Is this The End? - Pastor Naeem Fazal

[00:00:01] Hey guys, this is Naim and you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website, there's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast if you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity and I'd love for you to pay it forward. [00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy. [00:00:57] Hey. [00:00:59] Oh my gosh, I've said it before. Everybody needs a Jeff in their lives. [00:01:04] You know what I'm saying, man? The myth, the legend. Wow, that's a lot to live up to. A lot to live up to. Hey, if you are a guest here this summer, welcome to Mosaic in the summer. I know a lot of people are in or out, but I'm glad you're in here and glad you're joining us. We're doing a series and basically what we're doing is we're talking about things that we don't usually talk about. So this is, this is, this explains the graphic. I mean, I mean, I don't know, I don't know if I can explain the graphic, but basically if you couldn't read the writings, it's not calligraphy or it's not, it's basically, you probably missed this. And basically it's lesser known, rarely talked and often misunderstood stories in the scriptures. So that's what we're covering today. I want to talk about the end times. Woo hoo. [00:01:45] Who's this? Who is with me? [00:01:47] The end times. Are we living in the end times? Is it happening? Is it happening? First of all, are you going to be left behind? [00:01:53] Are you gonna be up there? Are you gonna be down here? What's happening? What, what is going on? In fact, I wanted to title this sermon. In fact, I did title the sermon. If you go to the app, there's actually all the verses there for there and there's always a title. And I put the title, I put the title was the Last of Us. The Last of Us. You see that show? [00:02:12] Yeah, the Last of Us. Okay. [00:02:14] This sermon is not gonna. [00:02:16] There's not gonna be any blood. That's what I'm saying. Okay, now the last of us. Because I think a lot of people are wondering, you know, I. [00:02:24] Conversations of, hey, is this end times? Because every time there's a war, people like, hey, it's the end times. What's happening? And I think if we were honest, we're all kind of managing some kind of anxiety. And there are different things we do with anxiety. You know, some of us cause anxiety. Okay, stop it. Okay. Others of us, we actually do something that's really good. We use each other to manage our anxiety, which is actually good. I think we need to go through anxiety because we're all going through it. We need to actually help each other out, and we're there for each other. So if you don't get anything else, the importance of this message is the importance of each other. So that's. Read the title, that each one of us matters and that we need each other. So if you don't get anything else, that's really the. The point of this sermon, because we're going to go into end times, the theology a little bit, but you're gonna be like, what is the point? That's the point you need. We need what? Each what? [00:03:20] Each other. That's pretty much it. Case in point. I was visiting a friend in the hospital the other day, and I was there waiting for the elevator, and as I was, you know, I pressed the button and the lady came up. There was a lady there, and she was waiting as well with me. And we didn't really talk, you know, and we walked into the elevator together. And I don't know about you. Is it true, though, with elevator conversations is the weirdest things. You're like, am I supposed to acknowledge you? Are you. You know what I'm saying? [00:03:47] Are we looking at each other? You know what I'm saying? What's happening? How are you. How long is this, you know? Right? I mean, should we start a relationship? It's not gonna last that long. You know what I'm saying? Like, what do we do? What do you do you say hi. Do you not say hi? I don't know. Anyway, so she walks in and I press my button. I go, which floor? And she goes, seven. I pick six, she puts seven. And when I hit seven, she goes, oh, oh, by the way, would you mind riding up with me to my floor first? [00:04:12] What? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, that's what she said. She said, would you mind going to the seventh floor with me and then going Back to the sixth floor. And I said, sure. And my shore was like, why? [00:04:29] You know, like, what's going on? She's like, I just. I just don't want to be stuck in the elevator all by myself. [00:04:34] You know, if I just have a paranoia about that, I don't want to be stuck alone by myself in the elevator if in case the elevators were to get stuck. And I'm like, now you're causing anxiety in me. Are we gonna get stuck? What's happening here? And second of all, you've seen the whole bear versus man deal, okay? So you're obviously picking men. And those of you who do not know what I'm talking about, look it up. [00:04:56] So she was like, okay. And then I had so many questions. I had so many questions and not enough floors. You know what I'm saying? So I was like, first. So I just asked the most obvious one. I was like, oh, how long has this been going on? [00:05:08] And she was like, oh, okay. I'm like, listen, you asked me to accompany