25th Southeast Korean Camp Meeting

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Carnesville Korean SDA Church

Morning Devotional

Sebastien Braxton

Spirituality- Part 1

Genesis chapter 5 I figured since this is an early morning meeting it's better to talk about spirituality walking with God and 1 of my new Bible heroes the past several years has been Enoch and Also, I like the challenge of proving the statements that I often make and other preachers make that all the Word of God you can't exhaust it except when you get to the genealogies and you feel like yeah there's no message here.

So what I'd like to do is systematically build up.

I know we have till about 8 for breakfast.

So I'll do my best to try to keep us moving along in a steadfast pattern and talk about spirituality.

Tomorrow morning we'll deal with Jesus and what he talks about in terms of spirituality.

So anyway Genesis 5 verse 1 The Bible says this is the book of the genealogy of Adam in the day that God created man He made him in the likeness of God He created them male and female and blessed them and called them mankind in the day they were created And Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth.

First of all, the book of Genesis is separated actually by genealogies and so what happens is when they're transitioning from 1 patriarch to the next they put a genealogy there so here we have before Noah right so this is passing down and each of these individuals become types of Adam and so you have Adam and then now you're about to go to Noah and so then you have a genealogy of how you get to Noah then after Noah is done you go genealogy again and you go to Abraham Then from Abraham when he's done he has Keturah, his wives, all these things but then you have a genealogy of Isaac as well and then from Isaac you have a genealogy of Esau and Jacob and then you transition over but the only difference is there's no genealogy between Jacob and Joseph.

It's very interesting because really that half of the book of Genesis is about Jacob.

He's born in 25, he dies in 4950 and you're thinking okay So that whole Joseph story is actually just a piece of Jacob's story It's a sub story to basically how God used his beloved son to preserve all that was his And do the transformation that they went through as a result of that.

But anyway so the Bible says that in this genealogy we typically look at this begat this person, this begat this person, and so there's no significance.

But it's very significant as you look at the first verse and eventually when we come to Enoch.

It says that this is the day that God created man and he made him in the likeness of God.

Now, you need to know that in the Bible, the word Adam or Adam or Adama depending on how you, you know, in the Hebrew, whatever, but This is actually the word that's usually translated mankind So when we say all men or you know, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal We're not just talking about males.

It's just the general term we use so Adam would be that term So when it says there in verse 2, he created them male and female and blessed them and called them mankind.

So male and female you're dealing with Ish and Isha.

This is what Adam says when he first meets Eve says you shall be called Isha because you were taken out of Isha this is the first time he recognizes he is male and that's a for a whole nother study because I'm interested in in masculinity and establishing biblical manhood But Adam begins to recognize his calling and his specific purpose within humanity when he meets a woman he realized I am a man, you're a woman and he gives her this name as this is a literally a piece of him and so to hate her is actually to hate himself and this is essentially the foundation of humanity which is caricatured in the marriage relationship this is how we should relate to all men but in this sense this is how God calls them in the day that they were created.

They were all called Adam Right, not just Adam and Eve.

That's who they were Because she was literally taken out of him But the Bible tells us that he was made in the image of God, right?

He was made in the likeness of God but in verse 3 it says that Adam lived 130 years and he begot a son, how?

So that's kind of interesting because Adam was made in whose likeness?

God's likeness but when he has a son, his son is in his own likeness, which suggests that Adam no longer bears God's likeness.

So what this begins to let you know that there was a gap, there's a bridge that just took place, a break, because if he's in God's likeness, his son should have been born in God's likeness.

Now you begin to understand the intention of humanity.

The intention was that I would create 1 man in my image, 1 woman in my image and together they continue to produce in my image.

But you see, we begin to see our lives in 2 ways.

We see our lives in terms of the ideal, and we see our lives in terms of the reality.

You see, the reality is we are all born in the image of our parents, in their likeness.

You cannot understand yourself if you don't understand your parents.

