The King’s Business

You know, there's a man who always wanted to hear John Wesley preach. Now, in the 1700s, John Wesley was the celebrity preacher.

He was kind of the Billy Graham of his day. And there's this man who always wanted to hear Wesley preach. And after years of wanting to hear him, he finally got a chance to hear John Wesley preach. And John Wesley's sermon was based on John 3.7.

Here's his message. You must be born again. As time would have it and luck would have it, I guess, a couple months later, he was able to hear Wesley preach a second time. And Wesley's message that second time was, you must be born again. The following year, he got a chance to hear Wesley the third time. And Wesley preached the sermon message, you must be born again. And so after that sermon, he was actually able to go up and meet his hero, the man he'd always wanted to meet, John Wesley. And he said, Mr. Wesley, it's such an honor to meet you. You're a great man of God. God's using you in a great way.

But I got a question. Every time I hear you preach, you preach the same thing. You must be born again. Why don't you preach anything else? Why is it every time I hear you preach, you say, you must be born again?

And Wesley responded, well, it's because you must be born again. It reminds me of really what the call of this church is, to share Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world and to tell this world you must be born again. Now turn, if you would, to Daniel Chapter 8. We've been going through the book of Daniel. I told you the next couple weeks can be a little bit challenging in Daniel because the first six chapters of Daniel is history.

And it's all those stories we love. Daniel in the lion's den, the boys in a fiery furnace, we love those stories. Then things shift from Daniel 7 to 12. Instead of stories in history, now we're talking prophecy.

And this is not really in chronological order. Daniel 7 to 12, remember I told you this. It's almost like an addendum to the book of Daniel.

It's like Daniel has opened up his prayer journal and now he's allowing you to write some things that he's taken notes on in his prayer journal. Okay, so this is now, we are now getting into prophecy. It took place about 200 years before Jesus Christ came along. It's interesting though, Daniel lives 200 years before these events take place.

I mean, this is extraordinary. A man who lived 200 years before I'm about to read to you got it right. He didn't just guess God revealed to him what was going to take place for the next 200 years.

But again, keep in mind, this has already taken place. And to kind of visualize this image, here's a picture, kind of a prophetic picture. Of what Daniel is describing. I think we have this of a goat and a ram.

And so I want you to look at it for just a second. And here's what Daniel says here in Daniel 8. Look at verse 3. Daniel lived through a few global empires. This ram that he's describing is the Medo-Persian empire. One empire, like one ram, but two horns, and one horn was greater than the other. The Medo part of the Persian empire was the lesser. The Persian part was greater. So he's describing the Medo-Persian empire and historically we know that it took over west, north, south, but not east. Just like his dream.

So he's predicting this. Now go a little bit farther. Look at verse 5. While I was watching, suddenly a male goat appeared from the west, crossing the land so swiftly that it didn't even touch the ground. This goat, which had one very large horn between its eyes, headed toward the two-horned ram that I had seen standing beside the river, rushing at him in a rage. The goat looked continuously at the ram and struck him, breaking off both of his horns. Now the ram was helpless and the goat knocked him down and trampled him. No one could rescue the ram from the goat's power. The goat became very powerful, but at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off and in the large horn's place, drew four prominent horns pointing to the four directions of the earth. Now this goat that knocks the ram out of the way is the Greek empire. And it says there's one big horn coming out of this goat. He runs so fast, he takes over the earth so quickly.

No, listen to me, no empire has taken over the earth as quickly as the Greek empire took over. And that one horn, anybody know his name? His name was Alexander the Great. He was mighty, he was powerful, he took over, directionally just like Daniel's describing. And he took over, he destroyed the Medo-Persian empire. Now it says this, that horn was broken off and four horns took its place.

