David Wright

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Identity Crisis

I've entitled my message today, Identity Crisis.

Have you ever gone through an identity crisis?

I learned this week that I am the prime age to experience something similar to identity crisis, midlife crisis.

It's something about my hopes and dreams are starting to fade away.

You know, the aches and the pains and all the dreams that I want to do I can no longer or I don't think I'm gonna be able to do I feel trapped inside of the kids and this schedule and the job and whatever it is I thought I was doing pretty well until I read this article and I thought oh no I didn't realize I'm in crisis So if 1 of you has a convertible I could borrow, that would be great.

On a more serious note, have you ever had an identity crisis?

You know, there's a lot of people wondering and asking about the various things in society and is this normal or is this an identity crisis?

I hesitate a little bit to put this picture on the screen because it's rather disturbing.

This is pictures from the transgender community.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to throw them under the bus, God loves them, they're his kids.

But I would suggest that they're having an identity crisis.

But I believe that's why more than half of transgender male teens reported attempting suicide according to the American Academy of Pediatrics 50% does God know what he's talking about yet we have so many of our young people so many of our teens being exposed to images and pictures and these ideas and theories that it's whoever you want to be and somehow it's not male genes or female genes, but it's all neutral and you decide.

And this confusion pervades and they have these identity crises and they think if I just get surgery or if I just do this, that or the other, then everything will be okay and the result is that it's not.

Many are suggesting that our country is facing an identity crisis as people are pleading and leaving messages and text messages and bombarding your mailbox and every means possible, billboard signs, to help you decide to make the best decision in how many days now, 25 or something days, I don't know.

Do you like the direction of our country?

It's in your power to change the direction of our country.

All of this noise, if you will, identity crisis.

And I'm not saying there's not something to that.

I would also suggest the Protestant Church is having an identity crisis of sorts.

As Rick Warren many years ago said, our whole approach was wrong, it was flawed, and we're having to redesign and redevelop how we do church.

Of course, you have all of these Protestant leaders high-fiving and gathering with the Pope and so on.

The Protestant, the protesting church, is not protesting like it used to.

And it's not because theology has necessarily changed.

Certainly the Catholic Church has not changed, and I would suggest to you that within the Protestant Church there is an identity crisis.

I've shown you this before as you Google 2 phrases, Christian worship or rock concert, you get these pictures.

1 is what popped up when I searched for Christian worship, the other 1, rock concert, and you really can't tell the difference, can you?

Again, I would suggest that our worship services are in an identity crisis.

I'm thankful we don't have services like that here.

Others are suggesting that Adventism is facing an identity crisis.

And there's a lot of different angles you can look at this.

I put this article up, Universal Sunday Laws and Adventist Doctrine Intransigence.

Refusing to change one's views and they're suggesting our doctrine is outdated.

We need to take Adventist out of the name and so on and so forth.

Yes, we need to adapt to the world around us in part, Maybe in how we connect with them, but who we are fundamentally shouldn't change.

Yet some are calling for reform within the Adventist church.

Some are saying we are simply 1 piece of the puzzle of the picture of who Jesus is, and you need all the pieces, all the religions, everything combined to get a full and complete picture of who Jesus is.

1 Adventist pastor blogged this, he said, Scripture is not truth, Jesus is truth.

Think about that, Scripture is not truth.

Jesus is truth, and scripture merely speaks of him.

There's a difference and he shall be revealed in many odd and interesting places.

Jesus said I'm the way, the truth, and the life.

And Jesus says I am the word, the word is me, and so on and so forth.

Are there greater revelations in scripture?

Jesus for 1, the Holy Spirit now for another.

Scripture is our guide to the spirit friends This is mystical language from an Adventist pastor that says scripture is not truth That's not a biblical idea.

God gave us scripture the bedrock of all truth, but here he's saying though.

There's greater revelations Jesus for 1 the Holy Spirit for another I've had evangelistic series where they say, pastor, I hear what you're saying about the Sabbath, but the Holy Spirit told me last night.

I hear what you're saying about the state of the dead, but Jesus communicated with me that it's actually like this.

I mean, where is the real source of identifying truth if you throw out scripture?

And notice the blog, it's entitled Reinventing the Adventist Wheel.

Does the Adventist Church need reinventing?

