1. Illus: Here's a piece written by a little 8-year-old third-grader named Danny Dutton, who lives in Chula Vista, California. His teacher sent him home with this topic as his writing assignment: "Explain God." How would you like to have that for a homework assignment! Well, Danny Dutton did--and I'm grateful for my friends Clint and Gina Wahlen who sent me what Danny wrote to "explain God":

   "One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes these to put in place of the ones that die so that there will be enough people take care of things here on earth. He doesn't make grownups. Just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way He doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that up to the mothers and fathers. I think it works out pretty good.

   "God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, as some people, like preachers and things, pray other times besides bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV on account of this. As He hears everything, not only prayers, there must be a terrible lot of noise in His ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off. God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere. Which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by going over your parents' head and ask for something they said you couldn't have.

   "Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church.

   "Jesus is God's son. He used to do all the hard work, like walking on water and doing miracles and trying to teach people about God who didn't want to learn. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them and they crucified Him. But He was good and kind, like His Father and He told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said OK. His Dad (God) appreciated everything He had done and all His work on earth, so He told Him He didn't have to go out on the road any more. He could stand in Heaven. So He did.

   "And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing which things are important to God to take care of and which ones He can take care of Himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important of course. You can pray any time you want and they are sure to hear you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.

   "You should go to [church] , because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip [church] to do something you think will be more fun, like going to the beach. That's wrong! And besides, the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway.

   "If you don't believe in God, besides being an Atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like camp, but God can. It's good to know He's around when you're scared of the dark or when you can't swim very good and you get thrown in real deep water by the big kids. But you shouldn't just think of what God can do for you. I figure He put me here and can take me back anytime He pleases. And that's why I believe in God."

   1. Good for you, Danny Dutton!
      1. We should have shared this opening night of our NeXt Millennium Seminar and we'd have had the whole thing summarized in a single essay!
      2. Pretty good for an eight-year-old, wouldn't you say?
   2. "Explain God"--and so he does.
      1. And so we have for the last 25 evenings that you and I have shared together.
      2. "Finding a Forever Friendship with God"--is what we've been calling this journey--because when it's all said and done--that's the best way to explain God--the glorious Supreme Being of this universe whose greatest passion is a personal relationship and friendship with you and me and every human being on this planet.
      3. Too bad everybody hasn't heard that very Good News yet!
      4. But then, now you and I can pass it on to our little worlds.
      5. When your friends ask you to EXPLAIN GOD, you can say just like little Danny Dutton:

         "If you don't believe in God, besides being an Atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you,...but God can. It's good to know He's around when you're scared....I figure He put me here and can take me back any time He pleases. And that's why I believe in God."

