Participants:
Series Code: NP
Program Code: NP201205S
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00:12 >> Welcome to Pioneer Memorial Church today. 00:15 I'm delighted to see so many of us here, and I know we have lots 00:19 of others joining us online, so I extend to you a warm, happy 00:24 Sabbath, everyone. >> Together: Happy Sabbath. 00:27 >> Thank you, thank you. It's good to have you this first Sabbath in December. 00:32 For those who are here with us, may I remind you to keep your masks on for the duration of the 00:37 service, that we are inviting you to physically distance from those who are not of your 00:43 immediate family or group, and we're going to ask you to hum along as the music is sung 00:49 today. For our call to worship this morning, I have Chaplain José 00:55 joining me. And it goes like this -- how beautiful is the voice of the 01:01 one who proclaims peace. >> How glorious the voice that announces the good news. 01:07 >> Let us sing together, oh, people, the song of comfort and joy. 01:12 >> Let us sing peace and good news. >> Both: For God, our God, has 01:19 come among us, bringing hope. >> Let us pray. God of hope, we thank You. 01:28 You have been faithful. You have been faithful in providing, in protecting, in 01:37 preserving, in guiding, in leading, and we praise You today. 01:44 We thank You for sending to us the Prince of Peace. In our world today, we have 01:55 experiences of brokenness, of constant war, and we thank You for this pause for peace. 02:06 As we worship You today, please send that flame, that divine flame, the Holy Spirit, so that 02:16 He may penetrate our circumstances, that He may penetrate our spaces, that He 02:24 might transform our experience so that we might worship wholeheartedly, unreservedly, 02:33 undeniably, with body, mind, soul, and spirit. Amen. 02:39 >> Together: Amen. 02:45 [ "Hosanna" begins ] 02:50 ♪♪ ♪♪ 03:10 ♪♪ ♪♪ 03:30 ♪♪ ♪♪ 03:50 ♪♪ ♪♪ 04:10 ♪♪ ♪♪ 04:30 ♪♪ ♪♪ 04:50 ♪♪ ♪♪ 05:10 ♪♪ ♪♪ 05:30 ♪♪ ♪♪ 05:50 [ "He Shall Reign Forevermore" begins ] 05:56 ♪♪ ♪♪ 06:16 ♪♪ ♪♪ 06:36 ♪♪ ♪♪ 06:56 ♪♪ ♪♪ 07:16 ♪♪ ♪♪ 07:36 ♪♪ ♪♪ 07:56 ♪♪ ♪♪ 08:17 ♪♪ ♪♪ 08:37 ♪♪ ♪♪ 08:57 ♪♪ [ Song ends ] 09:00 >> Together: Amen. [ "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" 09:06 begins ] 09:09 ♪♪ ♪♪ 09:29 ♪♪ ♪♪ 09:49 ♪♪ ♪♪ 10:09 ♪♪ ♪♪ 10:29 ♪♪ ♪♪ 10:49 ♪♪ ♪♪ 11:09 ♪♪ ♪♪ 11:29 ♪♪ ♪♪ 11:49 ♪♪ ♪♪ 12:05 [ Song ends ] >> You know, they sang that as a praise, but I think it could 12:12 also be a question we're asking ourselves. Is God with us? 12:18 Which is what Emmanuel means, right, "God with us." Is God with us? 12:24 So, family, why don't we claim that in faith? 12:29 Why don't we claim it in faith that God is going to deliver us 12:32 during these times? And to demonstrate that faith, 12:35 I'm going to ask you to stand up, because that's what God is 12:38 gonna do. He's gonna lift us up. 12:40 We'll have one prayer now of praise, and, in faith, we accept 12:44 that God is going to carry us through. 12:46 Pastor Kyle, share our first prayer of praise. 12:49 >> Let's pray. Father God, we come here today 12:52 because we know that this is the best place to be, whether we're 12:56 in a car listening or at home or here in this building. 13:00 We know that it is through really hiding ourselves under your hand that You lift us up 13:05 and You show us the way forward. So we just want to praise You right now for being a God who is 13:11 the Alpha and the Omega, the end from the beginning. We don't have to live in this 13:17 moment in despair. We don't have to be in sadness. We don't have to be people 13:22 without a joy in our bones, but, rather, we can have a fire within us. 13:26 We can have revival within us, because we know that, despite our present circumstances, the 13:32 best is yet to come. We know that You have a plan for this Earth, that You are 13:37 sovereign on the throne, that we are not orphans, but that we have a Father. 13:43 And so we just rejoice in that, we thank You for that, we praise You for that, and we look to You 13:48 as Your children, and we cry out "Abba," because we know that You are the one that we are looking 13:55 for. You are the one who our souls are longing after. 13:58 And so as I'm in this room with all of my friends and as I'm in this space with people listening 14:05 maybe at home, we want to acknowledge You as Savior. We want to acknowledge You as 14:11 creator. We want to acknowledge You as the one who can change every 14:15 circumstance that is bad for good. And we proclaim this through the 14:20 powerful name of Jesus. >> Holy God, we give You praise this morning, so hear our song, 14:28 "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow." [ "From Whom All Blessings Flow" 14:36 begins ] Praise Him, all creatures here below. 14:43 ♪♪ Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts. 14:52 ♪♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 15:03 ♪♪ Amen. 15:15 [ Upbeat music plays ] >> Hey, Sis, Dad, Mom! 15:20 Come on! "Children's Story" is on! 15:24 >> "But, Craig, I don't have any marbles to play with." 15:27 No marbles to play with? Those words rang in my head? 15:34 You see, when I was a boy, I collected marbles. 15:38 I loved collecting marbles -- clear ones and blue ones and red 15:42 ones and white ones and swirly ones. 15:46 Actually, this is a bag of marbles when I was a kid. 15:51 These were actually my -- This is actually the same bag, and 15:53 these are actually the same marbles when I was a boy. 15:57 There's a blue swirly one. Look how pretty that blue one is there. 