Transcription
Well, I'm really glad that you guys are here. This is going to be fun. And I want to encourage you because I deliberately have this heart behind teaching Bible prophecy, the biblical or what is known as esqueologgical doctrines of the Bible. And I'll get into the technical stuff. We'll put some things up on the screen here in a moment. But uh intentionally this is going to be a time for you on Wednesday nights, which is not the norm, but for you to invite your unsaved friends, co-workers.
Here's the reason why. Well, number one, that's a big hurdle. Because in the middle of the week, you're going to invite them to go to a church service. That's freaky. But for them to come and see and to hear that God's word is more advanced than anything that AI or a headline news can generate.
Amen.
And they need to appreciate that and it just might lead them to coming to the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's the effect it had upon my life. The first sermon, well, the first live sermon I ever heard. I remember my mom and dad watching at times Billy Graham crusades on TV. I remember seeing him a few times as I walked by in black and white. Uh, but the real one and only real sermon I ever heard in my life. And the first time I'd ever gone to church in my life was on June 20th, 1977. It was a Monday night. and Greg Lori was teaching out of the book of Revelation. And I went to I was invited to go to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa where Greg was teaching on Monday nights. And it was my first time in a church, first time hearing the Bible, first time seeing worship, first time seeing other people like this. And it the first time I was ever convicted of sin and the first time I ever heard about the hope of heaven and I was completely completely captured at that moment if that makes any sense. And so uh I come to you tonight in these this night and and the following nights that we'll have together uh in that spirit.
So would you write this down please if you're a notetaker? And I encourage all of you to do that. By the way, scan the QR code. This is going to be a great series for you to scan the QR code. Start a notebook. If you scan the QR code, you'll get all my notes and you'll be able to put them on your device. And some of you know what to do about that after you put it on the device. I don't, but some of you are very skilled at doing that. If even if you don't, scan it. You can print it out later and you can create and start coming on Wednesday nights. Bring a binder and start writing on it. Start writing in it. Make it a diary. make it a a lesson for yourselves. But uh this is what we are officially launching tonight uh titled the applied series applied. That's the entire theme of it all. And the theme verse is John 14:29 which is awesome. John 14:29. This sums up in my opinion everything. And now I have told you, Jesus said, before it comes, that when it does come to pass, notice what he's saying. I'm telling you something that's going to come. And when it comes to pass, those are two different things, folks. I'm telling you what's coming and I'm telling you it's going to come to pass. It's on its way and it's going to come. And he says, ' And when it does come to pass, you may believe. I love those last three words. You may believe. In fact, listen. You may come to believe. When you begin to understand that God's word is given to us in such a way as Jesus in one sentence makes it perfect, something has been told to you. And when it happens, your natural result will be to believe. What else will you do with it?
But believe?
And so we begin tonight with a message titled where we should begin. It's not a question. It's where we should begin is in the past. In the past, we're going to talk about the present and we'll talk about the future. But I want to put it to you this way. I wish I had the graphic. I would have put it up, but uh I I don't know how to do that. But if the words back to the future were ever really anything meaningful beyond a movie, it's what we're going to be studying. Back to the future. To understand Bible prophecy, you got to go back. And church, what do I mean by going back? Going back to the Old Testament. By going back to the Old Testament, it catapults you into the future, not only into the New Testament, but beyond. It's absolutely awesome to find out that we can really know God who knows the future, writes it down in advance so that you might be comforted.
And we're going to talk about that tonight because some people don't feel that way. So applied tonight of course is the introduction and number one is this. What is Bible prophecy anyway? What is it? And uh it's simply this. And you can read it again in my notes. Maybe the guys will have it on the screen. I don't know. But simply put, Bible prophecy is the discipline or science of esquetology. Esquetology is a big word folks. It simply means the words of the future. God's words concerning the future. I have deliberately used the word science because of the fact that the God of the Bible claims I'm being a little sarcastic. I'm joining ranks with our skeptics or our unbelievers. It's the God of the Bible who claims to know the future in advance. The God of the Bible said that he has given this insight, this knowledge to us through the scriptures by his prophets which he inspired or possessed. These uh this revelation begins by answering the argument, does God exist? This is important. See, I thought we're studying Bible prophecy. Oh, we are and we are going to. But I'm going to argue with you that the science of esquetology, which is the science, the study of future things, actually proves the existence of God. I am never going to let that challenge go unanswered when somebody says, "Oh, you a Christian?" "Yes, I am." "Well, I'm not because you can't prove the existence of God." I absolutely disagree with that. I just want you to know that. You might say, "You're delusional." Well, just leave me alone. I enjoy it. when God says, "Watch the future. THIS IS WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN." AND THEN IT HAPPENS 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 YEARS later or 200 years later. Should you not sit up and take notice that the one who just spoke to you spoke out of time and space into your world to give you a time stamp that he is God? I think that's a science. I think it's incredible and it's repeatable. remarkable biblical prophecy testifies to his existence and the reliability and dependability of his word. His word can be verified and validated. That is a statement of fact that we in our journey on Wednesday nights will prove. In other words, Bible prophecy proves the existence of God and that the result of such knowledge generates faith. Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." And how much more does Bible prophecy do that? We'll see how as we begin to take a look at this.
