Signs of the Times Pt 1

is a name without contention whose power can't be questioned or contained humble faith and is bursting past the borderlines of space good morning sunshine good morning to y'all i want to welcome you to calvary chapel this morning those online my goodness i don't think i welcomed anybody that's for service i guess i was still waking up i don't know but here we are would y'all stand would you join me in prayer father we just want to lift up our time as we come to worship in song to study your word together to fellowship lord in you and one another father we thank you that our joy is made full when that all goes on we look to you we trust you lord so father as we come from the busyness of getting ready for church and those things that come along

with that that you would help us rest in you right now pour our hearts out be real before you praise you about how we feel but by faith we come to you this morning the author and the finish for our faith I was not hold back or worthy of our praise of the star sinners say by grace Lord we thank you for that we can't earn it it's unmerited favor it wouldn't be a gift if we thought we could earn it Lord so we thank you more for your unmerited grace you made me see did you all enables us to you give us a strength to face what lies ahead ID so god jesus give your heart to him now then wait till that time in which she judgment seat mercy you'll be crying from would y'all stand dear Lord Jesus

father we thank you for this opportunity we've had to worship you in song or this morning and to study your work together is we're about to jump and just dig in together, Lord. Anoint Pastor Ryan as he brings forth your word. Give us hearts to hear. Well, actually, ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to perceive. We thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seat, we'll get ready to go over some announcements before we get started here.

We had what we'd call technical difficulties this week, so we don't have a bulletin for you. But, well, I won't tell that joke. Anyway, I don't have a bulletin for you. A handful of things to take note of, though. Fellas, we have a men's breakfast coming up on October the 22nd. October the 22nd, that's a Saturday, back in the Agape room. Also, Life Chain will be next Sunday, the 16th,

from 2 to 3.30 at the corner of Kansas and Summit. Also, Marriage and Family Study is tonight. And then one last thing as far as announcements go. There is a bunch of books in the room at the other end of the hallway, the Agape room down there. The ladies went through the library, determined kind of what we did and did not want to save. So all of the things that are not being saved are back there.

But the stuff that's back there is good. It's just we really don't have room to store it anymore. So if you're interested, go back, take a look, dig through some boxes. There are some great books back there. So those are the things that are going on. Oh, wait, I forgot. We have a special visitor today. So if you could please come up to talk about Operation Christmas Child.

Good morning. My name is Phil A. Box. So I'm Mr. Box. Yes, thank you. So today we're here to talk about Operation Christmas Child. I have a few things to go over. I might need some help. Phil can't see. Can you get them out of there? I'm a sister box.

Okay, a few things we want to talk about. First of all, numbers for this year's. We haven't really set a goal, but I just wanted to go over a couple things for boxes. For those of you who don't know, I'm here to talk about Operation Christmas Child. And that's where, if you haven't heard, we fill shoeboxes. This is an example of the shoeboxes. They're back there in the hall.

And you fill a shoebox for a boy or a girl. And the ages are from 2 to 14. And you choose if it's a boy or a girl. And we fill these boxes. They go to kids all over the world. Last year, Operation Christmas Child did over 10 million boxes in the United States. And those were shipped around the world. We know from experience that each box, has the opportunity to touch as many as 7 to 10 additional lives

with the gospel message. Because everybody who receives a box also gets an opportunity to go through the greatest journey, which is to learn about Jesus. And so that's the most important thing here. So if you can imagine, in a period of five or six weeks, where these boxes are given out, and then they're collected. By the way, the due date is November 13th.

They have to be back here by November 13th to make it on the bus this year. Otherwise, they'll have to be saved till next year. But in just a few short weeks, we gather up these boxes and ship them. And you have an opportunity by filling one of these to touch a life. And many times, these children who get these, it's the only gift they've ever received in their lives.

We hear that. And you'll get to see a video of a young man who got one here in a minute. We hear this story a lot. Jan and I do as we go out and see and listen to these stories. And the important thing, and you may never get to go to Zimbabwe or Senegal or all these places that these boxes go to, but you can go through there by filling one of these boxes out.

So with that said, just a couple of numbers. In 2019, when we were getting rolling, we did 91 boxes here at Calvary. In 2020, we did 154. In 2021, we did 164 last year. So it's not about how many we do. Because as Hebrews 10, 24 says, let us consider how we can support and uplift others, right? So how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. So we would like to get as many as you can.

We're going to run out of boxes again. We're going through them pretty fast, but we're getting more. And you don't have to have this box. By all means, you can buy the plastic box at Walmart or at, I think, Dollar Store, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, they have the little plastic shoe boxes. Those work very good, and the kids keep them for years. Sometimes they're there for a long time.

Next thing, if you fill out a shoe box, if you pack a shoe box, the most important thing that we see many times is that you personalize. Put a picture of yourself in here or a picture of your family. Write the child a note of what God leads you to put here and to speak to that child or that little boy or girl that gets it. Put that. Put that message here on the lid.

That will touch them. And then we've also told the children today, if the children come back and tell you we've got to fill a shoe box, it's our fault. But we would like you to personalize it. So we have these that the children can fill out. There's a bunch of them out there on the lobby table, and you can put a picture of themselves. The child can write about who they are and tell something special about them.

But by all means, put a note in it because those have a big impact on the people who see them because a lot of these children, what we see is nobody has ever told them they loved them. Imagine. So the other thing I wanted to talk about was the distribution. We are going to this year's distribution. We're going down on Saturday after Thanksgiving. So the Friday after Thanksgiving, the next day, Saturday, that's the 26th.

We will depart here 9 a.m., drive down to Dallas, work the 3 to 7 p.m. shift. 3 to 7 p.m. and then have a meal down there together at a restaurant, spend the night at a hotel, and then come back in the morning. So with that, please watch this video.

My name is Edouard Ndiki, and I'm from Senegal.

