20210821 | Stained Glass | Pastor John Lomacang (tvsdac)

this sermon has come as the lord impressed my mind my wife and i know that when we study together god always drops another nugget in our laps while i was on vacation i said to myself i'm just going to disconnect and not really do church stuff but i had a school board meeting in the foyer of the hotel and i read devotions each day and when you do that you can't hide from god god knows exactly what he wants to impart to us and so i was sitting there in our hotel room with the ocean just about 50 feet outside the window writing down all these new sermons this sermon that sermon can't wait to get back so i'm back now i feel a lot more energized i got a good dose of vitamin d not from a bottle but from the sun my limbs are oiled from swimming and my mind is clear and i simply want to do god's will so this morning bow your heads with me as we unpack what i consider a god-born message entitled stained glass bowl your heads with me gracious father loving lord how beautiful it is to know that music can elevate our minds music can open the door for the holy and the unholy and we thank you today that you have used music to open the door to say to your holy spirit you are welcomed here we invite the refiners fire today to speak to our hearts we invite your presence to make this message abundantly clear and may the outcome be a people ignited not consumed set on ablaze for the glory of god not for the consummation of their souls and may you send into the hearts and minds of your people this beautiful commission to go forth and light the world with the beauty of your love your greatness and your gospel message in jesus name i pray amen i want to begin with the scripture reading it's foot from the book of second peter chapter 1 and verse 19. second peter chapter 1 and verse 19 and it is on the screen but if you have your bible that's a good place to turn because that's the original source the apostle peter now converted communicates to us a message that has not been hindered but has grown in relevance and importance as time has continued to roll he's speaking not only to his generation but he's speaking to our generation because he's talking about something that god has affected that will continue to work until time is no more and he says to us in second peter 1 and verse 19 and so we have the prophetic word confirmed which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place and he says wait wait on it until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts peter says wait on it when you study god's word when you allow prophecy to unfold he is saying wait on it it's going to become clearer it may be dark right now it may have been dark when peter wrote this because much of what was yet to unfold in prophecy was way beyond his day and peter went to his death not seeing many of the prophecies even being fulfilled but he said wait on it because we have a more sure word of prophecy praise god wait on it because what god has said will come to pass i am firmly convinced that we are living in the closing scenes of the great controversy and because of that satan is unveiling the strategies that he has compiled together for the last six thousand years just think about that if you had six thousand years to study the movements of god what would you glean from that what would you say as the nemesis of god i want to undo that i want to reverse that i want to get rid of that because it doesn't fit into my plans from the dust of his defeat in heaven satan has been taking notes i'm convinced of that he has studied the movements of god determined to reverse everything that god has affected for good and we're living in the day and age thousands of years ahead of his initial claim i will be like the most high we're living in the day and age and in a time where satan is determined that before he goes out in a blaze of glory he is going to put forth every effort to reverse everything that god has affected for the glory of his name so let's begin in the beginning let's unpack this story about stained glass let us see what notes satan has been taking and how he wants to reverse everything that god has established for good let us begin in the beginning we go to genesis chapter 1 and we read verse 2 these words and the bible says and the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep and the spirit of god was hovering over the face of the waters i would have loved to have been there to see god do his thing i would have loved to have been there to see god say what he was about to say i wonder how long he thought about his first statement i wonder if god said to his his executive committee this is the first thing i'm going to say tomorrow morning i think about that that's my mind it's a little messed up but i think in the in the linear way because god had to think about that first word because he says somebody is going to write it down and say this is what i said the power of the word of god so looking at this place that was dark and without form and void to eradicate darkness god did what only he can do and he said in genesis chapter 1 and verse 3. then god said let's join him in his proclamation are you ready let there be light and there was light god turned on the light can you imagine what that must have been like to see be before the universe to see that somewhere the unfallen worlds picked up a new pulse of a light being turned on in the s the limitless space of god's playground they said god just turned on the light it must be the email he sent out yesterday he's building a new galaxy the milky way as we call it god is building a new home for his creation let there be light and the light came on one of the very first changes that god affected in the creation of the world is the very change that satan has sought to reverse god turned on the light but satan wants to turn off the light god deals in bright satan deals in dark god deals in truth satan deals in error so when god turned on the light to give a man the ability to see what he was about to do satan determined it will be my subtle purpose to reverse what god just did and we read in specifics what god did because remember when god saw the planet it was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep what did god specifically do look at genesis chapter 1 and verse 4. and god saw the light that it was good and god divided the light from the what is the next word from the darkness god did not turn darkness into light because you can't make good out of evil he eradicated the darkness by expelling it with light he eliminated the darkness by introducing the light god made a distinction between that which is dark and that which is light god separated the darkness from the light now if you're following me you know that one of satan's plans is to merge darkness with light that's why it's called deception it could not deceive you unless there is some element of light in it and so he would take the word sabbath and link it to a dark day a day that has nothing to do with what god had blessed he takes light and mingles it with phrases that could cause that light to be diminished ever so unperceptibly consistent and so it gets to the place where that which is bright satan takes the potentiometer of of of a knob and he begins to slowly turn the brightness of god's word down until as the light is going down and the eyes are adjusting to it it's almost imperceptible until the room is dark and we say how did it get so dark without me even noticing about it that's why when i think about this very thing that god did dividing light from darkness and we're living in a generation where satan has found clever and distinct ways of merging darkness with light and then making it palatable making it acceptable making it a part of the landscape of christianity and somehow giving it authority over the pure light of god's word and more and more i have increasing appreciation for the words of jesus when he said let your light so shine what he was in essence saying is we have been given the commission we have been given