The Coming Messiah | Dr. Conrad Vine

I now realize what brother Ernie was doing was walking around with his camera. I'm never going to talk openly in his presence ever again. Wasn't that a beautiful video? Yeah. Precious memories.

You know, we've been through a lot in the last two weeks. Yes. And uh for the the church leaders and the congregation here in Kihei um they've been planning this for about a year. They've been praying over this and uh for those of us who come to the meetings or flying to speak in these meetings, we're just here for the very final few chap few moments of this process. Uh but God has been at work in a beautiful way out here.

And I just say praise God for every member of the Ki Adventist Church. We've always had people here from Lahina, from Kalahoui. Is that how you pronounce it? Kalahooi. Uh my wife keeps correcting me on my pronunciations.

So um anyway, [clears throat] from the big church down the road and um so it's been a great effort and I just want to say thank you to those who came in from other congregations to support what was happening. You know, we're all part of the same team. We're all seeking same souls for Jesus Christ. And it's just been great to see the island pull together in this way. So, tonight is our last time together and it's kind of bittersweet for me.

I've really been blessed with my wife by our time here in Maui and um you know it's I have a nice job where I get paid to go and fly places and talk. It's kind of nice. All right. Sometimes the places are not so nice as Maui, but here it's been an absolute blessing. So, um I'm going to speak with the pastor Billy about this and see if we can come back next year or the year after um uh see how that works out.

But um I want to encourage you this isn't the end of anything that God is going to write the next chapter here on Maui. And if we all work together and we pull together um as I said this morning there was about a 25% increase in the in the um the membership of Kihi um there was about a 30% reduction in the average age of membership in Kihi today. And next year if we go to Kalahul Cahului Kalahoo or Kahului it's one or the other. um next year or the year after let's pray for a 25 or 30% growth there as well that we maybe go from 300 to 400 something like that you know when we set faith goals and we work towards them it's amazing what God does for us so uh tonight I'm going to speak about the second coming of Jesus um we are seventh day Adventists and maybe one of the joys in life is announcing the coming of Jesus and because it really is the only hope for humanity and so I'm going to talk about the coming Messiah And this this topic brings me great joy because I've traveled to many parts of the world and wherever I go in the world I generally see a lot of suffering. I used to work for the advent development and relief agency and for about 10 years I floated around the world doing disaster response work.

Um six weeks here, three months there, six six months over there. I saw a lot of things uh tsunami disasters, earthquakes, famines in Ethiopia and so forth. I saw a lot of human suffering wherever I went. And so in my heart there's been this desire for Jesus to come again because when Jesus comes again, it's not just that he comes in the clouds of glory. It's all human suffering comes to an end in that moment.

No more human suffering, no more animal suffering, no more suffering anywhere on planet Earth. When Jesus comes again, he's calling time on all pain and suffering and disease and sorrow and death. And so I can't wait for Jesus to come again. So, uh, talking about his second coming is one of the joys of my life. So, uh, this is going to be our journey here this evening.

I'm going to start out with the first coming of Jesus, and um, just make sure this is all switched off here. Uh, I'm going to talk about the first coming of Jesus, then the announced coming of Jesus, then the second coming of Jesus. And, um, each each of these sections has got a little format we're going to work our way through. Um, you're going to see it as we go through, but this really is good news. It really is the best news in town that there is a savior and he's coming back for his children.

And so, as we begin, I invite you to bow your heads with me and we invite the presence of the Holy Spirit. Our dear heavenly father, uh, we thank you for the blessings of this evening, of these last two weeks. Father, we thank you for the physical food. We thank you for the friendship, for the fellowship, and the spiritual food as well. Father, we thank you that today on on the in the Sea of Maui that more precious souls gave their gave their life to you.

We thank you, Lord, for Sister Judy and her profession of faith in the church this morning. And I thank you, Father, for the growth of the community disciples here in Kihei. Father, as we spend these last moments together now, may your Holy Spirit speak through me and for me. Uh may the words I say be what this audience and congregation needs to hear. Lord, whisper into each heart that is um bowed here tonight.

This is the way, walk ye in it. So, Father, thank you for hearing this prayer in Jesus name I ask. Amen. So, um this is going to be our journey tonight. Let's start out with the first coming of Christ.

And we're going to look at um before Christ came, there was a forerunner, someone who came to announce the coming of Christ. In actual fact, in each of these comeings of Jesus, there is an individual or a movement called to announce the coming of Jesus to the world. And so, we find one of the first hints of this person to announce the coming of the Messiah the first time in Malachi chapter 3. And it's we read there in the Old Testament, this is the last book of the Old Testament. It says, "Behold, I'm sending my what?

Messenger to prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple." the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Indeed, he is coming, saith the Lord of hosts. And so, this was a prophecy given. It's the last prophecy in the Old Testament, but it points forward to the time where God would send someone or would raise an individual to announce the coming of the Messiah.

Isaiah 14:3 has a similar passage. It says, "A voice cries out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. make straight in the desert a highway for our God. And so God's purpose was that when the Jewish people returned from their Babylonian exile, God's people would prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah. This would involve internal character transformation on the part of God's people and also involve the proclamation that the Messiah is coming to every nation, tribe, language, and people.

And what was the fulfillment of this? Who was the forerunner of Jesus? It was actually John the Baptist. It says, "In those days, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea proclaiming, repent, for the kingdom of God has come near." And then it quotes back to Isaiah chapter um 40 says, "This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord and make his path straight." You know, I really like the character of John the Baptist. He has a diet of locust and wild honey.

Yes, read that in the Bible. When I was with Avenous Frontier Missions, we had student missionaries going off to Thailand. It was kind of like a ritual. In their first week, they go to the night markets in Bangkok. Anybody here been to the night markets in Bangkok?

All right. Um, it has as many smells as it has sights. I can assure you. And one of they have things there. They sell like roasted house flies on banana leaves.

Apparently, it's crunchy, but it's not clean food. So, if you've been baptized today, no roasted house flies for you. But um one of the things the student missionaries always eat is they get the um the the grasshoppers and the locusts and then they take these these the big grins on their faces. They take pictures and post them on social media. And sometimes you see the leg of a locust sticking out between their teeth that quite all of it hasn't gone down the proper hole, you might say.

