Sermon
Conclusion: Don't Worry--Look to Jesus! (Pastor Aaron Trelfa, 10/01/22)
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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All right, good evening everyone. I want to welcome you back to our sixth and
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final presentation for Three Angels, One Message. This has been quite the journey.
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We have covered so many different things. We have looked at wonderful topics. We
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have looked at concerning topics, but most importantly we have seen Jesus in
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the midst of all of it, and I for one have been encouraged by it. I hope you
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have too. I hope if you're watching on Facebook you have been encouraged with
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these as well, that maybe if this is the first time you've studied this in-depth
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in this particular singular passage in the Bible, Revelation 14 verses 6 and
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onwards, that you will have walked away with something. You will have walked away
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with an increased faith. You will have walked away with an increased
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appreciation for the book of Revelation. Maybe that's not where you typically go
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the epistles from Paul are a favorite. Old Testament narratives are a favorite.
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The Gospels are of course one of my favorites, but that doesn't mean that we
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should stay away from Revelation. We've seen that it's rich. We've seen that it's
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deep, and we've seen that it's important and vital for right now. So tonight we're
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going to finish this up. We're going to have a slightly shorter, probably
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noticeably shorter compared to the last two presentations. Tonight's title just
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simply, Don't Worry, Look to Jesus. Let's pray before we begin. Heavenly Father, we
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thank you for a beautiful Sabbath afternoon. We thank you for the rest
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that we could enjoy, the fellowship with family and with friends, and so we pray
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now that you would be with us as we close out today. Be with us as we look one
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more time at these important passages and words from your inspired writings of
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the Bible, for we pray in Jesus name, amen. Amen. One of the more significant
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events of World War I was the sinking of the Cunardosian liner, the RMS
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Lusitania. It occurred on Friday, May 7, 1915, as Germany waged submarine warfare
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against the United Kingdom. Good evening, come on in. Great Britain, Ireland, and
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the British Royal Navy had blockaded Germany. The ship was identified and
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torpedoed by a German U-boat, and it sank in only 18 minutes. The vessel went down
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11 miles off of Kinzale, Ireland, killing 1,198 people and leaving 761 survivors.
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It's pretty tragic really by any measurement. The sinking turned public
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opinion in many countries against Germany. This contributed to the American
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entry into World War I, and it became an iconic symbol in military recruiting
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campaigns as to why the war was even being fought to begin with. I guess this
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would be World War I's Pearl Harbor, if you will. A story associated with this
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disaster has relevance for Bible-believing Christians, especially
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for Seventh-day Adventists living in last days of human history. Lord Joseph
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Duveen was the head of a prestigious art firm in the United States. In 1915, he
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planned to send one of his experts to England to examine some ancient pottery.
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He booked passage for his associate on the Lusitania. The German Embassy had
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issued a warning that the ocean liner might be torpedoed. Lord Duveen wanted to
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call off the trip. I can't take the risk of you being killed, he said to his young
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pottery expert. Generally, if a country that is waging war with so many other
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nations says, I might torpedo that boat if it comes this way, one should probably
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listen. So you can hardly fault Lord Duveen for not wanting his young
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associate on that ship with the looming threat. Don't worry, the young man
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replied. I am a strong swimmer. When I read what was happening in the Atlantic,
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I began hardening myself by spending time every day in a tub of ice. If you've
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ever done any of this, I mean that's common for like athletes, you know,
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they're sore, they get in that ice bathtub at the end and it helps with the
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inflammation and so on. I could not do that, at least not initially. This man was
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taking the initiative though. He says that at first I could stand it for only
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a few minutes, but this morning I stayed in that tub for nearly two hours. A long
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time. I don't know how you kept that ice frozen, seems like it would have melted
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off and become a little bit more tepid, but he was conditioning himself, he says.
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Naturally Lord Duveen laughed, it sounded preposterous, but the young man sailed,
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the Lusitania was torpedoed, we know. The amazing thing is that the young man was
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rescued after five hours in the chilly waters of the Atlantic, still in
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excellent condition. Just as this young man took the warnings seriously and
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prepared himself in advance for the tough times that were coming, so Jesus
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gives a message in advance to prepare us for his soon return. We've studied them.
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It has been our focus for these previous five presentations. The three angels
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message, flying in midair with the everlasting gospel to preach to
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everybody on the planet, is especially designed by Christ to prepare each one
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of us for his second coming. It is, and it's a way of preparing us in the
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most vital of senses, whose allegiance do we pledge ourselves to? Is it to God
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in Christ, or is it to something else? These end time messages are heaven's last
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appeals to a dying planet. I'm gonna be honest, I'm kind of ready for the planet
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to kick the bucket. If it's dying, it might as well get over it because I'm
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sick of the results of sin. I'm tired of it. The hurricane, as they are, I'm sure
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they will be finding lost loved ones as they clean up from this hurricane. As we
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have earthquakes and we have riots that turn violent, as we have the various
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increases in crime and overdoses and loneliness and depression, all of it
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comes to an end when Jesus returns. Come Lord Jesus is my cry. But before then, we
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have to listen to God's last appeal. We ignore them at our own peril. They come
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to us from God's heart of divine love and to casually set them aside or to
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treat them with careless indifference is to risk eternal loss. We are not playing
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around with light semantics or hyperbole with this my friends. It is this
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important. Paul writing to the church in Thessalonica writes this, but you
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brethren are not in darkness so that this day, that would be the day of Christ's
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return, that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and
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sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not
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sleep as others do but let us watch and be sober. There is much talk in
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evangelical Christianity about Christ's return coming as a thief. Paul is telling
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us that we should not be caught as a thief. Christians should know when it's
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coming. Christians should be looking for his coming. Christians should be prepared
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for Christ's coming so that it doesn't catch us as a thief. The Christians who
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are looking for Jesus to come as a thief are the Christians who aren't looking at
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all. That's what this amounts to. We have no excuse Paul says. We are not of the
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night. We should not be asleep. We should be prepared for it. These messages help us
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do that. They should be a wake-up call. If you have found yourself spiritually
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slumbering and these messages have been that ringing in your ears, wake up and
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pay attention, praise God for these messages. We should thank him for it. They
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are of little use if we hit the snooze button and carelessly dismiss them. They
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are of little use if we ignore them. They are of little use if they do not
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radically change our lives. We read this from Testimonies Volume 8 commenting on
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the nearness of Christ's return and the importance of being prepared. The end is
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very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break
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upon the world as an overwhelming surprise. Note that the surprise breaks
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upon the world. We who are prepared are not going to be caught as if we were
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overwhelmingly surprised. That's for them, not for us she says. Well how do we do
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that? Jesus in John 17 says, you sanctify them by your truth. Your word is
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truth. That's where we start our preparation. We start by digging into the
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truth of God's word. He also says, and you shall know the truth and then the truth
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shall make you free. I have heard people say that it's better that I don't read
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the Bible so then I can claim the bliss of ignorance. God winks at us in our
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moments of ignorance. Well my friends, if you choose to be ignorant, you are
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choosing the opposite of freedom. If you choose the ignorance, then you are
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choosing to be what the Bible says as a slave to sin rather than a bond servant
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to Christ. Because when you are linked up with Jesus, only then can you truly be
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free. Because the truth that we find in him is liberating. It's restful. It's
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peaceful. It says I've forgiven you and not only that but I've cleansed you from
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the unrighteousness. The truth that we find in Jesus, the truth that we've
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studied through these passages, that we've seen that the gospel permeates
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each of these angels messages, is that it will bring us to a place where
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we can have hope in something beyond this world. We can have something higher
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than us. But what it also means is that these messages don't leave room for
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compromise. They don't. Because we either have the truth as it is in Jesus or we
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don't have truth at all. We've looked at Babylonian truth and that's really
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truth mixed with error. Compromised truth. Confusion. These messages appeal to
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us to decide for Christ and not falsehood. Truth not error. Scripture not
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tradition. The teachings of God's Word and not the traditions of men and the
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freedom of the Lamb, not the coercion of the beast. That's what these messages
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call us to. When you have allied yourself to Christ, not turned aside by any means
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but wholly consecrated to Him in His service, then you are proudly displayed
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as one of His saints. And God wants to show you off. Here is the patience of the
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saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of
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Jesus. In your own way, when you are found among these people, in your own way
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you will pick up the banner long held by faithful Christians throughout history.
