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Speaker: Cliff Gleason Date: September 23, 2023
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Details
Speaker: Cliff Gleason Date: September 23, 2023
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Speaker: Cliff Gleason Date: September 23, 2023
Listen to 230923 - I have chosen you - Gleason by Laconia Seventh-day Adventist Church MP3 song. 230923 - I have chosen you - Gleason song from Laconia Seventh-day Adventist Church is available on Audio.com. The duration of song is 48:09. This high-quality MP3 track has 570.692 kbps bitrate and was uploaded on 12 Jan 2024. Stream and download 230923 - I have chosen you - Gleason by Laconia Seventh-day Adventist Church for free on Audio.com – your ultimate destination for MP3 music.
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The speaker is reading from the New King James Version and discusses the idea of chosen people in the Bible. They mention Enoch, who pleased God and preached about Him, and Noah, who found grace in God's eyes and built an ark to save his family. They also talk about Abraham, who obeyed God and left his home without knowing where he was going. The speaker emphasizes the importance of faith and being chosen by God for a purpose. They also mention the Adventist News Network and share stories of how Adventists have been helping people in Ukraine and other countries. The speaker encourages the audience to pray for new church members in Ukraine and refugees from Ukraine in other countries. Finally, they mention a TV series called "The Chosen" and discuss the concept of chosen people in relation to the Jewish people and characters from the Bible like Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. I'm reading from the New King James Version. You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain. And whenever you ask in the Father in my name, he will give it to you. May the Lord have His blessing, and we're also glad to have our interim pastor again. Amen. When I heard that song, God and God Alone, 40 years ago, became one of my favorite songs. And I wondered, was this a Seventh-day Adventist who wrote that song? Because it sounds so much like the closing chapter of the Great Confession. It's just a tremendous message and music, and it's just great. Well, good to be with you folks again, after three years and a month. But you know, it feels like only the month, until I look at the kids. Like David back there, who's grown up so high. And some of you older folks haven't grown any taller, so it's harder to see it now. But the Lord is good. It's good to be here with you, worship with you, to listen to you sing. You know, we have some good singing in Waynesboro, Virginia Church, but it's not the same as you folks sing. It really isn't. And I know Sue's nodding her head there, and it's just really special to be here, sensing the worship that you folks bring to this place. And the delight you're bringing to God. When you sing like that, when you bring your hearts into worship, it's a delight to Him. Well, another thing, you heard in my prayer about the war in Ukraine, and how God is working. If you want to keep up to date with the Adventist news, news about what Seventh-day Adventists are doing around the world, how many of you have heard of Adventist News Network? A few of you. You can get it on YouTube. You can also get it at the Seventh-day Adventist website for the World Church. YouTube is a very easy place to get it, and you can watch it week by week and learn about all kinds of things that are going on all over the world. Like what's going on in Morocco, since that devastating earthquake, how the Adra has been in the air doing all kinds of things. In Ukraine, they've delivered three million loaves of bread is one of the things they've done, and then all kinds of other things totaling to eight million people they've helped. And, you know, we had in Ukraine, we had at the start of the war, 45,000 missionaries That means 45,000 church members. Because every one of you is a missionary, right? Now, can you imagine when people had to leave their cities and try to escape out of the country, what did they do? Most of that on one means of transportation. Have you ever seen the pictures? They got trains. Now, do you suppose there were some Seventh-day Adventist people on the train? Sure, certainly were. And so, do you suppose they got parking on the train? Sure. And people could notice that the Adventists, and other Christians too, of course, there were a few other Christians in Ukraine. Half of the population, at the start of the war, would leave the historic town. Half the population. And then another quarter of the population were nominal members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. But that doesn't mean that's not a Christian community. So, there's a lot of opportunity that can be gained in the bombshells of Afghanistan. When people are invited to visit the country, invite people to visit the city, the town, to stay in their homes, to stay. And then, when people left the country, where did they go? They went to other countries. And they, the Seventh-day Adventists, even did even more for them. God put more money on food. Now, did you know that there's a HOPE channel at the Seventh-day Adventist station, or online