12/29/07
All Things New
We are just a couple of days away from a new
year. A new year is upon us! What will the new year bring? More importantly, what will we do with the
new year God is giving us? Truly we are
coming closer and closer to that time when God will make all things new.
I want to talk about a great door that has
opened. You know some doors open and some close. A lot of earthquakes have
taken place in 2007. And every time an
earthquake happens, it ought to ring a bell in the Seventh-day Adventist mind.
- At
- At
Uzziah's Reign (1 Kings 19:11 12).
- At
Christ's Death (Matthew 27:50).
- At
Christ's Resurrection (Matthew 28:2). These earthquakes mean something!
- In
1755 the Great Lisbon earthquake signaled the opening of the Time of the
End
- Again
In the Last Days (Matthew 24:7)
- You
know, on December 26, 2004, there was a major earthquake in
In Luke 21:11 NKJV it says, "And there will be great earthquakes in various
places..." But it doesn't just say earthquakes: It says great earthquakes. A well-known Adventist
writer says that earthquakes will be more numerous and terrible just before the
second coming of Christ and the end of the world as signs of the world's speedy
destruction. 1 SOP 82
|
Deaths from Earthquakes in 2007 |
|||
|
Date |
Region |
Magnitude |
Number Killed * |
|
2007 01 21 |
|
7.5 |
4 |
|
2007 03 06 |
Southern |
6.4 |
67 |
|
2007 03 25 |
Near the west coast of |
6.7 |
1 |
|
2007 04 01 |
|
8.1 |
54 |
|
2007 04 21 |
|
6.2 |
10 |
|
2007 06 02 |
|
6.1 |
3 |
|
2007 07 16 |
Near the west coast of |
6.6 |
9 |
|
2007 07 21 |
|
5.2 |
12 |
|
2007 08 02 |
|
6.2 |
2 |
|
2007 08 15 |
Near the Coast of |
8.0 |
514 |
|
2007 09 12 |
Southern |
8.4 |
25 |
|
2007 10 26 |
|
5.3 |
1 |
|
2007 11 14 |
|
7.7 |
2 |
|
2007 11 25 |
Sumbawa |
6.5 |
3 |
|
2007 11 29 |
Martinique Region, |
7.4 |
1 |
|
2007 12 09 |
Minas Gerais, |
4.9 |
1 |
|
Total |
709 |
||
I think time is short. Do you believe that?
We don't know how small a space is between us and Eternity. We don't have that
knowledge, do we? We do know that this world is doomed. The December 26
earthquake of 2004, in
Luke 21:28 says, "W
hen these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because
your redemption is drawing near."
In that one earthquake alone, 120,000 or
maybe many, many more men, women, girls and boys have lost their lives, I don't
know how many. Many of them were Hindus or some other religion. They were
unwarned. And a good deal of them were boys and girls. Were they ready?
I am told that almost no animals lost their
lives. The animals got away. They fled. They evacuated. They have a sense that we don't have.
Did the people have time to get ready? Did
they notice that the water suddenly receded from the shoreline? Did they
realize that that was an indication that they should run for their lives to
higher ground? Did they immediately flee knowing that a giant tidal wave was
about to wash them away?
Opportunities are here today that will not
exist tomorrow for you yourself. Look at 2 Corinthians 6:2. Here God says, "...I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is
the day of salvation." When is it? It is today. Salvation is
today. Not yesterday. It is today.
Let me illustrate this with a story:
The other day I ran across a story of a man a
man who had a tremendous opportunity that he missed. His friend took him for a
ride one day. They rode way out in the country. They went out miles and miles
into the country, off of the main road, into the boondocks near Burlap
Junction. They drove off the main road and drove through groves of trees to a
large uninhabited expanse of land. A few horses were grazing, and a couple of
old shacks stood about. Basically nobody lived there. The friend, Walter,
stopped the car, got out, and started to describe with great vividness all the
imaginings of his mind, and all the wonderful things he was going to build. He
wanted his friend Arthur to buy up some of the land surrounding his project to
get in on the ground floor. He said "This is an opportunity for you. You
could make a tremendous investment here."
But Arthur thought to himself, "You
know, who in the world is going to drive twenty five miles out here into this
swamp for this crazy project? The logistics of the venture are
staggering."
