Fresh Manna 2021

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Strong Tower Radio

Fresh Manna By Philip Mills

Philip Mills

The Call for Unity

♪♪♪ 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 Phil Mills, pastor of Lansing Seventh-day Adventist Church.

You know, after a week like this, it is always a blessing to come to the house of the Lord.

As I've been visiting with different individuals this last week, I have been reminded afresh that I want to go home, how about you?

And then I watched as individuals made their way into our Capitol And our congressmen and women were rushed into hiding.

And I was reminded this world is not my home, we're just a passing through.

In church, the sermon that we're going to look at has been a very hard 1 for me to write because it's rebuked me a lot.

It's been a study that as I've gone through it, I've realized in a very convicting...

You know when the Holy Spirit comes to you and He says, okay, Phil, you need this, and you need to change.

I'm talking about me, not you, you're okay.

You know when He comes and He does that to you, and of course it's like, well yes Lord, I want to change.

And then He starts poking His finger in different areas and you realize, wow, I have a lot of growing before I become like Christ.

I have a lot of growing to do to be able to be used by God to take the Gospel to the world.

Last week we talked about that Jesus is the only 1 who determines when He comes.

You know, sometimes we get caught up in all of these conspiracy theories and all of these worries about what's going on, and we start, I don't think we ever say this, but we start acting like it's the natural disasters, or it's the Pope, or it's any 1 of these different entities that determine when Jesus comes.

Now go with me to Matthew 24, and then we'll pray.

The sermon last week, we had 1 point that we drove home all the way through.

Sermon title today is Lighting Up Lansing, the Call for Unity.

If I don't stop and pray now, we're not going to pray because I'm already diving into it.

So would you just pause because we want God to guide us as we open his word.

Let's bow our heads and ask Him to be with us.

Father in heaven, our world is in a mess right now.

We're seeing fracturing lines, deepening divisions, heightening rhetoric, anger, pain on multiple sides.

We know that there's a commission that You've given us to take the gospel to the world, and we saw that commission last week that you alone determine when you come.

And that determination of your coming is the gospel to the world.

We need a heart work before we can do that work.

Today as we study about the call for unity that prepares us to take the gospel, the call to come together, I ask that you will move upon all of us here in a mighty way, that you will have mercy and in a fresh dispensation of grace, move on our hearts that we might become 1 in Jesus.

In His name we pray, let everyone say, Amen.

This gospel of the kingdom must be preached in how much of the world?

And then, what does Christ say will happen?

Before that, it's interesting, if you'll remember, we looked at all of the signs and Christ says the end is not yet.

When you see these things, no it's near, but the end isn't yet.

When the gospel goes to the world, That's when the end is what, church?

Where we ended the sermon last week is an appeal that many of us responded to to say, Lord, help me win how many souls?

Have you been praying for God to guide you to that 1 person?

This isn't time for us to look around and say, well, some were, some weren't.

Let's go forward in what God has called us to do.

But as we came off that sermon, John 17 began to resonate in my mind as I was praying about what the Lord would have us look at next.

Take your Bibles and turn there with me if you would.

Because right now, our society at large, and dare I say, sometimes what happens in the world around us, has a danger of beginning to impact, hopefully not in our church here, but has a danger of beginning to impact how we interact as a church.

People are angry that others are angry over the elections.

They're angry that some people think COVID-19 doesn't exist.

They're angry that other people think that it does exist.

They're angry at the government that they're not doing enough.

Others are angry that the government is doing too much.

They're afraid that they might get COVID-19.

They're afraid that others might judge them for not worrying about COVID-19.

Church, we live in a society, and I could go on for a long time, I'm not going to.

You listen to 1 side of the news and you get a set of facts that they present that make it out as if our world is about to end.

You listen to the other side of the news and they seem to have swapped places recently and they're now saying that The Savior has come and we're going to be okay going forward.

