Denoising - Daniel Vokurka - GTAN2533

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Daniel Vokurka. SPEAKER 2 So this message is entitled denoising. And that's an interesting word that's not really used a lot. It's used more so in the context of a more technical setting. It's like removing noise from a signal, like in digital signal processing. I don't know if anyone knows about that. I studied a little bit of that at uni and it gave me grief. But anyway, so denoising is taking a noise out of a particular signal. And so hopefully some of this will make sense as I take you through this little study. Before I do, though, I would like to offer just an additional word of prayer, if that is okay. If you could just bow your heads with me, our wonderful Father in heaven. Happy Sabbath, Lord. Thank you so much that we can come here together and that we can study your word. Please, Lord, come now and teach us. In Jesus name, Amen. Before I delve into our topic, I would like to share with you just a little something that happened to Casey and I over the school holidays in April. So Kaysie was invited to speak, to do a series, sorry, of health workshops at the South Australian Big Camp. And this also coincided with our third wedding anniversary. That was wonderful. We've been married for three years. Three and a bit years. Now it's three years and. Hang on a minute. And two months. Almost three years and two months. And it's been wonderful. And so while we were on this trip to South Australia, on the way back, we decided that we would make a little bit. Make it a little bit more special and go to some places that we've wanted to visit for a while. And so we actually, we were looking around to see what kind of places we could. We could visit, make it a little bit more of a road trip. And we found that Parks and Coonabarabran could be made to be in the way on the way back home. And you're wondering, Parks and Coonabarabran. That's very interesting. Why did you choose those particular places? Well, because of this. So this is the Parkes radio telescope. A radio telescope allows scientists to gather the radio signals from space. And they were actually performing some. They were performing some measurements right then and there. The telescope was actually operating while we were there. They, in fact, even moved the dish, which we didn't see, that was unfortunate, but we saw where the dish was and then we turned around to make some pictures and then all of a sudden it was in another place. So it moved, but we didn't see that happen. So that was unfortunate. But anyway, so this was a place that I've wanted to visit for a while. I am a science teacher as well, and so that might explain some things. And both Casey and I are actually science enthusiasts, nerds, and there's nothing wrong with that. And so that is one of the places we wanted to visit. Another place is Coonabarabran because of this. So this is the Anglo Australian telescope. So that thing behind us, and it has a 3 1/2 meter wide mirror. I can't actually say how wide that is because it's longer than what I can do, but it's very big and it allows astronomers to see a lot of stuff. And in fact, they moved that thing too. This time we saw it, we were in there and they were moving the dome around because they were performing some maintenance. It was absolutely fantastic. Again, wonderful for science enthusiasts, AKA nerds. But the other thing that made it really, really special was this bubble hotel. So the bubble hotel is on a private property. It's in the Warrumbungles, and the Warrumbungles national park is the first dark sky park. What that means is that the light pollution in this area is basically like fairly close to zero because they are trying to make sure that the skies are dark. They do this for animals as well, because the animals there, they need a dark place, the nocturnal animals, but they also do it because of the astronomy that they do there. In fact, that is why they chose that particular spot for the telescope, because. Because the skies are very dark. And also you don't get a lot of rain there. So there's not a lot of time that they have clouds. And when we were there, they didn't have clouds. And it was wonderful. We were able to see a lot of things. And anyway, this is actually the day after we arrived there. So when we arrived there it was dark. And when we turned off all of the lights, I tell you what, it was an amazing experience because we were able to see so many stars. Not only that, but we were even able to see where we were walking simply from starlight. There was no moon present at that time. Like the. The moon was probably below the horizon, maybe it was a new moon, I can't remember. But there was no moonlight, there was no other light except starlight and that was just an amazing experience. Now you're probably wondering why we are dressed like this. Well, this is what we wore on our wedding day. And so a little while ago, some of our friends posted on Facebook that they do this. And so every year for their anniversary, they dress up into their wedding gear and they take pictures. And so that's what Casey and I have decided to do. And so so far, every single wedding anniversary, we managed to do something like this. Take, take pictures, I think. I think. Has it ever happened that we actually did it on our anniversary or was it. Okay, so we did, we managed it. Yeah. There were some other times when we didn't do it on our wedding. Oh, that's right, the