16:01 And I got another blue one. All the blue ones came out. And here's a purple and a yellow 16:08 one. Oh, so much fun. It's got a chip on it because 16:11 evidently I had played marbles with this one. It's got a chip in it. 16:16 Oh, marble collecting is so much fun, and I pulled out a few of my other marbles. 16:22 Here's some of my favorite ones. Here's one that's a cat eye. It looks like a cat's eye. 16:28 That's really a cute one. And here's a purie. Puries are ones that are really 16:34 special. When you see a purie, you hold it up to the light to see 16:37 whether or not there's any bubbles in it. This one has just a couple of 16:41 bubbles, so this one's really close to being pure, right? When you are in a store and you 16:48 walk by marbles, you don't just walk by marbles. You always stop and you look at 16:53 all those beautiful colored marbles there. And if you see any clear ones, 16:58 they're called puries. You hold it up to the light, and you're looking for if there's 17:02 any bubbles. If someone comes by and you're holding it up to the light and 17:06 they say, "What are you doing?" you just say, "I'm just looking for bubbles, see if it's a purie 17:10 or not." And they're gonna go, "Whoa, he really knows his stuff!" 17:14 Right? Back to recess in Jackson Junior Academy. 17:25 I challenged Kelly -- We used to play marbles with -- we'd challenge our friends to 17:31 marbles, and if I hit his marble, I got to keep his marble. 17:37 If he hit mine, he kept my marble. That's how your collection would 17:40 grow or your collection would shrink, based on your expertise in hitting the other people's 17:46 marbles, right? And so I challenged Kelly, and Kelly said, "You know, hey, I 17:51 don't have any marbles." And so I thought, "Hey, I'll give him a couple of my ones I 17:57 don't really like." So I poured out -- I remember pouring out the marbles there, 18:01 and all my good ones were there, and I picked out three of the marbles that I really didn't 18:06 care for, and I said, "You can have these, Kelly." Well, he was thankful. 18:10 And then the thought came into my head, "Give him one of your green ones. 18:14 Give him one of your green purie marbles." Now, I had been collecting those 18:18 green puries, and I wasn't about to give them away, but the thought came into my head, "Give 18:23 him a green purie marble." And so I found myself -- I reached in, and I handed him one 18:29 of the green purie marbles. Actually, I have two. I used to have three. 18:34 These are the same marbles I had, and so these are really special marbles. 18:38 And when I gave Kelly -- "Here, Kelly, you can have this one, as well." 18:43 Kelly's eyes got big. He got so happy. He says, "You're giving me a 18:46 green purie marble?" I go, "Yeah." And I was happy because I had 18:53 given something that was really special to me to Kelly, and I was kind of reluctant in doing 18:59 it. The Bible says here that we... said, "Each one must give as he 19:06 has decided in his heart, not reluctantly --" aw, I wish I'd have been more of a cheerful 19:11 giver -- "or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." I wish I'd have said, "Here, you 19:18 can have this one, this one -- all my best ones." But I did give him one good one. 19:22 And then it says this, "Jesus said himself, 'It is more blessed to give than to 19:28 receive.'" Right? Aw, I wish I would've given more 19:35 to Kelly. That voice that was in my head, that was Jesus talking to me. 19:41 On Earth, it's actually the Holy Spirit talking to me. "Give him of some of your best, 19:46 Craig. Give him some of your best." And Jesus, the Holy Spirit will 19:52 talk to you, too. Listen to Him, which ways that you could be kind to people. 19:59 Give your best. Give of your best to the master. You guys have a great day. 20:06 See you. 20:08 >> Dear Father in heaven, thank You for this day, and thank You 20:12 for the Sabbath. May the Holy Spirit open our 20:16 hearts as we listen to the Word of God. 20:19 In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. [ Upbeat music plays ] 20:28 ♪♪ 20:33 >> Let's pray. Oh, Jesus, You are the joy of 20:37 our desiring, and here's our humble prayer. 20:42 Would you please be front and center right now? 20:47 In Your name, we worship. Amen. In the midst of this dark, 20:54 suffocating pandemic, you want to see a beautiful Jesus moment? 21:00 I'm gonna show you a picture. Well, you've probably already 21:05 seen the picture, this now-gone-viral picture of the 21:08 physician in that COVID-19 ICU ward, COVID patients everywhere, 21:16 and an elderly man -- the doc is holding him tight. 21:21 The man is crying. It's Thanksgiving Day a few days ago, and the whole world has 21:26 seen it now. I'm gonna put it on the screen. Can't wait. 21:30 Here it is. This is right on the website there. 21:33 You see the doctor. This is Dr. Joseph Varon. He is the chief of staff at 21:44 United Medical Center, Houston, Texas, alright? He's holding that elderly 21:49 patient. The man is crying. 21:54 PPE, they call it, this protective equipment, personal protective equipment. 21:59 Doctor is covered from head -- just a little bit of skin there, covered from head to toe. 22:06 The man is sobbing. Wow. Here's the backstory from the website. 22:11 Let me just read it to you, just a line or two. "Joseph Varon, doctor treating 22:15 coronavirus patients at a Texas hospital, was working his 252nd day in a row." 22:23 This doc has not taken a day off since the pandemic began. I want to tell you something. 