Fresh Manna 2021

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Strong Tower Radio

Fresh Manna by Farai Nhiwatiwa

Farai Nhiwatiwa

The God of Time

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 the smell of fresh manna.

Today, you will be listening to Farai Niwotiwa, pastor of the Grand Rapids Bethel Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Without further ado, we want to go into God's word as we look at the message entitled The God of Time.

Will you bow your heads with me as we have a word of prayer.

Eternal Father in heaven, we come before you this afternoon.

We want to thank you for what we have already experienced.

Indeed, your spirit is present in this place.

We want to thank you and we want to surrender ourselves to you.

We pray, Lord, that now as I prepare to share the message that you have put on my heart, I pray, Lord, that may my humanness, may my human limitation not be anything that stands between your word and your people.

In fact, Lord, I stand back and I ask that your Holy Spirit may take charge, that he may speak.

And Father, we pray that you will speak to the end, that your name be glorified, that the hearts and lives of your people may be transformed.

Speak to us a word of encouragement, a word of hope, a word of salvation, oh God, in Jesus' name, we do pray, amen.

You remember the time when you were young and you wondered whether you would ever grow older.

You remember how it was when you could break your leg and it would be in a cast for a few weeks and it's healed.

But now you dare not break anything because the road to recovery takes much longer than when you were much younger.

And that is why when you see when someone has died, there is the beginning, and there is a dash in between, and there is the date of expiration.

What is represented by the dash is the time between when 1 is born and when time expires for that person.

And when we look at time, There's a lot that happens within time.

There's a lot that we experience in the period that is represented by time, by the ticking of the clock.

In fact, everyone has the same amount of time.

There is no 1 who has more time than another.

It doesn't matter what your station is in life.

The question is, what are you doing with your time?

1 writer said, either organize or agonize.

You see, how we spend time will determine what we will be able to accomplish within that time period.

You see, the book of Ecclesiastes speaks about time.

The book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that we are on the clock, that time continues to pass by.

And as we live out our time within time, the book of Ecclesiastes here tells us in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them.

A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.

A time to search and a time to give up the search.

There is a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

Here, the writer of Ecclesiastes brings before us 7 opposite situations that happen within time.

You see, as we leave out our experience within time, There are seasons and times for different things that happen in our lives.

You see, as we live out our time down here on earth, we come to find that life is a mixed bag.

There are difficult things that happen to us.

You see what you are going to discover about time is you cannot control time, and neither can you always control the circumstances in your life, no matter how you try.

We will try to go to college so that we get a degree, so that we can do well, so that we can provide for our families.

We may do all that what is within our control to do to prepare us so that we can be best positioned to experience life in the best way possible.

But if there is anything that you will discover about life and what happens within our lives is that life is unpredictable.

As we live our lives under the sun, as the writer here says life is unpredictable.

And you'll see that is why the teacher here in the book of Ecclesiastes begin the book by saying meaningless, meaningless, or vanity, vanity, all is vanity.

For you see, as he looks at the experiences of life, as he looks at what is happening in life under the sun, yes, we have the same amount of time.

Yes, we may prepare for life, But we find over and over again that something comes out of the left field.

We find over and over again that life throws us a curved ball and we are caught flat-footed.

We find that over and over again, no matter how much preparation we may make, there's always something that will remind us that we cannot fully control what happens within our lives.

And So as the teacher here is looking at life, he plays the role of a critic and is saying, life seems to be meaningless.

It seems to be in vain for us to live down here on earth because no matter how much you prepare, sometimes life simply comes at you at a way you have not experienced or desired to see.

You see, when you experience life, we know what it is like to see the birth of a child.

We know what it is to rejoice as a baby comes into the world, but we also know the pain of being in a funeral parlor or in a church service with a casket there of our loved 1 as we bid farewell to them.

You see, when we look at life, there are many things that happen within life.

Some things we can understand, some things are difficult to understand.

And sometimes we get caught up in a situation where we are even wondering, is it even worth it for us to try?

Because as the writer here puts out, it doesn't matter how good you are, you will 1 day die and you will be forgotten.

It doesn't matter how much wealth you may gather, you will eventually die and someone is going to take over that wealth.

And that person who takes over that wealth may not care for all the toil that you have put in it.

And so the writer says, vanity or vanity, all is vanity, meaningless.

And he understands that each 1 of us usually finds ourselves at a point where we may ask the question, what's the point?

You see, as he looks at what is happening in the world, I think in chapter 4, let me just read here a little.

The Conclusion of the Matter

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

This morning, as we prepare to go into God's Word, and the message today is entitled, The Conclusion of the Matter, Let us bow our heads as we pray.

Eternal Father in Heaven, we come before you this morning.

We want to ask Lord that as we delve into it, that your Holy Spirit will guide.

Lord, I ask that you hide me behind the cross of Calvary.

I pray Lord that the Holy Spirit may guide every step of this message so that this message may have meaning and application in the lives of your people.

