"Free to Rest" - Lesson 8 - Pastor Mike Thompson

[Music] is is is foreign shadows is is is is amen beautiful song please join us about our head for word of prayer dear heavenly father thank you lord for arriving us in another holy sabbath day as we enter and having communion closely with you lord in worship and adoration we pray that you keep us away from all world distraction cell phones medias and everything let us plug in our faith to you jesus christ in worship and adoration so that we can uplift your name through praises through prayers and everything all the worship throughout the sabbath day everything is all about you lord as we pray as we open and study the holy bible lord we pray that your holy spirit inspires us so that we can find your will for our lives and our for our salvation also lord we pray our pastor who is leading us into the holy thoughts we pray that you bless him double thank you lord for hearing and answering our prayer we pray in jesus holy name amen central study hour will be led by pastor mike thompson associate pastor for sacramento central seventh-day adventist church i hope you have a blessed study well here we are once again another week has gone by we're still in rest in christ and we're on to lesson number eight already i don't know where the time goes i say that just about every time uh but lesson number eight is uh titled free to rest free to rest and there's a memory verse which i will read it's from psalm 27 verse 1 well known words actually the lord is my light and my salvation whom shall i fear nobody actually or we shouldn't and the psalmist says the lord is my strength of my life of whom shall i be afraid now if you have your lesson you notice on sabbath afternoon's page just by way of introduction uh it says many people jesus encountered in his earthly ministry were sick some even unto death they thronged to jesus for healing and for rest from their sufferings then a little further down it says this week which we will we'll look at two very different examples of human suffering and also healing in one the sufferer was so ill he could not even come to jesus on his own that's the paralytic and we'll read about him in just a moment his symptoms were clearly visible to everyone in the other case there was no obvious visible symptoms and we're talking here about elijah in both cases though healing came in god's time and in god's way so as we explore the topic of rest from pain and suffering we also will contemplate the question that all of us at one point or another sometimes ask why is it that our prayers for healing aren't answered or at least don't always seem to be god always answers sometimes it's yes sometimes it's no very often it can be weight but even when it's no we know that that will finally be a yes when we all get to heaven there'll be no more suffering at all uh but again going on to sunday now healing rest uh first two little paragraphs at the top of the page if ever there was or sorry if ever there is a time when we need rest is when we are sick we need physical rest so our bodies can rally our immune system and that's very very true often we need mental rest too sometimes a sickness is just something non-life-threatening such as a cold or a migraine but if you get those things you know they can make you just really miserable we lie there and try not to think about all that we should be doing but simply can't and i'm sure we've all been in that situation at one time or another but you know when uh sickness comes along and it seems a potentially life-threatening situation we may lay there and we toss and turn in bed at night and not only mentally mentally fearing the worst but emotionally feeling our worst uh in need of emotional rest as well as just physical relief from the actual affliction but then on top of all that uh some very sincere souls they feel on top of all that that god actually is punishing them for some dreadful sin now all sin is dreadful don't get me wrong jesus said if there was only one small sin ever jesus would have had still die for that so i'm not making light of any sin but there are degrees of sin and degrees of guilt and so some very conscientious folks they they feel that god is is punishing them and they have a wrong view of god they see him as this tyrant who's just waiting to see them step out of line and he'll send down some thunderbolt of curse leprosy or something this easily happens this mindset and i'm not putting anybody down that sees god like this i've i've been like that once in a while in the past but it's easy to feel that god is punishing you because perhaps you're ill because you've been physically abusing your body with kind of things you should not have been doing bad lifestyle choices you know you saw the seed and very often you reap reaper harvest um but anyway i want to read from mark chapter 2 because here we're going to look at the first example of suffering that we read about in the introduction and it's the paralytic that was brought to jesus mark chapter 2 the first four verses i read as follows and again he that is jesus entered into capernaum after some days and it was said that he was in the house he was in in a particular house and straightway many were gathered together and so much that there was no room to receive them this is the little house was absolutely packed couldn't even get through the door so jesus is in this little packed house and he's preaching the word of god but there was a man in town he had some very good friends with a big heart he was desperately ill so they came up with an idea as to how g he could have a a special appointment with jesus the great physician and it says in