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You don't have to be the street corner preacher or the the evangelist who
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stands on the stage. You don't have to be the writer just going at it for
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hundreds and hundreds of pages to be published and scattered abroad like the
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leaves in autumn. If that's not you, that's okay. Maybe you're a prayer warrior.
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Maybe you're someone who serves and you you like to rake leaves as a gift to
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someone else free of charge. Because then you can tell them about how God saved
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you free of charge. In your own way, when you are counted among the saints, you
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will pick up the banner long held by faithful Christians throughout history.
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And in your own way, you will add your voice to the proclamation chorus. You
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don't have to be like someone else. Be like you. That's enough for God and He
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wants to proudly put you on display. Truths long obscured by the darkness of
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error and tradition, including the true Bible Sabbath, will be proclaimed to the
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world just before the return of our Lord. God's people are identified as a body of
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Christ-centered believers, filled with the faith of Jesus who lovingly keep
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His commandments, including the fourth one, the Sabbath. God's people, though,
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will not be proclaiming the gospel alone. God's people will not be facing
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persecution alone. God will move mightily among His people to combat the enemy of
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souls because there's going to come a time when God will say enough to that
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enemy. Enough! You've ruled long enough, sir! That's what God will say to Satan.
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You see, the three angels of Revelation 14 are joined by another in Revelation
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18. Revelation 18, this angel gives power to the proclamation of the three angels
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so that the earth is lighted with the glory of God. Revelation 18 focuses on
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the major events leading up to the climax of human history and the final
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ultimate triumph of the gospel. Let's look at these briefly. Revelation 18 in
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verse 1, After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven with great
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authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory. Illuminated, mighty,
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powerful was this angelic host. The angel comes down from the glorious presence of
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God in the throne room of the sanctuary. Commissioned to proclaim God's last
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message of mercy and to warn the inhabitants of the earth what is coming
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upon this planet. If we look just for a moment about this great authority, the
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great authority here in this verse comes from the New Testament Greek word
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excusia. Jesus uses this word, this very word, excusia in the gospel of
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Matthew in connection with sending out the disciples. Let's see how Jesus uses
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it then. Matthew 10, 1, when he had called his 12 disciples to him he gave them power,
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excusia over sicknesses, other maladies and cripplings, but hear this, and over
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the evil spirits so they could cast them out of the men and women possessed by
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the devil. In other words, God ascends his disciples out with the divine power to
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be victorious in the battle between good and evil. Satan and his demonic forces
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could not stand before the disciples because God, because Jesus had given
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them his excusia, his great authority, his holy power. And so when they said get
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out of her in the name of Jesus Christ or get out of him, the spirits obeyed.
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They didn't have a choice. They could not stand up to the authority from on high. In
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Matthew 28, 18, and 19 he once again takes up this word, excusia, as he sends
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out his disciples, but this time he sends them everywhere because that is the
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Great Commission. Everywhere with all authority in heaven and on earth to go
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and to make disciples of all nations. Filled with the power of the Holy Spirit,
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going forth with the authority of the risen living Christ, the New Testament
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Church lighted the earth with the glory of God. In a few short years, the
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disciples had proclaimed the gospel in the then known world. We know, we know,
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that there were civilizations in far-off Asia and South America and I'm certain
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North America at that point. In terms of the scope of the Christian movement, in a
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couple of short years, the Christian faith had gone throughout the mightiest
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empire on the planet at that time. The seat of development at that time, Western
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Europe, the Middle East and then up into the Roman Empire. That's what we mean by
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the then known world. Colossians 1.23, Paul makes this clear. At the end time,
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the Holy Spirit will be poured out in unprecedented power. The gospel will
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rapidly be spread to the ends of the earth. What we will, what we did see back
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then, that will be repeated again right before Jesus comes back. That same
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excuse you, that same authority is going to be given to God's people today as we
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take up that banner and proclaim the gospel like the disciples did. Thousands
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will be converted in a day. God's grace and truth will impact the entire planet.
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Well, if this is true, and it is, if it is true, and it is, it is not wise for us to
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open our hearts to receive, or is it not wise for us to open our hearts to receive
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the outpouring of the Spirit to finish the work of God on earth. Again, aren't we
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tired of Satan wreaking havoc amongst God's people? Would you like to help move
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it along and tie it up with a bow? God wants you to join him in this. Is it not
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wise to ask Jesus to take anything out of our lives that would hinder this
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outpouring of the Holy Spirit, whatever it is, and everybody usually has at least
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one thing that we can, we can self-reflect on and say, I'd kind of like
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that scrubbed. Could a magic eraser be taken to it and Mr. Clean applied?
