Living In Light Of The End

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Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

And let me just say this before I pray.

If you're here and you're new to church or you're exploring the claims of Christianity, I just want to say to you that the goal of God is to set you free, not bind you up.

So if you came to get jammed up and beat up this morning and made to feel bad, you're in the wrong place.

The gospel, the good news of Christianity is that God looked on a people like you and me living in bondage, and he said, I want those people to be free.

That is your native environment.

It's what God created you for, and it's what he aims to deliver you to, okay?

And so everything we were going to read this morning in the Bible is about getting you and I aligned with our created purpose, which is expressed in one simple word: freedom.

That's why Jesus says, if the Son has set you free, you're free indeed.

That's why the Bible says in Galatians, it was for freedom that Christ set us free.

Because even when we're set free, we'll turn around and choose our preferred form of bondage.

But God says, no, no, no, we're gonna come back to freedom.

We're gonna come back to freedom, all right?

So I just want you to know that.

That may be all you get out of today.

And if it is, that's enough to live in the rest of your life, okay?

Let me pray.

God, thanks for the truth of the Bible.

It sets us free.

When we sing great hymns of the faith like He leadeth me, it's a reminder, God, that we were born on third base.

We've been lying and telling everybody we hit a triple.

But the reality is that you're leading us.

We're just in the wake of your goodness, God.

We want to stay there.

That's our posture, that's our position, that's where the good stuff happens.

We say, like Peter, where else are we gonna go for the words of life?

Who's gonna tell us the truth like you do?

Who's gonna set us free?

Who's gonna tell us the things we don't want to hear but need to hear?

You are God.

Not because you hate us, but because you love us.

Not because you want to bind us up, you want to set us free.

Lord, we don't want to be afraid of freedom.

Freedom isn't to be reckless, it's to be righteous.

And so, Lord, uh, illuminate the scripture today.

Cause it to come off the page and into our head and our heart, find expression in our hands this week.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Everyone say, Amen.

Amen.

If you've got a Bible, you can take and open up to Daniel chapter 12.

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

Daniel chapter 12.

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

If you're visiting for the first time today, today may sound a little bit weird when I read in the Bible, but we've been going through the book of Daniel.

We're to the last chapter.

We're gonna finish it today.

And it's really this last section is the last three chapters of Daniel, 10, 11, and 12, where the book of Daniel is about a man named Daniel that had an intimate relationship with God, and God revealed things to Daniel.

He didn't reveal to anything to anybody else.

And here at the end of the book, he reveals to Daniel this one last vision and says, Hey, here's how it's all gonna shake down in the end, which is why I want to talk to you this morning about living in light of the end.

Living in light of the end.

He basically shows Daniel way back in the sixth century uh BC, before Jesus ever comes, he says, Hey, this is how it's gonna go down.

Now, I want to just remind you of this that this is called eschatology.

It's a big word.

Eschatology means the end times, like how's the world going to end?

It's why most people are infatuated with the book of Revelation, but they don't understand it, because we're all curious about how's the world gonna end?

And I want to make sure I'm ready for that, okay?

But here's the constant application of eschatology.

When you understand something about the end times, how the world's gonna end, uh, the constant application is just real simple.

It's this question, okay?

Because this is true.

What kind of people ought you and I to be right now?

Because this is true.

What kind of people, how should this affect our current living?

This is what I mean when I say living in light of the end.

So here's what I'm gonna do, okay?

Lay all my cards on the table.

I'm gonna read the whole chapter so you can kind of hear what it says for yourself.

I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna point out five things that the but that jump right out right off the page of the Bible.

And then at the end, I'm gonna say, let's just think about this for a little bit.

Some questions come up on the screen.

We we we believe that God speaks to you in a language that you understand, and we like to think about what the Bible says, okay?

And then we'll be dismissed.

You down for that?

Say amen.

All right, Daniel chapter 12, verse 1.

Daniel 12:1

At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince, who has charge of your people.

And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time.

But at that time your people shall be delivered.

Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.

Now keep in mind, this is an angel talking to Daniel, telling them how this is all gonna shake out.

Verse 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever.

But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream, and one on that bank of the stream.

And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, How long it how how long shall it be to the end of these wonders?

And I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the stream, and he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and he swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and a half time.

And when the shattering of the power of the people, uh of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be finished.

I heard, but I did not understand.

And then I said, O my Lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?

And he said, Go your way, Daniel.

For the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.

Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined.

But the wicked shall act wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.

And from the time of the regular burnt offering is taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be twelve hundred and ninety days.

Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the thirteen hundred and thirty-five days.

But go your way till the end, and you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.

Now, what does that mean?

Man, there's a lot.

There's people floating over the water, this, that, and the other.

