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Open Door SDA Church

Restoring the Home

Dwayne Lemon

01 The Sealing Work and Its Order

I am very thankful to be here with us all and I'm especially grateful for this particular Sabbath and for the succeeding Sabbaths going forward because we are really going to touch on something that I believe is very necessary in such a time as this in Earth's history.

We're going to be talking quite a bit about the sealing work and its order.

The great purpose in this time in Earth's history is that we are preparing for 1 of 2 things in their riddled in Bible prophecy.

People are preparing right now either to receive the Mark of the Beast or they are preparing to receive the seal of the living God.

And if I were to ask a question, how many of you would like the Mark of the Beast, please raise your hands.

I'm sure I would see no hands go up because you're an intelligent group of people And we know that whether we know what the Mark of the Beast is or isn't, 1 thing we can all agree on is it's got to be bad.

But when it comes to the seal of God, that is the only thing that is opposite to the Mark of the Beast.

And the seal of God should be something that every child of God wants, is to be sealed with the seal of our living God.

And so we're going to talk about some of those principles and really get into what's the key thing that makes it all work.

And so my hope and my prayer is that we will be thoroughly blessed as well as challenged as we go through our study together.

So please, if you will, I'm going to kneel to have a word of prayer.

And if you are able to, I'd like to invite you to kneel with me.

If you can't kneel, just bow your heads reverently, but let us all pray together as we receive the word.

Our Father in heaven, we are very grateful for the blessing and the gift of life.

We thank you so much for bringing us safely through another week.

And we thank you, dear God, for this opportunity that we may hear your voice and that we will follow you as you lead.

And Lord, we're praying that you will please have mercy upon us in any area where we have failed and fallen short of your glory and have sinned against you.

We ask you to please pardon us and also give us a fresh endowment of your Holy Spirit, that we might have power from on high to do not our will, but your will, and so let your will be done.

And so now speak to our hearts, we pray, and make your words plain to us.

It was in the beginning of time that the Bible, after Adam and Eve, we began to have a populated world.

And when we studied the Bible carefully, you will find that the Bible shows that there were 2 worshipers, 2 worshipers.

And the 2 worshipers are very important for us to understand because the same way that, and when we talk about 2 worshippers, we're not just dealing with people, but we're also dealing with mindset.

And when we look at the mindset, we're going to notice that what took place in the beginning of time is going to take place in the last moments in Earth's history.

When we look at these 2 worshippers, they can be broken down as Cain and Abel, 2 worshippers.

And then there was, of course, those who get the seal of God or the mark of the beast.

So 1 of the first things we need to notice is that as our world began with 2 worshippers, our world is going to close with 2 classes of worshippers.

Everybody is going to worship, but the reality is that some will worship right and others will worship wrong.

If We are intelligent children of God, which I am safely assuming we are.

The goal is that we want to be part of those who worship God right and not those who worship God wrong.

If I am correct in that assumption, let me hear you say amen.

So now considering that, let's go ahead and let's take a look at it.

Let's go to the book of Genesis chapter 4.

Let's look at something about these 2 worshipers.

In Genesis chapter 4, the Bible prepares us to see something that is very important because as we see it in the beginning, we're going to see it replete throughout ancient history, and then we're ultimately going to see it apply even in the last days of earth's history.

Because this is a lot of verses, what I'll do is I'll read verse 1, you'll read verse 2, I'll do verse 3, you do verse 4, and we'll take it down to verse, all the way to 10.

The Bible says in Genesis, we're looking at chapter 4, starting at verse 1.

It says, and Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.

But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect, and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?

And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.

And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

And The Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother?

Now, please notice that in this story, you have 2 brothers.

And this is the first time that we see brother persecuting brother.

You know, the first warfare was in family.

The first war to take place in heaven was amongst family.

And the first war to take place on earth was amongst family.

And here we have a story of a brother persecuting another brother.

And the reason was that 1 brother's deeds were good and the other brother's deeds were not.

