← Victory Church: Paul Daugherty
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Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back soon. I can feel it in my bones. The day is coming close to the world and they gotta know Jesus is coming back soon. He's coming back soon.
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Come on. He's coming back soon. If you got a Bible, go to Matthew 24. Jesus is coming back soon. How many y' all can feel it? You know, I like, as a kid, I always anticipated Jesus coming back, maybe because I was a pastor's kid and my dad preached on end times. Like, every six months, he'd preach on end times. And how many all grew up in church hearing about the end times and the Rapture and all of it? How many all grew up with, like, watching the movies left behind, reading the books? Okay, so my dad, he wasn't really a movie guy, but he loved end times movies. And so for our family movie nights, oftentimes if it was his choice, he was gonna pick, like, Mark of the Beast, the Omega Code, Left Behind, Revelation, Tribulation. There was a whole genre of end times movies in the 90s. How many all Ever watched some of those movies from the 90s, 80s, early 2000s? And I'm talking, like, the old left behind movies. I'm not talking about Nicolas Cage Left behind or Kirk Cameron. I'm talking about, like, back in the 90s, there were some movies and y', all, it would stir up all kinds of emotions. And so today I want to just, first off, say as we go into this series, you do not have to be afraid. You do not. You do not have to live in anxiety or panic. God has not given us a spirit of fear. So if you are feeling afraid today, we're going to address it, we're going to deal with it. But I also want to just prepare our hearts. Today is an introduction to this series. We're going to continue for the next five to six weeks on several different topics. Jesus had a lot to say about the end times. And then not only does he say a lot in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but then he gives us an entire book about the end times. In the book of Revelation and then even in the Old Testament, you have prophets like Daniel, who spoke about end times and literally described things we're seeing in the last, even in the last week, things that we're seeing. And so today is just the beginning of it. I want to title the message, how does it end? How does this end? If you're taking notes, note takers are history makers, world changers, culture shapers. How does this end? And when I was younger, that Was the question I asked every time I was watching a movie is, how does this end? If I was reading a book, I was tempted to skip to the last chapter to find out, how is this story going to end? Is my favorite character going to get killed off? Right. Is something bad going to happen to the people that I love in this movie, in this story? I got very invested in the movies and the stories I watched. And I was always asking that question, how does this end? And, you know, the disciples asked that same question in Matthew 24, verse 1. As Jesus is walking away from the temple and he's going on his way, his disciples come up to him and they call his attention to the magnificent and massive buildings of the Temple. Now, your translation may say something different than this. This is the amplified version. But the disciples, they were impressed with what Herod had built in his lifetime and what the Romans had built and what the Jewish people had built. And there was all kinds of magnificent architecture. The temple complex was incredible. And the disciples thought Jesus would be impressed, too. But watch what Jesus says in the next verse. He says in verse two, do you see all of these buildings? Do you see all of this architecture? Do you see all these magnificent things that man has built? I assure you and most solemnly say to you, not one stone here will be left on another which will not be torn down. What was Jesus saying? He was prophesying, this is all going to be destroyed. Everything made by man is going to eventually come to nothing. In fact, this prophecy was fulfilled in 70 A.D. like, literally 35 years after Jesus prophesied this. He prophesied it 33. So 37 years later, this all happens. A Roman governor named Titus comes into Jerusalem, takes over, literally. A man named Josephus writes about this, and he says almost a million Jews were killed during this time. The temple was destroyed. Everything came, like, burned to the ground. And the disciples knew this was coming. Jesus said, this is going to happen. It's eventually everything you're impressed by here in Jerusalem. And Jesus would leave that temple and never come back to it again. Again. Jesus left that temple that day, and that was. This was Holy Week. So he's in Jerusalem. He just finished preaching a great sermon about the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, the Pharisees. And he had. If you read Matthew 23, he calls out these religious leaders, he says, listen, they burden you with so many rules that they themselves don't even fully follow. And Jesus said, woe to these scribes and Pharisees. Woe to people who put Their trust in man made rules and laws. Jesus wasn't trying to abolish the law. He came to fulfill the law. He came to fulfill what the prophets had said. And he said, this temple, everything you're impressed with these buildings, it's about to be destroyed. It's about to come to nothing. Don't put your trust in what man has built. Put your trust in what God has said. And so then the disciples asked this question. Go to the next verse, verse three, they said. While Jesus is seated on the Mount of Olives, the disciples come to him privately. They said, timothy, tell us when. Everybody say when. So they're asking these questions, when will the end times be? When is the destruction of the temple? And not only when, but what. In other words, what are we supposed to expect? What are the signs of the end times? What and how will this all. What's going to happen to us? What's going to happen to you? What's going to happen to the church? What's going to happen? When is this Antichrist coming? How's it all going to play out? And Jesus answers this question. The longest response to any question in the Bible that Jesus answers is right here for the next two chapters. He talks about end times. He gives several different teachings that we're going to outline during this series. And it's not all about the Antichrist or the seven years of tribulation, or the mark of the beast, or 666 on the forehead. It's not all about that. A lot of it has to do with nothing. How are the end times going to play out? But how are you going to live your life in light of the end times? See, we're so focused on the when and the where and the what and how it's all going to happen and what this one world order is going to look like. And we see, you know, everything in the world going on. The wars and the rumors of wars. And even in the last three days, a ceasefire, an ending of the war between Israel and Hamas. Can we thank God that there is coming an end to the war? Hostages are going to be released this week. We're praying in Jesus name. No more innocent lives would be killed in Israel. And I'm praying for revival in Israel, that Jewish and Arab people would