the directive to allow the light of god's glory in our lives to shine in a world that has been modified that has been dumbed down where good is called evil and evil is called good god is saying i'm saying to you let your light so shine but i want you to think about that light for a moment because when jesus said let your light so shine it is far more profound than just simply saying let my character be seen or let the truth of god's word be seen what what he was in essence saying is the reason why you've got to let your light continue to shine is because the moment you turn the light off darkness is waiting for its opportunity to replace light have you noticed when you go to bed at night when you turn the light switch off the lights don't gradually go off they go off immediately darkness doesn't gradually fill the room it fills the room how immediately the moment we turn off the light of god's gospel darkness is immediate when light is rejected darkness instantly takes its place and when we look at the world today to a large degree the enemy of truth has been amazingly successful he has used creative and deceptive methods to merge darkness and light together but i want to invite you today to go with me on a journey i want to take you back 900 years i want you to go back with me to the 12th century to what has been described as the golden age of gothic architecture and we're going to tap a man on a shoulder by the name of abbot sugar s-u-g-e-r he was considered abu suger of saint dennis he was called the father of stained glass somehow he first conceptualized the use of stained glass windows and as he terms that he wanted to create heavenly light what kind of light did i say now i want you to look to your left and right if you see somebody sleeping just nudge them because you can sleep when you go home you ain't sleeping on this sermon because while i'm trying to illuminate you the devil is trying another creative way of turning off the light he decided that i'm going to conceptualize the use of stained glass and he says i want to create something called heavenly light and then he says so that the presence of god could be seen in the church that was his concept and as i read the story the abbey church of saint denis near paris was described as having as the historians say the most radiant windows to illuminate men's minds so that they may travel through the stained glass to an apprehension of god's light abby sugura said he want men's minds to look at this different colored glass as you see in the background and imagine a god of varying colors and degrees and he had some pretty good foundation because he studied the scriptures where it referred to the rainbow of god and the many many colors represented in the rainbow so he sought to duplicate and replicate the glory of god in the beauty of stained glass and stained glass if you've ever seen stained glass in a large cathedral it is beautiful my wife and i had a chance to go to to notre dame there in europe to that amazing cathedral we went in france we went to st patrick's cathedral in new york city and a number of other cathedrals around the world and when you walk in you are met by this grand light show this glorious stained glass that seems to bring you to an atmosphere in your mind of this is a very holy place and so abit suggest was able to accomplish and still to this very day when people walk into a cathedral these grand tall cathedrals like the cathedral in washington washington dc they feel the sense of holiness because they believe that the light coming through those stained glass says something about the character of god and so on the heels of this creation medieval churches began to use stained glass and historians say for two reasons the first reason they said they use it for its spiritual quality but follow me carefully the second reason caught my attention they said they also used it for its sensual appeal they said there was something about the glass that had a sensual appeal when ministers couldn't get people into the churches the stained glass did when they couldn't by advertising get the people in the building the stained glass did let me let me fast forward 900 years that's why today many of the modern churches are nothing more than the light show i've looked at some of these churches these worship centers and it's filled with lights of varying colors they're not using it for the sense of accenting holiness there's using it to seduce the atmosphere to make you feel that you're in a holy place when there's anything but the holy word of god being proclaimed it's the same concept create an atmosphere where people feel holy but god's truth is not really found there when you study how stained glass affected the cathedrals when you study how stained glass played a major role in the medieval churches you found that to get the people inside the churches and cathedrals they adorned these massive walls of glass with colored glass not only did the sustained or the stained glass arouse curiosity but the people were told to appreciate it and the bishops and the popes and the cardinals and the abbey leaders saw that it was necessary the stained glass was necessary to get the people on the inside of the building and because electricity was not yet invented the cathedrals were by nature dark on the inside i want you to follow me carefully i'm laying the groundwork here without the light coming in it was dark but look at the look at the twist the darker the church the more dazzling and attractive the stained glass appeared the darker the inside of the building the more they incorporated the use of stained glass because it's shown better a beautiful light show so now you see today why a lot of these quote unquote buildings worship centers churches incorporate all the use of light because there's no light in the pulpit you study it further and i did a little deep study i like to read a lot they said although they had candles candles were kept to a minimum because the stained glass was not was not only visibly appealing the stained glass was be they began to design it to instruct the people on what to believe so they began to actually design the glass to teach certain scriptural stories the way they wanted the story to be taught that's why you see mary with a baby and they say mary had a little lamb jesus his fleece was white of snow anywhere that mary went the lamb was sure to go they established mary in the stained glass and made it appear during the medieval times that jesus followed mary rather than mary followed jesus and you found in many cathedrals this large stained glass with mary and jesus and she was placed with the one with the halo around her head and he was a little lamb following her wherever she went medieval churches were not popularized by the reading of the bible but they were popularized by the abandonment of the bible bibles were chained to the altars they were not in multiple supply like today and you discover during the medieval times the truths of the bible were just as distorted as the light that was filtered through the stained glass stained glass was the main attraction of the churches of medieval times and now you know why they call it the dark ages stained glass was the main attraction of the churches of medieval times now you know why they call it the dark ages brethren anytime you use anything to substitute the beauty of the brightness of god's word it is also a manifestation of the dark ages today we're living in a time where stained glass has taken on a new meaning when i went further into study of this i found out there was a particular quality about stained glass that makes it deceptively attractive i'm going to take it to the next level now follow me carefully although the source of light remained unchanged meaning outside of the cathedral the sun was just as bright as it would be on any other cloudless day the the source of light remained unchanged but the stained glass vastly altered the way that people saw the light i want you to follow me carefully the word of god hasn't changed but when you alter