SPEAKER_00: One in three people, according to a study that just uh was reported on in March of this year, one in three people believe that the end of the world is happening in their lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to a community that has talked so much about uh Jesus' second coming and the end of the world, that might not seem like a significant number because we're like, don't people all just think this?
SPEAKER_00: But this is a large, large number.
SPEAKER_00: As their lead author reports, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Billet, belief in the end of the world is surprisingly common across North America, and it's significantly influencing how people interpret and respond to the most pressing threats facing humanity.
SPEAKER_00: He's surprised by this number.
SPEAKER_00: He's surprised that so many people are thinking that the end of the world is in their lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: Billett reports that beliefs were strongly linked, beliefs were strongly linked to how people perceive and respond to global risks such as climate change and pandemics and nuclear conflicts and emerging uh technologies.
SPEAKER_00: What is interesting is that Matthew Billett, can we just turn it's not?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just not gonna use it.
SPEAKER_00: How about that?
SPEAKER_00: Let's just go blank on it.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be okay.
SPEAKER_00: The interesting thing is that Jesus actually addresses all these things that we just wrote about, Matthew 24, that we just were mentioning in Matthew chapter 24.
SPEAKER_00: War and conflict and natural disasters.
SPEAKER_00: And in association with topics like these, Jesus says things like, but the end is not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Or these are just the beginning of birth pains.
SPEAKER_00: People have these ideas about what constitutes the end, and Jesus says these things that you think constitute the end are not yet, or they're they're just the beginning of the birth pains.
SPEAKER_00: But one people one thing that people got right in this study is about who plays a role in the last days.
SPEAKER_00: Billa discovered that in the study that almost everybody says everyone agrees on one thing.
SPEAKER_00: We humans play an important role in the fate of our species.
SPEAKER_00: We all agree on one thing.
SPEAKER_00: We play an important role on the fate of our species.
SPEAKER_00: The only problem is that most of humanity, and I would say probably sometimes even us, we think about the end always in the context of all the bad things that are happening.
SPEAKER_00: This bad thing, this earthquake in Venezuela, or this flash flood in Nepal, or this war in Iran.
SPEAKER_00: And we we tend to look at these things and we think, oh, the end must surely be here.
SPEAKER_00: We look at sin around us, maybe the sin of someone else, maybe even the struggles we have in our own life, and we may say, oh, the the end must surely be at hand because of all these bad things.
SPEAKER_00: And we say it's because of the bad that we do and the bad that happens in the world that the end is about to come.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus actually said that the end will come as a result of the good that his followers do in the world.
SPEAKER_00: One good in particular.
SPEAKER_00: And I invite you to open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 24, beginning in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 24, beginning in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: These are Jesus' words.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
SPEAKER_00: There is a key word in there that we need to understand, and it is the word gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And the word gospel simply means good news.
SPEAKER_00: So in the last days, the Bible is telling us, in the midst of all the bad, in the midst of all the fret and the fear and the worried, God says there will be someone or someone who will stand up and proclaim good news in the midst of wars and rumors of the wars, in the midst of earthquakes and flash floods, in the midst of the evil and the growing fear and anxiety around technology and all its claim.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of all this bad, someone will stand up and say, But wait, there is good news.
SPEAKER_00: The indication of the end of the world won't be those bad things.
SPEAKER_00: It will be someone, it'll be a group of someones standing up and saying, Hey, I have good news to share with you.
SPEAKER_00: And this gospel, this good news of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, and then the end shall come.
SPEAKER_00: And what is that good news?
SPEAKER_00: Or rather, who is that good news?
SPEAKER_00: The good news is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the good news.
SPEAKER_00: When there's wars and rumors of wars, when there's famines, when there's pestilence, when there's when there's all these things, Jesus wants us to say, hey, but there is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: All that encompasses the life and the truth of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Ellen White wrote, hanging upon the cross, Christ was the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Hanging upon the cross, Christ was the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Someone or a group of someones, in the den of all the noise, and in all the noise of all that's bad going on, will proclaim with a loud voice, with one voice together, there is good news, and it is.
SPEAKER_00: He is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Ellen White wrote some inspired words I'd like to read to you.
SPEAKER_00: She said, This is our message, our argument, our doctrine, warning to the impenetra, our warning to the impenitent, our encouragement for the sorrowing, the hope for every believer.
SPEAKER_00: If we can awaken an interest in men's minds that will cause them to fix their eyes on Christ, we may step aside and ask them only to continue to fix their eyes upon the Lamb of God and thus receive their lesson.
SPEAKER_00: I love that line.
SPEAKER_00: If we would just get people to fix their eyes on Jesus, she says, we could step aside and just allow the Lord to do what the Lord does.
SPEAKER_00: When someone fixes their eyes on Jesus, when you fix your eyes on Jesus, when I fix my eyes on Jesus, when someone in this world fixes their eyes on Jesus, the Lord does something only the Lord can do.