come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that our brothers and sisters across the world would put their faith in Jesus Christ. This is an hour that God is waking up the church. And as we're seeing all of this play out, even in the last week, someone sent me A video of, like, just the rise of AI and the rise of cryptocurrency and the rise of like, no one's using cash dollars that much anymore. People are all. And this preparation for the world to all use one currency and for the world to prepare for this, it's all preparing for what Jesus predicted 2,000 years ago. Every prophecy in the Bible literally is going to be fulfilled. Not one word from God will fall to the ground. You know, there's 2,500 prophecies in the Bible and 2,000 of them have already been fulfilled. We got 500 left to go. And they are going to be fulfilled rapidly as we begin to see things unfold. And you go, well, I just don't know if it's going to happen in our lifetime. Paul, like the early church thought it was going to happen in their lifetime. I would rather live with the anticipation Jesus is coming back, then live as if he's not coming back. Well, you know, I don't know if we want to live with that anticipation. Living with that anticipation leads to a more fruitful life. See, I'm looking at a clock on this TV screen and it's counting down. And no matter what I do, no matter what I say, that clock keeps counting down. And as I'm watching that clock count down, it causes me to focus in, lock in. I can't waste a second on this stage because I have a timer. And the more I am focused on the timer and all of us will face death. News flash, all of us one day will end. We are not immortal. Our bodies will go into the grave. You will die. You're like, man, thanks. I came to church to hear that I'm gonna die. Yep. But you know what? That also should stir us to live a more fruitful life, a more focused life. And when I'm not living, like Jesus might come back in my lifetime, I start living lazy. I start living lukewarm. I start living complacent. I start not caring about my actions and my words and my thoughts because I'm like, well, it's not happening. But when I lean into this thought, Jesus is coming back soon. It changes the way I live. How you approach end times really has a huge effect on how you live your life. That's a good thing to write down. How you approach end times has a lot to do with how you're going to live the rest of your life. And I think there's three approaches to the end times. I think there's three different approaches to Bible prophecy, eschatology which, the word eschatology just means the study of end times in the Bible. Eschatology, Bible prophecy, all of these things we're going to be talking about. There's three different approaches going into this, and I think the first approach is fear. I'm gonna give you three approaches that I personally have lived out and walked through. This one crippled me. Fear paralyzes you. Fear can own you, control you. And fear can stir up a lot of selfishness. Fear can start to stir up a lot of. Like I told you guys, I used to watch those movies like Left Behind, Mark of the Beast, Omega Code. And it stirred up a lot of fear to the point where I'd be outside and if there was thunder in the clouds, I'd fall to my knees and go, oh, God, please don't do the Rapture yet. And I thought I could stop it, but I'd be mowing the lawn, there would be like sounds of thunder. And I thought Jesus was coming back. I was paranoid. And it wasn't that my parents were trying to stir up fear. They weren't. They wanted me to be ready. And so we were watching a lot of Revelation movies and Left behind movies and the End Times movies, and it stirred up this feeling. I remember one time coming home and I saw clothes on the floor. And I go, it happened. Mom went on the Rapture. Dad went on the Rapture. I was really surprised. My brother John went on the Rapture. I'm just kidding. I love you, John. I was like, surely I'm gonna go before John. No, I'm kidding. He's more holy than me. Okay. But back then, back then, I was like, see, fear can stir up even self righteousness. You're like, I'm better than these guys. I'm gonna make it. They're not like, one's gonna be walking, one will be left behind, one will be here. I remember walking through the house and I fell to my knees. I started strategizing what I was gonna do in the last days. Cause I was like, I got seven years during the Antichrist, and. And we'll get into this in a few weeks. You're like, what's he talking about? Seven years? All right? But I start strategizing. And then all of a sudden, my mom walks around the hallway. She's like, what are you doing on the floor? I was like, you're here. She's like, where'd you think I went? I was like, is dad here? She was like, yeah. And I said, is Sarah, Ruthie and John here? She was like, yes. So I said the Rapture didn't happen. She was like, no. I was like, praise God. I thought I missed it. Fear can lead to a constant paranoia of. Of missing it. And fear also leads to this sense of I have to get saved every week, that my salvation is, like, constantly leaving every week I have to get saved again. I remember on December 31, 1999, our youth group went to. We were on a field trip right before Y2K. How many all remember Y2K? Anyone that was born before, like, you know what I'm talking about. Y2K. It means year 2000. But Y2K was a big deal. And my dad was doing an end time series leading up to Y2K, and he didn't say, listen. The Bible says in Matthew 24, verse 36, no one knows the day or the hour, although we've had so many predictions about the day. Two weeks ago, people said Jesus was coming back. I didn't even know this trend. How many all heard the trend, that two weeks ago he was coming back. And, you know, like, people were like, man, it's going to happen on that specific day in September. And here we are. It didn't happen. No one knows the day or the hour. Jesus said, no one knows the day or the hour. Not even the angels in heaven. Not even Jesus himself. Only the Father knows. If anyone ever tries to put a date on you saying it's happened on this date, just remind them. Matthew 24, verse 36. No one knows. All right? But I remember Y2K was coming. Everybody thought it was gonna happen on January 1st, year 2000. And my dad was telling us, you know, he was like, look, computers are going to crash. Internet's going to shut down. Airplanes might fall out of the sky. And I was like, oh, my goodness. I remember just being so afraid. And I also was praying that before the Rapture, I would get to be married and have children. And I was like, that's not going to happen because I was 14. So I thought, at least let me have a girlfriend. At least let me hold hands with a girl. Y', all, can we just laugh for a second? The end times fear stirred up a lot of ridiculous, like, wishes and desires for kids and teenagers, I think maybe even adults. I don't know. I wasn't an adult back then, but I was a teenager. And that night our youth group went to go see the Prince of Egypt at the AMC movie theaters, 41st and Yale. We drive up there, we're on a bus, big bus. Our youth Group gets out. I see Ashley McAuliffe back then. And I was like, I'm gonna sit by Ashley. And tonight, before the Rapture, I am holding her hand, y'.
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All.
