”Figuring Out God’s Prophetic Clues” July 18, 2026, Pastor Jamey Houghton

Hello and welcome to church. We're so

glad that you were able to join us here

at the McDonald Road 7th Day Adventist

Church for our worship time. I hope that

your time is blessed. I hope the music

blesses your soul. I hope the message

touches your heart. And if if it does,

we would be honored if you would share

this content with somebody else so they

can be blessed as well. We're so glad

that you can be a part of our online

church here at McDonald Road and hope

that you are blessed in your worship

together with us today. God bless and

enjoy our worship service.

Happy Sabbath church family. It is good

to be with you here today. I was uh

I was in Alaska this last week speaking

for the Alaska Conference men's retreat

and uh it is very weird to have it be

broad daylight at midnight.

Uh the in they flew us out in a bush

plane like 20 miles in the middle of

nowhere and they had this kind of a this

huge tent with a wood stove. It was

cold. That was kind of a nice treat

after all the heat we've had here. But

the tent in the middle of the night, you

might as well have had these lights on

inside of the tent and uh trying to

sleep it. It messed me up for a whole

week. I was I didn't know if it was

daytime, night time, if I was supposed

to be sleepy, if I was not supposed to

be sleepy. Um it's it's uh it's weird to

not have the sun go down really and be

dark. But it was a wonderful time with

uh our brothers up in up in Alaska and

spending some time with them. And uh but

it's always good to come back home as

well. And it's good to be back here in

my home church uh this Sabbath.

Several years ago when we lived in

Colorado, I was driving my truck up from

Colorado Springs up to my house and

there was um it's a beautiful drive

there on that highway and Highway 83 and

right before you got to where I was, one

of my church members has a ranch right

over there. And often times there'll be

lots of elk that that hang out on this

ranch. And as I was coming down the

hill, I looked down below to a meadow uh

on his property and there were about 75

or 80 elk hanging out in this meadow.

And I was like, "Oh man, I' I'd love a

nice closer look at these elk." So, I

knew there was a a little pulloff in his

property with a dirt road, and I knew

he'd be all right if I if I just snuck

over there and took a peek at the elk.

So, I pulled in, parked my truck behind

some bushes where they were hidden, and

I I got out and went on foot and went

back deeper into where this meadow was.

And uh as I came around this this

particular uh group of bushes where I

knew I could kind of hide behind and I

have a good view of this meadow, I

peaked around and there were no elk

there. I was like, "Where'd the elk go?

There's like 80 elk here and they just

disappeared." And so I kind of step out

a little farther and I'm looking around

and up on the hill this way just just

just beyond where they had just been. I

could hear them trampling and going

through the forest and I thought to

myself, "Oh, I I missed them. They they

took off and went into the forest and

they're gone. They're going to be

heading south and up the hill and gone

and I won't be able to see them." And I

just kind of I could see a few of them

going through the trees. And so I paused

and there were some some big bucks with

the full the full rack of antlers.

Really cool to see those. And and so

they they went through and I was like,

"Oh man, I'm I'm bummed I didn't get to

see a nice close look of these elk." And

then as I was standing there kind of

looking around, I kind of had my radar

up because there there was a mountain

lion that used to that likes to hang out

in this part of the ranch there and a

black bear from time to time. My son

Josh and the grandson of the guy who

owned it had been riding razors up in

there and heard a mountain lion scream

one time and seen a bear. And so I was a

little bit I was my radar was up looking

around. So there I was and the elk are

just pretty much gone now.

All of a sudden I hear the elk start

coming back quickly

and they are moving much quicker than

when they went south. They're coming

back north towards me as if something is

chasing them that fast. And here they

come back down the hill down towards the

meadow at a full run. And I was like, I

wonder what's chasing them and caused

them to turn around so quickly. I

couldn't see it, but I could see that

that something was there and chasing

that something was coming down that hill

causing the elk to move back in my

direction at a bit of a panic pace.

I never found out what it was because I

didn't want to stick around to see what

it was. I saw the elk come running. I

saw there was something that was causing

them. There was a sign that that

something was wrong up in the woods and

was causing them. I made a beline back

to my truck and hopped in my truck and

took off. But the signs were there that

something was coming through that forest

that probably wasn't safe for me to be

out there just hanging around with it

because the elk didn't think it was

quite safe to be hanging out up in there

in those bushes and up in the trees.

