Generation. Youth. Christ.

Sunday Morning Plenary

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

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Series Code: GYC

Program Code: GYC180007A


00:33 Please stand and join us in singing our theme song.
00:53 Have you heard the story told
00:57 Of the Man whose heart was sold
01:01 To save my dying soul?
01:05 Oh, what love untold
01:09 To the end He's always sought me
01:12 To the end He's always loved me
01:16 To the end I long to follow
01:20 For He bore my cross of sorrow
01:24 I will stay here in the hollow of His care
01:29 And I will go anywhere, to the end
01:36 This witness I will bear To the end
01:47 In the grove I heard Him say
01:51 "Oh my Father please just stay."
01:54 Through broken hearted pain
01:58 He did pave the way
02:02 To the end His heart is faithful
02:05 To the end His hand is able
02:09 To the end I can now follow
02:13 For He bore my cross of sorrow
02:17 I will stay here in the hollow of His care
02:22 And I will go anywhere, to the end
02:28 This witness I will bear To the end
02:39 As they took Him off to die
02:43 There His friendship I denied
02:47 Forgiveness in His eyes
02:51 He did not despise.
02:54 To the end His love constrains me
02:58 To the end He has restored me
03:02 To the end I will still follow
03:05 For He bore my cross of sorrow
03:09 I will stay here in the hollow of His care
03:14 And I will go anywhere, to the end
03:20 This witness I will bear
03:30 To the end
03:38 Good morning.
03:41 How many of you are awake?
03:44 All right.
03:45 We're about to hear an amazing message,
03:51 two amazing messages.
03:52 One through song
03:53 and one through the breaking of the Word.
03:58 Our scripture reading for this morning,
04:00 if you turn there with me,
04:03 it's found in 2 Corinthians 4:6-7.
04:09 2 Corinthians 4:6-7.
04:14 I'll be reading from the New King James Version?
04:16 And it says,
04:19 "For it is the God who commanded light
04:21 to shine out of darkness,
04:24 who has shown in our hearts
04:26 to give the light of the knowledge
04:29 of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
04:33 But we have this treasure in the earthen vessels,
04:37 that the excellence of the power
04:40 may be of God and not of us."
04:59 I have fixed my mind on another time
05:06 On another time
05:12 And here I mean to stand
05:17 until God gives me more light
05:25 And that is today, today
05:31 Today until He comes
05:37 I have fixed my mind on another time
05:44 On another time
05:53 I have set my course on the narrow way
05:59 On the narrow way
06:04 For I know the time is close at hand
06:10 For which I watch and pray
06:15 And that is today, today
06:21 Today until He comes
06:26 I have set my course on the narrow way
06:32 On the narrow way
06:38 Even so Lord come quickly
06:44 This is my fervent prayer
06:50 For I've caught a Glimpse of glory
06:56 And I'm longing to be there
07:12 When shall the Son of Man appear
07:18 The trumpet sound its blast
07:23 And Christ descend in glorious fire
07:29 With all the saints amassed
07:34 We'll rise with those Who sleep no more
07:40 To meet Him in the air
07:45 When shall the Son of Man appear
07:54 The Son of Man appear
08:02 Even so Lord come quickly
08:08 This is my fervent prayer
08:13 For I've caught a Glimpse of glory
08:19 And I'm longing to be there
08:24 For I've caught a Glimpse of glory
08:33 And I'm longing to be there
08:46 I have fixed my mind on another time
08:57 On another time
09:19 Thank you.
09:20 After 66 books,
09:23 thousands of years of narrative,
09:27 God ends the sacred cannon of scripture
09:30 with the cogent, unequivocal,
09:34 surely I come quickly.
09:39 Amen.
09:41 So let it be, Oh Father,
09:44 that in light of the words we've just heard through music
09:47 and reflection of that final statement of scripture.
09:52 May it be that today our hearts are energized
09:56 through Your Word.
09:58 That we birth within us is a confidence
10:01 and of boldness of the gospel.
10:06 Let it be, oh God, you speak to us
10:09 when we live changed having met with you,
10:13 in the name of Jesus, amen.
10:20 I'm going to take a bit of a guess,
10:24 a leap that the vast majority of us
10:29 in this room this morning
10:30 have not recently picked up
10:36 a cigarette pack.
10:40 If you have,
10:45 God strength to you,
10:47 your journey, no judgment here,
10:49 but I'm just going to guess, you haven't.
