GYC SE 2022 Fall Conference

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GYC Southeast

Jeremy Arnall

Not Just Any Church

We've been praying and we just ask that your spirit will prevail in this place.

Lord, I know that there's much on a college student at a time like this and that there's probably tests or quizzes or studies that are beckoning them at this very moment, but I pray that in the in this moment you will remove all distraction and that your still small voice will be heard.

And Lord, we just desire revival and reformation in our lives and in the lives of those on this campus.

We believe and know that you can accomplish all things.

And so we ask this in the name of Jesus, amen.

And you know, I think good stories oftentimes are those stories that have a good plot.

You know a plot is basically the foundation, right?

A plot is the purpose for which the story, it gives direction to the story.

And tonight I want you to consider the story that you're being invited to be a part of.

As we consider the 3 angels' messages, the task of which I've been assigned in this Nothing Else series, I thought it wise to begin with Seventh-day Adventists.

I mean, I'm just curious, how many are baptized as Seventh-day Adventist members in the Seventh-day Adventist Church?

Okay, So most of us here are Seventh-day Adventists, and I suspect that when you prepared for your baptism that you went through studies.

I'm going to ask you another question, and please raise your hand very high.

We won't do too many of these Q&As, but I just want to ask you a question.

How many of you have been through a series of Bible prophecy meetings?

I'm talking about a full 3 or 4 week series.

You know what I'm talking about, like 20 nights?

How many of you have been through a whole series?

You might have missed 2 or 3, but no more than that.

So you've been through the majority of the meetings.

Raise your hand high if you've ever been through a series like that.

There's several who have not, but many of you have.

Tonight, I just want to review with you perhaps some of what you heard, but I want to do it in a way that is very simple because after all you've got studies to do and all that.

I just want to give you about 6 or 7 texts tonight that if you will recall, you'll remember, then you will be able to give that to somebody and tell them your story as a Seventh-day Adventist, and perhaps just a short bus ride.

Not that we ride buses a whole lot anymore, but maybe you will.

Okay, if you brought your Bible or your smartphone, Psalm 139.

You're familiar with this passage, and I want to read it to you from the New King James.

Your eyes, talking about God, your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, as when yet there were none of them.

Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book, they all were written, the days fashioned for me.

So, again, I wanna talk to you about the concept of story tonight.

Again, good stories, have a plot, good stories, have direction.

You know, if you look at your life over the last, well, however old you are, 15 years, what have you, 18 years 20 years, whatever it is if you look over your life Ask yourself.

I Mean for instance If you look back 3 years to what you were doing tonight, 3 years ago, I mean, in other words, 3 years ago today, could you tell me?

Most of you probably couldn't even tell me, at least on a quick question of what you ate 3 weeks ago on this very night, right?

I mean, we forget, and probably just as well, most of our life.

Now, when you have something dramatic, when you have something, I remember going home 1 night and I had dropped my, I think she was my fiancé at the time, I couldn't remember if we were dating or fiancé, but anyway, we were sweethearts and I dropped her off with my twin brother at the dorm and I was headed back to a place in Kettering where I was a caretaker for an elderly man.

It was a short drive from Kettering, Ohio to Dayton where I lived and I remember driving back that night and boom, I fell asleep.

I was listening to the music and I guess the music was soothing and I just went right to sleep on the road and hit a huge curb, knocked the car out of, messed up.

I totally messed up the wheel and had to drive home on that wheel because I was too scared to get out of the car in that little area and drove back on the wheel.

My point is that night would have been forgotten, most likely.

But I ran into a crisis, at least for me.

And the Bible tells us in Revelation 14, just before we get to the 3 angels, there's a story that the 144, 000 will experience that they will herald forever.

And what's beautiful is God is inviting you to enter that story.

Now I don't know when Jesus will come, but if you're like me, I believe it could be very, very soon.

But the question is, is will you embrace the story?

The text we just read tells us that God has a story for each 1 of you, right?

He's already got a storyline with the best plot that will be told and told again if you'll let him write the whole story.

But truth be told, most of us grab the pen at a young age and we seek to write our own story, our own tale, 1 that we think we can write just a little bit better.

But God says, if you will give me the pen, if you will allow me to fashion the days as I've already got planned for you, you will enter into a story that will be worth telling and retelling and retelling, right?

I'm talking to you tonight about the story of the church.

Because you see, if you're a Seventh-day Adventist, I trust that you're a Seventh-day Adventist because you believe this is not just any church.

I was in seminary, and let's go on to Revelation 10.

I was in seminary, I forget if it was my first or second year, but I remember hearing a fellow student preach his sermon at 1 of the area churches.

The sermon was, you know, it was okay, I guess, but the message in that sermon came home to me in such a clear way.

I never really comprehended it that way, and it's what I'm going to share with you tonight.

I don't remember if he shared all these particular texts, but I remember the overall message of Revelation 10 came home to me.

And I left church that day in Michigan with a conviction that this is not by accident.

That you're a part of a remnant movement.

It's not elitist, it just means we have a mission.

You're a part of a remnant church, and if you are a part of that church, you have entered into the story that God is writing for this last hour.

Revelation 10, I saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was on his head.

His face was like the sun, his feet like pillars of fire.

Because Revelation chapter 1 tells us a depiction of Jesus, which is, if you look at the verses, exactly like what we see here in chapter 10, verse 1.

And don't be alarmed that it's called an angel.

He is delivering a message and it is worldwide.

He had a little book open in his hand, and he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.

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