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John 14:1-3 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Why the Rapture? When will it occur? ________________ The Old Testament had miracles and mighty acts of judgment. The Gospels had miraculous signs. The book of Acts has miraculous signs But by the end of Acts, they begin to cease. But these signs were meant to be temporary (Hebrews 2: 3-4). But for 20centuries there has been a silence from God. No Red Seas or plagues or earthquakes to free prisoners or Herod's worms or Nebuchadnezzar's madness, or 185,000 dead Assyrian soldiers or sodomites consumed. Rather there has been suffering, persecution, violent oppressors, and empires leaving martyrs in their wake. It's why 2 Peter 3:2-4 ________________ It is because the ultimate consummating miracle has occurred. (Acts 17: 30-31; Romans 1: 4 ) Previous miracles were signs pointing to the last day. The work of Christ has now been followed according to Jesus by a “greater work.” (John 14: 11-12) The gospel and the age of Grace. Salvation is a miracle or work that is spiritual, eternal, and worldwide as opposed to a miracle physical, temporal, and local. Christ's salvation is the heavenly work to which all other miracles pointed. ________________ Why the silence and suffering for 20 centuries? An amnesty and pardon has been granted by God to all since the death of Christ. “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” 2 Corinthians 5:17ff “Come unto me all who are weary... and I will give you rest.” ________________ How has the world responded to this offer of pardon? 2 Thessalonians, 2:1ff. And this apostasy is why God will send Anti-Christ and “The Day of The Lord” or “The Tribulation.” Because His final mercy has been rejected. ________________ But first., “The Restrainer must be taken away.” (As Lot, Noah, Rehab, Enoch, Methuselah, and Elijah) Who is “The Restrainer”?? It is us. The bride, who must be “gathered together to him” (2 Thess. 2:1) ________________ And that is why there is a "rapture" (1 Thessalonians 1:10) ________________ But we are those who have not rejected him. Rather, we have stood for him and suffered for him. Our testing and purifying is occurring now. (1 Peter 4: 14-19) Thus, we are kept from “the hour of testing that is coming upon the whole Earth.” (Revelation 3: 10)

What is Christ doing now? Paul said it clearly. “A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Rom 11:25). The “fullness of the Gentiles” are the “sheep of another fold” (John 10:16), the elect of God that God will save in this age. The church age is a time of mercy in which God “commands all men to repent having fixed a day in which He will judge the world through a man” (Acts 17:30-31). God has sent a message, a finished book – the Bible – and the visible display of the church which is a preview of His coming kingdom into all the world. Has the world received this warning? No. The world has renounced it, changed it and denied it. Has the nation of Israel repented having seen True Judaism or Christianity as it has gone out to the world? Again the answer is no. So what is the next thing on the Christological agenda? It is the judgment and punishment of the world and the chastening and purification of Israel. This is a prophesied time called The Day of The Lord. The Day of The Lord is a period that runs from The Tribulation, through the Second Coming, the millennial kingdom and then the final judgment. But all of this will begin with the Rapture or the “plucking up” or “catching away” of the church. It is the event that suddenly removes the church from a coming period of Tribulation and the wrath of God. Paul said “God has not destined us for wrath . . . (1 Thess. 5:9) and that Christ “delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10) and that is the purpose of the Rapture. To remove the church from what is only experienced by those who reject Christ – the wrath of God. This is why in Revelation 6-18 the word “church” is not mentioned. Those who believe are simply the saints of the Tribulation. The Bride of Christ is not mentioned until Revelation 19:7-8 when she returns with Christ to rule with Him. This is what Jesus meant when He said “I go away to prepare a place for you. And if I go away I will come again to receive you unto myself that where I am (i.e. in glory) there you may be also” (John 14:3). This is not the return of Christ with His church (Rev 19) but His returning for His church to remove them from the wrath to come. This truth is also described to the Thessalonians. “The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up (“harpazo”: to “pluck up” or “rapture”) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17). To the Corinthians Paul spoke the same, “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed . . .” (1 Cor 15:51-52) And so we gather in the elect. We live in fear and reverence of His appearing. We wait during the breakdown of society. We stand firm in our faith . . . We look to the skies . . . to “escape the wrath to come” . . . and wait for our incomparable Christ.

MESSAGE SUMMARY "War in Heaven Brings Wrath on Earth!" That could be the headline of Revelation 12. The ongoing battle of the ages that began in heaven and has played out on earth will reach fever pitch in the coming years. If you're asking What's Next?, the answer in part lies here. The cosmic battle becomes a global battle that will be filled with both woe and worship, both fury and freedom. Let's get more insight into the motivations and actions of the archenemy of God's people. STUDY GUIDE Connect Group Recap: March 13, 2016 Speaker: Skip Heitzig Teaching: "Satan's Global Conflict" Text: Revelation 12:7-17 Path So many jokes, movies, and books illustrate misconceptions about the Devil—but the Bible reveals the startling truth about Satan: he is real, he has access to heaven, and he is not in charge of hell, nor will he ever be. Pastor Skip unpacked two major themes in Revelation 12: war in heaven and wrath on earth. In considering them, we learn a few character traits about the Devil: I. Satan Is Persistent (vv. 7-12) II. Satan Is Perverse (vv. 9-10) III. Satan Is Pernicious (vv. 12-17) IV. Satan Is Preventable (v. 11) Points Satan Is Persistent (vv. 7-12) We picture heaven as a place of worship, but in the future, it will be a war zone. Satan fell from heaven and failed to destroy God's Messiah (see Revelation 12:4), but he will try once again during the tribulation to conquer heaven and thwart God's plans. Satan doesn't give up easily, despite his past failures. He knows he's going down, but he wants to create as much chaos and destroy as many lives as he can—like a "roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). When God said, "Have you considered My servant Job?" (Job 1:8), He acknowledged that Satan had been watching Job, looking for weaknesses—an unnerving thought. Satan studies us and fashions his attacks around our character and weaknesses. One of the biggest lies that Satan tries to spread is that he is the evil opposite of righteous God. God does not fight battles; He wins them. Satan will fight a losing battle against God's angels—particularly Michael, an archangel associated with Israel's protection (see v. 7). Satan Is Perverse (vv. 9-10) These verses contain six names describing Satan's wicked nature:  Dragon (only seen in Revelation—an indicator of his true character as a fierce tyrant) Serpent of old (his subtle treachery, going back to Eden) Devil (slanderer, gossip) Satan (adversary, enemy) Deceiver (he is the world's pastor, promoting false religion, security, and hope) Accuser (spews accusations against us in heaven) Satan Is Pernicious (vv. 12-17) Heaven will rejoice at Satan's banishment from heaven, but the earth will recoil: "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea" (v. 12). The tribulation will be a double-whammy: it will be God's judgment against the earth, but it will also be Satan's great wrath as he and his minions are confined to earth for three and a half years. Satan will vent all his violent outrage on the earth, specifically against Israel. Through his servant, the Antichrist, two-thirds of all the Jews will be killed (see Zechariah 13:8), and the abomination of desolation will occur (see Matthew 24). Though the details are unknown, God will protect His people from the flood of Satan's wrath; Israel's darkest hour will lead to its brightest dawn. Satan Is Preventable (v. 11) Believers in the tribulation "overcame [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb" (v. 11). Satan has built a case against us, but our defense attorney, Jesus, makes a stronger case by His blood (see 1 John 2:1). Like the martyrs, we overcome Satan by the word of our testimony (see v. 11)—our personal statement of faith that tells others who God is and what He has done for us. "They did not love their lives to the death" (v. 11). Our spiritual loyalty is more important than our physical life. Satan can't touch—in any way that counts in eternity— the person who puts Jesus first and everything else last. Once we know how to die, we know how to live (see John 12:25). When we are pressed to choose either the Lord or our own life, we can take missionary James Calvert's stance when he was discouraged from following the Lord: "We died before we came here." Practice Connect Up:  Satan studies how to harm us, but he operates within strict parameters—by God's permission and for God's purposes. God keeps His eye on His children and His finger on the thermostat. What battles in your life do you need to give over to God, trusting that His ultimate victory is sure? Connect In: The solidarity of Christian brothers and sisters is so important in resisting Satan's influence. What are some ways that you can support each other in the challenges you face? Connect Out: What is your testimony? Prepare a brief account of what God has done for you and how He has changed your life. Practice it and have it ready at all times. Ask God to provide you with a chance to share it this week. DETAILED NOTES I. Introduction A. People have many misconceptions about the Devil: 1. He is not real at all 2. He is waiting in hell to torment people who go there B. Satan has never been to hell and will not go there until after the tribulation 1. Satan is not in charge of hell -- God is 2. When Satan finally goes there, he won't be the chief tormentor -- he will be the chief target (see Revelation 20:10) C. He currently has a certain amount of access to heaven as well as earth (see Job 1:6-7) D. This passage focuses on two themes 1. War in heaven 2. Wrath on earth E. We must learn about Satan so we can add to our knowledge about him (see 2 Corinthians 2:11) II. Satan Is Persistent (vv. 7-12) A. War in heaven 1. We usually think of heaven as a worship zone, not a war zone 2. This passage refers to a future war B. Satan finds it hard to give up, though he is fighting a losing battle 1. He wants to create as much chaos as possible 2. He wants to bring as many people down with him as possible C. Satan personally came to Jesus to tempt Him (see Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13) 1. Satan did not leave Him alone 2. He departed until an opportune time (see Luke 4:13) 3. He is constantly looking for ways to lead us astray (see I Peter 5:*0 D. Satan constantly studies us 1. He studied Job (see Job 1:8) 2. Jesus told Petere that Satan had been asking for him (see Luke 22:31) 3. He fashions his attacks based on information he knows about us E. Satan's final attempt to take over heaven 1. This is not a battle between God and Satan a. One of Satan's greatest lies is that he is the evil opposite of righteous God b. God does not fight battles -- He wins them 2. This will be a battle between Michael and his angels and Satan and his demons a. They have fought in times past (see Jude 1:9) b. Michael is the great defender of Isarael (see Daniel 12:1) 3. This war could be triggered by the rapture of the church a. People who will be raptured will pass through the air (the demons' realm) b. The demons may try to hinder their passage 4. Michael is an archangel (see Jude 1:9) a. There is only one other reference to an archangel in the Bible b. I Thessalonians 4:16: the shout mentioned here could be from Michael as this battle takes place III. Satan Is Perverse (vv. 9-10) A. Names of the Devil 1. The Dragon a. Revelation is the only book that refers to Satan as a dragon b. Mentioned thirteen times c. A picture of his character as revealed in the end times d. A Fierce tyrant 2. Serpent of old a. Genesis 3 b. Cunning 3. The Devil a. Slanderer, gossiper, one who defames another b. Diabolos = slanderous, accusing falsely 4. Satan a. Enemy b. Adversary B. If you have any relationship with the Devil, make sure he is your enemy and not your friend 1. He is a fierce tyrant who is very subtle and crafty, who slanders and defames us and is our enemy 2. "There is something...very comforting in the thought that [the Devil] is an adversary --- I would sooner have him for an adversary than for a friend!" -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon C. He deceives the whole world 1. He is the world's pastor 2. He shepherds the flock and uses any type of deception he can get people to not think about spiritual things D. Accuser of the brethren 1. He has access to both heaven and earth 2. He accuses us before the throne of God (see Zechariah 3:1) 3. Some of that spills over into our thought lives a. We have feelings of inadequacy b. We doubt our salvation c. We think there is no way God could want us IV. Satan Is Pernicious (vv. 12-17) A. There will come a time when Satan will no longer have access to heaven B. There will be a great tribulation for two reasons: 1. God's wrath a. Wrath of the Lamb b. God's judgments on the earth 2. Satan's wrath a. Reaction to banishment from heaven b. Satan and his minions will enter earth en masse C. Second half of the tribulation = the great tribulation 1. Three and a half years a. 1,260 days (see Revelation 12:6) b. Forty-two months (see Revelation 13:5) 2. During this time, Satan will be filled with wrath a. He will have no more access to heaven or the air b. "Satan is now like a caged lion, enraged beyond words by the limitations now placed upon his freedom. He picks himself up from the dust of the earth, shakes his fist at the sky, and glares around, choking with fury for ways to vent his hatred and his spite upon humankind: -- John Phillips c. He will use the Antichrist, who will have made a seven-year peace pact with Israel (see Daniel 9:27) I. Will be broken at the three and a half year mark II. Abomination of desolation (see Daniel 12:11) III. Israel will flee to the wilderness (see Matthew 24:15-25) d. There will be a wave of anti-Semitism like the world has never seen I. Two-thirds of the Jews will be slain (see Zechariah 13:8) II. One-third will be saved (see Romans 11:26) D. Revelation is a book of symbols that speaks about a reality that will happen in the future 1. Eagles' wings (see Exodus 19:4) a. God provided protection b. He will protect Israel again 2. Flood a. Possibly speaking about a flood of attackers sent to destroy the