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Newington Three Angels Church

Go and Do: New England Conference Youth Week of Prayer

Eric Walsh

01 Finding God in a Godless Society

Jeremiah 29, verse 13 says, and ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Our message tonight is entitled, Finding God in a godless society.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

Once again, Lord, I ask that you make me a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

But upon that nail, Lord, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Instead, Father, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

As our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name, Amen.

All right, so we're gonna jump to the book of Acts, the ninth chapter, and we are gonna read the first verse.

Tonight, we're gonna focus on the conversion of Paul as we deal with the subject, finding God in a godless society.

Acts 9 in verse 1 says, and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went up unto the high priest.

Saul here has just been elected to the Sanhedrin.

The interesting thing about Saul is that he probably got this nomination and election because of his cooperation in the persecution of Christians.

Most notably, the Bible records the story of the stoning of Stephen, prophetically ending the 490-year prophecy.

And after Stephen died, it was time for God to redirect the gospel to the Gentiles.

I think the irony of this story is that God literally uses the very man who persecuted the Christians to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter.

In fact, Acts 26, When he is giving a defense before a gripper, Paul says this about his behavior before he became a Christian.

Acts 26 and verse 10 says, which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests.

And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them." In other words, Paul voted to have them put to death.

And I punished them often, every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities." It was Paul's job, when he was still Saul, to function like someone who would chase down criminals, like a bounty hunter.

And he was unleashed by the Sanhedrin who had received authority to even chase the Christians in other cities and in foreign lands.

Paul's fury against the Christians came from the fact that he thought he was doing God's work.

But the spirit of prophecy tells us that in fact, When Paul contemplated on Christ, there was rattling in his mind around whether or not Jesus was the Messiah.

But the peer pressure of his time, the influence and power of the Sanhedrin, his upbringing and training as a perfect Pharisee, all worked to influence Saul to want to persecute the Christians, and he thought he was doing God's work.

And as I speak to you young people tonight, I submit that there are challenges for Christians today as well.

I have gone to school many years and studied in Adventist and Christian institutions and in secular ones, and I can tell you that if you are not rooted and grounded, the world can swallow you up.

The world is becoming more and more secular.

And some of the faces that we see are the brilliant minds of people like Neil deGrasse Tyson, who when he explains the universe, explains it without any creator, no design.

A very brilliant man, but when he describes science and the astrophysicist that he is, he does a phenomenal job of describing the universe, but the universe has no God.

And in fact, if you listen carefully, it's almost as if you believe there's a God, something's wrong with you.

Of course, Bill Maher doesn't hold back in his documentary, Religiolus, he intentionally mocks anyone who believes, Muslim, Jew, or Christian, anyone of faith is mocked.

And they have created this art of disbelief.

Bill Maher brags on his show, another very intelligent and very, very talented person, but he brags on his show of those who he pulls out of Christianity or religion and into atheism, almost like it's a sport.

There is a movement, young people, in our society to extract God and faith.

And 1 who was deemed to have 1 of the greatest minds of our time is Stephen Hawking.

He says, This is 1 of his quotes, he says, we are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star.

But we can understand the universe, that makes us something very special.

Well, that's a staggering statement and it is becoming the way the world simply believes.

And it's frightening, because if you even look at what he's saying, it doesn't really make sense.

If We're just a breed of monkeys on a tiny planet with an average star.

Why did we develop the ability to understand the universe?

That wasn't necessary for survival if you understand the theory of evolution.

And almost inherent in what he's saying is that there has to be some divine spark in the minds of men, but the world has believed and has moved to believe that somehow we are foolish to believe what we believe.

And as I was preparing to speak to the young people of the conference, I was really moved as I prayed to speak to the fact that if you are going to be a Christian today, you are going to have to be strong.

Fair weather Christians will not survive this day and age.

Young person, if you're only a Christian because your mother's a Christian, you're not gonna survive as a Christian.

You won't make it to the other side as a Christian.

If you're only a Christian because you went to Sabbath school and Pathfinders, If you're only a Christian because you went to Sabbath school and pathfinders, if you're only a Christian because you got baptized when everybody else did at 11 or 12 years of age, if your Christianity is really just wrapped up in kind of the cultural awareness of growing up in an Adventist church, and you do not have your own relationship with God and understanding of his word, you will not survive.

In fact, Paul later on says in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 18, let no man deceive himself.

If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

For the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God.

For it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

In other words, God catches them in their craftiness.

Paul goes on, He says, and again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain.

Young people, if you're going to be a Christian, do not glory in the social media of the famous people of our time, the influencers of our time, do not think that somehow they have something special because many of them do not know God, and in fact, their wisdom is really only vanity.

Think of how vain it is that man thinks he basically evolved to create himself.

Of course, there's a strong movement and young people are being pulled in.

3 decades ago, America lost its religion.

And they talk about these political reasons and organizations that say, imagine no religion, and put it up on billboards in cities, or organizations like Freedom from Religion Foundation.

And what this has meant is that there's a new group of Americans when it comes to religion and religious categories.

1 of them is a group called the nuns, meaning they have no religious affiliation whatsoever.

