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Welcome to If Not Forgot. Stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick.
Well, if not for God with Mike Zwick, this is Michael Zwick back again today. And I tell you what, guys, I am super excited to be here today. You know, the Bible says that this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. When you wake up today, are you rejoicing because of what God has done for you?
You know, the Bible says in John chapter 3, it says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. It says in Romans 3, 23, it says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And it says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Romans 6, 23. And you know what? When we give our lives to Christ and we fully surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, then we can truly say to ourselves, as it says in Romans chapter 8, And verse 1, we can say.
That there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Jesus Christ and to them who walk according to the spirit and not according to the flesh. And so today I was going to be looking at something. And what I'm looking at is it's actually something directly from the Bible that you guys would know. And it's Revelation chapter 21. And I've got my daughter Ann here with me today.
So we're having a good time. I don't know where y'all are listening from, but when you see this online or whatever, make sure to put in the comments where you're listening from. But I've got Revelation chapter 21, and it says, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people, and he will be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death. Neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. For the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, For these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
And I tell you what, I don't know if I'm the only one here today, but I believe that Jesus Christ is coming back soon. Do you believe that? You know, and people will say stuff like this. They say, well, people, ever since the beginning, it says in the word of God, people have said, where is this promise of his coming? Because since the very beginning, things have gone the same as they always have.
And I hear people say now, they say, well, the truth is, is ever since I've been a little kid and ever since my parents were little kids and ever since their parents were little kids, they thought that Jesus was coming back right away. And he hasn't come back.
Well, guess what? If you're saying that now, that's exactly what people are going to be saying in the end times, right before Jesus Christ returns to earth. And he is coming soon. The signs of the times are there. The signs of the times are there.
And see, the truth is, is whether we are waiting here on earth. For Jesus, or whether we die and then go to be with him in heaven. See, the Bible says this. It says always be ready in Matthew chapter 24 and it says that the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, when he returns, he's going to come in an hour that you least expect. Always be ready.
It says some people are gonna be getting drunk, some people are gonna be sleeping around, treating people the wrong way, doing all these wrong things, and then they're gonna expect. that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be okay, but he's not. In the parable in Matthew chapter 25, Jesus said that there were 10 virgins. But it said that only five of them had their lamps ready. Only five of them were ready.
You know, I had a friend of mine years ago named Ameka. And he told me something. He said, Mike, he said, I've got to tell you about this dream that I had. And he said, in this dream, He said, I was sitting around hanging out. I was living my life the way that I wanted to live my life, and I didn't care.
And he said, all of a sudden, Jesus came back in all of his glory and the rapture occurred. And he said, I stayed here on earth and I was left behind. Can you think of anything worse? Than being left behind in the rapture.
Well, going to hell, you can go to hell. That would be, that would be pretty, that would be about as bad as you can get. But those two things are absolutely awful. He said, Mike, he said, I was weeping my eyes out. And this is what it says: if you've got your Bibles, and I hope you do.
I've got Matthew chapter 25, and it says, Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them are wise, and five of them are foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them. They didn't have any oil. They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.
Let me ask you today: Do you have oil in your lamp? Are you spending time in prayer? Are you spending time reading the word of God? The Bible says in Psalm 119:105, it says, Thy word is a lamp unto thy feet and a light unto thy path. And I'm going to keep going, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.
But the wise answered, saying, Not so. No, no, no, not so. Lest there be not enough for us and for you. But go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.
But he answered and said unto them, Verily unto s Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country. who called his own servants and delivered them. His goods.
And unto one he gave five talents, And to another he gave two, and to another one, to every man a gore according to his several ability, and straightway took he his journey. And so many of you guys know about the talents. One of the guys took his talent and he made 100 more talents. Another guy took his talent. He made maybe 10 more or a lot more than that.
And the third guy said, Lord, I hid my talent that you gave me in the earth because I don't want to lose what you gave me. And Jesus said, Hey, you would have been better off to be putting it in a bank. At least they would have given you some interest on your money. And do you remember what the Lord Jesus Christ does to that third man with a third talent? He said I'm going to take your talent and I'm going to give it to those who have more talents.
And see, the truth is, is that every single day we wake up, God has given us a mission for that day. How much time are you spending in prayer? We talk about revival a whole lot. We talk a lot about revival. And I tell you one thing: this.
is that revival will come. Let revival come. It will come. But It will not come as mightily as we want without our prayers. You know There was a uh during the Second Great Awakening, There was a guy who would always travel around and he would preach, but he would have this guy with him named Father Nash.
