Sabbath Pulpit

SabbathPulpit Under New Ownership

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:18:25 +0000

Hello,

I wish to take this time to thank you all for your support and emails of support for the work that we have done on this site. Thankfully someone has emerged to take continue this work.

This is my final post as the director of Sabbath Pulpit Ministries. While, I will no longer play a daily part in the work of this ministry, I pray that God will continue to bless the continued ministry of the Sabbath Pulpit.

Sherman Haywood Cox II

Sabbath Pulpit History In January
Who Authorized This Ministry? The other

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Who Authorized This Ministry?

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:51:04 +0000

The other day someone called the phone line for Sabbath Pulpit Ministries with an interesting question. It was a Seventh-day Adventist woman who wanted to know who authorized the website. She wanted to know if I had had proper permission to publish to the web from some denominational or ecclesial body. When I told her that my authorization comes solely from Jesus Christ’s command to “go ye therefore,” I could tell that the ministry had lost credibility in her eyes.

Still-Born Ministries – No Authorization

Initially, I saw this as simply one person’s indictment of this ministry. However, as I thought about this, the gravity of the situation hit me. This individual has a mindset that would preclude her from pushing forth her own God-given dreams of ministry because it was not “authorized properly.” And more, she would discourage anyone from pursuing their own ministry, if not “properly authorized.” Could it be that part of the long delay is that all of the God inspired ministries of our members are waiting for “proper authorization?”

Your ministry may not qualify you to be a member of ASI, but your is still a God given ministry. You may not have the right to call your ministry “Adventist,” but it is still a ministry. You may have people call you on your line and question your authorization, but yours is a ministry.

God’s Ministry Plan

The organized structure can’t contain the variety of the work that is to be done. When Joel 2:28 is fulfilled and God’s spirit is poured out on all flesh and our sons and daughters prophesy let us not be a hindreance to the work that God is doing. Whether authorized by the brethren or not…

So I encourage you to find the ministry that God has tailored you to. If that ministry is a department in the church, praise God and work in that. If that ministry is a new work that your church or conference wishes to support and promote, Go on ahead, in God’s grace and do that ministry. If you have been baptized, you are authorized for baptism is your ordination to the ministry God has called you to. If you are experienced in a field, find a way to use it for ministry. And if, yours is a ministry that the church cannot support due to financial or personnel reasons, go on ahead and do it. Just make sure that when someone asks you “who authorized this ministry” you can say with conviction, “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

SabbathPulpit Under New Ownership Hello, I w

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Laughing at God

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:10:22 +0000

When Abraham was told that he and Sarah were to have a child, Abraham fell down and laughed. (Gen 17:15-17). He laughed. Sarah, according to Gen 18:11-12, laughed as well. They both laughed at God because both were advanced in years. They were well past the child bearing age. However, the promise that was given to them was not based on their ability. The promise was not in Abraham or Sarah’s child bearing possibilities, but in another reality created by the powerful Word of God. The promise was based in the ability of the One giving the promise to fulfill the promise.

Abraham and Sarah desperately wanted this, but it was beyond reason to think it could be true. Think of laughing at God when God makes a promise. It was ridiculous, but this was God’s Word. It was impossible, but there is still the promise.

We Have Promises on Our Lives

All of us may have a promise on our lives. God has given us the promise, but it is too hard…nay maybe even impossible. You cannot do it. It is beyond your capability to complete. Perhaps your promise from God is not having a child, but maybe it is completing that degree. Maybe it is changing careers into one that God has been pushing you towards for so many years. Perhaps it is victory over that sin that so easily besets you. I don’t know what it is, but I know that you have a promise. This is probably something that you cannot complete, and yet there is still God’s promise.

Like so many stories in the Bible, I understand completely where Abraham and Sarah are coming from. It was impossible. It was their very understanding of their inability that clarified the impossibility. But understand or not, the promise is still there.

Understanding the Impossible

And God comes to us who think that God’s promise is too big for our understanding and simply says, “Is there anything too hard for God?” (Gen 18:14) This week hold on to that idea as you seek to live in God’s promise in your own lives. Then you will see God turn that laugh of disbelief into a laugh of celebration….

