Kameron DeVasher

Muskegon SDA Church

Take Heed

Our message today is, of course, a sermonette.

It's a brief introduction to our communion service and the ordinance of humility and the partaking of the emblems that follows thereafter.

But we've been studying for a quarter now Adventist church history and some of the ups and some of the downs, some of the formative events that have taken place in the last hundred and plus years of formation of this remnant movement that I believe the Lord has raised up at this time with this message, with this mission to carry the gospel to the world in this generation.

And I wanted to conclude with a thought, and that's our message entitled, Take Heed.

There are many warnings in Scripture, and sometimes it's easy to hear enough warnings, you just kind of blend them away as unimportant.

Or I understand what they're talking about, just kind of put it on the back burner.

And I especially think this is the case in our society today.

I don't know if you've noticed, but we get warned about things that should just be common sense.

My wife has a curling iron, which is not news in itself, but on it, it has a tag that, I kid you not, literally says, Do not put in eyes.

You should not, apparently, you need to be warned not to stick the curling iron in your eye.

I'm pretty sure we have 1 over there where you get a box of copy machine toner.

You've seen the cardboard sun shields you put in your car so they don't overheat?

Don't operate your vehicle while this is in place.

Apparently, someone at some point thought that was a warning that we needed to tell people because there's a chance they might do that.

And of course, just several of these around, you can find in the hardware store, you got 1 of those wheelbarrow wheels, little 13 inch wheels.

It'll tell you, not intended for highway use.

In case you were tempted to take your wheelbarrow out on the road, don't do it.

And we chuckle at those because, I mean, those are real warnings that people give, but it seems like so commonsensical, why would you have to say it?

There's no risk that that's ever going to happen.

I'm not going to go in the shower with a hair dryer.

When he gives us warning, it's not because like, oh, well, everybody should just know that.

No, no, no, God has dire warnings for us, and especially as we look at church history, we're gonna see that we need to understand some things in the light of God's word.

So as we begin our message, let's begin with a word of prayer, and we'll briefly study some of the keen warnings in Scripture and what they apply for our day.

Lovely day of life at all, and particularly a day of Sabbath rest and fellowship and worship.

And Lord, as we understand that we are part of your collective people hastening your soon coming.

Help us to never get caught up in the collective movement and neglect our individual responsibility to you.

Please help us to see the warnings from your word and not only see them but take them to heart as we look to be part of finishing your work in this generation.

If you would turn to Matthew chapter 6, just see a couple examples of, And we could look up several different phrases.

You could look up beware, we could look at watch out.

But several times in scripture, you'll see the phrase take heed.

Take heed, that means be aware of, pay attention to.

This is something to watch out for that if we didn't tell you, you might not even notice.

Unlike the examples I gave you before, there are warnings in Scripture that you need to have the warning or you might not realize that you're in danger.

Jesus addresses 1 such issue in Matthew chapter 6 starting with verse 1.

Take heed, he says, that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them.

Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Now is he saying don't do charitable deeds?

We should be zealous for good works, as the scripture says, but for the eternal reward, not for the temporal reward of recognition by men.

But apparently, and we might think, well, of course that, but It's easy to drift into those things, and particularly in the society of the time Jesus was writing in.

Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory from men.

If you had lots of wealth and you were gonna give something very big, some large thing, that you would make a production of it.

It would sound the trumpets, clear the street, and make a parade out of dum-da-da-dum.

Christ says don't do that, don't do that.

In fact he goes on to say, assuredly I say to you they have their reward, they have that trumpet and that's it.

Obviously we'd want to have the last trumpet to be our reward.

He goes on to say in verse 3, 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 apparently in that day and age, charitable giving was supposed to be some big show, and Christ says, don't do it like that.

Warning, you might be tempted, this might be something that everybody else is doing, but you do it differently.

Watch out, For your soul's own sake, your reward needs to be in heaven.

Go to the end of the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 24, to the other end of the book.

Another warning that Jesus says, take heed and watch for.

