David Steward grew up in the church, but never took religion seriously. He tried to seek for happiness in the world. Attending hosting parties, he lived a life for self until he realized that happiness can only be found in God. Ironically, this realization came after he attended a rave where he witnessed the battle between good and evil firsthand. That experience changed his perspective forever taught him that life without God is just not worth it.

<p>David Steward grew up in the church, but never took religion seriously. He tried to seek for happiness in the world. Attending hosting parties, he lived a life for self until he realized that happiness can only be found in God. Ironically, this realization came after he attended a rave where he witnessed the battle between good and evil firsthand. That experience changed his perspective forever taught him that life without God is just not worth it.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">BY-NC-ND 2.0</a>, a.k.a. Music Sharing, license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Dave Steward

Experiencing the Battle Between Good and Evil at a Rave

The Bible says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

And then you remember the story in Mark 5 where there was a demoniac who was hanging out in the graveyard.

Are there any stories in the Bible where Jesus turned away someone that came to him for help?

Jesus always helped people that came to him if they were sincere.

And this demoniac came to Jesus, And Jesus cast out the demons and asked them the demons name.

And there were 2, 000 demons in this man.

And after Jesus cast out the demons and they went into some pigs that ran over a cliff.

Do you remember what Jesus told that man to do?

In Mark 5.19 he says, Jesus tells him, Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

That's an example of someone that Jesus is saying, go give your testimony.

So today I want to share with you my testimony.

But it's kind of, this isn't my most natural thing to do, talk about myself and be a witness for Christ.

Because I'm a courtroom lawyer, and I'm more comfortable actually asking people questions and making them give their testimony than me giving my testimony, but that's what I want to do today.

But before we begin, shall we bow our heads for prayer?

Dear Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for bringing us to this place together.

Lord I beg and plead with you to send the Holy Spirit.

And Lord I want to claim the promises in the synoptic Gospels, the last thing recorded that Jesus said in each of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and they're all promises, and I want to claim those 3 promises today with us.

In Matthew, you promise that you are with us always, even to the end of the world.

Please be with my heart and mind and my tongue, and may you also be with the heart and ears of the audience.

If we don't have you here, we're just wasting our time.

I want to claim the promise in Mark at the end of the book, where you promise to work miracles.

And Lord, today we want a miracle here in the hearts of each 1 of us.

And finally, in Luke, you promise power from on high.

And Lord, we want your power today in our lives, right here, right now.

Well I was born in Seattle, Washington to an unwed mother.

She had an affair with a Turkish sailor who was in Seattle for 6 months.

They couldn't even hardly communicate in English.

They communicated in other ways, and here I am.

She went to an abortion clinic that was illegal back then.

I still think abortion clinics should be illegal.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about today.

Read what David says and Jeremiah say about how the Lord had plans for their lives even before they were conceived.

You read those passages, there's no way you can support abortion.

Anyway, my birth mother went several times to get an abortion, but the doctor was gone each time.

And I'm thrilled that it didn't work out.

Even though I'd have never known any different and neither would you.

You'd have someone else speaking tonight, probably Alvin.

The Lord has plans for each of our lives.

And a lot of times, He has plan A and we don't fit that expectation.

He has plan B and we don't fit that, we don't meet that expectation.

Anyway, I grew up, I was adopted at 6 months old into a Seventh-day Adventist home, and I'm very thankful for that.

I was, except for a little bit in high school, I even graduated from a seven-day Adventist college, so I had that kind of education throughout.

But when I graduated from college, I was not a spiritual man.

I lived most of my adult life very much lukewarm.

I guess you could say I was a fence sitter.

Fortunately, the Lord grabbed my heart and changed my life at the age of 34.

The same age William Miller was converted.

Anyway, basically I never left the church.

I mean, I shouldn't say every week, but I consistently was a churchgoer.

But on the other hand, I also was trying to live in the world.

You don't fully experience God working in your life.

And you also don't completely experience the world either because you're holding back.

And like 1 of my friends said, he says, if I'm going to go to hell, it isn't going to be on a moped.

It's going to be in a Ferrari or a limousine.

So, you know, we either need to be completely on God's side or completely on Satan's.

Of course, God has more benefits and they last forever.

But there's no sense sitting on the fence.

Anyway, I didn't understand the conversion experience.

And I really didn't have an experience with God through most of my twenties, through most of my young adult years.

But you know the Bible talks about the need, the absolute need for conversion in the life.

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Experiencing the Battle Between Good and Evil at a Rave

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