And so these young people, they say, "John the Baptist had a diet of locust and wild honey. We're going to try it for ourselves." Um, actually, locusts and wild and grasshoppers are technically clean meat. I wouldn't encourage anybody to be eating it tonight. Um, and it wasn't [clears throat] in your burger, just in case you were wondering. So, John the Baptist comes as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 3 and Isaiah chapter 40.

And again, the pro the gospel writer Mark, he also identifies the forerunner of the Messiah as being John the Baptist. And speaking about John the Baptist, Mark says, "As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, see your behold, I'm sending my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord and make his path straight." And when John the Baptist came and he announced the coming of the Messiah, um, he didn't beat about the bush. What I love about John the Baptist is he didn't waste time on extraneous fluff. He got straight to the point because why? Because souls are precious and time is short.

And so he got straight to the point. We read there and it says, "And people from the whole Judeian countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins." Now John was clothed with camels hair with a leather belt around his waist. He ate what and wild honey? Locust and wild honey. And he proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.

I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." So John the Baptist, he had a baptism just of repentance of sins. But it wasn't the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We find that later on in the New Testament. And so when I was in Turkey once, some Muslims came to me and said, "We want to be baptized." I thought, "Great." They said, 'But we want the baptism of John that we just want repentance for our sins.

I said, 'I'm a Christian pastor. I'll baptize you as Jesus commanded us in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And they said, "No, we don't want the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We just want a baptism of repentance for sins." So, I never baptized um that group of Muslims because we've moved on from John the Baptist now. So, not only was there um a forerunner, one who was to announce the coming of of the Messiah, but there were also key prophecies in the Old Testament that spoke about the coming Messiah.

And there are dozens of these throughout the Old Testament, but I've just pulled out a few here. They're kind of interesting. In Genesis 3:15, there was [clears throat] the promise that the seed of the woman would become the savior of mankind. And we find that the fulfillment of that in the life of Jesus. And Galatians 4:4-5 says, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children." We read in Genesis 12:3, that the Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham.

And if you look in the Gospel of Matthew, the very first chapter is a long genealogy of the family line of Jesus. And it starts out with, as you see on the screen, an account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And Matthew is establishing that Jesus is a son of um Abraham because through Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed. And Jesus was also the son of David. That was the line through whom the Messiah was going to come.

So when you read those genealogies, it's not boring stuff. It's proving that Jesus meets the criteria to be the Messiah. Then you have numbers 24:17, it said that the Messiah would be Jacob's descendant at whose coming a star would appear. And in the genealogy of Matthew, we read there that in the genealogy that there was Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and so forth. And tell me, did a star appear when Jesus was born?

Yes or no? Yes, it did. As foretold um by Moses in Numbers 24 there. Then you have Psalm 2 and verse 7. It said the Messiah would be called the son of God.

This was written almost a thousand years before Jesus comes. And when Jesus was baptized in Matthew chapter 3, it says, "A voice from heaven said, "This is my son, the beloved with whom I'm well pleased." Then Isaiah 7:14 written about 700 BC. So 700 years before Jesus was born, he prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. And in Luke 1, we read that in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And that young girl's name was what?

Mary. Just a couple more prophecies here. Malachi chapter 4 says that one like Elijah would precede the Messiah. And when Jesus spoke about John the Baptist, he said in Matthew 11 that John the Baptist was the Elijah figure who was to come. Zechariah 11:12 says that the Messiah would betray be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.

Very precise amount. And how much was Jesus betrayed for by Judas? 30 pieces of silver. And that prophecy was given almost 600 years before the events actually took place. It's a pretty amazing prophecy.

Psalm 22:1 begins, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And when Jesus was on Calvary in Matthew 27, as he was dying, he cried out, "Elo, Elohma Sabakani," which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And it starts out with an expression of despair. And the very last phrase, the very last words in the Hebrew of that Psalm 22, um um you can translate it as he has done it or it is finished. And when Jesus died on Calvary, his last words were, "It is finished." And so he was working his way through Psalm 22 on the cross, which is a a messianic psalm as Jesus was fulfilling it on Calvary. Psalm 22 says that soldiers would gamble for his clothing. Matthew 27 tells us that when Jesus was hanging on the cross, the soldiers took his clothes and they cast lots.

They played a card game. They wanted to see who was going to get the robe and his clothes in fulfillment of that prophecy. Psalm 34 tells us that no bones would be broken in the body of Jesus. And in those days, um, when when the when so man was being crucified, you would hold your body up with your with your legs because that was the only way you could breathe. Otherwise, you're going to asphyxiate under your own weight.

And so when the Romans wanted to finish you off quickly, they would take a um a cudil and they would smash you in the knees and it would break the kneecaps so you could no longer hold your body up. you sink down and then you esphyxiate under your own weight. This is how they delivered the coupra when you were being crucified. But when Jesus was crucified um and they the soldiers they smashed the knees of the thief to his right and they smashed the knees of the thief to his left but when they came to Jesus and looked up at him they saw that he was already dead. So they didn't smash his legs.

The prophecy said that no bones would be broken in his body. And in John 19, it says there that when the soldiers saw that Jesus was already dead, they did not break his legs. Isaiah 53 says that he would die as a sacrifice. And Romans 5 6-8, beautiful passage. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person. Though perhaps for a good person, someone might actually dare to die. where God proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And Psalm 16:10, written a thousand years before Jesus actually lived prophesied that the Messiah would be resurrected. That's exactly what happened to Jesus on resurrection Sunday.

And when Jesus was raised with power and declared to be the son of God through the power or the dynamites of his resurrection, the world has never been the same ever since. So there were plenty of prophecies about the coming of the Messiah and Satan knew this and he ran plenty of satanic counterfeits. You find one was in a man called Simon Barokba and the Barokba revolt. Um he claimed that he was the Messiah. He led a revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 to 135.

Um over 500,000 people lost their lives in this revolt. And the Jewish rabbis in Jerusalem said he was the Messiah. And the Romans came and they destroyed Jerusalem a second time after AD.70. And they barred all Jews from ever entering the city again under Emperor Hadrien. And Simon Barkba was killed in the fighting.