22:30 We just blow by our frontline medical workers, and say, "Well, of course they're getting paid. 22:36 That's what they're supposed to do." You're not supposed to work 250 22:39 days in a row. Nobody in their right mind works that, unless you have a passion 22:42 that's driving you. So, he walked into the intensive-care unit on 22:49 Thanksgiving Day, and he sees this elderly patient -- he's telling the interviewer now -- 22:53 "'out of his bed and trying to get out of the room, and he's crying,' Varon said. 22:58 'So I get close to him, and I ask him, 'Why are you crying?' And the man says, 'I want to be 23:03 with my wife.'" >> Together: Aww. >> Yeah, really, "aww." 23:09 "'So I just grab him, and I hold him. I was feeling very sorry for 23:15 him. I was feeling very sad, just like him. 23:18 Eventually, he felt better, and he stopped crying. I don't know why I haven't 23:23 broken down,' the doctor said. 'My nurses cry in the middle of the day.'" 23:28 I cry just thinking about them crying, don't you? Varon said that the isolation of 23:35 the COVID-19 unit is difficult for many patients. "When you're an elderly 23:39 individual, it's more difficult because you're alone. Some of them cry, some of them 23:42 try to escape. We actually had somebody trying to crawl through the window the 23:45 other day, and we caught them." And here's some good news. Varon said that the elderly man 23:53 in the picture is doing much better. Hallelujah. 23:55 "We're hoping that, before the end of the week, he'll be able to get out of the hospital." 24:01 I want you to give a good, long, hard look here. Pull that camera in as far as 24:06 you can. I want you to take a good, long gaze at this picture. 24:09 You know what you're looking at? That's a picture of Jesus. That's a picture of Jesus coming 24:15 down to this pandemic, sin-pandemic, darkened, and suffocating planet. 24:21 And, one day, He came across an elderly man, and the elderly man was crying, and you know what 24:24 Jesus did? He just instinctively grabbed the man, and He hugged him. 24:28 Sometimes, when you're God, that's the only thing left to do. 24:32 And that's what this doctor did. Wow, what a metaphor of this crazy world we're living in 24:41 right now. Welcome to Advent season 2020. And we're gonna look at an 24:52 ancient Christmas prophecy, and you're gonna be thinking "now," when it was talking about 2,000 24:57 years ago. Check it out for yourself. Open your Bible to the 25:01 Gospel Prophet of the Old Testament. We're talking about Isaiah. 25:04 Open your Bible to Isaiah chapter 9. Everybody knows these words. 25:08 Come on. Everybody knows these words. In fact, drop down to verse six 25:12 just to nail this as -- this is truly the Christmas prophecy. Take a look at this, Revela-- 25:17 Isaiah 9:6. "For unto us..." Oh, who's changing the screen 25:24 here? Oh, that's me. Okay. [ Laughter ] 25:28 Man, come on. You guys up there, change the screen. 25:30 I'm ready. Oh, that's me. [ Laughter ] 25:33 Alright. "For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the 25:37 government will be on his shoulders." Oh, boy, you remember that from 25:41 Handel's "Messiah," straight out of Handel's "Messiah." No, it's the other way around. 25:45 Handel's "Messiah" is straight out of Isaiah 9. Come on. 25:49 "For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his 25:53 shoulders. And he --" this coming one -- "will be called 25:56 Wonderful Counselor..." "You can sob on my shoulder, and I'll weep with you." 25:59 "He'll be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, 26:03 Prince of Peace." You say, "Dwight, that ancient prophecy doesn't feel like today 26:07 at all." That's because we skipped the opening verse. 26:09 Let's go to the opening verse. This is verse two, same chapter. Isaiah writes, speaking of that 26:14 time... 26:27 Boy, those words, "deep darkness," does that feel like today or what -- I mean even 26:32 pushing aside our personal circumstances, and we've got a roomful of personal 26:36 circumstances going on right now. There's enough to weep over 26:40 without the pandemic. But does that not feel like life today on this planet, a people 26:45 walking in darkness? "In a land of deep darkness a light has dawned." 26:53 This sad, sad pandemic season. Such confusion, such heartache. Such chaos. 27:01 What could be more fitting than these words? Let's read them again... 27:13 700 years later, Matthew comes along, and he says, "I love that verse. 27:18 I'm gonna use it." And that's why we know the words, because Matthew uses it 27:23 in Matthew 4:16. You'll see the words. You could've left your finger in 27:30 Isaiah 9, but here we are at Matthew 4:16. And I need to be there myself. 27:34 Matthew 4. Come on. I want you to look it up in your Bible. 27:36 Don't just take the screen's word for it. Matthew 4. 27:39 Matthew 4. Always takes me awhile to find these. 27:44 Alright, Matthew 4:16. Here we go. "The people living in darkness 27:49 have seen a great light." Well, this sounds like what we just read. 27:54 "And those living in the land of the shadow of death, for them, a light has dawned." 28:00 You see any difference between what we just read in Isaiah and what we now read in Matthew? 28:05 You can't see it by reading them back to back. Let's do a split screen, because 28:09 there is a significant difference, and you're gonna catch it right now. 28:13 Here's the split screen. There's Isaiah 9, and there's Matthew 4. 