How to Endure the End Time

A woman might say, I despise pregnancy. I do not like morning sickness. I don't like weeks of being nauseated, throwing up, unable to hold down food. I don't like my body getting stretched out of shape over time. Little kicks and jabs that keep you awake, uncomfortable, carrying a lot of weight in water that is disturbing. I don't like these little feet that punch you in the middle of the night and wake you up. I really don't like Braxton Hicks contractions or any contractions. I don't like the pain of going through the pre-birth process and going to the hospital only to be told, no, those are false contractions. I don't like false contractions. I don't like true contractions. And then pushing this baby out is just over the top. I don't like pregnancy, but I love babies. I absolutely have adored babies since I was a little girl and had a doll, and I can't wait to have a baby. Similarly, I despise the trials of the end time. I despise everything about the difficulties, about the persecutions, about the whole world as it goes down into depravity and everything is awful. Jesus despised the end times. I despise everything about the end times, but I really look forward to being born again and living in the family of God as the bride of Christ. I really look forward to that. Since I was baptized, or before, just as Jesus Christ looked forward to that, and even prayed in John 17 for God to give him that life, that eternal life, that glory that he had.

What do these two have in common? What is the parallel between pre-birth as a human and the difficulties that both the mother and the baby whose head gets squeezed and squished and turned around and pushed out? What are some of those parallels between that and a spiritual birth that we will ultimately have in the first resurrection? The Bible warns us about the end time, the time of the end, his forecast or prophesied throughout Scripture from the Old Testament to the New Testament. It's a time of great difficulty that there'll never be a time before or after with that type of difficulty.

Two thousand years, two thousand five hundred years. Before that, end time happens. The Bible is telling us about that. Let's get some background to the meaning of the time of the end. You've probably heard of the time of the end, the end times, the end time, coming to the end time. Are we in the end time? It's something we don't want. I think all of us would say, push that on back.

Let some other generation, not my kids, not my grandkids, not my great kids. Let somebody else go through that, because, you know, that's not a pleasant time. What is this time of the end? But more importantly, what is the end? You know, the time of the end, the end time, but what's the end? The end actually is a period of time that you and I need to focus on, that you and I need to rivet our eyes on as something that is great, that you and I want. And we've got to get through the time of the end, like a woman has to get through the time of the pregnancy until the pregnancy ends.

And there's a baby! There's a baby to love and to cherish and to feed and to hold and to clothe and to dress and have an interaction with. Likewise, there is an end that is coming, and we need to look forward to that end and keep our eyes focused on that end so that the time leading up to that end is something we will get through, we'll endure, and we'll be faithful throughout that time of the end.

So Jesus Christ Himself, as God in the Old Testament, begins to tell us about the time of the end that precedes the end 2,500 years ago. He's been talking about it ever since. 2,500 years ago. We find it in Daniel, chapter 8 and verse 17 in one place. We go to Daniel, chapter 8 and verse 17. He begins to tell one of our brothers, named Daniel, breaking into the second sentence of this verse, Daniel, late 17, understand Son of man.

God, Jesus Christ wants you to understand. You know, babies don't get delivered by storks. God wants you to understand. Being born again doesn't happen, you know, in your sleep. Understand, Son of man, the vision that refers to the time of the end, that period that will come before the end. In verse 19, He says, look, I'm making known to you. See, this is something Jesus Christ and God the Father want you to know, to be aware of, making it known to you.

The rest of the world will never get it, never see it, don't believe it. You know, we evolved to our own God, etc. We'll fix all of this. We're the one world government and more money. But you understand, Son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end.

Verse 19, I'm making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation. So this time of the end is the time of God's indignation for the sins that humanity just piles up like never before. They just grow incredible, incredibly. So there's this time of the indignation is the time of the end. For at the appointed time, notice this, the appointed time by God, which no man knows, not even the angels, only God the Father, at the appointed time, notice, drum roll, the end shall come. Okay? There's the focus.

The focus is the end. Don't make it about the end time. Don't say, oh, I'm a girl. I'm a baby girl. I'm a little girl. Oh, I'm going to focus on pregnancy. Oh, let's just, you know, let's get, I don't know, little things that remind me of the trials of pregnancy.

That doesn't happen. It's not what the Bible is about. That's not what your Christ the Bible is about. That's not what your calling is about. The appointed time, the end, is what we want to focus on. That's where we want to arrive.

Arrive. Faithful, calling, called, chosen, and perfect, you know? Called, chosen, and faithful, having endured everything to the end. Now, when we think of this term, the time of the end or the end times, God gives us no specifics whatsoever. Don't think you can figure it all out. Don't think it's up to you to have to somehow figure out what's going to come, how to prepare for it, how to navigate it, how to survive it. Oh, I just feel overwhelmed. That's none of your business. None of your business. You have a different business that we need to be about. This whole time of the end, remember, is the indignation of God, as we'll see.

