Shadow Over Substance: Re-centering Prophecy on the Person of Christ

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus speaks of certain signs that will precede his return.
[00:00:07] He tells us we'll hear of wars and rumors of wars.
[00:00:11] There will be famines and earthquakes.
[00:00:14] Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
[00:00:19] And concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, not even Jesus himself.
[00:00:28] Good morning church!

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
we are wrapping up a series today called sign of the times and i'm not sure when i've been more excited about delivering a message because there are so many things right now that i think as christians even that the bible warns about being deceived in the last days and i've watched something kind of been taken off with christians
[00:01:20] I've watched Christians be really confused and asking a lot of questions when it comes to Israel, when it comes to the Jewish people, the nation of Israel.
[00:01:32] So today the message is called Sign of the Times and it has to do with the end times and the Jewish people.
[00:01:39] What does the Bible have to say?
[00:01:42] For those of you that I maybe haven't met yet, please come say hello after the service.
[00:01:49] My name is Penny Maxwell, you probably saw earlier.
[00:01:51] And if you're new here, what we do at Freedom House is all of our campuses have live teachers and speakers.
[00:01:59] We're not a video venue.
[00:02:01] So every campus, every single one, Pastor Troy is at South End and Pastor, no, he's at Lake Norman and Pastor Olin is at South End and I get to be here today.
[00:02:11] So even when we open our Ballantyne campus, there will be live speakers at Ballantyne.
[00:02:17] Isn't that amazing?
[00:02:22] Before I just welcome everybody that's in the room, let me jump to all the online.
[00:02:30] We have Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Arizona, and India.
[00:02:40] We are so glad you're tuning in.
[00:02:42] All of us here are glad to have you.
[00:02:47] So this message, I want to start off by giving some of the prophetic words in the Bible regarding Israel that have come to pass.
[00:02:58] And then I want to give you some prophetic words regarding Israel that are either in process
[00:03:05] or have yet to come to pass and it's very important that we as christians understand what the word of god has to say uh the first thing that i want to do is i want to talk to you about three specific instances where and these are all prophetic where god brings his people back to the land
[00:03:27] So when he talks about the Jewish nation, he's not just talking about the people, he's talking about a land.
[00:03:36] We will see the Egyptian oppression through the Bible, and Moses had to actually go into Egypt and lead the children of Israel out.
[00:03:48] And they went and were free to now worship in the wilderness.
[00:03:53] And then they were to go into and take over the land of Canaan.
[00:03:59] That was their rightful land that God multiple times had said belonged to them.
[00:04:04] Then we know there's the Babylonian exile and we have the dates of that just from biblical perspective and then the return of the Jews by King Cyrus which we actually see in the bible he was a
[00:04:23] Man that didn't even believe in the God of Israel, but yet he helped them to reestablish the temple in Jerusalem.
[00:04:33] Which is why you saw a few weeks ago, which is interesting that this message would come at this time,
[00:04:38] Why many of the Jews in Israel when the ceasefire was put into place, why they were hailing Trump as Cyrus because he is a leader that didn't believe the same thing that they did but yet was helping their nation.
[00:04:57] Then we know that there was the Roman exile that was literally almost 2,000 years, 1878.
[00:05:05] To be exact, and the Jewish people had the establishment of the state in 1948.
[00:05:13] That was a huge thing.
[00:05:17] Nearly 2,000 years where they did not have their nation.
[00:05:23] That was a massive biblical prophecy that came to pass through the aid and help of the United States.
[00:05:32] In Ezekiel 36 and 37, you see this play out.
[00:05:36] I'm gonna give you just a few scriptures.
[00:05:38] 36 24 says, For I will take you out of the nations.
[00:05:43] I will gather you from all of the countries and bring you back into your land.
[00:05:50] It's interesting to me, sometimes we lose faith and wonder, God, are you really listening?
[00:05:55] 1878 years it took for the Jewish people
[00:06:01] to be put back into their land.
[00:06:06] Ezekiel 37, 21 says, thus says the Lord God, behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone and will gather them from all around and bring them to their own land.
[00:06:22] We also see in 1967, Israel actually reclaimed and regained Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.
[00:06:33] That was a really, really huge deal.
[00:06:36] Why?
[00:06:37] Because Jesus was very clear that when He comes back, He's coming back
[00:06:44] As the Lion of the tribe of Judah and he's coming back to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem which is the same place that he descended from.
[00:06:55] So this is a scriptural prophetic word that has come to pass where Jerusalem was put back into Israel.
[00:07:06] In Luke 21, 24, it says, They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among the nations.
[00:07:13] And Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
[00:07:22] That happened in 1967.
[00:07:27] Let's take it a step further.
[00:07:28] In 2018, the United States under President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's rightful capital and moved the U.S. Embassy to not Tel Aviv, but moved it to Jerusalem.
