The Sleepy Church (7th Seal)

Jump right into it. I mean, again, I just want to thank the Lord. I want to thank my wife for getting me a beautiful laptop in which we needed to continue this ministry to keep things going. And she was a blessing. And the Lord moved her and got this. I mean, as soon as I got it on on Christmas day, I opened it up. We went to New York and I've been working on it ever since. I actually did the whole presentation in New York. Now I do not have a live copy of the presentation, but hey, I'm sharing it live on Facebook. So that's a big thing. But what I want to do is I like I always do. I like to share the presentation and I've been doing so. I'll Okay. So there's a lot, but I want to make sure I could condense it so we can get done because we started late. I wanted to get this out because this is a major, major, and this is a very important Bible study tonight. All right. So let's get going. All right. So as we've been talking about, we've been talking about the seven seals and now that we're in the final seal, we're going to be looking at what needs to be done before the return of Christ. There's a lot to talk about in this piece here, but I'm going to be talking about the church, the Laodicean church. That's what I'm going to focus on tonight. We are talking about the sleepy church, the seventh seal we're focusing on the sleepy church. Okay. The Laodicean period of the church is where we are today. The name Laodicea means judging the people, which matches the seventh day Adventist teaching since 1844, that we are in the time of judgment right now with Christ cleansing the heavenly sanctuary. So the name Laodicea, it means judging the people. Okay. I'm going to pause right here because I want to spend some time with this knowledge. I want to spend some time on this term, just a little bit. The name Laodicea means judging the people. That means a lot. That means we are right now in the judgment period right now. Okay. God is judging his church. If the name means judging the people, then it matches where we are today. Okay. Let us read in our Bibles, Revelations chapter three, verses 14 through 22. And unto the angel of the church of Laodicea writes, these things sayeth the amen, the faithful and the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in fire, that thou mayest be rich and white in raiment, that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with thyself that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice, if any man hears my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame and I am set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches. All right, so now we are in the crux of it. We understand who we're talking about now, the church of Laodicea. This is where we are. We are now in present time. Remember when we started this series? We started this series with the first church, the early church, the very first church, starting from AD 33. And now we are in present time. These words are from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. The Amen signifying that this is the final church age. We all know we say at church when the pastor says Amen or when church is over or when the prayer is over, we say Amen when church is over. So pretty much these words are from the Amen, the last church. Amen signifies that this is the final church age, which takes us right to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the creator and in being the faithful and true witness, he is the perfect representation of the character of God, which we should all be looking to attain. Why is it that this church only receives rebuke? Jesus says that this church is neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, and she thinks that she is rich and in need of nothing. These riches are not earthly riches, but spiritual riches. We're going to see how, as the last day church, how we behave. As Seventh-day Adventists, how we behave and what we're doing right now that God abhors. In other words, this church has been blessed with great light concerning the word of God. And what has she done? Has the church moved ever forward living the great truth that God has given her and sharing them with the world? Nope. Not to say that nobody isn't doing it. I don't want to get, I don't want to, I don't want to misconstrue anything here. Not to say that nobody is not doing it, but the church as a whole, as a global entity, if the Seventh-day Adventist church, which we are called Spiritual Israel, if we, just like the early church, sat up in the upper room and got together and asked the Spirit of the Holy Spirit of God, the power of the Spirit, what a true movement that would be, a powerful movement that would be. This church has kept these truths to herself, looking down upon the fallen churches from her lofty position, thinking that she will be saved merely by knowing the truth. Uh-oh, I'm gonna touch on some things here tonight, and I don't care. I'm gonna say some things tonight, and I don't care about toes being stepped on. Things need to be said. This past week, I was more hurt to see what was being posted on Facebook. For the past six months, I'm kind of getting agitated by what I see posted on Facebook. How we share God's message matters. Who we share God's message with matters, and what we're doing with God's message matters. This pompous behavior? Gotta stop. Fanaticism. Let's talk about fanaticism really quickly. Now, I posted this on Facebook, and I didn't expect to get a rise out of anybody, because not many of us understand what fanaticism