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Wildwood Lifestyle Center

Though the Heavens Fall

Norman McNulty

The Greatest Want of the World

Well, good evening and a very happy Sabbath to each 1 of you.

And it's a privilege to be here at Wildwood for your winter or fall graduation.

And it's definitely good to see some familiar faces.

Many of you I do not know, but some of you I recognize from our paths having crossed in places in the past.

And I'm very grateful for this privilege to be here.

I'm grateful for the testimonies that I've heard tonight from the students and have an opportunity to see what's happening here at Wildwood.

This is the first time I have been in this church, I'm thinking in probably about 30 years.

But when I was a child, my parents would bring me here to the medical missionary conventions.

In the past, we would stay with a family and then my parents would come to the meetings.

I was too young to really get anything out of it back then, but I've always appreciated what Wildwood has stood for here.

So before we get into our message for this evening I would just like to offer a word of prayer and then we will get into our message.

Our Father in heaven we thank you for the Sabbath day.

We thank you for this weekend where we can dedicate and consecrate the students who have passed through their programs, and I pray that you would be with us in a special way this weekend and that for the students especially, they would be reminded of why they have come and of what the plans are you have for them as they move forward.

So be with me now for the next few moments as I share a few words, I pray In Jesus' name, amen.

You know, when Michelle contacted me about a month ago, I was definitely excited about the theme that was chosen for this weekend.

Makes it easy for a speaker when such a good theme is chosen from the quote in Education page 57, and the theme is, Though the Heavens Fall.

And you know, friends, We are entering into a time of earth's history where every single 1 of us, as a Seventh-day Adventist, must have a resolve in our hearts that we are going to stand for Jesus, though the heavens fall.

And when you come to a place like Wildwood, you are surrounded by many like-minded people and you have the blessing of being in an institution where you can be trained in such a way.

But many of you are going out to go back into wherever the Lord is leading you, and there will be challenges and trials and temptations to go back to what you've been to before.

And God is looking for men and women, no matter your age, who will be faithful, who will be God-fearing, and who will rightly represent Christ and his character to a lost and dying world.

You know, there's something about Seventh-day Adventists that none of the other Christian churches have.

And when you come here to Wildwood, you get a deeper understanding and a greater appreciation for it than unfortunately many Seventh-day Adventists have lost sight of, and that is medical missionary work.

Medical missionary work is a gift that has been given to Seventh-day Adventists by God that allows us to reach hearts with the message of the gospel that all the other denominations don't really understand the way we understand it.

And It's amazing to me how sometimes we as Seventh-day Adventists are almost embarrassed by the health message, or we're embarrassed by whatever other elements that are connected to medical missionary work, yet rightly understood and properly utilized is the very thing that will bring the most success in advancing the work of God.

And God is looking for men and women who will come from this place.

Those of you who have been trained here, students who are graduating this weekend, you don't know perhaps how blessed you are to have been in a place like this.

And I wanna read the quote, education page 57, to start off this message.

The greatest want of the world, and that's the title for our message tonight.

The greatest want of the world is the want of men.

Now, before I keep reading, do you realize that the world is looking for help?

Look at just what happened in our latest presidential election.

People will do anything and turn to anyone to try to find help, and we have the answers to what the world is looking for.

The greatest 1 of the world is the 1 of men.

Men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name.

And let me tell you something, that is a gift or a skill or whatever you want to call it that has been lost in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Men who do not fear to call sin by its right name.

Men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole.

Men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.

And then the next paragraph says, but such a character is not the result of accident.

You know, you don't just fall into being someone who will stand for what's right no matter what.

You don't come onto the scene of an accident or to a scene of a crisis and suddenly know what to do by chance.

It is not the result of accident to have such a character.

It is not due to special favors or endowments of providence.

A noble character is the result of self-discipline, of the subjection of the lower to the higher nature, the surrender of self for the service of love to God and man.

Now, if your motivation in standing for the right, though the heavens fall, is so that you will make a name for yourself.

So that you will be famous, so that you will be known, so that you will be appreciated.

Your motivation is wrong, and eventually you're going to fall flat on your face.

But when you are surrendered to Christ because you love God and you love man and your desire is to do that which God would want you to do, you will not be afraid to take stands for God.

You will not be afraid to say the right thing when you're the only 1 that's standing.

Now listen, there are times when you will be in places and in situations and in circumstances where you will be called upon by the Lord to stand up to say the right thing.

And it's not always a pleasant thing to have to do.

It's not always fun, but God gives the grace to do so.

