This afternoon, I want to do an introduction to prophecy, because on this 41st chapter, he talks about some things that he had prophesized, or got it prophesized, or talked about earlier through some of his other prophets. I'll start at the 20th verse, 19th verse, I'm sorry, and it says, I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shidom tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together, that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord had done this, and the Holy One of Israel had created it. Produce your cause, said the Lord. Bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring forth and show us what shall happen. Let them show the former things what they be, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them. Declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter. that we may know that ye are gods, yes, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and behold it. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of naught and abomination is he that chooseth you. I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun. Shall he call upon my name, and he shall come upon the princes as upon mortuary, and as the potter threaded the clay. who had declared from the beginning that we may know, and before time that we may say, he is righteous. Yea, there is none that showeth, yea, there is none that declare it. Yea, there is none that heareth your words. The first shall say to Zion, behold them, and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings. For beheld, and there was no man even among them, and there was no counselor, that when I asked of them could answer a word, behold, they are all vanity, their works are nothing, their mold and images are wind and confusion. Throughout time man has put together images and gods and graven images and idols and things that he had looked to. But hear God sing, declare your reasoning, it's like being a court scene, a court opening up and God saying state your case you've been indicted state the reasoning and Rationale for which the things that you've done for the actions that you've taken To make a bow down to these images and everything He talks about Cyrus his leader that he had sent and that he had declared by name and you'll see we went throughout and he'll play your own way called Cyrus name and But it was prophesied that Cyrus would come and do this. And he comes to the point where he says, verse 22, he says, let them bring forth and show us what shall happen. Let them show the former things as to what they were, that what they may consider and know the latter end of them are declaring to us things to come. Let your idols or what you prognosticating about They don't show what has happened or why it happened or understanding to it, as God's Word has shown what had happened, when it came to pass, when it would come to pass, and also future things. God shows things unto His people, and that's what has come to pass, and that's how His Word is based upon of what God had said. Like I said, it goes all the way back to in the beginning when Satan said had God said God has said it and it shall come to pass and his word speaks of those things So we could talk a little bit about Prophecy here, and I'm just kind of introducing it to you and next time we'll talk about some aspects of prophecy and things in prophecy but the purpose of prophecy Why, you know, why is there prophecy? Why do we go through prophecy? First Kings, the 18th chapter, the 17th through the 18th verse, it says, And it came to pass that when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam. Elijah here is declaring himself as a person from God, and that he knows the answer to the problem as to what's going on, just like what's going on in the nation today, what's going on in the world, and that's why I say watch out for Christian nationalism or whatever. It's not just abortion in itself. People, the Christians, have rode that hobby horse for a long time about abortion, and I don't know what hobby horse they'll choose now to ride or whatever. But that's just a consequence of some of the ills or some of the evils of this nation. And Ahab here causing Elijah, saying Elijah was the problem. No, Elijah was just a prophet. People feared the prophets because the prophets came with something that had went awry. They came with a message from God. Elijah had told him there should be no rain nor dew according to his word. So for that three and a half year period, there was drought and famine in the land, according to Elijah's word. But it was because Israel, chiefly Ahab, had followed his wife Jezebel. That's a lot of things that the people nowadays are doing, are following the lead of the women, are following the lead of evil and walking against the words and commandments of God and that's what Elijah said. Elijah told him that you have walked the transgress the commandments of God. A prophet will always have the law of God at the foundation of his message. That would be the underlying current of his message. We studied the word of God and consistently studied the word of God And studying the word of God, God reveals to his people, to his friends, to some close to him, as to what's going on. Amos 3 and 7 says, sure that the Lord God will not do anything, will do nothing, but he revealed his secrets unto his servants and the prophets. That he tells them what he's doing and why he's doing it or whatever. Remember he said, shall I destroy, since he's going to be the father of many nations, shall I destroy Sodom and Gomorrah without telling Abraham what I'm doing? Remember he went and told Abraham that he was about to destroy, because God warns us, and that's just like with us a lot of times. If we warn our children or friends or other people of things that's about it, that will happen if you transgress these laws or these commandments or this instruction. And let's just say doctrine, because a lot of times at the base of it is doctrine, instruction. These