remaining remnant of Jewish people b. The earth will help them c. Possibly an earthquake I. Five specific earthquakes are mentioned in Revelation (see Revelation 6:12; 8:5; 11:13, 19; 16:18) II. Jesus predicted earthquakes in different places (see Matthew 24:7) E. Israel's darkest hour will be followed by Israel's brightest dawn V. Satan Is Preventable (vv. 11) A. He can be overcome by the blood of the Lamb 1. In the Old Testament, God told the Israelites to put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts as judgment passed over them (see Exodus 12:21-23) 2. Apply the blood of Christ to your life when Satan hurls accusations at you and tries to get you to doubt 3. God will bless you by your understanding that you are unworthy 4. Because of the work of His Son on your behalf, you are forgiven B. Satan is the prosecuting attorney who accuses us before God 1. Jesus us our Advocate, our defense attorney (see 1 John 2:2) 2. God is the judge 3. All of Satan's accusations are accurate 4. But Jesus shed His blood to cover our sins so we can overcome all of the accusations C. Your testimony is your statement of faith 1. Confidence 2. Witness D. Spiritual loyalty is greater than physical death VI. Closing A. Satan hates you and has a miserable plan for your life 1. As Satan studies us, he plans attacks 2. He operates within strict parameters 3. Satan will be sent to hell B. God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life 1. He allows Satan to attack you to strengthen you 2. He anticipated everything Satan has done and will ever do 3. He always keeps His eye on His children and His hand on the thermostat 4. He created heaven for people Figures referenced: John Phillips, Charles Haddon Spurgeon Greek words : diabolos Cross references: Genesis 3; Exodus 12:21-23; 19:4; Job 1:6-8; Daniel 9:27; 12:1, 11; Zechariah 3:1; 13:8; Matthew 4:1-11; 24:7, 15-25; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13; 22:31; Romans 11:26; 2 Corinthians 2:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Peter 5:8; 1 John 2:2; Jude 1:9; Revelation 6:12; 8:5; 11:13, 19; 12:6; 13:5; 16:18; 20:10 Topic : Satan Keywords: Devil, Satan, torment, hell, tribulation, heaven, earth, war, spiritual warfare, chaos, temptation, attack, battle, angels, archangel, demons, Israel, evil, rapture, dragon, serpent, enemy, tyrant, cunning, adversary, deceive, pastor, shepherd, accusation, salvation, tribulation, wrath, judgment, banishment, Antichrist, anti-Semitism, eagle, earthquake, flood, blood of the Lamb, Advocate, sins, testimony

I want to talk with you about the return of Christ. As most of us know there are two comings of Christ. There was his first coming, which is shared in the Gospels. But there is a second coming of Christ, revealed in scripture. In fact, the Bible, in its very last chapter, says, “Come Lord Jesus.” Many people, throughout history, have wished for the coming of Christ. I remember a fad in the 1980s when many Christians believed that the return of Christ was imminent that decade. But it passed. Even some of my ancestors wished for Jesus to come, but with a twist. Story: Tarred, feathered, and sent out of town. I hope that when I finish today’s message, you won’t do the same to me. How do we know when the coming of Christ is near? Jesus said we would not know the day or hour. But at the same time, he also gave us signs in scripture so that we would know what to expect. So, let’s talk about those signs and why, I think, the second coming of Christ is NOT imminent. First, how do we define something that is imminent? Many Christians use this word to say that the return of Christ can happen at any time. We want him to come, it is a central hope in scripture. But the reality is that the apostles never used this word to describe Christ’s coming. Consider that when Paul and the other Apostles were alive nearly 2,000 years ago, they talked about the second coming of Christ. But we have been talking about that coming for those many centuries. Christ’s coming is soon, but not imminent. And how much more soon is it since 2,000 years have passed since the second coming of Christ was discussed by the apostles? The scripture reveals that there are a few things still to happen before Christ comes again. Matthew 24:1-14, 42-44 ———————— EXAMINATION ———————— (V.3) Sign of your coming? Jesus describes a few things leading up to his coming: (v.5) False Christs (v.6) Wars and rumors of wars (v.7) Kingdom against kingdom (v.8) But these are the beginning of birth pains These are general signs, but not THE SIGN of Christ’s imminent return. These signs have persisted for 2,000 years. But let’s look at each of these and see what they reveal to us about the second of coming of Christ to the earth. Verse 5 reveals the coming of false Christs. What is a False Christ? —A person who denies the divinity, humanity, or lordship of Jesus Christ. It also usurps his divinity, exalts our humanity, and usurps his lordship. Examples: Jehovah’s Witnesses (Secret coming of Christ, deny Jesus’ divinity). Islam (Denies Jesus’ divinity, death, and lordship) Mormonism (Denies Jesus uniqueness, exalts man to godhood). The movement of false prophets and apostles throughout Africa (Barrel of water, keys to the kingdom). (V.6) Wars and rumors of wars and verse 7 , kingdom against kingdom —There have been 14,500 wars that have taken place between 3500 BC and the late 20th century, costing 3.5 billion lives, leaving only 300 years of peace. While Jesus warned us of wars, wars have been taking place on earth since recorded history. Is verse 14 ( Proclaiming the Gospel ) the sign of his coming? Yes. Look what Jesus says in verse 14: “This Gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” The Gospel is accelerating in the 21st century. 2.8 million churches planted in the last two years. From 1960 to 2000, the global growth of the number of Evangelicals grew at three times the world's population rate, and twice that of Islam. Currently, 15,000 Christians die every day and go to Heaven. But the church is growing at an exponential rate. Globally, 50,000 people a day come to faith in Christ. (That’s 333% greater than those dying.) At this rate, everyone on earth will have heard the Gospel by 2029. There are 17,446 people groups in the world today. Of that amount, there are 300 unengaged and unreached groups that have yet to be engaged with the Gospel. This lack of fulfillment is a sign that Jesus is not ready to come back yet. Notice the scriptural support for this idea: Matthew 24:14 states, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Many of us are looking for the coming of Christ. And many of us would love for him to come now, even right now. But consider this: Why would we want Jesus to come back when there are still millions of people who have not heard yet about Jesus and have a no chance at eternal life? Is verse 15 the sign? What is the abomination of desolation ? We find a prophecy about this in the Old Testament in Daniel 11:31. “Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.” “Scholars generally agree that the first reference of these prophecies is the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes IV. Antiochus treated Israel with such violence and contempt that they rebelled against him. When he came to suppress the rebellion, his forces entered the temple, stopped the regular sacrifices, set up an idol of or altar for Zeus, and apparently offered swine there as a sacrifice. This is an abomination because it is idolatry, and it brings desolation because it defiles the holy place at the heart of Israel” (Gospel Coalition). Some prophecies in the Bible have what are known as double fulfillment. The first fulfillment is a type or precursor to a later fulfillment. We see this in scripture when God promises Abraham his offspring will inherit the land, then Paul applies the term, “offspring” and this promise to Jesus in Galatians 3:16. A double fulfillment. We see it in God’s promise to David to give David a son who will rule, then the NT applies that to Jesus. A double fulfillment. Many biblical scholars believe this passage in Daniel is one such scripture, that it will reach its final fulfillment in the anti-Christ. But to be fulfilled in the last days, as some scholars say, this requires a temple. There is no temple in Israel right now. If we are to take this literally, then a new temple would have to be built. Here’s the bottom line: Christ’s return cannot be imminent because these requirements are not yet fulfilled. Jesus himself said that his return, foreshadowed by these things, would not be imminent. Look at Matthew 24:6 and Luke 21:9. “When you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once” (some translations say, “imminent”). (V.3) End of the age . The sign and the end are asked as a single event. So, Jesus defines the end of the age in verses 15-22. Verse 21 calls it the “Great Tribulation.” Verse 22: “No life would have been saved.” In other words, if things continue to go badly, humanity will become extinct. So, we must be alert to his coming. What does it mean to be alert about Christ’s coming? Verses 42 and 44 talk about being on the alert for Christ’s coming. Jesus describes those on the alert in verse 45 as “faithful” and “sensible.” “Wise” in some translations. We are looking for his coming, but we also balance that with the need to reach lost people groups with the Gospel. So, what have we learned so far in our examination of the text? 1. Jesus says he will return at a time of great turmoil on the earth. 2. Jesus will return after the earth has heard the Gospel. 3. Jesus will return while there are many deceivers on the earth. 4. Jesus returns to judge the world. 5. Jesus wants us to watch for his coming. —————————— INTERPRETATION —————————— So what is Jesus trying to communicate to us regarding his return? We find the answer in verse Matthew 24:42, "Keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come." ——————————— FALLEN CONDITION ——————————— Without the return of Christ, all humanity is in danger of extinction. Jesus said, “If those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved” (Matthew 24:22). ————————————— REDEMPTIVE SOLUTION ————————————— The bodily return of Christ saves humanity from extinction. Jesus wants us to know that he will make a visible and physical return to earth and establish a new world order based upon faith in him. Jesus wants us to watch carefully for the signs of his return, but not be tricked by deceivers.

FAST FORWARD PART TWO “LET THE READER UNDERSTAND” OR, THE END TIMES FRAMEWORK JESUS’ OLIVET DISCOURSE #2 DANIEL 2, 9 AND MATTHEW 24:15-29 ROGER BARRIER, SENIOR PASTOR 1-13-08 S-1744 Today we continue our four-Sunday emphasis on Jesus’ teaching concerning future events. His Olivet Discourse is found in Matthew 24. We call this series, “Fast Forward.” We will take a moment to review for those who missed last week. Stunned by Jesus’ pronouncement regarding the destruction of the Temple, the disciples asked three questions. 1. When will this (the destruction of the Temple) happen? 2. What will be the sign of your coming? 3. What will be the sign of the end of the age? The Mountain Peak Principle: Events that seem close together may in fact be separated by varying lengths of time. The Multiple-Fulfillment Principle: Prophecies may be fulfilled multiple times. For example, the Abomination of Desolation predicted by Daniel (Daniel 9:27) is at least a triple fulfillment (Matthew 24:15). "LET THE READER UNDERSTAND" Under God’s inspired influence Daniel prophetically laid out the framework for world history from his day to the second coming of Christ and then on to the end of the age. His prophecies provide the framework for understanding all other end-time prophecies. The Multi-Metallic Man (Daniel 2:31-45) Golden Head (Babylon) Silver Chest and Arms (Media-Persia) Brass Belly and Thighs (Greece) Iron Legs (Rome) Feet and Toes of Iron Mixed with Clay (Kingdom of the Anti-Christ) The Rock (Jesus, Matthew 21:42-44) The Mountain (The Kingdom of Christ) Some Lessons: 1. All human governments stand on delicate foundations. 2.  All human governments eventually deteriorate and decay. Professor Alexander Tyler wrote about the fall of the Athenian Republic 2000 years earlier when the thirteen colonies were still a part of Great Britain: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policies and is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith... to great courage... to liberty... to abundance... to selfishness… to complacency... to apathy... to dependency... and back to bondage.” 3. The power of human governments is increasing. The Seventy “Sevens” Prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27) God had a plan for Israel (bondage in Babylon) that lasted 70 years. God has another plan for Israel. This one extends for 490 years (70 X 7years) from Daniel’s day until the second coming of Christ and until and Christ establishes His Messianic Kingdom. "Heptad” refers to seven of anything—just as “dozen” refers to twelve of anything. From the command to rebuild Jerusalem (March 4, 444 b.c.) until the “Anointed One” (Jesus Christ) came was predicted to be sixty-nine “heptads” (69 X 7 years = 483 years). 483 Jewish years later or 173,880 days (360 days per Jewish year X 483 years = 173,880 days) after March 4, 444 B.C. was April 6, 32 a.d..—Palm Sunday. When Christ entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, 32 a.d., God's prophetic time clock stopped and has remained stopped for almost two thousand years. There is a time gap after the end of the sixty-ninth “heptad” and before the seventieth. The clock hands today stand poised at “sixty-nine.” There is still one "seven" to go. Three events occur after the sixty-ninth "seven" and before the seventieth "seven" begins. 1. The "Anointed One" will be crucified. 2. The people (the Romans) of the ruler who will come (the Anti-christ) will destroy Jerusalem (The Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 a.d.) 3. There will be no peace on earth. Wars will continue unabated until Christ returns. Several events will occur during the final seven years. 1. The prophetic clock will restart when the Anti-Christ makes a seven year peace treaty with the nation of Israel. 2.  After three and one-half years the Anti-christ will desecrate the Temple by placing an image of himself in the Holy of Holies (This is the “abomination of desolation” Daniel, Jesus and Paul warned us to watch out for.) The Anti-christ will then break the peace treaty and the greatest persecution of the Jewish race in all history will commence. 3. The seals, trumpets and bowls of destruction described in the Book of Revelation commence once the peace treaty is broken. 4.  The Battle of Armageddon occurs at the end of the seven-year period with the destruction of Anti-christ and his forces. Some More Lessons: 1.  Discerning Christians have no reason to be baffled nor confused regarding the events of the end of the age. 2.  Investing in global outreach provides personal involvement in bringing in the Kingdom of God on earth. 3. Living holy lives is the best preparation we can make for the return of Christ.

