I'm Gonna sit at the Welcome Table
I’m Gonna Sit at the Welcome
Rev 3:14-22
14And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
15I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches
KJV
I’m glad to be here this morning it has been a while. Today my topic is I’m gonna sit at the welcome table . . . I suggest to you today that anything worth while is worth fighting for. Fight until the end, never give up. For Jesus will captain the ship we definetly can make it. It’s only a few that will make it. You have to be determined by the grace and power of God to make it in! You can’t afford to be caught offguard led astray. . . Let us pray
I’m gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days. I want to talk to you this morning about eschatology. The second coming of Jesus Christ, the last days. I really want to see Jesus don’t you. I know that there is going to be great rejoicing in heaven. There’s going be a banquet table. And guess what food is going to be served!
And if any of you remember me you know I love to eat.
It’s going to be a great getting up morning!
“The dear saints have many trials to pass through. But our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, will work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory--while we look not at the things which are seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” EW p.13
Ellen Harmon, age 17, received her first vision at the home of a friend (Elizabeth Haines) in south Portland, Maine, in December 1844. At the time, Ellen was an invalid and did not expect to live long. Received just weeks after the "great disappointment," this vision provided encouragement to many disheartened adventists. It pictured the advent believers walking on a narrow pathway high above the world. The light of the "midnight cry" (the message of Christ's imminent return) lighted the path from behind, while Christ was at the head of the path leading His followers to the Holy City. Ellen saw some falling off the path through discouragement or disbelief, but so long as the advent people kept their eyes fixed on Jesus they were safe.
I want you to know that in order for you to make heaven your home you have to realize that the devil is not going to make it easy for you!
You will have to go through some adversity sometime, you’ll have to face some trials, you’ll have to stand firm against temptation. But anything as wonderful as glory and sitting with Jesus must be worth it all!
We got some folk talking about how the church has deteriorated. How the Holy Spirit is not with the church any more. How the leaders are corrupt, how the ministers aren’t right and the members are miserable.
More than ever we have people starting their own little offshoot churches—with people who are going to be more serious about God. They break away in these new churches and when they do guess what they find?
Corrupt leaders, faulty ministers and miserable members!
All have sinned and come short! (Beast)
Organized, unorganized it does not make a difference! I can’t take the beaucracy of the conference.
For years I have borne my testimony to the effect that when any one arises claiming to have great light, and yet advocating the tearing down of that which the Lord through his human agents has been building up, they are greatly deceived, and are not working along the lines where Christ is working. Those who assert that the Seventh-day Adventist churches constitute Babylon, or any part of Babylon, might better stay at home. Let them stop and consider what is the message to be proclaimed at this time RH 1849-1915
God has a people in which all heaven is interested, and they are the one object on earth dear to the heart of God. Let every one who reads these words give them thorough consideration; for in the name of Jesus I would press them home upon every soul. When any one arises, either among us or outside of us, who is burdened with a message which declares that the people of God are numbered with Babylon, and claims that the loud cry is a call to come out of her, you may know that he is not bearing the message of truth. Receive him not, nor bid him God-speed; for God has not spoken by him, neither has he given a message to him, but he has run before he was sent.
It will be found that those who bear false messages will not have a high sense of honor and integrity. They will deceive the people, and mix up with their error the Testimonies of sister White, and use her name to give influence to their work. They make such selections from the Testimonies as they think they can twist to support their positions, and place them in a setting of falsehood, so that their error may have weight, and be accepted by the people. They misinterpret and misapply that which God has given to the church to warn, counsel, reprove, comfort, and encourage those who shall make up the remnant people of God.
Why even complain about God’s church? Man folk are waisting their time with the wrong message and the wrong burden for these last days!
Why complain? Just open up your eyes and act like you know something about prophecy? Something about last day events!
The Bible says that the devil is mad at the church!
1 Peter 5:8
8Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour
KJV
When have you known a period in the churches history that God never had trouble with His people?
Dan 12 says there will be a time of trouble . . .
It’s gonna get worst before it gets better! You aint seen nothing yet!
If you can’t take what’s going on know How in the world!
The leaders, the leaders aren’t right!
Didn’t you ever read that Jesus said the wheat and tares would grow together?
Honey, my example does not sit in an office in Manhasset, New York or In an office in Takoma Park, Maryland. He is just a man—dust may let me down he may fail me.
But my example sits on a throne in glory! And guess what He’s never failed me yet!
He’s the leader of this church!
Enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard. AA p.12
He said watch and pray not watch and complain! Because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak!
More short, short, short skirts, gossiping, backbiting, hyprocrites, damable doctrinces more sleeping (spiritually), more husbands straying eyes, temper, more music that appeals to the baser passionsnow, more women and wives with unbridled passion.
We need now more than ever before the Holy Spirit in our lives. No wonder Paul said “I die daily”
Zechariah 3
KJV
Heb 13:17
17Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
KJV
On the river or on the bank, whether he’s wheat or tare, touch not the Lord’s anointed.
I don’t have card b. to disregard the rules but like anyone else . . . Matt 18
Calling conference – call someone and invite them to church!
Not everyone can be in charge!
I’m called to be an example as God’s minister!
