Whats’ the Time?

you have a burden to go to England andsupport him they've started the churchright by and lorth right byW Cliff's Church very close to it andhe's looking for help if any of you wantto do six months inEngland there you go you'll have to workyou won't be there for aholiday and he's looking for help overthere so uh yeah hey look the work goeson doesn'tit but anyway I just want we're going tokeep these these prelims real simple umso we can get into what you've come tohe for todayI just want to welcome you each andeveryone thank you so much for coming Ipray that this has been a richexperience for you we have dear Soulsthat have come for the first time and uhyeah they want to come back and that'swhat it's all about and as I said Ithink it was last night we'll run thesecamps as long as we can if there's aneed for them um and and I think PastorConrad and Andreas pause with the youngpeople it' be a bit hard to speak speakto an empty Hall it would be a bitdifficult you make the camp and we thankyou and we welcome you warmly here everyevery single one of you okay we're goingto sing our three theme songs over theyears because he lives let's stand andsing with a vibrant voice because musicis a part ofCamp G[Music]God they call himJesus they came to[Applause]Love by my Godand empty grave is there to myorname because helives I prtomorrow because helives all fear isGod because I knowall thefuture and life is worth the living justbecause thatsuay thsame kind womancame to findwasGod theGreatful and on him his life isbeyond because heLiv I can praisetoor he Che all fear isfather where thereis where there are struggles I pray youbring Heavenlypeace Father where there isdespare inject hope into the hearts ofall presenttoday Father where there is conflict mayyour Shalom descend upon thatHome Father where there is uncertaintyand doubt andfear may your Holy Spirit speak to ustoday as the comforter the convictor andthe teacher ofrighteousness father we ask yourforgiveness for our sins today for eachone of us is merely a sinner in need ofSalvation father whatever our pastorswherever we've come from wherever youare in the Journey of life we're askingthat you walk with us from this dayforward that you will be our constantcompanion that we will learn from youand of you and as we walk with you ourlives will be trans formed by yourpresence father for those watchingonline we pray your blessing Lordwhatever home they are gathered in todaymay your spirit Delight to dwell therefather I ask that you rebuke any Spiritof Satan that may be present here todaythat you drive those Spirits from thisplace of worship they have no place inthis house of prayer and I pray fatherthat Jesus will fight those battles forus that we cannotsee father Jesus came to bind up theBrokenhearted to Proclaim good news tothe poor and I pray father that todaythat will indeed be the case so Lord wegive the rest of today into your handsMay the words of our lips May themeditations of our hearts May thehearing of your word May the raising ofour voices in praise be acceptable inyour sight we commit today into yourhands in Jesus name we askamen thank you so much Conrad Iappreciate that prayer and May thatprayer be living in in all ourhearts uh we're just going to ask thedeacons to come forward to lift up theone and only offering that we'll be atthe camp thank youran and just aswe um as they come forward there's oneor two of you who have asked who are youum not personally but as a Ministry andI'll just give a bit of a rundownincidentally the the offering taken uptoday will be for the expenses to helpdispense the or to cover the expenses ofthe camp as you can appreciate there's abig expense goes into it but the reasonthat we do run these camps is becauseyou folk have given over the years andit's our responsibility our duty to givesomething back to you that's really thepurpose of the camps spiritually to feedyou and uh we're from Canterbury umandMichigan Los Angeles or San Diego isn'tit Africa and we've brought them here sothey can spiritually feed you folk it'stotally up to you what you do butbecause you've given we want to giveback that'sall um Autumn Leaves is a Ministry thatactually started well it started a longtime ago but for us it started 27 yearsago we came into the message 42 yearsago my wife and I because we wanted togive our children some morals werealized it was our responsibility to toeducate at our children not the not thestate even though we had a school justup a couple of paddocks and over theroad we we took onhomeschooling and because we cleared ourmind Daniel pal you knowDaniel his parents came into the messagewith us they were into the new age andwe were heading in there with them andwe cleaned our diet up and when we cleanthe diet up what does it do cleans thehead up and that's when we realized wehad a responsibility for our children sowe started to hunt and I thought well ifwe're if they're going to go to Sundayschool we're going with them so we'regoing tosearch um and my boss at the time wasworldwide Church of God he was SabbathKeepers and that boss changed my life aswell as other people but the Sabbathwhen I asked Ken I said what do youthink of the Seventh Day Adventist hesaid they as close as you'll get theykeep the law so long story short we umgot a magazine from worldwide Church ofGod Revelation chap 10 and I read it Iwas impressed and we thought we'd go tothe Pentecostal church just around thecorner from us but how far they Le fromthe floor concerned us and uh it was abit scaryactually and the next day I think it wasthere was a little advertisementRevelation pastor Raymond Stanley he wasgoing to take a series in our church inranga well it wasn't ours then and thatcaught my I Revelation so we that wasApril the 261983 and um we came into the message andthen we're only in 2 years and we foundthis this work and we've been in it eversince so we're so grateful that God hasblessed us and it hasn't been an easypath I have to be honest it hasn't buthere we are 2025 we're here for thiscamp meeting and we give our all to it Ican't as I mentioned to these dear SS Icannot give this work up I just cannotfor some reasons God has given me anamazing wife he's given me amazingchildren he's given me good health andhe's I've never gone short of afeed we have gone short of a garage thatgot burnt down last year I'll talk aboutthat tomorrow morning I cannot give thiswork up and look at this amazing familyhere amen I mean I go to places Rihannaand Bonitas whenever we're in Oakland wecan crash into their home R and RachelMorris and Mary that means a lot tous um if you wish to sorry um if youwish to we have a newsletter that we putout for those who don't know us we havea newsletter we publish every two monthspost or email and that will keep you upto date with the happenings that happenlike these camps Australia whatever ishappening blue Bible project that's allin thenewsletter um Friday Night Live is alsoa way of connecting with us that is umwe sing to the world in our studio wehave a beautiful grand piano there andwe Le has been there many times and wesing your favorite hymns you write infor them and we sing them that's a sortof thing we want to do to try and buildour family together so yeah keep keep intouch we love you all and we want tokeep in touch with you our hearts arewith you to support youspiritually shall we bow our heads as wethank God for this offering HeavenlyFather we just thank you for theblessing of your love to each one of usthank you Father that you've given soabundantly and that we can come togetherhere in the freedom of this country andhave this time of worship it won't lastlong in fact in some countries it's notanyway so please be with us may yourhand be over each of us here and asalready been been prayed expel theforces of evil that your sweet Spiritwould be here may we live it and acceptit in Jesus name thank you thank youboys just I'll leave it withyou okay we're going to have our secondhymn and that is our theme song so thoseof you who have just arrived you're infor atreat uh you may not know it will humanyway um it's a good song it'sbeautiful words let's stand and singtogether and sing like you meanit of times theday our trials had to bearbut Christ will soonappear to catch his brightaway all tears foreverover in God's Eternalday it will be worth itall when we seeJesus life TRS will seeall when we seechist one glimpse of his face allSorrows will he raise so greatly run therace till we seeChrist sometimes the sky looksdark with not way of[Applause]life but there is one inheav who knows that deestcare Let Jesus solve your problem justgure him inprayer and wellwor itall when we seeJesus life will singall when we seeChrist one glimpse of his dear faceall will he race so greatly around therace till we see Christlife day will shbe all storforever will share the joys ofHeaven have a home mycrown tend will will bebanished will lay our burdendown head will be worth itall when we seeJesus Will ssmall when wesee one glimp of his Defoh srow willlyracegreat theracetill we see[Music]chist exceptionally well doneit's up toyou yeah here thankyou sometimes my mouse disappears onme I have to wait for the computer towake uphereso it's a pleasure to be with you allhere on this beautifulday I'm just talking until his Mouseappears allright he will appear sooner orlater but um anyway has he appearedoh no no nono oh there he is oh that's my frontyard by the way from my house to theroad at the front and um I have aninvasive species of plants in my pond umthe state of Michigan put out a pressurerelease about how dangerous my pond wasso uh two weeks ago we now covered withabout a foot of snow so they came in twoweeks ago with um these big diggers andthey drained all the water out the pondis about 12T deep and they drained allthe water out and then they're going todig out and they they created a big umhole in the front of the garden uh thesebig diggers they're going to dig out um2 feet to the sides and 2 feet at thebottom then they're going to put allthat dirt in in the hole in the front ofthe yard and then they're going to fillit over and refill it with water and ittakes about 6 months through thisprocess so um they're doing that so thatmy invasive species don't kill all thewaterways of Michiganso I I seem to attract trouble thesedays it's rather unfortunateyes yes yeah so um anyway uh uh it's apleasure to be with you here today uhfor those who of you watching onlinegive you a warm welcome as well it's aSabbath day we're in the Lord's Houseand we've come to hear of a word fromthe Lord so um it's a privilege to shareuh with you during this past three or 4days and