September 12, 2026 ”When God Grows a School” Pastor Jamey Houghton

Hello and welcome to the McDonald Road

7th Day Adventist Church. I'm so glad

that you have chosen to worship with us

today and I hope that the worship is

meaningful and brings you closer to

Jesus as you sing with us and study the

Bible with us. God bless each one of

you. So glad you're here. Happy Sabbath,

Jesus.

Adventist education is uh

it's a very important part of life in

the 7th Day Adventist Church. The very

first Adventist school was opened up in

Bucksbridge, New York in 1853.

Since then, there are schools in almost

150 countries around the world. There

are 85,000 teachers currently teaching

in 7th Day Adventist schools around the

world. There are 1.5 million students in

our 7th Day Adventist schools around the

world. And there are 7,500

schools that are currently running right

now in the 7th Day Adventist Church. I

think educating our children and

pointing them to Jesus is one of the

most important things we can do here on

this earth. And I'm grateful for the

emphasis and the focus of the 7th Day

Adventist Church on teaching our kids

about Jesus. Uh last night I posted on

our church Facebook page that we were

going to be looking at at education and

learning today. And I asked people, I

said, "Tell me where you went to school

if you went to a 7th Adventist school."

And if if you have time this afternoon,

you can look on there, just comment. I

got 75 or 100 comments or something with

people telling all the different schools

they went to. Um some in different

countries uh that they attended and went

to and um really neat to to I've been to

many different schools around the world

and seen how they do. I've taught in

schools around the world and it's been

such a blessing to be able to see uh our

organized church have an emphasis on

teaching our kids about Jesus. I went to

Escandido Adventist Academy in Southern

California. Anybody ever heard of

Escandido Adventist Academy? Oh wow.

More than the other other services. Uh

Escanido. I went 11 years to Escanido

Adventist Academy and uh loved my time

there. By the way, I brag to my kids

because I think our school had the best

field trips out of any school in the

world because we got to go on like whale

watching trips. We got to do vespers at

the beach. We did uh water ski trips to

Lake Havsu Havsu, snow ski trips to

Mammoth. We did we went to Disneyland

all the time, Knottberry Farms,

SeaWorld. I'm bragging now. I should

stop. But it was fantastic. It was it

was so many different cool things. And

uh I I had so many different

opportunities come my way because I went

to a 7th Avenue school. This if I can

get this this next picture up.

There we go. This is uh 18-year-old

Pastor Jamie before he was Pastor Jamie.

I was a junior at Escandido Adventist

Academy in this photo and uh had already

gone through a whole lot of education

there at the academy. Had fantastic

teachers. Uh, in fact, one of my

teachers, one of my teachers that would

have been during this year is currently

the principal of at Madison Academy,

Chris Fuentes. U, a mentor of mine. I

just think so highly of her and grateful

for her, uh, mentorship. But as a as an

18-year-old, uh, I was able to go and

and participate in a prayer conference

in the Pacific Northwest with a whole

bunch of schools in the in the Pacific

Northwest getting together for a prayer

conference. Um, had a huge impact on my

life. I came back down to Escandido and

organized one. when I was the religious

vice president for out there we call it

the ASB here we call it the essay

student association out there it's

associated student body and I organized

a prayer conference with four

differentmies there in Southern

California then my school sent myself

and several other people down to

Southwestern Adventist University in

Texas as they had a unionwide youth

prayer conference there and uh it was

through this opportunity that as part of

the Sabbath outreach

as a 18-year-old boy I was asked to

preach for the very first time. And my

grandfather happened to be a retired

pastor in the area. And as often happens

with retired pastors, once they retire,

the conference will often ask them to

step in if there's a church that doesn't

have a pastor. Um, and they'll ask them

to pastor that church while they're

looking for another pastor to fill them.

So my granddad in his retirement

pastored like 12 churches. Um, and so he

happened to be pastoring the Joshua 7th

Adventist Church just outside of King,

Texas. And so my very first sermon that

I ever preached was as an 18-year-old

kid, as a student at Escanido Adventist

Academy in Joshua, Texas on a school

trip uh working with a bunch of other

schools in the uh in this I think it's

the Southwestern Union there at South uh

Southwestern Adventist University. And

um all these years later, I'm still

preaching. And so those opportunities

that I had as a student really helped

mold and shape my life. and even the

teachers that I had uh really helped

mold and shape my life and point me

towards Jesus. And uh I'm so grateful

for the education that I got there at

Eskanito Adventist Academy all those

years ago. As humans, we've been

learning and being educated since the

very very beginning.