Ninety-five percent of people where I grew up are not Christian. But from all of that population, God picked my dad. To be a pastor. Growing up was not easy, seeing your friends going to school. We have to stay at home because my parents didn't have money to send us to school. I was so upset because all my friends have everything they want. When I said, Dad, why we are not blessed like them?

And he said, even if you don't eat, even if you don't have stuff, Edouard, remember that you have God. I was involved in the group, Good News Club, that Wednesday was amazing. We were coming to have fun, to laugh, to joke, to do all of that. And we received a box. We opened it. In the side of the box was a toothbrush. I didn't have to brush when I was growing up.

We used charcoals and salt to brush our teeth. Having it for the first time was just a miracle. This is the wow. It was right. This is the wow. This is the wow. This is the wow. This is the wow. This is the wow. This is the wow. This is the wow. This is the wow. This is the wow. This is the wow. With a trap like this, I didn't know what is inside. Carefully.

This is my yo-yo. This is my yo-yo. Every day, every night, with the neighborhood, we always play. Someone cares. God. He cares so much. He has to use someone, somewhere around the world, to pack my box. I came to the United States because of my background, bigger track athlete. I was involved in the church in my local town and one time I saw the boxes I received when I was 14

and I was so excited. I didn't have words. I was just like, what is this? Where did this come from? Is reality here? People, is you guys are doing this for real? And they say, yes. I say, I received one when I was 14 and everybody was so happy. Everybody was looking at me like, yes, you are in our church. Seeing God connecting me being 14 and coming to the United States and to see the

two elements just connected as a perfect picture, show me that I'm in the right spot. I'm in the right place serving the Lord. Daniel is my son. Daniel is the version of Edward in Senegal, but in the United States. Talking to him is the opportunity like my dad told me. No matter what you struggle, go with. Remember, you have a God that loves you. Daniel packed boxes and he liked to say also his

dad received one. In the corner of this universe, you have a kid that is waiting for you to pack a box for them. It's not just a shoe box that you are packing. You are changing lives. If God leads you to be involved, please see Jan and I or grab a box in the back. Thank you.

I told, I told Ross, if he's going to show an emotionally moving video, he has to wear a box because that's the only way I can survive. So, um, okay. One last announcement that I was just reminded of is that the great pumpkin chase for the youth group is coming up this Friday, right? The 14th, uh, seven o'clock, six, six PM. Anything else I need to know? Pizza will be provided. Bring your kids. Do you have enough drivers and sitters?

Good to go on that and meeting on that after church. And remember kids, the most important thing, the most important thing about the pumpkin chase is that Nick loses. That's all that there is to it. That's just, that's, it's the number one rule we all live by here that are going to take part in that whole situation. So, all right, for our responsive reading this morning, we're going

to be in Psalm 99, Psalm 99. We'll be looking at the new American standard. So we sound the same should be one in a row. And as you're turning to Psalm, 99, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's word, you got, you got a Bible with you? Oh, look at you. Okay. All right. I was like, you're going to need that. I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Lewis and the even verses

Psalm 99, the Lord reigns. Let the people's tremble. He is enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth shake. And he is exalted above all the people. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he. The strength of the King loves justice. You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord, our God and worship at his footstool. Holy is he.

Moses and Aaron were among his priests and Samuel was among those who called on his name. They called upon the Lord and he answered him. He spoke to them in a pillar of cloud. They kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them. Oh Lord, our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them and yet an avenger of their evil deeds. And if you'll read verse nine with me,

exalt the Lord, our God and worship at his holy hill for holy is the Lord, our God. And father, we do praise you for being holy. That though you are holy and we are sinful, you have made a way for us to know you. And so Lord, do your work in our hearts of bringing us a greater understanding of that. And father, as we spend time in your word this morning, I just ask that your Holy spirit would minister to us.

Lord, that you would keep our hearts focused on you. And may we be changed by what you speak to us here this morning in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up to the book of Matthew chapter 24, Matthew chapter 24. Today we move into our next little series and it's entitled signs of the times. So this is part one of signs of the times. And I forgot to list the subheading during first service, but the subheading

is we've only just begun. So as we move into chapter 24, we move into some prophetic things. Always get nervous talking about prophetic things because well, quite frankly, you can be wrong sometimes, right? Uh, there's, there's a lot of, uh, opinions and a lot of opportunities to screw up. And so, and so as we approach this, we realize we're coming to a little bit of a difficult

section. It's a difficult section, first of all, because anytime you speak of prophetic things in scripture, you know, the timelines kind of bounce around a little bit within prophecies. There are near fulfillments and future fulfillments. There are partial fulfillments. And complete fulfillment. So you realize that there's a little bit of bouncing around of

timelines. So sometimes that makes it a little bit difficult, uh, as you approach prophetic things in scripture. Also at times prophecy can be very vague. And I think there's a reason for that. I think sometimes the Lord keeps it kind of vague, uh, because it would blow our little minds if he actually told us, uh, in the fullest language possible, what would take place. And I think along

those lines as well, with it being vague, I think Jesus always wanted every generation to live as in their generation. And so, uh, it's also a really difficult section because when it comes to prophecy, there's all kinds of different opinions and you're always going to step on somebody's toes with your opinion. So we realize these things as we approach anything that's prophetic. And so that brings me to my next point before we get into scripture. My next point by way of, uh, of

introduction is that my goal will be to keep the main thing, the main thing, uh, our focus needs to be on Jesus. As a matter of fact, anytime you talk about prophecy, prophecy should always have at its heart, the desire to reveal Jesus, either to reveal who he is in character in nature or to reveal his second coming or what it looks like for when we go home to be with him. That is our goal. Our focus is Jesus. If we get

