Forward to Zion: Ohio Hometown Camp Meeting 2011

<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>

Forward to Zion

Rick Howard

Rebellion-Lovers of Egypt

I'm still moving and breathing, which is a victory in itself.

Yesterday when I got finished, I could have wrung my clothes out when I got back to my room over there.

I was talking to myself, I guess, I don't know why.

What I was saying was I was soaking wet when I finished yesterday.

But I have a tendency to sweat a lot anyway, so...

But it's good to be here again and you know it's really good it's good to be able to share this message with freedom and because I've you know been holding onto it for 5 years and not wanting to jump ahead of the Lord.

And you know I've learned probably the most important lessons of my whole life after I retired from ministry.

And those lessons have to do with patience and waiting on God and learning that the Lord wants to control every aspect of our life.

He wants to be the 1 who speaks through our minds and controls our will.

In Steps to Christ, I remember when I first became a Seventh-day Adventist Christian and I read that book and it was so interesting that we surrender our will to God because we don't know any better.

But then He gives it back to us, it says in that book.

And we learn, when He gives it back to us, we have learned how to follow His will all the time in everything we do.

So there's a surrender initially, but then the Lord gives our will back to us and it's up to us to make decisions.

I remember being led because I didn't know any better.

God, help me, lead me to the truth, you know.

And it was like nuclear explosions going off.

He had to make things happen that were out of my control.

But then after I was a Christian for a while, I noticed that those kind of experiences declined.

And I was waiting for God to do things, but he didn't do it.

And I learned the lesson, because he didn't do it, that he wanted me to now make those decisions.

And a lot of us can find ourselves paralyzed, you know, and not going anywhere in our Christian life.

We're always waiting for God, you know, to do something, to make something happen, when he really wants us to decide and do it if it's wrong I'll put a mountain in front of you and you won't be able to do it then you back off and you pray some more and make the decision again and go this way and then the doors will open you know but he wants us to decide what to do.

It was kind of what I heard Alden speaking about here, you know, about witnessing to people.

You don't wait for people to just come to you.

Do the fish jump out of the water into your bucket when you're fishing?

He made me laugh because I remember I was on a plane and I witnessed this guy sitting next to me and I'm talking to him, talking to him, sharing the stuff and after about I don't know, 10, 15 minutes, he's sitting there with a book in his hand and he slams the book and he goes, you know, I came on this plane and I wanted to sit here in quiet and just read my book, you know, I almost died, you know, it was like where can I go hide, he was really upset and then, so I apologized, you know, and it was a horrible experience And he starts reading again, I apologize, and he starts reading again and he goes, he goes, all right?

He goes, I suppose you're, you know, you're really embarrassed and then we start this conversation.

But it was so funny, here I am, I'm witnessing and talking and I just, I should, I was a new Christian, and I couldn't hold it in.

And you learn from experiences like that.

But let me tell you folks, the spirit of Jesus is a ministerial spirit.

And if you have his spirit in here, you can't hold it in, you can't.

And if you find yourself, you don't like witnessing, you got to get on your knees and pray, what, Lord, are you there?

Because if he's there, you're going to want to tell the world about it.

If you're headed towards, you know, your demise, and there's a whole bunch of people around you, and you're all going in this direction where you're going to lose your life, are you going to just be quiet?

You'd be shouting at the top of your lungs, stop, We're going the wrong way, you know.

Well, that's what it's like when you have the Spirit of Christ in your heart.

Everybody around you in this world that doesn't know the truth, you know, Sister White said it the right way, treat every person as if it's the last opportunity they may have.

Now, that doesn't mean you preach the whole gospel to them, but you drop 1 little thing.

That's what I've learned to do, 1 little thing.

In the course of any conversation you have with someone, you can get it across that you're a Christian.

Just get this little thing across because then the Holy Spirit has something to work with that person.

They'll turn around and go, oh, so you're a Christian or whatever it is, but you can do it.

Just start out by letting them know something connected with God in 1 sentence.

And that's all you need because that's where the Holy Spirit will then take over.

Okay, I want to tell you a story actually.

Were you all embarrassed enough yesterday to make sure you bring your Bibles today?

It was about, I don't know, a year ago, and I don't sleep well.

And I get up every night, usually, and, you know, 3, 4 hours, I don't know what it is, but that's just what happens.

And I was up in the middle of the night again and I was a little bit discouraged and I'm praying and I'm talking to God about this deception that is sweeping the leadership of our church.

And I'm saying to myself in this prayer, I pray that I'm talking, Lord what is it, you know, why is it that so many that have been to our schools, have studied for ministry, they know the spirit of prophecy, and yet they begin practicing something that they have to know from what they've studied is not right.

You know, I know that there is a, you know, these are symptoms of rebellion, you know, but because I went through another experience that I'm gonna share with you right after this 1 about rebellion, and I said, why are these people in rebellion?

The word rebellion was the last word that came out of my mouth.

And it was 1 of those times that it, you know, I don't do this, I don't say, okay God show me and open my Bible, you know, I don't do that, but it opened to Isaiah chapter 30.

Now, get your Bibles open to Isaiah chapter 30.

Now, remember, the last word to cross my lips is the word rebellion.

And I look down at verse 1 and as you can see, woe to the rebellious children, it says.

And this turned out to be a most fascinating chapter and we're going to read a part of it now.

I've written this book and I'm waiting for God to lead me, lead to get the book out to our people.

I want you to be the 1 to bring this book out when it's supposed to come out because I don't trust myself.

I don't wanna just push for it to come out at the wrong time.

Because I realized that God was working with thousands of people around the world on this subject, you know, wooing them back, you know, to make, you know, right decisions in their life that are maybe on the edge, going 1 way or the other.

And I didn't want this book to come out just because, oh, I got it published.

Back to Menu

Rebellion-Lovers of Egypt

Transcript

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Last Day Events Explained

02. The Abomination of Desolation

40m

A Life-Changing Classroom

37m

The Sins of the World and Learning How to Think for Yourself

The Sins of the World and The Lamb of God Part 2

54m

Jesus Who?

55m

SWYC 2008 Breakout Sessions

Change Your Plans

43m

Present Truth in the Sanctuary

Session 3: Present Truth in the Sanctuary

54m

Pacific Union ASI Plenary Meeting, Part 2

53m

Alistair Huong and Norman McNulty: The Book Of Revelation

Revelation 10: The Second Advent Movement

46m

The Sanctuary

04 The Sanctuary Power of the Tabernacle

55m

Plenary

One Little Thought

35m

The Lost Art of Reading: Why We Should Re-read the Un”Red” Books

42m

Even if the Pews Are Empty

35m

Sound Doctrine