Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / URGENT MESSAGE UPDATE MUST SEE- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Well.
- 0:01Speaker 2: The flight to nowhere sold out in ten minutes. Quantus
- 0:06Speaker 2: Airlines called it their fastest selling ticket in the airline's history.
- 0:13Speaker 2: Cheap seats went for five hundred and seventy five bucks.
- 0:17Speaker 2: First class went for two thousand, six hundred and seventy
- 0:21Speaker 2: five And what does a passenger get for the money?
- 0:27Speaker 2: Seven hours of circling Australia landing in the same place
- 0:31Speaker 2: you left. Chalk it up to COVID nineteen. People are
- 0:39Speaker 2: wary of you're being stuck at home in response to
- 0:43Speaker 2: months of going nowhere. They paid good money to well
- 0:49Speaker 2: go nowhere. Forgive me for being blunt, but I'm going
- 0:54Speaker 2: to keep my money in my pocket and keep my
- 0:57Speaker 2: feet on the ground, flying in circles, no thank you,
- 1:04Speaker 2: flying toward a destination that's better. And that's biblical embedded
- 1:09Speaker 2: and inherent in the Biblical teaching in the pages of
- 1:13Speaker 2: Scripture is this promise that we are headed to a
- 1:16Speaker 2: better place, that we're not going to circle around and
- 1:20Speaker 2: come back to where we've always been. And we can
- 1:23Speaker 2: survive winter times like the one in which we find
- 1:26Speaker 2: ourselves now because we know that a glorious springtime, a
- 1:32Speaker 2: glory awaits us. The book we're studying. The Book of
- 1:37Speaker 2: Esther invites this hope. It may surprise you to hear
- 1:44Speaker 2: the Book of Esther described as a book that gives
- 1:47Speaker 2: hope about the end of history. When we think of
- 1:53Speaker 2: end times, we often think of prophetic books like the
- 1:57Speaker 2: Book of Daniel, the Book of Revelation, the Teachings of
- 2:03Speaker 2: Jesus in Matthew chapter twenty four. So does the story
- 2:07Speaker 2: of the Queen of Persia the Book of Esther? Does
- 2:12Speaker 2: it contribute to this what's next conversation? I would say yes,
- 2:18Speaker 2: Esther is a foreshadowing of final events. It does relate
- 2:24Speaker 2: the history of exiled Jews in fifth century b c. Persia,
- 2:30Speaker 2: But it also reminds us of the timeline of humanity
- 2:38Speaker 2: in human history. If you need to widen the aperture
- 2:44Speaker 2: of your lens of scripture and back away for a
- 2:47Speaker 2: bit and look at the big picture of the Book
- 2:50Speaker 2: of Esther, and you will see how the three acts
- 2:53Speaker 2: of Esther mirror the three acts of human history. Here's
- 2:58Speaker 2: a review of the three acts of Yes. A number
- 3:01Speaker 2: one is crisis crisis. The early chapters introduced us to
- 3:08Speaker 2: the crisis in the nation of Persia, in the city
- 3:14Speaker 2: of Susa, the curtain of our drama opens onto this
- 3:18Speaker 2: flamboyant display of wealth. King Xerxes had everything. He had power,
- 3:24Speaker 2: he had money, he had wine, he had women, well
- 3:30Speaker 2: all but the one woman that mattered, Queen Vashti, refused
- 3:35Speaker 2: to come into his man caves camp man cave and
- 3:39Speaker 2: dance around in front of a bunch of bibulous males.
- 3:43Speaker 1: For that reason, she got the boot.
- 3:46Speaker 2: The exit of Vashti triggered the entrance of Esther, and
- 3:52Speaker 2: she had enough woo. She had enough wow that she
- 3:56Speaker 2: won the heart of the king and inherited the throne
- 4:01Speaker 2: of the queen.
- 4:03Speaker 1: But there was a secret. She was a Jew.
- 4:09Speaker 2: And her cousin Mordecai, the other main character in the
- 4:13Speaker 2: story who worked in the palace, was also a Jew,
- 4:18Speaker 2: and no one knew. King Xerxes did not know that
- 4:21Speaker 2: he slept with the Jew and employed a Jew, and
- 4:26Speaker 2: they probably never would have known except for the villain
- 4:31Speaker 2: of the story, Hayman, who happened to be a Jew hater.