So God is just going to give you some hints, because you don't need to know the details. They're not about you. They're about somebody else. He's going to provide us, then, with some generalities. No dates, no identities, no persons, no name countries. Even the events are not described in any detail that you and I can make heads or tails of. Grasshoppers and locusts, and you know, things. Let's go, for instance, to Daniel 11, verse 40. Daniel 11, verse 40. At the time of the end, the time of the end, one of the events that takes place is, the king of the south shall attack him. Who is the king of the south? Well, he doesn't say, shall attack him. Who is him? Well, probably those being discussed previously that are not named. And the king of the north shall come against him. Who is the king of the north? Doesn't say. How will he come against him? Like a whirlwind. What does that mean? Well, I don't know. And with many ships and horsemen and many ships, and he will enter the countries, which ones, overwhelm them and pass through. There you go. That's the kind of thing that God gives us. So, as prophetic events draw near, we'll have some indication of what God is going to be doing and what humanity is out there doing in the world. We're not part of the world. We're not part of society. We came out of that. We have our own heavenly country that we're citizens of. We have our own leader, Jesus Christ. We have our own God. We have our own rule book. We have our own work that we are doing individually and collectively. So, as these things appear, we will have forewarning that things are going to happen, but we won't know who, where, how, exactly what, and that really is irrelevant to you and me. But we're giving a heads up so that those things won't rattle us. They won't catch us by surprise. Everybody else is going to get caught by surprise, not us. Do you think you know when the time of the end is? Everybody's been having that question for 2,500 years. They always thought they figured it out. Daniel was pretty excited. In chapter 12 here in verse 8, Daniel says, although I heard, I heard all this description, what's going to happen? I did not understand. So, he asked the question that you and I, the apostles, everybody's been asking, my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? That's 2,500 years ago. Daniel says, my Lord, when are these things going to happen? And he's told, just wait, go to sleep, let the people in the end time know. We fast forward from 540 BC when he asked that question, to 30 AD, we pick up, the disciples came to Jesus privately saying, tell us, when will these things be? They wanted to know. That was nearly 2,000 years ago. You go 30 years beyond that in 60 AD, Paul in Romans 13-11 says, now brethren, knowing the time that now is high time to a word, high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. That was nearly 2,000 years ago, and he was anticipating the end time.

Most of my life, I've been in the church, I grew up in headquarters in Pasadena. We were always on the gun lab. Everything was going to happen any time now. Here's what was always said. Time I was born, five to ten years Christ will be here. Five to ten years through the 50s, through the 60s, through the 70s, five to ten years, the 80s. I was never supposed to graduate high school, never supposed to marry, never supposed to have a family, never supposed to have a job, etc., etc. I've got eight grandkids and one great grandkid on the way, and I'm still wondering when's the end time going to be here? So if you think you've got it, well, good luck.

In the New Testament, Jesus referred to the time as the end of the age, the end of an age.

When we get the definition of what the elements of the sower and the soil or the parable of the sower and the seed, sometimes it's called. We come to Matthew 13 in verse 39. Matthew 13, 39. Here, Jesus is going to describe some of this setup for the time of the end.

He says, the enemy who sowed these these tares, he is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age. Ah, big clue. The end of the age is what the end is. The end of the age. What age? The age of Satan's rule. And the harvest. The harvest takes place at the end of the age. In verse 40, therefore as tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. This age is going to have a lot of tares. It's going to have a lot of sin, a lot of sinners. There's going to be a lot of destruction in those individuals at the end of this age. Whenever wars break out, it's pretty certain that the end is near. I remember breathlessly as a kid sitting up during the the Cuban Missile Crisis, you know, and Russia and the US are about to launch nuclear weapons at each other, and we're all thinking the end is here. What was that? 1960? 61? Somewhere in there? That's pretty tense stuff. Back it up to 1958. I was pretty sure the end was was was near when the Ambassador College students and our family lived on campus there. We're out on the lawn at night and we saw Sputnik go over. Ooh! You could see it kind of rolling in the sunlight, almost like it was flashing at times, and it disappeared. That was the same thing. We knew the end was almost here because, I don't know, there was that thing called Sputnik that the Russians had up there. And, ooh, I was all seven years old, and I knew the end was near.

But Jesus said in Matthew 24 and verse 6, you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Has there ever been a time when you haven't heard of wars and rumors of wars? Has there ever been a time when you haven't heard of wars and rumors of wars? During World War II, Mr. Armstrong declared that the end was here because he could see World War II going and aligning with Bible prophecy. Surprise, surprise.

We knew that, you know, the end was shaping up when certain things overseas were happening, but those things just dissolved and went away. Jesus says, you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. And when he said that in Matthew 24 and 6, he had talked about a lot of things that were going to come to pass – earthquakes and famines and pestilences, and you can read a lot of things. So, the point is, while we have seen consistently rising and falling empires and countries and groups and different mindsets, the end – even though atrocities have been great at times – the end is not yet. In verse 32 of Matthew 24, he says, now learn this parable from the fig tree. Here's some more generalization. We're going to learn from a fig tree. How many of you own fig trees? Nobody? Oh, come on. Okay. We go to the Cagals and we can check out their fig tree. What are we going to learn from this fig tree? Let's see. Learn from the fig tree – actually, from the parable. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So, you also, when you see all these things, know that it's near at the doors.

