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Lansing SDA Church

Wes Peppers

The Two Witnesses of the Two Witnesses

Father in heaven, this morning as we open your scripture, as we consider counsel from the spirit of prophecy, I just pray, Lord, that you would come upon us, that you would draw us close, and that you would help us to see the blessing that we can receive from these things which we'll discuss this morning.

I pray your Holy Spirit would cause us to be stirred, our hearts to be stirred.

We would see the importance of things that we will discuss, and Lord, that your Spirit would convict us to make the right decisions and to make the right adjustments in our life to be able to honor You in everything that we do.

And we know, Lord, You have such a deep love for us, a love deeper than we can ever even imagine.

So we ask Your blessing now and we come in Jesus' name.

Now if you go to the book of Revelation chapter 11, which we're not going to do right now but if you go there you can write it down and read it later you read about 2 witnesses that the Bible talks about being killed and laying in the streets and then they are eventually resurrected, right?

And so the Bible talks about them they, because of the word of their testimony, they are killed and then they're laying in the streets for 3 and a half days and we've studied this before in our seminars on prophecy and then they are raised to life and they are called back up to heaven, right?

How many of you remember even in the spring we studied this in the revelation, Unlocked Revelation series and many people always ask who are the 2 witnesses and who are they?

The Bible talks about them and in the book of Zechariah chapter 4 you can read the whole chapter we're not going to read it this morning you can write that down and go home and read it this afternoon but in Zechariah chapter 4 it speaks about these 2 witnesses and it that stand before 2 olive trees or they are 2 olive trees that stand before the throne of God.

And the Bible says that they are the word of God.

And of course, there's 2 testaments to the word of God, the old and the new, right?

And so they are the 2 witnesses, the Old and the New Testament.

But the question we want to ask this morning is, who are the 2 witnesses of the 2 witnesses?

Not the 1 I have for today, but I could preach another sermon on that.

So I have to ask you a question that will help us identify that.

What are the 2 greatest corporate and sacred assemblies outside of divine worship that open God's word and provide opportunities to study it and understand it better through prayer.

Tell me what those 2 things are, if anybody can guess.

Now this is a new year so you ought to expect a sermon like this from your pastor, amen?

How many of you would expect that from me?

Now I can't find a Bible verse to support that, Actually I can kind of a principle wise and we'll look at some of that.

But Sabbath school and prayer meeting are the 2 witnesses of the 2 witnesses.

They are the 2 services that testify that we have as an organized movement of Christians of believers that testify of the Word of God.

We come to Sabbath school to study the Word of God.

We come to prayer meeting to study the Word of God and to pray at both meetings that we may understand the Word of God more thoroughly.

In the divine worship service, we are not able to fully break down things as we are in Sabbath school, amen?

So we're going to talk about both of those this morning for just a little bit.

And we're going to see the importance of them.

We're going to answer a number of questions.

Somebody might ask, what is Sabbath school?

Well, if you're visiting with us from a Sunday church, it's very similar to what?

It's where you come together in a classroom type setting to study the word of God and to do it on a personal level.

So Sabbath School is an opportunity for members and guests to come together for the sole purpose of studying the Bible on a personal level.

Right now, you're hearing the Word of God proclaimed on a public level, but Sabbath school offers us the opportunity to do it personally, interactively, yes?

And it typically precedes the divine worship hour, so it's right before it.

What are the 5 main purposes of Sabbath school?

Number 1, spiritual growth, nurture, and discipleship of old and new members.

Number 2, interactive, personal and deep Bible study that disciples members.

So in Sabbath school, in the worship hour, it's very important, divine worship is very important, but you don't get that personal interaction, you don't get that personal connection, that personal study, right?

So you get that in Sabbath school, and it's also interactive.

Number 3, small group fellowship that nurtures personal relationships.

I often find people that say, well, you know, I come to church, and I don't really, I talk to people but I don't really know them.

How many of you ever heard somebody say that?

I won't ask you to raise your hand but how many of you have said that?

I get the, and so what Sabbath school does is it gives you the opportunity in a small classroom setting to be able to interact with other believers, amen?

So some people say, well, we have such a big church.

Well, Sabbath school is 1 of many opportunities you have to do that, amen?

Number 4, opportunity for local outreach and soul winning.

And you know, this year, each department, every month is going to be leading an outreach.

And so, Sabbath school was actually originally intended for new believers and people that weren't of our faith to come in and be able to learn about our truth.

And to be able to understand what we believe so that they can give their lives to Christ and follow Him.

So Sabbath School fosters local outreach.

And number 5, if I can get my thing to work here, gives you an opportunity to participate and support in world mission.

How many of you believe that world mission is important?

We take up offerings in Sabbath school for missionaries.

We have mission projects through Sabbath school.

How many of you think that you wanna grow spiritually this morning?

How many of you think that you wanna be nurtured in your faith?

How many of you think you need discipleship?

How many of you think you need interactive personal Bible study?

How many of you think you need group fellowship and personal relationships with others?

How many of you think you want to do, or that we need to have local community outreach, amen?

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The Two Witnesses of the Two Witnesses

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