Participants: Pr. Brian McMahon
Series Code: RSH
Program Code: RSH000024
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00:09 The escalation of global terrorism, crime, immorality
00:12 and natural disasters, seems to indicate our world 00:15 is spiraling towards it's ultimate hour with destiny. 00:18 Who, if anyone, will survive Earth's final events? 00:21 Discover what Bible prophecy reveals about the rapture, 00:24 the mark of the beast, and Armageddon. 00:26 Though shrouded in mystery for centuries, 00:28 the book of Revelation can be understood today. 00:32 Peer into the future, and see what wonderful things 00:35 God has planned for His people. 00:38 And now, Pastor Brian McMahon presents the powerful 00:41 Bible seminar "Revelation Speaks Hope". 00:51 I am crucified with Christ, therefore I no longer live, 00:58 Jesus Christ now lives in me. 01:04 I am crucified with Christ, therefore I no longer live, 01:12 Jesus Christ now lives in me. 01:29 Embrace the cross where Jesus suffered, though it will cost 01:40 all you claim as yours. Your sacrifice will seem small 01:48 beside the treasure, eternity can't measure 01:54 what Jesus holds in store. 02:03 Embrace the love the cross requires; 02:10 cling to the One who's heart knew everyday. 02:18 Receive from Jesus fountains of compassion, only He can fashion 02:28 your heart to move as His. 02:34 Oh, wondrous cross, our desires rest in you, 02:40 Lord Jesus make bolder to face with courage the shame 02:52 and disgrace You bore upon Your shoulders. 03:05 Embrace the life that comes from dying; 03:13 come trace the steps the Saviour walked for you. 03:20 An empty tomb concludes Golgotha's sorrow, endure then 03:27 till tomorrow your cross of suffering. 03:38 Embrace the cross, embrace the cross, 03:46 the cross of Jesus. 04:20 For our hymn of preparation we're going to sing 04:23 "As we come to you in prayer", and for those of you who'd like 04:26 to come forward, do so, as we sing this. 04:39 Now, Dear Lord, as we pray, 04:44 take our hearts and minds far away 04:51 From the press of the world all around 04:58 To Your throne where grace does abound. 05:04 May our lives be transformed by Your love, 05:11 May our souls be refreshed from above. 05:18 At this moment, let people everywhere 05:26 Join us now as we come to You in prayer. 05:47 May all of you who can, please kneel as we come to our Lord 05:49 in prayer. 05:56 Blessed Lord, we thank You once again so much for 05:59 the Sabbath day, we thank You for the rest from the cares 06:01 of the world, we thank You for lifting burdens from our 06:04 shoulders, there are those in this congregation this morning 06:07 who have first come to know You in this recent series of 06:10 meetings that we have had that we've been so blessed with. 06:13 There are those who have known You for a long time, Lord, 06:16 and wondered away, like the prodigal son, have come back 06:19 to see You Lord, and there are those who have been here 06:22 all along, but maybe are not as close to You now as they 06:25 once were. We ask You, Lord, this morning 06:28 to open all of our hearts to see You, Lord, 06:31 to hear You, to praise You, and to welcome You into our 06:34 hearts that we may enjoy the salvation, and the glory, 06:38 and the love that You have to share with us. 06:41 Please, this morning, bless Your servant, Brian McMahon, 06:43 who is going to speak for us, and who's going to open 06:46 Your Word for us, and help us to listen to the message 06:49 that is poured out by the Holy Spirit, that we may be blessed, 06:53 and that we may know You so much more closely this week 06:56 as we go back out into the world, fortify our hearts 07:00 against sin and temptation. Lord, we ask You also, 07:03 as You know all the cares and all the troubles that are 07:05 in the hearts here, and in the families associated with those, 07:09 to please provide healing and comfort by Your grace, Lord, 07:13 and through Your mercy. We thank You for that 07:15 mercy Lord, as we know that you have given us that which we 07:19 have not earned, but You've given us the sacrifice of Christ 07:22 in our stead. We thank You once again, Lord, 07:25 in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 07:58 We'd like to do one of our favorite songs, "Ancient words", 08:03 the word's will be up on the screen, please sing along. 08:12 Holy words long preserved For our walk in this world, 08:22 They resound with God's own heart 08:26 Oh, let the ancient words impart. 08:33 Words of life, words of hope Give us strength, help us cope 08:43 In this world, where e'er we roam 08:47 Ancient words will guide us home. 08:54 Ancient words ever true Changing me, and changing you. 09:04 We have come with open hearts Oh let the ancient words impart. 09:16 Holy words of our faith Handed down to this age. 09:25 Come to us through sacrifice 09:30 Oh heed the faithful words of Christ. 09:37 Holy words long preserved For our walk in this world. 09:46 They resound with God's own heart 09:50 Oh let the ancient words impart. 09:58 Ancient words ever true Changing me, and changing you. 10:07 We have come with open hearts Oh let the ancient words impart. 10:18 We have come with open hearts Oh let the ancient words impart. 10:31 Oh let the ancient words impart. 10:46 A man walked into my real estate office 20 years ago, 10:52 and as he walked in, I'd never seen this man before, 10:55 he was from the island of Sri Lanka, and he spoke very 10:59 broken up English, but I invited him in and I said: 11:04 "How are you? What is your name? " 11:06 He says "My name is Tom", I said "Come on in Tom. " 11:09 "Can I give you some coffee? " I was a coffee addict at 11:11 the time, I drank about 10-14 cups probably, 11:14 I drank every time someone came into my office, I had a cup 11:17 of coffee, you could imagine what I was like at the end 11:19 of the day. [Audience laughs] 11:22 He said "No, I'm not a coffee drinker. " 11:24 I said "Well, come on Tom, everyone drinks my coffee, " 11:27 "won't you have a cup? " He says "No, no thank you. " 11:30 Now this should have tipped me off that this man 11:33 might have been somewhat different. 11:35 Well, he came in and I said "Well, what can I do for you? " 11:38 He said "I'm interested in buying some property. " 11:42 I said "Well you've come to the right place. " 11:45 So we got talking about a piece of property and then 11:48 after a particular period of time "Well Tom, we've gone" 11:50 "about as far as we can go here on this, let me get in touch" 11:53 "with you, and we'll do the next business. " 11:55 He said "Well, that's fine Brian, I want you to call me, " 11:58 "but just remember this if you would please", I said 12:01 "What's that? " He said "Please don't call me" 12:04 "between Friday evening and Saturday evening. " 12:07 I said "Okay, that's fine, easy enough. " 12:09 He was in my office several days later, we were talking about 12:12 the same business transaction, and as we were parting company, 12:14 once again I said I would get in touch with him, and he said 12:17 "Great, won't you please do that? But just remember" 12:20 "one thing as I go, remember, please don't call me between" 12:22 "Friday evening and Saturday evening. " 12:25 I said "Well Tom, that sounds kind of permanent, what's" 12:28 "the situation here? " [Audience laughs] 12:30 He says "Well I'm a Seventh Day Adventist, and we don't do" 12:32 "do any kind of secular business