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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Ryan Dolinsky

Will He Know You?

Our Father in heaven, we are thankful for this time that we can gather together.

And Lord, we gather together here because of what you have done for us, Lord, not because what we are doing for you.

Lord, we want to thank you for your demonstration of love to us.

And Lord, we ask that as we open your word and look at it this morning, that you would open our eyes to understand.

And Lord, that you would grant us your Holy Spirit to give us wisdom, that you would speak to each and every heart individually here this morning.

So I've been, I was struggling to know what to share this morning when Josie repeatedly asked me, so Josie thank you for your persistence.

For those of you who don't know, Josie is the Bible committee leader and she is the 1 who asks people to come speak.

So I had turned her down a few times and this time I didn't.

And so I'm actually very happy I didn't turn it down this time because this time of preparation for me was quite significant.

And I hope that the Holy Spirit through me can convey some things that I have been very convicted about through this preparation.

And 1 of them is answering this question, will he know you?

And the context for this question is really, will he know you when he returns?

A lot of us claim to know him, but will we, will he know us?

It's a deep question, I hope you'll reflect with me this morning a little bit as we read some passages and also think about some concepts regarding this question.

I'd like to start with a very interesting, a sad, a sad but interesting story that has a very deep illustration for us.

Some of you are familiar with this submarine, yes?

It was the CEO and founder of Oceangate Incorporated, which was a underwater tourism company.

And his desire was to make underwater tourism more accessible to people like ourselves, except for the fact that tickets were $250, 000, a quarter of a million dollars to go with him on these submersibles.

So maybe not to all of us, but maybe to some it was accessible.

But really what it was, it was a big step in the direction of making deep water tourism accessible.

And what on earth would you want to go down into the depths of the ocean to see, except for the most famous shipwreck of all time, which is the Titanic, of course.

So his intention with building this submersible, the Titan, was to take people down to sea this magnificent shipwreck.

Many of you know that, or if you have looked into the history with this, there was a very controversial history with building this submarine.

You see, this submarine is not built the same as the standards for submersibles.

And in fact, when Sockton Rush was interviewed about the things he was using in his submersible to make it lighter, to make it cheaper, to make it more accessible.

I think I've broken them with logic and with good engineering behind me.

The carbon fiber and titanium, there's a rule you don't do that.

And 13 of those times it made it to Titanic.

But 1 thing that he was being repeatedly warned about, Many different committees, and I'm not going to claim to know these nautical committees, but many different people on these safety advisory boards were telling him this is not safe.

And what particularly was not safe was the blending of these 2 materials, but particularly that of carbon fiber.

Carbon fiber has this property or undergoes this experience, you could say, of stress fatigue.

When you stress it over and over, it loses its strength over time.

And let alone when you combine it with another material like titanium.

You see, 1 of the principles of submersibles that I just recently learned, so if there's submersible people in the audience, feel free to correct me out loud.

When you're going underwater, you don't want many areas that could fail.

But there are 2 connections on this sub, 1 on the front and 1 on the back to the carbon fiber hull.

So there were 2 areas of failure that they were also warning him about.

Of course, you guys probably saw it pop up on the news.

The 90th, I believe, the 90th dive of the Titan was the final dive for the Titan.

Approximately 500 meters, I can't remember exactly, but somewhere around 500 meters away from the bow of the Titanic, the submersible imploded.

And the 5 passengers, Stockton Rush himself included, obviously imploded with it.

And there's a striking lesson, I think, that we can take from this sad story.

And that lesson is, this man had an extreme amount of self-confidence in his own submersible.

So much, in fact, that he ignored sound warnings.

And for the sake of good for the submersible community, for advancing this tourism opportunity, he pursued forward until tragedy struck.

And it made me immediately think of this verse.

Jesus gives us a very, very clear warning.

This is not an accidental, just brushed by warning.

Jesus gives us very clear, in fact, this is a prophecy.

This is what will happen, or this will be the condition of some people, some of God's people, God's proclaimed people at the end of time.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name.

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

This is a verse that has ever, ever since I have really taken up the study of the Bible for myself.

This is a verse that has always given me pause.

And it gives me pause because in my mind when I read this, we are supposed to prophesy in his name.

In fact, that is what we saw in the early church.

But Jesus still warns us that we could end up doing these things and still when he returns He will not know us.

I believe the other prophecy of the state of the end time people, or perhaps our people now, I should say that, is the prophecy given to us in Revelation 3, 17 through 21.

In fact, we refer to ourselves regularly as the Church of Laodicea.

So just review this with me this morning.

Because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich in white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see.

If anyone who hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and dine with him, and he with me.

I would propose that when we look at these 2 passages, there is a state of self-confidence in the Laodicean Church.

The self-confidence is I don't need anything.

In fact, the self-confidence is so strong that it's blinding.

It's blinding to the true state of the people.

Very similar to how the self-confidence of the sub blinded Stockton Rush to the imminent danger of continuing to pledge his sub to the depths that it did.

You see, we know what's coming because Jesus has given us prophecy.

We know that there is a time of trouble coming, a time when we will reach depths of intense pressure.

And that pressure, God forbid for some of us, if we are hollow and empty, will cause implosion of what we have thought to be our righteous life in Christ.

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Will He Know You?

Transcript

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