SPEAKER_00: Thank you, worship team, for reminding us that we need to keep our eyes upon Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We can trust on him, we can move forward with him, and he will always take care of us.
SPEAKER_00: Especially this week, we are just at the beginning that the Wester week.
SPEAKER_00: We spend time together worshiping the Lord, hearing about Jesus, the one that uh gave his life for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's always important to be reminded that you need to we need to keep our eyes always, always upon Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we open the Bible this morning to hear about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But before that, let's have a word of prayer, asking God's presence among us.
SPEAKER_00: Our Heavenly Father, we are here in this place that now is your house.
SPEAKER_00: We are here in your day to hear your word.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Lord, be with each of us.
SPEAKER_00: After a week of challenges, hard work, studying, or coming back from the mission trip and many other things, we now are ready to worship with you, with our hearts, with our lives, with everything that we are and everything that we have.
SPEAKER_00: Please, dear Lord, be with us.
SPEAKER_00: Bless each of us and make this moment meaningful for us.
SPEAKER_00: Help this moment to feed our hearts with your word and give us what we need to move forward, always trusting on you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray and we thank you because we trust you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, happy Sabbath, everyone.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad to see all of you here, and I'm glad to have the opportunity of preaching the word for you today.
SPEAKER_00: I heard Pastor Shedd saying that I'm the first one.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a little bit shy because of that.
SPEAKER_00: But my by God's grace I will be able to move forward.
SPEAKER_00: This is my church, it's a church of my family.
SPEAKER_00: Usually, when we are in the area, we are here worshiping the Lord together.
SPEAKER_00: And I would like to express gratitude to all of you for welcoming us into this church, making us part of the family.
SPEAKER_00: And every Sabbath when we are here, we feel warm welcome from every people that we are in touch.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: You know that our lives were changed from last July to now, and we are still adapting to this new phase of our life.
SPEAKER_00: And your prayers are very, very precious to keep us strong, keep us depending on the Lord, keep us moving forward, always keeping in mind that the Lord called this church, our church, and our global church, to be grounded in the Bible and focus on the mission.
SPEAKER_00: I repeat and repeat and repeat it again in every place that this is the call, this is the focus, this is the priority of our church.
SPEAKER_00: It needs to be for the local church or for the global church.
SPEAKER_00: We need to move forward, grounded in the Bible and focus on the mission.
SPEAKER_00: And talking about the Bible, usually I love to preach with my Bible in my hand.
SPEAKER_00: Let me keep it open.
SPEAKER_00: I like to preach with my Bible in my hand, but today I need to preach with my cell phone in my hand.
SPEAKER_00: It will be a little bit different.
SPEAKER_00: I will try to manage all these technological experiences.
SPEAKER_00: I will share with you a PowerPoint presentation.
SPEAKER_00: You are not adapted, you are not uh familiarized with this kind of presentations during the Sabbath morning messages.
SPEAKER_00: But because of my my journey with English, sometimes the presentations help me to keep the track.
SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, it can help you to understand the core, the essence of the message.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the clicker for the message, and I need to keep it into my hand all the time to try to move forward and share with you the presentation.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see if it will work well.
SPEAKER_00: It seems that it is working now.
SPEAKER_00: I would like to invite you today to think in the most challenging battles that you faced or you are facing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: After all, our lives are made by decisions, dreams, and battles.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes those decisions or battles or dreams, they are bigger than us.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to deal with something that's not common for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's challenging.
SPEAKER_00: But I think that today the Bible can help us to understand how to deal not only with the dreams or the decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, the Bible can help us with all of them, but especially how to deal with the challenges and the battles that we face in our daily life.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd like to invite you to go with me.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see if it will work.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to find the best way to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it worked now.
SPEAKER_00: I would like to invite you to go with me to the Bible now.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that the Bible can guide us on that journey, understanding how to deal with complex, seemingly impossible battles.
SPEAKER_00: But before we start to understand that, let me remind you that as Seventh Adventist Church, we can still be considered the people of the book.
SPEAKER_00: For many reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, because we believe in the book.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, because we teach the book.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, because we share the book.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe number four, because by God's grace we live according to this book.
SPEAKER_00: We can be considered the people of the book, not the people of one book of the book, not the people from one verse of the book or one chapter of the book.
SPEAKER_00: We are the people of the book.
SPEAKER_00: From Genesis to Revelation, our identity is totally connected to the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We can easily understand that.