WHAT TIME IS IT? Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 (Ecclesiastes #3) S-1403 ·SLIDE #1: How many of you are wearing a watch?  Or you have a pocket watch or clock of some kind with you this morning? How many did not bring a watch this morning?  What’s wrong with you?  You are in the minority. Any body here bring two watches? Why?  Because time is so important to us. Let’s play “Let’s Pretend.” Let’s pretend that your banker phoned you and said that an anonymous donor has decided to deposit 86,400 pennies into your account every day for the rest of your life. ·SLIDE #:2 You grab a pencil and start figuring. That’s $864 a day. $864 times seven equals over $6000 a week, times fifty-two. That’s almost $315,000 a year. He adds, “But there’s one stipulation... you must spend all the money that same day. No balance will be carried over to the next day. Now let’s play “Get Serious.” Every morning God deposits into your bank of time ·SLIDE #3: 86,400 seconds represent 1,440 minutes every day, which equals 525,600 minutes per year. Now, the same stipulation applies. You have to spend it all. No minutes are ever carried over on credit to the next day. This is what is so tough about time.  It keeps moving and you can’t save it up.  So, if you are not careful, it real easy to waste. ·SLIDE #2: Let’s go back to let’s pretend.  Every day you have to spend $864.  Easy to spend it on stuff.  Buy CDs and VCRs and toys because you have to get rid of it. ·SLIDE #3: Every day we have to spend 1,440 minutes and if we’re not careful, we will squander and waste it on little things that have no last lasting value—or we can make an impact over 50 years. Solomon learned much during his fling. He has given us advice on where to look to find real value in life. Get the tapes. Now, in chapter 3, he takes up the issue of time. LET’S EXAMINE THE PASSAGE AND SEE WHAT HE SAYS. ·SLIDE #4: 1. Life is filled with all sorts of events as time marches on. READ Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. All are opposites.  Some build and then destroy, while others tear down and then build up. Time marches on.  Realistic, Fatalistic, good experiences and bad experiences. ·SLIDE #5: 2. Life is beautiful when God makes the right things happen at the right times. READ Ecclesiastes 3:9-11. Death at the right time is beautiful.  Death at the wrong time is not. Contrast Carl Mendenhall: “Grace, today is a good day to die, isn’t it?” with Desperado suicide. ·SLIDE #6: 3. God puts eternity in our hearts. READ Ecclesiastes 3:11, 14. If it is not eternal then it will never satisfy in my heart. ·SLIDE #7: 4. We need to enjoy life while we are here. READ Ecclesiastes 3:12-13. Ecclesiastes is a book about enjoying life.  Four or five times Solomon reminds us to enjoy life.  It will be a shame to go through lifetime and murmur and complain all the time. ·SLIDE #8: 5. God will one day ask us to account for our actions. READ Ecclesiastes 3:15. Judgment is coming.  That should affect how we live. LET’S DRAW SOME PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS TO HELP US LIVE BETTER LIVES. ·SLIDE #9: 1. FIGURE OUT WHAT TIME IT IS AND REACT ACCORDINGLY. Read some “times” in verses 2-8. When your child is injured in an accident, it is time to adjust all priorities and give the care he needs.  It won’t go on forever, but now is the time to take care of your child. When you are on vacation, stop thinking about work.  It is time to relax. When you are in college you stay out all night because you want to party and have fun and never complain.  Then a few years later you still stay up all night caring for a crying baby who won’t go to sleep and you complain about it all the time.  Don’t resent it.  This is the time of life for that. If it is time to work, then work.  If it is time to relax, then relax. ·SLIDE #17: It is fun to watch Glenn deal with his new baby.  Angie’s tired.  He is tired. I sympathized and told him that the best way not to stretch this exhaustion out is to go ahead and have another baby right now so they will minimize the years they spend in sleepless nights. I was really enjoying this. Glenn looked up: “Another baby. Now? Are you kidding? I wouldn’t want a dog right now.” Roger:  “Well, enjoy it, it really won’t last long.  Before you know it they will be gone.” Glenn:  “The last thing we are worrying about now is the empty nest syndrome.” What time is it in your life?  Don’t get upset.  React accordingly. ·SLIDE #10: Moose Johnson and Herschel Walker for all you Dallas Cowboy football fans and for you anti-Cowboy fans. Moose has bulging joint.  Career is over.  Herschel is 34 and getting a new lease on life.  Moose needs to be planning for retirement. Famous all over the country.  Go on speaking circuit and raise money for charities if he figures out what time it is. Figure out what season of life you are in. At least six seasons.  The eras overlap so that a new one is getting underway while the previous one is not yet terminated. ·SLIDE #11: Childhood: 0 to 13. Personality 85% set by age 12.  Openness, no walls, great opportunity to lead friends to Christ. ·SLIDE #12: Adolescence: 10-22: Personality is 96% set.  Crucial years.  Bridge into adult years. Energy and idealism. Willing to take risks and make a difference. ·SLIDE #13: Early Adulthood: 17-45:  Peak years of biological and intellectual functioning. Still dealing with overcoming childhood issues while making momentous life changing decisions like marriage, occupation, life style.  Child rearing.  Time to set course to serve Christ. ·SLIDE #14: Middle Adulthood: 40-65: Greatest earning power. Body slows. Great artists tend to produce their greatest and most profound works during this period. Launch children.  Empty nest. Time to shape the world around you.  Energy coupled with savvy. Mentoring. ·SLIDE #15: Senior Adulthood: 60-80: No longer occupies center stage of the world.  Must deal with increasing death and sickness of friends and loved ones. Increasingly out of phase with younger generations.  Yet, more time to impact for Christ and do all the things you’ve always wanted to. ·SLIDE #16: Senior Adulthood: 75-100: Sickness, few significant relationships, increasing bodily discomfort, facing death.  Ministry to people with life and death issues. All sorts of issues to deal with in every stage.  But the toughest time is the transition years between stages.  Moving from childhood to adolescence is tough, from adolescence to early adulthood. Are you in transition?  Child rearing and my mom and empty nest calling me to dinner. What time is it? ·SLIDE #19: Life cycle graph of man and woman’s satisfaction.       “She’s heading out for identity.  He is coming home for intimacy.” God has made everything appropriate in his time. How much we fail to see when we miss God’s timing! ·SLIDE #20: 2. SINCE CHANGE IS ONE OF THE FEW THINGS YOU CAN ALWAYS DEPEND ON, HANDLE IT WELL WHEN IT COMES. ·SLIDE #21: Mohammed Ali has Parkinson’s Disease.  How many thought he would be invincible? ·SLIDE #22: Jerry Rice on the sidelines in shorts.  Little legs, never saw him out of uniform. ·SLIDE #23: Bob Dole making VISA commercials. It is a difficult time for these guys. Leaving home for first time and you are on your own. Extended honeymoon and now you have children in the house and no time for each other. ·SLIDE #24: Chart of proper transition through change by Cynthia Scott and Dennis Jaffe. Illustrate with lost fiancé. Denial: focus on past and deny reality of present.  Many get stuck here.  Deal in past, public complaining. Resistance: focus still on past; internal feelings of anxiety, loss, depression, anger Exploration: focus moves to future as explore possibilities for survival.  Awkward phase, confusion, asking questions and looking for answers. Commitment: clarified focus on future, affirmation of right direction. ·SLIDE #25: 3. LIVE AND CHOOSE IN LIGHT OF ETERNITY BECAUSE NO INSTANT REPLAY IS ALLOWED. Fourth and goal and the ball is on the one yard line. Down by 6 points.  Hike, quarter back drops back, lines collide as ball carrier hurtles for the goal line. Whistle sounds and yellow flags litter the field as men in Foot Locker sales uniforms scurry about. The call: “Off-sides.  Defense. Half the distance to the goal.  Repeat fourth down. Main intersection at Ina and Oracle.  You start your left turn on a green arrow when another car runs the red light in front of you and collides head on with your car.  Whistle blows, flags litter the intersection and officers scurry about. The call: “Illegal turn.  Repeat the turn.  The opposing car must start 15 yards back from the intersection. No, you are cut and bleeding.  You get no second chance. Someone has to choose what to do when. Life is continually made up of options.  Every hour is an hour of decision. Shoplifting at Sears last Wednesday night.  “His life will never be the same.” Somebody blow the flag and penalize me 15 yards and give me another chance.  No. Lunch with a coworker leads to an affair. Back seat of an auto and you are pregnant. You are making decisions every day, so choose wisely. “God has put eternity in our hearts.” What in the world does that mean? When we get eternity securely in place, it’s remarkable what it will do to time. Professor in Seminary – got one of those little adjustable calendars.  Figured out how many days that he might reasonably have left if God gave him his 3 score and 10 years.  Then every day he stamps in his calendar how many days he has left. You say – “How morbid” – No not at all – how motivational. ·SLIDE #27: 4. DON’T BE A DOPE.  ENJOY LIFE WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE. Verses 12-13, 15. Talking with Glenn about the complaining Sr. Adults at the Five and Diner . “Do you think this means that God will hold us accountable if we are grumpy and miserable. Is God going to be pleased with our attitude?  “I gave you food, vacations, car, friendships, relationships, money, televisions and all you ever did is grumble and complain.  I will hold you accountable for whether or not you enjoyed life. God will say, “You dope!” Don’t be a dope. Enjoy yourself while you are here. ·SLIDE #28: SLOW DANCE : anonymous poem from Werner Goering Have you ever watched kids on a merry go-round? Or listened to rain slapping the ground? Ever followed a Butterfly’s erratic flight? Or gazed at the Sun into a fading night? You better slow down.  Don’t dance so fast! Time is short, the music won’t last! Do you run through each day – on the fly? When you ask, “How are you?” …do you hear the reply? When the day is done, do you lie in your bed With the next day’s hundred chores running through your head? You better slow down.  Don’t dance so fast! Time is short, the music won’t last! Ever told your child, “We’ll do it tomorrow.” And, in your haste – not seen his sorrow? Ever lost touch.  Let a good friendship die? Because you never had time to call and say, “Hi”…? You better slow down.  Don’t dance so fast! Time is short, the music won’t last! When you run so fast – to get somewhere, You miss half the fun – of getting there. When you worry and hurry through your day, It is like an unopened gift thrown away. Life is not a race, so take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over. ·SLIDE #29: 5. BE SURE TO DO THE ONE THING THE BIBLE SAYS WE HAVE TO DO TODAY. Read Hebrews 3-4:  “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. . .  But encourage one another as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness. . . . Let us therefore make every effort to enter into God’s rest.” “But as many as received Him , to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His Name.” (John 1:12) Becky at UMC and Dr. Feinberg: “You just don’t know do you?” Andy Miller suicide at Mt. View.  Be sensitive.  Took everyone by surprise. You need to receive Christ today. You may leave here and be run over by a bus crossing the street to the mall.  “Aw, that won’t happen to me.  I have plenty of time.” “Yeah, but, you don’t know do you?”  No.  So give your heart to Christ at the awning today. ·SLIDE #30: Close with a poem by a contemporary Danish poet I hear on Garrison Keillor several months ago. It is entitled of TIME .  Time passes by before we know it. We have twelve clocks in our house; still there’s never enough time. You go into the kitchen and get chocolate milk for your spindly son, and when you return, he has grown too old for chocolate milk, demands beer, girls, revolution. Your daughter comes home from school, goes out to play hopscotch, comes in a little later, and asks if you would mind the baby while she and her husband go to the theatre. While they are at the theatre, the child, with some difficulty, is promoted to the tenth grade. You photograph your full-blooded young wife, with fashion coordinated outfit, an opulent fountain in the background, But the picture is hardly developed before she announces that it is time to collect her old-age pension. Softly, the widow inside her awakes. You want to make the most of your time, but it gets lost all the time. Where has it gone?  Was it ever there at all? Have you spent too much time throwing time out? So you roam around for awhile, without time and place. And when it’s time, you call home, and you hear, “Hello, this is the operator, you’ve called 959-4939.  I’m sorry.  That number is no longer in service.       (Click) Make the most of your time while you have it. That is what Solomon says. ·SLIDE #9: 1. FIGURE OUT WHAT TIME IT IS. ·SLIDE #20: 2. HANDLE THE TRANSITIONAL CHANGES WELL. ·SLIDE #25: 3. LIVE IN LIGHT OF ETERNITY BECAUSE THERE IS NO INSTANT REPLAY. ·SLIDE #27: 4. DON’T BE A DOPE.  ENJOY LIFE WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE. ·SLIDE #29: 5. DO THE ONE THING THE BIBLE SAYS WE HAVE TO DO TODAY. Come to Christ Today.