There's five things in the text of Daniel chapter 12, I want you to see this morning.

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

The first one is simply this this is what allows us to live in light of the end.

Number one, God's people will be delivered.

God's people will be delivered.

Look at what he says there.

He says, There shall come a time in verse one, there shall come a time of trouble, such as never been since there was a nation till that time.

But at that time, your people shall be delivered.

Now, the Bible promises that the last days, and let me just clarify something, uh, because I didn't go to church hardy at all as a kid.

And the few times we went, the preacher would try to scare the hell right out of you, okay?

And they would always talk about the last days.

We're living in the last days, you better get ready.

Jesus is gonna come back.

I was such a wicked sinner, I would quietly in my head and heart whisper to Jesus, please don't come back.

I'm only 12 and I'd like to get married one day.

Now that I'm married, I pray Jesus will come back.

It's just a joke, just a joke.

Don't tell my wife I said that.

No, here let me tell you something.

This gets me kicked out of the preacher's club.

I'm ready for heaven.

I can't wait to go there.

I don't want to go today.

I want to enjoy my life.

I want to see my kids get married.

I want to get my grandkids liquored up on Mountain Dew and keep them up until 9:30 at night and go, I don't know why that baby's still sleeping at noon.

I don't know what the deal is.

Okay?

And so if you're here today and you're not like, oh, I feel bad because I'm not like ready to go to heaven today.

I'm I'm excited about heaven, but I want to enjoy the life now that God's given me to live.

We'll get we're gonna end on that note, but I just want to say if you're here and you think that way, that doesn't mean you're an unspiritual person.

It just means you enjoy your life.

Now, when we talk about the last days, a lot of times preachers use that to scare you, to make you think, oh, because I remember they would show movies about the rapture, it would scare the bahooty out of me.

I would go home and pull the cover over my head because I was just like, oh Jesus, I was so scared, I didn't know what to do.

Look at me.

That's not good preaching.

That's not when the Bible talks about the last days, what he's talking about.

By the way, we've been living in the last days since Jesus ascended back into heaven.

The last days are the time when Jesus ascended to heaven and when it and when he'll come again from heaven to get his church, his bride, the church.

And so we've been living in the last days for a long time.

Now, what the Bible's very clear about is that there'll be this ever-increasing persecution and hostility toward the people of God that will reach its climax at the time of the end, as it says here in Daniel 12.

Uh, think of it like this.

Uh, if you've ever seen a hockey game, say amen.

Yes, hockey is a sport.

It's not football, it's like football on ice, okay?

But basically, in a hockey game, if your team is behind, what they will do is they will pull the goalie.

Like if it's three to two, they take the goalie out of their goal and they get an extra skater because they got more guys taking shots on goal.

And there's this rapid fury of flurry of activity because they're doing everything they can to score a goal to tie the game.

The Bible says as we get closer to the end, as we get closer to the bottom of the funnel, as time begins to run out, persecution and hostility towards Christians and the things of God will increase.

It's already begun to happen if you look in America.

Uh, it it there's this hostility.

That's not personal.

Don't think, oh, people, people don't like me.

No, no, no.

They don't like the God that you worship.

Now, that's not fear, that's just understanding.

Now, when I say God's people will be delivered, by the way, the Bible has has laid it out there all along.

This is in the New Testament, 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1, the Bible says this.

2 Timothy 3:1

Talking about the last days.

This is so authentic and raw and honest and real.

Ask yourself this question.

If you were making this up, because I know some people are like, oh, the Bible's just written by men, why would you include this first sentence?

Look at what it says.

But understand this.

Then the last days there will come times of difficulty.

How's that for a recruitment pitch?

See, one of the things about the Bible, it's self-authenticating, is it doesn't pull any punches.

He says, Understand this, in the last days there'll become times of difficulty.

What will that be like?

Well, people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents.

Read that to your kids.

You're living in the last day, young man.

Ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power, avoid such people.

For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth.

This is the last days.

It's going to just get increasingly, but the Bible says this in Daniel 12 at that time your people will be delivered.

Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.

Now, there's comfort in that truth, but there's also clarity as to who are considered God's people.

The text goes on to say, here's who God's people are, he's referring to.

Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.

Now, when you hear that, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book, two thoughts should pop into your head, or two questions should pop into your head.

Number one, what is this book that they're talking about?

And secondly, how does your name get in there?

Okay?

Now, let me just pull back and slow down a little bit.

This is a reference to what's known as the book of life or the Lamb's Book of Life, and the names of God's people are recorded in there before the very foundation of the world.

Let me say that again.

I'll show you that in the Bible.

This is uh like if you look in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, chapter 20, talks about the great white throne judgment, where judgment day happens, and he says that books were opened up, and everything, and the dead, it says death and Hades will give up the dead, and the people were judged according to what was written in the books.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

Okay?