When he was asked about the destruction of the temple and specifically about signs of his second coming, Jesus says in verse 4, Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no 1 what?

Now deception, as you know, only works when you think it isn't working Right.

No 1 goes around being deceived Saying yeah, I'm deceived.

I love it because as soon as you know, you're deceived you are no longer deceived So it's something to legitimately watch out for.

Take ye that no 1 disuse you, for many will come in what form?

Some even claim I am the Christ and will deceive Many.

It's like there's going to be a lot of people deceived.

Whatever the deception is, it's going to be cloaked in the garb of Christianity.

It's going to have my name attached to it, some even on behalf of me.

But don't just swallow whatever comes with the stamp that says Jesus on it, you must test for yourself.

You must filter it out by the word of God, take heed that no 1 deceives you.

Now let's go to the book of 1 Corinthians.

A similar warning is given this time not by Jesus but by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

And as we have done for this quarter, reviewed church history and seen lessons for us today, the Apostle Paul does the very same thing in the book of 1 Corinthians.

For the church in Corinth, and he starts with verse 1 in chapter 10 and uses the Old Testament church as an example for the New Testament church to learn their lessons.

Start with verse 1 of 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink.

For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was whom?

So he's saying the same thing that you're being baptized into, they were baptized into.

It was Christ who led in the Old Testament church.

They were just Christian as you are Christian.

But, it says in verse 5, but with Most of them, God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now, it doesn't take too much of a rocket scientist to put together that the Old Testament leading out of God's children of Israel to the promised land is supposed to be an example for the New Testament Israel, the spiritual, faithful Israel, who's going to the promised land soon to come.

And it could be easy, as it was in those days.

You understand, people in those days said, well, it doesn't matter how I, I'm a Jew.

And especially if you're a healthy Jew, a wealthy Jew, you're fine.

H.M.S. Richards

Voice Of Prophecy

The Burning Bush

Holy, holy, holy, glorious and ungode, Who before all ages ruled eternally, Shall be Lord forever, none is God but He.

Holy is the Lord, holy, holy, holy, glorious and adored.

Holy, glorious and adored, Thine Lord is the kingdom, thine alone the power, thine shall be the glory, now and evermore.

We're happy to be with you today for this service, and our prayer is that it will bring to you and yours the strength and the peace that you will need as you face the new week.

My father is bringing to us now a topic that concerns the experience that Moses had at the burning bush, an experience that each 1 of us must have.

Here he is with the subject, The Burning Bush.

If you've ever traveled in Muslim lands or in eastern or southern Asia, you know things are not the same there as they are in the West.

In the West, men show respect for reverence by removing their hats, especially when entering a home or a courtroom or church or temple.

But in the East, both men and women removed their shoes.

While visiting the Orient, we often left our shoes at the entrance of a mosque or a temple.

We wondered how we could be sure of getting the right shoes on coming out, since there were literally hundreds of pairs of shoes in long rows in front of these places of worship.

But without fail we always received our own shoes again.

Someone was always on watch and took good care that the shoes were not misplaced or misappropriated.

This Oriental custom was observed in Bible times.

Man didn't walk roughshod into the presence of God.

There was a spirit of reverence in those ancient days.

In the third chapter of Exodus in the Holy Bible, the second book of the Bible in fact, we read of a shepherd who had fled from what he thought was certain death out into the desert of Mount Sinai.

There 1 day, while keeping his sheep back of the mountain in the most isolated, desolate, lonely place imaginable, he saw a bush all in flames.

But the bush was not consumed, and as he watched, the flames continued.

This was something unusual, something new.

So he said to himself, I will now turn aside and see this great sight.

You'll find all this in the third chapter of Exodus.

He went closer, And from the burning bush came a solemn voice, saying, Moses, Moses, I am the God of thy Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

And the mighty voice continued, Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

This was in God's great temple of the out-of-doors, the desert sands, the desolate peaks, the brilliant sky with no incense but the winds.

