Revival 2010: Heart To Heart

Randy Skeete

Operation Hope International

Who Is Your God?

I prayed for you and have been praying for you, particularly those of you who've answered the appeals that have been made, and they have been very tough, direct appeals.

I've been praying that God will keep you steadfast in the decisions you have made with regard to Him.

We're fast coming to the end of this blessed series, so I hope you will make all arrangements to be here tomorrow night and on Sabbath.

And if you've not yet brought someone with you, please ask God to touch the heart of a friend or family member, then invite that person.

You may be surprised that that formerly hard person will say yes.

When you invite people to come to the service and you think the person is likely to say no, pray first and ask God, give me favor in the sight of this person.

I was conducting a evangelistic series a few years ago on Loma Linda's campus, and I was doing some counseling, and a lady came to me, and she said, pray for my son.

I said, well, tell him I want to see him.

You pray to God and you claim Proverbs 21.1.

The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord.

As the rivers of water, he turneth it with us so ever he will.

You tell God, take the heart of your son and turn it in favor of the invitation.

The very next night, the man was in my office.

Someone else came to me, a prayer for my children.

24 and 25, why didn't they come themselves?

I said here's what you do You pray to God first and you say Lord You said the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water He turneth it with us or ever He will you tell God turn the hearts of my children to accept this invitation the next night they were in the office.

Now the Bible verses are not to be used to manipulate God but God always respects his word so if there's someone whom you'd like to see come in the last 2 days of this series, you pray first.

It may be your husband or your wife, and you say, Lord, soften the heart of this person.

Turn the person's heart towards this invitation.

You may have a testimony to shout before this series is over.

Our subject for tonight, who is your God?

Before I begin, all those of you with cell phones, Please turn them off.

As far as I can recall, I did not hear a cell phone go off last night.

So God bless you for your cooperation and your willingness to assist me.

All cell phones, please turn off, not on vibrate, off.

Favor number 2, while I'm speaking, please pray for me and say, Lord, put your words in that man's mouth.

And favor number 3, I'd like you very much to think.

When God made man in his image, he gave him the capacity to think and reason and make intelligent choices.

So please, think as you listen to the word of God.

Our loving Father in heaven, we ask in the name of our Savior and your Son, Jesus Christ, that you would come very close to us in the person of your spirit.

We need the direction, the light of the spirit in order that we may understand the message tonight.

Speak through me, dear God, and let the truth you place in my lips enter the hearts of those who are listening.

Let them bow to the moving of the Spirit on their hearts, so that you may be glorified and we may be blessed.

How does a person determine who his God or her God is?

It is not simply by saying, this person is my God, or that person is my God.

What comes from the lips comes out too easily.

Remember the complaint of Jesus Christ in Matthew 7, Mark 7 and Matthew 15.

This people draweth nigh unto me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

God is tired, Sick, well God can't be sick to death, but He's sick of lip service.

I've never met someone in the Christian community who did not love Jesus.

That's what we will try to examine this evening.

Go with me to the book of Exodus chapter 4.

The mission is to go to Pharaoh and ask Pharaoh politely but firmly to release God's people, the Israelites.

It was not God's desire to bring all these plagues upon Egypt.

God would have preferred that Pharaoh obeyed him the first time.

And so in chapter 3, verse 9 of the book of Exodus, the Bible says, Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them.

Come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

God is calling Moses to go on this delicate mission.

Verse 11 and Moses said unto God, who am I that I shall go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Numb and Dumb

Thank you very much for taking the time to come to God's house to listen to his word.

I'm very delighted to see those of you who've come.

May I see the hands of those who are visiting with us for the first time?

We're delighted you've come and may God bless you.

If you are visiting and you are not a Seventh-day Adventist, I'd like you to stand.

You are not a Seventh-day Adventist, I'd like you to stand.

All right, God bless you Brother William, nice to see you.

God bless you my sister, God bless you way back there, God bless you wherever you are.

We're delighted you've come to be with us and made a good God of heaven and earth bless you with a message from his word God is good and all the time yes some 100 verse 5 says for the Lord is good his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations.

So God is good and we're grateful to him for that.

Tonight is the final night, as you've been told, in the Revival series.

Before I begin, please, if you have a cell phone, would you kindly turn it off?

If you have a cell phone, we're asking you politely, Turn it off completely, as you do in a courtroom.

Favor number 2, while I'm speaking, I would like you to pray for me.

And what I'd like you to say is, Lord, put your words in that man's mouth.

For those of you who've come night after night, how many of you have prayed for me while I was speaking?

I was expecting more hands, but I'll take what I've gotten.

The rest of you, please take tonight to pray and say, Lord, put your words in that man's mouth.

