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Muskegon SDA Church

Jason Sliger

I Know Something Good

Father in heaven, this morning we want to see Jesus.

And we pray, dear Lord, that you would send your Holy Spirit, your representative, To take the message spoken from your word and to breathe life into it, and to take that message and apply it to our hearts.

The year was 1848, January 24 to be exact.

And in the small town of Coloma, California, there was a man who was about to make an extraordinary discovery that would change the world.

James Marshall was a carpenter working on the construction of a sawmill in Coloma, California.

As he was surveying the land around the sawmill, he noticed that in the stream not too far away there was a shiny substance inside the riverbed, or in the riverbed.

He walked over and he picked it up and examined it a little bit more closely.

He was familiar with the different minerals, and he knew that this thing could only be 1 of 2 things.

It was either fool's gold, or it was real gold.

He took this rock that he found over to the side of the riverbed, and between 2 rocks he began to beat it into a shape.

And it confirmed in his mind, because you well know that gold, being a very soft metal, is very malleable.

And from that discovery, he knew for certain that this was not fool's gold, but it was real gold.

In fact, it was the first few gold nuggets that began what became known as the California Gold Rush.

Now chances are, if you found gold nuggets in a riverbed, you probably would not tell anybody about it.

You know how valuable that stuff is, and so chances are you would keep that information to yourself and find as much of it as you could to add to your wealth.

But James Marshall was the type of man who had a hard time keeping a good thing to himself.

And if you visit Coloma, California, in fact, you can go to the very mill that he worked on.

There is a monument commemorating his discovery.

And at the foot of that monument, there is a plaque and it reads this.

For just a few months after finding gold in the mills trail race on January 24, 1848, Marshall kept his exciting secret, but the urge to share the discovery proved too much, and he soon shouted the news to the Mormon workers building the mill.

Marshall's words echoed across the Pacific to Hawaii and China, down to Mexico and South America, and to all parts of the United States.

The gold rush bringing thousands of restless young men was on, California would never be the same.

You've seen those pictures before of those men out there trying to get their wealth.

In fact, the mill that Marshall was so instrumental in building never actually worked, it never was used as a mill, because everybody in Coloma, California, instead of working for a mill, decided that they would be what?

They would be gold panners, they're out there panning for gold, trying to make their life's earning finding gold.

And this man, who died in poverty, changed the world.

He couldn't keep a good thing to himself.

And I think it's part of the fabric of our human making that when we discover something good, we want to tell other people about it.

Whether it's a family member or a friend or whatever, maybe our husband or a wife, when we find something good, we have a hard time keeping it to ourselves.

And the good news this morning is that we have found something that is much more valuable than gold.

We have found something that has revolutionized the world much better, much larger than the discovery of gold and the California gold rush.

We have found a friend, oh, such a friend, who has changed the world and has changed your life and mine, Would you say amen?

In fact, listen to how the wisest man describes Jesus.

In the book of Songs of Solomon, chapter 5, verses 10 and 16, he describes Jesus as the chiefest among 10, 000, The 1 who is what?

The 1 who is the chiefest, he is the greatest among all the people of this earth.

I want to invite you to go with me in your Bibles to our scripture reading this morning, Matthew chapter 17.

Matthew 17, and we're gonna just read verse 8.

Here we find where the disciples, 3 of the disciples anyways, are up on the Mount of Transfiguration.

And as they're up there on that mount, they see Moses and Elijah and Jesus transfigured.

As you would only imagine seeing such a thing, struck fear in their hearts.

And as they bowed their head in fear, trying to shield themselves, Jesus tells them to arise and to be not afraid in verse 7.

And when they had lifted up their faces, they saw no man save Jesus only.

And I pray that God will give you those perispectacles.

Those spiritual eyes that see no man save Jesus only.

And there's an interesting passage in the book Acts of the Apostles, page 64, that comments on this.

It says this, Jesus only, in these words, is contained the secret of the life and power that marked the history of the early church.

Jesus only is what marked the life and power of the early church in the book of Acts.

These men were men who were consumed in their relationship with Jesus.

They were consumed by what he had done for them.

They desired to share him more than anything.

They wanted to share Jesus even if they were to be silenced by losing their life.

Now oftentimes, when we look at the New Testament church in the book of Acts, oftentimes the first thing that pops into our mind is church growth, right?

All through the book of Acts, that's what you see, church growth, church growth, church, the church was just exploding in the book of Acts.

And we usually attribute that to them being filled with the Holy Spirit, as we see in Acts 1 and Acts 2.

Great exponential growth came when the early rain fell.

But I'm going to suggest to you this morning that before the early rain could take place, before they could be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak great words for God with boldness, Before that happened, they had to first be consumed with seeing Jesus only.

They had to be consumed in their relationship with him, with this desire to please him and to do whatever he asked them to do, the desire to share him was paramount in their life.

And as their lives were consumed in Jesus, as they saw no man save Jesus only, then the Holy Spirit filled them with great power and they went forth and proclaimed the word of God, and the church exploded.

Now you remember a couple of weeks ago when we were here studying together, I shared with you a presentation from Revelation chapter 6, where the question is asked, who shall be able to stand?

That question that's so penetrating, relating to the end days.

And as we penetrated into that question, we found that only those who have clean hands and a pure heart will be able to stand.

Those who are observing the face of Jesus as we studied it out, as they're consumed with him and him only, they are transformed into the character of God, which gives them clean hands and pure hearts.

They were consumed with looking at Jesus instead of looking at the things of this world.

And I wanna share with you this morning that as we are consumed with viewing and seeing Jesus only, not only does that change my life to be more like Christ, but it also changes my witness.

And it changes the church and the landscape of the earth.

I wanna share with you 5 examples very quickly here in our time together this morning.

And I want you to go with me if you would to the gospel of Luke for our first 1.

And we're gonna begin in verse 15, Luke chapter 2, beginning in verse 15.

Here we find the story of Jesus's incarnation when he was birthed into this world.

And the angels come And they tell the shepherds the good news of Jesus' arrival, the Messiah's arrival.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said 1 to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us.

And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.

And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

And All they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

When the shepherds saw Jesus, what were they compelled to do?

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I Know Something Good

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