Steps to Christ

Daniel Jean-Francois

Muskegon SDA Church

Growing Up Into Christ

Now, Pastor DeVasher basically told me that you guys are going through a series on the steps to Christ.

And I'm going to preach on chapter 8 on growing up into Christ.

Now, you know, in the Christian walk, understanding how the process go is difficult at times, where the Lord starts to show you things about yourself, and you're like, Lord, you mean I have to get rid of this here?

Oh, Lord, this is an uneasy feeling, right?

And the thing is that we have to understand this is the process.

And the Lord is doing something special within us because he wants to present us a certain way, amen?

When we used to be disciplined as children at home, the parents, my parents, who always say, well, we do this because we love you.

And there are times where that's what God is telling us.

He does things for us because he loves us.

So we don't want to look at this as just discipline, but his love for us, and he wants to shape us and mold us into his character.

Now, what's interesting here in this passage that we've read, Jesus is heading closer to the end of his ministry.

And there's a quote in desire of ages where Sister White says that how we need to reflect at least an hour each day on the closing scenes of Christ.

Now, that doesn't mean I'm going to preach for an hour, okay?

And but we need to reflect, okay, on what Jesus was doing prior to the cross and the closing scenes.

And here, he's getting closer to the end of the scene, and he wants to teach his disciples certain lessons before he leaves.

And you know, Julie, if the Lord is telling them that, look, I'm about to leave, I'm going to die.

Was that something that the disciples was happy about?

You know, because they spent 3 and a half years with Jesus.

That was their friend, their teacher, their father figure, a brother, right?

And you could just imagine that they're like, wait a minute, are you going to leave us?

And he's saying, yes, I'm going to leave, but you're not going to be alone.

And that's the special thing about the gospel.

And so when we look at here, here, he's at the closing end of his ministry.

And he says in the beginning of the in the first verse that I am the true what vine.

Now, this is 1 of the 1 of the I am's in the Bible, in the book of John.

Obviously, you know that he says I am the good shepherd.

I am the way I am the truth and the life.

So you see, Jesus is basically sharing that he is the true vibe.

He's using an illustration of a great vineyard, And he wants to illustrate what does it mean to grow up into Christ?

So, in order for us to understand why he's sharing this with the disciples, Let's look at the context.

Let's look at some chapters prior to chapter 15.

And here, this is where we have the Last Supper.

And many of us know that we actually practice the Last Supper, and this is talking about the ordinance of humility, where Christ wanted to wash Peter's feet.

That he didn't want Jesus to wash his feet, right?

So here it says, Jesus answered and said unto him, what I do that thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.

Peter said unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet.

If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

Peter said unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

Here, verse 11, verse 10, it says, Jesus said to him, he that is washed, neither is not saved to wash his feet, but is clean everywit.

And here Jesus is letting the disciples know that there are many of you that are clean, but there's 1 of you that is not clean.

And here the disciples was confused and after the washing of the feet, they actually had time when they broke bread together.

And then Jesus told them that 1 of them is going to betray him.

So here where we go further down in verse 26, let's see what Jesus has to say here.

In verse 26 of chapter 13, it says, Jesus answered, he it is to whom I shall give a sob when I have dipped it.

And when he had dipped the sob, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

And after the sob, Satan entered into him, then said Jesus unto him, that thou doest do quickly.

Jesus spent 3 and a half years ministering with the disciples, including Judas.

Judas came in to be a follower of Jesus Christ when he saw all the multitudes of people flocking after Jesus.

And here he was going out, even casting out demons and healing the sick.

And Jesus says, look, what you have to do, do it quickly.

And as Jesus and the disciples left the upper room, they were going towards Gethsemane.

And as they were going towards Gethsemane, they were passing through a great vineyard.

Because he's wanting to show the disciples what happened and how you could get to a point in your Christian experience where you won't leave me.

What do you need to do to stay connected so you won't be like Judas?

So as we go into, let's go to John chapter 15 now.

John chapter 15, he's about to explain what does it mean to stay connected.

And as you read verses 1 through 3, it says, I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman, or vinedresser, every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purchase it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now you are clean through the, what everyone?

So here Jesus is explaining to the disciples, the way you stay connected is for the branches to be connected to the vine.

And you can see that the Godhead has a role to play for the salvation of souls.

You see, the father is divine dresser, and then you have the fruit, which is the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit.

Now, I want you to think, why is Jesus sharing this at this moment?

Again, we talked about, we just shared earlier that The disciples were wondering why Jesus had to leave.

But he's trying to share with them and says, look, because I am leaving, because I want to be a blessing to others and throughout the world, this is how you can stay close to me.

Now, what's interesting here is that when you look at him saying that I am the true vine, the Jews had always regarded the most notable plant and a type that a type of all that was powerful, excellent and fruitful.

God's people from the beginning were represented as a vine.

When you look at Psalm 80, verse 8, it says God has brought the vine out of Egypt.

Jeremiah 2.21, God planted Israel as a noble vine.