off of that focus, if we get off in the weeds somewhere, then we always need to refocus ourselves back on what it's supposed to be about. And then it's supposed to be about Jesus. Uh, the second thing, as far as, uh, keeping the main thing, the main thing we need to realize, that Jesus is coming back. We need to understand that as a matter of fact, I didn't check this out myself, but I really trust the source or sources that I read it from that one in every 10 verses in the new Testament, somehow references the second coming of Christ, that he is going to come back, establish his reign here and, uh, and ultimately be the King that he has been promised to be. So we know that he's coming back and knowing those two things that our focus needs

to be on Jesus and that he's coming back. We need to be ready. And that honestly is one of the biggest things of keeping the main thing, the main thing when it comes to prophecy, because in chapters 24 and 25, Jesus is going to talk about the signs of the times, but he will spend more than half of the verses telling them to be ready. Half of the verses ish, uh, will be him giving the instructions of what it looks like with him coming back again. Half of them will be the command and the illustration and the exhortation

to be ready for his return. That tells me that the most important thing is not that we try to figure out who the antichrist is, not that we try to figure out exactly when Jesus is going to come back. Not that we try to identify all those things. The most important thing based on the amount of time that the Lord gives it is that we be ready that our hearts be ready. As a matter of fact, if in the midst of learning about and studying prophecy,

your heart is not purified, then you have missed the point because that's the goal is that our hearts would be purified and ready for the coming of the King. With that being said, we pick up in chapter 24 verse one. And the first section that we'll look about is at is a questions from the disciples. It says, Jesus came out from the temple and was going away. And when his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to him, and he

said to them, do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down. And as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? All of this starts off with a little bit of a symbolic statement. Therefore, I think it's

important that we remind ourselves of the context that brought us to chapter 24 verse one. Jesus has been, if you will, sparring with the religious leaders. As a matter of fact, we entitled all of that section confronting religion. Jesus just pronounced eight woes on the religious of the nation, on the Pharisees and the scribes of the nation. And at the heart of all of those woes, at the heart of all of that judgment that he

pronounced upon them was the heart that was prevalent within religion of the day. And that was that they drew near with their mouths, but their hearts were far from him. Hypocrisy had become the religion of the day, and they had completely forgotten the point. They had missed the goal. They had missed the main thing that all of scripture was to, point them to, and that was Jesus. And so as he has laid all of that out, we come to somewhat of a

symbolic statement here when it says, Jesus came out from the temple and was going away. You see, Jesus was leaving behind the religion of the day because the religion of the day had left him behind. They had rejected him, and so now he has rejected them. And that ultimate rejection, of course, will come. As they crucify him. But there's something very symbolic of the fact of Jesus walking away from

the temple as if saying, the thing that was supposed to bring people to the knowledge of me has become nothing other than a whitewashed tomb. The thing that was supposed to promote the knowledge of God has become nothing but a museum full of dead men's bones, and I'm leaving it all behind. And as he does so, the disciples, being as spiritually perceptive as they were, weren't thinking at all about the symbolism of him walking outside the temple. All they could do was pay attention to the scenery, right? The other day, well, all they could do was pay attention to the scenery. And as they're

looking at the scenery, they're looking at the temple, they see this magnificent building. And it truly was, from everything that history states, a magnificent building. The stones were almost a hundred tons, all placed together so fittedly well that you could not fit a knife blade between two stones. I was just talking to, uh, Ross ahead of time, who's an engineer. And he said, as an engineer, I can't figure out how

they would have done that, how they could have fit them together like that. It was such a magnificent temple. And at the top of the temple was a golden structure at the pinnacle of the temple where Satan would have had Jesus in that time of temptation was a golden structure, pure gold. And it was gleaming white to where when the sun shined off of it, it looked like a bright white light that was shining. It was truly a,

beautiful structure that was a sight to behold. And so you can picture it. Jesus somewhat focused, perhaps maybe a little discouraged at what he had just had to do with the religious leaders. And there were the disciples looking around going, those are some cool buildings. Jesus, you see these things. These are just amazing. Now remember that they didn't center their

ministry in Jerusalem. So they'd only come two or three times a year, which is probably why they were taking the time to gawk like they were. But as they're looking at these, magnificent structures being somewhat distracted by the scenery around them, Jesus takes up a question. He says, do you not see these things? Now, I don't think he was saying, don't you see the things of the temple? I think what he was

saying is, aren't you picking up on everything that just took place and that all of those things are temporary, but the thing that they pointed to was me. Don't you see, all of these things, you see for the Jewish people, for the Jewish nation, the temple had become somewhat of an idol. You see, they felt like even though they were occupied by the Romans, everything was still okay because they still had the temple. It had become the most important place in their life. And that which was supposed to point them to Jesus

had taken the place of Jesus and had become a God in their lives. And so what Jesus is going to say next is a pretty shocking statement because he says, don't you see these things? Truly, I say to you that not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down. This would have shocked the ears of the disciples because their greatest hope, the greatest hope of the nation was the temple. It was so great that the religious would swear by it.

It was so great that they always knew that if the temple was standing, that the nation had hope. And Jesus just told him that place is going to be a place of hope. It's going to be torn down. As a matter of fact, the destruction will be so complete that not one stone will be left upon another. Not only would it have been a shock because it's the place where they found their hope, but it would have been a shock because of the seemingly

impossibility of doing so. Fact of the matter is that very thing happened, not 37 years later. Because 37 years later, false prophets began to arise within the land and those false prophets began to tell them, God's will is for you to overthrow the Roman government. And that's exactly what the Jewish people tried to do. The Jewish people tried to overthrow Rome and Rome crushed the Jewish

rebellion in such a fantastic way that it brought shock to the ears of all of the hearers of what the Romans did to the Jews. Not the least of which is the fact that a Roman soldier who was inebriated at the time took a flaming torch and threw it inside of the temple. And when he threw it inside of the temple, he threw it inside of the temple. And when he threw it inside of the temple, the temple caught on fire and the fire raged so hot that not only did many lose their lives inside that temple, but all of the gold that was at the pinnacle of the temple began to melt. And as that