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Spiritually speaking, we understand. Is it not wise to seek God for the heart
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cleansing necessary to receive the latter rain of the Spirit in all his
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fullness? The great controversy between good and evil in the universe is about
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God's honor. The only reason we care about worship is because it honors God
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when we worship him. You can't divorce them. It is about God's honor, his
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reputation. Satan, as a rebellious angel, declared that God was unjust, that he
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demands worship, but he gives little in return. The evil one declares that God's
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law is arbitrary, restricting our freedom and limiting our joy, and people pick up
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those same accusations today verbatim and they hurl them heavenward all over
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again. It hasn't stopped just because time has passed. In fact, there are just
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now more people on the planet to pick up the chorus. But the cross, Jesus
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self-sacrificing, condescension from heaven to earth as a baby, a life serving
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others, a ministry directing minds heavenward, finally outstretched hands
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and bleeding wrists and feet and brow, the cross, that old rugged cross, that
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proved the myth. It proved the lie to be a lie because when he came forth in glory
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from that tomb, resurrected and made majestic again, he demonstrated just how
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far God's love would go in self-sacrifice, contrary to the lie, to
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redeem fallen humanity. It exposed the myth of Satan. On the
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cross, Jesus answered Satan's charges and he demonstrated that God is loving and
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just. Well, God's people charmed by that love, concerned about God's honor, his
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end-time people will reveal his glory. That's what we are to reveal, his loving
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self-sacrificing character. We're to reveal it to a self-centered, godless
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world. The earth is illuminated by the character of God when we do that. What a
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wonderful calling. I can't imagine a more noble cause to be involved in than to
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demonstrate the character, the glory of God to others. That's awesome. That's
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certainly better than displaying your favorite brand of t-shirt or your
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favorite sports team, even if we like sports. Oh, show people God. Show people
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love. Show people his glory and his character. That's a noble calling. Moses
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had asked God to show him his glory back in Exodus 33 and God replied with, I will
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make all my goodness pass before you. And so in addition to physically showing
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himself, just a portion of his backside, it's all sinful humanity could behold.
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God declared himself. When he says, my goodness is going to pass before you, he
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then goes on to say, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and just, and just,
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forgiving the sinner. He declared his character and he equated that with his
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glory as God's goodness is his character. At the end time, the Holy Spirit will be
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poured out in unprecedented power. The gospel will rapidly be spread to the
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ends of the earth and God's people will be filled and the earth then will be
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filled with the glory of God when we are so completely overwhelmed with his love,
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when we so totally comprehend its depth and so fully grasp how amazing that
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grace is that our characters are changed by that redeeming love. When we
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exemplify that, then the earth is filled with the glory of God. As the Apostle
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John declares in 1st John 3, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed
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on us, that we should be called the children of God. There are a lot of
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titles that people strive for today. I would encourage every one of us to strive
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for this child, or for this title, a child of God, a son or a daughter of the most
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high. Revealing his love in our personal lives reveals his glory, his character.
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Ellen White says this in January 28 of 1893, the message of Christ's righteousness
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is to sound from one end of the earth to the other. The message of Christ's
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righteousness is to sound from one end of the earth to the other. That's the
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proclamation of the gospel. This is the glory of God which closes the work of
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the third angel. It's so connected to the messages that we have been studying, you
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cannot divorce them. So let us ask, where are we in the stream of time? Where are
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we in the great panorama of last-day events? When you read through the books
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of Daniel and Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel even has connections to today. If you look
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through Revelation and what Paul talks about in Thessalonians 1 and 2 about
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the end times, what Peter talks about, John calling out the Antichrist, all of
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those macro discussions about the end times. Where are we? Where are we in the
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march of history? Well my friends, we are poised on the verge of a religious,
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political, and an economic union. This union is one that is unholy, it is
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unsanctified of God because inevitably or ultimately it will be used to
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persecute God's people. This unholy union of religion, politics, and economics will
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be used to bring God's people to heal. That's where we are and I do believe
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that we are on the verge of it. I do believe and we've presented some
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evidence to support this, that a lot of the groundwork is being laid for, again,
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I believe rapid movements in this direction. The accumulated figures of
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sin are rapidly reaching their limit in God's record book. His grace lasts long
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towards this earth and I believe our sins are just piling high exponentially
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today. It's rather startling. God is preparing a people to proclaim the
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marvels of His grace, the greatness of His love, the goodness of His character,
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the righteousness of His law, and the beauty of His truth. Bathed in His
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righteousness, God's people are justified by His grace and sanctified through His
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power. They love His truth, live His truth, and then we proclaim His truth.
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That's what God's people do and He is preparing us for that today. Can we say
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like Paul, for me to live is Christ? For me to count all things but loss for
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Christ. Christ is our all in all. Do you care not for earthly fame or human
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accolades? Position, prestige, and earthly praise. Does it mean little to you? Is
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this your catchphrase, if you will? For me to live is Christ. Are you empowered by
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His Spirit? Do you proclaim His love and share His grace? Well, the earth will then
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be lighted with the glory of the character of God when this is your
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battle cry. For me to live is Christ. The Holy Spirit is poured out in lather rain
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power. Hearts are touched, lives are changed, the world is reached, and Jesus
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comes again. I look forward to that day. I do. The title for tonight's presentation
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is just don't worry, look to Jesus. It's very simple and it's very true. We aren't
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going to go into all of everything that proves that Jesus is going to come back
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in the ample evidence in the Bible. It's so saturated with it. I would encourage
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you to study on your own, but Jesus is coming back soon and we should be
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prepared for it. Look to Him, focus on Him, and a lot of the other cares will
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start to fade out of the periphery. It's very true. The story goes like this many
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years ago. Lord Cecil, a first cousin of the late Queen Victoria, was converted
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to Christ. His life was dramatically changed as many lives are after being
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converted to a faith in Jesus Christ. He now had a burning passion to share the
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Christ who had done so much for Him. Has Christ done so much for you? It's worth
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asking. Lord Cecil's one desire was to preach the gospel. He traveled to
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North America, he spent much of his time in Canada, he shared the love of Christ
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everywhere he went, in large cities, in remote villages, among farmers, in the
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lumber camps, and in quiet seaside towns. He was a man who knew what he wanted to
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do, and everywhere he went, he did it. Let me tell you about Jesus. Lord Cecil
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tells the story of one day passing the house of a man whom he knew was
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once a Christian, but had seriously drifted away from Christ. Maybe we know
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someone like that. Maybe we are someone like that, or have been. It's a relatable
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story for many, many people. Lord Cecil saw the man at his woodpile,
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industriously chopping wood for his cook stove. Knowing the man to be a
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backslider, one who had once been a faithful witness for his Savior, but now
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was no longer attending church, Lord Cecil paused and shouted to him a
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simple sermon. The Lord is coming brother, the Lord is coming. He said no more, and
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he continued walking. A simple sermon. Well the admonition of the Lord is
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coming burned its way into that man's soul. The words reached the core of his
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being. Like a two-edged sword, it pierced his heart. His conscience smote him. These
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words echoed again and again in his mind. The Lord is coming. It seemed he could
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not forget them. That urgent appeal from God's servant that the coming of the
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Lord was near so impressed the man that he recommitted his life to Christ and
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he returned to church. Living in the light of the second coming of Christ is
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powerful and it changes lives. My friends, the Lord is coming. The Lord is coming.