like this on the Lord's day, " 12:34 "which is Friday evening to Saturday evening. " 12:36 This was brand new to me, I had never consciously met 12:39 a Seventh Day Adventist before in my life, I grew up some 12:41 1 block away from the church, and yet, in all the time I 12:44 walked by there going to school every day, we didn't pay much 12:46 attention to the church, I noticed with some curiousity 12:48 that cars met there on Saturday, so we thought they were pretty 12:51 weird people. [Audience laughs] Well, I went to the Catholic 12:54 church, and as I went to the Catholic church I went there 12:56 every single week on Sunday, and we thought that, well, we had 12:59 the Pope on our side, so that was a pretty good thing 13:01 all things considered, and we thought we were pretty safe, 13:04 why not? The Pope's with us. 13:06 But going to church on Sunday and being a Catholic left me 13:09 with a lot of questions, questions like 13:11 "who is God anyway? "; and "what does He expect" 13:13 "of me? "; and "what is the judgment really going to be" 13:16 "about? "; and "what happens when you die? "; and I would 13:18 lay awake at night as a little boy looking up at the ceiling, 13:21 thinking about all of these things and having no answers 13:23 whatsoever. As a Catholic, I went to what 13:28 we call "Catechism Class", which would be Catholic 13:30 equivalent of Sabbath school, or Sunday school for some 13:33 churches, and as we went to Catechism class we studied, 13:36 not from the Bible, but from what they call "The Catechism", 13:38 and we'd ask our questions, and the teacher would give 13:41 the answers, and she would give the best answers that she knew. 13:44 One day when I was about 7 year of age, I remember 13:46 sitting in the Catechism class and one little boy asked 13:50 the teacher this question, the little boy said "Teacher, " 13:54 "how does God know whether you're good enough to go" 13:57 "to go to heaven, or bad enough to go to hell fire? " 14:00 And the teacher answered it this way: "well it works like this: " 14:05 "When you do something good, God records that on a piece" 14:08 "of paper and puts it in a jar of good deeds, when you do" 14:11 "something bad, God records that on a piece of paper, " 14:14 "and puts it in a jar of bad deeds, and these 2 jars sit" 14:17 "on opposite shelves up in heaven. Over the term of your" 14:21 "life these good and bad deeds accumulate in these 2 jars, " 14:25 "and then when you die, God takes the 2 jars off of" 14:28 "the shelves, and in His hands He goes like this, " 14:33 "and weighs them up, and whatever jar is heavier, " 14:37 "that determines what direction you're going to go. " 14:40 Well, it sounds kind of cold, I suppose that's about as far 14:42 as you can go in salvation by works, and I'm not here to say 14:45 this morning that every Catechism teacher teaches that, 14:47 but that's what I was taught, and when you're a 7 year old boy 14:50 it makes a difference, believe me, because nobody had to tell 14:54 me what jar was the heavier jar, I knew it wasn't the good deed 14:59 jar, so that really worried me. Well, my father, on occasion, 15:03 would get all us kids into the car, he'd take us down 15:06 to church to confess our sins to a priest. 15:10 When we did that we would go in and we would say 15:12 the things that we knew how to say, sometimes we'd make them 15:15 up on the spot, but nevertheless we'd go in there and we'd 15:17 say what we said, and then the priest would always tell us 15:20 to say certain prayers as a way of atoning for the sins, 15:23 he'd say "Say 5 'Hail Mary' prayers, and 7 'Our Father' " 15:26 "prayers and you'll be forgiven", so I would do that, 15:29 and I got to be very good at saying those prayers, those 15:32 are about the only 2 prayers I really could say, but I got 15:34 to be very good at saying those prayers. 15:37 When it came to the "Our Father prayer", well, you know 15:40 that, but the "Hail Mary" prayer, it goes like this: 15:42 Hail Mary, Full of Grace, The Lord is with thee. 15:44 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit 15:47 of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, 15:49 pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. 15:52 Amen. 15:54 I don't have to try to say it, it's just there, when you've 15:56 said it 10,000 times, you know it. [Audience laughs] 15:59 So I would say those prayers over, and over, and over again, 16:02 sometimes 50-100 times as I would lay on my bed looking 16:04 up at my ceiling, and every time I said one of those prayers 16:07 I thought of God, or an angel, or someone up in heaven, 16:09 recording the fact that I'd say that prayer, because that's 16:11 a good deed, and putting it in my good deed jar. 16:13 So I thought "Well, I'll get it a little heavier", but 16:16 the problem is you never know when you might be 1 slip 16:19 of paper short. So you'd say another 50 16:21 prayers, well that's pretty good, but maybe 16:24 I don't get a slip of paper for every 16:26 prayer, so I say another 100 prayers, and then next night 16:29 I'll say another 50 prayers, and still I would think that 16:32 good deed jar just isn't heavy enough yet. 16:35 I'll tell you dear friends how glad I was when I saw 16:39 that verse in the Bible one day "For by grace are ye saved" 16:42 "through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift" 16:45 "of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. " 16:48 That had special meaning to me growing up like I did. 16:51 After a while church became very dry, and cold, and formal, 16:56 I would say in church every week "Lamb of God, who takes" 16:58 "away the sins of the world, have mercy on me. " 17:01 "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world," 17:04 "have mercy on me. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins" 17:06 "of the world, grant us peace. " We'd say that every week, 17:09 I had no idea who the Lamb of God was, no clue. 17:11 I didn't know John 3:16, I didn't know one verse in all 17:13 the Bible, but I got a lot of gifts from Catechism class. 17:16 When I was about 15 years of age, I went to the movie 17:19 theater, I'm certainly not advocating that, but I went 17:22 to the movie theater and I saw a horror movie. 17:25 You know how Hollywood just absolutely slanders the Word 17:28 of God, they never get it anywhere close to being right, 17:31 but they mentioned the book of Revelation, and the mentioned 17:35 the beast, and they mentioned the 666, and I went home scared. 17:38 So I tried to find a Bible in our house, that was not an easy 17:42 thing in our house, we never read from the Bible, 17:44 for obvious reasons I didn't know a verse, so I tried to find 17:48 a Bible, I searched through the house, and in my brother's 17:51 bedroom, one of my 3 brothers, I went down there, and on 17:53 the shelf, he had a little tiny pocket Bible, and I grabbed it. 17:58 I opened up to the book of Revelation, and I read in there 18:01 and I found where it said "All the world wondered after" 18:04 "the beast", and I saw that number "666", and I saw 18:08 where it mentioned the dragon, and I said to myself 18:10 "Why would they all wonder after the beast? " 18:12 I said "Wouldn't they know it? Couldn't they see it? " 18:16 "It can't be a good thing. Why would they do it? " 18:20 And then I prayed the first prayer that really came 18:23 from my sincerity of heart, and I said "Dear God, one day" 18:28 "I want to know what all those things mean. " 18:31 I closed up that little Bible and I put it back in its place 18:34 on the shelf, and I forgot all about it. 18:37 But God didn't forget about it, and God didn't forget that I 18:40 said that prayer. Well, after I graduated from 18:42 high school I went into a real estate career, and I thought 18:45 "This is what it's all about; by and sell property, " 18:48 "get lots of money, die rich", and I thought "this is what I'm" 18:51 going to do, I'm going to be the best real estate agent ever. 18:54 We went and we attended all of these success classes, 18:57 I'm in British Columbia, Canada, but we'd have these teachers 19:01 come and tell us how to make a million dollars, I always found 19:04 it interesting that they always came from California. 