first wedding anniversary. That's it. Yeah. Anyway. And so that's why we did that. So anyway, I also love astrophotography. I've recently gotten into it and I have this telescope. It's a smart telescope, makes things a lot easier. And the telescope, you tell it to go to a certain place and off it goes, it takes pictures and then, you know, it's wonderful. And so I took that with me. That was one of the reasons that we went to this place as well, so that we could take some of these beautiful, beautiful pictures. And I was also curious to see how Coonabarra Brand compared to our backyard. So let's see how Coonabarra Brand did compare to our backyard. Okay. Okay. That actually turned out a lot better than I thought it would. So over here you can see on the, on your left. Oh yeah, it is the same. Nevermind. So on the left we can see a 30 second exposure. This by the way, is called the Jewel Box. You can see this in the Southern Cross. You might even be able to see if you have binoculars. Right. It's a cluster of stars and it's made up of these different colored stars and so they look like jewels. And so it was called the jewel box. 30 seconds of exposure. We can see what that looks like in coonabarabran compared to 2 minutes of exposure in our backyard in Currambong. Do you notice the difference? Excellent. Okay. All right. Then we had a look at a galaxy. This is the Centaurus, a galaxy. And in Coonabarabran did 1 minute 40 second exposure. We got that 3 minutes 30 seconds in our backyard in Kurumbong. Can you see the difference? Okay, now my telescope, the lowest amount of exposure that it can do is 10 seconds. And so I couldn't really find a more detailed image than this to Kind of get. Compare the two. So I compared the 10 second exposure. So there's. The one on the left is in Coonabarabran. The one on the right is our backyard in Kurumbong. This is the Tarantula Nebula. How it's the Tarantula Nebula? That's a very good question. I guess the. The wisps, wisps of dust and so on, make it look more like it has legs or something. I don't know. But I think you might need to use a fair bit of imagination for that. Anyway, so can you see the difference? You can? Excellent. And this is by far my favorite. Okay, so this is the Omega Centauri globular cluster. This cluster is composed of thousands upon thousands of stars. And when you look at it, you can actually see it without a telescope. Without binoculars. But it kind of looks like a very, very faint dot in the sky. And anyway, with the telescope, this is what we got. So again, 1 minute 30 second exposure in coonabarabran versus 4 minutes 30 second exposure backyard in Kurumbong. Can you see the difference? You can? So I want to ask you a few questions. By the way, I'm a teacher, so I like to ask questions and I like to get people to respond. So here we go. Question number one. Are the stars here in Waitara? Oh, by the way, let me ask you another question. In Waitara, at night, would you see a lot of stars? Okay. So are the stars in Waitara the same as the stars in Coonabarabran? Yes or no? Yes. Okay. They are the same. Excellent. Do the stars in Waitara or that we see here in Waitara. Okay. Shine as brightly as the stars in Coonabarabran? They shine. Excellent. Well done. Yes, they do shine exactly the same. They output the same amount of light. They output the same amount of energy. They shine the same. Right. So what's the difference? The pollution. What kind of pollution? Light pollution. That is exactly right. Okay, so the light pollution is the difference. So it's the extra light noise that competes with the starlight. Now, there is another type of noise that we deal with every day, and it kind of looks like this. I actually asked AI to generate an image of like a media noise and so on, and actually asked several AI to generate images. This is by far the best that I found simply because this is precisely what I thought of when I thought about noise and the media. So there is a lot of noise all around us that competes for our attention. There are deadlines, there's news. There's social media. There's also entertainment. But what else? What important things does this noise compete within our lives? Okay, so there's another question for you. What important things does this noise compete with in our lives? Okay. Time that we spend with God. Anything else? Family time. Anything else? Sleep. True that. Exercise? Absolutely. So family time, relationships, our health, they all face this competition as well. There is a need to denoise. Okay, and so this is. This is the point of this message. Now, Ellen White in the Ministry of Healing says the following. She says we must turn away from a thousand topics that invite attention. There are matters that consume time and arouse inquiry, but end in nothing. The highest interests demand the close attention and energy that are so often given to comparatively insignificant things. So what are these highest interests that she mentions? Well, she continues a few pages later, the truths of the Bible received will uplift mind and soul. If the word of God were appreciated as it should be, both young and old would possess an inward rectitude, a strength of principle that would enable them to resist temptation. So just like the competing light sources, they make it difficult to see the full glory of the stars. The noise around us makes it difficult to focus on God's Word and his still, small voice. So what does the Bible have to say about denoising? If you can please turn with me to Psalm 46:10. And I know we have already read this, and Benjamin has done a fantastic job of reading that. So thank you very much. But let's delve a little bit deeper and see what the Bible has to say. So Psalm 46:10. This also happens to be one of my favorite Bible verses. Okay, pardon me. Psalm 41:10. 