And so Walter explained to his friend Arthur,
"I can handle the main project myself. But it will take all my money. But
the land bordering it, where we're standing now, you can buy. It will soon be
jammed with hotels and restaurants and convention centers that will be built to
accommodate the people who will come to my grand project. I want you to have
the first chance. I want you to buy some of this land from me. It will increase
in value hundreds of times."
"What could I say? I knew he was
wrong," Arthur said later. "I knew that he had let this dream get the
best of his common sense, so I mumbled something about being tight with money
and told him I would let him know someday."
"Someday will be too late," Walter
cautioned Arthur as they walked back to the car. "You'd better move on it
right now."
And so Art Linkletter turned down the
opportunity to buy up all the land that surrounded what was to become
I want to read you a text; our scripture
reading for today. 1 Corinthians 16. This one text will be the focus of this
message today. I want you to think about opportunities that exist today, that
will not exist tomorrow, and that you need to take advantage of. The last page
of 1 Corinthians. Chapter 16:8,9: But I will stay on
at
I would like to submit to you that you have
an open door before you today. And that door is 2008. That is one open door
that you have. It is a new untouched year full of hundreds of days, zillions of
hours and minutes. It is a brand new year. A year of opportunity for everybody
here.
The text says, "a great door for
effective work has opened." What is the door that is open before you? A
new year. A new baby. A new Job. A marriage. A new situation. Maybe you moved.
Maybe you have a new church. Maybe it’s a new exercise regime. The winds of
change are moving for you.
This text also says that it is not only a door,
but a great door. That's what
the Bible says: "A great door opened for Paul." Maybe there is a
great door open for you. Maybe this will be the year that you find your Master.
This might be the year you find your
Not only is it a door, and it's a great door;
it is an open door. I hate shut doors unless I have the key. Have you ever been
locked out of your car? I like keys. They let you have access. I like open
doors. An open door is an opportunity. A closed door is a dead end. It is like
a wall, it shuts us out. But an open door is an opportunity for you. You go to
the store and the door is closed, you know your opportunity is gone there. But
here the Bible says that there is a great door that is open.
Our text continues. There is more here in the
verse: It says the door has opened to me. To you. It is not just an open door,
it is a door that is open to you yourself. You have an open door. Not just to
somebody else, but to you personally. Here is an opportunity with your name
written right on it. Could this new year be an occasion that God has created
especially for you? Here is a new chance for you to start life over again. You
did not get killed in an earthquake in 2007. Maybe you've noticed quite often
that God beautifies the boarders of each day with a superb sunrise and sublime
sunset. We stand on the border of a new year. We ought to beautify the borders
of this year with a spiritual response to our Lord and Savior. Make it a
beautiful beginning of a bright and wonderful year.
In I Corinthians 16:9 the door stands open.
This is present tense in Greek. This great door stands open before me and you.
Here you are offered a standing invitation. It is open and it is going to stay
open. It is a continuous opportunity. This door was opened by Jesus at the
Cross of Calvary. Revelation 3:8 says ...See, I have
placed before you an open door that no one can shut. Nobody can shut
that door.
The year 2008 is also an open door. It is a
great door that stands open and continues to stand open. Open for you to enter.
Ready for you to launch something new. You can embark on a new journey. You can
do that. You are not stuck in a rut with no escape. You can change your life
through the power of Jesus Christ. It is an opportunity for you to change your life.
Things do not have to keep on going on the same old discouraging way.
I met a man several years ago who proceeded
to tell me all about the negative things that had happened to him through the
years. He was still quite young—only in
his early thirties. And yet he spoke as
if his life were completely over and finished and done with. He told me about his problems as a young
person, getting in with the wrong kinds of people. He told me about incarceration, mental
institutions. He said at one point the strong
medication they gave him caused him to put on weight. So he blamed the medication for his weight
problem.
He went on to tell me that his life is over,
and that no woman would want anything to do with him because he had a mental
illness, he was overweight, and he was on disability. This fella had completely given up on life
and a future. In his own estimation he
was worthless.
And so I asked him about his personal dreams
and goals in life. He said that at one
point he wanted to have a large house on a few acres in the country. He wanted to find a decent wife, and have a
family. But these dreams were impossible
now.
