Participants: Dan George
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000574
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05:07 There's a lot of you guys today.
05:09 Happy Sabbath! Okay! 05:14 Now I have a question for all of you. 05:16 How many of you have ever been teased or made fun of before? 05:21 Yeah, a lot of us, huh? 05:24 Sometimes that just happens too much. 05:27 How do you guys feel when that happens? 05:30 Bad? Yeah. I know it's not fun at all. 05:33 You begin to feel bad, and begin to feel like 05:36 nothing's going right. Right? 05:38 Have you ever wondered, you know, what you should do 05:40 in that situation? 05:41 Do you usually feel like you're ready to go and help out 05:45 and be nice to that person who's making fun of you? 05:47 Yeah, you don't feel very nice towards that person. 05:50 However, today I have two easy steps that you can follow 05:55 in order to help yourself out whenever you get into 05:58 a hard problem like this. Okay? 06:01 So naturally, when somebody's making fun of you, 06:05 what's the first thing that you usually want to do? 06:08 Is it, do you want to be nice to that person? Yes. 06:11 Do you want to be nice to that person? 06:13 How about deep inside? 06:16 Do you feel nice towards that person? No! 06:20 You usually don't feel very nice towards that person at all. 06:23 Sometimes you might have like an instinct, Well, you know, 06:26 if he's not going to be nice to me, I'm not going 06:28 to be nice to him. 06:29 And if she's not going to treat me nice, I'm not going 06:32 to treat her nice. 06:33 If she's not going to share with me, I won't share with her. 06:36 And a lot of times that so easy to do. 06:39 So the first thing that we have to do though is we need to 06:41 realize that sometimes we might be reflecting God not the way 06:46 that we want to reflect Him, simply because we're angry. 06:49 Here, I want you to listen to this quick verse. 06:52 It's in Proverbs 10:32, and it says: The Godly speak words 06:57 that are helpful, but the wicked speak only what is corrupt. 07:02 So, obviously, we want to bite our tongue, first of all. 07:07 Because we know that when we're angry we might say 07:09 something that we're going to be sorry about later. 07:11 So, naturally, when somebody is teasing us, or being not nice 07:15 to us, we have to realize that we need to bite our tongue. 07:18 And what do you think the second thing is that we need to do? 07:20 Anybody have any guesses? 07:23 Yeah, what's your guess? 07:24 Walk away. Do you have a guess? 07:29 Yes, try to calm yourself down. 07:31 Right! So we want to calm our self down, and then we want 07:36 to find out what God says. 07:39 Okay? We want to look in the word and see, What does God 07:43 have to say about this? 07:45 Okay, so are you ready? 07:46 Who can tell me what the two steps are? 07:48 Alright. Go ahead. 07:50 Calm down and bite your tongue. 07:54 Bite me, yeah. Calm down, bite your tongue, 07:56 and figure out what God has to say. 07:58 So, are you guys ready to try this out? 08:01 Okay, now I've asked Pastor Luke to come on up 08:04 here and help us out. Okay? 08:06 Now picture me. I'm Mr. Natural, and I'm walking up, 08:10 and I'm all good, and I'm all nice. 08:13 And here comes Pastor Luke, and he's a real bully, 08:16 and he doesn't like me that much. 08:18 So guess what's going to happen right now? 08:20 He's going to start teasing me. 08:21 Greg, you're a real jerk. 08:23 And this story's dumb. Ha ha ha! 08:28 Guess how I'm feeling toward Pastor Luke right now? Ha ha! 08:32 Do I feel like I want to go, pat him on the back, 08:34 and give him some jelly beans? 08:35 Nooo! Nooo! I don't feel very nice towards Pastor Luke 08:40 right now, so what am I going to do first of all? 08:44 Bite my tongue? Cause I don't want to go up and say, 08:47 Hey, Pastor Luke, you're a jerk face, too, 08:51 cause that's not going to get him to be very nice to me back, 08:55 is it? It's probably going to be something that 08:57 I'm sorry towards later. 08:58 And what's the second thing I want to do? 09:00 Yes, now I'm calmed down, and then what do I want to do? 09:06 I want to see what God says. 09:09 And, naturally, when we looked right here, it said that we 09:12 want to speak words that are kind. 09:14 We don't want to heave more gasoline onto the fire 09:17 and get something much worse going. 