gold began to melt, it came down in all of those crevices of the rocks. And the Roman soldiers in the aftermath of the entire thing, after that fire was quenched and the gold was hardened in the rocks once again, set about the process of dismantling the temple stone by stone so that they could get all of the gold that was at the pinnacle of the temple. And as the gold began to melt, it came down out of all of the crevices of the stones. Therefore, ultimately and completely fulfilling what Jesus said, that not one stone would be left upon another. Well, this brought such shock to the

ear of the disciples that they had questions about this. As a matter of fact, they had lots of questions. And you can imagine that their trip from Jerusalem back to the Mount of Olives had them perhaps talking amongst themselves, but also just had them thinking. And as they get back to the Mount of Olives, Jesus sat down. They sat down, wearied probably from the trip, somewhat spiritually wearied from what he'd had to do with the

religious leaders. And he sits down, it tells us, on the Mount of Olives. And they come to him with questions. And the questions that they ask, which I'll talk about here in just a moment, will prompt Jesus to give what is oftentimes referred to as the Olivet Discourse. And so these disciples come to him with questions. They say, tell us, verse three in the middle, tell us, when will these things be?

What will be the future? And they say, tell us, verse three in the middle, tell us, when will these things be? What will be the future? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Three questions they ask him. Number one, when will these things be? In other words, the destruction of the temple that you just referred to, when is this going to take place?

Now, in Matthew's account, he really doesn't fully answer that question. He sort of does, but not as clearly as he does in Luke's account of it. However, he does answer the next two questions because they say, what will be the sign of your coming? Because they all knew that the Messiah would come to rule and reign. And what will be the sign of the end of the age? Those two things are what Matthew

focuses in on because Matthew's focus is on the Jewish people and Matthew's focus is on the kingdom and the king that will rule the kingdom. And so that brings us to this next section, which I have entitled, what to expect until he returns. We pick up in verse four. It says, and Jesus answered and said to them, see to it that no, man misleads you for many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will mislead many.

You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And in various places, there will be famines and earthquakes, but all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Then they will deliver you to the tribute to tribulation.

And we'll kill you and we'll be hated. And you will be hated by all nations because of my name. At that time, many will fall away and we'll betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and we'll mislead many because lawlessness is increased. Most people's love will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the

nations. And then the end will come. Now I would like to point something out to you as we get into this handful of things, actually. Um, first of all, the church is not seen in this particular section. It's, it's the nation of Israel. The rapture is not seen in this particular section because this has to do with the nation of Israel. There are things that we learn as disciples of

Jesus Christ that are important for us to pay attention to. But what Jesus is going to talk about in chapters 24 and 25, have mainly to do with the nation of Israel. Therefore, you won't see the rapture in that. And I want you to understand where I come from with some things. Understand my personal belief and Calvary's belief on this. First of all, I believe in a literal seven-year tribulation. I

think that there will be that seven years. And the reason why I believe that is because of what we're told in the book of Daniel. In the book of Daniel, we're told that 70 weeks have been decreed for the nation of Israel to bring an end to, uh, uh, to, to bring an end and to bring destruction. And the reason why I believe that is because of what we're told in the book of destruction. After the first 69 of those weeks, which we know from all of biblical prophecy,

liberal and conservative theologian alike agree that those weeks are seven years. So 70 sets of seven years. At the end of 69 sets of seven years, it tells us in the book of Daniel that the Messiah will be cut off, but not for himself. And then after Messiah is cut off, we move into that last week, that 70th week. During that 70th week, you see an antichrist arise who will set

himself up as God, establish himself in the temple as God. And the destruction of that antichrist will mark the end of that 70th week. We've seen the first 69 weeks that ends with the Messiah being cut off, which is what we'll talk about at the very end of the book of Matthew. We've not yet seen that 70th week. So why on earth? Are we still here? What takes place between the 69th and the 70th week? Well, between the 69th

and the 70th week, I always call it a parenthetical statement in human history. And that parenthetical statement in human history is what we oftentimes refer to as the church age that started after the ascension of Jesus. When the Holy spirit was poured out upon the church, because blindness, as Paul put it, blindness in part has come upon the nation of Israel. Until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. We're living in that age right now where God is pouring

out his spirit on the Gentiles. There are still some Jewish people being saved, but in general, the Gentiles are who we are seeing come to know the Lord. That blindness in part will continue for the Jewish people until the times of the Gentiles are finished, which I believe is called the rapture of the church, where Paul says, behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep for in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ will rise first. And we who are alive and remain will be caught up

together with him in the air. And then we will be with him always. That will mark the beginning of a seven year tribulational period where the church is gone and God will do two things. Number one, begin once again to deal with the nation of Israel to pour out his wrath on an, an unbelieving world. At that point in time, at the end of that seven year tribulational period,

Jesus will come again and he will rule and reign for a thousand years until he establishes a new heaven and a new earth. That is from my own personal study, as well as Calvary Chapel's stance on in times thinking. So as we look at this, we're not going to see the rapture of the church. We'll actually go from the time of Jesus's ascension, I believe through the tribulation, because the nation of Israel will go through the tribulation. And so as we start here, there are

some things he tells us that as disciples of Jesus Christ, we need to expect from the time that he ascends all the way through that tribulation. These are some things that we should pay attention to. The first thing that he tells us is see to it that no one misleads you. The new King James says, see to it that no one deceives you. That's an important statement that we should all pay

attention to because that should, tell us something as human beings. The potential is there that we can be what? The potential is there that we could be deceived. As a matter of fact, we live in an age of deception and I'm not just talking about the last three years. I'm talking about since the day that Eve took a bite of the fruit because she was deceived by the evil one. We've been living in an age of

deception because everyone has believed the lie. What's the lie that everyone has believed? You can be your own. God. And everyone has believed that lie. All of the lies that the enemy now tells circle around that same idea of pride. And so there's a deception that is everywhere in the world right now. And here's the thing about deception. You don't always see it coming because it's, wait for it,

it's deceptive, right? And so therefore we as believers in Jesus Christ living in a deceptive age need to be sure that we are constantly on guard against deceptive things. The only way I know to be constantly on guard against deceptive things is twofold. Number one, to be in the word. Number two, to have the discernment of the Holy Spirit at work in my life.

