<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>

Warrenton SDA Church

Mark Finley

The Blessing of Uncertainty

Father, we thank you so much for the privilege, for the opportunity of coming to worship today, and may this experience truly draw us closer to you.

Daniel Gilbert is a psychology professor at Harvard University.

And recently, Professor Gilbert took a look at a Gallup poll that said this, Americans are less happier, they're more sad than they were 12 months ago.

They in fact, according to this Gallup poll, they're getting less sleep, depression is on the rise, and the sale of antidepressant drugs is off the charts in the United States.

Antidepressants are the number 1 selling drugs in America today.

So Professor Gilbert pointed out that the real problem is not the financial situation in America, it's really uncertainty.

He said never before in American history have people been so uncertain.

They don't know what's going to happen in the future and they're wondering, will I have a job next week?

And so people are concerned, but the big thing that is driving their anxiety, the big thing that's driving their depression, The big thing that is driving this angst, this unhappiness, is this incredible uncertainty.

And Professor Gilbert looked at a Dutch study.

And the Dutch study is an incredibly fascinating study.

Each of these groups of people, 20, agreed to this experiment in which they would be shocked.

And then the measure of their psychological anxiety would be determined based on their shocks.

Each group of people would receive 20 shocks.

The first group were told, your 20 shocks are going to be very, very intense.

When we shock you, it's going to be intense.

The next group of people, 20 people were told, you're going to get 20 shocks, 17 of them are going to be very, very mild.

They didn't tell the second group when the 3 intense shocks would come.

Which group almost had a heart attack much more rapidly?

The first group knew that they were going to get 20 intense shocks.

The second group had no clue when those 3 shocks were going to come that were intense, so they were constantly shaking, constantly filled with anxiety.

In the last hours of Earth's history, you and I are going to have to learn to thrive in uncertain times.

There are some people in life that want everything predictable.

They like to do The same thing over and over and over again.

We're approaching a time where there will be rapid financial changes in our world.

We're approaching a time where there will be rapid weather changes in our world.

Have you noticed the global warming effect and the weather changes?

It's amazing when you take a look at it on a global perspective.

We're facing the climactic hours of Earth's history, where change will be rapid, how can you be certain in uncertain times?

When everything around you is shaking, when everything around you is insecure, when everything around you is unpredictable, when you look to the future and are uncertain what's going to happen.

How do you develop certainty and security in uncertain times?

I'd like you to take your Bibles and turn to Isaiah the sixth chapter.

Because Isaiah lived at a time of uncertainty.

Now while you're turning to Isaiah chapter 6 and locating it, I want to share with you a reference in the ninth volume of the Testimonies, page 11.

The days in which we live are solemn and important.

The Spirit of God is being gradually withdrawn from the earth.

Plagues and judgments are already falling on the despisers of God's grace.

The calamities by land and sea, Do we see some calamities by land and sea today?

The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society.

Daniel Gilbert was talking about, the unsettled state of society, the uncertainty.

It's almost as if this reference were written yesterday.

North Korea, nuclear weapons, Iran, Iraq, Syria, the portents of war, the alarms of war portentous.

They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude.

The agencies of evil are combining their forces.

You can hardly turn on the television today and look at CNN without seeing some school shooting, some public official sitting in their home murdered.

When you look out over our society, there's a great deal of uncertainty today.

The agencies of evil are consolidating their forces.

They are strengthening for the last great crisis.

Now notice this sentence, great changes are soon to take place in our world.

And the final movements will be rapid ones.

So if we live to the coming of Jesus, we will need to live to learn, We will need to learn to live in the greatest time of uncertainty in the history of this world.

Now, how can we live in that time of uncertainty?

I invite you to take your Bible and turn to Isaiah 6, and we're looking at Isaiah 6 and verse 1.

Notice, in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, Isaiah says, sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

That word train, another way we could translate that would be glory.

Now notice Isaiah begins in the year King Uzziah died.

King Uzziah became king when he was 16 years old.

King Uzziah was an amazing king, he was probably Israel's greatest king other than maybe David, certainly David and Solomon, but Uzziah ruled for 52 years.

Under Uzziah's rule, Israel entered into prosperity, entered into preeminence, entered into new prominence.

Under Isaiah's rule, commerce revived, riches flowed into Israel, cities were rebuilt, cities had previously been destroyed, those cities were fortified, and Israel was prosperous.

But Israel began to lose its spiritual power.

Back to Menu

The Blessing of Uncertainty

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

The Root Cause of Disease

58m

Dustin Pestlin Weekend

How to be Victorious in God’s End-Time Judgment

47m

The Least of These

39m

Reflections After the Alaska Earthquake

29m

These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God is Faithful

45m

GYC SE 2011 Plenary Meetings

Back From the Dead

55m

Marriage Heart to Heart

Solution to Every Problem

50m

Plenary

Something Greater than the name of Jesus

1h

Characteristics of a Wise Man

52m

Master Guide Skills Development

Master Guide Skills Development - Part 5

57m

A Mind to Work

39m

Faith and Work

22m

Sound Doctrine