31 Oct 2020 - Croydon SDA Church Live Worship

[Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] welcome to croydon sca church where you're excited that you have chosen to worship with us online today we are a church driven by jesus's mission a mission to save transform and restore lives we want you to know that you are valued so stay with us participate and be blessed also don't forget to subscribe to this channel and visit our website www dot croydon [Music] i'm gonna sing i'm gonna sing when the spirit says i'm gonna sing i'm gonna sing when the spirit says i'm going to pray [Music] shout shout when the spirits say shout shout shout when the spirits say shout shout shout [Music] and obey the spirit of the lord i'm gonna sing i'm gonna pray i'm gonna shout sing praise out hallelujah sing hallelujah and obey the spirit of the lord [Music] good morning everyone i just want to wish you a very very happy sabbath and i hope that you've had a good week shall we pray father in heaven we thank you so much for this wonderful sabbath day that you have given to us and we pray now that as we worship you that we will indeed worship you in spirit and in truth amen i'd like to invite you to eavesdrop on a very special meeting satan called a worldwide meeting the huge crowd hushed as he stepped up to speak we can't keep the christians from going to church we can't keep them from reading their bibles and knowing the truth we can't keep them from conservative values but we can do something else he paused everyone listened we can keep them from forming an intimate abiding experience with christ if they gain that connection with christ jesus our power over them is broken so let them go to church let them have their conservative lifestyles but steal their time so they can't gain that experience in jesus christ now this is what i want you to do distract them from gaining hold of their savior and maintaining a vital connection through their day how shall we do this shouted his angels simple keep them busy busy busy in non-essentials of life and invent unnumbered schemes to occupy their minds he answered tempt them to spend time spend spend spend then borrow borrow keep them from their children convince the wives to go to work and the husbands to work six and seven days a week 10 to 12 hours a day so they can afford their lifestyle ha that one works well as their family fragments soon their homes won't offer an escape from the pressures of work overstimulate their minds entice them to play the radio or the dvd whenever they drive so they can't hear the still small voice help them get them to keep their tvs their dvds their mp3s their ipads their cell phones and text messages and cds going constantly in their homes this will jam their minds and break that union with christ fill their homes of magazines and newspapers pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day invade their driving moments with billboards flood their mailboxes with junk mail sweepstakes mail order catalogues and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products and services and false hopes even in their recreation let them be excessive have them returned from their recreation exhausted disquieted and unprepared for the coming week don't let them go into nature send them to amusement parks and sporting events concerts and movies instead when they meet for spiritual fellowship involve them in gossip and small talk so they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotion don't let them encourage or uplift each other keep those who are the gifted encouragers especially busy and worn out and above all when they get together keep them from praying for one another let them be involved in soul winning but crowd their lives were so much good causes they have no time to seek power from christ soon they will be working in their own strength sacrificing their health and family unity for the good of the cause it was quite a convention in the end and the evil angels went eagerly to their assignments trying to cause christians everywhere to get busy busy busy and rush here and there today is prayer and praise day you and i at this time in which we are living we should be praying as never before you see the greatest victories gained for the cause of god are not the result of labored argument wide influence or ample facilities or abundance of means they are gained in the audience chambers with god with earnest organizing faith men lay hold upon the mighty arm of power gospel workers 259 however as we heard in the imaginary meeting satan knows only too well that if we can prevent them from praying we will become powerless feeble wishy-washy christians he would have gained the victory over us because he would have made us so busy that we won't even have time to pray spending time in prayer is vital to our existence prayer is much more than just giving a list of desires to god you know like like we give a list to to santa claus prayer is acknowledging and experiencing the presence of god and inviting his presence into our lives when we pray we bring that power to bear upon everything we're praying about and we allow the power of god to work through our powerlessness when we pray we're humbling ourselves before god saying lord i need your presence and your power i can't do this without you when we pray it's like saying we have when we don't pray it's like saying we don't have need of anything outside of ourselves however you might say to me well i pray all the time before i go to bed and when i'm awake in the morning is that enough are those prayers routine hurried ones because we're too busy to spend quality time with god all of us every one of us is caught up in the fast paced life of the 21st century everyone is rushing here and there seemingly having no time to take breath one writer says i see pastors elders and church board members operating at the same relentless pace as everyone else never a dull moment and indeed never a reflective moment either where does the still small voice of god fit into our hectic lives prayer is not an exercise or a discipline but a relationship says randy maxwell if we are to have the kind of relationship with god that we desire we must slow down and spend quality time with him first of all we must not view prayer as a chore but as a relationship with jesus our best friend if we are to become authentic christians we must have strong relationships with god and this can only happen when we slow down and spend time with him through slowing down to pray and spending time with god we become authentic christians who have a strong lasting relationship with god we love being in his presence the psalmist david was one who spent time communing with god he loved being in his presence and in psalm 1 verse 2 to 3 he says of authentic christians their delight is in the law of the lord and on his laws they meditate day and night they are like trees planted by the streams of water which yield their fruit in its season and their leaves do not wither what a beautiful picture of those who are never busy to pray it is my prayer today that we slow down stop being too busy to pray get out of the fast lane make a commitment to slow down and spend time with god let us pray father we're sorry that we sometimes allow ourselves to be choked by the circumstances of life the worries the distractions and the pleasures of this world so much so that we have no time for you help us to make a lasting commitment with you to slow down and renew our relationship with you we pray in your name amen have a wonderful sabbath and god bless you [Music] so above all powers above all kings above all nature and no created things above all wisdom and all the ways of men you were here before the world began [Applause] [Music] above all wonders the world has ever known [Music] there's no way to measure what you were [Music] traveled on the ground [Applause] above all powers above all kings [Music] above all nature and no created things [Applause] [Music] [Applause] above all kingdoms [Music] [Music] and treasures of the earth like a rose trampled on the ground [Music] rejected [Music] [Music] me above [Music] so happy sabbath and welcome to croydon's sabbath school panel it's great to be back with you all and at this time i need to send special thanks to elder neal and kai for sitting in the chair standing in the gap even for the past few weeks it's been great to be able to just sit back and take in the service and i realize now what the lord is doing so thank you for tuning in with us especially those of you that are getting up so early in the morning to join us live it's great to be back and it's great to be able to share god's word with you once again remember if this is your first time tuning in don't make it your last time this is an interactive bible study session if you don't have a quarterly as we call it or a study guide go to sabbaschool.com that's www.sabbath.school.begin.sabbath.school where you can download and follow the study welcome to our visiting friends especially those on adventist radio london joining us this morning and we have some new visitors i understand that life radio are journeying us for the first time so welcome to all listeners tuning in on life radio 2. remember it's an interactive session and so we want you to get in touch so you can send your comments on the chat on livestream and on youtube and those of you that have access to a phone you can send your messages on whatsapp the number is zero seven eight five four two three nine nine two two that's zero seven eight five four two three nine nine double two for those of you on adventist radio london you can contact in your normal way you text the word hope to 8 treble 2 8 leave a space and then send your message remember standard network charges apply or you can email studio at adventistradio.london we want to get your actual questions today we want to be able to bring them out so those of you that are sending in questions for the panel start your message with questions so it stands out to us and then ask your questions so that we can be able to have time in our servers this morning for your question so start your message with question and then ask your question regular comments you just keep them coming through as you normally do we have our panel with us um and it's good to welcome back into the chair pastor royston good morning pastor royston good morning to my listeners i miss you tremendously so it's nice to be back and um it's nice to have my my host back with us this morning and as he said thank neil and kai who have done a fantastic job and also the young people yes and i know elder johnny was just sitting at home twiddling his thumb i'm wondering when will i be back welcome back elder joshua and uh we we're hoping today as we interact with you that you will be blessed and can i say to those who are on on you know on youtube but not a member of the church please subscribe to our youtube channel we have multiple programs available to you and for you and members of the people who say pasta how do i contribute to the to this ministry um go to the croydon adventist website and there you can make a contribution so that this program can continue and you will be blessed today promises to be exciting elder johnny because you're back no i don't know about that and thanks also to pastor andrew kojo that kept things ticking over in such a great way as well we also have our panelists good morning sister verna jean good morning good to see you here with us we also have brother fibian morning brother fibian good morning church family and you're happy happy sabbath to you and last but by no means least we have elder peterburn good morning viewers listeners and panel great to be here once again um delving into god's word great we have a powerful lesson study that we're going to get right into but before that we're going to be favored with a special musical item by elder david billet singing for us thou didst leave thy throne [Music] thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown when thou came as to work for me but in bethlehem's home was there found no room for in thy tv oh come to my heart lord jesus there is room in my heart for thee [Music] heaven's arches rang when the angel sang pro who claimed thy royal decree but of lowly birth is thou come to earth and in great humanity o come to my heart lord jesus there is room in my [Applause] [Music] the fox has found rest and the birds their nest in the shades of the forest tree but thy couch was the sword of the sun of god in the deserts o come to my heart lord jesus there is room in my heart for thee [Music] thou came as the lord with the living word that should set thy people free but with more kings corn and with crown of thorn they bore thee to cows o come to my heart lord jesus there is room in my heart for thee [Music] when the heaven shall ring and the angels sing at the at victory let thy voice call me home saying it there is room there is room at my side for thee my heart shall rejoice lord jesus when the comments [Music] dear god we are so moved by that song help each of us to open our hearts because that's what it's about it's about opening our hearts so that you can live so that you can reign father god we thank you for today and as we study your word may one soul be blessed may one life be changed in your name we pray amen amen thank you pastor and thank you elder david for that wonderful song wow so this week and next week we'll be focusing on the master teacher so today lesson five in our series of education we're looking at jesus as the master teacher our memory text for this week was found in second corinthians 4 verse 6 and the new king james version reads for it is the god who commanded light to shine out of darkness who was shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ uh now when we think about it what is it like to look upon the face of jesus we think back of various people in the bible the apostle peter before he was the apostle he looked at jesus at certain times and recognized his own sinfulness and and didn't want the master near him and when we think about you know when the cop before the crowed three times when he looked into his master's face so when we look into the face of jesus what do we think what do we see but i guess there's that old song that says what a day that will be when my jesus i shall see when i look upon his face the one who saves me by his grace but for me you see the real question for us today is how do people react when they look into our face but let's let's get into the lesson now i'm surrounded by a teaching fraternity today so elder peter i'm coming to you by way of a definition of a master teacher is a head master the same as a master teacher please define for me good question well the teacher in charge of her school is called a head master or nowadays they tend to be called head teacher i used to think that meant because they used to be the ones that set the example to be the head of teaching but i later realized that it was um for equalities that they didn't want that master head mystery so they called everyone a teacher anyway head teacher doesn't mean necessarily a master tea trip means that a head teacher should be able to bring out the best in each teacher within the school but they may not necessarily be the best teacher in the school up there in some heads who i wouldn't have teaching my children but a master teacher now is one who has mastered the art of teaching okay now sister bernard jean is on the panel this morning and she she deals with maths mastery now mastery is a