god's word by putting something between the pure light and the way that it is received it appears to be vastly different and i'll share with you in four points what i mean by that the results were it makes the altered light look more attractive than the original light follow me today it's really deep it's kind of one you got to get your shovel out to dig deeply into this sermon because it's going to take you some places that your mind is not naturally going so when they when they fill the cathedrals as they did it was no longer that attract they didn't go outside and look up at the sun and say wow what a beautiful sun they said wow what beautiful stained glass not realizing that without the sun the stained glass couldn't be seen let me break that down let me unpack that satan use is today the purity of the light of god's word and puts between it and the minds of the hearers something to make it seem more attractive when in fact he's dumbing down the light and making you think that because he uses a different delivery system that is better than the original the delivery systems nowadays some of them would be in motion if i could get them to be emotional they'll feel a whole lot more holy than those who simply sit still the light may look pleasing to the eye another thing about stained glass it it filtered out the life-giving rays of the sun you could not get vitamin d by sitting in the cathedrals come on somebody's there although the original source had all the vitamin you needed satan found a way to take away the nourishment of god's word by eclipsing it with stained glass and you can sit there in these gorgeous cathedrals and die of the lack of vitamin d set another way satan found creative ways and i'll share those four points satan will find creative ways to eclipse the purity of god's word and you're so attracted by the substitutes that you'll slowly die because you think this is a whole lot better than what's outside filtering out the nourishment of god's word until it gets to the point where it no longer contains nourishment let me transition and tell you this it has taken more than six thousand years but can i inform you that we are living in the generation of stained glass how do i know that go with me to john chapter 3 and verse 19. my first point how do i know that we have arrived at the generation of stained glass religion john 3 and verse 19 makes it abundantly clear how we know that we are living in the generation of stained glass religion john 3 and verse 19 reads as follows and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men love what darkness rather than light because they're what their deeds were evil let's go ahead and put that stained glass concept there again when you look at the beauty of this wall behind me this stained glass somebody says come outside and look at the glass from the outside it doesn't look that beautiful any longer because darkness could never produce beauty you need light for beauty to appear so the light of the glory of god which is shining in the brightness of the sun and that is why malachi refers to jesus as the s-u-n the son of righteousness that's where the beauty is coming from but we're living in an age where men love darkness rather than light so they so they gather in large crowds that's why it's amazing to me what god is allowed to happen pause with me for a moment that's why it is amazing to me that god has allowed whether you believe it or not since the early part of 2020 we have been going through something called a pandemic whether you believe it's real or not is not my point but god has shut down many of these places where the devil has tried to keep people in darkness now watch what i'm saying i know what god is doing he is saying the time has come for me to turn the light back on that's why when my wife and i go to walmart and we run into a lady who says by introducing herself she says i'm baptist we were in walmart in carbondale and the lady came up to me and she says oh she stopped me she says i want you to know my daughter and i have been watching you since the pandemic struck she says i i attend the baptist church but you know when the pandemic hit we couldn't go to church and i ran into your service on youtube and i said where's your daughter and she brought her over she said mama i told you that was our favorite preacher now i'm not glorifying me here's what i'm saying god said enough of these dark places i'm gonna keep you home if that's what it takes to find the light to let the light shine and this lady from michigan and the list goes on and on i mean we get so many emails and letters from different people that are saying when the pandemic hit we found your church when the pandemic hit we found three abn when the pandemic hit we've we now understand what we couldn't at the other times because they had been content to go into these places where there was nothing but stained glass coming from the podium between the purity of god's word and the stained heart of the people proclaiming it the light of god's word was being demolished and people could not see it and john writes down what jesus diagnosed he says it is not that the light of god's word does not exist it is not that the bible does not exist but because of the slow seduction of 6 000 years of staining one truth of god's word after the other satan has brought men to the place where they love darkness rather than light you want to test that tell somebody that their loved ones are not in heaven that they're in the grave you see the kind of argument try to show to them in the word of god and they'll fight you they'll get mad at you all you're simply doing is turning on the light but they'll get upset that you're telling them the truth but i'm thinking god that there are some people that still want to hear the truth what do you say not everybody's that way but this is an interesting statement servant of the lord ellen white brings out this very significant point how in this age where people have embraced darkness where ministers have embraced darkness proclaiming it through their stained glass motives seducing people into thinking that they're in the right place when in fact they're just simply being sequestered from the pure light inside the cathedral of darkness and the servant of the lord diagnoses this beautifully listen to this testimonies volume 4 page 233 in paragraph 3 she says in this age of darkness and error men who profess to be followers of christ seem to think that they are at liberty to receive or reject the servants of the lord at pleasure and that they will not be called to an account for doing so for so doing unbelief and darkness what two things that i just say unbelief and darkness lead them to this she continues their sensibilities are blunted by their unbelief let that sink in their sensibilities are blunted in other words they are they have so turned their minds off the truth that they are unable to even receive it any longer their sensibilities are blunted it's like trying to put a flat key in a round opening you can't do it they violate their consciences and become untrue to their own convictions they know it's right and weaken themselves in moral power this is the part that got me they view others in the same light with themselves they say you're no different than me that's why when i got that letter from that cult leader when i did the series a number of years ago on unclean spirits he sent me a letter and he said i'd like to get together with you if we get together you would be surprised how many things we have in common and i thought to myself i don't have anything in common with a satan worshiper but today satan has made religion look appealing but religion that just looks appealing possesses no life-giving power and god is more concerned about the life of giving power how many people walk around in the sun every day everybody yet they never think for a moment when they look up at the blue skies that god painted the skies blue to remind them of his perfect law the ten commandments in the scriptures you find in deuteronomy and leviticus