Hey, welcome to One and All.

We're so glad that you are here.

Before we dive into the message, I want to encourage you to get your Bible out and to download the One and All app if you haven't done so, so you can follow along on the Sermon Notes tab.

I'm in, I want you to turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 through 5.

We're going to have a lot of text in this message, but we're going to concentrate on 2 Timothy 3, 1 through 5.

We're in a series, it's a two-part series, basically about my trip to Israel.

For those of you who are visiting, it's not typically how we do things, but I figured that this was such a life-changing endeavor that I felt it important because of the relationship we have between pastor and community that I should express some of these things.

Some of you have told me this should be a four-week series.

And you're right, it should be, but it is anyway.

I'm just shoving two-week sermons in each message, which is why I went an hour last week.

Don't worry, I'm trying to cut down this week, but we have a lot to cover, so let me get started.

Here's the purpose, folks.

Five weeks in Israel really opened my eyes to what is actually happening there, and I tried to share some of that with you last week.

What you have, no matter what you heard, no matter what you've read, what you have is two contrasting worldviews.

That's the bottom line.

One values life, the other does not.

That doesn't mean that there are not casualties of war.

There are always casualties.

Anytime there is war, civilians perish.

They're the ones who pay the highest price, actually.

Even when the Americans went into Iraq, you know there was 120,000 civilian casualties as they were trying to dethrone Saddam Hussein.

There are always casualties associated with war.

The thing is, The thing that I'm trying to stress to you is not, I'm not saying that every Israeli soldier has great integrity and character.

I'm not, and I'm not saying that every Hamas soldier is lacking character and integrity.

I'm simply saying that both organizations have a worldview under which they're operating.

One operates under the worldview that life is not precious.

The other one operates under the worldview that life is precious and that life should be sacred.

And depending on your worldview, that's how you're going to operate.

That's why we took such a long section last week to talk about truth and how important it is because what you believe to be true will determine evidently or eventually how it is that you live your life.

My motivation, however, in the series is to give you the good news.

Now you think about this for a moment.

The good news that things have been set in motion in the Middle East.

that seem to support the conclusion that we are in the last days.

Now, think about it.

Is that good news to you?

I wonder, I wonder how many of you, oh, you mean the end is near?

I wonder how many of you think, man, that is great news.

And how many of you, on the other hand, are thinking, you know what?

I really like my life down here.

And, you know, I'm all for the second coming as long as it's out there somewhere.

What do we mean by the last days?

When we talk about the last days, I'm talking about that final phase of our existence on the planet before Jesus returns and the new Jerusalem descends and Revelation 21 becomes a present reality.

Now you've read Revelation 21.

You could probably recite it.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

There was no longer any sea.

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem.

I'm telling you, this means...

Something totally different to me now, having been in the old city of Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.

And he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.

The thing about the last days is nobody really knows how long they last.

But we're told in the scripture to pay attention to the signs.

And having been there now for five weeks, I see the signs everywhere.

So where last week I gave you a lot of stats, a lot of proof texts of what I discovered, at the same time, every time I go on study break, a few things happen.

I get real clarity because I have time to sit and think and pray outside of the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

So I get real clarity on our staff who's working with us.

Get real clarity on Michael, how wonderful Michael really is.

I get clarity on vision, where we're going.

And I get clarity.

I think someone is praying for me because I always begin to see something when I'm away that I don't typically see.

And as Robin and Sian and I were walking on the walls of the Old City, Jerusalem, these walls are amazing, folks, 2.5 miles long.

40 feet high, 8.2 feet thick.

There are 34 watchtowers that tell the story of the history of these walls from the temple period, 800 BC, to the Roman period, the Byzantine period, the Ottoman period, the British mandate, the state of Israel, 1948.

And as you walk around and it tells the story, you begin to recognize all the bloodshed associated with these walls.

So much blood, battle scars everywhere.

And I thought, okay, let me see if I know my Bible history here.

So we stopped at one point on the top of the wall, and I began to look around and notice things.

I noticed I could see it.

It was a clear day.

I could see as far as the Negev.

The Negev is where the Amalekites seem to have originated and committed all those atrocities, most of which are too horrible to mention, including infanticide.

Then I looked over to the left, and I saw the Hinnom Valley, where child sacrifices became commonplace on the altars of Molech, and where the bodies of...

Unclaimed criminals were burned and disposed of.

When Jesus wanted to describe what life is like without God, he looked over to the Him Valley, because the smoke of that fire would rise day after day.

