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We are Clay Sermon

Friday, April 24, 2009 at 1:45PM

by Pastor Donald J Gettys
We are Clay
I would like to speak to you about the potter and the clay: how many of us are the potter and how many of us are the clay. Well, we're all the clay, and He is the Potter. Basically, that's the synopsis of the sermon. But I'd like to get into a little more detail than that, so let me tell you an experience. I used to live in Hickory, North Carolina, and there was a gentleman who lived in Newton, named, Boyd Hilton, and he was a potter. He used to go down to the Catawba River and dig his clay out of the river bank. He'd take it home. He'd wash it. He would get all the lumps and rocks and things out of it and make sure it was just right. Then he'd begin to work with it. He's put it on his home-made potter's wheel. He ran the potter's wheel with a little steam engine which I was very excited about. That little steam engine would just puff along and steadily turned that wheel at a pace slow enough to do his work and yet not fast enough, because of the centrifugal force, to throw it apart. So it was just right. I paid attention to his hands. He could never have been a minister because his hands were dirty. They were immersed in the clay. His hands were very gentle and very steady. Now, while I am speaking of this, Who are you thinking of? You should be thinking about our Potter who is none other than Jesus Christ. Because that's what Jesus does to us. We are the clay, and His hands are steady. His hands are gentle. And His hands get messy trying to fix our lives. We have some problems in our lives. Some bad problems. But the Potter is there to make sure that out of our mess, that out of the problems that have broken us, that we are going to be healed and be brought back again. So, I want you to read in Jeremiah 18 about the potter. Because I was a Christian, I thought about Jeremiah 18 and I recalled this story in the Bible. Notice verse 1: This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot that he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. We are in the hands of God. I like to stand and see somebody work. It's just a lot of fun. You don't have to do it yourself, and especially if they are skilled. I've been to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Ketner's Mill and Prater's Mill and watched potters. Have you ever done that? They spin their wheel and what wonderful things come off. And, what beautiful lessons there are. You know, as you stand there watching a potter, you're not just limited to lessons from the Scriptures. We can get lessons from whatever you're doing. WE have to keep our minds open and receptive, because God is going to give us a lesson from whatever we're looking at if we're tuned in. So, who is the potter? I believe it is none other than our Maker, our Creator, which includes the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, doesn't it. They were all involved in our creation. Isaiah 45:9 says, Woe unto him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, "What are you making?" Does your work say, "He has no hands?" We don't complain at the Maker. He makes different things out of the clay. He is shaping us today. God is not only our Creator, He is the One who is currently continuing to shape us and mold us through the events of life. The clay represents us. Job 33:6 says: "I am just like you before God; I too have been taken from clay." Adam was formed from clay, from the dust of the ground. Genesis 2:7: the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. Now the clay, which we are, is weak. What can you make from clay unless you bake it? Psalm 22:15: My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. We are weak. We were not pulled out of a diamond mine, in case you think, "Well, I'm pretty important." We all came from a hole, from a river bank. That's our origin. You can read that in Psalm 40:2: He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. That's where we came from. Out of the pit of destruction and sin. We were in a hopeless condition and God came to us and He exhumed us out of that terrible place. I imagine we looked pretty ugly, pretty wicked, and pretty worthless. What is the wheel that we're place upon? Well, come back here to Ecclesiastes in your Bible. I think as the wheel turns the clay grow more and more into Jesus' will for the clay, or else it becomes ,more and more blemished. I believe the wheel represents the happenings of our life. Ecclesiastes 9:11: .... but time and chance happen to them all. That's what takes place. Now, we must be washed as clay. I sincerely believe that as the potter washes the impurities out of the clay that baptism is represented by that. Also we are washed by the Word. That's how you can remain pure: by running the words through your mind you will become purified by it. Here's something interesting about the clay in Isaiah 41. I don't like this. If you want to look it up in your bible may think, this isn't really in here, but the clay needs to be stepped on. Does the Lord ever step on you? He steps on me, and I don't like it. Maybe you feel like you've been stepped on lately. Isaiah 41:25: I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes-- one from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay. There was a visitor to a famous potter and as he stood there he watched something he really didn't understand. This famous potter was beating a lump of clay with his wooden mallet. Just pounding the daylights out of it. The visitor thought, "What is going on here? You don't beat clay! You mold it and make it." And here he was beating the clay so he asked the potter, "Why are you doing this?" And the potter said, "Wait and see. It won't be long and you'll find out." And so, the man stood there. Eventually the pounding stopped, the lump of clay was placed there on the table. He stood there and looked at it, and finally he saw the top of it start to just quiver a little bit and he looked and lo and behold, he could see little lumps forming on the top of the clay. "What are those?" And the potter said, "Those are air bubbles coming out. I have to get all the air out of that clay, otherwise those air bubble will cause that pot to crack, and you don't want to be a crack-pot. It will mar the pot. It will destroy the pot." And a potter has to work out the air, the lumps and the bumps out of us, the sin. He wants pure clay, otherwise He can't make a pure vessel. And so, if you've been pumped around and pounded on a lot, there's probably a reason for that trouble you go through. There's a reason. I notice that when a I was watching a potter up at Ketner's Mill. We were up there and saw some of you there. This lady had a wheel that would spin around and around. As I noticed her, she was making a vessel. She put the clay on the wheel, and her hands were wet and she formed it on the wheel. When she was finished, she would use a wire to cut it off, rework it and put it back on again. This happened three or four times and I asked, "Why are you taking it off? Why don't you just go ahead and do it?" And she said, "I'm a new potter and I didn't get it centered well. Unless it's perfectly centered, I can't make a perfect vessel." Well, there's a lesson in that for a preacher. A preacher standing there watching will get a lesson out of that. And so I'm thinking, "I need to centered in Jesus Christ." Right? We need to be centered. The potter plops that soggy lump of clay on that turn-table and centers it up exactly and as it is spinning then it can form a symmetrical vessel. We need to be centered. And how do we do that? I believe we become centered in Jesus Christ by making sure that we're in the middle of His Word, that we're in the middle of the Truth, that by learning, by being quiet, by being empty, by meditating the Lord's will for us, by renewing our prayer life. We become centered on Jesus Christ. Just like every sermons should be centered on Jesus Christ. We need to meditate on Him. Jesus must be the pivot, the hub of our life. You can go over here to UTC, Chattanooga State, Southern Adventist University and they will give you a lot of spokes, but unless those spokes are centered on the hub, you aren't going to go anywhere your new wheels. You need a hub. Education will provide you with a lot of spokes, a lot of hubbub you might think in some of your classes, but you need a hub. That hub