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Series Code: NP
Program Code: NP220122S
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00:11 >> Lord, Your name is wonderful. Your name is higher than any 00:16 other. Praise and glory belong to You 00:19 and to You alone, because You alone are worthy of our praise. 00:24 This morning, may we hear Your voice clearly and trust You to 00:28 make the crooked places straight, the broken places 00:32 whole, and the dark places light. 00:36 In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. [ "Holy, Holy, Holy" begins ] 00:43 ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ 01:06 ♪♪ 03:44 >> Good morning, PMC. Today, we are here to worship 03:49 the Lord of creation. 03:51 Today, we're here to worship the Lord of the Sabbath, and His name is Jesus Christ. 03:57 Amen? Please stand with me. Please stand. 04:01 And this is a new song, but I know you can sing it. I know you can sing it. 04:04 Join us as we sing Psalm 150. ♪♪ 07:58 Amen, amen. You all sound good. 08:03 Let's sing another one, another song of praise to the Lord of 08:06 creation. 08:14 [ "God of Wonders" begins ] 12:25 >> Our Scripture reading today comes from the Gospel of John 1:1-4. 12:33 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 12:38 the Word was God. He was with God in the 12:42 beginning. Through Him all things were 12:45 made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. 12:50 In Him was life, and that life was the light of man." >> And that light is 13:00 Jesus Christ. He's the Son of God. He's the Lord of the creation. 13:05 He's the Lord of the Sabbath. And in this series, Pastor Dwight is focusing on the 13:11 Sabbath, why God wants to spend time with us, and why we should want to spend time with Him. 13:18 This song we're gonna sing now is called "He Will Hold Me Fast." 13:23 I have to tell you. The first time I sang this, I sang through my tears. 13:27 I didn't know what was going to hit. I mean, I didn't know the song, 13:30 and I'm singing these words, I'm singing these promises. I don't know what it is that you 13:36 need God to hold you fast about today, on this Sabbath, in these hours, but pour it out to Him. 13:44 Sing these promises. Give it to Him. 13:48 [ "He Will Hold Me Fast" begins ] 19:36 ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ 19:57 ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ 20:42 ♪♪ ♪♪ 21:13 >> Oh, God, what can we say? To know, to be reminded -- that's what worship is for. 21:22 That's why we step into these four walls, to hear good news like this, that You will hold us 21:33 fast. You will never let us go. Keep holding, Father. 21:40 Keep holding us. Don't let go now. We got a word that You have sent 21:47 today. Let it be clear. Hide this feeble human voice so 21:53 that the mighty spirit of Christ Himself shall speak in this place, in Jesus' name. 22:02 Amen. 22:04 In 2015, Anthony Doerr won the Pulitzer Prize for his book 22:11 "All the Light We Cannot See." That is one provocative title. 22:18 And the story is even more provocative. 22:22 Set in France during World War II, it's the tale of a 22:25 young French girl who is born blind, and her father, a museum 22:31 locksmith in Paris, her only surviving parent. 22:37 All the light that we cannot see is not only a description of that blind girl but a 22:44 description of all the characters in that sprawling story. 22:50 And, as it turns out, it's also the truth about the life you and I are now living. 22:57 All the light we cannot see -- it makes you wonder. Are we blinder than we think? 23:10 Take David Brooks, celebrated columnist for The New York Times. 23:17 A friend of mine sent me this op-ed piece that appeared just a few days ago, and who wouldn't? 23:22 Who wouldn't raise an eyebrow with the title to this piece, "America Is Falling Apart at the 23:27 Seams"? Brooks opens by discussing a curious factoid coming out of 23:34 this pandemic, namely that our statistics of reckless driving have gone up while America 23:40 during the pandemic is driving less. So, what's up with that? 23:46 He spends the first seven paragraphs of his op-ed piece describing seven disturbing 23:52 trends that have become reality in America right now. I'm not gonna point those trends 23:58 out to you, but then he comes to some conclusions, and I need you to see these carefully, please. 24:06 David Brooks -- "But something darker and deeper seems to be happening, as well -- a 24:12 long-term loss of solidarity, a long-term rise in estrangement and hostility. 