long-term secure understanding of something that in enough depth to be able to use that knowledge and apply that knowledge successfully to different situations so a memory master may be able to apply the memory techniques to memorize lists and people's names or bible verses or even whole sermons now a master teacher will employ the most effective strategies okay to bring about understanding long-term retention and opportunities for application of what is being taught excellent excellent so we have our definition of master teacher and and happy for panelists to chip in some more on that later on but before that pastor let me come to you now before christ came to earth would you say that the image of god in fact his whole name needed a reset for his followers um do you want a sociological answer or do you want a theological answer i want your answer that our members could follow okay so so think about this the the problems that that happened before christ came to earth right you know the whole idea of of satan modeling the game in heaven the whole concept of what happened in the garden of eden and all the challenges that were happening okay so there's this concept that people have in their minds just reading scriptures that god was unfair he was unreasonable you know how dare he kick satan out of the garden how dare he throw adam and eve how dare he rather kick satan out of heaven and how dear he threw adam and eve out of the garden so there was this image that you can just imagine this image that was created in the minds of those who existed at this time that god was unreasonable god was irrational god was harsh god was difficult and so and so so the coming of christ as we're going to be going on into the the master teaching the coming of christ was to reset in the minds of the human creature and the universe that god was reasonable god was fair and that which drives god is not force but love excellent i hope that helps no that's great so we've got a a foundation or or a place where we're starting from now most of you may have heard the expression like father like son and i know that may have negative connotations depending on who the father was but from a positive point of view you know the greatest positive example of this was god the father and god the son and and how nice as you know if your father was somebody that was looked up into looked up to in society somebody who had a positive effect what a nice thing for someone to say to you you are just like your father so like father like son sister verna jean i'm coming to you first of all now what does hebrews uh 11 no hebrews 1 beg your pardon hebrews 1 verses 1 to 4 say about this relationship between god the father and god the son hebrews 1 1-4 okay so i am reading from the new international version and it reads in the past god spoke to our fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed ear of all things and through him through whom he made the universe the sun is the radiance of god's glory and just listen to this bit the exact representation of his being so jesus is the exact representation of god's being um sustaining all things by his powerful word after he had provided purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven and so he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs um i think that that really says it all i mean if i wanted to add some more evidence of the the close link between god the father and jesus i would also add john 10 verse 30 which says i and my father are one and also john 14 verse 9 which says he that hath seen me hath seen the father and so you can see that there is there is no difference when sometimes people have the idea of jesus you know in the father in the old testament sorry god the father was you know stern or stare you know you destroy you at this you know the drop of a hat and so on and when jesus came it was like oh he was so different but you know jesus himself said no this is who god the father is if you've seen me and you think that this is you know i'm loving and kind that's how god is that's right that's right great great thank you thank you um now a quote quote in our quarterly said as sinful human beings we could not endure full access to the glory of god as the incarnate son jesus reflects that glory it is muted in christ's humanity so that we might see and understand clearly the character of god so brother fibian i'm throwing this one at you what i've just read there you know how do you understand muted in christ's humanity right can i comment on hebrews 1 verse 3 and then come to that that's fine go go hurry up go ahead i just wanted to highlight uh hebrews 1 verse 3 which reads who being i'm reading from the new king james version who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person we need to understand that because if we look at john 4 24 we learn that god is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth and yet when we look at john 14 verse 10 you jesus says do you not believe that i am in the father and the father in me the words that i speak to you i do not speak of my own authority but the father who dwells in me does the works so we find a unity between god the father and jesus and jesus therefore becomes a true representation he becomes the brightness of the glory of god and the express image of his person now when we look at the second stage muted is mostly an expression of sound when we talk about muting it's usually an expression of sound quiet and soft or not expressed to strongly or open let's look at hebrews 5 verse 5 onwards when i look at hebrews 5 reading verse 5 i'm reading from the new king james version bearing in mind the muting character of christ verse 5. so also christ did not glorify himself to become high priest but it was he who said to him you are my son today i have begotten you a six as he also says in another place you are a priest forever according to the order of melchizedek seven who in the days of his flesh that's jesus when he had offered up prayers and supplications with a vehement cries and tears or to him who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear verse a so he was a son yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered and having been perfected he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him president called by god as a high priest according to the order of mecca when jesus was called he made no excuses but he complied even going to the cross um i will not preempt you what my sister venegean will read later in the philippians but he taught us in parables so that all people could hear you and that's understanding the word of god he loved and they obeyed our father in all things okay thank you brother fabian so just picking up on this point muted as you were saying there's an implication there then that the that the full glory didn't come through but it's whether that is an issue or not or or whether it was required but i'm going to allow my other panelists to pick up on that um before that though let let's just go to our listeners now pastor have we got any questions coming in at this stage before i throw out questions to our listeners okay right um so tour panelists there's a question coming from is it irma or irma who asks a question did god kick adam and eve out of the garden of eden to teach them a lesson interesting interesting question okay um did god kick adam and eve out of the garden of eden to teach them a lesson elder peter i'm going to allow you a minute or less to answer that question okay a good teacher will teach the lessons beforehand and god taught them the lesson as he was going on from day to day this is what i'm giving you this one you don't touch now as a result of the student taking in what the master teacher is teaching or any teacher is teaching there are consequences if i teach a child how to do maths and they don't apply the strategies they're not going to know how to do that adam and eve didn't apply what god had taught them so they rep the reaped the consequences and so as someone says um eve ate adam and eve out of house and home so they made the decision themselves okay yep happy with that answer is there another question i'm sure we'll be impressed with um with uh professor pete's answer answer to the question um the next question is um it's coming from a monroe who asks a question um comparing the god of the old testament and the god of the new testament one in in other words god of the old testament is harsh judgmental exacting but the god of the new testament is nice it's polite is peaceful how do we link our panel elder johnny how do we link the god of the old testament with the god of the new testament i think sister werner jean answered that i don't know when that question came in but that's the whole point that as christ was the embodiment of his father was the exact exact nature of his father there were times when he had to be stern there were times when he had to act in a certain way which would seem to imply is this still the the loving caring god but it's the same because as sister of energy clearly said when christ was here he reflected the father totally um right my question panel is for you no not panelists my question to our listening audience you know we are called to be imitators of god as their children what practical advice can you give on imitating jesus okay so we want to see your advice listeners that you can give on imitating jesus whether you're listening on the radio or listening via youtube or live stream sending your answers to what advice you can give on imitating jesus just going back to the point on muted as brother fibian was saying it's recognizing that when we think of moses and moses wanted to see god wanting to know who god was and god hid him in a cleft of a rock and he passed by him because it's recognizing that glory of god to sinful man could be destructive and so when christ came here that term muted it's not reducing the quality of god's glory of who he is but it's making it in a way that we can be able to take it in okay we're moving on we're moving on um now our memory verse uses imagery of the word being light another famous text says thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path and this expands the imagery for the word and john the apostle said the word was made flesh and dwelt among us so this link of the light coming all the way down so elder peter i'm coming to you now what light did jesus bring um john 1 verse 14 and verse 18. what light did jesus bring okay john 1 14 and 18 the new king james version i'll be reading from um verse 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth verse 18 no one has seen god at any time the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father he has declared him now jesus brought the light of god to earth and was qualified to do that because he is god um there's this book that is a good um companion to the lesson education ellen g y and she made a comment on page seven to four um don't think you'll be able to read that too well but i shall read just a short bit the light appeared when the world's darkness was deepest okay now the world loved darkness rather than light as john chapter 3 verse 19 has told us and i advise you when you're listening to these studies do have a pen and paper to hand because sometimes we're going to be making references to think that things that you need to research for yourself as good students so if you read john chapter 3 verses 19 to 21 it shares with us that light came into the world there's christ but the people love darkness instead of light because they're these were evil as i read from education and it says whoever lives by truth comes into the light so we too should be able to behold god's glory because light illuminates and so the glory of god was able to be seen in christ as it should be seen in us excellent you see listeners the sign of a good teacher there by elder peter make sure you're taking notes all the time thank you very much sir brother fibian anything to add to what peter said um that's fine i can come back to you oh go ahead i would only add on to say jesus said i'm the way the truth and the line and no one comes to me to the father other than through me so jesus being the way the truth and the life he was the he was the channel through which the the world would receive the word of god and be safe [Music] a channel good word i like that word um sister werner jean anything from you yeah i mean this this made me think about you know so the question was what light did jesus bring it it made me think of an experience that i had um when i was in teaching in a particular classroom and a parent came in with a child it was parents evening and she said my child thinks that you don't like her and i was absolutely shocked and rehearsed and i thought to myself why is this coming across it like this and then what i realized was that i saw so much potential in this child that i was probably if i'm honest being a little harder on her than i would have done and i explained this to the mother i said she has so much potential and i want her to fulfill her potential and it was almost as though like the scales lifted he was like oh she really does like me then and this is what jesus did and if i can link it to what um brother amen um a man rook was asking about you know the the god of the old testament and the god of the new uh or you know as revealed by jesus it was about you know we may have thought that god didn't like us because of the way things happened in the old testament but jesus basically came and he revealed to us actually no it's because he loves you that's why he's you know acted and doing these things because of that love and that was the light that it's like oh yeah god really does love us and and that was the light that jesus brought into the world amen amen so i think in your example that was a case of like mother like daughter as well thank you for sharing that um when i think of this light though this this concept now the original greek games which led to our olympic games which i i missed this year unfortunately now the the olymp the original greek games they had a a torch relay where they would pass this torch from person to person as a race i i know there is still the uh bringing of of of the flame from from greece to wherever it is but the torch relay was actually a race um and nowadays this is the the baton relay as we see and this is about getting the baton around as quickly as possible but when you think back to the concept of the torch it wasn't an electric light bulb it was a real flame so the idea was to pass on this light without the flame going out so nowadays when we think of the baton races it's about the speed and the changes and getting that batten around and getting there first but when you think you know you have to pass this light to keep it going to all the world without the flame going out and it brings a different concept to that light to the to the to the relay and and that's why it's important this light that came from god through his son and is coming to us we mustn't let this light go out we must keep the light burning pastor we got some comments coming in have we we coming comments are coming in quick and fast moses talks we ask the question of the journey yes about imitating christ and the answers are coming in um juliet says we can only imitate christ through the fruit of the spirit galatians chapter five that says the spirit of the spirit is love joy peace you can that's another reference i'm trying to imitate um our professor there pete um geraldine says we should go to the beatitude matthew chapter