Uh And Father Nash would always precede him. Before he spoke, the guy's name was Charles Finney, he was the preacher. And Father Nash would always precede this guy wherever he went. and Charles Finney would say, the key to revival. is prayer.
The key to revival is prayer. You have email. You need an email. Get down on your knees and pray. I love what Martin Luther said.
Martin Luther said, he said, I have so much to do today. that I must spend the first three hours in prayer. Mm-hmm. He said he would spend three hours in prayer, and he had so much to do. It's not like he didn't have anything to do, but he would spend the first three hours in prayer.
John Wesley. He would pray so much when he was in England. That there were actually indentations of his knees being in the carpet where he would always pray, and he would always pray in the same spot. Yes, revival is coming.
Some say revival is here. I believe it started, but God can do bigger things. I am believing for God to do mighty things in this country. Are you? Are you preparing for them?
Are you sharing the gospel? The Bible says That How beautiful are the feet of those who share the good news. You know, you can't keep this thing to yourself. There was a guy named Pendillette, and he was a magician, and he had this guy come up to him after his show. And what Pendillette said to the guy is he said, Hey, I need you to help me out.
He was one of the guys who held the props for him, and this, that, the other. But at the end of the show, this guy knew that Pendillette was an atheist. And what he ended up saying to him was this: he said, Look. Here you go. He said, look.
He said, I know that you're an atheist. He said, but I've brought this Bible. I put some names in the Bible. And he said, I guess you could say I'm proselytizing to you. And Pendalette said that when this guy was talking to him, he looked him straight in the eyes.
Straight in the eyes. And Pendulette, most atheists, a lot of times, what they would say is this: they'd say, well, I. I don't want anybody talking to me about Jesus. I get tired of it. I get sick of it, this, that, and the other.
But Pendalette said no. He said, if you really believe, That Jesus Christ is the Son of God, if you really believe that eternal life is possible, if you really believe that I can go to heaven and you don't want to tell me about it because it makes you feel socially awkward. Or it makes you feel funny. He said this. He said, how much do you have to hate someone?
How much do you have to hate someone? If you believe that eternal life is possible and you believe that I can, or you believe that I could be going to hell, and you don't want to tell me? He said, I have no no respect. for Christians who don't proselytize. No respect.
He said, because if you really believe what you say you believe, you're going to tell people about it and in a mighty way. Are you telling people the truth of the Word of God? Are you praying? You see, a lot of times we don't have courage and we're afraid to do it. But the truth is, is that when we start to do it, then we feel like doing it more.
You've always heard that, you know, does action cure fear? Does action change your attitude? Or does your attitude change your action? You want to know the truth? Your action determines your attitude.
In other words, if you start preaching, if you start praying, if you start telling people about Jesus, all of a sudden, the more and more you do it, excuse me, the more you're going to feel like doing it. How bad do you want it? How bad do you want it? There was another part in the Bible. Where there was a man who came up to Jesus, he was a rich young ruler.
And he came up to Jesus and he said, Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus told him, He said, Don't commit adultery, do this, do that, do the other. And the man still wanted to justify himself. And he said, I've done all these from the beginning. What else must I do?
And Jesus told him, He said, Sell everything that you have. Give it to the poor. Come follow me and then you'll have eternal life. And the man went away and he was sad. He was sad because he didn't want to give up his possessions.
Because his possessions actually had him. And Jesus said this. He said, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Are you greedy? Are you greedy?
You know, I was meeting with a guy this week, David Belk. And he said, Mike, he said there's 192. Passages in the New Testament on heaven. There's about 60 on hell. He was talking about the different places where it talks about salvation.
He said, but there's. 2,350 passages about money. Are you generous in your giving? Jesus put it this way, and I was reading Matthew chapter 25 before. But he said there's going to be two types of people: there's going to be the sheep.
And then there's going to be the goats. And the goats They're gonna They're going to come to Jesus, and Jesus is going to say to them, When I was hungry you didn't feed me. When I was thirsty, you didn't give me anything to drink.
Okay. When I was hungry, you know, or when I needed a place to stay, you didn't give me a place to stay. But then there's going to be the sheep. And Jesus said to the sheep. He said, when I was hungry, you fed me.
When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. And then he says this: He says, What you have done for the least of these, my brethren. You have done it under me. Are you generous with your time? Are you generous with your money?