are the consequences. And if you're a righteous person or a conscionable person, when you're wrong with something, you realize that you have transgressed some instruction or someone had told you about these things. You know, I don't like to be the parent or the type of person to say, I told you so, you have to go back. But they should realize it just like the apostles and things. They realized that Jesus had told them or whatever. That's the deja vu moment. That's why. We are to warn people. We are to give people God's word and tell them what thus says the Lord. The Bible students know that Scripture is about 30% prophecy is what these 66, what this is about. About 30% of it is prophecy. And preachers have cautioned that prophecy should take no more than the equivalent percentage of our studying time, that we shouldn't just focus mainly on prophecy. With some people, though, prophecy is their study, and that, frankly, is pretty bad that all you do is go look at revelations of what thus they hear. And just like a lot of the Word of Faith, a lot of people pick out the blessings out of the Old Testament, but they never do touch the cursings of the other portions of it. They become prophecy addicts, you know. These are the ones that always want to hear about revelations and the mark of the beast. What is the times of Jacob's trouble? Some prophecy or whatever. They become a prophecy addict. The late great planet Earth and left behind. That was a great series, selling series and points to that. They become, have a prophecy obsession or whatever. And I tell you, God is seeking for balance in our lives. We must have balance in our lives, just like my mother would used to tell me to eat my vegetables or whatever. At nighttime or different times, you would crave sweets or desserts or whatever. But you must have a balanced meal. The government has that pyramid. It has that pyramid of what your plate should consist of. You have your carbohydrates, your proteins, and vegetables, and all of these things. So it's kind of neatly divided off in the Bible. You have your history section. You have your books of history in the Bible. That's definitely needed, but sometimes it's kind of boring to some people to go through Exodus and the Levitical laws and all of this different things and the big gadget, all of this or whatever. A third of it is doctrine, you know, that's a lot of it is doctrinal instructions in the book of Leviticus and some of the other writings. Another third is to, let's see, a third is doctrine, a third is history, and a third is prophecy, which the Psalms fall in some of those categories one way or another. History, like I said, sometimes you want to ignore parts of the Old Testament history or whatever people cast out and they end up casting out the baby with the bathwater. Doctrine sometimes is not stimulating. I know the church It used to be when the pastor, I was assistant pastor, I was doing a lot of the preaching then when he had got sick or whatever. And I would focus a lot on the Old Testament because that's what's written for our admonition. Those are things that, that law, that structure, that underlying structure is based on the apostles and the prophets. So we must know doctrine and some of it is not stimulating. Studying it brings visions of things that I bring out that say it in this commentary, some passages of things written down. in unpronounceable words and things that underlie. But that's, it's like faith is, faith is the substance of things. So you have to have an underlying structural something that you're built on. And that's the doctrine, he says, told Timothy, that is able to make you wise unto salvation. So doctrine and instruction is necessary. Prophets, you know, to a lot of people, you know, they would love to know what's going to happen here. Tell somebody about this and then you have the different people that have been famous for saying about prophecy or whatever. Prophecies, imagery and symbolism are fascinating. and the revelations you're reading about the beast and the bold judgments that's poured out and all of the symbolism that's there and the lurid women, you know, it's seducing spirits of the hair and the teeth and all of the images that's there. The battle of Armageddon, when it's this Armageddon coming out and they go fighting 144,000 and all of these things in Revelation and then they will have a plague, a beat, a plague, you know, and this kind of plague and destruction and all of these different trumpets sounding and all of this makes it, you know, mystical. That's what we love. That's what we focus on. But now you don't know anything about the rest of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation or any of that other stuff. But you want to go focus on prophecy or whatever. And you read about, you know, the red dragons and all these things. Prophecy is infused with a sense of mystery and expectation. There are enigmatic numbers to ponder and riddles and words to play, you know. What is this? The six, six beasts, what is, that's the number of men, that's this, what does this six mean and that six mean and the ten cities and The Jehovah Witness is talking about the 144,000 and the 24 elders and these things. Beyond all this, many prophecy buffs believe that the preponderance of the Bible's predictions will come about soon, you know? And that's what people are saying. Is this the biblical plague? What is this COVID? What is these things happening? Is this the famine? Is this the great tribulation? When is the times of the great tribulation coming about? For evangelists, prophecy makes a wonderful hook to get people interested in God's words. You know, a lot of times you have a hook. You know, it's like that trailer you have for a movie before it come out. You show the most exciting parts of whatever, and then that gets you interested in the movie, and they have picked out the most exciting clips. That's just a hook to get you in there or whatever. As a hook, prophecy