SPEAKER_00: We are Seventh-day Adventists because we are connected to the book.
SPEAKER_00: We keep the seventh day because it is in the first page of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we don't keep the Sabbath only because it is in the first page of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We keep the Sabbath because of uh almost 300 different Bible verses teaching us about the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: But the Sabbath is in Genesis chapter 2 at the beginning of the Bible, at the first page of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We are Adventists waiting for the second coming of Jesus for more than 1500 Bible verses, but especially because the second coming of Jesus is repeated three times in the last page and the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: It means from the first to the last page of the Bible, we can be considered the people of the book.
SPEAKER_00: But again, it didn't work well.
SPEAKER_00: I can't see the presentation here on my phone.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can help me there.
SPEAKER_00: But we have one of the books in the Bible that has a very strong connection with our history and our identity.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we are very related to Daniel, also to Revelation, but Revelation is a very special book for us, especially because we can see the Seventh-day Adventist Church very connected to that book.
SPEAKER_00: We were called to prepare this world to the second coming of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the book that can help the world to understand all the context and be prepared to see Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You can see in the book of Revelation that we were born in chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: That's our birth certificate in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: You can see that our identity, the remnant of God, is shared in chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: You can see that the message that the Lord entrusted to us to prepare the world to the second coming of Jesus is in Revelation chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: And you can see there the three angels' messages, and our blessed hope, the hope that moves us forward, and the hope that keeps our mission strong is in Revelation chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: It means we are very connected to the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And if you you can see the book of Revelation, you can go beyond that.
SPEAKER_00: You can see that the book of Revelation is like the central book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Ellen White mentions that the Revelation is a book that can concentrate all other books in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: If you see the Old Testament, the Old Testament is in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: 505 Bible verses from the Old Testament, they are mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: You know that the Old Testament has 39 chapters or 39 books, and 28 of them are mentioned in different ways in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: It means the Old Testament is in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: If you look for the New Testament, what is the New Testament?
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament is about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus born, Jesus' ministry, his death, his sacrifice for us, his resurrection, and after that, his church, the early Christian church reaching the world.
SPEAKER_00: All the New Testament is about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if you go to the book of Revelation, you can see that Revelation chapter 1 and verse 1, the Bible says, John says, Revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It means if the New Testament is about Jesus, the book of Revelation is also about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Both of them are together.
SPEAKER_00: We can see the book of Revelation as the center of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But when we go to the book of Revelation, especially to chapter 1 and verse 1, and that will not be the core verse for today, but when we go there, we can see this highlight revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is the central message of the book.
SPEAKER_00: And you understand why I'm highlighting that, because all the message today is focused on revelation and is focused on Jesus Christ as well.
SPEAKER_00: You can see, you can go to the previous one, please.
SPEAKER_00: You can see that despite all prophecies, all symbols, all dates, and all signs, the purpose of revelation is to ensure that Jesus is on the side of his people from the beginning to the end.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what happens, Jesus will always be in control of the future.
SPEAKER_00: If we move forward now, you can see that in the book of Revelation, the core of that book, please, the next one.
SPEAKER_00: The core, the heart of the book of Revelation is chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: Why chapter 12?
SPEAKER_00: Because before chapter 12, you have a lot of historical elements in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: After chapter 12, you emphasize the great controversy, and chapter 12 is in between these two sections of the book.
SPEAKER_00: This is the chapter that opened the door for the next part of the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: And when we go to chapter 12, Revelation chapter 12, and you can have your Bible now, and you can open your Bible in the book of Revelation and chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord will share something very precious to us.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: And when we go to this chapter, you can see that the central message of the chapter is next slide.
SPEAKER_00: This is the message.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, the Bible is not talking about the war that we are seeing around us, and we are hearing about war all the time, these last days and weeks and months and years.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is talking about a different war.
SPEAKER_00: And the wars that we are seeing around us, they are consequence of that main war.
SPEAKER_00: And the main war is the great controversy.
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Revelation, chapter 12, is showing us that the great controversy now, after chapter 12, will move to the end.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible is trying to help us to understand how it will happen.
SPEAKER_00: And when we see the next one, that war, in chapter 12, we can see four moments of the war.
SPEAKER_00: And they follow the historical sequence.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the next one.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, the first moment of the war is the beginning of the war in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We can see that at the beginning of the chapter.
SPEAKER_00: The second one, we can see the war against Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And you have many Bible verses in chapter 12 sharing a little bit more about these four crucial moments of the war.
