Allen Morehouse: Thank you, Sarim.
Allen Morehouse: And Gina, wherever she is, thank you so much.
Allen Morehouse: I remember hearing her play all the time.
Allen Morehouse: And so we miss her coming up front and playing.
Allen Morehouse: So thank you, Gina.
Allen Morehouse: That was beautiful.
Allen Morehouse: Anyway, I get the privilege to introduce Elder V uh Van Bledsoe.
Allen Morehouse: And um for one thing
Allen Morehouse: He's a friend that I got I met through Ed Keys many, many years ago, even before we moved here, uh we met him.
Allen Morehouse: And um him and Carolina we've we've enjoyed their friendship.
Allen Morehouse: Um but here's a little bio from uh
Allen Morehouse: the conference offers.
Allen Morehouse: Van Bledso is the ministerial director, evangelism, coordinator, and ASI representative for the Arizona Conference.
Allen Morehouse: Uh Pastor Bledsoe was a student at Thunderbird Adventist Academy for all four years.
Allen Morehouse: He also graduated from Southern Adventist University where he did his ministerial
Allen Morehouse: studies and after Southern he attended Andrews University seminar and received a Master of Counseling degree from the University um later received a Master of Counseling degree from the University of Phoenix.
Allen Morehouse: Pastor Bledsoe started his ministry in the Gulf States Conference, where he pastored three district church district in Mississippi for four years.
Allen Morehouse: He moved to Arizona in 1989 and was associate pastor at Glendale Church for eight years.
Allen Morehouse: He then pastored Tempe Church for nine years, and then pastored the Apache Junction Church.
Allen Morehouse: for sixteen years.
Allen Morehouse: He became the ministerial director in July of 2022.
Allen Morehouse: Van has been married to Carolina since 1998.
Allen Morehouse: His marriage to Carolina required
Allen Morehouse: Um several trips to Peru to meet her and her son Marino before marrying her and bringing her and Merino to Arizona in September 1998.
Allen Morehouse: He enjoys playing golf.
Allen Morehouse: When he gets a chance, he also enjoys supporting the local Arizona teams like the Suns, the Diamondback, and of course the Cardinals.
Allen Morehouse: But he's a lifelong fan.
Allen Morehouse: of the Dallas Cowboys.
Allen Morehouse: Although I want to remind him that Cardinals only had three victories.
Allen Morehouse: And one of them was against Dallas.
Allen Morehouse: His deepest desire is to be like the Apostle Paul and not knowing but Christ and him crucified and lift up Jesus and everything that he does.
Allen Morehouse: We appreciate Elder Bledsoe and of course Carolina being here.
Allen Morehouse: Elder Bledsoe was involved very much in our search for a pastor.
Allen Morehouse: And I was in talks with him all the time, and thank you in bringing us Pastor Dale.
Allen Morehouse: And we miss Pastor Dale and Cheryl today as they are gone.
Allen Morehouse: So thank you.
Allen Morehouse: God bless you.
Pastor Bledsoe: Again, I am thankful for the opportunity to be here.
Pastor Bledsoe: I bring you greetings on behalf of our Arizona Conference Church family.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, it it's kind of mixed, I'll be very honest.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's nice to get to go to a lot of different churches, but it's also nice to be able to go to the same church on a regular basis.
Pastor Bledsoe: I'm still a member of the Apache Junction Church and I think I get there about twice a year.
Pastor Bledsoe: But nonetheless, you know, I'm pretty close to to my old church, but nonetheless not there.
Pastor Bledsoe: But I will mention kind of in beginning, we're thankful for the conference.
Pastor Bledsoe: Um I am ministerial.
Pastor Bledsoe: I'm also the evangelism director.
Pastor Bledsoe: And I know some of you if you've been at camp meeting or whatever, you've seen this slide that Elder Leach puts up on a frequent basis.
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, actually you don't see it.
Pastor Bledsoe: I see it.
Pastor Bledsoe: I guess you don't, if we can get that up there.
Pastor Bledsoe: Um
Pastor Bledsoe: Thank you.
Pastor Bledsoe: Appreciate it.
Pastor Bledsoe: Um this is just a simple concept.
Pastor Bledsoe: If everybody was to give one percent of their income,
Pastor Bledsoe: the difference it would make for our Arizona Conference family.
Pastor Bledsoe: And I mentioned it specifically in the context of evangelism.
Pastor Bledsoe: As evangelism director, we had a
Pastor Bledsoe: Almost a half million dollars less for evangelism for 2026 than what we had for 2025.
Pastor Bledsoe: If, you know, we followed this and everybody gave one percent.
Pastor Bledsoe: We would have an extra $1.
Pastor Bledsoe: 8 million for the different Arizona Advance, $821,000 for evangelism
Pastor Bledsoe: $328,000 for elementary education, $246,000 for Thunderbird Academy, and also for Camp Yavapines
Pastor Bledsoe: So I would encourage you to prayerfully think about that if there is something you can do in that regard.
Pastor Bledsoe: If you can't do one percent, you know, anything you can do helps.
Pastor Bledsoe: But we do appreciate and you know we are ultimately dependent on what
Pastor Bledsoe: our Arizona Conference family gives us, you know.
Pastor Bledsoe: So we appreciate that.
Pastor Bledsoe: Anyway, moving forward here, as we begin our service this morning or the spoken word, I'd invite you to just bow your heads as we pray.
Pastor Bledsoe: Our most loving, gracious Father, we are thankful for your love, for your grace, for the hope we have in and because of Jesus.
Pastor Bledsoe: And as we open your word, as we take time to talk about
Pastor Bledsoe: Your love, your grace, and about Jesus, that you would open our hearts, you would open our minds, you would open our understanding.
Pastor Bledsoe: And we thank you in Jesus' name.
Pastor Bledsoe: Amen.
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, for last Sabbath, I ask your pastor, Pastor Dale, to send out and give out a little question.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now I'm guessing if this is how many are normally here, there's a lot of you that didn't answer that question, but that's okay.
Pastor Bledsoe: I did figure, though, if we passed it out, I'd get more answers than if I asked you to raise your hand.
Pastor Bledsoe: So, anyway, is there anything more important to God than our salvation?
Pastor Bledsoe: There were twenty people that said yes.