24:18 This is what it feels like to live in a society that is dissolving from the bottom up as 24:24 much as from the top down." America's favorite parlor game today is to criticize the top. 24:31 Guess what? From the bottom up it's coming? Deliver us. 24:36 And then he offers this diagnosis. "But there must also be some 24:42 spiritual or moral problem at the core of this. Over the past several years, and 24:48 over a wide range of different behaviors, Americans have been acting in fewer prosocial and 24:54 relational ways and in more antisocial and self-destructive ways. 24:59 But why?" Dave Brooks asks. "As a columnist, I'm supposed to have some answers. 25:05 But I just don't know right now. I just know that the situation is dire." 25:16 Now, look. If this had come from some evangelist, or perhaps even a 25:21 theologian or a churchman, we'd all smile and say, "Well, that's religious fervor for you." 25:27 But this comes from one of the bright luminaries in the American publishing world -- 25:32 a deep-thinking mind. And when he suggests what your heart has been muttering about 25:41 for months now, when he puts words to our unspoken thoughts, everybody sits up and takes 25:50 notice. Hmm. Is America falling apart at the 25:55 seams? And could it have something to do with all the light we cannot 26:04 see? The answer is yes. I want to tell you a story right 26:10 now. It's not a story about a blind girl. 26:15 It's a story about a blind boy, both of them blind from birth. The story is told 26:22 Reader's Digest fashion, just a few sparse words and details. But what a provocative thought. 26:31 Open your Bible with me to the blind boy. His age is probably a little 26:39 over 13. We know that because in the dialogue in the story, which we 26:44 will not note, his parents say, "He is of age. Let him speak for himself." 26:48 And when you say, "He is of age," that means 13 and up. So, his parents are still alive, 26:53 clearly. Who knows his age, but he's young like you. 26:59 Alright? John 9. Open your Bible to John 9. 27:03 Let's read the opening salvo to this story. John 9:1. 27:09 Speaking of Jesus, "As He went along, He saw a man blind from birth. 27:16 And His disciples asked Him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born 27:22 blind?' Jesus replies, 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this 27:27 happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do 27:33 the works of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 27:37 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.'" Huh. 27:45 My. You know what? From birth, this boy has lived 27:53 with all the light we cannot see. Can you imagine what it would be 28:00 to not have a single ray of light in your entire life? How would you visualize what 28:09 someone is telling you? How would you visualize what you're even thinking? 28:15 "Oh, did you see that red-metallic Corvette that just roared by with that T-top on it 28:19 and the driver with that cowboy hat? What a sight! 28:22 Can I put my hands on that car!" Listen. If you said that to me, and I 28:28 was born blind, you would be speaking a foreign language to me. 28:33 Metallic red? Cowboy hat? What's that? Oh, never take for granted those 28:40 two precious organs right here on your face. Your eyes are beautiful. 28:46 Now, it's true. When you were growing up, your mother wished sometimes that you 28:51 were mute. You know what that is, don't you? 28:53 Yeah, you can't talk. "This girl has talked long enough. 28:56 Mute, please." But nobody ever wishes someone else were blind, unless, of 29:01 course, you're having a bad-hair day, and you're about to meet the boy of your dreams. 29:06 "God, give him blindness now." [ Laughter ] Don't you ever pray that prayer. 29:12 Never. All the light we cannot see! From his birth, this young man 29:19 has never been able to see, not a single iota of a light. But what's so amazing -- for me, 29:27 anyway -- is that this story in the Gospel of John -- and oh, boy, thank you, Chap, for 29:32 telling me that there was a survey this last week, and the number-one book chosen by 29:37 600-and-some students at Andrews University is the Gospel of John. 29:41 Hallelujah! We're in John today. But here's what stuns me. 29:47 There's not only this story, but four chapters earlier, it feels like he's telling the exact same 29:55 story. Only it's the story of a lame boy, and this is a story of a 29:59 blind boy. Something's going on here, and I didn't know until this last 30:05 week, when I pulled out the eminent New Testament scholar Craig Keener. 30:10 I have his two-volume commentary on John, and as I read it, I said, "I have never seen this 30:15 before in my life." And I'm gonna share it with you now. 30:17 I'm gonna share it so fast, it isn't even gonna show up on the screen. 30:20 I just need you to feel what you are about to hear -- 11 similarities between the 30:25 healing of the lame man in John 5 and the healing of the blind boy in John 9 -- 30:32 11 of them. There must be a point John is making. 