10:51 However, I'm also going to guess
10:55 that the vast majority of us
10:57 even having not picked up a cigarette pack recently.
11:01 No, exactly what is stated in black and white
11:06 on every cigarette pack in advertisement
11:10 in this country.
11:13 How does it start?
11:14 Surgeon general warning.
11:20 Smoking
11:23 causes lung cancer,
11:27 heart disease, and emphysema.
11:32 It's an absolute.
11:36 I don't know that it is possible
11:38 to smoke in this country and not to know
11:44 whether it is a good or bad idea.
11:48 I don't know that it's possible.
11:50 There's nobody.
11:53 With all due respect
11:54 to those who have struggled with this addiction,
11:56 there is no one out on the corner going,
12:00 "This actually may be good for me."
12:05 It's known, it is an absolute fact.
12:11 There is no uncertainty.
12:14 There is absolute confidence we know.
12:18 In fact, we know that we know, that we know, it's not good.
12:27 So grab your Bibles.
12:34 Turn to the Book of Acts.
12:38 But this time we're going all the way to the back.
12:41 Acts Chapter 28.
12:47 Acts Chapter 28 is the final chapter of this.
12:52 Sometimes refer to fifth gospel,
12:54 the Acts of the Holy Spirit.
12:56 The church has mobilized this divine appointment.
13:02 The church, early Christians are sent out.
13:06 Acts Chapter 28 and the final verses.
13:12 Verse 30, "Then Paul dwelt two whole years
13:15 in his own rented house,
13:17 and received all who came to him,
13:20 preaching the kingdom of God,
13:22 and teaching the things
13:23 which concern the Lord Jesus Christ
13:25 with all confidence, no one forbidding him."
13:29 If you're reading in a NIV version,
13:34 it'll read that verse 31,
13:36 "He proclaimed the kingdom of God
13:38 and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ
13:40 with all boldness and without hindrance!"
13:46 Boldness and without hindrance,
13:48 Paul knew that he knew that he knew
13:53 that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was absolute,
13:58 life giving, saving.
14:02 It wasn't a question for Paul with all confidence,
14:05 there wasn't a line of doubt,
14:08 there wasn't a single question in his mind, he knew.
14:15 And so without a doubt, here today,
14:21 we can reflect back and know
14:23 that Satan on the other hand did not leave Paul alone.
14:26 This wasn't as if...
14:28 Satan had said, "Well, Paul is just such an apostle.
14:30 He's untouchable to me."
14:32 Satan never gives up.
14:34 He's going to fight this thing to the end.
14:36 And so Paul must have been assailed,
14:40 yet the Bible records
14:42 that he delivered without a doubt,
14:46 with absolute, with all confidence.
14:49 So wasn't that Satan had given up.
14:52 It's that Paul knew that he knew that he knew.
14:59 But it shouldn't surprise us.
15:02 This is the story of Acts.
15:10 When I look back to the beginning,
15:11 Acts Chapter 4,
15:14 first few chapters introduces to that Holy Spirit,
15:17 but now Acts 4:13,
15:26 they, the leaders
15:30 who had previously seen the disciples
15:35 in their fear and their trepidation.
15:38 "When they saw the boldness of Peter and John,
15:42 and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained,
15:46 they marveled."
15:49 Love it.
15:51 I've no problem with education or training.
15:56 We ought to be mobilized and trained
15:58 to the best of our abilities.
16:00 But I love the fact that God uses the unexpected,
16:07 the underdog.
16:12 So was though,
16:13 when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,
16:15 that's how this thing began.
16:18 It began Peter and John, and a boldness for Jesus,
16:22 they knew that they knew,
16:25 that they knew He was resurrected
16:26 and now at the right hand of the throne of God.
16:29 Desire or Ages says that they knew they had a friend
16:31 that now stood beside the throne of God,
16:33 and so they reached their hand higher and higher
16:36 by faith, take hold of His.
16:37 They knew that they knew that they knew.
16:41 It started this way.
16:43 That's what the Holy Spirit does.
16:47 It births within our hearts
16:50 a know that we know that we know.
16:55 Let me take Paul as an example.
16:57 Peter and John obviously would be good examples,
16:59 but Paul, let's take Paul as an example.
17:03 I got four exhibits.
17:05 Exhibit A.
17:07 If you look the back of your Bible
17:10 and many of our Bibles at least,
17:13 you'll find maps.