28:17 Now, I want to show you something. Isaiah uses two strong, positive 28:21 action verbs. Here they are. "The people walking in darkness 28:26 have seen a great light, on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned." 28:31 Matthew drops those strong action words, and he takes another word, another word in 28:37 the Greek. It's a word that describes a sluggish solitude, and it means 28:44 "to sit, to brood," sluggish, all-alone solitude. "Hey, wait a minute. 28:54 Dwight, you said it says 'sitting.' NIV says 'living.'" 28:58 Yeah, that's because they made a mistake, in my humble opinion. They said, "We're gonna 29:01 interpret that. That just means 'living.'" No, no, no, this is a 29:04 significant point. Let's not miss it. "The people sitting in darkness 29:08 have seen a great light." That's how it's supposed to read, the actual Greek reads. 29:13 "And on those sitting in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned." 29:17 You say, "Dwight, what in the world are you talking about?" Let's let the great commentator 29:22 on the Book of Matthew, Frederick Dale Bruner, his magisterial two-volume 29:26 commentary -- let's just see why he's making such a big deal of this. 29:31 You'll see it. Okay, we just changed these to "sitting" because "sitting" is 29:35 the actual. And some of you that have New American, you have the 29:38 New King James, they all say "sitting." They got it right. 29:42 But let's go to Bruner now. Here's Bruner. "Isaiah wrote --" I'm quoting 29:46 Frederick Dale Bruner now -- "Isaiah wrote, "The people who walk in darkness;' Matthew 29:51 writes, 'The people who sit in darkness,' because Matthew believes spiritual darkness is 29:58 so thick it immobilizes." Whoa! Are you serious? Keep reading. 30:03 "The verb 'to sit --'" that Matthew has chosen -- "aptly denotes a sluggish solitude. 30:09 ...in Matthew's reading, they are so far in the dark that they cannot even move. 30:15 They sit in the darkness...in a paralysis." Matthew is trying to tell us 30:20 something. He's describing the psycho-social spiritual culture 30:24 into which Christ has come. He's trying to tell us that this is a numbing, this is a 30:29 suffocating darkness, and they're not walking, they're not living -- they're just sitting 30:33 there. Man! Does this begin to feel like 30:38 today? Mercy! Matthew's trying to describe 30:41 Jesus' First Coming, and I'm sitting here thinking of this culture before Jesus' 30:46 Second Coming -- a sluggish, numb suffocation. They're just sitting in the 30:52 darkness. Aw, let's read it again. We've switched out the "living" 30:57 into the right word... 31:09 Oh, boy, that is so graphic, "Sitting in the land of the shadow of death." 31:15 You know why this feels like so today? I'll tell you why -- because we 31:19 are living in a death culture today. That's why. 31:22 Do you understand that? This culture, these Gen Z'ers and everybody else in this 31:26 planet, it's all about death. Everything's about death. We watch death all the time. 31:30 It's in a news clip. The whole world gapes as they watch live video of 31:36 George Floyd suffocating to death, until he dies. The whole world sees it. 31:44 The terrorists behead on camera hostage. [ Exhales sharply ] 31:50 We are now so immersed in this death culture. Our music is death culture. 31:55 Hollywood, our entertainment, is death culture. We are so immersed in this, we 32:00 don't know that there's a culture that doesn't have death in it. 32:04 That's why heaven is going to be so radically mind-blowing. Death is how we live. 32:12 It's death everywhere. So what Matthew describes as the world when Jesus came the first 32:18 time, you and I are instinctively saying, "Guess what. 32:21 That's the world He's coming to the second time, only it's worse today than then." 32:26 And I suppose, when they open up the Colosseum again and they show it live on TV, that we're 32:32 gonna finally reach the depths of debauchery that the culture back then had descended to, when 32:39 it becomes entertainment. My. Suicides are shot on Facebook so 32:46 that the world can see. Murders are committed on Facebook so that the world can 32:51 see. We live in a death culture. And this is such a profound 32:58 line. Let me show you how some other translations render it. 33:00 This is the Holman Christian Standard Bible... 33:06 Ooh, I like that. Here comes the New Living Translation... 33:12 That's where you live. That's your address. One more, the NIV that we just 33:16 read... 33:20 Mercy. Matthew thought he was describing the world when Jesus 33:23 came the first time. We're thinking he's describing the world when Jesus comes the 33:26 second time. Wow. Eugene Peterson, who died this 33:35 year -- brilliant, brilliant writer -- in his rendition of the Bible called 33:42 "The Message," I like the way he puts it here... 33:56 Ladies and gentlemen, in that one single line is the summation of the Gospel story. 34:01 You have it all right here. "Read it again, Dwight." I will. 34:14 How beautiful is that? Can't you just see it? It's pitch dark, and all of a 34:17 sudden, [Exhales sharply] from the east, here it comes. You've watched the sunrise. 34:21 You've seen that little crest just above the eastern horizon, and as it grows, the sky gets 34:26 brighter, brighter. They watch -- [ Exhales sharply ] 34:28 It's a huge light. That's Jesus! That's Jesus! Into our darkness, He rises like 34:39 the sun we've been praying would come after this long, torturous midnight. 