- Welcome to the audio podcast of The Father's House. We hope and pray you are both challenged and encouraged by this time in The Word. - And welcome back to our series in the Gospel of Mark. Are you ready for the word today? Is there any spiritual hunger in the room? All right, this is number three. You gotta help the preacher preach, right? Hey, if you missed last week, newest pastor on staff, John Lorenzo brought a word. It was amazing if you missed it, go online. He talked about being this close to the kingdom. Well, today we find ourselves in chapter 13, invite you to take some notes, lean in, and all the commentators, scholars, theologians, agree that chapter 13 of Mark is one of the most difficult chapters to interpret and apply, and here's why. Jesus has his disciples sitting around his feet on the Mount of Olives, and this is the final week of his life. It'd just be a couple more days. He'd go to that Passover Supper, and then be tried in a mock court and be crucified. And so he's talking to his disciples, and he begins to prophesy over them, how they'll be brought before leaders and persecuted and they'll give up their lives, and the destruction of the temple that was Herod's temple on the temple mount as Jesus was teaching, and we know that that temple was destroyed in 70 AD as the Roman armies came in and demolished the temple. But as Jesus is teaching, he's also prophesying about his second coming, all at the same time, so the way that we interpret and apply chapter 13 is very important. Now, the theme of this chapter is the second coming of Christ. And so today, because we just don't skip over chapters here at the Father's house, right? We wanna preach the full counsel of the word of God. I wanna talk to you about a very daunting topic that is actually mocked by fools, the Bible calls them fools that say he will not return. It's hard for us to wrap our finite minds around all that's coming upon the planet, I believe in your lifetime, and I'll explain why in just a few minutes. But Jesus clearly promised that he would return for his church. And so I believe we should lean in if we are in fact Christ's followers. And you know this, that if these words are not true, then nothing that Jesus said is true. But he clearly prophesied that he would come again and receive us unto himself. That's what this chapter is about. So I'm gonna read a few key verses and I'm gonna ask for some audience participation. There'll be some bold and underlined lines which will point out the theme of our time together in the word today. And so I'd like you to read those out with some passion when we get there. Are you up for it? All right, Mark 13, verse 26. At that time, people will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. And since you don't know when that time will come, be on guard, stay alert. One more time with passion. Be on guard. - Stay alert. - The coming of the Son of Man could be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. When he left home, he gave each of his servants instructions about the work they were to do. And he told the gatekeeper to watch for his. You two must. For you don't know when the master of the household will return in the evening, midnight, dawn, daybreak. Here we go. Don't let him find you sleeping. When he arrives without warning, I say to you what I say to everyone, watch for him. Today, the topic I wanna talk to you about is stay awake. Stay awake. Not stay woke. That's a different sermon for a different series. And we'll get there. But God clearly commands us. Listen, throughout scripture, to stay alert, be on guard. Stay awake. And Jesus, as he was teaching this final week, he was every day in the temple. And then he would go back, he was staying in Bethany and he'd walk down through that valley from Gethsemane over to the Golden Gate. And he would begin to teach. And in this teaching, he gets very clear about the end times and talks about his return. Now, there's a word for that, all end time study. And it's called eschatology. Would you say that with me? Eschatology. Most of you know that word. Let me give you a good working definition on the screen. It's the study of end times, the return of Christ, the great tribulation, the judgment of the nations and the great white throne judgment where the final and eternal destinies of all humanity will be determined. Ooh, it's a big topic, isn't it? Now, we had some people in an earlier service, a lady came up and she said, "I finally got my neighbors to come for the first time "and you talked about the tribulation." Yay, right? It's the end of the world, as we know. If you don't know that song, do your homework. So yes, but if you're, thank you. If you're brand new to the house or if you've been a veteran Christian for 40 or 50 years, I believe today is gonna speak to you. And hopefully we're gonna wake up. We're gonna come alive today by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen? So when I was a young believer, I was raised in church, by the way, and I wasn't really paying attention 'cause after I came to Christ, fully surrendered to 22, I realized how little I knew about the word. But I do remember these sermons that the preachers would preach and it's this, one day you're gonna hear a trumpet blast and the heavens are gonna roll back and Jesus is coming on a white horse. Tattoo on his thigh. Eyes of fire. And all nations