Don Mackintosh

Three Angels SDA Church

Faith Alone

Father in heaven, we ask that you'd be with us as we consider your word.

How many of you have had the problem in your life that your feelings can't be trusted?

How many of you have ever had that problem?

How many of you have trusted your feelings only to be disappointed?

You know, I've had several conversations over the last few days that lead me to believe that you're no different than I am.

Because my feelings go up and they go down.

I listen to Eric play the violin and I hear that music, I go, wow!

Then the next moment I'm thinking, I gotta get up there and pray?

And your feelings go up and they go down.

And dealing with the feeling factor is a big thing No matter what your line of work is.

Medicine's based a lot of times on feeling.

Certainly feelings are a wonderful thing.

I can remember when my wife for the first time said, I love you.

And she gave me a little heart to put in my wallet.

But in America today, according to the reports I saw on the Wichita Eagle, from the census report, lots of people come to an end of that feeling and then they say goodbye to their spouses of many years.

And yet so often when we go through life we say, how do you feel?

And feelings are important, but I wanted to suggest to you something.

And especially those that have been baptized today, I want to address this to you.

We look at Christ's baptism in Matthew chapter 3, and we find here that Christ was on an emotional roller coaster, if you look at it in terms of feelings.

Jesus came from Galilee, it says, to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

And John tried to prevent him saying, I have need to be baptized by you, and you're coming to me?

Boy, I tell you, how would you feel if John, the greatest of the prophets, would say to you, I need to be baptized by you.

What if today in that tank, you know, that would have happened?

John could have felt pretty high on himself, couldn't he?

Here is the Lord saying to him that he needs to be baptized.

Then John says, look, I need to be baptized by you.

If Jesus was given the feelings, he probably would have said, yeah, that's right.

He would have felt pretty good about that.

But then there's more feelings or emotions that you could tell behind the scenes in this passage.

Jesus then says no, permit it now to be so, to fulfill all righteousness.

And immediately after he says that, the Spirit of God comes bursting through the heavens there, like a dove alighting on him, and suddenly, verse 17, a voice came from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Do you think that in terms of the feeling factor, Jesus was feeling pretty good at this point?

You know in the book Desire of Ages it says that when we're baptized, that promise is ours.

This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter in whom I'm well pleased.

That's a promise for those who are just baptized.

I mean, I had a lot of emotion during the baptism myself, as I recognized what God has done in these young lives and in the life of Cecilia.

And don't you wish you could just stay there in verse 17?

Looking now at the feelings, chapter 4, verse 1.

Then Jesus was led by the spirit in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterwards, he was hungry.

How do you feel when you don't have food?

And every time I go in there, you know, I want to be a blessing to them, because I know that the devil wants them to give up.

And when they feel really low, the book Ministry of Healing says that the nurse, the social worker, the person in the hospital can send them 1 way or the other.

Because the devil understands your feelings and tries to play on those almost exclusively.

So he came here with the persistence of a dreadful enemy and 3 times tried to assault our Lord when He was feeling physically probably 1 of the worst times He felt in His life.

He tries to get us when we're down, when we don't feel good physically.

Look with me in another text here, another text in Hebrews.

Hebrews, and I'm so thankful for this text, Hebrews chapter 4.

And in Hebrews chapter 4 we find this promise and this reality based on the Word of God.

Verse 14, seeing then that we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.

Do not sympathize with the feelings of our what?

He understands our feelings But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without what?

The issue is whether or not we'll follow God's law by not our power, but His power when we're feeling what?

And Jesus' life is so beautiful when you recognize that He took on the battle of feelings just like you and I do.

I don't know about you, but many times I'm tempted to just live on the level of feelings.

Eugene Prewitt

The Meaning of Faith

I want to tell you a story of my first, no that's so not true, of 1 of my best days call porting I ever had.

I was working with the sister of the illustrious Adam Ramden, who I suppose might be in this audience.

He is, he's right there near the back in the black with the tie.

He has a sister named Esther, And this day we were working in Maine.

And 1 of the first ladies we met looked at Peace Above the Storm and was so interested in this book.

And you know you smile when you say that, Because of course, everyone loves us, right?

And she said something like, Seventh-day Adventist.

So we talked, we made friends, we prayed with her, and she bought it.

And we went on down the road, and there was a white farmhouse, and inside were an old man and old woman.

They came out and they told us about, I forget all the details, but I'll just make them up, something about Jupiter and the moon and aligning and the people and the information and the secrets.

And we needed to know about some of this stuff.

We canvassed him, and they bought The Great Controversy.

