20210220 | Clear As Mud | Pastor John Lomacang (tvsdac)

let's go to the lord in prayer this morning gracious father loving lord in times like these we need a savior in times like these we need an anchor and i so unite with the songwriter as he said be very sure be very sure that your anchor holds and grips the solid rock lord we invite your holy spirit to come even now to speak to our hearts enter in through our ears to the place where you know that we need to be touched and remove we ask the distractions that may cause us to miss something significant that your holy spirit wants us to hear and when this message is done may we find in our lives a clear place where the work of god preparing us for eternity is going to be continued and so we invite you now to speak to us send your holy angels to surround us your holy spirit to empower us and may jesus be exalted in your precious name we pray amen clear as mud it's an ironic title but we live in ironic times times that are quite unusual but in the eyes of god everything is clear things that don't make sense to us are clear to god and i always like to find interesting stories to begin the message i call those leading stories foundational stories just a few weeks ago or maybe maybe a little less than two weeks ago there was a headline that caused the world to stand still as a landslide in northern india that claimed at that moment of the broadcast they said thus far 24 lives had been claimed and they said more missing that was the title of the news splash on the screen but as the story unfolded it pointed out that a himalayan glacier broke off and crippled two dams connected to a power plant in northern india they said large chunks of ice came barreling down what normally would be water and they said and some people believe it some people don't but they said the effect of global warming is shrinking the glaciers in the mountains of the himalayans and larger chunks of ice than ever before are breaking off entering into the water supply and it has no place else to go but downstream and it came downstream barreling toward these walls these power plant walls in northern india and crashed through the walls crippling more than 13 villages downstream the article said it unleashed a torrent of muddy water downstream after breaking through the walls of the dam and then they go on to say and more than 165 people were still reported missing more than 13 villages were cut off and bridges were destroyed and as a pastor as a minister whose imagination god ignites when i read that story i thought there's something in that story that is true about our society and i began to look at the mud to begin unfolding the lesson that was encased in that tragic article because you see after a flood it is amazing how difficult it is to distinguish between what was and what is because the landscape has been permanently altered you think about the great tsunami that happened in the pacific a few years ago when the waters came on the land and brought with it debris and trees ripping down hotels uprooting the sand and a wall of mud that traveled more than 500 miles an hour inundated the resorts along the coast of many of those pacific islands the beautiful courtyards were hardly describable after the mud had covered it it was hard after the mud had inundated the land to still think in your mind how beautiful the lawns were it altered the way we distinguish things between what it was and what it is cars were piled up these were basic hotel vans that were transporting people from where they were to the airport but when they were filled with mud and bodies and debris it's hard to imagine that a seat now covered in mud was once a comfortable air conditioned band it's hard to distinguish between what was and what is but mud also has a irreversible way of changing the way we see things you know you see a resort and you say that's a place i would love to be but after the mud you see that's the place i'm glad i was not after the massive loss of more than 200 000 lives you say to yourself i am glad i did not choose that as my vacation spot mud has a way that no matter how deep the cleaning mud is a stubborn adversary because it refuses to allow us to forget its effect we say i know what your house looked like but did you see it after the mud it refuses to allow us to forget its effects it etches its fingerprints on us for an indiscriminate period of time as people that went to the tragic experience say i never forget where i was when the mud came tumbling down on our village thirteen villages massive loss of life and farmland covered in mud cattle washed away downstream vehicles carts moles of transportation forever washed away mud has a way of refusing to allow us to forget its effects and then finally it takes a long time before those affected by the mud will ever recover mentally right now they're still discovering bodies and trying to rebuild their lives there in northern india because it was amazing in the tragedy and as we watched it on the news to see to understand that behind those damn walls well millions and millions and millions of gallons of water to power the plants for all these villages downstream only to see them now coming down at an angry speed ripping apart everything in its path indiscriminate taking no consideration for life and limb and wealthy and poor everything in the path of this mud was immediately victimized and when they tried to figure out how it happened trying to put the stories together when you merged all the stories together it was as clear as mud because everybody had a different viewpoint on how it happened everybody saw it from a different perspective but to god he saw it from its beginning even beyond its tragedy and when i read that story about the himalayan glacier and the mud flow that it unleashed i couldn't help but to see its application to our world today consider the following applications on how mud can be seen in our world today because we live in a downstream world where inevitable forces wait to unleash their effects determined to cover us with mud determined to cover with mud the things that we once valued think about the things that we once valued family values covered in mud today come on somebody say amen family values there was a time that you can watch television and in a safe and relatively uh innocuous environment you can feel comfortable to leave your child and watch something on television but not anymore not anymore the mud of society has covered the things that we once valued and changed the way that we do family change the way that we do entertainment even the way that we look at commercials you got to be careful just for commercials downstream world we live in one of the most ambiguous times in modern history people are resistant to truth passionate about deception the mud has covered their intellect the behaviors that characterize our world are indescribable if we can see the world from god's perspective what would we do if we can see the filth and the violence and the crime and man's inhumanity to man and racial insensitivity and the and the and the the misuse of the poor as they're being pushed to produce wealth and goods by the wealthy if we can see the sweatshops if we can see with the eyes of god girls being snatched away to be forced into prostitution if we can see the powerful and the wealthy traveling millions of miles to abuse children if we can see what god sees what would we say i think we would say enough but god somehow is allowing the gospel to permeate these dark recesses of society hoping that in some communities somewhere someone who is now a victim someone now who