Participants: John Bradshaw
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000064
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00:12 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth from the 3ABN Worship Center.
00:17 The Great Controversy with John Bradshaw. 00:22 I was at the General Conference Headquarters on last year, 00:25 and I was listening to a world leader of the church 00:28 talk about his experience with the book, The Great Controversy. 00:32 He said that he was going to preach in Denver, Colorado 00:35 and got snowed in to his hotel, interestingly enough, with the 00:41 Bible and The Great Controversy. 00:42 For two days, nothing but the Bible and The Great Controversy. 00:45 And he read The Great Controversy through in two days. 00:48 Which is no small feat since you're talking a book of 00:51 about 600 pages. 00:52 But he said it changed his life. 00:55 And we agree that The Great Controversy 00:57 may be one of the most powerful books written by Ellen White. 01:01 Because it gives us a view of the conflict between 01:07 good and evil, between Christ and Satan, 01:09 on a macro level, on a cosmic level, on a worldwide level. 01:15 During these particular meetings, our speaker 01:17 John Bradshaw has taken that macro view and brought it down 01:24 to a personal level. 01:25 He has taken the great controversy and applied it 01:28 to individual lives. 01:30 And we see how this macro battle between Christ and Satan 01:35 has very micro ramifications in our own lives; 01:39 how the battle is played out in the lives and hearts 01:42 of men and women worldwide. 01:44 And so it is my pleasure to welcome you once again 01:47 to the fourth in our series of meetings 01:50 dealing with the great controversy. 01:52 And today his topic is going to be, 01:56 The Controversy And The Time Of The End. 02:01 And so we're going to take a look at the great controversy 02:04 as it impacts on end time life; your life, my life. 02:12 We expect a great work from the Lord this day. 02:14 And so I ask you to give ear to the man of God as he speaks, 02:17 and open your hearts for the message. 02:19 Which I believe will help us take one more step 02:21 along that road that leads to glory. 02:25 Our music ministry this morning is coming from our friend, 02:27 our founder, Danny Shelton. 02:29 He will be singing the song, All My Praise. 02:32 But before he comes to minister to us in music, 02:34 would you now bow your heads with me in a word of prayer. 02:38 Gracious Father, we just praise You and we just thank You. 02:42 We love You so very much. 02:44 We thank You, Lord, for any number of things; 02:46 for life, health, strength, for the Sabbath day, 02:50 for Your goodness. 02:52 But most of all, Lord, we are thankful for Jesus; 02:55 the Author, the Finisher of our faith, 02:58 the One in whom we live and move and to have our being, 03:04 the Lord of all. 03:06 Father, as we sit now, we ask You to prepare us for Your word. 03:10 Because we want to be prepared on that Day when 03:13 Jesus comes again. 03:15 So help us, Lord, to feast on Your word, 03:17 as it were, to fatten up on Your word, so that when the 03:21 lean times come we will be full of Your word. 03:27 We praise You, Lord, and we ask You to have Your way this day 03:30 in our lives for those in this house and those watching 03:34 and listening around the world. 03:35 We just praise You and thank You. 03:37 Bless this speaker. 03:38 In Jesus' name, amen. 03:41 And now, Danny Shelton. 03:42 The next voice you will hear after him will be that of 03:45 our speaker, our friend, John Bradshaw. 04:03 All my praise, 04:07 I give You all my praise. 04:15 That's all I have to offer You. 04:26 I now build a sanctuary deep within my heart. 04:37 And all my praise I offer up to You. 04:49 I love You Lord, oh how I love You Lord. 05:01 I bear my heart and soul to You. 05:12 I'm an empty broken vessel 05:17 filled with hurt and pain inside. 05:23 Still I offer up all my praise to You. 05:35 Fill me Lord, oh please fill me Lord, 05:47 with Your Holy Spirit. 05:52 Fill me now. 05:58 For I long for Your anointing, 06:04 that I may work for You. 06:10 Fill me Lord, touch me Lord just now. 06:21 All my praise, 06:26 I give You all my praise. 06:34 That's all I have to offer You. 06:44 I now build a sanctuary 06:50 so deep within my heart. 06:56 And all my praise I offer up to You. 07:06 Oh, and all my praise 07:11 I offer up to You. 07:29 Well, we must say thank you, and thank the Lord. 07:31 And I must say good morning, everyone. 07:33 Good morning, everyone. 07:34 What a blessing to see you here and a blessing 07:36 for me to be here. 07:37 Blessing, you know. 07:38 It gives me an opportune opportunity. 07:42 Is there such a thing? 07:43 An opportune moment for me to mention something here. 07:45 And I hope you don't mind me doing that. 07:47 But right before this television program began, 07:49 there was a one or a two minute broadcast 07:53 featuring a lovely looking fellow with a 07:57 mellifluous New Zealand accent. 08:04 I'm not saying who it was. 08:07 Could have been anyone. 08:09 But what it was, was Every Word. 08:10 And that's a daily devotional that I do at It Is Written. 08:13 And I would encourage you to receive that 08:14 because I think you'll be blessed. 08:16 And I'm confident that others will be blessed 08:18 as you take the opportunity to share it with someone else. 08:20 I mentioned just a couple of nights ago right here how 08:23 a friend of mine was asked by an individual 08:26 what it is that helps him be so positive. 08:28 He said, "I start my day with a spiritual thought." 08:30 And he gave him a little card. 08:32 He said, "Why don't you try this." 08:33 And so the devotionals are general enough to be a 08:36 blessing to everybody, pointed enough to be worth something, 08:39 not too pointed that your neighbor is going to be 08:41 offended by them or you be offended by them. 08:44 So do check that out. 08:45 If you go to itiswritten.com, you'll see the little thingy. 08:49 It use to be a big thingy, but we made it little because the 08:52 big part is now given to our evangelistic series in 08:55 Paris, France coming up. 08:57 You'll be able to click there and then subscribe. 08:59 I would encourage you to subscribe. 09:01 You'll be blessed. It's 60 seconds long. 09:03 Although, I think today, if you'll look at the web site, 09:06 we've really blown it out and we've gone to 2 minutes. 09:09 Two minutes. 09:11 That's a marathon. 09:13 A 60 second start to your day. 09:15 I'm just wanting to suggest that if it's not 09:17 your thing, then great. 09:18 If it is, you'll say, "That was a blessing." 09:21 We are here to talk about the great controversy. 09:23 Not the book so much. 09:24 Perhaps this afternoon when we speak, I might get into 09:26 the book just a little bit. 09:28 But this great theme, really, it's the foundation of the 09:32 message that God has given us down here in the end of time. 09:35 The great controversy theme. 