Participants: Pr. David Asscherick
Series Code: DP
Program Code: DP000003
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00:15 I'd like to invite you to take your study guide out,
00:19 I want to begin with a little bit of review. Last night 00:23 we looked at this metal man, let's read our first paragraph 00:27 on your study guide, it says: Here at the Discovery Prophecy 00:31 seminar we believe that Jesus is coming soon, is there 00:35 anyone else out there that shares that conviction 00:36 that Jesus is coming soon. I'm going to give you reason 00:39 tonight why we believe that. We ask the question: 00:41 how do we know that this is true, and how soon is soon? 00:44 People have been saying for centuries, people have been 00:47 saying for decades that He's coming soon, and that raises 00:50 the question, how soon is soon? How can we be sure 00:54 that the second coming really is imminent? 00:57 Fortunately, the Bible powerfully, compellingly, 00:59 and clearly answers these very questions. 01:01 Let's turn our attention to the Bible and see what it has 01:03 to say about this important topic. 01:05 Let's do a little bit of review. Just there, a quick review 01:08 of Daniel 2. 01:10 A great metal man of Daniel 2 tells the story of the history 01:16 of this planet. The 5 elements of that image: 01:20 gold, silver, brass, iron and clay represent 01:24 the 5 major kingdoms from the time of Daniel 01:28 to the setting up of God's kingdom. [text on screen] 01:43 Daniel, in about 150 words accurately foretells 01:47 2500 years of earth's history beginning in the time 01:51 in which he lived, Babylon, moving through the whole 01:54 sweep of history, down to divided Rome; 01:57 today what we'd called modern Europe. 01:59 Today we live in those feet of iron and clay, 02:03 partly strong and partly weak, and the very next thing 02:08 that happened is that God would set up His own kingdom, 02:13 and it was represented by a stone, 02:17 and where did it hit the image? 02:21 It hit the image in the feet and it smashed the gold, 02:24 the silver, the bronze, and the iron to bits. 02:27 Then it says that that stone that struck the image 02:29 grew and became a great mountain. 02:33 Look at the last part of that paragraph, the second 02:38 to the last sentence says: The dream applied to 02:42 the latter days. The kingdom of God is at hand. 02:47 As you take a look at that image, that great timeline 02:49 that moves us through the sweep of history 02:51 from 600 years before the time of Jesus until now, 02:54 I want you to notice that there is nothing bellow the feet, 02:58 that's it. As we said last night, 03:00 God said there would be Babylon, and there was Babylon, number 1. 03:03 God said that there would be Medo-Persia and there was 03:05 Medo-Persia, number 2. God said that there would be 03:07 Greece and there was Greece, number 3. 03:09 God said that there would be Rome, and there was Rome, 03:10 number 4. God said that Rome would be divided 03:12 and it was divided, number 5. 03:13 And God said that Rome would remain divided, and it has 03:16 remained divided despite the overtures of some of the 03:18 so called great men of history, and it has remained 03:21 divided to this day. The very next thing to happen 03:24 is that God will set up His own kingdom, that's the next thing. 03:28 So someone might ask, legitimately and rightfully: 03:32 when will that happen? And that is our message tonight. 03:35 We asked the question last night: what would you wager 03:39 if you were a gambling person, what would you wager? 03:42 Just think it through, you don't have to be a religious person, 03:45 you don't have to be a theologian, you don't have 03:47 to be a super spiritual person, just to think about 03:49 this logically. We discussed already 03:52 that historians tell us about the past, and news anchor people 03:56 tell us about the present, but God alone can tell us 04:00 about the future. And God is sending us a signal 04:03 in the apocalyptic books of Daniel and Revelation. 04:06 He's saying that it's getting nearer and nearer, 04:09 now you're going to ask: how much more time 04:11 do we have? The answer is: I don't know, 04:14 but I'll show you tonight, I don't think we have 04:16 much time left. 04:18 The stone that struck the image became a great mountain 04:21 and filled the whole earth. The end of all things, 04:25 is it here, is it near, or is it mere fear? 04:31 This is not just something that theologians and Bible scholars 04:35 are dealing with, not at all, even popular media magazines 04:39 like Newsweek and Time: "Prophecy, what the Bible" 04:43 "says about the end of the world." 04:44 If you can see the writing here: "The end of the world?!" 04:47 "Apocalypse Now", "Will Computers Melt Down?" 04:50 "Will Society a Guide to Millennium Madness?" 04:53 It's not just popular culture that has an interest 04:57 in the end of all things, what's called apocalyptic studies. 05:00 Notice this remarkable quotation from a man by the name 05:02 of Bernard McGinn from the University of Chicago 05:05 Divinity School, he says: [text on screen] 05:16 In other words, from an academic point of view, from a scholastic 05:19 point of view, there is more research, more study, 05:22 in the last day events in the last 30 years than in 05:25 the foregoing, in the previous 300 years. 05:28 Not only is there an increase in the common media, 05:31 in the mass media, even scholars 05:33 are interested in what is going on, it's almost like there is 05:37 something tangible, something palpable in the air, 05:41 people have a sense that something is about to happen, 05:45 and I would say that has increased 10 fold since 9/11. 05:49 The post 9/11 world is a very different world 05:52 than the pre 9/11 world, and everything is in flux, 05:56 people are wondering: what is going on? 06:00 I want to tell you tonight, and I believe this with all 06:02 of my heart, with all of my soul, with every bit 06:06 of my being, that the Bible alone can give us real, 06:10 compelling and true answers about what is going on 06:14 in the world today. The politicians do not 06:17 have the answer. They might have some 06:19 of the answers, and they'll do their best, and hey listen, 06:23 fine fine fine, but they don't have the ultimate answers. 06:26 The world religious leaders, many of them do not 06:29 have the answers, God alone has the answers as to 06:32 what's happening, he's given them to us in His Word, 06:35 and we can know them if we'll study and look at them. 06:38 The end of the world, is it here, near, or mere fear? 06:42 You might be saying: "Well that's religious talk David". 