SPEAKER_00: The third one, the war against the early church.
SPEAKER_00: And the fourth one, if we can go to that one, is the war against the remnant.
SPEAKER_00: And when the Bible and John speaks about the war against the remnant, the identity of this remnant is presented, and we can start to understand everything.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: This is not only a war, it's a very hard war, it's a very challenging war.
SPEAKER_00: And you can see in our Bible, Revelation chapter 12 and verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the core verse for today to help us to understand the reality of this war and the conflicts and the battles that sometimes we are facing in life.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 12 and verse 12, the Bible says, Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, woo to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea.
SPEAKER_00: For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has what?
SPEAKER_00: He has a short time.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned that this is a very hard war because we are fighting against someone that has a great wrath and knows that has a short time.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine a devil desperate because of his furious and he doesn't have time to do everything that you'd like to do.
SPEAKER_00: This is the war that we are fighting these days.
SPEAKER_00: Elena L White reminds us that as we approach to the it's too far.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have it for me, Shet?
SPEAKER_00: Let us exchange our cell phones.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you you can help me now.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Let us try to work together.
SPEAKER_00: I'm preaching here, he's changing there.
SPEAKER_00: If I have a problem here, he'll support me there.
SPEAKER_00: We are all together on that.
SPEAKER_00: But Ellen White says, and you can see on the screen, as we approach the perils of the last days, the temptations of the enemy become stronger and more determined.
SPEAKER_00: Satan has come down in great power, knowing that his time is short.
SPEAKER_00: Talking about the war, this great controversy, this hard war, I have something that usually calls my attention in this war.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if reading about that in the book of Revelation or other portions of the Bible, it called your attention as well.
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, in the book of Revelation, in chapter 12, usually we have two animals that represent the two sides of the war, the good and the evil, representing Satan.
SPEAKER_00: We have many animals, but the dragon is the usually the most important one, is the most repeated one.
SPEAKER_00: And talking about those who are with Jesus, the Bible is saying about the lamb, the lamb represents that.
SPEAKER_00: And when I think in a war between a lamp and a dragon, I have the impression, humanly speaking, please, humanly speaking, I have the impression that this is a very unjust war.
SPEAKER_00: Please, friends, put together a lamp and a dragon.
SPEAKER_00: Humanly speaking, who'd be the winner?
SPEAKER_00: Who'll be the winner?
SPEAKER_00: The animals that the Bible is presenting show us that we are participating in a very unjust war, seemingly impossible war.
SPEAKER_00: Just to remind you, in the Bible, Jesus is the lamb.
SPEAKER_00: And we can see that John introduces Jesus as the lamb of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the lamb is presented in the book of Revelation 29 different times.
SPEAKER_00: It means it's highlighted that Jesus is very well represented by the lamb and Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Satan is the dragon.
SPEAKER_00: Only in Revelation chapter 12, he is presented eight times as a dragon and the dragon and the dragon.
SPEAKER_00: And when I think in a very disproportionate war between a lamb and a dragon, I remember that uh this one is not the only one in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We can see many other disproportionated wars in the Bible, disproportionate fights in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember this one that you that you can see on the screen?
SPEAKER_00: Moses and Aaron fighting against Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: It was a very unjust war.
SPEAKER_00: Two guys on behalf of slaves dealing with the most powerful empire of that time.
SPEAKER_00: That was an unjust war.
SPEAKER_00: They had everything to be defeated there.
SPEAKER_00: When you go to this one, and you heard about this one from the beginning as a child, David and Goliath, just a little guy fighting against a giant.
SPEAKER_00: That was a disproportionate war.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember this one?
SPEAKER_00: Elijah and the prophets of Baal.
SPEAKER_00: He was alone.
SPEAKER_00: Initially, he was alone.
SPEAKER_00: They were almost 400, and he decided to fight against those people.
SPEAKER_00: That was a very disproportionate war.
SPEAKER_00: And we can see in the Bible many others.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the last one you can remind others.
SPEAKER_00: We can spend time just looking in different locations in the Bible to see how many disproportionate wars the Lord placed on the way of his people.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember this one?
SPEAKER_00: Gideon and his 300 people fighting against the Midianites.
SPEAKER_00: That was another disproportionate war, and the Lord guided everything on that way to be disproportionate.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we can go on and on and on, finding many others.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, the central point of our message today is to remind that in the book of Revelation, that war seems to be a disproportionate war.