09:37 We're going to discuss this a little bit more. 09:39 This is our fourth part. 09:41 And this afternoon, part five and the final part. 09:46 The great controversy theme is that theme, 09:49 it's that thing that brings together the very aspects 09:53 of what we believe as a people. 09:55 It pulls together the teachings of God and lines up in a 09:59 cohesive manner who we are, why we're here, 10:03 what we believe, what we are to do with it, 10:05 and where we're going. 10:06 It helps us to see why it all matters. 10:08 And the great controversy theme gives us the big picture, 10:12 the big picture. 10:15 It is when you step back and see the big picture that 10:18 things start to make sense. 10:20 I mentioned, if you took a... 10:22 What do you call that thing you look at the stars with? 10:24 A telescope. Right? 10:25 If you took a telescope to the zoo and zoomed in 10:29 on an elephant, you would say, "I don't know what that is. 10:32 It's just a patch of gray." 10:35 That's all you would think. 10:37 If you backed off a little bit and maybe looked with 10:39 the naked eye, you would see, ah, elephants. 10:41 Several of them walking in the elephant enclosure 10:44 out there in the wild. 10:45 You see, the big picture helps you make sense 10:48 of all the little parts of the big picture. 10:51 You may look at a piece of a jigsaw puzzle 10:54 and say, "I don't know what this is." 10:56 It's a color, maybe a line through it. 10:58 When you look at the box, the jigsaw puzzle box, 11:02 you see where it fits in. 11:04 You say, "Ah ha, it's part of a bigger picture." 11:09 And so, we want to look at and consider the bigger picture, 11:13 the bigger picture. 11:14 There's much we could talk about it. 11:17 But why don't we just talk about it and pray, 11:21 and expect God to bless us. 11:23 Let's pray, would you bow your heads with me as we pray. 11:27 Our Father in heaven, we thank You today that we 11:29 can come to You in the name of Jesus. 11:31 We are grateful. 11:33 And in the words of the old hymn, "In our hand 11:35 no price we bring. 11:37 Simply to the cross we cling." 11:39 And Lord, we cling. 11:42 David said long ago, "What is man that 11:44 Thou art mindful of him?" 11:45 What are we? 11:48 All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 11:52 And so we are grateful today that as Peter wrote, 11:56 "The longsuffering of our God is salvation." 12:00 I am thankful You bear with us. 12:03 And I am thankful that as a Master Gardener, 12:07 You tend Your garden that You might grow us 12:10 into trees of righteousness, 12:13 that You might grow us that we would be ready 12:17 for the harvest. 12:19 And so as we think about that harvest, 12:21 after a certain fashion this morning, we pray Your blessing 12:26 not just that we be blessed, but that our minds be clear, 12:31 that we hear the voice not of the speaker, 12:34 but the voice of a Savior. 12:37 That we hear the voice not of man, 12:38 but the voice of the Holy Spirit. 12:41 I pray that we'll see something in Your Word 12:43 today that will help us, help us towards Your kingdom. 12:46 And not just help us, but I pray that during our deliberations 12:50 and our meditations You will be glorified and lifted up, 12:56 and seen to be as the God of this universe 12:58 and the sinners only hope. 13:01 Grant us these mercies now. 13:02 We pray humbly and we pray sincerely. 13:07 And we pray in Jesus' name. 13:09 Please would you say with me, amen. 13:15 A couple of days ago, I read a very fascinating article 13:19 by a fellow named, Malcolm Gladwell. 13:22 If you're not familiar with Malcolm Gladwell, 13:24 your life is probably going to be okay. 13:27 But if you are, you'll know that he's a smart journalist. 13:32 Insightful fellow. 13:35 He make a couple of books particularly famous. 13:37 One was called, The Tipping Point. 13:39 Another was called, Blink. 13:42 I'm not saying I recommend them. 13:44 I'm not sure at all of the content of them. 13:46 I'm simply saying they're well known books. 13:49 What Gladwell does is he has a happy knack of 13:52 looking at very interesting insightful investigations 13:58 into the way the human mind works. 14:01 And he will explain certain social phenomena. 14:05 Because he will explain to you that you might not have 14:07 understood this, but the mind works a certain way. 14:11 You could call him, I guess, a behavioral scientist. 14:14 He's not. He's a journalist. 14:16 But he acts a little bit in his writings like a 14:19 behavioral scientist. 14:20 Why do we do some of the things that we do? 14:25 Now in this article that I read just a couple of days ago, 14:28 Gladwell explained that... 14:30 And this struck me as surprising. 14:33 He explained that when David was victorious over Goliath, 14:39 that wasn't really such a big surprise. 14:43 In as much as by analyzing historical data, 14:48 it is found that a surprising amount of the time, 14:52 David triumphs over Goliath 14:56 in warfare, one nation against another. 15:00 There were certain parameters that he drew. 15:01 There were certain metrics that he applied to this. 15:04 But you might get a small army, that people thought had 15:08 absolutely no hope, fighting against a very large army. 15:12 And a remarkable proportion of the time, 15:15 the small army actually triumphs over the large. 15:19 Not always, of course. 15:21 But a surprising amount of the time. 15:25 And he said here's why. 15:27 In situations like that, David recognizes that he is David. 15:33 A stripling, a lad. 15:35 Weak, one might say. 15:38 And he recognizes that Goliath stands over 9 feet tall. 15:43 David recognizes that if he goes to Goliath like this... 15:47 ...and says, "Bring what you've got, Goliath," 15:51 Goliath will squash him like a bug. 15:54 If he fights Goliath on Goliath's terms, 15:58 he will not win. 16:00 However, when David does something unorthodox, 16:04 something that Goliath isn't expecting, 16:07 it is then Goliath can be surprised and even defeated. 16:12 What was it in the Bible narrative that took place 16:15 in David versus Goliath? 16:17 Well to begin with, the king, the cowardly king, 16:19 who should have been out there fighting Goliath himself, 16:21 he said to the lad, "Here, put on this armor." 16:25 And David said, "No, I cannot fight in that armor. 16:27 That's just not going to work for me. 16:29 I need to fight in my own armor. 16:32 I cannot play to your strengths, king. 16:34 I don't need to be following an orthodox path here. 16:38 I don't want to be following convention because 16:40 convention will fail me. 16:41 Instead, I need to be doing what works for me. 16:44 Just let me go out there with a slingshot 16:50 and five little stones, five smooth stones." 16:53 Now ladies and gentlemen, that's madness. 16:57 Goliath was 9 feet tall. He was a brute of a man. 17:00 He looked like he'd been carved out of the side of a mountain. 17:02 He was covered up with armor. 17:04 He had in front of him an armor bearer. 17:07 And David said, "I'm going to come up against Goliath 17:10 with a piece of leather and five pebbles. 17:14 And that will be enough." 17:17 Well, David did something else that was interesting. 