But 1 offering was accepted and the other offering was rejected.

Now, let us go ahead and now let's take a look at Revelation 14 9 through 11.

Let's go ahead and fast forward down to the very closing scenes of Earth's history.

Revelation 14 Now we're looking at verses 9 to 11, and then we're going to look at Revelation 7, 1 to 3.

And let us go ahead and let's see what the Bible says here, because God is trying to paint a picture.

What we're seeing from the past has something to do with you and I today.

It says in Revelation 14 starting at verse 9, it says, and the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receives the mark of his name.

So notice that the last day picture is that there's gonna be a group of people that are going to have something called the mark of the beast, and by having that, they suffer what's called the wrath of God.

It's gonna be a very different kind of wrath because it says that this wrath is unmixed.

Normally when God would distribute his wrath unto a people, he would mix it with mercy.

You know, if you listen, you could escape it.

And we see examples of that, like when God would judge Egypt and so on there were Egyptians that was able to get out of Egypt but here God is doing this judgment without mixture in other words it's their last chance But now let's look at Revelation 7.

In Revelation 7, we get a contrast to this picture of those who receive, quote unquote, the mark of the beast.

And keep in mind, it said worship the beast.

So that means that whoever has the mark of the beast, they're still worshipers.

In Revelation 7 verses 1 to 3 now, let's go ahead and let's consider what the scripture says here.

This is the picture of God's people living at the closing scenes of Earth's history.

It says in Revelation 7, 1 to 3, and after these things, I saw 4 angels standing on the 4 corners of the earth, holding the 4 winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

Verse 2, and I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.

And he cried with a loud voice to the 4 angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea saying hurt not the earth neither the tree nor the sea until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." So notice that in the last day picture that God gives, there's going to be 2 class of worshippers.

The same way that in the beginning, 2 class of worshippers.

It's the same way in the end, 2 class of worshippers.

The beginning is not as much concerning to you and I because that's past truth, but this last day picture in Revelation 14 should be very concerning to you and I because that's present truth.

And notice that it shows in the last days, that's how literally humanity will be divided.

Now, how many of you want the mark of the beast?

Remember I said raise your hand And nobody's gonna raise their hand, right?

Amen, because you're a very wise group of people.

02 First Things First

We are living in a very serious and solemn time in Earth's history.

God wants us to understand that he's ready to do something special.

It is for us to be prepared to receive what he's ready to give.

There's a little book that I love to read.

Next to the Bible, it is my favorite book.

And in that book, it's on page 509, that it says, Christ is ever sending messages to those who are listening.

And I thought to myself, I said, can you imagine that?

Because if there's 1 thing that humanity would sure love is to hear God speak to them.

And here it is that Christ is ever sending messages.

And so I have no doubt that God has a message for us.

There's no question in my mind that the Lord wants to say something to each of our hearts.

What we need to be praying is, Lord, give me ears to hear what your spirit wants to say to my heart today.

And so I'm going to begin our message with a word of prayer.

And I would like to invite you that if you are able to, please kneel with me and let us all approach the Lord reverently and prepare our hearts to receive what heaven wants to give.

And if you can't kneel, go ahead and bow your heads where you are.

But if you can kneel, let's kneel together.

Our gracious and loving Father, we are so thankful.

Even in spite of our sins, you are still God and you still love us with an everlasting love.

For this, we truly praise you, Lord, and we thank you for this privilege to come before you even now.

We recognize our sinfulness, we recognize our failures and we ask of you to please forgive us.

We pray that you would grant us mercy from heaven's throne.

We pray from the sanctuary above that you will pour out your spirit upon us even now that we might have minds that reflect even the mind of Christ and so speak to us we pray make your words plain and thank you father for hearing our prayer for we do ask it all in Jesus name let everyone say amen amen I want you to turn your Bibles with me to the book of Luke, chapter 4.

And I want you to see what the text says as we consider Luke chapter 4 and we are going to pick up in the midst of this dialogue that Jesus was having.