is. But fanaticism is a serious situation that happens in our church. There are many people in our church today who are not good fanatics, and the Spirit of Prophecy spoke against fanaticism. As I returned to Portland, there were evidences of the desolating effects of fanaticism. Some seem to think that religion consisted in great excitement and noise. They would talk in a manner that would irritate unbelievers and have an influence to arouse hatred against themselves and the doctrines they taught. Then, they would rejoice that they suffered persecution. Again, I'm going to repeat this again. They would talk in a manner that would irritate unbelievers and have an influence to arouse hatred against themselves and the doctrines they taught. In other words, we post something on Facebook. I don't know who our target audience is, but here we are fighting amongst ourselves, and the unbelievers look at us like, am I supposed to be a part of this? Is this the true church? As a matter of fact, we don't even know who the true church is. I'm still confused as to what the right church is, but here it is that these people continue always fighting against themselves. I don't seem to understand it. It's mind boggling to me. Unbelievers can see no consistency in such a course. The brethren in some places were perverted from assembling for meetings. The innocent suffered with the guilty. So, here it is. We get something from Sister White, or I don't know where we get it from. I don't know where we get it from. We get something. We post it. What we believe that we're posting is supposed to change the lives of whom? What are we supposed to do with the information that we have? The information that we have is to be shared, but when we share information, let us give context. Give context. Just don't post. When you post a scripture, some scripture is within the context, but you got to believe. You have unbelievers who read the Bible just as well, and they're the ones who, and they're interpreting this in a whole different light from what you posted. You know what I heard this past week? Why a person left Facebook? There are too many Facebook preachers out there, and they're confused, but Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, these are all viable avenues to spread God's word, but the way that we're spreading God's word leaves a question mark. Are we really spreading God's word? We behave like we've made it. We behave like, you know, because I believe in present truth or I got the present truth. We made it. Let me just say this on the record. Let me say this on the record. The Pharisees who knew the Bible inside and out, they knew the law of Moses inside and out. They knew the 10 commandments inside and out. Many of them perish. It doesn't matter how much truth you know. The truth you know is not what's going to save you. I'm hoping I'm making myself clear. Truth you know is not going to save you. That's not the all and end all of what's going to save you. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, that when we share God's message, we ought to share God's message with meekness and fear. 1 Peter 3, verse 15. Share God's message with meekness and fear. 1 Peter 3, verse 15. But sanctify the Lord in your hearts. That's the first step. The first step is sanctification. We must be sanctified before we go making this junk. Sanctify the Lord in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. But I see on Facebook, oh, Christmas tree? Pagan. Let these Seventh-day Adventists continue buying their Christmas tree and worshipping their Christmas tree. And that's supposed to be a Seventh-day Adventist who's posting that. How in the world does a Seventh-day Adventist help another Seventh-day Adventist when you post something like that? And how does it help the unbeliever who's reading this? I'm sure there are many of us that have unbelieving friends. They're not all the way there yet. There are many of us that have unbelieving families. They're not all the way there yet. But here we are posting things like, you know what? Like we got it. Like we, you know what? We don't post, we don't, we don't, we don't put Christmas trees in our house. We made it. Why do we behave that way? Like we made it. Like we are better than them. It doesn't look good. That's not humility. That's not being humble. And the Bible says, when we give a reason for the hope that is within us, when we are sharing God's word, do it with meekness and with fear. Meekness. One of the Beatitudes. One of the fruits of the Spirit. How are we supposed to get to heaven if we're lacking one fruit? We're more pompous in our behavior. Facebook. What does our Facebook post say about us? When somebody reads our Facebook post, does that person look at it and go, you know what? This brother right here is a preacher of the gospel. This brother right here loves the people. He loves his brother. When we post something, what are we posting it for? Are we posting it so we can get a bunch of likes and a bunch of comments? Hearts and stuff? What are we posting it for? Are we looking for an argument? Are we posting so that we can, we can now stand up and say, you know what? I know God's word. So let me battle you. Who's our target audience? That's always the question that I have. Who's our target audience? Are we targeting Seventh-day Adventist Christians who ought to know better? Are we targeting audiences of Adventist Christians who ought to know better and we're trying to force them to know better? Or are we targeting unbelievers, like our