All these things were not defined specifically. But when you see all these things, you'll know that it is near. You don't know when, but you'll know it's coming. So, we do have this generalization of things and events, and you'll see the ministry more and more speculating in a way and saying, you know, brethren, we need, as Paul said, we need to be very serious and very focused on our calling. And so, when we are going through life, we don't want to be caught off guard. We don't want to be doing things and be involved in things the way we are not doing the work God has given us. And I'm not talking about the work of the corporate church. I'm talking about the work in your life that God through His Holy Spirit are doing in preparing you for being born again as the bride of Christ. We might assume then that we know what it is that's near to the doors. We might think it's the Great Tribulation. Jesus will explain to us in verse 36 what this is, but of that day and hour, no one knows what day and hour of what? Not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Verse 37, but as the days of Noah were, notice carefully, so also the coming of the Son of Man shall be. That's the end or the beginning. Remember the end of an age? The end of an age starts the beginning of the next age. The end of a pregnancy starts the beginning of having a child, being a mommy. The end of the age of Satan's reign means you're part of the bride of Christ. You're a spirit being. You are born again. You are all set with Christ to fix all the world's problems and to bring salvation to every human that has ever lived through the plan of God's salvation. The New Testament states several events that will take place preceding that during the time of the end. However, the end is a precise moment.

The end is something that is wonderful. When you have a baby, you mark the time. You name the kid. You send out the announcements. I have a baby, and it was born at 143 a.m.

It weighed seven pounds. It felt like 700 pounds, but it was only seven pounds, eight ounces.

Exciting stuff. The end then has a special meaning for us. It's something that we should look forward to. Something that we should grasp as the event of our life. That thing that we want to come. The thing we want to happen, to participate in. It's a great event that God's family prays for.

You know, in the model prayer outline, it begins with, in our Father in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come. Your rule come. Your rulership come. Well, we have that now. Jesus Christ is the ruler. He is the head of the church. He is our Lord and Master. He is our King. So we have that now, but we also want him to come and bring the rulership of the world to replace the current ruler of this world. End of this age, bring it on. Next age, that's what we want. See? That's what we want. We want Jesus's rule. And so Jesus alludes to this event in verse 13, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. Sometimes we think, well, if you endure to the end, then you'll get saved. See this through the light he's saying. He who endures through the birth pangs of being born again. He who goes through the labor of the end times, right? He who endures faithfully and grows and develops as a child of God ready to be born again shall be saved, shall be saved through the resurrection. That's what he's talking about.

Verse 14, and at the same time that this happens, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness at that time. Not now, not before then. At that time, he who endures to the end shall be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. If you realize that's the end of three and a half years of tribulation, church is not there. It's a place of safety, or it's being persecuted, killed off by Satan the devil. They're not the ones preaching the gospel.

But these two are tied together right at the event that forms the end of the age. Let's see this take place in Revelation. We'll first stop in Revelation 11, verse 15. Revelation is all chopped up. It's not in order. So we see the event take place here in Revelation chapter 11 and verse 15. Here's the event. Here's the end. If you want to say the end. He who endures to the end will be saved. Well, here it is.

Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. So what this is saying is, when it says kingdoms, that's actually a singular word. And if you look up the word kingdom in the Greek, it means the rule. The rule of this world has become our Lord's. He's going to reign. That's the seventh trump. That's the beginning of the next age. That's the termination of Satan's rule. And that's a really wonderful thing. And if you drop down in verse 18, it says, the nations were angry and your wrath has come. That's the indignation. That's the correction that Christ brings on sinning world, sinning society. And notice, and the time of the dead, and that you should reward your servants and prophets and the saints who fear your name. This is a resurrection of the first fruits. If you just go forward to Revelation 14, right at the same time, verse 1, I looked and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000, having their father's name written on their foreheads. That's us. That's the babies. That's the born again into the divine family of God. As you read in Revelation 2 and 3 and in the letters to the church, these are the ones with the father's name written on their foreheads, along with some other names as well.

And it says here at the end of verse 3, they were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being first fruits to God and to the Lamb. So there's your end, but at the very same time, look at verse 6 that follows, and I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. Remember, Jesus said this would happen at the end, and the end would then come.

And they say with a loud voice, here's the gospel message, fear God or revere God, and if you don't revere Him, fear Him, and give Him glory, for the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him.

I might inject you evolutionists. Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water. It's interesting how He puts that in there, because the world has ceased to believe that. The timing of the end, then, involves this preaching of the gospel to all the nations, and with that the millennial reign of Christ and the bride begin.

It begins with the day of the Lord, about a year's time in which He goes in and corrects, and with the bride and with the armies, and takes humanity to a place where finally Satan can be removed, and a new millennial period of Garden of Eden-type environments can blossom. There'll be some work to be done there initially for that to happen. But the world events that we look around, they're beginning to parallel some of the things that we see in prophecy. They're not an exact fit yet, but it's kind of a good setup.