is incarcerated in fear can find the voice of god and be saved from the effects of the mud of the world when i think about it one of the most precious descriptions of our time the apostle paul had it right when he said this know also that in the last days what kind of times perilous times have come our civilization can be summed up as the smokescreen generation we live at a time where people are unclear about many things and i've even heard christians just last night as we had family worship my wife has a literal family worship with her family every friday night that's her personal zoom and they get together they reminisce about the week they talk about family and then they get into god's word and they read the writings of ellen white in the book last day events and one of the gentlemen that we invited which is a longtime friend he said to us he says my father and my father's father and hms richards and c.d brooks and he went on naming the names have all said that jesus was coming in their day is he coming and i said brethren the times that we live in today are not like the times when cd brooks was being raised or when hms richards was being raised we are living in a day and age that that that could not even closely parallel the innocuous generation of their days the ozzie and harriet generations come on old people say amen you know when when when they when you watched ozzie and harriet they slept in opposite beds they didn't even want to communicate the idea that they were sleeping together but today i don't even need to say anything after that today is enough there was a time that um on uh on uh our link letter come on old people you know we watch art link letter you young folk wait i'll come into you in a moment watch our link letter and the whole family can get together and watch art link letter yes right or we can say uh what was his name he'd always stand like this uh anyway the point of matter is when when when elvis appeared on one of those shows the the ed sullivan show they made all the intentions not to focus the camera below his ways as he was gyrating his brains out but today we live in a mud world come on they say he meant somebody today they do all that they can to focus where they should not we live in a generation today well where people it has become commonplace to not get married they live together and young folk today don't even think about getting married i remember one young person said to me now how do you know that that woman will be right for me if i don't try it out before i get married how you know we're going to be happy how do you how are we going to know what to do i said let me tell you something god made you opposite don't worry about it when god is in it you'll know what to do come on somebody but nowadays we live in a different generation today we live in a generation where young people are confused about their agenda no wonder they don't know what to do people are increasingly dissatisfied with the gender of their birth and now parents on the birth certificate can can write these words gender neutral in other words let the child decide what gender he or she is that's our generation our civilization can be summed up as the smoke screen generation and then you add to that social media that has made hostages of the brains of its consumers that's why we want to use social media to turn darkness into light that's why we have to use a platform that people are accessing to say god can find you wherever you are because it's not so much the tool but it's how it is being used but that's our generation we find today false doctrines have produced disoriented christians i was invited again yesterday to be on on thursday night i was invited yesterday a couple days ago to be on a clubhouse again where pastor ivor meyer and i and a number of other young men got together to talk about daniel 9 the 70 week prophecy and there we had a man determined to argue he wasn't there to learn he was determined to argue but praise god there were young folk on there that was saying thank you for sharing we needed to understand these truths but he was so determined to argue and with the freedom of social media nowadays he went ahead and left our room and started his own room quote why seventh day adventists are wrong about daniel 9. that's the kind of world we're living in today false doctrines have produced disoriented christians people don't know what to believe anymore the effect of mud what happened and what has become and many have become so accustomed to listening to their leaders that the words of the immortal god are being traded for the imaginations of mortal man that's the kind of world we live in nowadays is it clear to you it is clear as mud politicians and their intentions are hidden behind the wall of shadowy legislation murky doctrines are concealed under the guise of emotional substitutes somebody said it doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you experience god how can you experience god and push aside the truths of god's word as clear as mud and it is more difficult to discern between the genuine and the counterfeit today but i'm going to tell you god sees it exactly as it is that's why as we go to ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 26 god begins to he begins to uh bring out the diagnosis of modern man by comparing them to the infection that israel went through during its time notice what he says he describes the mud ezekiel 22 and verse 26 he says her priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things they have not distinguished there's that word again between the holy and the what else unholy nor have they made known the difference mud between the unclean and the clean as it was it's becoming the same way again and they have hidden their eyes from my sabbaths so that i am profaned among them that's what's happening today so it's not anything that's brand new god is saying what was is duplicating itself all over again brethren that's why as seventh-day adventist christians we need to be clear about what we believe because when you're thrown into situations like on clubhouse or on facebook when people are arguing with you about your beliefs or on any social media platform that you communicate back and forth you've got to know how to use your sword you've got to know how to rightly divide the word of truth you've got to know that when this is done you will not be ashamed because god has taught you how to use your sword and you add to all that confusion you also discover that confusion breeds deception deception breeds manipulation and manipulation results in control and that's exactly even the issue of sunday is steeped in mud i'll read the quotation for you from the book counsels for the church page 335 in paragraph two i don't have it on the screen today but listen carefully the sunday movement is now making its way in darkness mud the leaders are concealing the true issues hidden under mud and many who unite in the movement do not themselves see whether the undercurrent is tending its professions are mild and apparently christian but when it shall speak it will reveal the spirit of the dragon the dragon is alive and well today but i want to say jesus is alive and well today the dragon is working hard but he can never work harder than jesus the dragon has a foot on us but jesus has a step on him he's working hard but the lord will have the final say when god says enough even this nation is going through a religiou political metamorphosis revelation chapter 13 verse 11 talks about the mud that we do not see and the bible says in revelation 13 verse 11 then i saw