Welcome everybody to One and All.

My name is Drew and I'm so glad that you made it to watch this week's message.

I want to encourage you to download our One and All app because from there you will see a Sermon Notes tab.

And I love using this tab because it is grabbing everything from the sermon and going into one place where I can always look back to.

Before we jump into today's message, I want to encourage you at the end of it, we're going to take our time in communion.

And so wherever you're watching this, will you grab bread and juice?

And if you don't have that, honestly, whatever that you have will work because this is a symbolism of what we are going to do together of remembering what Christ has done for our lives.

So go ahead and take some time to grab what you need to get ready for after the message.

And let's get into it.

all right this weekend we began a new series called mark for life and uh We're going to tackle one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament.

It's Matthew chapter 24.

And in Matthew chapter 24, I really want to encourage you to get your Bibles because we're going to go through this actually section by section.

So if you're the kind of person who loves to study the Bible, loves to try to understand what the Word of God teaches us and how to apply it into our lives, this is one of those messages.

In the series, we're saying that, yes, the Holy Spirit of God has marked us as the elect, I'll explain that in a moment, or believers for a certain type of life.

And it's when we misunderstand that life, what type of life that is, that we really get ourselves into trouble.

And so Jesus is nearing the end of his ministry.

He's hanging out with the disciples.

And the pastoral part of Jesus, I believe, starts to come out.

Because according to verse 1 and 2 in Matthew 24, we're told that Jesus leaves the temple, let's read it, and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.

Do you see all these things, he asked.

This is Jesus.

Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another.

Every one will be thrown down.

So...

The question is, why would Jesus say something like this?

And every time I read this, I think of a couple of my favorite structures or natural wonders in the world.

I often mention Victoria Falls.

It's an amazing, it's actually the largest waterfalls in the world.

It's called Musio Tuna, the smoke that thunders.

And I read recently that 300,000 gallons of water pour over the Zambezi per second.

Every second, 300,000 gallons of water.

A few years ago, I was on a trip to India, and I got to visit the Taj Mahal for the first time.

It is an amazing structure.

It's gigantic.

It possesses 312 feet of a marble base on each side, so you multiply that by four, and it's 23 feet high.

It is an amazing structure.

But all of these things pale in comparison to the temple.

The temple in Jesus'day covered somewhere around 450 acres.

You think about that, of concrete.

or of marble.

of gold and silver.

It was 135 feet high.

It was truly a monstrosity.

So Jesus'message to the disciples is that not one stone of this magnificent structure will be left unturned.

Now, why does he say this?

And I think Jesus is thinking about his impending death.

He takes on a pastoral mode.

He's thinking of his disciples and all that they're going to face.

And so chapter 24 is warning them.

Now, notice Jesus doesn't really baby them and tell them, oh, it's going to be okay.

You're not going to have any trouble.

You know, everything's going to be good for you.

Instead, as their master and teacher and the one who loves them, he gives them a stark warning.

to tell them, look, you've got to endure because things are going to get tough.

So the disciples hear this and they're thinking along the way.

And then we pick it up in verse three, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, that is with his disciples.

So they've gone quite a journey.

The disciples came to him privately and said, tell us when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?

Now this end of the age term is a Greek compound word that means the completion of events.

But the problem is that phrase in itself presents problems because Matthew writes his gospel primarily concentrating on the Jews.

But Jesus speaks in Matthew 24 with a particular concern on his disciples.

He's talking to his disciples, but not only the disciples in the present, but the disciples in the future.

And I need to show you this because we can't go on until you get this.

So when we talked about Matthew 24, what's happening is, as I've mentioned before, The writers of the Old Testament and New Testament seem to separate all of history into two, three and a half segments.

So all of history is represented by seven years.

And you have these things in Revelation, 42 months, 1260 days, three and a half years, time, times, half a time.

All of those represent the same amount of time, three and a half years, 42 months, 1260 days.

So the numbers given tend to represent three and a half years before Messiah, three and a half years after Messiah.

So the second stage of history, the second three and a half years of the seven, represents the age of the church.

So Messiah comes here.

This is the church age.

And then in Revelation, we have a lot of things that talk about the events, not only of the church age, but more specifically, near the end of the age.

It's just very difficult.

to determine which things are going to happen during the church age, and which are specifically designed to communicate the things that will happen near the end of the age.

Where the disciples are concerned, in their mind, they're thinking of the Messianic age.

So they're talking about when will the Messiah return, when will he come, and they think in their minds, at least at this time, that it's going to be somewhat soon.

So Jesus, knowing that, starts to tell them what things are going to happen in the Messianic age, the church age, and in the last days.

That's why Matthew 24 is so difficult, because Jesus seems to go back and forth between these three categories.

Now, in verse 4, Jesus answered, Watch that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, claiming, I am Messiah, and will deceive many.

Now, I'm a little bit concerned that this word is translated Messiah, because it's actually the word for Christ.

Messiah is a title.

Christ is more like a word that represents authority.

So Jesus is the Christ.

He's Yeshua, Messiah.

But this is a word that primarily means authority.

And what Jesus is saying to the disciples is, during these last days, whether it's the Messianic days or the church age, or even the last days before the culmination of all time in history, that there are going to be people come along claiming to be in authoritative positions.

Now, I don't know if you noticed this, but during COVID, we got a really good glimpse of how most of the world is indeed sheep that are so easily swayed.

When difficult times come, we tend to gravitate towards someone that we think is going to save us.

So whether the information is accurate or inaccurate doesn't really bother us that much at first.

We're so desperate, we're trying to go somewhere where somebody can tell us that everything is going to be okay.

So Jesus is warning them when things start falling apart on this planet, and they were already falling apart then.

When things are falling apart, there's going to be the tendency for authorities to rise up and claim that they're saviors, they're Christ, they're in an authoritative position.

And there's going to be a temptation to gravitate toward those people.

So Jesus says to the disciples, just make sure that you know that I am Messiah, I am authority.

God has his hand on this world.

Continue to endure, follow, and trust his way.

Don't be led astray by false Christs who claim authority and a new possible way to be saved.

Not only literally, but also in the realm of redemption.

So Jesus says when these events begin to take place, now what events?

Well, the ones Jesus is about to describe.

He says authoritative leaders will rise up and they will say, follow me.

This is the way to victory.

In the messianic era, there are going to be messiahs or Christ appear and say, this is the way to overthrow Rome.

Jesus was a good guy, but we got to take things into our own hands now.

Jesus is warning them that people are going to stand up and claim that they are from me.

They're an authority coming from me and they're not speaking for me.

You must remember all the things that I've taught you.