five to chapter seven speak expressively about the beatitude rocks and rufus in nigeria says learn to forgive karen b says giving of a second chance um i'm just summarizing elder johnny moses um on on livestream says we should when when his wife and his children see him being a good person then he's imitating christ and and he adds friends also diana says by keeping it deep in mexico by keeping a deep continuous prayer time we're taking our lives one of the most important teachings from jesus so there seems to be an idea coming looking at the attributes or the personality or the characteristics how christ behaves how he acts we then take on all these things that christ did and tried to reflect them in our lives over to you johnny and and that's what's so important um it it's keeping that that that message alive and and when you think that a teacher and i'd like to pick up on the point that um sister werner june just raised there that the child in her class thought she didn't like her you know the master teacher and let's remember who the master teacher is the master teacher wants us to learn the master teacher feels we have the ability to be able to understand and that's why the master teacher is putting things over in that way um and it's that genuine love and and as long as we once we know who christ is and know that he is our master teacher then we should know he wants us to understand he wants us to pass the final exam he wants us to graduate with flying colors and once we believe in who our master teacher is that's when we've got to make sure things are working i know you only want to but we would like to give our viewers of course so there are some comments that we have read we have taken a few questions but um um elder one as usual on on the ball in this dispensation god has spoken to us through his son jesus christ it is a privilege and honor do we know do we do we know intimately the man so he wants to say when you want to imitate christ there needs to be intimacy between yourself and christ um as usual professor billet who is a who's a scientist talk talking about light says like light is far more than visible light for the purpose of illuminating it is the life-giving energy needed to needed to power the development of biological cells so it is with christ thank you professor billet uh and it says we must be unified this means to join in purpose and passion um i like the double piece it involves exchanging our will for god's will we must not only unite in doctrine but our life should be a reflection of god so true so i mean um annette is saying be more than the pharisees have been um helen says um he showed this character god of love and mercy long suffering forgiving sins from generation to generation so the concept of forgiveness is coming through over to elder johnny powerful keep your comments coming through whether you're listening on radio or via youtube or live stream keep your comments and your questions coming through remember start your question with the word question so we can easily pick that out and ask it for you pastor putting you on the spot now as the master teacher was at work philip one of his disciples asked to be shown the father if disciples who were with their teacher christ who couldn't see the father through jesus what does that say to us today in 2020 you know elder johnny i have a philosophy it might be a crazy philosophy when i went i used to teach not many people believe that but i used to teach um but when i taught the day that my student begin to question who the teacher is is the day i need to move on you know i always say that's in the church the day the members don't know who the pastor is it's the day i need to move on and and that pauses me the question you pose because he was here was jesus with the disciples and they just didn't know who he really was as a matter of fact they didn't even know who his father was and that's a challenge that's a big challenge so i'm just imagining me no i've never seen christ you know it's it's hard it's and jesus made the question blessed are those who have never seen but believe um it takes much more for me to believe than if i were actually there and it shows how strong my faith is to give to give my faith to somebody i've never seen it shows how connected i am it shows how committed i am and it shows how important god is that he's able to to speak to me even though i've never seen him yes yeah and not only to see him but also to change my life but it is a big challenge and it takes a great faith faith and that's the key word there it's the faith and potentially when we think about the times that we're living in now and times in the past we have to have a faith the faith needs to be the bedrock the the foundation that's there um so education as well as learning in general the pass rate of students can be used as a measure of how good a teacher is as spiritual leaders and teachers if the message of god is not understood by the audience or by the pupils does that mean there is a problem with the teacher or the instructor so as you know we have teachers in our in our midst so yes so in other words sister of energy and coming to you first of all if your class doesn't understand you does it mean you're a bad teacher it could quite possibly mean that um but at the same time i would say it isn't also an indication that you may need to try to do something differently um in terms of being a teacher i i thought about things like perhaps one of the things that you may not have is a strong enough understanding of the children's or the pupils starting points and if we think about that in terms of you know our witnessing do we have a strong enough understanding of the starting points where the people that we're witnessing to are at sometimes you say in in a class you know in teaching sometimes you know the best mathematician does not necessarily make the best maths teacher because their understanding is too way above the heads of the children to be able to make that connection to bring them up from where they are to where you want them to be so that's one possible reason why you know it may be that the teacher needs to do something differently interesting interesting so headmaster peter um you know you are responsible for the school's performance you know and uh the teacher doesn't seem to be measuring up you know is it that the teacher is a bad teacher what's your your views on that please well if a large percentage of the students fail it could be that the instructor or instruction is not effective but we've also got to realize that there are sometimes competing interests um there are also some competing teachers or instructors and the effectiveness of learning is also based on the mindset of the learner rather than the capability of the teacher here's some examples we're trying to teach our children at home are they more interested in learning a memory verse or learning the lyrics of a rap song um studying their lesson versus catching up with social media a worship discussion worship versus a feature film a steady beat hymn versus an upbeat there are competing teachers now if jesus the master teacher um gives an instruction to us in john 14 verse 3 sorry john 13 34 jesus the master teacher gives an instruction to us that instruction is love one another because the implication here is that if we don't follow christ then he might be a useless teacher we know that's not the case he's a master teacher so his instruction in john 13 34 is to love one another as i have loved you you must love one another so the pass rate should therefore be 100 if the students apply the master teacher's instruction because first corinthians 13 verse 8 tells us categorically that love never fails okay hey brother fibian you got anything you want to add there i think i'll do i would go on further to i don't watch elder bergen said also in john 14 is it john 14 verse 15 jesus says if you love me if my commandments now look at the whole world how many what is the population what is the percentage of those who are following the word of god compared to those who are not following the word of god it boils down sometimes to choice and conflicting interest the interests in this great controversy but in our teaching profession we need to identify what it is that the students don't understand what is it and we address those issues it can't be it can't be everything which they don't understand they shouldn't be able to understand the majority of the things we teach and then we can just sample those areas where they're having problems and address those issues yes good points good point so interesting there you know when you think it was philip that was asking the question um show us the father when you think of thomas what he was known for being the doubter so as as peter saying there the character of the the person or the the perception or their mindset as was used is very important so it wasn't i think from what you are saying to me panelists it wasn't a case that christ the master teacher with his disciples wasn't teaching a good lesson is where was the mindset of the pupils his disciples at that time pastor what's coming in online ah juliet is asking the question the scribes on the pharisees where the master degree in the scriptures were unable to identify that jesus was the christ can we safely describe them as educated fools that's a bit unfair julian but i think the point yes so we understand where you're coming from juliet sometimes somebody said to me somebody could have a lot of qualifications in even this day you know degrees and masters etc but how much sense do they have so whether the pharisees you could say were fools um maybe a bit strong but we we understand the point that you're making it it's it's not only common sense it's how much god sense did they have um you got another question yes and that's the point that um i think um sister vernerjeen made beautifully that's right um that your qualification doesn't make you a competent teacher um paul paul paul asks a question paul simpson i wonder where he is um question with so many people not choosing to follow jesus are we saying that the teacher is not good enough or is it the content that is lacking that's a very powerful question yeah yeah and i think that was answered i'm not sure when the question came in but that's the point good teachers are able to adapt their learning styles i think we covered something similar in a few lessons ago that you know solar scripture that's the base but it's how it came over so when christ came here he was teaching the same thus saith the lord but he spoke in parables and parables that were relevant to the farmers to the fishermen he spoke in words that they could understand but the message that he was saying was ex exactly the same so definitely the the true master teachers those skillful teachers will be able to put the same message over but in different ways i i think thank you um thanks for the elder johnny that is so true um there's another question that is coming through from this is me um this is me just tell me who you are so i can identify you this is me right question when facing the situation should be she asked this question before it's on the tuesday's lesson okay when facing the situation by humbly reflecting christ through our behavior how do we consistently achieve this in the face of an unhelpful response without becoming a doormat okay so it's a question of meekness okay it's meekness weakness all right i i've got a similar question to that in fact let me ask the question now as we answer this is me's question and it's something that i've raised before you know in this world that we are living in is humility still the characteristic that the christian is looking for in other words a professed christian presidential nominee mentioning no names who doesn't exactly exude humility he is wholeheartedly supported by a christian minister so you know is humility still an important characteristic in these times so you know this is the question we want to answer for for for this is me um being a doormat isn't the definition of humility christ was humble and christ no way was a doormat but just taking this question a bit further looking for your comments um listeners that in this day and age christianity if you're trying to reach the unchurched world is humility still one of the greatest characteristics that the unchurched world would respond to as we answer this is me's question um were there some other comments comments um and uh online son son says mindset of a teacher um and people may differ jesus said love one another but look at the distrust across the world does that mean jesus was not a good teacher mindset i mean um go on um croydon website i have written five articles on on mindset and and you know i i hope that will remove some of the clouds that we have um um irma says um jack of all trade master of none who i don't know who she's talking about there but um there's a there's a conversation going online okay um um on on what's up um elder elder david the bet elder benny says the mark of a good teacher is making com complicated lesson or equation simple to the to the student or recipient that's a very very powerful point gift of life says jesus was the best teacher yet a lot of people didn't know him nor refused to listen to him they they're they are those who don't and are fast and slow learners and i think there's something something that we need to think about um that jesus used relatable materials to teach and the the simple could understand but those who were educated refused to understand over to other jobs indeed so the apostle paul in his letter to the philippians he wanted to emphasize some important characteristics one of which we just touched on but let's just um read them brother phibian if you can read for us philippians 2 1 through to 4 and just remind us of what the apostle paul said there philippians 2 verses 1 through to 4. i'm reading from the new king james version therefore if there is any consolation in christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind let nothing be done through selfish ambition or this oral conceit but in the loneliness of mind you let each esteem others better than himself let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others okay so some strong points there so other peter what does paul go on to say verses 6 through to 11 of the same chapter please sorry sorry can i interject is it possible by your permission that he reads from verse 5 i don't know if it's for me okay maybe we can have the true story from best five on one okay okay um if you can pick up verse five as well thank you go ahead peter yeah i'll have to i'll have to find it um philippians philippians right chapter 2 verse 5 said let this might be in you which was also in christ jesus thank you now reading from verses 6 11 i'm going to be going in the new international version of this one okay it says who being in the very nature god did not consider equality with god something to be used to his own advantage rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross therefore god exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name that at the name of jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledge that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father amen thank you brother fibian for picking that up let this mind be in you key verse as well so sister vernergy really how can we have the mindset of our master teacher what what what how do we interpret what paul is saying then okay so if we look at those characteristics that