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University SDA Church- East Lansing

Week of Prayer

Jermaine Gayle

The Prayer of Jacob and the Time of Trouble Part 1

The Bible says in Genesis chapter 4 and verse 8, now you know this story.

Now Cain talked with Abel, his what everybody?

And it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and did what?

This my friends is the first hate crime in the Bible.

More on the side of Cain, in that he could not stand his brother Abel, for some reason which we're going to reveal in a few minutes.

Just 4 chapters, by the way, in the first book of the Bible we find these just a few verses after sin had placed its ugly grip on God's creation, we find the first hate crime.

Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

If you haven't, now I'm going to bring it to your attention.

Notice that the word brother is repeated how many times?

Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his what?

In case you didn't get it the first time Moses wants you to know that they're brothers and not only that when God spoke to Cain the Lord says to Cain where is your brother Abel?

Again that response where is your brother?

In other words, there's a family relationship that God is expecting to function properly, but somehow there was a breakdown in the family circle.

Cain's response was, why are you asking me?

In other words, is it my responsibility to protect him, to love him, to take care of him, to watch over him?

Somehow Cain expected his relationship with his brother to be different than what God required of him.

This was the quintessential breakdown of what happens when 1 fails to love God supremely, which eventually leads to 1 failing to love his brother as himself.

Can you imagine the feeling of Adam and Eve when they learned that Abel, their son, was dead because of Cain?

And can you imagine when they found out that Cain himself had to be banished as well?

The loss of 2 children as a result of hatred.

The Bible tells us in the book of 1st John, the book of 1st John, the Bible tells us there, in this the children of God and the children of the 1.

The devil are manifest, whoever does not practice, what's the word friends?

Righteousness is not of God nor is he who does not love his what?

You see how closely related the word righteousness and loving your brother is?

There are many folks who want to be righteous but have no love in their hearts.

There are many who claim to be righteous but they have no love for the person sitting beside them in the pews.

So, and then John goes on, for this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should, what friends, love 1 another.

Now John is not writing this message to the people on the streets.

He's not hitting up the blocks in Chicago.

And he's saying you ought to love, what friends, 1 another.

Especially as we get close to the end of time.

I'm going to talk about some of these things here that might shock you.

Then he says, not as Cain, who was of the what?

Cain was of the wicked 1 and murdered his brother.

Evil and his brother's righteous if you are not trending towards righteousness you will eventually become Cain exactly, exactly His heart was only concerned about himself, nobody else.

His heart was not big enough to fit even his brother into it.

And Abel, you might remember, Abel understood something about the sacrificial system.

Brother was disobedient through and through.

He wanted to worship God on his own terms.

Abel wanted to worship God the way God prescribed.

And as a result, a conflict ensued between the 2.

Now John goes on, he takes Cain's example and he says, whoever hates his brother is a what, friends?

Just hatred alone in your heart is sufficient for us to be condemned.

I'm going to tell you right now that our society is not trending upwards, it is trending downwards, friends, because there is more hatred in our society than ever before.

We have more canes than we have ables in our world.

And this is a clear sign that, friends, we are approaching the end.

Jesus tells us in the book of Matthew chapter 10 verse 36, and a man's enemies will be those of his own, you see that friends?

He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Jesus understands something that the gospel, the more you subscribe to it, the more you will not be liked.

And if you live to be liked, the less you'll subscribe to the gospel.

But we live in a world where everyone lives for the likes, the clicks, the thumbs up, the heart emojis, the smiley faces.

But friends, that is a dangerous trend to live towards.

Jesus understands that the gospel has within its nature this whole concept of righteousness brings with it the ire of Satan.

He hates that which is righteous and He's going to come after you.

And so friends, sin never likes God's kingdom.

You know there's a war between good and evil.

A war between righteousness and unrighteousness.

And Christ says that this unrighteousness versus righteousness will penetrate not just society the church but it will also penetrate your own households Jesus understood that The gospel by its nature polarizes not because of it, but because of men's response to it.

Because the gospel is the gospel of peace.