Now, let me just give another misconception right here.

We could spend an entire sermon series on this.

There's the idea that Christians are supposed to take over the world.

This kind of theology has existed from the beginning.

In fact, the reason the Jews missed Jesus the first time is because they were expecting a literal earthly kingdom where Jesus would be the ruler.

Jesus explained very clearly to Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world.

If it were, I would have called my warriors to fight for me.

So Christians have to remember our job is not to take over the world, but to pull people out of the world system into a relationship with Christ.

So in 1 John 5, 19, we're told that we know we are children of God, but that the whole world is under the control or the sway of the evil one.

So the Bible teaches, and Jesus is reiterating this with the disciples, that in this world there are two kingdoms that are diametrically opposed toward one another.

And those kingdoms will always be here until Christ returns.

But he's warning them when bad things happen in this kingdom, in this world that is controlled and held out of the sway of the evil one, remember that God has not lost control.

This does not change God's plan of redemption.

You're going to see some very evil things in this world because it's fallen.

And you're going to think along the way that perhaps God has lost control.

And Jesus is reminding them, do not gravitate toward these false authorities.

go back to the word and know that even in the midst of these trials, God's plan and his work will come to fruition.

In fact, do you know, you hear about an event supposedly called the Great Tribulation or the Tribulation.

That word, as we've described many times before, is the word thalipsis, which is the word that means pressure.

So in a way, and I don't have all the answers to this, nobody does.

In a way, while we've said that delayed justice is not the same as no justice, justice will one day come.

But in a way, the issues, the troubles, the tribulations that happen here now are meant to squeeze out.

the wheat from the chaff.

It's meant to make the cream rise to the top.

It's meant to identify those who are called, chosen, those who are redeemed, and those who are not in hopes that those who are not would repent.

A good example of that is I've been picking on my father-in-law a lot lately, but my father-in-law and I golf a lot and he's like, I'm like a six handicap and he's like a 24.

And if he starts out playing well and gets a little excited about the fifth hole, I'll say, don't worry, the real you will soon appear and you will lose.

And I know that's kind of harsh, but it's reality.

What I'm saying is sometimes it takes pressure in our world and in our lives for the real us to be revealed.

God knows that.

That's how the planet works.

So God is saying to his people, when these pressurized situations come, Take heart.

One, you have hope in something that will never fail.

But two, they have a way, the experiences in our lives and what happens in the world, they have a way of pressing the cream to the top, that the cream rises, and it will distinguish between the wheat and the tares.

He goes on to tell them that they're going to be hated by all nations.

Did you notice that?

he says, then you will be handed over.

Hold on, let's go back.

First of all, in verse six, he goes on, he says, you will hear, verse six, you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you're not alarmed.

Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.

Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Now here's the question.

Again, what period of time is Jesus talking about here?

Okay.

When he says that there's going to be wars and rumors of wars.

There's going to be nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

Is he talking about the Messianic age?

Is he talking about the church age?

Is he talking about the end of the age?

And the answer to that question is, of course, yes.

Because all these things have been around since the beginning of time, and they're going to increase.

Wars have always been around, from the Greeks to the Assyrians to the Romans to the Babylonians, all at war with the people of God.

And people will come now and say to me, given the events of the time, that, but Jeff, today there are more wars than ever, so the end must be near.

But there's only more wars than ever because there's more people and more land to fight over than ever.

Uh, famines and earthquakes have always been around.

In fact, if you go back, one of the primary stories of the old Testament is the famine in the days of Egypt, where Joseph was sent by God as a savior to take the people of God and despair them so that the lineage of the Messiah could continue.

Famines have always been, if it had not been for Joseph, there's, there's, there's a certain possibility.

And I know that's kind of an oxymoron, but it's, it's likely that the children of Israel would have perished.

and the line of David would have been extinguished.

Earthquakes have always been around.

And people will say, yeah, but they've increased.

Well, not necessarily.

They may have increased in quantity, but they've not necessarily increased in quality.

Earthquakes have always been around.

So the point I'm making, just because you have earthquakes and famines and floods and all of these things, doesn't mean that you can pinpoint to the time of when Jesus will return.

He's going to get to that in a moment.

By the way, I live here in Los Angeles and I was watching a documentary.

that listed the 72 most dangerous places to live on planet earth.

I was amazed at this documentary.

Number one, well, one of the, in the top 72 was a place in Peru, which was flooded and the flood became really a garbage disposal.

All the garbage and it was toxic water.

People were bathing, drinking it.

Very dangerous place to live.

There's a weird town mentioned in Western Australia, a town that actually mines asbestos, or as they say, asbestos, that mines it and people have gotten.

type of cancers, but people still live there.

And then would you believe it?

Los Angeles.

And it reminded me that, you know, you and I live on the San Andreas fault and, uh, scientists tell us.

that it's not a matter of if, but when the great earthquake is going to take place, it will happen.

And I started thinking, you know, when that earthquake happens, it would be so easy for us to say, why God?

And I think God would say, dude, you live on the San Andreas fault.

There are places that we build cities and that we live that just, I mean, it's just volatile.

It's beautiful to live on.

It's beautiful to live in.

But at the end of the day, the apostle Paul gives us a clue about why the earth responds this way.

And I got to read this.

It's in Romans 8, 9.

We're told that the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it.

So we're told that God subjected creation to this kind of activity as a result of the fall.

Why did he do it?

In hope.

In hopes of what?

That the creation itself will be liberated.

So this goes a long way to what Jesus is teaching all through the scriptures.

And that is that when we see these events around the world, part of the purpose of those events is to turn man's heart toward the eternal, to let him know that this world is fragile.

And if you put your hope and trust in anything here, it will soon pass away.

There's only one kingdom that remains unshakable.

So Jesus preaches this message continually to the disciples.

And then in verse 8, He says, all these are the beginning of birth pains.

Now, in the Hebrew mind, this Greek word, and there's a Hebrew word for it as well, represents the earliest twinges before the birth pains begin.

When Jesus says this, he's basically saying this.

When these things start happening, it's early days.

There is still so much more to come.

And the point he's making is that the delay of the Lord's return will be considerable.

He's trying to say to the disciples, look, when these things happen, it's still going to be a long time.

Now, this is a common complaint I get when we talk about the return of the Lord.

And I want you to think about something.

I think if you let this settle, I think this will really encourage you in one degree, another degree, maybe depress you if you wish the Lord's return was sooner than later.

But I'm going to show you a photo on the screen just in a moment.

but God creates the heavens and the earth.

He places the first people on the earth.

He chooses his chosen people, the Hebrew, to demonstrate what the relationship with God is like.

