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Why Prophecy Matters Today (Israel and the End Times) | Sunday Message

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie
The Truth Network Radio
October 13, 2024 3:00 am

Why Prophecy Matters Today (Israel and the End Times) | Sunday Message

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie

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October 13, 2024 3:00 am

Bible prophecy expert, Joel Rosenberg, joins Pastor Greg Laurie. As they discuss the Israel-Iran conflict, discover why Bible prophecy matters and learn about Israel’s significance. Plus, see why it should matter to you in the first place.

Notes:

Focus verse: Romans 11
 
The Bible talks about the return of Jesus.
 
Understanding Bible prophecy brings hope in a hopeless world.
Titus 2:13
 
Understanding Bible prophecy unravels the mystery of history.
 
The Bible tells us Satan will be judged.
 
Studying Bible prophecy brings sense to our suffering.
 
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death
or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever!”
Revelation 21:4
 
1 Thessalonians 4:17
 
Understanding Bible prophecy brings a specific blessing to us.
Revelation 1:3  
 
Understanding Bible prophecy causes us to live godly lives.
 
It is not God’s desire to conceal but to reveal.
 
The key to understanding Bible prophecy is Israel and the Jewish people.
 
Deuteronomy 1:8
 
The nation of Israel is God’s chosen people and Satan hates what God loves.
 
God made the promise to Abraham and his descendants.
Genesis 12:2–3
 
God is not done with the Jewish people.
Romans 11:25

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Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here.

Let me ask you a question. Are you eager to make a difference in the spiritual lives of others? When you give to Harvest, you become a part of our mission to make God known through unique avenues like television, radio, and large-scale evangelistic events. Support us today at harvest.org slash donate, and help us to continue to spread the gospel around the world. Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Amen. Good afternoon. Let's pray together. Father, you are the God of revival, and we do pray that you will pour out your spirit. We believe we're living in the last days. We believe Jesus could come at any time, and we want to be watching, and we want to be working, and we want to be worshiping, and we want to be ready. So speak to us as we open your word and talk about that and more today, and we commit this service to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

You can all be seated. Good morning again, or no afternoon. It's not morning.

Not morning. Hey a couple of quick announcements before we dive in, and you can turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 11. But we're starting a brand new series next Sunday, and the title of it is Jesus and You. And it's going to be based obviously on the four gospels, and we're going to look at the way Jesus dealt with different people. You know Jesus never dealt with any two people in exactly the same way. He adapted what he did and said to each person. Contrast the story of the woman at the well with Nicodemus in John 3 and 4, and you see how he would come to them, enter their world, connect with them, and give them the truth they needed.

Or that woman who had the medical condition and reasoned if she could just reach out and touch the hem of his garment. To Zacchaeus who climbed up in a little tree so he could see what was going on, what Jesus said to him. So it's a look at Jesus and you, and you will find yourself in one of these characters. That's next Sunday news series, Jesus and You. All right so we're in John chapter, excuse not John, Romans chapter 11, and we're looking at Israel in the end times.

Why Bible prophecy matters today. I heard about a guy who was stranded on a desert island. He was finally rescued and they found that this man had built three buildings. And they asked him what are these three buildings? He says well the first building that's my house. The second building that's my church. Really? And what's the third building? He said well that's a church I used to go to.

Come on it's funnier than that isn't it? So you know even if you're all by yourself you'll find something to disagree with right. We're talking about hot button issues. Controversial issues in the light of what the Bible says. And I don't know that there's any more controversial issue out there than the topic of what is called eschatology. That just means the study of end times events or Bible prophecy.

People have disagreements as to what event is going to happen when people have disagreements about the nation Israel or the Jewish people. So I want to look at all of that through the lens of what the Bible has to say. I can tell you back in the 70s when the Jesus movement was happening we talked about this all the time. In fact the number one selling book of the entire decade of the 70s was titled The Late Great Planet Earth. And it was a book about the end times written by Hal Lindsey.

I would say that belief that Christ could come in our lifetime contributed to the revival like atmosphere. But when you bring this topic up some recoil they say oh no here we go. Here come the end times charts and the conspiracy theories right. And it can be that way. And it can be exaggerated. And it can be extreme. Or we can look at it in a balanced way. Some don't want to talk about end times events because there's disagreement or because maybe they find it scary. But listen to this. Bible prophecy is not given to scare us. It's given to prepare us. So we need to know about these things. Why?

Let me give you a number of reasons. Number one if you're taking notes the Bible talks about the return of Jesus a lot. And by the way when I'm done with this message which will be a little shorter I'm going to interview my friend Joel Rosenberg. And Joel is a geopolitical expert. He lives in Israel.