We can run some scenarios and say, well, if this keeps happening or that happens, well, then these prophecies that we see look like they'll line up. They're not there yet. Things are sure moving into position again, it seems. We see a great tribulation period. It'll be very difficult for true believers, but a one-world economy with sort of a dictatorship that will require a forced allegiance that will benefit financially, materially, some people for a short time.

But Jesus said this will end up being the worst of the worst for humanity. Our challenge is to faithfully endure through that period of hostility, that period of being different, at least, plus Jesus said you'll be hated by all nations for His name's sake.

We need to remain the called, the chosen, the faithful. And we can only do that by being focused on what we're here for and that goal. Remember the baby? Well, you're the baby, right? Born again. You're the babies for God's family, the first fruit, children to come into the divine family of God. So let's examine five pillars on which you and I can stand and be faithful through anything that comes. Don't even have to worry about it. Just be busy about these five things and focused on them. Let the rest take care of itself.

You know, Jesus said that just before we begin, let's just do a little background here and put the words of Christ in our minds. He says that these events are going to come like a snare or like a trap. A snare is set up, it's disguised, nobody sees it, the animal doesn't see it, and something steps on a trigger of some kind and bam!

I mean, just like that. Surprise, right? So he says in Luke chapter 21 in verse 34, Luke 21 in verse 34, that he doesn't want us to sort of be caught in this snare scenario. He's telling us 2,000 years ago some more things to be aware of. He says here, but take heed to yourselves. Don't take heed of the world. Don't take heed of society. Don't wonder what's going to happen to your bank accounts or your house. You know, don't start trying to figure out how you're going to navigate the chaos that Satan's world is going to bring.

Take heed to yourselves. Be a son and daughter of God, lest your hearts be weighed down with societal things, carousing, drunkenness, cares of this life, and that that day come upon you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Verse 36, watch therefore. The Greek word means keep awake, keep alert, keep alert to what? Go back to verse 34. Take heed to yourselves. Keep alert and pray always. That's your job. That's my job.

That's what we're supposed to be doing. Keep alert to conquering sin, to asking God to correct us, to be more Christ-like, to grow in God's nature, develop holy righteous character. Be alert to that and pray always. Pray all the time. Have a relationship with God. Have a relationship with Jesus Christ. You pray to God the Father, but Jesus Christ is the one who God's Holy Spirit is coming into you with, and He's prompting you. He's the one that knows your thoughts. He can know and see what the intents of your hearts are. Ask Him. Ask Him to show you. Use that to do better and grow. Be doing these things. Why? Notice that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass.

You don't need to worry about them. You won't be there. Why are you going to worry about them? Why? That you may escape all these things that will come to pass and stand before the Son of God. Standing before the Son of God will be a new birth born again. Born as a dynamic, bright, shining as the sun, member of the God family.

Whoo! That is wonderful! So just going back here to verse 36, keep awake, therefore, and pray always, and stand before the Son of Man when He returns. And, oh, by the way, you may be counted worthy to escape all this other stuff. No exact promise there, but it's His desire. He wants that for you. You don't want that for you as much as He wants that for you. He's the one that came up with it. He's the one 2,000 years ago that says, I want you out of here.

So let's look at some pillars. With that as background, God's very positive.

Pillar number one, be loyal to the right leader. Get this whole human leader thing off your plate, out of your mind. Quit thinking about elections. Quit going into society. Quit looking at laws, and who's so and who, and who's got what rules, and what people are doing in schools and university. It's none of your business, right? We are called to be the body of Jesus Christ. We have our laws and rules here. We need to be loyal to our leader, not trying to fix what Satan's got going in the world by wanting a better leader to come in and solve everything. A regime change never works. You know, when the Bible opens, we find that there's this desire to, I don't know, fix my life or help my life by some leader. We go to 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 12. We see this taking place as Israel has come into the promised land, and they're not obeying God. They're not trying to follow His lead. They're not loyal to their leader. In 1 Samuel 12 and verse 12, it says, Now, Israel, when you saw that Nahash king of the Amorites came against you, you said to me, No, but a king shall reign over us. When the Lord your God was your king. What are we doing? Jesus Christ is our king. He is our Lord, which means supreme authority. He is our master. He is our king. He's not just our soon coming king. He's already the king of the saints, the Bible says. Yeah, he's going to be the soon coming king for the rest of the world. But for now, he's our king. Do we sometimes say, Oh, we see this? We say, No, but we want something to reign over us. You know, when the Lord your God was your king. All right, verse 13. Now, therefore, here's your king, whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And how's that worked out? How'd that work out for them when they got Saul? How'd it work out for any country, any citizens? Just go back through time. It never works out. And this is a human tendency that you and I have because we want some human leader to come in and save us from collapse. Bring somebody in with solutions, analyze them, track everything, listen to all the media, pray for the elections, maybe get out the vote, maybe go vote yourself. But notice verse 25.

But if you still do wickedly, and every country is still doing wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. Is that what you and I want? Do we want to ditch our leader, our ruler, Jesus Christ, and focus on some individual and then just get involved with society and get swept away, us and our king? No, that's not what we're here for.