needs to be Jesus Christ. The clay is turned on the wheel, isn't it. You might fell like you're turning around and around, going in circles, just going crazy, nothing is happening, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not arrive at some destination. It hasn't happened yet. Her I am, still single. There's some problem here. I'm not getting anywhere in my life. I'm not making enough money, not being successful, whatever it is. To stay on the wheel is to be successful. You can't be successful off the wheel. So stay on there. Don't quit. Stay with the wheel. If the clay flies off the wheel it lands in the dirt and gets contaminated and is unusable again. It's too bad. All of God's Bible heroes were on the wheel. They stayed on the wheel. They were all lumps of clay, all lumps of clay. Now, if we become marred, as Jeremiah says, in the Potter's hands, does He throw us away? No, He doesn't. He re-works us. Jeremiah 18:4 says, ....so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. The first one didn't work out. Some of you in college may have started out to be an accountant or something, and eventually you ended up somewhere else. One route doesn't work in your life, and so you try another route and that one does work. God can re-use you. He can redirect your life. The Potter keeps trying until He makes a perfect vessel. Martin Luther didn't have much patience and he had a hard time fathoming God's patience, I guess, because he wrote, "If I were God, and the world treated me as it has treated God, I would kick the wretched thing to pieces." That was Martin Luther. Well, maybe God had plans for you. But you slipped, you fell, you ended up in the ditch, your life became marred and even though His mercy surrounded you, and despite the fact that you were in His hands you became marred. You faltered, you floundered. There is still hope for you because God will bring you back. Maybe you've ruined your life, you've blown your brains with drugs, you've messed your life up with illicit love making, you've ruined your life with alcohol. Just keep in mind that God is not through with you yet. You are still on the Potter's wheel. Stay on the wheel and God will make something beautiful. We serve a God of second chances. He'll give you a second chance. What a Savior we have. A Savior of new beginnings. So don't give up. What if you're cracked? What if God made you, then He fired you, and there He set you on the shelf and you developed a crack? You may say, "I'm older. I know better. My parents were Adventists and I've been all worked up here and now I'm cracked. What do I do now? Can't go back on the potter's wheel. I've got something wrong with me. Something I don't like and I can't change." Let me tell you, God can still use a cracked pot. There's an eastern children's story about a slave that was serving a rich master. The slave's duty was every day to go down to the stream and get the water. The king had to have water. So he had a board across his shoulder with a water pot hanging from each end. He would walk quite a ways down to that stream to get the water. The problem was one pot was perfect and the other was cracked. So, by the time he would go down there and get the water, and come back, one pot was half empty while the other was still full. One day, the cracked pot, which perceived that it was a bitter failure, spoke to this slave by the stream. He said, "I'm ashamed of myself. I'm a cracked pot. I have not been able for these past two years that you have been carrying me to deliver a full load for you, because of this crack in my side you weren't getting the full value from your efforts and I'm so sorry." And the water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot and in his compassion, he said, "Well, as we return to the master's house I just want you to notice, just don't think about yourself, notice the flowers along the way." And so the pot did this. Back home, the bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there are beautiful flowers only on your side of the path? Only on your side of the trail? That water that you leak out. I knew about your defect. I knew about this problem in your life. And I planted seeds along that path and for two years you have been watering those seeds. Those flowers have grown and I have used those flowers to decorate my master's table and to make his life more beautiful." So God can use a cracked pot. He can use you. He can use you in His work, in His will. Well, I want you to notice something else. What is the future of clay that yields itself to God? I'll tell you what it is. A pot is a container. It is not a fountain. Vessels are not fountains. They're not springs. They are containers, reservoirs, receptacles, repositories. And to be an effective canister it has to be first emptied. You can't be filled with God's likeness while you are filled with the likeness of something else. A jar does not produce its own filling. We are destined to hold valuable merchandise. We are the Fort Knox of Jesus. Because, do you know what that valuable merchandise is? 2 Corinthians 4:7, But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show you that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. That treasure is Jesus Christ. You are destined to hold Jesus Christ in your life, in your heart. Imagine God's treasure in a jar of clay. And that's exactly what Jesus in you is. You are the clay. Our spiritual DNA includes this close partnership with Jesus Christ. What is the job description of clay? Do you remember the Walt Disney film the The Lion King? It shows young Simba singing, "I just can't wait to be king." He thinks when he gets to be king he'll be in charge of everything. "I can't wait to get out of my parents house and be on my own. Then I can be in charge. I can be free!" Is that true? "All these old rules and regulations around here. I hate 'em. I'm going to be free some day." Don't you believe it. "I've got a mortgage payment to make every month." "I have to drive the speed limit." "You will always be under rules and regulations." Well, you don't HAVE to pay the mortgage. If you don't, you'll be out on the street. How long will the city police allow you to live on the street? Not very long! They'll take you to jail, and there you'll be free. Right? No way! The only way to be free is to yield to the Master. That's the only way to do it. The job description of the clay is to surrender to the will of God. I feel like if you don't resist the hands of the Potter, you're going to be saved. That's my opinion. You're going to make it. I want you to read from Ellen white. This is beautiful. She makes the statement about the Potter and the clay. Now get this: "The Potter takes the clay in His hands and molds it and fashions it according to His own will. He kneads it and works it. He tears it apart, and then presses it together. He wets it, and then dries it. He lets it lie for a while without touching it. When it is perfectly pliable, he continues the work of making it a vessel. He forms it into shape, and on the wheel trims and polishes it. He dries it in the sun, and bakes it in the oven. Thus it becomes a vessel fit for use. So the great Master-worker desires to mould and fashion us. And as the clay is in the hands of the potter, so are we to be in His hands. We are not to try to do the work of the potter. Our part is to yield ourselves to the molding of the Master-worker." - Vol. 8 Testimonies for the Church, p. 186.187. EG White. What is does the clay do? It doesn't say, does it. Jesus does all the work. He works it and molds it and dries it in the sun and then bakes it in the oven. Our part is to yield ourselves to the molding of the Master-worker. He does everything else. If you can wrap your mind around that, you understand Righteousness by Faith. Our part is to yield. Are you yielding to the master Potter? If you are, you are doing your job. If you don't resist, if you remain pliable, you're going to be saved. You're going to be a pot, you are going to be a vessel in His house, in the house of God. Oh, what a wonderful experience that is! You can do that. Imagine a lump of clay becoming a vessel in the kingdom of God, in His house, sitting on His shelf up in heaven glorifying Him. Made by Jesus. That's how we are going to be there. Opening Hymn: #154, When I Survey the Wondrous CrossScripture: Isaiah 64:6-8Closing Hymn: #316, Live Out Thy Life Within Me McDonald Road Sermons Index