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, we can find many disproportionate wars, but in our times, in your life, in my life, in the life of the church, many times we are also facing what seems to be disproportionate wars in our days, in our time.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is the first one.
SPEAKER_00: Just going back, one.
SPEAKER_00: Just looking at this one.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is one of the most challenging for us.
SPEAKER_00: The world mission that the Lord entrusted to the Seventh day Adventist Church.
SPEAKER_00: When we think in the size of our church, we are 24.3 million members currently.
SPEAKER_00: It's a large family.
SPEAKER_00: 212 different countries and territories around the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's a huge family.
SPEAKER_00: 24 million.
SPEAKER_00: When you compare with many other denominations, we are a large denomination, a big denomination.
SPEAKER_00: But when we think that these 24.3 million brothers and sisters around the world, they received uh a mission to deal with 8.2 billion population, you can easily recognize that this is like a fight, like a war between a lamp and a dragon.
SPEAKER_00: This is much bigger than us.
SPEAKER_00: And when we think, what can we do?
SPEAKER_00: How can we face all those challenges?
SPEAKER_00: How can we reach the world?
SPEAKER_00: The 1040 window, the urban window, the post-Christian and secular window, all territories in the world where people are not open to receive the message.
SPEAKER_00: We need to find a way to reach their hearts, we need to find a way to enter in territories that are close to us.
SPEAKER_00: How can we move forward?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord placed in our hands a battle between a lamb and a dragon, a battle that is disproportionate, a battle that's much bigger than us.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reason why the church is working right now in a project called One Voice 27.
SPEAKER_00: That's our intention to find a way to raise the church 24.
SPEAKER_00: Million, if not 24 million, maybe 20 or 15 or 10 million of members and brothers and sisters around the world to raise our army and find a way to reach the world, to fight this disproportionate war.
SPEAKER_00: One Voice27 is a global call for our members for September 27.
SPEAKER_00: Just one month.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, all the year will be full of different initiatives and projects, but our target is the month of September next year.
SPEAKER_00: September 27.
SPEAKER_00: All the media of the church and church members focus on the mission.
SPEAKER_00: Finding a way if you have your social media for other stuff, we are appealing in the month of September next year.
SPEAKER_00: Use your social media, radio stations, TV stations, publishing materials, and all these things all together in one month, sharing the message that Jesus is coming back to this world again.
SPEAKER_00: Why we are selecting 27 or why we are selecting September?
SPEAKER_00: For one simple reason, next year, 2027, we'll celebrate the 2000 anniversary of Jesus' baptism, his anointing, and the beginning of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And because Jesus was baptized the next year, 2000 years ago, we decided that we can take advantage of that moment.
SPEAKER_00: You know, 2027 is not a year when the world will celebrate Jesus' baptism.
SPEAKER_00: We are the only ones believing that the year 27 was the year of Jesus' baptism because of the prophecy of 70 weeks in Daniel chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: When we put all these things together, we go to the year 27.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, if we believe in the year 27, we will move to 2027 to celebrate the 2000 anniversary.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be alone in the arena talking about that, celebrating that, announcing that Jesus who came, and Jesus who will come.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Daniel talking about Jesus who already came, it was prophesied, and he came, and Jesus will fulfill the prophecy again, and he will come again, and we can go to the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: This is a way that we found that by the power of the Holy Spirit we can move forward, we can call the members, we can call our friends to be part of a movement like that because we are dealing with a battle that is much, much bigger than us.
SPEAKER_00: But let us see another one.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you agree with me.
SPEAKER_00: When we put together the biblical principles and the culture, sometimes we have the impression that we are fighting a very disproportionate war.
SPEAKER_00: Do you agree with me?
SPEAKER_00: Talk about the Sabbath for your friends.
SPEAKER_00: Well, they you love it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a day to stop, to be with the family, to lunch together.
SPEAKER_00: But when you start to talk about the principles of Sabbath, about our commitment to Sabbath, that we are we are able to lose a job because of the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: We are able to delay our graduation because of the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: People say, Oh, oh, you are very fundamentalist.
SPEAKER_00: Let us avoid this conversation.
SPEAKER_00: And if you insist you talk with love and respect, but if you insist you talk a little bit more, the conversation will stop, and maybe you create an enemy because of that conversation.
