Frank Fournier

Eden Valley SDA Church

Blessed Assurance

Grateful to everyone who's participated this morning.

I'd like to invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 8.

Fanny Crosby, you know who Fanny Crosby is, was.

To be able to hear a little piece of music and to be able to put words to that piece of music almost immediately.

She had a friend by the name of Phoebe Knapp.

Phoebe Knapp at 1 point had composed a piece of music.

She shared it with Fanny Crosby, and then she said to Fanny Crosby that the title of that little piece was Assurance.

And immediately, Fanny Crosby sang, Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine.

I assume the lady had an experience with Jesus.

God so loved the world that He gave me Jesus.

And with Jesus, we're told in Revelation 8, verse 32, He has freely given us all things.

And in all things is included eternal life in 1 John 5, verse 11.

I wish Everyone in the whole universe and the whole world would know that.

This is the plan of God for the salvation of the human race.

He has taken upon Himself the sin of the world.

He's paid the penalty for all of our sins.

He turns around and He gives to the human race eternal life.

And with the gift is eternal life, including all things." Do you have that blessed assurance?

Are you of a certainty an heir of salvation, purchased of God?

Has the Spirit communicated with your mind, with your heart, that you are born of the Spirit, washed in His blood?

We sang all that just a few minutes ago, and sometimes we sing words and we don't think about what we're singing because our minds are everywhere else.

But sometimes the words are applicable, and they're profound, and they're deep, and they should reach down into our hearts.

I was telling someone just a week ago that 1 Sabbath I was sitting in South River.

This is a little town in northern Ontario in Canada.

I don't remember a thing that he was preaching or saying, but all of a sudden it was as if God came down and He whispered something in my ear.

And as sure as I am standing here, God spoke to my heart.

How would you feel if God should come down and say to you, you will be in heaven?

Well, I felt as if heaven came down and glory filled my soul.

The room was filled with light and joy and glory as far as I'm concerned.

But Now I have a question to ask you this morning.

Do you think I felt that way every day since?

Because humanity is subject to all kinds of changes of circumstances.

Humanity is subject to all kinds of changes in surroundings and changes in feelings.

Sometimes I get tired and sometimes I get sick and sometimes I'm disappointed because someone has said something or even I have done something to disappoint myself.

Sometimes I assume danger where no danger exists.

Sometimes I anticipate disaster when I shouldn't be anticipating disaster.

And sometimes I should anticipate disaster that I don't anticipate.

And my feelings are so subjective that my feelings go up and down.

Now how much assurance can I place there?

Well, not very much because it's 2 subjectives, of course.

The thing that I must learn is that assurance is not based on feelings.

Assurance is not based on every wind that blows.

But assurance of salvation is based on immovable, unchangeable realities, immutable facts.

We lived at Fountainview Academy at the time.

About a half a mile down the road lived this young man's Stephen Ford at the time.

Interesting enough, My wife heard that Stephen wanted to ask me a question.

We had to kind of guess what the question might be.

But we could pretty well guess what the question might be.

We were leaving for Africa, by the way, in a little while.

Anyway, so in order to facilitate his asking me a question, somebody hired me to work in a lumber camp.

Now, I have done a lot of work in lumber camps when I was younger, But I was 39 at the time.

I don't know about you, but at the time I was teaching the Bible in an academy and that was the extent of my exercise.

And anyway, somebody did hire me to work in the lumber camp where Steve was working and we were traveling back and forth together, and we were staying in the same lumber cabin, whatever you call it, the bunkhouse together, and I was waiting for him to spring the question.

So I worked 1 week, And he didn't spring the question.

And I never worked so hard in all my life.

I don't know, those of you who don't know what a skidder is, it's a huge machine that you keep bouncing up and down off this machine.

Marriage Heart to Heart

Alane Waters

Tom Waters

Restoration International

Solution to Every Problem

I was thinking as we were singing that song together, sometimes, you know, the words of the song can just really take your heart deep into the thought.

I was thinking, you know, that's what we really need.

To understand more about how Jesus wants to work in our lives, moment by moment.

It's even difficult to convey but as we're sitting here today, God is interested in every problem that we have, friends.

In every situation that we're facing And every 1 of us here has some different twist to the things that we're facing.

None of us here are free of perplexities, free of trials, free of difficulties.

And that's the closing message of this series this weekend is the solution to every problem.

But You know, if we don't come to really know more about how Jesus, not just more about him, that song is not just talking about knowing more about him, like we can just know more about history.

You know, when he says there in Matthew 7 where he says the saddest words that mortals will ever hear, depart from me, I never knew you.

And remember he's not saying that to the world who's never taken him up upon their lips, who've never professed him.

He's saying that to the people who are saying, but Lord, I did these Bible studies.

Sadly, that's the people that Jesus will be saying it to.

And the reason he'll be saying it to those people is because they knew about Him.

They could talk about Him, but they never came into that marriage heart to heart with Jesus.

They never allowed Jesus to be merged into them so that that human nature that all of us struggle with was never really willing to be submerged under the divine nature of Christ.

