Let Freedom Ring I, Living In The Last Days

If you're under the age of 30, would you stand up? Was that an awesome song, huh? Now, the rest of you stand up, and you guys turn to them and tell them, you guys just missed it. Everyone else stand up. You just turn to those folks who just stood up and say, you old people just missed that song. It was really good. Let's stand together and we're going to pray. Lord, there is a revolution. You didn't come as some wussy sentimentalist. You came as a revolutionary. You came to change lives and destinies. And I thank you that we hear that call. And we're stirred, Lord, and we want to be obedient today to know what it is you're calling us to do. Thank you that whatever our age, your truth is the same. Speak to us, I say. I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's go ahead and be seated. All right, if you have your North Way notes, I want to invite you to take the outline that's in there out of the notes. And let's look together at what God's word has to say about living in the last days. Living in the last days. I want to say while you're doing that, in advance, lest I forget later, I'm thankful for many of you who are coming to this small group leader's luncheon. It's right after this service today. I'm looking forward to that with a lot of anticipation. And I'm glad you're here for that. Well, since the events of 9-11 and the many tension-filled days that have followed, we've all been kind of struggling to find what one of my friends called the new normal. I mean, what's going to be normal today? What's going to be safe to do? What am I going to hear about in the news? What about my mail? Can I go to the mall? What security is going to be considered excessive? And what am I going to have to put up with that I didn't have to just a few weeks ago? What's the new normal? But can I tell you, when I walk in here on a Wednesday morning, and I go back through Eden Christian Academy, and I see a couple of hundred of smiling children, elementary-aged kids, or I walk out into the lobby about nine or so in the morning, and watch these mops, moms, come in with a couple of armloads of little preschoolers in hand, or little babies, and they open up those strollers that look like little mini SUVs with the multiple wheels and places to put everything in. But the moms are coming because they're hungry to hear about how to be a better mom and how to be a mom that loves God and loves their kids. I go up and I see the people getting ready for the Life Growth Institute classes that will be happening later that day, or I see someone who's coming in to get trained to be a servant in some way, or I run into some of our seniors that are going on a mission trip. Ten seniors going to Thailand right now. And I'm thinking, you know folks, what's normal in this church is awesome. And I don't want to take it for granted. I don't ever want to wake up one day and just say, oh yeah, that's going to be there. Because every day that we have is a day that God's granted us by His grace. Since 9-11 and the events that have followed, the anthrax mystery, the high alerts that our government keeps announcing, even locally, the barricades around the stadiums, the no-fly zone around the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant, which was just violated the other day and freaked out the people at the airport. All these events have gotten our attention unlike anything else in my memory. And that goes back a ways now, not as far as some of you, thankfully, but farther than a lot of you. The only other thing that comes close in my mind is when JFK died. November 22, 1963, I remember it. I did a little research this week. 20% increase in religious services the Sunday after JFK was assassinated. That's amazing. 20% is a big jump. That's millions and millions of people in this nation. Attendance went up after 9-11 in America, but it only went up 6%. I want you to know something, folks. It only went up for one week. All over America now, people are just kind of slipping back into their personal groove, their personal space, and just kind of hunkering down and watching more TV and just kind of keeping themselves a little bit more. If there was a wake-up call, I'm not sure it's being received. Some people jumped on the bandwagon and when they heard the wake-up call, they started pointing out to all the folks that they thought were sinners, and they said, well, you people are to blame, or you people are in deep trouble because it looks like God's getting ready to do something really big, and you're going to get wiped out if you don't clean up your act. Others didn't see any spiritual application at all. They were just ticked off because it's interrupted their economic acquisition plan, and things have just been put sort of on the sidebar, and so they're suffering a bit right now economically as we can't seem to get out of this recession. But not a few others have been asking, is this all part of some plan that God has really been unfolding in all of history, and I just don't know about it? There's a lot of people asking that question. In fact, a little more research turned up these things. Bible sales in the week after September 11th went up 27%. A lot of people said, well, maybe there's something in here I