AdAgrA 2015: Restoring the Waste Places

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Morning Devotional

John Dysinger

Farmer Enoch

Dear Heavenly Father, at the beginning of this new day, at the beginning of this conference, we want to come to you on our knees, thanking you for bringing us here, for protection, for guidance, through the many obstacles that we've had to get through to be here, and Lord, we're asking, because you've asked us to ask, We're asking for a special measure of your spirit to be poured out this weekend.

Lord, you know these people have come here for knowledge.

And that may be a practical knowledge of gardening, but more than that, Lord, we all need a practical knowledge of walking with you.

And so this morning, as we look at the life of Enoch, I pray that you will teach us, that your Holy Spirit will bring to our mind the things that you want us to learn.

I want to just welcome each 1 of you here.

This is a culmination of lots of months of planning and lots of prayer.

And we're excited, and I hope you're excited.

We're expecting over 450 people here this weekend who want to learn about agriculture and gardening and that's exciting.

This morning I want to talk for a few minutes about farmer Enoch.

I've got to try to prove to you this morning that he was a farmer, and I think I can do that.

And this is a quote that, well, I will see how many of you have read this.

The experience of Enoch and of John the Baptist represents what ours should be.

Well, she goes on to explain far more than we do.

He who was translated to heaven without seeing death, That was Enoch.

So we need to study how he was able to do that because that's the experience we want.

And he, who before Christ's first advent was called to prepare the way of the Lord to make his paths straight.

How many of you want to be that group before his second Advent that are called to prepare the way of the Lord.

So do you understand why it's important for us to study those 2 men in particular?

Because they're types of what we are going to go through by God's grace and in his strength.

How many of you have made special study of the life of Enoch and John the Baptist?

She says It's the experience ours needs to be.

If you haven't done that, I want to challenge you.

So when I read this quote many years ago, it was a challenge to my heart.

And I said, well, I better figure out, well, I better do an in-depth study into their lives.

Now, when you go to the Bible, how many verses are there about Enoch?

I mean, we're talking a handful, like 1 handful.

So how do you study about the life of Enoch?

Well, you can, of course, pray for God to give you insights, but God has given us insights through the writings of Mrs.

And that's such a beautiful thing because she actually has an amazing amount to say about the life of Enoch.

And it's fascinating to study what she has to say.

And I'm going to just share some of what I learned from my study.

I looked up every quote, of course every text in the Bible that talks about Enoch, and then every quote in Mrs.

And it's not overwhelming, but there's quite a bit there.

And I came up with 3 characteristics of Enoch's life.

And I know that that's not always a politically correct idea to be separate from the world, but I'll tell you what, It's everywhere in the Bible, and I think we need to take it more seriously.

These are some selected quotes, and let me tell you my favorite...

Well, there's quite a bit in Patriarchs and Prophets on the life of Enoch, but there's another little volume, the third volume of spiritual gifts, that to me is my favorite chapter.

I think it's actually called Seth and Enoch, but it goes into a lot of detail on the life of Enoch.

He separated himself from the corrupt descendants of Cain.

He realized the corruption of the human family and separated himself from the descendants of Cain.

And then further on, all on the same page, She says, righteous Enoch was so distressed with the increasing wickedness of the ungodly that he would not daily associate with them, fearing that he would be affected by their infidelity.

He knew his own weaknesses, he knew his own shortcomings, and he knew he could not daily associate with the ungodly without being changed.

If Enoch needed to separate, what about us?

OK, land of Nod, but maybe I asked the question wrong.

He built a city, first city in the Bible.

She says, very specifically, he chose to separate himself from the descendants of Cain.

If the descendants of Cain are in the cities, where did we need to be?

So, would you agree that it's pretty clear here that Cain did not live in a city?

So we've got country living, I mean, I'm sorry, Enoch did not live in a city, Cain did live in a city.

I could tell by her expression that I'd said something wrong there.

So, second characteristic of Enoch's life, and this 1 really is a challenge.

How many of you would say your life is characterized by solitude.

He chose to be separate there's that word again, from them.

We're talking about the wicked and spent much of his time.

It's certainly more than an hour or 2, right?

I mean, I don't think any of us would call that much time, would we?

He spent much of his time in solitude which he devoted to reflection and prayer.

He waited before God and prayed to know his will more perfectly that he might perform it.

And the question we've got to ponder is how can we spend much of our time in solitude?

This was not a selfish hideout in the mountains.

And again, if you study this, and especially on page 56 of the third volume of Spiritual Gifts, Very fascinating.

Larry Lesher

Why Are We Here?

But we don't want to just be hearers of these things Lord I pray that they would have the intended effect on our hearts that we would become doers that We might be the vessels that you can fill to overflowing That we will be pressed down and overflowing Lord That we would glorify you and all that we do and that we would be that people that you need to see, that you might come quickly.

Father, prepare us for this day I pray in Jesus name, amen.

So when I was asked to do the morning devotion, a couple of things came to my mind.

1 of them, 1 of the first things that came to my mind is, why are we here?