Pastor Bledsoe: There were three that said no, and there were two, I guess, that circled both answers.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, some people like to, you know, be the Switzerland, you know, not take sides and
Pastor Bledsoe: And that's okay.
Pastor Bledsoe: And I suppose depending on how you want to think of it, you could go with both.
Pastor Bledsoe: But I guess the question would be then if
Pastor Bledsoe: There is nothing more important to God than if there is something more important to God than our salvation, what would that be?
Pastor Bledsoe: What would you say is more important to God than our salvation?
Pastor Bledsoe: Any thoughts?
Pastor Bledsoe: We'll just, you know.
Pastor Bledsoe: I thought I heard nothing out there
Pastor Bledsoe: Now there's 20 of you that said, yes, I don't know who you are, and I'm not here to call you out, but some of you did, you know, what was the reason?
Pastor Bledsoe: Why would you what would you say is more important to God than our salvation?
Pastor Bledsoe: What?
Pastor Bledsoe: Salvation of others?
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, that's kind of tied together.
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, let me ask a little different question.
Pastor Bledsoe: If there is nothing more important to God than our salvation, why won't everybody be saved?
Pastor Bledsoe: God certainly has the power, doesn't he, to make sure everybody is saved.
Pastor Bledsoe: Why won't everybody be saved
Pastor Bledsoe: Free will, choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: God has given us free will and choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: So I would say that very simply that gives an indication that there is something more important.
Pastor Bledsoe: As much as God wants you and I to be saved,
Pastor Bledsoe: The price that he was willing to pay for our salvation came with a caveat.
Pastor Bledsoe: He knew what it would cost before he created any of us.
Pastor Bledsoe: He had a plan.
Pastor Bledsoe: I like the way I heard one pastor describe it as you know he formed as God formed Adam in the dust of the ground, and just before he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, the father turned to the son and said, Are you sure about this?
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, I don't know that that conver But God knew what it would cost to give us free will, and yet God said it is that important
Pastor Bledsoe: It is important for us to remember that when we want to try to control and even get people to do good things and the right thing, God has given us choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do you like having choices?
Pastor Bledsoe: I mean, I like having them.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now I admit I don't always get some of them I'd like to have.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, I remember talking with my son.
Pastor Bledsoe: Son, you always have a choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: You don't always have the choices you would like, but you always have a choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, sometimes it's difficult.
Pastor Bledsoe: They're both good.
Pastor Bledsoe: Sometimes it's an easy choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, well, that's good.
Pastor Bledsoe: No, I don't want that.
Pastor Bledsoe: Sometimes it's hard.
Pastor Bledsoe: No.
Pastor Bledsoe: Sometimes neither one of them are something we like.
Pastor Bledsoe: Can you have love without choice?
Pastor Bledsoe: No.
Pastor Bledsoe: You cannot really have love without choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: You can have manipulation, you could have kind of a robotic child that, you know, did what it was told, what it was programmed to do.
Pastor Bledsoe: But there's no real love there if there's not choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: In essence, if I cannot reject your love, I cannot accept your love.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, Alan mentioned, you know, I went to Peru.
Pastor Bledsoe: Kind of a risk there, a long ways to go to see a young lady.
Pastor Bledsoe: And she could have said, no, I'm not interested
Pastor Bledsoe: She had a choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: We all have a choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do we demonstrate our love by the choices we make?
Pastor Bledsoe: I would suggest we do.
Pastor Bledsoe: I would suggest the Bible says that we do that.
Pastor Bledsoe: Romans chapter 5, starting with verse 5 through verse 10.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Pastor Bledsoe: When we were still without strength, in due time God died for the ungodly.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now the simple truth is, on planet Earth there was nobody else for God to die for but the ungodly.
Pastor Bledsoe: That's all of us.
Pastor Bledsoe: For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
Pastor Bledsoe: But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that what?
Pastor Bledsoe: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Pastor Bledsoe: Much more, then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him
Pastor Bledsoe: For if when we were what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.
Pastor Bledsoe: Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, the life I need is the life of Jesus.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is the only life that is acceptable to God
Pastor Bledsoe: The beauty is that it is what Jesus has given us.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is the perfect life.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is the one person who lived a perfect life
Pastor Bledsoe: He who knew no sin became sin for us, that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Pastor Bledsoe: Simple verse that we probably all know.
Pastor Bledsoe: If there's probably one verse memorized by more people than anybody else, this is probably it.
Pastor Bledsoe: Verse 16, but I did throw in another one.
Pastor Bledsoe: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Everlasting life.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now, you know, we usually stop there, so I wanted to read one more verse.
Pastor Bledsoe: For God did not send his son into the world to what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Condemn the world.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now, folks, I don't want to get too far off track, but we're in the business when you're in the business of condemnation, I would suggest you're not in God's business.
Pastor Bledsoe: There are some things that have to be spoken to and addressed.
Pastor Bledsoe: For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Pastor Bledsoe: God is not interested in condemning
Pastor Bledsoe: God is interested in saving.
Pastor Bledsoe: He is interested in changing, in healing, and restoring.
Pastor Bledsoe: We are saved by his life.
Pastor Bledsoe: We are saved by his death.
Pastor Bledsoe: First John chapter four, verses seven and eight.
Pastor Bledsoe: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one who loves is born of God and knows God.
Pastor Bledsoe: He who does not love does not know God, for God is loved.
Pastor Bledsoe: Which would mean if God is love, can you have love without choice?
Pastor Bledsoe: We mentioned this.
Pastor Bledsoe: Could God have made a world where everyone would have been saved?
Pastor Bledsoe: How many of you would say yes, and how many of you would say no?
Pastor Bledsoe: How many of you say yes?
Pastor Bledsoe: How many of you say no?
Pastor Bledsoe: I'm going to say no, folks.
Pastor Bledsoe: If God is love and you cannot have love without choice, then even though, yes, theoretically God had the power to do anything,
Pastor Bledsoe: But if his character is love, then his character will not let him do something like that, will it?
Pastor Bledsoe: Now yes, I know like I say, you could kind of argue both.
Pastor Bledsoe: Yes, he has the power, he is all powerful.
Pastor Bledsoe: But he only uses that power in the concepts of love, of choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: He is the one person who can be trusted with absolute power.
Pastor Bledsoe: Can't trust you and me
Pastor Bledsoe: Can't trust politicians, but you can trust God with all absolute power
Pastor Bledsoe: I want to show you a simple picture that kind of makes my point for me.
