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IONA Missions

Dunamis 2004

Alistair Huong

The Sin That Doth So Easily Beset Us

Last night, we talked about hastening the Lord's coming.

And we talked about not receiving the Holy Spirit until we have made full confession and repentance of the sin that so easily besets us.

And this morning I want to break that down a little bit more.

I want to take that topic, that sin that so easily beset us, and I want to look at it in a way so we can understand.

Because the Bible says in Hebrews 12 verse 1, in Hebrews 12 verse 1, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us.

The Bible makes sure that it was written in the singular form.

God is saying we need to cut down the tree that bears the fruit of our sin at the root.

So this morning we are here to discover, based upon the Word of God, what is the origin?

What is it that we have to pluck out of our lives so that we can receive the power of the Holy Spirit so the work of God can be finished and Jesus can come back Amen?

So this morning the topic if you want 1 simply is the sin that so easily besets us.

Isaiah chapter 14, beginning in verse 12.

The Bible says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?

How art thou cut down to the ground which does weaken the nation, for thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

Yet thou shall be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit." There's much that we can discuss from these this passage but very simply Satan who was once Lucifer he said I will do this.

Satan's gaze, his perspective, what he was looking at, somehow, perhaps we will never understand how in all eternity, but somehow his eyes turned towards himself.

He became infatuated with this word, I, me, myself.

I, self, me, Satan, the moment that he lost his gaze upon the Son of God, He did not look at God as his all in all.

The moment he came to that point, he became Satan.

And he lost his place in heaven because He was more concerned about Himself than God.

That is the foundation, the very foundation, the basis, the root of all sin.

The serpent came into the garden and beguiled Eve.

And he was more subtle than any beast of the field.

And he came to the woman and he said, Did God say ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden?

Immediately, Satan through the serpent was saying, Look, God is keeping something from you.

There's something better for you than what God is thinking.

You can be the judge of your own desires.

You can think for yourself better than God.

And the serpent continues, he says, You shall not surely die, for God does know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." So Satan was appealing to the inner self of Eve.

And Eve, she looked at the fruit and she said, that tree looks good for food and might taste pretty good.

Not only that, it was pleasant to the eyes.

Maybe I can take a few and decorate my shelves with it.

Maybe God really is hiding something from me.

So she took the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat.

Very from the first sin, the foundation is self.

And from then on, ever after, every sin that arrives, that surfaces within our lives, all has the foundation of self.

Wars have been fought over lust, over greed, over pride and reputation.

We don't spend enough time in the Word of God because we want to get better education, to get a better house, a bigger boat, have nicer vacations, go farther away.

A life that is revolved, centered, encompassed with ourselves and nothing else.

And the son of Adam and Eve, Cain, he saw Abel.

Instead of thinking, Lord, what have I done wrong?

And Abel, oh little brother, you're gonna pay for this.

Cain loved himself more than God, more than his brother, more than his family.

And we ask the question, How can we possibly not be selfish?

What's this problem that we're all faced with?

And as a Christian, Jesus Christ is our example, is it not?

And in the Bible, it gives us a solemn warning in 2 Timothy chapter 3.

A text I'm sure many of you have heard before.

This know also that in the last days, and my friends I don't know about you but I believe I'm living in the last days.

And the Bible says perilous times shall come or dangerous times will come.

In this verse the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy says, in the last day, the times will become dangerous.

In the last days, things will not be safe any longer.

And in the next few verses, he explains why.

Israel Ramos

Dunamis 2004 Worship Hour

Thank you so much, Weimar College, for that beautiful musical selection.

I've actually been a part of a choir that has sung that last song before, but I've never heard it sang like it was sung this morning.

It's a little bit difficult to speak to you this morning because when you only give a person an opportunity to speak once, it's hard to decide which message you're going to present.

I actually have about 5 messages in mind that I want to present and the reason why I'm hesitating a little bit to speak to you is because I'm not sure which 1 I'm going to share with you.