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Not a Servant Sermon

Friday, April 24, 2009 at 1:44PM

by Pastor Kent Crutcher
Not a Servant
Last Saturday night, when I was walking out of the convention center in Cincinnati Ohio where I was attending a conference with over 6000 other youth pastors. I had to go through two wets of double doors. I was leaving a little early. After I had walked through the first set, I looked through the second set and then I hesitated, because, there standing on the other side of those double doors were two homeless men. How did I know? Maybe I am being too general in my thinking but most homeless people end up looking about alike. Homeless people are grey. It doesn't matter what color they're wearing, it all eventually turns grey. They seem to have a grey look about them. It may be from the dirt of the streets. Their pants are grey, their shirts are grey, their hats are grey, their shoes are grey, their skin is grey, their beards are grey, grey skin, it almost seems. They blend in with themselves. I've worked with homeless people before and I've recognized them for who they were, and I hesitated as I watched these two men. I was by myself, and it was night. I saw what they were doing, they were digging into the large ashtrays that were placed outside, looking for cigarette butts large enough to still smoke. They were acting quite frustrated. They were not finding much of anything. It was obviously a favorite spot outside this convention center. Most people would come outside and smoke there. They could not believe that they were finding nothing. What they did not know was that the building was filled with over six thousand youth pastors at a convention! They were not finding the cigarettes they were used to finding. As I went through the second set of doors, one of the men asked me, "Do you have a cigarette?" I thought, If I could tell him of the dangers of smoking, I could invite him to a "Five-Day-Plan." But I knew that he wasn't real interested either one of those at the moment, so I just gave him a negative response. He simply walked away with his friends in search of others more obliging. I walked down to the bus stop and caught the bus that took me across the river into Kentucky and to my hotel. Along the way I noticed in the dumpsters behind almost every fast-food place there were people looking for something to eat. I slept in my comfortable bed and I ate my wonderful continental breakfast the next morning. I relished it for some reason that morning. I got back on my bus and went back to the convention center and got there early for my first meeting, so I decided to go for a walk. A special thing about Cincinnati is that you can walk a fourteen-block section of town without ever going outside. They call it the "Skyway" because it is on the second floor and connects buildings using enclosed walkways over the streets. It's all enclosed and very nice. I was on the walkway that connects a fancy hotel, a "high-rise." I wasn't staying in that one. I walked through the lobby with all its beautiful chandeliers, and on to the next sky-way to a store called Saks Fifth Avenue. Have you ever heard of that? I walked in there one time and I can't even afford a pair of socks there. And the sky-way that connected that hotel with that fancy department store was littered with homeless people sleeping on bits of cardboard on Sunday morning. Some had five-dollar bills laying around them which had been dropped by passers-by. They were so sound asleep they hadn't picked them up yet. As I looked at each of these men, I couldn't help but wonder who they were. "Who are you? What are you doing here? You must have had a home at one time. Did you have a family? Who were your parents? Did you open presents on your birthday? Did you ever sit around a Thanksgiving-day table so full of food that it took days to finish it? Did you ride a bus to school? Did you ever sit in a Sunday school class, or a Sabbath school class? Who are you? How did you end up here?" These silent questions remained unanswered as these men slept as if to wake up was to open eyes to the reality that they had no home. Turn with me to Luke 15. One of the most beautiful stories in the Bible is about a homeless person. Jesus tells this story in about 30 sentences. Luke 15:11. Jesus Continued:... When I see something like that I think, "What was Jesus continuing?" Look back at verse 1 to see whom He is talking to and why. In verses 1 and 2 it says, Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear Him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." And Jesus started telling parables. This is one of the parables that He was telling to the Pharisees. He was continuing, He was trying to instruct them. He was telling this parable to the Pharisees in front of the tax collectors and sinners. Verses 11-12: Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them." Evidently the younger son felt constrained by his father. He felt the need for freedom from his father, from his father's rules, from his father's laws, from his father's house, from his father's sight. He felt no obligation to his father. He felt no gratitude. Yet he still made claims on his father's wealth. What I find amazing here is that his father said okay. His father allowed his son to make this grand mistake. How hard it is to allow our children the freedom to make mistakes when we know what the outcome will be. But this father realizes that his son is going to make this mistake one way or another and allows it. Might as well be with his knowledge and his blessing. Jesus did that. With Peter. Remember Peter walking on the water? He didn't say, "Now Peter, don't look away." Peter needed to make that mistake, didn't he. But the Father was still there. Jesus was still there. I'll give some parental advice, and this is from one who knows little. Allow them to fail in your home so that they can survive in this world. Give them the opportunities to fail where you can be there to pick them up, so they can learn. That's what this father did with his son. "Okay, I'm going to allow you to make a mistake." Also notice that the father did not burn bridges. He does not say, "If you leave, don't plan on crawling back to me when you run out of money!" He didn't burn bridges. Have you burned bridges between yourself and your children? Maybe you have. Ask forgiveness and ask for the power to rebuild those bridges! It's not too late. Don't burn bridges between your loved ones and your self. As you will see, the bridge was there when this young man came home. Verse 13: "Not long after that, the younger son got together all that he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living." He squandered his father's wealth, what he had been given. That is what it means to be Prodigal, to squander, to throw away, to waste. This man not only squandered his wealth, he squandered years of his life, he squandered his spirituality, all to gratify himself and his search for freedom. Verses 14-15: "After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs." Remember to whom Jesus is telling this story. The Jews! The Jews would have nothing to do with swine or pigs and not touch them. And here, I'm sure the Pharisees are saying, "Yes, he kind of got what he deserved. That's as low as a son of Abraham can go. To be around pigs! Ironically this man left in search of his freedom and he only found slavery. Look at Proverbs 5:22,23 The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. He will die for his lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly. What is it that enslaves us? Our own sinfulness. And yet this young man thought that he was going to gain his freedom by being his own sinful self. And there he did find slavery. He ends up feeding the swine. He found that he had more freedom in his father's house! Luke 15:16: "He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything." Now, where were his friends, the people he had been squandering his wealth with? It's no fun to do it by yourself. Misery loves company. Where are they? Nobody there to offer him a bite to eat. I remember my first day at school at Standifer Gap Elementary. First grade. My mother was driving me to school, and as she pulled up in the parking