Royce Snyman

The Test of Discipleship

I'm glad to be here with you today and worshiping in God's house.

And I bring you greetings from the conference office.

Thank you for treating your pastor well and letting him have a vacation.

Well, maybe you didn't let him have 1, but he took 1.

And I know that he'll be better for it when he gets back.

I don't usually have a church that worries about the preacher not having enough time to preach because they're taking too much time talking about soul winning and outreach.

If the preacher needs to shorten the sermon so you can talk more about outreach, that's fine by me." I said, the preacher.

I don't know who that would be, but I will try to shorten it a little bit.

But I'm glad to hear you're active doing God's work.

If we're going to go home, we've got to finish the work.

Well, I hope that message I have to share with you today will encourage you.

And I'd like to invite you to bow your heads as we pray.

Father in heaven, as we turn our attention to your word, we once again want to ask that your Holy Spirit will guide our thought, thinking process, our desire to know you better.

May the Holy Spirit speak to us in these words, I pray.

Joseph Dutton, the captain of the SS Sardinian, tells a story that took place on his ship in 1877.

And it's a story that's fairly well-known.

You may have heard it told here, but I think it reminds us of both the power of God and the faith that God wants us to have in him.

Captain Dutton tells us that there was a man on board his ship that was fairly well known in the Christian world, especially the Western world at that time.

And I'll show you a picture of him, not that you'll particularly be able to see it, but I'm still going to show you anyway.

And give you those in the front rows might be able to see a little bit, but this I want you to know he's a real man.

And George Mueller was known in the Christian world as a man of prayer.

You go and Google his name, you can even find free books about his life story, and I would encourage you that you'd benefit from doing that by all means.

What George Mueller, the captain says, was on board his ship.

And this is what took place while he was there on that ship.

The captain's way of telling the story just is significant and I want you to hear it in his words.

He says, I'd been on the bridge for 24 hours and never left it.

And George Mueller came to me and said, Captain, I've come to you to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon.

If your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way.

You understand, they were going from Bristol, England to Quebec, Canada, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

He said, Captain, God will find some other way.

I've never broken an engagement in 57 years.

Let us go down into the chart room and pray.

The captain continues and he says, I looked at that man of God and I thought to myself, what lunatic asylum can that man have come from?

Mueller, I said, do you know how dense the fog is?

No, he replied, my eye is not on the density of the fog but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life." They went into the chart room, the captain says.

He knelt down and he prayed 1 of the most solemn prayers.

When he finished, I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and he told me not to pray.

And he said, the reason is, as you do not believe he will answer, and I believe he already has.

So there's no need for you to pray about it.

I looked at him and George Mueller said, Captain, I have known my Lord for 57 years and there has never been a single day when I failed to get an audience with the king.

Get up, captain, and open the door and you will find the fog is gone." I got up and opened the door, and the fog was gone.

And George Mueller kept his promised engagement.

The little book, Steps to Christ, wonderful little book that I know your church is focusing a little bit on.

On page 63, the author has some words that remind us of the faith of this man, George Mueller.

The author says, when we speak of faith, there is a distinction that should be born in mind.

There is a kind of belief that is wholly distinct from faith.

And then the author quotes from the Bible and says, the Bible says that the devils also believe and tremble.

Where there is not only a belief in God's word, but a submission of the will to him, where the heart is yielded to him, the affections fixed upon him, there is faith, faith that works by love and purifies the soul.

Through this faith, the heart is renewed in the image of God from the little chapter, The Test of Discipleship.

Faith is more than just simply believing in something.

They believe in God, but it will not change them, and it will not save them.

It comes from being a disciple of God, a disciple of Jesus.

Faith that really makes a difference in our lives is the kind of faith that doesn't just think about what it can get and doesn't treat God like a vending machine.

But the faith that George Mueller had, that was expressed in his action of praying and saying, Captain, Go outside and you'll see the fog is gone.

Was born not out of an experience of treating God as a vending machine.

It was from an experience of walking with God every day.

As he put it, I get an audience with the King every day, Captain.

And when I meet with the King, He talks to me.

I find out what he has in mind for me and through this ongoing daily devotional experience And I'm not talking about five-minute prayers I'm talking about a prayer experience with the king of the universe from that experience over 57 years he knew that God wanted him to be in Quebec that Saturday afternoon.

So he said, Captain, it really doesn't matter whether your ship is going to take me or not.

Kameron DeVasher

Faith and Acceptance

Regardless of whether we love him back, his love for us is the reason why we love him in return.

And we sensed our need of him as our Savior.

Following that in the spirit of genuine repentance, it's my prayer that we've confessed our sins, made things right with each other and with the Lord, and decided to fully surrender our entire lives to Jesus Christ.

But now the question is, what if after all of that, since the God loves you, you love him in return, you want to give your life to him, you've committed all to him.

At the end of all of that, you still feel like a miserable, unworthy sinner.

Your feelings haven't changed, yet you've gone through these, quote, steps to Christ.

At the end of the day, you still feel the same as back at square 1.

What we're gonna be looking at today in our message entitled Faith and Acceptance.

