Would you please open up your Bibles to
Luke 21.
The title of my message this morning comes
from the Living Bible's rendition of what Jesus
said to the man who came to arrest
him in the garden that fateful night.
Jesus said, this is your hour, and here's
the title of the message, when Satan's power
reigns supreme.
When Satan's power reigns supreme.
Now Luke 21 corresponds with Matthew 24 and
Mark 13.
They are all different people's perspectives of the
same sermon.
And the reason they're a little bit different
is because different people remembered different parts of
the sermon.
That wasn't the whole sermon that you see
in any of those chapters.
It's the parts that stuck with people.
And so that's why there's a little bit
of change, a little bit of differences amongst
those three chapters.
But we're going to go over Luke 21.
And before I get into it, I just
want to mention the law of double reference,
which those who have been with me going
through the prophets know very well what that
means.
The law of double reference is simply a
term to do with hermeneutics, which means that
when the prophet gave a message, oftentimes it
referred to something in the immediate future, some
event that was going to unfold in the
not too distant future, but it had a
secondary application to the far distant future, usually
the end of the age, what we are
living in right now.
And so it's called the law of double
reference.
And in this chapter, Luke 21, Jesus kind
of goes back and forth.
Sometimes the things he's referring to are only
describing life leading up to the destruction of
Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Other times, he's only describing the end of
the age before his return.
And still other times it has application to
both.
So just so you know, and what I
want to do is I want to go
through this chapter.
I'm using the New Living Translation today.
That's not my typical Bible.
I use the New American Standard, but it's
just a little more colorful.
And, you know, to be honest with you,
I just get tired of the same old
translation all the time.
So I just thought I'd switch things up
today a little bit.
It doesn't change the meaning of anything.
But I want to go through this story.
I'll make a few little points, but mainly
I want to read this chapter just to
get the atmosphere of it.
And then I'm going to make a couple
of points, okay?
Let's start with verse 5.
And Lord, I do pray that you will
bless the reading of your word.
These are things that you said really only
a few hours before you were arrested.
And Lord, I just pray that you will
bless these words to our hearts.
They did relate to the disciples, but they
also relate to us in our day, very
much so.
I pray that you would give us ears
to hear these words, Lord.
Help us to get out of this tendency
to take your words with a grain of
salt.
Help us to break out of this spiritual
lethargy that has come about through the power
that is in the atmosphere, through the forces
of darkness.
Help us, Lord, to wake up to the
time in which we live, I pray.
Make your words real to every heart, I
pray, Lord.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Verse 5.
Some of his disciples began talking about the
majestic stonework of the temple and the memorial
decorations on the walls.
You know, this is so typical for people
to be enamored by the outward.
Don't be enamored by the outward, dear ones.
Don't be taken in just because ministries are
big and impressive.
Don't be taken in by that.
Look for substance.
Will you do that when you leave here?
Will you please have discernment and look for
substance?
But Jesus said, the time is coming when
all these things will be completely demolished.
Not one stone will be left on top
of another.
Now this is directly referring to when Titus
and his three legions of Roman soldiers came
in and ransacked Jerusalem and razed it to
the ground.
Verse 7.
Teacher, they asked, when will all this happen?
What sign will show us that these things
are about to take place?
He replied, don't let anyone mislead you, for
many will come in my name, claiming I
am the Messiah.
The spirit behind it is I am the
one.
I am the most important spiritual leader you
will ever know.
That's the spirit behind it he's talking about.
When you get the sense of that from
some religious leader, run the other direction.
Run the other direction.
May God always help us to exalt Jesus
Christ alone at Pure Life Ministries.
Only Jesus deserves the glory.
He replied, don't let anyone mislead you, for
many will come in my name, claiming I
am the Messiah and saying the time has
come.
But don't believe them.
And when you hear of wars and insurrections,
don't panic.
Yes, these things must take place first, but
the end won't follow immediately.
Now I believe that that whole sentence there
is describing the 20th century.
Because from the Great War, World War I,
from then on it's been nonstop war at
some place in the world.
But that's only leading up to things.
It's preparing the world for something else that's
coming.
Then he added, nation will go to war
against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
Or I could say realm of influence against
realm of influence.
