As the World Slumbers the Beast Awakens

Good afternoon, everyone. Glad to see the sun come out and hope it stays out for the remainder of the day. One last gasp of winter for us, and we also hope that's the last that we see of that for a while. Appreciated the special music, Andrea. I admire anyone who can memorize something like that and go straight through it and know it all. I have to have pages of notes for my material and very nice. Helps to get us into the frame of mind as well for the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread.

There's a saying that is attributed to Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union. It goes like this, there are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.

Let me repeat it again. There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen. I think that that is a very true statement. And I think we are kind of living in a moment right now with the Russian invasion of Ukraine this month that has set in motion events that might not have happened for decades to come and certainly haven't happened for decades in the past. And we're living in a very interesting moment throughout the West and beyond as governments are nervously reassessing aspects of the global order that have been in place in many cases since the end of World War II. I have a friend and fellow UCG elder. His name is Ray Clore Sr. We have Ray Clore Jr. here, but Ray Clore Sr. worked for many years in a career for the diplomatic corps in the United States Department of State.

Many of those years was in Europe and you would ask Ray, well, what's happening in Europe?

From a prophetic point of view and Ray's stock answer was not much because for decades not much happened. And yet right now we see a lot of things happening. You know, in several places in the Bible it speaks of events that will come upon the world suddenly without warning. Twice the phrase, as a thief in the night, is used in Scripture. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And let's look at where one of those references is made to the idea of a thief in the night to speak of the coming day of the Lord. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. The Apostle Paul's comment here, in a prophetic note, he made several in his writings about prophecy and this happens to be one here. Beginning in verse 1 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, he writes, Concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, things are going along kind of normal. Things are going along a-okay. Life is good. Disney World is still open. We can go there and there's peace and harmony. Then he says, sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. Now, when this phrase, a thief in the night, is used in Scripture to speak of trouble coming in an unexpected manner quickly, it's a metaphor to be alert in the Scriptures, to be awake, to be aware of the time and of a dangerous moment that can catch people unaware. That's the real purpose of what Paul is speaking to. And when it is used here and in other places, it is usually talking about the coming of Christ as, number one, a prophecy of the coming of Christ, and number two, as Christ's coming and His appearance and the church to be prepared. So it works both ways. And that, I think, is what we should really understand and focus on as we look at what Paul says here, as we consider the times we're living in, our world today, and a very real question that is not only on some of our minds, but the minds of a lot of people who are watching and trying to figure out what is going on with the, in this particular case, this tragic invasion by Russia of Ukraine and the efforts there in the Middle East. And it raises the question, where are we in Bible prophecy? What does this mean? And believe me, people are talking about it. I mean, my wife and I both go to the YMCA on a regular basis, and it's not difficult to get into a conversation with people there and in other places as well about the book of Revelation.

My wife got into such a conversation this past week with somebody there, and as they were saying, with all these nations gathering, it's just like the book of Revelation. And the interest is there, and it always is ratcheted up at a moment of crisis, but we ask the same thing. And it's a very good question. Where are we? Well, it's easy to make a general statement to answer that without getting into a lot of specifics, but it's really simple and it's basic. Here's where we are. We're at a point in time as we understand Bible prophecy before the appearance of a great world power that is described in the book of Revelation, chapter 17, as Babylon the Great. You can turn over to Revelation 17 and just kind of look to pinpoint one spot. You want to in terms of biblical prophecy, that is to where are we in Revelation, chapter 17. It says here that as John receives this vision here, he says of a great beast that rises up out of the waters. In verse 3, he says, he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns. Now this is a final appearance in Scripture of a beast rising up out of water. It begins back in Daniel 7, where Daniel had his vision of four beasts that come up and continues in Revelation 13 and now here in chapter 17 is kind of the fulfillment of all of these other visions, but all of them deal with a beast, a symbol of a power, a political power, rising up out of the waters or out of the nations. And when students of Bible prophecy, whether in the Church of God or the greater evangelical world, who do have a bit of an understanding about these things, they are able to see that something happening on the scale of what we're watching in Europe right now is significant. It is important to have a discernment and an understanding that's true and correct as well as balanced and responsible is another matter, something we have really worked hard in the United Church of God since our beginning when it comes to prophetic writing and teaching to try to do.

But where are we? We're between the sixth and the seventh head of this beast that is pictured here.

