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Murrieta Springs SDA Church

How to Encounter a Personal Relationship with God and Receive His Blessings

Eric Walsh

Stop Praying Blind

Mark 11 24 says, therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.

So our message tonight is entitled, Stop Praying Blind.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

Lord, I ask that you make me just a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

But upon that nail, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

This is our prayer in Jesus's name, amen.

If you have your Bible, you wanna go to the book of Acts, the 12th chapter, Acts chapter 12, starting at verse 1, and we find the new church.

This is about 10 years after Stephen was stoned, the end of that week of prophecy where the Messiah was cut down in the middle of the week, 10 years after the stoning of Stephen.

And you can see the fledgling church now trying to gain traction, the fledgling church now trying to get set up, but the hatred that was shown towards Christ has been commuted to his apostles and to the early church.

They can do almost nothing without being attacked.

They're hiding and they're worried at all times that something terrible is going to happen to them.

The Bible says in Acts chapter 12 in verse 1, Now about that time, Herod the King stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church.

The King decided that he was gonna wipe out the church.

He is the brother of Herod Antipas and the grandson of Herod the Great.

He is the 1 that when Jesus was born actually wiped out all of those little children in near Bethlehem.

His brother is the 1 who dealt with John the Baptist so terribly.

He comes from a lineage of very cruel power-hungry men and he is they were not they were they were Jewish in a way but not really and so they worked hard to impress the Jews so that the Jews would accept them and so that they would have a dynasty to themselves.

Verse 2, the Bible says, and he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.

If it was the Sanhedrin who had really done this killing, most scholars say that James would have been stoned, but instead his head was cut off with a sword.

He is the first of the apostles to be martyred.

Not the first Christian martyr, that's Stephen, but the first of the apostles to be killed.

It was a terrible thing, just 13 years of ministry is all James is able to do before he's killed.

Yet ironically his brother John is John the Revelator and he is the last of the living Apostles.

What a reunion in glory will it be when James and John, the sons of thunder, see their sibling again?

I would love to pick both of their brains, honestly.

But verse 3 says, and because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.

And here we begin to get that the church at this time, as it is being founded and set up, is under attack.

Persecution is the reality of the day and here it is that the Passover season comes, they take, he goes after Peter when he saw how happy the Jews were.

In fact, if you read Acts of the apostles, Ellen White makes a powerful statement.

The only problem the Jews had is that the martyrdom of James was not done more publicly.

They wished that it had been done so that everyone saw it because they wanted to annihilate the early Christian church.

And when he saw how the Jews were pleased by this, Herod went and took Peter.

Remember, James was 1 of the founding strong members of the early church.

This was an attempt, remember it was Peter, James and John that went into the Mount of Transfiguration.

They were the big 3 that went with Jesus.

If you wipe those 3 out, there was probably an idea that you would wipe out the early church.

I wanna submit to you that this type of persecution is not over.

In fact, There's a global crisis, this article says, of religious persecution all over the world.

And it is interesting because many Americans are unaware of what is going on in the rest of the world.

If you are in communist China right now and you are sitting in a Protestant church, you are afraid that at any time soldiers could come in and arrest everyone and shut the church down.

The Uighur Muslims in China are being placed in re-education camps, as are some Christians.

We were in India a year before last, and we heard powerful testimonies of folk coming out of Hinduism and becoming Adventist Christians, and the torture and persecution some of them got from their own families.

But there are laws passed because they have, people talk about Christian nationalism here, but there's real Hindu nationalism, and the current president of India, right now, in some of the states, if you are caught converting someone to Christianity, you can get up to 10 years in prison.

Right now in America, we sit, we enjoy these freedoms and I know if you're watching what's going on, you can see that these freedoms are not going to live forever.

You can begin to see that there's a shift that is happening.

And if you're watching carefully, some people think that the shift comes from the right side of the political spectrum.

We're going to talk about an update on prophecy Friday night.

I'm going to show you that all of the pieces are working together to the end to try and wipe out Bible-believing Christianity.

Right now, in much of the world, to call yourself a Christian is to put your life on the line.

I wanna challenge you this year to read a book, Defying Jihad, I'll put up a picture of it another night, I should have put it on this slide deck.

Defying Jihad, and I'll talk more about it Friday night, but Defying Jihad Will Change Your Life.

Powerful book about a young lady who becomes a Christian in Pakistan.

And I'm gonna challenge you, I'm gonna give you a few books through the week to read, that's 1 of them.

And it's a powerful book, I'll put a picture of it later on.

Here's another 1, Lauren Bobart, Colorado House representative, back in 2022 told a congregation, she's tired of this separation of church and state junk.