There will be great earthquakes and there will
be famines and plagues in many lands.
And there will be terrifying things and great
miraculous signs from heaven.
Now, you know, they asked him about the
destruction of Jerusalem.
And what was his answer?
He's talking about the end of the age.
That's just the way Jesus is, you know,
you just have to love him, okay?
He doesn't do things the way we want
him to do them all the time.
All right, verse 12.
But before all this occurs, now he skips
back, you know, he's just all over the
place.
And he does it on purpose, okay?
Don't mistake what I'm saying.
Jesus lays things out perfectly.
And it is a complete mess to our
logic, but that's the way he wants it
to be.
This is not meant to be a mental
exercise.
It's meant to be received into your heart,
to change and transform the core of who
you are as a person and to translate
into your life, all right?
It's not something to be all figured out
necessarily in your mind.
That's a very secondary issue.
Anyway, verse 12.
But before all this occurs, there will be
a time of great persecution.
You will be dragged into synagogues and prisons
and you will stand trial before kings and
governors because you are my followers.
But this will be your opportunity to tell
them about me.
So don't worry in advance about how to
answer the charges against you, for I will
give you the right words and such wisdom
that none of your opponents will be able
to reply or refute you.
All right, now this is one of those
passages that refers to both.
This does refer to the persecution the church
began to experience in the 60s AD.
And I'll say something about that here in
a second actually.
And when he refers to kings and governors,
surely must primarily be referring to the Apostle
Paul, right?
I mean, he went to King Agrippa.
He spoke to Felix and Festus, both Roman
governors of Palestine.
And eventually he had to stand before Nero.
Now we know what happened with the first
three.
It describes basically what happens, what happened when
Paul stood before them.
Who can comprehend the spiritual force that came
forward when this man of God, especially at
this point in his life, this is towards
the end now, at this point in his
life, who can comprehend how he must have
spoke with such eloquence and power and authority
where words will just go into hearts and
affect people, impact them, take them right to
the cross instantly.
And we know that Felix was overwhelmed by
Paul's words.
He couldn't get away from Paul quick enough.
But I wonder what happened when he stood
before Nero.
Now you know, this was about 63, his
first arrest.
He was arrested later, a few years later,
but this was his first arrest.
And he stood before Nero, it was about
63 AD.
And it's interesting that if you look in
secular history, Nero took a real turn for
the worse at about that time period.
He really was a fairly, I want to
say average, typical emperor up to that time.
You know, he was a mess, but they
were all a mess.
Power corrupts and all of that.
But something happened and he took a real
downturn about that time.
And the next thing we hear in secular
history was Rome burning to the ground.
And one of the beliefs from the earliest
historians was that he had a hand in
that because he wanted to build this entire
complex that would give him all this glory
and so on.
I was listening to a Chuck Smith message
on this.
And he suggested the possibility that when Paul
stood before Nero and probably poured his heart
out to that man, Nero rejected that message.
And Chuck Smith's belief is that he became
demon possessed when that happened, that he opened
his heart up to demonic possession.
And then all the stuff that you hear
later that Nero got into, I mean, some
wax stuff, you know.
Even this group would think some of the
stuff he did was just out there.
But I don't know.
Anyway, that's just a side note.
It's just kind of an interesting thing to
me.
I'll tell you something, when the Holy Spirit
takes over your tongue and you're sharing with
people, you do not know what God can
do with those words.
You just don't know.
Verse 16, even those closest to you, your
parents, brothers, relatives, and friends will betray you.
They will even kill some of you.
And everyone, everyone, everyone will hate you
because you are my followers.
Now, this is describing a time when Christianity
is illegal.
You know, to be betrayed means that you're
living your life kind of undercover, in a
sense, incognito.
And someone turns you in, hey, there is
a believer.
There's one of those Christians.
And they haul you in, you're arrested.
Now that did occur in the 60s when
Nero started persecuting Christians.
Those things did happen.
But that is also what we are moving
into.
I'll get more into that in a few
minutes.
Verse 18, but not a hair of your
head will perish.
Now, that just means that they can destroy
your body, but they cannot destroy your soul.
That's all that means.
Verse 19, by standing firm, you will win
your souls.
