Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28, verse 19, go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ teachings through Australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Dr.
Robert Granger. Well, I spent some time, in fact, months preparing for a certain sermon. I was gearing up to present on a certain theme.
And in the last couple of weeks, I decided I was going to abandon that and we'll go across to something else. And so I was just impressed to do so. It's going to be a theme this morning that you're all very intimately familiar with.
But I was thinking maybe there's going to be someone come today who it's going to be a new revelation to. Thus I was impressed to change my theme. You've probably heard of this concept or an idea, a theory, six degrees of separation, that there are approximately six social connections between you and anyone else on planet Earth.
Doesn't matter. You just name anyone and you will know someone, who will know someone, who will know someone. And on it goes for six leaps.
And there you go, you're connected. I've often thought about this and thought, well, is it real? Is it a fair income phenomenon? Now, in this era of social media platforms, they estimate that that six degrees of separation is probably more like maybe three or four. It's pretty phenomenal thought, well, how real is, I thought, you know, imagine if we decided to try and attract someone, some sort of personality celebrity here to try and run a health program here in the Bunbury area.
And let's get someone who's a bit of a known entity and maybe they might add a little bit of pizzazz and attraction. I thought, who might that be? And I thought, well, okay, well, maybe we should attract someone like this. I don't know this gentleman, but who's that? Who's that? How do you know that? All right.
George Clooney. I thought, well, how could we attract George Clooney here? I thought, you know what? I think I've got a little bit of an idea. This girl here might be able to help me out.
It's someone that I went through medical school with. Megan Baker's her name. She's a GP in Hobart.
Let me call up Megan and ask if she might be able to help me out here. So I call up Megan. I haven't done this, by the way, but I could call up Megan who's there in practice there in Lena Valley, in Hobart.
Megan, I've got a favor for you. A favor of you. Do you reckon you could help me out? Yeah.
Okay. All right. Well, look, we'll see how we go.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to speak with my brother, and this is my brother, and he might be able to help us out. So Simon jumps on the phone and puts a call through to George. And George says, well, look, I don't know this Rob Granger bloke in Bunbury, but I think I might be able to help him out.
So, in turn, George jumps on the phone and gives me a call. And it didn't even take. Six degrees of separation.
Well, that's a guess. I don't know if that would really work. Megan is a real person, by the way, and I really did go to a medical school with her, and she really is the brother of Simon.
But I'm not really so interested about these six degrees of separation, as important as that might be for some people. Using this to illustrate the fact that I'm more concerned, and I think God is more concerned, that there's been six millennia of separation between us and him. We think of being very self centered as we are as humans.
We think of heaven and we think of all of this and we think of it on our terms and how important it is to us. But how important is that separation to God? How does his heart ache to be with his people and to be permanently reunited with his people? It's that that I want to talk about this morning. In part, for 6000 years, that mastermind that was once highest among the angels of God has been wholly bent to the work of deception and ruin.
Friends, thinking men and women, and even those who do not profess faith are observing that planet Earth is in a downward spiral. And While it is true, and it is still very much true, that the heavens declare the glory of God, I cannot help but feel that. And it's probably fair to say that the Earth and its inhabitants declare that.
Satan's character is becoming more evident. Chaos is evident everywhere. Conflict at every turn.
If you were to have a look at the global conflict tracker, you see all the hotspots around planet Earth, and it's not pretty. Whether it's civil war in Syria, whether it's all this corruption and criminal violence that's occurring in Mexico. The Earth is enveloped in violence.
There's disputes over ownership of land and sea. There's racial and gender tensions everywhere. There's political instability.
There's threats on biodiversity and the environment. Clean fresh water is becoming a premium. The national debt is skyrocketing.
And as you compare the national debt against gross domestic product, which is simply a value of a nation's goods and services in that given year, it's not a pretty picture, but that's of nations. How about of individuals? Individual poverty is rampant around the globe, and poverty leads to tension and war, which in turn leads to more poverty, and the cycle just simply continues. We've been exposed to horrible pictures like this of feminine in parts of Africa.
I mean, these are pictures that just sort of get emblazoned on the mine, and it has an impression. It's not nice. Or you see the slums of India.