30:34 Let's find out. Here come the similarities. Number one -- John begins both 30:39 their stories by giving a brief history of their ailment. Number two -- in both stories, 30:44 Jesus takes the initiative. Number three -- both stories involve a pool of water that has 30:50 healing powers -- Bethesda back in five and Siloam here in nine. Number four -- in both stories, 30:57 Jesus intentionally heals the young man on the seventh-day Sabbath. 31:02 In both stories -- number five -- the religious leaders hit the ceiling. 31:07 They are so upset and accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath. Number six -- in both stories, 31:13 the man gets asked by the religious leaders, "Who healed you?" 31:17 And don't you suppose the religious leaders already knew the answer? 31:22 Hmm. In both stories -- number seven -- neither healed man 31:28 knows where or who is Jesus. Apparently, Jesus can walk by you, and you don't know Jesus. 31:33 You never heard of Him before, but He knows you need Him, and He'll step into your life just 31:38 like that. I love that thought. Don't you? 31:41 You don't have to know Jesus to be healed by Jesus. Wow! 31:47 Number eight -- in both stories, Jesus finds the healed man and invites him to believe. 31:51 Now that you're healed, do you believe? Number nine -- in the lame man's 31:56 story, Jesus implies relation between his sin and suffering, but with the blind man, Jesus 32:02 rejects sin as an explanation for suffering. What a contrast. 32:06 Number ten -- in the first story, the healed man goes to the Jews, but in the second 32:11 story, the Jews cast out the healed man. And, finally, number eleven -- 32:17 both stories end with Jesus saying He is working as His father is working. 32:21 "I must do the works of Him who sent me," as Jesus defends Himself against their charges of 32:27 Sabbath breaking. Why is John telling two stories the same way both times? 32:36 Because he intends both stories to make the same provocative point. 32:43 And we can't miss it. But there's one other similarity that Craig Keener does not 32:50 mention. And our friend Sigve Tonstad -- God bless him -- in his book 32:57 "The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day" draws our attention to this particular detail that 33:02 Keener leaves out. He didn't mention Keener at all. But let me put Tonstad on the 33:07 screen. "Two details, one in each of these chapters" -- chapter 5 33:11 with the lame man, chapter 9 with the blind man -- "Two details are giveaways that make 33:17 the sensitive issue, which is the true meaning of the Sabbath, stand out clearly. 33:23 In the story of the paralytic, the red flag" -- now, you know that if you want to get a bull's 33:29 attention. This is probably urban legend, but if you want to get a bull's 33:32 attention -- and it probably is true -- you just wave the red flag. 33:34 Isn't that what you do? Yeah. "In the story of the paralytic, 33:40 the red flag in the account is the mat. In the story of the blind man, 33:45 the red flag in the account is the mud. Jesus throws down the gauntlet 33:51 by publicly ignoring Jewish Sabbath regulations. Two of the 39 prohibitions [for 33:56 Sabbath keeping] in existence" -- at the time of Christ -- "specifically dealt 34:01 with carrying a pallet and kneading dough." You know, like a woman kneads 34:05 dough. You can't bake bread on the Sabbath because that's working. 34:09 Man, oh, man, oh, man, what's going on here? "In both healings, Jesus 34:15 intentionally challenges the onerous regulations that had become attached to proper 34:20 Sabbath observance. He commands the lame man." "Hey, by the way, before you 34:23 leave, pick up your mat. Now you can go." "He stoops over, and He spits 34:28 in the dust of the earth and kneads a gooey saliva-mud dough and smears some of it on the 34:35 blind man's eyes." Yuck! What's going on? 34:41 Tonstad again. "But the Sabbath healings are deliberate actions of Jesus." 34:50 And, by the way, as I mentioned a moment ago, there are seven Sabbath healings -- five in the 34:56 synoptics, two in John. "Jesus does not stumble into these conflicts by accident. 35:02 We are not likely to hear Jesus say, 'Man, if I had known they would get so upset, I would not 35:06 have done it.'" No. "Time and again, John is 35:09 informing his readers that Jesus understands the implications of His actions." 35:15 Hey, listen. Come on. Let's just be honest here. Both men could have been healed 35:18 on another day. You can wait a day. What's the big rush? 35:20 Right? Both could have been healed more discreetly. 35:24 Shh! [ Clicking tongue ] He could have refrained from 35:27 using any mud at all. "Be healed," and he would have been healed. 