Sometimes you can see something coming

before it actually comes. Sometimes

there are signs that something is coming

and that's what we're going to look at

in the Bible. Jesus left clues

throughout scripture that give us a

heads up as to when and how he is going

to come again. One of the bedrocks of

Christianity is looking forward to the

second coming of Jesus. This is

something that as Christians we look at

with with a lot of hope because of the

different things that are promised to us

in the Bible. Like in Revelation 21 says

there's not going to be any more death.

That sounds great, doesn't it? There's

not going to be any more sickness, no

more tears. That sounds great. We get to

be with our creator in heaven. These are

things that we've looked forward to as

long as we've been able to read a Bible.

And tucked away in scripture,

God has shared through some of the

prophets over the years clues that give

us a little bit more information as to

what to expect and even when to expect

them sometimes.

And as we begin our Bible prophecy

series, we're going to be going through

four weeks of of clues in the Bible that

let us know that Jesus is coming soon.

Now, you may have heard that your whole

life. You might say, "Jamie, I've heard

my whole life that Jesus is coming soon

and I'm still here."

What do you do with that? I remember

back I was in college in uh 99 here at

Southern.

And anybody remember all the panic for

Y2K? If you're that old, everybody

thought all the computers were just

going to get fried when it went from

1999 to 2000 and uh that there was going

to be mass chaos and there was all this

stuff all over the news. And we got an

extra week of vacation at Southern

because they thought all the computers

were just going to get toast toasted and

they didn't know what they were going to

do. So it it worked out great. We almost

got a full month of Christmas vacation

that year. But I remember being a kid

and hearing sto you know sermons about

the soon coming of Jesus and I thought

to myself, you know what, as a as a

younger kid in the '90s, I thought,

there is no way we're going to make it

to the year 2000. Just sounds it just

the year 2000. That just sounds like a

long ways off. Jesus has to come before

then. You may have heard similar sermons

when you were younger. You might wonder,

why are we still here?

When is Jesus going to come?

The Bible gives general times for when

Jesus is going to come and points, we're

going to look a little bit at that

today. And I think what is probably the

most recent fulfillment of prophecy uh

that I've found in the Bible that points

to Jesus coming soon.

But in the time frame of the history of

this world, I believe based on what the

Bible says that we're down near the end

somewhere. Whether Jesus comes next year

or whether Jesus comes in 40 years,

that time time period is a very small

amount of time compared to the whole

history of the world.

And I believe based on the prophecies in

scripture that Jesus will be coming at

some point very soon. And we're going to

look at why in this series this month.

I think it's important for us to look at

these from time to time and there's a

quote here in in review and herald from

July 31 1888 and it says we must have a

knowledge of the scriptures that we may

face trace down the lines of prophecy

and see that the day is approaching so

that with increased zeal and effort we

may exhort one another to faithfulness.

See how the specifications of the

prophecies have been and are fulfilling.

Let us lift up our heads and rejoice for

our redemption draws nigh. It is nearer

than we first believed. That is part of

the purpose of looking at these Bible

prophecies is so that we can encourage

one another, but it also says that we

can lift up our heads and rejoice.

There's a lot of reasons to be happy

that Jesus is coming soon. There's a lot

of pain and suffering that we that we

deal with here on earth. Lots of

disappointments, etc., etc.

Isn't it going to be nice to live in a

world where we don't have to deal with

any of that?

Isn't it going to be nice to worship

with Jesus in heaven someday? We've got

amazing music here. Can you imagine the

music of heaven?

There's a lot to look forward to. And

part of the preparation for us being

citizens of heaven is to look at these

prophecies to remind us of what we have

to look forward to. Another quote, page

133 of Christ object lessons. As we near

the close of this world's history, the

prophecies relating to the last days

especially demand our study. And

finally, in testimonies volume 5, it

says, "Let the watchmen now lift up

their voice and give the message which

is present truth for this time. Let us

show the people where we are in

prophetic history." It's important for

us to understand where we are in

prophetic history so that we can be

prepared in our hearts and minds to be

citizens of heaven, but also to let

other people know about what Jesus has

in store for them as well. That's part

of part of the reason why we study this.