In the prophetic narrative that we have received in the Church of God, all of my life and that of many of you here, we look to the—and for—this final seventh head to arise out of Europe, involving events in the Middle East, the culmination of events that began in Babylon and culminated in Rome and the fall of the Roman Empire and various revivals through the history until this day. And we look for a final revival of a system to come in this particular vision that John has in chapter 17 that is a powerful combination of church and state. Coming upon a world offering a spiritual solution to world disorder, offering a spiritual political solution to a world that is caught up in problems of economic and of social and of moral and political danger. The type that we're kind of seeing right now in some of the beginning forays and stages of that. And people in this system who do not worship this system will take its mark in some way. And those who don't will be considered outcasts. And history and the Bible prophecy shows that the roots of this system are in Europe. And while at the same time, it will have a global scope as well. We've long detailed this in our Beyond Today magazine and booklets and programs teaching it and understanding it and all that it encompasses from the prophetic writings of Daniel, the Old Testament, and the book of Revelation in the New Testament. A proper understanding involves really realizing that we are talking about big events that are taking place.

And if we look at what is happening right now with the situation in Ukraine, with the tragedy of this Russian incursion, this war that is now beginning, as we take half a step back from it to assess it and to look at it with the time frame of the present, but also from a prophetic perspective and what has happened in history, it is important to understand that big events often are triggered by sometimes small events or other events that might not seem to be related to it. A good case and point of that is what happened in 1914, in June of 1914, when in Sarajevo, what is now Yugoslavia, an individual shot the Archduke of the Habsburg Empire. His name was Ferdinand and his wife, killing both of them. Nobody knew who he was. Nobody could even find on a map where Sarajevo was.

Quite frankly, like people, a lot of people on the street today before this month wouldn't have been able to find where Ukraine is without perhaps a little bit of prompting and pointing it out and other nations even in Europe. But that event in 1914 led in just a few weeks to the beginning of World War I, and World War I led to World War II, at a century of war that we are still dealing with in terms of the impact and coming to grips with. World War II was this sixth head of this beast image that came up, and that is part of the narrative that we understand. The world, the entire world was impacted by those two global wars. Some feel it was basically one continuous war with a few years of peace in between in the 1920s and the early to mid-1930s. But you know something? Our world is still impacted by what happened in World War II, this last beast appearance.

A couple of years ago, two years ago, my wife and I, along with Mr. and Mrs. Kubik, were in the Philippines to conduct a week of ministerial training with all of the ministry in the Philippines.

And before we started, we took the opportunity to go out to the island of Corregidor in Manila Bay, at the mouth of Manila Bay. Corregidor was the last holdout of some of the American forces and General Douglas MacArthur and Philippine forces at the beginning of World War II when the Japanese invaded the Philippine islands. And you can take that tour today and see the remains of what was an American base there. And they have left it just as it was at the end of World War II when the American forces came back and Japan was holding it. They just bombed it to pieces.

The barracks and the buildings, the battery emplacements, are all still there in the shape that they were left in 1945. And when we were driving around and looking at that on the tour that we had, I was just struck by the reality of the carnage and the devastation of just that war and how it is still with us. It is still with us. Books and movies are still being made that deal with themes about World War II. It's popular stuff in the world today. And now we are on the verge of something that we don't know how fast and where it will go. But we're dealing with events that are taking place very, very quickly at this particular point with the events that we are dealing with. What has happened with this Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has upset the order in Europe that has held since the end of World War II and especially since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, where people had thought that we had entered into the time and world of peace where nations could work together through globalization to prevent something like this ever happening again. It has failed. And we are looking at the events that are taking place that I've only seen on newsreels of what happened in 1938 or 1939. And that's kind of the focus or the reality of this. And what we are seeing is being changed. And it is going in, frankly, the way that we had traditionally understood events could go or would have to go to fulfill certain prophecies like this. We're seeing calls for Europe to rearm itself, and especially Germany. And that could change the entire balance of power in Europe because they're now awakening to the stark naked aggression by one nation upon another.

