Sign of the Return of Christ - Life of Christ Part 80

Now, if you're a sports fan, the day September the 6th, that date, is a very important date that you already know what it is. Now, I'm not talking September the 5th, and I'm not talking September the 7th, but September the 6th is a really important day in baseball history.

What's going to happen on September the 6th? That's right. Cal Ripken is going to eclipse the record that many people said was un-eclipsable, that no one would ever think, and that, of course, is Lou Gehrig's record of 2,130 consecutive games played, a streak that, for Cal Ripken, goes all the way back to 1982. Do you realize I've got a list at home that I cut out of the paper, a list of all the other people who've played shortstop, who've started a game at shortstop in the major leagues since Cal Ripken's streak started?

You know how many there are? There are over 500 men who have started at shortstop since Cal Ripken began in 1982 playing there, and Baltimore Orioles have only had one, Cal Ripken. That's just a phenomenal streak. As a matter of fact, when you look at his now 2,128, as of today, consecutive games, and then you look among active major league players, you know how many the next one has down from him?

Less than 300 is where the next one is. And as a matter of fact, Cal Ripken also owns the major league record for the most consecutive innings played, 8,243 innings. That is over five and a half years of major league baseball never missing an inning. Unbelievable.

Unbelievable. And all of this comes to a climax on not September the 5th and not September the 7th, but September the 6th. That's right. I'm going to be there. Say, no, you dirty dog, you got a ticket. No, actually I didn't get a ticket. Actually, there's a little known fact, and that is that the Baltimore Orioles give out clergy passes, and so I have a clergy pass.

This is true. You can come up and feel it if you want to after the service. I have a clergy pass to the Baltimore Orioles that gets me into any game free, and so I'm planning to be there.

Do not steal my clergy pass if you come up to look at it, because I'm planning to go. Anyway, you know, the point of all this is that whenever something really great is going to happen, the way we are wired as human beings, we always want to know, well, what's the date it's going to happen, right? Like if you're engaged, everybody wants to know your wedding date, right? If you're pregnant, everybody wants to know your what? Your due date.

If you're going to buy a house, everybody wants to know your settlement date, sure. Well, you know, when Jesus was here on the earth, he told people about a very important event that was going to happen. He said, now guys, listen, after I'm crucified, after I'm resurrected, after I've gone back to heaven, I'm coming back one of these days to get you, and the end of the age is going to happen, and so being human, these guys wanted what?

A date, huh? And they even come to him in Matthew 24 and they say, now Lord, what is the date that this is going to happen? When will these things take place?

And Jesus said, you know, guys, I'm really sorry. I can't tell you the date. I'm not going to give you a date. I'm not going to give you an hour. I'm not going to give you a week or a month or a year, but I will give you some indicators.

I will give you some sign posts. I will give you some ways of knowing that that time is close, and so this is what we want to talk about this morning. I want you to look right here in Luke 21 because the whole subject of this chapter is when is Jesus coming back?

That's what the chapter is all about. That's how the question at the beginning of the chapter verse 5, some of his disciples came to him in verse 7 and said, when will these things happen? What will be the sign, verse 7, they are about to take place, and Jesus answers them, and look down with me if you would at verse 28. Jesus said, when these things begin to take place, what things?

Well, I'm going to tell you in a minute. Stand up, lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near, and he told them this story. He said, hey, you look at the fig tree and all the other trees.

When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourself and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you will know that the kingdom of God is near. You say, Lon, I understand the principle, but what are these things that when we see converging in a moment of time, we can say, oh, the return of Jesus Christ, it's near. Well, there are three of them, and I want to share them with you this morning. Some of them are found here in Luke 21.

We're going to skip around for a couple of others. I'm not going to take the chapter verse by verse, but I'm going to answer the question that the disciples asked, when is this going to happen? What are the signs of your coming? Sign number one is right here in Luke 21, and it's up in verse 24.