No child deserves to be living in a situation like this. You don't need to go quite as far away as India. You could just go a little to the north of Australia, and you could go to the Philippines, where people live in cemeteries.
This is home for them. They live in cemeteries. This one here is maybe the more famous of them all.
This is in Makati in Manila. This is the financial hub of the Philippines. This is just blocks away is where the millionaires live.
And the skyrise of Manila is. This is McCarthy Central Cemetery. And they literally sleep on top of graves.
And how would you be that? Some moRning, someone comes busting through your bedroom carrying a casket on their shoulders? One of the most serious threats to our security that is arising today is the ever growing threat related to cyberwar attacks causing businesses to fail and collapse, life savings of individuals to be devastated, economies of states and of nations under serious threat. Vital infrastructure being disrupted or shut down. And we've seen a lot of those occurring in recent times.
And in this war, no missiles are launched, no guns are waived, not necessarily any blood is shed. And yet the impact of those who inspire fear and wield unfathomable influence can do so with a new weapon. All they need to do is just simply pick up a keyboard.
So the global cybercrime, in fact, have gone past the estimates for this year, 2021, $6 trillion a year, is going to be damage costs associated to cybercrime. That's like $11 million a minute, $190,000 a second clicking over. Someone's taken a hit.
And yet the war that matters most is none of this. It's none of this. The war that matters most is the war that is being fought over God's character and over our.
And what impacts, ultimately our eternal destiny. And yet, amazingly, it is a war. It is a concept.
It is a notion that is given little thought. The vast majority of the Earth's population would be wholly unaware of the battle that is raging around us. This war is as real as the Palestinian Israeli conflict.
It's as real as the pandemonium that's been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. And this battle over God's character, which clearly impacts our eternal destiny, could not be any more real. It could not be any more literal, it couldn't be any more personal or palpable.
It's the real deal. And all of this conflict began, of all places, in the pristine and untarnished and unblemished setting of heaven. It's hard to believe, isn't it? Lucifer, the highest ranking of all angels, coveted the position of God.
Somehow it started with some little seed of doubt, some little seed of I would like what God hAs, some little element of dissatisfaction. And we don't understand how it happened. We don't have an explanation as to how it happened.
We simply don't know. And maybe one day God might be able to in some way explain it to us. But this secretive internal rebellion flourished into outward revolt and insurrection.
And Satan drew other angels around to his side. Please turn with me to the Book of Isaiah. If you've got your Bibles with you, in fact, if you've got your print Bibles, all that you need to do is just sort of find roughly the halfway mark of your Bibles, open up, and you're probably going to fall right to the Book of Isaiah.
And we're going to go to Isaiah, chapter 14. And we're going to commence in verse twelve. Isaiah, chapter 14, and verse twelve.
And I will pop my glasses on Isaiah 14 and verse twelve, where it says this, how are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How are you cut down to the ground? You who weakened the nations? For you've said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. And then we see the most unthinkable thing occurring in heaven.
Come with me to the Book of Revelation. Revelation, chapter Twelve, last Book of the Bible. Revelation, chapter Twelve.
And we see an absolutely amazing thing take place. Revelation, chapter Twelve. And verse seven, where it says that war broke out in heaven.
And it speaks about Michael. Another name for Michael is Jesus, that Michael and his angels fought with the dragon. And the identity of the dragon is going to come out in just a moment, fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they didn't prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. In a 7th day Adventist, we kind of use a little bit of, as everyone does, there's a little bit of sort of terminology that we use, and it makes sense to us, and I think it stays true to scripture as well. But we would ordinarily refer to this battle between Christ and Satan as the great controversy, this cosmic conflict that's occurring up there and down here on Earth.
And it's hard to believe that our world, our very planet, has become the battlefield. It's become the center stage for what's actually playing out. And we see this controversy theme, this great controversy theme from the beginning of Scripture, from right in Genesis, right through to the Book of Revelation.
We see it going all the way through, but intertwined with this controversy theme that we see, thankfully, we see good news. We see not only Satan's government coming to the fore, but we also see and observe very clearly what God is doing to rescue us from this battlefield. Now, it's very possible that you may be familiar with some of these riveting truths, and it's found in a book that was written by Ellen White, and it goes by the same name, the Great controversy.