And that's why the devil is so wise because he puts it into every culture that parents keep their stuff to themselves.

Your parents don't come and spill their guts to you.

They don't say, you know, I made these mistakes when I was 19.

I was this flirtatious girl when I was 15 or I was this guy dating all these girls.

I was rude or I was disrespectful when I was 13, 14, 15.

They just want to remind you, right, I walked 10 miles in the snow to get to school.

You people, you young people have cars and buses and all this.

And that those are the only stories you hear.

So you're thinking, oh, you know, and they want to make sure you know this, what was in me is in you.

You know, I always tell parents, you know, even sometimes my wife, have to remind ourselves, kids don't raise themselves.

If my daughter is speaking that way, she didn't get that from anyone else, she got it from me.

And I have to accept that, whether I like it or not.

Or if my son has a temper or people are selfish or they don't want to share.

She didn't go to a seminar on hey, guess what?

In her brain, it just clicks like yeah, I like that.

That's confusing you just asked me for my phone but now because you're playing it's yours but the reality is as ugly as that is that's my image and too often times parents don't take ownership of that because they were not in his image.

You can't have a son that is not in God's image unless the father and the mother were not in God's image.

So when it says Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named him.

These are all the things that God did to Adam in the previous verses.

He made him in his image according to his likeness and he called them mankind.

So to name this thing it's like this is I am the source when you name something.

I made this And it is a reflection of myself, so I will name it.

But this gap tells us that the reality is we cannot understand ourselves if we don't understand our parents.

We don't understand our struggles, we don't understand our weaknesses, We don't understand our tendencies.

Because we're thinking we just developed these weaknesses out of nowhere.

Or we were hanging out with a bad crowd for a while.

Or I shouldn't have been watching all those TV shows.

Or I shouldn't have watched these movies.

We're looking for something to ground the fact, where did this thing come from?

It seems like it's so easy for this person to have confidence that God is speaking to them, but I struggle with that.

Spirituality- Part 2

Matthew chapter 6 we want to talk about the the concept of spirituality according to Christ And then we'll talk about how that spirituality grows and is nurtured So anyway, Matthew chapter 6 verse 1 the Bible says take heed That you do not your charitable deeds before men Do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them.

Otherwise, you have no reward from your father in heaven Therefore when you do a charitable deed do not sound the trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly.

So just to break this down because he's going to repeat this pattern again when he talks about prayer when he talks about fasting he says you should take heed The very first words of Jesus about the nature of spirituality and daily godliness is take heed, is to be careful.

As soon as someone says take heed, that means be warned.

There is a danger in seeking to be an individual who is spiritual and the danger is the fact that he says that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them.

You see spirituality is something that we can try to imitate rather than have the genuine article.

When we want to be seen as spiritual people, we have methods, conduits, practices that we can do to make it seem as if we are spiritual.

To make it seem as if we know God when we do not know God.

And that's why the very first words of Jesus about spirituality are take heed.

If you are a person who seriously wants to have a walk with God, then you must be forewarned that you and I in human nature have a tendency towards hypocrisy, Phariseeism, Sadducees.

She describes in a very simple statement something that I thought about for a long time when I was studying the Gospels and then I found it and thought it's from the Mount of Blessings I started laughing she says the spirit of Pharisee ism is the spirit of human nature So if the Pharisees and the hypocrites and the scribes and the Sadducees were these people constantly fighting against Jesus, right, but they were spiritual.

But they did plenty of worship ceremonies.

So when all these things say this is the spirit of human nature and the only problem in this room is we all have human nature and the people who are listening to Jesus.

He saw the warning in desiring to live a godly life.

And that warning that Jesus sounded was we can sometimes do things that are good things for the wrong reason.

Notice Jesus does not say in the text take heed that you do not do charitable deeds.

He says Take heed that you do not do charitable deeds.

He says take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them.

It's not about whether people see you or not.

And that's a big thing in a lot of Asian cultures and African cultures, Eastern cultures I would say, is that they have this big thing about people not knowing that you're the 1 that helped them.