station, there's a HOPE channel in Ukraine? Do you know how many, how long they had to go off the air during the war? Zero minutes. Zero minutes. The HOPE channel has been going non-stop throughout the whole war. And we've had 1,000 baptisms in the first 12 months. God is working. Working in marvelous ways. So, keep those 1,000 church members in your prayers, those newly-baptized people in Ukraine. And then, keep in your prayers the people from Ukraine who had to go into places like Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland. I was watching this morning on the Adventist News Network how a family went into Poland, and the Adventist Church was turned into like a dormitory for refugees. And how this family of three children and a mother were there, and the father had to stay back in Ukraine. You know, most of the men had to stay in Ukraine. Well, there are so many other stories. But look it up. Adventist News Network. Well, let's see. Now, to get to our message this morning. There's been a lot written about and talked about the Chosen in recent years. Back about, oh, this is about 10 years ago. And then there have been articles in the Review and other things through the years about the Chosen. And now there's this TV series that's available online called The Chosen. So, a lot about the Chosen. Let's look into that a little bit this morning. Does the Bible have anything to say about the Chosen? Well, who are the people of the world who have felt through the years that they are the Chosen? What people? All right, the Jewish people, the people of Israel. They have felt that they are the Chosen. But do you know they are not the first ones to be Chosen? Let's go to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 for our study first thing here. Hebrews 11. And let's look at verse 5. Starting with verse 5. There's so many stories here in Hebrews 11 that we don't have time to get into all of them. But let's go to verse 5. It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying. Well, that's a pretty good thing about being Chosen, isn't it? And he disappeared because God took him. For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. By the way, I'm reading from the New Living Translation here. So he was known as a person who pleased God. That's Enoch way back just a little while after Adam and Eve compared to today. So he was Chosen and he pleased God. Wouldn't you like to be somebody that the Lord would say, this person pleased me? Yeah, that's good. I like that. Enoch pleased God. Now, how did he please him? Well, if we go back to Genesis, it says he did something with God. What did Enoch do with God? He walked with God. That's right. He walked with God. God chose him to walk with him so that he could be an example of what it's like for a person to please God. Somebody who was walking with God. Somebody who was a friend of God. And so he was an example. And then another place in Scripture, it says that Enoch preached. He preached about God. He preached about even the second coming of Jesus. So he was an example in that way as well. Now, let's go on to in the book of Hebrews 11 and look at verse 7. It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith, Noah condemned the rest of the world. And he received the righteousness that comes by what? By faith. The righteousness that comes by faith. How did Noah get this faith? Well, Noah was chosen because, obviously, he had this righteousness that comes by faith. But where did he get that? Well, the rest of the world in Noah's time were not in harmony with God very well. Well, why weren't they in harmony with God? Well, because Cain, he didn't have such a good experience with God by his own choice. And his descendants started spreading the idea that God's not a very nice person. He's rather demanding and rather harsh and hard to get along with. And that spread like wildfire, a fire among humanity in the time of Noah. So when people looked at God, they saw him as a harsh God. But Noah looked at God and he says, Noah found something in God's eyes. What did Noah find in God's eyes? Grace. He found grace in God's eyes. That's loving favor. He saw God as not somebody who was out to get us, but somebody who's out to help us. Not an enemy, but a what? A friend. That's how Noah saw God. Now, is that somebody God could work with? And so the righteousness that was by faith was the righteousness in God that Noah saw by faith, by looking into God's eyes and believing that he saw grace. And what was he chosen for? What did God choose Noah for? It says it here in verse 11. He made a large boat to do what? To save his family, it says. Now, did God want to save only the family of Noah? No, because he told Noah to do something besides build the ark. What else was he to do? He was to preach and to warn the world that God doesn't want anybody to be lost. So a disaster is coming, but you don't have to be in the disaster. You can come into the boat. And if the boat wasn't big enough to hold all the people who wanted to be saved, what would God do? He could build more boats, or he doesn't even have to send the flood. Because what happened in Nineveh when Jonah said, in 40 days your city's going to be destroyed. But the people repented. There were so many people who repented that what did God do? He took away the destruction, didn't