lot I was so excited! I actually remember what my mother said before I got out of the car. She said, "Be careful about who you choose to be your friends." I remembered that, ad I disobeyed. I met Billy and Billy became my friend. Billy liked to do things in class, like talk out of turn. That was a bad thing back then. Billy loved to talk when the teacher was talking. Guess who he talked to? He talked to me. Guess who also got into trouble with Billy? I did. I had not chosen my friends wisely. That's such a minor thing, but it grows. As you become teen- agers it becomes more critical who your friends are because they will guide you to things that are not normally done by yourself. And then when you get into trouble, where are your friends? They disappear just like this young man's friends did. Our friends are a constant influence on our actions. Choose them wisely! They had helped him into this situation but they were not here to help him out of it. This man had chosen friends who left when the going got tough. Verse 17: "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!' Remember, his father had not burned the bridges. His thoughts returned to his father. See how important it is not to burn bridges? He remembered his father's love, not his love for his son. He dare not think that high. He remembered his father's love for his servants. He loves his servants so much that they have food to spare! And here I am, and I have nothing. "Wow, if my father would simply hire me as a servant, I would have more food than I could eat." His father's love was drawing him home. Yet he did not realize the extent of it. Verse 18-19: "I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men. He did not yet fathom his father's love. He composes a speech to give to his father with hopes of becoming a servant. Verse 20 first part: "So he got up and went to his father. Notice, this says nothing about him taking a bath. It says nothing of finding better clothes. It says nothing about changing himself. He got up as he was and went to his father, as he was, right out of the pig sty. D.L. Moody told a story about an artist who was attempting to paint the Prodigal Son. He searched the streets of the city for a long time to find a man who looked destitute enough to fit the description. He could find no one until one day he finally found a beggar that looked the part. He went up to the beggar and he said, "Here is my address. You come to my studio tomorrow at ten o'clock. I will paint your portrait and pay you well." The beggar thought, "Oh, I'm getting my portrait painted." He went and found a comb. He found some soap. He found some clothes that looked a little better than what he had. He shaved and cleaned up. At ten o'clock, the man showed up at the artist's studio but the artist asked, "Who are you?" "I was to have my portrait painted at ten." "No, I never saw you before. I don't know you. Oh, but.. I was looking for a beggar." "Well, I am that beggar. I decided to clean up a bit since I was going to paint my portrait." And the artist said, "Go away. You are of no use to me now. I needed you as you were. Now you are of no use to me!" We must come to the Father as we are! He know what we are really like. If we wait until we are good enough, we will wait until eternity has past! Verse 20 last part: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." The prodigal son did not realize the hurt and void that he had left in his father's house. His father was waiting and watching for him. His father recognized him through all of his filth and ran to meet him. And he got up to him and stopped and he said, "Wait! Go take a bath and then I will hug and kiss you." NO! He took him as he was, into his arms. He didn't even wrinkle his nose and say, "You smell like a pig." He hugged him and kissed him in his present disgrace! But the son doesn't yet realize what is happening and begins the speech that he has been rehearsing all the way home. He's brought it down to two sentences because he wants it to be refined. He wants to get it out fast. He doesn't want his father to send him away before he's done with his speech, and so he starts it. Look at verse 21: "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'" True words indeed. He had sinned against Heaven and his father. He was not worthy to be a son. But his father does not let him finish the speech! His father refuses to hear the part about being a servant for this is not a servant, this is his child. Verse 22: "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet." The loving father did not say a thing about "let's get you cleaned up and then we will think about what to do." He orders his servants, "Quick! Bring my robe and cover what is unclean." To make this son look like he belonged and had never left. He is now covered by his fathers righteousness. He had a ring placed upon his finger to replace the one that had been lost. A ring symbolized family membership in those days. On such a ring would have been the family inscription or crest. It could be used in the market place like a credit card. This son's past credit history had just been erased! The Father had paid his debt in full. He now has a new platinum Master Card on his finger. He is HOME!!!! Verses 23-24: "'Bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate." This man had perceived his father to be stern and severe just as Satan wishes us to think of our Heavenly Father. But now he has a different perception His father is a Father of Love! I wish that the story ended here. But this is not a story of one lost son but of two lost sons. The older son was homeless as well. Let's see why. Verses 25-27: "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come," he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'" Unlike his father, the older brother had not been looking for the prodigal's return. He had probably heard rumor of his brother and had thought that he gotten what he deserved. Verse 28: "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him." Notice who went out to whom. The father goes out to his son as well to plead with him. "But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you" Slaving? Remember what I said about the older brother being homeless. He considered himself a slave of his father. He was homeless in his own home. He did not even claim his own brother: "this son of yours." He was a slave in his own father's house. He was homeless in his own father's home! That's the way he felt. "I've been working my way..." Have you ever heard that? "I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him.'" Verses 28-30: "'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'" Wow! "My son," the father said. He calls him, "son." "My son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours. The fattened calf was yours. Everything! You didn't realize that you had it all in my home. You were a slave in my home. You didn't realize how good you had it. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found." This loving father not only affirms that the eldest son is his son, but reminds him gently that the youngest son is still his little brother. "This brother of yours has returned." What did the brother decided to do? Jesus does not say but allow His hearers to decide for they are the elder brother of the story. Who are you? Are you a prodigal son who needs to return home? Go to the father just as you are. Are you a prodigal son who has returned home? Praise God! Are you an older brother who feels like a slave in his own house and does not care for his brother? Learn of the Father's love and learn to feel at home with your fellow sinful brothers. Are you an older brother who enjoys being a Son to his Father and shows it by bringing his brothers back to his father? Praise God! No matter who you are, we have the same Heavenly Father, not a keeper of slaves, but a lover of His children! Thanksgiving reminds us of what we are thankful for. I am thankful for many wonderful things! But I am most thankful that I will never have to be homeless because my Heavenly Father has paid the price to keep me as His son. Opening Hymn #560, Let All Things Now LivingScripture: Luke 15:18-20Closing Hymn: #296, Lord, I'm Coming Home McDonald Road Sermons Index