19:07 [Audience laughs] 19:09 Why that is, it was just that way. 19:10 So they would come, and they would teach us all of these 19:13 catch phrases, like "Whatever the mind can conceive" 19:16 "and ardently believe, it can achieve", and I would say 19:18 "Oh, that's great, I want to do that". 19:21 So we'd remember all of these things and we'd come 19:23 supercharged to work, but still I had an emptiness in my heart, 19:26 and now one day after being a real estate agent for some 19:29 5 years, here was this man in my real estate office telling me 19:35 in effect, that God had demands on my life. 19:38 You see, up until then it was all about what we can do, 19:41 "I'm going to do it, I'm going to get rich, I'm going" 19:43 "to get success", it was all "me, me, me", and now here 19:46 this man was saying "No, God is involved in your life. " 19:49 This was new to me, I never thought of God in a personal 19:51 way, God, to me, was always a big angry sheriff, or police 19:56 officer, a billion miles away that was waiting to catch me 19:59 in something wrong, so He could say "Aha, I got you. " 20:01 But now to know that God was a personal God, and that He 20:04 cared for me, I thought "Okay, this is interesting. " 20:08 So Tom said "Don't call me between Friday evening" 20:11 "and Saturday evening. " 6 days later I was in the home 20:14 of an older couple, they'd called me up and asked me 20:17 to come over, they wanted to put their house on the market. 20:19 I said "Okay, I'll come", and we were over there, and we 20:22 talked a little while. This man's name was Ralph, 20:25 and Ralph said to me, "Brian, we've got about as far" 20:28 "as we could go", I said "That's right, I'll leave you, " 20:31 "we'll talk about it more later", and then he said 20:33 "Brian, before you go, I just want to mention something" 20:36 "to you, please don't call me between Friday evening" 20:39 "and Saturday evening. " [Audience laughs] 20:42 I said to myself "Now hang on a second, I'd just heard" 20:44 "that line. " I said "Do you know Tom", 20:49 I mentioned his last name, he said "As a matter of fact" 20:52 "I do. " I said "Do you go to his church?" 20:54 He said "Yes, I do". "Are you a Seventh Day" 20:57 "Adventist too? " He said "Well, as a matter of fact" 21:00 "I am. " I thought to myself, "Wow, " 21:02 "two in 6 days. " The Lord knew I needed a 21:04 one/two combination; one wasn't enough, I had a very 21:07 thick skull I suppose. So we got talking, and Ralph 21:10 said "Would you mind waiting here just a moment", 21:13 I said "Sure", and he went in his bedroom and he got his 21:16 Bible out, and he said "May I share with you just a little" 21:18 "bit about why we keep the Sabbath? " 21:21 I said "Well, I'm open, go ahead. " 21:23 Then he opened his Bible and Ralph started going through 21:25 his Bible so beautifully, and so naturally, Genesis, Exodus, 21:29 Old Testament, New Testament, back and forth, he knew it. 21:32 Then he closed it up and he says "This is why we do this". 21:36 I said "Wow, Ralph, you are the most amazing man I have" 21:41 "ever seen in the Bible. " He was the only one I had 21:43 ever seen in the Bible, but I said "Ralph, you're the most" 21:46 "amazing man, how do you know all those things? " 21:49 He said "Well, I've just memorized where it is, " 21:52 "and now I can turn to it. " I had memorized sports 21:55 statistics like you could not believe. 22:00 I grew up in Canada, you know what sport we play up there, 22:03 right? I played hockey for 18 years, 22:06 ice hockey that is, and I could tell you who won 22:09 the Stanley Cup championships from that current year 22:12 all the way back to the beginning, I could tell you 22:15 who played in what team, how many goals the'd scored, 22:17 how many points they had, I could tell you all of that 22:20 and much, much more, useless trivia, I had it all up here, 22:24 but I could not tell you 1 verse in the Bible, and I could 22:27 not believe how this man knew where there was a verse 22:29 in the Bible. So I said "How do you know it? " 22:32 He said "I've memorized it. " I said "Ralph, can I ask you" 22:34 "a question? " He said "Sure Brian, you go" 22:37 "ahead, you ask whatever question you want. " 22:40 I said "Ralph, who is the Antichrist and what is" 22:43 "the mark of the beast? " [Audience laughs] 22:45 And he said to me "What faith did you say you were? " 22:48 [Audience laughs] 22:49 And I sort of stuck out my chest and I said 22:52 "Well, I'm a Catholic. " Ralph had an awesome decision 22:54 to make. [Audience laughs] 22:57 We know that it is in God's providence that truth is 23:00 unveiled gradually that we are better able to assimilate it, 23:02 and receive it, but somehow God must have impressed Ralph 23:05 that he could share with me a little quicker than usual, 23:08 so Ralph started to share with me about some future events, 23:11 and I wasn't angered, I wasn't upset, but I was interested. 23:14 I said "Wow, that is amazing", he said "I knew that it would" 23:17 "be amazing to you. " He said "Before you leave, " 23:20 "can I just share a book with you? " 23:22 I said "Sure, that's okay. " What book do you think he shared 23:25 with me? Well, Ralph shared with me 23:30 this book called "The Great Controversy". [Audience laughs] 23:33 But you knew that; and I took this book home, 23:36 "The Great Controversy", and I started to devour it. 23:40 I couldn't put it down, I read it when I was eating my 23:43 breakfast cereal, I like breakfast cereal, and I read it, 23:46 and read it, and then I took it to work to read it, 23:50 except most days I stayed home from work to read it. 23:53 I'm ashamed to say I tried to read it while driving one 23:55 day, [Audience laughs] ...not a smart thing. 23:59 I stopped that practice, but what I'm saying to you is 24:02 it was fascinating to me. It answered every single 24:04 question I ever had growing up, and when I'm finished that book 24:08 I put it down, and without knowing the author, or anything 24:12 else about it, I said to myself "Whoever wrote that book" 24:16 "must have been inspired of God", and sure enough, 24:20 that book did what it was meant to do, which was to lead me 24:23 to the Greater Book. I said to myself "I don't own" 24:25 "a Bible, but that book is saturated with Bible texts, " 24:28 "so I need to go get a Bible", so I went down to the Christian 24:31 book store and I bought myself a Bible, and I started to read 24:33 that Bible, and I started to find out that all the things 24:36 that that book talked about are in the Bible. 