We major in minors—we not gonna sit!
Follow me as I follow Christ!
Paint, toilet tissue, carpet, pews – these things will be destroyed and only characters will be recognized!
Matthew 5:20
20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Since Pharisees found that other Jews were not careful enough about keeping the laws of tithing and ritual purity, they felt it was necessary to place limits on their contacts with other Jews as well as with Gentiles. For example, they could not eat in the home of a non-Pharisee, since they could not be sure that the food had been properly tithed and kept ritually pure. The Pharisees interpreted Neh 8:10, 12 in such a manner as to make it unlawful to fast on the Sabbath (unless the Sabbath fell on the Day of Atonement);[1]
The Pharisees and their scribes enjoyed a good deal of popular support. In one way this is surprising, since the Pharisees kept apart from other Jews. They always seemed to be ready to criticize others for not keeping the laws, and they often looked down on "sinners" who showed no interest in God's law.
Scribes
A man who copied the Law and other books of the Scriptures (Jer 8:8), but more specifically a man who was proficient in teaching and interpreting the Bible. In the modern sense such a man would be called a theologian or a religious scholar. In the NT such a man was sometimes called nomikos, “lawyer” (Mt 22:35; Lk 10:25; etc.), or nomodidaskalos, “teacher of the law” (Acts 5:34, RSV; 1 Ti 1:7). The first man to bear the title “scribe” in this sense was Ezra, “a ready scribe in the law of Moses” (Ezr 7:6), who had consecrated himself to study and teach the law of the Lord (v 10). After Ezra’s time scribes assumed influential positions among the Jews as teachers of God’s Word. By the time of the Maccabees (2d cent. b.c.) they were recognized as constituting an honored profession (1 Macc 7:12). Some of the most famous scribes of Jewry, such as Hillel, Shammai, and Gamaliel I, lived at the time of Christ’s birth and shortly thereafter. They were Pharisees and attempted to adapt the Law of Moses to the times in which they lived, but could not always agree, so different schools of thought developed. The subtle interpretations of the Pharisees were considered by many to be of equal value with the Law of Moses, and Jesus bitterly denounced the sect’s hypocrisy and misinterpretation of Scriptures which led the people astray [2]
The young Israelite who devoted his life to become a scribe went through a set course of study for several years. Josephus began his preparation when he was 14. Students were in continual contact with the teacher, listening to his instruction. The disciple-scribe first had to master all the traditional material and the unique method of interpretation of the Jewish Halakah. The aim was to give the apprentice competence in making decisions on questions of religious legislation and penal justice.
According to the tradition of the scribes, there were "secrets" of interpretation, forbidden degrees of knowledge, which were not to be expounded before three or more persons. Some chapters in the Bible were to be explained only to sages.
They believed that God intended to leave the mass of people ignorant of His reasons for requiring certain things under the Law. These truths were hidden from the masses because they could not be trusted to understand and apply the Law.
The city of Jerusalem was the center of this scribal knowledge and interpretation of the Law. Only ordained teachers could transmit and create the tradition; this was the matter studied to perfection by students often beginning at age 14. When they completed their study at the age of 40, they could be ordained. As members with full rights, they could act as judges, be called rabbis, and occupy positions in administration of justice, government, and education. They joined the chief priests and aristocratic families who made up the SANHEDRIN. The people held the scribes in greatest esteem.
The more things change the more they stay the same!
We got folk in this church that are making this trip to glory more difficult than it should be. With focus and emphasis on the wrong message to the wrong people!
Why are we hearing things like? Can’t stand up in church, can’t fellowship during divine hour,
wear hat, no pants,
keep all the feasts
Just as mean and rude as they could be. . . no stich of righteousness in him!
Don’t you know by know your religion can’t save you!
Health message . . .
God has not given you that burden to bear!
Revelation 14:6-12
6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
KJV
Ten Commandments!
Some folk want to sit with Jesus but you have to stand up for Him firsts! You have to work for Jesus! (sit on pews, go back home don’t share) your not going!
Matthew 24:14
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
KJV
Some folk are dropping out because they are become upset, discouraged!
Stepped on your foot, someone backstabbed you, someone hurt your feelings!
Backbone, determination
Hell the church will experience it but if you got Jesus it shall not prevail.
No commitment, no purpose, no dedication to the glory and purposes of God!
(thorn in the flesh)
John 16:33
33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
KJV
This coming Monday will make 167 years that the stars fell from heaven!
We got some cold, some hot!
Most lukewarm!
I gonna sit!
Keep your eye focused on the prize, be changed from Glory to Glory
If I die and go to sleep the Holy Ghost will set alarm clock by my grave and at the shout of the trumpet at the call of the archangel at the voice of God I will arise and go to my father!
Meet Him in the air!
I want to be saved, I am determined I am gonna sit!
Then we will be all around the banquet table . . . aint gonna be no curry goat, fried chicken or ox tails, not gonna be any vege chunks, gluten or tofu either!
Bible says eye has not seen nor ears hear what good things God has in store for His people!
Nothing is worth more than sitting with Jesus!
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[1]Horn, Siegfried H., Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary, (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association) 1979.
[2]Horn, Siegfried H., Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary, (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association) 1979.