Sabbath || Stewardship Week || Pastor Wenford Henry || EJC Virtual Church || Apr 24, 2021

[Music] [Applause] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there is music [Music] the songs i cannot [Music] [Music] when jesus shows his smiling face there is sunshine in my soul there is springtime in my soul today for when the lord is near [Music] oh there's sunshine moments roll when jesus shows his smiling face there is sunshine in my soul there is badness [Music] four blessings which he gives me [Applause] [Music] amen there's sunshine in our soul today welcome to ejc virtual church we're happy that you have decided to join us yet another sabbath i invite you to just continue singing with us as we praise his holy name the next hymn today is hymn number 92 this is my father's world this is my father's world and to my listening ears [Music] [Applause] this is [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is my father's world [Music] this is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he speaks to me everywhere [Music] is [Music] amen all creatures of our god and king him number two [Music] all creatures hallelujah oh burning sun with gold and beam and summer moonlight oh crazy [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] a voice [Music] flowing hallelujah pure and hair make music for your lord to dare oh praise him [Music] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah let all things their creator bless and worship him in humbleness oh praise him hallelujah [Music] amen hymn number 88 i sing the mighty power of god [Music] i sing the mighty part [Music] is [Music] [Applause] and all the stars obey i sing the goodness [Music] [Music] or gaze upon the sky [Music] by order from the [Music] there is not a place amen what's a wonderful promise there's not a place where we can flee but god is present there our next hymn is hymn number 240 embarrassed lord jesus this is our final hymn [Music] jesus [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] joy [Music] jesus is [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus shines [Music] [Music] all nations [Music] [Applause] [Music] adoration [Music] as the deer panteth for the water so my soul long is after [Music] thee [Music] long [Music] and i long to [Music] worship you you are alone are my [Music] heals [Music] you're my friend and you are my brother even though you are my i love you more than are there so much more than ever [Music] me [Music] to [Music] this is the day that the lord hath made let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it it is sabbath april 24 2021 almost halfway through the year 2021 but god has been exceedingly gracious to us he has been wonderful he has been loving he has been kind he has been helpful he has been merciful and let me just say one more time he has indeed been gracious i am so happy to be in the house of the lord this morning i'm addicted jonas murphy i am adriana small and happy sabbath adriana sponsor in a while i've been having seen you in this space in a bit how have you been how are you doing i'm giving god thanks for being a good god he really has been gracious he has been very helpful and i am grateful how have you been i have been well um god has been gracious he's been good he's been kind um it's been a it's been a tough couple of months couple of weeks but you know what i love about god i love that god reminds us in the midst of our storms in the midst of our challenges and trials that he's very much present you remember that story with jesus and the disciples the storm you know the ship is raging and and the disciples they call out to him master cares so not that we perish like seriously curious not that we perish and jesus wakes up and he rebukes the winds and the waves and he says peace oh let me put that finger down peace be still so it says to me that jesus will be with us in this life but we'll still go through storms right yes and in the storms we can't expect that jesus would be boisterous and making a lot of noise where is he sometimes he'll be resting a bit he'll be sleeping he'll be sleepy in our storms because he knows that he's got this mercy and he's just gonna get up and say peace so here's the thing right now what are you going through this morning what have you been through this week what have you been through since 2021 or maybe the last five years 10 years what have you been through whatever your storms look look like jesus is on your ship and he's saying peace be still you know um today's stewardship day adriana we're celebrating under the theme god first managing god's positions and um today's is going to be a wonderful day we're going to be focusing on a lot of things but uh first and foremost we're going to be focusing on god as the the principal agent of our stewardship he's the reason for for everything that we do and so we're going to be putting him first today what else are we going to be focusing on we are definitely going to be looking at god's faith god testing our faith through our experiences with him we certainly will be looking at that as well we're going to be focusing on the fact that when we put him first he blesses us in abundant ways and in addition to that we'll have wonderful music i know andrews is here and what else will we have adriana i'm sorry that's fine i'm saying we will have wonderful music we'll also have a word from the lord we'll have a word from the lord we will have testimonies we're going to have a lot of things happening prayer and all let me just say i miss you totally and for those of you who are in the chat i see all 1 000 of you oona griffith happy sabbath she says it's so good to see you oh my gosh it's so good to see you too i can't see you but it's good to see you you know um and there are of course others like nicola hitman thank you nicola alicia simpson uh joan levy roxanna nelson uh collette bartley says happy to see lovely adriana mercy mercy mercy millicent uh hamilton errol holmes thank you uncle errol appreciate it and and so many of you for your wonderful uh words of encouragement sophia dorma happy sabbath to you our wonderful and dearest sophie and for all of you who have logged in we want you to do something very very special at this moment um there's a little button to the right of your screen that says subscribe subscribe so i want you to click it if you've not yet done so share this link with your friends and your family members and and even those who are in your contact list that don't uh they don't go to church on a regular basis it's a wonderful way to share the lord with them and so what's next i'm sorry you're out of it no just give me five more minutes she's been missing for a while so you know it's hard to remember what comes next but we're gonna take our opening hymn my maker and my king him number 155 one five grab your hypnos and sing with us [Music] [Music] my blessings [Music] the creature of thy hand on thee alone i live my god [Music] i can give lord what can i impart when all is i [Music] my soul is [Music] [Applause] [Music] my days today's scripture reading comes to us from first timothy chapter 6 reading verses 17 through to 19. that's first image of six and i read in your hearing verses 17 through to 19. charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in certain riches but in the living god who giveth us richly all things to enjoy that they may do good that they be reaching good works ready to distribute willing to communicate last verse laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life thank you thank you sister denise brown the assistant sabbath school and personal ministries director of the east jamaica conference with our wonderful scripture reading first timothy 6 17 through to 19. and uh coming up shortly we have our prayer which is going to be done by our chief accountant sister tesslyn patterson right here she serves at the eastern maker conference safely through another week god has brought us on our way let us know a blessing seek waiting in his courts today great garden king this morning we thank you we thank you that you have taken us safely through another week we're able to sit at your feet and to learn more about you and this morning we come with our emptiness we are empty and we just come and sit at your feet and ask that you will just fill us with your holy spirit lord may you bathe our trembling heart and bro this morning we come because we have gone through so much throughout the week and so we ask that you made us feel us now lord we have no other hands no other feet nothing can we do and except you come in our lives and take full control we come lord whether we're on zoom whether we are in our living room wherever we are we come because we want a blessing from you today i pray that you may help us now to empty ourselves so that we can receive the blessing that you have in store for those who are going through so many trials this morning those who are come because they need an answer from you whether they need a job whether their children have gone away and they want them to come back to you whether they are feeling pain in their bodies then they need a relief from you god we come because we have no other friend but you so we come and we just ask that you may heal us because we know there's healing in your hands this morning we come because we know that you can fill us we come because we know that you are the great god the god who sits high and look low and so father we receive that blessing that you will be pouring upon us today because we anticipate your blessing keep us near the cross oh god because we know that you're coming back and it is even at the door help us to be ready help us to stay in line with you i pray that we'll not look to the right nor to the left but we may keep our eyes fixed on you despite what is happening around help us to keep our eyes fixed on you go god because we long to hear when you come from your lips well done though good and faithful servant enter though into the joy of thy lord oh lord what a day that would be when you shall burst the sky father help us to keep our families let us pray for our children help us to pray for our loved ones so that they can make it in as well father we ask that you would just give us today's blessing today because we're asking it in no other name but in the mighty name of jesus we say thank you let your people say amen and amen amen thank you very much sister teslan for that wonderful uh prayer bringing us of course to the throne room of grace it is stewardship convention 2021 we're celebrating under the theme god first managing god's possessions and i am so delighted and happy to have in studio uh with us in our worship uh this morning sister teresa wizard she is a member of the thomas river seventh-day adventist church located in the parish of saint andrew for those of you who are overseas you're wondering where in east jamaica can't find tom's rival it is in the florence hill district of seventh-day adventist uh churches and also if you're going toward uh saint mary you know it is the last church is it last church no is it is it the last church at the border closest mary i think it is yes so to all the toms river folk who are watching now happy sabbath to you god to riches blessings on your life sister teresa how you doing i'm very well thank you to god be the glory great things he has done amen and you know it it's so wonderful to have you here today it's your stewardship day and we're talking about putting god first you've had some instances in your life where you have chosen to put god first and you've seen the benefits uh talk to us about one particular experience i i have when i became a seventh-day adventist we were exposed to bible class and we were told that we should seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all things shall be added unto you so as a teenager i gave god his possession and that's me romans 12 and verse one so hold on possessions meaning only offering put it down no myself i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god so that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto god which is your reasonable service so you see friends stewardship day is not just about talking about the importance of of of tithing and you know giving a free will offering it's not just about the financial part of it though that is important it's a part of god's possessions but we are also god's yes possessions because we are the ones spending the money and we are the one getting the blessings so we have to place ourselves in god's hand for him to use us and so that his possession may be used wisely so talk to me you know about a particular experience in your life uh where you went from there's a statement uh uh friends rags to riches it's not quite rags to riches in this case but it's more like um from unqualified to qualified qualified talk to us about it because when i i hacked god i wanted three jobs three careers a secretary uh a teacher and an air hostess so in the early days you know we didn't say flight attendant so we were and um god bless me in a way that he he uses what we have um god when you ask him so i i got accepted at the estonia art academy so that's where the secretarial part started and i got a job after paying 425 dollars per week which so i'm sorry what year is this because that was about 1991 so let me just give the viewers a little bit of context right now the u.s dollar is about 153 uh to one jamaican and in 1991 you were being paid four hundred and twenty six twenty five dollars a week but then it was like closer one to one closer to that yes yes and um from then i know we were supposed to return what belongs to the lord so from there i do my tithe and my offer and i always ask god bless this for me and i lost my job and i decided to go job hunting but i had told the lord when i was at that job i was bored i was in the office as a secretary i was bored i was not meeting people as i should and i was just bored and i said i need another one so i lost it and i got interviewed to work on the sabbath and i turned them down and for that reason i ended back to i was not in terms when i was working i was in kingston so i went back home to tomseville with my dad and i decided to put all my heart and soul into working for the lord because i realized i got the gift of helps and office came and i went to children's ministry and i started teaching the little ones just like that hold on so you're saying that you were asked to serve in children's ministries yeah and you just pumped all your your your time yes because so you're being a good spirit of time yes so i didn't say no and i didn't know it was god's leading because i said i want to be a teacher as well so i went to children's ministry and my brother was upset that i didn't take the job on sabbath i didn't take the job on sabbath so and he was upset i was selling helping out in his establishment and he said stop and i cried and he asked somebody else and i wonder why my brother i'm his sister he didn't want but he was upset as as i i was not an adventist but lo and behold god provided a job for me somewhere else in teaching that i've never taught it publicly before but at church so now i realize that god was training me in the terms of a 70 adventists stop at school teachers college to go first teaching first so and that job was not meant for me because when i went i didn't rent it with any qualifications i didn't want any resume nothing there was no paper i just went with the word of mouth somebody told me about the job and the teacher said to me i'm sorry somebody else have the job you know because but lo and behold god sent me there because the person that was to get the job came one day and didn't turn up and i get that and i got that job for the next two years all right so so hold on here because i'm about to jump out of my seat i think you know pastor nathan happy sabbath i'm not going to destroy the chair but um so you said this job was not meant for you no but hold on sister teresa whom god calls yes he qualifies so you said you didn't have qualification but you didn't realize that the king of kings was qualifying you yes than any earthly qualification that we can ever have so tell us more what happened as you you began teaching and as i began teaching i uh realized that i was not going to stay there for based on what was happening my principal lost their job it was not a seventh-day adventist institution so they would prefer their persons first and i i was asked if i would stay and be assist and be an assistant and i don't know the spirit said no and i no job nothing i went to workshop and my education officer said mrs do you know there's two jobs available now which one would you like one in port maria one in another bay and i said the marijuana was much more money because it was from the ministry as a preacher pre-trained teacher and um i took the one with the less pay i am still there after twin come in september 25 years since i've been there at this job and god has trained me i went to michael through this job evening college first and then i did my first degree wanting to do a second one now and none of those times i've gone and done anything on the sabbath no exams on the sabbath and i still pass my colleagues who did exams on the sabbath even at michael um they they failed and i didn't fail i didn't go to any sabbath exam i decided to put god i'm going to test you god i'm testing you to see i don't go to any saturday classes and i still pass and i still got my diploma long before many of them yes i still got employed at the ministry of education long before some of them so i can say that when you put god first a detailed sister you move from from unqualified to tell no i'm a senior teacher and and and uh it is all god's doing i i i i don't know i don't know what to say it's just i i cried at night to see i remember when i first got the second job and they had difficulty paying us and we were praying because there's a praying school and tremont was praying and they always go abroad and get funds and come back and i remember when he was praying i was sitting in my seat praying to dear god i am an israelite i am a seventh-day adventist and i should not be nobody should be begging for my pay because i'm working i want to go to college i am asking you kindly it's going to be the last time somebody go and beg for my pay and as a matter of fact i won't pay in triple figure in jesus name amen hallelujah hallelujah that morning that week when i opened the sunday cleaner there was michael advertising for the last call for prelim you need additional subjects here it is michael is offering for teachers to do the additional subject and start college i was so happy that i didn't even realize michael didn't do early childhood education so i when i found out afterwards i didn't switch so my first my diploma is in primary so i did primary first and god took me through all of that since i want you to give an encouraging word to those persons right now who may be watching they're hearing your testimony of how god you know took you on this journey he prepared you he qualified you um they're not so certain of how their end will be they want to put god first but they're not sure how would you encourage them i want to say as a young person because i was young when i got baptized i took the bible as my guide as i said romans 12 all of being a good steward is in romans 12 when you see god first what i realize with our young persons and persons of today they don't have the patience and that is important we have to wait upon the lord and you will see god's timing as the african says god timing is the best our timing and god timing is not the same thing his thoughts are higher than our thoughts i love psalm one blessed is a man that walketh not i got a lot of counsels from the ungodly mercy but you follow me yes but i and and i learned to as a steward don't spend more than you earn my father said if you earn hundred dollars don't spell 101 you will be a papa don't spend manage what you have you will see your god stretch it like elastic mercy that's all good god is is great and he's interested in our affairs every affairs not only the finance emotional spiritual mental in all of our affairs and there are books too i'm gonna i'm going to um advertise messages to young people yes advertisers yes go ahead go ahead those are the books i i i'm still single because i i to obey is better than sacrifice yes i learned from soul experience yes i learned from soul experience to obey is better than sacrifice i am very happy in the lord and also i develop i learned that i have the gift of helps and that is the gift of service of giving and god has blessed me i am noah jp what so god has multiplied i didn't bury the one telling that i have i just gave it to the lord and he multiplied for me sister teresa you're such a blessing and um i mean it from the bottom of my toes when i say it you are a blessing to uh humanity to your community to our church continue to be used by the holy spirit as you you give of yourself amen to the master we're talking about being good stewards of or possessions god god's positions really banishing god's possessions um sister teresa was a good steward of her time she spoke about being a steward of uh time in the form of um using her gift her talent of of helping or of volunteerism she spoke about managing her financial resources she also spoke about managing her gift uh her talent what is your talent what is your gift can you decorate that is not my skill i try sometimes i don't get it right but yes whatever your gift is if it's easy decorating use it for the honor and glory of god if your gift is singing that is my gift i use it for the honor of god if your gift is giving just giving yeah you have a manga tree pick some mango come here come to the people of god not by the way i have mangoes for the people i've got here i'm just saying so for those of you who are living in new york and um miami and fort lauderdale i'll show them to you a little bit later so you can love me some more but yes we're talking about being good managers of god's possessions put god first no and see what he will do for you thank you so very much sis god's richest blessings i'm gonna ask that you pray uh right now as we transition to a special item of music for those of our viewers who are watching that want to put god first they really do but sometimes the flesh comes in no way yes go ahead father god we thank you for a wonderful day we thank you for all that you have provided for us great is your faithfulness we realize that all we have needed you have provided for those who are struggling help them to remember lord that you are god and you are patient and you are waiting just to remember to put you first and they will see oh you will multiply all their needs father we know that we are struggling lord god as king david said his foot almost sleep but we know when we enter into the sanctuary we see how blessed we are be with those lord jesus the stewardship weak multiply what they have help them to give with faith because faith without works is dead try you everything else is failing just try you and they will see the goodness of the lord in their life lord jesus we thank you for this program around the world where others are at this time help them to see you just open that heart of stone and present a heart of flesh that they try you just try you just even for once put to the test challenge god this morning brethren just challenge him and see how he will come through lord we're asking you to be with everyone let this program be a blessing for time and for eternity and help me lord to continue lord to not to waver and help me as this testimony as i testify i will not be a cast away but when you come you will say to all of us here and others well done good and faithful we have been faithful over few things and great is our reward which is in heaven here and bless pardon and forgive in jesus precious name amen [Music] amen thank you sister wizard we now move over to the andrews memorial sda praise team [Music] how can i say thanks for all the things you have done for me things so undeserved yet you came to prove your love for me a voices a million angels could not express gratitude all that i am and ever hope to be i know it all to [Music] be the glory for the things he has his blood he has saved me with his power he has raised he has done just let me let it be pleasing lord to me let it go he has raised me to god be the glory for the peace [Music] [Music] amen praise the lord to god be the glory adriano you know i'm looking at the chats and i'm seeing uh that persons were blessed by the testimony a while ago to god be the glory i i love to listen to the work of the lord in people's lives you know how god has worked in people's lives and i know that uh you who are watching right now each of you you have your your testimonies of how god has been to you adriana we share more things in common than we don't yes we do especially now especially no uh for those of you who uh have tuned in over the last year you would have recognized that um the the the virtual chart you've seen some consistent phases but at the top of this year you recognize recognize that two of those faces were missing for just about eight or nine or ten or eleven weeks or two or probably a whole quarter yeah yeah we were missing because uh tell us why well what happened is both our mothers both adisa's mom and my mother had strokes this year so alice's mom had a stroke my mom had a stroke my mom had a stroke in january and your mom had a stroke in the february february like weeks apart and we haven't been here because we have been caregivers for them and it hasn't been easy at all it really hasn't been but i really do give god thanks that he has blessed us and made us able put us in the position where we are able to take care of our mothers it's really a blessing i can't say it's a joy at times but at times my brain says why lord but you know everything does happen for a reason everything really honestly happens for a reason yesterday i was in devotion with some students and we were talking about joseph because the lord said to us in isaiah 41 verse 10 i think he says i will be with you do not fear do not be dismayed i will be with you so i went to joseph and i was saying look at all of these crosses dear god tell me no you're telling me that joseph could not have ended up in egypt another way the family couldn't have been saved from starvation another way the lord orchestrated everything deliberately so that all that came of that story happened and we have that story as our example we have that to give us faith and strength it's a responsibility of children the bible says we are to take care of our parents yeah and we are being good stewards of that because yes it was supposed to yeah you know um there's so much that i've learned through this uh period of time though adriana and i know you have to because we we talk all the time uh i've learned from my mother like so many things in this period you talk about tenacity talk about greatly talk about the will to live you're talking about um you know just putting god first i by the way happy sabbath mommy and happy sabbath other mommy that's adriana's mummy happy sabbath i know that you both are watching right now so we miss you and we'll be back in just a few but um i've learned so much about the human will to live and to fight and when when death stares you in the face what is your response to it um i i have seen my mother fight fight fight fight to live i've seen adriana your mom couldn't walk no she couldn't walk your mom is walking yeah she's walking she's walking yeah but she's watching she's she's walking the left side was dead but even throughout that what i have learned is that she has been maintaining she has been praising god she has been praising god in spite of she has been pr she gets she prays she watches her hope tapas listen this lady has been praising god so when i am my mouth is ready to mumble and say she her mouth is praise the lord and it spoke to me because i'm saying shouldn't she be the one who is fussing and complaining at this time but are we going to just love god and praise him when things are good and when things are bad we forsake him and we curse and behave terribly or are we going to be consistent and know that i mean god is the same and god is working this out for our good yeah you know every night before i go to sleep because mom is on our regime with medication and still fun she heads off at a particular time each night and just before she goes off every night she kneels uh to her baby your mom was affected on her left side my mom was affected on her right side so together we're complete you get what i mean so so now mommy mommy's able to walk and move around but every night before she goes to her bed she's kneeling in prayer though her speech was affected she's kneeling and she's praying and i'm saying there's so much to learn about this and why are we mentioning all of this to you life throws us curveballs lemons you choose whether or not you make lemonade you choose whether or not you make lemonade but in spite of the the fat that you have to choose god is with us while we're making lemonade you know it's just such a comforting thought and i want to just encourage those of you who are watching right now irrespective of what you're going through it really does pay to put god first and to honor his word in the process trials will come but god will take you through happy sabbath to uh andrea chisholm i saw your message in the group cheesy and trust me um yeah i i appreciate that and danny happy sabbath to you too so it's now time for our lesson review it's that was an inside joke it's now time for our listen review and um who do we have to take us through well we have you know reviewing the primary lesson with us we have tiguan burgess and that person is from the nina penn sda church right and uh for our junior lesson review we have tashona hamilton she's from the riverview seventh-day adventist church and gabriel source he will be taking us through the early scene lesson and he of course is from the oakley's sda we have danielle campbell from the amara road church taking us through the youth lesson review and or adult lesson we have two gentlemen from the kindergarten seventh-day adventist church one of whom is pastor anthony taylor and the other is pastor dwayne blake amen these are the ken caught soldiers we stand ready to prepare lessons for those of you who studied your lessons we're going to ask that you we don't have physical blanks in our habits right now but we're going to ask you to type in the chat studied studied studied so please feel free to type that right now if you said you listen let us know grab your quarterlies let's go through our studies happy summer everyone today's primary lesson will be done by john burgess from the seventh day adventist church in need of pain saint thomas happy sabbath everyone my name is john burgess and i am from the seventh-day adventist church the topic for the lesson four is the day jesus christ the memory verse is taken from galatians 6 verse 2 carry each other's burden the message is god wants me to care about others this week's story is about jesus friends mary marty and nazaras who live in brittany near jerusalem the servants became sick and the sisters sent called jesus but he delayed for two days when he got to bethany lazarus had been dead for four days jesus plan was to raise londoners to prove that he was the son of god when martyr her when marta heard that jesus was near the village she ran to meet him and said if you were here i know he would not have died jesus told her i am the resurrection and the life she ran to meet her sister mary knowing she would see her brother again mary come and said lord if you were here my brother would would not have died jesus was touched to see his friend hurting and began to cry i learned that we should love others and treat them like jesus did that if someone is hurting we should too and if if someone is happy we should be too jesus loves you and i do too goodbye see you next week happy sabbath everyone my name is tashana hamilton and i attend the reverb usda church this morning i'll be sharing with you the junior lesson entitled resentment breaks bread the poetics is taken from second peter 1 verse 3 and it reads those as his divine power have given to uh us on things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and hurt you do you remember the stories about jesus's resurrection if you don't that is exactly why i'm here to remind you of the wonderful story you see it was a very heartbreaking weekend after jesus was killed his followers were very sad and to them it was too much to bear or understand all at once their master is gone while making their way home from jerusalem two of jesus's disciples met a stranger distracted by what had happened on the weekend they failed to recognize who was walking with them can you imagine noticing how sad they were and longing to comfort them by helping them understand the fulfillment of the scriptures the stranger joined in their conversation he wanted their faith to be established it was it was then that they told the stranger their master had died and how how much the whole how much of a mighty prophet he was and