another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon my brethren i know that we are hearing the dragon speak in our nation we are listening to the dragon roar in our nation we have seen over the last four to six to eight to ten years in our nation politically it's getting darker and darker and darker and darker that's why just the other day as a matter of fact among some of the family members they were arguing about this platform and that platform i said brethren that's the reason why that is the reason why as christians we ought not get excited about any political leader but get excited about jesus because nobody can give the answer and all this dark that's surrounding us jesus is still the light of the world and i've learned that true christianity shines brightest when it is darkest i've also learned that the untried faith is an unreliable faith one of the reasons why we got to go through certain things if your faith is not tried it's unreliable i cite the reality i was reading an article one day about how they develop airplane wings i love aviation i'm an amateur pilot i'm so amateur my airplane is on my ipad i'm really amateur i've never flown a real plane but i always say to my wife if the pilot ever gets disoriented i know what to do i should tell the flight attendant next time i'm on the next flight if the fl if it gets disoriented so i walk on planes that i'm familiar with and i said this is an a320 isn't it or the a319 i read these books many years ago i just i did something that what it had no no reason for it but i did it anyway i had like a 400 page manual of how to fly a boeing 777. highly technical language terminologies that we don't use on a daily basis but i did it just to say i know how to fly a 777. now don't be on the plane if it's my first flight because i got to try it out before i could but the point of the matter is the knowledge is out there it's out there i like how to do that but what i'm saying is unless you have been tested and tested and tested and tested unless god can try your faith and try it again and try it again he would not know that when the mud is rolling down when it's all past you'll still be standing in the righteousness of jesus unless you walk unless you walk with jesus you'll never know what it's like to walk without him and unless your walk with jesus cause you something it's not worth anything unless we spend the night in the lion's den we cannot appreciate the morning until the fire is hotter than it's ever been we'll never appreciate the fact that only jesus can save us in the fire and these are the days where we need even as adventists we need something more than a label tracy we can't just say i'm a seventh-day adventist christian it has to be more than a label it has to be a relationship with the living god this week i downloaded another booklet i like to read things i downloaded another book that i'm going to read and those of you that are on my zoom you know what i'm talking about it's called christian atheists christian atheists and i thought what an amazing title it fits into the context of clear as mud what on earth is a christian atheist so i began to look at the um at the thesis and he pointed out there those that believe that god exists but they live as though he doesn't that's a christian atheist they're those that know that god can supply all their needs but they try to supply their own needs that's a christian atheist there are those that say i love the lord but i'm not going to keep his commandments that's a christian atheist the requirements of god are not negotiable and when you read that booklet it's a great exercise it's very thin it's about about the size of this bible marking booklet very quick a little thicker but it has in it little tests and exams so that you can you can assess yourself to find out whether or not you're a christian atheist and i thought to myself man i'd like to find out how many atheists i have in my church maybe we ought to do that instead of the bible marking plan so the ones that are not atheists can learn how to use their bibles but i thought to myself it's interesting god wants our faith to be tried now so that when the water comes rolling down the mountain god knows that we'll be able to stand amen when the difficult times come god can say roger this is your moment when the hard days when faith needs to be seen clearly god can say dan peak show them that i'm god in good times and bad times but unless your faith is tried you'll never know how strong your faith is but as we dive into the story and by the way this is just foundation the sermon hasn't started yet we'll discover that these are the days that we need more than a label we need to have more than a song and we need to have faith with christ that is personal what word did i just say personal don't rely on my faith and i can't rely on your faith yesterday my wife had the privilege of doing another speech on toastmasters she's not very uh not very prone to be a public speaker so she's working on developing her skills as a public speaker and uh following all the preparation her brother has a slogan he goes ppp proper prior preparation prevents poor performance and april was on it yesterday also and so uh angie invited april to be a part of this toastmasters and but she was terrified she was like a frog and a blender and somebody was coming toward to press the button you know she felt like an oven and like a like a fish in an oven that was about to be roasted for somebody's meal but she did all her prior preparation and it prevented poor performance but her brother took a quick picture of her face she was so he said why are you so worried he said you know you do your homework you know you do a good job you know your husband's going to be with you you're going to work together and the evaluator after it was all done said angela you were prepared you were ready you even looked the part you you ignited passion in my life i can't wait to hear about your next travel and you challenge us today not to just travel in her in her in her closing statement about traveling around the world we went to africa she says i no longer travel for the joy of seeing another country i now travel for the joy of changing lives and she said you were on tap yesterday and she said she said john did i do what i said honey you did excellent she said oh you're just saying that to me i said no honey you did good and praise god faith she's being tried now so that when the time comes to go to new guinea to preach to those 5 000 folk that got cancelled last year she'll be ready amen somebody you got to get that faith tried but something i've learned is the key to victory the key to what this is an amazing statement the key to victory begins in the simplicity of the gospel because sometimes god will ask you alice to do something that doesn't seem to make sense but it's clear as mud to god god is not complicated and he sees beyond human ability i said to my wife and this is what i mean by that i said honey if you were just standing there by yourself then i'd be terrified too but i remember the statement jesus says i can do all things through christ who what who strengthens me don't ever think that when the moment of trial comes that you're standing by yourself i can do all things together through christ who does what strengthens me you don't see how it's going to happen it may be as clear as mud to you but god can see the end from the beginning that's why i appreciate the words of isaiah the prophet in isaiah chapter 55 verse 8 and 9. notice what he says as we read these words if we can be god if we could figure it out there will be no need for god but