Then there was a man called Dossiththeio, the Samaritan. He arrived about AD50 and he tried to persuade the Samaritans that he was the Jewish Messiah prophesied by Daniel and prophesied by Moses. But after a while, nobody accepted his claims and he kind of faded away. Then there was a guy called Fudas in AD46 and you read about him in the Jewish historian Josephus and he claimed to be the Messiah and he led a large number of people out of Jerusalem down to the river Jordan pursued by the by the American soldiers. No, the Roman soldiers.

I really am kind of tired here tonight, so you have to check my history as well. He was pursued by the 101st Art in a Division. I don't know. Anyway, he was pursued by the Romans all the way down to the River Jordan. And when he got to the Jordan, he said, "I'm the Messiah." And he smoked the water with his cloak.

He said, "I can part the River Jordan like Elijah did." And what happened with Jo um Joshua and we will cross the Jordan and escape the Romans. And he smoked the water and nothing happened. And the Romans captured them all. And most of them were executed, including Theodas himself. And then there was Judas of Galilee.

He claimed to be the Messiah at the time of the birth of Jesus. He led a rebellion against the Roman Empire, but he was driven off into the the wilderness south of Jerusalem. And Galial, one of the most famous teachers of the New Testament era in the first century, Galiel, the first of Jerusalem, who was a teacher of the of the Apostle Paul, he references Judas of Galilee in Acts 5:36 and 38 where he says, "If something is of God, don't fight it. And if something is not of God, don't worry about it. It's just going to fade away anyway." and he references this.

So the point I'm making is that when the prophecies point to the coming of the Messiah, Satan was had all his counterfeits out there to distract and divert people's attention. And what was the message of those who are announcing the coming of Christ the first time? I'm just going to highlight those two passages in red. This is from John the Baptist. He said, "Bear fruit worthy of what?" repentance.

It says he will baptize you with Holy Spirit and with fire. We are ourselves today to bear fruit worthy of repentance. Those that Jewish audience presumed that because they were the children of Abraham, they were automatically right with God. And that wasn't the case. And we should not presume today that just because we have godly Christian parents, maybe Adventist or Baptist or Methodist or something, we should not assume that just because we have godly parents that everything is right in our lives as well.

We are to bear fruit worthy of repentance in our own lives as we wait for the coming of the Messiah the second time. That was the message at the first coming of the Messiah and as you're going to see, remarkably similar to the second coming of the Messiah. Let's move on to 1844. This was the announced coming of the Messiah. It was a global movement.

Some people call it the Millerite movement. And who was the forerunner? The one who announced the coming of Christ. It was actually this guy here, William Miller. Has anybody here heard of William Miller?

Yes. Um so America in the 1820s,30s, and 40s um went through what was known as the Great Awakening. It was a spiritual revival all across the United States. America was a fervent. was filled with um education reform, prison reform, um voting reform, the abolitionist movement against slavery, um trade reform, tax reform.

America during the great awakening was filled with reformers of many different kinds. And one of those reformers was a man called William Miller. He was a Baptist. He was a farmer. He was a self-educated mad man.

And he fought in the American victory in the 1812 war at Lake Champlain on the battle of Platsburg. Now this guy was an avid reader and he was deeply into the writings of the enlightenment people like um Hume and Loach and he was essentially a deist. He wasn't a theist he was a deist. Now the difference is a deist believes theoretically in the existence of God but God doesn't actually get involved in the affairs of humanity. So God is like the watch maker and he winds up the universe and then he lets the universe go and he's off somewhere else.

And don't bother praying to him. Don't bother asking him anything. Don't seek a personal connection with him because he's out there but he's not interested in any of us as human beings. Uh whereas Christians are theists rather than deists which is we believe that God exists. He is a God of love.

He delights to have communion with his children and he intervenes and he responds to our prayers, our cries for assistance. So William Miller, he was a deist. He believed in God but God was somewhere out there and he wasn't involved in the lives of humanity. But when he fought at the battle of Platsburg there in the 1812 war, he became convinced that God had directly intervened in that war to gain the victory for the American forces over the superior forces of the British Empire. And so he started to study the Bible for himself.

So um he was a farmer. He he he had a nice Bible and he got a concordance and he started with Genesis 1 and he said until I understand Genesis 1 I won't verse one I won't move to verse two when I understand Genesis 1 verse two I'll move to verse three when I understand Genesis 1 verse one 3 I'll move to Genesis 1 verse4 so he went through the Bible very very systematically he did this in his private time his family knew he was studying his community knew he was studying but nobody quite knew what his conclusions were and finally after 13 years of study he came to the conclusion that based on the prophecies of Daniel chapter 8 which we didn't cover this time round in this series but based on a certain prophecy there Jesus was going to come in 1843 and he thought wow like that's just a few years away what am I going to do about this he said but I'm a farmer who's going to listen to me so he said he he folded up his papers. He put them on a desk and he said, "Lord," he said, "I'm not going to tell anybody about this unless you give me an opportunity to share this." Said, "I'm I'm not sure about my conclusions. I think I'm right, but I'm not going to go and announce to the world that Jesus is coming again." So, he said, "Lord, I'm not going to tell anybody." And about half an hour later in August 1833, his nephew knocked on the door and said that the local Baptist preacher was sick and they knew that he'd been studying the Bible for 13 years. The local congre Baptist congregation wanted William Miller the farmer to come and explain what he'd been studying about for 13 years.

Half an hour after he said to God, "I ain't going to do this." Talk about a direct answer to prayer. And so William Miller went off and he announced that Jesus was coming again. And in 18 when this when this news was given, it electrified North America. There was there was a spiritual revival all across North America. And people were joining what is now known as the Millerite movement.

They came from the Baptists. They came from the Methodists. They came from the Episcopalians. They came from the the Quakers, the Plymouth Brethren. They came from all manner of Christians, denominations gathered together.

And they were studying the good news that Jesus is coming soon based on the prophecies of Daniel 8 13 and 14. And the news went around the world. And in Britain, you had some aristocrats starting prophecy studies up in the north of England. and it went to Scandinavia where it was against the law to preach about the second coming of Jesus. It was against the law.