did hope to be i need hope that he could have received redeemed israel but their expectations of jesus was not in synchrony with the teachings that were in the bible jesus wanted them to understand that he had to die to redeem their repenting the repenting sinners from their sins what a love as the two disciples near their home they invited the stranger to supper with them at the beginning of supper the guests raised his hand to bless the food it was all similar to the way their master did it then to their surprise he had nail pierced hands oh ho shocked they must have been as soon as they recognized they fell down and worshipped him but he disappeared what a mighty god they became so overjoyed so refreshed that they forgot about their meals and went on their way to spread the good news with those who were still in jerusalem no more heartbreak jesus is alive the greatest story ever told a message of hope for all have you ever experienced something so bad that you feel all hope is gone but then something miraculous happens there was no more these disciples had to had experienced just that there was no more sadness crying don't hope had to be restored jesus wants us to be to believe in him that means we need to keep our focus on him and place our trust in him we need to full he he will fulfill us with happiness jesus is our glimmer of hope in him we find life's meaning the promise of eternal life let us thank god for sending his one and only son to save us from our sins what a wonderful god that helps us understand and have faith in him the powerpoint says jesus showed us how to share him with others hope you all have a blessed day today thanks good morning everyone and happy sabbath my name is gabriel suarez from the earlytime class at the oblates of the adventist church now my topic today is a message to the world the memory verse is taken from revelation 14 verse 6 and it says then i saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven to to preach to who dwell on the earth every nation every tribe every thong and every people now my story today is about mr thousand and his ministry mr thousand and his minister went to mexico to live in the mountains and there in the mountains was a tribe of people who had some issues with the water and the crop and their crops now mr thousand and his ministry helped those people and the news and the wonderful news traveled throughout the region and the prime minister of mexico heard and in return he granted mr thousand the permission for he is ministering on him to preach the gospel of jesus christ throughout mexico no remember no the moral of the story is it doesn't really matter where you live or how far in the mountains you are jesus will find you and make you a worker of him a minister of his gospel thanks happy sabbath saints of god i am daniel campbell and i am from the omaha road seventh day adventist church and for this week um cornerstone connections we are looking on the topic appearance versus reality you heard me right appearance versus reality and the key text that we were looking on this week comes to us from matthew chapter 11 reading from verse 11 11 in the new international version and it says truly i tell you among those born of woman there has not risen anyone greater than john the baptist yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than eve and into the story for this week so after jesus had finished introducing instructing sorry um his 12 disciples he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of galilee so when john who was in a prison heard about the deeds of the messiah he sent his disciples to ask him are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else jesus replied go back and report to john what you hear and see the blind receives sight the lame war who those who have leprosy or cleanse the death here the dead are risen and the good news is proclaimed to the poor blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me as john disciples were leaving jesus began to speak to the crowd about john what did you go out into the the wilderness to see i read suede i about the wind if not what did you go out to see a man dressed in fine clothes no um no those who wear fine clothes or in king's palaces then then what did you go out to see a prophet yes i tell you and more than a prophet this is the one about whom it is written i will send my messenger ahead of you and who will prepare you away before you truly i tell you among those born of a woman there has not risen anyone greater than john the baptist so yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater danian goes on to say that no period had arrested john and boned him and put him in prison because of hurdles his brother philip's wife for john had been saying to him it is not lawful for you to have her herod wanted to kill john but he was afraid of the people because they considered him a prophet so on herod's birthday the daughter of heroes danced for the guests and pleased herod so much that he promised him with the oath is give his whatever she ask prompted by her mother she said give me here on platter the head of john the baptist the king was distressed but because of his old son his dinner guest he ordered that her request to be granted and had john be headed in the prison his head was brought in and on a platter and given to the girl who carried it to her mother and you can read this in matthew chapter 11 reading from verses 1 through to 11 or matthew chapter 5 14 reading from verses 3 to a level in the new king international version and that concludes the cornerstone connections lesson for this week have a productive and wonderful sabbath thank you for joining us for our adult review of our lesson this week i am pastor anthony taylor the pastor for the cancut district of churches and of course with me is my associate pastor pastor dwayne blake and together we will share in this lesson this week now we have been studying a very interesting lesson the promise god's everlasting covenant that's the focus for this quarter but as we look at this we are dealing with here is a covenant that god himself established between abraham and himself but not just between abraham and himself but to abraham's descendants and also those who would come through their generations and god said that he would establish this covenant and he gave the reason to be god to you and to your descendants after you that's the reason god established this covenant we find that god called uh pastor blake abraham yes and he made a covenant with abraham and the covenant speaks to the fact that god wants to save humanity through the covenant he established with abraham and so these are the three uh basis where god called abraham uh made a covenant with him and the covenant involved the saving of humanity but as we go through the lesson we discovered some very interesting and important points as we look at yahweh and the abrahamatic covenant now what did you see in this portion of the lesson possibly as we study this week yahweh and the abramatic covenant you know pastor names can sometimes be like trademarks and they become so closely associated in our minds with certain characteristics you know that when we hear these names you know something comes to mind like for example when you hear the name albert einstein you think that you think about a physicist someone who is involved in science when you hear martin luther king jr you're talking about activists when you look about look at gandhi he was an indian lawyer darkas she was someone who was hospitable and involved in good works sunday's lesson basically focus on yahweh and here we see that when god first entered into a relationship with abraham he made himself known as yahweh and god god ex himself explained the meaning of yahweh in exodus 3 and verse 14. he says i am who i am so yahweh basically pastor is god's personal name and when god introduced himself as yahweh to to abraham god wanted abraham to know his name because that name revealed aspects of his identity his personal nature and character and from this knowledge we can learn abraham would have learned how to trust god you are right on point and uh so this yahweh and the abrahamic covenant we find yahweh introducing himself to abraham by the use of that name right one who is eternal one who is self-existent yes one who is self-sufficient one who lives eternally yes so god was basically saying to abraham i am that i am i am self-existent yes i am self-sufficient i live eternally and therefore uh that's my name yes and and looking at the the lesson we discovered too that names were very very important right now we can even bring that to our day yes i don't see which parent uh for example would give their daughter the name jezebel no or their son judas because name has its significance yes we see also that god appeared to abraham again in genesis chapter 17 but this time god did not appear to abraham as yahweh he appeared to abraham as el shaddai yes meaning almighty god and it's very significant as to why god would have appeared to abram using the word the name el shaddai at the time he did because as we read the account in genesis chapter 17 and verse 1 we discover that at the time that god appeared to abraham using the word el shaddai abram was 99 he was an old man and what then uh possibly was the significance of god appearing to abraham using the word el shaddai no pastor when god ratified his covenant with abraham as you said he introduced himself as god almighty now abraham could not have a child because of the weakness and the frailty of the fallen human nature nevertheless the almighty one had enough power to make it possible so when he introduced himself as el shaddai he was basically telling abraham that i am powerful to make it possible for you to have a child even though you are old even though you are at an old age i am el shaddai the all-powerful god who can make it possible and that speaks to all of us today whatever our circumstances may be yes however impossible we think uh the situation may be god is saying i am god almighty i am powerful enough to deal with your circumstances and to deal with your problems yes and so abraham being that age 99 one would not want to look at a 99 year old today thinking that that person is able to to to have a son or to produce a son yes so to speak but god came at that time and said listen abraham i am mighty enough i am god almighty i am el shaddai and i can make the impossible possible and so that's the reason god would have used that name to abraham at the time he came to him in genesis chapter 17 and verse 1 in particular we find also that abram name was changed from abraham to abraham because god wanted to convey a message to abraham and so because of the significance of the change that god wanted uh to bring and in the context of the covenant that god made with abraham when he appeared to him as yahweh and as el shaddai right we find that abraham god changed his name to abraham now what does abram mean and and in contrast to abraham that god changed his name too no abraham abraham means father is exalted while abraham means father of a multitude so there we see a change there pastor no names would often be changed to reflect a radical change in someone's life and circumstances and so here we see god change abraham's name perhaps it was god's way of helping abraham to trust in the covenant promise which was being made to a 99 year old man married to an old woman who had up to until this time been barren in short pastor god did it to help increase abraham's faith in god's promises to him so we find then that abraham mean father is exalted father is exalted but god promised abraham that he would make of him a great nation and multitudes and kings and so on would come out of him yes so in in in affirming that promise god said i'm gonna change your name i'm going to change your name from abraham to abraham abraham uh signifying that you will be a father of multitude and that we saw god did for abraham establishing affirming in abraham's mind the promise that god had made we also look at the covenant stages and we discover some important truths here that god approached abraham and that approach expresses uh god's gracious election of abraham to be the first major figure of his special covenant of grace he approached abraham he commanded abraham and we understand through the command that there was a test of total trust that was involved in that command and we also see where the promised was made to abraham through though that promise uh abram's descendants through rather what ultimately involves a promise to the whole human race and paul says in speaking about abraham and his faithfulness paul says that those who are abraham's seed are spiritual israelites right so so it's not though god gave a covenant of circumcision uh god said through paul that those who are real descendants of abraham are those who are spiritual israelites so the time of circumcision then the removing of the foreskin would have come to an end because we discover that abraham that covenant side that was given became a mean of uh legalism and so god switched that to say hey no more do i require that kind of sign but if you're going to be abram's descendant then it must be circumcision of the heart right right and so we we find that we find pastor blake that the covenant as was pointed out earlier was not just for abraham or not just between abraham and his descendant but for all humanity you and i are involved in the covenant promise right because we are spiritual israelites as long as we are children of god and so we go to covenant obligation obligations okay now god said about abraham and i wish god could say that about me i know him that he will command his children and his household after him after him he also says that the lord may bring up on abraham that which he hath spoken of him so while the covenant is purely a covenant of grace we find here that for the covenant to be fulfilled abraham had to do something and what was that that abram had to do abraham had to obey what the covenant says so abram had to obey right so even though the covenant was established up on the basis of grace yes there was something that abraham had to do paul says in ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8 by grace are we saved through faith and that not of ourselves it is the gift of god not of works unless any man should boast but grace does not exclude us from obedience to god right and it is the same situation here we find with abraham the covenant was established upon grace but it takes obedience for god to fulfill the covenant possibly so so here we're seeing faith and works coming together and in in james you would recall how james peake very much about works james says show me your faith and i will show you my works so while we are saved by expressing faith in christ we are also safe to do good deeds we are also safe to do good works so we are not basically static beings pastor so god expresses covenant through grace and we have to fulfill the covenantal requirements through obedience and you're right on point pastor blake and it tells me that while we won't be saved by works right we have to be obedient to god right and sometimes we think that we can obey by ourselves we we can't really obey by ourselves it is god who wills in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure so as long as we are submissive to the will of god god will of course give us the strength give us what is needed for us to obey him and therefore he calls us to obedience right just so we called abraham to obedience in order for the covenant promise he made with abraham to be fulfilled and so brothers and sisters i want to this morning call all of us as god's children to obedience and understand that it is only as we obey god that we will be saved in his kingdom we find and i just want to reiterate this point that was already made we find that there are some things that the abrahamic covenant speaks to while the rainbow is a sign of god's covenant with no one every time we see that rainbow it reminds us what god says that he will not destroy the earth with flood again right and so every time we see that rainbow we can know that god is keeping his promise as he always does but there are some things where the abrahamic covenant is concerned we find that god god's sign uh between him and abraham was a sign of circumcision now to distinguish the seed of abraham and the gentiles was one of the reasons god would have given abraham that promise and would have made that covenant between him and abraham number two was to perpetuate the memory of jehovah's covenant number three was to foster the cultivation of moral purity and number four to represent righteousness by faith and notice what happened uh in the context of the abrahamic covenant when god was making this covenant they would have cut animals they would have laid the animals in pieces opposite each other and as a custom those were making the agreement were to pass walk through the pieces of of of animals that were laid on both sides when it came to the time when god would now establish that covenant what do we find we find that abraham fell asleep but god walked through the bible says uh through a light and so again making the point that it was purely grace it was not of works but of faith right and again i want to thank those who would have listened and want to implore all of you to be obedient i allow god to effect that change that is necessary even as we study his word even as we see the value of that agreement that god wants to make with us so that we can be here of his kingdom [Music] [Music] like the woman at the well i was seeking for things that could not satisfy but then i heard my savior speaking draw from my way that never shall [Applause] [Music] come and quench [Music] this till i won't know more there are millions in this world who are craving the blessing [Music] treasure that i find in jesus christ my lord fill my cup lord i lift [Music] [Music] fill it up and make me [Music] so my children if the things this was hungers that won't pass away my blessing lord but and save you if you kneel to him and humbly praise this the scene in my soul [Music] fill my cup [Music] and make me make me praise the lord hallelujah wonderful singing and the great prayer that each of us no doubt is praying and god is ready to fill your cup and mine as we worship him today pray with me please loving god even now as i attempt to share what is your will with your people oh god i pray that the man will step out of the way and jesus christ will teach us and feed us like a shepherd feeds his flock in jesus name amen okay greetings and happy sabbath to everybody out there in cyberspace joining us at the east jamaica conference virtual church as we celebrate dr steele our director as we celebrate the special emphasis on stewardship this week and in incidentally we are not only celebrating stewardship today but we have four major programs going on in our division and here we are joined in all of them as we are in i will go collaborative and inclusive evangelism in this time and so i am with the possibility ministries festival going on now for the yearly celebration of intra-american division i am also with the publishing convention going on we are also together celebrating and preaching the gospel through the cross-cultural evangelistic impact and all of these together are saying that the entire church is engaged in preaching the gospel and getting ready for the soon coming of jesus christ i share with you today how do we share evangel evangelism how do we share the message evangelizing community through the principles of stewardship how do we help folk to understand that stewardship is not a loss to them but it's again as they come into partnership with god stewardship evangelism today and i'd like to address three questions as we move along one what is evangelism we speak a lot about it but what is this and i want to simplify that question two is what is stewardship and all through this week up to today you will be hearing much i want to put that in simple tones also and then how do we share the principles of stewardship with our neighbors and our friends evangelism is presenting christ to humanity as a living savior or on the true hope in this life and in our eternal destiny in other words evangelism is a way by which we help men and women to understand that it's only through partnership in god that you're realizing your true meaning and your fullest stewardship though encompassing many areas are and various aspects of life it's about managing your resources your tangible and intangible possessions for the glory of god because that's what we exist for to live for the glory of god it's about understanding or purpose for living what are we doing here the three fundamental questions of life where am i coming from what am i doing here where am i going what's my present purpose and i'd like to show that we learn how to live and how to share by following jesus christ that's that's fundamental how did jesus deal with teaching stewardship how can we help our friends to grasp and understand what true prosperity really is and ellen white is right on target in ministry of healing 143 when she says christ method alone christ's method alone will give us true success in sharing christ mingled socializing with people as one who understood their good sympathizing with them ministering to their needs one their confidence then he buy them follow me i could say in a nutshell that's the way to teach stewardship we got to engage people we got to get to people where they are we got to find people where they are comfortable get into their zone and work with them and a lot of times we think that people who are wealthy don't need i don't sense a need for evangelism jesus among the many people that jesus shared with were wealthy people people like nicodemus people like one we call the rich young ruler people like zacchaeus and matthew who was a tax collector and so forth we need to not only identify with the poor but we need to identify with people of all walks of life in order to be able to share with them what is the need they have not felt i was i found it very interesting when i was reading just a few days ago on the the wealthiest man in the world this man is so wealthy that when he and his wife had to separate and they shared he was able to pass on um 38 billion dollars to her but subsequent to that he was still classified as the richest man the wealthiest man in the world but you know something they began to say to him we are not seeing you doing enough for community and so we are glad to know that now he's identifying more with community projects and he's spending spending billions of dollars investing with helping issues that are affecting the entire world including the matter of addressing global war warming and the environment um in stewardship we're talking about properly managing our finances our health our bodies our environment our relationships in which we engage and we want to share with people to help them to understand what really matters that's why we need to be where they are finding a right way to mingle with them and and for me i find that being involved in community work gives you a great opportunity get out of the box of being a seventh-day adventist we are in a limited community but when we get out there in the wider world where people are hurting where people are wanting help you will find people of all background from all areas working there and you can mingle with them and share with them you'll understand some of them share same concerns as we do we need to understand and help folk to understand value beauty what is really beauty is it just what we can see and what we can pri price by financial means gold and silver and diamond but there are some things that are more valuable that are in fact invaluable though they are intangible and that's what we want folk to understand understanding happiness many people are coming to find that happiness does not come from just having much materially but it comes from knowing god like the song says happiness is to know the savior living a life within his favor having a change in my behavior happiness is the lord that will show me the path of life the psalmist says psalm 16 11 is that in thy presence there is fullness of joy and at their thy right hand there are pleasures forever more happiness does not come by circumventing our need of god everybody has a vacuum that only god can fill and our true realization of happiness and fulfillment will only come as we have that engagement and we want by our living or example or experience or testimony and or teaching to share that with others godliness godly like godlikeness ellen white says is the goal to be reached higher than the highest human thought can reach is god's ideal for his children and we need to help others to know that it's in education page 18. many people believe that if i could just get and so there's convictiousness there is greed there is the sense of wanting to get more and more and more of material things materialism is one of the gods of the world even today but many people are coming to understand like solomon after they have gotten and gotten and gotten they are not never satisfied materialism conviciousness is compared to a man who has a bag that has a hole in the bottom and as often as he puts more in it falls out and he's never satisfied it's compared by one thought to a bleeding wound when the blood is not clotting and it never can stop do not love the world the bible says for are the things of the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life is not of the father but of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it but he who does the will of god endures forever everybody everybody wants to endure forever nobody wants to die but almost every week i participate in burying somebody rich middle income poor everybody dies but when we have life from jesus we have more abundant life understanding what true value is includes understanding that godliness is what gives us contentment yes and as i said before ellen white says it's about godliness and paul says further do not love the world for the things that are in the world because those things are not of the father all that is in the world is material is physical passing away and he says rather the proverbs solomon says honor the lord with thy substance whatever we have we should use it to glorify god that's that's the key to true happiness we want to help to share that help people to get a new desire the key is honor the lord with thy substance and with the first fruits with the best of what you have not only your money and your house and your land but your talents and and your abilities honor the lord with the best of you and psalm 39 verse 5 says the best that we are is nothing so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses burst out with new wine when we honor god we are multiplying our blessings luke 12. jesus said this very profound always jesus saying it and he said to them take heed and beware of convictiousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses again go back to psalm 39 5. it is not what you possess that makes you valuable stop counting by your bank account and those things count counted by your relationship with god god said to those and he's still saying to those who are investing all of their means and their resources only in the banks and in the investment companies and in the real estate and so forth god said fool this night your soul will be required of you then whose will those things be which you have provided so is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward god for what will it profit a man powerful question now matthew 8 36 37 notice those these two questions luke 12 god asked the question whose the things will be that you're holding oh you say my son and my grandson and it goes on and on and on sometimes you don't even know what they're going to do with when you when you die and how they will make a fool of what you have invested in working very hard sometimes you don't even have the time for yourself to enjoy life and the next question is what will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul that's one question nobody answers properly life is more than food and the body is more than clothing in other words whatever you value materially whatever your actualization causes you to think is a thing god says something there is that is more powerful than that and so i'd like to help you as i come to a summary one attitude is critical and the chinese proverbs says if you can't change your your faith change your attitude and and this is one thing that i know that none of us can change our faith only god can just like ethiopia and the bible says can't change his skin or the leper his spot neither can you change your ways and your destiny but god can give you a powerful destiny that flourishes eternally attitude is important to god to our fellow men and to the environment next we need to understand that we can change you can be better than you are someone of my friend used to say you can be better than you are you could be riding on a star you can be better you can be different you don't have to be selfish anymore you can climb a higher platform and walk the higher road and second corinthians 5 17 says this happens when you are in christ you become a new creature and if c.s lewis says if conversion makes no improvement in a man's outward actions then i think his conversion is only an imagination yes we can be different what matters again is commitment where is your commitment and i would suggest that we want to help people to understand that the greatest commitment you can make is like we are studying now is to commit your life to jesus christ yes commit your means to him yes every true disciple who is committed to christ will be a missionary a witness for god drinking of a living water and sharing that with your friends and neighbors another value that is critical we want to share is self-discipline and we know galatians 5 22 tells us what happens when the holy spirit comes in us and also first corinthians 9 we paul was showing how his self-discipline helped him to be a true disciple for christ this then is how you ought to regard us paul was saying as servants of christ we are those who are entrusted with the mysteries of god it's not about us it's about god now it is required that those who then are entrusted like that who have been given that covenant that that promise and that relationship with god we must prove faithful to god and i'd like to suggest that if we are going to be good effective teachers we ourselves have to be good stewards ourselves that's what paul is saying contentment of righteous living godliness with contentment is great again for we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it but if you have food and clothing oh basic stuff we can be contented with that yes those who desire to be rich fall into temptation nothing is wrong with being rich nothing is wrong with planning getting your education making your investment but if that is your greatest desire if you're not like david that says as a heart pants after the water broke those who desire only to be rich get into trouble into serious trouble virtues of a good steward closing now faithfulness loyalty humility a clear conscience obedience trustworthiness accountability to god and to others where applicable you know our solomon's problem solomon got it right at the beginning but then he started trusting in himself and being impressed by his own what he thought was his own achievement and that's why he lost his way solomon reached the place where the temple that he built for god and he was saying this is god's temple now it began to be known as solomon's temple and i want us to be careful those of us who think we are gifted in whatever way and we are doing very well and we are helping the church and we are doing well in the conference we must be careful that we give the glory to god and we need to teach others that the greatest achievement that you have it comes through the empowerment of god through the enabling and ennobling gift of god and we should give the glory back to god because the glory belongs to the lord man cannot show greater weakness than by allowing men to ascribe to him the honor for gifts that are heaven bestowed any time you find you're getting too much praise whenever you see it's all about you then you have missed your mark and god is very jealous anybody who start taking too much of god glory remember um the the the governor the um the man who thought that he was so powerful he got up and made that's herod i'm speaking of made a powerful speech one day and the people began to say man this man is so great he's so it's lyrics he is dictionary he is such a great presenter and they say he is not a common man he must be a god and the moment he began to believe that also god struck him and he became an embarrassment worms ate him alive so to speak you know we need to show people that you we are nothing and don't be intimidated by anybody and afraid to share the gospel and the love of god with them because of their political or their economic or their their their social position or whatever their education etc just love