34:45 That's Jesus, the Son of righteousness. I scribbled on this page years 34:49 ago, this line -- I love it -- from "Desire of Ages." Let me put this on the screen 34:53 for you... 34:58 Isn't that beautiful? "The whole world is brighter for His presence." 35:02 But isn't it intriguing -- you think about this -- why didn't 35:06 Matthew put Isaiah 9:2 in the Nativity story? 35:11 That would've been the logical place to put it, because "unto 35:14 us a child is born," yada, yada, yada. 35:15 Why didn't you put it here? No, no, no. 35:17 He says, "I want to wait till Jesus begins not his Judean 35:20 ministry. I want to wait till He begins 35:23 his Galilean ministry, where it's half lost, half saved -- 35:26 pagan, Jew, pagan, Jew, pagan, Jew. 35:29 And there Jesus goes for His ministry. 35:31 I want to wait till he starts it there, and then I'm gonna quote 35:35 Isaiah 9:2." My, oh, my. 35:39 It's as if, somehow, the good news of the Gospel -- we have to 35:45 grasp this. 35:46 Jesus didn't go to where light was already there. Jesus went to where there was no 35:50 light. Most of us want to settle where there's plenty of light so we 35:54 never have to worry about darkness. We're the exact opposite of 35:57 Jesus. He said, "Get me where it's dark. 35:59 That's where I want to be." Mercy. Twice in the Gospels, Jesus 36:04 says, "I am the light of the world. Yo, you people listening to me?" 36:09 He says, "I am the light of the world." And when they hang Him up on 36:17 that tree at Calvary, in the blackest midnight of human history, never did that light 36:24 shine brighter than on the Cross. That's the Gospel. 36:29 Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Come to me, your guilt is gone. 36:34 Come to me, your fears are gone. Come to me, your hopelessness is gone. 36:38 Come to me, you're going to live now. You're not going to end your 36:41 life -- you're gonna live because you want to live and I want you to live. 36:45 Come to me, and I'll give you rest. I am the light of the world." 36:51 "People sitting out their lives in the dark saw a huge light --" oh, I love that -- "sitting in 36:56 that dark, dark country of death --" as we are -- "they watched the sun come up." 37:02 Hallelujah. That sun is going to come up again. 37:07 And Jesus steps up to me and says, "Yo, Dwight, let's talk. I want you to love the world for 37:13 me. Do you mind hugging them for me? Come on, just be like 37:16 Dr. Joseph Varon. Just do it impulsively. We now know that Dr. Varon did 37:20 not know that the photographer was in that room. The photographer from 37:24 Getty Images had been assigned, "Do a photo essay, 'Thanksgiving in America: Pandemic-style.'" 37:32 He was embedded in that ICU. [ Clicking tongue ] Doc didn't know that. 37:38 That isn't some setup shot. That doc was doing what instinctively came to him at 37:44 that moment. "I have an elderly patient here. He's sobbing. 37:47 Come here, let me hug you." "Dwight, why don't you go out and love the world in the same 37:53 way, huh? Come on, you don't need some kind of big strategy. 37:56 What do you think this is, you got to have some kind of PhD to figure out how to love? 37:59 No, no, no. You just love the world for me, Dwight. 38:03 It's a dark world out there. You love the world for me. You be love on the move for me. 38:10 That's what I want you to be. I want you to be love on the move for me. 38:13 Hug anybody that comes into your space that looks like they need a hug. 38:16 Just love the world for me." Love on the move. That was Jesus. 38:21 That was Dr. Joseph Varon. Love on the move, instinctively. "Yeah, but come on, Dwight. 38:27 Time-out, time-out, time-out. Please. Man, you're waxing eloquent. 38:31 You don't even understand. We're in a lockdown right now. This is a pandemic. 38:35 We cannot go out into that world to love it. Too bad." 38:39 Well, you have raised a huge point to which I cannot even respond. 38:46 That point is so significant. I have no answer for it. We sat together, a group of 38:49 pastors and chaplains. We meet every Monday afternoon. Don't we, guys? 38:52 We meet every Monday afternoon to have worship together, and last Monday, we were just 38:56 saying, "What do we do? The pandemic has hit our campus strong again. 38:59 When these kids come back, what are we gonna do?" We had a few good ideas, I 39:03 thought, nothing earth-shaking. What are we supposed to do? We're locked down, do you 39:08 understand? We have no idea how long this pandemic is gonna last. 39:12 When does it lift? I do not know. Although I will tell you that, 39:15 ever since this pandemic, in my reading of "Great Controversy" the first half of this pandemic, 39:19 there's a thought that has been planted in my mind, and I'm gonna get a little brave here 39:23 and share it with you. I could be in trouble. I'm wondering if in fact it's 39:29 gonna be just like it was with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., that mysterious 39:35 military move. Let me tell you what I'm talking about. 39:43 Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, is the one who captured the details that 39:51 allow us to know the reason behind this mysterious military move. 39:54 "What are you talking about, Dwight?" Here we go. 39:57 66 A.D., the Roman general Cestius Gallus marched 66,000 Roman soldiers from Syria 40:07 southwest to Jerusalem. He's gonna take Jerusalem. That is a huge army. 40:14 Do you understand? 