Now, we're going to look at a specific

prophecy uh today that uh I could spend

probably a whole series just looking at

this section of prophecy in Daniel 2 and

7 and jumping into Revelation 13, which

is connected to the two. And I think I

have to update my uh my computer because

it's it's uh jumping between uh

lowercase and uppercase and the

transition between my computer and here.

I didn't do that on purpose. I I promise

I know how to capitalize and and use

lowercase.

Um,

I could spend I could spend a lot of

time looking at these prophecies

specifically in Daniel and Revelation,

but today we're going to look at just a

a brief portion that I believe points us

to a very recent fulfillment of Bible

prophecy, which to me is very

encouraging because it reminds me that

Jesus has a timeline and a and an

expiration date on our time here. Uh

songs like this world is not my home,

I'm just passing through have always

been some of my favorites because they

remind me that I've got a home in heaven

and that's what I'm looking forward to.

Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 are fascinating

chapters because they kind of piggyback

on each other. We're going to review

just a little bit. Daniel chapter 2,

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

there is a giant statue that is shared

in a vision. A giant statue and the

statue is made up of different metals.

The top of the head is made of gold

which Daniel it's revealed to Daniel

that this represents Nebuchadnezzar or

Babylon's kingdom.

The chest and arms were of silver in

this in this vision and that represented

the next kingdom which was Meo Persia.

After that the next the the thighs were

of bronze which then as as that is

explained through Daniel and we look

through history that is represented as

Greece. Then the legs were made of iron

in this statue and that represented the

next kingdom that came along and that

was Rome. Then the feet of this statue

that we see in Daniel chapter 2 were a

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

mixture of iron and clay. So you can

expect that in the in the time period

that God is sharing with Daniel

that the iron of the legs which

represented Rome, right? In the feet

section, it would have a different

representation. and it would be the same

but different in its leadership

qualities. So we can expect that. And in

Daniel 7, we see a little bit of a

reflection with a little bit more

information on that. Now, after the iron

mixed with clay and the feet, we see in

Daniel 2 that there's a stone that comes

down and and and completely gets rid of

the of the whole image representing the

second coming of Jesus and the end of

time. So you can know what God is

telling us that after that last empire

of iron which represented Rome there

wouldn't be another worldwide superpower

that controlled everything. Now there's

been people that have tried Napoleon

Bonapart etc who've tried to conquer the

world Adolf Hitler. Um but we can see

through Bible prophecy that those things

would never happen.

Fascinating stuff. If you if you like

history, these things are extra

interesting. Now, Daniel chapter 7. Turn

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

with me to Daniel chapter 7 in your

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

Bibles.

And this must have been fascinating for

for Daniel to see many years later in

this in this next vision. And Daniel's

reaction to what he sees in these

visions is is it says it grieves him. Uh

verse 15

says, "I, Daniel, was grieved in my

spirit within my body, and the visions

of my head troubled me." Over in verse

28, he says, "This is the end of the

account. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts

greatly troubled me, and my countenance

changed. What Daniel saw bothered him.

God gave him a glimpse of what was going

to happen down at the end of time, just

before he came, and it was to be

preserved here for us to look at and to

figure out." Now he sees

in his vision over in the beginning of

chapter 7,

he sees four beasts. How many beasts

does he see? Four different beasts

very similar to the four different uh

main parts of the image that he saw back

in Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

And it says, "Four great beasts, verse

three, came up um from the sea, each

different from the other. The first was

like a lion and had eagle's wings. I

watched until its wings were plucked off

and it was lifted up from the earth and

made to stand on two feet like a man and

a man's heart was given to it. Suddenly

another beast, a second like a bear was

raised up on one side. Now,

we don't have time to go into a lot of

detail on this, but there are some

really cool parts of these prophecies

that

tie in so perfectly with history that

that it just it just makes me smile at

how detailed God was when it when it

talks about this second beast that's a

bear and it's raised up on one side. So

this bear is kind of it's got one

shoulder up a little higher on one side.

And this this correlates with Daniel

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 with Meo Persia

and that was the the the combination of

the Mes and the Persians.