were read out you know what is the mind of christ it's about how he thought how did he think in everything that he did he wanted to bring glory to god um he didn't see that because he came from god that you know this was a big deal it was something to take advantage of people with and so on he had that self-sacrificing love um in that book that that peter talked about he um in education you know there's a phrase in there it says that jesus saw infinite possibilities in everyone and so you know you may look and see unchurched you know somehow feel as though there are some people outside of god's grace but god sees jesus saw infinite possibilities in everyone he showed kindness and compassion particularly to those people who seem to be you know like the widows the women to children in bible times and so on um he upheld god's law and again i think almonds have mentioned this self-sacrificing love and i'm looking at all of those characteristics and i'm thinking to myself no it's just not it's not in me to have all of those characteristics necessarily all at once so how do we have those things um one thing that comes to my mind is when you walk with someone when you're friends with someone when you're with them and you understand them and you work with them over a long period of time you begin to know what each other is thinking you begin to finish each other's sentences if you like um so spending time with jesus will enable us to begin to think the way that he does i need to have the mind of christ but i think the most important thing that we have to be aware of is looking at that huge long list is to read further down in philippians 2 verse 13 it says for it is god who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose so whatever our intentions the only way that is going to transform our thinking what is it that god says you know be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that is not a work that we can do by ourselves it is something that only god can do for us excellent excellent thank you we're going to be saying bye to our live radio listeners in about just over five minutes or so but panelists um well brother vivian first and then elder peter anything further to add what werner jean just said vivian knew first all right i would go with what his sister venezuelan said but it it's bringing me back to deuteronomy 6 best five uh there's no way we can build this relationship without crying and disadmitting ourselves to deuteronomy 6 verse 5 love thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy strength that's the first commandment and not only that whatever we do it's a christ christ only christ and denote ourselves because we are doing this as a service to our god so we surrender all and to him thank you thank you and elder peter sure um to have the mind of the master teacher we need to be able to i'm willing to become a servant like he did too many people want to exalt themselves um as raised in that question that was was asked to tell the audience and it's that humility element we in order to learn we need to have a teachable spirit and be ready to accept information as pastor was speaking um and in response to one of the questions i thought to myself and this is something i've used in training several times there's one thing that blocks learning more than anything else and that is judgment that belief that i know it all already so you can't teach me anything that's why a lot of people don't learn things they believe they already know it and they don't even know what they don't know so we need to have that teachable spirit and avoid that judgmental attitude who's easier to teach something to a six-year-old in class or a harvard um graduate sometimes a six-year-old because they know they don't know the harvard graduate might think they do know i'm going to give a quote from tuesday's lesson it says god's great work of education and salvation is accomplished not by exalting ourselves but by humbling ourselves before god and becoming servants to others as micah 6 8 says that he has shown you o man what is good and what does the lord require of you do justly love mercy and walk humbly with your amen amen um go on pastor let's let's take some comments um from you at this time my seat is saturn um um um anil copeland says proverbs 29 um 33 states a man's pride shall bring him low but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit um bobby bobby who himself is a french teacher says a differentiated approach is a key element to successful reaching and teaching the broadest breath of souls as are good that how as however good the hat is it will never fit all good very good point but there is a very raging debate elder jordan going on online here on on youtube i love this and and the point that is coming through is the idea of humility um gift of life um says my son teaches is mean to him he's a he's a sda member my son's a christian child that teacher showed no compassion instead instead he provokes my child where is jesus teach where's jesus teaching do we not use them at work also so so in other words your lifestyle um should reflect um um artful dodger says artful artful dodger artful dodger double double let us be real do we have the mind of christ christ never told a small white lie gossip about biting not speaking to belgium but we who claim to be christians do we need the holy ghost so you know in me taking christ as a matter of fact um um um matthew chapter 1 20 22 luke chapter 2 52 54 um acts chapter 10 38 matthew chapter 4 i'm trying to be like professor peter there using my reference said that everything that christ did he was influenced by the holy spirit so very powerful point there by artful dodger um any any other points i see coming through here david david says thankfully it is the same jesus who overturned the table of the temple money change i went to the cross as a ransom for our sins because david david made the point about humility about jesus going to the cross so willing to make sacrifice um juliet says um paul was concerned about the unity of the church without without uniting the church the church will disintegrate matthew 12 30 shows matthew 12 30 shows christ's mindset in regards to unity so the imitating christ is to bring unity to the brethren um professor mohammed professor to have the mind of christ is to have a spiritual mind which is driven by the holy spirit the fruit of a carnal mind is the work of the flesh which does not submit to the laws of god amen very very very powerful point there elder amen listen we're gonna have to say bye to our live radio listeners possibly adventist radio london as well please continue to join us and spread the word as you've heard today and remember the words of the master teacher we're we're going to move on in the time that we've got left so when something dear to you can i can i say because i've not read anything from from from somebody says christ was selfless we sh we should strive to deny self less of me and more of christ this can only be done by daily surrendering to christ your favorite listener said she she's happy to have you back angela perkins she says yes i've been trying to make contact with with with him but no comment i will not say anything more but she's back she's listening and she she and she's enjoying um your present um elder benny says we need to elevate itself to ground zero before where we we can acquire the corrupt of christ ground zero i like that indeed indeed thank you thank you moving on when something dear to you is broken that can be heart-wrenching but if that broken thing is repaired as good as new the joy of repairing what was broken can be so emotional the pain caused by the break can be forgotten by the joy of full and complete reconciliation so verna gene explain to us how reconciliation lies at the heart of christ's incarnation and his role as master teacher by reading second corinthians 5 16-21 please second corinthians chapter 5 verses 16 through to 21. okay and i'm reading again from the new international version um vest from verse 16 so from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view though we once regarded christ in this way we do so no longer therefore if anyone is in christ he is a new creation the old has gone the new has come all this from god who reconciled us to himself through christ and gave us the history of reconciliation that god was reconciling the world to himself in christ not counting men's sins against them and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation we are therefore christ's ambassadors as though god were making his appeal through us we implore you on christ's behalf be reconciled to god god made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that we that in him we might become the righteousness of god um so you know the question is reconciliation at the heart of christ's incarnation um sin we've got to go back to the creation here which is that sin came about and that split between god and man came about because our first parents believed a lie about the character of god they believed that god was keeping something good from them and so was therefore untrustworthy and so god demonstrated by be by sending his own son in human flesh he demonstrated that he wasn't keeping and he's not willing to keep anything from us in fact he was willing to give us a part of his self his own son in order to win us back um and so you know that is at the heart of why jesus came and not just gave us his son because christ took on human flesh christ has in a sense brought us back into the presence of god through going back into heaven we are now closer in many ways to god than we were before because of the sacrifice and the incarnation of of christ okay full and deep answer um brother peter anything to add to that yeah i'm getting quite excited here um because here is where we see that point that's being raised on online with the listeners that humility is not weakness meekness is not weakness um if i could dress back we just heard verses 16 to 21 if we go to verses 14 and 15 it shows us that a master teacher exhibits devotion to their students yeah now um the previous verses 14 and 50 says for the love of christ compels us because we judge thus that if one died for all then all died and he died for all so that those who live should live no longer for themselves but for him who died for them and rose again so what greater devotion could one show to the welfare of their students than to give their own life for them the text states clearly in verses 18 and 19 that god in christ is the one taking responsibility for that act of reconciliation we're the ones that are guilty of doing wrong yet christ is the one trying to reconcile us to him trying to repair that relationship that we have damaged and if we accept it verse 20 says that we become his ambassadors so i've got an equation here i've got a devoted teacher exhibiting correct example plus committed students equals ambassadors wow we'll have to check with the mass expert sister bernadine to make sure that adds up correctly but for now um brother fibian anything to add on that what bernie jean read there for us a broken vessel that's who i was i went through that experience it's important sometimes the god breaks us as the vessels in order to turn us around yes i didn't have time for this the word of god because i was going through a business school me to me business and the profession was more important than anything else so god had to break my past and i ended up challenging him to try and find out if he existed and they appeared to me first to face in a dream that was my turning point okay okay he became ambassador does now this word of reconciliation the ministry of reconciliation is what is carrying us through that's why we are on we are alive because we are extending the ministry of reconciliation which god has given us to extend to the world yes so that souls may be saved and you know they we may all enter into life thank you amen thank you for sharing that testimony with us um questions coming in well well well there's a raging um conflict on on on youtube at the moment about um forgiveness you know because how should we forgive should we but here's some points that as rufus says um um but let me go back up a bit um just back up a bit um um sun sun says um the world view rather the world view is the world the world views the world's view of self is of self-reliance importance of that view has been brought into the church um how how how you know how we have taken adopt what the world thinks and how the world behaves and how that has infected and affected the church um roxy says um while forgiving someone is expedient as a christian we should be very careful when dealing with the same person depending on the gravitas of the nature of the offense committed so not that we shouldn't forgive um elder johnny but um but but but when we forgive what steps do we take yeah um geraldine says if we reconcile to god through his son and and and and god the spirit lives in us then we we sh we should be able to reconcile to one another but remember not being a doormat dormitor's pastor raised i wonder it must be pastor johnny who raised that point um so so the point that is coming through about reconciliation and this is critically important and i want to make this point because i've written 17 pages on this very passage here about reconciliation noticing the text it says um that reconciliation is not a human job right it's a divine job right now in the english language we have active and passive active means that the action you're doing the action passive means that the action is being done to you for example the man kicks the ball that is very active the ball is being kicked by the man that is very passive in the greek there is what we call the middle voice where the action and and and the and the object are working together at the same time and i cannot reconcile because by nature we are sinful we need the power of god so that is why we have the ministry of reconciliation and we become ambassadors of reconciliation so it is not our ministry it is christ's ministry and just to just to um to answer um professor um peter burton's um um conundrum the simple thing is um ambassadors do not do their own work they're working for somebody else yes i i am learning so much with these teachers today but our time is fast moving um i guess one of the signs of a master teacher is being able to teach without physically teaching in the way we expect now when we think about everything everything surrounding the birth of christ peter i'm coming to you first of all what would you say the shepherds were taught from that experience okay when i when i look at this in um luke chapter eight about the shepherd's experience then uh the elements of teaching that make outstanding teaching today are are all in here because number one you need a hook and verse nine says the angel of the lord appeared to them glory of the lord shot around they were terrified yeah so that hooked them in they already their attention was was captured so they were ready to be to be to be taught and that had that hook has a powerful impact secondly curiosity one of the most effective teaching methods to arouse a learner's desire to know more is curiosity even soap operas know that when the angels left verse 15 they've gone to heaven the shepherd said to one another let's go to bethlehem to see this thing that's happened which the lord has told us about third element or and wonder if you have that element of war and wonder the children are gripped the the class is grip that