18/Sep/2021 - Hamilton Worship | Sermon: Elder Josonne Smith | 'It's Time To Find It'

[Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] so [Music] thank you [Music] now uh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning happy sabbath how are you doing this morning we are so glad that you have joined us one more time here on lagos university what a privilege and an honor it is to be here with you today it is a beautiful day as always because the lord has woke us up that we may be able to experience this day but in the island of bermuda it is rainy it is pouring it is raining buckets buckets of rain but we are grateful and thankful for the rain that is falling for our tanks needed the earth needs it we are grateful and thankful but there is also a rain of showers that we are grateful and thankful for and that is the holy spirit that is falling and reigning in our hearts so i sure do hope that those of us who are here in bermuda are enjoying the rain but most of all i want you to enjoy the rest that the sabbath brings and for those of our viewing family from all around the world we sure do hope that you are enjoying your sabbath as well so here's what i need you to do folks yep tune up those voices get them ready pull out your hymnals whether you have a hard copy or if you have an electronic copy and let's get those voices ready loud let them ring jesus is coming again i want you to join in with elder juswan smith as he leads us into our song service today elder smith amen good morning and happy sabbath to everyone i gotta try to tune up my voice this morning it's a rainy day but it's a blessed day amen so everyone out there watching go get your hymnals as she said and we're going to turn to him 4 6 2. blessed assurance but today we're going to do something we don't get to do a lot and let's sing it a cappella let's sing together acapella amen just voices so god can hear just voices giving him praise today let's sing with me him 462 blessed assurance jesus is mine amen blessed assurance jesus is mine oh what a foretaste [Music] of glory divine amen air of salvation purges [Music] this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long [Music] music [Music] visions [Music] whispers this is my story this is [Music] this is [Music] and is [Applause] [Music] this is [Music] praise god we have a brand new music here from us right now praise god amen hallelujah and happy summer [Music] we have braved the elements it is [Music] have my rain boots on my god is still good i think i left my shoes at home number 508 anywhere with jesus i can safely go number five zero eight [Music] is [Music] anywhere [Music] is [Music] anywhere [Music] [Applause] [Music] know [Music] anywhere [Music] and looks like hymn number 202 hail him the king of glory number 202 gotta find it on my [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] the king of on earth [Music] amen good morning we want to thank elder jaswan smith and sister cynthia tucker and sister simone otterbridge for their ministry in song this morning are your hearts warmed up is your heart of fire i sure do hope so folks well we've had our voices tuned up and we are ready to go but before we do that i want you to do one thing for me that's right press that like [Music] press that share and press that subscribe button we want the whole world to join in and share in the experiences that we do from week to week studying and learning about the word of god the god who loves us so much and who has promised that he's coming back to take us home to live with him forever well folks today is kind of a special day for me when i talk about being saved and god coming back for us for it was 28 years ago today that i gave my heart to jesus christ and i went into the watery grave of baptism and the old woman was buried and i arose a new woman in jesus christ and so i'm grateful and thankful for today so i sure do hope that you can go back to the time in which you went down into that watery grave of baptism and came up afresh and anew to walk with jesus and if you have had that experience i want you to be able to share it with someone else because that is our gospel mission is to share the gospel of jesus christ and what better a testimony than to share how jesus christ changed your life not someone else's not the story you heard from the elder not the story you heard from the sister or brother that sat next to you in the pew but the story that you can tell of how jesus christ came in and saved your soul and how now you are joyous in the lord now we didn't say it didn't come with some trials it didn't come with some pitfalls but it came for some victories and a blessed assurance that if we hold on even if it is by our fingernails just hold on jesus is coming again and he has promised not only that he's going to come but he's coming for those of us who have held on to him and who call him our savior and live our lives according to his word so folks make sure that you let someone else know that they can experience that same joy so i'm grateful and i'm thankful today that god has kept me and he keeps on keeping me and i sure do hope that that is your testimony that god has kept you and he will keep on keeping you until he comes again amen and so i think we are ready [Music] we are at lesson number 12. ah gentlemen can you believe it lesson 12 the restless prophet and so as you can see we are still down by one but we want to let you know elder burgess your space is still here we may have closed in just a little and that's just for camera state but don't get too comfortable being there at home your spot is right there waiting for you so enjoy your rest and we hope to see you back very very shortly and so elder smith and how's it all boy good morning good morning how are you doing this morning pretty good this morning [Music] thankful for the rain yes we are thankful for the rain for so many reasons we can be thankful for the rain you could be thankful for the rain so our our lesson topic just got the restless [Music] i've prophet about the young and the restless but what about this restless prophet what is one thing that we're gonna learn about the restless prophet this week that is gonna help us in our own times of restlessness in this journey along because sometimes sometimes folks i'm sure somebody can testify that sometimes we do get a bit restless with the world we get restless with this walk we get restless with a lot of things but there's a restless prophet that we're gonna learn about and how this restless prophet was arrested by jesus christ yes ma'am he was on a mission thought he'd had an opposite direction ah how many times have we been on a mission folks and headed in an opposite direction and the lord has had to turn us back to the mission that he has for us so what are we going to learn about this restless prophet well i mean i know one thing [Music] or at least one thing i learned is that unless god creates scenarios for us to face ourselves we probably would never know just how bad we really are and so i think that's that's what happened with jonah that god created a scenario where he was forced to face something inside of himself and it came to light and so i think we all need to accept god's way of getting us to face ourselves because sometimes it's not not a pleasant experience but we have to face it down and get rid of it anyway so that's one thing i hope that we will learn today so uh uh aldo smith you know we we face ourselves daily we look in mirrors we're you know we're doing hair and we're you know putting on lotion and we're you know smiling and making sure our teeth is good but um when we're really having to face ourselves that's a different look in the mirror yes okay folks facing ourselves for real out all boy yes oh restless yes what are we going to learn what are we going to learn sorry one thing that we're going to learn at least what i learned during this lesson is that you heard that phrase you could run but you can huh and there is no length at which god will go to rescue his children amen so and i don't want to bring say too much because i'm sure it's going to be brought out in the lesson but the one thing that i did learn was you can run but you can't hide from amen folks you've heard it you can run but you can't hide oh how many of us have had that experience of running but realizing that our god will follow us to the deepest depths of the earth to save us so if you know someone who is running tell them to join in today this would be the day and if you're running i want you to stop [Music] praying that you stop and that you will let jesus christ grab on to you and make a change in your life and so we are ready our abled moderator our beloved pastor pastor david steed ii is waiting in the rings to come on and to lead us into our lesson study discussion today so i sure do hope that you are ready and we're going to have elder smith who's going to give us our opening prayer and elder smith can you say a special prayer our our country is in um quite a a state right now with um the numbers that have risen of those who are sick with covet 19 but not only that we are sick with so many other diseases that are plaguing the world we are not immune but we also are sick with sin and that we may ask that our lord and savior may help us save us and heal us during this time amen let's pray together heavenly father [Music] god we need you we're so thankful for being able to be here today father you know in our country right now numbers are rising and people are afraid and nations are distressed all over the world we act having a father for your presence you've told us see that you are not troubled for these are the beginning of sorrows and i pray that our hearts our minds will rest in you trust in your word trusting that you'll see us through this time so bless this little country of father that we will overcome this pandemic likewise around the world father we prayed it as we open your word that you will bless bless us put in our mouths the things that need to be heard the things that are needed to change lives not just here but all around the world father i pause just one moment longer just to say a special prayer for sister tammy who's away right now watching she's having surgeries i pray for your blessings upon her now god bless us for the rest of the sabbath day in jesus name amen amen amen enjoy your lesson study discussion today [Music] [Music] god bless you god bless you everyone that is watching us here welcome back to lagos university it's an absolute joy to be here with you again on this blessed and holy sabbath day right here in bermuda we are experiencing torrential rains it is pouring lights out they say it's raining cats and dogs outside uh but we appreciate it here in bermuda as for us it's tank-filling rain it's tank feeling rain and we are never upset about that it's an incredible time it's an incredible time to be alive here in earth's history we want to go ahead and jump right into our topic for today as we deal with the restless prophet the restless prophet i want to take a look uh first of all though gentlemen they're these are very depressing times for the world and yes even in this paradise we call bermuda the pandemic has not only taken its toll on our economy schools and churches but it has taken a massive toll on the minds of christians and non-christians alike i need i need i need a word from the lord from you guys today can you think of that one bible text man that can lift up the people of god today that can lift their spirits uh in this incredible pandemic i'm gonna go with i'm gonna go with that old boy first of course give us that tour well obviously um this is a very as you had said it's a very troubling and difficult time and all throughout the course of the bible there are promises that we are given from genesis right on through to revelation so i'm going to go to the end of the book the end of the book found in revelation 21 verse 4 and 5 the bible says and god shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away and he that sat upon the throne said behold i make all things new and he said unto me right for these words are true and faithful amen elder smith what you got for us well i'm going to go to the book of isaiah shortly isaiah 32 verse 17 and it says and the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever wow amen what was that what text was that isaiah 32 verse 7 isaiah 32. you know i'm not far from you i'm not far from you with my own text you know amen me that elder burgess is not here with us you know he's working on his physical constitution you know what i'm saying man but but but in essence in essence uh i want to go to isaiah chapter 26 and verse 3. it's a familiar passage but i think it's so important right now during these very depressing times i mean how many times how many surges will we have yeah how many times were the case and right now here in bermuda you know it's it's crazy because you know this is our biggest surge and it's the most active cases which may not be a big deal for other countries but over a thousand people about 1200 people in bermuda are actively with coven which has caused uh 10 000 of our population to be quarantined you know that's a big number when you're only 60 000 you know that's a big number but i want to go to isaiah chapter 26 and verse 3. here's what here's what it says gentlemen it says thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in the because he trusted hey listen let's get right into our lesson uh for today the restless prophet are we going to do things our way or god's way are we going to do god's work god's way or our way god gave jonah another chance even though he was disobedient yet jonah did not want to extend the same grace to the ninevites god knows what's best his plans will prove much better than ours in the end the people of nineveh listened to jonah and were saved now one far greater than jonah was in the midst of israel and they wouldn't repent at the preaching of jesus [Music] jonah was angry that his own reputation was sacrificed for the glory of jesus he wanted to be a doomsday prophet whose predictions came to fruition that's what he wanted you know we preached this series uh earlier i think this year or i think it was early this year we preached on this series but i want to get into the actual text itself we look at uh this uh uh chapter in jonah chapter four and verse 10. it's important to understand whereas god's question in verse 9 seemed to contain the element of tenderness the statement of the lord in verse 10 conveys the idea of forcefulness the reluctant pupil was then addressed in terms that commanded attention we may be sure jonah is at last ready to hear the wording in this verse obviously was chosen for emphasis the emphatic u is in contrast with the emphatic eye the word translated concerned also is significant the translation have compassion would better express the emotional connotation of this word while one normally does not does not have pity on a plant the lord was driving home jonah's inappropriate expression of anger the lord continued his teaching as he admonished jonah for his inappropriate compassion for a plant for which he had done nothing he had neither cultivated nor encouraged the growth of the plant yet he used it to express ultimate anger because of the withering of an inanimate plant whose life was measured by a single day he wished to die he simply had no right to make any claims regarding the plan it had been a gift of god's grace the lord was trying forcefully to drive home the ultimate question who are you jonah who are you to question me jonas anger expressed not only a lack of understanding but also a lack of trust it expressed a lack of trust gentlemen i think it's important to understand that jonah goes into this place and