Time to Flee

To me, that's always a very beautiful song that I enjoy listening to. It brings me back to the days when I lived in Tennessee and we lived on the farm, and you would see a deer, especially time of the year, come running through. When they stopped, you would see them panting as they were looking for water. So we need to be as we continue our life down that way. Is it picking up okay? Is it, Jeff?

It seems to be quiet. Maybe I need to project my voice a little bit more. All right, let's get started on the sermon today. The sermon today is titled, Time to Fleet. Time to Fleet. Are you ready? Hit the road, Jack. Don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more. Hit the road, Jack. Don't you come back no more. What'd you say?

It was unbelievable. What a death point. Don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, babe, I hate to go. I'll be there, oh, did you think? Are you ready to leave? Is it time? Is it time to flee? And then, what are you fleeing from? Where are you going to flee to? What's all this fleeing because you read about it in the Bible and... I think about how about fleeing South Florida with all this coronavirus.

We seem to be COVID-central for months and people wanting to flee, but I think by now our numbers are going down and perhaps the time to flee has already passed. Maybe a little too late, or is it? I want to approach this subject this time of the year as we're entering the fall Holy Day season, as we talk about things to come.

And it's amazing how people talk about dates. Or they give you dates. How about a future date? Dates have been used for, I don't know how long, ever since I can remember being a kid. Every year, if I go through somewhere towards the end of the year, usually December, and I go through a Publix or for other people, maybe Kroger's or one of these grocery stores or even a pharmacy, all these magazines up there.

I used to call them trash magazines, gossip magazines. But every year towards December, they always have this article on the year 2020 or the year 2021, and all this stuff is going to happen, and they give these predictions that it's the end of the world, it's Armageddon, all this is going to happen, and it's been predicted.

They do that every single year, and you wonder, why? Why? Because it sells. People buy that stuff. People want to know, oh, what's going to happen? Because every year there are dates given. We have so-called, what, prophets? Prophets. They come in every church. Even the Church of God has prophets, so-called prophets, that want to give certain dates, want to give certain years, and we all need to be looking, and we all need to be raised up, oh, we need to be excited about this, or in fear of this.

Come on. I've been hearing that for decades, and I've seen that from so many so-called ministers of God who it ends up, they're wrong. Dates are wrong. This is wrong. No. And then they back up, just like, well, no, God's holding things back, or God's doing this. They always blame God. They never blame themselves. I think people are tired of dates and times. Oh, wait a minute. It's time to flee. It's time for this. And work people up. And why they do it? Because it works.

It works. People sometimes, they want to take certain parts of the Scripture and twist it or put their own little perspective on it, and they figured this out. God has revealed that to them. Really. God revealed the time of Jesus Christ's return when Christ even said, He didn't know! But they're so smart that God says, I don't need you. Christ, I'll tell this person. It's laughable. It's laughable. Because I've seen it year after year after year, decade after decade after decade. Because they know panic, fear, anxiety.

It works. It sells. Remember this? Remember Y2K? 20 years ago. 20 years ago and eight months ago there was Y2K. I remember when I was in Tennessee at the time and I went and got this little outdoor oven I could cook on and I had extra fuel and all this because we didn't know. It's kind of like the REM song that was from the late 80s.

It's the end of the world as we know it. That's what they were. That's what everybody was selling. When January the 1st, 2000 clicks over, everything's going to stop. The cars are not going to work. The computers are not going to work. We're not going to have electricity. We're not going to have water. We're all going to die! Isn't that? Don't you look back on it now and go, hmm, that's ridiculous. I still have the stuff stored in Tennessee except for the gasoline that I had that time. Down in Florida, especially down in the Miami area, we do have to have extra stuff because guess what?

We get visiting hurricanes. Or at least they want to swirl around us every year. So we have to have some stuff. But it's not something we should really panic about. But why 2K? I remember a guy on the radio I was listening to at the time, and I don't remember his name now.

