Restoration 2014: Rest for the Restless

God's Love Stories (Noon Meetings)

Anil Kanda

Restoration Ministry

11. Part 2 - Jesus and the Wedding

All right, have you guys enjoyed the last 2 weeks?

Amen, I just wanna share a couple thoughts with you and then we'll close.

We may have a question and answer session if you'd like to stay behind.

Why don't we bow our heads for a word of prayer?

Father in heaven, thank you again for this time.

Thank you Lord for all that you taught us the last 2 weeks.

God, we are praying that you would continue to instruct us.

You said, blessed is the man who you instruct.

And so Lord, we pray we'd always be learners at your feet.

When you're reading the scripture, you find a pattern that develops.

When you read about creation, you find that God ends creation with this marriage ceremony that takes place with Adam and Eve.

When you see the work of redemption, The very first thing Jesus goes to, the very first place he goes to, right after he's baptized, he goes to a marriage.

And then you read about glorification and the Bible talks in Revelation about the marriage Supper of the Lamb.

And so you see that anytime that God is in a phase, a major phase of working with humanity, whether it be creation, redemption, or glorification, He seems to signify something very special by a marriage activity.

What's very interesting is this, God honors marriage, amen?

He loves marriage and he blesses marriage.

And especially when he is invited to be part of that marriage, He is going to take it to new heights and depths.

It couldn't have gone if it was not with Him.

I was thinking about all the married people I know, thinking about their marriage and the way it's been going.

When you read John chapter 2 and Jesus shows up at a wedding, he helps out in the situation and the master of the feast says something interesting.

He says this, he says, normally when I go to weddings, people bring out the best stuff in the beginning and then they go to the decent stuff.

But he says, this wedding is different because you brought out the good stuff and it's only gotten better.

When Jesus is part of your marriage life and your relationship what you're going to discover is instead of it starting off really good and just sort of dwindling down or becoming like the rest of the world, just like the master of the feast said, it will have a very unique direction.

And then love will be unfolded and experienced in new ways if 2 hearts are submissive to the Spirit of God.

I 1 time was speaking at a wedding and I told this to these people, I said this.

I said, a good man marries the woman he loves, amen?

A better man loves the woman he has married.

I was trying to express this thought that love is to be a principle that is to be unfolding and extending and growing throughout the marriage relationship.

And oftentimes the feelings won't always be there.

But it will be a principle that will be part of your existence together.

And this relationship can glorify God more than probably any other kind of relationship that is earthly and human.

God wants to bless you and as you dedicate this to him he will lead and guide.

My blessing for you as a pastor, a pastoral blessing is that you would find the right person, if you found the right kind of person, my blessing to you is that that would be an experience of you 2 coming closer and closer to God and reflecting his character, and I love what Josh says, learning more and more about your own self and where you yourself need to grow or change and head into that direction of becoming more Christ-like.

All right, let's take the next few minutes, 5 minutes maybe, to do a Q&A to talk about things that will permanently affect the rest of your life.

Otherwise, I just like, okay, you guys are ready.

Any questions anybody has about something we covered?

I've asked you a lot of questions, you ask me a question now.

Can you actually utilize this in your own life?

And the answer is yes, though, to that question.

How are you utilizing the state that you have to be in?

Would you recommend any other books for people to read who are maybe going into a relationship.

The question is, would you recommend any other kinds of books?

You know what, there's a variety of books out in the Christian world right now, you know, Letting God Write Your Love Story, or I Kissed Dating Goodbye.

You know, here's the thing, You're not to base everything upon 1 book.

Everything should be based upon the scriptural principles and following the spirit of God and getting guidance.

But it's good to get a wide spectrum of authors because there may be things applicable to your life.

My good friend, Nicole Parker, she's writing a book, and she has seminars on audio verse about relationships.

But she said the name of her book is going to be called Crawling in Love.

And I think that's going to be a wonderful guide as well that you maybe want to incorporate.