John Wesley put it like this. He said, I can tell how much somebody is devoted to the Lord by I watch their checkbook. I see how they spend their money. You spend money on what's important to you. If you want nice cars or houses or anything like that, you're going to take your money and you're going to put it towards that.
How much time, effort, and energy and money are Are you giving towards the gospel? Are you giving to promote and further the kingdom of God? You know, Matthew 6:33, it puts it like this: it says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Shit. And it says that all these other things shall be given unto you.
But the way that the world does it. or even the way a lot of people do it in the church. is they say Lord I want to seek first my kingdom. I want to seek my goods, and then maybe I'll look at the kingdom of God after that. But that's not it.
You see, Jesus demands first place in your life. One of the first passages that I ever remembered in the Bible. was Revelation 3, 15 through 16. He says, I know your works. That you're neither hot nor cold.
He said, But because you are lukewarm, he said, I will spew you out of my mouth. Can you imagine standing before The author and the creator of the earth, one day when you stand before him at the judgment day. And he says, Depart from me. I never knew you. you who work iniquity.
Remember what else it says? It says, many will say to me on that day. Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name? Do we not prophecy in your name? Do we not heal the sick, raise the dead, do all these things?
And Jesus says, Depart from me. I never knew you. You who work iniquity. The Bible clearly teaches that we're supposed to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, freely have received, freely give. We're supposed to share the gospel.
But the Bible also teaches us how we're supposed to treat people. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus doesn't really talk a lot about casting out demons or healing the sick, if at all. This is what he says. He says Do one unto others as you shall have them do unto you. For this sums up the law and the prophets, that's Matthew 7.
Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says to forgive those who have done you wrong. Because if you forgive those who have done you wrong, then you'll be a child of your Father in heaven. That is going the extra mile. That is literally going the extra mile.
And yet, going the extra miles, actually, from the Bible as well. It says if somebody asks you for your shirt, give them your tunic as well. Give them your jacket as well. Give to those who ask of you. From somebody who needs something from you, don't turn them away.
Are we really living the lives that Jesus Christ has called us to live? And by the way, I've got three fingers pointing back at myself. I need to be more generous myself. I need to be more loving. I need to be kind to those, especially those people who aren't very nice to me or who don't like me.
Okay. You see, it's easy to be friendly and to be nice to people who like you and treat you well. Anybody does that. The Pharisees did that. But Jesus said, if you want to be.
A child of God, if you want to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. that you give to those who can't pay you back. You heal the sick, you raise the dead, you cast out demons. You share the gospel, you do all that. but you're also kind to those who are hard to get along with.
You give money to those who will never be able to pay you back. You know, there have been people who have actually had near-death experiences, and they said they've shown in their near-death experiences. And one guy that I interviewed here not too long ago on a Thursday or a Friday afternoon on Truth Talk Live, he said that he was legally dead for 28 minutes. And he said that when he died, God showed him, there were some, I believe this was him. God showed him things in his life that he did that were able to help people.
There's another guy who I watch online, and he said that people, every single time they have a near-death experience, or almost every single time they come back, they're shown the good decisions and the ways that they help people out. And he said that when they help people, when they love people, when they treated them really well, he said it wasn't just a one-time thing. He said, many times. That kindness that you were to a stranger, the way you treated people who couldn't help you out and you helped them anyways. It had a ripple effect.
And there was one guy who said, Hey, he went on, and after you were nice to this guy, he went on, he served food at a soup kitchen. You know, I heard a story one time about a kid. who was actually absolutely committed to to he was going to kill himself. And so what he did was he was going to school one day. He said, Well, this is the last day.
He was cleaning out his locker and he said somebody came to him at the school and just said something really nice to him, put his arm around him and said, Hey, I just I care about you and I want to see you do okay. And he said later on, that kid decided not to kill himself. He became the valedictorian. And he went on to do great things. You know, sometimes that person that you don't feel like praying for.
Maybe they need that prayer worse than you, more than you could ever imagine. Maybe sometimes that person that you feel awkward giving that sandwich to, maybe they need that sandwich and it's more than the sandwich. They need to know that somebody cares about them. You know, Tony Robbins told the story when he was growing up. He said that he, every single year, his dad would always tell him, nobody cares, nobody cares, nobody cares.
And he said, one year there was a. There was a knock at the door. All of a sudden it was this group from a local church. And they came to his house and they gave, they brought him all this food. And he said, after that, he said, I realized that that was not true, that there are people who care.