He launches the plan of redemption from the beginning.

Jesus comes, he dies on the cross, he's buried, he rises from the dead, and then we're told that Jesus one day will come back and collect the elect from the four corners of the earth, and we will go and we will be in that place, paradise, regain that place.

where we were meant to live from the beginning.

So that's the story of redemption.

Somebody will come along and say, but Pastor Jeff, are you sure you haven't missed this?

Because it's been so long.

I mean, come on, it's been a long time.

Maybe we missed it.

I want you to think about something.

Look at this photo.

On the photo right now, you have a picture of my family.

So on the far right, you have Charlie and Betty Delaney who are the patriarchs and matriarchs of the family.

Charlie was born in 1939.

And then you move to the center where you'll find me and my lovely wife, Robin, and my daughter-in-law, Jess, and my son, Delaney.

I was born in 1964.

And then you've got Delaney and Sion there.

Sion's on the far left.

Yeah, right the way you're looking, I think.

Anyway, they're there.

You can pick them out.

But this family alone, so from my father-in-law, Charles Delaney, the patriarch, born in 1939, all the way to my youngest granddaughter, Layla, born in...

just recently, if Layla lives, and I've got three grandchildren, obviously, that you see in the photo, Ada and Owen, but if Layla lives the average lifespan that we're predicting right now, she will not fade away from this earth until the year 2100.

Now, here's what I'm trying to show you.

In this photo, there are...

This photo, this family will cover from its beginning to end somewhere around 150 years.

Just in this photo, 150 years will be represented.

Now listen, 13 times the people you see in this photo would take you all the way back to Jesus.

So from Adam to now, we are told from the earliest days of Mesopotamia, the first people are only 77 generations.

And from now, right now, back to Jesus, only 25.

So you and I think, wow, it's been a long time since Jesus has returned.

Has it really been only 25 generations of people and families?

That's not a long time, especially in the mind of God.

So Jesus tells them, look, all these things you find happening, they're the beginnings.

There's still a lot to be done, a lot to be accomplished.

Verse 9, he says, then, and then here is not sequential, but it's then being during the period of distress.

So it could be talking about the Messianic age, the church age, or the end of the age.

He says, then, so part of this entire age of the church and beyond, you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death.

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

Now, the gospel isn't even into all nations at this point.

So you wonder if it's the messianic age.

Probably not.

It's probably the church age ending in the end age.

He says part of that, during the age of the church, you will be persecuted and nations will hate you.

And what's interesting, he says, you will be persecuted.

Now, I think most of you know the history of the church, and that is that every disciple was martyred because they would not recant their faith, because they maintained, they endured their trust and faith in Jesus, even though he had not yet returned.

Matthew was beaten in Nadaba, in the streets of Ethiopia.

James was struck in the head by a Hall of Britain, no, by a Fuller's Club.

ended his life.

Mark was dragged to the streets of Alexandria and James, not the brother of Jesus, and Philip were both decapitated.

So I think this is important because I remember when I was young, I was in Zimbabwe and I was attending a revival.

And I remember hearing the speaker say something like this, that if you really are righteous, you will never suffer any kind of hardship.

And I remember as a, you know, as a 22 year old, I heard that thing, man, really?

And I almost fell for it, but then I said, wait a minute.

First of all, no one righteous, no not one.

Second, what about the disciples?

These guys gave their lives for the cause of Christ.

They got sick.

Paul was shipwrecked.

Paul was tortured.

I mean, it's a pretty difficult life.

And that's because the early Christians had two great enemies.

One, the Jews, because they saw the Christians as an enemy to the law of Moses, so they would often persecute the Christians and hand them over to be persecuted.

And then the Gentiles, because the Gentiles saw the Christians as atheists, believe it or not.

Because the Gentiles were polygamous, not polygamous, but polytheists, where they had more than one God, and they saw the Christians as denying God because they only worshipped one God.

So they blamed the Christians for any kind of natural disaster.

They believed that their gods, many gods, Greek gods, whoever they were, were punishing the people because of the lack of faith the Christians placed in the Greco-Roman gods.

In fact, I mentioned not too long ago that we stood in Ephesus where Demetrius, who was a silversmith, who made his livelihood from making silver shrines of the temple of Artemis or Diana, Paul taught...

in Ephesus of the futility of worshiping and idolizing these gods who could not speak or hear or do anything, no sense of volition whatsoever.

As a result, people by the hundreds were converting to Christianity.

And as a result of that, Demetrius'silversmith business was suffering because nobody was buying the idols that he had made in tribute to the god Diana or Artemis.

And as a result, he incited a riot and gathered people in the stadium or the arena to to try to hand Paul over to be executed.

The point is, Jesus says right from the very beginning, that people will hate Christians.

The world, not every person, but nations in particular, will hate Christians.

And part of the reason is, is because one, Christians have an allegiance only to God, and that will frustrate governments.

Governments typically want your full allegiance.

Christians can never give that.

They will always go the way of scripture and the way of God, not the way of society or culture.

And as a result, Jesus says, one of the things you should expect disciples, not only the disciples in the messianic age.

but the disciples in the church age, and even near the end of the age, is that you will be hated by these nations.

Now you look at where we are in our world today.

300 million Christians are persecuted today.

Not back in the time of Rome.

Today, 300 million Christians.

One out of every five African Christians suffers extreme persecution, and two out of every five Asian Christians suffers persecution.

In Islam, which represents a good portion of the world, a funeral is often held for anybody who converts to Christianity, even if it's your own son or daughter.

And in other places, crucifixion in the South Sudan, they're actually crucifying people for being Christ followers.

They are in prison.

They are persecuted by starvation and economic exclusion.

And although this is not very popular, and no one wants us to say this these days, primarily Christians suffer the most in Islamic nations.

That's where Christians suffer the most.

They are killed, they are in prison, and they suffer economic exclusion.

Whereas in Christian countries, Islam is able to thrive.

And it can because it should be able to because there should be freedoms in a Christian country.

People should not be persecuted for their religions in a Christian country.

Even though we want to sit down and have dialogue and we think logic will win out in the end, we should never persecute anybody because they don't agree with our particular faith system.

Our job is to be salt and light in the city on the hill that cannot be hidden.

But make no mistake, Christians are persecuted and they are suffering and they are hated by the nations today.

And the more we rebel against culture and cultural norms, the more we will be hated and persecuted.

Jesus says in verse 10, At that time, This is a hard passage.

So I think at this point, Jesus is referring again to both ages.

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

Remember, this is a word that doesn't, it means that they will love something more than something else.

It's a lesser love.

So in this case, they will love their lives more than the lives of their brothers.

