Uncommon Response

Uncommon Response To Uncommon Challenges

James 5:7-8
7 Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. 8 You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.
(NLT)

Introduction: I love this verse for several reasons…it tells us how to posture our hearts and lives with Patience…but it also tells us what to be looking for…”Rain, fall and spring rain…” According to Joel 2…we are to look for the “former and later rain” in the same month…Rain prophetically speaks of Revival and an Incredible Move of God…in preparation for Harvest.
Transition: This morning I want to discuss a few things:
1. Current Events in Israel and the Biblical Perspective
2. Eschatology or End Time Events
3. The Believers Response
My desire through this teaching is to bring Peace, calm and hope for all those who know Christ and in relationship with Him. My second purpose is to help those who don’t know Christ…”to choose this day whom you will serve.”
I. Current Events in Israel
a. Israel is God’s watch, His time-piece…not the United States or any other nation…Israel!
b. So prophetically if you want to know what is going on concerning prophecy and end times you have to keep your eyes on Israel.
c. Eph 6:11-14
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
ESV
i. I want you and I to recognize what is going on in Israel is first and foremost a Spiritual Battle….
ii. Politics can postpone the inevitable, but it cannot and will not solve all the Conflicts in the Middle East especially as they pertain to Israel.
iii. One of the things you need to know is Satan twists truth…He tears down what God is building up…Satan Distorts what is created, he cannot create.
d. How did we get here…and I am going to really simplify this from a Biblical Perspective….
i. Genesis 15 God makes a covenant with Abram for Abram…it is an everlasting Covenant…
ii. In Genesis 17 God reminds Abram of that Covenant and changes his name to Abraham…Father of Many Nations.
e. So, what is this Covenant about:
i. Land – a Promised Land; territory.
ii. Linage – a son who becomes a Nation.
iii. Lordship – Messiah…one who will be a savior and Lord.
iv. So, from Genesis 11 – Genesis 18 that covenant is being given and revealed.
f. In Genesis 16 Sarai the wife of Abram, attempts to help God in the Fulfillment of the Covenant…her and Abram are Old…Abram is 85 years old…
i. Now the problem is, Sarai believes her husband can produce the promise of God…she just doesn’t believe she can…
ii. Satan uses that insecurity, and perceived deficiency to twist, distort and attempt to tear down the Covenant of God…
iii. Sarai brings her Egyptian servant, Hagar, to Abram and says…Have a child with her…maybe she carry the Promise God gave you…I just know I cannot.
iv. Ishmael is the by-product of this relationship…
v. God gives Hagar a Promise over her son…
1. Gen 16:11-12
“Behold, you are pregnant
and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
ESV
g. Fast forward in our story 14 years…Abram is now 99 years old and Sarai has a Son, his name is Isaac…the son God promised that Abraham and Sarah would have is now born…
i. In Genesis 21:9 – Ishmael is mocking, laughing, to toy with, harass, make sport of…the boy Isaac…
ii. What kind of 16 year old is making sport, mocking and harassing an 18 month old?
iii. Here is what I want you to know…this is a spirit, not just a people…
iv. Who murders little babies and cuts them to pieces…and rapes their mom…like Hamas did…
v. It is a spirit that goes all the way back to Genesis 6…we see it in Egypt…kill the babies, the Chaldeans, The Romans…all through the Bible, I could show you right before a Savior or deliverer appears…babies are attacked.
vi. So Paul reminds us…” we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood but principalities and powers…” it’s not Ishmael…it is the spirit behind Ishmael…
Transition: So, the Covenant for Abraham was over: Land, Lineage, Lordship!
II. Abraham and His 2 Sons
a. Eventually both boys have a Lineage of sons…actually they each have 12 sons.
i. The Bible follows the Lineage of Abraham, through Issac, Jacob and the 12 sons of Jacob…as it pertains to the land and Eventually to Jesus ( the Lord, Messiah)
ii. Problem is Ishmael has a lineage of 12 sons, who have laid claim to the land and is waiting for their Messiah…Mahdi.
b. So, here in lies our problem…let me get us to modern day…
i. In the year 610 AD. Muhammed was reportedly visited by an Angel whom said was Gabriel…and gave him the text of the Quran…
1. Galatians 1:8 says, “If even an angel from heaven comes and preaches a gospel other than the one I am preaching…let them be accursed.”
2. Paul wrote this 550 years before Muhammed had his visitation.
3. It took 23 years for the Quran to be written…being completed in 632…it is said that Muhammed kept having these visitations by this “Angel”
4. 613 AD Muhammed began preaching this distortion…
5. In this teaching…Ishmael is the rightful heir of Abraham…so the Land, the Lineage and Their Messiah is going to be Lord.