17:14 All right.
17:16 You go out of Revelation
17:17 and out of the Concordance you go,
17:18 you get to your maps.
17:20 Several of your maps inevitably will be titled Paul's first,
17:26 or second, or third, or fourth.
17:28 Paul's missionary journeys.
17:31 You look, it's just arrows all, and he's a frequent flier
17:36 on whatever ship line was available.
17:42 He went around his little world.
17:48 Either he was restless and he couldn't sit still
17:51 or he had something that the world needed to know.
17:55 I think it's beautiful,
17:57 I think it's something that we should be proud of
17:59 that the Adventist Church,
18:01 the Seventh-day Adventist Church
18:03 is mobilized around our globe.
18:07 It speaks to the fact that we have something to say.
18:11 Amen.
18:14 So does Paul's missionary journeys.
18:16 Exhibit A.
18:18 He went, he spent every cell
18:21 in his body travelling the world.
18:25 Exhibit B.
18:29 They couldn't beat it out of him.
18:33 2 Corinthians Chapter 11.
18:41 2 Corinthians Chapter 11.
18:43 You read this, no doubt,
18:44 but let's read it again, verse 24.
18:56 1 Corinthians won't exactly say the same thing.
19:00 2 Corinthians 11:24,
19:06 "From the Jews," this is his testimony,
19:10 "five times I received forty stripes minus one.
19:13 Three times I was beaten with rods,
19:14 once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked,
19:17 a night and a day I have been in the deep,
19:19 in journeys often, in perils of waters,
19:22 in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen,
19:24 in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city,
19:26 in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea,
19:28 in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil,
19:31 in sleeplessness often,
19:32 in hunger and thirst, in fastings often,
19:34 in cold and nakedness."
19:40 That was Paul's experience.
19:42 They couldn't beat it out of him.
19:45 Exhibit A,
19:47 he travelled the world with his message.
19:49 Exhibit B, you couldn't beat...
19:52 There were enough hardships for Paul to give up on this.
19:58 He might have lost his job
19:59 for Sabbath observance,
20:02 lost his friends for his radical devotion
20:04 to his Christ.
20:07 He was beaten physically. He lost his financial packages,
20:13 but he would not give up.
20:17 Paul knew that he knew that he knew
20:22 the gospel was so important.
20:28 Exhibit C,
20:32 back in Acts, now 25:11.
20:42 He's now an arrested man.
20:47 He says to those committed
20:54 to his keeping,
20:56 for if I'm an offender
20:57 or if I've committed anything deserving of death,
20:59 I do not object to dying.
21:03 I appeal to Caesar.
21:09 You only take it that far.
21:12 You only take it to that high
21:15 when you know that you know that you know.
21:21 You take your case to the Supreme Court
21:26 when you believe with all of your heart
21:29 that you know that you know that you know
21:31 that you have a right.
21:34 You take it all the way up.
21:38 Paul, as a Roman citizen knew,
21:42 you don't show up before Caesar with a little bit of a game.
21:48 You don't show up without your stuff together.
21:52 You don't show up without knowing
21:54 that you know that you know.
21:55 You don't show up without confidence,
21:58 Caesar wouldn't have time for it.
22:01 But Paul says,
22:02 "I know that I know, take me to Caesar."
22:07 Exhibit C,
22:09 it's going to go all the way up.
22:13 Exhibit D, worth and final.
22:19 Paul as he stated in Acts 25:11,
22:23 I'm willing to die for this.
22:25 You can't beat it out of me, you can't starve it out of me,
22:28 you cannot even kill it out of me.
22:32 Acts of the Apostles now,
22:35 let me just reflect with you
22:37 on what she, Ellen White says about his death.
22:43 Paul was taken in a private manner
22:45 to the place of execution.
22:47 Few spectators were allowed to be present,
22:50 for his persecutors,
22:51 alarmed at the extent of his influence,
22:53 feared that converts might be won to Christianity
22:56 by the scenes of his death.
23:00 But even the hardened soldiers who attended him
23:03 listened to his words with amazement
23:05 saw him cheerful and even joyous
23:09 in the prospect of death.
23:11 The apostles were looking into the great beyond,
23:15 not with uncertainty or dread,
23:18 but with joyous hope and longing expectation.
23:23 As he, Paul, stands at the place of martyrdom,
23:25 he sees not the sword of the executioner
23:28 or the earth so soon to receive his blood.