24:38 Then I really began to be convicted because Tom had 24:42 talked to me about the Sabbath, and Ralph had talked to me 24:45 about the Sabbath, and that book mentioned the Sabbath, 24:47 and this book sure mentions the Sabbath, so I began to drive 24:51 around on Saturday trying to sell real estate, but the Holy 24:55 Spirit would speak to me, not in an audible voice, but in 24:58 the closest voice you could get to audible, and this is what 25:01 the Holy Spirit would say to me? "Brian, all your life you have" 25:05 "wanted to know truth, and now you know, what are you going" 25:08 "to do about it? " I'll tell you, it was just 25:12 like an arrow through me, "Lord, I don't know what I'm going" 25:15 "to do", the voice would come back even stronger, 25:18 "Brian, all your life you have wanted to know truth, and now" 25:20 "you know, what are you going to do about it? " 25:23 And I don't know what it was in me that inspired me to ask 25:29 Ralph that question that day about the Antichrist, 25:31 and the mark of the beast, but the only thing I could think of 25:36 was when I was that 15 year old boy, and I prayed that prayer 25:40 "Lord, one day I want to know what all these things mean", 25:43 and God had remembered that prayer, even though I hadn't, 25:46 and now God had brought those things to my attention 25:48 and was saying "Well, now you know, what are you going" 25:51 "to do? " Finally I said "Lord, there's" 25:54 "only 1 thing I can do, I've got to follow You. " 25:58 So I got out of bed one Saturday morning, got dressed in my 26:02 best real estate suit and I drove to the local Seventh Day 26:07 Adventist church. When I drove to the local 26:10 Seventh Day Adventist church, interestingly enough, the local 26:12 SDA church in my little town of [?], British Columbia, 26:15 was on 7th avenue. [Audience laughs] 26:19 So there it was, 7th avenue was a busy, busy thoroughfare, 26:24 other than main street down town it was the was busiest 26:26 street, it could be argued it might even be busier. 26:28 So this was a main road, now I was convicted, but I wasn't 26:31 converted, so I said to myself "I don't want any of my" 26:34 "friends seeing me go to church" because I grew up in Canada 26:37 where it's very agnostic, they don't have the religious 26:40 background of the US, and people laughed at you for going 26:42 to church, my friends laughed, it didn't matter what day 26:45 you went to church, they'd laugh at you, and I didn't like 26:47 being laughed at, so what I did was I parked my car round 26:50 the back, and I got out of my car, and I looked left, and I 26:53 looked right, and when no one was looking, and no cars were 26:56 coming by, I ran to the front door. [Audience laughs] 26:59 Absolute truth. I got in that front door, 27:02 and I sat in the back row, and I said "I don't think anybody" 27:04 "saw me, I'm safe", and I heard my first Protestant 27:08 sermon. Now, you know the Lord saw 27:10 me coming because you don't catch God by surprise, do we? 27:13 And in that morning, the minister spoke on the 3 angels' 27:16 messages of Revelation 14, God's last day, final warning message 27:20 to the world, and it grabbed my heart, and I grabbed 27:23 the minister afterwards by the arm as he was walking down 27:25 the aisle, and I said "Can I ask you a few things? " 27:28 He was very, very kind, and he said "Sure, go ahead", 27:30 and he didn't know what he was in for, because I had saved up 27:33 1000-2000 questions all my life, and I poured it out on him. 27:36 This man was so kind, and so gracious, and he knew his 27:39 Bible so well, the Bible to him was like an extension on his 27:43 right hand, to this day I have never met a man that knew his 27:48 Bible more than that minister in [?], British Columbia, 27:51 Canada, he's deceased now, his name was Nick Trenchuk. 27:54 Nick Trenchuk was from the Ukraine, but boy, did he know 27:57 his Bible, he would wear them out, one after another, 27:59 the pages would be falling out, he'd buy a new one, he'd wear 28:02 it out till the pages were falling out of that one, 28:03 he knew his Bible. He would carefully explain 28:07 things, and talk to me about it, and finally I got so excited 28:12 I called up my best friend, Ron, and I said "Ron, you have" 28:16 "got to get down here now. " Ron was looking for a church, 28:22 I wasn't looking for a church at the time. 28:25 In the parable of the prodigal son, the prodigal son went 28:29 away from home, and when the time came he knew how to walk 28:32 home; in the parable of the lost sheep, the lost sheep 28:35 got lost and the shepherd had to come out and get that sheep 28:38 and bring it back, but in the parable of the lost coin, 28:40 there was a lost coin sitting out there, and it didn't even 28:43 know it was lost, that was me, I didn't even know. 28:46 God came and got me, and brought me to where He needed me 28:48 to be, but you see, Ron was looking for a church at the 28:51 time, and sometimes enthusiasm can carry the day, 28:54 even when you don't have much knowledge, I didn't have 28:57 much knowledge, but I had enthusiasm that moment, 28:59 and I said "Ron, you've got to get down here", so Ron 29:02 came down, and I said "Ron, Ron, I've learned so much things", 29:05 and I poured it, I was talking a mile a minute, and he said 29:08 "Oh, be careful, you know you don't know". 29:10 I said "Ron, we're going to do some visiting",. 29:13 I got a tape recorder, I didn't have a meeting like this 29:15 where we could come, and night by night systematically go 29:16 through the fundamentals of the Christian faith like this 29:19 in a wonderful way from God's word, I didn't have that 29:22 opportunity at the moment, so what we did was we got 29:24 a tape recorder, and we went to visit some local ministers 29:26 around that area, and we'd call them up, and we'd say 29:29 "Can we come and see you? " They'd say "Sure, go ahead", 29:31 so we'd come, and we'd say "Do you mind if we tape" 29:34 "record this? ", and they'd look sideways at us, and they'd 29:36 say "Well, I guess it's okay. " So we'd tape record it just to 29:38 be able to take it home and remember what we talked about. 29:40 I asked the only questions that I knew, I didn't know much, 29:43 but I said "What do you think about the 10 commandments? " 29:45 "Are they for us or not? " "What's the old covenant" 29:48 "to you, what's the new covenant to you? " 29:50 I'd ask these basic questions, and the minister would answer 29:53 the best way he knew, and we'd take it home and we'd listen 29:55 to it, and we'd say "No, it doesn't square with the Bible, " 29:58 "what he's saying is not what the Bible says, we've got to" 30:00 "keep looking. " If you were coming to my seminar 30:03 you'll remember that it was in this series of going around 30:05 interviewing ministers that I actually had one minister say 30:08 to me that it would have been alright if he went out in 30:10 the street with a machine gun and mowed people down, 30:12 it didn't really matter in the long run because he was saved 30:14 by grace. Ron and I looked at each other 30:18 and said "Next church". [Audience laughs] 30:22 Well, we kept looking, and we kept looking, and finally we 30:26 decided if we didn't find a church with any more truth 30:29 than the one we were at, we were staying put. 30:31 Friends, 20 years later I'm still here. 30:34 [Audience] Amen. So we said "We've go to do" 30:36 "what we've got to do, we've got to be baptized. " 30:39 So I was baptized, but just before I was baptized I began 30:42 to be convicted of that fact that I was working on Saturday. 