everybody mingle with them live god's love for them and show them that god's way is a better way no ambitious motives will call his love for god steadily perseveringly will he cause honor to redone to the heavenly father it is when we are faithful in exalting the name of god that our impulses are on the divine supervision and we are enabled to develop spiritual and intellectual powers finally i'd like to accentuate four more steps in sharing stewardship in teaching people how to honor god in their lives is by living stewardship living faithfulness to god one can give what he does not have paul says you got nothing to bring into this world you came with nothing we we came not we brought nothing into this world and therefore we're gonna leave with nothing thus said the lord let not the wise man glory in his wisdom says jeremiah neither let the mighty man glory in his might but let him who glories glory in this that he knows me ah the lord which exercised loving kindness judgment and righteousness that's the one that we know for in these things i delight said the lord praise god i hope that many of you will get serious more to recognize that living for god is what matters for you were once darkness but know your light in the world let's shine the light for god building right relationships building for god's sake the right connections not for our own popularity of our own gain but for the glory of god stewardship is about management of god's possession on display in front of our families in front of our communities and the world and as we do that we will become shining lights for god that's our summary teaching point and finally as i share with paul i thank god that god had set forth us as it were appointed to death for we are made a spectacle unto the world and the angels and to men men and women should look to us look in us and look through us and see christ he is the great desire of the world and i join with the publishing ministry today jesus christ the desire of ages is the answer in sharing stewardship with our brothers and our sisters god bless you richly thank you i want to invite you to register with the east jamaica conference to be part of our grand evangelism training which begins the second weekend in may the school of evangelism reopens again and you want to join us just follow and you'll hear more about that thank you god bless you [Music] i've been changed [Music] delivered i found joy peace [Music] grace [Music] yes and right now right now been changed i have waited for this moment to come and i won't let it pass [Music] before [Music] [Music] used to [Music] [Music] my sins my sins thank you lord forgive us lord my fears over and right now [Music] waited for this moment to come and i won't let it pass [Music] before your presence came [Music] before your presence came and changed me never never going back i am never going back i am never never going [Music] i am never going back never never going [Music] before your presence came and changed me i won't go back i can't go back to the way it used [Music] i won't go back i can't go back to the way you used to be before your presence came and changed [Music] such a beautiful uh and powerful reminder from the group asano praise thank you so very much asana for that wonderful song i won't go back and we also want to say thank you to our director of sabbath school and personal ministries right here at the east jamaica conference of sympathy adventist pastor kyle koniam for that wonderful presentation on stewardship and of course i want to remind you it's stewardship convention 2021 right here at the east jamaica conference's virtual church and we're focusing on uh god first putting god first managing of course his possessions and joining us right now online to share her testimony sister jacqueline doe sister jacqueline is a member of the andrews memorial seventh day adventist church and she's going to be sharing with us how god has been with her as she has put him first happy sabbath to you sis welcome to the ejc virtual church thank you you are welcome sister how are you doing this morning i'm good god has been good to me amen amen wonderful uh so as soon as your your picture comes up on the screen i want you to answer this uh question as we prepare for that uh how have you put god first in your life and what are the blessings that you have seen from doing so how i've put god first in my life started when i was a child my mother taught me many biblical principles she taught me to pay tile she taught me to connect with god first thing in the morning to communicate with him read the bible and to give of myself to others to let others see christ in me and so daily as i get up not being a perfect being i make a special attempt for all these ingredients to come together so that as others see me they have an idea of what christ is like amen now there was a particular instance you were sharing with me last evening about how god spoke to you and how he manifested himself in your life uh definitely making you know that he was present in spite of your challenges could you share with us briefly what that was all about i had um i was going through a rough time in my life when you know one of those points where everything you do seems to be wrong and in fact some mornings when i got up i was so afraid to get up because i was wondering what else was going to go wrong so that morning in particular i got up early and the five o'clock bells went in the bathroom and i decided i was not going to pray i was just going to talk to god and i was making my submission i was identifying the issues bringing the bible text and telling him that i wasn't feeling him i wasn't seeing him that he had forsaken me and just then in that five o'clock time in the morning there was a scent of east indian mango just all over the bathroom i couldn't understand it and i said well nobody will be having east indian mango at this time in the morning however i got dressed and i remember saying um i would certainly eat an east indian manga but it wasn't even mango season and while going on to work that morning i realized my zipper was spoiled so i had to stop at a friend's home she lives on an apartment complex she lives on the second floor and so i ran up to the second floor not the door and while standing there i heard somebody coming behind me from the third floor and a lady stood on the staircase she said good morning and she was smiling so i turned to her and said good morning she had her hands behind her and i said to she said to me oh i have something for you i said really because i don't know her and you would not believe it she handed me the nicest east indian mango i could you could ever want to have and so it was so that showed me that despite what was happening god was saying to me i hear you within my time and he heard when i said i would eat an east indian mango and he in his own way he has a sense of humor he made sure i had that since that was what he was delivering at that point in time praise god god be praised you know god has a sense of humor you felt funny sydney and mango and the lord provided one for you he was able to remind you adriano join me in this one please uh he was able to remind his sister those that that in spite of the fact that you were going to what you were going through and he wasn't directly answering the way you wanted to he was still very much present there are individuals who would have been in a situation like yours or probably going through a situation like yours um you've asked for your east indian you've gotten it but there are other persons asking and god may not be answering in that way um how would you encourage them to continue to put god first in spite of all you see god is faithful and just he promises us that he will never leave us not forsake us and he's an on-time guard and what we have to do is to trust him i recall you know not not not being able because i'm from a very humble beginning not being able to pay my exam fee in u.s dollars and just three days before after asking the organization not getting anywhere the permanent secretary called me and he offered me a personal loan three days before the due date when i thought this was it i would never be able to pay that exam fee and he gave me the personal loan i sat the exam and i passed it and so what it is telling you is that when we pray to god he does not always answer in our time or how he we want him to answer us but he answers he's a perfect god he's always on time whatever the answer is that is the on-time answer at that particular time and he's god he says that he will never leave us not forsake us and he sees all our needs and he can't supply all our knees but in his time not in ours we just have to continue to trust him we have to continue to wrestle with him because even after the east indian mango i continue to wrestle with him i continued to talk to him and eventually all my problems were solved not in my time and not necessarily the way i'd wanted them to be solved but they in amman they were solved and when they were solved they benefited me perfectly sister dos you mentioned that you had prayed to god for you you just thought to yourself i would eat an east indian mango were you deliberately speaking to god no i wasn't i wasn't it's just that i just don't know why the house the bathroom was so full of these indian mangos and i really love east indian mango and so now that the scent was there i was like hmm have you eaten that for a while man i would eat an east indian mango and that was a time right so it wasn't a deliberate conversation that you were having with god and that was a time when you said you felt as though he wasn't listening to you wasn't responding to you but yet out of the kindness of his heart just to remind you that he was with you and that he was hearing you he sent that east indian mango to you in a way he sent to you what you needed or what you requested at the time in a way in which you did not expect that's what you are saying sister dos in a way that only god could have done it you also mentioned how you didn't have the tuition fee to pay and you prayed to god you said you agonized with him and three days before it was due he provided a loan for you a loan which you did not expect to get and that was a big request wasn't it it was because um this was the permanent secretary i'd actually gone down there in my frustration when they told me i couldn't get the loan to ask him if he could instruct them at his level to give me the loan and he told me no and then he looked at me and said i will give you the loan praise the lord go ahead it was only god and this is what god does he he empowered me to go down because i was just 21 and he called me because this had never happened before and when i went down to him god opened his heart and that is what god does for us yes he is impossible possible and why sorry i didn't realize that you had continued speaking go ahead no i said he makes the impossible possible when we least expect it why i brought up those two specific things are when you compare the request for an east indian mango to the request for thousands you know plenty us dollars to pay your tuition fee the east indian manga seems pretty insignificant though why would god why would god answer this request at ease and east indian mango hello aren't there bigger issues in the world that god has to deal with but you know sister does as you're in the conversation too it's not about the mango it's never been about the manga it's not about your tuition it's not it is simply trust in the lord and him showing his daily reminders of his presence in your life so it's enough about the manga by the way demorgan happy sabbath your mouth is watering watering continue to have your mouth authored but sister knows uh we have to wrap up this segment um what are some final words that you'd like to leave with our viewers as we prepare to transition to our next segment what i never told you was that when i was agonizing with god for the um tuition fee i spoke to him about my time and i said to him you said if i pay my tithe you will open the windows of heaven and you pour me of blessings that there's no room to receive where are those blessings and those were the questions i was asking him and he showed me that what he said he meant it i will open you the windows of heaven and he did it through someone i could never have dreamt of who who would have under normal circumstances want to help somebody like me he didn't know me i was new in the organization i was just a little young 21 years old and so you know over and over we it tells me that if you if you try to use the resources that god has given you if you try to obey him he says i will bless you you give me my tithe the rest you use according that will bring glory to my name he will deliver you're not perfect but in his own time he looks at the heart and he sees that your heart is in the right place and he will help you the devil will do all kinds of things to make you feel disheartened frustrated like i said that morning in the bathroom but god is always there and he chooses what he what what he wishes he at that point in time he says look i'm going to show you that i hear you i'm just not ready to answer you and he gave me the east indian mango until he was ready and so in all our lives god is there and he will deliver according to his riches in glory and in his time not in ours thank you sister dose we really appreciate that testimony and it was a very good reminder that nothing is impossible with god nothing is too hard for him even providing something as insignificant as a mango for some maybe no i'm just saying i know some people i'm not saying the east indian mango is insignificant brethren i wouldn't do that i really honestly i wouldn't but i'm saying something as small a request that for some people would be would consider very unimportant she requested an east indian and the lord provided it at least indian mango and the lord provided it she requested thousands of dollars of tuition fee and the lord provided it is there anything too hard for the lord to provide for you is it impossible is it too big is it too small those are questions for you to ponder sister dos we thank you so much for joining us this morning and may god continue to bless you as you serve him as you put him first thank you you're welcome we continue uh under the theme god first managing god's resources and now we're going to be transitioning to a presentation a short presentation uh by my dearest auntie paula yes auntie paula paula holmes who will be uh sharing with our children some steps in of course uh stewardship principles so auntie paula it's over to you thank you thank you adis and it's so wonderful to have you and adriana back on the virtual church happy sabbath boys and girls happy sabbath parents this week has been a rich one filled with insights into how we can put god first but all of this teaching would be of no use to us if we don't action them and certainly when it comes to teaching children action is definitely needed parents will tell you our parents know that talking and talking only is not the most effective method of teaching children so in the next few minutes i would like our boys and girls and our parents who are tuned into the virtual church to just turn your minds with me as we talk a little bit about what we can do in teaching our children about stewardship in ii timothy 3 verse 15 the bible tells us since childhood you have known the holy scriptures that help you to be wise in a way that leads to salvation through faith that is in christ jesus and this is the comment from the common english bible the servant of the lord in the book child guidance in chapter 3 page 1 page 26 she says to us that a work of training should begin with the babyhood of the child children should be trained from the cradle now i do not know if there's a gene for gratitude i do not know if there's a gene for sharing what i do know is that children develop within a context children are not born with a desire to share one of the first words that children would normally say is mine mine mine who they become is largely shaped by what we pour into them very early in life one important truth that we want our children to learn is that they are greatly blessed by god and that god in turn expects them to share these blessings now if you have nothing tangible to leave in your will for your children and i'm gonna take a pause here because i was tuned in on wednesday night to pastor oh and i saw thousands of devices on pastor o was talking to us about you know making our wills and what we're going to leave for our children but i want to say to you parents that if you have nothing tangible to live in your will for your children teach them that all they have and all they will ever become is from god tell them about the god who made a perfect home for man and gave him dominion over everything tell them about joseph and how god blessed the affairs of an egyptian because he was diligent in all he did tell them about daniel another young man who had an extraordinary spirit and was appointed by the king to be in charge of babylon there is a widely referenced theory about how children develop in the social world this theory is known as ericsson's theory of psychosocial development this theory takes us from the cradle to the grave in it ericsson outlined an eight-stage process with ideas and skills that must be mastered in order to develop into successful and contributing members of society though an insightful theory ericsson was concerned about life on earth we however like abraham we are looking forward to a city with foundations whose architect and builder is god so while erickson explains the types of stimulation children need to master each stage of development and become productive and well adjusted members of society our discussion today will borrow some of these concepts to help us understand how we can teach our children about stewardship i am going to change the word stimulation to teaching i'm also going to change the phrase become productive and well-adjusted members of society to children who put god first so really what i'm saying to parents is this parents if we provide stage appropriate or in this case age appropriate instruction and modeling then with god's help we will be training our children how to put god first now the first step in the first step in ericsson's model begins from birth and takes us through the first year of life now and it talks about trust our children come into the world and they're totally dependent on us erickson says that if an infant receives care that is consistent predictable and reliable they will develop a sense of trust which they will take with them into other relationships and they will be able to feel secure even when threatened how a parent responds to an infant when he cries sets a stable or unstable foundation for future development of relationships learning to trust others is the first necessary step to learning how to have a loving supportive relationship with others so then as parents most of us i believe our goal is to teach our children to become independent adults but herein lies a dilemma how do we teach our little ones to trust in an invisible god how do we teach them to trust god in a world full of uncertainties parents this is all over to you do you trust god do you trust him to take care of your needs do you trust him to bring you through the storms of life how you model trust in god will teach your little one that god can be trusted so that's stage one stage two takes us up to the age of three at this stage our children are learning to become autonomous ericsson refers to this stage as a time when a child is gaining independence and a will now addis would be able to tell you about this stage language movement and eye hand coordination they are developing rapidly what is great at this stage is that the child begins to imitate adult behavior and routines parents are you seeing the opportunity you have to teach stewardship lessons to your children your child is watching you place your tithes and offerings in the bag and your child wants an envelope as well you are not wasting the churches stationary by giving your three-year-old an envelope to put a dollar in on the contrary you are teaching your child to return a gift to god for his blessings your child at this stage is becoming autonomous support your child to make their own small decisions but you may say church is not open my child hasn't been to church for a whole year if your church is like mine there's a drop box for offerings take your child with you and let him or her drop the offerings in the box if you return your tithes and offerings using an online modality sit your child in your lap while you process the transaction talk with him or her about returning to the lord and the best part they will enjoy let them do the final click if you do not want a selfish self-centered child later on in life this is the stage now is the time to teach your child to share ellen white says to us again in child guidance that parents should carefully manage their children in order to counteract every inclination of selfishness children should be taught to become thoughtful of others so we have gone from birth to age three we're now going to look at age three to six at this stage children have a desire to try new things and to learn new things while becoming responsible for their actions to a little extent three to six eh this is the season of i'm a big kid now children cannot wait to be big enough to help they want to participate and they want to learn how to cooperate their imaginations are fertile and the stories of the bible come alive in their minds this is also the time when your children learn to make friends we need to teach them that jesus is the best friend to have i remember when one of my sons was around this age just about three a little over three years old and he said to me mommy i have a little jesus in my heart do you want your children to learn about stewardship lead them to jesus as you teach your children the rules of living similarly teach them god's rules hebrews 13 verse 16 is a good scripture to point to your children over and over and it says don't forget to do good and to share what you have because god is pleased with these kinds of sacrifices involve your children whenever you are engaged in acts of kindness take them with you when you share mangoes yes that's that's that's the first word i had when you share mangoes take them to share mangoes and aki and bread fruit with a neighbor give your child the money to tip the person at the grocery store or a restaurant give them a bottle of water for someone living on the street and watch the delight on their little face by these examples we teach our children to be mindful of others you will soon find that they will take the initiative to render such acts of kindness to others and we go to the final stage certainly not the final stage in the development of a child but parents this is where the foundation is laid you've got to teach these things before your children get to age 12. so the final stage i want to talk about talk on a little bit is the stage between 6 and 12 years old the stage of industry as your child continues to grow you will notice new and exciting abilities that are developing this is the stage where children develop a sense of pride and accomplishment in what they do as experience you expose them to many activities sports and music and drama swimming the pathfinder club children keep parents very busy during this stage this is the stage when children shine every sabbath we see them doing their lessons on the virtual church this is when they shine and they want their parents to be proud of them they want you as parents to show up and cheer them on this is this the time between the ages of 6 and 12 when you want to introduce your children to volunteering their time and talents for a good cause doing something good is not only reserved for global youth day ellen white again tells us there is untold value in industry let the children be taught to do something useful assign tasks that are appropriate to their age and their ability and useful work will never seem like a drudgery the latter part of this sixth age cohort is the opportune time to begin to teach money management and more importantly tithing why because they are learning about fractions in school they can calculate one-tenth so parents give your child an allowance sit with them and teach them how money is to be used the first part goes to god this lesson taught early and consistently along with others we have discussed will stay with them for a lifetime if you have a child who is 10 to 12 and you haven't started this practice i encourage you to begin this coming week i wonder how many children watching right now get an allowance and children if you don't tell your parents that auntie paula said if you give me an allowance i will learn how to give back the first part to god okay you have my permission to do that boys and girls children if you are watching and you have learned from your parents to give back the first part of what you have to god let us know everything we have belongs to god stewardship is not this week of emphasis it's not about tides and offerings stewardship is a way of life so what are the steps to teach children about stewardship i'll sum it up with two points do you want your child to be faithful to god and to put him first then parents you be faithful to god you put god first stewardship is not about money it's about christians who are willing to trust god i pray that as parents we will grasp the opportunity in the early stages of the development of our children to teach them to trust god let us pray our god and our father we thank you for the precious gifts of our children teach us god to be faithful to you so that our children who come behind us will learn to trust you and put you first in jesus name i pray amen wonderful presentation there learned so much um you know principles of course uh in in teaching our children stewardship we hope you are also blessed and i'm going to be adopting some of those principles beginning aka right now all right so it is time for us to worship the lord through music and through singing it's our praise and worship time and praise and worship is a powerful part of our walk with god it is appropriate for every day and every owl and of course first chronicles 23 30 psalm 92 verse 2 and psalm 59 verse 16 will tell you why has given us and as we know with all the commandments that god has given us they are accompanied by blessings from him so when we choose to obey god in faithfulness when we trust in him he definitely will pour out blessings that only can be seen in the spiritual realm amen what goes on in the spiritual realm will eventually show up for our eyes to see in the natural all it takes is a believing heart that will glorify god in the best and in the worst of times put praise into practice friends and watch god's power work for you let's sing with our praise team amen amen we're here to worship and we're gonna praise the lord today i know you're at home but you can sing with us anywhere you are in the living room in the bedroom don't worry about it god can be praised anywhere so sing with us as we give him worship and we sing holy holy holy [Music] we sing holy [Music] let's go together holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy is worthy [Music] yes [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] to receive all our praise today amen amen hallelujah i love to praise and i love to worship it's not been a thing for me all my life but growing up you know when struggles come here we realize that praise takes you through any situation honestly once you begin to praise and once you begin to lift him up you realize that your spirit is lifted and so as we continue to lift up god in praise and exalt him on high we sing he's exalted the lord is exalted and so we continue to praise [Music] [Music] is is exalted forever [Music] his is day because he [Music] is he is exhausted forever exalted and i will [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] he's exalted [Music] exalted on and as we continue we're gonna sing this final song that says here's my worship all of my worship receive my worship all of my worship because you lord you are worthy no one can worship you for me so lift your voices with us as we give him praise today let's go together you are worthy [Music] no one can worship you can we go one more time say you lord you are worthy [Music] i thank you for all of the things [Music] lift it up and say here's my worship my [Music] [Music] [Music] and i will not be island i will always worship you as long as i am breathing [Music] i will worship you [Music] [Music] jesus will worship you as long as i am breathing [Music] again [Music] [Applause] i will not [Music] is i am breathing i will always worship you [Music] [Music] [Music] this is my worship on my worship receive my worship on all my worship [Music] you are worthy [Laughter] [Music] and no [Music] you've done for me even in the darkest times no one lord [Music] praise the lord i will lift up mine eyes onto the hills from whence cometh my help my help comes from the lord which made heaven and earth he will not suffer thy foot to be moved he that keepeth thee will not slumber behold he that keepeth israel shall neither slumber nor sleep the lord is thy keeper the lord is thy shade upon thy right hand the sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night the lord shall preserve thee from all evil he shall preserve thy soul the lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore great is thy faithfulness [Music] great is there is not [Music] thou forever will [Music] is [Music] dead [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] faithfulness morning my morning new mercedes [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] blessings [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] our scripture reading comes to us from acts 4 verse 32 to 37 and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things come on and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the lord jesus and great grace was upon them all neither was there any among them that lacked for as many were possessors of lands or houses sold them and bought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the apostles feet and distribution was made unto every man according as he at need and joseph's who by the apostles was surnamed barnabas which is being interpreted the son of consolation a levite and of the country of cyprus having land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet here ended the reading of god's holy word [Music] hmm [Music] the room grew still as she made her way to jesus she stumbled through the tears and made her blind she felt such pain some spoken anger heard folks whisper there's no place here for her kind still long she came through the shame that flushed her face until and last she knelt before his feet and though she spoke no words everything she said was heard as she poured her love for the master from her box of alabaster and i've come to pour my praise on him like all for me [Music] don't be angry if i washed his feet with my tears and tried with my hair [Music] you weren't there the night he found me you did not feel what i felt when he wrapped his loving arms around me and you don't know the cost of the wheel in [Music] i can't forget the way life used to be i was a prisoner to the sin that had me bound and i spent my days pour in my life without measure into a little treasure box i thought i found one till the day when jesus came to me and healed my soul with the wonder of his touch so now i'm giving back to him all the praise he's worthy of i've been forgiven and that's why i love him so much [Music] i love best don't be angry if i washed his feet with my tears you did not feel what i felt when he rest his loving arms around me and you don't know the cause [Applause] you don't know the cost of the oil in my pasta what's this morning pastor eric nathan good morning happy sabbath to you pastor it's been a while how have you been pastor nathan all right as soon as we get his audio up we will try one more time but just want to remind you friends uh adriana uh is also with me that we're celebrating stewardship uh convention under the theme god first managing god's position indeed and we've been having uh i'm i'm right here we've been asking you hear me yes we're hearing you loud and clear pastor how are you hear me yes pastor we're hearing you loud and clear you hear me i guess you can't hear us all right no prob we are sorting through our technical glitches uh but yes as we said god first managing god's possessions and what a blessing it has been from morning listening to the testimonies um in in uh that our sisters have shared with us how putting god first really made a difference in their lives and adriana how has that made a difference in your life it has made a very very significant difference in my life i have so many testimonies that i could share of how when i put god first he just blesses me the thing we need to understand is that everything that we own or everything that we have access to everything that we're able to do god is the one