In this weekend's Wall Street Journal, there was an article I want to give you just a few quotes from it. The title of the article was The World That Putin Has Made. The World That Putin Has Made by Richard Fontaine, an analyst. And he starts by saying, in Europe, Mr. Putin's aggression achieved virtually overnight what decades of haranguing by American presidents could not. And that is Europe spending more money on their own defense rather than America footing the bill for it. And again, things happen very quickly. In just a few weeks, decades happen. He goes on to say that neutrality is waning. From NATO member Finland and neutral Sweden, both who've been aligned with the West against Russia, for the first time, majority of the people in those two nations are now wanting to join NATO and are sending weapons to Ukraine to assist them. The European Union, which for two decades has aspired to a military role without much success, crossed its own Rubicon. The bloc announced that it will provide fighter jets and other lethal arms to Ukraine. For the first time ever, the EU will finance the purpose and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that's under attack.

That's a watershed moment, he says. Within days of Mr. Putin's invasion, by contrast, at least 15 countries, most of them European, were openly arming Ukraine, NATO activated its response force, an advanced military force capable of rapid deployment for the first time in its history.

To appreciate that, again, we have to go back to the quote I started with.

There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen. Or another way to put it is just what we've read in 1 Thessalonians 5. Suddenly, like a thief in the night when they say peace and safety. This one quote that I finished with of a Europe arming itself and able to deploy troops is an interesting thing to notice because, again, those of us that have been students of Bible prophecy and the narrative we've had in the Church understand that a prophecy back in Daniel 11—if you will, turn back to Daniel 11 with me.

There are just a few verses that begin in Daniel 11 and verse 40 to the end of that chapter and actually into chapter 12 and verse 1 that pertain to our time and our period. I'm not going to read all those, but in Daniel 11, beginning in verse 40, the marker is right here at the time of the end in this very long prophecy that Daniel has. Shall the king of the south push at him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and many ships, and enter into the countries.

We've understood that this king of the south at the time of the end would have to be a confederation of Arab states, Muslim nations from the area of the Middle East, while the king of the north would have to be a European-based power, one of the various heads of what we just read in Revelation 17, and where I said we're between that sixth and seventh. But one of the problems of understanding that interpretation in the real time of the world right now is Europe has never been able to deploy its own armies any place in the world.

And so if our statement was right, and our understanding was right, and as I always tell the students, we could be wrong, but I don't think so. Then how would that happen? Because heretofore, Europe has basically relied on America to provide those troops, or anything of the magnitude that is described here in chapter 11. But now, with what has happened with this invasion of Ukraine, we're seeing that indeed, very quickly, Europe could move, by spending more money on its defense, into a position where they could have an advanced military force capable of deployment, as it says for the first time in its history.

This prophecy here in Daniel 11 goes on to show that it will sweep into the Middle East and deal with those countries there, come right up short into the land of the glorious land, or Israel and Jerusalem. I've set in on my book of Daniel class to learn all the rest of it. We're not going to expound all of that here today, but as I said, we've long wondered how that might occur. Because skeptics, and some of those skeptics of prophecy within our own midst, have echoed that same thing that I said.

How could they do it? They lack the military capability. But again, decades happen in just a very few weeks, and Europe has had a wake-up call. One final quote from this article in The Wall Street Journal.

The author says that Mr. Putin has sought to stop NATO expansion, roll back the NATO alliance deployments, and dominate what he considers Russia's sphere of influence. But the opposite outcome is more likely. His war could ultimately leave NATO larger, more unified, better armed, and with military deployments placed closer to Russia. For decades, the EU members have divided largely on East and West lines over how to deal with Russia. Now that problem is a source of common action. And he concludes by saying, a land war on the continent may well have helped to birth a new Europe.

And that could very well be what we're looking at—the birth of a new and a different Europe. When the Soviet Union fell, in the early 1990s, historians looked at that as America and the West won. Ronald Reagan, the beloved president of the 1980s, when he kind of went up against the evil empire as he turned the Soviet Union, his philosophy, he said, was very simple. It was, we win, they lose, is what he said.

Well, communism or the Soviet Union collapsed. And historians looked at that and said, well, history has ended. We'll enter into a new global period of peace and harmony, and everybody will get along and be tied together by trade and other technology and finance and economics, and war will be something of the past. And that hasn't happened. This, what some call a holiday from history, is over.

And many see that things are going to change. As we look at that, from a perspective of the Bible and Bible prophecy, we see that while the world has slumbered, a beast now seems to be stirring and awakening. And so, to bring that down to our level, if the end of history didn't happen, if the world has had a holiday from history that has been shattered and now they have to deal with a new reality, what does that mean for the church?

