<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Bristol SDA Church

Garhett Morgan

Speak it in Love

Father, Lord, we just thank you for another Sabbath day that you've given us.

And as we open your word here today, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would guide.

And Lord, we are just so honored for the message that you've given us.

And as we open your word today, Father, and we learn of this important message, we ask that your Holy Spirit would convict us.

For, Father, there's nothing I can say that can change a heart, but you can sure do that.

I have to just say before we get started, our prophecy series that's going on in Reed City is doing very, very well.

We've had multiple guests that have come to our series because of the Daniel 2 statue that we had there.

And in fact we have someone that's been in church the past 3 weeks now because of the Daniel 2 statue and he's been there every week consistently because of it.

So if you would continue to pray for what's happening there.

I don't think I've told the story here yet.

You know, I spoke last night for our Prophecy Series and I have to speak 4 times today.

So I sometimes get a little bit mixed up with what I said where.

So forgive me if I've told this story before, but a few weeks ago when we had our opening night of our Prophecy Series a gentleman came and I knew that he was there on night number 1 but I didn't have a chance to talk to him because there were so many people to talk to.

And so, night number 2 of our Prophecy Series came around and this gentleman came early and I recognized him from the night before and I thought I didn't get a chance to talk to him, So I'm going to make it a priority to talk to him.

So I did, and I went over to him, and his name was Randy.

And I began to talk to Randy, and the first words out of Randy's mouth were these, you're Garrett Morgan.

And I said yes, and he said, I know everything there is to know about you.

To which, that took me back a little bit, and I thought, really?

And he began to tell me stories that really only my close friends and church members would know about me.

And I thought it was kind of odd, and so I asked him, all right, so Randy, how do you know these things?

And he smirked and he said, well, I've been listening to Strong Tower Radio for a year and a half.

And I threw my TV out, I don't even own it anymore, I live in Stanwood, which is where I live, and He said, you don't know this, but a year ago when I listened to Strong Tower Radio, I was listening to you on Morning Manna, I heard Doug Batchelor, I heard Wes Peppers, I was hearing all these people, and I thought, you know, Garrett Morgan's going to baptize me.

And he said, you didn't know that, but I made that decision a year ago and I've been listening and I just haven't had the opportunity and I was a little nervous.

And finally I decided with the Jesus on Prophecy series that I was going to come to church and here I am.

And you know, when someone comes into your church and says, I want baptized, those are always words you wanna hear, but you also want to know what do they know already, right?

And so we began to walk through some things, and I asked him about the Sabbath, and you know, the state of the dead, and he's been coming, he hasn't missed a night of our Prophecy Series, And every night he comes to me and goes, you know, this is fantastic.

So all these things in the Prophecy Series we review for him and he's ready to be baptized.

He's bringing a friend along and we're averaging about probably 15 visitors a night.

And so the Lord is blessing and I just can't wait to see how many people give their lives to the Lord.

It's not about numbers, but when I see souls that are there that are changing and you can see it before your very eyes.

Nothing is more exciting than that, I tell you.

It's just, it's the reason I do what I do.

But, you know, the highlight of my week this past week, and I think Russ mentioned it a little bit earlier in the beginning of our service, But as those of you know, there's been a little bit of a, I don't want to call it, it's not an illness, but there's been a tragedy in the Cadillac area and in this area lately.

There's been quite a few people that have passed away from overdoses on a bad shipment of drugs or whatever it is.

But anyway, there was a gentleman that lived in Luther this past week that was a victim of that.

And he passed away and They asked our brother Russ to do the service.

And Russ said that he would read scripture for us.

And I did the funeral and the message and all of that.

And so this past, I think it was Tuesday that I met with the family here in our fellowship hall.

And we talked about Jeremiah and all of that.

You know, they're not the regular church going type, but you could tell that they wanted comfort and hope that only the Lord could give.

This past week we had the funeral service there in Luther on Wednesday and I thought there would be a few people there, but there were over 200 people there at the hall for this young man's funeral.

People that we may have not gotten into church before were there ready to listen and hear about hope of Jesus.

And you know, there were some great connections that were able to be made and a lot of them recognized me from you guys.

There was neighbors of Jeremy and Christy that were there and I said, you know, I'm a pastor of the Reed City Church up the road.

And they said, oh yeah, Jeremy and Chris, you're our neighbors.

And I guess the little ones come over to their house sometimes and talk, and real positive there.

And 1 of them said that I looked familiar.

So I just want to thank you, because in the community, sometimes when they ask you where you pastor and then they make a connection, sometimes that person can be a negative on the church's outlook, right?

But I just want to tell you, I've just been so blessed with meeting these people that have mutual friends and acquaintances in this area.

When they know a member of this church, it's nothing but positive.

And I just want to thank you for that, because not only does it make my job easier, but it makes the job of the Holy Spirit easier.

Because if we're friendly and we're inviting and we're loving to people, I tell you, they're going to listen a lot more to what a loving God that we serve.

And that's what we're here to talk about today.

We're going to be looking at a few different passages of Scripture.

We're going to be looking in Genesis and we're going to be taking a look at the book of Acts.

But I want to focus on our Scripture reading here.

And by the way, we haven't stopped on the Minor Prophets.

When the series is over in Read City we're going to continue that because I want to keep it on the same schedule.

So we'll continue those in just a few weeks.

But go to Ephesians if you would to our scripture reading that we read.

Now I know We've probably read this verse together and it's 1 that I keep in mind a lot, but it's very important that we, especially Seventh-day Adventist Christians, remember these verses specifically.

So Ephesians 4, verse 15, notice what it says here, and you might even have this memorized, but it says this, But speaking the truth in what?

In love may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted, by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body into the edifying of itself in love." So according to these texts, there are 2 very important things that we as Christians, not just Seventh-day Adventists, but Christians in general must have, and that's truth And that's love, right?

Those 2 things are extremely important, not just in our homes and in our churches, but in our walk with God.

Now we as Seventh-day Adventists do know that we hold truth.

The Lord has blessed us with truth and doctrine that comes from the Word of God and we almost pride ourselves on that.

But I'd like to ask you the same question, shouldn't we as a church have just as much love as we have truth, yes or no?

Now let me ask you another question, who is the source of all truth?

When you take a look at the Word of God, this is the source of all truth.

And in John chapter 1 we find that the Word was God.

So if you truly want to find truth, then who do you look to?

You look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Where is the source of pure, undefiled love?

So if we're truly following Jesus, we're going to have true doctrine, true truth, and we're also going to have a true undefiled love.

Back to Menu

Speak it in Love

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

How YOU Can Bring Closure for Jesus

1h 4m

The Power of Perspective

Two Covenants

57m

WYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Repentance and the Latter Rain

1h 19m

The Divine Solution

1h 33m

Plenary

A Personal God

49m

The Atheist Who Found God

1h 25m

Breakout Session #2

Following Christ Through the Crisis

1h 20m

Seminars

Your Problem Solved

1h 2m

Bible Weekend

02 Answering False Doctrines

43m

Unlock Revelation

7. History’s Greatest Religious Cover-up

56m

Revelation Made Simple

18. Revelations Spiritual Revolution for a New Millennium

57m

Looking Unto Jesus

56m

Sound Doctrine