I love that book. In fact, if you've never read the book, I would encourage you to do so. And if you need a copy, please come and see me, and I'll make sure that you get a copy.
It is one of the most astounding reads that you could possibly go through. Now, this book used to be more commonly referred to as the Great Controversy between Christ and Satan. We've got this habit of just shortening titles.
So at the moment, the great controversy, well, it used to be called the Great controversy between Christ and Satan, and before that title came along, it used to be called. Because books back in the old days used to have very long titles. It used to be called the Great Controversy between Christ and his angels and Satan and his angels.
That's what the book used to be called. So if you haven't read the book, please, I urge you, because when that was written way back in the sort of the mid 18 hundreds. Okay.
All right. It was pretty, like, out there at that time. But I tell you what, it's got more relevance today than it had back then.
Incredible. And by the way, if you think that it's a little bit old fashioned and a little bit naive to be reading from the writings of Ellen White, I would urge you to think again, because there's this little bit of a trend amongst some of our rank. And I'm not saying necessarily here in Bunbury, I'm just saying in Adventism generally to basically challenge and to downplay the prophetic insights of Ellen White.
I had a patient just this week, come and see me. Husband and wife came in, I guess, in their, can't recall. So mid, late 60s, came in, took a seat, had a few words to say, and one of them, I can't recall which ones, pointed a finger at me and said, you must be a 7th day venist.
I said, how's that? Why do you think that? Well, the literature and what have you got in your waiting room? I said, well, yes, I am a 7th day Adventist. And I said, we just love Ellen White. Now, this is a Pentecostal couple.
They go to a different faith. We just love Ellen White. I said, but have you read the desire of ages? Oh, the desire of ages.
What a teacher she is, friends not of our faith, who get excited about what she's penned. Have a look at this here. There are many who do not understand the conflict that is going on between Christ and Satan over the souls of men.
Ellen White wrote this long time ago, and it was published in the Advent Review on Sabbath Herald. They do not realize that if they would stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel, they must be willing to be partakers of his conflicts and wage a determined war against the powers of darkness. Let's take a look at this in the powers of darkness.
Come with me in the New Testament to two Corinthians, chapter ten. Two Corinthians, chapter ten. And this is really a stunning passage that Paul outlines to us here.
Two Corinthians, chapter ten. And we'll begin in verse three. Two cOrinthians, chapter ten, and verse three.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. This was discussed not directly this, but in an indirect way in our Sabbath school group this morning. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
So here we are, living in the flesh, but our weapons that we fight are not to be fleshly weapons. They're not to be carnal weapons because they're absolutely powerless. There's a saying that goes, I don't know this in person, because this has never happened to me, thankfully.
But there's a saying that says, you don't bring a knife to a gunfight, you don't bring the flesh to a battle that's spiritual. It simply is not going to work. And before you even think that you could win, you've already lost.
The Syrians again were making war against Israel. But the prophet Elisha was given insights into the plans by God. And in turn, Elisha would share this revelation with the king of Israel.
And thus Israel would be ready for the attacks of the Syrians. And each time they were being defeated. And finally, the king of Syria has enough of this and he wants to determine who's the mole, who's the informant, who's betraying our secret plans.
Come with me to the Book of Second Kings there in the Old Testament. Let's have a look at then what happens. Second Kings, chapter six.
It's a very interesting portion of the Old Testament. Second, sorry, second kings, chapter six. And we're going to pick up the story in verse twelve.
Second Kings, chapter six and verse twelve, because one of his servants comes up to the king and says, you know what, king? There's no informant. It's Elisha. It's the prophet who's in Israel.
And he tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom when you think it's secret, when you think you're whispering, doesn't matter. The Prophets already heard it. Just recently, I took Angela up to Scitech in Perth.
You've probably been there with some of your kids. That explains some of the natural phenomenon of the world. And it's an interesting place.
And right there in that area that's out of view, that is out of focus, right here on the bottom left hand side, you'll probably know what I'm talking about if you've been there is the backside of a parabolic dish. On further down the center of the picture, you see a little round disc there. That's the other parabolic dish that's quite some distance away.
And you can come to this little parabolic dish and come to the focal point of that dish. There's a little bit of a bar that sort of comes out and you can do the slightest little whisper in that dish. And Angela could be on the other dish with her ear at that focal point, and she can hear that whisper as plain as plain.
