While You Were Sleeping

So go back to Genesis chapter 15, if you would. And I'll move quickly. And I know you've been here forever already, but you're going to stay here a little longer. So just hang in there with me.

I won't disappoint you, brother. I won't disappoint you, brother. Genesis chapter 15. After these things, the word of the Lord. Verse 1. Came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great. And Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus?

And Abram said, Since you have given no offspring to me, born in my house is my heir. And then, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man will not be your heir, but one who will come forth from your own body. He shall be your heir. And he took him outside and he said, Now look toward the heavens and count the stars if you are able to count them.

And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And then Abraham believed in the Lord. He believed what God had said. And God reckoned it to him as righteousness. And God said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess it. And he said, O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it? So God said to him,

Bring me a three-year-old heifer and a three-year-old female goat and a three-year-old ram and a turtle dove and a young pigeon. And then he brought all these to him and he cut them in two and laid each half opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds. And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses and Abram drove them away. And now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram.

And behold, terror and a great darkness fell upon him. And God said to Abram, Know for a certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve and afterward they will come out with many possessions. And as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace and you will be buried at a good old age.

And then in the fourth generation they will return here for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. And it came about when the sun had set that it was very dark. And behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. And on that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. So, at the very beginning of the establishing of the nation of Israel,

God caused a sleep to come upon Abram, Abraham and fulfilled the promise. Made a promise and made a covenant to fulfill that promise to him. Made the covenant with himself. God didn't make the covenant with Abraham. He made the covenant for Abraham. A promise to Abraham and he covenanted that he would fulfill that promise to Abraham but he didn't make it with Abraham.

He made it with himself. The two elements that we see moving down between the sacrifices are representative of God himself. God made that covenant with himself. It is an everlasting, unbreakable, will not be defeated covenant. And yet today we have many within the Christian church who say that God's finished with the nation of Israel. Israel has no purpose on the national scene

or international scene. We need not be concerned about the nation of Israel. President Bush had been given some of that information. President-elect Obama is being given that kind of information. They're looking at it as simply strategic, political, economic areas in the Middle East and how we can work those strategems and work these things politically to hopefully avoid a war in the Middle East

and hopefully keep the oil flowing and hopefully keep trade going back and forth and keep the rest of the world at ease. But they don't see the prophetic, profound promise of God to the nation of Israel that they will not ever fail. They will be his nation forever and he is the one who's established it and he is the one who will maintain it. They don't see that.

The world is sleeping. The world is asleep. Abraham was asleep but he saw and he believed God. Now we read a few chapters ahead and you realize he kind of faltered in that because he tried to make things happen on his own. But God made the covenant with himself. And so all that Abraham did didn't affect the covenant because God established the covenant. Brothers and sisters,

we need to be praying more diligently for the nation of Israel than we have to this point. There is going to be a war. There will be a war. It may be soon. It could be. There is something on the horizon and I'm not a prophet but something could happen between now and Christmas. Something could definitely happen between now and the time the administration changes.

Because Israel knows that they are not going to have a supporter of their military actions dealing with Iran and all other things will be exhausted. Now somebody is going to say well Hillary Clinton even came out and said that if Israel is attacked we'll nuke Iran or whatever. Nice talk. It won't happen. I really don't see us as a major player in this next move in the Middle East.

I really see things set up for the fulfillment of Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39. I know it's been moving that direction. It's moving that direction even more so. And we're just right on the precipice of that. But the world is sleeping as we're watching these things happen. As God established His covenant promise for Israel through Abraham. The world is asleep for the most part.

