1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,600 Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. 2 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:17,720 How do we know where to find answers to the toughest questions in life? 3 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:22,160 While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search and how do we discover 4 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:23,160 this truth? 5 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:30,280 Today, in this teaching podcast, John Metter, lead pastor of Cross City Church, takes a 6 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:41,720 specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth for the life we're searching for. 7 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:46,560 We are so grateful that you're here this morning with us in our Great Expectations series, 8 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:51,000 and I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Daniel, the book 9 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,200 of Daniel chapter 9. 10 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:56,800 Take your Bibles and turn there a few words, because Daniel 9 is a prophetic passage, we're 11 00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:02,280 going to be talking about the nation of Israel and the end times and how all that works together. 12 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:07,480 By the way, we'll pause our Great Expectations message series next week for one Sunday, and 13 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:11,320 I'm going to preach a message that I call the election message, and that means that 14 00:01:11,320 --> 00:01:15,760 because there's a presidential election coming up, every time we have one of those, we take 15 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:21,320 a few moments to look from a Biblical lens at the different policies and issues that 16 00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:26,960 are on stake and what it means for us to represent as salt and light in the world. 17 00:01:26,960 --> 00:01:31,160 So next Sunday morning, the election message, and then after that, we'll get back into the 18 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:34,480 Great Expectations end time series message. 19 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:39,600 So Daniel chapter 9, Israel and the end times, please stand with me as we read God's word 20 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:40,600 together. 21 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:45,520 Daniel chapter 9, now I'm going to be in Daniel for just a moment, and then we're going to 22 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:50,640 go to a number of other passages in the Bible as we talk about the nation of Israel, and 23 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,480 then we're going to come back around to Daniel chapter 9 at the end of the message. 24 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:57,720 So we're starting and we're finishing in Daniel 9. 25 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:03,440 Now Daniel is an incredible book of the Bible, and of course, we know the man Daniel, and 26 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:07,640 we know what an incredible prophet he was, what an incredible leader, courageous and 27 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:13,520 bold in every way, and we're going to learn something about his vision that he saw and 28 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:17,320 how Gabriel the angel helps him with that vision. 29 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:20,420 But in between the start of this message and the end of it, we're going to go to several 30 00:02:20,420 --> 00:02:21,420 texts in the Bible. 31 00:02:21,420 --> 00:02:25,720 I'm going to ask you to be ready to turn in your Bible from text to text so that we can 32 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:27,880 understand something about the nation of Israel. 33 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:31,280 So I'm going to pick it up in Daniel chapter 9 verse 20. 34 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:37,120 Daniel has set his heart to understand what Jeremiah has written about Israel, and so 35 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:38,120 he's praying. 36 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:44,480 He's saying, God, show me how I am to understand what you've written about my nation Israel. 37 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:46,380 And so God comes to him in this prayer. 38 00:02:46,380 --> 00:02:48,760 We pick up this story in verse 20. 39 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:53,480 The Bible says, now while I was speaking and praying, this is Daniel, and confessing my 40 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:58,960 sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God on 41 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:04,520 behalf of the holy mountain of my God, while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man 42 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:10,400 Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously came to me in my extreme weariness about the 43 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:12,240 time of the evening offering. 44 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:16,920 He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, Oh, Daniel, I have now come forth 45 00:03:16,920 --> 00:03:20,520 to give you insight with understanding. 46 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:24,440 At the beginning of your supplications, the command was issued and I have come to tell 47 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:30,280 you for your holly esteem so that you can give heed to the message and gain understanding 48 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:31,280 of the vision. 49 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:36,160 In other words, I'm going to show you what this prophecy means. 50 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:38,880 Let's pray and ask God to show us the same thing. 51 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:45,200 Father today, my prayer is that we would understand the prophecies written about Israel, understand 52 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:51,840 the nation of Israel and the role that Israel has had and your economy and what you've done. 53 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:56,800 Father, I ask that you open our eyes and help us understand by the power of your Holy Spirit 54 00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,800 today, all these things that we'll talk about. 55 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:03,800 We ask this in Jesus name and our God's people said, Amen. 56 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:07,920 Please be seated if you would. 57 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:12,040 So I would have to say to you that understanding the nation of Israel and its role in the end 58 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:14,560 times is not a simple task. 59 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:19,320 In fact, I think my task is pretty hard today and I'm going to keep as simple as I possibly 60 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:24,440 can because I want to share in a very simple form so that I can understand it well and 61 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,620 explain well who Israel is. 62 00:04:27,620 --> 00:04:32,800 But Israel and the church are on two different tracks with God, even though they are both 63 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:35,240 people who belong to God. 64 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:36,860 Yesterday I went to the airport. 65 00:04:36,860 --> 00:04:43,040 We live kind of north of here and so for me to get to the airport from my home, I get 66 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:52,000 on Highway 26 and when I get down onto 121, I get on off a four-high level overpass. 67 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:53,000 So I'm on this four-high. 68 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:57,140 I'm looking down at all these cars around me, car dealerships and cars and all kinds 69 00:04:57,140 --> 00:05:02,780 of businesses that I actually go over when I'm on my car and when I get into 121, I descend 70 00:05:02,780 --> 00:05:06,440 onto either eight or 12 lanes depending on where you are. 71 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:09,320 All these cars going all these different directions. 