Now, when we look at this quote from Education, page 57, this comes from a chapter in the book Education, where Ellen White specifically describes the experiences of Joseph and Daniel.

Now, amazingly, Joseph and Daniel are young men who were taken out of their normal living environment, both against their will.

Joseph was sold into slavery, and Daniel was taken by force.

And at that time, they were both taken, in each of their phases of their lives, to the leading empire of the world.

They went from the surroundings of God's people to the leading empires of the world.

Now, those of you who are graduating this weekend, who knows where God may lead you?

But what I would submit to you is that if Joseph could be faithful in Egypt, surrounded by pagans, and if Daniel could be faithful in Babylon, surrounded by pagans, what excuse do you have?

Joseph may have been sold as a slave, but you couldn't buy his soul.

He wasn't going to compromise when nobody was looking.

And he had opportunity to do so when Potiphar's wife came knocking.

And by the way, she didn't just come spur of the moment 1 time, she pressed and she pressed and she pressed day after day after day.

And unfortunately, even among God's people, many a man does not have the resolve or the character of a man like Joseph who will say, I cannot do this wicked thing against God.

Nobody's watching, nobody will know, but Joseph loved God and he knew that God was watching and he knew that the honor of God was at stake.

And we are told that angels watched with concern and with nervousness to see would Joseph prove faithful to his calling?

Amazingly after that, he's thrown into prison.

And through all of that, you could not buy or sell his soul.

Was faithful to God, And when the crisis for Egypt came, God was able to use Joseph as a man that could bring help to the people of the world.

The greatest want of the world today is the want for men and women who have characters of integrity like Joseph.

And it's easy to have that kind of an experience when you go to school here at Wildwood.

But when you go back out into the world, you're not going to be at Wildwood.

You're going to be where God has called you to be.

And The question is, will you remain faithful to the calling that God has given you the way you have been here at Wildwood?

Joseph went from being the favorite child of his father, surrounded by comfort and luxury to being a slave, and then to being in prison.

And through it all, he stayed faithful to God.

Not only was Joseph faithful, also Daniel was faithful.

And we know these stories, but it's helpful to reflect on these things.

Very early on in Daniel's experience, he comes into the king's court and the officers of the court let all the young Hebrews know that the king is bestowing special favor on these young men.

You get to eat food from the king's table and you get to drink what he drinks.

You get to eat the food that the king eats.

He is the leader of the world and look how great he is.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this Sabbath day that we can worship you.

We thank you for the students who are graduating who have a desire to stand for the right of the heavens fall.

And I pray that you would be with me now and give me the right words to speak over the next few minutes.

May the message be clear and may it inspire each 1 of us to stand for Christ no matter what I pray.

The title for our sermon this morning is Though the Heavens Fall.

That is the theme that was chosen by the students of the graduating class.

And I love the theme, as I said last night, and it's based on this powerful quote from the book of education, page 57, and I'm going to read that statement again today at the outset of this message.

The greatest want of the world is the want of men, men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, Men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pull, men who will stand for the right, though the heavens fall.

Now I talked a lot about a number of these things last night.

We're gonna focus in today on what it means to stand for the right, though the heavens fall.

You know, that's not just a flippant statement that Ellen White is making, standing for the right though the heavens fall.

I believe that there are many of us here today who are facing moments in the future where we will be called upon to stand and from a human standpoint it will seem as if the heavens will fall if we stand to do the right thing.

And now is the time of preparation to stand for the right.

And as we read last night, but such a character is not the result of accident.

So if we expect to stand for the right though the heavens fall, we need the character through the grace of God that will allow us to stand when facing such a challenge.

And I believe 1 of the stories in scripture that best exemplifies what it means to stand for the right of the heavens follows the story in Daniel chapter 3.

This was the chapter of scripture that I thought of immediately when I thought about what messages to share this weekend.

Daniel chapter 3 is of course the famous story of the 3 Hebrew boys who stand.

Now the interesting background of the story, if you look at the whole picture of the book of Daniel, is that Daniel 3 doesn't happen in a vacuum.

It's not as if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego show up to the plain of Dera, and in a moment's notice decide, we better not bow down.

They had thought ahead of this, and they had prepared ahead of time for this crisis.

This was not an accident that they stood.

They were ready for this moment of crisis.

And if you look at what happens in Daniel chapter 1, they are among the royal seed of Jerusalem that are taken captive along with Daniel and many others.

And they, along with Daniel, those 4 young men, were the faithful ones who were faithful in chapter 1 when tested on the issue of diet.