Some translations say through endurance you will win
your souls, and so on.
Verse 20, and when you see Jerusalem surrounded
by armies, then you will know that the
time of its destruction has arrived.
Okay, that's 70 AD.
All this that we're going to read right
now.
Then those in Judea must flee to the
hills.
Those in Jerusalem must get out.
And those in the country should not return
to the city.
For those will be days of God's vengeance.
And the prophetic words of the scriptures will
be fulfilled.
For how terrible it will be for pregnant
women and for nursing mothers in those days.
For there will be disaster in the land
and great anger against this people.
They will be killed by the sword or
sent away as captives to all the nations
of the world.
And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the
Gentiles until the period of the Gentiles comes
to an end.
All right, this is describing the first century.
Eusebius tells the story of what happened with
the Christians.
Apparently one of the prophets, maybe Agabus or
who knows who, received a word from the
Lord that it was time to get out.
You know, those Christians who were living in
Jerusalem.
And so all the Christians, the true believers,
left Jerusalem and went to a little town
called Pala over in Edom, you know, on
the other side of the Dead Sea.
And that's when the Roman armies came in
and encircled the city and put them through
hell for a couple of years, I think
it was, before they completely sacked it.
But the Christians escaped.
When it says here days of God's vengeance,
you know, you've got to understand right before
Jesus gave this message, do you remember the
message He gave in Matthew 23 to the
Pharisees?
He just really lit into them and told
them exactly.
I mean, He nailed it, the spirit that
they were in.
And towards the end of that talk that
He gave, right before He did this, it
may have been the same day even, He
told them that the guilt of all the
righteous blood that had been shed all the
way from Abel to Zechariah would fall on
them.
And that's what was about to transpire in
70 AD.
Josephus says that 1.1 million Jews were
slaughtered by the Romans and 97,000 were
taken into slavery.
But look here at the second part of
that verse 24.
And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the
Gentiles until the period of the Gentiles comes
to an end.
This period of the Gentiles is basically describing
the church age.
It's when the apostles had been ministering to
the Jews, and to put it in the
words of Paul when he was trying to
minister to the Jews in Pisidian Antioch, he
said, You won't hear me?
You don't want the gospel?
Okay, I'm going to turn to the Gentiles.
And that's basically what the Lord did.
The Jews rejected Jesus Christ, rejected the gospel,
so the focus became the Gentiles.
And so that began the church age, which
we are still in.
And when it's talking about Jerusalem trampled down
by the Gentiles, that has been the history
of the city ever since 70 AD.
First it was the Romans, then it was
the Saracens, then the Turks, the British for
a while, and the Arabs.
They all had their periods of time when
they just dominated and controlled and ruled that
city all the way up until 1967.
All right, verse 25.
And there will be strange signs in the
sun, moon, and stars.
And here on earth the nations will be
in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and
strange tides.
People will be terrified at what they see
coming upon the earth, for the powers in
the heavens will be shaken.
All right, now this again is definitely talking
about the end times.
This phrase here, perplexed by roaring seas, throughout
Scripture the sea is used figuratively to describe
people groups.
Now, I don't know if that's what Jesus
is talking about here.
It could be, or it could literally be
the oceans, tsunamis or whatever.
We've seen two devastating tsunamis in the Far
East in the last decade, haven't we?
So, it could be either.
I really don't know which.
But definitely this word perplexed literally means no
way out.
In other words, what Jesus is describing is
a period of time where despair and hopelessness
becomes stronger and stronger and more prevalent amongst
mankind.
Now, I haven't looked into statistics on this,
but I have a feeling if I did
that we would find that the suicide rates
are going up exponentially every year.
Why?
Partly because people are finding out the meaninglessness
of life more quickly because of all of
our technology, all of our prosperity, and so
on.
The power is in the heavens shaken.
Now, here again, this could be some kind
of a literal thing.
I tend to think that Jesus is referring
to the principalities and powers in the atmosphere.
You know, in Ephesians 6, Paul said, For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers, against the powers, against
the world forces of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
You know, I think that that's probably what
he's talking about.
This word shaken also means agitated.