Use the faculties that God has so generously given to us.

Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, Have mercy upon us.

Draw close to us in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Without his aid, we cannot understand your word and will misinterpret it.

Hence, O Lord, for the sake of truth, for the sake of your glory, grant us your spirit, Father, that he may lead us into truth.

And as for me, Let him take possession of my mind and speak through me.

The book of Malachi has a series of very interesting questions.

And in a certain sense, all the questions are related, and so are the responses.

The first question is found, or The first statement followed by a question Malachi chapter 1 verse 2 in that passage God speaks first and God said I have loved thee saith the Lord He is telling his people.

I have loved thee Yet he say wherein hast thou loved us We don't see how you love us.

Is it possible that God's people cannot and do not see the evidences of His love?

Is it possible that we are so hardened in sin that we do not sense, we do not feel the evidences of God's tender love.

And so God said, I have loved thee, saith the Lord, yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us?

Ye have wearied the Lord with your words, yet ye say wherein have we worried him?" God makes a complaint.

You have been speaking some very unkind words against me and God's people say, when?

Chapter 3, Verse 7, even from the days of your fathers, ye have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them.

Return unto me, and I will return unto you.

God is saying, come back to me, and they're saying, how?

But he say wherein have we robbed thee?" This is amazing.

God is saying, you have stolen from me and they say, how?

We're not aware of taking anything from you fraudulently.

Verse 13 of Malachi 3, God again issues a complaint.

Your words have been very stout against me, saith the Lord.

The word stout means strong and rough and harsh.

Your words have been very stout against me saith the Lord.

Yet ye say, wherein have we spoken so much against thee?

My brothers and sisters, is it possible that God sees us 1 way, and we see ourselves an entirely different way?

Is it possible that we are numb to our true condition?

In Conflict and Courage, Page 22, paragraph 3, Ellen White makes a very alarming statement.

As Adam witnessed the first signs of decay in the falling leaf and in the drooping flowers.

He mourned more deeply than men now mourn over the dead.

What she's saying, when Adam saw the first leaf fall, when he saw the first flower droop its head in preparation for death.

He cried the way we cry at funerals today.

And every fall, people come from all over the country, perhaps from all over the world, to see a sight.

They bring cameras and they take pictures.

The changing of the colors of the leaves.

And as the leaves begin to change color, of course, the tree is preparing to shut down.

Heart To Heart

Our loving Father in heaven, as we bow in your presence, we ask you, dear God, first to cleanse our hearts.

Forgive our sins, dear God, and Grant us an infilling of your Holy Spirit.

For me particularly, because my burden is so heavy, grant me your Spirit.

Remember the words of David in 2 Samuel 23 verse 2, when he said, the Spirit of the Lord spake by me and His word was in my tongue.

Father, put your word in the very organ of speech, my tongue.

That the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart may be acceptable in your sight and be a blessing for those for whom Jesus shed his blood, I offer this prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

On the first night of this week of prayer, Our subject was, the United States has 3 presidents, we have a second subject, second title, but we'll ignore that.

And we discovered from the Bible that there are 2 invisible kingdoms operating on the earth, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.

We also discovered that all inhabitants of the earth are under 1 or the other of these 2 kingdoms.

Those in the kingdom of God are those whose lives conform with his standard of righteousness, which is his law, using the principle of opposites, those in the kingdom of Satan, as those whose lives are not in conformity with God's great standard of righteousness, his law, which expresses his character.

We discover to our alarm that those in the kingdom of Satan cannot get up and leave.

Because from Isaiah 14, verse 17, Satan does not release his prisoners.

Someone infinitely more powerful than Satan has to restrain him, has to bind him, and in that process release his captives, and that person is none other than Jesus Christ.

We also learned to our relief that anyone in the kingdom of Satan can switch to God's kingdom at the invitation, of course, of Jesus Christ calling on him to release them, And that can be done instantaneously.

And some responded to a call on the first night, and the call was if you wanted to switch from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of Christ.

And I've been praying, by the way, for those who came forward in answer to that call.

Last night, our subject was no law, no life.

And we discovered that the entire universe operates by law.

Laws express the behavior of a thing or a person.

We also discover that in creation, God had different levels of existence.

1, the inanimate things he made, like the rocks and the stars.

Then those at a low level of life like trees, those at a higher level of life, the animals, and of course the highest expression of God's creative power on the earth, human beings.

What distinguishes a human being is that his or her behavior comes from the mind, unlike an animal or a plant or a rock.

The behavior of a human being made in the image of God comes from a part of that person that is neither solid nor liquid nor gas and consequently does not function based on the laws that govern solids, liquids, and gases, but functions on laws that proceed from God himself, and that is his moral law, the 10 Commandments.

