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Muskegon SDA Church

Practical Christian Living

Kameron DeVasher

How to Listen to a Sermon

And today I want to expand on that very elemental framework, just taking the most basic principles and applying them to our lives, in a message entitled, How to Listen to a Sermon.

But before we begin any study of God's word, we need to begin with the word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, I wanna thank you today for today.

I wanna thank you for this time that we have to spend together.

You, from the foundations of the world, set this time apart that we may commune with you, with each other, and to be growing in the graces that you want us to do.

So Lord, bless us now as we study your word.

John chapter 6, I'm just going to give a couple examples of a principle that I see in scripture.

And that is that sometimes what we now consider is the most peaceful, beautiful, placid, smooth statements were actually in their original uttered or expressed in frustration.

How we may say it today may be actually quite different from how it was said originally.

For instance, in John chapter 6, and if we had the time, we would study it out, but in John chapter 6, You see several things.

It begins with the feeding of the 5, 000.

And then the next day, all those same people come back saying, where's our daily bread?

And Jesus, if you turn to John chapter 6, Go to verse 30.

They say to Jesus, therefore they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you?

These are the same people he miraculously literally fed the day before.

And then they come back with this and they say, our fathers ate the manna in the desert as it is written.

By the way, notice what they're trying to do.

They're trying to take scripture against Jesus to get something out of Jesus.

Basic premises, our father's got bread every day, you gave us bread yesterday, where's our bread today?

Then Jesus said, most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always.

And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

Now, was he saying that like, with sheep around him and children on his laps, behold, I am the bread.

He's sitting there telling some people who are like, give me bread, give me bread, give me bread.

He's like, stop it, no bread for you today.

From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

You see the same type of thing in John chapter 11.

If we had time, we'd go there, but Martha shows up to the tomb of Lazarus when Jesus shows up what she considers late and said, Lord, if you'd been here, he wouldn't have died.

But now that he's dead, the implication is we really can't do anything but wait till the resurrection of the last day.

And it's in that context that Jesus in John chapter 11 says, I am the resurrection and the life.

Sometimes I think the most, what we now can assume to be the most smooth, simple, beautiful, placid, calm statements were actually uttered from a perspective of frustration.

Now, I bring that up to go to Hebrews chapter 5.

Hebrews chapter 5, I believe we see another Bible character writing from a perspective of frustration.

In Hebrews chapter 5, the book of Hebrews, of course, was I believe written by the Apostle Paul.

And here he's explaining to the Hebrews about the priesthood of Jesus Christ and how he's not just a priest from earth, but he's the heavenly high priest.

And he goes on to talk about the order of Melchizedek.

And he gives a pretty deep discussion about what it means for Christ to be our high priest.

But now towards the end of this chapter, look what he says.

And having been perfected, he, that is Jesus, became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him, called by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek." So he's in this deep conversation about the priesthood of Jesus, and then he says this in verse 11, "...of whom we have much to say and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing." That doesn't sound very nice.

For though by this time you ought to be, what?

You need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

Friends, I believe that Paul here is writing from frustration.

He's trying to explain these deep things, but apparently he's explaining to an audience that he says has become dull of hearing.

Very people who should be feeding others spiritual food are themselves still not weaned off the most elementary elements of faith.

Apparently some reasonable amount of time has elapsed.

By the way, how can we tell this in the text?

Because notice again in verse 12, for though by this time you ought to be teachers.

This is not the first time he's introducing these ideas to them.

Apparently these are people who've been in the truth.

They've been listening to the messages and he says by this time you should be able to take what we're teaching, go teach others.

But we just have to keep coming back and back and teaching you.

Apparently some reasonable amount of time has elapsed since they became established in the truth, yet there they sit, needing ongoing nurture in even the most basic tenets of the faith.

Paul seems almost flabbergasted that though they've heard the message repeated again and again, they still believe themselves, or even worse yet, perhaps actually are incapable of teaching others.

It doesn't say, go back to verse 11, it doesn't say that you are dull of hearing, even though apparently that is their current condition.

If you've become something that means you used to be not that thing, right?

Apparently there was a time, and I don't know exactly what the opposite of dull of hearing is, but sharp of hearing, quick to understand, easily take it in, right?

There was a time when they first heard this message, apparently they were quick to understand, but now apparently over time, as time has elapsed, they've become dull of hearing.

And now skip down again to verse 12 after we read verse 12 here.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

So what at 1 time, you get the picture, 1 time they were taking the message in, they were quick to understand, and it was food to them, but over time, it has just dwindled down to just milk.

And he says, you've become dull of hearing.

In fact, he goes on to say in verse 13, for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

But solid food belongs to those who are full of full age.

Have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.

By reason of what use have their senses exercised?

So apparently what were these people not doing?

Tips On Sharing Your Faith

This quarter we're looking at practical tips on ministry and today's message is a continuation of that theme.

Now, last Sabbath you might have perhaps felt reproved or rebuked.

But our message was about the importance of not just taking in the message, but also sharing it with others.