In the world, we might be here because we recognize the signs of the times and we want to be prepared for all those things that are going to come upon us and a lot of times that can be a fearful reaction where we start to put things, you know, back and...

I thought that's not what we're called to be here.

If that's why we're here, I hope that the experience while you're here will change that heart condition to a condition that we're here because we want to know who our Creator is and we want to come to the garden to learn of Him.

So we're not here to escape from or hide from or to get away from the dangers of the world.

We're here for to learn how to to get into the country and be sustainable but to be a light on a hill.

We're not here because of self-exaltation, because we want to be you know the the ones that do it all the best.

I was, and I am in agriculture and it's easy, It's become a popular thing and it's sometimes a cool thing.

It can be easily, you can find yourself in that vein of thinking.

To feel better about ourselves, often times we do things because we're motivated by how it makes us feel about ourselves.

But I hope that we go away from this with the idea that we're here to learn how to be servants and how to give service.

Have a morning devotion that might come off a little bit like in a negative light, sort of.

I tend to look at things and ask myself what's wrong, because I want to see it improve.

When I'm in the garden, Allen 1 time said to me he takes pictures of all the bad stuff, and Aubrey, his sister, takes pictures of all the nice stuff.

Because our point of view is to improve the garden, right?

And so oftentimes we're looking at things from that point of view, but I think when we look at things from that critical point of view, it allows us to see ourselves for who we truly are and not trust ourselves, but trust to Christ.

And so as I do this, don't think of this as a negative kind of a critique, but it's a positive critique in that we really have this opportunity in front of us and are we going to grab it with all that we have and try to do the best that we can to glorify God.

If you have your Bibles, if you would turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6, I believe.

2 Corinthians 6, 13 and 18, 13 through 18 rather.

The Bible reads, now for a recompense in the same, I speak as unto my children, be ye also enlarged.

But be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?

And what communion hath light with darkness?

And what conquered hath Christ with Belial?

Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?

And God hath said, I will dwell in them, and I will walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord.

And touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, sayeth the Lord Almighty.

Ellen White quotes this verse, and then she has this to say.

I'm not too interested in what I have to say.

I don't really have much to say, except to point you in a direction and it's gonna be Bible and spirit of prophecy.

She follows up that with this, never was there a time when this warning was more appropriate than at the present time.

When I read statements like that, after something said, it strikes me that I probably ought to understand this.

And so, it goes on to say, far too large a number of professed Christians are Christians only in name.

I always, growing up, understood the second commandment in the context of we don't say God's name in vain as in...

Yeah, don't say, you know, don't say His name when you're upset or in some negative form, right?

But I have my father's name as well, like my biological father's name.

And how I act in life determines whether or not I honor that name or dishonor that name.

And so when I take his name, I either represent him correctly or incorrectly, and such as with our Heavenly Father.

If we're Christians, then we take that name either in vain, or we take it and glorify our Father, right?

And so, are we professed Christians in name only, or are we actually about the business of glorifying our Father in what we do, say, what we think, how we treat each other, even behind closed doors?

I grew up in the world, and in the world that I grew up in, you know, The meaner you were to your friends, the more they knew you loved them.

I was a skateboarder and that's just sort of how we were.

We were abusive to 1 another for all intents and purposes.

So, as becoming a Christian, there's habitual habit patterns that are hard to overcome.

And so, you kind of find yourself in this sin and repent, sin and repent, sin and repent.

It's not a good place to be, but we can relate to it.

So this goes on, it says, they have no root in themselves.

Their hearts are filled with pride, impurity, unholy ambition, self-importance, a love of supremacy.

When we find ourselves with our friends and we're out and hopefully you don't do a lot of the things that the world is doing, but it's still sort of this, it's easy to be prideful.

It's easy to look at others and go, wow, glad I'm not like that guy.

It goes on and it says, "...they may have an intelligent knowledge of the theory of truth, and prove their doctrines to be sound and scriptural.

How many people here have a theory of the truth and can prove it from the Bible?

But they hold the truth in unrighteousness, it goes on to say.

By their course of action, they deny the Savior.

That we could have, I count myself blessed to be a part of this church because we have a wealth of knowledge that doesn't seem to exist in the world, even in the Christian world by and large.

But do we hold the truth in unrighteousness?

Their hearts are not sanctified through the truth.

They are unholy in heart and un-Christlike in deportment.

Unless the spirit and principles that characterize the life of Christ are planted in the heart, they cannot control the life.

The law of God must be written in the heart.

The truth of God must illuminate the soul.

Holiness, Mercy, truth, love must be brought into the life.

Unless the soul temple is cleansed from its defilement, unless there is purity of heart, unless earnest efforts are made to meet the standard of God's word, They will never be lifted to be the companions of the pure and holy.

They will never wear the white linen, which is the righteousness of the saints." As long as we have this experience, we will not wear the white linen.

We have, by all observation, by all outward looking, we all have this sort of stumbling.

Sin and repent, sin and repent, sin and repent.

Maybe it's something that can be depressing when we go through this process.

