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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Andre Waller Weekend

Andre Waller

01 Fight

So we're going to be studying this evening and I'm just privileged to be able to do this with you guys.

Today's actually been a very interesting and tough day for for me personally A friend of mine passed away today around 02:00 was 1 of my students and not just 1 of my students actually 1 became 1 of my friends and we went through quite a bit together and yeah today, has been very interesting and I had to wrestle with a couple of things because I don't know if when you deal with death you know we weren't designed to really understand death because we were built to live forever okay and God designed us he designed us to live forever so to understand death to cope with death that's not something God really wanted us to understand.

But in my mind, I was comforted with the idea that my friend had committed himself to God.

And knowing that, I can rest assured that as I'm faithful and God is faithful to me, I will see my brother again very, very soon.

I'm reminded of a quote where it says, it's a solemn thing to die, but a much more solemn thing to live.

And I think in the times in which we live, we're living in tremendous, tremendous times.

And so tonight, as I'm studying with you, I want you to take principles away that will empower you to live a life full of vitality for God.

And I know that we all go through struggles.

I know we all go through our own pains, But I believe tonight as we walk through this thing, I believe many of us are gonna find some healing.

I know for me, as I was preparing for it, I began to see some healing in my own heart.

So I'm grateful to God that he would allow for us to be able to study and come together this evening.

Now I don't know about you but I don't like fighting.

I mean they've made a whole career out of fighting And I'm going to show you how to fight as a Christian tonight in a way that you may or may not already know.

It's not even verbal spats about political agendas, or the left versus the right, or my church against your church.

If you don't mind, you have your Bibles, open them to 2nd Corinthians 10, and we're going to read verse 3, 4, and 5.

2 Corinthians chapter 10, we're going to read verses 3, 4, and 5.

We're defying the fight and then we're going to go to an Old Testament story that you should be very familiar with.

I won't spend every detail of going through every point, but I want to make sure we get to the main thing for tonight.

Second Corinthians Chapter 10, in verse 3, the Bible says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not, what's it say my friends?

Are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

So our warfare, our fight is not a carnal fight.

Our warfare, our fight is not a political battle.

Our warfare, our fight is not somewhere in a ring, my friends.

In fact, I'll tell you this, our fight is not even with our spouse, it's not even with our roommates, our war, our fight, more so than anything else, you'll find that it's with yourself.

But before we go any further with that, let's go to an old story.

It's gonna be a story that you're very familiar with.

I know people have talked about it even recently in 1 of these beautiful Bible studies, but I want to make sure we go back and pay attention.

I want us to look at Genesis Chapter 25, and we're looking at verse 19.

Now, normally I don't have a little small words on the screen like this, but For purposes for tonight, I didn't want to be flipping too many pages per se, but let's just walk through what we have here.

Reading Genesis Chapter 25, verse 19, it says, and these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son, Abraham begat Isaac.

Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Padduram, the sister to Laban, the Syrian.

There's an entreatment, God is now interceding for his wife because she was barren and the Lord was entreated of him.

And Rebecca, his wife conceived, now pay attention.

She conceived and the children struggled together within her.

So this struggle that these children are having is from the very womb, brothers and sisters.

And she said, if this be so, why am I thus?

And Notice what she does when she doesn't understand what's going on.

She goes to the Lord and the Bible says, and she went to inquire of the Lord.

The Lord said unto her, 2 nations are in thy womb.

2 manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, And the 1 people shall be stronger than the other.

The 1 people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger.

Now, please note, as Rebecca is listening to the words of the Lord, and she's imbibing these words into her mind, she's taking note of what God has promised and has declared.

God has declared to her that the oldest will serve the younger.

Oh, 0, before I go with that, go back for a second.

Do you notice that God did not tell this to Isaac?

Now I'm not saying Rebecca didn't tell her husband.

I'm just saying that this special insight was given to the mother and not necessarily directly to Isaac.

All right, I just found that to be interesting.

It says in verse chapter 25, verse 4, and when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, Behold, there were twins in her womb.

And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment.

Now, again, when you're looking at the word Esau or Edom, it just simply means red.

There's a red haired child with a lot of hair.

Verse 26, and after that came his brother out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel and his name was called Jacob.

Now please there are always these names relevancy to these things.

Now when when I say a name I want you to type it in the chat.