72 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:15,040 At every half mile point, there is a merging lane coming into this highway that I'm on 73 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:19,120 and at one point, a whole another highway merges into the left and the same thing is 74 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:20,560 happening on the other side of the road. 75 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:24,200 So all these cars are going so fast in all these directions. 76 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:30,040 If I look over to one side, I see a high-speed rail alongside the highway on its way to the 77 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:35,500 airport and if I look up just a little bit, I'll see airplanes coming in at very low altitudes 78 00:05:35,500 --> 00:05:38,640 just over the same road that I'm driving on. 79 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:45,400 I mean it's enough to make you go crazy unless you know somebody that is a highway architectural 80 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:50,400 expert has organized everything so we won't crash and burn into each other. 81 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:54,800 That's just what it's like to drive in the Dallas Fort Worth airport. 82 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:58,160 But it's also kind of what it's like to be able to understand what God is doing with 83 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:02,200 the church, what God is doing with Israel, what God is doing with the Antichrist, what 84 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:06,400 God is doing with the Old Testament temple being rebuilt, what the tribulation, the great 85 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:09,960 tribulation is all about, what the rapture is all about, all these different things. 86 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,560 How do we make sense of all this? 87 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:16,440 The first way you make sense of all this is just come to the point of realizing this is 88 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:24,080 bigger than you are and to realize that God who holds all things in the hands of his power 89 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:27,040 does know what's going on and does give us some clues about it. 90 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:31,560 So today we're going to look at the nation of Israel for just a few moments and we're 91 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:33,920 going to look at what God is doing with Israel. 92 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:40,080 Now let me just say that God's love and concern for Israel as a nation is something that's 93 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:43,200 spanned nearly the whole history of mankind. 94 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:50,520 From Genesis chapter 12, even to today, God has always demonstrated a favor towards Israel, 95 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:53,280 calling them his chosen people. 96 00:06:53,280 --> 00:06:57,920 So we're going to try to understand how do they fit in the end time and why we love Israel 97 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:01,600 and why we favor Israel and stand with them in times of war. 98 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:08,160 Why is Israel so important to us as believers and Bible readers who follow the Lord Jesus 99 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:09,160 Christ? 100 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:12,480 Now I'm going to make this as simple as I need it in order to understand Israel. 101 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:17,040 I'm going to give you four keys that help me understand who Israel is and what God is 102 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:19,880 doing with them and what role they play in the end times. 103 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:21,400 So here are the four things. 104 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:27,000 First of all, I want you to see the promises of Israel, the promises of Israel, literally 105 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,680 promises God made to Israel. 106 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:35,440 Now in the Old Testament, when God makes a promise to Israel, to his people, he does 107 00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:37,800 it in the form of a covenant. 108 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:43,440 Now God did not only make covenants with Israel, but he also did with Adam before Israel was 109 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:44,440 created. 110 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:46,920 He did it with Noah before Israel was created. 111 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:50,840 But God is a covenant making and a covenant keeping God. 112 00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:54,000 I want to define the word covenant with you for just a moment. 113 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:59,360 The word covenant is a relationship or agreement between God and his people, and it defines 114 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:02,800 what God intends to do. 115 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:09,600 So as such, covenants are both predictive and prophetic. 116 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:15,840 What that means is when God makes a promise, you can count on him fulfilling that promise. 117 00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:20,040 Even if it's made to a different group of people than you know or that you identify 118 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:21,040 with. 119 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:22,840 Some of us look at Israel and say, well, that's so remote. 120 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:24,920 That's so on the other side of the world. 121 00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:27,640 I don't understand what Israel has to do with us. 122 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:32,240 And what Israel has to do with us is that God loves Israel like he loves us as followers 123 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:33,560 of Jesus Christ. 124 00:08:33,560 --> 00:08:38,800 And he's made promises and covenants with Israel that affect who they are and how they 125 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:41,120 operate in the world. 126 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:45,520 And so God has made these covenants and promises to Israel. 127 00:08:45,520 --> 00:08:50,360 And I just need to tell you today, you may be a person that's heard promises from people 128 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:52,240 and they didn't fulfill their promises. 129 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:54,320 And so you don't think much of promises. 130 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:59,600 But when God makes a promise, he keeps every one of them 100% of the time. 131 00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:05,080 So when we look at the promises God made Israel, it should encourage you and help you look 132 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:09,600 for his fulfillment of them, but remind you that he also keeps his promises to you. 133 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:12,880 He's a promise keeping, a covenant keeping God. 134 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:17,320 Now, as I said earlier, God made a promise to Adam. 135 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:21,840 Remember Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and the serpent had deceived them. 136 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:28,320 And God came in Genesis chapter three and he pronounced a curse upon Satan and a promise 137 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:32,200 that he would send the Messiah to bruise the head of the serpent. 138 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:38,040 That was a covenant he made with Adam, eventually fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. 139 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:40,400 He made a promise to Noah. 140 00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:41,400 Remember Noah in the flood. 