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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jim Ayer

He Shall Lift You Up

This is a topic tonight that I believe that everyone absolutely needs to hear, know, understand, and apply to your own life.

Now, at 1 time, this is kind of what I looked like.

I was actually, prior to this time, I was a drug dealer, an alcoholic, and a thief.

I was called to the ministry and started going that direction.

And then 1 day, I began studying less, praying less.

And when I actually had a call to pastor a church, I said no.

Turned a whole different direction and started into real estate, became extremely successful.

So successful that, you know, as the world looks at success, I was very successful.

I lobbied on Capitol Hill, the congressmen and the senators rubbed shoulders with him.

I wrote a newspaper column and had lots of money.

Sitting in church 1 day, you know, and I had my Harley Davidson and was out there and goofing off in the world.

Sitting in church 1 day, the Lord said, Jim, the Holy Spirit may be poured out all around you and you're never going to recognize it or receive it.

Sitting in church with my name on the church books, and I was lost.

And I accepted that chance, totally turned around and went a whole new direction.

And in that situation, in that time, I realized that it's all about God.

I wrote this little book, He Shall Lift You Up.

Well, after I wrote that book, I began realizing that there was, you know, and kind of how you grow in life.

And I began realizing there was even more to it.

I started going through my Bible and highlighting every place in my Bible that it talked about the power of God to change us, the power of God to transform us, His desire to lift us up, His desire to to take us higher and higher and higher.

When I got done, a big chunk of my Bible was highlighted.

And then I started going through Ellen White And I began building a PowerPoint presentation.

Well, after the first hundred slides, I started looking and say, well, let's see, okay, this one's better than this 1.

I did this for 2 years, going back and forth, and I realized there were thousands, literally thousands of quotes on what God wants to do in our lives now today.

Not someday in the future pie in the sky when Jesus comes, but today.

Then I realized, hey, we've got a real problem.

The devil wants us to believe that we've got another chance when he comes, and it's totally untrue.

This is our opportunity to have a character that's befitting the character of Christ to go to heaven with.

And so I began combining all of that and came up with a presentation.

Now recently, Review and Herald asked me to write a book.

We're working on a study guide, and I hope a TV series that we're working on too, because this message desperately needs to get out to everybody.

It is something that the church, let me tell you, in and around 1844, the Lord wanted to return.

He'd begin putting out the message of growing in Jesus Christ, not only justification, but sanctification as well.

But the church membership didn't want to accept it, and God withdrew the latter rain.

The loud cry ceased, Ellen White says, and there we were for many more years.

In 1888 to about 1904, again, the message came forth to accept Christ and His righteousness to transform us in this life today.

Church leadership began bickering back and forth and fighting over this and there was lots of infighting, there was lots of politics going on and Ellen White said the latter rain had begun to be poured out.

Now you know when the loud cry starts that means that the Lord is about ready to turn because the message goes around the world like wildfire.

But there was a problem and she said God withdrew the latter rain, the loud cry ceased, and she made the statement, we may have to remain in this world many more years.

And I get excited because I see many pastors in the church for the first time since I've been in the church talking about this message.

Starting to come forward, talking about it, membership as I go around and I do revival series.

People are hungering to be changed and that tells me God is working on the hearts and lives of people and I hope He's working on your heart and your life as well.

Listen to this, we must abandon sin according to Jesus.

He urged men, upon men, the necessity of prayer, repentance, confession, and the what?

Charles Finney, who was the 20th century revivalist, said to persist in sin is not to abandon it.

If we continue in sin, that's not abandoning it.

Hebrews 12, 29 says, for our God is a consuming fire.

And then I came across this, and all who submit to his power, the Spirit of God will do what?

You think about this, you invite God into the house, your temple.

He's got this, and excuse the analogy, but this multi-billion gigawatt light.

He comes in and everywhere that light turns, if there's a sin in that spot, poof, it evaporates it, it destroys it.

He goes through it, poof, there's another sin.

Comes around the corner of the next room, poof, he burns out every sin because sin cannot exist where there's light.

Sin cannot exist where there's light, but all of a sudden he gets to 1 room and says, Lord, man I don't know if I want to give you entrance to that room or not.

And when he comes, his brightness is so glorious, so wonderful.

If it's still in your life, if you've not allowed God the opportunity to cleanse it, then poof, the same happens to you because it's integrated into your DNA.

When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning." And Isaiah says, "...and I will turn my hand upon thee, and will purely purge away thy dross, and take away thy tin." I'd sent this to a friend when I originally completed that and he said, oh you made a mistake down here, he said that should be sin.

I said no, it is tin because tin is the dross, tin is a base metal and God wants to make each 1 of us gold.

You remember the lady caught in adultery, I believe it was Mary Magdalene, they brought her, cast her before Jesus, Jesus doesn't say a word, but he bends down and he begins writing in the dust of the street and pretty soon all the general conference leadership and all the church you know they kind of peek over Jesus shoulder and poof they leave.

They leave because he's writing their own sins in the dust and soon he looks at the woman and said, woman where are your accusers?

She finally dares to look up, she looks around and says there aren't any Lord, and he says neither do I condemn thee.

Wow praise God, can you say praise God for that?

He takes his righteousness and he wraps it around this woman and he says, I don't condemn you either.

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He Shall Lift You Up

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