Laurelbrook Academy SDA Church

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Pastor Pitman Discusses Biblical Use of "In the Midst of"

 

The church service in the Laurelbrook Seventh-day Adventist Church began with announcements by Michael (senior). There were no announcements except those listed in the church bulletin.

 

Freddy (sophomore) played an introit.  Pastor Cory Pitman had the invocation.  The congregation sang “Crown Him with Many Crowns”. Michael had the worship in prayer.  The congregation responded with “Hear Our Prayer, O Lord”

 

Michael then called for the church offerings; the loose offering went to the local church budget. It was collected by Sabastian Roy-Lavallee and Daryen (senior).  The congregation sang “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow”. Michael had the offering prayer.

 

Lois Davis told the one child present a story about a boy who wanted to find a job to bring him some money. His mother arranged with Farmer Johnson to let him help the farmer.  The farmer gave him a bucket of pumpkin seeds and led him to a big field and told him to plant the seeds in the field in a pattern of three seeds per hole.  But the bucket looked like no seeds had been planted.

 

The morning grew hotter and hotter.  So he started putting five seeds per hold and kept putting more seeds in each hole, eventually reaching a handful of seeds per hole.  Then he could go swimming.

 

At the end of week, he went home, aware that he had not followed directions and that the seeds would grow.  Eventually Farmer Johnson saw the seeds growing.  The boy met the farmer, and the farmer reminded the boy that the seeds of life will grow, letting everyone know what kind of life he had lived.

 

Gustavo (junior) sang a vocal solo for special music.  Mark (senior) read John 19:17-18 “17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called [the place] of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: 18 Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.”

Pastor Pitman spoke about the topic “God in the Midst”.  The congregation sang “More About Jesus”. Pastor Pitman had the closing prayer.

 

The academy girls were attending a Purity Weekend in the Laurelbrook Lodge.

 

Personnel Other Than Students:

 

Pastor Cory Pitman – retired pastor who still pastors at the nearby Brayton church and runs a prison ministry in a Bledsoe County prison

Sebastian Roy-Lavallee – Laurelbrook maintenance man / husband of Stephanie Roy-Lavallee, the academy girls’ dean

 

Following are some notes on the sermon:

 

1. You can understand the Bible story about God intervening in the human race.
2. “In the midst” – phrase that occurs in both Testaments.
3. Genesis 2:8-9 “8 ¶ And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
4. These two trees was in the midst of the garden.  Adam and Eve had access to nutrients from the Tree of Life, but they were told not to touch the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in sight from the Tree of Life.
5. Sin first occurred “in the midst of” the Garden.
6. Joshua 4:10 “For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over.”
7. The Ark of the Covenant stood in the midst of the River Jordan. The people walked across the river in the spring at flood stage on dry ground.
8. Joshua 3:16-17 “16 That the waters which came down from above stood [and] rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that [is] beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, [even] the salt sea, failed, [and] were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. 17 And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.”
9. “Jordan” means “to descend”.  In this case, the people entered the Promised Land. This symbolized Jesus taking His saved ones home to heaven.
10. Joshua 4:19 “And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth [day] of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.”
11. This was the day the people were to set aside the Passover Lamb, beginning the Feast of the Passover.
12. John 8:3 “And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,”
13. The woman must have felt condemned.
14. John 8:9 “And they which heard [it], being convicted by [their own] conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, [even] unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.”
15. Jesus had told the accusers that anyone without sin should cast the first stone. The accusers realized that they were sinners, too. And the gentlemen involved in the sin were not brought to Jesus.
16. John 8:10 “When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?”
17. John 8:11 “She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
18. It was the best place for that woman to be standing with Jesus “in the midst”.
19. John 19:17-18 “17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called [the place] of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: 18 Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.”
20. Jesus is crucified “in the midst” of two thieves. He was innocent of the false accusations made by an illegal assembly of Jewish leaders with no good witnesses and no reason for condemnation.
21. John 19:41 “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.”
22. Joseph had chosen this place for a family garden area. We were lost in a garden and redeemed in a garden.
23. The cross was really the true Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It shows evil is conquered by divine love. Jesus took all the blows and insults without retaliation for every one of us.
24. Jesus was crucified “in the midst”.
25. John 5:24 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
26. This is an Exodus, passing from death to life.  This is what Jesus’ sacrifice means for us.
27. Jesus represents each of us in this.
28. Revelation 14:6 “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,”
29. The gospel is based on what Jesus did for us and the product of what He did. He emptied Himself for us that we might have a right to the Tree of Life.
30. Revelation 7:17 “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
31. Jesus shepherds us. 
32. Great Controversy, p. 648 says that Adam sees the very trees and vines his hand has trained – truly Eden restored. Adam is given the privilege of eating that fruit again.
33. But one thing is absent – the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.   Sin is finished because Jesus was willing to be “in the midst” at the Cross.
34. The Bible is one story that we have the privilege of telling to the world.