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I had my Dr. Pepper popcorn. Prince of Egypt is going. Whitney Houston is singing There can be miracles when you believe. And I was like, this is it. The Red Sea is parting. I'm gonna put my hand here. And my hand was. My skin was touching her skin, and I was getting close to her hand, and she moves her arm away. She did not let me hold her hand. And I was like, oh, please don't let the rapture happen tonight. We got on the bus, it's 11:58. My youth pastor comes on the bus. He says, listen, guys, we got two minutes till midnight, two minutes till Y2K. If there's anything you need to repent of right now. Before the rapture, this was my childhood. This was my youth group growing up. How many of you all grew up with a little bit of this? You know what I'm talking about? 15 of us in the room. Okay? The rest of y', all, welcome to Victory. Here we go. So I get on that dirty bus. I genuinely did. And I want to say something about this. There is a sincerity that can be birthed even from a place of fear. There is a sincerity, there's a genuineness. And I genuinely got on that dirty floor and I did. I cried, I said, God, I repeated, repent for any lustful thought. I used to think holding hands with a girl was lustful. And I was like, I repent for wanting to hold hands with Ashley. You don't need to repent for that. It wasn't bad, but I was just. There was an innocence in me and probably just a prudence in me that was wanting to repent of any sin. So I didn't miss the rapture. And then midnight struck, and here we are, 25 years later, we're still here. I say this to say, fear can lead to some crazy thoughts and even some crazy imaginations and some selfish and self righteous feelings and thoughts, thinking that somehow you earn your salvation or that anytime you do something slightly wrong, you lose your salvation. And it can put you on a roller coaster of wondering where you stand with God. And if he's like, writing your name in the book of life, and then on Monday, he's erasing your name from the book of life, and then next week on Sunday, he's writing your name back in the book of life, and then on Friday night, he's erasing your Name from the book of life. And then the next Sunday he's writing your name like it can lead to some very bipolar thoughts about God's love. So John, the disciple who followed Jesus, he wrote about this. He wrote about this very approach to end times. In First John, chapter 4, verse 15, he says, Whoever confesses this is the beginning. Whoever confesses and acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. This is what my Bible looks like. I just underline everything. I'm a big underline who loves just to underline scriptures. You know what I'm talking about. Circle stuff, right stuff. And I love this scripture right here because this settles it. If I confess Jesus is the Son of God and I acknowledge he is my Savior and Jesus lives in me and that settles the question. If he lives in me, then the devil doesn't have me, the devil can't take me. God's got me and he's not leaving me. Jesus doesn't come in one day and leave the next day. So then John goes go to the next verse. In verse 16, he says the next verse he says, we have come to know by personal observation. This is John the disciple. He called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved, the beloved disciple. He had this like revelation. I am loved by God. And because I am loved by God, he lives in me and he's got me and I'm protected and I'm delivered from this spirit of fear. And he says, I've come to my own personal experience. You can't write off your parents faith. You can't live off your pastor's salvation. You got to have a personal revelation that God loves you. Somebody say he loves me? He does. He doesn't just love good people or perfect people or people that preach or people on the same. God loves everybody from the back row to the front row. And he loves us all the same. He doesn't love one person more than he loves another person. He loves you. And he loves the friends of ours in China and the friends of ours in Russia and Ukraine and Israel. He loves the whole world. And John said, I've seen this, I've experienced it and I believe it. And it's produced a deep, consistent faith in me. Consistent. In other words, I'm stable. I'm not inconsistent. I'm not on a roller coaster questioning my salvation, wondering if I'm going to be left behind every week. And it's the love, not the love of man, but the love that God has for us. Everybody say God's love. God's love is so much better than man's love. Men and women, our love. It's. It's oftentimes inconsistent. People can love you one week and hate you the next week. People can praise you one week and shout, crucify you in five days. People's love is not consistent, but God's love is. And John says, I've found consistency. I've found a stable ground. It's God's love for me, not my love for God. For God is love. That's literally who he is. He's love. If you could call. I mean, God is holy, but God is love. And the one who abides in his love abides in him. And God abides continually in him. It's this back. It's like, I love God because he loves me. It's not my love for God that saves me, it's God's love for me. My faith in him will. We are saved by grace. That's a free gift. You can't earn it, you can't purchase it, you can't be a good enough person. And anything else we put our faith in is shaky, y'.
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All.
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We went to the fair last week and on Sunday, the last day of the fair, and my son Liam, he really wanted to ride this one roller coaster. And like, I did not want to ride these roller coasters, but we got on this roller coaster. Where's that picture? There it is, right there. So this is Liam. Look how happy he looks throwing up the I love you signs. Those aren't Satan signs, by the way. I love you sign language. She knows what I'm talking about. Look at me. Look at this guy right here. And look at this. Pray, pray. Can I tell you why I was praying? I kept my eyes closed the entire roller coaster. I was freaking out. I was so scared. I don't know why. I'm a 40 year old man.
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I'm a man.
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I'm 40. I was so scared. You know why I was so scared? It wasn't necessarily the roller coaster. It was the fair dudes that put the roller coaster together. The dude at the bottom had a Budweiser shirt, smoking pot, drinking a beer. And I asked him, before I get on the roller coaster, I go, is this thing stable? He goes, I wouldn't trust it. I go, liam, we are not getting on this nuh in Jesus name. I rebuke this fair ride right now. And Liam goes, dad, please, I've been begging you to do this ride. And y', all, I succumbed to the peer pressure of an 11 year old. I let Liam talk me into it. And I was up there and I was nervous. I was nervous. I was thinking about the screws to tightened in there. And I was like, they're taking this thing apart tonight. This fair is over. Tonight they're gonna unscrew this thing and I'm 50ft in the air. And I was like, this is a bad way to die. This is a very foolish way to go out. And I like, Liam goes, dad, you're not looking at me. I was like, liam, I'm not looking at anything. I don't want to look at anything. And he was like, why do you just keep speaking in tongues? I was like, because I just need to touch the ground. I need to get off this thing and get my feet on the ground.
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Ground.