17:20 He had an element of surprise. 17:23 What did David do? 17:24 Did David walk up and stalk up and slink up and skulk up? 17:28 What did David do when he went up against Goliath? 17:31 He ran, he ran right towards him. 17:33 Here's this great big guy. 17:34 He's been defying the armies of Israel for goodness 17:37 knows how long. 17:38 "All they will do is quake in their boots 17:40 and shiver and shake." 17:41 Yet along comes a lad, sizes up the situation, 17:44 makes a short excursion to a creek, whips out his slingshot, 17:47 and runs towards the giant. 17:51 Goliath was surprised. 17:53 There was an element of surprise. 17:54 David had an unorthodox approach. 17:58 And of course, it didn't hurt that David was a crack shot 18:02 with a sling, did it. 18:03 That helped. 18:05 Goliath died. 18:07 The champion fell. 18:08 Gladwell talked about that. 18:09 He also talked about T.E. Lawrence. 18:11 You might know him better as Lawrence Of Arabia. 18:14 Lawrence Of Arabia won victories he should never have won 18:17 with a rag tag group of soldiers who were not well fitted 18:20 for conventional warfare. 18:21 Instead, recognizing they were not stronger, 18:26 Lawrence decided they had to be smarter, 18:29 smarter than the foe. 18:31 They needed to be agile, they needed to be aggressive, 18:34 they needed to be indefatigable. 18:35 They could not tire or relent. 18:38 They had what Gladwell would call, just to coin a phrase, 18:43 attitude. 18:45 Attitude. 18:47 He then went on and talked about something very fascinating. 18:50 He wrote in his article about a girl's basketball team. 18:55 Now, there was a group of girls that formed a basketball team. 18:57 They were 12 years old. 18:59 Little girls in the Silicon Valley in California. 19:03 Now the coach was an Indian man, I mean Indian from India, 19:08 who had never played basketball in his life. 19:11 And he sized up the situation. 19:14 He said, "I've got a bunch of skinny white girls who've never 19:16 played basketball and don't know anything about it. 19:19 I do not want to see them get whipped every week. 19:23 I want them to win. 19:25 But I'm not much of a basketballer. 19:27 I've never played the game." 19:28 This man was a computer programmer. 19:30 Smart fellow. 19:32 His computer engineering has actually implicated 19:34 and affected the world in which you live. 19:36 He's done some stuff that's very smart. 19:39 He said, "How can we approach basketball knowing that 19:42 we're up against Goliath and we're going to lose. 19:44 We will fight against big tall girls. 19:46 Girls who were born with basketballs in their hands. 19:49 Girls who can shoot the ball through the hoop 19:52 with their eyes closed. 19:53 My girls are little, they're not strong, they can't shoot. 19:57 They're not good basketball players. 19:58 But we are going to win." 20:00 He looked at basketball and he said, "Why do people play 20:02 basketball the way they play?" 20:05 The team has the ball, the other team runs back. 20:08 And gets on what? 20:10 Defense. 20:11 And they get in position so that the other team can 20:14 execute a move they've practiced a thousand times in practice. 20:18 And when they score, this team who scored 20:21 runs back to the other end and defends while the other team, 20:26 who just got scored on, takes the ball and they execute 20:28 a move that they have practiced two thousand times in practice. 20:31 And so it goes backwards and forwards. 20:33 And the computer programmer looked at this and said, 20:35 "This is madness. 20:37 Also, if my girls play that way, we will lose every time." 20:41 He said, "Now that's not going to work." 20:42 He sized up the game and he said, "Here's what we'll do. 20:46 We'll take an unorthodox approach. 20:49 When the other team gets the ball, instead of running back 20:52 to our end, we'll get right up in their face. 20:55 And I will teach my girls to defend, defend, defend." 20:58 You've heard of full-court press? 21:00 There are times teams apply the full-court press. 21:03 This fellow had his girls apply the full-court press 21:05 all game long. 21:09 And so, here are these other 12 year old girls who play 21:11 plenty of basketball, but they weren't use to having some girl 21:13 stick her hand in their face. 21:15 And so they looked for someone to pass to 21:17 but everybody was defended. 21:18 And they're back at the other end. 21:21 Often they would hang onto the ball too long 21:23 before the five seconds or ten seconds, or however long it is. 21:26 They'd have to give possession up. 21:28 These girls were under the basket, they would score, 21:30 and then they'd stay there and get their hands 21:32 in the girls faces again. 21:34 There were times they would score fifteen goals unanswered. 21:38 They would start the game on a 25 points to nothing tear 21:42 because the other girls were not use to 21:44 David's unconventional approach. 21:49 And so you say, "Why don't professional teams do it?" 21:51 Don't know. 21:53 For the same reason that professional basketballers don't 21:55 throw free throws like this... 21:59 Anybody remember the basketball player who use to throw 22:02 free throws like that? 22:03 Rick Barry. 22:05 And he had an excellent scoring percentage. 22:07 But other basketball players looked at Barry with the 22:10 granny shot and said, "That's just not cool." 22:14 So they shoot like this because it's cool, even though they're 22:17 not going to get the ball in nearly as much of the time. 22:19 See, convention doesn't always help. 22:22 You might need to be unconventional. 22:24 Particularly when your name is David and you are 22:27 up against Goliath. 22:29 Basketball is not war, no. 22:33 Some people would say it's much more serious than that. 22:38 But it isn't war. 22:39 But it makes the point. 22:41 Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes you are 22:43 up against a powerful foe. 22:44 And if you fight the foe on the foe's terms, 22:46 you are going to lose. 22:49 Instead, you've got to think about what your strengths are. 22:54 You've got to play to your strengths. 22:55 You might need to be maneuverable, 22:57 you might need to be responsive, you might need to be agile. 23:01 And you are definitely, definitely, definitely 23:05 going to have to have what Gladwell called, attitude. 23:09 You're going to have to have the right attitude. 23:11 Ladies and gentlemen, we can learn from that. 23:14 Please, in your Bible, turn with me to the book of Revelation. 23:17 In the book of Revelation, we read about the big picture. 23:21 We read of the great controversy that is 23:23 raging in this world. 23:24 You could call it the great controversy between 23:27 good and evil, but that would be slightly inaccurate. 23:30 That would be one step away from where you need to be. 23:33 This is the great controversy between Christ and Satan, 23:36 between Christ and Satan. 23:38 Satan, we'll get to this in a moment, fell when 23:40 he was in heaven. 23:42 And he hates you. 23:44 And he hates you particularly because you love God. 23:46 Even if you didn't love God, he'd still hate you. 23:51 I'm amazed. 