And here it is. It is the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, the city of Jerusalem being back under the sovereignty of the Jewish people once again. Look, verse 24. And it says, they, that is the Jewish people, will fall by the sword. They will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles.

Now, wait for a minute. When did all this happen? Well, in 66 AD, the Jewish people revolted against Rome, and for four years, they controlled the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel. In 70 AD, the third legion, the sixth legion, and the sixth legion under Titus, Roman general Titus, finally captured the city of Jerusalem again. They burned the temple to the ground.

They sacked the city, and they carried off virtually all the inhabitants of the city into exile all over the Roman Empire. I met a guy this morning who told me that he had traced his lineage back to Jewish people in the UK, in the British Isles, who had come there during the years of the Roman Empire. Now, I don't know if that you can really go back that far, but he said you could.

Is that possible? And I said, yes, it is entirely possible, because the Jewish people were spread all over the Roman Empire in exile. Jesus said that would happen.

And he said, Jerusalem would belong to the Gentiles and be trampled on by the Gentiles and be under Gentile sovereignty. Watch. Until.

That's the key word. Not forever, but until what? The times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. You see, when the Jewish people rejected their Messiah, God said, okay, I'm going to take you Jewish people. You've been at the center of my program for centuries now. I'm going to put you on the back burner, and I'm going to turn and use the Gentiles and the church at the center of my program, but that's not going to last forever. At some point, I'm coming back to the Jewish people.

They're going to be back in the center of my program. I'm not through with the Jewish people yet, and when the times of the Gentiles comes to an end, Jerusalem will once again be back in Jewish hands. When did this happen? Well, it happened in your lifetime.

In your lifetime. In 1948, the United Nations proclaimed Israel as a state, but it wasn't until 1967, at the end of the Six Day War, that Jerusalem was back in Jewish hands for the first time in 1900 years. I don't know if you understand what a historical miracle you've witnessed in your lifetime.

Do you realize? In the history of the world, never, never has a people lost their homeland for 1900 years and ever gotten it back. Never in the history of the world has a people lost their homeland and been exiled for 1900 years and ever survived as a people. Never in the history of the world has a people lost their capital city like Jerusalem and then ever gotten it back after 1900 years. Never in the history of the world has a language died out as a living spoken language as Hebrew did and ever been revived as a living spoken language again. I know they used Latin for prescriptions for years, but nobody ever spoke it. The Hebrew that is spoken today in Israel is the same Hebrew that was spoken 2000 years ago in the time of Jesus.

But for 1900 years, it died out as a living spoken language. This is a historical miracle, friends. It's unprecedented in the history of the world. You say, well, why has it happened?

I'll tell you why. Because God is not through with the Jewish people yet. And he says all over in the Word of God, one of these days, the Jewish people are coming back into the center of my program. And as a result of that, they're coming back into their land again. And this explains why the Jewish people are still around and why all these other people we read about in the Bible and in ancient history, they're all gone. The Hittites, the Moabites, the Phoenicians, the Pharaohs, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Ammonites, the Romans, they're all gone. Why are the Jewish people still here?

Because God's not finished with them yet. And the Bible says that as the end of the age approaches, we should expect to see Israel back in their land, Jerusalem back in Jewish hands, and you've seen it happen in your lifetime. Second sign is the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. I want you to turn back in the Old Testament with me to the book of Daniel. And if you're using our copy of the Bible, we're going back to page 634. Daniel chapter 9, 634 in our copy of the Bible. And here in Daniel chapter 9, I don't have time to handle this whole prophecy.

It's called the prophecy of the 77s. I don't have time to do the whole thing. But if you want more information, I've done it in a fuller explanation on my tapes from Daniel.

You can go up in the bookstore and buy them. But I'm just going to summarize here. This is a prophecy if you look at verse 24. Look with me, Daniel chapter 9, verse 24. An angel is giving this prophecy to Daniel and he says this. He says, 70 groups of seven years are decreed, Daniel, for your people and your holy city. Would you notice this prophecy doesn't have a thing to do with Gentiles. This has to do with Daniel's people, the Jewish people, and Daniel's holy city, the city of Jerusalem.