23:31 He looks up through the calm blue heaven
23:33 of that summer day to the throne of the eternal.
23:38 Paul,
23:41 as the sword draws near,
23:46 is almost indifferent
23:49 because of the ace up his sleeve as it were,
23:52 because of the hope, because of the know,
23:54 that he knows, that he knows.
23:56 Jesus is resurrected
23:58 and that means there is eternity just beyond.
24:09 That's the narrative of Acts.
24:14 Mosaic of men and women came together
24:20 and then operated by the Holy Spirit
24:24 became bold and confident
24:28 that what they had was life saving,
24:34 and they had to share it.
24:37 There is no question.
24:40 There is no question in their minds.
24:48 But beloved,
24:51 where do you find yourself this morning?
24:54 In the darkness of the night,
24:57 as you kneel beside your bed,
25:01 do you wonder?
25:05 Could it be,
25:07 could it be that we're just not sure?
25:14 The world isn't sure, that's for sure.
25:16 The world doesn't know what to do.
25:23 Grab my Time Magazine.
25:25 Yes, I still get magazines
25:29 and a newspaper through the mail in driveway.
25:35 Lets you know what the world is doing,
25:38 all your local events and news
25:41 is a web Time Magazine.
25:45 I want you to listen to this, GYC.
25:50 The date on the magazine,
25:56 October 22.
26:00 What date was that?
26:03 I'm sorry, what date was that?
26:06 October 22.
26:10 Of course, 2018 was the date of the magazine,
26:12 it just came this last fall.
26:15 It's an editorial
26:17 about the catastrophe of the climate.
26:21 We're all concerned about where is our planet going?
26:25 Is it gonna just self-destruct.
26:30 The subtitle on the editorial was climate catastrophe,
26:35 climate catastrophe seen just 12 years away.
26:42 These thinking minds have come together and said,
26:46 "There is a catastrophe coming to this planet
26:50 and we believe it's in the next 12 years."
26:53 What day was it published?
26:56 October 22.
27:02 Just not sure that everybody's got
27:03 the significance of that, Seventh-day Adventist.
27:10 In the editorial, Mary Robinson,
27:12 former UN Special Envoy on Climate Change,
27:14 also the previous President of the Country of Ireland,
27:18 states.
27:20 In an editorial, on October 22,
27:26 she states,
27:28 "We need a plan to save us.
27:33 We have a short window of time and a huge responsibility.
27:38 We need a plan."
27:41 She's, of course, talking about climate.
27:46 But on October 22,
27:50 I think it means a whole lot more.
27:56 2 Corinthians Chapter 4.
27:58 And we just read it for us minutes ago.
27:59 "We have this treasure in earthen vessels
28:02 that the excellence of the power of God,
28:06 may be of God and not of us."
28:09 We have this treasure, beloved.
28:15 On October 22,
28:18 Time Magazine says, "We need a plan,
28:20 we need somebody to stand up and tell us what we can do."
28:28 The world is asking.
28:31 What can we do?
28:32 We have a short time left.
28:37 And if there is anyone on this globe,
28:42 that has something to say on October 22,
28:46 it's the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
28:51 We can tell them.
28:53 We're not going to throw out 12 years.
28:57 We know our Bibles better now.
29:00 We're not going to tell them, it's 12 years.
29:02 They're telling us, it's 12 years.
29:08 But what we do know
29:09 that we know that we know is we have a plan
29:13 that will in fact save the world.
29:18 Climate change, we've got the ultimate answer.
29:22 I, John saw
29:26 a new heavens and a new earth.
29:30 We know that we know, that we know.
29:41 There's anyone that should respond,
29:45 it should be us.
29:48 Paul, the same one,
29:50 you couldn't travel it out of him,
29:51 you couldn't beat it out of him,
29:53 you couldn't starve it out of him.
29:54 He appealed to Caesar
29:55 and you couldn't kill it out of him.
29:57 Paul, that same Paul speaks up in Romans 1:16.
30:03 Just a page away from Acts 28, those final verses.
30:10 Romans 1:16,
30:13 we've memorized this verse, beloved.
30:15 "For I am not ashamed,
30:21 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,
30:25 for it is the power of God
30:27 to salvation for everyone who believes."
30:32 We have an answer Mrs. Robinson,
30:38 UN Special Envoy on Climate Change,
30:44 we've got an answer.