SPEAKER_00: It means the culture against the Sabbath as a biblical principle is too big that when you start to talk, you see you are like a lamb trying to fight against a dragon, something much bigger than you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a disproportionate war.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.
SPEAKER_00: And say to someone in a classroom, in a social media post, I don't know, say to the people that we believe, or you believe, and I believe, we believe in the Bible, but we believe that the Lord created this world in six literal 24 hours a day.
SPEAKER_00: If you do that in a classroom, probably you'll be in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: If you post it in social media, you will know you know what will happen.
SPEAKER_00: Just read the comments after two hours, two days, a week, and you can see where people are sending you.
SPEAKER_00: It seems to me that you are trying to defend something that is in the Bible, it's coming from the Lord with respect.
SPEAKER_00: We can't be aggressive on that.
SPEAKER_00: We can we can share our ideas with respect, respecting others, respecting their points of view, but we can share what we believe.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes it seems that we are we are sharing something that we are we are like a lamp trying to fight against a dragon.
SPEAKER_00: They are much stronger than us.
SPEAKER_00: All the media is with them, all the society is supporting them.
SPEAKER_00: It means we can't, we can't, we are trying, but we are alone in the arena for this issue as well, defending something that almost no one is defending.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about family, family issues again with love and respect, because we know that we have different perspectives on that.
SPEAKER_00: But when we talk about the Bible, God's orientation for his people, when you go to the Bible, and when you share that the Lord created men and women, or men and women to be married, and you start to explain what the Bible says, respecting people that decided to have a different perspective.
SPEAKER_00: But if you just share what you believe, you know what will happen.
SPEAKER_00: You know how complicated it is.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a fight against a dragon.
SPEAKER_00: You are like a lamp defending something, but the society in general, in general, is totally in opposition of that.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you ask yourself, I am able to defend something here, or I am fighting a lost battle.
SPEAKER_00: I will not be able to do anything on this area because everybody has a different position.
SPEAKER_00: All the media, all social media, all publications, all the authorities, they defend a different perspective, and I'm trying to do something with love, respect, coming from the Bible, respecting my faith.
SPEAKER_00: But I can't, because it seems that I'm fighting a battle that is totally disproportional.
SPEAKER_00: Let us see at least a third one.
SPEAKER_00: I will not go beyond of that, but let us see about the third one.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at the battle between spiritual life and what?
SPEAKER_00: Digital distraction.
SPEAKER_00: When was the last time that you read your Bible without paying attention on your cell phone?
SPEAKER_00: When was the last time that you watched a sermon without checking the Facebook messages, the WhatsApp message, the text messages, and everything?
SPEAKER_00: Just just a maybe people will think that I'm reading the Bible verse, they will not pay attention on that.
SPEAKER_00: But you are there with your cell phone, trying to see what is there because you need to be connected all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You'd like to avoid to lose anything, any information, maybe an emergency here and there, or maybe the preacher is saying something, and you are there just trying trying to confirm if what the preacher preacher is saying is really truth or not.
SPEAKER_00: My dear brothers and sisters, sometimes this battle seems to be a very disproportional battle.
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention in how many kids during the worship the parents just give them a cell phone and say, Please do something and give me freedom to watch the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: You are saving you and losing them.
SPEAKER_00: Because after two, four, five years, you can't tell them, please pay attention in the message.
SPEAKER_00: You touch them in the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes it seems that that's the only way to keep them distracted.
SPEAKER_00: Because during the entire week they are in front of a screen, doing everything, interacting with cell phones and computers, etc.
SPEAKER_00: On Sabbath, they are not able to stay here.
SPEAKER_00: The level of concentration is being lower and lower and lower and lower.
SPEAKER_00: And a preacher like me, with my broken English, I need to try to find a power, find a PowerPoint presentation for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to move here and there, and Pastor Shedd does the same, walking and looking at you, and sometimes pointing to you to do everything that we can to keep your attention to the message because the level of concentration is being decreased.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I think that this battle seems to be a why can I call that?
SPEAKER_00: A lost battle?
SPEAKER_00: We are trying to do everything, but all the society is moving together in that direction.
SPEAKER_00: More and more digital, more and more screens.
SPEAKER_00: Our life, they they are calling that the second skin because it's part of you.
SPEAKER_00: You can't live without that.
SPEAKER_00: And when we put together spiritual life where you need concentration, you need to spend time, you need to reflect.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a short video, it's not full of colors, it will not be with a lot of sounds to entertain you.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a book in black and white.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord is calling you to read and think and reflect and go deeper on that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying that you can't, not about you specifically, but maybe all of you.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we say, Oh, the new generations, they're not able to concentrate.