Now, this establishes the guilt, the universal guilt of all mankind.

They stand before God and say, Yeah, but I was a good person, and everything they've done is recorded in this book.

And so this establishes their guilt.

If you're a Christian, your name is written in the Lamb's book of life, that establishes your innocence.

And so there's a huge difference.

You don't have to live in fear of judgment or like, oh well, I I haven't been a perfect person.

Now the Bible says, and I'll show you, it says these names are written in the Lamb's book of life before the very foundation of the world.

If you think I'm making it up, you just jot it down, check me later.

Revelation 20, starting about verse 11.

It says that death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, the sea gave up the dead that were in them.

In other words, there's nowhere you cannot die, a tragic death that excuses your appointment with the divine judgment of God.

And people think, well, you know, I think I've done pretty good.

When they open those books and you're judged according to what you have done, let me tell you something.

You do not want to be judged according to what you have done.

I don't want to be judged according to what I've done.

But this is how God establishes the guilt of mankind.

If your name's in the Lamb's book of life, it establishes the innocence of God's people.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

Here's some places, all it's mentioned all through the Bible.

We just don't really train our eye or ear to hear it and see it.

Uh Revelation 20, if any man if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21, but nothing unclean will ever enter it.

Talking about heaven, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Uh, the New Testament, Philippians 4, Paul's talking about these women that really helped him.

And he says this, he says, Yes, I'll I I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

He says, Hey, you can tell these people are, these are God's people, their names are written in the book of life because look at how they live.

Revelation 13, he says, And all who dwell on the earth will worship it.

Talking about the beast, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Revelation 17, the beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction.

And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see this beast because it was and is not and is to come.

And then finally, Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Let me give you the context for this.

Jesus gives his disciples, his followers, authority.

He sends them out and he says, Here's what I want you to do.

I want you to preach the good news of the kingdom.

I want you to cast out demons, I want you to heal the sick.

Man, they were like, Hello, can you imagine?

It's like driving to work tomorrow with an invisible bazooka on the front of your truck.

Anybody that cuts you off, you can just blow them up.

Amen.

Enough about my personal fantasy.

I mean, they've got power.

He says, Hey, you've got this power.

And they go out and they come back and they are freaking out.

They're like, Oh, Jesus, you would not believe.

Which, by the way, never say that to Jesus.

Of course he would believe.

It's kind of like we can't believe that we have the authority you said we had.

He said, Man, demons were subject to us in your name, and we we healed the sick.

Look what Jesus says.

Luke chapter 10, verse 20 says, Nevertheless, he said, nevertheless means, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, right.

Luke 10:20

That's awesome.

Did that surprise you?

I told you, I gave you that authority.

Hello.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this.

Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Again, Jesus is referring to this reality that governs and kind of tempers the life of God's people.

What we see here is that this happens before anything happens.

This happened before the foundation of the world was laid.

This is how sure and secure and sealed our relationship with God is.

And so you don't have to feel bad about having certainty about your relationship with God.

Because once that comes to be, like my name was written in there, and that became reality for me on July 5th, 1982.

That's when I became a Christian.

And ever since then, I've and I've grown in my faith and I've understood the Bible.

I don't doubt my salvation.

My salvation is as secure as the nature of the person who's responsible for it.

And that's not me.

I didn't choose God, God chose me.

He revealed himself to me.

And so if you're sitting in here and you're like, I don't know if my name's in that book or not, it can be.

It can be.

The Bible says, Whosoever will.

That's why we preach the gospel to everybody, but we live with a sense of certainty, okay?

And that's the first thing I want us to see.

First thing I want to say to you is that God's people will be delivered.

Second thing is that everybody lives forever.

Everybody lives forever.

Now look at verse two.

You say, where do you get that?

He says, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth, that means they're dead and buried.

They shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Here's another thing that the church confused me about when I was a little kid, the two or three times a year that I went.

They made it sound like if you want to live forever, you've got to become a Christian and you go to heaven and live forever.

But the Bible's very clear here and in other places, people that go to hell live forever as well.

And so when I say uh that everybody lives forever, I'm just pointing to what he says right here in verse 2.

Daniel, we see that God says that both heaven and hell are eternal realities.

And here's why God is as committed to punishing the wicked forever as he is to rewarding the righteous forever.

Let me say that again.

I'm gonna ask you a question.

God is as committed to punishing the wicked forever as he is committed to rewarding the righteous forever.

Now, look at me.

Which one of those bothers you?

It doesn't bother us that God's gonna reward the righteous forever.

Have you noticed that?

People are like, oh man, I got no problem with that.

But for some reason, we got a problem with this over here.

Here's why God punishes the wicked forever, because they go on being wicked.