he? And so God could have done that in the time of Noah. We don't know what else God could have done or would have done, but we know that people could have been saved, anybody who wanted to. So he sent Noah to preach as well as build the ark. Because Noah saw grace in the eyes of the Lord, and he could tell how good God was. All right, let's go on to another person here. We go down to verse 8. It was by faith that Abraham now, Abraham obeyed God when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. So here's Noah. He's surrounded by people who didn't believe in God's goodness, who worshiped other gods instead of the true God. And so God said, Abraham, I know that you have some faith in me. I'm going to test that faith. Will you go with me wherever I lead you? You don't know where I'm going to lead you, but I'm going to lead you. I'm going to provide something good for you. What did Abraham do? He went with God. He was kind of walking with God like Enoch, right? And so God could use him because he believed that God would lead him to a good place, not to a bad place. And then if we go back to the book of Genesis, which we don't have time to do, but some of you remember that when God chose Abraham, God made some promises. And the big promise, he says, Abraham, through your family, I want to bless who? All the what? All the families of the earth. Now, my daughter, when she went to college out at Pacific Union College, at first she was planning to take pre-med and to go into medicine. She wanted to go into research. Now, suppose she had. Now, she changed her major along the way, and that's another story. But if she had gone into medicine, and suppose she went into research medicine, and suppose she found the cure for all cancer. Now, how many of the families of the earth would be blessed by that find? Oh, so many. How many of you have had somebody in your family or extended family who's had cancer? Look at this. Almost every hand is up. Now, some parts of the world, they don't have as much cancer as what we have here. So there wouldn't be so many hands going up. But many, many, many families of the earth would be blessed through my daughter. Do you think I'd be proud? Oh, boy. But Abraham could be prouder. Why? Because God was going to work through his descendant to bless how many? Everyone. And if we cured cancer, that would only affect which life? Temporal life or eternal life? Only the life we have now, which is short. But Jesus blessed all the families of the earth with eternal life for everybody who would receive it. That's a much better gift, isn't it? And so Abraham was chosen, and his family was chosen, but in order to choose, actually, God was choosing every family. And that's what they were supposed to do. Tell every family, you're chosen. God loves you. He wants to help you. When they went into the Promised Land, did God want the Israelites to put up signs? No trespassing. You're not allowed into Jerusalem or into Israel. Is that what God wanted to do? No. In fact, he said there in Deuteronomy, he said, I'm going to give you laws and rules, and if you obey them, you're going to be blessed this way and this way and this way and this way, and the other nations will hear about it, and they're going to come to you, and they're going to say, how come you Jewish people are smarter and richer, and you get along better, and all these things are going on good in your life? It's not happening to us. What do you have? And what would they say? God, it's not us. We're not any better than anybody else. We were the smallest of people. But God came to us, and he explained things, and you could have how many of the blessings we have? You could have all the blessings we have, if you'll come and worship and follow the living God. That's what he had in mind. Well, did they follow that too well? Oh, that's a sad story, isn't it? Long, sad story. Well, we could go on to many others that are here in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, but let's jump down in chapter 11 to verse 13. Verse 13. Let's see. Here it is. All these people died, still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. So all these great patriarchs and prophets of the past, they didn't get to receive all of the blessings that God promised them. But what did they do? They saw it. Now, they saw it. They knew it was a far off. It wasn't coming in their lifetime, but they saw it. And what did they do? They rejoiced. Because they believed that God would fulfill his promises. Now, does God have promises for us? Yes. And can we believe them? Yes. Now, and for some of us, we might not get the completion of the promise. We may fall asleep in death before Jesus comes and everything's wrapped up. But some of us might still be alive. I hope all of us. I mean, the signs of the times are telling us, to me, things can wrap up very quickly. I don't know when, but it could be very quickly. Well, then, these people, something important. Did they choose God or did God choose them? God chose them first. When you look at chapter 12 of Genesis and you see about Abraham, God says, I have chosen you. And God made promises. God made the promises. Look closely. Abraham didn't make any promises. It's not like Abraham went searching for God and he found this God of his ancestors. He said, oh, God of my ancestors. Oh, God of Adam and Abel. If you'll be my God, I promise I'm going to do all kinds of good things for you. It's not there. Instead, God said, Abraham, I want to do good things for you. And I promise I'll be with you and I'll guide you to the land that will be yours. You see, God initiates every relationship. And he initiates everything in every relationship. If that were true, then who gets the glory for us being saved? And how much does he get? All of it. All of it. We don't get any glory. None. We don't deserve it. So now we go to our scripture reading this morning in John chapter 15 and verse 16. John chapter 15 and verse 16. Again, I'm reading in the New Living Translation. 