At the beginning, Adam and Eve had to

learn a whole lot. If you have your

Bibles, uh turn with me to Genesis 2.

Let

me see if I can get my clicker work. Am

I maybe short on batteries?

Let's see here.

I think this one's I think this one's

toast. Okay, there we go. Thank you.

Genesis 2:15. It says, "Then the Lord

Genesis 2:15

God took the man and put him in the

Garden of Eden to tend it and to keep

it." How did man know how to tend and

keep the garden? Somebody had to teach

him. We learn throughout our whole

lives. We spend our lives learning. We

learn how to crawl first of all, which

is kind of terrifying for parents

because when they can't crawl, you put

them down and they stay there. And then

when they learn how to crawl, you put

them down and you turn around and you

look and they're gone. They're moving.

And then they had they learn how to

walk, but walking is a little bit

difficult to learn as well. And there's

all kinds of things we learn to do as

humans. A lot of the things we learn how

to do are fun, like riding a bicycle.

Likely when you were a kid, you saw

somebody ride a bicycle and you're like,

"That looks pretty fun." And then you

got on the bicycle and you're like,

"This is a little dangerous." And maybe

you fell over on that bicycle and hurt

yourself, but you still saw how much fun

you saw the fun potential with people

who were riding bikes. You're like, "I'm

going to keep at it. I'm going to keep

learning how to do this." And then you

learned how to ride a bike and had a lot

of fun with it. We like learning. Now,

learning can be a little stressful

sometimes because if there's a test or

an exam or a quiz or something like

that, you've got some pressure to learn.

So, you're like, "Okay, I've heard I've

heard this from many many students. When

am I ever going to use this?" How many

of you honestly ever said that? Mhm. We

all have like question like when am I

ever going to use this? But we learn

stuff and sometimes sometimes we pick up

and see the the value of it later on.

And so uh but but we continually learn,

we've been learning still uh our whole

lives. They learned about the garden of

Eden, how to tend it and keep it.

Probably learned from angels and Jesus,

which is pretty cool. Genesis 2:18 it

Genesis 2:18

says, "And the Lord God said, 'It is not

good that man should be alone. I will

make him a helper comparable to him and

learning continued." One of my favorite

authors says this, "Marriage is a school

from which you will never graduate."

That is a true statement. No matter how

long you've been married, you are still

learning about your spouse. You will for

the rest of your life. And Adam and Eve

then continued to learn about each other

and uh and God and the whole situation

there in the Garden of Eden. They were

continually learning.

They learned about all the animals. In

fact, they got to name some of them.

Picture in your mind God bringing the

animals one by one. Adam, what are you

going to call this one? We're going to

go donkey on this one. All right. Well,

what's the name? Well, we'll call this

one a horse. A little bigger. And he got

to he got to name all this stuff. They

were continually learning about their

surroundings and God was teaching them.

Now we see schools throughout scripture

as well. We see schools in Bethl. We see

schools in Jericho, Rama, Gilgal and in

other areas. Paul uh and usually an

unknown fact about Paul. Paul was a

teacher as well in a school in the

school of Tyrannis in Acts chapter 19 9

Acts 19 · chapter mention

and 10. He taught for two years in this

school.

We see in the schools of the prophets

several times refer to musicians which

which insinuates that part of their

religious education also involve worship

and learning music. There's in

association with these schools several

different instruments are are talked

about and um teaching music is something

that our schools still do which I'm

grateful for. A couple times a year

you'll hear College Academy students

come here and fill our stage and fill

our sanctuary with beautiful worshipful

music. I'm so glad that our schools

still teach music just like they did in

the Old Testament schools of the

prophets. They were especially taught

about God and God's love for them and

God's plans for them and how to live a

godly life similar to what our schools

do today.

I want you to take a look in the Bible

with me today. 2 Kings chapter 6. Turn

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

with me in your Bibles to Second Kings

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. There's a story about a

school here in the Bible that we're

going to look at today briefly. 2 Kings

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. And the teacher in this

school was none other than Elisha the

prophet.