unbelieving friends on Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and Foursquare and all the social media outlets out there? Who are we targeting? Is our target audience those of our family? How many people in the Seventh-day Adventist church do you know actually read Sister White's quotes? And how many people do you know of the world who know of Sister White? When they read their quotes, what are they supposed to get out of it? Who is our target audience? Because there are a lot of posts out there with quotes that are like little in the windows to something else. I'm not going to say exactly what I'm trying to say, but I'm going to have this quote say it for me. We have to be real careful because what the devil can do, he will take the good and twist it. You see, the intent, that should be the other question on here. What is our intent? Are we more pompous than others because we think we know present truth? Are we that kind of people? Do we behave this way that we are more pompous? We have this attitude of, you know what? Hey, let me tell you something. It's hard being a Seventh-day Adventist because as an Adventist, the rest of the world thinks that we behave pompous already. But then when we think you know present truth, oh no, now you're on a whole other level and then everybody else in the church now is looking at you like you think you know it all. We have left another stratosphere another level of just no humility whatsoever. We didn't have none as an Adventist because all the other churches and everybody else looks at us like, you know what? Well, you know this person already made it. He's in heaven already. We are there. But as with present truth, oh no, we've beyond gone past there. We have arguments on Facebook on misconstrued and misinterpreted LNY quotes. We are not supposed to be even arguing on the word of God. We should not be arguing on back and forth. And here it is that again, we have unbelieving families and unbelieving friends that watch this back and forth thing of people who should know the truth of people who should know better. I'm talking about Laodicea. Let's not let's not get it twisted like the church like Laodicea is just about the sleeping people in the church that should know better and should be woke and should have their eyes open. This is about everybody who claims and calls himself a Seventh-day Adventist Christian because the pendulum can swing from one end to the other. We have those who are fanatics in the church and I don't want to confuse fanaticism with extremists and fundamentalists. I'm not doing that. Fanaticism is something totally different. There are people in the church who believe that they're being persecuted right now and God has not sent them one stroke or inch of any persecution at all. He has not put them through that at all, but they want to pretend and believe that they're going through persecution. Let me make this one thing clear. The Bible says, Christ says, I will bring a sword to separate mothers from daughters, fathers from sons, meaning that those who are in your own family who do not want to hear the word of God, they themselves will separate themselves from you. They will separate from you, not you from them. You see, because you're going to want to continue giving them the word, but they don't want to hear the word. There's some people in the church who figures, you know what, I need to cut my family off. That's not what God is telling you. Our job is to spread God's word to our families and our unbelieving families and our unbelieving friends. We are to separate ourselves from putting ourselves in a position where God does not want us to be. If our unbelieving family is telling us, you know what, let's go to the club tonight. No, I don't do that. I'm going to separate myself from that. That's different from cutting my family off, having nothing to do with them and not speaking with them because they don't believe. They don't believe God's word. That's what we're talking about. How do we take God's word and twist it? Putting things that's not even there. Be adding things that's not there. The way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. He is the light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. He has given us most precious truths, but there are many who have not a right appreciation of what is essential for them to know and practice. Let not the people of God spend precious time on side issues, which are of no importance. Let them instead strive to reveal that love for Christ and that and the truth has knit their hearts together in unity and love and that this leads them to obey God's commandments. Side issues. I saw a lot posted on Facebook just on side issues and the devil is enjoying it because here it is that we're supposed to be in the soul-saving business. Co-operative, co-operators with Christ in the soul-saving business and we're more talking about pagan stuff and the rest of the world don't care. The rest of the families, it doesn't matter, but we are on issues. You know what? Not one place, there's only a few places that I saw where somebody posted the reason why Christ came as a babe to die for souls, but we're more posting and arguing about Christmas. We forgot our mission. Here's what Sister White said, Adventist home, there is no particular sin in selecting a fragrant evergreen and placing it in our churches, but the sin lies in the motive which prompts to action and the use which is made of the gifts placed upon the tree. Christmas and New Year's celebration can and should be held