it's interesting because jonah's reputation precedes him uh uh the truth of the matter is is that in heaven's eyes jonah was seen as a very successful prophet [Music] in jonah's eyes he's a very unsuccessful prophet in other words god's whole desire is that man might be redeemed right that they may turn from their ways and come back to him every time jonah comes with a doomsday message the people repent right and god forgives right so jonah's a little upset man because his reputation keeps getting messed up man every time i show up it's almost like the people know when he comes right so does mercy when he shows up so does grace we've heard about him if you just repent from his prophecy then everything will be made right with god john i don't like that you don't like that journal wants to see some fireworks he wants to see some fire come down from heaven right he's heard of prophets of old and how god moved and and blew places up but now whenever he shows up the lord don't come through yeah huh isn't that something that in essence imagine that you stand up and you preach all of us preach here at this journey you get up to preach and you say if you don't do this you don't do this then you will be lost and we're going to sit there on judgment day and we can't wait to see the people who got lost where is your heart your heart should be crying you should be weeping because they never listen to god's word listen man let's get into this lesson today i think it's exciting i think it opens up some different perspectives when it comes to resting in god's promises and we want to go ahead let's go right into sunday's lesson we want to go to exodus chapter 4 and verse 13. exodus the fourth chapter and verse 13. we're going to come from the english standard version and from the new living translation what does the bible say but he said oh my lord please send someone else at least the words of moses right you know what i'm saying this is moses same spirit of children god calls jonah john goes on the run and here you have moses that same plea look man please lord somebody else lord please send somebody else come on what you got what you got your version the new living translation reads verse 13. but moses again pleaded lord please send anyone else anyone else anybody anyone else but me right anyone else but me elder smith help us understand what this running away is all about mercy when looking at this lesson i really started to ask myself how do we fit in this issue that jonah had and it's pretty amazing while we look at jonah and could question him and think what was he thinking the truth is that all of us all of us are like jonah in some way shape or form and i say that because i believe that god wanted jonah to face something deeper something way deeper to give him an understanding of his love that was much deeper than he had previously understood because in order for god to get us to know who we are he must put us in a position that reveals who we are and when we look at this particular issue with journal the point is brought out that um these people of nineveh um the assyrian king sennacherib attacked judah and israel and samaria already have fallen about 20 years earlier and king hezekiah apparently had joined the local anti-assyrian coalition now the time had come for the assyrians to saddle accounts right and the bible brings out that his the historical assyrian documents and the wall released in sennacherib's palace in nineveh all tell us of the cruel story about the fall of lakeish lakish one of the most important and well fortified southern border fortresses of hezekiah so we can see her that you're talking about god giving him something that he knew would test his character and allow him to see who he really was because these people had murdered and and destroyed israelite cities and they cruelly and they weren't they used this word crew so who knows what they did to these people well they were they they actually they actually would flail them these people were vicious and cruel right and they were cruel and beyonce that's actually a little bit cruel on our part imagine we go down by the ducks right we catch a nice gray snapper yeah we catch a nice great snapper right we don't kill him before we we we start we start hitting the scales off really just gonna scale to do the live man that's that's just mean at its core right you know i'm telling you that that that means like that means that what journal was feeling was some deep deep hatred and anger for these people because of what they did to their people i mean if i could us uh even remotely associated to anything it's like it's like god coming to a black man and sending him into a white neighborhood and say preach to them like it's like god sent an old slave who's been beat and whipped and raped and and all kind of stuff and then sends him into that man's house to say preach the word to you i want to save him i want you to show up at the kkk rally yeah preach your word and preach your words right knowing that god's gonna knowing that god's gonna actually save them if they repent right like that's what we kind of miss sometimes i think about jonah that the situation behind it is that he he had he had human reasoning yes to hate these people yes he wanted and i and i thought about that and i said you know what that was something prejudice and hatred was something in journal he wouldn't have known except god sent him on that mission yeah yeah but the irony of that is that jonah knew it he knew he would have to face it down and he tried to actually run away from god and what blows my mind about it is that the human condition is amazing we do it often as well god sends him to do something he in his mind decides i'm not even going to talk to god about it i'm just not good because i know you're gonna save these people right right and he runs and we have to be careful that when god comes and asks us to do something at work ask us to go and give food or give give some help to that individual not just anybody yeah you know what you stepped on your head on their way off yes sir and who back bite against you and tell your boss some things about you so that you didn't get the position there's the one that god is going to send you to because ultimately god was trying to get jonah to understand his love his love was way deeper than what we we would like to show god is saying you want to understand me jonah those people that fled your people alive maybe some of your cousins some of your relatives were amongst that group that were murdered and killed so cruelly by these people i want you to go to those people and help save them yeah i think it's very interesting i think it's very interesting something we discussed even as we discuss preaching in our different circles that in essence uh god calls the preacher not because he needs the preacher to save the people huh but rather he calls the preacher because in the process of preaching to them he himself might be saying i just want to highlight the fact that god gave jonah this instruction of how close in proximity it was to tarshish now uh nineveh it was it was still kind of far it was like 700 miles away but he decided like you had said out of that um now i'm not good india now in fact i'm getting clerk was the out of eight yeah trying to run as far away from god that he possibly can now tarshish was like some 2500 miles away and even in verse six in chapter [Music] journal chapter one it says that he went on in the belly of the boat so his while everything is going on on top he's still trying to run just forget about it just forget about anything just put that out in out of mind right looking for peace of mind looking for peace of mind running from god and his steel running even on the boat but interestingly in in uh patriots and prophets it says as a prophet thought about the difficulties and seeming impossibilities of this commission he was tempted to question the wisdom of the call so like oh god no i know i'm not i'm not dealing with that i'm i'm going to run and and oftentimes we even in ourselves we have uh times run from god right i can clearly remember pastor uh i think it was just just when you first came and we had nominations here at church before i came right and i was i was asked to be the hair deacon yes and i'm like i thought like nah i'm not doing that i'm not i'm not doing i'm not doing that right and in my mind i'm like yeah i think that responsibly that is like seriousness like you have to deal with right and going through the process i went to bed this particular night and told well i didn't have any sleep god had uh you know how they say young man show dream dreams and so i'm i'm in my i'm i'm in my bed sleeping and god is i can clearly see he was talking to me telling me like look you need to take this responsibility for this time right right right and i'm tossing and turning and everything and and when i got up i told my wife i was like yeah i'm gonna have to take on this responsibility and truth you know truthfully um we did some great works not because it was anything it had to do with me but because god had put me for such a time as this and it happened again when i was asked to be yeah i was like nope i'm yeah that's good you definitely got the wrong person when it comes to that but again you know my mind just started wrestling and wrestling and harassing and i said i had to surrender and say you know what lord okay i'm not i don't think i'm out of material per se you know but because you want you're asking me to do this i will do it and you know it's it's been it's been a beautiful work going through the process and i'll say this last thing and then i'll turn it back over to you when i started running jogging and stuff like that um i have a friend you know and even you we've run together from time to time we run at different pace right we want a different pace but if we're going to run together guess what the person has to who runs normally fast they have to slow it on and run at our place so we can keep up together and here we see gord taking journal and says all right buddy you you you want to run slow all right i'll run slowly with you i'll hang out with you i'll run at your pace i'll stand a storm you want to go a different way i'll stand the storm you want to um um the storm is not it's not being settled well actually you get into monday but your storm's not being subtle you get thrown over don't worry i'll run at your face i'll provide a fish yeah so the whole time you're seeing god not giving up on john although he's trying to run away from him god says i'll run with you buddy mercy you want something else to say yeah just real quick that's in case there's somebody out there who thinks jonas crazy because of the conversations he's having with god and how hard had it has been i can relay even my personal experience of mine there was a time when someone had did something to me and revolving around my car and they were really unfair to me and really terrible to me and six months go by and it's still terrible to me and when i tell you my anger rose by the sixth month my anger was hot and this day i hopped in my car and i said that's it i'm going to do some damage to this person today and as i'm driving on the road the holy spirit is saying no go and stop till you're dead and you know what i said in my mind i said it out loud no i know what you're trying to do lord you're trying to stop me from hurting this person i don't want to hear you i don't want to hear you at all and i literally tried my best to block god out because i wanted this person to experience the what i have been experiencing and so it got to the point where the spirit just spoke and spoke and i said ah and i turned and i went to my dad and of course what do you think my day had done he calmed me completely done but what i want to say with that is that god if we do it his way yes what he revealed was what was inside of me sure that i had the capacity to tell him no i don't want to do that i want to do this right and when i recognize that it was kind of frightening to me so those of you out there you we've done it we've done it in different ways but we've ignored god some people it was invited to go to some strange bed that you shouldn't be here and you know to go over speaking to you and you're like no i don't want to hear it because i really want to do this right and you ignore that you keep going right and find yourself in trouble that's jonah here's here's what's interesting here's what's interesting right is that in essence we find god chastising him because the anger he has over a plant which he has done nothing for right what god is actually trying to contrast him with is the fact that here he has a city it has 120 000 people that god has done plenty for right right now the flip side of this is this is that it's in it's important to realize that in this moment um jonah is looking into the mirror uh the truth of the matter is is that the assyrians were a very wicked cruel people mean people unkind people for that reason jonah was nothing to do with them he said i'm not gonna let you put that little mercy stun on nineveh you know what i'm saying i'm going the other way right but here's what's interesting is that when he gets there and it's sitting up on the bank and the gourd dies jonah is actually shown to be just as mean or even more mean than the people of nineveh mercy yet god extended him grace and sent a fish to take care of him right but now it's time to save nineveh and you got a problem all right let's get into let's get into it man let's get into it uh just a little bit more it's important jonah was amazing it's amazing he's successful and he's unsuccessful at the same time uh he's successful in god's eyes but unsuccessful in his own yes assyria is a very cruel city and deserving to be condemned uh they would literally be extremely cruel to their captives even the israelites it's amazing because sometimes in their cruelty in their cruelty they totally were disregarding god's will and his word it's interesting how god spoke even to these heathen nations and they would still go and do their own thing but i want to get into this next statement i want to get into this next i want to get into monday's lesson i think it's a very important one i i i you know i could spend all day on that number three but i'm gonna leave i'm gonna let y'all handle that i'm gonna let y'all handle that i'm gonna let you deal with that but i want to go to if you would uh jonah chapter two verses one through nine i placed that responsibility on myself unless one of you trying to but jonah chapter two verses one through nine i know they're gonna have that up on the screen so that our viewers uh can be able to view it but let's read that general chapter two verses one through nine and then elder always gonna lead us into a three-day rest a three-day rest from inside the fish jonah prayed to the lord his god right he said in my distress i called to the lord and he answered me from deep in the realm of the dead i called for help and you listened to my cry right you hurled me into the depths into the very heart of the seas and the currents swirled about me all your ways and breakers swept over me i said i have been banished from your sight yet i will look again toward your holy temple i'm gonna let you have it i'm leaving the lord come on now the engulfing waters threatened me the deep surrounded me come on now seaweed was wrapped around my head oh come on now now i i i just have to probably hear for a second he's in the depths of the sea right it's not he's not next to the shore he's in the depths of the sea huh hold on now hold on now he's at the bottom elder oh boy where jesus says he casts our sins whatever i'll leave you alone man i'm gonna leave alone come on now come on let's go verse six what