be the fourth time that I have been invited by Advent Hope to present.

Actually, I was born in Manhattan, New York, but I got here as quick as I could and grew up in Southern Cal.

I went to school actually here at La Sierra.

It was a miracle how I got there and had the opportunity to visit the campus and remember the goodness of God.

We serve a very real God, a very personal God.

And so it just really was an emotional time for me, but joy to be here to share this time with you.

And when I received the call from the leadership here at Advent Hope and asked to present, my specialty, I've been here already, as I mentioned 4 times, or this is my fourth, my joy is in the sanctuary.

Because it reveals the power of God in restoring a broken human being.

And so when I was asked to present here, I get asked to present on that, I thought, Lord, what would you want me to present on?

And in my years of working with young adults, and even not so young adults, there are 3 questions that really do seem to come up the most.

And the third is, how does 1 find a godly spouse?

And So I decided to just create a new little series and entitle it the Big 3.

And so we're going to look at that over the course of the next 24 hours.

And if you don't, I hope the person next to you will share.

I don't know if we have any left over, but is anyone missing a handout?

If you don't have a handout, raise your hand very high.

So if you email us, which is the membership, you will get the handout emailed to you.

There was some more hands that went up here.

What I'd like to do is to ask the Lord's presence once more, if you'll just bow your heads with me.

Gracious Father, we're so thankful for these sacred hours.

These hours, Lord, when you would walk in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve.

You still like to come and walk with your children on this day.

Thank you for setting this time apart for us to spend with you special.

And Lord, you know the topic tonight and we need your presence to be here in power.

We need these truths to be brought home to our hearts that we can understand them and apply them appropriately and that can only be done through your power.

So Lord, we ask for your presence to be here.

We ask for it to cover us, for we have none to offer you, and there's no other righteousness you will accept but that of your dear Son.

And so Lord, we want at this hour now to sit at your feet and to learn of you.

And Father, this is such a beautiful and important topic.

And so I pray you'll bring to my mind, Lord, what to say that I may not miss anything here.

May you be glorified now, we ask, and may your children be blessed, We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

And I think it's because I grew up in California.

In Southern Cal, everything was done via landmarks.

And without really thinking, that's how I operated.

And that's how I got my bearings, how I adjusted.

And I didn't realize this problem until I moved to the East Coast, where there were no mountains.

And now the ocean was on the other side of things.

And the stories of me getting lost were legendary.

My wife, shortly after moving to Wilmington, North Carolina, couldn't wait for the latest installment of the adventures of her husband as I got lost.

Then later we would move to the Midwest and they spoke a different language there.

They said things like North, South, East, and West.

And I remember we hadn't been there too terribly long, just a few days, And we went to the grocery store.

And my wife was doing the normal sweep through the store.

And she was just about done when she realized that she didn't get the olives.

And so she dispatched me on this mission to go find these things.

And so I immediately went to go find help.

And I found this lady and she had the uniform, so I asked her where the olives were.

And I kid you not, this is what she told me.

And three-fourths the way through, on your south-hand side, you'll find the olives.

And I just knew I was never going to find these things.

Now my wife has an amazing sense of direction.

But she can go somewhere and years later, I mean, 1 time, and then take you right back to it.

I mean, she can be in a building and tell you where north is, and I don't think that's normal.

But wouldn't it be amazing if we had a GPS that helped us with the tough decisions of life?

You know, where to go to school, what career to take, who to marry, where to live, where to work.

But for it to work, we have to really connect ourselves, get on the same frequency he's on.

And so tonight, I would like to share with you the things that the Lord has taught me through the word and through the spirit of prophecy and how he leads us.

I'd like to begin with a quote found in Volume 5 Testimonies, page 512, which is really loaded.

3 ways in which the Lord reveals his will to us, to guide us, and to fit us to guide others.

How may we know his voice from that of a stranger?

How shall we distinguish it from the voice of a false shepherd?

What is Forgiveness Really?

As I mentioned last night, my passion is the power of God in transforming a sinner.

And so I go all over the place to speak on the sanctuary, because that's where God revealed to me this truth.

And of course, I've been here at AudioVerse.

I mean, I then hoped twice to present on it.

And When Josie asked me if I'd be willing to come again, if it had been anyone else that asked, I might have said no.

But I talked to the Lord about it, and what came to my mind are The 3 questions that I typically ask, I'm asked from this population, young people.

And the first is, how does God lead us in our lives?

And I talked about that last night, I think it's recorded.

And the other is, what exactly is forgiveness?

