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Lansing SDA Church

Wes Peppers

Adventist Culture or Adventist Faith?

Well, I want to talk to you this morning about a subject that's been on my heart, and I really pray today that it will come across to you in the way that I intended to, because it could easily be misunderstood, okay?

And so I want you to pray as well that as I'm sharing it, either I will share what you need to hear or you will hear what you need to hear, 1 or the other.

And the Lord can do that and I've seen him do it many times.

And the subject is Adventist culture or Adventist faith.

1 can fall under the other but the other cannot fall under the 1 and you'll know what I'm talking about as we go along.

So I'm going to request your prayers this morning and I'm going to kneel here and ask the Lord's blessing to be with us.

So please bow your heads with me as I kneel.

Father in heaven, Lord, this morning we are so thankful to be in your house.

It's a wonderful weekend, though the rain may be pouring on the streets, yet the sun is shining in here.

And Lord, we pray today that our experience with you this morning would be 1 that's real.

Our eyes would be open, our hearts would be open to you and what you might speak to us this morning.

Father I pray that our hearts would be 1 with Jesus, that our faith in Him would be steadfast, it would be true, it would be pure, and it would have an impact upon our daily lives, every moment of every day, especially today.

And Father, we pray that you would be with all those who are not here today, wherever they are, that you would draw their hearts close to you as they worship you in other places.

And so Lord, we ask that you would breathe upon us the Holy Spirit.

Open our eyes, open our hearts, open our minds to your word today.

Speak to us through the living power of your word and through Jesus we ask.

I want to tell you a story about a young man that I met.

It's been about 2 weeks ago now, and the circumstances that led up to me meeting him and why I'm using that story as an introduction this morning.

A couple of weeks ago, it was a Friday, it was not this past Friday but I think it was the Friday before, I was, I had an appointment in the morning and then I came to the church and I had a chiropractic appointment in the afternoon.

Well in between those 2 times I went down to the Shell station I was going to fill up my truck with gas and then I was going to get my truck washed.

I live on a dirt road and it gets quite dusty and muddy, you understand.

And so I went through the car wash first and was going to put my card in and get the car wash and the car wash wasn't working.

It said processor down, so I tried 2 credit cards and cash, it wouldn't work, so I left.

Had I gotten my car wash, I would have gotten gas also.

So I came back, I went, some of you, a few of you have heard this already, I went to my chiropractic appointment and it went a little bit longer than I had planned.

I had also planned that afternoon to go visit a family who had been visiting our church.

And I'm not sure if they're here today, but they may know who they are.

So I wrestled with that because that evening, I also had the young adults coming over to my house.

This was when my wife was in Alabama, to have a group Bible study.

You know, after living as a bachelor for, you know, 2 weeks, there's some cleaning to do before people come over.

So I thought, I gotta get this done, so what am I gonna do?

So I prayed about it, and the Lord heavily impressed me to go visit this family.

I went there and spoke and the husband was still at work.

Spanish is a beautiful language, but I don't speak it.

So we didn't have, I was translating through her four-year-old son.

And so I told her I would come back when the husband is there.

So I left and my natural thought was, well Lord why did you impress me so strongly to go visit this family if they weren't home?

So when I thought that I thought, well I'm not sure what to do now.

And then the thought popped into my head.

There was something that I needed from Sam's Club and I knew that there was a Sam's Club right in that area.

So I pulled out of their driveway and I was driving down the street And I said, I wonder where that Sam's Club is.

Then I leave and I said, well, I still need to get gas.

I may not have time to get my car washed, but I need to get gas, so I pull over into the Sam's Club and get gas.

Now you're wondering, why are you telling all this?

Well there was a young man there who was doing the, inviting you to sign up for a Sam's credit card and He came and spoke to me and I told him, you know, I have 1 credit card.

I just use it for certain things I don't need another 1 and and that morning early I had actually also been impressed to wear a shirt that said, amazing facts on it.

And he said to me, what's amazing facts about?

And so I told him, I said it's a ministry, a Christian ministry, I used to work there, and etc, etc, etc.

He says, oh wow, he says, I'm a born-again Christian as well.

And so we start talking some more about the Bible and God, and he says, well what church do you go to?

And then he asked me again, he says, what church was it you go to?

And it was like he didn't hear me the first time.

He said, I have been looking for your church.

And he said, I just heard a message on YouTube by Roger Morneau about prayer.

And he says, and I've been wanting to find a Seventh-day Adventist.

He said, I've been praying to God that I would meet a Seventh-day Adventist.

And then he looked at me and he said, and you're the first real live 1 I've ever met.

I said, well, I'm not just, I'm a son of the heaven.

I said, but it just so happens that I'm also the pastor of the church in town in Lansing.

And he said, God really answers my prayers.

And he said, I want to come to your church.

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Adventist Culture or Adventist Faith?

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