And so what happened? God raised an an army of small children in in Finland and Sweden and they started preaching about the second coming of Jesus and they couldn't be prosecuted. And they were known as the child preachers. And those child preachers with no theological background were preaching for hours at a time in in in farmyards and in barns and farm homes all across Sweden and branching into Finland and announcing that Jesus was coming soon and there was a spiritual revival over there in Scandinavia. The announcements of the coming of the Messiah went to India through the British Empire and went into parts of Africa as well.

And what was the key prophecy that was driving this? This was the key verse that was driving this guy William Miller is from Daniel 8:13 and 14. And um the question is for how long is his vision? That's the question read from the angel. And the answer is for 2,300 evenings and mornings then shall shall the sanctuary be restored or cleansed to his rightful state.

So you say, well, how how did he get 1843 from that or 1844? Well, simply this. Do you remember last week we covered the prophecy of Daniel 9, the 490ear prophecy? Somebody say yes. Yes.

And I hope you can all explain it to somebody yourselves. Okay. We and and that prophecy, that 490ear prophecy, the 77's prophecy about the first coming of the Messiah, it began with the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem in Daniel chapter 9:25, which happened in 457 BC. And um we find that Jesus came on time in the fall of AD27. He was crucified in the middle of the 70th week in AD31 Passover.

And then Steven was killed in AD34 after which the gospel went to the Gentiles. You all remember that? Somebody say yes. Yes. Okay.

All right. So uh so William Miller he understood this that the the word 70 weeks are decreed for your people is better translated as cut off from your people and that is cut off from a broader time vision. Now we don't have time to go into all the Hebrew here but that the the this um 2,300year prophecy um is tied to Daniel 9 through through the use of the Hebrew mar or hats on. There are two words used for vision. They kind of connect with each other.

But the bottom line is this. The 2300year prophecy began at the same time as the 490ear prophecy because the 490 years were cut out of the longer prophecy of Daniel 8:13-14. So therefore, the 2300 years began in 457 BC and it concluded in October 1844. And William Miller, he he produced these charts and he went all across America and there was an incredible spiritual awakening all across America. People were preparing for the coming of Jesus Christ.

Was Satan happy about this? Absolutely not. Satan had his counterfeits. In in fact, every time that the announcement of Jesus go is coming goes around the world, Satan runs interference every single time. The first time that Jesus came, there was a whole bunch of false messiahs came on the scene.

And when William Miller was announcing that Christ was coming in 1844, guess what appeared on the scene at the same time? Charles Darwin, who wrote his book on evolutionary theory, the the origin of species. You've heard of that book? Well, there's the full original copy there. And this was he wrote a the a pamphlet called the theory of evolution in 1844.

Um but then in 1859 he published this work here and the everybody knows it by the origin of species. Yes. But you know what the full title is? This is the title they never tell our children in public school when they teach evolution to our young people. You can kind of see it on the screen there.

I'm messing with it there. It's uh by means of natural selection or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life. That's the full title. What was Charles Darwin actually arguing for? He was arguing that white Europeans were more advanced than every other ethnic group on planet Earth.

He argued that on the origin of species or the preservation of the favored races, he argued that the white Europeans had a moral responsibility to wipe out all the other ethnic groups on planet Earth. Everybody who was black, brown, or yellow or anything else. I'm speaking bluntly here, but that's what he argued for. This is what we teach our children in public school today. This is the theory of evolution.

Why is that? Because if if this is the human race and uh these are the different there's only there's only one human race there's one hand you have different ethnic groups around the world and Charles Darwin argued that the Europeans were the most advanced therefore they should be the ones with access to the resources and in order for the human race to survive the fittest must survive the survivor of the fittest. Therefore all these groups must be eliminated for the resources to be focused around this group here. And that's the origin of what we call scientific racism. When we teach our children evolution in schools, the natural result is racism in our society.

The belief that one group is more advanced than another or put another way, one group is somehow inferior to another group. And so Charles Darwin publishes in 1844 when when um Miller is preaching about the second coming of Christ, we have the idea of of um the the origin of species. And in in in Christianity, death is the defeated enemy. But in Charles Darwin's theory, death is the engine of evolutionary progress. The more people die out of the inferior parts of the human race, the more chances the overall species has to survive.

And so for Charles Darwin, death was a blessing. And the more death there is, the better because it ensures the survival of the human species. But for Christianity, death is the last enemy and it's a defeated enemy. When Jesus comes again, there's going to be no more death. And so the doctrines of Charles Darwin led to the extermination of the hot and tots in southwest Africa, modern day boner, Botswana.

It led to child um Adolf Hitler. His idea of the Aryans, the master race, and the Russians and the Poles and the Jews are submentioned. They're subhuman. They're further down the evolutionary scale. We've seen in the deaths of millions and millions of people the practical outworking of Charles Darwin's theories and so but he appears on the scene exactly the same year that Miller is is announcing the coming of Christ.

Then you have Sigman Freud another counterfeit idea that comes out. Um he he was the founder of psychoanalysis and around this same time he published his theory of how the mind works and he argued that because people are repressing their true intimate desires when we repress our physical desires this leads to neurosis and neurotic behavior and mental health breakdown. And so therefore, argued Sigman Freud, in order for people to be h healthy in their mental state, they must have no restrictions whatsoever on their physical or intimate or sexual behavior because if there's any restrictions placed upon you, that's going to lead to neurosis. This was the the foundation of the modern-day sexual revolution that we see in the streets of America. And so for Sigman Freud, there should be no moral restraint whatsoever because any kind of moral restraint leads to mental health problems.

We are a product of our genes according to Sigman Freud. There is no room for God. But the Christian response to Sigman Freud is we are not pro pre-programmed automatans. We are not slaves to our genes. When we are born again, when we are born of the spirit and born again of water, we become as the Bible says a new creation.

And God gives us the power to break our genetic heritage, overcome it. Then you also find at the same time that William Miller was preaching the coming of Christ, you have another messiah coming along called Karl Marx. He published the communist manifesto and das capital capital his three volume work um just after William Miller was preaching in the late 1840s and he argued that the working class must carry out revolution against the owners of the factories and emancipate the workers and the workers would own the means of production and then we would create a classless society. And uh in the 20th century maybe 110 million people died as the the outworking of this theory. This ideology of Karl Marx has killed more people than any other ideology in human history.