um it's been a privileged toget to know some of you uh thank you foryour warm welcome and your wonderfulhospitality um people have come upthey've given me lip balm they've givenme aloe vera they've washed some of myclothes I'm feeling really well takencare of here and um so I don't have mywife with me but all you guys are doingjust the same things for me you'relooking after me I'm basically a keptman my job is just to stand and preachmy wife makes sure that I'm in the rightplace at the right time so anyway I'mgoing to talk today uh sermon isentitled what's the time and U I'm goingto be looking at different concepts oftime um moving from the broader to themore personal as we go through oursermon here today so um we're asking theLord to guide our hearts and our mindsand our thinking today so let's bow ourheads and ask for the presence of theHolySpirit HeavenlyFather we thank you for the hymns ofPraise that have been ascending from ourlipstoday Father we thank you for theprayers we've offered in private and inpublic now Lord as we listen I pray itis your voice that we heartodayLord we're coming from many differenthomes andbackgrounds in the words of that Hywe're all marching to one destination toour Heavenly home to Zion above and Ipray father that in all that happenstoday our walk with you will be strongerour faith will put down deeper Roots ourwitness for you will burn brighter andour certainty and our hope in the secondcoming when all things will be made newagain we'll have an even greater um gripUpon Our Hearts and Minds so Lord I prayyou speak through me I pray you speakfor me may you be glorified in the livesof this congregation today in the nameof Jesus we humbly pray amen amen so Ithink you would agree with me that umfather time and mother nature are brutalMasters would youagree there's nothing you can do to stopthe the Mastery the control that fathertime and mother nature have over ourbodies Our Minds our very existence andwith that in mind this is going to beour journey today we're going to look atviolent time we're then going to look atchaotic time we're going to look atcyclical time after that we're going tolook at linear time then we're going tolook at circular time then we're goingto look at uh Salvation time so theseare various ways of looking at theconcept of time um time is a veryimportant thing for all of us um theolder you get the more conscious you getof how little time you really have and Ithink when my boy was in um uh uh 8th or9th grade he said dad he said we havefour family vacations left and then I'mgone I remember that cuz I I realizedhow short our time is with our lovedones they're here today and they aregone tomorrow and so time is a veryprecious thing for us um but I want totalk today about how we understand andexperience time and different ways ofunderstanding and experiencing time andso the first thing we're going to lookat today is violent time and you know Italk about this because if you want yourchurch to grow you've got to speak tothe men in the church women will alwayscome to church but men not so much andif you want your church to grow if youbaptize a father he brings the family tochurch you baptize a mother and she mayoccasionally bring the kids to church ifDad isn't taken to a ball game so it'sreally important that we speak to men inour audiences and we we speak the wordof God in a way that makes sense to menso ladies please come along for the ridebut I'm really speaking this for the menin the audience here today all right andso I've just I've put the sermontogether with that in mind so um we'regoing to talk first about violent timeand as we look through human history forthe last 4,000 years the turning pointsin human history have been the battlesof history civilizations rise andcivilizations fall based on what happenson the field ofarms Empires rise and Empires fall basedon what happens on the field of battleand I've put together here a list ofwhat I think are probably uh the 10 mostsignificant battles in Earth's historybattles that impact us today here in NewZealand and the first of those is theBattle of Marathon in 490 BC and it'snot the marathon chocolate bar I'mtalking about this was a battle foughtby the Greeks against the invadingPersians and the Persian Empire was atits greatest extent and King dasas thefirst wanted to cement his rule over theKnown World his Empire stretched fromPakistan and Afghanistan on the East allthe way across to the Greek borders onthe west but he needed to take out theGreeks and in order to do that he had tocross the helis Pont and he had to takeout the Greeks in the Battle of Marathonand the Battle of Marathon it was one ofthe most significant battles of worldhistory it was not just a battle betweentwo armies it was a battle between aworldview that said um despera ISM andtyranny are the norm for Humanity onfrom the Persian side and on the Greekside they had a city state Athens andSparta and Corinth and they believed inindemocracy and the whole idea ofdemocracy comes from these Greek Statesthe idea that the free men would leavethe city they'd gather outside the citywalls in what was known as an ecasiathose who've been called out is the wordJesus used for for church in Matthew 16that the free men are called out of thecity they make a decision then they aresent back into the city to implement thedecisions of that eclesia and so whenJesus says that this is my Ecclesia inMatthew 16 he's talking about those whowere called out of the world to receivesomething and then they are sent backinto the world with a purpose and sothis concept comes from the Battle ofMarathon in 490 BC and this battle waswon by the Greeks and ited ensured thepreservations of Concepts such as freeinquiry rational and logical thinkingwhich come from Greek philosophy anddemocracy all of which we treasuretoday the second of the most significantbattles in Earth's history is this onein here arala 331 BC also known as theBattle of Gala and it is when Alexanderthe Great finally conquered the PersianEmpire this battle was significantbecause it ensured the spread of Greeklanguage culture and philosophy all overthe known world at thetime and as we mentioned yesterday thevery way we think today comes from Greekphilosophy and Greek logic hypocratesand Socrates and Plato and Pho we haveem bibed their thinking 4,000 yearslater without even realizing it but wethink the way we think today because ofthese Greek philosophers and so thisbattle here ensured the Triumph ofAlexander the Great up here against thelast Persian Emperor here and the fallof the Persian aamin Empire and thatensured the spread of Greek philosophythe next most significant battle is theBattle of G Gia which was in 202 BC andyou say I never heard of that battlewell this was an interesting battle thiswas fought in China and it was betweenuh the hand rulers against the The Chewrulers and it established the HanDynasty in China which gave us theChinese Imperial form of government allthe way down to1912 and why was this battle importantbecause the Han Dynasty invested intechnology and we have paper because ofthe hand Dynasty we have blue bookBibles with paper because of the handDynasty and the invention of paper inancient China we also have water clocksand Sun dials to measure time theseismograph and woven silk through thehand Dynasty the next of the mostsignificant battles in world history isthe Battle of Tours in 732 ad it was abattle fought because uh the Muslimsthey erupt out to the Arabian Peninsulathey marched their way west across NorthAfrica they conquered all the Christianareas of North Africa including hippowhere Constantine was living and thenthey came up to um Morocco then theycrossed over jalter which is named afterthe Muslim um the M Muslim General jabelAl Ali and so that's why it's calledGibralter it's an angelized version ofthe Muslim general's name and then theyconquered southern Spain then they movedup over the Pyrenees to attack FranceFrance was the dominant Christian Nationat the time in Europe had the the Moorswon that battle Muslim uh the uh Europewould have been covered not byCathedrals but by minettes and mosquesand this battle was the Turning Pointthe Battle of Tours in 732 ad the theFranks were led by um Charles Martellthe hammerand they led the Frankish forces toVictory had he lost Europe would havebeenMuslim and world history would have beenvery verydifferent the next most significantbattle in world history is 1066 theBattle of Hastings this is when theNorman Invader Duke William of Normandyinvaded England to claim the crown forhimself and in this battle here that isthat is memorialized in the Bayertapestry which is as long as this asthis wall is wide this biotapestry tellsthe story of the Norman Knights onHorseback um uh charging the Saxons whoare on foot and the Saxons had a shieldwall and the Norman Knights couldn'tdefeat the Saxons so at the end of theday they started shooting arrows in theair and one of those arrows came downand H it hit King Alfred in the eye andhe died with that takeover by theNormans in 1066 there started a thousandyears of English military conquests andtrade expansion leading to the BritishEmpire Empire leading to New Zealand aswe know it today the largest Empire seenin world history and the spreads of theEnglish language and ultimately ofprotestantism around the world a verysignificant battle the next of the mostsignificant battles would be the battleof the Spanish armad in 1588 in thisbattle here the Spanish decided theythey conquered most of Europe most ofEurope was under the heel of theCatholic holy Roman Empire and theydecided they were going to turn Englandinto a Catholic nation and England wasthe dominant nation of the time that wasno longer Catholic and the pope wantedEngland to become Protestant the HolyRoman Emperor wanted England to becomeProtestant and so they sent this Fleetum commanded by the Juke of MedinaSedonia who who had never sailed in ashipbefore but he was well connected so hesailed that ship and his Fleet up theEnglish Channel the goal was to imposeCatholicism on the last major Protestantpower in Europe it wasn't just just abattle between England and Spain it wasa struggle for Supremacy in Europeprotestantism orCatholicism well as it happened theseSpanish ships they sailed all the way upthe channel and the weather was soFierce that the the weather blew them umblew them up the channel and then thewind veered from the south and it blewthem up the east coast of England allthe way up past Scotland and then the Wthe wind veered from the Northeast itblew them down to Ireland and many ofthem were Shipwrecked on the coast ofIreland and almost none of those shipsmade