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University SDA Church of Los Angeles

Randy Skeete

The Power of Value

Thank you very much for the singing, my dear brother and sister.

Not only this afternoon, but this morning as well.

And the purpose why God gives people the gift is not to get a contract with Murder Incorporated or P.

So whenever you sing, don't sing so that you may get a contract.

So may God bless you as you continue to praise his name through the gift of music.

I'm delighted to see those of you who have come back, and I pray that God will bless us as we take a look into his word.

I won't go that far because I'm a little tired and hungry, but I will allow the Spirit of God to direct me.

Please, please turn off every cell phone you have.

I've seen people with more than 1, possibly 3.

Saw you this morning, but in the heat of battle, I omitted to say hi to my friends from Ann Arbor, who are now in Ohio somewhere, I believe.

Favor number 2, while I'm speaking, I'd like you to pray for me.

And all I'd like you to say is, Lord, put your words in that man's mouth.

And if you pray that prayer from your heart, God will answer that prayer.

There are some requests you bring to God, He will not answer.

Father, put into my heart a hatred for sin, yes.

Father give me victory over alcohol, yes.

So when you pray, put your words in that man's mouth.

He will hear and he will answer that prayer.

By the way, try to get a taller thing so some speakers don't have to keep doing that.

It constricts the throat and makes production of the voice a little more difficult.

That's my only gripe, so that's not too bad.

Our Father and our God, we thank you so much, Father, for the gift of life you have generously given to us because of the atonement of Christ.

Now, Father, As we listen to this final presentation for today, I ask you as your servant, your son, hear this humble prayer, dear God, and grant us your spirit in abundance, that he may make the truth clear to us.

I ask you, Father, to remember the promise you made to Moses in Exodus chapter 4 verse 12, when you said to him, now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say.

Teach me, Father, what I should say, that your name may be glorified and your people blessed.

I offer this prayer from my heart in Jesus name, amen.

Luke was a medical doctor and also an expert historian.

Modern historians who have studied the book of Luke have concluded that every figure to whom Luke refers in every place is historical.

The Bible says, And 1 of the malefactors which were hanged reeled on him, saying, If thou be Christ, do what?

You want to pause and reflect on that request.

1 of the 2 thieves, now by this time 1 of them had been converted.

If you continue from verse 40, but the other answering rebuked him saying, does not thou fear God?

Seeing thou art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing amiss.

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

Now prior to this, he had been behaving just like the other thief because Matthew 27 44 said, the thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth.

Let me say clearly at some point both thieves were abusing Christ and cursing Christ both but something happened to 1 and when Luke records the incident which Matthew also records in Matthew chapter 27 Luke is writing the incident at the point when the thief has been converted, the thief on the right.

And we say the right because the right side in the Bible is the side of victory, the side of power.

So the thief on the left, the unconverted thief said in verse 39 of Luke 23, if thou be 1, Christ, save thyself and us.

Can you imagine the impossibility of that request?

If the thief had said, save either yourself or save us, he would have made sense.

Because when Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane, Luke twenty-two, forty-one to forty-four, the Bible says, and he was withdrawn from them, a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.

A period of uncertainty because what he was saying get me out of this you know Ellen White said at that point the balance the fate of the world tremble in the balance because Jesus Christ was about to go back.

If he had gone back, whom would he have saved?

He would not have saved himself from sin, he would have saved himself from the cross and further humiliation and bleeding and bleeding and bleeding, bleeding from the skin.

There are some truths of which you cannot be confused.

When that thief said, if thou be the Christ, save thyself and us, he was asking Christ for an impossibility.

Christ could either save himself or save us.

And from the events that followed, we know clearly that Jesus Christ chose to save us by subjecting himself to the cross and to death.

But there was something about his death that was infinite.

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The Power of Value

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