adults are crypt whoever is learning so could you imagine the holy eminence that was radiating from that manger when the shepherds went there but here's the key you know that someone has learned something when they are capable of sharing the learning so that's the fourth element sharing the learning that's the best test to know that something that's taught has been um internalized verse 18 says all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them because shepherds were unlearned people but what they were saying now made sense how come they know so much because they had been with the master teacher now verse 20 said they returned glorifying praising god for all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they had been told so all the elements of good teaching were there so without saying i'm going to teach you this lesson about christ they learned that lesson about christ and were capable and internalized it that they were able to share it with others wow another take on that story that we've heard so so often um brother fibian coming to you so what happened with the wise man and king herod um you know where did they learn anything share your views on that part of the story for me please i found this very interesting because the wise men were indeed wise they came from the east they picked up the star they read the scriptures the books of their prophets so they were following up events as they were unfolding and here tell us the king was ruling [Music] he was ruling the pla the country where christ was to be born he had no idea at all about what was happening neither did this search the scriptures and the this is very very similar to the present day situation where some of the rulers don't even seek wisdom the wisdom of god now the star guided the wise men until they get to they go to the bedroom of judea and only then did the ruler the king get to know that there was something unfolding here in his territory after that he says well the king says well let me this is by the way from matthew 2 verses 1 2 3 and you can read further on up to verse 10 that's where the story is but in the interest of time the ruler says when you have gone there and you've established where the young child is come back to me so that i may go and worship him as well but alas the wise men were not alone in all this god was with them and he was guiding them according to the measure of their faith they were faithful people so they were led by the star from the east they came all the way into the land of bethlehem again they were led by the star to the place where the baby lay and they gave their blessings they worshipped him and the god in his mercy spoke to them not to go back to herald but to go their own way and they obeyed and went to their own way a very similar situation which in the present today situation you can see the great controversy at the play here saturn trying to eliminate jesus when he was a baby but by the will of god satan was not successful he said i found it also very interesting that even the scriptures the fact that the prophets were there expounding what was going to happen nobody listened to the message of the prophets true if i if i can just summarize if i can just summarize your bit and and this is what to me is so important it goes back to what we're saying earlier about the mindset the wise men sought out jesus to worship him herod sought out jesus to kill him same instruction coming through different realities sister werner gene um mary and joseph did they learn anything about the road ahead um yeah they they must have done you know they when you think about the beginning of the story they were you know engaged to be married and then mary was found to be pregnant and you know at the very start they must have seen that it was going to be a bit of a rocky road but then well nothing probably got to the idea that you know jesus was going to be born to them to their unit and then they saw you know shepherds that they'd never seen just coming to worship the wise men you know great people so humble people great people coming to worship that must have said something to them the idea that um you know this young child was going to bring together all classes or groups or you know all um all or classes and all groups basically rich and poor but they must also have felt some of the pain that was ahead because i'm sure when they escaped to save jesus they must have heard about what was going on um you know where herod was killing children of around the same age as jesus they must have felt some of that pain so i think all of those experiences in themselves must have been an education to mary and joseph that it was not going to be an easy road but god would eventually bring everyone together rich and poor young and old you know great and small indeed indeed you know we're running right out of time in fact we've run right out of time so panelists we just want your take away points at this time so you've just spoken bernardine but i'm coming back to you what do you want to leave with us before we go at this time um my thoughts really haven't been brought together with this but i i think one of the things that really has stood out for me was that whole sense of jesus being the master teacher that idea of bringing or seeing infinite possibilities in others you know regardless of their circumstances and you know if that mind could be in me which was also in christ jesus i'd be happy to take that away amen thank you brother fabian briefly john 14 6-7 jesus said to him i am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except it through me deep deep thank you very much and elder peter sure when jesus came to earth people were able to behold his glory because he is the light of the world and similarly if we employ or accept jesus as our master teacher the impact of what he has taught and his light should be visible in our lives to the degree that people ought to be able to look at us and see that right amen and finally pastor i'm going to read what dell says and i have the tendency of reading dell's point to close um it kind of caps encapsulate my thoughts isn't it amazing that the single most important and startling message of god with us was given to the gentiles and shepherds god will reveal his great truth to those who are willing to listen and obey and elder johnny there's a lot of questions that have come in we would like to apologize to those who have raised questions or points um next week is part two of the lesson absolutely please please capture your questions and send them in and we will try to make sure that we respond to them indeed thank you so much next week as pastor says more lessons from the master teacher but like good students let's do our homework now by studying to find ourselves approved you need to stay with us today today is a special day of praise and prayer or prayer and praise you do not want to miss so make sure and stay tuned don't leave don't go anywhere but we need to bring our sabbath school to a close thank you so much for your comments thank you so much for our production and let's bow ahead this time as we pray dear father we'd like to thank you so much for the instructions that you've given us we'd like to thank you that jesus is our master teacher help us lord to follow him and follow the guidance every step of the way so that that light that comes from you can radiate from ourselves to others for jesus sake amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] when i think about the lord how he saved me how he raped me how he filled me with the holy ghost how he healed me to the how he picked me up and turned me around how he placed my feet on solid ground [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hallelujah thank you jesus lord your word and all of the other and all of the praises thank you jesus [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh hallelujah [Music] it makes me my lord is worthy of all the glory and all of them my lord has been so good to me and i know that he's been good to you so today all we want to do is just praise the name of the lord together [Applause] [Music] i just want to worship you my lord you are so worthy of the glory and all the praise [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] lord i praise you my lord i worship you my lord your word [Music] above all powers above all kings above all nature and no created things above all wisdom below the ways of man you were here before the world began above all kingdoms above all thrones above all wonders the world has ever known above all wealth and treasures of the earth there's no way to measure what you're worth [Music] lay behind [Music] like a rose trampled on the ground above all powers above all kings above all nature and no created things above all wisdom and knowledge [Music] [Applause] [Music] above all wonders the world has ever [Music] [Applause] there's no way to measure [Music] live [Applause] [Music] laid behind the [Music] traveled on the ground [Music] above all [Music] praise god from whom [Music] praise father son and holy ghost praise god from whom all blessings praise him all creatures praise god from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures hear me [Music] [Applause] [Music] praise god from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures [Music] praise him on creatures [Music] praise [Music] may i wish you a very happy sabbath once more would you please pay attention to the announcements now next week sabbath the 7th of november how time flies is our annual week of prayer unfortunately we are not able to meet in church as you know so we're going to be asking you i know that some of you have got small groups that you're actually interacting with at the moment so please remain in your small groups and pray together and of course on wednesday afternoon at 12 and also 8 p.m on wednesdays we will be having our our week of price so do please join us on zoom and of course the the details are on the the website now if you'd like to get the readings for the uh week of prayer go to www.adventistworld.org so that's www.adventistworld.org i'd also like to invite all the women of the church to the women's forum which convenes uh on monday at 7 pm we're having a guest speaker lorraine anderson reed most of you know her and she is a specialist in the area of uh of abuse and she'll be uh informing us and telling us more about abuse now i have heard lorraine and she's an excellent speaker and presenter and there's a wealth of information that you will gain from listening to her so the women's forum will be from 7 00 until 8 pm on monday now we also want to inform you that it is indeed the day of prayer and praise today so if you missed that this morning that's what today is all about and we're hoping that we will all experience god through prayer and praise not just for today but of course throughout our lives we will be praising god in music and songs testimonies and prayer and the word now the word is going to be presented by three of our elders elders lawrence stanley and claudia they will be speaking about the power of intercession the privilege of interceding and when god intervenes respectively may god open our minds and our hearts and may we be blessed as we worship him today in spirit and in truth thank you it's good to be in the house of the lord being able to sing together with you we have two songs for us to sing first one is praise him praise him jesus our blessed redeemer redeemer into praise him the chorus the words will come up i hope you sing along with us praise him praise him jesus our blessed redeemer sing o worth his wonderful love proclaim highest archangels in glory strength and donor give to his holy name like a shepherd jesus will guard his children in his arms he carries them all day long praise him praise him tell of his excellent greatness praise him praise him every joyful song praise him praise him jesus our blessed redeemer [Music] hope of eternal salvation help him jesus the crucified sound his praises jesus who pour our sorrows love unbounded and strong praise him praise him tell of his excellent greatness praise him praise him every joyful song praise him praise him jesus our blessed redeemer heavenly portals loudw savior reigneth forever and ever crown him crown him prophet and priests and king christ is coming over the world victorious power and glory unto the lord belong praise him praise him tell of his excellent greatness praise him praise him every joyful song [Music] praise him praise him praise him praise him jesus blessed savior he's worthy to be praised praise him praise him praise him praise him jesus blessed savior he's worthy of the same [Music] he is glory in all things give him glory jesus blessed savior his worthy to be praised from the rising of the sun until the going down of the same he is is worthy he's worthy to be praised in all things give him glory jesus blessed savior he's worthy to be praised hmm today is our day of fasting reflection and pray and praise um i have scott from india has asked us to pray for his finances in india we have leslie bob who has asked us to pray for her family to return to god we have georgia charles in new york who has asked us rather in us who has asked us to pray for gideon who was being diagnosed with with the disease and for his wife martha we're back to pray for louise atkinson's family carla richards and geraldine jennifer corrine and antoinette we come today to pray for you and it is our prayer that as we pray that the power and the spirit of god will move in your situation and you will be inspired motivated and you'll be blessed father god we come today in the mighty name of jesus today's the day of prayer and reflection and praise lord as we lift up the names of those who are making the requests online and those who are texting their requests family problems financial problems emotional problems lord struggles and some people are celebrating um karla celebrating her birthday lord god we lift them up in prayer and lord we pray that the power of god will be released the power of god will be realized the power of god will be recognized in their lives and in their situation lord next week they'll come back and come back online and they will testify that the hand of god has been in their situation the presence of god has been with them and so lord may you bless them and may you keep them may you cause your face to shine upon them may be gracious unto them lord and we lift up also sister henry at this time be with them we pray in the mighty name of jesus amen hi everyone today i'm going to share a short testimony i was on social media and i was viewing a post on someone's story on the topic of homosexuality and it said that god starts with g and so does gays and satan starts with s and so does straight so who's going to hell when i saw this i was gobsmacked at the blatant blasphemy as well as quite amused so i decided to repost um the post and share my views on what it had to say that the logic was flawed did it make any sense and that the statement wishes foolishness um after i did this i received an attacking response from the original poster who i realized was gay um i knew this was on easy ground but i decided that i wanted to advocate god's views as best as i could and have engaged in a healthy conversation with the other person so he asked me if it was acceptable for gay for people to say that gay people are going to hell and i said that no it's not right for humans to judge anyone and decide people's fate that's god's job and only he knows who's going to heaven or to hell