look what isaiah says verse 8 to 9 isaiah 55 he says for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways what my ways says the lord for as the heavens are together higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts what higher than your thoughts so while you are while you're wondering whether or not you're going to make it got to say i'm so far ahead of you you're driving down the road god sees around the corner you haven't gotten to the town yet god is beyond the next city god is always ahead of us amen somebody so don't fear what may be mud to you is clear to god his ways are not our ways and i've discovered something else the only remedy for a world that's encased in mud is to embrace the cleansing revealing promises of god but before i turn now to second kings chapter five that's prompting you with a turn before we go we before we go to second kings chapter five before we turn in our bibles to second kings chapter five i want to lead in with this statement i'm confident will that god is not going to save us from the mud god is going to save us through the mud hold on to that as we dive into the life of a man that you may have known but you're going to meet him on his muddy day when you look at naaman's life i'm going to read verse 1 before i break down the kind of man we are about to examine second kings chapter 5 and verse 1. and the bible says now naaman captain of the hosts of the king of syria was a great man what kind of man was he a great man with his master and honorable because by him the lord had given deliverance unto syria he was also a mighty man of valor but he was a leper when you look at naaman's life and you study naaman's victories and his his resume of one battle that one was one here and another bible one there when you look at all the all the trophies in naaman's office you'll discover that naaman's resume would make the common man envious naaman was the kind of man whose accomplishments overshadowed the accomplishments of his enemies he had a standing that many of his soldiers wish they had he was that kind of man he was that kind of commander naaman had something that someone would covet he had good credentials he had victory after victory but at the end of his resume the bible says but he was a leper let me make it even clearer your office may be at the end of a long haul but you're still a leper your list of degrees may be longer than your name but if your resume ends with but he was a leper you're still a leper a leper that wears expensive suits is still a leper a leper that makes a six-figure income is still a leper a leper that drives a brand new vehicle is still a leper and so let us not get caught off guard by the things that people possess or the things that possess individuals when the bible looks at a person it goes beyond what you see to what god sees and the reality of it is without god every one of us is a leper the end of naaman's resume is included for those that believe that their accomplishments change the way that god sees them but he was a leper that's why today i was listening i like to listen to things too during the week i i like my brain to be challenged sometimes i get into a rut anybody ever get into a rut when you get into a rut just pick up something and read good that is i like to listen to things that will challenge me and periodically i would read about uh people that had great victories in their lives and i thought about this very famous painter by the name of rembrandt rembrandt was an artist in his time whose skills were hard to duplicate and people wondered what kind of skill he had that when he painted a picture the colors in his picture tend to tended to glow they said what do you put in the reds of your artwork that makes it glow so other artists tried to figure out what his secret ingredient was what was it that rembrandt put in his paintings that made the colors glow the color red particularly well when he was found dead in front of an easel where he was painting a new composition that he had not completed they found his secret they discovered that whenever rembrandt painted he would put an incision at the end of his finger and intermingle his blood with the red paint so it was not a paint that was sold in the market he literally invested himself in his artwork the secret was rem bram painted red by intermingling drops of his own blood in the color red because there was a composition in the human blood at that time we still all have it that when the light hit it it glowed you see the point of the matter is god wants us to invest ourselves in our walk and in our relationship with him only then will the christian's life go from a humdrum life to a life that glows for the glory of god think about that the glow in rembrandt's blood was the glow in the blood of jesus he was in more ways than one the light of the world the light by his life in the light by his blood what i think about that word but he was a leper i praise god for this next quote-unquote but go to romans chapter 5 and verse 8. i praise god for there's some better quote-unquote but in the bible romans 5 and verse 8. i'm so glad that jesus made provision for our salvation before he changed our status i love this passage but god demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners what did christ do friends christ died for us aren't you glad let me say that again aren't you glad that before our status changed in the eyes of god he made provision to change our status that's why i say to people today you're not just forgiven you're different in christ i was doing a program with uh yvonne and danny and kenny and chris and while one of the music artists were playing a song between our program i think he was on the set running camera and there was a question that yvonne raised about sinners and i said no no i'm not i'm not a sinner she said huh i said i'm a saint under construction come on somebody help me out because somewhere along the way if you read the text if you read the text it it suggests that god changed our standing in that while we were come on somebody help me out while we were how can you come to christ and still be a worr walk around talk about well i'm a sinner say by grace no the grace of god changes your standing in that while we were he talks about that in second corinthians he says who once were not a people but now are a people god does not just forgive us he changes our standing so i said to evan i said somewhere along the way we've got to accept the transforming grace of christ to change us from who we were to who we are now i'm not saying i'm perfect but i am a saint under construction come on saints can we say amen somewhere along the way if you meet another sinner they need to be the saint right right ricky why would i want another sinner to be just like me if i'm a sinner just like him he needs to see a saint under construction he needs he needs to see somebody that knows how to love in spite of who they are somebody who cares in spite of what i've done somebody who's willing to forgive in spite of how grievous the action was we need to be saints under construction so if somebody says to you are you a sinner say no i accepted jesus romans 5 8 says i was a sinner but i'm now a child of god tomorrow morning at three o'clock somebody's gonna wake up saying hallelujah because he's gonna hit you we are no longer sinners on our way to a christless graves we are saints under construction getting ready for the city of god while we were bob bob is a saint under construction amen alice come on help me out and alice is the same under construction bob you better give it back amen we're all saints