in behalf of those who are helpless. God is glorified when we give to help those who have large families to support. Let's pause again. Is this saying that we need to even go as far as going outside to help the homeless? No, we have friends, we have families that are in need. We have friends whose children needs coats. We have friends whose families need food. We have friends who don't, you know, where families are that year, this particular year, they may be working, but this particular year was rough for them. One more. How can we more appropriately celebrate the coming Christmas? How better express our gratitude to God for the gift of his dear son than by offerings to send to all the world the tidings of his soon coming? How about, you know what, next year for Christmas, we wrap a whole lot of great controversy books and send them out as Christmas gifts. I mean, I was hurt this whole Facebook this, this week, this past week. You know what? It's one thing to look at a man and tell a man who is hungry that he is hungry and not providing no food. It's one thing to tell the world you are doing wrong, but you have not provided no solution. And do not tell me that posting sister white quotes is providing a solution. Do not tell me how we post the quotes is providing solution. It's not just the quotes, it's the comments that go with the quotes. My brothers and my sisters, God gave us two commandments that is encompassed by love, which hangs on the commandment and the prophets. Love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul. And the second is like unto it, love your neighbors as yourselves. How are we not loving? How are we treating each other the way we treat each other on Facebook, thinking that we love somebody. We only are good to those who are like-minded with us, but let somebody challenge us. And it's, Oh, Oh, I don't need to talk to you no more. Oh, you can just go kick rocks. Oh, what's that about? First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. We need to be careful. The devil is slick. He's going to make you think you got it. We ourselves becoming stumbling blocks on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Snapchat, Instagram. We are becoming literal stumbling blocks. Can I ask a question? Out of all that we post on Facebook, how many persons have come back and said, you know what? Through your post, my brother, I went and got baptized. The devil is busy. He is using even us to twist it, to take the good news and through our behavior, become a stumbling block. Brothers and sisters, we need to be careful of how we post and what we post, what we say matters. There are brothers and sisters looking at us, unbelievers watching us. And here we are arguing and turning our bodies this way and that way. And through a post, you can read a person's attitude. Matters of vital importance have been plainly revealed in the word of God. These subjects are worthy of our deepest thoughts, but we are not to search into matters concerning which God has been silent. May God help his people to think rationally. When questions arise upon which are uncertain, we should ask, what sayeth the scriptures? Not what sayeth Ellen White, Ellen Gould White. She said, ask, what sayeth the scriptures? What does the Bible say concerning this? That's what we need to be doing. But the first thing we do, and I, hey, you know what? I'm going to be the first one. I have been, and I have been, you know, guilty of this myself. I go to Sister White's books and I try to figure out what does she say about this? The Bible needs to be our number one area that we go to. It's just that simple. What does the Bible say about this? And again, may God help his people to think rationally. We are so not rational. We are either all the way right or all the way left. There is no balance when it comes to us. None whatsoever. And we're supposed to be witnesses. We're supposed to meet the people where they are. How so? How do we reach somebody where they are? When we have no balance, we can't think rationally. This church, this Laodicean is worse than cold, being lukewarm. And in this position, she is very offensive to God, not because the members have done worse things than anyone else, but because the great light that God has given them, the great Bible truths for our time, which should have caused them to be zealous unto good works, living and sharing these precious truths with the rest of the world. Someone who is hot is obviously zealous, actually living the faith that they proclaim. Someone who is cold could denote someone who lacks faith and feels unworthy to be called a follower of Christ. Christ can work with that person, but the lukewarm person Christ can't deal with. You know why? Because that person feels that, you know, I don't need to do no, I don't need to do anything. I'm good. I'm really good. I can go to sleep right now, or I can talk about other people. I can tell them how they're not going to make it into the kingdom. I can judge and condemn. We do a whole lot of judging and condemning while we're sleeping and not keeping our eyes and not watching, not listening. We do a whole lot of that. You'll be surprised how similar they are. Present truth churches believes in preaching and teaching the truth, but where they lack? Love, meekness, warmth, compassion, friendliness. If anybody ever tells me, you know, you go to a present truth church and they warm you and they greet you at the door and they're happy to see you with a smile on their face. They give you a hug and they make you feel like