In fact she said the church should direct the government.

The question when you make a statement like that is which church?

The reason, and we're going through the great controversy, 1 of the things I was just at Blue Mountain Academy.

If you know people on the East Coast, and they want a great place to send their kids where They get present truth and good Christian teaching.

The principal there, Culpepper, and these guys do such a phenomenal job.

And 1 of the things I told them is that this year, since you like to put your phone on and put earplugs in, listen to things that will edify you.

We have made a pact that we don't listen to even much music in the car anymore.

We actually listen to books that elevate and edify.

And we're listening to the great controversy.

And as you read through the great controversy, you realize, and we're just listening to it in the car, as you listen to the book, you realize the country is on a collision course with a time of trouble.

She says that the church should direct the state.

Well, we saw that this is actually beginning to come to pass.

Now this got shot down overwhelmingly in North Dakota.

I don't know if you guys have kept up with this, but lawmakers consider bill to bring back blue laws in North Dakota.

What made this bill that got shot down, it was like 89 to 4, North Dakota shot it down.

You can open up restaurants and businesses on Sundays in North Dakota now.

But what was interesting, and you should look this up and watch the gentleman's testimony, 2 things stuck out to me when I watched this testimony, speaking of a coming time of trouble.

1 of them was that he read the writings of a Catholic bishop, This guy must be Catholic himself, and felt inspired to go before, to go into North Dakota's chamber.

He was an elected official, and try and make the laws more stringent based on what this bishop wrote.

What was more frightening is that the biggest change to the blue law was that it had to have written into it now punishment for breaking it.

Church, we're talking about preparing for the second coming.

When I read that book, Defying Jihad, I wept.

And I said, man, am I really ready for what's about to come on the earth?

If I have to leave my car, my comfort, my home, Is my relationship with Jesus Christ so strong that when the whole world turns against us or against me, would I be able to stand?

As you see the apostles in this story in Acts 12, when you see the Apostles ready to lay down their lives for the cause of Christ am I that connected with the Lord?

Well he went after Peter, verse 4 the Bible says, and when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to 4 Quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

Peter, therefore, was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him." So let's look at this.

So Peter gets taken, they apprehend him, they put him in prison.

The Bible says that they put 4 Quatornians of soldiers on him.

That there were 4 groups of soldiers that took 4 six-hour watches.

2 of them were chained to Peter, 2 of them stood guard over the door.

In Need of the Holy Spirit

As we go into this message this is 1 of the most important subjects that we really can look at especially in the context of revival and so our scripture reading is taken from Luke chapter 11 verse 13.

The Bible says if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the holy spirit to them that ask him how much more shall your heavenly father Give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.

How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Our message tonight is entitled, The Need for the Holy Spirit.

Let's pray, Father God, we are truly in need of your Holy Spirit tonight.

Make me an empty vessel, Lord, and fill me with your Holy Spirit.

Lord, it is not me that needs to be heard, not my words that need to be spoken, but tonight Father we ask for a word from the throne room of grace.

So if you have your Bible go with me to the book of Matthew the 25th chapter Matthew chapter 25 and I'm just gonna read through the parable of the of the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins and we'll read through it first.

We're gonna break it down and then we're gonna add some practical application to the parable.

So Matthew chapter 25 and verse 1 says, Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom and 5 of them were wise and 5 were foolish.

It says, then they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps while the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept.

Verse 6 says and at midnight there was a cry a cry made behold the bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him that all the all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps and the foolish said unto the wise give us of your oil for our lamps are gone out.

The wise answered saying not so lest there be not enough for us and you.

But go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut.

Afterward came also other virgins saying the other virgin saying Lord Lord open to us.

But he answered and said verily I say unto you I know you not verse 13 of Matthew 25 says this Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.

Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh." The Spirit of Prophecy tells us that as Jesus sat on the mountainside with his disciples and as the night began to set a story like this was probably unfolding in front of him.

As they looked across the city, they could see the lamps in the distance of a bridal party moving through the town toward the bridegroom's house.

As the disciples sat there, still reeling from what Jesus tells them in Matthew chapter 24.

The disciples are still reeling as Jesus explains to them what will be at the end of the world as he lays out for them prophecy and never forget that of all the prophets in the scripture Christ is the greatest of all prophets.

But they're still reeling and in order to make the Word of God real and come alive for the disciples, he gives this parable in Matthew 25.

It is a parable that takes the prophecies to the next level.

Jesus does not stop by telling you what's going to happen.

He gives this parable in a loving nudge into what we must do to be ready for what he describes in Matthew chapter 24.