They never stop being wicked, they never stop being God's enemies.

And I'm not trying to scare you, I'm just trying to love you enough to tell you that living forever is not a problem.

Everyone's gonna live forever.

It's just a matter of where.

Now, what what do you mean?

It says a lot about our view of God that we have a pro and our view of ourselves, that we have a problem with this.

And so what we've done is we've come up with two things to kind of take the edge off of the nature of God and the reality of hell.

Here's the two things I want to warn you about.

By the way, there's this thing afoot in America nowadays called progressive Christianity.

Progressive Christianity, people like Tony Jones, Jen Hatmaker, yes, I said their names.

Yes, because you need to be warned.

Because it's like, oh, now, now, am I saying everything Tony Jones says is bad?

Everything Jen Hatmaker says is bad?

Absolutely not.

But when you have people like Richard Rohr on your podcast and say, oh, he's a spiritual father, Richard Rohr is a man that says a lot of true things.

He says a lot of things that are heretical.

That means they are not in keeping with the Bible.

Like he says that Jesus is not the Christ.

Yeah, and nobody, nobody flinches, like, what did you just say?

No, he says that we have this eternal consciousness.

Tony Jones says that hey, listen, if you can envision a better God, envision one.

So why should why should you settle for one in the Bible?

Yes.

Yes.

And so don't send me emails and go, I love Jen Hatmaker.

Jen Hatmaker said that listen, I've come to the conclusion that I don't know that homosexuality is wrong anymore.

And what she's done is the Bible's here, and Jen puts herself right here.

I'm above the Bible.

Uh-oh.

You feel that?

Some of your wives are mad at me right now.

And I'm not being flippant.

I'm not, I'm not, I'm not taking cheap shots at anybody.

It's my job as your pastor to warn you progressive Christianity is creeping into the American church.

It sounds like this.

Well, the Bible has said that.

I know it says that, but this is the 21st century, and we've we've progressed so far from there that I think we need to think about that differently.

It says that, but but here's what they do: they redefine terms.

Like the term holy.

I'm not making this up.

The term holy means other than, set apart, separate.

They come along, there's a liberal woman theologian, and uh, and she's from the Lutheran uh denomination.

And I'm not saying all Lutherans are bad, but she says, Oh no, no, no, no.

Holy means uh kind of designed for.

It's the joining of two people in this intimate moment.

And so she says, yes.

And so I was talking to a man, and he was talking about he hooked up with another man at a bar, and that is holy.

It was so intimate.

And I'm like, hello, I'm looking around the room going, hello, is anybody else afraid lightning's gonna strike?

And people in the crowd are like, yeah, yeah.

Because here's why.

Because if that's holy, then what they're doing is holy too.

And that's not what the Bible means when it uses the word holy.

But see, here's two things that we've done to take the edge off the nature of God and the reality of hell.

The first one's universalism, which is the belief that all mankind will eventually be saved.

Universalism says, hey, uh eventually God's not, God's a God of love, and everyone's gonna eventually get in because a loving God would never send anybody to hell.

Is it because of that everybody gets in?

Now, here's the here's the bright note.

This actually assumes the existence of hell because it's the foundation for the belief in universalism.

I mean, there's a lot of people nowadays that are like, I don't I don't even believe in hell.

That's not that's not true.

Have you read the Bible?

Jesus tells a story in Luke 16, the rich man Lazarus.

The cat dies and goes to hell.

And he says, I'm in agony in these flames.

Would somebody dip their finger in the water and touch my tongue?

And yet these progressive Christians say, I just, I, I, I, I, I can't even fathom a God that would let hell exist.

It's not another one, beloved.

Hell is so terrible it cannot be reconciled with the existence of a loving God in their mind.

And tragically, most universalists have a more biblical view of hell than Christians.

See, think about it like this.

Look at our current culture.

By the way, can you come back to me?

I felt you pull back a minute ago.

Like, oh, you're talking about my favorite podcaster.

I'll tell you in just a minute, we got too many podcasts.

We got more knowledge than we do wisdom.

But we'll get to that in just a minute, okay?

Because I only got two more Sundays.

I gotta load the wagon on you, on you cats.

Before Brent gets up and tells you, you know, I love you and I'm glad I'm here to rescue you from old Neil.

He's the bully.

Whatever, I'll be on my sabbatical in Mexico.

Uh, anyway, uh, look at our current culture.

Shh, don't tell anybody.

One, two, three, bah! Uh yeah.

Look at our current culture.

Right now, people are raging against injustice.

They're burning target to the ground, looting the liquor store, going crazy in the name of injustice because something happened and it's like, oh my gosh, we can't take it anymore.

Now, look at me.

We don't have a problem with that.

But we somehow have a problem with a God that says, I have injustice too.