- 4:38Speaker 2: And when Mordecai refused to bow before Haman, Haman convinced
- 4:43Speaker 2: the king, King Xerxes to exterminate every Jew in the
- 4:48Speaker 2: Persian Empire. It was a crisis, and the crisis of
- 4:55Speaker 2: Act one led to the confusion of Act two. Having
- 5:02Speaker 2: decreed certain depth for the Jews, the King and Hayman
- 5:06Speaker 2: set down to drink. But the city of Zeus, Susa,
- 5:10Speaker 2: was bewildered. The king and his right hand man were
- 5:15Speaker 2: so insensitive and so unaware of the value of people
- 5:21Speaker 2: that they could declare a blood bath and then have
- 5:24Speaker 2: a cocktail. The entire city of Susa was bewildered, not
- 5:29Speaker 2: just the Jewish nation, but the entire city. I mean,
- 5:34Speaker 2: if Hayman can turn his ire on an ethnic group,
- 5:38Speaker 2: a minority group, well who's next. He may have it
- 5:43Speaker 2: in for people who are left handed, for farmers. So
- 5:49Speaker 2: the entire nation was on edge. When the king is
- 5:53Speaker 2: a whimp and his chief of staff is a despot,
- 5:56Speaker 2: anything can happen. Of course, you and I know something
- 6:00Speaker 2: that the people of Persia did not. We've read the story.
- 6:04Speaker 2: We know the story, and we know that God was
- 6:06Speaker 2: busy at work. He was working behind the scenes. And
- 6:11Speaker 2: out of this confusion came Act three, and that is conquests.
- 6:15Speaker 2: That's what we looked at last week. The tables were turned.
- 6:20Speaker 2: Hayman's plot crashed into the head first into into God's providence.
- 6:25Speaker 2: No one, not even the King of Persia, can stand
- 6:29Speaker 2: against our King, the King of kings. Mordecai got this somewhere.
- 6:35Speaker 1: He got this.
- 6:36Speaker 2: He came to understand. Remember his wake up call to
- 6:40Speaker 2: Queen Esther. He said, now, if you remain silent at
- 6:42Speaker 2: this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise.
- 6:47Speaker 2: It will arise from another place. That's what he told her.
- 6:50Speaker 2: He was absolutely certain of the ultimate victory of God's plan,
- 6:56Speaker 2: and there was no question to Mordecai as to the
- 6:59Speaker 2: out come of the story. Yes there was a crisis,
- 7:03Speaker 2: Yes there is confusion, but overall Mordecai could see the conquests.
- 7:09Speaker 2: He knew his God was a covenant keeping God. I
- 7:12Speaker 2: don't know where he got this. Maybe he returned to
- 7:15Speaker 2: the teachings of the youth of his youth, and he
- 7:18Speaker 2: was reminded. He knew God would be their God and
- 7:21Speaker 2: they would be his people. He knew God would gather
- 7:24Speaker 2: them from all the countries. He knew God would send
- 7:27Speaker 2: a king through them and to them from the tribe
- 7:30Speaker 2: of Judah to rescue his people and establish his eternal kingdom.
- 7:34Speaker 2: These were the covenants that God had made, and Mordecai
- 7:39Speaker 2: came to believe that somehow God will keep this covenant,
- 7:43Speaker 2: and maybe he'll use Esther, but if Esther refuses, he'll
- 7:46Speaker 2: find another way. The role of Esther was questionable, but
- 7:54Speaker 2: the promise of God was not. The perseverance of God's
- 7:58Speaker 2: children was never in question. Consequently, the victory was theirs.
- 8:04Speaker 2: And we know the story. We know that Esther did
- 8:06Speaker 2: get on board. We know that that day that was
- 8:10Speaker 2: certain to be a day of death in which all
- 8:11Speaker 2: the people, all the Jewish people, would be destroyed, turned
- 8:15Speaker 2: into a day of victory, in which all their enemies
- 8:17Speaker 2: were destroyed, and the Jews, who had lived in fear,
- 8:19Speaker 2: all of a sudden students strength, They who were a
- 8:25Speaker 2: minority are relegated minority to the margins of society. All
- 8:30Speaker 2: of a sudden were center stage, and all the other
- 8:32Speaker 2: nationalities were looking up to them and to Jews. Mordecai
- 8:36Speaker 2: and Esther were right in the heartbeat of the palace.