I've shown you some of these from, and these are authors, this one's Leonard Sweet.

I remember going to some meetings, the whole Southern Union was there.

Leonard Sweet was 1 of the keynote speakers.

I was standing next to another individual about my age in ministry, and I said, who is this guy?

And this has probably been 15 years ago maybe.

I can also tell you now that that individual's not in ministry anymore.

This is 1 of his books, Quantum Spirituality.

The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, 1 who has experienced something, or he will be nothing.

We need to somehow infuse it with something, I don't know, new, fresh, impressive.

I don't know what book of the Bible that's in.

Stand in a circle, everyone facing the center of the circle.

If there are any present in special need of prayer, ask them to center the circle.

Continuing, place your hands in the center of the backs of those standing on either side of you and observe silence.

Continuing on, get in touch with 1 another's breathing patterns.

Final Events

03 Critical Phase 2 of the National Sunday Law

So we're continuing this morning with our series on final events, and we've been looking at what the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy have to say about a little bit about what we're seeing, but what we can expect.

Largely people are asking questions in these lines and in these veins, and so we want to see what the Bible has to say, so we can be informed in what's going on.

So we started with the title along the lines of what is the end-time prophetic catalyst or the point of no return, if you will.

And we saw how that was the Sunday law and how all of these things that we see happening all around us are moving that needle, pushing that needle closer and closer and closer, if you will, to the national Sunday law.

And how I believe when the National Sunday Law breaks, things will happen very, very quickly, even though there's still pieces to happen, I think those are going to happen in really rapid succession until Jesus comes.

And we talked about the parable of the 10 virgins and how all 10 were asleep to the fact of when Jesus would come and knock on the door that midnight cry, that loud cry.

In fact we looked at a lot of those different elements even the abomination of desolation all pointing to the National Sunday Law.

On the second sermon, we talked more specifically about this abomination of desolation and what it is.

And without getting into that topic all over again, we saw that there's an initial application of the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

There's also a second application of the union of church and state, and those dates there for that.

But the end time application of the abomination of desolation we saw also is pointing towards this National Sunday Law.

And so today in the third part, we're going to look at the 4 stages of this Sunday law as it were.

And then we have other things that we have yet to cover.

And so even after today, you may still have some questions.

We'll talk about the New world order, the little time of trouble, we're touching on it barely today.

Louder rain, the loud cry, which we've talked about, but we'll try and flesh that out a little bit more.

The death decree, we're going to talk about that some today, but we'll flesh that out some more.

Jacob's time of trouble, God's people delivered, that's the best news of all.

And the second coming, Maybe that's the best news of all, but both of those really going hand in hand.

And so for part 3, I've entitled it the critical phase 2 of the National Sunday Law.

And let's just pray and ask the Lord to be with us.

Dear Heavenly Father, we pray as we delve into these rather heady topics, if you will, that we won't get stuck in the weeds, but that you'll help us to understand that your Holy Spirit will impart wisdom and understanding to us for these last days we find ourselves.

Revelation 13, 12, and it says, "'And he, the beast from the earth, "'exercises all the authority of the first beast, "'the beast from the sea.'" and so we have the beast from the earth which we know historically to be the United States, exercised all the authority of the first beast which we know to be the papacy in his presence and caused the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.

We have plenty of times where we have talked about and identified these beasts before, and if you don't understand that or don't see that, we'd love to have that study with you, but again, I'm making some assumptions here that you have studied some of these things already.

But this is what causes us to really look at the political scene and see what do we see happening in the United States and with the papacy and these 2 coming together to form a national Sunday law.

And so here, this is our current president.

This picture wasn't taken when he was president.

I don't believe he's met with the Pope since he's been inaugurated to my understanding, but he's met the Pope several times before, And so I'm not necessarily picking on this president.

We could go back a number of presidents, many, many, that have met with the Pope before.

But you always hear, especially in Adventist circles, what the papacy is doing, what the United States is doing, the government, and how these 2 are coming together.

Has anybody heard those types of things before?

But we do know that according to Revelation 13, that this union will take place, and that they will set up an image to the beast.

And that image we know will be honoring Sunday as Sabbath, which is not the biblical Sabbath.

I also hear not only that it's our current president, but that our current president happens to be Catholic.

And maybe there's a little bit of a buzz that you've heard about that.