66,000? That's how many people are in the army. 40:20 There was some Jewish resistance along the way. They have to fight some 40:24 skirmishes, but eventually Cestius, with those 66,000, is able to penetrate the city -- 40:29 not the whole city. They got up into the northwest corner of Jerusalem. 40:35 But he cannot take the Temple Mount, and anybody that knows anything about 40:38 Middle Eastern history knows, if you want Jerusalem, you have to take the Temple Mount. 40:42 The Dome of the Rock? You got to take that. If you don't take that, you 40:46 don't take it. He cannot take the Temple Mount, and so, with his 66,000, they 40:51 surround Jerusalem. The Roman army surrounds Jerusalem. 40:55 They besiege the city, and get this. Nine days later, Cestius pulls 41:02 the troops off of that siege and marches to the coast. Nobody to this day is quite sure 41:13 what was going on -- a mystery move. Well, the moment the Romans 41:18 leave, the Jewish resisters inside the walled city of Jerusalem, they're out the 41:22 gates. "Charge!" And they pursue the Romans, and 41:26 there is a mighty skirmish. But while the Romans and the Jewish resisters are gone, the 41:34 Christians in the city of Jerusalem remember the words of Jesus -- Luke 21:20. 41:42 And Jesus said, "And when you see this city circled by armies, you know the end is near." 41:54 They remember those words. They said, "Let's go." Their protagonists, their 41:58 antagonists, they're gone. The Jews are gone, the Romans are gone, and the Christians 42:03 slip out of the city. They go east. They cross the Jordan River. 42:07 They move to a little city called Pella, where they establish a new colony of 42:13 Christians. Amazing. And do you know what? 42:18 Listen to this, quoting "Great Controversy." That apocalyptic classic tells 42:24 us not one Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem when General Titus returned in 42:30 70 A.D. to besiege and sack and slaughter that city. Not one Christian perished. 42:37 Jesus had told them, "You just watch. You'll know your moment." 42:43 And when that siege was lifted, that was their moment. You say, "Dwight, what does this 42:49 have to do with the pandemic? Come on, I'm not into Roman history." 42:52 Ah, but I'm thinking, "Wait a minute, wait a minute." Could it be that this 42:58 pandemic -- it's gonna lift sometime. I mean, we all believe that. 43:03 I don't know if it's soon or later. I have no idea, but I'm 43:07 wondering if that lifting will make possible a small window of opportunity for the people of 43:13 God to be about our Father's business, the remnant community of the Apocalypse to suddenly be 43:19 mobilized -- pinned down, but now the forces that have pinned them down have disappeared. 43:25 They go out as a cue. "Get the world now while the window's open." 43:35 I'm brooding on this. If Jesus equated -- Listen to me. 43:40 If Jesus equated the destruction of Jerusalem with the end of the world, as we know He does in 43:44 Matthew 24. He conflates the two. We're not sure -- is He talking 43:47 about Jerusalem here or the end of the world? We don't know. 43:50 He mixes them up. If Jesus does that intentionally, could it be -- 43:54 and that's a key caveat, by the way -- could it be -- the lifting of this global pandemic 44:02 will be but a brief window for our end-game mission. [ Exhaling softly ] 44:07 Mysteriously, it's gone. Where'd it go? It's gone. I'm just wondering. 44:13 I'm just thinking out loud with you. Aw, one of my favorite lines in 44:20 "Great Controversy" is this line I'm about to read to you, but I see that I left a verse out. 44:27 And that's a thing when you're doing the slide changing. They can skip it up there if I 44:32 miss it -- I can't miss it here. Do you know what? Twice in the Gospels, Jesus 44:37 says, "I am the light, I am the light." Come on, come on, come on. 44:39 Here we are in Matthew 4. Great darkness. If you just jump over to the 44:42 Sermon on the Mount, look at verse 14. Jesus not only says twice in the 44:45 Gospel, "I am the light of the world." Do you know what He also says? 44:49 "You are the light of the world." There's no claim in Matthew for 44:53 Jesus to be the light of the world. He doesn't claim it Himself, 44:56 only in John twice. But He does say that, "You are the light of the world." 44:59 Boy, I'm glad we caught that because we would've gone out of here and said, "Phew, this 45:03 doesn't bother me at all, doesn't concern me. It's not about me." 45:06 No, Jesus says, "It is about you. I am that huge light, but you're 45:11 my light. Like Dr. Joseph Varon, you are my light." 45:20 But this great line in "Great Controversy," "Servants of God with their 45:23 faces lighted up --" don't you love this line, speaking of just before Jesus comes? 45:27 "Servants of God with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will 45:30 hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven." 45:33 Ladies and gentlemen, this global mobilization that this line predicts could not possibly 45:38 happen in a lockdown pandemic. It could not happen. You can't hasten from place to 45:42 place now. I can't even cross the street to say hi to my neighbor. 