- 8:42Speaker 2: It's no wonder that Jews to this day celebate break
- 8:45Speaker 2: this triumph with the Feast of Perham, which we'll examine
- 8:48Speaker 2: in detail next week. But there's more to this story
- 8:51Speaker 2: than Hebrew victory. Don't let this account the Book of
- 8:56Speaker 2: Esther be simply a history book of what God did.
- 9:01Speaker 2: It is actually a playbook of what God is doing.
- 9:06Speaker 2: And the three acts of Esther mirror the three acts
- 9:11Speaker 2: of humanity. Let me show you what I mean. There
- 9:15Speaker 2: was act one, a crisis. A crisis. Haman entered the
- 9:23Speaker 2: world of Persia.
- 9:27Speaker 1: Not I'm sorry.
- 9:30Speaker 2: He entered the world of Persia as an advisor to
- 9:33Speaker 2: the king Our Hayman. Satan entered the Garden of Eden
- 9:39Speaker 2: as a tempter to Adam and Eve. Now, the garden
- 9:44Speaker 2: of Eden was perfect. God found it so delightful that
- 9:50Speaker 2: he would walk with his children in the cool of
- 9:52Speaker 2: the evening. Can you believe that Adam and Eve found
- 9:57Speaker 2: it so safe they wore no clothing? Well would they
- 10:01Speaker 2: what they What did they have to hide? And from
- 10:04Speaker 2: whom did they need to hide? They were one with creation,
- 10:09Speaker 2: They were one with God, They were one with each other.
- 10:12Speaker 2: It was a wonderful world. But then came the crisis.
- 10:20Speaker 2: Adam and Eve broke rank. The wooing serpent whispered, a
- 10:25Speaker 2: better deal. I can get you more, he said, more power,
- 10:33Speaker 2: more clout Why in my plan you'll occupy the corner
- 10:37Speaker 2: office of the universe.
- 10:38Speaker 1: Here's what he said to them, You'll be like God.
- 10:44Speaker 2: And that's all it took. Eve took de bait. Adam followed. Now,
- 10:51Speaker 2: Eve was perfect. Eve got I'm sorry. Eden was perfect.
- 10:58Speaker 2: Eden offered everything that they would ever need to know,
- 11:02Speaker 2: everything that they would ever need to have, ecological harmony, relational.
- 11:07Speaker 1: Purity, spiritual peace. Eden offered everything.
- 11:11Speaker 2: But there could be more, whispered the Satan, and he
- 11:15Speaker 2: whispers it still.
- 11:18Speaker 1: And so crisis, crisis came into the.
- 11:24Speaker 2: Garden, and that crisis of Act one led to the
- 11:29Speaker 2: confusion of Act two. That's where we are right now,
- 11:31Speaker 2: ladies and gentlemen, we are in Act two. The world
- 11:38Speaker 2: is a confused mess. Adam and Eve is a response
- 11:46Speaker 2: to the crisis.
- 11:47Speaker 1: Hid.
- 11:48Speaker 2: They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Adam
- 11:52Speaker 2: and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the
- 11:55Speaker 2: Lord God among the trees of the garden and into hiding.
- 12:03Speaker 2: They hid first. We've all been hiding since they hid
- 12:09Speaker 2: behind fig leaves and in the forest. We hide behind
- 12:13Speaker 2: bottles of liquor or desks of work. We distance ourselves
- 12:19Speaker 2: from our only hope, and that is our good and
- 12:22Speaker 2: our faithful God. Even creation is cranky thorns and thistles,
- 12:31Speaker 2: which were unknown in the garden of Eden. They wormed
- 12:35Speaker 2: their way into the creation. And nature gives food, but
- 12:40Speaker 2: only in exchange for the sweat and toil of Adam
- 12:45Speaker 2: and Eve and their children.
- 12:47Speaker 1: It's a mess. It's a mess.
- 12:51Speaker 2: Adam and Eve had two sons. Both brought offerings to God.
- 12:56Speaker 2: God accepted the offering of the younger, Abel, but he
- 13:00Speaker 2: rejected the gift of the elder, and Cain was upset.
- 13:04Speaker 2: So Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
- 13:08Speaker 2: And for the first time, the blood of a person
- 13:13Speaker 2: was spilled onto the soil of earth.
- 13:18Speaker 1: How many drops of blood have been spilled since?