06:46 Look at your study guide, the subheading says: 06:48 What do the experts say? 06:52 It is not only the Bible and Bible believers that insist 06:56 we are living in strange and unusual time, 06:58 you say, "Awe, that's religious talk; you wild eyed" 07:01 "religious fanatics have been saying these kinds of things" 07:04 "a long time. Oh sure, Jesus is coming," 07:06 "oh sure, the end of the world is coming, we've heard it" 07:09 "all before." Let me tell you something, 07:12 I was not a Bible believer, I had no interest in things 07:15 religious, I had no interest in things Christians, 07:18 23 years old, I had no interest in these things 07:21 and God got my attention and I think I can say 07:24 with a degree of objectivity that we are living 07:27 in strange and unusual times. The world appears to be 07:30 coming apart at the seams, do you tend to agree with that 07:32 or disagree with that? [Audience replies] Agree. 07:36 I want to show you tonight that it is not just so called 07:38 religious people that believe we are living in strange 07:41 and unusual times. In fact, you'll notice that 07:44 in your study guide. Many recognized experts 07:46 and authorities in various fields suggest that we are 07:50 living in an extraordinary and unique period of earth's history 07:54 Many of these individuals are not writing from a Biblical, 07:58 or a so called theological perspective. 08:01 They're simply writing from an observational and an evidentiary 08:04 perspective, they see that the evidence points in a fearful 08:08 and unusual direction. 08:15 I cite for you this evening as case in point Nr.1 08:19 a man by the name of Eugene Linden. Eugene Linden is an 08:22 award winning journalist and several years ago 08:25 he wrote a book entitled "The Future in Plain Sight", 08:29 the subtitle of the book was: 9 Clues to the Coming Instability. 08:34 When Mr. Linden says "the coming instability", again, he's not 08:39 writing from a religious perspective, he's not writing 08:41 from a Biblical perspective, not at all. 08:43 When he uses that language, "the coming instability", 08:46 sometimes he calls it "massive global instability", 08:49 that secular code speak for "the end of the world as we" 08:54 "know it", "9 Clues to the Coming Instability". 08:57 Let me share with you very quickly Eugene Linden's 09:01 concerns, notice, none of them are Biblical, 09:04 none of them are so called religious reasons. 09:07 This is what he says, we're not going to spend time 09:09 going into them, but let's just look at a few of them. 09:11 He says: [text on screen] 09:26 [In regard to Nr.5] The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. 09:30 He says it's reaching epidemic proportions, he goes on: 09:33 [text on screen] 09:40 [In regard to Nr.8] - He cites both a resurgence of old 09:42 diseases and a resilience of modern diseases, 09:44 he says that the diseases are getting smarter and more 09:47 resilient to antibiotics, etc. [text on screen] 09:52 Notice again, Dr. Linden is not writing from a Biblical 09:56 perspective, and he says we are living in strange, unusual, 10:00 and extraordinary times. 10:03 I cite for you now a man that is considered by many 10:06 to be the single greatest scientific mind on the planet. 10:09 With a raising of hands, how many of you are familiar 10:12 with who this man is: Dr. Stephen Hawking, 10:14 many of you would be. He's authored the best selling 10:18 science book of all time. It's a book entitled 10:20 "A brief history of time", again, he's considered 10:23 by many to be the greatest scientific mind on the planet, 10:26 he's hailed as Einstein's successor. 10:28 You're looking at his picture and you're thinking he doesn't 10:30 look like he's very fit, like he's very well, 10:33 and that's exactly right, he has a terrible disease, 10:36 Lou Gehrig's Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, 10:39 he can't even speak as a matter of fact, all he has 10:41 is just a very small amount of movement in one 10:44 of his fingers, which he is able to use on a very sophisticated 10:47 computer and craft sentence, he does presentations. 10:52 He spoke recently at a group, convention of academic leaders 10:59 and others, and this is how Dr. Stephen Hawking concluded 11:05 his lecture that was entitled: "Is mankind determined or free?" 11:10 I want you to notice this, the language is a little obtuse, 11:13 and I apologize for that, but you'll get the thrust of it 11:16 right away. Dr. Stephen Hawking said this: 11:20 [text on screen] 11:24 He believes in the process of evolution, we'll talk more 11:26 about that maybe in our seminar. [text on screen] 11:45 You see what he's saying is: "I'm very concerned." 11:49 The man holds the Sir Isaac Newton Chair of Mathematics 11:52 at Cambridge University, he says "I'm concerned." 11:56 Notice what he says next, here's his solution: [text on screen] 12:06 He said this 6 years ago, [continues to read] 12:21 You see what he's saying "We're living in strange times," 12:23 "we're living in unusual times", he says "I'm concerned" 12:26 "for the long-term survival of our species, however," 12:28 "if we can just keep from destroying one another" 12:30 "for 100 years, technology will have been developed" 12:32 "and you man might go to Mars, and you man might go" 12:35 "to another planet, we can go to different planets and then" 12:37 "no one tragedy or atrocity will eradicate us all" 12:40 "at the same time." Am I the only person here 12:43 that thinks that that sounds just a little crazy? 12:46 [Audience laughs] 12:47 Now that is not out of disrespect to Dr. Hawking, 12:49 he's a brilliant man, he's a wonderful man, I hope that 12:52 the man is converted and accepts the Lord Jesus as his personal 12:55 Saviour, the point is that that is a little strange. 12:58 I found this cover here from Time Magazine, I thought 13:02 it was kind of cute, they show a sort of astronaut looking man 13:04 walking his robodog, and it says "In the future will we?" 13:08 That's exactly what Dr. Stephen Hawking is advocating, 13:13 he says: "Hey look, this planet is waxing old like a garment," 13:16 "this planet is groaning under the weight of all of these" 13:20 "different things", this worries him, not from a religious 13:23 perspective, not from a Biblical perspective, 13:26 not from a theological perspective, simply from 13:29 a scientific or observational perspective. 13:31 Let's turn our attention to the Bible. 13:34 I cite these instances for you, and we'll give a few more 13:37 momentarily to show that this is not just wild eyed, 13:39 so called "religious fanatics" that believe we're living 13:42 in strange and unusual times. In fact, I would say 13:45 if you don't think we're living in strange and unusual times, 13:47 you're not paying attention. I saw a bumper sticker 13:50 the other day that said "If you're not outraged," 13:54 "you're not paying attention." [Audience laughs] 13:57 [text on screen] 14:04 1 out of ever 25 verse, it is the preeminent theme, 14:08 one of them, of the New Testament. 