David said in Psalm 37 verse 3, trust in the Lord and do good. That's our job. That's our calling. Trust in the Lord and you do good. Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. He is our bread. We don't have to worry about what we're going to eat. We don't have to be, they call them preppers. We don't have to try to figure out how to navigate the end time with finances and money and I don't know, food and what are we going to eat, where are we going to live, how are we going to protect all this stuff? No, you trust in the Lord, do good. You'll dwell where he says and you'll feed on his faithfulness. So that's point number one. Very important, be loyal to the right leader. You know, the model prayer outline is a declaration of your loyalty to God and Jesus Christ. You get on your knees and you say, you're my father, your name is holy, your rule be over me, your rule come in my life, your will be done, here's his will. You know, give us this day our daily bread, Jesus Christ. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. You know, we're in this growing, growing condition as children who are developing up to a birth or if you want to use the grain analogy, we're producing grain ready for a harvest. That's what our job is. And we ask God for the help of conquering Satan. Don't let us be led into evil and deliver us from that or be deceived. And then it finishes up with, yours is the rule, yours is the power, yours is the glory, yours is the kingdom forever. That's a declaration of allegiance to the kingdom of God and its rulers. And by doing that with our prayers, we stay focused in trusting God as our leader. Pillar number two, trust the navigator. We've already laid down that we cannot see what's ahead. We have no clue. We think we have ideas. We can see it all unfolding. I can go back through the decades and tell you I had it all worked out and stuff just dissolved or got worse.

Point two is trust your navigator. Who is your navigator? You're going to do the navigating? Do you know what's about to happen? When? By whom? How to prepare for it? I haven't a clue. I really don't. But then I don't need to. I can't even guess next week's weather. You know, the guys that know have a pretty good idea what's going to happen in the next week. But if you look at your 10-day forecast on your smartphone, you say, oh, look at that sunny skies. Well, just wait a few days. Where do these storms come from? Or it's going to rain. Oh, good. Oh, where'd all that rain go? The next 10 days, all of a sudden, it's just little sun icons. And that's just a week. And that's just weather. Navigating the end times requires a very complex skill set with that is so intuitive that you can actually foresee. You can foresee the future. You can have an exact plan of how you're going to navigate everything that will come up in the future, how you will be at the right place at the right time, survive and actually do well, all with precise timing. We don't even know when the end time begins, let alone out and navigate it.

But there is a navigator who not only knows what's going to happen. Get this. He controls what's going to happen. It's not that just God and Christ are so smart they've figured out what's going to happen. They're going to make it happen. Let's go to Isaiah 46 and verse 9. Here is our navigator. And believe me, if you develop faith in God and Jesus Christ, you don't have to worry about navigating anything. You just have to follow them. See, that's they're in the driver's seat. You just have to be on board. Get on the ship. Isaiah 46 and verse 9. God says this, remember the former things of old.

Hmm. Yeah, remember, let's see. Yeah, God created the heavens and the earth. Then he worked it out, and then there was Noah and the ark. Wow, how did that work out with all the animals and everything? And then you come down through time with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and he told Abraham, this is what's going to happen. And it happened all miraculously. Even all the faithful lineage from Abraham couldn't happen without a miracle. God waited until he was 100 years old just to make sure that everybody knew it was a miracle. A very old lady and a very old man are going to have their first baby. And then the miracles that happened from that and then etc., etc. He says, remember the former things of old? For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. Verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning. Well, wow, let's think. Oh yeah, he actually did that, didn't he? He shows from before the foundation of the world that you will be born again into his family at the seventh trumpet at the end. That's pretty good. And here you are, right on time, growing, developing. From the beginning, he decided that his son Jesus Christ would be the first of the first fruits. And from the beginning, he defined a whole lot of other things that would happen. So going on, he says, and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. I will do all my pleasure. I will call the bird of prey from the east. The man who executes my counsel from a far country. Indeed, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I also will do it. He's going to do it. He's going to make these things happen. In time events, aren't just some random things that nobody knows. He's going to call these nations. He's going to bring them. He's going to take those things to task as he purposes. So trust your navigator. Don't worry about where the ship is going. It's all going to be worked out. Pillar number three. Focus on your own future. Don't focus on the future of your country, your city, the person next to you, whatever. Focus on your own future. You have a wonderful future. Think about it. Go read the scriptures about what you're going to become and try to imagine what you will do. You know, God never even describes your body, so believe me, you underrated what it's going to be at the resurrection. He doesn't tell you what a God being is and how they work and how they travel and how you have all that brightness. How do you have that much brightness? How you can think, how you can know, how you can relate. God probably doesn't sit there and send little airwaves back and forth. Let me fill you in the last 20 billion years and you wait. How about thought transfer? We're used to file transfer. Here's a disk. Plug it in. You got it.

How we function and what we can do and what the creative powers of a God being are, we're not even told. Not even told. But focus on that. What happens to society is not your business. You're being prepared to be born again into the God family. Let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13.

I'm going to break into the middle of this verse. This is good. You ready for this? Here it is. God from the beginning chose you.