and people who say these things are not in the right they're not doing the right thing somehow the conversation switched to a question he asked were you born straight or did you decide to be straight i have to think about this from for a minute but in the end i said that when i was old enough to understand what that meant i decided to be a heterosexual he tried to convince me that i was suppressing my real feelings to fit in with society's norms and that how i really wanted to be a lesbian i was obviously quite offended and i disagreed firmly when i did this he started to attack me and call me homophobic i was shocked at the accusation as i had tried to be as polite as possible but i entered the conversation quickly later that day i was also attacked by his accomplices one of which was my own friend they used foul language and they kept on repeatedly calling me homophobic but i was glad that i was able to express my spiritual convictions in a manner that wouldn't cause god any disrespect in a situation that could have been escalated but what i've really learned is that we have to stick up for god any way we can even when we face adversity people attacking us and like it can be really overwhelming at times but god was always there for us the way he was there for me so thank you and happy sabbath this morning i am here to give a testimony that prayer works and with my daughter who was ill with excruciating pain for the past two years and all sorts of medicine had been tried but with to no avail because nothing worked then the consultant was changed and he said we'll try an operation i asked the church croydon the adventist church to pray for me and my daughter because i could not get home because of the covet so there was no transportation to tobago therefore the church continued to pray for us first day and night and who operation was scheduled for the 23rd of march that was one spoon also so then the next operation started the start date was the 12th of august she had it on the 12th of august and it was successful because of prayer she spent five days in hospital because it was major operation and she had to have antibiotics and painkillers which they referred to as analgesics that was done for the five days on the 17th of august she was discharged from hospital she had a review on the 22nd of august and reviewed in the review they said that the healing was perfect she then was given the 29th of september for the next visit and when she visited on the 29th of october on september sorry the consultant said she is healed and she had no medication she was discharged with the advice do some exercise and what had happened now she's walking every day a mile each day as well exercise and there was no more pain no more discomfort but we trust god that he continued to heal her and support the children because she has two children adult but there too was what you call distressed but now everybody has known that the church was praying god answered her prayers so we are grateful to the almighty and the christian church for them for their prayers [Music] [Music] i need you you need me [Music] stand with me agree with me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is to me i need you to [Music] survive me i need you to serve [Music] i pray for you you pray for me i love you i need you to survive i won't harm you with words from my mouth i love you i need you to survive it is you are important to me i need you to survive i need you to survive [Music] [Music] i want my friends to pray [Music] [Music] i need you to survive you are important to me i need you to survive [Music] amen good morning viewers and listeners happy sabbath to you wherever you are tuning from this morning i will be focusing on the power of intercession to me prayer is vitally important and i know each one of us have some need we need help we need hope we need healing we all only need something that god can provide i think of this verse in ezekiel 22 verse 20 and i sought for a man among them that should make up the wahej and stand in the gap before me for the land that i should not destroy but i found none just imagine god is looking for someone to intercede someone to pray someone to stand in the gap and cannot find anyone but this morning i just want to remind you that the pastoral team are here and is here for you let's pray heavenly father i ask that your holy spirit be in every home at this moment one of the hardest thing to do is to watch people who you love go through difficult times and be unable to change the situation feeling powerless as we are we love go through hard times we can quickly become frustrated scared and sad there is a very peculiar story found in philippians 1 18-26 for those who know that story well we know that paul had a very strong relationship with the philippians we know that philippians love paul dearly in that season that paul was writing this letter paul was in the romance prison the struggle that the philippians church watched paul and you broke their heart they were 800 miles away and had no political power to change his situation but they knew one thing the power of prayer they prayed to god and their prayer changed everything paul wrote in verses 18 and 19 yes i will rejoice for i know through your prayers and the help of the spirit of jesus christ this turn out for my deliverance god asks when his people intercede for one another and this is something that is still true for us today to intercede means to intervene on behalf of another we see many examples throughout the bible when moses intercede on behalf of israel ezekiel wrestles with god on the behalf of the israelites six times abraham pleaded with god to spare sodom and each time god accepted his prayer this is an encouragement for us today to pray for our increasingly immoral society this is important because god partners with his part with with his people in order to bring about his desires the bible tells us that there is a direct connection between the prayers of his people and his action the philippians accepted god's invitation to partner with him to bring about his desire for the church in interceding for paul and we got that same invitation to partner with god in prayer today lng wise said in prayers of intercession we should seek to be aware of god's desire for someone to join him in what he's doing it does not mean manipulating god to do our will but rather becoming aware of god's desires for someone and joining him in that paul knew that the philippians were praying for god to help him we know god wanted good for paul and desire his deliverance and that's exactly what he provided in difficult situation it is easy to become discouraged frustrated and we need to remember that god is good and he desires good for his children in first john 5 14 tells us and this is the confidence that we have towards him that if we ask anything by faith according to his will he hears the bible tells us that when we are praying god hurts for his children we can come to him confidently even in hearing this we don't always feel we can come confidently to god because we worry we will pray for the wrong things often times we will because none of us can disown the will of god perfectly however we can trust god and know that he is good that he will not give someone something they don't need that it is not good for them simply because we asked for it romans 8 26-27 tells us that we don't pray for the writings or don't know what to pray at all the holy spirit intercede for us on the behalf of the will of god and romans 8 34 says that jesus is interceding for us as well let us give thanks for the holy spirit and jesus christ who intercede for us and for our god who hears every word of our prayers let us intercede for one another just as the philippians church did for paul intercessory prayer is powerful intercessory prayers make a difference intercessory prayers changes things here why in the controversy between good and evil god values human freedom he's doing everything he can to reach every single apostle before we even pray yet god is limited he is limited by our choices he will never violate an individual freedom of choice he only goes so far he influence but never constrain he convicts but never compares he guides what never forces when we pray for someone else god pulled out his spirit to us to to reach them mark finley in his book prayer makes a difference said intercessory prayer opens up new avenues for god to work it provides god with another opportunity the messenger of the lord states as well it is part of god's plan to do in answer to a prayer of faith what he would not do if we did not let us pray when people pray some things happen prayers group prayer groups have unusual power through the almighty two or three people honestly praying makes a difference god hears god answers god moves god touches life do you have a prayer partner do you regularly meet in a small group of intercessory prayer group why not ask god to help you find a prayer partner if you are an intercessor already why not encourage other people to join in interceding and finally my brother because prayer is the breath of our soul and the key that unlocks heavens though and we are free access to making contact with heaven portal where the central line is never busy i plead us to pick up the royal telephone and call us on sweet jesus to talk to him on behalf of someone today find someone to pray with and write out a prayer list and watch what god does you will be amazed as elder pete comes to lift up the prayers of those who request margaret pray for her son michael carrington wants us to pray for his family and christ we want to pray for sister julie karine heath pray for her family of the church youth um carla richards pray for her daughter who celebrates our birthday louise atkinson want us to pray for her family pray for jelani who had a bad accident and and needs healing to walk lula pray for her family mercury pray for her faith to grow slime asks us to pray for her family also on on on live stream michael franklin said we should pray for dawn and camille that they should come to jesus um camille king said pray for family teddy for a study permit so we will lift those names up in prayer as our elder elder pete bring these prayers to the throne of grace let's pray our kind gracious loving father we know you have and still holds this world in your hand we know there is nothing impossible with you we know that you are god and you are god alone there is none to be compared to you so father we come before you with absolute confidence and faith you have heard the names been read and the various situation which all of the names mentioned of the persons they are in lord their issues with family their issues lord with health but amidst all of that they are individuals who are celebrating a birthday father we ask that you will please intervene in each and every one of these situation where there are family issues we know you are able to set straight that which have gone wrong and so we pray great almighty father that you will fix these issues that are brewing up at this time we pray for healing for those who are involved in an accident or those who are not well that you will pass your healing hand over that individual we pray lord for those who are celebrating birth days that you will continue to bless and to prosper their life lord we know you are in control and we know they are nothing impossible with you and we claim your promises in no other name than that of our lord and our savior and our soon coming king jesus christ amen [Music] so [Music] as a little girl ianna knew she wanted to be baptized one day at 13 she remembered her wish i'm going to be baptized she said so jana started taking a six-month baptismal class at the russian-speaking seventh-day adventist church that her family attended in prague the capital of the czech republic she excitedly told others about her plans to give her heart to jesus olga her 21 year old adopted sister in ukraine heard the news and announced i want to be baptized too olga began taking baptismal classes in ukraine and made plans to travel to prague to be baptized with yana yana was thrilled that olga wanted to be baptized now one baptism would become two as the day of the baptism junior jana invited relatives and friends to come watch at the church she also invited her 17 classmates from the only adventist school in prague i'm very excited about being baptized jana said this is a big celebration and i would be happy if you came the school principal marveled at yana's excitement as she spoke with her classmates many of whom belonged to other christian denominations or didn't go to church at all jana's face was shining with joy finally the big day arrived relatives and friends packed the church jana was so happy when she came out of the water she knew her dream had come true the pastor asked if anyone wanted to be baptized next time yana's younger sister esther immediately leapt to her feet and ran to the front of the church two teenage girls joined her yana was thrilled now one baptism would become five baptisms several of yana's classmates accepted her invitation to attend the baptism after a little while three of those classmates two girls and one boy decided that they also wanted to be baptized yana was thrilled now one baptism would become eight but that wasn't the end jana has an older sister named diana who was 21 and a university student in ukraine diana traveled to prague to watch jana's baptism afterwards she said you know i also want to be baptized a month later diana was baptized in ukraine what is the power of one baptism the holy spirit used jana's decision to be baptized to touch the hearts of eight other people one baptism became nine baptisms after i was baptized other people also wanted to be baptized ianna said praise god good morning and happy sabbath saints of god first i would like to thank god for this opportunity to share my testimony in march of this year i became quite unwell after being in contact called the patient and i was sent home to be an isolation toy my conflict 19 tests and while i was home i deteriorated and had to attend the emergency department in the department because i was suspected of government 19 i was placed in the covenant reception i was given iv antibiotics iv fluid i had a chest x-ray done i was given nebulizer and in those days if your chest x-ray shield that you had your chest extra would make the diagnosis of and conform whether you had covered and you'd be sent to the covered board mine came back clear it's only god that can be thanked for that because i have all the symptoms of the coping plus i've been in contact with covert patient god works in a miraculous way he heals he protects and he looks after his own i know that from experience and i have confidence that it was only god's mercy and grace that kept me because god knew i didn't want to be placed in the hospital anyway i was sent back home to wait for my result still in isolation and while i was in isolation i want to thank my church family the prayer team especially for praying on my behalf and my friends and my family and during that time as well i've had my colleagues my neighbor and my landlord who was either posting groceries and food and items for me to heal via pulse or they would leave it outside my door according to philippians 4 it says and my god shall supply all the needs according to your riches and glory god has done that for me he's proven himself over and over again that he provides for his own i also had one song in mind when i was unwell and the soul