SPEAKER_00: New generations.
SPEAKER_00: We are talking about all of us.
SPEAKER_00: We are all facing the same situation, and sometimes we think, this is a very disproportionate war.
SPEAKER_00: We are trying to deal with that, but we can't.
SPEAKER_00: We are trying to teach the church, but we can't.
SPEAKER_00: We are trying to appeal the members to go in a different way.
SPEAKER_00: We can't.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have the impression that this is like another disproportionate war?
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I could call your attention for many other disproportionate wars that we have in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: As a church, maybe you can think about the disproportionate war that you are facing right now.
SPEAKER_00: You are trying to deal with that, but it's impossible.
SPEAKER_00: It's bigger than you.
SPEAKER_00: You are trying to do your best, but you can't think in all disproportionate wars that we are facing.
SPEAKER_00: They can be well represented between uh, or they can be well represented by a war between a dragon and a lamb.
SPEAKER_00: Someone that's bigger, someone that's smaller, someone that's powerful, and another one that's weak.
SPEAKER_00: That is the concept of these two animals.
SPEAKER_00: But let me share with you the best news of the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: I spent a long time creating the foundation for you, and now I'm moving to the end.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the core of the message.
SPEAKER_00: The best news of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that we are at war or that it seems to be a disproportionate war.
SPEAKER_00: The central message of the book of Revelation is Satan is defeated, and Jesus is what?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is the winner.
SPEAKER_00: We need to repeat and repeat it again.
SPEAKER_00: He's the lamp, Satan is the dragon.
SPEAKER_00: But in the Bible, in the great controversy, in the life of those who follow Jesus, Jesus is the winner, and Satan is already defeated.
SPEAKER_00: And I can confirm that to you.
SPEAKER_00: If we go to the chapter chapter 12, the same one that opened the message this morning talking about the four crucial moments of the war.
SPEAKER_00: If you can go there, you can see that the enemy was defeated five times.
SPEAKER_00: We have four crucial moments of the war and five moments when he is defeated.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, he tried to destroy the son, but the son was raptured to God and he was defeated.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, he fought against Michael and he was defeated and cast down to earth.
SPEAKER_00: He was defeated again.
SPEAKER_00: And number three, he persecuted the woman, the church, but God took the woman to the desert and protected her.
SPEAKER_00: He was defeated again.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, he tried to drown the woman, but the earth swallowed the river thrown against her, and he was defeated again.
SPEAKER_00: And number five, it is related to us.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that he will try to repeat the same war against the remnant.
SPEAKER_00: But Revelation chapter 12 and verse 17 the remnant will remain what faithful to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Please, dear brothers and sisters, I would like to remind you and keep it in your heart for the next week, the Eastern week, for your life in every seemingly impossible battle.
SPEAKER_00: Satan is defeated, and Jesus is the winner.
SPEAKER_00: The victory for God's people is already assured.
SPEAKER_00: It could seem to be disproportionated, but it's not, because you you are with the weakest human part of the story, but you are with the winner of all the battles.
SPEAKER_00: You know what is in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: And they overcome, they the Bible is talking about you and me, and they overcome the dragon by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.
SPEAKER_00: But I have a Bible verse in the book of Revelation that for me is one of the most impactful Bible verse when we talk about this war.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to the Bible, Revelation chapter 17 and verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: I have this in my Bible, and I'd like to read this Bible verse to you.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 17 and verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: You can see the final achievement, the final result of this war that we are all facing, that sometimes seems to be disproportionate.
SPEAKER_00: We are fighting against something bigger than us.
SPEAKER_00: We are not able, we can't win that battle.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is telling us.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 17, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: These talking about you and me.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, these, those who serve the dragon, these will make war with the lamb.
SPEAKER_00: But what the Bible says, and the lamb will overcome them.
SPEAKER_00: For he is Lord of Lords, he is King of Kings.
SPEAKER_00: And more than that, he is the winner.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible can assure that to us, but more than that, those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Please don't forget, every time in every situation, when you seem that you are you are dealing with a very challenging battle, war, temptation, problem, spiritual situation, in every situation, the lamb will win.
SPEAKER_00: This is against the trends.
SPEAKER_00: This is not what the society is defending.
SPEAKER_00: This is not what you can see, but the lamb will win.