14:10 Let me give you 5 verse from the book of Revelation, 14:12 they're all right there in your study guide, 14:15 and what I want you to notice is that all of these 14:17 verse have something in common, see if you can pick it out. 14:20 Revelation 1:7, John says: [text on screen] 14:49 The Bible has promised those that put their faith 14:51 in Jesus a crown of righteousness, He says: 14:53 "I'm coming quickly, hold on so that no one else" 14:56 "gets the crown that belongs rightfully to you." 14:58 Revelation 22:7: [text on screen] 15:06 "That book" being the book of Revelation, [continues to read] 15:26 5 times "I'm coming quickly", what do these verse 15:30 have in common? There's a sense of urgency here. 15:34 God is saying it's not time to be lackadaisical, 15:37 it's not time to be lazy anymore. 15:39 You say "wait a minute, the book of Revelation was written" 15:42 "2000 years ago", you're right, but in the book of Revelation 15:45 there is a key that lets us know when quickly 15:48 is really quickly. And notice that in your 15:51 study guide: what do these verse have in common? 15:53 There's a sense of urgency in every one of them. 15:56 Clearly the second coming is a prominent component 15:59 of Revelation, it is the capstone of the book, 16:02 the whole Bible and of God's plan of salvation. 16:06 But notice the next subheading: how quick is quick? 16:10 How soon is soon? And how close is close? 16:14 These are excellent questions, these are the very kinds 16:17 of questions that people ask today, they might say 16:19 something like this: "People have been saying for years" 16:22 "that Jesus would return, how do you know that" 16:24 "He actually will?" Is there anyone in here 16:26 today that has heard something like that, a variation of that, 16:29 you tried to share with a family member, tried to share 16:31 with a friend and he said: "Come on, people have been" 16:33 "saying that forever, how do you really know?" 16:34 Raise your hands if you've heard that before. 16:36 Sure, many of us have heard it before, and it's sometimes 16:38 said with kind of a snicker, a snide sense of 16:41 "come on, get over it." Notice this, 16:44 the key is in our next verse which is also in Revelation, 16:47 Revelation 16:15: [text on screen] 17:04 Now this is not speaking about literal nakedness, 17:06 it's speaking about spiritual nakedness, which is what happens 17:08 when you've not put your faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. 17:11 That's not the main thing we want to look at right now 17:14 though, what I want you to see is that the operative word 17:16 in this passage is that word right there that begins 17:20 with a "w": "watches". 17:23 In fact, you'd write that in right there, it says: 17:26 What is the operative word in this passage? 17:28 And the word is "watch". The word "watch" means 17:32 "to look", "to see". If you remember those verses 17:36 that we were just quoting from Revelation, 17:38 all the ones that are listed, many of them began 17:40 with the word "behold"; what does the word "behold" mean? 17:46 What does that mean? "Beauty is in the eye" 17:49 "of the beholder", what does it mean to behold? 17:52 It means to look. So you have this reverberating 17:55 bottom line, they're saying "Look! Look!" 18:00 And then here he says: "blessed is he who looks." 18:04 Very interesting, let me show you several other verses, 18:06 in fact, I think I've got them all for you: 18:08 Matthew 24:42 right there, take this home and study it 18:11 yourself, Jesus speaking, He says: [text on screen] 18:19 Notice Jesus says "watch". 1 Thessalonians 5:4,6, 18:26 the apostle Paul, notice what he says: [text on screen] 18:36 There's that language again, many people have heard 18:38 that language "He comes as a thief", many people 18:40 don't know what that means, we'll talk about that 18:43 in another presentation, "that Day" is the second coming, 18:46 notice verse 6: [text on screen] 18:53 Paul knew that there would be people that would be asleep, 18:55 Paul knew that there would be people that would say 18:58 "[Yawns] Oh yeah, we've heard that all before." 19:00 "No! Let us not therefore sleep as others do, but let us watch" 19:05 "and be sober" - that means be serious minded. 19:09 It doesn't mean you can't have a little fun, nobody in this 19:11 room likes to have fun more than David Asscherick, 19:13 I guarantee you that, you ask my wife, she'll tell you 19:15 that's the truth, but we should be sober minded 19:18 about the times in which we're living. 19:22 He says "watch", John in Revelation says "watch", 19:28 Jesus in the gospel of Matthew says "watch". 19:32 Here Paul is saying "watch", and Peter actually says 19:34 the same thing in 1 Peter 4:7: [text on screen] 19:47 John says "watch", Paul says "watch", " Peter says "watch", 19:50 Jesus says "watch", is there any question in anybody's 19:53 mind tonight that the Bible is telling us to watch 19:56 for something? 19:59 The question is: for what? 20:02 Does that sound good? It says: "keep your eye out," 20:05 "I'll tell you, keep your eye out," 20:08 but you're going to say "David, what am I keeping" 20:11 "my eye out for?" 20:13 Notice your study guide, what do all of these verses 20:18 have in common? They all deal with the end 20:20 of time. Each of those verses 20:22 we just looked up deal with the end of time. 20:25 All of these verses tell us to watch, but the question is: 20:31 for what? The disciples questioned Jesus 20:35 on one occasion about the end of the world. 20:40 Open your Bibles with me to Matthew 24, 20:46 first book of the New Testament, you can find that. 20:48 If you're sitting next to someone who has difficulty 20:50 finding it, just help them out, first book of 20:52 the New Testament, right between Malachi and Mark. 20:56 Matthew 24. 21:03 We're being told to watch and the question is for what? 21:09 And here's the answer, Matthew 24:1: 21:13 "Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple", 21:18 Jesus left the temple, "and His disciples" 21:21 "came to show Him the buildings of the temple," 21:23 they were trying to cheer Him up, the reason 21:25 they were trying to cheer Him up if you read in the last 21:28 3 verse of the chapter before it, Jesus has left the temple 21:31 for the last time, in fact, He says in verse 37 21:34 of the previous chapter: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem," 21:37 "the one who kills the prophets and stones those" 21:39 "who were sent to her, how often I wanted to gather" 21:42 "your children together as a hen gathers her chicks" 21:44 "under her wings, but you were not willing." 21:47 Never forget that, God is a gentlemen, He will not 21:51 force His way into your life, He begs and He hopes, 21:55 and He calls, and He pleads, but God will not force. 21:59 Jesus says "I wanted to bring you under my wings" 22:02 "as a hen gathers her chicks, but you were not willing." 22:04 Verse 38: "Your house is left to you desolate." 