You are a remnant. There is a remnant of evangelical Christianity that is wholeheartedly supporting Israel. We're called Christian Zionists because we are in support of the land of Israel. We believe they are God's chosen people as well. And God is moving through them as Ken said, you don't have time. But if you get a chance, you will. During the Millennial Kingdom

you'll get a chance to go to Israel. But to go to Israel today, you step out onto the land and you feel it. Not to base everything subjectively on feelings, but you feel. You sense the presence of God. You sense His working through the patriarchs on down to the present day. You know that this is where it's all going to come to pass. It's an unbelievable, inexpressible,

unexplainable sensation that you have just being there. But be in prayer because the world is asleep. God is going to protect His nation but a lot of the world is going to be savagely altered in the next very few weeks and months I really believe. I don't think we have that long. I really don't. I think it's going to happen and it's going to happen soon. Okay, we'll move ahead

into Exodus quickly. Exodus chapter 11. Now, in this particular section and you have to forgive me as much as I hacked and choked through last week with the flu, I still have the remnants of it so I'm trying to drown it out before I have to cough again. But you get to Exodus and of course the things that God promised to Abraham had happened. His descendants had been in Egypt

for the 400 year period. And it was time to bring them out. They were under a Pharaoh now who did not know Joseph, who did not know the blessings of God in and through the people of Israel that were sojourning there in Egypt. And so God brings Moses down. And you go through the different plagues because Moses comes to Pharaoh and says, you know, God says, let my people go

so we can go out and worship Him in the wilderness. Excuse me. I'm so sorry. Sorry to you on the tape and the CD. In chapter 7, you start going through the different plagues. The water turned to blood and then the frogs that come over the land. And you know that everything that God touches and does with this is related to the gods of the Egyptians. They had a frog god

and his name was Hekwat, or goddess. And so God gave them a whole bunch of their frogs. The plague of insects. There's an Egyptian deity called Hathor that was an Egyptian deity and God just gave them more of their Egyptian deity. And then the flies and then the cattle die. They had an Egyptian god. Bel was a cow god, the bull god. And God caused their cattle to die.

And then the plague of boils that hit and then the plague of hail that came. And then the plague of locusts was next to the last before... Gosh, I apologize. Darkness comes over the land. Now that's literal, but it's also, there's some symbolic significance. Because they'd had eight plagues to this point. Now God causes darkness to come over the land. And if you're in Exodus with me,

go to chapter 10, verse 21. Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the sky. There may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt. It's not just dark. It's a darkness which may be felt. And if you've ever... We've talked about this before. If you've ever been in one of the caves, Marvel Cave or Cave of the Winds or Carlsbad Caverns

or one of those caves like that and they turn off the lights. They love to do that. They get you in one of those places and they tell you to sit down or lean against the wall and don't move. And then they turn the lights off and you are in total darkness. You can't see anything. Can't see your hand in front of your face. And you do feel it. When it talks about a darkness

it could be felt. It's an amazing, amazing sensation. And so Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. They'd have fallen down if they'd have tried to move. It was so dark. But all the sons of Israel had light on their dwellings.

So in Goshen there was light. But everywhere else there was darkness. And God was giving them another whack but he was trying to shake them up to an awareness that was going on. My people have an awareness of me that you don't. Things are happening because you're doing this to my people. Get a clue. Figure out what's going on and listen to them before you have to suffer more.

Well then came the final plague and you know that was the angel of death that passed through the city or the region, passed through all of Egypt. And the firstborn of every living thing from the son of Pharaoh to the cattle in the stalls. The firstborn died. It happened at night and they were sleeping. But the Jews weren't sleeping because they'd been told what they needed to do to prepare.

And they were prepared. They were dressed in readiness. They had prepared the sacrifice as God had told Moses to prepare the sacrifice. This was the first Passover. This was the institution of an ordinance of what would be a feast time in the nation of Israel that they would celebrate forever. A remembering of God's delivering them out of the bondage of Egypt.

And they were ready and they were obedient. And they had sprinkled the door lentils of their house with the blood of the lamb which would have made the form of a cross. Actually a double cross on each side of the lentils over every door of the Jews in the city of Egypt in the nation of Egypt as they prepared and they waited for God's promised deliverance while the rest of the nation was asleep. And there's a picture of us.