Number one, if you'd write this down, if you would. The first argument that we look at in the introduction is this. What is Bible prophecy? And we put this down. It's the evidence that God exists outside of our world. Why should we be interested in Bible prophecy? What's that all about? Why should we even care? And why now at a time in which you and I live that people are avoiding Bible prophecy? In fact, you know what? On this first point, let's let's pause right here and kind of get the pump a little bit primed. Okay, so I just said evidence that God exists outside of our world. Um, if we're going to prove that, that means that we're going to have to see the word of God work in our lives in such a way that he's going to answer our our questions or provide the answers uh to our questions in his word and in the world around us. So, I just asked our staff earlier today, I said, just grab me a handful of headlines. I I didn't tell them exactly. you just grab some headlines and throw them up. So, they're going to throw up some headlines. Let's and we'll just walk through them together. So, that is a beautiful headline. Wow, that's beautiful. So, what does that say? US military buildup in the Middle East grinds on update. So, right now, as of tonight, by the way, you and I know this that um Turkey, Syria, Iran uh is very unstable again. some bizarre things acting up right now. A lot of activity taking place. Um, you would say maybe generally speaking, if you don't know Bible prophecy, you would say that's always in the news. But wait a minute, we're going to learn in understanding Bible prophecy that the world around us, the headline news, from here on out, we're going to filter everything that we read and hear about through the biblical worldview lens of Bible prophecy. Number one, isn't it interesting that the number one nation spoken of in the Bible more than any other nation, hands down, is the nation of?
Israel.
And Israel is in the news. Next slide. Let's see where this is going. Israel on high alert as IDF prepares for an Iranian response. Um, the reason why this is going on is because, um, now watch, we're going to do it right now. According to the Bible, and we'll get deeper in weeks ahead. According to the Bible, Persia, which is Iran, is going to attack Israel someday with a coalition of neighboring nations in that area. That's Ezekiel 38. Many of you already know that. It hasn't happened yet. But what's interesting right now, I'm very interested in this for a lot of reasons, but more interested now than normal. For this reason, there's a there's a lot that's been going on on in Iran these last couple of weeks. Have you been watching, folks?
Tens of thousands of people are dead, many of them Christians because the Islamic regime in Iran seems to be crumbling. And it's uh it's pandemonium there right now. And some have speculated that even some of the religious leaders have fled the country. We don't know if that's a fact or not. So what do we care? We care because we want to know Bible prophecy. And Bible prophecy demands that we care. Why? Because Iran, otherwise known in the Bible as Persia, plays a big role in end time Bible prophecy. And and and maybe sooner than than you and I think. That said, what's going on? Could there be looking at this through a biblical worldview lens, just applying what we're going to be learning, how do I begin to understand possibly what I'm looking at? Iran, Persia is destabilized. It just got its nose cleaned couple of months ago. It's basically powerless. Then why is it threatening the Jewish world right now? Probably understanding this that the regime is going to change. Something's going to happen. Those religious Islamic leaders over that country. Folks, do you know that the majority population of Persians do not want their government? They don't want it. They have been held hostage by a handful of people that have controlled the country. That handful of people, it's breaking up. But what would the Bible, what does the Bible suggest could happen out of this? The hands that it falls into could be much worse hands. You say, "Oh, good. The bad regime's falling down and maybe the Christians will will rise up because it is Bible land after after all. Persia is in the Bible. Yes, it is very much so. It could lead, listen, it could lead to a tremendous move of salvation and evangelism for a moment, but but who's going to take the place? Who's going to take power? It could really set things up. That's looking at the world news through a biblical prophetic lens. Does that make sense?
