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Warrenton SDA Church

Mark Finley

Making Healthy Choices

Welcome, and I'm delighted that you are here, and I'm delighted that I am here.

I just came back from spending the last month in Dublin, Ireland.

You know, Ireland is really 2 countries, not 1.

The Republic of Ireland is Southern Ireland.

It has its own central government, and it is on the euro for currency.

Northern Ireland, its capital is Belfast, and it functions on the pound, the British currency, and it's tied into Britain.

And they have had significant tension there for many, many years.

1 of the things that really impressed me this last month, and it impresses me here in Warrington as well, is how God is leading people who are honest-hearted to know Jesus and his truth.

Let me give you 3 short examples of that.

Georgia was a young art student in Italy.

Her roots were in Dublin, and she went to a wedding in Scotland.

She had no background in religious things at all.

She was drinking, smoking, typical 26-year-old European, secular.

But there was something missing in her heart.

She left the wedding and got on a bus and somebody sat next to her and gave her a copy of the book Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen White.

Now I'm not sure whether that's the first book I would give somebody, rather weighty, rather heavy, But she got home and read the first chapter of the book and said, I don't know who this Ellen White person is, but she has to be inspired.

Now here's a drinking, smoking 26-year-old that has little interest in spiritual things, but reads the first chapter of that book, and it changes her life.

She read the book and looked up the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and I was teaching a Bible class, and she walked through the door.

We began to talk, she came to our meetings, I made an appeal, and Georgia made a decision to follow Jesus and be baptized I Think about Chris Chris is brilliant 33 years old PhD biochemistry student He works in some of the large hospitals in biochemistry in Dublin.

As he was working on his PhD, obviously he came from an evolutionary background.

All of the science that he had taught that we evolved and were here by a matter of chance.

But Chris, as he looked into biochemistry, said, for some reason, this doesn't make sense to me.

Everything I study in chemistry is order, design, symmetry.

And so he said, I've got to check out this creation business.

He Googled on the Internet, found Seventh-day Adventist scientists who had a reasonable, intelligent approach to creation.

These Adventist scientists recognized that there are some problems, there are some difficulties.

We don't have all the answers, but the answers we have are a lot stronger than the ones we don't have.

Chris, a biochemist, began attending the Adventist church and I made an appeal.

And this young PhD came forward to be baptized.

I think of Geraldine, middle-aged Irish woman.

And again, very little, no interest in religion, had a Catholic background, but it really didn't impress her heart.

1 night she went to sleep and had a dream.

And in that dream, she saw light coming through her television set.

The next morning, she woke up and received a brochure in the mail for our ancient discoveries series with a television speaker by the name of Mark Finley.

She had never heard of that guy before but she said maybe that's the light coming through the television set, came to our meetings and we made an appeal, she came forward to baptism.

1 of the things that I am impressed about is the text in Chronicle, 2 Chronicles 16 and 9 where the Bible says, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth and are seeking those that are honest toward him.

I don't believe that you are here today by accident.

You may have been driving by the church and saw a sign.

Somebody may have come to your home and given you a brochure.

07.05 You may have been searching the internet, but God in His divine way is gathering His people home.

07.05 And whoever you are today, whatever your background is coming into this church, we want you to sense the Spirit of God is here.

Whatever your culture, whatever your ethnicity, whatever your dress, whatever your education, you can walk through those doors and feel embraced and warm and welcomed.

This is the place that God wants you to be.

It's the place that we grow together in Christ.

It's the place we're nurtured through his word.

I always enjoy coming to Warrington and being at what I believe is our home church.

I've got a heavy schedule after this and so if you remember to pray for the old preacher, if I were young I wouldn't be able to do this, but if you remember to pray for the old preacher we leave next week and spend a week in California preaching.

I leave from there and fly to Peru for a week of preaching to about 3, 000 at a large meeting there.

Leave from there, and I think we're home for 1 day, and fly to Czechoslovakia to preach.

Then I go to Greece and spend a few days.

Then I go to the Middle East and so I will be, have a special assignment in the Middle East.

There's something happening that's very difficult to explain.

I cannot tell you the whole story, but I will tell you part of it.

The ISIS group has come across the Middle East with vicious brutality not seen before in years and years and years, with their Beheadings their total disregard to human life Many honest-hearted Muslims are saying if this is what Islam is all about we need to reconsider So there seems to be an openness.

Our internet is getting into the Middle East and it's making a difference.

Our television is getting into the Middle East.

Many of these Muslims will never admit their spiritual longings.

But in their homes, where nobody sees them, they are.

So there is a real stirring in the Middle East.

I've just been arranging to bring about 60 pastors out of China and take them on a tour of and give them Bible studies.

And so pray for us in some of the delicate negotiations and work that we're doing because God is moving in the world in very incredible ways.

Let's open the word of God together today.

Father, we thank you for what you're doing in the world.

We thank you for the way Jesus is moving.

And it's so amazing to see, both here in Warrington and around the world the blessings of God.

The fact we know that something unusual is happening that this is a preparation for your soon return.

It's a preparation for the coming of Jesus.

That you're gathering your children, some who were former Adventists, you're bringing them back, some who had no knowledge of your message and your words, you're bringing them.

And Lord, we're just amazed at what we see you doing.

And we pray that you would move today in this service in Christ's name.

A number of years ago, Nikita Khrushchev, who was the premier of Russia at the time, gave a speech to the Supreme Soviet in Russia.

And as he was speaking, he was talking about the atrocities of Stalin.

He was talking about how Stalin put to death or killed 20 million Russians.

And he was very, very critical of Stalin.

Halfway through his speech, somebody passed up a note.

It said, Premier Khrushchev, what were you doing when Stalin committed all these atrocities?

Well, that really angered Khrushchev, and he shouted before the Supreme Soviet, Who passed up this note?

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Making Healthy Choices

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