30:45 We've got an answer for your heart,
30:48 we've also got answer for our climate.
30:53 I'm not ashamed.
30:54 I know that I know, that I know.
30:59 And with confidence and boldness,
31:01 Peter, and John, and Paul,
31:03 and the rest of those early radicals.
31:09 The devil's hijacked this terminology,
31:11 extremist, radicals.
31:15 Whenever those are on the headlines of news,
31:17 you know something bad has happened.
31:19 Satan has hijacked the words,
31:24 to mean something negative,
31:27 to be the pejorative, but no, to be a radical,
31:30 to be an extremist is to be in lined with the Book of Acts.
31:39 We know that, we know, we've got something.
31:42 Acts Chapter 2.
31:43 Do you remember what happened in Acts Chapter 2?
31:45 When they began to preach this message,
31:47 when they began to preach about this resurrected Christ
31:52 that could change and save our heart.
31:57 You remember what happened?
31:58 "The people were amazed," the Bible says,
32:04 "The people were amazed."
32:09 It's very much part of the conversation
32:11 of the different languages,
32:13 but the word "amazed" it goes way beyond that,
32:16 that's existemi in the Greek.
32:20 It doesn't mean a curious amazed, like a...
32:24 Well, that's a trick. Do it again.
32:28 It's so much more.
32:29 It means they were ecstatic,
32:31 that they were actually out of their minds.
32:37 Where they had been?
32:39 Like amaze where you're lost.
32:43 They became amazed.
32:46 Where they had been, they were now changed.
32:49 The Gospel of Jesus amazed them.
32:53 It changed who they were.
33:02 You know, we often hold these treasures
33:09 as Corinthians refers it to us, this power of God, we have it.
33:15 And then we fail to realize the value of what we have,
33:21 or like the farmer.
33:24 Edmore, Michigan.
33:25 Some of you know exactly where that's at.
33:29 It's right next to our academy, Great Lakes Adventist Academy.
33:34 News broke this,
33:35 may be you saw it pop on the news.
33:38 News broke.
33:40 Mount Pleasant, Michigan there in Ed,
33:42 right next to Edmore.
33:43 The 1930s, a farmer found
33:46 a strangely heavy metallic rock on his property.
33:49 He decided the object would be useful as a doorstop.
33:52 So then in 1988, now this is 50s, 8 years later,
33:55 he sells his farm, and says,
33:57 "Hey, just take everything including the doorstop rock."
34:01 Leaves everything there.
34:03 The new owner now, years, decades,
34:07 he bought the farm in 1988,
34:08 but now decades later,
34:10 he's had this doorstop sitting there
34:12 and he's watching this little feature
34:14 on television about meteoroids.
34:18 And he sees the picture and he says,
34:19 "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
34:21 that look a lot like what's on my...
34:23 I've been using to keep my door of my barn open."
34:28 So he picks up scoops of that 23 pound rock,
34:31 takes it in, takes it into Central Michigan University.
34:36 He was informed that the object was in fact a meteoroid,
34:39 and could be worth a lot.
34:43 Chunk of iron and nickel was later valued
34:45 at over $100,000
34:49 after Smithsonian Institute verified what it was.
34:55 For decades,
34:59 this rock had been a doorstop at in a barn.
35:05 And it valued at 100,000.
35:08 Now just a mere fact
35:09 that most of your faces were unexpressive,
35:11 just totally flat line on that.
35:13 It means, you are in totally different class
35:15 economically than I am.
35:17 But 100,000 doorstop, beloved.
35:22 Wherever you come from is not where I come from.
35:24 We don't roar like that.
35:29 A $100,000 doorstop.
35:35 Could it be that we hold something
35:38 that we don't realize its value?
35:45 Could it be
35:48 that while we know it's the power of God?
35:52 We don't know that we know, that we know
35:55 because you can't really know it and not share,
36:00 pen to let them, the magician and atheist.
36:03 He says, he's an atheist, all right?
36:05 But he says, listen, let me just be honest with you.
36:07 How much do you have to hate somebody
36:09 to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them?
36:14 It doesn't make sense.
36:16 If we know that we know.
36:22 A story that has forever lodged itself in my mind.
36:26 I read it out of Reader's Digest.
36:27 I think, I was sitting and laundering out one day
36:29 my clothes.
36:31 Pick up a Reader's Digest, reading a story.