under construction every now and then a little bit of that remnant shows up but praise the lord he says it has not yet been revealed what you shall be so hold on to joe nancy he's getting better it has not yet been revealed come on angela hold on to ian he's getting stronger it has not yet been revealed what we shall be but we do know that when he is revealed we shall be what like him we are saints under construction now why do i spend so much time on that because that's who we're talking about we're talking about a man whose life was so messed up that when we com when we communicate a message and talk about sin never end the sermon preachers never end a sermon making people people feel worse than they did when you started jason donald joe all you preachers don't let people go home feeling worse than they did when they came to church why would i want to come to church shake them up but stand them up cut the sin out but don't forget to stitch them up and send them home whole that's what god does we got to be encouraged the world is changing around us and when you're tempted to throw in the towel you got to remember people like naaman when the trials seem abundant the answers are still there naaman's story just like ours often looks hopeless at the beginning but i want to tell you we are not judged by how our lives began because when god gets a hold of us he does in us what no one on this planet can ever do i know that i was abandoned left at a home of a babysitter look at me now honey say amen she said praise god only god can take an abandoned child and make him a son of god only god can take a broken down life and and say to the angels and the holy spirit get some good scaffolding cause this is gonna be a tough one then he covers us with the glory of his righteousness while he's working from the inside out and when he pulls off that curtain one day and says to my father you like that's what i'm looking forward to anybody else our beginning is not a forecast of our destiny how we are born is not as important as that we were born and god does not show up later on in our lives bonnie he was there from the very beginning when my mom when my mother decided to leave me at a babysitter god was there when i came out she thought i was an abscess in her stomach no i was a child that she did not even know was even planted there they didn't have exploratory cert they didn't have all that ultra stuff back in the 1950s now you know how old i might be so they went and looked to see what was that pain that she kept having in her stomach and it was me i was a pain before i was born so she decided to leave this pain in new york city and go back to the virgin islands and god found this baby encased in mud and said he's my child found this baby encased in mud in the mud of a stranger's house in the mud of an unfamiliar surrounding in the mud of somebody else's dna and he said i'm going to work on this piece of mud and i'm going to shape him to reveal my glory you see god does not always reveal himself in obvious ways sometimes he shows up in the most unexpected ways so in naaman's muddy life how did god show up look at verse two look at verse two second kings chapter five and verse two and the bible says and the syrians had gone out on raids and had brought back capped of a young girl from the land of israel the bible says she waited on naaman's wife when you read this story it's in prophets and kings my wife and i read it last night for worship before she had her family worship this is an amazing application of the of the powerful influence of a of a parent of a mother of a father because the lord allowed now i want you i want you to see how god works the lord knew that there would be a raid by the syrians the lord knew that there would be casualties of that raid children taken against their will the lord knew that this young girl was going to be confiscated from her family but let me share how god is merciful god saw a developing condition in naaman's life that can only be remedied if this young kidnapped girl ended up in his house now that's that's deep why would god allow her to get kidnapped to save naaman's life that's deep because people might say they took my child and god would say don't worry about it i gotta recover but there's somebody else that needs your child to find me sometimes you don't understand why difficult stuff happened and we say was god in that in this story god was in it god allowed this girl to be taken against her will put in the home of her captors to save the life of a man who thought he was great so don't try to figure out the way god works my ways are not your ways my thoughts are not your thoughts we've been through some stuff in our own life and our own marriage so how did why would god allow that when you look at the result of what happened as a as a as a product of what happened you say lord i probably wouldn't have chosen that method but i'm glad i'm a whole lot better now amen somebody god does some things that you say i probably wouldn't have done it that way but lord i'm glad i'm a whole lot better now than i used to be so when you don't understand it when it's as clear as mud it's clear for god he sees it god confronted the powerful through the petite she was a captured slave in naaman's eye but she was royalty in god's eyes why am i saying that because some of you don't know your value some of you think of yourselves as a captured slave by satan but i want to tell you you may not feel like you are royal but let's go to second peter first peter chapter 2 and verse 9 god sees us not just as we are in our present but as he is developing us to be don't get confused you may not feel like it but never determine who you are by your feelings determine it by what god says here's what he says in first peter chapter two and verse nine another butt another butt when you look at the bible don't look at the bad butts look at the good butts another one first peter two verse nine but you are a what chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation his own special people why why has god made us that way that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light have you ever had a breakfast where god's holy spirit fell down on your breakfast we've had those experiences sunday mornings when we're sitting down eating breakfast reading our bibles or reading something from ellen white's writings or reading oswald chambers or or reading something religious or when we have more time and we could read chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter and then we close our bibles and while we're eating our breakfast we have to pause to wipe our tears you got to have those moments those are valuable moments my wife reaches out and she says to me she said now that's another moment we just had that's another moment so when the difficult days come you can draw on that moment you can say god was there as we were walking out the door today and i was looking back on moments and lives of people whose names sometimes doesn't mean a whole lot to us and i was looking earlier this week at the struggle of the african-american in the land of america and i was listening to the speech of dr martin luther king when he stood up and i came to find out that the phrase i have a dream was not something that came from him but it came from a young african-american young lady who in her own church was preaching a sermon and he listened to her that day when she said i have a dream and when dr martin luther king was standing speaking at a rally to disenfranchise black men who were fighting for identity they were being treated like like like dirt and they