I continued to look and I saw the Zion Gate, where you can still see today the bullet holes from the 1948 war, where the nations that surrounded Israel attempted to annihilate, exterminate the Jews.

You can also see Mount Scopus, That's where the Roman general Titus assembled his troops and commanded the siege, the conquest, and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

The Romans were particularly cruel, torture, murder, rape, and even cannibalism.

And as I stood on the walls and I looked around and thought of all the bloodshed, my mind immediately went to October 7th and what happened in Gaza.

In fact, the Human Rights Watch, this is not a conservative organization by any stretch of the imagination, their report of that day goes like this.

On the morning of October 7th, Hamas-led Palestinian armed groups carried out numerous coordinated attacks, including on civilian residential communities and social events.

The armed groups attacked at least 19 kibbutzim, which is a kind of communal living, and five moshavim, the civilian communities.

Two music festivals and a beach party.

Palestinians fired directly at civilians, often at close range, as they tried to flee, and at people driving through the area.

The attackers hurled grenades, shot into shelters, and fired rocket-propelled grenades into homes.

They set houses on fire, burning and choking people and forcing out others whom they shot or captured.

850 civilians were targeted and killed.

251 civilians were taken hostage.

whom have been killed, 35 of the bodies have been returned to Israel."The article goes on,"...the laws of war have been clearly violated that amount to war crimes, including attacks targeting civilians, willfully killing people in custody, cruel and inhumane treatment, crimes involving sexual and gender-based violence, hostage-taking, mutilation into spoiling bodies, use of human shields, and pillage and looting." Killing civilians and taking hostages were central aims of the planned attack, not an afterthought, a plan gone awry or isolated acts.

Human Rights Watch concluded that the planned murder of civilians and the hostage-taking were crimes against humanity.

When Robin and I were in the city of Tel Aviv, we heard about an expo featuring crimes against Israel.

We decided we would take the bus and visit.

And as you go into this little expo, you see the photos of the hostages.

And there are signs all through Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Caesarea, on the motorway, bring them home.

And we saw this on buses and billboards.

And as you walked in, you could hear live testimonies of wives who had lost their husbands, who had called them on the cell phone just before they were murdered or taken hostage.

And they're there in this expo talking about what their husband would say.

I love you.

This is the end.

There's a long table in the expo.

It's like a long communion table, but there's a seat at this table, this makeshift long table of...

A festive occasion.

There's a long table and each seat represents a hostage that has been taken, that there have been hopes and prayers that someday would return home.

But the thing that got me the most in the expo is on a wall, and I couldn't find a photo of it anywhere, and I couldn't find the one I took, but on the wall, it's actually on a fence, it had young girls who had been taken hostage and they all looked to be about the same age as my daughter.

Their daily existence in captivity, starvation, isolation, daily rape and sexual assault.

And the stories that came out told how Hamas would come to the young women every day and say, today could be the last day of your life.

And they lived day after day after day knowing this could be it.

However, this kind of thing I know is not new.

The one thing I wanted to do last week is show you, look at all the bloodshed.

All the blood shed in this land and in the city of Jerusalem, because every period is marked with blood.

People like to remind Christians of the Crusader period.

Yeah, it was marked with blood too.

There's this beauty of the city of Jerusalem and all that it possesses, while at the same time, torture, burnings, brutality, equal to what we've seen in our time, often far worse.

And then here's where I had the experience.

And I thought, you know what?

I've got to share this with the people that I pastor back in LA.

As I looked down the walls, it was like the Holy Spirit spoke and said, you think your vantage point is difficult.

What about mine?

And I started thinking, what does God see?

I see off the walls of Jerusalem and I see all these things around us.

What does God see when he looks down from the walls of heaven?

We stood there for a moment and Robin and Sian noticed that I got really quiet.

And they thought I was upset or something.

I said, no, no, just leave me alone for a bit.

And it was like as I stood there, someone was praying that my eyes would be open.

And I didn't know who it was.

Maybe it was one of you.

In 2 Timothy 3, 1 through 5 kept coming into my mind.

But mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days, and people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, proud, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control.

brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

And this line really hit me for the first time in a long time, having a form of godliness, but denying its power.

I'm not going to read again, but Michael read Matthew 24 before the service began.

And Jesus talks about all the things that you've got to be aware of that are coming.

Nation's going to rise against nation.

There's going to be all kinds of wars and rumors of wars.

People are going to turn away.

There's going to be a mass turning away from their faith.

Wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, on and on.