And I could see something happening, a lot
of turmoil in the spiritual realm where these
great principalities that have had their way and
are increasingly having their way are also coming
into the realization that their time is running
out.
Their time is short.
And we know in Revelation 12 where it
says that Satan, when he realizes his time
is running out, just goes into a rage
against humanity.
Maybe that's what Jesus is referring to.
I don't know.
Verse 27.
Then everyone will see the Son of Man
coming on a cloud with power and great
glory.
Okay, so here again, we're at the very
end.
So when all these things begin to happen,
go back a few years now.
When these things begin to happen, that's you
and me.
Stand and look up for your salvation is
near.
And then he uses a fig tree to
describe, you know, how that all unfolds and
so on.
And then verse 34.
Watch out, he says.
Don't let your hearts be dulled by carousing
and drunkenness and by the worries of this
life.
Don't let that day catch you unaware like
a trap.
For that day will come upon everyone living
on the earth.
Keep alert at all times.
And pray that you might be strong enough
to escape these coming horrors and stand before
the Son of Man.
All right.
Now, I'm going to remind you of the
title of my message.
When Satan's Power Reigns Supreme.
And I believe we are easing into that
dark period right now.
That this is occurring in our day.
You guys are going to witness unbelievable things
in your lifetime.
Unbelievable things.
Basically, what's going on is the enemy is
being allowed a greater measure of power on
this earth.
And it's all part of what the Lord
is allowing.
He's allowing it to occur.
So the enemy is going to be going
after Christians.
The enemy is going after Christians right now.
Like never before.
This attack is going to be coming in
two basic ways.
And these are going to be my two
points.
Either overwhelming enticements or devastating persecution.
It's going to come in one form or
the other or both.
All right.
So let's look at this first one.
If we're going to stand against the enticements
that the enemy is going to lay in
our path, then we must learn how to
deny ourselves.
We've got to figure this out.
But the reality is the basic attitude of
most American Christians is to go after and
get every kind of pleasure they can possibly
get their hands on short of obvious sin.
And to enjoy every form of entertainment they
can possibly enjoy short of obvious sin.
To indulge every desire of the flesh they
can possibly indulge short of obvious sin.
To pursue every personal idol that they have
built up in their heart.
As long as it's short of obvious sin.
You see, because the church today has our,
we have our list of our rules.
And here's the things that you can do
and get by with.
And here's the things that you can't.
If you do these things, then we're going
to frown on your life.
And that list is even getting shorter and
shorter every year.
You know, the bottom line is, we have
had prosperity in this nation for 50 years.
It's been a growing prosperity for 50 years.
And now we are living with the fruit
of it.
You see the condition of the church after
50 years of enjoying prosperity.
Some people think it's God's blessing.
I don't know.
But whatever it is, now you see the
fruit of it.
Sexual sin, out of control.
Promiscuity, out of control.
Divorce, out of control.
Drug use, out of control.
And all the other sins that go along
with all of that stuff.
And all the heart issues and stuff.
People just living for self, out of control.
That's the fruit of 50 years of a
church that has enjoyed prosperity.
Basically, the only time people say no to
themselves is when they can't afford something.
If they can afford it, if they have
the means to get it and they want
it, they get it.
I'm talking about Christians here.
I'm not talking about unbelievers out there.
I am referring to people who say they're
Christians.
Look what Jesus said, verse 34, watch out.
Maybe your translation says beware.
Does that word mean anything to you?
When Jesus, if he stood in front of
you and said, beware.
Is there anything in you that can be
reached?
I'm not getting on you guys, you understand.
But is there something in you that hasn't
become so jaded that Jesus' words can actually
affect you and scare you, trouble you, disturb
you?
They should, they should.
And he gives a warning here.
Don't let your hearts be dulled.
Let me read it in the living Bible.
Watch out.
Don't let my sudden coming catch you unawares.
Don't let me find you living in careless
ease, carousing and drinking and occupied with the
problems of this life like all the rest
of the world.
Now the translation says that one part, but
take care that your hearts are not loaded
down with self-indulgence.
Amplified continues on.
Worldly worries and cares pertaining to the business
of this life.
This word that the New Living Translation says
carousing, the Greek is krahipale.
It really just means the after effects of
overindulgence.