So he says, 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 many people.

So there is a word in this text that Jesus uses that is very difficult.

It's a word translated turning away.

Today we call it apostasy.

And Jesus is telling the disciples, he's warning them, that the pressure is going to be too great for many people to follow me.

We look back sometimes and we wonder, why is it that Judas betrayed Jesus?

And there's many, you know, all kinds of reasons have been, possibilities have been given.

Some will tell you that, you know what, Judas wanted to force Jesus'hand.

He wanted a literal earthly Messiah and King, and Jesus wasn't cooperating.

So Judas felt if he turned Jesus in that it would force his hand and he would take over from the Greco-Roman powers.

In reality, I think if you read the text, and no one knows for sure, definitely not me, but I think at the core of Judas was, I think he saw the handwriting on the wall that Jesus was going to be crucified.

And so fearing for his own life, he betrayed his brothers and he betrayed his master.

What Jesus is saying, this kind of thing is going to happen throughout the age of the church.

Sometimes the persecution will be so great that brothers will actually turn their brothers in to save and spare their own lives.

In fact, when Philip and James were decapitated, they were decapitated because they would not recant and they would not turn their brother and sister Christians into the authorities to also be persecuted.

They were told, recant and live.

They did not recant that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and they would not betray their brothers and sisters.

But Jesus is saying this type of thing is going to happen.

And he says, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

So there will be many Christ followers who will fall away.

We'll talk about apostasy in a moment.

Because of fear, but there'll be a whole nother group that falls away because they'll simply be deceived by false prophets.

Now, false teachers have always been around in the Messianic age, in the church age, and of course, they seem to intensify near the end of the age.

In Jesus'day, you have the Gnostics, who believed that they received special revelation from God, that the flesh does not matter, the flesh is flawed, therefore Jesus, God in the flesh, would never appear in the flesh.

And they claimed to have this special revelation whereby how you lived in the flesh didn't really matter, what mattered is what you intellectually believed.

So you had an intellectual superiority, kind of, and God had revealed something to you.

Holiness didn't matter.

It only mattered what you believed in your heart.

The Arians also denied that Jesus was God in the flesh, and that became the center theme in the Council of Nicaea.

So there's always been false teachers around, but the kind of false teaching to which Jesus seems to be referring here in Matthew 24.

is when someone claims to have special revelation from God that supersedes the tradition of the Christian faith.

And it's often related to the types of things that will happen in the last days.

So Jesus is saying, don't be fooled by them.

Just because you're losing patience, just because things look like that God's not in control, do not lose your confidence.

Do not cease to endure.

Endure.

Go back to what I taught you.

Do not fall for these false teachers.

Now, Again, many religious cults have been born even today out of an attempt to claim special knowledge of the events surrounding the end of the age.

Some of you may not know this, but Charles Taze Russell, who was the founder of the Jehovah Witnesses, he predicted the end of the world in 1874.

It didn't happen, so he changed it to 1881.

It didn't happen.

He must have changed it 10 times.

Every time it didn't happen, he just moved the date back a little bit.

But that proved to be advantageous for gathering the type of people who were going to be the first to know about the end of the world.

who wanted more in the world and what was to come than they believed Jesus was offering.

They were frustrated because of tribulation.

They wanted new truth.

There's always gonna be a prophet that will give it to you.

And then Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons, he believed that he'd received special revelation from God and was called to expose the false teaching of many of those who were Christ's followers.

So he writes his own book, the Book of Mormon, which is a significant departure from Jesus'teachings.

And the historical record found within the Book of Mormon has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on actual time and places and events.

But these are not new ideas.

False prophets will always appear and deceive many.

But it's this phrase, turn away from the faith that disturbs so many people.

I want to deal with it just for a second here.

Because it's no doubt that the phrase apostasy or turn away assumes in its meaning some type of conversion and then a turning away.

So apostasy then also assumes some type of conversion.

So let's say we define conversion as a change in life brought about by repentance and a faith that perseveres to the end.

That's how a Christian would define conversion.

There must be, according to Jesus'words, A type of conversion that introduces some change, some transformation, some tasting of the Spirit of God, and some understanding of grace that does not endure to the end.

Now, when I speak like this, sometimes people will accuse me of challenging the idea of salvation by grace through faith, which would be heresy.

But the writer of the book of Hebrews really helps us understand how we miss the point when we go down this road.

He says in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 14, listen carefully.

We have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

So he's saying that the type of authentic believer will hold the conviction until the end.

Now, what is the conviction?

Well, I have to believe that salvation by faith or by grace through faith, that only Christ Jesus atoned for our sins and there's no other sacrifice for our sins, no other way to put us in a right relationship with God.

Therefore, we follow him and walk in the dust of the rabbi.

In Hebrews chapter 6, a few chapters later in verse 4, we're told it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit.

who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, and who have fallen away to be brought back to repentance.

To their loss, they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

Now, notice he says, it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened.

In other words, their eyes are open to the true identity of Jesus.

and they've tasted the heavenly gift, they've somehow grabbed hold of the Spirit, and to some degree, they've tasted the goodness of God.

He says, if they fall away, apostasy, if what enlightened them, if somehow the knowledge that has come to their mind, and they've received, they later in life reject this understanding of who Jesus is, he says, There's no other way back because only through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ can one come into the presence of God.

If you deny the crucifixion or you deny the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, then there remains no other sacrifice for sin.

Therefore, there is no way back and you are publicly shaming Jesus.

What does that mean?

Well, that means that you're saying that everything that Jesus endured and his crucifixion that he was willing to go through is meaningless.

In other words, I think one of the best explanations of this is actually by R.C.

Sproul, who says this, and I quote, In other words, apostasy in the New Testament is turning away from a profession you have adopted.

It is turning away from a stance, from a profession of faith, from an orientation of life, from a public commitment, from a self-identification that you once made, but in so turning away, you identify that you cannot possibly be real for the real perseveres.

So in 1 John 2, we're told, Dear children, this is the last hour.

And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come.

These are people in authority, Antichrist, not anti-Messiahs.

This is how we know this is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.

For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us.

But their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

What the Bible actually teaches is that those who are real and authentic will endure in their enlightenment of who Jesus is.

It's amazing.

Now I go back, and I know we're reading a lot of scripture, but that's not a bad thing.

I go back to Matthew chapter 13 when Jesus tries to describe the different types of seeds, or the same seed, the gospel, that falls on different types of paths.

Let me read it.

He says, the seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and once receives it with joy.

So they're tasting something there.

But since they have no root, they last only a short time.

When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.

So they received something, they tasted something, they believed for a while, but the cares of the word choked it out.