you are welcome there. You can come back anytime. How many of those churches, what's the percentages of churches that you actually feel that way? Where's the love from those churches? Let you make one mistake and they've already kicked you out before the mistake even finished. You don't belong in part of this group all of a sudden. All of a sudden, your name and everything about you is defamed across the globe. No love, no humility. You know why there's no humility? Because they think they know the truth. They got it. We could. We could. Yeah, we made it. In the present truth church, Larry? Yes. Cliques. Those who are more spiritual than others click with their people. Those who are less spiritual click with their people because you see those who feel are not worthy to be in their clique and they're very judgmental. This is present truth churches I'm talking about, but we act like we got it all. We act like we're really there and it's unfair to the unbelievers and it's unfair to those who are actually really striving because now they feel they need to measure themselves against somebody else because they think that that person is actually doing something. Moving on. Next church. Non-present truth churches. Progressive. They believe we just need to know Jesus and we have the love over hate message. They lack in preaching the present truth for today. Sleeping. On the job. They lack in reform because God's going to come and save us in our sin. They lack in love, although they preach it. Many of these non-present truth churches you go into, they don't even know who you are. You walk in, you walk out. You walk in, you walk out. None of them even know your name. They don't know your name. They don't know your problems. They don't know nothing about you. Some may see you and say, hello. You know, you have a lot of these churches that are, we believe in building relationships. They build all the relationships, but they know nothing about you. You give them a false sense of who you are. They give you a false sense of who they are. And they, when you walk your way, they walk their way. Know nothing about you. You know what? Because all they know is what they need to know about your job, what kind of car you have, what kind of home you have. You, you know, you go to their house, they go to your house, but they don't know nothing intricate about you. They don't know that you need prayer. This is that love of the loveless church that they preach love all day long. All you need to have is love. Meekness. There's no humble, there's no new humility in our churches. They both mirror each other. Whether it's present truth or non-present truth. Compassion. Many of us are walking in the churches and I'm telling you right now, we are hurting. And maybe a few people may know, maybe not. And if something happened, it's like, well, they should have gone and changed their, met their diet. One of the girls got raped. Well, maybe she should have dressed reformed. Our brothers who are trying to stay in the faith and keep God's word going, trying to get a job. And all they can ask them is, are you a part of the independent churches? Do you believe that, you know, the Seventh-day Adventist church is going down the drains and, and that, and that, and that we apostate? That's all they care about. These are the questions they are asking in interviews nowadays. They have no compassion. Not seeing the person for what they are and who they are. Why go to a place where you don't feel welcome? The Bible says in second Thessalonians chapter two, verse three, let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition. There's got to be a falling away first. And that falling away has to happen in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Call it what we want to call it. There's going to be a falling away. There's going to be a downfall. God says The shaking, we're in the shaking hours, right? The church is going through a shaking right now. And if, if, if anything must shake, it will shake. God is shaking his church. So there will be a falling away and it will have to happen in the Seventh-day Adventist church. That day shall not come until the falling away happens first in the Adventist church. Then the man of sin will be revealed. And now let's look at, let's look at first Timothy chapter four, verse one. First Timothy chapter four, verse one. Now the spirit speak it expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. I don't know why we got to be very, you know, we're so marveled by this. And we're so, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Perplexed and, and, and surprised. The Bible is plain and it's clear. The spirit speaks expressly about this, that in the last days, some of our brethren will leave the faith. Why? Because we're in the shaking time. They will leave the faith. And oh, by the way, they don't have to have to actually have to leave the church to leave the faith. Many of them are staying in the church and leaving the faith. Many of our brothers and sisters are going to hookah bars and hookah clubs and bartendering. And, and in, I mean, they literally do all kinds of stuff, are they in the faith? No, they're not. Church is just a mere formal situation for them. It's a formality. It's not keeping the faith. So there are many of us who are in the church who are not in the faith. So when the Bible says that in the last day, some will depart from the faith, that is both staying in the church and leaving outside the church, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, many of which