AOY 2014: Now Is the Time

<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>

Army Of Youth

Morning Devotional

Adam Ramdin

Nevertheless

Father in heaven, Lord, we pause for a moment.

Thank you for waking each 1 of us up this morning, for the life that we have, as we are going to meditate for the next few moments upon your word.

I pray Lord that you may speak to our hearts and that which we need to hear most we may and your spirit may impress it deep on our hearts.

I pray that you would be with me, give me strength to speak, and may your Holy Spirit flow through me.

Several years ago I had the privilege to be in the country of Thailand.

I was invited there to do a week of prayer at what was then called Asia Pacific International University, APIU.

I noticed yesterday, I think they may have changed the name in recent years to AIU, Adventist International University.

I had a great time there for a week, preaching a week of prayer with the students there.

Pastor Johnny Wong, who was here last night, was 1 who invited me.

Now, after the week of prayer had finished, I had a few days before I needed to be back in England.

And so taking advantage of 1 of the great things you have here in Southeast Asia called AirAsia, and their lovely cheap tickets all over the place.

I took advantage of them and I took a flight from Bangkok to Cambodia.

And I landed there and I spent 2 days there in Cambodia.

I'd always been fascinated with the country of Cambodia and I wanted to visit there, the different places there in and around the country.

So I first of all went to the city of Siem Reap.

And I got there and met someone who they had, 1 of the students had arranged for me to meet and took me to the place that you may have heard of called Angkor Wat.

I don't know if I pronounced it correctly, Angkor Wat.

And there I went there to this amazing religious monument built in the 12th century, originally as a Hindu temple, later converted to a Buddhist temple that became a mausoleum or a grave, so to speak, for the 1 who built it.

Now, the place, if you've never been there, it is absolutely huge.

And so we're going around this massive temple, as it were, and we start on the outside, and we're making our way gradually to the centre because it all kind of peaks in the middle.

And as we're making our way around looking at the different things, it was very interesting.

There was a few things that stood out to me.

That the Angkor Wat temple is situated and points west, not east, as all other temples in the area do, which I found very interesting due to east-west and the significance that we think that holds.

Also I found as I was going around the temple that all of the windows had 7 bars in them.

Now I don't know why there were 7 bars, but I thought that was interesting as well.

And as we're making our way around the temple we come into the centre and as you go to the centre you get a bit higher and a bit higher as the temple structure rises and rises.

And as we came right to the centre of the temple there was the steepest staircase I have ever seen.

Really, really steep, with each step like really high and narrow.

And I said to my tour guide, Why are the steps so steep?

It was kind of the natural question to ask.

It was that steep, and it wasn't as if they were short for space.

They could have made the steps wider and a little bit more easy to climb.

And my tour guide said to me these words, he said, and it stood out to me, and he said these words, he said, they're steep for this reason, at least his interpretation.

He said, the closer you get to God, the harder it is to reach Him.

The closer you get to God, the harder it is to actually reach Him.

So God is there at the center of this temple.

And as the closer you get there, it's harder and harder to get there.

They're steep right at the very end because it's harder to reach God right as you get close to reaching Him.

Now the beauty of the Gospel that you and I believe in the Bible, The beauty of the gospel in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and throughout the pages of Scripture, is that we serve a God that does not require us to ascend to reach Him, amen?

We serve a God that is willing to descend and come down to us, dwelling on our level, so he can minister to us.

And this morning I want us to take a look at a story that shows how God does not ask us to go high to him, but is willing to come down low to meet us on our level and to minister to our hearts.

Turn with me in your Bible, if you will, to the book of Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew chapter 26, the first book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 26.

Now I noticed here in Penang that as I was driving from the airport here that I saw signs around I Knew before I got here, but I we are an island correct But it's not an island that's isolated as an island that's connected to the mainland By a bridge a very big bridge.

I realized when I googled it it is 13, 500 meters long 12.5 kilometers no 13.5 kilometers 8.5 miles long bridge Now I'm not exactly sure about this bridge, I have not yet been over it, but I know in the US there are certain bridges you can travel such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

You can go to the other side of America, to the George Washington Bridge as you go into New York City.