does the bible say to the roots of the mountains i sank down the earth beneath barred me in forever but you lord my god brought my life up from the pit right verse 7 when my life was ebbing away i remembered you lord and my prayer rose to you to your holy temple i think it's very significant i'm not going to get into it because i'm going to leave the lesson part alone i'm going to stick with this text because i think it's important to realize that at the depths of an ocean you can cry out all you want you can cry or you might get a mouth full of water he can cry all you want the people just on top of the water can't hear your crush right oh my god come on man listen come on verse 8 verse 8 man those who cling to worthless idols turn away from god's love for them then finally verse 9 but i with shouts of grateful praise will sacrifice to you what i have vowed i will make good i will say salvation comes from the lord help us out oh boy talk to me about this dream after the storm brews and they finally come to the conclusion that it was because a journal is running away he gets thrown over and as you have right attacks the brother's in some deep trouble he there's no question if god doesn't preserve him he's gonna die and as a matter of fact as you said the weeds are wrapped around his head it's like in deep deep water but interestingly what what we discover is that in his distress he prays to god he remembers god and you know like how when a parent gives a child a time out because i've been naughty right back in the day we'll just give you licks and you know he's about going about your business but here we see god giving jonah a time out and it's all right you don't want to do what i asked you to do i'm going to put you in timeout to give you some time to think about what you were supposed to do in the first place in the first instance so his flair in iran has essentially drawn it but then in verse seven it says when my soul fainteth fainted within me i remembered the lord and my prayer came unto thee into thine holy temple god had prepared jonah a great fish now i looked up this word great the hebrew word uh is a hebrew adjective gadao i believe is how you pronounce it meaning large in magnitude and extent in number in intensity and god himself so let's read the text again it says uh uh god prefer prepared journal a great fish so god prepared something himself he gave himself to save journal while journal was being disobedient to god god prepared himself to save him i thought that was just so like you know i mean like yes here i'm telling you go do something you disobey me and go your own way but i'm still having mercy with you while i want you to have the same mercy to the ninevites and in the meantime he prepares this fish so jonah is now in the valley of in in in this fish right and we see like how the ark was to noah which represents christ in time with storm and trouble god provides safety for us he's like the son of promise to abraham you know the lamb that slain from the foundations of the world he's the pillar of cloud by fire and by night for the children of israel everything represents christ so this fish represents christ yes right the same thing that pulls him puts him in trouble is he saying that says i'm out of trouble yes sir but then i'm sure john had a similar prayer as david in psalms 121 i will lift up mine eyes unto the heels from whence cometh my health my help cometh from the lord which made heaven and earth he will not suffer thy foot to be moved he that keepeth thee will not slumber behold he that keepeth israel shall not slumber nor sleep the lord is thy keeper the lord is thy shed upon thy right hand the son shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night the lord shall preserve thee from all evil he shall preserve thy soul the lord shall preserve thy going out and thy going and i coming in from this time forth even forever more jonah has a light bulb moment at the end of that that passage he says salvation is of the lord yes sir noah has time he could remember he's been in these fish for three days and all that smell and all that stuff the you know the fish is getting off it's getting done it's good so he's being tossed to and fro and in the whole process he's in darkness because he's got the light in there it's just guts and goo and and whatever he sees see these all wrap around his head but he has a light bulb moment in the time of his darkness that my salvation is of the lord my health is of the lord and the text that he argues over that he's when he lifts up his prayer it's not too uh you know the earthly uh sanctuary right he's crying to heaven to heaven right he's crying to heaven asking for deliverance and the lord hears him from heaven prepares a fish now it's very interesting that you're relating that to christ we know the text says what that just like jonah was in the in the in the in the valley for three days during so well what was it the son of man so talk to us man yeah yeah so and also the panel of inspiration sister sister white uh in page the prophets and kings she says with pentenance and a recognition of the saving grace of god came deliverance so again we're seeing that god in his time of trouble have rescued him but i want to go quickly to the lesson uh quote it says sometimes we might just need to get away from it all in order to get a fresh perspective on things though the story of journal who miraculously survived in the belly of a fish is rather extreme in extreme case how might stepping up of your normal environment allow you to look at it from a new and perhaps needed perspective if we simply go back to the playbook the bible hebrews 3 5 it says today today not tomorrow tomorrow today today if you hear will hear his voice heart and not your heart and as you rightly sir mentioned matthew 12 40 yes for as journal was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth journal rested in the belly of the fish yes jesus rested in the belly of the earth this is a partly sharing pointing people to what christ was going to do as journal rested so did jesus rested but at the same time jesus didn't stay in the ground yes sir on the third day he got up with all power in his hand at houses and the same thing happened to journal these fish well god caused the fish to spit him out on the third day yes after he came to his realization that my salvation is of the lord absolutely and right away it says when the the the uh uh commission came to my second time he goes and delivers the message that he should have done previously mercy now you've held on elder smith for a long time i'm sorry aldo he's been trying to get in he's been trying to know that's right i get excited he did cover those points but just like this whole issue when christ told uh his disciples on the road that and he expounded unto them all the scriptures beginning their mercies the things concerning himself then god does god ever forget his plan does god has he done anything that is outside of the realm of christ nothing so even the experience as jonah was going through god was teaching him salvation he was teaching him his love for human human beings he was teaching him the depth of his of his concern and love for humans just like you say at noah he puts him in this in his fist and the bible says he calls his shield he goes down to shield right in another translation so he's saying i'm back look jonah you know what you have to die self your hatred your your prejudice your unwillingness to do my way has to die right go down into the grave for three days but what am i teaching you jonah i'm teaching you that when you finally come up out of this thing you're going to come up a new creation a new man what did he say i'm going to fulfill my my purpose lord i'm going to go do it the fist spits him out but the fact that he cried out to the temple yes that yes that was proof that god was teaching him the plan of salvation the ninevites are part of my plan journal you and them and again he's revealing to jonah something deeper the temple thy way of god is in the sanctuary so as his talking looking at heaven he knew he knew because his words say he knew god was going to save him out of that he knew it so he trusted in god just like he knew that god was going to save those ninevites he he knew it so it's our it's ironic that he understood the depth of god in that way yet could not apply it in his own actions um absolutely man that's where we find ourselves absolutely absolutely come on let's jump let's move let's move let's get into tuesday's uh lesson let's get into tuesday's lesson uh mission accomplished mission accomplished jonah chapter three verses one to ten what does it say in the english standard version the english standard version what does it say then the word of the lord came to journal the second time saying arise go to nineveh that great city and call out against it the message that i tell you so general invented nineveh according to the word of the lord now nineveh was an exceedingly great city three days journey in breath jonah began to go into the city during a day's journey and he called out yet 40 days and none of us shall be overthrown and the people of nineveh believed god they called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them the word reached the king of nineveh and he arose from his throne removed his rib covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes and he issued a a proclamation and published through nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles let neither man nor beast herd or nor flock taste anything let them not feed or drink water but let man and beasts be covered with sackcloth and let them call out mightily to god let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands who knows god may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish when god saw what they did how they turned from their evil way god relented of the disaster that he had sent said he would do to them and he did not and he did not do it and he did not do it if you guys keep those texts up uh on the screen as we jump into uh this incredible section here mission uh accomplished it's very interesting to me i want to go if you would i think it's verse two uh see and i think it's verse two is it verse two um yes take me to john chapter three and verse two yes it says arise go to nineveh that great city and call out against it the message that i tell you now it's very interesting that in in in verse 1 the lord comes back to him a second time uh i wish i had a witness in this place man that in essence in essence elder smith god's plans for you don't change because you decide to be disobedient for a period of time when you come back to your senses he still needs you to go and do what he told you to do in the first place it may be harder it may be more difficult not his fault actually yours it's actually on you that is now a more challenging obstacle it's more difficult to accomplish now because of your stuff but god's plan has not changed for you but secondly he tells the mirage go to that great city and call the message that i told you now now in verse 3 in verse 3 i love verse 3 because the bible says jonah arose some of you guys missed it man jonah rose i tell you i could dwell on three old days jonah rose right i went to nineveh according to the word of the lord none of us a great city it's a three-day journey okay hold on a minute it's a three-day journey let's go to verse four come on the text is ten the text is given to you right there jonah began to go into the city going how far i did one day oh come on now to preach to the whole city he's got to go three days right three days of preaching nineveh though after hearing the gospel the first day repent come on man after hearing the gospel on the first day they repent right they don't just repent one person over another the entire city actually repents starting with the king huh now it's interesting that somehow a heathen nation can repent right away but god's people don't want to repent at all somehow the heathen nation can surrender right away but jonah even after being in the belly for three days and three nights still is unconverted he comes out of his difficult situation it's amazing because yes he did learn some lessons down there right that he couldn't learn up here oh come on now he had to go down to learn some things he had to go down to see how dependent he was upon god but even after he came up somehow he still wanted those to be exclusive graces that in essence he wanted his salvation to only be exclusive to him and the jews and god says no no no no this salvation is for everybody but if that's not enough verse 9 verse 9 verse 9 verse 9. says this right here you should have missed it this is beautiful you should miss this it says who knows the king says hey let's repent everybody who knows this is very important to realize that we should not be presumptuous with god god does not have to forgive us right text says who knows in other words maybe or perhaps he will change his mind turn his anger and not wipe us out huh mercy it's amazing because god may turn and relent and the text says in verse 10 in verse 10 it says it very clearly when god saw what they did okay how they turned from their evil way hold on a second now hold on a second you often talk about this but but this this is the shoe this is the true repentance true repentance makes an about face right and so in essence god relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them and he did not do it now we have read even in spirit of prophecy in different places but it's important to realize that in this moment you should also be able to reflect upon the flood itself and know for certainty that had they repented lord jesus yes there was no need for the flood to come on the earth right hold on a second now there wasn't even enough room on the ark for all the people to get on that's true right lord jesus god set grace on the ark in that yes he built a boat that had three stories you know it had an upper level a middle level and a lower level man i believe three alone but here's the thing here's the thing it's interesting that he sends all these birds in there right like the birds came in in such massive amounts that they literally blotted out the sun it became dark as they made their way into the ark all these animals come on two by two and seven by seven there's food for all these animals for all to last them literally a year a month and 17 days they are on the ark that long all this store and supply is built up on the ark there's not much room left for people if just enough people got on they would have been saved huh if if if god could have just found 10 people in sodom and gomorrah they would have been saved 10 people which was just love and his family and he they could he couldn't find that question must be asked today what does god look down and find on earth today because the truth of the matter is is that repentance requires a complete turnaround but at the same time repentance or forgiveness should not be assumed that it's guaranteed god may forgive now we have a god who's faithful says you know if you confess your sins he's faithful and just to forgive your sins that word confession is a word that means to agree with god to turn to make that complete turn so in essence yes when you follow god's plan he will forgive but in this thing right here it's a dooms message jonah's message is not generous messages come to say hey if you guys change your ways it's going to be all right it's over it's all right he said it's over it's going down you know i'm just here to let you know it's going down huh but he messed up because he was jonah and everybody knew that when jonah shows up right along with him came the grace of god talk to me just real quick the thing about this is that in order