But God was there in the burning bush, so it was a place and a time for reverence.

In visiting hundreds of religious meetings in churches, temples, cathedrals, tabernacles, out of doors everywhere, I have been impressed with a deep feeling that we modern Christians need to emphasize reverence, reverence for God's house, reverence for God's day, reverence for God's name, reverence for God's Word, reverence for God's Son.

Many great scientists and thinkers have been and are reverent men.

As they look upon the works of God and get closer and closer to Him as the Creator and Upholder of Nature, they say as did Kepler, the great astronomer, O Almighty God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee.

Or as the pioneering scientist Pasteur said, the more I study Nature, The more I stand amazed at the Creator, I pray while I am engaged at my work in the laboratory.

Certainly those who minister about holy things, who preach the Word of God, who listen to its mighty truths, should be reverent in God's presence.

We are reverent in the presence of those who have made great sacrifices for their fellowmen, who have done great deeds for humanity.

Why not be reverent in the presence of the Creator of the universe and the Redeemer of the world?

Parks Cadman tells of the occasion when a Scottish university was to confer an honorary degree upon David Livingstone, the great missionary.

It was a custom in Scottish universities in those days that anyone receiving an honorary degree was fair sport to the students.

He had to run the gauntlet of all their hazing and critical remarks.

Students would sit in the balcony, shout out insults or anything they pleased.

On this day, a wealthy soap maker also was to be honored with a doctorate because of a large donation he had given to the University.

No gift to their alma mater could silence their shouts of, "'Hi, old soap maker!' Many wondered what they would do when David Livingston rose to receive his degree.

His shoulder had been torn by a lion in the forests of Africa.

Have We lost a sense of reverence today, a reverence for God's house, the place of His presence.

God's word today as well as in days of old is, Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary.

Leviticus 19.30 Remember the burning bush before God's message came to His servant Moses?

He reminded him of the reverence due his presence.

At 1 time during his earthly life, our Savior came to the temple in Jerusalem and found a lot of businessmen selling animals for sacrifice, and the money changers with their chatter.

Oh yes, they were fulfilling needful tasks.

The people needed the sacrifices and it was handy to buy them right there.

Then 2 foreign visitors wanted their money exchanged for the coin of the temple.

It seems that the priests themselves had a monopoly on the sale of doves for temple sacrifices and no doubt were charging exorbitant prices for them.

We would draw this inference from the words of our Savior when He said, Take these things hence, make not My Father's house an house of merchandise.

John 2.16 Immediately the din and confusion of the typical Oriental bazaar ceased.

The silence and reverence necessary for the true worship of God prevailed in the lovely temple.

Notice, when Jesus found irreverence, He did something about it.

Never should we behave in the church as in a common place.

The room in which divine services are held, although it may be simple, even used for other purposes at other times, should be entered with reverence and treated with reverence.

Moses felt unworthy even to look upon the glory of God, so he covered his face with his mantle.

He also removed his shoes in respect for the divine holiness.

If some people should treat their country's flag the way they treat the Bible, hymn books, communion cups, and church furniture, they would be imprisoned as insulters of the national honor.

King Belshazzar was condemned not merely for his drunken orgy, but for the irreverent handling of those golden vessels that had been consecrated to the service of God in the Temple of Jerusalem.

It is written, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

6 days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work.

But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work, out of thy son, daughter, manservant, maidservant, cattle, stranger than thy gates.

For in 6 days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rest of the seventh day.

Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

That is the fourth commandment found in Exodus 20.

We are to remember the Sabbath not only upon the day itself, but all through the week as we prepare for it.

Do we attend public worship regularly on the Sabbath?

Do not the Scriptures say, Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is?

Hebrews 10.25 We need Sabbath worship more and more as we come near the end of this age.

So much the more, as ye see the day approaching, said the apostle.

Almost anyone will defend the good name of his father or mother.

Surely we should be as considerate of God's name and not allow it to be spoken of lightly in our presence, at least not without our protest, we should be careful how we use the name of Deity.