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Soon as we got on the ground, I just was like, thank you, Jesus. I am never getting on this again. And I love the fair dudes, but I'm just saying, I'm not trusting the fair dudes with my life. All right, back to the scripture. Back to the scripture. First John, chapter four. All right, here's the deal. When my faith is in God's love, go to verse 17. Because I love what John says in verse 17, I have confidence. Not in what I can do for God or in what, you know, what man has done for me, but in what God has done for me. I can have confidence facing the day of judgment. Like there will be a day of judgment. We're going to talk about this. There's going to be a judgment day for believers and non believers. But if you're a believer, you don't have to face the day of judgment with fear. The fear approach never made anyone a better believer. It never made anyone more fruitful, productive. It leads to a paralyzing effect. When I am confident in God's love and his love is working in me, it produces confidence, even assurance and boldness. Everybody say boldness. Boldness to what? Boldness to face people? No, it says boldness to face God. I have boldness to stand before God. I have boldness to stand on this stage and preach what I'm preaching. Because the word of God promises me that it is Jesus Christ who has purchased my salvation, died on the cross for my sins, and when I confess him as my Lord and Savior and put my faith in him, not in what people say, not in what religious people say, not in what the Pharisees say or what the Sadducees say or. Or what government does, but when my faith is in him, the solid rock. I can stand boldly and come boldly into the throne room of God's grace. And John says this. He says, listen, we have boldness because as he is, so are we in this world. In other words, the righteousness that we have comes from him. And then he says this in the next verse, he says this. Love, there is no fear in God's love. Everybody say, no fear. There's no fear. There's no fear in God's love. Dread doesn't even exist. But perfect, complete, full grown love, perfect love casts out fear. It drives out fear. Perfect love from God. Because where there's fear, fear involves the expectation of divine punishment. When I'm afraid, I'm expecting God to be mad at me. Like, how many of y' all ever were afraid of your parents spanking you or giving you correction or discipline? Yes, there were times where I was afraid of my dad and mom. Not because they were mean or because they were doing something wrong, but because I was scared to get spanked for doing something bad. And you know what? It actually helped me to get better in many cases. But there can be an unhealthy fear, this unhealthy fear that's like, I'm going to be killed. I'm going to be thrown into the lake of fire. I'm going to hell because I did something. But when I know that my salvation is secure in Jesus Christ, I can confess my sins and I can receive forgiveness. And every single day, every single week, I don't have to live with a teeter totter, roller coaster question of am I saved or am I not saved? I can rest assured in the salvation of Jesus Christ, even right now, in this moment. Before I keep preaching, I want to just start this series off with a spirit of faith. And to do that, I think we need to cast out a spirit of fear. And so I want you to just close your eyes for a second, bow your heads if you're here today and fear has gripped you about end times, not making it to heaven, being left behind. Even the fear of if you were to die, wondering if you'd go to heaven or hell. And there is a real heaven, there is a real hell. I know this because I put my faith in Jesus and his words and he said it in the Bible and I believe it. And maybe you're here today and you just need to confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior friends. When you do that, you don't have to live afraid. If you're here today. And I'm not going to ask you to leave your seat. I won't ask you to leave the room. I won't ask you to come down to the altar. But right there in your seat, if you're watching online, if you just are ready to get rid of the spirit of fear around your salvation and you want to settle it today and say, I want to know that. I know that my name is written in the book of life. I want you to just raise your hand. Today is a great day to do this. Hands going up all over this room from the front to the back. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'.
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Am.
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Yes, yes, yes. Man. The angels in heaven are celebrating that you are publicly making that decision today. To say, I want to know that my name is in the book of life. I don't want to live with any more fear around my salvation. I want to ask us all to pray this prayer. Just say, jesus, I repent of my sins and I receive your forgiveness. You died on the cross. You rose from the grave. I confess that you are the son of God. And I acknowledge that you are my savior. And so today I settle it in my heart. I am saved by your grace. I am forgiven. And my name is in the book of life. So no more fear will rule my heart. In Jesus name. Amen. Come on, can we give God praise? The angels are rejoicing in heaven. No fear in God's love. All right, the second approach going into this End Times series, the second approach is the careless approach. And this is not fear. This is just like, I don't care. This is happening right now, globally. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care what's going on. I don't care what's going on in Israel. I don't care what's going on over here. I don't care what's happening in our nation. I don't care about persecution of Christians. I don't care about this. And this careless approach, it's a very. It creeps into believers where it's like, Paul, I'm too busy, too busy to think about end times. I'm too busy. I got too much going on. I'm making moves like, my schedule's packed. So, like, I'll be at church Easter, Christmas. If there's a good series that I like. If you're preaching about, like, me being more successful and how to be the best version of me. Y', all, we don't come to church for a self success seminar. We come to church to meet Jesus and encounter Jesus and let his Word change us. There's enough self success seminars you can go to all across Tulsa and America, and I'm not knocking them. But you don't come to church just to become the best successful self version of yourself. You come to church to become more like Jesus and let his word change you and renew you and get your heart and mind back on his word for your life. And not every series is gonna tickle your ears. Not every series should tickle your ears. There are series that should make us uncomfortable. And we should go, yes, I need to be convicted. I need the Holy Spirit to challenge me.
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I need.