It's how you felt Thanksgiving evening after Pure
Life Ministries just let you gorge your flesh,
right?
It's how you feel after you've been out
drinking all night the next day.
It's how you feel after you've gone on
a sexual binge.
It's how you feel when you give over
to spending money.
It's how you feel when you've just thrown
yourself into the world, sat in front of
some carnal movie or maybe two or three
movies or something.
That's what it's referring to.
The word is dissipation.
You know, in other words, it's just an
over excessive indulgence in something.
And Jesus is warning us, end time believers,
don't do this.
You know, one of the problems with indulgence
is it creates cowardice.
It will turn you into a moral coward
to where you can't take a stand for
anything.
Everything's got to revolve around your feelings, around
your desires and your flesh and your pride
and so on.
That's why the emperors were always so soft
and effeminate because they had given themselves every
pleasure that they could possibly become involved in.
That's where it takes you.
If your lifestyle is a lifestyle of constantly
saying yes, yes, yes to your desires, you're
in trouble.
You are not prepared for what's coming upon
this earth.
You know something?
We all desperately need to learn how to
say no to ourselves.
We have got to learn how to control
ourselves.
In the midst of a culture that is
out of control, we have to be controlled
by the Holy Spirit.
Now, I'm going to share a story with
you.
You know, we usually are very cautious about
sharing things about other members of the senior
leadership, you know, because we don't want to
give people a wrong impression or whatever.
But I felt like this message was important
enough to warrant sharing something that happened a
stray.
You remember this, right?
Yeah, you do.
Let me tell you what happened.
The sordid tale.
I went over to their house a couple
weeks ago, helping him out with some stuff.
And they had just gotten another dog.
And they were very excited about this.
So they would have, you know, two dogs
and they could play together and enjoy each
other and so on.
And Sister Rose, who you just heard that
glowing testimony about, in one of her lower
moments, says to me, Steve, you know, you
really need to get another dog.
So Gus doesn't have to live by himself
like that.
And, you know, listen, when Rose says something,
I immediately go into action, you know.
She hasn't told me to do many things
in the years I've known her, but when
she speaks, I jump.
So I immediately went home and started pondering
this.
And I presented it to my wife.
And she said, Rose said that?
I said, yeah, Rose told me.
So she said, well, we got to do
it then.
We've got to look into this.
So, you know, we went into, we can't
afford to go out and buy, you know,
another dog.
They're pretty pricey dogs.
And we got into this website where they
rescue dogs.
And there are a lot of bull mastiffs
in this because they're big dogs.
You know, our dog, Gus, is 140 pounds.
And he hasn't even, he's not fully grown
yet.
So, you know, a lot of people will
get one of these dogs and realize they
can't handle them.
So they'll put them into these rescue situations.
So we started looking through this website, looking
for the dog that Rose told us we
had to go get.
And I found the dog.
His name was Boss.
Boss is one year old.
He cost the man who bought him $3
,000.
This is a true story.
$3,000 dog.
This dog was beautiful, beautiful dog.
You know, you could just tell he was,
came from a champion line and so on.
And I could have him for a few
hundred bucks.
Now, I don't really have the money to
spend.
But, you know, how could I pass this
up?
And the thought of having two of these
beasts, you know, I could certainly understand that
this was definitely of the Lord.
The way Rose gave it to me.
So that night, I went to bed and
I had to fill out this application on
that website.
And all night long, just dreaming about Boss.
Boss and Gus, Boss and Gus, Gus and
Boss.
Man, I was excited.
I was so excited.
Then the next morning came and I made
the mistake of having a prayer time.
And everything went south for me.
Seriously speaking, I got up that morning and
I knew the Lord was saying, I don't
want you to get this dog.
So I immediately wrote an email to the
people at that website because I didn't want
to take a chance on, you know, later
on saying, am I sure that was the
Lord?
But no, I just sent an email out
and I knew I had to say no
to myself.
You understand what I'm saying?
We have to learn to go to the
Lord, not to just jump on opportunities, not
to just go and do the thing that
you have the power to make happen.
We've got to learn how to take something
to the Lord and say, Lord, with a
sincere heart, do you want me to do
this thing?
