Have you ever noticed that most of the major Biblical reformers share a similar background? Find out what it is in this sermon.

<p>Have you ever noticed that most of the major Biblical reformers share a similar background? Find out what it is in this sermon.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Benson SDA Church

David Obermiller

Where is Elijah?

Father in heaven, thank you for the snow.

I know it's all gone and went away quickly.

The Lord is a reminder of how you will deal with our sins.

So whiten them out and they will be gone.

Lord, you know sermons are funny things, people talking to other people, sharing ideas, 1 with another.

But Lord, really we want you to work in our hearts.

It's the sin that we need removed from our hearts.

It's the changing of our thoughts and ideas.

Not to think like another person, not to think like the person sitting beside me or to think like the pastor thinks, but To think like you think is what we need.

Lord, for me this morning, that is no different.

And while I might have the opportunity to share, I know that my own heart has sin that needs to be wiped out.

I know that in my own mind, I think things occasionally that are not in harmony with the way you think.

And this morning, on behalf of all of us, we ask you, we plead with you to change us, to come into us and make us what you desire us to be.

It's my prayer for myself, for all of us here, that in order to accomplish that, you'd send your spirit into this room.

That neglected gift, that unappreciated gift, that you would give him to us this morning and draw us closer to you.

In the blessed name of Jesus we ask in accordance with the scriptures, promises, and let everyone with me say, amen.

I wanna start this morning actually with a review.

For those of you that weren't here last week, what did we talk about?

I'll give them to you 1 at a time and cover them briefly.

You've heard me mention this before, that the scripture is more relevant today than it was yesterday.

While culture around you and I says that the Bible is not relevant because it was written too long ago, The Bible says the opposite of itself.

It says that every day it becomes more relevant.

We looked at several scriptures last week that indicate that.

Secondly, we also talked about how when God wants to work with and for his people, that he seldom does it without their cooperation.

Now, yes, God was to deliver them by his mighty hand, by his stretched out arm.

Yes, that's true, but they had to apply the blood to the post of that door in their home.

Yes, God saved Noah, miraculously preserved the ark through the flood of waters and the chaos and upheaval of planet Earth at that moment, but Noah had to build the ark.

And Noah had to stock the ark with food, what the scripture said.

We looked at Samson and how he only had strength as long as he didn't cut his hair.

We looked at the stories of Jesus, how even the blind man wasn't made whole by Jesus' words or the clay alone, but only when he had washed was he able to see.

Jesus said to him, go and wash and you will come to see.

The God, when he works to accomplish something on planet Earth on behalf of an individual or group does it with their cooperation not without it.

And lastly we looked here related to the first 2 is that in inspiration the primary motivation for agriculture is eschatology.

That is, the desire for God's people to farm, garden, is the second coming of Christ.

In society today, we have forgotten that right there.

And it is that to which I'm really speaking this morning and continuing that, is that those statements in the Bible, and we can say what statements in the Bible.

We'll look at some of those again this morning.

The statements in Ellen White's writings are not culturally dated.

That they are as relevant today as they were when she wrote them.

If they are not relevant today on this particular subject, then I would argue that those writings on other subjects are equally irrelevant, equally unreliable, equally valueless as a package.

Culture around you says that the Sabbath is not relevant.

On the same premise, I disagree that other portions of inspired writings are irrelevant.

We looked at this passage here from Revelation 13.

He had power, the second beast that's talking about, he had power to give unto the image of the beast, to give life unto the image of the beast, excuse me.

That the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of beast should be killed.

And that no man, I skipped a few words there, you'll see the ellipses, that no man might buy or sell, say, if he had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of the name.

And we talked about the very practical ramifications of not being able to buy and sell.

And that happens prior to the close of probation.

And then we have a very serious, very practical, functional problem.

Again and again, the Lord has instructed that our people to take their families away from the cities into the country where they can raise their own provisions for in the future, the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious 1.

That's the line where I got the sermon for last week's, title for last week's sermon, is that we have a very serious problem.

And in that time, practically, there will be many people who will choose food over their faith.

And that it is a common, I mean common in the sense of all of Earth's history, a common military tactic to first start out an enemy before you physically attack them.

If you have ever read, which I'm not sure that you want to, but if you've ever read Josephus' account of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, it started with the Romans encompassing the city and starving them out.

And it, if you have ever read it, is absolutely horrifying what happened inside that city before they ever picked up their sword.

Things that would make you frankly wonder on horrible things before they ever even attacked the city.

That's the same thing today when we went to Iraq, when we went to Afghanistan, there's the same effort, cut off the supply line, Force your enemy to surrender mentally because Satan does not want to confront Christians who are willing to die for their faith.

And he will try every tactic to lead us to compromise before he picks up the sword of persecution against Judah.

So that's what we talked about last week.

I wanna go on here with a couple of questions that came up after the sermon.

We talked about it with several individuals.

Isaiah 33 is a promise, essentially, verse 16 is.

And it says, wrong chapter, that would help, there we go.

He shall dwell on high, his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks.

Bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure.

And in the discussion, I've had this several times with various people in and out of this church, is won't God provide for us?

Isn't this promise relevant to Revelation 13?

Well, I'm gonna give a yes, it is, sort of.

We'll look at this passage a little bit more closely, okay?

We're going back up to verse 14, and just listen to the context of the passage.

Verse 14 says, the sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites.

Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?

Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burning?

That is describing the coming of God in the clouds of glory.

2 Thessalonians says that when Jesus comes, chapter 2, when Jesus comes, he shall consume them with the brightness of his coming.

It's not the fires of hell that consumes the wicked.

It's the incapacity of sinners to dwell in the presence of a holy God that destroys them.

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Where is Elijah?

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