need to know. But interestingly, far more than the Bible, people are turning to things like the Left Behind series that went up 462% year to year. Oh, yeah, here's the latest one. Don't mob the podium, but it's desecration. It's coming out this week. Now, I have no personal problem with the Left Behind series, really. I mean, I think the Holy Spirit has taken this medium, and he's using it to get people's attention. I don't necessarily subscribe to the prophetic plan that's spelled out, and I'm not in line with every detail, but I want you to know something. I think the Holy Spirit knew what he was doing when he decided, hey, I'm going to get people's attention. Twenty-five million of these have been sold in this country, and they're still cooking. And you know what the core message of Left Behind is? I mean, I can help you. We can buy all the books if you want to. You want to know what the core message is? I mean, the one takeaway message? Jesus is coming again. And all these people are reading about it. They're saying, wow, that's really interesting. And by the way, if you're not prepared, you will be left behind. And there's another message that's throughout the whole series, and it's pretty powerful. And it's a message that says, and the world in which we live is going to be unraveling in pretty scary ways. And lots of things that we've taken for granted are going to be taken away. And I'll tell you, some people are reading the book or listening to audio tapes or whatever, and they're getting kind of scared. I mean, sometimes they read it, it scares the hell out of them, which may not be a bad thing. They just kind of get reoriented just a bit. But there is one problem that I have with Left Behind. And it's this. People take these things, and a lot of Christian people take these things, and they use these to kind of tantalize their mind and create a fantasy world and say, wow, isn't that something? And we just start going on and on and the whole deal of speculating what's going to be happening and do very little looking on the inside and asking God how would He want to transform what I'm facing in my life. It's not just information, it's transformation that God's about. You know, when the followers of Jesus, who lived in His day, had the opportunity to ask Him personally, and wouldn't it be awesome if Jesus came down the aisle today? Or would it be? I mean, maybe it'd be fearsome, but if He came down the aisle and you could ask Him, Lord, how do these things fit together? Would you have a question? Would you stand in line to talk to Him? I sure would. Well, some of His followers did that very thing. If you have your Bible, turn to Matthew 24, and if you don't, we'll try to help you with some of the verses up here on the overhead. The disciples were walking up out of the Valley of Kindred, where the Book of Kindred is up to the valley side, and they saw the temple, the reconstructed temple, which was not as glorious as the original one, but it looked something like that. And it was an impressive structure. The disciples, in verse 1, they called His attention to the buildings. It's not as if He didn't see them, but they just said, Wow, Master, look how amazing these buildings are. Verse 2, Jesus responds, Matthew 24, verse 2, Do you see all these things, He asked? I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down. Now, they went on a little farther. They came to the Mount of Olives. Jesus was sitting there. The disciples came to Him privately, and they were prone to do this. You see, they asked some of their toughest questions when other people weren't around. Tell us, they said, when will this happen? When is this all going to get destroyed? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus answered. These are by far the most clear prophetic words out of the mouth of Jesus during His lifetime. Watch out that no one deceives you, for many will come in My name claiming I am the Christ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me. At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. That's a sobering verse. You ought to make note of it. But he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come. When will the end come? When the gospel of the kingdom, the good news is preached to all nations. It's the clearest single sign. But all these other things are going to be happening in the interim as well. So are we living in the last days, you might want to ask? That was the question I posed out on the sign on the road. Are we living in the last days? And the answer, very clearly, in the Bible, I mean, if you read the Bible, the last days, according to Peter, Peter stood up, 3,000 people had gathered at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came with the sound of a mighty rushing wind. The people began to exalt God and worship Him in a language they'd never known. And Peter stood up and said, this is what the prophet Joel had said, that in, look at the verses up here, in the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. So, biblically speaking, listen now, the last days began the day the church was born. We have been living in the last days for 2,000 years. Duh, wait, that's confusing. I mean, is this really the last, last day then? Well, remember this. A day to the Lord is, what? 1,000 years, Peter said. And 1,000 years is a day. So God's, you know, this has been a couple of days in God's history that we've been around since the birth of the church. And some people, by the way, take that same time frame and they say, well, that means on the third day, the third 1,000 years is going to be like the resurrection when Jesus came out of the tomb, and He's going to rule in His 1,000-year reign on the earth. And they may have something there. We can very well say that it appears that we are at the last of the last days. But there are two marks of this last days period. One is, it's a season before the second coming of Christ. We are clearly in that season. We know He's coming again. And second, it's a season of the Holy Spirit's unique presence. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean this, that prior to the birth of the church, God just appeared at certain times and in certain places. God just would show up and He would invade people's lives or come into circumstances, and it would be miraculous and powerful. But He did not live inside of people. The Bible says that when Jesus was exalted at the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit came down, and the Spirit of God moved inside of people. And for the first time in history, God not just occupied the earth, He lived in people's hearts. Do you realize, do we know, church, how blessed we are that God, in this dispensation of His grace, has allowed for us to know the internal indwelling of His Spirit? And I just want to ask you a question. On your outline on the side, are those two things that I just said, are they true of you? Are you living in anticipation of the second coming, or are you scared that it might happen, and you wouldn't be ready? Are you living in anticipation, or are you kind of wondering, I'm going to miss out on a lot of good things if that happens. And second, are you full of the Holy Spirit today? Do you know that God's Spirit has taken up His residence? If you don't know the answer to those two questions as being yes, then I just want to implore you. That's why God brought you today, so you can know what life is about. It's so important for you to know that. Because if those two things are true, you will be able to live no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what the scare tactics of our enemies might be, no matter how evil things might become. You will be secure because you know God will be in you. And with God in you, you can face anything with confidence. These are the last days to be sure. But I want to ask you this question. Are you prepared to live well in these days? Let me just share with you, I came up with five particular characteristics out of these verses, and I'm going to go sort of in reverse order as Jesus revealed them. First of all, 24-14 as Jesus said this, people of the last days will share the good news. And the good news about the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it, and then finally the end will come. People who live well in the last days share the good news. What is the good news? People say, you know what? All I'm hearing these days is bad news. My portfolio is bottomed out. Anthrax is popping up all over the country it seems. Fear is affecting everybody. What is the good news? If I asked you, if I had lunch with you after this service, and I said, tell me what the good news is, could you do that? By the way, the word gospel, you know, gospel, that is another way to interpret the term in the Greek for good news. Evangelo, that's good news. The good news is this. God accepts us just as we are. Turn to someone right now and say, God accepts you just like you are. Tell them that. God accepts you just like you are. His arms are open to you. Listen, that may seem like a dumb thing to some people, but you know what? A lot of you grew up never believing that. A lot of you were never taught that. You were taught that God kept a distance from you, that he didn't like you, unless you did certain things. I want you to know, God accepts you just as you are. Why? He also recognizes that there is a condition in you that is also in me, and that is what's called a sin nature, an inclination to just do my own thing. And the good news is that though that nature, if left untended to, will result in my separation from God forever, God said, I'm going to send an answer to your problem. I'm going to cause my son to die on a cross for you. And if you receive his sacrifice for your sin condition, then you will be changed forever, and you'll be one of my children forever, and you'll fellowship with me forever. That's good news. Now, here's the thing that most people miss. You've just heard the good news, and you think, well, yeah, I guess I'm one of those people then. I've heard the good news. But there's a difference between hearing it and receiving it. This morning, when I left to come here to the church, I nearly drove over my Sunday newspaper. It's a heavy thing. They're getting ready for the holidays, you can tell. They're stuffing it with coupons and all that stuff. And I said, you know what? It's a good illustration. This thing sat there, this three-pounder, okay? Had I not stopped to pick it up and receive it, and if I don't take it out of the bag and read it, I'll