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Village SDA Church

Risk and Redemption

Ron Kelly

Risk and Redemption: The Journey to Babylon

All right, let's open the Word of God, and before we do that, let's ask for a special blessing.

May we serve you in humility and thus be able to see and serve in truth and grace.

Save us, Lord, from the many lies that are twist on the truth that are floating around today in Jesus' name, amen.

I'm gonna go after this message a little differently than the last 1.

And I'm gonna do this to get your attention in the midst of a sermon entitled Risk and Redemption, the Journey to Babylon.

Climate Sunday comes from the Independent Catholic News Agency.

Climate Sunday launched to promote church climate action.

It was organized by the Environmental Issues Network and Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

They are going to encourage churches once over the next year to be sure and hold a Climate Sunday for the purpose of understanding our responsibility to heal our planet and to pray and to act in response to the climate emergency.

It's interesting in the article it identifies the Bishop John Arnold Salford, the bishop responsible for the environment for the Catholic bishops of England and Wales.

Now we have a lot of departments in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but we don't have this department.

I think it's imperative that you understand they do have the department.

When you read the rest of the article, you come upon some very interesting facts.

And this statement was made, in a post-pandemic world, the Climate Sunday Project is an excellent opportunity for Catholic parishes in England and Wales, as well as our ecumenical brothers and sisters to understand responsibility, our responsibility to heal our planet and to pray and act in a responsible way to the climate emergency.

Now written down this side of my piece of paper I've written the names of all the churches that have signed on as organizations.

You have Christian Aid, the Tear Fund, Salvation Army, AROCA UK, Operation Noah, the Climate Stewards.

Those, some of them, are not religious organizations, but listen to the rest that are.

Eco Sunday Scotland, Eco Congregation Ireland, Green Christians, Church of England, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Wales, United Reformed Church, the Church of Scotland, the Union of Wales, Independence, and the Church in Wales.

And The interesting thing is they were hoping for 7, well, I don't know exactly what the number was.

I know they were looking to launch on the first Sunday in September.

They had 700 churches signed up, and they're hoping by their own admonition that they have thousands that are keeping a global climate Sunday along the way.

Now, I looked at a prophetic website earlier, a week or 2 ago, and I was looking at it, I saw a tagline for an article.

It said, dire wheat forecast in Great Britain produces potential 10% rise in bread costs.

And I'm thinking, dire wheat harvest in England.

I'm thinking, it sounds a little sensational to me.

I don't want to be manipulated by my feelings into making a decision.

So I thought, I'm gonna Google this and see if it's true.

So I took the exact title to the article, I googled it into my search engine and guess where it took me?

Because it's 1 thing for you to read a sensational title to an article on a prophetic website because they may want to hook you and keep bringing you back.

It's another thing when the title of the article is taken almost word-for-word from a very secular organization.

The truth of the matter is Britain went through its driest May and decades.

The cost of bread is going to go up, maybe by 10%.

And do you think it's doing anything but fueling the fire for a global Climate Sunday ecumenical movement?

As a matter of fact, I want to do exactly the opposite.

I want to arm you with confidence and courage for this strange world we're living in.

I want you to come away from this moment aware of how the Holy Spirit might be speaking to you for change, and also aware of how God wants to assure you for the present and the future.

In this morning's message, we're going to talk a little bit about Babylon.

What does it mean in regards to our current culture?

What will it be, prophetically, at the end of time?

But I want you to ask yourself a question right at the beginning of this sermon.

Whether it's you sitting here in the pews or whether it's somebody watching online.

And we have thousands of devices that tune in on a weekly basis.

Can you hear truth whether it's said by your worst enemy or your best friend.

Can the truth be truth whether you like their starting place and don't agree with where they're going to end up, but it still rang true?

If I were to take a poll right now and ask how many of you believe that the world is warming, several hands would go up and some hands would stay down.

As a matter of fact, a number of hands would stay down not just because they don't think it's happening but because they believe it is a right wing political or a left-wing political conspiracy theory to get control over people.

Now I personally am a person who, whether it comes from the left side of the aisle or the right side of the aisle, am trying to figure out what's actually going on in this world.

Is there anybody else here like this today?

I want you to really be able to understand something.

Human beings are constantly questing for power.

They are not naturally people of integrity.

They'll tell you what they want to gather you into their power base.