and it's a hymn really close like this um how shall we stand on that great day shall we be found before him wanting or with our sins all washed away i hope and pray that we are found not wanting but with our sins all washed away and we will here enter into the joy of love living well done thou good and faithful servant that's my prayer for us today thank you for listening and do enjoy the rest of the sabbath god bless bye let's continue singing as we come together and sing what a friend we have in jesus [Music] what a friend we have in jesus all our sins and grace [Music] [Applause] everything to god in prayer [Music] [Music] oh because we do not carry everything to god in prayer trials and temptations is there trouble anywhere we should never be discouraged take it to the lord in prayer can we find [Music] jesus knows our every weekness take it to the lord in prayer oh we can heavy [Music] savers take it to the lord in prayer do thy friends despise your sins [Music] she thee thou will find us happy sabbath church my presentation this morning is titled the one planet for a person before god in another world intercessor so if you look at the meaning of intercessors is the action of intervening on behalf of another or as we normally say standing in the gap but before we'll go to let's just have a quick of prayer father let every water come from my mouth in the morning be a blessing to someone in jesus name amen i will be reading from first timothy chapter two one to four first timothy chapter two one to four reads down reading from kim jones version i result therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercession and giving of times be made for all men verse 2 for kings and for order in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of our god and our savior who will have all men to be saved and come to onto the knowledge of truth so if you look at these powerful verses i've read vaswan said i exalt therefore the first of all supplications prayers and intercession which i'm going to elaborate more he said to all men verse 2 said for kings and all that are in authority the outcome of doing this is that we may lead a quiet and a peaceful life in all godliness and honest and that's what all of us want then vastly said for this is good and acceptable in the side of our god our savior so it is a mandate that has been given to us as children of god for us to intercede for one another if you look at the life we are living the world we are in we can see the importance of interceding for others the importance of praying for others but going further i want to read from isaiah 53 verse 12 he said therefore will i divide him a person with a great he shall divide the sport with his strong but because he had poured out his soul unto death he was numbered with the transgressors and he beared the sins of many and made intercession for transgressors so this is our lord and savior interceding for us if we look further in hebrew paul says he ever lives to make intercession for us can you imagine jesus always making intercession for us our human minds cannot comprehend this that he enters it for us on daily basis what a powerful thing that we receive a student of god you know if you look at what of the writings of mark finley he said jesus is the righteous intercessor he is an all-power petitioner so as we see in isaiah we can see he is almighty warner he is a powerful intercession and we are also called to intercede for others like jesus intercede for us what a privilege what a privilege that we have a student of god to intercede for others and the blessing that that comes with it he said father that the sinful human beings like ourselves can unite with jesus in the work of intercession imagine that our sinful human being working with jesus because we're interceding that's so powerful and i just i was just smart with how this works my family continue to say our sin polluted defy prayers which goes through the corruptions of our humanity are purified by his righteousness praise the lord this is so powerful even though that we are seen for in our nature when we pray he goes through that channel and it's purified so when we intercede for others from our heart becomes one with god our heart become one with jesus our minds are linked to his divine purposes we become one to that intimacy of prayer and that bond of love so it's just so powerful so whenever we pray for others let us also remember that we are becoming one with christ it just might blow in how this thing works so i encourage people today for us to continue to entice it for us this call for us to you know impressive others on daily basis it could be your wife it could be your children it could be a colleague it could be anybody because if you look at we're already festivities it's for all men because there's nobody in this life that haven't got issues so intercession helped us to you know bring the will of the father closer to us we must exemplify how jesus himself prayed when he was on planet earth if we look at marx chapter 1 verse 35 he reads in the morning rising up a great white before the day he went out and departed in a solitary parade and he prayed so he found a private place to be alone with the father be alone with god and prayed the bible tells us that very early morning he will spend time communing with his father so we must do likewise when we pray find time to pray because that's the only way we can connect to the father you know have i know in our houses we have a bed we have a bathroom but we need to have a corner for prayer we need to always make our time not only praying for ourselves or our children or those we know interceding for the kings interceding for the leaders interceding so that we can lead a quiet and peaceful life as as highlighted in the bible jesus often pray out loud we can see that in luke when his disciple approached in the bible say that they heard him praying a lot when he prayed aloud when we pray aloud satan and he told the tremble because the name of jesus every knee bowels so when we pray aloud those knees those cohorts of enemy of of of those satanic powers they tremble and they bow so that's the power of interceding and that's the power of prayer this is how powerful our prayers are so we need to continue to pray as as some i'm presenting this morning because it's quite clear praying allah help us also to to for cause our thoughts on god and jesus and all that we need to do is just continue to pray when we need to pray if we look at all those other characters in the bible that interceded on behalf of others we look at abraham when the message was brought to him about the new chart coming his way they also told him about sodom and gomorrah that is going to be destroyed because of those issues going on their problems and the sins in sodom and gomorrah but he prayed because of his nephew lord and that situation changed because of the prayer of one person we saw in daniel when he prayed because of the problem his people were going to god answered this prayer because of intercession of one person so we know that there's power in intersection there's power in prayer so it's my prayer today that we become intercessors make our time to pray for another create a list of people that you pray be targeted and also know let them know that you are praying for them and you will see what god can do in our lives amen at this time elder o'neill will be lifting up in prayer margaret she wants to pray for her son michael wants you to pray for his family um agnes b please pray that she will feel god's presence in her life sister barnes in bristol would like you to pray for her daughter clover david brown his health joseph brown for his son to get a job gloria watson wanted to pray for her children and grandchildren maria wallace there in lilliput montego bay would like you to pray for her friend's mother who was hospitalized and they don't know what's wrong with her malba pray for mary jane and a friend mr charla who is in hospital and that is it for now sir thank you very much pastor the names have been recorded by heaven um shall we pray eternal and most wondrous father god we thank the dear father for the privilege of prayer we thank you god that we can stand on planet earth and our voices are heard before the king of kings and the lord of lords we thank the dear father that even though we have sinned yet still we have a savior we thank the dear god that the blood that flows from calvary's stream is still as powerful now as it was then we thank the dear father that jesus christ has paid the ultimate sacrifice for sin we just want to lift up your name father we recognize that the the weapons of a warfare are mighty true god to the breaking down of the strongholds of the enemy and as such this morning the names were presented and as we have come there further in faith believing that if we call you will hear and that wise we are yet speaking that god will answer we ask the father this afternoon that he will tabernacle with us whatever the circumstances are whatever the trials are whatever they follow the circumstances in our life you are promised that you have come to set at liberty them that are bruised and to bind up the wounds of those who have been wounded on the battlefields of life for those who have been affected by sin and those who have been afflicted by sin we usher them through the blood of jesus christ to the throne of god and this morning we proclaim healing and deliverance restoration and rejuvenation as we have come there further not with eloquence of word but simply by the spirit of god and by what jesus christ have done we have come before you this morning as worthy though we be reminded therefore that the word of god is still powerful sometimes we are called to give a testimony and sometimes we are called to live a testimony and to be honest the farmer is easier to do than the latter and of such their father we asked the names that have been given their father asking for healing asking for restoration asking for healing a broken relationship we ask the father that you will meet every name that was named at the point of need we act so far that you will touch down heal deliver and restore father may your name be glorified you promise that you will never leave us neither will you forsake us and even when we walk through the valley where it seems as if death linger we will still stand on the promises of jesus christ because his promises are true and his promises are faithful so one more time there father we just want to lift you up in prayer to let people know that there is still power in prayer they let people know that jesus still heals that jesus still keeps and that jesus still delivers and that he's still satisfied and the greater the storm will be the greater the victory help us therefore that not to grow weary in well doing and that there further irrespective of what circumstance we may find ourselves help us therefore as les brown say if you can look up by the grace of god you can get up because god promises are sure and his words are faithful so father god hear the names that have been uttered this morning meet everyone at their point of need proclaim healing to those who need healing restoration to those who need to be restored draw closer to those who need a personal relationship with jesus christ and even though we walk through the valley we have a shadow where it seems that death lingers help us to be encouraged that god has not forsaken he will never leave us alone sanctify us dear father through thy truth because your word is true and let the church say amen and amen god is alive and well hello everyone my name is leo and this is my wife rebecca we got married recently but to achieve that we actually went through a tough time due to the lockdown and the new coveted policies but in the end we're both very thankful that a way was actually made for us yeah we just want to really give thanks that we've been able to um do something this year that we didn't think would be possible at the beginning um we have had the support of amazing family and friends and we're so thankful for the people that god has put in our lives and um everything sort of worked out for better than we could have expected um at the beginning of this year um we were thinking that you know we couldn't do anything we couldn't do any um fittings we couldn't go to any um cake tastings we couldn't um select the menu there were just so many things that all the things that you're doing towards the end of prepping for your wedding that we just weren't able to do and it kept feeling like this just wasn't going to happen for us um through it all we continued to lean on our family and friends we continued to pray and people were asking us you know what are you going to do are you going to push the wedding back are you going to have it with just your um two witnesses um what were you going to do and we just didn't know we we felt like we were just being pushed into a corner and we couldn't really um make a decision and we prayed on it and we felt like we should go ahead and so when the the guidelines came out about only being able to have a couple of of guests we felt a bit disappointed if we're honest but in the end we felt like well that was the right thing to do because it's about us getting married it's about the union we're making in front of god and all the other things didn't need to matter so much um although we were disappointed we felt like the important things that mattered were going to be we're going to sort of help us rise above it all um and thankfully god is so good we were able to um actually where we decided to have our wedding um the church literally called us maybe a week before the actual date of our wedding and said good news we've decided to open the church again a lot of places weren't opening yet a lot of places weren't allowing any weddings to go ahead and the church called us and said we decided to open again it won't be in time for your original date but we can do a few weeks after if you're able to let people know i know it's short notice but if you want to go ahead with that then please let us know and we can do that for you and we really felt like our prayers have been answered we were so excited um you know it was it was short notice for a lot of people um because it already told everyone that we're moving it to next year and so it was a lot of back and forth but thankfully everyone was able to come and um we had a small ceremony and you know the weather was beautiful that's another thing that we're worried about did not expect that yeah um because it said it was going to be a bit rainy so we were worried about that we thought we'll do it anyway and it didn't rain it didn't even rain on the it was actually very sunny yeah it was really nice um everything went seamlessly all the things that you worry about you know is this going to be right is that going to be right were out of our heads we didn't have to worry about any of it and god was so good he just made such a a beautiful journey of everything else we really had to pull together and um our families and our friends really showed us so much love and support in that time that it made the experience even more amazing than we could have imagined um so yeah we just really wanted to say um always give thanks always remember that god has a plan for you it might not look like what you expect it to be but trust us it's always going to be better than the result is always going to be better than you could have imagined so yeah always always have hope always have a prayer and trusting god to know what's