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Sermon
of 03-17-01
Meet the Jesus I Know
Who is this God that desires to adopt, forgive and redeem me?
by Dr. D.A. Farmer, pastor
"Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Surely you've heard the expression "Something got lost in the translation?" Probably many of you
computer geeks know that today we have programs that can translate our English into many
different languages. All you have to do is type in a phrase and push a Button, and presto – your
words are now Russian, French, Spanish, German or what ever you want.
Now I've never done this but I have wondered if the translations are good? You know, did they
translate exactly as I had written? Or did it lose something in the translation?
I recently read a story where another man must have wondered the same thing. According to the
story he tried it out to see what would happen. He typed in English the words to "Take me out to
the ballgame". Which go like this;
Take me out to the ballgame.
Take me out to the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjacks.
I don't care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the home team.
If they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes you're out,
At the old ballgame.
After he typed into English he had it translated into German and the back into English. But as you will hear, something got lost into the translation. In fact it sounded like something Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone would say in one of his mercenary movies. It was re-translated back this way into English.
Execute me to the ball play.
Execute me with the masses.
Buy me certain groundnuts and crackerstackingfusig.
I'm not interested if I never receive back.
Let me root, root, root for the main team.
If they do not win, it is dishonor.
For there are one, two, three impacts on you,
At the old ball play.
Now I don't know about you, but I feel something got lost in the translation. It just didn't sound the same. Can you imagine singing that tune at a ballgame?
I remember Kathy's and my first trip to Russia. I had announced that the day I was going to have an "Anointing Service." We were having many everyday asking to be anointed. But in the translation, it was announced that tomorrow Pastor Farmer is having a "Healing Service." How I know this is because way over 200 people showed up to be healed! I had just over an hour to anoint each one – so all I could do in line them up in a row and heard them through as fast as I could. Repeating the same words over and over anointing them in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I was never brave enough to ask my translator how he was translating my words.
But you know, the same thing is all to often true with Jesus. He is mis-translated. I mean, why is it the Bible writes about a loving, forgiving and saving Lord, yet is He often translated into a revengeful, sometimes hateful and all too often, a judging God who is out to get you? Something is lost in the way we translate the God of the Old Testament with the God of the New Testament.
In the Old Testament we find God demands blood to be shed for the forgiveness of sin. In the New Testament we find Jesus' blood was shed for the forgiveness of sin. Jesus says in Matthew 26:28; "For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins." But in Hebrews 9:22 we read; "… without shedding of blood is no
remission." I like how the Clear Word translates that verse: "…Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of
sins."
We have to remember that the animals sacrificed in the Old Testament pointed forward to the supreme sacrifice of the
"Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world" (John 1:29).
In the New Testament, the blood that Jesus shed on Calvary ratified, approved, sanctioned the New Covenant just like blood shed in the Old Testament ratified the Old Covenant (see Ex. 24:5–8; Heb. 9:15–23; Gal. 3:15).
Friends, if not for the death of Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation would never have become a reality for any of us. Don't forget that even those saved in OT times were saved by the sacrifice of Jesus. They were saved as they looked forward in faith, even as we find salvation today by looking backward to the death of Christ. But through the centuries, somehow, someway, the God of the Old is not translated as the same God of the New Testament. But is that true? Is the God of the Old different from the God of the New Testament? To answer that question, I want you to meet the God and His Son, Jesus that I came to know some 22 years ago.
As most of you know, I grew up as a Seventh-day Adventist. But it was time in our churches history when we were taught that God doesn't love little boys or girls that do certain things. I was told that my angels stand outside the movie doors. That I was on my own if I walked into a movie house. Now friends, I don't go to the movies today, but I don't believe your guardian angel abandons you if you do. Now it is true that God doesn't always approve everything we do, but He never stops loving us regardless what we do.
The Bible says in Romans 8:38 and 39; "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." No, nothing we do will ever stop God loving us.
I believe the way you perceive Jesus in the New Testament makes a huge difference on how you perceive our God of the Old Testament. This morning, I'd like to tell you about my best Friend and His Father. This is my conversion story. Condensed of course!
In all my imagination, as a child growing up in West Texas or a young teenager, or even in my young twenties, never did I ever dream what God had in store for me later in life. The Bible uses the term adoption in Romans 8:23. It says, "We wait eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters of God."
There is something inside all of us that longs to be adopted into the family of God. How do I know this? I'll answer by asking you a question. Why are you here this morning? What brought you to these doors this or any Sabbath morning? What brings you to your knees every morning and night for your prayer and Bible Study? I'll tell you. You desire to be one of God's children.
The Lord says in Isaiah 43:25, "I, [even] I, [am] he that blotteth out thy transgressions for
mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
Then in Psalm 103:12 the Bible adds; "As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from
us."