the color blue is a reminder of the ten commandments of god the blue border on the bottom of their robes was a reminder of the commandments of god god is so determined that man would know his ten commandments he gave them ten fingers they still deny it so i wanna you know what i wanna do nowadays i wanna put an ad on the newspaper for all the ministers that don't believe in the ten commandments i am conducting a finger removing ceremony this afternoon bring whichever finger you want with you and i'll gladly cut it off since you don't need it ten fingers ten toes is god trying to tell us something yes but they violate their own consciences and become untrue to their own convictions what what what well being told what we are being told is that they read the word of god and they see if you love me keep my commandments and they determine i am not going to do that and i'm going to teach others not to do it either and so they stained their minds and say stay in here i'll give you the substitute don't go outside because you might discover the pure light but god is not content to leave his people in darkness other sheep i have which are not of this foe them also i must bring and they will hear my voice and there will be one fold and one shepherd how do i know that satan has been working for 6 000 years on this listen to the words of the apostle paul to his protege timothy in first timothy chapter 4 verses 1 and 2 the apostle paul writes to timothy these words he says now the spirit expressly says that in latter times in what times latter times some will will depart some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy having their own conscience seared with a hot iron during the dark ages that's what happened the lie about death was born in the dark in the garden of eden but proliferated during the dark ages purgatory born in the garden of eden proliferated during the dark ages everything that has to do with spiritualism was born in the garden of eden when satan lied to eve that you will not surely die and proliferated during the dark ages that's why when people die today i'm so sick and tired of hearing people say they're in a better place now anybody else know what i'm talking about i'm so sick and tired when i hear the news somebody died well they're with mama now well they're with papa now or somebody like one of my family members said my one of my one of my uncles just turned 81 and he had 11 siblings and he said well nine of them are dead there's only two remaining and he said they have already died they're waiting for me he said and i thought to myself uncle he's not they're not waiting for you well another family member died that loved the yankees baseball team and they said he's in heaven now playing baseball with the yankees and i'm thinking when did god when did god take the yankees to come on now help me out what kind of foolishness but to make it even more ridiculous it is saying that these are deceiving spirits these are doctrines of demons and the ministers that are propagating this the bible says their own consciences are seared with the hot iron do you know what that means that means their sensibilities are so blunted their consciences are dead it doesn't even it doesn't even phase them to say these things i wanted to educate myself more on this text and i began to look it up in one of the commentaries and it said a seared conscience is a dead conscience it has been calloused over or hardened so that it cannot perceive anything when the conscience is seared the life becomes hypocritical because you become your own standard because god's standard has been rejected so when people say as i've heard people say you know me and god are cool i've heard people that refuse to give their lives to jesus say me and god we have an understanding and i always wondered what kind of understanding do you have you living like the devil what kind of understanding do you have of god you're living like hell as a vacation resort what kind of understanding do you have with god living that way and you dismiss my god and i have an understanding you know god and i are on talking terms you know i know god well who who is it that god doesn't know their interpretation of knowing god is not what god considers a righteous relationship but stained glass and the bible describes how the seared conscience would be prevalent in the last days among religion look at isaiah 5 and verse 20. and this was said 700 years before christ now when you read this text i want you to grab this this is what isaiah the prophet diagnosed 700 years before christ can i ask you a question do you think it's better now or worse 700 years before jesus was born into the world to save humanity this is what isaiah the prophet diagnosed the world to be isaiah 5 and verse 20 he says woe to those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter that's what's happening today if this was happening in the days of the apostle in the days of isaiah the prophet and then paul came along and says evil men and seducers will grow worse and worse and he says in the latter times many will depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons if you want to know of whether or not it's gotten bad ask the devil because he'll tell you i've come down having great wrath because i know i have a short time i'm walking around like a roaring lion seeking whom i may devour brother and sisters that is why we need to settle for nothing more than the pure unadulterated word of god because we're living in an age of stained glass the apostle paul predicted that in second timothy chapter three and verse 13 he says but evil men what kind of men church evil men and imposters or seduces as the king james version says will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived what he's in essence saying is men will not only be content to believe a lie but they'll publish lies they'll write lies in a book they'll proclaim lies from the pulpits and you know what if i was only talking about other movements i think would be okay but the devil is finding ways of getting even in among the adventist church that's why praise god i had a meeting with pastor mark finley and another gentleman that you may or may not know dan howton and we are working collectively with 13 other speakers addressing the major issues that the church is confronted with and by god's grace january of 2022 they'll be coming out with a book that is dealing with the major issues that are confronting the worldwide movement of the seventh-day adventist church and they've asked me to write the chapter on spiritualism i already wrote it but they asked me to add more to the content on a meeting we had a couple of days ago let me tell you something i am so excited to see that there are men that there are people that there are leaders that there are women that are in the church of god that are not sleeping but they are awake to the times in which we live so when you see the evil on one side don't think that that is the general atmosphere everywhere don't say the adventist church has lost its way that's not the case but there's some folk that have given heed to seducing spirits given heed to trying to reinterpret what has already been interpreted and verified by the word of god and they will follow in the course of anybody else who loves darkness rather than light and why is god allowing it to happen because god wants a filtered church he wants a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing and like he did in the army of gideon he's going to narrow them down from 32 000 to 300. god doesn't need numbers to win he needs people that are faithful what do you say god is saying we're living in the days where imposters deceivers are worse and worse publishing deceptions i've had arguments with people that used to be adventists that's the active word used to be and somewhere they discovered in their darkness like i said a moment ago the moment you turn off the light darkness is immediate it's not gradual it's immediate try it out when you go home tonight see how long it takes for the womb to get