You've got to learn how to do this.
If you're going to be led by the
spirit, the sons of God are known by
the fact that they are led by the
spirit, Paul says.
Do you know what it means to be
led by the spirit?
You have to come into that and to
be able to be led by the spirit,
you've got to be willing to say no
to yourself.
When you want something really bad, you should
force yourself to go in the other direction,
at least until you can get clear headed
about it.
That's how you prepare yourself to withstand all
the things that the enemy is going to
lay in your path in the days ahead
to bring you into his mindset that all
revolves around pleasing the flesh.
The other thing is that if we're going
to stand through persecution, we must learn how
to humble ourselves with people.
You know, the world is becoming increasingly hostile
to true Christianity.
They'll put up with formal Christianity.
They'll put up with it.
They'll tolerate it.
But they are growing increasingly more hostile towards
true Christianity.
And they're lumping us in with Islamic fanatics.
I don't know how they put the two
together, because to become a radical Christian means
that you become less selfish, more giving, more
humble, more kind.
How could they put that in with a
fanatic who wants to blow people up?
It's the devil.
But that's what's happening.
And at the same time, the established church
is becoming increasingly absorbed into the world, into
the world system.
Why?
Because they are given over to the world
and the things of the world.
They're immersed in the mindset of the world.
They sit in front of the television night
after night.
They sit in front of the internet.
They're filling their minds with the message of
the world constantly and then go to church
on Sunday.
You know, in Revelation 17, when John was
given a vision of the harlot church, he
saw something that left him amazed.
That this church, he couldn't understand it.
He couldn't come to grips with it in
his mind, because this was the Christian church.
But this church was drunk with the blood
of the saints and with the blood of
the witnesses of Jesus.
Which are you going to be?
Which side are you going to be on?
You have to decide.
In John 16, Jesus said, an hour is
coming for everyone who kills you to think
that he is offering service to God.
You know, in the early church days, the
Jews would lead the parade of persecution against
the Christians.
They would actually come and get the Romans
and turn in and betray the Christians, because
they were an embarrassment.
You know, you got to understand the Christian
church looked, it was a sect.
It was a Jewish sect.
That's what we're coming into.
You have the formal church, and then you
have the fanatics, the haters, as they will
call us.
And we are an embarrassment to the formal
church.
And that will grow stronger in the days
ahead.
This is what Jesus was referring to.
People close to you, betraying you.
You know, I'll tell you what brings that
about more than anything, that I have seen
it over the years in this place.
The 20 some years of this live-in
program.
It's the cross.
Because the cross moves in to a person's
heart and exposes the idol of their heart.
And when a person's idol has been exposed
by the Lord, they will either hate the
person who does the exposing, who brings the
message.
They will hate them and turn against them
and betray them and lie about them.
Or they will collapse in a heap of
true repentance and contrition.
That's why we see such powerful transformations at
Pure Life Ministries.
It's because we bring that message of the
cross to people.
And I'm not necessarily, really, I'm not so
much talking about you guys in the program
as much as I'm talking about these men
and women down here in the intern program
and who come on staff.
That's really where God goes after everything in
your heart.
And that's where we have been hurt the
most is by those who we have poured
ourselves into the most.
They're the ones who have hurt Kathy and
I and Jeff and Rose and the others.
Well, anyway, I'm getting off track here.
I want to get back on track because
I want to share some factual information with
you that you may not be aware of.
Now, listen, this isn't the way out stuff
that you find on conspiracy websites, OK?
What I'm going to share with you, I'm
going to get through this real quick because
I want you to understand where things are
going.
This is factual information.
Just three things real quick.
Number one, the Obama administration is quietly but
aggressively doing their utmost to bring the United
States under the auspices of the United Nations
International Court system.
Hillary Clinton is selling us out to the
world community right now.
And when that happens, we will lose our
rights as American citizens.
In other words, they can haul any one
of us before this international tribunal.
We won't have the rights as American citizens
that have protected us all these many years.
If you would have read Mein Kampf in
the 1930s, you could have predicted exactly what
was going to happen with Germany.
And I suspect the same thing would be
if you read It Takes a Village.
I've never read it, but I just am
pretty well sure of what that woman's heart
is.