Wow. That's what you should be focused on. Your future. Because God from the beginning, doesn't say when the beginning was. Whatever was the beginning, from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth to which he called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The same glory that Jesus has. The same dramatic brightness and power and glory that would be glorified with him, the Bible speaks of. That's a powerful, powerful verse right there. From the beginning, God chose you for obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Would you rather think about that? Or would you rather think about what's going to happen in the stock market in 10 years?

I mean, or if somebody might not like you. You know, if you focus on this, you'll be about your father's business. You'll be about the work of developing from a little, you know, what would you say, an embryo that we start out with when we receive God's Holy Spirit at baptism and grow. Through the phases of developing character and wisdom and brotherly love and then finally agape love and then ready for a birth as a mature, a mature child, as it were. A mature baby.

Let's go to Revelation 19 and verse 7. I love this passage. Sorry if I use it almost every sermon. But we've got to look to this. We've got to be excited about the end. The end is our beginning. This is what from the beginning, whenever that was before the foundation of the world, God chose you for this. Revelation 19 verse 7 says, let us be glad and rejoice. Don't be sorrow. Don't be sorry. Don't say, oh, I don't want to go through this. Oh, I hate this life. Oh, no, no, no. Be glad and rejoice like the angels and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come. We don't even know what that's going to be like. Bible doesn't tell us. Go to the wedding supper. Oh, what's that like? We've had a couple of wedding suppers. Remember those recently? Those are on the human level. What's it going to be like on the God family level? To go to a wedding supper. You know, go into the wedding supper and the door's closed and we're on the outside. That's the perspective the Bible gives you. If you want to know what goes on inside, show up. Endure the end. Be ready to be born again. You'll go right in there and the door will be shut behind you now. You'll be in there and see what it's like. Dream a little bit. It's got to be better than a human wedding marriage ceremony. Food's got to be a lot better. I bet the wine's going to be a lot better.

So, as we go on here, she had a little work to do in the meantime.

It says, For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. That's the work that God has given you to do. Make yourself ready. And I can't do it alone. Obviously, it's Christ in us that works and develops us and matures us, and we grow up into him. So be about that work. In verse 8, To her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. We don't do that ourselves. We try. We struggle. We show God we want to. And to her it was granted to be arrayed. It didn't say she put this on. And it was granted to her. It was counted in God's eyes that she was clean and bright for the fine linen as the righteous acts of the saints. It's the right acts, according to God's word, that we struggle and strive to do. It's part of our growing phases before our birth. And he said, Right, blessed, oh, how supremely blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God. True, absolute truth. No fancy, faulty, you know, Easter bunny, fakey, bakey Santa stuff. This is the real deal. You want to be there. Pretty excited. In fact, the whole multitude here is excited because they know. They know. They're there. They can see what this is going to be like.

Make this your daily focus. Make it your only goal.

This is the vision that we need to have. And it continues on. It doesn't just stop there. Notice verse 11. I saw heaven open right after that. Heaven opened in a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. You look around in society, you judge, and you say, That's not right. This isn't right. I can't believe what happened. It's telling my wife this morning this week, Mr. Doubt asked me to take a special letter to the post office and get it mailed for him. So I took it and I got it mailed or I got it ready.

And I asked the person, Will this go out today? Oh, not at this branch. You'd have to go over to another branch and be sure you don't put it in one of the blue steel mailboxes. Really? Yeah, you know the one outside the post office? Don't put it in there, because people break into those all the time and steal the mail. All the blue mailboxes around town are being broken into. In fact, at this post office, we had a drop on the outside and they tore that out and got the mail. We had to wall it off. Wow! You know, we need to look beyond what is going on and focus tightly on what our future is. Make it our daily goal. We get to fix some of this here. In righteousness, he judges, but then we will assist him in repairing that, getting rid of the author of that sin, getting rid of that mindset. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood. This is Jesus Christ, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, or the organized individuals in heaven, clothed in fine linen. Go back to verse 8, who's that. You are now going to assist him in beginning to solve the world's problems and actually do it right. And they rode white horses, followed him on white horses, and out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that he should strike the nations. And he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. It reminds me we can go back to chapter 2 in verse 26. Talking to the church, talking to you and me, Jesus says this, He who conquers, overcomes, conquers ourself, our human nature, conquers society, conquers Satan, and keeps my works until the end. That's our job. Keep his words, his works, until the end, until his arrival. To him, I will give power over the nations.

You think installing somebody else is going to make a difference? How about installing you with the power of Jesus Christ behind you? I will give him power over the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels, as I also have received from my Father. We're going to do this together with him, and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Focus on that. Listen to that. Be busy about that. Make that your daily goal. If we come down to chapter 20, we see in the first three verses, now Satan is bound, sealed. Then we see a millennial reign. I want to be wonderful to be part of that. I just am itching to create something. God didn't say we will, but I just, you know, you create a God being like God. We're children of God, and you've got to have the creative powers that God does. Like, can I use sign? Can I create something? Can I bring back a species? Maybe a new species. Maybe, can we get rid of the, I don't know, the biting bugs, the insects? Can we, I don't know, do something different with them? It'd be so much—I mean, spend some time thinking about that. It's much better than politics. We come down to verse 12.