Well, it's almost as though the king had a parabolic dish in his bedroom and Elisha had one in his. It didn't matter how softly he whispered, God reveals the plan to Elisha. And so the Syrian king sends an army to find and to capture Elisha.
We're going to get rid of this phenomenon. Now, a little thought on the Syrian king's behalf would probably have shown the futility of such a mission. I mean, after all, if God was able to whisper plans about the Syrian king in his bedroom, about all that was happening, don't you think that God would also instruct Elisha that the king was planning against the prophet himself? Let's take a look in verse 14.
So the king of Syria sends horses in, chariots and a great army, and they surround the city by night. And the next morning, early in the morning, the servant of God comes out and he sees this great army surrounding the city. There's all the horses, there's the army, there's the chariots.
And he utters the very same cry that we all do when we are confronted with challenges and chaos and difficulties. Just like that servant, we too have limited vision, and we fail to see the resources that God has at his command to rescue us. And just like that servant, when we're in dire straits with nowhere else to turn, we too yell out, what shall we do? What shall we do, Elisha? What shall we do? And Elisha pauses, and he says to his servant, he says, don't fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.
And you can imagine that Elisha's. I mean, the servant is thinking, Elisha, I think you're losing know, almost as know. Put his hand in his forehead.
Elisha, have you got a temperature? Clearly, they outnumber us significantly. What are you talking about? And Elisha has a very simple prayer, and it's just this brief and this profound. And he prays and says, lord, I pray, open his eyes, that he may see nothing more complicated than that.
And immediately he's seeing this flash of horses and fire and golden chariots, and it's just all happening there, all right in front of him. He looks up. He sees up above the hills, this great army, these chariots, just bearing down across the tops of the mountains.
And he's stunned. Elisha, why didn't I trust you? Why didn't I trust the word of God that came through you? Our deliverance is assured. We need to believe and trust.
He knows what must be done. God understands the rules. Of engagement.
He knows the route to victory. He makes a way of escape. He knows what needs to be done.
I'd like you to turn with me, please, to the Book of Genesis, because there's an interesting story here that you'd be well familiar with, and that is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But there's just an interesting portion that I want to pull out of this story in Genesis, chapter 19. Genesis, Chapter 19.
And here a couple, two angels make their way to Sodom to try to rescue the few righteous that there might happen to be in the city. And we know at least that there was going to be lot. So the two angels go there to rescue the family.
And so they arrive there late one evening. There's a little bit of kerfuffle that goes on initially. And then we see in verse two, the men Say to Lot, lot, have you got anyone else here with you? Your son in law, your sons, your daughters? Whomever you have in the city, take them out of this place, because we're going to destroy this place.
Because the cry, the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. Salat went and spoke to his sons in law, who had married his daughters, and get up out of this place, for the Lord's going to destroy the city. But to his sons in law, he seemed to be joking.
It's kind of like that way, isn't it, when you try to share these insights with others and they just sort of give you this blank look and it's like, yeah, okay, we know stuff's going down, but we just sort of don't get it. When the morning dawned, verse 15. When the morning dawned, this was the day that God had appointed for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
It wasn't going to happen next week. There wasn't going to be a delay of another month or a year. That was the day it was going to happen.
This was the reason why those angels were in haste. They had a message to bear. There was no time to lose.
He's got to get them out of the city and get them out now, else they be destroyed. And he says that very thing. He says, arise, take your wife, your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.
And then a very telling little phrase. It then says this, at least in my version, says, and while he lingered, lot should have known better. He should have known.
He should have seen the sense of urgency. But he sides to linger. Let me go make another cup of herbal tea before we hit the road let me go and pack my suitcase.
And he lingers. And that wasn't a good example to his wife nor his two daughters. And he lingered.
Finally, the angel says, that's enough, and what does he do? Grabs his hand. And it's an insight that I've kind of never really gleaned before until just going through. In preparation for this sermon.
There's two angels collectively between them have got four hands. There's four people who end up being taken away by hand. And it says that here the men took hold of his hand and his wife's hand.
