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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Laurel Damsteegt

Song In The Night

I could not think of a better offertory than what we just heard.

I hope you were following the words in your mind as you heard the notes being played.

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know.

I hope that's your experience this morning.

I can testify that it is mine this morning and I want us all to focus on that this morning.

Kind Father, how sweet it is to trust in you.

Teach us to depend more and more on you and to sing those songs in the night.

We have a terrible crisis that is just before us.

We see all the signs going around and things happening all around, terrorists, threats, all kinds of things.

I'd like to encourage you all to read the last half of Great Controversy to review what's really ahead of us.

We know that Daniel 12, 1 tells us at that time, Michael shall what?

Stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.

There's been many, many times of trouble, but we're headed for a never, never equaled time of trouble.

And at that time, thy people shall be delivered.

Everyone that shall be found written in the book.

All of through Bible history he has been at war with Jesus Christ, and the Bible calls Satan the accuser of our brethren, and all spiritual warfare is about who wins out, Jesus or the enemy.

The time of trouble for the righteous will be 1 of the most extreme mental anguishes in connection with the persecutions, imprisonments, tortures.

But, like with Jesus' time on the cross, the physical torture will be nothing in comparison to what you and I will be facing in our minds.

Notice this quote from Great Controversy, page 618.

As Satan accuses the people of God on the account of their sins, the Lord permits him to try them to the uttermost.

Their confidence in God, their faith and firmness will be severely tested as they review their past.

Their hopes sink, For in their whole lives they can see but little good.

They are fully conscious of their weakness and unworthiness.

Satan endeavors to terrify them with the thoughts that their cases are hopeless, that the stain of their defilement will be never washed away.

He hopes to so destroy their faith that they will yield to his temptations and turn from their allegiance to God.

Those who exercise but little faith now, this is from now 621, are in the greatest danger of falling under the power of satanic delusions and the decree to compel the conscience.

And even if they endure the test, they will be plunged into deeper distress and anguish in the time of trouble because they have never made it a habit to trust in God.

The lessons of faith which they have neglected, they will be forced to learn under a terrible pressure of discouragement.

So, as we're facing this terrible crisis in the end, You and I are going to have a test.

And the test will be who we are trusting in.

But the key is that faith experience and how do you and I learn that kind of faith now so that later on we can go through the time of trouble as never was as soon to open upon us and we will need an experience which we do not now possess and which many are too indolent or lazy to obtain, it is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality.

But this is not true of the crisis before us.

The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal.

In that time of trial, every soul must stand for himself before God.

So we find in summary here that the time of trouble which is ahead will be so bad that in our worst imagining, nothing equals it.

Those who have never learned faith will have the hardest time.

They won't make it or they'll just barely make it.

So I think it's really important for us, since we're not in the time of trouble now, to start thinking about that kind of faith that God is willing to give us even now, so that when we get to that time, it will be easier, because we won't be trusting in ourselves, we won't be learning all new lessons, that we will be built up and ready to go.

So what is this faith we so desperately need to learn?

Faith is, Greek word, Let's go back to some of the basics here.

Pistos, and it means trustworthy, true, reliable, sure.

And we have a Greek word, a Hebrew word, which is amant, means to build up or support, to foster as a parent, to nurse or be steadfast.

Remember in Matthew 25 Jesus says, Well done thou good and faithful servant.

It's not a problem of faith versus works because any servant always obeys anything the master wants.

Faith includes and encompasses works, So we're not even talking about the whole works deal today.

Take it down to its basic core, its depending.

We want to be dependable because we have a God we can depend on.

It's not just our faith that we're talking about.

We're talking about us hanging on to the omnipotent.

So learning to depend upon God for big things as well as in the little things of life.

God really does care about every single detail of our lives.

If you look at Psalm 37, 23, please read it with me.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way.

Do you look to the Lord at every detail of your life?

As you get up in the morning, you'd say, God, I have no idea what's ahead of me today, but I am looking to you to get me through this day.

He will also lead very specifically if we ask him.

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.

Now notice it's not with a whip, okay, not with shouting, You know, when people know each other real well, you can just kind of look at them and say like that, and you kind of know what they're saying.

Oh, quick, go get something, go do something, you know.

He can look at us and we suddenly know exactly what He has in mind.

And that's what the kind of faith that we want to be building, so that with the slightest gesture of His eye, we know exactly what He wants, and we're delighted to do what He wants.

God delights in answering specific prayers.

I could give you some miracles that have happened just in the last week or 2 where people have asked very specifically and God has answered specifically.

We don't have confidence in a God that is so interested in every single thing that we do that He wants to work with us and answer our prayers.

Call upon me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and marvelous things which thou knowest not.

You and I cannot even imagine everything that God wants to put in our way.

We cannot even imagine, but God says, call upon me and I will answer thee.

We need to be really careful of getting into the mode of saying, God knows everything.

And therefore, I don't really even need to ask him because he knows what I want before I want it.

Our communication needs to be so intimate that when we think something, We check it out with God's way, and then we persevere and ask God.

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Song In The Night

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