23:54 And every now and then he does this; 23:56 Satan will bless his own. 23:58 But Satan even hates his own. 24:02 Isn't that something? 24:04 That's why he'll take someone and get him or her hooked, 24:09 addicted, down trodden, beaten down, and then 24:14 chew that person up and spit him or her out. 24:17 You would think that he'd want to bless people for 24:19 acting like devils, but he doesn't. 24:22 Satan hates you because God loves you, 24:25 because you were made in the image of God. 24:27 So he hates us, he hates us. 24:29 And we read in Revelation 12 and verse 12, 24:31 "Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them." 24:34 The verse goes on to say, "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth 24:37 and of the sea, for the devil is come down 24:41 unto you having..." What? 24:43 "...great wrath." 24:44 What does that word "wrath" mean? 24:45 It means what? Anger. 24:47 But he doesn't have anger. 24:48 He has what kind of anger? 24:50 Great anger, great wrath. 24:52 Why? Because he knows that he only has a... What? 24:55 We are in an enemy, my brothers and my sisters, 24:58 we are in an enemy against an enemy that we are... 25:00 Not in an enemy, we are in a warfare. 25:02 We are in a warfare against an enemy that is bigger than us, 25:08 more powerful than us, smarter than us. 25:13 If you've been alive as long as the devil, 25:16 you have learned some things. 25:18 He's smart. 25:20 Now he's not smart enough to surrender to Jesus. 25:24 But he's smart, he's clever. 25:25 If you want to match IQ's with the devil, you are going to lose 25:28 no matter how smart you think you are. 25:31 The Word of God tells us we are caught in the midst 25:35 of a great controversy. 25:38 Long ago, Satan said that he wanted to be like God. 25:40 How do we know? We read it in Isaiah 14. 25:43 "I will be like the Most High." 25:45 He wanted to sit in God's place. 25:48 And so the misery we see in the world today is caused by 25:51 an angry devil desperately determined to receive on earth 25:56 the worship he was not successful in getting when 25:58 he was in heaven. 26:00 When you read the story and you get to the end of the story, 26:04 you discover Satan is going to sweep the world away. 26:08 Look around. 26:09 He's doing a pretty good job. 26:11 Revelation chapter 13 says, "All that dwell upon the earth 26:15 shall..." Do what? 26:17 You know it's so interesting, isn't it? 26:19 It's so interesting. 26:21 The Bible doesn't say, "All that dwell upon the earth 26:23 will follow him," even though it does say, 26:26 "All the world wondered after the beast." 26:28 It says they'll go a step further than following. 26:33 I mean, you might be a republican or a 26:35 democrat or an independent. 26:36 You might be fixing to vote later on this year 26:38 and you would say, "Well, I want to follow President Obama," 26:42 or "I want to follow whoever is on the other side." 26:44 Romney most likely, I don't know. 26:47 Or, "I'm going to follow some independent." 26:50 But you're not going to worship them, one might hope. 26:53 To follow is one thing. Right? 26:56 You might see someone who's got a nice coat on 26:59 and you say, "I like that coat. 27:01 I'm going to get one just like that." 27:02 You will follow her or his example. 27:04 But that's not worship. 27:06 The Word of God says, in the end of time 27:08 all the world will worship the beast, bowing down, 27:13 yielding allegiance, falling flat on their faces. 27:17 And I guess that's symbolically speaking. 27:20 Everybody, except for a remnant, 27:25 the group whose names are not written in the book of life 27:27 of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 27:29 Here we are in the time of the end, and the controversy rages. 27:33 Heaven's final judgment is taking place 27:36 and the controversy rages. 27:38 We do not have long. 27:40 Do you agree with me that we don't have long? 27:42 We do not have long. Look around the world. 27:44 Environmentally, the world is groaning. 27:47 Some say it's falling apart. 27:49 I don't know what you make of global warming. 27:51 But there's some crazy things going on out there, 27:53 global warming or not. 27:56 The world seems to be getting about... 27:59 Now I'm thankful that in southern... 28:01 Can you believe this; in southern California 28:03 the air quality is much better than it was a generation ago. 28:06 Thank God I got to southern California when I did. 28:10 So it's not all bad news. 28:11 But generally, globally. 28:13 We're cutting down the rain forests and we're sending 28:16 pollution up into the air. 28:18 We are barely managing to hold it together. 28:20 Economically, if you believe the experts, the financial systems 28:23 of the world are being held together with duct tape 28:27 and good intentions. 28:29 Morally, we are sinking. 28:32 Maybe morally we have sunk. 28:34 You cannot have an opinion anymore, 28:37 if it is biblical and traditional, without being 28:40 phobic or hateful or intolerant. 28:43 How did that happen? 28:46 I mean, you don't have to be mean about people that 28:48 you think aren't living a right lifestyle. 28:50 You don't have to, man. 28:52 God help us, there's so many Christians who are mean 28:54 and hateful towards people who are, what we would 28:58 consider, not living right. 28:59 Man, you don't have to agree with them, 29:01 but you don't have to hate them. 29:02 However, you can't even disagree now, 29:09 you can't even have an opinion now, 29:12 without being labeled a hater. 29:15 That's where we are, that's where we are. 29:19 Socially, if you want to look at how bad off we are socially, 29:25 you don't have to get down to the impoverished part of town. 29:28 You just need to look at how people are behaving 29:30 during the election cycle. 29:33 It seems as though when we're campaigning to lead the 29:37 free world, it brings out the very worst in people. 29:41 Jerry Springer proved long ago, people can lose their 29:44 sense of shame pretty quickly. 29:47 Religiously, Babylon is sharpening her claws and 29:49 getting ready to swoop, getting ready to 29:51 come in for the kill. 29:53 The churches in the world are in a perilous state. 29:57 That's not to say God doesn't have some 29:59 might fine people in them. 30:00 Revelation chapter 18 depicts God, quotes God as saying, 30:04 "Come out of her..." Who? "...My people." 30:07 So before we write everybody off, let's remember that 30:10 the majority of God's people are in churches that you would 30:15 consider aren't following all of the Word of God. 30:18 But there's a reason they've got to come out. 30:21 They come out because the churches are drifting further 30:23 and further and further away from God's ideal. 30:30 I had to laugh when I found out a fellow in Michigan was 30:33 deciding, he was a pastor, trying to figure out 30:35 how to reach his community. 30:36 He said, "I know what I'll do. 30:37 I'll start up a tattooing shop in the church." 30:45 Alright. 30:47 Suppose to have the Word of God in our heart. 