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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Christopher Sepulveda

Growth

Thank you so much for that beautiful, special music.

I pray that we can experience that, God writing his law in our hearts, his law of love.

I'm so thankful for this day and this opportunity to fellowship with you all and to share with you all.

Today is a special day, as was mentioned, for many reasons.

We had a first, they got to share together as siblings.

It's also New Year's Eve, which is exciting.

And it's also the Sabbath, so it's extra blessed.

And it also happens to be my grandfather's birthday.

And he's sitting up there, right there, if you want to give a little wave.

He's actually turning, I don't know, I hope he doesn't mind me sharing, but he's actually turning 81 years old today.

And what's exciting is he's traveled 3 hours to get here and he's still actually practicing dentistry still to this day.

He says, hey, I didn't find a retire in the Bible so I'm going to keep pushing.

And, you know, as we head into this new year, it's really encouraging to, as that example, just to press forward into the future.

And so that's actually what our message is going to be about today.

And before we dive into our study and our message today, though, I'd like to take this opportunity to actually look at our past year in review so we have a little baseline for where we've come from as to where God wants to take us.

So these are some of the year's highlights that I thought you'd find interesting.

In January 13th, the American lottery, Powerball lottery, reached a record height of $1.6 billion.

February 1st, the World Health Organization announced Zika as a global health emergency.

And the very next day, the first contraction of the disease happened here in America.

March 14, NASA releases data that February was the warmest month ever globally recorded, While interestingly, it was also the highest amount of snowfall in America ever recorded.

April 6th, the first baby ever born from 3 people's DNA actually happened in Mexico through mitochondrial transfer.

And the first plant was ever grown in outer space.

And another plant was legalized here in California.

The United Kingdom actually votes to leave the European Union, further dividing in Europe.

And this is actually a gift that was given to me from a friend.

Makes me think of this and the statue where the Bible tells us that the world would continue to divide up until his coming.

And also Hurricane Matthew, it actually killed over 1, 000 people in Haiti, the Caribbean, and the United States.

And I was actually on a mission trip in Bermuda at the time.

And we actually, my flight was canceled because of that hurricane.

And In more recent political news, Hillary, she actually became the first woman ever elected for a major political party, and Donald Trump became the first president ever of our country to both have 0 government or military experience or background.

And something else, in celebrity news, it's actually an authority on celebrity obituaries and deaths.

They actually said this is the highest year that she's ever recorded for a study or ever looked at of all the years she's ever looked at.

And so here are some of the names that you may recognize of famous people who passed away.

You have Prince, Muhammad Ali, Nancy Reagan, George Kennedy, Frank Sinatra Jr., China the Wrestler, Fidel Castro, Kimbo Slice, Alan Rickman, Princess Leia, R2-D2, Arnold Palmer, and even Dr.

Henry Heimlich passed away after performing the Heimlich maneuver for the first time in his life this year.

So this year has been very, very interesting and unique, to say the least, but, and, Here we go, get the slide working.

But as we're looking at this year in review, Many people are wondering as we head into the next year, many people are wondering, hey, what's this next year going to bring?

Is it going to have the solutions for the problems that our world is facing?

Is it going to have solutions politically and all these different things?

And many Christians are actually wondering, because they know the solution, they know it's here in the word of God, they know it has to do with the second coming of Christ, when is that going to happen?

And the Bible actually shows us, Jesus, he actually has, he shares a story, a very interesting story, why don't we turn there.

It's the parable of the wheat and the tares and it actually answers these questions.

It shows us what this solution will look like for humanity, when it will come, how to prepare the way for it, and why it hasn't come already.

So let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew chapter 13.

Please let me know you're there by saying Amen.

So we're going to go ahead and break down this parable and we'll go through it together.

So in verse 24 the Bible reads, "...another parable put he forth to them saying, The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.

So he says the kingdom of heaven is like.

He's talking about eternal things clothed in the language that people are familiar with at the time, right?

He says, I'm going to give you an illustration.

It's like a farmer who has what kind of seed?

This is the organic, non-GMO, heirloom, good seed, right?

But while men slept, the enemy came, his enemy came, and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way, or weeds that look exactly like wheat until they're mature.

But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

It says that when what bear fruit, then the tares appeared.

So notice here, it's a key truth right here, that the wheat started to bear fruit first and then the distinction was made apparent.

The wheat came in first, And then the weeds were identified after that.

And the servants of the household came and asked him what many of us would ask if we're in the same situation.

Sir, didn't you put good seed in your field?

I know you, I know your farming practices, they're always good.

Is it your fault or someone else's fault?

We don't understand what's going on, right?

But notice the response of the farmer in verse 28.

Now, Jesus actually goes to explain what each of these mean, and I know many of us are familiar with it as well, but notice how much responsibility the farmer has for these weeds in his garden.

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Growth

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