22:10 "For I say to you, you will see Me no more until you say," 22:13 "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord", 22:15 and He walked out of the temple, that was the last time 22:18 that Jesus, the Messiah, the very one to whom 22:21 the temple pointed, would ever set foot in those precincts. 22:24 He walks out, His heart was burdened, His heart 22:26 was sad, He went up on a mountain called 22:29 the Mount of Olives, and the disciples could tell 22:31 there was something wrong. Jesus had begun His public 22:33 ministry, you might remember the story. 22:36 He went in and He threw all the money changers out, 22:38 remember that story? And He said: "take these things" 22:41 "out of here, you have made My Father's house a den of thieves" 22:44 So at the beginning of Jesus' ministry He said 22:46 "My Father's house", but here at the end He says 22:49 "Your house is left to you desolate." 22:51 3 and a half years earlier it was "My Father's house", 22:54 at the end of His ministry it's "your house", why? 22:57 Because the Jewish nation had consistently rejected 22:59 the evidences of Jesus' Messiahship, He says: 23:02 "hey, listen, what more can I do, you won't see Me again" 23:05 "until you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name" 23:06 "of the Lord." He goes up, 23:08 He sits on the Mount of Olives, the disciples come in verse 1, 23:10 we've already read it, to try and cheer Him up: 23:13 "Oh Jesus, look at how beautiful the temple is," 23:15 "Oh Jesus, look at how the sun glistens off of its" 23:17 "glorious marble walls", but Jesus would not be comforted. 23:22 Look at verse 2, Jesus said: "Do you not see all these" 23:26 "things, assuredly I say unto you, not 1 stone will be" 23:31 "left here upon another that will not be thrown down." 23:35 The very thing that the disciples were trying to cheer 23:38 Jesus with, Jesus says: "do you see it all?" 23:40 "It's going to be destroyed, in fact, it'll be so destroyed," 23:43 "so utterly decimated that there won't even be 1 stone" 23:46 "upon another; the temple destroyed, Jerusalem destroyed," 23:50 and in the minds of the disciples they're thinking:" 23:51 "What?!" 23:52 "The destruction of the temple, the destruction of Jerusalem?" 23:55 "Surely He's talking about the end of the age," 23:58 what the Greeks called the "eschaton", 24:01 "Oh, that must mean the end of all things". 24:05 Verse 3: "As He sat upon the Mount of Olives," 24:08 "the disciples came to Him privately saying," 24:11 "tell us when will these things be?" 24:14 "And what will be the sign of Your coming" 24:16 "and of the end of the world", or "the end of the age?" 24:23 The disciples thought they were asking 1 question, 24:28 "when will of all these things be and what will be" 24:30 "the sign of your coming and of the end of the age," 24:33 but that's really 2 questions. What Jesus does is He 24:35 parallels the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD 24:39 under the Roman Emperor Titus, and the end of the world, 24:42 and that's really what Matthew 24 is, 24:44 it's this marvelous answer in which Jesus takes these 2 events 24:47 and interweaves them in a marvelous tapestry. 24:52 Let's look at our study guide, consider Matthew 24, 24:55 we're on the bottom of the second page. 24:59 In Matthew 24 Jesus deals with the issue of the end 25:03 of the world, in this chapter Jesus masterfully parallels 25:09 the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD with the destruction 25:16 of the world at the end of the age. 25:19 In this parallel Jesus employs 2 revealing and helpful 25:23 analogies for understanding the last days and the end 25:27 of the world. Let's look at these 2 analogies. 25:33 The first one is actually found in Matthew 24:8. 25:39 I'm reading this evening from the New King James Version, 25:42 it says: "All these are the beginning of sorrows". 25:49 How many of you have a translation that says 25:50 the same thing in Matthew 24:8? "All these are the beginning" 25:53 "of sorrows." 25:55 Who has a translation that says something different than that? 25:58 What does yours say? "Birth pangs", 26:00 that's exactly right, that's what the Greek word is. 26:02 Just as the RSV says here: "All of this is the beginning" 26:06 "of birth pangs", in other words, contraction, ladies. 26:10 That's the Greek word that Jesus is employing, 26:13 He was probably speaking in Aramaic, but here Jesus says 26:16 "All of this", all of what? We'll get there in just 26:18 a moment, He uses the analogy of contractions, 26:22 we'll come back to that. 26:23 He employs a second analogy as you turn the page 26:32 you can write this down, look in Matthew 24:32. 26:40 Jesus says: "Now learn this parable", a parable is a story 26:45 that illustrates a larger spiritual significance. 26:48 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree", that's interesting, 26:54 Jesus is going to teach us a story from a tree, 26:57 a lesson from a tree, "when its branch has already" 26:59 "become tender and puts forth leaves you know that Summer" 27:04 "is near." Now notice verse 33, He makes the application, 27:09 "So also when you see all these things, know that it", 27:15 "it" in the context is the second coming, 27:18 "know that it is near, even at the doors." 27:21 Jesus employs 2 analogies here, the 2 analogies are this: 27:26 [text on screen] 27:32 Those of us here in Michigan know what Jesus 27:34 is talking about. We don't have many fig trees, 27:36 but we have lots of other kinds of trees, and we have 27:38 winters here. I grew up in South Dakota, 27:41 and I know something about winters and we know 27:43 when Spring is just around the corner, or I should say 27:46 we think we know when Spring is just around the corner. 27:47 I've heard it said: "If you don't like the weather" 27:50 "in Michigan, wait 5 minutes." [Audience laughs] 27:52 Where I come from in South Dakota we have 2 seasons, 27:55 we have winter and road construction, seems like you 27:58 have the same right here in Michigan as well. 28:01 We know that something is about ready to happen when the leaves 28:05 begin to appear and the branch gets tender. 28:07 Jesus says: "Pay attention", He uses these 2 analogies; 28:13 labor pains and a budding fig tree, these analogies 28:18 have 3 things in common. 28:22 [text on screen] 28:35 [In regard to Nr.2] - that is they start here, 28:37 and they move toward here, and as they move, 28:41 they increase in frequency and in intensity. 28:45 And number 3: [text on screen] 28:48 The budding fig tree announces Summer, the labor pains 28:52 of a woman's contractions announce a child, 28:56 they all end at something, an event. 29:01 You say "what is it? What are these things" 29:02 "that we're supposed to watch for?" 29:04 Peter says "watch", John says "watch", Jesus says "watch", 29:07 Paul says "watch", we haven't even talked about 29:09 what we're watching for, but we know we should be watching 29:11 for something. He gives 2 parables, 29:13 the fig tree and the labor pains, these are visible, 29:17 progressive and climactic, and you say "what is it?" 29:21 Go back to Matthew 24, the disciples have asked Jesus 29:25 the question. Verse 3, "when will all of this happen?" 