Verse 23, but the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word, understands it.

This is the one who produces a crop yielding 160 or 30 times what was sown.

Jesus teaches the disciples, do not be surprised that there will be many who will fall away.

When unexpected trouble comes.

That's the lesson of the parable of the seed and the sower.

So some people will give an intellectual assent to who Jesus is, but then their family doesn't work out the way they thought it would.

Their career takes a nosedive.

Their health goes in the wrong direction.

They're not as prosperous as they thought they would be.

Disappointment comes.

Jesus says disappointment is okay, but don't be surprised.

There will be many.

that will fall away because life does not turn out the way they thought.

And it begins with a bad theology whereby you think that if you do everything right, you will be blessed.

If you do everything wrong, you'll be cursed.

That goes all the way back to the first book in the Bible, written or recorded chronologically, the book of Job.

It is a false system.

Jesus says, be ready.

Not everybody's going to endure this world that is diametrically opposed to the kingdom of God.

Verse 12, he says, because of this increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.

Now, the Greek word for sin, come on, stay with me now, is the word amartia.

It's a word that means to shoot at the bullseye but miss the mark.

But inclusive in the word is the intention to hit the bullseye.

But the word for wickedness is the word that means you're not even trying to hit the bullseye.

You know what's right.

You know where the mark is, but you have no passion.

So the love that he's talking about, because of the increase of wickedness, the love that will grow coal is the love for righteousness.

And if you look around our world right now, and it's been happening, though, since the beginning, but there's a significant portion of the population in our world, and it's always been representative in our world, represented in our world, that has no thirst or care or love for righteousness.

I think about what's going on right now.

In our world especially, you've got, you know, you can't even have a discussion anymore with the topic of abortion, which is a difficult topic, but you can't even now discuss it because people are so angry that you're trying to tell them what to do.

I mean, this whole thing, man, don't tell me how to live, don't tell me what to do.

That is the attitude of the present culture.

It's not that they don't know what is right.

They just don't want to be told what to do, and they want to do what they want to do.

do what is right and wrong in their own eyes.

The last verse in the book of Judges.

So the Bible tells us not to be surprised when the love for righteousness in our world grows cold.

And then in verse 13, but the one who stands to the end, here we go, will be saved.

So the idea is that some will not stand firm.

Some will walk away.

Some will not fight the good fight.

Some will not be willing to go against culture.

Some will not be willing to choose the path or resistance.

Some will choose the easy way.

And Jesus says, don't be surprised.

Culture is powerful.

And only those who are truly saved will endure to the end.

In verse 14, he says, and this is misunderstood, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world.

as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Now, I want you to notice something.

Persecution will come to all Christ followers in the Messianic age, in the church age, and in the end of the age.

We will have physical strife and abuse.

There will be spiritual falsehood and false teachers that come after us, false prophets.

There will be an increase in wickedness.

But, he says, the gospel will be preached and then the end will come.

Now, here's why this is difficult.

It says the gospel will be preached in the whole world.

It's a word, it's goyim.

And the word goyim means Gentiles.

The Gentile world.

And all here doesn't mean all, but it means the vast majority.

So some people will say, well, Jesus is not going to return until everybody hears the gospel.

Well, hold on.

First of all, it's the Gentiles who will hear the gospel, which means he's not talking about in the Messianic age.

He's talking about the church age and the end of the age because the Gentiles were just beginning to hear the gospel in the life and times of Jesus.

But now in our world today, it's amazing what has happened.

And if this verse...

Part of the reason that people will consider that perhaps the end times are near is because according to the Joshua Project, there are 17,446 people groups on planet Earth.

There only remains 50 who are unreached.

We're almost there.

All but 50 have been unreached.

So there's been a lot of good evangelism happening over the last 100 years.

So in respect to the verse, you could say that the vast majority of Gentiles have heard the good news of the gospel.

I don't think we're waiting for every person, every last people group on earth to hear the gospel before the return of Christ.

But I think as we get near it, we should pay attention to the signs of the times that the time could possibly be near.

And then this next verse, verse 15, when you see standing in the holy place, the abomination that causes desolation, spoken up to the prophet Daniel, let the reader understand.

Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house.

Let no one in the field go back to get his own cloak.

How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers.

Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.

So it appears now that Jesus Changes, shifts gears back to the Messianic age.

They will end with the destruction of the temple in AD 70 when the Roman general Titus comes in and sacks the city of Jerusalem and commits the abomination of desolation by walking into the temple courts.

Now, the thing about this is that Jesus, according to Josephus, there was a warning.

given to the Christians to flee their homes.

Well, we're actually reading it right here, to go away.

In fact, he says, if you're on the housetop, and the housetop is the place you went to cool off during the day.

He says, if you're up there cooling off, man, don't even go back in the house.

Just jump off the walls and get out of town.

This is how devastating this desolation is going to be.

He says, if you're outside in the field, don't come back into town to get your stuff.

Just run to the mountains.

He said, pray that it doesn't happen when you're pregnant.

Well, if you're pregnant, you can't move very fast.

He's trying to say, get out of town fast.

Pray that it's not in the winter because in the winter, traveling is more difficult.

Pray that it's not on the Sabbath because on the Sabbath, you have all these regulations of what you can pick up and what you can carry and what you cannot.

He says, it's going to be so devastating.

Get out of town.

The desolation is coming.

The abomination of desolation, it did come in AD 70.

It did happen in the Messianic age.

Now, there are some people who think that this prophecy has multiple fulfillments and that there will be another abomination of desolation near the end of the age.

That's something for debate.

But Jesus is clearly talking about at least what happens within this Messianic age.

And then comes the very difficult verse in verse 21.

For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be equaled again.

Now, that's a hard one to understand because you look at the desolation that happened when Titus sacked Jerusalem, and you start to think, well, wait a minute.

The Holocaust was, it seems to me that Auschwitz was far worse than the abomination of desolation.

Or that what happened to the Warsaw Jews in World War II, that was much worse.

So agreeing that this is a difficult text, I want to show you how I deal with it, okay?

And you may not agree, and that's okay.

I think what we're talking about here is that when the Romans closed in on Jerusalem, After the Christ followers, after the disciples of Christ had heeded the call and gotten out, all of those who were left in Jerusalem died.

Not one survived.

There were a few who tried to run, but it was too late.

They tried to run to Masada or to the old country.

They were either caught and executed or they became slaves.

At least in the Warsaw Jews in World War II, a few thousand did escape and survive.

And even in Stalin's regime, he was merciless, but millions of believers did escape.