their way home and that the SpanishArmada was not so much defeated by theEnglish Navy it was defeated by TheChangingWinds and it was also defeated becausethey called for day of prayer andfasting Elizabeth the to saveprotestantism in Britain at that timethe next of the most significant battlesin world history was the Battle ofVienna1683 like the Battle of Tours this was abattle between Christianity and Islamthe uh the the ottoman ter Turks hadconquered almost all of the Balkans andnow they wanted to take over CentralEurope and the dominant force in theirpath with the hapsburg Empire now thehapsburgs were um they were Catholicsthey had some Orthodox among them butthis battle was a very significantturning point it it brought to aconclusion 300 years of battles betweenthe the the Christians of Central Europeand the Ottoman Empire trying to conquerEurope from Turkey had the OttomanEmpire won this battle Europe would havebeen Muslim once again and theProtestant Reformation would have beenStamped Out the battle is notable forthe largest cavalry charge in historythe Polish Knights they call them wingedhazar they had um wings of birds tied totheir backs they led a charge of over20,000 men and that destroyed theottoman Army at The crucial moments ofthe battle had the Ottomans won thisbattle we would be speaking Arabic andnot English today the ProtestantReformation would have been Stamped Outby theof the Ottoman Empire and their armiesled by Soloman the Magnificent the nextof the most significant battles in worldhistory is Yorktown 1781 this was notactually a major battle like not manypeople died in this battle but it wasone of the most significant battles ofthe American Revolutionary War it wasthe siege of L Yorktown it led to thedefeat of the British forces there byGeneral Charles corn Wallace by acombination of American and Frenchtroops now the fight at Yorktown was thelast major battle of the AmericanRevolutionary War and not long afterthis battle victory was declared byGeorge Washington and his Continentaltroops corn Wallace was a captured itpaved the way for the Treaty of Paris in1783 that ended the war of independenceand the United States of America wasborn and started her rise to WorldDomination as seen in the Prophecies ofRevelation chapter 13 so this was wemight say the birthing battle that givesthat gives rise to the rise of Americain Prophecy couple more battles herethat Battle of watero 1815 it's not justa song by Abba there was a battle inwatero um Napoleon bonapart we wetouched upon him one of uh two or threedays ago this was Napoleon's final andmost crushing defeat and after thisbattle he went into captivity and hedied in captivity possibly of umpoisoning from the uh the arsenic in thewallpaper in his in his in his house umthis battle here was the French againstthe European allies mostly British andBelgian German and there you have thethe French heavy Cavalry the kazas withtheir steel breastplates charging thesquares of British infantry um who werefiring out with muskets and they heldfirm and at the end of the day Napoleonrealized that his chance ofreestablishing his Empire was over whyis that battle significant because itpaved the way for the British Empire todominate the worlds until World War Ithat ensured free global trade on theoceans of the world it led to theelimination of slavery through much ofthe world and it also allowed Protestantmissionaries to spread all around theworld as well so from a spiritualperspective this was a really importantbattle just two more we're going tocover here the first is the Battle ofGettysburg1863 this was the defeat of theConfederate forces in Pennsylvania ithad a huge number of casualties in thatbattle about 100,000 but it was thepivotal moment in the American Civil Warit was the PIV to moments in the battlebetween the the North and the South andafter the victory of the Union forcesagainst the southern ConfederatesAbraham Lincoln gave what one ofprobably his most famous speech known asthe gettsburg address it was only justover 200 words long and at the timepeople thought it was a flimsy littleexcuse for a speech he was criticized inthe press for this short speech but heincludes these famous words he said fromthese honored dead we take increasedDevotion to that cause for which theygave the last full measure of devotionthat we here highly resolved that thesedead shall not have died in vain thatthis nation under God shall have a newbirth of Freedom that government of thePeople by the people for the peopleshall not perish from the earth and sothe American experiment in democracy andthe ability to Stamp Out slavery wasensured ultimately through the Battle ofgettsburg then the final battle I wantto talk about here is this one here nowthere were many battles in World War IIin the Pacific the Battle of Midway wasprobably the turning point in thePacific struggle but this battle herereally was the turning point of to WorldWar II in the battle against Fascism andum and the Japanese Imperial Empire itwas the largest single battle of WorldWar II the Battle of Stalingrad fromAugust1942 Adolf Hitler's sixth Army attackedStalingrad with AOS swords beforesending in his infantry to seize controlof this totemic city from the SovietUnion the house-to-house fighting ragedfor six months floor by floor room byroom step by step Factory by Factoryalmost 2 million people died in thisbattle it's a battle that baffles theimagination there the scale of iteventually in 19 1943 February the Nazissurrendered and that was the turningpoint of World War II from that momentonward the the axis forces were on thedefense of around the world it was abattle that turned and changed the flowof global history so these are 10 of themost significant battles in worldhistory if you would to put togetheryour list you may come up with someslightly different battles but the pointI'm trying to make here is that we arethe beneficiaries of those 10battles and our society that we havetoday for good for bad for Rich for poorfor better for worse is a result of someof those battles and those men who diedand fought over the last 3,000 years andsome of the values that we hold so deartoday such as Liberty of conscience andfreedom of speech and free inquiry comeabout because of those battlesparticularly in the Protestant era inEuropeso these battles in history violent timewe may not like violent time but we arethe beneficiaries of that violent timewe stand on the shoulders of those whofought and died for various causes inthe past which leads us to the next wayof looking at time and this is chaotictime now if you have your Bibles withyou um I invite you to turn to the veryfirst book of the Bible the Book ofGenesis chapter 1 and the first twoversesand In this passage here there's justone phrase I want to pick up inparticular Genesis CH1 verses 1 and two very famous verses Ihaven't got this word this text on thescreen but it says in the beginning Godcreated the heavens and the what theEarth the next verse says and the Earthwas without form and void and darknesswas upon the face of the deep and thatphrase without form and void in theHebrews t which means it waschaos it was without shape it waswithout form it was withoutdefinition and into this world withoutform without definition the verse goeson to say and the spirit of God movedupon the face of thewaters and so where there is chaos andthe spirit of God takes comes and dwellsthere by the end of that chapter youhave a creation where everything is goodand so your life today may be somewhatchaotic your life may feel like it'sfalling apart you may be living througha chaotic chapter of life and you caninvite the Holy Spirit today to come andtake charge of that chaos and to turnthat Taho vahu that formless andvoidless nature of your life intosomething that only God can do which isa beautiful new creation this is thework of the spirit of God in creationNow in chaotictime time has no discernable pattern andwe find that to be terrifying aswesterners the idea that events happenpurely at random and any attempt tounderstand the flow and cycles ofhistory is meaningless it kind of likemakes us very uncertain about livingtoday the idea that time has is randomhas no purpose is not going anywhere issomething we kind of refuse to accepttime without pattern though has been oneof the major goals of the Easternreligion such as Buddhism which teachesritual Detachment from any personalconnection to the meaning of space ortime or physical reality or any sense ofthe value of person individuality inorder that you might achieve Nirvanathose who achieve nirvana in Buddhismhowever remain subject to the orderlyframework of positive Karma and negativeKarma chaotic time causes an existentialfear like how many of us are keepchecking our Watchers through theday you be honest how many of you checkyour phone compulsively every 10 minuteswe we are so focused on time the ideathat time is chaotic and has no meaningand you cannot plan for the future isprofoundlydisorientating if nothing is predictableif time has no Direction then nothingcan be interpreted and nothing can beprojected into the future if time trulyis chaotic then you cannot make anyplans for tomorrow and we simply cowerin Terror wondering what losses aregoing to come our way today and so whythe Eastern religions have Hinduism andBuddhism um um accept the concept ofchaotic time as Christians we reject theconcept of chaotic time we hatechaos I I found in my own life that ifmy bedroom is chaotic I start to feel abit depressed aboutthings yes and if you if you make yourbed in the morning and you do somethingpositive when you create order out ofchaos that sets you up emotionally andpsychologically for a much betterday you know so there are people likelike Jordan Peterson in his rules forlife first thing you do in the morningis make yourbed I read the other day that you shouldnot make your bed first thing in themorning because you have to let all theheat kind ofevaporate so I explained to my wife thatshe should make her side of the bed andI'll just leave my side of the bed messythrough theday and she did not see the logic or thereason in that so I withdrew mysuggestion but chaotic time is notsomething we like to live with as humansWe crave certainty about what is aboutwhat may happen what is likely to happenand what should happen and we want thatcertainty because you cannot build alife in in the concept of chaotic timewe tend to think in like blocks of timeyou're 17 or 18 you're thinking am Igoing to learn a trade am I going tostart a business am I going to find ajob am I going to am I going to go tocollege we project forward into thefuture you want to buy