But friends, the devil does not respond with peace to those who want to follow Jesus.

So the disciples were expecting that Jesus had some kind of a message to, you know, help them get along with society.

Hey, hey, you know, they're expecting Jesus to give them a kingdom.

They're expecting to sit on the right, the left, and they had really good spots in their minds and Jesus told them, well hey, hey brothers, you're expecting glory, but not right now.

The Prayer of Jacob Under Religious Persecution Part 2

All right, we're going to just jump right into our subject for tonight.

This is part 2 to part 1 that we talked about last night, the prayer of Jacob's prayer.

And last night we looked at Jacob's prayer and preparation for the time of trouble.

And now we're looking at Jacob's prayer from a different perspective.

We're looking at Jacob's prayer from the perspective of religious persecution and what that might look like.

So I hope you can put on your history hats with me because we're going to dive deep into some history, predominantly American history, as it relates to the issue of Sunday being a legal compact and some of the persecution that resulted from that.

Before we begin, let's have another word of prayer, shall we?

Loving Father in heaven, we want to ask in a very, very special way that your Holy Spirit will be here tonight to be our teacher.

We pray that as we talk about history that you may guide us through, not just history itself, but also the portions of scripture that we're going to be studying tonight.

Give us wisdom, give us your Holy Spirit.

We want to be faithful to you ultimately is our prayer in Jesus' name.

So you might remember last night we ended with 3, with 4 key principles from the prayer of Jacob that we need to be keeping in mind especially as we get to the end of time.

I'll remind you what those principles are.

Number 1, Jacob recognizes God's past dealings with his people.

He recognizes, as he said, God, God of my father Abraham and Isaac, so he knew that God had worked through history to serve his people, and so he could depend on a God, future-wise, because of what God has done in the past.

Second, Jacob remembered what the word of the Lord said.

Remember it was God who told him, go home.

And so Jacob was quite dependent on that word.

In other words, he was saying, God, fulfill your word.

This is in Genesis chapter 32, which is where we're going to be tonight again.

And then number 3, Jacob understood that he was not worthy of the mercies nor the truths that God had revealed to him.

Jacob understood as a humble individual that God had revealed some truth and mercy to him that he did not deserve to have.

It was a great blessing and perhaps if the nation, the children of Israel in the Old Testament had recognized and remembered this they wouldn't become such isolationists and did not promulgate or share the gospel message with the world around them.

They thought that they were special, more special than anyone else, and as a result, they lost the privileges that God had granted to them as a nation.

And number 4, Jacob knew and fully believed that God could deliver him from Esau's revenge or Esau's hate.

So as we approach the end of time, remember those 4 things.

We ought to remember how God deals with us in our past we must remember also the Word of God and what God says in his Word and we also need to remember that we are not worthy of the truths that are revealed to us nor the mercies that God give to us and friends if it were not for the mercy of God we would not be alive today.

Without the mercy of God surely we would not be alive today.

And then lastly we must recognize that God Himself will do the deliverance.

Now we also talked about this statement that was found, that's found in the Spirit of Prophecy.

In reviewing our past history, and here she's talking about Adventist, Adventism.

In reviewing our past history, having traveled over, what everyone?

Every step of advance to our present standing mean mean from all the history of Adventism to today to our present standing I can say praise God and praise God indeed He has preserved his people up until now.

Then she goes on, as I see what the Lord has wrought, I say praise God because of all the good things God has done for seven-day Adventists.

I am filled, she goes on, with astonishment and with confidence in Christ as leader.

When I look at the past, I am filled with confidence in Christ, our leader.

We have nothing to fear because who's our leader?

Oh friends, We need not fear the storms, we need not fear anything else that might happen in society, we need not fear anything that might show up in the end times, because Jesus is our leader.

The only fear we should have is the fear of forgetfulness.

She goes on, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us and His teaching in our past history.