Next slide. By the way, we're just going off of these. Just this is not rehearsed. So Netanyahu accepts invite uh to Trump's board of peace. Um, I don't know much about that except today Trump invited the pope onto the board of peace. For those of you who do know Bible prophecy, it's like, what?
The the the leader of the ancient Roman Empire has been invited to be on a board of peace for the Middle East. It's just a little wild there, folks. Why? You'll know more in the weeks ahead. But uh we know this that according to the Bible, the once ancient Roman Empire will rise again in power in the last days. And there will be 10 chief leaders that come out of that ancient Roman Empire. And they will be a uh a group that will bring a peace treaty through one particular individual. I'm I'm now going through the book of Revelation. I'm going through the book of Daniel chapter 9, Daniel chapter 2, Daniel 7, Daniel 8, uh Daniel 11. Wow. You could just go on where the Bible says that once Roman Empire will come back. Did you know the Roman Empire was never defeated?
Do all know that?
The Babylonian Empire, they were defeated by the Meoersian Empire. The Meo Persian Empire was defeated by the Grecian Empire. The Grecian Empire uh was defeated by the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire got so big that they just simply fragmented. No one ever conquered the Roman Empire. According to God in his Bible, we shall see in the weeks ahead, God has never taken the Roman Empire off the playing field. It's It's always been on there. Isn't that interesting to think? Said, "What are you talking about?" Bible prophecy. It's just been sitting there. Nobody's been paying attention to it. I don't know. When the news pops up, when when the pope is appointed to a board of peace, it just got to get your attention. That's all I'm saying. I don't know anything else about that. Next uh slide. Uh, Christian Zionism is a damage damaging ideology says statement from church heads. Um, okay. Well, that's their problem because uh, God is a Zionist.
But somebody told me, "Did you know that this person is calling you out publicly for being a Zionist?" And I said, "Right on." That was my answer. I said, "Right on." What does that mean? That means YOU BELIEVE THE BIBLE LIKE EVERY WORD.
Every word.
Every word. But where But where does that confidence come from? Knowing that God keeps his word.
Well, how do you know that? Bible prophecy.
Let's be honest. COME ON. BIBLE PROPHECY. BECAUSE WHAT? LISTEN. I could say to you, God keeps his word. This is how I know I have peace. Well, that's nice and I'm glad you do. You should have peace. But that's actually not how you know if he keeps his word because there will be days when you don't have that peace.
But what you can know for sure is God keeps his word. How do I know if he keeps his word? Because the the pro the prophecies he has made and those that he has fulfilled, he's kept his word, which gives us confidence that what he has said that hasn't yet happened, he will do.
It's exciting stuff. [applause] So I don't care about this slide. Uh, Greenland. Um, how would I look at Greenland? Um, I don't know. Looking at it as in a in a prophetic worldview lens, I'm going to file that in the category of uh wait and see. Wait and see. That's an interesting thing. What's going to become? Listen, hypothetically, again, all of this, I'm speaking to you like we're at a coffee table. This is the way it's going to be on these Wednesday nights. What is going on here? Well, number one, first of all, throughout uh Greenland's history, uh there's been a long relationship with Greenland and the United States. It goes way back and you may most of us are not aware of that but uh goes even back beyond Truman, President Truman. That said, um the reason why you may think Trump's just an absolute lunatic and he's just trying to get more real estate. Maybe he wants to build a a hotel where the ground is frozen like 25 ft down. Um, no. Actually, Russia and China are trying to take Greenland, and no one's talking. I don't know why nobody's talking about this. Trump is actually trying to block Russia and China from taking Greenland because they want the rare earth minerals. And it's a very, very serious national security issue. It's not even a political issue. It's a national security issue because did you know that 92% of the rare earth minerals that we need for our military comes from China. That's that hurts. That's like ouch. But that said, listen, someone's going to take Greenland. How do you know? Because technology has driven this idea. Everybody listen. I don't want you to be I don't want you to be a Fox Newser or a CNNer or MSL MSLSD. Forget about all the Forget about all the acronyms. Forget about all the channels. I want you to be a thinker. Just be a thinker. Greenland. Greenland. Greenland.
What's the big deal? Here's the big deal. One of three countries are going to seize Greenland.
They're going to take it soon. Why? Because technology demands that to be the case. Why? Because technology has to have energy.
Don't get me started on this electric thing. It's it's actually counterintuitive. It's funny because China makes all these things for uh electric green technology China and they sell it to the western world. But they themselves, they don't do any of it.