Transition: The Quran was written 500 years after the entire bible was compiled…roughly.
III. Spiritual
a. This issue however is profoundly spiritual and not simply a geo-political battle…
b. I pray for the Palestinians and Israelites because until Jesus rules over them both they’ll be no peace…
c. The name Hamas means “violence” in the Hebrew language…
i. Hamas has created what is known as a “Double Bind” situation…You can lose or you can lose…any response you lose.
IV. Eschatology
a. Both Hamas and Christianity have a study of End-time events and the way they are to play out…
b. Hamas and this brand of Islam believes it will rule the entire earth…Hamas’ mission is to usher in that End-time period. Make way for the Mahdi…
i. The Hamas Covenant Charter (1988) says in the opening paragraph.
ii. “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
iii. “The day of judgement would not come until the Muslims fight and kill the Jews.” (article 7)
iv. The Hamas commander Mahmoud Al-Zahar recently said: “The entire planet will be under our law; there will be no more Jew or Christian traitors.”
Transition: Christianity is a faith of proposition…the ability to Choose Christ and Faith in Christ is completely left up to you…Islam is a Religion of Imposition…it is imposed on you or die…Convert or die…
c. Biblical Eschatology…refers to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ…Also the Rapture of the Church but there is a lot of ambiguity in the when of that…I say be ready…
i. Our opening text in James says, “Be patient as it pertains to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ…”
ii. 1 Thess 5:1-4
5 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
ESV
1. Matthew tells us some of the Labor Pains…
2. One is that Israel would become a Nation again…that happened May of 1942…scripture says that Jerusalem will no longer be divided…that happened in 1967…
3. Matthew tells us there will be wars, rumor of wars, pestilences, diseases, signs in the sky…there is a list…
iii. But in Matt 24:36-38 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (ESV)
1. So what were the days of Noah like…
2. Gen 6:11-12 “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.” (ESV)
3. Violence…that word is Hamas…
4. Not saying it is or it isn’t…just seems interesting…
iv. Ezek.38 & 39 which I don’t have time to read says that the Nations from the North and the South will converge on Israel…and it will appear as if Israel is losing the war…but then the Lord will come out from Heaven and will fight on Israel’s behalf…with fire…killing the enemies of Israel.
v. For us the Church it ways in 1 Thess. 4 “Jesus will descend from heaven with the shout of an Arch-angel and the dead in Christ will arise first and which are alive and remain will be changed and caught to meet the Lord in the air”…1Co.15:52 says this will take place in the twinkling of an eye, 82 thousand’s of a second…”comfort one another with these words…”
d. 1 Thess 5:9-10
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
ESV
Transition: If these words don’t bring comfort, I’d check my heart with Christ.
V. What Should Be the Church’s Response
a. Pray for the Peace of Israel…
b. Pray for all Government leaders who are involved!
c. Share the Gospel with People…not so much from the Perspective Jesus could come today…but you will spend eternity somewhere…where will that be and why…
d. Encourage other believers…don’t let fear run ramped in your life and in the life of your family…
e. Lastly be faithful to give of yourself, your time and your finances…so that the Gospel can continue to go forward. If the Church really believed the Rapture of the Church was about to happen I think we’d respond differently, we’d live differently.
f. Luke 18:24-30
24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
ESV
i. A camel through the eye of a needle…interesting language because the Jews truly felt that if you had money…then God’s favor and His Approval was on your life…
ii. JD Rockefeller once said: “my riches are a gift from heaven signifying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”
iii. The disciples were troubled by the saying of Jesus as well…
g. So what does this Mean…the eye of a needle was a small door that camels could get through to enter a city when the Gate was closed…problem is for the camel to go through the “eye of the Needle” they had to humble themselves and bend low…and take all the saddle bags off or they wouldn’t fit in…
VI. Closing
a. What bags are you carrying this morning that we may need to lay down, so we can enter the fullness of God’s Kingdom.
b. Zech 14:1-5
14 Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you! 2 I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.

3 Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west. Half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south. 5 You will flee through this valley, for it will reach across to Azal. Yes, you will flee as you did from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones with him.
NLT