you. I'm like, I'm gonna get to it. What's happening? And then I said, did something happen? And she's like, no, nothing happened. And I said, okay, okay. All right. So we hit the floor. We got the floor. She was like, hey, thanks. And then she left. And I just said, hey, by the way, thanks for asking me. Thanks for asking me. And then when the doors got closed, I thought, I wonder if she's asked someone. And someone said, no, what do you do then? [00:05:38] What happens then? So as I was thinking about this, I thought, you know what? She's managing her anxiety in a really good way. Like, she's not avoiding stairs. I mean, she's avoiding. She's avoiding stairs. [00:05:49] She's not avoiding elevators. But she's just asking someone else to help because she doesn't want to go through this alone. And I wonder sometimes, when it comes to our anxiety, are we asking for help because we're all going through some stress, we're all going through some things in our life. Uncertainty, questions. We're all kind of like, maybe trying to figure out what's gonna happen to this relationship, what's gonna happen to my. Our jobs, what's gonna happen to this world? [00:06:15] Are we doing. Are we going through anxiety, depending on one another, asking each other for help, or are we actually inciting anxiety on people? [00:06:26] Are we causing anxiety in people? And I think about the news sometimes, and I'm like, they don't. The news does not help me with my anxiety. You know what I'm saying does not help me. It causes more. It causes more everything. Hey, this is gonna happen. That's gonna happen. And these days, yeah, people are wondering, are we going to war? Is this gonna happen? What's happening? People getting deported. It seems awful. I mean, I know personal experience, my mom got deported. [00:06:50] I know the pain that comes with that. Being left here. What's going on? And then people, also spiritual people, religious people, they go, ah, this might be the signs of the end times. I mean, Iran is involved, so that's. That's the end times. [00:07:04] Any Muslim country involved, the end times. You know, I'm like, okay, okay. So I just thought, let's just talk about it. There's a passage that we mostly ignore, and it's a passage where Jesus kind of lays out the end times. [00:07:16] Did you know, probably missed it. He's sitting. He comes out of a temple. He looks at a temple and goes, you know what? This temple that's being built because it was being built one day, all this. Once it's built, it'll all be destroyed. And they're like, okay. He just kind of. You know how Jesus just says stuff and then. [00:07:32] And then other disciples are like, excuse me, what did you just say? [00:07:36] What now? We just built this thing. This is huge. What do you mean it's gonna be destroyed? He's like, ah, it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. [00:07:42] And it actually did happen. So then they stop him and they go, okay, let's talk about this. And so Jesus stops at a particular historical, you know, point where it's a Mount of Olives. [00:07:54] And then he starts off this whole thing and he goes in depth in the end times. And what we can learn from it now, I will say there was gonna be no science fiction in this. I'm not adding other things that you're like, well, I thought that was. I know I'm gonna address some of those things, but I'm just gonna tell you what the scriptures really just say and what we've kind of made up. Okay, so let's jump in. So Matthew 24, it starts off and says here, when Jesus was sitting on a Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. They're like, hey, we don't want anybody else to know, but tell us what's happening here. Tell us. Okay? Tell us. You can tell us. You can trust us. We won't tell anybody, okay? No one's going to tweet about this. Tell us. Tell us. When will this happen? What will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the what age? And we get this idea of, like, the second coming of Jesus, right? The second coming. Everybody goes like, the second coming. By the way, this point in Jesus life, he has not died. [00:08:48] Okay, okay. Kind of obvious. He was born. That was his first coming. Immanuel Christmas. Okay, Then he's teaching people, right? [00:08:56] He has not died and been resurrected. So when he gets resurrected and comes back, that would be the second coming. [00:09:05] So if he comes, when he comes back the next time, it'll be the third coming, but we are still stuck with the second coming anyways. Okay? So, okay, then he says this. He says, Jesus answered. [00:09:23] He says, he says. [00:09:24] He said, watch out. He said, watch out. [00:09:28] That's the first thing. Watch out. That no one what deceives you. For many will come in my name claiming I am the Messiah and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of. [00:09:43] But see to it that you are not alarmed. Like, don't be like, oh, my gosh. What? Freaking out. Alarmed. We don't use that word a lot, but basically, it's basically like, hey, don't be, don't, don't. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. You read the news, you're like, oh, my goodness, what's happening? He says such things must happen. But the end is what? [00:10:03] Still to come. Still to come. [00:10:06] Still to come. So when people get up here, pastors and leaders, they get up here and go, we are living in the end times. [00:10:13] Well, technically, we've been living in the end times for a very long time. [00:10:17] But if you want to sell books. Yes, the end times. Okay, but come on, please. And then it says, nations will rise against nations. Have you seen that? [00:10:27] Yeah. We're like, yeah. Name. Have you not read the news? Yes, but the world. The world has gone through. How many world wars, people are like, I don't know. [00:10:39] Yeah. And that people go, hey, is it going to be a third world war? What's happening here? [00:10:44] There'll always be wars and kingdoms against kingdoms. Nations will rise against nations, kingdoms against kingdoms. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. [00:10:54] All these are the beginning of what? [00:10:57] Birth pains. Basically, he's talking about that there is a new world going to be created. See, if you read Revelations, you find out that Jesus is talking about. His game plan is not necessarily. We get to a place called heaven, and some of you guys like, hold on. What now? [00:11:15] That's where I got the ticket for Jesus. In my heart is the ticket. Show the conductor. I'm going to heaven. I don't know about you, buddy. [00:11:22] I get it. That's. That's okay. I get that. I get that. But it's. It's a heaven, actually is. [00:11:29] Is temporary. [00:11:31] What? [00:11:32] I mean, based on the Scriptures, you're like, heaven seems there. There seems to be. What God wants to do is create a new world and a new heaven and a new earth. That's kind of the end of the deal here. So if you've ever heard of theology that says, oh, heaven is your stop. [00:11:49] One of the stops. But I don't know if it's all of it. There's a great book called Surprised by Hope by N.T. wright. He's a great scholar, and he kind of explains this and does much better job than I can ever do. But I just want you to know there's. There's so much more going on here. And Jesus gets into it. So he says this. He says, these are the birth pains. What is going to be birthed? A new heaven, a new earth. Oh, okay, okay. All right. And then he keeps on going, and I'll read you passages because honestly, this whole chapter is him talking. And you don't want me to read the whole chapter. I'm dyslexic. You do not want that. Okay. The end will never come. Okay, okay. All right. So then it says here, verse 14, picks it up and he says, and this gospel, this gospel of the kingdom, will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come, which we are going, shoot, nowadays the world can know everything. This is it. This is it. And then he says, and so when you see. Standing in the holy place, the. This is a cool phrase. The abomination that causes what? [00:12:51] Desolation. That's a cool title of a movie. [00:12:55] Okay? [00:12:56] He says, when you, when. When you see that happen, you see that happen. [00:13:00] And then he says, spoken through the prophet Daniel. And then he says, let the reader understand. Now, when Jesus talks, he's not like talking with us. I mean, he's talking. He's talking to a group of people who understand Jewish history. Okay? First of all, so when he says some things that we go, we. We misinterpret or we don't understand, it's because he's. [00:13:22] He's talking to a particular group of people, Jewish people. So he brings up Daniel and what happened is that there was an abomination that took place on a temple, on a particular temple. [00:13:35] I'm not sure if it was the Temple Mount that he was in. But that a king, Greek king, came in, took over, destroyed the temple, and then he sacrificed. He built an altar to Zeus and then he sacrificed a pig on that temple. So that the abomination that he's talking about is this. But he says, but that king sets himself to be God. In fact, some historians say that the Caesars believed that they were the sons of God. And so what's happening here is Jesus says, I just want you to know that this kind of stuff will happen. [00:14:15] Now, what's interesting is this has already happened. But he's saying something else is gonna happen. And Jesus is throwing a lot of clues in because there is. They were building a temple right there. See, something's already happened in this place. They're building a temple. And he starts off by saying, this is gonna end. So he's talking to people not about our time, but their time right there, giving them clues of what's gonna happen. Because he keeps on going. And then he says, see, he says, and then what's going to happen at that time? If anyone says to you, look, here is the Messiah, or there he is, do not believe for false messiahs and false prophets will come and appear and perform great signs and wonders. Great signs and what wonders to do, what to deceive. And if possible, even the elect see that I've told you ahead of of time. And he's saying, I want you to know that something's going to happen. He is talking, friends, not of what's happening in the world today. He was talking about their world because in 70, 80, the temple was destroyed. It actually happened things. All these things did happen. And people started believing certain crazy ideas which