1 says, their scientists they put forward, and their doctors they put forward, and the other side has their scientists and their doctors that they put forward.

If you listen to 1 news outlet, you get 1 perspective.

If you listen to another, you can get a completely different perspective.

And sadly, sometimes those differences can spill into the interactions that happen within God's church.

Could it be that maybe in a local congregation somewhere far, far away from here, there are strong feelings about various political or health topics that can garner very difficult conversations that lead to rifting of friendships and relationships possibly within the Church of God.

As I've been visiting over this last few weeks and months, I've seen and heard from many of you the pain that everyone is in right now in the unusual circumstances we find ourselves.

People are struggling with what's happening.

Church, you might be struggling with what's happening here this morning.

What do we do in a world where division, arguing and fighting is the modus operandi of the day?

It's easy when we all agree on something.

Thou Shalt Not Steal

It was fresh from the ovens of Heaven, baked by the Master Baker Himself.

It's a joy to be in a church family this morning.

And if there is ever a time that we as a church must be about the business that God has called us to do, church, it's now.

We have a city that is needing the gospel.

And what's interesting to me is that God is waiting for a people who will so show the love of God to the community that they are in that people are brought to a decision to accept the love and truth of God or not.

That is what brings about the final demonstration and the final event.

It's not some magical or important event that happens higher up.

Church, the second coming of Christ begins here with us accepting the grace of Jesus into our lives and sharing that grace with others.

I want Jesus to come soon, how about you?

Well, our study today comes out of Exodus 20, verse 15.

If you have your Bibles, would you turn there with me?

We've been going through a series of sermons for a number of months now through the 10 Commandments, and we've made our way through the first 4 and we saw how important it is.

He is intimately passionate about a relationship between us and Him.

We saw that He doesn't want anything else ahead of Him.

He doesn't want anything desired over Him.

He's carved out, created 24 hours every 7 days that He has fashioned a palace in time just to spend time with His people.

We saw that God cares about how we respect the authorities in our lives.

He also cares about how we interact with those around us.

And we saw that murder is more than just an action that starts in the heart and we need Jesus to change our hearts and our lives.

We looked at thou shalt not commit adultery and we saw the importance of making sure that we guard the avenues of our eyes, and especially as men, that we are careful what we look at and what we contemplate, and that we allow God to protect us in that.

Today we're gonna spend our time on verse 15.

Would you bow your heads with me as we pray?

Father in heaven, as we bow before you this morning, if it wasn't for Jesus, we wouldn't be worthy to be here.

We ask that right now you will come according to your abundant mercy and fill this sanctuary and speak to our hearts.

We pray that you'll banish Satan and his angels from having any access, that you'll hide me behind the cross, that you'll take the message that you put in my mind and that you'll individually apply it to each person here.

May we leave with a deeper appreciation and understanding of your love and your calling in our lives in Jesus name.

If you aren't, take your Bible and turn with me to Exodus chapter 20 and verse 15.

Now, someone may say, Pastor, this is going to be a very simple and easy sermon because I have never stolen anything in my life.

Or if I did, it was a long time ago and that was very far in the past.

You may not have walked into a store and stolen anything.

Now, there may be someone here that says, I have, pastor, and by the grace of God, you can confess that sin and Jesus can not only forgive, but what can he do, church?

He can cleanse us from how much of unrighteousness?

So you may have stolen and Jesus is in the business of restoring people.

But what we've seen in these commandments is that we are too superficial if we stop with just the action.

What are the other areas of our lives that can be changed?

And so what I want to look at today, and I'll be honest, this is another 1 of those sermons that's been a little difficult to write.

Maybe the better word to say is a little difficult to preach.

Because what I want to look at today is an area of our lives that is very personal.

It's not 1 that we like people messing around in.

It's 1 that the Bible says, where your treasure is, there your heart is.

He cares about what your heart is set on.

And a lot of times what we own, and more specifically the things that go through, and in the US it's called the dollar, that goes through our bank account matters God.