35:30 He could have told the lame man, "Come back after sundown and pick this mat up and go home." 35:34 He doesn't. The mat and the mud were red flags to the establishment that 35:40 Jesus is now intentionally challenging the burdensome laws that have crushed out the life 35:46 of the seventh-day Sabbath -- God's wonderful, God's beautiful gift of Himself in the seventh 35:52 day of every week. 35:54 And He challenges that robbery. "You have destroyed my day." 36:08 Wow. You see, the Jewish hierarchy 36:12 is stuck in a prefall, primordial seventh-day Sabbath, 36:17 where all is well, and God quietly rests with His two 36:22 closest human-being friends. 36:24 They're stuck there. They have made no provision for a world in which we now 36:30 live, where suffering is rife, and humanity hurts. Hmm. 36:37 "No, no, no. You're not supposed to do this on this day. 36:41 You rest like God." Do we know that they think that way? 36:44 Oh, we do. We go back to the chapter-5 story. 36:46 Here's the saga. Here's what they say to Jesus. This is John 5:16-forward. 36:51 "So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath" -- you should be resting like 36:56 God -- "the Jewish leaders began to persecute Him. In His defense, Jesus says to 37:02 them, 'My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I, too, am working.'" 37:09 Oh, now look out! "For this reason, they tried all the more to kill Jesus; not only 37:14 was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal 37:19 with God." Jesus does not claim God's rest for the Sabbath in His own 37:25 defense. He instead declares God's ever-present work. 37:30 I got to tell you. I've read John many times, and every time -- true confession -- 37:36 every time I come to that verse 17, I say to myself -- I have. 37:41 I won't do it again. I say to myself, "How could this be? 37:44 I mean, You're being charged with breaking the Sabbath, and You're using working on the 37:49 Sabbath as Your answer. There's something that doesn't add up here." 37:53 Tonstad himself, I find out, wrestles with that, and he explains. 37:58 "Being present" -- the emphases here are his -- "Being present, and responding to present 38:04 reality, constitutes the essence of Jesus' idea of the Sabbath." Why, you and I, when we began 38:10 this series, that was the big point. Wow! 38:13 God is immersed in this day. He is present in the day. And when I ignore the day, I 38:18 ignore Him. Tonstad says yeah, that's the essence of the Sabbath that 38:23 Jesus is trying to teach. "At creation, God's commitment to humanity is described by 38:29 God's rest, but the reality of disease and death calls for a different Sabbath message. 38:35 Resting in the face of crying needs implies remoteness and indifference. 38:40 God is not like that. God is not remote. God is present." 38:45 Can I get an amen for that? God is present! "This message, written on the 38:50 Sabbath from the beginning, is still the message of the Sabbath, and Jesus delights to 38:55 point it out." "No matter how shocking the thought" -- and it was shocking, 39:01 when I finally got what he was saying -- "Jesus defends His actions by the ultimate 39:05 criterion: 'My Father is working' -- underlined -- 'My father is working until now, and 39:12 I am also working.'" Translation is Sigve's translation. 39:17 "Prioritizing the notion of presence, working takes precedence over resting. 39:23 God is, as it were, hard at work to make right what is wrong." My. Oh, my. Oh, my. 39:35 You see, we love the text, especially at Christmastime, which we've just come out of. 39:42 John 1:14 -- "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Remember that text? 39:46 "And we beheld His glory, the glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and 39:48 truth." Oh, we love that text. We forget that the reason for 39:52 verse 14 is given in verse 18, and nobody reads verse 18 anymore. 39:57 So, let's read verse 18 in tandem with verse 14 in the mighty prologue of the fourth 40:01 Gospel. "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. 40:06 We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full 40:13 of grace and truth." Oh, I love that verse. Everybody loves the verse. 40:16 But here comes verse 18. Why did He come? Ah! 40:20 "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest 40:28 relationship with the Father, has made Him known." My, my, my. 40:35 Why did Jesus come? To tell the truth about God. He made Him known. 40:43 In other words, Jesus came to reveal -- plain, simple, and profound -- He came to reveal 40:48 the Father to the human race. Over and over, on the night before His execution, so, 40:54 tomorrow -- Good Friday -- He will be exterminated. Tonight, He talks of what is 41:00 most important to Him. And three times we hear Him make the point. 41:04 You know it. In fact, you'll finish these sentences. 41:07 "If you have seen me," Jesus said in the upper room, you have what? 41:11 "You've seen the Father." Here's another one. "If you know me," you what? 41:15 "You know my Father, as well." Here's the third one. "I'm in the Father, and the... 41:20 Father is in me." Tonstad again. Jesus is God. 41:25 Let there be no mistake. "Jesus is God in this Gospel, but if one message is more 41:32 important, it is this, to show that God is like Jesus." That's the truth! 