I've had a lot of amazing teachers in my

life as a student. But if I think if I

could choose and Elisha the prophet was

the possible teacher I could jump into

his class, I'm probably going to go for

Elisha's class. How cool. He's one of my

heroes in the Bible. He and Elijah, two

of some of my favorites. Wouldn't it be

incredible to have Elisha be your

teacher?

>> And so we see this verse one of chapter

6 in 2 Kings. It says, "And the sons of

the prophets said to Elijah, see now the

place where we dwelt with you is too

small for us. This school is growing.

It's tight. It's squeezed. While they're

in there listening to Elisha, it's just

wallto-wall students. Maybe so much that

some of them are sitting outside the

windows listening in. And that happens

sometimes when you don't have enough

room. This school was growing. God was

blessing this school. People were

learning about God here. And the

students themselves come to Elisha their

teacher and said, "The place where we

dwell is too small for us. Please let us

go to the Jordan and let every man take

a beam from there and let us make there

a place where we may dwell." This is a

grassroots student-led project, a

building project to go out to fell the

lumber, bring it back up, and build a

bigger school. These are some motivated

students and Elisha likes likes the the

idea and he says go ahead go for it. In

verse three one of them says would you

please come with us and help us with

this project and this teacher is a very

involved teacher Elisha and he's like

yeah I'll come with you I'll help you

with the project. So students and

teacher all head down to the Jordan

River. Now these are students not

lumberjacks. So they don't have all the

saws and hatchets and and axes and

everything. So they've got to find some

to work on this project.

So, they've got to borrow something.

When you borrow something from somebody,

there's a pretty heavy weight of

responsibility to take good care of this

stuff, right? If you've ever borrowed

something from somebody, you take a

little extra good care of it because

it's not yours. And you want to return

it back to them in good shape. And if

you've ever lent something to somebody,

you want it back in good shape, don't

you? So, there's there's this this

well-known responsibility. You borrow

something, you take good care of it, and

bring it back to them in good shape.

Well, they they started looking for

tools. There was one specific young man

who didn't have any tools, no axe or

anything. And and he was he was a

resourceful guy and knew somebody that

had one.

So, the Bible tells us that he borrowed

an axe. Now, I don't know, it doesn't

say if he made any promises. I promise

I'll bring it back in good shape, but he

knew the rule. You bring it back in good

shape.

So, he's got a borrowed axe. I'm sure

several others did as well. and they're

out there working on this building

project to expand their growing school.

So Elisha goes with them. They came down

to the Jordan and they cut down the

trees. Verse 5, but as one was cutting

down a tree, the iron axe head fell into

the water and he cried out and said,

"Alas, master, for it was borrowed." How

many of you have ever cut down a tree

with an axe before? Anybody? Couple of

you. Okay. It's hard work, isn't it?

You're swinging that axe and you've got

to take you have an angle coming up and

you have an angle coming down to get the

big chip out. You got to work at it and

it's hard. And if it's a big tree,

you're working really hard, breaking a

sweat, muscles, stretching. You're going

going after this tree. It's hard work

and you take big swings so you get big

results, right? Well, in mid swing with

this young man, there's mid swing. He

takes a big swing with this axe towards

the tree and he's been used to feeling

that impact of the axe on the tree. But

on this swing,

in the middle of the swing, the axe

becomes way too light.

And he feels as the axe head goes flying

off the handle into the Jordan River

with a big splash into the muddy water,

who knows how deep.

Doesn't feel that impact,

realizes what's just happened, and he

gets that feeling in the pit of his

stomach. Oh no.

Oh no, that's not my axe.

He says, "Alas, master."

Calling to Elisha, he says, "It was a

borrowed axe."

I picture in my mind all the other

students coming around and looking over

at the at the edge of the river and kind

of just everybody feeling bad for this

guy

and the pickle that he's in now.

But the teacher, the teacher hasn't

doesn't see things the same way the

student does here.

And the teacher Elisha,

he asks him, "Hey, where where did that

axe head fall?" And he he points right

right around over there.

Fell down. Fell just right. I took a big

swing. It slid way out right about out

there.

So Elisha does something unique. says he

cut off a stick and threw it in there.

What What did he cut it off cut off that

stick with? He probably had an axe. We

don't really think of guys like Elisha

out there swinging an axe and doing a

building project, do we? Yet, he was

there. He was chipping in and working.

He cuts off this stick, walks over to

where they're at. All the students are

there. This this young man is there. And

he looks right where he pointed. And the

Bible tells us he took this stick and

just tossed it right out to where the

axe head had gone down in the water.