But you have various authors and seminar speakers and that I think like, you know, what is it?

You know, various books like that, that would be really helpful.

By the way, 1 of the worst things you do is this.

I went to a seminar 1 time, right after I became Adventist with my friend, it was at GYC.

This guy was talking about relationships.

A lot of people were crowding in around him, okay?

And so me and my friend were talking to him, and said, hey, we just have a couple questions.

And there's a lot of people just trying to get through, it was just very packed.

And he's like, yeah, So he answered our question, he says, hey, I wanna pray for you guys.

And he puts his hand on me and he starts praying out loud.

I opened my eye, I'm like, this is so embarrassing.

I mean, literally everyone was shoulder to shoulder and he was praying because I was single.

Dwayne Lemon

PTH Ministries

Set Your House In Order

Very thankful to be here with you all as we are here dealing with family life and talking about the home and throughout the week from Thursday night we've been connecting.

We've been looking at Bible prophecy and seeing how Bible prophecy presents a very thorough platform, even an impetus, a stimulus, to why we need to get our homes in order.

And I believe that there will be no exception as it relates to what God wants to share with us even this afternoon.

In order for us to receive what the Lord wants to give, it is imperative that God gives us ears to hear.

And as a result of that, we cannot obtain it by might or by power, but only by God's spirit.

And the Bible teaches that God's Spirit does not come by default.

But the Bible teaches us in Luke 11 and verse 13 that the same way that an earthly father wants to give good gifts unto his children, it says, even so, how much the more shall our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.

And you know that asking is synonymous to prayer.

And so if we want to have ears to hear what the Spirit wants to say to the church this afternoon, then we need to take a moment for prayer.

And so even though I know it's fairly crowded in here, I believe that if there's enough room, that if we can, let's kneel together as we approach the Lord in prayer.

And if you can't kneel, then you just bow your heads where you are reverently, but if you can kneel, Let's kneel together and let us approach the Lord in prayer this time.

Our loving Father, we are very grateful that you have privileged us to come together, even in the house of prayer where there is healing, that we can hear your spirit speak unto our hearts and show us how to be a people prepared to meet our God.

Father, we recognize that we have sinned against you in word, thoughts, and deeds.

And for these things, we beg of your forgiveness.

And we're so grateful that you're abundant in mercy.

Your word tells us that you even love to be merciful to us.

And so, Lord, I praise you and thank you so much that we can claim the mercy of God if we come to thee in faith.

Therefore, dear God, I now ask not only for the forgiveness of our sins, but we ask for power.

Lord, what has to take place during this hour cannot be done by simple might or power.

And so we ask for the presence of your Holy Spirit to come into our hearts, not just the building, but our hearts and that you would grant us the mind of Christ that will be able to hear your words and not only hear them, but be doers of your word.

And I am grateful that you have heard this prayer.

And Lord, while on others you're going to bless this afternoon, I pray please do not pass me by.

I am asking for a fresh revelation of Jesus Christ for myself.

I am asking that you will help me to get a clearer understanding of your word even as I speak it to your people.

And I thank you that you have heard this prayer.

And I trust that you have answered it for I ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

I would like to invite you to turn your Bible to the book of Revelation, the 13th chapter.

We are going to Revelation, the 13th chapter, and we are going to read verses 1 to 3, and then we are going to read verses 11 to 17.

And when you get there, just let me know by saying amen.

The Bible says in Revelation 13, starting at verse 1, and if you're there, please say amen.

And what I will do is I'll read verse 1 and you'll read verse 2 and then I'll read verse 3 and then you will pick up again in verse 11 and we will take it down to verse 17 interchangeably.

So the Bible says in Revelation 13 in verse 1, "'And I stood upon the sand of the sea "'and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having 7 heads and 10 horns, and upon his horns 10 crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the people of Egypt saw the fire of the Lamb, and his face was like the face of a deer, and his mouth was the mouth of a lion, and his body gave him his power, and his feet and his great power.

And I saw 1 of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed.