The ancient weddings there was an engagement and a betrothal and then the ceremony and in between the initial engagement and betrothal was often up to a year and you kind of get that from the story of Mary and Joseph at the time of the birth of Christ.

So the groom, what would happen is that the groom would leave his house, he would travel to the father's, the bride's father's house and collect his bride, and then they would be, they would go through the streets, and as they moved through the streets, people would join in the singing and shouting and the horn blowing and there was a wonderful procession through the town.

As they got near to the groom's house, where the actual wedding feast would actually happen there would be women who would be who have lamps and they would light up the area so that when the groom came in it was well lit and the whole processional along with the women that were waiting would all go into where the feast was prepared and the wedding feast would happen.

So Jesus takes this tradition in Matthew chapter 25 and verse 1 he says, then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

It's interesting Jesus says the kingdom will be like the kingdom of heaven will be like unto this parable in other words your admission into the kingdom.

And so when you look at it you have to decipher what is everything.

In the Bible prophetically women represent the church and so the virgins represent the believers.

The lamp itself is the Word of God and we have multiple scripture that tells you that God's Word is a lamp unto our feet.

The lamp is the Word of God and the bridegroom and his processional is the coming of Christ.

So verse 2 tells us that there were 2 different sets of women of the 10.

What's interesting is that you could not decipher by looking at them who was who.

It was a much deeper thing and this being a spiritual lesson it tells you that even in the spiritual realm this is also true.

Verse 3 says they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps and here's where the story begins to get rich now you understand that the oil represents the Holy Spirit the Word of God is the lamp the Holy Spirit is the oil and in This is a very powerful spiritual lesson that if you are going to be enlightened, I don't know how that song was chosen to sing earlier, but it was perfect.

If you are going to be a lamp for Christ, there must be a union of the Word of God with the Holy Spirit.

Verse 5 says this, I'm sorry verse 4, but the wise took the oil in their vessels with their lamps and verse 5 says while the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept.

Which means that in the end time, as we're coming to the time of Christ, slumbering and sleeping represents the fact that you are living your life, that you are going about your duties, that you are that you are being that you are surviving and thriving hopefully in this world.

Everyone is going about doing what they're supposed to be doing.

It's not that they're not waiting for the bridegroom to come they clearly are but they're just doing what would be normal and what needs to be done.

The Bible says the bridegroom tarried it took him longer than what they thought and they were all sleeping.

Verse 6 says and at midnight there was a cry made, behold the bridegroom cometh.

The Bible gives us this pattern that when things get really dark in the world, God does something incredible.

Of the birth of Christ, the Bible says, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman.

The time was full because when you study Earth's history at the birth of Christ at a time when Jesus was born if you study Earth's history at that time paganism had taken over almost a whole world the little bit of truth that was left in Israel at the time was about to be snuffed out and Christ appeared as a baby in Bethlehem.

Church I want you to understand and we'll talk about prophecy tomorrow night, I want you to understand that we have embarked into a dark place in the world, a world where people, and I don't watch these award shows anymore, but I was shocked to be reading news articles that multiple women went in what they called nude dresses to the Grammys.

We've reached a place in the world where decency has been thrown out of the window, morality is thrown out of the window.

There's a woman on OnlyFans who brags about how many men she slept with in a very short period of time.

And it wouldn't be bad if this was done in a corner, but it's no longer done in a corner.

We are at midnight because morally our world has degraded in such a way that now evil is celebrated and good is ridiculed.

The cry is going out now that the bridegroom is coming And as we see these things happening, it's like when Jesus was walking on the water and he said to his disciples, be of good cheer in his eye, be not afraid.

The spirit of prophecy says, when we see these things happening around us, remember those words, Christ is on his way.

It may be depressing and even difficult for us as Christians to understand it but understand that Christ is calling to us in the middle of the storm that this world has become be of good cheer how can the Christian be of good cheer when the world has gone into chaos?

Verse 7 says this, that all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps and the foolish said unto the wise give us your oil for our lamps are gone out can you imagine the bridegroom is just steps away they all wake up out of their sleep start to fix their face start to put their hair back where it's supposed to be, start to fix their clothes, everybody looking at each other's mirrors, trying to get ready, nobody wants to look bad when the bridegroom comes.

But the 5 foolish ones, in that moment, as they begin to trim their lamps and light them, realize they have no oil left in the lamp and they don't have a vessel with extra oil and in that moment they turn to the wise and say listen we need some help we're running out of oil can we have some of yours when you look at it 5 are left in darkness 5 carry the light this is what Ellen White said no this is actually from a theologian, France.

This is not from the spirit of prophecy, but it's a great statement.

It is a warning addressed specifically to those inside the profession church who are not to assume that their future is unconditionally assured.