will see him. And every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for what we've done with this life. And I remember his young kid going, that's terrifying. Probably 'cause I wasn't ready for that big day. So fast forward, I give my life to Christ. Some of you know my story, we go on the road of the Christian music band back in the early '80s, mid '80s. And I had this passion, almost an obsession, about in-time stuff and things like the tribulation, right? And the mark of the beast and Antichrist and the vials of wrath that will be poured out as you read in the book of Revelation. And we were traveling. So I was with a pastor at different church, at least every week, sometimes two churches a week. And so I would always ask him, pastor, what's your view on the tribulation? Are we pre, mid, post, I'll explain that in a moment. And I started gathering up commentaries. And here's what I realized. Every pastor I interviewed had a different view of the way in-time events would play out. There's three different views regarding the tribulation. The tribulation is a seven year span of time, according to the book of Revelation of 2 Thessalonians, where the justified wrath of God will be poured out upon the wicked that reject him. It's pretty ominous stuff. But there's three general views of when the church will be taken out of that. There's pre-trib, mid-trib, and post-trib. So one view is, before the tribulation happens, right at the beginning of it, the church gets caught away. We get raptured, we're with the Lord, as all hell breaks loose on this planet. Not that well, if they're taking up a bus early on, I wanna tick it on that right, how about you? Okay, I wanna be pre-trib. But then there's a very strong argument about mid-trib with verses to support it. And you'll find in the commentaries and all the theological explanations of eschatology. And then there's a post-trib theology that's pretty strong as well. So I was getting so confused, and this is when I established myself as a certified pan-tribulationist. How do you know what that is? It's all gonna pan out. I'm a pan-tribulationist. You're welcome to join my team. And that's not a glib statement because it's an argument that no one's gonna nail down, okay? There's mystery involved. But here's what I understand. I'm determined and have been, since just a young believer, I wanna live my life as if Jesus could come back this afternoon. Here's some wisdom for you. Live your life as if Jesus is coming back today, but plan and work as if he won't be back in your lifetime. And so as we're dealing with this, it's actually says there's a blessing for leaning in and studying the scriptures. Now I know the book of Revelation, if you try to read it, first two or three chapters, letters to the church, you get it, you're cruising along, and all of a sudden the dragon and the beast and the horns and the vials, you're like, ooh, it's a sci-fi movie that's never been filmed, okay? And it's deep water, but I found this Revelation 1, 3. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written because why the time is near? So the theme that Jesus is bringing in this prophetic moment on the Mount of Olives is stay awake. And as we said before, he's not just talking to the disciples in the sound of his voice. He's talking to all generations, especially this generation that you live in. So let's back up to verse one. Jesus was leading the temple that day and one of his disciples said, teacher, look at these magnificent buildings. Look at the impressive stones in the walls. Do you see all these buildings, replied Jesus? Not one stone here will be left on another. Everything will be completely demolished. A timeout, that was a mind-boggling statement by Christ. This would be the third temple to be rebuilt or rebuilt over a thousand years span. And Herod's temple at this point was over 40 years into a construction program. And it was one of the great wonders of the world. In fact, the historian Josephus, first century historian wrote this. The temple gates and doors were covered with gold. And at the rising of the sun, the great city reflected a fiery splendor that no man could look upon. From a distance, it appeared as a mountain of snow as the stones that were not covered with gold were exceedingly white. The stones used to build a temple were as large as 12 feet high, 18 feet wide, and 40 feet long, one stone. And just my thought was how did they set these things in place without cranes, right? But modern technology is exactly what it is, but genius is ancient. Consider the pyramids in Egypt. And so they have this visual of the temple itself being torn down to where not one stone is left upon another. And from some trips to Israel, I just wanna give you for a moment a little visual so you can get the scope of this. Oh, that's Pastor Miles right there, preaching on the steps where Jesus taught at the Zion Gate. Some friends that went with us on a network trip a year ago. And then this, I just want you to take in the scope of what he's talking about. This is the reconstructed temple wall here. This is a look at some of these stones, 40 feet long, 12 feet high. And right here, there's a tunnel. If you're facing the wailing wall, take a left, there's a tunnel that you can go down and these are believed to be. And they are original stones from the wall BC. And that's one of our small