Gentiles don't have a thing to do with this. Now, verse 25. Know and understand, the angel says, that from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until, let's stop there. The beginning point of these 70 groups of seven years is the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Remember now, Jerusalem is in rubble at this point. King Nebuchadnezzar, 586 BC, has marched into Jerusalem, sacked the city, destroyed the temple. Daniel is living in Babylon when this angel appears to him. And the city of Jerusalem is a wreck. It's not going to always be because a few years from now, a fellow named Artaxerxes, King Artaxerxes of Persia, is going to give permission for the city of Jerusalem to be rebuilt.

And that's what the angel's talking about. He says, from the issuing of the decree by King Artaxerxes in his 20th year, now Daniel didn't know that's when it would be, but we know that. From that beginning point, and you say, Lon, when was that? That was 445 BC. You can write it in the margin of your Bible. We can date it with absolute certainty to 445 BC.

Okay, that's when we start now. From that point, watch, until, until the coming of the Messiah, the ruler, the anointed one, there will be seven sevens and 62 sevens. So seven and 62 is 69. So if you take 69, multiply it by seven years, and remember, the Jewish people use lunar years, not solar years, so you got to make a conversion to turn lunar years into solar years. When you do all of that, trust me, it works, multiply it out and subtract, you will find that the end of those 69 groups of seven years comes out at 31 AD. So in 31 AD, people should have been looking around who knew this prophecy and going, where's the Messiah?

He's supposed to be around. That's what Daniel said, right? This is the most exact prediction of the coming of the Messiah anywhere in the Bible.

It predicts it to the year. You don't have to be a theologian. You don't have to have a doctorate. All you got to be able to do is multiply and subtract.

That's all. And you can figure out when the Messiah is coming. Do you ever wonder, you know, in the early chapters of Luke's Gospels, you remember that guy, Samuel, who was around in the temple, and he said, I know I'm going to live to see the Messiah come and Anna, the prophetess who was around, and she said, I know I'm going to live to see the Messiah come. And we say, Well, how did they know that? Did an angel appear to them? Did it have a vision? Did God come to them in the evening and tell them they were going to? Well, that's possible. Yeah, it's also possible they read Daniel multiplied and subtracted and said, I'm alive in 31. This is when he's due.

I guess I'm gonna get to see him. That's possible, too. You ever wonder why Jesus was so tough on the rabbis?

You ever wonder why he just slammed those guys and slammed those guys and slammed those guys? It was because they knew this prophecy. We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls that the Book of Daniel was well known, well read, and well respected at the time of Jesus. Those guys knew this prophecy. They had been to elementary school. They could subtract. They could multiply. They should have been looking around in 31 A.D. and going, Now, who on the horizon here could possibly qualify as the Messiah? Because we know from Daniel's prophecy, he's got to be here. Were they doing that?

No. You see, the rabbis did not have an information problem. They had a heart problem. They had all the information they needed.

They had Daniel's prophecy down to the year. They had plenty of information. That was not their problem.

Their problem was their will and their heart. And that's why Jesus zeroed in on them the way that he did. He said, You guys don't need more information.

Remember when they would come to him and say, Give us more, show us more miracles, whatever? Jesus said, You guys don't need any more information. I can give you all the information in the world. The problem is your heart, not information. You know, when I became a Christian in 1971, the information I had would have fit in a thimble about Jesus Christ. I didn't know very much, but I had a heart that was hungry and a will that was broken and a life that needed fixing. And I knew I needed help.

And I was willing to give God a chance in my life. Friends, you don't need a lot of information to become a Christian. And I meet people all the time who say, I need more data. I need to study it more. I need to learn more. I need to get more into this and that other thing. I need to read five more books on this. And I always say to them, No, you don't. No, you don't. And if you're here this morning and you've listened to what I've said this far, you've got enough information.