And I want you to understand this is going on.

So it appears to me that all of the thermometers that are spread around this world are probably not liars.

It appears to me that the intensity of storms and the rapidity of things that are going on, the world's never been on fire quite like it's been on fire in the last few years.

I'm working my way towards 60 now, and in those 6 decades, I've not seen the world quite on fire like it is now.

When I look at the dynamic of the low barometric pressures and the super storms that are created now, for some that are listening to me right now, they're writing me off.

Some of you are listening to me right now and you're writing me off because you've already decided before… don't confuse me with the facts.

My mind is already made up and since you tend to be right of center, you've decided this is all… This is all man-made.

If I were to come over here and talk about another issue, it might be true too, but because it's left of center, you're being written off, you're being written off.

As a matter of fact, I've preached a couple of sermons over the last few months.

1 was entitled, Given to Caesar, colon, Fear, Respect and Love in the Age of COVID-19.

And then I preached 1 2 Sabbaths ago that was entitled, Self-Interest in the Virtual Gospel.

And in the midst of these sermons, in the midst of this pandemic, I'm actually challenging people to stop and think about where their motivational base comes from and what obligation they have to a world and how much risk they're supposed to take.

I've gotten some interesting feedback from the sermons as you can only imagine.

It is not to be forgotten that I spent a series of 8 weeks preaching a series called Confidence in Crisis where my only goal was to assure you not to be afraid.

My job is actually to remind you there's a living God who is gonna nudge you out of your comfort zone every once in a while to do things you don't feel comfortable doing.

But are you to move according to the direct understanding of the principles of love to reach the lost and take some risks?

So in getting feedback from different people, near and far on these messages, I've come to a conclusion.

And my conclusion is this, there's a lot of Seventh-day Adventists who have already decided right and wrong and they don't really wanna hear a message.

Especially if the message goes against what they think already.

And they've defined themselves politically, and they've found any good reason they can to tag or turn down the volume on somebody who approaches it differently.

Risk and Redemption: How to Hold a Sword

This morning we are in the second of a series called Risk and Redemption on the life of Daniel.

Last week we saw that Babylon made it into Jerusalem before Babylon conquered Jerusalem.

If you weren't able to watch that message, I encourage you to go back and look at it.

It is the effect of the world on the heart of the Christian that is the greatest concern.

It is not hardship and difficulty that is bad for the Christian.

It is the absence of the opportunity to live and live openly for Christ and to face challenge in His name.

Father, as we are in your presence this morning, I want to pray that you would bless this moment as we open your word.

May our lives be offered up to you again in this moment, Lord, as the Spirit speaks individually to each of us.

And now, Lord, we look for the divine impress to be upon us may we understand May we be willing to make a complete and full surrender in Jesus name.

I pray amen Recently I made a trip to the boundary waters with about 50 some people, and we enjoyed canoeing in a 2000000 acre wilderness.

It's a way to grow the confidence of our young people, that they can go where there's not a 7-Eleven or a urgent care around the corner, to where they can plan ahead, be out in the middle of a wilderness with oftentimes no cell signal, a map and a resiliency that comes from working as a team and preparing in advance.

I always like to bring something on that trip.

And for those that think my transition away from flesh eating was simple, I would like to suggest otherwise.

Some people when they go to the fair think that some of the smells are repulsive.

I want to assure you this morning that if you grew up eating meat, every 1 of those smells like a succulent invitation to enjoy what you left behind.

I know for some people smoking is the same way.

Now, smoking is different than eating meat.

I don't want to conflate the 2 together in any way, shape, or form.

What I'm just trying to say is when you leave an old appetite behind, it's sometimes hard.

And this morning, I'm holding in my hands a poor facsimile of beef jerky.

There's no beef in this jerky, so I don't know that it can rightly be called beef jerky.

Now, if you're not an Adventist and you've never heard of fake meat, We hear a lot about fake news.

I'm holding in my hands a piece of fake meat, which I don't eat a lot of because I don't really believe it's that good for me.

But when I was transitioning away from real flesh, this was a nice stepping stone.

And every time we go into the boundary waters, I go down to the basement and get out, or my wife does, a roll of that vegetarian salami.

I bring up the gray dehydrator as we slice it, then we put it in strips.

We lay it on the dehydrator, and all through the night you can just, the house is filling with the smell of salami.