141 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:47,680 And he made a promise, I will never again judge the world by flood. 142 00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:50,120 And he hasn't judged the world by flood. 143 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:52,600 He's kept his promise. 144 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:55,440 But then he made a promise to Abraham. 145 00:09:55,440 --> 00:10:01,160 Abraham who came out of Ur, a man that was not known apart from the promise God gave 146 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:02,160 him. 147 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:06,520 And I want you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12 because Genesis 12 is where the 148 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:09,800 beginning of this covenant with Abraham started. 149 00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:12,040 Genesis 12 verses one through three. 150 00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:17,680 And if you want to know why Christians today often look at Israel and say, listen, we need 151 00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:22,200 to respect and love and hold in reverence the nation of Israel, it's because of these 152 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:24,600 verses right here. 153 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:28,480 Now the Lord said to Abraham, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from 154 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:31,040 your father's house to the land. 155 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:36,120 By the way, the phrase the land is going to be pretty prominent in what we say. 156 00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:41,060 Every time you see Israel mentioned, it's mentioned in the scripture as the land. 157 00:10:41,060 --> 00:10:45,480 Go from your father's house to the land, which I will show you and I will make you a great 158 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:46,480 nation. 159 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:50,720 Now this is to one man and his wife Sarah that God says this. 160 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:51,760 They're not a great nation. 161 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:55,320 They're not a part of any nation apart from what God is calling them to. 162 00:10:55,320 --> 00:10:56,320 I'll make a great nation. 163 00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:58,600 I will bless you and I'll make your name great. 164 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:00,640 And so you shall be a blessing. 165 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:04,820 And I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. 166 00:11:04,820 --> 00:11:09,000 And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. 167 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:13,640 Now this is a pretty direct covenant. 168 00:11:13,640 --> 00:11:15,560 There's not much room for interpretation here. 169 00:11:15,560 --> 00:11:17,680 God says this is what's going to happen. 170 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:21,920 The whole world is going to be affected by what I do with Israel. 171 00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:27,240 Now I've got to take a moment to talk about Abraham and Sarah for just a moment because 172 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:31,400 they like everybody else in the world, we're not perfect people. 173 00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:36,120 They struggle to believe that God was going to fulfill His covenant, His promise. 174 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:42,400 And you would too if you were 99 and your wife was 90. 175 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:44,640 Wait a minute, God. 176 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:47,920 Are you sure you've got the right people here? 177 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:49,400 You're going to give us a child? 178 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:52,040 You're going to make a great nation out of us? 179 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:53,960 I mean you think about that for just a moment. 180 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:55,280 Put yourself in their shoes. 181 00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:58,800 Now I know nobody in the room is 90 but one day you will be and when you are you'll laugh 182 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:03,880 just like Sarah laughed if someone suggested you're about to have a child. 183 00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:06,360 What an incredible statement God made to these two people. 184 00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:11,380 But the reality is God takes people who could never physically accomplish what He calls 185 00:12:11,380 --> 00:12:14,960 them to do and He does something in spite of their inability. 186 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:20,640 He takes someone that's unable and He makes him able by His power. 187 00:12:20,640 --> 00:12:26,040 So here's Abraham and Sarah unable to have children even not really willing to believe 188 00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:27,040 that deeply. 189 00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:29,800 In fact, Sarah says to Abraham, this isn't happening. 190 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:31,400 Here's Hagar, my handmaiden. 191 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:34,080 Go into her and have a child by her. 192 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:36,800 So Abraham just obeys God and does that. 193 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:39,280 And they have a child named Ishmael. 194 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:41,840 And later on God says that's not the plan. 195 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:44,120 I'm going to give you a son. 196 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:45,120 So they believe God. 197 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:46,840 There's a great story of faith there. 198 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:53,800 They believe God and God makes them able and they have a child named Isaac. 199 00:12:53,800 --> 00:12:58,080 And from that day on, Ishmael and Isaac are two very prominent people in the Old Testament. 200 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:02,800 In fact, Ishmael is the father of the Arab nations and it's very easy to trace back the 201 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:10,280 lineage of that and Israel of course or Isaac is a father along with Abraham of Israel. 202 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:16,000 So you have these two nations or two people groups that began and Ishmael is a perpetual 203 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:18,240 enemy to Israel. 204 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:21,920 The conflict continues on 4,000 years after it began. 205 00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:26,080 But even through all this, God has remained faithful to His promise to Israel and His 206 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:27,080 covenants. 207 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:31,140 He makes further covenants with Moses for the law. 208 00:13:31,140 --> 00:13:35,720 He makes further covenants with David through whom the Messiah came. 209 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:37,720 What about Israel and the promises to Israel? 210 00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:39,880 That's what we're talking about today. 211 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:46,920 So the covenant of Israel with Abraham defines Israel's central place in history and eternity 212 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:48,640 because God's going to fulfill His promises. 213 00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:51,560 I'm going to come back a read and remind you one more time. 214 00:13:51,560 --> 00:13:54,200 You worship a God who does keep His promises. 