group leaders, Bob Elm. So Jesus is saying this magnificent temple that's a wonder of the world, it's gonna be brought to the ground. And he was prophesying about their future. They would see this in 70 AD. Look at verse three. Later, Jesus said on the Mount of All across from the temple, Peter, James and John and Andrew came to him privately and ask him, tell us when this is gonna happen. What sign will show us that these things are about to be fulfilled? Jesus replied, don't let anyone mislead you from any will come in my name, claiming I'm the Messiah. They will deceive many and you will hear of wars and threats of wars. But don't panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won't follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in many parts of the world as well as famines, but this is only, look at this, the beginning of birth pains with more to come. The beginning of birth pains. Now, remember, in order to interpret this chapter correctly, there's a way, there's a manner in which prophetic books apply. So whether it's Zechariah or Isaiah or Amos or Daniel, if you ever read the book of Daniel, they were speaking to their contemporary audience, well, at the same time, prophesying forward to the New Testament church, i.e., Amos, chapter nine, and then prophesying to the end of the age. So if you don't understand that in reading through Mark 13, you can get very baffled and confused. But if you were to ask me, Dave, where are we out in the timeline of history and the imminent return of Jesus Christ? Here's my opinion, I'll submit it to you. I believe we're in the beginning of birth pains. Now, with what I've seen on the planet, I've been on the planet now for several decades. Just the last decade, we've seen an escalation of wars and earthquakes and the disintegration of morality as we've known it in decades past in our nation. And evil is abounding everywhere. So I would submit that we are in the beginning of birth pains. Now, all the moms in the room understand this about birth pains. Once they start, there's more frequency and more intensity. Frequency and intensity. And if you'll just consider the last decade of your life, throw in a pandemic and a few major world wars and armies surrounding Jerusalem as we sit here in church, you would have to agree that wow, there are some birth pains happening in the planet. And I'm not preaching this today to be a gloom and doom message. We're gonna get intense for a little bit, but then I'll pull the nose up right at the end and let some air in the room, it'll be wonderful. (audience laughing) But I don't want you slipping into a spiritual coma, thinking that all the trauma in our earth is just a season. We're gonna go back to 1955 with Mayberry, and drive a nice 55 Chevy's. The era that you lived in in 2015 in every way is long gone. We've turned a corner, but don't be like in a panic, like oh, Dave, you mean there's gonna be more wars? Yes, more earthquakes, yes. Global warming, yes. All the climate stuff Jesus prophesied about it. But what is our stance and view as believers? Jesus said in Luke, when you see all these things, look up, 'cause your redemption is drawing now. Come on church, you're not from around here. And today, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I wanna get you just to look up a little bit and quick look into your right and your left, realizing the Son of God is coming back for his church, and I want you to be ready. We're in that season. Now, Jesus said that many things will happen during this final season here on the planet, and I wanna point out just a few of them. He said, "Many will come in my name." There's been a lot of false Christ and Messiahs. They were here back as soon as Jesus left the planet, but it has escalated significantly in your lifetime. I'll read just a couple of them. The Reverend son, young Moon, claimed to be the second coming of Christ. He said he came to complete the mission, the first Christ that is Jesus, failed to complete. By the way, Moon died in 2012, and his movement is obsolete. Jose Luis de Jesus of Miami claimed to be the return Jesus Christ and the Antichrist. Well, there's a job description. All rolled into one, had 666 tattooed across his arm, and he died in 2013 and never resurrected. Yeah. David Ikey, who great Britain, someone wanted to laugh. It's okay. David Ikey, great Britain, claims to be the Son of God and the channel for the Christ spirit. He's still alive and seeking more followers, but I would not recommend you joining his team. Another thing that's been happening in your lifetime is the escalation of earthquakes in various places. Here's just a quick chart from the Smithsonian Institute, measuring only 5.0 on the Richter scale, in the magnitude of greater. So, more earthquakes in the past 25 years since the seismograph was invented in the late 1800s, and yes, they are still using the same science, just a little better technology. Well, how about this, the escalation of wars? History records that the 20th century had more wars than any other century in recorded history with a far higher percentage of fatalities, even while factoring in the population increase. More than 187 million people died in the wars of the last century, and the nations are now on a rapid pace to far exceed all previous numbers. So the signs are all around us. We just need to wake up and say, wow, where are