a house you maybeget a mortgage you can only buy amortgage if you're projecting into thefuture and you have definite plans andyou think I can actually make this workso we in the west reject the concept ofchaotic time even though we find itwithin Hinduism and Buddhism but this umchaotic time has really failed to takeRoots around the world today the nextkind of time I want to talk about iscyclical time and again if you have yourBibles turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 3and you have the idea of cyclical timein the Book of Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastesyou get Psalms and then Proverbs thenEcclesiastes so if you find Psalms justflip forward a few pages go throughProverbs then you come to Ecclesiastesand Ecclesiastes chapter 3 we're justgoing to read the first three verseshere that gives you an idea of cyclicaltime it says to everything there is aseason and a time to every purpose underthe heaven a time to be born and a timeto die a time to plant and a time topluck up that which is planted A Time toKill and a time to heal a time to breakdown and a time to build up and thepassage goes on like this and this thisrecognition in scripture this is arecognition scripture that there is sucha thing as cyclical time that time goesactually in cycles and we we we'refamiliar with these life has regularcycles does it not you get up in themorning you go to bed atnight you eat and then youfast you are born and then you die youplant your your seeds and then sometimeyou're going to expect a harvest we'reused to the concept of cyclical time andwe actually live within cyclical time inmany ways and the regular cycles ofliving have been formalized becausewe've linked the cycles of living to thecycles of the universe so we have Nightand Day rotations lunar months solaryears summer and winter solstices andthese calculations were made in theancient world from Babylon onwards andthen ultimately through astrology theidea of cyclical time is very popularvery powerful in many people's mindstoday and the linking of the cycles oflife to the cycles of the naturalUniverse enabled societies to conquerthe fear of chaos and profounduncertainty and the great buildings ofEarth'shistory such as thepyramids and the ziggurats andStonehenge and the obelisks of Egypt allof these are a testament to the need tobe in harmony with the cycles of timeall of these building bus are tithes tothe cycles of of the Stars the Sun andthe Moon around us and there are arecognition that that life can you canonly make sense of life and projectforward if if our life today is tiedinto the cycles of the universe aroundus we may not think of it in these termsto so much these days but we have wehave um the time around our watch wehave the we go from January to Februaryto March to April we have the solarcalendar we have the lunar months weactually rely on these things to anawfully a lot L extent when I was ayoung boy growing up we used to gosailing in the on the in the North Seaon the the Humber Esty and every umSabbath night we be looking with myfather at the tidle the charts of thetides where is the moon that's going toaffect the the the the tides and thenbecause you only wanted to be sailingWhen the tide was coming in not When thetide was going out in a small boat you'dcalculate when you're going to sail onon the sea When the tide is coming inthe last thing you want is be caughtWhen the tide is going out at a fastpace because you can't get back withoutpower on a small dinging and so cyclicaltime is something that societies haveleared to live with and we still livewith cyclical time today cyclical timeprovides repetition regularity and theability to project in the into thefuture and Ecclesiastes 3 the passageyou just read recognizes that life islived in Cycles whether we like it ornot and throughout the centuries theMillennia societies realized that ifsomething went wrong in their Society itwas probably because they were out ofsync with the cycles of time and sothings like child sacrifice anddivination and pilgrimages andshamanistic rituals were developed sothat if the life of society was out ofsync with the cycles of time then thenthrough those through those religiousceremonies the life of the individualand the society could be brought back insync with the cycles of time cyclicaltime affects us today we have no way tomeasure the progress of time withoutrefence to the movements of the Moonaround planet Earth or of our journeyaround the Sun every year or the regularvibrations of physical atoms via theatom clock we are still bound to acertain extent by cular c um cyclicaltime but we pay less attention to thecycles of time stay in the west becauseit strips us of our most treasuredpossession and our most Tre treasuredpossession is the ability to plan ourown Futures without regard for themovements of the universe We crave theability to plan our future to be incontrol of our life and to say I plan tobe an orthopedic surgeon I plan to opena decorating business I want toaccomplish this in my life and so forthand so we don't like to be driven orcontrolled by this the concept ofcyclical time we prefer value we valueprogress creativity improving on whatwent before learning from the mistakesof our past and chasing our hopes anddreams and that is why the calendar isthe bridge from cyclical time to thenext concept of time which is lineartime and the concept of linear timeindeed is biblical um if you look atyour Bible um your Bible follows thestandard narrative structure uh thatevery movie follows so every movie hasthree components it has asituation then there's a complicationand the rest of the movie is theresolution of that complication everymovie has those three parts every novelhas those three parts situationcomplication resolution you put anymovie any novel in your mind into thatthat framework and it fits prettyperfectly and the Bible has the same hasthe same framework Genesis 1 and 2 isthe situation God creates a perfectworld Genesis 3 is the complication theorigin of sin Genesis 4 throughrevelation 22 is the resolution of thecomplication of sin and so the Bible isstructured in exactly the same way youcannot understand God's will for youunless you understand the creation andthe fall because those are the first twoparts of the three-stage story thatwe're all living in today and so thebiblical worldview of creation the falland Redemption is based on the conceptof time as being linear when I was inschool it was my intense Misfortune tobe required to read Paradise Lost thenParadise restored by John Milton it's apoem in 10 books I mean it's absolutelygrim and we'd have to plow through thisstuff and I understand the story why doyou have to read this apparently it wasgood for our English language skills Ididn't think it was at the time but wehad to plow through this stuff and inthe in the Christian worldview Humanitybeing begins with a creation fromnothing there's a Fall Away From Gracethere is a Divine Plan of Salvation torescue lost humanity and restore us fromso we go from Paradise Lost to Paradiserestored and that's what the point ofthat poem by John Milton is ParadiseLost and Paradise restored so from aChristianperspective time is neither chaoticrandom more cyclical but time actuallyhas a forward momentum and time has adirection sometimes people don't thinktheir life has much Direction but itreally does and if you ask God to be theLord of your life he makes sure thatdirection is going in One Direction andOne Direction only and that's to aHeavenly home that he's going to take usnot just we we we all know we're livingin Paradise Lost but only God can get usto Paradise restored and so in aChristian worldview time is movingtowards a climax which is the secondcoming of Jesus Christ in a linearworldview our creation yesterdayprovides meaning because it's done by aloving Creator therefore life today hasa purpose and because our creation had ameaning and our life has a purpose ourtomorrow can be filled with hope nowthis concept of linear time flourishedfrom the Protestant Reformation onwardsand with the invention of printing inthe 1500s and the spread of books aroundthe world millions of people came andsee history as moving forward in time toa climax which is a Sal salvation of asmany people as possible before Jesusreturns at the climax of world historyin American history the early explorersview the Americas as being the newAtlantis El Dorado or Utopia and theAmerican culture these Concepts such asManifest Destiny the New Jerusalem thecity on a hill and Americanexceptionalism these are all based onthe idea that time is linear and we canprogress and improve over time the ideais that we've broken free from thechaotic time and the random time and thecyclical time of the past and we are nowfree to chart our own course into thefuture as individuals as families and asa society but the reality is in this newway of looking at the world with lineartime we're still Bound by Cycles thebusiness cycle the economic cycle budgetCycles fashion cycles and traffic Cyclesso we can't get away from Cycles in ourunderstanding of time now in the 18thcentury secular philosophers andscientistsum devel adopted the concept of lineartime when the Industrial Revolution waspowering inventions in the 19th centurythe secular Western world came tobelieve in the concept of indefinitescientific economic and politicalImprovement we call that human um themodernist era does any of you watch ordid you any you see an of GreenGables or aenLee okay when we were growing up inEngland we never had a TV and we go toour grandparents who Lo live in inOxford my grandfather was the pastorthere and they had little black andwhite TV and after Christmas meal at3:00 there was always the queen gave herspeech and at 3:15 there were two movieson the TV on channel one for the BBCthere was a James Bond movie and onchannel two there was an of green gaesor aanLee and there was always a debate in ourfamily that the men wanted to watchJames Bond and the ladies wanted towatch aanLee and I came to hate aen Le and an ofgreen gaesbecause the men never won thatargument we were banished to the kitchenthe logic was we prepared the foodyou're going to clean up from the foodso we would be in the kitchen moaningour Misfortune while the ladyes SAT andenjoyed an of Green Gables and her umwas it bosom friends or um I forget whatthe terminology that was that she usedsorry kind kindred spirit all right okayso you've been watching an of GreenGables all right but if you look at theif you look at an of Green Gables andaan Lee there is a theme that runsthrough all those episodes and this isthe theme that from the 17 from 1870sall