dark the moment you reject the light of god's word darkness is immediate so don't even meander when somebody says you know i know what the church teaches but let me suggest this don't even get in the conversation because if you're not rooted and grounded in the truth of god's word they'll cut you off at the knees and you'll be floating down the river of doctrinal dishonesty and the word of god will no longer mean what it does to you today once again this is not new to god i'll give you another quotation from testimonies volume 4 page 234 and paragraph 2. listen to this talking about how bad it's going to get it says man's hearts are no softer today than when christ was upon the earth they will do all in their power to aid the great adversary in making it as hard as possible for the servants of christ just as the people did with christ when he was upon the earth they will notice this scourge with the tongue of slander and falsehood they will criticize and turn against the servant of god the very efforts he is leading them to make now let me make that in other words while god's servant is saying this is the way of safety this is the way of light this is the way of truth they will use their tongues to say to people you don't want to go down that road you don't want to leave the church you don't want to turn away from your friends they'll make relationships more important than god's word they'll say why would you want to leave us as i like it one young man he's resting now in jesus some of you that were in my sabbatical class you remember him his name is bud he was a flight attendant for american airlines he was a pilot thank you honey he was a pilot for american airlines retired he was sitting in my class in my sabbath school class and he said he went to his pastor one day church is right down the way in benton he went to his past and said pastor i want to let you know i won't be back i don't have anything against you i love you i love the church but i'm going where truth is being taught when he passed away that very pastor called me and said we're doing his service at our church i said wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute no he's our member and god gave me some holy boldness it's okay to be holy bold every now and then god gave me some holy boldest and i said to that pastor now you know pastor bud made his decision and came over here to this church because he told you he told me what he told you he said he's not leaving you because he dislikes you but he's coming where god has shown him the truth is and i'm not having you at his funeral talk about he's in heaven i got bold so what's your schedule i said to him he said what do you mean i said when can i meet with you how about tomorrow at night before he could even give me a time i was in his office at nine o'clock the next morning before i left my house over there on new lake road god and i had a loud conversation i was if somebody saw me driving they'd think i was talking to myself maybe nowadays they would think i was on a cell phone but i was talking to god i said lord it is not about me it's about your character it's about your truth it's about your righteousness go ahead of me and fix this thing so i was on my way to that church to meet with that pastor i was determined that bud's commitment would not end on the flowery bed of compromise and i walked into that church and the pastor was not as arrogant as he was on the phone the day before because he was telling me no it's going to be at our church it's going to be here at our church when i walked and i said he was showing me the foyer and he escorted me to the office and when i sat down i said he said i just i just want to apologize for the way i came across yesterday and i said okay i said could i see the program he showed me the program and watch what he said he said and uh can i ask you a question he's asking me he said can i can i say this i said what is it so he had a statement in the bulletin for the funeral he says he is now resting in the arms of jesus i said no you can't say that that's not scripturally correct i said it respectfully and some of you were at the funeral it was at the time when the choir from chile was here detail may remember that quiet the chilean choir i want to tell you the majority of people at that church were adventists and the pastor gave me complete complete autonomy to decide what was said in that service i did the service there and then i gave him a nine page study on what the bible teaches about what happens when you die let me tell you something brethren if you if your backbone is crooked you'll stand up that's what i like about joel i tell you i i always liked joe joe i called joe a zealot now that's a good word it's not a bad word a zealot is one who will live and die for the truth i've seen joe in action sometimes he's around circles and people will make non-doctrinal non-scriptural statements into joe would find a very clever way but say well you know that's not what the bible says and he would gently lead them back to what the bible says and i'd and i'd look at him and you'll go like this like i got this i appreciate you for that joke you know brethren we have to be clever we're not living in an age where truth is on sale we're living where the character of god needs to be properly represented so when people are criticizing and turning folk away from the truth it is our responsibility to lovingly and kindly lead people back so that the character of christ will be clearly seen because we are living in an age where stained glass religion has taken effect because darkness has become more appealing than light and my second point how do i know we're living in an age of stained glass religion because how we feel is more important than what we believe how you feel today religion appeals to the senses but starves the intellect if you want to look up the references just go to a christian concert the rooms are dark just like the cathedrals of all intellect is suspended by lofty words biased repetition praises great and grand but not what god demands look at some of those concerts look at some of what they call praise and worship services it's a darkened room filled with misty misty clouds and people are swaying back and forth like they've been captured by some brain sucking instrument and if you think i'm the only one that thinks that we i read an article from i read an article from a sunday church listen to this it was called restoring kingdom builders.org and the article was entitled do christians sometimes go mindless during worship that was the article from a sunday church so just so you don't think that's something that i've noticed and the guy that wrote the article says i wanted he talked about the worship service he says i wanted to walk out of church last sunday morning all because of the songs during last sunday's praise and worship time the church at church that i have been attending i became very uncomfortable because we kept repeating the same phrase while singing a popular worship song called king of my heart he said two sundays ago the worship team led the congregation and sing in the song and i noticed that one phrase was repeated 22 times you are good oh god you are good he said god knows he's good why do we have to tell him 22 times and he says which means we sang the same words 44 times in the end of the article and he ended the article by saying i wanted to run out of the service get in my car and drive anywhere so it's not just what's trying to find its way in adventism but it's finding its way all around the same gregorian chants that fill these cathedrals in the dark ages [Music] the monotone silho syllabic chants that as a psychologist says the moment you repeat the same thing six times it lowers the door in your brains and anything can come and unfiltered after that and you wonder why people behave the way they do you wonder why they think the way they do and they're convinced that it's true because they've given their minds over and their consciences are seared with a hot iron no wonder jesus said what he did