09:20 And so when we think about it; when we follow these two steps, 09:23 anytime we're feeling bad, or some body's teasing us, 09:26 and making fun of us, all we need to do is bite our tongue 09:29 and think about what God wants to do to us. 09:32 So naturally I'm going to bite my tongue, and I'm going to say 09:36 that God wants me to be nice to Pastor Luke, even though he's 09:39 not being nice to me. 09:40 I'm going to love my neighbor as I love myself. 09:42 Alright, thanks you guys. 09:44 You can go back to your seats. 09:54 My faith has found a resting place, not in devise nor creed; 10:04 I trust the ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead. 10:14 I need no other argument, I need no other plea, 10:24 it is enough that Jesus died, and rose again for me. 10:34 Enough for me that Jesus saves, this ends my fear and doubt; 10:44 a sinful soul I come to Him, He'll never cast me out. 10:53 I need no other argument, I need no other plea, 11:04 it is enough that Jesus died, and rose again for me. 11:23 My great physician heals the sick, the lost He came to save; 11:33 for me His precious blood He shed, for me His life He gave. 11:42 I need no other argument, I need no other plea, 11:52 it is enough that Jesus died, and rose again for me. 12:04 Amen! Happy Sabbath! 12:12 It's good to be in the Lord's house on His 12:17 blessed Sabbath day. 12:24 I feel very blessed to have such an incredible church family. 12:29 You look great today. 12:31 I'm so glad our college young people are home. 12:37 Let's welcome them home. 12:39 Give them a hand. We're glad you guys are here. 12:42 There's Ryan over there. 12:46 And over here: thank you Tom, Kim, David and Matthew. 12:52 That was a beautiful and reverent song. Amen! 12:56 You know, Jesus is alive! Amen! 13:01 I got on a plane Sunday and I flew to Denver; 13:05 never been to Denver. 13:07 They have a subway in that airport. 13:08 It's pretty remarkable. 13:10 And when I got to the baggage claim my Mom and Dad 13:14 picked me up, and my Mom and Dad looked very sad. 13:17 My Dad's older brother had died; a long journey with prostate 13:23 cancer. He was 78. 13:25 Thank you for those of you who had prayed for me and my family. 13:30 Many of you know my parents very well, 13:32 over the years here together, the meetings that he has held. 13:35 You know that my Dad has spent his entire life with my 13:39 Mom serving the Lord all over the world preaching 13:46 the second coming of Jesus. 13:49 He has traveled his life with a tremendous amount of strength. 13:59 And I watched, as a boy, my dad officiate his mother's funeral, 14:04 and His father's funeral. 14:06 And now my Dad's approaching 75, and he was going to be 14:12 officiating with the Catholic priests. 14:14 Because many of my family are from the Catholic Church. 14:18 And, of course, my Dad had come from the Catholic Church over to 14:23 this country as a new born Seventh-day Adventist Christian. 14:28 So we go to the chapel, the mortuary there in Denver, 14:35 and there's my Uncle in the casket ravaged with what 14:40 cancer does to everyone at the end; 14:42 not looking like anything I remembered him looking like. 14:47 The priest got up and, you know, they have a very specific way 14:52 that they do services. 14:54 And he stepped aside and asked my dad to come up. 14:57 And I wasn't really prepared for what was going to happen. 15:01 He went to the rostrum he began to sob. 15:07 If you've ever seen a middle eastern man sob, 15:14 it's, well if you see any man sob it's... 15:20 I had never seen my Dad cry in 45 years of my life. 15:28 And he gathered himself. and I'm sitting next to my nephew, 15:31 And I'm sitting next to my nephew, and then my mother, 15:35 and my Aunt. My brother's sitting right in front of me. 15:38 And I'm on the edge of my pew. 15:41 And I'm leaning like this, and my Mom said I had this furrowed 15:46 brow, because something immediately 15:49 happened inside of me. 15:50 I said to myself, That's my Dad, but that's not my Dad. 15:55 That's a Dad I have never known. 16:02 And as he collected himself he opened up the Bible, 16:08 and he said, Jesus is alive, and He's coming back. 16:18 And all of a sudden he became the pastor that I did know. 16:25 And he began to talk about the good news: 16:29 that Jesus lived, and died, and rose from the dead. 16:36 And now He lives to make intercession for you and me. 16:41 And that death was not the final journey for God's people. 