45:45 "Hey, Dwight, you don't have your mask on. Get out of here. Go." 45:50 Now everybody's tense. Everybody's uptight -- rightfully so. 45:54 We're protecting ourselves. We say that we're protecting you, but we're really protecting 46:00 ourselves. Let's be honest. No, something has to lift -- of 46:06 what we're going through right now, something has to lift. Servants of God will hasten 46:09 from place to place, to place to place to place. Something has to lift. 46:14 For Revelation 18:1 to take place and the whole Earth -- [Exhales sharply] the whole 46:18 Earth is lightened with its glory -- just like the three angels, that fourth angel is 46:21 dependent on human messengers. When the Earth is lightened with His glory, something has to lift 46:25 that has everybody locked down right now. That's all I'm saying. 46:28 That's all I'm saying. "The people sitting in great darkness have seen a great 46:35 light." Boy, that's today. All of which leads me to this 46:39 appeal, alright? The time left in our pandemic lockdown needs to be spent in 46:50 getting ready for this window to open. That's all I'm saying. 46:58 I want you to think about that. I want you to talk it over the dinner table. 47:03 You talk about it anyway. I want you to think about it with others. 47:07 We can't go anywhere right now. But rather than twiddling our thumbs, rather than 47:12 binge-watching our way through the holidays, binge-watching through Christmas, 47:16 binge-watching through the new year, binge-watching till I get back to Andrews University -- 47:20 rather than binge-watching, wherever you are, students right now on this planet, what if we 47:27 took this opportunity, you and I, to somehow go deeper, to go deeper with Jesus -- you know, a 47:33 little book like "Steps to Christ" or just read the Gospel of John, please, 47:37 whatever. But we say, "You know what? I think I'm gonna take this 47:40 opportunity." I'm gonna tell you something. If you don't -- Listen, if you 47:44 don't -- Hey, you remember Jesus' parable of the 10 girlfriends? 47:48 Everybody remembers the 10 girlfriends? They're all locked down, 47:51 pandemic midnight. They are locked down. They can go nowhere. 47:54 They're just waiting. Five of them, while they're locked down, are replenishing 47:59 their oil supplies -- five of them. Their oil is not running out. 48:03 When the midnight cry sounds and they fly into the darkness, they are thoroughly equipped. 48:10 They go with gusto for the Kingdom of Heaven. The other five? 48:14 The other five are saying, "Mañana, mañana. [ Chuckles ] I don't need to 48:18 prepare now. Spiritual disciplines? Spiritual practices? 48:22 I don't need any of those. I will someday when it really gets tough. 48:25 When that window opens, then I'm gonna do it." I want to tell you something, 48:29 my friend -- when that window opens, it'll be too late. Now, please listen carefully. 48:34 When that window opens, it will be too late. Why? 48:38 Because you have to be ready now. Those Christians had a brief 48:43 moment. Boom! We have no idea what lies beyond 48:49 this. But could it be that window of opportunity is being given to 48:54 the friends of Jesus, who have been told, "You are the light of the world for me. 49:01 You be the great light. They'll see the way you hug. 49:03 They'll see the way you love. You'll be the great light." 49:05 Could it be this window of opportunity is ours now? 49:15 I don't want to be definitive, but I would like to suggest 49:19 that, when the window opens eventually, the time for 49:22 spiritual preparation... is ending. 49:31 Because what leads you to put it off today will lead you to put 49:34 it off tomorrow, and what leads you to put it off tomorrow will 49:36 lead you to put it off when the window opens, and what leads you 49:39 to put it off when the window opens will lead you to put it 49:41 off until the door closed and five girlfriends are knocking on 49:44 that -- "Let me in!" "I don't know who you are. 49:46 Sorry. Wrong address." 49:50 Hey, listen, folks. We don't do Sabbath together to entertain each other, do we? 49:55 I don't step into this pulpit every Sabbath and say, "How can I entertain this little 50:01 congregation that is diminished in size, with the rest watching online, wherever on this 50:06 planet?" I don't think of worship that we just went through, I don't think 50:10 of that as entertainment. I don't think of our Sabbath schools as entertainment. 50:14 If our Sabbath schools are being planned for entertainment, that's a dead-end street. 50:18 I wake up every single morning with one passion on my mind. I know what my mission is. 50:22 My mission is to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Everything I do from sunup until 50:27 I go to bed is devoted to that. God forgive me if I take my mind off of that. 50:32 I live for that mission. You must live for that mission. It's not just mine. It's yours. 50:41 My mission is to help you seize your mission to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 50:46 It's not gonna be preachers that reach this planet one last time. Those servants of God are you. 50:52 They're not a bunch of seminary professors. They're you and me. 51:00 Make ready a people prepared for God. That's why we can't wait. 51:07 You cannot put off for tomorrow what the Holy Spirit is telling you you must do today. 