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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Captain Shackleton

When I went to India a few years ago, Dr.

Doss, who was the president, told some interesting stories about what took place when they first got to the school.

Now I shared some of those stories with you in the past, but let me remind you a few of them.

1 of them was that when he got to that school, there was a lot of Hindu and Muslim students that were going to that school.

And there was all sorts of problems from demon possessions to evil apparitions that were appearing to the local villagers wanting to burn down the school because the little kids wanted to love Jesus more.

And so all these things were taking place.

So he immediately called the whole school and said, we're gonna have a 24-hour prayer vigil.

And so what happened is that 24 hours straight, people began to pray.

Even the Hindus and Muslims wanted to be part of that prayer thing.

But he told them, alright, you can be part of it as long as you are praying only in the name of Jesus.

But they were really, they agreed to that.

And so they joined in and for 24 hours God was being supplicated on behalf of the school now what is so amazing shortly after The local villagers actually came in the middle of the night 1 night to burn down the school, you know In think of says India We still live in the Middle Ages sometimes they came there with actually these firebrands and they went up to the the door of the school or the entrance of the school and they were ready to Burn down the school and dr.

Doss went to talk to them to calm him down and they said no you are converting our children and he's like I'm not forcing anybody into doing that they even called some of the children to testify and the villagers got really angry and still want to burn down that school well they left that night and it seemed like everything was okay 1 of the teachers in the school went into town and he actually ran into 1 of the crazy villagers.

The villager told him, he said, you know last night we left the school, we were so ready to burn down that school, we decided we would come back in a few hours Behind the school to burn it down and he said so we did we got our brands We lit them on fire.

We went around the behind the school and we were going because behind the school.

It's an open area It's not walled off like the front and we were about to approach When all of a sudden we saw these and they use the Indian word which means strong these 6 foot I don't know how big they were They were about really big and they used to work duck a lot which means strong and these men dressed in uniforms 6 feet apart all across the field guarding the entire school And He said where did you get those people?

And the teacher immediately recognized what was going on.

And we can call them any time we want to.

There was no explanation except that angels were involved in the intervention of that school.

If we pray as a church family, God can do some amazing things.

Why don't we start with a word of prayer and let's ask God to grant us a measure of faith that He's going to bless us today.

Father in heaven, right now we just want to come to your throne and we just want to pray and ask for the Holy Spirit.

God, you said ask for rain in the time of latter rain and he will send forth flashing clouds.

So, Lord, right now we just pray and we supplicate the throne of God for the latter rain experience.

Lord, we are looking for more than just a sermon.

We are praying By the time we end this sermon our hearts have been changed by coming into your presence Thank you in Jesus name Shake us up.

Amen All right Name of the sermon today is called captain Shackleton.

Anybody know who Ernest Shackleton is raise your hand Very interesting individual.

In fact, you can go online you can go on to YouTube.

You can watch a documentary about Ernest Shackleton He was very interesting gentleman He was a captain of several expeditions and 1 of the expedition expeditions he took was a place that he wanted to go to it was the Antarctic and What was so interesting he wanted to break ground during this heroic age of exploration He wanted to go to the Antarctic There were scientists who were willing to be part of this expedition.

It was going to be a very dangerous journey The name of the ship was called the endurance the endurance and what happens is he took 27 men that consisted of people who were bakers to people who were cooks to people who were sailors to Scientists and they journeyed on to this ship called the gun onto the endurance And they sailed all the way to the Antarctic now what happens is as they were getting closer and closer all of a sudden they ran Into packed ice and they were stuck there What was so amazing about that whole situation is they were there for several months And not 1 person died on that expedition Eventually, they had to eat all the dogs that they took with them, but nobody actually Paris in this expedition He came back alive along with his Sailors as well, and there's a Wonderful story about just the the heroism that took place during this crazy intense expedition now I'm going to share with you is what's considered by many people his Advertisement for Sailors to come on to this journey now, we're looking back in hindsight and we know about some of the things that took place But imagine if you weren't there Prior and looking back But you were actually at that moment right before the ship was gonna take off and when they were hiring sailors to be part of this.

Now here is the advertisement to be on this crazy expedition right here.

Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful.

I love that part honor and recognition in case of success Now how many people do you think that would attract?

1 in our church 5, 000 men put their application in 5, 000 men they were so excited about this.