SPEAKER_00: As the sinner sees, she continues, Jesus as he is, an all-compassionate savior.
SPEAKER_00: Hope and assurance take possession of his soul.
SPEAKER_00: The helpless soul is cast without any reservation upon Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: None can bear away, that means none can walk away.
SPEAKER_00: None can bear away from the vision of Christ Jesus crucified with a lingering doubt.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelief is gone.
SPEAKER_00: Here is the good news.
SPEAKER_00: If people fix their eyes on Jesus, it'll be hope for the sorrowing.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be comfort for the hurting.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be healing for the sick.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be praise for the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus fixing our eyes on him.
SPEAKER_00: So who is supposed to proclaim this message?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you go to Revelation chapter 22 and verse 17, you'll see it there in Revelation chapter 22.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in Revelation chapter 22 and verse 17 that the Spirit and the bride, the bride is Jesus, say come.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says, and let the one who hears say come.
SPEAKER_00: And let the one who is thirsty come, and let the one who desires to take the water of life without price come.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I want to ask you, have you heard an invitation from Jesus in your own personal life?
SPEAKER_00: Have you heard him appeal to your heart and say, Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Have you experienced that appeal from Jesus in your life, to come to him?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said in this verse, he said, though I invite all those to come to me.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, And those who have heard this appeal, those who have received this invitation, they are also to say to others, come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, if you've heard that invitation, you are called to extend the invitation to someone else.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you, my brothers and sisters, when was the last time that you personally invited someone else to know Jesus, to come and understand more about who Jesus is, to fix their eyes upon Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, let the one who hears, the one who's heard and received the invitation, is to also say, Come.
SPEAKER_00: Ellen White said, Not upon the ordained minister only rests the responsibility of going forth to fulfill the commission.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who has received Christ is called to work for the salvation of his fellow men.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come.
SPEAKER_00: The charge to give this invitation includes, she says, the entire church.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who has heard the invitation is to echo the message from hill and valley, saying, Come.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who has heard that invitation and received that invitation is called to walk across their house to their teenager's room and open the door and say, Can we talk about Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: They're to walk across a street in their neighborhood and take opportunities to share Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're to walk across the rooms of their workplaces and at their school to share Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If we've heard the invitation, we are supposed to extend the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've heard that invitation in my life, and so just right here in the middle of the sermon, I want to actually pause and extend the invitation to someone who may be in here.
SPEAKER_00: If you're someone in here and you've never accepted Jesus as your Savior, or maybe you did, but you've know that you've wandered far from him.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say what Jesus said to my heart years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Come to Jesus and experience the newness, the abundance of life in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want to extend that invitation to you.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to ask you to do something.
SPEAKER_00: If you're if you're comfortable with it, I want to invite you, if that's something that God said in your heart right now, I need Jesus in my life, I need to respond to this invitation.
SPEAKER_00: That connection card I mentioned earlier, we're gonna use it again a little bit later, but if you just want to pull that out and you can let us know on there, I want to give my life to Jesus, or I want to I want to learn more about this Jesus through Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: And after the service, just come and put it in my hand.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you I praise God I had two people that put an invitation in my hand this morning after first service?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know who's in here.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's going on in your lives.
SPEAKER_00: You all are really beautiful people.
SPEAKER_00: You look really I'm glad you didn't laugh at that.
SPEAKER_00: You believe me when I say that.
SPEAKER_00: You all are beautiful, wonderful people.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what's going on in your life, but but there might be someone in here who has said, I have not accepted Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've accepted Jesus and I've accepted that invitation.
SPEAKER_00: So my job is to say to you, Come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this isn't the end of the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Don't think that you're getting out early.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the there's nothing again in the Bible that it's against making an altar call mid-sermon.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to put that down on that card, just give it to me at the end.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love to follow up with you, pray with you, talk to you, and see how God works in your life.
SPEAKER_00: But God says, Jesus said in Matthew 24, 14, that the end will come when this gospel goes to the ends, extends to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's understand about this, folks.
SPEAKER_00: The responsibility is not for you to convert people, it's not for you to make sure that people get baptized or that people believe and do the right things.
SPEAKER_00: Your responsibility, my responsibility, is simply to extend the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 24 and 14 does not imply that all peoples will be converted.
SPEAKER_00: It does not imply that all people will agree with us or all people will accept this invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Simply, our responsibility is that we must, as followers of Jesus, participate in giving all peoples the opportunity to embrace the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: That's our responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: We'll let the Holy Spirit do what only the Holy Spirit can do, which is touch hearts and change lives and transform minds.
SPEAKER_00: We'll just ask people, will you fix your eyes on Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a daunting, a daunting task.
SPEAKER_00: It must extend to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's so daunting that you'll find in some commentary scholars trying to equivocate what that actually means.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus probably was just meaning in in his territory.