I just know his name was Chuck. So it wasn't me. So you can't blame this on me. But he was selling. He had this radio show, and he was talking about how bad it was going to be that January the 1st. And that happened to be on a Saturday, if you remember that time, because we all got up and didn't know if we'd go to church the next day. So we all went to bed that Friday night, praying to God that we would be able to go to church. We'd get up and everything's the same! Except for this guy who had his radio show.

It didn't last long after that, but during that time, he was selling a year's supply of food for $5,000. And he had all kinds of people buying it. I can see why he probably didn't have a radio show after that very long. But he cashed in on all these people. All that can be used. There are dates, though, that people give. There's a previous date besides January the 1st, year 2000. There was soon after that, another 10 months or so after that.

There was November the 7th, year 2000. And for some people, they announced and pronounced that it's time to leave! It was the election. And George W. Bush won. And so they were going to flee the country. Yes, flee the country! Here was Alec Baldwin, who said, I'm out of here. George W. Bush, I'm fleeing the country! I'm going to go to Canada! I'm going to go somewhere else! There was Matt Damon. There was Cher. Cher said, I'm going to leave the country if George W. Bush wins. Well, guess what? They never left the country.

They didn't flee. They didn't flee. They didn't get out of here. They weren't panicked enough. And it's interesting because there's a new date, November the 3rd, 2020, 20 years later now. Cher! There she is! Cher says that if Donald J. Trump wins the election, she's fleeing. Well, she should have fled 20 years ago, but she didn't flee. She's not going to flee this time. Snoop Dogg said, if Trump wins, I'm out of here. I'm going to flee. Do you think he's going to flee?

Amy Schumer, Samuel L. Jackson. Do you think these multi-millionaires are going to flee where the country they made all their millions at? No. So people use it. Matter of fact, Alec Baldwin's little brother, Stephen Baldwin, made a prediction, and he said that he was leaving if Barack Obama won. Well, President Obama won, and guess what? He's still hanging around here. Flee! Flee! Are you a fleer? Are you a fleer? Are you ready to flee? Ready to flee?

Where? What? What about? People love to use it. The dictionary says, flee means to take flight, to run away from a place or a situation of danger. The Bible, the Word of God tells us there are things we should flee. The Bible tells us, pay attention. God says, I want you to flee this. He gives us three that I know of. First one is what? Youthful lust. He tells us in 2 Timothy 2, verse 22, flee! Also, youthful lust. Do we? Do we flee that? He then tells us about sexual immorality, which should definitely be tied to the first one. Sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18, flee sexual immorality.

Do we? Is that first and foremost in our mind? Do we think when we think about the word flee, do these two come to mind? How about the third one? It says, flee idolatry. Flee for my idolatry. Oh, I don't have idols. Oh, really? They've been hanging around for thousands of years, and they also can involve us. Where our hearts are truly divided, or hopefully, they're just not all one way. The Bible is stacked full of stories of fleers.

Stories of fleers. So many heroes in the Scriptures that we can read about had to flee. At different times, God would instruct them to flee, or they knew to flee. What about us? Since it's not uncommon for the faithful in the Scriptures to flee, should we be prepared to flee? Flee what? Flee from what? Flee to where? When? A lot of people bring this stuff up every year.

I wanted to address it. I've never given a message about fleeing. But it's something for us to...okay, let's look at some scriptural examples of that. All you have to do is think about it. Think about it. You go through chronologically in the book of Genesis. It starts out that God, he did what?

He drove Adam and Eve from the garden. Okay. It doesn't say they fled, but I believe if God was driving me, I would consider it fleeing. And so it starts out in that situation. Noah, on a boat, flee. Did he flee? Yes, he fled. And I'm sure, as I've thought about this many times, being the boat, they all mocked him and, as it's known, mocked and laughed at building a boat in the middle of a place that never had rain before.

