Inspire Ohio 2013: Look Up!

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Advent HOPE Kettering

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables

Mark Howard

Higher Ground

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables-Part 1

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables-The Open and Shut Door-Part 2

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables-Part 3

Father in heaven, we thank you for the Sabbath day.

We thank you for the privilege that we have of coming into your presence.

We thank you, Father, for clearing time in your schedule for us.

And we pray that the time now that we spend with you will be a means of our understanding more of your will for our lives, of our hearts and minds being open to the working of your Holy Spirit in our lives to fulfill your purpose.

And we ask and pray it in the name of Jesus and for His sake, amen.

1 of the things, just for a little introduction for those who weren't here last night, 1 of the things I shared last night first of all was how glad I am to be here.

I didn't realize, I learned pastor Steve was an Ohio boy this morning and I'm an Ohio boy.

I was born here in Ohio and raised here and I was born again here in Ohio.

I wasn't baptized into a Seventh-day Adventist church initially here in Ohio because when I went to get baptized, I didn't agree with all that the Seventh-day Adventist believed.

And so I asked the pastor to baptize me, just baptize me.

What he told me was, and there's a story behind this that I'm not getting into, he says, when I told him, I don't agree with everything the evidence teach, he said, that's okay.

Now, I don't know how you baptize somebody into Jesus and not the teachings of Jesus.

But that's the kind of mentality that is prevalent these days.

You can't follow Jesus without following the teachings of Jesus, friends.

You can't have Jesus as your Savior without having Him as the Lord of your life.

I want to be saved by you, but don't make me follow you.

If you want Jesus, you have to have all of Jesus.

Of course, I have family that's still here in Ohio.

I pastored my first church as a lay pastor here in a little town called Fredericktown, Ohio, many years ago.

And some of you here, I know a couple of you at least remember that, as you had attended church there while I was there back in the day.

1 of the things I shared also last night was that a book that had a very powerful impact on my early experience, the very first book I read by Ellen White was this little book called Early Writings.

And it was at a time when I really had a lot of animosity towards Ellen White.

And so did my church, and so did my church leaders, and some of you may relate to that.

And yes, I went to a professed Seventh-day Adventist church.

You thought, oh, you went to the Baptist church, did you?

And when I began to read this book, because I was interested in end time things.

And I had heard that the woman who wrote this book had had these visions of the end of time.

And I was so curious that I read it in spite of my disdain for whatever I thought she stood for, and when I began to read, I knew that it was inspired.

When I read those words, and I read the visions of what was going to take place, I knew it just gripped my heart.

And I praise the Lord that He is able to get through our stubbornness and our bullheadedness and it really touched my heart and 1 of the things I read there in her first vision was as she's looking in the world for the advent people the angel tells her you're looking too low you need to look up and when she looked up there they were elevated above the world.

And I know that the theme look up is not about looking up to the advent people.

But I'm going to tell you that when we learn to look up to Jesus, we are not going to be down in this world, we're going to be elevated above the world.

The Bible says we are seated in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.

And God wants His movement of the last days to be elevated up.

He wants the people to be able to see something different in us.

And so last night we talked about the significance of God's calling on us...

And the message that He has given to us...

And I finished with a statement I want to read to you.

It's found in the manuscript releases, volume 19, page 41.

It's speaking of the message of the 3 angels that's found in Revelation 14.

And it says here, The light that Christ revealed to His servant the prophet, speaking of the prophet John, is for us.

In his revelation are given the 3 angels' messages and a description of the angel that was to come down from heaven with great power, lightening the earth with his glory.

That's the Revelation 18 angel, the loud cry angel that comes and says...

Gives that last call out of Babylon, come out of her my people.

In it, the book of Revelation, are warnings against the wickedness that would exist in the last days and against the mark of the beast.

We are not only to read and understand this message, but to proclaim it with no uncertain sound to the world.

Okay, I'm gonna read that again and I want you to ask yourself, are we doing this as a church?

Are we doing, let me ask you this question.

What was the track record for God's people with the prophets of God?

Did they generally follow the prophets of God?

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets.

Oh yeah, my people, my people, the ones who kill my messengers.

Listen to what it says and ask yourself, are we following what God has commissioned us to do here?

We are not only to read and understand this message of prophecy and revelation, these 3 angels' messages, but to proclaim it with no uncertain sound to the world.

By presenting these things revealed to John, we shall be able to stir the people.

Jordan, when you're going door to door, and I know you're running a bunch of Magga bookers out, over the summer you ran a number of the students we have at Emanuel out, and we've had them out going door to door, and are we finding that people are generally really open and receptive to spiritual things?

There are some, but the majority of people are rich and increased in goods and in need of nothing.

Okay, what are the things revealed to John?

The usual subjects on which the ministers of nearly all other denominations dwell will not move them.

I asked the question last night, I'll ask you this morning.

What are the usual subjects that the ministers of all the other denominations are dwelling on.

The grace of God, the love of God, faith, forgiveness.

But it says that preaching those things won't move the people.

Because we as human beings, you know, we're in this generation, you've got to love yourself before you can love anybody else generation.

Why would Jesus say, love your neighbor as yourself if you didn't love yourself?

No, the fact of the matter is we're not being honest with ourselves.

Series

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables-Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Keys of Revelation

16. The Day the Devil Dies

57m

Bible Weekend

03 Would You Be Free?

49m

Wise Examples

27m

Beauty and the Beast

51m

These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 2

46m

Unlock Revelation

17. The 144,000

1h 5m

The Power of Perspective

Two Altars

53m

The Moment

34m

GYC SE 2012 Seminar: Lessons in Warfare

Special Forces

51m

Encounters With Jesus

Jesus’ Encounter with the Rich Young Ruler

42m

The Everlasting Gospel

7. Looking Unto Jesus

55m

Tablets of Our Hearts

51m

Sound Doctrine