for god to give journal i mean god gives jonah this message the message is very simple it's not a long sermon it's just a very simple message but these people turned immediately that tells me that god had been working on these people prior to journal's arrival god was not only and we've said it already but god was not only trying to save the ninevites he was trying to save jonah he had to face his character flaws and and this is where god wants us to be he's saying listen not because sometimes the grace that i show you is actually the difficulty that you're experiencing because had it not been for this difficulty you to never face the sin that's in you and if that sin remains in you you can't come here with me so the whole thing the storm was god's grace the guy is not killing him and just throwing him in the water was god's grace the fish that he prepared was god's grace the fish spitting them up on land god's grace god allowed him to go to journey to go to nineveh god's grace god showed grace to the ninevites from a simple word like those are just simple words hey if you don't do this you're going to get destroyed that's it that's all i'm got to say how is people's lives can change from that i mean that doesn't make no sense that means god was doing the whole thing he simply needed to obey god and understand that he had something in himself that was not right right he does it now the mission is accomplished he goes through all of that accomplishes the mission and i'll stop there because then we have to go into the next lesson right well yeah we can get to i'm gonna get to you in just a second uh let's get to jonah chapter four verses one through eleven jonah chapter four and verses one three eleven let me read this from the king james version jonah chapter 4 verses 1 to 11 but it deplete it it displeased jonah exceedingly and he was very angry he gets very angry you guys man and he prayed unto the lord and said i pray the o lord was not this my saying when i was yet in my country listen to him man therefore i fled before unto tarshish for i knew that thou art a gracious god and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repentance thee of the evil you do this to me all the time number three number come on verse three therefore now oh lord take i beseech thee my life for me for it is better for me to die than to live you have embarrassed me so bad that people think i'm the worst prophet ever take this mess from me man just go ahead and kill me because this is getting real stupid here's the thing man verse four then said the lord does thou well to be angry huh so jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city and there made him a booth and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city verse 6 says and the lord god prepared a gourd and made it to come up over jonah that it might be of shadow for his head over his head to deliver him from his grief so jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd verse 7 says but god prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it smote the gourd that it withered huh verse 8 and it came to pass when the sun did arise that god prepared a vehement east wind and the sun beat upon the head of jonah and he fainted and wished in himself to die and said it is better for me to die huh than to live huh hold on and god said to the journal dust out well to be angry for the lord and he said i do well to be angry even unto death yes yes i have every right to be this angry even unto that and verse 10 says uh then said the lord thou hast had pity on the gourd for the rich thou has not laid but neither may does it grow which came up in the night and perished in the night verse 11 verse 11 and should not i spare nineveh that great city where are more than six score which is 120 000 persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and oh so much cattle huh should i not this now i listen one of the things that stood out immediately as you jump into uh this this this angry restless missionary elder old boy was this is that god prepared all three things oh come on man he prepared the plant he prepared the worm to eat the plant oh lord help us then he prepared an east wind so this guy could get cooked man you know what i'm saying it's very interesting to me how god sometimes intentionally allows things to come into our lives to teach us life lessons help us to understand that oh boy well the lesson brought out that uh journal was worried about looking foolish as you've used as you stated before and in verse it says was not this my saying when i was yet in my country like didn't i tell you that this is what was gonna happen i knew this was gonna that's why they want to do it in the first place so this is his cry that is his crying yeah but in uh verse five is general wanted to see the people pay for their weakness right it's like yes you know i i did my sermon now it's going to happen verse 5 says so journal rental to the city sat on the east side of the city and there he made a booth to set under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city so he's actually like steel it's like boss you you still just don't get it like you know even though he had humility when he got spit onto the uh destroyer he ran and did what god asked me to do stinking smelling of fish because you know how when when you go fishing and you cutting up bait and all that your hands and you smell like fish so journal smelled like the sea right he had been in the fish for three days but her it's like he just didn't get the part that hey my grace is sufficient even for those wicked people even for people you know i'm looking cool needs um look at people you know bigger people that's just leave it at that yes sir so so and he he started carrying on like he was a spoiled brick you know oh i'm vast with you lord you killed my you know the tree is now there just kill me you you spur these people just you know like just take my life i'm not i'm not worth to live anymore just just take it and god's like but boys i'm trying to give you a life lesson in this plant the same way how it came up you didn't do nothing for it and it died that was all me but i wanted to show you that i had the same right to do that with the nanowites yeah i was angry with them but yet i could change and because they repented i could i could bomb save them so like right now you're you're like you know um your kind of move you you even in your own personal life at all but you've kind of moved from like you're kind of like in this kind of like amateur slash like like medium pro gardener like you know what i'm saying so what's the thing christmas thing right here's here's here's the thing right can you imagine can you imagine like you've been out there growing the watermelon like for for months right for literally months you've been nurturing it you've been watering it you've been pulling the weeds you know what i'm saying the whole nine yards knowing like you know you can't even really partake of those anymore but but you're out there notioning it and then manny and i come over for lunch right we go down and mal said it's gonna have watermelon man can't wait and you go down there to bring it up and the thing is right at the last second in a row and him and i get all angry right we're fussing we're screaming and shouting i mean we got nothing to do with that one man you know if anybody should be angry it should be you right who's actually been out there doing the work right jonah wants to get angry about something that he didn't create and more importantly he's showing more love for a plant than for actual human beings which were the crowning act of god's creation right yeah come on so we talked about we tend to do the same thing you got people out there a boy who would save their dog and and feed their dog and put it in an air-conditioned hot before they would save one hungry child anywhere we got people out there who would who would strap themselves to a ship to save the wheels right but won't give one penny for us to save a hungry child or someone some water or country or something like that so we as human beings we we talk about journal but if we put this down to what we are we tend to do the same thing we show more concern for our car how many wives have hit the husband's car and he makes off about that car and not yet has asked her how are you right right right you understand what i'm saying so so we might look at journal like he's his bad but we have the same sin in us self is in all of us and god is trying to get us to understand that i must remove self from you at all cost because if i don't remove it you will not make it to my kingdom because the people in my kingdom put people first and if you can't do that you can't come here and so it's god's love i mean the love the love of god to journal that he would say yes i should be angry you killed the plan i deserve to be made like he's talking to god himself but yet god is still gracious what he's saying jonah everything i'm doing to you is exactly what i want to do but elders elders talk to me man talk about how i mean we hear we hear job saying the lord giveth and the lord take it away blessed be the name of the lord right that's what we hear him saying and the truth is sometimes god gives us something and then sometimes he takes it away and our response still needs to be blessed be the name of the lord man he gave you thank god in other words what what jonah should have been celebrating was thank you god for the one day i had some shade yeah you know what i'm saying that should have been his response i'm dealing with this heat now and i know any time you want you can make another one grow and give me shade again but while i wait i will bless the lord at all times his praise shall continuously be in other words he understands that god can give and he can take away talk to me before we move on to uh darcy what also i saw in this lesson too is that we like to remind people of their past failures [Music] right journal knew that the people they were wicked but but despite in it despite god preserving them and saving them he wants he still wanted them to see him paid yeah and we duty saying that you know what remember how she used to be you know how his his deacon all you made him a deacon yeah you know what he used to like we keep going back to people's past as opposed to seeing them for what they are and all and remember um elder smith this was some time ago we've been working together for quite some time but there was a there was a a period in our christian experience where i was like really really happy really happy coming in to work sharing with them you know hey look look what i might read last night and sure and he laughed and studied i was like why he checked his team out and and then it flipped where he was doing it but any what i was sharing happiness and joy of him in his mind just like this guy's always talking about goddess and god that and then it flipper we didn't we hadn't said nothing to each other we often laughed about it now but there was a point in time where i was up and he was gone and he was up but i was done but we didn't know until we actually revealed it to one another and we laughed but my point is why not be happy for somebody yeah as a person you know being disgruntled and like oh well god and need that yeah you know what i mean that sort of attitude that people sometimes have and this is what journal should have been showing or demonstrating be happy that hey look man the whole city got saved over one day one day it's a message man it should have taken three days to go through the city one simple message it's gonna burn it's gonna end but he should have been happy but no he's like i knew this was gonna happen like he was not a happy guy yeah and i think it's i think it's very important that god worked the whole three days to preserve him down in the water mm-hmm but he only had to work one day one he's still fussing he's still fussing right come on let's get into let's get into thursday right quick because we have just a few minutes left jude 20 to 23 june 20 to 23. let's read that from the english standard version jude 20-23 but you beloved building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the holy spirit keep yourselves in the love of god waiting for the mercy of our lord jesus christ that leads to eternal life and have mercy on those who don't save others by snatching them out of the fire to others show mercy with fear hating even the garment stand by the flesh mercy absolutely talk to me i'll dismiss about a two-way street just a couple of minutes sure a two-way street i mean what this shows here is that god is always trying to do two things at once in other words while he's trying to save the ninevites he's trying to save journal while god is trying to save your enemies and the people around you he's trying to save you he's trying to save us and the thing about it was was jonah who delivered the message to the people better than the people that he had to deliver the message to not at all it actually revealed he had more disobedience a disobedient spirit than than did the ninevites of all the atrocities they may have they may have done when they heard the message when they understood god was speaking when they understood god's grace they repented immediately here we again you brought out early here we have jenna days and days and days and he's still not repented he goes and delivers these masses they're saved he goes out invades to see ya i want to see that fire come down he's still awake then he's angry about a plan more than his anger about so what he had in his heart yet god used him so any of us out there who think god don't want to use you because you messed up look at jonah yet god still used him to be a prophet but he had in his heart such a bad character trait that he just wanted people to suffer and it was more all about him i am going to look bad all about me me god saying this is not about you this is about the world i'm trying to save the world and i'm using you to do it you should feel honored privileged and blessed that i'm using you to show my love to your enemies and i've experienced that regard to ask me many i know you think that i love you more than them because you come church and they don't and they've done you wrong and you feel justified but no what i'm actually doing i'm asking you my servant to show your enemy my love so in the end in judgment if they don't repent and they and if they don't repent he's saying i'm gonna say to them man how come you didn't accept my love they're gonna say what i never saw you lord when did i see your love when did you show me love he said don't you know i asked my servant manny to give you love when you've done him wrong that's what god is saying this is a two-way street show love because i'm asking you to show my love to your enemies i'm saving you in the process of saving them just one real quick point if you don't mind that verse in verse 23 pulling them out of the fire really stood out to me right yes as firefighters we are duty-bound to save life whether anyone's that run into a fire while everybody's running out and if we apply that to our christian experience we have been commissioned the bible says go right go pull somebody else out of the friday same way that i saved you no you turn around and do the same thing for somebody else amen so it's not about just sitting and and and saying okay i'm i'm i'm all right i'm saying you know forget everybody else no no we have a duty uh and a responsibility to go and reach somebody else via this platform why are we on our jobs our neighborhoods it doesn't matter where we are we should always be looking to pull somebody out of the fight man yeah i think it's i think it's very interesting that i mean you brought up the analogy of being firefighters