[00:07:48] And we now acknowledge and recognize Jerusalem as the rightful capital.
[00:07:56] I will also throw this out there that in 2020, the Abraham Accords, which was something that the United States initiated again under President Donald Trump.
[00:08:08] What we did is we got a pact together of other Arab nations with Israel to try to invoke some peace in the area.
[00:08:20] And it was brilliant because they used Abraham.
[00:08:24] who was the father of both the Arabs and the Jews.
[00:08:30] But understand to the Jews, he was the legitimate father.
[00:08:37] God had chosen the Jewish people and what happens sometimes, for those of you that always wonder, why is there always fighting between the Arabs and the Jews?
[00:08:50] Why is all of this happening?
[00:08:53] I think sometimes people look at the Bible as this dusty relic from grandma's attic and we don't understand that it is literally a historical document.
[00:09:05] We can see exactly where the origin of this came from because when Abraham was given a promise by God to him and his wife Sarah, they tried to kind of sidetrack because Sarah wasn't getting pregnant, and God had said that Abraham, your seed is going to come down through Sarah, your wife, and even though you don't have children right now, I will make you the father of many nations.
[00:09:34] Well, when it took longer than Abraham and Sarah thought, she brought her handmaiden, her servant, named Hagar, and she was like, hey, Abraham, maybe if you just go ahead and sleep with her, we can get this child.
[00:09:53] And they ended up with an Ishmael, their son, because Hagar was Arab.
[00:10:03] What you see happening right now is that the Arabs are saying Abraham had Ishmael before he had Isaac, therefore the land belongs to us.
[00:10:17] But God said, no, just because Abraham messed up, my promise to Israel was still through the seed, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
[00:10:31] That's why there's all the fighting.
[00:10:33] We have the historical documents called the Bible that tell us why.
[00:10:38] The Arabs and the Jews are still fighting over the same land.
[00:10:47] But the Abraham Accords in 2020 is what helped to kind of bring some trade coming back in between the Arabs and Jews and help to settle things down in the area.
[00:11:01] And it allowed for all of their GNPs to go up a little bit and their countries to see trade and things happening.
[00:11:10] It elevated the area.
[00:11:13] We know in Psalms 132, 13, it says, For the Lord has chosen Zion, which is Jerusalem.
[00:11:21] He has desired it for his dwelling place.
[00:11:24] I told you that's where he's coming from.
[00:11:27] 2 Chronicles 6, 6.
[00:11:30] He says, but I have chosen Jerusalem that my name may be there and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.
[00:11:41] Understand that it's not just a political city, it is a spiritual epicenter.
[00:11:48] Everything that happens in Israel, we as Christians need to be paying attention to.
[00:11:56] because there are prophetic utterances that are attached to it.
[00:12:02] Acts 1, 11 and 12 and Zechariah 14, 4 would be the prophecies of where Jesus is coming back and where he's coming to.
[00:12:12] So you can look that up.
[00:12:14] As Pastor Adam said a little earlier, pull out your phone, take notes.
[00:12:18] There is no way all that I'm going to give you today, because we're gonna go deep on Israel.
[00:12:25] There's a lot of stuff, unfortunately, coming out by the far right that is bringing ideologies in that are not scriptural.
[00:12:35] And we're gonna correct those today.
[00:12:38] So whether someone is far right or far left, if you're far left, you probably aren't in here today.
[00:12:45] Now, I know we have many that used to be.
[00:12:54] Can I just be real?
[00:12:57] There's no way that you're gonna vote for the slaughter of millions of unborn babies and call yourself a Christian.
[00:13:05] There's no way, no way that you're gonna think it's okay for an eight-year-old who's confused in their identity to be able to have their genitalia mutilated.
[00:13:20] There's no way if you believe in the Word of God that you are going to redefine marriage.
[00:13:29] One man, one woman.
[00:13:32] We welcome people into this church.
[00:13:35] But I just want you to know we're not gonna post on social media something different and then bait and switch you when you get in the doors just to try to make you come.
[00:13:47] We are gonna stand on the Word of God come hell or high waters.
[00:13:52] We don't back up.
[00:13:54] We will never back up.
[00:13:55] The Word of God is true, is powerful, and it's sharper than a two-edged sword.
[00:14:00] And guess what?
[00:14:01] The Word of God causes division.
[00:14:04] between those who want the truth and those who don't.
[00:14:09] So understand, we don't shy away from this here.
[00:14:13] But what I've seen is I've seen some Bible believing Christians get confused because some on the far right are starting to say some things regarding Israel and it might be an opinion of theirs, but it's not God's opinion.
[00:14:29] So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go to the Word of God and answer all the questions that people are asking right now in regards to Israel.
[00:14:38] Now, let's talk about some prophecies that are still to come.