That's just the numbers of people who died. But when you consider the people who were exiled for the rest of their lives to Siberia, people who were transplanted from one area to another, the mass deportations and the deaths that went with it, when you consider that Mount Seong not just kills 65 plus million of his own people to fulfill his Marxist ideology, but countless tens of millions suffered in what we now know as the cultural revolution of China. The the consequences of Marxist ideology have been catastrophic for humanity. So we find in in the political arena, Satan runs interference. Just at the same time that Miller is announcing the coming of Christ, you have um Charles Darwin, Sigman Freud and KL Marx all coming up with these humanistic philosophies, godless um philosophies that draw humanity's attention away from Christ.

In the area of religion, um you had the Bab who established the the Bahigh religion literally in 1844 in southern um Iran in the city of Shiraz. And you also had Joseph Smith declared that he was receiving revelations from an angel corr44 and he established the latter-day saints of Jesus Christ. And so just as the announcement of the coming of Christ was going to the entire world, we have this upsurge of ideologies and theories that have captivated the minds of men and women all around the world for the last 200 years. Marxism, uh, evolution, um, psycho Freudian psychology and the bahigh faith in Islam and the Mormonism um, within the West here. And so just as there were, um, there were false messiahs coming along when Jesus came the first time.

So when Miller was announcing the coming of Christ, Satan was running interference, he was throwing dust in humanity's face. Anything to take our attention away from the coming of Jesus Christ. And what was the message of 1844 that Jesus was coming? It's simply this that the bridegroom is at the door from the parable of the the 10 virgins in Matthew's gospel. The church is the bride of Christ.

The church needs to put away sin and be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to be ready for the arrival of the groom. Those are the wise virgins versus the foolish virgins. The parable of the 10 virgins there at the end of Matthew's gospel. That's remarkably similar to the message that was proclaimed by John the Baptist that we are to bear fruit worthy of repentance. That we are to align our lives with the will of God when we know that Jesus is coming again.

So then you come to the last coming, the second coming of Christ that we're now looking forward to today. So what happened after William Miller? Well, after William Miller, God raised up not just an individual such as William Miller or not just John the Baptist, but God raised up a movement around the world. And they they when William Miller um in 1844, Christ didn't come, they understood that it was the heavenly sanctuary to be cleansed, not the earthly sanctuary. Those sabotarian Adventists became what we now known as the Seventh Day Adventist movement.

a movement that's gone all around the world and announces to people that the Messiah is coming again and he's coming for his own and we need to be ready for Jesus when he comes again and this movement has gone all over the world including to here in Kihei and across the island of Maui there are five core doctrines I mean uh much Adventism um agrees with you know with Baptists and Methodists and Episcopalians and Lutherans on many many things um such as the virgin birth and creation and so forth and so forth but there are five core doctrines that come together and I call them the S doctrines in my mind. There's the doctrine of the Sabbath, the second coming, the spirit of prophecy, the state of the dead, and the sanctuary. And we've covered four of those. We just haven't covered the sanctuary in our time together. Maybe in a couple years we'll cover that.

But you got these four core doctrines of the Sabbath, the second coming, the spirit of prophecy, the state of the dead, that what happens when you die, and the doctrine of the heavenly sanctuary. And so this this um this movement that God has raised to announce the coming of Jesus Christ, we are part of that movement here tonight. It is our privilege to announce the coming of the Messiah. To prepare a way for the Messiah, to prepare people's hearts for the coming of the Messiah. Why?

Because God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should have eternal life. And so when you look at the um the experience of those of the of the sabotarian movement, there's a prophecy in in Revelation 8. And um the um as Adventists, we understand prophecy the same way that Daniel did and John the Apostle did and the reformers, Martin Luther, and so forth. We understand that prophecy was given such as in the time of Daniel and it works its way out through history through time and space and you can see the fulfillment and it climaxes in the second coming of Christ and that's known as historicism that the prophecy works its way out um it worked its way out in time in history and you can see as it's being fulfilled through history and so in Revelation chapter 10 it speaks about this great disappointment experience and um you see there in the first paragraph, the angel says, "Go take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel." And what this is, if you look at the book of Daniel, the last chapter, um the prophet Gabriel says to Daniel, "Close up the scroll. It's going to be sealed till the time of the end." But now in Revelation 10, that scroll is open.

So that means in the end times, we have incredible understanding of the prophecies particularly of Daniel and Revelation. That's exactly what we have today. the knowledge will increase before Jesus comes again. And so then the bit in red says, so this is John the Apostle. He says, I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll and he said to me, take it and eat.

It will be bitter to your stomach but sweet as honey in your mouth. So which comes first, the stomach or the mouth? The mouth. And so what the angel is saying is that the announcement of the coming of Jesus is going to be sweet to the mouth. It's going to be a delicious message.

You're going to want to taste that. And that's exactly what happened in the 1840s. People were filled with joy with the announcement that Jesus was coming again. But when he didn't come in 1844, there was a bitter taste in the stomach. Uh it was it was called the great disappointment.

And so having gone through the great disappointment, um then then the angel says to John, "You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings." And so having gone through the the 1844 the announcement of the coming of Christ and he didn't come because we understood now he was in the heavenly sanctuary not cleansing the physical earth that we live in today. So the advent movement they held Bible studies in North America and out of that arose the worldwide advent movement and we're a part of that tonight. You know this is a movement of destiny. It's a movement of prophecy. It's a movement that God has called for a purpose which is to win as many people for God's kingdom before Jesus comes in the clouds of glory.

And are there satanic counterfeits um that Satan runs in the last times? Well, the first time Jesus came, were there satanic counterfeits? Were there false messiahs? Oh, yes, there were. I listed some of them on the screen.

When Jesus was announced as coming in 1844, did Satan throw dust in humanity's eyes and raise up these other ideologies that have distracted humanity ever since? Absolutely. Marxism, evolutionary theory, Freudian psychology, and these other false religions. Satan's been diverting and distracting humanity for the last 200 years. He's an expert at it.

My mother used to say, "Did you start that fight with your twin brother?" I say, "Yes, mom. It all started when he hit me back. I was expert at diverting attention from my own moral responsibility as a kid. And Satan's been doing it for thousands of years. He throws dust in our eyes.