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Friend, the Lord is coming. Are you ready for his return? Are you ready for that
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day when Jesus will stream down the corridors of heaven, splitting open the
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eastern sky, riding on a cloud of angels, singing his praise. This time not as a
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lamb to the slaughter but as a king conquering and victorious. Glorified, not
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bloodied. He is coming to take his own back home. Will you be found among them?
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Look to Jesus, my friends. Are you ready for the day when the earth will be
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lightened with the glory of God? Do you want to help in lightening the earth
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with the glory of God? This world is on a collision course and there is only one
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hope. The hope of the coming of Jesus. We look forward to that day and I pray that
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as we do, you don't worry but you look to Jesus. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we
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thank you so much for these encouraging words. We thank you that even though
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there seems to be so much chaos and noise all around us, we can find the
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solace in you. So Lord, I pray for that peace from on high. I pray for the
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presence of your Holy Spirit. I pray that we as your people will be prepared for
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your soon return so that we look at you with open and welcoming arms. Not
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something to fear. Certainly not a day that should catch us unawares. Lord, may
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we be faithful to you through to the end and may we also in our own way proclaim
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the Lord is coming to any who would hear. As we pray in Jesus name, Amen.
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That does conclude our series. I want to thank you for attending. We've had some
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things, I think several of us have made every one. That's very good. If I had gold
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stars, I don't. I told you we would have a Q&A time. There might be a possibility
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of someone looking online. If anyone is watching us live, you can type into the
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chat box a question and we'll do our best to read it out and include it. I
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wanted to kick us off with something. I wanted to kick us off with a verse that
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comes right after the passage that we've been studying. Most people when they talk
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about the three angels messages, they talk about Revelation 14 verses 6 to 12.
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Rightfully so. It's a great place to end. It kind of leads right up to it. It's
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kind of a crescendo. It's the patience of the saints, those who keep the
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commandments of God and the faith of Jesus and so on. It's a beautiful way of
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doing it. I like to also include in that verse 13. I want to lead into it by
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saying that I really don't know why very many people preach on it. Maybe you've
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read it and you've wondered about it. Maybe you've looked at it and you said,
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I don't really know what to think about it. So I want to give it a minute or two's
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consideration. It reads like this, and I heard a voice from heaven. This
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is after, immediately after. Here is the patience or the endurance of the saints,
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those that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Right after
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that we have, I heard a voice from heaven saying, right this, blessed are the dead
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who die in the Lord from now on. Blessed indeed says the Spirit that they may
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rest from their labors for their deeds follow them. I came to that one day and
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I've read it several times and usually I just kind of skip past it. For the most
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part if you are reading a three angels message you just get to 12 and you're
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like, I'm done. But this comes right on the heels of, here's the description of
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God's saints and then it's, and then it's blessed are those who die, yeah right
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there, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Well it seems like
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an interesting thing to follow after. Here are the saints who do all of these
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things. Here's why I think it is there.
-
John is writing at a time shortly after Paul was addressing concerns. Revelation
-
was most likely the last book of the Bible ever written. It was probably
-
written around a hundred AD-ish, right before the Apostle John died. Before that
-
Paul had all of his writings. Well in one of Paul's epistles he talks about, he
-
talks to the people, he writes to the church, then they are obviously concerned
-
with loved ones dying. And he goes, well take heart, hold on, and then he talks
-
about the resurrection, right. That's the context. Hold on, you don't have to lose
-
heart, you are not ignorant of what happens when people die because the
-
resurrection, all right. There will come a day we'll all be reunited and caught up
-
in the air, and those if you live until Jesus comes back you're not going to go
-
ahead of your dead loved ones, we all get to go together. That's the
-
errant, tralfa paraphrase. You know John is probably dealing with something
-
similar a couple of years after Paul, where people are still maybe concerned
-
one, that Jesus hadn't come back. They believed in the early church that in
-
that singular generation Jesus was going to go to heaven, maybe hang out for a
-
year or five or ten, and come right back. The Bible writes about Christ's return
-
as imminent and also be patient for it. They focused on the imminence of it, and
-
they believed that to be now, my generation. They also believed that
-
there was a little bit of Greek misunderstanding with things, that
-
there wasn't perhaps a resurrection. Paul handled that. John writes, you know, at
-
the ending of the first century AD, and I'm sure some Christians
-
were still concerned that their loved ones were dying and Jesus hadn't come
-
back. What is going on, John? So he writes after the description of the saints,
-
blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, that they may rest from
-
their labors for their deeds follow them. In other words, it is sad when we lose a
-
loved one, but if someone dies with the faith of Jesus, that won't be the last
-
time we get to see them. That faith follows them. God remembers them in the
-
grave. He knows them by name, and those deeds, if you will, the keeping, the
-
deeds being the keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, those two
-
things would be counted as deeds. That follows them through time, however long
-
time takes to pass, and then Jesus comes back and they get resurrected. I have
-
heard it said before that God in His mercy is going to allow some saints of
-
His to fall asleep in death so that they don't have to go through the tough
-
persecution times of the end. That it's gracious of God to let His loved ones
-
die the death of sleep knowing that He knows them by name, that their faith
-
stays with them through the grave, and they will be resurrected. The next
-
thing they know, they're just going to see Jesus and angels and everyone's
-
shouting hallelujah, and here we go and off you go.
-
That's, you know, we have this, we have sometimes this notion that we bend all of
-
our energies in keeping people alive and alive and alive and alive. I think
-
sometimes we lose the nobility or the possible nobility in giving them a
-
gracious death. Sometimes it's better to just allow someone to die keeping this
-
part in mind, because when a heavenly angel says blessed are the dead who die
-
in the Lord from now on, why should I look to violate that? I've kind of been
-
convicted of that. That's not to say that we're looking to, we don't want it to end
-
prematurely, we're not saying that, but we are keeping things in the context of
-
how Scripture tells us to treat death. It is very sad. We don't mean to diminish
-
the sadness of losing a loved one. I went through that just this last year when
-
when my last grandfather passed away, so I don't have a grandparent alive anymore.
-
That's a whole generation gone for me and my family. It was very sad, you know,
-
we cried, we mourned, you know, we visited and we reminisced, but this is, this
-
right here was the passage that I preached on for his memorial service,
-
because Paul also says that we should comfort one another with the words of
-
the resurrection. So that's, I actually think we should give it a little bit
-
more consideration than we do perhaps at the back end of these these passages, so
-
I wanted to start off the Q&A section with that. I'm going to turn it over now,
-
do we have anything, don't have anything online? That's fine, is there anyone here
-
who has a question?