So I asked the Holy Spirit to give me discernment and I seek God through his word so that no one misleads me. The next thing that he does is he tells us some of these things that we can expect in the world. Number one, he says, many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will mislead many. Many will come in my name. He tells us that there will be lots of false

messiahs that come along. In my short stint on planet earth, I know of two off the top of my head that were the big ones. I think of Jim Jones and I think of David Koresh. I'm sure there's lots of others, but I stopped subscribing to my false messiah monthly. And so I don't always keep up with them as much as, as much as I should. Um, uh, but, but I know those are the two. David Koresh is the one that I remember the most,

the whole branch Davidian situation. I was in junior high when all of that took place. And for some reason, junior high is when I really started getting fascinated with the news. And so I started watching a lot and I remember thinking, what a fruitcake, right? Like that guy was crazy with a capital K and everybody, all these people followed him. Right. And Jesus told

us guys like him would be coming. Jesus told us guys like him would be showing up. They would say, Hey, you just need to follow me because I'm the Messiah. The nation of Israel would deal with the same thing. It was false messiahs who told them that they should attack the nation of Rome, that they should revolt against the nation of Rome. And quite frankly,

it's a false Messiah that will stand up and make a peace treaty. As the book of Daniel tells us in that 70th week, he will make a peace treaty and he will seem like everything is perfect until you make it through that first three and a half years. He says, beware of those false messiahs. Because they will mislead many. The second thing he says is that there will be wars

and rumors of wars. Matter of fact, that's how verse six starts off. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not frightened for these things must take place, but the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation and kingdom will rise against kingdom. He begins to talk to them about, the fact that there's going to be wars and that should not shock you. He tells them that there

will be wars on a small national scale. And then there will be wars on a global scale. As a matter of fact, in the Greek, the idea of that phrase in verse seven, nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom could also be translated world war. That's the idea behind that phrase is that there will be factions that come together that join alliances where there will be nations coming against each other. Kind of like in world war.

As a matter of fact, when world war one happened, a lot of people thought this must be it because that was the first time that you saw global factions come together against each other in war. I was reading J Vernon McGee on this and he said, when I was a young boy, world war one was just coming to an end. And he said, there were wheelbarrow loads of books that talked about the fact that Jesus would come back and started naming dates. And he said, and then world war two happened. And I was a young pastor at that point in time in

Pasadena. And he said, I told everybody, I bet if you could fill one wheelbarrow load after world war one, you can fill two after world war two. And he said, I was wrong. It was even more because everybody was convinced. Here's these world wars that are taking place. It must be the time of the end. But what did Jesus say? The end is not yet. Every time you see a war happen, it doesn't mean

Jesus must be coming tomorrow. Listen, he can come whenever he wants to. The important thing is that we're looking for him. The important thing is that we're ready for him because what do we see happening now? We see a similar scenario happening now that happened at the end of, or happened at the beginning of world war two. If you know your history, you know,

how did world war two begin? Well, first of all, it began by one nation, Germany invading a sovereign nation called Poland. And then shortly after Germany invaded Poland, there were ships from the U S and ships from Europe going to help. And they asked for a military escort, so that they would not be attacked by German U-boats. Well, you know, what's happening now?

What's happening now is that a sovereign nation was invaded a few months ago. The sovereign nation of Ukraine was invaded by Russia. Do you know what's happening now? Russia supplied so much of the natural gas to so much of Europe that the U S is now exporting liquefied natural gas to Europe. Do you know what's happening? They're scared. They're going to get attacked. So do you

know what they've asked for? They've now asked for military support. They've asked for military escorts for merchant ships. It's almost like the potential is there that another world war is shaping up. So what does that mean? It doesn't mean you should be frightened. What does it mean? It means you should keep your focus on Jesus because you need to be ready because I don't

know what's coming next. You don't know what's coming next. Sweet Jesus knows Biden doesn't know what's coming next. We need to be ready because Jesus is who we have to keep our eyes focused on right now. He says, don't be frightened. The end is not yet. And then he goes on to say in the middle of verse seven and in various places, there will be famines and earthquakes. And the new King James includes the

word pestilence. Famine of course is hunger. There's no other way to put it. And this has been going on really for a long time now. Hunger has plagued the world for years. As a matter of fact, I remember as a small child seeing the commercials on TV about all the folks in Ethiopia. I don't remember what the organization was. It was probably like stop world hunger or something along those lines. And I remember watching that.