Only the second Catholic president that we've had in our history, which is rather something as well, I think there was a real fear there when you consider how our country was established to put somebody that claims Catholicism in that role.

So first time in US history do we have all 3 this time, a Catholic president, a Catholic speaker of the house, and a Catholic majority on the Supreme court.

In fact, if we were to circle the individuals that claim Catholicism on the Supreme Court, we have 6 out of the 9.

That's an easy majority, and those are all of our largest branches of government, if you will.

And so some are saying, hey, this looks like it's poised for something to happen.

I've heard others say, well, you know, a third of Biden's cabinet is also Catholic.

And so here is the cabinet that he's at least hoping to have.

I'm not sure that all of them have been confirmed or in the midst of that process, but here if we circle those that claim, again, Catholicism, I don't know how involved or active they are, but there again, you still have a good number of his cabinet that are Catholic.

Steve Miles is the director of Bernardin Center of Catholic Theology Union in Chicago and this was his tweet.

He says there has never been a more Catholic administration in US history.

And he goes on, what an opportunity to reset relationships between Catholicism and our politics to hashtag build back better.

And so you might hear some of these things based on the scripture there in Revelation 13 that this is something that's just lining everything up.

But I imagine we really should ask the question, does it so much matter?

And you might say, well what do you mean pastor?

Well I'm looking at Revelation 13 14 saying, to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live.

Notice this does not come from the top down, if you will.

Yes, eventually it will, but ultimately it starts from the bottom up.

Do you see that there, that they should make an image to the beast?

That they are politicians and they and everything else.

So it's really this upswell from the bottom.

And so, time may go on, I don't know, and we may have different presidents of different religious denominations and so on, but ultimately, I don't think it really matters who's president of the United States.

I mean, yes, some of these things are in place that could make it easier.

But at the same time, sometimes I think we put so much focus on who and what and when and where, I think it's going to be a lot more like this COVID-19 pandemic that nobody really saw coming, and then there's this upswell that we need to do something, and regardless of who's in power, the end result is going to be the same.

We want Sunday sacredness, and real quick, it'll all be about those issues.

Let me say this, I do believe this, that God is not waiting and has not been waiting for a Catholic president.

He hasn't been waiting for a Catholic Speaker of the House.

He hasn't been waiting for a Catholic Supreme Court, rather what we talked about last time, he is waiting on his people to perfectly reproduce his character to the world.

And while that sounds daunting, we must remember that it is His work in us.

I think of this verse, let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus.

Our role is to let Him do the work in us that He wants to do.

I look at Hebrews 12 too, it's looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

And so while it seems daunting and how can we achieve this, We keep looking unto Jesus and he will achieve it in us if we will let him do it.

We also saw how we can find in Revelation 18, last time it says in verse 1, after these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven having great authority and the earth was illuminated with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a loud voice, " or we could say with a loud cry.

We looked at that before already, saying, "'Babel in the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird." This is the loud cry message.

This is the Holy Spirit being poured out in Latter-day Saint power.

And we talked about that already in our previous sermons.

We talked about the midnight cry, the loud cry, the siege of Jerusalem, or the abomination of desolation all pointing to this national Sunday law.

And so when We continue here in Revelation chapter 18 verse 2 with this loud cry.

It says, continuing in verse 4, and I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her my people lest you share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues.

That would be the 7 last plagues, for her sins have reached to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities.

And if you recall, and I hope that you were here because we're building on these things, but we showed in last day events 198, when do her sins reach unto heaven?

Commentary from the spirit of prophecy, if you will, on these very verses.

When the law of God is finally made void by what?

When Babylon's sins will reach unto heaven, the Sunday Law is passed.

But I want to look today at this idea that there will be stages to this Sunday Law.

Whether it's 4 or 5 or 3, you know, we could debate some of those things.

I'm not trying to be hard-nosed on this, but the idea is there's stages of this implementation that I want us to be aware of and to look at.

Says in Great Controversy 603, in defiance of the warnings which God has given, they will continue to trample upon 1 of the precepts of the Decalogue, that's the 10 Commandments, until they are led to persecute those who hold it sacred.

And so here we see that part of this loud cry message is pointing out that 1 of the precepts of the Decalogue, 1 of the 10, has been trampled on.