who have already done so. The Bible also says in Revelation chapter three, verse nine, behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee. Last week, we went over this of these Jews who say are Jews, but are not. And I know I mentioned just a few moments ago that we are now spiritual Jews. So these are not physical Jews that this, that this, that this verse is talking about, but it's talking about the spiritual Jews, the Adventists. Don't take it from me. Remember we love sister white quotes. We are the most potent people in the church when it comes to sister white. Satan has a large confederacy in his church. Christ calls them the synagogue of Satan. Satan has a large confederacy in his church. Christ calls them the synagogue of Satan because the members are the children of sin. The members of Satan's church have been constantly working to cast off divine law and confuse distinction between good and evil. Satan is working with great power and through the children of disobedience to exalt treason and apostasy as truth and loyalty. And at this time, the power of his satanic inspiration is moving the living agencies to carry out great rebellion against God that commenced in heaven. Christian experiences and teachings page 207. Now you might think that this is the Sunday churches. You might think that this is the Catholic churches, but oh nay nay. Oh no, this is not the Catholic churches because you think that those who worship before the saints feet, Revelation 3 verse 9 will at last be saved. Here I must differ with you, for God showed me that this class were professed Adventists who had fallen away and crucified themselves the son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. In the hour of temptation, which is yet to come, to show out everyone's true character, they will know that they are forever lost and overwhelmed with anguish of spirit. They will bow at the saints feet. So those that were mentioned of the synagogue of Satan, these are not physical Jews. These are not those who professed first day keepers of church worship. These are not those who are in high places in Catholicism. Oh no, these are not they. These are they who professed to be Adventists. The way we live our life speaks more than what's quoted on Facebook. Our actions is louder than words. The way we live our life, if it's in tune with Christ, people will more likely take heed. But when we're just throwing words out there, words, we're just throwing words and words and words, eventually if they don't see our life and how we live it, the words become meaningless. It becomes like a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal says Paul in first Corinthians chapter 13. The most noticeable changes concerned the presentation of Seventh-day Adventist understanding of the human nature of Christ and our consequent understanding of righteousness by faith. Further may believe that the Seventh-day Adventist church views of the mark of the beast, Babylon, the sanctuary, the atonement, and the spirit of prophecy were seriously muted, if not effectively destroyed. Our faith was effectively destroyed. Its central doctrines compromised. By whom? The church. We're talking about Laodicea tonight, the seventh seal. We're in the seventh seal. Oh, we're coming into it, right? The transition is that they are weak. We know that we are weak and want to have faith, which is why Christ said that he would rather this church be cold than lukewarm. And the reason being lukewarm is so bad is because the members are content with their position and what they're doing. Go to church on Sabbath, hang out for lunch. Some churches have a while, some churches don't. We repeat this four times a week, every month. Then we throw a social. Then we throw some gathering. We have prayer once a week on Wednesdays or Thursdays or whatever prayer meeting is. And then that's it. When we get to church, we do it all over again. See who looks good in what suit, shoe, socks, tie, and dress. Whose hair is looking good this week? Who looks nice? Oh, somebody came in who hasn't been here for a long time. This is what we do at church. We have become the social of all social clubs. They don't feel the need to advance anymore, being satisfied with self. They sit back, thinking that their knowledge will save them. This is so nauseating to Christ that he will vomit anyone like this out of his mouth and they will surely forever be lost. Andrews University started a whole panel discussion on homosexuality. This is where our church is going. This is what our church is doing. Seventh-day Adventist church, transgender. This is what our church is doing. This is where our church is going. Seventh-day Adventist church must grant the same rights to LGBT as individuals as the United States Supreme Court did in June of 2015. This is where our church is going. This is what our church is doing. And though, by the way, I'm a Seventh-day Adventist and I'll always be a Seventh-day Adventist by the grace of God, sharing God's word. I was born into the church. One, two, third generation Seventh-day Adventist. What does that mean for me? That by God's grace, I will always stay. Here's the deal. Me speaking about my church on live Facebook, I'm just putting it out there that we need to make some changes. Prayers need to get serious. Our knees need to be blackened. Our Bibles need to be opened because we think we've made somewhere. We've gone somewhere. But Christ told us to buy of him gold, trident, fire, eye salve, so that we can see. We haven't gotten there yet. We have