I've given you enough information already this morning that if you were ready to do business with God and accept Christ as your savior and you've never done it, you could do it this morning. See, most of us, it's not an information problem. It's a heart problem. It's a will problem. It's a surrender problem. That's what it was for these rabbis. That's why Jesus hit them so hard. Well, if you're here this morning and you've never surrendered to Christ, don't delude yourself into thinking all you need is more information. You don't have an information problem.

You have a heart problem. Now, what happened to the 70th seven? Well, it's here, but there's a big gap in between. Remember the times of the Gentiles, the times when now the Gentiles went to the front of God's program? Well, this prophecy doesn't have anything to do with Gentiles, remember?

So the prophecy went on hold, but the prophecy comes back into fruition at the end of the age when God turns back to the Jewish people, he picks up the last group of seven years. Look at verse 27. And he, the Bible says, that is the antichrist, you say, how can you be sure? Get my tapes.

Believe me, I'm right. You can listen, you'll know. He, the antichrist, will confirm a covenant with many for one seven. Here's your last seven.

Here's your last group of seven years. And in the middle of that group of seven years, watch now, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering, and on a wing of the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes desolation. Jesus referred to this in Matthew 24. He said to his disciples in answering the question, when's going to be the end of the age? He said, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet set up in the temple, brother, you better go get everything you can hold and you better get out of town.

Now you say, well, Lon, what is this abomination of desolation? I don't know. Nobody knows. Some people think it's a statue the antichrist is going to set up of himself and make people worship him. Some people think it's a pig that he's going to take into the Jewish altar and kill.

Nobody knows. But for our purposes this morning, the important thing is not what it is, but where it is. Look, he says it's in a wing of the temple where there's been sacrifice and offering going on that he stops. You say, but Lon, there's no temple in Jerusalem.

It's been gone for almost 2,000 years. I know. But there's going to be one. There's going to be.

That's the whole point. There's got to be because the antichrist has got to have a temple to set up the abomination of desolation and cut off these offerings and sacrifices. There's going to be a temple there. And when we see a temple beginning to go up in Jerusalem, man, Jesus said, you better be ready because I'm on my way.

Could that happen? People have said for years, oh, no, that couldn't happen. I mean, the only way to build a temple there is to build it on the temple mount. If you build it on the temple mount, you got to tear down the mosques that are on the temple mount. And you tear down those mosques, brother, and we're going to have World War III. Well, they're right.

We would. Except you know what? Recent studies have shown that now we believe that where the temple was originally located was not at the site of either one of those mosques. It was actually way up on the northern end of the temple mount where nothing sits today.

It's just flat nothing. And there is room today to rebuild the Jewish temple on that temple mount and never touch either one of those mosques. You say, nah, it is. Yes, it is. Do you know since 1967, no orthodox Jew has set foot on the temple mount? Now, you say, why, Lon? Is it kind of like, I mean, you know, you live in Washington, you never go to Washington Monument. No, no, it's not like that.

It's that they don't know where the Holy of Holies is and they're so afraid of stepping on the place where the Holy of Holies was and desecrating themselves and the spot that they won't go up there. But for the last 30 years, they've been doing studies to figure out, well, exactly where is it? Now, we've got two pieces of information that really help us. I'll give you this quick. If you all want a longer description, go to Israel with me in two months.

But anyway, I'll give it to you quick. The Mishnah, the Jewish rabbinic writings tell us two things about the location of the temple. First, that it was located directly opposite from the eastern gate. Well, if you go up on the Mount of Olives and look at the wall and look at the eastern gate, which is the golden gate, which is blocked up today, and go straight in, you're way up on the northern end of the temple mount where today there's nothing. But, you know, rabbis said, well, maybe the gate wasn't there. Maybe it was moved. Maybe its original location was in a different place, dot to dot to dot.

All right, maybe. The other thing we know from the rabbis is that the long wall that supported the temple mount, if you know the temple mount is a flat piece, but it's built on a mountain. So the only way they could get it to be flat is they had to build a retaining wall on one side to hold it up. Well, that retaining wall is the only thing that's left. We call it the wailing wall.