I wanna tell you a story as we move into this topic here.

Then we'll move into several points and then I think you'll start seeing it tie together.

My grandparents, Amy and Elwood Sherard, my grandma's actually still alive, she's 103, and she's probably watching on the live stream right now.

She and my grandfather were missionaries in the Far Eastern Division for a number of years.

My mom grew up in the Far Eastern Division as a missionary's kid.

But early on, before they headed over as missionaries, they got married as a young couple, and they were both convicted on the importance of giving faithful tithe and offering to God.

And so they made a commitment, even though they were making very little, they were not making very much money as a young couple and newlyweds starting off, they made a commitment, we're going to put aside the 10%.

Then they went farther than that and they said let's make sure we also want to not just give God what He says that belongs to me, but we want to show our gratitude by giving another 5%.

And then they felt convicted, and this is not for everybody, but they felt convicted.

And I want to share this story, not saying that This is what everyone should do, but what God can do when we make a commitment to sacrifice for Him.

They said every year that God gives us in marriage, let's give 1 more percent to His work.

Now, they were on missionary salaries for most of their career or their life.

Missionaries by the way don't make very much money in case you were wondering.

They wondered how they could do it, but they said, well we're going to give 1% more every year because we want to see God's work go forward and we want to be a part of every penny he's given us.

We want to be able to give to the work so that Jesus has the funds to get and to hasten his coming.

And what they noticed is they were very, very frugal.

In fact, I remember my mom was like this as well.

They would even make sure that, and I'm not saying everyone should do this, but they would even make sure how much toothpaste you put on your toothbrush because that could save a few extra pennies that they could give to the Lord's work.

My grandfather, maybe this is too much information, but my grandfather would count how many squares of toilet paper because every penny saved on toilet paper was something they could give to the Lord's work.

A Difficult Question

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

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.

It's a privilege to be here in this temple of time.

I'm grateful for how God is moving around the world and in our church.

We have a number more that are coming up over the next few months, Lord willing.

And I trust that you'll keep that in prayer but God is on the move.

You watch the news and it's like you're just seeing prophecy unfold in front of you isn't it?

Other places in the world are a mess, but I'm thankful our citizenship is not here, it's in heaven.

But between here and there, now and then, i.e.

Between now and then being the second coming, There's some work God needs to do on my heart and on yours.

Hence, as I was thinking about it afterwards, the sermon title today is It's a Difficult Question.

I could have entitled it It's a Difficult Topic.

The reason it's difficult is not because it's hard to talk about, it's because it's hard for me to let Jesus change my life.

So before we move in, would you bow your heads with me as we ask God to do the miracle of grace we need.

Father in heaven, as we bow before your throne, today we need Jesus to come and speak to us.

Father, we are in grave and solemn times in Earth's history.

And you are longing to come back to take your people home.

But there's some work that needs to happen on my heart and on others' hearts, and so I pray that here today, you will send your spirit to fall upon us and to teach us and to change our hearts to reflect Jesus.

As we lay this time in your hands, in Jesus' name we pray.

If you have your Bibles, take them and turn them with me, if you would to John 17.

It's an interesting time in Christ's life and ministry.

Prior to John 17, Christ has been in the upper room with His disciples.

He has finished washing the disciples' feet.

Judas has moved on to go and betray Christ.

If you go back a couple of chapters, Christ has given quite a bit of teaching over John 14, 15, and 16.

And as we come into John 17, Christ is beginning to pray to His heavenly Father that God would do a miracle in His disciples.

But what's amazing about John 17 is the prayer of Christ is prophetic in what it covers.

I don't have time to get into it this morning, but If you read through the prayer of Christ, you will see that He walks through the history of the church until the second coming of Him when He is finally reunited with His people.

Just by way of introduction, Let's quickly look at this process.

If you go down to John 17, and verse 14, 15, and 16, you will see...