uh when you get to that house of your enemy uh you go around back of town and you go psalmists and george's and you know it's your enemies house as a firefighter you don't get to just sit on the truck no say you know what let me let me let it cook just a little bit you know what i'm saying you know you know you don't get to do that but rather you still have the same responsibility to run in and to preserve life yes one of the things i think these lessons is really trying to bring out to us not only to just should we come aside we should come aside even on this blessed sabbath day come aside not just reflect uh on our on our own situation and our relationship with christ but understand that he has given us a commission to go and to reach others and especially those who we don't like especially those who we consider perhaps enemies or those who are the ones that we're not naturally drawn to he calls us to go and reach out to them uh because in essence in essence we don't want to do it because we don't like how they have treated us hold on a second now and what happens is is that what god is trying to show you is that i should be treating you the way you want to treat them i need you to go and love them the way i love you because i should have destroyed you a long time ago and the grace i have extended to you i need you to go and extend it to somebody else it's something that requires us daily to get on with daily so it becomes a part of our nature helping those who we don't necessarily love and that brings me to uh my quote one of my favorite quotes i like to use it every now and then and that is this quote i love it it's by unknown off i learned this quote a very long time ago but it just simply says religion was meant lord help us religion was meant to be daily food to eat and not cake for special occasions all right i want to challenge us to love the unlovely every day not just when we get credit for it not just here on wednesday afternoon when people say oh you guys are doing a great job but when it's you and just then and nobody else sees to love the unlovely let us pray together uh eldest oh boy go ahead and lead us and pray heavenly father we thank you for another opportunity to spend time in your word and as we have learned this morning the lessons of journal may we see ourselves and be able to apply them to our own daily lives and help us make an about face and walk towards you in your your will and your purpose be of those that have stayed on to watch and listen may they apply to their lives as well this is our prayer in jesus name amen foreign this thank you [Music] thank you thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] for you me [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] god bless you friends we are so thankful that you decided to join us today for lagos university this deep exhilarating study of the word of god we pray that you were blessed by it and we know that as you study your sabbath school lesson each week that you will continue to grow in jesus christ here at the hamilton 70 of fitness church we have some other avenues that you can contact us to make your experience even more rich so for instance we have if you would a prayer line that you can tap into you can see that on your screen right now where you can actually come and share your prayer requests if by chance you didn't get it in there feel free to write your request on the chat or you can text on pr actual number here for lagos university which is 441-517-5810 we pray that you are blessed by everything that you get here involved with and at the same time feel free uh to email us any request for bible studies whatever you might need at hamilton sda at gmail.com that's hamilton sda gmail.com until next week as you continue to study your lesson know that we are avidly preparing for the next encounter we have with you so that god can take us deeper into his word the word logos is a word that actually means the word the bible says in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god the bible also says thy word have i hid in my heart that i might not sin against thee that same bible says order my steps in your word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me and so as we prepare for next week we want you to prepare as well make the sabbath school lesson your daily study so that the next time you come into this place whether it's virtually or in person you may be able to contribute to this great thing we call lagos university [Music] do [Music] do [Music] me this [Music] to [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] a coat of worship comes from psalm 151-6 i'll be reading from the new international version hallelujah praise god in his holy place praise him in his great expanse praise him for his mighty walks praise him according to his excellent greatness praise him with trumpet sounding praise him with stringed instrument and heart praise him with tambourine and dancing praise him with string and wind instruments praising with loud symbols praising with reverberating symbols that everyone who believes praise the lord hallelujah may god bless the reading of his word [Music] so [Music] prepare to pose to call us your seats so at this time we'll have our pathfinder pledge and law pathfinders present arms now we will recite the pathfinder pledge by the grace of god i will be pure kind and true i will keep the path under law i god and will french who met the path finally was for me to keep in the morning watch do my honest part care for my body keep the love alive be courteous and obedient blessed be in god's sanctuary keep the border arms please stand for the path on this song [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] is a truth that will set us free let us pray heavenly father we we need your presence god today is a special day father you have your youth here the pathfinders and god they need you as much as the adults do and in some cases even more so my prayer is that your presence your very presence will be in this place and near every single pathfinder watching today and every one of god i pray we'll leave this place today knowing [Music] that they are on a mission for you [Music] bless us in jesus name we pray amen amen well this morning we'd like to go right to our opening hymn which will be hymn number 612 onward christian soldiers [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh foreign is [Music] jesus oh [Music] victory brothers [Music] is we are [Music] jesus [Music] join our happy throne [Music] unto christ of [Music] christian soldiers of jesus [Music] please be seated [Music] are you hurting me [Music] jesus [Music] have you come have you come to the end of yourself [Music] [Music] forgiveness [Music] good morning church my name is please buy your heads and close your eyes for intercessory prayer dear jesus we pray for our leaders of our country and church we pray for persons who have had cured and that have lost loved ones in the recent months and lastly we pray for our word pathfinder today speaker use them to give us a timely message amen happy sabbath and father god as we continue in prayer we thank you lord for this beautiful sabbath day that you've given us we ask god that your holy spirit will be in this place and god turned these unprecedented times in our island but praying god that you'll be with our leaders especially our premier lord and those who are in government as at this time they are very difficult decisions to make some that we're not happy with but we ask god that we'll be obedient to the rules the government said as long as they do not go against your word we ask god that you'll be all our health care workers all of those who put their lives on the line the doctors the nurses with all those in the hospital all those who have lost loved ones during this time god we ask god that you continue to minister to all those who have lost loved ones god and during this time of this world path on the day of all the pathways around the world we ask god to be it and live here in bermuda if our local churches pass on the clubs directors counselors the pathfinders in their family we ask lord that you just go near to them as some have come down with sickness go near to them as well and god end up going to give you the honor of praise and the glory and you caught a young man to speak a word today by praying god that you go close to elder smith as he brings a word to our path finders there's something that he says god will permanently in their heart and they'll say i want to have a closer relationship with you [Music] so we commit this entire service into your hands at the end of god we give you the honor the praise and the glory in the name of jesus we pray amen thank you [Music] [Music] god [Music] one amazing amazing hallelujah amen and as we continue in worship and pray we just want to remind you that no matter where you are in your living rooms in your front rooms in your in your kitchen maybe even in your bedroom we just want to remind everyone across the island that no matter what is going on around us the crisis just the chaos sometimes you just need to be reminded that your life is in god's hands no matter what's going on you have to remember to turn your life over into his hands and be ready for the blessing that you receive even when you come out on the other side of whatever you're going through in wherever you are just join us as we minister and sing this song my life is in your hands [Music] you don't have to worry you don't have [Music] troubles [Music] [Music] [Music] oh i know [Applause] [Music] my [Music] [Laughter] [Music] don't you be afraid don't you be afraid joy comes in the morning [Music] [Music] and if your heart is broken in i know that i can stand i know my life is i know [Music] [Music] now this is the important part [Music] they're nowhere to be found [Music] and [Music] i can make i know [Music] i know come on now [Applause] i know i know [Music] no matter what's gonna come down just remember in everything that you're going through your life is [Music] [Music] just give it to him just trust him put your faith in him [Music] [Music] amen do you believe that my life is in your hands praise the lord welcome welcome welcome to [Music] the world pathfinder day and we're so glad to be here at the hamilton seventh day of church worships of joy they tell me right pastor steve yeah amen amen were wondering about we're going to have a path on it there not because of the curvat um in the island and and we sat down and we said yeah we're going to go ahead we're going to have our path on it it's world path on the day we're going to go ahead and have our path on today so welcome to our pathfinder day i want to thank um all of the um staff and the directors in our clubs who have worked so hard during these unprecedented times actually without curving is difficult enough trying to you know have a power fund a club i want to thank our directors for all that they've done for us during these times and also to our parents who have been extremely supportive um during these times about i really want to thank um pastor steve for his leadership amen now you guys have a great pastor here you know yeah and i've enjoyed working alongside him we come together we strategize i want to thank pastor steve for being a great leader and one that i can look up to him that i've known pastor steve for a long time since premiere institute days but praise the lord you go back away for praise of pastor steve but the world pathfinder text that has been chosen is psalms 127 verses 4 and it reads as arrows are in the hands of a mighty man so are children of the youth and even the arrow is through a mighty person aggressive force and i thought about this text now saying if our young people could be mighty like a mighty arrow wow what a work they can do and that's what our pathfinder club is designed to do to train and give our young people guidance so they can be mighty in the work of god especially in these unprecedented times we really need our young people someone has to continue to pray for us as we continue to pray for you that you um at the end of the day we look forward to seeing our lord and our savior jesus christ and once again welcome to our para final day yes boy can the church say amen come on say amen online i want to welcome you all here uh into uh this place uh today i want to welcome you to the hamilton seventh-day adventist church where worship is a joy and the love is real for 120 years god has commended this church and after all that time his grace is still sufficient his mercy is still in hot pursuit of his blood or what can wash away our sins nothing but the blood of jesus in case you was wondering director hill if it had not been for the lord on our side then where would we be so may his spirit fill you his faithfulness forgive you and his truth free you on this venerated and beatified sabbath day i want to make it very very clear because we got people listening all over the world we got people uh if you would uh that are watching us on facebook or people watching us on live stream on youtube they're watching us live on atv and they are listening live on 105 fm right here in bermuda i want to make it very very very very clear there is a vast difference uh in age between myself and director hill can the church say amen he's much older than i am he's he's more like my sister's age man you know and you know how old she is you know what i'm saying the great i'm telling you the distance between us is very very great uh but indeed uh we want to uh welcome him here as the director of our pathfinders as well as we have a few area coordinators and pathfinder directors here with their children we wish we could have had them all here but due to the pandemic that is not possible today i want to say a special thank you not necessarily uh pathfinder related but i want to say a special thank you to our praise team and our musicians uh who have braved the pandemic to be in this place can the church say amen i want to thank michelle i want to thank richonda i want to thank our dean i want to thank mike uh for coming into this place and uh you know it's it's crazy times it's really crazy times uh the highest active rate uh for us here in bermuda throughout this pandemic this fourth surge here has been the worst terry has been to worse uh but we are thankful and we're gonna be as safe as possible in god's house so you guys can come back next week can the church say the church say amen but no uh no seriously we really thankful man for you guys presence uh here with us today amen church we praise god for that hey listen let's get into some quick remarks for the hamilton church uh indeed we are looking for a double portion of we have only just begun in 2021. uh the truth of the matter is is that in january of this year we were hoping to actually have uh 120 year celebrations it didn't work out due to the pandemic uh we planned to do it here in september and it didn't work out due to the pandemic uh but we do want to think we did get a little glimpse of the past uh not this past wednesday but the wednesday before pastor lewis former pastor of this church willie lewis who by the way was the pastor when we built the center uh when we built the center pastor lewis was the pastor this is in the 70s this is in the 70s i was just a baby and and and and elder he elder here was about 15 20. can the church say amen he was about 15 20. guy tried to put himself in the same bracket as me can you believe that the great try to put himself in the same bracket as me unbelievable but indeed uh i i don't even remember the center being built uh you can see director here he can give you the whole history all right he can get a whole history of how it was so built hey listen man bermuda institute bermuda institute we want to continue