29:30 "What will be the sign of the end of the age?" 29:33 Jesus says in verse 4, the very first words 29:36 out of His mouth: "Take heed that no one deceives you." 29:41 In other words: "be careful that no one deceives you." 29:45 In fact He says that 3 times in this 1 chapter, 29:48 "be careful that no one deceives you." 29:52 Friends, the only thing that you can be guaranteed 29:56 that will keep you from being deceived is knowing 29:59 the Bible for yourself. I can stand up here 30:04 and say something wrong, in fact I'll tell you this, 30:05 if I ever do say something that's wrong, don't come back, 30:07 you don't have to come back. If what I say doesn't 30:09 come from the Bible, don't come back. 30:11 What I like to tell Christians is this: 30:13 you should know your Bible well enough to know when a minister 30:16 misquotes it. 30:19 You pay attention to me, sometimes I'll purposely 30:22 misquote it just to see if you're paying attention. 30:25 "That's not what it says, you hang in there." 30:27 Jesus gave these signs, He said "be careful that you're" 30:32 "not deceived", and He gives us 10 signs, 30:35 not all of them come from Matthew 24, but most of them do. 30:38 10 signs of the times. I just want to underscore 30:42 that these are not just religious people that say 30:45 these things, these are not just so called religious, 30:49 spiritual people that think that we're living 30:51 in strange and unusual time, people like Eugene Linden, 30:54 people like Dr. Stephen Hawking say: "Wow, we're living" 30:56 "in strange and unusual times". Jesus says 31:00 "I'll show you what it's going to be like." 31:04 Jesus gives 10 signs of the times, verse 5: 31:07 "For many will come in My name saying, I am the Christ," 31:12 "and will deceive many." Notice it says that "many" 31:16 "will come in My name and will deceive many." 31:19 People will come and say "I am the Christ." 31:21 The very first sign that Jesus gives, signs in 31:24 the religious world, He says there will be a proliferation 31:27 of false Christs and false prophets; do we see that 31:30 in your day and age today? Sure, just quickly 31:33 off the top of my mind I've selected a few of them for you, 31:36 [text on screen] 31:46 Marshall Applewhite - he's the one in the background 31:48 of the picture, the man who led 39 people to kill themselves 31:51 in San Clemente, California, so that they could go 31:54 ride around in a spaceship behind the comet Hale-Bopp. 31:56 How many of you remember that one? 31:59 Jesus says that there will be "a state of general" 32:01 "religious confusion just before I return." 32:04 Isn't that the case? 32:08 Let's talk for a moment as a case in point just to show you 32:11 how naive and how gullible people can be. 32:13 I don't want to pick on anyone, no no, that's not my purpose, 32:16 I'm a friendly person, I love people, I love to spend time 32:19 with people, but let's just look at how gullible people can be. 32:24 Take for example, number 2, this Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda. 32:28 I introduced to this fellow about 6 months ago 32:30 when someone sent me a clip on the internet, a show 32:34 that he had done on NBC's Today Show, this guy claims 32:38 to be Jesus. 32:41 I was on his website just today, I thought you might like 32:44 to take a look at it, there's his official English website, 32:47 I'm not going to tell you the name of it, why should we 32:49 give this guy any more credit then he deserves? 32:52 He deserves no credit whatsoever, but if you can see 32:54 in the upper right hand corner, it says "The Man, Christ Jesus," 32:57 "Dr. Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda is coming to the United States" 33:00 "of America, the Kings of kings and Lord of lords has arrived" 33:03 "in America." [Audience laughs] 33:06 This is the official release from his website, 33:08 this is a direct quote from his website, Mr. Miranda's website: 33:11 [text on screen] 33:36 The man has an estimated 5-10 million followers who genuinely 33:42 believe that he is Jesus Christ. You think this guy 33:46 is just whistling Dixie, you say "Oh David, that's no big deal," 33:48 "there's a guy down my street that thinks he's Jesus Christ", 33:50 but has the guy down your street appeared on CNN? 33:53 Has the guy down your street appeared on CBS National News, 33:56 Fox News Live, NBC's Today show, and dozens of local and 33:59 Latino networks? Do a little Google search 34:02 on this guy, this guy claims to be Jesus, you watch 34:05 the interviews on Anderson Cooper. 34:07 Anderson Cooper says to him straight out "Are you Jesus?" 34:09 He says: "I'm Jesus and I'm greater than Jesus." 34:11 - [Audience] Oh no! - And then they cut away 34:14 to his followers and they're all rejoicing and dancing 34:16 around, holding up signs that say: "The Son of Man is here." 34:22 Now beloved, we don't want to make fun of anybody, 34:24 in fact, we want to pray, but the point is this: 34:27 the guy is a 60 year old ex-heroin addict who spent 34:30 time in prison, and you have hundreds of thousands, 34:33 potentially millions of people that say: "Jesus is here." 34:36 How could they possibly believe such a ridiculous thing? 34:39 They're not studying their Bibles. [Audience says amen] 34:45 Jesus said that's what it would be like just before He returned. 34:48 Other examples could be given. 34:49 Notice the next sign that Jesus gives, verse 6: 34:54 "And you will hear of wars and of rumors of wars." 34:57 "See that you are not troubled for all these things" 35:00 "must come to pass, but the end is not yet." 35:03 Do we live in a time when there are wars and rumors 35:06 of wars, yes or no? [Audience replies] Yes. 35:08 Atheistic philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche said: 35:10 "the 20th century would be the bloodiest ever", 35:12 and he was right. [text on screen] 35:43 Jesus said that there would be wars and rumors of wars. 35:46 That reminds me of a story: a man by the name 35:49 of Richard J. Gatling drew this patent drawing 35:51 and submitted it to the US Patent Office, May 19, 1865, 35:56 you've probably seen the old west movies, and you'd turn 36:00 a crank and it was basically the first machine gun. 36:03 He was showing his patent to several arms manufacturers 36:06 and guns manufactures in his day, and they did 36:08 an unveiling and the people were walking around this gun 36:12 and they were all looking at it, and one of the gun 36:15 manufacturers looked at Mr. Gatling and said: 36:19 "But Mr. Gatling, won't this weapon make war" 36:23 "all the more terrible?" 36:28 "The loss of life will be so easy now, people can just" 36:31 "be mowed down in a moment, in a second." 36:33 "Mr. Gatling, won't this weapon make war more terrible?" 