I saw the dead. All those who have ever died. Can you imagine? A hundred billion people? Everybody's scared now because we've passed eight billion people. A couple years, it's going to be ten. Nine and ten is going to happen really fast. Ooh, that's a lot of people. How about a hundred billion people? And God said, this is good. We're probably going to have to do a little more creativity on the earth to do a hundred million people. Maybe a little less ocean, a little more landmass, shorter mountains, more arable land. Who knows? But wouldn't it be fun to participate in that and get it all ready for a hundred billion people so that all the rest of the dead can rise and stand before God and have these books and whatever else will be written before then open to their understanding and they can live and be judged out of the books. Great. Wonderful. Focus on that. Principle four. Just remember, it's sinning humanity that will be published. Oh, sorry. It's sinning humanity that will be punished. The punishment that's coming and the terrible times that are coming, that's for somebody else.

Those are the ones who are going to be punished. What we need to focus on is not being there. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 20. Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 20. Let's hear this from Jesus Christ himself, the one who became Jesus on earth. Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 20. Here's what he wants for you and me. Come, my people, the body of Christ, our Lord, our Master, the children of God, the citizens of His and His Father's kingdom in heaven. Come, my people, enter your chambers. Where does this come from? We're coming somewhere and we're entering something, a place that's prepared for you. It says in Revelation, I believe it's in chapter 13, a place prepared for her. Come into your chambers and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment called the end time. It's just a short time.

Hide yourself for a little moment until the indignation is passed, until those humans who are indignant and hate God and don't want anything to do with Him, until that is passed, and the new ruler, including you, arises. For behold, the Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. And that's what you see throughout that end time period in the day of the Lord. You see punishment for iniquity. It first begins during the Great Tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble, the sending Israelites get it first. But God will save a remnant of them out, and ultimately He will save a remnant out of all nations. But we don't need to be involved in that. You enter your chambers, hide yourself, until that indignation is passed, because that punishment is for someone else. It's for the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. Put that in your mind, and then put it out of your mind, and strive to be right in God's eyes. Now we must live in the world. If we go to Micah chapter 7 and verse 2, we will witness things around us all the time, and we will sigh and cry for those things. Let's go to Micah chapter 7 and verse 2. It's right after the book of Jonah, before Nahum.

We're going to read verses 2 through 7. Here's what we're going to see, already prophesied for us. The faithful man has perished from the earth. There is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood. Every man hunts his brother with a net. That they may successfully do evil with both hands. The prince asperbs gifts or bribes. The judge seeks a bribe. The great man utters his evil desire. So they scheme together. The best of them is like a thorn or a brier. The most upright is sharper than a thorn edge. The day of your watchman comes, your punishment comes. Now there's perplexity. We don't want to be part of that. And here's what's going on out there. You can't trust in a friend. You can't put your confidence in a companion. They have to guard the doors of their mouth from the one who they're hugging.

Their ears will be deaf. They'll lick the dust like a serpent. They crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth. And they shall be afraid of the Lord our God.

And shall fear, because of you, Jesus Christ.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? You know, that's in verse 17 and 18. Sorry, if we go to verse 6, carrying on with the woes of this world, for the son dishonors father, daughter-in-law rises against the mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies are those over his own household. See where this goes? It goes nowhere good.

Verse 7, Therefore I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

And in verse 17, then, they will be afraid of the Lord our God. We are to be in a different category, a different group. Again, it's humanity that's sinning that's going to be punished. So live in the world. Don't be of the world, like Jesus prayed in John 17.

Principle 5, the last principle, is patiently endure your own birth pangs. You know, the baby in the birth canal isn't a pleasant experience. We all were there, remember it? No, we don't. Probably thankfully. You know, that warm cocoon we were in, everything's nice and warm and floating around, having a good time. And then, before your birth, things start getting squished a lot. Contractions flipped upside down, head crammed between some bones. Pressure, all kinds of pressure on your head and your neck and your shoulders. And you start twisting around and getting into weird positions. Your skull actually collapses, parts of it move and start to, you know, point. Your face and your nose is all smashed up. You can't breathe. You'll lose the water. You'll lose the air.

Patiently endure your own birth pangs. I use that in symbolism of the end times, leading up to our birth being born again. Patiently endure them. Romans chapter 8 is a chapter of the Bible devoted to you, devoted to you and your progress as a firstborn, one of the firstfruits of the family of God, during a tough time. There's never going to be a time like this in the future. Nobody in the millennium has this kind of experience that you and I, those of the end times, will have. Nobody in the second resurrection will even have a Satan around.