But before we begin any study of God's word, let's start with prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the rain outside that you know that we need, and also Lord for the showers of blessings that you give us in your word.

And now Lord, as we turn our attention to a study of that word, help us to understand you more clearly and stand for you more confidently, more steadfastly as we walk with Christ day by day, for we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

If you would please turn to Hebrews chapter 11, a very well-known passage of scripture.

In much the same way that 1 Corinthians 13 is known as the love chapter, Hebrews chapter 11 is known as the faith chapter.

It gives us the working definition of what faith is and gives us a whole list of examples of faithfulness exhibited in the lives of ordinary people.

Hebrews chapter 11, we begin right there with verse 1.

It says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, The evidence of things what?

Now, as it goes through, and again, we cannot go through step by step, word by word, the chapter of Hebrews 11, but plenty of examples are given.

For instance, skip down to verse 4, and it goes, notice, in chronological order.

It starts with creation and then the earliest people on the earth.

Starts in verse 4 there, by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and through it and through it he being dead still speaks.

So though Abel is dead because of his faithfulness, his legacy of faithfulness still speaks to us today.

Now when you look at what Cain and Abel actually did there, they both brought sacrifices to the Lord, but Cain brought the 1 that he wanted and Abel brought the 1 that the Lord had instructed.

So why did Abel bring the first fruits of his lot?

I'm guessing it would have been easier and more acceptable to your insight.

You don't want to damage an animal, but God had said so, so Abel does it and he pays the price for it.

By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." Again, notice that Noah built a boat in a time not only when it hadn't ever flooded, but when it hadn't even rained at all.

But he built a boat being confident of things that he had not yet seen, as though they were going to happen, definitively, absolutely confident of things he hadn't seen yet, simply because God said so.

When God calls and tells you to build a boat, You do it.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he could was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance And he went out in what condition?

Not knowing where he was going now some of us do that from time to time, but I doubt the Lord is leading us.

And the Lord didn't say, you're headed here, and I'll show you a picture of it, and here's what's going to happen.

He just said, just go out, and he obeyed.

He was confident of things that he didn't see.

So again, we think of that again, substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Now, of course, it's not just not seen, but also not felt or heard or smelled or tasted.

Any sensory evidence, any tangible proof that what God said will actually happen is completely absent.

You just do it because he simply said so, regardless of what you feel about it.

Now, the deeper level of faith is, we're supposed to be faithful not only when we don't see, taste, touch, smell, hear it on the external level, but what if on the internal level it doesn't even seem rational?

It doesn't even seem possible that God will feel.

That not only externally do you not see evidence, but internally it seems crazy.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.

And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac your seed shall be called.

God had earlier said, Isaac will be the heir of this great legacy and through him will be a great nation.

And then the same God who said that turns around and says, now go kill Isaac.

Now, externally, of course, no 1 has any inclination that you want to destroy your own children.

Well, hopefully, at least time to time, maybe.

In all seriousness, you never want to do that.

But internally, notice that this created a tension inside of Abraham, so much so that the Bible records the next verse, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

So Abraham had to come up with a theological construct, a theory or a philosophy of how God would resolve this tension.

He says, he's gonna live and be a great nation, but at the same time, offer him up as a sacrifice.

It didn't seem, it created what you call cognitive dissonance, ideas that don't match.

And so Abraham had to formulate in his own mind a theological construct that would resolve this tension.

All right, well, if God said he's going to live but then commands me to end his life, then somehow that same God must renew his life.

Now to us we think, well sure, if the Lord lets someone die or lays someone down, he can raise them back up.

And we at this point in earth's history can spout off example after example of people who've been raised from the dead.

But think about it from Abraham's perspective.

Up until this point, has anyone ever been raised from the dead?

The very first person in all of the scripture to be raised from the dead is Moses.

Still got to have Isaac, have Jacob, have the 12 children of Jacob, and then Joseph would go into Egypt, and then Moses would lead them out, and then have the 40 years of wandering and all.

And at the end of that would be the very first resurrection.

This is literally hundreds of years before anyone had ever been raised from the dead, but he thought, surely the Lord will find a way out of this.

So I'm going to go forward in faith even if on the inside it seems completely bizarre.

No internal or external evidence that God's word will be true, but I'm going to trust it simply because he said so." It's a powerful testimony to faith.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

We see this kind of faith oftentimes exemplified in the people that Jesus would encounter who were sick from physical maladies and illnesses.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Growing Up Into Christ

41m

The Test of Discipleship

30m

Faith and Acceptance

41m

Consecration

43m

Confession

42m

Repentance

51m

7- Straw Man Arguments in Favor of Women’s Ordination

56m

6- The Holy Kiss, Consumption of Alcohol, the Use of the Veil, and Personal Adornment

57m

4- Male Headship in the Old Testament

57m

Episode 12- Eden Valley Institute

28m

Episode 11- Cedarvale Health & Lifestyle Retreat and VitaSalus

28m

My Redeemer is Faithful and True

1h

Sound Doctrine