30:44 I was trying to sell real estate because that was the busiest 30:47 day, and finally I said "No, I'm not going to sell" 30:50 "real estate on Saturday anymore", Oh, I got mocked 30:52 for that, I got scoffed at for that, there were 59 real estate 30:59 agents in my home town of [?], so you know who 31:01 your competition is, and of those 59 agents I knew of only 31:06 1 that went to church, just kind of giving you an idea 31:08 of the religious mindset, and she was married to a minister, 31:12 so we always said to ourself, "Well she has to go, that's why" 31:15 "she goes". [Audience laughs] So I said "They're never going" 31:18 "to understand the fact that I'm not going to sell real" 31:22 "estate", and sure, my office came to me and they'd say 31:24 "Brain, you got to sell on Saturday, it's the busiest" 31:27 "day, don't you know how much you're going to miss? " 31:29 I said "No, I'm not going to do it"; the Bible says 31:32 "I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed" 31:34 "begging bread". To God's glory, and not man's, 31:37 I was in the top 5% of the real estate bracket for that 31:39 area when I became a Sabbath keeper, when I left that 31:42 industry I was still in the top 5%. 31:45 God knows how to sell more real estate in 6 days than man can 31:48 in 7. So I took care of that problem, 31:52 I said "No, I'm not going to sell on Saturday", and the Lord 31:55 blessed, but I also was playing hockey every opportunity 31:59 I could, I played it on 3 or 4 teams at once if I could. 32:02 I'd literally lived at times in a hockey ring. 32:05 Well, you know that the tournaments are always on 32:08 the weekends, so I finally said "Well, I'm not going to" 32:11 "play hockey on the Sabbath anymore, so I'm going to go" 32:13 "to my team. " Well, I went there, you've got 32:16 to imagine this team of men, they care for neither God, 32:20 nor man, they were certainly not at all inclined to have 32:24 someone come and tell them that for religious reasons you're 32:26 not going to play, and it wasn't like I was unimportant, I was 32:30 the captain of the team. So here I was going to them, 32:35 standing before them, telling them that no, I'm not going 32:38 to play on the Sabbath anymore, they didn't even know what 32:41 the Sabbath was, and after that was all done, and they certainly 32:47 didn't understand, then I was also playing on a football team, 32:50 totally different set of guys, and I went before them and said 32:53 the same thing, I'm not going to play on the football team 32:55 anymore. I want to tell you this morning, 32:58 that was probably the hardest thing I've ever done, 33:00 and I was co-captain of the football team. 33:03 So to stand before those 40 men, and say what I said, it wasn't 33:07 easy, but I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, 33:10 it was good for me. When you lose the fear 33:13 of what man does, or what man says because of your 33:17 stance for God, you have got a tremendous victory in 33:20 your life. [Audience Amen] 33:21 ...and after I took that stand in front of those men, 33:24 I felt like a tremendous weight had been rolled off my 33:26 shoulders, and I was free to serve God as I desired to serve 33:30 Him. Well, at that particular time 33:33 I noticed a difference, my house used to be the popular 33:36 house, people would come by all the time, and parties would 33:38 go on there, and I'm not going to go into all the background 33:41 of things that were done, because we all know that sin 33:43 is ugly, and we all know that we should leave it alone, 33:46 what do you say? But all of a sudden the phone 33:49 didn't ring like it used to, all of a sudden people weren't 33:51 coming by like they used to, no one was knocking on the door 33:54 like they used to, and I began to wonder "How come nobody's" 33:56 "coming by anymore? " And I realized that the Bible 34:00 says "Can two walk together except they be agreed? " 34:04 Then I would read my Bible, and Romans 8:5 would come up 34:07 and said "For they that are after the flesh do mind" 34:10 "the things of the flesh; but they that are after" 34:13 "the Spirit the things of the Spirit. " 34:15 So the Lord began to impress me, "Yes Brian, you're becoming" 34:18 "more spiritually minded, and the fleshly doesn't want" 34:21 "what the spiritually wants. " I would sit at night at home 34:23 and I'd open up my Bible, Sabbath would come on a Friday 34:26 night and I would read the Psalms, and for the first 34:28 time in my life I had peace, perfect, beautiful peace. 34:31 I'd read Psalms like Psalms 16:11, where it says 34:33 "At Thy right hand are pleasures forever more. " 34:36 Oh dear friends, I thought "That's what I want, " 34:39 "I want God's approval, and not man's approval. " 34:41 People would come up to me and they'd say "Don't you" 34:44 "know what you're giving up, don't you know, what you're" 34:46 "sacrificing", and I'd say "Yes, I know what I'm sacrificing, " 34:49 "I'm not sacrificing anything that's worth more than" 34:53 "the approval of Jesus. " Then people started to come 34:56 to me, from the church now, they started saying 34:59 "You know Brian, I feel impressed that you might want" 35:02 "to be a minister", and I said "No, you're not impressed with" 35:05 "that, don't even say that to me". [Audience laughs] 35:09 I thought of a minister, priesthood, something like 35:11 that, I said "No, that's not for me", and then someone else 35:13 from the church would come up and say "You know Brian, " 35:16 "all you're doing is studying all the time, you're sharing" 35:18 "Bible studies with people", and that's true, I was doing that 35:20 more than I was selling real estate, I was giving Bible 35:23 studies, and trying to witness as I could, and they would 35:25 say "I think you should maybe become a minister. " 35:28 I'd say "Please don't tell me that, that's the last thing" 35:30 "I want. " And then another one would 35:33 come up, and another one, and I began to say to myself 35:35 "Oh, I get it, it's a conspiracy", they all got 35:38 together and they said "Now you go tell him, then I'll go tell" 35:40 "him, then you go tell him", but no, that actually didn't happen, 35:43 they were impressed one by one to come up and say, 35:45 share with me what they thoughts were, sometimes we recognize 35:48 things in each other before we recognize them in ourself. 35:50 Then I began to think about it, and I began to think 35:53 "It's true Lord that I really don't have a burden to do" 35:56 "what I was before, and I really do have a burden to do" 35:58 "this and this only. " So I knew that I needed to pray 36:01 because I couldn't open up the Bible and find a verse that 36:05 said "Brian, you need to go to college and study for" 36:07 "the ministry", I knew that verse wasn't in the Bible. 