215 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:57,640 And if you read the Old Testament, you're going to see time and time again where it 216 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:03,940 didn't seem possible for anyone and sometimes we might say even God to fulfill these promises 217 00:14:03,940 --> 00:14:07,520 but He does it every single time. 218 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:12,280 You and I need to have full confidence in the scripture, full confidence in prophecy 219 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:16,200 that foretells this predictive about the thing that will happen. 220 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:19,440 So I have that kind of confidence because I look back after God makes a promise and 221 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:24,940 see that He does fulfill His promises every single time. 222 00:14:24,940 --> 00:14:28,120 But not only do we need to talk about the promises of Israel, we need to talk about 223 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:29,120 something else. 224 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:34,640 Let's talk about the property of Israel, the property, the actual land that was referred 225 00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:37,240 to in Genesis chapter 12. 226 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:41,060 If you jump up to Genesis 17, we see God speaking again. 227 00:14:41,060 --> 00:14:47,080 He says, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you 228 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:52,600 throughout the generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants 229 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:53,600 after you. 230 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:57,120 I want to emphasize for a moment the word everlasting. 231 00:14:57,120 --> 00:14:59,960 God says this is everlasting. 232 00:14:59,960 --> 00:15:01,200 This is not temporary. 233 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:04,180 This is not going to expire at a certain day. 234 00:15:04,180 --> 00:15:07,840 This is an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you and 235 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:14,160 I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all 236 00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:19,520 the land of Canaan, getting more specific, for an everlasting possession and I will be 237 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:21,640 their God. 238 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:28,480 Now you can't look at Genesis chapter 17 and in any way interpret it to be a temporary 239 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:30,080 promise. 240 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:32,840 You can't look at it and say, well God didn't really mean the word everlasting. 241 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:36,420 Surely there's some sort of translational problem there. 242 00:15:36,420 --> 00:15:37,860 But there's not. 243 00:15:37,860 --> 00:15:44,400 God made this amazing, powerful promise to a little bitty piece of land that was to go 244 00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:45,400 to Israel. 245 00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:47,220 I want to put Israel on the map for a moment. 246 00:15:47,220 --> 00:15:51,280 Now you see a globe there, but we've got a little highlight of that very small piece 247 00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:53,600 of land called Israel. 248 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:58,280 You see it there right next to Jordan and right next to the Mediterranean. 249 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:01,960 And there it is in the middle of what we would call the Middle East, the giant continent 250 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:05,280 of Africa under it and the European nations around it. 251 00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:12,400 This little piece of land, keep in mind as we talk about Israel, it is a very small slice 252 00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:17,800 of really state in the middle of the Middle East, but it becomes central to God's supernatural 253 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:18,800 work. 254 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:24,200 In fact, today you can't really read the news about anything that happens without also considering 255 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:27,280 something going on in Israel at the same time. 256 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:32,120 It's a special place made special by God's declaration. 257 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:35,880 It's the place that God gave Israel after their wilderness wanderings. 258 00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:39,320 It's the place where the temple was built and worship began. 259 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:43,680 It's the place where the holy presence of God came down in the holy of holies. 260 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:49,000 The place where Old Testament kings ruled, the place where the Messiah was born and where 261 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,760 God personally visited His people. 262 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:54,200 It's a special land. 263 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:55,800 That's not special because of archeology. 264 00:16:55,800 --> 00:17:00,040 It's not special because of the old buildings and the great history. 265 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:05,920 It's special because God says, this is the land I'm giving you as an eternal gift to 266 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:06,920 you. 267 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:15,080 Now if you study the land of Israel and the geography of it and the quality of what it 268 00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:16,760 is, you'll be astounded. 269 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:20,520 I was astounded to learn that it's one of the richest farmlands in the world. 270 00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:25,080 It has diverse geographical features, mountains and valleys and everything else. 271 00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:27,480 Fertile, fertile in every way. 272 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:29,320 Access to the Mediterranean. 273 00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:31,960 It's basically the breadbasket of the Middle East. 274 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:37,720 Many, many millions of people find their sustenance through the nation of Israel. 275 00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:43,800 And through the centuries, God has remained faithful even when Israel did not. 276 00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:49,560 Israel as a nation is unique because no other nation on the planet, including America, that 277 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:53,920 God ever speak of as being His people. 278 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:57,240 And yet He said that of Israel. 279 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:01,960 It's hard to miss the fact that God's hand that protects us on Israel, especially in these 280 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:02,960 latter days. 281 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:08,000 When we talk about Israel, we do it with a mixture of awe and respect for what seems 282 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:09,920 to be happening there. 283 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:15,440 Tony Evans in his book on prophecy said this, he said, here are a few million people surrounded 284 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:20,560 by millions of their enemies and yet Israel's enemies cannot undo Israel. 285 00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:25,400 The only explanation is God's faithfulness to His covenant. 286 00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:28,080 Fervent to His promise. 287 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:35,760 But Israel did endure dark periods when they were divided, they were driven from the land 288 00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:45,240 and a 2000 year history of absence from this land from 70 AD until 1948. 289 00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:49,600 And the reason that Israel was scattered, as God delivered them out of Egypt and out 290 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:52,280 of bondage, He gave them another covenant. 291 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:55,220 It's called the land covenant or the land promise. 