If you could type it in the chat or if you're on Facebook, I wanna see what you say about this.

When I say the name, Michael Jordan, what comes to your mind?

Is he the second best player in the world?

He's the greatest basketball player in the world.

When I say Michael Jordan, what comes to your mind?

So type in the chat, I wanna see what you have to say.

When I say the name, now this is California.

So when I say Kobe Bryant, what do you think?

So when I say a name, a character comes to mind.

If I said, and forgive me for bringing up this name on Sabbath, but even if I said Kim Kardashian, you immediately a person comes to mind, a character trait comes to mind when I say the name, are you following?

All right, so when I say the name Jacob, Jacob means heel grabber or supplanter.

02 The Anatomy of Temptation

So let's again, I would like to just pray 1 more time, more prayer, more power, amen.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your grace, your mercy, your tender regard for us.

And Lord, as we're about to open our bibles and look at inspiration We recognize that in our natural cells.

We cannot understand the deep things of god And I know to many father the things I'm going to share today they have heard But I ask for an extra portion of your Holy Spirit that that is not just about hearing.

I ask Father that the Spirit finds his way to our hearts, that we can be what you desire us to be.

We pray this in Jesus' name and we claim the merits of his holy and most precious blood.

So today we're dealing with the subject matter, the subject matter, the anatomy of temptation, the anatomy of temptation.

Hopefully you can hear me perfectly fine and We can we can just delve into it now as we we looking at the anatomy of temptation I want to look at a couple of stories and then we're going to actually look at the actual anatomy of it.

So I want to go back to the book of Genesis, the beginning of our earth family.

And I want us to look at Genesis chapter 3, and we're going to take some notes and some observations and Genesis chapter 3, and we're going to begin reading at verse number 1, pay close attention.

In Genesis chapter 3 in verse 1, the Bible says, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made.

He said unto the woman, yea, have God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.

The woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God have said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." So that story, I'm setting that story up, is right there.

You can see there's an encounter between the serpent, which we know that devil and Satan is using a medium, if you will, to communicate with Eve in a way that seems innocent initially.

I want you to now open your Bible with me, go to the book of Luke, Luke, Matthew, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 4, Matthew chapter 4, Matthew chapter 4.

Notice this in Matthew chapter 4, notice the the introduction is initially innocent.

Matthew chapter 4, beginning at verse 1, the Bible says, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungered.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

So in both these instances you have a being.

In Matthew chapter 24, there is no medium.

The enemy is simply presenting himself to Christ, but he's cloaking himself as if he's an angel from heaven.

But you can tell, listen to me, but you can tell who the person is when they begin to speak.

Now with that in mind, hold your positions in both Matthew chapter 4 and Genesis chapter 3.

We're now going to go to the book of James.

James is instructive and James will give you the framework of how the temptations work.

And then we're gonna go back to the stories.

You're gonna see exactly how they are applied in the stories.

I was going to begin reading in verse number 1, if that's all right.

The Bible says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

Now, when it says fall, it doesn't mean that you fail.

It means more so that when temptations come your way, counted all joy.

Now, I don't know about you, if you've been tempted, I don't know if you've ever rejoiced because you're being tempted.

I mean, that would have to take a mind shift, right?

When I'm being tempted, I am supposed to rejoice.

What is supposed to be transpiring while this temptation is taking place?

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.

That the trying of your faith worketh patience.

So when a temptation is presented, I'm supposed to, as a Christian, rejoice.

Because now it's time for my faith to be actuated.

Now it's time for my faith to be refined.

Now it's time for my faith to be strengthened.

Then it says, knowing this that the trying of your faith work of patience and let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting, how much?

The purpose and the place for the temptation God allows so that you and I can be tried.

You and I can have our faith developed and as it's developed, it works patience.

And as it's working patience, it works that development of Christian character.

I remember reading a story about 1 of the Wesley brothers.

For a time, 1 of the Wesley brothers had not been persecuted.

They had not been prosecuted for their faith because they had often been mocked for their Methodism.

He had not been mocked for a time and he knelt on his knees and asked God you know is he living right because all who live righteously will suffer persecution that's what he that's what he believes so he's like lord am I doing something wrong and as he's kneeling down and he's praying someone throws a rock at him.

Oh, friends, what a different way to look at temptation and persecution.

Trials means God is watching and developing you.

You remember the story of Job, you know the story of Job.

