Are We Living In The End Times?

Apologia Studios

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So what's wrong with the world Doug? Yeah, besides everything. Yeah What's wrong with the world is we rebelled against God.

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So ten minutes after the world went wrong in the Garden of Eden It didn't look like the world had gone wrong.

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It still looked like paradise. Yeah, so When our first parents disobeyed in the garden, it didn't go from color to black and white

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It you know, it was still a glorious beautiful world But things started to come unraveled started to come unstuck.

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In fact, it got so bad before the flood that God Wiped the antediluvian civilization out

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It was so bad and erased the memory of them and then the whole thing started over again built up so you had the great pagan empires of Babylon and Greece and Rome and In the middle of that God back in Genesis God had promised a

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Messiah So he was gonna let he was gonna let us run out to the end of our tether you know, so we rebelled and just just Made a glorious mess.

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And so the Lord Jesus came Born of a virgin born of a woman born under the law and he said just as the principle of sin

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Had to work its way out over centuries so God wanted a pinprick of righteousness to work its way out so there was one active to beat disobedience that Grew into ever -increasing

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Wickedness. Yeah, and then the Lord Jesus was born and lived a perfect sinless life and died on the cross the first Adam Died disobeyed at a tree and the second

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Adam obeyed on a tree Right and God reversed everything from that point

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But the reversal was like the devil the the the reversal was like the catastrophe at the beginning

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Okay, everything didn't you know, so ten minutes after Adam and Eve sinned it wasn't like The day you the fruit of the tree you shall surely die.

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Well, we're still here Maybe the serpent was right. Yeah, you know that sort of thing, but they were they died they were separated from God ten minutes after Jesus Ascended into heaven the disciples could look around and say

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Everything's pretty much the same old world. Yep, right same old world I look like nothing was done looked like nothing was done yeah, except Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a

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Woman put into it flower. So you put the king you put the kingdom of God in that and it slowly inexorably

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Works out over time. It's like a mustard seed that grows or it's like a rock that's cut

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Without hands in Daniel and it grows to become a mountain that fills the whole earth. So all of it is gradual methodical and inexorable, yeah, so boring.

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Yeah to some people and you could always say you could always say well It's pretty much the same as it was

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Five years ago, right and you can only you can find stretches where it's worse now than it was five years ago or worse

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Now that it was 50 years ago, but that's because we're not thinking big enough. We're not thinking in big enough increments.

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Yeah look at human history in 500 year increments and And it becomes apparent that the

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Christ's kingdom is growing and advancing and is conquering and will and will conquer.

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Yeah So what's wrong with the world disobedience sin rebellion what's right with the world the obedience of Christ Which is sort of the the pitch that he hit that enables us to imitate him

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So because he obeyed that imputation is him that obedience is imputed to us and then we're set free forgiven

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So that we can risk obedience Okay Right because if if my salvation of my justification depended in any way on my works

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I don't want to risk it. Yeah, because I'm gonna screw it up, you know, I'd be damned for my good days and yes, right

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Yeah, and and so What Jesus does by his death burial resurrection is he provides a free forgiveness?

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That means that I'm set free to be grateful and I'm and I can risk

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Obedience and that's why the kingdom of God grows as slowly as it does but also as steadily as it does

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That's right. So there's this popular view the view that the kingdom of God is gonna drop kind of all at once And that's coming soon, right?

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Maybe maybe and And then when it gets to soon isn't the time it's later a little later

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And but the idea is it's gonna drop on history And that's what Jesus is really gonna rule in the way that he was intended to rule through all those prophecies

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Yeah, except that the Jesus never says the kingdom of God Cometh like the 82nd

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Airborne. That's right. That's right. It's it's not a coup d 'amain. It's not an in full force invasion, right the thing that I shared a lot of the assumptions of The outlook that you're talking about and then

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I couldn't I couldn't get it to Come out of Scripture. I understood the system, but I couldn't get it from Scripture So I tried to I tried to be nothing for a while sort of an eschatological agnostic

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Yeah, I'd say Jesus is coming again. Don't push me. You know, that's all I know And I was reading in 1st

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Corinthians 15 in I was in that Frame of mind and I was reading in 1st Corinthians 15 and it said for he must reign until he's put his in it all

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His enemies under his feet and that's of course Psalm 110 The Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies.