works well, but as a staple in our spiritual diet, It produces deficiencies in spiritual health because sometimes it's understandable. Sometimes we don't know quite about these things, the prophets and things. They didn't even know about what time they were prophesying of. some of the clarity of some of the things. And Daniel's book of prophecy, he was trying to get an understanding of whatever. And God says, go your way, Daniel, seal up the book. So that book was sealed away as revelation is an open book. It says we should know the Bible's prophecies. That's good. We should know those. And we should be watching world events because a lot of them are fulfilling or coming toward or help you to understand the end times. So that's why I ask y'all a lot of times, what are you reading? What are you studying? news are you listening to? Is it just a lot of commercial slop or garbage or whatever? Just what kind of diet are you partaking of? We should be speculating to see how current events might fit into the Bible scenario. I was listening yesterday about a guy that he was talking, I forgot his name, it was on Sermon Audio, about the false prophets and the prophets that were saying about Trump was going to win re-election, and he was going to be re-elected. And I don't want to name names, just like he didn't want to name names, but a lot of your mega pastors, and if I called some of the names, you would know them or whatever, that were saying Trump was going to win re-election and all of these things. But as to that, those that didn't backtrack off that. With those statements, you can go back and see those that said that. They should be labeled as false prophets, that you don't believe anything that they say. If they prophesize that that didn't come to pass, that means you don't fear that prophet anymore. You don't fear that individual. That's one thing about a prophet. He can't be like the TV weatherman. He can't say a probability of rain, or this might happen, or this. Once you say, thus saith the Lord, once you go out there and say, he's gonna be reelected, or this is gonna happen, or whatever, and it doesn't happen, It's like people that prophesize that Jesus is coming back on this day or at that time and he don't come back. That makes you a false prophet or whatever. But none of these things should be done at the expense of doctrine and Christian living. All of these prophecies and things or whatever, like I said, we don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water, but a good underlying structure of understanding and knowing doctrine and Christian living, then you maybe could understand prophecy a little bit better or whatever. What is the purpose of prophecy? I asked that earlier to start with. It's ultimately to glorify God. If you notice, that's what God was bringing in because he had told the end from the beginning. And that's what a lot of people like about it. He says, we know how this book ends. We know how the world ends. We know how life ends. And that's what I tell people when they be talking about the great revival or whatever. That's not biblical. That's not biblical that man's gonna change and begin living right or whatever. Jesus Christ, the revelator, that's the ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ that he gave. That's what the book of Revelation is. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. A lot of people say John's revelation. No, Jesus Christ gave it to John to reveal it because God gave it under Jesus Christ. But he's the reveal, the apocalypse, the apocalyptic. That's what revelation is. So ultimately, prophecy is there to glorify God as to what's going to happen, what is happening, and what course the world is on. Through prophecy, we can see God as he works his plan over many thousands of years, over the time. uh... many of the old testament prophecies about the coming of jesus christ that he was going to be born in bethlehem and he's born of a virgin that he called out of egypt and all of the prophecies of jesus christ in the old testament and i told you about the gentiles god called in the gentiles and now we see that israel was just a representative uh... type of the church the church that was coming So we see proof of God's existence and power in fulfilling the Bible's prophecies. And that's Isaiah, the 40th chapter, the 12th through the 29th verse. We went over that during that time, those prophecies and the things that had been fulfilled at that time. Prophets also exhibits all to see that God is sovereign over the affairs of men. That's Daniel 4.17. and what he desires he brings to pass. Isaiah 55 and 11, God brings all these things to pass. That's why a lot of people, and they'll be talking about their children and different things. If we trust in God and that he's able to keep that which we've committed unto him, have we committed everything? Our children, our resources, all we have, have we committed that to God? Because if we cast all that upon him in our burdens and cares, Their salvation is in his hand, it's not in our hands. So if we place all in God's hand because he's able to bring these things to pass, is prophecy in the Bible so we can know what is going to happen? Is that why it's there? Well, yes, but not to the degree that most people think it's in there. It's not in there just that you've got a head on, you know. Would you love to know when you're gonna die, or when this is gonna happen, or when that's gonna happen? I don't know whether you will or not, but some things that's there, it's happening, and you can see that it's following a logical, once you get to an understanding of God, you start to see the pattern that God has here. She says, surely the Lord does nothing unless he reveals his secrets to his servants and his prophets. In the New Testament, he says, you are my friends. So with friends, you tell people things, you know. Don't those that's closer to you, your friends or whatever, know more about you or the things