-
A special resurrection?
-
Before Jesus comes, before he died, he told to the people that crucified him that this,
-
that when he's gonna come back for second time, they're gonna see him again.
-
Yes.
-
So I heard some preacher says that this applied to that, because it's supposed,
-
according to the Bible, in the second, no, the first day, the first
-
resurrection, I mean, is when Jesus is coming back, right? But there's gonna be
-
special people that is gonna resurrect a little bit before he's coming to fulfill
-
that prophecy that Jesus said.
-
Okay, so we've heard that there is a special resurrection for some people,
-
you've heard it applied to the verse that we just discussed. Here's, I don't
-
believe that, right up front, I don't think that's the case. Here's why I don't
-
think that's the case. The verse that we just studied says, blessed are those who
-
die in the Lord, right? In other words, those would be saints, okay? Jesus told
-
the Pharisees, those that went out of their way to condemn and crucify him, that
-
you will see the Son of Man returning back, right? Coming in glory, right? Okay.
-
That one could not imagine that the Pharisees who were the guiltiest of them
-
all for crucifying the Son of God would then be called blessed in another part of
-
the Bible, okay? The Bible talks about two resurrections. You have a second,
-
that's the one that's actually called a second, which means you automatically
-
apply first to the other ones. You have two main resurrections in the Bible. One
-
are the righteous, that's the first resurrection. The righteous are raised to
-
dead and then they are in their glorified bodies, reunited with the living
-
righteous. They are caught up together in the air and then they join Jesus and off
-
they go. That's the first resurrection. The Bible then accounts for a thousand
-
years, a millennia. Time will pass. We come back to earth with the new Jerusalem
-
and then you have the second resurrection. That would be for the wicked,
-
the unrighteous. They are raised back to life to face their judgment. Their
-
reward, if you will, for having been wicked and pledging their allegiance to
-
the enemy of souls rather than the life giver. The Bible doesn't tell us how
-
long time passes. I actually believe that some time passes between the second
-
resurrection and the lake of fire, but that's when the final judgment scene
-
occurs in the Bible. So two resurrections. Jesus in a special way does tell
-
these Pharisees that they will get to see him return in glory. There's some
-
debate over whether that means that they will see him and the new Jerusalem and
-
everybody returning in glory at the second resurrection or if it means that
-
for that subset of people because their sin was that egregious in condemning the
-
son of man to die and lying about him and so on that they will be resurrected as
-
a part of the first resurrection but not to glory only to see Jesus glorified
-
because the last time that they saw him he was bleeding and bruised and so on. So
-
in other words it would be a very specific and very unique circumstance for
-
that small subset of humans because they just kept saying you're not God, you're
-
not God, you're not God and they got everybody else to rally around that and
-
he'll go well you'll get to see but that seems to be restricted to that. It
-
certainly wouldn't apply to this because that would not be a blessed
-
a blessed thing. Anything else? Paul says no he's got it all figured out. He's
-
gonna write books. Alright is there anything I mean it doesn't even have to
-
be about these passages is there some other spiritual question or end time
-
events things or so on and so forth? Yes. So I had a good friend pass away last
-
week childhood friends with a bunch of friends with that and so through
-
conversation and everybody's Catholic and every you know I kept hearing well
-
he's in heaven and in all these things and I was so to the point where I didn't
-
know when or what to say on this when I heard this and talked about it because
-
it was talked about you know that was their comfort and so I was just
-
wondering when is a good time to actually discuss the state of the dead
-
and what have you with some of my friends. I don't know what you know where
-
to go from there I never I never counted this at my time where I am right now
-
yeah wanting to I want to say is because we're we're we're talking to friends I'm
-
talking to friends I haven't even talked to in a while and from and it just
-
seems like it's almost like an opportunity that's in front of me to
-
take that this whole scenario further beyond you know just what's happening
-
now so so I wait a while do I do this what I mean I don't even know
-
generally speaking the worst time to do an apologetic study on the state of the
-
dead is when people are mourning the dead that's the worst time to do it why
-
because when when the state of the dead what happens when you die the biblical
-
teaching that people are resting in a sleep-like state unconscious not with a
-
detached ethereal spirit that goes somewhere else continuing on in
-
consciousness but the Bible does say that that the dead know nothing they
-
don't return to their house their thoughts perish with them their emotions
-
perish with them God knows them but that's it that's how the Bible talks
-
about it that that we get to go to heaven at the first resurrection that's
-
what the Bible says if you believe otherwise though if you do believe that
-
when you die and you go to heaven because I mean really how many people go
-
to hell when they die if you believe that your your friend your loved one
-
goes to heaven when he dies and then you sit down and you say let me tell you
-
what the Bible says just like that you have yanked someone's best friend right
-
out of heavenly halls and right into the dirt when you are mourning a person and
-
you're remembering and you're reflecting on them that is not the time to do that
-
that takes a lot of reconfiguring a worldview spiritually speaking so we
-
we on that category if there are differences of understanding we comfort
-
one another in the faith that the person had in Jesus we comfort one another in
-
knowing that we will be reunited with them again in heaven we take solace in
-
some of the common ground that we do have and then you let some time pass and
-
then maybe bring it up in a future conversation but in the moment is really
-
one of the easiest ways to turn someone away from studying the Bible is if
-
they're mourning and they're working through it and you go well on top all of
-
that let me up in your worldview and that's basically what that would be yeah
-
yeah no I and I don't disagree and someone may come to that your friends
-
may come to that in the moment of mourning is what I'm saying is when it's
-
it's usually not the time that they're going to be comforted yeah yeah yeah
-
yeah no I would I would I would say I would say prayerfully ask that the Holy
-
Spirit grant you the discernment and the opportunity to take advantage of the
-
next moment when it comes you don't have to wait forever seven years maybe too
-
long but the next time it rolls around if you are praying each day God I want a
-
chance to offer the hope that how the Bible says death is one let the
-
opportunity come and then to help me to take advantage of it in a loving and
-
kind and gracious way God God will answer those kinds of prayers so so be
-
praying for that pray and pray and pray is the best thing but for them to be
-
talking to somebody out of town you can't really communicate that well over
-
the phone unless the spirit wants you to yeah that is I mean I'm you know if
-
your friends are you know maybe you need to get on on zoom or FaceTime that
-
usually is a little bit better than than just over the phone but again if the
-
opportunity presents itself and the Holy Spirit speaks then then by all means
-
take advantage of it where they in New York some of them okay what do you see
-
going on there Kevin nothing oh no oh okay a pause is okay what is the
-
church's belief for when the three angels messages like have come to pass
-
like we believe that they've already come to pass but then the second angel
-
says Babylon is fallen but it hasn't technically fallen yet right so how
-
what's the timeline of the three right so one in English is fallen is is like a
-
completed action okay in the Greek you can phrase things where it's it is an
-
action that has started and then it continues until completion so it would
-
be like falling it's just not it's not translated falling because it's probably
-
not a preposition is it the preposition no it's not the preposition blanking on
-
it see Greek was always tough for me something like that yeah yeah the
-
present continual way of writing things so you don't do in that sense that takes
-
a different form but it still kind of denotes a starting and an ongoing
-
traditionally the Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that the the three angels
-
messages in their importance in their end time relevance in their uniqueness
-
for the Seventh-day Adventist Church kind of kicked off in the early part of
-
the 1800s we believe that that I believe it was the first angel we believe you
-
don't you don't pinpoint dates for these things but we believe that the first
-
angel was a part of the early Miller right movement because that really was a
-
call back to a better understanding of what it is to to fear God to look for
-
his return to kind of like we need to get out of this this relative lethargy
-
that we are in and get going then shortly after the disappointment when
-
the Seventh-day Adventist Church or when the people who are yes disappointed but
-
they were still trying to figure out things all of a sudden the light about
-
the Sabbath the light about food reform the light about what happens when you
-
die the light about the sanctuary and heaven the light about all these other
-
things in other words it's bringing clarity back into what had been
-