who has given it to us so it is my responsibility really to give back but other than that it's a joy to give back because the things don't really belong to me actually he's just lending them to me for me to manage them properly appropriate here appropriate their use here use their share here and really and truly i want to i want to know that at the end of it i use god's resources properly my family finances the talents he has given me the time that he has given me and at the end of the day he's going to say to me i'm proud of you you did well you mentioned one being good stewards of or or families you know very interesting i i was listening to a message recently a ceremony and the speaker said uh god trusts us so much that he asked us to manage his resources and the truth is some of us really don't do a good job at managing his resources well um but you know that's i'm happy for today i'm happy for the reminders i'm happy um that we are of course being entrusted by the lord to to of course manage his possessions pastor nathan are you with us are you hearing us i am hearing you i just want to know if you guys are hearing me we are hearing your load and clear happy sabbath my friend how are you i am so excited to be a part of the team and i just want to say every week every week is a privilege to give my shout out to the the constituency it is my privilege at least to welcome you back on board we we miss you while we carry on when you're not there we we we miss you and we're happy to have you and we know that god has been very good to you and we continue to pray for the full recovery of your mother while we are being careful about the the kovid crisis i wanted to know that the church will not allow kobe to close down the mission and so i commend the the departmental directors for pushing ahead with their ministry in spite of the corporate crisis i am glad to know that kovid and no call with mission is still possible and i just want to say to all of us the church which we are part of as a very dynamic component and while today we welcome pastor henry pastor winford henry from jamaica union and pastor leonard steele from east jamaica conference on their stewardship emphasis day i just want to say that the the church continues and all the other departments are going fully on their programs today we have four dynamic programs going on at the same time we just paused for lunch from the possibilities ministry of the inter america division and and we are now in in full flight with the stewardship from east jamaica conference putting god first in all that we do but we also want to say that going on right now the parcel lorenzo brown and pastor hussein from the union are putting together a very powerful program to empower this they call porters of our church and talking about call portals today is a sad day in that we are monetary loss of one of our credential cal porter somebody who has been a leader in the church we we are very sad to know that elder elvis mckay one of our chief call porter he is somebody who is known as one who is a golden credential call porter so you know that he must be a longtime evangelist selling the good books the book of the book harmony and we will continue to pray for the family as we lay him to rest early next week i just also want to talk about how important it is to know that the cross-cultural evangelism is going on jamaica union is twinned with the caribbean union and we have almost 100 preachers preaching in jamaica and we have right now maybe almost 20 preachers who are waxing the message of salvation in east jamaica conference we are grateful for the dynamism of the church talking about the church you know right now a letter is in the letterbox of all the churches communication and directors from the jamaica union we all aware of the serious problem that the brethren in saint vincent and the grenadine they are facing a serious crisis now and you know it is said today for me tomorrow for you a couple of years a couple of years ago we had to collect an orphan for our brothers and sisters in in haiti today we are looking forward for a special offering from the constituency today the 8th and the 15th of may will be days when we collect an offering to give to our brothers and sisters incent vincent and grenadier what happens is that because of logistics logistical purposes we cannot send kind but we are asking for the offering so that they'll be able to purchase their greatest needs so we're asking you my brothers and sisters to help us to help our brothers in saint vincent and the grenadine i close off by saying continually saying thanks to all our brothers friends of the the co the church here at virtual church we are thankful for your contribution and we know that there are some of my friends who are thinking that your little offering is too small to give to virtual church ministry but i'm saying that but those who are given the the small offering a consideration let me tell you every little orphan can go together to keep the ministry of virtual church alive thank you and those who are making up your minds step out from the corridors of procrastination and give us that little offering i just want to thank you and ask that as we pray for the ministry of the virtual church today that god's holy spirit will touch listeners in a definite way and we all can say at the end of today we have been together with jesus may god bless you as we pray for our rich and fulfilling experience thank you and may god bless you thank you pastor nathan for your warm uh greeting to the constituency of course pastor nathan is the president of the east jamaica conference of seventh-day adventists and it's stewardship convention 2021 we're getting ready for our children's story and that's going to be done by matthew bennett so matthew it is over to you welcome to our children's story our children's tour will be taken from the bible story volume 8 by sir alec author s maxwell it is story nine tale of the talents this was about a merchant who went on a long trip to a far country before leaving this man called three of his servants and handed them a certain amount of money to eat to every man according to his several ability to use it to one he gave five talents to another two talents and to the third one talent then after urging each to do his best he went on his journey the man with five talents started to work at once buying and selling until he had made five his five talents ten the man with two talents did the same only he didn't quite earn so much even so he made a hundred percent gain so his two talents became four but the man with the one talent merely dug a hole in the ground and buried his talent the la he took life easy he told his friends that he didn't see why he should work while the boss was away on vacation by and by the merchant returned and called his servants to account for the money he had entrusted to them first the first came and told how he had traded with the five talents and earned five more well done good and faithful servant said his master you have been faithful over little i will set you over much then the second servant told what he had done master he said you gave me two talents here are two more well done good and faithful servant the master said you have been faithful over a little i will set you over much the last one talent man came to report he was surely a sort of he was surely as short a sort of fellow master he said i knew you were the kind of man to just make profit out of other men's work so i buried your talent here it is take it you can have it back at this the merchant was very upset you wicked and lazy servant he said why didn't you at least put my money in the bank so i could have gained interest on it then he added take this talent from him and give it to the man with ten talents and throw this worthless so worthless servant outside into the dark there's a lesson here for all of us the merchant in this story is jesus he has gone away to a far country and to each of his disciples he has given talents according to his ability some have five some of two some only one but he expects us all to use them the best way they know how for this to worship day use your talents that god has given you to better further his work and the opportunities that he has given you for example he gives you the gift of singing use it to further his work he has given you opportunity to go to school to have clothes on your back to be able to speak to walk use these gifts from god to the best of your ability reminded us we are stewards of god's possessions and we are to use what he has given us to the best of our ability at this time all of us have the ability to give back to god what he has learned to us and what is rightfully his and to tell us more about that we are going to have elder walden wright who is the auditor of the east jamaican east jamaican conference of seventh-day adventists he is going to remind us that to give back to god is or do service thank you very much good afternoon viewers uh here in jamaica and uh overseas and online uh or texts that we want to reflect on for a moment is malachi chapter 3 verses 8 to 11. and i will do a brief comment so that we can better understand what this text is saying in the context and in the theme for stewardship week of god's god first managing god's possession now reading from the king james version verse 8 says it just begins with a question will a man rob god yet he have robbed me but ye say wherein have we robbed thee got answers in tides and offerings verse 9 he occurs with a curse for you have robbed me even this world nation can you imagine that the whole nation verse 10 bring you all the tides into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house and prove me now here with said the lord of hosts if i will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it final verse 11 and i will rebuke the devourer for your sake and you shall not destroy the fruit of your ground neither shall your vine cast or fruits before the time in the field said the lord of hosts now what is all of this saying we want to make sure that every listener this morning has a clear understanding of what this is all about the reference to robbery is key to understand god's perspective on the sin israel is not being accused of being stingy or unloving they are charged with robbing god god clearly sees this tithe as something which belongs to him not israel to withhold it is to steal what israel has no right to possess no commenting on this takes the servant of the lord uh e.g white says verse eight committing universe eight robbery of service those who refuse to place themselves on the lord's side are robbing him of the service he claims what rent are they paying him for living in his house this world they act as though they had created the world as though they are the right to use what they possess as they please god marks their misuse of his talents then in verse 10 and 11 she says a message still binding duty is duty and should be performed for its own sake but the lord has compassion upon us in our fallen condition and accompanies his commands with promises he calls upon his people to prove him declaring that he will reward obedience with riches with the richest blessings and finally in verse 11 she comments uh god can scatter i mean those who are selfishly withholding their means need not be surprised if god has cut if god hands scatters their possession that which should have been devoted to the advance of his work and cause but which has been withheld may in various ways be taken away god will come near to them in judgment many losses will be sustained god can scatter the means he has lent to his stewards if they refuse to use it to his glory some may have none of these losses to remind them of their remissness and duty but their cases may be the more hopeless yes and this is what servant of the lord says manuscript 50 and the southern watchmen february 14 and 21 1905 and uh as i pray i just want to say let us remember that one of the major purposes of the tithe and the offering is is for the work of of witnessing spreading the evangelistic gospel so that good men uh rapists and all these people who are involved in crime and wrong can give up that lifestyle and give their heart to the lord through through the means that that are received and also for local ministry in the local church and remember that you may be seeing on the screen how you can uh donate uh your offering let us pray loving righteous and eternal father we thank you for your love you made this world and you have not asked us to pay rent when we live in rented house we have to pay rent for it we are living in god's world and all you ask of us is to be faithful to return our tithes and offering one tenth of our earnings for a tithe and another portion for our for all offering so that the work of ministry the work of evangelism so that many are involved in crime and wrong can turn to the lord and we can have a better a better island and a better world so we pray dear father that you will help us to give us our best to recognize that the resources that we have are lent by you to us to be used for your glory not self glorification but for self glory so that the work of mission can be fulfilled and jesus can come to take us from the sinful world and deliver them forever in heaven and the earth menu in jesus name we pray amen amen amen and amen thank you pastor for reminding us that everything that god has given to us is for his glory and for his honor and for us to share with other people and that we are not to be selfish with what god has given to us and it's very appropriate because we're going to be having our intercessory prayers shortly which will be done by pastor anthony ball who pastors the district of churches in the new haven area we are going to now ask of you to share your prayer requests in the chat whatever it is that you'd love for us to pray about whatever it is that you want us to ask god on your behalf please do so and i take this opportunity to thank sister hyacinth smart for her continued prayer she asked how is your mom and she said that we're praying for all of you and we are praying for your mom and i want to thank you for not being selfish with your prayers and for praying for us as well so please type your requests in the chat because pastor anthony ball will be praying for those and more shortly from no i don't know if you know the song whisperer prayer in the morning we can sing that song while we wait on you to send your requests and as pastor paul gets ready thank you audio [Music] evening so keep your hearts in tuned god answers prayer god answers for the morning [Music] so keep your hearts into sister carretta myers is asking for prayer for faithfulness charis brown is asking for prayer for internal change and prayer for the family janet buckley pray for my children everywhere sorry pray for children everywhere carrie and gail pray for me i am not well spiritually emotionally mentally or physically anisia harvey says pray for my family dia or dia philip says need prayers for healing in my mind body and soul prayer prayers for the philip thomas callist and the kalist family sophia james says please pray for financial blessings joan ramsey please pray for my children kedian and kardeen and all my unsaved families that will surrender their lives to the lord and to this we see amen carlton james is seeking employment and he would love for us to ask god for a job on his behalf amoya bennett says pray for me and my family danielle tough pray for the pray that god may take full control of my life and family colleen bean says please pray for healing for me god knows all my issues and you are absolutely right god knows all the issues that we're having all these issues that we have typed and even those that we haven't typed and at this time pastor baugh is going to pray for those requests amen and amen i invite you to adopt the attitude of prayer wherever you are now as we approach god's throne of grace and mercy let us come believing that our god is able and that our god will answer our purse according to his will and his riches in glory let us pray our eternal father [Music] and our god we bow ourselves before you at this time as we come father we come to say thanks you have been such a wonderful god you have been such a gracious god you have been such a merciful god we lift up your name and magnify your name and glorify your name for the god you are we just want to praise you o god because you are worthy to be praised we thank you for your many blessings we thank you for your keeping care we thank you for your loving kindness we thank you father for your protection and so father you heard the request you saw when they were typing the request in the chat you know father the hearts of each of your children you know the situations of your people and i know that you're able to deal with everyone personally and so far that put your children before you the enemy of our souls is a liar is a murderer the enemy of our enemy of our souls wants us to believe that you are not hearing our prayers and that you will not answer our prayers but we come this morning to remind the devil that he's a liar we come this afternoon to claim your blessings to claim all your promises we are living we are dwelling in a grand and awful time when terrible things are happening all around us we're living at a time where people everywhere are very fearful because of the health crisis that the world is experiencing but oh lord we have seen your hands we have felt your presence and we know that you are with us and so i pray in a very special way that you will continue to be with your children that you will continue to put your edge of protection around your children that you'll continue to stand up for your people and remind us that our god is not dead but our god is alive and well father there are people who are requesting you to intervene in their financial situation at this time we know god that there is no problem that you can't solve we know that there is no prayer that you can't answer and so i asked in a very special way that you will open the windows of heaven and that you will pour out your blessings upon your children they are those who are praying for you to involve yourself in their lives because they are having all kinds of situation i pray o great god great father great counselor that you may step into the situation that your children or the situations that your children are facing at this time and that you will deliver deliver your people because you are well able to deliver there are those who are sick physically you are the great physician there is no secret what you can do what you have done for others you can do for your children what you have done in the past you can do now and so i pray that you will visit every bedside at this time and that you will touch the healing bodies of your children and that you will heal them father and bring them back to life and figure there are so many requests god we can't mention them all but you know everyone and because you are god we are depending on you to address the needs of your children we are depending on you so step into the lives of your children we are depending on you to prove the devil a liar and a murderer we're depending on you oh god to prove yourself as a god of your people the god who loves the god who cares and the god who continues to answer the prayers of your children but before i close father how could i not pray for those who have not yet accepted you as lord and savior i pray in a very special way that you will touch their hearts even at this time send the holy spirit to tug and their hearts remind them o lord that you came and you died and covers cross so that they can be saved remind them that salvation is available remind them that salvation will not always be available but now the need to come and surrender before it's eternally too late oh father we see that things are wrapping up we see the end of time upon us help us oh god to come into the ark of safety before it's eternally too late and father when you shall have come for your people i pray in a very special way that we all will find a place in your eternal kingdom this is my prayer this is my axing in jesus precious name let the people of god say amen and amen [Music] truly we want to say god be the glory great things he has done and we want to express our gratitude to all those who have participated in this wonderful stewardship week of revival and those who will be participating uh tomorrow and onward we give god thanks because we have the privilege as a people to put god first in everything that we do we must put god first and we must understand that we are managers of god's possession no matter who we are where we come from we must give an accountability on the day of judgment as to what we have done with god's goods and god's possessions so this week we have been covering several areas of stewardship we have looked at the area of time management or we manage our time we have looked also on the on the area of how we manage god's talents each person has been given a talent by god and how we use that talent is very very important we spoke about the old matter on wednesday night on this platform managing our estate planning and that indeed was a very powerful informative presentation we spoke about environmental management and body management managing god's body this body that god has given to us we must take care of it because we must give an account on the day of judgement as to how we used god's uh body temple to the honor and glory of his name and we are focusing on the old matter of god's tithe and offering tomorrow we'll be starting our seminar our seminar will be focused on trust wills and trust starting tomorrow morning at 10 a.m and this will be on zoom and in the evening we will be uh again be on this platform with another powerful presentation from zone three our presenter today is i would say first a man of god one who fear god and give glory to him he is indeed one who has been very dedicated and committed to the work of god and has worked in several areas of ministry over the year as a pastor has bastard several districts and churches and has worked in various capacities uh in the church at the moment he is serving as our stewardship and planned giving services director at the jamaica union he also holds the portfolio of adra and uh we are very happy that he could be our presenter uh with us today and uh he is indeed a very committed family man he has two daughters and uh he will tell you more about his family but just to say that we at east jamaica conference are proud to be having pastor wentworth henry as our speaker for today however before pastor henry comes to us to present god's words to god's people our special song of meditation will be coming from our dear sister monique broomfield god bless you [Music] his heart was broken mine was mended he became sin now i am clean [Music] the cross he carried for my burden the nails that held him set me free here's a lie for mine his [Music] that he would die god's son would die to save our wretch like me [Music] his scars of suffering brought me healing he spills his blood to fill my soul his crown of thorns made me royalty his sorrow gave me joy [Laughter] how could it ever be that he would die god's son would die [Music] to save a wretch like me [Music] one loves divine he gave his life [Music] [Music] i'm loved and accepted [Music] is how could it ever be that he would die god's son would die to save a wretch like me one loves divine he gave his life amen and gentlemen sisters and brothers this afternoon i am in indeed grateful for the privilege to join with the folks here at east jamaica conference and this year stewardship emphasis week god's first managing god's position first let me bring your greetings on behalf of for union president pastor everett brown our secretary pastor dr merrick walker and our treasurer pastor bancroft barwise and of course all the directors and workers at the jamaica union conference office there in mandeville today you have chosen a very important theme very interesting theme god's first managing god's possession i have listened to some of the presentations and wonder if there is anything left for me to say you have covered uh stewardship of time talent body temple and in fact probably all of them but let me just remind you that the storage ministries encapsulate everything the church does believe it or not everything we do is stewardship hence the church is so organized that it sets up various departments to give emphasis to different aspects of stewardship you heard pastor cunningham earlier presented on the storage of evangelism right now we are in the time of corvid and we have a health department and past austin over the years i've been emphasizing the importance of living right eating right so that we can optimize our immunity so we should not wait until a pandemic to develop crash programs to enhance our immunity so the church is well structured well organized to carry out the various ministries so my task this afternoon is to present on the theme god's first managing god's uh possession what am i going to talk about according to psalm 24 verses 1 and 2 from the new living translation it says the earth is a lord's and everything in it the world and all its people belong to him for he laid the earth's foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths so i am going to talk about overseeing god's people there's a very interesting passage in john 21 verses uh 15 through 17. the encounter there it says jesus restores peter jesus restores peter and you know the story of peter and this is very important so when verse 15 so when they had eaten breakfast jesus said to simon peter simon son of jonah do you love me more than these he said to him feed my lambs he said to him again a second time simon son of jonah do you love me he said to him yes lord you know that i love you he said to him teach feed my sheep are tend my sheep verse 17 he said to him the third time simon son of jonah do you love me peter was grieved because he said to him the third time do you love me and he said to him lord you know all things you know that i love you jesus said to him feed my sheep now the first uh section there verse 19 says feed my lambs and earlier there was a presentation about on stewardship starting the young ones teaching them in the way of stewardship now jesus asks peter do you love me now there's a very interesting passage over there in matthew 28 where these uh strives and pharisees wanted to uh trap jesus and so they asked which is the great commandment of the first commandment and jesus told them love the lord thy god all thy heart and all thy mind and my soul and love thy neighbor as thyself so the foundation of overseeing god's people is love love god with all your heart all your mind all your soul and love thy neighbor as thyself and so those of us who are overseers in god's church pastors and leaders must understand that the first requirement for overseeing god's people is to love god supremely and love one another even as we love ourselves and so jesus asks peter do you love me he said yes i love you so you love me tend my lambs feed my lambs feed my sheep tend my sheep this seventh-day adventist church us over 21 million members and close to well several thousand congregations several institutions hospitals schools all different kinds of institutions but ladies and gentlemen sisters and brothers may i post it this afternoon that the foundation of this organization is a local congregation and i'm not talking about the building i'm talking about the people that makes up the church the body of the god that the local church is the foundation upon which this structure is built and so as god's overseers our first duty is to take care of the local congregation is to ensure that the members are well cared for is to ensure that they are fed with the word of truth they are grounded in the advent message you know this covered 19 has exposed a lot a lot and they are shown that many of us are not grown dead in the truth of the adventist church many of us are now being tossed to and fro by all kinds of strange doctrines many of us don't even show that we believe what the church is teaching and so we are from pillar to post ex ex uh propagating all different kinds of conspiracy uh theories and doctrines of devils many of us are not anchored in god's truth and so although the virtual experience is made in due season many of us are using it to do satan's work many of us are forgotten the truth propounded by the church and we are now farting and propagating all kinds of uh false theories and doctrines oh my friends jesus said to peter feed my sheep the church is challenged now to feed the people of god with the plain thus saith the lord we are challenged now than ever to teach and preach the plain truth of the bible we are challenged more than ever to ensure that what we are teaching and preaching is battle base and the members are challenged to accept the pure and gospel of jesus christ my sisters and brothers we need to examine ourselves we need to examine what we believe paul says if any man preach any other gospel let him be accursed so in stewardship there is too much of the word storage of the truth that has been entrusted to us this church that is god's church the upper of god's eye the true church of the living god as leaders we are challenged now than ever to preach and teach a plain thus saith the lord and we are recognizing that many folks are not anchored in the truth we must examine ourselves are we teaching the truth are we taking care of the flock that god has given us you know jesus prayed for his disciples in john chapter 17. and one thing that struck me is jesus prayed and said father i have not lose i have not lost any that you have given me i have kept them all all sisters and brothers we are in a strange time many of our members do not have access to online church some of our members are all there in the countryside and no gadgets to access online church are we ministering unto them are we caring for them are we reaching out to them are there systems in place to ensure that they are being nourished with the word of god we must examine ourselves are we truly taking care of the church of god oh we need the filling of the holy spirit no more than ever we need now the experience of the latter rain so jesus told peter to feed the sheep he told him to turn the flock and then after john comes acts and he said to the apostles to the members of the church tari in jerusalem remain in jerusalem stay in jerusalem until you receive the infilling of the holy spirit and so recognized after that in acts chapter 2 the bible says when the day of pentecost was fully come the they were all in one place in one accord there was unity and love the bickering and the biting and default finding and all the negative things were put aside and there were no enjoying a oneness in jesus christ they were filled they were filled with his spirit empowered by the spirit there were no being controlled by the holy spirit and i'm going to show you what transpired as a result of that the bible says on the day of pentecost three thousands were added to the church and as a result of the movement of the spirit the lord added to the church daily those who were being saved every day at one time five thousand were added to the church and so this takes me now to the book of acts acts chapter 4 and verse uh we start at verse 32. that's what the scripture earlier on acts chapter 4 verse 32 the bible says now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul neither did anyone say that any other things he possessed was his own but they are all things in common and with great power the apostles gave weakness to the resurrection of the lord jesus christ and great grace was upon them all now was there anyone among them who locked for all were possessors all over possessors of lands our houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles feet and they distributed to each as anyone had need what an interesting passage this person is saying to us that these people who were filled with the holy spirit with all compulsion without instruction they at the beginning of the spirit recognize that they must help one another and so those who did not have those who had soul and share and in fact this was not a one-time act it was something that was being repeated to sustain the early church nowadays you have people questioning whether or not we should return tithe a lot of discussion a lot of conversation and arguments but i say to you my sisters and brothers when we are filled with the holy spirit we'll understand the work of the church and we'll understand that we are god's people because the psalmist says the earth is the lord's and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell therein we belong to god and when we are controlled by the holy spirit we'll understand that if i belong to god whatever i think i have also belongs to god it will be no problem to use my resources to advance the cause of god you know folks sold land and hoses and i looked at it and i said today if i if we should sell some of our possessions and those who have the means probably one lot or one house would bring in millions to the cause