15, 16. You didn't choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for using my name. God initiates it all. He provides every gift and he meets every need that we have. He's the provider. Now, there are two gifts that he's especially interested to give us. Faith and repentance. Faith and repentance. They're both gifts. You can't make faith inside of you. And you can't make repentance. You can't make it. It's a gift from God. All right. Now, I have a muscle here in my arm. It's called the bicep muscle. Well, it's really there. I mean, it's not that big, but it's there. Now, did I create that muscle? No. How did it get there? God. He designed it. He gave it to me. He put it there inside of me. Now, he used genes and chromosomes and all that, you know, the process. But it's God's process and he made that muscle. So, that's a gift from God. Now, what can I do with it? How? I can build it up. How? Exercise. I can choose to exercise. And what will happen? It'll get stronger. I can lift weights and, you know, whatever. I can make that muscle stronger. Or I can do what? I can be a couch potato. And I can sit there or I can lay in bed. And if people lay in bed long enough, what happens to this muscle? Atrophy, it's called. Where it gets weaker and weaker and weaker and weaker. And eventually, what happens? I can't use it. I can't use it at all. It's almost like it's not even there. And that's with faith and repentance. They're gifts from God. We can't create them. But we can use them. We can exercise them. And then they get stronger. And powerful. But God is the initiator. He's the one who gives it to us. Now, I hope you have a meeting place with God. Brother Allen was telling us in the SAB school lesson. You need to have time alone with God. Is that true? Absolutely. That's the difference between the five wise virgins and the five foolish virgins. In Jesus' parable, that talks about people ready for the coming of Jesus. She says in the book, Christ's Object Lessons, The five foolish virgins were satisfied with a superficial experience. What does that mean? That means maybe two minutes with a Bible verse and a quick prayer. And out the door. And we live the rest of the day without turning to the Lord or walking with Him. Going to church once a week. Go home. And we're not impacted really by what the Lord is trying to do with us. That's a superficial experience. Oh, I've got my name on the church list. I'm all set. That's a superficial experience. The wise virgins are the ones who go deeper. You know, roots of a tree. I was in Cape Cod when a hurricane, was it Hurricane Bob? Yeah, Hurricane Bob went through. And we went down the street to the cemetery. And there were tall, tall pine trees that had blown right over. And we saw the roots. The roots were only about this deep. But then there's the oak trees that send the roots down, down, several feet in the ground. Were those blown over? No, none of them. We've got to go deep with God. Now how do you do that? Well, we've got to have that special time, that special place to meet with God. And do you know what it says in Psalm 139, verse 18? In the contemporary English version it says, When I awake, I find you nearby. When I awake, I find you nearby. The picture I get from that is a loving parent or grandparent who wakes up early, goes to the child's bedroom, looks in, and sees their little angel fast asleep. Well, they're all little angels when they're sleeping, right? Sure. And so the parent sneaks in, sits on the edge of the bed, so that when that child wakes up, the first thing that they'll experience will be what? A loving hug. Do you think Jesus wants to give you a loving hug every morning? That's what he's promising. Before you awake, or when you awake, I'm right there. When I wake, I find you nearby. You see, we can't choose God without His help. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1, in the contemporary English version, it says, In the past you were dead because you sinned and fought against God. But God loved us so much, He made us alive with Christ, and God's gift of undeserved grace is what saved you. So you and I, before we got to know God, we were dead. Now how many people who are dead can choose somebody else? I mean, I don't see too many invitations coming out of the cemetery trying to get a date with somebody. You see, when we're dead, we can't do it. And the Bible says we've been dead. That means no ability. But God saw us. And He had the ability to love us. You know, God, we talked before on our Wednesday night meeting a week and a half ago, how God wants us to have His perspective. God's perspective, when He looks