confusion that's the second angel so we believe that roughly the timing of the
-
second angel applies to the back end of the Miller right movement and the early
-
Adventist movement so that that's kind of when a lot of those things that long
-
believed and long understood but also long forgotten we're coming right back
-
to the forefront and then as we kept preaching on the Sabbath as we kept
-
preaching on some of these other doctrines and we looked around and we're
-
like well we've got blue laws on the books you know those blue laws many
-
states many local areas still have Sunday blue laws that require businesses
-
to be closed you can't do laundry you can't do this you can't do that they're
-
just simply not enforced well as our church saw those and and really they had
-
a lot of pushback on the Sabbath message early on the second and the second
-
angels message really rolls into the third rather quickly and rather
-
seamlessly because if you're saying that religious confusion is falling and we
-
should get out of it well quickly if you're if you're pointing a finger and
-
saying don't do that well the institutions that are involved in that
-
aren't going to generally take that kindly and so then they're going to say
-
well you need to stop it hush down be quiet get in line etc etc so then that
-
would be the third angel you know we believe that while they had kind of a
-
rough starting point in that in the in the early mid 1800s they don't actually
-
end until Christ comes back that that is an ongoing process until Jesus returned
-
the reason why it's fairly unique to Seventh-day Adventism one no one else
-
preaches on it I've talked to people out of the Church of Christ out of Baptist
-
Catholics certainly don't preach on a Methodist don't preach on it I don't
-
know another denomination that preaches from these passages certainly in the way
-
that we do not with the urgency not with the detail not with the personal
-
application to God's people as a message in preparation for Christ's return very
-
unique to Seventh-day Adventism does that answer your question okay I heard
-
it mentioned today I'll go ahead I don't want to with that in mind thinking about
-
this the true Sabbath and how that's gonna become clear to everybody in the
-
world what do you think that's gonna look like for people who have worshiped
-
on Sunday their entire life it's hard for me to kind of wrap my head around
-
that idea that they're going to understand that they've been wrong all
-
of this time and how is that going I mean what do you think I mean it's
-
just it's just conjecture I know but what do you think it's gonna look like
-
because I have a lot of I have a lot of family that are Sunday keepers I
-
grew up a Sunday keeper so I just I'm curious as to what that light bulb
-
moment is going to be yeah because we're guessing we're guessing on a lot of this
-
one reason why I believe it's so important we preach on it is because one
-
there are millions of Seventh-day Adventists around the globe that are
-
preaching on this and and then in addition to that our radio waves are
-
going everywhere our pamphlets are going everywhere is getting to a point where
-
ignorance is tough to claim in our own personal lives the reason why I believe
-
we should at least at least reference it at least live it out faithfully is
-
because as we get closer to a time of a deciding point and that deciding point
-
is probably going to be when you start to hear chatter like the world is such a
-
hot mess we can all get we we should all have a rest day it'll give the the
-
environment a break it'll help the families they're a mess it will help our
-
mental psyche everybody is depressed and anxious right now it will do all of that
-
oh by the way look at this everybody's already you know keeping the same day
-
let's just do that when it comes to that when you actually start to hear the
-
legislation I believe that's going to be an attention grabber for the individuals
-
that have just kind of been hearing it all these years and not yet making a
-
choice because then they will look at it and go ah I remember so-and-so telling
-
me that this might happen one day and I know I kind of dismissed it but here it
-
is you know today it is it sounds crazy to say that that some of these things
-
are going to happen five years ago three years ago it sounded crazy to suggest
-
that because of a virus everyone was going to be forced to stay home three
-
years ago that was crazy talk that the government was just going to make you
-
stay home over a pandemic we've had pandemics no one was ever forced to stay
-
home before like that you know from sea to shining sea now we know what happens
-
so so I mean that's really not a big surprise anymore if people want to
-
suggest it right now it sounds like it could be crazy to think you know
-
worship could be forced but like I proposed in a previous message if they
-
can make you stay home to worship why can't they also make you go on that day
-
to worship I mean they've already demonstrated that they will enforce a
-
type of worship all we've got to do is expand that into the next arena I don't
-
and I believe that that that it's going to come out basically the mark of the
-
beast is the culminating focal point of decision that's what it is because when
-
a legislation is passed people have to choose do I keep with the legislation
-
the legislation because they say so or do I recognize that it violates a
-
freedom of conscience and I need to look at this a little bit more why are they
-
asking me to violate a freedom of conscience if you all you if all you do
-
is ask the question why are they asking me to violate this then you might be led
-
into something else I just encourage people to ask the question sometimes and
-
again if we are faithfully sharing that message someone's gonna go hey I've heard
-
this before I've talked to some the back burner but it seems to seems to be
-
coming up we've got the microphone here and then I think I saw a hand here and
-
then we'll go backwards okay so we'll go in that order so just keeping with that
-
topic you know we all have friends and family that that we know that you know
-
our Sunday keepers a lot of folks I know family included our Catholics you know
-
you just said there at the end that that there's going to be a point where
-
there's legislation put in place that you're gonna be forced to you know to
-
keep Sunday or whatnot and and at that point the decision needs to be made or
-
need to ask questions or whatever and and the mark of the beast comes into
-
play there okay look right now maybe there are legislation but nobody keeps
-
it or you know it's very loosely kept but you know I guess my question is you
-
know folks that are are keeping Sunday or you know use of this tradition that
-
they've known their whole life maybe have heard about the Sabbath right you
-
know I'm thinking my family they know something about the Sabbath because of
-
us they may not know at all right some may some folks that we've had deep
-
discussions with may know about the Sabbath and for whatever reason haven't
-
chosen to follow the Sabbath or you know just stayed with their tradition that
-
they're used to their whole life my question there is is the mark of the
-
beast in play there so the mark of the beast is not in play right now I'd
-
firmly unequivocally believe that to be the case right now in the United States
-
you can freely go on Sunday through Saturday whichever day you want to
-
worship you can claim that as your day of worship and you can go and you're
-
allowed to do so so so no you know that's that's not the point that we're
-
at right now people who are following in their traditions what we understand is
-
if you are aware of a truth and you choose to ignore the truth the longer
-
you ignore it the less sensitive you become to it right that's why we
-
encourage to regularly kind of bring it up because each time you bring it up
-
that reintroduces it we don't have to be rude about this but in a kind way if we
-
are bringing it up or if we are demonstrating faithfully each time we do
-
that that places it right in front of a person at least as an FYI which means
-
that as time passes and things get much more difficult than they are right now
-
we prayerfully hope that they will remember each of those moments we placed
-
it in front of them that's what we that's what we remember the reason why
-
and and here's the mark of the beast as a deciding moment is not for I would say
-
it's not for people like you and I right now for those of us who are sitting here
-
and we are listening to these things and maybe we have already pledged ourselves
-
to faithful worship of the Creator God the mark of the beast is not going to be
-
that we will have we will have gotten to that point and we shouldn't be making
-
our decision then right now we're making our decisions and then we're trying to
-
strengthen our faith in those decisions that's the best process when I talk
-
about that will be like a culminating deciding point will be for people who are
-
still just kind of kind of just going about their days they're going through
-
the motions they're doing their traditions maybe they've listened maybe
-
they've studied maybe they've dug into it and I go well maybe you know not for
-
today this seems at the mark of the beast as as a final deciding point is
-
for people like that yeah there aren't there aren't any consequences the only
-
the only consequence that I would see right now is you do slowly start to
-
callous you callous yourself against the spirits prompting each time that
-
biblical truth is set before you and right now we're using the Sabbath as the
-
example but fill in the blank with any other biblical truth each time the truth
-
is laid before us and we go I get it but not today we callous ourselves just a
-
little bit that's why when we when we talked to this morning about the slow
-
compromises that get us to a point of failing the devil rarely hits us with
-
the largest big we are not offering up you know living people before a statue of