Imagine what God sees when he looks down from the heights of heaven.

And I really want to ask you to lean into this with me just for a few minutes.

Because here we are in the 21st century.

And nations are rising against nations and are jockeying for position.

There have been more wars and conflicts in the 20th century than all other centuries combined.

That's ironic because the formation of the United Nations was supposed to bring an end to war.

And war has increased significantly.

Do you know how many genocides there have been in our time?

Too many to count.

Genocide is defined like this.

The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group.

with the aim of destroying that nation or group.

You and I think of Hitler and the Jews or the Hutus and the Tutsis.

But what about the Turks and the Armenians?

As many as 1.2 million Armenians living in the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire in 1915 died as a result of systematic ill treatment, exposure, and starvation.

The Young Turks, as they were called, rounded up hundreds of Armenians and hanged them in the streets of Istanbul.

Why?

Make no mistake.

Ethnic cleansing is part of our world.

It's where we say our tribe is better than your tribe and as long as your tribe exists, we can't achieve what we want to achieve.

And do you know, still today the Turks will not admit what they did to the Armenians.

In fact, most people don't realize that Hitler got his idea of exterminating the Jews from the Turks and what they did to the Armenians.

Stalin killed millions who refused to conform to his political tribe.

Hitler killed millions who did not conform to his ethnic and blood tribe.

Mayo, responsible for the deaths of 60 million people, folks.

And Pol Pot, 3 million.

did not conform, murdered and slaughtered people who did not conform to their particular social class or political grouping.

The list goes on and on.

The world is tribal, isn't it?

It's not just in Africa.

In fact, would you not agree?

America has become tribal.

There are two sides and one side wants to do the other side harm.

You see, it's happening all around us now.

Russia seeks to once again build its empire.

Did you know that?

Iran seeks to build its empire and claims to be one year away from nuclear readiness.

President Biden made a deal with Iran to free up 6 billion in Iranian assets in exchange for the release of five American prisoners.

What the West does not understand is when you're dealing with Islamists, not Arabs, Not Muslims.

When you're dealing with Islamists, they don't think the way we think.

They are quite happy for all of their civilians to die if it means the end of Israel.

So during the Cold War, we're mad at Russia, Russia's mad at us, and there are all these movies made.

And we're always led to believe the reason nuclear war doesn't happen is because one knows if they push the button, the other will too.

What you have to understand is Islamists don't care.

There's little to no value for human life.

The only thing that matters is possessing and achieving the goal.

Turkey, which has been surprisingly tolerant in the past, at least in the last few decades, has changed its tune under its new leader.

It also seeks now to build its empire.

China, the world's most aggressive violators of human rights, believes it can expand its territory through both land and cyber invasion.

So I started thinking about, can you look at the world from God?

God looks down from the heights of heaven.

If he were to pull up a chair, what would he see?

Can you think about this for a moment?

He would see 50 million people in modern slavery.

He would see 26 million children forced into labor.

He would see 22 million forced into sex slavery.

And we say, yeah, Jeff, that's why I'm having trouble with God.

He should punish those people.

The top human trafficking cities in the world, Dallas, San Diego, San Jose, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and New York.

Every two minutes in America, a child is sold into trafficking, and the average age is 12.

There are 7.53 billion people in the world, 466,000 are murdered every year.

1,728 people are murdered every day, one person every 60 seconds.

That's what God looks down and sees.

And so people say, how can you believe in God with all the evil in the world?

My question is the opposite.

My question is, why doesn't God just wipe all of us out?

If you really believe in justice, every single one of us is lucky to be breathing.

Every nation exists by the grace of God, not because it's good.

The story I often tell is when I was in my 20s in Africa, I struggle in a certain season with seeing the swollen bellies of the hungry children.

That's hard to see.

And I remember as a young 20-year-old pulling over to the side of the road and thinking, you know what?

Where's God?

How can I keep living for God when I see things like this?

And then over time, you begin to realize there's enough food in Zimbabwe to feed the people 10 times over.

But the evil dictator, Robert Mugabe, would take the corn in the maze and sell it for foreign currency to pad his Swiss bank account.

God provides more than enough to feed and nourish the world.

We mismanage it so bad that people end up starving.

I think while we're saying, where is God?

He's up there saying, where is man?

Why do you treat each other this way?

Since the turn of the last century, these things have gone to the nth degree.

It's kind of like a quantum leap because society as a whole now is saying that we don't need God to create our utopia.

We don't need God to explain origins, where we came from.

Our existence is purely accidental.