verse four when they could not come nigh unto jesus because of the crowd they uncovered the roof where he was and when they had broken it up they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay there this man he was just wasting away we don't know exactly what kind of uh disease he had but it was a wasting kind of disease so here he is they're sick of the palsy this is a little word about sickness itself well sickness we all know full well that god never designed uh that pain disease and suffering should ever of any part in his beautiful sinless creation but you know things have changed uh sin interposed it raised its ugly head and um uh you know that sickness comes as a consequence knowing that though we should do everything that we can to live as healthy as we can because it's been scientifically proven if you live more healthily you'll have a better quality of life now we know you know you take that big bell curve you got extremes on both ends you got uh somebody who this end of the bell curve they they do everything perfectly you know they they don't they're real launch sugar they don't smoke they don't drink alcohol they don't take dope they don't have um they don't take in uh a lot of fats especially hard fat and collab they do it they exercise you just name it and they die maybe in their 20s or 30s with cancer that that happens then you get the other end of the bell curve and you find some people they smoke they drink what is the name george burns all younger ones here probably don't know who george burns was but some of you do uh he was an american movie actor lived to be 102. he liked his big cigars and he liked his uh alcohol and he lived to be 102. so you can't look at the extremes on both ends but if you look in the middle that bell curve it screams out the healthier you live the better quality of life you will live and you will live longer so it behooves us to find out what is good and actually do that uh but yet there's still those who through no fault of their own you know they do everything that they should but they still come to disease because they they inherit susceptibilities very often uh from their parents and grandparents and so they have that particular disposition but whether we get sick because we've done something to bring it on or whether we get sick because we're just disposed to odd that we've done the best we can to live a healthy lifestyle we can always know this that jesus is there by our jesus has the most wonderful bedside manner he's not only the great physician but he has the most wonderful bedside manner now dina right here she's an rn she's a well-seasoned rm and dorothy is an rn and karen's and i we got this place is full of irons and uh each is yeah and are in and and boner and i used to be one but anyway let me get to the point you've all seen some doctors with good bedside manners haven't you and you've all seen some that just shouldn't even be looking after the cat right yeah yeah just but i'm making the point that jesus is a wonderful bedside manner so if you are sick he's there to comfort you even if in this life in his in his infinite wisdom he chooses not to heal not out of spite or some malignant attitude when you get to heaven you'll understand why and say lord i understand why you did not take that thorn in the flesh away from me so trust me you will praise him but right now while you're afflicted and you're sick just trust him and for those of you looking at i'm not making light you may have a family member that has some wasting disease so i'm not being flippant and shallow here but i do know what i speak of is the truth because the word of god tells me and i've seen it in my few decades upon this earth um but still you will find that that that happens and yet those who have succumbed to suffering those who have a strong relationship with jesus whether he heals them or not i've seen people like this they really don't deserve it but they get some terrible disease they don't blame it on god they don't blame it on their family they don't blame it on life they're dying with this excruciating excruciating condition yet i've seen people they have been an inspiration to me and i've looked at them on their actually i'm going to say their sick bed sometimes their deathbed and they just amaze me that they are able to be this tremendous witness for jesus in the darkest hour of their lives so whether we live or whether we die and we all die finally but when in the in the arena of sickness we can even with illness become an inspiration to who knows how many people who may be looking on to see how we're bearing up anyway i need to move on to um monday here uh root treatment i want to read the first paragraph from monday uh the paralytic okay getting back to the paralytic here is his presence on here and i they see the man on one hand to rebuke the illness um would he choose to heal an archer the mindset at this time and the scribes in fact it was because you're a sin that's just the well the parable of uh there's lazarus sitting at the rich man's gate and he's covered in sars nothing mentioned there about the rich man having pity on paul lazarus why why wouldn't he do that because as far as a rich man was concerned he was believing what the scribes and pharisees said that that sick man at your gate deserves to be there homeless hungry and with this terrible disease because he's a great sinner so they had this mindset you see so they let this man through the roof everybody's thinking oh he's a terrible sinner wretched sin can't even walk that's why he's on this on this gurney here so what's jesus going to do watch him he's just going to give him this terrible rebuke