at us, even when we're dead in trespass and sins, He sees what can be. He doesn't see us as we are. He sees what we can be by His grace. And so He sees that we could be wonderful friends for eternity. And that's what He's after. And so He can love us when we're not lovable. Because He doesn't see the unlovable. He sees the lovable person we can be by His grace and love. And so He chooses us to be His. So He gives us the ability to respond to His grace. The ability to surrender to His love. All right, here in chapter 15 of John, let's look at a couple more things in these verses. Let's first look at verse 15. No longer I call you slaves. Or another version says servants. I no longer do I call you slaves or servants. Because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. So Jesus says, you're not just servants. You're friends. I can share things with you. I want to share with you. I want you to understand everything I'm doing, everything about me. That's not a master kind of a thing, where you just give orders. And people are expected to do whatever they're supposed to do. Just do it and don't ask any questions. Get it done. No, Jesus isn't like that. He says, I want you to do things with me because I want you to understand what I'm all about. I want you to understand my grace and love and the principles of my government. So that you can share in those things. They become part of you. So the first thing is we're chosen for something. We're chosen for intimacy with God. Now David had intimacy with God because God said, he is a man, what? After my own heart. When he was a shepherd boy, he was playing the music and praising God. He had a heart-to-heart experience with God. And God chose him for that and then through that. And then when two men were walking on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus came up alongside of them. And what did they do together? They walked together. And as they walked together, what did Jesus do? He taught them out of the scriptures all about what being the Messiah was all about. Things that they'd never thought of before. And their hearts did what? Their hearts were burning within them. So that when they got to the place, did they just let Jesus go on? Even though they didn't know who he was, did they just let him go on? No, they said, oh, you got to stay. We got to hear more of this. And it wasn't until he put the blessing over the food that then they realized who he was and Jesus disappeared. And then they ran home to tell the disciples about that. Now, what's the next thing here? Let's look at verse 16 now. It says, verse 16, you didn't choose me, I chose you. And I appointed you to go and produce fruit that lasts. Fruit that lasts, what is that? Well, that's other people reaching into the lives of people to affect them for how long? For eternity. For eternity. Now, only with God's help can we affect somebody for eternity. Now, that's fruit that lasts, isn't it? It's good to be able to help people now for this life, like the agri-workers who are bringing the food and the blankets and the shelter and all the things that they're doing to help those eight million people. But if they only help them for now, that's good. But, oh, if that can be an influence in their lives. So they'll say, who are these people who are doing all of this? And then they get a chance to say how they're motivated by the love of Christ and point them to the one who can give them eternity. Then that's real work, real fruit that lasts. Think about Stephen. What happened to Stephen at the end of his life? Yeah, he was stoned to death, for what? For sharing the good news about Jesus. And did he have any fruit? Who was there? Who was there in the crowd? Yeah, Saul, who became Paul. And how much of the New Testament did Paul end up writing? A big portion of the New Testament! So in a sense, Stephen is responsible for a good portion of the New Testament. And then how many people did Paul win to Christ? How many churches did he establish? And Stephen, that's part of Stephen's fruit, isn't it? You know, we don't know who we're touching in our lives. People are watching us. And Jesus shines through when we don't even know it. And it's fruit that lasts. That's what God wants to establish in us. Now, let's see, also, there's one more thing, then we've got to wrap things up. Here in verse 16, it says, I appointed you to produce lasting fruit so that the Father will do something. What's the Father going to do? He's going to give you what you ask in my name. Now, in my name means to pray what Jesus would pray for. Right? Pray like Jesus would pray if he were in your situation. Now, what's important to Jesus? Love. Right, love for people, right? Love for people. How many of the people around you does Jesus love? Oh, how many does he want to reach with the everlasting gospel? All of them. How many does he want to reach with the truth about how wonderful he is? All of them. Now, do people around you know how wonderful Jesus is? A lot of people don't. A lot of people are chasing after money, or they're chasing after fame, or they're chasing after pleasures, or all kinds of other things because they don't know how good Jesus is, how all of their needs could be met in Jesus. What do they need to see? They need to see Jesus in you, in me. And so every day we can say, Jesus, live