In 1931, America was in the depths of the Great Depression. A businessman by the name of Conrad Hilton was staring foreclosure in the face because people weren't traveling and his hotels were struggling. Hilton was actually borrowing money from a bellhop to make ends meet. That year, 1931, Conrad Hilton came across a photograph of the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. It was the most famous hotel in the world at the time. It had six kitchens, 200 chefs, 500 waiters, 2,000 rooms. It even had its own private railroad and hospital. Conrad Hilton cut that photograph out of the magazine and he wrote five words across it, "The greatest of them all". Conrad Hilton placed that photograph on top of his desk so that it would stare him in the face every single day. Every time he walked by the Waldorf Astoria, he would tip his cap in deference to that dream. Fast forward 18 years, in 1949, against all odds, Conrad Hilton acquired the Waldorf Astoria but I want to back up the bus. I want to go back to the genesis of that dream. Looking back at those tough times, Conrad Hilton would say this. "1931 was an outrageous time to dream". Now, I'm not sure that I can say it any better than Conrad Hilton. 2021 is an outrageous time to dream. Over the last two years, we've endured a global pandemic. We've witnessed protests and riots, especially here in D.C., because of the racial tension and political polarization that exists in our nation. In the last few weeks, we have watched the Taliban take control of Afghanistan, another earthquake hit Haiti, another hurricane hit the Gulf Coast. It seems like an outrageous time to start a series called "The Best is Yet to Come". But this is when and where and why we need this series right now. Lots of people are languishing, and I'll talk more about it next week, but it feels like we're fighting so many battles on so many fronts, not to mention mental health. I mean, according to the CDC, one third of Americans struggling with anxiety or depression. That seems like an emotional epidemic to go along with a global pandemic. I want to be careful right here. If you're grieving, you need to go through all of those stages of grieving, and I'll say this. Lament is a love language. It's a biblical language. It's a biblical response to other people's pain. Now, having said that, let me say this. This is what I sense in my spirit. I feel like God is saying it's time. Well, time for what? For starters, it's time to dream again. "Without a vision, the people perish". Proverbs 29:18. That word perish refers to fruit that is starting to rot. Vision is a spiritual preservative. The goal is not surviving. It's thriving. The goal is not getting back to normal. The goal is getting back to the supernatural, and I want you to hear me. I believe that we're coming into a series where we're gonna see signs and wonders, where we're gonna see a supernatural demonstration of God's love and power. Why? 'Cause we need it. It's time. It's time to dream big, pray hard, and think long. And so welcome to National Community Church. This weekend, we kick off a new series, "The Best is Yet to Come," and I can't wait to see what God does in life over these next six weeks. This is not some catchy phrase or cute saying. Yes, we own the domain, which I think is kind of fun, thebestisyettocome.com, but this is a core belief. The last time I checked the tomb is empty, and the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us. Now we just need to live like it, so ready or not, here we go. You can meet me at the Jordan River, Joshua chapter three. Let me set the scene. The Israelites had been enslaved for 400 years. Slavery is all they've ever known. It's an outrageous time to dream, but God delivers them out of Egypt with signs and wonders. He makes a side walk through the Red Sea. Remember this? He provides manna every morning for 40 years. He leads them, cloud by day, pillar of fire by night. Now, their first attempt to enter the Promised Land ends in failure, 'cause of 10 negative people, right? But finally, after 42 stations of the Exodus, 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, they are a stone throw from the Promised Land, and that's where we pick up the story. I want to talk about four things this weekend. One, get up early, two, follow the ark, three, consecrate yourself, and four, step into the river. You do those four things, and the best is yet to come. Well, Pastor Mark, what do I do after I do those four things? I'll tell you what you do. You get up early, you follow the ark, you consecrate yourself, and you step into the river. Okay, I got it, I got it, but what do we do after that? You rinse and repeat, because you never arrive. There is no finish line. I kinda like this. June 13th, 2017, Draymond Green wins NBA Championship as a member of the Golden State Warriors. Anybody want to guess what he did the next day? It's kind of infamous in sports circles. He didn't go to Disneyland. He got up early, he went to the gym, and he worked out. Now, why would you do that, when the night before, you proved that you're the best in the world? 'Cause that's how you became the best, right? And so you gotta keep working the plan. Most of us want success without the sacrifice. We want the trophy without the blood, sweat, and tears, but the early bird still gets the worm, and so number one, get up early. It's right here in the text. "Early in the morning". When? All right, you're catching on. "Early in the morning, Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over". Now, here's the big idea, okay? If you want to get out of Shittim, you gotta get up early. What are you laughing at? Last week, I said that geography and spirituality are interconnected. Do you remember this? I would add chronology. There is a chronology of spirituality, and there is a spirituality of chronology. Two observations about time management. One, time is measured in minutes, but life is measured in moments. Now, all of us are given the same amount of time every single day, 1,440 minutes. Now, when it comes to talent and treasure, we kind of have a wide spectrum, right? Some people, a lot of talent, other people, not so much. Some people, a lot of treasure, other people, not so much, but time, time is the great equalizer. No one gets more than 1,440 minutes, and no one gets less. How are you managing the minutes and the moments, the kronos and the kairos? Two, you don't find time. You make time. You have to identify the time wasters and time multipliers, and I'll give you the most obvious example. The average person spends 142 minutes on social media every day. Okay, that's a staggering statistic, is it not? I have nothing against social media, but is that really how you want to spend 15% of the waking hours of your whole life? Do you know what you could accomplish if you bought back two hours and 22 minutes every day? You could read a book or write a book. You could get a graduate degree. You could volunteer at the DC Dream Center or one of our campuses. You could train for a triathlon. You could learn a language. You could plug into one of our small groups. You can do a lot with 142 minutes, but you won't find the time. You have to make the time, and in my experience, the best time to make time is early in the morning. Now, I know that there are larks and owls, but even if you're a night person, you still need a morning routine, 'cause how you start the day sets the pace, sets the tone, sets the table, and it starts with when you set your alarm and why. And it can't just be to get up and get out the door just in the nick of time, okay? 'Cause that's not gonna get us where we need to go. And so here's the challenge. You have to set your alarm clock with consistency and intentionality. "Pastor Mark, come on. Where is that in the Bible? Give me chapter and verse". Okay. Psalm 57:8. "Awake my inner self; awake, harp and lyre. I will awake right early, I will awaken the dawn". According to rabbinic tradition, David hung his harp above his bed by an open window. Why? Because it functioned like an alarm clock. When the north wind started blowing, it would make music, and David, according to rabbinic tradition, would get up and study Torah until the break of dawn. Now, I'll go on record. I am not a morning person by nature. I'm a morning person by discipline, and that's a very different thing. When I was in college, I could sleep to noon with the best of them. Come on, anybody else? But I made a defining decision to become a morning person for a couple of reasons. One, I watched my father-in-law get up and go to early morning prayer at five a.m. every single day, and I saw the intimacy he had with God. I saw the impact that he had with his life, and I put two and two together, and so I reverse-engineered his morning routine. It was around that time that I read a biography of DL Moody, and there was a paragraph on page 129 that changed the trajectory of my life. It said that Moody felt a twinge of guilt if he heard the blacksmiths hammering before he was up praying. It said, "Every day of his life, he rose very early in the morning to study the Word of God way down to the close of his life. Mr. Moody would rise about four o'clock in the morning". And I'll just say, that is earlier than me, okay? "He would say, 'If I'm gonna get in any study, I have to get up before the other folks get up.' And he would shut himself up in a remote room in his house along with his God and his Bible". Now, I have no idea what goal you're going after, but it's not gonna happen by accident. You have to set your alarm with consistency and intentionality. You know, occasionally someone will ask me, you know, "Pastor Mark, how do you write a book"? And it really has nothing to do with writing. You have to set your alarm clock very early in the morning. How do you bike a century? 'Cause it's like a part-time job training for that thing. Gotta set your alarm clock early in the morning. How do you read the Bible cover to cover every year? You set your alarm clock early in the morning and you prioritize the disciplines that you know are the time multipliers. Now, next week we begin our fall season of Upper Zoom. We're gonna start climbing those digital stairs again, 7:14 a.m. Eastern time, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Can I just extend an invitation? I mean, it's a way for you to kinda get into a daily rhythm of prayer, and so ncc.re/upperzoom. One, you gotta get up early. Two, follow the ark. Joshua 1. I'm sorry, Joshua 3, verses two and four. "After three days, the officers went throughout the camp giving orders to the people. 'When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.'" There it is. "Then you will know which way to go, since you never been this way before". I mean, in this fascinating? Like the Ark of the Covenant is their GPS, "But keep a distance of about 2,000 cubits between you and the ark". Now, I don't have time to do this, but it's just, it's too much fun. And so last weekend, I biked a century, a hundred miles, made it, but I'm gonna tell you something. Right around mile 93, okay? So we're about six hours in, we're keeping a 16-mile-an-hour pace, and my quads start to cramp, and we hit a hill. Well, I'm gonna tell you what I did, 'cause we were biking in a Peloton, and so the race organizer, Jeff Zog, you know, I'm six-three, you know, six-four in Jordans, but Jeff Zog, he's six-seven. He's a big boy. He's a tall drink of water, and so I'm gonna tell you exactly what I did. "Jeff, I'm hurting, I'm hurting". And so Jeff is like, "Come on, come on, you got this hill. Just draft off of me, stay right on my tire," and I drafted him all the way up that hill What are the Israelites doing here? They're drafting the presence of God, the Ark of the Covenant. Come on, we gotta stay close enough. Because here's the deal. The Ark of the Covenant symbolizes the presence of God and the power of God. And then they add this little addendum, right? It says, "Keep a distance of 2,000 cubits". Now, for what it's worth, that's the same distance that a Jewish person was allowed to walk on the Sabbath, which I just think is really fascinating. But I think the principle is a two-sided coin. Don't fall behind, don't get ahead, okay? Don't don't fall behind, but don't get ahead of God. There is a sin of procrastination, delayed obedience. Is this obedience? And there is a sin of presumption. It's taking matters into your own hands. I have tried to manufacture a time, a miracle a time or two or 10. Anybody else? Like, you just, okay, it's not happening, so I'm gonna make it happen. You know what usually happens when you try to make it happen? When you take matters in your own hands? You end up like Moses. "Oh man, I'm gonna expedite the deliverance of the Jewish people". No, you're gonna delay things 40 years by trying to take your shortcut. Question. Are you following the ark or are you following the crowd? It is really hard not to cave in to peer pressure and popular opinion. It is hard to live counter-culture, especially in a cancel culture, but we walk to the beat of a different drum. We follow the ark. In New Testament terms, we are people who are Spirit-filled and Spirit-led. I'm gonna go on record. Anything less than Spirit-filled and Spirit-led is dead religion. At the turn of the 20th century, William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, issued a warning. He said, "The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell". Okay, it was true then, and it is true now. You gotta get up early. You gotta follow the ark. You gotta consecrate yourself. Joshua 3:5. "Then Joshua said to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.'" We want to do amazing things for God, but that's not our job. God is the one who does amazing things for us. So what's our job? Our job is consecration, and if we do our job, God is going to do his job. Now, that Hebrew word for consecrate is qadash. It means to purify, to sanctify, to set something apart. I like to think of it as you are anointed and appointed by God. Pastor Dave said something during our disciple series. Do you remember this? He said we are most free when we are most disciplined. Now, that's a little counter-intuitive, but it's true, and in the same sense, we are most alive when we are most dead to self. Around the turn of the 20th century, there was a group of missionaries who became known as one-way missionaries because they bought one-way tickets to the mission field. They didn't pack suitcases. They packed all of their earthly belongings into coffins, because they knew they were never coming back. Well, one of those one-way missionaries was a man named AW Milne and he said sail for the New Hebrides in the South Pacific, where a tribe of head hunters had martyred every missionary who'd gone before him. Milne didn't fear for his life, because he had already died to self. For 35 years, AW Milne incarnated the Gospel. He lived among that tribe. He learned their language. He loved them like Jesus, and when he died, they buried AW Milne right in the middle of the village, and this is the epitaph that they inscribed on his headstone. "When he came there was no light, and when he left there was no darkness". Have you packed your coffin? Consecration is death to self. Consecration is dethroning yourself. Consecration is going all-in with God. Consecration is giving the Holy Spirit veto power. Consecration is seeking God first. Consecration is my utmost for his highest. "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you". Please hear me. Every miracle, every breakthrough, every move of God starts with consecration. Now, you remember DL Moody getting up at four o'clock in the morning to spend time with God. Here's what he said. "The world has yet to see what God can do through one man who is wholly consecrated to him. By God's help, I aim to be that man". Why not you? Why not now? The question of course, how? How? I think it starts with the complete surrender of your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, your time, your talent, your treasure, your past, your present, your future, and that decision has a domino effect, but let me connect the dots. 1 Timothy 4:5 says, "Everything God created is good and nothing is to be rejected if it's received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by two things". Here it is. "By the Word of God and prayer". When we read the Bible, we don't just read it. It reads us. Hebrews 4:12. "The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joint, and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart". In other words, the Word of God has a consecrating effect. Have you experienced this? It's the quickening of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it's conviction. Sometimes it's revelation, and prayer has the same effect. Now, prayer changes things, no doubt, but I think sometimes, the circumstances that we're asking God to change are the circumstances that God is using to change us. The secondary purpose of prayer is to change circumstances. The primary purpose of prayer is to change me, to consecrate myself. I gotta move. I got giddy up. Verse eight. Four, step into the river. "Tell the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant, when you reach the edge of the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river". And this is where most of us get stuck. We're waiting for God to part the water while God is waiting for us to get our feet wet. See, I don't want to get my shoes wet, right? I want God to go first, 'cause then it doesn't require any faith, but faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step. If you want God to part the water, you have to step into the river. So I'll close with this. It's 25 years ago this weekend, that God parted the Jordan River in such a fun way for National Community Church. At the time, I wasn't just preaching. I was leading worship, and the problem with that is this, like the only thing worse than my voice is my rhythm, my rhythm, and we didn't have a drummer, and so our predominant prayer the first year was, "Lord, send us a drummer," about a hundred times, "Lord, send us a drummer". And then one day I hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit say, "Why don't you go out and buy a drum set"? Well, just as soon as you send us a drummer, then I'll go buy a drum set. Why? 'Cause I want God to go first. Now, our income at the time was $2,000 a month. Cost $1600 to rent the D.C. Public School. That left $400 for our salary and all other expenses. But it was one of those "Field of Dream" moments. If you build it, they will come. It felt like I needed to step into the river, and so long story short, found a used drum set in Silver Spring, Maryland. Cost $400, of course, right? And I'm driving up there and I'm thinking to myself, "This is crazy! I'm buying a drum set with money we don't have for a drummer who does not exist". That was a Thursday. That Sunday, a kid named Tony walks into our service. Clean cut. I can tell he's military. Marine Corps, 8th and I Drum and Bugle Corps. God doesn't just send us a drummer, he sends us a rock star, and I learned a lesson. Whew! Sometimes you got to take the $400 step of faith. Sometimes you gotta step into the river. Now, don't get ahead of God's Ark, right? Don't manufacture the miracle. But there comes a moment where you gotta exercise your faith. Final thought, verse 15. "Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during the harvest". And I love this set up, right, because it's terrible timing. It's an outrageous time to cross the Jordan River. "Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho". Let me show you a map. The Jordan River flows about 60 miles between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Average width, about a hundred feet, but it was flood stage, so it complicated their crossing. But here's what I want you to notice. They cross across from Jericho, right? But that isn't where the miracle happens. The miracle happens 16 miles upstream at a place called Adam, and it always does. We think right here, right now. God is thinking nation and generations. The miracle always happens 16 miles, 16 years ago. This past weekend, I biked that century in Minnesota. The next day, I preached for a friend, Peter and Carolyn Haas at Substance Church in Minneapolis, and it was just a few miles from some of my earliest memories. My grandparents had a house on the Mississippi River, and so I just, I had to swing by, and it was so fun. The rock, the rock that I used to climb on, there it is. When I was a little kid, it was so big. It was so hard to get up on top of that rock. To me, it's almost like the 12 stones. You remember this? The 12 stones that they take from the Jordan River and set up as an alter in Gilgal. Do you remember that? And so I'm having all of these flashbacks, and here's the deal. My grandfather, Elmer Johnson, got a picture that my cousins gave to me, 'cause I saw 'em this weekend, and man, that's my grandfather, right in the middle. Oh! First Municipal Judge of Fridley, Minnesota. Loved God, loved his family, and so some of my earliest memories are my grandfather praying. He had a habit. He would kneel next to his bed. He would take off his hearing aid, put it on his bedside. He couldn't hear himself praying, but everybody else in the house could hear him praying, and so I remember hearing my grandfather praying for me. Now, my grandpa died when I was six, but his prayers didn't. There's no expiration date on prayer. Prayer turns parents and grandparents into prophets who shape the destiny of their children and grandchildren. And listen, there have been moments in my life where I've experienced blessings that I knew I did nothing to deserve, and the Holy Spirit has whispered to my spirit and said, "Mark, the prayers of your grandfather are being answered right now". Prayer is the way we write history before it happens. Prayer is the way we seed the clouds. Prayer is the way we consecrate the future. And guess what? When we do, amazing is on the way. I'm not naive. I'm not naive. I know how tough times are, right? I know bad things happen to good people. I know that we have heartaches and headaches and setbacks. I know that there are things we can't understand and there are things we can't control. But I also know that we drink from wells we did not dig, we harvest fields we did not plant, and we live in houses that we did not build. The miracle always happens 16 miles, 16 years upstream. You are the answer to someone else's prayer, and you can return that favor. I don't know what decision you need to make. I don't know what action you need to take, but it's time. It's time. It's time for what? I don't know. It's time to start tithing. Time to start serving. It's time to start counseling. Time to start writing. Time to start running. I don't know, but it's time. There are decades when nothing happens. If you're Israel, 40 of them, 400 years, but there are days when decades happen, and you can look back on this day 16 years from now, and say it was an outrageous time to dream, but it was a day that decades happened. The best yet to come. www.theaterchurch.com