Or shall we say, they were faithful when it came to the area of the health message.

Now they have this major trial coming in chapter 3, but it was a serious test of their faith in chapter 1 as well, because easily they could have lost their lives by making such a simple request to have simple food rather than the king's food.

And they saw the providence of God, how after 10 days of eating God's diet compared to their friends who also knew about this diet, but decided to go along with the king's diet, after 10 days they were found to have a better appearance in their skin and in their countenance.

Interestingly, when you go to the end of chapter 1 of Daniel, not only are they found to be 10 times wiser than all the wise men of Babylon, but Daniel also is given an understanding in prophecies and dreams.

So they are faithful in the health message, and then Daniel is given the prophetic gift, which comes into play in Daniel chapter 2, when Nebuchadnezzar has this dream that he can't remember.

It is Daniel who is given that dream by God also, who then interprets that dream.

So here you have a faithful group of God's people, a remnant, if you will, who are faithful to the health message because they love the Lord, and God then gives them an understanding of the prophetic message, and that prophetic message that is given to Nebuchadnezzar is that Nebuchadnezzar, your kingdom of Babylon, is going to fall.

We as God's people today have a message, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.

So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and along with Daniel are illustrations or witnesses to what God's last day people should be.

Faithful to the health message with a special understanding of God's last day, prophetic message, with a message that Babylon is fallen.

Now is not the time for us as Seventh-day Adventists to be adopting the methodologies and the worship practices of the fallen Babylonian churches.

We have a special message to tell the world that Jesus is coming again and to come out of Babylon, come out of her, my people.

So Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, your kingdom will pass away and a kingdom inferior will come after you.

And it was interestingly enough, Daniel, who in chapter 5 tells Belshazzar, you are weighed in the balances and found wanting, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.

So the same prophet who tells Nebuchadnezzar, your kingdom is going to fall, is the same prophet who tells Belshazzar Babylon is falling.

And his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they are then brought to this great test that we see in chapter 3.

Nebuchadnezzar, rather than accepting the more sure word of prophecy, decided to challenge the God of heaven.

Rather than an image of gold, silver, brass, iron, and iron and clay, he decides to set up an image that is all gold.

Nebuchadnezzar is defying the God of heaven saying, God you may say that Babylon is going to fall, but Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon says Babylon will last forever.

Babylon will never fall And all the world will bow down and worship this image which I have set up, which will prove that the world does not worship the God of heaven, it worships me and my kingdom.

He is defying the prophetic vision that God has given to him to let him understand these are the kingdoms of this world that will come and then the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed and yet Nebuchadnezzar as the king of Babylon tries to intimidate those who are the followers of the true God into thinking that you better worship me and my kingdom and my image because all of the world is doing it anyway, so you better fall into line.

And so here we see in this story of Daniel, Chapter 3, starting in verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar, the king, made an image of gold whose height was 3 score or 60 cubits and the breadth there of 6 cubits.

He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

So when this image starts to go up, obviously this became the talk of the town.

It's not like people woke up 1 morning and said, hey, there's this tall golden statue out in the plain of Dura, I wonder what this is happening for.

Everybody knew why that image was going up.

And everybody had an opportunity to think about what was going to happen when everyone congregated together at this major meeting that Nebuchadnezzar was calling for.

And in fact, when you see verse 2, it says, he sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

So Nebuchadnezzar is calling for the leaders from throughout his kingdom.

So there is time for people to think about what is going to happen at the dedication of this image.

It's not as if people who showed up to this dedication ceremony were caught off guard by the request to bow down and worship the image.

And if they were caught off guard, they should not have been.

They should have had time to think about and prepare for it.

When we see who is there, we see the political leaders, the military leaders, the judicial leaders, the financial leaders, the educators, the local law enforcement officers, and the rulers of the provinces, so the local political leaders, all of the leaders of the kingdom were brought together to this dedication ceremony.

You have to be paying attention to what is happening.

We see multiple times throughout Daniel chapter 3 where it says this is the image which the king had set up.

And if you're paying attention with a prophetic eye, with prophetic illustration, you will see many similarities to Revelation 13 and the image to the beast that will be set up.

The image that is set up will not happen overnight, but will happen in such a way that God's people will see it coming and will have an opportunity to make a decision about what they are going to do when faced with the greatest decision and the biggest crisis of our lives.

This is what God's people had back then as they saw this image being set up.

And as the message goes out to all the provinces throughout the kingdom, everybody has an understanding of what is coming.