Pastor Bledsoe: How many of you know somebody that when they proposed to their spouse they had a ring in one hand and a gun in the other hand?
Pastor Bledsoe: It just kind of doesn't fit the picture, does it?
Pastor Bledsoe: And yet let's ask, would it be effective if you proposed, are you pretty sure you're going to get yes for an answer?
Pastor Bledsoe: Will it be an answer because she's really in love with you and she wants to spend the rest of her life with you?
Pastor Bledsoe: I suppose it's possible that she really does love you, but she might start questioning your love for her if that's your method of proposal.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, maybe there's a red flag here that I hadn't noticed before.
Pastor Bledsoe: Maybe there's a problem in our relationship.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is a challenge.
Pastor Bledsoe: There are many who picture God kind of like this, though, don't they?
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, he holds out, I love you, I want to save you, but if you don't, I'm gonna torment you forever and ever and ever
Pastor Bledsoe: If you don't love me back, well you're dead.
Pastor Bledsoe: Well no, you're not really dead.
Pastor Bledsoe: I'm going to torture you.
Pastor Bledsoe: That's a picture that some have created of God.
Pastor Bledsoe: But God does not force anyone to accept his salvation, his gift
Pastor Bledsoe: He does tell us the wages of sin is death, but he also tells us the gift of God is eternal life.
Pastor Bledsoe: He wants us to accept that gift.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, I noticed that, you know, I mentioned Alan, you still got your Christmas tree up
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, we talk about it.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Pastor Bledsoe: And I've made the point many times in my church.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, it's interesting how many of you on your birthday think about buying me a gift?
Pastor Bledsoe: Anybody here?
Pastor Bledsoe: I do have a neighbor that started doing it after I use this illustration and actually on his birthday usually buys me a gift.
Pastor Bledsoe: But you know the irony is that Jesus to celebrate his birthday, all he wants is us to accept the gifts he has given us.
Pastor Bledsoe: The gift of eternal life, the gift of forgiveness, the gift of transformation, of change.
Pastor Bledsoe: God does not force anyone to accept
Pastor Bledsoe: His salvation.
Pastor Bledsoe: We see the first example in heaven.
Pastor Bledsoe: Lucifer decides he's not going to do it God's way anymore.
Pastor Bledsoe: He takes a third of the angels with him
Pastor Bledsoe: He comes to planet Earth, and there in the Garden of Eden, there is that tree.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now it didn't have to be a tree, it could have been something different.
Pastor Bledsoe: But it was a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Pastor Bledsoe: Adam and Eve chose to eat the forbidden fruit, and everything has changed.
Pastor Bledsoe: They were free to choose whether they would believe God or whether they would believe Satan
Pastor Bledsoe: We are free to choose who we will worship.
Pastor Bledsoe: The last battle on earth is about worship.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's the heart of our church, of the beginning of our church.
Pastor Bledsoe: Revelation chapter 14, starting with verse 6.
Pastor Bledsoe: Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now, my friends, I'm going to pause for a moment here before we move on and remind you, if you do not have the everlasting gospel, you do not have anything to preach.
Pastor Bledsoe: And if I can be so blunt, just be quiet.
Pastor Bledsoe: Folks, that's where it starts.
Pastor Bledsoe: Everything is in the context of the everlasting gospel.
Pastor Bledsoe: There are important things we need to understand here, but if you don't understand the gospel, you will never understand the rest of it.
Pastor Bledsoe: You will never comprehend it.
Pastor Bledsoe: You will never benefit from it.
Pastor Bledsoe: Saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come, and what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.
Pastor Bledsoe: What is the alternative to worshiping God?
Pastor Bledsoe: Another angel follows, saying, Babylon has fallen, has fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fortification.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do you notice a word because she did what?
Pastor Bledsoe: She made all people.
Pastor Bledsoe: She tried to compel them, force them, manipulate them, whatever it might be.
Pastor Bledsoe: To follow her way, not God's way.
Pastor Bledsoe: A third angel followed him, saying with a loud voice: If anyone worships the beast in his image,
Pastor Bledsoe: And my friends, I'm going to pause here for a moment.
Pastor Bledsoe: There are really only two options in life.
Pastor Bledsoe: You might want more than that, and the devil will tell you you've got a lot of them.
Pastor Bledsoe: But either you're worshiping God or you're worshiping.
Pastor Bledsoe: The beast and his image, you're worshiping Satan.
Pastor Bledsoe: There are no other choices that I find biblically.
Pastor Bledsoe: That's it.
Pastor Bledsoe: If anyone worships a beast in his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand
Pastor Bledsoe: He himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation.
Pastor Bledsoe: He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Pastor Bledsoe: And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast in his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, there is only one place to find rest, and that is in Jesus.
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus invites us: Come unto me, all that are labored and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now the devil's a liar.
Pastor Bledsoe: He'll promise you all sorts of things.
Pastor Bledsoe: And for a little bit it may seem like it works.
Pastor Bledsoe: But ultimately it does not.
Pastor Bledsoe: Here is the patience of the saints.
Pastor Bledsoe: Here are those who what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Pastor Bledsoe: Folks, may I make a simple suggestion?
Pastor Bledsoe: You cannot keep the commandments without the faith of Jesus, and you cannot have the faith of Jesus and ignore the commandments.
Pastor Bledsoe: The two go together.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's kind of like Satan's.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's kind of like simple illustration of breathing.
Pastor Bledsoe: Folks, which is more important, inhaling or exhaling?
Pastor Bledsoe: They have separate functions.
Pastor Bledsoe: They have separate purposes.
Pastor Bledsoe: They do different things, but you cannot separate them
Pastor Bledsoe: They go together.
Pastor Bledsoe: The moment you stop either one of them, what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, you don't die immediately, but if somebody doesn't intervene
Pastor Bledsoe: It's going to end.
Pastor Bledsoe: If it doesn't start up again, my friends, you cannot separate.
Pastor Bledsoe: Yes, they are separate functions, separate purposes
Pastor Bledsoe: The only way to keep the commandments of God is to have the faith of Jesus.
Pastor Bledsoe: But when I have that faith, I want to keep the commandments because I'm in love with Jesus.
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus puts it very simply.
Pastor Bledsoe: If you love me, what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Keep my commandment.