We know this happened in 323 BC when Alexander the Great, the great horn died, he's broken off. And we know from history, four wicked generals took his place. Now again, Daniel's predicting this 200 years before it even happens. Look, we won't go through verses nine through 14, but one of these Greek leaders eventually has his sights set on Israel. He hates Jews, he hates Judaism, he wants to destroy Judaism and expand Greek culture. And this man named Epiphanes, Antiochus Epiphanes, he gave himself that title which means I am God manifest. Antiochus Epiphanes takes over Israel. And in verses nine through 14, he stops the sacrifices in the temple, he stops a Jewish culture, he prevents circumcision, he is a wicked, godless man.

So you see what's taking place? Medo-Persian empire destroyed, Greek empire takes over, the great horn, Alexander the Great breaks off, four generals take its place, and one of these Greek leaders arises, and look at verse 23. At its height, a fierce king, a master of intrigue will rise to power. He will become very strong, but not by his own power.

That implies some type of satanic power that's energizing this man. He will cause a shocking amount of destruction and succeed in everything he does. He will destroy powerful leaders and devastate the holy people. He will be a master of deception and will become arrogant. He will destroy many without warning.

He will even take on the prince of princes in battle, but he will be broken, though not by human power. Again, this man, Antiochus Epiphanes, goes into the temple and says, no more sacrifice. And he sets up an altar to Zeus right there in the middle of the temple. And I think it's around 168 BC, he takes a pig. Y'all know Jews don't like pigs and they think they're filthy. They're filthy animals, right? They don't even mess with pigs. He actually takes a pig into the Jewish temple and sacrifices the pig and sprinkles pig's blood all over the place. He just desecrated the whole place.

This guy's a wicked man. In fact, some historians say that during his reign, Antiochus Epiphanes killed 100,000 Jews in Israel. They belonged to that covenant community of Israel.

He outlawed that. But there were still some mothers who, in secret, when they give birth to their babies, they still circumcised their sons. When Antiochus Epiphanes found out about that, he killed the babies and had the dead babies chained around the necks of the mothers.

I mean, this is a satanic, wicked, violent man. And in the end, Antiochus Epiphanes falls just like all these world leaders who rise up against God and think that God is not the God of the universe, that God will not hold them accountable. Antiochus Epiphanes went by the way of history. But Daniel, and here's my point, Daniel predicts this 200 years before this even takes place. Some of y'all are saying, well, Chad, thank you for the history lesson.

I was wondering about Antiochus Epiphanes. That's great. What's the big deal about this? There's something here that you need to see.

There's more to this than just a history lesson. This prophecy is fulfilled around the time of Daniel, but watch this. This is a prophetic picture, a foreshadowing of a global leader who's going to come named the Antichrist.

This is a picture that took place 200 years before Jesus Christ of this global leader that's coming back to take over the world. People ask me all the time, do you think the Antichrist is alive today? Satan does not. When Jesus was on earth, Jesus said, am I human form?

I don't even know when I'm coming back. So why would Satan know something that Jesus doesn't know? So Satan doesn't know when Jesus is coming back. But I believe that in every single generation, Satan has had that global leader ready in case those are the final days. In 64 AD, Satan didn't know if the world was going to end then in the Roman Empire. So he had a madman named Nero saying, if these are the final days, then here's my man.

Here's my man. Here's my Antichrist ready. Well, Jesus didn't come back in 64 AD. In 1940, Satan doesn't know if this is it. So Satan says, I got my man ready.

His name is Adolph Hitler. And if this is the end time, that's my man. He's ready. I think in every generation, he's had that Antichrist ready.

I think he has that man ready right now if this is the end. And so Antiochus, this man that Daniel's talking about that slaughtered all these Jews, that goes into the temple, desecrates the temple. He is a foreshadowing of the coming Antichrist. He said, now where do you see that?

Look at a couple things. Look at verse 17. If you got your Bibles, Daniel 8, 17.