   3. Tonight what do you say we move deeper into this FOREVER FRIENDSHIP--and rather than simply explaining God--as Danny has done so well--let's explain GOD'S FRIENDS--what kind of friends are they--these men and women and young adults who live out God's forever friendship in their everyday worlds?
2. One things's for certain--they have found His FOREVER FRIENDSHIP in the midst of a very bloody battle!
   1. Open your Bible to the last book, the Apocalypse, Revelation, to a chapter we've been to several times before in this seminar--Revelation 12 (p 1182).
      1. But this time let's zero in on a dynmaite verse, a dramatic promise tucked away in the midst of a raging battle.
      2. Remember "Star Wars" a few evenings ago? Let's pick it up where the war breaks out in heaven--read Rev. 12:7-12.
   2. Wow! Talk about a very great controversy in a very great cosmic battle--you've got it all right here.
      1. The real "Star Wars!"--the battle between the forces of light championed by the incarnate God--called Michael and Christ and Jesus--and the forces of darkness championed by the fallen rebel angel--called Lucifer and Satan and the Dragon, that old Serpent of Eden!
      2. Whenever the newspapers report that tragedy of war and bloodshed on our planet--they inevitably leave out the one war that more human beings have fought and lost in than any other war in history--THE GREAT COSMIC CONTROVERSY AND WAR BETWEEN LUCIFER AND GOD, the forces of hatred against the forces of love.
   3. But did you catch the apocalyptic description of the devil's strategy?
      1. Reread v. 12.
      2. Please note, ladies and gentlemen: Intensification is the name of the dragon's strategy.
      3. For his time and his intensity are inversely proportionate...WHICH MEANS THE LESS HE HAS OF ONE THE MORE HE HAS OF THE OTHER.
      4. Which being interpreted means that the less and less he has of time, the more and more the dragon has of rage!
      5. The closer we come to the end, the hotter will become his rage!
   4. The friends of God are in a war, and the battle is intensifying!
   5. Illus Which explains, by the way, why you will hear those in the older generations among us idealizing (to a certain degree) the tranquility and security of their childhood days...and how they were usually so much better behaved and certainly more mature than today's young.
      1. Then after that recitation usually comes the bemoaning lamentation over how sad it is to see how our kids today are turning out....no respect for authority, much younger dabbling in sex and substance abuse, rebellious, dishonest, etc, etc, etc.
      2. "WHY CAN'T THEY BE LIKE WE WERE?" the elderly moan.
      3. I'll tell you why: BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIVE WHEN YOU DID!
      4. You bet it's worse today!
      5. There's a war going on and the battle is intensifying.
      6. And our young hearts are being decimated by an arsenal more sophisticated and destructive than any other age in history!
      7. They're getting shot up out there and in here!
      8. Reread v. 12.
   6. Illus: I hold in my hands a counterfeit $10 bill! (You never know when you might need to use one of these--just kidding!)
      1. Just to prove it's counterfeit, let me unfold the bill before your eyes.
      2. Now for the sake of illustration, let's say that the $10 bill had just been invented yesterday, and I wanted to counterfeit it.
      3. Obviously I would only have had 24 hours to scrutinize it before attempting to create a fake or counterfeit bill.
      4. But let's say I had a week to study the original--which counterfeit would you rather try to pass off as the genuine thing--the one I designed after only a day of study, or the one after a week of careful scrutiny?
      5. Now let's say I had a year to study the genuine $10 bill--which counterfeit then would you want--the one after a week or after a year?
      6. How about if I had ten years? How about a hundred years? What if I had a thousand years to study the genuine?
      7. Doesn't it follow that the more time I've had to scrutinize the genuine the more sophisticated and deceptive my counterfeit will be? But of course!
   7. Enter now Lucifer, the dragon and devil and Satan....doesn't it follow that the generation that lives at the end of time will become the target of his MOST SUBTLE AND SOPHISTICATED, HIS MOST DAMNING AND DECEPTIVE COUNTERFEITS that he has ever concocted in the course of his rebellion against his Creator and ours?
      1. You bet it's worse today than when some of you grew up!
      2. It's a hundred times worse--and it keeps getting "worser"!
      3. Illus: Peter's sobering admonition could hardly be more timely than today or tonight! I Peter 5:8 (p 1165).
   8. Illus: Look at the dragon's roaring arsenal!
      1. I'm embarassed to mention some of this, because most of this is exported from my country to the countries of the many of you who are watching tonight around the world.
      2. America's reputation for its ENTERTAINMENT EXPORT business could hardly be lower than it's reached tonight.
      3. Look at the blitzkrieg of technological wonders that the dragon has hypnotized us with today!