God's promised. God has been smiting the earth with different things regionally, locally, and measuredly small with increasing intensity from earthquakes to hurricanes to different kinds of plagues. God has been seeking to wake the nations up and especially the United States. But we will not. We have not. And really I think 9-11 was kind of like our time of darkness for us.

It was a time when the nation seemed to come back to the Lord. for just a season until things started running again and once the factories were up and going, the planes were flying again, oil was pumping, you could drive wherever. Okay, then the pressure of it eased and so did our awareness of a need for the Lord, of our need for God. Well, the next one's the biggie.

The next one is the removal of the church in the midst of the chaos that's going to be happening as a result of Ezekiel 38 and 39, the battle in the Middle East. And we're on the verge of that and we need to be like the Jews, we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared and ready to go in our hearts with our attitudes. Setting aside, you know, I doubt that there was any adultery that happened in Goshen that week.

Actually, that whole time during the plagues were going on. I doubt that there was much complaining about the neighborhood during that time that all the plagues were hitting. I doubt there was any backbiting of such. I doubt that there was much of any sin going on because the people were wondering what in the world is going to happen. And especially during that last night, there was a full attention given to the Lord.

So we need to set aside these things that so easily beset us, Hebrews 12, that sin that so easily besets us. Lay aside that weight because we're ready to go. You need to be dressed in readiness. You need to be gritting up your loins with an attitude of preparedness that God's about ready to say, come out. And our job in the meantime is to be telling as many as we can

that Jesus is coming soon because the rest of the world during this time is sleeping. Okay, we've got to move quickly. Go on to the book of Judges. We're going to jump over the rest of the Pentateuch and move into the book of Judges. Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter 6. And we're going to talk just for a few minutes about Gideon because Gideon has some interesting things happen to him.

Israel is oppressed by the Midianites and an angel, verse 11, of the Lord comes and visits Gideon. Verse 14, he says, the Lord looked at Gideon and said, Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you? And Gideon said, yeah, right on. Let's go rock. He said, no, my oh Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh and I am the youngest in my father's house.

But the Lord said, surely I will be with you and I shall defeat Midian as one man. Well, you know what happened. Gideon prepares a feast for the angel of the Lord that's there telling him this. And verse 20, the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock and pour out the broth. And he did so. And then the angel of the Lord put out the end of his staff

that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread and fire sprang from the rock and consumed the meat and all the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. And when Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, Alas, oh Lord God, now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said to him, Peace to you. Do not fear. You're not going to die.

Because that's what he figured he would. Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it, The Lord is Peace. Yahweh Shalom, Jehovah Shalom. To this day, it is still in Ophrah, not Winfrey, Ophrah of the Ezrites. Now, on that same night, the Lord said to him, Take your father's bull and a second bull, seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal, which belongs to your father,

and cut down the Asherah that's beside it. And build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold. And so he did that. Gideon took ten men of his servants, verse 27, and did as the Lord had spoken. He did it at night. God moved him to be obedient in the midst of the false worship, the idolatry that was going on, even led by his own father in the land.

And God caused him to move in a mighty, magnificent way to destroy this pagan altar. He moved at night to do it. Now, he did it. Of course, nobody thought that was cool in town. And they all wanted to kill him. The dad steps in and says, Hey, you know, okay, we'll wait. Joash comes, verse 31, and says to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal, or will you deliver him?

Whoever will plead for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone has torn down his altar. And therefore on that day he named him Jerob Baal. That is to say, let Baal contend against him, because he had torn down his altar. And so, then God tells him, now it's time to go out against Midian, and destroy the Midianites. And so, turn to verse 36.

Gideon said to God, he's putting God to the test, in the story of the fleeces. Gideon said to God, If you will deliver Israel through me as you have spoken, behold, I'll put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there's dew on the fleece only, and it's dry on the ground, then I will know that you will deliver Israel through me as you have spoken. And it was so. And he rose early the next morning,

what God had done at night, while he was sleeping. He did exactly as Gideon had asked. And then Gideon said to God, Do not let your anger burn, verse 39, against me, that I may speak once more. Please let me make a test once more with the fleece. Just in case there was some, you know, atmospheric cosmological act of chance. Let me just test once more, God. Let me just make sure it's really you.