What does that mean for you and I? I can sit here in a nice, warm building on a really beautiful Sabbath day, and we're warm and well-fed. We have our lives. They've been rocked a little bit, maybe in some cases a lot in the last couple of years. But, you know, you heard the announcement. Feast sites are up. We're going to Disney World this year. Some of you will, and that's fine. We're going to go to the feast, and camps are going to roll, God willing, because COVID has receded into the past. We shouldn't have any cancellations on camps this year and problems, and we pray certainly that that has passed.

And we're thinking along those lines, and we are certainly, if we watch the news, you see the horror of what is taking place in Ukraine where what has been a peaceful nation is experiencing a tribulation. This is the tribulation for them when you see that. And I can't do anything except aid in a humanitarian effort. Pray thy kingdom come. Offer encouragement. Do what we can.

But what does it mean for us? How should it impact us? I've written and said to the class and in other places that when it comes to the church, we don't get a holiday from prophecy.

We really don't. Some do because some people don't like to hear prophecy and don't like to study prophecy. And I get it. Let me tell you, prophecy is not about charts.

And I pass out to the students every year a lot of charts.

But that's not what it's about, really, at the end of the discussion. And it's not about timelines.

You can find timelines wherever you want to go on the internet about what it all means and trying to figure out things. Prophecy is not about trying to figure out all the numbers, whether it's 2300 days, 1492. No, that's another number right there.

1260 or 1235 are all those numbers at the end of Daniel and three and a half years and time times.

At the end of the discussion, that's not what it's about. I used to think that it was, or at least I was taught that. And I've got all of those in my files and I've studied it, looked at it, discussed it. But that's not what it is. Prophecy and the events at the close of the age that the Bible talk about are really to spur us to good works, to change the behavior.

To a changed life. That's what it's all about. Righteousness. Godly character.

It's not about timelines, charts, and everything else. Oh, study it, learn it. There's a value there.

And students, you will have to pass the test that I give you here in a few weeks on some of that and understand that. But that's not what it's about.

And to spend time foolishly, futilely trying to figure all of those details out, God says, go your way. Some of those things are sealed up till the time of the end, as He said to Daniel. And He really says, blessed are those who come to the end of these events.

And if we happen to be living in a time when some of those events are beginning to happen, there's a blessing of those who endure, who come to the end, whatever and whenever that end might be. When I read Daniel and my focus on teaching it, I take away from the book of Daniel the biggest takeaway is a man of character. A man of character who wanted to understand his time and worship and serve God and did, and resisted his Babylon. And I take away that I've got to resist my modern Babylon. I've got to be able to identify when the Babylon that I live in is beginning to encroach on my life and take me away from God. That's my takeaway from Daniel.

When I read Revelation and when I teach it, you know what the big takeaway is?

Turn over to Revelation 1. You don't have to go any further than that.

Revelation 1. This is the takeaway from the book of Revelation and in a large overarching theme. There's a lot more within the book. But again, it's not trying to figure out down to the detail all of these heads and images and focus and sometimes even obsess unnecessarily on them. Revelation 1, beginning in verse 4, John 2, the seven churches which are in Asia, "'Grace to you in peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.' That's the takeaway. And has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever." This, as the book begins, is the takeaway.

The most important takeaway from the book of Revelation, that we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. Our sins are forgiven. We are just a few weeks away from our Passover, God's Passover, and the Days of Unleavened Bread. And we will examine ourselves and we will think about our lives in regard to that great purpose and plan that God's working out. And yes, it does include prophecy, which is why we really can't take a holiday from prophecy. Because people don't like prophecy or don't want to hear prophecy until prophecy happens. And then they want to know what's going on. My ministerial friends who threw prophecy under the bus in 1995 were on the phone calling me in 2001 after 9-11, what's this mean? What's this mean? Well, you forgot about what it might mean. Let me kind of walk you through that. And then when events like this take place, again, people stand up and they take notice. And I was having, I think I probably mentioned this, but I was having a dinner with my niece and nephew that one left the church, one thinks they're in the church, and a table full of other former Church of God kids and now adults and grandparents. And the conversation by the end of the day or the end of the night got to the point that we're living in times of revelation, aren't we, Uncle Darris? I said, yeah, I guess we could agree on that part, even though we might have some other disagreements. That's right, we are.