And the Persians were the more dominant

of this partnership with the Mes. they

were a little bit stronger, which is one

of the reasons why it's depicted to

Daniel that one side of this of this uh

beast like a bear is raised up on one

side or a little stronger than the other

one. Fascinating how God drops little

details like that that perfectly

correlate with history when you look at

him. It was raised up on one side and

had three ribs in between its teeth. And

uh verse 6 it says, "And I looked and

there was another like a leopard which

had on its back four wings of a bird and

had four heads and dominion was given to

it." Again, so many cool elements of

prophecy in here. Uh the leopard

correlates with bronze. What was the

bronze kingdom? Anybody remember?

>> Greece.

Alexander the Great uh led Greece uh

very quickly to prominence in the world.

And uh when it talks about this beast

having uh four heads, how many generals

did he have? He had four generals that

eventually took over for him and that

split the kingdom when he died at I

believe it was a young age of 32. But

you look at the little different

descriptions that God has of these

different beasts and how perfectly it

correlates with history and it just

fascinates me to see how precise these

prophecies are. Then we come to this

fourth beast. It said it was dreadful

and terrible.

Any government

that practices crucifixion

rightly gets this type of description as

dreadful and terrible. And that fits the

Roman Empire to a tea, which matches

with the iron legs of Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

So, we see parallel prophecies between

Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 where they're

they're similar but a little bit

different. And then again, God shares a

little bit more information with Daniel

that is that is quite fascinating, a

little troublesome as he sees it.

And what's beautiful about Daniel

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7 is that it's all explained to

him right there. What does this mean?

Here's what it means. So many people get

a little intimidated with the

description of these beasts and they're

like, "You know what? This just seems a

little bit too intense. I I don't have

time to to look at this. I would rather

just look at God's love in different

places. But friends, I want to remind

you that these Bible prophecies are full

of God's love.

That it's the story of redemption. It's

the story of him saving us. And that is

full of love. It's essentially a bit of

a warning for us of things to look out

for. And that's only something that a

loving God would do. And so as as

sometimes complicated as some of these

prophecies can feel, remember that it's

a loving creator God that put these here

as a road map for us to be able to

navigate intense times just before he

comes.

So in Daniel 7:15, he says, "I, Daniel,

Daniel 7:15

was grieved in my spirit within my body,

and the visions of my head troubled me.

I came near to one of those who stood by

and asked him the truth of all this. So

he told me and made known to me the

interpretation of these things,

those great beasts which are four kings

which will arise out of the earth. All

right. What do these beasts represent?

Four kings. They're not scary at all.

It's just a representation of a kingdom.

We're quite familiar with that as well

of animals representing kingdoms, right?

What is what is our animal in the United

States? An eagle. The the the Russians

have what? A bear. A lot of different

countries have animals that represent

them. Very similar here uh with these

different animals as well. And the angel

that he's that Daniel's talking to

straight up tells him these beasts

represent kingdoms. Very similar to

Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

And he continues in verse 18, but the

saints of the most high shall receive

the kingdom and possess the kingdom

forever, even forever and ever. Then I

wish to know the truth about the fourth

beast which was different from all the

others, exceedingly dreadful with iron

teeth. A little bit farther on it says

it had 10 horns, verse 20, that were on

its head. This fourth beast, and the

other horn which came up which three

fell, namely that horn which had the

eyes of a mouth of and mouth of a man

and spoke pompous words, who appearance

was greater than his fellows. As Daniel

sees this vision, this fourth beast has

10 horns.

These 10 horns represent the breakup of

the Roman Empire. If you can look, you

can look up on Google or AI, whatever

you want to look at, just you can type

in what are the 10 what are the 10

kingdoms of the breakup of the Roman

Empire, and it'll line them up right

there for you and tell you what those

are. And they will look like this. The

10 horns, Franks, Visigoths, etc. These

were the the 10 horns or the 10 kingdoms

that when the Roman Empire broke up,

this is what came out. But then it says

um before three kingdoms who fell

very very specifically this happened as

well. And there are three kingdoms that

fell. The Heruli, the Vandals, and the

Ostrogoths out of the break up of the

Roman Empire that no longer exists

anymore. God here is specifically

telling us really interesting history

about what happens after the breakup of

the Roman Empire. But he he's he sees in

his vision there's another horn and

these horns represent these kingdoms,

the breakup. But there's a different

horn. And this horn

has descriptions like a man. It's got

eyes. It's got a mouth. It says it speak

speaks pompous words.

