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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Alvin Maragh

Power In The Blood

First of all, I just want to give God all thanks and praise.

Jehovah for giving me this opportunity to stand before his people.

You know, it never ceases to amaze me how God can use a sinner to do something so powerful.

And so I thank God for this opportunity to stand before you.

But he has called Alvin Mirage to stand here this morning.

Secondly, I want to thank my brother Jonathan.

Oh, Jonathan Zirkle, thank you so much for the invitation.

He called me about 6 months ago and this is the date.

I also want to thank Addison, my contact person, for being on task.

The last time I was here, I spoke for Advent Hope was in 2007, 5 years ago.

At that time, we were located at Burden Hall, right?

And I have many fond memories of Advent Hope.

A lot of you looking really serious, can you smile?

A lot of fond memories here, and I remember in 2005, I was part of the restoration team leadership and Pastor Skeet was speaking then and it was over at Burden Hall and I remember you know Burden Hall has steps.

I was just waiting there at the steps and I was talking to this young girl.

Long story short, we got married 3 years later.

So for those of you who are single, There is hope at Advent Hope.

It's a miracle for someone to love their wife in the 21st century.

God has given me a nice wife, she's right here.

And my daughter, my daughter's 3 years old, Mela.

She's mixed, she's, I'm Indian and Jamaican, and my wife is Filipino.

So my daughter's mixed up, but it worked out just well.

Now what we're going to do, we're just going to, is that all right if we just teach this morning?

I don't even, to be honest with you, I don't even feel like preaching.

Now what I have here, I just have 3 pages of notes.

And you know, note, you just have ink and paper.

Ink and paper, since the beginning of time, has saved absolutely no 1.

And so what I do at my church before I preach, I always give my congregation a few seconds for them to ask for the Holy Spirit to speak to them personally, because I cannot save you.

And I know, you've heard all the sermons.

More than likely, you're not gonna really hear anything new today.

You've heard all the sermons, all the appeals, and a preacher cannot save you.

Only the Holy Spirit can snatch the heart and produce change.

I was born again December 6, 1998 on a Sunday wearing a white shirt, black shorts, leather brown sandals on the island of Palm Beach with my identical twin brother.

Yes, when God snatches your heart and changes your life you will never forget it.

And so you have to ask for the Holy Spirit to speak to you directly.

Father, you speak through your word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You know, I have been a minister now, this coming January 1 would make it exactly 5 years I have been in the ministry.

And I actually got ordained by the conference, all of the executives of the conference ordained me exactly 2 weeks ago.

So in my brief tenure of ministry, only about 5 years, I have learned, I have come to the realization that there are many Seventh Day Adventists, I'm talking about tofu eating, soy milk drinking, veggie grilling Adventists, who are more afraid of Jesus than in love with him.

I have learned, because I'm a minister and I counsel, that there are many Seventh-day Adventist Christians who are more afraid of Jesus than in love with him, and the reason why is because many Adventists do not understand the investigative judgment as it pertains to righteousness by faith.

They will say amen, amen all day long when it's preached, but in the recesses of the mind, they don't understand it.

And they don't feel forgiven by God because sin runs deep.

And if you don't feel forgiven by God you will never have joy in your Christian experience.

That person sitting next to you in that seat, that person can be struggling with the sin so deep and you will never know it.

Because you know, can you hear me all right?

You know the church, the church is not transparent.

That's why a lot of people come to the church and they're fake.

They put on a plastic smile, happy Sabbath, hey, happy Sabbath, brother.

Everything's all right, everything's fine.

For example, if 1 of your Sabbath school teachers stands up and says, you know what, as they're teaching the Sabbath school lesson, hey, I just smoked some marijuana before I got here.

As soon as Advent Hope is done, they'll run to Jonathan and say, hey, we have to get rid of this teacher.

You might meet that teacher in the parking lot and say, hey, don't you know smoking weed you can't get the seal of God?

Don't you know smoking weed you will not receive the refreshing of the latter rain?

And a lot of times we will condemn somebody, And the guy's just saying, hey, I'm struggling.

And because the church is not transparent, and because the church is not a safe place, no 1 opens up.

Being a pastor, they open up all the time, all the time.

And people come to me, they tell me such sin so deep I can't repeat it because this is being recorded.

I'm talking about gross sin and I'm talking about people who have been to many GYCs and SWYCs and all the seas of the nation, been to advent hope, and you would categorize these people as present truth.

People are struggling with some serious, serious issues.

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Power In The Blood

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