to lift up our school and prayer let me tell you uh whether it's public school or private school this virtual learning is tough on teachers and students it's hard to learn that environment it's hard to stay focused it's hard to stay on task and we just want to continue to lift up our school bermuda institute as they uh get through this as well as to many other public schools that are struggling through uh this pandemic next up uh yes we have board meeting board meeting is tomorrow not tomorrow but monday evening at 6 00 p.m at 6 p.m and yes we'll be via zoom we were hoping to be back in the sanctuary but this search has made that absolutely impossible hey listen last week we had some birthdays prepared to show you couldn't show you because last week some of you may be wondering that are watching all over the world but indeed we had a power failure massive power failure here at church and we're thankful for those who worked hard to make sure we could get back up and running for prayer meeting and for today uh but these are the names from last week uh janika fields and stephen t ming celebrated birthdays on september the 11th uh also neil and andrea radary celebrated their anniversary can the church say amen we praise god for them and then today is just one sabbath birthday in that of dion smith dion smith wanna wish dion a very uh happy birthday today and then the final announcement for today is that next week's sabbath will be communion i'm looking at my head deaconess uh because she normally has times uh for you to come and pick up your emblems and i need to make that clear to them at this moment and so what i would posit to you is that that would be usually thursday and friday uh thursday uh throughout the day between uh between uh ten o'clock century ten and one between ten and one on thursday you can come by the hamilton seventh-day adventist church and pick up your emblems for communion this coming sabbath also on friday uh from 10 to 1 both time slots are from 10 to 1 so come on thursday or friday and pick up your emblems uh you need to be here pardon friday evening from five to seven they have two hours oh wow she's being extra gracious so yes from ten to one from ten to one on thursday you can come and pick up your emblems uh on thursday from ten to one on friday you can come pick up your emblems and from five to seven in the evening on friday someone will be here to distribute those emblems to you if perhaps uh you're from another church and your church hasn't been able to celebrate communion please feel free to come by and join in our services and and just bring the whole family together for this blessed experience it's going to be a blessed time here in the lord we will be operating again next week with the skeletal crew there'll be very few of us here uh in god's house actually doing the service we encourage you just be home we encourage you of course to be prepared to wash one another's feet at home uh in between sabbath school and church so that we can start right on time and be blessed in this place hey listen that's all i have for you today if you would just stand with me the few that are here if you will just stand with me and those of you that are watching all over uh the different portals uh just go ahead and stand in your homes wherever you are yes stand up yes yes yes yes put your pajamas on put them on and stand up in your bedroom stand up in your kitchens stand up in your living rooms don't be afraid don't be afraid stand up and repeat after me say there's no place come on i can't hear you there's no place there's no place i like this place anywhere near this place so this must be the place come on turn to your neighbor even yours if you back at the house turn to your neighbor put the waffle back on the plate come on put the waffle back on the plate listen this is a very special moment to look at your neighbor and say neighbor amen it's world pathfinder today you are in the right place come on now let's wave to the cameras let's wish everyone a happy sabbath if you're at home give somebody a hug tell somebody you love them and let's stay safe let's stay safe as we uh endure this pandemic we're going to sing a wonderful song that says even in the midst of this pandemic michelle we're still blessed we're still blessed let's worship the lord today in spirit and in truth everybody [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] everybody [Music] turn around when we come and when we is [Music] while our storyteller makes their way to the front everyone else can be seated [Music] little light let it shine shine [Music] okay um i thought we had a children's scripture but that's good we still ah okay we do have my scripture up so we'll do that so good morning everyone and a special good morning to all of our boys and girls who are watching us from home today did you know that adam had a job yeah he had a job and the first job god gave him was it was work but it was fun genesis 2 verse 19 says now the lord had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky he brought them to the man to see what he would name them and whatever the man called each living creature that was its name now i have a treat for everyone today here it is no it's not invisible the treat is the plastic bag now uh doesn't that sound delicious no no i guess it doesn't but many animals end up eating them and other kinds of plastic also sometimes animals get plastic bottles stuck on their heads or turtles get wrapped up in fishing lines and plastic that's thrown into the ocean can float all around the world sometimes birds will eat things that they think might be food or feed their their their babies things that they think might be food and these things are very harmful to the animals today i'm going to show you two animals this is a dugong now a dugong is a kind of interesting animal uh you ever heard of a manatee well a dugong is kind of related to a manatee they're from the same family um and a dugong is big like six feet long when it's full grown or more and and weighs a lot a lot more than a person so anyway dugongs are vegans they eat grass seagrass and you can see this dugong swimming along the bottom of the ocean and meeting up with a turtle and he is eating the grass from the bottom of the ocean but he can't tell the difference between a plastic bag and grass so he may eat those plastic bags that we let get into the ocean and then it can harm them it breathes like a whale or a dolphin or manatee and as i said it looks like a lot like a manatee it eats about 70 pounds of grass a day when it's full grown and kind of looks like it's smiling all the time and as you can see it's a friendly animal it's actually sort of playing with the turtle and in the water as big as it is it's very agile it can spin and turn kind of looks like it's holding the turtle a little bit that's that's really amazing it has it can hold its breath for a long time god gave adam and adam sorry the job of taking care of the earth and he still wants us to take care of it today he wants us to care for the earth and keep it beautiful in heaven and in the new earth we won't have any garbage dumps and while we're here on this earth it's our job to take care of it and make sure we're careful about how much trash we make and where we put it taking care of the earth is part of being faithful to god and being a good steward and we let's pray kind heavenly father we ask that you will be with us as we go about our day each day help us to remember that this earth that you gave us as a great gift is our responsibility as well and that we must do our best not to damage it and not to damage the creatures that you put on this earth for us to take care of these things i pray in jesus name amen [Music] okay good morning church happy sabbath it's offering time love gives john 3 16 is a voice most of us know well but have you ever thought about it in terms of giving for god to love the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life god gave his only son but why because he loves us and that meant that love and that man he had to do something love requires an action in the same way you give someone a gift not because they expect it or you feel obligated to give it but because you love them it's just a natural reaction in a moment you will see on your screen the various ways you can return your titles and offerings you can also come to the church and drop it off yet of your time and offering or you go to the conference office between monday and friday but before you do i just want to say don't give out the feeling of obligation or routine but give because you love the vision of this church give because you love this country and want to see them reach for christ please buy his classic eyes for prayer dear heavenly father thank you first day thanks for bringing us to another sabbath please be of us as we go through this day be of those who are about to give and help them to remember that they are given our love not our obligation in jesus name pray amen what an awesome message that we don't give out obligation that's right and because we want you to be a cheerful giver as you plug in your digits on the computer at home and things like that we're going to sing a song of joy i'm going to ask my praise team to join me as we prepare to just help you be a cheerful giver [Music] you're happy [Music] hallelujah [Music] if you're happy and you know it [Music] is [Music] my [Music] [Music] happy in jesus jesus happy jesus christ happy in jesus jesus jesus christ [Music] i'm so happy [Music] i'm hallelujah [Music] [Music] amen amen amen can we please stand for our scripture reading our scripture reading is taken from ephesians 5 verses 8 through 10 and i will read in your hearing ephesians 5 verses 8 through 10. for ye were sometimes darkness but now you are light in the lord walk as children of light for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth providing what is acceptable unto the lord may lord bless the reading of his holy word you may be seated greetings the pleasant task is mine to introduce our speaker joe's one smith currently serves as an elder at the hamilton sda church he is married to his childhood sweetheart jane smith and together they have been blessed to have three wonderful children now he describes them as wonderful so his personal experience has been positive ariana is a young adult while amaya and jaylen are teenagers he believes and i would say he understands he says he understands i think he believes as well that god has used his 30-year marriage you see there's the gift of youth there as well as his children to teach him more about his relationship with god elder smith wants everyone to know that he does not take sharing god's message lightly and that as a result of his many twists turns and even mistakes in life god has changed him and made him a part of this last day movement toward heaven he believes that we are near the end of time god will not ask me to preach unless he has a special message for his people cheers elder smith so that we all together will keep pressing on he believes that god wants each of us to be a christ-like example to the world i have noticed for at uh some years ago i worked with the pathfinders i was the area coordinator uh for his club the then rockaway club and i noticed that elder joswan wore multiple hats not just that of elder he was pristine leader and i could i could tell from his responses to the song that he still is pristine leader strong pathfinder supporter of course as you can tell by the ages of his children that there were pathfinders involved in pathfinders and you see as our speaker is a fireman by trade he has been one of the best candidates for teaching honors like red alert campaign fire building so he has been a wonderful supporter to his children and to the find the club amen in working with young people elder joswan is noticed as well to be a pleasant and personable person yet he shares love and fear of god a wonderful christian example to young people finally sorry finally but very importantly the joseman smith has a mantra of encouraging encouragement to people to you pathfinders listening in-house and online we when we mess up when we mess up we get up we look up and let's get real following the next praise theme presentation song join me pat find us everywhere and prayerfully welcoming to the podium to our hearts uh and to god's people everywhere god's chosen vessel for today the jerusalem smith thank you amen amen amen [Music] oh oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] for you me [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] well it is the time in the service where we like to give praise and worship time and it i know our young people are sad because they weren't able to join us like they normally would for pathfinders with their club but i want all of the pathfinders watching in bermuda around the world wherever you are just to know that no matter what we're going through you still serve a mighty god and your god is not just mighty but he's also good so as we sing this song we pray that you will join us in your wherever you are where are you while you are worshiping with us and sing along that we serve a mighty and a good god [Music] is [Music] glory to his name is [Music] [Music] because if you know anything about sorrow you need to trade that is [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] amen i tell you our god is good yes he's good amen and his mercy endures forever to every generation to every tongue to every people man come on everybody [Music] forever [Music] hallelujah for who hallelujah are [Music] forever [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] sometimes we need to be reminded even in the good times and the bad and this next song actually talks about being broken it talks about the fact that no matter what through all that you may be broken about your your heart may be broken because of someone who you you lost this week it could be broken because of i don't know maybe you suffer are suffering from covet right now or you're in quarantine trust me i know how you suffer when you're in quarantine i just need you to remember that no matter what it is that's breaking you breaking your heart breaking your soul breaking your spirit that you serve almighty god a good god who can heal every hurt every pain every child test trans i'm sorry tribulation you go through you're god he can heal you you just have to trust him you just have to believe and claim it by faith that you are broken but you are healed in jesus name do you believe if you believe and you are sitting at home just raise your hand to the sky and show god some thanks because even though we are going through hard times right now we still need to give him thanks because when we are broken that's when we should still praise him that's right even when you're going through those tough times that's people got to remember to give him glory because he didn't have to give you anything but he still chose to give you life so let's remember we are broken but we are also healed [Music] i have a message [Music] you might not be in this building but it still counts so you tell me you've been to your position look at you there's been no change in your condition reach out and touch [Music] there's healing for your mind your body i'm your soul [Music] yesterday wherever you are [Music] [Music] oh [Music] you will receive [Music] [Music] revelation [Music] that god is able to supply everyone of your needs he's here to touch you to heal you and oh he'll set you free oh yes you will [Music] god can heal [Music] him he can man your broken head [Music] oh [Music] so by the time that you leave this old building [Music] a miracle to fit your every need this is what you have to go down [Music] god [Music] he gave us [Music] [Music] if [Music] [Music] [Music] i receive your healing lord you might be in your hospital bed somewhere but you gotta sing it to yourself you gotta believe what you're singing to yourself that you have received [Music] i wanna thank you i wanna praise you and give you glory and adoration so merciful oh my god [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i just want to thank you for that song every time i get up to speak i ask that god will send me a message so i can know that he's here so i can know i'm doing exactly what he asked me to do it was mentioned earlier and since i i i don't like this biography thing but thank you for the pleasant words thank you for that but during that time she mentioned something that is true for me and that is that whenever i'm asked to speak i never ever take it lightly we're living in serious times we hear that all the time we're living in serious times but even just this week some of the things that we've been going through here in bermuda and things going on around the world i realize in truth we are living in serious serious times and because of that i believe that our pathfinders are old enough smart enough wise enough intelligent enough to hear a serious message because we're living in serious times and make no mistake about it it's not just the adults who are living in serious times for our children are right along with us in these serious serious times and if you're like me any adults out there watching if you're like me you've been paying a lot of attention to your your walk with christ you've been contemplating where you fit and what you need to do where you need to go not realizing that your children in the same world you are father in heaven we pray that you give understanding of this message to every single one of us god before the ten virgins awoke you sent someone to wake him up [Music] and though i don't compare myself to that individual i i do know that today you sent me to wake some people up pathfinders you sent me to wake them up i pray that we all will wake up in jesus name amen pathfinders huh so many pathfinders not just here but around the world path finders and even though years ago i was a counselor in pathfinders strangely enough i never actually thought about what that word means and perhaps there are some of you who are currently pathfinder some of you may be thinking about joining pathfinders perhaps you're doing it without ever really finding out what that word actually means and it's important that we understand what it means today because that again the times that we're living in are certainly perilous and if not perilous physically it's certainly perilous emotionally and spiritually for since this pandemic there have been people who haven't set foot back in the church in over a year spiritually perilous times and funny enough as i was preparing for the sabbath last night my daughter had come to me earlier this week and said dad you know what i think we need to have a child and by the way my daughter's 16 years old she says i think we need to have a time as a family where we come together and discuss our spiritual well-being i looked at her in amazement i said well sweetheart you know in your mind what you want that to look like and what you think that should be how that should happen so i leave you responsible for it she says well i know we're doing studies and different things all week so friday night's gonna have to be tonight and last night was the first night and i knew it was god after she finished speaking and after we finished experiencing what we experienced i knew it was god because he was sending me here today to talk to you and lo and behold last night i learned something that i never actually considered both my children who are still in the house the younger ones jalen and maya jalen started off and he began to tell me how he feels disconnected when he prays it doesn't seem like like it's going anywhere it seems like god's not there sometimes he prays and it feels like he's asking himself am i sincere do i do i really even mean this prayer and the more i listen to him and i watch my daughter nodding her head yes yes i i i get that jalen i'm experiencing the same thing i've watched my children all summer long stuck at home for the most part doing their best to get their schoolwork done doing their best to find meaning and purpose in their life and here we are as adults just trying to get work done just trying to bring that paycheck to him just trying to feed him just trying to school them just trying to survive focus on my own salvation i'll be honest focused on getting my study time and and learning things and and be able to share things in church but as long as i sit there listening to my children suddenly i went quiet because i realized that they experience the same thing we experience they're dealing with a time that we never had to deal with as a young person lockdown restrictions fear news all over the place things they're afraid of things they don't know about and yet we have this deep desire that they remain christians that's a good desire but i learned last night that just maybe just maybe i need to take a focus off myself just long enough to recognize that my children they're going through this time too and the thing is pathfinders we have to understand that even though you're young and even though you're a pathfinder you have some serious decisions to make because you're living in a time when the world is fast fast moving toward the end let me tell you something there are things that i was studying at a young age when i first came into church and i was saying wow man this is these times are going to be crazy in the future so much so that that's time i know we're studying daniel and revelation and prophecy after prophecy and learning all these things about what's going to happen in the end of time and what the mindset of people will be like so much so that i set my children down all these years later i sat him down and i said you guys are gonna see some stuff i only dreamt about seeing the people in your a at your age are going to be dealing with stuff that i ain't even thought about i mean we're talking let's be honest here we're talking about people in their teens who are dealing with homosexuality and lesbianism in school some of our pathfinders are dealing with some serious stuff and many of us as adults have our heads stuck in the clouds but if anybody has got to be ready for the end of time it's them too so pathfinders don't you think for one second that god is going to slow up the end of time because you're small because you're young because you're still a pathfinder because you're not in your 20s yet because i haven't married yet because i haven't been to college yet because i'm not doing certain things yet the world is still moving fast toward the end whether you like it or rather you don't but the beautiful thing about this whole situation is god has put you to be a part of something that its very meaning places you in a position to be ready for the end of time but just know i'm about to go and look because i went and looked it up i said pathfinder what does it even mean so i went to the dictionary and i want you to listen very carefully as to what pathfinder actually means because it'll give you an understanding of your purpose in this pandemic time pathfinder listen carefully a person who goes ahead of a group and finds the best way to travel through an unknown area a person who goes ahead of a group to find the best way to travel through an unknown area that's what pathfinder means it means you find the path so that others can walk through it pathfinders adults church it's time to find it if at any other time in history we should have found that path that time is now this is the time like in noah's day when god is saying hey let me give you the message accept the message find out where you belong find the path let's find it let's get on it and let's travel it this is the same time right now that's happening covet has given us a chance to stop to reflect to rest to be at home to think but we know that the scripture says when they begin to say peace and safety sudden destruction shall come upon the world i'm saying to us pathfinders this is the time where there is safety where there is peace yes we have a pandemic people dying from it and all of that but this is more of a time of peace than you've ever had before when have you ever had the chance to stop slow down and just be at home adults when have you ever had the time to be weeks on end just able to read and study and pray and be quiet never before in your lifetime this is the time just before the storm that god is saying wake up wake up virgins wake up and just before the storm breaks you know it gets more peaceful and so it's my duty to stand here today and let you know don't be fooled by the peaceful time don't be fooled by the quietness pathfinders you are the ones who must go ahead of everybody else find that path so that everybody else can follow it that's what the meaning of pathfinder is another meaning is a person or a group that is the first to do something and that makes it possible for others to do the same thing trailblazer a path finder it's time to find it when all your friends are struggling and suffering and so are you when you're having a difficult time feeling god's presence when you're having a difficult time it's you'd have to go ahead of that yes experience it go through it get over it get through it get around it get under it do whatever you have to do but god is saying you are the ones who are finding the path for the people behind you your school friends who don't know jesus christ you go first and find the path that's your responsibility as a pathfinder to go ahead when nobody else wants to do it when nobody in the class wants to stand up and pray you do it when nobody wants to read from the scriptures you go first because guaranteed when you go it's a guarantee that others will follow behind you they're just waiting for the one who is a path finder we're gonna go to some scriptures but i want you to know this this is real there's gonna come a time when your parents will struggle to keep the faith there is coming a time real soon and in some cases right now it's happening for some people that your brothers your sisters your your your your fellow church members are giving up they're not allowing god to change them and build them and grow them and make them christ-like there are people who are much older than you who are struggling through this pandemic time to stay faithful but god has called you to be path finders i'm going to ask you this question if mommy or daddy today gave up the fight today stop coming to church what would happen to you you need to understand that we're living in times that you can't depend on mommy and daddy to get you through it you can't depend on pastor out or deacon or deaconess to get you through this time the time is coming when every earthly thing will be stripped away from you every comfort that you currently have will be stripped away you somebody out there might be asking why is he talking like this to pathfinders i asked god the same thing when he put this message on my mind but there is a reason it's because he wants you to be ready for what's coming make no mistake about it what's coming and in many ways it's already here when you have adventist christian children confused about their sexuality rather than male or female or what what what this thing is when you have that happening in your midst in your classrooms you don't think it's time for you to stop making some concrete decisions about finding that path and staying on it it's a narrow path not that's telling us that pretty much almost everybody around you ain't gonna find it it's narrow and few there be that find it but the way that is wide that everybody wants to go on that's what the people around you are going to look like but if you don't find a narrow path how can someone else follow you to it pathfinders this is what you are you are the ones who go ahead when everyone else is ashamed of being a christian not you you go ahead and light that pathway because somebody's coming behind you needs to see it somebody needs to see you be strong somebody needs to see you keep worshiping somebody needs to see you keep studying somebody needs to keep keep praying somebody needs you to stand up in class and say no that's not right somebody out there needs you and god has called you so put into practice what you've learned because let me let's talk about this for a second do you need to find a path if you ain't going anywhere if we go camping today and we find ourselves in the middle of a forest somewhere what's the point of finding a path maybe we could just stay right here in our camp and and and live here for the rest of our lives but that's not how it works right the thing is there are trees and forests all around us but usually there's only this one tiny path that leads to somewhere you need to go maybe it's to the food but it leads somewhere god is saying you are a pathfinder in other words you're in unfamiliar territory this pandemic is dead it's the unfamiliar territory if i took you camping somewhere you don't know there's only one way that the one thing you're gonna start looking for and that's the path how did the path get there maybe it's because others went ahead before you and their feet smashed down the grass to the point where the grass didn't grow so if you find a path you know that hundreds of people have been across that path before you and so this is what our job is to find that path thy word the bible says in psalms 119 105 thy word is a length to my feet and a light to my path so if you're asking yourself wow to smith i heard you talking all this stuff but how do i find a path i just like i said my kids said they don't feel connected they don't know if if their prayers are being heard after i said all of that let me show you what pathfindering is after they said all of that they answered their own question my daughter looks at me and she says hey that's what it means to live by faith we just have to believe it i i don't feel it i feel like unworthy i feel like he's not talking to me i feel like i'm not there this pandemic everything is making me confused and in school and it's just so much stuff they're dealing with at their young age and she took looks at me and says that's what it means to live by faith and i smiled to myself i said that's fine in the past how does she know because the word is the light if she doesn't read the word the path can't light up she knew because of the light in the word that all she had to hold on to at that moment in this moment was faith just believe not feel maybe god is testing you all maybe he's letting you know that your relationship with me cannot be based on feelings alone there are days you will feel far away from god but it's not god that's moved anywhere he's always there all we have to do is believe it so when you pray and you feel like it's going on into the roof and bounce back down knock that thought out of your head because the just shall live by faith you know that god loves you enough to hear your prayers not you feel that god loves you enough to hear your prayers i know he loves me enough to hear my prayers you have to know what you believe you have to know why you believe it you're old enough now because the times that are facing you is the same times that's facing me and i want you young people to know we struggle too your parents are struggling too your parents are confused too your parents don't even know how to help you they're confused too they've never been in a pandemic before we're all in this together so young oh it doesn't matter just remember this pathfinders remember this the adults in israel didn't make it into