of god and so we would not check about one tenth our two-tenth our one-fifth for offering we recognize that there is a need and we belong to god and the things that god has entrusted to us to manage belongs to god and we should not and cannot hold on to these things and see the work of god languishing this church is so organized that we take care not only of the local situation but also at the international situation we take care of the local work and we also take care of the international work we give to our own mission and we give to foreign mission so we return our tithes and offerings that will finance the world both locally and internationally this is the way the advent church operates and if i love my god and love my church i will use whatever i possess to minister to the needs of people around both locally and internationally you read through the bible and you recognize that when there's a need in another field for example in jerusalem the christians in jerusalem were having particular needs and paul made appeal to the bridgewater in other congregation outside of jerusalem and the bible said they responded in fact liberians responded so wonderfully that they were even told okay hold on what about us today christian friends so in the book of acts we see where barnabas was called joseph and his name means encouragement the bible says he has possession and he sold the possession and bring in the proceeds everything every red cent we would say and give it to the apostles and all the apostles were really holy men of god these men were committed to the cause these men were filled with the holy ghost and so they were entrusted to share these proceeds that the folks were given to minister to the needy and jose was called a son of encouragement under her very interesting name because when we talk about stewardship we also recognize that storage is not just about money it's not just about land and houses stewardship also involves knowledge storage of knowledge oh the unjust church put on a program a couple of weeks ago financial employment have had on the big wigs in finances and business to share with our membership how they can gain wealth not gaining wealth to be like the joneses and to compete and to probably even enter the first book a record of who is the most wealthiest in the world no that's not a motive we seek world and we seem to gain wealth so that we can use that world to advance the cause of god and so even this stewardship week pastor still has made sure he put some topics there on financial empowerment and so there are many graduate early church who were well off they had possessions and they sold those possessions and used them to advance the cause of god but back to barnabas a sort of encouragement many of us don't have hoses and lands to sell but we are possessors of knowledge information that we can share with the membership to make them better oh two weeks last week a young lady from ncu called me and said pastor henry i will be graduating and guess what i don't owe any money no student loan she did not take student loan oh when i met her in fact the first time i met her i preached at her church and her mother came and told me of the struggles they were having but i am not rich but one thing i know i am good at encouraging people to step out step out in faith and so i encourage her i say step out in faith sister and she continue earth study at best in at notre dame caribbean university and one day i introduced her to pastor osin the publishing director because i told her about the canvassing ministry and i told her about overseas uh trips where she can go and work where she got to join the club and she did not get through to go overseas and she was discouraged but i encourage her i said canvas locally one year she can't was in kingston she canvassed in montego bay but then she got the opportunity to go to canada she went and she did well and she called me with elation said pastor henry i will be graduating this summer praise the lord for encouraging people who believe they could not make it yes you might know of a way out share that knowledge with somebody encourage somebody so they can make it i remember when i was back there in clarendon when the gospel was presented and i accepted christ i learned that a young man in that district not my church but a church sister church in the district he accepted the message and his parents took away his clothes took his very bible his bible took away everything and ran him out but you accept adventism run him out the store the pastor took him to the then west indies college no nother in caribbean university young man in fact he was not so young a big man big man and he went back to high school put on cocky uniform went back to high school work at the press and caught a long story short he graduated with bio science degree and print print on the knowledge of printing got married and now live in canada oh what a powerful force encouragement is a young man that was out there learning auto mechanic everything was disrupted and he thought this was the end of his world but the pastor knew that he could go to rest in his college and work his way through oh christian friends i was encouraged and i went there myself and i worked and in fact i worked and one year i dropped out and i stayed all for one solid calendar year at the end of the year i did not see a red cent to go back to school but there was some stewards someplace who believed that what they had belonged to god and as a result of their stewardship ministry i was able to return to college and praise god i graduated there are many people in our church who needs an opportunity and so this example in the book of acts of people helping one another we need that in the church today sad to say there's acts chapter 4 and there's also acts chapter 5 because the bible says no in in uh but a certain man named ananias and sapphira his wife's soul possessions and he kept back part of the proceeds his wife also being aware of it and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet it was theirs they nobody compelled them to sell it they didn't have to sell it and having sold it they could have keep everything for themselves but you know some of us want to have one foot in the church and one foot in the world we want the best of both worlds and so they were not fully committed to the cast and as a result they lied to peter having lied to the man of god they were lying to god and you know what happened to them christian friends god calls upon us to be faithful faithful in the word of the living god faithful to this cause faithful to the mission god calls us to be honest in recognizing who we are and whose we are god calls us to recognize that what we have is not ours we are simply managers that's who we are we are god's stewards let us be faithful as it stewards so god has made us overseers of the flock and so acts 16 turn your bibles to acts 16 thanks verse uh acts 16 or probably the wrong one there but anyway what it says is that we are to take care of the flock that god has made us overseer of yes christian friends it's about the people it's about teaching the people it's about empowering the people because the church the local congregation each member of the church is important there is no church without members there is no ministry without the member supporting the ministries and so the members must not be neglected they must be cured for they must be nourished with the word and you notice what jesus said to peter feed my lamb yes the children but not just the children the young converts they must be properly taught they must be anchored in the word of god there were days in the early church early adventures in my early days in the church when the doctrines were important we go through the doctrines we teach doctrine even in crusades we make sure we teach the truth people are grounded in the truth that learns to achieve they learn about returning on an honest type they learn about making a planned gift in their offering yes time was spent in anchoring the brethren in the truth of god's word what happened nowadays sad to say many of us are so busy doing all different type of things and we are neglecting to anchor the brethren in the word of god so as a result of that everybody would launch a ministry internet ministry many of them call themselves 70 adventists but they are not with the mainline church and many of our members are gravitating toward those ministries defending their false theories and propagating what they are proponing many of our members spend time farting and sending around those uh videos and false teachings and conspiracy theories oh christian friends it's a call to the church of the living god to get back to the plains thus saith the lord where god's yours i plead with my sisters and brothers let us get back to the place god said the lord if we are seventh-day adventists let us stand up like a daniel and teach the planes thus saith the lord let us get back my friends let us not be tossed by every wind of doctrine let us not be those proponed like those propounding the false theories let us not allow satan to get into our hearts many of those they attack our leaders and they know what is right they alone have the truth and they alone are embracing they lost their message and spend time tearing down our leaders oh my friends we are in a time a serious time and if oh you take a vaccine then you are taking the mark of the beast we have these crazy teachings i don't know where they get them from but everything that is contrary that's what we are propounding it's time for god's children to understand who we are and whose we are let's get back to the praying thought said the lord pastors and leaders let's get back to feeding the sheep with the plain thus saith the lord let's anchor the church because this cult would have exposed a lot of things that many of our members are not grounded many of us are not grown that many of us are not sure what to believe are what we believe many of us are questioned whether or not what we have been teaching is correct whether or not the the the mark of the beast that we we propound is in fact so and so we get no we no have liquid chip mark of the beast we have no vaccine to inject people with mark of the beast we have all kind of crazy theories so my brothers and sisters let me conclude with what jesus says love the lord thy god with all thy heart all thy soul all thy mine love thy neighbor as thyself love the brethren care for the brethren teach the sisters and brothers the plains of the lord and as members of god's church we have a duty to study the truth study the word make sure we establish ourselves in the faith the faith not a country or faith the faith of the advent church the plain thus saith the lord and let us go out now like uh barnabas and after the church got big and the apostles had so many know to attend to they couldn't handle the feeding of the people with the the the physical food they had no to concentrate and preach in the gospel and they chose men holy men men filled with a spirit to administer this aspect of the work there is a work for us to do but we need the infilling of the holy spirit paul says let this mind be in you that was in christ jesus be filled with the holy spirit allow the spirit to control you and he will guide us into our truth he will help us to do the building of jesus christ and my sisters and brothers finally will hear [Music] well done good and faithful servants having been a faithful steward having spent time feeding the sheep feeding the lamb tending the sheep establishing the church of the living god yes at the end we'll hear well done good and faithful servant when we give ourselves completely to the lord then our possessions will belong to god will not hold back anything we will not hold back anything but we'll give everything to the cause of god sisters and brothers is my prior this afternoon that we'll be faithful in doing this work we'll be faithful pastors strengthening the local congregations we'll understand that there's no institution without the local church the local church is the members not the building before covid we emphasize a lot on church building but now we recognize that we must pay more attention to the members of the church because right now well we cannot go so much the physical building where the members are still available the members are still rallying and supporting the church on behalf of our union president and treasurer secretary i would like to thank all the faithful members throughout the length and brit of jamaica in spite of the challenges in tithe of the difficulties in spite many of you have lost incomes you are still rallying to the cause you are still supporting the church and because of your faithfulness the church is moving on because of your commitment the church is moving on i said you therefore my sisters and brothers encourage those who are looking over the fence encourage those who are tempted to live and follow the the the cunning fables being presented by these offshoots and people who say they're adventists but they are not i said you encourage them to stay on board i implore you to encourage them or like barnabas who are the spirit of encouragement and courage them to keep their eyes fixed on jesus encourage them comes what may they will not depart from the faith as paul says what can separate us from the love of god come on persecution will not separate us famine will not separate us hunger will not separate us loss of job will not separate us because jesus made a promise and he says i will be with you always even to the end of the age i will never leave you i will never thank you my god will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory and so my sisters and brothers let me congratulate pastor steal for this wonderful program a program to uplift the members to empower the members to direct you to where you can maximize your gain to support god's work encouraging you to continue to be faithful because as god's stewards that what he has asked us to do be faithful and he will give us a reward in due time may god bless you let me say a word of prayer before we have our ministering sisters and brothers our great god in heaven we thank you for the church the people of god we thank your god for their faithfulness in supporting the mission it's not easy in these times oh god many are challenged many are stressed many are perplexed many are confused but yourselves when the spirit of truth has come you lead us and guide us in the way of peace we pray oh god that no you will fill us with your holy spirit and pause oh god imbue us with paul from an eye so that we can keep our eyes fixed on jesus and we'll continue to be faithful continue to lift up jesus continue to support the church support it locally with our tithes and offerings and so that as some of that tides and offering will also go to advance your cars and foreign lands bless the leadership of east jamaica conference bless pastor steed and his family bless his minister here in his conference bless the pastors were out there in the battlefront teaching the members encouraging the members written up them dare in prayers bless them o god bless the secretaries and the assistants that work along with them bless oh god all the staff and bless this platform that is ireland the truth built in the globe bless the world here in jamaica and bless the work in firing lands and when you come save us all your kingdom we pray for christ's sake amen and amen 348 the church has one foundation the church has one foundation is jesus christ our lord she is a new creation by water and the word from him he came and sought us to be his holy bright with his own bloody body elects from [Music] salvation one lord one faith one birth one holy name she blesses by take one holy food and to one hope [Music] we see her [Music] yes sings their watch our and soon the nights [Music] she was of peace on glorious [Music] praise the lord that was good it was it was a beautiful reminder that was good of the church being uh set on the foundation of jesus christ our lord what's a word adriana were you blessed yes i was i was from morning until now i have been blessed god has been good to us we have received a word fit for us in this season we want to thank pastor henry from the jamaica union conference for being used by the holy spirit this afternoon as he shared with us these powerful reminders we went back to the early church didn't we we did and we saw the love and care that each member had for the other um as good stewards and as god's stewards let us empower those around us let us encourage them let us endeavor to be filled by the holy spirit as we complete what god has tossed us right here on earth we want to remind you that our stewardship celebration continues into tomorrow and we are going to be having a very special form a very special presentation i want to just share with you a little bit on it um we're going to be celebrating under the theme tomorrow planning for the future through steward of accumulations yes so that's tomorrow april 25 and of course it is going to be on zoom we will get the word out through our communication uh leaders and we're going to be having very two very special presentations one of them strategies to assist members in making a will pastor oliphant will be back on platform to continue um the discourse on that and then we're going to be having the second presentation how to receive legal counsels and advice on personal matters through ejc legal resources mr wendell wilkins you can't afford to miss the celebration tomorrow so we want you to of course come on board we begin at 10 a.m sharp in the a.m tomorrow a.m right so thank you so very much for joining us here on ejc virtual church we're not going to be breaking our stream we are going to be transitioning to a very very special presentation by our treasurer the treasurer of the jamaica union conference pastor bancroft barwise he is standing by to take us through a very special stewardship presentation but before that adriana we want to share with our listeners that there was an addition to our family not not our family but the ejc virtual church family by way of a birth can you guess which family increased this week listen i don't want to tell them i think you should tell them i think i should okay so we want to welcome into this world little amberly henry yes yes who emberly amberley henry who was born this week i believe it was april 21 two days ago or three days ago so we wanted to say a very very happy sabbath to daddy theodore henry and to mommy alvin cena henry as they celebrate uh their bundle of joy we are so happy for you guys and of course theo sleepless nights welcome to the club yes i'm just happy that the baby was born in april and it was a safe birthday you know the baby was born in april so you know thank you gianna we want to know send you over to a very special stewardship presentation by uh or their treasurer pastor bancroft barwise be blessed and then pastor oh and elder joe will take you out into the afternoon happy sabbath saints let me first of all say thanks to pastor steele for inviting me to speak on this very important topic god's plan for financing his church you know there is absolutely no doubt that it was god who initiated what we now know as church god desired to have a relationship with his people and so he told moses let them build me a sanctuary that i may dwell among them he gave moses the design of the sanctuary as a matter of fact he showed him the anti-type of the sanctuary in heaven he not only gave him a graphical picture of what the sanctuary should look like but he gave him the specific measurements and even the materials that should be used to build the sanctuary you can read this account in exodus 25 verses 6 or 8 through 40. not only was the sanctuary's design given by god but he told him what the furniture should be like as well as the vessels that should be used in the sanctuary but guess what god never skimped on the type of furnishings he wanted for his sanctuary he wanted the very best here are some of the things god wanted for his sanctuary he wanted workmen of the highest skills most talented artisans to carve the furnishings the vessels and the cherubim that should uh be over the mercy seat he wanted precious stones for the ephod of the priest and he wanted tons of gold to overlay all the furniture and besides that he needed silver and brass but guess what god never gave moses any money to build a sanctuary he never wrote him a check not even an iou note here's what god said exodus 25 verses 1 and 2 and the lord spake unto moses saying speak unto the children of israel that they bring me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly and please note the word willingly that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering and they came everyone whose heart stirred him up and everyone whom his spirit made willing and they brought the lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation and for all his service and for all the holy garments so exodus 35 22 says and they came both men and women as many as were willinghearted and brought bracelets and earrings and rings and tablets all jewels of gold and every man that offered offered an offering of gold unto the lord this was how god designed that his church his sanctuary the worship place should be built the people responded with such zeal that moses had to ask them to stop exodus 36 5 says and they spake unto moses saying the people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the lord commanded to make and so moses had to issue a cease and desist order because the people gave so willingly you know the same principle was utilized by king david and his son solomon when the first temple was to be built king david he prepared with all his might first chronicles uh chapter 29 give an account in verse two it says from the nation's coffers he prepared gold silver and precious stones in verse 3 to 4 from his own account he gave 3 000 talents of gold and 7 000 talents of refined silver it was not done verses 6 through 8 the people willingly gave gold silver brass and precious stones here again it is from an offering that the temple was built people gave willingly during this time king david recognized some very important facts firstly he recognized that all that is in heaven and in the earth belongs to god two king david also recognized that both riches and honor comes from god three he asked a question who was he and his people to have given so willingly of this sort and the answer came for all things come of thee o lord and of thine own have we given thee we are just giving back to god that which he has blessed us with so you know that in times past great cathedrals were built churches occupied an important place in every society it is usually it was usually the most expensive piece of real estate in any community in any town in any city but times and things have changed if you were to travel through europe the amount of dilapidated churches you would find unoccupied some have been turned into museums because people have lost the zeal to worship the creator as he ordered that they should do now that was for the building of the churches how are the churches to be sustained we turn to malachi 3 and verse 8. the question is asked will a man rob god yet you have robbed me what do you say wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings malachi 3 10 continues bring ye all the tides into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the lord of hosts if i will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it the question is now asked how will we be able to do this the answer comes to us in first corinthians chapter four let a man saw account of us as of the ministers of christ and stewards of the mysteries of god moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful you see my friends stewardship is rooted in theology acknowledges god as creator and owner of all things and we are only caretakers we own nothing we took nothing into this world and we can take nothing out everything belongs to god and this is what stewardship does it is described as a fruit of faith now stewardship tells us that we should bring to the lord's storehouse the tides and the offerings we have a an offering our churches firstly the member delivers his tithe to the church the church sends the tithe in its entirety to the conference the president arrangement is that 21.5 percent of the tithe is sent from the conference to the union and the union sends 12 percent of what it gets to the division in our case the inter-american division and the division sends on to the general conference world headquarters two percent of the tithe this is the present tithe sharing agreement or arrangement that exists in our church offerings on the other hand and first of all i'll just let you know how the tithe dollar is used and this is typical uh in a conference not more than 50 percent in most cases 49 percent is used for salaries ministers and workers at the conference not more than 50 percent and then we have the different departments that have to be financed education gets nine percent publishing one percent the university within our union and every union in our world church has a university isn't that great northern caribbean university is our university we share it with the atlantic caribbean union they get six percent 31 percent is used or 11.5 percent sorry 11.5 percent sent to the division the union gets 10 the admin departments uses 10.5 percent and sustentation that is retirement plan for workers conference workers get four percent so that is how the tithe is used the offerings on the other hand sixty percent remains in the churches twenty percent goes to the conference for conference wide development and you should know what that entails or used for enhancing some of our church buildings and our schools our campgrounds etc 20 percent is sent to the general conference for worldwide use you see we do not have just a local church we belong to an international church that supports the preaching of the gospel throughout the world but alas some christians have substituted fundraising for stewardship and stewardship in the form of systematic benevolence systematic benevolence has three components first it must be first place and given willingly secondly it must be regular and third proportional this is what we refer to as systematic benevolence we don't just haphazardly return offerings we should think about it plan our offerings take an offering envelope home and sit down and plan what you're going to give to the lord the offerings is not stipulated how much you give the tithe you know is ten percent but as the lord blesses you you give an offering and considering that the lord needs these funds to carry on the gospel work throughout the world you should give generously so systematic benevolence is really giving what is right and not what is left who we should plan or giving there are some folks when they arrive at church and the offering receptacle comes around they will fish around in their pockets or in their purses and just give what they find no you should plan give what is right and not what is left it is said that had our members practice systematic benevolence there would have been no need for fundraising in our churches the church's budget is compiled from the giving of members but when it comes to fundraising it is compiled from the giving of outsiders and the reluctant giving of members that is how fundraising goes you see my friends some things were not designed by god but he allows it case in point is matthew 19 verses 7 through 9 that speaks about divorce it was never in god's plan for divorce but the scripture says moses said because of the hardness of our hearts he allowed it divorce is a load under certain circumstances similarly fundraising is a load but it was never designed by god for fundraising to finance his church you see fundraising uh gives the idea fundraising gives the idea that we are owners and we are giving god some of what is ours but it has already been established that everything comes from god he is the owner of all things let's look at free will offering compared to fundraising free will offering an increase of faith and spirituality will increase giving fundraising is giving what one thinks one can afford without hurting free will offering stewardship requires a vision for the congregation fundraising focuses on meeting immediate needs stewardship is a continuous educational effort but fundraising is seasonal and projects directed as funds are needed stewardship is a deeply spiritual activity fundraising is a secular enterprise stewardship focuses on grace fundraising focuses on legal principles fundraising my friends focuses on the economic needs of the church but stewardship focuses on the economic and the spiritual needs of the church and the world in short fundraising is working from man's scarcity but stewardship is working from god's abundance you know sister ellen g white supported a type of fundraising the question is how should this be done here's what she had to say in the first testimony page 638 section three paragraph three she said in what i have been shown and when she uses that phrase you know she was given a vision on the matter it is important in what i have been shown and what i have said i received no other idea and designed to give no other than the raising of funds for this branch of the work and she goes on to say it was to be a matter of liberality in other words when you give funds to the church it should be freely given there are some people who have developed a give to get mentality unless they are given a supper or given some recognition they will not give this is not liberal giving if funds are to be raised for the church for the support of the church members should give freely liberally now there are some preachers who have resorted to what is known as a prosperity doctrine encouraging our members to plant a seed my friends this is not designed by god this is not trusting god what you're trying to do is bribing god if you if i give you this then you are expected to give me double or triple or tenfold what i gave you you cannot bribe god this way we do not subscribe to the prosperity doctrine in our church tithe versus offerings would you know that within the jamaica union for every one dollar of tithe given only 4.8 cents is given for offering which means that offerings is only point four eight percent of one's income point four eight of one percent less than half a percent of one's income you know under the jewish system offerings could equal or surpass the tithe in amount there are some jews who would give what is known as a second tenth as offering and besides that throughout the year they had so many feasts and celebration that they brought offerings to the lord they did not skimp on giving offerings most times it is more than the tithe i would like to suggest to you that unless members are contributing on average 50 of the tithe as offerings the church is being grossly underfinanced and i know i have seen it where churches are suffering because they are not collecting enough offering members have not been taught to be generous to the lord they think it is they are being frugal they are economizing by skimping on the lord no my friends he has given us much more than we deserve he gave us all of heaven he gave his very life for us so when we are called upon to return an offering for the furtherance of the gospel message throughout the world let us not be parocal in our giving let us not be stingy but let us give generously as was in the times of israel of old they gave willingly it is the willingness that god counts it is not the amount it is how willingly you give to the lord so the question is asked how is a church to be financed is it stewardship or fundraising what do you say it is up to you my advice to you is to give generously willingly so that this message can be spread around the world and it is only then when it would have reached every nation kindred tongue and people that christ will come the second time to take us home do you want to go home or you prefer to be on planet earth with all its ills its drudgery its pain its suffering let us give willingly to support god's church so that the message can be fulfilled in all the earth and then the end welcome god bless you i thank you thank you very much pastor bancroft barwise treasurer of the jamaica union conference of seventh day adventist sharing with us in this our very special stewardship focus it's our stewardship convention 2021 and yes we're celebrating under the theme god first managing god's resources now uh if it is that you are just tuning in for morning we would have had a wonderful session this morning into afternoon we had a wonderful word from the lord uh by pastor winford henry stewardship director of the jamaica union conference and of course we had several testimonies of individuals sharing how they put christ first and how of course they were able to reap the many rewards so we're talking about being good steroids of time talents resources you know and i am just reminded of many instances in my life when i put god first and of course i have seen the blessings from him there are two things i want to bring to your attention