Just, it'll be pretty easy compared to the things we go through now. But of course, their eternal state will not be the bride of Christ on the throne with Christ, being right there in New Jerusalem at the headquarters throne of God and Christ for all eternity either. So it's a pretty big deal that you and I need to patiently endure in order to receive. So Romans 8, and I'm not going to read Romans 8, but I want to say it starts out with you needing to be rescued from society. You need to have an understanding given to you. You need repentance. You then need baptism, the forgiveness of sin. You need God's Holy Spirit. And at that point, those who are led by God's Holy Spirit, well, these are the sons and daughters of God. So we have a beginning there. But as we transfer along, it looks to a new birth as sons and daughters of the God family. It repeats that process through some different analogies that use there. But next, we come to these pre-birth discomforts during the labor phase. I'm going to read this in verse 17. Let's go to Romans chapter 8 and begin in verse 17. Well, verse 16, the Spirit itself bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God, in embryo, if you want to use that analogy. And if children then heirs, heirs of God, heirs of a literal being in the family of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. You see, for this group of people, you've got to go through the pre-birth challenges. You have to maybe have persecution during this present evil age. You have to have the discomforts, and you have to continue to grow through that following Jesus Christ.

It doesn't say what these are. They vary for everyone, and every time we don't know if we'll actually live to the time when Christ returns or not. But nevertheless, we need to realize that we need to patiently endure that which we suffer with Christ that we may also be glorified together. Just put your mind on that. It doesn't matter what comes. We're going to be faithful. We're going to be faithful. We've got the vision. We've got the baby. I'm going to be the baby. I'm going to be bride of Christ. I've got this wonderful stuff. He's going to get me there. He's never going to leave or forsake me. He's going to direct me. I'm in good hands. Let's do this. For, verse 18, I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, the glory of a spirit God-being that will be revealed in us.

Now, we're going to read a few verses here where you'll see creation and creature and all this stuff. The King James Version gets it much more correct every time it uses the word creature. The two words are the same, and New King James decided to switch a whole bunch to creation. They don't understand the plan of God, neither did anybody else who translated the Bible, but let's just put it where it should be. It's creature. It's talking about you or the person. For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared. This whole chapter, remember, is about you, and this is just one little illustration he's giving us about this process to our being born again. For, verse 20, the creature was subjected to futility. You and I are going back to dust. All of us are subjected to dust. From dust you are, dust you shall return. So your body, you, the creature, or the person, were subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. We are all dying. It's given men to once to die, but after that, the resurrection. That is our hope. That is our focus.

And because the creature itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, ashes, dust, every grave out there, go by a graveyard, they're all in the bondage of corruption. Corruption just means decay back to, you know, whatever. They're in bondage of corruption, but the creature will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. That's our future, the glorious freedom from that corruption into the divine children of God. For we know that the whole, now he uses the whole, not just an individual creature, but the whole bunch of creatures, all of the saints from Abel, Noah, Abraham, maybe pick them down through time, the apostles. For the whole creatures groans and labors with birth pangs until now. The whole body of Christ, the whole firstfruits, we all want and we labor with birth pangs until now. Not only that, but we also have the, who have the firstfruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the sonship, the redemption of our body. That's the end. Remember the end? That's what we look forward to, the redemption of our body. We wait for the sonship.

For we are being saved in this hope, is what it should read. It's not past tense. It doesn't say we were. We are being saved in this hope, in verse 25. But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. So this principle five is, patiently endure your own birth pangs. It's a wonderful thing. You can read throughout this whole book, even a whole chapter coming down to verse 31. He then says, what can we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? You know this end time period that leads up to the end? What can we say? If God's for us, who can be against us?

Dropping down, verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Or who or what shall separate from us the love of Christ? Is really what it's speaking of here. It's not saying that who will take God's love away from us. It's who will take our love away from God.

Will tribulation, will that impact you and me and stop us loving God? Will distress, the stresses that are going on or to us, or persecution? Would that stop me? Would that take the love of God out of me, my love for God in His way? Or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for your sake all the day long, we're accounted as sheep for the slaughter. We're killed. So some of that may happen. Will some of that take the love of God out of us?

Verse 37, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. God's love for us is unfailing. It's our love for Him through challenges, through the birth pangs leading up to His return. That's the only question. But Paul says this, I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels, false angels, principalities, powers, governors, beasts, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created things shall be able to separate from us, flip those two words, the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We're not going to stop loving. We're going to endure patiently through our own birth pangs.

So, brethren, in conclusion, the time at the end will certainly be uncomfortable. Jesus said it's going to be the worst of the worst time. But let's not be there.

Let's conclude with one of the apostles' discomforts in Jesus' response in Mark chapter 10, in verse 28. Mark chapter 10 and verse 28 kind of put ourselves in Peter's shoes here as we kind of ask, do I have to go through some uncomfortable things here? This isn't easy. Mark 10 verse 28. Then Peter began to say to Jesus, you see, we have left all.

I had a fishing business. I had a house up there. You know, it's lakefront property, it's Azaria. And we've left all and followed you, our navigator. They're following Jesus. They don't know where they're going or where to go or what to do, but they're following him. And so Jesus in verse 29 answered and said, assuredly I say to you, there's no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake or for the gospel's sake, which is submit to the authority of Jesus Christ. And we are doing that. Who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children, and here we are, with persecutions. See that? We often don't recognize that. For this group, it's going to be persecuted like Christ in this age that's evil. It's going to be, you know, tough. We have each other now with persecutions and notice in the age to come, eternal life. Brethren, let's be strong and navigate the time of the end and be children in the divine family of God forever.