- 13:23Speaker 3: All the wars, all the murders, all the fights, all
- 13:27Speaker 3: the conflicts, all the bitterness, all the hostilities, all the.
- 13:34Speaker 1: Rivalries, squabbles and scourges.
- 13:39Speaker 2: At one point, the Lord heaves this heavy sigh, and
- 13:44Speaker 2: he was sorry that he had made man on the earth,
- 13:47Speaker 2: the saddest sentence in scripture. He started over with a flood,
- 13:56Speaker 2: hoping the flood would clean everything up. But the descendants
- 14:02Speaker 2: of Noah went to babble, and they built a tower,
- 14:06Speaker 2: still heeding the Serpent's temptation that they could be like God,
- 14:12Speaker 2: and the result was and the result is babbling, corruption
- 14:18Speaker 2: runs riot. Sometimes it seems that Hayman and Xerse, these
- 14:22Speaker 2: are still in charge.
- 14:25Speaker 1: But they're not. They're not.
- 14:27Speaker 2: How do we know, Because we've read the book, We
- 14:31Speaker 2: know the difference. We know that our covenant keeping God
- 14:34Speaker 2: is at work. And just as Mordecai heard promises and
- 14:39Speaker 2: they gave him faith, today we hear promises and they
- 14:43Speaker 2: convince us that we're not on a flight to nowhere,
- 14:46Speaker 2: but we're on a flight to somewhere that is unlike
- 14:50Speaker 2: anything we have ever seen.
- 14:54Speaker 1: And soon to come is.
- 14:55Speaker 2: Acts Chapter three, Act chapter Act three, and that is
- 15:00Speaker 2: the conquest, the conquest. It's right to see God as
- 15:06Speaker 2: a loving father. It is right to see him as
- 15:08Speaker 2: a caring shepherd. It is right to see him as
- 15:11Speaker 2: a friend of sinners. But it is equally right to
- 15:14Speaker 2: see him as the conquering king in the end of history,
- 15:18Speaker 2: who will once and for all do away with Saman,
- 15:21Speaker 2: with Satan and everybody who has saluted him. He was
- 15:27Speaker 2: decisive and dramatic in the days of Esther. He'll be
- 15:31Speaker 2: even more so in these the last days. Let me
- 15:37Speaker 2: tell you what history's next big event is. Best I
- 15:43Speaker 2: can determine. The next big event in history is a
- 15:50Speaker 2: moment in which God will rapture. He will rescue his
- 15:55Speaker 2: children from off the face of this planet. Here's the
- 16:00Speaker 2: description for Thessalonians. For the Lord himself will come down
- 16:04Speaker 2: from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of
- 16:07Speaker 2: the Archangel, with the trumpet call of God, and the
- 16:10Speaker 2: dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who
- 16:14Speaker 2: are still alive and are left will be caught up
- 16:17Speaker 2: together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord
- 16:21Speaker 2: in the air.
- 16:23Speaker 1: And so we will be with the Lord forever.
- 16:28Speaker 2: A day is coming in which Christians, upon the signal
- 16:31Speaker 2: of Christ, will be transported into the presence of Christ,
- 16:35Speaker 2: never to depart. This rapture includes the resurrection of dead
- 16:42Speaker 2: believers and the transformation of living believers, and it will
- 16:48Speaker 2: occur in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
- 16:55Speaker 2: This word moment in Greek is at ms. Sounds like
- 17:01Speaker 2: atom minuscule to the degree that an atom is small.
- 17:07Speaker 2: That moment will be quick, friends, That's how long Jesus
- 17:11Speaker 2: needs to resurrect and transform his church. It will happen
- 17:17Speaker 2: so quickly in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
- 17:23Speaker 2: How long is the twinkle of an eye? Somebody tell me, well,
- 17:28Speaker 2: that's how long Jesus needs to inaugurate the final era,
- 17:34Speaker 2: the era of conquest. Now, think for a moment about
- 17:38Speaker 2: the implications of this sudden rapture. Think for a moment
- 17:45Speaker 2: what this planet is going to be like with all
- 17:48Speaker 2: of a sudden, every God fearing, Bible believing christ following
- 17:55Speaker 2: son or daughter of God mysteriously gone. Can you imagine
- 18:00Speaker 2: the chaos? Can you imagine the questions? Every NGO will close,
- 18:09Speaker 2: Christian schools will be empty, Christian lawyers, doctors, researchers, professors
- 18:14Speaker 2: all gone. The salt and light of society will be withdrawn,
- 18:20Speaker 2: and the stage will be set for the master of deception.