And now, I'm going to put it there, and let dew be on the ground, but not on the fleece. Let the fleece be dry. So, God did that at night, for it was dry only on the fleece. It was dew on all the ground. So, God moved in him to pull down the altar, the pagan altars, at night, while everybody else was sleeping. And while Gideon's sleeping, God confirms to him

that he has chosen him to do this marvelous act that he wants him to do. Well, and you know the rest of the story, how God whittles down his numbers and all. And when he goes to fight the Midianites, he goes at night, while they are sleeping. And he only has 300 men, and they have 32 times that. And so, he stations his men. Well, before he goes, remember, he sends out spies,

and the spy comes back and says, you know, they're talking. I heard it. They're talking about Gideon. And Gideon had had a dream about it. One of the guys that had a dream down there, that Gideon was coming in, rolling down into the camp and all that, and he was sharing that, and the scout heard it, and he brought that word back to Gideon. And so, his defeat of the Midianites at night, against overwhelming odds,

all of chapter 7 is that particular action, that battle that occurs. It happens at night. While they were sleeping, really, while the Midianites were sleeping, God was moving mightily with just a handful of individuals to do a marvelous work that nobody thought would ever happen. And right, right, the battle was the Lord's. They didn't even have to enjoin the battle initially.

They win it finally. But the initial joining of the battle was God alone, moving mightily. Okay? As we are here, and we're in this darkness, we're in this darkness before the Lord catches us out, this spiritual darkness in our land, there's a move that God wants to do. There's a work that God wants to do. And we shouldn't just be, you know, huddled in our little walls here,

in our homes, just waiting for the rapture. Is this going to happen? The clock rolled down. And boy, isn't that world crazy for not believing the things of God. We need to be moving in the power of God in the midst of the darkness with the opportunities that God is giving us. To pray with people. To be where God's taking you that you didn't want to go. For those who aren't on the prayer list or weren't here Wednesday night,

we ended up taking a five-hour drive to Kansas City on Monday because Ann's feeding tube had been infected and just was causing her great pain for longer. It had been for almost six weeks since she'd had the tube inserted. And so we finally contacted them up there, and they said, come up here, because we need to have our surgeons look at it. And our doctor had suggested that here.

She said, you know, maybe you ought to contact the surgeons that did it and see if you want to go up there. Long story short, it took us a five-hour drive to drive up to KU Med in Kansas City. And so we get there at 5 o'clock-ish, between 5 and 5.30. I don't know if you've ever been in a big city emergency room, but it's just like it is on TV. They bring you in, they triage you immediately.

They bring you in, take your vitals, what's the problem, write it all down, get you a little wristband, and then would you go have a seat in the waiting room, and we'll get with you just as soon as we can. And we were there for five hours, sitting in that emergency room. And I was telling Ann, if we didn't have anything wrong with us when we came in here, we're sure going to be sick when we leave. Because there was every kind of puking going on, and little kids coming in, and they had fevers, and one guy came in.

We'd been there for about four hours then, and a guy comes in, and he's got bandages wrapped around his finger, and he's got blood all down his hand, and it's all over his shirt. And he's got another guy that drove him there, and they sit down, and they're looking around at all of us sitting there. And, of course, you know, he's a pretty good show. We haven't seen something like that all night.

And he hears people talking about, well, you know, they've been here for two hours. And somebody said, well, you know, we've been here for three. And I think somebody said, kind of pointing in our direction, they've been here for four hours. And he kind of freaked on that one and got up and went out and talked to the nurses at the desk. And he came back, and he told that guy, he said, come on, we're going.

He said, why? He said, well, some of these people have been here four hours. He said, I can't wait four hours. My finger will fall off, you know. And so I don't know where they're going to go in Kansas City, you know. I mean, you're at one of the best hospitals you're going to be at. But we waited there, and finally, you know, the Lord finally prided me after about three hours.