a lot of work to do. So please don't come at me and tell me that I'm destroying the Seventh-day Adventist church. That's not me doing that. That's the church. What the church is doing. Hans von Walter, again, I've always felt gay, born gay, grew up gay. I read my Bible, prayed, preached, sometimes sermons in churches, but the desire for homosexuality didn't go away. Does that sound like, again, second Timothy chapter three? Let's go there real quickly. Second Timothy chapter three, having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. This brother right here in the church calls himself a Christian, calls himself a Seventh-day Adventist, calls himself a pastor, but he denies the power. He denies that God can actually give him victory. This is what he just said. I prayed, I read my Bible, but the desire for homosexuality didn't go away. Denied the power thereof. Here's another one. SDA church must accept LGBT individuals as members. They said the SDA church, not just one particular church, the entire body of the Seventh-day Adventist church, because they are Seventh-day Adventists, believe in Jesus, committed to the Bible, and core teachings of the church. And then threw in that Pope Francis is the model. His words must be our God. This is the Laodicean church that Christ is speaking of right now. But we have the nerve to go on Facebook and post stuff and throw on some sister white quotes like we know what we're talking about. And I have a feeling that most of us don't even know where these quotes are coming from. We won't be able to quote them out of the top of our head if we And then they come back with, we cannot take the Bible literally, especially Leviticus 18, and Romans 1, 26-28. We don't even take that literal. What are we supposed to do with that then? That's not literal? That's symbolic? To what? Jesus wept. Is that symbolic or was that literal? Did he cry or no? What's the verdict there? Here's another one. I guess this one is not literal. Heterosexuality is only an idea. Homosexuality is the reality. That's literal, but heterosexuality is not literal. It's an idea. It's an idea. It's ideology where homosexuality is real because of Romans 3, 23. This is our church right now. This is where we are. This is the Laodicean church. But what I don't want to do is I don't want you to look at our church as a church breaking. We are Seventh-day Adventists for life. God has given us a message. And I do have something to say after all of this. I do. I'm going to say it too. The Bible does not That's false. It does. We know that it does. What should I do if I'm a gay Seventh-day Adventist? Answer here are seven options. One, commit suicide. Two, stay in the closet. Three, marry a person of the opposite sex. Four, seek change, therapy by praying, reading the Bible, getting counseling. No. Five, engage in promiscuity. Six, celibacy. No. Let's do number seven. Let's form a loving, lasting union akin to marriage. There are many of us who are getting messages about how bad and ugly the Seventh-day Adventist church is looking right now. And I want to say this to you. For those who feel that all the Seventh-day Adventist churches are just terrible and that we should not go to any Seventh-day Adventist church. These are my Seventh-day Adventist brothers and sisters I'm speaking to. That's my audience. My audience is I'm speaking to those who are actually Seventh-day Adventists. The Bible tells us straight up that we should not forsake the assembly of our parents. That means we should not forsake our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes, our church is wibble wobbling in this way, but there are many people in the church who are standing strong to God's word. There are many people in the church who still want to hear the truth. There are many people in the church who want to hear a word from many of us who would like to share the truth. So this idea of staying home, if you have a home church of three or more, there's where the Lord is. When we are gathered, you see the body of the body of the church are people. So when we are gathered together, that's a church. Not one person sitting out of their house watching TV. That's not having church. The devil wants you to believe you're having church. It's okay. Every now and again, don't get me wrong. I do it too. I do it. I get it, but we are not to forsake the assembly of others. So this idea that I can't go to another, I can't go to the church. I gotta, you know, because you know, they all apostate churches. My brothers and sisters go to a church one day, sit down and have a conversation with somebody. Maybe that conversation that you have with somebody might change their path. That person might need to hear from you. Stop acting selfish. Like we have this message. Oh, it's really for us because the other seven, the admittance people don't want to get it. They don't want to wake up. So because they don't want to wake up, we ain't got nothing to say to them, but we'll post Ellen White quotes all day long for them. There are people still in need. And Oh, look at this. Look at this. We are so worried about those on the outside of the church. When those are the inside of the church that needs us too. We gotta be there for each other, pulling each other up. Men and women are in the last hours of probation and yet are careless and stupid. Volume three of the testimonies, page 280, paragraph three. I'm sorry. Volume two of the testimonies, page 337. I did not write this. Men and women are in the last hours of probation and are yet careless