had signs on their chest i am a man and he couldn't find his stride mahalia jackson in the background said martin tell him about your dream and he kicked into gear and he said i have a dream you see god sometimes take the the invisible and the innocuous we don't know about that lady but we know about his dream we don't know about that young girl's name but we know about naaman's life so god may sometimes choose to keep you obscure but your obscurity is noticed by god why am i saying that because god doesn't put everybody on stage but i want to tell you those are those people whose stories are told long after they passed like when jim pets was laid to rest we came to find out things about jim pitts that nobody knew obscure but powerful transforming lives making sure that missionaries around the world could continue preaching jim said no pastor i want my membership to be this place so that i can support that ministry in this ministry and as i sat down with him i thought wow this man is deeper than i ever thought the obscure sometimes you may not ever be under the lights of a camera but in the eyes of god you are greater than those who are in front of the camera because god does not work with the visible all the times sometimes he works through the petite captives in a home where they would never choose to be but god put them there for such a time as this so don't so don't so don't desire something when god can use you a better way let god desire and orchestrate where he wants you to be and when he wants you to be there amen look at verse 3. had it not been for jesus the predicament would have been without resolution god used a young girl look at chapter five and verse three of second kings this is the young girl now talking to her mistress and she said to her mistress that is to name his wife if only my master were with the prophet who was in samaria for he would heal him of his leprosy now watch this he's the one that orchestrated my kidnapping let him go ahead and die of his leprosy that's what some of us would have said good for you am i being real uh-huh you wasn't kidnapped me good for you look go ahead and rot but a converted person says i see you through god's eyes so my situation may seem to be apparently hopeless but now i realize why god brought me here why joseph was thrown in a pit and then sold as a slave to the midianites and then falsely accused and then put in prison because god was going to take him from pits to palaces so don't don't get confused about where you are right now because god knows that you are exactly where he knew that you are going to be god knows that he's developing your life and your walk so don't begin to covet what god does not want you to have you'll find in scripture that the stories of great failure came because men coveted what god never intended for them to have god made usia a king he wanted to be a priest and he ended up a leper because god did not want him to be there so here's this young girl now and when i read this chapter i thought to myself the reason why this young girl was so effective as a captor as a captured little girl is because servant of the lord points out that she was raised by godly parents like the three hebrews she was trained from young when she was a little girl she was introduced to christ in her home she was involved in the bible studies in the prayer life of the home god was training her in the way that she would go she knew god as a young child so the training she got when she was young kicked in when she was no longer under the influence of her parents appearance i say that to say this you may not know what the future is for your young child or what god has in store for your children but now is your time this is your hour get them ready because god is going to one day call on you to give an account where are the jewels that i lent to you when the parent takes the training of the child seriously the day may come like this young girls that they may be in a situation where they don't want to be but god saw that they would be there for the salvation of somebody else i'll tell you god allowed me to be kidnapped a kidnapping is sleeping by the way a kidnapping is when a child is taking a nap god allowed me to be abandoned so that it can work out for the salvation of my mother so she abandoned me but about almost 30 years later i baptized her who can do that but god it took a while to get there it took a while to get there but god got her there why is it so significant those of you that are adventists i'm going to give you something that you don't see coming god used a young girl as his messenger he chose a young girl to introduce to naaman the ministry of healing while adventists are chucking the writings of ellen white god said oh don't get rid of the young girl with a third grade education more books have been translated in more languages by her than any other female author ever ever alive the library congress lists the desire of ages as one of the best books ever written on the life of christ and ministers of countless denominations have found success in their congregations by following her books steps to christ prophets and kings i remember many years ago in in a doctor cho a large evangelical leader had a church of 50 000 members in one of the asian countries i forget exactly right now which country it was i think it was in japan in korea thank you honey my wife remembers the details and two adventist ministers went to visit with him how did you build up your congregation to 50 000 followers he said i don't tell everybody the secret but i could tell you and he invited them to his office they told us that they told us this experience at one of our large pastors gatherings he said dr cho invited us into his office into his palatial office into his massive edifice he had an edifice this is a church he had an edifice long before joel olsteen and t.d jakes there was dr chill and he pulled out two books evangelism and gospel workers and he said if you guys would follow this book your church will grow like mine is a young girl in the right place at the right time and that's why second chronicles 20 20 says it this way listen to this hear me o judah and you inhabitants of jerusalem believe in the lord your god and you shall be what established but he goes on believe his prophets and you shall do what and you shall prosper and right now in so many circles even included in some adventist circles ellen white is being torn apart left and right as though she's irrelevant as though she's some kind of misguided person who lost her mind and wrote about more than a hundred books and even time magazine did an article i have the article at home actually i have the magazine at home and in the center of the magazine time magazine a catholic publication the article starts with a woman 100 years ahead of her time and they began to cite her findings against modern medical findings and as a matter of fact i just so happen to have it today medical science and the spirit of prophecy this book is a compilation of medical findings by modern doctors and scientists who says she had this knowledge long before it was even available and one of my eye doctors in california that had produced many glasses for us who gave me many eyeglasses i noticed in his library in his office he had her books and i said hey doc i noticed you have some books in yourself said yes he said i get a whole lot of knowledge medical understanding from those books that woman was really ahead of her time god will choose the obscure to neck to connect people to the god that so many people don't know so god used her in an unlikely way but don't