36:39 And Mr. Gatling, as the story goes, looked that man 36:41 right in the eye and he said "No, this weapon" 36:44 "will make war impossible." 36:48 What he was saying is this: people will see the futility 36:52 of war, it will be so easy to kill, that people see 36:56 how foolish it really is. How wrong was Mr. Gatling? 37:00 When today we have single weapons, single bombs 37:03 that can annihilate tens of thousands of people 37:07 in a moment. August 9, 1945, 37:10 73,884 people killed when a bomb was dropped 37:14 on Nagasaki, 3 days earlier, 60,000 were killed 37:17 when a bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, so wrong 37:21 was Mr. Gatling, the Gatling gun didn't make war more impossible, 37:24 it made it more terrible, and today we have weapons 37:26 of mass destruction, and weapons of war that could 37:30 destroy the planet multiplied hundreds of times over. 37:34 We live in an age where war is on proliferation, 37:36 not on the decrease, is this true, yes or no? 37:39 - [Audience replies] Yes. - Absolutely true. 37:41 Jesus said it would be just like that before He returned, 37:45 but Jesus went on, there are still more signs, 37:46 you're still there in Matthew 24:7: 37:49 "For nation shall rise against nation," 37:52 "and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines," 37:55 "and pestilences, and earthquakes in various places." 37:59 Famines: the United Nations tells us that: [text on screen] 38:12 Many countries are not blessed like the USA and are not 38:15 exporting countries, in fact, many countries produce 38:18 not enough food to feed their own population, 38:20 and if it wasn't for countries like the US, 38:23 many countries would literally wither up. 38:25 Suffering goes beyond these mere numbers, 38:27 here living in sterling heights, or wherever we live, 38:30 these just look like numbers on a screen, but these are 38:33 real people that are really dying of starvation, 38:35 can you think of a worse way to die? 38:38 [text on screen] 38:45 Jesus said that the last days would be marked by famines. 38:50 He said there would be pestilences, you say: 38:51 "What's a pestilence?" 38:53 A pestilence is not your kid brother or your kid sister, 38:56 [Audience laughs] 39:01 a pestilence is a noxious illness. 39:05 Do we live in an age of illnesses and diseases today? 39:08 Sure: [text on screen] 39:12 Some of these diseases you've never heard of before 39:15 10 years ago: [text on screen] 39:28 You just do a little Google search on flu epidemic 39:31 and there are many world health professionals that are 39:33 very concerned that if there was a flu outbreak, 39:36 it could literally kill millions of people. 39:40 [continues to read text] 39:44 Jesus said there would be earthquakes. 39:47 [text on screen] 39:52 I want you to notice what I say, I chose my language 39:54 very carefully, I didn't say: "The actual number" 39:57 "of earthquakes has increased," that's debatable. 39:59 You go on the USGS website, the Unite States Geological Survey, 40:02 and they seem to suggest that the number has not actually 40:04 increased, but I'll tell you what has increased, 40:06 Nr.1- we are more sophisticated now with our seismological 40:10 devices so we know that more are happening, 40:12 so there's the appearance of more, but Nr.2- because people 40:16 are moving towards more urban centers when earthquakes 40:19 do take place, instead of 1 or 2 or 5000 dying, 40:22 you have earthquakes where tens of thousands of people die, 40:25 like the tsunami that just happened, December 26, 2004, 40:29 in which 300,000 lost their lives in one of the greatest 40:33 natural disasters in all human experience, and it happened 40:37 because of an earthquake. Jesus said there would be 40:40 earthquakes, they would be deadly, they would be prominent. 40:45 The first 5 signs of the times, the last 5: [text on screen] 40:51 Jesus said in Luke 21:25,26: [text on screen] 41:04 "sea and the waves" - weren't we just talking about 41:07 the tsunami? [continues to read] 41:17 What He's saying is: "the world is going to look" 41:19 "like it's falling apart at the seams; the world is going" 41:21 "to look like it's going to hell in a hand basket," 41:23 "and people are going to be basically fainting" 41:26 "and freaking out because they don't know what's happening." 41:30 Is that the world we live in? That is the world we live in! 41:33 If people would just take a moment to stop 41:35 and really look around, they'd see that things are not 41:38 business as usual, it's not status quo any longer, 41:42 but we have distractions that keep us occupied 41:45 so we're not paying attention to how things are really going, 41:47 I'll talk about that more in just a moment. 41:49 I collect these things, here's just a few magazine covers 41:53 that I scanned in, I don't know if you can read the writing, 41:57 but Discover Magazine is hardly a theological journal, 42:01 and here it says: "What in the world is wrong" 42:03 "with our weather?" They're asking that 42:05 from an evidentiary basis, not a religious basis. 42:08 The one there, Life Magazine: "The Year of the Killer Weather" 42:10 "Why has Nature Gone Mad?" And do I have to tell you 42:13 anything about hurricanes? Last year was the first time 42:15 in the history of recorded hurricanes where 42:19 the meteorologists had to go all the way through the 22-23 42:23 letters picked up and they had to start with alpha, beta, 42:27 gamma, etc. 42:31 We know about it, don't we? There is an environmental 42:34 connection, and there is an increasing number of scientists 42:37 and world leaders who are saying: "Yeah, I'll tell you" 42:39 "why the weather's getting worse, it's not just because" 42:41 "we're going through a cycle." People say: "Oh, you know" 42:44 "these meteorological, and climatological, these things" 42:47 "go in cycles", and some people are saying: "Yeah," 42:50 "but we're accelerating the cycle by adding to it." 42:53 Listen, I'm not a scientist, but the world is not that big. 42:56 I know that because my home is in Wyoming 42:58 and my wife's family lives in California, and every year 43:00 we drive from Michigan to California, it doesn't take us 43:03 that long to do it really, we can do it in about 3 days, 43:05 and if you look at a map you can see you're going 43:08 from here to here. If it was possible to go around 43:12 the circumference of the earth, you'd just drive around, 43:14 it's not that big of a planet, I can get in an airplane 43:16 and be in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 15 hours. 43:19 You take all of us and millions more and you put them in 43:23 cars and those cars start running, SUVs and every other 43:26 kind of thing, it just makes sense to me that this 43:28 would start to have a deleterious effect on a fragile 43:31 environment, I don't think that's a political statement, 43:33 I think it's common sense. 