I I not only do I feel injustice, but I will express my injustice.

Now, you think of it like this.

Uh, I I heard somebody describe this and I thought that that's well said.

Uh, think of it, let me say it like this.

If I go over here to our construction site, I got too many notes up here.

Hang on a second.

If I go over here to our construction site and I pick up a rock and I scratch another rock, hey, no big deal.

No one's gonna say, hey, dude, you scratched a rock.

I don't think the Sierra Club's gonna say anything.

No big deal.

But if I got in my truck and I drove to a junkyard and I took my key out and I scratched the door of a car, it still wouldn't be.

It'd be like, hey man, what are you doing?

Okay, I know it's a junkyard, but don't tear stuff up, don't be a knucklehead.

But if then I went to CarMax out here on 59 and I just walked around and I started just scratching car doors, all of a sudden I'm criminally liable for the damage that I've caused.

Would you agree or disagree?

Agree, yes.

And if I left CarMax and went to a Ferrari dealership, where they had a Ferrari Portofino 2021, it's$244,000.

I scratch that baby.

I bet they got motion sensors around that thing.

You scratch that thing, and all of a sudden it's like, whoa! I mean, a SWAT team comes out and gets you.

But what?

Just I don't stop there.

I'm at the Ferrari dealership and I look over, and in the center of the showroom, there's these velvet red ropes around this one car.

And I look and I see a sign, and it says on the sign, this is a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO.

Somebody like 1963, that old thing.

It's the most expensive car in the world.

It's worth$70 million.

And I can't help myself.

I got my key in my pocket, and I'm like, let's get it on.

And I just walk over, step over the rope.

All of a sudden, my punishment just is intensified.

Why?

Because of the value of the thing I sinned against.

Picking up rocks over here, no big deal.

Junkyard, don't be a knucklehead.

Car Max, you're gonna have to pay for that.

Ferrari, you're going to jail.

And you're gonna have to pay for that.

1963, Ferrari 250 GTO, we're putting you under the jail.

This is the most expensive car in the world.

What are you doing?

Because the value of the thing I sinned against increases, my punishment increases.

God is infinitely holy and lovely and altogether perfect.

One scratch that mars his character is worthy of punishment.

But see, we live in a culture that just says, oh, universalism.

God loving God wouldn't let anybody go to hell.

The book of Daniel says, Hey.

Some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

It starts way back in the Old Testament, all the way through the new, the Bible tells us, hey, this is this is reality.

Here's the second thing we've done to kind of grind the edge off of God in hell.

We've come up with this thing called annihilationism.

Annihilationism is the belief that the wicked dead will perish or cease to exist.

What do you mean they'll perish or cease to exist?

That basically, hey, I'm not die, I might get judged, but it'll be over like that, and I don't care.

A man said to me not long ago, he goes, Listen, I'm gonna spend my entire life doing whatever I want, and then I'm judged for like a nanosecond and it's over.

And I said, It's not over, it goes on forever.

He said, Yeah, I don't believe in a God that's gonna punish me forever.

I said, You don't believe in God, period.

So saying that means nothing.

But all of a sudden they've got this big principled moral stand.

I don't believe in a God.

Hey, you what you if you don't submit to God, it doesn't matter what you think about God.

He's like, What do you mean?

I said, dude, you you just said I want to do whatever I want to do.

I'm I there's there's no fear of God before your eyes.

That's right.

But yet you have a certainty that God's not, you basically I said you're an annihilationist.

He goes, I don't know what that means.

That that the wicked dead, when the when when unrighteous people die, that they're judged and it's just a second and it's over.

He goes, Yeah.

And I said, You know the Bible, the testimony of the Bible, hot out of the mouth of Jesus, is it is a place of agony where the worm never dies, they're torment there day and night forever and ever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't believe in a God.

See, it's in keeping with the character of God to both reward the righteous forever while punishing the wicked forever.

And what I find deeply hypocritical is that the same people who have a problem with the God in the Old Testament because his justice was so harsh, now they think when people die, God stops being just.

Here's what we're really saying.

What we're really saying is the death of the wicked alters the nature of God.

And beloved, you're smart people.

I just say to you, you can't have it both ways.

You can't complain, oh my God, and you don't tell me he kills people.

You think that God's nature changes when wicked people die?

Here's the question you got to ask ourselves: how should the truth that everyone lives forever affect the way you relate to people?

Let me ask that again.

Look at me.

How should the fact that people live forever?

Every day when I walk by people, somebody asked me the time, I said, Where do you get the courage to engage people in spiritual conversation?

Because I believe that everybody in the world is gonna live forever in one of two places, heaven or hell.

If that doesn't motivate you to be intentional, to speak up and say, Hey man, you have do you have a place where you a church home?