41 or 46? 46. Okay, that slide is very wrong. Okay, so it should be. Okay, so the next slide will say Psalm 41:10. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but anyway, it should be 46. So replace 41 with 46 and you'll be right. Okay, so Psalm 46:10 says the following. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. God says, be still. What does that mean? Well, if you have a look at the at the Strong's concordance, you will find that the word be still in Hebrew is rappa. I'm not sure if I said that correctly, but anyway. But it means to sink, to relax, to slacken, to abate, to cease. So God is saying, relax, cease, stop, and know that I am God. Again, that word know is yada. And yada is that same word that was used when. When the Bible said, and Adam knew his wife, that word yada. It's a very deep, personal and intimate relationship. So an intimate relationship requires quiet time. It cannot be sustained on a surface level with little dedicated time. It requires effort. It requires that special quality time. So we can see that we need to denoise. That's obvious. How can we do this? Well, the Bible has some suggestions. Let's go to. Again the Bible. Let's go to Matthew, chapter 6 and verse 33. So Matthew 6, 33. These are the words of Jesus. And he says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. It's very, very interesting. Like, I've learned a lot preparing this sermon, and I encourage you to do the same. Delve into, like, go into the Greek and Hebrew to find out what these words mean. There's a depth of meaning that is such a blessing. So the word first is the Greek word proton. Now, I particularly found that very interesting because I'm also. I'm a science teacher, but I'm particularly a physics teacher. And so the word proton really got my attention. Does everyone know what proton means? What the proton is, okay, makes up the atom. So you've got protons, neutrons, electrons. We've learned that, yep. Anyway, I found it interesting. And so anyway, it means first in time or place. It essentially means to prioritize. So when Jesus is saying, seek you first. In other words, prioritize. Prioritize what? Well, it says prioritize the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is not just. Now, it's not to be confused. And I found this very interesting too. So it's not to be confused with an actual kingdom, but rather the right or authority to rule over a kingdom. In other words, it's saying, give God the permission to rule in your life. Does it make sense? Excellent. All right. There are some other things that we can learn as well. If we continue. If we go to Psalm 63 and verse 1 and then Psalm 5 and verse 3, there are some really interesting things here. So in Psalm 63, verse 1, it says, O God, thou art my God. Early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. Okay. Psalm 5. 3. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. So where it says, early will I seek again There's a Hebrew word there, it's called shakar, and it means to seek at dawn, to seek early. Like really like before the rising of the sun. That kind of early. Now I would like to share with you just a little something that I found from the Bible commentary and it talking about early devotions, early morning prayer. It says there is no better habit than the habit of morning prayer. When alone with God, the soul prepares to discharge the duties and meet the problems of the unknown day. And then a little poem, a moment in the morning, a moment if no more is better than an hour when the trying day is all. It is well to cultivate the habit of offering the first fruits of our consciousness as a morning offering to God. We can also see that Jesus practice this as well. In Mark 1:35, you can turn there as well or you can read from there. That's fine. So mark 1:35 it says, and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed Jesus did this. Now the Bible commentary also says I didn't put that in there. But the Bible commentary also says that just prior to this, Jesus had been. He'd been healing people, he'd been helping people, and he'd been working all into the night. And then it says here, rising up a great while before day. So this is actually even before, like this is in the dead of night. So Jesus wouldn't have had a lot of time to sleep, but he still got up and he spent that time with his Father. So I found this interesting. So the Greek word there, so morning is proi, and it's used for the last watch in the night from 3am to 6am and in Capernaum, where Jesus was at that time, the sun would rise at 5am so the first signs of dawn could be seen at 3.30am now when it says a great while before day, this was like in the dead of night, so it must have been before 3:30. So as I said, Jesus did not have a very long time to sleep, but he prioritized. There is actually a promise that is associated with seeking God early. Let's go to Proverbs. Proverbs 8:17. So Proverbs 8:17. So here's a promise. And it says, I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. So again, those that seek me, that word there is Shakar. It's early in the morning. So God is saying, if we seek him early in the