And on both of those bridges, they will have a sign just as you get close to the bridge.

And the sign will say this, it will say last exit before what?

This is the last exit before you have to pay money to cross the bridge.

Now I understand this bridge here, you have to pay to come this way but not to go that way.

You pay 1 way, if I understand correctly.

I don't know if there's a sign on this bridge, but even as you get close to the bridge, there is the last exit you get to before you have to then pay money.

When you get to that toll booth, when you get to the place where you have to pay money, you can't turn around, then you have to keep on going and pay the money.

Now when we think about the divine plan of salvation, as Jesus started there at the very beginning, the foundation of the world, when the Bible said the lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.

He was on a motorway, he was on a road, he was on a track that was leading him to Calvary.

And almost like the last Exit before Calvary, we have the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus gathered with his disciples and there he prayed to his father.

Now the word Gethsemane, some of you may know, means Oil Press.

It was the name of an olive yard at the foot of the Mount of Olives to which Jesus often retired.

If you go to Jerusalem, they have a location that they say, this is the Garden of Gethsemane.

And Christians go there and pray and meditate on what Jesus did.

You go across the road and the Orthodox Church says, no, this is the Garden of Gethsemane.

And you go to talk to a scholar and he says, no, it's neither of these 2, it's up the road about 300 meters.

Be that as it may, we really don't know exactly where it was, the point is, it's somewhere at the base of the Mount of Olives, where Jesus gathered his disciples and said, come, let us go and pray.

4, 000 years of human history, 3 and a half years of Jesus' ministry, it all led to the point of Calvary, and it all led to the point where Jesus was gonna have to die on the cross for our sins.

And right prior to his crucifixion, he gathers with his disciples in a place called Gethsemane, and there, once in a bit of privacy, he puts 9 of his disciples here.

He takes 3 of them with him a little bit further.

And then he goes on a little bit further and he says, please pray with me a while.

And the Bible says he falls on the ground, lying on his face.

In Matthew 26, if you're there in your Bibles and verse 39, The Bible says, and he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying, oh my father, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." I want us to take a look at this verse and go through it bit by bit.

The Bible says that his first words were what?

What's his first words in the King James here?

He says, O Father, O my Father, O my Father.

Now the way that he says this to me signifies what we already know about Jesus that he had a close relationship with his father.

In the English language today, if you say oh and then someone's name, you only do that with someone that you are really very, very close with.

My wife might say to me, oh Adam, you're so amazing.

She might say, oh Adam, That was so nice.

Now it can sometimes mean you're in a really big trouble.

But most of the time, it's a positive thing.

Three Wise Men

Some of you say yes and some of you say no.

Those of you who said no, is it because you slept on a hard floor.

It's good to see you though this morning.

You know it the good thing about having a youth conference that starts on a Friday and finishes on a Tuesday is that on Sunday morning, instead of getting ready to go home, you're not even halfway through.

Workshops, morning worships and evening worships still to come.

I don't know about you but I have been blessed already fellowshiping with you and being here at AOY.

Now as we go through this presentation, I ask that you pray for me.

I also ask that you'd pray for the translation team.

When I preach in the United States or in England, it's not uncommon for people to come up to me afterwards and say, Pastor, I really like the sermon.

Well, they don't always say that, But this is the part that they often say, please can you slow down?

Now that's English people or American people saying to me, who we all speak the same language, can you please slow down?

Now I'm speaking here with simultaneous translation, so please pray for me that when I get excited, I slow down.

And I'll say to my translator, if I do get too fast, start waving vigorously in the corner.

And I'll know that you're not saying hello.

Something that marriage counsellors will tell you, some of them, is that when you get married, there's 2 words that you should not use in your vocabulary when you're talking husband to wife or wife to husband, especially when you're frustrated.

The 2 words I've heard said are these, like if you're married and you're in an argument, you should not use the word never.

Because the fact is, it's probably not 100% true that someone never tidies up.

Or the word that you shouldn't use is always.

Where a husband says to a wife or a wife says to a husband, ah, you always do that.