16:48 And then all of a sudden he began to cry again. 16:55 And what happened there I still have not sorted out 17:01 in my own mind as a son. 17:03 But his entire, I can't even call it a homily, 17:10 because it wasn't that. 17:11 The entire thing was him grieving openly, 17:17 and without shame. 17:18 He would gather himself and reach out to the family, 17:25 and speak to them in their native tongue, 17:28 the Assyrian tongue, and they would begin to sob. 17:33 So he went from his own grief to their grief, 17:38 and then he would pull back and be a 17:41 shepherd for his family. 17:44 And he did that in rotation. 17:47 And I saw him cycle this four times. 17:53 Personal grief, the individual grief of the extended family, 18:00 the close family, and then pull back and claim the promises 18:07 of God: I will come again and receive you unto Myself, 18:13 that where I am, you may be also. 18:17 It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my life. 18:26 And I'll be thinking about this for years. 18:28 I told my Dad when I come back I'm going to 18:31 write him something. 18:32 I don't even know what I'm going to write. 18:35 But I told him, You know, for all the passion you passed on 18:39 to me, you went somewhere that I have never been. 18:46 When I think about God's people and their role with each other, 18:50 it's that level of honesty that the church was intended 18:57 to bring to one another. 18:58 We grieve, the person next to us grieves, but we always 19:08 fall back to God's Word. 19:11 Jesus is alive! That's the bottom line for us. 19:19 No matter how bad you're hurting; 19:22 our God lives and reigns. 19:28 So I'm flying back and very anxious to get home, 19:35 kinda surreal, flying over the Grand Canyon. 19:39 It's like I'm leaving this incredible abyss of sadness, 19:44 but there's always been hope in that abyss. 19:47 It's like when I'm taking off from the ground. 19:50 I'm heading to the sky. 19:52 I'm looking up at heaven. 19:53 I'm looking down at the Grand Canyon. 19:56 I'm missing my family. 19:58 And I'm saying how blessed I am that I can go 20:04 home to my Sweetie Pie. and I've got one. 20:06 And I've got one; twenty-three years worth of it. 20:12 And I have three semi-normal children. 20:19 You know, it's a miracle, when you think about what Pastor Dan 20:24 is about, and I love them. 20:28 And like your children, every one is different. 20:32 And I have a 170 pound dog. 20:40 And my home is full of life right now. 20:46 But I'm sitting there and I'm thinking about this Sabbath, 20:49 and I start to think about the apostle Paul. 20:52 You know, when he said in the Bible, I die daily? 20:57 He was talking about the old man of sin. 20:59 I'm also thinking that every moment of every day, 21:04 you and I are dying slowly, no matter how much life 21:11 is going on around us. 21:16 And yet Jesus is alive. 21:23 What would you do if you did not believe that Jesus is alive? 21:35 What would you do with your life right now? 21:42 What if the Lord had taken your weak faith and had turned it 21:47 into more than belief, but something that you knew 21:54 to be the gospel truth for you? 21:57 You might not have all the scientific facts of a historical 22:02 Jesus, but God had taken your little faith and had multiplied 22:08 it like the loaves and fishes, and all of a sudden you know. 22:13 It went beyond belief. 22:15 You know that Jesus is alive. 22:17 What if you didn't have that? 22:24 You've got nothing! 22:26 You have absolutely nothing. 22:30 And I need to sit down and shut up. 22:38 I want to think about, I want you to think about every 22:41 day you go to work. 22:42 What would that mean, if you didn't know that your Jesus 22:47 lives, and not just lives, but lives for you? 22:53 What would work be like? 22:58 I mean just think about marriage for a second, just a second. 23:05 If your marriage did not have some greater purpose, 23:12 than this doing what men and women do. 23:18 And that your life together, as difficult as it is 23:23 to be married and stay married, if somehow in your marriage 23:29 that both of you did not know that Jesus is alive, 23:34 and He came to help the two of you become more than you ever 23:40 were when you stood and took your vows. 23:43 Because most of us were absolutely 23:48 clueless when we did that. 23:50 But God knew that, and the good news is that while we were 23:56 making those vows, Jesus was alive. 