And we don't need to teach our children about God or give them any real moral basis upon which to build their lives.

I wonder if God says to the Son of the Holy Spirit, isn't it astounding that man denounces his creator and then wonders why people live as if there are no absolutes?

that truth is relative, that ethics are situational, there's no ultimate reality.

And then they wonder, in America, we wonder why our children grow up and become bankers who take advantage of the poor, making loans they should never make to get money they should never have, or politicians who become rich at the expense of the people and then pass laws to ensure they can never be held accountable, or create a world where justice comes only to those who can afford it.

Or where the rich become richer and the poor become poorer as man exploits one another for land and power.

Did you know?

And these are some of the things that they're astounding.

You never thought these things would happen, at least in America, right?

The estimated cumulative wealth of the current members of Congress is 2.43 billion.

The median net worth of the...

the members of Congress is five times the net worth of the average American household.

For the first time in history, the majority of America's elected officials are millionaires.

While you and I saw a household net worth decrease in the last 10 years, Congress expected or experienced rather a total increase of 316 million.

The rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer.

And those who are supposed to be representing us end up representing themselves and using their positions to gain insider information in the stock market, to position themselves, to receive funding from lobbyists, to gain more wealth while their constituents continue to struggle.

The love of money is the root of all evil, Jesus said, and there's plenty of love of money in Washington.

Jesus told us that in the last days, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive.

Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

And God has a front row seat to everything that's happening in our world.

And here's why a lot of theologians believe that the West now is beyond the point of return.

So this is why a lot of books coming out right now, and I'm trying to keep up.

This is why they believe that especially the West.

is beyond the point of return.

Now follow me here and don't misquote me.

Listen very carefully.

The proof text that is given is back to that old passage that I've read time and time again out of Romans chapter one, verse 24 through 27.

This is where Paul says the time is coming and is here now when people refuse to pursue a creator.

When they look around and see all the beauty and wonder of life and still deny the existence of a creator.

And Paul says, once that happens, here's what happens.

Verse 24, God gave them over in their sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator who is forever praised.

Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.

Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

So scholars will tell you that the digression of culture seems to go this way.

If you insist that there's no God, if you live as though there's no God, if you create God in your own image, Then the result is God hands you over to your depravity.

At that point, you begin worshiping idols, sex, power, money.

At that point, God hands you over to your other pursuits.

And you know a culture has hit rock bottom when sexual immorality ushers in darkness and depravity without guilt and shame.

That's the key.

Sexual immorality has always been around.

Nobody's perfect.

I got it.

But when it comes to the point where sexual immorality is no longer associated with guilt and shame, and in fact, there's a pride and arrogance in the freedom of it, then you know it's the end of culture and society.

And we're told there is a due penalty.

What is the due penalty?

Emptiness, insatiable lust, physical and mental consequences, depression, anxiety, suicide, darkness, the inability to see.

In short, imbecility and insanity.

What you believe does not...

conform with reality.

You know, one of the strangest things I've seen.

And you say, Pastor Jeff, now let me say again.

If you haven't been here for a few months and the last time you were here I was talking about sexual immorality, you might be thinking, man, that's all this guy talks about.

Well, no, you've only come these two times because obviously you need to hear it.

Okay?

Because I don't talk about it every week and I don't talk about it that often, but sometimes it does come up.

But one of the most astounding, imbecilic things I've ever seen in my life, just being honest, is when I saw pro-Palestinian LBGTQ.

protest.

You have got to be kidding.

You think we're not imbecile?

Because here's the thing, I may not agree with you, but I love you.

I may not agree with your homosexuality or lesbianism, but you know what?

I wish you well.

I want you to stay alive for as long as possible because I hope the gospel gets to you at some point.

But if you were to go to Palestine and they found out you were gay or lesbian, you'd last about two hours.

I don't get it.

Do you not know the difference between a Christian worldview who might tell you that you're sinning but still loves you and the Islamist world that will kill you?

I don't get it.

Why would you want to replace a worldview that loves all people and desires goodwill for all people, even with those whom we disagree with a worldview that seeks to destroy you?

That makes no sense.

God stands on the walls of heaven, and he sees how the evil one makes attempt after attempt to exterminate the Jews.

You know, I know some of you are struggling with this.

I got it.

And a lot of it's because you think I'm one-sided.

Because one, you're not listening, and two, you're reading far too much news.

I'm giving you the contrast between two worldviews.

Of course there are Israeli soldiers that are not acting according to IDF rules.

oftentimes they're punished and sometimes they're not discovered.