We're gonna be part of this journey We got 1 life to live.

We don't want to live it with no regrets And so they took that ad and several of them put in their applications.

In other words, you're probably going to die on this trip.

And then it says, honor and recognition in case of success.

And what is so amazing is I was looking at this advertisement that Ernest Shackleton actually used to get people on there.

I thought to myself, imagine if that was our baptismal vow for our churches.

Can you imagine that if that was our baptismal guide for our church nowadays?

We have a baptismal guide that consists of do you believe in the Sabbath?

Yes, do you believe in 2300 2300 days prophecies?

Yes But imagine if this was the guide right here right before the church.

Here's the advertisement Well, you want to be part of the church?

I want you to check this off if you are willing to be part of a hazardous journey, a dangerous journey.

Imagine if someone said, hey, if you want to be part of this, you are going to become the target of Satan's attacks.

In fact, no one's really going to recognize the work you're going to do for him.

And what if they put, safe return, doubtful.

Actually, we're not even sure if you're going to make it to heaven.

Can you imagine how many people would not want to be part of the church anymore?

How many people would say, you know what, actually I'm going to back away from this.

I've actually decided that this is a little too intense for me.

Ladies and gentlemen, what is so interesting is this was actually a very real kind of advertisement for the early church If you wanted to be part of the early church, most likely you were gonna die for your faith If you want to be part of the early church most likely no 1 would recognize all the things that you do for God You want to be part of the early church?

You would be giving your time your resources and your talents and We're not even sure you're gonna make it to heaven Can you imagine that that was what it was like to be part of the early church when you read the book of Acts?

It was very similar to that kind of commitment.

It was a very dangerous risk-taking radical commitment to God Now these days if you Want to be part of the church check off the baptismal guide and sit anywhere you'd like in the pew and disappear when the service Is over that's not what it was like with the early church That's not what it was like You want to be part of this expedition your life was about to be put into danger in fact when you read the book of Acts, as we talked about in the previous week, the book of Acts is not about a church building, it's about a church people.

Church is not referred to as a building in the book of Acts, People are referred to as the church in the book of acts and what we're going to be taking a good look at is 1 Dangerous experience that took place in the lives of a couple disciples take your Bible.

Let's go to Acts chapter 4 Acts chapter 4 This is describing what it was like to be part of the early church.

Sometimes they would go out into town and be captured.

So here's the story about a few disciples who decide to go on to town and tell people about Jesus in the early church There was no lukewarmness either you were in the church and converted or you were out of the church and lost That's the way it was.

And so in Acts chapter 4 you're going to hear the story of how some inconverted men came into some very precarious situations.

Now as they spoke to the people the priest the captain of the temple the Sadducees came upon them being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead they laid hands on them put them in custody until the next day, and for it was already evening.

However, many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about 5, 000.

This was a regular occurrence for the disciples.

You go on to town, you tell people about Jesus, you're arrested.

When's the last time you passed out a piece of literature and you were handcuffed for putting that piece of literature in someone's hand 123 Actually 0 There's nobody that's probably had that experience in our church But for these disciples you go talk about Jesus you were handcuffed and so this is what took place In fact, this is what's so surprising when I think about this this really touches my heart right now we have Christian brothers and sisters on the other side of the world right now who are in dungeons and jails, who are being tortured and suffering for the faith even now as I am speaking these words, right at this very moment.

The family that you're a part of ladies and gentlemen they're suffering on the other side of this world so here's a story of Peter James and John or Peter and John they get put into prison By the Sadducees and the Pharisees they were upset that they were preaching the truth about Jesus That name infuriated them they didn't want anything to do with it because it reminded them of their guilt the guilt that they had when they crucified the Son of God and So what took place is Very interesting go to the next verse verse 5 and it came to pass on the next day that the rulers elders and scribes as well as Anis the high priest Caiaphas John and Alexander and as many of the family of the high priests were gathered together at Jerusalem And when they had set them in their midst they asked by what power or by what name have you done this?

They gathered these disciples and they put them right there and you know What was so interesting and this and Caiaphas were there the very ones that were responsible for the murder of Jesus Can you imagine these disciples looking before the murderer of their teacher, of their Savior?

And there they are, and they're breathing out these threats to these disciples.

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Captain Shackleton

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