Pastor Bledsoe: You can't keep the commandments if you don't love God.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's impossible.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now you may legalistically convince yourself Paul said he was legalistic righteousness.
Pastor Bledsoe: I was perfect.
Pastor Bledsoe: And then I met Jesus face to face, and all of a sudden my legalistic righteousness became garbage when I saw what righteousness really is.
Pastor Bledsoe: You have a brochure.
Pastor Bledsoe: Alan talked about it in the offering appeal, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time, but this is, quote, a religious liberty sermon and the principles.
Pastor Bledsoe: Of freedom of choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: The principles of the three angels' messages are part of the purpose of Liberty Magazine, why we do it.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's not just so we have another program.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's about representing Christ and ultimately the concept of religious liberty, religious freedom.
Pastor Bledsoe: And that means respecting all people's freedom, all people's choices, choices I agree with and choices I don't agree with.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is recognizing that God has given all free will.
Pastor Bledsoe: A God of love has given us freedom to make a choice who we will worship, whether we will worship God or whether we will worship the beast.
Pastor Bledsoe: To respect and honor the freedom and conscience of all people.
Pastor Bledsoe: Just out of curiosity, have you heard of Gerald Groff?
Pastor Bledsoe: Anybody heard of him?
Pastor Bledsoe: Figured there'd be a few that might have heard of him.
Pastor Bledsoe: You can get more information and it's our site for the Pacific Union, churchstate.
Pastor Bledsoe: org.
Pastor Bledsoe: You can go there.
Pastor Bledsoe: But Gerald Goff lost his job because he refused to work on Sunday.
Pastor Bledsoe: That was his Sabbath.
Pastor Bledsoe: We supported him in that decision.
Pastor Bledsoe: You say, wait a minute, but we don't believe in worshiping on Sunday.
Pastor Bledsoe: We believe in keeping the Sabbath.
Pastor Bledsoe: Yes, we do.
Pastor Bledsoe: The seventh day.
Pastor Bledsoe: But we also believe God has given free will, and we need to respect everybody's right.
Pastor Bledsoe: You see, if you don't respect everybody, then you don't really respect anybody, do you?
Pastor Bledsoe: I can't ask for freedom if I'm not willing to give freedom.
Pastor Bledsoe: That is the principle of God's government.
Pastor Bledsoe: To make it possible for all to make a choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do we really believe in religious liberty for all?
Pastor Bledsoe: Can liberty and the Bible go together
Pastor Bledsoe: Now, you know, I'll admit I had a little fun.
Pastor Bledsoe: That looks like, you know, a picture of the Statue of Liberty and Lady Liberty holding a Bible.
Pastor Bledsoe: I don't know how well you can see it.
Pastor Bledsoe: I tried to get it a little bigger, but you can kind of see the cross on the bottom.
Pastor Bledsoe: Hard to see, but
Pastor Bledsoe: Holy Bible.
Pastor Bledsoe: Kinda looks like it's real, doesn't it?
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, it's amazing what you can do with artificial intelligence.
Pastor Bledsoe: In this case, Gemini.
Pastor Bledsoe: I went to Gemini and I said, can you give me a picture of the Statue of Liberty and her holding a Bible
Pastor Bledsoe: Now the first time it did it, it gave me a real large Bible right up there by the flame for the Statue of Liberty.
Pastor Bledsoe: And it was kind of interesting, but it wasn't really what I was looking for.
Pastor Bledsoe: And finally when I told it, can you put a Bible in her left hand?
Pastor Bledsoe: It put it there.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now I mention that partially, just remember, you know, everything you see is not real.
Pastor Bledsoe: It may look very genuine, but you know, we're in a society today, man, you can make all sorts of things look real.
Pastor Bledsoe: I wish I had some time to talk about some of, but we don't have time to get into that.
Pastor Bledsoe: But the Bible and liberty, can they go together?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are they compatible with each other?
Pastor Bledsoe: The Bible and the law.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do they go together?
Pastor Bledsoe: Should our laws be based on the Bible
Pastor Bledsoe: How many of you would say yes and how many of you would say no?
Pastor Bledsoe: And how many of you will say nothing?
Pastor Bledsoe: The overwhelming majority.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, and again, it kind of depends, doesn't it?
Pastor Bledsoe: It depends on what laws you want to base on there.
Pastor Bledsoe: And there's a danger with all of us being a little bit selective, isn't there?
Pastor Bledsoe: Do we ever have a tendency to do that?
Pastor Bledsoe: Do we really follow the Bible?
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, do we follow all of it?
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, it was interesting.
Pastor Bledsoe: A friend of mine that I went to academy and college with, we roomed a couple of years together in college.
Pastor Bledsoe: He's a doctor.
Pastor Bledsoe: His daughter is now doing her last semester of law school, but we were talking and he mentioned that she went to this conference in Washington, D.
Pastor Bledsoe: C.
Pastor Bledsoe: , about basically religious liberty.
Pastor Bledsoe: It was the Christian Legal Society.
Pastor Bledsoe: And he told me kind of about her experience.
Pastor Bledsoe: So I called him and I said, you know, would she mind just writing a short paragraph about that experience?
Pastor Bledsoe: So this is what Jamie had to say.
Pastor Bledsoe: based off of the Bible.
Pastor Bledsoe: Although this sounds like a benign principle that most Christians should support as part of our moral duty, this is in fact exactly what prophecy warns us against.
Pastor Bledsoe: While participating in a Christian legal society conference in Washington, D.
Pastor Bledsoe: C.
Pastor Bledsoe: , I argued with another student about this very concept
Pastor Bledsoe: His argument was that government needed to be based on black and white moral principles and that the Bible should provide those principles.
Pastor Bledsoe: My argument as an Adventist was that black and white interpretation interpretations.
Pastor Bledsoe: of someone would put that someone would put on the Bible and convert into legislation would remove religious liberties of those who do not agree with the interpretation.
Pastor Bledsoe: As this mentality grows, we approach the day when we will be fighting other Christians to allow us our religious liberty.
Pastor Bledsoe: Kinda sounds a little bit like Revelation 13, doesn't it?
Pastor Bledsoe: If you haven't read it, I'd invite you to go there.
Pastor Bledsoe: If you want some more information about what some of that means, I would suggest you can talk to your pastor, some of the elders.