He was in the synagogue and as he was in the synagogue on the Sabbath day as was his custom, there are scrolls that individuals would read from.

And I want you to look at something Jesus read from the book of Isaiah, but it had tremendous impact because when Jesus read Scripture, and boy do I wish we had a generation of young people that would read the Bible like Jesus did.

When Jesus would read Scripture, he wasn't just looking at how it applied to the patriarchs and the prophets.

When Jesus would read the word, he was looking to see how does this apply to me and there were times that Jesus would see himself in the text and this is an example of it in Luke chapter 4 in verse 18 as he picked up that scroll the Bible says in verse 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to do something.

I want you to notice what Christ was doing.

It says to preach the gospel to the poor.

He hath sent me to do something else, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised.

If you carefully study the Bible, it was in Luke 3 that Jesus has already gone through baptism and he's now at a place that he's starting his public ministry and starting out his public ministry he proclaims these very words of Isaiah and he is there letting them know this is not just an old ancient reading Jesus is letting them know this text applies to me.

And the reason we know this to be true is because all you got to do is just skim down to verse 21.

It was after Jesus read it and everybody's looking at him That the Bible says in verse 21 and he began to say unto them this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears Jesus knew where he was in prophecy.

The question is do you and I know where we are in prophecy and Jesus made it very clear that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him in order for us to do the work that God has called us to do we need the Spirit of the Lord upon us and when Jesus was proclaiming his work I love something very special that fits this series that we're talking about.

You see, the heart of society, the heart of the church, The heart of the world is the home.

The only reason we have a broken society is because we have broken homes.

The only reason we have a broken church is because we have broken homes.

It is more than just a building of brick and mortar and sticks and stones.

It is a place that occupies people, yay, families.

And so again, the family is central to everything.

And we saw last week when we were studying the connection between the seal of God and the home, we saw that if any of us want to get that seal of the living God, we must be servants, and the first place to serve is Where?

And so we saw that many of our homes are broken.

We come to church and we say things like happy Sabbath, and the last thing we are is happy.

I said, I'm asking you a question, are you really happy?

Because I don't want you to get used to lying, especially to yourself.

Lies bring bondage, truth brings freedom.

And so what we need is we need the truth, and the truth should be told even as it pertains to the condition of our hearts and our homes.

And the reality is is when we face this truth, many of our homes today are broken.

Marriages that are on the verge of separation and divorce while we come to church and say happy Sabbath.

Many children that are on the brink of going in full rebellion and walking away not only from home and mother and father but walking away from their Heavenly Father.

These are realities of what's taking place in our world today.

He says, I came to heal the brokenhearted.

You see, He didn't just come to heal those of us who are going through mental affliction, which is more the interpretation of the verse, but I also believe in an application.

And that's what I want to talk about today.

What is God's plan to heal the broken home?

We said, oh yes, I am going to get my home on a better ground with God.

And sometimes we don't understand first things first.

If we're going to have happy, holy, healthy homes, there's something very important that the Word of God wants to reveal to us.

And family, if you ever wanna know how to have the kind of home that heaven wants you to have, all you got to do is go back to Eden.

Eden was what God wanted for the human family.

Before that wicked thing called sin ever touched our earth, there was Eden.

And it was in Eden that God said, this is going to be the model of the church, this is going to be the model of the school, this is going to be the model of the healthy, happy, holy family, Eden.

And in that beginning, there was some beautiful things that God stated, and I want us to see what the text says.

You see, the first thing that we learn is that when God made man, Remember how the text said it in Genesis 1, 26 and 27.

Let us make man in our own image and after our own likeness.

And then it said, so God created man in his own image and in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

Both Adam and Eve were made in the image of God in the likeness of God.

Now This is not speaking so much to a physiology, but this is speaking to a mentality.

The very will of God that you read in Philippians 2, 5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, that was what God had in mind when he created Adam and Eve.

He created them in his image and likeness with his mindset.

And they were created this way and then what they were supposed to do was grow in that.

