Fresh Manna 2021

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Strong Tower Radio

Fresh Manna By Fred Calkins

Fred Calkins

Enoch: The Biggest Through Hike

Fresh manna fell to the ground as a gift from God while the Israelites were in the wilderness.

It was fresh from the ovens of heaven, baked by the master baker himself.

How the Israelites must have anticipated the taste and the smell of each morning's delivery.

Just like the Israelites, you too can now experience the taste and smell of fresh manna.

Today, you will be listening to Fred Calkins, interim pastor for the Midland and Mount Pleasant Seventh-day Adventist churches.

We want to understand your love more fully.

And as we read the story of Enoch, our minds are drawn to a God who loves and saves.

To this end we pray In Jesus' name, Amen.

Well, I have some statistics for an introduction to this, which may not be as useful, but I'm going to give them to you anyway.

I spent a week hiking the Appalachian Trail, and got in almost 100 miles of trail.

More than 100 miles of hiking, that's for sure.

But the Appalachian Trail is about 2, 200 miles long and usually takes about 6 months to hike.

I found that it goes up to the mountaintop, down to the river valley, back up to the mountaintop, down to the river valley, so you're always going up or down.

The Pacific Crest Trail starts in Canada and goes all the way to Mexico, and it's a little farther, 2, 600 miles.

My missionary son-in-law, Orion Lawrence, you can read about him in the Frontiers magazine, he told me that he got to go half a mile down the Kokoda track in Papua New Guinea He says that is the most challenging hike on the planet you may be right takes 10 days and wears you out.

I was interested to hear about Justina Thomas.

I know Justina has been here, so most of you probably know Justina.

In January, she had the opportunity to take what was supposed to be a nine-hour hike to go and visit a village that said they wanted an Adventist pastor, They wanted an Adventist teacher, and they wanted an Adventist school.

She took some medicines and minimum supplies because they were just going to be there 1 night.

Well, I don't know if it was 1 night or 2, but it was not very long.

On the way there, this track, if you heard her story, you know what I'm talking about.

You're hanging on with your hands as you go up and you're back and back down as you go down.

I know the Palawanians, they don't back down but they grew up with this and they travel these like goats.

So there was a place where the trail had washed out.

And so they had to kind of work their way across it.

The rest of the party with her managed to get across.

A snag of some sort had caught her and kept her from falling down into the abyss.

She managed to climb back up and finish the hike.

She didn't even carry the rest of her pack.

She had a blanket, she had a change of clothes, She had some medical supplies.

The Polwanians took the medical supplies, but they left her pack, her clothes, her blankets.

She just don't have enough energy to carry things sometimes.

And she finished it when she spent the night.

A couple of girls slept on each side of her so she wasn't as cold as she could have been.

When she got back she said, I'm never doing that again.

But a week later she said, well Lord, if it calls hiking.

We learn something about persevering and pressing on when we look at these humongous hikes.

But, let me assure you, the most interesting and significant walk that we read about in Scripture didn't end on this earth.

Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him.

Enoch lived 65 years and began Methuselah.

After he began Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years.

And Enoch walked with God, and he was not for God.

To look at the story, you've got to back up and look at Adam and Seth.

Great-great-great-grandpa Seth and great-great-great-great-grandpa Adam.

You've got to look back and say, oh, 0, He learned something from those godly men.

Adam of course, created in the image of God, had 3 named sons.

He had lots of other children, both boys and girls.

And Seth grew up knowing the story of Cain and Abel.

He was, some call him a replacement, but you don't replace a child that dies.

You might fill your life with other things, but I've talked to too many who have buried a child.

The Bible tells us, and we have amplification in patriarchs and prophets, Seth was a boy that looked like his daddy.

Most of you probably didn't even know him.

But there's a benefit in that, but there's risks too.

Seth was still alive when Enoch was translated.

Adam had been dead for a little more than 50 years when Enoch was translated.

So we know he had that interaction time with those grandparents.

But the story has a rich phrase in there.

Many of you here understand what I'm pointing at.

Becoming a father can be life transforming.

There's the before children, and then there's the after children.

Bonnie and I waited until we were nearly 30 years old to have our children.

Noah: Do or Die

Today you will be listening to Fred Calkins, interim pastor for the Midland and Mount Pleasant Seventh-day Adventist churches.

Pastor Fred Calkins, Interim Pastor of the Midland and Mount Pleasant Seventh-day Adventist Churches.