Pastor Bledsoe: I'm sure there's people here who would be happy to study that with you.
Pastor Bledsoe: We don't have time.
Pastor Bledsoe: to get into all that this morning.
Pastor Bledsoe: But do we follow the Bible?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are we selective in what we choose to follow and what we choose not to follow
Pastor Bledsoe: If we're honest, we'd probably all admit that it's true.
Pastor Bledsoe: That we are selective.
Pastor Bledsoe: Matthew, or Jesus actually, in Matthew's gospel, the story is recorded.
Pastor Bledsoe: Of a lawyer that comes to ask Jesus a question.
Pastor Bledsoe: Then one of them, a lawyer, ask him a question, testing him and say
Pastor Bledsoe: Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Pastor Bledsoe: This is the first and great commandment.
Pastor Bledsoe: And the second is like it.
Pastor Bledsoe: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Pastor Bledsoe: On these two commandments hang what?
Pastor Bledsoe: All the law and the prophets.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now, in this case, it would have been the Old Testament, not the New Testament, but the whole Old Testament, the whole Bible of that time
Pastor Bledsoe: Time hung on these two concepts, these two principles.
Pastor Bledsoe: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.
Pastor Bledsoe: I don't want to get too far off track here.
Pastor Bledsoe: But you know, wouldn't it be nice if we saw that in our world today
Pastor Bledsoe: Anyway, I'm going to move on for a minute and we'll come back there.
Pastor Bledsoe: Another one.
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus speaking in Matthew 7:12, New American Standard Bible.
Pastor Bledsoe: In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you.
Pastor Bledsoe: For this is what?
Pastor Bledsoe: The law and the prophets.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Pastor Bledsoe: Simple principle.
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus says
Pastor Bledsoe: Everything summed up in that.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do we follow this law, this command from Jesus?
Pastor Bledsoe: Do we treat people the way we want to be treated?
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, I I want to be careful here, because I don't know anybody individually in that context in that well, but I know the general condition of society.
Pastor Bledsoe: Folks, if we treat people the way we want to be treated, most of us don't want anybody to be nice to us.
Pastor Bledsoe: There are some exceptions, thankfully, praise the Lord.
Pastor Bledsoe: There are people that are truly kind-hearted and loving
Pastor Bledsoe: People that truly demonstrate the character of Christ and the way they treat other people.
Pastor Bledsoe: But most people, especially Christians, sadly don't.
Pastor Bledsoe: Again, I can't help but mention an incident that probably all of us have heard about that happened in Minneapolis.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now, I'm not here to get into all the legal ramifications and everything else, but I can't help but ask.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do you think
Pastor Bledsoe: That those agents treated this lady the way they would want to be treated.
Pastor Bledsoe: Well now Pastor, you don't this is long this is
Pastor Bledsoe: If we're Christians, if we're going to live on Christian principles, we need to live on Christian principles.
Pastor Bledsoe: And that applies to both sides, all of it
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, I can have my opinion, you can have yours on whether or not it was justifiable or wasn't.
Pastor Bledsoe: But my real frustration when I look and I hear the stories is the lack of compassion, concern.
Pastor Bledsoe: On those that want to justify and rationalize, well, they were just doing what they were trained to do.
Pastor Bledsoe: Maybe they need more training.
Pastor Bledsoe: Maybe they need different training.
Pastor Bledsoe: But even if all that was a hundred percent true, shouldn't there be some compassion
Pastor Bledsoe: Some sympathy.
Pastor Bledsoe: Yes, they did what they had to do, but it was a tragic accident.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is sad.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is none of that.
Pastor Bledsoe: I didn't hear any.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now maybe you did.
Pastor Bledsoe: I didn't hear any of that
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, it's interesting and it depends on which side of the fence you're on, so to speak, which, you know, the Republicans or the Democrat, who you're listening to
Pastor Bledsoe: But you know when something happens to the other side, there's not much sympathy from my side.
Pastor Bledsoe: Have you noticed that?
Pastor Bledsoe: Am I, you know, coming up with something that's not really there?
Pastor Bledsoe: We tend to have a lot of compassion for something happens to somebody we agree with, but not so much for those who don't.
Pastor Bledsoe: You remember a picture, and we read that first angel's message, and it talks about the hour of his what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Judgment
Pastor Bledsoe: And then there's Matthew 25.
Pastor Bledsoe: You remember that?
Pastor Bledsoe: Actually starts in 24.
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, 24 talks about the signs, and then Jesus gives four stories, four parables about how to be ready.
Pastor Bledsoe: And there is a parable of to be found doing.
Pastor Bledsoe: There is a parable of the wise and foolish virgins.
Pastor Bledsoe: There is a parable of the talents.
Pastor Bledsoe: And do you remember what the last parable is?
Pastor Bledsoe: To judgment picture.
Pastor Bledsoe: In the judgment, in the hour of judgment, when God judges the sheep and the goats and he separates them, what is the principle that separates those who are saved from those who are lost?
Pastor Bledsoe: Inasmuch as you have what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Done it to somebody else, you did it to me
Pastor Bledsoe: And the way you treat other people is the way you treat Jesus.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, if we're honest, we all need to do some soul searching here.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do I really treat people the way I want to be treated?
Pastor Bledsoe: Do I treat people the way I would want to treat Jesus?
Pastor Bledsoe: What have you done to one of the least of these?
Pastor Bledsoe: Can biblical laws work?
Pastor Bledsoe: Can enforcing right biblical laws fix our country?
Pastor Bledsoe: There would be a lot of people who would say yes, that's what we need.
Pastor Bledsoe: Would you say yes or would you say no?
Pastor Bledsoe: I would suggest, my friends, there's a key word there, enforcing.
Pastor Bledsoe: Because you see, while God is very clear what he expects and what the result will be if we choose not to do that, God does not enforce.
Pastor Bledsoe: Force us to do what he wants us to do.
Pastor Bledsoe: And yet there are a lot of people, sadly, a lot of Christian people, and maybe some Seventh-day Adventist Christians who think that's what we need to do.
Pastor Bledsoe: Daniel chapter 3.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do you remember the story?
Pastor Bledsoe: The king had a dream.
Pastor Bledsoe: That's in Daniel 2
Pastor Bledsoe: And he tried to change God's revelation.
Pastor Bledsoe: God told him what the future was going to be like.