So finally, the great day comes, if you wanna call it a great day, but the big day.

And we get to verse 4 and we see that everyone is gathered together and a herald cried aloud, to you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sacpet, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar, the king, hath set up." Now that's about enough.

But verse 6 says, "'And whoso falleth not down and worshipeth, shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace.

So here you are, you're brought to this worship service.

Now if you are a follower of the king and you've come from the ends of his kingdom to this great dedication service.

When you hear this command to bow down and worship when all kinds of music begin to be played, it's not going to be much of a thought for you to think, okay, I'm going to bow down.

This is what the Babylonians are asking you to do.

So as a Babylonian, you're going to bow down and worship this image.

There are God's people in this audience as well.

If you do not bow down and worship this image, you will be thrown into that burning fiery furnace that's right over there.

That's what's waiting for you if you don't bow down and worship this image.

And here we see a contrast between the true worship of the true God who we worship out of from motivation of love versus worship of a false God who tries to get worship through coercion.

Interestingly, at this service, 1 of the things that will motivate people to bow down in worship, in verse 5, it says, all kinds of music.

Now listen, friends, there is a right way to worship God and a wrong way to worship God.

And There is heavenly music and there's Babylonian music.

And Babylonian music likes to draw from all kinds of music to play upon people's emotions and excuse me, and lower nature to cause people to fall into line, into a worship, into a false worship, into bowing down to the Babylonian way of thinking.

No Turning Back

Well, good evening everyone And happy Sabbath to you as we see the Sabbath hours fade away It's been a blessed Sabbath, and I've certainly been blessed to be here at Wildwood And thank you again for the invitation to be here this weekend before we Start this message.

I would invite you to bow your heads with me for prayer.

Father in heaven, we thank you for this Sabbath day.

We thank you for the blessing of this graduation weekend.

We thank you for the theme that this class has chosen.

And I pray again that they will be faithful to you though the heavens fall.

Be with me now 1 more time as I speak give me the words to speak over these next few moments and may it provide 1 final reminder to the students of the high calling you've given to each 1 of them, and to us also.

The title for the message this evening is no turning back.

Today, this evening, December 17, 2016, students, is your graduation from Wildwood College of Health Evangelism.

Perhaps you didn't think when you first started that this moment would come.

Yet the longer you live and the older you become, the faster time will go and you'll look back on this moment as if it was but a distant memory.

But God has used this time in your life for a very special reason.

You've reached this point, not without some struggles along the way, certainly there have been moments of difficulty, perhaps even of discouragement, but you have pushed through till the end.

You have reached this moment of graduation where you can see certainly how God has led you to this point.

And you have grown spiritually, And from what I've observed this week, and I believe that many of you, if not all of you, have made lifelong friendships, and God has designed this experience to prepare you to be part of God's end time movement that will finish the work here on this earth.

And you know, it's amazing to me, and I hope it is to you as well, that from your class, you will be returning to the ends of this earth.

That you won't just be in 1 place, but you will be spreading out throughout the entire world.

And undoubtedly, you will face some major challenges wherever you go.

And it is almost certain that some of you, if not all of you, will be tempted to turn back or to give up what you have learned while you have been here.

Yet I want to challenge you today to never forget the convictions that the Holy Spirit has placed on your heart while you have been here.

Never turn back from your commitment to God.

Never turn back from being a faithful, God-fearing Seventh-day Adventist.

And I wanna turn in Scripture to Hebrews 10.

The apostle Paul is giving an admonition to the Hebrew Christians, And he's reminding them of the experiences that they have passed through.

And I would encourage you to make note of this section of Scripture whenever you hit a hard time in your experience.

Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 32, Paul says, but call to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions.

Paul is reminding the Hebrew Christians that you passed through Pentecost.

You received the power of the Holy Ghost.

You saw 3, 000 people baptized in 1 day and you became part of a movement that spread to the then known world where the gospel was preached to every known man at that time.

And as you became part of that movement under the power of the Holy Spirit, you endured a great fight of affliction.

The first thing to remember today is that when you endure affliction, remember the times that you have had here at Wildwood, where you were illuminated by the Holy Spirit, where you saw God working in undeniable ways, where you saw Scripture open to you very clearly, where you saw the spirit of prophecy explained to you very clearly, where you gained a deeper understanding for medical missionary work and of the role that it has as the right arm of the third angel's message to prepare people for the coming of Jesus.

And as you go forward, just as the early Christian church faced a great fight of affliction, you will too.

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