FYI 2011

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Florida Youth Initiative

Kameron DeVasher

Heaven On Earth

I am so excited to be here with you this morning.

The message that I have to present to you today makes me excited.

I hope that you're going to be excited too.

We're going to be building on the theme that we've been developing all week, the very first morning devotional we had together, we looked at how God has a plan for salvation, for redemption, for getting you to heaven that's bigger than just simply getting you to heaven.

He wants to develop his character within you so that when you get to heaven, you will fit into heaven.

But then on the next day we looked at how there seems to be almost a dichotomy in Seventh Day Adventist thinking about what will actually finish the work.

What is the work that needs to be finished?

Is it preaching the gospel to every nation, or is it simply developing the character of Christ within us by holy living?

And apparently what the word of God tells us, the spirit of prophecy guides us to, is a concept where both are vitally important, that there's a higher ideal, a higher standard, than either 1 or the other.

There's an entirety to God's mission for us that we can't just bypass tritely.

There's a glorious mission he wants us to accomplish.

Then, we saw how Revelation chapter 14 is the mission statement of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

It's what we're to be preaching, but there's another chapter in the Bible that Mrs.

White refers to continuous, repeatedly, over and over about how we are supposed to do the work in this time.

Does anybody remember what chapter that was?

It's not just simply the recitation of doctrine.

It's not simply just calling people to repentance, but it's a revival and a reformation.

It expresses itself in care for those in need.

Okay, it's actually being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to those who are in need.

So yesterday we left off with the concept that if this is the idea, if Revelation 14 is what we're supposed to be preaching, If each of us were supposed to be demonstrating the character of God in our lives, and we work together in a way that completes what Isaiah 58 was talking about, what would that actually look like in practice?

What would a body of believers who were each individually representing the character of Christ in their personal lives, with a mission to tell the world the important truths of the gospel, when they're all brought together in say fellowship and community in a church, What would it look like?

Heaven on Earth is the topic for this morning.

But before we start any study of the Word, we need to begin with a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, It is a privilege, an honor, a blessing to have this Sabbath day of rest.

Thank you, Lord, for the fellowship that it provides, the break from the toils of everyday labor.

And in this special time, in this special place, on your special day, Lord, give us the information that will transform us into your special chosen people.

Help us to represent your character to the world, spread the gospel of the 3 angels' messages, and see you come soon, very soon.

Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 19.

This is just before the famous Exodus chapter 20.

The 10 Commandments, the law of God, spoken from Mount where?

So these people are encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai.

Okay, the Lord has led them to this point and we pick up the story right here in Israel's history in Exodus chapter 19 starting with verse 1.

Scripture reads, in the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai.

For they had departed from Riphodim and come to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness.

So Israel camped there before the mountain.

And we know that Israel is a large entity at this point, right?

Hundreds of thousands, if not a couple million, have made the exodus across, out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, have been divinely kept, and now they're at the foot of the Mount Sinai, where God is going to establish them as a nation.

Verse 3, and Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountains, saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians, "'and how I bore you on eagles' wings "'and brought you to myself.

"'Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice "'and keep my covenant, "'then you shall be a special treasure to me "'above all people, for all the earth is mine.

Okay, so the Lord lays it out, he's like I own the whole earth, it's all mine, but you have a special purpose on that earth.

You're going to be, I'm gonna form you into something.

A special treasure, In fact, he goes on to say, verse 6, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

You're not just a nation, you're a what kind of nation?

The spiritual kingdom, kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.

And so this was the Lord's intent, by bringing them out of Egypt, by bringing them to the foot of Sinai, he was establishing them as a nation, but not just any other nation, a holy nation.

Most people think that Israel was enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, that's incorrect.

What leads up to this event was 215 years from the time Abraham got the call in Genesis chapter 12 until the sons of Jacob went down into Egypt at the direction of Joseph.

So from the time Abraham started trying to make this great nation, it was 215 years till Jacob was there and the sons of Jacob went down into Egypt.

215 years since God called Abram in Genesis chapter 12, and then the sons of Jacob went down into the land of Egypt under the care of Joseph.

You didn't mean to harm me, but this was God's will that I might preserve a remnant, right?

And so they come down in Egypt protected.

And what's fascinating about this, it takes forever to build this great nation.

Then for the next 215 years, if you go to Exodus chapter 1, you'll see this recorded, that apparently when they got into the land of Egypt, boy, those Israelites just flourished.

They were fruitful, they multiplied exceedingly strong.

In fact, they got to the point, remember they were just supposed to occupy the land of Goshen and be some shepherds and stuff, but they got to the point that the generations after Joseph who didn't know Joseph, the pharaohs after that, looked around at the Israelites and said, what are we going to do with these people?

There's so many of them, they might rise up.

And that's when the oppression started, to keep them down, to keep them in their place.

So the bulk of that 400 years leading up to it was just simply, You can think of it as 2 phases.

There's the 215 years where they were 70, and then the next 250 years when they became almost 2000000.

Basically, the Lord used Egypt as an incubator.

Put them in there, he filled them up, and now he takes them in Exodus 19 to the foot of Mount Sinai to form them into his holy nation.

It's interesting, in the creation week, God does, he forms the earth and then he fills it.

But with Israel, he fills it up and he takes him to the foot of Mount Sinai and says, Now I'm going to mold you into a holy nation.

This is where we pick up in Exodus chapter 19.

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