41:40 My. So, when Jesus performs His seven Sabbath healings and 41:51 miracles, which were performed on the seventh-day Sabbath, which the Lord of the Sabbath, 41:57 as Chuck and company have reminded us, gave at the beginning of creation. 42:08 When Jesus says, "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me," He means, "The way I have 42:17 healed you and loved you and treated you on the Sabbath is the way the Father has healed 42:23 you and loved you and treats you on the Sabbath. I am. I am." 42:34 Sigve Tonstad one last time. "Maintenance of the created order will not suffice when the 42:42 created order is threatened by dissolution, and when human beings are in the thrall of 42:48 disease and death. Rather than waiting for human beings to break the deadlock by 42:52 impeccable Sabbath observance" -- the Jews themselves have still rumored, 42:56 "Listen. If we can just keep the day perfectly once, just once, the 43:00 Messiah will come." No, no, no, no, no. "Rather than waiting for human 43:05 beings to break the deadlock by impeccable Sabbath observance, Jesus brings the Father's 43:09 compassion to view on the Sabbath. In the words of 43:13 G. Campbell Morgan, 'There can be no rest for God while humanity is suffering.' 43:19 Jesus cannot wait until the next day." "Listen. 43:22 Why don't you just come back the next day and do this. Mañana." 43:25 "No, I cannot wait." "Jesus cannot wait till the next day because He is 43:29 magnifying the original message of the Sabbath in the context of human suffering now. 43:34 Ministering to the person in need, reaching out to heal and to restore, lies at the heart of 43:41 the divine character and mission." Which means that in this 43:52 pandemic, from which it feels we will never be released, there is no rest for God while humanity 44:03 is suffering. Let us be reminded. God is not up there resting 44:10 under some celestial palm tree, sipping piña coladas. No, He's down here! 44:18 He cannot rest while we suffer. God is down here alongside us in the grit and the grime and the 44:26 infectious dying of COVID-19 suffering. I watched this week a 44:33 heartbroken widow lean over the casket and love on the very still form of her life 44:47 companion. And as I watched -- look. If we are created in God's 44:55 image, and I was feeling what I was feeling in that sacred moment, I cannot imagine the 45:06 heart of God in the midst and the mess of our suffering. It is no wonder God cannot sleep 45:22 at night. He holds me! He holds me fast, night and day. 45:29 He will never let you go until He comes for you. "Never will I leave you. 45:36 Never will I forsake you." Doesn't take our suffering away. It's bad down here, God. 45:43 It's terrible down here. And He knows because Jesus came once upon a time. 45:53 He knows. It is no wonder. It is also no wonder God's love 46:02 chooses still to be incarnated into our dreadful and deadly suffering. 46:10 The seventh-day Sabbath still declares there can be no rest for God while humanity is 46:16 suffering. And, thus, the seventh-day Sabbath that repeats itself 46:21 every single week of human time declares that in the midst of our suffering, God now is 46:26 presents to heal... as best He can, given the high stakes of this end-game battle. 46:41 Every seventh day comes with a God who suffers with us immersed in the Sabbath beside us. 46:51 What a profound difference. Hey, come on, come on, come on. What a profound difference this 46:56 existential truth can make in our celebration of the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord, 47:02 our God, every single week with the Jesus who gave us the Sabbath. 47:09 So, so, come on, Dwight. What's all this have to do with David Brooks' warning -- America 47:14 is falling apart at the seams? You want me to be honest? Do you want me to be honest? 47:19 I will. I believe all the light we cannot see for America is the 47:27 light that shines from the Lord of the Sabbath through His seventh-day Sabbath -- keep 47:34 listening -- and until and unless America returns to her Creator and His Sabbath, all the 47:40 king's horses and all the king's men will never be able to put America back together again. 47:47 America long ago cast off the restraints of any notion of a creator God. 47:53 Thus, in the words of the ancient prophet, "We have sown the wind, and now we are reaping 48:01 the whirlwind." 48:12 And to my evangelical friends in evangelical Christianity -- and I'm blessed with a lot of 48:17 friends, evangelicals. I got preacher friends that I love. 48:23 I got everyday-people friends that I love living next door to. But to my friends in evangelical 48:32 Christianity in America, the key to your passion, to revive America and restore America is 48:43 found in Jesus' gift of the seventh day. He is not just Lord of 48:51 salvation. He is Lord of the Sabbath. And you can't bifurcate Him. 48:56 You cannot separate Him. The two go together, one Creator. 