30:48 You can come to church and leave with the 30:50 Word of God in your skin. 30:52 I guess that's a pretty frivolous example. 30:54 But I'm thinking that's not God's plan A. 30:57 You think that's right? 30:59 Now friends, the fact that there are churches 31:02 that we can see that we would figure are drifting, 31:03 that fact that we can see in Christianity a drift, 31:06 doesn't mean that lets us off the hook. 31:08 We have learned, in fact, many of us have learned to be 31:11 so faithful to God, we don't even smile. 31:16 We are so faithful to God, we've forgotten how to be nice. 31:20 So dedicated to truth, like it's an abstract concept, 31:25 that we have forgotten the real truth is Jesus. 31:29 So preoccupied with right and wrong we can forget that 31:32 there are people involved. 31:34 People who need to be loved and cared about. 31:36 People who need to be helped up more than they 31:39 need to be helped out. 31:41 I'm convinced, friend, we don't have long. 31:42 The Bible says so. 31:43 It seems that the only sign left to be fulfilled is 31:48 the one that said the whole world is going to 31:49 hear the gospel message. 31:52 And that sign is being fulfilled as we speak. 31:56 Literally, as we speak. 31:58 The great controversy is being carried on down through time. 32:01 It's coming to a head down here. 32:02 Satan, the master conspirator, has set this world up 32:05 so that there's nothing left for it to do but 32:07 fall over completely. 32:10 We are down here in earth's last days. 32:13 The controversy comes to a head. 32:15 God is not asleep at the wheel, however. 32:20 While Satan works... 32:21 I had somebody say to me not very long ago, 32:24 "We don't need to talk about the devil and give him credit." 32:29 "Brother, I read how the story ends." 32:32 Talk about the devil until you're blue in the face, 32:34 but if you read Ezekiel chapter 28 32:36 and Revelation chapter 20, the devil ends up 32:38 burning into ashes. 32:40 I don't think discussing what Satan is doing 32:42 is giving him much credit. 32:44 Unless you think that burning in the end of time 32:46 is a bit of credit. 32:48 Down here in the end of time, God is not asleep. 32:52 God is at work. 32:55 And what's He doing? 32:57 God is busy raising up a group of people who will 33:00 refute Satan's charges. 33:03 Satan said, "God is a liar." 33:05 Satan said that to Adam and Eve in the garden, 33:07 "God doesn't want you to have that fruit because if you do, 33:10 you'll be advantaged. 33:12 And God doesn't want you experiencing advantages. 33:14 Consider God to be cruel." 33:17 Satan has done nothing but lie about God, 33:19 and lie about God's people. 33:20 But God is raising up a people who will be faithful to God 33:24 in the most difficult period in the history of the cosmos. 33:32 Friend, I want you to think about what God is calling us to 33:35 in the time of the end. 33:36 The world wonders after the beast, we are told. 33:40 But on the other side of the page, 33:43 literally, literally on the other side of the page, 33:48 God has a people who do not receive the mark of the beast, 33:51 but instead are sealed with the seal of God. 33:54 Say it with me, "Here is the patience of the saints, 33:58 here are they that..." 34:01 And what? 34:02 "..and the faith of Jesus." 34:04 While Satan is working, while it looks like the last 34:07 drops of decency are going to slip down the plug hole 34:10 of this world, God is raising up a people. 34:14 We are to go to earth's remotest bounds 34:16 calling people to embrace Christ and the love of Christ, 34:19 calling people to remember that grace is more powerful than sin, 34:23 calling people to remember that God's ability to lift 34:26 a person up is greater than Satan's ability to 34:29 pull a person down. 34:31 I don't know someone who has not fallen along the way. 34:35 We are faulty. 34:36 But we celebrate God's grace and we revel in His ability 34:41 to make us into what we cannot make ourselves. 34:46 There is a destination we are heading to, 34:49 ladies and gentlemen. 34:51 We aren't on a train bound for no place. 34:53 We are heading for something. 34:56 And that is, let's keep it straight here, we are 34:59 heading for a date with the seal of the living God. 35:03 Now I don't want you to think I'm getting 35:05 the cart before the horse. 35:06 The destination is Jesus. That's true, that's true. 35:09 Not a belief system, not a doctrine, 35:10 not an idea, but a Person. 35:12 The destination for the Christian is Christ. 35:16 But I have a thought. 35:17 If you don't really understand what Jesus wants to do in 35:20 your life, you might never get to where Jesus wants you to be. 35:23 If you're a pilot, you don't say that the aim is flying. 35:27 The aim is the destination. 35:28 You're going to get there via the flying, that's correct. 35:32 But if you don't understand the destination and your 35:34 coordinates are off by a degree... 35:35 You know, when I was a boy growing up in New Zealand, 35:39 I road my bicycle down to Mr. Farrow's stationers shop. 35:42 That's where I picked up the newspapers. 35:44 I was a paper boy and I went and delivered newspapers. 35:46 And early in the morning, we'd go down there and 35:48 he would open the shop about a quarter to six. 35:50 And we'd get our newspapers and we'd go. 35:53 And I arrived one morning and Mr. Farrow looked ashen. 35:57 Now this man, he had the disposition of a librarian. 36:00 I don't say that unkindly. 36:01 He was a very sober looking fellow and a very responsible 36:04 kind of a man. 36:05 And he was a pillar in the community. 36:07 And when we arrived that morning, he looked ashen. 36:10 In fact, I thought I smelled alcohol. 36:14 I don't know if I did or not, but there was something weird. 36:17 And he looked like he'd seen a ghost. 36:20 And then I discovered what had happened. 36:23 We'd just found out as a nation that an airplane 36:27 that had taken off from New Zealand had just flown 36:29 into the side of a mountain in Antarctica, Mount Erebus. 36:33 You've never heard of it, but every New Zealander, 36:34 it is imprinted on our consciousness. 36:37 Imprinted. Mount Erebus. 36:39 The plane was flying, people were on a flight seeing trip. 36:42 And suddenly the pilot, or maybe the plane, said, 36:45 "Pull up, pull up." 36:46 And some sirens sounded. 36:47 And so they tried to pull up but all the did was they 36:50 managed to smear the aircraft and its occupants, 36:53 266 or 267, 260 some of them, along the side of the mountain. 37:01 They were flying in white out conditions. 37:03 They couldn't see where they were going. 37:04 You know why? 37:05 Because when they programmed the computer, 37:08 the coordinates were off. 37:12 They programmed it to fly into the side of a mountain. 37:15 Someone made a mistake, a costly mistake. 