43:37 Many are saying that we're living in strange and unusual 43:39 times when it comes to our environment. 43:42 There's a DVD that was just recently released, 43:44 this is not an endorsement of this DVD, it was a full length 43:47 movie motion picture that went in theaters, I didn't see it, 43:49 this is their website, it's called: "An Inconvenient Truth", 43:52 has anybody seen this? Absolutely amazing. 43:55 It is amazing, you can go to their website: 43:59 www.climatecrisis.net, and basically they're saying: 44:02 "Listen, we're living in strange and unusual times." 44:05 The man, Eugene Linden that we cited earlier, 44:07 "The Future in Plain Sight", he just released a book 44:10 this year, 2006, entitled "The Winds of Change", 44:13 can you read the subtitle there? "Climate, Weather," 44:16 "and the Destruction of Civilizations." 44:20 Eugene Linden is not the only one saying these kinds 44:22 of things; a very well respected and conservative 44:25 English scientist by the name of Dr. James Lovelock 44:28 has written a book called "The Revenge of Gaia", 44:31 "Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity." 44:34 Notice this from the opening introduction of his book, 44:37 he says: [text on screen] 44:49 In case you're saying, "Oh well, these are just those crazy" 44:51 "liberal scientists, these are those liberal scientists" 44:54 "that don't like George Bush, they publish these things" 44:57 "to get him out of office." Listen! 44:59 This is not a political statement, 45:02 I couldn't care less right now about politics, 45:04 I want to talk about God's word, but I'll tell you that this man 45:06 right here, do you know who this man is? 45:09 That's Tony Blair, this man is anything 45:12 but a liberal scientist. In fact, in his own country 45:15 he gets all kind of trouble because they say 45:17 George Bush has got him in his back pocket. 45:19 He's not the kind of person that would want to say 45:21 something to upset his relationship with the USA, 45:25 but look at the date, 10/31/06, that's 2 weeks ago, 45:28 or not even 2 weeks ago, about 1 week ago, 45:31 he did an appeal to world leaders at a science conference, 45:34 and this is what Mr. Blair said, again, not some radical, 45:37 renegade, liberal scientist, this is Tony Blair, 45:40 our ally in the war on terror, conservative, he said: 45:45 [text on screen] 45:57 If you've ever heard this man speak, he's not a wild eyed, 46:00 fanatic, not even close. 46:02 He's a very sober minded, very articulate, very intelligent 46:05 person. He says: [text on screen] 46:21 Okay, let's just say you disagree with him, 46:22 that's just your prerogative to disagree with him, 46:25 the point is this, even non- religious people say 46:28 we're living in unusual times, is that clear, yes or no? 46:31 [Audience replies] Yes. That's the point. 46:33 "Increasing violence." Do I need to say anything 46:35 about this? 46:36 Do we live in an increasingly violent society? 46:40 Nothing needs to be said here, whether it's the TV, 46:44 or Rap music, or video games, Lord have mercy, 46:47 look at these video games that people are playing, 46:50 it's so real. 46:52 I love it when they get these experts on these TV programs, 46:55 my parents used to live just outside of Columbine, Colorado. 46:58 In fact, they lived in Columbine when that terrible tragedy 47:01 took place and those 2 boys went in and killed 11-12 47:03 of their classmates, and then they'd have these experts 47:06 on CNN and C-Span and other places and they'd say: 47:08 "Now we'd like to ask you Dr. So-and-so," 47:11 "we notice that these boys are listening to violent music" 47:13 "and they're playing violent video games, and they're" 47:16 "watching violent TV programs, do you think that it might" 47:18 "be possible that there is some causal explanation," 47:22 "that maybe it's possible, perhaps, that the things" 47:26 "that they're exposing themselves to," 47:28 "these media things are causing them to do this?" 47:31 "Well, you know..." [Audience laughs] 47:34 "...we're not sure." And I'm thinking: "AHH, the whole world" 47:37 "has gone insane." [Audience laughs] 47:42 We don't need to say anything about an increasingly 47:44 violent society, Jesus said that the love of many 47:47 would wax cold, and that the thoughts of men would be 47:49 only on evil continually at the end of time. 47:53 Pleasure driven society, Nr.8. Is that the society 47:57 that we live in today? Oh Lord, have mercy! 48:00 Jesus says at the end of time the pornography business 48:03 will be booming, Jesus says at the end of time 48:06 everybody's going to be interested in sports, 48:09 Jesus says at the end of time TV is going to be huge, 48:12 at the end of time cinema houses are going to be huge. 48:15 Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure! Why is pleasure so much 48:18 on our minds? I'll tell you exactly 48:20 why it's on our minds, because we're looking for distractions 48:23 to keep our minds out of what is really happening 48:25 in the world today. 48:27 There's actually a psychological phenomenon here 48:29 called "compartmentalization", it's when, just imagine with me, 48:33 you think you're going on vacation to Orlando. 48:35 You say you've got the whole family loaded up 48:37 in the SUV, and you're going to Orlando, and you think 48:40 you're on your way to Orlando, you're all happy: 48:42 "This is going to be great in Orlando, can't wait" 48:44 "to get on that beach", and you pass a sign and the sign 48:48 says "Akron, Ohio", and you think: "Huh, that's alright," 48:52 "we're on our way to Orlando, turn up the iPod", 48:54 driving on your way; and you pass another sign 48:57 that says: "Columbus". "Ahh, never mind that sign" 49:00 "anyway, we're on our way to Orlando, just turn up" 49:02 "the music", that's the experience that many 49:04 are having: there are signs and indicators that the world 49:08 is falling apart at the seems, but we just turn it up, 49:11 turn up the pleasure so we don't have to think 49:13 about what's really happening in the world today, 49:15 are you follow me everyone? [Audience replies] Yes. 49:17 It's a psychological phenomenon called "compartmentalization" 49:20 because we don't like to think about these things. 49:23 Yet, Jesus is saying "watch", and Paul is saying "watch", 49:26 and Peter's saying "watch", and John is saying "watch, 49:29 and we're saying "Yeah, we will watch 'Must See TV' ". 49:32 [Audience laughs] 49:36 2 Timothy 3, notice what Paul said: [text on screen] 49:51 "...disobedient to parents", any parents want to say 49:53 amen to that? [continues to read] 49:59 "brutal" - I just think of those images of terrorists 50:03 literally hacking the head off a man right on TV, 50:06 knowing that their families are going to see it, 50:09 brutal!!! [text on screen] 50:21 Loss of family values, Nr.9. Divorce rate is over 50% 50:27 in the US. I had the honor, 50:29 but the terribly sad honor last year of burying my grandfather, 50:32 he was like a father to me, I never had the privilege 50:35 of meeting my biological father, so my grandfather 50:38 was like my dad. I had the privilege last year 50:41 of performing his funeral, I wish he was still with me, 50:44 he died at the age of 92 years old, and if he would have 50:47 lived 4 more months, he and my grandmother, 50:50 who's still alive, would have been married for 70 years. 