Wonder what the boys were thinking when

he did this. What is Elisha doing here?

Why is he throwing a stick in the water?

What's that going to do? How is that

going to help anything?

Says he cut off the stick and threw it

in there. The next words in this verse

have all the boys's attention. It says,

"And he made the iron float." Who made

the iron float?

>> God did. He used his messenger, his

teacher there to do it. But while all

the boys are there and everybody

realizes this tough situation for this

kid, he throws the stick in there. I'm

sure he asked for God's help because it

wasn't through him. It was through God

that did this. And all of a sudden, it

says the iron axe head floated to the

top. Now, you've all been in science

class, right? You know that iron doesn't

float. It's too heavy. And yet, here

these boys see this iron axe head come

straight up to the top of the water. And

it's just it's just floating there right

there. What do you think the boy's faces

looked like when they saw that?

Nobody moves. It's just floating there.

The Bible tells us here, it says, it

says, "Therefore, he said, Elisha, pick

it up for yourself." He had to tell the

kid to pick it up. The kids just sitting

there staring at it. Everybody's just

sitting there staring. This is an

absolute miracle.

There it is. He says, "Go ahead, pick it

up." So, he goes out to where it is. He

grabs the axe head, fixes the axe,

and imagine the teaching moment that

Elisha has here with all these boys on

the edge of the Jordan River.

a reminder

that God cares about every aspect of our

lives. Even the small stuff of a

borrowed axe head, God cared enough

about that to help him out in this

situation.

It wasn't even a big huge David and

Goliath type of a of a thing where the

whole the whole nation's going, you

know, the in in danger. It was just this

kid with a borrowed axe. And yet there

on the banks of the Jordan River, Elisha

had the opportunity to remind these kids

that you know what? God cares about

every aspect of your life.

>> He's close by. He hears us when we pray.

So many opportunities for Elisha to

share about God there on the edge of the

river.

Continually learning. These kids were

learners and continued to learn about

God as they were in those schools. we

continue to learn about God as we uh as

we continue to open up God's word. Um I

was I was I picked up on this when Elder

Vanzel was was talking just a moment ago

when he was reading. He said, "I I

noticed something new in the Bible."

He's a very knowledgeable man in his

Bible. He was ministerial director in

the in the Kentucky Tennessee

conference, a pastor for many, many

years, degrees, etc. And I noticed that

he said, "I I learned something new

about God today in Sabbath school." And

I was like, that's what's so cool about

learning about God. There's no point in

our lives where we're like, I know

everything there is to know about God.

There is inspiration today and

inspiration tomorrow as well. We

continue to learn about God and his love

for us and his plans for us in life.

This always makes me think about heaven.

What's heaven going to be like? Are we

going to continue to learn about things

in heaven or will we just miraculously

know everything? That wouldn't be very

much fun, would it? I think we'll

continue to learn. In this book,

Education, page 301, the author says

this, "Heaven is a school." Now, time

out for just a second. Some of you that

are in school might right now might

think, "Oh, man. Tests and school and

stuff." No, no. This is getting and that

stuff's important, but it's going to be

all stuff that you enjoy studying.

You're going to see the value of it as

you're studying it. Right now, when

you're in school, you see the value a

little bit later on when you're

studying. Heaven is a school. She says

its field of study the universe its

teacher the infinite one. A branch of

this school was established in Eden and

the plan of redemption accomplished.

Education will again be taken up in the

Eden school.

We're going to continue to learn stuff

and I think it's going to blow our mind

the things that we'll learn in heaven.

I've I've heard people say, "Well, what

are we actually going to do in heaven?"

as if we're going to be bored in heaven.

As if we're just going to be looking

around like, "All right, we're here now.

Now what?" There is no chance that you

will be bored in heaven. I guarantee

that. Heaven is going to be a place of

wows where you look around, you're like,

"Wow, that's incredible." And you look

over here, you're like, "Wow, look at

that." It's going to blow your mind the

different things that you learn because

it blows my mind now the things seeing

the things that God created.

And then I read verses like 1

1 Corinthians 2:9

Corinthians 2:9. It says, "But as it is

written, eye has not seen or ear heard

or have entered into the heart of man

the things which God has prepared for

those that love him."

>> Amen.

>> I've got a pretty good imagination. And

I've thought about this many times. What

is heaven going to be like? What are we

going to experience in heaven?