And then I remember my mom telling me things like, you know, Ryan, you may not like what we're eating for dinner tonight, but there's little boys and girls in Ethiopia that would love to be eating what you're eating right now. And I always remember thinking, well, then let's send it to them. Right? I mean, it feels like the right thing to do. I want to help the hungry. But do you know what we're seeing now is now you're starting to see

some shortages take place. As a matter of fact, there is massive concern of food shortages right now because Ukraine is the bread basket to all of Europe. Therefore, there's going to start being some shortages of wheat. Ukraine also supplies a great deal of the fertilizer. So now there's not enough fertilizer. And now if you've been living in the Midwest here lately, and I think you have,

you know, we have not gotten very much of rain. As a matter of fact, someone was telling me the other day that some of the farmers have tilled under some of their fields and just said, we're just going to have to wait and try again next year. Folks, the food shortages are going to be there. That's a hunger is an issue we're going to have to deal with. And Jesus said, that's something you got to pay attention to. And

then of course there's earthquakes. Now, listen, I grew up in Kansas. Okay. I remember one time when I was in junior high, they started telling us on the news, there's fault lines in Kansas. And so school board said, Hey, you should start having earthquake drills. And I remember thinking that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. And I remember doing one when I was in junior high and

thinking, this is dumb. We're never going to have an earthquake in Kansas. Well, then I moved to California for a couple of years. When I lived in California, there was a large earthquake that hit Joshua tree. Only I slept through it. Joshua tree is a couple hours North of where I was in Bible college, but it was enough that it knocked people's stuff off of their shelves where I was

there in Bible college. And I remember I got up that morning and I went down to breakfast and everybody went, bro, did you feel the earthquake last night? And I'm like, dude, stop jacking. The Kansas guy. Okay. There was no earthquake. And they're like, yeah, there was, it was a big one. It was in Joshua tree. You ought to call your folks. I know you're okay. So I call my parents

and I'm like, Hey guys, they're like, Oh, thank God you're okay. There was a big earthquake near you. And I was like, I slept through the whole thing. That's right. And you named the natural disaster. I can sleep through it. But then they come back to Kansas and what do we start having? Earthquakes. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, right? I'm laying in bed one,

one morning. It's a Saturday morning. I'm sort of in that, like I'm almost asleep, but I'm starting to wake up, you know, that blissful moments you have on an occasional Saturday morning. And all of a sudden this earthquake hits and it shook my entire house and I jolted out of bed and I'm like, what is going on right now? Right? Because earthquakes are continuing to intensify. And then of course, pestilence, our current age doesn't know anything

about diseases and viruses, but whatever. Anyway, so we know that those things are all going to increase. And he says, these are all merely the beginnings of birth pangs. What does he mean? He says, listen, just because these are happening doesn't necessarily mean you need to get stressed out just yet. It doesn't necessarily mean that you need to do anything about it yet.

It does mean continue to pay attention. And I love the phrase he uses their birth pangs, because it reminds me of when my two girls were born. Because you know, when those contractions first begin to happen, you know that they just get laughed off. It's probably just false. Well, that probably wasn't that big of a deal. When my oldest daughter was born, she was a couple of days late. And so we

were doing everything we could to get her moving. Right? And so it was literally his labor day, the day that Aaron went into labor with her, which I always thought was kind of fun. Anyway, but we literally walked, I bet three miles that day, just to see if we could get that whole thing going. And before we went to bed, Aaron acted like, oh man, something's kind of, I think I'm

feeling some contractions. I didn't want to admit it. And so I said, okay, so I pretty well knew going to bed that night. I'd better pay attention and not sleep through this one in case baby's coming. Well, of course, she woke up in the night and the contractions start happening. Funny story. She'll forgive me later. Anyway, so we're laying there in bed. She has a contraction. I'm like, do we need to go to

the hospital yet? She goes, no, because I don't want to get sent home. And I said, well, how bad are the contractions? And she had another one. She almost broke my hand. And I said, so pretty bad. Let's go to the hospital. And so he says, when you see these things happen, they're at the beginning of birth pain. So you should pay attention. For the past 2000 years, we've needed to pay attention to the things that are going on.

And even now we need to pay attention to what's going on. But here's what you need to know. Birth pains have a tendency to do what? They intensify and they come closer together. That's what happens with contractions. And what we're seeing in culture right now is we're seeing those things intensify and start coming closer together. So what I'm telling you is,

the exact same thing I will tell you every time I talk about this, keep your eyes on Jesus. Well, then he tells the disciples, he tells them things that the disciples need to expect. That's what you can expect on a global and national level. Now, personally, individually as disciples of Jesus Christ, what can you expect from the time of his ascension through the tribulation?

He says in verse nine, then they will deliver you to tribulation and they will kill you. And you will be hated by all nations because of me. And at that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. He says, you need to pay attention because as disciples of Jesus Christ, you're going to face persecution. The word that's used there is tribulation. That word tribulation means

a pressure or a pressing together. That's what it means in the Greek. It could also mean affliction. The same Greek word is used in the book of second Corinthians. You remember the big, getting a second Corinthians chapter one says, blessed to be the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the God of all comfort in the father of all mercies who comforts us in all of our,

what's the next word? Tribulations. Same Greek word. He says, that's what you're going to face. You're going to face affliction because they will hand you over. And then he explains what the affliction is like. They're going to kill you and they're going to hate you because of me. Christians throughout the centuries have dealt with persecution. We live in this super unique pocket in Western culture right now, where we have made it through

without very much persecution because what the early church faced is what most of the churches throughout the world are facing right now. As a matter of fact, over the last hundred years, there has been as many martyrs as there were in previous generations because persecution is continuing to abound. But do you know what we're starting to see happen here in the United States of America is what we're starting to see happen in the United States of America is that we're starting to see is that you and I are becoming the bad guys. Matter of fact, somebody else showed me this book earlier. They're like, is this the book you're reading? I said, yeah, it's called

being the bad guys. Because if you stand for the truth, if you stand for what's right, if you stand up for morality, as the Bible says it, you're going to get labeled one of the bad guys. You're going to get labeled as hate speech. You're going to get labeled as a hate monger. You're going to get labeled as an extremist, as a fundamentalist. And the entire world will say,

you know who you should avoid? Those people. Because they'll tell you how you're supposed to live. Because they'll try to take away your freedoms. Because they want you to live in an ancient society that we've been delivered from. When all we really want is for people to live according to God's word. Because in obedience to God is fullness of joy. And obedience to God is

the only real life you'll ever have. But the rest of the world is no longer just labeling you weird because you need to know something. They labeled you that a long time ago. Right? You need to understand as believers in Jesus Christ, you've been weird for a long time. But now you're an extremist. Now you're dangerous. And that will continue to take place. It will continue to happen to me. And if you take a strong stand, it will continue to happen to you.