And we went on down the road, and there was a man who was trying to sell his house.

And we canvassed him on The Great Controversy.

And he said if we would buy his house, he'd buy our book.

And we couldn't do it, so we bought the book.

And we went further down the road, and there was a cemetery.

And next to the cemetery was an old man working outside.

I'm about to clarify, that's only compared to the person we met before him.

But there was a man working outside in his garden.

And we showed him 3 books, and he began to cry because he had children who had left Christianity.

And he felt so bad, and when he saw us, young people who were working for God, it just broke his heart.

And he bought those 3 message books from us.

And somewhere around then, it was time to eat.

It had to be right about then because we ate in the cemetery.

They're quiet and everybody's sleeping and you can just enjoy yourself.

And next door to the cemetery was another house.

We went over there, and the lady invited us in.

And it turned out that she was 1 of the daughters of the man who had been weeping on the other side.

But she wasn't as hard-hearted as he had thought.

And as she looked at our book, she chose to buy The Great Controversy and got the book.

And we went on down the road and we came up to another house.

A lot of houses in Maine are white, And this 1 was too.

And inside, you could hear this deep, beautiful voice of Alexander Scorby reading the Bible.

So you know this is a beautiful door, right?

Saw what we were doing and said, I am not interested.

And Down the road, we got to a place where there was outside, there was a family reunion.

I don't know if you ever tried this, some of you who have Canvas.

If you go into a group of people and ask, who is the owner?

And they all point at each other like that.

Has anyone experienced that that's a call porter?

Is there anyone that's a call porter that hasn't experienced that?

So we went in this group, and we asked who the owner was, and took all the laughing.

And we just picked a friendly lady and canvassed her right there.

And she said, I like this 1, and this 1, and this 1.

She picked 3 message books, and she reached, but she didn't have any money.

We said, listen, would you get in your car and follow me?

And I'll drive home and get the money there.

And she drove me to this White House where Alexander Scorby had been preaching.

She went inside, got the money, and came out and bought the books.

And the next place we went to was a trailer and inside the trailer was a man middle-aged invite us inside And he wanted to show us his gun.

And so we saw his gun and he and and I Took an interest in his gun and so he was happy And then he told us about the black helicopters.

Did you know about the black helicopters?

And you should have seen the maneuvers it was doing in the sky, probably working for some Russian agency trying to get us.

Well, this man had a video on the black helicopters.

He wanted us to see the video on the black helicopters.

And then we cast him in the great controversy, and he bought it.

And he said that we, and then he asked what church.

We told him we're Seventh-day Adventists.

I know a man who used to be a Seventh-day Adventist.

And he gave us directions how to get there.

George Guthrie

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Wait, Watchers’ Anonymous

It's a pleasure to see the group here this morning.

Now turn with me, if you would, in your Bible to Hebrews, the sixth chapter.

And I'd like to read a little bit from well the first 3 verses I really appreciate my Seventh-day Adventist Church you know when I was young I went to church just because my parents went there.

And then I suppose when I was in my junior age, God touched my heart and I said, I want to be baptized.

And I went through the baptismal class and I was baptized.

When the teen years came, it's often that questions arise.

I watched my fellow students around me wrestling.

And when all was said and done, and I think I'm grown up now, I know that the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the theology of the Seventh-day Adventist Church answers questions for me better than anything else that I have ever heard.

It is a system that explains, gives hope and perspective.

I'd like to wrestle with some of the questions that maybe you've thought about, maybe you haven't, today.

Hebrews chapter 6 verse 1, therefore let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ and go on to maturity.

Now what follows is a rather interesting list.

If I listen to TV evangelists, I find that what they are often speaking of is elementary things, yet Paul in the book of Hebrews is calling on to maturity asking hard questions.

Notice with me, will you, the list of basics, okay?

Repentance from acts that lead to death, faith in God, instruction about baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Those are the basics, and I think most of Christianity does a fairly good job in wrestling with these.

But Paul is calling us to move further and in verse 3 he says, and God permitting, we will do so, that is, leave the elementary and move on to something a little more A little more depth, a little more meaning.

1 of the questions that rolls around in my mind is, why has it been 7, 000 years of sin?

Have you ever wrestled with that question?

My simple mind says if God is really a God of love and He allows sin to go on 1 second longer than absolutely necessary, then he's really not as loving as he says he is, right?

I suppose 1 of my favorite questions, and maybe this 1 is for this afternoon, because that's divided up, you see, into a couple.

Number 1 is, Why has it been 2, 000 years since Jesus died and he hasn't come back?