and he probably deserves it well we'll get there so hold on the question is still there on monday the question is how did jesus go about healing the paralysis so he did heal him and what but what was the first thing jesus did for him now we're told to read mark chapter 2 verses 5 through 12. we don't have time to read all of that but i will read some of it in a moment but first of all i want us to go back to this scene here the man comes through the ceiling is an obvious sinner here's jesus what is he going to do jesus takes one look at this man and jesus knew right from the get-go he knew the root of all the suffering and the disease that this man was going through just at a glance and he knew what lay at the foundation of the paralytics wasting illness and that was sin so i'm not talking about the context where god has punished him jesus wasn't thinking anything of the thought jesus was still looking at the reality the fact that this poor man is sick and it's you know it's the way he's lived it's the way he's lived wasting illness the root of it all was the way that this man had lived and again we can actually say that about all disease in one way or another and i've already alluded to this since the fall sin has affected the human body on the genetic genetic level to to trigger disease and even in little babies who are innocent they got this genetic baggage here that they get from their forebears and uh innocent little child struck down with illness um and that said as i also mentioned a few minutes ago it's been shown that life's lifestyle can either work in your favor or not and certainly if we live unhealthily we can contribute to the onset of primature disease especially if we have that disposition that genetic disposition which is being passed on to us from our forebears so that we come down with heart disease and cancer in a shorter period of time than what we really should there's that saying here which those of you are in health education you know this saying very well genes load the pistol you know your dna that loads the pistol but lifestyle pulls the trigger so you can be born with those dispositions uh but it doesn't mean you have to succumb to them because still with that curve there that bell curve you're right there in that middle section you may have those disposition but if you live a healthy lifestyle you can combat that disposition and you don't have to succumb to these things anyway but back to the paralytic here one glance and jesus absolutely knew that sin self-abusive lifestyle had triggered his suffering and his misery now this is what we read in desire of ages page 267 this paralytic had lost all hope of recovery his disease was the result of a life of sin and his sufferings were embittered by remorse oh just this terrible remorse but it was more than that still in desire of ages two six seven we read this yet it was not physical restoration he desired so much as relief from the burden of sin just that guilt that weighed upon him if he could see jesus and receive the assurance of forgiveness and peace with heaven he would be content to live or even die if he could just have that assurance so this man obviously he felt separated eternally separated from god and you can be sure the devil that's jumping on his shoulders and tell him you're a lost cause and because every time the pharisees saw him oh son you deserve this oh the wrath of god is upon you so imagine how this man felt but if he could just be forgiven by god even if nobody else had pity for him let's see what happens here he would be content to live or die according to god's will the cry of the might of the dying man was oh that i might come into his presence that i might come into jesus's presence but this is what we read also but his hope fell when he remembered how the disease had been brought upon him he feared that the pure physician jesus would not tolerate him in his presence that's that was his expectation but he was so desperate he thought well what do i have to lose yeah go ahead let me through the roof so jesus is there and he's looking at him and his poor man's expecting the worst but again jesus not only understood the cause of the paralytic illness but jesus reading the man's heart knew exactly that this poor suffering soul were just longing to receive forgiveness and be reconciled again to his maker so and you know everybody's looking here you know jesus is going to say take him outside and stone him these people are all looking to see what's going to happen here but jesus just looks he looks straight into the poor man's sorrowful face and cuts right to the chase and declared with authority and with tenderness son thy sins be forgiven thee you know um in mark chapter nine you read this same thing there and and mark adds a little more jesus looked at him and he says son be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee don't have time to read anymore from desire of ages but ellen white mentions that he just laid back on his bed just just in a oblivious peaceful job he didn't care if he died now he just wasn't bothered this weight of sin had just been rolled off his heart off his shoulder and he was just just a sweet peace are you thankful for jesus you know it might be my turn tomorrow uh it might be your turn and it might be that family members may misunderstand and say you've asked for this your family members can be dreadful can't they you've really asked for this nobody gives you that much compassion but you cry out there in your sick room in quietness there's a quietness and a peace you don't see him i'm going to read something this effect in a moment so i'm jumping ahead but still i can't help