before we transition to uh two special items of music and then into our bible class uh i did mention to you that we have a very special stewardship focus tomorrow it begins at 10 a.m and it will be via zoom so all the stewardship directors of the easter maker conference you would have been uh given the link for this special program and also the communication leaders will receive the same today we also mentioned earlier that elder elvis york mckay who passed away he was a call porter here in the east jamaica conference of some of the adventists he passed away just about uh three four weeks ago he's also one of uh the members of the burnside valley seventh-day adventist church which is the district in which my husband and i we serve so elder mckay's loss really hits us hard and has hit the the publishing ministries family in a very very special way he will be will be having a special uh thanksgiving service to commemorate his life on monday so brandon if you can help me yes it's on the screen the memorial service takes place on monday and yes you're seeing the information correct it will be streamed from the burnside valley seventh day adventist church at 7 30 pm and this will be live both on zoom and youtube you have the zoom id cred credentials there of course the password so we want you for those who are using mobile devices we're going to put it back up on the screen so that you can take a screenshot of it if you please and his burial will take place on tuesday april 27 at 10 30 a.m and it is also our desire to have that live on youtube so if you can quickly just take down the information for his thanksgiving service and of course the official officiating ministers there pastor darren murphy pastor ralston terrell and elder james duncan so thanks for noting that and finally we celebrate with the foster triplets ministries as they host their we will rise virtual gospel concert and this is um this is an initiative that they have uh begun just about three years ago i believe to help individuals who are in need the very first project that they undertook uh was during the time i believe it was a hurricane right that had affected haiti they decided listen we here in jamaica we don't have much but we can use what we have or talents or resources to help persons who are in need and so they undertook a project where they raised just about um i think it was over a million dollars uh it was bahamas not haiti right and of course they were able to help individuals in a sistering caribbean territory as they promoted the we will rise initiative this time around it is we will rise to and it's a virtual gospel uh concert featuring you see there are the hoppers uh we also will be having the chaitans on board joan myers on board how what massam you know how it will and of course the wish am i seeing that right the wish nuts yes the wish nuts so you can't afford to miss it there is a minimal contribution and you're seeing it on screen this event will take place on saturday evening may 1 7 30 jamaica time and of course the information is on screen we will continue to share this with you as we continue to support the ministry of the foster triplets who are using their gifts of yes their talents to of course advance the work of the lord so as we prepare our hearts and our minds to dig into god's word we're going to be transitioning to two very special items of music we hope that your launch is going well yes yes yes i have mine ready and almost you know ready to eat so we're gonna shift over to those two musical items be blessed and pastor o and elder joe will be with you shortly and as we prepare to have those items up i just saw elder joe walking in and i am so delighted that he is grabbing his microphone to prepare to come on stage as he gets ready for bible class and so we know that you've been enjoying the bible class sessions week after week i must i must confess publicly that um i am enjoying the the series uh last week was scintillating by the way joe was off for about three weeks he came back last week right joe four weeks paternity leave mercy a father of one girl and one boy you know when i grow up i want to be like him well i won't be a father but you understand what i mean right and so we we want to to to continue to celebrate the work that the bible class team has been doing week after week we're so delighted uh for the time and the energy that they they put into sharing the word of god with each and every one of us and i've been learning um the state of the dead that week there that was absolutely fantastic as well and so um i don't know what the focus is going to be today ella joe what is it today dopey story of mercy it sounds like more about the dead well grab your bibles let's see what the word of god has to say about dopey stories uh yeah right here on the ejc virtual church we have our items of music ready we want you to be blessed [Music] oh never was the world in such a need of peace and never had contentments been so hard to find so many men reaching out their hands of brothers and sisters in so many lands if ever kindness was needed then it's crying out to us the time is nice and i want the peace i want the love for all the world people with joy the children of hope for all the world father of light i'll be the light of you shine through cause you are the peace and you are the hope for all the world and what's it gonna take before we show some charity compassion and mercy in a way it's meant to be [Music] who will take the time for the ones who truly need a friend for a nation that's out on the street one man is greater than his brother [Music] yet in jesus eyes we're all the same and i want the peace i want the love for all the world people with joy the children of hope for all the world father of light i'll be a light if you shine through cause you are the peace and you are the hope for all the world [Music] and let the pipes of peace ring out and i pray the grace of god people will join the children of hope for us our [Music] and you are the hope for all the world you are the peace and you are the joy and you are the love and you hold the hope for the world [Music] moses let god's children forty years he let them through the cold and through the night [Music] though they said let's turn back moses said keep going cane and land is just inside [Laughter] there will be no sorrow there in that tomorrow we will be there by and by milk and honey flowing there is where i'm going cane and land is just in the side though we walk through valleys and though we climb the mountains we must not give up the fight oh no no see we must be like moses and we've got to keep on going cause is we will be there by and by [Music] milk and honey flowing there is where i'm going cause cane and land is just inside but don't you know that there will be no sorrow up there in that tomorrow we [Music] will be there bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] is just inside [Music] [Music] my check want to okay there we go canineland is just in sight thank you so much for that lovely song to bring us and to usher us into our bible class i am joelle jackson and we're glad delighted that you could be here with us again to study god's word welcome to all of our viewers watching us on youtube on all our other social media platforms and on www.ejcsda.com the conference's website so all of us list all of those listening to us while you're having lunch while you are basking in the launch that you may have had welcome to you as well if you've been with us and if you have stayed with us throughout the month of april this is the last sabbath yes this is the last sabbath of april throughout the month of april we have been enjoying a study on the state of the dead we've been looking at how man was made the components that went into compiling man together we've looked at the dead man what happens when someone dies and last week we looked at secret rapture and the second coming so there's the teaching throughout christendom that you know when there is coming a time in the near future when god's righteous people will all be soups taken up to heaven without any notice without any warning it will be done secretly but we have gone through the scriptures and we've detailed we've looked at it to see that that is not quite the case although there are passages in matthew 24 and in luke 21 luke 17 sorry that seem to suggest that there's going to be this this secret rapturing of god's people putting it within context we see that christ was speaking about something else he was speaking about the righteous being taken up at a particular time and the wicked being left to perish because of their sins and within that context we looked at the the two resurrections that are to occur towards the end of time the resurrection of the just as it is called by paul the resurrection of life as it is called by jesus and the first resurrection as it is called by john the beloved and we saw that there is going to be a thousand-year period of time that transpires between that first resurrection and what's called the second resurrection by john or the resurrection of the unjust by paul and the resurrection of damnation by jesus christ so distinctly the scriptures speak about these differences and we we had a good time going through it and we believe that the word was really brought forward that people understood it's based on the feedback we received from the chat and we're looking forward to our topic this week in which we're going to be looking at doppy stories dopey stories now you'll notice that i've been using a pronoun throughout this all and that's the pronoun of we so for those of us who are joining for the first time you may have gotten the link from a friend you may have just been scrolling through youtube and this popped up in your feed and you're joining with us uh we have been studying since march last year the onset of the pandemic and god has been good to us in in carrying us through a numerous number of studies a number of series and as we wind down this series we're looking forward to starting a new one next week oh i got that i got a bit distracted there so we the pronoun we i say we because i have right here beside me a good friend of mine a good pastor of mine a good troublemaker of mine is none other than the host i am the co-host but i guess today i'm the host and he's the co-host none other than what's your name sir i have a name i do have a name you're in my colors good i like i like the tie that's a new tie no it's not you're not getting attention have you worn that tie here before yeah i think i have oh wow not that combination [Music] that was a long time ago but that's a lovely tag it was a long time ago yeah you're looking good thank you thank you how was trash today it was great to know i i worship at old glades you were at hogwarts yeah i was listen to elder yearwood uh-huh yeah ella yearwood is at oaklands and at hagley park we have pastor de freitas yeah yeah i hear he's been going well i haven't listened to him as yet but yeah we had baptism today i saw pictures yes yes yes so it's a good day and you're elated aren't you oh yes i'm dancing and then we have a new converts thing today mentorship and teaching education that went well then we had dinner with them yeah so yeah i've been on the ball yet no i don't normally eat before you need bible classes oh okay i don't eat before bible class i eat after bible class all right yeah yeah but i'm good thank you so very much for joining us here on ejc virtual church uh this is where the action is connecting you to christ and this is bible class where we aim to make it plain so ella joe did in fact uh indicate that we have been looking on one of the most fundamental teachings of the bible and we're actually going to be wrapping that up this week we'll have some individuals on zoom who'll be joining us a little bit later but ella joe and i are going to delve into uh a number of the spiritual truths relating to what dopi yes as is colloquially spiritism and how it actually is manifested where does it come from the individuals who have indicated yes this is my pastor this death thing my grandma hong kong tell me exactly where the money bury she tell me exactly how demands they will never get married to and it's true that individuals have had encounters i will put it that way encounters with individuals who have uh been deceased and so today we're going to be looking at a very important biblical narrative a biblical story that ends in a very sad way i shouldn't have ended the way that it did but it did and it's there as a lesson book for us and so we're gonna pray and then we're going to start our bible class for this hour yeah all right let's just pray father in heaven we are so thankful for these holy hours that you've given us where we can step aside from our routine work our regular work and school all that we go through from sunday to friday and here on the seventh day we can come aside and rest and we can focus on the things the eternal things that matter in life father as pastor oliphant and myself look to take this bread that you have given to us and to distribute it to your people please work through us and just as jesus fed the five thousand there on that mountain side multiply this word lord so that many will be fed in jesus name we pray amen amen so ella joe we're gonna go doing a little um history here from the book let me put this around here this is from the book of samuel yeah first samuel chapter two no no no no no no no no no we're not starting today we're not wondering we're not starting at 28. let me hear where you're going we're gonna start because they're individuals who are watching us who are not as acquainted with the biblical story as we are so we're going to be walking you through the biblical narrative so in first samuel there is uh a lot that is happening first samwell actually opens with uh the experience of hannah with petrina all right and elkanah and it it it's very important because samwell becomes the the the face is not just the name of the book it not just has the name of the book but he becomes the face within the book and you see throughout the chapters coming on that his role is very prominent he is very spiritual uh even after he is taken off the scene as the leader of israel we do see that his wisdom his guidance his guidance his leadership is leaned upon by the children of israel and we come to the place in somewhere where in chapter one where we see samwell's birth and the circumstances around samwell's birth which is very important but we don't have time to go through all of that today because we're going to dup his story today but samwell is very very critical to the book of samwell um critical to its understanding critical to its theological viewpoint um some will let me go there so uh after a while the children of israel decide that they want to have a king like unto other nations and samwell comes and samwell says all right god um this is what the people want well i don't think he really started the conversation that way with god it's god who actually right helped him to accept that that was the way it ought to go or that's the way they wanted it and so samwell the leadership changes from him as leader of israel to know the people getting the leader they want and it's a very interesting encounter let's turn to it in first samuel chapter nine in first samuel chapter 9 where he well let's look at chapter 10 chapter 10 is where he's actually anointed and in chapter 10 we see the anointing of saul as the leader of israel yeah and it's very interesting how when he is anointed how we see him being humble kind very meek and he even says who am i that the lord indeed would choose me to actually become the leader of israel because on the day of the actual anointing they couldn't find him he was hiding he was hiding yeah he didn't want that responsibility yeah yeah any one of us in leadership know that we hide from those things because it comes with burdens so yeah so he hides and um but they indeed find him that's chapter 10 i'm trying to go through the narrative for you uh well you have chapter 9 where israel desires the king and in verse in chapter 9 and verse 21 listen to what he says and saul answered and said i'm not i a benjaminite of the smallest of the tribes of israel and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of benjamin wherefore then speak as thou so to me you know it was surprising for him that god would have wanted him to become the leader of israel and remember you know samuel is now the leader and he's about to change hands and so those are two critical persons in the story and you're gonna pick up why i'm telling you the story this way a little later so uh in samwell we see samwell as leader transitioning to saul as um as king because they want to have a king and that's how he's chosen as king and from there very early in saul's leadership the scriptures let us know that he went about killing and seeking out the witches and and all those uh falls what they call them what are they um leaders false spiritual leaders influencers influencers who were actually in israel at the day he deliberately did that because he felt called by god to actually hold up the prophetic office and to also ensure that god himself is the one who is worshipped as the origin of wisdom of knowledge as the fountain of knowledge and you see in his ministry that he actually does go about killing some of these witches and so forth in israel however something great happens in chapter 15. in chapter 15 saul is rejected as leader all right so a few chapters and he moves from acceptance to rejection and in chapter 15 the scriptures tell us that the lord said that verse 10 then came the word of the lord unto samwell saying it repented me that i have set up saul to be king for he is turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments and he grieved samwell and he cried unto the lord all night all night and when somewhere rose early to meet saul in the morning it was stole somewhere saying saul came to carmel and behold he set up a place and it's gone about and passed on here we're now seeing that the very soul who was accepted earlier is rejected and it starts up a spiral of spiritual declension in his life that is manifested in him moving towards spiritism and it's one of the the greatest about turns into anyone's life it is it's quite a differentiation um it's like day and night see how he started out and seeing where he ended up right and and and there it was that he he started and so from that chapter onwards you see now manifesting his hatred trying to kill david um and and hunting him down etc etc etc even leaning towards killing his own son yeah even leaning towards killing his own son in fact yes so that's the biblical narrative and i'm going to skip over a number of chapters but then come to me now come with us now to first samuel chapter 25 first samuel chapter 25 and uh let us read verse 1 elijah verse 1 because just got a little volume on my mic so verse one yes first samuel 25 verse one and samuel died and all the israelites were gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at ramah and david arose and went down to the wilderness of payron and there was a man continue reading yes go ahead and there was a man in my own whose positions were in carmel and the man was very great and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats and he was sharing his sheep in carmel yes now the name of the man was nabal and the name of his wife abigail and she was a woman of good understanding on of beautiful countenance but the man was curlish we can't stop there because that was more into the story but yeah the first three words of first samuel chapter 25 are very important and samwell died so samwell is dead gone gone oh we looked at death and we looked on death for the last three weeks so he's dead he's gone and all israel were gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at ramah so he is not just dead but he's dead and buried all israel have seen that all israel knows that samwell has died so let's go now to where you want all right i see where you're going yes you normally do we're of kindred spirits so we're going to chapter 28 now yes chapter 28 and we see that something very peculiar happens in light of all that we've studied over the last three weeks this this should really raise some alarms in some of our minds as we read it so this is first samuel 28 and we can alternate pastor from verse 3. aguero let you read a little bit because i'm checking on those ones okay all right so i will read from three through to 20. first samuel 28 3 through to 20. now samuel was dead it's repeated again and all israel had lamented him and buried him in rama even in his own city and saul had put away those that had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land and the philistines gathered themselves together and came and pitched in shunam and saul gathered all israel together and they pitched in gilboa and when saul saw the host of the philistines he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled and when saul inquired of the lord the lord answered him not neither by dreams nor by urim nor by prophets then said saul unto his servants seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit take note of what saul is now doing that i may go to her and inquire of her and his servants said to him behold there is a woman that had a familiar spirit at endor and saul disguised himself and put on other raiment and he went and two men with him and they came to the woman by night and he said i pray thee divine unto me by the familiar spirit and bring me him up whom i shall name unto thee and the woman said unto him behold thou knowest what saul hath done he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land wherefore then layers though a snare for my life to cause me to die and saul swear to her by the lord saying as the lord liveth there shall as the lord liveth there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing then said the woman whom shall i bring up unto thee and he said bring me up samuel and when the woman saw samuel so the woman saw somebody she said with a loud voice she cried with a loud voice and the woman spake to saul saying why hast thou deceived me for thou art saul and the king said unto her be not afraid for what size though and the woman said unto saul i saw gods ascending out of the earth and he said unto her what form is he of and she said an old man cometh up and he is covered with a mantle and saul perceived that it was samuel and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself and samuel said to saul why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up so what the woman saw started to speak to saul and saul answered verse 15 and saul answered i am so distressed for the philistines make war against me and god is departed from me and answereth me no more neither by prophets nor by dreams therefore i have called unto thee that thou make that thou mayest make known unto me what i shall do then said samuel wherefore then dost thou ask of me seeing the lord is departed from thee and has become thy enemy and the lord hath done to him as he spake by me for the lord hath rent the kingdom out of thy in hand he lord has taken taken away the kingdom from you saul and given it to thy neighbor even to david because though obeyed because thou obeyed not the voice of the lord nor executed his fierce wrath upon amalek therefore has the lord done this thing unto thee this day moreover the lord will also deliver israel into the deliver deliver israel with thee into the hand of the philistines and tomorrow shall thou and thy sons be with me the lord also shall deliver the host of israel into the hands of the philistines verse 20 and last then saul fell straight away all along on the earth and was so afraid because of the words of samuel and there was no strength in him for he had eaten no bread all that day or nor all the nights let's backtrack let's go through this a text a little first samuel 25 tells us somewhere is dead and buried yeah dead and buried we have already looked on the fact that when a person has died according to the scripture the person is dead there's no coming back there the the breath returns to god the body returns to the ground all right ecclesiastes nine we looked at that at length yes there's no knowledge there's no love there are no emotions in them they are gone that is it that is dead yeah mm-hmm not coming back not somewhere around the throne of sleep your your body is here and the breath has gone back to god correct yeah so many people looking in the bible reading the bible story say how is it then that some will come back see i tell you don't be real it's true many people dead can't come back to see it's right there in the bible see somewhere there and the evidence appears to be strong because i'm happy that the bible didn't so delete it out of it it didn't sanitize it don't know i just gave it because saul based on the description of that the woman gave to him yes of who she saw he said all right that looks like samuel yes and in in listening to in reading the dialogue that samuel that saul has with this entity this being is relaying information that you know happened throughout we can read it in the previous chapters so these are things that have happened so it's convincing that this is this is samuel i'll see you yeah yeah man so i getting i getting a little excited but we have some persons on zoom we're going to bring them on shortly but i want to dispense with this first ella joe look at this come let's go let's look at the bible again and the bible says in verse five remember he is going to remember he's going to army he's going to war in verse 3 it says no samwell was dead so the scriptures emphasized that and the scriptures emphasized all israel knows that he is dead and that he's buried but notice what else also the scriptures tell us in that very verse in verse three it tell us that saul had put away those that had familiar spirits and wizards out of the land now two contending forces here elijah yeah who are the wizards and um evil spirits where where do where they come from not from god not from god they they they delve in a spiritual in a sort of spiritual i don't use the word spiritualism because we'll get into it some more but they they delve into a divine realm that really it's it's not of god but it's of another divine nature another spiritual nature so there are though there will be the equivalent of god's prophets and god's intercessors and so forth so so they are calling on entities and on beings that aren't man they're not humans but at the same time they're not of god so they must be of something else and let us get this clear brothers and sisters let's make this very very clear the bible does speak and the bible does acknowledge that there are other gods oh lord some people get in for some people worried now lowercase yeah man the other gods exodus chapter 20. i am the lord thy god thou shalt have no other gods before me so while we're looking on this we want to ensure that individuals understand that there are two opposite forces in the world yeah and both have power within them to do quite a lot look on daniel when danielle and the three hebrew worthies were going to be killed remember after nebuchadnezzar had his dream now recognized his dream yeah and he called the magician magician tell me the dream why you think that was is because even in today's age there are evil spirits that exist satan controls the minds of individuals and can be able to do numerous things and back to exodus as you mentioned earlier we we find that when moses went before pharaoh and they had that initial stand up come on man you dropped that word come on ella joe that standoff and moses threw down his rod and he became a serpent and then fear of saying sarah's might do and he threw it down and he's the one became a serpent too no these weren't holograms you know these weren't figments of imagination no these sticks actually became serpents so these are actual events divine events that occurred but it was obvious that it was not of god because god being on moses said would not also be on pharaoh's side and then fight with himself so can we acknowledge that there are other spiritual powers that exist yeah i know i know that for many christians that is hard but yes yeah other gods exist yes so so so we're saying in pastor elephants you're saying that miracles can occur but we're going to revelation we're going to touch that occurrence of those miracles we're going to touch that in revelation you're not necessarily from god yes we're going to touch us in revelation if you want us to go there now we can go there that's a scary thing into you know we're going into deep things and i'm saying brethren the truth is many of us go up believing that the only spirit that has power is the spirit of god we grow up believing that because we serve god we believe in the bible the spiritual realm is contained within just truths but no there are spiritual warfares that are being fought that are hidden from the naked eye right and if we were supposed to have vision or view of some of those things i'm sure some of us would perish same time because it is a spiritual battle and all throughout the bible you see the scriptures inspiring and and stating that these are the real things of life in fact in deuteronomy when moses is writing moses says you're going to have individuals who come as prophets but these are the ways in which you actually test them to see whether or not they be of god right paul comes in thessalonians and paul say try the spirits test the spirits to see whether they be of god or not and so many individuals looking on the story relating to samwell and saul's interaction with with what he saw say see dear the bible is telling us that doppy exists see there the bible is telling us that these these the the the spiritism does happen in our lifetime and a lot of people use it and say see you discredit but one thing i love about the bible the bible tells us even about the things that it speaks against true it doesn't hide it it doesn't hide that solomon had um many ways wives and i don't know what him doing i really want to understand solomon and that wife mata i really want to understand it because i'm like what that man doing with so much wife and concubines and the bible doesn't hide it it doesn't hide the fall of david it doesn't hide the fact that david even moved from just falling to killing the bible puts it right there and that goes to the authenticity and the veracity of the bible if the bible only spoke about the good deeds and the nice things then brethren knew morocco for some maybe all of us combined here online we wouldn't be able to find any hope in the scriptures but the bible intersperses eternal truths amidst the failure of men amidst the shortcomings of human beings and it shows us that the bible is something that can be trusted yeah when when i speak to rest appearance they say um but you know you know you know the bible tell us they must take a woman and call her your wife and i know those kind of things the bible doesn't take away the negative parts of the story to make itself look good it keeps the negative parts right in there and that is what makes the bible so real so authentic so pure amen so relevant and so using this story in some way with some words interact um somewhere saul's interaction with dead soul is not in and of itself proof of the fact that what they'll say that's all okay thank you it's not proof of the fact that when one dies the person can come back what it goes to show is that the devil is a very powerful mastermind powerful and so that first element we look on from verse three so in verse three we not only see that samuel had died and all israel had lamented and buried him it's very clear there clear and notice is the same thing that is said in chapter 25. yeah same thing is repeated and why do you think the author is repeating it there's this emphasis that it's making that that that they that the author is making because he's he's bringing the reader back to what had happened earlier because of what is what he's going to write about no he's setting this context so that we can see the depths to which saul had fallen because there's a listening soul's life for us south story is sadist it's sad and it's one of those saddest stories it should cause each and every single one of us by the name of christ to tremble because here's a man and i'm glad that the author of samuel laid it out like that initially to show you who saul was before a humble man never wanted the kingship he was going about his duty of finding his father's donkeys that were in us that was all when he eventually became king and he was anointed there were those who never wanted him who jeered him and so forth and after he became king his advisors were saying you know what go go and get rid of them and so said nobody's going to die today that was all i know we see you see saul going downhill down here and here this is the the lowest of it and we're going to go further with you because watch this the scripture says the philistines gather themselves together because remember he's still king and came and pitched in shoename and saul gathered all israel together and they pitched in gilboa