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Triadelphia SDA Church

Jim Ayer

The Gift of Hindsight

I wanted to share with you, you know, we've been broadcasting into Nepal for some time.

2 years ago, we went on to FM radio stations across all of the major cities in Nepal, and we received a letter from someone that said, I am so excited.

He said, I never knew in all my life there was any religion other than Hinduism and Buddhism.

Thank you, he said, for allowing me to taste the sweetness of God.

Thank you for allowing me to taste the sweetness of God.

We serve an incredible God, a God who wants to reach into every corner, every crack and nook of planet earth and share the good news that God is love, that God loves you and me no matter who you are, what you've done.

Our text this morning in Isaiah, Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else.

I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning from the ancient things, the things that are not yet done." Imagine, what kind of God is this?

You know, he can step in and out of time.

And for all of this, he has your best interest in mind and heart.

But the devil, I tell you today, does not want you to know that.

The devil is so full of lies, he wants to lie to you and tell you that God does not love you.

Matter of fact, God is such a vengeful God that He's going to throw you in the fires of hell and burn you for all eternity.

You can never make it because you are too big of a sinner.

Those are the things that the devil would like you to believe.

Those are the things that the devil wants to bring up to you and to me continually.

But God, now here's the truth, God came to reconcile you and me to Himself.

Let me read you a text, Colossians 1, verse 20.

And through Him, Christ, having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to Himself through Him, whether the things on earth or the things in heaven.

There it is, Jesus came to reconcile us, to draw us back.

God wants to mend, God wants to pull us back to Him.

The devil tried to destroy everything in heaven.

But God wants to reconcile all things to Himself.

The devil's tactics, the same yesterday, today, and forever, he doesn't change.

He uses doubt, he uses ridicule, he uses lies right here in the church.

Matter of fact, nobody in the front pew today.

I'm told that there's probably evil angels sitting in the front pew.

We don't tend to think about those things too often, do we?

But understand, it's right here in the church.

The devil tries to separate, the devil tries to break the communication, the devil lies, he does all these things.

Janine and I, when we first came into the church, we just knew that every Adventist was sewing their Ascension robes.

And for some of you older ones, you kind of know what that means.

We just knew everybody was a saint just waiting for Jesus Christ in translation.

We had 1 of those dear saints show up to our house.

We had a little business and we just built a brand new house.

This house, oh, it wasn't big, 1, 032 square feet, I think it was.

Really pretty, it wasn't, I don't know, three-quarters of an acre, and it was our house, and oh, it was so wonderful.

1 night, he happened, he said to be a contractor, and he's looking at the house.

He said, you know, Jim, Janine, wow, he said, if you sold this house, he said, I could build you a house 3 times this size for the same money.

Well, now Janine loved her house and she thought this, you know, didn't want to move from her house, but wow, 3 times the house for the same money.

How many people in here would not say yes to that?

You know, we put our house up for sale, we sold the house and we handed him the cash.

And he went off and he started buying materials.

He'd drive down in Southern California and he'd buy materials, come back, started up construction, he's building up, and we've got a three-story frame now and it's looking pretty good, you know, but we're out of our house now, we had to rent a place.

Well, after a while, 1 of the people that's working on the house comes to us and they said, Jim, Christian, said, Jim, I was rummaging through his truck for some tools and said, I came across this stack of books, pornography, whole stack of pornography.

And he said, I just don't understand that.

Well, some other things happened, other things occurred, went on down the road and I decided, well, maybe I should share it with some of the people of the church board because his wife now is also our school teacher.

And well, the head elder said, it's got to be all your problem, Jim.

It can't be him because I know the father very well and it can't be him.

Well, that didn't seem quite right, but okay.

Pretty soon I've got the bank is calling me and said, do you know where we can find so and so?

I said, well, yeah, he is working for me.

He said, well, we're going to repossess his vehicle.

Well, as time went on, a few things went further, and pretty soon, there is no more money, and we still have a three-story shell.

And I'm thinking, maybe I should talk to the church again.

I go to the bank and it's still those days where you know your word and bond and everything is good.

And the banker comes out, looks at the house and says, sure, I'll loan you the rest of the money to finish it.

So I became an owner builder, hired everybody and praised the Lord, we got that house finished.

We got it finished and we're in the house the first night after a year of struggle, a year of crying, a year of praying, God, where are you?

We got into that house and Janine's mixing up a big old jug, a glass jug, one-gallon jug of orange juice and she's shaking.

I said, here honey, let me do it for you.

Shaking that up, all of a sudden it slips out of my hands, drops in the brand-new porcelain sink, breaks all over and chips the brand-new porcelain sink.

Tears begin to come to our eyes, and we grabbed 1 another, and we just broke down right there and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.

It's like a whole year's worth of problems and strain and trials just poured on us all at once.

And it's like we cried out to God and God wasn't there, God was silent.

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The Gift of Hindsight

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