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He doesn't say Sit at my right hand and tell it's time for you to smack down your enemies and then you go subdue them yeah, the

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Lord says sit at my right hand until your enemies are made a footstool and So I was so that that verse snapped in my head for he must reign until he's put all his enemies under his feet and I realized that When he comes he's going to destroy the last enemy death but in the

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The system I'd been taught He would have to the first enemy to be destroyed would be death right, so if everything's just going from bad to worse the words that the world's a hellhole and then finally

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Jesus comes back and The first thing that happens is the resurrection of the dead the first first thing that happens is that death is destroyed

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But Paul says the last thing that happens is that death is destroyed. Yeah, all the lesser enemies of Christ every vain thought every

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Every system of unbelief as it says in 2nd Corinthians 10 we we are taking every thought captive That's what we're about Every disobedience captive we want to subdue everything to Christ knowing that we can't without his personal reappearing

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We can't destroy we can't take out the last Redoubt, you know, we can't take out the last fortress of the enemy, which is death, but we can take out all the others

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Right, and we do it through gospel preaching. We do it through church planting. We do it through worship.

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We do it through Evangelism and apologetics. It's peaceful. Yeah, it's not it's not an imposition

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The top it's gospel -driven. Our weapons are not carnal, but they're powerful for for throwing down strongholds.

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So I Believe that we are in a period of great

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Opportunity where we have many many enemies before us That gives us something to do

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Right, right one of my favorite stories There's a marine general in the

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Korean War it was we had pushed the Koreans back up into North Korea and then the

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Chinese came into the war and this marine general was Surround his unit was completely surrounded

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Chinese every you know, just Overwhelmingly surrounded and he looked around all of the adversary and he said well, they can't get away now

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All right, that that's how Christians need to think that's right, right Here's another example from history

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Latimer and Ridley were great bishops in in the English Reformation and they were burned to the stake by Bloody Mary and when they were they were together about to be burned and Latimer says play the man master

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Ridley We shall today light such a candle as by God's grace as I trust it's such a candle in England as I trust by God's Grace shall never be put out so he's about to be burned at the stake and He is saying in effect, we've got them now

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That's great right you got them now well what what kind of faith Can do that can talk that way?

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Well only Christian faith can talk that way. Yeah, right and You hit what you aim at if if Christians believe that we're just gonna lose

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You've probably played on sports teams that everybody on the team is convinced that you're gonna lose

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Well, guess what? You're going to lose because you're going into it. Mm -hmm. You're thinking that way But suppose suppose

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God has promised us that we're going to win What would that look like? Yeah, and Why don't we take his promises that face value suppose?

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suppose the Great Commission will be successfully fulfilled and All the nations will be discipled and they will be they will all be baptized and they will all be taught obedience to everything

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Jesus has spoken suppose when Jesus told us to do that. He meant that we were supposed to do that Yeah, right, but we'd like to go on key off of what we see with our eyes

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Right. I like to say, you know, David went out to meet Goliath and everybody and the

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Israelite army was saying That Giants too big to fight and David is thinking. Well that Giants too big to miss.

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Yes That's right, right, that's right. So he beside of a barn look at that. Yeah Look at that guy.

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Yeah, and so Why why is it that we think that size matters what matters is the promises of God?

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That's right, right? Yeah, if God has promised it then if God has promised it Then there's nothing they can do to withstand it.

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If God has not promised it. There's nothing we can do to bring it about. Yeah Maybe I'm wrong.

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You were there. Yeah, I was there same thing I believed a certain thing about the future and what was ahead of us and I couldn't get it out of Scripture I started seeing things that were conflicting with what

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I was what I was believing So sort of going back to Scripture saying now I was taught all that in Bible college

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But I can't really see it But is that text actually saying what I was taught right it is saying

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So I always try to get across to people who are now saying okay, let's let me let me what does the scripture say? I said, okay.

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Well, the Bible tells us promise to Abraham. He would have descendants as numerous as the stars That's a lot of stars.

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It's a lot of descendants You can't see if you wanted at the end of history. Yeah, if you want to see the whole church

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Yeah, you're gonna need a Hubble. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah, they said that's a lot That's grand and then you move forward you have promises that are so abundant.