You've got people involved here.

When somebody comes over, if you're at home and your next door neighbor comes over and rapes your wife and kills your children, I guarantee you're going to want retribution, no matter what the laws are.

So that's happening.

I'm simply saying you have two worldviews that are in contrast.

But if you look at this map, oh, that's not the map.

Oh, the map's up there.

Hold on.

There's a map.

I think we have a map.

Do we have a map?

I think I told Jenna to put it in the wrong place maybe.

I want you to just take a look at this map for a second.

As you look, it's hard to even find Israel, isn't it?

It's that little sliver of land up there, that little brown piece, that little dot almost.

You say, well, Pastor Jeff, why is that important?

What is all around Israel?

The Arab world.

Not all Arabs are Islamists, but when you have Iran and you have Hamas and Hezbollah in the north and the west, the point I'm making is there's this little itty-bitty piece of land and everybody around them wants to kill them.

And if that's you, I guarantee you're going to be on guard.

You're going to police.

You're going to be very careful about who you let in, who you let out.

It's just, it's the human experience.

And yet every time Israel defends itself, the world accuses it of being the aggressor.

Do you know why?

Because we've educated ourselves into imbecility.

Listen, you think I'm pro-Israel because I'm a Christian.

You are dead wrong.

Before I went to Israel, here's my view of Israel.

Hey, I don't care who you are.

I don't care if you are the people of God.

If you're misbehaving, you deserve to be punished just like everybody else.

But when I went and saw what's going on and talked to the commander of the IDF and the chaplain of the IDF, man, these guys, I'm telling you, these guys have a huge respect for life.

They are between a rock and a hard place, trying to do what's right, trying to please the international community while at the same time protecting civilians.

I was going to go through that whole thing that I went through last week again, but just don't have time to do that.

Watch last week's sermon if you want to know what they're doing to protect civilian life.

Then I flew to London, and I sat there and watched the BBC, as I mentioned last week.

Europe is a mess, folks.

Protests about everything, entitlement everywhere.

senseless violent, a little girl got stabbed just about two blocks from where I was for no reason at all, imbecility in the government, places in the past that were built on Judeo-Christian values have forsaken those values and as a result are receiving the due penalty.

What is the due penalty?

The destruction of the family, the violation of the sacred, the sacrifice of children for the sake of convenience, and ultimately the destruction of culture.

All the boundaries have been removed in the name of freedom and self-determination.

But Malcolm Muggeridge said, before we remove a boundary, perhaps we should ask why the boundary was placed there in the first place.

Every man seems to want to determine what is right and wrong in his own eyes.

And the gap between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man is no longer the issue.

The wisdom of man is now in complete contradiction to the wisdom of God.

And that's why Jesus said, the thief comes to kill and steal and destroy, but I've come to give life and give it to the fool.

And I started thinking, I see what I see.

What does God see?

He sees, as he looks down into this world, he sees human slavery, trafficking, the strong oppressing the weak, genocides all over the planet, the slaughter of the innocent, the human sex trade where the average age is 12, the oppression of women, the slavery of children, poverty, Punger is a result of evil men who mismanage God's resources.

He looks down from the walls, but that's not all he sees.

Not only does he see the attempted genocide of his chosen people, Israel, he sees the persecution of his church.

Open doors just came out with their 2024 watch list.

365 million Christians face high-level persecution around the world.

300,000 became refugees this year alone.

because their houses were burned down, their families raped and tortured.

One in seven Christians worldwide are persecuted.

One in five in Africa.

322 Christians are killed for their faith every month.

214 churches are destroyed every month.

772 forms of violence, beatings, kidnappings, rape, unlawful imprisonment every month.

Where are the protests?

Where are the protests?

Stop killing the Christians.

And most of the persecution happens in North Korea, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and India.

There's an attack on a church every 40 hours in India.

But then my mind started to think about Revelation 6.

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw unto the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.

They called out in a loud voice, how long sovereign Lord, holy and true until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood.

Then each of them was given a white robe and they were told to wait a little longer until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters were killed just as they had been.

What's God saying?

The Bible is saying to you, God has a number in his mind and when enough is enough, that's it.

He's so gracious and merciful, but he's got a number and when that number hits, that's it.

In other words, God sees the last days.

There'll be terrible times.

People will be lovers of themselves.

Do we love ourselves?

Lovers of money.

It's not only the wealthy who love money.

What is your number one love in your life?

Are you boastful?