292 00:18:55,220 --> 00:18:57,880 And this promise was conditional. 293 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:03,360 Deuteronomy chapter 28, 29 and 30 is where God articulated this and as He shared this 294 00:19:03,360 --> 00:19:08,000 covenant with them, He said this is really about being blessed or being cursed in terms 295 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:09,480 of how you follow me. 296 00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:13,920 And He basically foretold their rebellion. 297 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:15,280 Let me read this to you. 298 00:19:15,280 --> 00:19:19,920 Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 24 through 28. 299 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:24,000 Part of the prophecy was before all this took place, God said people will say, all the nations 300 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:27,120 will say, why has the Lord done this to this land? 301 00:19:27,120 --> 00:19:29,560 Why this great outburst of anger? 302 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:33,360 Then men will say because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, 303 00:19:33,360 --> 00:19:36,700 which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 304 00:19:36,700 --> 00:19:40,920 They went and served other gods and worshiped with them, gods whom they have not known and 305 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:42,920 whom He had not allotted to them. 306 00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:47,320 Therefore the anger of the Lord burned against that land to bring upon it every curse which 307 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:49,080 is written in this book. 308 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:54,440 And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath and 309 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:58,800 cast them into another land as it is to this day. 310 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:03,640 While they were moving out of Egypt towards the land of promise, God said this is what 311 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:04,640 is going to happen. 312 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:08,680 One of the saddest periods of history. 313 00:20:08,680 --> 00:20:12,200 God did not break His promise but Israel disobeyed. 314 00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:17,440 And for 2000 years Israel was not occupied by the Jewish people but by various warring 315 00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:18,440 people. 316 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:23,160 Warring lots of names of lots of different nationalities that were there. 317 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:27,120 But what happened is Israel was scattered. 318 00:20:27,120 --> 00:20:32,120 Now there's a lesson here even for us in this last day, this age of grace, we have a relationship 319 00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:35,400 with God through Jesus Christ not by Old Testament covenant. 320 00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:38,120 But here's a lesson. 321 00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:40,600 Walk with God and you'll know His blessings. 322 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:45,880 Turn your back on God and you'll know the absence of those blessings. 323 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:50,960 It's important for us to know that God has called us to walk with Him not away from Him. 324 00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:56,800 And the Bible says in the New Testament, as a man sows so also shall he reap. 325 00:20:56,800 --> 00:21:00,480 So it's really important to know in this day when we really want to hear about God's love 326 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:04,360 for us, oh absolutely, God absolutely loves us. 327 00:21:04,360 --> 00:21:08,480 But it's also important for us to realize that when you walk away from God you miss 328 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:11,480 the blessing of walking with Him and so many other things. 329 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:13,640 This is always going to be true. 330 00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:20,040 So the promise to Israel, the property of Israel, and keep in mind that God was not 331 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:22,080 through with Israel and still not. 332 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:25,520 They had to endure this awful time of disobedience. 333 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:32,060 You might remember in the days of Jesus, before they were scattered, Jesus looked at the temple 334 00:21:32,060 --> 00:21:35,760 in the Olivet Discourse, Matthew chapter 24, another great prophetic passage. 335 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:39,520 And He said, do you not see all these things pointing to this temple? 336 00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:44,240 True, I say to you, He said, not one stone will be left upon another which will not be 337 00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:45,480 torn down. 338 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:52,920 37 years later, the temple was torn down completely after the Jews rejected Jesus and the Roman 339 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:58,120 armies He were occupying destroyed not only the temple but also the city and the Jews 340 00:21:58,120 --> 00:22:03,200 were scattered to the nations for the next two millennia. 341 00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:06,800 And Israel was no longer recognized as a nation. 342 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:09,240 What a sad moment. 343 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:12,360 But they would return. 344 00:22:12,360 --> 00:22:14,140 They would return. 345 00:22:14,140 --> 00:22:17,840 And as you look, you're aware they're back. 346 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:22,920 So first of all, the promise, the second, the property, thirdly, the prophecy, the prophecies 347 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:23,920 about Israel. 348 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:29,600 Does anybody remember the book of Ezekiel and that prophecy of the Valley of the Dry 349 00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:30,600 Bones? 350 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:33,920 How many of you remember that being taught that in class or in Sunday school? 351 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:36,640 How many of you remember the song that goes along with that? 352 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:38,440 There's a song that goes along with that. 353 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:39,560 Please do not sing that song. 354 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:41,480 I will not sing that song if you will not. 355 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:45,360 But there was a song that helped us remember this amazing prophecy of the dry bones. 356 00:22:45,360 --> 00:22:52,120 In Ezekiel chapter 37, you've got this amazing moment where Ezekiel the prophet sees the 357 00:22:52,120 --> 00:22:58,200 vision of a valley of dry bones that are disjointed and all dried out in this desert and he heard 358 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:02,240 God tell him to command the bones to come to life. 359 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:05,320 I mean, this is wild stuff in Ezekiel chapter 37. 360 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:10,460 So he's called to do that and when he did, they came together and this vision became 361 00:23:10,460 --> 00:23:13,520 a great army according to the Lord. 362 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:17,240 So I'm going to read Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 14. 363 00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:23,320 It says, I will put my spirit within you and you will come to life, promising this to Israel, 364 00:23:23,320 --> 00:23:28,080 and I will place you on your own land and then you will know that I, the Lord, have 365 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:30,480 spoken and have done these things. 366 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:35,960 I don't know about you, but I was always fascinated from the time I was six years old and in Sunday 367 00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:38,480 school class in a little Baptist church. 