So they say don't use the word always and don't use the word never in the context of being angry or frustrated at the other person.

I would like to say this at the beginning of this presentation for you to bear in mind as we go throughout the whole youth conference here.

And I'm going to use both these words intentionally.

It is never good To delay your decision to accept Christ Never Under no circumstances.

Is there ever a situation where it is better to delay than to do it right now, when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you.

And the next sentence I will say is this, it is always, it is what?

It is always The best time, sorry, the best time to accept Jesus is always the earliest time.

You're thinking in your mind, accepting Christ fully into your heart and you're thinking, maybe in 6 months.

You're thinking in your mind of the appeal last night about 1 year of service and you're thinking, maybe in 3 years time.

The best time when the Holy Spirit is pricking your heart to accept the conviction that's coming on you is always, always the earliest time.

And it's always, with God, the best time is the earliest time possible.

Shall we bow our heads as we open with a word of prayer?

Father in heaven, Lord, as we open your word for the next few moments this morning, speak to our hearts, speak through me, I pray in Jesus' name.

I like the theme for this conference now is the time now is the time in John chapter 7 if you turn in your Bibles there, I just want to highlight a few scriptures before we get into the bulk of the message.

In John chapter 7 and around verses 6 to 8 we have, in fact verses 1 to 8 really, but in John chapter 7 and around verses 6 to 8 we have a dialogue between Jesus and his brothers.

Now we know, by looking at the feasts in the book of John, the various feasts that have taken place, that John chapter 7 comes after Jesus has been ministering for 3 years.

And the Bible says, around about in verse 1, I'm just gonna summarize what he says.

It says that after these things, it says, Jesus would not walk in Jury or down in Jerusalem Because the Jews wanted to kill him so Jesus is up in Galilee He's up in Galilee And he's not going down to Jerusalem because the Jews want to kill him and the Bible says in verse 3 his brothers Therefore said to him depart.

I'm gonna paraphrase into modern English his brother Satan Depart what are you doing here?

If you really are the Messiah, why are you hiding in Galilee, Northern Israel?

If you are the Messiah, go down to Jerusalem.

And they say in verse 4, why are you doing things in secret?

If you're the Messiah, why are you hiding?

You have these great things for the world and you're hiding up in Galilee.

Verse 5, for neither did his brothers or his brethren believe him.

So his own brothers they don't believe he's the Messiah and they're mocking him almost saying you really are the Messiah Why are you hiding in Galilee?

If you really are the Messiah, go to Jerusalem.

He says there in verse 6, Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come.

Now Jesus, I believe was a student of Bible prophecy Jesus understood the prophecies of Daniel And Jesus understood the 70-week prophecy his mother had taught him.

And so when Jesus said, my time is not yet come, he was talking about his prophetic time.

Now I said earlier, John 7 was written after how many years of Jesus' ministry?

How long did prophecy say Jesus had to minister before he was crucified?

So in John 7, Jesus says, my time has not yet come.

John chapter 8, turn to the next book, John 8, and we'll look in verse, Where are we?

We look at the end of the chapter, the last verse.

In John chapter 8, Jesus is there speaking And he says in verse 58, verily I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

And verse 59 says, then took up they stones to cast at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

I've always wondered in Luke chapter 4, read this another time, at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, when he goes to the synagogue and he says, he opens the book of Isaiah and he basically says, I am the Messiah.

In Luke chapter 4 the Bible says they drag him and they want to kill him and stone him.

And the Bible says in Luke chapter 4 at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry he escapes.

Now I've often wondered with these passages, and I think if the only purpose of Jesus coming down to earth was to die, then why didn't he just die at the very beginning and get it over and done with?

Now in John chapter 8, they wanna kill him.

The Bible said they took up stones to kill him.

Now if the purpose of Jesus coming down, and we know the ultimate purpose was, but if he needed to die at any time, why didn't he just die then?

No, because it was not yet the right time.

And the Bible says there in verse 39, John chapter 10 and verse 39, the Bible says, Therefore they sought again to take him, but he what?