You want to know why? They knew exactly what they were doing.
They said, they said, "Hey, let's get all these idiot countries to go after this green leaf thing knowing that it's a dead end, and they'll spend hundreds of billions of trillions of dollars. They'll bankrupt themselves just so that they can uh talk about how green they are, and we will radically build up our military and get ready to take over the world." That's what China did. And they run on coal.
Yes, they do. As does India. As as does Russia. Coal.
Yeah. Listen, don't go to China to breathe fresh air. You ain't that ain't going to happen. But listen, you got to ask the 57,000 people who live on Greenland. Ask them. technology is going to demand that you be uh invaded. One out of the three countries are saying, "Let us buy you and we'll make each and every one of you, by the way, rich immediately." The offer is $100,000 to every individual. They make $10,000 a year.
That's what they make a year. $10,000 a year. Trump is saying, "We'll give each of you $100,000 a year, and then we we will employ you, and we're going to bring in Papa John's, AMC theater, McDonald's." No, I'm serious. We're going to teach you guys how to bowl. We're going to bring bowling alleys, and you guys can work in and and you're going to have you're going to go great. Or you can be taken over by China and Russia and be slaves to their worldview. I don't know what's going to happen, but God knows what's going to happen. Whatever does happen, God will see to it that it's part of his prophetic plan. Could it be that things like this lead to the destruction of the United States? Because the United States is nowhere found in the Bible. Rash, Mach, and Tubal is China is the kings of the east. But the United States, the greatest nation that's ever existed on earth, is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. Why? There's a prophetic answer to that which we do not yet know.
Um, okay. Next, next one. I don't want to take all my all our time up on this. European Union. Uh, uh, I don't even know what that means. Uh, free trade agreement. Okay. So, what next? Next one. Uh, of course, this kind of goes what we're talking a moment ago. Russia declares Starmer is uh preparing for World War II and chilling warning to NATO. Of course, that just proved my point. Putin's all upset because they want to control and uh he's Here's the thing. The guy's threatening World War II. He He can't a country that everybody thought that he would have destroyed Ukraine in five days. Yeah, this ain't going to happen unless he just goes nuts and start pressing buttons. Next, if we have any more, China launches largest military drills off Taiwan. Yeah, this is concerning. Uh, and this is part of the rare, believe it or not, this is related to rare earth mineral type stuff because if China seizes Taiwan, then we're uh pretty much toasted because that's where we build all of our semiconductors. Remember the time when you and when people were trying to get new cars and you couldn't because of all the COVID type stuff. Everything was bottled up in Taiwan. If China takes Taiwan, that's going to be a big deal. By the way, you say, "Well, how does that work to [clears throat] work regarding Bible prophecy? Jesus said in the last days there will be wars and rumors of wars." That means nothing's off the table.
Um, do we have any more or is that enough for now?
Oh, wow. So, Warren Buffett compares AI to nuclear weapons. I do too, by the way. I I agree with that statement. The genie is out. He warns. AI is terrifying. I'm not talking about AI ripping your bank account off, but have you noticed in your own device how many weird things you're getting right now? Are you are you being told by your your bank or somebody? Do not open anything that you are not sure of. Don't even open it. You know what we've been told this? This is what we have to practice in our home right now. We have to break some habits. You know what? We have a habit that when our phone rings at home, we answer and say hello. We don't do that anymore. We've been advised not to do that anymore because AI will take your voice. And what you don't ever want to do is get a phone call from somebody that you don't know who it is and somebody says something like this. Hey, yeah, we're just calling to see um uh do you live on so and so street? If you say yes, that's all they needed from you. If if they say, "Is this Susie Johnson?" and you say, "Yes, it is." They got they got you. They got your voice. And then AI processes your voice. And how many times has your bank said, "Would you like to access your account by voice automation?"
Exactly.
Don't do it. Say, "What does it have to do with anything?" AI. The book of Revelation, and we'll get to it in the future of our Wednesday nights, the book of Revelation tells us that there's a day coming when there'll be a statue made. A statue. We love statues. Humans love statues. The only thing about this statue, it's an image, but this image has technology built into it. The Bible says in Revelation chapter 13 that this image that is assembled by man has the ability to look at a crowd and be able to dis determine if you have a particular mark on you. So it must have incredible optics, right? And by the way, what number is it looking for?
