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Manchester South SDA Church

Identity Theft

Adam Ramdin

1. Origin, Purpose and Destiny of Adventism in Revelation

2. He Says She Says

3. Reformation & The Remnant

4. Lessons From 1888

5. Pioneer Stories

6. The Missing Part

If you have a Bible, please open to Revelation.

I like the subject of identity theft or identity in general.

I think understanding where we come from is an important question that we often get asked in life.

If you have a complicated background, answering that question you always have to think twice and always have to try and second guess what the person asking the question is really asking when they ask the question, who are you or where do you come from?

Growing up here in this country, even though I was born and raised here, neither of my parents were born or raised in England.

So when I was asked where do I come from or who am I well are you asking me the town I live in the street I live on are you asking me what passport I hold?

Are you asking me where my parents come from?

Are you asking me the question because you think I look different to you?

And all These questions flow through your mind in a split second.

When you kind of get asked who are you or where do you come from.

Growing up as a child of first generation immigrants, some of you would fit into that category, it was always drilled into us that we came from where our parents came from.

And that was explicitly drilled into our head and to say anything different would be to deny our birthright, so to speak.

You would say you come from this country, even though you've never been there, maybe.

People struggle with it, as to answer that question as to who we are.

But the theme this week is identity What?

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer as we start.

Father in heaven, we pray that you would speak to our hearts.

I pray, Lord, that you would speak through me at this time.

I pray, Lord, that your word may be clear and I pray Lord that your Holy Spirit would pierce through and touch our hearts.

Now if you were to steal something from somebody, hypothetically, I would think somebody, hypothetically.

I would think there are certain people from whom it's easier to steal from than others.

On the screen there behind me you can see a picture of a guitar.

It's a guitar that my wife owns and sometimes plays.

It's a mini guitar, it's not a full guitar, but it's not as small as an ukulele, it's not as big as a guitar, it's kind of like somewhere in the middle.

Her uncle gave her the guitar and said, you know, here you are, if you want to learn to play, play this.

Now if you were to steal this guitar from our house, let's say I invite you around, you come to our house and enjoy some fellowship and as you're leaving or as you're packing the car, you pack my wife's guitar in your car as you go, we would notice pretty quickly that you'd stolen our guitar.

The reason being, there's only 1 in our house.

Now my wife's uncle who gave her the guitar, I don't know how many guitars he has.

He plays ukulele, he plays, I don't know if you say professionally, he plays all the time.

He converted his basement into a 60-seater basement, and they have guitar concerts, whatever you call it.

He probably has 30 or 40 guitars lying around his house, of all shapes and sizes.

If you wanted to steal 1 of his, he may not notice straight away.

Now, if you were to come to my house and look on 1 of these bookshelves and say, huh, there's a book I like, I think I'll take it.

I don't have that many books, but I know all the books on my shelf.

And I've got them, maybe I'm a little bit, what's the word, OCD.

These are my books on Daniel, Revelation, Sanctuary, Reformation history, Adventist history.

If you were to pick 1 off and take it with you I would know.

But let's say you went to the Manchester University Library and you slipped 1 of their books off and took the tag out and put it in your bag.

It would probably be a lot longer before someone noticed because there's that many more there.

My point is, it's easier to steal from someone who has more than from someone who has little.

Identity theft, we're talking about us as Adventists, we're talking about us as Christians, We're talking about us living in this world today and how our identity might be taken away from us.

Do we have a lot or do we have a little as Christian Seventh-day Adventists in this world today?

In fact the Bible even says that we have a lot.

There's a famous verse we hear it quoted oftentimes in Adventist churches from week to week or from month to month or from quarter to quarter.

Revelation 3 and verse 17 where the Bible says, Because thou sayest I am what?

The Bible describes us as a rich people that have many goods and we don't feel a lack of anything.

Could it be that we're so rich that we're losing things around our identity and it doesn't even bother us because we just feel we have so much?

We're not bothered that some group or somebody doesn't believe in the 26th fundamental.

Doesn't really matter that because we've got 27 more.

Doesn't really matter that this prophecy is not getting attention or that so-and-so is completely massacring that belief in the Bible doesn't matter because we got all of this other stuff as well and we have such a wealth of information a wealth of knowledge that it seems we're just kind of getting chipped away at.

You can only have your identity taken away.

To have your identity taken away, it indicates that at some point you had to know your identity in the first place.

You had to know it for it to be taken away.

If you don't know it, it's just kind of, it may be taken away, but you're unaware that it's going away.

Where in the Bible do we find the passages that deal with our identity today.

We're gonna look at 3 chapters briefly in the short time that we have.

3 chapters briefly in the short time that we have, because each 1 covers a different aspect of our identity.

You know they say the 3 big questions in life.

Before we ask where we go, where do we come from, why are we here, and where are we going?

Those are the real big questions that no matter what your religious or faith background is, those are the questions that you could say trouble mankind.

Those 3 questions we found answered in 3 chapters of Revelation.

3 chapters that are very important to our identity, and 3 chapters that I believe we shouldn't just know the reference to, but we should actually be able to know them and be able to unpack them, because it forms who we are.

Understanding our background gives us a greater sense of surety in this world today.

Revelation 10 is the first chapter that I'd like to take you to, Revelation chapter 10.

And in Revelation chapter 10, It's probably 1 of the most underrated chapters of Revelation that I think we have.

We know about Revelation 14, we know about Revelation 12, we know about Revelation 20, the Millennium, and the 7 churches, chapters 2 and 3.

Revelation 10, though, I believe is a crucial, crucial chapter when we're understanding what our identity is as Seventh-day Adventists.

Revelation 10 describes, in some ways, the historical experience, or you could also say not just the historical experience, but you are, I would add to that and say the theological roots of the Adventist Church you find in Revelation 10.

Revelation 10, we'll also look at 12 and 14, but not right now.

And if we were to do an overview of Revelation chapter 10, there will be a few things that would cover.

Series

Identity Theft

1. Origin, Purpose and Destiny of Adventism in Revelation

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Colossians

The Preeminence of Christ

49m

Even Greater Than Angels

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Jesus Friend of My Wounded Heart

The God Who Restores

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You’re Being Conditioned for a Lie

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iShare 2012 Seminar: Cutting Edge 2 - The Sequel

Genocide In The Old Testament. Finally, Some Solid Answers!

43m

The Book Of Revelation

Revelation 4-9

43m

Plenary

Choice, Thoughts

41m

The Greatest Battle Ever Fought: Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane

02 Resisting Unto Blood: Tempted Beyond What We Are

48m

Heresy, Blasphemy, Treachery & Identity

38m

Faith and Works

Faith and Works - Part 1

23m

Making Sense of Last Day Events

5. An End Time Life Worth Living

59m

The Exodus & God Almighty

Moses Refused

40m

Sound Doctrine