-
Baphomet the first day as a as a as a temptation you know we may never get
-
there but the devil doesn't care you know he cares that we give up something
-
no matter how small it is because that does callous us to the Holy Spirit's
-
promptings so that's it is it is tough and I've got family you know I would
-
love for some of my family to come around to things to what I of course
-
accept as Bible truth I wouldn't be the pastor in an Adventist church otherwise
-
but I accepted I would love for them to one it's true two I do believe that it
-
is more freeing than some of the alternative conclusions the alternative
-
beliefs three I do believe that it gives us greater comfort in the tough times
-
like when someone dies I do accept all of that but how I've talked to my
-
friends and to my family members is I look for ways to lay it out so they
-
can't claim ignorance so maybe it gives them something that they can reflect on
-
and choose maybe they'll come back and they'll ask more and I've got some
-
family members where that just simply started with hey Seventh-day Adventists
-
are not weirdos hey we just we studied the Bible and we have slightly different
-
conclusions but I also have a great deal of respect for Methodists and some
-
Catholics and I do so I don't know that was a long-winded way around did that
-
answer your question absolutely that that can see be some of the most
-
powerful apologetics if you will is not to sit down and go let me give you the
-
ABCs of this particular doctrine because first and foremost we are called to
-
demonstrate God's character to the world what is his character love grace mercy
-
long-suffering kindness gentleness meekness etc if all you do is look at
-
the fruits of the Spirit you will not find PhD level scholarly type studies
-
and proving people wrong you will find God's character displayed in his people
-
to show to others that will do more if that is your starting point your middle
-
point your ending point and everything else just kind of gets built on it
-
absolutely correct yeah
-
I'm semi familiar with that quote again I don't remember exactly but but there's
-
a lot of truth to that it you know you can say all the things and in fact right
-
now there's a there's a lot of scandal in many of of our country's biggest
-
churches with our prompt most prominent speakers because on the platform or even
-
in their studies and in their books they said all the right things and then they
-
don't live godly lives they are caught up in fraud or unfaithfulness or you know
-
something of that and so then then people go well how can I even listen to
-
the words they have to say if it were the other way around maybe you're not
-
the most eloquent speaker but you live a godly life that's the best sermon
-
someone can give I know we had we had one back there well it's not really a
-
question it was just a comment I have the same question many times before what
-
what grace is said but I think so that reading the spirit of prophecy we need
-
to trust in the Lord and that is gonna come they later grain and when that
-
happened I think so God is gonna give us the they know the will not the power by
-
ourselves but his power so the people can see Jesus in us and that is what is
-
gonna convert people of the truth because so far if you ask me what I'm
-
experiencing in at work there's people from many denominations and what it for
-
all the things that they're going on so one day I arrived to the break room and
-
I just throw the question do you think that Jesus is coming soon and all of
-
them believe that Jesus is really coming soon before it was just a seven-day
-
Adventist but now people from other denominations and even people that they
-
don't believe in God they know that something is something is gonna happen
-
and the spirit of prophecy even mentioned that so the same than the
-
things are going on I think so we don't get yet to the probation day but I
-
think so the lorries start talking to the hearts of the people and if now is
-
not the end the time that we're living now is not the end we're not making like
-
you say that a choice and right now I mean that can bring consequences but
-
we're calm I mean it's coming that day in the Lord is preparing his people yeah
-
so our only refuge is trusting God and like you say living a godly life and
-
allows that the Holy Spirit be poor of over us when the time it comes and
-
because the people is gonna turn to Jesus because they're gonna see in the
-
gods people the Christ character yeah so the Holy Spirit is the one is gonna
-
convert the others for the truth only we need to pray for them if maybe we cannot
-
talk to some of them I have family who doesn't have a family that is is not
-
Catholic is Catholic or is from another denominations and for me is like Lord
-
how can I reach them I have a cousin that she is Catholic but at the same
-
time it's very it's like a new age of this some blended of all of that which I
-
think she's worse because she believes really that we are starting another era
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that is gonna bring a lot of peace in a better life yeah so in the same time she
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believes in the Mary Mary the Virgin Mary and so it's like how can I reach her
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Lord you know yeah but I the Lord put in my heart just to pray for her pray for
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her and share whatever you think that is not gonna hurt the feelings of the other
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people but tell them about the the love of God and there's there's show them one
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the Bible tells us that we need to worry about those that that you know clamor for
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peace or say that peace is coming because they will say peace peace and
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then sudden destruction that's what the Bible says there there are times and
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this is where we pray for the discernment there are times the first
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general rule is we are kind and we are gracious and we are unoffensive and all
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these other things you pray that the Holy Spirit helps you because there there
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there can be the danger of being too kind if for example you knew that there
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was a road that had been washed out and you had already seen a one-car drive off
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of it you might do all you can screaming shouting spike strips to blow tires you
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might be willing to do whatever it takes to stop the next car from going off even
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at the risk of harming someone's feelings there are times when we need to
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be when you pray for these moments but sometimes you look at someone and you go
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you know the truth why aren't we picking it you know why do we continue to stay
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in the way that we have been even though you know better and sometimes that's
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an appropriate thing and again you go back and you pray about those times
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because if you do that too soon or in the wrong time then you can someone will
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just instantly plug their ears and you won't ever have that audience again I
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want to I want to make one one final comment and then if there's a quick
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question I will I would take it but I want to I want to remark on this just
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for a moment some times people look around of the world and they say aha
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here it is it's ushering in the last movements after Katrina people said there
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we go this is the worst storm in New Orleans and so we get big hurricanes
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that come up into the Gulf they obviously hadn't done the levees
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correctly I actually think it's human foolishness to build a city below below
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sea level and then just kind of hang out there for all those years you're kind of
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asking for trouble you know and time kind of passed after 9-11 people also
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said here we go we're ushering in World War three this is going to bring in
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apocalypse and then Jesus is coming etc etc well obviously that that
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manifested itself in a type of war kind of a new type of war the war on terror
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you know we have these these various occurrences earthquakes the pandemic
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when when COVID started to was was really kind of going in spring of 2020
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my goodness how many questions probably came to various institutions that said
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is this one of the last plagues of the Bible the short answer is no that COVID
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was not it was a bad virus sadly it killed far too many people I'm glad we're