When I take it off, I stick it in a ziplock bag and close it up, and I tuck it in my fort bag or my food bag for the boundary waters.

And when we get out across the first portage or 2 and we're hungry, I go up to the other 8 people in my group and I say, I brought the good stuff.

And some of them love it and some of them make fun of it.

I don't have a lot of people lining up for seconds.

But for me, I used to love the texture of tough meat.

And the beef jerky was a favorite of mine.

So when I dehydrate this, if I dehydrate it too much, it's kind of like a rock.

But I stick it in there and I enjoy its flavor.

Now, I came back with this beef jerky, which is not no beef in it, all right?

And I stuck it in my car and I made a big mistake.

Sometimes it's intentionally, sometimes it's on accident.

The Bible says to a hungry man every bitter thing is sweet, but to a full man he loathes even honey.

And I was in 1 of those days where I had missed lunch and I was very, very famished.

So I started looking around for things to eat, and I found a few sunflower seeds, Sometimes I had pumpkin seeds, little things, just to hold me over until I can have a meal.

And then I thought to myself, the beef jerky, I've got it.

Now, I had made a colossal mistake with my beef jerky.

I had taken the bag, this very bag, I had opened the console on my little car, and I had dropped it in the console, probably in a hurry.

Unfortunately, I had stuck something else in the console.

I had bought a number of these Febreze air fresheners that go in your vent of your car.

And they so overpower the car that I decided maybe I'd get the right amount of scent if I stuck it in the console, maybe it would just leak out the right way.

Well, I want to assure you it leaked out all right.

And as I opened the console, I got a big strong smell of not salami but Febreze.

It's like, well yeah, the Febreze containers down in there.

But then I started eating, it's like, that's pretty strong Febreze.

And then I started thinking, this tastes like Febreze to me.

And the moisture content in my car and in that little console was higher than the moisture content of the dehydrated soybean textured vegetable protein or whatever.

And it had actually absorbed the flavor of Febreze.

I won't be offering it to any of you, although it does smell like beef jerky again with no beef, all right?

So this morning, I want this little bit of textured vegetable protein to represent something in your mind, and that is that as Christians, try as we may, we are swimming, living, breathing, moving in an environment that is more pungent with the influence, the culture, the mindset of the world than ever, ever before.

And this morning, especially as I talk about our homes and our kids, the question we have to have is, is there any merit in sealing the bag?

In other words, is there any merit in creating a culture at home that's different than the culture everywhere else?

Is there any merit in saying no to what goes into these ears and through these eyes into the citadel of the soul?

I've lived just long enough and pastored just long enough.

I have a 21-year-old as of last week on Monday, the youngest of 4, and I know along the way I had to make some decisions.

Since their little lives are imprintable, when they were little, and since they're like sponges, I had to decide what gets in the bag, what comes inside my home, What influences am I allowing at school?

How are the decisions I'm making shaping their life for the appetite of God and interest in his word?

There are some things we need to talk about as a church and I know that my parents' generation, many of them feel, as though they went through a period of time in which a clear understanding of what salvation is really about wasn't quite so clear.

But I want you to know this morning, friends, that when you give your hearts to Jesus, when you give your lives to Jesus, you have received the gift of eternal life.

And the choices you make after you surrender your heart are not to earn it.

The choices you make after you say, Jesus, you're Lord of, well, not most everything, everything.

The choices you make after that are a progression of letting God make you ready to live amongst the angels.

I fear there are people listening to me who do not understand lordship, they do not understand salvation, and they don't understand the work of justification and sanctification in the life.

There are many Adventists, I believe, who would like a cheap version of modern Protestantism's grace movement.

Well, I'm here to tell you today, grace is wonderful.

But grace is also empowering and enabling and freedom-giving and strength-imparting.

And what we embrace as Seventh-day Admonists is a living hope in our living Savior, who died for you and me, lived the perfect life, and put His arms around us in love to say, let me take you to heaven, would you walk with me?" But on that journey, Jesus is saying to me, am I Lord of this?

And while there are a variety of things we talk about in the preparation for baptism, the idea of Christ's lordship being able to be enunciated by a preacher or a parent is ludicrous.

Christ's lordship will continue to enlarge itself in your understanding of your walk with Him as He says to you, would you let me be lord of this?