He has dual citizenship as both an Israeli an American citizen and as a bona fide expert on the topic. So we'll discuss this in greater depth. But Jesus the Bible in general talks about this a lot. Jesus said in John 14 let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid. You believe in God believe also in me. And my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so I would have told you. If I go I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am where I am you may be also. 25 percent of the Bible is prophetic. So it's not like it's a side note.

It's front and center. You might say the Bible oozes with the return of Christ. The New Testament contains over 300 references to the return of Christ.

That's one out of every 13 verses. Do you get the idea that God is trying to tell us something? So we should not talk about what God talks about so much.

It's the very opposite. We should discuss it because the Bible wants us to think about these things. So number one the Bible talks about the return of Christ a lot. Number two understanding Bible prophecy brings hope in a hopeless world. Understanding Bible prophecy brings hope in a hopeless world. Titus 2 13 says while we wait for the blessed hope the appearing of the glory of God and of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. It's a blessed hope.

The word blessed can also be translated happy. So we might call it a happy hope. It's a happy hope to know that Christ could come back at any moment because if you watch the news all the time you're going to get down. I was talking with someone the other day and and they said we watch the news a lot and it keeps me up at night. It shouldn't be keeping you up at night.

In fact you should be looking up. Jesus said when you see these things begin to happen look up for your redemption is drawing near. Number three understanding Bible prophecy unravels the mystery of history. Understanding Bible prophecy unravels the mystery of history. We wonder why is there so much evil in the world? Why does God allow all of these horrible things to happen? Even the believers in the book of Revelation chapter 6 are saying in heaven how long old Lord holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell on the earth. They're saying Lord when are you going to do something about it? The Bible tells us that judgment is coming.

The Bible tells us that one day Satan himself will be judged and Jesus will return and make every wrong right. So the Bible unlocks the mystery of history and Bible prophecy does that in particular. I heard about a guy he did not have a lot of theological training but he loved to read the book of Revelation and one of his friends who considered himself a theologian said you can't understand the book of Revelation.

No one can. The guy says I understand it. Oh you do do you?

Yes I do the man said. Okay then explain what does the book of Revelation really mean? The guy replied it means we win in the end.

That's true. Another thing that studying Bible prophecy does is it brings sense to our suffering. It brings sense to our suffering. What do you say to someone who has suffered a great tragedy? What do you say to someone dealing with a disability? What do you say to someone who has lost a loved one?

What do you say to someone that is dealing with overwhelming grief? You say this is not God's final plan. Revelation 21 says God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There'll be no more death nor sorrow or crying or pain for those things are gone forever. In fact when we talk about the topic of the rapture and that's a controversial subject not everyone believes that the rapture is a real event. They'll say you can't find the word rapture in the Bible which is true. But you can't find the word Bible in the Bible either. Nor can you find the word Trinity in the Bible. But actually you can find the word rapture in the Bible if you happen to have a Latin translation. See the word rapture comes from the Greek word harpazo which is translated rapturous or the English version rapture.

Call it what you like. The great escape. It's an event that means to be taken by force. 1 Thessalonians 4. Paul is talking to Christians who've lost loved ones and they're wondering if they'll ever see their loved ones again. So Paul then gives these words to them and really to us. The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel.

The dead in Christ will rise first and we which are alive and remaining shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then he brings this word therefore. Whenever you see the word therefore in the Bible find out what it's there for. Therefore or in conclusion comfort one another with these words.

What words? Comfort one another with the words that ye will be reunited with your loved ones who have died. So you have people you know and love that have died. And they're buried in the ground. And we wonder where are they now where their body is in the ground. And their soul or their spirit has gone into the presence of God. So at the rapture the harpazo or the first resurrection as it's also called people's bodies will be resurrected from the graves.

Job said in my flesh I will see God. There's going to be a bodily resurrection. Christ was resurrected bodily and we too will be resurrected bodily. And so we'll be caught up together with them in the clouds. So on the moment of the harpazo the rapture if you will these bodies will be resurrected and we will be caught up together with them in the clouds. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. So summation you will see your loved ones again.

You'll just be going on with your business average day doing whatever you do. And all of a sudden in a moment in a flash in the twinkling of an eye you're reunited with loved ones who have preceded you to heaven. That's a hopeful thing. And that's why we should study end times events because it brings sense to our suffering.

Here's another one. Understanding Bible prophecy brings a specific blessing to us. The book of Revelation is the only book of 66 that comes with the built-in blessing attached. And it says this in Revelation 1 3. Blessed or happy is the one who reads and hears and keeps the word written in this book for the time is near.