in me. You see, you don't need to live a perfect life. You don't have to accomplish that and have it on heaven's record. Oh, this person, you've got a perfect life. Cliff Gleason, perfect life in heaven. Look at how he's living. Everything exactly right. Is that what I have to establish up in heaven? Why not? Because Jesus did it already. And he put it on my name. He put it right on my name. So if you go up to heaven right now, and if you could look at the books there, and you looked up Cliff Gleason, what would you find? Perfect. A whole life, perfect. Now, do I deserve that? Don't ask my wife about it. I don't deserve that. But it's there already. Why? Because I claim it by faith. I believe that that's what God wants, how he looks upon me. And so I don't have to do that. So each day, should I just go up and live any way I like, anything that comes into my mind? No, because if I do that, will people see Jesus? They won't. And the people need to see Jesus. So every day I can say, Lord, thank you. My perfect life is already established in heaven. So the record is there. It's perfect. It's complete. But Lord, the people around me don't see how good you are. Otherwise they would be trusting in you instead of running after all these other things. So please shine through me. Live out your righteousness in my life for those people and for your glory, for your pleasure. And will God do it? He will. And you won't even know it. Many times you won't see it happening. But God is working. I could tell you stories, but we don't have time. And so the Bible says if we ask for anything in the name of Jesus, what's God the Father going to do? He's going to answer. So, aha! Then we could ask for some big things. We could ask for miracles. We could ask for divine appointments. I mean, look what happened to Lenny. I didn't have any idea that I shouldn't answer Lenny's prayer. Lenny's request, I mean. But the Lord worked and He made things happen. And that must have been an angel, don't you think? That must have been an angel. And guess what Lenny learned? That God hears his prayers. Because he used to say, Pastor, you pray. God hears your prayers. He learned God hears his prayers and answers them. Wow! Now what about Philip? Did Philip trust the Lord? Yes, and he ended up on a road to Emmaus. Not to Emmaus. But he ended up on a road to Gaza. And there was somebody coming by in a chariot. What was the person reading in the chariot? He's reading the book of Isaiah. He's reading the Bible. Did he understand? No. And so he needed what? He needed help. And who was there to help him? And the Holy Spirit said, Get up there and help him. Sue and I were traveling over in Spain and Portugal a few months ago. And there was a 45-minute delay at the train station. And there was a waiting area. So I said, Well, we'll sit in the waiting area. It's not that long. And we sat down. And in just a few moments, another couple came and sat next to us. And they were obviously Americans. We got to talking. Turns out they were from New York. And Sue's from New York. And so they're talking. And then they said that they were Jewish. Because they asked me what I did for a living. I told them. And so they said that they were Jewish. But the man said, I am so interested in Christian religions. All the different Christian religions. So tell me about yours. I've never really heard much about Seventh-day Adventists. For 45 minutes, I got to tell them all about it. A divine appointment, right? Now, I didn't know anything about them. But the Lord put us together right to the right place at the right time. So, God can do that for you, too. Ask Him to do it. You see, you have been chosen as a son or a daughter of God. An ambassador for God. And He chose you for intimacy. Are you taking time to be alone with Jesus every day? You're chosen for intimacy. And you can have it. But you've got to take that muscle. You've got to make it work. So enjoy His presence. Drink in His love. Appreciate His ways. For Jesus is all we need. I like the preacher. I think it was HMS Richard Sr. They asked him, What does Seventh-day Adventists believe? He said, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. That was a good answer, wasn't it? That was a good answer. Don't be satisfied with a superficial experience. It won't work. You've got to go deep. Read the Bible slowly. And meditate on every phrase. Don't even take a whole sentence sometimes. Just a phrase. And meditate. Ask the Holy Spirit, Show me more of what's in this phrase. Especially more about who? Jesus. Because Jesus said, These are the scriptures that testify of me. So ask the Holy Spirit to show you Jesus every day. That's what we need. Get our eyes on Jesus. So we can be like no one. Find grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now, what about the fruits that last? Well, those people out there are looking for something better. Especially now. How many read the article by Scott Christensen I sent out? Oh, you've got to read that article. I sent it by email. And you should all get it. If you don't get it, speak to... Who can help them get it from the email? Okay. Speak to Steve. Because I think Jay can work with things. Anyway, this article talks about how there's been a big shift in people's thinking since COVID. When they go to yard sales, they're not