And he was building and building this boat. Huge monstrosity, they must have thought it was. And then he got all the animals, which would have made me think twice. If I saw two animals, everything coming and getting in this boat, I think I would have wanted to come in behind him. But the way it's understood, they really didn't. The way Scripture tells us, they even mocked even after he was already on the boat. He was sitting there for seven days. I'm sure they went and knocked on the door. Hey, you old fool! Where's that water? Where's that rain?

Until the rain started coming. And then I'm sure they were wishing they were fleeing with Noah as they were climbing to the top of trees and water just kept rising. But God took care of Noah. He took care of Adam and Eve, really. Then you had Lot, and his family. God sent two angels to help them to flee because they really weren't that crazy about fleeing. It says the angels actually had to grab their hands.

Good thing there were two angels because there were four people. Literally dragged them out of Sodom. He had Jacob who had to flee to Pandanaram as he was being threatened. And his brother Esau said, I'm going to kill him. Good reason to flee. Well, God protected him also. David had to flee to the desert twice, once from Saul and the other from his son, Absalom.

Elijah, the great prophet, had to flee all the way from the north all the way to Beersheba as he was fleeing Jezebel. Even Joseph, we see the lesson from Joseph, he had to flee Potiphar. We kind of looked at scriptures earlier that he understood and was able to do that at the age of 17, 18, 19. What integrity he had even as a young man.

But he knew to flee. Jonah, even Jonah wanted to flee, but he wanted to flee from God. He just didn't realize how big God is and how big that net was that God had. And that big old net had a fish in it. So even Jonah was saved to fulfill his purpose. And brethren, we will be taken care of to fulfill our purpose. We have to trust. As we heard earlier in the other split sermon.

We have to trust him. We have to put our trust up there. It's up there. It's not down here. Too many people are that way. Too many people look around and they need their security. They need their money. They need all this. Hmm. What about you? You face it? I think we've all had to face times when we didn't have up there in mind.

We kind of had our face down here. As I always tell people, you've got problems, look up. Don't look down. Don't look around. Look up. And you'll take care of us. Remember the story of Cicero. Cicero had to flee. He fled from a woman and a man, from Deborah. He ran right into the arms of another woman. He met a peg, but that wasn't the woman's name.

Her name wasn't Peg. She just had a peg and a mallet in her hand. As he fell asleep, she drove that peg right through his temple. So this book, this instruction manual, this wonderful piece of work that God has left us, this Bible, gives us so many examples. Even Mary and Joseph had to flee with the child. And one expert said that fleeing is talked about 98 times in the scripture. Well, I found that to be false. It's over 100 times. I counted at least 120 times.

Why is that important? I want you to think about it, brethren. When we study His Word, when we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, we have that.

And something is said or mentioned over 100 times. For me, I make special note because I need to do that. I need to look into that. I need to know. I need to research that. Because that book, even though I look around and some people say, well, it's written for the entire world. Well, most of the entire world doesn't read it.

They don't really care about it. They, like times, wouldn't understand it even if they read it. But that book, as I've always said, it was written for me. Now, it may be written for you. I appreciate that. And I think it is, but I know that book was written for me. Because when I have issues, when I have problems, when I have anything in my life, that goes a little sideways, guess where I turn?

Guess where I feel good about it? Guess where I can get answers that I can't get anywhere else on this earth? It's in my Bible. It's in my book. My book. Because God gave that book to me, and He gave it to you. He gives it to you to use, to read. Are you passionate about it? That's the thing about fleeing. We're talking about trust.

