Anil Kanda

Ceres SDA Church

The Good Fight

You know, a couple days ago I had to go to the conference office and, you know, they were giving me a tour of the place, they were giving me a little office there.

Yet in my heart I just felt this emptiness.

And I just thought, man, I won't be seeing the same people every week.

And it just, these thoughts were just hitting my mind.

And I've had these kind of private moments of where I've, call it grieving or whatever you want to call it, but it definitely has been a time of ups and downs for me this whole week.

I've tried even not to be around people as much because just there's these moments that I had, you know, and I realize this because when you come together and you're part of a community, and not just any kind of community, but a spiritual community, and you give your heart and your mind, your life to this, you really connect and bond in ways that are much different, even from the world's way.

And I just want to say, for the last 7 and a half years that I've been here, I've been blessed so much by you guys.

You know, and I just want to say thank you so much for enriching my life.

I realize that I've given my most energetic years to this church.

But I have been just looking back, I've just been blessed.

And I just want to say thank you again for changing me through your example, through your experience, your love, and your commitment to the Lord.

So why don't we start with another word of prayer?

Let's ask God just to fill this place with his spirit, this message to be just directed by Him.

Father in heaven, thank you again for this time.

Lord, we just praise you for your goodness and kindness to us.

Thank you God for the last several years I've been able to be part of people's lives here and they've been part of my life.

And God, I thank you just for the richness, the blessings, the detours that you take our life through, the providences that bring people together for a certain time.

Thank you so much for all the things that you do for us.

Bless us now as we open up your word, as we jump into this message, in Jesus' name, amen.

The name of the sermon today is called, The Good Fight of Faith.

We're going to be talking about 1 of my favorite characters in all the Bible.

Learned a lot about Paul's life when I first became a Christian.

I found some books on the life of Paul, this ardent hero of faith who went around And probably perhaps 1 of the most powerful of all the Apostles of Christ You know, there's so much to the life of Paul that we can learn and grow from amen And what we're gonna be doing today is we're just gonna take just a quick journey into Paul's life I believe you'll be blessed as we open up God's Word.

You know, I was looking online this week and I came across a very interesting article and it's an article about you might have read it about a woman who's about 70 years old.

Yes, I'm the only 1 who reads these things.

She spent her whole life in the Siberian wilderness.

And the reason why the world came to know about her is simply because there were some geologists who were going into that area that were surveying the land and doing something with the ground.

They found out about her and they found out her and her family Actually had broke away from some church and they moved into the Siberian wilderness really just completely separated completely cut off and This woman lived 70 years her whole life in the Siberian wilderness Can you imagine that not venturing into town once except recently?

She hurt her leg and she had to be airlifted to the local hospital, which was about 130 miles away.

Now what's so amazing about this story is that I was going online after I read this story and I was thinking to myself, I wonder what a person who's been through that experience, what do they look like?

Can you imagine what they might look like?

Perhaps you might see someone like a Grizzly Adams look, right?

Perhaps you can look at somebody and say, maybe a Davy Crockett, a female version of Davy Crockett.

I wonder what somebody would look like well I didn't put the picture up but man when you look at this person's face can you imagine that You know what she read by the way her reading material consisted of?

The Bible and books on prayer The Bible and books on prayer But when you look at this woman's face And you see this woman that has been out there in the woods, the wilderness for so long.

The only things that really bothered her were bears and foxes who were trying to take her food from her all the time.

You look at this woman's face and there are these deep lines that are in her face.

You look at this woman's face and you begin to see these eyes that are sunken in.

And as you're looking and examining the details of this woman's face, because the face reveals the experience of the person, You see somebody with very tender eyes, completely alone, yet God was with her, even in a place like that.

Have you ever noticed somebody who's been through an experience and their face actually changes like it actually Morphs right it looks different than the way it did before the experience right in fact when you read the book desire of ages I don't mind says that Jesus when he came back from 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, that when he showed up, the very first place he went was to that wedding in Cana, and that the traces of conflict were all over his face.

And when his mom saw him, she was quite surprised.

40 days, you can imagine what that would do to somebody.

1 time I preached this evangelistic series.

I never forgot, I went to go visit my mom down in Southern, California And the first thing she did she's like she saw me and she's like what happened to you Loving hasn't it But have you ever been through an experience?