that you could do or whatever. You would tell your friends secrets and things that you tell nobody else. You reveal that, so God's word reveals to his children the things that are going on and the things that are about to happen. But this does not mean that we'll have a complete or precise foreknowledge of the events. So let nobody tell you that they have, just like what would happen if they did vote, the Supreme Court did knock down Roe versus Wade. Now it's having different effects that they didn't realize that it would have toward men and women, toward different things in society, toward employers, toward a whole lot of other things. The ramifications of these, so that's why I say there is no magic bullet or nothing that we could do to put people on a path to Everybody worshiping God and that Christianity is the one, because what happens when the Christianity that the pastors and the leaders have gone awry, because it says it's your priests and the prophets, it's the leaders that have taken you in the wrong direction and in the wrong way. Jesus himself warns us, he says, but of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my father only. So that should stop a lot of people from the things when these people that declared, this is when Jesus Christ coming back, he's coming back at this time and that time. Well, we know it's a false prophet at that time or whatever, because Jesus says, no one knows. Not even him himself, he says, but my father only. Only the father knows that, that's a knowledge only the father contains. And just a few verses later, he tells his own disciples, he says, therefore you also be ready for the son of man comes at an hour when you do not expect him. It will say, as the days of Noah, they will be eating and drinking and people will say, peace, peace. And these will be suddenly appear. Now this is a massive hint that our understanding as much as it had expanded over the years. You know, a lot of things had came to light because even during the apostles' time or whatever, they was expecting his return during their age and during their time. And that's when some 40 or 50 years later, they started writing it down. The Gospels, they start, that's why a lot of the Gospels and the writings are very old, like Galatians and some of the other books of Paul was written before the Gospels was written. They just begin to write it down because they started to get old and dying out because they thought it was coming at that time. But it's just like we sometimes, as we get greater light, our parents, didn't walk in the light that we're walking in. So as it comes toward the end, you'll see that. Not that they were wrong, but they didn't have the complete picture, that they didn't have the complete light, and there wasn't as much light. So the illumination gets brighter toward the end. As you're putting together a puzzle, the more pieces you put together, it illumines more what the puzzle, how the puzzles could be. As much as it expanded over the last few decades, still not enough to remove the surprise from Christ's return. And I tell everybody that I think I'll be here, I'll be alive when he comes back. Hopefully, I'll be alive when he does come back. As I, years ago, I was telling you when I was working at Southern Livestock, I was saying, thinking the next 30 or 40 years, Jesus would come back. Well, I'm thinking now maybe in the next 10 years or 20 years, he may come back. I think he may come back before that time. The way society is now, I think it may be even shorter than that. See, so being followers of Christ, you can get an approximation of about what time, but the time in the hour, you know not. we can maybe tell or see some of these things. Paul also warns us in 1 Corinthians, for we know in part, and we prophesize in part, for we now see in a mirror, but dimly, and that's what I'm saying, the clarity is getting more clear and clearer, but it's still not, it's bright, you know, it's still not definable, we can't tell, we don't know yet. This convinces that we do not know for certain how things will work out in the end and what approach is and who is this, but we can feel or we can see the falling way of the church. And that's what I was telling you about. I think Christian nationalism would be here in its fullness in the next three or four years. And I think that's what's gonna bring about the Great Tribulation. I think we may be entering into that time now. So Christians and people do surmise, you do have opinions and thoughts. That's why God had made man the way he had made him, because there's always hope and there's always trying to find and figure out what God's revealing unto us. We understand in part, meaning we have a vague idea of the course of events, but we cannot honestly be dogmatic and say, have a speculative scenario, just like the guy was on talking last week, a couple of weeks ago about the price of gas that it would be in 2023 before it starts to lower or whatever. but then the following week and it started lowering and now it's below four dollars a gallon a lot of places and it's coming down more and more. We're talking about inflation and now the people that stock market and stock market I was looking at Motley Fool and Kramer and Susie Ortman or whatever her name is, about the stock market and how did it start to gain and whether it's going to be a balsa and it's Kramer saying now we're going to have a bull market, that it's starting to rise and what's going on. All of these are things that we surmise. It's speculative. And that's a part of what mankind is. But we speculate according to God's word, walking in his word, looking unto his word. Every interpretation of end-time biblical prophecy should be a with a proviso, you know, with something that says such as, this is where things seem to be headed. This is what it looks like, or this is what I think, or this is the closest from what we understand right now, this is look like where this is headed, or this is what's