Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Plenary

John Bradshaw

Kia Kaha

Mark Finley

Hope Beyond Tomorrow

Lightened With His Glory

Jesus Wins, Satan Loses

Pentecost Repeated

Shields of Brass

The Black Wall Street

Three Secrets of Lasting Peace

To Hope Again

The Second Coming

Father, 2, 000 years have gone by since the promise of the second coming of Christ.

Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled.

And Generations have lived and gone to their graves.

But yet, the coming of Christ today is no further away than when you proclaimed it 2, 000 years ago.

And we live on the knife edge of eternity.

So I pray that you'd grip us with a passion to share your message with others and that our hearts would be changed and transformed to know you a new and a better and a fresh.

We pray that wherever we are on the spectrum of our Christian life, whether we are fully committed or whether there are still things that keep us from that commitment, wherever we are, but over these next few days we would take another step.

That we would experience Your grace more fully.

That we would experience Your love more deeply.

And that we would make decisions that are life-changing.

1 of the most significant events that occurred in World War I was the sinking of the Conard ocean liner, the RMS Lusitania.

Germany waged war against Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom.

And the British Royal Navy had blockaded the German forces.

When the Lusitania was sunk, it was torpedoed by a German U-boat, U-20 boat.

It sank 11 miles off the old head of Kinsale, Ireland.

Now the sinking of the RMS Lusitania turned the tide of public opinion against Germany.

It was at that point in fact that shortly thereafter that America entered World War I.

Now, there's a story attached to the sinking of the Lusitania that is really an unknown story.

It's not been publicized much at all, but it really has relevance to Christians, and particularly Seventh-day Adventists, waiting for the return of our Lord.

There was a very prestigious art director in New York City by the name of Lord Joseph Duveen, and he sold art antiquities.

He had a young protege that he was training, and He had planned to send this protege to Europe to look at some prestigious artwork and evaluate whether it was worth it for the firm to buy it.

He had heard about the dangers in the North Atlantic and a number of ships being torpedoed.

So he looked at his young protégé and he said, look, since I've already bought the ticket, I've become increasingly nervous about your going on the Lusitania, because the German embassy has actually given some signals that that boat might be torpedoed.

So I've decided to cancel your ticket." The young art expert said, no, I just, I want to go.

And he said, in fact, I have been reading the news reports over the last month, so I'm not going unprepared.

Every day, I lay in a tub of ice cold water, just in case the boat is torpedoed and just in case I have to swim in the North Atlantic.

And he said at first I just shivered, I could stay in there for only a few minutes.

But he said today I laid in the ice for 2 hours.

Send me on the boat, I'm ready." Now of course, Lord Duthin laughed and it sounded preposterous.

But his expert convinced him and he sailed on the RMS Lusitania.

This young man, who was a very strong swimmer, was thrown into the water.

He survived in the cold waters of the North Atlantic for 5 hours because he was prepared.

Now it's often said that character is developed in a crisis.

Character is developed before the crisis.

In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus gives us the signs of his coming.

He talks about civil disobedience, lawlessness.

He talks about famines and earthquakes, rising crime and violence and immorality.

But in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus gives 3 admonitions urging his church to be ready for the second coming of Christ.

As an old Advent preacher used to say, Luther Warren, the only way to be ready for the second coming is to get ready and to stay ready.

Here in Matthew 24, Jesus gives to us these 3 admonitions.

Now it's fascinating that Jesus is talking to His closest followers.

He's there on the Mount of Olives, looking across the Kidron Valley to the temple at Jerusalem.

And in Matthew 24, in verse 4 says, Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no 1 deceives you.

Now this seems rather strange that Jesus is speaking to His closest followers.

There will be theological errors that enter into the New Testament church.

You'll have to face a variety of heresies that come into the church.

Those words come echoing and re-echoing down to contemporary Adventists today.

As Ellen White writes, none but those whose minds are fortified with the Scriptures, will stand through the final crisis.

The track of truth and the track of error will be so close.

And there are Adventists today who are imbibing Eastern mysticism.

There are Adventists today who are imbibing false ideas about the Trinity.

The church today again is being wracked with theological aberration.

We let our eyes drop down now to verse 42.

He takes a different approach in verse 42.

And he says in verse 42, watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

Jesus gives the signs of the second coming.

And then he says, watch therefore, For you do not know what hour your Lord is coming." Jesus gives the signs of the second coming.

And then he says, Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour.

Do not allow this world to suck you into its mold.

Do not allow the pleasures of this world, like a noose around your neck, to strangle your spiritual life.

Do not allow the pleasures of this world, the sports heroes of this world, to enamor you.

There are some people today that are more interested in what's going on in Hollywood's entertainment than they are in the Word of God and preparing for the second coming of Christ.

There are some people today that can't even come to church without texting on their cell phones.

So I know if you're looking at your cell phone, you're looking at the text, you're not texting this morning.

There's some people today that are so enamored with video games, and this is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew chapter 24, verse 42, he says, watch therefore, be alert, Don't allow the world to squeeze you into its mold.

Then in verse 44 he says, see 3 great appeals.

Understand the Word of God so you can distinguish between truth and error.

Don't allow this world to squeeze you and shape you.

Verses 1-2 where Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren and sisters, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice unto God.

And then he says, be not conformed to this world.

Philip's translation says, don't let the world squeeze you into its mold.

Verse 2, Romans 12, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your what?

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