And this was just a few months ago. This is what I take away. All the rest is in God's hands, and that's what we should understand. And it's not in the margins of our Bibles.

The rest of the book of Revelation, the rest of the book of Daniel is in God's hands.

We are to watch. We'll not solve the problem nor prevent trial and tribulation. We can do what we can do and should do what we can do. But what does it mean when we bring it down to our level right now? And what should we really take away? Well, in 2 Peter chapter 3, beginning in verse 10, Peter does something quite interesting here beginning in verse 10. He kind of does it a condensation or a Cliff Notes version of just a lot of biblical events dealing with the end of the age, the day of the Lord, and kind of squeezes it all together to make a statement.

Verse 10, he says, The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. He's doing a lot of condensing right there in that verse.

But go on to verse 11. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, and he said they're going to happen. And he's already spent a chapter talking about the fact that people are scoffing. Everything's going to be the same, continue as it was, and they're scoffers and people leading them leading people astray from the truth. And he kind of brings it down and he says, these things are going to happen according to what the Scripture says.

And they'll happen on God's timetable, not ours. And it'll happen according to the way God wants it, not our particular interpretation. But they will happen because they're all a part of the sure Word of God. And Peter's conclusion is, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?

That's the purpose of prophecy. It's to spur us to godly conduct.

Better lives. Better relationships with each other. Deeper faith in God. Confidence that God knows what He's doing. Less fear. More courage. More confidence. Less uncertainty in our own life.

That's what it is to engender. Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for our new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. And that righteousness begins in our lives right now. It begins in how we live.

When we walk out the door from church, hopefully encouraged, hopefully informed by a sermon, a message, a fellowship that draws us together and makes us realize that we indeed are a family.

We are one body. We do have care, compassion, concern for one another.

That's what it should be. You know, I know full well why people avoid prophecy and the reason that younger people today don't and frankly even people from my own generation. I gave a shorter version of this sermon last week up in Columbus. I had to shorten it up because the choir took all my time. No, it wasn't their fault. My good friend Jim Hopkins got a little confused on the timing and whatever. But anyway, I got some of this in, but the comments that I had about prophecy and prophecy in the old days that came up to me were from the people there in Columbus that are my age. My age. Oh, remember how we used to talk about it and it was fire and brimstone and it turned people off. Failed predictions, etc. And I get that. And as we have moved, I find every year at ABC that when it comes to understanding prophecy, students have not had an exposure to it before they come to ABC. And so we have to start at a, you know, maybe a little bit more basic level than what I might have thought I had to, you know, some years back or some others because it hasn't been focused on or emphasized and some ministers are just not as comfortable and frankly some members don't want to hear it or don't want to focus on it for any number of good reasons. And I'm just as guilty of that because I went through my phase in my ministry where I didn't preach a lot about it. And then it kind of hit me in between the eyes at one point I realized hey this is part of the Bible and these are the words of Christ and this is his teaching and we better have a right, balanced, correct, principle understanding of Bible prophecy which led us to start taking that approach. But just as the world has discovered that history hasn't ended so we must realize that prophecy has not ended. And we have today.

We don't need to dwell on the past. Bible prophecy is still here and we are living it and it is frankly part of the hope that we have for today and for tomorrow. That's embedded in prophecy. And when we focus on that and that understanding as I just read from Revelation 1 that that whole book opens with the focus upon the Lamb whose blood we are washed in and by that blood our sins are forgiven and we have then hope of a relationship with God and hope of that family relationship and that glory to which God has called us and the coming kingdom that is here. And so that is our future.

So what should we do? Well, let's go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

Continue reading in verse 4.

Paul writes, But you brethren, as he said, peace and safety, the day of the Lord as a thief in the night, but you brethren are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. It should not.

The events that we're living through right now and the events that began two years ago with a pandemic should not surprise us to the point where we can't understand. We should not be, in other words, we shouldn't be in darkness about it. We should be able to have light.

He says in verse 5, You are all sons of light, sons of the day, were not of the night, nor of darkness. The truth of God, the grace of God, the Word of God opens up light.

Your words will lamp unto my feet, the psalmist says. And so many other scriptures that talk about that. God is light. Satan is darkness. And as we are children of God, we are children of light.

Now, when that comes to understanding the times and the seasons, not being caught unaware, again, I looked at that a few years ago and I realized, well, you know, it says in Daniel 5 that he had light and wisdom and understanding. Light, wisdom and understanding. Like that of the gods.