now we have taken some of these and said, okay, this is end time prophecy. And we've done some things that really confused so many people because then Jesus says this, he talks about that. Then he says in Matthew 24, he says, then will appear a sign of the Son of God, Son of Man in heaven. And then all the people of the earth would mourn and see that the Son of Man coming on clouds of heaven with power and great what glory. [00:15:59] He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from what, the four winds? And from one end of the earth to the other. [00:16:11] And then if you don't think this is all confusing, he throws this in. What does he say? Truly, I tell you what, I tell you this, that this generation, what will certainly do what? [00:16:24] Not pass. [00:16:25] Not pass until all these things have happened, Heaven and earth will pass away. But my Words will never pass away. What in the world is he saying? [00:16:33] Because we're like, hold on. [00:16:35] The descriptions are going to come when, you know, at the end of the Second Coming, of the Third Coming, whatever, coming. You want to call it whatever, but that's the books that we've heard. Like, he comes in and we have the Force Horsemen in Revelation and the Force Window. I don't know. Each horseman gets a wind. I'm not quite sure. But something happens. He comes in, Glory. He does all these things. And we're waiting that. [00:16:56] Because the movies we've seen and the fictional books we've read, throw that in there. [00:17:02] But Jesus has not died yet. [00:17:05] He has not died yet. [00:17:08] See, if you read some, you read it again. [00:17:11] The reason why he's not lying about. He was not wrong about the generation was not passing. Because the generation he's talking about is looking at the people and saying, he. You guys, this. All of this stuff that I'm talking about the Son of Man coming from heaven and this and that, that's gonna happen your time. And he was talking about his own resurrection. [00:17:28] He was talking about when he would die. And there's a whole backstory of not just Easter and he's alive again. No, there's a whole, like, there's a whole story of him going down to hell, rescuing the people from hell. There's a whole. All kinds of things. Like we wait for three days until Jesus is rescued, right? Or resurrected. Well, those three days, Jesus been busy. Okay? He's been doing all kinds of things, and we don't even understand it. So I just want you to know that right there, the reason why Jesus is not mistaken here, because the generation that he was talking about was his people. He did come back to life. This is not necessarily talking about the end times. He's. Jesus is trying to bring the conversation about, like, hey, this is what's going to happen. These are some of the signs. [00:18:15] Because why? Why is Jesus doing that? To confuse us? No, to point out the most simple truth that we do not. [00:18:25] We ignore sometimes because it does not make money. Okay, here it is. Here it is. This is it. He says this. Okay? Says okay. It says. But about the day or hour. [00:18:37] Like going back to the question you really asked. [00:18:41] Who knows? [00:18:44] No one knows. Not even the angels in heaven, nor the. What, son? [00:18:50] He was like, I don't know. [00:18:52] I don't know. Dad knows and he's not telling. [00:18:55] No one knows. Yeah, but Jesus, you know everything. Apparently not this, buddy. [00:19:01] But yeah, I read a guy, I Mean, I heard a TikTok thing, and I saw this guy. He has a lot of followers, and he just makes sense. And the way he put scriptures together. We got a date. Yo, we got it. Remember Y2K people remember that? [00:19:15] We believed it. I believed it. I'm like, okay, this is happening. This is happening. Yes, let's. Where are the horses? [00:19:23] We believe all kinds of things Left behind series. If those of you guys remember those. Oh, left behind. Oh, my gosh, Rapture is happening. [00:19:30] You better not get stuck down here, because what's happening over here? Depending on what you believe, if you're down here, you're gonna have, oh, a lot of problems. But we're gonna be caught up in the sky with Jesus. That's gonna happen and all that. I'll tell you what's gonna happen. [00:19:45] No one knows. No one knows. So when Jesus says, here's the point of your answer, I'm gonna give you a better question. [00:19:51] Not when is it gonna happen, but what do you need to do to prepare? [00:19:55] What do you need to do? How do you do this? What do you. What are we called to do as we're here right now? [00:20:02] That's what he's saying. He says, but because no one knows, and I'm not gonna tell anybody, and God's not even telling me, which is a really interesting response. And then he describes it. He says, I think people are gonna be freaked out. How? Like, they're not gonna know. They're not gonna know. It's like it's gonna be a normal day. And all of a sudden, something happens. You're never gonna know. And then he explains it. He says, it's a really interesting passage here. He says, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. And up to the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the ark came and took them all away. [00:20:48] It took them away. Took