Daniel says this, as Gabriel approached the place where I was standing, I became so terrified that I fell with my face to the ground. Son of man, he said, you must understand that the events you have seen in your vision relate to the time of the end. Gabriel's saying, yes, this takes place 200 years before Christ, but this is a prophetic picture of what it's gonna be like in the end. Second reason I believe that this is a prophetic picture of the Antichrist, verse 26, he says this vision is about something that's gonna take place.

Watch this. In the distant future, Daniel, not just today, not just 200 years from now, but in the distant future, somebody like Antiochus is gonna come back and try to rule this world. And even Jesus himself, did you know this? Jesus, see some of y'all are not into end times prophecy. Can I tell you who was into end times prophecy? Jesus was into end times prophecy.

He talked a lot about end time prophecy. And when Jesus is talking about the last days, he points back to this story. He says, in the end days, the temple will be rebuilt.

Did y'all know that? The temple, there's no temple in Jerusalem now. There's gonna be a temple. In the end days, the temple will be rebuilt. There's something called the Temple Institute right now in Israel.

When we take groups, we walk right by this. The Temple Institute has a bunch of Jewish leaders, Jewish rabbis, who even now are preparing the tables, the equipment, the furniture for the temple when the temple is rebuilt. It's going to be rebuilt. And Jesus says, when that temple is rebuilt, he says there's going to be a man like Antiochus that stands up in that temple and says, I am God, worship me. And he's gonna do the same thing in the future that Antiochus did in the past. Now here's my point. Even though everything I've just shared with you is history, it's a prophetic picture of what's gonna happen one day.

Are y'all with me on that? So I said, Lord, there's gotta be some kind of connection here. How does this apply to us?

Yes, there was a wicked man named Antiochus that tried to rule the world and that desecrated the temple and slaughtered Jews and God's people. And yes, he's a prophetic picture of the coming world leader called the Antichrist. But how does this apply to us? And as I was praying about this passage, the Lord took me to verse 27. So look at verse 27, if you would. Here's how God answered me. Now when I say God spoke to me, you understand, I'm not as spiritual as some of y'all.

He doesn't speak to me audibly every other day. It's just an impression of my spirit. Verse 27, the Lord said this. Now look at what Daniel says. After Daniel has this prophetic picture of what's gonna happen in the coming centuries to his people and in the final days of the Antichrist, it says in verse 27, I, Daniel, I just worn out. I lay exhausted for several days.

Then I got up and I went about the king's business. The end times exhausted Daniel. This stuff bothered Daniel. See, sometimes you feel guilty because you hear people like me preach about the second coming of Jesus Christ and you know you oughta be happy and excited and I can't wait for Jesus to come back, but it kinda bothers you and it rattles your cage a little bit. I heard Pastor Chad talk, particularly young men and women who wanna get married and have kids and what if Jesus, you ever worry about that when you were a kid? I always worry about that.

What if Jesus Christ comes back before I have a chance to have a family and marriage and all this kind of stuff? Some of y'all get rattled by this. Well, you're in good company. But I'm gonna, until this mess stops, I'm gonna keep singing. It burdens me to live in a country where we're okay in castrating our little boys in the name of some kind of weird gender ideology. It burdens me. It burdens me to live in the last days when governors are making fun of Catholics and, you know, acting like that they're giving somebody Doritos for communion.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. It burdens me. It burdens me to live in the last days. And sometimes I'm bothered by that burden and then I realize Daniel was burdened as well. In fact, here's a verse.

Look at this. 2 Peter 2.7. 2 Peter 2.7. But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because Lot was a righteous man, look at this, who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Lot was a righteous man because he was burdened by what was going on.

In his culture. Any Lot's in this place, you're just kind of sick and tired about what's going on. So Daniel verse 27. Since I started looking toward the end times and we're slaughtering, we're slaughtering full term babies now and lying and saying we're not doing it.

We're doing it. I could go on and on and on. I'm like Daniel, I'm like Lot. I'm tired.

But notice this. Daniel didn't just stay in a pity party, sad, sick and tired. He was sorry, telling his kids and grandkids about how messed up this world was.