We should always speak of God's name or His titles with respect and reverence.

It is written, Holy and Reverend is His name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

And, friends, we should remember that His name is holy, and that holy name should be spoken only in reverence and only in a worshipful manner.

God's name should never be used in a common careless way.

Read the last 7 verses of the 19th Psalm on this subject.

It has always seemed to me that we should treat even the volume of the Holy Book with respect.

In our home, Father would never permit us boys to lay any other book or object on top of the volume of the Holy Scriptures.

In this way he impressed us children that God's Word is supreme, that it is the Word of the Creator, that it is God's book, God's word to us and we must treat it as such.

Shawn Boonstra

Breaking Free

You know that thing you always do and wish you could stop?

That thing you kinda hate yourself for doing?

Well, today I'm going to show you something that might just be the key to finally breaking free.

Welcome to another edition of the Voice of Prophecy.

I'm your host, Sean Boonstra, and I am glad you have joined me today.

I want to go back in history to a time when you and I were both little kids, and you've got to admit that life looked pretty good back then.

I mean, even if your childhood wasn't easy, even if your home life wasn't particularly good, you still had an entire lifetime ahead of you, and you could dream about how great life was going to be.

I know when I was about 8 years old, I thought I was going to grow up and be 1 of the Dukes of Hazzard.

I was going to have an awesome car and get all the girls and live a life that was filled with adventure.

And then when I was a little bit older, my dreams shifted and I was going to run for public office and rule the world, or at least rule my corner of the world.

And I knew the adoring public would always re-elect me because they would always love me, of course.

Then I was going to write the great American novel, and then I was going to compose a symphony, and then I grew up and faced real life.

Just like you, I discovered that reality is a lot tougher than I thought it would be.

Sure, there are a handful of lucky and rarely talented people that actually manage to accomplish everything in their bucket list, but the rest of us generally find out that there's only time in life to do 1 or 2 things well.

And you know the other thing we find out?

All those people who cheered for us and gave all the kids a blue ribbon on sports day, they just kind of disappear.

After you grow up and leave home, the world stops offering you busloads of cheerleaders.

Not everything you do is wonderful anymore, and if anything, you seem to collect more critics than fans as you trudge your way through life.

And even your private life keeps getting harder.

You can't seem to make enough money, and maybe even your marriage or your home life isn't everything you always dreamed it would be.

We find some way to help us make it through.

And unfortunately, some of the mechanisms we actually use become as much of a problem as the stuff they were supposed to help with.

I know for me, it was a pretty significant coffee habit when I was just a young guy.

I mean, imagine this, I'm 18 years old in college and I'm drinking 24 cups of coffee every single day.

Now, those aren't the big cups, I guess, that they use at Starbucks.

Those are the little cups that are posted on the side of a coffee pot.

I don't actually know, but it was 4 pots of coffee every single day.

I had 1 with breakfast, I had 1 with lunch, I had 1 or 2 in the evening, and as you can imagine, I wasn't sleeping very well.

So the next morning I would get up and I was even more tired, so I needed more coffee, and on and on it went.

And then, like an idiot, as a teenager, I took up smoking.

Actually, I started that when I was 15, and so now I'm a coffee-drinking, pack-a-day smoker by the time I'm only 19 or 20 years old.

Which means, of course, that I was always broke, because after tuition and books and coffee and cigarettes, there wasn't much money left over for stuff like, oh, I don't know, food.

And I know that some of you are doing it, too.

You've got your own private little pharmacy at home.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Take Heed

19m

The Burning Bush

18m

Breaking Free

30m

We Can Do It!

59m

Prepare for the Unexpected

57m

For Better or for Best

56m

Single - Capture the Moment

53m

Meaningful Morning Time

56m

Constantine’s Bible

30m

Temples on Earth

17m

Our Need of the Holy Spirit

15m

The Sinner’s Prayer

18m

Sound Doctrine