Wes Peppers

ASI 2016: Called. Chosen. Committed.

Personal Spiritual Enrichment

Absolute Surrender

Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to be here together.

Thank you for those, Lord, who have come to ASI to be revived and renewed.

We wanna ask, Lord, that your Spirit would guide and direct our steps, draw us close to you, we pray.

Open our eyes to the truth, open our eyes to our need, open our eyes to Jesus.

May the Holy Spirit today convict us and change us, challenge us, revive us, strengthen us, and Lord, call us to surrender.

So we ask, Lord Jesus, that your presence would be here stirring our hearts, and we come in Jesus' name, that all God's people say amen.

A person would have to be a fool not to know and understand that we are living in the final events of Earth's history.

But believe it or not, there are certainly fools upon this Earth, are there not?

And the Bible tells us in 2 Peter 1, verse 19, and so we have a prophetic word, what friends?

Confirmed, it says, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." So Scripture says that prophecy was given to us as a confirmation.

As a confirmation that God is guiding His church, God is guiding His people, God is guiding us individually.

God doesn't leave us in the dark, He doesn't leave us blind.

So the Bible says that we have the prophetic word confirmed.

It confirms to us that the Scripture is true, that we're on the right track.

Now, I want to say this today, that the message which the Seventh-day Adventist church has proclaimed for the last 150 years are no longer prophecies for the future, but they are fulfillments in the present.

If you have watched, friends, in the last 10 years, we see that our message is being fulfilled just like we were told it was going to be.

You know, 20, 30 years ago, we had little flashes here and there of prophecy being fulfilled.

And prophecy was definitely fulfilled at the beginning of our movement.

But in the last 10 years, friends, we have seen the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation and specific prophecies in the book Great Controversy being fulfilled right before our very eyes.

We're going to look at some of those things.

So we are no longer waiting for the final prophecies to happen.

We are now watching them unfold in this generation.

And yet we find that so much of the church is asleep.

You may think I'm not asleep now, but you might be asleep by the end of this talk.

So I want to go through some very recent activity in the news, and that's going to lead us into our talk on surrender.

September 26, 2015, Time magazine puts out this issue called the New Roman Empire.

September 2015, Christianity Today wrote an article, Within a few centuries, the Pope has gone from Antichrist to Brother in Christ for a lot of Protestants.

Now friends, I have a whole slew of things that I won't share today, but I'm just picking some of the biggest ones.

You remember Last year, September, Pope Francis marched himself down the aisle of the United States Congress and stood and addressed Congress for the first time in our nation's history.

And he made this statement, I call for a courageous and responsible effort to redirect our steps.

I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States and this Congress have an important role to play.

Notice what he says, now is the time for courageous actions and what?

Compass Magazine wrote following that visit, it said, today, September 24, 2015, will go down in the annals of history as the day which the tide shifted.

Never in the history of the Republic has any other religious leader addressed a joint session of the US Congress.

In his approximately 50 minute speech Pope Francis moved many members of Congress to tears as he invoked the need to listen to the voice of faith while addressing many controversial issues.

So Compass Magazine made the point that prophetically in our nation, the tide did what, friends?

Reviewed Herald, 1886, this is the religion which Protestants are beginning to look upon with so much favor and which will eventually be united with Protestantism.

This union will not, however, be affected by a change in Catholicism, for Rome never changes.

The adoption of liberal ideas on its part will bring it where it can clasp the hand of Catholicism.

Have we began to see Protestantism look with favor, yes or no?

It says, Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, and she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, and when under the influence of this threefold, you and our country will repudiate every principle of its constitution as a Protestant and Republican government.

And shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions.

Then we shall know the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.

Do you suppose today that we're at that point?

Are we on the edge of the marvelous working of Satan?

I just saw an article yesterday, I think it was, that the Temple of Satan is launching after-school programs in multiple cities.

In fact, they already have 9 in major U.S.

Cities like Los Angeles and Atlanta and D.C.