And you see here that the accelerated growth of the unaffiliated from 1972 to 2016, people have shaken off religion and have moved to a belief of basically that is minimal at best.

What you hear people say nowadays, I don't believe in religion, I'm spiritual.

Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.

And people say, well, I don't have to have religion.

People are religious about their favorite football team, they're religious about March Madness and following the brackets, they're religious about following the people that they follow on social media, but when it comes to God, he say, you know, I don't need religion.

In fact, when you look by age, what you see is that all of a sudden, there is a heightened level of religiously unaffiliated in the 18 to 29 year old age.

And as you comes down, as this wave carries out, America is going to become less and less affiliated with any belief.

And the challenge, based on the theme of this week of revival, that it is possible, go and do, the challenge is going to be that when we go to do, we are no longer going to reach people who at least have some basic concept of the scriptures.

The evangelism in the next decade is gonna look nothing like it did in the last century.

We're not gonna be walking into people who have some respect for the Bible or Scripture or the God of heaven or for his son, Jesus Christ.

We are going to go into a different realm.

We'll talk more about how we're gonna have to reach people later in the week.

But I want you to understand, young people, that these times are different, and we're being influenced by so many different...

I actually got some lyrics from who is arguably the greatest rapper of all time, Jay-Z.

Jay-Z, in 1 of his albums, he has lyrics, he says, question religion, question it all, question existence until them questions are solved, right?

He's saying, listen, question it, In fact, make them solve the question, but it's difficult to solve the questions.

If you could solve all the questions of life, there would be no need for faith.

Your religion creates division like my Maybach partition.

And then he says, "'I confess God in the flesh, live among the serpents, turn arenas into churches.'" He says basically that he is God in the flesh.

It's Jay-Z, who is a member of the 5% Nation of Islam, a religion that believes that the black man is God and the white man is the devil.

02 Lifestyle of Faith

Lot to talk about tonight and tomorrow night's messages are connected.

So I wanna make sure I finish this part so we can get to tomorrow's part on time.

If you have your Bibles, turn in your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 2, verse 19 and 20, is where we're gonna start with our scripture reading, and then we're gonna go to the book of Daniel.

So James chapter 2, 19 and 20, reads like this.

Thou believest that there is 1 God, thou doest well.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead.

Our message tonight is Lifestyle of faith.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word, your truth, and even these complex times in which we live.

Once again, Lord, I just ask you, make me a nail on the wall, A rusty, sorry nail, Lord, but upon that nail I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Let me not be seen or heard tonight, Father.

Instead, Lord, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

Fill us with your Holy Spirit, is our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, so we're gonna go to the book of Daniel, the sixth chapter, Daniel chapter 6.

We're gonna start tonight, finish this story tomorrow night.

There is just so much in the book of Daniel that we are going to hit.

So last night we talked about finding God in a godless society.

Tomorrow night we're gonna deal with prophecy and the importance of prophecy even for young people.

And so we land in the book of Daniel and you'll see as we go through this that We are going to start going deeper and deeper into God's word and into some serious concepts and ideas.

Daniel 6 in verse 1 says, It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 princes, which should be over the whole kingdom.

And over these 3 presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage." This story of Daniel is a story of consistent faithfulness.

We often probably overlook how unlikely it would be for Daniel to start out as a child, just a boy, taken in captivity to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar.

The influence of 1 Christian young person causes the conversion of the mightiest man in the world, Nebuchadnezzar.

2 generations later, when Nebuchadnezzar's grandson is on the throne, Daniel explains to him in a banquet hall 1 night, after an invisible hand writes on the plaster, meaning Tikalu Farsan, that in fact his kingdom would be taken.

And Daniel is there when the Medo-Persian Empire comes in and takes Babylon over.

It is highly unlikely, if you just think about it for a second, that the conqueror would keep any of the dignitaries of the previous empire.

That would really make no sense whatsoever.

Daniel was such a man of character, of goodwill, that anybody who spent just a few moments with him saw his value.

And not only does he survive it, he thrives.

Here now he is president, first president of 3 presidents who rule over the princes so that the king, Darius, receives no damage.

It is a powerful, powerful testament that when you serve God, God can put you in the right place.

Verse 3, then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was in him.

And the king thought to set him over the whole realm.

Daniel became the favored, and the king wanted to put him even in a higher position.

Daniel 6 and verse 4 says, Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom.

Watch this, but they could find none occasion nor fault for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

They sat and began to plot, how can we get Daniel?

They were jealous, they drank the haterade, they wanted Daniel out.

But when they went to find a way to trip him up, even his enemies came to the conclusion that there was no fault in him.

When he had Jesus standing next to him on 1 side and Barabbas on the other, he turned to the Sanhedrin who were accusing Jesus and said, I find no fault in him.

Here, Daniel, they can find no fault, no reason, no error, no sin, nothing that they could bring blame against Daniel.

Verse 5, then said these men, we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

They could find nothing to get, you know, it's funny, because I wonder how many of us, if they were trying to find a reason to get us out, could find a reason against us.

They realized that the only way you could trip Daniel up is to come between him and his God.

And I want to ask a question to set up not just tonight's talk, but tomorrow night's talk.