Built-in blessing. So when you study and keep the words of Revelation you'll be blessed or you'll be happy. And I think what's true of Revelation is principally true of the study of prophecy in the Bible in general. One last thing. Understanding Bible prophecy causes us to live godly lives. It causes us to live godly lives.

The reason we learn about the future is to motivate us to live right in the present. Let me take you a quick poll. How many of you believe Jesus could come back at any time? Raise your hand. Don't raise your hand if you don't mean it. Okay. If you believe that, and I believe you do, should that not affect you in the decisions you make today? Should that not affect you in the things that you say? Should that not affect you in the things that you do as well as the things that you don't do?

And the answer to all of that is yes. Because it says in first John, he that has this hope that is the hope of the coming of the Lord purifies himself even as he God is pure. Second Peter 3 11 says since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this what holy and godly lives we should be living. But some will say well Bible prophecy is too hard to understand. Listen it is not God's desire to conceal but to reveal.

Let me say that again. It's not God's desire to conceal but to reveal. The very word revelation means the unveiling. So God wants us to know these things. Jesus in Matthew 24 and the so-called Olivet Discourse is talking about the end times and he says when you see the abomination of desolation then he goes on to say let the reader understand.

Now the abomination of desolation is when the antichrist desecrates the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. Jesus says if you see that you need to understand. But the point I am making is let the reader understand. Paul speaking of end times event says I would not have you ignorant brothers. So God wants us to understand these things.

Not to neglect them or ignore them. And my last point is the key to understanding Bible prophecy is Israel and the Jewish people. And that is one of the most controversial topics of all. Israel and the Jewish people. When the Jews formed their nation on May 14, 1948 a modern day miracle occurred. And more specifically a prophecy was fulfilled and the prophetic time clock began to tick. It wasn't just a sign. It was a super sign.

Why? Because it was all predicted by the Jewish prophets. Like Ezekiel in chapter 37 where he talks about a valley of dry bones. A graveyard effectively.

And all of a sudden all these bones start coming together and then flesh is put on these bones and they come alive. And this is a symbol he says of the nation Israel. They will be dead. They will be gone. And they will come to life again in their land in the last days.

And we saw that happen before our very eyes. And God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people. To the Jewish people God said in Deuteronomy 1a look I am giving all this land to you.

And so go in and occupy it. For it is in this land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors that you have that is given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all their descendants. Now I bring this up because people will say well you know the Israelis are occupiers. They have taken land that belonged to someone else.

Excuse me. The Jews are indigenous to this region. This is their land that God gave to them. And more to the point they haven't even occupied all the land that God did give them. So they are not the occupiers or the colonizers as some like to say.

You know there are protests that are going to be happening probably tomorrow on the anniversary of this horrible event that happened on October 7th when 1200 Jewish men, women, and children were brutally murdered by the terrorist organization Hamas funded by the nation of Iran. And these protesters will have signs saying from the river to the sea Palestine will be free. They don't even know what they are talking about. They don't even know what river or what sea.

They are just parroting what others have said. They don't even understand what is happening in that part of the world. And you will see other signs that say things like death to the Jews or gas the Jews. There is a surge of antisemitism sweeping the world today.

You would have thought that after this horrible attack took place there would be an outpouring of public sympathy for the innocent victims there in Israel. But instead this antisemitic vitriol and Jew hatred has been expressed in so many ways. And it is from the devil. John 10 sums it up perfectly. Jesus said, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

But I have come that you might have life and that more abundantly. Why this hatred for the Jews in particular? Why is there antisemitism?

Simple answer. Satan hates what God loves. He always has and he always will. So we think about that in light of history and it goes way back to the book of Genesis. After our first parents sinned God said to Satan there is coming one who is going to crush your head but you will bruise his heel.

So the battle lines were drawn and the conflict began. Fast forward to the book of Exodus. We see the Pharaoh giving the order to drown all the little Jewish baby boys. But the Jewish midwives would have nothing to do with that and they didn't do that at all thankfully. And then fast forward to the book of Esther and we have the order of Haman who was in a position of power to kill all of the Jewish people because he had been offended by one Jew in particular named Mordecai. And a woman named Esther who was Jewish stood up for her people and saved them. And in both of those instances with the Jewish midwives and the story of Esther a woman saved a nation and the women saved the nation as well. Way to go girls. Girl power.

Ok. But the point of this is is Satan hates what God loves. And we see that in history. Go on to modern history and you see it as well. Because the Jews are the chosen people.