and when saul saw the host of the philistines he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled don't miss that because verse 6 is set against that backdrop what does verse 6 say and when saul inquired of the lord the lord answered him not neither by dreams nor by urim nor by prophets now i want to underscore this point that the point the way in which god communicates with his leaders in ancient israel the the priest oh we never have a picture we could we could have got a picture um the priest actually has on his it's on his chest yeah um there's like 12 tribes of israel it's like a pouch that he has attached to his chest yeah i guess it's kind of like that that looks sort of like this right you turn it sideways but it's on his chest right and he he would have he would have all of those and um when the lord wanted to communicate when the lord wanted to state his will for his people um when the leader wanted um divine insight when they wanted to know whether to advance to a war or to retreat whether they want how to go about the various matters spiritually in the kingdom because remember it was a spiritual kingdom god set up a spiritual kingdom and a spiritual kingdom must be guided by spiritual values right it must be undergirded by spiritual power and so god god didn't just call them out and leave them to themselves he allowed the priests the high priests and to be able to have on his chest the very uh the very communication system that god designed to tell them which tribe to do what and yes and know when to go etc and in israel that's just how the lord used to communicate but watch this somewhere has fallen so great somewhere has fallen so far that god is not communicating with him at all so he has the office of king but he lacks everything else to carry out the duties and the function mercy he's he's god is just allowing him to continue to end off him something and it's a very fascinating way in which god does leadership so at this point saul is completely cut off no man saul cut off him themed time first rejected as king yes and then rejected as rejected for salvation everything he's cut off he's literally cut off yeah so he he is afraid he's trembling because the philistines are coming upon him and he wants spiritual guidance because it's a spiritual kingdom yeah it's a spiritual warfare so even though they were using um swords and all of it was a spiritual kingdom it was god who told the children of israel went to rise up went to leilo went to advance went to retreat went to fix up it was always god who led israel and every time the lord told them go forward success every time they disobeyed la as as david did and did what he was not supposed to do in accounting of israel israel israel gets a failure it is a spiritual warfare it was not just something that he should get up and do and so what what we see here happening is that saul is rejected the the philistines are upon him he's about to go into war and he has no way of knowing what to do how to communicate and how to advance with the army he's fearful he is very fearful and he goes to god to ask god and say to god god help me out here man no healthy and god don't answer him he is in the lord's office and the lord who owns the office and has called him to the office is not communicating with him hold on hold on he is in the lord's office yes he's in the lord's office so he is appointed yes but not anointed well he was anointed but anointing god the anointing in in melody i know it didn't fit and that should cause every single one of us tremblay you know what i'm saying the sad the saddest story it is sad show me another story in the scripture i don't even think judas's story uh compares to the depth of the fall of of saul similar but cannot compare it's it's yeah saul's story is really very deep it's dark yes this is a man that knew god yeah and here you can see that he's he's searching after god to get the guidance that he probably and so what is he left with and note this watch this now watch this my friends when saul was with god when saul was with god he ordered the slain of the witches mercy somebody not with me i said when saul was walking with god he ordered the slain of the witches when saul was walking with god god directed his steps when saul was walking with god he knew what the lord wanted him to do he was aware of the lord's voice yeah when saul is no longer walking with god the very witches that he ordered to die is now he resorts to so the sin that he once rebuked chastised and cleansed out of israel he was now secretly nurturing and and consuming and and delving into it and depending on it for his salvation because god doesn't talk to him when god cut you off in a brethren yeah and a life outside of god when god cut you off your mother can't cut you off your father can cut you off you your co-worker can cut you off but when god cuts you off it's it's a cutter of brethren that is cut off and so he had no other way to seek to get some insight into what would happen in the war no other way and you know it makes me wonder if if if if if saul really believed that he was going to get a positive word from the spirit he believed he was going to get our words so so he was what he was saying spiritually remember this is not this is not the beginning you know this is the ending of his failure you know the ending of easter because he died right after well we're going to talk about it but we're going to touch on that spoiler yeah yeah what time is it we need to get on those people on zoom so let let's wrap this up in three minutes five minutes i'm big on the zoom zoomers and so here we have it the lord is not communicating with him so he comes now and he says to his servants find me a familiar spirit that i may go to her and inquire of her hold on pastor while we while we're wrapping up there are a couple questions in the chat that i just want us to intertwine into it uh i saw it earlier i believe his questions in the chat oh brian can i get some volume on ella joe and yeah he asks um why does the bible say samuel says are not the spirit says and then there's another question georgia g axe was saw lost before he went to the witch so as we go through we just want to cover those questions okay all right all right so let's go first samuel chapter 28 verse seven so one of these men noticed this in men know where the women they know his servants knew where they were and the scriptures say elijah had read it he disguised himself he went to the witch of endor and the witch of endor knew very well who was before her yeah because notice what she says what does she say she says don't you know that don't you know that's all commander right and um then the scriptures tell us brothers and sisters ladies and gentlemen because we have our zoomers on that we're going to be bringing on the bible says verse 15 and somewhere said to saul why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up and saul answered i am so distressed for the philistines make war against me and god is departed from me and answereth me no more neither by prophets nor by dreams therefore i have called thee that thou mayest me known unto me what i should i want you to notice samwell was a greatly respected i don't know another leader in israel that was as respected as as samwell moses well moses yes yeah but samwell is very greatly respected the scriptures say from done to beersheba yeah somewhere was still a man of god somewhere people were still coming to him that's why i said brethren it's that position that make a man hallelujah we shall go and preach it's that position that make a man yeah it's who you are your connection with god that is it you don't have to worry about that well let me move on come ella joe you'll recognize the cause so yeah i gotta preach i'm gonna preach so georgia right there we find that saul himself saying in verse 15 god is departed from me so he acknowledges that god has left him so before he went to the witch he was already a lost man and he's seeking for some divine guidance some spiritual guidance for for this war that is facing him but he's speaking to someone who saul believes is samuel and who is relating to saul events that have occurred and events that are about to happen and events that are about to happen i will get into that so from verse 16 to 18 we find that this this spirit samuel is is relating to saul um his disobedience what has caused him to be cut off that in verse 18 he saul did not obey god in cutting off all that god said he must cut off when he went to war with amalek so because of those things he he has been rejected and from verse 19 well in verse 19 we'd also find samuel quote unquote relating to saul that he is going to die he and his sons and it raises exactly how he's going to die how he's going to die tell him many ask this question when they read this story yes if this is not samuel then how does he know how does he know then who that thief comes to rob to steal and to do what he learns to kill if satan has planned for you to die don't you think he's able to say to you that you're going to do it of course let's not forget let us not forget no let us keep it in context that is repeated over and over again that saul has been rejected by god yes and when you are rejected by god you are in the hands of another and the one smart himself said said the lord has departed himself has said it it's a saul is now under the control and at the mercy of satan himself second corinthians chapter 11 what does it say in verse 14 and 15 stay with me i'm closing on this point second corinthians chapter 11 14 and 15 and no marvel for satan himself is transformed into an angel of light therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works yeah huh so when we think about satan this is how we grew up thinking about satan this red man with some han it's a horror that is one of the the the the lies that satan has acculturated society to think of him as he think of him as being this ugly this scary baby like what you can sing beautiful songs and can be able to do great things and so it is not beyond satan to create an image of samwell and to create a voice that sounds like samuel and to create the scenes that saul wants to um receive which is going to foretell of his death it is not beyond the capacity of satan to come and to tell him the very way in which he will die and let's hold on there but let us go back on the other side of it it is not beyond satan to know the past come on and to relate to you what it is that has happened throughout your life because satan has beings yes his followers have been around before the creation of the world right and they have never died they don't sleep none of them have been killed so they have been watching and tracing and you have individuals in this life think of the smartest person that you know think of the person think of anyone in your life who has the greatest memory and the greatest ability to recall things their memories just astounding and you wonder how they remember all of these things now multiply that by a million that ability by a million and you have probably probably the lowest order angel in in satan's rank first it is not beyond satan and the beings that follow him to be able to relay to precision what it is that has happened throughout your entire life so too with saul you have angels that follow and that mark and that keep record of everything that occurs in your life and if satan has said that for you he can bring up back an individual who has passed away and that that spirit that comes up is able to relay to you all that has occurred watch you know watch you know can i shock you know watch bible class no revelation chapter 13 come with us revelation chapter 13 we're going towards zuma's right now revelation chapter 13 the bible does say in verse 2. listen to this and the beast which i saw was like unto a leopard and his feet was at the feet of a bear and his mouth as the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority who is the dragon revelation chapter 12 and verse 9 and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and satan who deceives the whole world he was cast out on the earth and his angels were cast out with him come back with me now to revelation chapter 13 stay with me and verse 13 what does the bible says and he doth great wonders so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men who does that the dragon yeah so satan has power to deceive and if you go in chapter 16 you go in chapter 15 you see his plan of deception unveiling so yes my friends satan is able to rain down fire from heaven yes my friends he is able to perform miracles in the midst of our very eyes to deceive us yes my friends the devil has capacity to resurrect one of our resurrect the form of one of our the form of one of our family members give them the same voice and tell them something that is going to come to pass and say it in a way to have us convinced that the dead is living and the dead can speak to us and the resurrected form is one of satan or one of his angels who have transformed themselves to look like the deceased to starlight the disease to have the memory of the deceased all of this is possible and we see this vividly in the story of resurrected samuel mercy and so the story of samuel shows us the power of the enemy to deceive even further than adam and eve were deceived in the garden of eden in respect to the doctrine of death mercy state of the dead zoomers i think my zoomers are on where are my zoom people zoomers zoomers zoomers we are zoom people um they should be up i know we have some folks that are joining us on zoom today uh let's see if we can get them up somewhere along the line as soon as we get that up i will come to them and so the scriptures are very clear that don't mess with the devil the devil is able to transform himself into any form that he desires yes okay we're having some technical difficulties with the zoomers so let's go on ella joe let's let's go on because we we have sufficient meat here we have sufficient meat so in revelation we see that he's able to create do miracles and great wonders he he's able to make himself appear to be uh because you know fire in the bible represents the presence of god right right firing the bible represents the presence of god the holy spirit elijah on the mouth of carmel day of pentecost clothing tongues of fire fire episode so in revelation we see him remake that in revelation we see him we do that use the very thing that represents the power of god and use it for himself so hold on so what you're saying if you connect both of those satan doing these miracles and these these particular miracles being being symbols of evidence of the power of god if satan is replicating these things we are saying that in the last days satan is going to do these miracles that will deceive people into believing that this is the great power of god look at it revelation 13 13 and 14 and he doth great wonders so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which did wound by a sword and they'd live and listen to me this is one reason i made no apologies our faith must not be rested on any miracle amen whether it is we pray to god for healing whether it is we pray to god for something that is not what your faith must be rested on your faith must be rested on thus saith the lord in the last days the deceptions are going to be so great that even the things before your very eye that you think would represent the life and the form of christ spiritual values satan is going to take that and turn it around that's why you cannot follow anything else but the word of the living god no matter how convincing it seems because for many of us if god preserves our lives to live through that time we are going to have dead relatives dead friends who very well will come before us and tell us things that are counter to the word of god so it's not a matter it doesn't matter what our senses are telling us they are telling us it doesn't matter what the world itself is saying concerning these events that yes this must be of god this must be of of some good divine nature because of all of these wonderful miracles that are occurring if it's not in accordance with the word of god we have to stand boldly and reject it and let me say miracles nothing is wrong with miracles no not at all when jesus was here he worked miracles don't get me twisted don't get me wrong jesus worked miracles and the reason jesus worked miracles in his day was because he was coming to us world that was so dark spiritually that unless persons saw feasible evidence that listen this is the son of god this is the messiah uh the the the time he would need to spend would be more than the three years so the miracles help to convince individuals of his divinity of his role as the messiah he but you read the bible story and you will see that one time jesus was was speaking in the midst of a crowd and uh the man we cast out the demons out of he warned him what did he say to him huh be careful that in me casting out one seven more don't come and the latter n is going to be worse than the first than the former so people always ask me about miracles i don't pray for miracles like that i'm not one of those people who go down and brethren you have to reach a place spiritually where you anchor your faith in something more than what that which you can see more than what you can experience it can't just be a feel good religion we're and i i am not against um religion that invokes our emotional senses because god made us emotional yeah but god also made us rational and if all we want is an emotional experience the devil will use the emotional experience to drive us away and that is why we must not allow stories like the story with saul and the white witch of endor calling forth what seemed to have been somewhere to continue to perpetuate a lie that the dead can speak to us and can prophesy the future so pastor you look nervous i gotta ask you a question yes be nervous so kindly make sure you tweet me they are the question before you ask me guys so so the persons who are convinced that them dead mother dead father dead uncle anti-com and tell them the latter number them yeah and then play it and then actually win and a good thing that man i mean no no you tell me [Laughter] has been nobody yeah sometimes we can um start to judge individuals wrongfully when we don't actually um know that so yes and so revelation does tell us also in revelation chapter 16 let's go there right let's look at revelation 16 elijah and verse 14. well no let's start from verse 13. verse 13 13 and i saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet hold on so we have three characters here yeah the dragon who we know is satan the beast who is the roman church and the false prophet who is fallen protestantism fallen protestantism along with um those other false religions yeah so the three of them the three of them the dragon mm-hmm the roman church no people the dragon dragon satan yes two the the beast church people church and three the false prophets false prophets following fallen protestantism and all other false religions so out of the three of them for verse 14. go on for they are the spirits of devils working miracles which go forth into unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of god almighty so you have these three powers working together elijah to deceive the people in the world to deceive them that because i work a miracle that means that i am of god come with me we're studying today we're studying today matthew chapter seven what did jesus have to say about this the seventh chapter of matthew come with me we're looking on it today verse 21 through to verse 23 right matthew 7 21 to 23 not everyone that's safe unto me lord lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that dweft the will of my father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day lord come on man you have to read that go again man go again lord lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then will i profess unto them i never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity look at that so some miracles being done though some miracles is not a test of our faith so early people love talk about the adventist church give me a reaction come talk about we're not waving we have been on and and and working miracles the bible says miracles are not a test of faith it is not the fact that you're casting out what jesus said and you're prophesying in the lord's name and and doing all these wonderful works in the lord's name doesn't mean that you the lord is with you yeah that's what jesus says is jesus said matthew chapter seven is not me so nobody let us throw through and thank god this is virgil listen the picture that some of us grew up with thinking that miracles only come from god and all these things if they did come before us and tell us something that is only god can do it no man it's not only god the devil did that too i hear that our zuma is ready and you know before we go to the zuma this is why this study on the state of the dead is so important one whole month yeah it's very one month and listen pause there before elijah will continue you know we have more we could have done but we're not yeah we're easing you up a little bit and we're going back yes yeah uh a couple weeks ago there there was a viewer who who who you know understandably was saying you know why are we focusing on this and there are other more precious truths that we should look at you know ellen white herself has said that in the last days the the the belief that the soul is immortal and and wrong beliefs concerning death satan is going to use that deception to gather the world under his banner just as much as how he will use the belief of sunday sacredness the whole issue concerning the sabbath and sunday he is going to use this just tell the truth you have time to be responsible no it's very very important the reality is if every week you want us to come to bible class and tell you about prophetic things then i i can understand your viewpoint but the bible is and what we are doing today is as important as the prophecy studies that we have done and that we are going to be doing yeah so here at virtual church we're not afraid of any topic but they're critical topics the i have gotten the amount of interest in this month's bible class alone relating to the state of the data i can tell you supersedes our studies in all other areas yeah they are the feedback the comments the the the the bonding is greater so people clearly haven't uh want to understand what happens when one dies etc so i i'm not apologizing for virtual church bringing this study on the state of the dead it's important and uh just as much as it is to understand the mark of the beast yeah very much zoomers i hear you're here where are my zoomers zoom zoom hey who is sonia pierce sonia i'm doing well thank you not here in sonia at all let's see if we can get an audio on that um sonia asks her if she can raise that device up to our her face level so we can see exactly what's happening there sonia is that the only one who is online now or do we have the others do we have others there yeah the doctrine on the state of the dead is one that is very critical um and as i said before i do know that the topic is difficult i am very well aware of that because it involves um and it invokes feelings about individuals whom we love so i do get that barbara yes hello good evening good evening how are you i'm good thanks tell us where you're joining us from vineland in new jersey in new jersey look at that election who gets 100 on the quiz all the time yes she does get 100 on our quiz but i'm very much jamaican i'm from peace you're from east jamaica with church was your church jackson jackseal oh okay okay and so you've been joining us here on bible um ejc virtual church and on bible class because you are one of our top winners in our quiz yeah yes all right any question you want to ask us today that looks like we have a freeze uh yeah that looks like a freeze that's the difficulty with technology but we're also very happy for that barbara is there yes it's good to see verbal yeah one of our top quiz performers here in the quiz and so um here at virtual church by the class um so we're very happy there to have barbara so ella joe they they to wrap things up this week to wrap these things up for this month we we started out with the nature of man yeah and we said the nature of man from the very beginning it was never something that man had immortality yeah yeah that the nature of man uh that man as we know it man is subject to death man is mortal man has a corruptable uh being yeah uh we have also stated that it is when jesus comes the second time that the dead in christ together with those who are living shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye and that's when mortality shall give its way to immortal mortality and corruption give its way to incorruption or is it the other way around correct corruption give it to its incorruption and so we're gonna be seeing um throughout the rest of the studies next week is children's month yep elijah and i were planning to do some what had a wonderful planet we had a plan but it kind of and you should have seen the disappointment on jody's face no i'm joking she wasn't disappointed she wasn't disappointed yeah i think she needs the yeah so we're gonna do that we're gonna do that because it's children's month and we believe it's very important to give some focus to the children so hyper class will be focused in a very child centered way at least for one or two of the weeks yeah so we want to let you know that in advance ella joe is going to be um leading us through a very important topic so this week we have this month we have done the state of the dead yeah and uh starting next week we're going to be looking on the sanctuary yep yeah yeah it should be very very interesting um not just for the children not just for the adults for everybody on a whole we're going to be having a great time looking in detail for five sabbats looking at the sanctuary for the month of may yes all right so there are some individuals we want to acknowledge as we prepare to wrap up because it's past or 3 30 time and we don't want people to um you know kick us out um all right so these are our winners from last week wait let's acknowledge the people for i'm trying to find the winner's thing you send it to me i'm gonna send it to you last two messages oh boy i have so many messages coming through right now all right let's start with the individuals who are who have not who are you know the special mentions right so we can recall for those of us who are with us for those of you who are with us last week there were a couple individuals who are not of the adventist faith who have been watching the studies uh so we've come to learn and who have actually been doing the quizzes so they they never received a hundred percent right but uh sister manning pointed them out to us um for special mention yes and this week we have three individuals as well we have chantelle jackson she also joined us last week well she did the quiz last week yes we before i should say right we read her name last week and we're reading it again she's from the seventh day church of god reform yes there's keisha mighty brown from the church of god international yeah and christian web this is a new person no from bethel born again church all right but just before we move on congrats to those of you ellen nobledale one of my elders from hagley park has said not sure if you intended to but you did not answer the question regarding lotto and dead family member giving numbers um persons have a real concern about it they should acknowledge these things okay you want to take that on sure so just as with the case of saul and samuel yeah where samuel was able to outline and to detail everything that was going to happen in saul's immediate future yeah so too satan has control over these things that to us appear to be just chants it's just chance yeah you know some for those of us here in jamaica you know the balls you have big recently i learned to go up to five pick five and you have all of these things where the balls are just going around and so forth it is not beyond satan's power to control these balls it's not beyond satan's poll and is that beyonce's power to actually tell you the number ah because he can he has the power to control these things that just appear to be random chance events correct so if he has this power and he can declare to you what numbers he's going to control and come up and make come up into the winning spot and we have already established from the word of god that any being that comes before you that is not an angel that is not jesus christ himself it is not of god it is of another entity and that entity we've established is satan and god is not going to encourage anything along the lines that is against his will god is not for chance games no god believes in work in order to eat in order to get everything that is what god believes honest honest labor that is what is established in the world yes so if a person comes up to you who is deceased a loved one and they come and give you the lot of numbers and you go play those lotta numbers and win you have won not through god but through satan it's hard it's difficult to hear but that is what the word of god has established give me a chance to step up in our life we're going to be announcing our winners right now uh but we are against gambling the bible is against gambling we do not support lottery and for the reasons that would have outlined by elijah we do not support it is not something that we believe is in sync with the divine will of god so let me let us just make that pretty clear so let's go with this week's winners from last week's we have dwight barnett from sydney sda leanne barnett from sydney natalia bonner from ncu sda petrona harris from washington gardens sda raleigh barnett from sydney sda and wayne williams from upper creek sda in toronto canada we have shauna k johnson from colleyville sda manchester we have nakayla young from washington gardens esther duare from c4 town sda westmoreland doreen ormsby from playstore sda london janie christie from c4 town maxine anderson world harvest outreach sda houston texas novelette smith from word of hope danielle ford from willowdale sda carmel williams from apple creek sda toronto canada and even rp foresight from word of hope sda giovanni hall from c4 town sda shawnee hall from c4 town sta barbara hall from c4 town sda najiv vogel from the woodburn sda church joan hall from sydney sunshine sunshine from new haven sda church and kerry grant purcell from edmonton central sda church in alberto canada we have simone smith from hagler park sda yes pamela smith from hagler park sda karine sinak from view fort sda church in saint lucia lemario clark and nafisa damir both from saint john's sd in antigua we have elisa mitchell from statin sda deon damier from st john's sd in antigua joyce renard and collette bartley from hope sda miranda livingston from chicana glory sda desireene parsons from stanton sda in portland micasha williams from clear park is the cleopatra wallis from new life sda michelle board brown ford willowdale sda church in toronto canada denise williams from irishtown sda trevor lee woh from cornerstone sd in brooklyn new york italy tomlinson from philadelphia sda in toronto hyacinth smith from spanish town sd layla from diamond acres sda church we have tracy ann stitchell from pine house sda in canada collette francis from gallin galena sda we have gavin grant from higgintown sda della f from bethel sda in toronto dion donna from diamond acres sda catalin ratri from irishtown sda church heather hilton from d land sda florida valerie hilton from new york takis wilson small and the initials once again b b all right thank you so very much greatly appreciate it i'm noticing one or two comments in the chat beverly moraine i say can i review previous bible class studies on youtube yes there's a created list that is right there on the youtube channel if i think uh uh if you go to the east jamaica conference youtube youtube page and go to playlist you'll find it's listed there so what's been done is the the slider has been the time stamp has been adjusted to begin right at the start of the bible classes right so you won't find the topic of the bible classes in the caption of the videos but we do announce the the the the topics for the story at the beginning of the study all right i i have a question here you have a question you want to take it on yes from sister kathy and go asking what about dreams yeah about visions and dreams and i i i i dream i did relatives oh it it can happen uh-huh also but they're the dreams are given not just the christians streams are also given to non-christians and that's biblical because you do see nebuchadnezzar getting the most time-based prophecy ever um and he's not he ain't christian that's for sure well he wasn't a type when he got it uh visions and dreams and moses in deuteronomy let me see if i can find it uh does speak about the tests that we are to apply when we are thinking about uh you you're talking deuteronomy 13 if they're all right it's among you let me is there read it for me if there arise among you this is deuteronomy 13 if