You know at these meetings, it's easy for us to receive some sort of inspiration that would carry us for some short amount of time.

But at the same time, we have to realize that this will never happen again.

The same group of people that you see here today, you'll never see them in this kind of setting all together ever again.

And so it is with heavy burden, I'm sure on each of the planners of Dunamis, they're telling me to put this up a little more.

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer before we open God's Word.

Father in Heaven, we invite you to be with us at this time.

And through the power of the Holy Spirit, Lord, we ask that you would break down our hearts.

That you would break down our hearts, that you would break down our hearts in such a way that the Holy Spirit would be able to dwell with us.

And Father, we ask that you would be our teacher, that you would be our instructor today, and that the words that we hear from your word will not be words that would be easily forgotten after 20, 30 minutes, but would be words that would so become a part of us that our lives would be transformed to that of Christ.

Be with us today as we learned what faith really is and why it's important to finish the race.

I want to bring you greetings first of all from Campus Hope Church at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where it represents about 5 different universities in the state of Michigan and another 11 nation and worldwide.

As a matter of fact, you might not know that.

We're letting you borrow some of our friends, some of our graduates from there.

I've been looking at some of the flyers and the videos and the multimedia presentations that you guys have and I've come to the conclusion that you have too much talent here in Loma Linda.

We let you borrow some of our best and it's time for you to give us some back.

So I want to make a little advertisement.

Those of you talented people who put this together, please come to Michigan.

I also want to thank the Iona team for the invitation.

I've been very, very impressed by what you've put together, and I know that God has really blessed your efforts.

And, you know, we need a generation of young people who will not only strive for spiritual excellence but who will also strive for professional excellence.

It's time for Christians to step up to the plate and show the world that just because we are godly does not mean that we are dumb.

And so I'm very, very happy to see that you guys are also striving for spiritual and for professional excellence in all that you do.

Hebrews chapter 12 is a difficult text to speak on for this reason.

I've been asked to speak on a part of Hebrews chapter 12, I believe it's verse 2.

But the difficult thing about this text is that if anything, almost more than any other text, It's hard to break this passage apart, these 3 verses, 4 verses apart.

They are so intimately connected with each other that in order to understand 1 part, we must understand the entire text.

And so, what I want to do this morning, rather than giving a sermon, I want to have a brief Bible study with you.

The problem with sermons is that a lot of times the congregation expects a speaker to do the thinking for them.

And so I want to ask, I want to ask if I may, you're an intelligent crowd, I want to ask us to put our thinking caps on.

I'm going to say a lot of things that you're going to need to go back home and process over.

And I'm also going to give you a little homework assignment.

I'm going to talk about Hebrews chapter 12, but I'm not going to focus a lot on this text.

And so your homework assignment is going to be, perhaps as you're eating lunch, or throughout the week, throughout the month, personal reflection when you go back to your dorm, your personal homework assignment is going to be to see how my message actually connects to the text Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 through 3.

Hebrews 12 metaphorically contrasts or relates something in the Christian experience to a race.

What is that aspect of our Christian experience that Paul is likening unto a race?

What is it in our Christian experience that Hebrews chapter 12, when Paul says that we are to run the race, he's metaphorically speaking, right?

He doesn't say, you know, Israel put on some sneakers and run.

What is he more, what is he likening unto this race that we are to run?

There's no really wrong answer unless you know what it is, but not really.

But if I could suggest to you, I believe that Hebrews chapter 12, when Paul is talking about running a race, he is talking about running the race of faith.

Faith, may I suggest to you that faith is the only way to attain character perfection.

Faith is the only way to being like Jesus.

Faith is the only way to experience Christianity.

And so when Paul is talking about faith, I mean, when Paul is talking about running the race, he is talking about running the race of faith.

Okay, someone said that there's a substance of things hoped for, and the complete definition is the evidence of things not seen.

You know, a lot of times people philosophize over Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1.