Risk and Redemption: The Shepherd and the Shadow

Lord, we're here this morning and so thankful to be here.

And we're praising you for your provision in our lives.

And so now, Lord, we're praying, please send your spirit.

1 more time, Lord, I'm asking as we open the word, please bless us.

And May this be a journey of hope and encouragement.

And if there's challenge and redirection in it, Lord, then please may we be humble to let You do that too.

We're in the third of a series entitled Risk and Redemption.

Our first message recognized in the days of Daniel's upbringing that Jerusalem had been inundated with the spirit of paganism, worldliness, idolatry.

Babylon had made it inside the city before Babylon surrounded the city.

And in the second service especially, I tried to set a framework for how to deal with issues of lifestyle.

And whenever I talk about issues of lifestyle, there is a potential discomfort that grows into people.

What I find is, is that bringing the cross into my daily life is the greatest of all challenges.

The good news is, is that however God is directing you, it is between you and God.

So while the church has standards and the Bible has principles, these standards derived from these principles and these precepts are to protect us.

According to those who understood the law best, the law was about liberty.

And I don't know anybody that wants to be enslaved.

But the greatest enslavement comes through the occupation of the mentalities of the world that cooperate with the sinful human nature, and we become enslaved to our own ways of thinking and doing.

The journey to liberty is a little bit frightening.

It's a little bit scary because we find a measure of mixed comfort even in our dysfunction.

So when we looked last week at the lifestyle of Daniel And I talk about dress and diet and entertainment.

It always creates a measure of challenge and sometimes discomfort for people.

But I want to reiterate as we go now into Daniel chapter 2, I want to reiterate that a lifestyle of Christ enthroned within, as challenging as it may be to leave behind appetites of the world, is a lifestyle of joy and freedom and liberty.

I was talking with somebody the other day, explaining to them that both in marriage and in our relationship with Christ, to have nothing between is the most thrilling joy there is.

When you have a beautiful, vibrant, vitalized walk with your spouse, and there's nothing between, and that love is flowing back and forth freely, it is exhilarating.

There's lots of ordinary, of course, but there are definite dynamics of legitimate beauty of the highest order when there's nothing between.

I was talking with someone this week and we talked about something just a bit delicate and the person said to me, the Holy Spirit's been speaking to me about that already.

Well, I was certain that was the case before I brought it up or I wouldn't have brought it up.

This morning, I want you to know when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, the best course is to follow.

The devil makes it look like it's full of unpleasantness and pain and discomfort.

But the lifestyles of the remnant protect the experience with God.

And I have to make sure we all understand this because almost every 1 of the first half of the chapters of the book of Daniel have a situation where somebody's life is on the line.

And we're not going to go from our lives, you know, we're at the top of the consumer mountain.

You know, if there's a dog pile, Americans are on the top and everybody else is underneath.

And it's not a great thing to be a part of.

But the truth of the matter is we've been treated...

There used to be a time even in my lifetime when you could not go in a store and just because you wanted to return it you returned it.

The problem is we've all become customers, and we create an environment where nobody can tell us we're wrong.

And it's exceptionally deadly to the experience of human relationships, family life, society, and certainly with God.

And so, when we come to church, we're coming to an experience where the Holy Spirit is invited, not just given permission, but invited to talk to us.

And What I'm nicely telling you is the church has drifted into the hands and the arms of the world, and breaking off that relationship is probably just about as hard as when somebody allows their heart's affections to wander to someone else.

And unfortunately, I've had more than my fair share of dealing with those things, but it's exceptionally painful.

I don't want to paint the picture too dire, but when somebody has wandered from the proper bounds and bonds of affection with their spouse and they've bonded with somebody else, the idea of going back to their spouse, which at 1 point in time they were in love with, deeply looks like the worst thing that could ever happen to them.

The church has wandered into the arms of the world And the very fact that we're making this journey right now is of a divine providential timing.

But getting out of the arms of the world isn't like…the problem with getting out of the arms of the world isn't getting the arms of the world off you, it's getting you off the world.

So it's not legalism to love Jesus and let Him direct in the laws of freedom, life, and liberty.

So I'm appealing to you this morning, if you did not listen to last week's sermon, listen to the second sermon.

But I took plenty of time at the front side of that sermon to enunciate how to walk with Christ without being a legalist, how to live a beautifully different life without being legalistic.

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