The Jews as described in Scripture are the apple of God's eye. There is a beautiful book called The Hiding Place written by Corrie Ten Boom. And they were a Dutch family living during the times of World War II. And they hid Jews in their home from the Nazis who were rounding them up and sending them off to concentration camps. And on one occasion this event happened and Corrie writes about it and I am quoting her book. One day as father and I were returning from our walk around the groat market we saw it was cordoned off by a double ring of police and soldiers.

A truck was parked in front of the fish market. And into the back were climbing men women and children all wearing the yellow star. You remember the Nazis forced the Jewish people to wear that yellow armband with the Star of David on it signifying they were Jewish.

She continues on. I cried father those poor people. Those poor people father echoed.

But to my surprise he was looking at the soldiers forming into ranks to march away. I pity the poor Germans Corrie. They have touched the apple of God's eye. End quote.

That's it. Because God made a promise in Genesis 12. I will bless those that bless you and I will curse those that curse you. And the German nation cursed the Jewish people.

They tried to eradicate them from the face of the earth. And in the Holocaust they killed over six million Jews. And so judgment came on that nation. And I believe one of the reasons God has blessed the United States of America is because we have stood by our ally the nation Israel.

And we need to keep doing it. And when you get ready to cast your vote for the next president of the United States you make sure you factor that in. Because I'm looking for a president that will stand by Israel and the Jewish people. I was invited to speak at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles a museum dedicated to fighting anti-semitism.

Educating people about it and fighting it in the present day. And I may have been the only Christian among many Jewish people and I was honored to be invited to speak to them. And I said I owe you all a debt. My Bible came from the Jewish people and I love the Bible but also my Savior came from the Jewish people.

Jesus Christ. So I didn't hide that fact. But I told them our love for them comes from the study of the Bible.

And this is why we're there praying for them. Now I'm not Jewish. I'm a gentile.

I did a 23 and me test. And I was hoping I would have some Jewish blood in me. And I found out that I was pathetically gentile and white.

Just I'm Irish and English. But I've been grafted in as a gentile and non-Jew into the promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob according to Romans 11 17. And every believer has.

If some of the branches have been broken off you though you were a wild offshoot have been grafted among grafted in among the others and now sharing the nurturing sap from the olive root. And listen to this one last thing. God is not done with the Jewish people. I want you to look at Romans 11 25.

I want you to understand writes Paul the mystery dear brothers and sisters so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Blindness in part has happened to Israel but that will last only until the full number of the gentiles have come to Christ. God is not done with the Jewish people. They are going to see a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit on their people in general and even on the nation Israel. There is a spiritual blindness among many Jews today. And by that I mean they are not really open to embracing Jesus as the Messiah.

But that is beginning to change. The last time I interviewed my guest Joe Rosenberg he told me there were 15,000 messianic Jews in Israel which is actually quite a few. But he just told me now there is 30,000 so it has doubled. And he estimates there are one million messianic Jews. A messianic Jew is a Jew who has put their faith in Jesus as a Messiah. He believes there are now a million messianic Jews around the world. So God is at work.

And I want to explore that more together. So now we are going to welcome Joe Rosenberg. He is a New York Times bestselling author. And he has a television program called The Rosenberg Report. And also has a news site All Israel News.

Another one called All Arab News. So Joel, I tell you what, he is the guy I talk to when I want to get information about that part of the world. So let's give a warm harvest welcome to Joel as he comes. How are you?

Good to see you. So Joel tomorrow of course is the anniversary, the one year anniversary of one of the worst events in the history of the nation of Israel. I mean this is a nation that came out of such extreme suffering on the heels of the Holocaust. They returned to their land. And then you know they had their war of independence and multiple wars after that. But I would think that this attack by Hamas eclipses a lot of that conflict.

And I know it sort of traumatized the nation. And you live there. You know you've actually, I mean Joel you were born, where were you born? I was born in Syracuse, New York. Yeah so you born in America, have gone to Israel, you've become an Israeli citizen, you have dual citizenship.

That means I get to vote twice. It's like living in Chicago. Yeah. You know and so. Good Joe.

Catch that one. Oh we have some people from Chicago here. So you live there and you're both of your boys have served or maybe are serving still. Two of the four served in the IDF.

They are not currently called up. Yeah. So you're all in and you've been, you were there on October 7th. Yeah. Actually living in Jerusalem.

Yeah. So tell us how this has affected the nation and maybe the Jewish people in general. I don't know if you can speak for all of them. But what kind of impact has this had? And why the increase of anti-Semitism of all things in the aftermath of such a horrible attack on these folks? Well living in Israel, I've been traveling in and out for 37 years since I was an undergraduate.

And then we started the Joshua Fund, a ministry to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus. That was 18 years ago. And then yes we became citizens and have lived there for 10 years. And October 7th was the worst day of our entire lives.