51:14 You got something to make right, make it right today. You've got something to learn, 51:19 learn it today. You got a deep depth that you need to go to? 51:23 Go there today. Don't wait. It's too late if you wait. I cannot say it anymore, so I'm 51:30 sitting down, but I believe the light of the world has entrusted enough light to you so that you 51:37 can walk out this door, and when the pandemic does raise, that light will come shining -- like 51:42 Dr. Joseph Varon, it'll come shining out of you. We can't wait. 51:52 See this year's banner? "Get ready." We can't wait. You signed up for this. 52:01 You signed up for this. Get...ready...now. Amen. Amen. 52:12 Give me something Dwight, okay? Connect Card on the screen. Connect Card. 52:15 If you go to this website, pmchurch.org/connect -- you go there right now, you're sitting 52:20 in this space, you go to the Connect Card right now -- because we don't hand these out 52:23 anymore. pmchurch.org./connect. You're going there right now, 52:28 and when you get to "connect," where it takes you, you're gonna then click onto "connect," and 52:32 it will show the Connect Card. It will say, "My next step today is..." 52:35 Let's go to "my next step today," on the screen. Oh, thank you. 52:40 You can go there, Dwight, if you wish. [ Laughs ] Okay. 52:44 "My next step today is I want the light of the world to shine through me into the darkness 52:48 around." Is there a soul here that does not want the light of the world 52:51 to shine through you? Of course not. Box number 2. 52:54 "Dwight, I want to share the light -- please send me an electronic version of 52:58 'Steps to Christ.'" If you put a checkmark there and and an e-mail address anywhere 53:06 on this planet, but right here in this community, we'll send you a beautifully designed 53:12 edition of "Steps to Christ." You can keep it on your phone, and you can read it in your 53:15 spare moments. You want to go deep with Jesus. I know you do, but you can pass 53:19 this on. You can send the link to somebody else, and you can send 53:22 it to somebody else. "Hey, I want you to read this little classic. 53:25 It really blessed me." Come on. We have a holiday in front of 53:29 us. Why not go deeper this time? Box number three, "I want to be 53:35 baptized and follow Jesus into the world." Some of you have not been 53:38 baptized, and you've been thinking about it, and I'm telling you what, the 53:42 Holy Spirit has been speaking to you. It's not me speaking. 53:45 I can't convince anybody. But the Holy Spirit, when He knocks on your door, that's Him 53:49 saying, "Yo, this would be a good time, pandemic lockdown. Get baptized now." 53:55 We have beautifully safe baptisms that we conduct here. It can be for you. Why not? 54:01 Put a little checkmark there, and make sure we have an e-mail address. 54:05 We'll be in touch with you, that's all. You're not committing to 54:08 anything, but you're saying, "I want to be. Help me. Be in touch with me. 54:11 Show me what my next steps need to be." That's it. That's it. 54:17 I want to pray with you. I want to offer to God what you and I are now and pray that He 54:24 will seize it and that the light will come shining through, the light of the Lord we love and 54:30 serve, our Lord Jesus. Amen. Let's pray. 54:34 Oh, God, here we are, masked, locked down -- the nation, the world. 54:43 Please, know our hearts. We can't do this. There's nothing in us. 54:50 But thank you for one lone doctor who showed us that one act of love can go viral in a 55:02 planet hungry to be hugged, hungry to be touched, longing to be loved. 55:09 They're all around us, where we live, where we work, where we go to school. 55:16 Oh, Jesus, light of the world, save us. And through us, save others out 55:24 of that dark, deep night. Save them for eternity. We humbly pray in the name of 55:35 the one who is our light. Amen. Amen. 55:43 [ "The First Noel" plays ] >> What is it about the holiday season that has given you 55:48 the greatest joy? Is it the time spent cutting down the family Christmas tree 55:52 at the local farm or maybe a special ornament placed on that lighted bough? 55:57 Or do you find joy in contemplating the profound meaning of the carols we sing? 56:02 Maybe Christmas joy is found in the memories you make together with friends and family 56:06 and the spirit of giving that surrounds this season. As we reflect on these joys, 56:12 let's always remember the great light who guides us, the One who brings and meaning to life -- 56:17 a loving Father who is at the heart of all treasured relationships and the wonderful 56:21 God who gave the ultimate gift in a newborn child. 56:26 Some of my joy this season comes in part from your letters, 56:29 your prayers, and your faithful giving of support to this 56:32 ministry which reaches literally around the world. 56:35 If you've been blessed this year, I'd like to ask you to 56:38 join the many people who financially support this global 56:40 New Perceptions ministry. It's simple to do. 56:44 Just call our toll-free number 877 -- two words -- HIS-WILL. 56:49 One of our friendly operators will be happy to help you. 56:52 You can also click the donate link at the top of our website. 56:54 Trust me, no gift is too small for God to use to spread the 56:59 good news of His love, His sacrifice, and His future 57:02 plans for our happiness. Every gift, by the way, 57:06 is entirely invested in our mission to communicate God's 57:09 good news to a generation who needs a hope found in Jesus, 57:13 which will bring them true joy in life. 57:15 So once again, the number to call is 877-HIS-WILL. 57:20 This season, my wish for you is that the mighty God, 57:23 the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace will be at 57:26 the heart of the very best memories made together 57:30 with your family and friends. ♪♪ 57:40 ♪♪ ♪♪ 58:00 ♪♪ ♪♪ 58:18 ♪♪ |
Revised 2020-12-15