You know that's how He lived His life here on earth.

He lived His life here on earth by allowing the human and divine to be portrayed.

A man walking on this earth for you and I.

And that's what he wants in our marriages, brothers and sisters.

He wants us to know so much about him and how it is that he leads us that he can bring us the solution to every problem that we face in our marriages.

And I'm thrilled, as we can share together today, because we are experiencing more and more of those answers in our marriage.

And I can truly say to you, at the beginning of this message today, it's not here in my notes, but I can say to you today, that there's no 1 on this earth that I would rather spend time with than my dear wife.

And that was not something I could say in the early part of our marriage.

There is no 1 that I would rather be with than my wife that God has given me and that is because God is teaching us how to rise above the problems.

You know if Tom would have said that to me years ago, those would have been very hurtful words.

But they're not hurtful, they're a joy to hear, because I know it's real.

I know from living with him that he likes being with me.

And that says a lot, especially to you husbands.

It's easier, I think, for a wife to just, oh, just enjoy being around their husbands.

I think they're more emotionally based, more emotionally attached, maybe more romantic, I don't know what the right word is, but it's not always that way with men.

Part of that attitude that men have has come from some of the world's solutions to problems.

Today we're going to be talking about solution to every problem.

We'd like to share with you some very classic popular counsel.

Not from God, but from what many families, husbands and wives, are getting from counselors that are man's ideas that are supposed to be a solution to their problem.

1 of the most common ones we hear when husbands and wives, they're young couples and they're struggling to get along and they're having some marital problems, she's very much himself and he's very much himself, and They go to someone and say, what do you think will help us to come together and have more unity in our home, to have a deeper relationship?

Now that sounds kind of funny in this setting, But that's true.

That is what people, young couples, are being counseled to do.

It will be a part of them and they'll stop being so selfish with each other because they will throw their lives together into the heart and into the life of this new child.

It does often have that temporary effect, but then, Like everything else, and I hate to say it this way, but like everything else, the newness of that experience, the emotion of that experience, wears away and it's not sufficient.

Now, it becomes more of the problem of the marriage.

Another area, and there's partial truth in this.

Just don't worry about your husband, just take care of yourself.

Now that is true, we should not worry about our husbands.

But we don't understand that taking care of ourself means our heart is surrendered to the will of God.

That taking care of yourself means you kind of do what you want to do, you buy what you want to buy, you go where you want to go, you have your own interests, let him do his thing, you do yours and you'll get along better.

That way you won't have to be irritated by his things and he won't be bugged by your things and you just go on in life doing those things together.

We know people today that have picked that idea up as a solution to their difficulties, and now they live separate lives in the same home.

That isn't what God is asking us to do, to solve the problems in a marriage, is it?

And we use, again, we use these kind of examples, they're stark, and some people think, wow, isn't that kind of far out?

But you know, in Many homes today, little elements of that start to crop up.

And if you will ask the Lord, is that happening in my home?

And start evaluating it on God's basis and you may find that There's symptoms of that in your own home where it's just easier to go this way by myself and not really talk about that with my wife and she goes this way.

You know 1 of the other things that is being said to solve these problems today.

If you'll start inviting people over to your house and here again, there's truth mixed with this.

You know the devil's good at mixing truth and error.

If you'll just have more social outreach, bring people into your home, get a crowd around you.

Yes, you'll be put in a position to interact better in that setting.

Because you really can't let them see who you really are.

Being a social butterfly, so to speak, is not the answer to solving the problems that God wants to solve.

I'd like to share a couple of verses from Paul.

These are God's words to us, and they really, when we stop and think about them, in the light of the discussion that we're having, and if we apply these words and we evaluate our lives by what this is saying, we'll find out that God has a special message for our hearts, everyone here, including our hearts here today, through these words.

1 Corinthians, the first chapter and the 21st verse, it says, the world by wisdom knew not God.

Isn't that what we've been talking about?

In the financial area, yesterday we talked about forgiveness.

Then in chapter 3 it continues and it says, Let no man deceive himself.

If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise." That's a message to our hearts.

If we think we've got the answers, let us become a fool in man's wisdom and let's learn how to really be wise with Christ.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

Money Matters

You know, talking about money is not always an easy topic, is it?

But this morning we're going to be talking about money, and the title of the message is Money Matters.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I guess depending on how you look at it, we need money in this present world that we live in.

We're not trading things and bartering as much as maybe they did back in the old days.

I've often thought it'd be nice, wouldn't it?

To go back to the days when everybody was industrious and everybody was working together.

I think back particularly when this nation was kind of starting out back there in the east and how people worked together and shared their talents and if 1 person had a talent in this area and maybe they were good with their hands at growing things, well, they could share those things, but it's not happening today, is it?

And so we're gonna be talking about how money matters today and we're gonna be talking about money matters.

The matters, the things that we have to deal with as a result of money.

Because unfortunately for many people today, money isn't just something that's a tool to live life.

And in many marriages, money has become a point of conflict because for 1 or the other, money has not just been a tool, money has become the reason for living.