I'm 57 years old. I've never been through anything like that. We lived through 9-11 and we were living in Washington at that time. This was just devastating because we didn't see it coming. Nobody saw it coming. 1,200 Jews were murdered that day by this invasion of about 6,000 Hamas terrorists. Israel didn't see it coming. And Jews weren't just murdered.

And by the way, a couple days later I was covering Israeli President Herzog's first international press conference for the international media for all Israel News and for TBN. And he said that was the worst day of slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Nowhere since the Holocaust had 1,200 Jews been murdered.

Not even in Israel in all of our wars. These were Jews, Israelis who were being shot to death as children in front of their parents. Parents being shot to death in front of their children. Beheadings.

A baby put in an oven alive and baked. Families huddling together and burned in their homes alive. Women raped, men raped. And then 255 hostages being taken and dragged into terror tunnels in Gaza. I'll stop there because it's a Sunday morning and people didn't sign up to hear all the atrocities. But I've taken a lot of evangelical leaders to see.

There's a 47-minute classified film that the IDF put together of GoPro camera footage and some CCTV footage of Hamas terrorists doing this. I've never actually watched Demon Possession. This, I've never actually watched Demon Possession. But this is what I was watching.

And it is the most sickening and revolting and horrifying thing I have ever seen. And I've been to Auschwitz and I've been to Afghanistan and I've been to Iraq and living through it. And then every day since, there's a darkness spiritually. There's a darkness in terms of the military. And Israelis who don't know, and Palestinians and Lebanese who don't know Jesus and don't have a promise of peace that passes all comprehension.

That's what we have. But that doesn't mean we're not grieving. That doesn't mean we're not up in the middle of the night unable to sleep because the grief is just so deep. Paul went through grief. Jesus went through grief.

The church went through grief. So we don't get absolved of that. But we do have God saying, I will give you in those times peace and comfort that passes all comprehension. We've had that. But for a nation that doesn't have that, how are Israelis surviving?

That's the short version. But how does this all fit into the big prophetic puzzle? Like there's suffering all around the world, though this is one of the worst events we've heard of in history, if not in recent history. But why should we as Christians care in particular about Israel and about the Jewish people? Because there are some, there's a name for it, replacement theology. They would say, well, Israel is not a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

And that only happens when the Messiah comes. And they would say that we should not be that concerned about that part of the world. And what would you say in response to that? Well, of course, I disagree with that. And we could talk, thank you. We could talk about why.

And I'm happy to go there if you want. But I will say, even if somebody here or watching or listening feels that way, I would say, okay, set aside our disagreement on whether current Israel has anything to do with Bible prophecy. Just think about the Great Commission. How are you going to minister to a nation, a people that you think God has nothing to do with anymore? That's impossible.

I mean, to do it effectively. If God abandoned the Jews and replaced them with a church at the cross, because most of my team didn't get it, right? John won. He, the Messiah, came to his own, the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, and his own received him not. But as many as did receive him, Gentiles, like you and you, to them, to you, he gave the right to become the children of God. But our team did fail, mostly, to get it during the time of the gospel. But if God abandoned us then, if he cut us off then, how did Paul come to faith in Jesus Christ after the cross? How did God use him to reach so many Jews and Gentiles?

No, God obviously is, right in the scriptures, you don't have to go until later. Right in the scriptures, we can see God is not done with the Jews, and then go read Romans 9, 10, and 11, and so forth. But I would appeal to my friends who think that way, say, okay, just in terms of Jewish evangelism, just your heart and compassion, there's a nation that's grieving.

Now, it's not only us, right? The Palestinians are grieving. The Lebanese are grieving. And I think we are in the most dangerous moment of the war in the past year.

I believe it's very possible that in the next few hours or days, Israel will launch the biggest military attack on the Iranian regime and its nuclear facilities and oil refining facilities in history, and that might end quickly and well for us, or it could lead to an apocalyptic war that makes the last year in Gaza seem like a sideshow. So if you're trying to show compassion and you think of Isaiah 40, comfort, comfort my people. How can Isaiah say that prophetically if, oh, well, no, God's done with us? Well, how is that comforting?

If he's done with it, he's not done with us. And as you mentioned, now almost maybe a little bit over a million Jews have come to faith in Jesus, starting when? Starting in the Jesus revolution. There's a really good movie. I don't know if it's gotten to California. Are you aware? I've heard of it. Okay. Okay.

You and your wife should definitely see it, but I'm just saying, just saying. No, that's when my father who was raised Orthodox Jewish in Brooklyn, his family escaped out of Russia. That's when he came to faith. He came to faith in 1973. He thought he was the first Jew since the apostle Paul, Greg, that believed this. He'd never heard of a Jew that believed in Jesus.