36:37 I've never been to Michigan,
36:38 but the story happened in Michigan
36:40 at the time I read this.
36:42 Later, I moved to Berrien Springs
36:43 and had the privilege of passing the exact spot
36:48 hundreds of times probably
36:51 where the story happened.
36:54 Story of Bill, he's a part-time paramedic.
36:57 But he drives the tour buses from Detroit to Chicago,
37:01 down around the bottom Lake Michigan back.
37:05 He's headed from Detroit down on Interstate 94 headed down,
37:10 passed Berrien Springs,
37:12 but just a little north now he's still,
37:14 and come across the CB, the radio comes a cry for help.
37:19 We need somebody, somebody that knows first-aid or CPR.
37:22 We need anybody, a doctor, a nurse, paramedic somebody.
37:24 Is somebody out there?
37:26 We've got a car accident.
37:29 Bill checks his watch and realizes
37:31 he's already a couple of minutes behind schedule.
37:33 So he doesn't want to pull the bus over
37:35 with his load of passengers expecting
37:37 to get to Chicago on time.
37:39 Said can't do it, can't do it.
37:41 I'm just going to go by.
37:42 But then he gets within about a mile
37:44 of the accident, the call comes out again.
37:47 Is there anybody out there?
37:50 Bill's just at the last minute,
37:52 says, I can't let this go.
37:55 And so as he sees the stop cars in the highway ahead of him,
37:59 he pulls the bus over to the shoulder and stops
38:01 and let the passengers know that he'll be right back
38:04 that there's just an emergency here,
38:05 and he jumps off the bus, runs up to the scene.
38:10 Standing on the shoulder now,
38:12 he's looking down on the embankment
38:13 where the car had rolled.
38:15 A man coming up the embankment.
38:17 As Bill identifies himself, "I'm a paramedic."
38:21 The man said, "Thanks for stopping.
38:23 I don't think we need you.
38:25 I can't find any pulse."
38:27 Bill looks down,
38:28 the car is overturned in a muddy, dirty, ditch,
38:32 and he sees the arm of the victim
38:37 sticking out from underneath the car.
38:41 Bill says, "Fair enough.
38:43 I'll head back to the bus."
38:45 As he turns around though, another motorist
38:47 has now stopped and standing behind him.
38:51 She says, "I recognize the car,
38:56 I recognize the car."
39:01 That's Melissa in, she gave her last name.
39:07 Bill took a second to just absorb
39:12 what she just said.
39:15 And then almost involuntarily
39:16 he shouted,
39:18 I need help, that's my sister.
39:23 Now he's running down the bank, yelling at people,
39:26 get down here, get down here.
39:28 We can't just let.
39:30 That's my sister.
39:34 So with help, they rolled the car over.
39:38 Bill pulled his sister out the car
39:41 without a pulse.
39:44 She had been pressed down into that muddy ditch water.
39:51 Bill, with the help of few others
39:53 pulls her up to the shore of the road,
39:55 and begins his first-aid and CPR.
40:06 He saved her.
40:09 He saved her.
40:20 That's my sister.
40:25 And as I consider the quandary of where we find ourselves,
40:31 is it that we don't realize what we have?
40:35 Do we not realize that this gospel
40:38 is eternal life to the dying and hopeless.
40:45 Even the Mary Robinsons at the United Nations,
40:49 presidents of countries are saying,
40:52 "We have a short time left. We need help."
40:58 Do we not realize that we have the answer?
41:03 Or on the other hand, is it possible
41:05 that we don't realize who these people are?
41:10 Do we not realize our brothers and sisters?
41:17 I have two sisters,
41:19 who live in the State of Oregon.
41:23 They walked away from God.
41:31 I plead, God, would you send their neighbor?
41:37 Would you send one of their coworkers?
41:40 Would you send somebody into their life?
41:42 You know, how it is with family,
41:44 you can say a lot but they don't hear a lot.
41:49 God, would you send somebody to be in their lives, please?
41:53 Somebody they'll listen to,
41:55 somebody that can reach them, a friend.
42:00 Would you send somebody?
42:03 You know what God said to me, "I'll do it.
42:07 But just so you know,
42:09 somebody in Oregon is praying for their sister in Colorado
42:12 and she lives right next to you.
42:16 Now go be the answer to their prayer.
42:19 And I'll send somebody
42:21 to be the answer to your prayer."
42:26 God did it. Beloved, God did it.