Pastor Bledsoe: He mentioned the kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: You're the head of gold, Nebuchadnezzar.
Pastor Bledsoe: Then there's going to be another kingdom, silver, Medo Persia, Bronze, Greece, Rome.
Pastor Bledsoe: The legs will be part of iron, part of clay, the toes, it will be a divided kingdom, and then ultimately God is going to set up his kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, Nebuchadnezzar thinks he has a better idea.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do we ever think we have a better idea than God?
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, well, God said this, but I think this would be better
Pastor Bledsoe: And so he sets up his own image.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's all gold.
Pastor Bledsoe: And he gives, he calls all of the people, you know, that are anybody to come.
Pastor Bledsoe: And when the music plays, you're all to bow down and you're to worship my image.
Pastor Bledsoe: Sound a little bit like revelation?
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, worship my image.
Pastor Bledsoe: But you know, there's three people in the audience who have the audacity to disobey Nebuchadnezzar.
Pastor Bledsoe: And they are told very simply, if you don't obey, the penalty will be death.
Pastor Bledsoe: Sounds kind of like Revelation 13, doesn't it?
Pastor Bledsoe: You'll die in a fiery furnace.
Pastor Bledsoe: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo will not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's image
Pastor Bledsoe: And of course, there's always people that are happy to report.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, when it's somebody else not doing what they're supposed to be doing
Pastor Bledsoe: And they are brought before the king.
Pastor Bledsoe: And I wish we had time to, you know, spend more on Daniel chapter 3, but I love their statement of faith to Nebuchadnezzar.
Pastor Bledsoe: And I probably won't get it word for word.
Pastor Bledsoe: I didn't put it up there.
Pastor Bledsoe: But O King, we don't need time to think about this, to question it.
Pastor Bledsoe: Our God will deliver us.
Pastor Bledsoe: But even if He does not deliver us.
Pastor Bledsoe: We will not worship your image because ultimately God is going to deliver us.
Pastor Bledsoe: It may be here, it may be doing something spectacular like he does, or it may be at the resurrection.
Pastor Bledsoe: But we will trust in God, and He will take care of this problem for us.
Pastor Bledsoe: We are first and foremost accountable to God.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now we do have a civic responsibility.
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus said, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, unto God what is God's.
Pastor Bledsoe: But my first priority is God.
Pastor Bledsoe: If
Pastor Bledsoe: Caesar asks me to do something that doesn't violate God's law, I need to be willing to do it.
Pastor Bledsoe: I may not like it, may not agree with it.
Pastor Bledsoe: But nonetheless, they do.
Pastor Bledsoe: They stand firm.
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, you know the story.
Pastor Bledsoe: Nebuchadnezzar has the furnace heated seven times hotter.
Pastor Bledsoe: The men throwing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo, the heat kills them.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's so hot.
Pastor Bledsoe: And you know, I can just kind of picture Nebuchadnezzar, okay, that's a lesson learned.
Pastor Bledsoe: That'll teach him.
Pastor Bledsoe: And then he bounces up out of his seat.
Pastor Bledsoe: Wait a minute.
Pastor Bledsoe: Didn't we throw three people in the furnace?
Pastor Bledsoe: Why do I see four?
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, it's interesting.
Pastor Bledsoe: Nebuchadnezzar, and I don't know.
Pastor Bledsoe: I wonder if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo saw the fourth person.
Pastor Bledsoe: No, we're not told they may have, they may not have.
Pastor Bledsoe: Nebuchadnezzar saw the fourth person.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, whether you see Jesus when you're in the furnace or whether you don't, he's there.
Pastor Bledsoe: Whether you know it or whether you don't, he's with you.
Pastor Bledsoe: He has promised, I will never leave you.
Pastor Bledsoe: I will never forsake you
Pastor Bledsoe: You can't count on often maybe the person even sitting next to you, but you can count on Jesus
Pastor Bledsoe: Well anyway, part of bringing it up.
Pastor Bledsoe: Going to the end of the chapter, Nebuchadnezzar makes another decree, another proclamation.
Pastor Bledsoe: Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo shall be cut in pieces, and their house shall be made an ash heap, because there is no other God who can deliver like this.
Pastor Bledsoe: Congratulations, Nebuchadnezzar.
Pastor Bledsoe: You got it right, right?
Pastor Bledsoe: No.
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, he's got part of it right.
Pastor Bledsoe: There is no other god like the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Pastor Bledsoe: But it's not your job to force anybody to follow him
Pastor Bledsoe: Does he rightly represent God?
Pastor Bledsoe: Is what he said true?
Pastor Bledsoe: Yes, the problem is force versus choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: Simple statement in the books Prophet and Kings talking about this.
Pastor Bledsoe: shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill.
Pastor Bledsoe: There is no other God, he urges, as the reason for the decree that can deliver of this sort
Pastor Bledsoe: And these and like words the king of Babylon endeavors to spread abroad before all peoples of the earth his conviction that the power and authority of the God of the Hebrews was worthy of supreme adoration.
Pastor Bledsoe: And God was pleased with the effort of the king to show reverence, to make a royal confession of allegiance as widespread as was the Babylonian realm.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, there's nothing wrong with me sharing my convictions.
Pastor Bledsoe: There is a problem when I try to enforce my convictions.
Pastor Bledsoe: It was right for the king to make public confession and to seek to exalt the God of heaven above all other gods, but endeavoring to force his subjects to make a similar confession of faith.
Pastor Bledsoe: and to show similar reverence, Nebuchadnezzar was exceeding his right as a temporal sovereign.
Pastor Bledsoe: He had no more right, either civil or moral, to threaten men with death for not worshiping God.
Pastor Bledsoe: Then he had to make the decree consigning them to the flames, all who refused to worship the golden image.
Pastor Bledsoe: God never compels the obedience of man.
Pastor Bledsoe: He leaves all free to choose whom they will serve.
Pastor Bledsoe: There is a principle there, folks, a very important principle that we need to remember, that we need to understand
Pastor Bledsoe: In the book Desire of Ages.
Pastor Bledsoe: I like the simple way that it's summarized there.
Pastor Bledsoe: In the work of redemption, there is no compulsion.
Pastor Bledsoe: No external force is employed.
Pastor Bledsoe: Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve.
Pastor Bledsoe: You and I are free to choose.