Alan Seiler

The Faithfulness of God

Dear Father in heaven, we just want to thank you for this time.

We just I just pray that you would Speak the words that you have For us here this morning through me and may we all receive a blessing and come to trust you in the way that you desire For us in your name we ask amen The bad news is is that the human condition hasn't changed much in the last 4, 000 years, from 4, 000 years ago till now.

The good news is, is that God hasn't changed either, and that he's still as faithful today as he was 4, 000 years ago.

The Bible is the story of God's unending faithfulness to humanity in the face of almost universal unfaithfulness of man.

It is the story of a God that keeps his promises when we don't believe he will.

It is the story of a patient God working with impatient people.

And if God can save people like that, He can save people like you and me.

We're going to be opening the Bible this morning to Genesis chapter 11.

Now Genesis is an amazing book and it's written kind of interestingly because you cover roughly 2, 000 years of human experience in the first 11 chapters.

And then things really slow down at the story of a man called Abraham.

A very pivotal figure in the Bible, and 1 that we can learn a lot from because he's a lot like you and he's a lot like me.

We pick up the story in Genesis chapter 11 the first time that we hear about, let me look at my notes here, where do we see this?

Verse 27 through 30, we'll start reading, and this is the first time we hear, actually 26 is the first time we hear about him, but we're going to catch up the story, we're going to catch up with the story in verse 27.

Terah begot Abraham, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran begot Lot.

And Haran died before his father Tiara in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees.

And Abraham and Nahor took themselves wives.

The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

She had no children." So we pick up the story, and I want to keep in the back of your mind here the idea that Sarah was barren when we pick up the story the first time.

This is before Abraham is even called to go to a land that he knows not.

Just to let you know, she was barren before the call.

So moving on here, in Genesis 12, 1-4, we hear the call of Abraham.

And The call of Abraham is very interesting.

Actually, Abraham is not called from Ur of the Chaldees.

He's called from Haran, which his father actually moves from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran, and then Abraham's called in Haran.

And it says here in verse 1 through 3, Now the Lord said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee.

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great.

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

And this is a really interesting promise.

This is the first really pivotal covenant that we actually see in the Bible, and it has 3 parts to it.

The land, a great nation, or the people to fill it, and that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through Abraham and through his descendants.

There's a lot to Abraham's life, but I want to hit a few highlights here.

We pick up the story again, and in chapter 15, and I'll just turn there real quick, chapter 15, and basically what I'm going to be talking about is verse 1 through 6.

And for the sake of time we're just going to do an overview.

So Abraham is now in the land of Canaan and God comes to him and he basically reiterates the covenant saying I'm gonna bless thee the land and all these things and we have this very interesting discussion between Abraham and God because Abraham says behold in verse 3, behold to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, 1 born in my house is mine heir.

And this is a very interesting situation because God has already promised Abraham that through his lineage the promise or the blessing will come.

He doesn't exactly maybe know what that exactly is, But the promise of seed is definitely clear in the first covenant.

And now we see that Abraham is losing a little faith here in some ways because he already has Eleazar, which was born in his house, that is supposed to be his heir.

When you're looking for an heir, it means that you're pretty desperate because you don't think that you're going to have kids.

And so we kind of see Abraham trying to figure out his own way here and you know it's really interesting because don't we do that a lot ourselves?

We try to say okay God gives us these wonderful promises but then we're like okay I'm going to try to keep them myself instead of waiting for God to fulfill the promises that he's made to us.

But thankfully, at the latter end, God says to him, you know, your descendants will be as the stars of the heavens and as the sands of the seas.

And we see the first definition that I know of in the Bible for what righteousness is.

And it says in verse 6, And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness." And so the working definition of righteousness from now on in the Bible should be either God's righteousness or us believing in God's faithfulness to keep his own promise or when it's your own righteousness it's you believing that you can keep God's promises for him.

That's the disparagency between what we see pretty much in the rest of Scripture.

So we continue to go on here and unfortunately Abraham even though he was righteous at this point, believing God that he would fulfill his promise to him, he lose faith.

And we pick up the the next part of the story in chapter 16, verse 1 through 3.

Now Sarah, Abraham's wife, was barren, bare him no children.

And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

And Sarah said unto Abraham, behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing.

It may be that I may obtain children by her.

And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarah, his wife.

And Sarah, Abraham's wife, took Hagar, her handmaid, the Egyptian, after Abraham had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan, and gave her unto her husband Abraham to be his wife." You know, this is a very interesting thing.

Is it faith, is it sin that causes a lack of faith in God, or Is it a lack of faith in God that causes sin?

And in this instance we see, and I would wager that in every instance that we see people sin it's not necessarily because they're sinful people.

Well we are sinful people, but it's sin in action form is a cause of disbelief in God's promises.

It doesn't happen over...you don't sin because, you know, you're doing wrong things.

You sin because you lost faith in God's promises to you before then and that precipitates down to actionary sin.

And unfortunately anything that is not of faith, righteousness by faith, Abraham didn't believe the promise, becomes sin in action later on.

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My History of True Education

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