[00:14:42] Zechariah 12, starting in verse two, it says, Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes staggering to all the peoples around, and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah.
[00:14:59] It will come about on the day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples, and all who lift it will injure themselves severely, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.
[00:15:14] What is that saying?
[00:15:15] It's saying that you're gonna see nations around the world rise up against Israel.
[00:15:22] You're going to see anti-Semitism at an all-time high.
[00:15:28] Can I tell you that's what I'm seeing right now?
[00:15:31] I am actually on social media watching Christians bash Jews.
[00:15:42] It's inconceivable to me if you understand the Word of God.
[00:15:50] I'm also watching college campuses
[00:15:53] that welcomed BLM on and welcomed people to burn down things to protect what it seemed like was a group of people.
[00:16:05] These same colleges are allowing people to say death to the Jews, kill them all, using all sorts of anti-Semitic rants and statements.
[00:16:20] In 2025,
[00:16:23] It's literally acceptable to talk about the Jewish people and lump them all together.
[00:16:33] It's shocking.
[00:16:35] And I'm gonna tell you where some of this is coming from.
[00:16:39] Obviously, it's all prophetic.
[00:16:42] But I'm gonna go through thing by thing by thing and I'm gonna tell you where it's coming from.
[00:16:46] But let's keep on because I want you to understand scripturally what the Bible says is that the nations will rise against Israel.
[00:16:54] They're gonna turn against Jerusalem.
[00:16:57] In Ezekiel 38 and 39, it talks about the Gog and Magog war.
[00:17:02] This is Armageddon.
[00:17:03] This is the battle at the end.
[00:17:06] This is where some things start to happen, where things start to unfold.
[00:17:10] And we have the Gog and Magog war.
[00:17:12] And then you're gonna see Armageddon happen.
[00:17:14] You're gonna see these things unfolding.
[00:17:16] But the Gog and Magog war, the thing that's a little different about that is you're gonna see a leader rise up
[00:17:23] Gog and then you're going to see Magog.
[00:17:26] What is Magog?
[00:17:27] Well Magog is actually interpreted as Russia and Iran and other allies that are going to come against Israel and they are going to supernaturally be defeated the Bible says.
[00:17:40] There's going to be earthquakes, there's going to be plagues, there's going to be pestilences that
[00:17:46] Humans don't actually have to go and fight against this particular war, this evil, that God is actually going to take care of it himself.
[00:17:58] It'll be a supernatural defeat.
[00:18:00] Prophetically, we also see Jesus speaking in Matthew 24.
[00:18:05] It's the Olivet Discourse.
[00:18:07] Jesus is talking about the end of the age.
[00:18:10] He's talking about the tribulation.
[00:18:13] He's talking about the end of times.
[00:18:15] He's talking about his second coming.
[00:18:17] And he says this, that Israel will face unprecedented persecution.
[00:18:23] And then he says, but those days will be shortened for the elect's sake.
[00:18:29] Romans 11.26 says it like this, And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the Deliverer will come from Zion, and he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.
[00:18:45] Again, Zion is Jerusalem.
[00:18:47] It's where God's presence, it was symbolic of God's presence and why they always rebuilt the temple no matter how many times it would get torn down and demolished.
[00:19:00] We also see this prophetic word from 2 Thessalonians.
[00:19:05] It says, be careful, be very careful of the spirit of the age.
[00:19:12] What is the spirit of the age?
[00:19:14] It's a spirit that undermines biblical truth.
[00:19:18] Where God's people are divided.
[00:19:21] That's what I'm seeing right now.
[00:19:24] I'm seeing God's people divided over Israel.
[00:19:28] It's shocking to me.
[00:19:32] What else will we see?
[00:19:33] The nations turn against Israel.
[00:19:37] We see the Antichrist spirit is unleashed.
[00:19:40] The Bible says there will be lawlessness.
[00:19:43] That's what that Antichrist spirit is all about.
[00:19:45] I mean, you can literally go out in the streets and I'm watching politicians in New York.
[00:19:55] Blows me away.
[00:19:57] People in Florida pushing for Sharia law.
[00:20:05] You guys.
[00:20:08] This is all prophetically spoken of and we've got to be paying attention.
[00:20:14] We've got to be vigilant because the Antichrist spirit is being unleashed.
[00:20:22] There will be this blur where people will be confused and not able to rightly discern.
[00:20:31] Can I just tell you, you need to be planted in the house of God.
[00:20:38] People that were planted in the house of God during 2020, 2021, 2022 when the blurring of discernment happened.
[00:20:46] Listen, I know some people got mad at us and called us all sorts of names because we kept the church open.
[00:20:54] Because we believe that the church of Jesus Christ is the hope of the world.
[00:21:01] And we didn't shut it down when the liquor stores were open.