about to happen. So we like that prophet that comes with the law in hand, the commandments of God. It is good for us to remember what Apostle Paul writes in the 13th chapter and 8th verse of 1 Corinthians. He says, love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will fail. Where there is knowledge, it will vanish away. The point of Christianity is not to note a final score before everyone else does. God has called us to glorify Him by putting on the image of His Son. That's what we're to do, glorify God by putting on Christ. the image of his son. But we said that's what glorifies God in prophecy, glorifies God. So we should know those things and have them, but to know that there is an end to prophecy. Prophecy won't always be. That's not something that goes on into eternity. We must be careful that we do not let ourselves be distracted from what's the most important thing. That's why I say so. Prophecy is important, but it's not the most important thing. That's not to stay on track. That's something that we keep an eye on. It's like the gas needle and the water temperature needle and the oil pressure light. As important as those three are, probably the most important one would be that oil light. Because if you run out of gas, you just have to work hard, find some gas or whatever, and it's hard to get that gas. Well, with the water, it'll start to run hydrogen Shut down and do a thing. But with that oil light, you blow that engine up, that engine will come to a creaking halt, you run out of all that oil light that come on. They tell you shut it down and that check engine light come on with the oil pressure that drop. You put the tail, the valves and everything, that engine will lock up on you. What we need to keep the wheels grease we have to keep the wheels grease prayer helps to keep the wheel grease praying always Luke 21st chapter 29 through the 35th verse now. This is a proviso here This is what I'm saying here because you have to read the first verse 1 through 20 1 through 28 in Luke to see what he's referring to, what he's talking about here. So let me read, he said, and he spake to them a parable. He says, behold, the fig tree and all the trees, when they shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise, ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. And take ease to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life. And so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of the earth. In this parable, like I say, he's relating the parable of the fig tree to give instructions or warnings about those things that were asked him in the previous 28 verses. These things, in other words, in verse 31, refers to the question asked in verse 7 and Jesus' subsequent answer in verses 8 through 28. That's a dialogue that he had going, answering with this parable as to what they asked him about end times and the things that would be happening. These things, these things are the events foretold to happen as the end nears. Those things that were a certain set of things, that's why I say, we have to be students of the Bible to grasp these things. That's why I say, prophecy isn't important and it's a third of the thing, so we should know the components that should be lining up toward the end time. Because one of them is perilous times shall come, it shall be perilous time. That they will be disobedient covenant breakers, unthankful, unholy. Those could be disobedient to parents and things and all of those things are components of knowing what's lining up. Just like they say, well, when the pecan trees start to blossom or whatever, cold weather's gone or whatever, and the fig trees or plum trees start. But sometimes something extraordinary could happen. Orion or Pleiades could be in a different orbit than God does or whatever, and sometimes they have come back and have that frost or whatever that comes in and kill the blossoms or whatever and that's sometime when you have a hard summer or whatever because now the trees aren't going to be as fruitful or whatever. It's just like that in prophecy because Some things does happen not according to as we know about. In the parable, Christ provides the perspective that we should have as we anticipate the unfolding of the previously described events. So as these are going along, and that's why I say experience, that is knowledge and understanding and wisdom of God. Hopefully this is not boring y'all or whatever, this introduction to prophecy, or maybe it's the wrong time of afternoon or whatever. I hope I'm not catching y'all at a drowsy point in time here. Like I say, some of it is not the most exciting things, but I think I need to lay this groundwork in these two. Teachings as we're coming up to prophecy as what he's talking about here, and we will visit it again in a few other chapters But at least I've been laid this part of the groundwork What owner of a fig tree would spend hours each day? Scrutinizing this tree to see if it was budding you know my brother be actually bought my plum tree and about these things I say I think it is I may have seen a plum or something on it the other day or something but I I don't stand out there all day every day looking at it and see whether it's bud or whether it's plums or things coming out or whatever. That's what I said, we don't want to be over-obsessed with these things. Would he make the fig tree the focal point of his day? Nah, not really. Of course, no one would. Nothing but someone that's, I don't know, they're wasting their time. I think it would be a great waste of time. It's like watching water boil or something, you know. An owner of a fig tree would be aware of its location. its level of health, and its progression through the annual cycle of growth. But these matters would not require an all-consuming effort. Because I know I sprayed some of my other trees, because I know some trees that I didn't spray, and people was talking about organic or whatever. But when I didn't spray them, some of the