When I was a kid, we all went to church and everybody loved Jesus and drove American cars. Daniel doesn't do that. Daniel says I'm sick and I'm tired, but I got up and I went to work and I did the king's business. And so beloved, yeah, it's a messed up job, but it's a messed up world. Don't quit your job.

Don't sit around in a pity party. Get up and just do what you're supposed to do. Daniel was sick, but I want you to look at that phrase. He got up and what did he do? He did the king's business. And here's how the Lord spoke to my spirit on verse 27. He said Chad, if you feel these are the end times, then get up and go do the king's business.

So shall listen to me? If Jesus is coming back soon, if Jesus is the only way to salvation, we've got to get up as a church and we've got to do the king's business. And what's the king's business? The king has made it very clear.

Jesus, according to my interpretation of the word of God, did not have a stuttering problem. Jesus was very clear. You want to know how business is? Matthew 28, 19. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. That's the king's business. Get up and lead this whole world to Jesus Christ. Go out and share the good news. That's the king's business. I'm going to ask you to raise your hand again. How many of y'all are burdened about what's going on in this messed up world? Then let's get up and let's go do the king's business.

Let's try to do something about it. Let's go do the king's business. Let's go into all the world and make disciples of all the what?

Nations. That means global missions. That means this church is supposed to send people out to win this world to Jesus Christ. We had somebody, I don't know who it is, I get this all the time.

Somebody else did this this past week, called the office, got in touch with the office, and they asked the same question. Why is cross assembly doing all this mission stuff when there's lost people right here in Raleigh? Why are y'all sending people all around the world when there's lost people right here in North Carolina? Now I'm begging you, when Pastor Chad does this, when he does his hands like this, that means he's begging you right now.

Please stop asking that question. I won't be able to pastor this church if I'm in the asylum and y'all about to put me in the nut house about asking that question. Why do we go into all the world? Because the man told us to go into all the world.

That's why we do it. That's why we're in the global missions. I did some calculations this week. There's 4000 square miles in the Raleigh-Durham area. There are 196 million square miles in the rest of this world. Can I send 3500 people out to the 4000 square miles of the Raleigh-Durham area? Can I at least send 200 people out into the 196 million miles of the rest of the world?

Can we at least do that? You take Raleigh to Jesus and you go on to North Carolina. I want you to go in North Carolina to Jesus. He says and. You take Raleigh for Jesus and North Carolina for Jesus and America for Jesus and Sudan for Jesus and Laos for Jesus.

You expand the gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. So what is the king's business? It's to do what y'all been doing. I'll be honest with you. I'm not fussing at you. I just had too much coffee and it's stacked with an energy drink.

And then just drank another energy drink on top of that. But I'm not angry at you because y'all actually doing this. Y'all give so much money to global missions.

Why? Because you're doing the king's business. So we do this globally. But now we got to do the king's business personally. Matthew 28, 19. He says to his disciples, go. The king's business is this. As you leave this place today, when you go to school tomorrow, you share Jesus at school.

Well, the government says, I don't care what the government says. Jesus said, go. When you leave this place tomorrow and you're there at Walmart, go.

When you leave this place and you're at the barber shop, you go. See, I fear and I'm putting myself in this. I fear we as a church are getting really good at going globally. We're paying people to go.

I don't know how many of us personally are going into this messed up world and doing the king's business. Great. Somebody, now look, when I get an email from a secretary and the title there, the subject says somebody contacted the office, my instinct, I kind of cringe for just a minute.

Just a second, tense up for just a second. I told my secretary lately, I said, you know, it's wonderful. I just don't get all the nasty emails like I used to. She said, you get them.

You just don't know that you get them because whatever. But this one blessed me. It was a note from a lady who contacted our church through our website. And here's what she said. She said, you don't know me, but me and two of my lady friends were in Chicago.