Pastor Bledsoe: God tries to bring conviction to my heart.
Pastor Bledsoe: He tries to draw me, but he will not force me.
Pastor Bledsoe: He will not compare me.
Pastor Bledsoe: Compel me.
Pastor Bledsoe: Page 487.
Pastor Bledsoe: Just a little different.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is no part of Christ's mission to compel men to receive Him.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is who?
Pastor Bledsoe: Satan and men actuated by his spirit that seek to compel the conscience under a pretense of zeal for righteousness
Pastor Bledsoe: Men are confederated with evil angels, bringing suffering upon their fellow men in order to convert them to their ideas of religion.
Pastor Bledsoe: But Christ is ever showing mercy, ever seeking to win by the revealing of his love.
Pastor Bledsoe: He can admit no rival in the soul, nor accept of partial service, but he desires only voluntary service, the willing surrender.
Pastor Bledsoe: Of the heart under the constraint of love.
Pastor Bledsoe: There can be no more conclusive evidence that we possess the spirit of Satan than the disposition to hurt and destroy those who do not appreciate our work.
Pastor Bledsoe: or who act contrary to our ideas.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now folks, it's talking in a spiritual context, but we see it everywhere in the world.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, it's almost gotten to the point, you know, if you don't share my beliefs, we can't be friends.
Pastor Bledsoe: We can't even have a civil conversation.
Pastor Bledsoe: There's a problem there.
Pastor Bledsoe: Doesn't mean I have to compromise that I can't stick to my beliefs and my values.
Pastor Bledsoe: But the problem is we don't have any mutual respect.
Pastor Bledsoe: A lot of problems there.
Pastor Bledsoe: But there can be no more conclusive evidence that we possess the spirit of Satan and the disposition to hurt and destroy those who do not appreciate our work or act contrary to our ideas.
Pastor Bledsoe: We studied the book of Joshua.
Pastor Bledsoe: And there's some difference, you know, this last quarter.
Pastor Bledsoe: The end of through the end of December.
Pastor Bledsoe: Some difficult things there in that story that we talked about, but I ultimately, you know, Joshua's conclusion
Pastor Bledsoe: as he's about to finish his time, as the land has been basically divided up.
Pastor Bledsoe: Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, are the gods of the Ammonites, in whose land you dwelt, but for me and my house what?
Pastor Bledsoe: We will serve the Lord.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, God has given us a choice.
Pastor Bledsoe: Did Israel choose to serve God?
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, there were brief periods, occasionally, where they did, but for the most part, their history was a history of rebellion, of disobedience, of not serving God.
Pastor Bledsoe: Their history is filled with choosing to worship other gods, and finally they ultimately reject Jesus when he comes in the flesh, when he comes among them.
Pastor Bledsoe: Our scripture reading that we had this morning.
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus, as he's weeping over Jerusalem, over their choice to reject him as a nation
Pastor Bledsoe: Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, folks, if we don't accept the message, we'll probably try to kill the messenger.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's a biblical concept.
Pastor Bledsoe: Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who stoned who kills the prophets
Pastor Bledsoe: And stones those who are sent to her.
Pastor Bledsoe: How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but what?
Pastor Bledsoe: You were not willing.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, there's only one reason any of us will not be saved.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is because we were not willing.
Pastor Bledsoe: To accept Jesus' message, to accept his salvation, to accept his grace.
Pastor Bledsoe: His grace is sufficient to save all.
Pastor Bledsoe: His death was sufficient to pay the price for all our sins, every one of them.
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you willing to come to him?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you willing to accept him?
Pastor Bledsoe: See, your house is left to you desolate.
Pastor Bledsoe: For I say to you, you shall see me no more, till you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Pastor Bledsoe: Your house is left desolate
Pastor Bledsoe: Why is it desolate?
Pastor Bledsoe: Because they have rejected Jesus.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, there is no more desolate position than to be without Jesus in your life.
Pastor Bledsoe: Ultimately, Jesus sees what's going to happen to the temple.
Pastor Bledsoe: They believe that the temple is going to save them.
Pastor Bledsoe: And they've rejected everything the temple, the sanctuary service pointed to.
Pastor Bledsoe: It all pointed to Jesus coming.
Pastor Bledsoe: And dying for their sins, but they've rejected they've trusted in the building.
Pastor Bledsoe: And when the destruction comes in 70 AD, they go and they think, you know, if we're the temple, we're okay
Pastor Bledsoe: We can't be touched here.
Pastor Bledsoe: God says, no, your house is left out.
Pastor Bledsoe: I've left the building.
Pastor Bledsoe: You didn't want me in your life, and I've left.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's not what he wanted, it's what they chose.
Pastor Bledsoe: And it breaks God's heart when he has to give us what we choose because we choose to reject him.
Pastor Bledsoe: But he will honor that choice as much as it hurts, as much as it saddens him, as much as it breaks his heart
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you willing?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you willing to come to Jesus?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you willing to serve Jesus?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you willing to give your heart to Jesus
Pastor Bledsoe: Why is it that the Jews in his day rejected Jesus?
Pastor Bledsoe: Well, my friends, may I suggest it's very simple.
Pastor Bledsoe: They were not interested in his kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world.
Pastor Bledsoe: It was based on a different principle, a different concept.
Pastor Bledsoe: It was not a worldly kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is a spiritual kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: It is a kingdom to save us from our sins.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, let me ask you, do you want power over your sins?
Pastor Bledsoe: Now we'd all raise, of course we'd raise it, but do you really?
Pastor Bledsoe: Or do you want power over other sinners
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, if we're honest, sometimes that's kind of what we want.
Pastor Bledsoe: That's what the Jews wanted.
Pastor Bledsoe: They wanted power over their enemies.
Pastor Bledsoe: Do we want power over our enemies, or do we want power to love our enemies?
Pastor Bledsoe: That while we were yet enemies with God, he was willing to die for us
Pastor Bledsoe: Do we want his kingdom?
Pastor Bledsoe: It's a different kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus said, if my kingdom were of this world, my disciples would fight, but it's not of this world.
Pastor Bledsoe: Daniel chapter 2, the story of that image, the kind of final part of it, at the end
Pastor Bledsoe: Verses 44 and 45.
Pastor Bledsoe: In those days the kings, in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: Which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people.