Yeah, it says it's looking for number 666. I believe that's I believe that it's speaking about a prefix. It's looking for a prefix. You know how like you have a social security number or like how about a phone number? You have a prefix to your phone number. 909 805 whatever it is, I don't know, 714. And then your number. The Bible says, listen, anybody who's new to this, the Bible says in the future there's going to be an image and it's going to be able to discern or to detect by some sort of optic reading type system, facial recognition. I don't know what, but it's going to be able to determine who's got the number. And if you don't have the number, you're called out. It's going to somehow call you out. It's an image. But the Bible says that the the false prophet, the false religious leader will give it power as though it can breathe and speak. This is my this next statement is my opinion. I believe that AI, Revelation 13, of an image created by man and then somehow takes on a personality and it's able to speak and it looks like it breathes. Do you know what I think? That's my opinion. I think it's going to be demonpossessed.
Why? Paul the Apostle warned the Corinthians, "When you pray or when you bow down to a statue, do you not know that you are bowing down to a demon that inhabits that statue?" Don't you think it would be advantageous to Satan in the last days to start inhabiting AI things? Do we not already have AI traps that kids are being exposed to whereby they are killing [snorts] their pets in their home because that thing told them to and even killing themselves because that thing told them to. It convinced them that if they took their own life, it would be they and it would be one. happen in America, happening in California, could be happening with your youth. We're going to be TALKING ABOUT DEMONIC activity from the Bible because Jesus said in the last days there'll be deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. And if you think that's cute and funny, they've already got you halfway there. It's real.
If you say, "Ah, that's just that's just crazy voodoo nonsense." They already got you halfway duped. Satan's big goal is to get you to believe he doesn't exist.
So, back to evidence that God exists outside of our world. Isaiah 46:9. We're going to go fast now. Isaiah 46:9. Listen to this, everybody. God is speaking. 2750 years ago, God said, "Remember the former things of old. LOOK BACK TO THE PAST. For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me." We would say, "What makes you so unique?" There's a lot of gods. He answers verse 10, "Declaring the end from the beginning."
Amen.
Did you all hear that? I don't know why I'm saying y'all, but it's just it's convenient.
God says, "I'm going to tell you about the past ahead of time, the future, from the past to the future. I will speak of it, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Please, please take a picture of that. Scan the the verse, whatever it takes. That is awesome. No cult can boast this. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. Listen. No religion can boast this. This is huge. That's why false prophets in the Old Testament, what what did you do? Did you take a false prophet out to lunch?
in the Old Testament? What did you do?
You stoned them to death. Did you know that? That's a little harsh. Not at all. You want to know why? A false prophet deceived people spiritually and led their soul into an everlasting Christless eternity because of their false prophecies. And God says, listen now, as Christians, we don't we're not supposed to go out and stone false prophets. There'd be dead people all over the place. God's going to deal with them. We don't do that in the New Testament. He'll take care of it when he comes back. The point is Jesus said false prophets are going to increase in the last days. Listen to this. Evidence that God pre-existed before our world. What is what is Bible prophecy? It is the evidence that God pre-existed before our world. You say, "Well, that's a no-brainer." But it's important. It's fundamental. The God of Christianity, the God of the Bible, pre-existed before time. Look at this verse. Isaiah 45:21, starting there. Tell and bring forth your case. Yes. Let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? You hear God challenging man? I love it. Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides me. A just God and a Savior. There is none besides me. Oo, that means there's only one savior, folks.
Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other church family. I find it fascinating right here. And if there's if there's any uh seminary students in here right now or watching, you ought to get excited about this and take this back to your professor and impress them. In these two verses from the prophet Isaiah is not only esquetology but sotiology meaning this esquetology God speaking about the future saying I know all about it and I'm God there's no other savior. I provide salvation. YOU CAN ALMOST HEAR THE MIC DROP. I'M THE PROPHETIC GOD AND I'M ON THE GOD WHO SAVES. BOOM.
NO OTHER GOD LIKE THIS. [applause] LISTEN, with all DUE RESPECT, THE BUDDHISTS DON'T HAVE A GOD like this. The Hindus don't have a god like this. The Muslims don't have a god like this. And until Judaism wakes up in their Jewish scriptures, they don't have a god like this until they wake up. THEY'VE GOT TO WAKE UP TO THIS IS WHO HE IS. HE IS THE prophetic savior.
Oh, it brings me great comfort. Listen to this. John chapter 17, Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that listen, your son also may glorify you, as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Here it comes. I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you gave me to do. And now, oh father, glorify me together. Here it comes. With yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world
was.
