<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>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

The Excellency of Angels

Akeem James

Mediocrity, Genesis & the Talents

And the cross is the ultimate event in human history.

And second to that comes the climax of human history, which is the second coming, right?

So today I wanna thank Advent Hope for having me.

I pray that as we go into our subject today, mediocrity as you guys can see, Genesis and the talents, that it will be a blessing to our hearts and minds and that we would be encouraged.

My prayer is that we would give everything to see Jesus return in this generation.

And so if you would bow your heads with me as we go into a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, I pray oh God that as we delve into your word that you would encourage our hearts and our minds to truly live not for ourselves but for your glory.

I pray, Father, that our minds will be illuminated by your Spirit.

I also ask for myself, O Lord, that you would forgive me of my shortcomings, of my sins.

As inspiration tells us, the preacher is but a little man handling great subjects.

And so Father, I come before you in utter dependence upon your guidance and your wisdom.

I pray and I ask all of these things in Jesus Christ's name.

All right, so as we go into our topic, this is a subject that I've been thinking about for a while, But I realized I needed to share the subject because people are wondering, even within Adventism, if Christianity is as practical as it is spiritual.

Many times people are thinking, man, I must develop the Christian graces of love, of patience, of kindness.

But as 1 lady came to me 1 Sabbath morning.

She said, she came into my office and she said, Pastor, I can't even make a living.

I don't know how to keep focus, how to actually pay my bills.

And 1 of the things I realized in her saying that, and she was losing hope as she was saying it, was because she did not see the practicality of the Christian faith.

And so my prayer today is as we look at God's Word that we would see the practicality of the height to which God is calling us to rise to.

And so our first statement here which blew my mind this is the theme for our our time and it says the Lord has given man capacity for limited development.

Continual improvement and has granted him all possible aid in the work.

Through the provisions of divine grace, watch this, we may attain almost to the excellence of who?

I was like, I was talking to my mom about it this morning and I was like, I quoted, I said, mom, so the theme is almost to the excellency of angels.

I said, almost to the excellency of angels.

And so I read the statement to her and she was like, whoa, like we can actually get that high.

What's wild is this, that when we finally get to the kingdom, you remember in the New Testament, Jesus gave a parable, or actually he gave a true story of what will happen in the future resurrection.

So there were Sadducees who came and they talked to Jesus and they gave a scenario of a woman who went through 7 men.

Ultimately those men died and she remarried again.

Now they said, whose will she then be in the resurrection?

And so Jesus answers her and he answers them and he says, you do not know the word nor the power of God.

For in the resurrection, they will be equal with the angels.

So friends, right now in this fallen state, if we commit ourselves, we can almost get there.

But at the second coming, we will be there on the same level as the angelic host.

That's crazy to think about because you don't wanna miss this afternoon's message because we're gonna look at the intellect of angels.

And to think that human beings can rise to that intellectual level is insane.

But God says, through my grace, it is possible.

But what we're going to look at here is it's not just grace.

You remember the statement says, continual improvement.

It reminds me of Ecclesiastes, which states that God has placed eternity in the hearts of men.

In other words, everyone desires, if they can have it just right, they desire continual growth and elevation.

So what I'm saying here today, does it make sense thus far?

So as we go forward, we're gonna look at some practical stuff, and friends, when we look at it, we're gonna see it from the Bible and the spirit of prophecy.

So my question, my plea with you, let me say it this way, my plea with you is when you see these things, do not shoot the messenger.

We have to pick up what we see here with what?

So our next slide, we will cover the subject of the talents.

Because as I realized, I was thinking about it, this statement, the Lord has given man capacity for continual improvement.

It has to be something that he gives us, which he is calling us to improve.

So 1 of the things that we know God has given to us is that he has given to us talents.

So 1 of the things we want to look at today is what is a talent and what is its connection to our passion?

What is a talent and what is its connection to our passion?

A crucial thing that I've learned in life is the following, many times when we sit down and analyze what we are gifted at, we end up discovering what we are passionate about.

In finding out what we are passionate about, we then understand what we are called to do.

And when you understand what you are called to do and set goals to achieve your calling, that is called what?

So my question for us today is do you have an aim in life?

Are you just living life just to live life day by day?

Or do you have a target that you're going towards?

Do you have a desire to reach to the highest places on earth?

And now some may be thinking, Akeem, well, that sounds kind of proud.

Friends, if we truly aspire to that which God is calling us to, it is his desire that we can reach to a point where we influence the entire world.

But many times dreams become stifled because of limited thinking.

And so God wants us to expand our thinking.

And you remember the aim comes from a realization of your gifts, taking time to reflect on your life and ask yourself, what am I good at?

And in seeing what you're good at, many times You love that which you are good at.

And that's what God is calling us to develop.

He's saying, develop that to the point that you have a focus as to where you're going.

The Powers We Work With

All right, happy Sabbath once again, friends.

It is good to see you, and I pray that this morning's presentation was a blessing for you, and this evening, we're going to be continuing in our study.

And so as I promised, this morning we covered more so the aspect of at times being in the context of the 9 to 5, which many of us are in.

What happens if God is calling you to something else?