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It's difficult to even just discuss Just promises of the nation's coming all the nation's returning to the

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Lord worshiping the Lord and then the premier text that you quoted from 1st Corinthians 15 Psalm 110 1

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This is the most popular Bible verse. It's God's favorite Bible verse it's the one he quotes the most from in the New Testament sit on my right hand so let me carry me as a footstool for your feet and You have text after text after text talking about the kingdom of the

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Messiah coming into history his rule coming into history And it actually says things like you brought up Daniel to a stone that becomes a mountain so small to large

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Isaiah 9 popular Christmas verse of the increase of his government There'll be no government will be on his shoulder.

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That's right and it increases it grows And you have Jesus coming to talk about it like a mustard seed that becomes a tree

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Leaven and a lump of dough and so you see there's a steady thing of progress that takes place in the scriptures in terms of How this kingdom is gonna grow now

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Jesus said he brought it the Apostles say he brought it The Bible says it had to come in that time period and here we are

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Under the rule of Christ for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world yes But that the world through him might be saved

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So if I say God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world and I say stop right there

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What do most Christians think? Jesus is going to do when everything's said and done

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Condemn the world yeah, right they say Jesus is gonna come again, and then boy.

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Yeah That's it's all over except for 15 or 16 of the faithful Yeah, so But that that's an admission of defeat

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God's declared purpose Was I'm gonna that world that world is a mess and I am gonna glorify my name by saving it

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Yeah, so he could he could glorify his justice by destroying us in our rebellion Or he could glorify his mercy by saving us, but he can't glorify anything by trying to save it and failing

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Right right, that's right, right, so if Jesus if Jesus says

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God God's intention is not to condemn the world. I believe that I'm living in a world that is not condemned

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Right this is the propitiation for our sins not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world all right, so I am laboring in a saved world

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Declaring salvation to them because they must believe in order to appropriate it right they must believe but it's the tension you see in 2nd

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Corinthians 5 where God was for God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself

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Therefore we plead with you be reconciled to God so our plea to non -believers is to be reconciled

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To a God who is already reconciled to the planet you live on You know

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God has already purchased the world He's already purchased the nations. He's already purchased all of these

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Tribes and languages and kindred with his own blood, so you why don't you come along quietly?

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Put down your gun Yeah, I think we ought to think more of non -believers as That Japanese soldier in the

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Philippines who came down out of the jungle in the 1970s you know in the 1970s He comes down and finally surrenders decades after the war is over.

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Yes, right yeah I think that that's how we ought to think of the futility of unbelief

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Unbelievers can't manage the world they can't govern the world they can't control the world they aspire to deity

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And it's a sorcerer's apprentice sort of thing everything comes apart. Yeah, that's right

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And the reason we let it happen is because the Christians have sort of backed away from their confidence and their joy and their gladness

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Which would all be grounded in the promises of God for history and when Jesus ascends he comes up to the ancient of days

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He's given a kingdom Daniel 7 13 through 14 was that the the son of man comes up to the ancient of days and is given

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A kingdom dominion and a glory that that all the people's nations and men of every language might serve him a dominion

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That's everlasting and never passes away a kingdom. That's never destroyed Jesus He goes up, but before he does he says all

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All Authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me right and so all this belongs to Jesus Right whether people accept it or not.

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He is the Lord of the world. He's King of Kings Lord of Lords today So okay, so here's the problem though Doug and this is what everybody always faces.

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I faced it I'm sure you probably had these thoughts too you finally realized that Jesus really is the king of the world and he's made promises about what he's gonna do to redeem and Save and we can trust he's sovereign he can accomplish everything he can give the gifts of faith and repentance he really can't no one could stop him, but then you look around and you say and this place broke down and it's

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The first question everyone asked me Doug is they always say, okay, I see it they say What does that mean?

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How much longer do we have to go? What do you think and I always say I think what you say often too is I think we're in the infancy of the church

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We have a long way to go right? So here's what I want to ask you Tell me about raking rocks. I was

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Building my house with my son Nate and we had we were getting ready for concrete poor

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Yeah and we were building the house paying as as we went and sometimes we had time to work and sometimes we had money and some, you know, it was like a three -legged race at the fair and and so one time

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I was up there with Nate and said, okay, let's rake this gravel and And and Nate said dad

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I'm pretty sure that we've raked this gravel already that we've leveled it out and we've raked it and I said, well, let's rake the

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Let's great the rake the gravel anymore because I didn't That's all I had to do and Nate said why we were raking the gravel

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We already raked the gravel and I said, well we have gravel and we have rakes And that's all that's all we have.

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Yeah. All right So if I had more I'd do more right, but I want to be faithful with what? I've got yeah, so To who much is given much is required.