and stupid. That goes for every last one of us. Yet ministers have no power to arouse them. They are asleep themselves, sleeping, preaching, sleeping, preaching to sleeping people. One end we got fanatics. The other end we got sleepers, no balance, no rationale whatsoever. God wants us to be rational people. Think rationally, have balance. You know, one of the fruits of the spirit is called temperance. That means balance, not going overboard or under the board balance temperance. One of the seeds, one of the fruits, temperance, balance. If God hates one sin above another of which his people are guilty, it is doing nothing in case of an emergency. Indifference and neutrality in a religious crisis is regarded of God as a grievous crime and equal to the very worst type of hostility against God. It is the same as what he calls an abomination. It's synonymous to what he calls an abomination, indifference, indifference when it comes to religious crisis. This same church believes that she has everything, but doesn't realize that she is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And it would be right to label these people as having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Therefore says the true witness, I counsel you to buy of me gold, tride and fire, that thou mayest be rich. That is love and faith working together hand in hand to make them rich in good works and rich toward God. They are counseled to buy white raiment, that is to put on a robe of righteousness or to have their characters conform wholly to the law of God. They are also counseled to anoint their eyes with eye salve that they may see. This eye salve is the unction from on high, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, which gives us the true discernment in spiritual things. And God's people during this time will be rebuked and chastened by him until they become zealous and repent. Now this message to Laodicea is not a message of hopelessness as we will see that Christ is rebuking this church for their luke warm condition and he confirms that he loves those who he rebukes and is standing at the door waiting for them to let him in. He's pleading with them to repent of this condition so that they may obtain his grace and be clothed in his righteousness. So although this church is in dire state, as long as the people heed to the warning and rebuke, the luke warmness can be corrected. But if the warning isn't heeded and action is not taken to correct this awful state, then Christ will spew vomit them out of his mouth and they will be thrown into the lake of fire and forever lost. Here's my conclusion to the seventh seal coming from the Laodicean church. Page eight. You that hope for salvation, flee quickly. Flee, I say, for your life. You have not one moment to spare. Utter destruction awaits every soul that is found in this Laodicean state. Review and Herald, volume one, 1850. Friend, if you are in the Laodicean state right now, if you're still living for this world and not moving forward in your faith in obedience to Christ, if you believe that you know it all, you got it, you made it. If you believe that you're there, go back to first Corinthians chapter 10, verse 12. Repeat that over and over and over again to yourself. In other words, take heed if you think you made it and you didn't. If you believe you know enough not to need to study anymore, if you think that your mere knowledge of truth, present truth will save you, then I urge you to flee from this condition as it will cause you to be rejected by your Savior. Please heed the call as time is running out. To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me at my throne even as I sit with my Father. Brothers and sisters, again, this week, this past week has really, really hurt my feelings to see how we treat each other and how we treat our unbelieving friends and families. Look, they may scoff. It's going to happen. We need to stop this attitude of thinking, you know, we, we're just getting persecuted all over the place. You know what I went to? I went to my Bible and I showed it to her where Peter had said that. Scoffers! We'll be asking and saying about this very same thing. Where is this Jesus you've been talking about? It's going to happen. It's bound to happen. What are we going to do when it gets worse? Let us remember this one thing. We ought to love God with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our souls. And the second, just as the first, love your neighbors as yourselves. Crisis coming soon. We ought not to forget our mission. Our mission is to win souls. Our mission is to sow seeds. But do not go sowing seeds on rocky ground. When we post quotes and we're just leaving it out there on rocky ground, we expect for a plant and a tree to bud and to bear fruit. No context. No foreword. No, nothing to have any ground or foundation on so the person can understand where we're coming from and what it means. Arguing on Facebook and Twitter. We need to stop that. If God is to get glory from what we do, then what we're doing is not giving God the glory at all. I'm still waiting for the day when one person can write on Facebook that I was a, I became a baptized Seventh-day Adventist Christian because of one or two verses there. I pray that you share this message over with your friends over and over again. Let God give us the blessing. Let God's name be glorified. And by doing so, we will gain a blessing. We now, then the father, then the son will mention our names to the father. Thank you everyone. Happy Sabbath and God bless you.