What's it going to be like there?

I've got an idea. This is just one

aspect of one small idea of what I think

heaven might be like. And it's it comes

in part from the story of Balam and the

donkey. A weird story in the Bible. Very

unique, kind of one of its one of a kind

in the Bible. And Balam was riding a

donkey. This is in Numbers 22.

Balam is riding a donkey.

And the donkey stops three times to

really help him avoid some punishment.

Three times he takes his staff and he

beats this donkey.

Just whales on this donkey.

And in Numbers 228,

it says this. Then the Lord opened the

donkey's mouth. Here's what it does not

say. It does not say that God spoke

through the donkey.

It says God opened the donkey's mouth so

that the donkey could speak first

person.

What does a donkey have on his mind?

A lot in this story.

The Lord opened the donkey's mouth and

she said to Balam, "What have I done to

you that you have beaten me these three

times?"

Can you imagine if you were just walking

by when this happened and you're walking

by and you're like, "Did that donkey

just talk?

The donkey opens its mouth and said,

"Why have you beaten me these three

times?" And some of the most bizarre

words in the Bible. Balam answered the

donkey.

"You have made a fool of me." He says,

"If I had a sword in my hand, I would

kill you right now."

Bam needs to calm down. Mercy.

He's threatening this donkey.

Verse 30. But the donkey said to Balam,

"Am I not the donkey you have ridden all

your life until today? Have I ever

treated you this way before?" "No," he

replied.

This is a whole conversation in the

Bible between a guy and his donkey.

And it's not God speaking through the

donkey, it's the donkey talking. The

donkey's got an opinion. Donkey's a

little chapped about getting hit so many

times.

I think

that when we get to heaven,

if you're curious about

what it's like to be a blue whale,

maybe you can have a conversation with

that blue whale and it'll tell you.

I had a little bit of uh of fun this

week looking at my imagination of what

heaven might be like,

and I've got some questions about God's

creation when I get to heaven. Wouldn't

it be awesome if I could go for a walk

with a giraffe and be like, "Listen, Mr.

Giraffe, those two things on the top of

your head, I've always wondered about

those. What are those for?" And if he

was like, "Well, I just imagine you had

a deep voice." "Well, this is what

they're for. I use these blah blah blah

blah blah blah." Like, and I have other

questions like, "What's it like to

swallow with a neck that long?" You

know, and then they could tell you.

I think that maybe heaven's going to

blow our minds in some ways. What if we

could talk to the creatures and learn

this way in heaven?

This is this is like a Honey, I shrunk

the kids. If you're from the '9s and '

80s and whatnot, you'll know that movie.

What if we could shrink down? This is

this is one of my favorite little

creatures. This is a jumping spider.

I've used this as an illustration in

kids chapels at a bunch of

differentmies.

They're some of the coolest little

creatures. So colorful. Wouldn't it be

incredible if I could just sit down on a

leaf like this and be like, "So, tell me

what it's like to see with six eyeballs.

What's that like?" Cuz they've got four

across the front, two on the top. At

least six, I think. What's that like?

God made this creature exquisite.

Wouldn't it be incredible if you could

just sit down and be like, "So, tell me

about six eyes. I've only got two. What

are you seeing that I'm not seeing?

What's it like?" These creatures, these

creatures, they're called jumping

spiders because they can jump. If you

could jump as far as a jumping spider,

if they put you in the end zone of an

NFL stadium, you could jump out of the

other side of the stadium and land

outside the stadium. If you could jump

like a jumping spider, what I what I've

read is that they have like g compressed

gas in their joints that just like just

shoots off and they and off they go.

Like, can they feel that? Is it does it

like pressure build up? I want to know

more about these things that God made.

Maybe, just maybe, they've got the same

skills that Bum's donkey has.

And we can sit and have a chat about it.

Who's not wanted to fly before?

Everybody's wanted to fly before. What

if you got flying lessons in heaven from

an eagle? It's like, all right, tilt

your wing a little bit to the left. All

right, there we go. And and the other

one I always hear from kids is, "I want

to be underwater." What's it like to be

underwater? All of this is AI except for

my bicep.

That's real.

But what if you can learn from a dolphin

and be like, "All right, how does

echolocation work? God made you with

with sonar. How does that work? Heaven's

not going to be boring, friends. We're

going to be learning about the coolest

stuff that you can imagine."