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I need to get right with God. I need to repent. Jesus is coming back soon. I want to be ready for that. But a careless approach pushes that away. I just don't care, Paul. I just don't care. I'm too busy. I got weddings to go to, I got funerals to do. I got money to make. I'm making millions. I'm making moves. I got stuff to do. And there were a lot of people that were busy during Noah's time. Noah's over there, he's building. And the Bible says Noah would build for 100 years. And he preached righteousness for 100 years. For 100 years, Noah preached and he built. He preached and he built. He preached and he built and he preached righteousness. And he said, get ready, get ready. And people were like, noah, we're not living in the end times, dude. Do something new. Preach something different. This is not the end times. We're too busy to listen to your sermons. We're too busy to hear what you've got to say. And Noah just kept preaching and he kept building and they didn't care and they had a lot going on and they were busy, busy, busy, busy. You could be very busy and not be doing anything fruitful. You can have a full schedule and get to the end of your life and ask yourself, what did I do for eternity? And they didn't care until the first raindrop fell from the sky. And when that raindrop fell, people started looking at Noah and they said, hey, Noah, is there a spot for me on that ark? And Noah said, you should have listened when I warned you. For the last 100 years, friends, we're in a window of time. And I'm not trying to scare anybody, but I am saying, wake up. Don't let a careless approach lead you to a frivolous life. Live fruitful, live productive for the kingdom of God, not productive for the government of man or the economy of you Live productive for what God? Live faithful. Which leads me to my third approach. The third approach to end times is the faith approach. And the faith approach leads to a faithful life. The faith approach has faith that what God said in his Word, he will do. Did you know there are 2,500 prophecies, but there's 64,000 cross references from the Old Testament to the New Testament. That is wild. There is no other religion, no other book that does what the Bible does. You either believe this thing was inspired by God, and if Jesus said, I'll be back before Arnold Schwarzenegger said it, he's going to do it. He's coming back. And he's not going to come back to Tulsa. He's going to come back to the Mount of Olives in Israel. And he will appear and the whole world listen. The dead in Christ will rise first, and we who are still here on the earth will be gathered together with them in the sky. And you go, I don't know if I believe it. If you were to look at all the prophecies and all the cross references, this is what it would look like. This is literally what the Bible looks like from the Old Testament to the New Testament, connecting the dots that in Genesis it said, the seed of the woman will crush the serpent head. And when Jesus conquered death and he stole the keys from Satan and he went down to the pit of hell. When Jesus came in the New Testament, he fulfilled every prophecy leading up to this moment. And the Croft references and the prophecies, it all connects together. Jesus is coming back. The question is not when will it happen or how will it happen. The question is, will you be ready when he does? Will you live a life in light of eternity? How you approach end times has a lot to do with how you're going to live your life. And the end times topic is not for us to make a calendar, but rather to build character, to live courageously advancing God's kingdom. What the disciples used to say in the New Testament is maranatha. That's how they would greet each other. Like it was like, shalom, maranatha. You and I, we say, hey, what's up? How you doing? But over there, it's like, shalom. Look at the person next to you and say, shalom. Now say, maranatha. Maranatha means Jesus is coming back soon. Jesus is coming back soon. That was their greeting to each other. When Peter ran into James out on the streets. When John would run into Bartholomew or Matthew, they would say, maranatha, my friend, you Know they give each other some kind of high five pound at Maranatha. That means get ready. Jesus is coming back so soon. Get ready. How's it going to end? Are we living in the last days? The answer is yes. That answer started in Acts chapter 2. When the holy Spirit was poured out. All the disciples, Jesus had died on the cross, rose from the grave. He told his disciples, don't leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes down. On the day of Pentecost, 50 days later, the Holy Spirit's poured out. You can read this in Acts chapter 2. Like a Wind came into the upper room. They began to speak in other tongues. What appeared as fire over their heads. It looked like fire. And then Peter walks out of the upper room. He begins to preach. He says, today, the prophet Joel, who prophesied hundreds of years ago, has now been fulfilled. What Joel said that in the last days, I will pour out my spirit on all sons and daughters, all flesh, mothers and fathers, the young and the old. They will dream dreams. They will have visions. Y', all, we've been living in the last days for 2,000 years. And those early church disciples, they lived with such a focus. They knew the countdown clock. They knew that they had very little time left on earth. And you go, well, he didn't come back during their lifetime. So did they waste their lives? No, they lived with purpose. They lived to advance his kingdom. They lived with love. Everything that they had, they gave away. I remember taking our young adult interns when I was the young adult pastor back in 2010. I took them to the graveyard in the month of October 2010. And we were there, and, you know, it was leading up to Halloween, and we don't celebrate, you know, the devil. We celebrate Jesus conquered the devil. Jesus conquered darkness. But we were out in this graveyard, and the sun had set, and it was getting dark, and they were like, why are we here? And I said, we're here because I want to ask you a question. What do you see? They said, we see gravestones. I said, what do you see on the gravestones? I said, we see names, we see years. We see a dash between the year they were born and the year they died. And they said, we've heard you preach about the dash. What are you gonna do with your dash? What are you gonna do between the year you were born, the year you die? I said, but what else do you see? They said, what are we supposed to see, like, ghosts? I was like, no. I see books that were never written, businesses that were never started, ministries that never launched Marriages that were never formed, families that were never discipled. I see billions of dollars that was never used for kingdom purposes, that was inherited by generations that squandered wealth. And can I tell you, friends, how we live our life here on earth will echo into eternity. And we can choose to live in light of these end times, in light of these last days. We can choose to live either with fear or a careless approach like it's not happened in my lifetime, or we can live with faith and go, I believe Jesus is coming back soon, so I'm going to stir up my faith to get ready for that return. And I'm going to live a life that counts for eternity. Jesus begins to answer the question when they ask, how and when will this happen? In Matthew 24, Jesus begins to give them ten signs of the end times. Ten signs. In verse 4, he says, Watch out that no one deceives you. Deception is at an all time high. AI is everywhere. You don't know what's real and what's not real. I told you this last week. I've been seeing AI videos that make me cry. And I thought they were real. Like a lion stick saving his cub from an eagle that was stealing it. And my kids are like, dad, that's AI. That's not a real video. It's like, well, it looks real. Okay, artificial intelligence everywhere. Did you know Albania just elected the first prime minister, AI prime minister and artificial intelligence. Like, not even a human. The actual human prime minister of Albania said, I don't think humans are doing a good enough job. We need AI to lead us forward. And they had a prime minister, AI on screen, this woman that came on and announces who she is, Dahlia or something. And she's like, good evening, humans. You know, it's like, what, what, What? We're in 2025, and there is this escalation of deception. And we have to recognize this is what Jesus said was going to happen, that in the last days, there will be a rise of deception. There will be a rise of good people being deceived by dark, twisted ideas. And it will take so many people by surprise. The first sign of the end times is that there's going to be a rise of false messiahs and false religions. And I would even write in there, just deception, deception. It's just going to. It's going to begin to rise. And then Jesus says, this is going to happen. And he says, watch out. Many will come in my name claiming I am the Messiah