sermon: Why Are You Here?
God's Sovereignty in Choosing and Placing Us
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 19-Jun-10; Sermon #998; 76 minutes
Description: (hide)
John Ritenbaugh reflects that God, through His sovereignty, has personally placed each of us in the organization in which we can grow the most. We have a solemn responsibility to exercise our free moral agency, having authority and dominion over animals, and ruling over our own human nature. When Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation, their sovereignty and authority went out of sync. Most all of Adam and Eve’s offspring have followed suit, not following through what God told them to do. God is not doing things in a random way. The whole panoply of flora and fauna displays the purposive nature of His creation. As our forefather Abel yielded to his conversion, we also must follow suit, following God’s instructions. Ironically, Abel, the second born, was probably not regarded very highly by Adam and Eve. God, following a pattern, routinely calls the lowly and weak to guard against overweening pride. God will transform the weak of this world through His Holy Spirit. He has typically worked through one family line, beginning with Seth all the way to Jesus Christ. Most prophets came from unsophisticated backgrounds (all stemmed from the lineage of Seth and Shem), but were used mightily. With the calling of Cornelius, God altered the pattern by converting Gentiles. As the human body has been intricately designed, God is intricately designing the Church, from the cells to the organs. We are to be responsible, responding to His calling, bringing forth much fruit, living by faith rather than by sight, trusting in God’s sovereignty to scatter (for our own good and safety) and re-gather as He wills, realizing that God will place people where He wants them.
Topics: (show)
Abel Abel’s conversion Acts 9:15; 10:28 Adam and Eve Authority Cain Characteristics of birds Church of the Great God Choice Chosen vessels Conversion of Paul Cornelius 56 children I Corinthians 1:26; 12:18-31 Deuteronomy 7:6-7 Distinctive grouping Do we see God Faith in God Faith in the ministry Eido Family Fear of the ministry Free moral agency Genealogy of Adam Genesis 1:26-28; 3:6-7; 4:7; 5:1-3 God’s instructions God’s sovereignty Government Hebrews 11:4 Herbert W. Armstrong Instinct Jeremiah 7:8 John 3:3; 15:14-16 Keeping the Feast Lamentations Living Man’s authority Missing the mark Mustard seed parable Nicodemus Noah 144,000 Patterns in scripture Peter’s vision Power to choose Restored Revelation 14:4 Romans 9:14-16 Royal rearing Scattering of the church Self-government Seth Shem Shiloh United Weak of the world Why are you here? Zechariah 4:6
|
(To download, right-click on the icon for the format of your choice and select "Save target as...") |
The transcript for this audio message is not available yet.
If you would like to be notified when this transcript is available, please enter your email address in the space below and click the button.