best for you exactly [Music] [Music] in [Music] the name [Music] thy kingdom come thy will be as it is give us this day our day liberate and forgive us [Music] and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory [Music] [Applause] foreign i [Applause] [Applause] on am as it [Laughter] [Music] [Music] is this day our daily bread and forgive us our dance and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom r [Music] me oh man [Applause] amen let us pray dear father we thank you so much for the opportunity to learn about prayer please use me for the message you have in jesus name i pray amen intercessiony prayer is the foundation of a christian life indeed without this christianity would collapse i have a question did god intervene in a situation that you have just prayed for think about it and i will tell you a story that inspired me inspire me that i'm so i'm learning to pray for others when i'm moved by the holy spirit i hope that you will learn from this too we do not know when god intervenes but the bible says in psalm 61 verse 3 for you have been a shelter for me a strong tower from the enemy the story i'm going to tell is from the book prayer makes a difference by mark finley we are in los angeles on a dark night a journalist on her way back from work decides to take a shortcut through a steep and unlit path before long she hears steps behind her moving faster and faster suddenly a stranger jumps over her and began strangling her with her own scarf he was also ripping at her clothes could you imagine how scared that must have been a young vulnerable woman how many thoughts must have had come through her mind oh i wish i would taken the wrong the another path the long one why did i not take a taxi why did i choose this route sounds too familiar isn't it how many of us have taken the wrong turn in life finding ourselves in need of a prayer of intervention at that moment miles away the woman's mother walked from her deep sleep she had a knowing fear that something terrible was about to happen to her old elder's daughter this mother immediately knelt by her bed and began to pray she talked earnestly to god for 15 minutes seeking his protection for her daughter after she was assured that her prayer was being answered she climbed back into bed and fell asleep again shall i just ask as they say prayer or to pray not to find how comforting the prayer is i'm sure parents can see themselves in in these kind of situations and god tells us to to pray for our children back on the rocky path the assailant suddenly stopped and the woman saw him till his head for a moment as as if listening to something then he fled down the hill this woman and her mother are sure that god showed himself as a faithful rescuer because of that prayer it is important to realize that the devoted mother wasn't prior to a god which was far off she was familiar with his voice because he could wake her from sleep she knew him well enough to know that he had answered she knew him well enough to trust his protection as james 5 13 says is anyone amongst you suffering let him pray when that good woman knelt by her bed that strong power was very close indeed in the battle between good and evil prayer is a mighty weapon in the hand of the believer through prayer the forces of hell are beaten back ellen white puts it this way god will do in answer to the prayer of faith that which he would not do if we did not ask when this faithful mother prayed our lord commissioned an army of angels to beat back the the daughters asylum the powerful influence of the holy spirit convicted his mind to to flee this does raise a question how to explain the painful reality that some christians are robbed raped attacked in need is it all lack of faith was there no one praying for them on this planet of rebellion bad things happen to good people god does use heartache disaster and suffering to draw us closer to him in mysterious ways we cannot fully comprehend is this difficult to understand obviously certainly but we can surely trust him we can still keep believing we can still keep trusting we can still keep praying knowing that he does intervene he does deliver he does answer he will not let us down and what we don't understand he himself will explain one day in eternity to us and we have this assurance which in first john 5 14 says now this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us i would like to take this opportunity to mention that october was the month of pastor appreciation you will wholeheartedly agree that our croydon pastors have worked very diligently and creatively throughout this year as a congregation we have been blessed and would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their efforts i i'm gonna tell you another story um on a pla i heard this from mark finley so it's not mine uh on a plane uh a pastor which was going to a pastor's congregation sat next to someone who at some point they happened to pray so the pastor was quite excited because he said oh another christian so you know i'm not going to tell him i'm a pastor because it might be intimidating but i'm just saying oh i'm so he did say oh i noticed that you prayed so i believe you are a christian the person turned around and he said you are so arrogant to believe that only christians pray so he said oops he said well um i just assume he says but can i just ask what are you praying for he says well i'm a satanist and i'm going to this city where is a congregation of pastors so we are going there to pray so their families are broken their children are hurt so we are praying for that the takeaway is if we don't pray for our pastors satanists do so i invite everyone to support our pastors in our prayers father in heaven we are coming now to you to thank you for your kindness father i don't know exactly how to pray but what my prayer is at this moment is that you are with our pastors and we you are with our congregation and you are helping us to prepare for your for your kingdom father once again we thank you for how good you are and we are hoping that you will be with us because you promised us and we because we are praying in jesus name amen as we continue our prayer requests mickey over there in charlotte villain trinidad would like to us to pray for his mother aurora um rachel phillips would like us to pray for her family and mother um samuel would like us to pray for samuel to be released from drug addiction and from and and also for his mother janiece brown would like us to pray for her brother who is recovering from heart and kidney transplant irma irma would like us to pray for her sister who has been inflicted with the wicked kovid i said baker pray for healing so she can pass her medical to speed up her visa requirement mario wallace in jamaica pray for a closer walk with god hyacinth baker would like us to pray for her son dwight christopher and his family sister k would like us to pray for sda singles looking for godly godly partners i have a large request from birmingham pray for the hamilton's family for mother recovering from trauma for dad to settle in um strength for sister joy hamilton who's caring for them sister varina who is in hospital susan who's also in hospital she's been tested positive all members of the windsor street church sister doreen who has to bury her father pops who has not been well loretta and her mom brother and sister bacchus over there in birmingham would like us to pray for them ramona and benjit would like us to pray for them as a family also for those of you been following benjit's sister who has been in hospital she might be having surgery today let us pray for the family and for beverly reed let us pray for her family we thank you for all those who have sent in your prayer requests keep coming and we will continue to pray for you over to you elder dwayne just before we go into this prayer final prayer requests the text came back to mind in matthew chapter 6 verse 25 onwards therefore i say unto you do not worry about life what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body what you will put on is life not is not life more than food and the body more than clothing which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature so why do you worry about clothing and i say unto you even solomon in all his glory was not a ray like one of these lilies now if god so clothed the grass of the field which is today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven will he not much more clothe you or ye of little faith therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for all these things the gentile sake for your father in heaven knows that you need all these things but seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own thing sufficient for the day of its own trouble father in heaven as i stand before you on behalf of your members so behalf of the viewers the listeners father acts that you may forgive me of my sins i ask that you may cleanse me from all unrighteousness lord you have heard the prayer requests many of the requests involve on being unwell health issues father you are the one that demonstrate in your word that you're the master healer and father this time we we petition your throne that you may intervene in those situations of health issues from the request that we've heard a moment ago lord touch those individuals let them feel the healing bomb of gilead let them feel the power of god in their life that will bring them back to health lord we thank you that you give us these assurances you said in matthew chapter 6 don't worry and lord we claim that promise as you heal these individuals father this coveted situation has caused tremendous worry among many people in this country many of your members those who of your viewers that are watching lord you said to us don't worry for you know what we need and lord as we claim that promise the uncertainty about lockdown the uncertainty about what is going to happen those who are worrying about a job again those who are worrying about family members who are sick father you said to us don't worry you know what we need at this time we do claim that promise more than ever before that you intervene that you send your spirit wherever we are whoever we are to reinforce the point [Music] that as you said don't worry i am here with you thank you for those promises thank you for the power of your word thank you that we can use this thing called prayer to express our petition to you to realize the power of your word and the gospel in each of our lives at this time we thank you for the word that we've heard and as we continue to hear the final word from pastor kojo may your spirit warm our hearts as we seek to win souls for your kingdom in jesus holy name amen amen and we give god praise for the day the sabbath we have had so far this day of prayer where we have heard about intercessory prayer beseech in our god going before him humbling ourselves before him not just for ourselves but on behalf of others and we give god thanks for what we have heard for the speakers that have spoken and it is our prayer that we will have learned and we will continue to learn and to seek god to teach us by his spirit how to pray i want to invite our viewers online to stay with us throughout the day this is high day this day the sabbath day this afternoon at 4 15 we have our health and wellness presentation which will be on the muscular skeletal system so please join us for that that's at 4 15 and this will be followed by a very special program at 5 30 where we will be having a baptism and to god be the glory for there are many souls who have decided to give their lives to christ so we want to invite you to join us for that very special service and as we go into our final prayer i just want to uh bring some requests that have final requests that have come through um from courinha from trinidad is asking for prayers we have shirley who's asking for prayers in regards to finance and business we have solder and her family and the family member jade who is seeking prayer we have roxy rufus from nigeria also seeking prayer and malba who is seeking to learn how to pray so let us bear these requests in mind along with all the requests that have been presented this day as we seek our god in prayer and i just want to end with this thought in ephesians chapter 6 we often use this text to look at the spiritual armor putting on the armor of god and we often end this text with the spirit or the sword of the spirit which is the word of god and we tend to end there but we miss a very important verse that directly follows this and is an important and vital part of the spiritual armor of god this armor of faith and i'll read it in your hearing and it says praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there want to with all perseverance and supplication for all saints a very vital part of this armor of god this armor of faith is prayer praying always but how ought me to pray we ought to pray in the spirit and not in the flesh so as we pray we will be asking god to teach us how to pray along with malba but to teach us how to pray in the spirit and that we may be able to put on the whole armor of god bow your heads with me as we pray dear kind and eternal heavenly father all glory all honor all praise belong only to you for you are god and besides you there is none else and we ask o lord that your holy spirit will lead us into true humility before your presence to lead us to true repentance for we ask for your forgiveness of our sins and cleansing of our hearts and our minds we also ask heavenly father that your holy spirit will teach us how to pray that we will pray for that which is needful heavenly father you have heard the prayer requests throughout this day and we pray father that in accordance to your will you will answer and that you will draw us all closer to you we ask heavenly father that we will grow in prayer we will be strengthened in prayer in our communion with you and we ask that you protect our time in prayer that we will learn how to pray without ceasing in the spirit for you are our god and we put our trust in you for only you alone can save us for we cannot save ourselves so heavenly father we pray that you will be with our viewers that have joined us this day and be with our members near and far and we ask heavenly father and above all things that your will will be done in each and through each of our lives and we will also bring before you lord that the baptismal candidates that will be baptized this afternoon we ask that your spirit will rest upon them o god to draw them and to guide them and to strengthen them as they undertake in this commitment to you hear our prayer oh god and answer in accordance to your will and for your glory alone for we ask these mercies in the precious name of jesus christ our lord and our salvation [Music] amen [Music] king of kings majesty god of heaven living in closest friend strong deliverer all within me cries out in praise your majesty [Music] before you know i live to serve your majesty [Music] up in heaven worship you love eternal faithful and truth who bought the nations ransom souls brought the sinners all within me cries out in praise your majesty [Music] oh your majesty [Music] before you know is [Music] majesty in all kingston [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh you

Channel: Croydon SDA Church

Views: 5,750

Rating: 4.8961039 out of 5

Keywords: Power-of-Prayer, Prayer, Sabbath, Worship-Live, Live-Worship, Sabbath-Worship

Id: wJUzYXhqWSE

Length: 207min 50sec (12470 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 31 2020