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at a different portion of dealing with this virus but in a nutshell no it was
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not one of the last plagues the Bible tells us that we should be looking for
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Jesus tells us in in Matthew 24 you look for wars and rumors of wars political
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strife nation fighting against nation you look for natural disasters pestilences
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plagues you look for famines right now we've got we've got famines all over the
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globe incredible droughts out west they are talking now about a very real food
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shortage coming on the near horizon because of the war in Ukraine it's one
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of the major bread producers or grain producers in the world right around
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there that it's tough it's you know getting things in and out they need
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their resources they're probably not exporting right now and that with the
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other you know people people ask you know with Putin's aggression in in
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Ukraine he's talking about rebuilding the Soviet Union they're kind of
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reinvigorating talk that we heard a lot during the Cold War you know communism
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versus the West this is ushering in World War three and and that great battle
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of Armageddon and well then the curtain fell and all of those those cries kind
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of disappeared well they're being rekindled again you know the Bible talks
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about the kings of the north and the kings of the south and how they will
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fight against God's people and and and sometimes sometimes men and women in
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desperation trying to find a name to attach to what the Bible clearly has in
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symbols we point a finger at Putin and we go there's the king of the north and
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he's going to usher in what the Bible talks about or if we we look at Ian you
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know Ian for the state of Florida boy they haven't had a major hurricane like
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this in a long long time Florida's had a very quiet hurricane season for at least
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three or four years I think the last two years they really didn't have anything
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at all come across that state and then Ian comes through well people are
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looking people are sometimes I believe in desperation looking to put a name on
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something from the Bible when we are reading through prophecy we need to
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understand that God isn't giving us a lot of the micro details in these things
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that's why as we've been doing these presentations we've plugged in some
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things quotes references statistics I have shared when I've that started to
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kind of blur the line between what we know in my opinion because I have some
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opinion on where I think some cogs are starting to come together but I would
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caution us to not jump to naming naming names too quickly when the Bible is
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talking about the King of the North and the King of the South we remember
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anciently what that meant the King of the South that was the biggest threat to
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Israel was Egypt Egypt in Bible prophecy Egypt in terms of symbolism has long
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meant spiritual paganism of spiritualism if you will the the unbiblical belief of
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what happens when you die the different stages to heavens and the different
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stages to hells and disembodied spirits and offering your babies up to idols and
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spiritualism is often represented with Egypt the King of the South the King of
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the North is where Babylon invaded Israel to carry them into captivity
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there's a giant trying to have to reverse this on this side of Israel
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there's a big desert Babylon in order to invade Israel had to go over the desert
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and down south from the north that's where they invaded so the King of the
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North is a common reference to Babylon well Babylon and prophecy as we've
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studied is religious confusion different than spiritualism if the one is a cultic
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paganism the other one would be confused Christianity if you will where they are
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wrong on the conclusions from the Bible and the truth and error is mixed and
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that is kind of confusing and perverting Christianity around the globe so we
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should be looking for these macro movements and maybe we'll see some micro
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details as we go along but I would add a little bit of caution that we don't jump
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to these conclusions too quickly we have hurricanes we've had hurricanes long
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before one the 21st century we had hurricanes that probably came off of
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the coast of Africa or off of North of South America and it went into the
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Caribbean and it came up into the US that's been going on for a long time
-
just because Ian happened and it was the first one of this kind in a while
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doesn't mean it was the first one ever for the state of Florida just because
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COVID was was big and we had some unprecedented responses to it doesn't
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mean it was the first pandemic ever and the Bible tells us we should be seeing
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these things as we see them this is what Jesus says as we see them we should not
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be looking to to put a finger on that we should be looking at these things and
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then going how am I prepared for his return and then how am I helping others
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be prepared for his return if you end up figuring everything out about what the
-
enemy is doing but you are unprepared that's a sad day for you it is so much
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more important that you are prepared and you are not distracted with other things
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to the expense of your preparedness you know don't don't don't choose to be
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naive about things but also don't get caught up in the weeds does that make
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sense I like to caution that because I think Seventh-day Adventists in a
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special way like to look at prophecy and and just go I can figure it out this is
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this and this person is that and next thing you know they are spending all of
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their hours trying to trying to prove that Putin is the King of the North if
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Putin dies tomorrow all of a sudden that theory makes other people not trust you
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that's why I add some caution as we study prophecy if you know it okay
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otherwise let's make sure that we are sticking with being prepared by keeping
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our our eyes on Jesus is there one short final question if not we are done thank
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you if anyone is watching online or will soon be watching we're glad you could
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join us this is our last presentation for three angels one message may you be
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richly blessed may y'all be richly blessed and I hope to see you again
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someday very soon have a good night