24:05 How about if your marriage fell apart, 24:09 and you went through divorce, maybe more than once? 24:16 What would you do if you didn't know that not only Jesus 24:27 was alive, and would come with His own hands and help you 24:30 pick up the pieces, and put your life back together, 24:33 but He would give you a mission, and a purpose, and rebuild you 24:38 from the inside out? 24:40 What would you do without that? 24:47 The fact that Jesus is alive is the single most spectacular 24:53 truth that Seventh-day Adventists have! 24:56 And sometimes we get a little lost along the way about what's 25:03 really important for us to believe. 25:07 Let's take a look at 1 Corinthians 15. 25:11 Turn quick; I'm warming up. 25:14 1 Corinthians 15, I'm going to start reading 12, 25:18 New Living Translation. It says: But tell me this, 25:22 since we've preached that Christ rose from the dead, 25:26 why are some of you saying that there's no resurrection from the 25:29 dead. For if there's no resurrection of the dead, 25:32 then Christ has not been raised either. 25:37 And if Christ was not raised from the dead, 25:41 then all the sermons ever preached, including this one, 25:48 is useless. Man I'd hate to think of twenty-two years of 25:56 sermons useless. Now I came from a human standpoint, 26:00 and maybe some of you have thought that some, 26:04 and maybe many are useless. 26:06 But you'd be amazed what God can do with a useless sermon, 26:10 because He's alive. 26:11 So here he says, you know, everything that I'm trying to do 26:17 as a preacher would be useless. 26:19 And we apostles, you know what we'd be doing? 26:23 We'd be lying about God. 26:24 For we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, 26:30 but that can't be true if there's no resurrection 26:33 from the dead. If there's no resurrection from the dead, 26:38 your faith is useless. 26:43 What would you do without faith? 26:51 I mean I'm trying to think of my life without 26:55 Jesus in the picture. 26:57 You know, we might as well just lie down and die, 27:02 and put an end to this tragedy of life. 27:07 Or if you look later in the chapter, in verse 32, he says, 27:13 Well, we might as well drink and be merry, and get drunk, 27:19 because we're going to die. 27:21 If Jesus is not alive, take your pick: 27:27 Roll over and die, party all you can, and then die from that. 27:34 Now he says here the apostles would be lying. 27:39 They'd be lying about God, verse 15, For we have said 27:48 God raised Christ from the grave. 27:49 But that can't be true. 27:50 If there's no resurrection, then Christ has not been raised. 27:54 And if Christ is not raised, then your faith is useless. 27:59 Verse 18. In that case all who have died believing in Christ 28:04 have died, and they're dead, and they ain't coming back. 28:09 They've perished. It's over. 28:13 What would you do with all of the people you love 28:16 who have died if you didn't know in your heart Jesus was alive? 28:21 There is no more for you. 28:30 There is no other journey to be experienced. 28:34 They died, they're dead, it's over. 28:41 You know, people make fun of believing in something. 28:52 But it's everything to me, especially as I start 28:58 to get older and older. 29:04 But I was thinking about our college young people, 29:07 and I was thinking about those in high school, 29:11 and I was thinking about those in elementary school, 29:14 and I was thinking about the babies down in Cradle Roll. 29:17 And, you know, what do they really have to look forward to? 29:20 Huh? Really? I mean, I can go back and say, you know, 29:27 basically, you're going to go through, in essence, this, this, 29:34 that, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, you know? 29:40 You might accomplish this, you know. 29:43 You might make a name for yourself. 29:47 But in the end you're going to turn out just like me. 29:51 How wonderful would that be? 29:53 Unless Jesus is alive. 29:59 What do the young people have to look forward to when they 30:05 look at you and me? 30:06 Oh, great! You can look old fashioned like Pastor Dan 30:14 who used to think he was hip. 30:16 And I'm going to turn out with a stomach, balding. 30:22 I'm going to get old, and every time I open my mouth 30:28 I'm saying the same things over and over; 30:30 just a variation on a theme. 