368 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:42,560 What an amazing and weird prophecy this is. 369 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:44,560 Dry bones coming to life, really? 370 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:48,400 I mean, I mean, nobody even makes movies about that or maybe they try to make movies like 371 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:53,740 that now, but wow, what a prophecy. 372 00:23:53,740 --> 00:23:58,040 But Israel did come back and Israel was raised up. 373 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:03,600 And the truth is, they came back in a supernatural way. 374 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,080 As God is prone to do, He fulfills His promises in amazing ways. 375 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:12,160 So after being scattered for 2,000 years, the Jews began returning to the homeland when 376 00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:21,960 World War I resulted in the English having rule over what's known as Palestine. 377 00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:25,040 Palestine, how you pronounce it? 378 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,040 And Israel was not there. 379 00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:31,640 But after World War I, England was sympathetic to the Jews and said, you may now begin to 380 00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:35,400 go back and repopulate the land that God gave you. 381 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:40,780 By the way, England and America are both founded in Christianity at their beginning and they 382 00:24:40,780 --> 00:24:43,980 understood the view of Israel from Scripture. 383 00:24:43,980 --> 00:24:48,720 So that led itself to opening doors from the British government. 384 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:53,400 And so the Jewish people started trickling back to the land of Israel. 385 00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,560 But what happened in World War II was even beyond that. 386 00:24:56,560 --> 00:25:02,040 And in World War II, when it was completed, and as you know, World War II, closely associated 387 00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:09,120 with the Holocaust, where six million Jews were literally put to death, but the million 388 00:25:09,120 --> 00:25:18,200 survivors of concentration camps that remained, listen carefully, were allowed to return. 389 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:20,980 When you see pictures of Holocaust victims, what do you see? 390 00:25:20,980 --> 00:25:27,980 You see pictures of people who are skin and bones, skin and bones. 391 00:25:27,980 --> 00:25:34,440 The largest group of people to repopulate Israel before 1948 were Holocaust survivors 392 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:36,720 who were only skin and bones. 393 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:38,440 God gave them back their land. 394 00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:39,860 They had nowhere else to go. 395 00:25:39,860 --> 00:25:41,380 Everything else was taken from them. 396 00:25:41,380 --> 00:25:43,280 God gave them back their land. 397 00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:48,940 And by 1948, these million survivors, along with other Jewish people coming from other 398 00:25:48,940 --> 00:25:55,200 lands, began to be recognized officially as a nation once more in 1948. 399 00:25:55,200 --> 00:26:00,780 And the same land that God had given them 4,000 years before. 400 00:26:00,780 --> 00:26:07,040 So now the nation Israel is completely repopulated, a nation of nearly eight million people today. 401 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:09,400 And the Arab nations still rage against this. 402 00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:15,320 Part of the Gaza conflict is a part of that Ishmael Isaac kind of competition and battle 403 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:16,320 that's going on. 404 00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:21,000 And the struggle in the Middle East is always about who owns the land. 405 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:22,000 It's always about that. 406 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,120 But when I read my Bible, I know who owns the land. 407 00:26:25,120 --> 00:26:27,400 God gave this land to Israel. 408 00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:33,160 And today when you hear chants from the river to the sea, what's really going on are people 409 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:37,760 saying we want to eradicate Israel today from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. 410 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,120 We want to push them right out. 411 00:26:40,120 --> 00:26:46,240 And that's that conflict that's age-old that's been going on for many years and on and on. 412 00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,680 So let's get real about this for just a moment. 413 00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:54,040 Such incredible prophecy that's being fulfilled in such a supernatural way that couldn't ever 414 00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:58,840 be orchestrated by man should impress you to believe your Bible. 415 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:03,520 It should impress you to hold tightly to everything that scripture teaches. 416 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:07,640 Why would I trust anything else when something that God says 4,000 years ago is coming to 417 00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:15,680 pass before my very eyes and I see the impossibility of it happening apart from anyone except Him? 418 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:18,920 So you have the prophecy of Israel. 419 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:24,040 God is fulfilling His promise and His prophecy by bringing them back to the land. 420 00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:29,640 I was in Israel last year and we were hoping to go again this year before the conflict 421 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,280 but it's a beautiful land, a land, an amazing land. 422 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:37,480 And as you drive through you see and feel so many of the things that I'm talking about 423 00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,480 when I talk about God and the blessing on God's people. 424 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,200 It's such a huge thing. 425 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,600 But number four today, I need to tell you about the period of Israel. 426 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:47,920 The period of Israel. 427 00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:53,440 When Israel rejected the Messiah in the days of Jesus, God turned His attention to those 428 00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:56,560 who believe in Jesus Christ. 429 00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:00,600 And we began what's called the age of grace or the age of the church. 430 00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:02,880 We're still in that age today. 431 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:04,040 We're still in the age of grace. 432 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:05,400 We're still in the age of the church. 433 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:06,600 God is working in the church. 434 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,680 He's working through the church and He will continue to work through the church until 435 00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:15,240 He comes appearing to us to gather us together. 436 00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:18,800 Now that's called the rapture and I'll talk about that in the weeks ahead. 437 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:23,760 We're still in that stage where we're waiting for God to rapture the church. 438 00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:27,480 And when the church is raptured, again we'll talk about that soon, when the church is raptured 439 00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:34,200 that will end the church age and begin what's known as the great tribulation. 440 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:39,280 Now the book of Jeremiah prophesies the great tribulation and he calls it a time of Jacob's 441 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:40,280 trouble. 