but say it jesus is there he looks upon you with love and infinite compassion and he's there for you so so we could spend a lot longer talking talking about this but i'm going to read now from mark chapter 2 verses 8 9 and 10 and i want to read this then ask this question here so jesus heals him and it says this verse 8 and immediately when jesus perceived in his spirit that they there he's talking about the scribes that here in this room and other people as well he knew what they were thinking and he knew what they expected him to do but he didn't but he says and immediately when jesus perceived in his spirit but they reasoned within themselves in other words why did he heal this wretched man jesus said unto them why are you thinking these things in your heart look right up why are you thinking these things which is easier to say to the sick of the palsy your sins be forgiven you actually hadn't healed them at this point your sins have forgiven you or say arise take up your bed and walk well trying to find an answer here where they don't quite know what to say so jesus gives them an answer then in verse 10 he says but that you may know that the son of son of man has power on earth to forgive sins then he looks to the sick of the palsy and he says arise and take up your bed and go your way unto your house and up he gets i would love to have seen i would love to have been there so here these scribes are the they're challenging them they're saying in their heart where does he get this divine prerogative to forgive sinning and they're probably getting all fussy you know where does he get this authority from and jesus puts him on the spot which is easier to say i forgive your sins i get up and walk he was a hopeless basket case physically he says you're healed and a guy gets up and walks it's a wonderful thing isn't it it's a wonderful thing so jesus is just he just struck them dumb what could they say they were just dumbfounded and it was things like this that convicted scribes and pharisees that this really was this messiah but you know they were part of this clique they were part of this crowd they were part of um today we might say part of the woke group you know you've got to stay with the group you got to say the right things do the right things or you get cancelled a lot of these men they were convicted but they couldn't break away from that mindset because they too would get persecuted and cancel on who knows whatever else but they must have struggled as they saw these things happen before their very eyes must have screamed out this is the son of god and sure enough it was but anyway evidence is like that you know you just cannot deny them anyway i've got to move on to tuesday here and tuesday is running away uh there's four paragraphs i'm going to kind of read them and just comment a little bit on them it says based on data from the world health organization the most common illness worldwide affecting more than 300 million people each year does not always have obvious visible symptoms and it's speaking about something called depression depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide and is a major contributor to the global burden of disease that's true and you know since the covet lock down we're all a lot freer now but it looks like um the government's going to try and cage us all up again but anyway we'll see about that um i'm not making light of people who feel that the need to distance no don't don't get me wrong with it i mean i got cold with myself you know probably asked for it so uh i'm not making light of people who need to distance themselves um but uh anyway let me get back on the lesson here but with the covet lockdowns as you know there was a terrible increase in and depression and even suicide even among young people um couldn't go to school they missed the the camaraderie of their school friends and you know zoom it was a lifeline but to tell you the truth i was i was tired to death of zoom after a year having a zoom prayer meeting and and assumed this and assumed that i just wanted to zoom off and live in a different universe you know so it helped but you know it was hard for a lot of young people a lot of a lot of depression and suicides i was reading another article again the other day this one um i mean they've done studies here but this one was from england came across that and in england kids they just had a they've just been beaten up really bad with the depression and suicide it's terrible and you know the cost i forget the figure but the estimated cost of uh work time lost through depression i mean it's just totally astronomical um just way up there in the clouds so there's uh there's depression and i want to tell you i've had depression sometimes uh it's no it's no picnic on the beach i want to tell you that you can have some dark days but you know what when you have a dark day there's somebody who shares the dark day with you and that's jesus praise god for him this next paragraph here unfortunately often depression is not spoken about in christianity because it can be seen as a sign of a lack of faith so we don't talk about it right well we should you know there can be causes of of depression and depression when you step out of the box and you see it's stigmatized it carries a stigma with it uh my mother used to suffer from depression as i look back i i think she used to have it a lot you know you don't tend to talk about that because very often if you have depression there's a bit of that pharisee mindset especially if you're a christian you've got depression then you must be a great sinner you must be a terrible sinner to have depression and the thing is when