When did the world ever love God's people?

And if you go and you look in her history, there is a period of time when God's church and his faithful people were especially persecuted church.

During the Middle Ages, During that period of time, God's people were under persecution.

And verse 15, Christ says, I don't pray that you will take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil 1.

They are not of the world just as I am not of the world.

As God's people were going through the dark ages, God's Word was removed from most of the population.

But God, through the power of His grace, restored the Word of God and His truth to the people.

And as the Word was restored to His people, light began to shine, and God's people and the world at large was enlightened with the glory of God, and a people were raised up who were sanctified by the power of Jesus Christ's Word.

It recreates the brokenness of our lives.

Verse 18, as you sent me into the world, I also sent them into the world.

And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the what, church?

This isn't the point of the sermon this morning, but I do want to touch on this because you can't ignore this.

The truth of God's Word is the only thing that will change your life when it's applied by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The brokenness that you're facing in your world, God's truth will lighten the blackness.

And you can look at this as you see the dark ages, and you see Luther nailing the 95 Theses, you see Luther translating the Bible, you go and you find the other reformers translating the Word of God, and the Word of God became available to the population.

The Protestant Reformation sweeps through Europe.

The Pilgrim Fathers land in the United States.

And this new idea that was unique to history began to form that people could make decisions based on the freedom of their conscience and religious freedom begin to come and the advantages we have today as a culture and a society are because of the light of God's truth shining out to a world that was in blackness and darkness.

But God didn't give His Word so that I could have a nice iPhone and that you could sit here in air conditioning, which is very nice.

God gave His Word so that we might become like Jesus.

It wasn't so that I could drive here in a car and not have to ride on a horse and buggy.

It wasn't so that I could enjoy a nice warm shower this morning.

And all of those, church, the reason Science has advanced as far as it is.

It's because the light of God's Word has shined on this world, and when God's light shines, it not only gives us evidence of salvation, but it completely transforms the society that you're in.

The advantages we have are because of God's Word, but God gave it to save His people.

The Personal Christ

Today you will be listening to Phil Mills, pastor of Lansing Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

It's good to see each 1 of you here this morning.

I said this last week, I have seen it again this week, and I am sure you have seen it as well.

Jesus is on the move in our church and in this community.

I was talking to an individual this last week who God has them on a journey to finding Jesus in a new and personal way.

And they're coming from a background where they haven't had Christ in their life.

And It was so encouraging to hear them say, I just want a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I know that in some of our homes, and I hope it's in all of our homes, we are feeling God bringing an even deeper personal spiritual revival in our lives.

You may be sitting here saying, well that's not happening for me pastor, so that's a little discouraging to hear.

I have good news for you, Jesus can and will do the same thing in your home.

If you're discouraged this morning, I want to encourage you, Jesus is a personal God for you.

Well, our sermon this morning comes from a passage that we all have learned, probably from when we were quite small, but the title is, The Personal Christ.

Series

Fresh Manna By Philip Mills

The Call for Unity

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Fresh Manna By Philip Mills

A Difficult Question

29m

Unlock Revelation

Our Greatest Need

36m

Fresh Manna By Jacob Gibbs

When God Becomes an Idol

41m

Fresh Manna by Moise Ratsara

A Certain Message for an Uncertain Time

46m

The Science of Surrender

56m

Fresh Manna by Jermaine Gayle

Broken Jars

41m

Plenary Sessions

A Message for Every Nation, Tribe, Language and People

2h 29m

Fresh Manna By Jacob Gibbs

Without Human Hands

42m

Hungering for More of HIM

06 That They All May Be One

43m

On the Unity of the Church

04 The Christian Journey: From Division to Unity (Roman Catholic Ecumenism)

56m

Fresh Manna by Steven Conway

Mission Part 1

46m

Christian Martin Weekend

How To Avoid Being a Good for Nothing Christian

50m

Sound Doctrine