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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Shion Shironishi

The First Angel’s Message: Come in Before the Call to Come Out

I'm so glad to be here visiting from the wonderful, beautiful paradise island of Guam.

And as my wife said, we moved there 3 years ago right after we got married.

And it's been quite a bit of a journey, but we enjoyed every bit of it.

There's been ups and downs but God's been blessing us with the work there.

And so I'm gonna share a little bit about some stories of some things are happening in Guam, specifically with me and my patients, and to share with you guys how we can bring the gospel into the medical missionary work.

It's a very important thing to really include that in our medical work.

And so before I start, I would like to start with a prayer, so please bow your heads.

Loving Father in heaven, we come before you today with humble hearts.

Lord, we are about to talk about some deep and serious things, things that touch our mental, emotional, and spiritual health, Lord.

We just ask that your Spirit will guide every word that's being spoken, every thought in our hearts, Lord.

Father, we invite you to open our ears, our minds, and our hearts.

Help us not just to listen, but to truly hear your call today.

May everything we say point to Jesus, the great healer, the 1 that, who forgives, restores, and calls us out of darkness into light.

This morning I would like to start with a story that's very close to my heart.

During World War II, an American sailor named George Tweed became famous for his incredible survival story.

When a Japanese invaded Guam on December 8th, 1941, just hours after Port Harbor, Tweed escaped, captured, and fled into the jungle so that he won't be tortured or even worse, to be killed.

Many Chamorros which are the native of Guam took the risk to hide George into their homes, risking their lives of getting also tortured by the Japanese and even getting executed.

1 day, someone came to a man named Antonio Artero and asked him, Would you be willing to hide George Tweed in your home?

Now at first, Antonio said, no way, I got kids.

There's no way I'm going to risk my family for this man.

But that person was trying to be so persuasive that he brought George Tweed to Antonio.

And when Antonio saw him, he saw a long beard and long hair and he couldn't help to think he looked exactly like Jesus.

And so he said, come on in, come into my home, I'll take care of you." And so this is a mountain.

Antonio Arturo owned a huge part of Guam, huge property, and in his property there was a mountain and he hid him in a cave there.

And it was deep in the jungle and he hid him for 2 long years.

Every day Antonio and his kids would climb up the cliff bring him food, bring him water, and bring him some news about what's happening with the Japanese.

Even the family themselves had to run and hide in the cave.

Until 1 day, George saw a Navy ship in the ocean and he signaled them with Morse code.

And the Navy ship sent back a message telling him, strip off all your clothes, take off everything, and come out to the sea and come to us.

And he did the exact thing, and he came out, and he was saved.

Later on, George III says he owes his life to the Artero family and he even promised him that he'll he'll give back somehow and so 1 day he brought back a Chevrolet truck the first Chevrolet on the island of Guam, and he gifted it to Antonio Artero.

Friends, This story is so close to my heart because Antonio Artero is my wife's great-grandfather.

And it's an honor to be part of that family, a man that's willing to risk his life for another man.

I believe he represented the love of Christ.

Christ risked everything for each 1 of us.

And Antonio was willing to share that love.

And so the question today for you guys is, are we willing to do what Antonio did for his neighbor?

Are we willing to risk comfort, convenience, even our own safety to save a life?

Those are the questions we have to ask ourselves today.

At the Guam SDA Clinic, we're very passionate about saving lives.

You know, in Guam, a lot of people say, it's a US territory, Do they really need help?

We are short in medical professional providers.

In my field, I'm a psychiatric nurse practitioner And the wait to see a psychiatrist in Guam right now is at least 6 months to most 8 months.

Imagine someone that's struggling with depression or anxiety has suicidal thoughts, I have to wait that long to see someone.

I am the 1 of the 2 psychiatrists on the whole entire island of Guam and so you can imagine the struggle there.

Our infant mortality rate is twice the US average.

Death rates from hypertension, stroke, heart disease, diabetes are far above US average and it's a tiny little island.

We are seriously in need of help and so this is why Us, the Guam SDA Clinic providers have answered God's call to serve in Guam.

We have chosen to serve there and to save lives.

But we don't just go there to save them from their health problems.

You see, there's a deeper sickness that they have that they need healing from, and that's the sickness of the soul.

You see, Friends, while medicine can do much, but only Jesus can heal that.

And this is why we're so passionate about bringing gospel into our medical work.

You know, as the Seventh-day Adventist missionaries, We are passionate about teaching about the 3 angel messages.

And these messages are very urgent, isn't it?

Especially at a time that we're living right now, you see these messages are very important.

And they often tell us we need to send us out to warn about the false worship against don't be under Satan's dominion, don't get the market at beast, and even get to the Revelation 18 saying, hey, call them out of Babylon.

But too often I think we scare people away with these messages.

Too often we bring this warning of, hey, you better keep the Sabbath, or you better keep the health message, you better live like this, and we call too early for them to come out of Babylon.

And this is why I want to emphasize the very important message out of the 3, the first angel message.

If you guys wanna turn with me there, Revelations 14, 6 and 7, that's where we start with the first angel message.

So Revelation 14, 6 and 7, it says, "'Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having an everlasting gospel, to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come.

Worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.

You see this message it begins with everlasting gospel.

We often use 3 angel message as we gotta just warn the people, we gotta warn them, but we gotta remember what is the angel carrying?

So this message it doesn't actually start with to call to come out, but to come in.

Come in to experience the good news of Jesus.

This is what I believe is the important thing to carry out with the 3 angel message.

And so this is why at the Guam SCA Clinic, we believe that the first angel message is most deeply connected to the medical missionary work because true healing always starts with the gospel.

In 2022, I graduated from psychiatric nurse practitioner program and got married and we went straight to Guam.

I was actually freaking out if I was to be honest with you.

How am I going to treat all these conditions?

And I started praying to God, God tell me what to do.

I started to say, you know what, I'm going to teach New Start.

I'm going to have a plant-based diet plan, going to have an exercise plan.

And I just started to make some educational guides.

And when this whole thing was happening, I was working so hard, God impressed me and told me, I just want you to do 2 things, Shion.

So I'm going to share with you 1 of my first patients I saw at the Guam SDA Clinic.

A woman came in with left side weakness and slurred speech.

I could barely understand what she was saying.

To walk, she needed her daughter to actually carry her to my office.

Many doctors saw her, specialists, could not figure out, ruled out many conditions.

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The First Angel’s Message: Come in Before the Call to Come Out

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