You have a faith community you're a part of?

Do you have any beliefs that govern your life?

Hey man, what's ultimate for you?

God told me recently, he goes, Man, I just smoke weed.

I said, That that's ultimate?

He goes, Pretty much.

I said, that's a pretty low bar.

He goes, Yeah, yeah.

My parents got money.

I'm gonna wait for my dad to die and I'm gonna inherit it all.

I said, could you write your dad's name down here?

He goes, You want some money?

No, I don't want money.

I'm gonna tell your dad he shouldn't give you money because you'll just destroy yourself.

No, dude, no.

I said, so basically you're telling me God created you just to go around smoking, just living in some pharmacological fog the rest of your life?

Whatever, bro.

I'm not your bro.

How should the truth that everyone lives forever affect the way you and I relate to people?

Here's the third thing the Bible tells us evangelism is not a thankless task.

Evangelism is not a thankless task.

Look at verse three.

And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

Let me ask you a question.

You ever had a spiritual conversation uh with a friend or a family member or a stranger and it did not go well, and you walked away just kind of like, oh, that was awkward.

I kind of wish I wouldn't have done that.

If you've ever had that experience, say amen.

So have I.

I don't want you to think that every spiritual conversation I have ends with a person going, hey man, I want to know this Jesus.

I've been told to go to hell in more languages than I'll ever speak.

A guy told me not long ago, you are a narrow-minded, homophobic bigot.

And I said, Man, is that hyphenated in there?

I think you pulled out a big word on me.

I said, Now, are you mad because I disagree?

Because I think I'm really loving you by telling you the truth.

The truth is what sets you free, but you're living in your form of your chosen form of bondage.

And that's what he said.

Oh, you're a narrow-minded barbell.

I said, Okay.

I said, He let him bother you.

I said, No, I mean, that's your opinion of me.

It doesn't bother me, but I care about you, and I'm always going to care about you.

I want you to stop caring about me.

I'm not gonna stop caring about you.

No, I can't.

I really care about you.

I just want to say evangelism is not a thankless task.

Why?

Look at this phrase.

He says in those verse three, and those who are wise.

Those who are wise, that word wise refers to people who have insight, understanding, which are two words you understand.

If you understand those two words, say amen.

Insight and understanding.

If you understand those two words, say amen.

And then it says this insight, understanding, and can be crosswise.

If you understand that word, say amen.

Crickets.

Crosswise doesn't mean contrarian.

It doesn't mean that you're the you're the verbal bully that just makes people frustrated with you.

Crosswise means you lay things down in such a way that people have to rethink what they just said.

It's what Jesus did.

He'd say, You heard of old, blah, blah, blah.

But verily, verily I say unto you, when I'm talking with people, I'm not trying to confront them.

I am trying to be crossways, crosswise, and just lay some stuff down that says, Hey, you you got to think about that.

Like I have a friend that lives with his girlfriend.

And he says, Well, every time I'm around him, he's like, Well, I know you're gonna tell me I'm living in sin, and blah, blah, blah.

And I said, No, no, I'm gonna tell you, this is crosswise.

I'm gonna tell you that your life is too short to spend it living in light of your fears.

Because his father abandoned him when he was like nine years old, eight years old.

And he's like, I'm never being abandoned again.

So, ladies, what he does is he will not commit.

He'll enjoy, but he won't commit.

And I said, Here's the thing.

I what I'm gonna say, this is cross-flood.

I'm just gonna say to you that God created you to be in a covenant relationship called marriage, marriage where all your needs are met, and you don't live in light of your fears, you live in light of certainty.

And he said, Yeah, fat chance.

Stakes are too high.

I'm never, ever, ever gonna give anybody the power over me to hurt me.

And I said, That's no way to live, man.

Because your fears are dominating your life.

You may have a point there.

I do.

And I'm just saying you this is crossover.

I didn't know, hey, man.

No, no, God created you to be in a covenant relationship where all your needs are met, all her needs are met, and you laid down a pillow, you lay down on a pillow of no regret.

He's like, Yeah, I never laid down that one.

I said, That's all I'm saying.

And we changed something went on.

This is what it means to be wise.

The Bible says that those who are wise, that they they have insight and understanding.

This is what I mean when I say it's not a thankless task.

So keep engaging in evangelism, spiritual dialogue, whatever you call it, because in the end, when it all goes down, those who are wise are gonna shine like the brightness of the sky above.

My kids ask me, Daddy, what's gonna happen when you die?

I'm gonna stand before Jesus, and my life on earth is gonna be recognized and rewarded, and then I'm gonna glow against the backdrop of eternity.

And they just look at me like, oh boy.

My wife and 17-year-old daughter were in the kitchen yesterday, and my daughter goes, So sabbatical's coming.