In the book of Hebrews Let me see if I can if I can identify it.

Yes Hebrews chapter 10 we find the writer saying verse 37 Hebrews 10 37 for just a little while and he who is coming will come and will not delay it was the expectation of the disciples that Jesus was begun going to be coming right away Why did it take 2, 000 years before, well Jesus hasn't come back yet, we say his coming is soon and I do believe it is.

I would challenge you to try to answer that question.

The answer that I have arrived at, I think defines the very presence of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The 1 I would like to wrestle with this morning has been a harder 1 for me, but I think I'm beginning to understand it.

And I come to you as a searcher, not someone who has it all nailed down, but why was it 4, 000 years after the creation of the earth and the fall and sin came in until Jesus finally came?

Why you know Cain was expected, I mean we understand by his name, his mother thought he was the promised 1.

And it just, each Jewish mother down through time expected that maybe their son would be the 1.

Yet, 4000 years passed before Jesus finally came.

Have you ever wrestled with the question?

Anybody ever ask themselves the question?

And this is where, in my mind, Seventh-day Adventism and our understanding of the great controversy begins to answer questions in a wonderful way.

I'm a health educator, so I thought that would be appropriate.

But it seems like there's been a lot of waiting.

4000 years of waiting, had that till Jesus came, and then 2000 till now.

But then 2000 until now and maybe it has something to do with anonymous watchers.

Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26 gives us I think a bit of a clue.

Hebrews 9, verse 26, For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now in the end of the world hath he appeared to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself." God was waiting for something to happen.

You may remember that back in the very beginning when God created the earth, it must have been a magnificent time with God saying, let there be light.

God saying, let the dry land appear and the plants.

And then kneeling over Adam, breathing into his mouth the breath of life.

I would have enjoyed being there to see God bringing the animals to Adam.

Have you ever noticed in the scripture it says, God said to see what he would name them?

I would have, if I had been God, I would have said this is a giraffe, Notice how I put the long neck on there.

Look at the long nose God had put into Adam this whole sense of creativity and so Adam Created names for these animals He discovered himself to be alone and God made him a partner.

There were angels watching and I think that's where the watchers, anonymous, come from.

For God has a universe of beings that love him and have served him.

Angels were watching when God created the earth and they thought it was wonderful.

Do you know we have an idea from scripture what they said and what they did in creation.

It's found in the book of Job, chapter 38.

God is actually speaking to Job after kind of a long dialogue with his 3 friends and he is seeking where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth that's verse 4 and then down to verse 7 while the morning stars sang together and the angels shouted for joy.

What would have been like to have been an angel?

Were these angels joyous over this new experience?

Remember from Revelation chapter 12, there had been a perfect angel who had become rebellious and had actually taken a third of the angels with it.

So angels were watching to see what was happening.

They were sensing the joy of the creation process.

Angels, once Adam and Eve fell, were given the job of guarding the opening to the gardener.

Remember they stood there with the sword and did not allow Adam and Eve back in for fear God says that they would eat from the tree of life and live forever.

What follows was about 2000 years, a little shy of 2000 years, of continual worsening.

As human beings began to experiment, They were created as glorious and strong beings they could go and be and do.

At the end of about 2000 years, the message that the Bible gives us in Genesis chapter 6 is that the thoughts of men's minds were evil continually.

What do you think the angels thought as they saw all the evil going on?

Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord, you may remember.

So the angels observed and they watched this destructive process as the flood came.

Can you imagine being an angel herding animals into the ark by twos and by sevens.

Having chosen to follow God, recognizing that there's a devil and his angels who are trying to make things wicked, they seem to be winning, and God destroys and starts over.

We get another little picture into what happens in the heavenly courts, into what's happening in the angels' minds in the book of Job.

And you remember the story, how God had made a meeting of the sons of God.

I think that's what the King James Version says, right?

There was a meeting of the sons of God, and as I thought about this I wondered who these sons of God were.

I remember from the, what is it, the begat in Matthew, it goes back until Adam was a son of God.

In my own simple mind I see the first begat of each creation gathered together, God running his universe in a way that involved his creatures, the ones that he had made.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Faith Alone

36m

The Meaning of Faith

45m

Wait, Watchers’ Anonymous

38m

Cost of Medical Missionary Work

51m

Enoch’s Outpost

52m

Left, Right, or Center?

1m

Ministry of Heresies

52m

Take Nothing or a Sword

19m

The Alpha and Omega of Apostasy

39m

Consecration and Fanaticism

1h

They Came To Win

36m

A Tale of Two Stories

31m

Sound Doctrine