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Restoration Ministry

Randy Skeete

Love is in the Air

I thank you for the privilege of spending these few moments with you.

I was told in very clear language that you are required to leave this place by, am I right, 5 minutes to 1?

Let me reassure you I shall finish comfortably before 5 minutes to 1.

Don't be shocked if I'm done by a quarter to 1 or even before because the message I have to give is simple and simplicity.

I am delighted to be here with you today and I say that from the very foundation of my heart.

1, this is 1 of my schools in the sense that I am a Seventh-day Adventist.

2, having worked for 10 years as the Director of the Office of Academic Enrichment for the University of Michigan Medical School, it is a pleasure to be in the company of medical students because I feel what you feel and I have some idea as to the pain you are going through.

Now, let me also let you know I will be through before I am supposed to finish because I understand how busy you are and that you will not hesitate to initiate an exodus if by 5 to 1 I am not done.

I saw that for 10 years and I have no reason to suspect that it is any different here on this sanctified campus.

Do not worry about your next appointment.

It's all a guest of yours requests at this point.

This is Valentine's Day and my subject has to do with love.

Before I touch the subject of love, I want to touch on other aspects of God which may be properly regarded as expressions of his love.

Now, When I was counseling the medical students in Michigan, they all had a desire to be among the select few at the end of every year to be classified as AOA, Alpha Omega Alpha, representing the creme de la creme of the creme de la creme, academically.

And a few years before I left, the standards were made more rigorous so that even fewer students were admitted to that classified status.

We as human beings, we understand the reality of high standards.

There are little children, and I call them children because that's what they are, 8 years old, 6 years old, they leave their parents' homes and they go to live with gymnastic coaches and hours, hours every day with the risk of injury, followed by surgery, then convalescence, then back to practice again for years on end.

To carry out a routine that lasts a few seconds at the Olympics.

They make these sacrifices because they understand the level of excellence required.

Now some of you I believe are facing step 1 sometime soon.

When is step 2 for step 1 for you second years?

But you all desire to score way beyond the pass mark so that 2 years from now when you begin to apply for residencies and the residency directors look at your application package, they will see from the scores that you are a superior student.

There are some standards that God has set for us.

And they are superior standards, but the difference between divine standards and earthly standards is this.

An earthly standard is a standard reachable to earthly people and it is set by earthly people for earthly people.

A divine standard is set by a divine authority for earthly people.

And that divine standard applies both to divine beings and to earthly beings.

Let me give you some very clear examples as I work myself up the ladder to love which encompasses all aspects of God.

How many of you have ever been hurt by someone?

How many of you succeeded in forgiving that offending person?

The Bible says in Philippians of Ephesians chapter 4 verse thirty-two, Be kind 1 to another, tender-hearted, forgiving 1 another.

Now, Paul introduces the standard by which we must forgive, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.

A divine standard imposed upon non-divine beings.

Let's take the concept of obedience, which is a concept people naturally don't like.

John 15, verse 10, Jesus says, If he keep my commandments, he shall abide in my love, even as I also kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

Now since the commandments of Christ are precisely the commandments of the father, the obedience Jesus demonstrated is precisely the obedience required of those who claim his name as his children.

Now I'll tell you why it is like that in a moment.

Forgiveness, we must forgive the way God forgives.

How can a human being forgive the way God forgives?

Obedience, we must obey the way Jesus Christ obeyed.

Let's look at overcoming temptations in this life.

Will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and I'm set down with my father in his throne.

The way Jesus Christ overcame this world.

It is a theological expression for temptation and all the evils of the flesh is precisely how we must overcome and this argument is sustained by comparing the elements of that verse.

Will I grant to sit with me in my throne over here.

Even as I also overcame over here and I'm sat down with my father in his throne.

Now the Bible tells us clearly that the father has a throne and the son has a throne.

You find that in Revelation 21 verse 1, 22 verse 1, and 22 verse 3.

The throne of the father is equal to the throne of the son.

Then the overcoming that puts the son on the father's throne must be equal to the overcoming that puts us on the son's throne.

In the area of forgiveness, obedience, overcoming, I repeat, the standard is the very standard required of divine beings.

At twenty-seven minutes after 12, it is humility.

John chapter 13 reading from verse 13, Jesus says, he called me master and lord and he say, well, for so I am.

If I then your lord and master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash 1 another's feet.

Verse 15, for I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done.

Forgiveness, obedience, overcoming, humility.

He that saith, he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.

Biblically speaking, to walk is not to put 1 foot ahead of the other but to express a lifestyle based on standards.

The Bible says any man, any woman who claims to be a part of Christ must so live his or her life by the very moral standards that dictated the life of Jesus Christ.

The standard in lifestyle is a very standard that guided the life of Jesus Christ in forgiveness, in overcoming, in obedience, in humility, in lifestyle.

Whether between spouses or friends or classmates.

And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee.

Holy Father, keep through thine own name, those whom thou has given me, that they may be 1 as we are.

Now, we know there is no conflict between the father and the son.

Saying in the same chapter, John 17, reading verse 22, and the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them, that they may be 1, even as we are 1.

The standard of unity that exists among Christians must reflect the very unity that exists between the Father and the Son.

Impossible you say, and I say yes, outside of the enabling power of Jesus Christ.

God requires nothing of a man for which he does not supply the will with all to accomplish it.

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Love is in the Air

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