I said, Yeah.

She goes, Where are you gonna get this out of you?

I said, I'm gonna preach to you, you little heathen.

By the time my sabbatical's over, you will have surrendered to missions.

And she goes, Dad, you've got to go somewhere and preach.

We'll see.

I'm going to Mexico.

Here's the fourth thing the text says.

Are you still with me?

Here's the fourth thing the text says, look at it.

Knowledge does not equal wisdom.

Knowledge does not equal wisdom.

Look at verse four.

He says, But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

We live in a day, beloved, uh, a day and age of boundless knowledge.

There's millions of podcasts out there, and each one tells you something different about the same subject.

So uh, so never before in the history of humanity have we had more knowledge than we have today.

And you can find a podcast that tells you anything.

Well, listen to a podcast.

I don't tithe.

Uh, tithe is a church word for giving money to the church.

I don't tithe because that's Old Testament and that's the law and the law's done away with.

And I just said, yeah, so so so is thou shalt not murder.

That's Old Testament.

So using your logic, I could murder you and I wouldn't be found guilty.

No, no, no, that doesn't apply.

Isn't it convenient that your logic only applies to what you want to apply to?

Well, you know, there's podcasts.

Oh, please stop with a podcast, okay?

Here's the problem.

Now I'm not against podcasts.

I have a friend who listens to one every day on the way to work and another one on the way home.

So every week he hears 10 podcasts.

And then he goes to church on Sunday and hears a sermon.

That's 11.

11 things to think about and apply.

And I said, he goes, Do you listen to podcasts?

I said, rarely.

He goes, Are you serious?

I said, yeah.

And I don't listen to audible books.

I actually read books too.

I'm like a dinosaur.

And I said, I'm not saying listening to podcasts is bad.

Here's what I'm saying: after a while, you turn into a hypocrite because you know more than you experience.

And your soul begins to balk and says, hey, listen, we're experts on the truth, but dropouts on the way.

We know a lot of stuff.

We're not experiencing any of this because knowledge does not equal wisdom.

And so you can find anybody out there that agrees with whatever you want.

And this only magnifies the problem.

The problem is that we lack wisdom.

Ian DeGood, man, said this.

Ian DeGood, by the way, was an electrical engineer working on an oil rig in the North Sea.

And God called him to ministry.

He's a great guy.

He said this.

This stress on wisdom and understanding knowledge of God's people is an important point for us to grasp because we live in an age that despises doctrine and plays down knowledge in favor of the claims of experience.

Our postmodern era is profoundly a time when people are going here and there seeking knowledge.

Our age affirms the validity of every possible form of spirituality because it views all truth as relative and our experience as normative.

Truth becomes whatever philosophy gives me the experiences that I desire.

In our age, the idea of unique authoritative truth revealed once and for all in God's inspired word, the Bible, is therefore highly countercultural.

That's why a very popular preacher in Atlanta, Georgia said, I no longer reference the Bible.

I no longer say the Bible says.

Because people don't believe the Bible's authoritative.

So when I say the Bible says, I'm dating myself, he has a very popular podcast too.

I want us just to imagine a world that's awash in not knowledge, but wisdom.

You say, What do you mean?

In the book of James, chapter three, the Bible describes the wisdom of God, this wisdom that comes from above.

As I read these three sentences, I want you to think about what it would be like for your life, my life, our country to be a wash in this.

James 3, 17.

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Can you imagine a world, just a wash in that kind of wisdom?

Here's the last thing the Bible tells us.

Regardless of circumstance, God is in control.

Regardless of circumstance, God is in control.

What do you mean?

The theme of the book of Daniel is simply this.

Despite circumstance, God is still sovereign.

He's still in charge.

Now, what does that mean?

I won't read the whole section, but let me just start reading verse five.

He says, And I Daniel looked, and behold, two others stood, one on the bank of the stream, and one on that bank of the stream.

And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?

When's this gonna happen?

Verse 7, and I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the stream.

He raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and he swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times and a half time.

That's three and a half years.

And then when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be finished.

What?

That's not encouraging.

The shattering, hear these jagged words again.

The shattering, and here's when it's going to go down.

When the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end and these things will be finished.

I love verse 8.

Daniel says, I heard, but I did not understand.

Can I get an amen?

Daniel's like, What?

What are you talking about, Willis?

The shattering of the power of the people of God.

This is why I say that regardless of circumstance, God is in control.

When the shattering power of the holy people of God comes to an end, these things will be finished.

Translation, when it looks like all hope is lost, God intervenes, he's never late, he's always on time.

There's no circumstance then or now that he's not over, that which God is not in control.

You think it would say something like, When evil was defeated, God rode in and claimed the victory.

But no, no.