37:18 If the coordinates are off a little bit, you're not going to 37:20 make it to where you want to go. 37:23 God wants us to be so immersed in Jesus down here in the 37:26 time of the end, so immersed in Jesus in the midst of this 37:30 great controversy, that we know that Christ is going to 37:34 work in our lives to get us right to where 37:36 He wants us to be. 37:38 To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 37:42 Not marked with the beasts mark, but sealed with God's seal. 37:46 As we are sealed and given and yielded, it is then 37:52 that it is demonstrated Satan is a liar, 37:55 and God in this great controversy is true. 37:58 Our attitude, our approach, is important. 38:00 The foe is mightier than we. 38:02 If we will learn to play to our strengths, 38:06 we can triumph in this thing even though we are 38:09 David and not Goliath. 38:11 Remember what David said to Goliath? 38:13 I'm going to read it to you. 38:14 Here's what David said to Goliath, I love this. 38:16 It helps our focus, helps our focus. 38:19 What is our strength? 38:20 Remember, we've got to play to our strength. 38:22 What's our strength? 38:23 David knew what his strength was. 38:25 His strength wasn't his right arm. 38:27 Or maybe he was left handed. I don't know. 38:28 His strength wasn't the cut of the leather 38:30 that the sling was made out of. 38:32 His strength wasn't the stones, nor was it his marksmanship. 38:36 He described his strength when he said to Goliath, 38:38 "You come to me with a sword and with a shield, 38:42 but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, 38:46 the God of the armies of Israel." 38:49 Friend, the name of the Lord of hosts is our strength. 38:52 The God of the armies of Israel is our strength. 38:55 Our strength in the time of the end is Jesus. 38:58 "Here are they that keep the commandments of God," 39:00 ah, "and the faith of Jesus." 39:03 Faith in Christ, a living breathing, 39:06 moment by moment connection. 39:07 A surrender to him. 39:09 Praying without ceasing. 39:13 Living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. 39:18 If we will have the right attitude, wholly leaning on 39:23 Jesus' name, then we will experience the power of 39:26 Christ's aptitude coursing its way through our spiritual veins. 39:32 God is trustworthy. 39:34 God is good. God is love. 39:35 We can know that, and we need to know that. 39:38 The world needs to know that. 39:39 You can believe the lies if you want. 39:43 But if you taste, you will see that the Lord is good. 39:49 You know, Satan knows that. 39:50 It's one of the reasons he misrepresents God. 39:53 He might not be able to get you on some of this, 39:55 but he's wrapping up the world pretty quickly. 39:58 You know, you can think about how Satan misrepresents God. 40:06 He's got theologians all over the world 40:10 who are inventing new ways to misrepresent God. 40:16 I don't know if I've told you this already since I was here. 40:18 Maybe. 40:20 I met a lady once who was a witch. 40:22 A real one. 40:25 They exist, you know. 40:27 And she was a witch because when she went to church, 40:30 the preacher would talk about a God who would burn people 40:33 in hell forever. 40:36 Now I don't know if you know how long forever is. 40:38 You probably don't, but take it from me; 40:40 it's a mighty long time. 40:43 And the longer she thought about this God who would 40:45 burn people forever, the more she realized she didn't 40:47 want to have Him in her life. 40:49 She figured she'd be better off without Him. 40:51 And so she left Christianity all together and became a witch. 40:56 This false teaching, which has made more atheists 40:58 out of people than any other false teaching I can think of, 41:01 was invented by the devil so that in the great controversy 41:05 masses of people would say, "Who would want 41:07 to worship a God like that?" 41:09 And there are unbelievers who think believers are fools 41:11 because we bother with a God who would do that. 41:14 We don't bother with a God who would do that. 41:16 He wouldn't do that. 41:18 I talked to somebody about this once and he said, 41:21 "God can do whatever He wants." 41:22 I agree, I agree. 41:23 But there are some things God does not want to do. 41:26 What kind of a father wants to burn his children 41:28 forever and ever and ever? 41:29 It makes no... Come on, man. 41:32 Think about this in the context of the big picture. 41:34 When God began this thing, He had a perfect world. 41:37 There were no cesspools. 41:38 I grew up in a large yard, we had a big backyard. 41:42 And dad always had a compost heap. 41:44 Always. 41:46 If you spend time around... 41:48 And it wasn't a silage heap. 41:49 But if you spend time around farms, you can get to the place 41:52 where you even enjoy the smell of silage. 41:55 You can get use to it. 41:58 But the truth of the matter is, a compose heap, 41:59 that's where stuff rots. 42:02 Nasty, really, when you think about it. 42:05 You think God is going to have a universe throughout 42:10 eternity that's got some old cesspool compost heap 42:13 on it some place? 42:15 You think God is going to have a perfect 42:16 universe except for one... 42:18 It just doesn't even make sense. 42:20 There's no way you can stack this thing up. 42:22 God's not going to have a beautiful universe 42:23 except for over there. 42:25 Fly over there and you can still hear grandma squealing. 42:28 You don't want that. 42:30 Rotten teaching. 42:32 God the tyrant, worse than Hitler. 42:35 You can look at other false teachings of the Bible. 42:37 The idea that when you die, you go straight here 42:39 or straight there, straight some place. 42:41 And if you do, if you do, Jesus is a liar. 42:44 Because He said that He was the resurrection and the life. 42:47 But it means that you can get to heaven without Jesus. 42:49 That's what it means. 42:51 You can get to heaven without Jesus. 42:53 When you die, you're just going to wing your way there. 42:55 No resurrection necessary. 42:57 Isn't that something. 43:00 I was taught as a child you can come to the priest 43:03 and confess your sins. 43:05 I'm glad I don't have a bad word to say about the 43:07 priests in our church. 43:08 They were good men as far as I knew. 43:09 Good men, good fellows, 43:12 but not God. 43:15 And here we were encouraged, "Go to confession, go to..." 43:17 I wrestled with that. 43:18 As a child I wrestled with that. 43:22 And it's not just that the teaching is wrong, 43:24 it's not just that it's unbiblical. 43:26 But in the great controversy, it paints a bad picture of God. 43:31 In the great controversy, it says you can get 43:33 to heaven your way, without taking your sins to Jesus. 43:37 You see what the devil has done? 43:39 He doesn't just flood the world with false teaching. 43:41 I mean, listen, there are all kinds of people who believe 43:44 all kinds of crazy things. 43:45 It's likely that some of your doctrinal positions are wrong. 43:48 I'm talking about little stuff. 43:50 We would have differences of opinions among 43:52 ourselves on certain things. 43:53 And we're not all going to be right about every last detail. 43:55 You know what I mean? 43:56 I don't want you to misunderstand me 43:58 when I say that. 43:59 There are some details that we differ on. 44:01 That's fine, that's alright. 44:03 Often, there's no harm intended. 44:06 And that's true throughout Christianity. 