36:10 So what could I do? I said "Well, I'll be like" 36:12 "Gideon, I'll throw out Gideon's fleece " 36:15 So I got down by my bed, I knelt down on my knees and I prayed, 36:19 and this is what I prayed, Id said: "Lord, school starts in" 36:22 "about a month, I've got this big fancy car I just bought, " 36:26 "I got a loan on it. I can't take that to college" 36:28 "because I won't be making any money, and I don't want to make" 36:30 "payments, so that's got to be sold, but Lord I need some" 36:33 "money for college, so it's got to be sold full price", 36:35 see, what I'm going to do is put so many conditions on God 36:37 that He's not going to answer it, He can't answer it because 36:40 I've put so many conditions, so I said "You've got to sell my" 36:42 "my car, if You want me to go to college and study for" 36:44 "ministry, then You've got to sell my car", it was a flat 36:47 market, nothing was selling, real estate wasn't selling, 36:49 nothing was selling, interest rates were sky high. 36:51 I said "You've got to sell my car, and Lord, you need to sell" 36:54 "it within 30 days, and Lord, I want full price. " 36:57 [Audience laughs] 37:00 I got off my knees pretty confident because I didn't want 37:03 to go. What happened next, brothers 37:06 and sister, happened just this way. 37:08 When I got off my knees the phone rang, there I was in 37:11 the bedroom, I walked around the corner to the kitchen, 37:14 I picked up the phone, like this and I said "Hello". 37:17 A lady was on the other end, she said "I hear you have a car" 37:20 "for sale". [Audience laughs] 37:24 And I went: [demonstrates] 37:28 And I said "...yes... " She said "Well, can I see it? " 37:35 After I took a breath I said "I guess so", I drove that car 37:40 over there, she bought that car full price, and I had to say 37:45 "Lord, that's quick enough for me". [Audience laughs] 37:48 Now lest anyone get depressed over this story, I want to tell 37:51 you that's the only time I've ever had a prayer answered 37:54 that way; the Lord has answered prayers for me, 37:56 but never in that way, but the Lord knew I needed it then, 37:59 it was a life changing moment, and God gave me that moment, 38:03 and I thank Him for that. So I said "Well Lord, I think" 38:05 "that You're telling me something here. " 38:07 So I started having garage sales, I said "I've got all" 38:09 "this worldly stuff I've accumulated through the years, " 38:12 "I really don't need it anymore, I'll start selling it off. " 38:15 So I sold off all kinds of books, and sold of equipment, 38:18 and sold off...you name it. Garage sales are great when 38:20 you want to get rid of stuff. So I said "Well, I'm selling" 38:24 "all this stuff off, I've got to keep my hockey stick because" 38:27 "you never know who I might impress at college by how fast" 38:30 "or hard I can shoot a hockey puck, and I've got to keep" 38:34 "my football because you never know who I might impress" 38:37 "by how far I can through a football", I didn't have many 38:40 talents, you've got to use what you have. 38:44 So I kept my hockey stick, and I kept my football, and I kept 38:48 one other thing, I had to keep this. 38:55 When I was flat on my back with the flu one time, 38:59 someone, you know what this is, [shows a Rubik's Cube] and it 39:02 was a real rage in the mid 80s, so someone threw this into my 39:05 hand, early to mid 80s, someone threw this into my hand and 39:09 said "Here, play with this while you're sick there on the couch", 39:12 so I looked at that, and having a real mathematical left brain 39:15 mind I said "Well, sure, I'll figure that out. " 39:18 So I scrambled it up, and I learned the key, the codes 39:20 to it, the equations to it, so I started to get faster, 39:23 and faster, and faster, pretty soon I was like the neighborhood 39:26 champ, I wasn't ready for the national level, but I was fast 39:31 enough at it that I thought I could impress people at 39:34 get togethers. So we'd have a social, a party 39:36 would happen, and at the right time, or at the right moment 39:39 I'd whip this out of my pocket and scramble it up, 39:41 and put it back together again, "See, pretty good, right? ", 39:44 put it back, well I took my Rubik's cube to college thinking 39:48 it would impress somebody. You've got to understand that 39:51 this is a Christian college, this is Weimar College here 39:54 in California, just up the road. When I got to Weimar College 39:58 they didn't care about my hockey stick, they didn't care how hard 40:02 I could shoot a hockey puck, they didn't care how far I 40:04 could throw a football, and they sure didn't care about my 40:07 Rubik's cube. So, not having anyone to impress 40:10 I put my Rubik's cube up on my shelf in my dorm room, 40:13 and about every month or so I'd take it back down, and I'd 40:15 scramble it up, and put it back together again, 40:17 I thought if I couldn't impress anyone else, I'll just impress 40:19 myself I'll guess. Then I'd scramble it up, and put 40:23 it back together and say "Ahh, still the champ", 40:26 put it back up. But I was getting involved 40:28 in Christian activity now, and I was getting involved in 40:31 outreach, ministry, Bible studies more and more, 40:35 and finally one day after so many months of college I took 40:38 my Rubik's cube down, scrambled it back up, and I couldn't 40:40 remember the first thing about how to put it back together. 40:43 I couldn't remember the first level even, it was frustrating 40:46 to me, and I had anger all over my face, and I was trying, 40:48 and trying, and trying, and just one of the dorm mates 40:51 walked into my room and he saw all this frustration on my 40:53 face, he said "Brian, what is the matter with you? " 40:56 And I told him the whole story of the Rubik's cube, how I used 40:59 to be the neighborhood champ, and now I can't remember at all, 41:02 and he got the biggest smile on his face folks, and he said 41:04 this, he said "Brian, you ought to be rejoicing today, God has" 41:07 "just healed your mind. " I said "You know what? " 41:12 "I get your point, this is a time waster", so I looked 41:16 for the round file in the corner and I went [does action], 41:18 2 points right in the corner, I said "No, that's not what" 41:21 "I'm going to spend my time with, I'm going to spend my" 41:23 "time with this. " I had a Rubik's cube wasting my 41:26 time, I don't know what you have wasting your time this morning, 41:29 but we all have these little Rubik's cubes that are taking 41:32 up time in our life; some might be TV, some might be improper 41:35 reading, whatever it is, but I decided that if I really wanted 41:39 to make good use of my time I'm going to study God's word 41:41 like never before. So I made a renewed commitment 41:44 to it, and we had a dorm hallway there, and I would walk up 41:46 and down, and up and down, and I would take passages, like 41:49 the sermon on the mount, long passages, and I would commit 41:52 them to memory, 1 Corinthians 13, Psalm 91, 41:55 Psalm 23, Psalm 1, Psalm 51, all of these beautiful passages, 41:59 I'd commit them to memory and it's amazing how much you 42:03 can commit to memory when you really put your mind to it. 42:07 Just before I'd left Canada to come down to Weimar College, 42:11 someone had thrown a set of camp meeting tapes in my hand. 42:15 They said "Well, it's a 1000 mile trip, here's something" 42:17 "to pass the time. " I took the little cassette tapes 42:19 and I said "Great, who is the speaker? " 42:22 They said "Well, his name is Joe Crews". 42:25 "Joe Crews? Never heard of him, what's he about? " 42:28 "Oh, he has a ministry called 'Amazing Facts', it's on" 42:30 "the east coast", I said "Never heard of it". 