never benefit from all this good news, whatever's in here. And you know what a lot of people are doing in America? They're driving right by the gospel every day. They hear it on the radio, they go by churches, they hear people talk about God, and they think, yeah, I know that. But the fact is, they've never taken and picked up the good news. They've never made it their own. They've never received it. They've never humbled themselves enough to open it up and say, yes, this is mine. And they just drive back and forth over the good news in their life. And in the end, it won't change them. And they'll be lost. I can't tell you how deeply I feel about this, but I want you to know, church, I'm concerned that we here at North Way lose sight of how desperate people are. Do you know how much power you have? Do you know how much you can affect people by just sharing with them what you've discovered about Christ? Do you know how many people are confused because they're hearing so much stuff on there? They watch Larry King, and they hear all religions go up the same mountain. Aren't the Muslims kind of believing the same thing? You just have an adaptation of what Christians believe. And it's all just getting sort of gobbled up together and spit out as sort of one universal religion. People need to hear the good news from you. They need to hear it. And I'm going to invite you right now to hear someone who had a passion to share the good news that she discovered with a family member. How many of you have a family member that you just are praying will come to know the Lord? Well, this person had that same passion, and she had to pray a long time to see it come to pass. Give a warm welcome to Laura Colby as she comes this year. Come on up, Laura, give her a hand. Thank you so much. This is your third time for sharing. Yes, I'm not as nervous this time. I'm Laura Colby. When I was in my early teens, my parents separated and started going through a very messy divorce. I was just beginning high school, and I had a younger sister, Heather, who was just beginning junior high. My mom moved out, and Heather and I bounced back and forth between my parents for a while before we finally settled in for good with our father. My parents were very much involved in their own heartache, so most of my teen years were spent being very independent of anyone else but my peers, whom I spent most of my time with experimenting with drugs and alcohol. I did manage to hold down a part-time job where my boss was a Christian man who was instrumental in leading me to Christ at the age of 18. I was so excited to have this new life and so relieved to know that someone cared for me just as I was. To know that Christ could meet me right where I was in the midst of the mess I was in was a freedom I hadn't even imagined could be real. I wanted the rest of my family to have the same thing in their lives so that they could also begin experiencing joy and freedom in Christ as I had begun doing. I thought I could explain this to my sister Heather the easiest. We were both going through the same emotions about the divorce, and she was now at this point just starting high school, and I wanted to save her from doing the same crazy things that I had done. So I immediately started to share this newness with Heather, and she immediately started to make fun of me. She would turn me off the second I would start to talk about bringing her to church with me, and she didn't want to hear a thing about God or what He could do for her life. She went out and actually found a greeting card that made fun of born-again Christians and accused me of thinking that I was somehow better than her because I was now a churchgoer. I could not make her understand me. I thought that since God had called me to Him, that that surely meant the rest of my family would do the same thing. But my initial attempts at reaching my sister weren't working, so I went for a different approach. I tried to become a better example to my whole family. I attended church regularly, I joined Bible studies, and I tried to live a more godly life. I prayed for my family, but I also began to carry a burden for them. I so desperately wanted them to know what I now knew, that my heart physically ached knowing that they didn't share my faith and knowing that I hadn't been able to reach them. A few years after becoming a Christian, I met my future husband, Jonathan. As Jonathan and I married and started a family, we tried to be open to God's nudgings of where to plant seeds with my family, and we tried to be open and honest about our faith. And as time passed, Heather did open up more and more to our beliefs. She started to attend church with us occasionally, but she still kept her distance spiritually. I continued to pray for my family for many years, but I started to think that God was either not listening to me or that I was just a really lousy prayer warrior. I just did not see anyone in my family ever becoming a Christian. I was so busy worrying about the final outcome and so busy complaining to God about my prayers not being answered right away, that what I didn't realize was that all of the praying and living that we'd been doing were actually working. God was slowly watering the seeds. My last few years of praying for