O'Hare Airport. We were eating breakfast. And while we're eating breakfast, there's a lady sitting next to us and we just kind of struck up a conversation and she started talking to us. And she said, this lady just started talking about this change that had been made in her life. How Jesus had come in and saved her and changed her. And she said, we sat there and we were just, we were holding on to every word she was saying.

It was an amazing story. The lady got through. She wasn't pushy.

She wasn't mean. When she got through, she just told us, you know, I'm part of this church cross assembly in Raleigh, North Carolina. And when we went later on to pay our breakfast bill, we found out this lady had already paid our bill for us. And this lady said, I don't know who you are.

I don't know anything about your church, but I want you to know one of your representatives represented Jesus well. Isn't that great? What did she do?

Chicago O'Hare Airport. She was doing the king's business. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson wrote about something that happened to him decades before. He talked about going to a barbershop to get his haircut. Here's what he said. He said, I'm getting my haircut. And a man came quietly into the barbershop to get a haircut. And he sat in the chair next to me.

Every word that he uttered. Though it's not done in the least in a preaching or lecturing matter showed a personal and vital interest in the man who is cutting his hair. And before I got through with what was being done to me, I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic service because it was the evangelist Dwight Moody who was sitting in the chair next to me. I purposely lingered in that barbershop after he left.

Listen to this. And I noted the singular effect his visit had upon the barbers in that shop. It felt as if that place had become a place of worship. Even when the man's getting his hair cut, he's not mean, he's not brash, but he's simply sharing the Jesus who had changed his life and how that Jesus could change your life as well. Antiochus may be on the scene already. It seems to me that all the puzzle pieces are coming together.

Christ is coming back soon. We're living in these last days and verse 27 tells me it's okay to be discouraged at times, it's okay to be burdened at times, but get up, get off this pity party that you're having, sad, sick, and sorry, and let's go out and do the king's business in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So would you listen to me? This message that we have, what's that message?

Very simple. We're all messed up people. Can I ask you something? And don't raise your hand if you don't believe this. If you're a messed up person, would you raise your hand right now?

I'm gonna put my hand higher than anybody. We're all messed up people. We deserve God's righteous judgment. If you're married, he came back to life, he's coming back again, and if you just repent of your sins, turn from your sins, and turn to Jesus Christ, he'll come in and forgive you of all of your sins and give you eternal life when you die. There's forgiveness to be found in Jesus. That's our message.

R.C. Sproul was a great pastor theologian who went on to be with Jesus a couple years ago. And Sproul said, this was in the, I think in the 1970s, early 80s, he said a prominent psychologist contacted me and said, I will pay you $100,000 to leave your church and come on staff in my psychology department, my counseling department. He said, why? He said, there's plenty of other psychologists out there. Why would you want me as a pastor to leave my church and join your practice? Now, $100,000 is a lot today.

It was a whole, whole lot of money in the late 70s, early 80s. And here's what that psychologist said. Listen to this. He said, the biggest issue I have to deal with people when they come in for counseling, the biggest issue is guilt.

He said, you would not understand. Guilt is destroying people. As a psychologist, I see the biggest issue I'm dealing with is guilt. And he said, nobody deals with the issue of guilt better than you do, Pastor Sproul.

Would you come on? Now, he didn't come on, but here's what he said. Had I come into his counseling practice, I wouldn't have done anything else than just preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, because there's one cure for the guilt of humanity, and it's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. I would just preach the blood of Jesus. That's what our world needs. I tell you that to tell you, you think the world doesn't need this message. They need this message.

They're dying for this message. It's time for the king's people, that's you and me, to go and do the king's business church. And I want to raise a church of men and women who understand these are the last days Jesus is coming back, and I don't have time to fuss and fight and squabble. We only have one thing to do, and that's to win as many souls as possible before Jesus Christ comes back.

I want a church like that. Heard this great story a few years ago in 1996. Hijackers took control of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961. The pilot told the hijackers, guys, we're running out of fuel.

