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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

All In: Faithful to the Finish

What a beautiful, beautiful song, Be Thou My Vision.

You know, throughout our vacation Bible school, we repeated this message.

It's a message that stood out, repeated every time we sang the song, and you heard it just now.

Even if I worry and stress, I know that I'm still so very blessed, because I've got a friend who walks with me, and I'll never walk alone.

My message today is entitled, all in, faithful to the finish.

Father in heaven, we just want to pause to thank you for the way that you're the God who is so mighty, so powerful, yet you're the God who wants to walk with us.

We pray, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts, speak through your word, and we thank you for answering this prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

Did you know that the word walk is mentioned 212 times in the Bible compared to the word run which is only found 83 times in the Bible.

So taken literally I suppose we could say that we should walk about 3 more times as much as we run.

It's a theme that you see predominantly throughout Scripture.

And that would make sense when you think about it.

It would make sense when it comes to our relationship with Jesus.

Because when we're on the run, when we're on the run, it's usually rushed.

And so, and so we have to do things quickly.

Like we're busy and don't have much time to get to know him.

But on the other hand, when we walk with Jesus, that's why I like that theme in the context of a relationship with Jesus.

We slow down and we consequently spend more quality time with him.

And out of the 83 times, or rather 212 times, that the Bible speaks about the word walk, the apostle Paul is the author of the scripture that refers to walking more than any other author in Scripture.

And in fact, half the times that he uses the word walk appears in the Bible, is used by Paul.

And 1 of those times is in his letter to the Galatians, when he wrote, walk in the spirit.

Walk in the spirit, Paul tells his listeners.

Because we find in scripture where it says, walk with the Lord.

So we walk with the Lord, or walk with God.

Noah walked with God, Enoch walked with God.

Well, today we saw 4 young people be completely immersed underwater, All the way under, all the way.

And that's because in the Greek, the original language of the New Testament, the word translated baptized is baptizal, baptizal, which literally means to immerse under, like under, completely underwater.

And prior to the immersion in water, you may have noticed something I did to all 4 of them.

I prayed for them to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

And the reason I did that is because in preparation to baptize them with water, I need to ask God to do the baptism of the Holy Spirit because He alone can do it.

And so since the Holy Spirit is the presence of God, just follow this simple logic, the Holy Spirit is the presence of God, then to be baptized in the Spirit is to be immersed in the presence of God in the atmosphere of prayer.

That's the word picture that inspiration wants to give us when we hear the phrase to walk in the Spirit, to be immersed in His presence.

Now you understand why Paul wrote, pray without ceasing, pray without ceasing.

He meant sense the presence of God without seizing.

And when we think about that, we begin to understand the intimacy that God wants us to have with him continuously.

You know, in the last few days here, even somewhat today, even though it's a little cooler with the clouds, we could be thankful for that, since we're having our picnic and we want to be able to enjoy it to the max.

It's been exceptionally hot these last few days, hasn't it?

And our VBSers, I gotta say, are troopers.

Because we've had some issues with our AC here at Living Hope, but that didn't slow them down.

Their energy levels were just as constant as it was from the beginning.

But it's been exceptionally hot, that's for sure.

The sun has been blazing with all its glory.

You know, the 5K, for those who participated, what a challenge.

Now it wasn't about beating the time or anything else, it was about beating the heat.

But again, troopers, all that started the race, crossed that finish line.

It's been exceptional here in June for this time of year here in this area.

And during the week, especially Heidi and I experienced the heat, because we realized that without Elijah and Mariah around, some of you know they're in Michigan, and we miss them.

But not having them around has brought to our attention the number of weeds that grow in our landscaping.

When they come back, they're going to keep doing that job.

But since I've been gone, it's been like very visible.

And so Heidi and I took time this week to pull weeds.

We were right there in the presence of the glorious sun.

And as we did the work, we let our bodies naturally produce vitamin D.

God designed it so, so incredibly awesome.

In addition, of course, to getting a tan, I might add.

And so much so that when I came to VBS, more than 1 person noticed, Pastor, you got a tan.

Bringing to mind Psalm 89 verse 15, where it says, how blessed are the people who know the joyful sound.

They walk in the light of your countenance.

So to walk with God is to immerse ourselves in the light of His countenance.

And in doing so, letting Him produce supernaturally faithfulness in us.

Something begins to happen as we walk in the light of his countenance.

And coming back to me pointing out that Heidi and I got tans being out in the sun, I have to admit, And I praise the Lord for this, that I'm among the few who can enjoy a whole day in the beach, or in the sun for that matter, without using sunscreen.

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All In: Faithful to the Finish

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