It says all the world wondered after the beast.

And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.

And he drew his great point so that men would find a crown on the earth.

And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live.

And he hath not vowed to be unbiased in the giving of the beast, but hath given it to the beast to receive.

I call upon the image that shall be offered to the forgiving of human beings, that they may be able to do so.

And he calls us all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, verse 17, together, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.

I have entitled our message, Set Your House in Order.

In Revelation, the 13th chapter, we have opened before us what is known as prophetic agitations, prophetic agitations.

And though the Bible is replete with many prophetic agitations, The reason why Revelation 13 is very significant to us is because in Revelation 13, the Bible reveals to us what is known as the last act in the drama.

It is the very last efforts of Satan in playing the game of life for human beings.

He is going to impress upon the hearts of the world at large something that the Bible calls the mark of the beast.

You know Jesus always believed in warnings.

That's why 1 of the words that would come out of Jesus's mouth often is he would say, take heed.

And any time Christ would use those 2 words, take heed, that was Jesus's way of trying to say, I am warning you.

So therefore, it is in the manner of Christ that I come to God's people even today, and I am telling God's people, take heed.

We need to set our houses in order, brothers and sisters, because we're living in very serious and very solemn times.

And the Bible is letting us know that there are things that are taking place and have been taking place for a long time in our world, perhaps even before many of us in this room were born, but it is about to reach its climax.

And when it gets to the height of heights of what the prophetic agitations are pointing out to us, there are going to be some very serious ramifications.

The Bible just said that if any man does not worship the image of the beast and receive his mark that They'll be killed.

It says they're buying and they're selling privileges will be removed from them.

And this is not a fairy tale This is prophetic truth And this is why God is not raising up churches just simply to join hands and sing kumbaya with every other denomination and let them know that Jesus simply loves them.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus does love us and he loves us enough to tell us the truth.

Because he knows that truth has a very powerful effect.

Go to the book of John, the eighth chapter, and let me show you the effect of truth.

You see, all of what we're reading in Revelation 13 is simply Satan's last act in the drama to keep God's people in a certain experience.

And I want you to see how The Bible brings them both out as we look at John the 8th chapter, and we're going to look at verses 32 to 34.

The Bible says in John the 8th chapter, and now we're considering verses 32 to 34, and if you're there, please say, Amen.

The Bible says in John 8 and verses 32 to 34, it says, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth is gonna do something.

Well, in verse 33, the Jews missed it, And they show it here because it says they answered him, we be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man.

So Jesus now clarifies the point even more by stating in verse 34, Jesus answered them, verily, verily I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

The Mark of the Beast is about keeping and securing God's people in sin.

That's what the Mark of the Beast is all about, is Satan's last effort to secure God's people in sin.

So Christ wants to give the message of truth because truth is the only thing that can break the bondage of sin.

And this is why truth is imperative in these very last moments of earth's history, not lies.

And this is why we learned last night that how many lies are connected to truth?

We learned that no lie, 1 John 2 and verse 21, we learn no lie is of the truth.

No lie, doesn't matter if the lie is white, it doesn't matter if it's black.

It doesn't matter if it is something that we call innocent or something that we call horrible.

There is no lie that is connected to Jesus.

All lies are birthed from the heart of Satan.

We learned that last night in John 8 in verse 44.

So there's no lie that we can ever tell, and that's why all ministers should come before God's people not to give lies, but to tell the truth.

And brothers and sisters, I'm here to tell you the truth.

I am here to let you know that something very serious is getting ready to take place in our world, and God desires us to receive the truth, because when we receive the truth, the effect is it makes us free from this last act to keep us in the bondage of sin.

And therefore, I believe it is imperative for us to study prophetic agitations.

You see, it was in that wonderful little book called Daniel.

Joe Kim

Bass Memorial Academy Church

The Sabbath: Winning Back Our Young People

Our Father in Heaven, we do want to know you more.

We do want to experience your love in our hearts.