them away. So basically what happened is everybody was all good, good, good, good, good. They get into the ark. You remember that? He says, remember that story, right? And all the other people got swept away, right? They got swept away. Or, okay, so they got swept away. So all the bad people got swept away, right? [00:21:09] So all the bad people got taken away, right? And the good people got to stay in the ark. [00:21:16] So that's what he says. And then he says, and it'll happen just like that. He says, yeah, this is how we said two men will be in the field. Remember that movie, Two men in the field. One will be taken and the other. What? [00:21:28] Left. Now, based on the Noah story, the people who are left are the good ones. [00:21:39] I'm just reading the story. The two women in the grinding in the hand mill. One will be taken and the other left. [00:21:47] Hold on, hold on. Well then, what the what, what then? Left behind is a bunch of bs. What, what? I thought, I thought it was good to, to be taken. Yeah. [00:22:01] Not, not left behind. No, I don't, I don't, I don't. Do I want to be left behind? No, I don't. Then I don't. [00:22:07] Because what, what's happening here? See, this is what happens when we confuse and we try to figure out what is really going to happen and when is it going to happen, how is it going to happen? Instead of asking what do we need to do in the middle of all this? And then he says, hey, listen. [00:22:24] He says, therefore listen up. That's why I'm telling you all this. Okay? It's so confusing. Let me just tell you. [00:22:30] And Jesus is literally saying, I don't even know some of it. [00:22:34] I don't even know when it's going to happen. He says, just watch out because you do not know the hour, the day, the Lord will return. [00:22:44] Just don't do it. Just don't, don't, don't focus on these things. And then friends, I just want you to know then Jesus does not end this talk. [00:22:55] He tells a story which we never connected and which is never in the whole theology about end times. He connects a story about, it's all made up story. He's a, this story of a person who leaves his possessions, his important things, and tells a person, please take care of this while I'm gone. And when I come back, I wanna make sure that you take care of my stuff. [00:23:23] And it's not my stuff, but also the people that he had. [00:23:28] And he tells a story, he says, and that person, what happened though is the person that I left to tell them, hey, take care of my people and take care of my stuff. They start abusing and they start neglecting and they start just kind of doing some other things because they are confused or they're, they're, they're deceived and they become different kinds of people. [00:23:53] And then he says something super harsh, super harsh. He says this in verse 46, he says, I tell you the truth, the master will come. [00:24:04] Remember in this story, the master will come and put the servant in charge of all he owns. But when, but what if, but what if the servant is what evil and thinks my master won't be back for a while and he begins what? Help me out. Begins what? [00:24:20] Beating. [00:24:22] He's abusing people. Now, physically domestic. I mean, this is real. [00:24:29] He's beating, beating people. His servants partying, getting drunk. He said the master will return unannounced and unexpected. And he will. This is. Whew, okay, this is BG13. And he will cut the servant in pieces. Which is got to be another phrase to this. Like what is he actually saying? Because he says he'll cut him and then he'll assign him in the place of hypocrites. [00:24:54] Now what does that even mean? [00:24:56] But then he says in that place there will be weeping and what, gnashing of teeth? Well, you can't really have gnashing of teeth if you're in pieces. But okay, so he means something else. [00:25:08] But he is talking about there's going to be a place of regret. When do you mash your teeth? When you regret? It's like, I cannot believe it. [00:25:17] He says the point of all of this is we don't know what, what's going to happen. There's been wars and the nations will keep on fighting. There's always gonna be rumors of war. It does not mean the end is now near. So get your act together now. It means we don't know when it's gonna happen. But you need to be, you need to watch out. Don't you be deceived. Because good people, good people will get deceived. Do you remember, do you remember some of the people that we looked up to before the pandemic? And now and during the pandemic leaders lost their minds. Spiritual leaders start doing some goofy things. And what's gonna happen is that they're gonna start doing some things that here Jesus is making a point. They're gonna start doing some things that are going to be serve basically self centered. [00:26:04] They're going to start abusing the people that God is asking them to care for. And the way you abuse people is you divide them up in groups. [00:26:14] You divide them up in groups. And these are the special people. And these are not the special people. You discriminate all day long. You do that. These are good, These are not. You judge, you do all the things that Jesus is saying. This is not what you're supposed to do. When