All 10 are expecting to be at the feast and until the moment comes there is no apparent difference between them.

It says, it is the crisis which will divide the ready from the unready.

The pastor mentioned the crisis I went through now started 11 years ago.

It started in March of 2014 and I can tell you I watched as people who said and claimed to know God took off running.

They were so afraid of what was happening.

Crisis begins to show you you want to know who people really are?

Look at what they put in comments on stuff on the internet.

The cowardice of sitting behind a computer screen and not having that really answer to anybody, people put things out.

It is the crisis which will divide the ready from the unready church crisis is in front of us in Matthew 25 in verse 9 it says this but the wise answered saying not so lest there be not enough for us and you, but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves.

It's very true, as was said in the introduction, that I speak much of my mother, But my mother and my grandmother, like 2 Timothy, where it speaks, Paul says to Timothy, to have the unfamed faith that was in him, that was in his grandmother Lois and in his mother Eudice, I had that kind of an upbringing with those women, very faithful women.

My grandmother would pray, and it was almost as if God would stop what he was doing to answer her prayers.

No matter where in the world her grandchildren were, no matter how far from God they had gone, they got in trouble.

They called all the way back to mama and said mama pray for me.

Prophecy Update

Father God we thank you for this opportunity Lord to study your Word.

Lord once again I ask that you just make me a nail on the wall and upon that nail hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

As we discuss prophecy now Lord help us to understand its weight and importance and not generate fear but a hope and excitement that Our Savior is soon to return.

And so, we're gonna go to Revelation chapter 12, walk through Revelation chapter 12, and then really hit some current event issues related to prophecy.

Revelation chapter 12 gives a synopsis and an overview of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, and ultimately Christ, Satan, and Satan, and the church.

Revelation chapter 12 in verse 1 says, and there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars.

And if you remember from Old Testament, there are many instances where God speaks of Israel as a woman.

We are said that the church is Christ's bride.

This would be before the birth of Christ.

Some would say it represents the 12 tribes.

Others would say it represents the 12 apostles.

What's important is that this is God's people.

And in verse 2 it says, and she being with child tried travailing in birth and pain to be delivered.

As God's people were moving through, especially the period in between the Old and New Testament, it became more and more difficult.

The failures of the northern kingdom of Israel blotted them out of existence.

The southern kingdom of Judah taken into captivity in Babylon when they finally came back under Ezra and Nehemiah's leadership to restore and rebuild they never quite got back to where they were and in fact they were under duress pretty much continually as ultimately the Hellenistic empire of the Greeks and then the Romans subjugated God's people.

In order for the Messiah to be born, all of these forces, these great political forces and empires would have to be dealt with by the people of God.

And in the passage of time, the people of God began to change and and 1 on the 1 hand There was paganism that swept in, but more what happened at the time when the Messiah was to be born is that legalism, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the way God's people saw God and his character changed so much that the world was on the brink of permanent darkness when Christ was born.

Verse 3, the Bible says, and there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having 7 heads and 10 horns and 7 crowns upon his head and enter now the villain of the story the woman is there she's ready to have her child and the Bible now says that there was another wonder in heaven, a great red dragon having 7 heads and 10 horns and 7 crowns upon his head.

We may refer to this tomorrow in the afternoon session, But 1 of the things the devil has done is to try to get the idea and image of dragons to be something that everyone is friendly with.

In fact, they've made movies for children, How to Tame Your Dragon.

Let me tell you something, your dragon can't be tamed.

The dragon represents Satan himself, and in another sense, he doesn't just represent Satan.

Satan is ruling through, as we talked about the other night, on the first night, through Herod and his legacy and dynasty, through that individual.

Remember in Ezekiel, and in Isaiah, in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, when Satan is described, he's described in 1 place as the king of Tyre in another place as the king as the prince of Babylon it somehow He begins to take control of the leaders of these empires, and that's how Satan carries out his work, through men in power.

There appeared another wonder in heaven, a great red dragon.

Verse 4 says, "'And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and it cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman which is ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born." This verse carries over a lot of time.

The first part says that his tale drew a third part of the stars.

That represents that of all the angels in heaven, the stars now represent angels, we'll come back to that, 1 out of 1 out of every 3 of the angels sided with Satan in his rebellion in heaven.

That's why his tail, the dragon's tail, drags them.

And they were all cast down to the earth.

So the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

This prophecy is perfectly, or this statement I should say, is perfectly fulfilled when you look at the story of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem and how Herod wanted to wipe Jesus out so bad that he ends up wiping out all of those innocent children.

Verse 5, and she brought forth a man-child.

This is Jesus, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne.

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