The Promise in the Storm We often f

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God as The Bubble Gum Machine or The Fire Thrower – Tithe Rhetoric

admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:00:49 +0000

This is the question asked by Steve Addision at his blog. In Australia, according to the article, more than 60% of Adventist and Pentecostal members tithe.

The question the article asks is why do they do it, While those on the mainline have much lower levels of tithe returners?” The writer gives two possibilities…one is that the Pentecostals and Adventists are closer to a movement than an institution. Another possibility given by the article is that the Adventists and Pentecostals are legalists seeking to earn heaven.

Is Returning Tithe a Guarantee?

This brings a couple of interesting questions. I remember one individual telling me that he kept a record of how far his money went while tithing and then did an experiment of not tithing and looking at his money. He said that his experiment demonstrated that his money went much further when he was tithing. Such evidence can paint a problematic picture. It doesn’t take into account the woman who tithes faithfully and still loses her home. What about the man who tithes to the penny and still dies of cancer. What about the mother who tithes and her child never comes back to the church? This idea only paints a limited picture, unless someone really does wish to stand next to Job’s friends and condemn those who are going through problems as sinners who are guilty of some sin.

When listening to some folks speak of the benefits of tithing, I sometimes wonder if folks are tithing because they want the “window of heaven opened up and a blessing poured out.” (Malachi 3:10) One Stewardship leader guaranteed that you will be financially better off after tithing. Is that why we tithe? He said, I guarantee you will look back and be able to say, “I don’t know how I made it, but God did it!” Is that even true? Can such a guarantee be made? Does the Bible saying “prove me now herewith” mean that you are gonna get that car you always wanted? Does it mean you are going to get that house? I sometimes wonder if this kind of thinking helped to set us up for this economic crash where many were getting too much house, cars, etc, based on “God’s blessing?”
Isn’t this nothing more than an Adventist version of the “name-it-claim-it-theology?”

God will Kill You

Another motivation that I have heard used is so that you will not have terrible consequences put on you if you do not tithe. It seems that our tithe rhetoric is either God will “hook you up” if you tithe, or God will “mess you up” if you don’t.

With this idea we put it all on you. You can guarantee happiness and economic prosperity, all you have to do is put 10%, and make sure that it ends up at the conference office. Or you can have disease, lost jobs, misery, and despair if you don’t.

But life seems to be more complex than this. Sometimes the one who never tithes does get hooked up. That one sometimes gets the job. That one seemingly goes further than the one who returns the tithe. Sometimes the “blessing” seems to appear when we spent that tithe instead of returned it.

Simplistic Rhetoric

Our rhetoric is too simplistic…it is a very Job’s friends type of rhetoric. You return tithe, and you will find the goodies coming from the bubble gum machine in the sky. If you do not, you will find fire and brimstone coming from the same place both now and in the future.

By no means does everyone use these approaches. There are different ones given here and there. I don’t wish to trivialize and minimize others as they struggle with these texts. But I just want us to be careful of the bubble gum machine or the fire from heaven. Because it makes us think we know exactly how the world works and how God will work. And in the end we have no such certainty. All we can do is trust in the God who has brought us where we are and follow that God as God leads, even if we sometimes feel like saying: “Though he Slay Me Yet Will I trust Him.”

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James Owens – Keep Shining

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:32:06 +0000

Sermon based on Matthew 4:15-16. Pastor Owens encourages listeners to be the light that God has called them to be.

Listen to Sermon By Clicking Here

Audio 44 – James Owens “Out the House” Part 1 Pastor Jam

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What Bind Does the Sabbath Get You Out Of?

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:37:43 +0000

A while back I wrote a post on “E. J. Waggoner as a Practical Theologian.” In it I quoted Waggoner who stated that “Every doctrine of the Bible is for our practical benefit, and should be studied for that purpose.”

Practical and Doctrinal Opposites?

This is a very interesting thought for much of our preaching and thinking. Often we think of “practical” and “doctrinal” as being on two sides with a chasm in between. We cannot go over the chasm. So sometimes we preach “practical” sermons, and sometimes we preach “doctrinal” sermons.

Members long for “practical” preaching that will help us live faithfully in our daily lives. However, there is also a call for us to know “doctrine.” We are to gain a deeper awareness and understanding of the truths that hold us up.