People not knowing you're the 1 that did this thing for them, you know, if you're really humble nobody should know that you did it.

That's not true because Jesus lived his entire life before people.

He wasn't trying to hide God from other people.

And it didn't bother him that people knew it came from Christ.

But his issue was he didn't do it before men so that they could see him.

There's nothing wrong with me handing out food to a homeless man and someone's across the street watching what I'm doing.

There's nothing wrong with the fact that, oh, you know, I decided to help out this poor family and just so happened the news was right there.

People are like filming me giving this family, it's like, oh no I can't give you this food because the news is watching me.

I can't do, no, that's absurd Christ says.

The issue is, do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them.

He says, otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

So now this begins to take us to verse 2 in dealing with the idea of a hypocrite.

He says, therefore, When you do a charitable deed, so I want you to know this twice, right, Christ is encouraging us to do charitable deeds.

Did you know that giving to people, serving people in charitable ways, that means for free, is a part of spirituality?

You know most people are non-spiritual because they don't give to anyone.

Everything they do comes with a charge or a return.

But when you do things for no return, but simply because like we said yesterday for the sermon, I just wish to give to this person.

So to move in this line, that is the character of God.

And so when Christ looks, he says, when you do your charitable deed, that means he's expecting you to do it at some point in time.

So whenever you do your charitable deed, do not sound the trumpet before you as the who.

The word hypocrite in Greek comes from a Greek word that means an actor, a pretender, people who did theater.

He's pretending to be, you know, the king of whatever.

But he's saying there's hypocrites inside of the religion of God.

And he says, and guess what, hypocrites do charitable deeds.

Sometimes we think of people and say, when you and I define a hypocrite, we probably use this very loose repetitive definition that is non-biblical.

We use the definition that a hypocrite is a person who says 1 thing and does another.

That's not how Jesus defines a hypocrite.

And notice, hypocrisy is very, very dangerous in the context of spirituality.

So he says, if you want to understand a hypocrite, you've got to look at the areas of spirituality.

And he says, therefore when you do a charitable deed, don't sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory from who?

What makes them a hypocrite is not that they say 1 thing and do another.

The issue is they do it for the glory of men.

They do it because they want to be seen by men and they want to be seen as spiritual.

Because there are certain movies we won't watch because we know certain people are around.

Oh we know we're not going to sing that song, we'll change our ringtone when we come to camp meeting and then change it back in the car ride home.

Because I don't want people to think I got Jay-Z on my phone.

I thought you were spiritual, you're the pastor's son, you're the pastor's daughter.

Oh, I can't wear this dress, but I would normally wear it, if I wasn't around my Adventist community.

Because I want to be seen as being spiritual, modest.

I want to be seen as a person, yeah, you know, I don't have my tattoos, long-sleeve shirts the whole time.

You know, man, you don't want to play basketball?

No, no, no, you know, I'm not feeling it today.

He doesn't want to expose the fact he's got tattoos of some crazy figures on his arm, probably a serpent.

Don't you know the serpent in Revelation 12?

Series

Morning Devotional

Spirituality- Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Forgiven not Forgotten

58m

A Faith Worth Believing

48m

Simple Christianity

We Shall be Like Him

53m

Plenary

Faithful Greatness

45m

"Tell It Again"

What We Must Know: Prophecy Update

1h 6m

Intensive: Outdoor Education

Outdoor Education - Part 6

55m

Overcoming Addictions (Evening Meetings)

Overcoming Doubt and Skepticism

44m

It's Time Someone Finally Told You the Truth About...

The Human Nature of Christ - Part 2

51m

Spiritual Formation, Ellen G. White, and Daniel 11:30-36

1h 22m

Who Are You?

32m

Heaven Is For Real

42m

The Future of Adventism: Will Our Biblical Foundation Give Way to Culture?

2. The Future of the Everlasting Gospel

1h 16m

Sound Doctrine