It also says that it persecuted the

saints of the most high

down in chap in verse 25. So this small

horn which has kingdomlike

characteristics, but it also has a

religious side of things that it says it

speaks against the most high. There's a

couple of other things that it talks

about in a religious sense. After verse

25, it says, well, in verse 25, it says,

"This small horn shall persecute the

saints of the most high and shall intend

to change times and law, and the saints

shall be given into his hand for a time,

times, and half a time." Okay, so Daniel

is seeing this this vision. He gets this

description. There's a lot of details in

here. Like I said, we could spend a lot

of time going through these details, but

the point of of what I want to look at

today

is not necessarily a lot of details

about this little horn, but the timing

of things that happened to this little

horn. We can talk about those other

things uh in a different sermon. But the

timing of these things is what's very

fascinating to me as well, because we

come up here and we see lots of

different clues. Uh an entity that wears

out the saints or persecutes the saints.

You might have heard of the dark ages

and uh the Inquisition, different things

like that where where people were burned

at the stake, drowned, all kinds of

horrendous things done to people because

of their faith. And the identity of this

little horn, people have been studying

this long before there was even a 7th

day Adventist church.

There were people studying the

scriptures a long time before the

foundation or the creation of this

church that wanted to know the identity

of this little horn. And people like

Martin Luther of the Lutheran Church,

John Calvin, John Knox of the

Presbyterian Church, Adam Clark of the

Methodist Church, Roger Williams of the

Baptist Church, without exception, all

of these understood this little horn to

reference the papacy. It's it's a

different type of horn that arose out of

the Roman Empire. It's a a religious and

political entity. It's the only one

really that fits. It doesn't have

anything to do with the people of this

church. What it has to do with is the

organization of this. And here we can

see the identity of this little horn,

which is what we're trying to figure out

today. And then we're going to look at

some prophecies about this little horn

that bring us up very close to the day

we're sitting in today.

Other great scholars came to this. Sir

Isaac Newton, um, King James I, who was

responsible for putting the King James

Bible together. All of these people had

studied this and look at this and come

to the same conclusion about the

identity of this little horn. If you

want to look at more of this study, you

can go to my YouTube channel. I have a

you a full video on this 1260ear

prophecy that we're looking at today.

There's a QR code if you want to scan

that and look at it a little more in

depth later on. Again, that's on my

YouTube channel 832.