and will deceive. I remember a guy came into our church, walked down to the front, long hair, wearing a robe. I thought he was in one of our productions. He comes down to the front, he goes, good evening, Pastor Paul. My name is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And I said, no, that's not who you are. He said, really? I said, yeah. He goes, okay. And he walks out. The Bible doesn't say, Jesus Christ is showing up on 77th and Lewis in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He's going to show up on the Mount of Olives outside of Jerusalem. By the way, anything that's not in this book, that's being preached as if it is Bible, you need to be very careful. You need to weigh everything you hear against the word of God, including things I say. If it is not in the word of God, you do not need to let any person, no matter how cunning or charming or. Or sweet or how smooth, they can talk. If it is not in the word of God, we gotta be discerning. In these last days, I'll be listening to podcasts going, whoo, this guy can preach. And then I'll get 10 minutes into it. I'm like, hold up. Is this in the Bible? Cause some people can preach really good, but they're not preaching scripture. I'd rather be an okay preacher but keep it scripture than be an incredible preacher and not have any scripture. Like, if you're looking for a dude that can talk really good, you might have come to the wrong church. You're like, we know, Paul. You always mess up English words and stuff, but it's okay. I'd rather be an okay preacher that sticks to the word of God than be a very cunning, charismatic, exciting, sensational guy that's not sticking to the truth. And I want to show you a picture of Jerusalem today, because what Jerusalem is today is not what it was back then. Back then, when Jesus was giving this speech, there was an actual temple that sat in the city, dedicated, a synagogue dedicated for the teachings of God. Today, in that same place is the Dome of the Rock. That's an Islamic mosque sitting in the spot where the temple was. There is still some form of a temple in the old city, Jerusalem. It's not what it was, it shares with other religions. But one day, Jesus will bring back a temple that he will build new, which means this Islamic mosque will come down, and every religion will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Jesus. And we have to recognize that in these last days, there will be a rise of people who become more and more pulled into other religions, other philosophies other mythologies, other conspiracies. Be careful what you listen to. Your phone will feed you what you listen to. Our phones are listening to us. Hey, Siri. They're listening to us, and they're watching what we watch. And it feeds an algorithm. It creates an echo chamber. So if you watch and listen to stuff that stirs up conspiracies and deception, it will keep feeding you. It will feed you the diet that you crave. Be careful what you hunger for, because you'll start attracting that chamber that you start listening to and watching. And you go, why do I keep getting videos about this? It's because you keep asking for it. It's watching you. And so then the second sign of the end times is that there's going to be wars and rumors of wars. Jesus says, you will hear about wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. See to it that you're not alarmed. These things must happen. But the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. And then he says in the third sign is that there's going to be an increase of hunger. There's going to be famines in the land, right? You're going to See right now 90% of the babies that are going to be born in the next 20 years. I read this stat just this last week. 90% of babies that will be born in the next 20 years between 2025 and 2045 will be born in countries that don't have the food supply to feed those babies. Famine is at an all time high. Starvation is at an all time high. That's why when we show videos like we did today of Brittany and Lucas in Mozambique, missionaries that we support as a church, feeding the children, feeding the hungry. In Mozambique, your tithes and offerings are literally feeding people, feeding children, saving neighborhoods practically and spiritually, not just feeding them bags of groceries, but bringing them the gospel. Yeah, we should give each other a hand, y'. All. We are being used for eternal kingdom purposes. And you go, I don't know. Is that eternity? Jesus talks about this in Matthew 25, same sermon on the Mount of Olives. He says, I was hungry and you fed me. I was in prison and Victory showed up. I was naked and you gave me clothes. So in the last days, there's going to be an increase of hunger, and then there's going to be number four, there's going to be earthquakes. There's going to be rumblings. He says, these are just the birth pains. These are just the beginning of the birth pains. It's the beginning of the ending. Go to the next point. The fifth point is there's going to be incurable sickness and pestilence. There's going to be an increase of sickness and disease. I want the band to come out as we get ready to close. And then the sixth point, he says, you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death. You go, I don't know if I like this verse. Can we. No, no, no. This is the gospel. This is what's gonna happen in the last days. We've gotta be prepared for persecution. It's already happening. It's already happening. And so there's gonna be six. There's gonna be a persecution, an increased persecution against Christians. Did you know in Nigeria they've killed 125,000 Christians in the last 15 years? There's a genocide against Christians. Extreme jihadists are killing Christians by the day across Nigeria. There's an increase of persecution against a Christian worldview in our own nation, in the United Kingdom, in Australia, and around the world, China. I mean, you go into certain countries, you can't even talk about Jesus. You can't talk about what Jesus has. Has to say about marriage, what he has to say about gender. You're going to be labeled as a hate speech. Someone called me a fascist on social media two weeks ago because I posted a picture saying, let's pray for Charlie Kirk's family. And someone said, I didn't know Pastor Paul was a fascist. And honestly, I deleted the comment because I thought, I don't want to stir up a fight on social media. That's not what I'm here to do. I literally asked people to pray, and then I thought, God, why? Why am I being labeled this? Why am I being labeled this? I love everybody. If you disagree with me, I will hug you on the way out. You are still welcome here. You don't have to agree with everything I say, but I won't cater my message towards people who just don't want to hear the truth of God's word. Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth. I don't hate you. I'm just preaching truth. We got to pray for people. And I felt this sting, and it was like. Jesus was like, how do you think I felt the names I was called? How do you think the disciples felt when they were fed to lions in the arena during the time of the gladiators because they spoke about Jesus? Persecution has been going on for 2,000 years, and it is way more intense in other countries than it is here. Here we get labeled something on social media and. And we feel persecution, and it's not even close to people that are being hunted down in the streets for their faith in Jesus. Jesus says there will be a persecution and people will hate you because of me. There's going to be an increase of hatred. And so then the seventh point. Give me the seventh sign. There's going to be a huge surge of wickedness. He says at that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other. Many false prophets will appear and deceive many, and there will be an increase of wickedness in the earth. There's going to be an increase. People will call evil good and good evil. There's going to be an increase of, like, immorality, idolatry, almost a celebration of it, a celebration of murder. When Charlie Kirk was killed, I started seeing those videos of people dancing, making TikTok memes celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk and then calling for the next assassination of the next conservative voice out there. And people going, we need to get rid of these guys. And my heart was grieved. And I almost got mad and I was like, no, no, no. Hate doesn't drive out hate. Violence doesn't stop violence. This is like the best revenge is revival. The best revenge in these last days is to show the love of Jesus to people that are filled with hatred. Number seven, the love of many. Number eight, the love of believers will grow cold. Not all believers, but many, many believers. Their love will grow cold. Did you know the seven things that God detests in the book of Proverbs? The seven things. One of them is division in the body of Christ, dissension among the brethren. There is going to be a rise of divisiveness, coldness. I don't care about you. I cancel you. If your pastor does this, says this, hate them, you know, and y'.