somebody has depression they can have this guilt which there's no ground through it but you can have low self-esteem you can carry this burden of guilt around and there's no need to do it but at that time it can seem very real and so it's just a rotten place rotten place to be and as christians of course we we don't want to really talk about this i remember about uh 10 years ago i was driving around town been driving around this town for a long time and there was a big billboard and for a couple of years these billboards were said uh were up there and it says mental illness it's not what you think and those pictures of all kinds of ordinary looking people teachers mothers pastors doctors you name it and there's a picture of somebody who actually was suffering with depression it can be a common thing it can be a disease so if you come across somebody who has depression there is hope a few let's see just over a month and a half ago we held here at central uh dr neil nedley for those of you are listening in write this name down uh nedley um depression and anxiety recovery program nedley n-e-d-l-e-y nedley depression and anxiety recovery program it's done by dr nean nedley he's up the road there at weimar but he's put together this presentation it's eight dvds and um we held one every week and there's a workbook a textbook and he's brought together some really interesting um useful things so we had a we had a group we came for two months and uh i think with with most of them they benefited from that okay uh well let's let's move on here uh uh next paragraph most people know this isn't true that if you're a christian something wrong if you get depression most people know this isn't true even christians faithful christians can at times struggle with depression i speak now this can be a triggering thing a traumatic event some thing that hits you with ptsd i mean you get veterans coming back you know from iraq and um and places like that in afghanistan and you know the first world ball in the second world war after the first world war and second world war even the vietnam war veterans would come back and you know there wasn't the help for these uh uh veterans coming back after first world war second world vietnam you know and well you know you just gotta tough it out it's been in most recent decades research has been done we've got this term post-traumatic stress disorder these people need help a lot of them even they commit suicide okay especially after traumatic event it is not a sign of a lack of faith or trusting god again one can read the psalms and see the pain suffering and anguish that god's pain faithful people have suffered just one example psalm 42 5. this is a heart cry psalms is full of heart christ to god just sad ones and sometimes happy cheerful ones but this one is 42 5. why are you cast down on my soul and why are you disquieted within me david he knew where it was to be chased he probably had some dark days excuse me i need to cop i'm sorry he knew what it was to have some some dark days what about jesus on the cross would it be an insult to even suggest that jesus had depression i i well i'm not going to stick my neck out but i would not be surprised when we get to him and you read desire raises chapter on gethsemane and calvary if jesus wasn't going through depression along with everything else i'd be surprised if he didn't what a dark place to be in the darkest place in the whole cosmos in the whole universe the darkest place was there in the very heart of jesus when he hung upon the cross no darker place just this dread and this horror of eternal separation from god so if jesus didn't sense a little bit of depression i wouldn't be surprised but i want to be careful how i say it because some people misunderstand that and run with it mike thompson says that jesus suffered with depression then it's going to be most of his life he had depression i'm not saying that but at that time he tasted the anguish of every of the suffering of every human soul okay did i say that fair enough was that fair enough yeah sometimes the depression slowly and quietly takes hold of us and we recognize it only when it tightens its grip it can come in sometimes just like a fog sun's shining but this fog slowly just kind of creeps in and suddenly it starts to slowly get darker and darker and darker and again sometimes it strikes quickly after a particularly draining emotional event for example and here's where we get now on to the other example of of suffering with uh isaiah for example god's faithful prophet elijah sorry not isaiah elijah god's faithful prophet elijah was completely drained emotionally and physically after mount carmel if the studio can hear me can you put the clock back up please i don't know how many minutes i have left um if you get it i have an hour according to what you're telling me right now but i know i don't have an hour so 10 minutes yeah all right thank you yeah keep it on the clock though if you would uh in first kings 18 here um uh we want to read about um let me let me read it here in first kings 18 elijah had just seen god's miracle of fire coming down from heaven in answer to his prayer he had seen rain come down uh and in the three-year drought why did elijah react to jezebel's threat by running well that was a a good reason wasn't it why did he react like that are we going to look at first kings 19 and verses 1 through 3. why he ran and ahab told jezebel all that elijah had done he'd come down from mount calmly they told jezebel all that it happened and where with how he had how uh all the prophets of baal are being slain with the sword then jezebel sent a messenger unto elijah saying