442 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:43,800 Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 7 says, "...the last for that day is great." 443 00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:45,240 There's none like it. 444 00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:48,400 And it is the time of Jacob's distress. 445 00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:53,440 But here's a moment of hope that he will be saved from it. 446 00:28:53,440 --> 00:29:00,040 Great tribulation is to be seven years long filled with incredible and terrifying events. 447 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:05,320 The great tribulation is the time when the Antichrist will rise in power and be revealed 448 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:10,240 or the much anticipated rebuilding of the temple begins to take place. 449 00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:14,920 Do you know that today, even today, there are four large organizations that are all 450 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:19,040 working towards the plans for the rebuilding of the temple? 451 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:22,840 Architects are moving together with building construction experts called the construction 452 00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:28,760 group and they are planning to rebuild that temple at the appropriate time. 453 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:33,360 But God will be focusing in that seven year period on the Jewish people. 454 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:36,880 Now we remember when we started this message we were in Daniel 9 right? 455 00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:42,640 But in Daniel 9 God fulfills and explains the prophecy he gives to Daniel. 456 00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:45,520 And I want you to read Daniel chapter 9 verse 24 and follow with me. 457 00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:49,920 I'm going to put it on the screen again because this is pretty detailed and we'll just take 458 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:53,640 a moment to fly over it. 459 00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:58,640 Gabriel explains the vision to Daniel, 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and 460 00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:03,400 your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for 461 00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:08,240 iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy and 462 00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:09,600 to anoint the most holy place. 463 00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:14,120 Now those five things we'll talk about in future weeks when we look at the tribulation 464 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:16,120 period. 465 00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:21,160 So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild 466 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:26,480 Jerusalem that was given to Nehemiah in the book of Nehemiah until Messiah the Prince, 467 00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:29,560 it will be seven weeks and 62 weeks. 468 00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:35,320 It will be built again with plaza and moat even in times of distress. 469 00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:38,800 Then after the 62 weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing and the people of 470 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:44,440 the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end will come 471 00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:48,760 with a flood even to the end there will be war, desolations are determined referring 472 00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:52,120 to 80, 70 when the Roman occupiers destroyed the temple. 473 00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:55,280 And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week. 474 00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:58,660 This will be referring now to someone coming along later. 475 00:30:58,660 --> 00:31:02,000 He will make a firm covenant with the many of them one week but in the middle of the 476 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,240 week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering and on the wing of abomination will 477 00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:12,160 come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction one that is decreed and is poured 478 00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:15,160 out on one who makes desolate. 479 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,520 Now that's a pretty heavy duty prophecy there. 480 00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:23,400 It refers to 70 weeks, it refers to things that happened in 80, 70 but also refers to 481 00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:29,240 another time when the one who makes desolate comes and many things happen in that tribulation 482 00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:30,520 period. 483 00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:32,240 So stick with me for just a couple of minutes. 484 00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:37,320 I'm going to take two minutes or three minutes to cover all of these 70 week notations with 485 00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:38,320 time. 486 00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:42,040 We can't possibly understand them all at once but one by one we will. 487 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:47,880 The week of Daniel refers to years and it literally refers to a week of seven years. 488 00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:54,000 The prophecy says that 69 weeks or 69 seven week periods after Nehemiah was given the 489 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,760 command to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem the Messiah would come. 490 00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:03,920 If you go back and calculate that that's 483 years and it literally happened from before 491 00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:11,000 the time or at the time Nehemiah began and the time that Christ came and died on 33 AD. 492 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:15,400 Shortly after his death Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed as we've said and the people 493 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:17,220 were scattered. 494 00:32:17,220 --> 00:32:21,560 So this 69 weeks of seven have already happened. 495 00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:26,760 So if you're keeping track of what the prophecy says and what I've just said and explaining 496 00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:29,560 that you know there's another week to go. 497 00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:31,800 What happened to the 70th week? 498 00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:37,640 That's what's called the final week in Daniel's prophecy and it seems as though God has halted 499 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:43,720 or stopped the prophetic clock while he deals with the church before this final seven years 500 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:48,200 in which he deals with Israel or the time of Jacob's trouble. 501 00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:49,320 I've written it down like this. 502 00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:53,240 The final week of the prophecies about Israel point to a period of seven years that takes 503 00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:59,680 place after Jesus comes for the church and during that time God will save many in Israel 504 00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:06,320 as they turn to him but he will also condemn the unbelieving world who refuse him. 505 00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:11,680 These are huge things that are going to happen that are initiated when Christ comes from 506 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:16,280 the church which we talked about a little bit last week. 507 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:18,680 So when will he come for the church? 508 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:19,680 That's what everybody wants to know. 509 00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:21,200 When is he going to come for the church? 