That we have a responsibility not only to hear the Word of God, but to share it with others, to give it to others, become a fountain for others.

And today's message is meant to go along hand in hand with that, about now that we have the burden of our hearts to share, apparently we have a responsibility, we have a burden.

In fact, Hopefully it should be a joy that just springs out of us, like Christ said, like a fountain that bubbles up.

We want to share, we want to take in the message so we can transmit it to others.

Again, we're looking at practical aspects of Christian living, and today's message is entitled Tips on Sharing Your Faith.

Now, before we begin, I want to be clear, this is not in this 1 message the entirety of everything you need to know about sharing your faith.

There is far more that we could say than what we're going to say here.

It's just basic ideas that are good to have in mind, basic Principles as we look to be that fountain for others.

Okay, so if you think boy you should have said that in your sermon You're probably right But I don't want to be here for 2 or 3 hours.

I don't think that you want to either Good not 1.

Amen good Hopefully somebody's gonna disagree.

But for now, just simple tips, simple principles to keep in mind as we look to share our faith.

But before we get any study, let's begin with a word of prayer.

As we've mentioned several times, it is a beautiful day outside, but I praise God that we're able to be in your house on the inside today.

And as we turn now our attention to your word, we ask that the Holy Spirit's power be here.

Let the words that have been prepared be your words.

Be with the hearts of the hearers and let us all become better sharers of your truth, your message for this time.

You know, the uniqueness of Seventh-day Adventism is its present truth message.

It includes Jesus' current work, and I don't know if you've been coming, how many of you show of hands have been attending our meetings?

Praise God, all right, the majority of you, that's fantastic.

And we've noted all in all as the book of Revelation opens and closes with this great promise of the second coming, history through prophecy is revealed, goes right down and marches right to our time.

We believe we're living in that time just before Jesus comes, during the ongoing cleansing of the sanctuary, or the investigative judgment, that pre-advent work preparatory to Jesus' return.

We believe in Jesus' current work of judgment and to follow his soon return.

And of course closely related are other vital truths such as the state of the dead, the seventh-day Sabbath, and on and on and on.

This body of truth is summed up in what we call the 3 angels what?

This present truth message that's to be given to every tribe, tongue, and people.

The 3 angels messages have been entrusted to the remnant body of Christ to share with the world Now in sharing this body of truth of the world, it can be easy to fall into 1 of 2 traps 1 of 2 traps a or 1 giving the message so abruptly that it seems shocking, startling, crazy, alien, whatever you want to call it, cult-like.

It's so radically different from all the previous experience and it's so quickly on the nose and so pointed that instead of being appealing, it's actually repelling.

Now, the danger on the other side is the complete opposite of that.

It's out of fear of that possibility that we just described, not saying anything.

We round off the corners, water it down to such an extreme because we don't want to seem crazy that we end up not really saying anything at all.

And the message never actually gets presented.

Now I don't know if Satan would be pleased with 1 more than the other, but they both end up with the message being rejected.

Either it's repulsed or it's not even heard to begin with and the people leave unchanged.

So we have these 2 traps when we have such an extensive body of truth, such a pointed message, such a pertinent, relevant message for our day.

How do we present it in such a way that it's heard?

Because more than, I know this sounds a little bit weird, but more than us saying the message, God wants the other people to hear the message.

So yes, we have a responsibility to say it, but we have a responsibility to say it in such a way that they actually hear it.

So yes, we want it, last Sabbath we wanted to inspire you, you should be messengers, but now how do we express the message effectively?

1 of the most difficult passages in Scripture is actually a parable of Jesus.

Luke chapter 16, Jesus tells the parable of the unjust steward, and we'll begin with verse 1.

He also said to his disciples, there was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was doing what?

He's the steward, he's the caretaker, but apparently in his responsibility he hasn't been keeping his responsibilities and the man finds out, the owner finds out.

So verse 2, he called him and said to him, what is this I hear about you?

Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.

So this meeting that he has with him, he wants to convey 2 points.

I want you to show me the books of record.

I've heard what's going on, I need to see it for myself, bring the books, show me what you've been up to, and that'll be your last act on the job.

Well, so there's gonna be a follow-up meeting but he already knows how it's going to end he's going to lose his job but he has to bring to that meeting all the books all the records the things that he's been responsible for keeping to the rich man's notice so what says look what he does here verse 3 then the steward said where within himself.

So he's getting this message on the outside, but he's formulating a plan.

He's thinking like, this puts me in a tough spot.

I'm going to show him the books and it's going to be obvious that I haven't been doing the job I've been doing and oh, it's going to be bad.

So he said within himself, what shall I do?

For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.

So notice he's kind of examining the field right now.

He's like, all right, here's my situation.

He's thinking about this, mulling it over.

For my master is taking the stewardship away from me, and he starts listing off his options.

And in first reading he says, I cannot do what?

Apparently he's been an office man, a pencil pusher, a paper passer, whatever you want to call him, sitting in an office, and he said, I can't dig.

So my outsides aren't built for digging and my insides can't take begging.