42:28 He hasn't answered the prayer completely yet,
42:31 my sisters are paramedic coincidentally.
42:33 She's working on the ambulance.
42:37 The department shifts up partners.
42:41 They ride too in ambulance obviously,
42:43 shifts up partners,
42:44 brings in a new guy from California.
42:47 This new guy from California
42:49 now is assigned to be my sister's partner.
42:51 They have to spend an entire shift together
42:53 riding around there,
42:54 they're just talking about everything.
42:58 This new partner,
43:01 this guy from California
43:02 randomly moves up to Southern Oregon,
43:07 Seventh-day Adventist.
43:10 On their Sabbath shifts,
43:12 his choice, he chose work on Sabbath.
43:15 They pull the ambulance into the parking lot
43:17 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
43:18 and stand in the back.
43:20 Amen.
43:24 You know how it works, he doesn't flip the switch
43:26 and answer all the prayers.
43:31 But, I know God can do it.
43:34 But then God's looking at me saying,
43:36 'What about that clerk,
43:38 what about that neighbor of yours,
43:40 what about, there's somebody's sister,
43:44 there's somebody's brother,
43:46 and you have what even the United Nations
43:49 can't figure out, you have hope for this planet,
43:53 and hope for their hearts.
43:56 Let's do this.
44:01 God will not give up on them, He will go to the nth degree,
44:07 He will not give up on you,
44:09 He's not given up on anyone yet.
44:11 He's going to take this to seek and save the lost.
44:15 God knows that He knows,
44:17 that He knows He has something
44:21 will save for eternity forever.
44:31 Philippians 1:6,
44:33 "Being confident of this very thing,
44:36 that he who has begun a good work in you
44:41 will complete it."
44:50 He's going to finish it.
44:51 He's not giving up on you,
44:53 and He hasn't given up on your family,
44:54 He hasn't given up on your neighbors,
44:56 but He needs you.
44:58 He needs you.
45:01 My father, early on, in my childhood
45:07 got cancer behind his eye.
45:11 Became part of the study for the government,
45:13 saying, "Hey, we got to figure out
45:15 how to deal with this particular cancer."
45:18 So they assigned him to a group of...
45:21 He volunteered to be part of the program,
45:22 they assigned him to a group that would remove the cancer,
45:26 they take the tumor out.
45:29 They wouldn't try to treat it,
45:30 they would just remove it, surgery.
45:32 So they took it out,
45:34 but slowly the cancer had eaten away.
45:36 He didn't even realize,
45:38 he couldn't see out of his left eye.
45:41 It had been so slow and his body had adjusted.
45:45 He had no vision out of his left eye.
45:47 So they took the eye, gave him a glass eye.
45:51 That's a whole strange world there.
45:56 Pop the eye out, put in the glass,
46:00 but he does that every once in a while,
46:01 he washes it, puts it in a solution.
46:05 My parents live in Southern Oregon,
46:08 live in an old farmhouse.
46:10 It's a beautiful, beautiful acreage,
46:11 but it's an old farmhouse.
46:13 My father is in the bathroom,
46:17 rinsing off his eye in the water.
46:21 The sink, it's an old sink, doesn't have a stopper.
46:27 You're jumping ahead, you're jumping ahead.
46:32 He drops the eye,
46:33 makes one circle around the bottom of the sink,
46:36 and it's gone.
46:38 Well, you can't go in public without that eye,
46:42 it's just empty socket.
46:44 So he said,
46:45 "All right. We're going to find the eye."
46:47 Did it get caught in the trap?
46:48 No, there is no trap, could you believe.
46:50 They weren't thinking of that back then.
46:52 So he then goes on to the house
46:54 and cuts apart the piping all the way into the house.
46:57 Where is the eye? Where is the eye?
46:59 And then the pipe goes under the ground,
47:00 out into the yard, but as we see,
47:02 there was no eye under the house.
47:04 He begins to dig up the piping
47:06 from the house all the way across the yard in sections
47:10 and sections until he gets to the sewer tank.
47:14 No eye.
47:15 He whispers a prayer,
47:17 please help it to be floating on the top,
47:18 opens the lid and it's not there.
47:22 He's got to have the eye.
47:24 Calls that company out with the truck,
47:27 they begin to siphon and suck that entire content
47:31 so that tank out.
47:35 And at the very bottom, there was his eye.
47:41 Now he really had something to wash, didn't he?
47:51 God's not given up on us.