the way through to 1914 when thatseries finishes there's the idea of newtechnological progress coming into thisremote farming Village on Prince EdwardIsland Northeast Canada and there's astruggle in the community me how do wehow do we receive these new technologiesand the older folks are always sayinghang on you know the old ways aren't sobad after all why would we adopt why dowe need electricity why do we needindoor toilets why do we need aproduction plant in our village why dowe need a grid layout in our town why dowe need Street lighting and then the oldpeople are saying the old ways are justas good for us they're good for us fortoday and the young people keep bringingin these new technological innovationsand if you know the stories this this isthe theme that you see throughout thoseepisodes and we're watching from2025 and we know that when the storiesend and that the young boy in the mainfamily joins the Navy in1914 that boy does not know neither doesanybody in Prince Edward iseland knowthat World War I is just a few weeksaway and the point about that series isit it reflects the idea thattechnological progress will inevitablybetter Humanity'sCondition it's all the way through thatseries and the the series stops beforethe guns broke out in August1914 and the battle of the S where50,000 men went over the the trenchesand died on day one 50,000 men in oneday the scale of the slaughter wasunimaginable and so the modernist eraand the idea that technology brings umImprovement in The Human Condition cameto a shuddering halt in the battlefieldsof World War I in northern France withthis the scale of Slaughter wasunimaginable and so secularistphilosophersand Christians and marxists all arguedthat there is an inevitability of humanprogress the Christians argued for it inthe 1800s the the the the the the thephilosophers in logical positivism theyargued for it and the Marxist they alsoargued you had these three streams ofthought running through western societythat there is that time is linear and ifwe just follow our particular umprescription of how you manage that timeit will leads to it comes like heaven onEarth that was the ideaand then World War I came along and wewere we were reminded that alltechnology does at the end of the day itdoesn't give make us more moral humanbeings it just means we can kill eachother with moreefficiency and the the sense of progressthat technology is always good itcollapsed and the result of that was umpostmodernism and a rejection of theideas that drove aen Le and an of GreenGables so in the ideologies of the early1920s and 30s of Nazism and communismthey viewed time as being linear as welland time was the backdrop against whichtheir idology was going to be worked outand come to its Grand conclusion so forinstance Marxism Christianity has theidea of creation the Fallen Redemptionand Christian Christians are looking forheaven in heaven and Marxism a parallelworldview says that instead of creationyou have Evolution instead of the Fallyou have the invention of privateproperty instead of redemption forheaven above we're working to create aclassless society with heaven onEarth and so Christians are going thisdirection up to heaven and marxists aregoing this way to stay down and createheaven on Earth or an A Utopia here onon this planet and so these parallelworldviews they have the concept oflinear time and this is what's runningthrough our hearts and homes today thisis what's running through our childrenschoolstoday the recent elections in Americawere a choice do we accept thisworldview here do we accept aneo-marxist worldview or not and thatMar that neo-marxist worldview was kindof rejected in our last election but theindustrial scale Slaughter of World WarI and World War II destroyed the linearum philosophy of the the philosophicalpositivists as they were called it ledto a modern day philosophy of Despairwhere nothing has meaning and nothinghas any direction so we are left withtwo competing worldviews in the westtoday a biblical worldview of time asbeing linear climaxing in the secondcoming of Christ or the cultural Marxistworldview which our Nations must be tornapart and rebuilt as classless societieswith Equitable outcomes the end goal ofall linear time thinking in Marxistthought and so those are the twonarratives we have running throughwestern Society right now I was speakingabout this with your young people todayin the Sabbath School time and theyunderstand this because in their schoolsin their colleges that's what they'rebeing pumped with every day and we havehave these two competing understandingsof linear time and it's important thatas Christians we re we retain ourBiblical worldview and we're not tryingto create heaven on Earth We're pointingpeople to the day when we are taken toHeaven by oursavior and the the Marxist want tocreate heaven on Earth through creatinga classless society so linear time runsin through Christianity it runs throughcultural Marxism some of the majorforces in our Western Society these daysand that leads me to the concept ofcircular time we're getting much moreexplicitly spiritual when we come toCircular time because circular timerefers to the spiritual cycles thatGod's people go through in their Battleof sin the battle against sin throughthe period of the judges in particularGod's people went through a nationalcycle repeatedly in that National cyclethere was a period of rebellion againstGod that led to a period of divineretribution as a man so shall so shallhe reap um on a national level thenthere was a time of repentance when Godheard their repentance and their sorrowfor their sin God would send a judge whowould restore the fortunes of Israel andduring the lifetime of that judge thepeople would be true to God but whenthat judge died they'd go through thesame cycle again of rebellion ofRetribution of repentance andrestoration these four hours they wentthrough this cycle multiple times if youlook through the Book of Judges chapters2-6 16 is the story of Samson um thelast of the judges and Samson but as yougo through the stories of the judges thethe first judge is a guy called um anneland he is like the perfect judge and theand as you go through the stories of thejudges what you find is that with eachof these Cycles in Israelite historyinstead of going upwards closer to Godwith every cycle they sank further andfurther into sin and as they sankfurther and further into sin so theirjudges become more and more morallyambiguous like oil is the perfect judgeyou end up with a guy called jeffa anddoes he sacrifice his daughter or notvery hard to say from the text you endup with the last judge called Samson andIsrael Falls for every foreign God theysee Samson Falls for every foreign womanhesees and he pleads to God twice tocommitsuicide just like Jonah did who was alsosuicidal he asked God that he could dieand God eventually grants Samson hisfinal wish to die and the building comescrashing down on Samson and so in thestory in the in the story of Israel youhave thiscycle and in the stories of the judgeswe learn about a God who works withpeople who go through these Cycles inthe story of oal we learn of a God whoblesses those who are obedient to himand who step out in faith then and todayin the story of Ehud the man who isparalyzed in his right hand he can onlyhold a sword in his left hand who comesto the foreign King says I have amessage from the Lord for you and stabshim right up to the hilt with a sword inthat story there we read of a God whodoes not work as we always expect but heacts in Sovereign ways to save hispeople in unexpected ways in the storyof Deborah and Barack we read throughthat God works through those whose faithis weak that's good news for us today inthe story of Gideon we read of a God whoperforms wonders where we only see humanweakness and lack of opportunity in thestory of jeffa the Bandit who wasinvited to come and defend Israel havingbeing Cast Away most of his life hepromises to the Lord I'm going tosacrifice the first thing that comes outof my door when I get back from thebattle when he get back when he getsback from the battle his young daughtercomes out to meet him and the text isveryambiguous but in that story there youread of a God who keeps his vows at tohis own personal cost on Calvary just asJeff that kept his vow to Great personalcost as well in the story of Samson weread of a God who will deliver hispeople regardless of the failings oftheir spiritual leaders all of theselessons from the so the the um uh the umthe circular time of the experience ofGod's Israel these spiritual circles wego in the lessons we find from thosejudges apply to all of our lives todayand in our own lives whether we livingin a whether we're coming from homewhere we experience violent time ormaybe you come from a home where youexperience chaotic time or maybe you'recoming from a home that's driven by thecycles of life or maybe you're comingfrom a home today that's driven bylinear Concepts of time the fact is on apersonal level we all go throughcircular time and we experience that inthis way here Rebellion that is we sinwhosoever committeth sin transgressethalso the law for sin is a transgressionof thelaw as Jesus said to the Jewish leaderswhen they were wanted to Stone the womancaught in adultery in John 8 that he whois without sin cast the first stone soeach one of us sitting here today youknow we're dressed in Glad Rags forSabbath morning we look really good butat the end of the day we're Sinners needof a in need of asavior and if we were to be honest withourselves we're only saved by grace andby Mercy not because we've earned it andso each one of us experiences this inour life we struggle with this on adaily basis and because of this weexperience retribution we experiencing areaping of the results of our own sinPaul put it this way Galatians 6:7 donot be deceived God is Not mocked forwhatsoever a man Seth that shall he alsoreap and so in our own lives we we fallinto sin sometimes we choose sinsometimes we kind of find ourselvesengaging in sin but whatever happens wealways experience a reaping of theresults and those results generally arebitterresults most of us carry waves and couldhave and should ofes inside of ourhearts most of us wish that if we couldturn turn back linear time we wouldchoose a different Circle of Life mostof us carry those those those painfulbitter lessons of life then you have thethe third turning in our lives that isrepentance turning from sin to ourSavior Jesus Christ and this issomething that we all experience thisand this but the good news of the Gospelis that we may experience this today byGod's grace then Peter said to them atPentecost repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christfor the remission of sins for theremission of your sins and you shallreceive the gift of the Holy Spirit Ilove this passage because God promisesthe gift of the Holy Spirit to everypenitent sinner no matter how bad thesins have been God still promises togive me the gift of the holy spirit thatinto my broken sinful life there will bean injection of divine Holiness that'sgoing to transform me from the outsidein from the inside out there's Actschapter 3 goes on to say this repent yetherefore and be converted that yoursins may be blotted out when the timesof refreshing shall come from thepresence of the Lord and He Shall sendJesus Christ which before was preachedunto you this is the possibility that weall have today that if we repent andturn away from our sins God will give usthe gift of the Holy Spirit today amenand so uh Pastor you were preachingtoday about receiving the baptism of theholy spirit is your prayer for this yearyes and uh that's our privilege to askGod for the baptism of the Holy Spiritevery day but with the baptism of theHoly Spirit Come say Lord I don't wantanything in my life to impede thebaptism or the flow of the holy spiritin my life so we are live lives ofrepentance and penitent Heartsconfession of sin in order that there'snothing comes between ourselves and Godin fact there's a verse on this in theBible turn in your Bibles toIsaiah chapter59 very very famousverse Isaiah chap59: 1 and 2 a verse verse one is a versewe love to quote verse two is a we versewe conveniently forget Isaiah 59 verseone it says this behold the Lord's handis not shortened that it cannot saveneither his ear heavy that it cannothear and we say Amen praise the Lord forthat can you say Amen am amen but thenext verse says butyour iniquities have separated you andyour God and your sins have hidden hisface from you that he will not hear soGod's ear is not so dull that he cannothear his arm is not so short that hecannot save but it is the sins in ourlives those willful cherished deliberateknown sins that we hang on to that comebetween us and oursavior and so each one of us hasthis each one of us is sitting here withthis reaping the results in our ownlives you may have led a life of sinyour body today may be experiencing theconsequences of the sinful Behavioryou've engaged in may have lung cancerfrom smoking may have other physicalailments from other physical sins thatyou've engaged in you may have you maybe living in a broken relationshipbecause of your own sins not just thesins of the other person but the goodnews of Salvation is our story does notneed to end there but we can come tothis stage repentance and receive thegift of the Holy Spirit even today witha repentant heart and then God promisesthe final stage which isrestoration and the purpose of Christianrestoration is not like the Israelitesthey have this cycle and with everycycle they ends up going lower and lowerand lower and lower into sin Soeventually the Israelites areindistinguishable from the Canaanitesaround them the purpose of the Christiancycle and we all go through this cycleis with every stage of the cycle we endup being closer to God in process ofrestoration that there something of sinhas been washed away and it's no longergoing to be a besetting sin we've gainedvictory over that sin so we're gainingin christlikeness on a daily basis andso this passage here I love this passageIsaiah 55 6-1 when I was a student theconference president came and preached asermon through Isaiah 55 verse by verseis one of the most beautiful passages inscripture and and it says this seek theLord while he may be found even stay atthis camp meeting call fall upon himwhile he is near let the wicked even atcamp meeting forsake their way and theunrighteous their thoughts let themreturn to the Lord that he may have whatupon them mer Mercy how often does doesthis world deal inMercy everybody's vindictive you hurt meI'm going to hurt you back twice as hardit's in our politics it's in ourfamilies but God shows us a new way thathe may have mercy upon them and to ourGod for he will abundantly pardon it'snot just going to be a stingy okay Iforgive you but don't you do thatagain you know if you grow up with atwin brother or brothers and sisters inyour family you know what stingyforgiveness lookslike my mother would say to me forgiveyour brother yes and he knew he wasn'tforgiven and one of his little toys hemade would somehow be smashed in thenext 24 hours by Chance the forgivenesswas not genuine but when God forgivesand God restores he will AB abundantlypardon it is an overflowing forgivenessthat washes away any hint of what wentbefore the the test the passage goes onfor my thoughts that is the thoughts ofGod are not your thoughts nor are yourways my ways sayith the Lord for as theheavens are higher than the earth so aremy ways higher than your ways and mythoughts than your thoughts for as therain and the snow come down from heavenand do not return there until they havewatered the Earth making it bring forthand Sprout giving seed to the sewer andbread to the eater so shall my word bethat goes forth from my mouth it shallnot return to me empty but it shallaccomplish that which I purpose andsucceeds in the thing for which I sentit what is that purpose in John's gospelthese things are written that you maybelieve that Jesus is the son of Godthat through believing in him you mayhave eternal life that is God's purposefor you and it's his purpose for me thatthese cycles of life that we go throughknow we may live in violent time in homeyou may come from domestic abuse heretoday you may live in chaotic time yourlife is falling apart your life may beus be going in circles in circular timebut you have a sense that life time isstill linear but you're not sure whetheryou're going upwards or you're goingdownwards but the good news of thescripture is that your life is alsocircular and God wants to take youthrough those circles that when you sinand there is repentance God can lead youto a higher place than before when weturn to repentance and God restores usto more than where we werebefore and you know in your own personalrelationships if you've had an argumentwith your spouse and there is genuineforgiveness and confession therelationship is deeper after that thanit was before and our walk with God isdeeper and more meaningful because we'vetasted the sweetness of forgiveness whenwe confess our sins and receive hisforgiveness by faith we understand God'scharacter much better and so rather thanthe downward spiral of the ancientIsraelites in this cycle here that theywent through of rebellion retributionrepentance andrestoration God wants us not just to berestored to where we were he wants us towalk in the light in fellowship with himto avoid sin and gain victory over sinconfidence in his promise to us that ifwe confess our sins he is faithful andjust to forgive us our sins and tocleanse us from allunrighteousness but if anyone does sinthe text goes on to say we have anadvocate with the father Jesus Christthe righteous and he is the propitiationfor our sins and not for ours only butalso for the sins of the whole world nowin this Epistle of First John um factturn with me in your Bibles to FirstJohn and to First John[Music]chapter let me this chapter four orchapter5 in my Bible at home it's all markedup all right it's 1 John chapter 5 verse16 and there's an interesting concepthere 1 John 5:116 saysthis if any man sees his brother seeshis brother sin a sin which is not untodeath that is it is not a mortal sin heshall ask and he shall give him life forthem that sin not unto death there is asin unto death I do not say that heshall pray for it all unrighteousness issin and there is a sin not unto deathbut you say well Pastor the wages of sinis death how come there are sins that donot lead todeath and so in this in this epistlechapter 5 we talk about sinning untodeath the sins that lead to death andsins that do not lead to death and thispassage here in in in this in thisepistle here differentiates because umif any man says he's without sin he is aliar we read earlier in this chapter in1 John 1 but when John says and if anymansin we lose the sense in the English butthe sense this is an Aris in Greek whichmeans it's a pun till your one-offevent so the the sense here is If anyman sins so if you go for a walk thisafternoon and you go down to the beachon the way down you kind of trip overand you stumble and you fall to theground did you want to do that did youplan to do that is it the normal courseof your life no that's the kind of sinthat John is talking about here in theirest and if any man sin it's a it's aone-off puncti event so this is not thenormal course of your life you are adedicated Christian but some days youjust mess up you have the promise offorgiveness through our Heavenlymediator that is the sin that does notlead to death later in chapter 3 um ittalks about those who sin or remain insin that means sin that is ongoingcontinuous willful deliberate it's yournormal course of living and forChristians to remain in willfuldeliberate onward known um willful sinand cherished sin there is there is notthe promise of Salvation that is the sinthat leads to death so in this thispassage here God promises that if we areseeking a life of Holiness and westumble occasionally into sin and we alldo we have the promise offorgiveness make that your course ofLife the avoidance the estwing the therunning away from any form of sin and ifwe do stumble into sin we have thepromise of forgiveness and when we livethis kind of life and we walk in thelight we have fellowship with JesusChrist and so this this circulus conceptof time of rebellion and retribution orreceiving the rewards reaping theHarvest um if we just follow those firsttwo stages we're just going to go downand down and down but God offers us ifwe do the first two stages God will dothe next two repentance andrestoration and that's what God can dofor you today he can give you the giftof repentance and the gift of faith andhe can restore that which the locustshave stolen from your life he can takegive back what Satan has done to you andso we've just we've covered so farviolent time we've all experiencedviolent time we've all lived with theconsequences of violent time either inworld history or in our own homes we'vecovered the concept of chaotic time andfor some of us our lives are reallychaotic right now and we need to movebeyond that to at least the concept ofum cyclical time our life is in harmonywith the movements of the universearound us you might say but we don'treally like that because we like to planour future