         1. Do you want to talk about the the cyberworld of computer games that blatantly inculcate values of violence and physical retaliation?
         2. Illus: One of the faculty here at Andrews University spotted this ad and sent it to me with the intriguing offer: "$1.00 OFF HADES"-- apparently you can get a dollar off getting into hades or hell with this coupon! Turns out it's billed as the nation's largest haunted house (and sponsored by Taco Bell and MTV)--"a metropolis of living nightmares challenging you to 13 levels of terror with a videogram and arcade video games for play."
         3. Welcome to Hades or Hell!
         4. With the now grotesque levels of computer driven combat, where body organs can be ripped out of opponents by the flick of a toggle in an arcade, or by a mere keystroke on a laptop computer, is it any wonder that the young of America and the world roam the streets of their cities, pulling the triggers to their handguns in the same way they squeeze the trigger on the video arcade? Only now, it's a real body that lies bleeding on the pavement.
      4. Reread Rev. 12:12--"Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time."
      5. Illus: Want to talk about Walt Disney, the great purveyor once-upon-a- time of family values?
         1. Let me warn you, parents--the cartoons aren't all they're cracked up to be any more--in fact they spend more time cracking up and smashing up in those 'toons then ever before! PARENTS BEWARE--cartoons are very dangerous babysitter for your children anymore.
         2. Even Walt Disney's family films and feature length cartoons are now riddled with the occult and the supernatural--and it isn't God who's the subject!
         3. Illus: I couldn't believe my ears when a video expert in a public presentation played back a portion of the "Alladin" Disney family cartoon video and carefully segued between voices in the dialogue was another whispered voice "Teenagers, its OK to take your clothes off."
         4. SUBLIMINAL WHISPERS MAY BE SOME HAPPY-GO- LUCKY FILM EDITOR'S IDEA OF A JOKE but it is no laughing matter when the subliminal suggestion is a blatant temptation to dragon-like immorality.
      6. Look at what American television and America's Hollywood are now exporting to the world.
         1. Adult programming that mocks the sanctity of marriage and belittles the holiness and the wholeness of the family.
         2. In our country they call the day-time adult programming "soaps"-- though why they call them "soap operas" is beyond--since nobody ever gets clean watching one of them!
         3. Adultery, immorality, licentiousness, greed, murder, theft, dishonesty, violence, sexual abuse, dehumanization of women and children--AND WE SIT THERE AS A CIVILIZATION AND LAP IT UP AS IF IT WERE THE GREATEST ENTERTAINMENT TO COME OUR WAY!
         4. What's gone wrong with America, what's gone wrong with the world?
      7. HOW ABOUT THIS WARNING LABEL FOR CHRISTIANS ON EVERY VIDEO WARNING: viewing the contents of this video will open your home and mind to the raging possession of the dragon.
      8. I ASK YOU, MY FRIENDS do you really want to bring the dragon into your room, your mind, your life?
      9. Reread Rev. 12:12--"Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time."
   9. Illus: You see THERE IS A LAW AT WORK HERE, and the dragon knows it works every single time.
      1. Saturday evening in our last sesson together I'm going to share with you a dynamite way to tap into this law for incredible power and good in your life right now.
      2. But take a look at the law--II Corinthians 3:18 (p 1113).
      3. Simply put the law goes like this: By beholding, we become transformed or changed....WHAT WE BEHOLD, WE BECOME.
      4. And the dragon knows the law works, which is why he is so desperately glutting our screens and infiltrating our technology and belching his putrid images in front of our eyes.
      5. Illus: LOOK AT HOW HE'S CORRUPTED EVEN THE INTERNET!
      6. You can't turn around without running into him.
   10. SO HOW SHALL THE FRIENDS OF JESUS LIVE IN THIS HOUR? How shall we who are pursuing a FOREVER FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD conduct ourselves in the fury of this raging battle and fallen world?
       1. GOOD NEWS--God has not left us without any defensive strategy in the midst of the battle!
       2. It is radically simply, yet powerfully effective!
       3. Illus: FIRST OF ALL, EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO SAY YES!
          1. Philippians 4:8,9 (p 1131).
          2. Live your life saying YES to God's best!
          3. Now what's so hard about that?
          4. All a person would have to do is tape this verse up beside your television set and VCR--and say YES to God's finest but making whatever you view on the screen conform to this great list of YES's.
          5. Is it true? Is it noble? Is it just? Is it pure? Is it lovely? Is it of good report? Is it praiseworthy?
          6. Yes, yes, yes--then go for it--and enjoy it to the max!
          7. You say, But wait a minute--you've just eliminated everything there is!