the promised land because they chose to be disobedient they chose to grumble and complain they chose to not believe they chose to be unfaithful but it was their children it was their children who entered the promised land i'm saying to you that we're living in a time where i see people my age in their 50s dying we're not talking about 70 80 90 no no no we're watching this happen over and over and over again so tell me who's left to finish the work who's who will be left i'm not saying they're going to be no adults but i'm telling you that the closer we get to the end of time the ones who are going to be left to make these decisions are going to be you you pathfinders but if you're unsure today where the path is i'm telling you the bible says your word is a light and a lamp it's the word and if you're not in it i don't care how young you are if you're not in the word the path can't light up imagine this for one second you're out in the forest you're surrounded by bush and trees you can't see the path everyone around you is in darkness it's dark but you have to leave you have to move you have to go and just imagine the only one whose eyes can see the light reveal the path is your eyes all of a sudden no one else can see it but you and you say to your friends hey i see the path and they look at you like what what path i don't see nothing is pitch black it's nothing here and you're like trust me i see the path because for me it's lit up bright and shiny the word says go this way and they're around you saying i still don't see it you say you know what you don't have to see i'm going to start walking follow me that's the condition that we are in right now the world don't see what you see don't expect your friends in class to see what you see don't expect people out in the public to see what you see if you're waiting for them to accept you and to them to see what you see you're in trouble our job is not to see what they see but to see what jesus sees we are the path finders one more text and then i'll sit down the bible says in proverbs chapter 4 verse 18 and 19 but the path of the just is like a shining sun that shines ever brighter until the perfect day the way of the wicked is like darkness they don't know what makes them stumble that's what god wants to do he doesn't want the path to be dim dark ok uh you can't see it god is expecting you to see that path your word is a light unto my path your word you have the fleshlight the world around you is in darkness and many of us are in darkness with them but if we remember who we are if we know that we're pathfinders why do i have to be stuck in darkness with you wait a minute i'm a pathfinder get the flashlight turn it on follow me i'll lead the way that's what pathfinder is amen amen so brothers and sisters young people your mom and dad are not the only ones who have to pass through this perilous time that we've studied so much about and heard so much about your granny and grandpa is not the only ones who are going to have to march through this time in fact they may not make it that far but you spent your whole life learning how to be a pathfinder it's time now to find it it is time for you to find your path and yay not just your path but the path it's that time floods earthquakes wars rumors of wars people talking about war america and china and russia and germany all these people talking about afghanistan fires everywhere did not god tell us these are the beginning of sorrows see that you're not troubled find a path this is the light i told you it was coming what are you so nervous and scared and afraid of i told you it was coming turn on the light because there are people in darkness they need it young people you are the ones who will fulfill these prophecies you will either fulfill it by holding up the light or you'll fulfill it by being everything god said the world will be in the end make your choice and from this day forward whenever you go to a pathfinder meeting i want you to go to the dictionary and remind yourself what it means to take on that name pathfinder it's not a game it's not a joke it's not just to pass the time away it means something it means a person who goes ahead of a group it finds the best way to travel through an unknown area a person or group that is the first to do something that makes it possible for others to do the same thing that's what we are amen i'm just going to ask the viewers any pathfinders out there today who have recognized that you you you've been letting mommy and daddy be the christian but you've been searching for the world you realize that when you were in a position to cheat on that testing school you to you chose to cheat rather than do it god's way and find the path you realize that when your friends around you were confused about their sexuality you you followed along with it because you didn't want them to think you're the odd one out you didn't find the path and lead the way when your friends went to go smoke some weed or drink some alcohol and try a cigarette you fought alone because you you didn't want to lead the way and make people think that you're crazy or weird or not cool there's some of you out there that have not accepted your mission as a pathfinder you didn't realize that god placed you in the midst of those people who would do those things so that you could light the path not so that you could be taken up with them if that's you out there today you didn't realize the meaning and purpose of what it means to be a pathfinder i'm going to ask that you rate where you are you want jesus to forgive you you want to fulfill your purpose as a pathfinder you want to be strong enough to show the world there's another way you want to be the ones that make it through the end of time if that's you i'm going to ask that you just stand right where you are in your bedroom in your living room wherever you are stand or raise your hand to jesus christ and say i'm a pathfinder me i'll do it [Music] i'll lie to me father in heaven i pray for every path finally listening today this is a difficult message for such young people it's a strong message for such young minds but god they can choose sin over you they can hear this message if they have chosen to lie rather than tell truth they can hear this message but father let them know that you've forgiven everything god you love them so much that you've sent this message today not not to make them feel bad no no no god but to help them to understand you i choose you to be a part of my last eight people pathfinder they must understand you have chosen them the king of all the universe has chosen yes little old me little old them to be a part of your last day people who stand for what's right through the heaven's form i pray father that you will bless them give them victory and show them what joy it is to do it your way strengthen them to stand in the midst of this pandemic strengthen them to stand when things get even worse strengthen them god when mommy or daddy start to to waver strengthen them father when the friends around them waver strengthen them lord when people are leaving and they seem like the only ones left strengthen them god they belong to you and you always have somebody in this world to represent you and it's them every single one of them so give them victory to stay in jesus name bless them let everyone say amen amen amen god bless amen what a word well as we are about to finish up we'd like to sing our closing hymn uh please stand with us as we sing marching to zion hymn number 422 because pathline as we believe we're gonna march to zion together right amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] my children is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] oh [Music] beautiful [Applause] [Music] [Music] we're marching through [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] marching upwards [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] i would like to thank the speaker for the reminding words of god's plan for us the pathfinder pledge and law reminds us that we were good by good by the grace of god only as we rely on god to help us we do his will i will be pure i will fill my mind with everything that is right and true and spend the time in activities that will build a strong clean character i will be kind i will be considerate and kind not to only my fellow men but also to all god's creation i'll be true i'll be honest and upright and study work and play and can always be counted upon to do my very best i will keep the path on the law i will seek to understand the meaning of the law and strive to live up in spirit realizing that obedience to law is essential in any organization as we have been challenged today we must remember where god has led us the pathfinder pledge and law reminds us that we will go and be observant to god which means i will pledge myself to serve god first last and best in everything i am called upon to be or do i will be a friend to man i will live to bless others and do unto them as i would have them do unto me keep the morning watch i will have prayer and personal bible study every day do my honest part by the power of god i will help others and do my duty and my honest share whatever i may be god has a special plan for our lives and we must put our trust in the lord and have faith the path hunter pledge and law reminds us that we will go and keep a level eye i will not lie cheat or deceive and will despise dirty talk or evil thinking be courteous and obedient i will be kind and thoughtful of others perfecting the love of jesus in all my association with others walk softly in the sanctuary in any devotional exercise i will be quiet careful and reverent keep a song in my heart i will be cheerful and happy and let the influence of my life be a sunshine to others go on god's errors i will always be ready to share my faith and go about doing good as jesus did [Music] two three go our scripture is taken from 2nd corinthians chapter 13 verse 14 which reads the grace of the lord jesus christ and the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with you let us bow our heads in prayer dear god thank you for the pastor who delivered your message today as we leave here prepare for another week i pray that you bless and protect us may find favor in your sight and that you extend us your grace that you grant us peace and joy that surpasses all understanding amen we're going to sing a blessing over you as you prepare to depart [Music] the lord bless you [Music] and keep you make his face shine upon you be gracious [Music] the lord bless you [Music] be gracious [Music] way [Music] amen [Music] [Laughter] [Music] please be seated as the recessional now happens with the pathfinders attention left and right turn [Music] march [Music] [Music] to everybody say please [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is know that god is true [Music] [Applause] we [Music] come on is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] i know come on [Music] turn around [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] god bless you friends we are so thankful that you joined us for our services today we had an amazing time in god's house once again and to god be the glory for again great things he has done i want to let you know that there are some amazing services that you can participate in and some amazing things that we provide here at the hamilton 7th day adventist church indeed you can participate as a young person with our pathfinders perhaps you didn't quite finish high school and you're ready now to take that task you can get your high school diploma you can earn a ged right in this place for those of you that may be hungry maybe short on food feel free to come by every wednesday afternoon our community services department is more than willing to give you plenty of food a nice hot meal and maybe some extras that you can take home and bless your family with every single wednesday afternoon so come on over there's much more we don't want to just if you would feed you spiritually we also want to help with some of those temporal needs that you have in your life so come and join us not just on savage come and join us during the week we're willing to work along with jesus christ to do whatever it takes to make sure that your needs are not just met down here but that one day very very soon you'll be ready to see jesus when he comes into the clouds of glory until next time may his peace be with you may he watch over and protect you until you make it again into this place into this space whether it's virtually or in person just know that here at hamilton we love you dearly and we can't wait to worship with you again god bless you and have a blessed and happy sabbath [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning and happy sabbath church family here are the announcements for today and the upcoming week it's world pathfinder day hosted by the general conference of juventus youth ministries bermuda with the theme i will go service will begin at 11 a.m everyone is welcome to join us for adult sabbath school every morning at 9 15 a.m there are several platforms to choose from please view the bulletin for class details in our family news our condolences are extended to sharon brown and family on the loss of her sister deborah laverne brown kim simons and family on the loss of her father thaddeus rudolph ted ming and charles trot and family on the loss of his sister susan trott dill now i would like to share a thank you from brother evan and sister melody douglas happy sabbath church family please accept heartfelt thanks and gratitude from my family and i wife melanie children ebony and meshach for your many prayers phone calls cards and visit during our time of grief my wife and i both experienced the passing of our mothers in june and july we greatly appreciated your loving and sympathetic expressions our stephen ministers are trained caregivers ready to listen care for and encourage you pray with and for you and provide one to one christian care to help you through whatever it is you are facing it's free it's confidential and it will make a difference in your life call one of our stephen ministers today kelly tucker delmont tucker or elder dwayne burgess please see the bulletin for contact details let's have a look at next week's activities on wednesday september 22nd will be the community service feeding program at the youth center from 4 to 5 pm also on wednesday please join us for prayer meeting at 6 30 p.m on any of our online platforms now let's see who's celebrating their birthday today and this upcoming week celebrating their birthday today is dionne smith let's wish them a happy birthday today celebrating their birthday this upcoming week are on sunday september 19th donette simons andre manders and diane richardson on monday the 20th gloria leshore harry outerbridge and ivani douglas on tuesday the 21st ladrica showers lord of rick holder jr reginald matthew jr and judith grant daryl on wednesday the 22nd margot taylor and on friday the 24th malika lamb makaika mussen shaheed and shayra marie bell please wish them all a happy birthday this upcoming week celebrating their anniversary this upcoming week are derek and lynette all boy on september 20th please wish them both a happy anniversary this upcoming week we are living in trying times our only hope is to put our trust in god he will always be by our side as psalms chapter 9 verse 9 to 10 says the lord is a refuge for the oppressed a stronghold in times of trouble those who know your name trust in you for you lord have never forsaken those who seek you have a wonderful and blessed sabbath you

Channel: Hamilton Seventh-day Adventist Church - Bermuda

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Length: 251min 30sec (15090 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021