Psalm 103:13 in the NIV says; "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear
Him;"
The issue has never been whether God would forgive us for what we have done. The Bible makes that clear. 1 John 1:9 says:
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness."
I guess what the issue was in my case; can God make David Farmer's life count? I won't go into much of my past this morning. Let me just say that growing up I made some big mistakes. As a teenager I started playing drums in the wrong kind of places playing the wrong kind of music.
I knew right from wrong. But I didn't know the God that was behind what is right and wrong. In other words, I knew of God the Father and His Son Jesus, but I didn't know them. This is where the Holy Spirit comes into play in my life. You see, all so often with the wrong kind of music, comes drugs, drinking, smoking and living a wild life. That was me. I was as low as you can go.
That is about all I am going to say about my past in that area of my life. You see, I feel whenever anyone gives their conversation story, all too often they center more on the bad of their life than the good. Too often they end their story by saying, "And God came into my life and now I live for Him. The End!"I don't want to do that with my story. I want to tell you what God has done for me since I found Him. Not the bad I achieve before I knew Him.
God from the first Sabbath I came to His house, the house I hadn't been in for years, started blessing me beyond anything I can put into words. The question should never be can God transform us? The Bible makes that clear in our Scripture, 2 Corinthians 5:17 which promises whenever anyone becomes a Christian he or she becomes a new person.
Soon after that first visit back to God's House did people start seeing a huge change in my life. I really didn't even know what was happening myself. All of a sudden I wanted to get my hair cut shorter. I felt I should start eating better and taking care of myself. I started wanting to dress nicer. Since then I have asked myself over and over why I felt the way I did? At that time I couldn't tell you why. But today I know it was God Holy Spirit impressing on me come to Him.
People started seeing a huge change in my life. Some liked the changed, some did not. See, I started hanging out a whole new crowd. My drug buddies started becoming a thing of the past. And the very ones that I use to laugh at and call goodie two shoes – were now becoming my friends. My whole life was changing for the better.
I remember when I first started coming back to church. The church members loved me for who I was. I had nothing to offer them. I only made $550.00 a month and paying child support on top of that. So money for sure wasn't what people saw in me. It was as though they could see right through me and knew that deep inside my heart, I was really hurting and longing to know the Jesus they knew as my personal Saviour too. Many of them invited me over for lunch each Sabbath. This gave me the chance to ask my questions. And boy, did I ask questions. But they were very patient and answered as many as they possibly could.
Two months later a sermon was preached on Matthew 6:33: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto
you." See my friends, that's all God knows how to do. Add and multiply His blessings when it comes to His children. I felt God touch my heart and I knew what I had to do. That morning I walked into my place of employment and told the manger that this would be my last Saturday to work. He already knew what Seventh-day Adventist believe about the Sabbath. Kathy, and her sister, Patty, had been working there for quite sometime with no Sabbath work. The manger was so upset he fired me on the spot. But by Monday the owner asked me to come back. He offered me a $100.00 bonus, $50.00 a month raise, and every Sabbath off.
Soon the impression hit me that I should stop smoking, drinking using bad language and using illegal drugs. Then in April of 1979, 22 years ago, I was re-baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I had fallen in love with Jesus, and it wasn't long until I had also fallen in love with Kathy and her daughter, Tonya. She, along with the church members, made me feel like I was worth something. I had just gone through a rough divorce with my ex-wife leaving me for a younger man. But with Kathy in my life I was starting to feel good about myself again. Maybe I was someone of worth.
Shortly thereafter, on May 27, 1979, Kathy and I were married. Soon we both became very active in church activities. In 1980, I received my first call into the ministry. God was calling me to become a Literature Evangelist. It was over here in Marshall, TX. At the time I was working as a diesel mechanic helper and truck driver. At church one Sabbath, the local colporteur must have seen something in me because he said to me, "David, God wants you to work for Him." I asked this LE how I would know that and he suggested I ask the Lord to give me a sign. So I prayed asking God to give me a sign to know for sure He was calling me. The sign I asked for was to let me have a flat on the way to work Monday morning.
Come Monday morning, I walked out the house, walked around my car and guess what, no flat. I Thought, that's OK Lord, just give me one on the way to work. We lived about five miles away so He had plenty of time. Every mile, every second I kept waiting. As I got closer to work and still no flat I thought that God was testing me to see if I would doubt Him. But when I drove into the parking lot, my heart sank. God wasn't calling me. My whole day was shot. I walked around dragging my feet and looked like I had been run over by one of our Mack diesels.