Pastor Bledsoe: It shall break in pieces and consume all those other kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
Pastor Bledsoe: Inasmuch as you saw the stone was what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Cut out of the mountain with what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Without human hands, without hands
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, may I stop for a minute and say something very simple but very basic that we need to remember?
Pastor Bledsoe: God has not asked us to help set up his kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: God doesn't need your help or my help setting up.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's cut out without hands.
Pastor Bledsoe: Folks, it's not going to be a Republican kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's not going to be a Democratic kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's not going to be an American kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: It's not going to be a Chin
Pastor Bledsoe: East Kingdom of Russia
Pastor Bledsoe: It's going to be the kingdom of God.
Pastor Bledsoe: And God will set it up without help from you or from me.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now He has to ask us to do something.
Pastor Bledsoe: We read it in the beginning of those three angels' messages.
Pastor Bledsoe: Saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him.
Pastor Bledsoe: For the what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Hour of his judgment has come.
Pastor Bledsoe: But it started with something else.
Pastor Bledsoe: What was it?
Pastor Bledsoe: Having the what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Remember, we stopped there, the everlasting gospel.
Pastor Bledsoe: God has simply asked us to tell the world that He is setting up a kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: And he wants each and every one of us to be a part of that kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: We are invited to be a part.
Pastor Bledsoe: We are invited to ask others to be a part of that kingdom.
Pastor Bledsoe: We are invited to share our convictions with others.
Pastor Bledsoe: Of what God has done like Nebuchadnezzar, we are not invited to try to compel anybody, to try to force them to accept it.
Pastor Bledsoe: Inasmuch as the stone was cut out without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, the gold
Pastor Bledsoe: The great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this.
Pastor Bledsoe: The dream is certain and what?
Pastor Bledsoe: The interpretation is sure.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, you can count on what God said.
Pastor Bledsoe: You can't necessarily count on what the pastor says.
Pastor Bledsoe: I'm sorry to tell you that.
Pastor Bledsoe: You can't count on what any human says.
Pastor Bledsoe: You can count on what God says in this book.
Pastor Bledsoe: And my friends, I can't help but believe that that stone's going to be cut out very soon.
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus is coming soon.
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you ready?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you willing to take him?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you interested in a savior?
Pastor Bledsoe: Matthew chapter 1 verse 21.
Pastor Bledsoe: You know, we tend to read it at the end of the year at kind of Christmas time, Advent time.
Pastor Bledsoe: We ought to read it every day.
Pastor Bledsoe: And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will what?
Pastor Bledsoe: Save his people from the Romans, from the Republicans or the Democrats or the whoever.
Pastor Bledsoe: He will save his people from their sins.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, what we need is a savior.
Pastor Bledsoe: Now we could use some better politicians, I'll be honest.
Pastor Bledsoe: But the best politicians aren't going to solve.
Pastor Bledsoe: What we need is a Savior who will save us from our sins.
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you interested in a Savior?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you willing to accept Him?
Pastor Bledsoe: Jesus puts it very simply.
Pastor Bledsoe: Revelation 3 verse 20.
Pastor Bledsoe: Behold, I stand at the door and watch and knock.
Pastor Bledsoe: If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
Pastor Bledsoe: I will come in and dine with him and he with me.
Pastor Bledsoe: And if he doesn't hear my voice and doesn't open, I'm going to break it down.
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, Jesus will only come in if I open the door.
Pastor Bledsoe: The only way my house will not be desolate is if I open the door.
Pastor Bledsoe: And I invite Jesus to come in.
Pastor Bledsoe: He's knocking.
Pastor Bledsoe: He's longing to come into your heart and mine.
Pastor Bledsoe: He's longing to fill me with his grace, with his peace, with his love, with all the things that I'm missing.
Pastor Bledsoe: How will you respond?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you willing to open the door?
Pastor Bledsoe: Are you willing to invite Jesus?
Pastor Bledsoe: Into your heart, into your life, are you willing to serve Jesus with all your heart
Pastor Bledsoe: Will your house serve the Lord?
Pastor Bledsoe: Or will your house be left desolate?
Pastor Bledsoe: Because you choose to reject Jesus as your Savior, as your Lord
Pastor Bledsoe: You remember there in that judgment scene with Pilate?
Pastor Bledsoe: They cry out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him.
Pastor Bledsoe: Pilate says, Shall I crucify your king?
Pastor Bledsoe: The chief priests answer, We have no king but Caesar.
Pastor Bledsoe: Who is your king today?
Pastor Bledsoe: Is it Jesus?
Pastor Bledsoe: Is he your king?
Pastor Bledsoe: Is he your Lord?
Pastor Bledsoe: Is he your Savior
Pastor Bledsoe: I'm going to ask you to respond.
Pastor Bledsoe: I'm going to ask you to come forward as we have our closing song.
Pastor Bledsoe: As they sing
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, if you want to accept Jesus as your Savior, I want to accept him as my Savior.
Pastor Bledsoe: Maybe you haven't been baptized like Jesus.
Pastor Bledsoe: If you need to be baptized.
Pastor Bledsoe: You want to choose, can we whoops, can we get that back up there?
Pastor Bledsoe: Sorry.
Pastor Bledsoe: Thank you.
Pastor Bledsoe: If you want to be baptized like Jesus, if you want to by his grace to choose to serve him, I invite you to respond.
Pastor Bledsoe: If you're watching online and you want to respond, you can text a number.
Pastor Bledsoe: There's a number there.
Pastor Bledsoe: Text and we'll respond to you.
Pastor Bledsoe: But my friends, the question is very simple.
Pastor Bledsoe: How do you want to respond to Jesus?
Pastor Bledsoe: My friends, if Jesus is speaking to your heart
Pastor Bledsoe: Telling you maybe that your house is desolate.
Pastor Bledsoe: Maybe it's been desolate for a while and you've just gotten comfortable with it because you've rejected Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
Pastor Bledsoe: And you want to respond to him, you want to accept him, then I invite you to come forward as we sing the Savior is waiting to enter your heart
Pastor Bledsoe: Why don't you let him come in?
Pastor Bledsoe: There's nothing in this world to keep you apart.
Pastor Bledsoe: What is your answer to him?
Pastor Bledsoe: As we sing, if Jesus is speaking to your heart, I invite you to say yes, and I invite you to come forward.
Pastor Bledsoe: Shall we stand together?