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All.
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We gotta guard our hearts. We gotta guard our hearts against hatred, against cancel culture, against vitriolic, vicious attacks on social media, against people. We got to guard our hearts and we got to say, God, keep my heart wide, warm with your love, and keep my heart hot with your love, not just warm. I don't want to be lukewarm, because lukewarm is the beginning of coldness. Lukewarm is just the signs that you're headed towards cold. When you get to that place of, I don't even care about that person. I don't even care if they live. I don't even care what. Be careful what, you're saying your words, your kids are listening to your words, and they'll take it to the next level. We've got to guard our hearts with the love of Christ. We've got to keep the love. Everybody said, keep the love. Keep the love. Keep the love. Where is the love? And then this is the good news, because that's all bad stuff. But let me tell you, number nine, right here, there is going to be a world revival. There is going to be evangelism. Yeah, come on, Jesus, y'.
- [49:16]
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All.
- [49:16]
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The world is hearing about Jesus, and it's only going to increase. The Bible says in Matthew 24 that this gospel will be prepared, preached, and the kingdom of God will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come. So before Jesus returns and before all of these things begin unfolding, there's going to be revival. I want to preach about revival. That's what I want to preach about. These next few. I want to stir up revival in the last days. What does it look like for us to approach these last days with the spirit of revival, spirit of faith, hope? And he'd go, what if he doesn't come back? I'd rather stir up hope and faith and revival, believing that he might come back than live as if he's never coming back. We've got to prepare our hearts. No matter what. We got to stir our hearts up with faith and focus. You never know when your time is up. You never know when the time's up here on Earth. We never know when the time is up for America. We never know when the time is up for even our own families. We never know when the time. We think we're in control. We're not. We're really not. And I think we realized that even in 2020, there's a lot of things we can control, and there's a lot of things we can't control. And what we can control is our response. In this hour. We should be responding with the spirit of faith, love, and revival and expectation. So these last few weeks, there's been this stirring and this. Even last night, there was communion taken on. On the National Mall in Washington, D.C. 50,000 people gathered in the National Mall. Hundreds of people got saved last night, got baptized, took communion together, forgiving their enemies, forgiving those that have hurt them, and hate. Like revival's breaking out. And then even five days ago, revival breaking out on the University of Tennessee, the University of South Florida, secular universities where football players, basketball players, volleyball players, all kinds of different students are gathering together and they're leading each other to Christ, baptizing each other. And someone sent me one of those videos. So I want to show you because I've got an echo chamber revival videos going on in my, my algorithm right now. And I am loving it because people are sending me videos of what God is doing. I would rather celebrate the good news than focus on all the terrible things that are going on. So keep feeding me that algorithm. Check this out. This is one of those videos. We witness hundreds get back to us tonight and win this thousand exchange for the name of Jesus. There's a new thing coming for this generation. And unite is a big part of it. And there's somebody in this room, probably up there, maybe down here. You're trying to run and you can't outrun God's plan on your life. You can't do it. Repent for your sins. Repent for the sins of this campus, this city, our nation. And let's get free from those things and then we're just going to give it all to Jesus and go all in. I never felt good enough to get in this, go and live a life after just saying it. I know I'll never be perfect. I'll always be in person, but I'm being purpose person, chasing my teeth each and every day. Friends, God is on the move. God is on the move all over the world and we can see it. It's happening. Someone sent me a video of even a prayer vigil like in some other country that happened three days ago. I forget what country was. It was like Belgium or something. And it was a gathering of people and they were worshiping out on the streets and they were singing and they were praying for America. And I thought, man, how cool is it to that? People around the world are praying for our nation and they're having awakening in their nation. So Jesus says the gospel will be preached. No one knows the day or the hour, but when you begin to see a revival, when you begin to see some of these things, you can know that we're coming to the end. The tenth point is that Israel is going to be a centerpiece in end times. Now there are people who don't understand this. When I was a kid, I was always like, why is Israel so important? Why did my dad always talk about Israel? Why are we praying about Israel all the time? And then I started realizing as I got older, from Genesis to Revelation, God loves Israel. You can't omit that. You can't. If you delete Israel out of the Bible, you're pretty much deleting the whole story of God because it started in Israel and it continues in Israel and in the book of Revelation, it finishes in Israel. And so when we begin to see some of these end times and, and there will be a growing hatred and conspiracy theories that will come from all kinds of people that at one time you thought you could trust that begin to stir up a hatred towards Israel when you start to feel that, stir that and see that. And even though there's peace right now, and we believe hostages are going to be released today and this week, and we believe that God is bringing a ceasefire to the killing of innocent lives right now in Israel. And I'm believing for our Jewish brothers and sisters and Arabs to come to Jesus Christ to put their faith in Jesus Christ to receive salvation. How many will pray for revival in Israel and Middle East? A revival in Muslim countries, a revival in Israel that people would come to Jesus. I want you to stand your feet all over this place. God loves you, I love you. And I believe that this series is for such a time as this. So today we just started, we just scratched the spot surface. We'll get more into it over the coming weeks. But I really want to pray and today I really want to end with just a call towards prayer. One