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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Derrick Williamson

Thoughts and Imaginations

Bow your heads with me before we open the Word of God, please.

Our Heavenly Father, we want to just stop and pause in this part of the service and praise Your name, because everything that was shared here was done through your power.

And we are just simply tools that are used in your hands.

And we owe you and we want to give you all the credit and the glory for what took place.

Now as we begin to just for a few moments open up the word and contemplate a very important subject, simple but yet very vital to our walk with you.

I pray that you would just give me clarity of thought, that your spirit would speak through and penetrate even to my heart.

Although I'm speaking, Lord, I want to listen.

As this is a special week, a special Sabbath communion, Lord, we want to not just have a regular Sabbath, we want to have a deep experience with you.

So Lord, I pray that you would be with us now.

We ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.

If you have your Bibles, as I know you do, turn with me to Isaiah the 26th chapter, and we're going to read 1 verse.

And if you're there, can you tell me amen?

Isaiah 26 verse 3 reads, Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.

My margin renders a more accurate translation of mind.

So let me say it with that type of translation.

Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose thoughts and imaginations are continually upon you because He trusts in you.

What is the connection of having trust in God?

It is our mind, our thoughts, and imaginations doing what?

Thinking and being constantly upon Christ.

You know, I don't know about you, but here recently there have been a lot of things going through my mind.

And 1 profound thought that just keeps going and processing almost over, overrides everything, is that the time is so short.

And in conjunction with that, I'm like, why am I falling so short?

I mean, does it bother you sometimes that you know as a faithful Christian, a student of the Word, that times are screaming.

And yet we walk and we have an experience that is not where we want it to be.

I'm opening up and telling you, that disturbs me and I have spent lately hours after my students go to sleep and I have the privilege of sleeping at a church and I slip out into the dark sanctuary, and there I wrestle, and I just agonize with God over these topics.

And sometimes the answers aren't just coming down like I want them to come, But this text has brought me a lot of peace.

There's just some things that I'm not willing to retreat past.

I could tell you my testimony that would prove that.

I know that He has prepared a place for me and that if He has gone to do that, guess what He promised?

I'm coming back to take you so that where I am you can be there also.

And although in my mind and my experience sometimes seems so contradictory to my beliefs, Although I go through tough times, I don't have the peace that I always want or need.

There is something that does not leave as a foundation that I stand upon, and that is this promise.

And I've been doing a lot of study on this topic of thoughts and imaginations.

I want you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter, the sixth chapter of Hebrews.

I understand that we are short with time and I will adapt the message so we don't go longer.

We're not talking about just a fleeting thought like, am I going to pass my exam?

We're talking about serious life issues, deep subjects, and this is soul material, life and death, and it says, we have hope and anchor to our soul.

It's both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whether the, what is the next word in the King James?

The forerunner is for us entered, Even Jesus made a high priest forever.

Does anybody who has studied medieval history understand what a forerunner is?

Okay, I will give you a quick history lesson.

You have a king or royalty that is traveling to another town, another city, another fort, and he is being carried about by chariot or whatever it is, accompanied by knights and things.

But long before he arrives in that town, there is a messenger that is sent ahead to that town or to that place, and their job is to make people ready and to announce that royalty is on its way.

And this hope that is an anchor and steadfast for our soul amid these crazy and rough times is that Jesus Christ is our forerunner, entered into the temple in heaven, and He is there ministering before the Father on our behalf.

Sure and steadfast and anchor to our soul.

When we have that, it is something that we do not retreat past.

It is a rock that we stand firm on and holds us amid the whirlwind and the tempest.

Revelation chapter 1, to bring this point to fullness, says in verse 5, if you're doubting who and what you are, I want to tell you that I love the book of Revelation because it tells me what I am.

Speaking to the 7 churches, John writes in verse 5, he says, from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth, notice here, unto him that what?

And washed us from our sins in his own blood.

Gospel is found in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5.

And it goes on in verse 6 and says, "...and has made us..." Who is us in this text?

Those that have been washed and from their sins in the blood of Jesus.

Kings and priests unto God and His Father.

To Him be glory, dominion forever and ever.

Jesus Christ has washed us from our sins in His blood.

If you haven't had that experience, I would invite you to do it quickly, because time is not too much longer to play around.

And once He has watched us, what does the Bible say that we are now?

And Jesus, according to Hebrews 6, who has given us a hope that is sure and steadfast and anchored to the soul is considered a forerunner.

He has gone back to heaven, and what is he doing there in heaven?

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Thoughts and Imaginations

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