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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Abandon Ship

Father in Heaven, we thank you so much again for the beautiful Sabbath.

Thank you God that in your presence is mercy.

And Lord, just as we are, we come to you to receive the grace that you offer to us.

Father, we pray for this present blessing that you have.

We ask that you would speak to our hearts and to our minds, that you would energize our souls.

Father, we are praying for something special this morning.

But Jesus, as we move onward and forward, we pray and ask that you would equip us.

Especially we pray for the Holy Spirit to baptize us afresh now.

You know, it's very interesting, at the same moment that David Tank was making a remark about Pastor Keith, Pastor Keith actually text me that exact same moment.

And he says to me, he says, I'm at another church right now, and he says, boy, I really miss series.

And with the foundation that was laid already before us, We need to press on to the hope of the second coming.

And I'm really excited because just this last week, I've just been so blown away by how much is actually taking place in this church.

I mean, we have a powerful health fair that's gonna be coming up.

We have an evangelistic series coming up.

I mean, I just praise God for the expansion of our church.

He calls us to keep stepping forward to that day when He will return back.

He calls us not to be idle in the work of God, but He calls us to be active and busy.

Yet at the same time, He calls us away to spend time with Him.

And that's what's so awesome about Sabbath mornings, just because it's beautiful, it's a time where you get to come together and you get to just sit at the feet of Jesus.

And if you get a little sleepy at the feet of Jesus, it's okay to stretch, amen?

It's okay to stretch, then sleep in the church.

So if you start falling asleep, I promise you, I will embarrass you in church.

And so, I'd rather have you stretching and looking a little Pentecostal than looking like you're sleeping, Okay?

Now, does anybody remember where our verse was that Justin just read for us?

Everyone take your Bible, let's go there rapidly.

And when you're there, go ahead and say amen.

Now watch what the Bible says right here.

This is Peter speaking, 1 of the disciples, 1 of the disciples who were closest to Jesus.

And by the way, there were 3 who were close to Jesus.

You also note that these 3 disciples were always allowed into the inner precinct of Jesus.

What's also remarkable about them, these 3 were the only ones who received new names from Jesus as well.

And these were names based upon their character.

Were they positive names or were they negative names?

Well they were positive, the fact that it came from Jesus, but they were describing a negative characteristic about the disciples.

The word Peter means little rolling pebble.

The name that was given to James and John means the sons of thunder, not because they were cool and mighty, but because they had anger issues.

And it's very interesting to note that the way that Jesus dealt with these struggling disciples was to bring them closer.

Generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special what?

I love this, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His, what?

Marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Now notice what Peter is saying right here.

He is saying this, You are chosen that you may proclaim praises of Him who called you out of darkness.

You are chosen that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness.

You know when I was younger, not many moons ago, we used to always play football at the park.

And what's so remarkable about playing football at the park is that we played co-ed and it was just a just a wonderful time where we just had a bunch of the teenagers and we just play around and we played tackle football.

I grew up playing tackle football on the field.

1 time I actually got some I saw somebody get tackled and this is just a side note, and they got up, and they looked around, and all of a sudden, they lifted up their thumb, and it was reversed.

And anyway, so what I'm saying about this is this.

When it came to tackle football, the way we would do this is we would divide up teams.

And it was really awkward when you choose the 2 team captains, because the team captains would painfully have to choose certain people and reject others.

I never forgot, 1 day there was a team captain and I and I wanted to be on his team He didn't choose me.

In fact, I was the last 1 that was chosen.

I Made an effort that day to try to destroy the other team It's very interesting This phrase or this word chosen being chosen, You know when I do youth ministry for example, often times I will come into a group and a lot of people are intimidated by kids, just because kids tend to be very honest and very distracted at the same time.

And so what I'll do, this is just a tip, a secret.

When it comes to youth ministry, in order to get the attention of all the youth in that group, in order to win the youth over, I will oftentimes find the most troublesome youth in that group, and I will choose him.

And what happens is remarkable, is that when this youth is actually won over, you know what he does?

I have a phrase for that person, I call him the alpha gorilla.

I will oftentimes look for an alpha gorilla in a group.

In order to win the rest of the group, I will find the alpha gorilla.

You know, the hard thing is, is that when these kids get bigger and bigger, you know, they start getting taller and taller, and, you know, they're a little less intimidated by you, and, but you have to do your best to win them over.

You will see the rest want to be part of the game.

The purpose of being chosen is to lead others.

And so what we're going to be doing, you're going to see something remarkable about the nation of Israel.

Take your Bible, go to Exodus chapter 19.

This is right after the children of Israel had just come out of this great deliverance from God.

And they made their way through with all their camels and their domesticated animals.

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Abandon Ship

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