And that was a pagan queen. El Shazra's grandmother talking about Daniel. That he was a man of light, wisdom and understanding. We can understand the scriptures and the purpose of life, the plan of salvation, the Holy Days give us great depth of understanding of what God is doing, and the truths of repentance, of faith, of the Holy Days, of the resurrection, of the coming of Christ. And go right down the list. Those deep, eternal truths that we draw from scripture as our basic teaching, they give us light on God. And we know who God is and what God is and what God's doing. We know what we are. And all of that gives us light. And that's the foundation. And then as we begin to layer on to that practical understanding of the world we live in, we are not going to be walking in misunderstanding, in darkness. In verse 6 he goes on to say, therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. A spiritual sleep and a spiritual drunkenness is what he's talking about. So we are at our season of examination for the Passover and the coming Days of Unleavened Bread. And at this particular moment leading up to it, it is a time of awakening with these events in Europe. And it should be. As I said, the world has been sleeping. They've had a wake-up call. There is a stirring that is taking place.

What does it mean? We should understand. But let's go back a couple of years.

Two years ago at this very moment, we were entering into a shutdown with a pandemic.

We thought it might be a few weeks and turned out to be a few months. And then it came back in greater problems with last year with the various variants of this. And now it seems to be it seems to be receding in our rearview mirror for good as things get back to normal. And then this happens. And the impact of this is yet to be seen. You know, one of the things I thought about we try to figure out what's the mark of the beast. And that's another one of those numbers and those things. But it does say you take the mark of the beast is in your right hand and in your head and you can't buy or sell. Now, whatever else it might mean, you're not going to buy or sell.

In just a few days, we have seen what sanctions by a number of nations can do to one country, Russia.

Cut it off. Everything from they can't buy an iPhone, their ATM doesn't work, their ships are turned back, their airplanes cannot fly into Western or American airspace, ships are backing up, and sanctions have done a lot. Not maybe enough, but they've done a lot. And I've looked at it and realized, really? Wow! Imagine what could be done where one global power has the ability to do that wherever they choose and cut off to where you cannot buy or sell, either a nation or an individual.

And don't think that's not on the drawing boards to where it could happen. It is.

And so we're seeing some very interesting times take place. And frankly, the implications of this this war, Ukraine and Russia both grow more than 20% of the world's corn and wheat.

And while we have our Great Plains and our Illinois and Indiana farms here, places like Kenya, places like Kenya, sub-Saharan Africa, who are heavily dependent upon importing grain, corn and wheat from nations like Ukraine and Russia, are going to go lacking because Ukraine is not going to be planting this spring.

And whatever Russia does may not be able to be shipped. And the whole cycle is going to be uprooted. And while we might see a little bit higher prices and we can shell out a few more dollars, that's going to be some real suffering for some other parts of the world that don't have what we have in terms of an infrastructure. So these are things that are working and playing out.

Again, I'm bringing that to the point of this is now two years after what we went through two years ago, we had pestilence, we have war, is famine next? How have we reacted to these?

That's the real thing, the real critical thing. As I've thought this through, I've asked myself, how did I react two years ago? A year and a half ago? Even a year ago, how would I react now? Fear? Anxiety? Uncertainty? Or indifference?

I think the question that we all should ask ourselves is, how have these events of the last two years prepared us for becoming sons of glory? That's the end result of our calling.

God is bringing many sons to glory, Hebrews 2.10. We've embedded that into our vision statement for what we are to become and what the church work and mission is to produce among those disciples God calls and we care for. Many sons to glory. Have these times in the last two years of what we have lived through prepared us to become sons of glory? The role that Christ is preparing us for to be with Him in His throne? Kings and priests, which we've just read about here in Revelation 1 verse 6. He's made us kings and priests to our God. That is our calling.

And so have the events of the last two years sharpened our focus to that? Have they produced within us a calm, confident courage? We all have to ask ourselves that. How have we reacted?