If you've been living long enough and have gone through enough, then you've come to understand life can get tiresome. I'm sure you've asked the question, "Does life have to be this hard"? One day everything is looking sunny, the next day it's a cloudy day. And then you find out it becomes a week, then a month, and a year. Well, God is offering you something. He's offering you rest. It boils down to verse 9 where he says, "There is and remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God". To understand the context of this need for rest, you have to understand what's happening in the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews is full of Christians who are tired. The author of Hebrews throughout the whole book is telling them, "Don't quit. Don't give up. Keep going. You're gonna make it". And in the midst of this, in chapter 4, as in other chapters, he tells them that God gives pit stops along the way and he calls those pit stops rest, but in this journey of life, God says there is a Sabbath rest that belongs to the people of God. Or let me put it a way: there is a rest stop that people who don't know God don't have. It is a rest stop in life for the people of God. Chapter 4, verse 4: "And God rested on the seventh day from all of his works". So, the rest is designed for you to stop working. "He rested from all of his works". So he goes back to Creation. When God created first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day, on the seventh day he rested. He didn't take a nap. He didn't go to sleep. He looked back at what he had labored, saw how good a job he did, and he wasn't that tired 'cause all he did was speak. "Let there be". But he looked at what he had done and he entered into the enjoyment of his accomplishment. He rested. He then instituted resting. It's in your Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments says: "The seventh day you shall keep holy as unto the Lord and it shall be a Sabbath for you". He not only had a Sabbath day. He instituted for Israel a Sabbatical year, a Sabbath year, every seven years. Then, every 49 years, there was another Sabbath, a Jubilee Sabbath. So he built the Sabbath in to life. Every seventh day, God's people, the Jews, were not allowed to work. They were not allowed to work. God produced manna so that they would have more than enough to eat on the sixth day to cover the seventh day. He said, "Because on the seventh day I want you to look back and remember where your source was, that the only reason you got through six days was because of my work, because any work you did had to depend on some work I did". There is nothing you do on six days that doesn't borrow from something he did on his six days. If he didn't do what he did on his six days, you couldn't rest on your seventh day because you would have no source to draw from. "So on the seventh day I want you to be reminded that I am your provider, I am your source, and I am going to take care of you on the seventh day because you remembered me and remembered me as your source". Stay with me. In the New Testament, the new covenant, all nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated. The tenth one is not. That is, one of the ten is not repeated. "Keep the Sabbath" is not repeated in the New Testament. It's only repeated in the Old Testament. Now, the reason why God didn't repeat that commandment in the New Testament is because he shifted a day. In the Old Testament, it was to finish God's work. In the New Testament, it was to start a new work when Jesus arose on Sunday morning. The Resurrection of Jesus instituted a new day. In the Old Testament, you looked back at what God did in six days. In the New Testament, you look forward to what God's gonna do in the new day because you're beginning a whole new regimen. In fact, God even created flexibility because he knew we would not be living in Israel, a theocratic nation. We would be living in all these Gentile nations, people would be made to work on Saturdays and all that, so God told 'em in Book of Colossians, he says, "And even if you can't do it on Sunday, just pick a day. But make sure that there is a day set aside that recognizes you got here because of me and you're gonna get there because of Sunday from me, that I am in the midst of your yesterday Sabbath, your beginning Sunday, until you finish your journey," and he calls the finishing of the journey the ultimate rest when we go to heaven. That's why when you go to funerals, they say people have gone to their resting place because it is the ultimate rest. Now, Deuteronomy chapter 12, verses 8 through 10, says that God's rest involves his inheritance. Let me say that again. Deuteronomy 12:8 to 10, God's rest involves his inheritance. So let's go a little deeper. God establishes rest to get you to a particular goal, and the particular goal of rest is to get you to your inheritance. Every believer has two inheritances: one, the destiny God has for you in time; two, the rewards he has prepared for you in eternity. That's why when Paul was about to die in 2 Timothy 4, he says, "I've finished my course. Now there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness". You don't get your inheritance, that is, you will not realize your destiny in time, nor will you get your rewards in eternity, unless you finish your work. Remember, God finished his work. That's when he rested. A lot of Christians get started who don't complete their Christian journey. The issue of rest is designed to give you an intermission along the route of your life's journey in order for you to receive your inheritance, that is, God's destiny for you in time and to be rewarded for what he has planned for you in eternity. Now, let me explain the journey, because he says, "Don't be like Israel who didn't get to their inheritance". He says, for example, in verse 11, "Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience". What same example? Israel's example. Okay, let me explain, and you'll see how this relates to you and me in a moment. God delivered them from Egypt and he gave them a destiny called the Promised Land. The wilderness was a critical part of the journey, why? The purpose of the wilderness, of the negative environment they had to pass through before they got to the Promised Land, was one purpose, one reason. The ups and downs in your life and my life exist for only one reason. The good and the bad, the difficult and the dastardly, the challenges and the frustrations that we experience along the journey of our Christian life only exist for one reason. The Lord sent them through the wilderness in order for them to learn to live by faith. The wilderness has one goal and that is to teach you to live by faith before you get to the Promised Land, because if you don't learn to live by faith before you get to the Promised Land, then. This is where a lot of Christians get messed up today, because they're promised the blessing of the Promised Land without being taught about the lessons of the wilderness. They come to get their blessing in the Promised Land, but then when they face snakes in the wilderness, no water in the wilderness, no provision in the wilderness, difficulty in the wilderness, they don't know how to function 'cause they were never taught that the wilderness is a necessary part of going from Egypt to the Promised Land, and in the wilderness when stuff is tough, when things are difficult, God says, "I sent you there". He says this in Deuteronomy 8. He says, "I sent you there so that you would learn to trust me, so that you would learn. I let you go without water so you'd have to look to me if you wanted to get something to drink. I let you go without food so that you'd have to look to me". You know how he fed 'em? The Bible says God fed 'em with manna. The Hebrew word for manna means "What is it"? It's a question. Why would he give 'em a question? So they could answer it. The only reason we eat in a day is 'cause heaven opened up and dropped cornflakes from above. In other words, he put them in a situation. So God will let you get sick, he will let the job go bad, he will let the relationship decline, he will let you not know which way to go. He will let you because he wants you to learn what it's like before you get all the blessings of what life looks like when he is your only option. He says, "But Israel did not learn that lesson". And in spite of all the things God did, they refused to believe God. And because they refused to believe God, that first generation never got to the Promised Land. Now, they were saved, they were on their way to heaven, but they didn't see God on earth because they refused to finish their journey. That's why he says, "Hold fast your confession. Don't abandon the faith just because things are tough". Okay, so we've set the stage. You understand rest. He comes now in verse 12. "For the Word of God is living, active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and judging the intents of the heart". If you want a rest stop, a pit stop, if you want a place to regain your ability to keep going, he says you're going to have to pull over at the Word of God. You're gonna have to pull over at the Word of God. Stop pulling over at the word of man. He says the Word of God is not just a book on a page. It's not words on paper. It is a living, he says it's alive and it works. So this book is not dead. He says the Word of God is alive. And then he tells you how alive it is. He says: "It's a two-edged sword". God says the Word of God is a two-edged sword that wants to slice right down the middle of your self life and your spirit life. Why does God wanna cut between the two of those? Because your self life gets in the way of your spirit life, keeping God from doing his work through the Word in your life. What you think, how you were raised, the feelings you have, all of those things get in the way of God taking you on the journey of you learning to trust him. We get in our own way of stopping the work of God by not allowing the Word of God to cut us. We wanna hear it, but we don't wanna be cut by it, but he says if you want the Word of God to become alive, you must allow it to cut you. Now, why does this sword have two edges? The sword has two edges because it is used for both destroying and healing. It is used to mess stuff up so he can fix stuff up. So it is used for, like, our house being remodeled, tearing stuff up, so he can put new stuff in. So in order for you to be cut, he has to disrupt something, and what God does is he brings about disruption in our lives because he's trying to separate who is you and who is God. He's trying to put you in a situation where you see your soul ain't all that and a bag of chips. Where your way of thinking, your friend's way of thinking, how you were raised, your background, is not the basis of your decision-making. Let me put it this way. The soul was never meant to inform the spirit. The spirit was always meant to inform the soul, but to get the soul out the way, God must cut something and he uses the Word, so a lot of us have stuff happening in our five senses because we've refused to be cut spiritually, because it goes so deep that it gets down to even discerning the intents of the heart. If you were to look at the Word of God not as a book on paper, but as a sword that cuts, and if you dare take the risk of inviting God to cut you, don't just wait for him to cut you, invite him to cut you, why? 'Cause while one side cuts you, the other side heals you. Now watch this, 'cause it gets gooder. He goes on to say, I'mma read this slow 'cause I want you to see what it says here in verse 13: "And there is no creature," so you're not an exception, "hidden from his sight," he got you. You on blast, "but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do". I don't know if you noticed something different. In verse 12, he says: "The Word of God is," but in verse 13, "All things are open to his eyes". Wait a minute, we done gone from the book to a person because the Word of God is not just a book. The Bible is the Word of God in the book, but the Word of God is also a living person. John 1, verses 1, 14, and 18, "In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God". Verse 14: "And the word became flesh". Verse 18: "And he unveiled God before us". So watch this now. When you go to the book and look for the person, God will guide you to the rest stop. When you go to the book, but you're looking for the person, when the living Word gets connected to the written Word, then the knife on both sides begin to cut and begin to show you a place of rest. I'll let you see that in a moment. Jesus said, "You know the scriptures, but you don't know me. You've read the Bible, but you haven't looked for me, because I am the giver of the life you're looking for". So you look to the written Word in order to connect to the living Word so that God can give you the rest to keep going on your journey. Now, watch this, 'cause this is where the rest stop really allows you to recoup. He says in verse 14: "Therefore". Somebody, say "therefore". That means in light of what's just been said about rest. "Since we have," every Christian has, "a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our confession". That means, keep on going on this journey no matter how tough it's gotten. "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who's been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore draw near". "Therefore since we," every Christian, "has a great high priest, Jesus the Son of God," watch this, "who has passed through the heavens". Let me talk about passing through the heavens. The Bible says there are three heavens. Heaven number one: atmospheric heaven, where the clouds are. Heaven number two: stellar heaven, where the stars and the galaxies are. Heaven number three: where the throne room of God is. The Bible says on Friday Jesus died. On Saturday he went to hell and preached victory. On Sunday he rose from the dead. Forty days later, he stepped on a cloud and the Bible says: "He ascended up unto the throne room of God," that is he went through the first heaven, went through the second heaven, into the third heaven, where he's currently seated on the right hand of God. What's he doing there? Hebrews 7:25, it says: "He ever lives to make intercession and to deliver those who are his children". On life's journeys, God is going to put you in situations you can't fix. And the reason he's gonna put you into situations you can't fix is because he wants to remind you, you have a great high priest, and he ain't down here with you. He ain't messed up like you. He's not limited like all your friends are. He's seated in the third heaven. He's high and lifted up, but not only is he a high priest way up there, he says he's a priest who can sympathize with your tears, sympathize with your loneliness, sympathize with your regrets. God, let me tell you what it's like to cry, let me tell you what it's like to be rejected, let me tell you what it's like to be killed, let me tell you what it's like to have your friends walk away from you, let me tell you what it's like just to be wounded for their transgressions, to be blamed for stuff you didn't do. Daddy, I can tell you all about it 'cause I've been there. I know how they feel. You have a high priest who can sympathize with your infirmity, but not only can he sympathize, he says you called on him for help in a time of weakness. God is not gonna let you go from Egypt to the Promised Land and skip the wilderness. And he will keep you in the wilderness as long as it takes to live by faith so you can keep going. So don't you quit. Don't you give up on God. Don't throw in the towel just because it's been a long time. You've been waiting a long time, praying a long time, trusting a long time, believing a long time. Don't you give up on God 'cause you got a great high priest. I'm here in the Rocky Mountains where people come over all over the world to rock climb, but also to just look at the beauty, the serenity, and feel the peace that envelops this environment. Well, God tells us to do some climbing, to use our feet and to walk and to move, but one of the ways we know that we are moving according to his plan and in his will is the peace that God gives us, the calm in our soul, that lets us know he's comfortable in us with where we are and with the movements we are making, the steps we are taking, and the direction we are going in. When there is chaos and consternation in the soul, that ought to tell us to slow down because we're not moving with the footsteps of peace, but when we are moving, and God does expect us to move, to operate, to walk by faith, when we are moving, and we're doing it in concert with his purpose and plan for our lives, then we will have the sense in our innermost being that he is at calm within us because of the calm we feel inside of us. So as you move, and as you live your life, and you have question about whether your movement is made up of the right steps that you should take, based on the calm that you feel inside, you can be assured that you are moving exactly at the pace and in the direction God wants you to go because he's given you the peace that passes understanding. If you have calm in your soul, you can have confidence in your footsteps.

A Unique Take on the Good Samaritan. Excellent illustrations!