30:32 What do your young people, our children, have to look forward 30:38 to when they look at you? 30:40 I'll tell you what. 30:42 The transforming love and power of God, who takes older people 30:48 like us, and continues to make us into something more 30:53 than we could ever be. 30:55 The greatest thing our children can see is that we are 31:00 constantly changing and growing. 31:03 And only a Savior that is alive can do that. 31:10 Otherwise I've already reached my peak and I'm heading down. 31:15 And our young people say, Yeah, it's really true. 31:18 Life does not begin at 40, it starts to end. 31:23 But in Christ our best years are always ahead of us, 31:29 not behind us. The best is yet to come. 31:35 My tomorrow, because Jesus lives, is better than today. 31:42 That's what we tell our young people. 31:47 The longer you live with Jesus the better life becomes. 31:56 Every day with Jesus, what does it say? 32:02 Sweeter than the day before. 32:05 It's true. But then we come to this. 32:11 It says, If we have hope in Christ only for just... 32:18 Let me read this again. 32:19 And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, 32:24 this life only, then we are the most miserable 32:29 people on the planet. 32:32 If this is not true, we are the most, 32:40 the Bible actually says to be pitied. 32:48 Because, you think about this, for some of us this spiritual 32:54 journey as a family of faith, this community of faith, 32:59 how important it is to our lives. 33:02 How we come together so diverse, so different, 33:08 so weird, and God in His mercy calls us together to become one. 33:17 And we find a way to cover the generations, 33:20 to cover the genders, all of this stuff. 33:27 If we have done this only for this moment in time, 33:33 it is the biggest sham of all. 33:47 My question this morning... 33:50 Hey, it's only ten till twelve. 33:52 Yes, we're rolling! 33:54 Yes, because I have something else I want to say. 33:57 The great news about Jesus is that He has put His definitive 34:07 mark on your heart. 34:11 And if He hasn't this morning, and you haven't opened up 34:14 the door, please do it now. 34:16 When Jesus was at the cross He said, 34:23 I am going to trade places with you. 34:27 I'll be you, so you can be Me, when I come out of the grave. 34:35 I'll take this so you can have that. 34:40 That's a, that's a, I've said it before, it's a sweet deal. 34:48 Don't you want that? 34:51 I mean, is there anything better going on for you like tonight? 34:57 A vacation that might come, some big event, 35:03 something that gives you a little bit of a buzz? 35:06 Is there anything better going on for you now than being able 35:13 to experience that Jesus took you to Calvary, 35:17 and He wants to trade that for what He looked like 35:22 coming out of the grave. 35:23 What could be better? 35:29 You know it says here, and I put it on the sign out there, 35:35 The Last Enemy. Many of us would think that's Satan. 35:39 What is the finally enemy? 35:41 What is the last enemy? 35:46 It's death. Verse 26 says, first verse 25 it says, 35:56 Christ must reign until He humbles all His 35:59 enemies beneath His feet. 36:01 Did you get that? Christ must reign until He humbles all 36:08 His enemies beneath His feet. 36:10 That includes Satan, who loves to harass you and me. 36:18 But it's in the next verse where he says, And the last enemy 36:22 to be destroyed is death. That's it. 36:30 When you accept Jesus, the Holy Spirit takes your weak faith, 36:39 and begins to do amazing things in your heart. 36:44 And you begin to cross over from death to life. 36:47 The Bible is very clear that when Jesus is brought in, 36:52 darkness leaves and light appears. 36:55 The very first thing when the world was created, He said, 37:01 Let there be light. 37:05 And when you're dead there is no light. 37:08 So when He comes into your heart, as broken as it is, 37:14 as scarred as it is, He brings the light and begins to make 37:21 you a new creation, a new creature. 37:26 And we begin to pass from death to where? to life. 37:33 We begin the transition that will be sealed when the final 37:40 enemy is finally killed; and that is death itself. 37:44 We get to enter into it right now, 37:47 right here, on this Sabbath; a day that was made for 37:53 re-creation and healing. 37:55 If Christ abides in your heart, as wicked as our hearts are, 38:04 and how clueless we are about our own heart, He will come in 38:08 and bring the light. 38:10 And death begins its final exit that will be 38:17 completed when Jesus comes. 