in matthew 6 and verse 7 he said this about prayer but i think it applies to everything listen to the words of christ matthew 6 and verse 7 he says when you pray do not use vain repetitions as the heathens do for they think that they will be heard for their many words but that's not the case i cite exhibit number one the mount carmel showdown when they got together on mount carmel with elijah and the prophets that had had apostasized from god and the the 400 prophets of baal and the 450 prophets of ashura they got together all day long shouting and praising and cutting themselves and raising their voices to their god waiting for their god to respond but there was not a single voice in response and elijah got on his knees and prayed if god be god then the god who is god will respond by fire in his humble prayer move the hand of the living god that's why today be careful when you get into this broken record syndrome as mark finley calls it 7-eleven songs seven words repeated 11 times watch out when that happens you get into the cycle where you almost give yourself over to to what the psychologists call uh a suspended animation you are not in charge any longer you are no longer responsible for what is taking place because you have surrendered all of your intellect to an outside source to determine how you respond on the inside and we find that how you feel is more important today than what you believe my third point is how do i know that we are living in a stained glass age because era is exalted above truth look at ancient israel look at ezekiel 22 26 this is not new but satan takes his time to develop his art his craft and if you think that satan is weaker than he used to be i'm giving you references to what he's been doing throughout the course of human history from the garden of eden to the distortion of the children of israel as we read in isaiah 5 and verse 20 now to the distortion of the priest of israel as we're going to read now in ezekiel 22 and verse 26 he led ancient israel to this depth look at the bible ezekiel 22 26 speaking about ancient israel he says her priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things they have not distinguished between the holy and the whales unholy nor have they made the difference between the what clean of the unclean and the clean and they have hidden their eyes what from my sabbaths so that i am profaned among them let me pause and help you see what you didn't see this is being said of those who kept the sabbath this is not being said of those who did not know about the sabbath what this commentary is in ezekiel chapter 22 verse 26 is what happened to a people that did keep the sabbath they got to the place where the surrounding nations had so diluted and stained their minds that they turned their backs on honoring god's sabbath and god said i'm profaned among them they should have known better than anybody else brethren let me make a point right here we should be an example of how the sabbath should be kept but nowadays the adventists that go to restaurants immediately after church think nothing of it they plan ahead of time i remember somebody called me and said you know we went to church today we went to and they mentioned the restaurant and said why'd you do that you're home you're not on the road you can prepare a sabbath meal no the bible says thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy manservant nor thy maid servant you should not be the reason to lead other people in violating god's sabbath by your example going to shows and baseball games and amusement parks and oh we just it's a family day oh brethren understand the sabbath is holy and so is god nowadays even and amongst us there's a time when the sabbath was actually kept from sunset to sunset nowadays we're finding creative ways of saying god understands he does understand but make no mistake about it god is not modified by the times and god is not mocked today god's truth has been filtered through the lenses of stained glass doctrines but i want to let you know something the christian world has embraced two of the most dangerous doctrines and i'm going to make a left turn that you didn't see coming are you ready put your seatbelt on today the christian world has embraced two of the most dangerous doctrines that are going to bring the world and even the adventist church to the greatest test that has ever faced and those two doctrines are the immortality of the soul and the sacredness of sunday i'm gonna share a quote with you and i'm gonna break it down look at this quote from the book darkness before dawn let me go back darkness before dawn page 32 and paragraph two through the two great errors the immortality of the soul and sunday sacredness satan will bring the people under his deceptions while the former lays the foundation of spiritualism the latter creates a bond of sympathy with rome now put your seatbelts on i'm going to show you a series of articles i'm going to take you through them very rapidly we have seen the impact of spiritualism it's everywhere it's everywhere it's in the video games it's in the movies it's in the pulpits it's in the commentary that goes from news broadcast to news broadcast it's among family members from left to right everybody's in heaven now michael jackson's in heaven liberace is in heaven the rat pack is in heaven everybody dies and goes to heaven no matter how they live but very few in the world are looking at the impact of sunday the way that god sees it in 2015 when i went to washington dc to listen to the speech of pope francis i listened very carefully and with the years that i have i didn't miss anything and i came back home and i preached a sermon about how back then i preached how how the sunday law is going to come in through climate issues not through somebody's job or some other situ it's going to the pope made it very very clear before he pro before he shared that sermon in washington he had already talked to the evangelical leaders about the need for a climate change initiative and this is in june of 2015. look at this article global evangelicals side with the pope's concern for climate change and the article talks about that in specifics i'm not going to take the time to go into the specifics but sufficiently saying they sided with him he he expressed the climate change concerns how fitting it was or how cool is coincidental or how providential it was that covert provided us the perfect laboratory to see the impact of the the climate when people are traveling less the client the skies were clear travel was down you could see the skies in los angeles and in india the waters in italy are clear they're saying if we could simply do something to slow down our use of fossil fuels and things that fill the atmosphere with pollutants the world will heal itself and pope francis under the guidance of creative ways of bringing in sunday said we need a climate change and the evangelicals took his side then this is a picture of the speech that brad walker and i heard when we were there invited by one of the local state senators senator mike boss invited me there a baptist senator i was in his office that day when i told him about daniel 2 and daniel 7 and i heard the pope talk about to congress pope to congress time to act on climate change and poverty and immigration and it's amazing today all three of those things are merged together look at the afghanistan situation look at the climate that's surrounding our world look at the fires the floods the water disappearing or too much water in certain places look at the mountain slides look at nature going wild the pope is saying there's something wrong with the climate he spoke to congress let's go on further this year many of you don't know there's there's a conference coming up in november of this year between october november 2021 called cop26 conference of parties political leaders religious leaders ecologists are gathering together to have this meeting between october and november of this year and it's about what we can do to begin to repair the climate it's called cop26 