We Cannot Forget Doctrine

We cannot forget doctrine. When we do we lose something of who we are. The deity of Christ is a doctrine that is hotly debated in some circles today. However, the doctrine is an important one in our Christian heritage. The doctrine of the Sabbath also has a call on us as Seventh day Sabbatarians.

And for this reason, sometimes we teach and preach doctrines, while other times we teach and preach themes of practical living. E. J. Waggoner comes in and asks us why do we have this dichotomy? Why not preach doctrine by emphasizing its practical relevance? Why not preach doctrine by emphasizing its importance in our daily living? Why not preach and teach doctrine in such a way that we will immediately see its practical relevance just as we see the practical relevance of the traditional “practical” sermons?

Lowry’s Question

In short, we ask the same question that Eugene Lowry, the homilitician, wrote in his classic preaching text The Homiletical Plot. Lowry asks of any doctrine before he preaches it, “What bind does the doctrine get you out of?” In short, how does this doctrine help me overcome a problem?

Certainly there are times for more didactic teaching, but all of our doctrinal preaching need not be in lecture form. If we truly are to teach the Sabbath more fully, then we must find a way to live out the implications of the Sabbath in our daily lives. To do that, we must listen to both Lowry and Waggoner by asking about the practical benefit of the Sabbath. Then we will be in a position to be the witness to the Sabbath that God has called our movement to be.

Why do They Make it So Complex? – The Presentation of Adventist Fundamentals I was talk
Three Views on the Sabbath I was read
The Sabbath and the Way-Maker The Sabbat

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The Hospice Mindset

admin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:39:16 +0000

The church is not a place for the righteous, it is a hospital for sinners.

So goes the popular saying that has taken on almost cliche-like proportions in many of our churches. The idea is that anyone who expects church members to live differently than those who are not members.

Is the Statement Helpful?

The statement is a helpful thing to keep in mind if it reminds us of our own hypocracy or even lack of understanding that the Christian life is one of growth and that we cannot expect new people to be as far along as some of our more seasoned members. It is helpful when it reminds us of these things.

However, too often the saying promotes a situation where there is no growth. It can hide the fact that often it is not the new members who are still falling to the sin that so easily besets them, but the old ones. Too often, it promotes the illogical and unchristian idea that we should not expect Christians to live any differently than those on the outside. Too often the saying promotes a mindset that is quick to call anyone a hypocrite who is calling the church to live better.

Do They Mean Hospice?

In short, too often the saying is used incorrectly. When the saying is used to support Christians who do not grow, then the speaker should say that “the church is not a hospital but a hospice.

A hospice is a place where the sick go to be comforted before dying. The sick go to have their pains masked by drugs while they wait for that same illness to overtake and kill them. Too often, we want to make the church a place where the sick can be confortable while they continue the dying process. A place where they will not be confronted by the realization that healing is possible in Jesus Christ. A place where those who do not wish to be bothered by any of the ethical implications of the gospel can go to have a good shout and go home to live unchanged lives.

Too often we want the church to be a hospice where we do not allow Jesus to take from us our most cherished sins. Too often we want the church to be a hospice where the same sin that elicited our need for Jesus ultimtaely kills us!

Reclaiming the Truth in the Statement

But the saying is right, the church is not a hospice, no, it is a hospital. It is a place where Jesus shows up. It is a place where sick folks are healed. Yes, people are broken in need of great help, but Jesus does something. Yes the church is a hospital.

To not expect that the sinner will get better is not a hospital mindset it is a hospice mindset. To not expect that Jesus is able to help me to overcome all of my weakness is a hospice mindset not a hospital mindset. Certainly the church is a place where the sick congregate, but are the sick expected to get better after a confrontation with the King of the Universe, or are the sick simply entertained while the ailment that brought them there ultimately kills them?

That is the question. Is it truly a hospital where the sick get well or a hospice where the sick are comforted and entertained before they die in their sins?