          8. I rest my case! But of course, it isn't that bad--because there are noble and praiseworthy character-building examples of film productions musical compositions and art displays.
          9. The very kind of material you'd be very comfortable asking Jesus to sit down and join you in watching or reading or listening.
          10. SAY YES TO WHAT GOD SAYS YES TO.
       4. Illus: BUT ALSO EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO SAY NO!
          1. I John 2:15-17 (p 1169).
          2. I don't want to be inordinately picking on Hollywood, but you have got to admit that verse 16 is a stunningly accurate depiction of what our entertainment industry is producing these days!
          3. Illus: There is a wonderful new invention that greatly facilitates your ability and right to say NO! to all of that--it's called the OFF switch! Works like a charm. And obeys you everytime! When you turn it off, it will go off.
          4. And that's John's point--as FOREVER FRIENDS OF THE FATHER turn off to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the haughty pride of rebellious living.
   11. And by the way, these two laws about exercising your right to say YES and your right to say NO, not only can guide us with what you and I place before our eyes (and thus onto our hard disks within our minds)--but these two laws are also very helpful in guiding us through the rest of the dragon's fallen system.
       1. Even when it comes to where we live, what we buy, what we drive, what we wear.
       2. Illus: In fact Jesus put it best in that powerful line from His Sermon on the Mount--Matthew 6:19-21 (p 940).
       3. Illus: Here in this nation we have a phrase that describes the relentless pursuit of keeping in step with society--"keeping up with the Joneses."
          1. The sad reality tonight is that there are too many families, too many people who are being driven by this incessant need to maintain the social and economic status or trappings of our neighbors.
          2. Somehow, we've concluded that unless we have what they have and live like they live we aren't successful or fulfilled--we haven't arrived.
          3. What a bunch of rubbish!
          4. Who says we have to succumb to the Pied Piper mentality of Madison Avenue's advertising strategies that attempt to drum it into our brains that we've got to be like all the rest!
          5. What a joke!
          6. The Bible says (show on screen): "They measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." 2 Corinthians 10:12 KJV
          7. FOREVER FRIENDS OF GOD DO NOT HAVE TO LIVE THEIR LIVES IN SLAVISH CONFORMITY TO SOCIETY.
          8. Not in what they wear, not in what they drive, not in what they buy, not in what they dwell in.
       4. "Come on," Jesus cries out, "do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. Invest your life and means in heaven, invest in other people's needs- -for where your treasure is there will your heart be also."
       5. Illus: And please note that Jesus practiced what He preached, for you'll find no more powerful example of SIMPLICITY than the life of Jesus on earth.
          1. He had no home--"no where to lay His head," as He put it.
          2. He owned a single robe, which they gambled over at His execution.
          3. He laid up no treasures on earth.
          4. He lived His life in the simplicity of simple dependence on His heavenly Father.
       6. More than any other example, it is the life of Jesus that most powerfully informs God's FOREVER FRIENDS how to spend the money they have and how to live the lives they live--live with the simplicity of simple dependence on our heavenly Father.
       7. The New Testament does NOT call us to NOT have a place to call home--but to simply remember that this world is NOT OUR HOME!
       8. We're pilgrims here--aliens--citizens of a higher kingdom--with our first allegiance to our FOREVER FRIEND.
       9. For that reason the New Testament will very overtly bring up the issue of simplicity when it describes even the dress of Christians.
       10. Illus: Both I Timothy 2 and I Peter 3 contain appeals for the Christian to embrace simplicity in dress--choosing to reject costly garments and glittering jewelry of society.
       11. The FOREVER FRIENDS OF GOD are called to embrace simplicity as a way of life, abandoning in this life the showy, glittery manner of dress the world propagates.
       12. Which is why Peter writes [show on screen], "Do not let your adornment be merely outward --arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel--rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." (I Peter 3:3,4)
       13. A FOREVER FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD clearly and powerfully transforms not only what we do but how we dress and live.
       14. The mansion and the crown and the chariot have all been promised for the life to come--which is why simplicity is the very best principle to inform what we dwell in, what we dress in, even what we drive in.
3. But in the end--living this FOREVER FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD comes down to a dynamite strategy that can successfully guide you day in and day out.