03 Biblical Principles for Marriage

Last week we talked about the establishment of the home and how before God brings men and women together in holy matrimony, the first thing God wants to do is make sure that each of those individuals know him personally for themselves.

Now, today we are touching on a very, very solemn subject, biblical principles for marriage.

What was it that God set up for humanity when it came to this wonderful institution called marriage.

There were only 2 holy institutions that were made in the beginning of time before sin, the Sabbath and marriage.

And there are some lessons that God wants us to learn as we study today.

So I've been preparing my heart all week for this, and I'm gonna go ahead and offer a word of prayer at this time, and I'm going to kneel to pray.

And I would like to invite you as much as you are able to to kneel with me.

If you cannot kneel, just bow your head reverently where you are.

But if you can kneel, let's kneel together and let's ask the Lord to prepare our hearts to receive the word at this time.

Our Father in heaven, we are very grateful for you blessing us all to make it safely through another week.

We thank you, Lord, for these opportunities that we can hear heaven speak while we on the earth remain silent before you.

And Lord, we bow at this time recognizing your greatness and We humble ourselves in your sight and I start with myself.

I pray that you will please forgive us of our sins.

And that you will cleanse us from all unrighteousness and that you'll grant us the Holy Spirit who is the only effectual teacher of truth.

Take these words and make it plain to our hearts.

Give to us what we need most at this time and may marriages that are represented in this room and those who are preparing or 1 day hoping to be fitted for marriage, May we all receive heaven's instruction today.

And I pray, Father, that as you bless others, I'm asking in a very special way, please do not pass me by.

I am asking for a special endowment of your spirit, not only to enable me to speak your words, but to receive it in my heart for my home sake.

And I ask all these mercies in Jesus' name.

Now, as we prepare to get into this study, I'm going to ask us to take our Bibles.

And if you want a double blessing, take notes.

Because there's going to be scriptures on the screen, there's going to be things referenced.

And the best way to get the blessing is to take notes, or like we have modern technology, take pictures of the slides.

And this is recorded, and it will be on our channel, our YouTube channel as well if you want to review it, but please make sure that you're taking note.

Now I want us to go to John chapter 3 before we dive into this study because there's some things that God wants us to understand.

We're going to John, we're going to the third chapter, and I want us to see what the Bible says here because I know what could take place in our study today, and by the grace of God I don't want it to take place.

In John 3, I want you to see what the Bible says in verse 19.

In John 3 in verse 19, let's notice what the Bible says, and when you get there, just let me know by saying amen.

All right, in John 3 in verse 19, the Bible says, and this is, I'm reading from the King James.

It says, and this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

Now, why is it that I'm giving you this verse before we even go into the study?

Because there are things that I'm going to be sharing that Some of it is going to be potentially what we would call strong meat.

It's going to be some things that's going to be maybe a hard saying.

And I want you to understand from the beginning of the message, when God presents his words and sometimes his word, which is a sword, can cut.

It might cut at some area in our own life.

There's sometimes we might discover things about ourselves, because we're gonna talk about husbands and wives today.

And we're gonna talk about it from the word of God.

I'm only 49 years young, but I sit under the ancient of days.

And so what I'm doing is I'm not teaching my 49 years of experience, I'm teaching the experience of the ancient of days of what he put in his word.

And so this is the oldest counsel that can be given on the subject of marriage.

But when speaking on this subject and identifying God's plan of understanding what he intended when he established something called marriage, husbands and wives.

We might find ourselves possibly feeling condemned.

But I want you to remember what we read in John 3.

Condemnation does not come to us just because we've discovered something that we're doing either right or wrong.

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Series

Restoring the Home

02 First Things First

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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"Tell It Again"

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By the Grace of God I Will

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The Disciples Who Gave Up Everything

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Hands-Free Operation

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01 The House That God Built

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Why So Much Killing in the Old Testament

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The Judge, the Widow and the Adversary

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Morning Devotional

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Sound Doctrine