And so we'll be tackling that 1 this afternoon at 430.

But today, I want to talk on this issue that I'm not sure we know as well as we think we do.

And I would like to pray and get into this message.

What a privilege it is to know you as our creator, our savior, our redeemer, our friend, and then to join in this work with you of sharing who you really are with the world and your plan to reclaim us from the power of sin and death and recreating us your character of love, which includes this topic today.

And as we gather here, Lord, you know that I tremble in my heart to present this message.

Because Father, there is in this room people who have gone through some awful things.

And even if I had, I couldn't speak into it, Lord.

And so I just pray, Father, that you will be present in power and that you will filter everything I say through you and that each will hear what they need to have, what they need to hear today.

And then, Lord, we lay all the accolades at your feet.

So Father thank you for the blood of Jesus that can wash away the darkest sin.

Thank you Lord for his righteousness to cover us Lord for we have none to offer you.

And thank you for the Holy Spirit that communicates your mind to us.

And also, Lord, the Holy Spirit, he makes available to us what was accomplished for us at the cross.

And so, Father, we're dependent upon you.

I pray that cell phones, Lord, will be shut off because the devil will call now.

And now, Father, we want to abide under you, under your wings.

Shut us in that secret place of the most high at this time.

You know, When I played sports, I wanted to be in the thick of it, when it mattered the most.

And when I gave my life to the Lord and decided to follow Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I wanted to be in the thick of it, where it mattered the most.

And in my mind, that was to be an overseas missionary, to go where no Christian had gone before, and to share them of the love of God and to reveal the love of God to them.

And the Lord has sent me on short-term mission trips, which has been a blessing, but I wanted to be a long-term missionary.

I mean, George Mueller was sent in the 70s, so I haven't given up hope.

But I have been really blessed in working with young people who have accepted this message and have been long-term missionaries.

And so in a vicarious way, I guess I did go through them.

But mission stories really stand out to me.

And I will share with you a story that took place about 23 years ago on the island of Palau.

There was a young Brazilian man who gave his life to Jesus Christ and entered into gospel ministry in Brazil.

And I can't imagine how proud his mother must have been and the joy that it brought to her heart that her son was to be not only part of the Advent movement, but to be 1 of its preachers, its pastors.

He married a very lovely young lady, and they had 2 precious children, a little boy and a little girl.

And then the day came that they felt the call to go into the mission field to the island of Palau.

And I know that I can imagine how much the mother was going to miss this family, but how proud she was that her son was going to be a missionary.

About this time, I was pastoring in Kansas.

And the pastor who had just left that post, just so happens pastored my district when he first began ministering and was doing a circuit as he was lining up retirement.

And he shared with me the challenges there and inquired if that was something that I wanted to do, and my heart thrilled.

But as I prayed about it, I did not feel at peace.

I didn't feel the Lord was calling me to it.

And eventually, this young Brazilian family took the call.

At least I was familiar with the challenges he would face.

And I am quite sure he was faithful at his post.

1 night, an intruder broke into their home.

He had learned that the boy had a stereo, and he wanted the stereo.

And he broke into the boy's bedroom quietly.

But in his attempts to remove the stereo, the boy woke up, And he took the boy's life.

The father heard the commotion and came into the room and a tussle began between the 2 and he took the father's life.

And he went after the little girl and left her for dead, but she was the only survivor.

I can't imagine being The person that knocked on the door of that Brazilian mother's house to inform her of what had happened to her boy.

That mother took a flight to Palau for the funeral.

The culture is such that they all took that.

What had happened, they all shared that blame.

The queen was there with her political entourage.

And after the service, the Brazilian mother requested to see The man who had killed her son and his family.

They had caught him and he was in jail and so she did.

She went to the prison and they brought her to him and she walked up to the man, looked him in the eye.

We talk a lot about forgiveness, but do we really know what it is?

I have wrestled with this question for many years, not only as a result of the injustices that I have received, but also as a result of the injustices that I have seen perpetrated against others.

The Christian world seems to have a problem understanding exactly what forgiveness is from the comments that I have heard regarding it.

And all these comments come from Adventists, by the way.

1 was, I forgive him, but I don't have to like him.

The other was, I forgive him, but I refuse to forget it.

I forgive him, but I won't let him forget it.

And in 1 Christian who said, forgive him, he doesn't deserve it.

And of course, if we're ever going to arrive at a correct understanding of it, we're going to have to go to God for it and not man.

I believe that Jesus answers the question for us in a parable that is found in the book of Matthew.