Sometimes you look at these like pictures of presidents, right?

People before they start their presidency and then after they start their presidency, 7 years later, right?

You look at the pictures of Obama and his hair is gray, the wrinkles Or the pictures of the former president president Bush right and you can just see the amount of stress and the amount of pressure that has just Changed or altered even the physical structure of their face now.

Because imagine if you were to look at somebody in the Bible Who's been through a range of experiences and you look at their face.

And the person I'm talking about today is Paul Can you imagine what Paul looked like?

Can you imagine what his, the way his face changed through all these experiences?

The Bible says he was beaten several times, right?

Can you imagine what somebody like that probably looks like when I thought about this morning?

I thought to myself he probably looks like a boxer after a fight Have you ever seen a boxer after a fight?

Yeah, you can see them, but they really can't see you right their faces are just swollen now I don't know if Paul really looked like that but I imagine Paul after his many years of experiences here he is he's writing some of the last Letters to his disciples People like Timothy I can imagine just the look on his face The wrinkles the traces of conflict.

I mean you look at this guy you would think man.

This guy has been through some battles right What we're gonna be doing today again is we're going to be looking at the life of Paul, specifically the last part of his life.

Everybody take your Bible, let's go to the book of Acts.

The book of Acts is a narrative written by Luke.

Sometimes they call it the second gospel of Luke.

It's a continuation of what happens after Luke's gospel.

There are certain parts in this Book of Acts in which the scene focuses on the early church then upon Peter then upon John and Eventually the remainder of the book begins to hone in on Paul the Bible tells something very interesting about Paul.

He was 1 born out of due time 1 born out of due time.

The Bible says not by the will of man But by God he learned the gospel He says in Corinthians by the revelation of God.

This is a man who was chosen by God for a powerful work He did probably much more than the other disciples did although not in any way diminishing what they did But the man Paul did a mighty work and when you look at this man's life.

He is an example to all Believers, Can you say amen to that?

What's so amazing at the end of Acts chapter 20?

The end of the book of Acts Paul has this burning desire to take the gospel back to Jerusalem.

He left Jerusalem with the message of persecution and death from the Jewish leaders.

And now at the end of his life, it comes full circle and he's going back to Jerusalem.

Not this time with the message of death and persecution, but a message of love and life The entire ministry of Paul comes full circle right here He left Jerusalem to hunt down Christians and now He's coming back to make more Christians.

What's so amazing friends 1 thing you may know in life as you continue to follow the Lord He will bring you full circle back to the very place You started For what reason?

In fact, I was reading a book by Ravi Zacharias, his testimony Very interesting when he was a young man.

Kameron DeVasher

NEC Youth

2. Live

We laid the foundation, the theological philosophical foundation, that all sin, all transgression of the law is a form of selfishness, is an extension of that selfish principle in the heart.

I wanted to share with you a statement from the pen of inspiration.

If you brought your 1888 materials with you, you can open up to page 1763.

Satan's first sin was a manifestation of selfishness.

A species of insanity led him to seek to supersede God.

And the temptation that led Adam to sin was Satan's declaration that it was possible for man to attain to something more than he already enjoyed, possible for him to be as God himself.

The sowing of seeds of selfishness in the human heart was the first result of the entrance of sin into the world.

God desires everyone to understand the evil of selfishness and to cooperate with him in guarding the human family against its terrible deceptive powers.

And then it aids these finishing 2 sentences and all of that encompass what we covered this morning.

Now we transition from what the problem is to what do we do about it?

The design of the gospel is to confront this evil by means of remedial missionary work and to destroy its destructive power by establishing enterprises of benevolence.

The goal, the aim of the gospel is to confront this evil and to offer a solution in working for others.

As we begin our final message this evening, please bow with your heads with me for a word of prayer.

Again, Heavenly Father, what a blessing it has been today here in the North England Youth Conference, Youth Day.

Lord, we have studied your word, we have sung praises to your name, and now, Lord, we want not only to be filled with your Spirit, we don't want to just be faithful to you, Lord, we want to be useful for your cause.

Teach us, Lord, to think not of ourselves but to others, to minister to others as Christ would have us, so we can hasten this coming of Christ and see Him face to face.