look it up yourself but look at the article it's very interesting in the details of the article you find these words uniting the world to tackle climate change now let me ask you are you ready for this uniting the world how watch this this is coming up september 5th 2021 it's called climate sunday the evangelical communities around the world are pushing an initiative called climate sunday it began in the united kingdom in ireland and in scotland and they are asking ten thousand churches to unite with them to to establish a sunday initiative in time for this cop 26 in november of this year they're saying we owe it to god to fix the planet and we want to show the papacy and the leaders of the world that we are doing our part to impact the climate there's nothing wrong with doing your part to impact the climate but you don't get to pick the day that we ought to get together on and put on the backdrop of that that's september 5th 2021 september 19th 2021 is the national back to church sunday that has been going on for the last 25 years that is happening in churches in our area and churches in the greater part of illinois and the greater part of the nation more than 11 000 churches in this nation have signed up to push a national back to church sunday initiative put it all together and you see what's happening brethren we are on the cuspid of eternity and the devil has used stained glass to hide the issues look at this quote in the book last day events page 125 and i'm closing now he says the sunday movement the what kind of movement the sunday movement is now making its way in darkness the leaders are say it together with me concealing the true issues they're stained glassing the issues and many who unite in the movement do not themselves see whether the undercurrent is tending they may be completely honest about saying we do need to do something to fix our planet and since we honor sunday let's do this honestly they may have honest hearts but they don't have a clue about the undercurrent stained glass religion conceals the truth and forward what has been recently termed alternative truth because untainted truth does not appeal to them any longer brethren if you think that the sunday movement is not a foot in this world then you've got to be sleeping but as i wind up look at the words of christ jesus said in john 12 and verse 35 jesus said to them speaking to his disciples a little while longer the light is with you walk while you have the light lest darkness overtakes you and he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going you don't understand the undercurrents it's taking you where you cannot see brethren more than ever before the people of god need to be a people that stand firmly on the undiluted truth of god's word that's why at a time when we have more methods than ever before of accessing god's word we have more ways digitally small large bibles in every language and every size and every travel size the question is what is wrong what has gone wrong here's what's gone wrong second corinthians four verse three and four the apostle paul forecasts what's going to happen but even if our gospel is veiled or hidden it is veiled to those who are perishing whose minds think of stained glass in this context whose minds the god of this age has done what blinded who do not believe less the light of the gospel of the glory of christ who is the image of god should shine on them the medieval churches in the dark ages did not want the purity of the gospel gospel to be seen so they built stained glass in modern times false doctrines are eclipsing the purity of god's word today people are more comfortable with diluted light than pure light why because the devil knows that if the glory of god should shine on them they would wake up but i'm going to say today my last point is the most beautiful one light will prevail in spite of the darkness come on say amen god will make the final move there may be a lot of darkness but god is not done yet there may be a lot of false teachings but god has not done it and some of you are here today because god is calling your heart god is saying to you it's time to come out of darkness into this marvelous light you have seen you have heard you've examined and you may still be in the journey of understanding more but you know already that god has led you here because you haven't heard this kind of message anyplace else and at a time of preferred darkness god is going to break the stained glass windows oh i love isaiah the prophet when he said in isaiah 9 and verse 2. notice what he says this is yet to be fulfilled in its fullness the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light if you used to be let me ask if you used to be of a different religion before you accepted the adventist message raise your hand amen praise god can you say amen somebody you know why because those who walked in darkness have seen a great light amen church and the bible says the people in the land of the shadow of death upon them a light has shined praise god the light is still too intense for satan's stained glass to eliminate the plan of eternal god in the book christian service so i praise god for this and this is one of my last quotations before we wind this thing up i have one more but i gotta make it complete christian service page 38 paragraph four we are told it is a wonderful privilege it is what my friends a wonderful privilege to be able to understand the will of god as revealed in the sure word of prophecy when i study daniel when i study revelation i get excited you want to get inside and get back in prophecy i was so excited when dan houghton was saying to me on the phone he said he said this year he decided to do something else he said i read through revelation many times but i read it again and i read it again and my prayer was father is there anything that i'm missing so i want you to know the seventh-day adventist church is in the hand of godly men and women can somebody say amen god has not passed the torch or the baton to somebody who is eager to destroy this church it is a wonderful privilege to be able to understand the will of god as revealed in the sure word of prophecy this listen to this now this place is on us a what heavy responsibility god expects us to impart to others the knowledge he has given to us it is his purpose that divine and human instrumentalities shall unite oh sorry it is his purpose thank you honey that divine and human instrumentalities shall unite in the proclamation of the warning message so i got my business cards thank you janelle i got my flyer in my bible and i need more than five thousand because i'm gonna go crazy every restaurant i go to the wait is gonna get one of these every store i go bob i know bob is cut loose already every place i go they're going to get one of these i'm not leaving the tip without leaving one of these cards come on somebody help me out we've got a grand responsibility we are called to unite with divine agencies to proclaim this last warning so when revelation 18 reads as it does revelation 18 verse 1 after these things i saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory do you know who that is we are the messengers we are the angels who god is going to use just as he used the prophets of old the apostles of old they were the angelos the messengers and god said i'm sending you forth to proclaim this light peter the apostle knew that peter the apostle knew that in 1st peter 2 and verse 9 he says but you are a chosen generation say it with me church but you are what chosen generation what else a royal priesthood or what else holy nation his own what special people and here it is that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of what darkness into his what marvelous light i'll bring you behind the scenes a few weeks ago i had a pastor i had a bible study with pastor philip fritz i don't know if i told you did i tell you one more time after six hours of bible study he said i'm angry but i'm happy i said i know why you're angry why you're happy he said because today god brought me