I can imagine that. Here's an angel with the hand of lot and the hand of his wife, and here's the other angel with the hand of one of the daughters and the hand of the other daughters. And they say, let's go, and grabs them and pulls them out of the city.
You know what? God does not ask that we escape without at least two things. Number one, and it's clear from this message right here, Number one, God doesn't expect that you escape unless he provides you with the warning to escape. And number two, he's not going to expect that you escape without giving you the hand that makes it possible to escape.
And if we're going to experience victory, it is only because we've trusted our life to the hand of him that created us and to the hand of him whose hands were, in fact, nailed to the cross that we may have a way of escape, like you, to turn to the Book of Ephesians. And I thank, and I'm sorry, I'm blanking on your name, who helped out with the children's story this morning. Thank you.
Much appreciated. Ephesians, we're going to turn to Ephesians, chapter six, because we are going to look right here at the armor of God. Ephesians, chapter six.
And let's begin in verse ten, and it complements very nicely what we saw in two Corinthians chapter ten, verses three, four and five that we read just a little while ago. Ephesians, chapter six, verse ten. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
So straight away, we see where the strength is, don't we? We see that the strength is in the Lord and that the power is in his might. Correct? Nothing to do with us. We are powerless.
Absolutely nothing to do with us. But God asks us to do something. He asks us to put on the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles and the deceptions and the deceits of the devil.
And here it says, and Paul's basically repeating himself again, he says, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly know. One of the deceptions that I think can sometimes take a hold of us as well is that we can spend more time concentrating on the strategies of Satan in this warfare against God and humanity, that we lose sight of the hand that's actually reached out to rescue us, and that is a trap. We can know more about the plans that Satan's got against us than we might know about Jesus.
It's a warning, but still we're being asked to not be ignorant of his devices. To know something about the strategies and his wiles and his illuminants can be both overt, very much in your face, or it may be very covert, very hidden. So some of the overt ways in which Satan comes out in this world is just the very overt form of spiritualism and Satan worship that can be out there.
We see this very much coming out in the entertainment industry as well. We see it. I mean, you just see just the powers of darkness, which is the reason why, and I'm thankful for this, our TV, in fact, we've never really probably had a TV in our married life.
But the other stuff, the videos and what have you, that represent all of this, thankfully long behind us. What business do we have introducing, willingly, spiritualism and the powers of darkness into our bedrooms and living rooms? What are we thinking of when we allow that to take place? I can understand the worldly wants to do that. That's fine, because at this point, they're maybe making a choice otherwise, or they maybe don't know otherwise.
But we, as 7th day Adventists, why should there be such a book as Harry Potter in our library? And that ilk simply shouldn't exist? But then you've got the very covert or the hidden forms that can happen in sport and in work, and just the other things that we as humans involve ourselves in. Take a look at this. It's a lengthy section, and this is where Ellen White is quoting the words of Satan and the battle plans against humanity.
I'm just throwing out just a couple of things here. And it comes from a volume entitled Spirit of prophecy, Volume four. And it says this.
This is just like a couple of examples. This is Satan speaking. Until the great decisive blow shall be struck.
Our efforts against commandment keepers must be untiring. We must be present at all their gatherings. Whoa.
Hold on a second. You mean that the powers of darkness are right here in our midst this morning? Yep. That's what it's saying.
We must cause distraction and division. We must destroy their anxiety for their own souls. And lead them to criticize, to judge and to accuse and condemn one another.
And to cherish selfishness and enmity. For these sins, God banished us from his presence. And all who follow our example will meet a similar fate.
I recently came across a book by a Thomas Brooks. He was a Puritan preacher and writer. And he wrote a book in 1625.
That's a long time ago, isn't it? My goodness, what's that? 400 OD years ago, he wrote a book. And the name of the book was called Precious Remedies against Satan's devices. An interesting read.
I have not been through it, its entirety, but one of the sections is he speaks about Satan's devices to draw the soul to sin. And he lists out twelve different devices that draws out the human soul to sin. And this is what he says.
These are the Twelve points. To present the bait and hide the hook. To paint sin with virtues colors.
By extenuating and lessening of sin. Extenuating really mean lessening anyway, extenuating and lessening of sin. By presenting to the soul the best men's sins.