Matthew chapter 12, verses 43 through 45 gives us a principle we're gonna build on for our closing message.

Thinking about not thinking about something never works.

It does not work to think about not thinking about something.

In fact, if I told you something to not think about, you would start thinking about it.

Just the mention of it, the topic itself, makes you think about it.

So not thinking about something, by not thinking about it, doesn't work.

Matthew chapter 12, starting with verse 43, Jesus addressed this type of thinking.

He says, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, and hopefully today we killed some selfishness, amen?

He goes through dry places, seeking rest and finds none.

Now notice that the, what he's talking about here is not the man, he's talking about the unclean spirit.

He goes out, seeking rest and finds none, so where does he decide to go?

Verse 44, then he says, I will return to my house from which I came.

Well, he kicked me out of the house, cleaned the place up, but left it empty so I'm just gonna move back in.

Then verse 45, then he goes and takes with him 7 other spirits more wicked than himself.

And the last state of the man is worse than the first." He says, so shall it be with this wicked generation, applying it to the heroes in his day.

But there surely has to be a lesson for us.

Focusing on your need to be less selfish is still actually being selfish.

If you dwell on, how can I not think about myself so much today?

You are doing the thing you don't want to do.

So you might have kicked it out but you haven't filled it with anything else and often the focus on yourself comes back.

God designs to fill your life with something besides continual concern for yourself.

You exist not unto yourself, but God has a purpose for you to do something for other people.

First Corinthians chapter 13 is the love chapter, and it describes the nature of God.

For instance, God is love, scripture says, and First Corinthians 13 tells us what love is.

1 Corinthians chapter 13, the Apostle Paul writing under inspiration says, in verse 4, Love suffers long and is kind.

And notice the contrast, what we were talking about today, against selfishness.

It says, love does not envy, that means want stuff for itself.

Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, like the arrogance of Lucifer.

It does not behave rudely, and notice this, it does not seek what?

So if you're not seeking your own, you're seeking for others.

Love is that principle of putting others first, seeking not your own but looking after the needs of others.

John chapter 3 and verse 16, you probably all know it by heart, but for God so loved the world that he what?

Notice that continually there's a synonymous relationship, a parallel between loving and giving.

Love always manifests itself in giving for others.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

Here again the Apostle Paul returns to this theme, Galatians chapter 2 in verse 25.

He talks about his crucifixion with Christ, what we spoke about this morning, and then he says this.

I'm sorry I gave you the wrong text there.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives where?

He didn't just die to self, he puts Christ's life in.

The Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, and he defines who that Son of God is, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Notice he sees God as, and Jesus Christ as the 1 who loved me and gave himself for me.

Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 25, husbands love your wives.

Love always, the true love is always expressed in giving yourself for others.

We're gonna do a very brief survey of the life of Christ, very quickly thumbing through scripture, but I want to show you a pattern.

Matthew chapter 4, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness to seek for his own, but he chooses not to.

He lives not by bread, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, he thwarts the attacks of Satan, and then he heads off into ministry.

Then in chapter 5, 6 and 7, he stands up and gives what is now known as the Sermon on the Mount.

1. Die

I believe the Lord truly has a message for us this morning, and I'm happy to be with you.

Excited, as was mentioned, first time, at least for me and my mother, especially over the Atlantic Ocean into the great UK.

I appreciate the hospitality, and I was so excited that not only was I going to a distant far land, but they already spoke English.

And then I started to eavesdrop on the dialogue and conversation, and I realized we still might need a translator.

So if you understand me, praise the Lord.

If you do not, pray to the Lord, and perhaps we'll have an Acts 2 experience this morning indeed.

But I'm so happy that the sentiment of amen is universal.

And today I hope that we will have an opportunity to see from the Lord's Word, something that will give us pause, something that will stir our soul, and something that will make us say, Amen for His greatness.

And of course, I bring greetings from the rest of the world field, from the churches in Muskegon and Fremont, Michigan, and the cold USA, over here to sunny, warm England.

But isn't it exciting to be part of God's worldwide end time movement?

And as we look at the world around us, it is no joke at all that Jesus is coming soon.

He wants to have a people ready for that coming who prepare other people for that coming.