The Bible says when it is at its darkest and it looks futile and hopeless, God says, Enough and it's over.

If you're at a Good Friday service, well, Clyde snuck in on us.

The stage went dark.

There was a cross right here in the stage with candles on it.

And he sang a song.

And he said, This if someone wrote a play just to glorify what's stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage to make it look as if the hero comes too late?

That's what it's gonna be like.

God has arranged the stage of history, and it's gonna look like the hero comes too late, but he never does.

He never does.

And so what do they say to Daniel?

Because Daniel's like, oh, what's gonna happen?

What's gonna happen?

And he said, But Daniel says, Oh, I don't understand.

Oh Lord, what should be the outcome of these things?

He says, Daniel, go your way, Daniel.

For the words are shut up and sealed until the end of time.

He says, Many are gonna purify themselves, the righteous are gonna act righteously, the wicked are gonna be wicked.

Look at verse 13 and we're done.

This is what he says to Daniel, but go your way till the end, and you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.

Translation, keep living your life because you're gonna die, and when you do, you're gonna receive the inheritance because your faithfulness here on earth matters in heaven.

So, what do you do?

You understand, hey, this is this is how it's all gonna end, and then you back up and you ask yourself, because I understand these things, how do I live right now?

You get up tomorrow and you go to work, and you're not fearful, you're the most hopeful person anybody needs.

Somebody at work says, Man, the world is getting crazy, it's kind of freaking me out.

You go, yeah, yeah.

Man, if I didn't believe in Jesus, I'd be as scared as you.

And then you've got yourself a great conversation.

Man, well, and not to be smart, Alec, but just to be certain, like, oh yeah, if my name was not written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the very foundation of the world, I'd be peeing my pants every other day.

Because what happens is what gets revealed in hardship is what our hope is in.

So ask yourself today, what's your hope in?

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, we like to teach the Bible and all its undiluted beauty, and then just say, let's think about this.

Some questions come up on the screen.

Any voice of prayer, and let's just meditate over this for a moment.

Holy Spirit, thank you.

Thank you, God, that you're sovereign and you're good.

That is a great combination.

And then we understand what the Bible says, and you say, Hey, go to work tomorrow.

Love your wife, be intentional with your kids, go for a bike ride, go out to eat and get dessert because God's so stinking good.

We don't live in fear because there's a certainty to our relationship with you that we don't find in anything else.

And so, Holy Spirit, just brood over us now, cause us to think about what we need to think about and forget the rest.

God, thanks for the gift of uh being able to see how it's gonna end and then backing up and asking ourselves, so so how do I live in the meantime?

Not in fear.

We live in certainty of our knowledge of God, who's unchanging, who's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So to ever know you, to ever know you is to always know you, and to have certainty in a world so uncertain.

That doesn't make us mean-spirited or arrogant or rude, it makes us kind, generous, merciful, and forgiving.

Because you, God, are kind, merciful, and forgiving.

You're all those things.

So we can't be your people and not be those things as well.

Let us be winsome to the glory of God.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest, let me say thanks for coming.

You're always welcome.

I don't know if you have a church home, but if you don't, I would love this to be your church home.

I would love to be your pastor.

That means I want to know you, I want to know your name, I want to know your wife's name, I want to know your kids' name.

When I see your kids in HCB, I want them to look at you and go, hey, there's Pastor Neal.

I don't want them to go, hey, do we go to the guy's church one time?

Uh uh, and and so, uh, but we don't jam you up, we let you move at your pace.

So if you're just exploring, keep exploring.

When you're ready to be known, let us know.

We'd love for you to be a part of what God's doing here.

But if you're a guest and there's a seat back pocket in your row, there's a guest card.

If you haven't filled one out, would you pull one now and fill it out before you leave?

And on your way out, just drop it in the wooden box for the door.

That's also where we receive our offering.

So if you consider this your church, and today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, that's where you take care of that as well.

We have a couple things, basically, one thing we want to make you aware of by way of announcements.

So give your attention to the screen.

Good morning, turd.

I'm Deanna McKee, the children's pastor.

We are very excited about our upcoming Turk Light picnic, which will be held on Sunday, May 16th, from 4 to 7 p.m.

at Stones Creek Friends Park at Episode 359.

This will be a great afternoon at Silicon Friends, in toys of games, and class.

Bring your flight disappears and we've got the rest.

Sign us this today at FranceParkway.org slash easy on May 12th to let us know we'll see you there.

If you have questions about anything you've heard today, or would like someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage after our service.

Like you're getting something.

You're the people of God.

And because of that, the life you live on this earth matters because it will be recognized and rewarded in heaven.

Depart now and live in light of these realities with gusto and gravity and gladness.

Be happy in God.

There is no greater source of happiness.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.