Thank you, Lord, for hearing, And thank you, Lord, for answering our prayer.

This title is a title that probably resonates quite a bit, especially with those of the male gender, because men are usually bottom line.

You know, it's like, you know, okay, tell me what, can you summarize it?

Sometimes we are not so much keen on the journey.

We just want to know, Hey, you know, just lay it down for me.

Just give me 3 things and I'm good to go.

Whereas our spouses and those of the opposite sex, sometimes they enjoy the journey.

I'm always at a loss, you know, when I go somewhere and my wife is asking for details, and man, I just don't remember.

I don't know who was wearing what, or what all was going on.

And so that's how we are wired sometimes.

And so it's usually that the difference that is there between men and women.

And so today as we come to the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, those of you who were with us last Sabbath, we were in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, and we spent some time there.

And so I thought today would be a second part where we kind of, you know, bring things together and find out what is the conclusion.

What is it that the teacher has to teach us?

After all that he has said, as he has looked at life, let us remember that King Solomon decided to really delve into life.

He had the means, He was able to really get into everything.

And after he looked at everything, his conclusion to all these experiences was heaven or it's smoke.

You see King Solomon came to discover that we are caught in the time trap.

And sometimes we find ourselves stumped because we cannot control how time moves in our lives and the experiences that we experience under the sun, as the wise man says here in the book of Ecclesiastes, as he looks at our life down here on earth, under the sun, as he puts it, He discovered that we are caught in this time trap, as it were.

No matter how much we plan, there is usually some things that will come from places we have not imagined them to come from.

And so we find ourselves sometimes really disappointed.

But let us remember what we said last week, that while we are caught in the chronos time, the linear time, there is a God who operates on the Kairos time, where he brings about the different things that are happening in our lives, and he makes them beautiful in his own time.

And so after Solomon has experienced all these different things, and he comes to the end of Ecclesiastes chapter 12.

Come with me as we begin from verse 1 of chapter 12.

He begins by saying, remember your creator in the days of your youth.

Here he reminds us that it is good for us to remember God when we are still young, when we still have strength.

He says, remember your creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them.

He goes on to use pictures here to describe what it feels like as you begin to age and he is saying to you and to me, don't waste time, don't hold off on remembering your creator, don't wait until the last minute He says, remember your creator in the days of your youth before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars grow dark.

You all remember how it was when you were still in your 20s, when your thoughts were cutting edge, when ideas and you were oozing with creativity, you were as bright as the stars.

But here he is saying, you know, as you get older, things begin to slow down a little.

You kind of lose your shine a little, not because you are less than, but the march of time is taking place in your body, in your mind, and you find that things begin to change.

He goes on to say, when the keepers of the house tremble.

Here he is, you know, commentators suggest that the keepers are your feet and your hands, And he's saying, you know, before time, you begin to feel the tremors within your feet and your hands.

You know, you begin to, you no longer have the strength that you had when you were younger.

And he says here, and the strong man stoop.

In fact, when you are moving, you start to hear sounds, weird sounds.

You know, you are going up the stairs and you hear a creaking sound.

It's something in your knee that is beginning to, you know, things are rubbing against each other because the oil that was in the knees is kind of giving way.

And so things are beginning to change as you get older.

And of course, it says here, the grinder ceases.

Clearly, there were no dentures in Solomon's time, because now there is a fix.

When the grinders cease, you can borrow some.

And so here he is saying, before you get to that stage, he is saying, remember your Lord.

He says, and those looking through the windows grow dim.

Before you had 20, 20 vision, you could see things from a distance.

Now you kind of have to squint your eyes to figure out who is coming or what's happening.

He says, remember your creator before you get to that place and the doors to the street are closed.

The sound of grinders fades When people rise up at the sound of birds, all their songs grow faint.

When people are afraid of heights, there's another 1.

Not only that, even just your center of gravity has moved.

And so you want to be as close to the ground as you can.

He says, before you get there, remember the creator in the days of your youth.

And then It also says here, when the almond tree blossoms.

I'm beginning to experience the blossoming of the almond flowers on my head.

In fact, the other day I was looking closely in the mirror and I saw a white hair peeping out of my nose and I said, oh, this is it.

It says here when the almond tree blossoms and there's a beauty about white hair, you know, it's a mark of distinction.

It is a badge that you have been through stuff.

Remember the Lord in the days of your youth.

It says here, and desire no longer is stirred.

Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the street.

Here he is saying, before you get to that place, when eventually you and I kick the bucket, remember the Lord.

Remember him before the silver cord is broken and the golden ball is broken, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground that it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

And to the young people, I want to say, you blink, and before you know it, you were once young.

I remember not too long ago, I mean, I was a much younger version of myself.

And who would have thought that, you know, today I can see white hair on my head.

The Power of the Word

This morning as we come to the time for the message, a message that is entitled The Power of the Word, I would ask that you pray with me.