Are you proud?

Are you abusive?

Are you disobedient to your parents?

Are you ungrateful?

Are you unholy?

Without love, unforgiving?

Are you unforgiving?

Slanderous?

Without self-control?

Conceited?

Lovers of pleasure?

It goes on and on.

So God has a number in mind when he's going to say enough is enough, but also God is never surprised by anything that happens in the world.

You know, the passage that we read in Matthew 24.

Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death.

Now, I wonder, is he talking about the Jews?

Since Matthew writes to the Jews, is he talking about the Christian?

If he's talking about the Jews, yep, that's pretty much happened this entire century, last century.

And you will be hated by all nations because of me.

Well, now.

At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.

And many false prophets will appear and deceive the people.

It goes on and on.

Now, here's the thing about the last days.

And if you want to know, what does Pastor Jeff think about the last days?

So a few years ago, I did a series, 16 sermons, I think, on the book of Revelation.

I can't review that here.

But I can tell you this, that most scholars agree, you've got creation.

And then split time in half, the Messiah comes, and then you have what is called the second coming, the parousia.

Where we disagree on is when the last days began.

My personal view, because of the symbols used in Revelation, is the beginning mark of what we call the last days is the age of the church and actually began when Messiah established his kingdom.

But as I've said numerous times before, near the end, these events that have been happening since Christ established his kingdom, because the Jews were persecuted then, Christians were killed, weren't they?

But something happens near the end where all this goes to warp speed, and it intensifies, and then the end comes.

It appears to me that we're here.

Well, why can't you be sure, Pastor Jeff?

Because I don't know how much worse it can get.

I don't know how much more intense it can get.

That's why no man knows the day or the hour.

Now, here's the good news.

And for once, I'm on time, sort of.

I looked over the walls.

As I looked over the walls and thought about all these things, and all these things were coming out of my mind, God spoke to me and said, Jeff, what else do you see?

Now, it wasn't an audible voice.

It's just, you know, it's when you're in, when you've prayed a long period of time, you pray five, 10, 15 minutes, but the longer you stay there, the more in tune you get with God, and the world closes out.

It's a beautiful thing.

But I looked up and I saw the Mount of Olives.

where Jesus prayed one of the greatest discourses about loving your enemies, praying for those who persecute you, turning the other cheek, giving your garment to the one who asks you, of making peace with your brother who has offended you, of loving your neighbor as yourself, of eradicating the hate in your heart.

And then as you move across, I saw the Zion gate, and to the right of it sat the side of Mount Zion, where Jesus had the last supper with his disciples, where he told them in no uncertain terms that the ultimate Passover lamb is present.

with them right now and is about to lay down his life for his sheep.

Another part of the wall, I could see the garden of Gethsemane.

It's amazing what you can see from these walls, where Jesus said, Father, if it be your will, take this cup of suffering away from me.

Is there any other way to bring those far from God near?

Is there any other way to restore all that's been lost to defeat the impact of sin and death?

But if not, so be it.

Not my will, but yours be done.

As I consider the condition of the world, I sometimes have to tell you, pastors do this too.

I think, God, it seems to me that you sit on your hands sometimes.

Why don't you do something?

And there are two problems with that statement.

Number one is I've said numerous times, if God snuffs out evil, I'll probably have to be the first one to go, right?

Second, the cross reveals God's capacity to turn the tables.

What man means for evil, God uses for good.

And third, the kingdom of this world is not the only kingdom in operation.

Now, let me bring this together as fast as I can, but please don't tune me out.

Come on.

You can do this.

When I met with Rabbi Tully, so this is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi.

He invited me into his home for Shabbat.

We're around the table, and Rabbi Tully, I got to sit to his left.

So I had a conversation with Rabbi Tully.

And Rabbi Tule says, Jeff, you know, we've been together for a few days now.

I wonder if I could ask you for a favor.

I said, wow, Rabbi, Rabbi Tule is going to ask a Christian pastor for a favor.

What could it be?

He says, I wonder if you would go back to your church and recruit a bunch of young adults to come into Gaza and help us give out food and clothing and water.

Excuse me?

Why don't you do it?

He says, well, we are, but you Christians are so much better at it.

Oh, that was good.

Chill bumps ran down my spine.

What do you mean?

Because yeah, you Christians are so much better at it than we are.

So the Orthodox Jew, we would like to invite the church in America to come and help us take care of the civilians who have been displaced.

And I just couldn't help to think of this Orthodox Jew says that Christians are much better at benevolence than they are.