I explained to the man that his life isn’t
over, and that Jesus Christ excels in turning negative situations into new
situations. I told him that sometimes a
person just needs to experience some small successes. I asked him if he had a back yard. He said he did. I suggested that he walk in his back yard
twice a day, doing back-and-forth laps.
I explained to him that the fresh air would be great for him, and that
the sunlight would start to decrease his symptoms of depression. I also told him to start eating a tossed
salad every day, and to drink fruit juice instead of coffee and tea.
What this man needed was a good day. He just needed one single day that he could
come to the end of and be able to say to himself, “I did my best today. I accomplished what I set out to
accomplish. This was a good day.” We need little successes, for they prepare us
for bigger successes.
But this fella balked at the idea of getting
outside and having to walk. Now, mind
you, he wasn’t obese, just overweight.
He had the ability to walk. But
he refused to do anything for himself that could have a positive impact on his
life. He said he liked his tea and
coffee too much, and he hated salad. I
told him that the reason he liked his tea and coffee so much is because
caffeine is a drug, and he is addicted.
I also told him that caffeine makes a person retain water and put on
weight. But it didn’t matter. He was determined to do nothing for himself.
You know, God places opportunities in front
of us all the time. But He won’t force
us to take Him up on those opportunities.
He will not do it for us. He will
give us the energy and the power to get up and go through those doors of
opportunity. But we still have to do our
part. It’s a cooperation.
Now, some doors might appear shut tight with
strong security bolts and special locks. But as you advance you will discover
that the closer you get to these doors, these doors open to you. And often
times they will not open until you advance. The closer you get to the door the
more it becomes open to you.
One time I was standing at a door inside the
corridors of a huge hospital. It was the first time I had visited one of my
members in this hospital. I was trying to get in to see them. They were in a
special unit and I had no knowledge how to open the door. I looked everywhere.
There was no button to push. There was no intercom system. There was no visible
way to open the door. No visible way for that door to open for me. Suddenly
another man came up and the door opened automatically for him and he went right
on in. I thought, how did he do that? Maybe he had a sensor on his uniform that
the door recognized. So I went right in behind him. I had my badge on and they
said, "We're glad you're here," and I was able to visit with my
member.
Each of us stands at a door. And that door is
salvation. Actually the cross opened the door of salvation. It opened it for
you. The door had been shut tight for how many years? For 4000 years there was
no access to salvation, just a hope. But Jesus Christ opened that door of
salvation. And He opened it for you. That door has your name on it. An angel
could not open that door. No human could open that door. But Jesus opened the
door for you.
Now, let's re read our text. 1 Corinthians
16:9, because a great door for effective work has
opened to me. Now what is that work? God has a work for you in 2008.
God has a purpose in your life. Maybe
you can help with an evangelistic meeting. Maybe you are going to go on a
mission trip. Something has opened for you to do an effective work for Jesus
Christ this year. Maybe you are a contractor and you have been building houses.
Maybe it is time to build something for God. Do something special this year,
just for Him.
I want to keep reading in this verse: a great door of effective work is open to me, but there are
many who oppose me. I would like to submit to you that Paul found an
opportunity in the open door, but he also found something else. He found
opposition, adversity. In 2008 you will often find opposition with your
opportunity. They come together. Your rarely find an opportunity without
adversity. It just doesn't take place. I believe in 2008 you are going to find
opportunity, but you are going to find opposition. You are going to find
resistance. However, I would like to submit to you that you will almost always
find and opportunity in opposition. Think about that. Almost always. Do you
know what the secret of finding opportunity in opposition really is?
The first
secret is your personal discovery that opportunity and opposition almost always
come together. You buy a new car and then you have a potential for a flat tire.
You never had that opportunity when you walked everywhere. You get married and
you found something great. A great
opportunity. But you also have the potential for arguments. The opportunity
brings in potential opposition that you did not have before. The magnitude of
the opportunity often determines the magnitude of the opposition. Think about
that. Everything has a price.
Secondly, learn that opposition is not always bad. Resistance
often brings out the best in people. Like the bristlecone pine, hanging on,
growing way up at the timberline. It contends with opposition almost every day,
but in the process it becomes exceedingly strong. At the timberline of life we
develop special spiritual strength that you would not have if the opposition
wasn't there.