discount the fact don't get discount the fact as one person said but she doesn't understand greek and hebrew i said to a pastor once who told me that he said but how can you believe what she writes she doesn't understand greek and hebrew i said she doesn't need to god does right did the apostles understand greek on the day of pentecost no but they spoke in greek do they understand all the other languages represented but they spoke in those languages just like that god can do more for a person in one year under his tutelage than in 15 years in any university on this planet so naomi gets excited and then in verse four second kings chapter five verse four notice what it says and naaman went in and told his master saying thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of israel she told me how i can find remedies and then in verse 5. look what it says so the king of syria said go now and i will send a letter to the king of israel so he departed and took him with him 10 talents of silver 6 000 shekels of gold and 10 changes of clothing now how many people go to the dentist's office with all that where are you going to the hospital you need all that money it must have been expensive nowadays 10 changes of clothing in other words he he is so he is so used to showing up ready when i go for my healing i'm going to look like i need to be healed so he goes sharp because he wants to go ahead and buy his healing not understanding that god doesn't need his money and when you hear the story and the letter goes to the king of israel he tears his clothes and he says do you think i'm the one that can kill and make alive why would you bring this challenge to me but what he didn't understand god had an answer god had an answer for this king's dilemma look at verse eight of second kings chapter five so i love what naaman said and i love what elisha said elijah said to the king don't worry about it god's got this god's got this look at verse 8. so it was when elisha the man of god heard that the king of israel had torn his clothes that he sent to the king saying why have you torn your clothes please let him come to me and he shall know that there is a prophet where in israel he says don't worry about it send him to me send naaman to me so verse 9 and 10. let's dive at it the naaman went with his horses and chariot and he stood at the door of elijah's house and elijah sent a messenger to him saying go and wash in the jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean you got to put this together you got to get this the president just drove up to your house with his motorcade his secret service and you send a message on a sticky note here uh pastor john said read this he's on the computer right now follow the instructions he looks around at his detail said are you kidding me are you serious i mean it came all this way i got silver and gold for him and he gives you a sticky note to tell me go wash how insulting is that the bible says in verse 11 and 12 but naaman became furious and went away and said indeed i said to myself he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the lord his god and wave his hand over the place like those tv evangelists slap him folk on the forehead and heal the leprosy are not the abnar and the far paw the rivers of damascus better than all the waters of israel could i not wish could i not wash in them and be clean so he turned and went away in what rage when you read the story he went away in anger when you read the story you discover naaman's problem was not just leprosy he had an anger problem he had a pride issue he was so his self-importance he had personal preference over divine prerogative naaman had a whole lot of issues so people sometimes want god to resolve their financial crisis when god says your problem is you have a spending addiction you don't need more money you need to cut those credit cards up amen somebody some people want a new car god said no you don't need a new car you need to get the church on what you have because you ain't been to church in years you need a new car to get to church what happened to that one you don't that car doesn't know where your church is god always gets to the heart of the matter i don't feel well if god made some of us as sick as we claimed to be on sabbath morning what would happen to us i felt sick i tell them tell that to jail on monday i'm sick jill i ain't coming in don't tell it to god on sabbath they met somebody right tracy you know jill i'm taking the week off but you need to pay me anyway because i just don't feel like working today tell that to god on sabbath morning we wouldn't do that why does god get the bottom of the barrel that shows us that if we have to find excuses not to come and worship god on sabbath morning even in a covert 19 fellowship what kind of christianity do we have atheists we are christian atheists we believe in god but we live like he doesn't exist so all this issues look at verse 13. let's dive into it so his servants now the one that naaman commanded is now commanding naaman and the servants came near and spoke to him and said my father if the prophet had told you to do something great would you not have done it how much more then when he says to you wash and be clean he said the name just go wash up just do it just do it and name a thought i'm the commander i am not going in no muddy jordan river now can i take you about 1500 years later if naaman only knew that that was the river that jesus was going to get baptized in he would have said my privilege only jesus and i found healing in those waters you see sometimes god gives you a divine glimpse but he waits if you follow the simple things that god does now later on you'll be able to say you know what there's only two people i don't remember that got baptized in the jordan you and me naaman is the only other person in the bible talked about as having to go down in the jordan coming up different than when he went down who's the other one jesus how many of you would like to share that with your resume me and jesus are the only ones cited in scripture as having been baptized in the jordan that's how god is so the circumstances were allowed by god not to wound his pride but to change his life god had to god had to humble him before he changed him naaman had to be willing to bow low before he can stand up look at verse 14. so he went down and dipped how many times seven now i gotta stop right here i gotta stop right here because this is a this is an amazing parlay god's blessings and i had to i saw this in a way i had never seen it before god's blessings will elude you until you agree with god that the sabbath blessing cannot be found in the first dip the second dip the third dip day the fourth dip day the fifth or the sixth dip day you got to dip on the seventh day to find the blessing and no matter what day you pick other than that there ain't no blessing in that ask naaman he'll tell you yeah it was the seventh you can call sunday what you want but god didn't say name and pick a dip he said go down seven times amen somebody all those false preachers well this day is better you be you'll be dipping for a long time and you'll still come up dirty you can only find the blessing of god when you do it god's way when god says the seventh day he didn't say pick a day he said the seventh day he didn't say name and pick a dip he said go down seven times here's the point there are too many proud preachers and too many proud christians they want to do it their way but you'll be walking around like a leper for a long time until you do it god's way christian atheism let's go back to the verse you never know