we at? Where are we living? What's going on in our world? I think one of the most alarming signs that Jesus spoke of, and so you got Matthew listening to this conversation. You got Luke listening to this conversation and Mark, and Matthew writes this in Matthew 24. He writes the words of Christ. "Many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. "Many false prophets will appear "and will deceive many people. "Sin will be rampant." I think we can check the box on that one. "And the love of many will grow cold." Now, he's talking about Christ followers. Their love that King James says it will wax cold. It means a consistent diminishing of temperature. You know, when Jesus sent the letters out to the churches, the seven churches, read the book of Revelation, and he had some great things to say. You know, hey, you've done this. You're taking care of false doctrine. You've been faithful with what you've been to trust and he has compliments. But he says, I've got one thing against you. You've fallen out of love. Your love has grown cold. And I've seen this, even since 2020, the last four years, people getting angry with church and hating brothers and sisters in Christ and walking away from God and people who you thought were strong and established, their love growing cold. Jesus said this would be a sign. Now, in verse 28, he says, I want you to learn a lesson from the fig tree when its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout. You know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things taking place, these things are the beginning or the evidence of birth pains. You can know that his return is very near right at the door. I tell you the truth. This generation will not pass from the scene before all these things take place. So that is a scriptural conundrum for many people that have tried to apply and interpret this portion of scripture. Jesus says, heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear. I love that. Heaven and earth, this earth is gonna melt with a fervent heat. There's a new heaven and a new earth coming. But Jesus said, my words will never fade away. But he makes this statement. He's talking to his disciples. And he says, this generation will not pass away before all these things come to pass. Who was he talking to? Obviously, that line was not for his disciples because all but one died within 40 years, a martyr's death. And then they all passed away. Some have interpreted that verse as he's talking about the fig tree, the buds, which is in an accurate description, prophetic description of Israel. So Israel became a nation in 1948. And in 1948, the fig tree budded. And so the prophets and the scholars said, wow, the terminal generation is now in play. So a lot of people thought between 1948, and by the way, the common understanding biblically of generation is a span of 40 years. Some say 70, 40 is the common knowledge. So let's use the 40 years. So that would be late 80s. So something happened for you Christians who were around in the 70s. I don't know if anybody was there. And here's what was going on. There was all these movies and books about the late great planet Earth, and the catching away, and very scary movies about the rapture, and everybody was pretty hyped at, wow, we're winding this thing up. In fact, in the mid 80s, there was a book that came out, and here's the title. 88 reasons why Jesus will come in 88. Does anybody remember that, but me? OK. Pastor Mark, we got three or four of us. And it was kind of a top seller until 89. [LAUGHTER] Go figure. So even if you calculate 70 years as a generation, 2018 has passed. So it wasn't the disciples. He wasn't talking about the nation of Israel. So who is he talking to in this line, the generation that shall not pass away? Let me submit this. It's the generation that sees the beginning of the birth pains. That generation shall not pass away until all these things come to pass. I know this is a sobering word today, but let me submit this. My prophetic opinion is this. You are that generation. We are in the beginning of birth pains. And I could live, god willing, long enough to see the return of Christ. But if not, I do believe this is the generation. Now, I'm not naming dates and times and places. Don't quote me on that. I could be wrong. But if I'm wrong, I'll be in heaven dancing around when you're like, Dave was wrong. I don't care. [LAUGHTER] I'm just saying, read the signs. Look at what's happening around the nation of Israel. As we sit here in church, prophecies are being fulfilled. And the American church is not talking about you. Probably I'm talking about the last service. We're just in this spiritual malaise. We kind of stumble around. We're hoping the gas prices go down. Hope we get the raise at work. We're planning our vacation. All those things are great unless they've subtracted your vision of what's happening on an eternal scale. And God said, I need my church to wake up, wake up, come to life. And in the genius of God, just revisit this first verse. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen. Not even the angels in heaven or the son himself. Isn't that fascinating? Jesus, the omnipotent, everlasting to everlasting creator. The Father kept a secret from him. Why? So that every generation would live with an expectation. We would live knowing that Christ could come. I believe this is healthy and it's sound theology for you to live your life. And you're not waiting for a new temple to be rebuilt in Israel. You're not waiting for Antichrist to show up. Then someone put 666 on their forehead. You're not waiting for the market to beast on your hand before you make a decision. I'm just here sharing my heart with you. As a Father and the Lord, I'm encouraging you to develop and lean into a theology that says Jesus could come back for his church today. Am I ready? That's what we're saying. Stay awake, stay alert. Now, go down to this verse, guys. It says, yeah, right here, I don't know what verse it is, but you know that when the master of the house will return, you don't know if it's evening midnight before dawn or at daybreak. Don't let him find you sleeping. So the ancient Roman or Jewish guards that watch the city to keep enemies from attacking, they did it on four or three hour watches of the night. One would be from nine to midnight, the evening watch. Then the midnight watch, midnight to three, then the dawn watch from three to six AM and then the morning watch from six to nine. And the analogy is clear. Here's what Jesus is saying. Those watching before the dawn, when it's darkest, were most likely to fall asleep. Now, scientists and those who study sleep patterns will say this, you get your greatest sleep, your most deepest rim sleep around three AM. Hopefully, unless you wake up screaming about your past and crying out for mercy, I do that occasionally, but not you, you're fine. What he's saying is this, when things are getting dark on the planet, when it's darkest before the dawn, that's when people will fall into a spiritual malaise and slumber, but I want you to stay alert. I want you to keep watch so that you can understand the signs of the times. Now, how do we fall into spiritual slumber? And I'm gonna give you a couple of these. And if you feel like you're in it, like as I'm preaching, you're like, yeah, I think that's all my life. Just a kind of a malaise, a disinterest. I'm a casual church attender. If you reverse engineer these three points, you can come alive in Christ. The first was this, when our life is overly focused on the temporal to the neglect of the eternal, we fall into spiritual slumber. You know, there's a sex of Jesuit priests that they actually teach their proteges and their students in the monasteries to spend their morning devotions considering the last day of their life. Like when you get up in the morning, one of the first things you do is consider your funeral, your epitaph. Now that sounds a bit morbid to me every day, thinking about the day I die. But here's the wisdom. If you live with the focus of the brevity of your life and you get it clear in your spirit, it'll make you live different. It'll make you give different. Make you love your spouse and your kids differently when you live with a focus on the eternal instead of the temporal. Here's what it says in Psalm 39. David said, "Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. "Remind me that my days are numbered. "How fleeting my life is." Psalm 90, which is the Psalm of Moses, teaches to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. So wisdom understands the brevity of life. And like when you're young, I mean, we've got folks here in their teens and early 20s. You know, as my early 20s, even early 30s, I felt bulletproof and like I'd lived forever. And I remember just being a young kid in my 20s. I was looking at someone who was turning 40 and I just thought, "Wow, it's almost over for them. "I hope you had a good run." And when you're in your 20s, you know, you look at somebody that's 60, you're like, "Wow, they're really close to heaven." But the older you get, the more decades you spend on the planet, here's what you realize, life is short, eternity is real, people matter most. You begin to have a perspective of the brevity of life, but you can have that if you're 18 today. You can have that if you're 28. And here's how you get it. By meditating on the end, play the movie forward, then rewind it. I would challenge you to do that. Take a tip from the monks and get up every morning and say, "What kind of inheritance will I leave "for my grandkids? "What legacy will I leave? "Who will I affect for eternity? "How am I spending this brief life "that the Bible calls a vapor of smoke that disappears? "Or a flower that grows up in the morning "and the sun hits it and it wilts and fades away? "Yes, depressing images, "but he's trying to get us to see "how brief this span of life is. "So focus on eternity. "To quote a country singer, "you gotta live like you were dying." Is that Tim McGraw? Oh yeah, we got a country first. I knew, I knew you were here. Thank you for backing me up. Live like you were dying. Just don't worry about going skydiving. Anyway, let's move on. Number two, when intimacy with Jesus is replaced with religious form, we fall in the spiritual slumber. For times sake, you can read Revelation in the first few chapters. Number three, how do we fall in the spiritual slumber? When we fail to feed our hunger for the word, we doze off in the spirit. Listen, listen, when you came to Christ, or if you're coming to Christ today, the Holy Spirit's gonna give you a gift. You're gonna have a hunger for his word. You're gonna wanna hear preaching and teaching and open up your Bible. This is what Peter said about it in 1 Peter 2. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk. So the bite, you may grow up in your salvation now that you've tasted that the Lord is good. Here's the thing about babies, you don't have to convince a baby to crave the milk. They're going after mama, they're going after the milk. Why? Because they're hardwired to do so. But here's a problem every parent has seen. As your kid gets a little bit older and you're trying to get 'em to eat those vegetables so they can be healthy, or that meat, if you're a carnivore. That's all good. But what do they do? They'll opt out for a snow cone or an ice cream cone right before dinner, right? Are your parents know this? But you don't feed 'em to junk food, why? Because you want 'em to have an appetite for the right thing. Now if your grandparents just go ahead and give 'em the ice cream cone, that's what we do. We get a haul pass on that. But here's the point I wanna make. You gotta feed your soul with something. Your soul is hungry to be fed. Are you feeding your soul the word of God? Because if you're scrolling instead of studying, you're probably falling asleep a little bit. If you're searching Netflix, instead of searching the scriptures, if you're medicating instead of meditating, come on somebody. You might just be falling asleep a little bit. But there's something that happens when you go into the word and you spend time in the word. Your spirit man begins to come alive. You start to wake up in the spirit, spend time with Jesus. Let me just appeal to those of you that have been Christians a long time. 'Cause you probably went through a season where you didn't feel the love. You didn't feel the passion. Felt like you're snoring a little bit in the spirit. But if you'll make a commitment to simply spend time with Jesus, focus on eternity. Think about when you'll stand before him and give an account and then dig into his word and you will come to life in Jesus' name. Now the reason that this is so important to stay awake is there are things that happen in your life when you slip into spiritual slumber. The problem is you usually don't see it till it's too late. Now slumber feels great. Little sleep, little slumber. In fact, my wife's a researcher, she came recently, said, "Dave, you know that naps are good for you." I'm like, "Oh, really?" Yeah, yeah, they're saying now the doctors. You should take a power nap in the afternoon, midday, 20, 30 minutes, and the older I get, the easier it is to obey that brilliant wisdom. (congregation laughing) Like I'm watching the news, I'm three minutes in, I'm off from my power nap, you know? It's very comfortable. But it's not good for your spirit life to be napping while we're to be watching and looking out. Because here's what happens. Number one, while we are spiritually asleep, we are overtaken by temptation. Temptation is subtle. It slips up on you. If you're awake, you see it and you resist it. But Jesus said in Matthew 2641, he told his disciples in the garden, he said, "I want you to what? "Watch and pray so that you will what? "Not enter into temptation." He comes back after his first round of prayer, they're snoring, and sure enough, they were overtaken by that temptation, they all denied him within hours. Number two, what happens while we're spiritually asleep? Spiritual thieves are given access to our lives. You can read Matthew 24, but Jesus said this, "If you knew when the thief was coming, "you'd have stayed up and kept watch." You know, over the years, I've dealt with a lot of couples that have gone through divorces and affairs and all that. Here's what I've noticed. If the spouse that neglected the marriage would have saw it coming, they would have had a different game plan. I've talked to people who've lost their business and bankrupt see, and if they would have saw what was coming, they would have stayed up and paid attention. What area of your life do you have a tendency to fall into sleep because while you're doing it, the enemy, the thief, comes in those seasons? And the last one, what happens while we're spiritually asleep? Weeds are planted in the spiritual soil of our hearts. Look at these words of Jesus, Matthew 13. The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field, but that night, as the worker slept, his enemy came and planted weeds. Among the wheat and then he slipped away. So Jesus went on to say in another parable that when these weeds grow up, they choke out the word of God. Now, I'm trying to help you here because some of you might be in that malaise today, that spiritual slumber, that fogginess of mind. You're not paying attention, but the enemy doesn't take vacations. We have an adversary and he's diligent studying humanity and he plants weeds when the people of God are taking naps. And you wake up and you're like, how did this addiction grow into a full blown tree? How did this weed of marriage problems turn into divorce papers? How did my son and daughter, they forgot to take to church for five years when they were in their teens? Now they're atheists. Lean in, listen to me, weeds grow into large trees that will take out your family, your finances, your kids. But Jesus said, if you live with an alertness and stay on watch, you're gonna recognize when the enemy comes in. (congregation applauding) Listen, when you're saved, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life and