That gnarled twisted tree could not overcome
the opposition if it were not for the nourishment and moisture it finds in the
soil. Jesus will provide you the power to overcome the opposition in your
spiritual life that you might face in the new year.
Thirdly, you need to enter that door. Paul entered the door.
And because of that we have a whole book in the Bible. He entered the door of
opportunity at
Fourth, Colossians 4:5 says ...make
the most of every opportunity. If you have a spiritual opportunity this year,
maybe you bought a new Bible. That's an opportunity, isn't it. Read that Bible! Maybe you are going to determine this year,
"I am going to go to prayer meeting. I am going to do something different
for the Lord." Then do it. Paul could have focused on the opposition and
bypassed his opportunity to do God's will. Never allow the opposition to
eclipse what God has in mind for you to do. This new year may have many
opportunities that you will bypass because you focus on the opposition instead of
focusing on the opportunity.
Jesus provides the power for you to overcome
the opposition. Maybe you have stood there by the door long enough. Maybe it is
time to actually enter into a new relationship with Jesus. Maybe it is time for
you to actually stop swearing. Maybe it is time to let Jesus actually change
your life! Let's enter in the door!
I was reading in Manuscript Releases 21,
"Now there is a new year coming, and as the light is streaming from the
open door, every one of us should thirst for more and more of its illuminating
power because the earth is growing darker and darker every day" [21MR
page 226].
We don't know how many more earthquakes are
going to come. We don't know what is going to happen this year. What terrorist
strikes are going to come upon
How will it be at the new year that is just
opening? We need to stand at its commencement to present ourselves to God one
hundred percent. Totally to God. As you enter upon a new year, let it be with
an earnest resolve to have your course onward and upward. Let your life be more
elevated and exalted than it has previously been. Make it your aim not to seek
your own interest and pleasure, but to advance the cause of your Redeemer. A
new year is opening before us, and what shall its record be? You look back upon
the past year, and you see many things that you would be glad to have
different, that you wish had been better.
Look at Ephesians 5:15, 16. Here is some admonition that benefits our
lives. If your life is languishing, if your life needs some strength, Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as
wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
We can each begin this new year with a clean,
unspotted record. We can ask the Lord, "Please shower upon me your gift of
forgiveness. Bless me in ways more numerous than I ever deserve. Quickly, give
to me at the beginning of this year the strength that I need to live the
Christian life. To live an unspotted record before the Lord. Give me spiritual
opportunities. Give me the strength to go through the adversities that will
come to me.
You need to keep your record in the hands of
Jesus. Let Him erase the old way. Maybe you have lost loved ones this year. Is
that going to destroy your spiritual life? Don't let it. Be faithful to Jesus.
Look at John 10:9. We are told what the door is. We don't have to guess what
the door is. It is more than a new year. More than a new opportunity or a new
job. Jesus says in John 10:9 KJV "I am the
door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out,
and find pasture.". Isn't that beautiful? That door is there.
But it will not benefit you unless you enter in with Jesus Christ.
I am going to ask you, are you ready for 2008?
Are you ready for a new experience with Jesus this year? Are you really going
to roll up your spiritual sleeves? Some of you are beginning new positions in
our church. Are you going to do you very
best for Jesus this year? You need a new standing to under gird your spiritual
life. And you can have that if you ask the Lord for it. I am going to ask you,
if the end of time where to come, if there were to be a tidal wave that would
come upon you this year, would you be ready? If you were to die tonight, are
you actually ready? Are you right with Jesus? You can be! You can be ready.
How many of you would like to give your heart
to Jesus? How many of you would like to commit, maybe for the first time, your
heart to Jesus Christ? How many of you have not been baptized and want to be
baptized for Jesus? Let's be ready for Jesus to come! Let's be ready in 2008.
Let's be ready today!
For the time is fast approaching when the
Lord Jesus will do what He says He will do in Revelation 21:1-7:
Now I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there
was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down
out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud
voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be
with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from
their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall
be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He
said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and
the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who
thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and
he shall be My son.
Revelation
21:1-7
Jesus makes all things new,
my friend. And the newness starts right
now. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation. That’s 2 Corinthians
5:17. May the Lord bless us as we walk
with Jesus every day, and as we walk through the doors of opportunity that He
gives us.