Um, we come to this number here though

in Daniel chapter 7. and says that this

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

little horn would persecute the saints

for a time, times, and half a time. We

don't usually use that type of of

wording when we describe a period of

time. But we can figure out what this

means. If you look at the NIV

translation, it will say uh for a year,

2 years, and half a year. The Living

Bible and today's English version also

say for 3 and 1/2 years. We can look at

what a time represents in Daniel chapter

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

4 when Nebuchadnezzar wandered around

for seven years as a beast. You remember

that story? Kind of a crazy story. And

it says that he was he was there doing

this for seven times or seven years. So

when we see this in the book of Daniel,

we see this time prophecy. It says a

time, times, and half a time. We see

this same wording and phrasing a little

bit later on in the Bible

that gives us clues as to a parallel

description of this little horn later on

in scripture. And that comes to us in

Revelation both 11:12 and 13 where it

talks about um an entity, this

particular beast that uh is in power for

1,260

days. It also references 42 months. And

then we see here in Daniel, time, times,

and half a time. Basically, what the

Bible is telling us is that this little

horn in Daniel 7 is the same entity as

the beast, the first beast in Revelation

13. same organization, different

description of it between Daniel and

John and these two different times. Now,

we remember that the in numbers chapter

Numbers 14 · chapter mention

14 and Ezekiel chapter 4, the Bible

Ezekiel 4 · chapter mention

references prophecy times and using a

day for a year. It says you shall you

shall use a day for a year in in uh

figuring out Bible prophecy. It doesn't

literally mean 1,260 days. What that

would reference is 1,260

years. Um, and using the calendars from

from the time periods back then, the

months had 30 days and the years had 360

days in them. When you look at this, all

three of these time periods equal the

same amount of time, which is God

telling us these two entities are the

same. And this entity will have a period

of dominance for 1,260

years. Now, this little horn, who you

can you can look at Martin Luther's or

any of theirs if you agree with theirs

with their assumption, which I do

looking at it that that it references

the papacy. Um, it fits quite well with

with actual history outside of the

Bible. Um

let's move right through here. Um

the papacy got full power and

recognition in the year 538. There were

some proclamations ahead of that um as

early as 533 that that gave them that

power, but the actual implementation of

it was around 538.

And when you look at this Bible prophecy

and say, okay, God was saying that for

1,260 years, this entity will have

power. That brings you up to

1798.

Now, some people have questioned, they

say, "Well, you're just, you know,

you're just trying to that that 538."

There are some some people that say,

"Well, Christians who look at Bible

prophecy just try to get to that number

because it they like to say that it

fits." But you can actually look and get

to that number if you do it backwards.

And by doing that backwards, you can

look at this prophecy of this little

horn or this beast. And you can see in

Revelation that this beast gets what's

called a deadly wound,

which means that the the existence of

this entity

is pretty much almost put down. It's

almost put extinct.

And so if you wanted to, you can go from

that ending and you can go back 1,260

years and it'll bring you right to 538.

So there's two ways you can get to this

number. But hi history looks at it this

way and you can see that for sure those

dark ages um there was a power there was

a persecuting power that was in charge

for that time period and that time

period ended in 1798. How do you know

that? Well France invaded Rome took the

pontiff prisoner took him back to France

put him in prison where he died in 1798.

Most of the people at that time thought

the papacy is done. This entity that has

been in power for so long is completely

done now. There's no more leader. And

the French were not excited to have

another pope. When he died, they said

there's not going to be another pope.

The Bible talks about this deadly wound

coming to this beast, which is also this

this little horn. And it said it would

get a deadly wound by a sword.

Now

there were people and this is this is

quite fascinating people that uh were

contemporaries of these times that noted

these things when they saw them that

described them in 1798. There were there

were different individuals who were

noticing this that had been studying the

Bible that um wrote about this uh this

particular uh wound to the beast and and

what that meant in 1798.

Now,

moving along here, the healing of this

wound to this beast, which would which

would then be the biblical description

of the papacy. If it was wounded in 1798

and ceased to exist, how is it back? How

is it back? The beginnings of that

happened quite soon in 1800. There were

uh a group of cardinals who quietly

elected a brand new pope in 1800,

Barnabas Kyroanti, and his first job was

to try and try and smooth things over

with France. There were a lot of

concessions that had to be made, but he

was allowed to exist as the pope.

And what was described in Revelation for

this entity, the papacy, as having a

deadly wound, it also says that that

wound would be healed.

And that healing started to happen quite

soon after uh and and actually um

Napoleon was involved in both the wound

and the healing of it. But

in 1929,

Bonito Mussolini signed a concordant

with the then pope that gave them

Vatican City as their own country and

made the pope the essentially the king

of that country or the ruler of that

country. They also gave them 2 billion

LRA as back payment for some of the

properties that they had taken away. And

as you look in Bible prophecy, you see

that as it predicted that the wound to

this beast would be healed, you see that

fulfillment of that prophecy in 1929

as it becomes its own country with its

own leaders again. Again, we've we could

go into a lot of details about the

myriad of different details that the

Bible talks about with this, but today I

want to look specifically at that time

period

because the timing of this prophecy and

the fulfillment of this prophecy brings

us up to a very recent year, 1929.

That doesn't seem like that far ago,

that long ago. When we look at Bible

prophecy, we're like, "Oh, 1798. That

seems like a long time ago." But when

you get to 1929, there's a lot of

familiar things. Grand Teton National

Park was established by Congress in

1929.