trees started to get a fungus on them, and the fungus killed them. But you'll know when to spray the dormant oil and the different things or whatever. You know, it's cyclical. You do these at certain times, but you don't spend the whole time on those things. The parable then shows us that we should be aware of prophecy. We should keep an eye on what's happening in the world, but it does not require and we should not allow it to become our primary focus. We have to learn to do more than one thing and to keep other things going in our lives. in the fake tree analogy Jesus illustrates for us. the balanced view that we should have for prophecy. And I was telling you earlier, life has to be about balance. You can't sit there and read Psalms 23 all the time. You can get beyond that. There's many other Psalms that's comforting. And I was telling you yesterday about, I mean, Isaiah 41 and 10, a lot of people use that as their favorite verse about fear not, I'll be with thee and I'll strengthen thee. As we go along, we have to start balancing out. I'll tell you about the preacher. He used to be a Pentecostal preacher. I used to be on, and they would call him OX 238 because they knew that's where he was going up, that's where he was, that was going to be his leaning post. Some make the mistake, a spiritually dangerous mistake, of ignoring the lessons of this parable by making prophecy a major or even sole focus that distracts from their primary spiritual responsibilities. And that's what I was telling you, that all they know is the late great planet Earth, the Left Behind series, and some of the World Tomorrow books and things, because I read a whole lot of that or whatever, because I used to follow Herbert Armstrong a good bit earlier. You know, my father had listened to Herbert when he was younger or whatever, you know. So that's some of the things that I got from my father, listening to Herbert Armstrong and The World Tomorrow. When they branched off, I listened to Ronald Dorrick, Born to Win, a good bit of whatever. Every once in a while, I would listen to Wright and Bob, but John Wright and Bob, it's balance of some things. Well, let me not go towards that. Let me just leave that. It is easier to focus on prophecy and world events than it is to give the same scrutiny to evils lurking in our corrupt heart, to follow those things. And I tell you, that's what a lot of people are talking about, abortion and murderers and robbers and everything. But you're not focusing on resentment and bitterness of people that are oppressed or poor. greed and covetousness, all of these other sins that are not as maybe heinous as these other sins or whatever. But it's white-collar or blue-collar sin or whatever. It's not the ordinary guy with a gun shooting you. and killing you or robbing you at gunpoint or something, but it's the Michael Milkins and things that rob poor people of millions and millions of dollars and how many Ponzi schemes and people that have taken millions and millions of dollars through financial means or whatever. The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, and who can know it? That's where the focus should be. the purification of what's in that old heart or whatever. In Luke 21, Christ definitely does not overlook the latter as we see verses 34 and 35. But it says, But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that they come upon you unaware. Carousing, driving around and drinking and Pleasure-seeking and tailgating and all of these things, they said, because it was going to be as the days of Noah that people were eating and drinking, and the flood came upon them. So worried about the things of this life, it goes in there about the seed that was sown among the thorny ground, and the cares of this life choked that seed out of it. It couldn't be fruitful. the cares and the things of this life, drunkenness, intoxication. And that's not just alcohol, that could be any, just like they changed it from drunken driving to DUI, which is driving under the influence, because there's so many other things that can have us driving under the influence. It says, for it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. So that's why we have to look at prophecy and look at the purpose of prophecy and everything. Because it's going to come up on the earth, it's going to come upon the people of the earth as a snare. A snare is designed to take your life, where it's something in a trap or sometime you can take it out of a wire trap or whatever. but usually a stare you're taking into your life at stake. Like with birds, a mole trap or something, usually a stare takes your life. That's why it talks about the young man in Proverbs and the adulterous woman. Now with the opening, but in verse 34, Christ's message takes a definite turn. Here's where a turn comes in at this message. He says he's still talking about preparing us for the end of the age, but he shifts from the external events of verses 7 through 33 to the internal. It says, take heed to yourselves lest your heart. These are the people who hadn't been converted. These are the people whose mind is not being transformed. It says take heed. Now when somebody says take heed, when Christ says take heed, He's saying be aware, watch carefully now. examine this closely. He's no longer talking about world events in this fashion, the physical and internal, but our hearts, the spiritual and the internal process. What condition that is in? You're building bigger bonds, but what condition is your heart in? All of these other things you're doing, how's the inside doing? What's going on there? He gives us a warning to those who are not spiritually aware and focused, those who are distracted. That's like the lay of the sins. They were distracted. They were in church, but they were distracted. And that's why I ask y'all, are y'all living, are y'all really woke? Are y'all really hearing this coming in? They will be caught completely off God. That they come upon them