This message proposes that God gives His people smaller tests on which they must stand firm before He commits to them the larger, more momentous work to which He has ultimately called them. Examples of this from Scripture are considered, and exhortations for the present situation are given.

<p>This message proposes that God gives His people smaller tests on which they must stand firm before He commits to them the larger, more momentous work to which He has ultimately called them. Examples of this from Scripture are considered, and exhortations for the present situation are given.</p>

<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>

Pagosa Springs SDA

Skip Dodson

Practice Tests for the Final Exam

Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity we have again to study your word together.

We're grateful for the privilege of prayer too.

Oh Lord, may your purpose be fulfilled in this meeting today.

Please send your Holy Spirit to work in my life and in the lives of each member of this congregation.

Father, we desperately need your discernment and your wisdom and your tactfulness and your courage.

Bless us with these things, Father, as we consider the Bible, for we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

The thought seems ridiculous, doesn't it?

In preparation for the sermon, I actually watched the video from the 1973 Belmont Stakes just to refresh my memory on how fast horses can run.

Now, I'm not into horse racing or gambling, but there is something beautiful to see horses do what they love to do, which is run.

And you may recall if you're a student of history that that was the year that Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by that tremendous long lead.

As far as I can tell in watching the video, his jockey never touched him with the crop 1 time throughout the race.

In fact, it wasn't what the jockey did, it was what he didn't do.

He just let Secretariat run as fast as he wanted to run.

And what was really amazing about that horse and that race is that each, it was a mile and a half race, each successive quarter mile, the horse ran faster than the previous quarter mile.

So he ran the first quarter mile, and then the second quarter mile was faster than the first 1.

The third quarter mile was faster than the second 1.

And the fastest quarter mile was the last quarter mile.

2 minutes and 24 seconds to run 1 and 1 1⁄2 miles.

That's more than twice as fast as a world-class runner can run.

So is it possible for a man to outrun a horse?

Because you see, as fast as horses are for short distances, People can actually outrun them in a marathon, 26.2 miles.

Especially in warm or hot weather, a man can outrun a horse in a long distance race.

So the secret to keeping up with the horses is to go for the distance and not to be afraid of the heat.

The Christian life is very much a distance run, isn't it?

He was discouraged by the stubbornness of the professed people of God, and in our scripture reading this morning, we find God gently exhorting the prophet to, and encouraging him, to step up his game, and not to be afraid of the heat.

Please take your Bible and navigate to Jeremiah chapter 12, verse 5, And we'll start there, but we have another text or 2 to look at this morning as well.

But I want to start with our scripture reading from Jeremiah chapter 12, verse 5.

If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses?

And if in the land of peace in which you trusted, they weared you, then how will you do in the flood plain of the Jordan?

Of course, this latter part is a metaphor for the invasion of Palestine by the Babylonians.

In today's message, I want to point out 3 essential things.

So if you're taking notes, it would be a good time to write something down.

Number 1, I want to point out that God's message for any generation, and especially for the last generation, is going to run counter to culture.

How many of you would agree with that today?

Number 2, God often calls his messengers to tests of faithfulness, initial tests of faithfulness before he commits to them the great work of their life and the great battles that they have to face.

And then number 3, with those 2 principles in mind, I want to point out 2 areas, and there are others, where I believe God is calling his people today to take a very public stand in preparation for the great contest of the future.

He prophesied at a time of great peril for the nation of Judah.

The northern kingdom of Israel, as you may remember, had already been long since overrun by the Assyrian Empire.

Having turned away from God stubbornly and persistently, God had given them up to be conquered.

But instead of learning the lessons from this tragic course of events, Judah, the southern kingdom, was repeating the process.

You can imagine how Jeremiah must have felt under these circumstances.

And boy, was that not a very popular thing to say.

And not only was his message unpopular, but his every word was diced and twisted.

And in the beginning of Chapter 12, he asks questions of God about the situation.

And God in His loving way responds to him in verse 5.

So I want to make a couple of general observations about Jeremiah 12, verse 5.

First of all, note that God is forecasting here even greater difficulties for Jeremiah and his ministry in the future.

"'Things are only gonna get worse "'and more difficult from here, so be prepared.

If you've run with the footman and you're worn out by that exertion, how are you going to deal with the horses that you're going to have to run with in the future?

This certainly proved to be a true prophecy in Jeremiah's case.

As I mentioned earlier, he was hated, he was derided, he was mocked, and He was even imprisoned.

His words were taken by the king of Judah and set on fire.

If his book had been on Amazon today, it would have been taken off, right?

All because of his faithful proclamation of the message that God had given to a people who were bent on apostasy.

And so God warned him, it's gonna get worse.

Now a second thing that we should see about this text is this.

God in his mercy does not let go of the winds of strife, whether it's in an individual's life or in the life of the church, all at once.

Otherwise, we would be completely overwhelmed.

Instead, he gives us opportunity to prepare for, or to get in shape for, the trouble to come.

If we look back over our lives and we see those difficult moments where it seemed like everything was breaking in upon us at once, I'm sure if we look back prior to that, we can see how God has given us opportunities to toughen up in order so that we can be able to bear the things that come upon us.

Running with the footman gets us ready for the horses, so to speak.

And I say this with the assumption that we are paying attention to and cooperating with what God is doing in our church and in our personal lives.

If we're ignoring His work and help, then of course the final crisis will come upon us as an overwhelming surprise and we'll be unprepared to face it.

But if we are taking the stance that we ought to take on the issues as they arise, if we are addressing the sins of our own lives and of the Church as God reveals them to us, Then, these being the footmen, then we will be prepared to stand for the right when the great final test comes.

And there is plenty of evidence for this throughout the Bible.

We could speak of Daniel, we could speak of Joseph, we could speak of many of the major characters of scripture through which God brought, many of whom God brought them through this process.

But I want to focus this morning for just a few minutes on the story of Gideon.

So I want you to turn with me now to Judges chapter 6.

Gideon is an interesting character as it relates to the end times.

I don't know if you've thought about this but I think so many of the stories in the Bible have eschatological overtones.

In other words, their stories are portraits of the end.

Our friend Tim Rumsey has a podcast called Pictures of the end and he talks about this on many of the episodes of his podcast.

Gideon was called to take a stand on the commandments of God which were being violated daily in Israel before he was empowered to go out and do battle with the Midianites.

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Practice Tests for the Final Exam

Transcript

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Recorded

Attachments

Related

Plenary

The Storm Is Here

1h 22m

Now Converted: Lessons from the Life of Peter

Lessons from the Life of Peter 1

52m

Final Events

05 The Little Time of Trouble

1h 13m

God’s Perspective of Trials: Why You’ll Want More

1h 9m

Endurance of the Saints

28m

Final Events

07 Satan’s Last Resort

1h 12m

Plenary

Different or the Same - Christian Standards in the 21st Century

1h 7m

The Test of Liberty

1h 4m

The Risk of God’s Mission

53m

GoTential

Growing as a Disciple

42m

The Shaking

48m

Breakout Session #4

The Ministry of Rebukes

1h 37m

Sound Doctrine