38:21 I want you, in your mind to think, What is your future going 38:30 to be like without a living Savior abiding in your heart? 38:35 What will happen to you? 38:39 How can you live with yourself? 38:45 How can you ever find an identity? 38:52 I have the young people here. 38:54 I might as well just say to the older people, If you were to 38:59 say, Okay, what is my strength barometer internally? 39:04 Now my muscles are starting to sag, 39:08 everything's starting to sag. 39:10 I'm on the treadmill though. 39:15 But I can tell you that Jesus has taken my lostness, 39:24 and I'm getting stronger in here. 39:27 The body might be going to seed, but my heart 39:31 is getting stronger. 39:33 Everybody needs an identity. 39:37 All our young people, they're not really sure who they are. 39:42 And many of us grow up and we tell them, 39:45 when they look at us, the same thing. 39:53 But when Jesus is there we know who we are, 39:58 we know who we belong to, and we know who belongs to us. 40:04 What happens on the inside is that you can stand still, 40:10 and all hell can break loose, and you will not go down. 40:18 There can be chaos all around you, problems all around you, 40:25 problems can be coming at you. 40:27 You're having to go through this storm, whatever it is, 40:31 but when your identity is rooted in Jesus, who is alive, 40:39 you can stand tall even though you feel very small. 40:53 You know, I really want Jesus to come. 41:05 This is one of these kinds of sermons that you just don't end, 41:08 you know? You know, I was thinking, I was trying to get a 41:14 visual in my mind for this Sabbath, and I was thinking 41:17 about Jesus in the grave. 41:18 And, you know, we have been talking in previous sermons 41:21 that as the final weekend came, the passion weekend, 41:25 and all the demons, we knew they're not, 41:29 and we know they're not in Rome, 41:30 and they weren't in Macedonia, and they weren't here or there. 41:33 They weren't up in Galilee. 41:34 They were all in Jerusalem. 41:36 So we're talking 1/3 of the angels, and Satan himself, 41:39 and they've all converged. 41:40 And last week we talked about how they all were in a room 41:43 about this size, the upper room, about a 20' x 20'. 41:48 That's where they are. 41:50 And you've got all the demons there. 41:53 And yet Jesus was there and He was alive. 41:58 I started to think about Jesus in the grave. 42:02 I want you to think of all the people you love 42:05 who are in the grave, who are here no longer. 42:11 And I was trying to picture Jesus is in there, 42:14 and Sunday morning is coming, and God knows that if Jesus 42:22 stays in there there's nothing for us. 42:27 And, you see, the Bible says God is love, and if God is love 42:32 then He's going to make us live. 42:36 He wants us to live. 42:40 You can't love somebody and want them to die 42:43 and never have hope. 42:46 So I'm picturing, you've got these Roman blokes, you know, 42:55 got the little swords, and their armor, and they've got maybe a 43:00 fancy shield with a logo, and they've got a sticker; 43:06 put their favorite stickers on their shield. 43:09 They're standing there. 43:11 There's a seal on the tomb. 43:13 Pilot put his ring in. 43:16 Pshew! Then, if you read Ellen White, it says, you know, 43:24 all these angels are there; all these dark angels. 43:27 She also says that if Satan could have had his way, 43:32 he would have done something with the actual body of Jesus. 43:36 But we won't go into that. 43:37 But there were also angels on the outer loop, 43:41 just making sure. But you have to think 1/3 of the angels, 43:45 and it's all going to come down to this: 43:47 Is Jesus going to stay dead, or is He going to live? 43:50 It's the ultimate drama, isn't it? 43:53 Is He going to stay in the grave, or is He going to live? 43:59 If He stays in the grave we're finished. 44:03 Let's go eat, drink, and be merry; tomorrow we die. 44:07 You know, let's just roll over now and put an end to it. 44:11 Well, God sent one angel, one angel, 44:23 and He said, Go get My Son. 44:32 But that's what Jesus is going to do for everyone 44:36 that you have lost. 44:38 God's going to say, Son, go get My children, 44:43 and do for them what I did for You. 44:49 And I'm just thinking how Gabriel came like this thunder 44:56 bolt, whoooo, and here's Satan puffing up his chest. 45:02 He had a few steroids. 