You know, and you're sitting there, and my whole thing was, I want to be, I want to be, I know they're going to be busy. I know they're swamped. And I want to be a blessing to them. And I was praying for the nurses and praying for the doctors and all that. And I knew people were upset and wanting to get in. And so God had brought us there, and God had brought us there

to be that example of patience and waiting. And then finally, after three hours of that, God finally knocked some sense into me. I have you here to pray for them, you know. The mama, the single mama with the two kids and one of the boys is sick. And the mama over here with another in a wheelchair. And a lady here who can barely walk. And so I just started praying for those.

And it's like, okay, that's why you brought us here. Ann's deal turned out to be really not that bad. They just realigned it. They adjusted it. They said she didn't have an infection. They checked her out, x-rayed her, put some stuff through the tube, and said it's one of the best gastro tubes they'd seen. And so after 12 hours, we left at midnight, 1230 in the morning.

We left the hospital. Got a motel, spent the night, and woke up to four inches of snow with the blizzard that was coming in and all the stuff that was going on down here. And so it took us six hours to get home, and it took us five hours to go out. And God had us there, not just to make sure Ann's tube was okay, but so that we could be praying, so that we could be praying for people.

The darkness is around, and God's moving us into situations so we can be like Gideon, trusting the Lord against overwhelming odds to be praying for, to be sharing the gospel with the people that are around us so that they can join us as the Lord catches us out. We've got to move quickly. I'm sorry. Moving to the next one is in 1 Samuel, chapter 3, and God's call of Samuel.

So we've had Abraham, the angel of death in Egypt, and Gideon. Now the fourth thing that the Lord prompted my heart with was the commission of Samuel. 1 Samuel, chapter 3, if you would. And you know the story. I'm just refreshing, just re-rehearsing it. The boy Samuel, verse 1, was ministering to the Lord before Eli, and a word from the Lord was rare in those days.

Visions were infrequent. Because the prophet was the judge, really, at that time. Samuel's the last of the judges. And God had not been speaking through Eli because Eli had not been responsible before the Lord in disciplining, really training up his sons to take his place in a way that he should have been training them up. And so they were corrupt, and they were corrupting the sacrifices

that the people were bringing. The people knew that they were corrupt, and they just didn't want to participate. They were actually blaming God. You know, it's like, kind of goes on today. I don't want to go to church because everybody's a hypocrite. You know, all the pastors and all that stuff. You've got Catholic priests sleeping with little boys. You've got Protestant pastors running off with their secretaries.

You've got all these different homosexual activities among major evangelical leaders. You know, what? Corruption in the camp. Who wants anything to do with it? That's what was going on with Eli. And so it happened at that time, verse 2, that Eli was lying down in his place. And now his eyesight had begun to grow dim, and he could not see well, and the lamp of God had not yet gone out.

So the menorah's still burning. They're sleeping in the holy place, in the outer part of the tabernacle. Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the Ark of God was, and that the Lord called Samuel, and Samuel said, Here am I. Here I am. And he ran to Eli, because he thought Eli was the one that was calling him. But he said, I did not call. Lie down again.

And so he went and lay down. Verse 6, And the Lord said yet again, Samuel. And so Samuel arose, and went to Eli, and said, Here I am, for you called me. But he answered, I did not call him. I said, Lie down again. And now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet begun, yet been revealed to him. And so the Lord called Samuel again for the third time,

and he arose, and he went to Eli, and he said, Here I am, for you called me. And then Eli discerned

for I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he did not rebuke them. And so he goes on commissioning Samuel, really, about what he was going to do. But this happened while everybody was sleeping, even Samuel. God was speaking to him. God called him. And God said that Eli had been asleep as well.

Eli had been asleep spiritually. And was not listening anymore to the things of God. And Samuel was now the one through whom God was going to speak, even though he was still just a boy. The church today is virtually asleep, and not aware of what is going on with the Lord. It has a lot of ceremony. It has a lot of... There's a lot of Christmas pageants going on today.