I pray then Lord that you would teach us today, as we learn doctrine, may we learn Jesus better today and His cross.

For we ask these things in the name of Jesus.

There was a very famous, I hardly talk about secular things in the pulpit, but there was a very, very well known football player he was a college ballplayer his story came out about a year and a half ago he ended up almost winning the most prestigious award that a college football player can win, which is called the Heisman Trophy.

In fact, that's probably the most prestigious award that any athlete can win in the world.

Maybe, probably more well known than maybe a gold medal in the Olympics.

And he played for probably the most prestigious college football program in the country.

Through history, I mean, not currently, but through history.

And what was remarkable about this young man was he played on the side of the ball that you wouldn't expect someone to gain a lot of notoriety on defense.

Mostly people who win a Heisman Trophy are quarterbacks who throw the ball or running backs who run the ball.

But he played defense, which is unheard of.

And he got second place, which is unheard of.

And during this season that he was having, which was remarkable, He led his team all the way to the championship game.

And so his story got more and more famous as the year went on.

And people would surround his locker after every game, how did you do it?

How are you having such a magnificent year, Manti?" He played for Notre Dame, by the way.

And he began to open up his heart to the media.

And he started to say Things like, you know, my grandmother, my dear grandmother, died this year.

And he is of, I believe, either Polynesian background or Samoan, but he lived from, he was from Hawaii.

And I'm dedicating my football season to my grandmother who died this year.

And not only this, Manti said also within a couple weeks, I don't want to talk about this too much, but my girlfriend died.

I met her about 2 years ago after a football game in Stanford.

And she died within a couple of weeks of my grandmother's funeral.

And I'm dedicating my football season to her, too.

And as you might imagine, the media just ate it up.

Long write-ups in like Sports Illustrated and every media news outlet you can imagine.

Interviews from New York Times to LA Times.

And the media circus just increased and increased.

And you might imagine, after his team made it all the way to the championship, this is all they wanted to talk about.

And about 3 to 4 days later after the game, and this is how I learned about this story, actually, about 3 to 4 years after the championship game, rumors started to spread that this girlfriend never existed.

And in fact, rumors started to spread that Manti made up this girlfriend And the whole country felt duped.

And then reporters started surrounding him, why are you telling us this lie?

Why are you telling us about this girlfriend you never had?

Why did you almost win the biggest award in history and try to leak our hearts about this?

And the president of Notre Dame, you know, the athletic director of Notre Dame, I think it was the president, actually, stood up, probably the most prestigious position in the country in terms of colleges because of the athletics of that school.

He stood up behind a microphone with a packed audience of reporters.

And the whole world's like, what are you talking about?

In fact, this president said, I put my name behind the fact that Manta is not lying.

And the whole world, whole country, you've got to be kidding.

And they went back around Manta, how could you be fooled?

You mean to tell me, after 2 years, you thought you had a girlfriend when they turned out to be fake?

What a puzzling, this is just the weirdest, weirdest story.

It turned out sometime in September after his girlfriend had died.

Sometime in mid-December, this man-tie got a phone call from this girlfriend saying that she was alive and then Manti said that he was just amazed what happened.

You see it was a friend that was pretending to be this girlfriend on the phone through all those phone conversations for over those years.

And they kept on asking Mantai, you mean to tell me you fell in love with a girl you never met?

You just talked on the phone and had a Facebook conversation and you fell in love?

Back to Menu

All Teachings

11. Part 2 - Jesus and the Wedding

26m

Set Your House In Order

1h 50m

The Sabbath: Winning Back Our Young People

53m

Ten Steps to Healing

47m

10. Doing Right

43m

9. Starting Right

42m

8. Praying Right

39m

7. Choosing Right

45m

6. From Sikhism Hinduism to Seeking Him

1h 42m

5. From Tragedy to Triumph: The Problem of Evil

1h 30m

4. Eternity Past and the Risk of God

1h 25m

3. Dinner With Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and Krishna

1h 2m

Sound Doctrine