And by hiding from the soul their virtues. What do we mean by that point? Well, you take, like King David, for example. That was a pretty horrific thing he did with Bathsheba, wasn't it? And Satan holds up before us those nasty sides of King David.
But hides from us the deep repentance that David actually went through. To present God to the soul as one made up all of mercy. But we don't see the sight of God that has justice.
By persuading the soul that the work of repentance is an easy work. And that therefore the soul need not make such a matter of sin. By making the soul bold to venture upon the occasions of sin.
By representing to the soul the outward mercies that vain men enjoy. And the outward miseries that they are freed from while they have walked in the ways of sin. Wow.
Let that one sink in. Incredible. By presenting to the soul the crosses, the losses, reproaches, sorrows and sufferings which daily attend those who walk in the ways of holiness.
By working them to be frequent in comparing themselves and their ways with those who are reputed or reported to be worse than themselves. By polluting and defiling the souls and judgments of men with such dangerous errors, which in their proper tendency tend to carry the souls of men to all looseness and wickedness, as woeful experience does abundantly evidence. Oh, there's no such thing as judgment.
There's no such thing as a hell to shun or a heaven to win. Oh, no, there's nothing of that. And so we get lulled to sleep.
The final point, to choose wicked company to keep wicked society. But we are told by Paul that we need to make some choices back into the Book of Ephesians, where we'll conclude, where it says here in verse 13, it says, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand, stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith with you, which will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Now, that's where we traditionally stop. But no, we need to keep going. Verse 18.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Tell me, what would happen if this soldier had everything together, except he didn't have the breastplate of righteousness? What do you think the soldier had? Everything. He had everything, but he didn't lift up the sword of the Spirit.
Would his armor be complete? Would his armor be complete if he was lacking one of those items? The answer clearly is no. And how do we know that? Because it told us that in verse 13. Therefore, take up the.
What's the next word? Take up the whole armor of God that consists of all of this. Friends, right there. It says there also in verse 13 that after you have done all, what are you meant to do? You're meant to stand.
I invite you to do that right this morning. Please, as our singers come up, please, I want everyone to stand right now, because we are going to sing a song that asks us to do this very thing. Stand up Stand up for Jesus Ye Soldiers of the cross lives high his royal banner it must not suffer long from victory unto victory his army shall believe till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed Stand up Stand up for Jesus the trumpet all day or to the mighty conflict in this his glorious day, ye that are his now serving against a number.
Let courage rise with danger and strength to strength of all alone the arm of flesh will fail you. Ye dare not trust your home. Put on the gospel armor and watching unto prayer where Judy calls or danger be never wanting.
Stand up and up for Jesus. The strife will not be long this day. The noise of battle, the next of Victor song to him that overcome it a crown of light shall be with the king of glory shall rain only.
Stand up and all stand up close. Dear Heavenly Father, what a privilege it has been again this morning to learn of you and what you're wanting to do and what you have already done to make it possible for us to escape the mayhem and the chaos and the short death here on this earth. Dear Father, I just ask that your hand which is already extended, will continue to be extended as I reach up and hold your hand.
And lOrd, take me away from this mess. Take us all home with you. Dear Lord, may there not be any further lingering.
May there be a decisive action to put evil and iniquity out of our lives, dear Jesus, and allow you to fully take possession of us. Lord, may we stop holding out against you and may we embrace the life of freedom and joy that you have for us. So, dear Lord, I pray for Bunbury Church.
I pray I lift up those who might ordinarily be coming to this church who for various reasons find that it's not their home anymore, or through sickness can no longer attend, or through other circumstances, makes their presence here difficult. Lord, we lift them up before you now, asking that they too will be courageous in this victory and to be found on the winning side. We pray this in your wonderful name.
Amen. You this message was made available by the Bunbury 7th Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their YouTube page, Bunbury Sda. There are forces in the world today who oppose our Christian faith.
They attempt to destroy everything that's holy and control what preachers say. But God still has a few good men who won't be, won't thou won't burn, who will fight to the end to defend their faith. Till the day that the whole world learn there are things we won't give over.
There are things worth fighting for. The book and the blood and the rugged cross one faith, one way, one Lord. When the world and the flesh and the devil press on to try to tear our strongholds down, we will stand our ground.