And so as we go into that, if you would bow your heads with me, as we have 1 more word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we come before you once again thanking you for the Sabbath, the reminder of the rest that we have in Jesus, that we are His by double claims.

And by the claims of redemption, We are His.

And so in light of this, Lord, we go forward into your word, and I pray that you would strengthen our hearts to know that you have plans for us, plans that are greater than any thought can ever reach.

And so help us, Lord, and Father, once again, use me as a conduit to communicate your heart.

This is what I pray and I ask in Jesus Christ's name, let all of God's people say, amen.

All right, so you have your Bibles on you.

So this is something I've been looking at as it concerns.

This morning we looked at Daniel and now this evening, we're gonna look at the dogged nature of Paul.

Does anyone know what the word dog it means?

So Paul had a grit that as we look at it in scripture, we will marvel at this aspect.

So if you have your Bibles with you, I want you to notice this.

Now, can anybody tell me some of the things that Paul did as it concerns ministry?

Did he also have the gift of being able to receive visions?

And so in light of this now, Paul is doing all of this ministry, but there are times when it finally hit me that Paul would say when he went into a certain region, when I came to you, I never took anything from you.

You guys remember reading things like that?

All right, so the question is, how could he say something like that?

How was Paul surviving if he wasn't receiving from the church and help from others?

So you have your Bibles, I want you to go with me in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 18, verses 1 to 3.

And here is where we're going to look at the broad mindset of Paul.

Friends, in our generation, there is a call by the spirit of prophecy to build centers of influence, to build sanitariums, to build restaurants, to build places in which we can bring people and influence them.

But the only way that that will happen is You know 1 of the things that you have to have?

And he makes it accessible to his people, right?

So the thing is, what I want us to look at today is what if there is a way in which we can put ourselves in the places to have the resources?

Because something I've noticed as I've looked at many ministries that are seeking to do this work because it's an entire system in the city and in the country.

Entire systems that are to be built up everywhere that as I heard in Sabbath school today, God is not just looking for us to give the gospel to the world in terms of a proclamation.

The Bible says in Matthew 24 in verse 14, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached for a what?

For a witness, and then the end shall come.

So that means, friends, a proclamation of the gospel, according to this text, is not enough to end the world.

And what is the difference between a witness and a testimony?

Okay, a witness is an example, meaning something that you can see, right?

A testimony is something that is proclaimed.

So therefore God has to reveal to the world this witness, a strategy, that when the world sees it, a system so powerful that when it is finally set up, the world can see a demonstration practically of the gospel.

And so, in order to do that, we must be glad that our Father is rich.

What I want to propose to you though, friends, is that many times when we want to make these centers of influence, we are dependent upon others to do it.

And we wait until God moves upon someone's heart that they give us land upon which to build.

Or we wait until someone who has resources, they give us some kind of building that we can finally work in.

So when I say what else I say, you can't say I didn't say that doesn't have its place.

But oh, how powerful it would be if we had our own resources to open up these structures.

Relying upon miracles, yet not relying upon God to do miracles where we can build our minds to build resources.

Not expecting him to work where we can work, of course by his power.

All right, so in light of that, let's see how this plays out in Paul's life.

So the book of Acts chapter 18, and when you are there, just give a shout out by saying amen.

All right, so Acts chapter 18, and we see here, what does Paul do?

So Paul is an apostle, he's witnessing, yet how was he sustaining himself?

It says in Acts 18, verse 1, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila, Born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and to come and came unto them.

It says, And because he was of the same craft, meaning Paul was of the same craft as Priscilla, the people that he was meeting, the husband and the wife.

He abode with them and wrought for by occupation.

I have, some of you may have your remnant publications Bible.

And if you have it there, there's a statement right there from the book Acts of the Apostles.

And it says here, before he came, became a disciple of Christ, Paul had occupied a high position and was not dependent upon manual labor for support.

But afterward, when he had used all his means in furthering the cause of Christ, he then said, let God take care of me.

It says he resorted at times to his trade to gain a livelihood.

So what do you call it when you're doing work for God, but yet you are building another business as you're seeking to sustain yourself?

We have a word for that in society today.

You know, the world has actually taken this on by storm, yet God's people are wondering about it.

The world literally has taken on the mindset of entrepreneurship, being able to start off and have for themselves.

Series

The Excellency of Angels

The Powers We Work With

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

ECYC 2012: Bible Boot Camp

Being Effective in Evangelism

31m

Plenary

True Children of Abraham

1h 3m

Breakout Session C

Reflecting Christ to Your Community as a Healthcare Provider

1h 7m

GYC SE 2013 Plenary Sessions

Heaven On Earth

53m

120 Years In His Shoes

40m

Angels Ascending and Descending

50m

Dylan McWilliams Weekend

Our Tactical Advantage, Part 2

1h 4m

Kickstarter Series '15-'16

First and Second Barcelonians

54m

Bryan Choi Weekend

03 The Cleansing of Two Temples

26m

GYC SE 2012 Seminar: Leadership

I Just Wanna Be a Sheep

58m

The Art of End Time Preaching

6. Tools of Creative Language and Speech

1h 20m

Going ABOVE and BEYOND

Daring to Ask for More - Part 5

53m

Sound Doctrine