She wants the United States to come down
and come into the world community.
That's what Hillary desires, and that's what the
Obama administration is working behind the scenes to
accomplish right now.
It is happening.
Number two, President Obama has just recently, January
of 2012, signed into law the National Defense
Authorization Act.
They call it the NDAA, which states that
any American citizen suspected of being involved in
terrorism, and please understand, they have purposely left
that term very loosely defined.
So anybody that stands outside of the norm,
if you will, of American life can be
lumped in with that.
For instance, like the Branch Davidians a few
years ago that Clinton and Janet Reno and
them torched and killed all those people.
You know, not to say anything positive about
the people, but that's the sort of thing
that I'm talking about.
This National Defense Authorization Act, it's just been
signed into law, and what it says is
that any American can be detained indefinitely without
trial or right of appeal.
That is now law.
The day is coming that Guantanamo is gonna
be filled with Christians, believe me.
We're heading in that direction.
I knew when George Bush started the whole
Department of Homeland Security and the things that
he started, you know, enhanced interrogation, all the
Christians were applauding that, and I know there
was part of me, I felt that way
too.
Yeah, go get the terrorists.
They had just attacked our country.
I felt that patriotic sense too, but there
was another side to me, and I remember
thinking it right after 9-11 when he
did all that.
I remember thinking one day, one day that's
gonna be us.
The third thing is the Department of Homeland
Security is quietly establishing numerous surveillance systems into
American life.
For instance, surveillance cameras are going up everywhere
by the thousands.
You don't even realize it probably.
There's 10,000 of them in Chicago alone,
and that's not including private ones.
10,000, they're about to expand it to
14,000 in just Chicago.
They estimate in London, it's in the hundreds
of thousands.
That's where we're headed.
Cell phones and computer activity, all the things,
your phone calls, who you're calling and so
on, all the websites that you go into,
all your emails, it's all being recorded.
Facial recognition systems are being implemented, and what
that means is they have a way now
through computerized things.
If they take a picture of you, they
can instantly, by the power of these massive
computer systems, they can go through probably a
million, 10 million, 100 million faces within minutes
probably, and connect your face with you were
at Walmart, you were here, just all that.
All that apparatus is right now in place.
New cars now are being equipped with GPS
systems, which will allow the government to monitor
your movements, to track your movements.
I don't think you can even buy a
new car without that in it.
Now, here's where it comes down to meaning
something, and I checked this out.
The FBI is compiling all of this into
a massive biometric database of American citizens.
They currently contain records on 100 million people
with plans for aggressive expansion, aggressive expansion.
They want every American citizen in that system,
and what they're doing is they're going, they're
working with police agencies, and they're trading information.
You give me your information, and I'll let
you have access into the system.
Well, there's a lot more than that, but
I think you're getting the point.
Let me just read what the ACLU, Mike's
favorite group, recently said.
We are fast approaching a genuine surveillance society
in the United States, a dark future where
our every move, our every transaction, our every
communication is recorded, compiled, and stored away, ready
to be examined and used against us by
the authorities whenever they want.
Now, that is in place.
I mean, this is what's happening right now
in our country, and it's all started with
9-11.
That opened a door, and this is where
we're going right now.
Now, I just want to make a couple
of quick predictions because these are just educated
guesses.
This isn't from the Lord or anything, but
my guess is just having studied a lot
of history, the way I see things could
happen would probably experience some kind of terrorist
attack in the United States, and when that
happens, that's going to allow the Department of
Homeland Security the excuse to greatly expand the
things they've been implementing.
Another possibility I see is some mentally disturbed
person who identifies himself as a Christian will
commit some horrendous act, and that will open
the door for some level of persecution against
Christianity.
It may just come in the form of
control over the church.
I don't know.
This is speculation, okay?
That's all I'm...
This is just speculation.
This could be 10 years from now or
just a couple of...
We're just a couple of 9-11s away
from this stuff being implemented.
We really are.
So I believe that true believers are going
to be increasingly marginalized outside of the formal
church.
You really saw it when the communists came
into power in China in the 40s, and
if you've ever read Watchman Nee's story, you
know how they persecuted him especially.
