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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Gary Gibbs

Winsome Prophecy

The title of our study today is On the Verge of Armageddon.

But before we begin our reading of the Word of God, let's bow our heads for prayer.

Father in heaven, we do want to thank you that we can come here, we can study your Word.

And Lord, I just want to pray in a special way that your Spirit will be present with us.

You know what you want to accomplish right now in our lives.

And I do believe, Father, that you have an agenda for each 1 of us that transcends our ability to understand it in the here and now.

But you know what you want to do, and I pray, Father, that what we do here today in worship of You and study of Your Word might just be a small piece, maybe even a big piece for someone, in the puzzle of life, that you'll put things together for us and help us to come closer to the plan you have for our life.

If you were to pick up a bestseller on end-time events And you were to read the opening chapter, it might look something like a story coming out of present news.

Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, mudslides.

But you know, you don't have to pick up the latest fictional bestseller telling about what's going to happen in the end time.

All you need to do is turn on the news, pick up a news magazine or pick up your local newspaper.

What we see predicted in scripture to happen in the last days, I believe friends, is happening actually right now before our very eyes.

I find that very exciting, even though it's very disconcerting, especially when you see these storms bearing down, like right now.

We have Hurricane Wilma, which for a brief time became the largest hurricane, Atlantic hurricane, in history, in historical record.

And right now, today, we might want to remember the people down on the Yucatan Peninsula because this hurricane will be sitting over the top of them for all day long.

Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and they had a hurricane go through there that sat on top of them for an entire night, 12 hours.

And the destruction that that hurricane caused was immense.

It ripped off roofs of basically 95% of the homes there.

We look down at the Gulf Coast and we see hundreds of miles of splintered debris from Texas over to Florida.

And we see lives turned upside down and we wonder, is this ever going to stop?

And as you listen to the forecasters, they are asking the same questions, when will this stop?

When you look at what the meteorologists and the scientists say, they say it's not going to stop anytime soon.

Let me share with you some things I've read recently from LiveScience.com.

The past 10 years have seen more ferocious and more frequent hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean And scientists are confident that there will be more to come.

Then from Science and Technology magazine they say, something rather nasty has been happening, time perhaps to batten down the hatches.

You see the experts are telling us we're not through this thing yet.

Now they expect we'll go through this very active season of hurricanes and storms.

But you know, this thing transcends hurricanes.

The Tsunami was 1 of the most devastating events in a century.

And that happened because of an earthquake.

And then we had the earthquake in Pakistan just a week and a half ago or so, 7.6 on the Richter scale.

They're talking about maybe 70, 80, 000 people killed now.

Now, I don't know if they count numbers the same way the mayor of New Orleans does, but, well, it remains to be seen, but it's very likely that 70, 80, 000 people lost their lives in that earthquake.

You know, the scientists say, well, you know, global warming is the cause of the hurricanes, but then you have equally good scientists on the other side that say no, global warming is not what's causing this, it's something else.

I don't think we have to guess as to what's behind the berserk forces of nature.

And that's why I invited you to turn with me your Bibles to Luke chapter 21.

Because here in Luke 21 verse 25, Jesus is talking about the last days.

And He says, There will be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

And When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, can you read the rest of it with me?

And lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.

You know, in the midst of the bad news, in the midst of the destruction and the lost lives and the terrible experiences people are going through.

There is a beam of hope, a beam of light, and that is this is a sign that Jesus is coming soon.

You know, we have a wonderful opportunity to be able to live in the last days.

We have a responsibility to live our lives for God's glory, to personally really be connected with Him and not just go through the routine of the Christian life and in the end be found only a Christian in name.

But we have a responsibility to maintain that personal relationship with God.

We also have a responsibility to reach out to people who don't know Jesus Christ as their Savior and help them make sense of what is happening in the world today.

Let me share with you some comments about the last days from a respected leader of our church.

Quoting this Bible text we just read here, Mrs.

Ellen White says, The warning given by Christ comes sounding down the line to our time.

There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth, the stress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring.

Yes, they, referring to the waters, shall pass their borders, and destruction will be in their track.

There will be calamities by land and by sea, men's hearts failing them for fear." Now she wrote that over a hundred years ago in 1897 as she was studying the Bible.

And as she studied the Bible and she studied Luke 21, she like other Christians around her, this was not just unique to her, understood the Scriptures to predict what we're seeing fulfilled today.

That tells us that we live in very exciting times.

Now listen, I know that there are people who will say, we've always had hurricanes, we've always had floods, we've always had earthquakes, and that is true, true in this respect.

We've had them, but we haven't had them with such intensity and such rapid succession as we're seeing today.

They say, you know, these things are normal, they're routine.

The only thing routine about what we're seeing happening on the news right now is that it's routine for the last days.

But because we live in the last days, and you know when we say the last days, I don't know if you're like me, but I tend to shorten them and think a very short amount of time, but you know, years could be last days in God's perspective of millennia.

When He looks at the world, it's millennia.

And so we have the last days here, it may be 10, 15, 20 years, and We don't know where we are in this last days scenario.

Things have been building to where we are today in the religious world and the political world and I'm not going to stand here and say how much time is left.

But what I do want to make the point of is you may have been born during the last days.

I believe I became a Christian in 1979 during the last days.

And so my world view of world events, it's all routine to me that things are in chaos, but you step outside of the last days and this is anything but routine.

This is indicative of the times in which we live.

And the idea that we've always had hurricanes and floods in the same manner that we're having today is not accurate.

You just go to the people who watch this and they'll tell you it's much different today.

In fact, I was listening to the news the other day and the news announcer said, do you think the number of natural disasters has been increasing in the last year?

If you say yes, then you're absolutely correct.

You turn to the World Disasters Report of 2004, they say this, quoting, over the past decade the number of natural and technological disasters has risen from 1994 to 1998, the period in which this study was done.

Reported disasters averaged 428 per year, but from 1999 to 2003, this shot up by two-thirds, or 60%, to an average of 707 disasters each year.

The economic impact and losses from this is almost nearly 10 times.

Over and over again, I could share with you study after study where people were saying, yes, this has increased tremendously.

Now you'll find the naysayers, but if you just look at it, you'll see what is happening.

Jesus told us what we're to take from this when we see the increase in trouble on our planet.

Go with me to Matthew chapter 24, And let's read there in Matthew 24, 32.

He tells us what we are to discern in between the lines of the constant barrage of bad news that we have.

Matthew 24, verse 32, Jesus said, ìNow learn a parable of the fig tree.

When its branches yet tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh, so likewise, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near even at the doors." I believe Jesus coming is at the doors.

That this is indicative of His soon return.

And I believe what we see happening right now is actually a direct fulfillment of Revelation chapter 7.

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