JC Penney was opening its last store in

Delaware, the last store that it didn't

have a a store in that state. They only

had 48 states at that time. Philadelphia

Athletics were playing the Chicago Cubs

in the world. There were World Series

happening while there was Bible prophecy

being fulfilled in the same year. Wall

Street crashed, sparking the Great

Depression in that year. Prohibition was

in full swing. Martin Luther King Jr.

was born. Audrey Heporn Heppern. June

Carter cashed. Bob New Hart, Arnold

Palmer, Grace Kelly, Dick Clark, all

were born in the year that a Bible

prophecy seems to have been fulfilled as

this wound was healed for this beast in

Revelation chapter 13. I don't know

Revelation 13 · chapter mention

about you, but when I look at something

that's biblical that seems to be that

recent, that makes me excited that these

things are winding down and Jesus has to

be coming soon. When I look at these

prophecies and I see and it's it's it's

easy to kind of get distracted with all

the beasts and the timing and all these

other things and saying, "Okay, this is

so complicated, but the main message in

these prophecies is that Jesus is coming

soon and that time is ticking away and

that we're one day closer to Jesus

coming." Now, you can look through and

and figure out all these Bible

prophecies, and it might take a little

while, and it might feel a little

complex, but the end message is that

there's a creator, your creator, who

loves you.

He preserved all of these things in

scripture.

He preserved them for us to look at and

to have hope and excitement that he is

coming soon. these timelines times times

half a time and 1,260 days that are

really years. It seems a little

complicated, but when you pause and look

at it, you see a loving God who's like,

"Hey, I want you to know I'm coming to

get you soon."

And for me, that is very encouraging.

It reminds me that there's not much time

left. How much? It could be five years.

I don't know. It could be 20 years. I

don't know. But what I do know is it's

probably not going to be another

thousand years.

soon is kind of relative in heaven's

times, but I know by what I see in the

Bible that we're right down to the end

of the story.

And I think that's a call to all of us

to faithfulness to God, to be disciples

of Jesus and to be disciple makers as

well and tell people about the hope that

we have in his soon second coming.

There are all kinds of things in Bible

prophecy that fascinate me.

This one is one of them because of the

closeness to

when we live today.

And this is what it's all pointing to.

This is what it's pointing to.

Jesus splitting the sky open and calling

us home.

I am looking forward to that day very,

very much. There's a song we're going to

sing as we close.

The song is called When the Roll is Call

of Beyond. I remember singing this as a

kid. invite our worship team to come up

and and to uh to lead us in this song.

It says, "When the trumpet of the Lord

shall sound and time shall be no more.

The morning breaks eternal bright and

fair. When the saved of earth shall

gather over on the other shore and the

roll is called up yonder, I'll be

there." The things in Bible prophecy

point us to this reality that Jesus is

coming to take us home very, very soon.

How soon? I'm not sure, but today we're

one day closer. Let's stand and sing

about it as we close our our service

today. when the role is called a yonder,

I'll be there. Father in heaven, thank

you so much for preserving these

scriptures and these visions and dreams

that you shared with the prophets in

scripture. Lord, as we read through them

and study them, may we have renewed hope

in your soon coming. Lord, may these

things inspire us to to uh not only be

ourselves prepared to meet you in

heaven, but also to to share that hope

and that faith with somebody else so

they can have that same uh hope to look

forward to. Lord, we thank you so much

for your promises to come and take us

home, to live in a place where there's

no more tears, no more sorrow, no more

sadness. Lord, we're looking forward to

that and we're so glad that today we're

one day closer to being with you in

heaven. Keep us faithful until that day

is my prayer in Jesus name. Amen.

>> Thanks so much for joining us here at

the McDonald Road 7th Day Adventist

Church for worship. Each month we reach

between 25 and 30,000 people with gospel

content online. We're looking to expand

our audiovisisual department this year

and looking to raise $30,000 in this

project. We would love for you to

partner with us on this and consider

making a donation to our audiovisisual

department as we look at expansion and

reaching more people with the gospel

across the internet this next year. You

can go to mrcsda.org

to make a donation directly to our

audiovisisual department. Thank you so

much for considering making this

donation and the privilege is ours to

partner with you in making this a bigger

and more effective ministry here at the

McDonald Road 7th Adventist Church. God

bless each one of you and thanks again

for joining us here at the McDonald Road

7th Adventist Church.