They're launching after-school programs to actually counter the good news programs that Christianity has for kids who need an after-school program.

If you go to the internet, just Google that.

Just Google satanic after-school programs, and they pop up all over the news.

He's about ready to reveal himself in the flesh.

Now in 1948, Billy Graham said, the 3 greatest menaces faced by Orthodox Christianity are Communism, Roman Catholicism, and Muhammadism, or Islam.

That's what Billy Graham said in 1948, but guess what he says now?

He says, I found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of Orthodox Roman Catholic.

Paul Crouch, who found Trinity Broadcasting, he said, I am eradicating the word Protestant from my vocabulary.

It's time for Catholics and non-Catholics to come together as 1.

Rick Warren said, Protestants as a people have a long history of heresy.

The time for reconciliation is now in order to ensure a full and dogmatic transition into the folds of the church.

July 5th, last month, 2016, 300 denominations met in Munich, Germany for an ecumenical gathering, trying to tear down those barriers.

German YMCA leader Gerhard Pross said, the division among Christians in Europe is a wound.

If you remember Tony Palmer, remember that?

He made comments like the Protestant Reformation is over.

The Protestantism is spiritual racism, he said.

I don't know if you remember that statement.

Lansing SDA Church

A Message From God

Well, this morning I had this message planned for you, what the church really is.

And I suppose that the Lord will have me preach that sermon sometime.

But every so often I wake up early on Sabbath morning, the Lord wakes me up and it was quite early this morning and the Lord said, that's not the message for today.

And I thought to myself, I kind of tremble a little bit and I say, well what do I do Lord?

He says get up and get on your knees and I'm going to give you a message.

So whoever you are this morning, whoever this message is for, it's from the Lord, but I believe that it's for all of us.

It was certainly for me as the Lord spoke to me this morning.

I'm going to kneel this morning and invite you to bow your heads and pray as I pray and ask the Lord to bless us.

Father, this morning we rejoice in the fullness of your spirit who's joined us today, your presence today, we need it and we pray for it, we believe that we've had it, but we claim an even deeper experience with you this morning.

So Lord, we ask that the Spirit of God would move upon our hearts, would touch our hearts today, and draw us sweetly to you.

We pray that Jesus would be honored this morning, that as we go now to the Word, that this is the pinnacle of our worship, to open the bread of life as you speak to us this morning.

We pray that you would give us just a gentle breeze today as the wind blows through the sanctuary but more importantly we pray for that breeze of the Holy Spirit.

That Lord, we wouldn't receive a breeze of your Spirit, we'd receive a hurricane.

So, bless us, we ask, in Jesus' name, Amen.

I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Kings chapter 18.

1 Kings chapter 18 and probably a very familiar story for many of you.

1 Kings chapter 18 the Bible talks about Elijah in the land of Israel and he's always confronting a certain fellow and who is that fellow?

And King Ahab and Jezebel were ruling the land and Jezebel, we read this story and when you actually compare this story to the book of Revelation you find something very compelling that there's a lot of similarities between the stories, this story of Ahab and Jezebel and Elijah and many of the prophecies in the book of Revelation.

In fact, you find that God's people will go through very similar circumstances in the last days that Elijah went through in these days.

And so we're going to take a look at this story today and see if we can find something, and I believe that we will, that will apply to us today.

So we're going to start here, 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 1.

The Lord speaks to your heart and He's stirring your heart.

Chapter 18 verse 1 it says, And it came to pass after many days, that Elijah, I'm sorry, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth.

How many of you think we need to have rain on the earth?

Not just physical rain, but what other kind of rain?

We want the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

When the Bible says that God spoke to Elijah and he sent him in the third year, it's talking about that there was a drought in the land, right?

God had sent no rain for over 3 years because the people of Israel had been worshipping what, friends?

And God says, as long as they're worshipping idols, until their heart turns back to me, I'm going to send how much rain?

So Elijah went and presented himself to Ahab and there was a severe famine in Samaria.

