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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Anthony Baca

Prepared For the Last Days: The Savior’s Method

Our Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for the privilege to come and to study your Word this morning.

We invite your Holy Spirit to be here to be our invited special guest.

It's not about any of us, Lord, but it's just all about you, your Word, and what you have in store for us.

And so I pray that he would be the true teacher, he would speak to our hearts individually and personally where we are at, that everyone would leave today with the blessing that you intended for them when you brought them here, for you had a reason for bringing them here.

So guard our minds from the enemy, give us a divine focus like we've never had as we focus on your word this morning, and speak to us Lord, and touch our hearts that we may leave this place different than how we entered.

This is my sincere prayer and I even pray it for myself.

Ever since I became a Christian back in 2007, there has been 1 thing that I've really, really, really looked forward to, and that is the second coming of Jesus.

Are there any vivid dreamers in the room?

You're just those people that dream all the time.

I am a vivid dreamer, which is a blessing and definitely a curse at times.

But since I've become a Christian, it's become more of a blessing.

And I remember my dreams when I first was reading the Bible and studying the Bible, every night was about the second coming.

Now, mind you, they weren't biblical, but I didn't really know what the Bible taught yet, but they were what I knew, whether it involved robots or whatever it involved in my dream.

It always ended with Jesus coming in the clouds, and I was always excited for that part of the dream.

And I thought to myself back in 2007, when I had my first Bible study on Daniel chapter 2 and I remember seeing that we're in the toenails of time I thought to myself it can't be long and I thought to myself I will convert the entire world with this 1 Bible study Daniel 2 it is all I need And I still remember the day when I had a group of people in front of me and I gave them that Bible study and they looked at me and said, so?

You didn't get it, you missed it, give me another try, right?

The years have passed, the days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, months turned to years.

I remember at 1 point I dropped out of school, went and did Bible work, just kind of rogue with some friends and went and gave Bible studies to people because I knew it was gonna be soon.

And 1 day I was reading the Bible, and yes I still believe Jesus is coming soon, amen?

But 1 day I was reading the Bible, I read an interesting text that confused me a little bit, maybe questioned, made me wonder, and I'd like to share that text with you this morning.

It's found in 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 12.

The Bible says, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.

When I read this text of Scripture, it's an interesting text.

We all know that we're waiting for the second coming, correct?

I'm sure we're waiting with eager expectation more so than those Amazon packages that come on a weekly basis.

However, did you know the Bible teaches that you should actually also be hastening that day?

God has given us the ability to hasten the second coming, which means it can be sooner by how I choose to live my life.

That thought to me was a very interesting thought.

So today I want to talk about this concept, being prepared for the last days Christ way, and how this actually hastens the second coming of Jesus.

We're gonna look at this in 3 points today.

Number 1, we're gonna define the seal of God and it's gonna sound like 3 different sermons but bear with me it will all connect in the end I promise you.

The second thing that we're gonna look at is we're gonna define what medical missionary work really is.

And then number 3, we're going to examine the connection between the 2 and how that prepares us for the last days and hastens the second coming of Jesus.

Now, I'm not going to do this justice right now, and I can promise you that.

An entire sermon or an entire three-part series could be spent just on that 1 question, what is the seal of God?

But because we've had a Revelation quarterly this last quarter, and I know you are all so faithful in doing your quarterly and attending Sabbath school that you've studied this subject out, so I'm gonna give enough information to where if it's new for you, you will have enough evidence to go with, And if it's something you're familiar with, it will be a nice refresher for you.

We find this in Revelation chapter 7, beginning in verse 2 and 3.

Revelation chapter 7, beginning in verse 2 and verse 3.

Probably my favorite book of the Bible, the fifth gospel here.

The Bible says in Revelation chapter 7 beginning in verse 2.

So here we have in Revelation the first time we see the seal of God mentioned directly, and here it is described as being put on a group of people, but where is the seal of God placed?

Now this is important, and we're going to come back to this.

Verse 4 tells us it is a group called the 144, 000.

Now, we're not going to deal with literal or symbolic number that's irrelevant to the sermon today.

The point is that is just the name we're going to use to identify the group.

So when I refer to the 144, 000, again, not literal, symbolic, and number per se, just referring to that as the title, the name of the group, because it's going to be important as we continue.

So we see here a group that is called the 144, 000 received the seal of God in their foreheads.

How many of you want to receive that seal in your forehead?

Well, the next time we see it in the Bible, in the context of the 144, 000, is in chapter 14 verse 1.

So if you have your Bibles, please race there to Revelation chapter 14 beginning in verse 1.

We're gonna see the same group of people receiving something in their foreheads, but something is going to change.

And in fact, Revelation is notorious for this, by the way.

It constantly will say 1 thing and repeat the exact same thing with changing like 1 word that is meant to interpret that passage for you.

Revelation chapter 14 beginning in verse 1, the Bible says, Then I looked and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him the 144, 000 having His Father's name written on their foreheads." So, in this passage, what is on their foreheads?

So you have the same group of people, 144, 000, and there's 2 different descriptions given.

1 is that the seal of God is placed in their forehead.

The other is that the Father's name is placed in their forehead.

The answer is it is actually both for they are 1 in the same.

That makes sense logically when you look at the passages.

So if you want to understand the seal of God, you need to understand what is the Father's name.

This may be a very untraditional approach to the subject, but this is how I understand it just looking at it from the book of Revelation.

Well, I looked it up in the Mount's Greek dictionary, this word for name, and it describes it this way, in the New Testament, a name as the representative of a person on the score of being possessor of a certain character.

And many of us may be familiar with this concept that in the Bible, a name represents someone's character.

We see this in the Bible when we see God take a person who has a particular name that means something, they go through an experience in life, and then God actually changes their name.

This is why when I got baptized I changed my name.

You see, if you knew me before I was baptized you would have called me Tony.

But after I was baptized, I went by my actual full legal name which is Anthony.

And so for me, Saul, Paul, you know it's close but different.

So anyways, God changes names, we can change our names.

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Prepared For the Last Days: The Savior’s Method

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