something is an abomination, when it is evil pretending to be good, when something evil is pretending to be good, that's an Abomination. And we see it where people are like, justifying their hate because of their relationship with God. They're justifying discrimination, they're justifying it. And what they're doing is they're taking the Bible and saying God tells us that it's okay to murder, to kill, it's okay to conquer, it's okay to enslave people. It's okay all these things because, you know, well, history tells us that in the Bible, you know, they did that, they did that. Well, did a lot of things. It also says Judas hung himself, which doesn't mean we should all. [00:27:16] It's ridiculous. [00:27:17] But when we start taking scripture and making excuse to mistreat people, we're gonna be in big trouble. And here's what's interesting. When he ends this, he doesn't finish the conversation. [00:27:29] He starts into three more stories. And the only time Jesus does three stories in a row is when he's trying to make a point. The three story, the most popular is the Lost Coin, Lost Sheep, and the Lost Son. [00:27:46] He tells those stories straight through because he was trying to make a point. And the point there was that God, his love and kindness is everlasting. [00:27:59] He pursues us, he pursues humanity. [00:28:01] Here he does the same. He tells the story right. He goes into three stories again to make one single point. And the point is, how are you treating the people in your life? [00:28:14] How are you treating the people that you're living with? Are you causing more anxiety and pain in their life or are you helping them manage it? What are you doing? He tells those stories that. He talks about the, the. The ten virgins and the wedding feast. He, he tells a story about that. He, he tells a story about the, the. The. The. [00:28:38] She wrote it down. So I remember the talents, the talent of the. A master gives people different talents. And one talent or, or 10 talents. He tells them again, it's the stewarding of God's property. Stewarding of God' he's making the same point. And then he does the whole parable of the sheep and goats. And when he does sheep and goats, he says, the last day, I'm going to get all these people that divide them up and sheep and goats. And the goat people are going to be like, why be the goats? [00:29:08] What do we do? And he's like, no, you're out. You're out. You're. You're. No, no, no, no. I'm going to take the sheep and take. I'm going to, I'm going to take the sheep and take them Away you, you know, yeah, you're. You're not the good guys. [00:29:22] And they're so confused. They're like, what are you talking about? We did signs and wonders in your name. We did all these things in your name. We did all these things in your name. And he's like, I didn't know you. [00:29:32] He ends with this point. And friends, don't miss this. He ends with this verse right here. He says, the king will reply. The king will reply, truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the. What least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you. What you did for me. He said the. So this is the end of the whole story about the end times. [00:29:59] What are you and I doing in the midst of our anxiety, in the midst of all the things? What are we doing to the least of the people in our life? The people who have the least amount of faith? What are we doing with them? The least amount of resources, what are we doing with them? The least amount of confidence? What are we doing with them? The least amount of. [00:30:19] What are we doing with them? What are we doing and how are we treating the most. Least of these? He said, the end of the day, this is what truly matters. That's it. [00:30:33] That's it. [00:30:35] Stop worrying about a date. Stop worrying about the end times. What are you doing right now? [00:30:41] How are you treating? [00:30:43] Or are you allowing yourselves to be controlled by your anxiety to just kinda, I don't know, just divvy up people? See, friends, I'll tell you what. The church has gotta get this right. Because no other organization, no other people group can get this right. Because every other organization out there, say politics, say military, is, say marketing or business. [00:31:08] There's a phrase out there that's very commonly used and that is this idea of you divide, you divide and what? [00:31:17] Conquer. And if we allow that in churches, if we allow that in the message of Jesus, if that starts creeping into the message of Jesus, we are going to be deceived. [00:31:29] You know who divides and conquers? The enemy. [00:31:34] If you read the chapter, he talks about the spirit of the Antichrist. [00:31:37] The spirit of the Antichrist is not a person, it's not a politician. [00:31:43] It's an attitude that is other, the opposite of Christ. [00:31:49] And so when we practice Antichrist, we mean is we are just practicing being and doing things that Jesus would never do. [00:32:00] And see we as a church, as church of the U.S. america, whatever, we have got to get this right. We cannot divide and conquer. [00:32:09] That is not what we do. We unite and we and we transform. [00:32:17] That's what we do. [00:32:18] We don't divide and conquer people. We