Have you ever had to flee? You ever had to flee? A good friend of mine, fellow pastor, he's the senior pastor for the Spanish work, Mario Sagli, came to, a couple years ago, came to Fort Lauderdale and spoke. Some of you might remember him. He and his whole family had to flee Cuba. He had to flee Cuba because his father was involved in the Bay of Pigs debacle that happened. He was behind trying to overthrow Castro, the Castro regime. He had to send his family out and send them to Miami to save them. He had to go out another way because they were definitely looking for him. He went as far as sending hit squads into Miami to take his father out, who was a prominent doctor in Cuba at the time. Yes, he had to flee. Did God protect him? Yes. Can God protect us? Are there reasons whether we would not flee? Can you think of any? Well, wait a minute. I'm just going to go flee because somebody tells me to flee. That's probably wise. But are there reasons that would hold you when God needed you to flee? Because there are some times when he tells us we need to flee certain situations. I've dealt with battered wives that they didn't want to flee and prayed about it, talked to them and told them you need to get out. You need to get out of the situation. There are people who have got themselves so far in debt that they didn't want to. They were willing to live being shackled by debt when they needed to really flee that situation of credit cards and getting so far in debt. There are a lot of things that are tied to the word flee that we need to recognize. But one of the biggest is, are we listening to God? Do we have a relationship with God? So he can really work with our minds so he can take away the fear and put his understanding in our minds. I think it's very important. Think about Lot's wife. Think about Lot's wife. We all know the story. She turned into a pillar of salt. She looked back. She looked back. Why'd she do that? Was it we know she left some family there? She left two daughters and two sons-in-laws. Is it possible she also left some grandchildren there? Is that one of the reasons why even Abraham knew the story and asked that God would save them if there were ten? Ten. But the son-in-laws wouldn't even listen to Lot when he came over to talk to them and say, It's time to flee! And they thought he was joking. Was he that much of a comedian? And when he entered the house, say, Oh, here's another joke! Tell us a joke, Lot! No, he was serious, but they did not take it serious. Our relationship with God, did we take it serious? When he guides us through his Holy Spirit in decisions, and we should ask for those decisions to be guided by him every single day. Or do we go against things that we know we should be doing?

If you turn with your Bible, I'd like you to turn to 1 John 2. 1 John 2 and verse 15. I think this is talking to us, because there may be a decision down the road that involves this scripture. Do not love the world or the things of the world. Does that describe you? I have to make sure it doesn't describe me, that I'm so tied to, Oh, well, you know, I have this nice house. I have this car. I have this. You know, I have to reflect back on a customer of mine that I worked for back in Tennessee. And I went out to his house, a beautiful house, a beautiful boat. He was a big fisherman. He had this huge truck, $40,000 truck. He had all this stuff. Really nice place. I talked to him, and as we got to know each other over the years, he wanted something else done. So I went out to his house and told him how much I said, Oh, man, I'm just strapped. I'm just strapped with I don't have. I don't I can't even borrow any more money. And I said, Jim, why don't you why don't you sell the boat? Oh, no, I can't give a boat. Look at all that. Look at the little fishing gear I've got. Why don't you sell the boat? Why don't you sell the boat? Oh, no, I love my boat.

I said, but you know, because we knew it, I said, you know, the truck you've got the biggest, baddest truck, $40,000. Mine's $16,000. You could get a $16,000 truck. Oh, no, no, I feel home. I feel good in my truck.

Brethren, do not love the world or the things of the world.

You think that ran through Edith's mind? Edith? Who's Edith? Well, according to Jewish history, Edith was the name of Lot's wife. Edith was her name. Do you want to be an Edith? Do you want to be so attached to something? That even when God's guiding you and directing you, you can't leave it behind? This is for us. This is as we build. We build godly character. In Mark, Chapter 24, so I begin to wrap this sermon up. Matthew 24, I'm afraid you can even go to verse 14, and it talks about the signs of the time in this Gospel, shall we preach into all the world? There's a witness, and then the end will come, and then it says, therefore, which continues on from verse 14, therefore, when you see the abomination and desolation spoken by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand. Well, you better go back and understand what Daniel was talking about and where that took place. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. Wait a minute. Where's my laptop? Where's my phone? Where's all these clothes? Where's this that I need?