So even though Josephus...

has terrifying descriptions of the famine During the days of the takeover of Jerusalem and the temple, in fact, he talks about that mothers were boiling their children to eat them because of the starvation.

They were actually eating their own defecation.

It was that bad.

I find it possible to believe that in terms of magnitude, but not in terms of density and percentages, there's not ever been a disaster so overwhelming than what happened in AD 70.

I think to some degree because of the percentage of the loss of life, I think to some degree because of the percentage of the loss of life.

What happened?

I think Jesus is saying this is the worst thing that's going to happen in the messianic age.

Nothing has been this bad before and nothing will be this bad in the messianic age after.

And then there's this whole final outbreak of evil that will happen near the end of time.

In verse 22, Jesus says, if those days, and I assume again, he's talking about the days of AD 70.

If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive.

But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.

So all in Jerusalem had perished, but many of the Jewish Christians who had heeded the words of Jesus and were assuming those were the elect, Jesus wanted to spare those disciples so then they could take the good news.

of the gospel to the Gentile world.

So that tells us that even in the worst of circumstances, Jesus says at times, this far, no further.

And we're also told that no matter how bad things get, that the gates of Hades will never prevail against the church, that he will always save a remnant.

There will always be those left over that God uses to take the good news of the gospel into the world.

So I want to note that this is one of the ironies of the gospel movement, that every trial that the people of God experience seems to produce a going out of the gospel.

So when Jerusalem was exiled, when all the Israelites in Jerusalem were exiled, the Babylonians took them into captivity.

What's interesting is Daniel, because of the exile, was able to take his belief in monotheism in the one true God, Yahweh, into a secular or...

polytheist culture where he was able to have great influence.

And as far as we know what happened in the time of Babylon, there were many Babylonians, including Nebuchadnezzar, that began to believe in the one true God.

It seems that persecution, exile, it seems that tribulation forces Christ's followers out.

It disperses them in order that you and I might take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

I just want to remind you again, because we need to pause here.

So much of what happens in our lives.

can be described as good, even though we just can't possibly see it at the time.

God has a way of allowing things to happen in our lives that ends up turning out for a good that we can't possibly imagine.

And one of the verses in the Bible, and Paul writes this to the Corinthians that has always encouraged me, is in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, where Paul says, For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face.

Now, it doesn't say, and I've heard people, it doesn't say see him face to face.

So we're not talking about seeing Jesus.

We're talking about seeing reality.

For now we see only reflection.

We can't know what is going on.

We can't connect all the dots.

But one day when we're in the presence of God, he's going to give us this beautiful gift of being able to see how all of those dots were connected.

He says, now we know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

What is it that I will know fully?

All the things that God has been doing through the plan of redemption.

And there's something about that that gives us a satisfaction, a peace of mind that one day those things will become clear.

Then in verse 23, let's finish the text now and make one final application.

At that time, if anyone says to you, look, here he is, the Messiah, or there he is, do not believe it.

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

See, I have told you ahead of time.

So if anyone tells you there he is out in the wilderness, do not go out.

Or here he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it.

For his lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west.

so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Wherever there is a carcass, there are vultures that will gather.

Basically, all of this is language to tell you this.

When times are difficult, there are going to be people who rise up and claim to have special revelation and special truth.

And they're going to do it sometimes in hidden places.

And you might be, as a Christ follower, think, man, did I miss this?

I mean, I heard about this person.

They were amazing, but they were in a different part of the world.

Is this the Messiah who has come and returned to set up his kingdom?

Basically, this language says, look, when Jesus returns, everybody's going to know it.

It's going to be loud.

It's not going to be hidden.

It's not going to be in secret.

It's going to be visible like lightning that comes from the east is even visible in the west.

You're going to know it's happening.

There's not going to be a secret.

He will depart the clouds.

He will come in the clouds.

The sky will split.

The heavens will open.

And he will come as the rider on the white horse, conquering and going out to collect.

the elect from the four winds or the four corners of the earth.

Now, let me say again, there's this ongoing theme all through the Bible of false teachers, and we need to make sure that we understand that.

And so let's close this section before we give our quick application, because I think you have to ask, we could go back and trace all the false teachers, but you have to ask, who are the false teachers of our day?

How do we identify them?

And I think we don't have to go far to do that.

All we have to do is read 2 Timothy 4, verse 1 through 4.

So I'm going to read the scripture again.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge.

Preach the word.

Be prepared in season and out of season.

Correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.

Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

I believe, Jesus tells us that in the end times, and I believe that we're getting close, but even if we're not, we're at least in the age of the church.

And part of the description of the church age is that people will want to surround themselves or gather around people who will say what we want to hear.

And in our time, especially in the West, the gospel is really about me.

It's about creating Jesus in my own image.

It's about believing in a Jesus who likes everything I like and dislikes everything I dislike.

We do not want a Jesus that confronts us.

And we judge the law of God rather than allowing his law to judge us.

I see this again and again.

I just spoke with a lady at one of our campuses last weekend who decided to go to school in Alabama.

So she assumed that because I'm going to Alabama, the buckle of the Bible belt in the United States, that she had read that 95% of these students say they're Christians, but she started to learn.

While in California, few claim to be Christians, in Alabama, all claim to be Christians, but none of them live like it.

And it was really devastating to her.

And I tried to explain to her, this is because of the modern day gospel that teaches us, look, Jesus wants to give you everything and require nothing from you.

So if there's something that I want to do, it's not going to change the way I live my life.

It's almost going all the way back to Gnosticism, where what I do in the flesh doesn't matter as long as I acknowledge Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

So the thing that tickles our ears today is that Jesus saves us, but we can go on and do whatever we want to do and live however we want to live.

None of that matters.

And then he goes on to describe in the last part that nobody knows these days, not even the son, only the father.

But he says that immediately after the distress of those days, now we're assuming the messianic age, the church age and the end days, immediately following all that, he says, the sun will be darkened.

The moon will not give its light.

The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

And then will appear the sign of the son of man in heaven.

And he goes on to describe.

that it's going to be like it was in the days of Noah when people were just carrying on, marrying, drinking, eating, not paying attention to anything.

And suddenly Jesus comes, Jesus returns.

And then he says, make sure that you watch.

That's what chapter 24 is all about.

Make sure that you're watching the signs.

Don't be discouraged to somehow think God's not large and in charge.

God uses all these things, works them together for his good and his purposes.

Don't be deceived by false teachers who tell you they have something special, some new revelation.

Stay within the core and the faith essentials, what you know to be true in the objective word of God.

And then he says, be careful.

Watch your back.

Watch yourself.

Now, here's the thing about Matthew 24.

And I got to do this quickly.