47:54 He will chase that price possession.
47:57 He will go as far and as long
47:59 to the very bottom of the tank if He needs to
48:03 because He knows He has the answer.
48:06 And all He needs, beloved,
48:10 is men and women on this planet
48:15 will take Him at His word
48:17 and know that they know that they know.
48:20 And with boldness, and with confidence,
48:21 no hindrance, no doubting,
48:24 move out into the world to share the gospel.
48:27 How does it happen?
48:28 How can I know that I know that I know
48:30 that He's got the answer?
48:31 How can I know?
48:34 Acts 4:13,
48:36 we'll finish reading the verse we started.
48:38 This is how it began,
48:39 "When they saw the boldness of Peter and John,
48:41 they perceived that they were uneducated,
48:43 untrained men, they marveled..."
48:46 And then what?
48:47 "They realized
48:49 that they had been with Jesus."
48:55 How can it happen?
48:56 How can I know that I know, that I know?
48:59 How can I have the confidence of Peter?
49:00 How can I have the confidence of Paul?
49:02 How can I have the know that I know, that I know,
49:06 how can I have it?
49:08 Go, go be with Jesus.
49:11 In the morning when you rise,
49:14 when you take your lunch break
49:17 and before you go to bed at night.
49:19 What if you call off work?
49:22 Not because you're sick, but because you want
49:25 to take a 24-hour retreat with Jesus.
49:31 You say, can it happen any other way,
49:34 can it just be kind of download?
49:36 I read one of those devotional scriptures
49:37 at the top two paragraphs,
49:39 little illustration, and I'm good...
49:40 No, no, no, no, no, no, no...
49:42 They had been with Jesus.
49:46 They had not referred to Jesus, they had not glanced to Jesus,
49:49 they had saturated their lives with Jesus.
49:52 And that's how birthed within them
49:55 was this confidence,
49:57 this know that they know that they knew,
50:00 that they had the answer
50:02 to their own hearts and to the world.
50:06 Acts is not only a history of past events, beloved,
50:10 but it is a prophecy of future.
50:14 Those looking forward to the second coming will note
50:18 with care that the characteristics
50:19 of the early Christian movement
50:22 are to mark the work of God at the end as well.
50:28 The Book of Acts is a narrative prophecy,
50:31 not just a record of the past,
50:33 but it is a prediction of the future.
50:36 There will be people like Peter, and John, and Paul
50:41 who know that they know that they know.
50:47 John start, let me just give you his words.
50:49 Paul's preaching with boldness and without hindrance,
50:52 symbolized a wide open door
50:54 through which we in our day are to pass.
50:57 The acts of the apostles have long ago finished,
51:01 but the acts of the followers of Jesus
51:04 will continue until the very end.
51:09 Come on, GYC.
51:10 Let's do it again.
51:15 Let's take up the invitation from Acts,
51:21 not as just a narrative of the past,
51:23 but a prediction of the future of a story of our lives.
51:27 God is still writing His story with men and women
51:34 that will move with confidence and with boldness.
51:37 The Book of Acts ends with the appeal,
51:40 "Will you join us with all boldness?"
51:45 The final verses of this book
51:51 on invitation, beloved.
51:55 So how can we not answer?
51:58 And say to the end,
52:00 we will be the final part of the story.
52:06 Is there one of you,
52:08 is there one of you this morning that'd say,
52:10 "That's me.
52:11 I'll stand, I'll stand, I'll stand."
52:22 Hallelujah.
52:24 Let's sing together.
52:26 This commitment to Him,
52:27 "Faith of our Fathers is still alive."
52:41 Faith of our fathers! living still
52:48 In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword
52:55 O how our hearts beat high with joy
53:03 Whene'er we hear that glorious word
53:10 Faith of our fathers holy faith!
53:17 We will be true to thee till death
53:25 Our fathers, chained in prisons dark
53:32 Were still in heart and conscience free
53:40 How sweet would be their children's fate
53:47 If they, like them, could die for thee!
54:40 Faith of our fathers! holy faith!
54:47 We will be true to thee till death
55:00 "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
55:04 I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh,
55:06 your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
55:08 your young men shall see visions,
55:10 your old men shall dream dreams.
55:12 And on my menservants, and on my maidservants,
55:15 I will pour out My Spirit in those days."
55:20 So let it be, oh, God, in our generation.
55:24 Amen.


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Revised 2019-05-30