This morning's message will be more philosophical and laying a theological framework, an idea planted in the mind that this afternoon and evening we will develop into practical application.

This morning we're gonna be laying a foundation of thought from God's word.

Hopefully it will be clear, but more importantly it will be convicting and through the power of the Holy Spirit perhaps even converting to those who need that grace in their life.

So as we begin any study of the word of God, we need to of course begin with a word of prayer.

To Heavenly Father, Lord again on this Sabbath day, we pause just for a moment to thank you and to ask a special request at this time.

Lord, let us treat these moments carefully.

Lord, as we open your word, we ask that the same Holy Spirit who inspired its writing will now inspire our understanding.

And through your power alone, Lord, write the application on our hearts.

Not only teach us, Lord, but we ask you to change us into the very image of Jesus, for we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

The premise I would like to develop this morning is very simple, in that it is that Sin is at its most foundation, it is brass tacks, you strip it to its most elemental form, sin is selfishness.

Now as an assembly of good, Bible-believing, Seventh-day Adventist Christians, which, by the way, is there any other type of Seventh-day Adventist Christian?

If there is, they need to be converted, because we all need to be Bible-believing Seventh-day Adventist Christians.

That's a whole other topic for another time, but as Bible-believing Seventh-Davenist Christians, when you hear the phrase, sin is, I know you automatically go to 1 John chapter 3 and verse 4 in your mind, and you finish the sentence, sin is the transgression of the law.

Which sin is the transgression of the law, so how can I stand here and say that sin is selfishness when we already have a biblical definition of sin that says sin is the transgression of the law?

What would help us to understand the law that sin transgresses?

You know where it is in Exodus chapter 20, but you probably have it hidden in your heart, I would assume, I would hope.

But in Exodus chapter 20, the law of God is articulated by the mouth of the Lord himself, and in the first table of the law, the first 4 commandments, they reveal man's duty, your duty to your God.

Have no other gods before me, says the Lord.

You are to make no graven images, no idols, no idolatry.

You remember to keep the Sabbath holy, man's duty to God.

The second table of law continues about man's duty to others, my duty to you, your duty to me.

We're to not kill, not commit adultery, not steal, not be dishonest, not envy, covet.

My role is to, I have a duty to the Lord and I have a duty to my fellow man, to give to the Lord what is His and to respect the things of others, their marriage, their life, their things.

Matthew chapter 22, Jesus was tested upon his understanding of the nature of the law and its foundation principles, the premises upon which it was established.

Matthew chapter 22 and verse 37, Jesus was tested on this point.

And in fact, we'll start with verse 34 to give it a little broader context.

Scripture says, But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

Now if you expand this chapter, and I would urge you to do that, anytime you see Scripture, go back and reread it and get the broader context to check the preacher to make sure he's correct, but also to edify yourself to see what's really being said.

But here, the Pharisees and Sadducees had this dispute and Jesus just repeatedly takes 1 down and breaks down their argument and silences them and the next 1 rises up.

And at some point you would assume that they would learn, but no, no.

And here, again verse 34, but when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

Then 1 of them, a law, you're asking him a question, testing him and saying, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to them, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In verse 40, on these 2 commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Notice that Christ didn't articulate each practical application, but he expanded out to their broader principles.

He says it's a duty to God, and you have a duty to man.

And if you notice here, in God's law, There is no third table of the law.

There is no 11th commandment that says, to thine own self be true.

You caring for you is nowhere in God's law.

You caring for the Lord, you caring for others is the entirety of the law.

These are the 2 tables, there's not a third table.

There is no thou shalt take care of thyself.

God's law is built on others, not on self.

God's government operates not just primarily, but exclusively on a platform of selflessness.

His law, in turn, step by step, point by point, merely articulates practical application of that principle of selflessness.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

The Good Fight

46m

2. Live

45m

1. Die

55m

The 144,000 and the New Jerusalem

42m

Incarnation: The Regeneration

41m

Incarnation: The Reunion

21m

Incarnation: The Reality

36m

Our Moment, Our Opportunity

38m

Appellate Decision Restricts Christian Pharmacy/Pharmacists

14m

He Has the Whole World in His Hands

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Refreshing Stream

42m

How the World Began

27m

Sound Doctrine