morning, we shall find him putting God first. That's the key. Is that making sense? Excellent. So here's a little summary of the strategies. So, firstly, we need to prioritize. We need to daily give permission for God to rule in our life, and we need to seek God early in the morning. And also, more recently, we actually read this in a devotional. It's in Our Father Cares, and it says sanctification means habitual communion with God. So habitual communion. It's a habit. You know, it's something that you do regularly. Okay, so now let's say that we have decided to set out some time to spend with God. How do we focus our time with God? What do we do? Well, before we delve into that answer, I'd like to go back to again the experience that Casey and I had in Coonabarabran. So how did I manage to capture all of those pictures of the stars? What would have happened if I didn't have my telescope? Would we have seen the brightness of the stars? Yes, and it was absolutely fabulous. In fact, when we were lying in bed and we were looking outside, because we were in a bubble hotel, we could see a. We could see out. We saw absolutely a beautiful nightscape. It was wonderful. Well, but with the telescope, we were able to see a lot more depth. So similarly, a surface reading of the Scriptures reveals beautiful things. And that is true. But when you start digging deeper, there are more beautiful treasures that you don't notice at first. Just like those pictures that we were able to capture with the telescope. Okay, so what do we do? Well, here are some ways to study the Bible. So when we spend time with God, we are studying the Bible. So what do we do? One is that we can read the Bible from COVID to cover. I'm just curious, has anyone read the Bible from COVID to cover? Put your hand up if you've read the Bible from COVID to cover. Okay. A few. My dad, I think he has read the Bible from COVID to cover like maybe 14 times or something like that. He's lost. He was putting in. Every time that he read the Bible, he would then put. He would then mark how many times he read the Bible. And he knows the Bible very well, and the Bible is really, really entrenched in his mind. I managed to do it only once. I would like to do it again. You know, when you make New Year's resolutions and when you say, yep, this is what I'm going to do, this is how I'm going to do it. And then you start you. And then everything is going well. Until maybe you get partway like halfway through Genesis or something like that, or maybe you get stuck in Leviticus or something anyway, and then other things get in the way. But anyway, if we make that our goal and ask God to help us, you will surely do that. So anyway, that's one. One way read the Bible from COVID to cover. Another one is to follow the Bible reading plan in your Bible or find one online. And so I may as well say this. I have decided that I'm going to do that. So yesterday, for the first yesterday, I decided to have a look at what the Bible reading is for that day. Then I read it. I'm going to try and do that every single day. So I'm telling you so that I'm kept accountable. You can ask me a little bit later and see how I'm going. But that's another thing. Your Bible has a Bible reading plan. Use it. You can start. You know, I used to think, well, you know, I need to start at the beginning. But really you don't. You can start anywhere and then you can just. And of course after you get past Revelation, you go back to Genesis. It's fine, it's all good. It's all connected. Study the Bible. Along with the Conflict of the Ages series as commentary, this is also very interesting. So while you're reading Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, read patriarchs and prophets, read through the Gospels first. Read the desire of ages at the same time. These are some ways. Study the Sabbath school lesson. That's an easy one. Study a single verse or passage, phrase by phrase to gain its full meaning. So look, look into the Strong's, you know, concordance. Look at what this word means, what that word means. Choose a keyword and compare all the texts in the Bible with that word. So you can choose a particular word, say grace. Compare all the texts in the Bible that talk about grace. Compare them. Compare scripture with scripture. Find deeper meaning from the original languages. Use Strong's Concordance. And then the last one is in the Bible. Read about things you are interested in. So these are some ways to study the Bible. Okay, so that's good. That's a good start. What about to seek a deep and meaningful devotional life? Okay, so what do we need for that? We need to pray for the Holy Spirit to teach us. We need to look for how each passage points to Christ. Look at what the passages teaches us about God's character. Reflect on the message of the passage, how it applies to you personally, and pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So why Is a deep experience with God so important? Well, one reason is so that we can become like God in character. And in Second Corinthians 3:18 we can read, but we all with open face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit, the Lord. So that's one reason why deep experience with God is important. Another one is for our own spiritual safety. Well, basically Jesus said, and Dennis, thank you for including that in your prayer about Matthew 24. Because these things are happening like right now before our eyes. We are noticing that, that there's wars, there's rumors