of the things that I didn't get into, that I'll get into next week is what do we do with this information? And I think one of the most important things we can do is pray and stir up our faith. Pray and stir up our faith. So I want us just to bow our heads, close our eyes. Many of you raised your hands earlier to receive Jesus in your heart. And I want you to make a public declaration. You're going to come down to this altar. If you're willing to do that, I want you to join me. But I also want those in the room that you're already saved. But you are sensing in your heart that this is a time to shake off fear and lethargic carelessness and to stir up a spirit of faith and prayer headed into whatever days are ahead, however long it is that we would begin to lean into that anticipation. Maranatha, get ready. Jesus is coming back. When is he coming back? I don't know. I don't know the day or the hour. But I want to be ready and I don't want to live careless and I don't want to live in fear or selfishness. I want to live with faith. I want to stir up revival. I want to be A part of what God's doing. I feel to pray as a church and I feel that this altar call needs to be a response to say, God, I want to live ready for your return. I want to be less focused on when it's going to happen, what's going to happen, how it's going to happen. I want to be more focused on getting my life in order, getting my life fixed and focused for eternity, to do things for for eternity. To live with eternity in my mind and heart on a daily basis with my finances, with my relationships, with my career, with my job, with my thoughts, with my emotions, with the things that I hold onto and the things I dwell on and the things I choose to let go. This is a great time to start this series off just by coming to the altar in humility and saying, God, I want to lean in with a ready heart for your return. I want to get my life ready. If that's you, I want you to just leave your seat, come and meet me at this altar right now. If this message is stirring in you a spirit of faith and a readiness to say, I want to be ready for his return. I want to live ready. I want to lean in with a heart of prayer. I want to lean in with a heart of surrender. I want to be ready for revival. I want to be this week looking for opportunities to be used by God. And I want to fix my life not on what is seen, but what is unseen. I want to live for something that's bigger than me. I want to live for something that's bigger than my selfish desires. I want to live for God's kingdom in my lifetime, for my generation. Let's just worship right now. Let's just give it all to Jesus. Just worship Jesus tonight.
- [57:54]
A
Lord.
- [57:55]
B
Get our hearts ready. Get our hearts ready. Help us, God, to live with the eternity on our minds. Help us to live with faith over fear. Help us to live with love over hatred. Help us to live, God, with surrender. Jesus.
- [58:15]
A
Jesus.
- [58:16]
B
Jesus. Take over now.
- [58:19]
A
Take over, Lord.
- [58:25]
B
Help me to live with faith. Help me to live with faith. Help me to live with faith. Help me to trust in you.
- [58:34]
A
Lord.
- [58:34]
B
I pray God that you would help us, God, to live for your glory. You are worthy of it all, God. You are worthy.
- [58:41]
A
You are worthy.
- [58:43]
B
You are worthy of it all.
- [58:59]
A
Yours.
- [59:05]
B
He loves you. He's for you. He's with you.
- [59:23]
A
Deserve the glory. Love from you all things as you are. All things from you are.
- [59:41]
B
You are a mighty man of God.
- [59:43]
A
Lord, I thank you for what you've done.
- [59:46]
B
In this family and God, you're just getting started.
- [59:49]
A
Greater than you are greater and you are all for from you are all and okay. Night and day and night Night and day and night and day. You were it all you wor of Hallelujah. Oh, you deserve the glory you worthy of it all. And there will be a day when all will bow before you. There will be a day when death will be no more Standing face to face with he who died and rose again. Holy, holy is the Lord. There will be a day, There will be a day when all about before. There will be a day when death will be standing face standing face to face with he who died rose again. Holy, holy is the Lord.
- [63:02]
B
You know this series? I am so stirred. Ashly and I, we were talking about it just this last week, and she said, are you gonna preach a message about heaven? I said, yeah. Cause Jesus had a lot to say about that marriage, Supper of the Lamb and what heaven's gonna look like where there's no more sickness, no more darkness, no more sin, no more abuse, no more addictions, no more shame, no more broken families, no more hurts, no more wars, no more cancer. And one day I'll be reunited with with my dad. And I'll be sitting at the table with Billie Jo. And one day Ashley will be reunited with her mom, Terry, and we'll be sitting together. My mom will be reunited with her husband, Sharon and Billy Joe. And she'll be sitting with her dad, Clyde, and her mom, Ella V. And you'll be sitting with your relatives. You're gonna be sitting with your grandparents. You're gonna be sitting with some of the people you lost, even the babies that were misgiving carried. You're going to meet babies you didn't even know. We're going to be sitting together. And I'm so stirred about this because I'm just like, man, I want to live in light of eternity. Because one day we will all be together up there. And one day we will all join together in that feast and we'll sit together and then we're all going to worship God surrounded with 24 elders, like all these. I look at the columns back here and I'm like, it's going to be like in heaven, there's going to be all these columns and there's going to be people sitting on thrones and they'll get off their throne and they'll take their crown off and they'll throw it at the feet of Jesus. And there will be one throne and we will all bow and worship before Jesus and we will feel no more pain, no more sin, no more darkness, no more shame. And there's going to be total freedom. And then like we're going to talk about what Jesus, his plan is for the But I get excited about that. I don't get nervous. I don't get afraid anymore. I no longer have the fear and anxiety I used to have. I no longer have the carelessness that I walk through in certain seasons. Now it's faith. And I pray in Jesus name that today we would leave with faith. Greater faith than we came in here with. Just pray this with me. Say, jesus, help me to have greater faith in these last days, however long. I believe that you're coming back and I want to be ready. I want to live ready. So I'm going to keep the faith and I'm going to trust in you, in your love, in your grace, in your salvation. I'm all yours, God. Use me as a testimony for your glory. In Jesus name, amen and amen. I love you. God loves you. Be blessed. Encourage somebody today on your way out.