What you can't do is allow the hate that the rest of the world shows you to cause you to fall away. To cause you to show that hate in return. Because if you're going to stand for God's truth, it has to be in love. It has to be with the desire to bring about repentance in the lives of people. He goes on to say, at that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many will fall away. What does that mean?

It means that as things continue to progress, more and more people will fall away from the faith. Oh, they may not fall away from church. They'll just find a church that doesn't say the things that I say. They'll just find a church that doesn't say the things that I say. They'll just find a church that doesn't say the things that I say. They'll just find a church that doesn't say the things that I say. They'll just find a church that doesn't say the things that I say.

They'll just find a church that doesn't say the things that the Bible says. Because they still want to be religious. They just don't want to be holy. They still want to be religious. And actually, I'll use a word they use. They still want to be spiritual. They just don't want to surrender. He says many will fall away. And we must beware of that as believers in Jesus Christ.

The second thing that he says is that many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. He warns once again about false prophets. Didn't he already do that? No, he warned against false messiahs, people that say, follow me. This time he warns against false prophets, people who will distract you from the word of God. And that false prophecy is happening in lots of places in the church today.

And one of the greatest places you can find some of the worst false prophets in the world is at your local Christian bookstore. Because there are a lot of books that are being put out right now that are so deceptively false of things that are being said. They're promoting falsehood. They're promoting false spirituality. They're promoting Eastern ideas. They're promoting New Age ideas.

They're promoting things that have nothing to do with God's word, but all sound really good. After all, it sounds good. It feels good. Therefore, it must be from God. But you don't understand what this book says is right. It's identified human nature correctly. Yes, it's identified human nature correctly because that's what it's a part of, human nature. Satan knows human nature.

But it hasn't identified it according to what God's word has to say. Because anything that defines human nature, anything that defines God apart from what this says is a false prophet. As a matter of fact, if you want to look at what false prophets do, you just look in the book of Deuteronomy. Because in the book of Deuteronomy, he talks about false prophets.

He says, If there arises a prophet amongst you who whispers into your ear, we found a different way to follow God. Don't go after them. Because they will lead you into idolatry. And brothers and sisters, I don't care how purpose-driven your life is, it will lead you into idolatry. And you have to be careful. Because there's a lot of that in Christian bookstores right now

that you need to be aware of. Compare it to the word of God, just like I expect you to compare everything I say to the word of God. And the moment I say something outside of the bounds of scripture, I expect you to come talk to me about it. And so he tells them, these false prophets are coming. And you must be aware of them. False prophets are who, again, led them to revolt against the nation of Rome.

And the false prophets are who will arise and tell them to worship the Antichrist in the end times. We as believers must be aware of false prophets. And then he says in verse 12, Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow. Because lawlessness will increase. The word lawlessness as defined literally means the condition of being without a law.

And again, brothers and sisters, I feel like that would be a really good synonym for our culture that we live in right now is living without the law. And he says, Because people will live lawless, because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold. I want to tell you what I mean by that. It's twofold. Number one, it means because lawlessness

will increase people's love for their Savior will grow cold. You will either get discouraged by the lawlessness that you see around you, or you will be pulled into the lawlessness that you see around you. You will compromise with the lawlessness that you see around you. And as I said before, it may not mean that you quit going to church. You just might not go to this one anymore.

It may not mean you quit going to church. You just won't go to one that really teaches the Bible anymore. You will, as Paul said, amass to yourself teachers who will say things that tickle your ears, who will say things that will entertain you. Don't get me wrong, I want to entertain you every now and then, but I want to teach you. He says, many will continue to grow cold

in their love for their Savior. I need us to understand something as believers in Jesus Christ. I learned this lesson in climbing a mountain. The closer you get to the top, the smaller the crowd gets. And the closer you get to your Savior, the smaller the crowd gets. Because as I've said before, everybody wants the power of God. Nobody wants to surrender to God.

And when you can surround yourself with a group of people that want to surrender to God, stick close to them. Because they will continue to point you in the right direction. But you know, I think there's another aspect to this love growing cold that is important for us to pay attention to. I was listening to Joe Foch from Calvary in Philadelphia teach about this yesterday.

And he said, you know, that word love, the love of many will grow cold is the word agape in the Greek. We know that that's that divine sacrificial love. He says that love will grow cold. And he said, I think one of the greatest dangers for Christians living in a lawless society, which is what we're living in right now, Christians living in this kind of a society, is that we can become so discouraged with the world around us that we can make the world around us our enemy.

And rather than loving them unconditionally the way that God has called for us to, we end up hating them because they stand for everything that we disagree with. And quite frankly, because they hate us. And we have to be careful as believers in Jesus Christ to guard ourselves against our love for the people around us growing cold because that tendency is going to be there. It will be our tendency to instead of continuing to show compassion to the people that are around us that are so lost, we can get angry with them.

Instead of continuing to show mercy to the people that are lost, we can just simply judge them. Instead of showing love to the people that are lost, we just condemn them. Don't get me wrong. You need to tell the truth. The first word of the Bible the word of the gospel is repent. And I think that that's the message that we should be preaching to people. But in our preaching

of repentance, there must be a heart of love that desires to see people come to know Jesus. And if you have found that your love has grown cold, like sometimes I can find in my own heart, the only thing I know to do is go back to my Savior and say, Lord, you got to light that fire again. Lord, take the lid off of my heart and pour your love back in again so that I'll have something to pour out to the people that are around me. Because brothers and sisters, the people that are around you, they need some Jesus right now.