50:54 That is the exception today and not the rule. 50:57 [text on screen] 51:02 I don't want to say much about this because God loves 51:04 homosexual people, can someone say amen to that? 51:07 But he does not love homosexuality, 51:09 see that's the thing, God loves the sinner, but He hates 51:12 the sin; we're the opposite: we love the sin and hate 51:15 the sinner. 51:18 But when I was in high school, and I want to be very candid, 51:21 but the worst thing that you could have been called 51:25 was "gay". When I was in high school, 51:27 you'd get beaten up just for somebody suggesting, 51:30 and now it's all "hey, everybody's gay now." 51:33 [Audience laughs] 51:35 "Gay and proud, gay and loud", listen, there's 51:38 an agenda going on here. [text on screen] 51:58 Family values literally eroding right before our very eyes. 52:01 Look at this statistic, it will just blow your mind. 52:05 Michael and Diane Medved wrote their book, "Saving Childhood", 52:08 the Wall street Journal review of this book said 52:10 that "if this isn't an important book, I don't know" 52:12 "what an important book looks like." 52:14 This is from page 19, [text on screen] 52:28 That is the society that you live in, that is the society 52:32 that your children are growing up in. 52:33 In 1940 Reader's Digest took a pole of the top 7 52:37 disciplinary problems in schools, look at these, 52:41 any teachers here today? Wouldn't you love to have these: 52:44 [text on screen] 52:57 [In regard to Nr.6] - you say to our young people today 52:59 "dress code", they say "a what code?", they don't even know 53:01 what that is, a dress code? [continues to read] 53:05 They took the same survey in the year 2000, top 7 problems 53:09 for educators: [text on screen] 53:19 Have times changed, yes or no? [Audience replies] Yes. 53:22 Times have changed. 53:28 Matthew 24, but notice the greatest sign of all, 53:37 phenomenal. Jesus says: 53:41 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached" 53:44 "in all the world as a witness", verse 14, "and then" 53:48 "the end will come." 53:49 The greatest sign is that while the world is going down 53:53 like this, God says that His kingdom will be building up, 53:56 that the gospel will go to all the world to give 53:59 everyone a chance to be saved. The gospel is going 54:02 to all the world, the end, is it here, near, or mere fear? 54:06 The answer of the is that it's very near. 54:08 You say: "Well, how near?" The answer is: I don't know, 54:11 but I do know this: in a world of uncertainty, 54:13 Bible prophecy provides us with certainty. 54:15 You might be saying: "Well, there's always been" 54:18 "earthquakes, and there's always been famines," 54:21 "and there's always been pestilence, and there's" 54:23 "always been those things", but remember, 54:26 what were the 2 illustrations as we close? 54:28 The 2 illustrations, the 2 analogies that Jesus used 54:31 were labor pains and a budding fig tree. 54:33 Think about contractions. I don't know them experientially 54:36 but I've been with my wife 2 times through this process 54:38 and the start far apart and they're not very intense 54:41 and then they get closer and closer, and as they get closer 54:43 they get more intense, closer and more intense, 54:46 it's not that some new sign would come on, 54:48 but that the same old signs would be 54:50 at fever pitch, at maximum volume, very close together, 54:55 very intense, and that is the world that you live in. 55:00 But the good news is that the end of this world 55:05 is the beginning of the world to come. 55:09 This is not bad news, it's bad news in a sense, 55:12 but for the believer this is all good news 55:15 because "this world is not my home, I'm just passing through", 55:19 you heard that song? "My treasures are laid up" 55:23 "somewhere along the blue", God has a home for you, 55:26 Jesus said: "Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God," 55:30 "believe also in Me." John 14, "In My Father's house" 55:32 "are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you." 55:35 "I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare" 55:38 "a place for you, I will come again and receive you" 55:40 "unto Myself, that where I am you may be also." 55:44 If you're a believer, this world is not your home. 55:52 It's all about priorities, isn't it? 55:59 My studied conviction is that we are living in the very toes 56:06 of this image, and one of the several things that we're 56:09 going to do here in this Bible prophecy seminar 56:12 is to set a sense of urgency to show you "this is how" 56:15 "it's going to end according to the Bible", not according 56:18 to 1 man's ideas or 1 man's opinion, but according 56:20 to what the Bible says, this is who it's all going to wrap up, 56:23 so you can get ready and stay ready. 56:27 I don't know about you, but I want to be ready, 56:29 raise your hand with me if you want to ready. 56:32 You want to say: "This world is not my home." 56:34 Let's pray together, Father in Heaven, this world 56:37 is not our home, we say that by faith, this world is passing 56:40 away and it's not just religious people that are saying it. 56:44 Father, the evidence is in, very few of us in this room 56:47 are hardcore scientists, and climatologists, 56:51 and astrophysicists, but we have eyes to see, 56:56 the world looks like it's going crazy Lord. 57:00 We turn on the TV and we know that life is not supposed 57:02 to be like this, we know that something is wrong. 57:05 Those of us who have young children are deadly afraid 57:08 of raising our kids up in this world, how do we even 57:11 teach them what's right and wrong. 57:12 Father, give us grace. 57:16 I want to pray for every person here, I pray that you'll be 57:20 with their homes, with their families, and help them 57:24 to be making decisions in their daily lives that indicate 57:27 that their real priorities are not in this world. 57:29 It doesn't mean that we can't have a little fun 57:31 every now and then, of course, You've said that You've come 57:34 that our life might be full of joy, and that we might 57:36 have life and have it more abundantly, but Father, 57:38 help us, as Peter said, and as Paul said, to be sober 57:42 and to be serious about the times in which we're living. 57:45 Father thank you for bringing us here tonight, 57:46 bring us back safely tomorrow night, and bind our hearts 57:51 together with Your heart, we ask in Jesus' name 57:53 let everyone say amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17