A lot of people aren't here this morning because their grandkids are in a play somewhere, so they're off where their family is, where the kids are in some kind of play. A lot of production going on. A lot of things going on. A lot of the right words being said, but hearts not being changed. And God's looking just for innocence for those who will say, Speak Lord,

I'm listening. Your servant's listening. I'm ready. The world's asleep. Well, yeah, but I'm not one of these big guys that can go in and share a lot, and God's saying, All I'm wanting is what you just said. Speak Lord, Your servant's listening. And I'll give you what to share. I'll bring the opportunities, and I'll give you what to share. You are little Samuels.

We are little Samuels. We're insignificant at the time. Samuel went on to be the greatest judge. We're not looking to be the greatest anything other than the follower of Christ. Be obedient to the Lord. That's all Samuel was. Given to the Lord. Given for the Lord's purpose. Whatever God wanted of him. Here I am Lord, speak. For your servant's listening. God's doing that for us right now.

While the rest of the world is sleeping. Commissioning us. Okay, we just have a few minutes, so let me just read some places that you don't have to turn to. You can write them down. Once again, I apologize for the cough. The next one I had written down was in 2 Kings chapter 6, verses 24 through verse 20 of chapter 7. And that's when the siege of Samaria was going on.

And Elisha, the prophet, was there. And there was famine in Samaria because of the siege that was happening. And even people were eating their young because they had nothing left to eat. And God was being condemned. And Elisha said that by morning, bread, barley and all was going to be selling for a pittance in the gate, in the marketplace. Because God was going to provide.

He was going to provide mightily. And the advisor, one of the advisors to the king said, you know, if God should open windows of heaven, could such a thing really be? And Elisha said, oh, it'll happen. And you'll see it. But you won't get to eat of it. As the whole story goes, there were lepers, remember? Lepers were outside the wall of the city. Now you got to realize that during the siege,

all of the people from the land around the castle had moved into the castle. So everybody was there. And the armies had built siege ramps and all had stationed for a siege around Samaria. So Samaria was totally blocked off by the army. And yet these lepers are just outside the wall. Why? Well, they couldn't get in. Nobody wanted a leper. Nobody wanted to be around a leper.

Why were they still alive? Well, because the enemy didn't want lepers. They didn't want to be around lepers either. So these lepers were just left by themselves to starve to death outside the city wall. And they said, hey, let's go running down to the camp. And what are they going to do? They're going to kill us because we're coming in. And, you know, they're not going to want us around.

They don't want us to touch them. They're afraid they're going to get leprosy. They'll kill us. It's better than just sitting here waiting to starve to death. And so they did. They went running down to the camp. And as they go down to the camp, evidently they thought that something had happened and they thought that the armies of Samaria were coming out to get them.

And they fled. And so the lepers get to the camp and they walk in and there's nobody there. There's nobody there, but there's all this food. There's all this feast. There's all this stuff that's there, and they're gorging themselves with the food that's been left. And they say, hey, God's going to judge us if we don't report this to the people that need it.

They're starving and sleeping, and we're here gorging ourselves, so let's go tell them. So they go to the city gate. Daddy saw that was coming and pulled it down. And they get up and they say, hey, that's going on. The camp is empty, and there's all kinds of food. Let's go get it. And so they thought it was a trap. And so they sent their horsemen, remember?

The king sent out the horsemen in four directions. The only horses that weren't eaten. Get somebody on a horse. Oh, he's gone. That's right. We had him for dinner yesterday. The only horses we have left. Put a rider on each one of them. Send them off in the four directions and see if we can find out where these guys went. And they did, and they tracked. They were running so scared,

the people, the enemy was, they left their clothes and their sandals and stuff all the way to the river. They crossed the river naked because something was after them. And they brought the food in, and the city was saved. And the guy that had said, you know, if God opens windows in heaven, as they were bringing the food in, the people came and trampled him to death.