there's so much in just two words seven times so he went down and dipped seven times in the jordan according this is it according to the saying of the man of god how do we have to live brethren according to the sayings of the man of god and his flesh was what restored like the flesh of a little child and what he was clean amen and what was his testimony as i closed what was his testimony here's his testimony here's the testimony of a man who was in charge and realized he really wasn't in charge of anything who's he was a man who called shots and realized he called shots that never got him anywhere but to leprosy ville he was a man that never knew true victory until he realized that victory comes with surrender not with fighting and what did his testimony say to us today that's last verse second kings 5 15 the last verse the testimony of a proud man and he returned to the man of god he and all his aides can you see him he's soaking wet like a guy that just came out of the baptismal pool he came and stood before him and he said indeed what are the three words now i know that there is what no god in all the earth except in israel now therefore please take a gift from your servant and i got to tell you the rest of the story naaman didn't take a penny sorry elisha did not accept a dime salvation is a free gift somebody say amen don't ever sell god's blessings when god has saved you for free he paid the price so i have to ask the question my brethren and the point is clear we will never know true victory until we are willing to serve god in the muddy waters god does not save us ramona from the muddy waters god saves us in the muddy waters you got mud in your life god has given you a glimpse of what your life can become without him but only a life cleansed through the muddy waters of experience will bring us face to face with the three words now i know if you don't know yet about the power of god i could suggest to you as i close that god is saying you are trying to avoid the muddy waters before you but i'm saying get in the muddy waters and i'll transform your life is your marriage stuck in mud don't answer that question god is not asking you to obey him because your marriage is ideal but god is saying trust him in the muddy waters of matrimony and god can clean it up somebody ought to say amen god is saying it may not be the best yet but i'm not done yet don't get rid of that model because i ain't done with her don't get rid of that model because i'm not done with him let me clean up the mud in his or her life and you'll see him in a way he'd never seen him before or you've never seen her before are your finances caught in mud huh god is forcing you to trust him with your tithes and offerings now honor him through the mud and your money matters and god will take that money and multiply it for the glory of his kingdom are your children acting like mud god is not telling you to beat the devil out of them god is telling you to love them through the more muddy waters of their rebellion so years later they'll say mama she hungry i can i can tell you the amount of stories i heard at funerals where young men that i never met before still the smell of smoke on their breath at the funerals i've done many years ago i could be at those funerals and i see the family members that i've never met before and i could smell the smoke on the breath of a strapping young man who said you know mama mama told me that when this day comes this is what i need to do and i'm going to do it now i want to make my decision to give my life to the lord you got to understand that god works in muddy waters church members dragging your name through mud god can transform their lives god is saying love them in the mud of their lives love them when things are not clear because if you give me time what is clear as mud to you will be as clear in your eyes as they are in the eyes of god so hang on in the muddy times hang on when it seems like there's a better way but god says this is the only way hang on when you prefer a better river or a better prerogative you want to give god suggestions on how to change your life so god said no no no no you got to go in the mud because there's more that you have to deal with than just your external conditions i can tell you today i've been through mud i've been through mud i'm stronger now than i've been before i've been through mud at this church there were days i remember one day driving up to this church during camp meeting and i stood down front it was a wednesday because camp meeting was beginning on thursday and we had a lot of people for prayer meeting that night because they all came with their trailers and everything and everybody was there and i stood in the front and i said to them you ever drive up the church and feel like just driving by and never stopping that's how i feel today i need you to pray for me and those strangers those guests those visitors came to camp meeting and they surrounded me with prayer through a difficult time in my life there were days that i was driving down to marion going through trials and i'd pull off the side of the road just before my exit just to talk to god and i'm standing here today because i know what it's like we know what it's like to go through mud but god doesn't save you from the mud god saves you through the mud so if it's not clear right now hang on in the mud because god is not done yet anybody today want to keep hanging on would you stand with me would you stand with me it don't make it does not make sense right now but stay with god and one day you'll be able to go back and say to somebody like naaman probably did he said look at me now remember what i used to look like let me show you where the change happened see that muddy water right there i met god in muddy waters it didn't make sense to me but right now it is all clear i can see clearly now the mud is gone father in heaven thank you for muddy times sometimes we have to lay the world down and think about where we are and i'll walk with you sometimes we have to reassess our lives and we know that in this congregation even those watching the sermon not everything is right not everything is the way we'd like it to be whatever the matter may be there's some mud in our lives somewhere and you're saying to us don't try to avoid the mud i'm going to save you through the mud if it's a marriage that's going through mud father tell that couple to go through the mud together on their knees together praying together hugging each other through tears together understanding that they're both saints under construction together don't give up because god is going to give you a beautiful wife and god is going to give you a strong husband hang on together get muddy together so god can cleanse you together then there are children that parents are praying for today they're wondering what do i need to do to get this young person sensible god is saying don't worry about it i got a pile of mud that i'm going to put them through and if they're willing they'll come out on the other side transformed and renewed so precious jesus help us not to cry for the mother to be taken away but help us to pray for hearts of humility hearts willing to bow low before we can stand tall thank you lord for all the mud that we've experienced and for the mud that is yet to come may we be faithful to the end and father may all the glory go only to you for the transformations in our lives in jesus name we pray and god's people said amen amen saints you

Channel: Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Length: 79min 0sec (4740 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 20 2021