And selfishness and difficulties arising from that.

So if we're gonna have a marriage that is heart to heart, you want a marriage like that?

We've got to deal with the money and how it matters in our marriages today and how we're going to deal with some of the differences that we come into marriage with because we aren't going to see everything the same when we come into a marriage, are we?

You know there's many different principles in God's Word on financial matters.

And in God's Word we find the clear direction that will answer all of our problems.

And we could spend several hours talking about each 1 of the ones we have found and that we have found the joy in bringing into our lives and implementing.

And in fact, Tom has shared a very in-depth message.

He actually does 2 messages called Uncommon Answers to Common Questions on Finances, and it's in this series here, Uncommon Answers to Common Questions.

So we're going to stay away from probably some of the more typical biblical principles, the more common biblical principles on financial management today.

And we want to talk about 2 that are very unusual.

You don't usually hear them discussed often in financial counseling, but they are very, very impactive, vital to having a wholesome, happy marriage union.

The first 1 we'd like to talk about this morning is found in Amos 3, verse 3, and this is what it says, Can 2 walk together except they be agreed?

You mean that that text that we've always thought related to spiritual issues is talking about can my husband and I walk together in harmony if we are not in agreement on what we do with the purse in our house?

You see, God's Word applies very personal to each of our lives.

It applies very intimately to each of our lives.

And we have found in our marriage that if we do not come to an agreement on how our finances, how our funds are to be used, we are going to have conflict in our marriage.

That's the first thing we want to talk about.

How to agree on how the money is to be used.

Now that won't happen like all the other things that we've been talking about.

That won't happen if there's not a willingness to surrender.

But if it doesn't happen, it can't be glossed over.

As we have worked with families all over the world in the area of finances, You cannot have disagreements in this area.

You cannot be in disharmony and disunity in finances and have a successful marriage union.

You can come to the place where you say, well, we're just not going to talk about this, but you will not have the full and free and open marriage union that represents Christ and His Church.

And that is what the marriage union is to represent in every part of the marriage.

Typically, what often happens is we come into marriage from 2 very different perspectives.

Maybe 1 person has come from a very easy to spend money background.

And the other 1 may have come from a saving background.

I know of 1 person, he said, you know, if I could make $50, 000 a year, I wouldn't have any financial problems.

If I could just make $50, 000 a year, I would not have the stresses.

But because he and his wife were not together in their marriage union in several areas, including finances, because they were not coming together and making decisions on how to use the money in accordance with God's plan for their lives.

They were not coming into communication together as to how they should use the money for their own needs in the marriage.

As a result, he wanted to spend the money his way and he just didn't feel like he had enough of it.

If he had $50, 000 instead of what he was making, then he could please his self and the way his spending habits were and he could also then meet some of the needs that his wife was feeling for saving some money, having some money set aside.

Well that individual in due time, in fact within a couple of years, was making $50, 000 a year, which is what he was...

Now I want to ask you, do you think that their finances came in line then?

Because if they couldn't agree on how to use their finances when they were making $15, 000 a year, and they weren't agreed on their finances when they're making $50, 000 a year, it doesn't matter.

They're still out of harmony and they're still using their money inappropriately.

When we think about the marriage union, of course, again, my mind, our minds always go to 1 Corinthians 13.

There is the complete description of the type of marriage as God wants us to have.

And the difficulty we find in marriages, in our own marriage, is the fact that self wants to seek its own way, and myself is different than my husband.

In the area of finances, If I seek my own way, that means I buy what I want to buy.

I spend the money the way I want to spend the money.

And every decision I make is in relationship to how it pleases me.

I am developing a very selfish spirit and I am preparing the way for conflict and heartache in our marriage.

See in our marriages we take the love that God wants to give us and that love is not a love for me alone, it's a love for us.

We think in our marriage relationship from the perspective of what it is for us and not just for me.

In our marriage we found the benefit of coming to understand this principle in Amos 3.3, can 2 walk together except they be agreed.

And recognizing that that verse is talking about even our pocketbook, even our finances.

Just because I was working and he was working, we know couples, this is my money and that's your money, you spend yours the way you want to, I'll spend mine the way I want to.

We know couples that when the wife doesn't work anymore, the husband still has this attitude, well, you know, I'll give you a little bit, but, you know, the rest of the money is mine.

This is our money that we are putting together for a common goal, and that is to live this life in this world through the power of Jesus Christ and have the means to accomplish that.

So we found the benefit of taking time to discuss our financial matters in the home.

First of all, we talked about our regular living expenses.

And that's, I think you all know what that means, that's our housing expenses, our utilities, our food to live on.

Now, I will tell you a little bit about my background.

In fact, that was a way I used to entertain myself.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Blessed Assurance

30m

Solution to Every Problem

50m

Money Matters

47m

Forgiveness

54m

Common Goals

54m

Respect and Restraint

51m

Singleness of Mind

56m

A Praying Man

1h 3m

Love in the End Times

37m

Scholars are Needed

35m

Growing Faith

36m

God is Patient

29m

Sound Doctrine