If you have your Bibles, I'm going to ask you to open them.

And if you have some time this afternoon, I encourage you to get the book, Christ's Object Lessons, and read the commentary on it found in chapter 19.

How Does One Find a Godly Spouse?

What I do in my life is when I start sensing fear or anxiety or I begin worrying, I suddenly catch myself and go, wait a second, what am I doing?

And I view worry, anxiety, or fear as a light on the dashboard of my car.

You know, when you're driving along and that light comes on, you don't just go, a light.

That light is communicating that something is wrong.

So, worry, anxiety, or fear are communicating something is wrong.

And what I do then is I will go somewhere by myself and I'll go to my knees.

Now, sometimes I don't know why I'm feeling the anxiety.

And I'll start reviewing my day or the last few days.

And the Lord eventually will show me what it is, and then I'll take it to Him in prayer.

And then I'll ask Him, depending on the situation, I will ask Him specifically for a promise that deals with that situation.

So when the devil comes to try to create the anxiety again or the fear, I can then claim that promise.

By the way, how many of you in the book, Desire of Ages, have ever read the quote, Eleanor White says, that if we can pray for God to disentangle us from the messes we get ourselves into?

Just look up disentangle, and I will claim that.

And it's amazing, God is faithful, He really does take care of it.

The other 1 I wanted to share with you is When I mentioned the story of Corrie 10 Boom, in her very last presentation, at least they say that was the last public presentation, you can get the sermon on the internet and it's called The Greatest of These is Love by Corrie 10 Boom.

I really encourage you to listen to that talk.

You know, I think it was in the 80s was the last time she publicly spoke.

All right, I'd like to have a word of prayer, and then we're going to get into this topic.

You know, this is such a delicate topic, and I need the Lord's presence here with us.

So if you would, I'm going to kneel, if you'll just bow your heads with me.

Our Father, we are so grateful for a love that just wouldn't let us go.

Thank you, Lord, so much for the time you've been with us, you have visited us, you have blessed us.

And I am so humbled, Lord, that you brought me out here to share this stuff.

But I know, Lord, that I have nothing to share that's worth listening to unless you're here.

And You know, Lord, that this is a talk that is so critically important to us.

And there are people here at all different stages of life.

And there's no way for me to reach all of them, but I'm asking that you will do so.

And so Father, please bring to my mind what you want me to say, and I pray that each will hear the voice, not of a broken mortal, a weak erring mortal, but rather the voice of Jesus speaking to their hearts.

Father, please feel free to use me in any way that will bring glory to your name and a blessing to the dear people here.

This, the subject of relationships, is 1, sadly, that I feel the church hasn't said a lot about to help its young people.

The devil really has gotten a jump on us in this area.

The ways that the world does things is not the way that God does things.

And the message from Holly Weird is, follow your heart.

You know, in the book of Jeremiah, God, speaking through the prophets, says that the heart of man is what?

Friends, the last thing we want to do is to follow our heart.

That is the ingredients for absolute failure and eternal loss.

You're going to have to go against your heart.

You're going to have to follow what God says.

There's 1 thing I wanted to share here, and I didn't know where to put it, so I'm just going to put it on the front side, and then I'm going to go into the presentation.

I refer to it as the second oldest lie of the devil.

Because of course, the first 1 is, you shall not surely die.

You're in a relationship that's unhappy and the thought comes to your mind, you know if we just get married it's going to get better.

If you're not living together, and hopefully you're not, and you're not 24 hours together and the relationship's that bad, just imagine when you are.

If you're in a relationship and it's not going well, and you're not happy, and the thought has come to your mind, if we get married it'll get better, get out of that relationship.

So you heard it from the old man, Don't go forward with that at all.

We're going to look at some quotes here that are really amazing.

The whole topic of finding a spouse, of getting married, is the second most important decision you'll ever make.

It may very likely determine your eternal destiny and that of your children.

I want you to look at volume 8, manuscripts released, page 311.

Far more to do with matchmaking than has the Lord, whose property they are." Can you imagine?

Most of the relationships, most of the marriages that are formed are led by the devil.

Oh, pastor, yeah, that's for the outside world, but not the church.

The church stats for failed marriage are just the same as the world's.

Volume 2, Testimonies 248, Satan is busily engaged.

Remember what I said about spirit of prophecy, when God communicates you have to hang on the words.

When He says, always, it actually means always.

When He says, never, it actually means never.

You have to hang on what God is communicating.

And don't read in our own exaggerations into inspiration.

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The Big Three

How to Know God’s Leading in Your Life

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