Sermon
for the Sullivan SDA Church; December 6, 2003
To Prepare a People to Meet Their God
II
And you, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he
reconciled 22In the body of
his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable
in his sight: 23If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and
which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am
made a minister; 24Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and
fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his
body’s sake, which is the church: 25Whereof I am made a minister,
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil
the word of God; 26Even
the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made
manifest to his saints: 27To whom God would make known what is
the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory: 28Whom
we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: 29Whereunto I also
labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. [1]
If we understand
what we’re supposed to be doing, then there is some chance that we’ll be able
to get the job done.
Relate the story
of my early endeavours to speak without a lisp.
I
The Big Questions
A.
Where
did I come from
B.
What
is the purpose of me being here
C.
Where
am I going, or what is going to happen to me
D.
What
am I supposed to do
E.
A
quick Summary
1.
Where
did I come from
a
Created
by God (for what purpose?)
b
Sprang
from evolutionary workings
i
There
is no purpose
2.
What
is the purpose of me being here
a
God
has some reason for having me here. He has told me all about this if I’ll do
the research. If there is a purpose in my being here, then maybe there is
something I should be doing.
b
From
Evolution, there is no purpose for me being here, but since we are here, we can
do what ever we want.
3.
Where
am I going, or what is going to happen to me
a
God
is preparing a place for me in heaven and eventually, I’ll have this earth as
my home
b
Evolution
continues and we’re getting better and better.
But we’d better check this out.
4.
What
am I supposed to do
a
There
are things for you to do
b
The
RAT RACE
II
Recapitulation
of the previous Sermon where the “Big Questions” were first approached.
A.
God has a plan
1.
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. [2]
2.
Colossians 1:26 (from today’s text)
26Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
a
: The mystery is God’s Plan
of Salvation. The plan where Jesus Christ was to bare the sins of the world.
B.
A review of the history of the World: To see God’s plan being put
into operation.
1.
The
raise of Kingdoms as outlined in Daniel
a
Babylon,
Persia, Greece, Rome
b
The
raise of modern Europe and the USA
2.
God’s
working in History
a
The
history of God’s work with Israel
b
The
coming of Christ
c
The
rise of the Christian Church
d
The
march of History through the Dark Ages
e
The
Protestant Reformation
i
The
Rise of Luther
f
The
Great Religious Awakening in the 1830s
i
William
Miller
g
The
Rise of the “Seventh=day Adventist Church
i
Some
of our early history
ii
Ellen
and James White, Bates, Smith, Loughborough, (many others)
C.
We
reviewed all this as a search into the “Big Question” of “Where did I come from”
1.
Or
“How has God’s workings in History brought us to our present situation.
2.
This is where we came from, and this is where
we now find ourselves.
a
The
21st, Century
i
Still
having wars, Still in economic crisis,
ii
Living
in a complex world
iii
Not
having any defined purpose in our daily lives.
III
Where are we going? Or, What’s going to happen to us.
A.
God’s
Plans for the Future of this World.
1.
John 14:1-4 1Let
not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In
my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also. [3]
2.
Revelation 21:1-4
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2Then I,
John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud
voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be
with them and be their God. 4“And God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor
crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”[4]
B.
What’s
going to happen to me as a Christian?
1.
The
worship of Christ – That’s what being a Christian is all about
2.
The
growth or your Christian Experience.
3.
God's Amazing Grace (1973)
I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my
heart. Ps. 40:8. {AG 61.1}
What a God is our God! He rules over His kingdom with diligence and
care, and He has built a hedge--the Ten Commandments--about His subjects to preserve
them from the results of transgression. In requiring obedience to the laws of
His kingdom, God gives His people health and happiness, peace and joy. He
teaches them that the perfection of character He requires can be attained only
by becoming familiar with His Word. {AG
61.2}
The true seeker, who is striving to be like Jesus in word, life,
and character, will contemplate his Redeemer and, by beholding, become changed
into His image, because he longs and prays for the same disposition and mind
that was in Christ Jesus. . . . He longs after God. The history of his
Redeemer, the immeasurable sacrifice that He made, becomes full of meaning to
him. Christ, the Majesty of heaven, became poor, that we through His poverty
might become rich; not rich merely in endowments, but rich in attainments. {AG 61.3} AG –
4.
AA - The Acts of the Apostles
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17. Through the
power of Christ, men and women have broken the chains of sinful habit. They have
renounced selfishness. The profane have become reverent, the drunken sober, the
profligate pure. Souls that have borne the likeness of Satan have become
transformed into the image of God. This change is in itself the miracle of
miracles. A change wrought by the Word, it is one of the deepest mysteries of
the Word. We cannot understand it; we can only believe, as declared by the
Scriptures, it is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." {AA 476.1}
5.
You as a Christian are going to have the most amazing experience you
could ever dream of.
a You will be involved in
things you never saw your self-doing.
i
Talking
to people about GOD!
ii
Enjoying
the beauty of life from a completely new view.
(a) The creation becomes an
expression of God’s creative Power.
(b) People are viewed as what
they could be if they were transformed by God, not what they are at the moment.
You see the potential.
(c) Events have meaning in the
overall scope of the Plan of Salvation, and the “Great Controversy” World View.
(d) You begin to appreciate
things you never liked before.
(e) Those destructive habits go
away
(f) All you ever wanted to be
becomes a reality.
6.
YOU
Colossians
1:27, 28 27To whom God would make known what is
the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory: 28Whom
we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
7.
The way to become
great and noble is to be like Jesus, pure, holy, and undefiled. ChL - Christian Leadership (1985) page 48