He'd never met one. And in 1973, we think there were fewer than 2000 Jews on the planet who believed in Jesus as Messiah. Now there are over a million out of a population of about 15 or 16 million Jews. So in terms of sheer numbers and percentages, this is the greatest moment and era of Jews coming to faith in Jesus and many, many millions more listening than in all of human history. It's exciting. That's exciting. So you talk about a potentially apocalyptic situation. So it's interesting. We have Ezekiel 37 that talks about the regathering of the Jews to their homeland, which has happened.

Then we have Ezekiel 38. We read about a large force from the north of Israel, identified as Magog, marching on her. Israel seems to be isolated at this moment.

And one of the allies of Magog is called Persia, which changed their name to Iran in 1935. And so, and we see the aggression of Iran toward Israel. And they have a hatred for America as well.

We must have missed that. And for some inexplicable reason, we've been funding them with billions of dollars. And we know that some of that money, no doubt, has gone to the funding of these proxy terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or Hamas or the Houthis. And so this is- You have to, if you've got a terrorist organization with an H in front of your name, you're going to get a lot of money.

Hezbollah, Houthis, Hamas. That seems to be the way. It appears that way. Right. So could any of these events, like let's say Israel decides to hit Iran and take out their nuclear reactor, kit her oil reserves, or producing mechanisms, this could maybe lead to a scenario like that or it may not. We don't know. But how do you see this in the big prophetic picture? Yeah. So I'm concerned by some teachers who teach Bible prophecy with a bit of a dash of sensationalism. I think that's a problem. I'm really grateful that you don't. And may your tribe increase.

Many pastors are avoiding it entirely because it's being discredited by those who teach it badly. They all seem like they're in Area 51. They're from Roswell, New Mexico. And the websites they build are all red and black, filled with fire. Every sentence is in capital letters with 97 exclamation points after it. And you're like, dude, seriously, have some decaf.

It's going to be okay. So that doesn't happen. So that doesn't help, right? But you're an evangelist and you don't say to yourself, oh, I'm not going to preach the gospel because there are lunatics preaching false gospels, preaching the prosperity gospel or whatever. You teach it and preach it with more clarity and conviction. That's what needs to happen with Bible prophecy. So that's the first thing.

The second thing is that I forgot your actual question. And so you may, because I got the big prophetic picture. So, all right, so that's good.

Thank you. I don't think there's enough data to say that we're heading into Ezekiel 38, 39 yet. Now, October 6th seems such a quiet day. We felt so peaceful in Israel that if Ezekiel 38, 39 starts kicking in and we do have enough data, then we'll say, okay, the 6th was the day of us living securely in the land. That was one of the preconditions. And then God didn't tell us about the October 7th war. That's sort of a gap, right? Jesus, when he was announcing his ministry, reading the Isaiah scroll from Isaiah 61 in Nazareth, he has to stop halfway through a sentence because he says the day of God's favor is upon us, right? But he stops.

Why? Because the day of vengeance comes in the next part of that sentence and we're not at the tribulation yet. So that's a 2000 year gap just in the middle of that sentence that nobody would have seen coming, but Jesus, of course, did. So we have to be cautious.

We need to be humble when we teach this. All that to say, I don't think we're there yet. We are in a birth pang, Matthew 24. Wars, rumors of wars, kingdom against kingdom, nation against nation. I believe that the invasion of Ukraine by Russia itself is a birth pang. This is the greatest, largest land war in Europe since World War II. I believe that six million people that died during the COVID era, I think that was part of a contraction that was part of the birth pangs.

So birth pangs are contraction, release, contraction, release. October 6th, we would have said, we're going to release in Israel. We'd made peace with four Arab neighbors. We're about to make peace with the Saudis. We're clearly in a contraction now that has not let up and we're a year in and there's no end in sight. It could end soon. And if it ends soon and we get into release time, six months from now, Greg, a year from now, Israel may be perceived as the greatest superpower in the region because with almost, well, not enough help in my view from the United States and no help from the British who put an arms embargo on us, no help from the French who put an arms embargo on us, the world of banning us, accusing us of genocide, if Israel wins against Hamas, which it's already done, Hezbollah, we've destroyed half of their missile forces and 4,018 of their top leaders, and if we destroy the top leadership and the facilities that threaten us in Iran, we will all be saying the Saudis are about to make peace, the Indonesians are about to make peace. This will seem like, oh my gosh, and that would be a setup for Ezekiel 38 and 39 afterwards because it would be the greatest era of calm, quiet, peace and prosperity in the history of the Middle East since David and Solomon. But if we, if this thing goes sour and Russia decides to team up with Iran and Turkey, then that's a different scenario. We're just, we just don't know that yet. And so we shouldn't try to jump and draw conclusions that they're not down for.