[00:21:07] you see that's what happens you shut the church down and then what you do is you try to sneak in and you deceive the people because they're not getting fed the Word of God and in community you isolate them I don't know who this is for but there are some people that are watching online right now and I'm really glad you're watching but you know what you need to come
[00:21:31] Don't hide because of whatever happened or whoever hurt you because when you stand in front of the Lord, that person that hurt you isn't gonna be there with you.
[00:21:39] That person that hurt you is not God.
[00:21:46] And we don't react because of what other people do.
[00:21:49] We respond to what the Word of God asks of us.
[00:21:56] Some people have said, okay, the Antichrist spirit, well, it talks about how they will bring this false sense of peace, making it look like they are doing all these peace deals.
[00:22:08] And so I've been asked, is that Trump?
[00:22:11] Is Trump the Antichrist?
[00:22:13] Well, let me just help you out.
[00:22:15] If you keep reading in your Bible where it describes the Antichrist, it says that they will not love women.
[00:22:28] It ain't Trump, y'all.
[00:22:37] The Antichrist is a homosexual.
[00:22:39] Not only that, the Bible talks about him rising up from Europe, calls him the little horn.
[00:22:47] He will come out of Europe.
[00:22:51] Bible scriptures look to be like it could be around Rome, somewhere in that vicinity, but definitely Europe.
[00:23:00] We've gotta understand what's happening right now.
[00:23:03] We've gotta be vigilant.
[00:23:06] We've gotten caught up in so many other things, soccer games and starting my fifth business.
[00:23:11] And man, we should have our hand to the plow in God's house, helping to usher in this end time prophecy, not letting offense happen.
[00:23:23] The Bible says that's what happened.
[00:23:24] People get offended with each other.
[00:23:25] Well, I'm not going to serve because I'm offended.
[00:23:28] Well, I'm not going to show up because I'm offended.
[00:23:31] Those are the people that are going to get picked off.
[00:23:36] I pray that we're on the first flight out of here, but should us as Christians have to endure any tribulation?
[00:23:42] I fear that some people might not know how because they don't know how to endure a simple dislike on Facebook.
[00:23:51] and we think we're gonna make it through tribulation?
[00:23:58] Guys.
[00:24:03] Somebody say, she's preaching right now.
[00:24:07] So here's what we're gonna do and I'm gonna be very specific.
[00:24:10] I'm gonna give you the questions that are being asked right now in what is called replacement theology.
[00:24:19] What is replacement theology?
[00:24:20] It's also called supersessionism.
[00:24:23] It's the idea that the church has replaced God's covenant promises.
[00:24:28] In essence, the Jews are no longer the promised, the favored, the chosen ones because they have not accepted Jesus, so it is now us as Christians that are the favored ones.
[00:24:42] That's called replacement theology.
[00:24:45] And it's actually incorrect.
[00:24:48] Again, this isn't from Tucker or Candice's podcast.
[00:24:52] This is from the Word of God.
[00:24:55] Do we understand?
[00:24:56] Okay.
[00:25:01] Paul actually addresses replacement theology.
[00:25:06] Here's the first question that replacement theology is asking.
[00:25:12] The church has replaced Israel and now receives
[00:25:16] The blessings.
[00:25:17] Israel is no longer favored or blessed.
[00:25:21] Let's read what Paul has to say about replacement theology.
[00:25:26] I ask then, did God reject his people?
[00:25:29] This is Romans 1.1.
[00:25:30] Did God reject his people?
[00:25:33] By no means.
[00:25:35] I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin.
[00:25:45] Romans 11 29 in the same chapter a few verses later for the gifts this is what he's saying for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable God made a covenant a promise with Abraham and thank God our God keeps his promises because we don't
[00:26:15] We break covenant.
[00:26:19] That is why God had to send Jesus, His Son, in the form of a human being because He kept cutting a covenant with human beings and we kept breaking the covenant because we're not holy.
[00:26:34] So He had to send His Son, take part of Himself, put Him in a human body and send Him to the earth so He could cut a covenant with somebody that could actually keep it.
[00:26:51] That's why he sent Jesus.
[00:26:53] Because every covenant we would make, we would break it.
[00:26:57] And it's not just the Jews.
[00:27:01] How many of you have sinned?
[00:27:06] Ours just isn't recorded in the entire Old Testament.
[00:27:12] So understand, God's promises are irrevocable.
[00:27:19] In that same chapter, it says, and here's where replacement theology, this is how it gets off.
[00:27:28] It's twisting scripture.
[00:27:31] This is not about people's opinions.
[00:27:33] This is about the Word of God.
[00:27:35] I'm about to read to you where Paul is gonna smack this replacement theology, pop it right in the jaw.
[00:27:46] We as Gentiles, which probably very few of you in here are full-blood Jews, we as Gentiles were grafted in.