I remember in New Zealand when I was pastoring there, do you remember the tsunami of, was it 2001 or four?

The tsunami that struck on Boxing Day, December 26th, and hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives.

Well, I remember the quote that came out from the, not from Islam, but from the Muslims in that area, because most of the areas that were hit were Muslim-based.

And the Muslims in an interview said, you know what?

If it hadn't been for those Christians, we'd have had no hope.

Oh, that's good.

Please stop believing everything you're reading online.

At the encouragement and often resourcing of the IDF, Christians are going in and responding with medical relief, community initiatives as food, shelter, sanitation, even cash at the approval and assistance of Israel.

Two-thirds of the Christians left Gaza because of the ongoing persecution from Hamas.

One-third remained, and those are the Christians that are delivering aid to those who are suffering.

They stayed.

They stayed.

Because they love their neighbors as themselves.

They assist those who oppose them.

They feed the nations who persecute them, which is unique to the followers of Jesus.

You know, I thought, and I'm going to have to skip a lot of material again, but if you have ever been to the Holocaust Museum, if you ever get a chance, it's an experience.

Six floors.

It tells the story.

You get to the sixth floor, and there's a whole floor dedicated to people who risked their lives to save Jews in the Holocaust.

And we're not talking about thousands, we're talking about millions were saved by Gentiles who said no.

In Denmark, 90% of the Jews survived because hundreds of Gentiles told the Jews what was about to happen and hid them from the Germans.

Historian Leni Yahil wrote that the Jews were saved because, and I quote, a living wall was raised by the Danish people in the course of one night.

Approximately 3.5 million Jews were saved.

You know, there is so much good in our world too, you know.

There's a lot of bad, I know, I know.

And I remember somebody saying, you know, I can't believe in God with all the bad in the world.

And my response, one of my responses is, okay, if bad exists, it means that God doesn't exist.

So if good exists, does it mean that God does exist?

Think about all the good in your life.

Love, family.

Creation itself, none of which we deserve.

Grandchildren, oh, grandchildren.

Golf.

Coffee and chocolate.

Victoria Falls, Murawai Beach.

Mammoth.

Mammoth.

I attempted last week to give you a glimpse in what really happened to me on that mountain.

I want to review it quickly again and then end.

In Zechariah 12, Zechariah 12 just became alive because in Zechariah 12, if you'll remember, I'm going to read it again.

I'm going to read it slower because last week I had to rush through it.

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and supplication that they will look on me, the one they have pierced.

Now, who's that talking?

That's got to be talking about Jesus.

And they will mourn for him.

As the one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn.

On that day, the weeping in Jerusalem will be great.

And it goes on to give you a little story.

So here's what I'm saying.

It's dawned on me that one day the Jews are going to recognize Jesus as Messiah.

And they're going to weep for the one they pierced.

Is God going to reveal Jesus to the Jews on the Temple Mount?

Again, nobody's smart enough to know that.

But in Romans 11 verse 25.

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited.

Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles have come in.

So it appears that the hardening of their heart is there, but when the full number of Gentiles have come in, something's going to happen.

And in this way, all Israel will be saved.

Now, remember what we said last week, and maybe we didn't say it in this service last week, because I preached three different sermons last week.

Paul already said in Romans 2 that the real Jew is not the one of the flesh, but the one who has been circumcised of the heart.

But I'm assuming that he's including both Jews who come to Messiah when the recognition of who he is becomes a reality.

There will still be those who will just reject out of obstinance, just like there are Gentiles.

When they see who Jesus is, still reject.

They just won't have it.

It's not a lack of evidence.

It's an issue of the heart.

As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion and he will turn godlessness away from Jacob, Israel.

And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

The promise of Christ's return is as sure as the promise that the people of Israel would return to the land against all odds.

And they did.

Where is God, folks?

Let me tell you where he is.

He's on the throne and he's working everything together.

He's on the, nothing surprised him.

And he's created this new community in the world that lives their lives in direct contrast to the world.

Now, listen now, they don't just speak of a separate kingdom.

They reordered their lives as if the kingdom is real.

That's how you know the difference between the Christ follower and the imposter.

They don't panic at world events.

They don't yield to cultural pressure.

They live for God and his purposes.

They expect God to work everything out for good, even when the people they voted for don't win the election.

They don't panic because they know it's not the end until God says it's the end.

And he has the final word.

But here's what disturbs me.

This is the passage that came to my mind on the walls, and we're ending.

2 Timothy 3.

They'll be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, all those things.