And Ahab called Obadiah, who was in charge of his house.

For so it was while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah had taken 100 prophets and hidden them 50 to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.

The Word and the water being a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

Even in a time where there's great drought the Lord God still reigns from on high.

Even when there's a drought in the land like there was in Israel.

Let me ask you today, is there a spiritual drought in our nation?

Somebody sent, actually Pastor Jonathan sent me a text yesterday said he just saw a three-year-old child sitting on an iPad Playing a game which they were killing other people and watching it as if it were nothing Friends today we live in an age where people become in set or numb to write it wrong We're living in an age of spiritual drought, are we not?

Now if you notice there in verse 4, it says that Jezebel massacred the prophets of the Lord.

She had also replaced the prophets of the Lord with the prophets of who?

Now I have a question for you this morning.

In your own personal life, do you ever exchange the counsel of God for the prophets of Baal?

Do we ever exchange what the Lord has given to us in His word with our own inclinations, our own desires, our own flesh rising up and taking control of our judgment, do we ever exchange or massacre the prophets of the Lord found in His Word to heed the counsel of Baal?

Maybe there's some issue in your life today that you're dealing with where you have exchanged the counsel of the Lord for the counsel of the prophets of Baal.

This was the situation of Israel and I believe today that this is the situation of our country, our nation.

We read there in verse 1 through 4, kind of the background, and Jezebel had exchanged and massacred many of the prophets of the Lord, but thanks be to God that there's always somebody faithful on this earth to God, amen?

Thank God for Obadiah who took a hundred prophets of Bel- He actually served in the king's court.

He took those prophets of the Lord and hid them in the cave because God will always have a remnant.

God's always going to have a faithful people that's going to rise up and serve Him no matter how dark it gets, no matter how dim it gets, no matter how difficult it gets, God's always going to have a people.

In the last days God's going to have a people, isn't He?

In the last days God's going to have a remnant.

I don't know about you friends, but with all of my heart I want to be a part of that remnant.

I don't want to be serving Baal in the last days.

I don't want to be found bowing to the altar of Baal when Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven.

I don't want to be found with anything that's related to Baal in my life, in my house, in my family, or in my ministry.

I want to go to the cave like the prophets of God and be fed with bread and with water.

The bread of life, the word of God, the water of life, and the Holy Spirit.

I don't want to be able by the grace of God to stand and destroy the altars of Baal in the last days.

How many of you want to have that same experience?

We need to have a dedication to the Lord, amen?

We need to reject the prophets of Baal and serve the altar of the Lord.

Verse 17, the Bible says that there's some things that took place between then and there.

Then it happened when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said to him, is that you O troubler of Israel?

When we're in a state of mind or heart, where we are serving the prophets of Baal, When God sends faithful messengers to us, how do we typically receive them?

Now as a pastor, when I meet people and I talk to people and I interact with them that are out in the community and so forth and we talk a little bit and they're super friendly and we I asked them what they do for work and they'll say oh well you know I'm an engineer or I'm a teacher or whatever and then they asked me what I do and I say I'm a pastor I usually get 1 of 2 response, responses.

They usually say, Oh, wow, that's really awesome.

It Is Written

And however close we were to the Lord, we need to be closer.

We need to be drawing more sweetly to Him.

And God is winning souls in Lansing, and he's changing our lives while he's doing it.

And we've got folks that are just lined up for baptism for the next several months, and we want to continue that track.

And the Lord is going to not just use me, not just use you.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, he's not going to use, I'm getting distracted here.

He's not just gonna use Pastor Jonathan or Nancy or the pastoral staff.

And He is using you, but He has to keep using you more.

And that means that we all have to make ourselves more available to Him.

I've been reading this book by a gentleman named Andrew Murray, and it's called Absolute surrender.

It's 1 an incredible book and he talks about that God cannot truly bless the work until we are completely surrendered to Him.

How many of you think we need to be surrendered to the Lord Jesus?