SPEAKER_00: And those who are with him will be winners as well.
SPEAKER_00: This is about you and me.
SPEAKER_00: Look what Ellen White says.
SPEAKER_00: There is no reason for discouragement.
SPEAKER_00: The promises of God are sure, and what more?
SPEAKER_00: Steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: And she goes beyond.
SPEAKER_00: Look what she says.
SPEAKER_00: The privileges of those who overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Look that it is beyond our comprehension.
SPEAKER_00: It means what you can see, it's not what the Lord is preparing for you.
SPEAKER_00: You feel discouraged because you can't faith, fight that.
SPEAKER_00: Stay with me because what I have for you no one can see.
SPEAKER_00: It is a miracle, and it can go beyond any comprehension.
SPEAKER_00: And the last light that I have for you this morning is just an invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Please, dear sisters and brothers and brothers and sisters, each of you, because you know yourself, you know your challenges and dreams and temptations and decisions and all these things.
SPEAKER_00: Let us face any seemingly impossible battle by the blood of the land, the Lamb, and in the hands of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you are discouraged, if you are facing something that you don't know how to deal with that, I would like to motivate you.
SPEAKER_00: Please walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Trust in miracles, move forward by faith, and trust that the Lord will do for you something that you can't imagine, because you can seem you can seem to be fragile, not strong, not able to fight, not able to win.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lamb can do that for you.
SPEAKER_00: You can be a winner by the blood of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: Keep it in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm preaching for you today, and you are saying, This is not my situation.
SPEAKER_00: I mean my life is okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'm enjoying, I have a good family, my business, and all these things.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you, you don't know what will happen for you next week.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm preaching now is related to those who are fighting the battles, but it's a preparation for you to fight the battles that the Lord will allow to come to your way.
SPEAKER_00: Fight them in the hands of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Fight them.
SPEAKER_00: Fight against the dragon, trusting that you can be or you can appear to be weak or fragile, but the Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to say, Lord, I would like to face my battles with you?
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm facing some challenging situations.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I can't say anything.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here dressing well, smiling, interacting, but people don't know what's happening in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to fight my battles with you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are much bigger than me, but I trust on you, my Lord, my King, and my Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Do you like to say, dear Lord, walk with me?
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to see your hands.
SPEAKER_00: Our Heavenly Father, you can see the hands that are being raised now.
SPEAKER_00: Behind each of those hands, you have a name, you have a story, you have a situation that we don't know, but you know.
SPEAKER_00: The message today is an opportunity at the beginning of the Eastern week.
SPEAKER_00: It's an opportunity to remind that the Lamb that gave his life for us is the winner, and he will go with us to faith or to fight any battle that we need to fight.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Lord, help us to trust on that.
SPEAKER_00: Let us help help us to move forward by faith, trusting in the lamp, walking with the lamp, and winning with the lamp.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Lord, be with each of us.
SPEAKER_00: You know our lives and our personal challenges.
SPEAKER_00: Please remind us every single day that you are together with us and remind us how much we need your presence in our life.
SPEAKER_00: We are your children, we bear your name as Seventh-day Adventist Church.
SPEAKER_00: But you'd like to have the Lamb living with us every moment, and when we feel discouraged, let us remind that we can be maybe alone, but we are if you are with us, and you are everything we need.
SPEAKER_00: We place our lives, our challenges, our family, and your church, all these things into your hands because we pray and we thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We invite you to step with us and say price our hope and life into it.
SPEAKER_02: Christ or hope in life and death what truth can calm the troubled soul.
SPEAKER_02: God is good, God is good when it gets grace and goodness gone in a redeemer's blood.
SPEAKER_02: Who holds a good when fears are rise?
SPEAKER_02: Who stands above the stormy trust?
SPEAKER_02: Who stands away that brings us nigh onto the shore the rock of sing all yeah our hope springs eternal O sing oh hallelujah now and ever be confessed by some hope and life and to the grave what we will see Christ delivered, Christ delivered, and what we all will heaven with everlasting life with him then we will rise to meet the Lord that sin and death will be destroyed, and we will feast in and destroy when I see forever on hostess in turn oh sing alleluia O sing all hilarious O sing all we are now and ever we confess Christ our hope and life and death now and ever we confess Christ our hope and life and death pray our Heavenly Father help us today to keep our confidence in Jesus in the Lord in the King of Kings in the Lamb Help us to walk with the Lamb today every day.