<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>

Muskegon SDA Church

Steps to Christ

Kameron DeVasher

Repentance

Confession

Consecration

Faith and Acceptance

Royce Snyman

The Test of Discipleship

Daniel Jean-Francois

Growing Up Into Christ

The Work and the Life

A Knowledge of God

The Privilege of Prayer

What to Do With Doubt

I'm glad to be here with you today and worshiping in God's house.

And I bring you greetings from the conference office.

Thank you for treating your pastor well and letting him have a vacation.

Well, maybe you didn't let him have 1, but he took 1.

And I know that he'll be better for it when he gets back.

I don't usually have a church that worries about the preacher not having enough time to preach because they're taking too much time talking about soul winning and outreach.

If the preacher needs to shorten the sermon so you can talk more about outreach, that's fine by me." I said, the preacher.

I don't know who that would be, but I will try to shorten it a little bit.

But I'm glad to hear you're active doing God's work.

If we're going to go home, we've got to finish the work.

Well, I hope that message I have to share with you today will encourage you.

And I'd like to invite you to bow your heads as we pray.

Father in heaven, as we turn our attention to your word, we once again want to ask that your Holy Spirit will guide our thought, thinking process, our desire to know you better.

May the Holy Spirit speak to us in these words, I pray.

Joseph Dutton, the captain of the SS Sardinian, tells a story that took place on his ship in 1877.

And it's a story that's fairly well-known.

You may have heard it told here, but I think it reminds us of both the power of God and the faith that God wants us to have in him.

Captain Dutton tells us that there was a man on board his ship that was fairly well known in the Christian world, especially the Western world at that time.

And I'll show you a picture of him, not that you'll particularly be able to see it, but I'm still going to show you anyway.

And give you those in the front rows might be able to see a little bit, but this I want you to know he's a real man.

And George Mueller was known in the Christian world as a man of prayer.

You go and Google his name, you can even find free books about his life story, and I would encourage you that you'd benefit from doing that by all means.

What George Mueller, the captain says, was on board his ship.

And this is what took place while he was there on that ship.

The captain's way of telling the story just is significant and I want you to hear it in his words.

He says, I'd been on the bridge for 24 hours and never left it.

And George Mueller came to me and said, Captain, I've come to you to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon.

If your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way.

You understand, they were going from Bristol, England to Quebec, Canada, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

He said, Captain, God will find some other way.

I've never broken an engagement in 57 years.

Let us go down into the chart room and pray.

The captain continues and he says, I looked at that man of God and I thought to myself, what lunatic asylum can that man have come from?

Mueller, I said, do you know how dense the fog is?

No, he replied, my eye is not on the density of the fog but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life." They went into the chart room, the captain says.

He knelt down and he prayed 1 of the most solemn prayers.

When he finished, I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and he told me not to pray.

And he said, the reason is, as you do not believe he will answer, and I believe he already has.

So there's no need for you to pray about it.

I looked at him and George Mueller said, Captain, I have known my Lord for 57 years and there has never been a single day when I failed to get an audience with the king.

Get up, captain, and open the door and you will find the fog is gone." I got up and opened the door, and the fog was gone.

And George Mueller kept his promised engagement.

The little book, Steps to Christ, wonderful little book that I know your church is focusing a little bit on.

On page 63, the author has some words that remind us of the faith of this man, George Mueller.

The author says, when we speak of faith, there is a distinction that should be born in mind.

There is a kind of belief that is wholly distinct from faith.

And then the author quotes from the Bible and says, the Bible says that the devils also believe and tremble.

Where there is not only a belief in God's word, but a submission of the will to him, where the heart is yielded to him, the affections fixed upon him, there is faith, faith that works by love and purifies the soul.

Through this faith, the heart is renewed in the image of God from the little chapter, The Test of Discipleship.

Faith is more than just simply believing in something.

They believe in God, but it will not change them, and it will not save them.

It comes from being a disciple of God, a disciple of Jesus.

Faith that really makes a difference in our lives is the kind of faith that doesn't just think about what it can get and doesn't treat God like a vending machine.

But the faith that George Mueller had, that was expressed in his action of praying and saying, Captain, Go outside and you'll see the fog is gone.

Was born not out of an experience of treating God as a vending machine.

It was from an experience of walking with God every day.

As he put it, I get an audience with the King every day, Captain.

And when I meet with the King, He talks to me.

I find out what he has in mind for me and through this ongoing daily devotional experience And I'm not talking about five-minute prayers I'm talking about a prayer experience with the king of the universe from that experience over 57 years he knew that God wanted him to be in Quebec that Saturday afternoon.

So he said, Captain, it really doesn't matter whether your ship is going to take me or not.

Back to Menu

Series

Steps to Christ

The Test of Discipleship

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Move Over, Mountain

52m

GYC 2011 Seminar: Spirit, Sanctuary and Seal

How to Receive the Final Seal of God’s Salvation

1h 44m

Do You Know God?

37m

Risk and Redemption

Risk and Redemption: Stand and Deliver

49m

Wilderness Wandering

Into Canaan

36m

Norman McNulty Weekend

On the Border of the Heavenly Canaan

44m

Plenary

The Two Guys Who Went in Twice

56m

How to Stand at the end of Time

1h 6m

God’s Message Through the Missing Missionaries

1h 9m

Plenary

GYC Beyond

1h 17m

Lessons from the Book of Genesis

Jacob’s Troubles

46m

The Atheist Who Found God

1h 25m

Sound Doctrine