In Matthew 24.

You have to ask the question, why the Holy Spirit of God inspired this to be part of our Bible?

Because in John 21, at the end of John 21, we're told that if the Scriptures recorded everything that Jesus did, everything that he said, everything he accomplished, there wouldn't be enough books in the world to record all the information.

Which means that not everything Jesus said and did is recorded in the Bible, but those things inspired by the Holy Spirit for Christ followers then in the Messianic age, in the church age, and the age to come.

So my question is, why is it important that you and I study Matthew 24?

Can I tell you why?

Here's first.

Jesus tells us that it is normal for Christ's followers to face reproach.

Some of it will even be violent.

The more like Christ you become, the less you will be accepted by this world.

You need to get that.

And I say this humbly through your thick skull.

The more, and I do too, the more you become like Christ, the less you will be accepted by this world.

A pastor building his own kingdom will tell you everything you want to hear and always make you feel good.

A pastor who is building Christ's kingdom will warn you of the constant dangers.

False teachers of our time center on me.

It's about me.

I want to get God on board with my plans for my life.

I want to live the abundant life.

Ironically, where I end up chasing everything the world is chasing and pursuing.

God is your ultimate psychologist who constantly wants you to feel good about yourself.

God is hip.

God is cool.

God is your pal.

He's the one who can get you all your heart's desires.

The false teachers of our day, their attacks are much more subtle.

They try to stay away from attacking the deity of Christ, the holiness, the purity of Jesus.

Instead, they present to you a Jesus who gives you everything you want and requires nothing.

So that you and I have become grace abusers.

So we live knowing that we're saved by grace through faith.

So we park that over there intellectually, and then we go live exactly the way we want to.

And when we're confronted, we say, wait a minute, nobody's perfect, we're all sinners.

I'm saved by grace through faith.

Jesus gives a warning.

He says, it's gonna get tough in the days to come.

The world will express its fragility.

Culture will express its futility, but Christ followers will express their durability.

You and I can take a hit and never give up hope, the assurance of what will one day come, drinking from a well that never runs dry.

Second, Jesus shows us that suffering in our world is going to go hand in hand with preaching the gospel.

The fear of opposition is never ever a justification for a fearful sitting on our hands and waiting for the Lord to come back.

We are always to be about the Father's business, helping people far from God come near.

Don't you see this?

I say this to the church at one and all, and all who are listening.

Don't you see how blessed we are?

You're part of something special where God is doing a good thing, a new thing.

Not a new thing of revelation, but God is revealing himself to us in such a special way.

Not because we're privileged, not because we're special, but out of his grace, he's revealing himself to us and allowing us to take part in the greatest endeavor of helping people see the good news of the gospel, to cross over from death to life.

So go ahead, one and allers, work your job, raise your family, pursue your interests, but for heaven's sake, take the gospel to the world.

Be part of a church, a group of people who want to change the world.

And how are you then using your resources?

Whose kingdom are you really building?

So I remember in high school, we went up to play our arch rival, the Hampton Bulldogs.

And it was an important game because our coach had resigned.

As their coach, a couple years earlier now was our coach, so you can tell that team really wanted to beat us.

They wanted to beat their old coach.

We did win the game, but I had a miserable game.

And I remember coming into the locker room, and Coach Duggar looked at me and he said, Vines, and I thought we were all going to celebrate, Vines, what contribution did you make to this game?

And I knew he was right.

Man, I didn't do anything right, and I didn't really hustle.

I didn't even try.

I was just depressed.

Yeah, we won, but what did I bring to the table?

Yeah, you're on a team here at one and all.

Yeah, things are happening, but what are you bringing?

What contribution are you making?

You and I need, we need more holy boldness to take the gospel to our friends, to talk to our friends, to talk to our family, to use our resources, and to never allow the fear of opposition to deter us from going out to preach the gospel.

Man, I love Acts chapter four.

Listen to this.

Verse 1, the priest and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.

They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.

But many who heard the message believed.

So the number of men who believed grew to be about 5,000.

I never noticed that.

So it's saying that Peter and John were preaching and they were getting opposition and they were trying to kill them or throw them into prison.

But incidentally, on the way to them being arrested, 5,000 people got saved.

That's what I'm talking about.

We need more holy boldness to go out and preach the gospel.

Let our conversation be seasoned with salt.

Peace, joy, nevertheless, we should never allow culture to deter us from bringing the good news of the gospel.

And then third, Jesus warns us that triumphalism must die.

Now, what is triumphalism?

Triumphalism is defined as excessive exaltation over a success or an achievement.

And popular in the West is this idea of Christians that we should never be sick or unhealthy or poor or emotionally distraught or, in effect, struggle with anything.

And that's a common theme right now.

If you're righteous, if you're doing things right, you're not going to suffer.

We are triumphalists.

We triumph over culture, over everything.

Yeah, there's a lot of truth in that in the age to come.

In the present age, though, that doesn't seem to correlate well with the gospel.

I've got a close friend in our church, and I've been friends with them for years.

And she went through a very difficult time in her life.

Because she wanted a child more than anything else.

And they tried everything they could, and no matter what they tried, it just wasn't going to happen.

And it was a time of ultimate depression for her.

She could not understand why God would not give her the desire of her heart.

What made it worse is her friends were a lot like Job.

They came to her and said, well, maybe you need to confess something in your life that you've not done.

Or maybe, you know, God's will for you is not to have a child, which could be true, but that's not what the person needs to hear at the time.

They need to be comforted.

And the idea sometimes as Christ followers, when somebody goes through a difficult time, we kind of want to tell them, well, here's the reason.

Sometimes you're never going to know the reason.

All you know with certainty is that God has a way of working everything together for good.

But quite frankly, when a person's in the middle of it, that's not going to make you feel that much better.

And I like to remind people in Ecclesiastes 3, it's okay for us to cry and to be sad and to be frustrated with God.

There's a time for everything, a season for every activity, time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to uproot, time to kill, time to heal, time to tear down, time to weep, time to laugh, time to mourn, time to dance.

Paul's message to the church is quite different than triumphalism.

It's the fact that we live victoriously even when we are like sheep persecuted all day long and we count ourselves worthy of the slaughter.

Man, that's unpopular.

Imagine that.

The contrast is amazing.

Triumphalism says that true spirit-filled Christians never truly suffer.

The gospel says true spirit-filled Christians suffer all day long but persevere and endure until they receive the crown of life.

The gospel assumes the vicissitudes of life.

turmoil, the terrors of the soul, fears of emotional and material impoverishment.

We Christians live in the world, but Jesus says, take heart, I have overcome the world, and so will all who endure.