unexpectedly because their hearts are misdirected. That's why I say, have you ever been caught off guard? Caught unaware, that puts you, you're discombobulated, you're all out of whack here. Because this is what you wasn't expecting, you wasn't ready. It's like getting hit sometimes. If somebody, something put to hit you, you could kind of brace yourself, get braced. But this come out of the blue, and something just comes out of the blue. Verse 35 reemphasizes that the end will be a surprise. to some people, one that Christ compares to a bird snared Well, why is this? Verse 34 supplies the reason for that. It says, they are burdened by the cares of this life and not focused on what really counts. Because those things on life, they come and go, and that's not what's primary. Your primary thing is what condition this is if you're not here. You know, you can lose your car, you can lose your house, you can lose a whole lot of those things. What happens when you lose your life? Are you going home to be with your baker? Are you in good steed with God? They are looking in the wrong direction and the trap springs on them without warning, rather than overcoming the world. as the lay of the sins, he had said in 1 John 5, 4. We're not overcomers. We're being overcome. And they're entangled. You kept using that yesterday, that you become entangled in this world's affair. If he'll call you out of the world, he says, come out of her by people. Well, what happens is that you get tangled back into it, and it's there. He says, the latter end of that person is worse than the beginning of it. Because now you didn't get back entangled in this that you had escaped from. You returned back to this. Between verses 8 and 33, I said, now read that whole chapter because that praying always would let you be able to escape. In other words, be aware to clear this. Verses 8 through 33 and verses 34 and 35 of Luke 21st chapter. We can also see a contrast in the awareness levels we need to be regarding the physical versus the spiritual. You remember I told you there's a physical world and there's a spiritual world. And the awareness that we need in the comparison of those two as to when they're going over For the physical, we are to be aware, but not over-attentive to that. You know, it's like that pot to boil. You got something on the stove cooking or whatever. You're aware of it. You keep that pot stirred or whatever, but you're tending that pot, but you're not standing over that pot. You're cooking beans or something that's stewing for a long time, or you put something on the grill, on the spoker, or whatever, you're aware it's there. You can turn it and do whatever necessary process, but not over-attentive to it. For the spiritual, however, Christ raises the level of vengeance, of vigilance. Not vengeance, but vigilance, because he says, watch. He says, the flesh is weak, the spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. But you have to watch and be circumspective because the devil has a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. That's the thing is, you have to be careful spiritually. That's why I told you, he says, take heed to yourself, watch it. You have to be careful, take heed to yourself, be on God, be on God. He exhorts us to be in a high state of spiritual alertness. And that's the thing about it, that spiritual alertness. To be spiritually aware of these things. That's why we can't forsake assembling together of ourselves or whatever. Because this thing's spiritual, it'll come at any time. They came at Jesus in the middle of the night, in the middle of that watch. Satan's going to come. He says if the good man of the house was aware of what time the thief was coming, he wouldn't have allowed himself to be broken in. A thief comes at any time. It's like a thief in the night. You have to be ready. One thing about prophecy, when people be saying these things, it's of no private interpretation. There's nothing private about the scripture, the interpretation of it. Now Peter goes into this, but I'm reading John the 13th chapter and the 19th verse. It says, I will tell you this now so that when it happens you will believe on me. That's what the Living Version says, but I want to read the Amplified Version here. It says, From now on, I'm telling you what will happen before it occurs, so that when it does take place, you may believe that I am He. In other words, I'm who I say I am, the Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah. with these things. You remember they took note that Jesus had said these things in the spiritual sense. That's what I say. It's different than physical. And Jesus had told us, the disciples, some things dawned on them that Christ had said this. Am I getting through here? In other words, awakened or regenerated as to this awareness comes in. In other words, something I preached six months or a year ago or whatever, something happens and it snaps a spiritual trigger that, you know, the pastor, this is what I read and this is what I say. This is biblical. In other words, this is of God. Something happens and this comes that he says now before it comes or when it comes He says I tell you that this is it that you'll know that I'm he That's faith. That's the thing that starts to let you know that God is God because this is the only way. This comes all the way back to the 41st chapter. The 41st chapter where he says that he had told you these things that as they coming in the past, only God would have knew this. This is supernatural unto me. That's how kids could be converted. That's how things could happen. That's why I said, we don't have to tell you I told you so or whatever. If it's of God, that's how you gonna know. That's how repentance go because God brings this about, it opens up your awareness that this is God. And I got to straighten out my life, I got to do these things. when you start having a knowledge of God. If it doesn't trip that wire, if it doesn't trip that spiritual