Thy Kingdom Come - Matthew 6:10 - Skip Heitzig Welcome to Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig. We're so glad you joined us today. As people of God, we are part of a spiritual kingdom even as we live in the world. Jesus will ultimately establish his kingdom on earth. But until then, we are called to be his ambassadors here and now. In this series, Pastor Skip explores what it means to occupy till he comes. Good morning. I tell you what, you're a pretty lively group, listening to your worship, so loud, so vibrant. Are you the most fun of all the church services, would you say? [APPLAUSE AND CHEERING] Do you think you're a little biased when you say that? Yes. Maybe a little bit? OK. So you bring a Bible with you? Yes. So make your way over to Matthew, chapter 6, Sermon on the Mount, familiar territory. We're going to be looking at a very famous prayer. You know it well. It's called the Our Father. It's a prayer you grew up praying. Some of it by heart. Probably most of you know it by heart. This prayer, Matthew, chapter 6, the Our Father, is put in more cards, posted on more plaques than any other prayer in the world. In fact, I would even say, unbelievers know this prayer, and many of them could record it from memory. They know it by heart. Let me give you a few thumbnail facts about this prayer before we look at one particular verse. Number one, there are only 66 words in the prayer. So it's a very short prayer, but you discover it goes to the heart of life. It is praying for the important stuff, the stuff that matters. Number two, it's not a prayer to be recited as much as it's a prayer to be modeled. Think of it as a skeleton by which all of our prayers are formed. You'll notice in verse 9, Jesus said, "in this manner, therefore, pray." In other words, though you can recite it-- many do, and they find great value in that-- pray like this. Let this be your model that you base communication with God on. Number three, you don't find the word "me" in this prayer. There's no "I." There's no "me." There's no "my." You find pronouns like "you." Yours is the kingdom, yours is the power. And you find the word "our." It's a community prayer. Think of it as it's a kingdom prayer, a kingdom city prayer. It's not about you as much as about us. Number four, this prayer is misnamed. We call this the Lord's Prayer, even though Jesus never called it that. And it's addressed to his disciples, and Jesus told them to pray like this. So this would be more aptly called the disciples' prayer rather than the Lord's Prayer. There's not a record that he personally prayed this, but that he taught his disciples to pray like this. A fifth interesting fact to me is this prayer was recited in movie theaters in England up until 2015. If you went to an English theater, a cinema, the Anglican church ran a video ad that simply recited the Lord's Prayer until 2015. 2015, it was banned as being offensive, just praying the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. That's offensive, so no more. And then finally, the last little fact I want to bring out about this prayer is this prayer was regularly recited in the classrooms of this country, the United States of America, until 1962. In 1962, some of you will recall a gal by the name of Madalyn Murray O'Hair brought a lawsuit, and the prayer was banned, stating that it violated the First Amendment. Let's look at it and see just how offensive it is. "In this manner, therefore, pray-- our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." Now, today, we're going to look at one verse, one tiny, little snippet of this prayer, and that is in verse 10, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And I want to answer the question, what does it mean to be a kingdom city? What do we mean by that phrase, that title? Now, you'll notice in verse 10 there are actually two petitions. The first is a prayer for the kingdom and in particular, for the kingdom to come. The second is a prayer for the King himself to exercise his rule, his authority. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now, what I'd like to do, in looking at this single verse, is to develop these thoughts by noticing three elements of God's kingdom. In this series, you have heard the little tagline that we speak about. We say, this place, these people, my privilege. And you're going to hear that a lot, this place, these people, my privilege. Let's say that together. This place, these people, my privilege. What we mean by that is this. God has called us to this place. And living in this place, God has called us to love these people. And God has called us to see it as a privilege, am honor, to serve him by serving these people. And why? For one simple reason. He's the King. It's his kingdom. And it is our commission. [APPLAUSE] Thank, all five of you, for-- [LAUGHTER] --liking that. Hallelujah. Now, what I want to do is look at three basic elements of this, the character of this kingdom, the coming of this kingdom, and the commission of this kingdom. First of all, the character of this kingdom, and I'm zeroing in particular on one word, and that is the word itself, the word "kingdom," verse 10, Your kingdom come. What kind of a kingdom are we talking about? When we talk about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, what kind of kingdom are we talking about? Because I venture to say, most of us, when you hear the word "kingdom," your mind is filled with memories of your youth, from movies you've seen, from cartoons you were a part of. When you hear kingdom, you think of knights and swords and banners and castles and moats and pomp and ceremony, maybe even a princess and a frog, depending on your memory of your childhood. But you probably think of a kingdom as taking vast swaths of property by a powerful monarch, who would wage war to subjugate the people and bring them under his rule. In fact, if you were to look it up in Webster's Dictionary, it defines it as "a politically organized community or major territorial unit having a monarchical form of government headed by a king or a queen." That's the definition. In other words, it's a territory and a people over which a king reigns with total authority. That's the dictionary definition. What's the biblical definition? In the Bible, when you look at the kingdom, in particular God's kingdom, it speaks of it in two ways, outwardly, inwardly. In one sense, it's outward and physical. In another sense, it's inward and spiritual. So you know that the Jews expected a kingdom, a literal, physical kingdom. The disciples were among them. When Jesus showed up, by listening to what he was saying, they were thinking, I want this king, as he calls himself, to establish a kingdom, a literal rule dominated by God ruling through his Messiah. And the reason they thought this is because they were raised to believe this, all the Old Testament prophecies that predict a literal kingdom that would one day come on the earth, something we already looked at in a previous series, but also, because did you know that Jesus, one of his favorite subjects was the kingdom? He spoke on it so much. In fact, if you were to add them all up, 53 different times in the four Gospels, Jesus mentions a kingdom. So I just want you to look at some of this. Go back to chapter 5, chapter 5 of Matthew. This is the beginning of this sermon that the Lord's Prayer is found in, the Sermon on the Mount. And let's look at just a few verses. Verse 3 of chapter 5, "blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Verse 10, "blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Verse 19, "whoever, therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." Then we get into chapter 6, the Lord's Prayer, your kingdom come, yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory. And then finally, in chapter 6, verse 33-- or 31, he says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So just in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus keeps mentioning a kingdom, a kingdom, a kingdom. To add to that, he gives stories. In Matthew, chapter 13. what do we call the stories of Jesus? Anybody know? Parables. And those parables in Matthew 13 are called kingdom parables. Why? Because Jesus said, I want to show you his words, the mysteries of the kingdom. And so he said, "the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed seed in a field. And again, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Again he said, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman hid in a batch of dough." He also said, "the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field." He also said, "the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls." And finally, "the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet." So throughout Jesus' teaching ministry, it's all about the kingdom, the kingdom, the kingdom. Then in Matthew 24, when the disciples want to know when this is coming, Jesus tells them about the eschatological kingdom, that is coming at the end of days, that he will set up literally, physically on the earth. So they're waiting for that to happen. Then Jesus went to the cross, died on that cross, rose from the dead three days later. And when he rose from the dead, guess what he started talking to his disciples about? The kingdom. Acts, chapter 1, "he was seen by them for 40 days, and he was speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." This is why the disciples said to Jesus during that period of time, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? You keep talking about the kingdom. Would you set that up, please? They wanted that physical, literal kingdom to be established. And it will be one day, but not yet. Remember Jesus had stood before Pilate. Pilate had heard that he claimed to be a king. People said he was a king. He said, are you a king? Remember what Jesus said? He said, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would rise up and fight. But my kingdom is not of this world. However, one day his kingdom will be of this world. When he comes and sets it up, Revelation, chapter 11, the angel declares, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. And he will reign forever. So the disciples expected a kingdom, but it didn't happen yet. So to sum it up, the kingdom is both internal and external. It has a personal, individual aspect. It has a global, worldwide aspect. It is an invisible spiritual kingdom, as well as one day, a visible, actual, literal kingdom. But right now it's just the first part. Right now the kingdom is internal, personal, individual, spiritual, invisible. Or to put it another way, wherever God rules over the human heart, there the kingdom of God is established. If God is ruling over your heart, then the King and the kingdom is established with you personally, individually. That's why Jesus could say the kingdom of God is at hand, or the kingdom of God is near. He also said, the kingdom of God is within you. Boy, everybody messes that verse up. Like, well, everybody has the kingdom of God because the kingdom of God is within you. Here's a better translation. The kingdom of God is in your midst. You know why he could say that? Because he was there. The King has shown up, y'all. I'm the King. And because the King is here, the kingdom of God is in your midst. So that's the character of this kingdom. Let's look at a second aspect, and that is the coming of this kingdom. Because that's the prayer. "Your kingdom come." That's what we are to pray, Your kingdom come. To pray Your kingdom come is to, essentially, pray for God's enthronement, his authority, his rule, personally, societally, and eventually. Let me give you those three fleshed out a little bit. When we pray, Thy kingdom come, I mean that in my life personally. When I say your kingdom come, I first and foremost mean rule over me, Lord. Be in charge of my life. Have your way in my life. But second, because there are others that live around me, I'm praying for that in the lives of other people collectively, corporately. And through evangelism, by telling them about Jesus, and through my good works that validate my evangelism, the kingdom of God will spread. But when I pray, Thy kingdom come, I also mean in the future eventually. When I pray, Thy kingdom come, essentially, I'm saying come quickly Lord Jesus and take over this earth and establish your future millennial kingdom on the earth, which he will do one day. So one day, someday, his kingdom literally will come. When it does, it will not be passive. It will not be silent. It will not be in the shadows. It will not be individual, as it is now. One day, God will impose his kingdom rule on the world from the real kingdom city, the city of Jerusalem, for 1,000 years. Now, many people, and I would venture to say most of us in this room included, have made Jesus Christ the King of their lives. You've asked him to come in. You've surrendered your authority to him. You want his rule in your life. But there has never been a universal reign of the kingdom of God on the earth yet. We are still waiting for that. I want to drill down on this. When that kingdom comes, we won't do it. He will do it. It's something that he himself will do alone. The kingdom comes when the King comes. Without a king, you have no kingdom. And so we can talk about the kingdom of God internally and spiritually and individually, but the real show starts when Jesus the King shows up. Without the King, there's really no kingdom. Now, why do I press this? Because I don't want you to get the idea by the title that we've used, Kingdom City, that we are somehow bringing in God's kingdom. We are not. He'll do that alone. Do you remember in our previous series on the End Is Near? question mark. It was a pretty lengthy series. So back in February, I gave a message. I can't expect you to remember that far back. But I bet you're going to remember the content, at least. So there was a message in February in that series where I told you the difference between premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism. Raise your hand if you remember that we did that sermon, at least. OK, so good. So I mentioned that premillennialism-- that's what I am. I'm a premillennialist. I believe the world's going to get worse and worse and worse until Jesus comes back. Then there's the amillennialist, doesn't believe in a Millennium at all. It's all spiritualized. It's all allegorical, whatever. It's just whatever. Push it away. But then there is the postmillennialist. And the postmillennialist believes this. Listen. We are going to bring in the kingdom, and we're going to deliver that kingdom to Jesus and that he won't come back till after we do that. You say, well, how do we do that? Well, we're going to evangelize the world and Christianize the world. And things are going to get better and better and better, and more people are going to get saved. And the whole world is going to be Christianized. We're going to bring in the kingdom, and we're going to deliver that to Jesus Christ. All I can say about that theology is that is wildly optimistic, in fact, out of touch optimistic. Because I've never seen where the world gets better and better and better. Usually, that theology flourishes in the West, in America, during times of peace. When there's no war, when things are going good, the economy is going good, we think, hey, I think we're pulling this off. But the idea is the church will bring in the kingdom. Now, this shows up in different shades. It is sometimes called reconstruction theology, sometimes called kingdom theology. Sometimes, it's known as liberation theology. It shows up in the signs and wonders movement. It shows up in the spiritual warfare movement, where we bind the demons, we take authority, we take them captive, and we bring in the kingdom. That is not what we mean by kingdom city. God does not need our help to bring his kingdom. He's going to do it all by himself quite apart from his church. Because he is sovereign. He is the King of kings. He is the Lord of Lords. And in his own time. He will bring in his own kingdom. As Psalm 115 declares, "our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases," one of my favorite verses. God's in heaven. He does whatever he wants. It's like the little boy who said that God is greater than Superman, Batman, and the Power Rangers put together. That's an understatement. Of course he is. He's King of kings. He's Lord of Lords. So that's the character of the kingdom. That's the coming of the kingdom. The third thing I want to talk about is the commission of the kingdom. Because we have a second request in verse 10, not only "Your kingdom come, but your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Now, the very fact that Jesus told us to pray this indicates that God's will is not always being done on the earth. Would you agree with that? Would you agree that God's will is not always being done on the earth? I would. Well, I just said it. Of course, I'm going to agree with myself, right? So let me explain. The Bible says, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Right? That's his will. Question, is everybody saved? No. Has everybody come to repentance? No. Are there people who perish? Yes. Are there people who die and go to hell? Yes. That's not what God wants. He is not willing. He does not will that. And yet. That. Happens all the time. So we are taught to pray, Your will be done because God's will is not always perfectly being done on the earth. So God is sovereign, yes. He rules over all, yes. He will bring his kingdom, yes. But that doesn't mean we just sit on our hands. It does not mean that we are fatalistic and say, well, what will be. God is sovereign, and he's going to bring his kingdom. So I'm going to just sit back and let that happen. No. This prayer implies a responsibility, a commission. And what is that commission? What is that responsibility? To represent the kingdom of God. OK, let's look at the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus lived on this earth how long? 33 years. You guys know your stuff. OK, let me ask you a second question. Do you know how long his ministry was? Three