They don't need a church that hates them. They need a church that will stand for truth, but that will show grace. He says, because of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. But notice what he says in verse 13. The one who endures to the end will be saved. Now, if you're not careful, you can read that and think, okay, so my salvation is based upon my enduring.

No. Again, I appreciated what Joe Foch had to say. I had to say about that. Because our salvation is completely, totally, and 100% dependent upon the grace of God that came about through the blood of Jesus Christ. And when we put our faith in that, you are signed, sealed, and delivered. So what does he mean? Those who endure to the end shall be saved. He said,

I want to substitute a word that I don't think is going to completely take away from the context and I actually think is what Jesus is trying to, the point he's getting across when he said this. He said, those who endure to the end shall be saved. Delivered. And I appreciated the word that he used there because I feel like that conveys even the Greek word of saved there.

Is the idea is to be delivered. I think that means that for us as believers in Jesus Christ will be delivered because Jesus will take us home. But also it's talking about for those who will be saved during the tribulational period because during that tribulation period, while I don't believe anybody from the church is going to be there, I do believe people will get saved during the tribulation period. As a matter of fact, Revelation tells us that there will be a great, great awakening that takes place during that tribulational period and they will have to endure not only all of the natural disasters that are taking place but the hatred of so many.

But listen, the key for us right now as believers in Jesus Christ is this, you need to endure. You need to endure because right now it's easy to get worn out. Is it not? I'm just tired all the time right now. I don't know about you. I'm tired because of busyness. I'm tired because I'm getting old and I'm tired because the world is wearing me out right now. The fact that

every time I turn around there's another thing. I used to always tell kids when I worked with them like look, you can't shock me anymore. I've worked with kids long enough. I've heard enough confessions of things that kids have done. You can't shock me anymore. You know what? I don't think that's true anymore. I get shocked all the time right now. Not by kids.

By the culture around me. By the things that I hear and sometimes as I look around me I'm like Lord, I'm so worn out from all of the things. Every time I see some young kid who has a mom and a dad that don't take care of them and they have to constantly fend for themselves and we wonder why they have their behavior issues and it's because mom's strung out, dad beats them or maybe they don't know either one of them. Maybe grandma and grandpa are doing the best that they can.

Maybe aunt and uncle are doing the best that they can. Maybe junior's doing the best that he can and I see it and it breaks my heart because all I want to do is just love on them and those kids and say listen, Jesus loves you more than you can imagine and he cares about you and it hurts my heart to see what's happened to you in your life and sometimes I'm just worn out because I'm like Lord, we can't reach them all. I can't reach every single one of them. I want them to know how much they're loved but there's just too many.

Lord, how can we reach all of them and I get worn out and the same word keeps coming from Jesus, endure. Just keep enduring. Just keep going. Listen, all you have to do is what you can do today and let the Holy Spirit take care of everything else. He says, blessed are those who endure. They shall be saved and then in verse 14, he says, this gospel of the kingdom

shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come. I'm going to wrap up with this because he says, this gospel, the message of the truth of the forgiveness that can come through Jesus Christ will be preached to the entire world and quite frankly, where we sit right now, I would say the gospel has hit the entire world. There may be some tribes somewhere that don't have a language yet, but quite frankly, Wycliffe Bible Translators is working on that too. I think globally speaking on a national scale, the word has reached the entire world.

Why? Because that's what we're supposed to do as believers in Jesus Christ and this is a call to all of us as believers. Get out and preach the gospel. That's what Jesus tells us we're supposed to do. That's what he's going to tell them at the end of the book of Matthew. Go out and make disciples. Preach everywhere you go. Preach it with your words. Preach it with your life,

whatever. That's what we're called as the church to be out there doing and listen, we need that right now. I just told you about the great need that there is and how sometimes it just feels like there's not enough of us. There really won't be enough of us if we think it's everybody else's job. There really won't be enough of us if we think somebody else is the one that's responsible

for getting out and loving on these kids. It's getting out and giving the truth to people. Getting out and spreading the gospel. Well, that's the pastor's job. You know what? There's only one of me and I can have as many Facebook and Instagram accounts as I want to. I can't reach who you can reach. I can't reach who you as an individual can talk to on a personal level

that you can share your story with. Share this message of the gospel with everybody around you and if you're here this morning and you've never come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I want you to know it's time to repent and it's time to turn to God and to turn to Jesus and it's time to give your life to him so that that gospel message can have its effect in your life. We're told in the book of Ezekiel when God was talking to Ezekiel, he told him something very interesting. He said, judgment is my strange work.

It's my desire that all should come to repentance. Do you know who the all is there? The all is everyone. No matter their background, no matter their lifestyle, no matter how deep their sin is, listen, even if they've changed their gender, the all is everyone and he wants all of them to come to the knowledge of him so that repentance can take place because that's the whole reason he came and died.

Brothers and sisters, I wholeheartedly believe Jesus is coming soon. I really do. I think the intensity is taking place. I think the birth pangs are coming. I think the contractions are getting closer to completion. I think the clothes are together. I think Jesus is coming soon. But my version of soon and his version of soon are two completely different things

because I don't think like he thinks and I don't do things like him. So the most important thing that we can do as believers in Jesus Christ is to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and be conduits of the gospel for the world around us. Amen? Let's all stand.

Would you bow with me? Lord, we come to you now knowing that we are not alone. We are not alone. We are not alone. We are not alone. You are sovereign and in control. Knowing that we see these things taking place, we see the intensity of it and Lord, we long for you to come back. Father, the book of Revelation ends, even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. And Lord,

we want that. So Father, prepare our hearts. Keep our hearts, minds, and eyes focused on you so that we keep the main thing the main thing. And then give us that heart to show that love to the world that's around us. To take that message of the gospel to the world that is around us. Father, may we not get hardened to the sin. May we not get complacent. But Lord,

may our hearts always be ready. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

God bless y'all. Have a great week.

Hey guys.