Let us not forget how God has led us and forget his teaching in our past history the Bible tells us in the book of Job chapter 14 verse 1 if you turn to with me page 588 in the pew Bibles Job chapter 14 and verse 1 and we're going to be talking about Job at 1 point in our meetings here but imagine for a second Job writing about his own experience and coming up with this very powerful potent statement about the reality of mankind in Job 14 and verse 1 he says this man who was born of a woman is of few days and what everybody, full of trouble.

I don't know about you, but I've experienced my fair share of trouble and I'm only 36.

You know that mankind as individuals in this world, our years are few and are full of trouble.

My friends, it's not fun getting in trouble.

When I was growing up, I remember getting in trouble.

Whenever he called my name, Jermaine, I knew exactly what that meant, being in trouble.

But that's not what Job is talking about Job is talking about the great controversy and how that brings trouble to God's people the more you are faithful to God the more trouble comes your way because we know that the devil is not happy when we are faithful to God.

But praise God, he's a defeated foe, and we can continue to sing his praises, God's praises, throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity, knowing that no trouble is too difficult for God to get us through or get us out of.

Back in the year 1864, and this is following the Civil War here in America, Adventists were finding themselves in quite a bit of trouble.

Now, you might remember that the Civil War had wrought a lot of death and carnage in America, and many had suffered quite a bit as a result of the Civil War and there are so many different things that were being dealt with during the Civil War and some were the moral issues of slavery and all the other components to this and there were some Christians post-Civil War that really wanted to bring America back to its roots, so-called roots, of being a Christian nation.

Post-Civil War, a movement was started and the name of that movement was called the National Reform Association, the NRA, not the National Rifle Association, which is a different NRA, but this association was called the National Reform Association and they were founded back in January 27 of 1864 and their primary goal was to de-secularize America and return it to its Christian roots.

And 1 article from their constitution, I had to do quite a bit of research into the National Reform Association.

How many of you have heard that name before?

Well, it's good to know a bit of history because there is quite a bit here that will be repeated.

In fact, some of it is being repeated now in our modern day.

The same strategies of the National Reform Association is being repeated today.

So the National Reform Association had this written in their charter.

The National Reform Association in 1863 created an inter- what friends?

Interdenominational union determined to place the United States Constitution a religious place in rather the United States Constitution a religious what amendment in other words they wanted to change the Constitution to add a religious amendment to it and then they go on to be followed with national what friends?

Laws, national laws reflecting God's what?

Moral laws and another really, really succinct way of putting this is that they wanted to legislate morality.

And we know that's bad news when you see that happening.

They wanted to legislate morality, then it goes on to this new society, Sunday enforcement was what, friends?

We're not talking about 321 AD, March 27th when Constantine put that edict about the Sunday law this is 1863 not many years ago so we go on the article goes on important evidence of the nation's determination to atone for the what friends?

The tragedy of slavery and the Civil war.

Remember what we talked about last night that whenever there's a crisis there's always a movement to try to swing the pendulum back to the right place in society.

Daniel’s Prayer and the Conflict with the Law of the Land

It's very, very good to have you all here for our week of prayer.

And we've been talking about quite a bit.

The night before we talked about 4 principles when it comes to praying in the end times through the experience of Jacob.

And tonight we're going to be talking about the prayer of Daniel and the conflict with the laws of the land.

Okay, so why don't you pray with me as we get started.

Father in heaven, we want to thank you again for the opportunity that you've given to us to come together before you to seek your face.

We had a season of prayer this evening as we've been doing each night and dear father we pray that those requests that we bring to you and those thanksgiving that we have resting on our lips that dear Lord that our prayer life will be acceptable in your sight.

We ask that you keep us faithful, is our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

The prayer of Daniel and the conflict with the laws of the land.

If you've read the book of Daniel, you might already realize that we're going to jump over to Daniel chapter 6.

Before you get there, I want to take your minds back to the year 1914, date December 5.

Ernest Shackleton and his crew left the coast of England on a voyage to Antarctica.

Shackleton's desire was to be the first to walk across the continent with his crew of 28 men.

And that would have been quite the experience and quite a lot to share.