years. Three, 3 and 1/2 years was the extent of his ministry. During that time, here's Jesus living in a fallen, broken world. Question, what did he do? What did he do during that time? Some of you might say, well, he preached the gospel. Good. You got part of the answer correct. But that's not all that he did. We happen to have two verses in the Gospel of Matthew that are summary verses of his entire ministry. The first is Matthew 5:23. The second is Matthew 9:35. They're almost identical with a little bit of nuance change. "Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people." There's three activities Jesus did. He engaged in evangelism, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He engaged in discipleship, teaching in their synagogues. And number three, he alleviated human suffering to validate the message he was preaching. He was healing all kinds of sickness, all kinds of disease among the people. So he preached the gospel. He trained disciples. And he got his hands dirty to make things better. Now, Christians throughout history have noticed this. They've noticed what I just said. And in noticing that this sums up Jesus' life, they believed they had a mandate to do something about the culture in which they lived, that Christians are not called to apathy, but to activity; that Christians are not called to indifference, but involvement. And you may or may not know that the great revivals of the past produced a number of things in terms of fruit. You could study the great revivals of history, and you'll find that there was strong gospel preaching. There was mass conversion. There was a renewed love for the scriptures, the Bible. There was prolific song writing, that would express what God was doing. And the society in which those people were saved in got better. It got better. Did you know that most social reforms in the West are related directly to the preaching of the gospel? So many examples of this-- as Christianity began to spread west, in the 4th century AD, the very first hospital we have in history came about by Christians. And the reason they developed the hospital idea or hospital system is because they believed Jesus gave us a mandate to care for the sick. Why? Because Jesus preached the gospel, trained disciples, and healed people. So they thought, we follow Christ. We have a mandate to care for the sick. Then there was John Wesley, in England, in the 1700s. He was a gospel preacher. I mean, he got on a horse and would ride from village to village and just in the open air, proclaimed the gospel and brought great revival to that country. But he not only preached the gospel of salvation, but he preached against slavery, he preached for prison reform, and for education. He got involved politically, et cetera. He inspired by his preaching a young man by the name of William Wilberforce, who was indeed a politician in the Parliament of England. And Wilberforce led an anti-slavery movement to abolish the slave trade, which he was successful at doing eventually in 1834. Three days before his death, John Wesley wrote a little letter to William Wilberforce, assuring him that God raised him up for this season, for such a time as this, and urged him not to be weary in well doing. Now, that whole mentality spilled over across the Atlantic Ocean into the United States of America, so that the Christians began preaching, especially the Quakers. They preached that slavery is the greatest sin against God. And by that preaching in the pulpit and teaching the scriptures, there developed a movement known as the American Anti-slavery Society, direct result of those churches. That culminated in Abraham Lincoln crafting and signing the Emancipation Proclamation. A little later, in the 1800s, a guy by the name of Charles Finney, I don't know if you've ever read anything by him or about him. But I suggest you do. It's incredible reading. I have been inspired by him for years. Charles Finney was an interesting cat. He was a lawyer turned evangelist. So he was a very critical thinker. He became an evangelist. He shared the gospel everywhere he went. It is estimated that between 100,000 to 500,000 people got saved under his ministry alone. It spread throughout the entire Eastern seaboard. But Charles Finney also said, "the church's neglect of social reform grieved the Holy Spirit and hindered revival." So one of Finney's converts was a guy by the name of Theodore Weld. He became Finney's assistant for a period of years, eventually left serving Finney, and devoted the rest of his life to the struggle to end slavery in America. Here's what I want you to see. Whether it's Wesley or Finney, they're both preachers of the gospel. People are in mass coming to Christ. But the gospel they preach inspired others to get involved. Why? Because the gospel transforms people. And then those people are sent out to transform the lives of other people with that gospel and by their works that validate the gospel that they preach. So a saved soul sanctifies society. How's that for a tongue twister? A saved soul sanctifies society. Hey, can you imagine if every single human being on earth were saved? Hard to imagine. But imagine just for a moment every person in the world saved. That'll happen one day. It's called the Millennium. So it's not going to happen anytime soon unless Jesus comes back. But imagine if everybody were saved. Would we have a different world? So let's work at getting more saved. Let's work at getting more saved and showing them why they should get saved because they see the transformation in the lives that God's people make. That's a kingdom city. We are salt and light. We are a city set upon a hill that cannot be hid. Now, I mentioned Finney, and I mentioned Wesley. Let me add a few names to that. There was a German Lutheran minister named Theodore Fliedner, who built homes for ex-prisoners, like halfway houses, when they got out of jail, to get them back on their feet. He decided he should build hospitals, asylums for the mentally ill. And one of his most famous students was a gal by the name of Florence Nightingale, who became the mother of modern nursing. Then in the 1800s, because of the unhealthy conditions in London, due to the Industrial Revolution, the YMCA developed, Young Men's Christian Association, and the YWCA, Young Woman's Christian Association, to bring people in who had been oppressed and abused and win them to Christ and love them for Christ's sake. Then there were missionaries, William Carey, who went to India, David Livingstone, who went to Africa, to share the gospel and help to heal the nation's wounds that they were living in. Why did they do that? Why should we do that? Because social concern is the twin sister of evangelism. Social concern is the twin sister of evangelism. We sort of have a false dichotomy in the evangelical world. We decry. We speak out against people that just do the social gospel because it has been abused. There are churches who do not preach the gospel. But let's just be kind to everybody and help people and have this campaign-- it's the social gospel. And so the false dichotomy is, well, you either preach the true gospel, or you just practice the social gospel. I have an idea. Let's do both. Let's actually preach the gospel and because it's the true gospel, get involved socially to better people. Faith without works is dead, the Bible says. The fruit of the gospel is change. Now, in Psalm 146, it's a beautiful psalm. I was finding it this week and reading through it. And so it's basically a psalm where the psalmist encourages people to put their trust in God. But then he describes the God that they are to put their trust in. And it says this, in Psalm 146, verse 7, "God executes justice for the oppressed. He gives food to the hungry. He gives freedom to the prisoners. He opens the eyes of the blind. He raises those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. He watches over the strangers." Then it goes on to say in verse 10, "the Lord shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations." So there's a kingdom coming. Until then, God is all about helping the oppressed, the hungry, the bowed down, the prisoners, the strangers. So that's what we are to do in the meantime as we're waiting for that coming kingdom. See, if I've tasted the kingdom personally, and the kingdom is coming literally eventually, what am I to do in the world practically? This. John Stott is a book I was reading this week. John Stott asks the question, which Jesus do we believe in, and which Jesus do we preach? That's a question I want to just close with. Which Jesus do we believe in, and which Jesus do we preach? You say, why should anybody ask that question? Because Paul the apostle said, there are people in the Church of Galatia who are preaching a different Jesus. So which Jesus do we believe in, and which Jesus do we preach? Do we believe and proclaim the Jesus who only preached the gospel of the kingdom? Do we believe in and proclaim the Jesus who only taught people the truth? Or do we believe in the Jesus who preached the gospel, taught people the truth, and brought kingdom values to the culture in which he lived? And that's why we say, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." You see, I cannot say, our, if my religious experience has no place for others. I cannot say, Father, if I don't demonstrate that relationship in my life. I cannot say, who art in heaven, if all my interests are on earthly things. I cannot say, Your kingdom come, if I'm unwilling to give up my sovereignty. And I cannot say, Your will be done, if I'm not willing to let the Lord have his will done in my life. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. We must not become like the country preacher in England. They're called vicars over there. A country vicar was approached by a homeless lady who needed help for her condition. The preacher had all sorts of excuses for her. He said that he was busy. And he was. He said, he didn't quite know what to do with her and her condition. And he didn't. And so what he just said to her is, I'll pray for you and left. She wrote a letter. "I was hungry, and you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger. I was imprisoned, and you crept quietly off to your chapel and prayed for my release. I was naked, and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick, and you knelt and thanked God for your health. I was homeless, and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God. I was lonely, and you left me alone to pray for me. You seem so holy, so close to God, but I am still very hungry and lonely and cold." So what are we to do? We are to preach. We are to teach. And we are to help heal the wounds of those around us. When we do that, we are validating what we are teaching and what we are preaching. Now, I would be remiss unless I said something else as we close, the fact that you already do that. I am speaking to a group of people-- I'm, essentially, preaching to the choir because you are one of the most generous organizations, group of believers, I have ever met. When there are needs that we bring up locally, internationally, with Operation Christmas Child, with feeding people here and kids in town, you step up to the plate over and over and over again. So I applaud you for that. And we must never get to a place where we don't do that. Because we preach a gospel that is transformative, we need to live transformed lives that demonstrate that. Father, thank You for this commission that you have given us to see your will exercised in our life personally, to spread the gospel to other people, so that your will is done in their lives socially, while we wait for the literal kingdom of God to be set up on earth eventually. [MUSIC PLAYING] All of that is at play here. We place ourselves before you as your people, living sacrifices, and pray that we would not neglect one for the other. It would not all be about preaching, but not teaching or helping. It would not all be about teaching, but not preaching or helping. It would not all be about helping, but neglect preaching and teaching.. We would do all in balance for your glory. Because there is the joy zone for us to operate in. The joy of the Lord is our strength when we give ourselves to you in these things. Help us. Encourage your people. So many of them do so much of this already. Thank you. Encourage them to go on. In Jesus' name, we pray. And God's people said, amen. Amen. Again, God's people said-- Amen.

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE MATTHEW 6:13 S-1540 What tempts you? The Seven Deadly Sins Perhaps? SLIDE #1: Ice Cream Sundae? Timed--Drugs and Alcohol (gluttony) SLIDE #2: Speeding (pride) SLIDE #3: Watching tv (laziness) SLIDE #4: Offering plate (greed) SLIDE #5: Hooters and Hot guy (lust) SLIDE #6: Two people fighting (anger) SLIDE #7: New car; house (envy) Things I put on screen are pretty innocuous. Some of you have things in mind that would be rather embarrassing if I mentioned them out loud. You hate what you do—and what it does to you. Read Matthew 6:13: “and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Go with me to Matthew 6. Learn to pray the Lord’s Prayer—not just recite it meaninglessly. Come to each topic and let the Holy Spirit breathe on every phrase. READ Matthew 6:9-13 Compare our text: BUILD SLIDE #8A: Matthew 6:13: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” BUILD SLIDE #8B: Matthew 4:1: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” Jesus tells is in Matthew 6 to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” In Matthew 4, He was led into temptation. He knows that it hurts. Test of Messiahship. His whole identity, future, career and integrity were on the line. SLIDE #9: The First Test: TURN STONES INTO BREAD: self reliance SLIDE #10: The Second Test: JUMP OFF THE PINNACLE OF THE TEMPLE: selfishness SLIDE #11: The Third Test: FALL DOWN AND WORSHIP SATAN: self condemnation This is our battle: We will face the same tests and temptations as Jesus. BUILD SLIDE #12A: Matthew 6:13: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” BUILD SLIDE #12B: Matthew 4:1: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” “Deliver us from the evil one” Who needs to be delivered? Someone in bondage. Speaking about non-Christians. SLIDE #14: 2 Timothy 2:24-26: “And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance SLIDE #15: leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” Speaking to Christians. SLIDE #16: 1 PETER 5:8: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Could a Christian be possessed? Look at this passage written to Christians. READ 2 Corinthians 11:3. Minds led astray. Receive a different spirit. Put up with it easily enough. Can a Xn be possessed? Bible never uses that word.  Uses Demonized—different degrees of demonization. Convinced Christians can lose control with Paul Zetoka. STORY: Spirit guides. “They’re back again, aren’t they? Called Bill Nicholson. Freed through process of discipleship and renouncing.  Can a Christian be possessed? NO.  Paul was never in danger in losing salvation. Spirit is secure, indwelt by Holy Spirit. Battle is for the mind. We can lose control of areas through sin and neglect that we have to fight in Spiritual Warfare to take back. Every area of our lives not under the control of the Holy Spirit is open to attack by a demonic spirit. Most of us think a Satanic Battle is some sort of weird, exorcistic, scary, spooky kind of thing. It is not. For most of us, battle with the Evil One is subtle—and often unrecognized. Study the battle between God and Satan in which Job was the pawn in Job 1-2. Satan access to Heaven: Job only follows you because You take such good care of him. Take all he has and he will curse you to your face. Lower the hedge and I can get him to curse you.”  Sabeans take oxen and donkeys; fire fell and burned up the sheep. Chaldeans formed raiding party and took your camels.  Sons and daughters having a party and whirlwind came and blew down house and all dead. Naked I came, praise be the name of the Lord. Skin for skin, all a man has will he give to save his life. Strike his flesh and bones and he will surely curse you to your face. All right, he is in your hands, but you can’t kill him. Sores and boils. Scrapes with potsherd. Wife: “you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die.” “No.”  Notice that it took Job 42 chapters to figure out what was going on. Read the last chapter. SLIDE #17: 2 Corinthians 2:10-11: If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven-- if there was anything to forgive-- I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. Most of us are unaware of Satan’s devices. What are Satan’s devices? SLIDE #18: 1. He manipulates, misdirects and confuses through the art of deception (Job 1-2; 1 Corinthians 11:3) ; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; 2 Timothy 3:13; Acts 13:10; and 2 Corinthians 11:13-15). 2. He blinds unbelievers so that they cannot see the Gospel of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-4.) 3. He is the father of lies (John 8:32, 44). 4. He has the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). 5. He can cause sickness and suffering (Acts 10:38) 6. He snatches the Word of God from our minds (Mark 4:15) 7. He fills churches with “false” Christians (Mark 13:39). 8. He torments God’s children (Luke 22:31; 2 Corinthians 12:7). 9. He frustrates Christians in carrying out their godly desires (1 Thessalonians 2:18). 10. He tempts, agitates and incites people into sin (Genesis 3:1-6; Ephesians 2:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 3:5; 1 John 3:8-10). 11. He ensnares Christians (1 Timothy 3:7). 12. He personally enters and controls people (John 13:27). 13. He inserts wicked thoughts into the mind (John 13:2; Acts 5:3). 14. He exploits anger into sin (Ephesians 4:26-27). 15. He exploits an unforgiving spirit into sin (2 Corinthians 2:10-11). 16. He accuses Christians before the throne of God (Revelation 12:10). 17. He opens the door into the occult world (Deuteronomy 18:10-13). 18. He snares people in drug and alcohol abuse (Galatians 5:19-20). 