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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Daniel Binus

Light Up Your World

Okay, so our theme text for this weekend, and I wanna invite you to open your Bibles with me, to Psalm 27, Psalm 27, verse 4 and 5.

This is our theme text for this weekend, and we started talking about it last night in the message.

Psalm 27 verse 4 and 5 says, "'One thing I have desired of the Lord, "'that will I seek, "'that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion.

In the secret place of his tabernacle, he shall hide me.

And I think it is so relevant, so pertinent to us, because where are we living in the timeline of Earth's history right now?

We are living right before that great time of trouble, aren't we?

And here the psalmist, David, says this is the key.

1 thing is the key to actually being able to abide in his presence, to be able to be in that secret place of protection of the Most High.

That I might dwell in the house of the Lord for what purpose?

To behold the beauty of the Lord, number 1, and number 2, to inquire in his temple.

So last night we focused on what it means to behold the beauty of the Lord, to meditate on his goodness, to be inspired with his love, what he did 2, 000 years ago, how he lived his life, meditating on the ministry of Christ, and especially on the closing scenes, where he went to the cross for you and me.

But not only that, meditating on the beauty of what he's doing in each 1 of our lives today.

There are so many rich blessings that we so easily take for granted, right?

And the more we think about those things, the more we meditate on who he is and what he is doing in our lives and what he has done for us and for the whole world, guess what happens?

And in order for us to actually heal from the bondage of sin and the trauma that has been inflicted on each 1 of us from living in this world of sin, we must have fear cast out.

Again, by beholding the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

So I'm not gonna repeat the message last night, but that was a very brief summary.

And this is an absolute requirement for fear to be dispelled from our hearts.

So today we are going to talk about the second part of that text, to inquire in his temple.

During this time like never before, there's a lot of things that we need to be inquiring of the Lord.

Every day we should have questions for the Lord.

And did you know that He wants to talk to us?

He wants to make His mysteries known to our hearts.

He wants to guide and direct every 1 of our steps.

In this world of confusion, we need to constantly be inquiring in his temple.

And we need to not only be inquiring for ourselves, but we need to be inquiring for what?

All right, so let's just have a brief word of prayer, and then we're gonna really dive into it.

Dear Father in heaven, I'm so grateful to be here with my brothers and sisters.

Thank you for the opportunity to share this message that you've laid on my heart, and I pray that it would be a blessing to each 1 here, even as it has to me.

Thank you, Lord, for your spirit that teaches us and guides us into all truth, and thank you, Lord, that you have promised that that work that you will start in us, you will bring to completion, Lord, and we just praise your name, and we claim those promises today in Jesus' name, amen.

So, what has your life been like over the last couple of years?

Well, in the field of psychiatry, when you don't know quite how to reply to a question, we say, interesting.

Well, I think that At the very least, it has been quite interesting for all of us, right?

And all of us would agree that life has been chaotic in a lot of ways.

There's been a lot of upheaval in our lives personally, and of course, it seems like the world in a big way has almost been turned upside down.

We have seen unprecedented levels of stress, anxiety, bewilderment, confusion, depression, hatred, strife, PTSD, violence, homicide, and suicide.

In fact, 1 government household survey done in 2019, which was obviously before the pandemic, and then they repeated that same survey in the height of the pandemic in January of 2021.

And what they were looking at was trying to see what percentage of people in households were dealing with significant anxiety and depressive symptoms.

So, in before the pandemic, there was 11 percent.

Guess what that jumped up to during the pandemic?

So that's a huge jump if you're familiar with statistics and just the way that medical, when we look at diseases and that sort of thing.

Other studies showed that over 80% of Americans are feeling significantly stressed.

And with ongoing financial, health, employment, and societal problems, it feels like we are wallowing in a sea of confusion and chaos.

And you know, it's interesting because even though the dust of COVID is kind of settling, it doesn't mean that it is all good.

People are still reeling, and some of them are kind of like, okay, I think we're, but most people are still in this PTSD type state, wondering when is the next ball gonna drop?

When is the next, next bad thing gonna happen?

Because it seems like 1 catastrophe after another continues to move forward.

I'm not very good at keeping up on the news, and I just found out last night about, you know, what's going on in Florida, and you know, all these things, the blowing up the gas lines in Europe.

It is truly like the prophet Isaiah writes in chapter 60, verse 2, as if darkness is covering the earth and deep darkness the people.

Many people are asking, what is the answer to these problems?

How can we find peace, safety, and direction to our lives and our families and for our country?

So we have all sorts of programs and people that are trying to get that back, trying to restore some sense of normalcy and peace, the medical world has scurried to provide answers through distancing, masks, and vaccine programs.

The government is busy helping to provide food, clothing, and shelter via social service programs.

There are social justice agendas and programs are being formulated and implemented to relieve racial tension and economic disparities.

The military and police are on high alert to protect the country's citizens, both from enemies within and from enemies without.

Are the problems getting better or are they getting worse?

You know, it reminds me of the time of Jesus, right?

Jesus knew that it was not societal reforms, it was not changes in governments that were actually going to bring change to society.

What did he realize was the only thing that was actually going to bring true change?

The only thing that would bring true change in society is if 1 person after another had the converting Spirit of God take over.

So, and that's what we're seeing in our society, right?

The problems persist with no clear end in sight.

But in that same passage of Isaiah 60, and I just wanted to turn there, Isaiah chapter 60, a clear message of hope rings out through the millennia.

And I love this about Isaiah chapter 60, because here, even though in verse 2 we see, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and the deep darkness the people, what does it say?

The Lord will arise over you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

And if we skip back to verse 1, what does it say?

It says, arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

The Lord wants to do something fantastic in our lives today.

We want to see the Lord at work and he longs to work in our lives.

He longs to bring his people to a place where they can shine with a luster that this world has never seen before.

Is it possible that the only real solution to darkness, all the terrible problems we see in our world today, needs to come from God?

And if so, what is that solution that he is offering and how do we receive it?

So that's what we really wanna look at today.

How can we be part of this rising and shining and allowing ourselves to be a conduit of God's power and light in a dark world?

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Light Up Your World

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