- 18:25Speaker 2: Scripture calls him the Antichrist, the Antichrist. The stage will
- 18:32Speaker 2: be set for him to step into the void and
- 18:36Speaker 2: offer answers in solutions. Just like Adolf Hitler emerged on
- 18:41Speaker 2: the scene of such political and economic chaos that entire
- 18:46Speaker 2: nations of people bought his lies, So the Antichrist will
- 18:52Speaker 2: step forward with pragmatic answers and promises to unite the world.
- 18:58Speaker 2: He will use our He will use Satanic power. He
- 19:03Speaker 2: will offer easy solutions and make exorbitant pledges. He will
- 19:09Speaker 2: inaugurate his era with diplomacy. The Old Testament Prophet Daniel
- 19:15Speaker 2: says that leader will make a firm agreement with many
- 19:18Speaker 2: people for seven years. He will extend in olive branch
- 19:24Speaker 2: to the nations. Most specifically, he will make an agreement
- 19:28Speaker 2: with the nation of Israel, and Israel will agree, they
- 19:33Speaker 2: will sign the treaty. Yet midway through the treaty he
- 19:36Speaker 2: will break it and guess what will break loose all hell,
- 19:42Speaker 2: and he will cause astounding devastation and succeed in whatever
- 19:47Speaker 2: he does. He will destroy those who are mighty, the
- 19:50Speaker 2: holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper, and he
- 19:54Speaker 2: will consider himself superior. In the Book of revel chapters
- 20:01Speaker 2: four through nineteen, we have a description of everything that's
- 20:04Speaker 2: going to happen in the second half of this tribulation.
- 20:08Speaker 2: It will be unlike anything that the world has ever seen. Famine, death,
- 20:13Speaker 2: cosmic disturbances. Jay Dwight Pentecost was right when he wrote,
- 20:19Speaker 2: no passage can be found to alleviate to any degree
- 20:23Speaker 2: whatsoever the severity of this time that shall come upon
- 20:27Speaker 2: the earth. The tribulation shall be the darkest hour in
- 20:33Speaker 2: human history. In your heart, you should thank the Lord
- 20:38Speaker 2: Jesus right now that you will not be here to
- 20:42Speaker 2: be a part of it. Such a depressing chapter of
- 20:47Speaker 2: human history, unlike anything that the world has ever seen.
- 20:52Speaker 1: But I'm not finished. There is more.
- 20:56Speaker 2: News, good news, good news to share, because at the
- 21:01Speaker 2: end of this time of terrible tribulation, there will be
- 21:04Speaker 2: a battle, a final battle in the Valley of Armageddon.
- 21:09Speaker 2: And in that battle, the Antichrist will rally his troops
- 21:12Speaker 2: to fight against the Lord Jesus and his army. Revelation
- 21:15Speaker 2: nineteen and verse nineteen. The Antichrist in his armies will
- 21:20Speaker 2: suffer total and cataclysmic defeat at the hand of our
- 21:25Speaker 2: King Jesus Christ, and Jesus won't even lift a finger.
- 21:29Speaker 2: He won't even lift a finger. Revelations nineteen fifteen says
- 21:33Speaker 2: the sword of his word will smite the nations. As
- 21:38Speaker 2: was prophesied in the Book of Daniel, the Antichrist will
- 21:41Speaker 2: be destroyed, but not by human power. The expression of
- 21:49Speaker 2: Haman alive in the Tribulation, will be defeated, just as
- 21:56Speaker 2: Hayman was defeated in the Days of Esther. Satan will
- 22:00Speaker 2: be chained, and Jesus will return to the earth as
- 22:03Speaker 2: the King of kings and the Lord of lords, to judge,
- 22:07Speaker 2: to judge once then for all his enemies, Satan's deception,
- 22:13Speaker 2: and he will set up a kingdom on this earth,
- 22:16Speaker 2: just as he has promised. He will hear me Church,
- 22:20Speaker 2: our God will have his garden of Eden, and he
- 22:25Speaker 2: will set up a thousand year reign in which he
- 22:30Speaker 2: will keep every covenant, in which he will display what
- 22:34Speaker 2: he can do, in which his people will reign with him,
- 22:41Speaker 2: in which there will be peace, in which there will
- 22:44Speaker 2: be no racism, no pandemics, in which there will be
- 22:49Speaker 2: no more murders, no more evil. There will be peace
- 22:52Speaker 2: on this earth. Every covenant made by God will be kept.