19. He steals, kills and destroys our abundant life (John 10:10). You would imagine that with this sort of adversary we would do well to protect ourselves. We never know when a Satanic encounter may be just around the corner. FENCING DEMONSTRATION. Squirt gun, keeps coming Bow and arrow keeps coming Put on goggles and pick up rubber sword. Fence and lose: Ouch, Ouch, Ouch It is amazing how many Christians are so ill-prepared to encounter the Evil One and win.  Go out spiritually naked and defenseless. Interview Bronwyn: I never had a chance, did I? Parry moves. Fortunately, we are not defenseless.  God has given us powerful spiritual weapons to win. You think that’s a sword. That’s not a sword. This is a sword. Go, go, git, git. Here is what we do to protect ourselves. SLIDE #19: 1. Put on the whole armor of God. And learn to do it when you are young. READ Ephesians 6:10-17. The battle swarms with principalities and Powers, etc. Many of us are going around spiritually naked. Wouldn’t leave house without clothes. Why do it spiritually? Memorized this as a boy. Importance of children memorizing Scripture. SLIDE #20: The Belt of Truth Foundational garment: Leather protection for lower part of body. Satan loves to hit below the belt. Only ruthless opponents hit there. Prayer: “I will test everything today for truth and I will believe and accept into my mind only that which is true. I don’t want to be deceived into believing lies and half-truths.” Mess up the truth get beaten every time. Genesis 3:1-6 Listen to what you tell yourself. Life hard enough with truth, really tough with lies and half-truths. “I can’t do anything right.” “I always make mistakes.” “Everybody in the world should love and appreciate me. “Nobody likes me.” “I’m no good.” “I am a horrible pastor.” “That didn’t hurt me at all.” Life of integrity: Going to play golf on Monday, told Julie had a meeting with Glenn. Lied. Conscience bothered me. Told Julie, she cried. How can I ever trust you. Got some girl out there? You want the truth because you don’t want to be deceived in anything. SLIDE #21: The Breastplate of Righteousness Prayer: “Thank you, Father, for the Righteousness I have in Jesus Christ. I want everything I think and do today to be right. Need this because nobody’s perfect. We have a pardon. You’re not good enough to make up your own breastplate. Need Christ’s. SLIDE #22: The Shoes of the Gospel of Peace Every conceivable type of shoe today! Running, cross training, golf, football, tennis, dress, sandals. Need shoes to keep feet from swelling, etc. Need these in spiritual warfare or we will stumble and fall. Prayer: “I thank you, Father, that I am no longer at war with you. You and I now live in peace and harmony because of the gospel of Christ.” These three we have. The other three we have to take up and use.  Get better with practice. SLIDE #23: The Shield of Faith: Quenches fiery darts. Old tactic: tipped arrows wrapped in flammable material fired into marching troops bring confusion and death. Shield 4x2½ made of wood; wood burns—thin metal plate. Can’t keep arrows from coming, but we can keep them from hitting and burning. Satan’s strategy to get us busy fighting fires of evil thoughts, discouragement, evil forebodings, suicide, despair, blasphemous thoughts against God, worry, Prayer: “I will respond in faith to every situation and circumstance I may face to day—no matter how difficult or discouraging it might seem.” SLIDE #24: The Helmet of Salvation Not conversion or regeneration. The head is vulnerable. Soldiers aren’t only ones to wear helmets: construction workers, motorcycle riders, football players. Injury to head and rest of body begins to malfunction. Severe blow to the head can put you out of the battle. Don Burkhart. Coach young, “Hit them hard.” Fore arm shiver, lifted him off ground, landed backward on head and before my very eyes, his head split wide open—only his helmet. Two sides of Satan’s broadsword are discouragement and doubt. Prayer: “Father, please protect me from being knocked down by depression, despair, bitterness, or sense of hopelessness.” SLIDE #25: The Sword of the Spirit Logos and Rhema.  Know the Bible and use it well. Prayer: “I will use the Word of God to give right perspective and direction to every situation and difficulty I may encounter today.” SLIDE #26: 2. Build a Hedge of Protection according to Psalm 91 around your life, family, church. (See Job 1:10) 1. I make the Lord my habitation and refuge. Read Psalm 91:1, 9-10. 2. I want to love God with all my heart. Read Psalm 91:14. 3. I confess His name. Read Psalm 91:14b. As I say this I build a hedge of protection around my life, family, church. To make it real simple. If you have an area out of control – anger, temper, worry, or whatever. SLIDE #27: Many of us have areas out of control in your life, James 4:7 gives a simple pattern for freedom: “Submit to God and the Devil will flee from you. BUILD SLIDE #28A: “Submit To God” brings victory over our sin nature: BUILD SLIDE #28B: 1. Confess as sin the area that is out of control; BUILD SLIDE #28C: 2. Consider yourself dead to that sin, according to Romans 6; BUILD SLIDE #28D: 3. If the problem is solved, Praise God! If it persists, you have allowed Satan a foothold. Then— BUILD SLIDE #29A: “Resist The Evil One” brings victory over demonic spirits who have gained a foothold in our lives. BUILD SLIDE #29B: 1. Confess again that the area is out of control; BUILD SLIDE #29C: 2. Resist and renounce the Evil One who is attacking and who has grabbed a foothold in that area; BUILD SLIDE #29D: 3. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill that area with Himself and give you back control in that area. You’ll begin to find victory which you have longed for years! I don’t have an hour: If you’re not disciplined enough to spend an hour, spend as much time as you can and pick it up during the day. Between here and work, don’t listen to the radio. Until I get my news from Heaven, I don’t have any right to get my news from anywhere else. When I come home at night, I have no right to watch television if I have not got my prayer done for the day. See what I mean. I have no right to do anything else until I finish my number one priority in life… my prayer life. God will let us have our free time once we take care of our God time. When I was a boy my daddy made me mow the yard. If I didn’t mow the yard, then I couldn’t go play ball with the boys. Now, Dad wanted me to play and have fun. But if I didn’t mow the yard and he found me playing ball, he’d get after me. Some of us haven’t even found the spiritual lawn mower. Some of us have just barely started the mower and mowed three feet and we quit. And then we run out to play ball somewhere . God lets us have fun and run and relax and enjoy life. God wants us to have our toys. As a parent, we enjoy watching our children play and have fun with their toys. The reason some of us feel convicted about enjoying our toys is that we haven’t got our praying done. So the Holy Spirit comes around and says, “Hold on. You are playing with your toys and you haven’t mowed the yard yet. Mow the yard, and then you can play with your toys.” How many of you understand that? Let’s stand together… Night of Gethsemane. READ Matthew 26:39-41 Before the night was over, tragic events were to transpire in the lives of men who slept carelessly when Jesus entreated them to pray. Peter would soon cut off Malchus’ ear – deny Christ three times – run and hide at crucifixion. Knowing Satan’s plans, Jesus pleaded with Peter to pray not to enter into temptation. READ Luke 22:31-32, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail…” Peter slept instead of praying and he suffered bitterly.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”   Genesis 4:6-7 NIV Through the years, many people have regarded Bible stories as falling short of essential details needed to draw more appropriate conclusions about the authenticity of the stories, which might lead to making better decisions in believing and trusting God. Suppose one’s desire for the details had been fully appeased, would he or she still make the right decision at those appropriate and precise moments in their life? Poets do not provide all the necessary details in their poetry, but a story is still concluded and the reader tends to be satisfied with their esteem of the poems. However, what is present in the Bible stories is mankind’s transparency of self-incriminations, the results of such exposures, plus being honest enough to relay the story down through infinite generations. The primary details are there: 1. Man’s relationship with God and how man interacts or fails to interact God. 2. The results of those relations between man and God. 3. How all mankind interacts with God through the principles revealed in those stories. Today, the stories are still relevant because of the nature of man’s behavior has not changed all that much; thereby, contemporary man can learn well from the mistakes of his past ancestors so many centuries removed, while simultaneously discovering he makes the same errors in his present life; and warns those in his future about making the same mistakes he once made. Already, one easily envisions the limitless revolutions of the revolving doors to the history of mankind’s life on earth.   Because the story teller moves quickly from the exile of the Garden to the apparent adulthood of Cain and Abel, what seems to be missing in the story is the parental guidance of Cain and Abel’s childhood, just as one has no idea how much time passed in their relationship with God, before Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Naturally, one wonders, Did Adam and Eve tell Cain and Abel about their disobedient behavior towards God? One finds it easy to think, Surely, they must have told Cain and Abel something about God. It is also easy to think that Cain and Abel must have known about God in some realistic way, such as walking and talking with God as did their parents, because Cain and Abel offer a sacrifice to God. (Genesis 4:3-5) What one can take away from the Genesis story is: God created first human man and woman, who knew God personally and disobeyed him. They were exiled from the Garden of Eden into the world because of their disobedience. The children interacted with God and offered a sacrifice to God. Adam, Eve, and their children were the original human family to represent God to the world. A point vastly overlooked or simply not thoroughly grasped as much as it should be. Cain and Abel should be considered as adults, not children. Cain worked the land as did his father, Adam. Abel was a herdsman. Both men were ready for marriage, so they were, at least, at the age of accountability for their day; and in all probability had already established their own dwellings. The story comes from a preliterate time and place, meaning it was first presented orally and many years before the written story, which was very probably passed down through numerous generations, perhaps many civilizations shared this story, and before there were any actual customs set for worship and offerings to God, as well as any set requisites for story telling.   Many speculations about Adam and Eve’s parenting skills, or the lack thereof, have more than run rampant through history. Many speculations have been made about the probable causes for Cain killing his brother, Abel. Throughout history all sorts of literature has been developed about why Cain murdered Abel. Unfortunately, what is easy to derive from the story is the first human child, became the first murderer in this world, when he decided to kill his brother. Cain was apparently the first human person to answer God with a question instead of a straight and positive statement. Regardless of all the speculation, the lesson one can take from this story is a principle by which everyone lives; and that is, the obvious attitude exhibited in their relationship with God and how they offer sacrifices to God. As some people envision Cain and Abel engaged in the simplicity of human sibling rivalry, others will see the spiritual problem that exists between the two brothers. Both cases are perpetual among all humans even to this day. The question would be: Which of the two situations is more problematic, and therefore, more important to address? In God’s eyes, both may be equally important because at some point in history, God gave the commandments Not To Kill, but to love God; and to love each other as oneself; along with seven other primary commandments. (Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 5:4-21) Each man brought to God an offering from his labors. Cain offered something he had grown in the ground. Abel brought the first of his flock. When God looked upon the two offerings, he chose the one given by Abel. As the story goes, Cain became angry and jealous. It might have been that Cain felt God should have favored his offering more than Abel’s because he is the first born male child, which might have been a custom practiced in his day. Nevertheless, anyone today could easily empathize with Cain, if he had actually thought that way. It could have been that God was reading the mind and spirit of the two men and Abel’s mind and heart was more pure than Cain’s. Was it a matter of their faith more than the type of sacrifice? The fact that God spoke to Cain about his thoughts and even told him, “if you do right, you will be accepted” strongly indicates that God spoke to Cain as only a loving father or God would be expected to teach his child. Even if the child is an adult! Apparently, this may not have been the first manifestation of Cain’s attitude and spirit towards God. Nevertheless, Cain allowed the jealousy and anger to dictate his behavior and killed his blood kin, then, lied when God inquired about Abel’s whereabouts. (Genesis 4:6-8)   Of course, God knew that Cain had killed his brother, but was curious as to what Cain would say. (Genesis 4:10) This encounter between God and Cain is reminiscent of God’s encounter with Adam and Eve, after they ate the forbidden fruit and God found them hiding from him. (Genesis 3:8-9) How often do people come before God hoping to be blessed more than others, only to walk away wondering what they did wrong? How many people want to be blessed by God, but do as Cain did? Instead of being like Abel, just giving God his best, apparently, Cain gave God according to his selfish desires, and feeling rejected by God, even set out to destroy the life of his brother.   How many people give lots of money to the church just to buy status with God and the church members, even desire recognition for their “great sacrifice” or “buy their way into the leadership”? God was teaching Cain, it is not what one brings to the altar, but who is coming to the altar. God desired that Cain offer himself completely to God, as person, who is willing to listen to God, follow his instructions and wisdom for life, fully trusting God and being obedient to him. God had a special purpose for Cain and he wanted Cain to achieve that purpose in his earthly life. God blessed Abel’s offering because it was Abel’s desire not only to give God his very best sacrifice, but Abel desired to be pleasing to God, to trust and obey him at all times. It is not about finding honor among men, but to find favor with God. Abel did that, but Cain did not give himself to God as he could have, as God was hoping he would. Apparently, Abel lived as God had intended for mankind to live, in the image and likeness of God. (Genesis 1:26-27)   God wants everyone to have the spirit and attitude of Abel. However, God’s love for Cain was so strong that he placed a mark on Cain, when he punished Cain for killing his brother, which showed Cain mercy and the opportunity for repentance, when God stated that: No one could kill Cain, even though he was banished to live in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (Genesis 4:11-17) God has a specific purpose for everyone in this world; and only God controls how a person lives, when, and how that person dies. (Jeremiah 29:11-13; Psalm 100:2; John 5:21-23; James 4:11-12; I Timothy 6:12-14) Just as the Bible teaches, every man should live according to his inherited image and likeness of God, every one will live and die according to his attitude, spirit, and relationship with God. (Hebrews 9:26-18) Just like Cain, all too often, at one time or another, a human will walk and talk with God, but at some point in their life, they fall short of God’s expectations and purpose for them. Yet, God avails that person the opportunity to repent by faith, receive his forgiveness and salvation, and start afresh as though they had never disobeyed him. (II Chronicles 7:12-16)   Prayer: Our Holy and Heavenly Father: We thank you for this lesson about Cain in the Bible. May we apply it in our life so that we will live with an attitude and spirit of total obedience to you; and enjoy the blessings of being your presence daily. May all we say and do be pleasing and bring honor and glory to you. In the Name of Christ, we pray. Amen!   Suggested Readings :   Carlson, Randy. The Cain and Abel Syndrome: Getting Along With Your Adult Siblings. New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers. 2009. Moltmann, Jurgen . Theology and Joy. London: SCM Press. 2013.   Moore, Jonathan. Cain and Abel: Sin’s Story. Akron, Ohio: E-Book Time, LLC. 2008.   Morrice, William G. Joy In the New Testament. The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia: The Attic Press. 1983.   Woofenden, Lee and Annette. “Curses or Consequences: Did God Really Curse Adam and Eve?” February 12, 2013. Spiritual Insights For Everyday Life. Leewoof.org. February 12, 2013 . February 25, 2015.   Woofenden, Lee and Annette. “The Cain and Abel Story: Does God Play Favorites?” September 29, 2013. Spiritual Insights For Everyday Life. Leewoof.org. September 29, 2013. February 27, 2015.   Sasso, Sandy Eisenberg. Cain and Abel: Finding the Fruits of Peace. Illustrator: Joani Keller Rottenberg. Shelton, CT: Longhill Partners. 2013.   Yardley, Ilexa. Cain and Abel: The Metaphor Called Nature . Seattle, WA: Create Space Publishing. 2014.