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Eternal Life Sermon

Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 7:24PM

Pastor Donald J Gettys

Eternal Life

One day as a young student at Andrews University I was assigned to the Portland, Michigan church to try to start up a new church and they had authorized us to rent the funeral home. Kind of a cold place to start up a new church. It's near Lansing and Grand Ledge. We decided to do a religious survey, so one afternoon we were out and I was knocking on doors that afternoon. I came to this one house and the man was already outside raking the leaves. And I said, "Sir, I'd like to take a survey. Do you believe in God?" You know. And various questions. Finally he stopped me, and he said, "You man, are you saved?" Now, I was a Seventh-day Adventist! And I said, "Well, um, ah." I didn't even know how to answer the question. Nobody had ever asked me that question in my whole life. I said, "I don't know. Sure. Probably I am." By the way, how many here are saved? By the show of hands it looks like about a third of you are saved. Most SDA's don't know for sure if they are saved. We still don't know for sure, do we. It's awful, it's awful. And to complicate the matter, Ellen G. White says in her book, Christ Object Lessons, p. 155, "Those who accept the Savior, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or to feel that they are saved!" Now that complicates it, doesn't it. And here's one more: Selected Messages, Vol. 1, p.314. "No sanctified tongue will be found uttering these words (I am saved) till Christ shall come..." So we have a very hard time with this. It's tough. So, too many Seventh-day Adventists sit back and believe that they cannot know if they are saved or lost! They don't have that assurance of salvation. My purpose today in this sermon is to show from God's word that we can know in our heart if we are saved or not. You can have assurance that you are saved.