That's not the focus of my story, but it came to mind just now.

You know the story of Job as he's living, the Bible says he was a perfect man.

And The devil saw his righteous living and challenged God to say the only reason why he's living righteously is because you bless him Let me touch him and I promise you he will curse you to his to your face And the Lord allowed the enemy to come and to tempt and disturb and cause distress.

Tell me my friends, have you been distressed?

Let me tell you something, God is allowing that because he's trying to work something out in you.

It doesn't mean you give in, that doesn't mean you give up.

03 The Killer’s Gospel

Mother in heaven, we just want to thank you for your grace and mercy.

It's so easy to say we are grateful and then not really contemplate what it has taken and what it is that really sustains us.

I asked Father, as we are in our last study for this evening that you would grant us your Holy Spirit which is the only effectual teacher of truth and I ask this not because I am worthy for I'm far from that But we ask this because Your son has shed his blood for us.

Your word says that we should come boldly to your throne of grace because of what has been done for us.

We ask now for the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is the only effectual teacher of truth.

This evening, we're going to be studying the topic, a killer's gospel.

If God can save a killer, he can save you.

Now, if you don't know already, just by the picture itself, you have to know that I'm talking about none other than a man named Saul.

I've gone through and highlighted just the beginning opening letters of Paul as he is writing to different segments of the church.

And most of the letters have a similar greeting.

There's about 2 of them that don't have, 3 of them that don't have this greeting, but most of the letters have a similar greeting.

And I'm going to read them to you in your hearing.

In Romans chapter 1, Paul writes and he says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

Paul gives his name, a servant of Jesus Christ.

And that word servant in the Greek indicates slave.

Called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.

You can see that Paul is identifying that he has a special calling on his life.

He is reverting back to that before he even begins to express whatever is in his letters.

Notice this, in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 1, he says, Paul, call to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, how?

2 Corinthians 1.1 says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.

He's referencing this reality that what he's doing in his life is not based on his own decision-making process, is not based on what man has decided for him.

He has been called by God, by God's will to do a specific work, to do a specific task for his time.

Notice, again, he writes, Ephesians 1.1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.

Philippians 1.1, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ.

Notice in Colossians 1.1, it reads Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.

In First Timothy 1.1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our Savior.

You start seeing a rhythm, you start seeing a pattern.

In First Timothy 1.1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope.

Second Timothy 1.1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope.

Second Timothy 1.1, Paul and apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.

According to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus.

What is it that happened to Paul that made him so convicted?

He writes again in Titus, Paul, a servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, Philemon, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

He is captivated and nearly every letter he writes, he starts out like this.

Somebody would say, well, he's just sending a greeting, a salutation.

No, my friends, he is letting you know who he is and why he is.

And I say, man, this brother must have a serious testimony.

I want you to open your Bible to Acts chapter 7.

And I know you guys know this guy, but I just found him fascinating as I was reviewing his life.

And I thought if we could just understand an inkling of Paul's experience, an inkling of it, we would be so much different as a Christian body.

In Acts Chapter 7, we are looking at this sermon that is being preached under the power of the Pentecost.

He's preaching and when he's preaching, he starts out real nice.

He starts reviewing the history of Israel.

He starts going through how God has delivered, starts showing how God is always taking care of his people.

He just starts walking through the history of Israel and he comes to a place while he's under the unction of the Spirit of God, and he comes to a place where his tone switches.

He's no longer just telling the history of the church and how God has delivered so forth and so on.

Stephen begins to be provoked by the Spirit.

He says these words under the unction of the Spirit of God in verse 51, ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hardened ears.

Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do ye.

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted and they have slain them which should before of the coming of the just 1 of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.

He's telling them you have betrayed our Lord.

Who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.

When they heard these things, when they heard these things, they were cut to, what's to say my friends?

They were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

Now listen, when the gospel is preached and the truth is presented in the power of the Holy Ghost, it is not always well-received And the people that are hearing it, they are under such conviction that they become violent in response to it.

That's why they had to kill Jesus because that truth was a revelation of their own condition.

It says, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed him with their teeth.

But he being full of, what's it say, my friends, the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.

He said, behold, I see the heavens open and a son of man standing on the right hand of God.

Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with 1 accord and cast him out of the city and stoned him.

Series

Andre Waller Weekend

02 The Anatomy of Temptation

Transcript

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