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The Origin of the Sanctuary

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:43:48 +0000

This is the first of a number of videos to discuss the contemporary importance of the Sanctuary. Related posts:We Have Killed the Sanctuary Message We have kiIs The Sanctuary Christ Centered In the booSanctuary Power May God se Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Related posts:

We Have Killed the Sanctuary Message We have ki
Is The Sanctuary Christ Centered In the boo
Sanctuary Power May God se

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The Sabbath and the Way-Maker

admin — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:29:05 +0000

E. J. Waggoner, in Gospel in Creation writes:

The Sabbath is for the purpose of keeping in mind the creative power of God, which is His distinguishing characteristic. But creative power is the power of the gospel, so that that which celebrates creation also celebrates redemption.

The Sabbath is about celebrating creation and the creative power of God. The Sabbath is the time that we are called to remember what God can do. The Sabbath is about God’s ability to create something out of nothing.

Raw Materials for Creation

In Hebrews 11:3 we are told: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

The Sabbath is our faith building device to help us understand that everything that is seen is made of things that we cannot necessarily see or even understand. When someone says that God is a “waymaker,” that one is simply talking about God’s ability to create a way out of a way that does not appear to be open.

Deliverance from Sin in the Sabbath

The Sabbath reminds us that our deliverance from sin and holy living is not based in what we can see. We may have fallen to that same sin continuously, but the Sabbath reminds us that God is a creator, and creative power doesn’t require us to see what God is going to do.

When someone says that “God is able”, that one is simply stating that God’s creative power is not constrained by circumstances that “do appear,” but by God’s ability to create something out of nothing. And every Sabbath we come together to celebrate that power.

In the last days, God will have a people who will “worship him who made.” (Revelation 14:7). The day designed to remember this creative power is the Sabbath. Let us believe and live as if we are “Sabbath-keepers” who always seek to remember the Creative Power of God.

Sabbath and Creation/Redemption The websit
Sabbath Provides Time to See God’s Work We are com
The Sabbath Means God Can Make a Way In the las

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The Cheap Knock Off of True Faith

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:07:21 +0000

We have often heard it said that the Christian life will not necessarily be a smooth one in this life. We could have the same problems and issues others have. A recession can take our job away just like every one else. Our parents die while we are in middle age, like every one else. Unexpected natural disasters and doctor’s diagnoses also cloud our horizon. We know of these things intellectually and theologically.

Suspending Our Judgment

However, when we go to church, some of us suspend judgment and start believing anything that is spouted by the preacher. We stat believing that if we plant our seed (pay money in the plate) we will not have the same issues as everyone else. We start believing that God must hook us up with financial blessings that look a lot like American Middle Class values. We start believing that we know that God’s will for us is to be the Joneses that elicits envious looks from our neighbors.

There is a Christianity that costs something. Larnell Harris sang the song a while back entitled “When Praise Demands a Sacrifice.” In it he looks at the story of Abraham. Abraham was called to give up all on the alter. Some of us think that preaching about American materialism is that of which “relevant” preaching consists. Some of us are too busy following the preaching about cars, houses, and promotions that we miss the essential idea that true Christianity brings sacrifice and persecution. Christianity has become too comfortable in this society. We see Christianity not as an alternative to American Socieity’s excesses and materialism, but as an inside help to gain all that any citizen would desire.

Yes God Hooks Us Up

Yes God Hooks us up, no doubt. But Satan, the god of this world, is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8. Yes God places limits on what Satan can do, but Satan is busy attempting to overtake the woman because he knows he has little time. Revelation 12:12. My Sister and Brother preachers, it is time to stop preaching God as if God is simply the inside track to material blessings. It is time to move towards a more mature and deeper faith that can say with the Hebrew boys, “God is able, but if God doesn’t, I still will not bow.” Daniel 3:17.

We need a But if Not faith if we are going to make it through the dark days ahead. We need a “but if Not” faith if we are going to live the life God would have us to live. We need a “but if not” faith if we will live through the time of trouble such as never was. Daniel 12:1. In fact the hook up is not that you are guaranteed a new car or a new house. The hook up is that God is with you even in the valley of the Shadow of death. The hook up is not that if you lose your job a better paying one is around the corner. The hook up is that with every temptation God provides a way of escape. The hook up is not that you are guaranteed a cure for the cancer. The hook up is that even if you have to die, Jesus has already defeated death. I think that the true hook up is worth more than the materialistic cheap knock off.

Laughing at God When Abrah

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