SPEAKER_00: You know, because we're limited, sometimes we try to limit Jesus, but Jesus was speaking of the totality of humanity in those last days that all the people that are living that have a have a conscience understanding will have a right to make a choice for or against Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: How is that possible?
SPEAKER_00: It's possible exponentially through one-to-one ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Exponentially through one-to-one ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know how this works, it's kind of a supernatural thing.
SPEAKER_00: One-to-one, but exponentially all at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: I did some math.
SPEAKER_00: Let me actually correct that.
SPEAKER_00: I heard someone chuckle, but I think they know that I'd not get at math.
SPEAKER_00: AI did some math.
SPEAKER_00: And I think AI is correct.
SPEAKER_00: I did it through two different AI machines just to double check it to make sure it's all right.
SPEAKER_00: But think about this.
SPEAKER_00: If all the Spencerville membership prayed for and led or sought to share Jesus with at least one person each month, and let's say that just half of those people said, Yes, I want to follow Jesus and share Jesus with someone else.
SPEAKER_00: And they share Jesus, and only half of those people, and it was just perpetuated like this that once a month we're just looking for an opportunity to share Jesus with someone else.
SPEAKER_00: In three years, we'd reach 8.3 billion people.
SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Math is cool sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Only when it's convenient.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, math is clean and everything, but life is not always that clean.
SPEAKER_00: And it can be easy to say, but but yeah, can it start with just one?
SPEAKER_00: Can it start with just me sharing Jesus with one other person?
SPEAKER_00: I want to bring a friend of mine up here today, uh Anthony Kent.
SPEAKER_00: He's a member of our Spencerville church family.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see how this aspect of one person can multiply into the impact of tens of thousands of people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you might know one side of Anthony's family's story.
SPEAKER_00: Anthony has been riding a bike for a few years.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know that?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you heard some about that?
SPEAKER_00: Anthony drove rode to our world churches, um uh meetings that happen every five years on a bike to celebrate and honor the fact that a a guy on a bike led one side of his family to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But today we're going to look at uh how did the other side get reached?
SPEAKER_00: And Anthony, this month in August of 2026, is the hundredth anniversary of something very uh special for your family.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you share with your church family what that is?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: In August 1926, a first-year pastor, we call him an intern, his name was John Craig Sterling.
SPEAKER_01: He was employed as a literature evangelist after graduating from Avondale.
SPEAKER_01: His parents had emigrated from Scotland, he grew up in New Zealand, he went to our college in New Zealand, Longburn College, then he went to Avondale, he became a pastor.
SPEAKER_01: So in 1926, his role was to share literature with the world.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't have a bicycle, he didn't have a car, he had a horse.
SPEAKER_00: And so he rode this horse.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I asked Anthony if he was gonna ride a horse to the next general conference session, and he thought that might be a little uncomfortable too.
SPEAKER_01: Give me a bike any day, not a horse.
SPEAKER_01: And so he he rode this horse, and my grandparents, their names were uh Reg and Virginia McClannan.
SPEAKER_01: They lived in a place that not even Australians have heard of.
SPEAKER_01: It's literally their farm was the last farm at the end of the valley before the cliff started.
SPEAKER_01: To get to their house, you needed to cross a river three times to get to the house.
SPEAKER_01: My grandfather's brother drowned in that stream trying to cross it in a horse four years before he arrived.
SPEAKER_01: And I I can't just imagine what this guy ate, where he slept.
SPEAKER_01: Like in that area, even this year, since Easter, it has rained every day.
SPEAKER_01: There are snakes there like King Browns, tiger snakes, typans, they're all deadly.
SPEAKER_01: There's wild dingos, and they do damage, especially to Adventists.
SPEAKER_01: And like it's it's an inhospitable place.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and this guy he didn't sleep in a Winnebago.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where he slept.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't accumulating Hilton honors points.
SPEAKER_01: And he's he's out on a horse and he rides up to my grandmother.
SPEAKER_01: She died before I was born, August 1926.
SPEAKER_01: They had lost four sons in this environment.
SPEAKER_01: They had two little girls.
SPEAKER_01: She was a young mother.
SPEAKER_01: My mother was two years old at the time.
SPEAKER_01: She wasn't interested in his books.
SPEAKER_01: And here's a shout out to Ashley Chisholm.
SPEAKER_01: Ashley Chusome works at the General Conference.
SPEAKER_01: She is a wonderful researcher.
SPEAKER_01: She found out all this information for me.
SPEAKER_01: And she felt sorry for this man with a Scottish name.
SPEAKER_01: She had a Scottish name.
SPEAKER_01: And so she bought his book.
SPEAKER_01: That year, John Craig Sterling sold a heap of books called Our Day in the Light of Bible Prophecy by Spicer.