We're looking at the story of Noah today, and he was 1 of the men of faith.

And as a phrase here that I think is worth noting, "'By faith Noah, being divinely warned "'of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." This theme of righteousness by faith is 1 that we need to settle into our hearts and minds.

And that's what Noah illustrated in his life and what a life it was.

Now, we read often that there were 8 on the ark, 4 men and 4 women.

Noah was 500 years old when he started having the children that went with him on the ark.

I have occasionally wondered if he maybe had had some more children before that.

When he was given the call, he was 480 years old, okay?

So he had had plenty of time, and God just doesn't give us details on that.

But when he was 500 years old, he had his first son named Japheth, and then his second son named Shem, and his third son named Ham.

And it may not be important for you to remember those names, but there comes a time that it's good to know them, and they were about 2 years apart.

I was noticing as we were coming to church, God did something really special with people.

The next child is big enough to walk by the time the new baby comes.

He spaced us out so that there's enough time between, so that the mother only has to carry at most 2 at a time.

Of course, when you get twins and triplets, things get more complicated, and those do happen.

But Noah's boys were 2 years apart, according to Scripture.

How was it that Noah would be such a person that God would call him?

A couple of things here in Genesis chapter 6 that you say, oh!

Well, you remember a couple of weeks ago, we looked at Enoch and Enoch walked with God.

Well, Noah walked with God, but he didn't get translated.

No, Noah walked with God and he got given a different job to do, build an ark.

And then verse 8, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

It wasn't that he lived so perfectly that God said he deserves to be rescued.

It's that he trusted God so fully that God said, I can trust him, I can rescue him.

We wonder, how were things that it got so bad that God decided He needed to do something?

God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.

Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

All people were thinking about was wickedness.

Well, folks, I've been working in public school for a couple of years.

I believe we can get a pretty good idea of how things were then with this description from 2 Timothy 3 of how things are going to be at the final end.

Because The Bible tells us that there's a tie between things got so bad that God had to wash this earth with water, and at the end, it's going to be even worse and he's going to wash this earth with fire.

Water the first time, fire the second time.

Second Timothy 3, in the last days perilous times will come.

Men will be lovers of themselves, and the doctors are telling us that we should love ourselves.

In some ways, perhaps there's some truth in that, but selfishness is rampant.

Lovers of themselves, lovers of money, I mean, 2 Timothy 3, 2, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents.

We had a handful of students that got suspended from school for a week because of their disobedience.

It's not just parents who are disobedient, too.

Now, you might not have recognized how serious an issue that is, but here it's listed with all these other things.

When somebody does something nice for you to say thank you.

I have often been able to open the outside door and hold it open for the 7th and 8th graders as they're coming into the school.

And 1 day, a couple weeks ago, the principal mentioned that there were 6 students who had said thank you to the 1 who'd opened the door.

And so I was not the 1 who opened the door that day, but then I started counting.

And yeah, With his reminder, that number doubled.

But there's 150 students coming through that door.

Saying thank you when somebody opens the door is not a big thing, but it's a habitual, when somebody does you a favor, to just say the word.

We try to teach it to our children, and they're going to catch it better by example than they were by just saying, tell them, thank you, tell them, thank you.

Our thankfulness to people will also tie to our thankfulness to God.

God is doing good things for us all of the time.

We talked about how nice it is to have the sunshine, and the weather is warmer than it was last year, hallelujah.

Go through your life talking to God about the good things you're seeing him doing.

That way you won't be dwelling on the bad things that the devil is throwing at you all the time.

You can't make yourself holy, but you can accept the holiness that God is giving you.

Verse 3, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, and that's referenced in that Genesis 6 about how people were doing as they pleased.

Brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Some of you are here in our Sabbath school class.

Worshipping of idols, a form of godliness, but not having a connection with the God who provides our needs.

I want to be changed into His likeness, not into the likeness of the stuff that's all around me." I believe those were typical of the sins of Noah's age and also typical of issues today.

We are not blessed when we listen to stories of wickedness, observe people doing wickedness, or even read about wickedness.

In Sabbath school class, we talked about choosing your friends wisely.

Even if you're getting gray hairs, choose your associates wisely.

God will influence us to do those things that we spend our time on.

And that's all the more reason for us to make sure that daily devotional time that we talked about last time.

Noah believed, even though what God said was going to happen, was contrary to science.

The rivers never climbed out of their banks.