If you have not figured that out in your life, I appeal to you today to not do another thing until you figure it out.

And the only place you're going to figure it out is down upon your knees, pleading with Him to make it clear for you, amen?

And if we would get on our knees and not move until we know that we've been in the presence of God, our lives would radically change forever, amen?

And we should be doing that every day, amen?

That's the only way we're going to experience the presence of God.

It's the only way you're going to have a transformation of your character.

It's the only way you're going to be prepared for Heaven, is to have a daily communion with Him.

This morning I'm just going to share a brief word with you.

And I've got to tell you guys, we've got, God has got great things coming up.

This fall, the Bible study reformation, you're going to hear more about this.

But God is going to equip each 1 of us to be able to give Bible studies, amen?

We have strong tower radio coming to Lansing.

You're gonna hear me standing up here very soon making appeals, we're gonna say, we got more people that wanna study the Bible that we can handle.

We got more people wanting to know the 3 angels message.

We need all of us to be giving out Bible studies and to be sharing the Word of God with others.

We want to be like the book of Acts because we want to be a church that acts.

How many of you want to be a church that acts like the book of Acts?

I'm just gonna share a brief thought with you this morning.

Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to be gathered together here.

We are gathered here together to lift up our hearts to you, to praise you, to understand you, to worship you, to be in your presence this morning.

And we ask that you would bless us for the next few minutes as we open the bread of life.

May it speak to our hearts, may it speak to our minds, may it transform our lives this morning we ask for a special portion of your Holy Spirit in Jesus name Amen Matthew chapter 3 and for those who have been baptized those who are planning for baptism and for Sister Mary who is baptized today, this message is for you this morning, Matthew chapter 3 and the baptism of Jesus.

Go home and read it today, study it today, before or after you take your nap.

But Matthew chapter 3, God's Word speaks to us this morning.

Matthew 3 says in verse 13, Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

And John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and you are coming to me.

But Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all what?

And when he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.

And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Can you imagine what heaven must have been experiencing that day?

All the angels in heaven were standing there watching.

And here was the 1 whom the angels had worshipped, now standing on the banks of the Jordan River, being baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist.

There's Jesus in human form, in human flesh.

What it must have been like for heaven to watch on and see Jesus baptized.

As an example to all who would follow Him, to be baptized in His footsteps.

And down He went under the water and back up again.

And they must have been thinking when Jesus said, let it be done so to fulfill all righteousness.

Heaven rejoiced because that righteousness would be given to you and I in this day and age.

If there's 1 thing that we need, it's the righteousness of Jesus Christ in our lives.

And the Spirit of God came down and landed upon him and suddenly a voice said, this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased.

You know, the Bible tells us that there's no greater decision that we can make than to make the decision to follow Jesus Christ.

How many of you believe that to be true today?

And there's no greater decision that we can make than to live our lives daily for Jesus Christ.

Because we make the decision, the initial decision once, but we need to make that decision how often, friends?

It doesn't matter if you've been in church your whole life.

Just the same drug addict on the streets needs a renewal.

So the Bible tells us in chapter 4, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Did you know, friends, that the Spirit of God led Jesus to be tempted?

Because it was prophesied of Him that He must overcome all temptation for our sakes.

Seeking a Servant

Do we have a sure and steadfast Hope of glory yes or no Amen I want to say also that I am very thankful for our Pathfinders staff.

I got to see them in action last week down at Berrien Springs.

Back to Menu

Presenter

Wes Peppers

All Recordings

Absolute Surrender

1h 21m

A Message From God

44m

It Is Written

21m

Seeking a Servant

31m

In Due Season

40m

How to Make an Utter End of Your Enemy

48m

The Fruit of Discipleship- Hearts Like His

45m

The Joy of Discipleship

53m

The Cost of Discipleship- Part 2

45m

The Cost of Discipleship- Part 1

44m

Beat Them, Don’t Hold Them

47m

The Third and Final Glory

46m

Sound Doctrine