therefore we have linear timeand the Bible oper operates under alinear time worldview there's abeginning there's a middle and there's aclimax to Earth's history and withinthat concept of linear time each of ushas the circular time where we haverebellion and retribution and repentanceand restoration so there are many waysof looking at time we've covered so farare you following me on with this solet's come to our lasttime and this is for the last time I'llspeak about this salvationtime this is perhaps the most importantconcept of time we're going to covertoday this is salvation time this is notlinear time for the world this is yourtime and my time this is you might sayShowtime this is where the rubber meetsthe road this is where this all comestogether and we have to make a decisionone way or the other so what is thissalvation time and I recognize that mostof us here today many of us areAdventists we know some of this but Ialso know that there many people watchwatching online who don't know whatwe're talking about here so pleaseforgive me as I just work through someof the groundwork here we find that thein the conflict between good and evil itstarted in Heaven above we read about itin Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 the originof sin and all suffering in our universeand Ezekiel 28:112-17 this is what we read it says sonof man take up a lamentation against theking of TI and so this is lamentationactually against Satan and and say untohim thus sayith the Lord God thou seestup the sum full of wisdom and perfect inBeauty thou Hast been in Eden the Gardenof God every precious stone was thycovering the Sardis topaz and theDiamonds the barrel the Onyx and theJasper the sapphire the emeralds and thecarbuncle and gold the workmanship ofthy tablets and of thy pipes wasprepared in thee in the day that thouwas created Thou Art the anointed cherubthat coverthe thee so that thou was uponthe holy mountain Son of God thou Hastwalked up and down in the midst of thestones of fire and so Ezekiel is talkingabout how Satan was created as acovering cherub in Heaven above the textgoes on to say you were blameless inyour ways from the day you were createduntil iniquity was found in you and noreason is given because if you can givea reason for the origin of sin you canjustify the origin of sin iniquity wassimply found within Satan or Lucifer ashe was then known in the abundance ofyour trade you were filled with violenceand you sinned so I cast you as aprofane thing from the Mountain of Godand the guardian cherub d drove you outfrom the stones of fire your heart wasproud because of your beauty youcorrupted your wisdom for the sake ofyour Splendor I cast you to the ground Iexpose you before Kings to Feast theireyes upon you and so Satan iniquity wasfound in him and why is that one of thereasons is here it's because of pridepride in how he lookedand maybe pride is the number one sinthat we all battle with today one way orthe other um Isaiah 14 describes thisfurther again many of you familiar withthis passage here it says that how ThouArt fallen from the heavens oh Luciferson of the morning how art thou cut downto the ground which this weaken theNations for thou H has said in thineheart and listen to how many eyes are inthis passage I will Ascend into theheavens I will exalt my throne above thestars of God I will sit upon the mountsof the congregation I will Ascend abovethe heights of the clouds I will be likethe most high so Satan's purpose is torise from being an angel to the role ofGod himself but the text says but youshall be brought down to Hell to thesides of the pit as we said yesterdaySatan intended to go from an angel toGod himself and from there he was castdown and Christ in Philippians 2 did notconsider the equality with God somethingto be grasped at but he humbled himselfand was obedient UL to the death of across and ultimately God resurrected himand glorified him so ultimately inPhilippians 21:11 at the name of Jesusevery knee shall bow so Satan intendedto go up and God the Father brought himdown and he did that for love of selfJesus was willing to Humble himself tothe death of cross not for love of selfbut for love of you and me and becauseof that he will be exalted at the end oftime at the end of the final judgment sothis is the the the beginning ofSalvationtime The Story Goes On say there was warin heaven it's a strange concept thatthere is war in heaven yes everybodywants to get to heaven but we're goingthere was a war in heaven Michael thatis Christ and his angels fought againstthe dragon that is Satan the dragonfought with his angels and prevailed notneither was their place found anymore inheaven and the Great Dragon was cast outthat old serpent called the devil andSatan which deceiveth the whole world hewas cast out into the Earth and hisangels were cast out with him and sothat sets the context for the strugglesthat we have in Earth today the Satancomes down to this world with greatanger because he knows that his time isshort and he wants to take as many of usdown with him when the final judgmentcomes we are simplyroadkill to Satan we're collateraldamage he wants to take as many of usdown before the final judgment he wantsto take you down he wants to take medown and so God had a plan for this hesays to the serpent in the Garden ofEdenafter the serpent had tempted Eve andAdam to sin God says to the serpent Iwill put enmity between thee and thewoman and between thy seed and her seedit shall bruise thy head and thou shaltbruise his heel if you want to kill aserpent where do you kick where do youstamp on it you stamp on the head and sothe serpent would bruise his heel theserpent would give a wound to the seedof the woman but the seed of the womanwould crush the Serpent's head that'sthe promise in Genesis chapter 3 thatone day The Wider cause of all sin andsufferings that he dealt with on Calvaryand when Jesus died there and so thestory goes on when the fullness of timehad come God sent forth his son made ofa woman made under the law to redeemthem that were under the law that wemight receive the adoption of sons inthe fullness of time at the conclusionof the 490 year prophecy of Daniel 9 25-27 Jesus came exactly as prophesied inthe fall of ad27 and 3 and 1/2 yearslater in Passover ad31 he died onCalvary exactly as the prophecy ofDaniel 9 foretold for us uh Isaiah 9:6says this unto us a child is born untous a son is given and so a child wasphysically born that's the humanity ofChrist but it doesn't say that a son isborn it says a son is given so in thechild being born you have the humanityof Christ and in the the son being givenyou have the Divinity of Christ in thatone phrase there unto us a child is bornunto us a son is given in the fullnessof time in linear time in Salvation timedealing with people who are livingthrough cycles of time of sin and andand falling away from God and thenturning to God in Repentance and seekingRestoration in the fullness of time Godsent his son to deal with the sinproblem once and for all and you knowthe story of Jesus Christ his life hisdeath his Resurrection the book ofHebrews 99 chap chapter 9:28 points usto the Future the climax of time says soChrist was once offered to Bear the sinsof many that was on Calvary at his firstcoming we celebrate that at Christmasand Easter but then he says and untothem who look for him shall he appearthe second time without sin untosalvation and some versions say to thosewho eagerly await him not just look forhim and the idea in this word is that isthat we don't just know that Jesus iscoming again that you believe that Jesusis coming again so does Satan and so dothe demons they know that theirdestruction drath nigh they spoke aboutit with Jesus when he was on Earth soyou believe that Jesus is coming againthat does not make you an Adventistbecause Satan in that case is anAdventist but it's to those who areeagerly awaiting for him so it's notjust a mental engagement mental acognitive understanding it's anengagement to my whole being I want himback as soon as possible because thisworld of sin needs people put to restonce and for all and all suffering needsto come to an end so Adventists arethose who are eagerly waiting for thesecond coming not just those who knowabout the second coming in that caseyou're no different to Satan and hisdemons and when he returns this is whatwe read there will be signs in the Sunand in the moon and in the stars andupon the Earth distress of nations withperplexity the Sea and the waves roaringmen's Hearts failing them for fear andfor looking after those things that arecoming upon the Earth for the powers ofHeaven shall be shakenthen shall they see the son of mancoming in a cloud with power and greatGlory when these things begin to come topass those who e waiting for the comingof Jesus says look up and lift up yourheads for your Redemption draweth nighthat's a beautiful phrase yes and ourworld today is overwhelmed with fear inso many ways many people live with fearas a constant reality in life uh if youlook at our politicians you know theytalk about climate change and you sensethere was his existential dread aboutwhat is coming upon the world andpeople's hearts are filled with fear inour world people sense that our world isdevolving it is degrading it is fallingapart our social economic politicalmoral fabric is decaying in front of oureyes and people saying what's going tohappen to our world and as Adventists weare not to succumb to that kind ofthinking as Adventists we know that inSalvation time those who are eagerlywaiting for the coming of Christ andwill one day lift their heads Highbecause their Redemption is drawingnigh this is the part the beauty of whatit means to be an Adventist andso this is what weknow this is what we know with ourheads but what about your personalresponse to this kind ofmessage you Apostle Paul wrote inHebrews voices today if you hear hisvoice do not Harden yourheart it's easy to come to a campmeeting and hear messages great messagesand put offer a decision forChrist but you don't know whether you'llmake it home alive tomorrow or tonightyou don't know what your future holdsyou want to know though who's walkingwith you through that future the ApostlePaul puts it this way we then as workerstogether with him beseech you also thatyou receive not the grace of God in vainfor he saith I have heard thee in a Timeaccepted and in the day of salvationhave I suckered or helped Thee theApostle Paul goes on to say this beholdnow is the accepted time now is the dayofsalvation so time matters time reallymatters we've covered violent time andmaybe you're living a life filled withviolent time we've covered chaotic