You've seen pictures of it. But the little section that's exposed is not the whole length. It goes for almost a quarter of a mile underground. And over the last 30 years, the rabbis have been excavating that quarter of a mile of retaining wall that's underground. Just in the last two years, have visitors been able to walk that tunnel and see the rest of the wall? Well, what the rabbis told us is that the largest single stone in the wall, the Holy of Holies, sat directly above it. Well, now that we've excavated the whole wall, we know where the biggest stone is. The northern end of the wall, it weighs 400 tons. That's a big rock, huh?

I don't know how they ever got it there. But you can actually walk the wall, walk the tunnel, and you see the rock. It's huge, the block. And it says the Holy of Holies was directly on top of it. And guess where, if you go through the eastern gate and draw a straight line across the northern side of the temple mount, guess where you end up? Right at this brick. Big brick, but brick. Now, what all that means is that you could go up there on the temple mount today and rebuild a temple on the exact site of the original temple and build it to the dimensions in the Bible, and you'd never have to touch either one of those mosques.

All right, keep your eyes on the paper, friends. I'm telling you, this is going to happen. You can walk about 10 minutes from the temple mount today in Jerusalem, we're going to go there in two months with my tour, to a place called the Temple Institute, and they are rebuilding all of the utensils, all of the instruments, all of the furniture, the high priest's clothing that was used in the temple, all according to exactly what it says in the Bible. They're on display, they've rebuilt about a third of the utensil so far, and they are not rebuilding them to put on display in a museum. They are rebuilding them to use them in actual sacrifice in the temple. There is actually a school training rabbis today how to do the sacrifices so that when the temple is rebuilt, people will know how to actually do the sacrifices biblically.

It's really happening. The cornerstone for the temple is already quarried and in Jerusalem today. And I got an article here entitled Move to Build Third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, Stirs Resistance. I did not get it out of the National Enquirer. This came out of the Washington Post. You say, same thing, I know.

But it came out of the Post, and listen to the last paragraph. There's a group there called the Temple Mount Faithful, and here's what the head of the group said. He said, We believe that all of our hopes and all of our attempts, such as even bringing the cornerstone for the temple here to Jerusalem, will cause some activity in the heavens, and that with God's help, the day will soon come when we will rebuild our temple in Jerusalem.

Keep your eyes on the paper. I believe this is going to happen in the next five or ten years. You're going to see construction begin on the temple up there, and when it does, you just remember you heard it here first. We told you it's going to happen, and God says it has to happen. Now, God says when you see that happening, watch out. The end of the age is upon us. Third and final sign is in Romans chapter 11.

I want you to turn there. If you're using our copy of the Bible, Romans chapter 11 is page 803. Have you ever wondered why so few Jewish people ever become Christians? Have you ever wondered about that? Have you ever wondered why, you know, all you Gentiles are in this thing, and there's so few Jewish people in this thing?

Well, there's an answer. There's a reason, and it's right here in Romans 11. Look, Romans 11 verse 25. I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, Gentile brothers, Paul writes, so that you won't be conceited. Israel has experienced a callousing, a hardening in part, and that's why they're not responding to the Gospel like you Gentiles are. But I don't want you Gentiles to get all conceited and think that Israel's gone for good and they're never coming back, because that's not true. In fact, you know why God created Gentiles, don't you?

Because somebody has to pay retail. You understand that? So anyway, just a little thing, kind of a Jewish inside little thing we do. But anyway, the point is that even in the time of Paul, Jewish people were not responding to the Gospel the way Gentile people were.

Why is that? Well, he tells us right here. He said, you know, as a punishment, as a discipline for rejecting their Messiah, God put a spiritual callousing on the Jewish people, like spiritual glaucoma, so that they could not really see and understand who Jesus was. Now friends, we all come into the world blind in our trespasses and our sins. There's a certain blindness every one of us spiritually has to overcome to appreciate who Christ is. But as Gentiles, that's all you have is that natural blindness. Jewish people for the last 2,000 years have had a double whammy, not only that natural blindness, but this spiritual blindness, this spiritual callousing on top of that as a punishment for rejecting their Messiah.