consciousness, you're still sleepwalking. You haven't been quickened or made alive yet. Jesus tells us within the context of speaking of his betrayal, how we are to approach prophecy. He says, now I tell you when it comes to pass that you He repeats this two or three other times in John 14, 29, 16, and 4, so that we understand that prophecy has its greatest impact on us after it is fulfilled. your mom or somebody told you this, or your dad, or somebody told you this, after it happens, it dawns on you, that person that comes in, I should have listened at something, you know, a lot of people say, I should have listened at something or this, but we're talking about when you come to a knowledge of God, when you come to a knowledge of when that cock crowed three times that Peter was aware that Jesus had told him these things was gonna happen. But now this makes you aware that God was in that God has drawn this principle into us since Moses day He says the signs of a true or false prophet is whether or not that prediction comes true Deuteronomy 18th chapter 21st through the 22nd verse. Why are they still sitting in the churches under that pastor, a person that prophesies that Trump was going to win a second term, that he was going to win that election. This guy prophesies this to you, but it definitely didn't come to pass. When he's a false prophet, we shouldn't fear that individual. The prophet Ezekiel vividly illustrates this principle. God made him do many strange things which represented points of prophecy, many of which have yet to be fulfilled. So I won't go through all of that, but God says of him, thus Ezekiel is assigned to you according to all he has done to you. you shall do. But I don't know how much I've studied. I showed y'all in that book of Ezekiel that Ezekiel acted out his prophecies like the shaving of his hair and putting it in the pile and taking out some and weighing it and then eating the dung that was cooked, eating the food that was cooked over this or whatever, but he allowed him not to use human dung, but he used dove dung, different things. Dozens of times in his sequel, God uses the phrase, and they shall know that I am the Lord, different variants of that. In other words, when different things start to happen to you, But now you're starting to realize that there is a God. This is why this is. In other words, you're being able to make a correlation between what has happened just at that time and what God said would happen if you did this, if you did that. But if you're not awakened, if you, like I said, if God hadn't come into your life, so that's why I say sometimes just lecturing our children, lecturing people and telling them the law. If they're not truly given to God and God has put it in them to repent and turn to him, if he's not calling them, they'll be like Moses passing that burning bush. I don't know how many times he had passed that bush until God came into his awareness and had awakened him to start seeing that was God. See, because he's Isaiah the prophet here. He's trying to get over to these people and he's talking. But you remember, God says that he was gonna blind their eyes, that he was gonna make them dull of hearing and cause them not to be able to understand. So this has to be drummed in and drummed in. And when it finally comes in, that means God has quickened that person and awakened that person. And then that person, that's why I say, in his studies and reading the Word of God, it's so much there to read that two-thirds, but when you read that one-third part of prophecy, you'll see where it says, that's why this has happened to you. Now you know that that's God, because This principle is in effect that I wasn't tithing at one time, but since I started doing this and I've been in so many bonds, that's why I can say that there is a God because when I've been following this principle, my bonds have been full. I hadn't had lack and this is going on in my life. That's why it says he's gonna strengthen us. When we start to learn that, our health may change. Our health may change. We may start being more obedient in every other area because we're growing in faith. We're becoming mature. So, the other two-thirds of God's Word awakens us to prophecy, and we'll see that prophecy is there that confirms what God has been telling us all along. But it ain't just going to prophecy, to this and see some big woo-la or some magical act or whatever. But it's parting a long heart. In other words, It's study. It's keeping your nose to the grindstone. It's coming sometime in rain and in cold and hearing the teaching and hearing the Word of God. This is trying to receive, retrieve that pearl that's buried, that diamond. We're seeking God. It takes time to find God and it's hard work. We have to labor in and we learn through much suffering. But a lot of people that has it easy, that revelation is not coming to them because they're not plowing the field. Once you start plowing the field, what's plowing the field? It's digging up your fallow ground. It's uncovering, in other words, your fallow ground so when God's word does reign in there, when that rain of word of knowledge, God can hit you in the middle of the night and you can start understanding something that drops in there from what you read and you're reading something now, now it comes to action. It's alive. You know God, this is God's word. That word is actually coming alive in your life. So that's how prophecy works. It works hand in hand. That's why I tell you, praying always, that God would open your eyes, that God would open your ears, but you still hadn't given up on your children. You're still praying for them, even though they're like, you hadn't given up on your husband, you hadn't given up on your wife, your friend, you hadn't given up. That's why Isaiah, that's why Jeremiah says, I still won't cease to pray for you. So you're able to do all these things and yet and still you a doer of God's word. Heavenly Father, as we come before you.