And then fourth and finally, Jesus warns us that the values of this age to come must prevail in the church now.

Folks, that's the purpose of this series, to go back and remind us that you and I have been marked for life, and we're supposed to have certain values present in our life now.

And that reveals that you and I are the ones who are enduring and the ones whom Christ will gather.

Matthew 24, 31.

And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.

The elect are those who are in Christ Jesus.

But we're told in the next chapter, in the end of chapter 24 and chapter 25.

What type of person is the person who is enduring so that we can know they're the elect who will be called from the four corners of the world?

And that's why in the next three sermons, we're going to deal with these issues in Matthew chapter 24 and 25.

I just want you to know.

that one thing is certain, culture will always attempt to infiltrate the church.

And you and I have to resist the ever-changing morality of a world that is moving away from God and hold true to the objective authority of God's word.

And when the false teachers come shouting, hey, I've got new revelation that makes all this okay, that makes everything all right, you got to watch your back because many are called, few are chosen, and the way that leads to life is narrow.

So let me end like this.

You know, you remember the little story about Hans, the little Dutch boy?

One of my favorite stories growing up.

He's walking outside the little community town, and he notices at the dam there's a little trickle of water, and he sees there's a little hole.

So he goes over, and he puts his fingers and then his fist to hold it, and then he realizes the pressure's building up behind it.

And if he lets go, the dam will burst, and the people will be...

will perish.

So he keeps his hand and he yells, but nobody can hear him because of the storm.

And then it's old Mr.

Jensen comes along and he sees the young man Hans.

And he says, what are you doing, lad?

He says, this dam is about to burst.

And I wanted to save the lives of the people.

So he comes over, that is Mr.

Jensen.

He takes a small stone that seems to be perfect for going into the hole and he plugs up the hole.

He saves the village and he takes the little boy into town to say, look what this little boy has done for us.

I just think that's a great example because most of us have a little leak in our lives of where the world came in and there's pressure building up behind it.

And if you don't plug it up soon, the dam will burst and you will find yourself so far from God that it will be difficult to find your way back.

See, Jesus says apostasy is a possibility.

It's possible that culture and the world gets so steeply ingrained to you that somewhere along the line, you no longer assent to Jesus Christ.

as the Savior and atoning sacrifice for your sin, because you've decided to live this way.

And at that point in which you do that, the Hebrew writer says there is no other sacrifice for sin.

It's Jesus or nothing.

Can I encourage you?

Plug up the hole.

Do it as soon as you can, so that it does not impact your thinking and the pull and the culture of a world that's moving away from Jesus.

Father, thank you for the message of Matthew 24.

And I pray in Christ's name, we would take it to heart.

It would be special to us.

And we would watch our backs.

And then as the weeks come, realizing we've been marked for life, that we're part of the elect, we would do some introspection and ask, okay, if Jesus says these are the ways, or this is the way, that those who are in the kingdom of God have decided to live their lives.

And if we're not living our lives that way, I pray that we would have a come to Jesus, literal come to Jesus meeting where we would say, Father, forgive me.

I'm in now.

I'm plugging up the hole.

I'm pushing back the waters of culture.

And I'm going to live your way.

I'm going to live against the grain, swim upstream, go the way of resistance, that I may endure and persevere to receive the crown of life.

In Jesus'name, amen.

Let's be honest.

That was a lot.

So what I would love for you to do, wherever you're at, is just take a big, deep breath in.

I'm going to let it out.

That was a lot, but a lot of good things as well.

You see, after hearing this message, what do we realize?

We realize being marked for life does not mean just checking a box and just going about your day, but instead It is that your life is marked by Jesus through his life, death, and resurrection.

As you were listening to this message and if you felt that tug in your heart of Jesus saying, I want you to be in this family.

I want you to receive me in your heart.

I want you to go to one and all.

dot church slash Jesus. And from there, we want to help you with those next steps.

We want to help you with your journey, being welcomed into the kingdom of God.

Right now, I would love for us to go into a time of communion.

This is really a time of reflecting of what Jesus has done for us and a time to be thankful and a time to remember his sacrifice on the cross.

And if you have the elements that you have, I would ask you to bring them out.

And I'm going to just go through scripture of what really the Last Supper was like.

You see, Jesus invited the 12 disciples.

And...

They didn't know that this would be the last time that they would see him.

And it was such an intentional moment that Jesus wanted him to bring them together, to break bread, to laugh.

But also, he wanted to set a forever example, not only for the 12 disciples, but for each and every one of us.

to center around the bread and the juice, to understand what he was about to do was not just to do it, but it was for our sake.

And if you have your Bibles, if you can go into the book of Luke, and we're going to look at chapter 22.

And we're looking at verse 14.

And when the hour came, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him.

And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

For I tell you, I will not eat until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

And if you have the cup in front of you, to grab it in front of you right now.

And Jesus said in verse 16, for I tell you, restart that.

In verse 17, he says, and he took a cup and we had given thanks.

He said, take this and divide it amongst yourselves.

For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

I tell you right now to take your cup and to drink it.

And in verse 19, he says, and he took bread and we had given thanks.

He broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

If you can, grab your bread or whatever the element that you have and take the bread as you remember.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you.

And as we take these elements, God, that we remember what your son did when he was here on earth.

as he lived the life and he died for us, God.

We thank you that we are now saved, that we have eternity with you.

Thank you for stepping in place, God, and allowing us to become children of God.

God, I ask for each and every one of us that had taken part in this, God, that we will always look back to the moments that we have been saved.

We are just grateful that you got us out of God.

And it is only by your strength and your joy that we can stand here praising you and being with you.

We give you all the glory and all the praise in your beautiful name.

Amen and amen.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our time.

I want to encourage you.

There's so much.

here for you as the Digital Engagement Pastor.

We are developing so many resources for you.

We have the daily podcast, which is a two to five minute devotional.

Wherever you're at, you can listen to it on Spotify, Apple Music, and you can also watch it on our app.

This is a beautiful way to either start your day or begin in the middle of your day, just spending time with Jesus, hearing a word and getting a time to reflect.

And We also have, if you want more from the message, we have conversations with the speaker who spoke.

And those are such a great time because we just dig a little bit deeper.

Usually Pastor Jeff always says, oh, I cut so much out of the message.

And this conversation is the place where he gets to expand on what he didn't get to on stage.

So I want to encourage you to download the app, listen to the dailies, follow us on our YouTube channel.

So that way you can always have content for you.

So that way you.

can be a disciple of Jesus.

So I'm sure I'll see you later this week or for the next message.

We end as we always do with one hope, one life in Christ.