so let the gods do to me and more also if i make not your life as a life of one of them by tomorrow about this time in other words you slew them i will slay you and when uh elijah saw that he arose and went for his life and came to be sheba which belongeth to judah and left his servant there so he took off didn't hang about not by not by any means and i want to read also here from prophets and kings page 1 61 about elijah's experience he'd been up on the mountaintop literally that a mountaintop experience it's seen the fire come down from god out of heaven and an answer to his prayer seeing the rain we just mentioned that but he gets this message here 161 but a reaction such as frequently follows high faith and glorious success was pressing upon elijah this reaction comes in now he feared that the reformation begun on carmel might not be lasting and depression seized him he had been exalted to piscus top now he was in the valley while under the inspiration of the almighty he had stood the severest trial the fear severest test of his faith but in this time of discouragement with jezebel's threat sounding in his ears and satan still apparently prevailing through the plotting of this wicked woman he lost hold on god and he ran the poor prophet of god he just uh he just took off he just couldn't couldn't bear what was going on and this depression set in as well uh to boot so he was having a real hard time here but i'm going to uh the last i need to move on here going to the last two paragraphs here on on tuesday so elijah began to run to get away and you know we may try to get away as well from a traumatic event maybe with depression as well we might run to the refrigerator you know but drink what's in there eat a ton of chocolate whatever you want or some other form of medication whatever it takes well we may look for another job another change in life you know i'll go to another place to live all these things people try to do in desperation it's just a way of trying to run away from the problem but as you run the problem comes with you because it's here inside your head and inside your heart so relocating does not do anything at all these things only mask the symptoms they don't solve the problem and they only make it worse so now i want to move on to uh wednesday too tired to run um top of the page wednesday elijah was too tired to run anymore and so he prayed again this prayer was very different from the faith-filled prayer excuse me that god answered on mount carmel in front of the priests and prophets of baal the members of the court and the common people this was a simple short prayer of desperation and what was his prayer i'm going to read it in first kings chapter 19 verse 4 excuse me i need to copy i'm going to read this from first kings chapter 19 verse 4. this is what elijah said but he himself elijah went a day's journey into the wilderness so we'll get there and came and sat down under a juniper tree and this is his prayer and he requested for himself that he might die and said it is enough now oh lord take away my life for i am no better than my father's said just take me away lord there's a question here in the lesson elijah stated that he was no better than his father's what was he talking about well he was very much made aware of his own humanity and humanity is frail at the best of times but if we don't have jesus propping up our humanity uh we we don't we don't stand a chance uh god can't depend upon us we can't depend upon ourselves we'll just crumble we'll just flake and we'll run to where we shouldn't run when we need to stay and hold our ground and so his humanity kicked in he lost his hold on god and lo and behold that's that's that's what you find so finally he dropped exhausted on the ground and reality set in about not only the fact he'd run but reality set in about what he had forfeited uh by running in fear from a woman this this crazy woman instead of holding his ground after the fire of god on carmel and the destruction of the priests of baal after seeing all that he left and his remorse was just as much as i said that he had forfeited something a great further revival in israel let me read you this from prophets and kings 1 160 and this just really hit him prophets in kings 1 60 second paragraph had he remained where he was elijah had he made god his refuge and strength standing steadfast for the truth the lord of wooden the lord would have given him another signal victory by sending his judgments on jezebel and the impression made upon the king and the people would have wrought a great reformation what might have been i mean it was amazing what happened but there was another sequel that god wanted to fulfill but his servant ran away so poor elijah's guilt is remorse more better than my father's it must have weighed upon his heart like a half-ton rock thus in this painful moment of self-reflection looking at the history of his own people and realize he had fared no better felt pretty bad about himself yet in spite of all this what do we see the tender long-suffering mercy of god comes shining through here's his broken distraught frail earthly little instrument he's just feeling so erected about it he's failed himself and he's failed god and he's just asked god for death rather than life uh the poor man and so god looks upon him with deepest compassion you know we can all be elijah's can't we you know we can doubt and fear when things don't turn out well or we've failed and messed up and we've disappointed others as well and especially we've disappointed god um we look and we realize we've forsaken our positive duty and we just crumple up in a little little heap exhausted discouraged