there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of your dreams and go ahead and go to verse 5 and give it the a sign or a wander and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying let us go after other gods which thou has not known and let us serve them thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the lord your god proveth you to know whether you love the lord your god with all your hearts and with all your soul ye shall walk after the lord your god and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and he shall serve and you shall serve him and cleave unto him and that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he hath spoken to turn you away from the lord your god which brought you out of the land of egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage you can't stop there yeah and that's where we're going to stop because our time is actually surpassed so so this is so here it speaks to somebody who has dreamed something yes so a message has come to them and they have relayed this this this dream that they've received and whatever is in the dream it has come to pass it happened so you have some persons who would dream a dead relative and then tell them sir they said a lot of numbers this is going to happen and it does come to pass but if whatever is related is not of god if it's in if it's in opposition to the commands of god then that dream was not of god correct i can't speak i'm not scientific i don't delve in the divine realm i don't know how it happened but we know what the word of god the reality is and let's make it clear any command that contradicts the word of god you must stop and reconcile it yeah that's what peter did when he got the words from the lord rise peter kill and eat yes once you see that the command that is being given to you is against the clear teachings of the word of god was the quiz posted i'm not sure no could somebody tell me if the quiz was posted please um uh i just realized um right so if if whether it is be a vision a dream or whatever it is if it contradicts the word of god the clear express will of almighty god then you know that that is something that uh ought to be rejected and um john chapter eight john chapter eight i'm sorry guys i'm out of time um john chapter eight jesus speaks about the fact that even if um even if abraham was supposed to be they were asking him about dreams they were asking him about um not dreams for a sign and jesus said listen the scientists were wicked and perverse generational optimal sign an optimal sign eve and he says even if even if abraham was supposed to return from the dead where is it i'm trying to find it um that wasn't in my prepared that's lazarus rich man and lazarus man he was rich man lazarus and lazarus we're we're we're the rich man in the parable the rich man says you know send send lazarus to go oh yeah yeah yeah yeah you're right you're right right so the lord the lord does say even if some persons were to get some vision and dream and and and signs and miracles and wonders it's still not going to help you because you're rejecting the word of god and if you reject the word of god for what you want then you lose out yeah that's what i'm with yeah yeah that's the end of it brothers and sisters next week ella joe where we going next week the best month of the year starts next week hey are we really going to do this again we did this last year yes when i did this yes the best month of the year all the main people i say salute to you we are wrapping up the month of april precursor to the best month of the year and we're going to be at it so we're going to pray get you out of here elijah oh you pray to start let me pray to close heavenly father we commend ourselves into your hands we thank you for the students who have stick and stay with us throughout this study we pray almighty father that you may bless them as they continue to study your word may they feast on you may they find hope and joy and peace and comfort in your scriptures continue to bless you and myself as we press on to the mark of the prize of the high calling in christ jesus bless this the virtual church as we continue to expand the reach of the message in this end time of earth's age is our asking in jesus precious name amen amen god bless you [Music] [Music] oh [Music] somebody come on and leave your voice [Music] [Music] [Applause] right now everybody clap your hands now come on [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and these are the days of elijah declaring the word of the lord and these are the days of your servant moses righteousness being restored and though these are days of great triumph of heaven and darkness and soul still we are divorced in the danger crying preparing the word of [Music] it's a year [Music] [Music] salvation and these are the days of easy cuts the tribals becoming a stretch and these are the days of the servant david rebuilding the temple break and oh these are days of the harvard the fields are white [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] comes everybody [Music] [Applause] [Music] your [Music] [Music] if you believe there's nobody like her god somebody say hallelujah sick there's no god like jehovah there's no god come on declare there's no god there's no god like jehovah there's no [Music] there's no god like jehovah there's no god like jehovah there's nobody like jehovah there's no god like jehovah there's no god like jehovah behold [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] everybody [Applause] [Music] [Music] child [Music] happy sabbath everyone as a steward of time my gift ability resources and all the blessings that god has bestowed upon me i find myself accountable and responsible unto him to channel these blessings to others and to help people because i am a person who love people and i love my god so i choose small group ministry and community evangelism as the means to share the love with people and doing small group ministry it has found a place and a desire in my heart that is insatiable god has blessed this group and the core persons who support me i find them to be very very loyal and faithful my wife elder western taylor elder run brother basil sister spencer who is with us in pseudo at this time and so many others it's just a blessing it's phenomenal and this afternoon is usually the time when we have our small group ministry meeting the blessings have been such that tens of persons have become a new follower and disciple of jesus christ i remember doing various topics and the topic of sabbath always come up with a challenge a serious challenge i remember um at the this at the at the completion of the sabbath message several things happened our beloved sister spencer had an experience which i would like her to share one evening after attending the meetings this is a woman who operates a business for 45 years up to the time when she finally surrendered she'll share her experience but i want to just tell people working with her for 15 years not giving up was not easy you see brethren the work of the gospel of jesus christ is not us to quicken the hearts of people that's the work of the holy spirit and that is why i consistently work with her and studied with her and the one time that she came to visit with our small group ministry meeting she will tell you what happened what happened to suspense would you like to share and please remember to put in that sabbath encounter on your way going home happy sabbath i remember coming from small group one tuesday evening and going home i heard a voice say to me before that we were discussing the sabbath i heard a voice say you can run but you cannot hide so i was so afraid so i look in the mirror to see if there was someone in the vehicle that i did not know was with me anyway i contemplate and contemplate and i said lord if this is what you want me to do then i know that you are going to be with me and you are going to see me through and i decide from there that i am going to get baptized so i told brother smiley that it's time for me to put on the chains on the door and this is a time that i am serving on a sabbath so from then i start going to church on sabbath when i told brother smiley i to be really frank the way he felt i he just could not believe because it for me it was hard after worshiping on a sunday so just giving up sunday to worship on saturday it wasn't an easy thing for me to do i realized that how long were you worshiping as a sunday worshiper well for all my life before okay what really that happened where your sunday fellow members are concerned and you what happened what is it that happened for you where they are concerned well for me um it wasn't easy because normally i haven't been going to church for almost six months and nobody no member from my church has ever called to say to me what happened we have not seen you i used to get about four o'clock sunday morning to go to six o'clock service and no one called me to find out what happened to me along the way you see brethren if it is that you are not involved in visiting visiting with your members who are absent six months is far too long to not be accountable for your fellow brethren they can't be absent for so long and no account of them and to me that was what she told me that told her she was not at the right place with her new understanding of the sabbath now how have it been worshipping all these almost four years i remember you saying something you'd never know about you were in that position until share that experience with the birth ring well what happened i remember saying to you brother smiley i did not know that i was so empty until when i started to get the teaching of the seventh-day adventists and what it mean then from there when i start coming to church the fellowship the greetings the love that just blew me away and i said yes this is where i belong so you see brethren several things are unraveling right now we talk about the studying of the word of god visitation and here we are now talking about fellowship and also the love these are practices that we need to do in order to help people to surrender to their lord and savior jesus christ and i'm sure sister spence what would what encouragement would you want to give to other fellow brethren in the church so that they can experience what you have experienced and is still experiencing right now the fellowship the welcome the greetings just be there for each other you know brethren every time we go over the island or anywhere to share the gospel and to share the love whenever people hear of sister spence's experience it's always thrilled them it's not easy for someone who is in business for 45 years know what it is like to be honest today at business and the income from customers and to set themselves to go against that with a new enriched enlightening knowledge of obeying god's only commandment and of such she told me she did not know she was so empty until she finally understood the love and blessedness of god holy sabbath day and fellowshipping with or the new family of god that she has become a part of would you you know something else she told me she only the only regret she has i would like you to tell the bridge in the only regret you had you told me about that but the only regret i have people had been praying for me like say 15 years and i know brother smiley you had been praying you had been coming to the workplace and you have been talking to me and you have quote so many scriptures to me so talking to me and reading the bible for myself then i do understand what it really means to follow the bible and the truth that god has in there for us to god be with glo be all the glory the praise and the honor and virgin i'm telling you you cannot label for the lord without having success and seeing and enjoying the success that is there awaiting everyone who becomes an accountable faithful responsible steward of jesus christ don't rob yourself of the joy of seeing someone like sister spence coming to acknowledge and surrendering to our lord and savior jesus christ do what you can do to help others to become aware of this blessedness of obedience to god's holy commandments so because i love people and i'm not leading to my own understanding and i joined with this is a spencer with philippians 4 13 through the holy strength of jesus christ i have now branched out i've branched out years ago into community evangelism i remember when when the covet 19 just started i chose to go to sister spencer and she was willing to cooperate with me in making possible over 300 masks do you remember that suspension right and other believers from our small group we went into a community by the name of jamestown to share the love with the brethren dear now when it comes on to stewardship brethren of our time resources talents abilities you name the various things god has blessed us with we like abraham should only be a steward through which these blessings flow and as i go into damn time year after year and day after day and week after week there are so many blessings there i remember as a young son at 10 years old just recently should have baptized the 26th of last december and the mother stood in the way and said she is not ready she don't think he is ready one of the times she told me son would like to speak with me after we have been studying and fellowshipping real nice in the community and i said mom what is it that someone would like to talk to me about you are the mother you tell me she said no man no man son will talk to you so i push this infants and go in and i said son what is it you locked like to talk to me first i must tell you this boy was discovered by me after coming in the afternoon one afternoon this young man was coming from school long before kovi and i saw him really clean and looking nice so i said you didn't play you didn't give teacher any trouble at school today she he said no i said you are attentive boy at school yes i said why wh how was school she said he said very good man very good what would you like to be when you grow older the boy said to me i would like to be a christian and a minister because i want to go to heaven when the young man told me this it stunned me man i said whose little boy is this not knowing that the mother was right there sitting and the mother said you need no no flop by the way they called me nuff love in this community enough you didn't know is my son i said no i didn't know he's not the only one i have two others i said this boy needs to go to church with me as a sabbath coming she said no flop pick him up pick him up and i picked him up the long and short of it the little boy decided to give his life to christ mother said he's not ready when mother asked me to let him speak to me i said son what is it you like to speak with me about the boy said no flop no flop you know something i really would want to baptize you know but i want to wait till i grow bigger and wiser i said you sure you want to grow bigger and wiser i see many of that in this community and when they grow bigger and wiser it's a different lifestyle they want to adapt and to become a part of i don't think that's what you really want but i'm busy i'll talk to you further because i was doing a little project in the community the long shot the friday i went back and when i went back the boy was packing up at the side of the community the boy was on his way to shop i said come in the vehicle i want to talk to you tell me about it what is the problem why you really don't want baptized the boy said you know no flop i really want to baptize you know about his mommy she wants to go look for my hunty and she want to go the very sabbath when i would like to get baptized i said okay i figured as much i talked to mommy so i said go to shop and come back now when he came back just in time saw me and mommy speaking the boy asked me in front of his mother mommy no fluff no flop how long it take to baptize i said maybe an hour or a one-and-a-half and he turned to his mother right there and said mommy we could baptize i could baptize in the morning and go look for my in the evening the mother was stunned the mother was stunned but don't forget the mother still did not consent for her son to get baptized well guess what happened the little boy did not baptize the 26th of december last the mother did not baptize i said to myself i was very discouraged and brethren being discouraged when someone don't baptize it's not our work it's the work of the holy spirit i still studied and i still visit and i still shared my goods and encouragement with them and you know what happened the i on people loving people sheffield morning manner i asked those brethren on that platform pray for this little boy and not only him but his mother and grandmother that they all will make it and get baptized you know what happened britain this is the truth keep going keep going keep going the mother got a minor stroke i went and i visited her and prayed she can't see very well the boy is nowhere live walking stick last week i went there and when i preached to them i ended up going to work about one o'clock that day and i made out a call right there in front of the grandmother mother and son and when i asked god to intervene listen i asked them if they know of a mr roy in the community who died at his doorstep did not get to commit to christ and they said the grandmother said lord not love me not even like to remember it i said mother do you know about it she said yes it's not pleasant son do you know him say yes i turned to the mother and said mother mother what more sign does god need to show you in order to give your life to christ she said no fluff no flow of you know something me ready me ready i turned to the grandmother and said who are you ready to she said yes i want to be prepared the sun is already ready so i have those three prospects to fine-tune for baptism right now after i'm finishing this interview i'll be going in jamestown to attend and mata pertain into that family god wants people to be saved if we are willing to reach out to them not only spiritually but in a tangible way we would be amazed how they will come around because god is really doing the work we are just agents doing this work and i joined with sister spencer in doing her work and i'm sure she would like to tell you about something else that happened at her business place in winning helping to win a fellow worker i would like you to share that testimony with the brethren sister spencer at this time real quick okay brother smiley after i went to church and feel relief and happy and everything then i went back and i said to a co-worker of man i'm inviting you to church please come with me because when i went to church it was so much peace that i find there and i would have loved that same thing to be extinct to you so i said to her name is paula drew i said poet come to church because i find happiness i find something in church that i couldn't find anywhere else so she came and we started attending church and then she decided to give her life to the lord and i just thank god for it and she was baptized to god be the glory i want all of you out there listening to continue to pray for sister spencer sister paulette and the rest of team and believers who have come through small group ministry and for the entire community of jamestown and especially for this family that is being prepared to give their lives to christ please pray for all of us as we continue to unite our efforts together in working for the savings of souls and for the building up of god's eternal kingdom i crave all of your indulgence in pulling all of your resources together and sister spencer and myself paulette and so many others and our families and loved ones will all be ready and prepared having done well and god will will reward us with a crown of eternal life for being a good and faithful steward and this is my humble prayer and plea that we do what we can while we can to the best of our abilities for the savings of souls people are languishing and hungering and thirsting for righteousness and that which we do for the least of these god will reward us openly and we will all be able to go home and live with him eternally you know i want to close close i don't know if suspense would like to give her a closing remarks at this time before we close okay each and every one of you there if you get that knock-in in your on your door on the in your heart that the lord is calling you give your life to him it is a wonderful wonderful beautiful thing you won't regret it one moment i am a product of that god be the glory and at my office the mantra and the motto is business as usual is business unusual this has been my mentor for years long before kovi and now it has become even more so a reality business as usual business unusual let's all labor for our master our savior our king and our redeemer god bless you all god bless you all amen i'm satisfied with just the context below [Music] but in that city where the ransomware [Music] i've got a mention [Music] land where we'll never grow [Music] [Applause] [Music] walk on streets [Music] me [Music] in search of a city i need a message [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] never [Applause] [Music] our happy sabbath family what a wonderful stewardship week we have had and today the sermon and the testimonies were awesome there is a common thread running through our worship and it's not because our needles are pointing to full instead our needles are pointing to e but we have found out through the course of this week that e is enough indeed jesus is enough for you and for me allow me to demonstrate this today through a fun passage to read i want you to even imagine with me as we turn to saint luke chapter 5 reading from verse 1 through to 6. it says from the king james version and it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of god he stood by the lake of genestret and saw two ships standing by the lake but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets and he entered into one of the ships which was simon's and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land and he sat down and tore the people out of the ship now when he had left speaking he said to simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft and simon answering said unto him master we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing nevertheless at thy word i will let down the net and when they had done this they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their nets break boil your heads with me gracious father bless your words to our hearts may new meanings bring forth and our lives be transformed even now as we listen to your words amen isn't it fun to watch experts do their work from the usain bolts and elon musks to the self-proclaimed yes in jamaica and parliaments when someone says you can't tell me nothing he or she is probably an expert but on the other hand here in the text we reveal an expert at work he is an expert at kingdom building and he has chosen to do so through people like you and me and his disciples he is a craftsman skilled in dealing with the human soul here jesus the experts works with peter in a very compelling and tender way that is instructive to you and to me in this class with jesus i will share with us four e's of jesus has dealt with peter and how he is willing to deal with you and me in this business of kingdom building and stewardship the first e is that jesus engaged peter peter and his partners were on the job minding their own business tidying up for their next outing after a batched round then jesus showed up he showed up with a crowd around him he showed up and people were trying to get to him but in the midst of that he looked around and he saw peter yes they had met before but this time jesus intended to pursue them he initiates direct interaction with them and even ask simon peter for a favor he said to peter can i use your boat for a pulpit i ask you would you lend jesus your boat for a pulpit would you loan jesus your car for a pulpit would you allow jesus to use your posh office as a pulpit or your lunchroom are you a veranda jesus did this because the crowd was pressing against him and the people could not see him and in one should move he sought a place of elevation so yes he could be heard and he could be seen because it makes a difference when you look at jesus note peter did not reach out to jesus it was jesus who engaged peter and he used the tools of peter's trade as a fisherman to minister to others so i'm saying to you whether you are a lawyer or a doctor or an indian chief god desires to engage your business side your hobbies and as a matter of fact all aspects of your life to bring him glory he desires to borrow from you what he loaned to you the psalmist says it best in psalm 24 the earth is the lord's and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell therein the second e is that jesus educated peter he invites peter to sit alongside him giving peter a front row seat to see him and hear him present what a blessing this virtual church has been it has given each one of us a front row seat to the master class of stewardship leaders sent by god we have no excuse for not getting all the instruction we need for maximizing our potential and enlarging our territories you have a full view of all the necessary instruction your master teacher intends for you to have then the third e he exercised peter's faith this is a classic case of a carpenter telling a fisherman how to do his job in other words how to fish that would not have escaped peter did it escape you oh no he asked peter to do something that made absolutely no sense to a fisherman and a fisherman's experience peter thought this was counter intuitive calling for sabbath rest and worship for many of the mass is counter-intuitive yes calling for a faithful tithe and offering to many is counterintuitive calling for healthy diet and exercise for many of us is counter-intuitive prioritizing time to share jesus with a dying world amidst our busy schedule also seem counter-intuitive but it is the very thing that jesus asked of us in such a situation peter recognized that all he had was the word of jesus and he would soon find out that this was all that he needed because if god says it i believe it and it settles it for me it settled it for peter does it settle it for you do you take god at his word so when jesus was through speaking he turned to peter and threw in a challenge if you believe me implied go fish launch out into the deep and drop your net in following the words of jesus peter was in for a big surprise and jesus jesus jesus did not tell peter what would come next this is the essence of malachi 3 where jesus says test me [Music] prove me and you will see that i will open the windows of heaven and pour you out so many blessings so jesus was saying and he is still saying today let me show you what i can do even when it does not make sense even when it looks like foolishness let me show you imagine with me oh jesus used a stuttering man some may have called him a coward to become a masterful freedom leader how he used a religious terrorist to become an apostle how he used an incarcerated person like our very own fits henry to become an international evangelist there are so many others of us who never knew and never thought that having sat in the master class of jesus that we would learn to fish in any water we find ourselves in and to have an amazing draft never thought that we could become kingdom builders jesus exercised peter's faith as it requires faith to step out to launch out and to be used by him jesus yes jesus did it yes jesus is still doing it and he is willing to do it for you as long as you are willing to follow his commands faithfully the final e the fourth e jesus enabled peter to accomplish his will jesus does through peter what peter thought was next to impossible it was highly unlikely but in one instant in a moment jesus accomplished that which human effort alone could not do peter realizes that this rabbi was not just one who quoted scripture but that this rabbi jesus was an expert at any trade he speaks to indeed jesus knew how to fish philippians 4 and verse 13 says i can do all things through christ who strengthens me this came alive for peter and it can come alive for you too as god grants you his enabling power to accomplish his will so i ask you the question what is your profession be it medicine sales education marketing engineering accounting homekeeping or any and every other area you can think of jesus knows it better than you and he knows how to insert the skill of human fission in any area listen to him as a matter of fact you have been listening to him all week long so what are you going to do jesus wants to elevate you right now he wants to help you to reach your highest potential but you must allow him to engage you so stop your usual routine and look to jesus the author and finisher of your faith he wants to educate you you must allow him to so listen to the master teacher he has life acts that you have never thought of one of his servants says in isaiah 50 and verse 4 the lord has given me the tongue of the learned that i should know how to speak a word in due season to him that is weary yes yes yes jesus equips his servant and he allows them to perform like the learned so he will educate you but you must allow him to exercise your faith it is the risen christ in you that accomplishes his will so god expects you to submit yourself to him and see him work i know i know i know i know it is irritating not knowing what comes next not knowing the answer before we move but we should remember that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence the evidence of things not seen but you must allow him to enable you to reach your full potential submit your will to god john 15 and verse 17 says this and i want you to absorb it with me if you abide in me and my words in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you the dunamis the dunamis power will attend to you and fuel those legs it will ignite your intuition and passion as a matter of fact we are told in acts chapter 1 and verse 8 that you shall receive power after the holy ghost is come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in jerusalem jamaica north america south america in africa asia yes in judea and samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth god wants you to spread your wings the question we have this evening as we wrap up our vespa thought do you have enough of jesus's power do you have enough of his instruction this evening to lift you to the next phase of your experience there is a whole new realm to be revealed to be experienced i am inviting you to come and be a part of the kingdom builders living in these times jesus is watching jesus is waiting and he's ready to clothe you with the power of his spirit and allow you to do great acts for him and so his invitation is out for you he's saying come i will engage you he's saying come i will educate you he's saying come i will exercise your faith and he is saying come i will enable you to do great and mighty thing in my name as we are on the cusp of a new week will you keep jesus waiting i submit to you my friends my family that he is enough try him taste and see that the lord is indeed very good so may god bless us as we venture into this new week and may we allow him to work miracles in our lives so bowl your heads with me as i pray with you and as we pray together our glorious heavenly father we are so thankful that you are willing to engage us where we are we are so excited to know that you have wisdom enough to know where the fishes are we are so delighted to know god that you are willing to give us a chance to step out and you are so generous that when we do so you will not only give us two fish but that you will give us two boat loads full until the boats almost sunk lord we thank you for your generosity and your liberality help us today to recognize that we can experience this abundant blessing when we allow you to enter our lives and to have your own way so take full charge of us now because though our needles are pointing away from full we know he is enough jesus is enough for us and so we submit ourselves into your hands today for christ's sake we pray amen and amen one of these days we'll be going home yes lord yes lord many times in my childhood i've traveled so far [Music] but the father he has let me each step up the way and he said my child my child we're going we're going home oh i know that's where we're going home [Music] to hold me nothing to hold me [Music] listen now the twilight is fading the day soon very soon will end i get homesick anybody getting homesick i get home sick the further i'll roam oh but the father the that one of these days one of these days will i'm going oh god i'm going home there is no no no nothing no nothing no nothing no to hold me so hold me here [Music] praise god somebody said praise god praise god i am going i'm going home you gotta be encouraged stay in courage to one of these days one of these days we're going [Music] praise god you

Channel: East Jamaica Conference

Views: 29,237

Rating: 4.9158878 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 3gXfyv2tLc8

Length: 448min 57sec (26937 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 24 2021