That's why so few of them ever came to Christ. Now it says it was a partial hardening or a hardening in part. If it were a hardening in full, no Jewish person would ever become a Christian.

But it was a partial hardening and yet there were very few, very few. You know, I was at a little league game not too long ago and I was sitting up in the stands and I was talking to a lady and she asked me, we got to talk about Israel and I said, I'll lead towards Israel and we were talking. And she said, oh, you know, do you do that for a living? And I said, well, no, I don't.

And I knew it was coming. She said, well, what do you do for a living? And I said, I'm the pastor of a church. She said, but your name's Solomon.

That's a Jewish name. And I said, yeah, I'm Jewish. And she said, you're Jewish?

You're the pastor of a church? I said, yeah. She said, something doesn't seem to be right about that. She said, you sure you're not a rabbi? I said, no, I'm not a rabbi.

As if I wouldn't know the difference. I said, no, I'm not a rabbi. I'm a pastor of a church. She said, you mean like a Christian regular Gentile type church? I said, yeah. She said, how does that work? I said, it works fine. I said, well, I'm a Jewish person who believes that Jesus was the Messiah.

And by now we got the whole stands listening, you know, I understand what I'm saying. And I said to her, you know, when I became a Christian in 1971 as a college student, I really believed I was the only Jewish person in the whole world that believed in Jesus. You know, it was like, you know, you read the Bible, Peter, Paul, James, John, you know, and then you get to like the apostle Paul and then nobody else. And then here I am, 1900 years later, I'm the next one, you know, after Paul. And I really thought that I'd never met a Jewish person in my life who believed in Jesus. And actually the truth is there weren't very many.

Huh? I heard Dr. Daniel Fuchs of the American Board of Missions to the Jews speak. He said, when I began with the American Board of Missions to the Jews in 1939, now listen, 50 years ago, I knew every Jewish Christian in the United States and Canada.

Now that's a phenomenal statement. 50 years ago, he said, I personally knew every Jewish believer in the whole United States and Canada. So how many could there have been?

20, 40, 60, not many. 50 years later, we estimate today there are somewhere between 60 and 75,000 Jewish people who actively believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. There's somewhere between three and 5,000 Israelis who believe in Jesus. There's 39 worshiping congregations in Israel meet every Sabbath of Israelis who worship Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel.

When you go over there, you can attend any one of them you want. And that it's all happened in the last 50 years. Well, it says here, look, Israel has experienced a hardening in part, watch, until, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. When God gets through dealing with the Gentiles and gets ready to turn back to deal with the Jewish people in the center of his program, what does he say is gonna happen? He's gonna lift that callous and all of a sudden Jewish people are gonna start responding to Jesus Christ in numbers that has never been seen in 1900 years. Folks, I'm here to tell you, it's happening today in your lifetime. When I came to Washington D.C. in 1971, I don't think there were more than two or three Jewish believers in the entire city. Today, we've got two or three dozen in one church. How do you explain that? Well, I explain it by Romans chapter 11. And do you know if we were having the kind of response to Jesus Christ among Gentiles numerically percentage wise that we're having among Jewish people for the last 50 years, we would say we were having the greatest revival in the history of the world if Gentiles were responding at the percentages that Jewish people have been responding the last 50 years.

Why? Because Jesus said, when I get ready to come back, I'm gonna lift that double whammy off of them and you're gonna see Jewish people coming to Christ in ways you've never seen before. Three signs. One, Jewish people back in their land controlling their city again. Two, the temple being rebuilt. Three, Jewish people coming to Christ at a rate that's never been seen. Jesus said, when you see these three things converging at some point in history, look up, get ready, because my coming is just around the corner.