Eternal Father in Heaven, as I stand before your people, in a sense, I am keenly aware that I am limited.

Limited in understanding, limited in delivery, but I am so glad that your Holy Spirit is available to aid me.

So Lord, I ask that you hide me behind the cross of Calvary.

I ask that Christ and Christ alone be lifted up so that all men, women, boys, and girls may be drawn to him.

Speak to us, O God, for we are listening.

I must say that as I approached the message today, I didn't know where it would take me.

And yeah, it was just interesting as I delved a little deeper into the message.

Many a times we just take this text and we run with it.

And I'm sure some of you are already saying, oh, I know where he's going with this.

You know, We are going to get to hear, oh, the word of God is powerful.

The word of God does crazy, amazing things.

Maybe you are saying, Well, I haven't seen that yet in my life.

What's the hype about this word to quote?

It says here, the word of God is alive and it is active.

It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow.

It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart.

It's telling us here that the word of God is living.

I mean, here we are told that It is sharper than a 2 edged sword.

And the things that are spoken of here, and let's not get caught up in trying to figure out soul and spirit or joints and marrow.

When the Bible speaks about the soul and the spirit, sometimes we can't seem to make a distinction.

And so when the writer is saying the word of God is able to separate that which seems to be so inextricably intertwined, he is speaking to the ability of the word of God to cut through and divide what seems to not even be possible to divide.

But again, like I said, you may be online today and you are saying, Pastor, I hear you.

But let's take this slowly and come with me on a journey, because this text is coming from Samoa.

In fact, the text starts by saying, for the word of God, or because the word of God.

And we know that we don't start with, you know, those that know English, you don't start with because, or you don't start by saying for.

And so this passage here comes within a larger context.

By the time the writer arrives here, the writer has said some stuff before, and he is using this to validate, to conclude, to help us to validate what he has said.

But what is it that he has been talking about?

And I am so glad for this morning's Sabbath School lesson because the Sabbath School lesson is really the backdrop to this text.

Before we arrive at this text, the writer has been talking about the experience of the children of Israel.

You see, if we go back to verse 11, the writer of Hebrew says, "'Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no 1 will perish by following the example of disobedience.

Let's go back to verse Let's go back to verse 10.

For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his works just as God did from his.

If we go back a little further, we're going to discover that the writer of the book of Hebrews is actually quoting part of Psalm 95 where it gives a warning at the end of Psalm 95, where the Psalmist again takes us back to the experience of the children of Israel, who were not able to enter into the promised land because they did not believe the word of God.

They did not believe the promises of God.

We heard this morning in our lesson study that even though God had done miraculous things in their lives, he parted the sea, he parted the Jordan, he was a cloud by day, he was a pillar of fire by night, he rained quail on them, he made sure that they had manna.

And when they were thirsty, he provided water out of rock.

And yet, the word of God tells us that after the spies had been sent in and they brought back the report And Joshua and Caleb said, God has given us this land.

The other 10 said, oh no, This land devours people.

This land has walls that go up to the skies and we have seen the descendants of Enoch, the giant.

And even though Caleb and Joshua pleaded with them, we all heard this morning, they were now even ready to find another leader to take them back to Egypt.

And so the writer of the book of Hebrews recounts the story and reminds his hearers, in Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 19.

It actually gives the summary, but let's just allow the word of God to speak here.

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

But encourage 1 another daily as long as it is cold today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

We have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold on to our original conviction firmly to the very end.

As has been said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.

Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness, and to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest, if not to those who disobeyed." And then Now verse 19 sums it up and tells us why they were not able to enter.

And the word of God says, and so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

And now the writer then goes on in chapter 4 to say, Therefore, since the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us just as they did.

But the message they heard was of no value to them because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.

It says they did not combine the word of God with faith.

They did not believe the word of God and so the word of God became of none effect to them.

Now let us remember, God's intention was for the children of Israel to enter Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey, the land of promise.

Let us remember that the children of Israel had been in bondage for over 400 years.

And Can you imagine what good news it was to be told that God was taking them to a land of freedom, a land of abundance.

And now here, the writer of Hebrews is speaking to a community that is about to go back.

Series

Fresh Manna by Farai Nhiwatiwa

What is a Church

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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Daniel

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The Diagnosis

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Fresh Manna By Jacob Gibbs

The Power of a Question

41m

Fresh Manna By Darryl Bently

Faithful Remnant

48m

To Know and Be Known

The Judgments of God

1h 11m

Marriage as a Covenant

05 Conflict in the Marriage Covenant

53m

The Book of the Law

45m

Fresh Manna By Jacob Gibbs

When God Becomes an Idol

41m

Gerard Damsteegt: Spring 2013 Week of Prayer

Revival as It Is in Jesus

48m

Marriage as a Covenant

06 Marriage Covenant Sclerocardia

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Sound Doctrine