By the next morning, being the sanguine I am, I had forgotten about it. I got up as usual, got into my VW and headed down the road toward work. About half way there guess what happened? That's right, I had a flat. On my best tire yet. I was a little perplexed and confused. Had God misconstrued my prayer? Had He been so busy the day before that He couldn't get around to answering my prayer until now?
I was baffled that whole day. I prayed and asked God to please let me know what was going on. I had not revealed that prayer to anyone. It was a silent request between Him and me. I do not make a habit out of asking God for signs so I was sure it wasn't the devil playing tricks on me. But what was God telling me? After much prayer, I believe God impressed me with what He was doing.
If I had the flat the day before when I had asked for it, I would have marched right into my boss's office and gave him a two-week notice.
Soon the answer came to my prayer. God impressed me that I had never read any of the books I was about to sell. How could I sell something that I really didn't know, understand or even accept and believed? So that very evening, I started reading The Desire of Ages. Since then, I have read it completely two more times. It has become one of my favorite books and Ellen White is by far my favorite author. Then I read The Great Controversy, Patriarchs and Prophets and it was at this time that I felt the call again from God. This time He opened the door for me and I became a Literature Evangelist. I remembered the words,
"Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of
men" (Matthew 4:19).
Well, I'm running out of time. So let me take you through the next 20 years rather quickly.
In 1981 we moved to Odessa, TX and the Lord arranged it for me to give my first crusade. In 1984 I worked for Christian Record Services as a Braille Evangelist. Then in 1985 God led me into opening my own sewing machine store in Marshall, TX. While I had this store, the Lord gave me the position as a Lay Pastor in Cartage, TX.
In 1991, God called Kathy and me into the ministry full time as an Associate Pastor / Bible Worker with the Gulf States Conference.
In 1993 and again in 1994, the Lord sent Kathy and I to Russia to conduct 2 major Evangelistic Crusades. Those are sermons in themselves I'll save them for a later date.
Now you need to know something at this time. I had felt God calling me into the ministry for several years. Friends, I tried 3 times to attend one of our SDA Colleges and the Lord closed the door every time. For the life of me I couldn't figure it out. I know now, and in a moment I'll tell you. You see God wanted to prove something. And that is when He calls someone He wants to train them. Book knowledge is great, but our Lord wants heart knowledge even more.
In 1993, without a college degree of any kind, Elder Bill Wampler of the Iowa / Missouri Conference gave me a call into the pulpit as a full time pastor. 2 years later I finished my first college degree. At this time the Gulf States called us back to Mississippi where I then received my Masters in Family Biblical Counseling and a doctorate in psychology.
If you had told me or anyone that knew me 23 years ago that I would someday have a Ph.D., I would have wanted to know what you are smoking and do you have any extra? Want to here the coolest part? Later the Lord opened the door for me to attend Southern Adventist University - Southern Missionary College to you that have been around for a while, and the Lord would pay for it! Wow! Talking about an awesome God!
Well, the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say, stands before you this morning. Kathy and I have been blessed more than anything we could ever dream, ask or pray for.
And friends, He will do the same for you. He may not call you into being a full time paid clergy, but He will call you to work for Him. Then again, He may call you to stand behind this pulpit too. Never underestimate the power of our Lord!
As I said earlier, some translate Him into being a revengeful, hateful and judging God that is out to get you? But the Lord I know is a loving, forgiving and saving Lord.
The question this morning is not can He change you? The question is will you open your heart and invite Him to change you?
Friends the Lord had prearranged and preordained my life years before I was even born. And He did the same for you. He has a job for all of us to do for Him. If God can use a man like David Farmer, and you just heard my story, then just think what he could do with you. Think of how He could you to witness to your family, children, neighborhood, and in this church.
Jesus saved my lost soul. He gave me a heart for other people. Now, isn't that why you are here this morning also? You desire that He change you in ways you could never change yourself? You need help to do the right things everyday? You desire to have a heart for the souls of others?
Fiends, that's the business my Jesus is in. To save and teach. To call and lead. He is not in business to burn people, but to save them from pits of hell. And the amazing thing is it's free. It's a gift. It cost Jesus everything, but us nothing. That is nothing but a surrender of our hearts. Jesus died to save everyone. We were born to be saved. But we can choose to be lost.I would like to end by saying God has never turn His ears or eyes away from anyone that has called out to Him with a truly repentant heart. Jesus desires to adopt and forgive you of every evil deed you have ever committed. And He will begin the amazing process of changing and using you the moment you ask.
I would like to end by extending an opportunity to anyone that would like to study for baptism or re-baptism to please see me after the service.
Friends, would you like to come to know the Jesus I know? Then please bow your head and pray this prayer with me.
Lord, forgive me of my past and give me the peace only you can offer. Have mercy on me Lord and remember me when you come. I confess my sins and accept You as my personal Saviour.
Amen
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