The hijackers didn't seem to care. The left engine died. A few moments later, the right engine began to sputter. The pilot, Captain Leul Abate, came on the intercom and gave the passengers on that flight the grim news. Quote, we have no fuel. We have lost the left engine, and we're about to lose the right engine.

Prepare for crash landing, and that is all I can say. People began to yell. People began to scream. People began crying.

Some became nauseous. And after the adults got upset, the kids got upset and began to cry. Andy Meekins, age 43, was on that flight seated next to his wife. Andy's wife heard the snap of the seat belt being unbuckled, and then she turned to see her husband stand up on that crashing flight.

And here's what he said. Many of us might die in this crash, so there's something you need to know. Andy then began to explain the gospel message with urgency.

But simplicity. And in those final moments, many people on that flight gave their lives to Jesus Christ. For example, a flight attendant heard Andy's words, bowed her head, and asked Jesus to forgive her sins and come into her heart. She watched many more respond, and along with another survivor, later told this story of the 175 people on board, 125 died. That included Andy, who was still preaching the gospel as the plane hit the water.

He was doing the king's business. And I look at that, and I want that. I want the passion for Jesus, the passion for the gospel, to be so ingrained in me that whether I died in a plane crash or I lived it in old men, I see the second coming of Jesus, or I don't see it, I want this to be so ingrained in me that when I die, I can still be found doing the king's business.

Would you stand with me right now? I want to pray that over us right now. I want to... You don't have to do this.

I want to do this. I want to repent. I've gotten some folks that say, I want to focus on what's going on in politics, and I want to keep preaching these issues. You're not going to shut my mouth. I'm going to keep preaching the issues.

I'm going to keep praying for America. But I've gotten so focused on that, it's taken my mind off of doing the king's business at times. I've gotten so, at times, caught up in the machinery of helping to run a church like this that sometimes I stop doing the king's business. I want there to be a passion for Jesus. For souls that comes upon this place, that at night we find ourselves weeping for lost family members.

That when we go out and about and we see all these messed up people in this culture, that we don't get angry. Our hearts are broken because they need Jesus. I want Jesus to give us a passion. Father, in the name of Jesus, give this church, and Father, give this pastor a passion for souls.

God, there's a lot of messed up people in this world. Father, your word says, here's what your word says, Father. Satan has taken them captive to do his will. Father, we have the one key that will liberate them from that prison of Satan, and that key's name is Jesus Christ. Father, give us a passion for souls. Father, make this church one big old maternity ward. Souls are getting born again in this place. Lives are being changed.

Newness starts. Oldness is dead. Father, make this church a soul-winning church and make this pastor a soul-winning pastor. Father, in these final days, help us to do the king's business. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Can I tell you something? I know this has been kind of a neat little, let's go old school and have the old offering. Y'all remember the offering table in the old church?

We had all this old stuff today. All right, we gone old school, but it's a reminder to me that we don't need something new and innovative and trendy to reach this world for Jesus Christ. We just need to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, the cross of Jesus Christ, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know it's not cool and I know it's not trendy, but it's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us. It's the blood that was shed of the cross. Let's thank Jesus Christ right now.

Guys, lead us in this. Jesus. Jesus. God makes me white as snow.

The world has found I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And the people of God said amen and amen.

As we leave this place today, we're gonna need two things. We're gonna go win this world for Jesus and do the king's business. We need the anointing of the Holy Ghost.

Y'all believe that? We need boldness. Look, the enemy likes to kind of bulldog you and put you on the defensive. It's time for the church to stop being on the defensive, and it's time for us to go on the offensive and snatch souls from the pit of hell. We need boldness to do that. Amen.

That's why I pray this over you just about every single Sunday. I speak this word in Hebrew. Beyamats.

Which means cross assembly. Be bold. Be strong. Do not be afraid, and y'all don't be terrified of anything.

Why? Because the Lord your God is gonna be with you everywhere you go this week in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change this world for Jesus Christ.