- 23:00Speaker 2: The end of those thousand years, Satan will be released,
- 23:03Speaker 2: and he will attempt one final coup, but once again
- 23:07Speaker 2: he will be defeated, and he will be cast into
- 23:10Speaker 2: an eternal fire that was created for the devil and
- 23:14Speaker 2: his angels, and the world will be judged, and the
- 23:17Speaker 2: eternal Kingdom of Heaven will begin. So what's next. I'll
- 23:25Speaker 2: tell you what's next. Victory is what's next. The conquest
- 23:33Speaker 2: of Almighty God is what's next, Peace and harmony for
- 23:38Speaker 2: the child of God. There is no reason to fear.
- 23:44Speaker 2: There is no reason to fear. You can have security
- 23:47Speaker 2: about the victory. Yes there was a crisis. Absolutely, we're
- 23:53Speaker 2: in the midst of confusion, but you can set your
- 23:56Speaker 2: heart on the coming conquest. And what happened, as described
- 24:00Speaker 2: in the Book of Esther, is being played out right
- 24:03Speaker 2: now in the history of mankind. We are in the
- 24:09Speaker 2: era of confusion. Would anyone doubt that we are so confused?
- 24:19Speaker 2: People all around us have no clue why they are
- 24:24Speaker 2: on this earth or where they are headed.
- 24:28Speaker 1: Ask most people.
- 24:29Speaker 2: And they will tell you we're on a flight to nowhere.
- 24:33Speaker 2: We're on a flight to nowhere, so you might as
- 24:36Speaker 2: well have a lot of drinks before the plane lands,
- 24:40Speaker 2: because we're not destined anywhere. The invisible enemy of sin
- 24:45Speaker 2: and secularism has left us dazed and bewildered. Even the
- 24:51Speaker 2: brightest and best thinkers on our planet are absolutely clueless
- 24:57Speaker 2: as to what comes next. We have much know how
- 25:03Speaker 2: hardly any know why. That's why we're so confused, That's
- 25:10Speaker 2: why we take it out on each other. That's why
- 25:12Speaker 2: there's such bitterness and rancor. There's why there's such territorialism
- 25:18Speaker 2: and politicizing over everything. We're down deep scared.
- 25:24Speaker 1: We're just scared.
- 25:27Speaker 2: But in the midst of all the chaos and in
- 25:29Speaker 2: the midst of all the fear, there is a group
- 25:31Speaker 2: of people who has read the book, who has acknowledged, yes.
- 25:38Speaker 1: There was a crisis, who is.
- 25:40Speaker 2: Acknowledging yes, this is a time of confusion. But who
- 25:43Speaker 2: is standing on the firm hope that a conquest is
- 25:47Speaker 2: coming because our covenant keeping God has never broken a promise.
- 25:53Speaker 2: Hence the church. Hence the Church. That's why we're here
- 26:01Speaker 2: to be the salt in the light, to be that
- 26:03Speaker 2: quorum of people who don't cave in, who don't drink
- 26:07Speaker 2: the kool aid of fear, To be that group of
- 26:11Speaker 2: people who behaved like that church behaved on that Sunday
- 26:16Speaker 2: morning in London. No one would have blamed that church
- 26:21Speaker 2: had they not gathered.
- 26:25Speaker 1: The night before.
- 26:27Speaker 2: Hitler's bombing raid had roared through the city all night long.
- 26:37Speaker 2: That morning that Sunday morning, London was a circle of fire.
- 26:41Speaker 2: Walls were shattered, buildings were destroyed. Even the walls of
- 26:46Speaker 2: this particular congregation in downtown London were reduced to rubble.
- 26:51Speaker 2: There was no roof, but still they came. Members arrived
- 26:58Speaker 2: to find their pews covered with and dust. But rather
- 27:01Speaker 2: than despair, you know what they did. They chose to worship.
- 27:06Speaker 2: They stood in the center of what had been their building,
- 27:09Speaker 2: and they began to sing.
- 27:11Speaker 1: Standing on.