[00:27:58] The Bible called us the wild olive tree.
[00:28:02] The Jews were the cultivated olive tree.
[00:28:06] Let's read what Paul has to say about this.
[00:28:11] He says, if some of the branches have been broken off and you, Gentiles, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches.
[00:28:33] If you do, consider this,
[00:28:36] You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
[00:28:42] The church was grafted into the olive tree, but it never replaced it.
[00:28:54] Yes, they would get disciplined.
[00:28:57] They would get restoration and then they would get disciplined and then restoration.
[00:29:03] But you never see in the Bible not one time where the Jews ever replaced.
[00:29:09] It's not in there.
[00:29:14] And you know what?
[00:29:14] Let this be comforting to all of us.
[00:29:19] If God could un-choose Israel, how could you have security in your own salvation?
[00:29:27] How could you?
[00:29:27] Well, Pastor P, the Bible says that dead branches get cut off, and because they have not accepted Jesus, and we're not talking about Messianic Jews who have, but because they have not accepted Jesus, they are a branch that gets cut off, and they are dead.
[00:29:48] Therefore, we now have the promises.
[00:29:51] Let's keep reading from Paul.
[00:29:54] Let's go a little further.
[00:29:56] And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
[00:30:07] After all, if you were cut from an olive tree that is wild by nature and contrary to nature,
[00:30:15] but you were grafted into a cultivated olive tree how much more readily will these the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree you know what this is saying hey christians you better not get haughty you better watch it because when the jews who are still thinking that the messiah has not come yet
[00:30:44] When Jesus comes back and they realized that the Messiah was in fact Jesus, the Bible is very specific.
[00:30:56] It says that they're gonna have an opportunity to come back and he will graft them in because after all, it's their olive tree.
[00:31:09] Galatians 3.29 says, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
[00:31:15] In other words, you and I as Gentiles, we were adopted in.
[00:31:22] It wasn't our birthright.
[00:31:25] They came to the adoption agency and they said, okay, God said, okay, come on, we pick you.
[00:31:31] It's not our bloodline.
[00:31:37] We've been grafted in.
[00:31:39] And here's the thing.
[00:31:42] I'm just gonna be honest with you guys.
[00:31:45] If you follow me on social media, you know this.
[00:31:48] I had it out with Candace Owens over this and a few other things.
[00:31:53] And yes, I have brought her in and she has spoken, not on a Sunday morning, because I understand where she is with her theology is all over the place.
[00:32:01] It's been Jehovah Witness, praying to crystals, then the Baptist, and now Roman Catholic, but I'm not even sure she's on the Roman Catholic.
[00:32:10] She was reading from the Koran the other day.
[00:32:14] understand that whether it's somebody that's a friend of mine or not when you're coming against the bible and you're leading millions of people astray do you not think that i'm going to speak up about that and we got into it because i said how can you deny if you are professing christ our judeo-christian roots
[00:32:41] she absolutely cannot stand jewish people i don't know i stopped watching her because i don't honestly i don't want that stuff coming in my heart i unfollowed i said how how can you do this but see you have to understand where the root of some of this is jewish people no matter how many times you persecute them
[00:33:06] They were gassed, six million of them.
[00:33:09] Even Pharaoh was frustrated because even though he was oppressing them, they kept rising to the top.
[00:33:16] Why do you think that is?
[00:33:20] They're God's chosen people.
[00:33:24] And I had my DNA done like years ago, that whole ancestry thing.
[00:33:29] Guys, I'm not a Jew saying this.
[00:33:32] I think it was like 0.03%.
[00:33:37] My family is all from like the Italy and the Spain area.
[00:33:46] Israel are God's chosen people.
[00:33:51] Like it or not.
[00:33:56] And when somebody comes against them, you better be careful.
[00:33:59] Now I started saying things
[00:34:04] Before everybody else did.
[00:34:06] And initially, when I said some things regarding Candace, I got attacked by a lot of conservative people.
[00:34:12] I'm okay with that.
[00:34:16] But I do appreciate all the DMs on my inbox saying that they're sorry, because now, two months later, they're like, oh, she has gone off the rails.
[00:34:26] Guys, understand this.
[00:34:28] We don't follow commentators.
[00:34:30] We follow the Word of God.
[00:34:36] And people want to ask me, what's your opinion on Tucker?
[00:34:39] I don't have a personal relationship with Tucker.
[00:34:42] I've been in the room with him and I don't watch him.
[00:34:45] So I'm not going to try.
[00:34:46] I don't jump into a fight where I don't have a dog in it.
[00:34:51] Okay?
[00:34:51] I've platformed Candace, so you better believe that I'm going to speak up when she's going off.
[00:34:57] That's my job as a pastor.
[00:34:59] That's my job as a shepherd to protect the sheep.