Heather have now found her living in the Washington, D.C. area. She and her boyfriend, Matt, come to Pittsburgh occasionally for weekend visits, and the last time they were in town, mentioned they might come to North Way. Jonathan and I both serve on the worship team, and we knew from being on team on this particular weekend that the service and the message were going to be very powerful. So after the Saturday night service, I was strongly encouraging Heather and Matt to be there on Sunday morning, and they assured me that they would. I knew, however, that if anything would happen for them, it would have to just be directly from God. So once again, I prayed. I just prayed. I trusted that God would take care of it. And take care of it, he did. Later that day, Heather told Jonathan and I that both she and Matt had prayed with Jay that day. They had both looked up to a green prayer with him at the same time and realized they were both doing the same thing, accepting Jesus into their hearts and committing their lives to God. My years and years of praying had finally paid off. Thirteen years of praying, thirteen years of the burden, and thirteen years of not knowing whether or not God was hearing my prayers. There were so many times that I felt God wasn't listening and so many times that I felt I should just give up praying for her, but I am so thankful that God would keep reminding me to be faithful to him and that he stayed faithful to me. Not only did God answer my prayer, but he also fulfilled my desire to see my sister's life changed. Through all of this praying, God has revealed himself to Heather and Matt, but also to me. He has shown me perfect timing, he has reminded me gently of his greatness, and he has freed me from the burden of my sister's salvation. Thirteen years is a long time to pray for someone, but now I'm thirteen and counting for my parents, and I know that God is listening to me and that he will continue to hear me as I pray for them. Thanks. Could you identify with that? Have you found yourself just like hitting a wall with people? Prayer does change people's hearts. We share the good news, we do what we can do, and if you've not found yourself feeling equipped to do that, I can't tell you how highly I want to recommend the 401 class that's going to be held in two weeks. You'll learn how to do that naturally. But then, pray. Those two go together. Share the good news. We have got to see. That's our mission. The second thing the Lord said about people who live in the last days, who learn how to keep close to him, are folks who recognize that there is a real danger. Look at the next verse. Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold, but those who endure to the end will be saved. Jesus says, in effect, keep your heart for God warm. Let me ask you a question. If you were just to be left alone to yourself, you had two years to go off and just sort of be left alone and mind your own business and do what you enjoy doing, would you grow more passionate for God or less? If you're honest, thank you, you would be less passionate. You'd find yourself more preoccupied. You'd find yourself drifting along. You would find that your concern about survival or success or stuff or other things would gently nudge God out of his rightful place at the center of your life. We're all wired that way. It's the strangest thing. And Jesus says in the last days, sin is going to increase. That is to say, willfulness against God is going to be on the increase, and as a result, we're going to be under intense pressure to want to cave into that, and because of that, the love of many will grow cold. I have a little theory on this. I think part of it is that people are going to become so preoccupied with their own survival, and if you want to call it self-worship, you can. They're going to be so involved in their own lives that it's going to kind of flip-flop, and I think a lot of people are going to get pulled into it. You know, I've been seeing that now. I've been seeing people already just kind of pushing back just a little bit, and that's why believers that I look to as sort of models and men and women of great integrity who are leading our nation have interpreted the events of 9-11 and following, and by the way, young Christian leaders who I think have a heart for God are saying the same thing. They've interpreted the call, the wake-up call, not to the sinners out there, but to the church in here. Chuck Colson writes in the latest edition of Christianity Today, judgment always begins with God's people. I don't want to hear that, do you? I want it to begin with the people out there, but God said, no, it begins inside. He looked at the church. So the first message of the church must point to our own need for repentance, and if we are honest, he writes, we have much to repent for. Our idols look a little different from the culture. In other words, we have allowed things to push God out of our life just like the culture has. I believe he's right. That's why the song we sing around here is so true. Don't let my love grow cold. I'm crying out. Light the fire again. Light the fire again, Mark. Number three, turn your outline over. In the last days, Jesus says, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Number three, avoid