- 27:14Speaker 2: Stones, they sang, the Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ.
- 27:19Speaker 1: Her Lord.
- 27:21Speaker 2: She is His new creation by spirit and the word
- 27:24Speaker 2: from heaven. He came and sought her to be his
- 27:27Speaker 2: holy bride. With his own blood. He bought her, and
- 27:31Speaker 2: for her life he died. Can you envision this circle
- 27:34Speaker 2: of brave souls. They set their faith on our unfailing God,
- 27:40Speaker 2: even smack Dad in the center of global chaos, they worshiped.
- 27:46Speaker 2: Their song was an admonition of sorts, a declaration of
- 27:49Speaker 2: truth in the midst of a failing society. And that
- 27:53Speaker 2: song may very well has saved the life of a
- 27:58Speaker 2: young American report order by the name of Ben Patterson.
- 28:04Speaker 2: He had arrived in London the day before, of all days.
- 28:10Speaker 2: He spent the night in a hotel with a pillow
- 28:14Speaker 2: over his head, hearing the sirens, hearing the air raids,
- 28:20Speaker 2: hearing the collapsing buildings, hearing the screams of the wounded.
- 28:27Speaker 1: He said.
- 28:27Speaker 2: At one point he prayed, if this is what modern
- 28:31Speaker 2: civilization has brought us, then God let me die. At
- 28:38Speaker 2: some point he dozed off, and he awoke to the
- 28:43Speaker 2: unexpected sound of a singing church. And he climbed out
- 28:50Speaker 2: of the bed, and he opened his window, and he
- 28:52Speaker 2: looked out, and he saw that congregation gathered in the
- 28:58Speaker 2: midst of the rubble. He later wrote these words, Suddenly
- 29:03Speaker 2: I saw something in the world that was untouchable, something
- 29:07Speaker 2: that had endured through the millennia, something that was indestructible,
- 29:13Speaker 2: the spirit and life and power of.
- 29:15Speaker 1: Jesus within his church friends.
- 29:21Speaker 2: Bombs are still dropped, walls still collapse, worlds still are
- 29:27Speaker 2: on edge, Pandemics still rage. But in the midst of
- 29:32Speaker 2: it all, guess what God has his people. God has
- 29:38Speaker 2: his people. God has his people who show up, who
- 29:45Speaker 2: stand up, and who look up. And sometimes they gather
- 29:49Speaker 2: in rooms and wear masks. Sometimes they stay home, though
- 29:54Speaker 2: they would much rather gather in rooms. But they come.
- 30:00Speaker 2: They stand in the presence of God in the midst
- 30:03Speaker 2: of a society that's gone crazy. They keep looking forward.
- 30:08Speaker 2: Why because they've read the end of the story. They
- 30:13Speaker 2: know it's confusion. They're not surprised at the chaos. Troubled, yes, discouraged, fatigued,
- 30:20Speaker 2: no doubt.
- 30:22Speaker 1: But they don't give up.
- 30:26Speaker 2: Many years ago, I attended a San Antonio Spurs basketball game.
- 30:31Speaker 2: It was the final game of the regular season, and
- 30:35Speaker 2: it was unique. It was unique because the outcome of
- 30:38Speaker 2: the game did not matter. The Spurs had had a
- 30:42Speaker 2: terrific season and they had already secured their spot at
- 30:47Speaker 2: the top of the playoffs. They had such a lead
- 30:53Speaker 2: over the second place team that nobody could catch them.
- 30:56Speaker 1: But they had to play the game because it was
- 30:58Speaker 1: on the schedule. Whether they won or.
- 31:01Speaker 2: Lost didn't matter. They couldn't lose even if they lost.
- 31:07Speaker 2: The game had little or no interest to the sports world,
- 31:10Speaker 2: but the preacher in me saw a sermon illustration about
- 31:14Speaker 2: to happen. Christians occupy the same spot as the Spurs.
- 31:21Speaker 1: Did you see, folks, We've already won.
- 31:26Speaker 2: We've already won because of the death of Christ on
- 31:30Speaker 2: the Cross and the resurrection of Christ from the tomb,
- 31:32Speaker 2: and the guarantee of Christ to be at the throne
- 31:36Speaker 2: in the throne room of God, and the presence of
- 31:38Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit around us. We cannot lose. We are
- 31:44Speaker 2: guaranteed victory. No one can snatch us from our father's hand.