I think what Ellen White is trying to tell us is that we shouldn't be boasting and saying, "I'm saved." Maybe there's some type of pride element here. Maybe it could lead to Boasting or self- sufficiency.
Maybe we must never cease to advance and sit back and just and say: "Back in 1970 I was saved and there is nothing left for me to do. I am saved, I'm okay, nothing can change that. So here I sit." We shouldn't do that, should we.
Maybe what she (Ellen White) is doing is similar to I Corinthians 10:12 (KJV) where it says, "Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." So we need to be careful, don't we.

We are not fail-proof. We are not "fail- safe." We can fall. We might be saved this year and be lost next year. Things can change. BUT--just as bad or worse I think is for a person to think that we can't know if we are saved. "Just can't be sure" "I just don't know?" That's bad. It's like not knowing whether or not you are married! How many people here are married? How many of you don't know if you're married or not? I saw one feeble hand! Maybe I need to talk with you. How do you know that you are married? "Well, I know if I'm married or not." Well can you know if you are "saved?" Surely you can know. How many know that you are going to be married 5 years from now for sure? Wow! I saw about ten hands, thirteen or fourteen hands! The rest of you aren't sure, are you. You know, the danger of saying "I will be saved when Jesus comes" is like a married person saying: "I will never get a divorce". Can you really say that? You don't know. You don't know. We can know if we are saved today, but only God knows the future. But let us not be bashful about knowing in our heart whether or not we are in a saved condition right now. We need to know that. Let me read you another statement that will balance one of these first statements I read from Ellen White. This is from Selected Messages, Vol. 1, p. 373. "It is essential to have faith in Jesus and to believe you are saved through Him." Amen! I love that. And in Steps to Christ, p. 52 "It is the privilege of all who comply with the conditions to know for themselves that pardon is freely extended for every sin." Praise God for that statement. The devil doesn't want you to know if we are saved or not! But Jesus wants you to know, and God wants you to know in your heart that you are saved. John 6:47 (KJV) "Verily, verily, I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." He that believes on Jesus has everlasting life. If you believe, you have it. If you believe, you have. Is there a doubt there? There is no doubt. Do you believe that verse? That means that many Adventist did not believe that verse, and even John 3:16. John 3:16 says that "...whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." ..."believes...has eternal life." I didn't even believe that when I was going to the seminary. There is more to it than that. Today, I believe that verse, because you can read it over and over again. I don't believe in "cheap grace" as some put it. But hear me out. I want you to make sure of your salvation. "He that believeth in me hath everlasting life." Is this saying, "He that believeth on me has a good chance of having quasi eternal life? Does it say that? No! He has it! The Greek word for "believe" means, (you need to get it out of the Greek. You don't get it out of the English.) "If you believe and keep on believing."

If you keep on believing you will keep on having eternal life.
If you keep on believing in Jesus or
If you keep on having faith in Jesus or
If you keep on trusting in Jesus, you will keep on having eternal life.

That's clear, isn't it? It's very simple. So, how do you know if you're saved or not? If you believe in Jesus, if you trust in Jesus, if you have faith in Jesus, you have eternal life. It's that simple. Come over here to John 20:31, "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." How do you get that life? By believing. Isn't that beautiful? By believing you have life. Notice that God does not say you have to feel saved. If you believe, you have it. You are saved, if you believe. The feeling will follow the faith. It might not follow automatically, it might not follow quickly, but it will come. You can have assurance today. You can know right now if you are saved. The salvation umbrella is basically, believe. There are several other steps:

Confess your sins.
Ask Christ for eternal life.
Believe He did it and you have it.
Receive His gift of eternal life!!

1. CONFESS Your Sins to Jesus. Not to some earthly priest but to our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Confess your sins. (Step #1) I John 1:9 (KJV), If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

IF! I flip the switch, the light will shine
IF! I Turn the key. The car will start!
IF! I confess my sins, God will forgive my sins!
IF! I confess my sins, God will cleanse me from all unrighteousness! He doesn't just forgive it, He cleanses it away.