And we make faith something out there that we can't really reach.

Okay, trusting God and believing that what God says He will do.

Looking Unto Jesus

Our most gracious Heavenly Father, as the Sabbath hours are passing, we have felt your presence with us.

And we thank you, Lord, for the way that you have blessed, the way that you have spoken through your messengers.

And Lord, may all of these efforts that have been put forth not be wasted.

May there be decisions, firm decisions made during the course of this weekend.

And for those who have already decided, may you continue to help them, to strengthen them, especially in their time of need.

And tonight, Lord, as we spend a few thoughtful moments gazing upon loving sweet Jesus, may we be changed into the same image.

For those of you who were at our 3 o'clock meeting, we had a wonderful Bible study.

And I believe the Lord worked it all together because a lot of what I wanted to say has been already said.

It's a blessing because it gives me more time to talk about more things that you haven't heard yet, perhaps.

But the title of our message tonight or our Bible study is simply called, Looking Unto Jesus.

These 3 words, perhaps the most beautiful words in the human language.

As we begin tonight, let us begin by beholding Jesus.

Let us start this evening our Bible study and throughout the course of the Bible study you will see that the pivotal texts all contain an admonition, an encouragement, a challenge perhaps to look at Jesus.

So let us begin tonight by looking at Jesus in Revelation chapter 14.

For those of you who have Bibles, please look there with me.

Revelation 14 verse 14 and it says, And I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the clouds that 1 like unto the Son of Man having on his head a golden crown and is in his hand a sharp what?

Verse 15, And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him, to the Son of Man, to Jesus Christ, that is sitting, that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle, and reap.

For the time has come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe." This, my friends, is the picture that Revelation 14 paints for us of the second coming of Christ.

Jesus coming as a farmer to gather his fruits, to harvest his people.

But when is that time, based on Verse 15, when is the time of harvest?

The angel says, thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time has come for thee to reap.

So can we say that the harvest of the earth is when the fruit, when the harvest is ripe?

That is exactly what the Bible is telling us.

So now we need to understand how, what does it mean for the harvest to be ripe.

The Bible explains itself in Mark chapter 4.

For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he put it in the sickle, because what?

When is the harvest, or when is the sickle put forth?

This may be elementary, but we're going somewhere with this.

So the harvest comes when the fruit is ripe.

And the fruit is ripe based upon this text, these passages.

When the full corn is developed in the ear, when the fruit is brought forth.

Fruit is brought forth, full corn in the year, okay, but how do we know when that corn is ripe?

You can see a corn growing, if any of you have grown corn before, it can become big, but yet if you bite into it, it is not good, because it's not ripe.

We're going to need to do a little bit more thinking here.

The Bible says, And Jesus answered them, saying, the hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.

And now, all you Bible scholars, what event is Jesus talking about in that phrase?

Verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and what?

Many things we can learn from just these 2 verses.

First of all, the seed falls into the ground and it must die first.

If the seed does not die in the ground, there can be no more fruit that comes after it.

If you take a kernel of corn or wheat, whatever it is, and you plant it in the ground, that's the only way you can get more corn and more wheat.

But if you just put it on your shelf, put it in a can, store it somewhere, you can't get any more fruit.

But, what kind of fruit does a corn of wheat, or let me say, a seed of wheat bring forth.

Wheat, elementary, but if you plant a seed of wheat in the ground, Will you get apples?

Will you get, for all of Asians, durians?

The seed that you plant is the sign or it's the pattern or it's the picture of the type of fruit that you want to get.

And the seed that goes into the ground, when it dies, it brings forth much fruit after its kind.

But that also answers the question that we asked earlier.

You can think about it for a moment before I explain this to you.

You see the seed, before a seed is able to produce other fruit, it must become ripe first.

We know the fruit is ripe when it has seed that can produce other fruit.

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Dunamis 2004

The Sin That Doth So Easily Beset Us

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