510 00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:23,200 When is he going to appear to the church? 511 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:26,760 When is he going to rapture his church out to begin these end time things? 512 00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:36,680 And my answer is next week I'm going to talk about it. 513 00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:37,960 Next week I'm going to talk about it. 514 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,600 Some of you almost lost your breakfast there. 515 00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:42,600 Next week? 516 00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:46,920 Did he really say next week? 517 00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:51,320 Jesus coming back next week you need to get ready right now. 518 00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:56,360 I don't know when he's coming but we're going to talk about these weeks ahead. 519 00:33:56,360 --> 00:34:00,760 But what I want you to walk away with today is the understanding of a covenant-keeping 520 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:06,760 God who keeps His promise in spite of all the impossibilities we see or think of in 521 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:08,280 our minds. 522 00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:14,760 I want you to see that when God sets His favor on someone and loves someone He never stops 523 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:15,760 loving them. 524 00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:18,080 He loves Old Testament Israel today. 525 00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:20,280 He loves the Israel people today. 526 00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:21,440 He loves you today. 527 00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,000 He's got His eyes set on you. 528 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:29,160 I want you to see a God who prophesies and fulfills things in such a way that lets you 529 00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:36,360 read your Bible and walk away and go, this is something I can build my life on. 530 00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:40,560 You've not thought about building your life on end times type of prophecy but what end 531 00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:46,460 times prophecy should say to you is everything God says both predictive and prophetic comes 532 00:34:46,460 --> 00:34:51,740 to path so every promise He gives to you personally will also come to path. 533 00:34:51,740 --> 00:34:58,360 Do not doubt God in any way because He's a covenant-keeping God. 534 00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:03,400 You know today as I think about preparing to talk about the rapture of the church, I 535 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:08,120 think I mentioned this last week, when Christ comes for the church that's your last opportunity 536 00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:11,920 to witness, to give your life to Jesus. 537 00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:16,960 It's your last opportunity to praise and worship Him, give to Him, serve in His name. 538 00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:20,360 Do it now because when He comes back you'll have no other opportunity. 539 00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:25,160 Now granted when He comes back for us as a church we'll be with Him forever and ever 540 00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:30,160 but there will be those that are not with Him because they do not believe in Him that 541 00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:34,120 we know that we have some influence over. 542 00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:40,000 Keep in mind serve Him while He waits, while He tarries so that you will have completed 543 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:43,760 your course when He comes. 544 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:48,880 And pray for Israel, pray for peace in Israel, pray for the salvation of Israel, pray for 545 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:55,200 God to reveal Himself to Israel in a powerful way and appreciate them for all that God has 546 00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:58,240 done with them what He will do with them. 547 00:35:58,240 --> 00:36:02,720 Just a few moments, I'm going to close in prayer, we have our decision stations as always. 548 00:36:02,720 --> 00:36:06,440 We want to talk to you if you have questions about a relationship with God and we have 549 00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:08,520 people that are just waiting to do that. 550 00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:12,240 You may even have questions about what I've shared today and we can talk about that but 551 00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:17,040 certainly your relationship with Jesus is the most important priority that we have. 552 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:21,080 So I invite you to stop by if you have a decision you'd like to make, a question you'd like 553 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:22,080 to answer. 554 00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:25,480 Secondly, I invite you to our guest reception room, it's right outside the center exit doors 555 00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:29,520 and one of the great joys, one of my favorite times on Sunday morning is to go to that guest 556 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:33,840 reception room and meet people who have come here for the first few times and just say 557 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:37,520 hello, just thank them personally for coming and tell them a little bit about Cross City 558 00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:42,680 Church so join me in the glass room right across the central exit doors and I'll see 559 00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:44,600 you there if you drop in. 560 00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:46,800 Thirdly, I want to invite you back. 561 00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:51,160 I did say to you that next week we have the election message and I will be focusing on 562 00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:53,240 that next week. 563 00:36:53,240 --> 00:36:57,280 But if you can trust me in talking with you in a sensitive way about biblical prophecy 564 00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:00,520 for example or anything else, you can trust me with that message. 565 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:05,240 It won't be caustic, it won't be hard but we will be taking time to look at biblical 566 00:37:05,240 --> 00:37:09,240 perspectives about what all the issues we face are. 567 00:37:09,240 --> 00:37:10,520 So let me pray for you before we go. 568 00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:11,520 Can we stand? 569 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:18,100 Father, what a blessing, what a joy it is to be in this room today. 570 00:37:18,100 --> 00:37:22,720 Thank you so much for drawing and bringing every person that's here today to let them 571 00:37:22,720 --> 00:37:24,960 be in this room for this moment. 572 00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:29,400 I don't believe in coincidences God so I know that you bring people for a variety of reasons 573 00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:35,520 but I pray at the heart of it all, it's allowing them to draw closer to you, to know you, to 574 00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:38,040 know your ways, to know your word. 575 00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:41,520 And I pray that you'll encourage us to make the decisions that need to be made in our 576 00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:43,920 lives as we follow you. 577 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:48,920 Lord, my prayer is that in the days ahead we will see the importance of a relationship 578 00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:53,920 with you as being more important than anything else in our lives. 579 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:55,920 Allow us to have that. 580 00:37:55,920 --> 00:38:22,920 Father, I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.