deception. There's an increasing level of what I want to call theological fuzziness out there. This information that Frank mentioned early on in the service, this bombardment we get, it just kind of all starts to blend, especially theologically. You hear people saying, well, you know, the Muslims kind of believe the same thing we do. I mean, Jesus was a prophet in their religion too, and then you hear about, well, you know, we're not that different from some of the other religions that are out there, and we all just sort of fit in. I mean, Oprah Winfrey stood up at Yankee Stadium at the Interfaith Service and said, every person that died in the World Trade Center instantly became an angel. Now, no doubt that sounded comforting to the people who heard it and needed to hear. No doubt that was driven by compassion. I don't doubt that. But theologically, biblically speaking, there's absolutely no basis for that. How one dies has nothing to do with their standing before God. It's what you do with the cross. And we need to be very clear in these days, loved ones, to avoid deception, avoid the idea, and you're going to be kind of pressured at times. You're awfully bigoted, aren't you? You're closed-minded. Jesus is the only way? Well, I didn't say it, and you didn't make it up. God said it in His Word. And if He was anything less, then He wouldn't be God. Avoid deception. Avoid the deception also that you don't need other people in this journey. How can I say it? How many times can I say it? If you just show up here on Sundays or weekends, Saturdays or Sundays, you are not in the flow of life, and you're going to miss out, and there may come a day when you're going to turn for help, and you're not going to know where to turn. Don't buy into the deception that says, you know, I've got... I can kind of make this... On the strength I have within, I'll just listen to my self-help tapes, centered down in me, and I'll make it on my own. Jesus warns against it. Number four, He says, then you'll be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You'll be hated all over the world because of your allegiance to Me. Verse nine. Stand firm, Jesus says, in persecution. Now, of the five characteristics, this is the one that I think least applies to us right now. I've not been persecuted recently for my faith. Have you? I mean, I didn't have someone falling around trying to beat me up or throw me in jail for being a Christian. I took all the bumper stickers off my car just to be sure. But, you know, never can be too safe, you know, in good old America. But, in fact, if anything, in our culture, things have kind of flip-flopped, haven't they? For the first time in my memory, it's like, okay, to be a little public about your faith. We even had a prayer meeting gathering over at Pine Ridge Football Stadium. On a rainy Sunday afternoon, over a thousand people showed up just to pray and stand together and say, we're believing God. We'll touch this nation. Touch these churches. So, it's kind of okay. But, you know what? There's going to come a day that it's not going to be okay. And all of us who really stand for Him are going to come under intense persecution. And, by the way, it is happening like that in some places. Did you read the paper on Monday? Fifteen Pakistanis were mowed down in a worship service. People came in with guns and killed them. Why? Because they were worshipping Jesus. The only reason. And 40 or more were injured alongside of them. More martyrs have died in the name, or for the name of Jesus, in the last 100 years than in all of recorded history prior to that. Eventually, it will happen. And Jesus says, stand firm and count yourself worthy when you're persecuted. Count yourself blessed because He deemed you worthy. Finally, He says, you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. In other words, resist fear and don't panic. And I have to say, it is not easy in these days to resist fear. You're likely to hear me say this a number of times in the next weeks until it gets through into all of our hearts. The real enemy that we're facing in these days, listen, the real enemy that we're facing, no matter how mature you may perceive yourself to be as a Christian, the real enemy we're all facing is fear. The spirit of fear has been unleashed in the world today. And the spirit of fear has been sent out by the evil one to pull people away from the spirit of faith, which is the kingdom of God and His ways. Now listen, if you're like me, we just have a way of doing things that we're comfortable with. We have a way of behaving that we've kind of gotten into. And the spirit of fear comes and lies to us that somehow by trusting God we're going to have to give up everything that really matters to us. Fear divides and fear kills. And fear certainly paralyzes. The fear of economic collapse right now has paralyzed some of us into obeying the Lord and being responsive to the teachings of His spirit and our giving. The spirit of fear tells us that if we reach out to someone it's going to involve us and we're going to have to be involved more than we can afford to be. And God said, no. It says you serve, that you're one of the greatest in my kingdom. The spirit of fear lies to us about security and about health and about the hope that we h