Tonight, Heart to heart, which is also our theme.

This is Jesus Christ speaking, and Jesus says, all generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?

Finish the verse the mouth speaketh now, this is a cardinal fundamental principle of human behavior conduct and expression Everything a human being does is rooted and has its source in that person's heart.

Or you may use the word mind but we'll use heart.

Our speech, our thoughts, our actions are rooted and proceed from the heart.

And so Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees, how can ye being evil speak good things?

What he meant by ye being evil was how can ye Having evil hearts speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh He proceeds in verse 35 a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bring it forth.

That's the only thing a good heart can produce And an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth what?

Your heart and mine either produces good or evil and that's it.

And so Jesus says what you produce comes from the heart.

If what you produce is good, it is because it came from a good heart.

And so, as I told you last night, a quotation from Ellen White, Christ's Object Lessons, page 316, paragraph 2, every act is judged by the motives that prompt it.

In my character and personality book 1 page 348 paragraph 5, Ella Wright makes this very very disturbing statement.

Many acts which pass for good works even deeds of benevolence will when closely investigated be found to be prompted by wrong motives.

And she concludes by saying, many receive applause for virtues which they do not possess.

In other words, here comes a man and he makes a million dollar contribution to the church building fund and the church puts a plaque on the wall, on every wall in his name.

God examines the reason why he gave that gift.

And there are no plaques with his name on the walls in heaven.

He reads the heart from which the act proceeds.

Every course of action has a twofold character and importance.

It is either virtuous or vicious, right or wrong, according to the motive which prompts it.

What I'm trying to say is, everything we do, it receives its determination from God based on the condition of our hearts.

Proverbs 4, 23, Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are what?

Now the Hebrew word for issues means the outgoings or the outflowings.

Everything connected to human existence begins in the heart.

And so the Bible says you keep your heart with all diligence not some with all diligence because every issue of human existence comes from the heart.

So I repeat the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 4 12 verse 34.

How can ye being evil speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh?

Listen to Jesus Christ Mark chapter 7 reading from verse 20.

Mark, the very next book, chapter 7, reading from verse 20, the words of Jesus Christ.

And he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murder, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, An evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.

All these evil things come from within and defile the man.

In other words, sin does not proceed from the outside in.

We are conveniently or inconveniently born with an evil nature.

So Jesus says, that which cometh out of the man, I think I heard a phone, that defileth the man.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Do not be deceived by the wording of Paul.

There is no law against joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, temperance.

How Are You Living?

Our loving Father in heaven, thank you, dear God, for the gift of life.

Thank you, Father, for the freedom we have to come into this house of worship, to listen to your word, and to be blessed by your spirit.

Whatever we may have done today to disgrace you, we ask you to cleanse our hearts.

And look upon us, Lord, as if we had never sinned.

Now, Father, grant to us the spirit of truth, that he may guide us, lead us into truth, for it is truth alone that sanctifies and sets us free.

It is my desire to make the word clear that you alone may be glorified and your people blessed.

Please, God, answer this prayer because I've offered it in Jesus' name, amen.

Matthew chapter 4, reading from verse 1, the temptation of Jesus Christ in the wilderness.

The Bible says, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungered.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread but he answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God verse 5 then the will them up into the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and saith unto him, if thou be the son of God, cast thyself down.

It is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Jesus saith unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.

And saith unto him, all these things will I give thee if thou will fall down and worship me.

Then saith Jesus unto him, get thee hence Satan, for it is written, thou shall worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.

This passage with which we're so familiar gives us an example of how to defeat the devil.

The example, of course, is through the Word of God.

When the devil tempted Christ to turn stones to bread, Jesus said, it is written.

When he tempted the Savior to jump off a building to impress the crowd with some theatrical display, Jesus said, it is written.

When he tempted Christ with material possessions in exchange for Christ's soul submitted to him, Jesus Christ said, it is written.

While the devil changed his temptations, Jesus Christ never changed his response.

There is only 1 response that causes Satan to back up and that is the Word of God.

But there's something else about Christ's responses to Satan.

All 3 of his responses came from the book of Deuteronomy and all 3 responses came from a certain section of the book of Deuteronomy.

And it is based on the very first response of Jesus Christ to the first temptation when he said in verse 4 of Matthew 4, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

And what we want to explain and uncover and unravel tonight, what did Jesus mean when he said, every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

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All Teachings

Who Is Your God?

1h

Numb and Dumb

1h

Heart To Heart

48m

How Are You Living?

54m

MTYC Dedication

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Love Them To The End

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Persuaded

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What do YOU want to know about Godly music?

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Making Music Practical

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Thanks God But I’ll Do It My Way!

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