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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Brian Hindman

The Desire of All Ages

Our subject this morning is a simple message.

Let's pray as we study the Word of God this morning.

Father in heaven, Lord, as we consider your Word and the message that you have for us.

May we realize more than ever what you have provided for us and the gift of salvation, the plan of our redemption, the tremendous sacrifice, the cost, and the power that is available through the gospel.

We just pray, Lord, that you would help us to see in your word wondrous things as the psalmist prayed in Psalm 119, verse 18.

Bless us this morning, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Yes, that 1844, AD 1844, and the location was Washington, DC.

And in Washington, DC, there was an inventor who was there and he had a new invention that he was trying to get Congress to support.

And he was doing his best to get their backing so he could have more money for this invention.

And it was to run a wire across from Washington, D.C.

To Baltimore and to be able to transmit an electric pulse or signal across that wire and be able to interpret that pulse or signal.

You probably know what I'm talking about.

This is none other than an artist drawing of Samuel Morse and his demonstration before Congress of the telegraph.

Interesting, the word telegraph is from the Greek word telos, which means far, and grapho, which is right.

And as he demonstrated this, as he was preparing for this, rather, He wondered what should be the first message that I should transmit across this.

And it was actually the daughter of a friend of his who suggested a Bible verse.

Some of you might know what that Bible verse was.

And it's found in the book of Numbers, chapter 23 and verse 23.

It means to have worked or accomplished, prepared, in some way, what has God accomplished?

And so, it's interesting, the first telegraph message was actually just copying an earlier text message from the word of God, which is really the best source to find a text message, right, from God.

And so, this morning, I thought it would be interesting to consider what hath God wrought in sending Jesus to this world as a little baby to come and to live on this planet to provide a means of salvation for us?

Do we realize and recognize what has God accomplished?

What is the work that God has done to make it possible for us to enjoy eternal life and to live with him forever?

So my question this morning is a very simple 1.

The desire, the longing, the interest of all ages.

Is it to have a lot of money and be able to retire early?

Is it to have a bigger house and be able to have a 3 car garage, 4 car garage, always need more cars, a bigger piece of land, is that the desire of all ages?

Seen shirts that say he that dies with the most stuff wins.

More things, more phones, more computers, more of whatever it is, just stuff.

Is it a desire to be famous and make a name for yourself so that people know you to be popular and be some kind of a celebrity?

Or is it the desire of all ages, a relationship with our creator and our savior and our soon coming king?

The only way to experience true joy, true peace, true happiness is in a relationship with the very being that created us.

And that being was so loving and so concerned that while we were lost, he did not consider heaven a place to be desired.

It's not desirable to live in the joy and the perfect peace and harmony of heaven while we were lost in the mire of sin, our sin, our fault, our choices.

You can see some of them you might recognize from Bible stories.

The woman who had an issue of blood that struggled mightily under very bad, adverse health symptoms and health problems.

Her desire was to just reach out and touch the hem of Jesus' garment.

Then you can see a picture of Mary Magdalene, from whom Jesus cast out 7 devils.

Her desire was to have peace of the soul and to be delivered and rescued from the power of Satan and demonic forces.

And then here is Peter, trying to be a tough guy, draw attention to himself, and look cooler than the other disciples by walking on the water.

And as he began to sink, when he took his eyes off Jesus, his desire at that point was to have Jesus save him.

And the moment that he said the words, Lord save me, the Bible says, and immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.

I think the desire of all ages is Jesus Christ.

It is the desire of all ages, the longing of the soul.

We might place other things in the place where Jesus is supposed to be, but ultimately, the only 1 who can satisfy, the only 1 who can give us what we truly long for is Jesus Christ.

And this season, as we consider the birth of Jesus to this world, and we marvel at his choice and his decision to lay aside his royal robes for rags, to lay aside his kingly diadem, his crown for a crown of thorns, we wonder and marvel at that and recognize how great is the Father's love for us.

Well, where does this expression come from, the desire of ages?

Did you know it's actually a Bible verse?

It's actually contained in 1 of the small, minor prophets, the book of Haggai, chapter 2, and verse 7.

Haggai chapter 2, verse 7, God is speaking through his prophet Haggai and he says, "'And I will shake all nations, "'and the desire of all nations shall come.

"'And I will fill this house with glory, ' "'saith the Lord of hosts.'" They were rebuilding the temple after it had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and there were a small number of Jews that had returned back to Jerusalem.

And as they were rebuilding the temple, there were some people that remembered Solomon's temple, which had been destroyed some 70 years earlier, and they began to weep and cry and despair at how inferior in terms of the beauty and splendor this temple was going to be.

But under inspiration, the Lord through Haggai said that I will send the desire of all nations, and it says the glory of this ladder house, the 1 being built now that looks so much less inferior, and in terms of building material, it was greatly inferior to what Solomon had built.

But he says, the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former.

And that is a prophecy that was fulfilled by Jesus when he came as a baby and walked and talked and healed and preached in the very temple that was set up to honor and worship him.

That is the only way that the temple was actually greater in terms of the 1 that Solomon had built.

When the desire of all nations, Jesus himself came and lived and taught there and healed among the temple precincts.

Well, speaking of the Old Testament, just wanna share with you a few interesting things today.

In fact, I only have 7 slides and I'm gonna close.

I read this in a book a number of years ago and it really was interesting to me.

Not only interesting, but it encourages and builds confidence in Jesus as our Messiah.

And as a pastor, if there's anything that I can say or do that will support and give greater confidence in your mind to have faith in Jesus, then that's what I want to do.

The mathematical odds of anyone fulfilling Old Testament prophecies, a simple search on the internet will give you a listing that there are at least 300 prophecies that relate to Jesus in the Old Testament.

I believe, to me, the Old Testament is just as important as the New Testament and I won't take the time to go there but if you don't believe me you can read what Jesus says in Matthew 1352 on that point.

The Old and the New Testament are equally necessary and important.

Someone did the odds and calculated that if you were to take 8 of the prophecies, of which there's over 300, some estimate as high as 400 prophecies, and that anyone could fulfill those, any person that's ever lived on planet Earth, it would be 1 in, I didn't take math long enough to read that number.

I think it's a quadrillion, but there's a question mark there.

Now that's just fulfilling 8 of the prophecies that point to Jesus as the Messiah.

Now, if you're curious, and I'm a curious person, I thought I would see if I could find, based on, I know it's just gonna be an estimate, how many people have ever lived on planet Earth?

Now, this is from the BBC, which sounds like a fairly reputable source, and from the Population Reference Bureau, sounds official and important, they roughly estimate that there's only been about 108 billion people who have ever lived.

Currently, 7000000000 people living on the face of the earth, little over 7000000000.

108 billion that have ever lived is their estimate.

Now if you look at this number here, that's so far above 108 billion that it just boggles the mind.

Now this is just 8 prophecies, there's over 300.

The possibility that anyone that's ever lived would even be in that number is not even realistic, if that were the case.

If someone were to fulfill 48 prophecies in the Old Testament, which point to Jesus as the Messiah, that would be 1 in, I took the time to count, 157 zeros.

I have no clue what number that might be, but that's 48 prophecies.

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The Desire of All Ages

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