don't divide people up in groups. Then we conquer them, enslave them. No, we are called to unite and set people free. [00:32:29] That's what we're called to do. And so I don't want us to be deceived. I don't want us to live our lives going, I don't know what's going on, I don't know what's going on, or this guy believes it, or this book says it, or this book series says it. [00:32:43] And then argue about and set up denominations based on what they think the end times is gonna be. Because we have denominations that fight about it all the time. [00:32:52] They're missing the point. It's all divide and conquer. No, we gotta unite and set people free. [00:33:01] I'll end with this. There's a verse in second Timothy, Paul writes this and he goes, hey, I want you to remember this. I want you to remember this. That the spirit that God gave you, the spirit that God gave you, he's not giving us a spirit of what? [00:33:13] Fear. He's not giving you a spirit of fear. That means first of all, you've been given a spirit. You have been given a spirit. What does that mean? No, so one of the things Jesus did is that when he said, hey, I'm going to be resurrected and now I'm opening up heaven. The spirit of God is no longer going to live in temples and buildings. [00:33:33] It's going to live in you. In fact, you're the temple of what? [00:33:38] The Holy Spirit. Now that means you, that means you, that means me. We are all these little temples of God's spirit. That's why in our benediction, if you're new here, you we do this benediction. We've been doing it for 20 years. [00:33:51] Is that not of him who is able to do immeasurably more through the power that what lives in us. [00:33:58] So we have the God spirit and that spirit. [00:34:02] That power is a power of what scripture says. It's of love, it's of power, it's of self control. [00:34:17] That's what he's talking about. Let's put that passage up again right there. Just let me just focus on that a little bit. [00:34:23] It's given us not spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self control. Which means that there are days where I find myself just powerless and I don't have the strength and energy. I just don't have the courage in me. And I need you. Why do I need you? I Need you because I need some of your courage. And when you put courage in me, guess what that means? [00:34:44] We know that as something. It's called encouragement. [00:34:50] Because there are people in our lives that take courage from us, too. [00:34:54] But you and I, we meet together, we have the power to put courage in each other. We have the power to put love in each other. Because some days I'm not loving and I'm controlled so much by fear. I'm controlled by whatever, and I just. I'm just tired and I say things and I'm not. But I need. I need your kindness in my life. I need you to go through my anxiety. Self control. Yeah. Sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind when everything else is falling apart. Anybody else? [00:35:20] Yeah. We need each other. We need each other. [00:35:24] And so that's my prayer. My prayer is that you and I would be, like, courageous enough. Like that woman who said, hey, would you just. Would you just write up with me? [00:35:33] Would you just ride up with me? [00:35:35] Well, I know. [00:35:37] I know it's irrational. Would you just. Would we have the courage to say, hey, we need each other. Would we understand the importance of each other? [00:35:47] You're so important. [00:35:49] I need you in my life. [00:35:51] You need me in your life. We need each other. Especially through these end times. [00:35:59] We just need each other. [00:36:01] And the day we stop needing each other and dividing each other, that's. That's gonna be. That's gonna be a bad day. [00:36:09] A bad day. So let me pray for us. Can I do that? Let's pray together. Lord God, thank you. Thank you for your love for us. Thank you for your heart for us. Thank you, God, for reminding us that when you talk about things that are just so out there that we don't even understand, you bring us home to. What are you doing to the least of these. [00:36:30] What are you doing to the least of these in your family, in your life? What are you doing with them? What are you doing with people? How are you treating the people that are put in your life? [00:36:41] So, God, I just pray, Jesus, that as we respond today, you would give us. [00:36:45] You would give us a revival in our hearts and minds, that you would remind us, God, that you are in control, that you are coming back. You are going to make everything right. But as. As we wait, God, we serve each other. [00:36:59] We love one another. [00:37:01] God. It's so interesting how on that mount, the Mount of Olives, where you preach this sermon, it's the same mount where you prayed and you prayed the prayer that. God, that you prayed a prayer that said Jes God, I, I, I pray that they would be one. [00:37:20] So Father, I pray the same prayer that you prayed for us, God, that we would be one. [00:37:26] Will you be one? [00:37:28] God help us as we respond In Jesus name, God, in Jesus name. [00:37:36] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina. [00:37:41] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.