Wow. This builds confidence. This is our God. Prophetic God. The God who saves. The God who pre-existed. And listen, evidence that our faith is founded upon facts. I love this. Are you a bibleelving follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? And do you understand God's word and his promise? You're not wishful thinking some sort of religious experience. It's based on fact. Listen, when when God says, "I'm going to do this or that." And then he does what he says, that is him announcing to us that he's the God of facts. He doesn't he doesn't tell stories. He'll give you a parable to enlighten a fact. Isaiah chapter 55. We all appreciate this. We all love verse 11, but I wanted to throw more of the context into it. Isaiah 55, you guys okay?
Yes.
Isaiah 55:8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts. I'm so glad. Nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and uh do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the swer and bread to the eater. Here it is verse 11. So shall my word just like that stuff just like this. my word that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing which I sent it. God's awesome, powerful word.
Folks, the second thing is this. Why is Bible prophecy important? What's the big deal? Do I really need to know this? Again, I said it in the opening. Would you go to a church if that ministry told you, "Welcome to our church. We teach 75% of the Bible." Wouldn't that concern you? I I can't even imagine hearing such a thing. And yet, that's exactly what's happening in America today. Christians are starving and they don't know why. It's kind of like going to the doctor. You You think you're fine. And you go to the doctor and then he re he shows you, man, you know what? You're in trouble. You're anemic. And you don't even realize it. You want to know why? Because you grew tired after day for so long that you realized what? Wait, what? I mean, what? Yeah. You were starved of nutrients for so long, so slightly that you eventually had to get slapped in the face, so to speak, by your doctor to tell you, "Dude, your blood, you're in trouble. You need to eat something." Christians that don't know Bible prophecy are like that. They'll get sucked away. They're anemic. They can't fight back. Their immune system is compromised. immune system meaning this. When somebody says something dumb, they don't know what to do with it. They just like, "Huh? Well, that's that's something." THEY CAN'T FIGHT. THEY DON'T KNOW. And we look at you and we're wondering, "Why don't you what are you crazy?" And they, "No, I'm fine. You're anemic. You're anemic. You can't decipher the truth from the from the false because you've grown sickly. And Bible prophecy, isn't it amazing that two of the most Now, you know this, God doesn't have favorites. He says, so he's not God says, "I'm I'm I I'm not partial like you guys are." You know, we have our favorites. The cool thing about grandkids, you know what? I have grandkids. They're all my favorites.
It's kind of cute because you play with them. You say, you say to the one, you know, you're my favorite. [clears throat]
It's true, but what you don't explain to them because they can't they can't understand it yet. They they you are my favorite because you're the only one like you. If you're a grandparent, you've been struggling for the answer. I'm giving it to you right now. that granddaughter, that grandson, when you tell them privately, you know, you're my favorite, it's 100% true because they're the only one like that. They're so preciously unique, just like you are, by the way. Okay. Now, in that, God doesn't have favorites. But isn't it interesting that there are two biblical characters, I'll say personalities that God just doubly blessed and spoke of them uh in glowing terms. One is the man Daniel and the other one is the man John, the author of the book of Revelation. Isn't that interesting? Now, God never says anything negative about Joseph. That's that's true, too. But I'm talking about prophecy. Daniel and John are the prophetic hall of faith contributors to the Bible.
Remarkable. By the way, isn't it amazing? You can never understand the book of Revelation unless you study the book of Daniel.
It's so cool. God's signature, right? So, why is Bible prophecy important? This is kind of fun. I need to hurry up because this is cool. This next part's very, very cool. Write write this down. Revelation chapter 1 verse 19. This is this gonna this is going to freak you out. Revelation 1 verse 19. What does it say? God tells John in the book of Revelation, "Write the things which you have seen." That's number one. And the things which are, that's number two. And the things which will take place after this. That's number three. Are you ready? I want you to write that down. Write this down in your notes. That is the outline for the entire book of Revelation. God gives, it's the only book in the Bible that God gives the entire outline for the entire book in one verse. What does that look like? I knew that you would ask because first of all, because he has left us a record. Note this. He says, "Write the things." You should circle the word things. Things being what the reader or the hearer is about to learn. What am I about to learn? Write down the things. Circle things. Keep reading. Which you have seen. Seen is past tense. Things seen. John, what have you seen? John, write John, write this down. What have you seen? Well, we're in verse 9. Lord, that's right. What have you seen? And what John has seen is chapter one. the glory of Christ, the revelation of Jesus, the announcement made that the Lord has signified that I'm giving this revelation, the last book of the Bible that covers the last days events. I have spoken it through my servant. I have given it to glorify my son and John. I want you to write the things which you have seen. Chapter 1. And which you have or things that which are and the things which are which is the present age. So watch the things that you have seen. That's the past. The present age. Look it. The things that are. John, what do you see? This is what you've seen. Yes. That's chapter one. What have I just shown you? Where are you standing, John? This is fine. Write it down. Don't forget. I mean, I'm telling you, this will bless you. John is standing. John is standing in chapters 2 and three of the book of Revelation. He's standing in those two chapters. He writes them down. This is what I'm seeing. And the things which will take place. Mark this down. That's Revelation chapter 4 all the way to the end of the book. You got that everybody? Did you write that down?