44:07 But Satan intends harm. 44:10 And you might be wondering your way through life 44:12 doing what you think is best. 44:14 Satan is trying to drag you down. 44:17 He'll tell you the ten commandments don't matter. 44:19 Which is the same as telling you God doesn't matter, 44:22 because they represent Him. 44:24 He'll tell you that you're body is not the temple of the Holy... 44:26 Hang on a minute. 44:28 Let's talk about that for a moment, shall we. 44:32 Friends, we need to be serious about some of these things 44:34 because we're living in the time of the end, 44:36 in the time of the end. 44:38 John wrote, "I wish above all things that you may prosper 44:41 and be in health, even as your soul prospers." 44:43 Satan says, "If it smells good, eat it. 44:45 If it tastes good, pig out. 44:47 Why stop? 44:49 They've got a pill for that now." 44:52 I love these TV commercials, "Got heartburn? Take a pill." 44:59 The commercial should say, "Got heart burn? 45:03 Stop eating that junk you're eating." 45:06 That's what it should say. 45:09 "Take a pill." 45:10 "Ah, good, I can keep on eating my Big Mac's. 45:12 I've just got to take a pill." 45:14 Sure. 45:16 You know, John wrote that good health gives you 45:22 a spiritual advantage. 45:24 That's what he said. 45:26 Friend, we need every advantage we can get. 45:29 We're in a great controversy. 45:31 A bunch of 12 year old girls go out on a basketball court 45:33 trying to figure out how to beat these big girls 45:35 who knew basketball front and back. 45:38 They said, "We need every advantage." 45:40 And so they played to their strengths. 45:42 A strength God has given us is the truth that our body 45:45 is the temple of the Holy Spirit. 45:48 Now if you think I'm meddling; 45:50 that's alright, I am. 45:52 I'm meddling. 45:53 But I'm meddling for your own good. 45:55 You know what? I read a headline the other day. 45:57 "Red meat raises chance of dying young." 46:03 You know, in Europe they've got cigarette packets. 46:06 And on them, they've got pictures of lungs that are 46:09 getting eaten up by cancer and stuff. 46:11 Lungs with tumors on them. 46:13 I wonder if they shouldn't put some warning like that on the 46:16 side of roast beef when they're selling it at a butcher store. 46:21 Show someone who's on a hospital bed who just had some kind of 46:25 cardiac arrest. 46:27 It's in the news, man. L.A. Times. 46:30 I'm not talking about the Podunk Herald. 46:32 L.A. Times. 46:33 "All red meat is bad for you." 46:43 And some of our people think we are critical when 46:45 we talk about health. 46:47 Now it's true, it's true, you won't eat your way into heaven. 46:51 And there are some people who are a little too sanctimonious 46:54 about their garlic consumption. 46:55 They want the whole world to know 46:58 how much garlic they eat. 47:03 Garlic is good for you, man, but there are some things 47:05 you need to keep to yourself. 47:09 Let that light shine under a bushel. 47:13 But while you won't eat your way into heaven, 47:15 there's a chance you could eat your way out. 47:17 That's the truth. 47:19 Olympic games later on this year. 47:20 I haven't met one Olympian who's doing his or her training 47:23 at Krispy Kreme. 47:26 Okay, I haven't met one Olympian. 47:28 But if I had, I wouldn't have met one who's doing their 47:31 training at Krispy Kreme. 47:32 You know, during the New York marathon 47:34 they had these drink tables. 47:35 And they grab the little cup of drink and they learn 47:37 to drink on the run. 47:38 It's not 7-Up in the drink contains. 47:41 It's water. 47:43 They're putting the good stuff in. 47:44 Now don't misunderstand me. 47:45 There's room for an occasional indulgence. 47:47 You can get so stiff, man, that all you want to do 47:50 is eat crackers and lettuce leaves. 47:52 You don't need to be like that. 47:53 You can enjoy some things in your diet. 47:57 But what I'm telling you is that we are in the midst 47:58 of a great controversy out here. 48:00 And when you are under heat of a time of trouble 48:03 such as never was since there was a nation, 48:05 you are not going to be crying out to God and saying, 48:07 "Oh God, I wish I'd eaten more chocolate cake." 48:11 You won't be doing that. 48:12 You'll be saying, "Lord, it's too late for me now to 48:14 gain some spiritual advantages that I might have 48:16 gained back then." 48:18 There's coming a time when we will need every advantage 48:21 that we can. 48:23 Instead, we're fogging our minds, man. 48:25 I grew up in the Waikato in New Zealand. 48:27 Foggy place. Big river. 48:30 I use to be on the river doing my paper run 48:31 and watch the fog roll down the river. 48:35 Fog all over the place. 48:36 I can't tell you how many times I drove down the road at 48:38 fifteen miles an hour. 48:39 All I could see was the white line on the side of the road. 48:43 It was like a lifeline. 48:45 You just wanted the fog to clear. 48:48 Jesus gave us the health message so that the fog would clear 48:52 and so you could, man, you'd see spiritually for miles. 48:56 You don't have to go along pecking at the ground like 48:58 a chicken when you can fly like an eagle. 49:01 God gave us these advantages. 49:03 It reminds me of something. 49:04 When a ship gets into a storm, the captain will sometimes 49:06 give orders to toss overboard everything that's not needed. 49:09 At least they use to. 49:11 Back there in Acts chapter 27, Paul is on a ship. 49:13 The ship is in a storm. 49:15 The Word of God says, "The ship was being exceeding 49:19 tossed with a tempest. 49:20 So the next day they lightened the ship, and with their 49:22 own hands they cast out the tackling of the ship." 49:24 Now the tackling was important, but right then 49:26 they didn't need it. 49:28 And so they got rid of it. 49:30 They got rid of everything but that which was essential. 49:36 The day is coming for us. 49:38 I can't tell you just what it's going to look like, 49:40 but I can tell you that if we believe, 49:42 we need every advantage. 49:43 Then we're going to start taking some steps 49:45 to get out of our lives the stuff that isn't essential. 49:48 Some of us are going to sink under the weight of our stuff. 49:53 Time to get rid of it. 49:54 I'm not trying to talk to you about just what exactly. 49:56 You figure it out. 49:58 You pray, and God will tell you. 50:00 There's a time of trouble coming such as never was. 50:03 Better to lose some stuff and save your vessel 50:06 than keep your stuff and sink entirely. 50:09 In Proverbs, we read a verse that ought to sober us up. 50:12 Proverbs 4:23, "Keep thy heart with all diligence, 50:17 for out of it are the issues of life." 50:19 Not just diligence, but all diligence. 50:21 Keep your heart, keep your mind. 50:23 Protect it, preserve it, look after it with all diligence. 50:27 The margin says, keep it with all keeping. 50:31 You know, in this battle we call the great controversy, 50:35 There is a pressing need to keep the mind. 50:38 Because, after all, we're in a battle for the mind. 50:42 The mark of the beast is put into the minds 50:44 of those who haven't kept their mind. 50:45 The seal of God is placed into the minds of 50:47 those who have yielded their mind to God. 50:50 We've got to be diligent. 