They came in and they established the Three
-Self Church.
In other words, a governmentally controlled church where
they could monitor what was being said and
preached and so on.
The Nazis did the same, and Bonhoeffer stood
against that, and I believe that's probably what
will happen in the United States.
And to be a true believer, you're going
to have to exist outside of all of
that.
So my question to you is this.
Are you emotionally and spiritually prepared to face
this?
You know, it's like what we've heard already.
It's going to be family members.
It's going to be people you're close to
who are going to turn on you, people
you would never dream could do it.
They're going to be the ones, not just
to betray you, that will be part of
it too, but to hate you, to hate
you, to hate what you stand for.
Are you prepared for that?
Listen, if you can't humble yourself to people
now, how are you going to handle persecution?
You're going to get in the same killing
spirit as they're in?
Is that your plan of action?
You're going to store up a bunch of
ammunition and some rifles?
When you have a disagreement with someone, can
you humble yourself and go to them and
make yourself vulnerable?
Do you know what it means to go
to someone in tears and say, I've been
wrong?
One of the senior members of the staff
did that with Kathy and me recently.
He just spoke out something a little out
of line and came to us two or
three days later in tears.
So broken once he saw it, once the
Lord showed him the spirit he was in.
Can you do that?
If you can't do that, how are you
going to handle this?
The kind of hatred and hostility that's coming
our way, how are you going to handle
it?
Verse 12 says it, don't worry in advance
about how to answer people.
The Lord will give you the right words.
And I can say from testimony, I've had
people get very hateful with me at times.
By nature, I am very reactive.
When I was in the LA County jails,
I was known as being a hothead.
You know, that's just who I am.
I'm not proud of that at all.
I was a poor cop because of it.
But I also know what it means to
have the Lord just come over me with
his spirit and in the face of hatred,
to have a sweet look on my face
and to be unruffled and to be able
to interact with a person without being hostile
in return and without being defensive and ugly
and all of that or just being so
completely overwhelmed and panic stricken that I can't
do anything.
You know, I know what it's like.
That's what the Lord will do for us.
You know, when you're in the flesh and
you're looking at these things, it's horrendous.
It's the last thing you wanna hear is
a message like this.
But I wanna tell you when you're in
the spirit, it's a whole different ball game.
You can experience things like that.
You can go through things like that.
Victoriously in the right spirit without being internally
devastated by it.
But you've got to know what it means
to humble yourself with people.
You have to understand what it means to
go under, to let them think they're right,
to let them curse your name and so
on like we've already heard.
Here's the key to the whole thing.
Verse 19, by standing firm, you will win
your souls.
In Matthew 24, Jesus said, those who endure
to the end will be saved.
It's saying the same thing.
This word endurance, standing firm, it's the same
word.
Hupo mone.
Hupo means under and mone means abide.
You know, in fact, Jesus used the word
abide, mone.
He said, if you will keep my commandments,
I think it's John 14, 23.
If you will keep my commandments, the Father
and I will come and abide in you.
That's mone.
Hupo is under.
And this basically means that when the pressure
becomes overwhelming, it's by learning the secret of
hupo mone, of enduring.
The word literally means happy endurance.
I don't understand it, but that's what you
look it up in the Strongs or whatever,
that's what you'll see.
It means to go through joyfully with a
joyful expectancy.
Revelation 13, 10 talks about, you know, that's
right in the middle of the Antichrist and
all his raging against Christians and controlling the
world and all that.
This verse talks about captivity, being killed by
the sword.
And here it says at the end of
it, here is the hupo mone and the
faith of the saints.
Here it is, it's going through that.
It's going through that.
And it says it again in the next
chapter, 14, 12.
Here is the hupo mone of the saints
who keep the commandments of God and their
faith in Jesus.
Are you prepared to do that?
If you will start just living your life,
these two simple things that I've tried to
lay out for you, to learn how to
deny yourself and to learn how to humble
yourself.
If you will make that a very real
part of your life, not just another little
thing, but if you will make that a
very real part of your life, you will
find that when things start falling apart around
you and going out from under you, that
you will have a power available to go
through that you weren't expecting.
If you will make that a very real
part of your life, you will find that
when things start falling apart around you