Or even want it to happen. You know, I was talking with some professors from a seminary at the University of Haifa and I said, let me clear a misconception up that you may have about us evangelicals. I've heard it said that the reason evangelicals support Israel is because we want Armageddon to start.

I said, nothing could be further from the truth. We love you. We want you to be safe and secure. And in fact, the Bible tells us in Psalm 122 to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. So we hope for that and we pray for that. It's not like we say, oh, this is, well, let's hope it happens. We don't want it to happen, but it's going to happen. It's going to happen in God's timing.

But in light of the fact that, look, here's the bottom line. Christ is coming. As you said, the labor pains are around us.

They're getting, and as the labor pains get closer together, that means that birth is coming. And as we see these events getting closer and closer together, what should we be doing as Christians in the light of the fact that Christ could come in our lifetime? Yeah. Okay.

A few things. One, I would say that I believe the verse that captures best where we're at aside from Matthew 24 is Amos nine, nine. This is where God says, I will shake the house of Israel among the nations. Satan has sent this horrible attack from every different direction against Israel. This isn't that God did it. It's Satan doing it to kill us, to destroy us. But God is sovereignly letting it happen.

Why is he doing that? He's doing that so that we will be shaken as a people and as a region to let go of anyone or anything or any ideology or any religion other than faith in Jesus for our hope and our peace and our eternal security. So God is shaking us because we have not woken up yet as a people or as a region. So when you understand Amos nine, nine, then it begins to make more sense. Why is God letting this happen?

Isn't this mean? Well, it's not mean, but we as Jews are sheep that are not acknowledging or embracing our shepherd. Some believe there isn't a shepherd. Some believe that the shepherd hates us. The shepherd's impotent. The shepherd is a moron.

Israelis have all kinds of views of God, but they've forgotten Psalm 23. The problem is if you reject the shepherd or you don't want to listen to him or whatever, you are under the false sense that the countryside is safe. But the fact is one of the reasons we have a shepherd is not just to feed us and take care of us, but to protect us from ravenous wolves. And there are forces, there are ravenous wolves throughout the Middle East, throughout the world that hate Jews and want to destroy us.

I'll say this, two last points. I'm going to quote from my favorite book of the Bible, which is the book of Joel. So I encourage you to embrace that as your favorite book as well. Joel chapter three, verse one, for behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, and I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which means God judges, then after he rebuilds Israel, after he brings the Jews back, then he's going to bring the nations to attack us. Then I will enter into judgment with them, the nations there, on behalf of my people and my inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and then they have divided up my land.

The nations of the world are responsible for first driving us out of Israel, and now that we've regathered for trying to divide up our land and give it to our enemies. So to wrap that up, I would say the Joshua Fund, All Israel News, we talk about four things we want to encourage Christians to understand and do. So Joel has an organization called the Joshua Fund that he's referring to.

Go ahead. Yeah, it's a ministry that we started 18 years ago to educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors, Palestinians and others, in the name of Jesus. And so we encourage people to do four things. Learn, pray, give, and go. Part of my role is the educational side of this.

This is why I'm doing this, and I appreciate you inviting, especially this weekend. And the more we understand what God is doing, what he wants to do, what the enemy is doing, it will motivate us to pray and to pray more specifically. As we pray more, we will have a heart to want to give our time, our talent, and even our treasures to invest in building the kingdom and fulfilling the great commission in the epicenter, in the Middle East. And then go. Now often we say go to Israel. Now I would say don't go to Israel.

But I would say go and preach the gospel to everybody in creation. And by strengthening the Joshua Fund as just one example, this is what we're doing. We're investing in the local believers, yes, for humanitarian relief, but also to strengthen them so they can preach the word of God and fulfill the great commission. Again, Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians, Iraqis, and Egyptians. This is a group of people that don't know Christ.

And how are they going to say yes if they haven't even heard? And we need to strengthen the local church so that they can reach their people and hopefully fulfill the great commission in our lifetime. So as horrible as this year has been, Lynn and I and our family and our team are so grateful to be there because this is why we're there to love our neighbors and to love our enemies and to help the local believers fulfill the great commission.

Yes, that's right. You know, sometimes there's a shaking in our own life that will get our attention. There's a lady I know. She's Jewish. And we had many conversations.

And she was very open. She would even come to our church. But her struggle was if she professed Christ, she felt it would be like a betrayal of her upbringing. That's one of the struggles of a Jewish person.