How to Postpone Your Funeral

Today we're going to continue our sermon series about practical Christian living and specific counsels for us from God's Word and the Spirit of Prophecy about how Christianity looks in real life.

Like what are, we had a, I believe, a tremendous set of series of meetings, but you can only cover so many things in such amount of time.

So we're just going to continue on preaching from God's Word, practical things that we need to know that He expects from us from His law.

But before we get started in any study of God's Word, of course, we want to begin with the word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this beautiful Sabbath day.

Thank you that we can be in your house, and thank you that we can fellowship together, and now, Lord, that we can study from your word.

We ask that you send the Holy Spirit to Bless our study today.

Teach us today, for we pray it in Jesus' name.

I like the message entitled today, How to Do What?

We, of course, know that unless Jesus comes first, every 1 of us will die.

It's not a rousing thing to say, though it's a fact that unless Jesus comes first, we're all going to die.

But the question is, in the life that we have now, has the Lord given us instructions of how to have a longer, better, better in quantity and better in quality life so that we can serve him more effectively.

And the answer, of course, is a resounding yes.

We're going to see it directly from God's Word today.

I have a hunch, however, that a great many Christians view physical well-being, physical health and your physical body as being subordinate or perhaps even irrelevant to the greater ideal of spiritual well-being.

I want to make sure that my spiritual nature is well, but my physical nature, It doesn't matter anyway.

Well, the problem with this position is that it's based on a faulty premise, that you have these 2 lives, that you have this physical body that's just here for a while, but then you have this immortal soul that's going to, you know.

But you recall from our studies already we've demonstrated that you don't have a soul, you are a soul.

And so your body physically is connected to you spiritually just as much as anything else.

So it matters spiritually what you do physically because we are a soul.

Now you've probably heard the phrase, your body is a temple, right?

Well, I want to show you today where that originates from, and it actually doesn't even come from the Apostle Paul or any of the apostles.

Jesus, as far as I know in Scripture, is the first to employ this metaphor of the body being a temple.

John chapter 2, and we're gonna begin in verse 19.

To set a little context for this, as I hear that beautiful sound of the pages turning, to set a little context for this, Jesus is being, as He always is, tested and prodded and pushed by the religious leaders of His time.

And here we get to eavesdrop on another 1 of those conversations.

Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this, what's that word?

Temple, and in 3 days I will raise it up.

Now They're standing in front of the physical temple that took years to build and that was exactly their response notice this in verse 20 then the Jews said it has taken 46 years to build this temple and Will you raise it up in 3 days?

But look at verse 21, but he was speaking of the temple of his what?

So when Jesus said this temple, he was talking about himself, including his physical body that would be, of course, be slain, but then raised back to life in 3 days.

The Apostle Paul then picks up on that metaphor throughout the New Testament.

And I'll go through these rather briefly because we have a little bit of an in-depth study to do today.

But hopefully it will be clear and concise and everyone can see the end from the beginning but in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 19 you can turn there to 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 19 the Apostle Paul is dealing with some people who were challenged with some immorality in their lives.

And he wanted to explain to them that it does matter what you do physically with your body as it relates to your spiritual well-being.

And he lays out this beautiful principle.

And again, anytime Paul says, Do you not know?

He wants you to be a temple for His glory, right?

So it goes on, whom you have from God and notices, and you are not, what?

You are not yours, according to Scripture.

There are multiple reasons why God has rights to you, and you don't.

No, You just showed up and had to have the story told to you, right?

But God bent down and made humanity, formed him in his image.

Jesus Christ formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being or a living soul, right?

But second of all, when we ran away from his obedience and disobeyed and sinned, then He sent his only Son to save us from sin, so he bought us back.

So he made us in the first place, then he bought us again, and he said, now I'm gonna dwell in you.

So What you do affects your relationship with me.

So he says, do you not know that your body is not your own?

Romans chapter 12, still the Apostle Paul, now writing in the book of Romans, chapter 12, as was our Scripture reading read, verses 1 and 2, he gives this beautiful principle of our body in relationship to spiritual matters.

Romans chapter 12 and we'll begin with verse 1.

He's saying, please listen to me on this.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your, what?

Bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Tithes & Offerings

This entire quarter we're looking at practical lessons for the Christian life.

Just nuts and bolts things that may seem so basic but are so fundamental to the development of Christian character and the practice of a Christian lifestyle.

And today we're looking at tithes and offerings.

Now last time we were together we looked at our health, our physical well-being, and what the Lord expects of us from the standpoint of physical health and diet.

We noticed in Genesis chapter 1, of course, and you don't have to turn there, but it's always good to, If I make reference to something, you can double check to make sure it's still there in your Bible.

But in Genesis chapter 1, in fact, the opening statement of all scripture is that in the beginning God did what?

It does not say that in the beginning God instructed man to create, because we didn't create.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

And all of Genesis chapter 1 simply outlines sequentially, chronologically that creation process that God himself did.

And at the end of that creation week, he sets up man, humanity, the man and the woman, as the caretakers of his creation.

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Practical Christian Living

The Beauty of Holiness

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