Career, finances, godless ideologies, the political movements of our time. He throws us in our eyes anything to keep our eyes from focusing on the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. He plays these games [clears throat] in the end of times. What does the Bible say about these satanic counterfeits? Jesus says this in Matthew 24.

You know, this is Matthew 24. Every gospel has its own structure. I'd encourage you to look at the structures of the gospel. It helps you understand it. The Gospel of Matthew is basically five sermons.

We all know the sermon on the mount, chapters 5-7. you know, Matthew 23 and um 24 and 25. Um that's the final teachings of Jesus, of the the mini apocalypse, you might say. There are three other sermons in the Gospel of Matthew. I encourage you to go home and take a look in your Bible and find those other three sermons in the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew is basically five long sermons when you break it down. But this is the last sermon that Jesus gives, his last words in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 24:24 Jesus says this for for he's speaking about the time of the end before he returns again he says for false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens to lead astray if possible even the elect that is the saints of God. So Jesus says that just before he comes again there's going to be false messiahs that is people claiming to be Christ and they're going to be performing signs and wonders to deceive people. Last week, somebody sent me a video of a guy in London claiming to be the Messiah.

And he he's kind of looks like he's from maybe the Middle East and he has a big beard and he says, you know, uh, on my mother's side, I'm descended from Islam. On my father's side, I'm descended from Christianity. My grandmother was a Jew. My grandfather was a Bahai and so forth. And I bring all the religions of the world together and I am the Messiah of God, etc., etc.

I mean, he was literally saying this on YouTube. It's fascinating to listen to these guys speak like this. And Jesus says that just before he comes again, people are going to appear and say, "I am the Messiah. I am Jesus Christ returned to save humanity." And they're going to look for followers and they're going to look for money. It almost always devolves into sexual immorality almost every time that you get these Messiah figures.

But this is what Jesus speaks about. The Apostle Paul also speaks about how Satan deceives. He says, "And no wonder even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." And so Satan um will actually impersonate Christ before Jesus comes again, appearing as a shining glorious angel of light seeking to deceive the nations of the world. My favorite Christian writers there, Ellen White, she says this in 1889, commenting on the appearance of Satan before the coming of Christ. She says, "Satan will work wonders before men to make the world believe him to be the Christ come the second time to our world.

He transforms himself into an angel of light. But while he bears the appearance in every particular, as far as appearance goes, he is not Christ." And I want to ask you this. Do we in the West like Messiah figures? Think about every election season. Whoever's running for president, they'll speak to tens of thousands of people in a football stadium somewhere.

They'll make all these promises and people are cheering and they're chanting saying, "Four more years. Four more years." As if a hu one individual can solve the problems of this world and we put bumper stickers on and we put caps on and we have signs outside our lawns and so forth and we we let the whole world know that we believe that this man or this woman can solve the world's problems. And in all honesty, if you run for president saying, "I can solve the world's problems, you shouldn't be in the White House. You should be in a looney bin." In all honesty, but we like these political messiah figures in the West. We vote for them.

We give money to them. We support them. We we we have the stickers on on the back of our cars and all the rest of it. We somehow believe that in four years uh one man, one woman can take the nation in this direction or that direction is going to be the right direction. We love political messiah figures.

And so in the New Testament, you read in Matthew 24:24, Jesus says that these false messiahs will produce signs and omens. In 2 Thessalonians 2, speaking about the the appearance of Satan before Jesus comes again, that if Satan is going to impersonate the coming of Christ, Satan will do power signs and lying wonders. And in the ministry of Jesus in in Pentecost, Peter describes Jesus as doing deeds of power, wonder, and signs. I said this the other night. The difference between the ministry of Jesus and the appearance of Satan, you got the same words, power, wonders, and signs in each kind of ministry.

The only difference is that Satan's are lying wonders. That is his wonders are deceeded to deceive the elect of God. It's why our faith does not depend on miracles. Faith comes through the hearing of the word of God. Faith comes through God changing our hearts moment by moment.

If our faith depended on miracles, then if miracles don't happen, we lose faith. But if Satan if Satan can work miracles, and he can, then we can be easily led astray and deceived. So our faith does not depend on miracles. So before Jesus comes again, there's going to be many false messiahs claiming that they are Jesus Christ. And then Satan himself is going to appear and make out that he is the returned son of God.

And he's going to make his instructions to the world. And we read about that in the 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 9. And what is the what is the message of those who are announcing the coming of Jesus the last time? Revelation 18:1. You could look at many verses for this, but I just picked out this verse here.

It says, "After this, I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth was made bright with his splendor." That word splendor is docu. We get the word doxology from that. It means glory or praise. And so this verse says that just before Jesus comes again, a message is going to go to the entire world and the world is going to be lit with the glory of that message. So what is that message?

Well, Moses said to God in Exodus 33, he said, "Show me your glory." And God took Moses in Exodus 34 and he hid him in a cleft in the rock on Mount Si and he passed before him and God revealed his glory to Moses. It wasn't his power. It wasn't his might. It was his character. The Lord passed before Moses and proclaims [clears throat] the Lord or Yahweh.

Jehovah Jehovah, the Lord merciful, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression of sin. Yeah, by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of your parents upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. It's a beautiful description of the glory of God, which is his character. So, you all know about God's character. He's merciful and he's gracious and he's slow to anger and he is abounding inet is the Hebrew wordet.

It means covenant faithfulness, mercy, gentleness, kindness. My favorite verses in the Bible is in um Psalm 117. It says, "The Lord is just in all his ways and kind in all his doing." Beautiful description of the character of God. And this verse here in red says, "He keeps fa he's faithful to the thousandth generation." How often do you read in the scriptures where God sends a priest to a king and says, you know, you've been a sinner and God wants to bring judgment upon you. Then the prophet says, "But for the sake of my servant David, this will not happen in your lifetime." So what this verse says here that when when you turn to God in faith, you bring God's blessing upon your family to the thousandth generation.