In fact, the British government were, they were also involved in the quest of Ernest Shackleton to the point where they gave him about 10, 000, I think it's 10, 000, what's the UK currency?

And yes, so Ernest Shackleton was on his way.

It took him 16 days from the coast of England all the way to the coast of Antarctica until he found himself stuck in the harbor.

In fact, some of the researchers and archeologists that did some studies, and actually they did some deep sea diving and actually found a ship and they discovered that the ship was not too far from the coast of Antarctica the ship just did not make it to the coast in fact they discovered that the ship was, I think they worked it out that it was actually maybe a few miles off.

Does anyone remember the name of Ernest Shackleton's ship?

You might have learned it back in school.

Endurance was stuck in 10 feet thick ice.

And that's ice that's thicker than I'm tall.

Well, just imagine that, 10 feet thick ice.

And they say that packed ice comes packing quite a bit of force.

And 1 article that I read suggested that pack ice has enough force that is equivalent to about 10, 000 psi.

So that's 10, 000 pounds per square inch.

The ship, what's the name of it everybody?

The ship got stuck in pack ice for about 9 months and it could not endure the force of the pack ice.

In fact, the force of the ice was so strong that it eventually twisted and crushed the ship to the point where endurance did not endure.

And the ship Endurance is still where it is now.

There was an article that was published in the Times Magazine not so long ago that actually showed a picture of the ship Endurance and you can still make out the name of it right at the bottom of the Wajihin Sea.

Right there, the ship Endurance did not make it to port.

Friends, Let's not be like the ship Endurance.

So close, but yet still not endure the pressures and the forces that are going to come our way in life.

Ernest Shackleton and his crewmen survived, but the endurance did not.

I think that you and I are not ready for the immense pressure that is going to come from our society fairly soon.

We are steering our lives like that ship into the thick pack ice of society And we are not ready to endure the trials that are coming our way.

Not realizing, by the way, as we stare at the ship of our lives, not realizing that the ice is actually squeezing us in more and more.

I believe that the pressure that is going to be exerted in society is going to be so strong that it's going to crush many ships.

Many faiths, many people within the Seventh-day Adventist Church are not going to be able to endure.

Their faith is going to be made shipwrecked because we are certainly not ready for any measure of force.

So this is a picture of the ship endurance.

And I want you to Turn to me in your Bibles to the book of Revelation.

Revelation chapter 7 and 14 of Revelation chapter 7, 14 and 15.

And John had a vision, and there are many visions that John had in the book of Revelation, and he saw the righteous standing before the throne of God.

We're going to talk about more, talk about this more tomorrow night.

He saw the righteous before the throne of God and there was a dialogue, a conversation between John and 1 of the elders in heaven.

And The Bible tells us that the elder had asked John, who are these?

And John responded by saying, sir, you know.

To which the response came, so he said to me, these are the ones who came out of what friends?

Tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve Him..." How often?

"...night in His temple, and He who sits on the throne will dwell among them." What did they come out of, friends?

Now that word tribulation in the Bible, the root word for tribulation literally means pressure.

Every now and then I find myself watching these YouTube videos.

I don't know if you've ever seen them, but these guys sometimes take these hydraulic presses and put different materials underneath the press and then they would push the button and then you would see how long these materials would hold up.

I've seen them put skittles under the hydraulic press, and those skittles, I tell you, did not hold up at all.

I've seen them put cans under the hydraulic press, and those cans came out flat like nothing you've ever seen.

But that's the kind of pressure we're imagining in this story.

The Bible is telling us that these faithful came out of great pressure.

Now back home in Jamaica, we used to, when we cook, we cook, we used to, and we still do, in my home we still do, we have our pressure cooker.

And you have to know how to use a pressure cooker, otherwise it can cause a lot of damage.

Back then when I used to eat meat growing up, we used to put meats that had a really hard, that was very hardy, put them in the pressure cooker and the pressure cooker would soften it.

But there's a lot of pressure being applied to these things.

Series

Week of Prayer

The Prayer of Jacob Under Religious Persecution Part 2

Transcript

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