42:33 So I listened to these tapes, and as I listened I said 42:36 "Wow, that is powerful preaching. " 42:38 I said to myself, "Well, it was nice to listen to Joe Crews' " 42:41 "tapes, but I'll never meet the man, his ministry's on" 42:44 "the east coast", at that time it was, "and I'm here on" 42:47 "the west coast, but it was nice listening to Joe's tapes. " 42:50 So when I got to Weimar College, being a single man, 42:54 I looked around and I saw a beautiful, sweet and petite 42:59 lady names Heidi, and Heidi was there for just that 1 year, 43:06 and as it turns out, Heidi was Joe Crews' secretary. 43:11 I didn't know that until she informed me of it, but she had 43:14 taken a year out of being Joe Crew's secretary at Amazing 43:16 Facts on the east coast, then it was in Frederick, Maryland, 43:19 and she decided she would come to the college that year. 43:21 Well, when we got to know each other as friends 43:23 she found out that I had an interest in Joe Crews, and she 43:26 was Joe Crews' secretary, so one day she came to me and she said 43:30 "You know, Joe crews is doing a series of meetings", 43:33 similar to what I've been sharing with you here, 43:35 "in Hayward, not too far away, would you like to go? " 43:38 Well, I said "Yes", but I really had an ulterior motive, I wanted 43:42 to go to see Joe, but I wouldn't mind being with her either, 43:44 [Audience laughs], so I said "Yes" on 2 fronts. 43:48 So we went there, and I listened to Joe preach, 43:52 and the Spirit spoke to me and said "Brian, this is what" 43:54 "I want you to do. " 43:57 Not only did I meet Joe Crews, but to show you how the Spirit 44:01 works, I married his secretary, Joe did the wedding, 44:06 and then I went to work for his organization, so God does 44:08 lead His people. Time is not adequate this 44:14 morning to share all that God has done in my life, but I do 44:17 want to share this with you, this is a precious faith. 44:22 Being a Catholic, like I was, it was coming out of a dark, 44:27 dark closet into the light of the noonday sun. 44:31 When you come out of darkness into light, sometimes you've got 44:34 to rub your eyes to get adjusted, but oh, when you get 44:36 adjusted the light is sweet. 44:38 Being a Seventh Day Adventist gives you 2 very, very precious 44:41 things, it gives you many things, but I'm going 44:44 to summarize it in 2 things: it gives you the clearest 44:49 understanding of who God really is; all of the other faith 44:54 emanates from what your understanding of God is, 44:57 so that's so important. So it gives you the clearest 44:59 understanding of who God really is, and secondly, it gives you 45:04 the clearest understanding of what God's will is for 45:08 your life. Those 2 things together are 45:11 very powerful. When I first started 45:15 studying the Bible, there was a girlfriend that was there, 45:19 not Heidi, but a girlfriend that I knew, she invited me over 45:23 to her house, she had a bunch of people that were Sunday 45:27 attenders in her house, I had just started to read the Bible, 45:31 and I remember that I was like the new person, the new 45:34 Christian, so I said "I'll just be quiet and listen", and they 45:37 were talking about all kinds of subjects, and they were 45:41 giving their input, but most were just giving opinion. 45:45 Then when it came around to me, and I said "Brian, what do you" 45:47 "think on the matter? " I said "Well, in Genesis it" 45:50 "tells us over here, and in Matthew it says here, and in" 45:53 "the Old Testament it tells us this, and in the New" 45:55 "Testament...", and I was going like this back and forth, 45:58 and there mouths dropped open and they said "How do you know" 46:00 "all these things? We've gone to church all our" 46:03 "life and never known these things, we've gone to church" 46:05 "school all our life and never learned these things", 46:07 and then it hit me, we had a saying in real estate, it went 46:11 like his: "You can have 20 years experience, or you can have" 46:14 "1 years experience and repeat it 20 times. " 46:18 Some people could have 20 years of church attendance and have 46:21 20 years of Christian experience, or they can have 46:24 1 year of Christian experience and repeat it 20 times. 46:27 It's not how long you go to church that matters, it's what 46:31 you put in the years, it's what you put into it. 46:35 I determined that I wanted to put the most into it. 46:39 I had a girl come to me one time and she said "Brian", this is 46:43 back at home now, she said "Brian, I thought you would be" 46:46 "the last one to become a Christian", oh, that hurt. 46:50 I said "Was I really that bad? " She said "No, you really" 46:53 "weren't that bad, but I just never thought of you as" 46:57 "a Christian", and that really spoke something to me, 47:01 we ought not to write anybody off; the enemies of the church 47:05 today could be the champions of the church tomorrow. 47:07 Never underestimate somebody, Paul was turned around 47:09 in 1 day, and so can many people who are opposing God's truth 47:13 today, God is calling people out of Babylon as we sit 47:17 here this morning, and this set of meetings that we've been 47:19 having, people have been coming out and standing for truth, 47:22 and when you come out of Babylon you've got to come into 47:25 something, you can't just come out and wonder around 47:28 with no meaning and purpose, God calls us out, so that we 47:31 can come into the remnant. And as we sit here this morning, 47:36 thousands of people across the US, and millions of people 47:39 across this world are being called out of Babylon to 47:41 an understanding of God's remnant church. 47:45 It's not the man that gives the message that matters, 47:47 the message can carry itself, and it's because of the message 47:51 that we have that so many people's hearts are moved. 47:56 Is Satan going to attack that message? 47:59 Absolutely. Is he attacking it now? 48:01 Yes, he is. Will he continue to attack it? 48:04 Yes, but nothing is going to stop this message, why? 48:06 Because it's the message of Jesus, it's the faith of Jesus, 48:09 and I want to be part of that faith, don't you? 48:12 I want to be like Paul, in 2 Timothy 4:7,8 Paul said: 48:16 "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, " 48:20 "I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up" 48:22 "for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous" 48:25 "Judge is going to give me that day, and not to me only, " 48:27 "but to all of them also that love His appearing. " 48:30 I want to be like Paul, in Isaiah 25, I want to be like 48:33 one of those who when the Lord comes will say: "This is" 48:36 "the Lord, and He will save us; this is the Lord, we'll be glad" 48:39 "and rejoice in His salvation. " Don't you want to be one 48:42 with those that lift up your heads and your voices, and say 48:45 that very thing? This morning I wonder how many 48:49 of you are giving up things so that you can be part of this 48:51 remnant movement. Some of you this morning 48:54 have been giving up jobs, some of you are giving up maybe 48:59 worldly friends, some of you are giving up a past diet, 49:03 or lifestyle, some of you are giving up churches that you 49:07 used to belong to, but friends, whatever we give up, 49:12 if the Lord asks us to move in a certain direction, He's only 49:15 asking us to give up that which hinders us in the heavenward 49:19 journey. God will always supply us with 49:23 something better, will He not? In my life there was that time 49:27 when I was afraid to be seen going into that church, 49:31 by God's grace, it wasn't long before I was standing 49:34 on the porch of that church waiting for cars to drive by 49:38 so that I could wave to them just like this, and I could say 49:41 "Hi, this is where I am, this is my church, you should be" 49:45 "here too", isn't God wonderful? God always gives us grace 49:49 for what we need, and God always supplies something better 49:53 for what we give up. I wonder how many champions 49:56 we have this morning for God's faith right here? 50:00 God is looking for champions of the faith this morning, 50:02 God is looking for people who, in their inmost souls, are 50:06 true and honest, God is looking for people who are going 50:10 to stand up for what is right when champions are few. 50:14 This morning I want to know if there are some champions here, 50:17 I believe that you're all champions for the faith. 