and spent i think oh is there any hope for me well there is there always is and there was for him as well um in fact the bible uh sorry the lesson gives us an example here um in wednesday going down to the last couple of paragraphs reminding us that god does not forsake us even if we've forsaken him there's a statement from steps of christ page 97 we're feeling all broken and done and it says this we may have no remarkable evidence at the time that the face of our redeemer is bending over us in compassion and love but this is even so do you like that we nee we may not feel his visible touch but his hand is upon us in love and pitying tenderness do we deserve it we don't deserve jesus for one second do we no none of us i don't deserve it most undeserving being on the planet and yet he gives me what i don't deserve because he loves me what he suffered on the cross for us what a price he paid and what return does he yeah i look i i said this morning when i was thinking about these things in my prayer closet lord you paid that price what a small return you get what a poor return you get for what you pay all you get is me but yet i'll never understand it but he's satisfied with that as far as he's concerned he's got a good deal to reconcile me to him and give me the gift of eternal life and that's the same for all of us god knows and understands that the journey is too much for us sometimes you know we let him down but sometimes he has to wait till we stop running like elijah stop running he let him run slept on the way the angel was there gave him some food okay go back to sleep so he sleeps again has some food then off he goes again he's running he runs for 40 days and god waited till his servant was ready to listen and it says that sometimes people who are drowning become so confused that they will fight a lifeguard off you've heard of that the lifeguard has to back off and wait to perform a rescue until the victim actually sometimes becomes unconscious and god if you will sometimes does that he just has to wait till we stop flapping around sit down and we'll start to listen then we give them a chance to speak or something else aren't we anyway i want to move on to thursday very quickly here in fact thursday i don't know if you'll get much said um um anyway elijah goes and he runs all the way to uh horeb which actually is a term for mount sinai mount horeb called the mount of god there and that was actually the same mount sinai where god declared the ten commandments in exodus chapter twenty goes all the way there sits in a cave for a while and then god calls him out there's a there's this wind comes through and it just rents the rocks and this and then there's an earthquake there's this raging fire comes through and he's watching all this uh phenomenon in nature that god has stirred up but it tells us that god was not in the in the wind god wasn't in the earthquake god god wasn't in the fire but after he's got his attention then there's that still small voice and it was through that still small voice that god finally was able to speak to elijah and he says elijah what are you doing here i mean you can imagine god as a father saying son what are you doing here not in a way that crushed his spirits again but there was that gentleness and compassion that helped his servant to just still hang on when he was still feeling his words he says what are you doing here then elijah god spoke in a way that obviously invited elijah's confidence to speak son and elijah says oh lord he says that they've broken your covenant they've broken down your altars and and uh they've slain the prophets now i'm the only one that's left well god reminded him a little later on no you're not there's 7 000 more left but i know to you it feels like you're the only one sometimes we might feel like that but we're not the only one because jesus is there but i have to i have to leave it now so um sorry we didn't get more on thursday but nonetheless i hope we got a little bit of something out of it again uh i'm glad you could join us today for central study hour remember you can have a free a cd or a dvd of today's presentation make a note of offer number c 22134 c22134 you can call us at uh sacramento central church 916-457-6511 or you can email us at csh at sac central dot o-r-g if you live in the continental united states we'll send that to you free so in the meantime god bless you we look forward to having you join us next week and we'll be doing lesson number nine in our theme here rest in christ so i would suggest that you maybe do a little homework and you can be ready to move along uh with the lesson there so um uh with that said i'd like us to bow our heads and we'll conclude today father in heaven thank you so much we've been able to gather together here lord in person and also for our good friends out there watching uh on the screen somewhere tv or um or a computer thank you we've been able to study this uh this this issue of finding rest in you we thank you lord for the example of the paralytic who found rest and healing in jesus and also the same father for elijah uh with the challenges that he had also these lessons are in the bible for our instruction because in one way or another we've either lived them out we may be living them out or we may live them out in the future and we will know that we have a friend in jesus will be there to help us thank you for this hope and we praise you in jesus name amen at this point i'd like to invite the ushers to come forward you

Channel: Daily Hymns

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Length: 55min 31sec (3331 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 11 2021