SPEAKER_01: That year he sold one copy of the Great Controversy.
SPEAKER_01: This is a book.
SPEAKER_01: It talks about the history of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: It's an amazing book.
SPEAKER_01: And he sold that to my grandmother.
SPEAKER_01: She left it on the kitchen table.
SPEAKER_01: My grandfather came in from working on the farm and he said, What's this?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, There was this nice Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Sterling.
SPEAKER_01: He rode up on a horse.
SPEAKER_01: I felt sorry for him.
SPEAKER_01: I bought his book.
SPEAKER_01: And he started to read it.
SPEAKER_01: He threw his pipe in the fire.
SPEAKER_01: He gave up alcohol.
SPEAKER_01: They had other issues in their home.
SPEAKER_01: My grandfather had been through World War I in the trenches.
SPEAKER_01: I remember him.
SPEAKER_01: He died when I was young because he still had shrapnel in his forehead.
SPEAKER_01: It used to droop down over his eye.
SPEAKER_01: My brother described how he saw him, his legs had been damaged in the war.
SPEAKER_01: He had to wear daily bandages on his legs because the wounds were still weeping 50 years later.
SPEAKER_01: You know, like they had hardship.
SPEAKER_01: And John Craig Sterling rode a horse up to Them and shared with them some literature.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I wouldn't be here today.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't have seen the light of day had not a guy on a bike and another guy on a horse shared with my ancestors the beautiful gospel of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus comes, I can't wait to meet these two guys.
SPEAKER_01: One guy on a bike and one guy on a horse.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Anthony.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what Anthony won't tell you, and why I want you to hear that story, though, is because whether it was one gentleman on a bike or one gentleman on a horse, as a result of that, a very moderate estimate is that more than 20,000 people now know Jesus Christ through this family.
SPEAKER_00: And Anthony told me that when he was a kid, that it was drilled into their minds every single day through their devotional time, that they would always in their devotional time praying, Jesus, give us an opportunity to witness for you today, to share Jesus with someone to you today.
SPEAKER_00: We have Anthony here, of course, as a result of this one man, but literally tens of thousands have come to accept Jesus, and we don't even know about those who accepted Jesus through this family, who then have made it even broader, and more and more people have come to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But it all started with John Sterling being willing to go to the ends of the earth, as Anthony told me.
SPEAKER_00: To share Jesus with one.
SPEAKER_00: With one.
SPEAKER_00: And so just as Anthony's family used to pray, I want to invite you to make a commitment today.
SPEAKER_00: Will you make a commitment to pray every single day?
SPEAKER_00: To pray every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, will you give me the opportunity today to share you with someone else?
SPEAKER_00: We have this connection card here.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're willing to make that commitment under my response to the sermon, will you take a moment just to write, I will or I'm in, I want to be part of that.
SPEAKER_00: And then be ready, because Jesus will bring those opportunities to you.
SPEAKER_00: You may say, why do we need to put it on the card?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the reason why.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about the way we're made as humans.
SPEAKER_00: That when we put something down, or we have to be accountable to someone, or we have to have a physical response, it helps us.
SPEAKER_00: It's the way Jesus made us.
SPEAKER_00: You think of all the times that Jesus asked people to respond in a specific way, to go and do this or go and do that, some physical act.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew their hearts inside and out.
SPEAKER_00: Why would Jesus have them do this?
SPEAKER_00: It's because he knows there's something about us that says, okay, I need to respond.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're willing to pray that prayer, I commit to praying every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, please give me the opportunity to share you with someone else today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're willing to say, I will, I'm in, will you write that on this card?
SPEAKER_00: And you can give it to me, or you can give it, put it in the box out there as you go through the doors, our offering, tithe, and offering box.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to be praying for every one of our missionaries that is in this room that are going to be John Sterlings for someone in the DMV.
SPEAKER_00: There's a statement that I love that I read years ago.
SPEAKER_00: It says, all over the place, there are people looking wistfully to heaven for some sort of hope, some sort of answers.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, John Sterling was that for Anthony's family.
SPEAKER_00: Let us be John Sterlings for someone in our community who right now is looking wistfully towards heaven that needs to know that Jesus is coming and he will make all things new.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the John Sterlings in all of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Probably all of us could trace if we went back and found out our origin stories of how we came to know you.
SPEAKER_00: We could find it maybe in our own individual life or maybe in the life of family members of one person that came and invited us to something.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that right now we will be a church full of individuals that will make a commitment to be the one to go and share Jesus with someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, and maybe in here there are some people who need a John Sterling in their life, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Send me, send us to these individuals, even that are in our room.
SPEAKER_00: That they can know the hope and the peace and the joy and the promise that comes in knowing you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, you are the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, make us all John Sterlings that we may encourage others to fix their eyes upon you, Jesus, and then we'll step aside and watch your power work in great wonder.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In your name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.