And so that's thrown out or even that's very true. So she struggled with that. And I kept saying to my wife, Kathy, you know, I need to have a conversation with her like one on one.

I feel she's close. And tragically, it took COVID to bring that about. She got COVID. She was very sick. She was in the hospital. I wanted to go see her. I wasn't able to. They wouldn't let me in the room.

So thankfully, a nurse held a phone right up to her face and put it on FaceTime. And I said, I know we've talked about this many times, but, you know, you're ready to enter eternity. Would you like to embrace Jesus as your Messiah? I customized it to her because she's a Jewish lady. She said I would. So I let her in a prayer that I often lead people in. But instead of just saying, Jesus come into my life as my Savior and Lord, I had her pray as my personal Messiah. She prayed that.

And it was a beautiful moment. Maybe we're talking to somebody right now that you've had a shaking in your life. And I don't need God. I don't want God. But something's happened to get your attention. And all of a sudden you're realizing, yeah, I need God.

And I need him now. So what would you say to somebody that's come to that place? Because it happened for you. It happened for your father, as you mentioned. And most of the people here and are watching, it's probably happened to them. But there's also someone here or watching and it hasn't happened to yet. Maybe there's been a shaking in their life. There's been a wake up call, something to get their attention, showing them they need Jesus.

What would you say to them? I would say now is the day of salvation. That's what the Bible says. Meaning you really don't know after this service is over.

If you have another few minutes, I mean, honestly, you just don't know. The people that woke up in Israel on that Saturday morning, they did not think this was their last breath. And we know we invested, Joshua Fund is investing in the only evangelical messianic congregation on that Gaza border. And they had been sharing the gospel with a religious Jewish woman for years. The wife had, the wife of the pastor. And she said, look, you know, we never know how much time we have left. And so I really want to encourage you. And for a while, it was like, this woman was like, I don't want to hear it anymore.

I love you. I know you love me, but enough already about this Yeshua. But about two weeks before October 7th, this woman just, the Lord just opened her heart and her eyes and she made that decision. And she called the pastor's wife. She said, you know what, the pastor's wife, you said, you know what, you've been saying, make a decision. Don't wait. And I've done it.

And now help me grow. Two weeks later, she was murdered by Hamas at a bus station where this pastor's wife send their kids around the corner from their home to school every morning. But it was a Saturday. And they saw her face as one of these bodies, but they know she's in heaven. Because even though she didn't want to hear the gospel, they didn't shove it down her throat. They weren't loving and respectful, but the wife just kept sharing and kept loving and didn't take no for an answer, although gave her some space to make a decision, but said, look, it is urgent. We just never, now she didn't know. She couldn't have possibly imagined that Hamas was going to kill this friend of hers, but thank God that she was faithful to the gospel.

So I would just say, we don't know what the next few minutes hold. Don't wait. If you know that you've made, that this is the right thing, that Jesus is the Messiah, that he died on the cross, he rose again, and he's the only way to get to heaven. Don't say, wow, but my parents, my mother, some, you know, yeah, those are all issues you're going to have to work through. And the pastors and the team here are happy to work with people to help them grow and navigate the challenges that will come. But don't wait. This is the moment.

And this is the only moment you know that you have is right now. Well, Joel, thank you for all that you do. You're a bright light everywhere you go. Joel is, he travels all around the world. He speaks to large crowds. He speaks one-on-one with all kinds of people, to his seat mate in his plane flight, to a leader of a nation. And you're always bold for the gospel, and I appreciate that.

And also, in case you didn't know, he's a very gifted novelist, and he has many books out now. How many do you have total? More than 20. Okay. I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. And you have a new one coming out next year?

Yeah, in March. We'll talk about it when we get closer. I don't want to take today to talk about it, but I appreciate it.

Look, hopefully I'm a better novelist than I am impressionist. That's why I've taken a different path. Well, thank you for what you're doing. I want to pray for Joel and his ministry, and then I want to pray for anybody here or watching, wherever you are. If you're ready to make that commitment to Christ, you can do it right here, right now.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for Joel and all that he does, and his wife Lynn. Thank you for his boldness, for the gospel, and the light he is in so many unique and special places.

Continue to guide him, protect him, use him, empower him for your glory. And Lord, I pray now for anyone here or watching, if they don't know you yet, let this be the moment they believe. And if you want Jesus to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, let me just lead you in a prayer similar to the one I led that lady and I spoke of, and Jesus will come into your life. Just pray, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin, and rose again from the dead.

I turn from my sin, and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, my God and my friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer, and I ask this now in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Thanks, Joel. Thank you. Thank you. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-10-13 04:17:32 / 2024-10-13 04:37:12 / 20

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