And I think you can guess with me which of the 10 it will be.

02 The Siege of the Modern World

Today we're continuing our series on final events and we're looking at what the Bible and the spirit of prophecy have to say in regards to the times in which we're living.

How can we be prepared for what is breaking on the world?

And what should be our response to those things?

And there's several things that we're going to be looking at.

Last week was the end time prophetic catalyst.

Then today, the abomination of desolation.

We're gonna try and unpack that a little bit more.

Then the next time, I'll be preaching on the 4 stages of the Sunday Law, and then we have the New World Order, the Little Time of Trouble, the Latter Rain, and Loud Cry, the Death Decree, Jacob's time of trouble, God's people delivered, and then the second coming.

But what we looked at last time was what will be the catalyst for in time events, what will be the trigger.

And we saw how the midnight cry is synonymous with The loud cry, which is also synonymous with the siege of Jerusalem, the abomination of desolation which we're going to go into a little more depth today.

But all of that is talking and referring to the National Sunday Law.

And that when the National Sunday Law breaks, It will be like dominoes and the final events will be very rapid and will go very quickly.

In fact, we had a discussion last Saturday afternoon, well how quickly do you think quickly will be?

I do think of how Jesus was talking about the siege of Jerusalem and said, pray that it not be in the winter or on the Sabbath.

He doesn't say pray that it's not going to be through multiple winters, but just winters.

That would almost lead me to believe we're going to be looking at less than a year of time.

And those things are going to happen so quickly that if God didn't cut it short in righteousness, all would perish.

And so I do think those last dominoes will fall very, very quickly.

We also talked about all these things that we see around us, that you see around the dial there, whether there be natural disasters, wars, pandemics, lawlessness, riots, you name it, are all moving the needle a little bit closer to the national Sunday law.

And that's kind of the finger, if you will, that starts those last dominoes that I think will go very, very quickly.

And so today's piece, part 2, we are looking at, or it's entitled, The Siege of the Modern World.

It was a Russian leased vessel and it was traveling from Georgia to Mozambique, a place I wouldn't mind being on this cold January day.

However by some turn of events the ship was abandoned, The cargo was offloaded and put into a port warehouse in Beirut, Lebanon.

It's a little north of the Holy Land on the Mediterranean Sea.

Part of the cargo was 2, 750 tons, not pounds, but tons of ammonia nitrate used most commonly for fertilizer.

That's where the contents sat for the next 7 years.

Until On August 4 of last year, a fire started in the port warehouse at about 6 p.m.

That was followed by a few small explosions, but things soon went out of control, and when it reached the abandoned stockpile of ammunition nitrate, a huge explosion was felt more than 100 miles away.

In a matter of seconds, about 5, 000 people were injured, and 154 people were presumed dead.

You see, when you mix ammonium nitrate with some type of detonation, the result is explosive.

Friends, I want to propose to you this morning that there are some things that should never be mixed.

And when they are, the consequences can be devastating.

The Bible speaks of not mixing the sacred with the common.

The sacred, well that's God, that's his holy word.

The things pertaining to and connected with God.

And so we read in Ezekiel 22 verse 26, sadly this is Ezekiel talking about Israel's wicked leaders, but what's the charge here?

It says, her priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things.

They've not distinguished between the holy and the unholy, nor have they known the difference between the unclean and the clean.

Here we get the idea that they are mixing.

The line of demarcation has been blurred.

And so we have holy and unholy, clean and unclean, secular and common.

But when you mix the 2 together, I believe it has a devastating result.

When I think of abomination, I think of Belshazzar in Daniel chapter 5.

He had the golden vessels that they had taken from the temple of the house of God in Jerusalem.

Back to Menu

Presenter

David Wright

All Recordings

Identity Crisis

42m

03 Critical Phase 2 of the National Sunday Law

1h 13m

02 The Siege of the Modern World

55m

Called to Victory

42m

01 The Point of No Return

1h 5m

Work For The Night Is Coming

1h 8m

03 The Lost Son

1h 3m

02 The Lost Coin

58m

01 The Lost Sheep

1h

Living Above Your Circumstances - Part 24

43m

Reliable Anchor for Your Storm Tossed Soul - Part 23

45m

Beware of Fake Science - Part 22

53m

Sound Doctrine