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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Entertaining Strangers

A couple Sabbaths ago, I think it was maybe 3 or 4 Sabbaths ago, I preached a sermon and I talked about how there are 2 churches at the end of time.

God has the remnant church, the Seventh-day Adventist church, where he has accumulated all the truth.

God has a visible church and an invisible church.

Well, we find out from the book Great Controversy that much of the believers who believe in God and follow him are still in a place called Babylon.

So God has believers in his visible church and he has believers in the invisible church.

And what God is trying to do is to bring them together to have 1 flock.

Now take your Bible, go to Revelation chapter 18.

I'm going to share something very interesting with you.

This call is given at the very end of time.

It's found in Revelation 18 and Let's start with verse 1 Revelation 18 starting with verse 1 that's page 1186 in your seminar Bibles Okay, revelation 18 starting with verse 1 after these things.

I saw another angel coming down from heaven Having great what?

Authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory And he cried mightily with a loud voice saying Babylon the great is fallen is fallen and has become a dwelling place of demons a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath or fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury." Now watch verse 4, it's very important.

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my what?

People, lest you share in her sins, for her sins have reached to heaven I want you to notice something apparently Babylon morphs into this entity even more than in what it is now and it gets to the point where those sins are reaching the throne of heaven, and God is saying, enough is enough.

Do you know when it's time for God to step in?

Do you know that in the Old Testament, when God actually has to bring judgment upon an entity or a nation or group of people, it usually is in regards to something.

It's when the rights of human beings are being violated.

When the freedom of worship becomes violated is when God decides to step in and he says, enough is enough.

And what takes place at the end of time is this mighty call, this mighty call that says, come out of her my what?

Well God is crying out And what is he crying out?

That means your family, your eternal family, is still in Babylon.

And you know what we're doing in the work of evangelism?

We're helping to call them out so that God can have 1 flock You know your family think about your spouse for right now.

You're maybe your brother or sister I want you to think about how close you are to them.

Amen I mean, they're your family right but imagine this throughout all of eternity you're going to grow closer to your family, the church family, than you are to your family right now.

That family right now is still in Babylon.

And what God is saying at the end of time, when the sins have reached up to heaven, God says, enough, enough.

God is giving this clarion call, this powerful call.

And he amplifies it through the Holy Spirit, the latter rain power.

He takes the 3 angels' message, and he pours out his Holy Spirit upon it and it becomes this powerful message, come out of her my people, and this message gets louder and louder till it goes throughout the entire world, come out of her my people, over and over again.

And what happens is this, is this large group of people begin to leave all the other churches, all the other religions, and they begin to come together to form 1 flock.

But The problem is, is at the same time all these people begin to come to the flock of God, all the people of God, not all of them, some of them begin to leave.

At the very same time that is taking place, When all these people are coming into the church, the people of God, some of them actually begin to leave.

The kingdom of heaven rejoices when 1 sinner is saved.

But the kingdom of Satan rejoices when 1 church member leaves the flock.

We are even told in the spirit of prophecy that even Satan and his angels sing hellish hymns when they cause 1 of God's people to fall.

Hellish hymns, those are the words she uses.

Because God has people who he is calling right now.

It could be your neighbor, it could be your friend, it could be your dry cleaner, it could be the guy at the restaurant, the guy at the store, it could be the lady who lives right across the street.

God is calling them out of Babylon, out of confusion to join his flock.

You know, it was actually a couple of weeks ago, I went home.

He's the oldest patriarch, you could say, of my family.

And his name is, I'm not going to even try to pronounce it, but I know what it is, okay?

And so he actually was down visiting my family He came from India and he was visiting my family.

He's an old man He's he's slowed down when you see him.

He always looks like he's ready to keel over I mean he he just doesn't seem like he's going to live very long.

And when I first became a Christian, this uncle along with 1 of the other uncles gave me a hard time about being a Christian.

When I actually told him that I was going to become a minister, he actually wept and cried over it, because they thought it was such an insult to the Hindu culture.

And he was visiting my family and I was thinking to myself, I said, you know, this could potentially be 1 of the last times I see him.

It's very difficult to communicate with him sometimes.

I tend to be a difficult person to communicate with you as well.

And so I was really praying about it prior to going down there.

I was really praying, I was saying, Jesus, I don't know how to speak to my uncle.

This could be 1 of the last times I could meet and talk with him Lord.

I said if there is something that needs to be Communicated to him Lord.

You're the only 1 who can make it happen I've tried talking to him and are just words just too many differences there I said Lord you have to be the 1 Now my uncle is a staunch Hindu.

So I went down there, and I was there, and you know, hung out with everybody in the family, and I was just praying.

I said, Lord, when it's the right time, you're gonna open up a conversation between me and my uncle.

My uncle, halfway through the time that I was there, he has to get some surgery done.

And so he's down in the living room, and so I go down the living room, and my other uncle shows up.

These are the same 2 uncles that gave me such a hard time when I first became a Christian.

It's really awkward now, but I was sitting there and they start talking to me.

They begin to ask me questions about church.

And I just politely answered the questions.

I wasn't about trying to prove them wrong.

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Entertaining Strangers

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