[00:35:02] And I'm okay if people don't see it at first.
[00:35:05] In 2020, I had a lot of people, the sheep were biting me.
[00:35:13] And I love you, but there's a shepherd for a reason.
[00:35:20] Understand, stay in the Word of God.
[00:35:24] Don't take what somebody says and create this other theology.
[00:35:28] God is working through Israel, the nation, and through His church, spiritual, simultaneously with one redemptive plan in mind.
[00:35:41] All right, let's go to the second thing.
[00:35:43] We'll speed this up a little bit.
[00:35:47] Second thing, when Jesus cursed the fig tree, this is what,
[00:35:50] Replacement theology says, when Jesus cursed the fig tree, he was cursing Israel.
[00:35:56] Oh, really?
[00:35:57] Okay.
[00:35:59] Is that what was happening?
[00:36:02] No, the fig tree symbolizes fruitless religion.
[00:36:07] It wasn't against a people group.
[00:36:09] It was against hypocrisy and temple leadership.
[00:36:14] Why do we know that Jesus wasn't just cursing Israel, telling it to die?
[00:36:18] Well, because a few days later, you see him weeping over Israel because of the love he has.
[00:36:24] He wasn't rejecting Israel.
[00:36:28] Then we also see in Romans 11, 26, where he talks about the future redemption of Israel.
[00:36:35] Israel has always been something God loves, and I'm gonna love what God loves, and I'm gonna hate what God hates.
[00:36:42] Here's another thing of replacement theology.
[00:36:44] The Jews killed Jesus so they forfeited God's blessing.
[00:36:49] First of all, the people that are saying that don't know their Bible because it wasn't just the Jews that killed Jesus.
[00:36:57] They may have put the nails in his hands, but it was the Romans that imprisoned him and handed him over instead of a murderer, handed an innocent, knowingly innocent man
[00:37:10] we find no fault in him but here you go so it was jews and gentiles alike that crucified jesus and just to take it a step further jesus himself said this it's great when you go to the word of god instead of a podcast
[00:37:34] John 10 18 no one takes my life from me I lay it down Zechariah 12 10 says an eye will pour out on the house of David listen to how Jesus feels how God feels
[00:37:56] about the Jews.
[00:37:57] And I will pour out on the house of David and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one who mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.
[00:38:22] Jesus is wanting them to come back and realize what has happened they the Bible says had a temporary blindness and I believe many will return repent and come to faith number four here's another thing that said the promises of God were conditional and Israel broke covenant the first thing I'd like to say is thank God that
[00:38:52] His covenant is unconditional.
[00:38:56] He ratified it when Abraham slept and gave him a new name, Abraham.
[00:39:02] And he said, on that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said to your descendants, hear this, this is so important right now, because people are like, well, Israel is just the land, or Israel is just the people.
[00:39:19] What does the Bible say?
[00:39:21] The Lord made a covenant with Abram and said to your descendants, I give this land from the wadi of Egypt to the great river Euphrates.
[00:39:31] In other words, it is also a geographical area.
[00:39:38] It's not just a people, it is also a place.
[00:39:44] It is not just spiritual, it is geographical.
[00:39:49] And even when Israel was unfaithful, thank God he was still faithful.
[00:39:55] As a matter of fact, in Jeremiah 31, it says, Only if the sun, the moon, the stars, and the waves were to disappear, only if these decrees vanish from my sight, declares the Lord, will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.
[00:40:13] Hmm.
[00:40:16] Number five.
[00:40:18] Modern Israel isn't the same as biblical Israel, so we don't have to stand with it.
[00:40:26] Okay, let's talk about that.
[00:40:29] Prophecies repeatedly say over and over and over that God would regather Israel, Isaiah 11, 11 through 12.
[00:40:36] In that day, the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people,
[00:40:44] from Assyria, Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia and from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.
[00:40:54] He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel.
[00:40:59] He will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.
[00:41:06] The 1948 rebuilding of Israel,
[00:41:12] It's fulfilling this prophetic word.
[00:41:16] And understand when Moses brought the people out of Egypt, they had been in Egypt so long, they had long removed of Joseph being over Egypt.
[00:41:27] A lot of them had already turned their back on God.
[00:41:32] So to say that
[00:41:36] Well, these Jews have not accepted God or not Jesus.
[00:41:42] They didn't accept God when they were brought out of Egypt.
[00:41:47] But he still wanted to take them to a place and he gave them an opportunity to get it straight.
[00:41:55] He is not exclusive.
[00:41:59] I would also like to say that nations will be judged on how they treat Israel.
[00:42:05] Zechariah 12.3 says on that day when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations.
[00:42:16] All who try to move it will injure themselves.
[00:42:20] Remember this scripture?
[00:42:22] Joel 3 2 I will gather all nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat there I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance to my people Israel because they scattered my people among the nations the people and they divided up my land geographical
[00:42:51] All right, number six, we're almost done.