Jason Sliger

Lessons From the Flood- Part 1

We've come together to study the Word of God and study it's the word that's what we will do But we always begin with the word of prayer So I invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray together this morning Father in heaven we have come together at this early hour because we want manna from heaven.

And Lord, I pray that this morning we will be fed with heavenly food.

And as you said to Moses, teach me what I should say.

Lord, we live in a solemn time of Earth's history.

The time where you are calling us to come up higher.

And as we look at this example of a wonderful man in the Old Testament, May we desire that very thing, Lord, to come up higher in our walk with You.

Well, go with me, if you would, in your Bibles to Genesis, the sixth chapter.

Genesis, the sixth chapter, this is where we're going to be spending the bulk of our time this morning and tomorrow morning.

So the next 2 worships will be a part 1 and part 2.

Scripture says this, Scripture says this, And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die.

When I read this passage, It seems to be an oxymoron that God would speak something like this.

It is contrary to the character of God when you read this verse that He would destroy everything on the face of the earth.

Why such a harsh pronouncement of destruction?

Why did God say that he would destroy all flesh, that it would die?

These were men and women, after all, that were created in his likeness.

He created them as an expression of his character.

The crowning act of the creation week, and now just several hundred years from when God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, He is now pronouncing the sentence of execution upon the very thing that He had created in love.

Verse 1 and 2 of Genesis 6 gives us a little portal into why God makes this pronouncement.

And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and took them wives of all which they chose." This is a theme in our Q&A session yesterday, kind of ran through the whole time together, the idea of marrying outside of the faith.

And as was eloquently stated a couple of nights ago, this is the only sin that is recorded in Genesis 6 that is the reason why God brought the destruction of the earth, the flood of destruction upon the earth.

Now of course there were other sins, but this is the 1 that specifically stated the intermarrying between the sons of God with the daughters of men.

The sons of God being the lineage of Seth, the daughters of men being the lineage of Cain.

They saw each other and they began to intermarry.

And as a result of this, the Bible tells us in verse 5, And God saw the wickedness of man that it was, the wickedness of man was great in the earth.

And listen to this, every imagination of the thought of his heart was what?

Now my center margin makes a very interesting statement here.

It says, the Hebrew word signifies not only the imagination, but also the purposes and desires.

The thoughts of man, the imaginations of man, the purposes of man were only evil continually.

Everything that man thought at that time was evil continually.

It's a good piece of advice that's given to us in 2 Corinthians 10 in verse 5.

The Bible says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

The imagination is a wonderful gift that God has given to us.

It's a fantastic gift that God has given to us.

In fact, the imagination, when it is properly used, elevates the mind, ennobles the thinking, and draws the sinner closer to its Savior.

I'm sorry friends, but, actually I'm not sorry, but as we spend time imagining what heaven is going to be like, That ennobles and enriches our spiritual life.

When we spend time imagining what it was when Jesus went to the cross and gave his life as a sacrifice, that is enriching and ennobling.

God gave us the imagination as a powerful tool to draw us closer to him.

If you have some extra time sometime, and you find yourself in need of something to do, take your Bible and read through the passages of Scripture that describe what heaven is going to be like.

Read through the story of the last 48 hours of the life of Christ, and then in your imagination, let your imagination grasp it scene by scene.

And I guarantee that it will enrich your spiritual life.

But this is not what was happening in the antediluvian world.

The Bible says they were using their imagination for that which is opposed to God.

Their thoughts were only evil continually.

This unholy alliance between the Sethites and the Canaanites was responsible For the rapid increase of immorality and wickedness in the world that was so prevalent in a time of the flood that caused God to make the pronouncement, I will destroy the earth with a flood.

Now I hope this afternoon we get 0 questions on this issue in our Q&A session.

We don't need to talk about the issue any longer.

The flood story stands as a testimony of the intermarrying between believers and non-believers.

If there's any other questions, just read the story yourself and pray and ask God to speak to you through it.

Back to Menu

Series

Morning Devotional

Lessons From the Flood- Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Nevertheless

41m

Three Wise Men

1h

Lessons From the Flood- Part 1

56m

Lessons From the Flood- Part 2

59m

Sound Doctrine