And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. Oh, wait a minute. I just bought this jacket. I got this nice stuff. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. And then there will be great tribulations such as not been since the beginning of the world until this time. No, nor ever shall be. Was he talking about what took place within Tychus of Epictetus in 167 B.C.? No. That's the abomination and desolation took place. So is he talking about, wait a minute, 68, 69 A.D. when Tychus, General Tychus and his father Vespasian, was taking over Judah and about to conquer him and were headed and kind of had the city of Jerusalem surrounded. God provided a way because just they had conquered all of Galilee and had gone around and they came in and were beginning to surround Jerusalem so nobody could go in and out and all of a sudden an amazing thing happens.

Nero the Emperor dies. Vespasian sent his son Titus. And then Vespasian leaves. And Vespasian is actually put in as the next emperor. And so there was a time, there was a delay there that those who were in Jerusalem that had known about these scriptures, it was time for them to flee.

And they were allowed a time to flee. As we know, many of those went to Pelo. Many of those went to other situations. But so many stayed. They didn't follow that. So many stayed in the city. And they said at least 700,000 people were killed by 70 AD. And of course the city was sacked and the temple was destroyed and everything.

But was that the end of the world? No! No! It wasn't. But there's a history of fleeing. He even says at the end, and the amazing part was that Christ covered that because in Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, they all cover this event and this prediction. But there's also, that's not the only time. There's a time in the future that's pointed to when it will be time to flee. Let's go to Zechariah. Let's go to Zechariah 14. 1-5. He said, Behold, the day of the Lord is coming.

That has not happened yet. And the spoil will be divided in the midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. When we see the nations surrounding the time of the Gentiles and we see three and a half years of occupation by the Gentiles of Jerusalem, guess what? Time is, we know is getting towards the end of it. Other than the abomination and desolation, we don't know. People can say all they want, Oh, I've got this figured out.

I just know what Christ said. Then I'll know. But for three and a half years, that's the only time period I know. But city will be taken. The city will be taken. And the houses will be plundered. And the women, it says, ravish means raped. Half the city will go into captivity, but a remnant of the people, who? The Jewish people.

Remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against the nations as he fights in the day of the battle. We know they are gathered at Armageddon. We know this is in time. And in that day, his feet, what? Christ's feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east.

And the Mount of Olives shall split in two. It's that literally the land splits in two as a way of escape for these people to get out from east to west, making a very large valley half of the mountain shall move to the north and half of it to the south. Then you shall flee through my mountain valley. Christ does this to save people. They are to flee through this. Then you shall flee through my mountain valley, shall reach to Azale. Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah.

You can go back and study that one. But then there's another verse that says, then the Lord will return with his saints. So where are we? I think you better look at what follows verse 5. I want you to study. I want you to look at that because that tells us where we are, where we should be at that time. We're not in Jerusalem or with Christ, and we come with Christ. That is talking about flee. Do things mean too much to us, brethren? You have to answer that question. Can you be truthful and honest with yourself that maybe I don't want to leave, maybe there's something I need to do, maybe God's guiding me in this way, but I really don't want to do that.

I need my stuff. Jesus Christ, he only said it one time, and Luke put this short verse down. Because he's warning to us at the end time as he's talking about that. And the scripture is in Luke 17, verse 32. Luke 17, verse 32.

Christ says, remember Lot's wife. Remember what? What do we need to know about Lot's wife? She looked back. Things meant more to her than where God is guiding. Is that not a great lesson to us? That we need to be guided by God, guided by Christ, and follow that way, and not look back. For Christ to say that, remember Lot's wife. Maybe that should be a memory scripture to all of us. As we have to go down these roads that we're kind of a little hesitant on going to now.

So the big question is not when. Big question is not where. Big question for us about fleeing is, will you? Will you? Will you follow God? Will you flee how He tells you to flee? When He flees and what He tells you to flee from? Brethren, it's for us. Will you?