looking for tools. And what was the other thing they used to... Knick-knacks. They're not looking for those things. Do you know what they're looking for? The spiritual books. People's minds are open to spiritual things like never before in our generation. And Satan's trying to get us to fight in the church. And our focus is on that instead of welcoming in people and loving them, showing them the everlasting gospel. Don't let Satan mess us up. Stay with Jesus. And so he wants to make divine appointments for you. Do you know, we've lost a lot of young people in the last 40 years. So many. I tell you, it's so great to see these little girls in our church. You know, it used to be when I first came here, we had a couple of boys. 20 years ago, we had a couple. Now they're grown and, you know, there's something else. Especially, what was it? Not Conrad, the other one. Lance. Oh no. Which one is the bigger one now? Lance. He's... He's something else. Anyway, but we had just those two boys. And then we had a little girl named Bella. As the boys got up, grew up and they moved away and then we had just Bella. And now look at all the girls we have and the bigger boys who are now growing again. God has blessed you with children in this church. It's wonderful. Okay, so now God wants to make divine appointments for you. He wants your life to be exciting, to be filled with adventure. Our young people have seen 40 years of people just sitting on the pews and not doing anything and not saying anything, not having any testimonies of God's miracles. And so the young people say, Oh, well, if that's all there is, going to church, going home, doing nothing, going to church and life is blah and boring. I don't have time for that. I don't have time for that. It doesn't make any difference. It doesn't help me. It doesn't help anybody else. Forget it. I don't have time for that. We need adults who are on fire for the Lord, who are asking God in the name of Jesus for the Father to answer prayers for miracles to reach other people for divine appointments. You see, God can use you to reach people He could never use me for because you have a unique background. You have a different personality than I have. You have a special walk with Jesus that is different than my walk with Jesus. And there are people who you could connect with much better than I could ever. Now, who are they? I don't know. Who knows? God knows. God knows where to put you at the right time for the right person. Oh, boy, our time. Can I tell you a brief story? When we moved to Virginia, we prayed. We said, Lord, where are we going to live? What house should we find? Where do you want us? We looked at all these houses that we thought would be good. Nothing ever worked out. And we ended up I'll shorten the story. There were miracles involved, but we ended up at this townhouse. And so right next to our townhouse, of course, there was another townhouse. And as we're moving in, Bill, the man, came out and he's greeting us. And he said, well, what kind of work did you do? And I told him. And he didn't put him off at all. And I saw in his garage, he had the door open. I saw in his garage a set of golf clubs. And I said, Bill, do you play golf? He said, yeah, I play golf, but I don't have anybody to play with since the people I used to share that with have moved away. I said, well, I'll play golf with you. And he said, oh, great. And we set a time. We're out on the golf course. And I think it was the first hole. But anyway, it was during the hole. He said, you're a retired pastor. And he said it was Seventh Day Adventist Church. I don't know much about Seventh Day Adventist. What do you guys believe anyway? Well, he asked the wrong. He asked the wrong person, didn't he? Well, so we're talking away. And he said, you know, because I took the. Anyway, I don't have time to tell you the approach I took. But he, along the way, he said, what about the rapture? What does your church teach about the rapture? And I said, well, we see it a little differently. And then I told him what we saw. And he said, oh, that makes a lot more sense than what I've been hearing in my church. He said, could we get together and have some Bible discussions every week? And we started, there goes the game. So we started meeting every week. And then he had to move to Ohio and we're still doing it over the phone. And the next guy moved in. His name was LJ. And I met him and I told him what I had done. And he said, oh, you're a pastor. Do you ever give Bible studies to people in their homes? Talk about a divine appointment. You see, the Lord put us in the right place when we asked him to do that. We said, Lord, put us in a place where we can witness to the neighbors. And he did it. He'll do it for you. There'll be all kinds of things that will happen. Ask him for these divine appointments. It's time that the world sees the glory of God. Let's believe that we are chosen. Oh, our Father, may our hearts be filled with this prayer that Jesus is worthy and that we want to glorify him. May we each moment feel, love him, serve him, praise him still. Until that day when we go home, there may be a multitude of people right here from New Hampshire going home to ever praise our precious Jesus. We pray it in his mighty name. Amen.
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