Incredible stuff. And there's all kinds

of other creations that God has made

that we're going to get to learn about.

We read about this in like the book of

Job where it says that people from all

over God's creations got together and

met. I want to explore that stuff. I

want to see what that's like.

How interesting will that be to see what

else God has created?

You ever read the verse the lion will

lay down with the lamb?

I think that'll be cool. And I just

popped this into my imagination and had

AI make something like this. But I mean,

imagine a cool nap like that with all

the stuff that you can't take a nap with

now. Like the lion. The lion resting its

head on my shoulder in that picture.

That can happen in heaven.

And maybe the lion will tell you a

story. Who knows? I mean, when the Bible

says you can't even imagine the things

that God has prepared for you in heaven,

the stuff that we imagine just doesn't

even scratch the surface.

I mean, it's endless. I'll stop with

this one cuz my imagination was really

going this week, but it's endless. I

thought I' I've done worship talks on on

ants and the the complexity of ants and

how they work and where they what they

do. It's incredible. But how how awesome

would it be to just drop in and like

have an ant explain to you how their ant

colony works, who's in charge, what they

do. Okay, here's the nursery. There's

all the eggs right over there. Okay,

cool. And you could just zip right down

there and have them explain it to you.

The possibilities in heaven are endless.

And the Bible tells us that above all of

that, all of the learning that we'll get

to do about God's creation, we will

continue to learn about the love of God

for each one of us.

>> Amen. and how how his sacrifice impacted

each one of us.

The plan of redemption.

Imagine sitting down with Jesus

after you've read about him in your

Bible your whole life. You've read

stories about him, watched movies about

Jesus, prayed to Jesus, poured out your

heart to Jesus. Imagine someday sitting

down with him at a table

saying, "Thank you, Lord, for helping me

make it through. Thank you for all this.

Imagine being there with Jesus.

As we continue to learn throughout all

eternity, I guarantee you it's not going

to be boring.

It's going to blow your mind.

All the things that God has prepared for

us there. 1 Corinthians 2:9, "But as it

1 Corinthians 2:9

is written, eye has not seen nor ear

even heard." Pause there for We've heard

some great stuff. We had beautiful music

earlier. You sound great when we all

sing together. We've heard some great

music, but it says ear hasn't even heard

of what God has prepared for us.

That kind of blows my mind a little bit.

What are we going to hear? Are there

harmonies we haven't heard yet? We'll

get to learn more about that type of a

thing. Eye has not seen or ear heard,

nor have entered in to the heart of man

the things which God has prepared for

those that love him. We spend our time

here on earth learning.

We've been learning since we were born.

We're still learning today. We're still

still learning about God.

Still being inspired as we learn about

him. And when we get to heaven, we will

continue to learn and be impressed and

wowed by all the things that God has

made. How exactly is it going to be? I

have no idea. The Bible says, "My

imagination, as good as it might be with

AI's help, it's still not even

scratching the surface.

But God has amazing things in planned

for us. There is zero chance that you're

going to be disappointed when you get to

heaven. You're not going to get to

heaven and be like, "Man, I kind of miss

you never that that thought won't even

cross your mind because God has big

plans for you in heaven and plans to

prosper you just like he did here." And

I love this verse because it keeps in

the forefront of my mind that God has

big things planned for us for the rest

of eternity in heaven.

Plans where there's no more tears, no

more sickness, no more sadness.

Those are good plans. Those are plans

from a God who loves you.

And when we get to heaven, we'll

continue to learn more and more about

the love of God for each and every one

of us. Father in heaven, we're so

looking forward to being with you in

heaven and continuing to learn about

your love and your grace and your your

plans for us throughout eternity. Lord,

thank you for the reminders in the Bible

that heaven's going to be an exciting

and incredible place. And uh Lord,

continue to prepare our hearts to be

citizens of heaven. We're so glad that

today we're one Sabbath closer to being

with you and ask that you keep us

faithful until that day. Thank you so

much, God, for loving us and for having

plans for our lives. In Jesus name I

pray. Amen. Amen.

>> Thanks again so much for joining us for

church here at the McDonald Road 7th

Adventist Church in McDonald, Tennessee.

If you've been blessed by our worship

time together today, I encourage you to

share this message with somebody else

that it might be a blessing to them as

well. Once again, we're so glad that

you're a part of our online church

family. Happy Sabbath. God bless and

have a great week.