- 31:49Speaker 2: Yet we still have a few contests, we still have
- 31:54Speaker 2: a few events. The season's not quite over. So how
- 32:00Speaker 2: do we behave in the meantime. Well, I watched the
- 32:04Speaker 2: Spurs to see if they could say anything, teach me anything.
- 32:09Speaker 2: Here's what they did. They showed up. They've played hard,
- 32:16Speaker 2: they had a great time, and they killed the opposition.
- 32:22Speaker 2: Even in the postgame interview, Papovich said, I've never seen
- 32:25Speaker 2: them so relaxed. You know, something happens when you know
- 32:30Speaker 2: you're going to win. You play harder, you show up,
- 32:36Speaker 2: you stay strong. Friend, I encourage you to do the same.
- 32:41Speaker 1: In these last days.
- 32:42Speaker 2: Just show up, play hard, have some fun, stay happy,
- 32:49Speaker 2: and be assured that the King of Kings will keep
- 32:52Speaker 2: his covenant and will have his conquest.
- 32:55Speaker 1: Amen.
- 33:03Speaker 2: We bless you, Lord for the picture of the end
- 33:05Speaker 2: of times as you describe it. We thank you Lord.
- 33:10Speaker 2: It excites our heart. We bless you Father that you
- 33:14Speaker 2: have not trapped us on an airline, on a flight
- 33:19Speaker 2: that has no landing, or that lands in the same
- 33:21Speaker 2: place it begins. Because Lord, we're ready to go, not
- 33:26Speaker 2: to nowhere, but to somewhere beyond anything that we could
- 33:29Speaker 2: ever imagine. To that day we set our hearts through Jesus.
- 33:34Speaker 1: We pray amen ne.
- 34:19Speaker 4: Ne ne ne ne.
- 34:34Speaker 5: Ne. Do don't about the.
- 35:27Speaker 6: Pest, the.
- 37:57Speaker 7: You don't have the steak class. As long as you're
- 38:04Speaker 7: somewhere out there, that's enough for me. I don't need
- 38:14Speaker 7: to hold you near me, don't need promises to keep,
- 38:20Speaker 7: just the thought that you are breathing somewhere in this world.
- 38:24Speaker 7: Let's see, even if I'm not beside you, even if
- 38:30Speaker 7: you never know, there's a quiet kind of comfort just
- 38:36Speaker 7: in knowing you still glow.
- 38:41Speaker 6: I don't need.
- 38:42Speaker 7: Forever, I just need you to exist.
- 38:51Speaker 5: You don't have to stay with me.
- 38:55Speaker 1: You don't have to feel the same. Just as long as.
- 38:59Speaker 6: You're still out there, calling softly through my days.
- 39:05Speaker 5: You don't have to look my way.
- 39:08Speaker 7: You don't have to be my home. It's enough to
- 39:13Speaker 7: know you're living in the world.
- 39:16Speaker 6: I'm not alone.
- 39:22Speaker 7: I won't chase you through the.
- 39:23Speaker 1: Distance, won't disturb your chosen life.
- 39:28Speaker 7: I'll just keep you in my silence, like a star
- 39:32Speaker 7: that shines at night through the darkened through the blue.
- 39:43Speaker 2: I still think of you.
- 39:47Speaker 6: You don't have to stay with me.
- 39:50Speaker 1: You don't have to feel the same. It's just as
- 39:54Speaker 1: long as you're still out there, calling softly through my day.
- 40:00Speaker 6: You don't have to look my way.
- 40:04Speaker 7: You don't have to be in my home.
- 40:08Speaker 1: It's enough to know you're living in a world.
- 40:12Speaker 5: I'm not alone.
- 40:29Speaker 7: I don't need to be your light. I don't need
- 40:33Speaker 7: to cross your mind. All I need is just the
- 40:36Speaker 7: truth that you're somewhere, still alive.
- 40:44Speaker 6: You don't have to stay with me, you don't have
- 40:49Speaker 6: to feel the same.
- 40:51Speaker 1: Just as long as you're still after calling softly through
- 40:57Speaker 1: my days.
- 40:58Speaker 5: You don't have to look my way.
- 41:02Speaker 7: You don't have to be in my home.
- 41:05Speaker 6: It's enough to know you're living.
- 41:11Speaker 3: In the world.
- 41:11Speaker 6: I'm not alone.