of wars, all of this sort of stuff. However, when Jesus was asked about what the signs of his coming would be, one of the very first things that he said was take heed that no man deceives you. Jesus knew that there would be lots of deceptions. And so this is again why it's very important to have a deep experience with God. And Ellen White also says in the great controversy to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. The people of God are directed to the scriptures as their safeguard against the influence of false teachers and the delusive power of spirits of darkness. You know, now more than ever before, it's important to know what the Bible says. There's lots of deceptions and we need to know so that, so that we are secure. And we are told here that the Scriptures are a safeguard. Okay. There is a third reason why a deep experience with God is important. And that is so that we can share God's word with others. And I'd like to read to you just something that I read just yesterday from the Adventist World. It's a beautiful article by Elder Ted Wilson and I encourage you to grab a copy. It also happens to be the last copy that will be done. So Adventist World is merging with the Review. Adventist Review. So I'd just like to read this to you. So this is on page 17. This is what global total member involvement, or TMI is all about. Everyone, everywhere sharing our God given message with the world. You are called. You are chosen by God himself to reach others for him. How is this done? First we must earnestly pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised, if you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? And just before the cross he gave this assurance. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. As we claim these promises, we can reach others for Christ, showing compassion, relieving suffering, and teaching righteousness. Talk with your neighbors and friends, pray for and with them. Share what Jesus has done for you. Invite them to meetings at your church, give Bible studies and be active in your local church outreach. So we can see that by spending time with God, by having this deep experience with God, we can share God's word with others. We can share the experience that we have had. We can share that with other people. Now there's a beautiful verse found in Daniel 12:3 and we're coming to a close. We're landing and if you can go there with me. In Daniel 12:3 it says, and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. The only way that we can shine in a dark world is by denoising. Otherwise our light will dim because we are not connected with the source of light. And I also like us to think about the experience that Moses had when he was with God for those 40 days on the mount. When he came down from the mount, what happened? His face shone. Now, did Moses need to work hard for his face to shine? Was Moses doing anything, you know, was there anything in Moses to make his face shine? No, of course not. So Moses face was shining and he didn't even realize it, but all the people saw it and he had to veil his face. The point is, it was natural for him to shine after spending time with God. The light of God shone through him. This is God's desire. He wants us that he wants us to shine. He wants us by spending time with him, that this will just be an absolutely natural thing that we will shine. We can only do this by denoising because then we will have the space to connect with God so that others will then see the light that's shining in us. Alright, in summary, we live in a noisy world that competes for our attention. We need to denoise and focus on eternal things. We can denoise by following these steps. We need to prioritize. We need to daily give God permission to rule in our lives and we need to seek God early in the morning. The results of these will be becoming more like God in character, having spiritual protection and naturally sharing God's light and truth with others. If this is your desire, I invite you to stand with me as we pray. Our wonderful Father in heaven. Lord, we know that there is a lot of noise about us. Lord, we know that we spend too much time on things that are not of eternal value. I can speak for myself and Lord, we need to spend more time with you. Lord, we desire that we would spend that time with you. That we would spend time reading our Bible, that we would know what the Bible says, that we would have the Word in our mind so that the Holy Spirit can bring to remembrance those things that you have said. Lord, we know that time is short. We know that very soon things are going to change. We know that we're not going to have the same opportunities that we have now. We pray that you would help us to make time, that you would give us wisdom, that we would spend that time with you. We pray that you would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and that daily that we would seek for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We need this. We know that you have given us a task to do and we cannot do it in our own might. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to denoise that we may allow you to lead in our life and that others may see that we have been with you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. SPEAKER 1 This message was made available by the Waitara Seventh Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit waitarachurch.org. It's been a pleasure bringing you this program here on 3 ABN Australia Radio.