The what chapter is this one? The things which you have seen
one. The things that you see now, John, what is that? Chapters
two and three. And the things which shall be
to the end. 4 to 22. Absolutely awesome. And with the time remaining, I'm going to jump to this and we'll come back next week and and look at this some more because it will really really be fun. So, um I'm going to ask you guys to get your cameras out. I guess there's another way to do it. Um, you guys want to put put up uh put up bucket number one or bucket what bucket? Bucket red the past. I want you to now
[sighs]
I'm hesitating because I made this up because this is how my brain works. Now, I know this is risky, but please hear me out. What I'm going to show you has been a massive key benefit for me in understanding a prophetic verse or chapter or prophetic book of the Bible. Where do I get this from? God gave it to John. I'm just stealing it from John. Number one, the things of the past. When I read from Genesis to Revelation, I if I come to what is a a verse that may be prophetic in nature or what is known as esquetology, where do I place it? Do I place it in the things that have passed or next slide, the things that are present? Is that supposed to be a yellow? What color is that?
Anybody?
Orange. Okay.
Or does it go in the pre present? We're going to go back and forth real quick. But what I'm reading right now in say Joel chapter 3 and I'm reading it. Oh, this is Bible prophecy. I recognize that. BUT WHERE'S WHERE DO I PLACE IT? Past, in the present, or in the future? I have to I I have to I I find a place for it. HERE'S WHAT'S FUN ABOUT THIS. Imagine writing down, for example, Joel 3:1 and you tear it out piece of paper and you place it in the the present bucket because it might say something like this. It might say something like, "I will gather my people from all the nations of the earth and bring them back into their land." God's speaking about Israel. No, wait a minute. This is tricky. This is fun. This is like almost like a game. He said he's going to do that, BUT I CAN TURN ON MY news or I can go to Israel and I can eat figs and hummus AND I CAN BUY IT FROM A A JEWISH restaurant that's in Jerusalem, a nation that's been brought back after 2,000 years, MAY 14TH, 1948. WHERE DO I PLACE THAT? WHERE DO I PLACE THAT DATA? WELL, I'M GONNA DROP IT IN the present. I might come along two weeks later or two years later and say, "Wait a minute." With more revelation, I'm I'm taking this out of the present and I'm going to be putting it in my first bucket, the past. That's been all fulfilled. Are you hearing me, folks? This will absolutely make your Bible study thrilling as you begin to fill your bucket. My goal is for all of you to have your buckets full of verses,
chapters, because as you continue on, things will begin to sip through and make much more sense. There's a third one. What's the third one? Blue bucket. The future. The future. For example, I mentioned tonight, some of you have never heard this before, that the Bible says that Persia will invade Israel in the last days. Russia will be with them and several other nations excluding Russia. All of the other nations, I think five of them are all Islamic at current time and they're going to seek to destroy Israel. That's not happened yet. So when I read, for example, Ezekiel 38, there's portions of it where God says, "I'm going to bring my people back." Well, he's been doing that. But when it says that the battle will take place and this is how it's going to happen. The invading armies, God said, "I'm going to destroy them on the mountains of Israel," that hasn't happened yet. I take that passage and I put it in the future, the future bucket. Do you see that? If you open up, and we don't have the time to do it now, but if you opened up one chapter, let's say Revelation 11, and you started to read it with your three buckets, you begin to populate those buckets verse after verse after verse, and you will begin to formulate an understanding of Bible prophecy that does what Bible prophecy was intended to do. That is what our dear brother who is now in heaven, Dr. Ed Heinson, used to always say, "God gave us Bible prophecy to prepare us, not to scare us."
Isn't that beautiful?