[00:42:53] The Mosaic Covenant was abolished, so Israel's role ended.
[00:43:00] No, no, no, that's not what the Bible says.
[00:43:02] It says that Jesus fulfilled the law.
[00:43:06] He did not abolish it.
[00:43:08] Matthew 5, 17, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
[00:43:14] I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
[00:43:19] He brought it to completion, not destruction.
[00:43:23] God still honors the Abrahamic covenant.
[00:43:27] Deuteronomy 7, 9, Know therefore that the Lord your God is God.
[00:43:31] He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who he, and keep those commandments.
[00:43:43] who love him and keep his commandments it's the land it's the nation who will acknowledge the messiah and the jews will get another opportunity you see it's a physical restoration that precedes the spiritual awakening last but not least
[00:44:04] Number seven, criticizing Israel's government is not the same as being against God's people.
[00:44:11] You hear a lot of replacement theology saying this, and this is probably the only thing we do agree on.
[00:44:21] It's not the same.
[00:44:24] You cannot agree with some of the things that Benjamin Netanyahu does or the Israeli government does
[00:44:31] and not be against the people.
[00:44:33] I didn't agree with 99.99% of what our last president did, but I still love America and I'm believing and I'm fighting for America.
[00:44:44] I'm fighting for Christians who don't understand that if we don't fight for our country, we might not be able to worship freely and we'll have to go underground like China and some of these other countries that are communist
[00:45:03] But many critiques of Israel are veiled in anti-Semitism, or they are backhanded attempts to delegitimize Israel.
[00:45:16] And scripture tells us that we should pray, Psalms 122.6, for peace in Jerusalem.
[00:45:23] May all who love this city prosper.
[00:45:29] Bless God's chosen nation, Genesis 12, 3.
[00:45:32] I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all the people on earth will be blessed through you.
[00:45:41] Don't mess with their land either, Joel 3, 2.
[00:45:47] I will gather all the nations, remember, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
[00:45:53] Those of you who scattered my people among the nations and divide them up my land,
[00:45:58] You're in trouble.
[00:46:01] Zechariah 12 9, on that day, I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
[00:46:12] Not only would I physically not come against the Jews, I wouldn't attack with my mouth either.
[00:46:24] Now, I know we have a lot of people in our church that are very involved in politics.
[00:46:29] And for that, I am incredibly thankful because politics literally means policy.
[00:46:36] And as Christians, we should be involved in the policies that govern our nation.
[00:46:42] But what I hear a lot of Christians saying right now is America first, America first, America first.
[00:46:49] Why are we helping Israel?
[00:46:50] America first, America first.
[00:46:52] So let me just talk to you for a second about politically or just what a smart leader would do.
[00:47:02] Let's just leave the Christian side over here for a minute
[00:47:10] of what happens when you bless Israel or when you curse.
[00:47:13] Let's just look at this just simply from a strategic position.
[00:47:19] First, I believe in looking after our country, but before I'm America first, I am Jesus Christ first.
[00:47:33] Let me tell you why it makes sense that we are sending the money that we are sending to Israel and defending Israel.
[00:47:40] First of all, they are our only ally that is not communist that is over there in the Middle East.
[00:47:49] The only one.
[00:47:50] Without them there helping to stabilize things, we'd be in a heap of trouble because Islam wants to take us out.
[00:48:03] That's why they opened our borders.
[00:48:05] You guys don't get to sit at the table with the president and some of his cabinet.
[00:48:09] Pastor Troy and I have.
[00:48:10] Do you know why they opened the borders?
[00:48:12] There's many reasons, but one of them is so they can let a lot of Islamic people into certain territories like Dearborn, Michigan, flood the entire voting system there, say they just need a safe haven, and then they're turning over elections and they're putting Muslims with Sharia law in place.
[00:48:32] It was strategic to take us down.
[00:48:36] We are a stabilizing force over in the Middle East.
[00:48:42] We share intel.
[00:48:44] They help us with counterintelligence.
[00:48:47] They developed missiles that we actually jumped in on so when we are being struck, we have missiles that can go up and block the missiles.
[00:49:00] It was developed by Israelis.
[00:49:03] Did you know that Tel Aviv is Silicon Valley?
[00:49:08] Microsoft is there.
[00:49:09] Intel is there.
[00:49:11] Apple is there.
[00:49:13] The technological standpoint of Israel is way beyond most every part of the world.
[00:49:23] And they share that technology with us.
[00:49:27] It is extremely beneficial that we have a partnership with Israel and that we protect Israel.
[00:49:37] Some of you, you may be new to the church and you use Waze to get here.
[00:49:40] That was developed in Tel Aviv by an Israeli.
[00:49:46] And then it was sold to an American.