And Tony says that every year now he gives money, he gives, tries to feed thousands of families, gives food to the poor, helps people out who can't help themselves, and he doesn't want anything in return because somebody was once nice to him. You see, there's so much negative out in the world today. I mean, you look at the news, it's bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. I'd recommend that some of you guys turn off that news some. I'm not saying you stick your head in the sand, and I'm not saying you don't do anything at all.
That's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is: this. Turn off the news for a while. Spend some time reading God's word. Spend some time in prayer and then go take action outside of that.
We all need to pray. We all need to read our Bibles. But at some point, just like Pendillette said, you've got to open your mouth. Philip, when he went up to the eunuch, he was taken away by the Spirit in the Bible. He was taken up to the eunuch and.
Finally, at one point, he saw the eunuch reading the book of Isaiah. And the Bible says that Philip opened up his mouth. Are you opening up your mouth to that person at work who you don't feel like talking to, who you feel awkward? I have talked to people for years and years. I've befriended people who at first didn't want anything from Jesus, but I kept praying for them, I kept being nice to them.
And just recently, a guy surrendered his life to Jesus Christ this weekend. How bad do you want it? There was an old movie, and it was Rocky Balboa, and one of the songs from the movie was this: it said, There's no easy way out. There's no shortcut home. But when we see and we receive the gift of salvation.
And when we receive the love of God, we want to turn around and we want to share that goodness and that love with others. That's where it's at. People are always looking for happiness and they're trying to find it internally. How can I internally be happy? How can I find happiness?
Let me think my way through this. Let me focus on myself more. I had a boss when I was growing up. His name was in my early 20s. His name was Peter Ferre.
And he said, Mike, he said, the times in my life where I've been the happiest. Is where I've is the times when I've been I've been trying to help other people. He said, But the natural part of me wants to do something that just helps me. And that's the natural part of me, but when I'm just looking out for myself. I'm not as happy.
The same thing that I was telling you before with the near-death experiences. Is people who have gone before God many times they start out the right way, many times they try to love people, they try to encourage people, they try to help people. But what happens is, is after a while, it becomes too much to bear. After a while, it becomes a struggle. And they say, I see if I'm going to make it in life, I've got to look out for number one.
Now, listen, you got to work. You got to take care of your family. I'm not saying to fall for a scam or do anything stupid, I'm not saying that at all. But what I am saying is this. Is that yes, you've got to take care of yourself, but that's not the only person you got to take care of.
Remember what I said before. Remember what Jesus said, more importantly. What you have done for the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me. When you really see what kind of a gift it is to be able to help other people, it'll change your whole life. Because when you're looking out for yourself, when you're only looking out for yourself, You can be the most miserable person in the world.
You know, and it's proven by the fact that Elon Musk, I saw something. said he made $600 million a day. And then they interviewed his dad, and his dad said, Well, tell us, you know, he's made it. How's he feel? His dad said he's not satisfied.
John D. Rockefeller, one time, they asked him, they said, when will you be happy? When will you be satisfied with the money that you've made? And this was after he was probably richer than Elon Musk at the time. He said, when I get just a little bit more.
This world has nothing to offer. This world cannot satisfy you like Jesus. Jesus put it this way. He said in John 14, 6. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
He says that no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Have you completely surrendered your life to Jesus Christ? Have you put all of your hope, all of your faith in Jesus Christ? If you've never done it, you can do it right now. Just say, Dear Lord Jesus.
I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I turn away from my sins, Jesus. I surrender my life to you. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus' name, amen.
And you see, if you've prayed that prayer, we believe that you've got born again. But that's the beginning, that's not the end. After you've done that, get into a church or into a group of Christians who meet regularly. The Bible says in Hebrews 10, 25, it says, do not forsake the gathering of yourselves, as some of them have done, especially as you see the day approaching. The day is approaching, guys, and it's one of two things.
Either you're going to pass away, the Bible says that this life is like a vapor. And it's funny, it's 3.16 when I'm saying this. It says your life is like a vapor. It appears for a time and then it's gone.
So you could die. You could die at any time. There's plenty of people who are dying right now and there's people who are dying early. Or Jesus could come back. And once that happens, there's no second chances.
Once it's over on this earth, you get no second chances. There is no easy way out. There's no shortcut home. And I want to encourage you to turn away from your sins. Surrender them to the cross.
Jesus says, whoever wants to become my disciple must take up his cross daily and follow me. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ, if not for God. All right, for my YouTube channel, If Not For God with Mike Zwick. Just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell.
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