50:53 Man, I got crept out in England. 50:56 Everywhere you turn, you see signs saying, 50:59 "Closed circuit television cameras are watching you." 51:03 Someone told me... I don't know if this is true. 51:05 I guess I should check my facts before I tell you. 51:07 But someone said that 25% of all the security cameras 51:10 in the world are in Great Britain. 51:12 That's an area smaller than Colorado. 51:16 And you're in a little village in the nowhere; 51:18 closed circuit cameras. 51:20 I came out of Paddington Station in West London, 51:23 there was a closed circuit TV car. 51:27 Or for those of you who don't speak English; 51:29 a closed circuit television car. 51:36 And there were cameras on it. 51:39 They drive down the street watching you. 51:44 Frankly, I think that's creepy. 51:47 But it makes a point. 51:49 They're serious. 51:50 They're looking out for harm. 51:51 Especially in the year with the Olympic games. 51:54 They know there's trouble. 51:55 They're watching like hawks. 51:57 They are keeping their cities with all diligence. 51:59 You know what I'm saying? 52:01 Are you on the lookout? 52:03 Is Satan cutting across your bow? 52:07 This isn't life just rolling along. 52:09 We are not the three little pigs with some big old bad wolf 52:11 trying to huff and puff and blow our house down. 52:13 This is life and death. This is serious. 52:16 There is an angry devil so full of hatred toward God 52:19 that he will take you in a moment, if only he could. 52:24 The Bible says he has great wrath in this great controversy 52:28 because he knows that he has only a short time. 52:32 Friend, we need to be diligent. 52:34 The Word of God says so. 52:36 Diligent. 52:37 This isn't a time for playing church. 52:40 This isn't the time for a lackadaisical approach to faith. 52:44 This is no time for nominalism. 52:46 Nominalism is a scourge. 52:50 I hear the term "cultural Christian." 52:53 I say, what is that? 52:55 You can't be a Christian culturally. 52:58 It's not something that you're just born into. 53:01 It's not something you inherit. 53:03 Christianity is an individual personal faith relationship 53:07 with a loving living Savior. 53:09 You're not a Christian unless you've got that. 53:11 Now you might be falling. 53:12 I'm not saying you're not a Christian if you're falling. 53:13 Christianity is a growth. 53:15 Sanctification is the work of a lifetime. 53:18 Understand that. 53:20 There's a growth, the Word of God makes clear. 53:22 But this isn't a game. 53:24 You know what? 53:25 It is better to be reaching out for Jesus and falling 53:29 than to be coming to church dressed just so saying, 53:32 "Amen and happy Sabbath," and walking out the door 53:34 forgetting that God even exists. 53:37 It is better to be struggling, crying out to God, 53:42 than living that lackadaisical nominal life 53:47 and not crying out to God. 53:51 Where can nominalism lead us all? 53:54 I don't mean to be judgmental here. 53:57 But you go to the doctor and the doctor will say, 53:58 "Bob, I've got some news for you. 54:00 If you don't make some changes, you've only 54:01 got 'x' left to live." 54:04 God says some of the same things to us. 54:06 Time to make some changes; attitudinal changes, 54:08 serious about faith. 54:09 Jesus died on the cross. That's serious. 54:11 Can you say amen? 54:12 Jesus is coming back soon. 54:14 That's serious. Amen? 54:15 It's also wonderful. 54:17 We say, "hallelujah." 54:18 We're going to look up and cry out and shout, 54:20 "Here He is, that's wonderful." 54:22 But it's serious. 54:23 That's why Jesus said, "Be ye also ready." 54:28 But too many of God's people, people who went to 54:30 Sabbath school and people who went to church school, and 54:33 people who belong to the academy band, 54:35 and people who sat on committees at church, 54:37 too many of them won't be ready for Jesus' return. 54:42 Because in the white heat of the great controversy, 54:44 they were nominal. 54:46 They were lukewarm instead of passionately 54:49 on fire for Jesus Christ. 54:50 When God comes into your life, He will bring a warmth, 54:56 He will bring a strength, He will bring a passion. 54:58 He will bring a fire, a fire. 55:03 We are in a war. 55:05 The dragon was mad with the church and went to make war 55:10 with the remnant of her seed. 55:13 I've never been on a battlefield, never been 55:14 on a real live on. 55:16 I'm thankful for that. 55:18 I have great admiration for those who have stepped 55:20 into the arena of war and have served their country 55:23 so that people like you and me can have freedom. 55:25 God bless our veterans, God bless them. 55:28 You don't have to like war, you don't have to like 55:30 the decisions that governments make, but you can be thankful 55:33 that there's someone ready to go and defend you. 55:36 I'm thankful. 55:38 Any veteran will tell you that out on the battlefield is 55:41 no time for goofing around. 55:43 You need to have your wits about you because 55:45 there is an enemy who will take you out. 55:48 And if you keep your wits about you, you're going to 55:49 protect someone next to you. 55:51 You know something, friend? 55:52 Your witness is either a strength or a weakness 55:56 to the person beside you. 56:00 There are people depending on you. 56:02 Your attitude on the battlefield is vital. 56:07 We are a body, see. 56:10 What happens in one part affects the other. 56:13 And we are in a battle out there. 56:16 Let me see if I can tell you this quickly. 56:18 At the time of the second world war, the French had 56:20 built the Maginot Line. 56:21 The Maginot Line was a fortress. 56:23 They were leery of the Germans and they didn't want to be 56:25 caught out by any German attacks. 56:27 So they built the Maginot Line. 56:29 It was expensive. 56:30 It was a fortification between the French and German border. 56:35 And if I'm not mistaken, also between France and Italy. 56:38 They dug enormous trenches. 56:39 Trenches that could hold thousands of men. 56:41 Trenches so big they would swallow up tanks. 56:44 Trenches so big they were virtually impregnable. 56:47 They were air conditioned. There were power plants. 56:49 Somebody told me there were elevators down there. 56:51 And even an electric train. 56:55 But Germany had attacked Poland and Czechoslovakia. 56:57 Now they were looking at France. 56:58 The French had the Maginot Line. 56:59 They thought they were okay. 57:01 But they didn't count on the Germans going right around 57:05 the Maginot Line and attacking them through the 57:07 Ardennes Forest of Belgium. 57:11 You see, they felt like they were Goliath. 57:13 David, really Goliath, did something unconventional. 57:16 Friend, they didn't watch. 57:19 And they were taken out. 57:20 We are in a battle out here. 57:22 Let's watch. 57:23 We won't be taken out if we watch. 57:24 We won't be taken out if we keep our eyes on Jesus. 57:29 We'll be okay. |
Revised 2014-12-17