It all depends on me. The "If" is my part. He is faithful. God is faithful. If you ask Him to forgive your sins, they're gone. You may not feel forgiven, but the sins are gone. God is a faithful and careful worker. Don't try to do God's work for Him. Don't do it yourself. This is where our doubt come in, because we're basing our salvation on our works. That's where the problem is. We need to base our salvation on Jesus Christ and His works, His righteousness. That's where we get assurance from. When I look at Don Gettys, I'm not so very sure. When I look at Jesus, I'm positive. That's where you get your confidence from. Not your own life. Too many try to cleanse themselves. "Well, I did it again! If you could possible forgive me one more time, I won't do it again I promise!" God says, "I will cleanse you! I will make you whiter than snow. Though your sins be as red as crimson, they will be as white as snow." Who make them that way? He does! Let Him! To confess means to admit your sins in sorrow, and let Him give you the victory. Now I want good works in my life. Don't ever get me wrong on that. I want a victorious life. I want a life full of good works. How do I get those good works? By surrendering to Jesus, by believing on Him, by accepting Him as my Righteousness, then I'm empowered and motivated. God says, "I will cleanse you." Let Him do it. 2. Ask Christ to save you, and He will. (1 Confess) In Luke 11:9, we are taught that we should Ask and He will answer. We should Seek and we will find. We should Knock and He will open the door to us. It's up to us to do the asking, the seeking, and the knocking. You see, Eternal Life is a gift (Romans 6:23). Can you earn a gift? At Christmas time, can you earn your gifts? At birthday times, can you earn a gift? You can't do it. And salvation is a gift. It's not a wage. We cannot earn it or any part of it. We cannot save our selves. We are all sinners (Romans 3:23). How many people will be declared righteous by the observing the law? No one. We are all sinners. God must punish sin. Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. But God's punishment was placed on Christ. He took Don Gettys' punishment. He took your punishment upon Himself. Jesus paid the full penalty for your and my sins. If we believe His promises to save us, and you claim those promises, you ask Him to save you, He will save you because He is a professional Savior. If we receive Christ and His salvation, we are saved, and we're saved right now. Right now! I JOHN 5:12 He who has the Son has life! It's that simple. If you have Jesus you have eternal life. So, invite Jesus into you heart. Fall in love with Him. Ask Him to save you. Surrender your life, your whole heart to Him, accept Jesus as your Savior, accept His righteousness as your righteousness, and He will save you. Surely Christ is more faithful than I am. If a little child asks me for some peanut butter bread would I give him a rock? NO! So Ask HIM to save you! 3. BELIEVE (1-Confess 2-Ask) Mark 11:22-24 (NKJV) ..." whoever says to this mountain: Be removed and be cast into the sea and do not doubt, but believes...he will have whatever he says." You will have whatever you desire if you believe. Believe! You need to believe. I might believe in Egg Plant. I believe in that stuff, but, you know, don't eat too much of it. Try to avoid it if I can. Well, it's okay. You need to believe! Not like a person believes in skydiving. I believe in skydiving, but I avoid it. Some people believe in bungee-jumping. I believe in that, but I avoid it. You need to believe in it with your full faith something that you would trust. If you can have that relationship with Jesus, you have eternal life. You've got it. "I believe. Lord help my unbelief." You see, it's not just a mere knowledge of Jesus. That's not what it's all about because the devil believes that Jesus is the Christ. It's trusting in Him that we're talking about. When we trust in Him completely. This old world needs more true believers. Are you a believer? "Yes!" Then you're one of God's people. Without real belief could anyone in the bible have been healed? Study Lazarus sometime. (Look up John 11.) Do some homework. Could Lazarus have been raised from the dead if his sisters Mary and Martha had the least bit of doubt? John 11:40, Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" You see, none of us will see the kingdom of God either unless we really believe and trust in Jesus. Ask God to save you from sin..And He will. Ask God to forgive your sins. They are gone. Ask God to give you eternal life. You have it - If you believe it! John 5:24 (KJV), "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life." Has what? Everlasting life. There it is. He has it! No doubt about it. And John 6:40 says, "For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." That's how we're saved. By trusting in Jesus. That word is "trust." I John 5:10-13, our scripture reading this morning. Verse 11: "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." If you have Jesus you have life. Do you know what the Greek word for "life" is right there? It's not "bios," but it's "zoe." This is the word we get Zoology from; the study of life. What that means is "real Life." Life as God intended it to be. That's what kind of life you will have. Jesus is talking about veritable genuine true life. This is not plastic life made in China, but quality life made in Heaven! Life fresh from the creator as He intends it to be. Perfect life, vigorous life, robust life, the good life, the abundant life. He will give you that kind of life. And how do you get it? If you believe in Him. It is a gift. Praise God, we can know that we have that kind of life. There is no doubting it. "If you believe the promise, believe that you are forgiven and cleansed, God supplies the fact; you are made whole." Steps to Christ, p.51. "...It is so if you believe it. Do not wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, I believe it; it is so! Not because I feel it, but because God has promised it." Steps to Christ, p. 53. There may not be any feeling that we are saved. There is no proof that we can put our finger on. We must go on our faith alone. Job did that type of faith. I submit to you that is exactly how Job endured his crisis, because he had that faith. Remember what Job said? In Job 19:25 he said: "I know that my redeemer liveth." Without that assurance he wouldn't have made it through his personal time of trouble. Job 13:15- "Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him." This assurance brought Job through his Time of Trouble. It will carry you through the Time of Trouble. Whatever your time of trouble is, you can go through it by trusting in Jesus. Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That is precious. And this is the present tense here: "If you confess and believe and you keep believing, as long as you keep believing you keep having eternal life. It happens. Verse 10: For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. So, we confess our sins to Him, we ask Him for salvation, and we believe that He does save us. And then... 4. RECEIVE THE GIFT! (1-Confess 2-Ask 3-Believe) You must receive it. At your birthday time you're never going to enjoy what's inside that package unless you receive it and open it, are you? It won't happen. How do you receive the gift? How does that happen? Let's go over here to John 1. (By the way, if you carry your Bible to church for ten years, you're going to wear it out looking up texts. That's what we hope to do. You need to get a new Bible now and then anyway.) John 1:11,12 (KJV): He came to His own and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. So you need to believe, but you also need to receive, receive the gift. Salvation must be received. You can't believe that it is yours and not take it or use it. You must receive it. EPHESIANS 2:8 (KJV) says that salvation is a gift.. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Romans 6:23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Again, salvation is the gift of God. It is a FREE gift. We cannot earn it. All we have to do is receive it. Our part is to take it. (Get out free Bible, or book or $5.00 bill) Let's say salvation is like as if I were to have a good book and hold it out and offer it free to one of you. And I say, "Here it is. If anyone wants it, come up and get it. It is yours. Take it. Come and receive it. It is free. But it will only be yours if you take it and receive it unto yourself. The gift must be claimed to be had." (Let someone get it) Do you have it? Yes or No? How do you know? Because you received it. How many of you could have had this gift? Anyone. How many can have eternal life? All! But you must receive the gift. Now, how do we know we are saved? How can you figure that out? You have to accept these promises. You have to accept these statements. You have to believe in them, have faith in them, trust in them. Let me give you a little indicator of how you might know. If you know you are in a saved condition, Does this mean you will never fall? Come over her to Proverbs 24 Now here is something I was failing in, and once I got my mind wrapped around this, it helped me a lot. Maybe it'll help you, too. Proverbs 24:16 (KJV). Notice what this says: "For though a just man falleth seven times but he riseth up again. But the wicked shall fall into mischief." What does that tell me? What kind of a person falls? A just man. A Christian! He falls. Do you get that? I am not quite perfect yet. I'm working on it. A Christian falls, a just man falls. Now you may be thinking, "Well, the Pastor is telling me that if I believe I am saved. But when I look at my life I make all these mistakes. I know I'm lost." Don't look at your life. Where should you be looking? You need to look to Jesus. I occasionally slip. I do occasionally do unsatisfactory things. I occasionally sin. I make bloopers. So am a really saved or am I lost? The Bible says a just man falls, but he gets back up. He keeps trying. Let me give you an illustration. Maybe you'll get the point. I'm going to answer the question, "How do I know I am save?" by asking another question. That's a good way to answer something, isn't it. So, here's the question: What is the difference between a hog and a sheep? You have two animals here. What's the difference between a hog and a sheep. If they both happen to come up to a mud puddle and fall in the mud puddle, one differences is, the hog enjoys it. He's down in it making the most of it. They throw the mud everywhere, and you look at the hog, he's smiling. He's in hog heaven, a mud hole. What happens to the sheep when he falls in the mud hole? Does he like it? No! He wants to get out of there. He cries to his master, "Please get me out of here." And when he gets out, is he happy with the mud that's on his wool? No! He says, "Please wash me. Make me white again." Do you see the difference between a hog and a sheep? They both end up in the mud puddle occasionally by accident, but the sheep hates it. The sheep wants cleansing immediately. He can't stand it. That's how you know the difference between a hog and a sheep. Are you a sheep? If you sin, and you think, "That was kind of enjoyable. I'd like to do that again." You may be a hog. You'd better look in the mirror, you might be smiling. But, friends, if you get in that mudhole, if you sin, and you hate it, when you get out of it, "I hope I never do that again. Pleas wash me. Please forgive me. Please cleanse me." You're on the way to the kingdom. That's a mark of a Christian. You need to stop falling in the mudhole. I don't want to fall in the mudhole. I don't want to sin. I don't want to disappoint my Savior. And, I'm falling in the mudhole less and less. Our live need to be more like Jesus' every day, don't they. So that how you can know. That's one indicator. Come over here to Ephesians 2:8,9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast. I believe in that. You can be saved. You can know that you have eternal life. And with that assurance you can go through many a hard time. Do I know that I'm married? Yes. How do I know that? My wife isn't even here today. Where is my wife? She's in California. She's worshiping at the Desert Hot Spring church this morning. How do I know I'm married? Well, one reason is that I just talked with my wife this morning. I was here at the church, it was almost eight o'clock ad I got a phone call and it was my wife. I said, "Dear, what time is it in California?" It was nearly five in the morning. I asked, "What are you doing up." She said, "I set my alarm so I could call you and wish you a happy Sabbath." Ah! You know! My wife! I'm married to the best wife in the world, Cindy! How do I know I'm married? You know you're married, don't you? Do you know that you're saved? You are, because every morning, Jesus sends you a "Hallmark Card" of a beautiful morning. Did you see that sunrise? It's there. Every morning He renews His love with you, His covenant with you. His mercies are new every morning. He loves you. He's there. He's real. Connect with Him and I know you will be a better and a stronger Christian. You're going to be there in heaven. You are going to be there, I believe, because you have faith in Him, and you keep that faith and you will keep your salvation.

Hymn of Praise: #251, He Lives!
Scripture: I John 5:9-13
Hymn of Response: #428, Sweet Bye and Bye

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The Runner Video-Sermon

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 6:23PM

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUUL-NNPlhI]

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