Are we living in a time, young people, where laws could be passed that would make us have to choose between serving God and serving man.

We won't answer this question completely tonight.

We're gonna deal with it tomorrow night, but before we get deeper into this story for tonight, let me read you what the Great Controversy, page 605 says.

The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted.

When the final test shall be brought to bear unto men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve him not.

While the observance of the false Sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath in obedience to God's law is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator.

While 1 class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, received the mark of the beast, the other, choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, received the seal of God.

That's from the great controversy, page 605.

Let me say something to you young people.

Tonight and tomorrow night, we're gonna deal with some of the things that influence our minds.

What I wanna submit to you is that you do not 1 day get stamped with the mark of the beast or the seal of God out of happenstance.

Right now, the spirit of prophecy tells us, we are preparing for 1 of 2 marks.

Today, what we watch and listen to, with how we communicate with our friends, we are preparing our minds to receive 1 of 2 marks, either a mark of the beast or the seal of the living God.

And we're gonna get deeper into this, but I wanna submit to you that our very minds, the frontal lobe of our minds, is where this will happen.

And beginning tonight and continuing through the week, we will talk about how the devil seeks to manipulate the mind so that we are unfit for God's seal.

Daniel 6 in verse 6 says, "'Then these presidents and princes "'assembled together to the king and said unto him, "'King Darius, live forever.

"'All the presidents of the kingdom, "'the governors and the princes, "'the counselors and the captains, "'have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for 30 days, save of thee, O King, he shall be cast into the den of lions." They went back and they began to strategize.

Somebody said, no, Daniel, Daniel's an honest man.

He'll actually give you extra change if he thinks there's a question.

And so maybe we'll get Daniel because he, we can get him to lie, to defend his honor.

They said, well, we gotta come up with something.

They said, well, he will always put his God first.

If we can convince the king to put together a decree that says that anyone who asks of anything but the king, anything from any god or man, except they ask it of the king, that they have to be tossed into the den of lions.

The king's, you know, this'll feed his ego.

He'll like this, it at least seems harmless.

Daniel 6 and verse 8, it says, Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing that it be not changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.

This law, when the Medes and Persians, when they made a law and their leaders signed it, you could not go back and change it.

America, we're fortunate to have a system where the Supreme Court can go back and look at a law and decide that it isn't right, even if the precedence was set by the Supreme Court, like the Dred Scott decision.

They were able to go back and change that, which was a bad law.

But now, in this time, Daniel doesn't have that advantage.

If Darius decides to sign the law, it's fixed forever.

04 Test of Purity

We're glad to have you as we broadcast live from the 3 Angels Church here in Newington, Connecticut.

Our scripture reading tonight comes from Romans chapter 12 and verse 1.

I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

A message tonight is entitled The Test of Purity.

Ask once again, Lord, that you just make me a nail on the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

Lord, let Eric Walsh not be seen or heard tonight.

Instead, Father, Let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

I believe that in each church there are lessons for today.

Pergamos has the lesson that we want to extrapolate from tonight.

And in this 1, you find it says, 1, these things say he which hath the sharp sword with 2 edges, that is, speaking of Christ, the sharp sword is his word.

The scripture says that the word of God cuts like a two-edged sword.

Then He says, I know thy works, I know where you live.

And then he says, even where Satan's seat is.

And you hold fast my name and has not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth.

And he says it again, this is where Satan dwell.

But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication.

So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." And here, Jesus is not shy to begin to speak to the church in rebuke.

But it would be very easy to preach to young people and try to really preach sermons that are entertaining, that are simply kind of fluffy, make you feel good, reference Marvel comic books and DC and try and make myself hip and as if I am cultured in the things of the world.

But I want to submit to you that if I do that, I fail the charter that Christ has given me.

You see, Jesus was never afraid to do what he does.

In Revelation 2 and verse 14, He says, I have a few things against thee.

You sit where Satan's seat is, and you've held on to my name.

And he speaks about the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balaam to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things offered to sacrifice them to idols, and to commit fornication.

And then, of course, he speaks about false doctrine in the terms of the Nicolaitans.

Revelation chapter 2 and verse 16 says, "'Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly "'and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.'" So it starts talking to them about Jesus being there with this sword.

He says, if you do not repent, it is my word, the sword of my mouth that will come for you.

Because you knew better, but you didn't do it.

Verse 17, he that hath an heir, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna.

I'll give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it.

I don't even have time to break all of this down, but let me give you just this little bit here.

In verse 17, He says, if you overcome, and we're gonna talk about sexual sin tonight, if you overcome, he says, I will give you to eat of the hidden manna.

It was hidden in the Ark of the Covenant under the mercy seat.

He said, I'll give you to eat of that manna.

He said, I will give you a white stone which speaks to purity and eternity, maybe even represents 1 of the stones that the priest would have on his vestiture.

But I like the last part, he says, I will give you a new name written on that stone.

And this third thing that Christ says he'll give you if you overcome, is a name which no man knows except he that receives it.

That's why Jacob becomes Israel and Abram becomes Abraham.

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Go and Do: New England Conference Youth Week of Prayer

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