   1. I'd like to end this evening with where we began--in Revelation 12 (p 1182).
      1. Because tucked away in this cosmic battle passage is a truly dynamite promise that can turn every day into an adventure with God!
      2. Begin reading in v. 10.
      3. Illus: The Greek word for "power" is dunamis, from whence comes our word dynamite: "Now has come the dynamite power of the Christ!"
      4. Would you like that power at your disposal day and night as you live your FOREVER FRIENDSHIP with God?
      5. You may have it--the secret to dynamite power is in v. 11!
   2. There it is, ladies and gentlemen--your promise of power and victory in your FOREVER FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD!
      1. HOW DO YOU STALK A DRAGON?
      2. You stalk him with the blood of the Lamb! That's how!
      3. And of course, by now in this seminar, we recognize "the blood of the Lamb" as apocalyptic code words for Calvary and the cross of Jesus.
      4. Illus: I was in Sacramento, preaching for the weekend in a church there.
         1. It was Friday evening and the meeting was soon to begin, when I spotted him walking down the center aisle of the church--a young man with a black T-shirt on, and across his shirt in bright red letters the name SATAN!
         2. I did a quick double-take. No question about it. There they were in big red letters--S-A-T-A-N.
         3. And I hurriedly began to wonder what sort of crowd and meeting this was going to be.
         4. But the young man had a smile on his face and as he moved closer he extended his hand for a handshake.
         5. And then it was that I could read the small print below in white letters: "...is defeated!"
         6. Well, I was relieved to know that I was still among friends!
      5. But my friends, I want to tell you something: Because of Calvary and Jesus' victory over the dragon there, if you ever decide to get a T-shirt with those same three words on it--I'd like to suggest that you have the name of Satan printed on there real tiny and real small--and then cover your shirt with HUGE WORDS--IS DEFEATED!!!!!! [show "new" T-shirt on screen--do animation so that "Satan" shrinks and "is defeatd" fills shirt ]
      6. SATAN IS DEFEATED--THAT'S WHAT THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB CRIES OUT TONIGHT!
      7. AND THAT'S THE VERY VICTORY YOU CAN HAVE DAY AFTER DAY in your FOREVER FRIENDSHIP with Jesus!
   3. Reread v. 11.
   4. What a testimony to tell your world, your family, your friends, your colleagues on the job, your classmates in the university, your neighbors down the street: I have found a forever friendship with God through Jesus, who offers me the dynamite power of His victory every day as I walk with Him-- and guess what friends, you can say, you can have Him, too!
      1. That's how the battle keeps getting won by God--who one by one wins His friends through friends like you and me.
      2. Your testimony is a power that the raging dragon cannot silence!
      3. Because your power comes from His power--and His power over the dragon comes through His triumphant death on the cross.
      4. ANY WAY YOU STACK IT--YOU CAN STALK THE DRAGON AND TRIUMPH OVER HIM, #1 BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, AND #2 BY THE WORD OF YOUR TESTIMONY.
   5. Illus: Why, that's exactly what the children of Israel did on that midnight when God broke the bonds of their slavery and they escaped from Egypt in the mighty exodus!
      1. God's instructions on the day before their liberation were clear: Take a male lamb without blemish and a year old, sacrifice the lamb, collect his blood in a basin, take a hyssop branch and stir it in the blood, and then paint your doorposts with the blood of the lamb.
      2. And then Moses ended with this cryptic word: "And when the Lord sees the blood on the doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you." (Exodus 12:23)
      3. "And they overcame the dragon by the blood of the Lamb."
      4. So when you go home tonight, before you crawl into bed, why not pray to your FOREVER FRIEND, and in your mind's eye take as it were a basin of the blood of Jesus and still in your mind's eye go throughout your room and your house and paint the blood of the Lamb upon your doorposts: The doorposts of your television, the doorposts of your VCR, the doorposts of your stereo, the doorposts of your library and magazine rack, the doorposts of your refrigerator, the doorposts of your closet and your jewelry chest, the doorposts of your check book, the doorposts of your bedroom, the doorposts of your life.
      5. Why not paint the blood of the Lamb upon the doorposts of our hearts and minds.
      6. For the record is clear--when we stand with the blood on our doorposts--we stand in the protection of our FOREVER FRIEND who has defeated the dragon forever.
      7. And with a FOREVER FRIEND like Jesus, who's afraid of the dragon anymore!

Further Study:

Discover Guide - The Secret Of A Heavenly Lifestyle     (Lecture Study Guide from Discover Bible School)

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