Despite what the non believers say, our God has never changed. His word still means everything it says. It is now and forever the same the world may think that they have won this fight but there are some that can still be found who will never give in and will never give up we will stand our ground There are things we won't give over There are things worth fighting for the book and the blood and the rugged cross One faith, one way, one Lord when the world and the flesh and the devil press on and try to tear our strongholds down we will stand our ground There are things we won't give over There are things worth fighting for the book and the blood and the rugby cross One faith, one way, one Lord when the world and the flesh and the devil press on and try to tear our strongholds down we will stand our ground coming up next from the album, a new song collective, Volume One.
This is arise from distant lands and across the seas God called us together as a family in breaking of bread and daily fellowship, indoctrination and prayer we became a queer arise, shine for your light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon me now is the time to live for God's kingdom heal the broken heart and set the captives freedom we know the harvest is great, but the work is few. So in faith we went out unsure what to do united by the Spirit and a single goal, to share the gospel and to save lost soul arise, shine, for your light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon me now is the time to live for God's kingdom feel the broken heart and set the cap is free Though we may not yet see it quite clearly, God has worked in us ever patiently through the struggles and the victory, God has used it all to make us ready. As this chapter ends and a new one starts, we know God has plans for each one of us.
Although the time has come for us to part, we'll keep the memories stored within our heart arise, Shine, for your light is called and the glory of the Lord is risen upon me now is the time to live for God's kingdom to heal the broken hearts and set the captives free to heal the broken hearts and set the captives free close we hope you enjoy this short presentation of how God led his people after the Reformation. From lineagejourney.com to die from overwork is not something that happens very often nowadays.
But in the early days of our church, it seemed to happen on a frequent basis, coupled with little information on what a good nutritious diet consisted of as well as poor vaccination. The graves of Mount Hope Cemetery here have too many young people who died early, yet whose impact lasts far beyond their short years on earth. The story of the Andrews family is particularly sad.
His wife Angeline died at the age of 48, two years before he left the US to be a missionary in Europe. They had a close and loving relationship, and the separation that his travel caused was not easy. Separation in death, though, was even harder, and he moved from Rochester, New York, to Lancaster, Massachusetts, and continued his work there.
Unfortunately, his daughter Mary, who had been his backbone of support, contracted tuberculosis, and the prognosis didn't look good. He took her back to the United States, to Battle Creek, where he had Dr. Kellogg look at her.
Unfortunately, nothing could be done to heal her, and despite the advice from Dr. Kellogg, Jay and Andrews insisted on spending almost every day with his daughter. She had been his support while he was in Europe after his wife Angeline had died, and he refused to leave her side.
In her dying days, Dr. Kellogg warned that by proximity to his daughter, he might contract tuberculosis, but he was loyal right up until the end. Jay and Andrews did contract tuberculosis from his daughter and died way too young, at just 54 years old, and is buried here in Barz or Switzerland.
One can only wonder what impact he would have had on the church if he lived for 30 years longer, or how the outcome of the 1888 general Conference session might have been different if he was there. During the course of his life, James White held the position of the editor of Review and a Herald, as well as general conference president. Amongst other things, he did the work not of one man, but at least two, if not three, from his younger years working on the railroad and cutting grass by hand, to working tirelessly for the church.
He died 34 years before his wife in 1881 and is buried here in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek. Nathaniel and Anna White, siblings of James White, worked here in Rochester for a few years, but both died young in their early twenty s from tuberculosis. J.
And Andrew's other child, Carrie, is also buried here, along with the Orton family. It was the Ortons who prayed for James White's recovery in 1865, and it was in the home of their daughter where Ellen White had her Christmas Day vision that led to the establishment of the first 7th day Adventist Sanitarium. Here lie the grave predominantly of young people, young people in their teens and 20s who dedicated their lives to a message, to a belief that the world needed to hear the truth of a crucified, risen, and soon to come Savior.
Young people who took their faith seriously. Young people who sacrificed and dedicated their lives more than any others had to pioneer a new work takes a lot more effort and sacrifice than to just keep it running. And these young people sacrificed in the early years and pushed God's work forward.
May we examine our lives and see where we can commit and dedicate more to finish this work. To view more episodes in the series, visit lineagejourney.com. This program has been brought to you by three ABN Australia.