And so he didn't get to, he saw it, but he didn't get to eat it, just like Elisha said. The thing there, we're the lepers. The city is starving to death. We're the ones that have been eaten up by sin, but we know the salvation of the Lord. We've experienced the salvation of the Lord. We've experienced the abundance of the Lord. We know Jesus is coming soon.

You're sitting here, and probably most of you sitting here believe that. You really believe Jesus is coming soon. And you can watch and see the things that are happening in the world, and it's just going ditto, ditto, ditto, click, click, click, right along according to scripture. We can't just sit here with that food, with that knowledge, while the rest of the world is starving, while they're sleeping.

We have to experience that admonition to get out there and share with those that we're around. Tell them about Jesus. It doesn't matter what they think of us. We're lepers anyhow, right? It doesn't make any difference. There was a deal I read, and I can't remember. I read it from a couple of different places about how right now Islam is open. Islam in our society is open.

There's kind of an open window to Christianity because they said Christians share with them their concern for their eternal destiny of their soul. And the Muslim thinks that's pretty cool, pretty neat that the Christian is concerned for his soul. He doesn't agree with him. You know, he's ready to go blow himself up for the 70 virgins. But there's an area of compassion that's there,

and even though they think we're crazy, there's an opening there to share the gospel. And we need to share. We need to share no matter what they think of us. We need to be sharing wherever we are. The sixth, we have three more quickly to get through, is Bethlehem, of course. And as the song was talking about, and as everybody's going to be talking about in these next four days,

Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, and all those who missed out, the innkeeper, of course, the city of Bethlehem itself. And before you go dissing the innkeeper and all, we'd have done the same thing. But we're the shepherds. The shepherds are the detestable ones. They're around the field. As Gail Irwin said, whenever a shepherd came to town, things went missing.

Shepherds were robbers. They were low class. They were like the lepers. See, it's one of the things, as you start going through Scripture and you see all the ways that God moves, He always does that with the lower. He uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. He uses the things that are the base to confound that that is exalted and lifted up.

So I've been sharing with you for years the vision that we are the carcass pickers in this area. The turkey carcass pickers, man. As soon as, if we're still here and the holiday's over and people have gorged themselves and they go back to their lifestyles, that's when we come in. And we come in because the other places have tried to harvest all the meat of the wealthy and all of that stuff.

And all that's left now is the carcass, the insignificant ones. And that's what we're going after. We're going after all the down and outers, all those just like us who don't know the Lord, who don't know Jesus. And that was the shepherds at Bethlehem. And yet, God, they were awake in the fields doing what they should have been doing, guarding the sheep, watching the sheep.

And so they were the ones that were aware when God began to reveal the fact. Now, I know God chose them to do that, but they were awake anyhow because they were taking care of the sheep. They were watching over the sheep. And that's what we are. And God has called us to make the rest of the town aware of what's going on. Seventh, quickly. The seventh one I thought about

was the disciples of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Matthew 26, verses 36 to 46. Now, I don't know if you remember it or not, but when Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him aside a little more and said, Watch and pray with me for the hour is heavy. And He goes off and He prays and He comes back and He finds them asleep. And He wakes them up and He admonishes them and He goes off and prays again.

You remember He did that three times? Three times He woke them up. Well, three times He came back and woke them up twice. The third time He didn't. But three times they fell asleep knowing that the time was imminent. They didn't understand, but Jesus told them point blank, the time is imminent. It's a heavy time for me. So watch and pray, watch and pray, watch and pray.

What's the church told over and over and over through Scripture? Watch and pray, watch and pray. Be aware and watch and pray. And the church is asleep. Most of it is sleeping, slumbering in its wealth and in its self-concern rather than having the concern to get the gospel out in these last days. Had they been praying, they wouldn't have been surprised. I mean, it still would have happened.