You change your family lineage. It's incredible that that family receives an ongoing blessing from God even though they may not know God for themselves to the thousandth generation. And then it says, "But God visits the iniquity of the parents from the children to the third and fourth generations." Which means if a father drinks, it's going to affect his children, grandchildren, maybe grandchild, great-grandchildren, for that cycle of violence can be eradicated from the family. But God limits the harm that sin does to families. But God's mercy to families that turn to him is a thousand generations.

We haven't gone through a thousand generations yet in earth's history. about how God wants to bless your family and your children and your children and your grandchildren, your children yet unborn. You turn to God in faith today. And God's glory is to show covenant faithfulness to his children. So the message that's to go to the world, the earth is to be lit with the glory of God's character means that there's a people on earth whose characters reflect the glory of God.

Their lives are filled with sacrificial love for their neighbor. They are merciful. They are gracious. They're not vindictive. They're not hatefilled.

They are spiritled. They love their neighbor as themselves. They care for their neighbor as themselves. They are a force for good in their community. They are a blessing when things go wrong.

When nobody else wants to touch somebody, the social lepers in society, that's where the followers of God are supposed to be, showing his presence to them in their moments of need. And so this [clears throat] the world is to be lit. uh the word the earth was made bright with his splendor. God is looking for people who will fully reflect the character of God. And that's what's going to win humanity in the final crisis.

In a world of violence and a world of deception and a world of intrigue and a world of cynicism, God is looking for people whose lives are a demonstration of the character of God. And so when Jesus comes again, [clears throat] the Bible is very clear about what we're going to see and hear when Jesus returned to heaven. Acts chapter 1, the angels came and spoke to the disciples who are looking up into heaven. And it said they said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up towards heaven? This Jesus who you who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." What does this mean?

It means that the return of Jesus will be literal and it will be personal. The next thing we see in the New Testament is Revelation 1 and verse 7 says, "Behold, he's coming with the clouds. How many eyes will see him according to the Bible? Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail." So it is to be. Amen.

So Jesus' return will be visible. It will be literal. And every eye will see him when he comes back. You're not going to have to be told he's in Manhattan. go to Manhattan.

You're not going to have to be told he's in New Delhi. You need to go to New Delhi to meet him. Not going to be told he's in the deserts of Nevada. No. When Jesus comes back, every eye on earth is going to see him.

It's going to be unmistakable. Every eye will see him. And not only that, but we will, everybody will hear when Jesus comes again. 1 Thessalonians 4 says, "The Lord himself with the cry of command with the archangels call and the sound of God's trumpet, um, all of which are things you hear with your ears will descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air." And so we will be with the Lord forever.

So when Jesus comes again, every eye will see him. Every ear is going to hear him. In fact, not just the living are going to hear him, but that the call of the archangel and the trumpet of God will pierce every grave where those who are waiting for the resurrection of the righteous are lying in their cemeteries. And the dead in Christ will hear that command and they will come forth as did Lazarus when he came forth from the tomb. And we who are alive will be caught up with the resurrected saints to meet Jesus in the air.

Now, let me ask you this. Is this something you're likely to miss? No. Nobody's going to miss this. Absolutely nobody is going to miss this.

It says that [snorts] when Jesus comes, he says the son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his father and then he will repay everyone for what he has done. So Jesus will be accompanied by an army of angels in glorious heavenly beauty and heavenly glory. It's not just Jesus we're going to see coming the clouds of glory, but an army of angels. And we spoke in uh nights two and three about all the demons that are infesting our world. We're going to see a manifestation of the angels of God.

Legions upon legions upon legions, myriads upon myriads of glorious shining angels coming with Christ to redeem the the the saints from planet Earth. And we also know that Jesus' return will catch the world by surprise. Not going to put it in your calendar. Says, "For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord or the coming of Christ will come as a what? Thief in the night." They will say when they say peace and security then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and there will be no escape.

So Jesus return is going to catch the world by surprise. It's not going to be something that CNN and Fox are saying we're projecting that next Monday Jesus is going to come again. Okay? He's going to catch the world by surprise. When the world is saying peace and safety and peace and safety, we're going to figure out the world's problems among our human leaders.

That's when Jesus is going to intervene. The Bible tells us that when Jesus comes again, the heavens will disappear and the earth is going to melt. So the day of the Lord will come like a thief and the heavens will pass away with a loud noise and the elements will be dissolved with fire and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. So you think Maui is hot today? Wait till the day that Jesus comes.

We talk about global warming. I'm more concerned with the global meltdown when Jesus comes again. when all the elements of the earth are dissolved by the heat of the coming of Christ. So the earth is going to kind of like the the heavens are going to disappear and when the heavens are disappeared all the mathematical formula that make life possible on planet earth and the forces of gravity and all the the other forces that are out there know our universe is a finely balanced mathematical machine to make life possible on planet earth. And when it says the heavens will be swept away means all the mathematical formulas, the architecture of the universe that makes life possible on planet earth will be gone.

Life will no longer be possible and the earth is going to melt down with heat at the arrival of Jesus Christ. This is something you're not going to miss. You're not going to be sleeping through this. When Jesus comes again, the whole world is going to know it. Uh we then we read that when he comes again there'll be a global earthquake and every mountain and island will be moved which I guess means Maui as well.

When he opened the sixth seal I looked there came a great earthquake. This is talking about the second coming of Christ. The sun became black as sackcloth. The full moon became like blood. The stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.

The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up. and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Are you going to miss it here in Maui? No. You're going to see it.

You're going to hear it. The ground is going to tremble under your feet. The earth is going to get hotter and hotter and hotter and the elements going to melt around us. And that big mountain behind us and these islands around us are all going to be moved out of their places by a global earthquake which will destroy the cities of this world. Nobody's going to miss the second coming of Jesus Christ.

[snorts] And when Jesus comes again, the rich are going to hide in their bunkers, but to no avail. As then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains calling to the mountains and rocks fallen and hide from the one of the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come. And who is able to stand? Let me ask you, does Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos and for people like that, do they all build bunkers in the world?

Yes. I've got a friend who's head of maintenance at a house. He's a household name. We won't say who it is. He is one of the world's like the top three richest men in the world.

And he's built an underground city. And I know where it is. I'm not telling you where it is. I may go there when Jesus comes. No, I'm only joking.