Now, there have been rumors of wars and there have been earthquakes for 1900 years, but these three things have never ever happened, any of them, much less all three of them happening at one point in time. I believe there are people here today who are gonna live to see Jesus Christ come back. I believe that even if you don't, your children will. I believe it's not gonna be that long. Jesus said, this generation will not pass away until all these things have been accomplished, and I don't know how to date anything, but a generation is usually 40 years, and if 1967 was when the Jewish people got Jerusalem back and you add 40 to it, friends, I'm telling you, I don't think it's that far away.

I don't know when it is, but it wouldn't surprise me if many of us here lived to see the return of Jesus Christ. Now, where does all that leave us? Well, let me just say in closing, it leaves us seeing that God's got this world completely under control, doesn't He? I mean, is the world out of control? No. Is everything happening right on schedule?

Sure it is. Geopolitically, God's got this thing cooking right on schedule, and you know what? If He can make Israel cook on schedule, and Jerusalem cook on schedule, and the six-day war cook on schedule, and the rebuilding of the temple cook on schedule, and Jewish revival cook on schedule, doesn't it seem like He can keep your life on schedule?

Yeah, I think so. I'd like to tell you that if the whole universe is ticking away precisely on schedule, then if you're a Christian and you're walking with God, believe me, your life is ticking right on schedule, too. God's got your life right where He needs it, and it's going right according to plan.

I have to deal with that a lot. I mean, you know, my daughter's been very sick, and I have to say, God, why is this happening? Why is this going the way it's going?

And the answer is, I don't know, but I believe it's right on schedule. And you might say, but why have I lost my job? Why am I getting transferred?

Why is my business having trouble? Why am I going through all this financial crisis? I don't know, but I assure you if you're walking with God, it's right on schedule. And, Lon, you know, why am I sick, and why are my children having problems, and why are my grandchildren having problems? I don't know.

I believe it's right on schedule. You know, and why did my boyfriend drop me? Because he's a jerk.

That's why he dropped you. But I believe he's being a jerk right on schedule. Right on schedule. And why am I single, and I can't find anybody to marry me, and I've hung a sign around my neck saying, please marry me, and nobody will do it. Why? I don't know, but it's right on schedule. And why did that person I really love die?

Why did they have to die right then when they, I don't know. But I believe it's right on schedule. Folks, everything's happening right on schedule. And our job is not to figure out how to run things. That's God's job.

Our job is just to trust God. I love the song that says, my Lord knows the way through the wilderness. It doesn't say, I know the way through the wilderness. I don't. You don't. It says, my Lord knows the way through the wilderness.

Thank God he does. All I have to do is follow. That's my job.

My job is not to plot the course. My job is just to follow the one who knows the way through the wilderness. And folks, if it feels like you're right in the middle of a big old wilderness right now, that's all right. You're right where God wants you to be right at this moment.

You're right on schedule. And God knows the way through the wilderness. Just follow him. Trust him. He'll get you through. Just trust him.

It's all happening right on schedule. Well, I hope this has been an encouragement to you. And you know, while we stay here and we wait for Christ to come back, and I don't believe it will be that long, our job is real simple.

Follow the one who knows the way through the wilderness. And I hope you'll do that. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, it's going to be a great day when we come to be with you.

It's going to be a great day when you come back in the air to get us. We're ready now, Lord. And the older we get and the more pain and suffering we face in this life, the more ready we are. But Lord, you're not here right now, and we've got to go on.

And some of us have tough deals to have to deal with. And I pray that you'd remind us that if you've got Israel and the geopolitical landscape cooking right on schedule, that you've got our lives cooking right on schedule. Lord, help us believe that. Help us trust you. Thank you that you know the way through the wilderness.

God, I'm sure glad somebody does. Thank you, you know the way through the wilderness. Thank you that all I have to do and all we have to do is follow. Help us do that, Lord. Help us walk by faith and just let you lead. And we pray you'd use the Word of God this morning to encourage our lives and uplift us and strengthen our Christian walk, that we might be faithful until you come. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.