50:19 There's a song that I'd love to close this message with 50:22 called "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour", can we get 50:24 that song played here, I don't know who we have playing 50:27 the piano this morning. Here we are. 50:31 As Seth plays this song and as we put the words up on 50:35 the screen, I'm going to ask you to stand right now, would you 50:39 stand, up in the balcony, would you stand? 50:44 Listen dear friends, brothers and sisters in the faith, 50:50 some come down when it's time for prayer because you have 50:54 a burden on your heart, I'm going to ask you to come down 50:57 to the front this morning because you want to be 50:59 a champion of the faith. You may never have come forward 51:02 before, come forward this morning. 51:05 When Paul stood before the governor Felix, Seth, play a 51:09 a little quieter, when Paul stood before the governor 51:14 Felix, Felix said to him "Paul, go your way, when I have" 51:20 "a more convenient season, I'll call for you", the Bible never 51:24 records any time when Felix ever made that call. 51:28 God is calling people this morning, is He not? 51:31 Today's the day to say "Lord, I want to be a champion of this" 51:34 "faith", come forward as we sing this wonderful song 51:37 right now. 51:42 You all can see it on the screen so let me hear your good voices. 51:47 Pass me not, O gentle Savior, Hear my humble cry; 51:57 While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. 52:07 Savior, Savior, Hear my humble cry; 52:17 While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. 52:29 My brothers and my sisters, did Jesus suffer publically 52:32 for us? Amen. Did He go to the cross publically for us? 52:36 Amen. Jesus asks us to publically 52:39 acknowledge Him as He publically died for our very sins. 52:43 Those of you up in the balcony, don't think you're up in 52:45 the balcony you can't come forward, you can start 52:47 early, okay? Just start early, come on down 52:50 and join us down here, we don't want to leave you out. 52:52 I think it's important that when we leave a place 52:55 of worship we leave closer to God than when we came in. 53:00 I thank God that all of these people are standing up in front, 53:03 but we've got room in these aisles, I can see the room down 53:05 this aisle, and I can see some room down this aisle, 53:08 we've got some room in these other aisles, and I'm going 53:10 to ask, just as a public acknowledgment that you want 53:13 to be a champion of the faith, you don't want to just come 53:15 to church every week and go through the motions, but you 53:18 do truly want to stand for what this faith believes, 53:21 it's the faith of Jesus, it's the faith that honors 53:24 the commandments of God, is it not? 53:26 Is that what you want for you life, brothers and sisters? 53:28 Then do something this morning that will let heaven know 53:30 that you want to take a stand, let's fill up these aisles 53:33 right here, and as we do so, come on down from the balcony, 53:35 and make a more to show that you too want to be part of this 53:37 faith, and heaven takes notes of these things, we don't just do 53:40 it for exercise, we do it because heaven takes a note, 53:43 let's fill up these aisles and sing together. 53:48 Thou the Spring of all my comfort, More than life for me, 53:58 Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in Heav'n but Thee? 54:08 Savior, Savior, Hear my humble cry; 54:18 While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. 54:30 Aren't little children wonderful? 54:34 We're told to be like little children, have a trusting faith, 54:37 some of us get above that, we feel too proud for whatever 54:40 reason to take a stand for Jesus, but heaven notes it, 54:44 and the Holy Spirit is given to those that especially want 54:48 to witness for the faith. Some of you are giving up 54:52 worldly lifestyles, some of you are giving up body destroying 54:55 vices, or you're giving up just the approval of peers, 54:59 but to take a stand for Jesus means something. 55:02 "Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, " 55:04 "and say all manner of evil against you for My name's" 55:07 "sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward" 55:10 "in heaven. " I hope you're exceeding glad 55:13 for the faith. Never think it more important 55:17 what you're faith denies you, than what your faith gives you. 55:21 The true Christian will always say "What does my faith" 55:23 "give me? " I hope that you feel this 55:25 morning a joy, and a love in your heart for Jesus 55:27 because of what your faith gives you. 55:29 Let's finish this wonderful song together, and let's fill up 55:32 these aisles just a little bit more for Jesus' sake 55:34 this morning. 55:38 Thou the Spring of all my comfort, More than life for me, 55:47 Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in Heav'n but Thee? 55:57 Savior, Savior, Hear my humble cry; 56:07 While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. 56:19 Let's pray together as we close. Father in heaven, we thank You 56:25 that You love us enough to take us through trials 56:27 and difficulties, don't remove all the mountains Lord, 56:31 but give us strength to climb them, don't remove all 56:34 the valley's of difficulty, give us the faith to walk through 56:37 them. Lord, help us to know 56:39 that no matter what we go through, no matter what we 56:42 deny ourself for Jesus' sake, it's going to be worth it 56:45 because one day we're going to get to be with You, 56:48 and Lord, when we're with You all of these things will have 56:51 passed away, and we'll be so thankful that you allowed us 56:57 to go through it, for Your sake. So bless us this morning Lord, 57:01 I ask for Your blessing especially on all of those 57:04 who have stood for the faith this morning, maybe they've 57:07 come to church for a lot of years, but never really stepped 57:09 out of the pew into an aisle before. 57:12 Lord, I want to thank You, and ask You to honor that stepping 57:14 out this morning, and give them a greater portion of Your 57:17 Spirit. And those this morning that 57:19 maybe had difficulty doing that, Lord, bless them also, 57:22 give them courage, give them a great faith, Lord, 57:25 give them an understanding to know that You are wanting 57:28 to move in their life too, and help them to be standing 57:31 up for champions before Jesus comes back. 57:34 Lord, we ask You now to bless us each one according 57:37 to our faith in Thee, give us a greater faith, and help us 57:40 to all be ready when You come soon, Father, 57:43 for Jesus sake, amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17