timeand maybe your life feels like it's justchaos it's going in circles it's notgoinganywhere maybe your life is morecyclical and you're aware that you riseand you go to bed and you rise and yougo to bed and you rise and you go to bedbut there is no purpose or meaning orDirection in that kind of Life manypeople live that kind of Life they justexist they go to the cycles of dailyCycles but they have no idea wherethey're going maybe today you you aredominated by the concept of linear timeand you're making plans for the futurebut if you're making plans for thefuture without regard to the Lord andhis provision and his guidance in yourlife those plans won't come toanything weren't you who make plans andgoing go to such and such City for andmake money there you do not know whattomorrow will be bring you say if theLord wills it this is what I'm going todo James chapter3 some of you are living in linear timewithout regard to God some of you arecaught up in circular time today you'reaware of sin you're aware of yoursinfulness today you're aware of a senseof Shame inside you you've gone throughum Rebellion you're you're reaping abitter reward even today and part of thegospel for you today is that if youreturn to God in Repentance God is a Godwho can restore everything for you andmaybe today you need torepent and turn away from the sins thatare causing this bitterness in your lifesay I want no further part of thatsinfulness but beyond all of that whenwe talk about the Plan of Salvation andsin rising in Heaven above and War inheaven and Satan coming down to thisearth and warfare between Christ andSatan and Christ defeating Cal Satan atCalvary and then he goes back to heavenand he's promised to return for thosewho are eagerly waiting for him when weknow all of this what makes us differentto the demons and to the lost and toSatan is that we accept that today isthe day of our Salvation we respond infaith to the love of Godtoday we recognize that time does matteryou cannot change youryesterday but you can change yourtomorrow and gain entrance to Eternityand a new TI new kind of time throughthe decisions you maketoday I can't change my pastbut I can change mytomorrow by choosing for Jesus Christtoday I want to encourage you today toif if you are sitting here today andyou're going through that cycle ofrebellion and you feel and you'reexperiencing the bitterness a bitter umHarvest of your Deeds maybe you want torepent today and ask God torestore that maybe you want to stand upand come to the front with me here sayLord I want you to forgive me my I wantyour Restoration in my life if that'syou i' invite you to come to the frontwith me we're going to have a prayertogether if you're in that stage of Lifetoday where you say I know all of thisbut today is going to be the day of mysalvation today I'm going to ask Jesusto be the Lord of my tomorrow and I'masking him to give me not just a planfor Life tomorrow but he's going to giveme the keys of eternal life maybe thisis the first time you're going to askthis I invite you to come to the frontheretoday if today is the day of salvationfor you come forward make a statementnot just in front of this crowdhere but before the watching unfallenworlds you're making a statement beforeSatan before his Fallen Angels we'remaking a statement before God the Fatherthe Son the spirit today as Jesus saidin Luke 15 there is rejoicing in heavenover every sinner that turns toGod so I'm so grateful to God that someof you are sensing the Holy Spiritworking on your your hearts today I'm sograteful that God does not leave us tobe sunk in sin and to face a life ofDespair to have a linear life that'sgoing down rather than a linear lifethat's going to heaven above so if uh ifthe holy spirit is working upon yourheart today you want to commit your lifeto God for the first time or recommitbecause you wandered away from him Now'sthe Time to come forward thank yousister may God bless you as you comeforward here may God bless each andevery one of us as we stand here and wetake our stand for Jesus Christ in themidst of a of a faithless and a sinfulgeneration so I'd invite you whereveryou are to Bow your heads with me we'regoing to have a prayer ofconsecration heavenlyfather today is the day ofsalvation today Father this group ofpeople standing with me we are simplysaying that we are sinners we're sayingto our Heavenly Father be merciful to usfor we aresinners today Father everyone standingat the front here maybe some sittingstill in the pews we're asking that youforgive us for our sins we ask you thatyou so fill us with your holy spiritthat from this moment forward when theworld sees us they will see amanifestation of Jesus Christ we'reasking today father that you cleanse usof our unrighteousness that though oursins be as Scarlet they shall be as willthat as as far as the East is from theWest an incalculable distance you'll REMyou'll remove our sins from us in factyou've promised I will remember yoursins no more we're asking father to sayfor a fresh beginning a clean slate fora a new chapter of our life to bewritten by your Holy Spirit and spirit Iask that you write the new chapter foreach of these precious Souls gatheredhere this morning may that chapter be achapter that ends in victory over sin invictory over death and in Walking thosestreets of gold when Jesus comes againso father today we ask for forgivenessfor the infilling of your Holy Spirit weask that you clothe us with the Puritythe Perfection the righteousness of oursavior Lord Jesus Christ I pray thatwhen Satan accuses us in the future youcan rebuke him and say have youconsidered this my servant my son mydaughter they are clothed in thePerfection of JesusChrist I pray father that when you comeagain everybody standing at the fronthere this morning will be found in theLamb's Book ofLife father if there are some today weneed to prepare for the Waters ofbaptism for except a man or woman beborn again they cannot enter the kingdomof God we must be born of water and ofthe spirit father those who are standinghere at the front are going to walk withyou I pray that they will soon gothrough the waters of baptism they'll bewashed of the guilt of their pastthey'll be filled with the spirit givethem a Victorious Life between now inyour secondcoming father thank you for loving usthank you that you not abandoned usthank you that you have a plan and apurpose for us in Heaven above and foralleternity thank you that though we be SSinners with the past as from this dayforward we may be S we may be Saintswith thefuture so father thank you for takingcontrol of today tomorrow and ofEternity may we walk with you and talkwith you life long along life's narrowway ultimately to those golden streetsabove father we thank you for hearingthis prayer we thank you for the victoryin Christ you give every person gatheredat the frontier today and I thank youthat these names will be found in theLamb's Book of Life when Jesus comesagain we ask you for these mercies andwe thank you for your grace in the nameof Jesus our lord and savior amen amenuh before we close let's just sing thatsong into my heart it's a song ofChristian consecrationinto myheart into myheart come in Into My Heart Lord[Music]Jesus come intoday come in tostay Come Into MyHeart Lord Jes J and out of my heart outof myheart out of my heart shine Out of MyHeartLord shine out today shineout shine out way shineout shine out of myLordJesus and now may the Lord bless you andkeep you may the Lord make his faceshine upon you and be gracious unto youLord lift up his countenance upon youand give you peace this day and forevermore amen amenamen thank you Dr Vine I reallyappreciatethat you're Conrad to us and we say thataffectionately not detrimentally what amorning brothers and sisters wouldn't itbe great to have this every Sabbath inourchurches I really appreciate the SabbathSchool time um and whole week um thankyou and when I said I was you're yellingat us we need that I didn't mean thatdetrimentally and and our divine servicenow is the time it's it's come ofage take these meetings seriously pleasedon't take these trivially and writethem off as I said last night for thosewho have just come for the first timewho those who have been here for the 26odd years we've run these camps I praythat this week is the mostpowerful the most impressive week andthe most rewarding for your for yourwholeyear might set you on a good foundationand you're on into your life I really dowant this for all of youand what a day that will be when Jesuscomes and I want to sing that now as weclose off because I believe that's a asong that we should put into our heartsand again this is not the original we'veadded a verse to it that the end of itthe Jasper walls we behold that I wantevery one of us to be there so let'sstand and sing this together with a goodheart and a freespirit oops[Music]there iscoming a day when theheart shallcome moreclouds in the skyNo More Tears tothe all is peace formore on that happy GoldenShore what a day glorious day that willbe what aday that will be when my JesusI shallsee and I look upon his face the one whosay Me by hisgrace when he Tak me by the hand andleads me through the promised land whata day gloriousday that willbe there be no oh sorrow there no morebirto no moresickness no morepain nomoreing overthere andforever I willbe with theone di for me what a day glorious daythat willbe what a day that willbe when my Jesus I shallsee and I look upon his face the one whoSav Me by hisgrace he Tak me by the hand and Lees methrough the promis landwhat a day gloriousday willbe there's a city forsquare with the na brightand and the city puregold theW tobe may we put this world way to pleasyour savior on that day one a dayglorious that willbe on aday that will be when my Jesus I shallsee and I look upon his face the one whoSav Me by his gra when he takes me bythe hand and leads me through the promisland what a day gloriousday what a day gloriousday that will beGod bless you each one we're just goingto ask a blessing on the food uh Sam hasask that and then we'll you'll goheavenly father thank you for thewonderful blessing of the Sabbath daywe've been fed this morning and wereally look forward to the 2:00 meetingtoo as Paul and his dear wife give theirtestimony of their journey in SouthAfrica we look forward tothat father what a feed and I value umtechnology that we can go back overthese but there's nothing quite likebeing here in person so bless us blessthe physical food that we're about toeat and may our conversation be fittingfor heaven father may we be careful ofwhat we talk on in these Sabbath hoursin jesus' name amen see you back at 2:00[Music]e