we could argue eternal security versus apostasy on another day. But here's what I wanna say. The enemy never stops attempting to bring some seeds and some weeds into the garden of your life. What you are a part of is not an organization. This is an organism and your spiritual journey has the attributes of tending a garden. That's why it says in Proverbs, to guard your heart because out of your heart flows the channels and the issues and the direction of your life. And if I neglect my heart, things begin to sneak in, those seeds and weeds. And I'm like, yeah God hasn't been as faithful. And well, a little bit of this is not gonna hurt and I need some, I begin to allow and justify the entrance of weeds and seeds into the garden of my heart. And neglected while sleeping, they grow up and become an adversary that's really hard to overcome. God says to my church, to my church, listen, I'm coming quickly and I want you to stay alert. I want you to stay awake. I'm gonna read a couple more verses and then we're gonna pray together. First Peter 5a, let the word of the Lord just saturate your mind right here. Stay alert, watch out for your great enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. First Thessalonians 5, but you aren't in the dark about these things to your brothers and sisters. And you won't be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief for your children of the light and of the day, we don't belong to darkness at night. So be on guard, not asleep like others, stay awake, be clear headed, one more Romans 13. This is all the more urgent for you know how late it is. Time is running out, wake up. Here's the spirit today, wake up, wake up for our salvation is near now than when we first believed. So here's what we're gonna do today. In just a moment, I'm gonna lead us in a prayer. Campus pastors are gonna lead their communities in a prayer. And then as an altar response, just encourage you to stick around for a couple of minutes. We're gonna pray out our prayer today. We're gonna ask God to wake us up. And you know, as we sing this song, it'll have a prophetic nature to it. I want you to think about something. You're not just singing over your heart. You're singing over your family. You're singing over kids, grandkids. You're singing over your city. We're singing over our state. We're standing as intercessors going. God wake up our nation in these days. Let me just check how many of you in the room you have kids that are still in the house. Lift your hand, kids still in the house. Today, sing over your children. God wake them up. Grandparents, how many of you got grandkids that need Jesus? Wave at me. How many of you got a neighbor that you know is far from God, they're in spiritual slumber. Wave at me. You know, you can sing over them today. Say God wake us up. Wake us up. Wake up your church. What if, what if, what if before we sing? What if every one of us in this meeting and all the services at all locations were vibrantly alive in Christ, passionately in love with Jesus, focused on eternity and saturating our minds in the word. What could a church do that was fully alive? I want to be a part of that church. How about you? Other locations are going to go into a ministry time. In this room, would you bow your heads for just a moment? Let's honor the Holy Spirit in this room. Keep movement to a minimum. If you've come to this 1145 service today and you say, Pastor Dave, I'm in the house. I'm here and you preach about this second coming, but I got to tell you today, I'm not ready for it. I would have to say I'm far from God and I need Jesus to forgive me. I want to be ready when I see Him face to face and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is calling. You're saying, son, today's your day. Daughter, today's your day. Heads bowed, believers praying, if that's you, I want to give you a moment to respond to this invitation. And if today you're ready to say, I'm coming home and making Jesus Lord of my life right now, just look up at me and lift your hand, wave at me if you don't mind right now, right here on God bless you. Anybody else just going to cruise the room right here, here, here, God bless you guys. Front row people love it up here in the risers. Cross the middle, thanks for waving. If you're up high, just wave at me here, here, here, over here, and here, thanks for waving. I like the zeal. Anybody else, today's your day, you're coming home. You want to be included in this prayer today and know that on that Sunday in August 2024, you fully surrender to Christ. Before we sing out over our families and our state, I'm going to lead us in a prayer that will be the entry point to a life of discipleship, a life of following Jesus. The Bible says Romans 10, 9, and 10, when you believe and confess, something supernatural takes place. Say everybody in the room, join me along with these that are making a step of faith. Say, dear Lord Jesus, today's my day, and I'm coming home. I thank you for the invitation, and I say yes. Be Lord of my life, forgive my sins, and by your grace, I will be your disciple. I will follow you all the days of my life till I see you face to face. In Jesus' name, amen. Come on, let's give the Lord some praise and thank Him. - For more information on our church, log on to our website at TFH.org or check out the TFH app. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