[00:49:49] The Google Maps, all of that stuff, that technology, the drip system that farmers use here in the United States, that was developed in Israel.
[00:49:58] Do you guys know that?
[00:50:03] We get so much from Israel and a lot of times we don't even understand all of the things that benefit us, the purification of water,
[00:50:16] Where we can recycle water?
[00:50:18] That came from Israel.
[00:50:19] How much is that worth?
[00:50:27] We've got to understand it's just a smart and strategic thing.
[00:50:30] But now when we take it over into the spiritual, you won't catch me not supporting Israel.
[00:50:36] Not at all.
[00:50:47] As far back as we can remember, Israel has always been the target of Satan's fury, always.
[00:50:55] Whether it was Pharaoh in Exodus chapter one, or Haman in Esther chapter three, or Herod in Matthew chapter two, or whether 1933 to 1945, it was Hitler who gassed six million Jews, or whether it's Hamas today,
[00:51:18] with radical Islam.
[00:51:21] People have always tried to take the Jews out.
[00:51:26] And as Christians, we should not participate in that with our mouth, but pray that God will continue to deliver Israel.
[00:51:37] Because Psalms 121.4 says that he who keeps Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers.
[00:51:42] God is watching.
[00:51:47] Can you stand on your feet with me please?
[00:51:57] The Bible ends where it begins and it's God in a garden dwelling with his people.
[00:52:07] That's where Jesus is returning to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
[00:52:15] And for those who have a problem with Jewish people, might I add that the Bible says that He is returning as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
[00:52:31] We've got to understand and really guard what comes into our hearts because we are living the last days.
[00:52:42] We've gotta stop letting silly things pull us apart.
[00:52:47] Well, I didn't like the way they treated me in the parking lot.
[00:52:50] Or I didn't like, you know, they didn't give my kid enough goldfish and apple juice.
[00:52:59] We're getting offended.
[00:53:00] And the Bible is so specific.
[00:53:02] That's what happens in the last days.
[00:53:04] Why?
[00:53:05] Brother against brother.
[00:53:07] If I get offended, guess what?
[00:53:08] We stop working together.
[00:53:10] We stop putting our hand to the plow together.
[00:53:14] We stop bringing in the harvest together.
[00:53:18] Offense will take us down.
[00:53:22] Guys, we've gotta plug in.
[00:53:26] I would ask you,
[00:53:28] If you're not serving here, please start serving somewhere.
[00:53:34] We need all hands on deck to pull in this end time harvest.
[00:53:39] This isn't a stroll in and stroll out.
[00:53:43] Guys, Christianity, this isn't an American gospel where it's just about prosperity and just, and again, I believe God prospers people.
[00:53:54] But we've gotta understand how to fight, how to stand up, how to not back away when the enemy comes to our door.
[00:54:07] With every head bowed, with every eye closed, can you bring down the lights, please?
[00:54:20] I wanna ask you this question.
[00:54:24] We saw prophetically that we are living in the end times.
[00:54:28] Here is my question for you.
[00:54:31] Are you ready?
[00:54:33] Are you ready to meet Jesus face to face?
[00:54:38] because what I want to do today before anyone walks out of this door or maybe you are watching online I want to give you an opportunity maybe you have a sinking feeling in your stomach or you're uneasy or uncomfortable and today you just want to make sure that Jesus is your Lord and Savior you don't want any doubts you don't want any question marks you want to make sure today that you know where you're going to spend eternity and that is with Jesus
[00:55:09] Maybe you've shrunk back in your walk.
[00:55:12] Maybe you've never even known Jesus at all.
[00:55:17] Whatever the case, you get to make sure today
[00:55:22] I want to ask you this if you're in here today and you say that is me I just want to make sure lift your hands up right now lift your hands say I want to make sure thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you who else keep your hands up I want to be able to see you thank you thank you who else over here who else thank you thank you who else anybody else man you want to make sure before you leave this house today
[00:55:52] Anybody over here on this side?
[00:55:54] Thank you.
[00:55:56] Who else?
[00:55:58] Anybody online?
[00:55:59] We want you to join in.
[00:56:01] The Bible says that when one person, just one, turns their back on their old life and accepts Jesus, that all of heaven breaks out in a huge party.
[00:56:13] Think about what's happening in heaven right now, man.
[00:56:16] They're having a rager.
[00:56:18] Come on.
[00:56:20] Let's all of us say this together.
[00:56:23] Say, Heavenly Father, thank you for the blood.
[00:56:28] Thank you for what Jesus did on the cross to redeem me, to save me.
[00:56:37] I'm washed clean in Jesus name amen just begin to lift your hands begin to worship begin to declare that he is king of kings that he is lord of lords he's the alpha and omega he's the beginning in the end yes

[00:57:15] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
I love Thee every day