It's been a roller coaster ride and we are here and we have seen some of our friends and family taken by the pestilence. And the war and any subsequent, we should be praying for the people in Ukraine that God will seal those who are His, those who He will as He can, friends, family, of our people. We should pray that God will seal and protect those that He has yet to work with. Mr. Kubik has had relationships with Sabbath keepers and he's written about the family that he has there. Others do as well. And we should be praying with a calm, confident courage to God to do the things that He says He's going to do at another time in the future in the book of Revelation by sealing people. God can do what He wants to do and who knows that He will not be moved by the prayers of His people. We should be doing that because I think God is watching the church and measuring our reaction to events of the last two years and what is yet to come. Going back here to verse 8 of 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul writes, let us who are of the day, that's us, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love.

As I said, we mourn over those who've died in recent months. When I was up in Columbus last week, I had learned of two members, one from Dayton, one from Columbus that I didn't know had died, from one from COVID for sure, and the other from perhaps a related disease.

People that I look forward to seeing every year at the Holy Days or the Feast. And I didn't know that they had died. And we all have been touched by that in recent months more and more, and we do mourn. And we are sobered by that. But when we understand God's purpose and plan, we do come back ultimately to the Scripture that says that in a sense that they have been spared from the evil to come. And that in God's eyes, precious is the death of his saints.

May not be precious in our eyes in the moment, and it may take a while. But their race is over.

Their race is won. And we continue on. And we remember and we mourn, but we also must encourage one another. They await the resurrection. That is our hope. But we need to encourage and take time for one another. That is why we put on the breastplate of faith and love.

That is what Paul says here. And to encourage and to take time for one another. It has been sobering.

As I think about people and that I will no longer pick up the phone and talk to, or they will not be a guest in my home and will not see it at church. And I think about, boy, did I spend enough time? Did I take the time when I had the opportunity to thank them for what they do and are and just for being a friend? So I write more notes these days.

I try to write more encouraging either an email or a handwritten letter to somebody, or to pick up the phone and not take for granted relationships. We can't.

We need to encourage one another and take time for one another. He goes on and he says, and as take on a helmet, the hope of salvation, the hope of salvation is like that helmet.

This is a modified Ephesians 6 armor of God here. He just covers a couple of pieces here.

He probably thought about, Paul probably thought about this armor of God. And by the time he got around to writing the book of Ephesians, he had it all laid out, which he wrote down all the other parts of the armor there.

But this is enough for us to think about, the helmet of the hope of salvation.

And that hope is what gives us a calm, confident, courageous stand to live our lives, to take what comes, to meet it, and these challenges and these difficulties, but meet it with the expectation of what God is doing with us.

We truly believe that we are being prepared for a role in God's coming Kingdom, then that is going to prepare us for that time in the future. That's what it should do.

That's what it must do for us, to focus us on the hope of God's coming Kingdom and the time when we are going to take that place that God has promised with Christ on His throne.

We do what we can now. We work where we can, and we contribute, and we make a difference in our own life. And we work with the intent of making our own neighborhood and our own city and the encounters and the world around us, family and friends, a better place by living a godly life and righteousness. But we keep our eyes on the hope of salvation that is going to come at the appearance of the Lord so that we will not be caught unawares on that particular point.

And prophecy has its place in preparing us and giving us hope, helping us to remember that God is in charge of history. His purpose is coming to pass and that God's going to work out all the details while we won't and can't. And while we should seek for understanding, we ultimately leave it in God's hands. And when we do, then we can focus on the really important matters of righteousness and relationships with one another. In verse 9, he says, For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

And so what Paul begins with at the beginning of chapter 5, to be alert and aware, not be caught unawares, that the coming of the Lord will be as a thief in the night, he moves us through this brief passage to the hope of salvation through Christ. That whether we wake or sleep, we will live together with Him. And when we keep our mind on that, then our mind will be focused upon the purpose for which God has called us, and He is preparing us for that future role. And the events of the last two years can get into more of a proper focus. And whatever the future will bring, we can meet it with a calm, confident courage, and not be fear-laden, anxious to the point where we cannot and will not be able to react properly in a godly manner.

If we can come to that, awake to the idolatry of our world, to the reality of God's purpose, to bring many sons to glory, then we're going to have a closer walk with God.

And the events that will swirl around us, and might even calm down for a period of time, to where we can, go to Disney World, or whatever it might be that we are yet to do, but we will be doing it all with the full knowledge of God's purpose and plan for each one of us to bring us to become one of His sons in the glory of His coming kingdom.

And if we can keep that focused firmly in our mind, brethren, we will not be caught unawares when the decades take place within weeks.