And so they assumed that water cannot fall from the sky and the rivers will always stay in their banks.

Abraham: Believe the Promise

It's so good to be able to be with you again.

Lord, we want our minds to be open, so we come to you and invite you to fill us with your Spirit, guide us with your eye, Help us to understand your love more fully for having been here today.

We're continuing our study in Hebrews chapter 11, and we've moved to Abraham, which gets, well, he gets a lot of real estate in Hebrews 11.

He's definitely a very important person throughout Scripture.

Hebrews 11, by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive his inheritance.

He went out, not knowing where he was going.

He dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

For, verse 10, he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

By faith, Abraham went when he was called.

Sometimes We really don't understand what obedience is because we think that we're obeying when we're slow about getting to what we were told to do.

I told my children when they were young, slow obedience is disobedience.

If you're told to do something and you say, well, in a bit, in a bit, I'll get to it, that's not honoring God or your parents.

I remember on my first job in the academy when I was working maintenance department, it was suggested when the boss speaks, says jump, on the way up you ask him how high.

And of course as a 14-year-old I thought that was cute.

But that's the kind of obedience that Abraham had.

When God said, go, he didn't say, well, what's it going to cost me?

What am I going to find when I get there?

Now let me submit that's the same kind of obedience that God's looking for us in these last days.

I believe that from the story of Abraham we can learn some significant lessons on faith.

Trust God's wisdom and do what he says to do.

And know, know right up front, When God calls you to do something, it will involve sacrifice.

Free ride in this world, and there's no free ride to that world.

The big deal is though, as we said in our Sabbath school lesson, Jesus has paid the price and He gives us the ride to heaven.

So as we're receiving this gift, we should not be surprised that, well, it'll just cost you everything you have.

A part of serving God will lead us to sacrifice.

So back there in Genesis chapter 12, 13, we find that Abraham's father, Terah, joined him in responding to this call.

Now, there's a very interesting dynamic going on here.

As we search the Scriptures and meditate on this story, we discover Abraham's worship of God was pure worship.

He didn't dilute it with worshiping of idols.

That's not so true of his father or his brothers, But Abraham was serious about making God his 1 and only.

Now, as I mentioned that, remember, God doesn't share.

You either serve God 100% or you're not serving him.

So there was some serious problems with that other.

Abraham comes from a big, complex family.

His father had 3 sons named, and we have at least 1 daughter, Sarah, apparently from a different mother, which lets us know, oh, this is a complicated family, and we know today complicated families.

I fear that they're getting just as complicated today as they were in the most complex biblical stories.

But Abraham's brother, Haran, Terah's son, had a child named Lot.

And Lot figures prominently in the story, and because Lot is not listed in Hebrews 11, I can share his story pretty generally.

There's 2 other people who are part of this Abraham story who have their own section.

So I'll only touch lightly on Sarah, and I'll touch lightly on Isaac.

Very, very important, and we'll get to those in the next couple of weeks.

Lot clearly recognized there was something good with Abraham, and he went with the family from Ur to this town that they named Haran in honor of the deceased son of Terah.

As we read the story, it seems that Terah had traveled as far as he was able to go.

I don't know how many years or weeks they spent there in Haran.

But they lingered in Haran, and Abraham shared the gospel.

But after Tara died, God said, long enough here, Abram, it's time for you to go to the place that I have prepared for you.

So he headed on over to the land of Canaan.

And there were others who Abram had met in Haran, in that area, who said, I want the worship that is being shared in your encampment.

I want to join you because I want to be connected to your God.

May we have an influence in our communities that makes people want to worship the same God we worship." Powerful stuff.

And there's so many parts of the story, and we just had to figure out which ones we're going to tell when.

He, when he and Abraham got back from Egypt, their flocks and herds had increased so much that they just could not occupy the same territory.

And Abram, in his big-heartedness, in his generosity, in his trust in God, he said to Lot, you choose.

It would have been most appropriate for Lot to say, no, Uncle Abram, it's not for me to choose, You choose.

But no, a lot evidenced typical human selfishness.

He looked around and he said, that's the good land.

And so he took that which looked like it was the most prosperous land.

The Bible says that it was well watered like the Garden of Eden.

Well, nobody alive then had seen the Garden of Eden, but They still had the stories.

I believe Eden was retained on this earth up until the time of the flood when God said, okay, time to take this away.

Not been inside it, no, but would have observed the health and beauty of the plants in the Garden of Eden.