And then the last line says, having a form of godliness but denying its power.

What does that mean?

It means that they have the appearance of godliness, but they deny its power to transform their lives.

Their mouths say they love Jesus, but their actions don't show it.

There's no real attempt to live a godly life.

There's no real distinction between them and the world.

They pursue the same things as the world.

They're entertained by the same things.

They use the same language.

They use their resources the same ways.

They conform to culture rather than stand against it.

They have no real devotional life.

The word of God is not the word of God in their lives.

And they see grace as something that allows them to make no effort to change.

In other words, They have a form of godliness, but deny its power.

Here is the way I want to end these two-part series.

It's with one passage, and this is the real end.

This is the passage God has led me to, to finish.

In Hebrews 11, we know it as the great faith chapter.

And what more shall I say?

I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.

Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

There were others who were tortured.

refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.

Some faced jeers and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.

They were put to death by stoning.

They were sawed in two.

They were killed by the sword.

They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated, and the world was not worthy of them.

Now, do you notice a tension between two groups?

Come on now, this is it.

The first group, wow.

Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

Woo!

Conquering kingdom.

I want to be in group one.

But then there's group two.

Stone, sodded two, swords, destitute.

The world was not worthy of them.

And if you notice in group two, no names are mentioned.

And I've wondered sometimes if no names are mentioned because this is a future reality.

There are going to be others who don't seem to win the victory.

But the world was not worthy of them.

Now, here's my question.

This is the end.

How many want to be in the first group?

Raise your hand.

How many want to be in the second group?

And then it dawned on me, the first group revealed the power of God.

The second group revealed the value of God.

The second group.

Said no matter what happens in this world or in my life, I will live for the purposes of God, even if I remain nameless.

Jim Elliot said he is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Here is my advice to all of you.

Number one, repent.

You better get your house in order.

Whatever that sin is in your life, you better deal with it.

Don't wait and wait and wait till you're in such darkness.

Seeing the light is almost impossible because the day of the Lord is coming.

Oh yeah, it's coming.

It could be tomorrow.

It could be a year.

It could be 10.

It could be a generation.

But we're in those seasons and times now.

Get your house in order.

Two, stop panicking.

My goodness.

God is not anxious about this election.

Or anything else, really.

Okay, do your due diligence.

Do what you do as a citizen.

That's okay, but do not panic.

Do not think it is the end.

It's not the end until he says it's the end.

And that's good news.

Because there will be no more crying or mourning or pain.

No more injustice.

No more strong oppressing the weak.

No more children in slavery.

And finally, in heaven's name, seek first the kingdom of God, because if you don't, the world is so strong, it will pull you away.

Are you listening to me when I say that?

If you don't lean in, if you think you're going to drift into the kingdom of God and drift into salvation and drift in to a spiritual depth that is consistent with those who follow Jesus, you don't drift into it, man.

It's a fight.

It is a battle.

So I ask you, how are you living?

In what are you investing?

Are there spiritual disciplines in your life?

Stop saying, I'll do it next week.

Stop saying, I'll get my life right next year.

Today is the day of salvation.

Repent, stop panicking.

Seek first the kingdom of God.

Whatever needs to go out of your life, do it already.

Do it now because the time is near.

Amen.

Father, thank you for...

The power of your word.

Thank you that as we think about what you see, as you look down from the walls of heaven, and yet you don't wipe us out.

You give us grace and mercy and salvation.

And you long for repentance of this world.

And you long for a new community to stand up and be counted, to live lives of distinction, to be different and to be so different that their lives are compelling.

As we continue to pray for revival in our church, we pray right now this weekend that you would come near, the Holy Spirit would fall and would open the eyes of every person and every person in this room or that will hear this message this weekend, every single one, perhaps for the first time in their lives, will seek first the kingdom of God above and beyond all other things.

that the world may know and that the end may come in christ's name everybody said We hope you enjoyed today's message.

If you decided to follow Jesus or just want a little more information about this walk with Jesus, I want to encourage you to go to oneandall.church slash Jesus and so that way we can help you along this journey.

We have a couple resources for you for your walk with Christ and one of them is the daily podcast and you can listen to it wherever you listen to podcasts whether it be Spotify or Apple Music.

and it's just a two to three minute daily devotional so you can have time with jesus and reflect upon your day the second one is is our conversations podcast this is where we get to sit down with our speakers authors theologians and just get to dive deeper into christianity you can watch those on our youtube channel and we'll end as we always do with one hope one life in