45:06 He's going to try to take this blow. 45:09 All of the angels are huddled. 45:10 It's like this big rat pack, and they're standing there. 45:15 One angel from God, and he's bringing God's power, 45:21 and the closer he gets, they're going to try 45:25 to play chicken with him. 45:28 And closer, and closer, and closer. 45:32 What happens to them? 45:35 Well, it's interesting that Bible says that the men 45:39 very quickly bailed. 45:41 They fell down as if they were alive? they were dead. 45:47 Those who try to keep God away from doing His work 45:53 to bring us back to life, they are the ones that die, 45:59 not God's people. The closer He gets, the angels, 46:05 the demons start to scatter. 46:07 And all of a sudden Satan is there by himself; 46:11 gonna try to handle this. 46:12 Because you see this guy that's coming used to be second to him. 46:20 But can he stop, can he stop Gabriel? 46:26 And as Gabriel comes close, Satan turns into a 46:32 bat and flies away. 46:33 I don't know! We don't know how Satan disappears. 46:38 But he did the quickest disappearing act ever. 46:41 Because he couldn't handle the heat of God's holiness 46:49 when He calls people from the grave. 46:51 Nothing can stop it. 46:57 I just wonder if, I just wonder what it will be like when Jesus 47:04 comes and this text, the final enemy will be destroyed? 47:08 And he comes for the people you love, and if you don't live 47:14 through the next decade, isn't it wonderful to know that you're 47:19 just going to have a temporary time out? 47:22 That you're gonna kinda go onto this transitional silence? 47:28 You're not going to think, feel, nothing. 47:32 You'll just be in this quiet; a nap. 47:37 I love naps. I love naps. 47:39 I hope I get one today. Ha ha! 47:43 You know how great it is to take a nap when you're tired? 47:49 You know when we get older, and we go through a lot, 47:52 we get tired. It's time to lay down. 47:54 We get to take a nap. 47:56 And when the nap is over the alarm will ring. 47:58 We're going to hear some sweet music coming out 48:01 of that alarm clock. 48:02 It's going to be that trumpet. 48:06 And then we're going to hear the voice of God saying, 48:09 Now Dan, wake up from your nap. 48:13 It's time to wake up. 48:20 And I will come back to life, and so will you, 48:23 if we're not alive when Jesus comes. 48:25 Because the final enemy would have been destroyed. 48:30 Jesus is alive! Amen! 48:34 He's alive in my heart. 48:42 Whatever you have gone through in your life; it doesn't matter 48:47 how bad you have messed up. 48:49 You have a Savior who offers freedom and forgiveness for you. 48:58 It's almost as if we fail more. 49:01 He is called to us in even a deeper way. 49:07 Jesus said, I came for those who are really sick. 49:11 Well, hey, that's us. 49:17 And He takes the sick and the broken hearted 49:20 and He heals them. 49:21 I want you to know by faith. 49:24 I believe, and I know Jesus is alive. 49:30 And I know that as I speak my last few words, 49:36 that I am crossing over from darkness to light, 49:41 from death to eternal life. 49:46 Pastor Hawker, will you come up and lead us in a joyful prayer? 49:56 Because Jesus is alive. 50:02 Let us pray. Dear kind heavenly Father, we are humbled by the 50:11 fact that You loved us first. 50:15 We are humbled by the incomprehensible thought 50:22 that that love is so great that You would send Your only Son 50:29 to suffer, die, and be raised from the dead, that we might 50:35 have eternal life. 50:37 And because Jesus lives, we will live with You 50:46 when Jesus comes again. 50:48 Father, we pray for the strength and the patience that we need 50:56 to maintain that faith in the midst of Satan and his demons 51:04 every day effort to weaken our faith. 51:14 But You have given us this hope of life through the death and 51:21 resurrection of Your Son Jesus Christ who overcame and 51:24 conquered sin and death. 51:27 So Father, we should be joyful, and we want to be joyful. 51:32 Because we are Your people. 51:34 You have chosen us, and for that we are extremely grateful. 51:40 Now Father, I pray that You take everyone home safely today 51:46 from this place where You have been that they may continue 51:50 to be with You, and continue to delight in this Sabbath 51:55 that You have given us. 51:56 These and all things we humbly pray in the name of our Lord 52:00 and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. |
Revised 2015-06-05