out of darkness into his marvelous light that ought to be a hallelujah right there a minister of 40 years god has ignited that man he said the pentecostals told me i didn't have any more sermons but he said now i know what they meant he said because i was preaching the wrong message now i got a new message oh come on say hey man he said i got a message now and i looked at that man and i said to on the authority of god's word i said god is about to make a divine move in your life are you ready what i was saying to him is you ain't going back to darkness to proclaim darkness you're going back to proclaim light you can reach folk that i can't reach god is saying it's time and lastly my last quote thank you for being patient i know your food is smelling good i i haven't eaten yet either but just relax spiritual gifts volume 1 page 195 in paragraph 1 servants of god endowed with power from on high where is our power going to come from church from on high with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration went forth fulfilling their work and proclaiming the message from heaven what happened souls that were scattered all through the religious bodies answered the call and the precious were hurried out of the doomed churches as lot was hurried out of sodom before destruction to god be the glory we've got a privilege to call them out we've got to call them out i don't want to stand before god and say what did you do with that congregation did you call them out yes i called them out did your members do it father asked them we must all give an account to this glorious gospel that god has given to us and so in a stained glass generation remember what peter said and so we have a prophetic word confirmed second peter 1 verse 19 we have a prophetic word confirmed the king james version says we have a more sure word of prophecy would you do well to take heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart [Music] so i end with a question today who is willing to turn on the light who is willing in here to turn on the light who's willing to turn on the light if you want to turn on the light why don't you stand but i'm gonna go a little further today where's donald okay janelle somebody help out janelle here i want you to go ahead and get those flyers when you get those business cards help out deacons just give them a hand and i want us to stand not i don't want to have to have you come down now i just want you to stand because brethren let me tell you something god has been pushing my heart i'm gonna give till i can't give any more push and i know many of you doing the same thing and i praise god for the diligent dedication of so so many of you have sacrificed your time and your energies and your finances but we need a gideon's army we need an army of dedicated workers who wants to stand before god and hear well done thou good and faithful servant god wants people that are discontent with satan gaining the foothold of precious lives and earthquakes and fires and floods he's sweeping people off into eternity every day somebody's dying with want of the knowing the gospel truth it's our responsibility to get it to them it's our responsibility nobody but you can do it you could reach people i could never reach god is saying do you want to be a part of those who turn the light on what's our closing song trust and obey i want us to sing this song and right after we sing this song want to have a word of prayer and then i want you to look to our deacons and deaconesses and all those who have these cards and john don and janelle if we need more we'll make some more later on but it's our time to start here brethren the bug starts here doesn't stop here it starts here wouldn't you be excited to get to heaven and somebody said hey leon i remember when you gave me that track it was in uh the gas station in west frankfort yeah i didn't know what you showed me but i'm glad you did hey don and grace when we sat down in the retirement center we talked at breakfast i'm so glad you gave me that card i didn't know what it was all about but i'm glad you did [Music] charlotte and jeff i'm so glad you gave me what you did because virgins is a long way from west frankfurt but it's not a long distance when it comes to the word of god there are others and there are others of you who are so faithful here i can't keep calling out names but i want us to do what this song says when we walk with the lord in the light of his word stained glass can affect us when we walk with the lord in the light of his word what a glory he sheds on our way while we do his good will he abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey forgive me for holding you a little longer today but vacation really messed me up it showed me that god was not yet done with me now i'm going to fire you up like god fired me up i'm going to get the furnace in your stove heated so that you can go out unflinching [Music] looking in the eyes of people that you know could be either in the fires of hell or on the streets of gold when you see somebody walk past you in walmart and say hi to you in walmart be quick off the draw because they may be in the kingdom and you might be the reason why when you see somebody at your workplace you may not violate the parameters of the workplace responsibilities but say hey give me a call after work today i have something i'm going to share with you drop them an email send them a link be creative brethren let's beat the devil at his own game because god is with us he's not with the enemy so let's sing this song we're going to sing one stanza but when we get to that chorus i want to say yes i want to trust him and i'm going to obey him because there's no other way to be happy in jesus than to trust and obey i want to pray right now and i want you to just believe with me god is about to ignite your life god is about to take your feet where you don't want to go and then change and transform your heart i'm praying today father that you'll give our brothers and sisters new eyes that they won't see their neighbors as just people that they know us living next door but that they'll see their eyes and say i want to see your eyes in the kingdom i don't want the fires of hell to consume the opportunities that you've had i could be the very link between salvation and destruction and i want to do my part to break down the stained glass that has hindered you from seeing the truth of god's word oh precious lord today we're living in a stained glass masquerade [Music] and people don't see what you've shown us they don't understand what you reveal to us but it's not our truth it's not our message it's not our word it's your word we haven't written this scenario we haven't written this script it's your script we want to be humble about following it but we don't want anybody else to be left out so lord send us forth as laborers into a ripe vineyard help us to be diligent prayerful fearless fearless of the enemy don't even allow him to put thoughts in our minds that people won't like us you don't like him don't allow him to impose on us the way he feels about you may we go forth in love and for a lost soul for a family member for a friend may we be creative and may we be determined may we push and do all that we can so that when all work is done you'll say well done thou good and faithful servant we ask this father not for our glory not for numbers but for precious souls not for statistics but for kingdom people for folk that are being snatched from the grip of the enemy for from pastors that have not understood it from clergy that don't know better from leaders that haven't heard this message they are not all guilty some of them just don't know help us to do our part and when it is all done may we say as you have to god be the glory thank you for hearing father thank you for speaking to us today may we do everything for your kingdom's glory in your holy name we pray amen you

Channel: Thompsonville Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Length: 83min 33sec (5013 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 21 2021