But they've built an underground city in a part of the United States. When you see wealthy men flying to the south the south island of New Zealand, there's a really good chance they're there to build bunkers. Why? Because uh the with the trade winds, if there's a nuclear war, nothing's going to happen to the south island of New Zealand. So the wealthy are building bunkers in the mountains or the southern Alps as they're called of the South Sea, the South Island of New Zealand.

And the Zuckerbergs of this world, they're building underground fortresses. And the military of the United States, they have that mountain in Colorado. Yes, I forget what it's called. And when when Jesus comes again, the wealthy, the generals, the powerful are going to be going to their bunkers and asking the rocks to fall upon them and hide them from the face of the lamb who is coming. Why?

Because these men are persecuting the saints of God in the final time. So, our time is up now. Our two weeks are almost up. I've gone way beyond time here tonight, and I apologize for that. But this this is the joy of being an Adventist.

It's the knowledge that Jesus is coming again and he's coming for his own and he knows his own. And today and yesterday we saw 10 precious souls born again. Their names added to the lamb's book of life. So what do we say in conclusion here tonight? One is this.

Love the truth is the antidote to deception. You you understand what a deception is if you know what the original article really is. So read the scriptures for yourselves. Read the gospels, a portion of the gospels every day. Know who Jesus is for yourself because when these false messiahs appear, you're going to be able to say, "No, that's not that's you're not the Messiah because you don't meet all these biblical criteria for the coming of Jesus, we know what the Bible says.

You are a false messiah." So the first thing is love the truth. Don't just know that Jesus is coming again. Satan knows that Jesus is coming again. The demons know that Jesus is coming again. James chapter 3 says you believe in God.

He says congratulations. The demons believe in God and they tremble. So say merely saying I believe in God doesn't mean you are saved. We are to love the truth not just know the truth. And that comes through spending time with our Bibles on daily basis.

I would encourage you particularly the new brothers and sisters here tonight start reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Start reading through those gospels every single day. Get to know Jesus for yourselves. It's not what a pastor says. It's not what a Sabbath school teacher says.

Allow God to reveal himself to you in his word and get to know Jesus for yourselves. Love the truth. Don't just know the truth. Secondly, share the truth. And we saw in the first coming of Christ that God had a man, John the Baptist, to announce his coming.

When they thought Jesus was coming in 1844, there was the worldwide Millerite movement and they announced the coming of Jesus. And we know that Jesus is coming again. It's prophesied all through the scriptures. And God is looking for an advent movement. People who will announce, proclaim, and share the good news of a soon returning sinbearing, sinner loving, placeaking savior.

And we're a part of that movement. And if you're not part of that movement yet, then I pray that God, by God's grace, you will be one day soon to announce the coming of Jesus. Because the coming of Jesus is not just a blessed hope. It's humanity's only hope. And then we not just love the truth.

We don't just share the truth, but we stand for the truth. The one who endures to the end will be saved. Last night, we just got we just skated very briefly last night over the final crisis that is coming for this world. I'm not worried about that final crisis because Jesus said in Mark 13, he says, "When you are brought before synagogues and rulers, he says,"O not worry beforehand what you are to say, for words will be given you at that time." The word for martyr, martus the Greek, it doesn't mean somebody that dies for their faith. That's what the popular meaning of the word means, martus.

A martus in the time of Christ in the New Testament was somebody who testified that they were a servant, a follower of Christ in a Roman law court knowing that it could lead to their death. Do we think as a m somebody a martr is somebody who dies for this faith? No. A martyr is somebody who lives their faith. regardless of the consequences up to and including laying down their life if necessary.

But the the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Jesus wants us to be living martyrs for him, living witnesses to the truth that he is coming back and coming for his own. And if you're going to stand through earth's final crisis when all the powers of earth are united against those who are faithful to God, it's going to require a courage that only God can give. So God is looking for people who will love the truth, share the truth, and stand up for the truth. And our final slide is here.

And when we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. You I could have picked many verses to talk about heaven, but I chose this one here. A pro a prophecy from the prophet Isaiah says, "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Whatever culture you come from, whatever language you call your mother's tongue, whatever the color of your passport, whatever your ethnic heritage and cultural background, this is something that I think everybody could want to be a part of. God describes heaven in a way that people from every corner of the globe say, "I want to be there." And it's our privilege as 7th Adventists to announce the coming of the Messiah in Kihei and across Maui and across Hawaii and to the ends of the earth. I want to encourage you tonight if you're a member of the Adventist movement to love the truth, to share the truth, and to stand for the truth unapologetically, unashamedly, without any fear, because of God before us, who can be against us. Win as many souls as you can for Christ. And for for those here who are not yet part of the Advent movement, I'd encourage you come to the Kihei or the Callahooi, is that pronounced right?

Adventist church. Study, learn these doctrines, learn these truths from scripture and join something that's much bigger than any of us. A worldwide movement that is preparing the world for the coming of the Messiah. John the Baptist prepared the world. The Millerite movement prepared the world.

God will have a people in these final days who are preparing the world for the coming of Jesus. That's something I want to be a part of. It's bigger than me, more important than me. It's more valuable than anything good in my life. It's something I can give my life to.

Why? Because God is good. And this prize here is worth fighting for. So love the truth, stand for the truth, and share the truth. When Jesus comes again, my prayer is we will all have this experience in our own lives on that glorious day when Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven.

My prayer we'll all be there. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you tonight for the good news that Jesus is coming again. Father, we know that Satan's running interference through the ideologies of this world, through the ideas, through the politicians, through the writers, all of whom are designed to draw people's attention away from the Savior. But I pray tonight, Father, that our eyes, the eye of faith will be fixed firmly and solely upon Jesus as our personal savior, as our sooncoming savior, the sinner loving savior, the place taking savior, the guilt-forgiving savior, the sin removing savior, my savior and our savior.

I pray father eyes will be solely fixed upon him that when people talk to us or they will hear about is the good news that there is a savior coming those who are faithful to him. Father may our lives always be a witness. May there be a light on a hill that cannot be hidden. Jesus as we prayed before we ask you again tonight when you come again in the clouds of glory and all the people of Kihei and Maui see you coming in the clouds of glory. I pray that everyone whose head is bowed here tonight will be found in the Lamb's Book of Life.

This is our prayer in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Okay, before we