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You want to live up to what you've already attained if you've got two pennies And you're a widow lady you throw those two pennies into the

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Into the temple treasury in front of Jesus not knowing that he's there and you make it into the Bible Right, right.

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So and your faith is held out as a model to the end of the world Yeah, and it was just two pennies right that was her rake and gravel that was that was that was her

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Gift that was her sacrifice. So what you you want to be at your station at your post

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Doing what God called you to do and and then he's the general. We're not the generals

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So all we were the foot soldiers were the ones who need to be obedient where we are and let him sort out the big

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Me you know the the big picture. Yeah, but it's meaningful To rake rocks.

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Yes If that's what God has given you to do to bring glory to himself because he has a plan in that land that he's given

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You yeah, and if it means you're raking rocks for now It's okay. One day.

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There'll be a house. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the another illustration when I was in the Navy I was on a submarine and When a submarine goes to war you've got all these men in the submarine doing different things

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Yeah, and and you have to understand You have to stack everybody's vocation teleologically, right so Suppose you go into the cook the cruise mess and you say hey, are you fighting the enemy?

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You say no, I'm cooking eggs. Yeah Well, you're not just cooking eggs

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You're cooking eggs to feed the sailors who are gonna go to the torpedo room or you know So you have all these different Paul would describe it as body life.

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There are different functions The the livers the liver is not fighting the enemy. The heart is not fighting the enemy the hands and Maybe but the everything else the supply core.

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Yes, right is doing its station and got Everybody's performing well at their station and it's

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God's responsibility to have it all blend together, right? He's he's the one who gives the increase.

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He's the one who Supplies the coordination. We don't do that. Yeah, so I think what

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I like to encourage people to hear from us Isn't is not this overblown sort of insane optimism that doesn't even take into consideration the facts of the world

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We're saying that there is suffering there is trouble there is there are trials ahead of us But that God can do mighty things and that there is

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Guaranteed full assurance of what he's gonna do in the world, which means that I Think it's important to talk about because you gave a sermon once that was really really a blessing to me

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He talked about how how God works in history is from mustard seeds Which means that I can have hope that God is doing big things in the world and that I can trust his promises

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And I can do that with just my family and the business that he's given to me and the little community around me

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There is real genuine hope for Tremendous gospel transformation right there, right?

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Yeah, don't despise the day of small beginnings That's right as it says in the the prophets, so don't despise the day of small beginnings

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We're faced with a pagan civilization and and Christians say we could never over we could never overcome that I said

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Well, we did it once Yeah, if we if we build Christendom 2 .0

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It yeah, it would be Christendom 2 .0. Yeah, right, but paganism used to rule the world.

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That's right. And now it doesn't Constantine stopped the blood sacrifices the pagan blood sacrifices, which is one of the most momentous events in the history of the world

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So you had the temple destroyed in 70 AD where the Jews stopped offering blood sacrifice

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But centuries later Constantine put a stopped Animal sacrifice in in the pagan world.

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Yeah, because the Christians had won Yeah, all right. So and the Christians had won with no divisions.

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No arsenals. No armories No, what would we what we have? Yeah, I'm beating up a lot

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I've beaten up a lot and the and the saying of the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church So that happened once what what on earth makes us think it couldn't happen again on top of that What what on earth makes us think it isn't happening again, right?

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so if you look at how Africa is how rapidly Africa is becoming Christian how rapidly

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Christianity is making inroads among Muslims in Africa when you look at what's happening in South America when you look at the global south

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Philip Jenkins books the next Christendom and oh, there's another one He's written a couple of books

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It's it's happening as we speak Right, and we are

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Fearful and full of unbelief. So go back to rid Latimer and Ridley. So Latimer says to Ridley play the man.

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We've got them now. We're you know, he's go get him Let's take that hill right and but a modern

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North American evangelical is sitting in his lazy boy with his remote Watching the news on the big flat screen that's mounted on the wall

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And he's and he watches the news and some terrible story and he turns it off and he goes into the

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Kitchen to talk to his wife and he opens the fridge Which is a state -of -the -art fridge and he and he takes out a cold drink and he closes the fridge says honey

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It's the last days It's terrible out there yeah and Vladimir Ridley and the martyrs and the

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Virgins being thrown to the lions in the Coliseum. They've got this we can do it We can take these guys.

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Yeah, right and they did and we have Astounding resources at our disposal.