49:03 And any effort to revive America without Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath is both neutered and 49:13 doomed. It will not happen. And to my Seventh-day Adventist 49:19 friends, and I have a few of them, as well... To my Seventh-day Adventist 49:26 friends, I remind you that without Jesus, we will remain right about the day and 49:33 dreadfully wrong about the way, and we will be as blind as everybody else! 49:41 Everybody else! The Jews could not solve the demise of their nation. 49:51 There's no way the Sabbath has any meaning apart from a passion for the Lord Jesus Christ as 50:01 Creator. All the light we cannot see because until we see Jesus, 50:07 immersed in the seventh-day Sabbath and enshrined in our hearts and our homes on the 50:13 Sabbath, we are blind. We are blind! Don't you be clucking your 50:19 tongue for America or for your evangelical neighbors. 50:23 We -- you and me -- are blind. And we will walk in darkness and 50:34 never see the light. So, let me repeat to my friends 50:42 in America, my friends in evangelical Christianity, and to 50:47 my friends, the Seventh-day Adventists. 50:53 If you could see the light you cannot see now, if you could know the Jesus you do not know 51:04 now, you would discover in His seventh-day Sabbath what you do not have now. 51:13 You don't have it. I can tell it. 51:26 The gift of Himself, immersed and embedded in the gift of His Sabbath -- that is the gift that 51:34 will yet bring the peace and rest we desperately long for in America, in Asia, in Africa, 51:48 in every hemisphere, north and south. For the entire world, the answer 51:56 is the Creator and Savior, Jesus. I end with Jesus' appeal, and it 52:04 comes beautifully packaged in this line from "Desire of Ages." 52:09 "To all who receive the Sabbath as a sign of Christ's creative and redeeming power, it will be 52:16 a delight. Seeing Christ in it, they delight themselves in Christ. 52:21 The Sabbath points them to the works of creation as an evidence of His mighty power in 52:27 redemption. While it calls to mind the lost peace of Eden, it tells of the 52:33 peace restored through the Savior. And every object in nature 52:38 repeats His invitation," and here it comes. Let's say it out loud together. 52:43 "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you" what? 52:51 "I will give you rest." The gift of rest, the gift of peace, the gift for the rest of 52:59 our lives is Jesus, is Jesus. Let's pray. Oh, God, oh, Christ Jesus, our 53:12 Lord, for the rest of our life, we do not have, for the rest of the light we cannot see, we ask 53:24 of You, we ask for You right now, please, Lord Jesus, give us the grace and the courage to 53:36 take the gift and to keep the Sabbath for the rest of our lives with you. 53:46 Amen. Amen. I'm not gonna go to the Connect Card right now. 53:55 I'll put the information on the screen for you. 53:59 If you never heard of this electronic Connect Card, today 54:03 it's Banner3. If you'll text that code word to 54:06 269-281-2345, there will be an offer there for you. 54:11 You'll see it. 54:13 But we need to listen to this song. It's a beautiful song. 54:19 You don't recognize the words, but you might recognize the tune. 54:24 It's the song of Jesus. Singers, take us back to Jesus again, please. 54:34 >> Stand. 54:36 [ "At the Name of Jesus" begins ] 56:58 >> Before you go, let me take an extra moment to share with you 57:00 an opportunity to get into the Bible in a fresh, new way. 57:04 All across the world, more and more people are hearing the call 57:06 to examine Scriptures for themselves. 57:08 If you've felt drawn to learn more about God's Word, but you 57:11 don't know where to start or you're just looking for a more 57:14 in-depth examination of Bible truths, then I have something 57:17 right here that I believe you're going to enjoy. 57:20 I want to send a series of guides to get you started. 57:22 This one's entitled "Why Does God Allow Suffering?" 57:25 Each guide begins with a story, an introduction of the subject. 57:28 Then, through a series of focus questions, you'll be learning 57:31 portions of the Bible you may never have known before. 57:33 And when you're through, you'll be able to share with others 57:35 some of these inspiring Bible truths. 57:38 Just call our toll-free number. It's on the screen. 57:40 877, the two words "His will." Our friendly operators are 57:44 standing by to send these study guides to you. 57:46 Once again, that's 877-HIS-WILL. Call that number, and then 57:50 again join me next week right here at this same time. 57:55 "New Perceptions." 57:59 ♪♪ ♪♪ 58:12 ♪♪ ♪♪ |
Revised 2022-02-01