Because when you, and this is where I'm going to step on some toes in closing, but I hope I really I I hope I don't step on your toe. I hope I crush it for this reason. I love you and I want you to know this hope. The reason why Bible prophecy is such a blessing and God says in the book of Revelation, I will bless anyone who reads this book or hears this book being read.
It's the only book in the Bible that has a built-in blessing. God wants his people to be unmoved by the headlines of the news because listen, we are privileged. I pastor, don't say the word privileged. We're not supposed to say privileged. We are so privileged that God, the Holy Spirit, has given us a hunger for the Bible to understand it. that God wants to give us the answers to things that trouble you.
Amen.
And when you look at the world, oh my gosh, if you don't get rooted and grounded and understanding through a biblical worldview, prophetic worldview lens of the news that's around you, if you don't get that down, you're going to turn into a crazy [snorts] lunatic that's out on the streets in Minnesota crying. Poor fangs. They're very sincere. You know, come on. You can't doubt their sincerity. But what happened? Where what where'd they go? They lost hope or their hope is in the wrong thing.
That breaks my heart. I'm not kidding. You know, you see people and they're just screaming and yelling and all this stuff.
Here's the sad part. You You want to walk up to them and say, "Could can we sit down for a minute? I want to just kind of walk you through some Bible verses. Wouldn't it be awesome if they said, "Yeah, sure. I don't have anything against the Bible. I mean, I don't believe in it, but sure, you can talk to me." And then you start to show them stuff and they would say, "I didn't know that. Wouldn't that be great?
I didn't know that. Did you know that God loves you? He says he loves you. I've never heard that before. It's read it. It's right here." Sadly, when you talk to somebody and you say to them, "Hey, can I talk to you about what God says about what what in the world is going on here?" and they start screaming and foaming at the mouth and going into a rage.
You have now encountered someone who is gone. Something else is in control. And you would say, "What gives you the right to say that?" I don't have any rights to say such a thing. I'm just telling you what the Bible teaches that there's people who the scripture says God has tried to reach them over and over and over again and they shut the door until the Bible says God says I turn them over to their reprobate mind. I have washed my hands of them. They're gone. That means church right now. Right now, there are people living in this world, in this city, in this state, in this community that God has washed his hands of them. Isn't that a sad thought? Because they wouldn't turn to him. Don't let that be you.
Amen.
Do not let that be you. Don't resist him. Now, I know coming on a Wednesday night is a huge commitment, especially those of you who are coming from South County. I mean, it's nuts. Yeah, you you had to leave yesterday to get here, and it's not even far away. The the traffic's terrible. But I'm going to encourage you to make sacrifice, to gather, to come I think God will bless us. I I believe God will bless you.
Amen.
There's just something special about it. And we're going to have I wanted to do it tonight, but I went too long on things. We will uh have the opportunity for you to ask questions in this Wednesday night series. Right in the service, right in the right in right in it. And I look forward to that. I want to be around the coffee table with you as much as possible. Father, we come and we thank you, Lord. And I it might be appropriate that I only got to page four of the notes uh because the topic is Bible prophecy. So rich. It's no uh coincidence that the Bible says that Jesus Christ himself is the spirit of prophecy. Wow. Revelation 19:10 declares, "Lord, we pray tonight that those that are here, those that are watching, those that are listening, wherever they may be right now, by the time this message reaches them, that they would stop and take inventory about where they are with you." A lot of people have gotten caught up in the rhetoric of and noise of the modern day prophet. There's more prophets right now than probably ever. I think we call them broadcasters now and podcasters and um influencers and pastors and priests and evangelists and the list goes on. A lot of words, a lot of talk, a lot of flash, a lot of bang, but we're here to pursue your truth. And I pray we pray together as a family that if there's a man or a woman or a boy or a girl whose hearts are being stirred to know you more. I pray, Father, that you would open up their eyes that they would see Jesus. We pray, Lord, right now, rumor has it, I don't know if it's true or not, but supposedly throughout the Middle East, there are Muslims seeing Jesus in visions and in dreams. I hope that's true. I hope it's the biblical Jesus. I hope it's you, Lord, the right Jesus. But we live in amazing days and we need hope. We need an infusion of hope. All of us are waited down. Every single one of us are weighted down with things. Friends, we have to be careful that we don't let those weights keep us down. give it to Jesus. So Lord, as we worship you now in closing, may you be blessed with our song of love and expression to you. Thank you for your word in Jesus name. And all God's people said, "Amen.