Things still would have come down, but they wouldn't have been taken unawares and acted spontaneously, stupidly, like Peter did. It's the second off the year of the high priest's servant. Well, finally, and in the text which I had us read devotionally and you can turn back there real quickly because we're going to have to close. I'm not going to get to exegete it hardly at all.

The admonition to be ready as the church to be ready. As to the times and the epochs or the seasons, brethren, there is no need of anything to be written to you for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. We know that. We've been told that. Jesus told us that too. While they are saying peace and safety,

then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they will not escape. Barack Obama is the herald of peace right now. Everybody's anticipating as soon as January 20th comes, peace is going to flood the world because the man of peace is going to be here and that's scary. That's scary for us as believers. But you brethren, verse 4,

are not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. We're aware and we're sober as to what's going on. Sober as to the days ahead. The economy is not the big problem. If anything else, as the economy goes down,

I really think the churches are going to pull together and we're going to see the body of Christ minister in ways that it has not ministered before. So rather than figuring out which investment thing is great for you to put your sixpence in so that you can, you know, I can come out with my retirement, I don't think we're going to have to worry about retirement. I think we are going to be available to the Lord so that God can use us to minister however we can minister until he catches us out. We're going to be sober.

We know that we know the days are coming. Everything's being set for what's about to happen. So we're not going to sleep. We're not going to just pass it off and we're not going to be drunk with the idea of economic, you know, whatever is going to be needed to do. However many hundred billion dollars you need, just take it, you know, whatever. Here you go. That's not where the answer is going to lie.

We know. Those who sleep, verse seven, do their sleeping at night and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. Now the breastplate of righteousness is what we see in Ephesians 6. But here we see the breastplate of faith and love.

Interesting. And a helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation reminds us who we are, whose we are, where we're going. We know that he's coming. But the breastplate of faith and love, the breastplate of righteousness, we have the righteousness of Christ, the breastplate of faith and love. We know in the midst of what's going on, we have faith that God's going to provide,

so we love. We're the loving lepers, the carcass-picking loving lepers. There we go. We just expand the vision. I'm just making you feel so wanted and secure. Yay, warm and fuzzy. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with him. Therefore, encourage one another

and build one another up, just as also you are doing. We are in the Laodicean era of the church, the seventh and final stage of the church age, as Revelation talks about, I believe. I believe Revelation is a prophetic, eschatologically incomplete book, unfulfilled book yet. It's in the process of about to be fulfilled. We are the last of the church ages, and in the midst of this church age,

it's a sleeping church age, a church that's fat, it thinks it's okay, and it has no idea that sudden destruction is about to come upon it. We're a part of the parable of the ten virgins, five who were declared to be wise, were in a constant state of readiness, in a constant state of anticipation. They had their lamps trimmed with oil. In a spiritual sense, that means they were constantly feeding on the Word and having the Holy Spirit just fresh and keeping fresh anew, because they were anticipating the coming of the bridegroom at any time, while the other virgins slept, and they were unprepared, thinking just like we did with 9-11, we'll play catch-up.

When the bad happens, we'll play catch-up. Well, once the rapture happens, the door's closed, you can't get in. You have to go through the Great Tribulation, and we don't want that to happen with anybody here, or anybody listening by CD or on the radio. So the question is this morning, are you awake, are you spiritually awake, are you ready, are you anticipating the soon coming of the Lord, or are you sleeping?

Matthew 24, 44, For this reason you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. Father, if anything at this Christmas season, may we have such an expectancy and a hope and a realization that your coming for us is so soon as we watch the things on the horizon, rather than preparing for a stable future here, may we lay up treasures in heaven. God, may we be quick to give of our sustenance, of the things that we have to bless others. May we have that breastplate of faith and love on, and just be loving one another, loving the brotherhood, being there and providing, and be the loving lepers, carcass pickers.

God, just out there, not afraid of what people are going to think of us, coming to get them for Jesus, because we love them, and we know you love them even more. Use us mightily as the night is falling. Let us be the Gideons who are going to rout the enemy and bring forth a great, great, great harvest, Lord, a great salvation. For it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.